Art Appreciation

[Otis Westinghouse]

I'm keen to see it for the beautiful settings of the paintings and the recreation of Delft... I do like Colin Firth, though. Haven't actually seen Fever Pitch, but I couldn't resist re-watching the hilarious Bridget Jones restaurant fight scene between him and Hugh Grant the other night on telly, where they have to interrupt their fight to join a chorus of Happy Birthday at the insistence of the lively Italian waiters before returning to the fray.

[Otis Westinghouse]

(Why is it that a search under 'art' didn't find this thread but one under 'appreciation did'?)

Time to resurrect. Forget gigs, which galleries have turned you on lately? I went yesterday to the Royal Academy in London to see this:
http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/from-russia/

The exhibition caused lots of furore with the Russians threatening to pull out at one point:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jh ... sia319.xml

Good job it went ahead. Paintings drawn from four museums from Moscow and St Petersburg (I'd seen some of them in the Moscow Tretyakov 10 years ago). Nice clear focus: only French or France-based and Russian artists, only from 1850-1925. The French pieces had all been collected by Russians, mainly Schukin and Mozorow, the latter owning 18 Cezannes, the former 19 Gauguins and 50 Picassos, etc. He was also the man who commissioned Matisse's brilliant 'The Dance' as shown on the link above. Stuffed with brilliant things, Matisse is a highlight - with that painting hung perfectly so that the orange skin tones glow intensely, a huge canvas with only four colours used, and his 'Red Room' was even more amazing (see below). I also loved the huge Kandinsky 'Composition VII' to be seen in Section 4 in the link above. But the exhibition as a whole was fabulous, charting the progression of European art through its major changes from 19th century naturalism and impressionism through to the most extreme abstraction (see Malevich's black square at Section 4 above). The extreme radicalism of the art with the backdrop of the dismantling of the old Tsarist ways between the 1905 and 1917 revolutions was fascinating. I thought a black square on a white background was something that came later on in the 20th C, but Malevich was there in 1923. Good book and the audio guide was well worth having (I now always get these at the big London exhibitions, which are always so full you can't get near the labels, but it's also interesting to be instructed on what you're looking at by the curator).

Review here, showing and raving about the fabulous 'Red Room', and telling more of the tale of how this exhib never happened:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jan/23/russia.art

[Jack of All Parades]

I enjoyed this show the other day- the grounds are expansive and the featured work is humorous and whimsical- I really liked the Owl. If I were the owner of an extensive estate with grounds- this is what would populate the lawns:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/02/arts/ ... l?ref=arts

[Otis Westinghouse]

Good name, Houseago. Enjoyed being reminded of where I spent April 1 2008!

[Jack of All Parades]

It is not often that I come across something that is totally new to me. This is simply an astounding and strong celebration of the camera and the human form. Bravo!:


http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2013/ ... eries.html

[Jack of All Parades]

Caught this show the other day. The 'surprise' factor in these photos is exquisite:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/23/arts/ ... l?ref=arts

[Jack of All Parades]

Caught this show the other day. The 'surprise' factor in these photos is exquisite:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/23/arts/ ... l?ref=arts

A strong, perceptive essay by Anthony Lane from this week's New Yorker on the exhibit:

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/a ... large_lane

[Jack of All Parades]

These are lovely and should be shared:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2013/ ... hotos.html

[Emotional Toothpaste]

Very proud of my older sister, Julie. She has become quite the photographer with her works being snatched up by the likes of Elton John, Reese Witherspoon, Robert Downey Jr, and a few others. Kind've funny because most of her subjects are my nieces and nephews.
http://www.julieblackmon.com/

[Jack of All Parades]

Very proud of my older sister, Julie. She has become quite the photographer with her works being snatched up by the likes of Elton John, Reese Witherspoon, Robert Downey Jr, and a few others. Kind've funny because most of her subjects are my nieces and nephews.
http://www.julieblackmon.com/

Many of those are arresting. You are quite right to be proud of your sister. She has a unique 'eye' and I can see why her work is selling. Amongst a number that I enjoy I think i like "Stock Tank" the best. Its humor is witty and the visual pun of a boiling pot just like the weather which is causing the swimmers to enter the water has me in hysterics. If I had the funds my order would be in for that one. Thank you for sharing her vision.

