Inspiring Art Teachers to Explore Art History | Curator’s Corner

A Forgotten Woman Artist

2012-01-30T14:24:00.002-05:00

I always like tointroduce you to artists who, I think, have been marginalized in “official” arthistory surveys of western (or non-western for that matter) art. Because Pariswas has been considered the “art center” of the western world in the firstthree decades of the 20^th century, it is hard to learn about certainartists outside of that sphere, especially British women who emigrated there. Theatmosphere in Paris in the first decade of the 20^th century was sorich that it inspired many artists to bring their work to maturity. Being in arich artistic environment wherein artists share ideas and techniques and talkabout the latest trends has got to be one of the most excellent experiences!Well, Gwen John lived through the periodwhen Picasso was experimenting with Cubism, and when Matisse,Brancusi, and Modiglianiwere also shattering the ideas of traditional art. However, she remains quiteapart stylistically.

Gwen John was the sister of an influential artist of theacademic bent with Pre-Raphaelitetendencies. In 1895 she went to the Slade School of Art in London, where shehoned her skills in drawing. Drawing would be the hallmark of her oeuvre. Shemoved to Paris in 1904 and became involved with the sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840–1917). It does not seemthat she drew any influence from Rodin, except for, perhaps, the pathos that isevident in her painted and drawn works.

After 1910, she concentrated on still life, interiors, and,especially, single figures of women. Thisportrait is one of many that John did of her friend Chloe Boughton-Leigh.In the painted portraits of Boughton-Leigh, we are reminded of British Romantic painting, particularly thelinks to Mannerism of the Renaissance. Also,in many ways, the elongation of form reminds one of Modigliani, who was workingin Paris at the time. However, the melancholy infused in the figure is seen inmany of John’s portraits of women. It could represent her unhappy relationshipwith Rodin, but it may also relate in a broader sense to the melancholy thatinfused European Expressionism, a period inEuropean history that was unsettled and on the verge of war.

Gwen John is a unique, singular voice in British painting ata time when all the focus was on Paris (Picasso, etc). Her work is acontribution to Expressionism that is little studied because most of her workwas figurative. I find her work to be the British manifestation of Expressionism.Her typical subject matter of women, isolated on a blank background, speaksvolumes about the state of women at the turn of the twentieth century, on thecusp of acceptance, and yet not quite there.

Activity: Draw a portrait of a classmate expressingfeelings or mood. First draw the shape of the sitter’s head large on the paper.Be sure that the eyes are in the right spot by looking at the classmate. Addfeatures to show expression. Use pastels, crayons or colored pencils to fill inthe portrait. Add background details to help heighten the expression. Colorchoices for the face can also heighten the expression.

Correlations to Davisprograms: Explorations in Art Grade 1: 2.8; Explorations in Art Grade 2:2.8; Explorations in Art Grade 3: 1.3; Explorations in Art Grade 4: 2.7;Explorations in Art Grade 5: 1.1, 1.2; Explorations in Art Grade 6: 1.1, 1.2,6.32; A Global Pursuit: 8.1; A Personal Journey: 3.2, 6.1; Exploring VisualDesign: 1, 2, 3, 7, 10, 16.6

Mask for Theater

2012-01-23T10:08:00.001-05:00

There are so manyaspects of Japanese culture that I findabsolutely fascinating; I could keep writingthis blog for years! As with many countries around the world and throughouthistory, art is an intrinsic part of many traditional cultural phenomena inJapan. What I especially appreciate about the connection between the arts andJapanese cultural life (such as theater, dancing,and religion) is the emphasis on subtlety.This is particularly true of the time-honored form of theater called Nô(or Noh).

Noh theater originated between the 8^th and 14^thcenturies ce in Japan. It ispossibly based on the Chinese form of satirical dance (gigaku in Japan) thatinvolved silent, masked performances accompanied by music. The art form wasoriginally performed in temples in Japan, but eventually became the favored artform of the nobility, samurai class, and shogunate. The present form evolved inthe fourteenth century, which became highly symbolic plays that expressed thesubjects of pain of loss, revenge, love of family, and honor.

There is often a contrast between the physical and ghostworld. Because the Noh involved evocative, esoteric subject matter, it wasfavored by the wealthy rather than the middle class. Noh theater presents slow,exaggerated movement, both dialogue and singing from the masked figures and the6–8 member “chorus,” and bare stagesthat have a pine tree painted backdrop. This backdrop was in respect for thecenturies old custom of holding Noh plays in temple grounds where the only stagesetting was a large wooden platform in a park surrounded with pines. Much ofthe stark simplicity of Noh plays is reflective of the influence of Zen Buddhism,among which the tenets are serenity, simplicity, and spontaneity.

This mask is one of six types of female characters from Nohplays. As with Kabuki at the time, female roles were taken by men. The maskshelped establish the character. There were several types of female masks. Thisis Shakumi, the strong, beautifulolder woman. Shakumi is always distinguishedby the stray strands of hair beginning after her crown. This mask might bemeant to communicate sorrow at a dead loved-one or missing spouse, longing fora loved one, or regret at actions taken against a loved one. The mask presentsthe epitome of Japanese female beauty, much of which is actually based ondepictions of the Buddha. Interestingly, the teeth are tarred, as gleamingwhite teeth were considered vulgar, and the eyebrows are shaved off and paintedhigher, a fashion that indicated the woman was to be considered intelligent.

In the modern period, women as well as men take Noh roles.However, the plays presented are traditional. Many young Japanese actors havebecome famous for their portrayal of Noh dynasty characters. Noh masks are stillmade in the traditional manner, carved out of Japanese cypress wood.

Correlations to Davisprograms: Explorations in Art Grade1: 5.29-30 studio; Explorations in Art Grade 3: 6.33-34 studio; Explorations inArt Grade 4: 5.30, 5.29-30 studio; Explorations in Art Grade 6: 6.35; ExploringVisual Design: 2, 7, 8, 10

The Subject as Art

2012-01-16T13:12:00.000-05:00

Did you ever find it hard to decide what the most significant aspect of a work of art is? This can happen when we look at a work and find multiple levels of meaning, aside from purely aesthetic concerns. The works of many contemporary artists show a reverence for not only styles of the past but of techniques and materials, to the point where those become some of the most compelling aspects of the work.

Yoon Kwang-cho is anacclaimed ceramic artist from South Korea.He studied in Seoul, and, like many of his peers, he derived inspiration fromthe ceramic tradition of Korea’s past.Korea’s long history of ceramic production dates back at least to 5000 bce. Yoon was particularly inspired by punch’ong ware, a type of stoneware popularized between the 14^thand 16^th centuries [the JoseonDynasty period (1392-1910)], which was an indigenous Korean ware. A varietyof decorative techniques including stamped, incised, and inlaid motifs isindicative of punch’ong. Typically, the design is achieved with an initialblue-green glaze covered in white slip through which the design is scratched.

Although inspired by styles from the past, Yoon’s forms arenot typical of traditional Korean wares. They are triangular, elliptical, andrectangular, almost impossible to achieve on the wheel. His forms areslab-built and often take on the spirit of sculpture rather than pottery. Whileemulating ancient decorative techniques, he also infuses his works with amodern aesthetic.

Yoon feels that an artist should put heart into his or herwork, feeling that punch’ong works lie beyond the concept of traditionalaesthetics, and reflect aspects of nature itself. Interestingly, this piece conveys a time-honored Buddhisttradition from China, Korea, and Japan in the copying of the Heart Sutra. TheHeart Sutra is a Mahayana Buddhist text, one of the most popular of Buddhistscriptures, concerned with the perfection of wisdom. Yoon used a nail to incisethrough the slip.

