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Culture and Arts

More on Art and Museums

 

Shop at the Royal Academy

We went for the Palladio exhibit and its companion, Through the eyes of contemporary architects, and stayed for the shop. A canine-inspired range of products by Craigie Aitkinson; the Mary Fedden chenille throw; the Elizabeth Blackadder Poppies plate and mug; and a tile reproduced from 'Study Of A cat', by F. Ernest Jackson. Clothing and accessories are led by a Eva Jiricna Turquoise evening bag; Kuniyoshi Kimono Coin Purse and the Edward Bawden Hare and Tortoise Childrens' Apron. Don't neglect the books and catalogs.

While you're in a Palladian mood, explore the possibility of staying in a Northern Italian Landmark Trust Palladian villa, circa 1540: Villa Saraceno. And if it's a Palladian tour of central London that is of interest, the Royal Academy has an article, A Palladian Tour de Force, at the website.

 

Grant and Lee

The New-York Historical Society is holding an exhibit, Grant & Lee: In War and Peace, that concentrates on the two historic figures both before and after the Civil War.

" 'The major achievement of Grant and Lee in War and Peace is its presentation of these two men as embodiments of the dilemmas of American history — not only the legacy of slavery, secession and war, but also the rise of a powerful centralized government and the balance of military and civilian power, ' " said Dr. Louise Mirrer, President and CEO of the New-York Historical Society. "Visitors are sure to find parallels between the issues they confronted and those we face today. ' "

Grant and Lee in War and Peace is the third in a multi-year series of exhibitions by the New-York Historical Society, exploring concepts of liberty which began with the groundbreaking Slavery in New York (2005–06) and New York Divided: Slavery and the Civil War (2006–07). The series will continue in 2009 with a fourth major exhibition, Lincoln

The Museum's store carries items that mark the exhibit, including a Civil War chess set. Other items include a Parlor Foot-Ball Tin Game, a Lafayette Twist Crayon Set, American Abolitionists Knowledge Cards and Tabletop Ninepins. It also carries a sterling silver pendant inscribed with part of a quotation from Alexander Hamilton's letter to Elizabeth Schuyler, dated October 5, 1780, only a few weeks before their marriage: "I meet you in every dream — and when I wake I cannot close my eyes again for ruminating on your sweetnesses."

An Exhibition With Everyday Articles Reworked

"Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary is the inaugural exhibition at the Museum of Arts & Design [in New York City]. The exhibition features work by 50 international established and emerging artists from all five continents who create objects and installations comprised of ordinary and everyday manufactured articles, most originally made for another functional purpose.

"Highlights from the show include American artist Tara Donovan's Bluffs, a group stalagmite shaped structures made of clear plastic buttons delicately placed one on top of the other. Do Ho Suh, a Korean artist creates a jacket made of military dog tags, portraying the way a solider is part of a larger troop.

"Paul Villinski, an American, creates beautiful butterflies out of his old record collection, producing a "soundtrack" of his life. English artist Susie MacMurray used yellow rubber washing gloves, turned them inside out and stitched onto a calico form to create an imposing out-sized dress.

"Other featured works are made from buttons, spools of thread, artificial hair, used high-heeled shoes, plastic spoons and forks, shopping bags, and 25-cent coins to mention only a few.

"The exhibition surveys the rich artistic landscape of much contemporary art, in which hierarchies among art, craft, and design are disregarded. In addition, the exhibition examines the ways in which artists transform our world, respond to contemporary cultural paradigms, and comment on global consumerism.

Go to the UTube page for videos of artists commenting on their work including

Devorah Sperber making 'After the Mona Lisa 7';

Michelle Holzapfel carving; and

PS3 at MADlab

Visit, too, the Teachers' Lounge for ideas and resources.

British Library's Crace Map Collection

Peter Barber, Head of Map Collections at the British Library, introduces the Crace holding in this fashion:

"This is the essential guide through the history of London: some 1200 printed and hand-drawn maps charting the development of the city and its immediate vicinity from around 1570 to 1860. The maps were collected, mainly during the first half of the nineteenth century, by the fashionable society designer, Frederick Crace."

"Crace was a born into a family firm of interior decorators, Crace & Son of Wigmore Street. It was while the young Frederick was standing in for his father at Carlton House that he was, as he put it, "first noticed by the Prince of Wales and Mrs Fitzherbert, being at work upon gilding the iron railing of the staircase. "Royal patronage became a regular — and lucrative — part of Frederick’s life. He went on to design the exotic Chinese-inspired décor of the Music Room at the Royal Pavilion in Brighton and later, when the Prince Regent became George IV, he decorated the King’s private apartments at Windsor Castle."

A part of the British Library collection includes Crace Collection of Maps of London

Plan of THE FITZ ROY FARM AND HIGHGATE ESTATE BEING A PORTION OF ...
This plan was produced for the sale of Lord Southampton's estate in 1840. The title and compass ...

