Art and Commerce

13 Tuesday Jan 2015

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MOMA, New York City, The Museum of Modern Art

It is always a delicate balance between the creation of art, and the financial swirl that may or may not surround it. Being at Art Basel and Art Miami made me even more aware of that. For commercial galleries the emphasis on sales and collectors is obvious. But what of museums? The balance between exhibitions and ticket sales must always be on their minds.

This scene at MOMA in New York City last February (2014) illustrates it beautifully.

Above is London-based Isaac Julien’s immersive film installation Ten Thousand Waves. It was astounding to see the vibrant, moving images projected on to 9 double-sided screens on the level above the main entrance lobby and ticket area.

No matter where you went through the museum that day, it would etch into your vision, interweaving contemporary Chinese culture with its ancient myths

Like the person leaning on the railing above on the edge of the Marron Atrium, I would wander in and out of the staging area, being as interested in the music and sounds, as well as its sequenced images.

Below on the main floor of The Museum of Modern Art, people are at the desk waiting for information and tickets, anxious to get to the scene above. Art and commerce…always a tenuous connection.

Ten Thousand Waves was conceived as a “reflection of the movement of people across continents”. A lofty attempt to explore our world. A world that must also include the financial realities of art.

My painting Above and Below, 24 x 36″, oil on linen.

Art Basel 2014

10 Wednesday Dec 2014

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Art Basel 2014

On our second day in Miami we went over to the Miami Beach side of the Art Fair scene. We made a quick stop on Lincoln Road near South Beach. I wanted to see The Art Center, an artist’s studio venue that will be moving in April. The artists are quite sad to lose this great location but progress is moving big stores into the valuable real estate. Apple and J Crew are replacing this eclectic space.

Had some great conversations with artists here wondering where to go next. Finding a spot near patrons who buy art, with studio space an artist can afford is a common dilemma.

Then it was on to the massive 2014 Art Basel art fair at the Miami Convention Center around the corner and down the street.

Eric Fischl’s new works portraying art fair visitors were scattered through the gallery displays. They intrigued me. He had started this series sometime around the time I was just getting in to my gallery/city series. It is interesting to see a different take on the art scene, so much a part now of modern life.

Another artist that was prominently shown whom I admire was David Hockney.

His English landscapes can be hauntingly familiar from my travels.

My Beloved Brit and I had seen the start of this Yorkshire countryside series on a trip to London several years ago, so it was like visiting old friends.

Many of them are printed from iPad renderings, and the colors are vivid. Hockney is always playing with new techniques and new technology.

But, moving on, one thing I noticed this year, were how many monochromatic and black & white pieces there were. Very diverse in subject and style, but black & white none-the-less. This was one of my favorites of the day. Each bit of straw had a wonderful quote or saying on it. You could stay for hours just reading the bits of wisdom.

The monochromatic nature theme persisted. This huge piece is charcoal on paper (with me reflected in the glass).

Sometimes an accent of color was added.

Is this trend a reaction to climate change? I am not sure.

There were of course classics and Fairfield Porter is one of my favorites. It was a joy to see a room with several of his works I had never seen before.

That’s the beauty of Art Fair. You see the new work, but you also discover older pieces that the galleries are trying to sell, and even classics.

There was this little minimalist gem that caught my attention right at the end…

Basel also had rows and rows of unfathomable art that I couldn’t begin to comprehend. But I still gravitate to the pieces that relate directly to my world. I know there is a place for the other, but these are the ones I connect to.

All in all it was a very full day. These two galleristas agree.

Art Miami 2014

06 Saturday Dec 2014

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A full day of art in Miami, and I couldn’t be happier.

It is always fun to come down to Miami in December and see the gigantic art fair hosted by the city.

Yesterday my friend and I did “Art Miami”, set up in a huge row of tents near the Wynwood Art District.

It was grand, and gave me a chance to see new creative output from an international representation of galleries.

It was varied this year, and I found there were less “gimmicks” in the art represented, and more emphasis on color and form.

It will be interesting to go to Art Basel at the convention center in Miami Beach to see what they have to offer.

The only negative I heard while visiting…there is a lot of talk about how the local Miami art scene is struggling. Galleries and artists are leaving the area, finding it hard to compete with the huge international fairs. Real estate prices in the art districts are rising, moving the artists and galleries to other locations. With the same thing happening in Brooklyn right now, it is difficult to know where artists can find a receptive audience for their work, and continue to create. I know they’ll find a way.

Urban Scene

23 Sunday Nov 2014

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Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Gustave Caillebotte, oil painting, Paris Street;Rainy Day

When I first entered this particular gallery at the Art Institute of Chicago, the large painting across from the entrance made me smile. And then I sat down on the bench across from it to contemplate the gorgeous urban scene. The rainy day vista was a snapshot of a Paris long gone. And it was beautiful.

The museum had just finished a major restoration and cleaning of Paris Street; Rainy Day by the French artist Gustave Caillebotte. One of Caillebotte’s best known works, the 1877 painting depicts what was then known as Carrefour de Moscou, a road east of the Gare Saint-Lazare in north Paris, now called Place de Dublin.