There are many other examples of works of art that emphasizesubject just as much as technique or form:

Mark Dion is concernedwith our throw-away society and the impact it has on the environment. Workssuch as NeukomVivarum focus on the reverence for untouched nature, ironically“packaged” in an installation. (ART21DI-169)

While we admire the beauty of ancientEgyptian coffins, we sometimes forget that the ritual of mummification andburial were essential to Egyptian beliefs about resurrection after death. Allthe most significant art that has come down to us from ancient Egypt revolvesaround the funerary rituals. (DMA-59A)

Posters are the easiestway to see subject matter trumping style. During World War II (1939–1945), posterscarried important messages to the public, such as this one to warn people abouthow to dress during blackouts. (MOMA-D0541)

Activity: Createa rectangular, triangular or multiple-sided vessel out of clay using the slabmethod. After the shape is complete, create a design using personal symbols.Sketch out symbols that mean something personally, and arrange them on paperbefore committing them to the vessel with a nail, pencil, or other pointedobject.

Correlations to Davisprograms: Explorations in Art Grade 2: 3 17-18 studio; Explorations in ArtGrade 3: 6.35; Explorations in Art Grade 5: 6.29-30 studio; A Global Pursuit:4.3; Exploring Visual Design: 1, 2, 6, 10, 11; The Visual Experience: 10.6,13.6

Happy Festive Days

2012-01-05T08:23:00.000-05:00

In Switzerland, thetime between Christmas and New Year is called “Feschttage,” which I guess couldloosely translate to “holidays.” I prefer to think of it as “festive days.” Inthat spirit, as a bright burst into the New Year, I present to you the work ofa painter I find Amazing (yes with a capital A): LindaBesemer. Like many of the artists Ishow you, she is a true original. Abstraction,Hard Edge, Minimalism,her work covers it. My take on her work— as a painter—is a love of color. Toobad some artists like Mondrian didn’t include more color in their minimalistwork!

Besemer’s work is an exploration of pure color and the verynature (plasticity and physicality) of the two-dimensional painting medium. Herworks challenge traditional ideas about art, and even abstraction itself.Without the benefit of support of any kind, Besemer creates sheets of pure acrylic paint with patterns on both sides. Like this one, they are often draped over analuminum rod, further confounding the strict definition of “painting.” In herassertion of the medium itself as subject, Besemer follows a distinguished lineof feminist artists starting in the 1970s whose work shatters the perceivedboundaries of fine art.

Besemer’s process involves painstaking precision so thatpreferred colors are juxtaposed with one another after the fold. She appliesthin skins of acrylic paint on a sheet of glass, peeling it off after it dries.The paintings in her fold series are inevitably dynamic tour-de-force ofhard-edge compositions, although the contrast of the front and back patternsintroduces the perception of space and of the paint as a three-dimensionalobject. This is a total reinvention of the concept of the picture plane!

Besemer received her BA and MFA at Indiana University andTyler School of Art. She teaches at Occidental College in Los Angeles. Inrecent works, she has introduced curving lines creating an Op Art type of visual movement.

Activity: Createa nonobjective artwork with either Organiclines and shapes or geometriclines and shapes that expresses a mood. Draw several large shapes first. Addmore lines and shapes to create a feeling of mothion. Add color to embolden themessage of the work.

Correlations to Davisprograms: Explorations in Art Grade 4:6.35; Explorations in Art Grade 6: 5.25; A Community Connection: 9.1; A GlobalPursuit: 7.2; Exploring Visual Design: 1, 4, 7, 8, 11, 12

What price (art) education?

2011-12-19T09:25:00.001-05:00

I just recently heardyet another news story about a state (California) proposing to cut massive amounts of money to education (andyou know art education is right up there at the top of the cut). Immediatelyfollowing was a story about a deceased movie star’s jewels fetching over 100 million dollars at auction. Okay, am I the only one who sees the irony inthis? 100 million for jewels from an actor, while cutting millions fromeducation? Where are these jewel-buyers when education is on the line? And ifthose buyers are from foreign countries, shame on them, too, because we’re in aworld-wide recession. Unfortunately, it isn’t just 21^st centuryentitlement. Has valuing the acquisition of art with a “pedigree” over theeducating children always been the norm? Could somebody spending 9 million dollars on a ring possibly think ofdonating that much money to a local school district? Or another more worthycause? Please!

To illustrate this point, let’s look at the case of Vincent van Gogh. During his lifetime, van Goghstruggled with acceptance as an artist and for sales. He epitomized the artist who loved nature and expressed that through hispaintings. He also epitomized the artist who struggled to get his artrecognized, but ended his life feeling he was a failure. He only sold one painting during his lifetime.

The last year of his death, van Gogh became recognized inmany countries of northern Europe. Within a couple of years of his death,imitators appeared copying his work. By the 1920s, copies of van Gogh’s workclouded the true number of legitimate works attributable to the artist. So,within ten years of van Gogh’s death, people were making money from his style.(I’m sorry, but this doesn’t even look like anearly van Gogh to me.) I think this is equally contemptible as peoplepaying millions of dollars for Hollywood jewelry, no matter how beautifullyit’s made.

As the income gap widens and people speak their minds aboutinequality, times such as these should help us reevaluate our priorities.Perhaps the “one percenters” of the world will finally see the value of qualityeducation for all (and thus higher quality of life) over mere materialpossessions.

Looking at Stained Glass

2011-12-12T12:03:00.000-05:00

Stained glass is predominantly a Western artform. When we think of stained glass, we think of Gothiccathedrals, right? Stained glass is believed to have originated from Byzantine (ca. 500 –1453) mosaics that used glass tesserae (squares ofcut glass) in multiple colors. Stained glass began to adorn Western churchesduring the Medieval period (ca. 500–1300).The earliest examples remaining date from between 1000 and 1050. Stained glasswas a significant art form from that period through most of the 16^thcentury, primarily in Western religious structures. In Western art historybooks, stained glass disappears in writing until the mid- to late-nineteenthcentury. A renaissance in the art form began at that time. Brone Jameikis was a major force in stainedglass art.

Two stylistic movements led to the rejuvenation of stainedglass as a major art form in the West: GothicRevival (flourished ca. 1830s–1860s), a style born out of the Romantic movement in which any past style was fair game forimitation (the style was mostly in architecture and furniture); and the Arts and Crafts Movement (flourished 1860s toearly 20^th century), which was a conscious revival of past styles,particularly Medieval, with an emphasis on the quality of hand-crafteddecorative arts as a reaction to mass-produced objects of the IndustrialRevolution. Stained glass was a major factor in both movements, and, in thelate nineteenth century, became increasingly a medium taken up by women.

In both the nineteenth and twentieth century, painters oftenbegan working in stained glass (including JohnLa Farge), but the period saw the rise of artists dedicated to glass (suchas Louis Comfort Tiffany). Into the 21^st century, artistsdedicated to stained glass abound. Jameikis is an artist whose body of work wasprimarily stained glass.

Jameikis was born in Vilnius, Lithuania. Her earliestmemories of stained glass were of being fascinated with the windows of a Gothicchurch in Vilnius and the colors produced by the light going through them. Thatbecame a life-long fascination in her work. Jameikis worked primarily in slabglass, one inch thick pieces held together by epoxy resin rather than lead.While her works reflect an understanding of the structure of traditionalstained glass, they also recall the fragmentation of form of modernistmovements such as Cubism.

This window is an image of the Virgin Mary holding a lotus.The lotus was an ages old symbol of purity and spontaneous generation, bothreflecting Mary’s position of divine birth in Christian doctrine. The thicknessof the glass gives the piece a more luminous and glittering appearance thantraditional stained glass because of the refractive qualities of slab glass.One of Jameikis’ most enduring monuments in stained glass is her work for thechurch of Saint Peter in Honolulu.

Activity: A fauxstained glass panel. Materials: wax paper, crayons, black construction paper,glue, a hot iron. Have students design a relatively simple stained glasswindow, possibly abstract. Students shave various colors of crayons onto thewax paper (placed over a study drawing) following the shapes in the drawing,and cover the shavings with another piece of wax paper. Applying the hot ironto this will fuse the shavings together. Black construction paper can be thencut out to frame the various areas of color.

