simcoe/ART

Henry Peach Robinson, "Dawn and Dusk" (1885), Cleveland Museum of Art

So I’ve just viewed the new exhibit at the Taft and have one thing to say: I am ready to admit that photography is an art form on par with painting and sculpture (possibly). I am only ready to say this under the condition that said photograph is done following the precepts of pictorialism, a school of art in the late 19th C. which claimed that in order to achieve artistic viability, photography had to begin following the form and style of traditional painting. As this exhibit, TruthBeaity: Pictorialism & Photograph, 1845-1945, makes clear, this new art form worked from its very beginnings to prove the legitimacy of its expression.

Curated and collected by the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, highlights of the exhibit are photographs by Alvin Langdon Coburn, F. Holland Day, Robert Demachy, Frederick Evans, Gertrude Käsebier, Heinrich Kühn, Edward Steichen,  and Alfred Stieglitz. My favorite was the above photo by Henry Peach Robinson. A great exhibit which I can’t wait to see again.

Frank Duveneck, "Elizabeth Boott Duveneck" (1888), Cincinnati Art Museum

 However, the biggest surpise came in the form, again, of an unexpected Duveneck. In my last post, I had mentioned that the Taft had lent their Duveneck painting to the Cincinnati Art Museum for an exhibit. Well, as a nice little quid pro quod the CAM has lent the Taft Duveneck’s portrait of his wife, Elizabeth Boott Duveneck. I have only seen this painting on display once at the CAM years ago. This is a beautiful painting which documents a tragic part of Duveneck’s life. Their life together ended too early when Elizabeth died in 1888 after only a few months of marriage. This portrait was in fact her wedding portrait. A great essay by Carol Osborne about their relationship can be read here.

Welcome to my little part of the Quirk Books “blogsplosion”. Let me first direct you to the Quirk Books message boards where you can go, put in your name, the name of this blog and you are entered into the Quirk Classics giveaway. 25 individuals will win a Prize pack of books, posters, audio downloads, etc, etc. After you’re done reading, go there and good luck.

Andriod Karenina is book that at times seems to ask “what will it be like? ” when it is in fact asking “how might it have been?” This book reads at time like Alan Campbell or at other times like the best of speculative, historical, science-fiction. (whew!) Set in imperial Russia, Android maintains the romance and class struggles of the original while giving way to the subtext of post-industrialization’s effects on people’s personal, day-to-day lives. Anna and Vronsky have their affairs of the heart and Stiva and Dolly have at each from the opening chapter…..but in the hands of co-writer Ben Winters, in this world, all human actions seem to have parallel actions in the world of their servants/companions: the robots.

Written as a “steampunk” epic, Andoid Karenina does not cater to the lazy reader. The function of each robot is given in it’s name (“I/Samovar/1(8)”, for example), but much of the human/robot etiquette and scientific terminology is not readily explained and the reader must work through this based on context alone. For this and many other reasons, I would highly recommend Andriod Karenina to any fan of science fiction or 19th century romantic epics. But I would especially recommend it to anyone looking for a book that is truly imaginative and challenging.

Pat Steir, "Blue River"

According to John Perrault over at the ArtsJournal, contemporary painter Pat Steir is the most underrated painter in the business. She has been exhibiting since the mid-60s and has been overshadowed as abstract expressionism moved on and pop art took over. Her early work was  blocky and narrowly dimensioned. But starting in the 70s her work was smoothed and textured with more subtlety. She became less shy about epic size and dramatic presentation.  Of the above painting Perrault noted that “like all of her rivulet paintings [Blue River] has great drama, a kind of theatrical presence not seen since Pollock, Newman and Louis.” — quite good company. Steir said of her style that, ““I wanted to destroy images as symbols. To make the image a symbol for a symbol. I had to act it out―make the image and cross it out. …no imagery, but at the same time endless imagery. Every nuance of paint texture worked as an image.”

I would recommend looking at some of her work in anticipation of the Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center’s exhibit of her work which starts this weekend.

Henri Matisse, "Porte-Fenetre a Collioure" (1914), Art Institute of Chicago

“I began to use pure black as a color of light and not as a color of darkness.” Although these were the words of Mark Rothko, not Henri Matisse, the quote seems to fit for both painters.(Many thought Matisse’s style to be “beastly” hence fauvism; fauve = beast) The quote fits well because of how much the early 20th C. Frenchman and the late 20th C. American shared in inspiration and innovation. Their respective careers followed a pattern of color to black, distinctiveness to simplicity. Matisse opened the 20th C. with Le Bonheur de Vivre (1905) and Rothko made the last significant statement of the century with his black paintings. No other painters since Caravaggio and Rembrandt could make black move and speak like Matisse and Rothko could. Witness Matisse’s Porte-Fenetre a Collioure (above) or the paintings in the Rothko Chapel in Houston. Both painters moved from vivid color to the blackest blacks, but instead of being flat or empty their blacks breathe.

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Franciso de Goya, "The Dog" (1820-22), Museo Prado, Madrid

“The individual is defined only by his relationship to the world and to other individuals; he exists only by transcending himself, and his freedom can be achieved only through the freedom of others. He justifies his existence by a movement which, like freedom, springs from his heart but which leads outside of himself.”

- Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity (1948)