Tag: painting

Name-calling

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Women’s Words

Betty Tompkins’ Women’s Words, 2016. Installation, acryl on paper, acryl on canvas

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Sevda Chkoutova’s Untitled, 2018 (Detail). India ink, painted on wall over two floors

From WOMEN.NOW, a group exhibition showcasing contemporary female artists based in Austria and the United States. On view from September 2018 to February 2019, the show united artists from different generations, commenting on women’s role in society and the arts.

Austrian Cultural Forum

December 8th, 2018

I remember

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being a part of you

Body-Self
by Tia Forsman

Body-Self references a 1994 paper, ”How Bodies Remember: Social Memory and Bodily Experience of Criticism, Resistance and Delegitimation following China’s Cultural Revolution” by Arthur and Joan Kleinman.

Tia Forsman graduated from Brown University in May 2019.

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Brown University – The List Art Building

Providence, RI

November 24th, 2018

Ennui

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Jacques-Luc Barbier-Walbonne (1769-1860)
Portrait of Antoine-Georges-François de Chabaud-Latour and His Family, 1806
Oil on canvas

Portraiture and history painting come together in this tribute to family devotion. Tenderly instructing his daughter and son, Antoine-Georges-François de Chabaud-Latour gestures toward a monument to his own father, a distinguished military man and engineer. The carved epitaph—he lived and died without reproach—provides a lesson in virtue for the following generations. Chabaud-Latour’s wife, Juliette, stands beside him, nursing their infant son, demonstrating the importance of maternal strength to the future of family and nation. The portrait is situated in the landscape of Nîmes in southern France, home to both the artist and the Chabaud-Latour family. – Museum label

… and a bit of eye-rolling demonstrating that kids will forever be kids (and that boredom is a privilege).

RISD Museum, Providence, RI

November 23rd, 2018

The “Drop”

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”The three members of a middle-class family – a pastor, his wife and their daughter – form a staid group in this painting of a well-decorated interior. The smooth finish of Harry Willson Watrous’ brushwork obscures the insidious reality of racism implied in the work’s title. The ”drop” refers to a pernicious American custom of treating anyone with even a drop of African-American blood as black and discriminating against them on that basis. Watrous’ carefully rendered painting of a mixed-race daughter and her parents suggests that beneath the veneer of egalitarianism and placid family togetherness (portrayed  in this scene), the treatment of African-Americans in the United States was still far from equal.” – Portland Museum of Art

And, guess what… more than a century later, it is still isn’t.

However, had I not read the description I’d never have guessed the Artist’s reference. So captivated was I by the Mother’s silent despair and the Father’s quiet resignation at the Little Girl’s insistent demand, I missed that point completely.

Harry Willson Watrous (U.S., 1857-1940)
The Drop Sinister – What Shall We Do with It?, ca. 1913
Oil on canvas

Portland, ME

November 21st, 2018

The most eclectic way to warm up

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Enter the Portland Museum of Art

Untitled (Hooking Buck Head Down), 2013
Marc Swanson (U.S., b. 1969)
Polyurethane foam, crystals, adhesive

Leopard, 19th century
Glazed earthenware

Candlesticks, ca. 1880
Bronze, marble, gilding
Unidentified Artist

Summer, 1927
Bronze
John Clements Gregory (U.S. (born England), 1879-1958)

Left Hand, 2007
Oil on linen
Jenny Holzer (U.S., b. 1950)

Frisbee, 1987
Oil on canvas
Will Barnet (U.S., 1911-2012)

Black Cat on Orange Background, 1958-59
Oil on masonite
Alex Katz (U.S., b. 1927)

Two Female Models Sitting with Legs Crossed and Kazak Rug, 2013
Oil on canvas
Philip Pearlstein (U.S., b. 1924)

Slab City Road, 1959
Oil on linen
Alex Katz (U.S., b. 1927)

Mother and Child, 1922
Mahogany
William Zorach (U.S. (born Lithuania), 1889-1966)

Diana of the Sea, 1940
Oil on canvas
Marguerite Thompson Zorach

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 2016
Ink on latex saturated cellulose
Tim Rollins and K.O.S. (U.S., 1955-2017; U.S., established 1984)

New York-Paris No.2, 1931
Oil on canvas
Stuart Davis (U.S., 1892-1964)

Mrs. Henry St. John Smith (Ellen Archer Eveleth Smith), 1883
Oil on canvas
John Singer Sargent (U.S. (born Italy), 1856-1925

Dancer and Gazelles, 1912
Bronze
Paul Manship (U.S., 1885-1966)

Sideboard, ca. 1795-1800
Mahogany and other woods
John and Thomas Seymour (U.S. (born England), 1738-1818 & 1771-1849)

Portraits of Sally Stevens Lord and James Lord, ca. 1834
Oil on canvas
Attributed to Royal Brewster Smith (U.S., 1801-1855)

Eleanor Foster, 1755
Oil on canvas
Joseph Badger (U.S., 1708-1765)

The Dead Pearl Diver, 1858
Marble
Benjamin Paul Akers (U.S., 1825-1861)

Portland, ME

November 21st, 2018

Bruce Sargeant (1898-1938): The Lost Murals

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@ClampArt Gallery, curated by New York artist Mark Beard (Bruce Sargeant’s great nephew).

”Mark Beard has devoted more than two decades of his life to researching and collecting the work of Bruce Sargeant, a painter who largely concentrated on the idealization and celebration of the male form.” […]

”The Lost Murals brings together large-scale canvases that were known to exist but hidden from public view for over half a century. After years of meticulous research, Beard located the murals and painstakingly arranged for their return from a number of locations around the globe. In the murals, Beard’s great-uncle portrays his favorite subject: muscular young men at the peak of form and athletic prowess.” – Source & more: ClampArt

November 10th, 2018

Portraits || El Paso Museum of Art

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Today, America honours the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military.

On this very special Memorial Day, let us also take a moment to reflect on the lives of all our fellow humans that were cut short – more recently, in the Covid-19 pandemic. They were someone’s husband, wife, mother, father, son, daughter, friend.

Let us all remember and raise our voices for peace.

Silence the guns. The time is now.

Tom Lea
Sarah (Portrait of the Artist’s Wife), 1939
Oil on canvas

Manuel Acosta
Yolanda, 1956
Oil on canvas

Gerrit Beneker
Telephone Operator, 1921
Oil on canvas

Robert Henri
Carl (Boy in Blue Overalls), 1921
Oil on canvas

Irving Ramsey Wiles
Gladys in Chinese Robes, 1920-29
Oil on canvas

El Paso Museum of Art, TX

October 12th, 2018

The Artist’s Den

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I quite enjoy visiting an artist’s studio, there is something very charming and simultaneously voyeuristic about it. Going ”behind the scenes”, walking amidst art and creative clutter, the excitement of getting to see first-hand new works in progress, not to mention meeting the artists themselves.

If you time your trip to Marfa during the Chinati Weekend (which is actually a three-day event extending into Monday), you will find many artists opening their studios, which are also their homes, to the public.

Julie Speed Studio – Marfa, TX

October 6th, 2018