Seeing Red

11 Tuesday Apr 2017

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Sometimes an image will stay with me for quite a long time and pop out years later in a painting. In the case of “Reds” (which I just finished this week) this image recalls a visit to MOMA in New York City in January of 2015. I had gone up to see the special Matisse Cut-Outs show. I was not allowed to photograph in the galleries for this particular show, but of course couldn’t resist a few photos of the happy art lovers waiting on line to get in.

But it certainly put me in the mood for the Matisse room of the regular MOMA collection, and “The Red Studio” has always been one of my favorites there.

The room was not as crowded as it sometimes is. Maybe the Matisse lovers were in the special cut-outs exhibit.

But when I saw these three young girls, all in shades of pink…they just reinforced Matisse’s monochromatic palette filling his canvas and pushing out from the edges.

Whenever I would re-visit my favorite reference files of photos from museum visits, I would stop and linger with this one. It’s been tacked to the wall in my studio off and on for the past two years.

The figures seemed to mimic the happy floating objects in Matisse’s studio.

I wanted to keep the loose joy of the master work without directly falling into its style. But, these three figures really are simply a perfect extension of the composition.

Reds are tough. And Matisse’s red is such a specific shade, which I actually felt I could never quite capture, although I layered it many times trying.

But the sense of vibrancy and movement is there, and extends into the surrounding room. How can anyone not be happy in the presence of a Matisse.

“Reds”, oil on linen, 30″ x 24″

In Monet’s Garden

15 Sunday Mar 2015

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MOMA, Monet, New York City, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

There are times when I just want to escape from what I call “trauma porn”, that constant bombardment of the dark, angry words and images so prevalent at this moment in our society. It’s everywhere and it must sell well. I know there is distress and war and hardship in the world. And that should never be hidden. But the media feeds on it, and it seems like lately there is not a healthy balance with the more introspective, peaceful side of our society. There has to be an equal emphasis on good and what is enriching rather than only a biased focus on terror, anger and turmoil. How else will we be able to find our own personal balance?

What better place to contemplate the good than Monet’s garden, even if it is only at the Museum of Modern Art on a cold February morning.

I actually began working on a very different painting right before New Year’s. People often ask me how long a painting takes to complete. Well, it all depends.

I was trying to come to grips with a scene I had noticed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. Four women were sitting sketching and it intrigued me. What a positive way to spend a morning. I worked on it for over a month.

But it just never came together the way I wanted it to. I couldn’t seem to find what Alex Katz (one of my favorite artists) calls the “inside energy”. This piece was not going there. I finally decided it was time to erase it from the expensive linen and begin again. And what better place to go than Monet’s gardens.

These Monets are at MOMA in NYC. After my trip there in early February, I was drawn to these two extraordinary paintings. The museum curators had moved them to a different gallery since the last time I was there, and it was quieter and more removed from the crowds.

I found these two women each transfixed by “Water Lilies” and “Agapanthus”. A recurring theme of mine in this series of paintings is how art and museums bring us to a more positive, introspective state. No bi-partisan arguing. No shrill media. As far as I can tell almost everyone finds peace and tranquility with a Monet. And if they want to explore a darker side, there are other galleries and paintings that focus on that. It’s all so civilized in a museum.

When I start a painting I am concerned with what the artist David Salle recently described in an article as an “alignment of intention, talent and form”. He suggests the art of painting on canvas has returned to importance, if it ever left. And these three values are what create a masterful painting.

I know Monet has this in his work. But do I? Can I?

I constantly strive for that interior energy in a painting. And my subject (or intent) is often an interpretation of ourselves attempting those perfect moments of contemplation. I’ll leave the dark side for others to explore for now. Monet certainly helps.

“In Monet’s Gardens”, oil on linen, 36″ x 24″, with thanks to MOMA and Monet.

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.

Monet, Gallery Nine and MOMA

17 Saturday May 2014

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MOMA, Monet

The gallery paintings I have been doing this spring all came from my trip to NYC in the depth of the February winter. It was soooo cold.

