Christie’s 19 th Century European & Orientalist Art 14 December 2017

December 5, 2017, 8:35 am

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 EUGÈNE DELACROIX (FRENCH, 1798 - 1863) Le 28 juillet – la liberté guidant le peuple, 1830 stamped ‘VENTE/ANDRIEU/E. DELACROIX’ (lower right) oil on canvas, 25 x 32 in. (64.5 x 81.3 cm.), painted in 1830. Estimate: £700,000 - 1,000,000

On 14 December 2017, Le 28 juillet – la liberté guidant le peuple, 1830 by Eugène Delacroix (estimate: £700,000 - 1,000,000) will lead Christie’s Classic Week 19 th Century European & Orientalist Art auction . This vibrant and spontaneous autograph painting is the only known sketch in oil that fully outlines the intended final composition for 

Delacroix’s masterpiece La liberté guidant le peuple, in the collection of Le Louvre, Paris. Providing a rare insight into Delacroix’s creative process, the fast and fluid lines of the final composition takes form with the figure of Liberty at the centre, surrounded by the fallen men who populate the primary plane. A pivotal figure, looking up in hope and admiration, is present to the left in both the preparatory and the final painting. 
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Further highlights range from

 

a contemplative seascape by Gustave Courbet, Bords de la Mer,Palavas (estimate: £200,000 - 300,000),



to a bustling street scene, Mercato a Costantinopoli, by Alberto Pasini, circa 1880 (estimate: £200,000 - 300,000).

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Two Gustav Klimt masterpieces on loan to the National Gallery of Canada

December 7, 2017, 7:17 am

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The National Gallery of Canad,. Ottawa, (NGC) is currently offering a rare opportunity to view three paintings by Gustav Klimt (1862-1918), one of the greatest painters of the twentieth century, owing to a long term loan from a private collection. Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer (1914-16),  a commanding example of Klimt’s trademark female portraiture, and Forest Slope in Unterach on the Attersee (1916), a lush example of Klimt’s lesser-known, yet equally impressive landscape paintings, are now on view in the European galleries, along with  

 


Hope I (1903), which the Gallery purchased in 1970. Hope 1 is the only painting by Klimt in a Canadian public collection.

“This long-term display is an unprecedented opportunity to see three exceptional Klimt paintings together in Canada, ”  said NGC Deputy Director and Chief Curator Paul Lang. “It enables the Gallery to offer a complete survey of the artist’s work spanning two decades of his career. A truly transformative loan, these works will allow our visitors to experience the full visual splendor of one of the most inventive artists of his day. ”

The most renowned member of the fin-de-siècle Art Nouveau movement known as the Vienna Secession, Gustav Klimt is celebrated for his painterly expressiveness and extravagant devotion to colour and surface materiality. He sought to break with the past and propose a new style and experimental mode of expression commensurate with the realities of modern life.






Commissioned in 1914 by the artist’s most important patrons, the wealthy Viennese couple August and Szerena Lederer, Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer (1914-16) portrays their twenty-year-old daughter. Elisabeth Lederer stands life-sized, her expression one of elegant self-confidence and youthful freshness.

 “Klimt has transformed her cloak into a dazzling, quasi-abstract array of ornamentation and placed her on a brightly-coloured carpet that flattens the space while simultaneously drawing the woman out toward the viewer,”  says Curatorial Assistant and Provenance Researcher Kirsten Appleyard.

“Surrounding her is an assortment of Chinese figures, a nod to the Lederers’ reputation as erudite collectors and a testament to the artist’s own connoisseurship of Asian art. While earlier portraits by the artist seduce via the rich physicality of their ornament—often conveyed in a gold-encrusted mosaic style—here Klimt relies on exotic marvels to evoke curiosity and command attention. ”

“While the artist is primarily celebrated for his portraits and allegories, ”  explains Appleyard, ‘’his landscapes comprise almost one half of his oeuvre from the last two decades of his life.” Indeed, Klimt devoted himself intensely to this genre, retreating every summer to the countryside around Lake Attersee in Upper Austria to paint and reflect.



Like the majority of Klimt's landscapes, Forest Slope in Unterach on the Attersee (1916) follows a square format achieved through the use of optical devices such as a telescope or opera glasses. “In this carefully crafted two-dimensional painting, planes are artificially stacked one upon the other, with powerful strokes of related colours creating an overall mood of meditative calm,”  says  Appleyard. ‘’Klimt’s landscape is withdrawn and timeless—a tranquil daydream. While echoes of Cézanne’s ordered structures and Van Gogh’s expressive handling can be felt, it is nevertheless a work of exceptional daring and originality, ”  she adds.

Designing English: Graphics on the Medieval Page,

December 7, 2017, 7:28 am

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The origins of early English graphic design are explored in a new exhibition opening at the Bodleian Libraries' Weston Library.

 Diagnosing disease from the colour of urine was common in medieval medicine; almost five hundred copies survive of writings in English alone on this topic.

Designing English: Graphics on the Medieval Page, open from 1 December 2017, brings together a stunning selection of manuscripts and other objects to uncover the craft and artistry of Anglo-Saxon and medieval scribes, painters and engravers.

Designing English looks at the skills and innovations of these very early specialists who worked to preserve, clarify, adorn, authorize and interpret writing in English. For almost a thousand years most texts had been written in Latin, the common European language. Beyond the traditions established for Latin, books in English were often improvisatory, even homespun, but they were just as inventive and creative. In an age when each book was made uniquely by hand, each book was an opportunity for redesigning. The introduction of the English text posed questions: How did scribes choose to arrange the words and images on the page in each manuscript? How did they preserve, clarify and illustrate writing in English? What visual guides were given to early readers of English in how to understand or use their books?

The exhibition explores all elements of design, from the materials used, such as the size and shape of animal skins used to create parchment, to the design of texts for different uses, such as for performing songs, plays or music. Medical texts and practical manuals feature alongside ornate religious texts, including rare examples of unfinished illustrations that reveal the practical processes of making pages and artefacts. The use of English is traced from illicit additions made to Latin texts, to its more general, every day use, and spread to more ephemeral formats.

The exhibition features incredible early manuscripts held in the Bodleian collections, one of the largest medieval collections in the UK, alongside loan items from the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and the British Museum.

Highlights of Designing English include:

• The Macregol Gospels, one of the treasures of the Bodleian Libraries, dating from Ireland in around 800 CE, with English translations added to the original Latin text;
• English translations of hymns composed by Caedmon (657-680), an illiterate cowherd who lived at Whitby Abbey and is the first named English poet;

• The Alfred Jewel, an ornate enamel and gold jewel on loan from the Ashmolean Museum that contains the inscription 'Alfred ordered me to be made'. The jewel is widely believed to have been commissioned by King Alfred the Great (849-899 BCE), who championed the use of English;
• Gravestones and other medieval objects engraved with English text, including an Anglo-Saxon sword and a gold ring found at Godstow Abbey, Oxford;
• Medical texts such as revolving 'volvelle' diagrams, magical charms and colourful drawings and diagrams for doctors;
• Some of the earliest known works in the English language, including Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales and early drama and songs; and
• Examples of intricate texts with colour coded instructions on how to read them, such as an English translation of the Bible which may have belonged to Henry VI.

Designing English is curated by Daniel Wakelin, Jeremy Griffiths Professor of Medieval English Palaeography at the University of Oxford, one of the few posts in the world dedicated to the study of medieval English manuscripts.

Professor Wakelin said:

'Medieval writers had to be graphic designers every time they wrote or carved their words. Tracing the earliest uses of English, from illicit annotations on Latin texts, to more everyday jottings in ephemeral formats, this exhibition celebrates the imagination and skill of these early writers. Their craft and inventiveness resonates today when digital media allow users to experiment with design through word processing, social media and customized products.'

Richard Ovenden, Bodley's Librarian said:

'The Bodleian Libraries holds one of the most important collections of medieval manuscripts in the world, and this exhibition celebrates all aspects of the ingenuity and craftsmanship that went into some of the most beautiful, and everyday items that still survive today. The exhibition provides an intriguing and surprising history of English literature in one room.'
To show the likeness of these medieval documents to modern craft, Designing English will, until 11 March 2018, be exhibited alongside Redesigning the Medieval Book: a display of contemporary book arts inspired by the exhibition. The exhibited contemporary artworks include calligraphy, prints, embroidery, pop-up books, videos, games and jewellery.
The exhibition will be opened by award-winning designer Jay Osgerby, who with Edward Barber, designed the new Bodleian Chair. The exhibition runs until 22 April 2018 and is accompanied by two new titles from Bodleian Library Publishing. A beautifully illustrated exhibition catalogue, Designing English: Early Literature on the Page, written by exhibition curator Daniel Wakelin is available in hardback for £30. A second title, Revolting Remedies from the Middle Ages, brings together weird and wonderful medical tips for everyday use in medieval England, some of which are displayed in the exhibition. Both titles are available to preorder from www.bodleianshop.co.uk.
An exciting programme of talks and events, including family-friendly activities, will be held over the course of the Designing English exhibition, starting with a special opening weekend celebration at the Bodleian's Weston Library on 2 December. For more information visit www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/designing.
The Weston Library is one of the newest cultural destinations in Oxford and has welcomed more than 2 million visitors since opening to the public in March 2015. The Library has also won numerous ar

Robert Rauschenberg: Erasing the Rules

December 7, 2017, 7:36 am

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San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

November 18, 2017–March 25, 2018

A fuse was lit in the 1953 art world when Robert Rauschenberg convinced artist Willem de Kooning to allow him to erase one of his drawings; fellow artist Jasper Johns executed the inscription within the frame: “ERASED DE KOONING DRAWING ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG 1953.” Now seen as a bombshell that shook the foundations of Abstract Expressionism, Erased de Kooning Drawing (1953) is an outstanding example of Rauschenberg’s irreverent yet incisive style, and it famously pushes the limits of what art can be.

This special work was acquired by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) from Rauschenberg through a gift of Phyllis C. Wattis, an instrumental member of the board of trustees who befriended Rauschenberg late in her life. It now anchors the museum’s exceptional holdings of the artist’s early work and is a highlight in the West Coast exclusive of Robert Rauschenberg: Erasing the Rules, on view at SFMOMA from November 18, 2017 through March 25, 2018.

Formerly presented at Tate Modern, London, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the exhibition’s iteration in San Francisco pays special tribute to SFMOMA’s close and longstanding relationship with Rauschenberg. From hosting his first retrospective — organized by Walter Hopps in 1976 — to spearheading the recent Rauschenberg Research Project— anambitious digital resource published on sfmoma.org that makes art historical and conservation research about Rauschenberg works widely accessible — SFMOMA has long been devoted to this extraordinary and trail-blazing figure. This presentation is also dedicated to Phyllis C. Wattis, in honor of her generosity and cherished relationship with the artist and SFMOMA.

“Robert Rauschenberg and Phyllis Wattis were kindred spirits,” said Gary Garrels, Elise S. Haas Senior Curator of Painting and Sculpture at SFMOMA. “Both were eager to discover new ideas that broke old boundaries. They relished life and art with expansiveness of spirit and always with a twinkle in their eyes.”

A defining figure of contemporary art, Rauschenberg produced a prolific body of work across a wide range of media — including painting, sculpture, drawing, prints, photography and performance — frequently and fearlessly defying the traditional art practice of his time. Robert Rauschenberg: Erasing the Rules marks the first retrospective of the artist’s work in nearly 20 years, celebrating the depth and scope of his six-decade career.

SFMOMA’s presentation emphasizes his iconoclastic approach, his multidisciplinary working processes and frequent collaborations with other artists.

Largely organized chronologically, the exhibition begins with the artist’s wide-ranging early work, from bold blueprint photograms and intimate photographs to his delicate Scatole personali (boxes filled with found objects). These galleries introduce Rauschenberg’s eagerness to experiment with and break from artistic conventions, his innovative approach to materials and his multi-disciplinary and collaborative nature, all of which were driving forces throughout his career.

This early period plays out across three locales: Black Mountain College, a fertile ground for experimentation where Rauschenberg studied with Josef Albers and Hazel Larsen Archer, and undertook his first important collaborations with Susan Weil, Cy Twombly, John Cage and Merce Cunningham; North Africa and Italy, where Rauschenberg traveled with Twombly; and lower Manhattan, where he set up his early studios and worked in close dialogue with Jasper Johns.


Among the many highlights of the exhibition is Automobile Tire Print (1953) in SFMOMA’s collection, made when the artist instructed composer John Cage to drive his Model A Ford through a pool of paint and then across 20 sheets of paper. The layered paper and fabrics in his Black paintings and Red paintings led to the artist’s landmark Combines (1954–64), a body of work that breaks down the boundaries between painting and sculpture.  



Collection (1954/1955)



and Charlene (1954) are presented together for the first time in almost four decades, providing a rare opportunity to see and compare the range of strategies Rauschenberg explored in the Combines’ formative stages. Monogram (1955–59), his landmark work assembled from a taxidermied goat with a painted tire around its body, anchors this presentation.


The exhibition continues by presenting key periods of the artist’s career in depth, including a gallery devoted to transfer drawings and silkscreen paintings. For the

 

 

 
Thirty-Four Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno (1958–60), Rauschenberg clipped pictures from magazines and newspapers, illustrating Dante’s epic poem with images from contemporary American life. Rauschenberg’s merging of classical themes, art history references, contemporary politics and pop culture culminate in the silkscreen paintings, such as the vibrant Scanning (1963) and Persimmon (1964).

 Rauschenberg also actively explored technological innovations for his performances and artworks in the early 1960s. Collaborations with Billy Klüver and a team of engineers lead to the inclusion of embedded radios in Oracle (1962–65). For the sound-activated work Mud Muse (1968–71) the artist constructed an enormous vat of vigorously spurting and bubbling mud. Originally conceived for an exhibition in Los Angeles and inspired by a hydrothermal basin in Yellowstone National Park, this presentation marks Mud Muse’s first return to California since 1971.

In 1970, Rauschenberg relocated his primary residence and studio to Captiva Island, Florida, where he lived and worked for the rest of his life. These new surroundings prompted the creation of the series Cardboards (1971–72).

 

SFMOMA’s Rosalie/Red Cheek/Temporary Letter/Stock (Cardboard) (1971), one of the earliest of the series, encapsulates this move with a mailing label from Rauschenberg’s New York studio to his Captiva address affixed to its front.

Far from isolated in Florida, Rauschenberg constantly welcomed visitors, many of them artists, and continued to travel frequently. A trip to India inspired his striking, lively series Jammers (1975–76); a 1982 visit to China ultimately lead to the launch of ROCI (the Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange), an intense seven-year project encompassing travel, art-making and exhibitions in over 10 countries. Rauschenberg’s own photos from this period of travel appear in many later works including

 

SFMOMA’s Port of Entry [Anagram (A Pun)] (1998).

SFMOMA’s presentation also will be distinguished by a single gallery presentation featuring Hiccups (1978), an extraordinary work comprising 97 pieces of handmade paper, each with transfer images and collaged bits of fabric and ribbon. Individual sheets are connected with zippers, with the intent that they could be reorganized into any order. In 1999, Rauschenberg gave Hiccups to SFMOMA in honor of Phyllis Wattis. This treasured work will be installed as a continuous frieze around the perimeter of a gallery.

The exhibition culminates with Rauschenberg’s late work, including his series Gluts (1986–94), assemblages of scrap-metal that point to the excessive consumption of American society, yet also incorporate humor.



The artist’s metal paintings of the 1990s, such as Holiday Ruse (Night Shade) (1991), feature subtly layered images silkscreened onto sheets of aluminum and bronze with tarnishing agents.The color transfer paintings of the 1990s and 2000s employ photographs printed with environmentally-friendly inks via cutting-edge digital printers and image-editing software, a testament to the artist’s ongoing embrace of emerging technologies and materials.

About Robert Rauschenberg

Born in Port Arthur, Texas, Robert Rauschenberg (1925–2008) was creative from a young age, and active in school theatre as a costume and set designer throughout high school. He attended the University of Texas, Austin, before he was drafted into the United States Navy. After his honorable discharge in 1945, he studied at the Kansas City Art Institute and the Académie Julian in Paris, France. Later he attended Black Mountain College in North Carolina, where he studied with Josef Albers, among others.

Rauschenberg launched his artistic career in the early 1950s, during the peak of Abstract Expressionism. Challenging this painterly tradition with an egalitarian approach to materials, he brought objects and images from the everyday world into his art. Working alone as well as in collaboration with artists, dancers, musicians and writers, Rauschenberg invented new interdisciplinary forms of artistic practice that set the course for present day art. He developed new modes of performance work, organized collaborative projects that crossed the boundaries between different mediums and different cultures and created works that merged traditional art materials with ordinary objects, found imagery and the cutting-edge technology of an emergent digital age. Major exhibitions include Robert Rauschenberg: A Retrospective (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1997); Robert Rauschenberg: The Early 1950s (Menil Collection, 1991); Robert Rauschenberg: The Silk-Screen Paintings, 1962–64 (Whitney Museum of American Art, 1990); and Robert Rauschenberg (National Collection of Fine Arts, 1976).

Rauschenberg’s work took him throughout the U.S. and across the globe, including Central and South America, Asia, Europe and Africa. From 1970, he worked from his home and studio on Captiva Island, Florida.

Catalogue

Robert Rauschenberg: Erasing the Rules is accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue, which examines the artist’s entire career across a full range of mediums. Edited by Leah Dickerman and Achim Borchardt-Hume, the book features commissioned essays by eminent scholars and emerging new writers, including Yve-Alain Bois, Andrianna Campbell, Hal Foster, Mark Godfrey, Hiroko Ikegami, Branden W. Joseph, Ed Krčma, Michelle Kuo, Pamela M. Lee, Emily Liebert, Richard Meyer, Helen Molesworth, Kate Nesin, Sarah Roberts and Catherine Wood. Each essay focuses on a specific moment in Rauschenberg’s career, exploring his creative production across disciplines. Integrating new scholarship, documentary imagery, and archival materials, this is the first comprehensive catalogue of Rauschenberg’s career in 20 years.

Bosch to Bloemaert: Early Netherlandish Drawings from the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

December 7, 2017, 8:21 am

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National Gallery of Art, Washington
October 8, 2017, through January 7, 2018

• Hieronymus Bosch, The Owl's Nest, c. 1505/1515
  pen and brown ink on paper, laid down
  Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Rotterdam's historic Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen holds one of the finest collections of Netherlandish master drawings. In a special presentation of this collection at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, some 100 works explore the many functions of drawings, from preparatory studies for paintings and designs for prints to finished works of art. On view from October 8, 2017, through January 7, 2018, Bosch to Bloemaert: Early Netherlandish Drawings from the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam includes landscapes, portraits, biblical scenes, and historical and mythological scenes that will be exhibited in the United States only in Washington.

 

• Hendrick Goltzius, The Sense of Sight from the series The Five Senses, c. 1595/1596. Black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash, and red chalk, heightened with white and indented, partially overdrawn in graphite, overall: 15.9 12.4 cm. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam.

"This exhibition presents a stunning selection of Netherlandish drawings," said Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art, Washington. "The National Gallery of Art has a nearly 50-year tradition of presenting drawing exhibitions that focus on specific treasures from other collections around the world, and we are delighted to be able to introduce our visitors to this selection of rare, innovative, and distinctive sheets from this distinguished Rotterdam institution. As the final venue for the exhibition's tour, we are delighted to be the only U.S. museum presenting these works to our millions of visitors in the nation's capital."

Organization

The exhibition is organized by the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam.
The exhibition premiered at the Fondation Custodia, Paris, from March 22 through June 22, 2014, and traveled to the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, where it was presented in three parts from November 1, 2014, through July 26, 2015.

About the Exhibition

While the exhibition features the remarkable skill and virtuosity of masters such as Hieronymus Bosch, Abraham Bloemaert, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, and Hendrick Goltzius, several key examples also reveal the variety of functions served by drawings across the 15th through 17th centuries.
In the 15th-century artist's workshop, meticulous studies recorded compositions and motifs for reuse in later works. Several drawings on view likely served this purpose, including a newly discovered sheet of the crucifixion dating from around 1440 to 1450, from the workshop of Jan van Eyck (c. 1390–1441). A selection of 16th-century drawings includes a number of preliminary studies, such as a rare complete set of preparatory drawings for a print series by Hans Bol (1534–1593). Two very different figure studies for a painting by Abraham Bloemaert (1566-1651) offer a glimpse into artistic practices in the early 17th century.

