Saturday, August 31, 2013

The Beguiling Porcelain Couple

An Adventure in Looking


 Night Group or Night and Day, 1781 - 1791, Porcelain, Royal Copenhagen, 
glazing attributed to A. Hald, 
H. approx. 5 in. (13 cm), 
Photo:  2013, Steffen Wesselvold Holden, National Museum of Decorative Arts, Trondheim, Norway

Trondheim, Norway, is home to the National Museum of Decorative Arts - Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum .  Established in 1893 as a museum of applied art, its collection comprises over 40,000 objects of which approximately 1,000 are on display.  Thanks to astute, forward-looking directors buying contemporary works, the museum has exceptional examples of early twentieth-century furniture and utilitarian objects as well as crafts and design of the twenty-first century.  Other acquisitions illuminate the historical development of decorative arts. 

I knew the museum was well-worth visiting since I had been there before.  Thus, given a recent opportunity to go back again, I grabbed it.  My intent was visual enjoyment and serendipitous discovery.  

The museum’s lower level galleries are filled with objects, dating from the middle ages to the present.  Furniture, tapestries, paintings, designs, and display cases with glass, ceramic and silver wares compete for attention.  

One vitrine held eighteenth-century Meissen and Royal Copenhagen porcelains.  I surveyed the small mythological and pastoral figurines.



 Detail of Night Group or Night and Day, 1781 - 1791, Porcelain, Royal Copenhagen, glazing attributed to A. Hald, 
H. approx. 5 in. (13 cm), 
Photo:  2013, Steffen Wesselvold Holden, National Museum of Decorative Arts, Trondheim, Norway

A Royal Copenhagen piece caught my eye (display case #35, middle shelf, 2nd from left).*  It shows a swooning maiden ostensibly succumbing to the initial advances of a nude male who is about to place a kiss on her right wrist.  The male sits with his back to the viewer, front and center along the base of the porcelain’s triangular format.  The woman’s head is at  the composition's apex.  The triangle form is echoed by the V-shaped tree trunk and the bent left arms of the two figures.  Nudity underscores the work's exemplary modeling.

At first I dismissed the piece as simply a typical late eighteenth-century neoclassical grouping, a bit more sensual than most.

I walked on but soon paused.  What was really going on between the couple?   Was it a seduction or something else?  Why was he undressed and she clothed?  I went back for closer inspection.



Detail of Night Group or Night and Day, 1781 - 1791, Porcelain, Royal Copenhagen, glazing attributed to A. Hald, 
H. approx. 5 in. (13 cm), 
Photo:  2013, Steffen Wesselvold Holden, National Museum of Decorative Arts, Trondheim, Norway

Dress and hair set the couple in antiquity.  She wears an ancient Greek type of garment called an Ionic chiton.  It was made with light weight fabric, intricately draped into many pleat-like folds and secured by shoulder brooches and belt.  In the porcelain piece, one such fastening in gold appears to have slipped down exposing the lady’s breasts.  Her arms and lower legs are also undraped.  



Detail of Night Group or Night and Day, 1781 - 1791, Porcelain, Royal Copenhagen, 
glazing attributed to A. Hald, 
H. approx. 5 in. (13 cm), 
Photo:  2013, Steffen Wesselvold Holden, National Museum of Decorative Arts, Trondheim, Norway

Hairstyles are Greek.  His is short.  Hers, adorned with a pink and violet-blue flower garland, is long, swept neatly up on one side.  On her other side and back, her tresses are down.   Stray wisps of hair appear on the figures’ foreheads and necks.  A loose strand of the lady's locks rests on top of her left hand.   Is the woman's coiffure partly undone like her dress or simply the style?



Detail of Night Group or Night and Day, 1781 - 1791, Porcelain, Royal Copenhagen, 
glazing attributed to A. Hald, 
H. approx. 5 in. (13 cm), 
Photo:  2013, Hillary Ganton

Pinks and reds highlight mouths, nostrils and the inner corner of the man's wide open eyes.  His skin darker than hers.  Both figures have reddened cheeks.

I considered clues to the work’s meaning: flushed faces, mussed hair, loosened dress, uncovered breasts, naked male.  Are we seeing a couple post or precoital?  Is this foreplay or post-play?  Is he undressed because of what took place or what is planned?  Is her gown disheveled because of what has happened or is happening?



