"Merry Christmas" Wiener Werkstatte Postcard Number 28 from 1907
Artist Moriz Jung 1885 - 1915
https://www.theviennasecession.com/wiener-werkstatte/
Christmas, before and after. Lots of books.
And a 'new' light from 1933.
Monday, January 20, 2020
The Met: Valloton and Paul Klee
The Metropolitan Museum's 2019 exhibit of Swiss-born painter Felix Vallotton was titled "Painter of Disquiet." He lived and worked in Paris most of his life, 1865-1925. He was a technical master and employed many techniques and media. Here are but two images:
And then there is always Paul Klee (1879 - 1940) at the Met. "The Metropolitan is home to a large collection of art by Paul Klee, one of the most aesthetically versatile and celebrated abstract painters of the twentieth century. In 1984, Heinz Berggruen, an influential art dealer and collector of modern art, gave ninety paintings, drawings, and watercolors by Klee to the Museum. A selection of the Berggruen Klee Collection, spanning the German artist's career from his student days in Bern, Switzerland, in the 1890's to his death in Muralto-Locarno in 1940, rotates on a permanent basis.
Bergruen's deep interest in Klee began in 1945, when he saw the artist's work in San Francisco. Recalling that experience in 1988, Berggruen wrote, 'Subconsciously, Klee's work must have evoked the emotional vibrations that filled the many happy years of my youth in Berlin.' As this recollection suggests, Klee's work is widely admired for its playful sense of wonderment and discovery, qualities achieved via the painter's ceaselessly inventive, sophisticated, but also subtle technique."
Paul Klee, 1927, Still Life. Oil on gypsum.
Paul Klee, 1934, One Who Understands.
Oil and gypsum on unprimed canvas.
On the left, Felix Vallotton, 1907, Gertrude Stein.
On the right, Pablo Picasso, 1905-06, Gertrude Stein.
Felix Vallotton, 1903, Interior with Woman in Red. (Kunsthaus Zurich on loan)
And then there is always Paul Klee (1879 - 1940) at the Met. "The Metropolitan is home to a large collection of art by Paul Klee, one of the most aesthetically versatile and celebrated abstract painters of the twentieth century. In 1984, Heinz Berggruen, an influential art dealer and collector of modern art, gave ninety paintings, drawings, and watercolors by Klee to the Museum. A selection of the Berggruen Klee Collection, spanning the German artist's career from his student days in Bern, Switzerland, in the 1890's to his death in Muralto-Locarno in 1940, rotates on a permanent basis.
Bergruen's deep interest in Klee began in 1945, when he saw the artist's work in San Francisco. Recalling that experience in 1988, Berggruen wrote, 'Subconsciously, Klee's work must have evoked the emotional vibrations that filled the many happy years of my youth in Berlin.' As this recollection suggests, Klee's work is widely admired for its playful sense of wonderment and discovery, qualities achieved via the painter's ceaselessly inventive, sophisticated, but also subtle technique."
Paul Klee, 1927, Still Life. Oil on gypsum.
Paul Klee, 1929, Monuments at G. Gypsum and watercolor on canvas.
"Shortly after his return to Dessau from Egypt in 1929, Klee created several works that recall the North African desert landscape. In this painting, thin horizontal stripes cover the entire surface from edge to edge and top to bottom, while vertical and diagonal lines, some forming acute or obtuse angles, interrupt the colorful flow of the horizontal bars. The two triangular shapes in the bottom half of the composition probably represent two of the three pyramids at Giza."
Paul Klee, 1934, One Who Understands.
Oil and gypsum on unprimed canvas.
"The squared circle of the abstracted head in Klee's painting is made of the same lines that divide the picture like a cracked windowpane. Klee taught at the Bauhaus - first in Weimar and then in Dessau - between 1921 and 1931 and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Dusseldorf from 1931 to 1933. Hitler's National Socialists declared his work 'degenerate' and fired him in 1933.
MoMA: Paul Klee and Others
The Museum of Modern Art reopened in fall of 2019 after expansion and renovation. Here are a few of my highlights from the first visit after it reopened.
Vasudeo S. Gaitonde, 1962, Painting, 4. Oil on canvas.
"One of a group of Mumbai artists who synthesized traditional Indian approaches with Post-Impressionism, Cubism, and Expressionism, Gaitonde made Painting, 4 on a wet canvas with a roller and palette knife, creating a translucent golden ground that shifts to and from blue. With no clear horizon, the almost symmetrical composition invites stillness and contemplation. In this respect, it relates to Gaitonde's study of Zen Buddhism, an interest he discovered he shared with Mark Rothko after the two met in New York. Zen, Gaitonde wrote, 'helped me to understand nature...my paintings are nothing else but the reflections of nature. I want to say things in few words, I aim at directness and simplicity.'"
"At the time of its production in 1951, Colors for a Large Wall was the largest painting Kelly had ever made. It brings together four strategies fundamental to modernism: the additive composition of similar elements (each square is painted separately), the use of chance (each square is arranged randomly), the idea of the readymade (each color was taken from the French craft paper Kelly used to produce the collage on which the painting was based), and the allover grid of its composition. The result is a painting in which no aspect of its appearance has been determined by the artist's personal choices."
Vasudeo S. Gaitonde, 1962, Painting, 4. Oil on canvas.
Ellsworth Kelly, 1951, Colors for a Large Wall. Oil on canvas.