When you first walk in to the room, the painting immediately grabs your attention. The blue-gray walls push it off the wall, and you feel like you could actually enter the boulevard itself with madam and monsieur.

I used a lavender pink underlay to set the cool, soothing tones of the rainy streets before putting the strong, deeper blue layer on top.

I was afraid that when I put the actual blue-gray color of the gallery walls in, it would overwhelm the painting and the figures.

But, as is the case in the actual room, it works. And the cool underlying tones do push through and the blue on the walls draws out the figures and their umbrellas in the painting.

I sat across from this picture for a long time, watching the people come into the room. Like me, they were immediately snapped to attention by the charismatic figures on the Parisian street.

I loved these two women looking at the work, possibly a mother and daughter. One is lining up her photos, while the other leans in to stare at the painting.

Their detachment from each other mirrors the isolation of the figures on the Paris street. They seem to be together, and yet each is in their own world.

Maybe things have not changed so much.

“Urban Scene” oil on linen, 30 x 24″

Watching

10 Monday Nov 2014

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Art Institute Chicago, Munch, oil painting, pastel, The Girl By the Window

There is something about the way people view art in museum galleries that fascinates me. Each person has their own way of circling and then approaching a piece. Some gaze, some study with great intensity. What are they trying to see? The content, the technique…?

Some people dash by, and take a quick pic on their phone. But others linger, like this couple who put their heads together and peered at this mesmerizing Edvard Munch pastel “The Girl by the Window” (1893) at the Art Institute Chicago for many long moments.

Munch’s piece is special. The young woman in the painting is looking out her window. We are not sure at what but it is mysterious and hidden by the night. Obscured by the art lovers is a dark shape which could be a chair, or another person looking at the girl in the lower right hand corner of Munch’s painting.

Our viewers have taken its place to add to the complexity of watching going on. It is a piece that is many layered and takes a long time to view and try to figure out the whole scenario. Our couple is trying.

“Watched”, oil on linen, 14 x 11″

Victory at the Louvre

05 Sunday Oct 2014

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Louvre, Winged Victory

It has been a long, hot and humid summer. Finally, I am happy to say, we are moving in to autumn. For the last few months, I have been working in the studio on two canvases that I think of as companion pieces. The inspiration for both was taken from my last visit to The Louvre in Paris and the most dramatic entrance to a museum wing ever…the steps leading up to the Winged Victory.

The smaller of my two canvases (Wings 24 x 18″ in oil) is a close up of the torso and wings of the dramatic sculpture. The winged goddess of Victory, who stands on the prow of a ship, overlooked the Sanctuary of the Great Gods on the island of Samothrace.

It was unearthed in 1863 on the small Aegean island. Nike (the goddess of Victory in Greek) is facing in to the wind which is blowing her garments against and behind her. This was one of my favorite parts to paint. To concentrate on the delicate folds cut from stone, was to admire the fantastic skill of a long gone artist.

I loved doing this piece. Revisiting another artists’ work in detail is one of the most challenging and enjoyable parts of this series of museum galleries in my “Cities” series.

Accompanying this canvas is the 24 x 36″ canvas, Ascent. I worked back and forth between the two pieces using the same color palette for each. Obviously Wings was more monochromatic, but it still felt at home with the palette of Ascent.

The original statue can be dated back to the second century BC. It is just as impressive today, centuries later, as you approach it up the massive stone staircase in the Louvre, as I imagine it was when approached in Hellenistic times.

To me, it creates an almost church like approach for the masses of tourists entering the staircase.

Each individual hurrying towards or away from the classical work cannot ignore it.

The very theatrical approach allows the Winged Victory of Samothrace to dominate the entire scene. Every time I have seen it, I have been in awe.

Studying van Gogh

17 Wednesday Sep 2014

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art museums, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Van Gogh

On a wintry morning at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I went from gallery to gallery looking at art. I was looking at the people as much as the paintings. I was on a mission to find a new subject or subjects for my own paintings.

I have recently been fascinated with museum visitors. Generally speaking, they seem to be so intrigued and at peace with their surroundings. It was so nice to see people happily disappear into the art in a room. Museums were a refuge.

In a small gallery in the contemporary section of the Metropolitan (gallery 826) there was a room of Van Gogh’s.

I came across this small group of people looking intently at the “Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat”. It was painted by van Gogh in 1887, on the reverse side of a painting he had done earlier “The Potato Peeler”. He was known to do these studies back-to-back to save money on canvas. It was an educational exercise in technique for him to do these self-portraits. He is quoted saying “I purposely bought a good enough mirror to work from myself, for want of a model.”

This group of four seemed to be together, and spent a long time studying this one painting as others moved through the gallery.

It was their only interest. I found myself getting caught up in their observation, asking my own questions. The group speaks for itself. The small painting is like a magnet. Art is a wonderful thing. It can bring out the best of ourselves, even as just observers.

Overture: The Met

02 Tuesday Sep 2014

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forsythia, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

The Metropolitan Museum of art has been a place I’ve returned to again and again over the years. I grew up on Long Island and escaped whenever possible in to the city. The Met, MOMA, Central Park…lucky girl. They all still feel like home.