Detail of Night Group or Night and Day, 1781 - 1791, Porcelain, Royal Copenhagen, 
glazing attributed to A. Hald, 
H. approx. 5 in. (13 cm), 
Photo:  2013, Hillary Ganton

A straw-colored basket of colorful flowers rests between the couple.  Two blooms have fallen out as if to underscore the twosome.  Their petals do not touch.  Could the full floral basket denote a flowering of a relationship?  Are the ground flowers a suggestion of separateness or disconnect?  Are they purely decorative elements?  Probably, naturalistic flowers were typical motifs for porcelains during this period.



Detail of Night Group or Night and Day, 1781 - 1791, Porcelain, Royal Copenhagen, 
glazing attributed to A. Hald, 
H. approx. 5 in. (13 cm), 
Photo:  2013, Steffen Wesselvold Holden, National Museum of Decorative Arts, Trondheim, Norway



Detail of Night Group or Night and Day, 1781 - 1791, Porcelain, Royal Copenhagen, 
glazing attributed to A. Hald, 
H. approx. 5 in. (13 cm), 
Photo:  2013, Steffen Wesselvold Holden, National Museum of Decorative Arts, Trondheim, Norway

I noted contrasts.  The male stares straight ahead.  The woman’s eyes are closed. Her bosom is bare, open for play.  Her lower half covered: legs cross, toes touch as if to close off any advance. 



Detail of Night Group or Night and Day, 1781 - 1791, Porcelain, Royal Copenhagen, 
glazing attributed to A. Hald, 
H. approx. 5 in. (13 cm), 
Photo:  2013, Steffen Wesselvold Holden, National Museum of Decorative Arts, Trondheim, Norway

The male’s left hand is active, holding the female’s right wrist.  He bends his head, placing his lips on her skin.  His right hand, unengaged, casually rests on his left thigh.  

I questioned what their looks communicate.  Is his straight-ahead stare a sign of boredom or anticipation?  Does her face express pleasure or ennui.  She could be saying to herself, “What have I gotten into?” or “What have I done?” or “This is wonderful.” 



 Detail of Night Group or Night and Day, 1781 - 1791, Porcelain, Royal Copenhagen, 
glazing attributed to A. Hald, 
H. approx. 5 in. (13 cm), 
Photo:  2013, Steffen Wesselvold Holden, National Museum of Decorative Arts, Trondheim, Norway

The museum curator, Steffen Wesselvold Holden, kindly allowed me to see the piece outside its case. Obviously, the porcelain was meant to be seen in the round.  Its form and size invite handling.  From the back, contrasting textures and colors stand out - the woman’s thick black hair against the white of her dress, the twisted gold girdle between the soft garment folds, and the greens and browns of the rough tree trunk and uneven ground distinct from the smoothness of the figure's execution. 



Detail of Night Group or Night and Day, 1781 - 1791, Porcelain, Royal Copenhagen,
 glazing attributed to A. Hald, 
H. approx. 5 in. (13 cm), 
Photo:  2013, Steffen Wesselvold Holden, National Museum of Decorative Arts, Trondheim, Norway

The Royal Copenhagen porcelain marking - three wavy lines symbolizing Denmark's straits - appears on the rear base.  

The curator told me he had found only two other examples of the figure group.  Both are in private collections.  A couple of motifs differed.  One had a flower basket; the other did not.  One had the woman’s eyes open and the other did not.  The porcelain is  most likely a reproduction of a Meissen piece.  Almost all of Royal Copenhagen factory figurines produced during this period were copies of Meissen originals.  The work's title, Night Group or Night and Day, and its attribution to the painter A. Hald were not certain.


I pondered Night and Day personifications.  My first thought was Michelangelo’s Medici Chapel in Florence, Italy.



Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475 - 1564), Tomb of Giuliano de' Medici, 1520 - 1534, marble, 
20 ft. 8 in. x 13 ft. 9 in. (6.1 m x 20.3 cm x3.9 m 22.9 cm), 
Medici Chapel, San Lorenzo, Florence, Italy 

The tomb of Giuliano de’ Medici has two figures personifying Night and Day. Night is a female with her right hand raised to her head. Day is a male. My thoughts turned to Greek mythology. The Greek goddess of Night is Nyx. Hemera is the Greek goddess of Day, who was the result of Nyx mating with the god of darkness, Erebos. The association of Day with a male may relate to Apollo, the sun/day god. His twin, the goddess Diana, is identified with the moon/night. Alas, they were not lovers. This was not leading me anywhere.  Wait.  Could this be a forest nymph and her lover.  I stop.

My search for meaning has come to no conclusion.  Perhaps, the work was meant to be ambiguous.  The viewer could interpret as he or she saw fit.  Whatever, the piece entices intense looking.  Though not a masterpiece, the porcelain couple is full of visual delights.  On your next museum visit, spend some time with a non-master work.  You will very likely be rewarded.

More to come about Trondheim’s National Museum of Decorative Arts.

*I am indebted to Steffen Wesselvold Holden of the National Museum of Decorative Arts, Trondheim, Norway, for his splendid digital photographs of the porcelain.

Munkegata 5, Trondheim, Norway 
Hours:  
Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday  10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m., 
                Thursday  10:00 a.m. - 5 p.m,  Sunday  12:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.                 

Closed Mondays 
Hours change June 1st
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Monday, July 8, 2013

2013 Year of Italian Culture in United States

Masterworks On Loan To New York

Boxer at Rest, Greek, Hellenistic period, late 4th–2nd century B.C., 
bronze with copper inlays, H. 50 3/8 in. (128 cm), 
Photo: Courtesy Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma – 
Museo Nazionale Romano – Palazzo Massimo alle Terme 

2013 is the Year of Italian Culture in the United States*. Organized by the Italy's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of Italy in Washington, D.C., the initiative showcases all aspects of Italian culture in over 200 events in more than 50 cities. The Frick Collection's Piero della Francesco exhibit and the Michelangelo drawing show at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts were officially part of the year long program.

Similarly designated are two out standing loans to the Metropolitan Museum of Art:  the Hellenistic bronze Boxer at Rest and Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez’s Portrait of Duke Francesco I d'Este.

Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez (1599–1660), Portrait of Duke Francesco I d'Este, 
1638, oil on canvas, 26.8 x 20.1 in. (68 x 51 cm), 
Galleria Estense, Modena © su concessione del Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali 
Photo: Metropolitan Museum of Art Web site 

These master works have never before been shown in the US.  Don't miss them and be sure to check out the other activities associated with 2013 Year of Italian Culture in the United States.


*For a digital publication of all the cultural events, see Italy in US 2013.

1000 Fifth Avenue (at 82nd Street) 
New York, NY  
Hours:  
Monday - Thursday 10:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. 
Friday and Saturday 10:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m. 
Sunday 10:00 a.m.- 5:30 p.m. 
Closed: Thanksgiving Day and December 25. 
The Museum will be open New Year’s Day starting January 1, 2014.
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Saturday, June 29, 2013

Good News For Art Lovers

The Metropolitan Museum of Art Extends Hours
Great Hall, The Metropolitan Museum of Art 
Photo: Brooks Walter, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Beginning Monday, July 1, 2013, The Metropolitan Museum of Art will be open on Mondays. Locals and out-of-towners will be able to experience the Museum's treasures seven days a week. This equates to an additional weekly 7 1/2 public viewing hours.

Lines for "Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty" exhibition, 
Photo:  AP, Gothamist Daily Web Site

Judging from past and current crowds, Mondays hours are a gift to all visitors.

Take note of the Museum's new schedule:

Main Building
Monday - Thursday 10:00 a.m.-5:30 p.m.
Friday and Saturday 10:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m.
Sunday 10:00 a.m.-5:30 p.m.
Closed:  Thanksgiving Day, December 25, January 1, and the first Monday in May

The Cloisters
Open 7 Days a Week

March–October 10:00 a.m.-5:15 p.m. 

November–February 10:00 a.m.-4:45 p.m. 