Correlations to Davisprograms: Exploring Visual Design:1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11; The Visual Experience: 10.9

My Love of Mosaics

2011-12-05T07:49:00.001-05:00

I’ve been fascinatedwith mosaics since I took a tour of theupper mosaics of San Marco in Venice. Ibelieve I never really stopped and thought about the intricate nature of theart form. I even saw mosaics designed by Tintoretto!However, the art form is not really the main point of this blog, although Iwill leave you with a technical description of the process. What fascinates meabout the mosaics at Hammam-Lif (near Tunis) in Tunisia is what they representin a broader sense about humanity. Here are Romanmosaic artists decorating a Jewish synagogue! There have always been pointsin history where cultures (regardless of religion) have co-existed peacefullyand profitably! I’ll throw a few instances out: Nasrid(Islamic) Spain (1232–1492); Cochin, India;and yes, many cities within the vast RomanEmpire. The lesson contemporary human beings have yet to learn is that wecan learn from each other for mutual benefit.

As you all know, a mosaic is a pattern or picture made byembedding small pieces of stone or glass (the pieces are called tesserae) in cement on surfaces such aswalls, floors, and ceilings. Mosaics seem to have originated in the Mediterraneanregion, primarily invented as inexpensive flooring of pebbles. Artisans soondiscovered that pebbles of varying colors could be arranged to form decorativepatterns. Pebble mosaics were popular throughout Roman times because pebbleswere durable and cheap. Romans were interested in realism in their sculptureand painting, and desired mosaics, too, to have more pictorial realism. TheRomans began cutting stones into desired shapes, which revolutionizedmosaic-making.

Despite official intolerance, Jewish communities thrivedthroughout the Roman Empire. Carthage,which the Romans wiped out in the BCEs, eventually was rebuilt (contemporaryTunis) as a major port and source of wheat and other commodities during thefirst century BCE.

Like many of the cities in the far flung regions of theempire, Tunis became a cosmopolitan center of art and cultural life, includinga large, prosperous Jewish community. What is novel about Hammam-Lif is thatsynagogues were decorated with human and animal figures (frowned upon in mostIsraeli art in the ancient period).

Interestingly, the Jewish people (like the early Christiansliving within the Empire) had to rely on local (Roman) artists to decoratetheir synagogue. This mosaic is profoundlyRoman in style, and the symbolism within a synagogue is an open question. Whatis amazing to me, regardless of where the Romans spread their influence: Lookat the nuances of shading in the figure’s face! This was done by multi coloredstones and clay tesserae!

Activity: Cut smallsquares out of pieces of different colors of construction paper. Pick out adesign, such as a face, plant, or abstract pattern, and glue the squares to ablack piece of paper. The black paper will form a background that can indicatelines within the design.

Correlations to Davisprograms: Explorations in Art Grade 3: 4.22; A Personal Journey: 2.1;Exploring Visual Design: 6, 11; The Visual Experience: 210-211; Discovering ArtHistory: 6.3

Happy Thanksgiving: Thankful for American Impressionism

2011-11-28T12:01:00.001-05:00

Wrapping up myThanksgiving period blogs is a big Thank You for the painting movement called American Impressionism. When I think of movementsthat have influenced my own painting, American Impressionism is right up therewith French Impressionism itself, and German Expressionism. Up until the time of theAmerican impressionists, there were no inroads into the entrenched realism that dominated American painting. Iguess I really just like artists who buck the established system—at the timethe National Academy in New York that held itself to be the arbiter of Americanartistic taste.

Just as happened in France in the 1870s, Impressionism wasslow to catch on with critics and the public in the US, starting in the 1880swhen French impressionist works were exhibited in America. When Americanartists painting in the style began exhibiting in the 1890s, they too initiallyfound a cool reception. American patrons preferred didactic realism in the formof genre scenes, portraiture, and descriptive landscapes. While American impressionistspresented depictions of real landscapes, their approach with broken color andactive brush work did not initially fare well. Their style was consideredunsophisticated by academic hacks.

Childe Hassam studied inParis for three years starting in 1883. Exposed to Impressionism, his palettelightened and he adopted the short, quick brush strokes of Impressionist (andsome Post-Impressionist) painters. Hereturned to New York in 1890. By the mid-1890s, there were many artistspainting in impressionist styles. Ignored by the National Academy and largelyby the public, Hassam, along with nine other impressionists, formed the TenAmerican Painters (first exhibit 1898 in New York). The group was devoted toImpressionism, exhibiting outside official venues.

Hassam has always been my favorite of the American impressionists.His landscapes are absolutely gorgeous, and, like most of the AmericanImpressionists (including Mary Cassatt), hisinterest in depicting the effects of light on color and form did not lead himto the total disintegration of the subject. Later in life, while still workingin the Impressionist palette and fluid brush work, Hassam’s works bordered onexpressionistic, as we see in this lovelyseascape from one of his hiatuses in Cos Cob.

Activity: Usingtempera paint and various size brushes, create a fantasy landscape thatemphasizes bright colors in either warm or cool families, related lines andshapes to create rhythm. Be sure to repeat the elements to create patterns andmovement.

Correlations to Davisprograms: Explorations in Art Grade 1: 3.16, 4.21; Explorations in ArtGrade 2: 1.5; Explorations in Art Grade 3: 2.12; Explorations in Art Grade 4:3.14, 4.21, 4.22; Explorations in Art Grade 5: 6.32; A Personal Journey: 5.1; ACommunity Connection: 5.1; A Global Pursuit: 2.2; Exploring Visual Design: 4, 5,6, 8.

Happy Thanksgiving: Pioneer of American Genre

2011-11-21T14:28:00.001-05:00

Let’s celebrateThanksgiving with a bountiful kitchen scene from19^th century America!

This really isn’tgoing to be about a “woman’s domain” or “only women cook”; believe it or not,it’s about a pioneering woman artist. As I haverepeated (probably ad nauseam to you all), I feel there’s never been aperiod in art history when women have not played a significant role. So, one ofmy thanks at Thanksgiving is for the wonderful history of American art that includes the broad spectrumof the people in this country: encompassing women, African Americans, Native Americans, and all of the immigrantsthat have made the cultural diversity of this country so rich.

Until the 1870s, women were not allowed into the major artschools in the US. Like their European counterparts, they relied on trainingfrom male family members or husbands who were artists. However, there were somevigorous women artists in the first half of the nineteenth century who defiedconvention in order to achieve their goal to be professional artists. Lilly Martin Spencer was one of those women.

The period before the Civil War (1861–1865) in the USwitnessed the rise in popularity in the US of genrepainting, particularly scenes of Americanlife. American artists at the time consciously strove to establish anAmerican “school” or art. This perhaps explains why Spencer turned down anoffer by a wealthy Cincinnati patron in 1841 to study in Europe. She had taughtherself painting at home with the ardent encouragement of her liberal parents.After lessons from local Cincinnati painters she started exhibiting wherevershe could in Cincinnati. Her marriage in 1844 did not slow down her career, forher husband took over domestic duties in order to allow Spencer to continue topaint. Sales through the Western Art-Union of Cincinnati starting in 1847 wasthe beginning of a very successful career. Such art unions sold lottery ticketswith engravings of American artists’ paintings, with a drawing to present thepainting itself to the winner. These drawings exposed Spencer’s work to a widesection of the American public.

Although she did some portraits, Spencer preferred toconcentrate on genre scenes, specifically family life (she herself had bornethirteen children). She studied at the National Academy after moving to NewYork in 1848. Until the time of the Civil War, her genre scenes vied inpopularity with the most notable male genre painter of the period: George Caleb Bingham (1811-1879).

This work was commissioned by the Cosmopolitan ArtAssociation in New York. The association promoted art by women for women.However, the protagonist of this work threatens a spoonful of molasses in theface if the (presumed) male viewer tries an improper advance. The painting isan interesting combination of traditional subject matter with unconventionalboldness. The irony is that Spencer was a woman supporting her family byportraying women in seemingly traditional roles. Her handling of the still lifearrangements within the painting and the overall domestic scene indicate thatSpencer was well aware of Dutch Baroque painting,which emphasized genre and still life.

Activity: Using pencil with colored pencil ormarkers, have students create an interior that features a common activity intheir family, with emphasis on a figure in the work (whether themselves or afamily member) interacting with the viewer.

