Sometimes you have to go out-of-town to see something from your town. I was struck by this on a recent visit to the Denver Art Museum's special exhibition In Bloom: Painting Flowers in the Age Of Impressionism. Among the works by French artists were three paintings by Édouard Manet. One was the Museum of Modern Art's Two Roses on a Tablecloth. Not often seen in New York, it was a delight to view.
This still life was part of Willam S. Paley's modern art collection. Paley was founder and chief executive of Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS). An active MoMA trustee, he became president and later chairman of the museum's board. Paley died in 1990 and left his outstanding art collection to MoMA. The Two Roses on a Tablecloth is an example from his bequest.
Édouard Manet (1832 - 1883), Flowers in a Crystal Vase, c. 1882,
oil on canvas, 12 7/8 x 9 5/8 in. (32.7 x 24.5 cm),
The work differs from the artist's other flower paintings. These are usually vertically composed and have a lively exuberance. Manet's typical blooms are upright, fresh and energetic. This is not so with the horizontally arranged Two Roses. Here a poignancy pervades. Why?
By 1882 Manet had been suffering from syphilis for about ten years. Left untreated, he was experiencing the disease's side effects - a degeneration of locomotive powers, intense pain and loss of a sense of bodily positions. Rheumatism also plagued him. The organism that caused syphilis was not discovered until 1905. Treatment prior to the twentieth century was often worse than the sickness itself.
Manet was quite ill during his last years yet, he produced some of his most joyous and intimate paintings. These are the flower oils inspired by the bouquets friends would bring him. None are large. The Two Roses on a Tablecloth is the smallest of the group. Some have suggested the roses, casually placed on a marble top, are an allusion to the artist's increasing immobility and upcoming demise. No matter, the loose, fluid brushwork of this and all the late flower works attests to the artist's undiminished abilities.
Édouard Manet (1832 - 1883), Vase of White Lilacs and Roses, 1883,
oil on canvas, 22 × 18 1⁄8 in. (55.88 × 46.04 cm),
In April 1883 Manet had to have his gangrenous left leg amputated. Less than two weeks later he succumbed to his ailments. The Vase of White Lilacs and Roses may have been Manet's last or second to last painting. The other work, a portrait of the model/artist's muse/actress/singer Méry Laurent, was left unfinished on his easel.
Édouard Manet (1832 - 1883), Méry Laurent wearing a small toque, 1882,
pastel on canvas, 21 3/4 × 13 5/8 in. (55.3 x 34.6 cm),
This writer would like to think the Vase of White Lilacs and Roses was Manet's last work. The lilacs and roses reach across the canvas whose width is unable to contain them. Writers have noted that the glass vase and blooms create a crucifix configuration. Others have seen a crucified Christ form in the floral array. Unlike the MoMA's Two Roses, there is nothing sad about Lilacs and Roses. These blossoms have vitality and vigor. As such, Manet's last take on flower still lifes would deny death and misery. The work embraces life.
New York's five boroughs become an open architectural exhibition the weekend of October 17 - 18. This is the annual Open House New York Weekend (OHNY) when visitors get an opportunity to enter some of the city's most interesting places that are normally off-limits. Since 2003, a weekend in October has been packed full of "open houses" with free tours, lectures, talks, programs with some that are kid-friendly. The "open houses" include buildings, interiors and spaces landmarked or significant for their design, engineering, historical or cultural history. Many are noted for a combination of merits. New venues become accessible each year. This year, Google's Chelsea headquarters and LaGuardia Airport's Marine Air Terminal are among first time entries.
William Delano's 1939 Marine Air Terminal, LaGuardia Airport, New York
The weekend was started by Open House New York, a not-for-profit organization founded in 2001 to promote awareness of the built environment. The organization is part of Open House Worldwide, an international network of open house events occurring in 30 cities around the globe. For those who like to look at buildings and explore their surroundings, these weekends are made for them. Keep in mind, museum or gallery architecture exhibits may be excellent but models, photographs and plans simply can not substitute for the real experience of walking through a space.
