ArtWithHillary

2012-01-03T16:22:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

2012

Start the year with
a picture and poem.

Edouard Manet (1832 - 1883),

Young Woman in Spanish Costume Reclining,

1862-63, oil on canvas,

unframed: 37 5/16 x 44 3/4 in. (94.7 x 113.7 cm)

framed: 46 7/8 x 54 5/16 in. (119 x 138 cm)

Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven

A Great Number
by Wislawa Szymborska

Four billion people on this earth of ours,
but my imagination is unchanged.
It does not do well with great numbers.
It is still moved by what is individual.
Flitting through darkness like a flashing beam,
it picks out only the faces that are nearest,
meanwhile the rest are lost to blind oversight,
non-thought and non-regret.
Dante himself could not have prevented that.
And what if one is not?
Even with all the muses at my back.

Non omnis moriar - a worriment that's premature.
Yet am I fully alive, and is that enough?
It was never enough, now more than ever.
Choosing I reject, there is no other way,
yet that which I reject is more numerous,
more dense, more clamorous then ever before.
At the cost of losses indescribable - a little poem, a sigh.
To this thunderous Calling I reply in a whisper.
How much I pass over in silence, I will not say.
A mouse at the foot of the maternal mountain.
Life lasts but a few scratches of the claw in the sand.

My dreams - even they are not, as is proper, inhabited.
There's more in them of solitude than crowds and tumult.
Someone long dead may drop by for a moment.
The handle is moved by a lone hand.
The empty house is crowded round with annexes of echoes.
I run from the doorstep down into the tranquil
valley that seems to be no one's, already anachronistic.

Where this space within me comes from still -
that I do not know.
(1976)

Rauschenberg's Friends

2011-12-13T16:39:00.000-08:00

Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, 1967,

acrylic and silkscreen ink on linen,

14 x 10 1/4 in. (35.6 x 26 cm),

Photography by Robert McKeever.

Collection of the Robert Rauschenberg Revocable Trust

You go to someone’s home, observe what’s around, meet their friends and, from this input, gain a better understanding of the person. Similarly, for more insight into an artist and what he or she does, look at what they collect.

The exhibition, The Private Collection of Robert Rauschenberg at the Gagosian Gallery offers this opportunity. Curated by Ealen Wingate, the director of Gagosian’s 24th Street gallery, the show provides visual evidence of Robert Rauschenberg’s extensive interests and intimacies. It makes obvious the collection's inclusive quality which links it to the artist's own work - Combines and silk screens which may include anything and everything.

Installation view of The Private Collection of Robert Rauschenberg

Photography by Robert McKeever.

Collection of the Robert Rauschenberg Revocable Trust

From left to right:

Jean Tinquely, Untitiled, 1962,

brick, metal, feather, tape and motor,

21 x 10 1/2 x 8 in. (53.3 x 26.7 x 20.3 cm)

Unknown, Mali (Bamana), Power Object (Boli)

wood, clay, organic substances such as earth, sacrificial blood,

bark, honey, chewed kola nut, millet and beet,

15 x 20 x 6 1/2 in. (38.1 x 50.8 x 16.5 cm)

Unknown Amazon, Tribal Costumes, 20th Century,

beaten bark, string, balsa wood,

73 x 25 in. (185.4 x 63.5 cm)

Some 145 works which the artist acquired through gifts, exchanges, or purchases are on view. There are paintings, drawings, sculptures, sketches, letters, notes, photographs, musical notations, tribal artifacts, and other items held on to for private reasons. The installation, which takes over three of the gallery's floors, entices visitors with interesting juxtapositions and surprises. Since archival material is scarce, determining how and when pieces were obtained is difficult.

Installation view of The Private Collection of Robert Rauschenberg

Photography by Robert McKeever.

Collection of the Robert Rauschenberg Revocable Trust

From left to right:

Andy Warhol, Gem, 1979,

acrylic, silkscreen ink, and diamond dust on linen,

54 x 86 in. (137.2 x 218.4 cm)

John Chamberlain, Untitled, c. 1965,

painted and chroium plated steel,

43 x 35 1/2 x 26 in. (109.2 x 90.2 x 66 cm)

James Rosenquist, Spaghetti, 1965,

oil on linen,

30 x 30 in. (76.2 x 76.2 cm)

There are works by Rauschenberg’s close friends Cy Twombly and Jasper Johns as well as other contemporaries like Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, Frank Stella, Öyvind Fahlström, James Rosenquist, and John Chamberlain. Women artists include Elaine Sturtevant, Susan Weil and Niki de Saint Phalle. Among a younger generation are Brice Marsden, Damian Hirst, Ed Ruscha and Al Taylor. Photographers represented include Hans Namuth, Robert Mapplethorpe, Mathew Brady, and Eadweard Muybridge. Materials by choreographers and composers such as Philip Glass, John Cage, Merce Cunningham and Trish Brown are also here. In addition, there are modern masters like Henri Matisse, Kurt Schwitters, Marcel Duchamp, René Magritte and Francis Picabia. The variety attests to Rauschenberg's gregarious and generous nature.

Many items were made for Rauschenberg and inscribed - For Bob, Marcel (Marcel Duchamp), For Bob, B. Marsden (Brice Marden), Flowers for Bob, Cy (Cy Twombly), Token for Bob, Trish Brown, For Bob, Al Tayor, Pour Robert, Tinguely (Jean Tinguely) and more. Merce Cunningham’s 1993 pen on paper, Choreography Instructions, has on its reverse a letter which describes the dance and ends with the wish: “I hope you will help us do this.”

Installation view of The Private Collection of Robert Rauschenberg

Photography by Robert McKeever.

Collection of the Robert Rauschenberg Revocable Trust

Clockwise from top left to right:

Andy Warhol, Eggs, 1982,

Acrylic and silkscreen enamel on canvas,

8 x 8 in. (20.3 x 20.3 cm)

Elaine Sturtevant, Untitled, 1967,

silkscreen on canvas,

40 x 32 3/8 in. (101.6 x 82.2 cm)

Jean Tinquely, Saint Phalle, 1961,

wood stool, wire and pigments,

28 1/2 x 14 x 16 1/2 in. (72.4 x 35.6 41.9 cm)

The show presents something for everyone. Two photographs of stores are sumptuous in detailing. Themes of sales and foreign lands, various objects, shapes, textures, layers of space and the mechanically made would surely have intrigued Rauschenberg. Eugene Atget’s Shop, Halles Market, 1925, is all reflections and ambiguous layers of planes. Hung below is Kusakabe Kimbei’s The Silk Store, c. 1890. Although black and white, Kimbei’s image of overlapping textile patterns appears colorful.

Duchamp’s pencil drawing, Peasant’s Leg, 1904-05, is adjacent to Magritte’s 1963 Study for the Well of Truth, a pastel depicting a trouser leg. Seen together, they illicit concepts of rural and urban, formal and informal as well as what constitutes suburb draftsmanship.

Twombly’s 1970 and 1982 “Flowers for Bob” were birthday pictures made for Rauschenberg. The graphite and crayon earlier work could pass for a Matisse or Bonnard design.

Cy Twombly, Untitled, 1953,

oil based house paint on canvas,

52 1/8 x 52 1/8 in. (132.4 x 132.4 cm),

Photography by Robert McKeever.

Collection of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation

Not often seen are two early career pieces. One is by Hirst, Expanded from Small Red Wheel, a 1985 assemblage-like construction; the other is by Twombly, a suggestive black and white canvas, Untitled, 1953. The latter reminiscent of Jean Dubuffet’s late 1940s and early 1950s paintings,

Although some important works by Johns had been sold in the 1980s to support the artist’s international project ROCI - Rauschenberg Overseas Cultural Interchange - significant things remain such as the encaustic Map of 1960 and 1958 papier-mâché Flashlight II.

The exhibit has many things that simply delight. Marden’s elegance is nicely exemplified by Study for Lot, 1968 and Untitled Drawing, 1965. Ruscha’s 1980 Romeo, With Contraceptive Ghost is alluring. Warhol’s portraits of the artist are touching. Alexander Calder’s 1925 Study of a Chicken amuses. Fahlström’s Unititled Cutout, c. 1973, provokes thought.

On the fourth floor, opposite the building’s two main elevators, is a blown-up, mural-size photograph of Rauschenberg in his studio. The image is filled with works from the artist’s collection. You can clearly recognize Marcel Duchamp’s Bottle Rack (aka Bottle dryer) and two of Tinquely’s constructions, Radio No. 1 and Saint Phalle. The photo is a record of how Rauschenberg lived with these artworks on a daily basis.

Many exhibition pieces are for sale to benefit the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. Established by the artist in 1990, the Foundation engages in philanthropic activities supporting artists, arts education, environmental and humanitarian endeavors.

A catalogue of selected works from the collection is in progress.

The Private Collection of Robert Rauschenberg

November 3, 2011 - December 23, 2011

Gagosian Gallery

980 Madison Avenue, Manhattan, New York

Tuesday - Saturday 10:00 am - 6:00 pm

Perceiving the Master in Braque

2011-11-24T12:47:00.000-08:00

Georges Braque (1882-1963), Still Life with Guitar I (Red Tablecloth), 1936,

oil on canvas, 38 1/4 x 51 in. (97.2 x 129.5 cm),

Gift of R.H. Norton, 47.46

The Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida

You won’t find a more revelatory exhibition than Acquavella Galleries' Georges Braque: Pioneer of Modernism. Forty-one paintings and papiers collés on loan from over seventeen American and European museums, foundations and private collections illuminate Braque’s achievements and the Cubist art movement he originated with Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). This beautifully installed show spans Braque’s career from Fauvism through Analytic and Synthetic Cubism, to his mid-twentieth-century still lifes and studio canvases. It includes works never before on public view. Quite simply, this is the greatest U. S. Braque exhibit since the Guggenheim’s 1988 retrospective and, before that, the 1949 show at the Museum of Modern Art. *

Georges Braque (1882-1963) , Landscape at L’Estaque, 1906,

oil canvas, 23 5/8 x 31 7/8 in. (60 x 81 cm),

Merzbacher Kunststiftung, Küsnacht, Switzerland

The Acquavella exhibit begins with five vibrant Fauvist paintings (1906-1907) whose colors are intensified by the muted earth tones of six Cubist canvases (1907-1914) nearby. They are all astoundingly pristine, as if painted yesterday. No reflective glass impairs the spectator's vision - a treat true for over a dozen other works on view.

Georges Braque (1882-1963), Houses at L’Estaque, 1907,

0il canvas, 21 1/2 x 18 1/8 in. (54.5 x 46 cm),

Private International Collection

By 1907, Braque had absorbed the lessons of Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) whose Paris posthumous retrospective took place that September. Houses at L’Estaque, 1907, could not be more Cézanne-like. Its hillside of cascading earth-toned geometric shapes speaks profoundly of the elder artist’s influence. Paintings in browns and grays follow. Their flattened perspective, fragmented forms and multiple vantage points mark the evolution of Analytic Cubism.

“When objects shattered into fragments appeared in my painting about 1909; this for me was a way of getting closest to the object....Fragmentation helped me to establish space and movement in space.”

Georges Braque (undated)**

Georges Braque (1882-1963), Harbor, 1909,

oil on canvas, 16 x 19 in. (40.5 x 48 cm),

National Gallery of Art, Washington

Of particular note are two 1909 harbor scenes where only a few elements - a hulk, mast or lighthouse - allude to the subject. Midline in the smaller, more abstract harbor canvas is a vertical mast. A bold compositional risk, the upright both splits the painting in two and anchors the composition.

"I felt dissatisfied with traditional perspective. Merely a mechanical process, this perspective never conveys things in full. It starts from one viewpoint and never gets away from it."
George Braque (1954)**

Georges Braque (1882-1963), Céret, Rooftops, 1911,

0il canvas, 34 3/4 x 25 1/2 in. (88.5 x 65 cm),

Private Collection

As Analytic Cubism matured, objects became so thoroughly examined and broken down that they ceased to be identifiable. Two paintings from private collections, Still Life with Metronome of 1909-10 and the 1911 Céret, Rooftops, are outstanding examples. Their fractured imagery attracts close scrutiny. Looking is akin to examining a multi-faceted gem.

“To avoid a projection towards infinity I am interposing overlaid planes a short way off. To make it understood that things are in front of each other instead of being scattered in space..”
Georges Braque (1961)**

Georges Braque (1882-1963), Glass, Bottle and Newspaper, 1912,

charcoal and faux-bois wallpaper on paper,

18 7/8 x 24 3/8 in. (48 x 62 cm),

Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel, Switzerland

Braque invented papier collé, a technique of pasting paper on paper. This form of collage is characteristic of Synthetic Cubism, the movement's second phase. For this viewer, Braque’s papiers collés are some of the most poetic works ever created. Using cut outs from newspapers, wallpapers, or cardboards, he formed pictures of layered flat planes, each stratum differentiated by forms, shapes, signs, and materials. They are simple yet complex, like haiku poems. Glass, Bottle and Newspaper, 1912, and Bottle and Musical Instruments, 1918, are among the highlights here.

“...I began to concentrate on still-life’s [sic], because in the still-life you have a tactile, I might almost say a manual space....This answered to the hankering I have always had to touch things and not merely see them. It was this space that particularly attracted me....In tactile space you measure the distance separating you from the object, whereas in visual space you measure the distance separating things from each other. This is what led me, long ago, from landscape to still-life.”

Georges Braque (1954)**

In his later paintings, Braque leaves landscapes behind and brings back some Fauvist color. Once again, objects are recognizable. Motifs from his earlier Cubist pieces remain, such as stringed instruments or a musical scores. These are cerebral works, although a palpable quality gives them a certain sensuality.

Georges Braque (1882-1963), The Billiard Table, 1944-52,

oil with sand and charcoal on canvas

71 2/4 x 38 1/2 in. (181 x 97.8 cm),

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Jacques & Natasha Gelman Collection, 1998 (1999.363.9)

The show culminates with late 1930s through mid-1950s paintings of studio interiors, billiard tables, and still lifes. These large works of recurring subjects and themes masterly merge great complexity with complete control.

Georges Braque (1882-1963), Gueridon, 1935,

0il and sand on canvas, 71 x 29 in. (180.34 x 73.66 cm),

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Purchase with the aid of funds from W.W. Crocker

Table-top arrangements proliferate. Gueridon, 1935, The Yellow Tablecloth, 1935, Still Life with Guitar (Red Tablecloth), 1936, and The Mauve Tablecloth, 1936, entice with their similarities and differences. In these works, a table laden with objects is seen in a room with wainscoting and decorative patterned walls. In both the Mauve and Yellow Tablecloth canvases, an anthropomorphic half-shadowed bottle with a curlicue top occupies center position on a table’s uppermost area. The bottle seems to be looking at us through the picture plane.

Georges Braque (1882-1963), The Mauve Tablecloth, 1936,

oil canvas, 33 1/2 x 51 1/2 in. (85 x 131 cm),

Private Collection

The exhibition makes clear Braque’s remarkable accomplishments, as well as his impact on what was to come. Flat planes with their accumulation of the depicted and the real connect to the work of Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, especially the latter’s Combines. In addition, the use of material from mass culture points the way to Pop Art.

The Austrian critic and art historian Dieter Buchhart curated the show and contributed essays to the accompanying catalogue, along with the scholars Isabelle Monod-Fontaine and Richard Shiff.

Although the exhibit takes place in a commercial gallery whose business is selling art, no work is for sale. The show is free and open to the public. Acquavella Galleries deserves much praise for making it happen.

Let's hope it won't be decades before we see more of this modern master.

*The Museum of Modern Art’s 1949 retrospective was done in collaboration with the Cleveland Museum of Art where it was also seen. At that time, it was the largest Braque exhibition ever held in the United States.

**Source of artist statements: Famous artist, great painters quotes + biography, Braque.

Georges Braque: Pioneer of Modernism

October 12, 2011 - November 30, 2011

Acquavella Galleries

18 East 79th Street, Manhattan, New York

Monday - Saturday, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm

MoMA Revitalized: A New Narrative of Modern Art

2011-10-29T19:25:00.000-07:00

Louise Bourgeois (American, born France. 1911-2011), Sleeping Figure,

1950, painted balsa wood,

6 ft. 2 1/2 in. x 11 ft. 5/8 x 11 3/4 in. (189.2 x 29.5 x 29.7 cm),

Katharine Cornell Fund.

There is change at the Museum of Modern Art. The installation of the Museum’s peerless permanent collection of modern and contemporary art has been reassessed, bringing back the excitement of discovering the new.

After the closing this past April of the abstract expressionist show, the fourth-floor Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Galleries, usually devoted to the Museum’s collection, were empty. For the first time since her 2008 appointment as chief curator of painting and sculpture, Ann Timken had the chance to completely reinstall the 1940s through contemporary art. The choices she and her five member curatorial team made as well as the modifications to the 1880s to 1940s array on the fifth floor express a break from the past. An open and flexible approach to the history of modernism replaces a dogmatic methodology with the belief that there are many ways to look at the history of modern art as well as the Museum’s collection. Painting, sculpture and objects in other mediums are mixed and those on exhibit alternate regularly. Attention is given to overlooked artists, artworks too long in storage, works by women and international artists. Contemporary art has more space and there is a commitment to increase collecting in this area.

The twelve galleries on the fourth floor, Painting and Sculpture II, have been transformed the most. They are the subject of this post.

Wilfredo Lam (Cuban, 1902-1982), The Jungle, 1943,

gouache on paper mounted on canvas, 94 1/4 x 90 1/2 in. (239.4 x 229.9 cm),

Inter-American Fund.

A glance through the entrance into the first fourth-floor gallery (Gallery 15) reveals a difference. A sculpture by a woman leads off. Perhaps, the expected start would have been an iconic painting by some celebrated male painter like Jackson Pollock or Jasper Johns. Instead, Louise Bourgeois’s totemic, phallic-like Sleeping Figure greets visitors. To the right is Wilfredo Lam’s masterpiece, The Jungle. Alongside this hangs the wood and rope sculpture Totem for All Religions by Frederick Kiesler which neighbors André Masson’s canvas, The Kill. These Surrealist works play off each other, enhancing visual experience by illuminating shared characteristics. A woman, a Cuban, an American born in Romania, and a French artist begin the visitor’s visual journey. Dorothea Tanning’s work is also in this gallery making the impact of the female contingent even stronger.

A short digression: the issue of women artists at MoMA has been remarked upon in the past. In the November 18, 2007 New York Magazine article, “Where Are All the Women? On MoMA’s identity politics.”, the art critic Jerry Saltz laments that out of 137 artists presented in the permanent galleries, only 11 were women. I recently counted 24 women artist who had works on view and several were represented by more than one object.

Jackson Pollock, (American, 1912-1956), One: Number 31, 1950,  1950,

oil and enamel paint on canvas, 

8 ft. 10 in. x 17 ft. 5 5/8 in. (269.5 x 530.8 cm),

The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection Fund (by exchange)

Barnett Newman (American, 1905-1970), Vir Heroicus Sublimis,

1950-51, oil on canvas, 7 ft. 11 3/8 in. x 17 ft. 9 1/4 in. (242.2 x 541.7 cm),

 The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Ben Heller

Proceeding sequentially (Gallery 16), brings into sight two large canvases by Barnett Newman which flank a Jackson Pollack. On the room’s other side, a Francis Bacon is set close to a Giacometti portrait. Two sculptures by the latter are also on display. The pairings highlight associations and distinctions. I especially delighted in the comparison between Pollack’s expansive, rhythmic One: Number 31, 1950 and Newman’s calm yet vibrant Vir Heroicus Sublimis.

Jasper Johns (American, born 1930), Flag, 1954-55 (dated on reverse 1954),

encaustic, oil, and collage on fabric mounted on plywood, three panels,

42 1/4 x 60 5/8 in. (107.3 x 153.8 cm),

The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Gift of Philip Johnson in honor of Alfred H. Barr, Jr.

