Tag: art

An obnoxious cat

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”Firmin-Girard enjoyed great popularity at the time the Impressionists were revolting against the highly detailed, academic style that he practiced. However, Firmin-Girard shared the Impressionists’ interest in painting modern life, especially scenes along the River Seine. In this work, Parisians enjoy a Sunday brasserie overlooking the river at Bas-Meudon southwest of Paris. At left, the artist depicted his daughter stroking an appreciative cat as her brother chats with their grandmother…” (from the accompanying tag)

An appreciative cat? I don’t think so… What I see, is a mean character, eyes narrowed, probably plotting its next attack; I can almost hear it hissing and growling at the dog across the street.

Marie-François Firmin-Girard (1838-1921)
Sunday at Bas-Meudon, 1884
Oil on canvas

Portland Art Museum

June 9th, 2018

The Morgan Library & its hidden gems

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The great works of art, rare printed books, manuscripts and paintings by Italian and Netherlandish masters that adorn Mr. Morgan’s opulent library, are not exactly hidden but scroll further down to discover some really rare gems – usually hidden from view – that were on show at the lower level.  Thomas Gainsborough
Portrait of Caroline, 4th Duchess of Marlborough, ca. 1770

Inspired thirteen different English translations, printed in more than a hundred editions. This is the first edition in English, a legendary rarity. Why it is so rare, is hard to tell; perhaps the first copies were loved to death or the printing was curtailed by a miscalculation of the publisher. Only one other copy is recorded in an American library. The Morgan also has Heidi in French and German first editions, both in bindings with the same pictorial designs as these volumes.

To mark the seventy-fifth anniversary of the publication of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s classic story “The Little Prince”, the Morgan presents five newly discovered drawings by the author as well as intimate memorabilia from his time in New York during the 1940s. The items belonged to the American artist Joseph Cornell (1903–1972), who met Saint-Exupéry at the very moment the French author-aviator was drafting what would become one of the world’s favorite books. Cornell kept a dossier of papers and fragments that served as echoes of their encounters—everything from a marked-up cocktail napkin to an unpublished sketch of the little prince perched at the edge of a rose-covered cliff. Cornell’s Saint-Exupéry dossier was acquired by the Morgan in 2014 and is now shown in its entirety, for the first time, in the Morgan’s lower level lobby gallery.

The Morgan Library

May 20th, 2018

Real life stories, humans and papier-mâché faces

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Art that looks back at you looking back at art.

Gauri Gill’s ”Acts of Appearance”, is a series of vivid color photographs for which the artist worked closely with members of an Adivasi community in Jawhar district, Maharashtra, India. Gill’s collaborator-subjects are renowned for their papier-mâché objects, including traditional sacred masks. In these pictures they engage in everyday village activities while wearing new masks, made expressly for this body of work, which depict living beings with the physical characteristics of humans, animals, or valued objects. A range of scenarios and narratives, situated in both “reality” and dreamlike states, come together in the photographs, which simultaneously portray symbolic or playful representations as well as the familiar experiences of community members against the backdrop of their home and culture.

Night at the Museum: Springtober Fest @ MoMA PS1

May 5th, 2018

Dude, did I hear you say Art…?

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A woman smoking a cigar (an absolute no-no in her time), a ”dude” throwing disapproving looks at her under his bowler hat, an innocent girl stoically enduring the scene, Joshua carrying a ram’s horn, all set to ”sound the trumpets of Jericho”, a faceless denture literally showing its teeth; they all seem to enjoy themselves, totally oblivious to a pair of cats silently judging one and all… 

A gallery of art that loves life – and the feeling is mutual…! Chalkware Cats, 1850-1900
Possibly made in Pennsylvania

Trust in God, ca. 1836
By Lorenzo Bartolini (1777-1850)
Marble

Dentist’s Trade Sign, ca. 1890
Tulip poplar and paint
Made in New England

In an era when the most common remedy for a toothache was extraction, this dentist’s trade sign promoted dentures as an aesthetically pleasing alternative to a mouth with missing teeth.

Girl of the Period, 1870-85
Possible by the workshop of Samuel Robb (1851-1928)
White pine and paint
Made in New York, New York

This sculpture is an example of what trade figure carvers called the ”Girl of the Period”. Sculptures such as this advertised tobacconist, milliner and dressmaker shops. Although it was taboo for women to smoke cigarettes in the 1880s, a sculpture of a stylish young woman holding a cigarette placed outside a tobacconist shop may have enticed male customers. It may have also appealed to progressive women.

Dude, 1885-1900
White pine and paint
Made in New York, New York

Carvers of trade figures often created caricatures of an urban type known as a ”Dude”. Stylish dudes of the late 1800s sported sizable moustaches and fashionable clothes. This dude is unique in comparison to others, because he appears careworn and lacks a broad smile. He may depict a portion of the American population that was now struggling despite previous success. As such, this quality makes this particular dude both an advertisement and a commentary on contemporary urban life.

Joshua at Jericho, 1950
By Willard Hirsch (1905-1982)
Red Oak

The Gibbes Museum of Art, Permanent Collection

Charleston, SC

April 11th, 2018