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Sarah Sze - Our Artist in Venice

3/16/2012

An Equal and Opposite Reaction 2005

Sarah Sze, an artist whose work is rich, fascinating and a bit hard to pin down, has been chosen to represent the U. S. Artist for the upcoming Biennale in Venice, the prestigious international art extravaganza that holds court each summer in and around the familiar tourist spots of that city. I'm particularly happy about the choice - I think Sze is one of the most interesting artists of our time; whatever she does it will be worth the trip to see it.

Things Fall Apart 2001

I first came across Sze's work at SF MOMA in 2001 on a class trip with high school students. Her installation Things Fall Apart, hanging from the atrium, snaking up the stairs, sneaking up on you in corners, and sort of dribbling its way into places where you least expected it, provided a great object lesson. Just about everything I needed to say about (good) contemporary art was in the jumbled bits of her art: You're in a partnership of meaning: the art doesn't offer easy answers, it makes you work to figure it out, it doesn't allow you to walk away sure of what it was supposed to mean even if you thought you knew.

Everything That Rises Must Converge 1999

Things Fall Apart has sort of a car crash theme, but it's jolly rather than gruesome, and the motif is more a convenience than a directive for how to interpret it. There's metal and there are car doors, but there's a lot of other stuff too. 'Stuff' is Sze's stock in trade, and it's amazing how she uses it to put her finger on the pulse of this frantic, fractured historical moment. In articles about her work writers grope for ways to describe it - 'organized chaos' is a popular phrase. It's perhaps easier to begin, as she does, with the 'stuff' - an incomplete list of her materials includes Qtips, tea bags, salt, light bulbs, plastic toys, feathers, twigs, dried flowers, tape, pebbles..... There can be no end to the list because everything is fair game.

An Equal and Opposite Reaction 2005

Her installations are at once energizing and soothing; they fit the universe we've either embraced or accepted, one of too much information zooming at us from every direction. In what she does we recognize the struggle to keep up and make sense of it. In some sense she's taken the old 19th century 'cabinet de curiosities' concept and exploded it, super-sized it, blown it - literally - to bits.

360 Portable Planetarium 2009

Sze builds her pieces on site, creating the impression of organic, random growth, but she clearly has a very rational mind and follows a plan, often worked out beforehand in her Brooklyn studio. She has an immense gift for maximizing the serendipity of space, time, color, form, texture .... and just about everything else. The images shown here are in each case sections installations - a single photograph can never contain the sprawling multiplicity of her work. (Her recent construction for the High Line in New York, intentionally created to be a habit for the beleaugured songbirds of the city, is the 'tamest' of all that I've seen and comes closest to being visible from one spot.)

Still Life with a Landscape (The High Line NYC 2011)

Sarah Sze's life story is not as long as you'd think for someone doing work of this assurance and maturity; she graduated from Yale in 1991, got a master's from SVA in New York in 1997, and two years later had a landmark exhibition at the Fondation Cartier in Paris, an event that riveted attention on a new star. In 2003 she was the recipient of a MacArthur 'Genius Grant.

Sarah Sze is featured in the next PBS Art 21 series about living artists, available in April.
Here's a link to the trailer: http://www.pbs.org/art21/watch-now/trailer-season-6-of-art-in-the-twenty-first-century-2012
(note: Sze is in great company with a slate of artists with strong, interesting ideas)
images courtesy of the artist, the Tanya Bodaktar Gallery, the New York Times, and others

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A Different Look to Politics - Portraits by Charles Wilson Peale

3/9/2012

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Self-Portrait Charles Wilson Peale 1822

What DO American politicians look like? Have they always had pasty tans, over-gelled hair, and flag pins in their lapels? Thankfully no - there's plenty of evidence for a different model. Not to say that politics was ever a kind and gentle sport, but, thanks to an artist who played a part in the founding of the country, we have a vivid way of considering the nature of early politicians. Washington? Of course. We all know the painfully set jaw, the white wig, the stiff military posture, the disaffected presidential gaze. But there are other versions: ask Charles Wilson Peale, one of the most interesting, entrepreneurial artists this country has ever produced.

George Washington by Peale 1772

Peale painted 60 versions of Washington, including this 1772 portrait, the earliest known depiction. Washington, wearing the uniform of his regiment from the French and Indian war, was at the time merely a Virginia farmer, though he was also starting to voice his opposition to oppressive British policies.