Pieter Bruegel Mountain Landscape with a Mule Caravan, c. 1553/1555pen and dark brown ink with traces of red chalk and blue inkoverall: 21.7 ×30.2 cm (8 9/16 ×11 7/8 in.)framed: 43.5 ×57.5 cm (17 1/8 ×22 5/8 in.)Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Pieter Bruegel Mountain Landscape with the Journey to Emmaus, c. 1560pen and brush and gray and brown ink with traces of black chalkoverall: 24.4 ×37.1 cm (9 5/8 ×14 5/8 in.)framed: 43.5 ×57.5 cm (17 1/8 ×22 5/8 in.)Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Pieter Bruegel View of Reggio di Calabria, c. 1560 pen and brown ink with brown and gray wash (added later)overall: 15.6 ×24.2 cm (6 1/8 ×9 1/2 in.)framed: 43.5 ×57.5 cm (17 1/8 ×22 5/8 in.)Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

The exhibition also traces the major artistic developments of the time. Among the most important was the emergence of landscape as a genre, a movement marked in the exhibition by several panoramic mountain views by the great master Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525/1530–1569).

Studies of local and faraway scenes by later artists include



Flooded Valley with Trees by Pieter's son, Jan Breughel (1568–1625),



 and Landscape with Horsemen out Hawking, by Joos de Momper (1564–1635).

This period reflects a shift in attitudes toward drawings themselves, as both artists and collectors began to view them as autonomous works of art.

• Hieronymus Bosch, The Owl's Nest, c. 1505/1515
  pen and brown ink on paper, laid down
  Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

The Owl's Nest (c. 1505/1515) by Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450–1516) is a spectacular early example of this trend.

Decades later, the innovative painter and printmaker Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617) made independent drawings in a variety of media. The exhibition includes 14 works by Goltzius, drawings that range from tiny metalpoint portraits to elaborate pen studies. His work also exemplifies the increasingly international character of Netherlandish art, as Goltzius absorbed the influence of the classical and Renaissance works he saw in Italy and adapted the sophisticated style his counterparts brought home from the imperial court in Prague.

Curators and Catalog

The exhibition is curated by Albert J. Elen, senior curator of drawings and prints, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. Stacey Sell, associate curator, department of old master drawings, National Gallery of Art, Washington, is the coordinating curator for the presentation in Washington.
Published by the Fondation Custodia and Uitgeverij THOTH, Bussum, the fully illustrated exhibition catalog is the result of a long-term research project into this unique collection of drawings at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. Some 400 old master drawings have been cataloged in recent years, and a selection of 140 of the finest works is presented in full-page format and color in this catalog, together with explanatory texts and supporting illustrations. The 296-page catalog will be available in softcover.

Hieronymus Bosch Spinster and Old Woman (recto), c. 1480/1490pen and brown and gray ink over all: 12 ×8.5 cm (4 3/4 ×3 3/8 in.)framed: 57.5 ×43.5 cm (22 5/8 ×17 1/8 in.)Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Hieronymus Bosch Fox and Rooster (verso), c. 1480/1490pen and brown and gray inkoverall: 12 ×8.5 cm (4 3/4 ×3 3/8 in.)framed: 57.5 ×43.5 cm (22 5/8 ×17 1/8 in.)Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Lucas van Leyden Jaël Killing Sisera, c. 1520/1525 pen and brown ink overall: 27.1 ×20.3 cm (10 11/16 ×8 in.)framed: 57.5 ×43.5 cm (22 5/8 ×17 1/8 in.)Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Jan Swart van Groningen The Elders Spying on Susanna, c. 1530/1550pen and black and brown ink with brown washoverall: 26.3 ×19.8 cm (10 3/8 ×7 13/16 in.)framed: 57.5 ×43.5 cm (22 5/8 ×17 1/8 in.)Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Hans Bol January (Aquarius) from the series The Twelve Months, c. 1580/1581pen and brown ink with brown wash, on a circular piece of paper, laid downdiameter: 14 cm (5 1/2 in.)framed: 43.5 ×57.5 cm (17 1/8 ×22 5/8 in.)Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Hans Bol February (Pisces) from the series The Twelve Months, c. 1580/1581pen and brown ink with brown wash, on a circular piece of paper, laid downdiameter: 14 cm (5 1/2 in.)framed: 43.5 ×57.5 cm (17 1/8 ×22 5/8 in.)Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Hans Bol March (Aries) from the series The Twelve Months, c. 1580/1581pen and brown ink with brown wash, on a circular piece of paper, laid downdiameter: 14 cm (5 1/2 in.)framed: 43.5 ×57.5 cm (17 1/8 ×22 5/8 in.)Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Abraham Bloemaert The Annunciation, c. 1615/1618black chalk with pen and brown ink and brown wash, heightened with white and indented, ondiscolored blue paperoverall: 34.5 ×27.8 cm (13 9/16 ×10 15/16 in.)framed: 57.5 ×43.5 cm (22 5/8 ×17 1/8 in.)Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Hendrick Goltzius The Man with the Potato Nose, c. 1600/1605pen and brown inksheet: 23.8 ×16.7 cm (9 3/8 ×6 9/16 in.)framed: 57.5 ×43.5 cm (22 5/8 ×17 1/8 in.)Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Abraham Bloemaert The Lamentation of Christ, c. 1625black and white chalk with stumping on light brown papersheet: 14.6 ×26.3 cm (5 3/4 ×10 3/8 in.)framed: 43.5 ×57.5 cm (17 1/8 ×22 5/8 in.)Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Hans Bol April (Taurus) from the series The Twelve Months , c. 1580/1581 pen and brown ink with brown wash, on a circular piece of paper, laid down diameter: 14 cm (5 1/2 in.) framed: 43.5  × 57.5 cm (17 1/8  × 22 5/8 in.) Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Hans Bol May (Gemini) from the series The Twelve Months , c. 1580/1581 pen and brown ink with brown wash, on a circular piece of paper, laid down diameter: 14 cm (5 1/2 in.) framed: 43.5  × 57.5 cm (17 1/8  × 22 5/8 in.) Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Hans Bol June (Cancer) from the series The Twelve Months , c. 1580/1581 pen and brown ink with brown wash, on a circular piece of paper, laid down diameter: 14 cm (5 1/2 in.) framed: 43.5  × 57.5 cm (17 1/8  × 22 5/8 in.) Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Hans Bol July (Leo) from the series The Twelve Months , c. 1580/1581 pen and brown ink with brown wash, on a circular piece of paper, laid down diameter: 14 cm (5 1/2 in.) framed: 43.5  × 57.5 cm (17 1/8  × 22 5/8 in.) Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Hans Bol August (Virgo) from the series The Twelve Months , c. 1580/1581 pen and brown ink with brown wash, on a circular piece of paper, laid down diameter: 14 cm (5 1/2 in.) framed: 43.5  × 57.5 cm (17 1/8  × 22 5/8 in.) Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Hans Bol September (Libra) from the series The Twelve Months , c. 1580/1581 pen and brown ink with brown wash, on a circular piece of paper, laid down diameter: 14 cm (5 1/2 in.) framed: 43.5  × 57.5 cm (17 1/8  × 22 5/8 in.) Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Hans Bol October (Scorpio) from the series The Twelve Months , c. 1580/1581 pen and brown ink with brown wash, on a circular piece of paper, laid down diameter: 14 cm (5 1/2 in.) framed: 43.5  × 57.5 cm (17 1/8  × 22 5/8 in.) Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Hans Bol November (Sagittarius) from the series The Twelve Months , c. 1580/1581 pen and brown ink with brown wash, on a circular piece of paper, laid down diameter: 14 cm (5 1/2 in.) framed: 43.5  × 57.5 cm (17 1/8  × 22 5/8 in.) Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Hans Bol December (Capricorn) from the series The Twelve Months , c. 1580/1581 pen and brown ink with brown wash, on a circular piece of paper, laid down diameter: 14 cm (5 1/2 in.) framed: 43.5  × 57.5 cm (17 1/8  × 22 5/8 in.) Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

 Hans Bol The Prodigal Son Squandering His Wealth , 1584 pen and dark brown ink with brown wash, indented overall: 12.4  × 17.9 cm (4 7/8  × 7 1/16 in.) framed: 43.5  × 57.5 cm (17 1/8  × 22 5/8 in.) Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

. No. 34 / File Name: 3957-039.

 Hans Bol Forest Landscape with a Stream , 1588 pen and brown ink with gray wash and traces of black chalk overall: 14.6  × 21.2 cm (5 3/4  × 8 3/8 in.) framed: 43.5  × 57.5 cm (17 1/8  × 22 5/8 in.) Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

. No. 40 / File Name: 3957-042.

 Maarten van Heemskerck The Triumph of Joseph , 1559 pen and brown ink overall: 18.3  × 26.2 cm (7 3/16  × 10 5/16 in.) framed: 43.5  × 57.5 cm (17 1/8  × 22 5/8 in.) Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

 Pieter Bruegel Charity , 1559 pen and brown ink, indented overall: 22.4  × 29.3 cm (8 13/16  × 11 9/16 in.) framed: 43.5  × 57.5 cm (17 1/8  × 22 5/8 in.) Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

 Pieter Bruegel Fortitude , 1560 pen and brown ink, indented, on paper, laid down overall: 22.5  × 29.6 cm (8 7/8  × 11 5/8 in.) framed: 43.5  × 57.5 cm (17 1/8  × 22 5/8 in.) Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam  

 Pieter Bruegel Temperance , 1560 pen and brown ink, indented overall: 22.1  × 29.4 cm (8 11/16  × 11 9/16 in.) framed: 43.5  × 57.5 cm (17 1/8  × 22 5/8 in.) Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

 Hans Speckaert The Battle of the Gods and Giants , c. 1575 black chalk with pen and brown ink and brown wash, heightened with white overall: 41.5  × 26.8 cm (16 5/16  × 10 9/16 in.) framed: 52.5  × 68.7 cm (20 11/16  × 27 1/16 in.) Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

 Hendrick Goltzius Portrait of Jan Baertsz , 1580 metalpoint, heightened with white, partially reworked with pen and brown ink, with gouache, on ivory-colored prepared tablet overall: 8.3  × 7.7 cm (3 1/4  × 3 1/16 in.) framed: 43.5  × 57.5 cm (17 1/8  × 22 5/8 in.) Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

 Hendrick Goltzius Portrait of Maritgen Pietersdochter , 1580 metalpoint, heightened with white, partially reworked with pen and brown ink, with gouache, on ivory-colored prepared tablet overall: 8.2  × 7.5 cm (3 1/4  × 2 15/16 in.) Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

 Hendrick Goltzius The Sense of Hearing from the series The Five Senses, c. 1595/1596 pen and brown ink and brown wash with traces of black chalk, heightened with white, indented, partially overdrawn in graphite overall: 15.9  × 12.4 cm (6 1/4  × 4 7/8 in.) framed: 43.5  × 57.5 cm (17 1/8  × 22 5/8 in.) Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam 

Hendrick Goltzius, The Sense of Smell from the series The Five Senses , c. 1595/1596 pen and brown ink and brown wash with traces of black chalk, heightened with white, indented and partially overdrawn in pencil overall: 15.9  × 12.4 cm (6 1/4  × 4 7/8 in.) framed: 43.5  × 57.5 cm (17 1/8  × 22 5/8 in.) Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Hendrick Goltzius The Sense of Taste from the series The Five Senses , c. 1595/1596 black chalk, pen and brown ink, and brown wash, heightened with white, indented, and partially overdrawn in graphite overall: 15.9  × 12.4 cm (6 1/4  × 4 7/8 in.) framed: 43.5  × 12.4 cm (17 1/8  × 4 7/8 in.) Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

 Abraham Bloemaert Interior of a Cooper's Workshop , c. 1600/1610 black chalk and pen and brown ink with brown and red wash overall: 19  × 24.2 cm (7 1/2  × 9 1/2 in.) framed: 43.5  × 57.5 cm (17 1/8  × 22 5/8 in.) Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Abraham Bloemaert The Lamentation of Christ , c. 1625 black chalk with pen and brown ink and brown wash, heightened with white and squared overall: 23.1  × 37.8 cm (9 1/8  × 14 7/8 in.) framed: 43.5  × 57.5 cm (17 1/8  × 22 5/8 in.) Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam 

The Impressionist Line: From Degas to Toulouse-Lautrec

December 14, 2017, 11:42 am

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Clark Art Institute 
November 5, 2017–January 7, 2018

Prints and drawings comprised nearly half of the works included in the eight Impressionist exhibitions held in Paris between 1874 and 1886. Today, however, Impressionism is usually understood as a celebration of the primacy of oil painting. The Impressionist Line: From Degas to Toulouse-Lautrec challenges this perception, exploring the Impressionists’ substantial—and often experimental—contributions to the graphic arts. The new exhibition of thirty-nine works on paper, on view at the Clark Art Institute November 5, 2017–January 7, 2018, showcases the hallmarks of the “Impressionist line” from the movement’s precursors in the 1860s through post-Impressionist art of the 1890s.

The Impressionist Line is drawn from the Clark’s collection of more than 6,000 works on paper. Artists represented in the exhibition include Charles-François Daubigny, Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Mary Cassatt, Camille Pissarro, Paul Gauguin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and others. The exhibition demonstrates not only the Impressionists’ embrace of modern subjects, but also their enthusiasm for new artistic materials and technologies, as well as ties to public and commercial ventures, such as fine art publications and art dealers.

“It’s a great opportunity for the Clark to show our visitors a different side of the Impressionist story, focusing on lesser known works through which one can develop a more fully rounded appreciation of their approach and practice,” said Olivier Meslay, Felda and Dena Hardymon Director of the Clark.

The exhibition traces an artistic lineage through which the development of Impressionist practice can be observed. “The Clark has an astounding collection of Impressionist-era prints and drawings, many of which are featured in this exhibition,” said exhibition curator Jay A. Clarke, Manton Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs. “The Impressionist Line is a true mini-survey of French prints and drawings produced during the last decades of the nineteenth century, and it tells the story of the graphic line in black and white and color through some of the greatest practitioners of their time.”

Before Impressionism

François Bonvin
French, 1817–1887
Servant Knitting
1861
Charcoal and black chalk with stumping and erasing on paper
15 11/16 x 12 5/16 in. (39.8 x 31.3 cm)
Clark Art Institute, 2012.12

Servant Knitting (1861) by François Bonvin (French, 1817–1887) depicts a humble scene from everyday life. The creation of such highly finished drawings was a relatively new phenomenon in contemporary French art and helped elevate the graphic arts among a growing middle-class clientele.

Barbizon School artist Charles-François Daubigny (French, 1817–1878) mentored Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, and Camille Pissarro, among other younger artists associated with Impressionism. Devoted to observing the landscape around him and capturing the essence of transitory sensations, Daubigny routinely worked en plein air in the forest of Fontainebleau. His red-chalk drawing  

 

Charles-François Daubigny
French, 1817–1878
Cows at a Watering Hole
c. 1863
Red chalk with stumping on paper
11 1/8 x 17 7/16 in. (28.3 x 44.3 cm)
Clark Art Institute, 1991.2

 
Cows at a Watering Hole (c. 1863) explores the fleeting effects of dawn or dusk upon a tranquil pond as cows drink.

The Impressionists


The Impressionist movement coincided with the birth of mass media and the growth of illustrated fine art journals. Because photography was in its infancy and could not capture the tonal nuances of oil painting, Impressionists such as Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926) often reproduced their own paintings as black-and-white drawings that were more easily reproduced photomechanically for publication.  

Claude Monet
French, 1840–1926
View of Rouen
1883
Black chalk on Gillot paper
Image: 12 5/16 x 18 11/16 in. (31.3 x 47.5 cm)
Sheet: 13 x 19 3/4 in. (33 x 50.2 cm)
Clark Art Institute, 1955.1914

View of Rouen (1883) replicated



Monet’s painting of the same title for publication in the art journal Gazette des beaux-arts.

Mary Cassatt
American, active in France, 1844–1926
In the Opera Box (No. 3)
c. 1880
Soft-ground etching and aquatint on paper
Image: 7 3/4 x 7 in. (19.7 x 17.8 cm)
Sheet: 13 15/16 x 10 7/16 in. (35.4 x 26.5 cm)
Clark Art Institute, 1971.45

In the Opera Box (No. 3) (c. 1880) by Mary Cassatt (American, active in France, 1844–1926) was originally created in preparation for an art journal, Day and Night (Le Jour et la nuit). Conceived by Edgar Degas and his Impressionist collaborators, the publication was to be illustrated with original etchings. For reasons unknown, the journal was never published, but this etching was included in the Fifth Impressionist Exhibition.

Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917) thought of prints as drawings, and he used drawings as a mechanism for replicating his paintings, pastels, and other prints. He began creating monotypes—prints that generally only yield one impression—in 1874 and reached his most productive period around 1880.



In the bold monotype Three Ballet Dancers (c. 1878–80), ballet dancers leap and land on stage, their movements observed from the perspective of a theater balcony. To create the work, Degas covered a copper plate with ink and then selectively removed the ink with a textured cloth, the end of a paintbrush, and his fingernail and fingertips.

Degas and other Impressionists experimented with pastel and elevated it to a realm previously reserved for oil paintings.



Degas’s Entrance of the Masked Dancers (c. 1884) presents an unusual view of ballerinas backstage.

 
 

Camille Pissarro
French, 1830–1903
Boulevard Rochechouart
1880
Pastel on paper
23 9/16 x 28 15/16 in. (59.9 x 73.5 cm)
Clark Art Institute, 1996.5

Camille Pissarro’s (French, 1831–1903) pastel Boulevard de Rochechouart (1880) depicts a bustling street with closed carriages, pedestrians, and a horse-drawn double-decker omnibus. It is one of the artist’s first Parisian street scenes, a motif that would become one of his signature serial explorations of the 1890s. The blue, white, and yellow palette, combined with the lack of leaves on the trees, suggests a wintry day.

Paul Gauguin and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

The Impressionists’ use of prints to more broadly circulate and promote their painted work influenced artists such as Paul Gauguin (French, 1848–1903). In 1889 art dealer Theo van Gogh, Vincent van Gogh’s brother, encouraged Gauguin to create a print series to publicize his recent paintings.

 

 





 

What eventually became known as the Volpini Suite—named after a café owned by Monsieur Volpini where the works were first shown—included eleven zincographs (a form of lithography using zinc plates) depicting everyday scenes from rural France and Martinique. The artist chose to print his zincographs on vibrant yellow paper.



Gauguin’s Noa Noa (Fragrant Scent) series was created in part to promote the artist’s paintings and to explain their layered symbolism. They later illustrated his autobiographical travel journal titled Noa Noa, which chronicled the artist’s time in the South Pacific.




The color woodcut Nave Nave Fenua (Delightful Land) (1894) depicts a nude woman in a landscape. As she picks a flower, a lizard whispers in her ear. The print has been interpreted as the artist’s attempt to create a Tahitian version of the biblical Fall in the Garden of Eden, when the snake tells Eve to eat the apple.

Though Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (French, 1864–1901) did not align himself with any particular school or style, his inventive prints added to the visual vocabulary associated with Post-Impressionism, an art movement less interested in naturalism and detail but more focused on the qualities of abstraction that would later become a hallmark of twentieth-century art. As Degas chronicled both the on- and off-stage life of the ballet, Lautrec recorded the dance halls and brothels of Montmartre, often using recognizable actresses, notables, and dancers in his pictures.

 

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
French, 1864–1901
The Englishman at the Moulin Rouge
1892
Color lithograph on paper
Image: 20 11/16 x 14 5/8 in. (52.6 x 37.1 cm)
Sheet: 23 1/2 x 18 1/16 in. (59.7 x 45.9 cm)
Clark Art Institute, 1968.17

The brightly colored lithograph The Englishman at the Moulin Rouge (1892) depicts a top-hatted man—the English artist William Tom Warrener—engaging in conversation with two women, likely prostitutes.

Like his Impressionist predecessors, Lautrec was a skilled printmaker. His command of the medium is evident in the color lithograph,

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
French, 1864–1901
The Jockey
1899
Color lithograph on paper
Image: 20 5/16 x 14 3/16 in. (51.6 x 36 cm)
Sheet: 20 5/16 x 14 3/16 in. (51.6 x 36 cm)
Clark Art Institute, 1962.122

The Jockey (1899). The tightly cropped composition places the viewer alongside two jockeys as they push their horses along the racecourse, thrusting the viewer in the action.



