Archive for May, 2009

29
May
09

american woman…..

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J. Alden Weir, "By Candlelight" (1912), Cincinnati Art Museum

J. Alden Weir, "By Candlelight" (1912), Cincinnati Art Museum

Exhibition Review: Virgins & Vixens – Picturing American Women, 1880-1930 at the Cincinnati Art Museum

“This exhibition explores the portrayal of women in more than twenty rarely seen prints, drawings, and photographs from the Art Museum’s permanent collections. Made during an era of rapidly evolving social roles, these works depict women at work and at leisure; as mothers, consumers, and studio models. Featured are works by artists James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Mary Cassatt, Elizabeth Nourse, Edward Hopper and others.” (Cincinnati Art Museum website.

I walked into CAM today just to kind of walk around and see how far along the new exhibition installations were going. (Yeah, kind of geeky) I had no idea that one exhibition I was really looking forward to, Virgins & Vixens, was already open and ready for viewing. It is located on the small balcony near the main entrance and set up as an ancillary exhibit to the Bessie Potter Vonnoh show which opens on June 6th.

The exhibit brings together works from the museum’s collection which are normally not on display. And while I did enjoy seeing some of the “big name” artists (Whistler, Cassatt, Hopper) the true revelations were by artists I was not really all that familiar with. J. Alden Weir’s works  were full of attention to the play of shadows and light while still displaying what we expect of American Impressionists. One particular drawing by Hanson Booth shows one of my favorite subjects: the “woman-reading genre”. In this picture, we see a woman seated in profile with her eyes delicately downcast and smile playing on her lips as she reads. It’s a truly beautiful  drawing as we see light streaming down inbetween the leaves of tree hovering above her. Another work I loved was a photograph by Harlem Renaissance photographer James Van Der Zee. His Lady at Goldfish Bowl (1923) is beautiful just on its surface, but the placard mentions another point which makes it all the more fascinating. As is pointed out, the photograph was taken less than 60 years after the end of slavery. African-Americans in general were still working towards equality in society, but black women were  dealing with both racial and gender driven prejudice. Pictures like Lady at Goldfish Bowl were beautiful illustrations of these women fitting into a new feminine role.

28
May
09

attribution and ockham’s razor

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Categories: Uncategorized
"Statue of Christ on a Cross", Italian Government
“Statue of Christ on a Cross”, Italian Government

There is quite a little storm brewing in Italy over what many are calling fiscal irresponsibility on the part of the Italian government. Yes, the same government which criticized the U.S. of wreckless spending by bailing out our banks (which was necessary to avoid a complete economic collapse), has spent $4 million dollars on a statue of Christ that may or may not be the creation of Michelangelo — yes, it may NOT be. I’m sorry but for the government to spend that much of the taxpayer’s dollars, they had better be damned sure of origin.

Critics of this purchase first point out the rather low price tag. A genuine Michelangelo they point out would cost 10 times the amount that was asked. Also, the government is loaning this statue to an exhibition being run by the Catholic church. Critics fear the the government is using this exhibition as state-sponsored propoganda for the Church and to bolster the government’s position amongst its more religious constituents.
"Statue of Christ" (detail)
“Statue of Christ” (detail)

Those who attribute the statue to Michelangelo say that there is no evidence to the contrary. That the statue was made in the 15th C. is without a challenge. (BTW — I say statue instead of  crucifix because the cross portion has been lost. Therefore, it is not a complete crucifix.) The proponents also point that the statue is unique in its attention to the detail of human anatomy. Their main argument seems to dwell on the idea that it’s not really possible to attribute the work to any one artists from the time, so “Why not Michelangelo?” Or to quote  Cristina Acidini Luchinat, the superintendent of Florence’s state museum and a renowned expert on Renaissance art: “You can attribute it to Michelangelo, certainly.” Well that’s a glowing statement of strong support!

Critics, such as expert Tomasso Montanari, are less than impressed by the statue’s quality. “When it comes to this statue, it is like comparing a Ford with a Ferrari,” Professor Montanari says. Additionally, “Michelangelo rarely worked in wood. He rarely made small pieces like this. His contemporary biographers make no mention of his having made small works in wood,” he adds.