No matter how short the train ride from where I lived on the north shore to Penn Station, the anticipation would build to full, blown out excitement.

I still feel that anticipation. And a visit last winter to the Metropolitan gave me the same feeling. This time the trip was longer, and I took a plane rather than the train. It was absolutely frozen outside. But inside it was golden. Huge boughs of forsythia were everywhere in the main lobby.

The crowds shed their coats and strolled under the yellow petals waiting for the day to begin. It was like hearing an orchestra tune up before the concert starts.

After plotting the course of the day throughout the museum and lingering for a few moments more under the spring flowers…

finally they moved into the hallowed halls.

What a perfect introduction to a magnificent museum. This is “Overture: The Met” which I completed this summer. It never gets old. The museum and painting in my studio are both wonderful.

Poppies

29 Tuesday Jul 2014

Posted by pat in Art, Art Museums & Exhibitions, England, London, Uncategorized, United Kingdom

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Blood-Swept Lands and Seas of Red, Tower of London. Poppies, World War I

There is an incredible art installation going in at the dry moat of The Tower of London to commemorate the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 and the allied victims who fell in that global conflict.

The ceramic artist who conceived the project is Paul Cummins, and the title of the piece is “Blood-Swept Lands and Seas of Red”.

More than 800,000 ceramic poppies will be placed by over 8,000 volunteers from across the UK over the next three months with a formal beginning August 5th. The last of the ceramic blooms will be symbolically placed in the field on November 11, Armistice Day.

The flowers will have a life even after the exhibition at The Tower. The poppies are actually being sold to the public with proceeds going to six service charities in the United Kingdom, including the Royal British Legion.

The field of poppies will grow over the remainder of the summer and autumn and become massive–888,246 to be exact. So many lives commemorated in such a visual way.

The Art Institute of Chicago

14 Saturday Jun 2014

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Art Institute of Chicago

I’ve decided I am most definitely an urban animal.

After weeks of glorious nature as we travelled west through the most spectacular scenery known to man, I am in Chicago and in love with this big city. I go to a large Metropolis, and I feel like I am home again.

Even though I have not been back in Chicago in decades, I felt comfortable and right at home.

We’ve done all the traditional tourist things, but yesterday I left My Beloved Brit to fend for himself walking along the lakeside marinas and spent literally an entire day at the stellar Art Institute of Chicago.

Looking out from the Modern Wing of The Art Institute of Chicago

Not only is it a magnificent setting along the shores of Lake Michigan on the edge of Millennium Park…

surrounded by beautiful gardens, architecture and monumental sculptures…

But inside, it is grand and intimate at the same time.

There are two sections to the museum. I attacked the Modern Wing first and spent most of the morning observing the art, and of course with my interest in my own recent museum series of paintings, also observing the art lovers observing the art.

This Modern Wing is not huge by New York standards, but the contemporary collection is wonderful.

Pablo Picasso, Mother and Child

I saw works of Matisse that I was not even familiar with…and some that had been favorites of mine for my entire art-conscious life.

Henri Matisse, Bathers by a River

Henri Matisse, The Geranium

Henri Matisse, Lorette with Cup of Coffee

Henri Matisse, Woman before an Aquarium

Henri Matisse, Apples

I stood before a David Hockney piece that I always thought was of modest size. It is 83 7/8 x 120 inches and dominates the gallery. The detail that disappears in reproductions was exquisite.

David Hockney, American Collectors (Fred and Marcia Weisman)

detail

There were so many favorites, from Alex Katz to Cy Twombly to Richter …

Alex Katz, Vincent and Tony

Gerhard Richter, Mrs. Wolleh with children

I took the time to visit an exhibit of the Lower Level that a friend and Chicago resident mentioned to me as a must see. The Thorne Miniature Rooms by Mrs. James Ward Thorne (of Montgomery Ward fame) were amazing in their scope. There were dozens of them, each done with the most exquisite attention to detail. Such variety of period and social order. They were truly enchanting. You could spend a day just viewing these.

Finally after a short lunch break back on the streets of Chicago with MBB, I re-entered to the older classical wing, and headed for the Impressionist section. I had recently read in the newspaper that they had just finished cleaning this striking canvas.

Caillebotte, Paris Street; Rainy Day

It was bright and stunning, well worth the six month restoration effort. Turning a corner and going through a few more galleries I was in awe once again.

Georges Seurat, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte

There were smaller gems I was not even aware of, like a Munch painting that was delicate and ethereal. It almost looked like pastels, but it was done in oils.

Edvard Munch, The Girl by the Window

That is the beauty of a museum you are not familiar with. Around every corner is a stunning surprise. Hopefully I will be back again to meet up with them as old friends.

John Philip Simpson, The Captive Slave

accentBritain

~ a romance with art and all things British

Category Archives: Art Museums & Exhibitions

Art and Commerce

Art Basel 2014

Art Miami 2014

Urban Scene

Watching

Victory at the Louvre

Studying van Gogh

Overture: The Met

Poppies

The Art Institute of Chicago