George Washington by Peale 1781

Peale's 'Princeton Portrait' of Washington shows him 9 years later in full American Revolution regalia after a decisive battle, with all the trappings of a European state portrait. Elegant, fashionable, surrounded by paraphernalia and attributes, Washington is loudly proclaimed a man of great character and deed. The painting (for which Washington posed) is thought to have been commissioned by Martha Washington. (Not one for 'photo ops,' Washington sat only a few times for Peale - Peale (the entrepreneur part) made good use of his resources to produce all those versions and numerous copies, including 18 of the Princeton portrait.)

The Artist in his Museum (Self-Portrait) 1822

Charles Wilson Peale, himself a loyal patriot born and bred in the colonies who fought alongside Washington, left a treasury of portraits of colonial movers and shakers, many which can be seen in a Portrait Gallery just down the street from Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Peale, an ideal of the American pioneering spirit of inventiveness and pragmatic 'just-get-it-done' achievement, was a politician, a soldier, a fund-raiser, a naturalist, the founder of the first American museum for both art and science, the founder of the first American art school, the sponsor of the first American art exhibit, and, by some accounts, could also fix your teeth, shoes, and furniture. He also had 16 children, several of who went on to become artists and found their own museums. Peale's museum was originally on the second floor of what is now Independence Hall - the mastodon that used to be the main attraction is long gone, but his paintings now form the collection in the Portrait Gallery.

Thomas Jefferson by Peale 1781

Even when the subjects have lost their 'household name' familiarity, the history they reveal is fascinating. Peale, who studied for three years in London, manages a gloss of European sophistication of technique and observation without losing a kind of American honesty - the paintings are a rich aesthetic experience as well as an historic one. This portrait of Thomas Jefferson is remarkable for the life in the expression and the subtleties of color and touch.

Gouverneur Morris and Robert Morris by Peale 1783

This double portrait of Robert Morris and Gouvernor Morris - not related, but linked by time and effort for the American cause as well as by name - is a nice example of Peale's relaxed but respectful approach. Gouverneur Morris slouches at the left, a little cocky but with a twinkle in his eye. The bright son of a wealthy New York loyalist family, Morris authored sections of the Constitution, and despite a wooden leg, was a notorious charmer of the ladies. Though he favored a more aristocratic standard for democracy, he opposed slavery and argued strongly for religious freedom.

Robert Morris by Peale 1782

Robert Morris, shown also in this portrait, was a very wealthy merchant and businessman, a man of integrity who financed much of the Revolution, including providing for the starving, freezing troops under Washington out of his own pocket. He also stepped up to create a clear financial plan for the young country and establish the first national bank. His investments of time and money never paid off for him, however, and he died in relative poverty. Selflessness and dedication to the greater good - those ideas are in the fabric of the lives in these portraits - scientists, soldiers, intellectuals, artists, explorers, women in various capacities, and yes - politicians.

They don't have to go bankrupt, but could we have a bit of that these days, please?
Here's a link to the Portrait Gallery, located in the Second National Bank building in Philadelphia.
http://www.nps.gov/inde/second-bank.htm
(note: many, but not all portraits shown are in the Portrait Gallery)

Benjamin Franklin 1789 (the year before he died)

Benjamin Rush, physician and signer of the Declaration of Independence

Rachel Brewer, Peale's first wife

Timothy Matlack, a patriot who hand-lettered the Declaration of Independence so it could be signed

Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis & Clark Expedition

Yarrow Mamout, Muslim and freed slave

Mordecai Gist, scout, explorer, solider and cousin of George Washington

Cadwalader Family, wealthy Philadelphians

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Up Close with Van Gogh

3/4/2012

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Sunflowers 1887

Van Gogh is not everyone's favorite artist, though, from the long lines to see Van Gogh Up Close at the Philadelphia Museum, you might think so. The wait (even with my member's ticket) gave me a chance to think about several things. First - the idea of 'favorite.' I certainly understand 'not favorite' - in fact, to be honest, I think the choice of Van Gogh as a favorite artist is a bit naive. But I've also heard 'I don't like Van Gogh.' That's harder to understand. What don't you like? His impeccable sense of color harmonies? His astounding inventiveness with line and composition? And, of course, there's his dramatic, heart-wrenching life story. I can't imagine not 'liking' Van Gogh - he's too earnest and eager to please, like a child, albeit one who was supremely gifted and very brave.