Robert Rauschenberg (American, 1925-2008), Rebus, 1955,

 oil, synthetic polymer paint, pencil, crayon, pastel, cut-and-pasted printed and painted papers, and fabric on canvas mounted and stapled to fabric, three panels, 
8 ft. x 10 ft. 11 1/8 in. (243.8 x 333.1 cm),

The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Partial and promised gift of Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder and purchase

A room filled with the famous is nearby (Gallery 17). There is Jasper John’s Target and Flag; Robert Rauschenberg’s Bed, Rebus and Untitled (Ashville Citizen); and, Cy Twombly’s Tiznit and Academy. The installation is spacious providing an atmosphere for unhurried contemplation.

Daniel Spoerri (Swiss, born Romania 1930), Kichka's Breakfast I,

1960, wood chair hung on wall with board across seat, coffeepot, tumbler, china, eggcups, eggshells, cigarette butts, spoons, tin cans, and other materials, 

14 3/8 x 27 3/8 x 25 3/4 in. (36.6 x 69.5 x 65.4 cm),

The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Philip Johnson Fund

Lee Bontecou (American, born 1931), Untitled, 1961, 

welded steel, canvas, black fabric, copper wire, and soot,

6 ft. 8 1/4 in. x 7 ft. 5 in. x 34 3/4 in. (203.6 x 226 x 88 cm),

The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Kay Sage Tanguy Fund 

Art made of found, non-traditional materials called assemblage is close by (Gallery 18). Here are two- and three-dimensional pieces by Lee Bontecou, Niki de Saint Phalle, Jacques de la Villegié , Daniel Spoerri, Lucio Fontana, Alberto Burri, Natsuyuki Nakanishi, Mathias Goeritz, Jean Tinguely, Arman, John Chamberlain, and Christo (Christo Jaacheff). The familiar mix with the unfamiliar in this international group - only Bontecou and Chamberlain are Americans. Placements bring out connections that may not have been obvious. Set across from each other on opposite walls, the drawn and pierced ovals of Fontana’s Spatial Concept canvas seem to echo Bontecou’s rounded opening.

Lucio Fontana (Italian, born Argentina. 1899-1968), Spatial Concept,

1957, ink and pencil on paper on canvas,

55 x 78 7/8 in. (139.7 x 200.4 cm). Gift of Morton G. Neumann.

On my previous MoMA visits in the last few weeks, the Saint Phalle was not on view but a Yayoi Kusama paper work was. The present Villegié had replaced another work by the artist. Exchanges are nice surprises for the frequent visitor.

Richard Hamilton, (British,1922-2011), Pin-Up, 1961,

oil, cellulose, and collage on panel,

53 3/4 x 37 3/4 x 3 in. (136.5 x 95.8 x 7.6 cm) including frame,

Enid A. Haupt Fund and an anonymous fund. © 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS),
New York / DACS, London

A first-rate presentation of 1960s Pop Art (Gallery 19) follows. Star attractions include works by Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, Tom Wesselmann, George Segal, James Rosenquist, and Alex Katz. The installation also has pieces by Richard Hamilton, Michelangelo Pistoletto and Marisol. Hamilton’s 1961 Pin-Up combines different methods. The sex symbol’s bra is an applied photograph and her breasts are both drawn and in concrete relief. At her left knee is a Princess rotary telephone which was the “it” status phone for women in the early 1960s. Designed for use in the bedroom, the phone came in several colors and had a dial that lit up in the dark. Hamilton’s Pin-Up wears nylon hose. Pantyhose, as we know them in the United States, did not become extensively available and worn until the mid-1960s when miniskirts became fashionable. Hose have long been considered more attractive than pantyhose, making sex more accessible. I asked a few twenty year olds if they could identify the phone. Two queried did not recognize it as a telephone; the others that did had never heard of the Princess type. I never got into the hose versus pantyhose interpretation. Meanings, signs and symbols get forgotten over time.

Marisol (Marisol Escobar), (Venezuelan, born France 1930), Love,

1962, plaster and glass (Coca-Cola bottle),

6 1/4 x 4 1/8 x 8 1/8 in. (15.8 x 10.5 x 20.6 cm),

Although eliciting more humor than eroticism, Marisol’s Love exemplifies an outgoing sexual frankness that this writer finds more apparent in work by women artists. This sculpture was a gift from the artist Tom Wesselmann and his wife Claire. Wesselmann’s 1961 painting, Great American Nude 2, appears high on a near wall. On the other side of the room is James Rosenquist’s Marilyn Monroe I. Rosenquist incorporates an upside down section from the Coca-Cola trademark script linking its iconography to Marisol's sculpture across the gallery space.

De Wain Valentine, (American, born 1936), Triple Disk Red Metal Flake - Black Edge, 1966,

fiberglass reinforced polyester,

62 x 65 x 85 in. (157.5 x 165.1 x 215.9 cm),

Gift of Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis

The simplified forms of Minimalism are met with in the adjoining gallery (Gallery 20). Pieces by Dan Flavin, Donald Judd and the less known Jo Baer, Craig Kauffman and De Wain Valentine clear the mind by their exclusion of pictorial illusionism. Their variety attest to the possibilities even within the movement’s reductive constraints. The red mirror-like surface of Valentine’s 1966 fiberglass, Triple Disk Red Metal Flake - Black Edge, is illustrative. Approached from any side, the three disks have a anthropomorphic quality - touching, dancing, playing. The Valentine came into the collection last year, a gift from Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis.

Conceptional art of the late 1960s and early 1970s comes next (Gallery 21). These works move into the immaterial realm of thoughts, language, movement and sound. Sol LeWitt, Robert Smithson, Lawrence Weiner, Robert Barry and Hanne Darboven are here. Visitors most likely will recognize some but not all. Many of these works come from the collection of Seth Siegelaub and were acquired by MoMA this past spring. Siegelaub, curator, dealer and publisher, along with the Conceptional artists he supported questioned the display, ownership, distribution, and selling of art along with the participatory role of art viewers.

Hannah Wilke, (American, 1940-1993), Untitled, 1963-66,

pastel and charcoal on paper, 19 1/2 x 24 in. (49.5 x 61 cm),

The Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection Gift. © 2011 Marsie, Emanuelle, Damon and Andrew Scharlatt - Hannah Wilke Collection and Archive,
Los Angeles

The art of Hannah Wilke, a sculptor, painter, photographer, video and performance/installation artist is presented in a small side gallery (Gallery 22). Wilke tackled issues of feminism especially female sexuality using her own body to examine women’s physical experience. Her pieces on view includes a 1974 video, Gestures, drawings, photographs and sculpture. Although critically praised, Wilke’s controversial art has not been widely exhibited in museums. MoMa’s commitment is a notable beginning.

A light-filled stairway space (Gallery 26) hosts the diverse works of Agnes Martin, Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Indiana and Jack Youngerman. In the 1950s, these artists lived and worked on Coenties Slip, a street in lower Manhattan where rents were cheap. The gallery, off the Conceptional art area, is easy to miss but should be visited.

Frank Stella (American, born 1936), The Marriage of Reason and Squalor, II,

1959, enamel on canvas,

7 ft. 6 3/4 in. x 11 ft. 3/4 in. (230.5 x 337.2 cm),

Retracing some steps leads to objects primarily from the late 1960s (Gallery 23). This was a period when artists turned away from Minimalism, concentrating on the process of art, creating with unusual materials such as latex, resin and wax. This space is packed with nine sculptures and one painting. Five works are by women and five by men. The two sculptures by Lynda Benglis, the one by Louise Bourgeois and the two by Eva Hesse appear organic, soft-edged, sexually evocative. The men’s pieces, by Richard Serra, Bruce Nauman, Frank Stella, Joseph Beuys, and Giovanni Anselmo tend to be hard edged, more mindful than sensual. The large 1959 Stella canvas, The Marriage of Reason and Squalor II, is installed alone on the gallery’s end wall. Belonging to the minimalist aesthetic, its repeated concentric inverted U-shapes, devoid any sense of depth, contrasts with the surrounding heterogeneous mixture of three-dimensional forms.

Bruce Nauman, (American, born 1941), Untitled,

1965, fiberglass, polyester resin, and light,

8 ft. 4 in. x 20 ft. x 21 in. (254 x 50.3 x 53.3 cm),

This gallery's sculptures bring to mind notions of maleness and femaleness. Bruce Nauman’s 1965 wall piece could be the male response to Lee Bontecou’s 1961 work in the “assemblage” gallery. The masculine Nauman, more height than breadth, is a closed, vertical protuberant. The softer, feminine Bontecou is rounded and open. One appears to discourage contact; the other reaches out and invites.

Fully-realized Conceptional art is displayed in the neighboring space (Gallery 24). Daniel Buren, Dan Graham On Kawara, Vito Acconci, Niele Toroni and Marcel Broodthaers are represented by pictures, objects and documents. Broodthaers dominates with 22 pieces. Engaging and perplexing, this artist reminds us that there are no easy answers while he examines the interrelationship among art world players - the artist, museum and art market. Everything on view was acquired this year from the Herman and Nicole Daled Collection. The Daleds amassed an extraordinary collection of 1960s and 1970s art. Herman Daled had a fitting appellation for these pieces. He called them “objects of knowledge”.

The last gallery before exiting (Gallery 25) showcases the painter and sculptor Richard Artschwager. His work relates to Pop art, Minimalism and the found object. Focusing on perception and using a variety of mediums, his creations seem an appropriate end to the fourth floor’s exploration.

The Alfred H Barr Painting and Sculpture Galleries II, Fourth Floor

The Museum of Modern Art

11 West 53 Street, Manhattan, New York

Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Saturday and Sunday, 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Friday, 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.

(Open until 8:30 p.m. the first Thursday of every month, September–June)

Closed Tuesdays

Closed Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day

Connecting to The Yale Center for British Art

2011-09-09T18:45:00.000-07:00

Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640, Flemish), Peace Embracing Plenty, between 1633 and 1634, oil on panel,

24 3/4 x 18 1/2 in. (62.9 x 47 cm),

Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

Photograph: Yale Center for British Art

The Yale Center for British Art celebrates the launch of their new online catalogue in an exhibition entitled Connections. Considered the most comprehensive collection of British Art outside of the United Kingdom, the Center’s holdings include some 2,000 paintings, 200 sculptures, 20,000 drawings and watercolors, and 31,000 prints, 35,000 rare books and manuscripts, an Archive and Reference Library. The entire collection will eventually be accessible through its impressive website, http://britishart.yale.edu. Presently entries for painting, sculpture and the Reference Library are complete; other areas are partially finished. Initial records cover essential information. Digital images in the public domain are included. Details concerning an object’s provenance, exhibition history, bibliography and conservation will be added as the site expands and evolves making possible unparalleled opportunities for online research. It’s free and available to everyone.

Connections stimulates the mind and pleases the eyes. Viewers get a sense of being in a tangible cyberspace where ”clicks” lead to a variety of paths. The exhibit demonstrates physically the extent and diversity of the Center’s collections by exploring different approaches to the meaning of relationships. Ten themed sections look at individual artists, periods, mediums, artists’ movements, genres, styles, history and places. Displays express interdisciplinary ties by juxtaposing paintings, drawings, watercolors, sculptures, books and prints. Topics such as Sporting Art, the Academy and the Human Body, Egypt, British Modernism in the 1930s, Samuel Palmer and the Ancients, and Hogarth and History bring to light fascinating linkages.

Thomas Forster (ca. 1677-after 1712, British), Banqueting House, Whitehall, undated, pen and brown ink, graphite, gray wash, heightened with white on medium, slightly textured, beige wove paper, sheet: 10 3/8 x 14 in. (26.4 x 35.6 cm),

Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

Photograph: Yale Center for British Art

The segment devoted to British Art in the 1630s is one of my favorites. Here drawings, paintings, books and prints focus on the work, artists and history associated with the Banqueting House at Whitehall. This edifice was part of the royal palace complex designed in 1622 by Indigo Jones for the Stuart monarch James I. It was the first building in England using classical vocabulary and ushered in the modern Italian Renaissance style of architecture.

Attributed to Inigo Jones (1573-1652, British), A Plumed Saddle-Horse, ca. 1640,

pen and brown ink on medium, slightly textured, cream laid paper,

sheet: 5 5/8 x 5 in. (14.3 x 12.7 cm),

Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

Photograph: Yale Center for British Art

Inigo Jones (1573-1652, British), Design for a Temporary Arch Ornamented with Putti and Allegorical Figures of Music and War, ca. 1622,

pen and brown ink and brown wash; verso: graphite on medium, slightly textured, cream laid paper, sheet: 9 1/2 x 6 3/4 inches (24.1 x 17.1 cm),

Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

Photograph: Yale Center for British Art

Royal ceremonies, receptions and entertainments called masques that combined theatre, music, dancing, elaborate scenery and costumes took place at the Banqueting House. Stage sets and other elements for these festivities were often devised by prominent architects like Jones.

James I was succeeded by his son Charles I who commissioned the Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens to paint the Banqueting House’s ceiling glorifying his father and the Stuart reign.

Simon Gribelin (1662-1733, French, active in Britain), after Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640, Flemish), From the Painting of the Ceiling in the Banqueting House at White-Hall in the Year 1720, ca. 1720, line engraving on medium, slightly textured, cream laid paper,

3 sheets pasted together,

sheet (cropped inside plate): 37 3/4 x 18 1/2 in. (95.9 x 47 cm),

image: 36 3/8 x 18 1/8 in. (92.4 x 46 cm),

Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

Photograph: Yale Center for British Art

The king wanted Rubens to stay and work for him but the painter went back home to Antwerp. He left his pupil Anthony van Dyck to satisfy the monarch’s plans. Van Dyck thereafter became principal court painter. In 1649, Banqueting House was also the scene of Charles I’s execution. The king probably walked through one of the hall’s windows onto a platform erected on the building’s north end for his beheading. The building is the only structure remaining of the old palace.

Historical events, artworks, architecture, artists, architects, printmakers, spectacles, societal events, patronage and the role and status of artists are some of the subjects considered in this area. The artifacts on display pack a wallop of mental activity.

Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795, British) and Thomas Bentley (1731-1780, British) after George Stubbs (1724-1806, British), Horse Frightened by a Lion (Episode A),

modelled 1780, solid blue jasper with white relief, shallow oval,

frame: 14 5/8 x 14 1/4 in. (37.1 x 36.2 cm),

image (oval): 10 x 16 in. (25.4 x 40.6 cm),

Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

Photograph: Yale Center for British Art

The section on George Stubbs also enthralls making apparent the scope of this artist’s achievements. There is much of merit to take in but of special note is a Wedgwood relief, enamel paintings and rarely exhibited human figure and animal drawings.

George Stubbs (1724-1806, British), A Comparative Anatomical Exposition of the Structure of the Human Body with that of a Tiger and a Common Fowl: Human Figure, Lateral View, Undissected (Finished Study for Table VIII),

between 1795 and 1806, graphite on moderately thick, slightly textured, cream wove paper,

sheet: 21 1/4 x 16 in. (54 x 40.6 cm),

Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

Photograph: Yale Center for British Art

George Stubbs (1724-1806, British), A Comparative Anatomical Exposition of the Structure of the Human Body with that of a Tiger and a Common Fowl: Tiger, Lateral View, with Skin and Tissue Removed (Finished Study for Table IX),

between 1795 and 1806, graphite on moderately thick, slightly textured, cream wove paper,

sheet: 16 x 21 1/4 in. (40.6 x 54 cm),

Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

Photograph: Yale Center for British Art

George Stubbs (1724-1806, British), A Comparative Anatomical Exposition of the Structure of the Human Body with that of a Tiger and a Common Fowl: Fowl, Lateral View with Most Feathers Removed (Finished Study for Table X), between 1795 and 1806, graphite on moderately thick, slightly textured, cream wove paper, with a strip of same wove paper joined to bottom edge,
sheet: 22 1/4 x 16 in. (56.5 x 40.6 cm),

Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

Photograph: Yale Center for British Art

In the gallery devoted to Thomas Gainsborough, the artist came alive as I read the letter he wrote to his friend William Jackson, composer, essayist and organist of Exeter Cathedral (letter, 1773 Jan. 29, Rare Books and Manuscripts Collection). In his clear script, the artist precisely discloses his methodology for making chalk drawings look like oil paintings. His words make evident the two men’s close friendship. Also on view is a beautiful portrait of a young women. She has been called the "Mona Lisa of British Art" because of her smile and expression.

Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788, British), Portrait of a Woman, ca. 1750,

oil on canvas, 29 7/8 x 26 1/4 inches (75.9 x 66.7 cm)

Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

Photograph: Yale Center for British Art

The last two rooms introduces visitors to the Seven & Five Society, an early twentieth-century art group whose artist members sought to combine modernity with Britishness. As the Society evolved, the group’s intention became experimental and abstract. Among the members were Henry Moore, John Piper, Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth. Examples of their work are installed admirably for easy comparison.

Although the show may lack what is considered great masterpieces, it offers much that educates and delights. For those who can not make it to New Haven, go to the Center’s “user friendly” website and experiment with their online catalogue. There are many options to begin searches, various ways to narrow and refine results, mix filters or widen inquires. The database is a work in progress. Advance capabilities lie ahead

Connections

May 20, 2011–September 11, 2011

Yale Center for British Art

1080 Chapel Street

New Haven, Connecticut

Tuesday – Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm

Sunday, noon to 5 pm

Closed Mondays and holidays

The Amazing Popularity of Alexander McQueen

2011-08-28T12:04:00.000-07:00

Alexander McQueen (British, 1969–2010), Dress, Voss, spring/summer 2001,

Razor-clam shells stripped and varnished

Courtesy of Alexander McQueen

Photograph © Sølve Sundsbø / Art + Commerce

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute exhibition, “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty”, was the eighth most popular exhibit in the Met’s 141-year-old history and the Costume Institute’s most attended. Its closing date was extended twice, special fee viewing hours were established on Mondays when the museum is usually closed and, for the first time, the Met remained open until midnight on the show’s last two days.

Alexander McQueen (British, 1969–2010), House of Givenchy Haute Couture ,

Ensemble, Eclect Dissect, autumn/winter 1997–98, 

Dress of black leather; collar of red pheasant feathers and resin vulture skulls; gloves of black leather

Courtesy of Givenchy Haute Couture 

Photograph © Sølve Sundsbø / Art + Commerce

From the public opening on May 4 to its closing on August 7, some 661,509 visitors swarmed the show. There were long lines with many waiting more than 5 hours to see the display - more reminiscent of a rock concert than a museum visit. I would venture that a good percentage of visitors had never heard of the designer until the April royal wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton. Kate’s wedding gown and shoes were designed by the creative director of Alexander McQueen, Sarah Burton and her team. Ms. Burton had worked side by side with the designer for 14 years. Possibly, Alexander McQueen’s suicide last year at the age of 40 aroused the curiosity of some attendees. He hanged himself in the wardrobe of his tony Mayfair apartment after taking a significant amount of drugs and slashing his wrists. Regardless, the people came in unexpected numbers and the museum made money surely needed. One estimate is that the Met made a minimum of $14.6 million in revenue (see Jenna Sauers, How Much Did The Met Make Off The Alexander McQueen Show, Jezebel, August 9, 2011).

The fashion conscious obviously knew about the designer. McQueen had married the rigors of classic tailoring with the playfulness of couture dressing using unconventional material. His couture expressed a blend of contrary concepts such light and dark, nature and technology, life and death, beautiful and grotesque. He won the coveted British Designer of the Year award four times; was named the Council of Fashion Designers’ International Designer of the Year in 2003; and, was honored as a BCE, Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

Alexander McQueen (British, 1969–2010), Dress, No. 13, spring/summer 1999,

 White cotton muslin spray-painted black and yellow with underskirt of white synthetic tulle

 Courtesy of Alexander McQueen 

Photograph © Sølve Sundsbø / Art + Commerce

McQueen’s catwalk presentations were frequently off-putting yet mesmerizing. Comparable to theatre or performance art, his shows were compelling. McQueen had said (Harper’s Bazaar, US, April 2007), “I find beauty in the grotesque, like most artists. I have to force people to look at things.” He did.