Correlations to Davisprograms: Explorations in Art Grade 1: 3.14; Explorations in Art Grade 2:5.26, Explorations in Art Grade 4: 1.2; Explorations in Art Grade 5: 1.6; Explorationsin Art Grade 6: 1.3, 1.5

A Still Life Pioneer

2011-11-17T13:33:00.001-05:00

Well, we’re coming upon Thanksgiving and I want to express my thanks for many aspects of the arts.One thing I’m totally thankful for is the rich history of American art. I may not always love the obsession with realism, but I appreciate it in early American art because the artists werelooking to European models that were popular atthe time. AND, in a country where, at the time, only portraiture was truly appreciated in painting, Raphaelle Peale helped make still life a mainstream, accepted subjectmatter in painting. In doing so, he made a way for people of restricted meansto show their good taste without spending a fortune on a portrait.

Raphaelle was the oldest son of Charles Willson Peale (1741–1827).He learned how to paint from his father while working in his father’s taxidermystudio. He was established as a professional miniatureartist by the time he was twenty-five. During the first half of the firstdecade of the nineteenth century, Raphaelle and his brother Rembrandt Peale (1778–1860) traveled to majorcities all over the east coast painting portraits: Rembrandt full sizedpaintings and Raphaelle miniatures.

When his health declined in 1815, Raphaelle no longer feltcapable of extensive travel hunting down portraiture commissions. He decided todevote himself to still life painting, eventhough his father disapproved and still life paintings were not nearly aslucrative as portraits. Although he briefly returned to portraiture in 1820, hehad left behind as many as 70 still life paintings when he died prematurely in 1825.

Raphaelle emphasized still life subjects almost entirely thelast ten years of his life. He can actually be considered the firstprofessional American still life painter. Raphaelle’s still life paintings aresimple and austere. His compositions contained a smaller number of objects,often one type. This is perhaps the influence of SpanishBaroque still life paintings he saw while in Mexico, particularly the workof Juan Sanchez Cotan.

In Still Life with Peaches Raphaelle placesthe still life on a shallow shelf parallel to the picture plane in a shallowspace. Although the lighting is diffused, as in all his still life paintings, itoriginates from the left side of the painting. The diffused nature of thelighting creates luminous, soft-edged forms. Although paying close attention tophysical detail, Rapahelle’s works do not emphasize flaws in the fruit.

Activity: Usingcolor construction paper, use a light color of chalk to create a still lifeemphasizing the lights and darks of the composition. Work from lightest todarkest values. Create values by rubbing away excess chalk, making sure thatthe forms go through of the nuaces from dark to light-struck.

Correlations to Davisprograms: Explorations in Art Grade2: 5.27; Explorations in Art Grade 4: 6.36; Explorations in Art Grade 5 2.7; APersonal Journey: 2.4; A Community Connection: 3.1; Exploring Visual Design: 3,7, 9; Discovering Art History: 12.3

Organic Meets Technology

2011-11-07T11:21:00.002-05:00

When one thinks ofmuseums that have significant collections of moderndesign, one inevitably thinks of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; theCooper Hewitt in New York; or the Wolfsonian in Florida. One of the things thatconstantly amazes me, and causes me to appreciate new design, is the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s dedication to acquiring objects of modern design. We acquiredthis image a couple of years ago, and everytime I look it, I want to go out and buy one! It is absolutely such a gorgeouspiece, and one appreciates that beauty even more when one realizes thefantastic technology (I don’t completely understand, come on, I’m an arthistorian!) that helped create it.

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Forms from nature have traditionally served as inspiration forthe designers of ceramics, furniture, lighting,and other types of utilitarian objects. Never before, however, did theorganic world meet 21^st century technology as in the works by the design firm Materialise in France. They have agroup of brilliant artists who create works that reflect a modern aesthetic crossedwith organic forms, and are designed to be produced by computer. The systemcalled RM (rapid manufacturing) uses a computer aided design as its startingpoint, and creates the object in three dimensions from a variety of materials(in this case nylon).

PMA-2856

PMA-1114

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Dan Yeffet’s pieces areelegant works based on forms in nature. He was born in Israel and currentlyworks in Paris. He studied in Jerusalem and Amsterdam, where he started astudio called JellyLab, which he relocatedto Paris. While designing everything from lighting to interiors, his firmcurrently specializes in textiles and art installations. Although Yeffet’s budvase is decidedly modern in conception, it totally recalls the aesthetic seenin some Art Nouveau objects of the early 20^thcentury.

Correlations to Davisprograms: A Personal Journey: 3.1; Exploring Visual Design: 1, 2, 6, 12

Photography in 21st Century

2011-10-31T13:09:00.001-04:00

With the Davis Art Gallery doing a show of contemporary photography coming up on November3^rd, I decided to introduce you all to a photographer whom I’ve cometo appreciate in the last year or so: ZoeStrauss. I believe she is Philadelphia-based, but takes her subject matterfrom far and wide. What’s fascinating tome is how photography, as an art medium, has basically come full circle fromthe earliest period. It was originallyconceived of as a method of recording reality—i.e., documentary— butsubsequently went through convulsions of format, style, and subject, because itwas not considered a fine art. Well, in the 21^st century, weconsider do photography a fine art. The medium has an immense range now, andironically, documentary photography is backas one of the primary styles.

There are currently a variety of photographers who shoot theAmerican scene, some in the “snapshot aesthetic” and others in a morepictorialist way. Strauss’ photographs are definitely in the snapshotaesthetic. This style emerged in the late 19^th century as camerasbecame more commonplace among amateurs and middle class families. The style ischaracterized by an unposed, candid, spur-of-the-moment photograph of an eventor place. In the 1960s, interestingly, the idea became refined into a style ofphotography that, while mimicking the off-handed shots of amateurs or “momphotographers,” it revealed a deeper psychological investigation by thephotographer.

Nothing could have interested photographers more thanHurricane Katrina in 2005. The vastness of human suffering and property damagebegged to be documented, if only so that the breadth of the catastrophe couldhave an impact on those viewing the photographs. Strauss went to Gulfport and Biloxi in Mississippi in lateSeptember 2005, spending her time with a group of doctors and nursesdistributing ice, water, and generic medicines. While there she took dozens ofphotographs with her digital camera.

Strauss was born in Philadelphia and received her firstcamera when she was 30. She began to photograph life around her in the lesswell-off areas of Philadelphia, and then broadened her scope to thecircumstances of everyday life among the under-privileged around the world.While largely self-taught, her photographs display an amazing monumentality andformality that play on elements of design such as positive and negative space,symmetrical balance, and emphasis. Her image of a devastated MacDonald’s signspeaks volumes to the destruction of Americans’ comfort zone with the materiallife, and how quickly it can be swept away by the power of nature.

Correlations to Davis Programs: A Personal Journey: 4.1,6.1; A Community Connection: 7.2; The Visual Experience: 9.5; Discovering ArtHistory: 14.5

Aizuri-e = Wonderful

2011-10-24T09:31:00.000-04:00

Aizuri-e means “blueprinted picture.” Traditionally, the blue was derived from the dayflower.However, via the Dutch in Osaka, Prussian blue was imported from Europe asearly as the 1790s. It did not appear in woodblockprints until the 1810s. By 1829 it is visible in several artists’ work. Havingdabbled in woodblock prints, I find the nuances in the values of the blue to beextraordinary. Looking at landscapes such asthis, it’s hard to believe that the artist was better known for his actorand courtesan prints! If one did not have an eye for the grain of the wood(visible in the pale blue on Fuji), this could easily be mistaken for apainting.

Utagawa Toyokuni III(Kunisada I) was in his own time was the most popular and successful printdesigner in Japan, ahead of Hokusai and Hiroshige. He was born in Edo in 1786, and hiswas an amateur poet of some note. After showing a predisposition for art(copying prints of actors), he was accepted as an apprentice around 1800 by oneof the great masters of the Japanese woodblock print, Utagawa Toyokuni (I) (1769–1825),and became one of his chief pupils.