Closed: Thanksgiving Day, December 25, and January 1

Interior of the Thomas J. Watson Library, 
Photo: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Google Images

The Museum’s libraries will also increase their hours.  The Thomas J. Watson and Nolen Libraries will be open on Mondays starting July 1. This means an additional day of research time at Watson and Nolen. All services will be available on Mondays, including paging, access to electronic resources, digital scanners, and reference assistance.  See the following new hours:

Watson Library
Monday - Thursday 10:00 a.m. - 5:15 p.m.
Friday 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Saturday 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Closed:  Closed on national and staff holidays, including Election Day and the day after Thanksgiving; the library closes at 3:00 p.m. on the Fridays before holiday weekends.

Nolen Library
Monday - Sunday 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Closed:  National and staff holidays, including Lincoln’s birthday, Election Day, Veterans Day and Thanksgiving weekend; the library closes at 3:00 p.m. on Fridays before holiday weekends.


Visit the Museum on a Monday soon before the new schedule gets well-known.  You may find yourself communing with artworks solo.

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Friday, May 31, 2013

Four Good Reasons To Visit The MFA Boston Now


There is always a good reason to visit the Museum of Fine Arts Boston (MFA). The Museum’s superb holdings of some 450,000 objects are encyclopedic in scope. Nevertheless, three noteworthy temporary exhibitions and gallery reopenings with special loans make this a particularly opportune time to be there.

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475 - 1564), Madonna and Child, c. 1524, 
black chalk, red chalk, red wash, white heightening, ink, 
21 1/10 x 15 3/5 in. (54.1 x 39.6 cm),
Casa Buonarroti, Florence
Photo:  Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

For a full day, begin with the Michelangelo drawing show: Michelangelo: Sacred and Profane, Master Drawings from the Casa Buonarroti (Gallery 154). This intimate single-room exhibition presents 25 Michelangelo drawings of architectural (14) and figural (11) subjects. This viewer can not recall a larger grouping of the artist’s architectural drawings ever in the US. The exhibition makes obvious why Michelangelo’s drawings were always highly valued. Creative ideas pour forth. Concepts are worked and reworked or left alone as the artist moved on to other interests. Transformations occur through pencil, chalk, wash and ink.

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475 - 1564), Cleopatra,
c. 1524, black chalk, 9 1/10 x 7 1/5 in. (23.2 x 18.2 cm),
Casa Buonarroti, Florence
Photo:  Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

Some of the artist’s most famous works are here such as his black chalk drawing of Cleopatra. The Egyptian queen is depicted at the moment of the snake's deadly bite to her breast. The drawing was Michelangelo’s gift to his close friend Tommaso de’Cavalieri, a young Roman nobleman.

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475 - 1564), Grotesque Head (Cleopatra Verso),
c. 1524, black chalk, 9 1/10 x 7 1/5 in. (23.2 x 18.2 cm),
Casa Buonarroti, Florence
Photo:  Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

On the back, the outline of Cleopatra becomes a grotesque female head. This “verso” drawing was uncovered in 1988 when a backing on the paper was removed. Scholars have debated its authorship. The face and shoulder outline appear awkwardly drawn. One cogent theory suggests that Cavalieri drew it. He was the first owner of the work. Michelangelo may have provided drawing lessons to the younger man and one result could have been this unattractive head (see William E. Wallace, The Woman Behind Michelangelo’s Cleopatra, Art News, April, 2013).

The Madonna and Child, another celebrated representation, is nearby. The drawing is a virtual showcase of the artist’s technical range. Black and red chalk, red wash, lead white and ink make the fully realized body of the Christ child seems to pop out of the paper’s surface. The Madonna’s unforgettable subtle expression of sadness and otherworldly gaze movingly implies her son’s future passion.

A lingering look at the Sacrifice of Isaac rendered with black and red chalk along with pen and ink, reveals a lightly sketched ram among thick bushes in the lower left corner. The black chalk Risen Christ makes clear Michelangelo’s experiments with the placement and bend of the figures’s legs. The architectural designs are significant. Several are studies for the unfinished façade of the Church of San Lorenzo (never completed) as well as the Laurentian Library and New Sacristy which were part of the San Lorenzo complex. Michelangelo’s work plainly anticipates the seventeenth-century Baroque architectural style of Bernini and Borromini. 

Spend time looking. You may not have the opportunity to see these drawings again.


Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (1606-1669), Portrait of Aeltje Uylenburgh,
1632, oil on panel, 29 1/16 x 21 15/16 in. (73.7 x 55.8 cm),
The Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection
Photo:  Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

The Museum’s main Dutch and Flemish gallery (Gallery 242) and neighboring smaller gallery (243) have been reopened this month after an almost year-long renovation. Hung alongside the museum’s own holdings are seventeen paintings from the acclaimed seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish collection of Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo. The new installation makes a good case for the MFA to be the ultimate recipient of van Otterloo collection. The couple plan to make a decision in the next two years as to the future home of their 70 paintings, 20 pieces of furniture and 10,000 books which had belonged to the eminent Dutch and Flemish art historian Egbert Haverkamp-Bergemann. The van Otterloos want their collection to remain intact. Thus, should they decide against the MFA placement, now is the time to see how their art and the museum’s own mingle in mutual enhancement. 

On view is their early Rembrandt, Portrait of Aeltje Uylenburgh. Painted when Aeltje was 62 years old and the artist 26, the work is considered one of Rembrandt's finest paintings in private hands. The sitter’s white starched collar and fur trimmed dress take your breath away.  Saskia van Uylenburgh, a cousin of Aeltje, would soon become the artist’s wife.

Gerrit Dou (1613-1675) , Dog at Rest, 1650,
oil on panel, 6 ½ x 8 ½ in. (16.5 x 21.6 cm) 
The Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection
Photo:  Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

A favorite of mine is the van Otterloo’s Dog at Rest by Gerrit Dou. The artist was a pupil of Rembrandt and this painting’s canine owes much to an etching by the master. Unlike his teacher’s bravado brushstrokes and thickly applied paint, Dou’s paintings are smooth surfaced. The artist’s hand is not apparent. Dou and his followers are known as the Fijnschilders (fine-painters), a school of painting characterized by highly finished, true-to-life, small- scale work. The Dog at Rest is good example of this style. The texture of all objects are meticulously detailed. The dog’s hair is painted so accurately you can almost feel the fur.
Salomon de Bray (1597-1664), Study of a Young Woman in Profile,
1636, oil on panel, oval 10 ½ x 8 in. (26.7 x 20.5 cm),
The Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection

Other van Otterloo paintings include those by Jacob Isaacksz van Ruisdael, Aelbert Cuyp , Jan van der Heyden, Hendrick Avercamp, Jan Baptist Weenix. Willen Claesz Heda and Salomon de Bray. De Bray’s Study of a Young Woman in Profile is particularly valued for seventeenth-century profile portraits are rare. The label explains that the panel was probably a study of a professional model’s head intended for use in other works. The same woman appears in a painting by one of de Bray’s contemporaries.

Although the MFA’s own Dutch and Flemish works merit attention, on this visit plan to concentrate on the van Otterloo loans. The outcome of their bequest is uncertain.

Installation view of Triumph of the Winter Queen.
Photo:  Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

The Triumph of the Winter Queen: Allegory of the Just by Gerrit van Honthorst’s is displayed in the Loring special exhibition gallery (Gallery 276).  The almost 10 feet by 15 feet canvas has been recently conserved.  The 1636 is painting is on loan to the MFA anonymously.  It is a complex iconographic allegory.  Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of James VI and I, King of Scotland, England and Ireland and his wife Anne of Denmark, was nicknamed the "Winter Queen”.   In 1613, Elizabeth married Frederick V, Elector of the Palatinate.  The couple became King and Queen of Bohemia for less than a year (one winter), 1619-20.  They were ousted by the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand and took exile in The Hague where Elizabeth remained for the rest of her life.  In 1632, Frederick died.  Elizabeth subsequently commission this large scale work from Honthorst, a leading portrait painter in the Netherlands and abroad.  The painting depicts herself, her husband, and all their children in a setting imbued with symbolic historical and political allusions. The who’s who in the painting and its meanings are explained in a nine-minute film which supplements a series of informative wall texts.  The Hanoverian British monarchs, including the present queen, are Elizabeth Stuart’s descendants.  

