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

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

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 youth's ring finger between her little and fourth 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

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)

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 numerous 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

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

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

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