View of original studio of Edward Hopper (1882 - 1967)*,
Here in New York, there will be enough on view to satisfy anyone's interests. Past weekends have included some 300 sites citywide. Thus, viewers will have to scurry to see all that they want. Sign-up for the OHNY Weekend mailing list for e-mail updates. Don't forget to go to OHNYEvent Guide page to download your OHNY Weekend Event Guide available on October 6.
OHNY New York Weekend is just one of the highlights of Archtober, a month-long festival showcasing architecture and design. In its fifth year, the festival's popular talks and lectures get booked up quickly. Check out the Archtober Calendar soon. Please note, unlike OHNY New York Weekend, numerous Archtober's events require a pre-registration and a fee.
National Design Week at New York's Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, October 10 - 18, is another of the month's high points. This, the museum's biggest educational effort, comprises free public programs, a family festival, a teen design fair and online projects.
The film is "Woman in Gold." The exhibition is at the Neue Galerie New York. The loan is at the Museum of Modern Art. They are all about Gustav Klimt's Bloch-Bauer paintings.
The painting Adele Bloch-Bauer I caused a sensation in 2006 when purchased for Neue Galerie New York by Ronald L. Lauder. At this time, the portrait's record price of $135 million was the highest amount ever paid for a painting. Now the work is again attracting much attention as the focus of the British-American film "Woman in Gold" and the Neue Galerie's exhibition, Gustav Klimt and Adele Bloch-Bauer: The Woman in Gold.
The movie, directed by Simon Curtis, recounts the restitution of Gustav Klimt paintings seized by the Nazis from the Viennese Bloch-Bauer family. It is the story of Maria Altmann's successful quest for her family's artworks, especially the famous golden portrait of her aunt Adele, Adele Bloch-Bauer I, called the Mona Lisa of Austria. The narrative follows Maria from her California home where she is now living to the Vienna of her youth.
Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds star in "Woman in Gold"
Helen Mirren stars as the aged Maria who takes on the Austrian government with the help of the youthful lawyer E. Randol (Randy) Schoenberg, played by Ryan Reynolds. Ultimately, the Bloch-Bauer heirs received five Klimt paintings: Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907), a second portrait of Adele, Adele Bloch-Bauer II (1912), and three landscapes, Birch Forest (1903), Apple Tree I (1912) and Houses at Unterach on the Attersee (1916).
Gustav Klimt (1862 - 1918), Adele Bloch-Bauer II, 1912,
Subtle visual clues introduce the Bloch-Bauer Klimt works to viewers. When Maria and Randy make their first trip to Vienna, they take a taxi from the airport to their hotel. On route, Maria is seen deep in thought while Randy looks out the window. He sees the Belvedere Museum which houses the Adele portrait as well as other Klimt paintings. Their silence is broken as the taxi drives past a large kiosk covered with a larger-than-life-size poster of the second Adele portrait, Adele Bloch-Bauer II, advertising a museum exhibit of Klimt master works. At this point, Randy begins to speak about the official ministry meeting that will take place the next day. Maria tells him, "I want to go to the Belvedere to visit my aunt." There follows flash back scenes which bring viewers to the pre-Nazi era. The camera scans to the Adele Bloch-Bauer I painting over the mantlepiece in the study of the Bloch-Bauer's Vienna apartment. On the opposite wall, is the oil, Apple Tree I. The deep, verdant greens of the latter juxtaposes the lustrous yellows of the aunt's portrait. Each painting enhancing the other.
