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Thailand, Bang Pa-In Summer Palace, Bangkok, elephant topiary in gardens, 1872–1881. Image © Davis Art Images. (8S-10355) |
Can you just feel the warmth of the sun illuminating the
tops of these “elephants”? The Bang Pa-In was a summer palace for Thai kings
built in the 1600s before Bangkok was the capital. It was rebuilt by King Rama
V (1853–1910) to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Chakri Dynasty.
The gardens were designed with moats and plantings influenced
primarily by Versailles (by European landscape architects) because Rama V
wanted to give his monarchy a Western image. However members of his court
prevailed upon him to request some traditional Thai elements. The topiary
elephants were one concession. Ironically, Thailand's empire in Southeast Asia
(which included Cambodia, Laos and, parts of Indonesia) was severely reduced by
European occupation (mostly British and French) by 1909.
European topiary dates from ancient Roman times. Topiary is
the practice of training and clipping perennial plants to form shapes, either
geometric or organic shapes, such as elephants. Japanese and Chinese topiary,
on the other hand, was intended to represent natural elements such as clouds,
mountains, or waves. The topiary garden at Bang Pa-in was carried out during a
period of revival of architecture and landscape decoration in 1800s Europe
influenced by Baroque (particularly Dutch) gardens, when topiary landscape
architecture was particularly fashionable.
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Julia Margaret Cameron (1815–1879, Britain), Summer Days, 1866. Albumen print on paper, 13 7/8" x 11 1/8" (35.3 x 28.2 cm). © National Gallery of Art, Washington. (NGA-P1068) |
I’m not sure if the mopey faces on these models is just the
way the British react to hot weather in summer, or if it’s because they had to
sit through a long exposure (45 to 60 seconds). In any case, the languid poses
are a perfect example of the “Art Photography” that was a popular pursuit
within the genre during the 1800s.
In the mid-1800s, unlike painting and sculpture, photography
did not require training in the academies, long apprenticeships, or lengthy
practice. For these reasons, women were encouraged by photographic journals to
use the medium. They would not need to be exposed to nude models in the
academies, and they practice the art form from home, still considered the most
"appropriate" place for women. In England, amateur photographers like
Cameron believed that photography as art should deal with suitable and
uplifting themes.
Cameron, born in Ceylon to a British official and educated
in Britain, received her first camera in 1864 as a gift. She immediately began
to pursue photography earnestly, selling her prints in London. In late 1865,
she began using a larger camera that held a 15" x 12" glass negative,
rather than the 12" x 10" negative of her first camera. The larger
camera helped her create more compelling, up close compositions. She was
well-versed in effectively posing her models, mostly neighbors and friends.
In the work of Ron Bladen, I’m accustomed to seeing his
huge, Primary Structures that take up whole plazas or gallery spaces. This
piece is much more intimate, though. It follows his tendencies toward
minimalism. In my mind it is titled Double
Summer because it looks like two lawn chairs folded up on the beach. It’s
either that or two of those folding reflectors with a mirrored surface people
used to hold to get tan under their chin, in a handy frame? I’m pretty sure my
musings are wrong, because it was titled by Bladen and his assistant Larry
Deyab while they worked on it during the hot summer of 1987.
Bladen was born in Vancouver, BC to a British steelworker
and landscape architect. He himself worked as a ship’s welder during World War
II (1939–1945). This job helped him build his monumental Primary Structure
pieces of the 1960s, such as his famous The X (1965).
He studied both painting and sculpture at the San Francisco Art Institute.
During the 1950s he produced gorgeous, non-objective paintings much in the action
painting spirit of Abstract Expressionism.
By the early 1960s he was inclined toward the Minimalism
phenomenon, which was a direct reaction against Abstract Expressionism’s emphasis
on process. His gallery-size standing pieces of the 1960s became large wall
installations during the 1980s, often with the addition of polished aluminum.
I completely understand Noland’s choice of colors in this
painting. It so reminds me of lying in bed on a summer night with a partial
moon bathing everything in a bluish white light. I’m not certain but I think
this piece is on unprimed canvas.