Vase with Zinnias 1886

The PMA exhibit is titled 'Up Close' because it focuses on his attention to nature, including still lifes and studies of flowers and plants. The title is a bit misleading. There are plenty of broader landscapes as well, just not much in the way of portraits or people. Like many exhibits the organization is by date, earlier to late, but with Van Gogh that isn't terribly significant because almost all of his great works erupted from him in the last three to five years of his life. Even so, the progression is interesting - a few floral studies, startlingly conventional, begin the journey. You can see him struggling to square the set images in his mind - traditional Dutch still life paintings of big bouquets in vases, centered in a darkened space - with new ideas from the Impressionists he'd just met in Paris. If he'd stopped with the ones on view no one would know his name.

Sunflowers in a Vase 1887

Within a year or two he'd burst through and reinvented the idiom - the glowing golden Twelve Sunflowers in a Vase is a stunning testament.

A Pair of Boots 1887

Also at the beginning is the small canvas with a pair of used boots he bought at a flea market (and wore), included as an example of his 'study' approach and also for his particular way of putting animas into inanimate objects, turning everything into a self-portrait. And for Van Gogh everything really is a self-portrait; his tenderhearted, vulnerable life trails across canvases and boards in streaks of color.

Vineyards at Auvers 1890

Tree Trunks in the Grass 1890

I have a particular love of Van Gogh's vocabulary of line, one of the most extraordinary, extensive resources of mark-making of any artist or period. In paintings like Vineyards at Auvers and Tree Trunks in the Grass, you see him stroking, slashing, dotting, dragging, squiggling, chopping and wisping his color onto the surface, weaving an endlessly inventive visual fabric.

Landscape with Plowed Field 1889

One of the most moving paintings in the show is Landscape with Plowed Field, a serene scene of man and nature working together to produce a world of order; a huge sun, a close cousin to the moon in Starry Night, hovers like a benevolent god over neatly plowed fields, a tidy stone fence, and a pleasing range of moderate hills. But, cutting across the lower third, a rough messy diagonal upsets the calm - it turns out to be the path trod by Van Gogh's fellow inmates in the asylum at St. Remy - the view is out through the bars of his room.

Self-Portrait With Straw Hat 1887

Another thought as I waited in line - Van Gogh would have loved this show, the crowds, the gift shop with all the sunflower tchotchkes - if you read his letters (very recommended, especially if you think he was just a loony as some people seem to - he was a lucid, intelligent, articulate writer with a deep knowledge of art) you find that his mission in life was to do something good for people, something that would make a difference in their lives. He may not have seen much success or money while he was alive, but he sure accomplished that.
Van Gogh Up Close is at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through May 6, 2012
http://www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/743.html

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In Tribute: The Philadelphia Orchestra

2/24/2012

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Photo by Chris Lee

This post is in tribute to the extraordinary Philadelphia Orchestra, after yet another wondrous concert. The Philadelphia Orchestra, 112 years old and among the very finest in the world, has been treated very shabbily lately by its administration - shameful for a city with such a rich past and present in the performing arts. I know I speak for many when I offer applause for all the brilliant, hard-working musicians in the Orchestra, and gratitude for their music.

Last night's concert featured Emanuel Ax as soloist - he was charming and amazing but so were the regulars, many of whom are more than solo capable. Solo performers have always gotten the glory, but while it's great to have stars, without a good back up team they don't go far. Edgar Degas was, to my knowledge, the first to honor the 'back-up teams' in art. Influenced by the new possibilities of photography and by the asymmetrical, informal compositions of Japanese print makers, Degas created scene after scene of dancers and musicians before, after and during performances, from every viewpoint except audience to direct center stage.

The spotlight is never on the star performer; in Degas' musical world, we are with the dancers backstage, in endless classes, and with the musicians, fresh from countless hours of practice, in the pit. We lean over their shoulders reading the music on the stand, we hear the bassoonist huffing gently as the music emerges, feel the power in the arm running the bow so skillfully and lightly on the strings. The dancers, delicate from a distance in their pastel tufted costumes, throw off sweat as they spin past, or sit next to us stretching their weary muscled backs and legs before the next demanding call.

Musicians of the Orchestra 1870

Please leave a comment in support of the Philadelphia Orchestra and in gratitude for all highly skilled, hard-working, under-praised performers everywhere.

