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Month: April 2017

  • April 29: Derain’s experiments

    Derain’s experiments Last week we looked at the clues in Claude Monet’s early work that show how he crafted the visual information in front of him into strong art. In a similar quest, here we look at two pieces by Andre Derain (1880-1954).  The first, The Seine at Chatou, seems to have been painted in one session…

  • April 22: Monet’s strong beginning

    Monet’s strong beginning (Claude Monet, 1840-1926) The show at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, “Monet: the Early Years”, is full of surprises.  The first surprise isn’t how wonderful the wonderful stuff is, but how many middling pieces there are–things you wouldn’t pay much attention to if the artist’s fame hadn’t made you think you’d better admire…

  • April 15: Bliss and/or Ensor

    Bliss and/or Ensor: The current cover of The New Yorker features a witty Harry Bliss image of Manhattan’s Flatiron building, with laundry.     The credits don’t mention “The Cathedral” of 1886 by James Ensor, which certainly looks like the basis for the  joke. If it is, they should have.        

  • April 8: Jack Ziegler

    Jack Ziegler, a long-time New Yorker cartoonist, died recently. His work was funny, his drawing bright and economical. I like this piece especially, for obvious reasons.    

  • date: two faces

    Two faces: I don’t normally put the work of Johannes Vermeer (1632 – 1675) and Chuck Close (1940 – ) in the same box, but there is a similarity to their process, however different their results. Both pursue the multitudinous variations of tone and shape in their subjects. Vermeer pulls adjacent tones together, as in the face…