Ultimately, when there is inconclusive evidence about anything, I tend to resort to Ockham’s razor. The 14th C. English logician William Ockham stated famously that “entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily.” Ideally we should disregard any explanation of any phenomenon which is overly complex or fanciful. In the case of the “Michelangelo” statue, I think we have a classic case of people desperately wanting or needing something to be true, no matter what logic may dictate.

26
May
09

Proto-Venus

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Categories: Uncategorized

 

Statue of Woman (Tuebingen, Germany) c. 33000 BCE
Statue of Woman (Tuebingen, Germany) c. 33000
Earlier this month researchers announced that in September they discovered what may the world’s oldest sculpture. At only six inches long but 35,000 years old, this statue of a woman was found in the southern German state of Baden-Württemberg by a team led by Nicholas Conard of the University of Tuebingen. “We were left speechless after seeing it”, said Conard after presenting the figure in public for the first time. “It’s very sexually charged,” he added. This may be a very strange comment to make until one realizes what they are seeing when they look at the piece. In this picture to the left, the figure is lying flat on her back — her head is the small loop like feature on the left end. When we see it thus, we realize that this figure’s main features are sexual/procreative in nature. Her breasts and hips are disproportionate to her stature. Figures like this are often interpreted by experts to be fertility idols, the most famous of which, the Venus of Willendorf, is a mere 26,000 years old. “The finding is a sensation, since it offers a new light on the first artistic expressions of primitive man in Europe and probably in the whole world,” according to Conard.
21
May
09

“once upon a very specific time…..”

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Categories: Uncategorized
Sir Edward Burne-Jones, "Cinderella" (1863), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Sir Edward Burne-Jones, "Cinderella" (1863), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

For today’s post I thought I would depart ever-so-briefly from the world of visual art and look at the realm of the written word — the operative and controversial word being “written”. It seems that there is quite a stir developing in the world of folklorists.  A new book by Ruth B Bottigheimer of Stony Brook University in New York has shaken the very basic idea that most fairy tales have their roots in an oral tradition. In Fairy Tales: A New History, Prof. Bottigheimer posits instead that a specific type of fairy tale, a “rise” tale, comes from a specific historical and social situation.

The “rise” tale, the type we most equate with fairy tales (“Cinderella” or  ”Puss in Boots”, for example) deals with an individual rising out of their poverty or lower-class status. ”This was a mental environment that would have been receptive to a new kind of story line, one in which magic facilitated a poor person’s ascent to wealth. This was also the age in which stories that we can identify as rise fairy tales first appear,” writes Bottigheimer. “The elements that make up the fairy tale genre were all in place before the 1550s: the hallmarks of fairy tales – magic objects and sudden acquisitions of wealth – were not new in themselves. What was different was that rise fairy tales built in the kinds of generalised hopes for an improvement in their lives specific to the burgeoning populations of upward striving young men and women in early modern cities.”

Bottigheimer traces these tales back to a person, time and  place: an author named Straparola who lived and worked in the 1550s in Venice. His collection Le piacevoli notti (Pleasant Nights) was the first to record these “rise” tales. Accordong to Bottigheimer, it is hard to believe that if these tales existed before this point, they wouldn’t have been written down.

I’m not sure how I feel about this new theory. While the arguments made are compelling, it is hard to discount the importance and necessity of the oral tradition in folklore around the world and throughout history. I tend to side with folklorist Valerie Paradiz who in her book Clever Maids discusses necessary collision of oral and written traditions in the creation of the most well-known tales — those of the Grimm Brothers. I highly recommend it. It is a quick and fascinating read.

For more on Bottigheimer’s work check out this article from the Guardian UK.