In one presentation, two commercial robots firing black and yellow paint at a model’s voluminous white dress as she spun slowly in circles on a turntable attempting to protect herself from the robots’ shots in apparent fright (spring/summer 1999). In another, mussed up, distraught-looking models, many with breasts and bottoms exposed, teetered down the runway in torn garments (autumn/winter 1995-1996). One show had a model’s elbows and knees constrained by manacles crippling her catwalk (spring/summer 1997). Once he ended a presentation with a model surrounded by a ring of fire (fall/winter 1998). At an earlier show, he had his models thoroughly soaked in a shower of golden rain (spring/summer 1998).

Alexander McQueen (British, 1969–2010), Runway Show,

Untitled, spring/summer 1998

Photo source tumblr

Video source YouTube

Go to http://blog.metmuseum.org/alexandermcqueen/video/ for highlights from some of McQueen's 1997-2010 runway shows.

The “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty” exhibit captured McQueen’s sense of the theatrical. Andrew Bolton, a curator of the Met’s Costume Institute, worked with Sam Gainsbury and Joseph Bennett, production designers for Alexander McQueen’s fashion shows, to curate the extravaganza. They installed 100 garments and 70 accessories in a variety of settings using dramatic lighting, holographic, film and video visuals, music and sounds. Most of the garments were from the Alexander McQueen Archive in London but some were privately lent. The show was organized around the theme of McQueen’s romantic mind. Wall surfaces were differentiated to reflect an aspect of his romanticism. For example, the “Romantic Gothic” gallery, which referred to the designer’s focus on Victorian gothic, was lined with aged mirrors.

“Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty” Gallery View, Romantic Nationalism,

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011

Photo: The Photograph Studio, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The space for “Romantic Nationalism”, McQueen’s take on his Scottish and British heritage, used marquetry as a background.

“Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty” Gallery View, Romantic Exoticism,

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011

Photo: The Photograph Studio, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The “Romantic Exoticism” space, which held clothes influenced by other cultures, evoked a music box with rotating mannequins in bright mirrored vitrines. “Romantic Primitivism” gallery, which related to McQueen’s take on the noble savage, used rusty metal enclosures and inspired thoughts of a sunken ship. Enhancing this effect was an overhead film projection of a young model sinking into deep water, her limbs entangled in seaweed-like chiffon. “Romantic Naturalism” room, containing designs derived from nature’s forms and materials, was covered in wall paper based on a blow-up of a McQueen drawing.

“Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty” Gallery View, Cabinet of Curiosities,

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011

Photo: The Photograph Studio, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

In the “Cabinet of Curiosities” gallery, meant to emulate 18th and 19th-century collector cabinets filled with a variety of objects, an assortment of wall mounts housed accessories - shoes, headdresses and jewelry. Monitors placed up high presented an on-going loop of past McQueen runway shows. The holographic projection of the model Kate Moss (fall/winter 1996) was seen in a smaller room.

Kate Moss Hologram, from “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty”,

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011

Video source YouTube

Nearby was a variation of the gown Moss wore, a gorgeous garment made up of hundreds of layers of raw-edged silk organza. People struggled to see the hologram but no one took notice of the actual gown. The final room of the exhibition, covered in acrylic tiles like a clinical lab, held some of the designer’s last creations.

Alexander McQueen (British, 1969–2010),

“Jellyfish” Ensemble, Plato’s Atlantis, spring/summer 2010, 
Dress, leggings, and “Armadillo” boots embroidered with iridescent enamel paillettes
 Courtesy of Alexander McQueen 
Photograph © Sølve Sundsbø / Art + Commerce

I commend Bolton and his team for their inventive display. This was museum experience as spectacular entertainment with the feel of a funhouse or carnival. Although it had much appeal as the attendance figures affirm, an important learning opportunity was missed. There was no probing under the surface of the show. I would have liked to see McQueen’s designs put in a social, cultural or art historical contact with expertise from a costume or textile specialist. This viewer wanted to know more and, in many instances, found it difficult to even find or read the show’s descriptive labels.

I am perfectly aware of the need to rethink the traditional museum exhibition (see ArtWithHillary, The Spectacular Design of The Red and White Quilt Show, April 15, 2011) but this must be accomplished without a loss of meaning and critical thought.

I have similar issues with the museum’s exhibition catalogue. The book juxtaposes McQueen quotes printed in large type with fashion photographs. To find details or references about the clothing, citations and notes, readers must turn to the end pages. This is not an easy task due to the book’s heft, proportions as well as font pattern, typeface size and ink color. Although the catalogue includes a preface by Andrew Bolton explicating the exhibition’s premise and execution, an introductory biographic essay by Susannah Frankel, fashion editor for The Independent and an interview with Sarah Burton by the fashion writer Tim Blanks, it is basically a picture book . This was no scholarly tome.

The fashion photographer Sølve Sundsbø, known for his digital altered prints, was responsible for the imagery. Live models were made to look like inanimate mannequins by painting their skin white, articulating their joints with string, and removing their heads from the final shot. Many photographs had imaginative cropping but this reader could not help but wish for a more straight forward presentation.

Eyebrows have been raised about the cozy relationships between donors and exhibits since the Guggenheim Museum held a Giorgio Armani show in 2000 after a major contribution by the designer. Alexander McQueen supplied the major funding for the Met’s exhibition. Keeping this in mind, such endeavors are still worthwhile if done with good judgement. Since fashion has been recognized as art which warrants major museums’ attention, criteria on par with other curatorial undertakings should be applied. Put dress in the context of history, culture and other disciplines. Look inside, outside and beyond the clothes. Treat fashion as any other artistic masterwork. Meanwhile, the definitive Alexander McQueen exhibit and study has yet to be done.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Friday, August 5, 2011,

Photo by Ramsay de Give for The Wall Street Journal

A Radiant Masterpiece Reveals More: Part 2

2011-07-23T14:06:00.000-07:00

Giovanni Bellini, Detail of St. Francis in the Desert, c. 1480,

oil on poplar panel, 49 x 55 7⁄8 in. (124.5 x 141.9 cm),

The Frick Collection, New York

Photo: Michael Bodycomb

The following is a continuation of the June blog post, A Radiant Masterpiece Reveals More - Part 1. The discourse considers The Frick Collection’s St. Francis in the Desert by Giovanni Bellini and the discoveries made last year during the painting’s five week technical analysis at the Conservation Center of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. This is also the subject of The Frick’s present exhibition, In a New Light: Bellini's St. Francis in the Desert.

Giovanni Bellini, St. Francis in the Desert, c. 1480,

oil on poplar panel, 49 x 55 7⁄8 in. (124.5 x 141.9 cm),

The Frick Collection, New York

Photo: Michael Bodycomb

Although the recent examination of Giovanni Bellini’s St. Francis in the Desert disclosed much that was new, the painting still remains an enigma. The study confirmed that the panel was in excellent condition and needed only surface cleaning to remove dust. Through infrared reflectography, it revealed Bellini’s previously concealed underdrawing. Since very few drawings, preparatory or otherwise, can be attributed to the artist, the uncovering of such designs is particularly important. Comparison between the underdrawing and painting that hid it, makes apparent the small as well as the noteworthy changes Bellini made to achieve the work’s final realization.

Giovanni Bellini, Infrared reflectogram detail of St. Francis in the Desert,

c. 1480, oil on poplar panel, 49 x 55 7⁄8 in. (124.5 x 141.9 cm),

The Frick Collection, New York,

Technical photography by Department of Paintings Conservation,

The Metropolitan Museum of Art Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

We see that at times the artist’s painted layers followed closely what was drawn such as in the rendering of the saint’s head and face. Mouth open, eyes searching upward, Francis expresses awe, surprise, ecstasy or a combination of these. For the drawing, the artist employed a variety of brushstrokes to create remarkable three-dimensionality. Thick or fine lines describe contours; hatching is used for modeling; and, a combination of hatching and crosshatching situate items in space. In some areas of the panel, Bellini made minor modifications as seen in the elimination of a door or chimney on a background edifice. In other instances, refinements made aesthetic sense such as the widening of the saint’s right sleeve.

Giovanni Bellini, Infrared reflectogram detail of St. Francis in the Desert,

c. 1480, oil on poplar panel, 49 x 55 7⁄8 in. (124.5 x 141.9 cm),

The Frick Collection, New York,

Technical photography by Department of Paintings Conservation,

The Metropolitan Museum of Art Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Giovanni Bellini, Detail of St. Francis in the Desert, c. 1480,

oil on poplar panel, 49 x 55 7⁄8 in. (124.5 x 141.9 cm),

The Frick Collection, New York

Photo: Michael Bodycomb

At times the artist choose to redesign more. He transformed the background footbridge from a simple post-and-lintel type of construction which extended to the right bank into a more complex arch and vault bridge system that ended behind the shore edge. Moreover, during painting, Bellini added a back flat shelf to the slanting reading surface of the saint’s desk. On this he painted a cross with a crown of thorns and a skull.

The painting shows the moments after Francis was interrupted from his contemplation of the Passion of Christ - the final hours of Jesus’ life according to the New Testament. There is a bookmark to indicate the page where he stopped reading. His sandals are left in the enclosure when he hurriedly stepped outside on ground that may be perceived as holy. It is dawn and all is still. The lighting, more theatrical than real, is twofold - natural and sacred. The heavenly rays fall from the upper left of the sky onto Francis. The temporal morning light shines on the middle and far ground. In the distance, a shepherd and his flock look toward the saint as if to see what is happening.

Giovanni Bellini, Detail of St. Francis in the Desert, c. 1480,

oil on poplar panel, 49 x 55 7⁄8 in. (124.5 x 141.9 cm),

The Frick Collection, New York

Photo: ARTstor

A rabbit in the foreground comes out of his dark burrow to peer at the saint and the source of the supernatural beams. The painting is filled with flora and fauna. All are identifiable attesting to Bellini’s keen observation of the world. In fact, a botanist was brought to see the work and was able to describe each plant portrayed.

From the swaying, tall laurel tree on the left to the the small kingfisher bird under the water spout at the lower right, everything has meaning. The grapevine over the saint’s shelter evokes Christ as “the true vine” according to the Gospel of John 15. The laurel, whose leaves remain green all year, symbolizes triumph, eternity and the resurrection of Christ. The shepherd’s ram, as a leader of the herd, is another reference to Christ. The rabbit who needs protection alludes to those who hope for salvation through Christ in addition to denoting fertility and lust. The kingfisher, long a good omen, is associated with peace and prosperity. Even the spout protruding from the rocks is linked to the fountain of Muses in Greek mythology and thought to be a symbolic representation of imagination - as water flows through a spigot, imagination passes through the mind. Not incidentally, Bellini paints this detail not far from his signature.

Giovanni Bellini, Detail of St. Francis in the Desert, c. 1480,

oil on poplar panel, 49 x 55 7⁄8 in. (124.5 x 141.9 cm),

The Frick Collection, New York

Photo: ARTstor

This brings to mind the meaning of the rabbit placed quite close to the saint’s right hand. Tucked into the cord around Francis’ waist is what looks like a folded piece of paper or parchment. It has been postulated that this is a depiction of the piece of parchment,(the original now kept as a relic in the Church of St. Francis at Assisi), on which Francis wrote a hymn to God as well as a benediction to Brother Leo. Along with the writing, the saint drew on it a cross and skull, similar to the cross and skull on the cloister desk. Legend has it that Francis told Leo to keep the parchment as protection against temptation. Could it be used to prevent the lure of concupiscence symbolized by the nearby rabbit? Bellini was a meticulous thinker and planner, what he put in a painting has signification.

As noted earlier, theories and interpretations about the painting are numerous. Some hold it was created for a church; others maintain it was made for a private patron. One hypothesis proposes the lighting in the painting echoes the natural light entering the church or chapel of its intended location. Others have posited the work relates to the Renaissance argument concerning the merits of painting versus poetry - which of the arts can best reproduce reality and express emotion. The work has been connected to Italian pastoral or popular devotional poetry. There is even the opinion that the saint is singing! The abundance of explications can lead to confusion. For me, the strongest argument comes from scholars who interpret the painting as a devotional image, conceived for religious contemplation. It facilitates mediation, stimulates conversation and, encourages the exchange of ideas. I regard it not as descriptive of a specific narrative but as an open-ended, thought-inspiring work. Regardless of explanations, Bellini’s visual creativity never wanes. Take the small, golden tassel protruding from the bottom pages of the saint’s closed book or the tiny, exquisite knot on the string attached to the cloister’s bell made surely to ease the saint’s grip when he rang the bell to signal the canonical hours. These captivating depictions are nearly impossible to see in reproductions. They require and reward attentive viewing of the actual painting. To look this way, makes perceptible passages of delight.

Gerard David, The Disposition, c. 1495-1500,

oil on linen (mounted on mahogany panel),

56 1/8 x 44 1/4 in. (142.5 x 112.4 cm),

The Frick Collection, New York

Photo: ARTstor

Let us return to the Living Hall and the space the St. Francis usually occupies. In its place is The Disposition by the Netherlandish painter, Gerard David (c. 1460-1523). The scene is Christ’s removal from the cross after His death. Joseph of Arimathea, who received permission to remove the body, is seen with Christ’s other followers along with the Virgin Mary, St. John the Evangelist and Mary Magdalene. The work was acquired by Frick the same year, in the same lot and from same collector as Bellini’s St. Francis.

Gerard David, Detail of The Disposition, c. 1495-1500,

oil on linen (mounted on mahogany panel),

56 1/8 x 44 1/4 in. (142.5 x 112.4 cm),

The Frick Collection, New York

Photo: ARTstor

Gerard David, Detail of The Disposition, c. 1495-1500,

oil on linen (mounted on mahogany panel),

56 1/8 x 44 1/4 in. (142.5 x 112.4 cm),

The Frick Collection, New York

Photo: ARTstor

Although The Disposition was painted about a century after the St. Francis, like the earlier work, the background contains a careful and precise naturalistic townscape with a variety of finely delineated structures. There are castles, towers, fortified walls, a church and windmill. Frick is known to have had a predilection for landscape paintings and this may account for his attraction to the work. Furthermore, there is a prominent skull at the foot of the cross. Although the skull denotes Calvary, the site of the Crucifixion, it has also long been a symbol of the transitory nature of earthly life, a reminder of mortality. Perhaps, in his late sixties, Frick had thoughts of his own end. Whatever the reasons for the purchase, we are lucky to have the David and, of course, the Bellini in New York for us to enjoy.

Note: The Frick has opened a Multimedia Room off to one side of the Garden Court where visitors may view videos on specific aspects of Bellini’s St. Francis in the Desert and look closely at the infrared photograph of the work’s underdrawing. The videos and related lectures are accessible on the museum’s Web site along with a link to the painting's Google Art Project gigapixal image. Susannah Rutherglen, The Frick's Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellow, is responsible for the coordination of this extraordinary exhibit and deserves much acclaim.

In a New Light: Bellini's St. Francis in the Desert

May 22, 2011, through August 28, 2011

The Frick Collection

1 East 70th Street, Manhattan Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Sundays, 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Closed Mondays and holidays

A Radiant Masterpiece Reveals More: Part 1

2011-06-30T15:38:00.000-07:00

Giovanni Bellini, St. Francis in the Desert, c. 1480,

oil on poplar panel, 49 x 55 7⁄8 in. (124.5 x 141.9 cm),

The Frick Collection, New York

Photo: Michael Bodycomb

The Frick Collection’s St. Francis in the Desert by Giovanni Bellini was sent for technical analysis in March, 2010 to the Sherman Fairchild Paintings Conservation Center of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. This was the first time the work left the museum since it was purchased in 1915. Like other pictures acquired by Henry Clay Frick (1849 - 1919), it can never be loaned.

The work has always been in very good condition but advanced forms of physical analysis presented the opportunity to significantly increase the understanding of Bellini’s working methods and offer clues to the interpretation of the painting. Scholars have long debated its meaning because Bellini’s depiction of St. Francis’ stigmatization is like no other in the history of art. There is even the question if the work indeed describes the saint receiving the stigmata. Art historians have generally entitled the painting St. Francis in Ecstasy.

In a New Light: Bellini's St. Francis in the Desert, The Frick’s current exhibition, presents the results of The Metropolitan Museum’s examination. For the duration of the show, the painting has been moved from the Living Hall, where Frick had placed it, to the Oval Room. This skylighted gallery provides a light-filled space and seating which gives visitors a comfortable place for contemplation. To further enhance viewing, the painting is installed at a height lower than its usual position.

In order to adequately discuss the new information about the painting, I have divided my blog essay into two parts. The first part will deal with the painter, his milieu, the painting’s history, the subject matter, working methods, and some of the recent discoveries. The second part will focus on additional revelations, treatment of the work and its connection to another Frick Collection painting.

We begin.

The St. Francis in the Desert is one of the most beloved pictures in The Frick and is considered by many to be the best Renaissance painting in America. It was one of Henry Clay Frick’s five favorite works. For those interested, the others were: Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait and Polish Rider, Holbein’s Sir Thomas More and Vermeer’s Mistress and Maid.

Frick preferred portraits and landscapes. He had little interest in religious scenes which is not surprising as he was a Protestant. His tastes were actually typical of American collectors of the period. The St. Francis, actually, may be viewed as a landscape painting. The saint and his humble makeshift cloister take up less than one quarter of the work’s surface. The painting is dominated by a precise, botanically correct, depiction of nature with a background townscape that is one of the earliest, if not the first, naturalistic cityscape depiction in Western art. It is easy to overlook that a miracle has or is occurring.

The painter, Giovanni Bellini (c. 1430 - 1516), is regarded as the artist who brought Venice to the High Renaissance. Visiting the city for the second time in 1506, Albrecht Dürer, described him as the best painter there. Bellini came from an eminent family of painters. He began his career in the studio of his father, Jacopo Bellini. Jacopo was known for extraordinary inventive works and was considered at that time, Venice’s most important painter. Giovanni Bellini’s older brother, Gentile, was held in such esteem that the Venetian Republic sent him to the Ottoman Court of Constantinople as their visiting painter. Bellini’s cousin Leonardo Bellini excelled in manuscript illumination. His brother-in-law was Andrea Mantegna whose figurative style and spatial illusionism surpassed all peers. Mantegna had an enormous influence on Bellini’s development.

In early fifteenth-century Venice, egg tempera was the painting method of choice. This is a quick-drying paint requiring meticulous preparation. Bellini trained in his father’s workshop with this technique. During this period, oil was a fairly original way of painting used primarily by Netherlandish and Flemish artists. As a slow-drying medium, oil allowed for many effects in rendering forms realistically and was capable of producing brilliant colors. Bellini, aware of the northern artists' achievements, learned more from the Sicilian painter Antonello da Messina who was in Venice from 1475 to 1476. Antonello’s proficiency has been attributed to his contact with Flemish artists visiting Sicily and his scrutiny of a work by Jan van Eyck which he saw in Naples. Be that as it may, Bellini took to this method, exploited its potential and created a style characterized by formal clarity, fervor for details and a vision saturated with light. He is credited with having a key role in changing the predominant painting medium in Venice from egg tempera to oil. This, of course, had wondrous repercussions, especially on Bellini’s students, Titian and Giorgione.

The Frick St. Francis was painted entirely in oil. Little is known about the work’s origins. Such questions as “Why it was painted?”, “For whom it was painted?”, “Where was it initially located?”, have not been answered. We know that it was in a private collection in a Venetian home some forty to fifty years after completion. Historians have suggested that the painting may have been intended for a chapel on a monastic island associated with St. Francis but no document has been found to confirm its earliest provenance.

St. Francis, a thirteenth-century saint, was enormously popular in Venice. He was the son of a wealthy cloth merchant, who renounced his worldly life after receiving a vision. He lived a life of poverty, preached the Gospel in Italy and overseas, and founded the Franciscan Order. He was the first person to receive the stigmata, Christ’s five crucifixion wounds symbolizing the divine’s recognition of steadfast faith. This momentous event took place in 1224 during the saint’s fast on the Tuscan mountain of La Verna. His follower, Brother Leo, had accompanied him and witnessed the stigmatization. Leo described Christ in the form of a fiery seraph, one of the angelic higher orders, with six wings who flew on a cross transmitting the wounds to St. Francis.