Félix Bracquemond
French, 1833–1914
Terrace of the Villa Brancas
1876
Etching on paper
Image: 9 15/16 x 13 7/8 in. (25.3 x 35.2 cm)
Sheet: 10 13/16 x 14 7/8 in. (27.4 x 37.8 cm)
Acquired with funds donated by participants in the Friends of the Clark Print Seminar
Clark Art Institute, 1982.35



Mary Cassatt
American, active in France, 1844–1926
The Visitor
c. 1881
Soft-ground etching, drypoint, aquatint on paper
Image: 15 9/16 x 12 1/8 in. (39.5 x 30.8 cm)
Sheet: 20 9/16 x 15 11/16 in. (52.2 x 39.8 cm)
Clark Art Institute, 1967.4



Paul Cézanne
French, 1839–1906
The Bathers: Large Plate
1898
Color lithograph on paper
Image: 16 7/16 x 20 13/16 in. (41.8 x 52.8 cm)
Sheet: 19 x 24 13/16 in. (48.3 x 63.1 cm)
Clark Art Institute, 1962.26





Charles-François Daubigny
French, 1817–1878
View of a Village
c. 1864–72
Black chalk, partially stumped, on paper
Image: 12 7/8 × 19 7/16 in. (32.7 × 49.4 cm)
Clark Art Institute, 2015.14

 

Edgar Degas
French, 1834–1917
After the Bath
c. 1891–92
Charcoal with stumping on paper
14 x 9 3/4 in. (35.5 x 24.8 cm)
Clark Art Institute, 1955.1408



Edgar Degas
French, 1834–1917
Entrance of the Masked Dancers
c. 1879
Pastel on paper
19 5/16 x 25 1/2 in. (49 x 64.8 cm)
Clark Art Institute, 1955.559



Edgar Degas
French, 1834–1917
Standing Nude
c. 1860–65
Graphite on paper
11 9/16 x 8 11/16 in. (29.4 x 22 cm)
Clark Art Institute, 1955.1847



Edgar Degas
French, 1834–1917
Three Ballet Dancers
c. 1878–80
Monotype on paper
Plate: 7 13/16 x 16 3/8 in. (19.9 x 41.6 cm)
Sheet: 14 x 20 3/16 in. (35.6 x 51.3 cm)
Clark Art Institute, 1955.1386



Edgar Degas
French, 1834–1917
The Washbasin
c. 1880–85
Monotype on paper
Plate: 12 1/4 x 10 3/4 in. (31.1 x 27.3 cm)
Sheet: 19 1/16 x 13 7/8 in. (48.4 x 35.3 cm)
Clark Art Institute, 1962.39

 

Paul Gauguin
French, 1848–1903
Breton Women Standing by a Fence, from the Volpini Suite
1889
Zincograph on yellow paper
Image: 6 5/16 x 8 7/16 in. (16 x 21.5 cm)
Sheet: 17 1/4 x 21 5/8 in. (43.8 x 54.9 cm)
Clark Art Institute, 1962.60



Paul Gauguin
French, 1848–1903
Dramas of the Sea: A Descent into the Maelstrom, from the Volpini Suite
1889
Zincograph on yellow paper
Image: 6 3/4 x 10 3/4 in. (17.1 x 27.3 cm)
Sheet: 17 1/4 x 21 3/8 in. (43.8 x 54.3 cm)
Clark Art Institute, 1962.66



Paul Gauguin
French, 1848–1903
Dramas of the Sea: Brittany, from the Volpini Suite
1889
Zincograph on yellow paper
Image: 6 3/8 x 8 7/8 in. (16.2 x 22.6 cm)
Sheet: 17 1/4 x 21 3/8 in. (43.8 x 54.3 cm)
Clark Art Institute, 1962.63



Paul Gauguin
French, 1848–1903
Grasshoppers and Ants: A Souvenir of Martinique, from the Volpini Suite
1889
Zincograph on yellow paper
Image: 7 7/8 x 10 1/4 in. (20 x 26.1 cm)
Sheet: 17 1/4 x 21 13/16 in. (43.8 x 55.4 cm)
Clark Art Institute, 1962.68




Paul Gauguin
French, 1848–1903
Nave Nave Fenua (Delightful Land), from Noa Noa (Fragrant Scent)
1894
Color woodcut on paper
Image: 14 3/16 x 8 1/4 in. (36 x 20.9 cm)
Sheet: 15 1/2 x 9 3/16 in. (39.3 x 23.3 cm)
Clark Art Institute, 1962.72



Paul Gauguin
French, 1848–1903
Te Atua (The Gods), from Noa Noa (Fragrant Scent)
1893–94
Color woodcut on paper
8 1/8 x 14 1/16 in. (20.6 x 35.7 cm)
Clark Art Institute, 1962.73

Paul Gauguin
French, 1848–1903
Te Faruru (Here We Make Love), from Noa Noa (Fragrant Scent)
Winter 1893–94
Color woodcut on paper
14 1/8 x 8 1/16 in. (35.9 x 20.5 cm)
Clark Art Institute, 1962.70



Paul Gauguin
French, 1848–1903
Washerwomen, from the Volpini Suite
1889
Zincograph on yellow paper
Image: 8 1/4 x 10 5/16 in. (21 x 26.2 cm)
Sheet: 17 1/4 x 21 9/16 in. (43.8 x 54.8 cm)
Clark Art Institute, 1962.62



Constantin Guys
French, 1802–1892
A Gentleman and Two Ladies
1860s
Pen and brown and black ink on watercolor, over graphite, on paper
9 5/8 x 7 15/16 in. (24.4 x 20.2 cm)
Clark Art Institute, 1955.1833



Léon-Augustin Lhermitte
French, 1844–1925
The Wine Press
c. 1872
Black chalk with stumping and erasing on paper, pieced
11 15/16 x 18 3/4 in. (30.4 x 47.7 cm)
Clark Art Institute, 1986.17



Édouard Manet
French, 1832–1883
At the Café
1874
Gillotage on paper
Image: 10 13/16 x 13 9/16 in. (27.5 x 34.5 cm)
Sheet: 12 1/2 x 16 1/4 in. (31.7 x 41.2 cm)
Clark Art Institute, 1962.82

 

Édouard Manet
French, 1832–1883
Execution of Maximilian
1868, printed 1884
Lithograph on paper
Image: 13 1/4 x 17 1/8 in. (33.6 x 43.5 cm)
Sheet: 20 1/4 x 26 5/8 in. (51.4 x 67.7 cm)
Acquired in memory of Rafael Fernandez (Curator of Prints and Drawings, 1975–1994), with contributions from his friends, colleagues, and students
Clark Art Institute, 2000.4

 

Claude Monet
French, 1840–1926
The Port at Touques
c. 1864
Black chalk on paper
8 1/4 x 13 in. (21 x 33 cm)
Clark Art Institute, 2006.5



Camille Pissarro
French, 1830–1903
The Gisors Market, Rue Cappeville
c. 1894
Color etching on paper
Plate: 7 7/8 x 5 1/2 in. (20 x 13.9 cm)
Sheet: 10 11/16 x 7 11/16 in. (27.2 x 19.5 cm)
Clark Art Institute, 1962.93



Camille Pissarro
French, 1830–1903
Peasant Women Weeding the Grass
c. 1894
Color etching on paper
Plate: 4 3/4 x 6 5/16 in. (12 x 16 cm)
Sheet: 6 5/16 x 7 1/2 in. (16 x 19 cm)
Clark Art Institute, 1962.91

Camille Pissarro
French, 1830–1903
Woman Emptying a Wheelbarrow
1880
Drypoint and aquatint on paper
Image: 12 1/2 x 9 1/8 in. (31.8 x 23.1 cm)
Clark Art Institute, 1962.92

Pierre-Auguste Renoir
French, 1841–1919
Pinning the Hat: Second Plate
c. 1898
Color lithograph on paper
Image: 23 13/16 x 19 3/8 in. (60.5 x 49.2 cm)
Sheet: 35 5/8 x 24 1/2 in. (90.5 x 62.3 cm)
Clark Art Institute, 1962.99



Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
French, 1864–1901
At the Circus: Acrobats
1899
Black and color chalks on paper
9 15/16 x 14 in. (25.3 x 35.5 cm)
Clark Art Institute, 1955.1429



Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
French, 1864–1901
At the Circus: The Dog Trainer
1899
Black and color chalks, over graphite, on paper
14 x 9 15/16 in. (35.5 x 25.3 cm)
Clark Art Institute, 1955.1427



Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
French, 1864–1901
Box in the Grand Tier
1897
Color lithograph on paper
Image: 20 1/4 x 15 9/16 in. (51.4 x 39.5 cm)
Sheet: 20 1/4 x 15 9/16 in. (51.4 x 39.5 cm)
Clark Art Institute, 1962.118



Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
French, 1864–1901
Dance at the Moulin Rouge
1897
Color lithograph on paper
Image: 18 1/2 x 14 in. (47 x 35.5 cm)
Sheet: 18 1/2 x 14 in. (47 x 35.5 cm)
Clark Art Institute, 1962.119




 

Sotheby’s Drawings 31 January 2018 i

December 14, 2017, 12:10 pm

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Sotheby’s will present The Line of Beauty: Drawings from the Collection of Howard and Saretta Barnet in a dedicated auction on 31 January 2018 in New York, highlighting Sotheby’s annual Masters Week sales. The superb collection of 28 drawings, formed over a period of some 40 years by the New York couple Howard and Saretta Barnet, is unique for its combination of small overall size, great chronological span and exceptionally high quality. 

Making their selections with razor-sharp aesthetic judgement, the Barnets very carefully assembled a group of drawings that tells the story of five centuries of the art of drawing in Western Europe, each of the very highest quality and beauty. Spanning from an early Renaissance landscape, drawn around 1500 by Fra Bartolommeo, to the rare and penetrating portrait of fellow-artist Balthus, drawn by Lucian Freud in 1989, the collection also includes magnificent drawings by the great 17th-century landscape master, Claude Lorrain, by the five top draughtsmen of 18th-century France and Italy (Watteau, Boucher, Fragonard, Tiepolo, Guardi), by the most visionary of Spanish artists, Goya and Picasso, and by two of the giants of 19th-century French art, Ingres and Degas. 

Despite being very different from each other in date, geographical origin, technique, style and function, these drawings reflect a powerful, consistent taste. The collection will be on view in our New York galleries from 26 – 31 January 2018, alongside our public exhibitions of Master Paintings. 

Gregory Rubinstein, Head of Sotheby’s Old Master Drawings Department, commented: 

“The sale of the Barnet Collection offers not only a unique and liberating insight into what makes a great drawing, but also gives another generation of collectors the opportunity to acquire works of the very highest quality, which have been off the market for several decades. Rarely, if ever, can a more perfectly chosen collection have been formed, in any collecting field.”

He continued: 

“The greatest masters of Western European art, from Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo to Rembrandt, Goya and Picasso, all began every work of art that they made, in every medium, with drawings. Through drawings, they worked out how they would approach their projects, and developed their ideas. Drawings open a magical door, through which we can pass into the very heart of the creative process – we are transported in time, to the very moment when the artist was working out what he or she was going to do, and that moment, whenever it occurred, 3thereby becomes part of the present, not the past. This timeless and universal quality is also fundamentally modern, and drawings from all periods can be equally revelatory to artists and collectors of today – to anyone fascinated by the process of making art.” 

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE COLLECTION


Fra Bartolommeo holds a distinct and distinguished position amongst the classic painters of the Renaissance. The present drawing, an exquisite and highly rare landscape drawing, depicting a View of Fiesole (estimate $600/800,000), has an absolutely impeccable provenance; given by Fra Bartolommeo to his fellow artist Fra Paolina da Pistoia, before subsequently entering the celebrated collection of the Florentine art historian Nicolo Gabburi. Dating to circa 1508, this drawing can be considered among the earliest pure landscape studies in European art and like the other surviving landscape studies by the artist, the majority of which are in museum collections, this sheet appears to have been drawn directly from nature.


Parmigianino was a prodigiously talented painter, draughtsman and print maker, whose career spanned the Mannerist period. His drawings are continuously sought after by collectors and connoisseurs, and justifiably recognized for their outstanding quality. The present work, a double sided drawing, is no exception to this rule and depicts two separate studies of

Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola, called Parmigianino Recto: Shepherds for an Adoration Verso: Two Putti Among Foliage Estimate: 300,000 - 500,000 USD

 “Shepherds for an Adoration” on the recto and “Two putti among foliage” on the verso (estimate $300/500,000). The drawing also contains a charming musical score on the recto, perhaps explaining why it once belonged in the collection of Nicolas Lanière, who was appointed in 1618 as “Master of the Musick” to Prince Charles, who would later become King Charles I of England.


 

 The Valley of the Aniene, Near Tivoli, With the Ruins of the Aqua Anio Novus Aqueduct Estimate: 600,000 - 800,000 USD. Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes

Claude Lorrain’s The Valley Of The Aniene, Near Tivoli, With The Ruins Of The Aqua Anio Novus Aqueduct (estimate $600/800,000) has not been seen in public since it was exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum, New York, some 40 years ago, and the occasion of this sale therefore provides the first opportunity in a long generation to study and appreciate its exceptional qualities. Historically resonant, elegant in composition and understated in the handling of the media, it epitomises Claude’s accomplishments in the field of drawing, at a moment when he was riding a wave of critical acclaim and professional success. It is through serene and imposing drawings such as that cemented the artist’s position as the ultimate recorder of the landscape, ruins and atmosphere of the Roman Campagna. 

Though the monuments and antiquities of Rome itself and its immediate surroundings had been drawn and painted by other artists since the earlier 16th century, it was only when Claude took to the wider countryside surrounding the Eternal City in the 1620s that these pastoral locations began to be widely appreciated as subjects – a fashion that was subsequently to endure more or less unabated until the late 19th century. This characteristically atmospheric work is one of the finest and most significant drawings by the artist to remain in private hands, and is particularly fascinating in that it depicts an identifiable location, with the ruins of the Aqua Anio Novus Aqueduct still surviving to this day.

 In his relatively short-life, Jean Antoine Watteau managed to have a hugely significant impact on the development of Rococo art in France and beyond.  



A Scene From The Commedia dell'arte: A Girl Resisting The Advances Of A Comedian And An Actress Executing A Step (estimate $500/700,000) is an exquisite and extremely elegant drawing by the artist, depicting a scene from the “Commedia dell’Arte”, an early form of theatre, that originated in Italy in the 15th century. Spreading in popularity throughout Europe, it was of the utmost fashion in Rococo France by the 18th century. 

The two figures on the left, drawn predominantly in a vibrant red chalk, with touches of black lead, appear to depict the timeless scene of a beautiful woman, spurning 5the advances of an enthusiastic suitor. The equally beautiful woman on the right side of the sheet, does not seem to directly relate to the aforementioned narrative, but rather, appears to be an actress or dancer performing a step. The two groups of figures combined form a delightfully balanced “mis en page”, in which Watteau, captures both the elegance of the figures he portrays, coupled with an expressiveness and sense of movement that only a draughtsman of his immense virtuosity could achieve.

Goya’s penetrating vision of humanity and intense visual imagination mark him out as one of the first truly modern artists. Throughout his life, he expressed his most private thoughts and feelings in his drawings, and gathered them at various stages of his career into eight remarkable "Private Albums".  

 

No Ilenas Tanto La Cesta (Don't Fill The Basket So Full)(estimate $1/1.5 million) originates from the Black Border Album, named for its most visible characteristic: the distinctive lines that frame each drawing within this group. Here the artist has portrayed an elderly woman, hunched over a basket of food, some of which has fallen on the ground to the right of her. Goya has added his own proverbial inscription to the lower centre of the drawing: No Ilenas tanto la cesta (Don’t fill the basket so full), to suggest that the viewer can learn from the mistakes made by the elderly woman depicted. The combination of media that Goya uses in this drawing remain in particularly exceptional condition, making this museum quality drawing one of the most important works by the artist to appear on the open market in recent years.

Samuel Palmer was undoubtedly one of the most important and influential artists of the Romantic era, working in Britain. A particular emphasis is placed on his celebrated early career, a period in which he was living in the Kent village of Shoreham. His work from this “Shoreham period”, of which 

 

Landscape With A Church, A Boat And Sheep (estimate $250/350,000) is a wonderful example, is executed in his visionary style. Drawn in Palmer’s characteristic combination of brown ink and wash with scratching out, the present work depicts a scene of rural bliss, with two shepherds and their flock bathed in dappled light, whilst behind them a boatman drifts past an idyllic village Church. 

Degas’ two engrossing passions, horse racing and ballet, provided him with a rich and exciting social life and the artistic inspiration for the greatest part of his œuvre. As a member of the prestigious Jockey Club, Degas was a habitué of the racecourses at Deauville and Longchamps, where he could study the beauty of thoroughbred horses at close quarters. Images of racing were a central part of his career, and his pastels of the subject are among his most celebrated works, of which  

Edgar Degas, Deux Jockeys. Gouache and oil on paper; stamped lower left: Degas, 238 by 311 mm; 9⅜ by 12¼ in. Executed circa 1868-70. Estimate: 80,000 USD - 120,000 USD. Courtesy Sotheby’s.

Deux jockeys (estimate $80/120,000) is a perfect example.

A virtuoso rendering of bold line and delicate chiaroscuro, Lucian Freud’s arresting 

 

Lucian Freud, Portrait of Balthus. Charcoal on paper; dated in pencil in the upper left: 8 – 10 – 89, 327 by 248 mm; 12⅞by 9 ¾ in. Estimate: 70,000 USD - 90,000 USD. Courtesy Sotheby’

Portrait of Balthus (estimate $70/90,000) magnificently illustrates the legendary British portraitist’s extraordinary powers of analysis in both form and character. Executed in 1989, the present work portrays Freud’s fellow artist Balthus, a French modern painter whose early investigation of figurative expressionism served as a significant influence upon Freud’s own iconic output. This drawing confidently captures the essence of the sitter, the brooding gaze and distinctive, shadowy features readily evoking Balthus’ reputation as a reclusive and impenetrable artistic figure. In each deft charcoal accent, Freud imbues his sitter’s refined visage with an arresting psychic intensity that serves as an enduring testament, both to Freud’s inimitable analysis of the human subject, and to his remarkable abilities as a master draughtsman.

Cézanne's Portraits

December 15, 2017, 7:20 am

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National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

March 25 through July 1, 2018

Bringing together some 60 paintings drawn from collections around the world, Cézanne Portraits is the first exhibition devoted exclusively to this often-neglected genre of his work. The revelatory exhibition explores the pictorial and thematic characteristics of Paul Cézanne's (1839–1906) portraits, the chronological development of his style and method, and the range and influence of his sitters. The sole American venue, Cézanne Portraits will be on view on the main floor of the West Building from March 25 through July 1, 2018.

"This exhibition provides an unrivaled opportunity to reveal the extent and depth of Cézanne's achievement in portraiture," said Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art. "The partnership between the National Gallery of Art, the National Portrait Gallery in London, and the Musée d'Orsay in Paris has made it possible to explore his working techniques as well as his intellectual solutions to representation in these exceptional portraits."

Cézanne painted almost 200 portraits, including 26 self-portraits and nearly 30 portraits of his wife, Hortense Fiquet, as well as portraits of his son Paul and his uncle Dominique Aubert, art dealer Ambroise Vollard, critic Gustave Geffroy, and the local men and women in his native Aix-en-Provence. The exhibition presents a selection of portraits that reveals the most personal and human aspects of Cézanne's art.

Exhibition Organization and Support

The exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, the National Portrait Gallery, London, and the Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

About the Exhibition

Cézanne Portraits explores the artist's series of portraits of the same sitter; traces his portraits chronologically, revealing changes in style and method; and shows the full range of his sitters and how they influenced his practice. Cézanne's unique vision was informed by a desire to see through appearances to the underlying structure using mass, line, and shimmering color. The exhibition traces the development of Cézanne's portraits and the changes that occurred through style and method and the understanding of resemblance and identity.

Cézanne made his first portrait in the early 1860s, although it was not until 1866 that he began to paint portraits in earnest. Often painting family and friends with whom he felt comfortable, his early works were stylistically influenced by Gustave Courbet's and Édouard Manet's Parisian portraits.


 

The Painter's Father, Louis-Auguste Cézann about 1865, Paul Cézanne

The family paintings include large portraits of his father, small paintings of his mother and sisters, and about nine portraits of his uncle, the bailiff Dominique Aubert, and provocative paintings of poet and art critic Antony Valabrègue and the artist Achille Emperaire.

By the end of the 1860s Cézanne's portraits became more refined and more sympathetic to his sitters. He began to produce fewer portraits until 1875, when he created a group of self-portraits prominently featuring his bald head painted in an impressionist style. Between 1876 and 1877 he began to incorporate heightened hues in which areas of prismatic color help to shape a vivid human presence, as seen in

 

Madame Cézanne in a Red Armchair (c. 1877), on view in the exhibition.