(An extra shout out to the dancers of the Pennsylvania Ballet, another extraordinary group that regularly performs magic.)

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Modern Spirit: Henry Ossawa Tanner

2/17/2012

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Henry Ossawa Turner by Thomas Eakins

Sometimes it takes a while to catch up with the obvious. When there are obstacles like race and gender it usually takes even longer. Henry Ossawa Tanner, (African) American artist, is having one of those catch-up moments at his alma mater, The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, with the retrospective Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit. PAFA, founded in 1802 and located in the heart of Tanner's home town of Philadelphia, is this country's first art school. The school is still going strong, with a vigorous program much abetted by the Academy's important collection, housed in a landmark building by visionary architect Frank Furness. (PAFA made the news recently when the latest of Claes Oldenbug's public sculptures, Paint Torch, was installed there.)

The Thankful Poor 1894

There's a lot to say about Tanner's back story - born to a former slave, forced to spend his productive mature years abroad to escape the toxic racism that plagued - still plagues - this country - but out of respect to an artist who deserves to be seen for his work alone, I want to concentrate on the art. A little background: Tanner entered PAFA in 1879 and quickly distinguished himself. A precocious, diligent student with a gift for drawing, he enjoyed the special patronage of Thomas Eakins, the legendary teacher/artist and director during Tanner's years there.

Daniel in the Lion's Den 1916

Once out in the world he tried to make a living as an artist, with some success, but as for so many other African-American intellectuals and artists other countries offered better opportunities; Tanner moved to Paris in 1891. He made a successful, clearly satisfying life in France, establishing himself as a 'modern' painter known for religious subjects. Religion must have been a natural direction for him - his father was a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church. In fact, his best work, whether intentionally religious or not, glows with an ethereal light that conveys a transcendent spiritual aura.

The Banjo Lesson 1893

The Thankful Poor and The Banjo Lesson, two of Tanner's best known works (neither of them in the PAFA show) have that quicksilver kind of light that transforms the ordinary into something holy. I was surprised - but then not surprised - to realize on seeing the show that Tanner was in many respects a Symbolist. The late 19th century movement is a further explanation for his unearthly approach, but Tanner's work demonstrates a more grounded, sincere reason for his visions. (Picasso had a brief flirtation with Symbolism - a better known proponent was Edward Munch.)

The Arch 1914

The Arch is a beautiful example of his transforming of solid reality, through light and color, into a metaphoric journey - another is But The Boat Was Now in The Middle of The Sea, a particularly fine sample of Tanner's accomplished brushwork and composition.

But the Boat Was Now In the Middle of the Sea 1920

Young Sabot Maker 1895

Annuciation 1898

His personal retellings of Bible stories can explain the 'modern' to contemporary audiences who might not recognize such an academic style as revolutionary in any way, but works like Annunciation and Young Sabot Maker put a whole new spin on old subjects. Young Sabot Maker, in fact, may or may not be seen as religious, but a son working with his father in a wood-worker's shop.....? It seems too obvious not to be meant as a young Christ with St. Joseph.

Gateway 1912

Financed by one of the Philadelphia Wanamakers, Tanner took a very important trip to Palestine, to the source of much of his inspiration. The paintings from there are supreme illustrations of an artist at the top of his form. His long experience and consummate skill with light make him an immediate master of the strong, hot sunlight on the ancient walls, and the ensuing paintings of Bible subjects seem even richer and more evocative.

The Good Shepherd 1902

Angels Appearing Before the Shepherds 1910

Back at home - in France - Tanner survived WWI, leaving some sketches and small paintings from that clearly painful time. One in the PAFA exhibit shows soldiers lined up in a mess tent; it's quickly drawn but still has an aura of something at once real and out of time. Tanner is certainly one of PAFA's most distinguished alumni - it's odd that they include David Lynch on their roster of 'famous graduates' but not Henry Ossawa Tanner. I hope they correct that.

Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit is at PAFA through April 15, 2012
http://www.pafa.org/tanner/

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Bill Cunningham - Our Bruegel of the Streets

2/10/2012

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Since 1966, photographer Bill Cunningham has been roaming the streets of New York with a camera, chronicling delightful little moments of human pride and vanity - er, I mean style and fashion. I've seen the recent documentary* about him (see below) and know him to be a good-hearted, down-to-earth fellow with no malice towards his fellow travelers. Still, that keen, ever-present eye is on us; the stories he tells speak volumes about our fears and our obsessions.

