Category: ARTviews
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Cézanne and Pissarro: a shared vision
Paul Cézanne and Camille Pissarro, both giants of late 19th century French painting, were friends and colleagues for twenty years, from approximately 1867 to 1887. They initially found common ground in their shared rejection by the art establishment, and both exhibited their works in the Salon des Refusés, the venue for artists whose work had been turned down and maligned by the Academy.
During this period, the two artists worked side by side in the regions of Pontoise and Auvers, near Paris. The current exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Cézanne & Pissarro: Pioneering Modern Painting, brings together for the first time paintings that the two made together of the same scenes. These works have been loaned to the show by museums from all over the world, and their pairing offers an invaluable opportunity to investigate the ways in which artistic collaboration can both inspire and enhance originality. These two artists tried new and different techniques together, and each acknowledged the influence of the other on his palette and approach to painting.
It’s fun to compare the work of these two major artists, and wonderful to see these pairs of paintings reunited, if only briefly.
Friday, June 17, 2005
Irving Penn, poet with a camera
A new exhibition at the National Gallery in Washington, DC, showcases late works by the photographer Irving Penn, whose long career encompassed fashion photography, portraits of the famous and the obscure, and still life. Among the memorable images in this show are portraits of Picasso, Colette, and David Smith; innovative fashion shots for Vogue; and ethnic studies such as the portrait of two Cuzco Indian children, solemn and dignified in their native dress.
Penn was a member of the Guiding Faculty of Famous Photographers School, a sister organization of Famous Artists School. The manuals for the Famous Photographers School, full of illustrative images made by Penn and the other Guiding Faculty members such as Richard Avedon, Alfred Eisenstaedt, and Philippe Halsman, are a true inspiration for any photography buff.
Friday, May 27, 2005
An artist’s visit to 19th century London
When we think of Impressionist paintings, we picture sun-drenched landscapes, rippling river scenes, churning seas, and flowers blooming abundantly. But Claude Monet, for one, was inspired by a broad spectrum of images. A current exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, Monet’s London: Artists’ Reflections on the Thames, 1859-1914, takes us to an urban setting which Monet found exciting to paint.
In fact, as the exhibition’s title indicates, the Thames – that vital artery of the London cityscape – inspired a long list of artists in the last half of the nineteenth century. The American artist, James McNeill Whistler, was among them. Describing the artist’s intimate and exclusive connection to this river, he wrote:
And when the evening mist clothes the riverside with poetry, as with a veil, and the poorer buildings lose themselves in the dim sky, and the tall chimneys become campanili, and the warehouses are palaces in the night, and the whole city hangs in the heavens, and fairy-land is before us—then the wayfarer hastens home; the working man and the cultured one, the wise man and the one of pleasure, cease to understand, as they have ceased to see, and Nature, who for once has sung in tune, sings her exquisite song to the artist alone, her son and her master—her son in that he loves her, her master in that he knows her.
This exhibition offers yet another opportunity for a virtual escape—time-travel to another era and place.
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Building bridges between animals and humans
There’s a fascinating exhibit in New York right now, called Ashes and Snow. Gregory Colbert, a Swiss photographer, spent ten years on expeditions throughout the world, photographing the wonderful interactions between animals and humans. His travels took him to such places as India, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Kenya, and Antarctica. The chronicle of his experiences is this marvelous traveling exhibition of large-scale photographic artworks, housed in a building by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban. Made of shipping containers and paper tubing, this Nomadic Museum can be easily assembled in any port around the world.
Friday, April 22, 2005
George Catlin, witness to a vanishing way of life
George Catlin (1796-1872) was a lawyer turned artist, and he was a man with a mission. He set out to document the Plains Indians’ culture, which he realized was in the process of dying out. The more than 100 portraits, landscapes, and scenes of tribal life which he painted, calling it his “Indian Gallery” are now on display at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York City. Tour the virtual exhibition to share Catlin’s view of “a truly lofty and noble race”. You can also hunker down and enjoy “Campfire Stories”, which combine paintings, documents, and commentary to give a fuller picture of life on the Plains in the 1830’s.
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Where Art and Science Shake Hands
If you’ve ever been intrigued by the ways in which art and science can overlap, visit the current exhibition at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC, Visionary Anatomies. It includes paintings, prints, collages and other works by 11 artists who use anatomical and medical concepts to illustrate their own ideas. The mission of the National Academy of Sciences is to encourage cross-disciplinary discussions, and the images in this exhibition are a thought-provoking jumping-off place for those conversations.
Monday, February 28, 2005
Christo’s “Gates” and more musings on “what is art?”
Yesterday I spent several hours in New York’s Central Park, walking its paths and encountering “The Gates”. It was a wonderful experience: a panoply of color and movement, of intimate corners and broad vistas….and people, lots of people! But is it Art (with a capital A)?
My dictionary defines “art” as follows:
By these definitions, the Gates certainly qualify as art. They are indeed a human effort whose result is to supplement and alter a natural setting. Their appearance in the Park serves to highlight and enhance the dips and curves of the landscape, the wide open spaces and secret pathways. And the Gates encompass so many elements: static three-dimensional form, movement as the fabric lifts lazily in the breeze, or flaps when the wind is stronger, and brilliant color that changes as the light shifts.1. Human effort to imitate, supplement, alter, or counteract the work of nature. 2. The conscious production or arrangement of sounds, colors, forms, movements, or other elements in a manner that affects the sense of beauty; specifically, the production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium.
An artist friend, asked to reflect on whether the Gates qualify as art, said yes: because they promote discussion and make viewers see in new ways. The juxtaposition of artifact (the Gates) and nature (the Park) adds an emotional dimension as well. Not only do we think and consider when looking at the project, we also form an emotional connection to the work because of the experience of walking through, under, around, and next to it. Art succeeds when it engages both our intellect and our emotions.
The Gates were installed for only two weeks. In a way, that finite time frame was part of the art, as well. A viewer said, “It will be really interesting when they’re gone.” Did she mean that our vision of the Park will be forever changed due to this interlude? Or are some beautiful things meant to be seen and absorbed, then left as memories ?
For more information about the Gates and Christo’s other works, go to www.christojeanneclaude.net
If you’d like a tour of the Gates, here are a series of wonderful photos taken by Midge Eliassen: Gates2.pdf