16
May
09

a brief history of red

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Categories: Art
Jan van Eyck, "Portrait of a Man" (1433), National Gallery, London

Jan van Eyck, "Portrait of a Man" (1433), National Gallery, London

Social anthropologists tell us that the color red is the first color which was able to be synthesized by the human eye — the first color we could see. When it comes to its application in the world of art, the discovery of North America made its use more and more accessible. You see, for the medieval and early Renaissance periods, the color red was rarely used in paintings. This was because the dye used for red oil paint was extracted from a cactus beetle (yes, a beetle) called a cochineal.  ”People made their living trading this dye,” says Rebecca Stevens, former curator of Red, an exhibition at the Textile Museum in Washington, D.C. “It was as good as gold.” Spain, with its domination Mexico and the southwestern U.S. found easy access to the bug that was so rare in other parts of the world.  Traders would scrape the bugs off of the cacti, let them dry and smash the bugs into a smell pellet. When they reached Europe merchants weren’t able to figure out what these pellets were made of (a berry? a pigment?) and therefore the Spanish secret and monopoly was safe.

Later, as synthetic dyes became easily producable, the bottom dropped out on the cochineal market. But with red’s innate brilliance and tone, it was still used selectively: “A textile is not dyed red by chance,” Stevens says. “No, you use red for a specific reason whether it’s for love, for fertility, for happiness — you made it red on purpose.”

For an interesting read on red, check out Amy Butler Greenfield’s A Perfect Red: Empire Espionage and the Quest of the Color of Desire.

On another note, I thought I would close with this great quote I read by 19th-Century French poet Charles Baudelaire: “A frenzied passion for art is a canker that devours everything else.”

14
May
09

Michelangelo comes to America (?)

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Categories: Uncategorized
Michelangelo, "The Torment of St. Anthony" (1487-88), Kimbell Art Museum (Ft. Worth, Texas)

Michelangelo, "The Torment of St. Anthony" (1487-88), Kimbell Art Museum (Ft. Worth, Texas)

The Kimbell Art Museum in Ft. Worth just announced that it bought a painting on canvas that many experts believe to be painted by Michelangelo Buonarotti. If this is, so he would have painted it when he was only 12 or 13 years old.  Also it would be the only Michelangelo in any collection in the U.S.

Before being purchased by the Kimbell, the painting underwent conservation and research work at the Met in New York. Keith Christiansen, the Met’s head researcher is confident that the painting was done by the master, but says that, “a lot of people still won’t accept it as Michelangelo….It was incredibly dirty,” he says. “But once the centuries of varnish were removed, its true quality was evident. ”

According to Giorgio Vasari, a contemporary of Michelangelo, the master had created a painting of St. Anthony based on an engraving by Martin Schongauer. Could this be the one? There will be further research done and the painting will be on display in the Met, as a loan, by June.

St. Jerome’s “torment” or “temptation” in the desert by demons was and still is a favorite theme of artists. It goes back to Hieronymous Bosch and Jan Brueghel and has carried on into the last century with a work by Salvador Dali.

10
May
09

degas & photography as “modello”

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Categories: Uncategorized
Edgar Degas, "Bather" (photo)

Edgar Degas, "Bather" (photo)

French Impressionist painter Edgar Degas is well know as the “painter of dancers”. In his long life (1834-1917), over half of his paintings, sculptures, drawings and sketches were of ballet dancers. Like a man obsessed, Degas was fascinated by the dancers, their movements, their stances, and their appearance. But what few know is that Degas didn’t just set up his easel and canvas back stage at the Paris Operahouse. For as informal and “in the moment” as his paintings  seem, most of Degas’ work took place in his studio. For an ensemble painting such as The Dance Class, he would have individuals come into the studio and create studies of them holding a pose for hours at a time.degasselfportrait
Late in his career, Degas took up the newly minted art of photography as a new way to study form. He began to take photographs of dancers posing, the negatives of which still survive. He also at this time used the camera as an aid in his series of bathing women. However, he used photographs as modellos for only a brief period of time. He decided that he could derive better details with sketches by his own hand. However, when we look at some of his extant photographs next to the paintings that came from them (see above), for me at least, it brings art into real life — we see the subjects as real people, not imaginary creations. It also sheds an interesting light on the origins of photography as an art, in and of itself.
07
May
09

a master of collage

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Categories: Uncategorized
Dave McKean, "The Eyes of Stanley Pain" (1996)