It suddenly occurred to me this week, as I was preparing for the theme 'Daily Life' with my Drexel University Art History class this week, that Cunningham is our Bruegel, an update of the 16th century Flemish artist whose paintings spread such a wide, richly furnished table of human foibles, follies, and joys. While we go about our business there he is, watching, making connections, putting it all down for the world to see.

Netherlandish Proverbs 1559 (click to enlarge)

Pieter Breugel (the Elder) was a down-to-earth kind of guy too, nicknamed 'Peasant Breugel,' not because he was a peasant, but because he used to dress up like one in order to mingle with the folks he wanted to paint. His was a time when the classes were separated eternally and as a matter of course - your parents were peasants, you were a peasant, your children would be peasants - or you were a lord, your parents were lords .... etc. Few if any artists painted the lower classes - there was no money in it - but Breugel, spurning the rich and over-mannered as subjects, created one masterpiece after another by using peasants to represent the crazy colorful range of human nature. One of my favorites is Netherlandish Proverbs (1559), a riotous delight chock-full of the fun and foolishness of life. See if you can spot 'Casting pearls before swine, Belling the cat, The blind leading the blind' among hundreds of other pithy sayings rooted in the gritty stuff of daily peasant life. (See below for a handy reference guide.)

Bill Cunningham is hardly such a blatant moralizer; our current moment doesn't support the concept. Instead he's a Bruegel for our time. In true contemporary art style he makes us participate, tossing out his weekly hurricane of bits and pieces and letting us stitch them together into our own patchwork quilt of meaning. Where one sees chic, another may see pompous... where one sees retro, another may see trying too hard. And where do we fit into the picture? Surely they asked the same in Bruegel's day.

Bill Cunningham is in his 80's now - he lives simply in the center of over-the-top Manhattan, spurns cars and cabs in favor of his faithful bike. He's our version of an intentional peasant, and still going strong in his 80's. It's fun to think what Pieter Bruegel would have done with a camera, but thanks to Bill Cunningham, we don't have to imagine. He's painted a clear picture.

*See a trailer for the film Bill Cunningham New York
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYqiLJBXbss

Cheat sheet for Netherlandish Proverbs - thanks to Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlandish_Proverbs

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Losing the Game Changers

2/3/2012

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Mike Kelley died this week at 57, an age that's old for some and just getting going for others. Mike still had a long way to go with his complicated, playful, demanding art - he's a big loss. Christopher Knight’s obituary in the LA Times gave me the name for this post and made me think about artists who go away when we've only begun to understand how they've been changing the game. I can't claim to have known Mike Kelley's work well. I saw it a couple of times in person, at the Whitney and a couple of New York galleries, but the impact didn't fully hit until I started thinking about it this week.

Deodorized Central Mass with Satellites 1991-99

Huge clumps of stuffed animals hanging from the ceiling in furry overgrown pods like some kind of colorful fungus? It's a compelling image, rife with associations of childhood - warm, fuzzy, sentimental ... and eerily precarious. In his segment of Art21/PBS Kelley talks about the initial response to these stuffed animal pieces. 'They all thought it was about child abuse - my child abuse.' The reaction surprised him, but it spurred him to accept 'abuse' - of himself, of 'all of us' as a central subject. Nothing literal though - he takes a crazy, joyous, dizzying path to meaning - installations, performances, painting, photos - all of it at the same time accessible and out-of-reach. We have to run along to try to catch up and figure it out, especially now that he won't be around to explain.

Keith Haring with 'Hearts'

Keith Haring and Jean-Michael Basquiat - shouldn't we still have them around too? With Kelley's, a trio of sad early deaths - suicide, AIDS, drugs - but worlds of inspiring breathtaking creativity - it shouldn't cost that much to be an artist, should it? We all know Keith Haring's bright jumpy creatures, including 'radiant baby' (now available on baby bibs and wall decals) but do we remember that he worked to create peace and health with cooperative projects and a foundation in his name to support AIDS organizations and children?

Radiant Baby by Haring 1990

Notary by Basquiat 1983

Basquiat 1985

Basquiat's work is so rich, visceral, and immediate, so freely combining color, drawing, and lettering into stunningly coherent image/messages. I see his influence everywhere in contemporary art. Andy Warhol was a mentor for him; another early death, I suppose, but Warhol had pretty much said what he needed to say. Basquiat, at 28, was just beginning to communicate everything he had.