"At the time of its production in 1951, Colors for a Large Wall was the largest painting Kelly had ever made. It brings together four strategies fundamental to modernism: the additive composition of similar elements (each square is painted separately), the use of chance (each square is arranged randomly), the idea of the readymade (each color was taken from the French craft paper Kelly used to produce the collage on which the painting was based), and the allover grid of its composition. The result is a painting in which no aspect of its appearance has been determined by the artist's personal choices."
Paul Klee, 1924, Actor's Mask. Oil on canvas mounted on board.
Paul Klee, 1929, Fire in the Evening. Oil on cardboard.
Kazimir Malevich, 1915, Suprematist Composition: Airplane Flying.
VMFA: Edward Hopper and Jo on Cape Cod
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts had an exhibition in late 2019 into early 2020, 'Edward Hopper and the American Motel.'
It is a well chosen show exploring Edward Hopper's work, his relationship with his wife Jo, their travels, and the emergence of hotels and motels in America after the 1920's. Hopper lived from 1882 to 1967 and traveled extensively with his wife.
Edward and Jo Hopper traveled to Truro, Cape Cod, Massachusetts and may have stayed in these beach houses, which survive today.
Below is the watercolor 'Capron House' by Hopper in 1933. The label in the exhibition explains: "In the background of Capron House is a long building with multiple dormers. This is the Chequesset Inn, a luxurious resort hotel. Built in 1886, the inn was an all-inclusive establishment designed to resemble an ocean liner. Touted as the 'Hotel Over the Sea,' it stood four hundred feet into Wellfleet Harbor on an old mercantile pier. Soon after Hopper completed the watercolor, in winter of 1934, a brutal ice storm severely compromised the foundation, and the deck and portico fell into the harbor. Hopper's inclusion of the historic inn recalls his illustrations for the magazine Hotel Management a decade earlier..."
The 1960 photograph below by Arnold Newman is of 'Edward Hopper and Jo, Truro, Massachusetts.' The exhibit label points out: '"By 1930, Edward and Jo began renting summer cottages in South Truro on Cape Cod. The couple eventually bought property there in the fall of 1933 and built their own cottage (shown here) in the spring of 1934. In this photograph, the scale of the the figures suggests the extent to which Edward's career eclipsed that of Jo, who was also a painter."
It is a well chosen show exploring Edward Hopper's work, his relationship with his wife Jo, their travels, and the emergence of hotels and motels in America after the 1920's. Hopper lived from 1882 to 1967 and traveled extensively with his wife.
Edward and Jo Hopper traveled to Truro, Cape Cod, Massachusetts and may have stayed in these beach houses, which survive today.
Below is the watercolor 'Capron House' by Hopper in 1933. The label in the exhibition explains: "In the background of Capron House is a long building with multiple dormers. This is the Chequesset Inn, a luxurious resort hotel. Built in 1886, the inn was an all-inclusive establishment designed to resemble an ocean liner. Touted as the 'Hotel Over the Sea,' it stood four hundred feet into Wellfleet Harbor on an old mercantile pier. Soon after Hopper completed the watercolor, in winter of 1934, a brutal ice storm severely compromised the foundation, and the deck and portico fell into the harbor. Hopper's inclusion of the historic inn recalls his illustrations for the magazine Hotel Management a decade earlier..."
The 1960 photograph below by Arnold Newman is of 'Edward Hopper and Jo, Truro, Massachusetts.' The exhibit label points out: '"By 1930, Edward and Jo began renting summer cottages in South Truro on Cape Cod. The couple eventually bought property there in the fall of 1933 and built their own cottage (shown here) in the spring of 1934. In this photograph, the scale of the the figures suggests the extent to which Edward's career eclipsed that of Jo, who was also a painter."
Thursday, October 31, 2019
What You Will See, October 2019
The following posts depict a trip to the Netherlands (and Zurich briefly).
We biked between major Dutch cities to visit and learn some more about art and architecture in the first half of the twentieth century.
The first posts are easy, fun scenes from biking: Amsterdam south to Utrecht, Rotterdam, Den Haag and back to Amsterdam.
Take your time, forgive if posts jump back and forth, and click on the links, if interested.
Starting with the Amsterdam Museum 'Het Schip,' we will delve more fully into specific artists, architects and works of art: the Amsterdam School, De Stijl, and more. Hang onto your patience, this is part of the story of the birth of modernism, abstraction, and art concerned with social justice.
When you get to the bottom, please click on the 'Older Posts' button to go back in time and see more fine art.
Or, you can pick and choose from the Contents list at the right.
We hope you can derive pleasure and surprise at some of the lesser known surprises and learning more about things that we all thought we knew already.
We biked between major Dutch cities to visit and learn some more about art and architecture in the first half of the twentieth century.
The first posts are easy, fun scenes from biking: Amsterdam south to Utrecht, Rotterdam, Den Haag and back to Amsterdam.
Take your time, forgive if posts jump back and forth, and click on the links, if interested.
Starting with the Amsterdam Museum 'Het Schip,' we will delve more fully into specific artists, architects and works of art: the Amsterdam School, De Stijl, and more. Hang onto your patience, this is part of the story of the birth of modernism, abstraction, and art concerned with social justice.
When you get to the bottom, please click on the 'Older Posts' button to go back in time and see more fine art.
Or, you can pick and choose from the Contents list at the right.
We hope you can derive pleasure and surprise at some of the lesser known surprises and learning more about things that we all thought we knew already.
Arrival in Amsterdam
October posts document a trip to the Netherlands (and Zurich).
There will be several post chapters on what it was like arriving and biking in the Netherlands.
Then there will be more in-depth info on Dutch architecture and art from the first half of the twentieth century.
Arrival in a small village outside Amsterdam.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)