Born in the art colony town of Asheville, North Carolina,
Noland studied at nearby Black Mountain College (1946–1948), working with
Minimalist Ilya Bolotowsky (1907–1981) and geometric Color Field artist Josef
Albers (1888–1976). After a year in Paris in 1948, he returned to the US,
moving to Washington DC in 1949. His paintings at the time reflected the
all-over painting abstractions of l'Art Informel, the European counterpart to Abstract Expressionism.
Noland met Helen Frankenthaler (1928–2011) and briefly
experimented with staining entire, raw canvases. In Washington he encountered a
group of painters known as the Washington Color School Painters, among them
Morris Louis (1912–1962), who, like Frankenthaler, stained raw canvas with pure
color.
Noland's first completely unique statements of Color Field
lasted from the mid-1950s to about 1962, after he had discovered the center of
the canvas as a focal point for his compositions. Ensuing were paintings where
the principal image from concentric circles exactly centered on the square
canvas.
Every so often, when I look at Arcimboldo’s composite
figures, they seem creepy to me, especially the lips. But, this bust of summer
does present all the traditional (at the time) attributes of the season,
primarily harvested foodstuffs. I guess a contemporary composite image of
summer would consist of tubes of sunblock and UV-blocking sunglasses?
Arcimboldo, the son of a painter named Biagio, was born in
Milan. His family was well connected with the nobility and church, and
Arcimboldo had no trouble securing commissions for frescoes and stained glass
in Milan Cathedral. His conventional portraits and religious subjects were
apparently accomplished enough to secure him a job as court painter (1562) to
the Holy Roman Hapsburg Emperors Ferdinand I (1503–1564) and Maximilian II
(1527–1576) for whom he painted conventional portraits.
The Hapsburg court in Vienna was full of Renaissance
scientists, philosophers, and eccentrics. It was in this milieu that Arcimboldo
executed his series of figures composed of various organic and man-made objects
about the Elements and the Seasons, of which this is part. These
paintings were presented to Maximilian in 1569. Cleverly composing a figure of
fruits, vegetables, and grains fit right in with the Renaissance fascination
with witty puzzles, double entendre, and visual games.
Wrapping up this ode to summer is an artwork from another
series dedicated to the Four Seasons, but decidedly less creepy than
Arcimboldo…maybe. I’m not a big fan of anything Rococo, but, I think it’s
awesome that you see a revival of the style in the 21st century,
such an anachronism. Jongerius took the traditional approach of personification
for her Four Seasons set: women for
summer (teapot) and spring (hand mirror) and men for autumn (wine jug) and
winter (candleholder). I like her work, particularly in porcelain, because she
does a lot of the work by hand.
Jongerius is a Dutch industrial designer who works in
Berlin. She graduated from the Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands. In
the true spirit of Bauhaus, Jongerius has always emphasized fusing industry
with art, high and low technology, and traditional imagery produced by
industrial process infused with hand work. She works for other iconic brands
such as Vitra and IKEA.
Europeans went nuts over porcelain when it was first
imported during the 1500s. The secret to porcelain manufacturing (kaolin) was
not discovered until the 1700s by a German chemist. Nymphenburg was one of the
manufactories established (1747) to provide an alternative to expensive
imported Chinese porcelain. Nymphenburg is perhaps most renowned for the
porcelain figurines they produced of commedia dell’arte characters.
Correlations to Davis
programs: Explorations in Art Grade 3:
4.24, 6.35, 6.studio 35-36; Explorations in Art Grade 5: 3.14; Explorations in
Art Grade 6: 4.24, 4.studio 21-22, 4.studio 23-24, 5.25; A Personal Journey:
3.1, 3.4, 7.4; A Community Connection: 7.2, 7.4, 8.4; A Global Pursuit: 4.4, 9.4;
Focus on Photography: 2, 3, 5; Experience Clay: 3, 4; ; Exploring Painting: 12;
Exploring Visual Design: 7, 9, 12; The Visual Experience: 9.3, 9.5, 10.4, 10.6,
10.14, 13.3, 15.9 16.4, 16.7, 16.8; Discovering Art History: 2.2, 4.5,
4.activity 1, 9.2, 12.4, 17.3
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