But when I entered the lobby of the Museum of Modern Art, everything was warm and cozy. Just fine for a day of walking through the galleries and searching for that perfect moment.

I have spent the last month or so working on a new painting that came from this trip to MOMA in February.

Gallery 9 is always a crowd pleaser, and I love it too.

It is not just the spectacular Monet’s in the room (Agapanthus on the back wall, and Water Lilies stretching the entire length of the room).

It is like entering a sacred space…quiet and reflective.

But, in addition, the floor to ceiling window at the end of the room with its shadowed view of a New York City Street just seems to accent the serenity of the gallery.

The scene is stunning, and people enter with a reverence reserved for a very special place of contemplation and renewal. It is hushed and dim in the room, no matter how many people drift along the edges, or finally settle on one of the long black benches to contemplate this tableaux.

Always someone goes over to the window to stare out at the street. But soon returns to see Monet’s masterpieces. I was going through some of my art books this afternoon as I often do when contemplating new work, and came across this image in one of my David Hockney books. It’s an early picture of his, but it reminded me in some ways of these paintings I have been working on this year of art and art lovers.

In this piece I am working on now, I want the rhythm of the people moving through the room to be the dominant view, but the viewer to be very aware of a strong source of light coming from the outside world.

It is interesting to me that there is the same intense meditation whether looking out the window, or staring into the drifts of paint on canvas. I checked that the figures read dominantly in gray tones.

The strong diagonal of viewers brings you into the room to the various objects of interest and emphasizes the pattern of light and shadow on the floor, and on the two paintings.

People react with awe to the beauty. This is Gallery 9, Adagio.

Not By Words

03 Saturday May 2014

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MOMA, Not By Words, Rauschenberg, rebus, The Museum of Modern Art

You may (or may not) have noticed I have not been posting to this blog site as frequently in the past several months as I have in the past. That’s because my painting studio has held me a delighted prisoner. I have been immersed in my “Cities” series of paintings, and in particular I have been working from wonderful reference I gained this past snowy winter to NYC.

One of my favorite museums is MOMA, The Museum of Modern Art, in New York. I find constant inspiration there from the art, but also, now that I have come to work on this gallery series of museum scenes, I can spend hours watching the art lovers move through the space and react to the art.

I go back to the galleries again and again during a single visit, waiting for the right configuration of characters, with interesting poses creating interesting shapes. This woman in front of Robert Rauschenberg’s “Rebus” was fascinating to me, especially with the long black bench in the foreground catching the reflection of light and colors from the painting, as well as her shadow.

For this particular piece I wanted a lot of contrast so that the figures would appear like chess pieces moving in the space. In my black & white check for tone, I can see these figures’ relationships even more clearly.

The title of Rauschenberg’s art “Rebus” is where I got my title for this painting “Not By Words”. A rebus is a picture puzzle, where the names of pictured objects have a literal meaning in a sentence…like “(Picture of an eye) I (picture of a heart) love NY”.

Rauschenberg wanted his collage to be a true picture of the reality of his immediate environment. And isn’t that what many artists want to accomplish, including me? By anchoring the main figure in front of the painting, and having the three other gallery visitors move around her, it focuses even more on her intense contemplation of the painting in the moment.

When I look for these scenarios in art museums, I often wonder what the security guards posted in the galleries think. I come back again and again to the same spot and wait until the other visitors create a scene that attracts my interest. If I don’t find it at that moment, I’ll move to another gallery and come back later. It is not until I get my digital camera back to the studio that I truly know if I have gotten it or not. The variety of possibilities is endless.

Winter Scenes

11 Tuesday Feb 2014

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Central Park, MOMA, New York City, Snow

I am back from New York City, and busy in the studio trying to complete three canvases I have been working on since before Christmas. Tonight there is a possibility of freezing rain. Winter.

I am never happier than in my studio when the work is going well, no matter what the weather outside.

But as content as I am, I miss the snow and museums of last week’s visit to New York.