Over the following seven or eight years, Cézanne created portraits of sculptural gravity, including paintings of his wife, their young son, and his son's friend Louis Guillaume,

 

Cézanne, Self Portrait, about 1880

as well as self-portraits.

Between 1872 and 1892 Cézanne painted 28 portraits of his wife. Seventeen of these, painted during the second half of the 1880s, form three distinct stylistic groups.



 Madame Cezanne with Unbound Hair, c.1887 - Paul Cezanne

The first group, a set of small, lightly painted canvases, were painted around 1886 and includes the most expressive images of her made to date, marking a major shift in his portraiture practice. The second group, made a few years later, is more explicit in its description of emotion and more heavily painted. The third group of four portraits depicts Hortense wearing a red dress. Fifteen of these portraits will be on view.

Cézanne also painted several portraits of the model Michelangelo de Rosa in Italian garb. The Gallery's version,



 


Boy in a Red Waistcoat (1888–1890), is the largest, most resolved of these portraits. Influenced by 16th-century mannerists such as Bronzino and Pontormo who painted iconic images of urban, male adolescents, Cézanne presents a moving, formally innovative image of a boy morphing into manhood.

During the 1890s Cézanne began to paint portraits of local people in and around his native Aix-en-Provence. His portraits of agricultural laborers record his admiration for people who had grown old without changing their ways. The paintings of domestic servants and children indirectly reflect Cézanne's increasing preoccupation with old age. Included among these works are

 

 Child in a Straw Hat (1896),  


 

Man in a Blue Smock (c. 1897),

 


and Seated Peasant (c. 1900–1904), all of which are in the exhibition.

Of the 100 paintings Cézanne made between 1900 and 1906, only about 20 are portraits, seven of which were painted outside.





Child in a Straw Hat, 1902 - Paul Cezanne


 During this period, Cézanne painted his final self-portrait,

 


Self-Portrait with Beret (1898–1900), on view in the exhibition, which depicts a fragile, prematurely aged but still vehement figure. The subjects of these later portraits are local men, women, and children as well as a pair of portraits of his sister, Marie, depicted in a blue dress,



Paul Cezanne, The Gardener Vallier 1902-1906 Oil on canvas. National Gallery of Art



'The Gardener Vallier', 1902–6, by Paul Cézanne. '



Portrait of Vallier, 1906 - Paul Cezanne

 

The Gardener Vallier, 1906 - Paul Cézanne, E. G. Buhrle Collection (Switzerland)



Portrait of the Gardener Vallier, c.1906 - Paul Cezanne

and five paintings of his gardener, Vallier, three of which are on view.

Exhibition Curators

The exhibition is curated by John Elderfield, chief curator emeritus of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, with Mary Morton, curator and head of the department of French paintings at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and Xavier Rey, formerly director of collections at the Musée d'Orsay, now director of the museums of Marseille.



Exhibition Catalog

The exhibition is accompanied by a 256-page, fully illustrated catalog with essays by the exhibition curators—John Elderfield, chief curator emeritus of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, with Mary Morton, curator and head of the department of French paintings at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and Xavier Rey, director of the museums of Marseille. Also included are a biographical essay on Cézanne's sitters by biographer Alex Danchev and a chronology of the artist's life by Jayne Warman.

This catalog establishes portraiture as an essential practice for Cézanne, from his earliest self-portraits in the 1860s to his famous depictions of figures including his wife Hortense Fiquet, the writer Émile Zola, and the art dealer Ambroise Vollard, and concluding with a poignant series of portraits of his gardener Vallier, made shortly before Cézanne's death. Featured essays explore the special pictorial and thematic characteristics of Cézanne's portraits and address the artist's creation of complementary pairs and multiple versions of the same subject, as well as the role of self-portraiture for Cézanne. They investigate the chronological evolution of his portrait work, with an examination of the changes that occurred within his artistic style and method, and in his understanding of resemblance and identity. They also consider the extent to which particular sitters influenced the characteristics and development of Cézanne's practice. Beautifully illustrated with works of art drawn from public and private collections around the world, Cézanne Portraits presents an astonishingly broad range of images that reveals the most personal and human qualities of this remarkable artist.

Also fascinating: Portraits by Cézanne at the Musée d’Orsay

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National Gallery: four exceptional Dutch and Flemish painting

December 21, 2017, 8:08 am

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Visitors to the National Gallery can enjoy four exceptional Dutch and Flemish paintings, which are generous bequests to the collection from Willem Baron van Dedem.

The renowned Dutch-born collector, who was based in London, died in November 2015 at the age of 86. For many years he had promised to give the National Gallery four paintings upon his death, and particularly desired that the works selected from his collection address gaps in the Gallery’s holdings and be on display to the public.

His son, Frits Baron van Dedem, says:

"We are honoured that the National Gallery acknowledges the quality and rarity of these four paintings that our father/grandfather collected over a period of more than fifty years It gives us great pleasure that the Gallery has decided to showcase these extraordinary works of art with the public."

'Christ crowned with Thorns' by David Teniers the Younger (1641), 'Butterflies, Moths and Insects with Sprays of Common Hawthorn and Forget-Me-Not' and 'Butterflies and Moths and Insects with Sprays of Creeping Thistle and Borage' both by Jan van Kessel the Elder (both 1654), along with 'Still Life with a Bowl of Strawberries, a Spray of Gooseberries, Asparagus and a Plum' by Adriaen Coorte (1703), are on display in Room 26 from 13 December 2017.

Adriaen Coorte, 'Still Life with a Bowl of Strawberries, a Spray of Gooseberries, Asparagus and a Plum', 1703 © The National Gallery, London. Gift from the collection of Willem Baron van Dedem, 2017

'Still Life with a Bowl of Strawberries, a Spray of Gooseberries, Asparagus and a Plum' (above) is one of Coorte’s most ambitious compositions. Coorte’s work is not represented in the National Gallery Collection, and there are only four other works by him in UK public collections, so this small but powerful painting is an important addition to the Gallery’s holdings of still lifes painted in the latter part of the 17th century. It also offers visitors an intriguing alternative to the lavish abundance of works by Willem Kalf or Jan van Huysum.

Jan van Kessel the Elder is another artist who until now was not represented in the National Gallery Collection. He belonged to one of the most famous artistic ‘dynasties’ in European painting: Jan Brueghel the Elder was his grandfather, and Jan Brueghel the Younger and David Teniers the Younger were uncles.

Jan van Kessel the Elder, 'Butterflies, Moths and Insects with Sprays of Common Hawthorn and Forget-Me-Not', 1654 © The National Gallery, London. Gift from the collection of Willem Baron van Dedem, 2017

Jan van Kessel the Elder, 'Butterflies, Moths and Insects with Sprays of Creeping Thistle and Borage', 1654 © The National Gallery, London. Gift from the collection of Willem Baron van Dedem, 2017

Van Kessel continued the family tradition of painting small-scale, brightly coloured and minutely detailed paintings on panel or copper, which were avidly sought after by collectors throughout Europe. He is best known for his depictions of flowers, insects and animals, both living and dead, as seen in his 'Butterflies, Moths and Insects with Sprays of Common Hawthorn and Forget-Me-Not' and 'Butterflies and Moths and Insects with Sprays of Creeping Thistle and Borage'. Few works represent so well the 17th-century fascination with the natural world.

David Teniers the Younger specialised in everyday scenes and made only a handful of religious works throughout his long career. Until today, the National Gallery did not have a prime example of one of his religious paintings. By using familiar figures clad in contemporary dress, and by situating the action in what could be a local garrison, Teniers heightens the immediacy and pathos of the scene.

David Teniers the Younger,'Christ Crowned with Thorns', 1641 © The National Gallery, London. Gift from the collection of Willem Baron van Dedem, 2017

'Christ crowned with Thorns' (above) is painted on an exceptionally large copper plate, and is beautifully preserved, allowing us to appreciate the artist’s colourful palette and his detailed and assured technique. While the Gallery has several large-scale history paintings by Rubens

A Roman Triumph

about 1630, Peter Paul Rubens

Samson and Delilah

about 1609-10, Peter Paul Rubens

and van Dyck,

 

St Ambrose barring Theodosius from Milan Cathedral

about 1619-20, Anthony van Dyck

until the acquisition of this work it has not been able to represent the sort of intimate and finely painted representations of historical themes that formed an integral part of sophisticated collectors’ cabinets in the 17th century.

Bart Cornelis, National Gallery Curator of Dutch and Flemish Paintings, says:

“It is through the tremendous generosity of Willem van Dedem that the Gallery can now show works by Adriaen Coorte and Jan van Kessel, neither of whom were represented at Trafalgar Square, while an impressive work by Teniers will allow visitors to see how a scene from the Passion of Christ was interpreted as a contemporary event in 17th-century Flanders.”

National Gallery Director, Dr Gabriele Finaldi, says:

“Willem van Dedem wanted to share his passion for fine Dutch and Flemish paintings by giving the National Gallery these four pictures. He is the most recent in a long line of distinguished collectors who have enriched the Gallery’s holdings for the enjoyment of

“ Splendor and Misery in the Weimar Republic ”

December 21, 2017, 8:18 am

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SCHIRN KUNSTHALLE FRANKFURT,

OCTOBER 27, 2017 – FEBRUARY 25, 2018

Social tensions, political struggles, social upheavals, as well as artistic revolutions and innovations characterize the Weimar Republic. Beginning October 27, 2017, the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt is presenting German art from 1918 to 1933 in a major thematic exhibition. 

Direct, ironic, angry, accusatory, and often even prophetic works demonstrate the struggle for democracy and paint a picture of a society in the midst of crisis and transition. Many artists were moved by the problems of the age to mirror reality and everyday life in their search for a new realism or “naturalism.” They captured the stories of their contemporaries with an individual signature: the processing of the First World War with depictions of maimed soldiers and “war profiteers,” public figures, the big city with its entertainment industry and increasing prostitution, political unrest and economic chasms, as well as the role model of the New Woman, the debates about paragraphs 175 and 218 (regarding punishability of homosexuality and abortion), the social changes resulting from industrialization, and the growing enthusiasm for sports. 

The exhibition provides an impressive panorama of a period that even today, 100 years after its advent, has lost nothing of its relevance and potential for discussion. The focus of the exhibition lies on the unease of the era , which was reflected not only in the motifs and content, but also in a broad spectrum of styles. Arranged in thematic groups, it assembles portrayals and scenes from Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, Rostock, Stuttgart, Karlsruhe, Munich, and Hannover that have hitherto frequently been regarded separately and can be assigned more to the “verist” wing of New Objectivity . 

The exhibition assembles 190 paintings, prints, drawings, and sculptures by 62 famous artists and others who have been largely neglected to date, including Max Beckmann, Kate Diehn - Bitt, Otto Dix, Dodo, Conrad Felixmüller, George Grosz, Carl Grossberg, Hans an d Lea Grundig, Karl Hubbuch, Lotte Laserstein, Alice Lex - Nerlinger, Elfriede Lohse - Wächtler, Jeanne Mammen, Oskar Nerlinger, Franz Radziwill, Christian Schad, Rudolf Schlichter, Georg Scholz, and Richard Ziegler. Historical films, magazines, posters, and p hotographs provide add itional background information. 

The Schirn was able to arrange important loans from numerous museums as well as public and private collections in Germany and abroad for this presentation, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and t he Neue Galerie in New York, the Museo Thyssen - Bornemisza Madrid, the Museum Moderne Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, the Nationalgalerie of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, the Albertinum of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, the Städtische Galerie im Len bachhaus Munich, the Sprengel Museum Hannover, the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, the Folkwang Museum Essen, and the Stiftung Museum Kunstpalast Düsseldorf. 


Dr. Philipp Demandt, Director of the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, remarks about the exhibition: 

“ With ‘Splendor and Misery in the Weimar Republic’ the Schirn is presenting a counterbalance to the exhibitions that have already be en shown on many occasions on the Roaring Twenties. It takes a look at the unvarnished facts of life during the Weimar Republic. 190 works by 62 artists mercilessly hold a mirror to the society of the time. We see an era that clung to democracy by the skin of its teeth and in some respects is closer to u s than we would like to believe. ” 

The curator of the exhibition, Dr. Ingrid Pfeiffer, explains : 

“ We often read the history of the Weimar Republic from the end backwards — from its transition to National Socialism and World War II. In spite of the negative sociopolitical developments that the artists so succinctly describe in their works, it was during the Weimar Republic that ‘modernism ’ evolved. The Weimar Republic was a progressive era in which many pioneering ideas were formed — not only in art, architecture, and design. The direction in which the Republic should develop was energetically discussed on all levels, the role of women, the length of the working week , and the paragra phs relating to abortion and homosexuality. Besides the manifest misery, it is these tendencies that for me distinguish th e splendor of the Weimar Republic . ” 

THE THEMES AND ARTISTS OF THE EXHIBITION 

One of the first works in the presentation is the painting Weimarer Fasching ( Weimar Carnival , ca. 1928/ 29) by Horst Naumann ( 1908 – 1990) — a p anorama of society, a c on c entr ated overview of those phe nomen a that defined the Weimar Republic : the entertainment industry, money, sports , the church, the army, weapons, right - wing national ist s ymboli sm , and industrial progress . T he economic consequences of the war and the moral burden resulting from the Treaty of Versailles and its article relating to the blame for the war weighed heavily on the Weimar Republic and posed a massive threat to the young democracy. In the years following World War I, in their works artists Otto Dix (1891 – 1969) , Georg e Grosz ( 1893 – 1959), and Georg Scholz ( 1890 – 1945 ) in particular rea cted to the political and economic conditions within the Republic with scathing criticism . War invalids, day laborers , and the unemployed were a frequent sight and also appeared as subjects in art.

 

The Schirn shows works like Otto Dix ’s Kriegskrüppel (War Cripples, 1920) 



and George Grosz's Invalide ( Invalid, 1921/22), which depict the situation in the streets directly and with mordant humor. With their highly political art, George Grosz and Georg Scholz also took a stance against National Socialist tendencies and in retrospect demonstrate an almost prophetic foresight with regard to future events. 

 

Georg Scholz, for example, painted his so - called Hakenkreuzritter (Swastika Knight ) in a café as early as 1921.

 Since the founding of the Weimar Republic, opponents on the right and left fought against it, since they both wanted a very different kind of social and political order in Germany. Communist revolts and extreme right - wing attempts at a coup d’état were both real and hypothetical dangers. As early as 1922, Otto Griebel (1895 – 1972) was one of the first artists to portray the political and social contrasts that the young republic had to face . 

Along with Lea Grundig (1906 – 1977) and Hans Grundig (1901 – 1958) , Conrad Felixmüller (1897– 1977) , Alice Lex - Nerlinger (1893 – 1975) , Curt Querner ( 1904 –1976 ) , and Otto Nagel (1894 – 1967) , Otto Griebel was also a member of the Assoziation Revolutionärer Bildender Künstler Deutschlands (Association of Revolutionary Artists of Germany, ASSO or ARBKD), which was founded first in Berlin and then in 1 930 in Dresden and through which the artists took an active part in political events . 

Georg Scholz made the growing social injustice in the Weimar Republic a subject of his work, for example in his painting Von kommenden Dingen (Of Things to Come, 1922), in which he illustrated a questionable deal between the most important string - pullers of the early Weimar Republic: the industrialist Hugo Stinnes, the politician Walther Rathenau , and the trade - union leader Carl Legien. 

The petit - bourgeois and the well - fed citizen, the industrialist who profited from inflation, and the nouveau - riche individual all cropped up in pict u res of the time, as in Der Schieber ( The Trafficker, 1921/22) by Heinrich Maria Davringhausen ( 1894 – 1970) . These are contrasted by portraits such as Arbeitslose (Unemployed Workers , 1929) o r Stoffhändler (Fabric Merchant , 1932) by Grethe Jürgens ( 1899 – 1981) , in which the artist depicted the harsh and immediate present . 

In the Weimar Republic cultural events were no longer merely the privilege of an élite but became mass entertainment : varietés, revue theater, nightclub , cafés, and bars were features of social life in the big cities and offered opportunities to escape from everyday life. 


The Schirn has assembled images such as 

 

Tiller Girls ( before 1927) by Karl Hofer (1878 – 1955) , 

 

Varieté (1925) by Paul Grunwaldt (1891 – 1962 ) , 

 

and Lissy im Café ( Lissy in the Café , ca. 1930/ 32) by Karl Hubbuch (1891 – 1979).

The illustrations and drawings for the satirical magazines Ulk  Simplicissimus, and Jugend, 


 

Dodo, Box Logic (Logenlogik), for the magazine Ulk, 1929, Gouache over pencil on cardboard, 40 × 30 cm, Private collection, Hamburg, © Krümmer Fine Art

 including Logenlogik (Box Logic , 1929) by Dodo ( 1907 – 1998 ) or 

Jeanne Mammen, Ash Wednesday (Aschermittwoch), ca. 1926, Watercolor on paper, 34 × 29 cm, Private collection, Berlin, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017, Photo: Mathias Schormann, Berlin

Aschermittwoch ( Ash Wednesday , ca. 1926) by Jeanne Mammen ( 1890 – 1976) , bear witness to a dissolute, heedless drive and show the abysses and dark sides of the world of entertainment . 

Increasing prostitution was portrayed not only in a sociocritical manner 

 

by Heinrich Ilgenfritz (1899 – 1969) , for example in Die Ernährerin (The Breadwinner , 1928 – 1932), or grotesquely by George Grosz or 

 

Otto Dix, Woman with Mink and Veil (Dame mit Schleier und Nerz), 1920, Oil and tempera on canvas mounted on board, 73 × 54.6 cm, Judy and Michael Steinhardt Collection, New York, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017

Otto Dix in Dame mit Schleier und Nerz ( Woman with Mink and Veil , 1920) , but also more subtly and with more empathy, for example in 

Rudolf Schlichter, Margot, 1924, Oil on canvas, 110.5 × 75 cm, Stadtmuseum Berlin, © Viola Roehr von Alvensleben, München, Photo: Michael Setzpfandt, Berlin

Margot (1924) by Rudolf Schlichter ( 890 – 1955) or in the works of Elfriede Lohse - Wächtler (1899– 1940) . The latter lived for a time in Sankt Pauli in Hamburg: her pictures are drastic, as in Über der Leib (About the Body, 1930), but often also almost humorous and full of  sympathy.

 The role model of women changed fundamentally during the Weimar Republic . Correspondingly, artists such as Lotte Laserstein ( 1898 – 1993) and Kate Diehn - Bitt ( 1898 – 1993) portrayed themselves corresponding to the image of the New Woman as urban and self-confident with a bob and at times androgynous. Large numbers of women now took up new professions and became telephone operators, saleswomen, doctors, or academics . 

Almost one - third of the artists whose works are being presented in the Schirn exhibition are female — artists who were hitherto often missing from overview publications on New Objectivity. Their works also reflect the social developments in the direction of more liberality and pluralism. 

The “Women’s Question” also influenced political debates on abortion (Paragraph 218)  and contraception, marital rights, prostitution , women’s wages , and even cultural - critical debates on fashion and sexual orientation. 

Women artists developed their own versions and forms of social realism not only in Berlin,with Jeanne Mammen, Lotte Laserstein, and Alice Lex - Nerlinger, but also in many other places — Gerta Overbeck (1898 – 1977 ) and Grethe Jürgens in Hannover, Lea Grundig a nd Hilde Rakebrand ( 1901 – 1991 ) in Dresden, Kate Diehn - Bitt in Rostock, Elfriede Lohse - Wächtler in Hamburg, and Hanna Nagel (1907 – 1975 ) in Karlsruhe. 

The exhibition presents important personalities of public life during the Weimar Republic , including gallerists, journalists, writers, and composers, as well as industrialists, doctors, and scientists . The portraits by New Objectivity artists such as Erich Büttner ( 1889 – 1936), Kurt Lohse ( 1892 – 1958), and Christian Schad (1894 – 1982) are not only depictions of character, but powerful commentaries as well. 

In addition to these real personalities, who can also be seen as representatives of professions and functions, typological portraits were also produced, such as
 

Kurt Günther, The Radioist (Citizen on the Radio) (Der Radionist [Kleinbürger am Radio]), 1927, Tempera on wood, 55 × 49 cm, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie, Photo: bpk / Nationalgalerie, SMB / Klaus Göken, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Der Radionist (Kleinbürger am Radio) ( The Radionist [Citizen on the Radio] , 1927) by Kurt Günther ( 1893 – 1955) . 

As a new medium, the radio was both a leisure pursuit and a source of information . The show also takes up another topic of the time: sports . For workers, the middle classes, and intellectuals, sporting contests embodied a new attitude to ward life. 