Paintings that depict St. Francis usually represent him kneeling while receiving the stigmata via rays sent forth from a airborne seraph on a crucifix. The beams pierce his hands, feet and side. Some scholars have hypothesized that The Frick St. Francis may have had a seraph painted in the upper part of the painting but was lost when the work was cut down. Analysis, however, determined only a few centimeters were removed from the top panel. Considered too small an amount to have contained figures, it was concluded the seraph most likely was never there. Further technical study using high magnification, microscopic examination, X-rays, infrared reflectography, paint analysis, surface inspection and study/discussions by conservators, art historians, scientists and educators revealed more.

X-rays established that Bellini used three horizontal poplar panels as the painting’s support. These were prepared with a gesso ground made from gypsum and animal glue. Bellini then carefully delineated an underdrawing using fluid, carbon-based black paint. In a few places he incised the drawing with the reverse end of his brush, such as in the shadow of the saint. After the underdrawing dried, assistants spread a preliminary layer of oil mixed with a little lead white. This mixture produced a bright reflective surface that did not obscure the underdrawing. It had several functions: it imparted luminosity to the overlying paint and gave the effect of light seeming to emanate from the painting’s interior; it acted as a sealant for the underlying drawing; and, it insulated the painting by preventing the oil paint’s seepage into the porous ground below. Since the oil/lead white layer was smoothed by hand, paint loss has now exposed finger and palm prints in certain areas. None were Bellini's.

Giovanni Bellini, Detail of St. Francis in the Desert, c. 1480,

oil on poplar panel, 49 x 55 7⁄8 in. (124.5 x 141.9 cm),

The Frick Collection, New York

Photo: Michael Bodycomb

The question of whether the saint had stigmata was long debated. Some people thought the stigmata on his hands were a nineteenth-century addition. The stigma on his foot is not visible to the unaided eye. During The Metropolitan Museum’s study, an infrared reflectogram produced a black-and-white clear image of Bellini’s underdrawing. For the first time, scholars could study the artist’s preparatory composition. It distinctly showed that the stigmata on the saint’s hands and the stigma on his left foot were originally depicted. In addition, residue of red paint on the foot was discerned using high magnification. The paint had worn away but the wound mark had certainly been indicated by the artist.

Bellini choose not to depict St. Francis in the conventional manner. The saint has no side wound. He is marked only on his hands and left foot. Brother Leo, who is typically present, is not there. In fact, the stigmatization seems not to be the most important meaning of the painting. Additional analysis provides further clarification. For now, however, visit the painting. My next post will tell more.

In a New Light: Bellini's St. Francis in the Desert 

May 22, 2011, through August 28, 2011

The Frick Collection

1 East 70th Street, Manhattan

 Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Sundays, 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Closed Mondays and holidays

A Fred and Ginger of the Art World: Sol LeWitt and Eva Hesse

2011-05-21T12:02:00.000-07:00

Eva Hesse,

Accession V, 1968,

galvanized steel and rubber, 10 x 10 x 10 in. (25.4 x 25.4 x 25.4 cm),

Courtesy of the Craig F. Starr Gallery, New York

Sol LeWitt,

3 × 3 × 3, 1965,

painted wood, 14 1⁄2 x 14 1⁄2 × 14 1⁄2 in. (36.8 x 36.8 x 36.8 cm),

signed and dated underneath: ‘Sol LeWitt 1965’,

Courtesy of Craig F. Starr Gallery, New York

Eva Hesse and Sol LeWitt, a museum-worthy exhibit, is now on view at the Craig F. Starr Gallery. Rather than stressing the artists’ differences, the show highlights their mutual influences especially the impact Hesse had on LeWitt. I can think of no exhibition in the past that has shown the longterm effect Hesse’s art had on the work of LeWitt.

Veronica Roberts, Director of Research for the Sol LeWitt Wall Drawing Catalogue Raisonné and Adjunct Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, curated the show and wrote the essay for the exhibition’s catalogue. Roberts has done an inspiring job in the choice of works and their placement which illuminates each artist's achievement in an informal, intimate manner.

LeWitt met Hesse in 1960 and remained friends until her death ten years later. They were part of a group of artists working in lower Manhattan who formed strong bonds while creating new stylistic movements.

LeWitt had much confidence in Hesse's abilities while she suffered with insecurities and anxieties. The exhibition includes a reproduction of a letter LeWitt wrote to Hesse in 1965 when she was in Germany for a fourteen month residency with her husband Tom Doyle. He urged her to “DO” her art and offered strong support and insight into her struggles. He wrote, “Well, you know I admire your work greatly and can’t understand why you are so bothered by it.” LeWitt continued, ”You also must believe in your ability.” Further he encouraged, “You have at your power the ability to do anything.” Such was his friendship and caring.

Hesse took the minimalist ideas further and evolved what is referred to as a post-minimalism style. The austere, modular, geometric forms of such artists as LeWitt were transformed into something personal and anti-form. Her work was sensual, erotically charged with illusions to the human body. LeWitt responded. The teacher/mentor was taught by the pupil. His artwork changed.

Sol LeWitt,

Horizontal Brushstrokes (More or Less), 2002,

gouache on paper, 22 3/8 x 22 3/8 in. (56.8 x 56.8 cm),

signed and dated lower right: ‘S LeWitt 02’,

Courtesy of the Craig F. Starr Gallery, New York

Eva Hesse,
No title, 1966,
enamel, cord, papier-caché, latex, and rubber,

47 x 11 1⁄2 x 2 1⁄2 in. (119.4 x 29.2 x 6.4 cm),

Courtesy of Craig F. Starr Gallery, New York

To paraphrase what is often said of the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers partnership, one can say LeWitt gave Hesse classic structure and she gave him sexuality. Frank Gehry understood such relationships when he designed the Fred and Ginger building in Prague.

Frank Gehry, Fred and Ginger House, 1992-1996,

Prague, Czeck Republic

Don't miss the Hesse and LeWitt show.

Eva Hesse and Sol LeWitt

April 12 - May 27

Craig F. Starr Gallery

5 East 73rd Street, Manhattan

Tuesday - Saturday
11 am to 5:30 pm

An Eyeful Treat - Looking Close At Caravaggio

2011-05-18T15:51:00.000-07:00

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio,

The Fortune Teller, c. 1594,

oil on canvas, 45 x 59 in. (115 x 150 cm),

Musei Capitolini, Rome, Italy

Something rare has arrived in New York. Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio’s La Buona Ventura (The Fortune Teller) from the Musei Capitolini, Rome, is on exhibit for five days at the Italian Cultural Institute. It is displayed in room by itself, well-lit, with no protecting glass. You can look without glare or any distortion which sometimes occurs when viewing through so-called transparent coverings. It appears in good condition having been cleaned and restored in Italy about a year and a half ago. Close, concentrated observation illuminates details that are often overlooked in a venue that may have other painterly distractions.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio,

The Cardsharps, c. 1594,

oil on canvas, 37 1/8 x 51 5/8 in. (94.2 x 130.9 cm),

Kimball Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

The Fortune Teller, c. 1594, is one of the painter’s early works. Caravaggio, just starting out on his own, needed money and sold it for a small amount. The painting became part of the collection of the Roman banker and connoisseur, Marchese Vincente Giustiniani. The banker’s friend, Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte, purchased the painting’s companion piece, The Cardsharps. These two paintings were very popular and copies were made.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio,

The Fortune Teller, c. 1595,

oil on canvas, 37 x 52 in. (99 x 131 cm),

Musée du Louvre, Paris, France

Caravaggio’s new subject matter and precise observation of nature had a significant impact on other artists working in Rome where the artificial style of Mannerism was prevalent. Giustiniani and Cardinal del Monte became important patrons of the artist. The Cardinal going so far as to provide the painter quarters in his palace. The artist made him a second version of The Fortune Teller, now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris, France.

The Musei Capitolini Fortune Teller is one of Caravaggio’s most influential works. The painting depicts a gypsy girl reading the palm of a dandyish young man. The boy stares into the girl’s face, unaware she is slipping off his ring while stroking his palm. You must look closely at his ring finger between her little and middle digit to discern his gold band.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio,

The Fortune Teller (Detail), c. 1594,

oil on canvas, 45 x 59 in. (115 x 150 cm),

Musei Capitolini, Rome, Italy

Of particular interest is the realistic manner in which Caravaggio rendered textures: feathers, leather, metal, and a variety of cloths are differentiated with veracity.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio,

The Fortune Teller (Detail), c. 1594,

oil on canvas, 45 x 59 in. (115 x 150 cm),

Musei Capitolini, Rome, Italy

The juxtaposition of the fabrics on the young man’s torso is a celebration of the artist’s skillfulness. Clearly denoted are the tactile qualities of the linen shirt undergarment with its embroidered lace cuffs, the heavy brocade upper costume with its velvety decorative stripes and the coarser dark cloak draped over his right shoulder. At the meeting of the girl’s left and the boy’s right wrist, Caravaggio distinguishes between the whites and materials of her blouse and his shirt.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio,

The Fortune Teller (Detail), c. 1594,

oil on canvas, 45 x 59 in. (115 x 150 cm),

Musei Capitolini, Rome, Italy

There is delight in treatment of the gypsy’s hair especially the wayward strands that stand out against the white of her turban and those alongside her left cheek.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio,

The Fortune Teller (Detail), c. 1594,

oil on canvas, 45 x 59 in. (115 x 150 cm),

Musei Capitolini, Rome, Italy

Caravaggio is reported to have selected the model for the gypsy girl from someone who passed him on the street. Her dirty fingernails seem true to life as do the boy’s clean and well-attended ones. Her ruddy complexion contrasts with his paler skin tones - no street work for him. His sword appears capable of being used with its glossy rounded pommel, clothed grip and circular guard. Gloves are conveniently tucked away for safe keeping in the guard’s cross bar.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio,

The Fortune Teller (Detail), c. 1594,

oil on canvas, 45 x 59 in. (115 x 150 cm),

Musei Capitolini, Rome, Italy

It seemed Caravaggio took much care with the placement of the young man’s left hand on his hip, drawing attention to the sheen on the adjacent belt fastener. The lace embroidered cuffs of young man’s costume are the only fussiness in the work. Compare this with the delicate, fine description of the slender ties closing his shirt’s collar as well as the girl’s neck bow and decorative neckline.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio,

The Fortune Teller (Detail), c. 1594,

oil on canvas, 45 x 59 in. (115 x 150 cm),

Musei Capitolini, Rome, Italy

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio,

The Fortune Teller (Detail), c. 1594,

oil on canvas, 45 x 59 in. (115 x 150 cm),

Musei Capitolini, Rome, Italy

Of further note are the superbly realized folds of the girl’s blouse and the flamboyant, puffy left sleeve of the young man’s outer garment. There is special beauty in the passage where the fabric of the girl’s left sleeve falls gently over her apron as she leans to her right.

The point of this is to remind the reader that you do not need a blockbuster show to learn. Spending undisturbed time with one painting will yield much. You concentrate on looking and that is what the pleasure of art is about. I heard one viewer say standing in front of the work, “I feel like I am in bed with it.” That’s about as close and intimate as you can get.

A Buona Ventura, Caravaggio’s The Fortune Teller: A Masterpiece From Musei Capitolini, Rome

May 11 through May 15, 2011

Italian Cultural Institute

686 Park Avenue, Manhattan, New York

Weekdays 10 am to 6 pm

Saturday and Sunday 11 am to 6 pm

The Fortune Teller Travels

After New York, The Fortune Teller travels to the Speed Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, where, from May 18 through June 5, it will be the focal point of an exhibit focusing on Caravaggio’s influence on seventeenth-century Italian, Netherlandish and Flemish artists. From June 17 through September 11, 2011, the painting can be seen at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, in the exhibition, “Caravaggio and His Followers in Rome” organized with the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas. The show, which consists of about 60 paintings, then goes to the Kimbell Art Museum from October 16, 2010 through January 8, 2012.

The Spectacular Design of The Red and White Quilt Show

2011-04-15T13:14:00.000-07:00

Infinite Variety: Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts,

Park Avenue Armory, March 25-30, 2011, Installation View

The unrivaled success of the exhibition INFINITE VARIETY: Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts can be attributed not only to the quilts but also to the outstanding installation by the New York City design firm, Thinc Design. The show was on view for only six days, March 25-30, in the Drill Hall of the Park Avenue Armory. For those who were lucky enough to see it, the impact still resonates.

Visitors gasped when they first saw the 651 quilts in the Armory’s vast Hall, some 55,000-square-feet of open expanse under an 80-foot-high barrel vaulted roof. The coverings ranged from 1856, the earliest that could be dated, through the twenty-first century. Most were from the nineteenth century. They appeared weightless, perched high and low as if they could fly. The variety of the bright, clear red and white patterns seemed limitless. They grabbed attention by interacting with each other, the viewing public and the hall’s space. It was an astounding sight. How did this come about?

Artist Unidentified, Vortex Quilt, United States, 1890-1910,

pieced and appliquéd cotton, 80 x 82 in., Collection of Joanna S. Rose,

Photo by Gavin Ashworth

The quilts were from the collection of Joanna S. Rose who has been accumulating American red and white quilts for over fifty years. Her collection numbers more than a thousand. Even though she has no recorded inventory, she has never purchased the same pattern twice. The colorfast nature of the red dyed fabric accounted for the popularity of red and white designs. The red did not run or fade and quilters desired it.

For Mrs. Rose’s eightieth birthday, her husband Daniel Rose, chairman of the real estate development company Rose Associates, asked her want she would like. Mrs. Rose wanted two things: something she had never seen before which was to see all her quilts at once and to give a present to New York City. Working with the American Folk Art Museum, which happens to be celebrating the Year of the Quilt, the Rose family secured the Armory site and made funding available so admission to the exhibit would be free. Mrs. Rose, who participated in every aspect of the show, asked that the display take in the entire collection, make use of the hall’s size and not be too curatorial. She desired people to visually enjoy the quilts. Thinc Design was one of several firms who had submitted proposals.

Infinite Variety: Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts

Park Avenue Armory, March 25-30, 2011, Installation View,

Photo from The Martha Blog

Thinc’s winning scheme centered on a circle of chairs draped with quilts which represented the social circle of women quilters. From this issued a fifty-foot high spiral of quilts signifying a whirlwind of creativity. Six circular pavilions that rose thirty feet surrounded the central gyre. Quilts with bold, strong designs were hung high while those thought to have required a closer look were placed on lower levels. To make possible two-sided views, each quilt was scaled and matched back to back with ones of the same size. Visitors had to go around and inside each hanging circles to see every one. Views changed from the comprehensive - taking it all in - to the intimate - examining in detail an individual piece. The quilts appeared as if nothing held them up, an effect that was achieved by an inventive use of cardboard tubing and cable supports to create the large structures. About a dozen notable bedcovers were showcased on one side and, at the back of the Drill Hall, a wall of hanging quilts acted as a backdrop to the entire show.

Infinite Variety: Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts

Park Avenue Armory, March 25-30, 2011,
Installation Entranceway View,

Photo from The Martha Blog

The exhibition also included a cafe, gift shop and strategically placed curved seating that allowed visitors to rest, absorb everything before them or to exchange thoughts with others. Apart from a short introductory text on a large podium at the entranceway, there wasn’t much explanatory material. The show’s emphasis on visual experience may have accounted for the paucity of description but not much is known about many if not most of the quilts. They were made by common folk for a utilitarian purpose not created as high art destined for museums.

Infinite Variety: Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts,

Park Avenue Armory, March 25-30, 2011, Installation View

Although the coverings were amazing, it was the achievement of the display that elicited the visitors unqualified positive responses. This was the design firm’s accomplishment. According to Tom Hennes, Principal and Founder of Thinc Design and whose grandmother made quilts, about a half dozen people initially worked on the conception. They would meet, discuss, go their respective ways and come back to exchange ideas again. Central to their approach was collaboration and innovation - to think about artworks and exhibits in new ways. Sherri Wasserman, Thinc Design Strategist and whose mother happens to be a quilter, came up with the idea of a quilting circle and the use of repeated circular elements. This led to the project’s extraordinary final design.

For those who missed Infinite Variety: Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts, the American Folk Art Museum hopes to have the show travel and will publish a illustrated catalog within the next two years.

Forthcoming are more projects by Thinc Design. The firm is the lead designer with Local Projects for the Memorial Museum exhibitions at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, scheduled to open next year.

Art Historian Leo Steinberg (1920 - 2011)

2011-03-23T07:32:00.000-07:00

Leo Steinberg

Photograph by Pamela Blackwell

Leo Steinberg, the eminent art historian, died Sunday, March 13, 2011. I was one of his students in the early 1970s. He mentored my master thesis. We became and remained friends.

It is difficult to describe such an extraordinary man. I go to the internet. A google search, “Leo Steinberg obiturary”, brings forth pages of online references. Undaunted, I begin to explore. After double-digit reviewing, my thoughts wander to one of Steinberg’s habits. He read The New York Review of Books and would enjoy grading contributors’s essays: a “C+” here, a “A-” there, some “B”s. Similarly, I rate my readings. I can almost hear Steinberg’s distinctive voice: “B”, “A”, definitely “C”. I think he would have been entertained by the exercise. Thus, here are few comments along with the hyperlinks to three of the commemorative ruminations this writer deems “A” or better.

I begin with the traditional style obituary, “Leo Steinberg, Art Historian, Dies at 90”, by Ken Johnson, art critic and writer for the arts pages of The New York Times. This is a thorough, well-informed introduction to Steinberg’s achievements. I have two additions:

(1) Steinberg was a 1984 National Book Critics Circle Award criticism finalist for The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion (Pantheon)*;

(2) Steinberg was a recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship, also known as the genius award, in 1986.

Next is the more personal words of Gary Schwartz, an art historian specializing in seventeenth-century Dutch art and a good friend of Steinberg. His insightful remarks, “Leo Steinberg (1920-2011)”, are a lesson in art criticism. Schwartz includes a wonderful account of the way Steinberg went about looking at a work of art and points out how his writings have significance not only for the study of art history but for all the humanities.

Last is Fred Sanders’s “Leo Steinberg Looked at Art”. Sanders, a Protestant theologian, focuses on Steinberg’s explanation of the Christ figure in Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper. This straightforward essay makes lucid Steinberg’s exhaustive interpretative methodology.

Alas, I am unable to pass on what I consider the best eulogy. At the memorial service, Shelia Schwartz, Steinberg’s assistant for over forty years, read a letter from a former student. This was written by Kevin Salatino, Director of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. The letter expresses eloquently how the mentorship of Leo Steinberg changed his life and permanently altered it for the better. Salatino articulated the thoughts of many.

In many ways Leo Steinberg is irreplaceable. His knowledge was catholic. His verbal and written communicative abilities were exceptional. His curiosity and intellect were without peer. His intelligence had magnanimity. His humanity was profound. His wit was ever present. His teaching had warmth and generosity. His friendship was non-judgmental, accepting. With Steinberg, no subject was too insignificant or proscriptive for discussion and analysis. He enriched the world with his thoughts and reflections. His contributions to art history and human understanding will always be remembered.

*Note 2nd edition: The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion. Second Edition, Revised and Expanded. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1966.

Discovering an Emerging Art Scene in India’s Capital

2011-02-28T09:23:00.000-08:00

Bhari Kher, The Skin Speaks a Language Not Its Own, 2006,

bindis and fiberglass, life-size,

Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNAM), New Delhi, India

A vibrant art scene has evolved in New Delhi, India’s capital city. Fine art galleries and two private museums are open to the public. At Delhi’s 3rd India Art Summit this past January, close to 130,000 people came to see works from eighty-four participating galleries.

Recently I visited the city determined to get a taste for the new art scene. A warning is necessary. Crowded and limited public transportation, all types of vehicular traffic, poor roads, inferior maps, and much new construction make traveling in Delhi very difficult. Furthermore, all the drivers I used were unfamiliar with the places on my agenda. I persisted in my quest and was rewarded.