A New and Correct MAPP OF MIDDLESEX, ESSEX AND HERTFORDSHIRE With ...
Based on an original survey of 1721, this map of Hertfordshire, Middlesex and Essex was first iss...

LABYRINTHUS LONDINENSIS or THE EQUESTRIAN PERPLEXED
The author of this small plan of London invites his readers to find their way around the city:

Mending our Ways, our ways doth ofttimes 'mar,
So thinks the Traveller by Horse or Car,
But he who scans with calm and patient skill
This "Labyrinthine Chart of London," will
One Track discover, open and unbarred,
That leads at length to famed St. Paul's Church Yard.

[Plan of the property of Lady Acheson, Moor's Yard, St. Martin's ... This is a copy made by Crace in 1842 of a plan in the Gough Collection. Crace liked to have copi...

[Drawn plan of the Goring Estate] 31
This is a copy by Crace of a plam of the Goring Estate as it was in 1640. The drawing shows the ...

International Quilt Study Center & Museum

The International Quilt Study Center and Museum is located at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. "There are currently 24 different nations represented by quilts in the collection. This is an area of special focus as we work toward our goal of collecting, preserving and sharing quilts from all cultures, locations and eras."

Some of the collections located at the Center are:

The American Folk Art Museum in New York is exhibiting twelve quilts from the collection under the rubric of Recycling & Resourcefulness: Quilts of the 1930s.

And don't overlook the Folk Museum's marvelous shop.

Pietre Dure & The Age of the Merovingians

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has brought together examples of pietra dure in the exhibit entitled Art of the Royal Court: Treasures in Pietre Dure from the Palaces of Europe:

"This is the most comprehensive exhibition to date on the tradition of hardstone carving (pietre dure) that developed in Italy in the 16th century and subsequently spread through Europe. Renaissance masters working in Rome cut colored marbles and laid them in geometrically patterned tabletops, such as the celebrated Farnese Table in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, while Milanese artisans preferred to cut designs in rock crystal, lapis lazuli, and other precious materials. In Florence, the passion of the Medici for importing precious stones led to Ferdinando I de' Medici's founding of the court workshops that still survive as the Opificio delle Pietre Dure. Royal patronage encouraged Florentine craftsmen to migrate to Prague, and their practices gradually spread to such centers as Augsburg, Paris, Madrid, and St. Petersburg. Some 150 tables, cabinets, caskets, jewelry, vases, and sculptures represent the range of this extraordinary art form cultivated by the courts of Europe through four centuries."

From the renowned museum in St. Petersburg comes the The Age of the Merovingians. Europe Without Borders in the Nicholas Hall of the Winter Palace, Hermitage. The exhibition consisted of around one thousand five hundred monuments dating from the 5th to 8th centuries.


"Barbarian gold. Numerous barbarians (called in the West 'Germans') served within the army of Late Rome. Often they rose to senior officer ranks. The gold coins which they received for their service ended up in the mercenaries' homeland. The coins were kept as treasure. They were melted down to make decorations, signs of distinction and honorary symbols, as we know from the golden bracelets and grivnas that have been found on the territory known as Germania Magna (Greater Germany). Neck grivna made from solid gold in the 5th century and found along the southern shores of the Baltic Sea in Hammelsdorf and Radosiwe have features connected with Scandinavian culture.

"The finds discovered in Zamoszcze — gilded silver clasps and other decorations for clothing — date back to the times of the beginning of the Great Migrations of Peoples. A hilt found in the bed of the Oder near Friedrichstal dates from the 6th century AD. Weapons were a sacrificial offering typical of the northern Germans.

"The Hun princes received colossal tribute in gold coins from the Emperor in Constantinople. Attila presented this gold to his vassals. Thus we may explain the abundance of gold in burial places of the Huns, the Eastern Germans and the Alans, where archeologists even find shoe buckles that were cast and forged from solid gold."

in Pietre Dure from the Palaces

Maria Sibylla Merian and Daughters

"This exhibition charts the artistic and scientific explorations of German artist Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717) and her daughters Johanna Helena and Dorothea Maria. Enterprising and adventurous, these women raised the artistic standards of natural history illustration and helped transform the field of entomology, the study of insects. The exhibition presents books, prints, and watercolors by Merian and her contemporaries and features one of the greatest illustrated natural history books of all time, The Insects of Suriname."

"Merian's interest in insects was stimulated by the practice of silkworm breeding that was introduced by Frankfurt's silk trade. She began to observe caterpillars, moths, and butterflies, and by the age of 13 she had already observed the metamorphosis of a silkworm — a discovery that pre-dated published accounts by almost ten years."

"Merian ingeniously combined her backgrounds in publishing and flower painting to produce The New Book of Flowers, a plate from which is shown here. Comprised of three volumes, each with twelve plates of engravings, this book of flowers, wreaths, nosegays, and bouquets served as a model book for artists, embroiderers on silk, and cabinetmakers. With this function in mind, Merian portrayed each flower in this plate distinctly, without overlap."

