The ClevelandMuseum presents over 100 pieces – paintings, wood work, drawings, ceramics – by French Post-Impressionist artist Paul Gauguin, 1848-1903, to track how he developed his style in the year 1889.
“The exhibition documents the development of familiar motifs—such as the mourning Eve, the woman in the waves, and fruit bearers—that would distinguish Gauguin’s work for the rest of his career.”
This event is also intended to “…re-create on a smaller scale the radical independent exhibition that Gauguin organized with his artistic disciples on the grounds of the 1889 Exhibition Universelle—a display of about 100 paintings now recognized as the first Symbolist exhibition in Paris. “
In Brazil, an artistic movement called “Tropicalia” arose with the purpose of creating a uniquely indigenous art, photography, paintings, sculpture, etc., devoid of American and European influences. The intent was to highlight the “originality of the culture of people who live in the tropics.”
“Contemporary Brazilian Art” – until January 31, 2010
YerbaBuenaCenter for the Arts 701 Mission Street, San Francisco
It may be as a result of the “recession” or simply that I’ve not been paying attention, in any case I’m appreciative of the many exhibits at local Museums that are featuring works of art by artists you may have overlooked.
Locally in Phoenix there is The Americas Series at the Phoenix Art Museum presented by the Latin American Art Alliance. Here you may find work by artists you’ve never heard before and be wonderfully surprised by its freshness and creativity. See the works of Jose Chavez, Thomas Benrimo and others.
Italian Neorealist Director Roberto Rossellini, (1906-1977), made a series of films just after World War II labeled the “War Trilogy”. They have been issued as a DVD box set :
“Rome Open City, (1945)” “Paisan” (1946) and “Germany Year Zero” (1948)
Acclaimed by French directors François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard, their articles appeared in the film magazine, “Cahiers du Cinema” declaring Rosselini “the father of the French New Wave”. His use of non-actors, his focus on little human interest stories and his use of the Italian street as back drop gave Rossellini ‘s films a grittiness and realism rarely seen in Europe before the war.
Oddly, the press release on this exhibit of Parks’ photos describes him as being best known as the director of “Shaft” (org 1971).I would think that his work as a photographer, fashion and journalism, is how he is best remembered. The exhibit at the Toledo Museum is titled “Bare Witness” and begins February 5th and closes April 25th, 2010.
Gordon Parks was a 20th century Renaissance man in that he was a Musician, Poet, Novelist, Director of Motion Pictures as well as a Photo Journalist. His legacy for me, consists of the beautiful and truthful photographs he took throughout his life.
Until January 24th, The Metropolitan Museum of Art presents “American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765–1915” – an exhibition that includes “more than 100 masterpieces of American painting explores a major mode of artistic expression from the pre-Revolutionary era to the beginning of World War I: figural scenes of ordinary people engaged in life’s tasks and pleasures. In the exhibition’s first section (ca. 1765–1830), John Singleton Copley, Charles Willson Peale, Samuel F. B. Morse and others produce evocative portraits that tell personal stories and reflect the shift from colonies to nation. The second section (ca. 1830–1860) includes multi-figured compositions by William Sidney Mount, George Caleb Bingham, Lilly Martin Spencer, and others that help to define national identity and national character. In the exhibition’s third section (ca. 1860–1876), Winslow Homer, Eastman Johnson, Thomas Eakins, and others respond to the Civil War and, going forward, encode Reconstruction and the Centennial in pictures that contribute to healing the nation’s spirit. In the fourth and final section (ca. 1876–1915), Homer and Eakins are joined by John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt, William Merritt Chase, John Sloan, George Bellows, and others who respond to new subjects and new expressive modes in an increasingly cosmopolitan age.”
Abstracts by the colorful Alejandro Santiago and other contemporary artists, such as Roldolfo Morales and Adan Paredes, are hung along side the work of established painters such as Diego Rivera as examples of the Bond Gallery’s varied collection of Latin art.
I spent some time at the Art Students League studying with Harvey Dinnerstein and admittedly imitated as I looked at some of the work done by very gifted students and being hard on myself for waiting so long to get back to painting. This morning for no apparent reason I recalled some of the conversation I had with Dinnerstein about my work and what he wanted me to see. This morning was my seeing what he was talking about. It’s going to be a great 2010!
If you are fortunate enough to live in a community with an Art Museum
Portrait of Madame Rachele Osterlind, 1919m there is
always something exciting going on and you should you pay a visit.
While the exhibits are not the big super shows of the Met or MOMA, you will not likely be crushed by the crowds and will be given the chance to really see the painting and other art work. The Nassau County Museum of Art, NY is exhibiting “THE SUBJECT IS WOMEN: Impressionism and
Post-Impressionism” featuring the work of Cassatt, Degas, Pissarro, Renoir and Modigliani.
It most likely to cold to walk the gardens and maybe you will return when its warmer (approx 200 acres). If you are living out on the Island it is good to know that you don’t need to travel into the great city to enjoy the arts.
We can hardly hear one another because we tip toe around every thought.
Man Ray ‘Noire et blanche’
We want to claim that we can’t see what is in front of us, that everything is the same, that we don’t look different and if we do notice we are required to apologize for noticing. Artists have one requirement and that is to tell their truth, regardless of who it might offend.