Gustav Klimt (1862 - 1918), Apple Tree I, 1912,
oil on canvas, 42 7/8 x 43¼ in. (109 x 110 cm)
Private Collection
Photo: Christie's Web site, Sale 1722, November 8, 2006
Apple Tree I reappears in the short scene at the Belvedere. There is a quick shot of it in the gallery leading to Adele Bloch-Bauer I. Maria and Randy enter the gallery led by an Austrian reporter who is helping them in their undertaking. They have come to the museum to see the Adele painting for the first time. Behind the threesome, a female docent conducts a group tour. She guides her visitors to Apple Tree I. When Maria, Randy and the reporter are looking at the Adele portrait, the docent is heard in the background. She is about to point out the Adele painting by Klimt which, she says " ...is one of our most famous paintings. A wonderful example of Austria's heritage." The movie's final credits appear against a black and white photograph of the Neue Galerie's 1914 landmarked building. Thus, cinematographically, the film presents three of the Bloch-Bauer Klimt paintings as well as the final destination of the Adele I painting, the Neue Galerie, where it now is on permanent public view. The movie premiered in New York on April 1, a day before the opening of the museum exhibition. Undoubtedly, this peaked interest in the Adele I painting and may account for the long lines outside the Neue Galerie's entrance. This viewer encountered several visitors who normally did not go to museums but were tempted to come because of the film. The exhibit merits notice regardless of enticements. It engages on several levels by presenting seven additional Klimt paintings from the museum and private collections; twenty vintage and reproduced photographs of the Bloch-Bauer family, Klimt and contemporaries; fifteen preparatory drawings for both Adele painted portraits; examples of decorative arts and jewelry of the period; and, readable wall text that clearly describes the circumstances of the Bloch-Bauer family and their artworks. To begin, there is the gorgeous Adele Bloch-Bauer I. She is flanked by two George Minnes works in a recreation of an installation that took place with the Adele I painting and the Minnes works at the 1907 Mannheim International Art Show. In the same gallery are the other Klimt paintings: three landscapes, three small half-length portraits of women and larger-than-life The Dancer that is hung closest to the golden Adele I.
Gustav Klimt (1862 - 1918), The Dancer, 1916 -17, oil on canvas, 70.9 x 35.4 in. (180 x 90 cm),
Private Collection On view in the Neue Galerie New York's exhibition Gustav Klimt and Adele Bloch-Bauer: The Woman in Gold Photo: Artstor
The Dancer was never finished at the time of Klimt's sudden death from a stroke at age 55 in February, 1918. Yet, the work was the first Klimt painting exhibited in the United States in 1922.
The overall patterned design with oriental motifs recalls the style of the Adele Bloch-Bauer II and highly contrasts Klimt's earlier golden byzantine mosaic phase as exemplified by Adele I. Viewers are well-advised to go to theMuseum of Modern Art, gallery 4 on the fifth floor, where the Adele Bloch-Bauer II painting is on special long term loan. Adele Bloch-Bauer was the only person Klimt painted twice. When the second portrait was sold at auction in 2006, it was the fourth highest price work of art sold at auction up to that time. The private buyer spent $88 million.
Gustav Klimt, photograph by Moritz Nähr (1859 - 1945), 1917
Two items need to be addressed here. First, there has been suggestions that Adele and Klimt had an affair. There is nothing, however, to substantiate this idea.
Second, one of Adele's fingers was disfigured. I suspect it was on her right hand since drawings, paintings and photograph tend to obscure all or some of her right digits. See for yourself.
Gustav Klimt (1862-1918),
Adele Bloch-Bauer Seated in an Armchair Facing Forward,
A nice coda to the show is on the museum's lower level. Here are drawings by Viennese students who were assigned to go look at the Adele Bloch-Bauer I before she left for America and imagine Adele in her new home. The drawings were given to the Neue Galerie as a gift and a selection is presently on view. They are a delight.
Gustav Klimt and Adele Bloch-Bauer: The Woman in Gold
Photo: Hillary Ganton
In addition, the museum has installed a framed full-scale reproduction of its Adele portrait. Since photographing is not allowed in the upper galleries, visitors may come here to pose before copy and get their "selfie." A copy could be yours for $550. Enjoy the show.
Gustav Klimt and Adele Bloch-Bauer: The Woman in Gold*
Closed Tuesday and Wednesday, New Year's Day, Independence
Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day
Closes 3:00 p.m. New Year's Eve and 3:00 p.m. Christmas Eve
*Note: Although the exhibition "Gustav Klimt and Adele Bloch-Bauer: The Woman in Gold" is only on view through September 7, the painting Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I by Gustav Klimt is on permanent view at the Neue Galerie.