It is said on the site that Merian never let her readers "forget the brutal cycle of life and death."

Explore the slideshow at the Getty site.

 

Vermeers Interrupted & Reunited

The Frick is featuring the display of the museum's three Vermeers: Girl Interrupted at Her Music, Officer and Laughing Girl and Mistress and Maid. The story of their histories makes an interesting read by at the Frick site:

Henry Clay Frick bought his first Vermeer, Girl Interrupted at Her Music, in the summer of 1901, when he was still living in Pittsburgh. He had started buying large numbers of pictures by the mid-1890s, the great majority of which belonged to the modern French schools. These were conventional contemporary works of the sort that were sought out by fellow collectors in Pittsburgh, New York, Boston, and elsewhere in the United States. It was not until 1896 that Frick acquired his first Old Master picture, Still Life with Fruit by Jan van Os, a minor eighteenth-century Dutch painter, for which he paid $1,000. (The painting is now at the Frick Art and Historical Center in Pittsburgh.) By 1901, he owned a handful of Old Masters; among these, most notably, was Portrait of a Young Artist of about 1647, supposedly by Rembrandt, purchased in 1899 for the considerable sum of $38,000. (The painting remains in The Frick Collection, although it is now attributed to an unknown follower of Rembrandt.)

By all accounts, Frick’s 1901 acquisition of Vermeer’s Girl Interrupted at Her Music seems to have been a wise although not a calculated decision. Perhaps his interest in the picture was sparked by the recent attention received by Vermeer’s work, both in America and in Europe, or even by the growing fame of Théophile Thoré. Certainly, Frick (or his dealer, Charles Carstairs of Knoedler) may have been drawn to the Girl Interrupted at Her Music for purely aesthetic reasons. Whatever his motivation, Frick paid Knoedler $26,000 for the Vermeer, a high price when compared to the amounts his contemporaries had spent for their Vermeers about this time. As was the common practice, the Girl Interrupted at Her Music, which had been in a private collection in Britain for almost a half century, was thoroughly cleaned shortly before it was sold. As a result, a violin hanging on the back wall, described in the 1810 auction catalogue, was removed by the restorer, who judged it a later addition. The birdcage to the right of the window, which may not be original to the painting either, was left intact. Although Frick probably was not aware of the fact, the Girl Interrupted at Her Music was only the fourth authentic Vermeer to come to America.

Learn about the second purchase, the third (Mistress and Maid) and the current exhibit at the museum. Read, too, the other sections on Vermeer: Vermeer's Bankruptcy, Vermeer's Works, The Dissius Sale and Relative Obscurity

Wencelaus Hollar

'Thy Shadows Will Outlast the Stone'

Certainly not a household name in the 21st century art field, Wencelaus Hollar is the subject of a considerable archive at the University of Toronto Libraries:

"The Fisher Library at the University of Toronto is privileged to be one of the largest repositories for the artistic works of Wenceslaus Hollar, along with Windsor Castle, and the National Gallery Collection of Prints and Drawings in the artist's native Prague, the Czech Republic. The Fisher Library's Hollar collection was donated in 1972 by Dr. Sidney Fisher, who had begun assembling the etchings as a part of his efforts to reconstruct the London of Shakespeare's day.

The collection (in digital form) consists of religious prints, mythology, satire, Etc., historical prints, geography and maps, portraits, costumes, sports, natural history, architecture, heraldry, numismatics, ornament, as well as title pages and initials.

There are also pages that deal with the subjects of an illustrated chronology of the life and work of Wenceslaus Hollar; the text of a lecture on Hollar by art historian Anne Thackray and Hollar and the technique of etching.

Here's a quote from Ms. Thackray's essay:

Between 1641 and 1646, Hollar published three sets of 'The Four Seasons'. Each season was represented by a beautiful woman wearing appropriate clothing. Here, a full-length image of Winter wears a mask — to preserve her complexion against the cold winds — and furs. Hollar was exceptionally good at depicting the texture of furs. His still-life images of muffs are among his most famous prints, and are still highly sought-after by print collectors today.

 

Posters at the National

Perhaps the first posters I can remember are those from World War II, the ones that reminded you not to pass on anything of importance to the enemy.

The National Portrait Gallery is conducting an exhibit entitled Ballyhoo! Posters as Portraiture and included is a section of Wartime Propaganda posters.

From the Introduction:

What could be less subtle than the pictorial poster, blaring out its message with large scale, loud colors, and bold graphics? As the circus term “ballyhoo” suggests, boisterous hucksterism underlies the poster’s message and its roguish appeal. We are used to decoding the poster as advertising or propaganda. But what if we consider the poster as a form of popular portraiture? How does the presence of a recognizable figure operate on our consciousness? The information conveyed about the famous subject is secondary to the principal message: selling war bonds, advertising a product, announcing a concert, or publicizing a film. Viewers may absorb the portrait image with little awareness of how it functions in establishing or solidifying fame.