Raphael self portrait 1506

And further back? Art History offers Raphael and Masaccio among others. Raphael, dead at 31 of some mysterious cause, (Vasari says too much rollicking sex with his mistress!) had accomplished a great deal and reached the pinnacle of worldly success. He changed the game for artists for centuries, but with his eye and sense of color it would be wonderful to have seen him develop further past the heavy influences of Michelangelo and Leonardo.

The School of Athens by Raphael 1510-11

The Tribute Money by Masaccio 1420s

Masaccio, finally, is the poster child for artists dying too young but leaving an indelible legacy. Dead at only 28, Masaccio is considered one of the three founders of the Italian Renaissance along with Donatello and Brunelleschi. His celebrated frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel in Florence give us HUMANITY in the full glory of life on earth, after all those centuries of medieval ethereal spirituality. St. Peter, his halo a bit unsteady on his head, stands firm and flat-footed on the dirt of the world, scowling at the Romans demanding payment, while Christ, another man of the world, sends him back to get the money out of fish. We're there too - humans along for the ride of innovation and progress, led by a visionary who moves on too soon.

Mike Kelley on PBS Art21
http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/mike-kelley

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Drawing Life

1/27/2012

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View of Brantome, France by Marilyn MacGregor

I've been working with my sketchbooks lately, creating hand-colored prints and hand-made books out of hand-drawn memories that span many years. My sketchbooks make a huge, ragged pile of all shapes and sizes: large journals, ring bound notebooks, small moleskins, hard bound, soft covers, etc. The drawings are done with fine ink pen, pencil, watercolor, ball point, colored pencil, and anything else that seemed a good idea at the time. I have a selection of the hand-colored prints up at Fine Art America - they're fun to do and make nice gifts so please take a look.
http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/marilyn-macgregor.html

'Summer Travels' by Marilyn MacGregor 2011

My artist book using a few of my sketches is in the exhibit 'The Decorated Book' at the Athenaeum in Philadelphia (through March 9, 2012). The title of the book is 'Summer Travels - rightly so, though some of the drawings were part of other seasons spent living in England and France - there is a kind of 'summer' mentality to travel that pays no attention to the calendar.

Study of 4 Male Heads by Rembrandt 1635

As a sketchbook artist, I am in good company, both historic and contemporary. 'Keeping a Sketchbook' (or a journal) has a kind of Victorian ring to it - it may be partly because bound sketchbooks didn't really exist much before that. When Rembrandt, the great master of loose spontaneous drawing, made sketches they were just that - loose (both senses of the word) sketches - rather than a bound collection. Like any artist who prizes the collaboration of mind and hand, he used his sketches to learn and explore, sometimes in the interest of a planned work, but surely often for his own enrichment.

Looking Back to Pic de l'Oeillette JMW Turner 1802

By contrast, when Joseph Mallord William Turner set out on his extensive travels, his baggage must always have been stuffed with a selection of sturdy books, most if not all of which can now be viewed, cover to cover, page by page, via the website of the Tate Collection in London. A trip through any one of his sketchbooks is a journey through the art of drawing, the ever-curious mind of an artist, the ever-observant eyes of an artist, the daily cares of a 19th century traveler, and the unfolding possibilities of a newly met destination.
Look to his earlier books for tighter, more academic drawing, watch him loosen and become confident with any visual challenge, and have the delight of seeing him toss off late sketches with an unconscious grace. The last sketches are almost conceptual art - more suggestion than closely written description.

Two Women and a Letter JMW Turner 1827

Sun Behind Clouds JMW Turner 1846

Page from Hokusai's Sketchbooks late 19th c.

Another of the great 'sketchers' is Hokusai, the exuberant Ukiyo-e master of 19th century Japan. A famous published edition of his 'sketches' (the word in Japanese translates as 'Manga',) edited by James Michener, the author, is a most delightful panorama of Japanese life in all its small interesting detail. Unlike Turner, however, Hokusai's 'manga' are not immediate drawings - instead his sketches were first turned into woodblock prints and arranged on the page (some say by Hokusai himself, some by the printers.)