The Schirn presents, for instance



Rugbyspieler (Rugby Players , 1929) by Max Beckmann (1884 – 1950), 



Der Schaubudenboxer (The Booth Boxer , 1921) by Conrad Felixmüller,

sculptures by Renée Sintenis (1888 – 1965) depicting sports such as running, soccer, and boxing, and excerpts from the documentary film Wegezu Kraft und Schönheit ( Ways to Health and Beauty , 1925).

One of the most frequent artistic subjects of the time is industrialization, with representations o f machines, factories, train stations, and bridges. The industrial sites are for the most part not shown as being filled with bustling activity, but rather as cool and uninhabited. The increasing skepticism toward the optimism about progress and enthusiasm for technology manifests in these melancholy , seemingly apocalyptic landscapes or, for example  in the large - format and full - canvas machines by Carl Grossberg ( 1894 – 1940) . 

The Weimar Republic can be regarded as a period of transition from the German Empire to the dictatorship of National Socialism : tension, an ominous feeling, the premonition of an imminent c atastrophe is visible in many images of the time. The disquiet of the age is subliminally clear, as in the painting 


Todessturz Karl Buchstätters ( Karl Buchstätter Falls to his Death , 1928) by Franz Radziwill ( 1895 – 1983) . His biography, like that of Rudolf Schlichter  mirrors the vacillation between political convictions and the ambiguous relationship to National Socialism that was characteristic of the time . 

CATALOG 

Glanz und Elend in der Weimarer Republik / Splendor and Misery in the Weimar Republic, edited by Ingrid Pfeiffer, with a foreword by Philipp Demandt, essays by Andreas Braune, Karoline Hille, Annelie Lütgens, Stéphanie Moeller, Olaf Peters, Dorothy Price, as well as Marti na Wein land and Ingrid Pfeiffer, and including artists’ biographies and a chronology of the Weimar Republic. German and English editions, each ca. 300 pages, ca. 260 illustrations, 29 x 24 cm, hardcover; graphic design: Sabine Frohmader; Hirmer Verlag, Munich, IS BN 978 - 3 - 7774 - 2932 - 8 (German), ISBN 978 - 3 - 7774 - 2933 - 5 (English) ,  

 WALL PANELS OF THE EXHIBITION 

As the first German democracy and a brief “golden” age at the beginning of the twentieth century, the Weimar Republic was a key epoch. It is regarded to this day as the prototype for many of the social and societal achievements which we take for granted today. At the same time it is also a monume nt to failure, because from the outset the young democracy was violently resisted by strong forces. It was both highly vulnerable and shaken by crises. Many artists reacted to this situation in their works after the First World War with realism, directness , irony, anger, humor, innuendo, restraint, and melancholy. 

The exhibition “ Splendor and Misery in the Weimar Republic ” concentrates on questions of content and focuses on the political and social tensions of those years. The exhibition investigates the all - pervad ing inherent “unease of the age” : many of the artists turned out to be seismographs of the era and seem to have anticipated the failure of the Weimar Republic long before the catastrophe actually occurred. 

THE NEW OBJECTIVITY – TOPICS AND SUBJECTS 

After the First World War the abstraction and intellectualization of Expressionism gave way to the desire for a more realistic portrayal of the immediate present, for a new Naturalism. What came to be known as the “New Objectivity” developed as a contemporary style which seemed to represent the modern world with particular clarity: cool, detached, and dispassionate, with sharp outlines and painted in the style of the old masters, and yet at the same time ambiguous and full of innuendo. 

The exhibition with 190 works by 62 artists concentrates on the veristic and political wing of New Objectivity. In addition to the splendor and the social and societal achievements, many artists also focused their attention on the dar k sides of the period. They wanted to show actively the social wrongs in order not only to depict their crisis - ridden age but also to comment on it trenchantly and change it. Lively centers of art arose not only in Berlin, but also in many cities including Dresden, Rostock, Stuttgart, Karlsruhe, Munich, Hamburg, and Hannover. 

The nine rooms dedicated to different topics – Politics, the Entertainment Industry, Prostitution, the New Woman, Paragraphs 218 and 175, Industrial Landscapes, Sport , and Social Topics – create a wide - ranging panorama of art and society in the Weimar Republic . 

IMAGES

 

Kate Diehn-Bitt, Self-Portrait with Son (Selbstbildnis mit Sohn), 1933, Oil on plywood, 99 × 74 cm, Kunsthalle Rostock

Otto Dix, Woman with Mink and Veil (Dame mit Schleier und Nerz), 1920, Oil and tempera on canvas mounted on board, 73 × 54.6 cm, Judy and Michael Steinhardt Collection, New York, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017

Otto Dix, Pimp and Girl (Zuhälter und Prostituierte), 1923, Brush, India ink and watercolor on tracing paper, 51.4 × 38.1 cm, The Morgan Library & Museum, Bequest of Fred Ebb, 2005.126, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017, Photo: Janny Chiu 2015

Dodo, Box Logic (Logenlogik), for the magazine Ulk, 1929, Gouache over pencil on cardboard, 40 × 30 cm, Private collection, Hamburg, © Krümmer Fine Art

Carl Grossberg, White Tanks (Harburg Oil Refinery) (Weiße Tanks [Harburger Ölwerke]), 1930, Oil on canvas, 90 × 70 cm, Olcese Family Collection, © Collection Family Olcese

George Grosz, Street Scene (Kurfürstendamm) (Straßenszene [Kurfürstendamm]), 1925, Oil on canvas, 81.3 × 61.3 cm, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017

Kurt Günther, The Radioist (Citizen on the Radio) (Der Radionist [Kleinbürger am Radio]), 1927, Tempera on wood, 55 × 49 cm, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie, Photo: bpk / Nationalgalerie, SMB / Klaus Göken, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Alice Lex-Nerlinger, Paragraph 218, 1931, Spray technique, acrylic on canvas, 95 × 76.5 cm, Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin, © Sigrid Nerlinger, Stadtmuseum Berlin, Photo: Michael Setzpfandt, Berlin

Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler, The Cigarette Break (Self-Portrait) (Die Zigarettenpause [Selbstbildnis]), 1931 Watercolor over pencil, 58 × 44 cm Förderkreis Elfriede LohseWächtler e. V. Hamburg, © Nachlassverwaltung Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler

Jeanne Mammen, Ash Wednesday (Aschermittwoch), ca. 1926, Watercolor on paper, 34 × 29 cm, Private collection, Berlin, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017, Photo: Mathias Schormann, Berlin

Horst Naumann, Weimar Carnival (Weimarer Fasching), ca. 1928/29, Oil on canvas, 91 × 71 cm, Albertinum/Galerie Neue Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, © Estate Naumann, photo: bpk /Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Elke Estel/Hans-Peter Klut

Max Oppenheimer, Six-Day Race (Sechstagerennen), ca. 1929, Oil on canvas, 73.5 × 87 cm, Private collection, Fotostudio Bartsch, Karen Bartsch, Berlin

Kurt Querner, Agitator, 1931, Oil on canvas, 160 × 100 cm, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017, photo: bpk / Nationalgalerie, SMB / Bernd Kuhnert

Franz Radziwill, Karl Buchstätter Falls to His Death (Todessturz Karl Buchstätters), 1928, Oil on canvas, 90.4 × 94.5 cm, Museum Folkwang, Essen, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017, Photo: Museum Folkwang Essen - ARTOTHEK

Christian Schad, Seminude (Halbakt), 1929, Oil on canvas, 55.5 × 53.5 cm, Von der Heydt-Museum Wuppertal, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017, Photo: Antje Zeis-Loi, Medienzentrum Wuppertal

Christian Schad, Boys in Love (Liebende Knaben), 1929/72, Lithograph, 30 × 23.5 cm, Christian-Schad-Stiftung Aschaffenburg, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017, Photo: Jens Oschik, Museen der Stadt Aschaffenburg

Rudolf Schlichter, Margot, 1924, Oil on canvas, 110.5 × 75 cm, Stadtmuseum Berlin, © Viola Roehr von Alvensleben, München, Photo: Michael Setzpfandt, Berlin

Georg Scholz, Café (Swastika Knight) (Café [Hakenkreuzritter]), 1921, Watercolor, 30 × 49 cm, Merrill C. Berman Collection, New York, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017, photo: Galerie Michael Hasenclever

Georg Scholz, Of Things to Come (Von kommenden Dingen), 1922, Oil on cardboard, 74.9 × 96.9 cm, Neue Galerie New York, Photo: bpk / Neue Galerie New York / Art Resource, NY

ART AND POLITICS 

The trauma of defeat in the First World War was the tremendous burden which weighed heavily on the Weimar Republic and represented a massive threat t o the young democracy. The army was to be reduced within a short space of time to 100,000 soldiers, and this led to enormous political and social problems. In addition German society had to cope with two million dead and some 1.5 million war invalids crowding the cities. Although the government had promised them different treatment, these former soldiers received either a pittance of a pension or no pension at all, and had to beg on the streets. 

 

In his graphic works Otto Dix portrayed the War Cripples as a horrifying succession of figures maimed by gas and with various body parts amputated, a grotesque procession of outcasts. 

Through his provocative and politically highly topical art, George Grosz in particular was subjected to hostilities from right - wing nationalist circles. In 1921 he was sentenced to a fine of 5,000 Marks because he had described the military as “whoremongers of death”. 



His early portraits of Adolf Hitler in the magazine Die Pleite from 1923 show Grosz as an artist who recorded the under currents of tension and political dislocations of his age. 

THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY 

After the First World War, in spite of the social chaos, hunger, and inflation a highly stimulating scene of cabarets, dance clubs, and night spots developed in Berlin in particular. Here tourists could find “everything” : those from abroad maintained that Berlin even surpassed Paris with regard to perversions, as Curt Moreck’s Führer durch das “lasterhafte” Berlin described. Alcohol and cocaine were both consumed in excessive quantities: the price for a kilogram of cocaine rose from 16 Marks before the war to 17,000 Marks in 1921. 

The revues were especially popular: the open display of virtually naked bodies combined with extravagant costumes and synchronized choreography was a success formula whose popularity extended far beyond Berlin. In 1923 there were 360 revues in 119 German cities. During the years 1926/27 the nine revue theaters in Berlin which put on nightly performances attracted an estimated 11,000 s pectators. 

The most famous performances were those presented before audiences of 2,000 in the Admiralspalast, where Hermann Haller produced the English Tiller Girls, whose precisely coordinated dance line-ups to contemporary American music echoed not only the army but also the assembly - line work which was becoming more widespread at the time. Klaus Mann wrote: “ Dance became a mania, an idée fixe , a cult ... it was the dance of hunger and hysteria, fe ar and greed, panic and horror.” 

PROSTITUTION AS A GROWING SOCIAL PHENOMENON 

Between 1913 and 1925 the number of officially registered prostitutes in German cities like Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt, and Leipzig doubled. If the illegal prostitutes who had been arrested are also included, it can be assumed that the total number tripled. Many wives of war disabled or war widows were compelled to earn money for their families in this way. 

In many grotesque and exaggerated pictures by George Grosz and Otto Dix, prostitution symbolizes the general corruptibility and disi ntegration of society; it stands for moral decadence on all levels. The women artists see things differently: in a detached manner and without prejudice, the “Flaneur” Jeanne Mammen focuses her attention on the camaraderie among the women. Elfriede Lohse - W ächtler herself lived for a while in St. Pauli in Hamburg and depicted the milieu with sympathy and humorous melancholy. 

THE NEW WOMAN 

During the Weimar Republic women took over new professions in large numbers and became telephonists, shorthand typists, and saleswomen. In many cases they formed the army of workers, but thanks to the liberal laws women now also frequently became doctors, academics, and political activists. As producers and consumers they took part in cultural life, wrote, published magazin es, painted and illustrated, and disc overed the new mass media. 

The “women’s question”  dominated political debates about abortion and contraception, marital rights, prostitution, and women’s wages, as well as fashion and everyday culture. The figure of the boyish garçonne with a masculine haircut became a highly popular image under the visual construct of the new femininity in Germany during the 1920s. The bob reigned supreme, but other masculine accessories such as the monocle, trouser suit, tuxedo, and cigarette were paraded openly not only by film stars like Marlene Dietrich. Ultimately, however, the New Woman remained a figure created by the media and a big - city phenomenon; her heyday was brief and before long she was being oppressed and forced into retr eat again by conservative tendencies. 

PARAGRAPH 175 AND MAGNUS HIRSCHFELD 

From 1896, the sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld took a stand against the discrimination and criminalization of homosexuals. He quoted Friedrich Nietzsche: “ What is natural cannot be im moral.” Hirschfeld believed that the causes of homosexuality were inherent, but compared them with congenital malformations. For many years he and his fellow campaigners attempted unsuccessfully bring about a change in the law with numerous publications an dpetitions to the Reich government. 

Hirschfeld was the first to obtain data relating to sexual characteristics and habits by means of anonymous questionnaires. Hirschfeld also coined the term »transvestite,« and used it as the title of a book in 1910 : Die Transvestiten, eine Untersuchung über den erotischen Verkleidungstrieb ( The Transvestites: The Erotic Drive to Cross - Dress ). 

Hirschfeld established contact with Sigmund Freud as early as 1908 and hoped for further explanations about the causes of homosexuality through research into sexual hormones, although this did not occur during his lifetime. In his Institute for Sexual Research, which he established in Berlin in 1919, he offered consultation sessions and therapy which were in some cases free of charge for men, women, and young people. Hirschfeld fled to France in 1933 and died there in 1935. 

PARAGRAPH 218 IN THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC 

The prohibition of abortion was added to the Criminal Code of the German Empire in 1871 under Paragraph 218. Not only the pregnant woman undergoing the abortion could now be punished with a prison sentence; so, too, could the person who carried out the termination. As an instrument of power in birth politics the topic became the subject of a public debate shaped by lawyers, doctors, the Churches, and political parties as well as by the women’s movement, which was in the process of being formed. During the Weimar Republic the abortion debate became a synonym for social criticism as well as a popular movement which united a wide range of different progressive forces from the middle and worki ng classes. The demand for the “right to one’s own body” gained further currency as a result of women’s suffrage, which was introduced in 1918. This controversial subject was taken up in countless books and plays as well as in art. 

Until the end of inflation in 1924 it was above all the poor working - class woman with numerous children who was the main focus of the protests and who was seen as the victim of social conditions, symbolized by the “compulsion to give birth” prescribed by the state. More than any other work of art, the poster by Käthe Kollwitz serves as an example of this period. The decisive impulses for the mobilization of the population arose under the impression of the world economic crisis and the mass unemployment which accompanied it. But all the attempts at repeal introduced into the Reichstag in subsequent years by the USPD, SPD, and KPD failed. In spite of the broad alliances, countless campaigns, and mass demonstrations they were unable to bring about the abolition of the paragraph.

PORTRAITS AS A MIRROR OF SOCIETY 

The New Objectivity led to the creation of many portraits in which important personalities in public life under the Weimar Republic were depicted. They incl uded gallerists, journalists, and writers, as well as industrialists, doctors, and scientists. In addition to actual individuals who at the same time served as representatives of professions and functions, there were also mere “types” such as the new phenomenon of the radio listener. The broadcasting company had begun continuous transmission in 1923 and the number of owners of a radio set increased from one million in 1926 to four million by 1932. Nonetheless the new appliance remained an unusual accessory. It was not yet the medium of mass communication which it would become during the 1930s. 

Many portraits by Otto Dix, Christian Schad, Rudolf Schlichter, and others show people with impassive expressions; they look matter - of - fact, unruffled, cool, withdrawn. The artists express symbolically through objects and details who they are or what characterizes them: these items are painted as clearly as the people themselves. The fact that people are shown on the same level as “things” or that, conversely, each “thing” is afforded the same attention as a human individual, is often seen as being a typical characteristic of the New Objectivity. 

TOWN – COUNTRY – INDUSTRY 

Machinery, factories, works sheds, technical constructions, and smoking chimneys, together wit h telegraph poles, bridges, and railroad stations are some of the most frequently depicted subjects in the art of the New Objectivity. Machines were portrayed like beings from a distant future, alien and mysterious. An enthusiasm for technology was widespr ead in the Weimar Republic, but was greeted with great skepticism by broad sections of the population and was violently criticized. 

The optimism with regard to progress which had been propagated in the Wilhelminian Age was certainly confirmed by the wide r ange of new inventions – radio, records, and film. And yet the introduction of assembly - line work also clearly revealed the dark side of technological innovation: increased productivity, economic efficiency, and rationalization led to work which was harmful to health and in some cases also contributed to the mass unemployment. The landscape as portrayed in the artistic works of the age is no longer nature and idyll, but has been made subject to Man with great lack of consideration and even brutality. 

Although industrialization should actually be linked to hectic bustle, the pictures show scenes devoid of humanity; the cities look curiously clean and tidy, as if they are theatrical backdrops. They are cold, above all profoundly melancholy pictures, full of te nsion which is being held back only with great difficulty but which one day could result in an apocalypse if released. The nose - diving aircraft in the pictures of Franz Radziwill look like a prophetic anticipation of what was to come. 

SPORT IN THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC 

After the defeat of the First Wo rld War, sport replaced in many respects the longing for competition and ways to test one’s strength. “ Sports reports played a role similar to that played by army reports ten years previously, and what had been the prisoner statistics and records of plunder had now become records and race times,” wrote the historian Sebastian Haffner. The socialist workers’ gymnastics movement, in which the focus initially lay on the medically sound rehabilitation of a workforce tha t suffered through monotonous factory jobs, gave way from 1919 to the “ Workers’ Gymnastics and Sports Federation” , in which the concepts of competition and performance were combined with the new governing values of the Republic, including the overcoming of class and gender barriers. 

As in other areas of modern life, the increasing “Americanization” of sport was also the subject of increasing criticism. The Anglo - Saxon sporting culture, which since the nineteenth centur y had subscribed to the slogan “Faster – higher – further” , and which was characterized by increased performance and competition, clashed with the German tradition of gymnastics and physical training in a group. Strongly antiliberal and militarist associations like the German Gymnastic Federati on aimed instead to use sport above all as a means of “Strengthening the German People” once more. Widely different value systems and political worldviews clashed in the field of sport as they did in the other areas. 

SOCIAL TOPICS 

“ Man has created an invidious sy stem – with a top and a bottom,” wrote George Grosz in 1922. “ A handful of people earn millions, while countless thousands have barely enough to survive on ... but what does that have to do with ‘art’? The fact that many painters ... still put up with these things without speaking out clearly against them ... My work lies in showing the oppressed the true faces of their masters. Man is not good; he is a beast.” 

At the beginning of the 1920s, unemployment increased sharply because of inflation and then ro se again even more steeply from 1929 as a result of the Great Depression. Artists like Hannah Nagel and Oskar Nerlinger showed very directly the resulting dramatic rise in the number of suicides. Other topics included the representation of families and the working world of the lower classes, whereby artists of the ASSO (Association Revolutionary Artists of Germany) like Otto Griebel and Hans and Lea Grundig in particular aimed to influence the political situation actively through their art. As early as 1932 the artist Alice Lex - Nerlinger was arrested for her left - wing political work; she portrayed her time spent in a prison cell in two paintings.

Botero: a dialogue with Picasso

December 21, 2017, 9:08 am

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Hôtel de Caumont in Aix-en-Provence

24 November to 11 March 2018

80 masterpieces of Botero and Picasso!

The exhibition « Botero, dialogue avec Picasso » (« Botero: a dialogue with Picasso »), which will be held at the Hôtel de Caumont in Aix-en-Provence from 24 November 2017 to 11 March 2018, will present the Colombian master’s rich oeuvre from a unique perspective, which explores his artistic affinities with Pablo Picasso. Sixty works by Botero (oils, works on paper, and sculptures) will be complemented by twenty major works by Picasso, originating from the collections in the Musée National Picasso-Paris and the Museo Picasso in Barcelona.

Despite very different origins, lives, and careers, the two great artists share common geographical and cultural points of reference. In his youth, Fernando Botero (born in 1932) took an interest in the work of Pablo Picasso (1881–1973); he admired his rich palette and the monumentality and sensuality of the forms. But Botero particularly admired Picasso’s ‘nonconformism’ (sic). In both artists’ works, the distortion of the human body and volumes corresponds to a resolutely subjective view of reality. It also reflects a radically modern approach in the history of figurative art, which is at the root of each artist’s unique artistic language.

The respective careers of Botero and Picasso are characterised by a fundamental questioning of painting and art. At the Hôtel de Caumont, the exhibition ‘Botero, dialogue avec Picasso’ (‘Botero: a dialogue with Picasso’) provides an overview of the themes they tackled in their work, as visitors move from one room to the next : 

- Portraits and self-portraits,
- The influences of the masters who preceded them in the history of art,
- Still lifes,
- Nudes,
- Representations of major historical and political events,
- Bullfighting,
- The world of the circus,
- Music and dance.