By interweaving the three themes of poster art — celebrity promotion, and advertising — this exhibition from the National Portrait Gallery’s collections examines how a famous face can enhance a poster, and, conversely, how posters have defined reputations of prominent Americans. These images remind us of the ubiquitous presence of visual messages outside the world of fine art. Widely disseminated forms of popular portraiture — like the poster — remain a profound influence in our culture.

Some of the other categories for viewing are: Broadsheets & Show Posters, Export of American Culture, Film & Music Advertising and Postermania of the 1960s.

The Art of Glass

The British Museum displays The Art of Glass as part of the online tours. What follows is the Museum's introduction to the exhibit:

"For centuries glass has been valued for its visual and tactile properties which have allowed the creation of many beautiful objects. This tour uses some of the outstanding glass objects in the British Museum to illustrate the major developments in the history of glass manufacture.

"Glass is made by melting a mixture of sand and an alkali. The first glass vessels were made in the Near East in about 1600 BC. The brightly-coloured glass was opaque and was used to make small bottles, jars and jugs by coating a clay core with molten glass, then adding trails of colour. This glass was regarded as an artificial precious stone which only the rich could afford.

"In the mid-first century BC, glassworkers in Syria-Palestine discovered how to inflate hot glass by blowing through a tube. The method was taken up throughout the Roman Empire and production expanded rapidly. By the end of the first century AD, weakly coloured or transparent glass was an everyday material. Glass table wares became common and window panes and glass mirrors began to be used.

"Syrian glassworkers developed the techniques of gilding and enamelling glass in the thirteenth to fourteenth centuries. Glassworkers in Europe adopted these techniques, which were developed extensively in Venice in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

"The demand for a truly colourless transparent glass or 'crystal' drove developments in Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Since then the exploitation of the visual properties of glass in new ways has continued to play a key role in its appeal."

A Blue glass jug, inscribed for Thutmose III, is described in this way: "The colour of this vessel probably imitates turquoise, the yellow and white represents gold and silver. The tamarisk trees, dots and scales, and the name of the king are enamelled, the earliest known example of this technique in Egypt."

The Lycurgus Cup, considered extraordinary, is noted as "the only complete example of a very special type of glass, known as dichroic, which changes colour when held up to the light. The opaque green cup turns to a glowing translucent red when light is shone through it. The glass contains tiny amounts of colloidal gold and silver, which give it these unusual optical properties.

"The cup is also the only figural example of a type of vessel known as a 'cage-cup'. The cup was made by blowing or casting a thick glass blank. This was then cut and ground away until the figures were left in high relief. Sections of the figures are almost standing free and connected only by 'bridges' to the surface of the vessel.

"The scene on the cup depicts an episode from the myth of Lycurgus, a king of the Thracians (around 800 BC). A man of violent temper, he attacked Dionysos and one of his maenads, Ambrosia. Ambrosia called out to Mother Earth, who transformed her into a vine. She then coiled herself about the king, and held him captive. The cup shows this moment when Lycurgus is entrapped by the branches of the vine, while Dionysos, a Pan and a satyr torment him for his evil behaviour. It has been thought that the theme of this myth — the triumph of Dionysos over Lycurgus — might have been chosen to refer to a contemporary political event, the defeat of the emperor Licinius (reigned AD 308-24) by Constantine in AD 324.

The online presentation lets the viewer observe the cup when held up to the light — surely, a spectacular infusion of color that results.

Vive la différence!
The English and French stereotype in satirical prints, 1720-1815

The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England includes a number of online exhibitions in addition to the current offerings.

The relationship between England and France during this time period was complex. There was a great deal of travel and cross-cultural influence, which would often manifest itself in the emulation of concepts or qualities of the other's culture. There was also a great deal of enmity. The two countries were rivals in economic, colonial, constitutional and religious ways, and they were at war for much of the 18th century, continuing into the 19th century. The differences which were celebrated by some were seen in times of stress as a threat to each side's value system. The satires in this exhibition demonstrate how the portrayal of national stereotypes was affected by the fluctuating political climate of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Satires by their very nature are oppositional, and stereotypes by their nature represent a kind a gut prejudice, designed to accentuate and distort an idea of a figure into a pantomime image, a ludicrous parody. The stereotypes owed a lot to ignorance. The satirists were of course capturing only what they knew, which was at best based on first-hand observation, and at worst founded on rumours alone. They present far too limited a field to give a true impression held by an average citizen at any one time. In each print the neighbour is transformed into a figure of fun, but with multiple layers to the joke, such as social arrogance, jealousy or fear.

The online exhibition includes pages on the view from England and France.

Another online exhibit is that of Conserving Art:

The conservation and restoration of the Chinese vases broken in 2006

An incident in the Museum on Wednesday 25 January 2006 involving a member of the public resulted in damage to three huge oriental porcelain vases which had been on display for many decades.

The impact that toppled the vases resulted in pieces of porcelain being distributed over a wide area.

Public and press shared the opinion that the reconstruction of the vases was impossible.