Stoke-by-Nayland John Constable 1814

Another of my favorite 'Sketchers' is John Constable, the celebrated artist of English Romanticism - I once saw an exhibit focused on his sketchbooks in which it was noted that many had been picked up for nothing at London Flea Markets. Artists were along on many famous explorations, including Napoleon's expedition to Egypt, Darwin's epic journey of discovery, and the Lewis and Clark trek through the Louisiana Purchase in 1805. In a number of these cases the artist was also the scientist - this sketch page of a Salmon is by Meriwether Lewis.

Study of a Dog John Constable 1814

Salmon by Meriwether Lewis 1805-06

Market scene by Isabel Fiadeiro 2011

The art of sketching is alive and well, in case you're wondering. I belong to a group called Urban Sketchers - they started as a blog and now have a world-wide presence with contributors from all over the world. The range of styles and perspectives is breathtaking - I'm always torn between admiration and jealousy! This colorful watercolor sketch is by Isabel Fiadeiroof Mauritania.

I believe I'm the only member from Philadelphia - if anyone else is out there drawing, let me know and we can start our own chapter!

Explore Turner's sketchbooks
http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/BrowseGroup?cgroupid=999999995
Get to know Urban Sketchers
http://www.urbansketchers.org/

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America the Beautiful on Display

1/19/2012

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In the new galleries of the American Wing

American Art is in the news right now. The Metropolitan Museum in New York has just completed a complete overhaul of the American Wing, one of the brightest jewels in the Museum's ever-fascinating profusion of courts, corners, and dedicated spaces. The official announcement describes 'expanded, reconceived, and dramatic new galleries' - I can't wait to see it and promise a full report when I do.

Thomas Cole 'The Oxbow' 1836

In the meantime, American Art is also on display in Paris at the Louvre, in the exhibit 'New Frontier: l'art americain entre au Louvre' (American Art Enters the Louvre.) As you can tell by the title, there is nothing reconceived here; this is the first time American Art has ever been shown in the Louvre. The show is a collaboration with three American Museums, and the focus is on the art of the 19th century, particularly that of Thomas Cole. Thus the apt title 'New Frontier'; Thomas Cole is considered the founder of the Hudson River School, the group of landscape painters including Frederick Church and Asher Durand, who painted the expansive (and fast disappearing) wide open 'new' world of the Americas.

Frederic Edwin Church 'The Heart of the Andes' 1859

Phenomenal artists with a jaw-dropping legacy of enormous, magnificent canvases, their brushes often seem to have been dipped as much in Romantic longing as in paint - luminescent lighting effects in many of the works evoke an intentionally moral and spiritual aura. The Met owns several prime examples of the Hudson River School, including Cole's The Oxbow: View from Mt. Holyoke, Massachusetts after a Thunderstorm (1836) and Heart of the Andes by Church. (Parisians will have to travel to New York to see these 19th c. American icons.)

CW Peale 'George Washington at the Battle of Princeton' 1781

The Met is not limited like the Louvre, which allows no art in the collection more recent than the 19th century, but most of what you'll see in the American Wing is of the Colonial period to the end of the 1800's, including decorative arts as well as painting and sculpture. Among the prize works are favorite portraits by homegrown artists, most of whom made their names by starting with study in Europe - Benjamin West (born in Pennsylvania, who stayed on in London to become Painter to King George III and to train other American artists), John Singleton Copley, Thomas Sully, Charles Wilson Peale, and others. We owe many of our ideas of our Founding Fathers and the beginnings of this country to the portraits by these painters.

Robert Fulton 'Susan Hayne Simmons' 1813

One of the most interesting discoveries in the Met's on-line American Collection for me was portraits by men who we know much better as scientists and inventors. Robert Fulton, before he gave himself over to the subject of steam power, was known for his delicate miniatures of fashionable ladies (as in this watercolor and ivory portrait of Susan Hayne Simmons) and especially for his fine attention to hair and jewelry.

Samuel F. B. Morse 'The Muse' 1836-37

Samuel F. B. Morse, who, like Fulton, trained in Europe, tried his best to make it as an artist, but finally gave it up - and invented the telegraph! This beautiful painting from 1836-37 is an allegorical portrait of his eldest daughter, Susan, as a muse of drawing.

engraving by one of CW Peale's 17 children, many of whom were artists

Charles Wilson Peale, another of America's pioneering artists, was as well known in his time for his museum of natural history, which included a mastodon skeleton that he 'obtained' in 1801. His 'cabinet of curiosities' occupied the second floor of the State House (now Independence Hall) in Philadelphia.