Kunisada started out doing actor prints,the initial specialty of the Utagawa school, but eventually branched out intoprints of beauties, and even dabbled in landscapes. The Utagawa school was themost prolific of the ukiyo-e (ca. mid-18^thto mid-19^th centuries), founded by UtagawaToyoharu (1735–1814). Toyoharu became most famous for landscapes done in Western-influencedone-point perspective. Although Kunisada’s landscapes(in the 1830's) showed real promise, he never did many. Thiswork comes from a series of designs for fans, and is in the traditional layeredrecession.

Fan-shapedprints became a popular during the Edo period. Since they were often cut andglued to fans, few of these designs have survived. Kunisada excelled atfan-shaped prints and designed works that capitalized on the unusual shape. Heproduced relatively few landscape designs during his career, and this one isparticularly unusual for its avoidance of outlines.

Activity:Create a monoprint that imitates a woodblock print landscape in differentvalues of one color. Put paint on a smooth surface such as plastic, metal orwaxed paper. Paint the main shapes of the landscape then wipe or daub away someof the paint to create different values. Put paper over the whole design andrub it to press it into the paint. (Explorations in Art Grade 4)

Correlations to Davis programs: Explorations inArt Grade 1: 4.21; Explorations in Art Grade 2: 1.4, 1.5; Explorations in ArtGrade 4: 1.5, 4.22; Explorations in Art Grade 5: 4.23; A Global Pursuit: 7.3; ACommunity Connection: 4.3; A Personal Journey: 3.3, 5.1; Exploring VisualDesign: 3, 4, 5; The Visual Experience: 3.5, 9.4, 13.5; Discovering ArtHistory: 4.4

Chromolithograph Magic

2011-10-18T09:47:00.000-04:00

Although women wererestricted from where they could learn how to be an artist up until the late 19^thcentury in America, many women became professional artists. One of the media in which an increasing number of women participated was printmaking. Printmaking was seen as an extensionof painting, but was not appreciated as a “fine art.” Actually, it took untilthe 20^th century for printmaking techniques to be considered fine,stand-alone works of art (this despite the “renaissance”in etching that took place in the 1860s). Primarily, throughout thenineteenth century, printmaking was seen as a way of copying paintings for mass consumption, for advertising, and for illustration. Interestingly, manywomen took up printmaking as a way of artistic expression within the narrowconfines of what was deemed “appropriate”subject matter. What we in the 21^st century do not often think aboutis how these women, deprived of the gallery, academy, and museum network thatmen had, persevered and have left us a glorious body of work.

Chromolithography, likecolor woodcuts, involves the use of multiplesurfaces with the same design, in lithography’s case a stone, on which thevarious colors are printed on the paper containing the original neutral design.Like color woodcuts, the printer had to be careful to line up the base printwith each color so that registration of the colors would be exact.

Ellen Thayer Fisher wasthe older sister of AmericanImpressionist/Tonalist Abbott HenderonThayer (1849–1931). Although it is theorized that Fisher “learned” art fromher younger brother, it is most likely that she was a self-taught artist. Herfather was a country doctor, and while her brother went to New York to studyart, she remained in remote New Hampshire, studying landscapes and flowers assubject matter.

While Fisher’s primary medium was watercolor, she, like manyof the women artists in remote areas of the Northeast, succumbed to thenumerous recessions in the American economy that occurred between the 1870s and1890s. With demand by patrons decreasing for original watercolors that couldcost five dollars, they resorted to either coloring other artists’ prints, orhaving their own work lithographed. Fisher supplemented her income by producingbeautiful works such as this for greeting cards, place mates, and other itemsthat could be bought for as cheaply as twenty-five cents.

Nonetheless, this beautifulcolor lithograph shows all the sophistication of fellow nature artists suchas Fidelia Bridges, Elizabeth Lyman Boott, Sarah Wyman Whitman, and Bertha Jaques. When she moved to Brooklyn aftermarriage, Fisher continued to produce watercolors of flora and also gaveartistic instruction from home through the mail.

Activity: Using color pencils, pastels, or markers,recreate this still life by using simple geometric shapes and primary andcomplementary colors. Remember that the basic geometric shapes are the circle,the square, and the triangle.

Correlations to Davisprograms: Explorations in Art Grade 2: 1.2, 1.3; Explorations in Art Grade5: 4.1, 4.20

Art Deco Magic

2011-10-12T09:59:00.000-04:00

Being born and raisedin Chicago (but living in New England the last 15 years), my mind often wandersback to the many wonderful walks I took while living in the city. As an arthistorian, I was fascinated with thearchitecture, not only of downtown, but of the neighborhoods. Wandering the side streets of Chicago’sneighborhoods reveals a rich architectural history. I used to love walkingaround at night in my neighborhood (Wicker Park) and look at all of the grandold turn of the (20^th) century mansions and see how people hadrenovated/updated them. Apparently,though, no period in art history is immune from “updating” existing buildings.

Chicago experienced a boom in architecture during the 1920sbecause of the artificially raging stock market (sort of like today). Oneaspect of that boom was the “updating” of buildings that had either fallen intodisrepair or had been abandoned because families had dissolved. A similar“modernization” occurred in American interior design and architecture duringthe 1950s, ironically affecting the work done in the 1920s!

Sol Kogen and EdgarMiller met and both studied briefly at the School of the Art Institute ofChicago in 1917. They both quit and Kogen subsequently went to Paris, where hemingled with the avant-garde artists of the time, including Pablo Picasso. While there, he was impressedthe way old buildings were renovated to not only accommodate modern taste, butalso fill the need for (relatively) cheap artist space.

Kogen bought a Victorianmansion and he and Miller reconfigured it into artists’ spaces. Miller iscredited with most of the design work as well as the interior design. Theyerected a brick wall over the existing mansion, took out the windows and put instained glass and lead glass windows. They scoured Chicago for architecturalremnants such as mosaics, carved lintels, fireplace mantles, etc, and made eachapartment unique. The design is not only a tribute to Art Deco aesthetics, but also the aesthetics ofBauhaus (in Germany) that espoused combiningart with everyday design.

The place is still a landmark, and, ironically, for sale. Ivisited it in the 1980s and was completely wowed by the combination of mosaic,leaded glass, angled walls, and just plain being so close to downtown (it’s inthe Old Town area).

Correlations to Davis programs: Explorations in Art Grade 1:1.1, 2.12; Explorations in Art Grade 2: 6.31, 6.32; Explorations in Art Grade3: 4.20; Explorations in Art Grade 4: 3.18; Explorations in Art Grade 5: 2.11,2.12; A Personal Journey: 8.1

Meet a Mezzotint Master

2011-10-03T12:17:00.001-04:00

I’ve tried lithography, woodcut,linoleum cut, and etching (on a plastic plate, yuck!), but havenever succeeded as a printmaker. I would gladly do color lithography if I couldhave a press in my living room, but then I couldn’t paint. I have to say thatintaglio printing was the hardest medium to master; I don’t know how many timesI inked and wiped, inked and wiped, and sent it through the press beforeproducing an acceptable print. Well, when I see accomplished printmakers, thenI bow down in humility, because works like thisjust make me GREEN with envy.

The key element of intaglioprintmaking (including etching, engraving, drypoint,aquatint, and mezzotint) is that the ink rests in incised linesin the metal plate. After inking the plate, the excess ink on the surface mustbe wiped away. The plate is then put through a roller press which has greatpressure that forces the paper into the incised lines thus creating the print.

The mezzotint process begins by texturing a metalplate in such a way that it will hold a great deal of ink and print a solidblack field. This is done with a tool called a "rocker." A rocker isessentially a large curved blade with very fine teeth along its edge. Thisblade is rocked back and forth, putting courses of fine dots into the metal plate.After this has been done repeatedly the plate will be covered with finestipples that can hold ink. The next step is to scrape away the stippledtexture where lighter passages are needed. The more the plate is scraped incertain areas the less ink it will hold and the whiter it will print. Mezzotintdiffers from other intaglio methods because the artist works from black towhite rather than white to black.

Hamaguchi Yozo (viewmore works here) is considered one of the masters of the mezzotint. He wasborn and studied art in Japan. After studying painting and sculpture in Tokyo,he abandoned that in 1930 and went to Paris where he studied printmakingprocesses. His skilled use of the rocker in his mezzotints creates a synthesisof Japanese and European art. While using an ostensibly western medium, heinfuses it with the Japanese reverence fornature in his still life works, giving them an insubstantiality thatsuggests the transience of life, while also suggesting western surrealist compositions.