Dhruvi Acharya, Untitled, 2010,

water colour on paper, 10 x 14 in. (25.4 x 35.6 cm),

Threshold Gallery, February 2011 exhibition, New Delhi, India

A gallery-lined narrow street in the city’s Lado Sarai district was one of my first stops. Here are about ten galleries among which are four or five outstanding contemporary dealers. These gallerists exhibit art of considerable merit. Threshold, Ragini, Exhibit 320, and Art Motif are four of my favorites. I particularly liked Threshold’s group show, Of Humour, Wit & Satire. Both amusing and serious at the same time, the show’s talented artists demonstrated that humor is a legitimate pursuit of art.

In the Neeti Bagh area, Gallery Nature Morte offered a display by the thought provoking, talented Indian artist duo Thurkral & Tagra. These two address issues of modern sexual practices against the background of traditional notions of sexuality. The show was frank and explicit at times. For me, it was quite an unexpected exhibit to be seen in an Indian art gallery. Gallery Nature Morte partners with the New York gallery Bose Pacia. In addition, there is a Nature Morte gallery in Berlin.

On view in the nearby Talwar Gallery were Ranjani Shettar’s haunting sculptures. Transitory shadows and silhouettes are incorporated into an encompassing art form. The work is quite beautiful. Talwar also has a gallery in New York. I recommend a visit.

Tyeb Mehta, Blue Bird, 2007,

acrylic on canvas, 49 x 39.5 in. (124.5 x 100.3 cm),

Vehedra Gallery February 2011 exhibition, New Delhi,India

The Vadehra Art Gallery in the Defense Colony area was exhibiting an affecting selection of works by Tyeb Mehta. This illustrious artist was one of the leading post-colony Indian modernist whose death two years ago was greatly mourned. Vadehra has two other locations in Delhi and a separate book store. It has a branch, Grosvenor Vadehra, in London as well.

I took a gallery break and went to CMYK Book Store on Lodhi Road. This enjoyable, lively store is well-stocked with books on architecture, art history, photography, artists, design - anything related to art. You can pick up tips on what to see from the friendly, conversational staff and browsing, art-focused customers.

Two private museums are somewhat difficult to find but should not be missed. The Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) opened just in time for the India Art Summit. Located in Saket district’s new DLF South Court mall, this museum’s first show is a knock-out. The exhibition is drawn primarily from Kiran Nadar’s personal collection. Ms. Nadar, wife of billionaire technology founder Shiv Nadar, has been an aggressive buyer of modern and contemporary Indian art for over two decades. Now she is sharing her holdings with the public in her own museum. Free and situated in a mall, the museum hopes to attract many visitors. Among the first-rate works to be seen are Bhari Kher’s bindi-covered life-size elephant, Anish Kapoor’s untitled electric blue disc with its nod to Chuck Close’s fractured images, S.H. Raza’s geometric abstractions as brilliant as those of Howard Hodgkin’s or Hans Hofmann, and Subodh Gupta’s scooter with Indian family, a sculptural commentary on Indian life. This well-installed exhibit fills some 18,000 square feet of gallery space. If this is an example of future shows, the Delhi art world is in for some treats.

A hint to those who try to find it: the South Court mall is in the back of and continuous with the large Select CityWalk shopping mall. If you are facing the front of the mall before it’s parking/drop off/pick up area, the museum is located on your left, behind the CityWalk retail store building. A left side street will lead to the KNMA which has space for parking in front of its main entrance.

The other must see museum is the Devi Art Foundation. It is located in Gurgoan, a suburb of Delhi in the neighboring Haryana state about nineteen miles south of the city center. Many multinational corporations chose to have their office operations in the area which resulted in tall office towers and high-rise apartment buildings. The foundation takes up two levels of Sirpur House, an attractive modern building designed by the Indian architect Aniket Bhagwat.

Radha Sollur, Chittara Snake, 2010,

burnt rice husk, acrylic paint, white rice paste, white clay paste,

fruit of gurige tree and red clay, mud mixture,
48 x 48 in. (121.9 x 121.9 cm),

Devi Art Foundation, New Delhi, India

Anupam Poddar and his mother Lekha established the foundation in 2008. As far as this writer can ascertain, it is effectively India’s first museum of contemporary art. The Poddars, who own a successful upscale hotel company, amassed an estimated 7,000 pieces of contemporary, folk and tribal Indian art. Art is their passion. At the museum I saw the intelligent, well-curated exhibition Vernacular in the Contemporary, Part I. The show was comprised of works from the Lekha and Anupam Podder collection in addition to newly commissioned pieces from artists generally classified as folk artists or makers of tribal or traditional art. The foundation provided resources for the artists’s projects. Judging from this show and catalogues of past exhibitions, the Devi Art Foundation is a significant addition to India’s cultural institutions.

Another hint for locating: the Devi Art Foundation is in a building on a side street across from a large complex called Apparel House which houses permanent showrooms for manufacturers/exporters of Indian garments and a convention/exposition facility. It is relatively easy to find. To its left is a side street where Sirpur House is situated. The Devi Art Foundation Web site has a site map but it is confusing to follow.

There is more going on in Delhi’s art world. If you go, try to get The Delhi City which is a weekly tourist publication. It has a fairly comprehensive listing for galleries and exhibitions with a separate section for photography shows. What you see will no doubt be stimulating.

Unexpected Lesson

2011-01-21T08:14:00.000-08:00

Unknown Indian Artist after Michelangelo, Pietà,

c. 1990, cement and stucco (?),

Kumily, India,

Photo: ArtWithHillary

Certain images are embedded in the western visual vocabulary. These representations have been looked at, venerated, worshipped, studied and copied. They are the models or archetypes for all portrayals of the subject depicted. Leonardo’s Last Supper (Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan, Italy) is an example as well as Picasso’s Guernica (Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain) and Michelangelo’s Pietà (St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City, Italy) .

Michelangelo Buonarroti, Pietà, 1498-1499,

marble, 68.5 x 76.8 in. (174 x 195 cm),

St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City, Italy,

Photo: Scala Archives

With many levels of meaning and the ability to illicit emotions not normally associated with inanimate objects, these artworks may become the focus of personal or public acts. A case in point was the brutal attack on Michelangelo’s Pietà in 1972 when a mentally disturbed man hammered away at the sculpture yelling, “I am Jesus Christ - risen from the dead”. Another instance occurred in 1974 when a man protesting a political action concerning the Vietnamese My Lai massacre, wrote “KILL LIES ALL” on the surface of Picasso’s Guernica.

As a consequence of the impact and fame of these iconic images, even a poorly conceived replica of one can convey some of the original’s attributes and meanings. The inept copy may draw attention to what made the master work great and lead to a renewed appreciation of the source. The imitation can refresh memories and help viewers look anew at something that had become all too familiar.

I was reminded of this while driving through Kumily, a small city nestled in the Western Ghats mountains in the South India state of Kerala. With a population of approximately 5,000, Kumily is more village than city.

Kumily, India, Center of Town,

Photo: Google Images

At its center, the narrow main road splits in two creating a triangular space which is dominated by a larger-than-life copy of Michelangelo’s Pietà.

Unknown Indian Artist after Michelangelo, Pietà,

c. 1990, cement and stucco (?),

Kumily, India,

Photo: Google Images

The Kumily sculpture is set before a huge crucifix draped with a shroud-like cloth. Thus, the crucifix and cloth explain the Madonna’s lament.

Although Kumily has three churches, it is still quite astonishing to find such a prominent Christian image in a predominately Hindu country.

What did the Indian artist make of Michelangelo’s Pietà? The Kumily work is close enough to the original to be recognizable as a copy. It is not, however, a quote. The Indian artist did not grasp Michelangelo’s achievement. The Italian master created an image where a supine grown man fits naturally on the lap of of a women. He did this by enlarging the Madonna’s thighs and drapery in such a way that her proportions appear normal. Spectators are unaware of anatomical distortions. In this small South India city’s Pietà , the Christ figure barely is contained by the Virgin Mary. Although Mary is too large in relation to the size of her adult son, it looks as if Christ may slide off his Mother’s lap at any moment.

This pitiful imitation made me think about Michelangelo’s renowned Pietà and revived my understanding of and respect for this outstanding work of art. Such is the benefits that may come from bad art.

Note: Dangerous traffic patterns (as anyone who has been to India knows) prevented my stopping for a longer look at the Kumily Pietà. A quick hop in and out of my car enabled one photo. Please excuse the quality.

More on Velázquez

2010-12-06T16:47:00.000-08:00

Attributed to Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez,

The Education of the Virgin,

c. 1617-18, oil on canvas, 66 1/8 x 53 9/16 in. (168 x 136 cm),

Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven

The Education of the Virgin, a painting recently attributed to Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez, will go on view December 9 at the Yale University Art Gallery. The work was given to the Gallery in 1925 along with other Spanish paintings. In poor condition, it remained out-of-view all these years.

In 2002, Laurence Kanter, Curator of European Art, was surveying the Gallery’s storage area and noted the remarkable quality of the painting. It was identified as the work of an unknown seventeenth-century Seville artist. He earmarked it for restoration. Two years later, the painting caught the eye of John Marciari, Curator of European Art and Head of Provenance Research at the San Diego Museum of Art, who was working with Kanter. At the time Marciari was the Nina and Lee Griggs Associate Curator of Early European Art at the Yale University Art Gallery. By 2005, Marciari was convinced The Education of the Virgin was the work of Velázquez. Thus begun some five years of extensive research and analysis.

This past summer, news broke that the painting had been attributed to Velázquez. Marciari published his findings in the 2010 July-September issue of Ars Magazine. His article delivers cogent arguments in favor of the attribution. If it is by the Spanish master, it would be one of the artist’s earliest works in extant and, of course, enormously valuable.

Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez, The Luncheon, c. 1617,

oil on canvas, 42.7 x 40.6 in. (108.5 x 102 cm),

Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

Marciari links the painting stylistically to Velázquez’s The Luncheon, c. 1617, in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia . He notes similarities in such elements as the way the figures emerge from the dark background, the handling of drapery and still-life depictions. Technical research revealed that the Yale work was mounted like other early paintings by the master.

Although there is loss in size and paint, remarkable passages remain. You have the opportunity to see it as is until February 20. Go take a look and form your own opinion. The jury is still out.

The Education of the Virgin, attributed to Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez, will be on view at the Yale University Art Gallery from December 9, 2010 through February 20, 2011.

Yale University Art Gallery

1111 Chapel Street (at York Street)

Tuesday - Saturday 10:00 am - 5:oo pm

Thursday until 8:00 am (September - June)

Sunday 1:00 - 6:00 pm

Closed Mondays and major holidays

Free and Open to the Public

A Velázquez Portrait Dazzles Once More

2010-11-21T07:27:00.000-08:00

Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez, King Philip IV of Spain,

1644, oil on canvas, 51 1/8 x 39 1/8 in. (129.8575 x 99.3775 cm),

The Frick Collection, New York

Photo: Michael Bodycomb

The Frick Collection’s portrait, King Philip IV of Spain by Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez, is resplendent after having undergone a much needed cleaning. Over sixty years had passed since the work’s last major treatment. Although always in good condition, the old varnish had darkened and discolored making the image appear dull and flat. Details were obscured and the painter’s dynamic brush technique was no longer apparent. In the summer of 2009, the painting was sent to The Metropolitan Museum of New York where Michael Gallagher, Sherman Fairchild Conservator in Charge of Paintings Conservation, examined, cleaned and revarnished it. Close study confirmed that changes to the final composition and alterations of the work’s size had occurred.

While this took place, new research by Pablo Pérez d’Ors, former Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellow at The Frick Museum, uncovered the painting’s complex history and unusual circumstances of use. His findings were published in The Burlington Magazine (October 2010, No. 1291 Vol. CLII) in an article co-authored by Michael Gallagher.

The results of all this is the subject of The Frick Collection’s exhibition, The King at War: Velázquez's Portrait of Philip IV. The painting is superbly installed in the center of the Oval Room facing the Garden Court. There is no glass covering the canvas.

Looking at the painting, the first element that stands out is the vibrant crimson of the King’s costume and the way Velázquez’s colors describe a variety of materials. The fluffy red feather of the Monarch’s hat is clearly differentiated from the red brocade jacket. Shades of grey render silver embroidery as well as the metal hilt of the sword and baton. White denotes sleeves, buttons, collar. Beiges and lavenders enliven the whites. Brushstrokes are vibrant and exciting. Paint is laid thinly here and thickly there. Always associated with a free, audacious technique, Velázquez’s brushstrokes here are even looser and appear to be laid down quickly and confidently.

Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez,
Detail of King Philip IV of Spain

Revisions and exhilarating dabs and dashes of paint reveal the artist’s creative process and produce a feeling of intimacy between the viewer and the painting. Such closeness to the painter’s mind is more typically associated with drawings. We discern how the King’s hat was lowered along with his left hand and sleeve. The sword was moved toward the bottom and the sash hanging from it narrowed. In addition, the flare on the right side of the King’s coat was covered by background paint while the garment’s left side was broadened. The compositional changes enhanced the iconic quality to the image.

Historically, royal portraits were an important form of public relations. They were the only way the public would have knowledge of their King. Few people had access to him - his family and a limited group of courtiers. In the case of this portrait, contemporary diarists recorded its popularity and subsequently the image was reproduced. Since a little over an inch had been removed from the canvas’s bottom, we know about the missing fringe from the King’s knee-high boots through an extant seventeenth-century copy.

This was a special painting with a political purpose. It was created for a specific function as a stand-in for the King at an important church celebration that took place in Madrid. In 1640, the Catalonia region of Spain had rebelled against the Monarch and sided with France. The King sent troops to regain the territory in 1643. A year later, Philip decided to rally his men at the frontline and moved his court there - some five hundred people. As victory approached and was certain, a major religious celebration was planned in Madrid. It would take place before the King returned since he needed to stay in Catalonia for the surrender. Velázquez, the court painter, had accompanied the Monarch to the front. A small temporary studio was hastily devised for his use; the portrait had to be ready for the upcoming Madrid celebration. Velázquez was surely under pressure to complete the work. Indeed, documents reported the King sat for only three sittings.

The painting was completed in time, sent to Madrid and installed under a gold-embroidered canopy in the church where the victory festivity took place. During the ceremony, a sermon given by the Monarch’s preacher, explained the painting’s meaning. The Monarch is not portrayed in the typical somber, black clothes of the Spanish court. He wears his military uniform as his troops would have seen him. This bright red costume decorated with silver would have been easily recognizable, standing out and glittering in the sun. The King is not portrayed as a stern, powerful commander-in-chief or a triumphant victor. He is seen as a loving, forgiving father whose victory was directed by divine intervention. Since the conflict had pitted countrymen against countrymen, Philip IV did not want to punish his rebellious subjects but bring them back to his fold in peace. It is a remarkable painting.

Francisco de Goya y Lucientes,

Regozijo (Mirth), (Album D. 4),

c. 1816-20,brush and ink and wash and chalk,

9 3/8 x 5 13/16 in. (23.8 x 14.8 cm),

Courtesy of The Hispanic Society of America, New York

The Frick’s other exhibition, The Spanish Manner: Drawings from Ribera to Goya, is also noteworthy. This is the first Spanish old master drawing show to take place in New York although New York’s collections are second only to those of Madrid. Why did we wait so long? The works on view are of the highest quality. There are twenty-two sheets by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes as well as over thirty drawings by Jusepe de Ribera, Bartolomé Estaban Murillo and other artists both familiar and unfamiliar. Besides The Frick’s own holdings, there are significant loans from The Hispanic Society of America, The Morgan Library & Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and other institutions. The draftsmanship is extraordinary and the show makes a good case for a distinct Spanish drawing style.

The King at War: Velázquez's Portrait of Philip IV 

Through January 23, 2011

The Spanish Manner: Drawings from Ribera to Goya

Through January 10, 2011

The Frick Collection

1 East 70th Street, Manhattan

10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday

11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Sundays

Closed Mondays and holidays

Connections: Paths Taken

2010-10-29T05:46:00.000-07:00

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo,  Christ on the Cross, c. 1665–70, 

pen and ink with wash over chalk,  13.2 x 9.3 in. (33.5 x 23.6 cm)

Princeton University Art Museum, Museum Purchase,

Laura P. Hall Memorial Fund

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo’s drawing, Christ on the Cross is on view in The Frick Collection’s exhibition The Spanish Manner: Drawings from Ribera to Goya. There will be more about this noteworthy show at a later date. This poignant Murillo drawing attracted my attention. The figure of Christ combined piousness with with a figurative realism I did not normally associate with Murillo. For the record, I am not a big fan of the artist. I usually find his work cloying, overly sweet and precious. Give me other seventeenth-century Spaniards: Ribera’s earthiness, Zurbarán’s mysticism, above all, Velázquez ‘s brilliance. The Murillo drawing, however, prompted me to reconsider the painter. To begin, I went to The Metropolitan Museum to see Murillo’s small painting, The Crucifixion. It is quite a wonderful painting of a powerful figure of Christ. I thought I could live with this work and enjoy it thoroughly.

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo,  The Crucifixion,

c. 1670-72, oil on canvas,  20 x 13 in. (50.8 x 33 cm),

 The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,

Bequest of Harry G. Sperling, 1971

The painting and drawing have similarities. I do not imply that there is a direct connection. The drawing is not thought to be a preparatory study. Yet, resemblances do exits. Both, of course, depict a man crucified. A figure depicted on a cross, however, can be rendered in many ways - for example, the torso may turn toward the right or left; the legs may appear closer or further apart. Here, the position of the legs were alike: right knees slightly above left ones. Each of the Christ figures have a robust torso that twists a bit to the left. In both, as touch of realism, a wooden wedge is struck into the ground to support the upright of the cross. Furthermore, drawing and painting have a mediative, other-worldly quality that I found quite appealing.

The Metropolitan Museum’s explanatory label informs that the work may relate to a larger Crucifixion in Madrid’s Prado Museum. An online digital image provided me with satisfaction.

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo,  Christ on the Cross,

c. 1675-1680, oil on canvas, c. 1675 x 27.9 in (54 x 71 cm),

Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

The Prado’s Christ’s legs look like they are in the same position as those in the other two works but the figure here is slender. The torso curves a bit to the right. There is no supporting wooden block for the cross. On the ground is a skull like the one in the drawing. As for The Metropolitan Museum Crucifixion, the darkened paint made deciphering foreground imagery impossible.

More comparisons can me made. The Metropolitan painting has Jerusalem in the background while the drawing shows no city. The image quality of the Prado Crucifixion prevented detailed examination. You reader may look and make your own observations. For now, I move on to another connection which interested me.

The Metropolitan Museum note explains that the Murillo painting may have been owned by Sebastián Martínez y Pérez, a renowned eighteenth-century art collector and a friend of the illustrious painter, Francisco de Goya y Lucientes. Goya painted Sebastián’s portrait in 1792 and the portrait is owned by the museum and on view two galleries away.

Francisco de Goya y Lucientes,  Sebastián Martínez y Pérez, 1792,

oil on canvas, 36 5/8 x 26 5/8 in. (93 x 67.6 cm), 

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,  Rogers Fund, 1906

It is a superb portrait of man I immediately took a liking to. We both appreciated the same Murillo painting.

What is all the above about? A drawing by one artist led to one of the artist’s paintings which resulted in a look at another of the same artist’s paintings and then to a portrait from another century by different painter. All four works connected in some way which resulted in different paths of exploration. New roads were taken.

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
Robert Frost
The Road Not Taken
(First Publication date: 1916)

An Art Rich Fall in New York

2010-09-11T06:33:00.000-07:00

Dancing Ganesh, Pala Period, 9th - 10th century, Nepal,
blackstone, height: 18.75 in. (47.6 cm),
Doris Wiener Gallery

New York in the fall becomes a cornucopia of tempting artistic works. Fashion Week started on September 9th; the New York City Ballet begins on the 14th; the New York Philharmonic on the 22nd; the Metropolitan Opera on September 27th; Carnegie Hall opens on the 29th.

The city’s major museums have their fall exhibition line up. Hundreds of art galleries present new shows. The Asian Art Dealers New York (AADNY) organized a small September version of the big spring Asia Week New York currently on view. Auction houses get into gear with their Asian sales: Sotheby’s and Christie’s September 14th through 16th; Doyle’s on the 13th. Check out their state-of-the-art e-catalogues.