Give Yoko Ono a chance. Do not miss the exhibition Yoko Ono: One Woman Show, 1960–1971 at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). This art enthusiast and reviewer considers Yoko Ono the most underrated of female artists around. Profound and way ahead of her time, Ono's talents are abundant. Moreover, she is fun.
The MoMA show covers Ono's films, texts, performances, music and more. The exhibit begins with one of her first two films: Match Piece (or No. 1).* Eyeblink, the other early film, appears in a nearby gallery.
Frame from Yoko Ono's Match Piece (or No. 1), 1966, 16mm film (black and white, silent), high speed camera 2000 fr/sec., 5:05 min. Publisher: Fluxus Edition The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection Gift, 2008
In 1966 Ono was experimenting with a high speed camera which shot two thousand frames per second as opposed to the twenty-four frames per second of a standard camera. She filmed the lighting of a match and an eye blink in slow motion which produced images that appear almost motionless.
The quickly burning ignited match references the briefness of our existence and the impermanence of material things - the vanitas theme. This theme**would occupy Ono throughout her career. See the exhibit.
Certain themes appear and reappear as subjects for artists. One such is vanitas, Latin for vanity. This subject came up in the discussion of Vincent van Gogh's flower paintings, see ArtWithHillary, June 2015, note 3.
Vanitas refers to life's brevity and the foolish pursuit of earthly goods and achievements. All is transient except for religious values. The subject was an exceedingly popular one for Dutch painting in the early seventeenth century.
Jacques de Gheyn II's Vanitas Still Life in the Metropolitan Museum of Art is credited as the earliest known Netherlandish independent vanitas painting. The moralizing work is filled with symbols concerning the fleeting nature of life and the human folly of worldly possessions. Although intended to instruct, the vanitas genre gave artists an opportunity to paint a variety of objects and materials.
Jacques de Gheyn II (1565 - 1629), Detail of Vanitas Still Life, 1603,
oil on wood, 32 1/2 x 21 1/4 in. (82.6 x 54 cm)
Charles B. Curtis, Marquand, Victor Wilbour Memorial,
and The Alfred N. Punnett Endowment Funds, 1974 (1974.1),
In De Gheyn II's panel, an inscription on the keystone of the stone arch specifies the painting's theme: HVMANA VANA, human vanity. The arch forms a niche occupied by a skull and bubble - reminders of the certitude of death and life's impermanence. The bubble contains some smaller images relating to the subject. There is a leper's rattle and torture wheel. The former had to be carried by those afflicted so that the non-sick would be alerted to their proximity. Leprosy, incurable during this time, resulted in the body's gradual deterioration till death. The disease was thought to be the consequence of sinful behavior. The wheel, used for torture and execution, always effected a slow, painful death.
Jacques de Gheyn II (1565 - 1629), Detail of Vanitas Still Life, 1603,
oil on wood, 32 1/2 x 21 1/4 in. (82.6 x 54 cm)
Charles B. Curtis, Marquand, Victor Wilbour Memorial,
and The Alfred N. Punnett Endowment Funds, 1974 (1974.1),
Some scholars have noted other items embedded in the bubble such as a heart. This viewer could not discern or identify anything but the torture wheel and, with difficulty, the leper's rattle with the naked eye. Under magnification, however, a rectangular reflection on the sphere's upper left reveals a burning heart pierced by a arrow. A tiny cross may be distinguished on the top left of the heart. The cross figuration, however, may just be scratches on the surface of the panel.
The heart with its flame forms the Sacred Heart, a Christian devotional symbol representing Jesus Christ's physical heart, pierced, bleeding and crowned with flames. The fire indicates the transformative power of divine love - Christ's love and compassion for mankind. Man's salvation comes about through His suffering. The Sacred Heart is usually surrounded by a crown of thorns, one of the instruments of Jesus's Passion. Its appearance represents the pain Christ endured for mankind's deliverance. Its absence here may be the result of abrasion or paint loss.