Even as I work at my easel, my thoughts continually return to those amazing winter scenes of Central Park. Perhaps because I grew up in New York, no matter how cold or uninviting it may seem to most tourists, I still gain new energy from it whatever the weather.

The last Friday of my visit I got up and out early so I could get to the Museum of Modern Art right as it opened. Usually that is not the smartest strategy, but I figured with the frigid temps (high of 22 degrees that day), the usual opening line would be diminished.

I was right. I walked right up to the ticket desk and passed information to check my coat. There was an amazing multi-screen installation in the upper lobby which I went in and out of all day.

I was ready for MOMA.

Always one of my favorite museums, I have read recently that MOMA is getting ready to do a major renovation. I’m not sure how I feel about that. So much of the museum seems still familiar to me from my youth, even though I know they have changed things before now.

Still, walking through the galleries, I feel like I have come home.

I’ll never tire of the museum, no matter what they do to expand or rearrange it.

And even though some of the more contemporary exhibitions can be daunting, I still find favorites mixed in.

I am not as much into experimental or performance art. I still prefer paint on canvas or paper, or sculpture that seems to recall rather than confound.

But the whole package is sublime, and the images kept me warm all day whether inside…

…or back out into the winter fantasy of Central Park.

Sometimes a winter day is the perfect day to be in the city.

All photos by me of Central Park and MOMA.

MOMA, Newman and the Sublime

11 Friday Oct 2013

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Barnett Newman, Heroic and Sublime, Man, MOMA, NYC, Vir Heroicus Sublimis

One of my absolute favorite spaces at MOMA is when you come around a corner and see Barnett Newman’s “Vir Heroicus Sublimiss” (Man, Heroic and Sublime). It does feel sublime and lifts you out of whatever daily reverie you’re in to a higher plane. My newest painting ” Sublime” addresses this mental levitation.

In an essay I read about the painting, the artist indicated that he really wants you to view the painting up close, even though the drama from afar is quite impressive.

I liked the two women in the background, nearest to the painting. The one on the right has stopped to look at the huge canvas and motions to her friend to stop also.

The man on the far left, away from other people, is enthralled…

And the man on the bench is in the direct path of the painting’s reflection. The deep red of the painting runs across the wooden floor.

I love the highly polished floors at the Museum of Modern Art. They reflect the art and connect it to the viewers. I probably spend as much time getting these reflections the way I want them as I do painting the figures.

I am pleased with this grouping. It is warm and rich and involved. Just like a day at MOMA. Sublime.

Museum Day

08 Wednesday May 2013

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Guggenheim Museum of Art, MOMA, Museum of Modern Art, oil paintings

One of my favorite ways to spend a leisurely morning is in an art museum. I miss living near a major metropolitan museum now, so whenever I get near a big city I take the time for a visit. And because it is rarer these days that I get the opportunity, I appreciate it even more.

The Guggenheim Museum, NYC. Photo by me

As much as I love the art, it is also the art lovers that I enjoy. As you may know from following this blog I have been painting gallery scenes again.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC. Photo by me

The Museum of Modern Art is one of my favorite places to visit in New York City. I grew up near here on Long Island, and even when I was young I escaped as often as possible to “The City”, and to MOMA.

The Lobby from above, MOMA in NYC. Photo by me

It only makes sense that these gallery scenes would show up in my “Cities” series. to see them all, you can visit my art website at www.patwhitehead.com.

Another painting in my “Cities” series that focuses on MOMA museum visitors.

My latest finished painting is a continuation of this theme…Gallery View II.

In the studio. Photo by me

It started as usual with a visit to MOMA

A summer visit to NYC and MOMA. Photo by me

..and a sketch on canvas after the visit.

Gallery View II begins

And just kept building from there.

You can’t imagine how long it took to get the shadowing just where I wanted it on the museum floor. You never know when you start just which area will prove the challenge and what parts will just flow.

One thing I have learned time and time again, though, is to let the “finished” painting sit for a week or so, and then go back in for those final touches.