Chelsea Gallery Fashion Show,
February 2010,
Sally Wu, Designer,
Courtesy of Art For Progress

There are also presentations sponsored by alternative organizations such as Art for Progress. This six-year-old non-profit dedicated to emerging artists often stages events in non-traditional settings featuring not only the visual arts but also fashion and music. Catch their “Fashion Interaction” on September 21st which will showcase young designers such as Sally Wu.

At the Asian exhibitions about town, you will see many depictions of the elephant headed Hindu god Ganesh. This popular deity is a god of good things: success, knowledge, wisdom, and wealth. He’s a perfect god for New York’s fall art season. Go enjoy.

MoMA NOW

2010-08-17T15:39:00.000-07:00

Pablo Picasso, The Bull, state VII (Le Taureau),
December 26, 1945, lithograph,

composition 12 x 17 1/2 in. (30.5 x 44.4 cm),
sheet 12 15/16 x 17 1/ in. (32 x 44.4 cm),
The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Visit the Museum of Modern Art now. There are crowds but it is worth the hassle. The Museum is chock full of exciting shows several of which are closing shortly. High on the “must see” list is the Picasso print exhibit, Themes and Variations (till August 30). Drawn from the MoMA’s own holdings, over hundred works of the highest quality illuminate the artist’s unequaled talent in this medium. You will not be bored.

Mark Rothko, Archaic Idol, 1945,
ink and gouache on paper,
21 7/8 x 30 in. (55.6 x 76.2 cm),
The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Also nearing closure is The Modern Myth: Drawing Mythologies in Modern Times (till August 30). These works on paper, also from the Museum’s own collection, explore the idea and visual imagery of myths and mythmaking. The all star cast of artists include Paul Cezanne, Arshile Gorky, Jackson Pollack and Andy Warhol. It's an intriguing and thought provoking show.

Bruce Nauman’s site specific piece Days (till August 23), a recent MoMA acquisition, seems to make sound physical. Experiencing this work becomes a contemplation of time. Nauman created Days for the 2009 Venice Biennale when he represented the United States. Presently set up in the Museum’s special exhibition gallery, it won’t be there for long. When it will be seen again is unknown. So go.

The Young Architects Program 2010 (till August 23) presents the project designs of the five finalists for the MoMA PS 1 temporary summer courtyard installation. The innovative plans of these young teams evoke joyful excitement. Judging from their work, architecture has a bright future.

Henri Matisse, Bathers by a River, March 1909-10,
May-November 1913,and summer 1916-17,
oil on canvas, 102 1/2 x 154 3/16 in. (260 x 392 cm),
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

There is more going on at MoMA. Although the Matisse exhibit, Radical Invention, 1913 -1917 (till October 11) doesn’t end in August, seeing this master’s inventiveness and Picasso’s makes for a stimulating comparison. Who wins? You decide.

Viewing hints: MoMA is open late on Thursdays in August until 8:45 p.m. and may be less crowded as well on Friday afternoons before free MoMA Fridays begin at 4:00 p.m.

TheMuseum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd Street, Manhattan
Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, 10:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Thursday, 10:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.

(open until 8:45 p.m. every Thrusday in August and on September 2 and October 7)
Friday, 10:30 a.m. - 8 p.m.
Closed Tuesday

Meanings Beyond Image and Text: Treasures from the Braginsky Collection

2010-07-12T13:47:00.000-07:00

Marriage Contract, Lugo, Italy,
29 September 1841; Border ca. 1775,
parchment, 33.1 x 23.3 in. (84.1 x 59.1 cm),
Braginsky Collection Ketubbah 105

Over 100 rare and unique items are on view in the exhibit, “A Journey through Jewish Worlds: Highlights from the Braginsky Collection of Hebrew Manuscripts and Printed Books” at the Yeshiva University Museum.

The illuminated manuscripts, printed books, marriage contracts, decorated scrolls, liturgical texts and other writings on a variety of subjects come from the Braginsky Collection, one of the most important private collections of this kind in the world. Although René Braginsky has been collecting for the past few decades, this is the first public exhibition devoted exclusively to his collection.

The show is accompanied by an excellent catalogue and Web site, http://www.braginskycollection.com/. The Web site allows viewers to zoom in and out of digital images and texts as well as flip through pages of manuscripts and books or unfurl scrolls. If the object I mention is available online, for easy linkage I have indicated its Web site section and catalogue number.

The works on display cover over six hundred years but the collection is strongest in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries especially the poster-size illustrated Jewish marriage contracts called ketubbot, (ketubbah in the singular). These elaborate contracts which specified dowries along with the names of the bride and groom reflected the wealth and social standing of the families involved. They also protected women in cases of divorce – what the bride came with was documented and was her due should the marriage cease.

These embellished documents incorporated local artistic styles with results that at times mixed Hebrew, pagan, and Christian motifs. For example, an Ottoman crescent moon and star are prominently depicted in a Samaritan Betrothal Contract of 1905 (Braginsky Collection Web site, Marriage Contracts, Catalogue 79); In a ketubbah from Padua, a pagan cupid unites family emblems while two putti make music and two others hold up a crown (Braginsky Collection Web site, Marriage Contracts Catalogue 70); and, a classical personification of charity shows up on seventeenth-century contract from Amsterdam (Braginsky Collection Web site, Marriage Contracts, Catalogue 72).

Of note are the ketubbot that were recycled, a practice apparently limited to Italy. Beautifully decorated contracts were reused by either erasing the earlier inscription and rewriting as in the Paduan Ketubbah (Braginsky Collection Web site, Marriage Contracts, Catalogue 70) or entirely replacing the script area as was done for the marriage contract of 1841 from Lugo, Italy which saved a ca. 1775 Watteau-like border (Braginsky Collection Web site, Marriage Contracts, Catalogue 71). Perhaps the rabbinic sumptuary laws that tried to put a lid on the amount spent on weddings encouraged the purchase of earlier contracts which were probably less expensive than commissioning new ones. Whatever, they are not only aesthetically appealing but also import much history.

Some of the more emotionally moving items include a fifteenth-century handwritten Hebrew Bible (Braginsky Collection Web site, Manuscripts and Printed Books, Catalogue 18) that was begun in Spain in 1491 and completed in Portugal in 1494. The scribe, being forced out of Spain after the Jewish expulsion of 1492, finished his work in a country that also drove the Jews out some three years later. This valued bible was taken to Italy and ultimately to Britain where it was purchased by Braginsky. Next to it, is a fifteenth-century Book of Job with Commentary (Braginsky Collection Web site, Manuscripts and Printed Books, Catalogue 17). It was the third Hebrew book published in Naples and attests to the fairly friendly environment Jews experienced in this city at that time. Moreover, on every page there are sixteenth- or seventeenth-century annotations written in Hebrew and Judeo-Persian. These are fascinating notes on the biblical part of the text.

Miscellany for Life Cycle Events, Italy (possibly Ferrara),
Copied by Leon ben Joshua de Rossi of Cesena,
last third of the 15th century, parchment, 60 leaves,
5.3 x 3.9 in. (13.5 x 10 cm), later quarter-linen binding,
Braginsky Collection 259

Every work in this exhibition significant. There are illustrated Passover haggadot, (haggadah in the singular), which is the text used during the holiday service celebrating the Jews exodus from Egypt. There are miscellaneous books such as an Italian late sixteenth-century Miscellany for Life Cycle Events (Braginsky Collection Web site, Manuscripts and Printed Books, Catalogue 11) which looks at first glance like a medieval book of hours. There are law, prayer and scientific books as well as noteworthy documents like the ones related to the condemnation and burning of Jewish books in sixteenth-century Italy (Braginsky Collection Web site, Manuscripts and Printed Books, Catalogue 1, 16, 3, 23). One glass showcase across an entire gallery wall contains over 2o Esther scrolls along with some of their elaborate cases made of gold, silver, wood and ivory (Braginsky Collection Web site, Esther Scrolls, Catalogue 98, 99, 103, 104). These scrolls were read during the Purim holiday service and since there were no religious prohibitions against decorating Esther scrolls, they were creatively illustrated.

Esther Scroll, India, ca. 1900, parchment, 15 membranes,
2 black columns + 18 text columns, 8 x 276.4 in. (20.2 x 702 cm),
Braginsky Collection Megillah 58

One remarkable Esther scroll from India, c. 1900 (Braginsky Collection Web site, Esther Scrolls, Catalogue 97) shows figures dressed in contemporary and non-western clothes. Men wear fezes, hats associated with the Ottomans, and many females have a bindi, a forehead decoration typically used by Indian women. It is a delightful mix of Indian ornaments and Jewish lore.

The Indian Esther scroll and three other pieces were obtained by Braginsky in the last six months and have never before been available for general viewing. In fact, the recent purchases seen here in New York were not shown in Amsterdam where the exhibit originated. Included in this new group is the earliest known dated decorated Esther Scroll of 1564 from Venice which was written by a woman; a 1668 Circumcision Manual also from Italy which includes the only known representation in Jewish art of Abraham circumcising himself and his son Ishmael; and, a 1755 Diploma for a Jewish Graduate of the University of Padua Medical School. The University of Padua was one of the few European universities that admitted Jews. The Medical School had special diplomas for the Jewish graduates which substituted the phrase, “In the name of God eternal” for the usual “In the name of Christ eternal.”

The Braginsky Collection may not have the breadth and depth of the acclaimed Valmadonna Trust Library of Hebrew books and manuscripts, which was on exhibit at Sotheby’s New York galleries in 2009, but the collection’s quality and merit make it nonpareil.

A Journey through Jewish Worlds:
Highlights from the Braginsky Collection
of Hebrew Manuscripts and Printed Books
Yeshiva University Museum at the Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street, Manhattan
Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday 11 AM - 5 PM
Monday 3:30 - 8 PM
Wednesday 11 AM - 8 PM
Friday 11 AM - 2:30 PM
Through August 1, 2010

In Praise of Small Museums

2010-06-27T14:39:00.000-07:00

Child Feeding Donkey, Mosaic,
Great Palace Mosaic Museum (Büyük Saray Mozaikleri Müzesi),
Istanbul, Turkey

I like to write about the methodology of looking. I may be analyzing a particular work of art or a gallery exhibit no matter; my intention is always to enhance the experience of seeing. Today I praise one small museum but think about how museums of this size can focus one’s view and open up new vistas.

On a recent trip to Istanbul I was struck by the impact of a relatively overlooked museum in the shadow of the great Sultan Ahmet Mosque (the Blue Mosque).

The Mosaic Museum known as the Great Palace Mosaic Museum (Büyük Saray Mozaikleri Müzesi) is just a short walk from the hubbub of Sultanahmet Square and the surrounding preeminent attractions. Its rewards exceed its size. Here are the remains of the largest and finest mosaics to come down to us from late antiquity: the floor of the courtyard and peristyle (open courtyard with surrounding porticos) of Constantine the Great’s palace. The building is basically a cover for the mosaic floor. Constantine the Great (r. 306 - 337 AD) had the palace constructed to rival anything built in Rome. It stretched from the Hippodrome to the Sea of Marmara.

In the mid-1930s and again in the early 50s, excavations of the Arasta Bazaar, a small market close to the Sultan Ahmet Mosque, revealed the mosaics. Some 16 retailers lost their shops but a museum was born.

Interior of Great Palace Mosaic Museum
(Büyük Saray Mozaikleri Müzesi),
Istanbul, Turkey

The floor’s decoration, which probably dates from the Byzantine Emperor Justinian (r. 527-585), is approximately 19.7 feet in width by 29.5 feet in depth. Thousands of colored cubes, each just a bit over 2 inches, make up the compositions. Although only one seventieth of the original surface survives, there remain about 150 human and animal depictions. You see scenes of peasants and herdsmen, wild beasts, children playing, animals grazing, creatures from other countries, hunts and mythological beings. Be warned that what you see is not only enchanting but also at times gruesome.

Leopards Attacking Deer, Mosaic,
Great Palace Mosaic Museum (Büyük Saray Mozaikleri Müzesi),
Istanbul, Turkey

In the museum’s quiet space, you can easily imagine the great court and what this floor would have looked like before the centuries of wear from the countless feet that walked across it and, as an exposed open court, prior to the weathering caused by natural elements. What is extant is remarkable.

The explanatory wall panels, in Turkish and English, are clear and illuminating. You can, however, thoroughly enjoy the compositions without reading anything. While viewing, I heard echoes of the distant court – the chattering of history murmured in my ears as I reflected on the inventiveness and craftsmanship of the imperial artisans.

What a respite from the huge edifices that surround and that can overwhelm. The praiseworthy Mosaic Museum delights and should be visited. It reminds that when in a foreign place, tourists usually concentrate on the so-called required sites such the Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace Museum, Yerebatan Cistern, and Hippodrome in Istanbul. Vision and crowd weary, the traveler may find refreshment in a small place of merit – a second tier attraction may offer a first rate experience. Seek these places.

Please note: for information on the sites mentioned above, go to Istanbul city guide/istanbul.com.

Great Palace Mosaic Museum (Büyük Saray Mozaikleri Müzesi)
Istanbul, Turkey
Address: Büyük Saray Mozaikleri Müzesi Torun Sokak Arasta Carşisi Sultanahmet
Entrance through Arasta Bazaar
Phone: 0212/518-1205
Hours: Tuesday – Sunday 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM (Closed Mondays)
Admission: 5 Turkish Lira (Approximately $3.00 at 1 TK = $.63)

Monet at Gagosian - An Alert

2010-05-24T13:22:00.000-07:00

Claude Monet, Nymphéas, 1906,
oil on canvas, 31 7/8 x 36 5/8 in. (81 x 92 cm)
Private Collection

Once again, the Gagosian Gallery has mounted a museum quality exhibition, Claude Monet: Late Work. Set against the gallery’s pearly grey walls, Monet’s late paintings resonate with light and color. The setting and space encourages contemplation. This viewer can think of only one other installation that is more illuminating: the Nymphéas (Water Lilies) of the Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris, which was chosen and arranged by the painter himself.

Here twenty-seven paintings in four gallery rooms are hung in approximately chronological order. All are oil on canvas. Ten are from private collections and the rest from Paris, Japan, Basel, Honolulu and Chicago. None are for sale and no wall labels distract from Monet’s vision. Just two works are under glass which further enhances the joy of looking.

In the first gallery, easel-size paintings shimmer with images of Monet’s famed water lily pond. The effect is often dizzying as reflections of trees and sky mingle with floating flowers and leaves. Yet the palette of pinks, blues, violets and pale greens evokes calm and quiet. One painting, the 1907 Nymphéas from the Musée Marmattan Monet, Paris, is different. Its vertical sun burst of color practically negates any sense of the pond, leaves realism behind and previews what is to come.

Bolder, larger canvases dominate the next room. Here is movement. Touches of vermilions, oranges as well as calligraphic brush strokes excite and activate the works.

The paintings in the third gallery are also big but verge more closely to pure abstraction. From Basel, the Foundation Beyeler’s Nymphéas of 1916-1919, has almost no attachment to nature. We get lost in a swirl of light, color, space and are taken into a sublime state.

Lastly, we enter a space hosting primarily smaller paintings. Concerned with series, The Pont Japonais (The Japanese Bridge) and L’Allée de Rosiers (The Path Under the Rose Arches) are each seen in three versions. Monet takes to masterly impasto technique. Layers of pigment are laid as if he wanted to prolong the experience of painting and capture all of nature’s changeability. Think of Leonard Bernstein’s late penetrating recordings of Mahler’s symphonies - long and thoughtful as though the conductor did not want the music to end.

These paintings testify to Monet’s late in life bold creativity. You want to remain before them, prolong your view, as time reveals the natural world’s fluctuations.

This is a marvelous exhibition. Gagosian is to be congratulated and praised. In 2009, the gallery gave the pubic two matchless shows: Piero Manzoni Retrospection and Pablo Picasso Mosqueteros. The later was curated by the renowned Picasso biographer John Richardson. Now, we have the Monet. In so doing, the Gagosian becomes synonymous with value, distinction and excellence. It is a win-win situation for the gallery and the public.

A couple of hints:

Bags must be checked so leave briefcases/computer cases at home. Ladies just take small purses.

An exhibition checklist may be obtained at the entrance reception desk.

Visit on the early days of the week especially Monday when there are fewer crowds. (Yes, the gallery is open on Monday.)

CLAUDE MONET: Late Work
Gagosian Gallery
522 West 21st Street, Manhattan
Monday - Saturday 10 AM - 6 PM
Through June 26, 2010

An Abundance of Creativity - Picasso's Prints at the Marlborough Gallery

2010-05-07T13:53:00.001-07:00

Pablo Picasso, Visage [Visage de Marie-Thérèse], 1928,
lithograph image: 8 x 5 5/8 in. (20.32 x 14.29 cm),
an impression on large format Japan paper,
aside from the total edition of 225,
Ref: Bloch 95; Geiser/Baer 243; Morluot XXII
© 2010 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Picasso’s genius is abundantly evident at the Marlborough Gallery, Celebrating the Muse: Women in Picasso’s Prints from 1905-1968. A display of over 200 prints – etchings, drypoints, lithograghs, linocuts – organized around the women in the artist’s life, demonstrates once again Picasso’s creative potency. Celebrated works such as La Minotauromachie, 1935, (whose fame and complex narrative brings to mind Rembrandt’s Hundred Guilder Print), Les Saltimbanques, 1905 and Weeping Woman, 1937 as well as those less well known, testify to the artist’s protean talent . Themes appear, disappear then reappear in different guises. His remarkable power for artistic exploration and originality never wanes. Look at the 60 impressions on view from a set of 347 prints, called the Suite 347, that he produced from March 16 thorugh October 5, 1968 at the age of 86!

Another Picasso print exhibition, Picasso: Themes and Variations, at the Museum of Modern Art, is more far ranging in scope but smaller. Although informative with superb examples of printmaking, it is the Marlborough show that impresses more. You leave humbled.

Celebrating the Muse: Women in Picasso’s Prints from 1905-1968 remains through Saturday, May 8, 2010. It can then be seen at the Marlborough Gallery London from June 9 through July 2, 2010.

Pablo Picasso, Femme assise dans un fauteuil
[Portrait de Jacqueline au fauteuil] , 1966,
aquatint, etching, grattoir, and drypoint,
Plate: 18 3/4 x 12 3/4 in. (47.63 x 32.39 cm),
Sheet: 24 3/4 x 17 7/8 in. (62.87 x 45.40 cm),
Signed in pencil and numbered from the edition of 50,
Ref: Bloch 1394; Geiser/Baer 1416
© 2010 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Celebrating the Muse:

Women in Picasso’s Prints from 1905-1968
Marborough Gallery
40 West 57th Street, Manhattan
Monday - Saturday 10 AM to 5:30 PM
Through May 8, 2010

Masterpiece Paintings Visit The Frick Collection

2010-04-26T13:11:00.000-07:00

Rembrandt van Rijn, A Girl at a Window, 1645, oil on canvas,
32.1 x 26 in. (81.6 x 66.0 cm), Dulwich Picture Gallery, London
Bourgeois Bequest, 1811
© The Trustees of Dulwich Picture Gallery

Masterpieces of European Painting from Dulwich Picture Gallery, the exhibition at the Frick Collection,is a gift to all those who respond to picture making at its highest level. Nine important seventeenth- and eighteenth-century paintings from the Dulwich’s renowned European painting collection are displayed in the Frick’s Oval Room and Garden Court. The Dulwich Picture Gallery, located in London, was the first public art gallery in England. Since its holdings do not often travel, this show is a special treat introducing audiences to works of art that may not be familiar. It joins a group of remarkable small exhibits the Frick has mounted from collections relatively unknown here.

The visiting paintings have received well-deserved praise in such informative reviews as “Dreamy Fantasies of Femininity and Nature” by Ken Johnson, The New York Times, and “Fresh Faces in the Family” by Lance Esplund, The Wall Street Journal. Much can be said about each paintings but I comment only on a few of the aspects that partiuclarly attracted me.