Charles Wilson Peale Self Portrait 'The Artist in his Museum' 1822

Thomas Cole 'Clove in the Catskills' 1827

There is something very right about this championing of both arts and science in one individual - it fits the American creation story of idealists with big ideas but with their feet on the ground, ready to roll up their sleeves and do what had to be done. American art on view in both New York and Paris attests, in many intriguing ways, to the beauty and magnitude of that founding philosophy.

Take a tour of the American Wing as it opens with the Director and Curator
http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/20012492?vid=f43563f3-25d4-4793-b356-37656fa87504

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Art and Words - Now, Then, and Always

1/12/2012

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Jane Avril by Toulouse Lautrec 1893

Words and visual art. The combination is an old and fruitful one, not just something invented by grafitti artists. I find a lot of it in contemporary art, so here's a look back at the tradition. Posters, of course, have a starring role. The inventive compositions of Toulouse Lautrec, among the best of all poster designs, went hand in with the development of color lithography at the end of the 18th century. If you've ever pined to be part of the nightlife of turn-of-the-century Paris, like Marion Cotillard in 'Midnight in Paris', you can blame it on those lively Lautrec posters!
see the history of posters with the weblink below

Further back, you can find the Greeks including lettering on their ceramic vessels, prompting understanding of complex stories of gods, heroes, and mythic events with what are essentially the credits. This example is a bit gory, but at least you know who's doing what.

Beautiful examples of words and art abound in Western Art. The magnificent Book of Kells, from the 9th century, is more art in words than words with art. Each vellum page, decorated heavily with color and twisting puzzles of design and Christian meaning, is a tribute to artistic imagination and invention - and courage. The Book of Kells was created during the so-called 'Dark Ages,' when European civilization was at daily deadly risk from marauders - it is thought to have been created in the Abbey of Kells, north of Dublin (where it now resides in Trinity College) though may have been created elsewhere and brought along with monks fleeing the Vikings.

page from 13th c bestiary

A bit later, in more peaceful times, words and images come together in ways that reflect increasingly worldly concerns. Bestiaries, which had a fruitful period of popularity during the Middle Ages, began as reflections of a Divine Natural World, but evolved into explorations of early science. Illustrations and descriptions may border on - or be - fantasy, but they attest to a growing human hunger for knowledge about the real world.

Speaking of fantasy, William Blake lived in a world that wasn't quite of this earth at times and he documented his visions carefully in words and images. His beautiful poem, The Tyger, is here illustrated in his unmistakeable style, a blend of realism, naivete, and charm.

It's impossible to consider words and art without including the masterful Arabic tradition, in which there is virtually no division between art and calligraphy. Non-Arabic readers don't need to struggle with the question of what is being said (often references to Allah and the Koran) to marvel at the compositions of gorgeous forms and twining shapes. This exquisite page is a contemporary example by a living calligrapher named Ozcay.
see more of his impressive work with the weblink below

Apollo and the Artist 1975 Cy Twombly

Modern American artists working with imagery and words include Cy Twombly and Andy Warhol, for very different purposes. Twombly, in his wonderful series "Fifty Days at Illium" at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, connects back to those Greek ceramic artists, using words and names to help tell his personal story of attachment to the Greek myths and European art.

Coke Bottle Andy Warhol

Warhol, on the other hand, makes a typically wry and witty comment on consumerism and the place of commodities in American life.

And of course, there's grafitti - it won't go away, it's been around as long as there have been walls to write it on. The current moment of grafitti is an exceptionally creative one - you may not agree with the principle of grafitti but there's some beautiful work out there helping carrying on a long tradition of words and art.

Do you have a favorite combination of words and art? Leave a comment and tell me about it!

http://www.ozcay.com/galeri/mehmed
http://www.designhistory.org/posters.html

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Sarah Sze - Our Artist in Venice

A Different Look to Politics - Portraits by Charles Wilson Peale

Up Close with Van Gogh

In Tribute: The Philadelphia Orchestra

Modern Spirit: Henry Ossawa Tanner

Bill Cunningham - Our Bruegel of the Streets

Losing the Game Changers

Drawing Life

America the Beautiful on Display

Art and Words - Now, Then, and Always

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