Installation view of  Samurai!: Armor from the Ann and Gabriel Barbier-Mueller Collection
Photo:  Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

Samurai!: Armor from the Ann and Gabriel Barbier-Mueller Collection (Gund Gallery LG31) is a splendid exhibit of Japanese arms and armor from one of the world’s most important collections of samurai art. The approximately 14o objects on display make for a very different show than the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s comprehensive samurai exhibition that took place in 2009-2010. The Boston show is smaller, from one collection and focuses on the extreme spectacle of samurai garb and accouterments. Human and horse mannequins make the material come to life. Objects are given ample space to be studied individually, in the round. Yet, the pieces are close enough to one another for visual comparison. These works were made to distinguish rank, wealth and identity. The variety of textures, patterns and symbols astonish. Most are fearsome looking. Some are beautiful. Some are even humorous. All are remarkable. 

Go to Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts now.


Michelangelo: Sacred and Profane, Master Drawings from the Casa Buonarroti
April 23, 2013 - June 30, 2013 

Triumph of the Winter Queen 
February 14, 2013 - July 21, 2013 

Samurai!: Armor from the Ann and Gabriel Barbier-Mueller Collection 
April 14, 2013 - August 4, 2013

465 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 
Hours:
Monday and Tuesday 10 a.m. - 4:45 p.m., Wednesday - Friday 10 a.m. - 9:45 p.m. 
Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. - 4:45 p.m. 
Closed New Year's Day, Patriots' Day (third Monday in April), Independence Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Day
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Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Not For Milk: Dairy Art Centre



Photo: Hillary Ganton 

The Dairy Art Centre, a new not-for-profit art center in London's Bloomsbury district, opened to the pubic on April 25. Frank Cohen, the British businessman and art collector along with the Danish art advisor and collector Nicolai Frahm transformed a 12,500 square foot former milk depot into a showcase for art, music and dance. Cohen and Frahm want to create a space for a variety of events where people, not necessarily involved with the arts, will mix. Plans include a bar, lounge, music and bookstore and outdoor cinema. The art will focus on artists the founders consider influential but ignored. Works for exhibitions may come from their own or other private collections, galleries, museums or made specifically for the site. It is a strategy in flux. 

The inaugural show, Quicksand John M Armleder, is devoted to the Swiss multimedia conceptional and installation artist John Armleder. The artist has filled the Dairy’s irregular, casual gallery spaces and outdoor sculpture yard with works from the founders’ collections as well as new paintings and installations designed for the art centre. Armleder curated the exhibition.  The result is an engaging mixture of wall paintings, mixed media pieces, “Furniture Sculpture,” “Pour” and “Puddle” paintings, neon combines, sculptures and canvas paintings.

 
John Armleder, Convallaria Majalis, 2003, 
mixed media on canvas, 9.8 x 18.7 ft. (300 × 570 cm)
Photo: Dairy Art Centre Website 

Armleder’s art is one of accumulation and appropriation. He remakes progenitors’ works in a radical way. Abstract expressionism turns into “Pour” and “Puddle” paintings.  Minimalism’s purity and fascination with industrial material become a riot of form. Decorum turns into rowdiness.  He does takes on Op and Pop art as well as Duchamp’s ready-mades. Viewers recognize influences. Dan Flavin, Jackson Pollack, Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst are a few of his forebears.  The old is turned into the new.  The past is rediscovered.

   
Outdoor Yard, Dairy Art Centre, London 
Photo: Hillary Ganton 

One complex visual and sound installation takes over “The Fridge,” a room that was once the former  dairy’s refrigerated space. Industrial wall shelves are platforms for the artificial and the real. Natural flowers mix with fake. Stuffed toy animals are placed next to taxidermic ones. Videos and sound tracts distract and attract. Piles of art books invite perusal but are closed and cannot be read. There is an exuberance in the accumulations of things - a celebration of life. Yet, the flowers wilt and the animals are dead. Among life’s cheerfulness lurks death. All is thought provoking. 