The star of the show is Rembrandt’s “Girl at a Window”, placed immediately at the entrance of the Oval Room as you approach it from the Court Garden. She brings to mind other seductive visiting beauties who in past shows occupied this central position – Parmigianino’s “Antea” from the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples, in 2008 and in 2005, Rapahel’s “Fornarina” from National Gallery of Art at the Palazzo Barberini, Rome.

The "Girl at the Window" probably depicts a type or figure study rather than a specific individual. Nevertheless, she comes across as real – someone who may speak at any moment. Rembrandt’s masterly painting technique brings her life exquisitely rendering her florid cheeks, the slight tan of her left hand and lower arm and the tiny bug bites on both arms. Marvelous is the way paint describes her gold necklace, the shadowed fingers playing with this ornament and the rope-like decoration on her white blouse. She is at once absorbed in the painting and projected out of it.

In the Garden courtyard, on either side of the Oval Room entranceway, are two delightful eighteenth-century paintings: Canaletto’s “Old Walton Bridge”, and Watteau’s “Les Plaisirs du bal (Pleasures of the Dance)”. Of comparative easel size, these works invite comparison. Numerous characters narrate and animate the scenes. Especially delightful are the images of dogs: the foreground dog in the Canaletto and the four canines in the Watteau.

Sir Anthony Van Dyck, Samson and Delilah, c. 1618-20,
oil on canvas,59.6 x 90.7 in. (151.4 x 230.4 cm),
Dulwich Picture Gallery, London
Bourgeois Bequest, 1811
© The Trustees of Dulwich Picture Gallery

Sir Anthony Van Dyck’s “Samson and Delilah” and Sir Peter Lely’s “Nymphs by a Fountain”, two of my favorite works, are displayed across from each other in the Oval Room.

Peter Paul Rubens, Samson and Delilah, c. 1609-1610,
oil on wood,72.8 x 80.7 in. (185 x 205 cm),
The National Gallery, London

Van Dyck’s Samson is an early work by the artist inspired by Sir Peter Paul Rubens’s painting of the same subject. The artist had worked with Rubens and most likely knew the Rubens's Samson painting as well as an engraving of it by Jacob Matham.

Jacob Matham, Samson and Delilah, c. 1613, copper engraving,
14 x 17 in. (380 x 440 mm), Rockox House, Antwerp

Such reproductive engraving as Matham’s made works of art available to a wider public. Matham excelled in this medium. His detailed engraving of the Rubens’s Samson was completed just a few years after the painting was finished. Van Dyck most likely worked from the Matham print since the Van Dyck reverses Rubens’s composition as seen in the print. (Using the engraving technique, paper is pressed into the inked incised lines of the engraver’s plate reproducing the recorded image in reverse.)

“Hermaphrodite endormi”,

2nd c. AD (Roman copy of Greek statue 2nd c. BC),
marble, 169 in. (169 cm), Musée du Louvre, Paris

The Samsons of Rubens and Van Dyck derive from a classical sculpture of the sleeping Hermaphroditus, a mythological being which combines a female head, breasts, and body with the sexual part of a man. Roman copies of the original Greek Hellenistic statue survive. Rubens could have seen one in Italy before painting his Samson. The Rubens and Van Dyck Samsons are manly and muscular but curiously allude to a figure of ambivalent sex.

Sir Peter Lely, Nymphs by a Fountain, c. 1650, oil on canvas,
50.7 x 57 in. (128.9 x 144.8 cm), Dulwich Picture Gallery, London
Fairfax Murray Gift, 1911
© The Trustees of Dulwich Picture Gallery

Sir Peter Lely’s “Nymphs by a Fountain”, displayed across from Van Dyck’s Samson, portrays the near recumbent nymph in a similar hermaphroditic pose. Lely’s nymph is also based on the same ancient source. I spent time in front of this work looking at this nude’s back. At first glance I thought it was male but discerned a slight swelling under the left arm indicating a mammary gland. I posed the question to several viewers, is the figure a male or female? The initial reaction of all in my small sample was a male. Whatever your thoughts, it is a tantalizing work.

By the way, take note of the prominent chafed soles of both the Lely nymph and the Van Dyck Samson. This is superb painting. Such quality painting you will find in all the works of this visually and intellectually splendid exhibition.

One further point: the fully illustrated catalogue by Xavier F. Salomon, Arturo and Holly Melosi Chief Curator of the Dulwich Picture Gallery, is excellent. Pithy explanatory notes illuminate and enhance enjoyment.

Masterpieces of Euopean Painting from Dulwich Picture Gallery
The Frick Collection
1 East 70th Street
Monday - Saturday 10 am to 6 pm
Sundays 11 am to 5 pm
Through May 20, 2010.

Asia in New York - Koichi Yanagi Exhibit Still Here

2010-03-29T14:46:00.000-07:00

Kano Tanshin Morimasa, Tamagawa River at Ide,
Edo period, 17-18th century,
Left screen of pair of six-panel folding screens,
ink, color, gold, and gold leaf on paper,
51.6 x 135.8 in. (131.0 x 345.0 cm) each screen

Asia Week New York 2010 officially ended March 28 but plenty of Asian art remains. Still on view until April 15th is the outstanding gallery exhibit at Koichi Yanagi. This six piece show entrances the visitor with the artistry of Japanese art and aesthetic. On display are a pair of folding screens, a painted fan, a pair of male and female Shinto wooden deities, a hanging scroll, a treasured piece of Zen calligraphy framed by rich fabrics, and a Chinese ceramic dish in the shape of Mount Fuji made for Japanese tea masters. Each work is unique and rarely on view.

Tamagawa River at Ide is the theme of a painting on a pair of Edo period six-panel folding screens. It is an exquisite spring landscape with blossoms and animated birds. From every angle, the scene is beautiful. Individualized birds fly about flowers in full bloom. Golden clouds fill the sky. Looking at the work imparts a sense of bliss.

Back of left screen of pair of six-panel folding screens:
Young Bamboo Plants,
ink on gold leaf,
55.7 x 135.8 in. (141.5 x 354.0 cm) each screen

On the back of the screens, delicate bamboo plants are set against a gilded ground. The shoots have much variety. Some are erect, others bend, some are alone, and others are in groups as if communicating. To see this, a friendly gallery assistant had folded one screen panel to reveal the back to me. Ask and I am sure it will be done for you.

The screens are going to a private collection so now is the opportune time to see them.

Suzuki Kiitsu, A Slumber Party at Ōhara,
Edo period, 19th century,
Hanging Scroll,
ink, color, and gold on silk,
22.5 x 33.6 in. (57.2 x 85.3 cm)

In the gallery's second room, a nineteenth-century hanging scroll depicts an unusal subject, Slumber Party at Ōhara. The painting illustrates a legend-based story concerning villagers who sought protection at a shrine to escape a man-eating snake. To pass the night, they engaged in play and lovemaking. The participants, dressed in fashionable clothing, are similar to the pleasure district visitors in ukiyo-e scenes or fête galante attendees in western imagery. Their bright colors, which contrast with the gray wash of the surrounding evening landscape, draw the viewer’s attention. The scene enchants as do all the pieces in this exhibit. Go see for yourself.

Kokon Biannual Spring ‘10
March 15 - April 15, 2010
Monday to Friday, 10 am to 6 pm
Koichi Yanagi Oriental Fine Arts
17 East 71st Street, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10021
Tel 212 744-5577

East Comes East: Asia Week New York 2010

2010-03-17T11:46:00.000-07:00

Shakoki Dogu, Final Jomon period, 1200–400 BC,
Tohoku region (Aomori prefecture), Japan,
Obora BC Type, 7 x 5 1/2 in. (18 x 14 cm),
Mika Gallery, New York

The focus is on Asian art during Asia Week New York 2010, March 20 – 28. More than 30 museums, galleries, and auction houses take part in 7 days of exhibitions, public lectures and other activities. New York and international dealers have collaborated to bring about Asia Week and to place on view the highest quality art from China, India, Japan, Korea, the Himalayas and Southeast Asia. Anyone with an interest in the East should celebrate.

Asia Week’s excellent Web site, http://www.asiaweeknewyork.org, includes a list of participants, calendar and detailed guide. Both map and guide are downloadable.

It is difficult to single out specific shows but I particularly look forward to the Mika Gallery’s display of early Japanese Jomon period artifacts, the Indian and Southeast works at John Eskenazi Ltd., the Chinese objects at J. J. Lally & Co. and the Korean celadons of the London Gallery Ltd. There are more exhibits on my "must see" list but I don't want to influence your choices. Look around for yourself.

Much of the art brought to New York for Asia Week 2010 is for sale. Many pieces will be purchased for private collections. Keep this in mind. The objects you see this week, you may never see again.

Damaged But Not Diminished

2010-02-27T07:31:00.000-08:00

Pablo Picasso, The Actor, 1904-05, oil on canvas,

77.2 x 45.4 in. (196.2 x 115.3 cm),

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Last month an accident to an important Picasso painting, The Actor, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York, brought attention to works of art that have been damaged. In the case of the Picasso, a visitor fell against the work causing a six-inch vertical gash in the lower right part of the approximately six by four foot canvas. Most likely, the tear will be difficult to detect once repaired. (See Vogel, Carol, “Questions Over Fixing Torn Picasso, New York Times on the Web, 25 January 2010, Art & Design.)

Is the painting diminished? I think not. The mishap will become a somewhat amusing but cautionary addition to the painting’s history. In a way, the incident fits the interpretation of the painting’s subject.

The work is from Picasso’s romantic Rose Period and depicts a slender acrobat. It was created at the time circus performers were equated with artists. They were marginalized by society, martyrs to their art - victims of mistreatment.

In a similar manner, we can now look at the painting in the Metropolitan Museum as an object that was a victim of a society that was heedless of its protection. The work becomes a momento mori. The occurrance reminds things happen with age whether natural or random. After all, The Actor is over one hundred years old.

Rembrandt van Rijn, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Jan Deyman, 1656,
oil on canvas, cut down to 39.4 x 52.8 in. (100 x 134 cm),
Amsterdam, Amsterdams Historish Museum

A well-known example of an art work that has been marred by misfortune is Rembrandt’s 1656 The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Jan Deyman. Most of the canvas was destroyed by fire in 1723, leaving only a small section of the central area. But what remains is a powerhouse of conciseness. Painted during the highly prosperous age of the Dutch Republic, this group portrait is a startling realization of interior thought overlaid with moral implication.

The seventeenth-century Dutch had developed numerous professional organizations and lots of civic groups that commissioned portraits of their leaders and members for meeting rooms. Portraiture became the most popular and well-paid artistic category of the period. In this genre as in others, Rembrandt departed from tradition. He did not depict static representations where sitters are lined up one next to the other in unmoving compositions. His portraits have action and meaning far more then faithful representation of those portrayed.

The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp, 1632, oil on canvas,
66.7 x 85.2 in. (169.5 x 216.5 cm), Mauritshuis, The Hague

The Dr. Deyman was his second anatomy scene. In 1632, he had painted The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp, where he dramatically turned the subject into a lesson on mortality, divinity and knowledge. (For an excellent analysis of both anatomy group portraits and more, see Simon Schama’s Rembrandt’s Eyes, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999.)

In what is left of the Dr. Deyman work, we see the surgeon’s hands dissecting the cadaver’s brain. His assistant on the left, shown with a thoughtful gaze, holds the corpse's skullcap. The quite foreshortened corpse is so angled that the viewer has a first hand view into the open stomach cavity. What is one to make of this?

Andrea Mantegna, Dead Christ, c. 1490, tempera on canvas,
26.8 x 31.9 in. (68 x 81 cm), Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan

Orazio Borgianni, The Pietà, c. 1615, oil on canvas,
21.7 x 30.3 in. (55 x 77 cm), Galleria Spada, Rome

Firstly, Rembrandt’s composition is a reference to the Dead Christ by the fifteenth-century Italian master Andrea Mantegna and similar images by Orazio Borgianni, an early seventeenth-century Roman artist.

Rembrandt turned the secular event, the autopsy, into something sacred by making reference to these earlier images. The painting is interpreted as a religious scene. Dr. Deyman hands make a gesture of blessing over the dead while his nearby assistant holds the Eucharistic chalice.

The viewer focuses on the central figures of the canvas that fortunately have survived. The cadaver’s extreme backward and forward extension in pictorial space and the placement of the dissecting table against the outermost front of the picture plane, persuade, as in the Mantegna, that the feet of the deceased extend into real space beyond the picture frame. The viewer is thus present in the image and participates in the event.

Surely this painting is not diminished.

Little Things Mean a Lot

2010-01-25T08:40:00.000-08:00

Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen, Crucifixion, 1507,
oil on panel, 37 ½ x 30 ¼ in. (95.3 x 76.8 cm),
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Looking at the Crucifixion panel by Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I was reminded of the 1950’s popular song title, “Little Things Mean a Lot”.

Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen (ca. 1472-1533) was a Netherlandish painter and designer of woodcuts active in the early sixteenth century primarily in Amsterdam. He was a conservative artist. Although not an innovator, he was an able observer with an eye for details. His work has charm and lyricism.

The Metropolitan Museum Crucifixion is a crowded scene. Some fifteen figures, three on horseback, fill the foreground. Soldiers hold their weapons, finely dressed aristocrats stare, the Apostle John helps the fallen Virgin Mary, and Mary Magdalene kneels in prayer before the cross.

Many of those depicted are fashionably garbed as if the narrative gave the painter an opportunity to describe the riches of his contemporaries. The viewer gets caught up with the story – the crucifixion of Jesus and the reactions of those present.

Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen, Detail of Crucifixion, 1507,
oil on panel, 37 ½ x 30 ¼ in. (95.3 x 76.8 cm),
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen, Detail of Crucifixion, 1507,
oil on panel, 37 ½ x 30 ¼ in. (95.3 x 76.8 cm),
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Four relatively small angels, three of which are levitating about Jesus’s upper wounds, seem minor players in this drama. But wait. What are they doing? The angels are filling their chalices with the blood emanating from Jesus’s wounds. By their action, the central doctrine of Catholicism comes into focus – the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. The angels’s chalices that hold the blood allude to the chalice that contains the wine at Catholic Mass. Believers partake in the body and blood of Christ through the consecrated bread and wine and thus share in the sacrifice of the cross. These lovely angels that may seem insignificant are not so.

Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen, Calvary,
c. 1507-10, oil (?) on panel, 40.9 x 34.6 in. (104 x 88 cm),
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

I draw your attention to another crucifixion by Jacob Cornelisz in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. This work, entitled Calvary, includes in the background depictions of events that occurred before the crucifixion. The four chalice-holding angels can easily be lost among the forty-plus other characters. Their presence, however, is important.

Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen, The Adoration of the Christ Child,
c. 1515, oil on panel, 38 3/16 x 30 1/6 in. (97 x 74.9 cm),
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago,

The Art Institute of Chicago’s The Adoration of the Christ Child, attributed to Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen and Workshop, offers a happy encounter.

Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen, Detail of The Adoration of the Christ Child,
c. 1515, oil on panel, 38 3/16 x 30 1/6 in. (97 x 74.9 cm),
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

The individuated actions of the numerous music-making cherubs exhibit uninhibited joy. You can almost hear this painting!

Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen, Detail of The Adoration of the Christ Child,
c. 1515, oil on panel, 38 3/16 x 30 1/6 in. (97 x 74.9 cm),
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

There is much going on around the main event but don’t omit a look at the small distant figures that set the scene for the Adoration. These diminutive beings matter.

Happy New Year

2010-01-03T15:55:00.000-08:00

Henri Matisse, Dance (I), early 1909, oil on canvas,
8 6 1/2 x 12 9 1/2 in. (259.7 x 390.1 cm),
Museum of Modern Art, New York

Wishing you a joyous 2010.

Pipilotti Rist

2009-12-30T18:21:00.001-08:00

Pour Your Body Out (7354 Cubic Meters), 2008,
Multichannel audio-video installation, video still

Many readers have contacted me expressing their unfamiliarity with the artist Pipilotti Rist. You can, of course, see her work on the internet but image resolution is poor. The artist's website http://www.pipilottirist.net, offers the best results.

Take a look and explore the links to her gallery, a trailer of one of her films and her old homepage. Rist work is best experienced directly so if she has a show near you, go

A Colorful Awakening

2009-12-23T18:19:00.000-08:00

Homo sapiens sapiens, 2005
Audio-video installation, video still

Sometimes an experience out of the ordinary awakens our senses. An example would be an amuse-bouche eaten at the onset of a meal which stimulates the palate and leads to the intensification of taste. Similarly a visual sight or sights can alert the mind to the pleasures of seeing. Such was the case for me.

It was the stimuli of works by an audio-video installation artist and the viewing of an indigenous art show that aroused my sensitivity to colors.

First, a little background. This seemed to be the year for the Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist. A major show at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, “Pour Your Body Out (7354 Cubic Meters)”, took place from November 2008 through February 2009. From September to December, Rist’s audio-video installations filled the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki, Finland. Then in October, exhibits of her work opened at the Palace of Arts and the Museum of Image and Sound in São Paulo, Brazil.

I have been an admirer of Rist since her exhibit at Art Basil in 1994. She is a complex artist whose work touches on many themes including gender, sensuality, and sex. Yet, it is her heightened use of color that elicits the strongest response.

In an article about Rist, The New York Times Magazine, November 15, 2009, the artist was quoted talking about the yellow of a piece of lemon on the rim of her drinking glass. She explained that if an artist wished to depict that color yellow in film or photography, it would not be the same – it would be less yellow. This is something she does not want to happen in her work – Rist does not want the yellow to appear less so.

Pour Your Body Out (7354 Cubic Meters), 2008,
Multichannel audio-video installation,
Installation view, Museum of Modern Art, New York

Thus, her multimedia installations are filled with intense color-saturated imagery. She tries to capture the “real” color of actual things such as the rich red of a ripe apple or the pure blue of a clear sky. When I emerge into light from the darkness of watching one of her videos, the natural hues of objects appear more vivid, more penetrating. The world seems to have gone from black and white to Technicolor. Her work activates my color awareness.

Featherworks, Beauty and Knowledge Exhibit,
3 October to 29 November 2009,
Caixa Cultural São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

A show of indigenous featherwork that took place at the Caixa Cultural São Paulo in São Paulo, Brazil had a similar impact. The exhibit, “Beauty and Knowledge”, was organized by the Museum of Archeology and Ethnology of the University of São Paulo as part of the museum’s 20th anniversary celebrations. This was a unique opportunity to see some ninety rarely displayed feather and fluff artifacts.

Featherwork, Beauty and Knowledge Exhibit,
3 October to 29 November 2009,
Caixa Cultural São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

The gallery was surprisingly well lit given the light-sensitive material on view and the varied featherworks produced a dazzling spectacle of colors. Again, I was alerted to nature’s intense hues. I thought about the inability of photography, paint, video or film to capture such coloration.

When I left and walked out onto the city streets, the world seemed brighter and more vibrant. My visual palette had once again been stimulated. My responsiveness to colors awakened.

This can happen to you. Continue to look.

Worth a View - A Michelangelo Marble Boy?

2009-11-17T07:07:00.000-08:00

Go look at the Marble Boy attributed to Michelangelo at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. On loan from the French Republic, it has received much publicity but underwhelming visits according to my experience and the guard on duty this past Sunday afternoon.

New York University Professor Kathleen Weil-Garris Brandt created quite a stir in 1996 when the New York Times announced her discovery of a lost early work by Michelangelo. It was located right here in New York City at the headquarters of the French Cultural Services in a mansion on Fifth Avenue. The statue, identified as a young archer or cupid, stood above a fountain in the building’s entrance hall. Many rushed to see it but the Boy was in a position that made close examination difficult. Later that year, Professor Brandt published her research in the Burlington Magazine (Vol. 138, No. 1123, Oct., 1996, pp. 644-659). From the beginning, many leading scholars were dubious. Controversy continues.

The statue is now installed where it can easily be studied on the first floor of the Metropolitan Museum in the Vélez Blanco Patio. I personally began my viewing by looking down from the Patio’s second floor gallery and from this level was impressed with the details of the statue’s curly hair and the elegant lines of what remains of the body.