Activity: Createan image of an individual object imitating the visual effects of a mezzotint.Using dark colored (black, brown, grey, or any dark color) construction paper,draw an image of a single object with one light color using chalk, pastel, orcolored pencil. Make sure that the image is worked in the opposite from onwhite paper – establishing highlights with the light color and using the darkpaper for shadow. Blur the edges of the medium lines using a blending tool toimitate the soft quality of mezzotints.

Correlations to Davis programs: Explorations in Art Grade 2: 5.27; Explorationsin Art Grade 5: 2.7, 2.8; Exploring Visual Design: 3, 9.

An Expressionist Landscape for Fall

2011-09-27T13:32:00.001-04:00

Let’s celebrate theofficial start of autumn with a beautiful little landscape by one of myfavorite German expressionists: Emil Nolde. German expressionist landscapeswere a big influence on my own painting when I was in school, so imagine mydelight when I uncovered this little treasure while cataloging new imageacquisitions from the awesome Albright-Knox ArtGallery in Buffalo! Nowadays, we areaccustomed to abstraction in art. However, not even 80 years ago a lot of thepublic had trouble with abstract art. I totally do not understand how such abeautiful use of color could be considered offensive, but before World War II(1939–1945), abstraction was under fire in some parts of Europe as well asbeing shunned in America. Weird.

Expressionism in northern European art of the earlytwentieth century was an offshoot of art movements in the late nineteenthcentury that emphasized romanticism, expressive color, or symbolic (rather thanrepresentational) subject matter. The objective in expressionist work was to impartthe artist’s feelings about the subject and to elicit an emotional reactionfrom the viewer.

Nolde is a unique figure among the expressionists. Born innorthern Germany near the Danish border, Nolde initially studied woodcarving inBerlin. He studied painting in Munich, and eventually in Paris from 1899–1900,where he came under the influence of the colors of Impressionism. Armed with this bright palette,he returned to an intrinsically German style influenced by Gothic art, featuring emotionally chargedsubjects in bright color with jagged, often distorted forms. He urged otherartists to reject some aspects of western tradition in space and form, andembrace art from non-western cultures, such as Africanmasks and Oceanic art.

In 1906 Nolde was invited to join the German expressionistgroup Die Brücke in Berlin, a group which VasilyKandinsky characterized as expressing “inner necessity” in their painting.Nolde left the group a year later, preferring to follow a personalexpressionist style. His works featuring figures reflected the influence ofnon-western masks, while his use of color was an exaggeration of theimpressionist palette, and a reflection of the French Fauves’ use of non-local color on forms.

Nolde was a passionate believer in the superiority of theGerman people, and had a fervent affection for the land. He joined the Naziparty in the 1920s. However, by 1934 the Nazis considered his art tooexperimental and non-German and he was forbidden to exhibit. His paintings werepart of the massive exhibition in 1937 (which included many of theexpressionists and also Bauhaus artists) puton by the Nazis called Degenerate Art. The Nazis preferred a perverse type of social realism that extolled patriotic values ofthe German people through genre scenes and allegories. During World War II,Nolde, in self-imposed exile within Germany, produced only landscapes andfloral still life paintings

This little landscapedemonstrates Nolde’s love of his native land, expressed in the realm of pseudofantasy. The brilliant color and vibrant movement of the surface arecharacteristic of his work throughout his life.

Activity: Ask students to create a painting about amemory related to weather. Have them choose warm or cool colors to dominate thepainting depending on the mood they want to show.

Correlations to Davisprograms: Explorations in Art Grade 1:4.21; Explorations in Art Grade 2: 1.4; Explorations in Art Grade 3: 2.12; Explorationsin Art Grade 4: 1.5, 4.22; Explorations in Art Grade 5: 4.20; A PersonalJourney: 5.1; A Global Pursuit: 8.1, 7.3, 6.2; Exploring Visual Design: 4, 5, 6;The Visual Experience: 16.6; Discovering Art History: 14.1

A Nice Summer Landscape for Fall

2011-09-19T11:04:00.005-04:00

A friend of mine justframed a painting that I did en plein air(out of doors) as a birthday present. It inspired me to present to you a work thatyou may not have seen by one of my favorite Impressionists:Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Every now and then I like to show you alittle-known gold nugget by a well-known artist of the past. This, to me, isthe epitome of what it means to paint outdoors: a quick sketch that may workits way into a painting in the studio. I know that’s not how the Impressionistsworked, but that’s why I paint outdoors: studies during the temperate months inorder to fuel me during the winter in my ~~living room~~ studio. I thinkit’s important, as an artist, to work outdoors and lay down what we see. It canreally come back to inform our future works when we think about light, howlight affects color, and even composition.

I think this tiny pieceis one of the most charming works from Renoir’s late period. It’s obviously adepiction of the Seine at some point out of Paris, probably somewhere near theCafé Fournaise in Chatou. The Café Fournaise isnow a museum that houses works by many of the companion artists of Renoirwho flocked to the suburb of Paris to paint the scenery. What’s wonderful aboutthis work is that it is a quick study, where we see the singular goal ofImpressionists to capture a fleeting moment of light and its effects of localcolor (the color of an object). Also, may I say, it’s just a great littlepainting!

Renoir departed briefly from Impressionism in the 1880safter visiting Italy and being impressed by works from the Italian Renaissance and Baroque. He returned to Impressionism in the1890s and continued to work in that style until his death. Despite his on-goingpredominant interest in the figure, Renoircontinued to produce landscapes throughouthis career. Unlike his figurative compositions that were done partiallyoutdoors and partially in the studio, he still painted landscapes completelyoutdoors. This work comes from a period that was dominated by portraits andstudies of nudes.

Correlations to Davisprograms: Explorations in Art Grade 2:1.5; Explorations in Art Grade 3: 4.19, 4.22; Explorations in Art Grade 4: 4.19;A Personal Journey: 5.1; A Global Pursuit: 7.1; Exploring Visual Design 4, 6;The Visual Experience: 16.4; Discovering Art History: 13.1

The Woman Behind the Men

2011-09-12T10:43:00.000-04:00

Did you ever stop tothink about the people behind historic art movements? A professor of mine oncesaid that without wealthy patrons such as the Medici in Florence, the Renaissance would not have happened. As much asI despise the influence wealthy people have on society, I have to admit thatwithout rich people buying art, we probably would not hear about artists suchas Jan van Eyck, Antonie van Dyck, Rembrandt,Picasso, or countless other artists throughouttime. Is this due to the fact that rich people have insight into art more thanany others? NO! Most often in the past it was because the artist proved to befashionable, displaying the latest tastes. What accounts for the advancement ofabstract movements in American art after1945, a genre that was notoriously entrenched in realism until the 1940s, then?I’ll say it once if I say it a thousand times: women have always had a majorimpact on art history, and Betty Parsons isone of THE most influential people in American modernism.

Betty Parsons was born into a wealthy family and studiedwith many different artists. Although she studied with many artists in Paris,the defining moment in her life was the 1913 Armory Show in New York, whichintroduced Americans to European modernism.She considered abstraction a “New Spirit” in art. After teaching art inCalifornia, Parsons returned to New York in 1936. Her early paintings wereexhibited in the Midtown Galleries, where she was also offered a job.

In 1945, Peggy Guggenheim closed her Art of This CenturyGallery in New York, and Parsons agreed to take on many of the artistsGuggenheim represented. Her first major show was that of Jackson Pollock in 1947. She subsequently wenton to represent many of the nascent AbstractExpressionists, such as Barnett Newmanand Mark Rothko. Clement Greenberg, the NewYork art critic who was the biggest “fan” of the New York School artists, oncecalled her the “den mother of Abstract Expressionism.” She went on for threedecades to represent avant-garde artists, including minimalists such as Agnes Martin, and color field artists such as Ellsworth Kelly. Her commitment to modernism isan extraordinary, if little reported, legacy in American modernism.