Was it impossible? Follow the vases' progress from scattered fragments to their redisplay in the Fitzwilliam Museum. The site includes slideshows, film clips of the conservation process and a timelapse of one of the vases under reconstruction (in the Reassembly section of the interactive).

Further details can be found on the Frequently Asked Questions pages, including how the vases were broken.

Women of Renown

From the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston:

"The versatile artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi designed theatrical prints, landscapes, cartoons, and scenes of daily life, but he is most famous for images of warriors and historical figures. His skill in creating exciting designs helped make such scenes one of the most popular subjects for Japanese prints in the nineteenth century. But his was not just a man's world. In Kuniyoshi's prints, the valiant heroes who battle monsters and human enemies, and the great rulers, poets, and religious leaders from Japanese history include women as well as men."

Tomoe Gozen, from the series One Hundred Stories of Famous Women of Japan since Ancient Times

"Accounts differ as to the fate of Tomoe after the defeat and death of her lord, Yoshinaka, in 1184. She is sometimes said to have died in battle; according to another story she lived on quietly and eventually married another warrior. When the shogun ordered her to demonstrate her strength, she amazed everyone by moving one of the pillars holding up the roof of a building."

It's possible to view just the text or just the image at the online exhibit

Shop at the Museum

One of the most stunning museums we've visited over the years is in Michigan, the newly renovated Detroit Institute for Art. It is the US mecca for those who admire the work of Diego Rivera and the mural, Detroit Industry.

Julie Mehretu's City Sitings is the exhibit to visit but don't overlook, beyond all the other wonderful holdings, the DIA shop. The home decor section features a Robert Held Poppy Classic Vase inspired by Claude Monet's famous painting Poppy Field; a striking indigo Pewabic Pottery Vase and a Gladioli Music Box.

A personal item would be a Roessler Glass bracelet, a pair of Egyptian Royal Triple Drop Earrings (for $28), and a tie designed from the Detroit Industry mural. The mural is also featured in the Kids section as a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle as well as (what else!) Granny's purse, a "die-cut board book offers an interactive treasure chest of treats and surprises inside — peek at her notebook, try on her rings and scarf, tie a bow. It's also a portrayal of a Granny brimming with wit and wisdom and a love story to bridge the generations."

Asian Lacquer: The Irving Collection and the Seattle Museum

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is hosting an exhibit of Asian Lacquer. Here's how the museum introduces the subject:

"Lacquer, a sap that is a natural plastic, has served as an artistic medium in China, Korea, and Japan for millennia. Lacquer is used for painting and is combined with gold, mother-of-pearl, and other materials. In addition, layers of lacquer can be carved to create wondrous patterns or engaging figural scenes. Ranging in size from small boxes for incense to larger containers for sake, and in date from the 14th to the 19th century, the exquisite works in this exhibition also have cultural significance related to the art of writing or historical and literary themes."

Images from the site include sutra covers: "These covers were made to store texts from the 108-volume Tibetan Buddhist canon produced in Beijing in 1410, and "a Food Box with Striped Decoration and Chinese Figures, with "patterns on this tiered food box [that] derive from Indian and Southeast Asian textiles that were part of the trade linking Japan to other regions of Asia as well as to centers farther west. A Cabinet with Butterflies is "painted with black and gold lacquer and inlaid with pearl shell and a Box with Design of Shells and Seaweed held "personal accessories such as combs. From the seventeenth century on, groups of such boxes were part of the extensive assemblages of lacquered furnishings found in the trousseaux of the elite and the expanding merchant class."

An Octagonal Dish with Decoration of a Shou Character with eight auspicious emblems, including flaming pearls, a pair of horns, and a pair of books, encircle the character for longevity (shou) in the center of the dish; the same designs are found on the exterior. The dragons in the outer edges of the plate are all missing one claw. Five claws were understood as imperial symbols, and it is likely that the missing claws were removed in order to downgrade the dish for presentation to a member of the nobility or a senior official at the court.

The Seattle Art Museum is hosting Japan Envisions the West: 16th- to 19th- century Japanese Art From the Kobe City Museum. This exhibit, too, contains lacquered items such as a Cabinet of Drawers with Design of Birds and Flowers, Mid-19th century Lacquered wood with mother-of-pearl inlay, metal fittings and a sewing table.

The Phillips American Art Time Line

So often timelines reveal and put into perspective the sociological influences brought to bear in an artist's subject matter, such as the two below, part of the Phillips American Art Timeline, a view of 150 years of art.

Thomas Eakins, Miss Amelia van Buren, 1891

Eakins centered his attention on Van Buren's face and hands, creating through subtle means — deft highlights, distant glance, and relaxed yet tensile hands — an image of great psychological complexity. Her weary head leans on her curved hand, while her other hand rests in her lap. She looks absently towards but not into the strong light, which emanates from the left and defines her face. Eakins establishes in this passage Van Buren's character, her quiet strength and determination. And it is in this manner, through a portrait of his friend and fellow artist's contemplative state, that Eakins comments on his own achievements at the end of a long, tumultuous career.