Dave McKean, "The Eyes of Stanley Pain" (1996)

Some artists are painter, some sculptors, some photographers. Some are all of these and more. Over the last few decades, Dave McKean has gone from painting covers for comics, to become a well respected name in the art community and a feature film maker. (Check out his movie Mirrormask, it’s an amazing vision) He first grabbed the public’s notice by painting the covers for Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comic/graphic novel. Through time he has done CD covers (including those of Tori Amos, Counting Crows and Skinny Puppy), magazine covers and countless graphic design projects. But his art is distinctive. Using a combination of painting, photography and at times CGI, McKean has a very distinct look.Dave McKean, “The Optimist” (1995)

Dave McKean, "The Optimist" (1995)

Dave McKean, "The Optimist" (1995)

In 1995, McKean released a book of B&W photographs, A Small Book of Black and White Lies. To me these are some of the most experimental and stunning photographs I’ve ever seen.

While most of his art is definately made more a more mature audience, McKean has many young fans. He has designed to covers and the artwork for Coraline and Newberry-winning The Graveyard Book, both by Neil Gaiman.

McKean has an extensive and thorough website. I recommend checking it out, especially for the photos from Black & White Lies.

06
May
09

a lobe story

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Categories: Uncategorized
Vincent van Gogh, "Self Portrait" (1889)

Vincent van Gogh, "Self Portrait" (1889)

We all think we know the story. Vincent van Gogh, in a state of mania, cut off a chunk of his earlobe and later that night gave it to his favorite prostitute. Right? Well according to two German art historians the official history is wrong. They claim that van Gogh’s artist roomate Paul Gauguin cut off the famous earlobe with his sword. Yeah, a little weird. Their version of the story is this — “Near the brothel, about 300 metres from the Yellow House, there was a final encounter between them: Vincent might have attacked him, Gauguin wanted to defend himself and to get rid of this ‘madman’. He drew his weapon, made some movement in the direction of Vincent and by that cut off his left ear.”

Van Gogh and Gauguin had been living in the city of Arles, France in what Vincent called “artistic community”. Things were not going well with Gauguin first being angered by van Gogh’s manic speed of painting (almost a painting a day), then being frustrated by Vincent’s wild mental swings. According to this new theory, these are the events which led to the lobe-slicing episode. Read the whole story here.

Of course, most art scholars are not satisfied with this new story.  Most prominent and outspoken among them is Martin Gayford, the author of a great book on the van Gogh/Gauguin relationship, The Yellow House. Read his objections here.

03
May
09

random notes for may…..

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Categories: Random Notes
John Alexander White, "Repose" (1895), Metropolitan Museum of Art
John Alexander White, “Repose” (1895), Metropolitan Museum of Art

At the beginning of every month I like to note some of the news stories that are occurring in the art world, underneath the radar of your standard news shows. This month, though, I also wanted to show you a couple of paintings which remind me of Spring, though not in a standard way. These two paintings, by White and Sargent, invoke the laziness of this time of year,when laying around just seems like a good idea.

 

John Singer Sargent, "Repose" (1911), National Gallery of Art
John Singer Sargent, “Repose” (1911), National Gallery of Art

Here are some random notes for the month of May:

- For my fellow Cincinnatians, this is the last month to check out the the Surrealism exhibit at the Cincinnati Art Museum. Taking it’s place next month will be an exhibit featuring the Impressionist sculptor Bessie Potter Vonnoh.

- MUST READ: Jonathan Jones wrote a blog post a few weeks back on the “neoclassicicism” of  Picasso. As always, a fascinating perspective.

- The Hirshhorn Museum in D.C. will be selling three paintings by 19th C. American artist Thomas Eakins. Although they claim that it is merely to raise money for their acquisition fund, one has to wonder if this is another case of museums having to tighten the belt. More…..

 

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