A PBS program that I enjoyed is now on DVD – “Simon Schama’s – Power of Art”. Relaxed and informative, it even includes some personal tidbits about one of my favorite artists. Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was gloriously talented, but he was also a youthful offender – violent and incorrigible. Not a cute “Denis the Menace” type, (he murdered a rival) but, as Schama labels him – a thug. I was shocked! Does his anger and madness show in his art? Maybe.
Considered part of the early Italian Baroque style of painting, his work, perhaps as a way of seeking redemption, focused on biblical themes – but, if you look at the faces, you will notice that these are no cherubs or saints, his paintings are inhabited by the people that he found in the local taverns with all their blemishes and wrinkles. I’ve found his work to be vibrant and alive regardless of its theme – whether card players or John the Baptist – full of energy, often full of violence, always very up close and in your face.
Schama narrates the hour and takes a gossipy, anecdotal look at the short life of Michelangelo Caravaggio, (1571 – 1610), and includes some re enactments to give background as to why/how certain paintings were created – like “Calling of Saint Matthew” and his “David with the Head of Goliath”.
BTW – Caravaggio was like Alfred Hitchcock, who always had a walk on or walkthrough in his movies and TV shows – the artist liked to paint himself in the middle of his scenes – with a table of card sharks, with a group of musicians and most notably, he serves himself up as the “Head of Goliath”.
The PBS series included the same 8 artists that are highlighted in Mr. Schama’s book of the same name, “Power of Art”: Caravaggio, Rembrandt, David, Turner, Van Gogh, Picasso, Rothko and Bernini.
(Image:David with the Head of Goliath, c. 1609. Oil on panel)
It is not necessary that we come to an agreement about what is good works of art. It is important that we independently see value in the art that we like and appreciate. To have our own listening, our own sight, that we are not relying on what others think. We don’t need talking heads for everything.
Artist Eugene Grigsby,1918 – 2013, taught at Arizona State for 20 years and spent two decades teaching in Phoenix public schools.
What are the ideas or points of view that you’ve wanted to communicate in your paintings?I don’t know what I am communicating really until the painting is done. While I am working I am concentrating on design and how to cover a white canvas or paper. Using themes or patterns that I’ve found in African Sculpture or fabrics I wait until I’m done to see what’s there in terms of a social nature.
Is there any one of your paintings that you feel epitomizes your thinking about art? The “Family” it represents design as well as a family which is an integrated family and is pulled together with design of faces and figures influenced by the art of the Kuba people of the Congo. This is a multiracial family, White mother, Black father and bi-racial children, a situation that was seen as illegal not long ago in this country. It is not lost on me that this portrays the family of some one who may become the President of the US.
Is there anyone, who’s work you appreciate and that you feel is communicating along the same line?Rip Woods and Samella Lewis, who has written several books on Black/African American Artist and was the founder of International Review of African American Art, which has been taken over by Hampton University.
You’ve spent a long time teaching and training young artists. Do you feel that your ideas/methods, what and how you taught, are being carried forward by new instructors? I feel that my major contribution is that of teaching more so then in my art. Many of my students have gone on to teaching art and have been, I believe, influenced by my teaching and method of teaching.
Tell me about your teaching method? I’ve worked with my students on all aspects of their creativity. Each of my students was a class, meaning if I had ten students in one room I approached this as if I was teaching ten classes, because each student could be doing something different and with a different ability level. Some students would be working with jewelry, fashion design or painting etc. They would create a work book, which was a plan on what they wanted to get accomplished in my class, the materials they would use and the steps they would take to have their goal completed. Students were responsible for grading themselves and evaluating their progress based on what they said they wanted vs. what they actually did. Home work for my classes was to have students observe something in their lives, memorize what they had seen and as part next days class to compose a painting of what they observed the day before. They had a goal of completing a painting each day, and seeing the progress in their work. I also encourage students to make contact with an artist they admired. One of the students was interested in fashion design and wrote to “Coco Chanel”. Not only did she receive a response but continued for a while to receive information, advice and feedback that supported her in her studies. Something else I did was to have students study artists and their method of working. Later on they would do a self portrait in the style of the artist they studied. This way of learning I believe provided the students with a deeper understanding of the artist. Over the years many of my students were able to accomplish wonderful results, some in the arts and others in different fields. Many of them have stayed in touch and recount how what they had learned had assisted them with their careers as historian, nurses, writers and teachers. My goal was always to recognize individual ability and to see if I could help maximize their results.
Activism, do you think that art can change the world? Some of my heroes, great artist like Picasso and Goya created work that spoke about a time in the world’s history that needed to change. They and others painted and wrote about an unvarnished truth that I feel may have helped to motivate people and governments to do something different. Art can free people up to think.
Over the years, you have known many great artists, would they be surprised about the diversity in art today? I don’t think they would be surprised at all, they were all so different. Many of our African American painters and writers were forerunners to some of what we see now coming from our communities. No I don’t think they would be surprised, but they would be pleased. *** ~ ***
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to chat with Joan Waters about her exhibit, “Undivided Attention: New Work in Welded Steel and Paint”, at the Chandler Center for the Arts. We spoke about being an artist and the people who played a role in her career. Here is a portion of what we talked about.
The work of Jasper Johns is being presented concurrently at the Whitney Museum of American Art in NYC & the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror is the most comprehensive retrospective ever… Featuring his most iconic works along with many others shown for the first time, it comprises a broad range of paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures from 1954 to today across two sites…The artist “helped spark movements including Pop art, Minimalism, and Conceptualism, among others, and has inspired successive generations of artists to this day.”
“Conceived as a whole but displayed in two distinct parts, the exhibition appears simultaneously here at the Whitney and at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, two institutions with which Johns has had long-standing relationships.”
Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror Until Feb 13, 2022
*Whitney Museum of American Art 99 Gansevoort Street, NYC
“I paint to try to reveal the struggle, tragedy and joy of life.”
— Neel quoted in the New York Times (1976)
Alice Neel: People Come First is the first museum retrospective in New York of American artist Alice Neel (1900–1984) in twenty years.” “…The exhibition consists of “approximately one hundred paintings, drawings, and watercolors “.
“There’s never been one New York. Alice Neel’s portraits and street scapes show us her version: a vibrant city made up of ugliness, struggle, and brutality, but also strength, resilience, and beauty—the constant hustle. Every corner has a story.