Why do I sing the praises of Betty Parsons? Not only becauseof her art historical foresight, but also because she was an artist herself. I’venever trusted art dealers who weren’t artists themselves. Parsons began hercareer as a painter and ended up producing constructions of found objects. Herworks, greatly influenced by Surrealism and Dada, were composed of bits of wood she foundon the beach near her home in Long Island. She called her works “carpenter’sthrowaways.” The titles, such as Jolly, were extensions of the poetry sheloved to write.

Betty Parsons was a true American original who is littlewritten about in mainstream art history texts. Her importance in promotingAbstract Expressionism, as well as other modernist movements, is incalculable.

Activity: A foundobject sculpture: Using recycled materials (found objects), create a figurativesculpture. Select at least three objects to make a sculpture. Let the materialssuggest ideas for the form of the sculpture. Using glue or tape, assemble thematerials to suggest a human figure.

Correlations to Davisprograms: Explorations in Art Grade 4: 6.35, The Visual Experience; 10.2

The Idea of Tomb Figures

2011-09-06T10:29:00.004-04:00

I recently attended the wake of a friend’s mom and couldn’t help but contemplate how contemporary funerary rituals differ from those in world history (especially an open coffin). If you put your mind to it, I’m sure you could name at least a dozen cultures from different areas of the world where it was expected that not only would the deceased proceed to an afterlife that mirrored the physical world, but also took possessions with them in order to make that afterlife familiar. Ancient Egypt, Ancient Peru, Japan, and some cultures in Africa immediately spring to mind. I think in the west we’ve gotten over the idea that we can “take it with us.” Objects such as this tomb figure show that we as human beings are wedded to the physical world in a way that — especially in the distant past — made it hard to let go of the physical life’s pleasures.

There are many similarities to ancient Egyptian tomb figures in Chinese tombs. Not only did they surround themselves with their worldly luxuries such as ceramics and clothing, they also included figures of servants who were meant to, as in Egypt, magically entertain the deceased as the living servants had in life. This was, of course, a step up from Shang Dynasty (ca. 1523–1028 bce) burials which included pets, servants, horses, and guards killed to accompany the deceased (the wealthy, obviously). This was also a practice in some ancient Mesopotamian cultures (2000s bce).

From the Zhou Dynasty (1027–256 bce) through the Song Dynasty (960–1279 ce), human sacrifices were replaced by ceramic figures of familiar human attendants. If you compare the wide range of figures across cultures, they present charming images of domestic life from everyday work (an Egyptian grinding corn) to works such as this Chinese example of a household servant playing music. During the Six Dynasties period (220–589 ce) — the period in which this figure was made—China was more or less in turmoil with numerous rival kingdoms in both the north and south. However, obviously, life (and death), went on. Figures from this period were made predominantly of black earthenware with the face and hands painted. During the Tang Dynasty (618–907 ce), many tombs of the wealthy were painted with scenes of pleasures in the everyday world, such as dancing and viewing a garden.

Activity: Using clay, make a sculpture of a person playing, working or resting. Look at various pictures of people doing a variety of things to select a pose. (Explorations in Art Grade 1)

Correlations to Davis programs: Explorations in Art Grade 1: 9-10 studio, Explorations in Art Grade 2: 5.29–30 studio, Explorations in Art Grade 3: 1.3-4 studio, Explorations in Art Grade 4: 2.7-8 studio, Discovering Art History: 4.3, The Visual Experience: 13.4

Women, Restriction, and Art History

2011-08-29T11:48:00.005-04:00

I have previously mentioned in this blog my observation that even though women artists are not covered adequately in art history surveys, they nonetheless were an integral part of art history. I said it once and I’ll say it again: there has been no period in history throughout the planet Earth that women have not been an important contribution to ART. That all said, I find the historical restriction of women from art schools (up until, more or less, the 19^th century) ridiculous. As human beings, some of us (artists) are given the gift of acute observation and the ability to record that in a work of art. This is certainly the case with Barbara Regina Dietzsch. There were pockets where women artists flourished before the 19^th century, and one of them was Nuremberg in Germany. I can’t decide what I admire more about this woman’s work: her technical ability or that she flourished as an artist at a time when it was difficult for women to do so.

Dietzsch was the daughter of an artist (Johann Israel Dietzsch 1691–1754) from whom she probably learned her profession, and the sister to five brothers who were also all artists. During the late Baroque period, it was common for women artists to be trained by their artist fathers. It was also common to restrict them from the studies that male students undertook; studies after nude models being the biggest hurdle for women (though activities such as simply leaving the house unescorted were also frowned upon).

Naturally (and I say that not as a pun), women artists were encouraged to focus on still life, portraits, and studies of nature. This opened up to them the popular genre of botanical studies, which I feel is closely aligned to still life. From the Renaissance through the 18^th century, close studies of nature were, not surprisingly, wedded to the belief that all of creation was a reflection of the divine. In Post-Reformation (c1520s) Northern Europe, the compendiums of botanical studies were called Floralegia. This connection between divinity and nature is called physico-theology, an important movement in the Reformation in Northern Europe.

Although Dietzsch’s studies of birds, bugs, and flowers are painstakingly realistic, they differ from purely botanical studies in that they do not include peripheral studies of seeds, petals, etc. Dietzsch’s work was immensely popular in Northern Europe. Ironically she was asked by several courts in Germany to be the court artist but she declined, perhaps because that would have restricted her freedom as an artist. She worked steadfastly day and night, to the point where neighbors claimed she never left her home in Nuremberg.

All of her work was based on observation from nature. Her typical format was like this work from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC: the subject isolated on a neutral background. The vellum ground helped her achieve nuances in texture. Such studies of nature were avidly collected by the upper-middle class in northern Europe to be displayed in cabinets or collected in albums. One viewer of her works in a cabinet said that the cumulative effect was like looking at a garden.

Activity: Paint a colorful garden using primary (red, yellow, blue) and secondary (orange, purple and green) colors. Look for lines and shapes for inspiration, and try not to be too concerned with background detail, as Dietzsch was not, in order to highlight the garden itself. (Explorations in Art Grade 2, lesson 1.3)

Correlations to Davis programs: Explorations in Art Grade 1: 4.19, 4.20; Explorations in Art Grade 2: 1.2, 1.3; Explorations in Art Grade 5: 4.19.

Pioneer Etcher in Chicago

2011-08-22T09:17:00.003-04:00

I always delight in sharing with you my many “Aha!” moments. One I had this week came while strolling through my mental art collection, pondering the element of positive and negative space and the principle of approximate symmetry. I particularly like introducing you to an artist who has an interesting background story, or, who played a pivotal role in some way in art history. Bertha E. Jaques fills the bill. It is interesting to me that many written histories of women artists gloss over those who were graphic artists. That is a shame because there were many fascinating women who specialized in printmaking. And I’m particularly partial to artists from the Midwest where I was born and raised.

The so-called “revival” of etching— in other words, etching as a stand-alone art form rather than as a way of copying paintings—is often cited as having begun in the 1860s with the founding of the Society of Etchers in France. Although some American artists had used etching as early as the 18^th century, nothing really came of the medium until 1866 when a French artist visited the US armed with etching supplies and examples of prints from “revivalist” etchers in Europe. In 1877 the New York Etching Club was founded. In 1892, Chicagoans were introduced to etchings from European artists at the Chicago Columbian Exposition. Printmaking in Chicago (and the Midwest) at the time was predominantly lithography and wood engraving.

Bertha Jaques was born in Ohio and lived in Iowa. She studied painting. She did not come to printmaking until she went to the Columbian Exposition, impressed by the etchings she saw of French artists. She subsequently bought a copper plate from a hardware store, as well as wax, pitch, and nitric acid. Her first tool was an old dentist’s drill. Her physician husband helped her make etching equipment from surgical instruments. She then bought a press in Milwaukee, and in 1897 produced some of the first etchings in the Midwest.

Jaques founded the Chicago Society of Etchers, an organization that disseminated at least 40,000 prints across the Midwest, popularizing the medium of etching. Landscape and botanical prints dominate Jaques’ oeuvre, many of which, like this example, she hand colored. Although she produced over 400 etchings and drypoints, none were produced in large editions. She was more of an advocate for the medium, and as such, she is in my Hall of Fame of artists from the Midwest.