If this first show is an example of what is to come, the Dairy is ensured success.  Bravos to Frank Cohen and Nicolai Frahm.*

*For an interview with Frank Cohen by BloombergBusiniess reporter Frarah Nayeri, April 16, 2013, go to "Art Collector Cohen Opens Gallery in Milk Depot."  Source:  BloombergBusiness

Quicksand 
John M Armleder
Spring/Summer 2013 

7a Wakefield Street, London
Hours:
Tuesday - Friday 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. 
Saturday and Sunday 11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
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Saturday, March 30, 2013

Up Close And Personal With A Renaissance Master

Piero della Francesca in America


Piero della Francesca (1411/13-1492), Saint Augustine, 1454-1469, 
oil and tempera on poplar panel, 52.4 x 23.8 in. (132 x 56.5 cm), 

The Frick Collection’s exhibition, Piero della Francesca in America, is the first exhibit in the United States devoted to the Renaissance master. Four of the seven paintings on display are from the Frick’s own collection - the museum has the largest holdings of Piero’s work outside of Europe. All the paintings on view were made for the artist’s home town, Borgo San Sepolcro. Six of the known eight panels from the altarpiece created for San Sepolcro’s Church of Sant’Agostino are united for the first time since the polyptych was taken apart after 1555. Accompanying them is the rarely lent “Virgin and Child Enthroned with Four Angels” from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. The exhibition will not travel.

More to come.


Piero della Francesca in America 
February 12, 2013 to May 19, 2013
1 East 70th Street, Manhattan, New York
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
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Thursday, February 7, 2013

“Let Me Entertain You, Let Me Make You Smile...I’m Very Versatile” The Bronzes of Alexander Calder



Installation view of Calder: The Complete Bronzes, First Floor, Front Gallery 
From left to right: 
Fake Snake (Snake on Table), 1944, bronze, 44 x 13 1/2 x 15 in. (111.8 x 34.3 x 38.1 cm) 
Acrobats (II), 1944, bronze, 20 x 13 1/2 x 9 1/2 in. (50.8 x 34.3 x 24.1 cm) 
Tightrope Worker (Woman on Cord), 1944, bronze, rod, and string. 22 x 30 x 15 1/2 in. (55.9 x 76.2 x 39.4 cm) 
Dancer, 1944, bronze, 27 x 23 3/4 x 17 3/4 in. (68.6 x 60.3 x 45.1 cm)
© 2012 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

An exhibition of bronzes and plaster models by Alexander Calder (1898-1976) presents a different side of this well-known artist. Calder worked in bronze only twice, in 1930 and between 1943 and 1944. The exhibit, Calder: The Complete Bronzes, makes a case for the importance of these works. Although not all the bronzes are included, there are over thirty on view along with thirteen of their plaster models. Private collection restrictions prevented a few from traveling.

These works are not the artist’s familiar cut sheet metal and wire mobiles or stabiles. They can’t be set in motion with a slight breath; and, they are not monumental.

About a third are articulated with a variety of joints, hooks, posts and holes. Some appear to balance precariously. Since parts can move, a “what if” game ensues. Shift one section this way or that and another may or may not follow. Take the Dancer with billowing breasts. Hinged in four pieces, her struggling arabesque may be adjusted. Tip the extended leg upward and twist the torso to extend an arm en avant. The Tightrope Worker may gently sway on the rope as limbs are altered. Two acrobats, Acrobats (II), one astride the standing partner’s head, astound. How does he do it? A Snake curls down, around, up and out yet remains firmly shelf based. Movement is conjecture. Spectators may not touch.

Installation view of Calder: The Complete Bronzes, First Floor, Front Gallery 
© 2012 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Three shelves display eighteen toy-like bronze and plaster figurines. A voluptuous woman has her feet in the air in an uninhibited posture; another female lies languidly stretched out on the ground. A strong man raises a barbell, knees bent under the weight. An acrobat, using only one arm, strains to hold another. A hissing cat arches his back. A cow, elephant, donkey and two horses add to the animated menagerie.

Pieces have a tactility and, at times, sensuality not ordinarily associated with the artist. Designing with fast drying plaster, Calder did not disguise his touch. Impressions of modeling were left. The influence of Matisse and Picasso is clearly discerned. Some sculptures appear to be direct descendants of the artist’s miniature circus, Cirque Calder, a portable, performance affair made in Paris in the late 1920s.



Excerpts of Calder performing the "Circus" from a film by Jean Painlevé, Le Grand Calder, 1927, 1955 by WhitneyFocus
Video:  YouTube

In the first floor back gallery, bronzes are paired with their plaster prototypes. Close observations reveal slight dissimilarities.

