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Oct 29: those English!
THOSE ENGLISH! I think of English art before the mid-19th Century or so as a decorous celebration of life of or from the viewpoint of the upper crust. When Constable’s Bishop (down in the lower left-hand corner–click to enlarge) looked around him and saw harvest wagons, I expect he saw something idyllic like the Gainsborough.…
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Oct. 22: Joke (or not)
JOKE (OR NOT) Years ago, passing through Philadelphia, coming around the corner into Center Square Plaza, I encountered “Clothespin” by the collaborative team of Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. Forty-five feet tall. I thought, “That’s fine.” On one level it’s a joke, like their soft objects—the cheeseburgers, the instruments. But those are indoor objects.…
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October 15: pairing
PAIRING A drawing and a photo, very engaging side by side.
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October 8: holding the eye
HOLDING THE EYE The landscape work of Claude Lorrain was enormously influential from the mid-17th Century on. “Pastoral Landscape” is a typical example. On the right, a large, dark mass of trees with the bright figures in the lower corner. From there the eye follows their gestures and left-leaning body language, and the cows amble toward the lighter left…
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Oct. 1: Magritte’s elegance
MAGRITTE’S ELEGANCE Artists make formal choices to get certain results. Rene Magritte’s painting style can seem formulaic, almost mechanical, but the point of this restraint is to enable the surreality of his images. There is nothing to be gained, and much focus to be lost, by painterly bravura. Contrast the coherence of his “Rider in…