The sitter, Van Buren, is an elusive, but fascinating figure. Born in 1856 she was recorded by 1880 as an "artist in color." Her lifelong friendship with the Eakins family began when she took the artist’s life classes at the Pennsylvania Academy in 1884. Van Buren later became interested in photography, an enthusiasm she may have initially acquired from Eakins, who himself had used photographs extensively in his work. She turned from painting to work exclusively as a photographer. She may have found the expressive potential of photography challenging, seeing photography as an art form in its own right, and, too, Van Buren may have believed that for a woman, photography offered a better chance for recognition.

Walt Kuhn, Plumes, 1931

Plumes is quintessential Kuhn: a performer, shown in frontal view and wearing a slightly disillusioned expression, is placed against a simple background and depicted in bright, dissonant colors. The theme of a showgirl donning theatrical costume frequently recurred in Kuhn's mature work and was met with a great deal of success. Painted directly from the model, Mabel Benson, in December of 1931, Plumes was one of several canvases the artist created after a European trip that included a visit to the Prado in Madrid. The architectonic, three-dimensional form, the plain background, and the black-and-white contrasts with touches of red reveal the influence of Spanish artists such as Goya and Velázquez and certain Spanish-inspired works by Manet. Plumes, as does much of Kuhn's figurative work, conveys a feeling of contained energy. The contours of the figure seem to vibrate in contrast to the seemingly bored facial expression. Quiet and poised, she seems capable of movement at any moment. This tension is similar to that which Kuhn had admired in Archaic Greek sculpture. The artist created yet another sensation of tension in the painting by confining the solid, powerful figure and the plumes closely within the boundaries of the frame.

The painting was exhibited for the first time at the Marie Harriman Gallery in January 1932. The show was a success, and Plumes in particular was admired for the strength and simplicity of its balance, color, and composition. Duncan Phillips, who received an exhibition catalogue, was "especially impressed by 'Plumes'." Immediately after acquiring the painting, Phillips included it his 1932 Kuhn show. The girl under the Plumes, he wrote

"…is thoroughly disillusioned and tired of it all. She seems to sag under her magnificent head-dress and to wonder perhaps why she ever left home. That head-dress is none the less a magnificent passage of painting. The feathers are the very essence of feathers and, as texture, they are the apotheosis of pigment."

William Steig

We've read books to our children and grandchildren written by William Steig over the last 45 years, including Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, Dr. DeSoto, Tiffky Doofky and The Amazing Bone. A holiday present to our grandchildren this year will be a signed copy of Dr. DeSoto Goes to Africa

The Jewish Museum is hosting an exhibit, From The New Yorker to Shrek: The Art of William Steig. Steig died in 2003.

An introduction to the exhibit online describes Steig's drawings:

"Filled with empathy, Steig’s drawings resonate long after our first encounter with them. In his art, the isolation of the self — one of the artist’s lifelong preoccupations — is treated in its various guises. The children he drew are often grouchy and ill-mannered, and his adult world is populated with convicts and lovers, drunks and drifters, philosophers and the absurdly rich, and couples engaged in bewildered attempts to understand each other. These characters — often warty and scabrous types depicted with great affection — are both a rich source of humor and crucial to one of his central insights: there is much in this world that can perplex and frustrate us. Above all, Steig’s work is about the redeeming power of nature, art, and love, to which we seem to be most receptive as children, or when we are in touch with our own childhood as adults. 'I think I feel a little differently than other people do,' Steig said. 'For some reason I’ve never felt grown up.' ”

Another feature is Five Lines: "William Steig's daughter, Maggie Steig, recalls in the exhibition catalogue that her father could find faces anywhere — in the grain of a piece of wood or the folds of a cushion.  Later in life he enjoyed a game they called Five Lines. One person would draw five random lines and the other person then added to the lines to turn it into a face.

Finally, Farrar, Straus and Giroux has been generous enough to make available a bookmark that can be presented to the Museum for $2 off the price of admission.

Shop at the Museum

The Textile Museum in Washington, DC carries a selection of textiles to be purchased. Fortunately, the dissolution of the Soviet Union affords more ready access to suzani textiles:

"Contemporary suzani textile is handwoven and hand-embroidered by women incorporating designs traditionally used in the 18th and 19th centuries in the Silk Road cites and towns of Uzbekistan. By the early 20th century the art of natural dying had largely fallen by the wayside in places like Samarqand, Bukhara, Tashkent, and Shahrisabz. However, with independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 there has been a return of some of the traditional commerce of the region. One of the happy outcomes is the rediscovery of the use of natural dyes and a renascent production of suzanis, this traditional needlework of the women of the Silk Road."

Pillow covers are one example of this kind of needlework as well as wearable jackets. Japanese scarves and a kimono are other applications available as well as Indian and contemporary quilts. Ikat and Batik items are on display, too.