The Sacred Heart devotions originated in the middle ages. The church, however, did not officially recognize it until the eighteenth century. De Gheyn II probably had Catholic roots and could have been aware of its representation.
Although obvious Christ references were uncommon in seventeenth-century vanitas pictures, the painter was talented enough and innovative enough to create something unusual. Furthermore, De Gheyn II had married into a prominent, wealthy and well-connected family. He was acquainted with the most learned, forward thinkers of his contemporaries. Financially set and free from commercial pressures, he could paint what he choose. Even so, De Gheyn II most likely included the heart in the sense of earthly love, desire. As such, it would fit into the general theme of all that is vanity.
Jacques de Gheyn II (1565 - 1629), Detail of Vanitas Still Life, 1603,
oil on wood, 32 1/2 x 21 1/4 in. (82.6 x 54 cm)
Charles B. Curtis, Marquand, Victor Wilbour Memorial,
and The Alfred N. Punnett Endowment Funds, 1974 (1974.1),
As for the bubble, the adage,"man is but a bubble" goes back to ancient Roman authors. Writers in the Renaissance commonly used the comparison. Erasmus wrote about the saying in his Adagia (II.iii.48): "Man is but a bubble. The lesson of this proverb is that there is nothing so fragile, so fleeting and so empty as the life of man. A bubble is that round swollen empty thing which we watch in water as it grows and vanishes in a moment of time." Thus, it became a fitting symbol for the vanitastopos.*
Jacques de Gheyn II (1565 - 1629), Detail of Vanitas Still Life, 1603,
oil on wood, 32 1/2 x 21 1/4 in. (82.6 x 54 cm)
Charles B. Curtis, Marquand, Victor Wilbour Memorial,
and The Alfred N. Punnett Endowment Funds, 1974 (1974.1),
There is more. The painting is chockablock with symbols. On either side of the niche is an urn. A puff of smoke rises from the one on the right; flowers, particularly one tulip, are on the left one. Again, these are allusions to the shortness of man's existence. The smoke vanishes quickly. Cut flowers duly die as Job (Job 14.2.) describes men "He comes forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not.”
The flowers have another connotation. Cut flowers were expensive in seventeenth-century Holland. This was especially true of tulips which were introduced to Europe from Turkey in the sixteenth century. Tulips were quite different from European flowers and became exceedingly popular. They were status symbols for the rich and prosperous Dutch burghers. Trading in bulb futures reached ridiculous heights in the early seventeenth century. This tulip mania speculation collapsed in 1637. The term tulip mania has become a metaphor for any economic bubble where asset values diverge considerably from intrinsic values. When de Gheyn II painted his Vanitas, tulips were still an obsession of the rich - symbolic of man's inanity in seeking worldly possessions. Think about the current craze for women's designer handbags and the compulsive bidding up of certain ones. Be that as it may, de Gheyn II's didactic imagery continues. The coins and Dutch medals refer to temporal accomplishments and wealth accumulation. The sculptural figures in the arch's spandrels depict the Greek philosophers Democritus and Heraclitus. Known as the laughing and crying philosophers, they point down at the sphere. One laughs at and one weeps at mankind's foibles.
More could be said but the above should give readers an idea about meanings in artworks that may be lost to contemporary viewers. Don't fail to note that what was obvious to seventeenth-century viewers may not be clear to us today.
As for the last words of this post, take a look at one artist's thoughts on the De Gheyn II work.
Go visit the painting in the museum's Gallery 635. *This month, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) televised Blue Lightning, an episode of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) crime series, "Shetland." During the two-part story, an autopsy is performed on what turns out to be a murder victim. While performing the autopsy, the medical examiner remarks to the police official observer that the deceased "....was on the bubble." The observer was perplexed. She, the medical examiner, explained that the expression is American and is used when there is a sudden, unexpected death in an auto racing crash. In such a situation, the unfortunate driver is said to be a person whose "bubble has burst." The fictitious examiner's reference to a car crash was new to this writer. Most interesting was the the continued survival of "bubble" as a trope for life's precariousness, reminding death can happen unexpectedly, at any time.
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