Other pioneering American women printmakers:

Mary Cassatt

Bertha Lum (check out my post about Bertha Lum)

Helen Hyde

Correlations to Davis programs: Explorations in Art Grade 1: 4.20, Explorations in Art Grade 2: 1.2, Explorations in Art Grade 5: 4.19, A Global Pursuit: 6.2, A Community Connection: 8.2

Yakimono

2011-08-04T14:35:00.010-04:00

Yakimono in Japanese refers to a “fired thing.” A reverence for nature has historically been part of Japanese art since ancient times. Interestingly, the evocation of the respect for nature has been as strong in ceramics as it has in painting, calligraphy, sculpture, and architecture. There has traditionally been a strong spiritual element to Japanese ceramics because of their connection to Zen and tea. This is just as true today as it was centuries ago. We just added an image of this gorgeous work to our digital collection and, yes, it was a “Wow!” moment. This artist is awesome.

The oldest art form to survive from Japan is ceramics. As in China, ceramic arts are an honored art form even above sculpture. Until the eighth century CE, the predominant ware in Japan was unglazed stoneware. Intentional high-fire glazing of stoneware did not occur until the Kamakura period. Japan did not successfully produce porcelain until the early seventeenth century. Up until that time the famous Chinese porcelains were highly prized by the imperial household and nobility.

Ceramics production never reached the scale that it did in China. Japanese art encouraged the emergence of strong personalities and distinctly individual styles in ceramics. There is a tradition of celebrated artist-potters in Japan. The tea ceremony, popular from the Momoyama (1573–1615) through the early Edo periods, influenced a great period of ceramics activity. The tea ceremony had a preference for simple wares. Ceramics continue to be a significant art form in Japan. It is evident that strong personalities, such as Sugiura Yasuyoshi, still have significant influence in ceramic art in Japan.

Yasuyoshi’s works definitely carry on the Japanese tradition of ceramics and the reverence for nature. The artist carries the significance further, in asserting that his flower pieces also emphasize the texture of the clay, another aspect of the respect for nature. Yasuyoshi’s work of the 1980s and 1990s was dominated by large installations of ceramic “megaliths” in series called Ceramic Stones and Ceramic Boulders.

This camellia piece comes from a later series called Ceramics of the Natural World. Although we in the west would look at this as sculpture since it is non-utilitarian, the artist calls all of his forms “vessels.” He regrets that many ceramic artists in Japan need to produce utilitarian wares to make a living rather than persevere in ceramics as artists.

Find out more about Yasuyoshi on toku-art.seesaa.net, which includes images of his many kinds of “vessels.”

Correlations to Davis programs: Explorations in Art Grade 1: 5-6 studio, A Personal Journey: 3.3, A Global Pursuit: 7.3, The Visual Experience: 13.5, Discovering Art History 4.4

What’s Old is New: Modern Gothic

2011-07-25T10:30:00.003-04:00

I am ending this theme with a simply beautiful piece of architecture. The architect who designed it is not a household name in western art history, but I think he should be. Dominikus Böhm’s designs are so simple and elegant, they define “modernism” for the period in which they were built.

From the earliest Christian period in the West, architecture— especially religious architecture— was based on past styles for inspiration. This is what I consider the great historicist/revival nightmare of western art. The earliest church relied on Roman architecture, as did the Romanesque and Gothic. Renaissance and Baroque architecture, too, relied on the architecture of ancient Greece and Rome.

This obsession with the primacy of classical architectural aesthetic was actually broken in the early twentieth century by German architects before World War I (1914–1918). Architects such as Peter Behrens (1868–1940), Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886–1969), and Walter Gropius (1883–1969) embraced the new machine age and sought to design architecture that updated it with industrial age materials and ideas. This virtually eliminated any historicist decoration.

These architects introduced the glass curtain wall on steel cage construction, cantilevering, and the idea of a building’s design following its function. This was one of the beginnings of the modern skyscraper, as well as the advancements made in American architecture in the late nineteenth century [which, ironically, stuck predominantly with historicist styles, even on high rises, until after World War II (1939–1945)].

Dominikus Böhm (1880–1955) was a Roman Catholic church architect and vestment designer. Although his earliest designs reflect some historicist reference, by the mid-1920s his architecture contained Expressionist elements, such as textured facades, decorative brickwork, and geometric forms. He continued to experiment with Expressionist reinterpretations of the Gothic style and produced many avant-garde churches in Germany.

The experimentation by German architects was stamped out by the Nazis in the early 1930s. Because of the struggle to rebuild Germany after World War II, German modernist architecture did not fully revive until the early 1950s. This gorgeous little baptistery is part of a church complex that emphasizes huge, geometric expanses of stained glass. The simple vertical lines leading to a cornice remind the viewer of the sweeping vertical lines of Gothic expanses of stained glass, but with a clean, modern approach. In that simplicity, it is reminiscent of the curtain walls of early German modernist architecture.

Correlations to Davis programs: Explorations in Art Grade 1: 1.1; Explorations in Art Grade 2: 6.31, 6.32; Explorations in Art Grade 3: 4.21; Explorations in Art Grade 4: 3.16, 3.18; Explorations in Art Grade 5: 2.11, 2.12; A Personal Journey: 8.1; A Global Pursuit: 8.1; The Visual Experience3: 11.4; Discovering Art History: 16.1.

What's New is Old?

2011-07-18T10:57:00.008-04:00

I was a child in the 1960s, so I don’t really remember the Op Art phenomenon. However, my last year in high school, our art teacher had us do a drawing in pastels that emulated Op Art. I still have that piece, though the paper is crumbling, and I have to admit the juxtaposition of complimentary colors is optically fascinating. There’s a certain vibration to it that originates with the Post-Impressionists Georges Seurat (1859–1891), Paul Signac (1863–1935), and Henri-Edmond Cross (1856–1910).

The Post-Impressionists believed in the scientific (the way the eye sees color) rather than the observed. Unlike the Impressionists, who painted what they saw in natural light, some Post-Impressionists were interested in the spectrum and the analysis of how we perceive color. They invented the technique of building form from thousands of dots of pure color side by side that merged when observed by the viewer. Op artists were concerned with the same visual perception of a work of art. However, they concentrated on abstraction.

Op Art flourished from the mid-1960s to the 1970s. It was an offshoot of Minimalism, which itself was a rejection of the emphasis on personal statement by the Abstract Expressionists. In both Op Art and Minimalism, the goal was visual purity, reduction to basic geometrics, without the “signature” of personality. Here is where I beg to disagree: in the works of such artists as Bridget Riley (born 1931) and Victory Vasarely (1908-1997), there is totally a signature to their work, and it’s glorious. We are fortunate in that a number of artists have revived Op Art in the 21^st century.

Let’s turn to a contemporary artist whose work—I think—is glorious: Susie Rosmarin (born 1950). She has been working in the Op Art aesthetic for a couple of decades (brilliantly, in my opinion). Interestingly, the Texas native likes to stress the expressive nature of lines in her work. She lays down tape, then paint, then tape, then paint, etc., rather than using a computer to prepare her works. While she feels that working with line is inherent in the history of art, she produces works that resonate with 21^st century vibrancy. Look at this work and you’ll see how useful it would be to teach the following elements and principles of art: line, value, movement and rhythm.

Learn more about the artists reviving Op Art in an article featured on modernedition.

Mark Grotjahn (born 1968) is another of my favorite contemporary Op artists.

Untitled (large colored butterfly white background 9 wings), 2004. Colored pencil on paper, 182.9 x 121.3 cm (72" x 47 3/4"). The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Fund for the Twenty-First Century. ©2011 Mark Grotjahn. (MOMA-P1858)

Correlations to Davis Programs: Explorations in Art Grade 4: 6.35; Explorations in Art Grade 5: 3.15, 3.16; A Personal Journey: 2.2; A Global Pursuit: 1.2; The Visual Experience: 3, 5.2, 7, 8.6, 16.7; Discovering Art History: 17.2.