Among the major works are Botero’s diptych  

 

After Piero della Francesca (1998), 



(model:   Portrait of Federico da Montefeltro. Tempera on panel. Uffizi Gallery, Florence)

the monumental  



Pear (1976),  




Pierrot (2007), 



and La Fornarina, After Raphael (2008); 

 

(model: Rafael Santi, La Fornarina, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, 1518–1520)



and also The Acrobat (1930),




 The Village Dance (1922),



 and Massacre in Korea (1951) by Pablo Picasso, 


and his interpretation of Velázquez’s Las Meninas (1957).

(Model: Museo del Prado"Las Meninas, or The Family of Philip IV"1656)

In addition to the paintings, the exhibition will present several sculptures by Botero, including his imposing 



Horse (1999), and twenty drawings by the two artists. A medium that was widely used by the two artists, the drawings will enable visitors to discover a less well-known aspect of Botero’s oeuvre and a more personal side of his artistic work.

GRANT WOOD: AMERICAN GOTHIC AND OTHER FABLES

December 22, 2017, 11:19 am

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Whitney Museum of American Art
March 2 through June 10, 2018

The upcoming Grant Wood retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art will reassess the career of an artist whose most famous work, American Gothic—one of the most indelible emblems of Americana and perhaps the best-known work of twentieth-century American art—will be making a rare voyage from the Art Institute of Chicago for the occasion. Organized by Whitney curator Barbara Haskell, with senior curatorial assistant Sarah Humphreville, this exhibition is Wood’s first museum retrospective in New York since 1983 and only the third survey of his work outside the Midwest since 1935. It will be on view in the Whitney’s fifth-floor Neil Bluhm Family Galleries from March 2 through June 10, 2018. Grant Wood (1891–1942) achieved instant celebrity following the debut of     Grant Wood, American Gothic, 1930. Oil on composition board, 30 3⁄4 x 25 3⁄4 in. (78 x 65.3 cm). Art Institute of Chicago; Friends of American Art Collection 1930.934. © Figge Art Museum, successors to the Estate of Nan Wood Graham/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. Photograph courtesy Art Institute of Chicago/Art Resource, NY American Gothic at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1930. Until then, he had been a relatively unknown painter of French-inspired Impressionist landscapes in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. His relatively short mature career, from 1930 to 1942, spanned a tormented period for the country, as the United States grappled with the aftermath of an economic meltdown and engaged in bitter debates over its core national identity. What emerged as a powerful strain in popular culture during the period was a pronounced reverence for the values of community, hard work, and self-reliance that were seen as fundamental to the national character, embodied most fully in America’s small towns and on its farms. Wood’s romanticized depictions of a seemingly more innocent and uncomplicated time elevated him into a popular, almost mythic figure, celebrated for his art and promotion of Regionalism, the representational style associated with the Midwest that dominated American art during the Depression. As Barbara Haskell has noted,  “The enduring power of Wood’s art owes as much to its mesmerizing psychological ambiguity as to its archetypal Midwestern imagery. An eerie silence and disquiet runs throughout his work, complicating its seemingly bucolic, elegiac exterior. Notwithstanding Wood’s desire to recapture the imagined world of his childhood, the estrangement and isolation that came of trying to resolve his loyalty to that world with his instincts as a shy, sexually closeted Midwesterner seeped into his art, endowing it with an unsettling sadness and alienation. By subconsciously expressing his conflicted relationship to the homeland he professed to adore, Wood created hypnotic works of apprehension and solitude that may be a truer expression of the unresolved tensions of the American experience than he might ever have imagined, even some seventy-five years after his death.” Grant Wood: American Gothic and Other Fables brings together the full range of Wood’s art, from his early Arts and Crafts decorative objects and Impressionist oils through his mature paintings, murals, works on paper, and book illustrations. The exhibition reveals a complex, sophisticated artist whose image as a farmer-painter was as mythical as the fables he depicted in his art. “This exhibition is an interrogation—not a reification—of stereotypes, values, and reputations,” writes Adam D. Weinberg, the Whitney’s Alice Pratt Brown Director, in his foreword to the exhibition catalogue. Rather than celebrating a nostalgic American past that never was, the exhibition is “a quest to understand how a remarkable artist created mythic images, images that are not as unequivocal or as unambiguous as some might think or, yet, as some might wish…What one discovers, looking deeply into Wood’s paintings, is that, for all their apparent clarity and precision of style, in the best of them what is depicted is not at all straightforward. The images put forth are often conflicting and ambiguous. They reveal a collision of amplified meanings, sublimated feelings, and layered evidence.” Wood began his career as an Arts and Crafts decorative artist. Even after he shifted to fine arts, he retained the movement’s ideology and pictorial vocabulary. To it, he owed his later use of flat, decorative patterns and sinuous, intertwined organic forms as well as his belief that art was a democratic enterprise that must be accessible to the average person, not just the elite. Wood’s training in the decorative arts began early. He studied at the Handicraft Guild in Minneapolis for two summers after graduating from high school before moving to Chicago to join the Kalo Arts and Crafts Community house. In 1914, he opened the Volund Crafts Shop with a fellow craftsman and began to exhibit his jewelry and metalwork in the Art Institute of Chicago’s prestigious decorative arts exhibitions. Despite this recognition, commercial success eluded him and he closed the shop and returned to Cedar Rapids in 1916 to begin his painting career. The decision did not mean the end of his work in decorative arts, however, as is evident from the 1925 Corn Cob Chandelier included in the exhibition and the 1928 stained-glass window he designed for Cedar Rapids’ Veterans Memorial Building, replicated at half-scale in the exhibition. Even after the success of American Gothic, he continued designing objects for popular use. His Spring Plowing fabric design, armchair and ottoman, Steuben glass vase, eight book covers and illustrations for two books—all made after 1930—are also included in the exhibition. At the start of his career, Wood believed in the cultural superiority of Europe, as did many other Americans. Consequently, he went abroad four times between 1920 and 1928 for a total of twenty-three months, primarily studying the work of the French Impressionists, whose loose brushwork he used in the first two decades of his career to paint what he later called “Europy-looking” subjects. His assimilation of the style served him well; by the early 1920s, he was the city’s leading artist, selling his paintings to its residents and executing commissions in a variety of styles according to the given project’s needs. Three of Wood’s commissioned paintings, along with examples of his Impressionist works, are included in the exhibition. By the late 1920s, Wood had come to believe that American art needed to break free from Europe and that the emergence of a rich American culture depended on artists expressing the specific character of their own regions. For him, it was Iowa, whose rolling hills he used as the background for his earliest mature portraits. In Europe, he had admired Northern Renaissance painting by artists such as Hans Memling and Albrecht Dürer. His realization that the hard edge precision and meticulous detail in their art could convey a distinctly American quality, especially suggestive of the Midwest, became the foundation of his mature style. Wood brought to his portraits and landscapes his belief that democratic art necessitated universal and timeless story telling. He achieved this in his portraits by painting types rather than individuals and by including images that suggested something about the life and character of the depicted subject. He left these images intentionally ambiguous, making the stories they suggest so enigmatic that they defy ready explanation; they are puzzles to be deciphered by viewers based on their individual attitudes and predilections. Wood believed that people are psychologically formed in the first twelve years of life and that everything they experience later is tied up with those childhood years. He often spoke of the experiences of his early years on his family’s farm as “clearer than any I have known since.” Not surprisingly, his landscapes do not depict Midwestern farm life in the 1930s, but instead, portray his idealized memories of the 1890s farm he lived on as a young boy before moving to Cedar Rapids with his family following the death of his father. His desire was not so much to celebrate a world that was becoming extinct as to recapture the idyllic, re-imagined dream world of his own childhood. In his hands, the Midwestern farm became an Arcadian fantasy of undulating, swollen shapes and decorative embellishments whose tumescent abundance was sufficiently polymorphous to be read as both masculine and feminine. Yet Wood unconsciously challenged this evocation of sensuality and fecundity by employing rigid geometries, shellac-like surfaces and sharp, unnatural light that yielded landscapes that appear curiously still, a dollhouse world of estrangement and solitude. Wood’s hard edge style and nostalgic subject matter made him one of America’s most revered artists during the 1930s, with a host of artists around the country imitating his art, especially his murals. Seen as paradigmatic images of prosperity and shared purpose, these works served as models for the scores of murals commissioned by President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal art programs during the Depression. With their subdued colors and monumental, frozen figures, Wood’s murals evoke the early Renaissance art of Fra Angelico and Giotto that he had admired in Europe. Examples of all of Wood’s murals, both realized and unrealized, will be in the exhibition, including a projected film of his two large-scale PWAP murals at Iowa State University at Ames. The rise of fascist powers in Europe in the late thirties turned Wood’s attention to the fate of democracy. Worried that America might be vulnerable to outside aggression, he set out to inspire the public to defend the country in case of attack by rekindling national pride. To do so, he planned to depict a series of American folktales, highlighting their fictional aspect to avoid the chauvinism associated with fascism. The first was Parson Weems’s tale of George Washington as a child confessing to having chopped down his father’s cherry tree. The growing crisis in Europe shifted Wood’s focus. Faced with Nazi victories over the Allies in the first years of World War II, he accelerated his efforts to awaken the country to what it stood to lose by depicting what he called the “simple, everyday things that make life significant to the average person.” He completed only two works in the series—Spring in the Country and Spring in Town—before his death of pancreatic cancer on February 2, 1942, two hours before he would have turned fifty-one.

CATALOGUE

The exhibition catalogue, Grant Wood: American Gothic and Other Fables, includes a major reconsideration of Wood by Barbara Haskell, an extensive narrative chronology, and essays by Glenn Adamson, senior scholar at the Yale Center for British Art; Eric Banks, a New York–based writer and critic; Emily Braun, Distinguished Professor of 20th Century European and American Art at Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York; Richard Meyer, the Robert and Ruth Halperin Professor in Art History at Stanford University; and Shirley Reece-Hughes, Curator of Paintings and Sculpture at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth. Generously illustrated, this volume includes several works published here for the first time, as well as new photography of other paintings. The essays contextualize Wood’s work within a much larger art historical framework than has previously been considered and address such topics as the artist’s literary influences, the role of his sexuality in his paintings, and the parallels between Wood’s work and Surrealism, Neue Sachlichkeit, Precisionism, Art Deco design, and the Arts and Crafts movement. The book is published by the Whitney Museum of American Art, and distributed by Yale University Press.

CURATORIAL CREDIT

This exhibition is organized by Barbara Haskell, curator, with Sarah Humphreville, senior curatorial assistant, Whitney Museum of American Art.   Grant Wood, Daughters of Revolution, 1932. Oil on composition board, 20 x 40 in. (50.8 x 101.6 cm). Cincinnati Art Museum; The Edwin and Virginia Irwin Memorial 1959.46 Grant Wood, Spring Turning, 1936. Oil on composition board, 18 1⁄4 x 40 1⁄8 in. (46.4 x 101.9 cm). Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, North Carolina; gift of Barbara B. Millhouse 1991.2.2. © Figge Art Museum, successors to the Estate of Nan Wood Graham/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. Image courtesy Reynolda House Museum of American Art, affiliated with Wake Forest University Grant Wood, Spring in Town, 1941. Oil on wood, 26 x 24 1⁄2 in. (66 x 62.2 cm). Swope Art Museum, Terre Haute, Indiana 1941.30. © Figge Art Museum, successors to the Estate of Nan Wood Graham/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY Grant Wood, Parson Weems’ Fable, 1939. Oil on canvas, 38 3⁄8 x 50 1⁄8 in. (97.5 x 127.3 cm). Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas 1970.43. © Figge Art Museum, successors to the Estate of Nan Wood Graham/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY   Grant Wood,Saturday Night Bath, 1937. Charcoal on paper, 24 1⁄16 x 26 15⁄16 in. (61.1 x 68.4 cm). Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; gift of Dr. Jack Tausend in memory of Mary Nesbit Tausend 2004.1603. © Figge Art Museum, successors to the Estate of Nan Wood Graham/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY Grant Wood, The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, 1931. Oil on composition board, 30 x 40 in. (76.2 x 101.6 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Arthur Hoppock Hearn Fund, 1950. © Figge Art Museum, successors to the Estate of Nan Wood Graham/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; courtesy Art Resource, NY     \

William Eggleston: Los Alamos

December 23, 2017, 9:21 am

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	The Metropolitan Museum of Art.  February 14–May 28, 2018

The American photographer William Eggleston (born 1939) emerged in the early 1960s as a pioneer of modern color photography. Now, 50 years later, he is widely considered its greatest exemplar. Opening February 14 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the exhibition William Eggleston: Los Alamos features a landmark gift to the Museum from Jade Lau of the artist's most extraordinary portfolio, Los Alamos, comprising 75 dye-transfer prints from color negatives made between 1965 and 1974. The exhibition marks the first time the series will be presented in its entirety in New York City. William Eggleston Untitled n.d. from Los Alamos, 1965-68 and 1972-74 (published 2003.) 1965-68 and 1972-74. Dye transfer print, 17 ¾ x 12 inches (45.1 x 30.5 cm.) Private collection. © Eggleston Artistic Trust, courtesy of Cheim & Read, New York.

Los Alamos includes the artist's first color photograph—Untitled, Memphis, 1965—a study of a young clerk pushing a train of shopping carts at a supermarket in Memphis, Tennessee. The image takes full advantage of the chromatic intensity of the dye-transfer color process that, until Eggleston appropriated it in the 1960s, had been used primarily by commercial photographers for advertising and product photography.

The exhibition includes lush color studies of the social and physical landscape of the Mississippi Delta region, which remains the artist's home, as well as studies made during numerous road trips with his friends Walter Hopps and Dennis Hopper—to New Orleans, New Mexico, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and elsewhere. On these journeys, the artist explored the awesome and, at times, raw visual poetics of the American vernacular. Eggleston named this extensive body of work—which comprises some 2,000 photographs—after the famous government research facility in New Mexico where atomic weapons were developed. Driving past the Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1973, he turned to Hopps, smiled, and said, "You know, I'd like to have a secret lab like that myself." As Hopps later wrote, the "title cloaks with some irony Eggleston's ostensible subjects, found in a vast American terrain, yet acknowledges his belief in the aesthetic consequences of his private quest."

Los Alamos is the work of an idiosyncratic artist whose influences are drawn from disparate but surprisingly complementary sources—from Walker Evans and Henri Cartier-Bresson in photography to Bach and the late Baroque in music. As much as Eggleston was influenced by various sources, he, too, has proved influential. His inventive photographs of commonplace subjects now serve as touchstones for generations of artists, musicians, and filmmakers—from Nan Goldin to David Byrne, the Coen brothers, and David Lynch.

The exhibition will also include as a counterpoint a small suite of Eggleston's rarely seen black-and-white photographs from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s that the artist made concurrently with Los Alamos. Eggleston commented to his friends that he thought his photographs were "parts of a novel I'm doing"—one of the artist's most seductive and now renowned comments on his aesthetic practice and ambition. William Eggleston Untitled n.d. from Los Alamos, 1965-68 and 1972-74 (published 2003.) 1965-68 and 1972-74. Dye transfer print, 17 ¾ x 12 in (45.1 x 30.5 cm.) Private collection. © Eggleston Artistic Trust, courtesy Cheim & Read, New York. William Eggleston Untitled n.d. from Los Alamos, 1965-68 and 1972-74 (published 2003.) 1965-68 and 1972-74. Dye transfer print, 17 3/4 x 12 in. (45.1 x 30.5 cm.) Private collection. © Eggleston Artistic Trust, courtesy Cheim & Read, New York. William Eggleston Untitled n.d. from Los Alamos, 1965-68 and 1972-74 (published 2003.) 1965-68 and 1972-74. Dye transfer print, 17 3/4 x 12 in. (45.1 x 30.5 cm.) Private collection. © Eggleston Artistic Trust, courtesy Cheim & Read, New York.

William Eggleston, Untitled, n.d., from Los Alamos, 1965-68 and 1972-74



 William Eggleston,“Untitled,” from “Los Alamos, 1965-68 and 1972-74,” dye-transfer print. Private collection, Los Angeles | © Eggleston Artistic Trust

William Eggleston: Los Alamos is organized by Jeff L. Rosenheim, Joyce Frank Menschel Curator in Charge in the Department of Photographs at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Book and more images

William Eggleston: Los Alamos Revisited (Three Volume Set)

EGGLESTON, William, WESKI, Thomas

ISBN 10: 3869305320/ ISBN 13: 9783869305325

Published by Steidl Verlag, Göttingen, Germany, 2

Rembrandt’s ‘Self Portrait at the Age of 34’ on loan from The National Gallery, London

December 26, 2017, 12:12 pm

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Norton Simon Museum
December 8, 2017 - March 5, 2018

Self Portrait at the Age of 34, 1640, Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606-1669), oil on canvas, 102 x 80 cm, © The National Gallery, London

The Norton Simon Museum presents an installation of Rembrandt’s striking Self-Portrait from 1640, on loan from The National Gallery, London this winter season. Titled Self Portrait at the Age of 34, the painting captures the image of the artist in his middle age: affluent, self-confident and wise. Its installation at the Norton Simon Museum marks the first time the painting has been on view in the U.S.

This is part of a loan exchange program between the Norton Simon Museum and the National Gallery that began earlier this year, with the London installation of

 


the Museum’s The Repentant Magdalene, after 1660, by Guido Cagnacci.

Self Portrait at the Age of 34 will be installed in the Museum’s 17th-century art galleries, alongside the Simon’s own collection of Rembrandt paintings: 




Portrait of a Bearded Man in a Wide-Brimmed Hat from 1633,  



Portrait of a Boy, ca. 1655–60,



and the artist’s Self-Portrait, ca. 1636–38, executed only a few years earlier than the National Gallery’s.

About ‘Self Portrait at the Age of 34’

The age-old tradition of self-portraiture was enthusiastically embraced by Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669). Indeed, he was his own favorite model. Astonishingly, he recorded his own image roughly 100 times altogether in his paintings, prints and drawings, posing himself for formal portraits, but also capturing himself grimacing or smiling and even depicting himself as a saint. His youthful self-portraits of the 1620s divulge some mild self-examination, as well as a budding self-awareness as an artist; those produced during the 1630s reveal both a jaunty flamboyance and later a self-confident-but-world-wise painter who becomes more soulful as the decade progresses; and those produced in the last two decades of his life treat age with raw honesty and deep introspection.

Rembrandt’s Self Portrait at the Age of 34 captures the ambitious artist at the height of his talents and fame, but also as a man who has endured the highs and lows of life. By 1639, he was living in the luxurious comfort of his new home in the Breestraat in Amsterdam, and was commanding the attention of aristocratic patrons. He had also felt the loss of several family members, including three infant children in the span of five years. He would lose his wife, Saskia, only two years later. In the London painting, Rembrandt’s self-assurance is reinforced by his steady gaze and comfortable pose, with his right arm leaning on the parapet, declaring his possession of not only that ledge, but his rightful place as one of the most sought-after artists of the moment. The pose would be imitated by many of his Dutch students and colleagues, perhaps unaware of the various precedents that had inspired Rembrandt himself.

Rembrandt’s Inspiration

The presence of Raphael’s stunning 1515 Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione (now at the Louvre) in the April 1639 sale of property owned by the wealthy Flemish merchant Lucas van Uffelen was certainly not the first instance of a work by an Italian master in the Netherlands. Rembrandt himself came to own artworks attributed to Jacopo Bassano, Annibale Carracci, Giorgione, Michelangelo, Palma Vecchio and Raphael. But the Van Uffelen sale is notable as being one of the most well-attended auctions in the first half of the 17th century, drawing locals and foreigners alike to bid exceptionally high prices for the high-quality contents of the auction.



We assume that it was on this occasion that Rembrandt made his now-famous sketch of Raphael’s Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione that was on the auction block, annotating his drawing with not only the record price at which the painting was eventually sold (3,500 guilders), but also the enormous sum for the total proceeds of the estate sale (59,456 guilders). By this date, the highest figure paid to Rembrandt for one of his single-figure pictures was about 600 guilders, so witnessing the sale of a 125-year-old painting by one of the most treasured Italian Renaissance artists must have made an impression on the already-successful 33-year-old. His attention to this sale, and the Raphael portrait in it, is one of several instances that show that he was looking back to classical roots and seeking out the successful formulas of his predecessors.