Installation view of Calder: The Complete Bronzes, First Floor Back Gallery 
From left to right: 
The Flower, 1944, bronze 24 x 20 1/2 x 18 1/2 in. (61 x 52.1 x 47 cm) 
The Flower, 1944, plaster, 24 x 20 1/2 x 18 1/2 in. (61 x 52.1 x 47 cm) 
The Vine, 1944, bronze, 26 x 40 x 16 1/4 in. (66 x 101.6 x 41.3 cm) 
The Vine, 1944, plaster, 26 x 40 x 16 1/4 in. (66 x 101.6 x 41.3 cm) 
© 2012 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Compare the plaster and bronze Vine. Note the variation in the double-leaf top component where it connects to work’s stem: the top leaves turn upward in the plaster version and downward in bronze. Changes made, perhaps, to accommodate the nature of differing materials.

Installation view of Calder: The Complete Bronzes, Second Floor Rotunda
On One Knee, 1944, aluminum, 43 1/2 x 40 x 26 in. (110.5 x 101.6 x 66 cm) 
© 2012 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York 

On One Knee is the show’s only aluminum sculpture. Placed in the rotunda on the second floor, it splays across a pedestal casting wondrous shadows on the gallery’s wall. Reminiscent of Giacometti and Picasso, this complex figure intrigues. Speculations as to intent come forward. Made of several parts, the now seemingly immobile joints may or may not have been the artist’s desire. Wear and tear takes its toll.
Installation view of Calder: The Complete Bronzes, Second Floor Front Gallery 
From left to right: 
The Helices (Double Helix), 1944, bronze, 31 1/2 x 31 1/4 x 24 in. (80 x 79.4 x 61 cm) 
Starfish, 1944, bronze, 34 1/4 x 35 1/2 x 22 in. (87 x 90.2 x55.9 cm) 
Upstanding T (The "T"), 1944, bronze, 36 3/8 in. (36.375 x 92.4 cm)
© 2012 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York 

The rear second floor gallery requires viewers’s restraint for the overwhelming desire is to touch, spin or prod. The Helices (Double Helix), Starfish, and Upstanding T (The "T") are especially enticing. They call out for motion. Here is Calder at his best morphing an inert material into lightness and flight.

It would seem Calder was destined to become an artist. His father and grandfather were successful sculptors. (See ArtWithHillary, January 2013) His mother was a painter. His sister held art classes in her home and helped establish a university museum. Calder was talented and very smart. He attended and graduated from San Francisco’s equivalent of New York’s Stuyvesant High School and earned a mechanical engineering degree from the demanding Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey. Celebrated for his sculptures and the invention of mobiles, his prodigious artistic output also included paintings, drawings, prints, gouaches, jewelry, costumes, stage designs, chess sets, book illustrations, an autobiography, the decoration on two planes and an automobile.

The bronzes may, however, suggest more than other works Calder’s paternal ancestry. His father and grandfather worked in bronze. Their artistry was traditional, realistic, solidly grounded. Calder took their medium of choice and reworked it in a completely different manner. He formed the material into something expressive, gravity defying. He abstracted the real world and left his imprint visible. See the Calder bronze show.

Calder: The Complete Bronzes
October 25, 2012 - February 9, 2013

Mnuchin Gallery* 
45 East 78 Street, Manhattan, New York 
Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 10 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. 


 *Calder: The Complete Bronzes opened in October, 2012 at the L&M Arts which became the Mnuchin Gallery as of January 2013.  L&M Arts has made a significant contribution to New York’s art scene with outstanding, often museum quality shows.   From L&M Arts Web site: “After seven years of working very successfully together as the founding partners of L&M Arts, we have decided to branch out on separate endeavors beginning January 2013. While we no longer will partner in New York City, we are extremely pleased to announce our continued affiliation as L&M Arts, Los Angeles. Mnuchin Gallery will continue its program at 45 East 78th Street and Dominique Lévy Gallery will open at its new premises at 909 Madison Avenue in 2013. Thank you for your continued support. We look forward to seeing you soon. Dominique Lévy & Robert Mnuchin”
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