Penn Museum

The Pyramid Shop for kids at the Penn Museum of Archeology and Anthropology features 'backpack' kits with treasures from your chosen area, such as Egyptian, African, Americas and Asian themes.

For instance, the Americas pack includes:

Three hacky-sacks will keep your soccer skills sharp and a set of six Worry Dolls will solve your problems. Worry dolls are given to Guatemalan Indian children by their parents who tell them to tell their worries to the dolls at night. Overnight the dolls would solve their worries. Also includes a mini god.

Currently, the main shop is displaying reproductions of select gold jewelry that appears in the exhibit, River of Gold: Precolombian Treasures from Sitio Conte

 

Mythic Creatures at the American Museum of Natural History

The Museum introduces this exhibit in the following way:

The world is full of stories about brave heroes, magical events and fantastic beings. For thousands of years, humans everywhere — sometimes inspired by living animals or even fossils — have brought mythic creatures to life in stories, songs and works of art. Today these creatures, from the powerful dragon to the soaring phoenix, continue to thrill, terrify, entertain and inspire us.

We seem to catch glimpses of these creatures all around us: hiding beneath the ocean waves, running silently through the forest and soaring among the clouds. Some symbolize danger. Others, we think, can bring us luck or joy. Together mythic creatures give shape to humankind's greatest hopes, fears and most passionate dreams.

Creatures of the Deep: Water beckons us. It is soothing and seductive … but it's also capable of unleashing deadly force. The mythic creatures that inhabit the depths give form to water's essential mysteries. They arouse feelings of curiosity, hope — and bottomless fear. Like water itself, these creatures can be beautiful and enticing. But will they share their life-giving bounty? Or lure us to destruction?

Creatures of the earth: We share the land with countless living animals. Some are familiar; others seem quite bizarre. Creatures from the lands of myth can be both recognizable and strange. Sometimes they appear to have body parts from ordinary animals combined in very unusual ways. Other times they look just like familiar animals — but have extraordinary and magical powers.

Creatures of the Sky: Have you ever wondered what it feels like to fly? The smallest bird has powers we will never share. But mythic creatures of the air have even greater powers. Imagine a bird so huge it blocks out the sky, or stirs up storms with its wings. In myths and stories, winged horses, dragons and even people all have the power of flight. These stories help express the wonder and awe inspired by looking up at the sky.

Dragons, Creatures of Power: Of all mythic creatures that rise from the water, prowl across land or fly through the air, the dragon is the most famed. Stories of serpentlike beasts with fabulous powers inspire awe in almost every part of the world. Rain-bringing dragons in Asian tales can shrink so small that they fit in a teacup — or grow so large that they fill the sky. Dragons in Europe can slaughter people with their putrid breath, or spit fire and set cities ablaze. The earliest dragon legends date back thousands of years, and the creature still haunts our imagination today.

Each of the divisions have a number of sections to explore and wonder at, including a peek behind the scenes at some Exhibitions staff members hard at work preparing exhibits for Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids.

The Clark Brothers Collect

The Clark Brothers, whose collection is on view at the Metropolitan Museum, are, in part, on view online, part of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. His younger brother, Stephen Carlton Clark, was a prominent donor to and trustee of the Metropolitan. His wife, Francine, was a former actress with the Comédie Française.

Fortunately, many of Sterling and Francine's collection can be viewed online at the Clark Art Institute:

" In the 1910s and 1920s, when the Clark brothers began collecting European art, Impressionist paintings were becoming increasingly popular with American collectors. Sterling eventually acquired a broad range of works by most of the prominent Impressionists, works that soon formed the heart of his collection. These artists, he felt, had inherited and updated traditional Renaissance painting techniques. Stephen collected in this field much more selectively. He once commented to a dealer that 'the Impressionist School does not interest me tremendously,' but he did seek out singular masterpieces by artists such as Édouard Manet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Edgar Degas."

" 'People are crazy about Renoir,' Sterling Clark commented in his diary, and he himself was certainly among them. He acquired a total of thirty-nine paintings by the artist, whom he considered 'a great master.' Stephen Clark, too, collected Renoir's works, acquiring seven paintings despite his occasional uncertainty about Impressionism. Indeed, his portrait of Madame Henriot was among his largest and most expensive purchases, but as he explained to the dealer, 'it is, however, such a beautiful picture that I would be willing to buy it . . . in spite of the fact that I don't quite know what to do with it.'  "

"In the field of American painting, both brothers collected the work of certain artists in considerable depth. Winslow Homer particularly appealed to them — in total, the brothers acquired over twenty paintings by the artist. Sterling called Homer one of the "best artists of the nineteenth century" and considered his Homer paintings, drawings, and prints among the highlights of his collection. Sterling also acquired a remarkable suite of paintings by John Singer Sargent, while Stephen preferred the stark realism of Thomas Eakins and contemporary artist Edward Hopper. In collecting American paintings, Sterling maintained his usual low profile, but Stephen often collected with an eye toward donating them to museums. As he stated of Eakins's paintings, 'it will be my aim to provide for their ultimate disposition in a way that will promote Mr. Eakins's fame for posterity,' and he donated works by Eakins and Hopper to burgeoning institutions like the Addison Gallery of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York." 