As a native of Holland who never travelled outside his homeland, Rembrandt had nonetheless found a connection with Italian art from the previous century. His simple, quick sketch of Raphael’s Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione (now at the Albertina in Vienna) is an important key to understanding the genesis of Rembrandt’s Self Portrait at the Age of 34, signed and dated 1640. By this time, the artist had gained tremendous fame and had already received the commission to paint the colossal scene of the Night Watch (for which he would be paid 1,600 guilders). His lively sketch of the Castiglione portrait would lead to the creation of an etching in the same year, and ultimately a painting in the next, but rather than repeat the image of Castiglione, the figure morphs into Rembrandt’s own visage — he depicted himself as a distinguished and flourishing artist at the peak of his career, dressed in 16th-century garb.

About the Installation

During its residency at the Norton Simon Museum, Self Portrait at the Age of 34 will be viewed from the vantage point of Rembrandt’s works executed between 1630 and 1640 from the Simon collection. Hanging alongside earlier and later examples of Rembrandt’s paintings, as well as a number of his students’ works, the breadth of the artist’s painterly technique even within this decade can be examined.

Such is the case of the Portrait of a Bearded Man in a Wide-Brimmed Hat from 1633, now thought to depict Pieter Sijen (1592–1652), a wealthy Mennonite merchant. This is a pure portrait, not a tronie (or anonymous figure/type), but one depicting the stark, undecorated rigors of this religious group. The bearded man’s kindly stare and regard for the artist/viewer is consistent with Rembrandt’s other male portraits of the period, most of them directly addressing the viewer and revealing the depth of the sitter’s personality.

Compare this with the Simon’s tronie by Jan Lievens, Rembrandt’s studio partner in Leiden: 

 

Young Man with Red Beret, ca. 1629–1630, is a character study that is magical and mysterious, underscored by the feather and the exotic, diaphanous shawl draped over his shoulders. But the Lievens is clearly not meant to be a pure portrait and is set apart from the mature, soul-searching meditations that Rembrandt produces in the later 1630s.

The London Self Portrait at the Age of 34, as well as the Simon’s own Self-Portrait from around 1636–1638, mark the artist’s full development in a personal as well as a professional sense. His growth during the portentous years 1630–1640 can be traced by the new frown line on his brow, his distinguished clothing and the keen, almost melancholic eyes that he himself saw as he gazed into a mirror.

To complement the installation, the Museum is organizing a small installation of examples from the extensive Simon collection of Rembrandt prints that were executed in the same decade as this special loan. This display, titled Rembrandt: Prints ‘of a Particular Spirit,’ will contain several self-portraits by Rembrandt from this period, including the etching and drypoint from 1639 that served as a prelude to the London Self Portrait at the Age of 34.

Jongkind & friends

December 27, 2017, 9:13 am

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Dordrechts Museum
29 October 2017 to 27 May 2018 


Johan Barthold Jongkind (1819-1891) was a key figure in nineteenth century European painting. He was a linking pin in the development of modern painting and quite rightly a true pioneer of Impressionism. Working from the Dutch, realistic tradition, Jongkind gave the initial push to Impressionism in France. He was born in the Netherlands, but most of his life he lived in France where he became friends with artists such as

 
 Jongkind and friends

Monet, Sisley, Boudin, Daubigny and Pissarro. Dordrechts Museum dedicates an impressive exhibition to the work of Jongkind and several of his well-known artist friends.

Eye opener
Jongkind painted cityscapes and in particular coastal and river sceneries. His apt observations of nature and his direct, loose way of painting were an eye opener to the French artists. Camille Pissarro, for instance, was one of the first to mention Jongkind as a model: “Landscapes without Jongkind would have a completely different view.”


Claude Monet, Le Port de Trouville, 1870, Szépmu”vészeti Múzeum/Museum of Fine Arts Budapest.


Claude Monet said that Jongkind had told him how to look: “He took care of the education of my eyes” and Eduard Manet called him ‘the father of the modern landscape’. His work was dearly loved by the French audience.



Jongkind’s Le Port de Dordrecht 1869 courtesy of Dordrechts Museum

Picturesque Dordrecht
Jongkind frequently returned to the Netherlands, where he painted the harbours of Rotterdam and Dordrecht and the Dutch polder landscape. Especially his clair de lune paintings, landscapes with moonlight, were very popular in France. Jongkind thought Dordrecht ‘the most beautiful city of the Netherlands’ and urged other French artists to visit the picturesque city.

Johan Jongkind (1819-1891), Sailing boats near Dordrecht, 1870, Oil on canvas, Dordrechts Museum 

 

Exhibition
The Dordrechts Museum presents paintings by Jongkind in combination with the works of befriended artists, including several key Impressionist artists. Themes of the exhibition are Jongkind’s early years in The Hague, his years at the Normandy coast and his time in Paris. Of course Jongkind’s paintings of his beloved Dordrecht and surroundings will be on display.

 

Johan Jongkind (1819-1891), The Seine and Notre-Dame in Paris, Oil on canvas, Dordrechts Museum 

Moreover, a modest selection of watercolour paintings shows the virtuosity of his quick and to the point brushstrokes. Many of the works on display will be exhibited for the first time in the Netherlands. Several of the works come from private collections.


The exhibition Jongkind & friends runs from 29 October 2017 to 27 May 2018 in the Dordrechts Museum. This year, the Dordrechts Museum celebrates its 175th anniversary and as such is one of the oldest urban museums in the Netherlands.

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AMERICA’S COOL MODERNISM: O’KEEFFE TO HOPPER

December 28, 2017, 8:03 am

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The Ashmolean 
23 March–22 July 2018

The Ashmolean will present a major exhibition of works by American artists that have never before travelled outside the USA (23 March–22 July 2018). 

AMERICA’S COOL MODERNISM: O’KEEFFE TO HOPPER will show over eighty paintings, photographs and prints, and the first American avant-garde film, Manhatta, from international collections. Eighteen key loans will come from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and a further twenty-seven pieces are being loaned by the Terra Foundation for American Art with whom the exhibition is organised. Thirty-five paintings have never been to the UK and seventeen of these have never left the USA at all.

COOL MODERNISM examines famous painters and photographers of the 1920s and ‘30s with early works by Georgia O’Keeffe; photographs by Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand and Edward Weston; and cityscapes by Edward Hopper. It also displays the pioneers of modern American art whose work is less well-known in the UK, particularly Charles Demuth (1883–1935) and Charles Sheeler (1883–1965). On show will be major pieces by the so-called precisionist artists.




These include Demuth’s I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold (1928, from the Met), the painting Robert Hughes described as the ‘one picture so famous that practically every American who looks at art knows it.’ Made in 1928 and dedicated to the poet William Carlos Williams, the Figure 5, was one of a series of symbolist ‘poster-portraits’ which Demuth made of friends and fellow artists. Consisting of an enormous, stylized ‘5’ that occupies the entire picture plane and painted in bold colours on wallboard, the painting evokes new styles of advertising that were multiplying in American cities in the 1920s – a remarkable anticipation of Pop art later in the century.




Another important loan is Sheeler’s Americana (1931, from the Met) which has never been lent outside the USA. The painting shows a traditional American domestic scene with Shaker furniture and folk objects arranged in a near abstract composition – a blend of modernist forms with a historical subject.

Other rare loans include a painting by E.E. Cummings (1894–1962), better known for his poetry;

 

and Le Tournesol (The Sunflower) (c. 1920, NGA Washington DC) by Edward Steichen (1879–1973) who destroyed nearly all his paintings before dedicating himself to photography. The Sunflower was exhibited in Paris shortly after it was painted in 1922 and has not been seen in Europe since then.


Dr Xa Sturgis, Director of the Ashmolean, says: 

 ‘It is an extraordinary privilege to borrow some of the greatest works ever made by American artists for this landmark exhibition. The Ashmolean is indebted to the Terra Foundation, the Met and other lenders for parting with so many of their treasures.  We are bringing together an exceptional collection of paintings, photographs and prints - iconic pieces that have never been to the UK before and deserve to be better-known in this country. We will reveal a fascinating aspect of American interwar art that is yet to be explored in a major exhibition.’

The exhibition looks at a current in interwar American art that is relatively unknown. The familiar story of America in the ‘Roaring Twenties’ is that of The Great Gatsby, the Harlem Renaissance and the Machine Age; while the 1930s are known as the Steinbeckian world marked by the Depression and the New Deal.


This exhibition focuses on the artists who grappled with the experience of modern America with a cool, controlled detachment, eliminating people from their pictures altogether. For some this treatment reflected an ambivalence and anxiety about the modern world. Factories without workers and streets without people could seem strange and empty places.

CATALOGUE

America's Cool Modernism: O'Keeffe to HopperPaperback 

by Katherine Bourgignon(Author),‎ Leo Mazow(Contributor),‎ Lauren Kroiz(Contributor)

 

Two works by Jacob Lawrence (1917–2000) from his ‘Migration’ series, which is otherwise full of characters, are notable for the absence of people. They express the harsh experience of African Americans travelling north in hope of a better life. What they found was often more frightening than promising.

 Edward Hopper’s Manhattan Bridge Loop (1928) has a gloomy atmosphere with a tiny, solitary pedestrian whose walking pace is at odds with the bridge’s traffic.


For others, this cool treatment of contemporary America was a positive response - an expression of optimism and pride.  Skyscrapers and bridges become studies in geometry; and cities are cleansed and ordered with no crowds and no chaos.




 Louis Lozowick’s (1892–1973) prints capture the energy of the city in curving sprawls and buildings soaring into the sky; while Ralston Crawford (1906–78)



and Charles Sheeler depict the architecture of industrial America – factories, grain elevators, water plants – as the country’s new cathedrals, glorious in their scale and feats of engineering, yet oddly emptied of people.


These artists were also engaged in a conscious effort to develop a distinctly American modernism, not derived from Europe but rooted in American cultural tradition and the landscape. They drew a direct line of descent from the simple utilitarian forms of Shaker furniture and rural barns to the standardized, machine-made world of the 1920s and ‘30s. In painting and photographing these subjects in a commensurate style – crisp surfaces, flattened perspective, linear purity - artists and critics were revealing an essential attribute of the American character – modernity.


Dr Katherine Bourguignon, Terra Foundation for American Art and exhibition curator, says:

‘In addition to the artists who are well-known in the UK, this exhibition is an opportunity to introduce a European audience to important figures like Patrick Henry Bruce, Helen Torr and Charles Sheeler; and photographers of the interwar period including Imogen Cunningham and Berenice Abbott. These artists were actively seeking to create art that could be seen as authentically ‘American’. Decades before the Pop artists addressed consumerism and the American character, artists in the 1920s and ‘30s were dealing with these themes in remarkably modern images marked by emotional restraint and ‘cool’ control.’

Images

Marsden Hartley (1877, –, 1943), Painting No. 50, 1914–15, Oil on canvas, 119.4 x 119.4 cm, © Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago,

 Edward Steichen (1879, –, 1973), Le Tournesol (The Sunflower), c.1920, Tempera and oil on canvas, 92.1 x 81.9 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, © The Estate of Edward Steichen/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, 

E.E.Cummings (1894, –, 1962), Sound, 1919, Oil on canvas, 89.2 x 88.9 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York , © The Estate of E.E. Cummings,

Patrick Henry Bruce (1881, –, 1936), Peinture, 1917–18, Oil & graphite on canvas, 65.1 x 81.6 cm, © Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago,

Morton Schamberg (1881, –, 1918), Untitled (Mechanical Abstraction), 1916, Oil on composition board, 49.8 x 39.8 cm, © Whitney Museum of Modern Art, New York,

John Covert (1882, –, 1960), Resurrection, 1916, Oil, gesso & pile fabric on plywood, 60.6 x 65.9 cm, © Whitney Museum of Art, New York / estate of the artist, 

Georgia O’Keeffe (1887, –, 1986), Black Abstraction, 1927, Oil on canvas, 76.2 x 102.2 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York , © Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York, 

Arthur Dove (1880, –, 1946), Mountain and Sky, c.1925, Oil on wood panel, 39.7 x 30.2 cm, © Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,

Arthur Dove (1880, –, 1946), Goat, 1935, Oil on canvas with selective varnish, 58.4 x 78.7 cm, © Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,

Arthur Dove (1880, –, 1946), Fishboat, 1930, Oil on paperboard nailed to wood strainer, 61.6 x 84.5 cm, © Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,

Arthur Dove (1880, –, 1946), Boat going through Inlet, c. 1929, Oil on tin, 51.4 x 71.8 cm, © Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Art Acquisition , Endowment Fund, Chicago,

Georgia O’Keeffe (1887, –, 1986), Abstraction, 1919, Oil on canvas, 25.7 x 17.9 cm, The Newark Museum, New Jersey, © Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York,

Arthur Dove (1880, –, 1946), Penetration, 1924, Oil on board, 54 x 44.8 cm, © The Jan T. and Marica Vilcek Collection,

Helen Torr (1886, –, 1967), Purple and Green Leaves, 1927, Oil on copper, mounted on board, 51.4 x 38.7 cm, Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago,© Estate of Helen Torr, with the permission of John and Diane Rehm,

Helen Torr (1886, –, 1967), Crimson and Green Leaves, 1927, Oil on plywood, 35.9 x 31.8 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, © Estate of Helen Torr, with the permission of John and Diane Rehm,

Paul Strand (1890, –, 1976), Still Life, Pear and Bowls, Twin Lakes, Connecticut, 1916, Printed on Lana Gravure paper, 25.4 x 28.6 cm, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, © Aperture Foundation Inc., Paul Strand Archive,

Imogen Cunningham (1883, –, 1976), Magnolia Blossom, 1925, Gelatin silver print, Private Collection, New York, © The Imogen Cunningham Trust, all rights reserved,

Paul Strand (1890, –, 1976), Abstraction, Porch Shadows, Twin Lakes, Connecticut, 1916, Printed on Lana Gravure paper, 30.2 x 20.4 cm, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, © Aperture Foundation Inc., Paul Strand Archive,

Berenice Abbott (1898–1991), John Watts Statue: From Trinity Churchyard, Looking toward One Wall , Street, Manhattan,,  1 February 1938, Gelatin silver print, 24.1 x 19.1 cm, George Eastman Museum, Rochester, New York, © Berenice Abbott, ,

Imogen Cunningham (1883, –, 1976), Fageol Factory, Oakland, 1934, Gelatin silver print, 17.7 x 22.7 cm, George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY, © The Imogen Cunningham Trust, all rights reserved, 

Charles Sheeler (1883, –, 1965), Bucks County Barn, c.1916, Gelatin silver print, 19.1 x 23.9 cm, George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY, © Estate of Charles Sheeler,

Charles Sheeler (1883, –, 1965), New York, towards the Woolworth Building, 1920, Gelatin silver print, 24.5. x 19.5 cm, George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY, © Estate of Charles Sheeler,

Alfred Stieglitz (1864, –, 1946), From my window at The Shelton, West, 1931, Gelatin silver print, 23.7 x 19 cm, © George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY,

Paul Strand (1890, –, 1976), Abstraction, Bowls, Twin Lakes, Connecticut, 1936, Photogravure, 22.8 x 16.6 cm, George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY, © Aperture Foundation Inc., Paul Strand Archive,

Paul Strand (1890, –, 1976), The White Fence, Port Kent, New York, 1916 (printed 1917), Photogravure, 16.5 x 21.5 cm, George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY, © Aperture Foundation Inc., Paul Strand Archive,

Charles Demuth (1883, –, 1935), I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold, 1928, Oil, graphite, ink and gold leaf on paperboard, 90.2 x 76.2 cm, © Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 

Georgia O’Keeffe (1887, –, 1986), East River from The Shelton Hotel, 1928, Oil on canvas, 30.5 x 81.3 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, © 2017 Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York,

Imogen Cunningham (1883, –, 1976), Two Calla Lilies, c.1925, Gelatin silver print, 30 x 22.6 cm, George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY, © The Imogen Cunningham Trust, all rights reserved,

Joseph Stella (1877, –, 1946), Telegraph Poles with Buildings, 1917, Oil on canvas, 92.1 x 76.8 cm, © Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago , / artist’s estate,

Joseph Stella (1877, –, 1946), Metropolitan Port, 1935–37, Oil on canvas, 89.2 x 74.3 cm, © Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC / artist’s estate,

Oscar Bluemner (1867, –, 1938), Little Falls, New Jersey, 1917, Oil on masonite, , 37.5 x 50.4 cm, © Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,

Charles Sheeler (1883, –, 1965), MacDougal Alley, 1924, Oil on canvas, 66.5 x 52 cm, Davison Art Center Collection, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, © Estate of Charles Sheeler,

Charles Sheeler (1883–1965), Water, 1945, Oil on canvas, 61 x 74.3 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, © Estate of

Niles Spencer (1893, –, 1952), Erie Underpass, 1949, Oil on canvas, 71.1 x 91.4 cm, © Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York / artist’s estate,

 George Ault (1891, –, 1948), Hoboken Factory, 1932, Oil on canvas, 50.8 x 55.9 cm, © Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, , Washington DC / artist’s estate,

Niles Spencer (1893, –, 1952), Waterfront Mill, 1940, Oil on canvas, 76.2 x 91.4 cm, © Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York / artist’s estate,

Paul Kelpe (1902, –, 85), Machinery (Abstract #2), 1933–34, Oil on canvas, 97 x 67 cm, © Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC, Charles Sheeler (1883, –, 1965) and

Charles Demuth (1883–1935), Nospmas. M. Egiap Nospmas. M., 1921, Oil on canvas, 61 x 51.4 cm, © Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Utica, New York,

Louis Lozowick (1892, –, 1973), Red Circle, 1924, Oil on canvasboard, 45.7 x 38.1 cm, The Jan T. and Marica Vilcek Collection, © Estate of Louis Lozowick,

Jacob Lawrence (1917, –, 2000), The Migration Series, panel no.25: They left their homes. Soon some, communities were left almost empty., 1940–41, Casein tempera on hardboard, 45.72 x 30.48 cm, The Phillips Collection, Washington DC, © 2016 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle , / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York,

Jacob Lawrence (1917–2000), The Migration Series, panel no. 31: The migrants found improved housingwhen they arrived north., 1940–41, Casein tempera on hardboard, 30.48 x 45.72 cm, The Phillips Collection, Washington DC, © 2016 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle , / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York,

Arnold Rönnebeck (1885, –, 1947), Brooklyn Bridge, 1925, Lithograph on off-white wove paper, 32.1 x 17 cm, © Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago,

Charles Demuth (1883, –, 1935), Welcome to our City, 1921, Oil on canvas, 63.8 x 51.1 cm, © Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago,

Charles Demuth (1883, –, 1935), Rue du Singe Qui Pêche, 1921, Tempera on academy board, 52.2 x 41 cm, © Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago,

Louis Lozowick (1892, –, 1973), New York, 1925, Lithograph on off-white wove paper, 29.1 x 22.9 cm, Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago,© Estate of Louis Lozowick, 

 

Howard Cook (1901–80), Skyscraper, 1928, Wood engraving on cream Japanese paper, 45.7 x 21.9 cm, © Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago , / artist’s estate,

Charles Sheeler (1883, –, 1965), Delmonico Building, 1927, Lithograph on wove ivory paper, 24.8 x 17.1 cm, Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago,© Estate of Charles Sheeler,

Louis Lozowick (1892, –, 1973), Minneapolis, 1925, Lithograph on off-white wove paper, 29.5 x 22.5 cm, Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago, © Estate of Louis Lozowick,

John Taylor Arms (1887, –, 1953), The Gates of the City, 1922, Colour etching and aquatint on cream laid paper, 21.6 x 20.2 cm, © Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago , / artist’s estate

Paul Landacre (1893, –, 1963), The Press, 1934, Wood engraving on wove Japanese paper, 21 x 21 cm, Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago,© The Paul Landacre Estate / VAGA, New York,

Samuel Margolies (1897, –, 1974), Man’s Canyon, 1936, Etching and aquatint on cream laid paper, 30.2 x 22.4 cm, © Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago , / artist’s estate,

William Charles McNulty (1889, –, 1963), New York in the Fifties, 1931, Drypoint on off-white paper, 34.3 x 17.9 cm, © Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago , / artist’s estate,

Howard Cook (1901, –, 80), Time Square Sector, 1930, Etching on off-white paper, 30.5 x 25.1 cm, © Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago , / artist’s estate,

Edward Weston (1886–1958), Steel: Armco, Middletown, Ohio, 1922, Palladium print, Private Collection, New York, © 1981 Center for Creative Photography, Arizona Board of Regents,