Downstairs, on closer inspection, I felt uncomfortable with the ungainly proportions of the figure’s narrow shoulders and long, thin thighs. I thought the youth’s head rather large relative to the small, well-developed torso. Comparisons to Michelangelo’s early work seemed stretched.

I did appreciate the remarkable modeling of the figure’s head, chest, rib cage and back. Also of note is the rendering of the slight bulge of flesh alongside the outer edges of the baldric as it crosses the figure’s chest. This indication of pressure on flesh is particularly apparent around the belt's back fragment.

In front of the work, an identifying label reads “Attributed to Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564)”. Nearby, clear explanatory wall panels recount the piece’s history and offer cogent arguments for the attribution.

The jury is still out. For me, the authenticity as a Michelangelo piece is questionable.

Spend time with this work. You may want to form your own opinion.

Matisse and the Antique

2009-10-23T06:59:00.000-07:00

Griffin Court, Modern Wing, 2009,
Renzo Piano, Architect
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

Matisse looked at and thought about classical art. He created works based on antique precedents. The results were radical. I was particularly struck by this on a recent visit to the Art Institute of Chicago's splendid new Modern Wing.

In a third floor gallery are two Matisse bronze statuettes exhibited in a glass vitrine: Thorn Extractor and Woman Leaning on Her Hands. The Thorn Extractor depicts a figure in a startling version of the Spinario pose, a motif representing a seated youth removing a thorn from the sole of his foot. The term Spinario is from the Italian noun spina meaning thorn. I wrote about the Spinario figure in my last blog, “Andrea Riccio Lamp – New to The Metropolitan Museum of Art”, Monday, September 21, 2009.

Henri Matisse, Thorn Extractor, 1906, bronze,
7 15/16 x 5 ½ x 6 in. (20.3 x 14 x 15.2 cm)
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

Matisse’s Thorn Extractor is bent over in concentration. The balance and repose of its ancestors are gone as well as the openness of limbs. Matisse’s Extractor is crunched up and awkward. His muscular left leg is straight, flush against the back support; his right leg is drawn up so that its knee almost reaches his right shoulder. It is a strong, dynamic formation with surface facets that animate the bronze as they catch light.

Henri Matisse, Woman Leaning on Her Hands,1905, bronze,
4 ¾ x 9 ¼ x 6 ¾ in. (12.11 x 25.5 x 17.2 cm)
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

Adjacent is the artist’s Woman Leaning on Her Hands. The figure rises from the floor with outstretched arms. Her horizontal extension contrasts with the Thorn Extractor’s essentially vertical axis.

Henri Matisse, The Geranium, autumn 1906, oil on canvas,
39 ½ x 32 1/8 in. (100.3 x 81. 5 cm)
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

Henri Matisse, Thorn Extractor,
Detail of The Geranium

On a nearby wall hangs an early Matisse still-life, The Geranium. Here the painter has included his own sculptures – specifically the two bronze statuettes on view in the glass showcase. The image bursts with light, color and life. Dated 1906, its unconventional nature astonishes.

Installation of works by Henri Matisse, Gallery 391A,
third floor, Modern Wing, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

This is a wonderful gem of museum installation. Matisse’s original sculptural figures are exhibited next to the artist’s painting in which they are portrayed. All three works were created about the same time. The Thorn Extractor is dated the same year as the painting; the Woman Leaning on Her Hands a year earlier.

The Museum acquired the painting in 1932. The statuettes arrived decades later: the Woman in 1992 and the Thorn Extractor in 2008. The Extractor came as a gift from the Ruth Stanton Family Foundation. I’d like to think that some astute person or persons from this Foundation recognized and seized the fortunate opportunity to complete this painting/bronze statuette juxtaposition – a happy circumstance.

Matisse and the Spinario also reminds us that art talks about art as it redefines and builds on the past. You will recognize more of this as your visual vocabulary increases. Continue to look. The enrichment is there for the seeing.

Andrea Riccio Lamp - New to The Metropolitan Museum of Art

2009-09-21T10:16:00.000-07:00

Andrea Briosco, called Riccio, Oil Lamp, ca. 1515-1525,
bronze, 9 5/8 x 8 13/16 x 2 5/8 in.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has acquired an Andrea Riccio (1470-1532) bronze oil lamp that is on display in the Italian Renaissance Bronze Gallery. This is the only surviving Riccio lamp that still has both its lid and legs.

(For more on Riccio, see my blog post on Wednesday, November 26, 2008, “Andrea Riccio at the Frick Collection”.)

The Museum’s new lamp is in the shape of an unrigged sailing vessel. Across its body, cavorting infants form the main frieze which is framed by delicate shells. The lamp rests on slender curving legs whose shapes are echoed by the lid’s handles. On either side of the cover, a playful child sits holding on to the tail of a dolphin-like sea creature. Classical details animate the work as the eye moves from one design element to another. There is movement and rhythm in all manner of decoration. The technique is of the highest quality. This new acquisition joins the other Metropolitan’s Riccio holdings that include the artist’s work, those attributed to his “followers”, “in the manner of” or “workshop of”.

There is a lot more to see in this Italian Renaissance gallery whose objects may be modest in scale but offer much to enjoy. Here are depictions of mythological, secular and religious figures – Venus images as well as saints – inkwells and plaques. The bronzes are small enough to fit nicely on a studio shelf or study desk. Their compact size allows for intimate viewing, examination and comparisons with nearby objects.

Bartolomeo Bellano, David with the Head of Goliath, ca. 1470-80, bronze

Nearby the Riccio display is a case containing a gilt-bronze statuette of David with the Head of Goliath by Bartholomeo Bellano who was a student of Donatello and Riccio’s teacher.

A bronze Spinario statuette from North Italy dated 1500-1520 can be contrasted with the approximate life-size bronze Spinario attributed to Antonello Gagni, Italy (Sicily) 1507-09, on view in the adjoining Vélez Blanco Patio.

Attrib. to Antonello Gagini, Spinario, 1507-09, bronze

The Spinario, a depiction of a boy removing a thorn from his foot, was based on a Greek original and copied by the Romans. Very few Roman bronzes survive but a 1st century Roman bronze Spinario did and was one of the first antique sculptures to be coped by Italian Renaissance artists. I like to find representations of the Spinario motif and think about how the artist individualized the theme. Some, following the Roman antique example, show the youth’s left foot crossed over his right thigh; some depict the opposite. Some are lithe elegant youths; some are solid unpretentious boys. You may find your own favorite image to follow.

Go see the new Riccio and spend time with the Italian Renaissance bronzes. The viewing will reward the eye as well as the mind – just what an artist like Riccio intended.

Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art

2009-08-25T12:50:00.000-07:00

Jeff Koons, Michael Jackson and Bubbles, 1988

The Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art should be on every art lover’s radar screen. Located in Oslo, Norway, it has a significant collection of contemporary international art and has produced lively, intelligent temporary exhibits. Although the museum’s two present exhibition floors are a delight to view art in, very few, if any, of the extensive permanent holdings can be seen when special exhibits take place. Much needed additional space will be provided by 2012 when the museum moves into two new buildings designed by Renzo Piano that will be located in a sculpture park also designed by Piano.

Damian Hirst, Mother and Child Divided, 1993

The museum’s collection includes works by such artists as Francis Bacon, Damian Hirst, Anselm Kiefer, Jeff Koons, Bruce Nauman, Shirin Neshat, Richard Prince, Cindy Sherman, and Cai Guo-Qiang. Some past shows focused on Andy Warhol, Richard Price, Charles Ray, Jeff Wall, and Matthew Barney.

Subodh Gupta, Date by Date, 2008
From the exhibit, "Indian Highway"

“Indian Highway”, the current exhibition, highlights Indian contemporary art and is part of a series that the museum organized with London’s Serpentine Gallery. The sequence of shows looks at contemporary art from the twenty-first century’s emerging powers – China, India and the Middle East.

For some reason, most of my art astute friends had never heard of this museum. A pity. My one problem with the Astrup Fearnley is the limited access to its permanent holdings. This should be rectified with the opening of the new buildings.

Anselm Kiefer, Zweistormland/The High Priestess, 1986-1989

On a recent visit to the museum, I was impressed with the "Indian Highway" exhibition but I wanted to see more of the museum’s holdings. The only ones on view were three powerful Anselm Kiefers. Their installation, in one vast asymmetrical gallery, was a knock-out. Why did they remain? Kiefer’s work is too heavy to move.

Put the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art on your must see list.

Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art
Dronningensgate 4, Oslo, Norway

Opening Hours:
Tuesday - Friday 11 am – 5 pm
Thursday - 11 am – 7 pm
Saturday - Sunday 12 pm – 5 pm
Monday - closed

The Russian Court comes to Amsterdam

2009-07-16T12:21:00.001-07:00

Hermitage Amsterdam
Main Entrance

The impressive inaugural exhibition of the expanded Hermitage Amsterdam, At the Russian Court, Palace and Protocol in the 19th Century, opened June 20th. More than 1,800 objects project the resplendent nineteenth-century Tsarist court in a tour de force of museology. Materials are presented in a meaningful way, well-lit and easy to view. Introductory notes, labels and interactive computer kiosks are comprehensible and instructive. They offer nice tidbits of information that not only educate but entertain. Riches are everywhere - oil paintings, sketches, watercolors, photographs, film cuts, dresses, costumes, uniforms, clerical vestments, furniture, porcelains, jewels, snuff boxes, decorations, fans, hats, gloves, bags, shoes, parasols, menus, ceremonial books, arms, performance programs, toiletry articles, pipes, and more. Spending a day here is quite worthwhile.

So large a show may seem daunting but consider that what is on loan to Amsterdam represents less than 1 percent of the Russian State Hermitage Museum's 3 million possessions. The Hermitage Amsterdam is one of several “satellite” venues established by the Russian Hermitage to allow the public to see more of its enormous collection. Begun five years ago in a smaller residence, the Amsterdam branch now has a home in a handsomely restored seventeenth-century building, ten times the size of its original space. It is much more than a place for temporary exhibits. Besides the usual museum café, restaurant, gift shops, study center and auditorium, it has conference rooms, an extensive secondary school program and the Hermitage for Children, located in the first Hermitage Amsterdam building, with its own gift shop, school, workshops and classes. In addition, the Hermitage Amsterdam offers a schedule of cultural and educational events that include concerts, opera and films.

The initial exhibition is divided into two themes with one focusing on official court life and the other on royal balls, dinners and amusements. The regal eighteenth-century Romanov throne of Paul I dominates the entrance of the court section’s main gallery. Facing the throne, in a long glass showcase, is a jaw-dropping procession of thirty richly dressed mannequins representing courtiers and royalty. The lighting and placement is such that all details of cloth are discernable. We see clearly that male court attire was just as elaborate as the female’s. Portraits of elaborately adorned tsars and tsarinas line this gallery’s walls. Among them the depictions is a 1795 full length portrait of the Grand Duchess Elizaveta Alexeevna by Marie Louise Elisabeth Vigée-Le Brun. The Grand Duchess is, as expected, gorgeously gowned and jeweled. The informative label discloses that Elizaveta Alexeevna married the Tsar’s son Alexander, who became Tsar Alexander I, in 1801, when she was fourteen and he was fifteen. We also learn that the French painter became a member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts after she fled France during the revolution. Nearby smaller rooms tell the story of St. Petersburg, the imperial palace, the six nineteenth-century tsars, courtly activities, protocol and the relationship between the church and state.

Lauits Tuxen, Wedding of Nicholas II and Grand Princiss Alexandra Fyodorovna at the Grand Church of the Winterpalace, 1895,
oil on canvas, 65.5 x 87.5 cm
State Hermitage Museum St. Petersburg

The juxtapositions of works are well done. For example, located in one room is the oil painting, Wedding of Nicholas II and Grand Princess Alexandra Fyodorovna at the Grand Church of the Winterpalace. On an adjacent wall in the same room hangs the actual 1879 icon of Saint-Alexander Nevski, Saint-Titus the miracle worker and Saint-Policarpus the martyr that is depicted in the wedding oil on the church's rear wall. You can look back and forth between the actual icon and its representation in the painting.

Further along are rooms filled with items given to the tsars and tsarinas by foreign and local governments within the Russian Empire. Memorable presents to Tsar Nicholas II are a pair of eighteenth-century Chinese screens of cloisonné, enamel, bronze and gilding, a gift of Chinese Emperor Guangxu and a Russian small, case-enclosed, 1903 Torah presented by the Jewish Community of Libava, Latvia. As if the royals needed more!

François Flameng, Portrait of Princis Zinaida Nikolaevna Yusupova, 1894,
oil on canvas, 147 x 112 cm
State Hermitage Museum St. Petersburg

In the large gallery of the exhibit’s ball section, richly embellished gowns fill several centrally placed circular glass cases. About every five minutes, the round cases turn while ballroom dance music is heard. Surprisingly this presentation does not seem frivolous but rather delightful. It elicits smiles. Portraits of the aristocracy hang on the gallery walls overlooking the display cases. Of note is the eye-catching 1894 oil by François Flameng of the super beauty Princess Zinaida Nikolaevna Yusupova whose son murdered Rusputin, the confident of Tsarina Alexandra Fyodorovna, in 1916. Two of the princess’s gowns are on view across from her portrait in the center circular case and her elaborate fan of tortoise shell, gold inlay, brilliants, chrysolite, Brussels lace, and rock crystal is exhibited in one of the adjacent smaller galleries. In nearby rooms, you can see the masquerade costume the princess wore to the court’s 1903 Jubilee Ball as well as her photograph wearing this attire.

Nickolai Bodarevski, Portrait of Tsarina Alexandra Fyodorovna, 1907,
oil on canvas, 268 x 135 cm
State Hermitage Museum St. Petersburg

Concerning the garments on view in the exhibition, the dresses, gowns and costumes of Tsarina Alexandra Fyodorovna, wife of Tsar Nicolas II are particularly appealing. Her style was obviously tasteful, elegant and understated. Did she pick them out herself or had advisors? I suspect they were her choice.

More to be seen are materials relating to the private side of imperial life. There are such items as personal accessories, playing cards, hunting garments, weapons, theatre programs and, among the children’s toys, the miniature working rifles made for Nicholas II as a child.

The show leaves you with the feeling that you have truly visited the nineteenth-century Russian Court. Although those who made the imperial opulent life possible are left out, we know that revolution is just around the corner and we can see the reason why.

In 2010 and 2011, the Hermitage Amsterdam will present the exhibitions Origins of Modern Art. Matisse and Picasso followed by Alexander the Great. The Road to the East. If the present show is any indicator of the quality of things to come, plan to go.

At the Russian Court, Palace and Protocol in the 19th Century
20 June 2009 through 31 January 2010
Hermitage Amsterdam
Amstel 51, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Open daily from 10 am to 5 pm, Wednesdays to 8 pm.
Closed on January 1st and December 25th

Street Art

2009-06-08T13:40:00.001-07:00

Melbourne, Australia,
Laneway Art

Melena Ryzik points out street art may have more appeal overseas than in the United States, “Where Louis XIV Meets Crash and Blade,” The New York Times, Saturday, May 30, 2009, The Arts section.

I was reminded about this on a recent trip to Melbourne, Australia. The Melbourne City Council had approved street art locations throughout the city that showcase what we American’s call graffiti art. Aerosol and stencil based mural artworks enliven the Melbourne laneways, small city streets, dead ends and narrow alleyways between main thoroughfares. I had visited three designated locations and was delighted with what I found.

Melbourne, Australia,
Laneway Art

I enjoy good graffiti or street art yet do not want to see New York City turn into the graffiti covered mess of the seventies. Possibly we can take a cue from Melbourne by designating or registering some alleyways and streets for a street art permit program. This process enriches Melbourne and could animate New York City as well.

Melbourne, Australia,
Laneway Art

Getting back to the story of Melbourne and graffiti, in late 2003 the city of Melbourne issued a graffiti strategy report and took a civilized approach to graffiti management. They defined illegal graffiti types as (1) tagging that is words or numbers that are the signature of graffiti writers, (2) political or social comment, (3) graffiti art which is illustrations in graffiti style, (4) stenciling – templates sprayed on a wall. Street art was identified as artistic pieces placed in locations that were registered legal sites with street art permits.

Melbourne, Australia,
Laneway Art

With graffiti on my mind, I went to see the art exhibit “Whole In The Wall: 1970 - Now”. I thought much of what I saw should be seen outside. Think about it. Street art is one of the most democratic art forms available. It is free to all and should remain easily accessible. Seeing chunks of walls installed in sterile galleries on sale for six figure sums seems to me like seeing caged animals. It is as if the art screams for the outdoors and space. Perhaps as collectables, these works may be documented in situ and sold in limited multiple editions similar to the way in which performance art projects are preserved and sold.

As for exhibit, there are paintings that cry out for attention. Their cocky boldness, quick rhythms and bright colors look like they are still competing with the noise and activity of city life. Surprisingly, it was the relatively small, unobtrusive photographs in the show that grabbed my attention. I was particularly taken with the work of Jamel Shabaz, Silvio Magaglio, Henry Chaltant and Martha Cooper’s archival ink jet images. All capture well the time of their creation but are more than historical documentation. They attest to the talents of these artists and are right up there in impact with the street art many reproduce.

Jamel Shabaz

Silvio Magaglio

This large exhibit makes clear that the street art produced today for gallery sale is not the same as what was made years ago for the streets. The show also makes you aware of how artists with different nationalities took America’s graffiti movement and turned it into art that somehow manages to impart a particular national flavor. Finally, it attests to the fact that this now global art form is alive and well.

By the way, if you are ever in Melbourne, obtain a list of the current city street art locations from the Melbourne Visitor Centre’s Arts & Culture information brochure or visit www.thatsmelbourne.com.au and search for street art.

“Whole In The Wall: 1970 - Now”
Thorough June 27, 2009
Former Splashlight Studios
529-235 West 35th Street
Tue-Sat 10:30 am – 6:30 pm, Thu after hours until 10:00 pm, or by appointment
www.helenbeckgallery.com

Only Two More Weeks

2009-05-14T07:32:00.000-07:00

Cast in Bronze: French Sculpture from Renaissance to Revolution
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Special Exhibition
Special Exhibition Space, 1st Floor
Ends May 25, 2009

François Lespingola , Hercules Delivering Prometheus,
Probably Paris, ca. 1675–1700,
Bronze group; 16 3/4 x 23 1/4 x 14 1/8 in.,
Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Grünes Gewölb

Approximately 125 of the finest French bronzes from the Renaissance through the reign of Louis XVI are on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art until May 25, 2009. After this date, you will have to travel to California where the exhibit will go on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

Right now, take the opportunity to study these superb sculptures. There are portrait busts, monuments and statuettes. The works are arranged chronologically. The installation is well-spaced and allows for close viewing. It is one of those exhibits that seem to have just enough work presented to illuminate but not overwhelm. I wager this will be the only time for decades to see such a survey.

Barthélemy Prieur,
Funerary Genius From the Tomb of Christophe de Thou,
Paris, 1583–85
Bronze statue; 29 15/16 x 42 1/8 x 13 7/8 in.
Paris, Musée du Louvre,

I have several favorites in the show but urge you to spend time here and select your own. Some of the works that caught my attention were the tomb figures after Michelangelo by Barthélemy Prieur (Berzieux, ca. 1536–Paris, 1611); the super hero Heracles Delivering Prometheus by François Lespingola (Joinville, 1644–Paris, 1705); and, the pairing of Martin Van Den Bogaert’s, called Desjardines, (Breda, 1627– Paris, 1694) unfinished bronze statuette of Louis XIV on Horseback from Copenhagen next to an example of the finished work lent by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The unfinished work still has the uncut sprues, channels that were used to permit the molten alloy into the mold. It also includes the pouring cup through which the thick alloy entered the sprues. The juxtaposition of the finished and unfinished gives quite a lesson in casting methodology.

Also of interest to me was an engraving of the sculptor François Girardon’s (Troyes, 1628-Paris, 1715) gallery of his great sculpture collection – several works depicted in the engraving are on exhibit here.

The show’s catalogue with over 500 pages is a tour de force of scholarship. It is a reference book worth owning.

Remember: only two more weeks. Go now for you will want to make more than one visit before these bronzes leave New York.