The Met Museum, Houston Museum
of Natural Science and Roman Dining Posture

We went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art as a family many times over a 30 year period. We looked forward to the Christmas Creche exhibit during the seasonal holidays; we went to see the bed in The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler; the armored horses; and the Egyptian art, topped off by a visit to the restaurant situated around a reflecting pool. For years, we would take a small group of our daughters' friends into NYC to celebrate one or the other's birthday at the Met.

Now some of those touchstones have changed. The restaurant is located elsewhere and the new Greek and Roman Galleries have taken its place. Although we find it a worthy successor, there was something magical about that entering that restaurant space. The Romans would have loved eating there while reclining on their dining couches.

We digress here a moment to excerpt from Matthew B. Roller's introduction to his book, Dining Posture in Ancient Rome: Bodies, Values, and Status:

"What underlies many specific representations of women reclining (typically alongside men) or seated (at a distance from the reclining men) is not actual practice but profound anxieties about women's capacity for, and inclination toward, transgressive sex, which is inferred from their juxtaposition with male bodies and their proximity to wine. The broader point, moreover, holds true for men and children as well as for women. Dining posture in general — for diners of every status, age, and sex — is profoundly intertwined with key social values. Thus, upon assuming a particular posture and a particular relationship to other bodies, a diner associates certain values with herself or himself; conversely, a person to whom certain values are ascribed is thereby authorized to assume a particular dining posture."

The Met has a tour of the newly opened galleries, commented on by Philippe de Montebello, whose accented and cultured voice leads you through the various works:

Essentially a "museum within the museum" for the Metropolitan's world-renowned collection of Hellenistic, Etruscan, South Italian, and Roman art, the new galleries will completely transform a space that was used for decades as the Museum's restaurant, but that was originally designed by the renowned architects McKim, Mead and White in 1912 as galleries for Roman art.

Its centerpiece is the spectacular Leon Levy and Shelby White Court, a monumental peristyle area for the display of Hellenistic and Roman art with a soaring two-story atrium. This colossal statue of the young Hercules, a lion skin draped over his arm, will be there, along with many other works, including our great Badminton sarcophagus decorated with more than 40 figures—including Dionysus, the god of wine, shown riding his panther—and the seasons.

Here you will meet, face to face, the emperors of Imperial Rome: Augustus, Caligula, the young Nero, Antoninus Pius, Caracalla; and a pantheon of great figures from ancient times: Herodotus, Epicurus, and many others.

In the Hellenistic treasury, you will see masterpieces of craftsmanship in precious gemstones, glass, and metals, like these great serpentine armbands in gold with two tritons, male and female, each holding a small, winged Eros. And nearby, great bronzes, like the sleeping god Eros, here depicted with great immediacy and naturalism, as a plump baby. It is one of the few bronze statues to have survived from antiquity.

Read the rest of the transcript of Mr. de Montebello's presentation at the Met site.

Less celebrated, perhaps, is the exhibit at the Houston Museum of Natural Science's exhibit, Imperial Rome, which "displays more than 400 objects divided into six thematic sections, beginning with a marble sculpture of Julius Caesar, whose murder marked the demise of the Roman Republic, through the establishment and growth of an enormous Empire that melded cultural and historical legacies from around the ancient world. Marvel at small bronze to large marble statues; precious vessels in silver; and mosaics, glass and ceramics, as well as engravings, jewels, and a significant number of coins illustrating the sophistication of Roman society."

Links:

  • African Art and the Internet - An article containing significant accessory links examines the Internet's impact on the lives of most students of African expressive culture. Links are also to discussion sites and much of this has been developed by Michigan State University.
  • American Society of Botanical Artists - A site hosted by the Hunt Institute for Botanical Illustration and the images of the artist's work are difficult to resist. One contemporary artist, Paul Bell, is a professor of Forest Entomology and Pathology at Sir Sandford Fleming College (Ontario) and you can access his series of courses on the Internet. Another, Arundhati Vartak, is inspired by Indian miniature paintings and old Sanskrit classics while another is a jewelry designer and musician while one is a Margaret Mee Scholar.
  • Art Institute of Chicago - A renowned museum with a collection emphasizing european decorative arts from 1100 to the present and scupture from the medieval period to 1900. Architectural Drawings houses a collection of more than 130,000 architectural sketches and drawings, including Louis Sullivan, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Stanley Tigerman, and Frank Lloyd Wright.
  • Art Resources on the Web - A professor at Sweet Briar College has assembled an awesome collection of art links as well as being the gateway to art history . ArtStar - This is primarily an auction house for online sales but, in addition, there is a library section that not only carries their own magazine but a reference source with entries for thousands of living artists and professionals in the field. A glossary of arts terms, institutions, exhibits and artists round out a informative and good looking site.
More Art & Museum Links
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