Paul Strand (1890–1976), From the El, 1915, Platinum print, 33.6 x 25.9 cm, Private Collection, New York, © Aperture Foundation Inc., Paul Strand Archive,

Berenice Abbott (1898, –, 1991), Canyon, Broadway and Exchange Place, Manhattan, 1936, Gelatin silver print, Private Collection, New York, © Berenice Abbott,

Charles Sheeler (1883, –, 1965), Coke Ovens-River Rouge, 1927, Gelatin silver print, Private Collection, New York, © Estate of Charles Sheeler,

Charles Sheeler (1883, –, 1965), Industrial Series #1, 1928, Lithograph, Private Collection, New York, © Estate of Charles Sheeler,

Ralston Crawford (1906–1978), Buffalo Grain Elevators, 1937, Oil on canvas, 102 x 127.6 cm, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC, © Ralston Crawford Estate,

Charles Sheeler (1883, –, 1965), Bucks County Barn, 1940, Oil on canvas, 46.7 x 72.1 cm, Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago,© Estate of Charles Sheeler,

Georgia O’Keeffe (1887–1986), Ranchos Church, 1930, Oil on canvas, 61 x 91.4 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, © Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York,

Ralston Crawford (1906–1978), Smith Silo, Exton, 1936–37, Oil on canvas, 76.8 x 91.4 cm, Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, © Ralston Crawford Estate,

Edward Hopper (1882–1967), Dawn in Pennsylvania, 1942, Oil on canvas, 61.9 x 112.4 cm, Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago,© Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper, licensed by the Whitney Museum of , American Art,

Stuart Davis (1892–1964), Odol, 1924, Oil on canvas, 60.9 x 45.6 cm, Museum of Modern Art, New York, © The estate of Stuart Davis/DACS, London/VAGA, New York 2017,

Edward Hopper (1882–1967), Night in the Park , 1921, Etching on white wove paper, 17.3 x 21 cm, Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago,© Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper, licensed by the Whitney Museum of , American Art,

Edward Hopper (1882–1967), From Williamsburg Bridge, 1928, Oil on canvas, 74.6 x 111.1 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, © Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper, licensed by the Whitney Museum of , American Art,

Edward Hopper (1882–1967), Manhattan Bridge Loop, 1928, Oil on canvas, 88.9 x 152.4 cm, Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover MA, © Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper, licensed by the Whitney Museum of , American Art,

Edward Hopper (1882–1967), The Cat Boat, 1922, Etching on off-white wove paper, 20 x 24.9 cm, Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago, © Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper, licensed by the Whitney Museum of , American Art,

Martin Lewis (1881–1962), Which Way?, 1932, Aquatint on pale blue paper, 26.2 x 40.3 cm, © Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago , / artist’s estate,

Grant Wood (1891–1942), January , 1938, Lithograph on BFK Rives off-white paper, 22.7 x 30.2 cm, Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago,© Successors to the Estate of Nan Wood Graham/Licensed by VAGA, , New York,

Edward Hopper (1882–1967), Night Shadows , 1921, Etching on white wove paper, 17.5 x 21 cm, Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago,© Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper, licensed by the Whitney Museum of , American Art,

Edward Hopper (1882–1967), The Railroad, 1922, Etching on off-white laid paper, 20 x 25.1 cm, Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago,© Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper, licensed by the Whitney Museum of , American Art,

Grant Wood (1891–1942), Fertility, 1939, Lithograph, 22.7 x 30.2 cm, Private Collection, New York, © Successors to the Estate of Nan Wood Graham/Licensed by VAGA, , New York,

Grant Wood (1891–1942), July Fifteenth, 1938, Lithograph on paper, Private Collection, New York, © Successors to the Estate of Nan Wood Graham/Licensed by VAGA, , New York,

Paul Strand (1890–1976), Akeley Motion Picture Camera, New York City, 1923, Gelatin silver print, 24.5 x 19.5 cm,  Victoria and Albert Museum, London, © Aperture Foundation Inc., Paul Strand Archive

Benton Murdoch Spruance (1904–1967), American Pattern - Barn, 1940, Lithograph, 19.4 x 35.6 cm, © Private Collection, New York / artist’s estate,

The Medici’s Painter: Carlo Dolci and 17th-Century Florence,

December 28, 2017, 8:46 am

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“Everything he made sprang from tenderness.” — The Boston Globe

The Nasher Museum of Art is proud to present The Medici’s Painter: Carlo Dolci and 17th-Century Florence, the country’s first-ever exhibition of the remarkable paintings and drawings by Carlo Dolci (1616-1687). A favorite of the Medici court, Dolci was a celebrated and popular artist in his day, but his personal and original interpretation of sacred subjects fell out of favor in the 19th century. The Medici’s Painter invites us to see this artist with new eyes. The meticulously painted and emotionally charged works that were carefully selected for this exhibition, from U.S. museums as well as important private collections and major museums in Europe, allow for a reassessment of an Old Master painter whose reputation deserves to be restored.



Dolci was a precocious child, entering the workshop of Jacopo Vignali at the age of nine. Very early, his extraordinary gifts as a painter were discovered by Don Lorenzo de’ Medici and other powerful persons in Florence, who recognized Dolci’s remarkable ability to render details from nature, especially facial features and hands, as well as complicated drapery. As a boy and throughout his life, he was called “Carlino” (little Carlo), possibly because of his short stature and humble character. He was also extremely pious. If not diligently practicing drawing or developing his painter’s craft, he often could be found praying in Santa Maria Novella.

“When it comes to the art of painting, in the future the world would be less beautiful if every century did not have its Carlino.” — Filippo Baldinucci, Notizie de’ professori del disegno da Cimabue in qua, 1681-1728

In 1632, when he was 16, Dolci opened his own workshop in Florence. One of his pupils was Filippo Baldinucci, who would become the leading connoisseur in Florence, and the author of the official biography of his “beloved Carlino.” Unlike most of his contemporaries, Dolci refused most commissions for large altarpieces and frescos. Baldinucci tells us that, rather early in his career, Dolci vowed to paint only religious works. A handful of portraits have survived, however, including the exhibition’s dashing Portrait of Stefano della Bella, which demonstrates Dolci’s skill in capturing the sitter’s personality as well as every fold and ruffled edge of the multi-layered linen collar.

The Medici’s Painter also contains a rare still life,  

 


Vase of Tulips, Narcissi, Anemones and Buttercups with a Basin of Tulips. The Medici coat of arms in the middle of the gilded vase suggests it was a commission he could not turn down. Dolci’s real desire, however, and his spiritual mission, was to paint intimate depictions of divine subjects that would inflame the faith of those who viewed them.

The Medici’s Painter gives us an opportunity to study Dolci’s painstaking application of paint using ultrafine brushes, and only a few bristles, or the concentration it took to make tiny details look so real, as in the lace on the cloth beneath the Christ child’s feet in the foreground of

 

The Virgin and Child with Lilies from Montpellier.

One of the first things visitors will notice about a Dolci picture is his brilliant sense of color, achieved by his access to expensive materials, such as real gold and ground lapis lazuli, which accounts for the beautiful blues. There is often a high finish that gives the surface a smooth, enamel-like quality.

Dolci’s technique was time-consuming and exacting. He was notoriously slow, a perfectionist who might take as long as 11 years to finish a canvas to his own satisfaction. Another habit contributed to the inordinate length of time: According to his biographer, Dolci would recite the litany Ora pro nobis (pray for us) between each brush stroke and sometimes write inscriptions on the back of his canvas. The Medici’s Painter includes a fine example of such a canvas, so visitors can see Carlino’s tiny florid script.

“Dolci was an incredible colorist and an impeccable draftsman,” said Sarah Schroth, Mary D.B.T. and James H. Semans Director of the Nasher Museum. “Visitors will delight in his perfect rendering of hands and faces — and will be dazzled by his colors, such as the intense blue made from ground lapis lazuli.”



The Medici’s Painter is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, published by the Davis Museum at Wellesley College ($35, Yale University Press). The catalogue was edited by exhibition curator Eve Straussman-Pflanzer, head of the European art department and Elizabeth and Allan Shelden Curator of European paintings at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

The Medici’s Painter features essays by Straussman-Pflanzer and other leading early modern scholars: Francesca Baldassari, Edward Goldberg, Lisa Goldenberg Stoppato and Scott Nethersole. T

Josef Albers in Mexico

December 30, 2017, 8:21 am

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From November 3, 2017, through March 28, 2018, the Guggenheim Museum will present Josef Albers in Mexico, an exhibition illuminating the relationship between the forms and design of pre-Columbian monuments and the art of Josef Albers (b. 1888, Bottrop, Germany; d. 1976, New Haven). The presentation will feature a selection of rarely shown early paintings, iconic canvases from Albers’s Homage to the Square and Variant/Adobe series, and works on paper.

The exhibition also includes a rich selection of photographs and photocollages, many of which have never before been on view and were created by Albers in response to frequent visits to Mexican archaeological sites beginning in the 1930s. With letters, studies, and unseen personal photographs alongside works drawn from the collections of the Guggenheim Museum and the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, Josef Albers in Mexico presents an opportunity to learn about the least known aspect of his practice, photography, offering a new perspective on his most celebrated abstract works.

Josef Albers in Mexico is organized by Lauren Hinkson, Associate Curator, Collections, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

An artist, poet, theoretician, and professor of arts and design at the Bauhaus, Dessau and Berlin; Black Mountain College, Asheville, North Carolina; and Yale University, New Haven, Albers worked across the mediums of painting, printmaking, murals, and architecture. With his wife, the artist Anni Albers, he traveled to Mexico and other Latin American countries more than a dozen times from 1935 to 1967 to visit monuments of ancient Mesoamerica, which archaeologists were then excavating amid a resurgence of interest in pre-Columbian art and culture. On each visit, Albers took hundreds of black-and-white photographs of the pyramids, shrines, and sanctuaries at these sites, often grouping multiple images printed at various sizes onto paperboard sheets. The resulting photographs and photocollages reveal Albers’s innovative, if understudied, approach to photography and also underscore the importance of seriality within his overall body of work.

Albers’s collaged images also suggest a nuanced relationship between the geometry and design elements of pre-Columbian monuments and the artist’s iconic abstract canvases and works on paper. Several of the latter are titled after key sites in Mexico, and formal resonances between the two bodies of work become apparent, especially when viewed together as in the Guggenheim presentation. Albers’s embrace of pre-Columbian imagery may be considered within the complex and often-fraught history of modernist artists looking toward non-Western cultures for source material.

His work contrasts with that of the revolutionary Mexican artists with whom he met on his trips, including Diego Rivera. At the same time, Albers’s long-term commitment to studying Mexican art and architecture also positions him as a prescient figure in the history of post–World War II American art, when artists such as Donald Judd, Ad Reinhardt, and Robert Smithson looked toward ancient traditions with a new sensitivity and self-awareness.

A fully illustrated catalogue, with scholarly essays by Hinkson and Joaquin Barríendos, accompanies Josef Albers in Mexico. The volume also includes writing by Josef Albers and an illustrated map documenting the Alberses’ journeys. The legacy of education is a strong element of his practice and will be reflected in public programs, such as a November 18 workshop for educators on the color theory he developed within his seminal pedagogical project Interactions of Color (1964).

Josef Albers
Governor’s Palace, Uxmal, 1952
Gelatin silver print, image: 11.6 x 17 cm; sheet: 12.7 x 18.1 cm
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Gift, The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, 1996
© 2017 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Josef Albers
Grand Pyramid, Tenayuca, 1937
Untitled (Great Pyramid, Tenayuca, Mexico)
Ohne Titel (Grosse Pyramide, Tenayuca, Mexiko)
Gelatin silver print, image: 7.8 x 11 cm; sheet: 8.4 x 11.6 cm
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Gift, The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, 1996
© 2017 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Josef Albers
Mitla, 1956
Gelatin silver prints and  postcards, mounted on paperboard, 20.3 × 30.5 cm
The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation
© 2017 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York





Josef Albers
To Mitla, ca. 1940
Oil on Masonite, 53.3 × 71.1 cm
The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation
© 2017 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Study for Homage to the Square: Consent, 1947
Oil on Masonite, 40.3 × 40.2 cm
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Gift, The Josef
Albers Foundation, Inc., 1991
© 2017 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

 Josef Albers
Variant/Adobe, Orange Front, 1948-1958
Oil on Masonite, 59.6 × 68.5 cm
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Gift, The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation in honor of Philip Rylands for his continued commitment to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, 1997
© 2017 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York



Josef Albers
Prismatic II, 1936
Oil on wood composition panel, 45.7 × 48.3 cm
The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation
© 2017 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York



Josef Albers
Study for Sanctuary, ca. 1941-42
Ink on paper, 43.2 × 55.9 cm
The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation
© 2017 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Josef Albers
Detail of stonework, Mitla, ca. 1957
Gelatin silver print, 24.7 × 17.7 cm
The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation
© 2017 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Arcimboldo. The Floras and Spring

January 5, 2018, 8:23 am

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Bilbao Fine Arts Museum
08|11|17 • 05|02|18

The Bilbao Fine Arts Museum is presenting the exhibition Arcimboldo. The Floras and Spring, sponsored by Banca March. It brings together the three works by the artist housed in Spanish collections, in addition to other paintings and documentation that help to provide a context for them. In total, the exhibition includes 14 works of which the core group comprises the oils on panel  

 
Flora (1589) 

 

Giuseppe Arcimboldo (Milán, 1526-1593)Flora meretrix, c. 1590
Oil on panel, 74,5 x 57,5 cm (90.5 x 73.5 cm framed)
Cassetta frame in pietre dure designed by Federico Zeri, c. 1970
Private Collection. Courtesy of Banca March 

and Flora meretrix (c. 1590), loaned from a private collection and first published in 2014 by Miguel Falomir, director of the Museo del Prado and author of the principal text in the present catalogue. 



They are joined by Spring (1563), loaned by Museum of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando (Madrid), and by two contemporary copies of Autumn and Winter from the collection of the Duchess of Cardona (Córdoba, Spain), which together reveal the level of achievement of the original teste composte or "composite heads" that are so characteristic of Arcimboldo.  

These heads, painted with enormous technical skill and made up of flowers, small animals and other natural elements that are symbolically related to the subject of the painting, were created by this Milanese artist who worked in the service of the Habsburg. Spring was part of a series on the Seasons produced as a homage to the power of the imperial dynasty and solemnly presented to the emperor Maximilian II in 1563 together with an associated series on the Elements. The two Floras were commissioned by Rudolph II and can be related to the portrait of the Emperor as  



Vertumnus (1591), now in Skokloster Castle, Sweden.

Displayed alongside these works are portraits of the artist's principal patrons, The Emperor Maximilian II (1550) by Anthonis Mor, loaned by the Museo del Prado, 



and Rudolph II,Emperor of Austria(1552-1612) (1567)



 and The Archduke Ernest of Austria (1553-1595) (1568) by Alonso Sánchez Coello, both from the Royal Collection Trust in London. 


The display in this gallery is completed with another work by Mor, this one from the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum's own collection, 

 

Portrait of Philip II (ca.1549-50), depicting the Spanish monarch whose collection included works by Arcimboldo.

This core group of works is complemented by copies of various contemporary treatises on artistic and botanical iconography which reveal Arcimboldo's expert scientific knowledge, as well as the earliest commentaries on his celebrated artistic inventions, including the one by the painter and writer Gian Paolo Lomazzo in his `Idea del tempio della pintura´ (1590).

The exhibition is completed with five works on floral themes from the museum's own collection: 

 


The Virgin and Child with Angels and a Family of Donors by Berthomeu Baró;  

 

The Holy Family by Jan Gossaert, known as "Mabuse"; 

 

Vase of Tulips by Andries Daniels and Frans Francken the Younger ; 

 

Basket of Flowers by Juan de Arellano; 

 

and Garland of Flowers by Abraham Mignon.

GIUSEPPE ARCIMBOLDO

Giuseppe Arcimboldo was born in 1526 in Milan where he trained with his father Biaggio, who worked as a painter in the city's cathedral, and with his uncles Ambroggio and Gian Giacomo, both also painters.

In 1549 he is first recorded as working in Milan cathedral, drawing preliminary cartoons for stained-glass windows, an activity he continued until 1557. In 1554 he became independent of his father and while continuing to be employed by the cathedral also undertook other projects, such as the gilding of the frame for Titian's painting The Crowning with Thorns for the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. Two years later Arcimboldo collaborated with the painter and architect Giuseppe Meda (1534-1599) as a fresco painter in Monza cathedral. He also worked for the church of San Francesco Grande in Milan.

In 1558 the artist produced the cartoon (on canvas) for the tapestry of The Death of the Virgin for Como cathedral, although the work was not delivered until 1561. A year later, in 1562, Arcimboldo went to work for the Imperial court in Vienna, seemingly on the invitation of the future Emperor Maximilian II. He painted the series of the Four Seasons in 1563.



Spring, 1563



Summer, 1563




 Autumn, 1572

 

 Winter 1563

The first documented references to the artist's activities for the Imperial court as a painter of portraits and other works of an unspecified type date from 1565. On New Year's Day 1569 Arcimboldo presented the Emperor with his series of the Four Seasons (painted in 1566), accompanied by a panegyric by the poet Giambattista Fonteo.

Between 1570 and 1580 Arcimboldo is documented as a designer of events, receptions, jousts, theatrical performances and other activities held at the Habsburg court. Between 1571 and 1576 he painted his self-portrait in watercolour, now in the National Gallery, Prague.

In 1580 Arcimboldo was made Count Palatine by Rudolph II and the following year he returned to Milan for the third time where he made his friend Giovanni Filippo Gherardini the beneficiary of his possessions in the case that he should die before his son Benedetto (born in 1575) reached his majority. In 1585 the artist presented Rudolph II with a folder of 158 drawings comprising designs for costumes, fountains and sledges. Two years later he decided to return permanently to Milan where he remained until his death. In recognition of his many years of service to the Habsburgs, Rudolph granted the artist a special payment of 1,500 florins.

It was in 1589 that Arcimboldo decided to paint Flora, which he gave to Rudolph II on New Year's Day 1590. A year later he portrayed the Emperor as the god Vertumnus, a work that became the pair to Flora.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo died in 1593 in his house in Milan.

Crossing Borders: Mexican Modernist Prints

January 5, 2018, 8:46 am

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The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) explores an unprecedented period  of cultural and intellectual exchange between Mexico and the U.S.in Crossing Borders: Mexican Modernist Prints, on view November  19, 2017 through March 11, 2018. 

The exhibition features  30 prints and drawings created in the 1930s and 1940s by artists such as Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and Elizabeth Catlett.   

Among the works in Crossing Borders that address social issues is  

Diego Rivera.  Zapata . 1932 . The Baltimore Museum of Art: Gift of Blanche Adler. BMA 1932.28 . 5 . © 2017  Diego  Rivera /Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/SOMAAP, Mexico  

Zapata (1932),  Rivera’s lithograph of Mexican Revolution hero and agrarian leader Emiliano Zapata.  One of  the earliest Mexican modernist prints to enter the  BMA’s collection, it shows Zapata and his horse standing over the dead body of a wealthy landowner asfarmers  crowd in behind them. 



Other examples includeOrozco’s The Lynching (1934), a wrenching condemnation of racial violence from the portfolio The American Scene, No.1 that depicts mutilated bodies hanging from trees and burning in flames. 

Imperialist Industrialization (1945), a linoleum cut by Leopoldo Méndez points to the complexities of  Mexico’s shift from an overwhelmingly agricultural economy to an industrial one at the expense of the poor.

Méndez  was one of the founders of the influential Taller de Gráfica Popular (People’s Graphic Art Workshop). Declaring its  commitment to “the progressive and democratic interests of the Mexican people,” this printmaking collective and  artist community opened its doors to all regardless of their race  or social standing, including visitors from abroad. 

Three works by  Taller de Gráfica Popular artist Elizabeth Catlett include   

 

My right is a future of equality with otherAmericans (1946 - 47), the final print from the artist’s series, The Negro Woman.This epic narrative tells of the  struggles, oppressions, and achievements of African American women.    


Reclining Nude (1931) by Siqueiros is a recently acquired transfer lithograph of his companion Uruguayan poet  Blanca Luz Brum that was created while theartist was living in exile in the remote mining town  of Taxco. Its intermingling, three - dimensional forms seem to oscillate between stone sculpture and human flesh. 

Crossing Borders: Mexican Modernist Prints is curated by Senior Curator of Prints, Drawings & Photographs Rena  Hoisington. 

José Clemente Orozco (Mexican, 1883-1949). Mexican Pueblo. 1930.

 

Diego Rivera | La maestra rural [The Rural Teacher] (1932)