I love this painting. It was like spending the day at MOMA all over again. I could be any one of these viewers.

The finished painting

Taxi, take two!

01 Friday Feb 2013

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MOMA, New York City, taxi

In early 2011, I did a small painting that is still one of my personal favorites…”NYC:Taxi (winter)”. The small 16″ x 12″ painting evoked the classic New York City street scene in winter, which I viewed from the window of The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). The woman I saw from my perch actually had the hat on that matched the color of the taxi she was trying to hail.

NYC:Taxi (winter), painting by me

When I returned to New York City this past summer, of course I went over to MOMA. And there I looked out the same window, and saw the same street scene in a totally different light.

From the window of MOMA. Photo by me

I began to sketch from the photos with the winter painting in mind. I wanted this small painting to echo the first.

The photo is referenced but the composition changed slightly.

The isolation of the small figure hailing the taxi is still there as in the first painting, but the surroundings have changed with the season.

The taxi is centered.

The middle of the work, where decisions about color and lightness are made. I can go back and forth for days deciding on contrast, brightness and emphasis.

And finally, it is complete.

NYC: Taxi (summer)

It has been a journey, but I love the story these two paintings tell.

My favorite spot, at the easel in my studio. photo by me.

Click on “workshop” at the top of the page for information on the September destination creativity workshop in Bath, England.

MOMA, Joan and New York City

29 Tuesday Jan 2013

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Joan Mitchell, MOMA, New York City, texting

When I was in high school, more years ago than I like to admit, I escaped to New York City to The Museum of Modern Art as often as possible. I grew up on Long Island, and “The City”, as we called Manhattan, was magnetic, always drawing me in.

A group of us would take the train in, and spend hours looking at the art at MOMA. We would then sit in the sculpture courtyard talking about what we saw, lingering forever over one cup of coffee or a cold drink, feeling very grown up, modern and inspired.

Matisse at MOMA. Photo by me

On my last visit to MOMA this past summer, so much seemed the same even after the huge remodeling of this important museum several years ago. The groups of young adults lingering in the museum seemed the same, although the cafe on the edge of the sculpture garden has gone. Instead these art lovers gather on benches near the lobby under the great paintings and soaring architecture.

MOMA’s admissions lobby. Photo by me

More often than not, however, they seem not to be talking, but rather texting. Every museum I visit around the world, there always seems to be this texting thing. Huddled in small groups, they hold these small objects, fingers moving furiously over the surface. Are they still “talking” about art? Do they feel grown up and modern with the new technology?

Underneath a stunning Joan Mitchell (Wood, Wind, No Tuba, 1980) at MOMA, everyone was lined up on the benches, tired from walking through the galleries…texting or tweeting. I must admit, I love the new technology, but do we still share experiences with those we are with, or are we always looking out to the “net” beyond?

A group of young adults relaxing after their day at the museum. Sketch by me

Fleshing out color. Photo by me

Joan Mitchell’s painting dominates the color palette and the scene. Does anyone notice?. Painting by me.

The process of adding detail, and balancing the figures with the art.

Finished! “MOMA and Joan”. Painting by me.

The Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Photo by me

I just hope this new generation of museum goers finds as much joy in their memories as I have. I think they will find their own way to remember the moment.

By the way, Joan Mitchell often painted diptychs as we see here.

Joan Mitchell’s Wood, Wind, No Tuba. 2 panels 9′ 2 1/4″ x 13 1 1/8″. Brilliant!

I love that…how the two canvases would actually work as separate pieces but worked as a whole together. Hockney was another one who use this structure of multiple canvas, and at times I have been known to use this method.

accentBritain

~ a romance with art and all things British

Tag Archives: MOMA

Seeing Red

In Monet’s Garden

Art and Commerce

Monet, Gallery Nine and MOMA

Not By Words

Winter Scenes

MOMA, Newman and the Sublime

Museum Day

Taxi, take two!

MOMA, Joan and New York City