[Emotional Toothpaste]

Thank you, I'll pass along the compliments.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Wow, she's superb! Incredibly painterly - love her statement re Jan Steen.

Are you and your 8 other siblings equally talented?!?

The 'Commercial work' page made me laugh - I was looking for Elton and co.

Elvis has to commission her.

[Emotional Toothpaste]

No talent here, but younger sister Rosie Winstead has written and illustrated some children's books which are published. "Someday" written by children's author Eileen Spinelli, in which she did the illustrations only. Great little story. And then "Ruby and Bubbles" she both wrote and illustrated, also a nice little story for kids about how to deal with bully's. She's got another book coming out sometime soon.

My older brother is probably the best artist of us all but sadly underutilized. He can draw or water-color paint in extreme detail almost anything, and quickly in a whim, but never sought anything with it. Particularly good at WWI and WWII flying aircraft such as Spitfires, Messerschmidts, Folkewoffes's and Spads. All I got was good taste for music with the rest of you with our common idol Elvis!

[Otis Westinghouse]

Loved the Tate modern's current Paul Klee Making Visible retrospective last week. It focussed heavily on works exhibited in two of his key exhibitions: Munich 1920, which did a lot to grow his reputation, and then MoMA 1930, which did a lot to cement it, as the first living European artist to have a major exhib there. I've never really understood Klee in that, probably more than any other artist I can think of, he worked in so many different styles. I typically think of a pattern of coloured squares with one or two other elements, but he also did satirical oil paintings based on tracings of line drawings, more heavily abstracted geometric works, lots of fish, weird paintings that feel like dreams on canvass (a description often applied to him), gorgeous late period paintings using heavy black lines with coloured patterns all around. Something like 7 or 8 distinct styles, all of which could be cited as typical of him. He was restlessly experimental, using his teaching roles as an outlet for all this creativity.

It's great to a single artist exhibition like this, as it was with Miró a year or two ago in the same wonderful venue. You see the trajectory of a life. I learned lots about him, Bauhaus, etc.



I was very tempted to get the book of the exhib, but held out and instead of ordering a big book on Klee, I got a smaller one on Klee and a book I've wanted to own and read for years: Robert Hughes' The Shock of the New. Often cited as one of the key books on 20th century art, it looks perfect, nice and long and detailed with excellent reproductions of a real roll call of modern classics. I imagine future generations will look back at the era of modernism in astonishment in terms of the leaps of inventiveness and experimentalism in art, lit and music.

[Jack of All Parades]

The Hughes is a bible- I hope you enjoy it. I caught this recently. It is something right along your taste and I wish you had walked the galleries with me. "The Girl With the Pearl Earring" is everything I thought it would be- mysterious, intoxicating and just this side of provocative. I have no idea if I ever would have made it to the Hague to see them in their home museum so I had to grab this chance. The portraits of burghers and peasants and the depictions of that supreme time in Holland are exquisite.

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/325727- ... rs-in-tow/

Pieter Claesz's "Vanitas Still Life"- may well be my favorite though from the show. Besides the obvious symbolism and skill of the drawing, it simply felt alive and of this moment. I know it was a painting, but it did not sit flatly on the canvas. Our time is fleeting.......

[Otis Westinghouse]

Ooh would love to see that. I'm on a mission to see all the known Vermeers in my lifetime, and he has the virtue of a very small known output, c. 38 pics, give or take the odd disputed one (and the lost one from the I S Gardener in Boston has to tragically be struck from the list, for now at least). I've made a list of the ones I've seen and have yet to see and am about halfway through (7 of them are in NYC permanently). Haven't been to the Mauritshuis yet, but surely will. Great that this was on at the wonderful Frick. It's good that some of the world's most famous and valuable paintings get to change location every once in a while. The Vermeer's Women exhib they put on at the local Cambridge museum The Fitzwilliam was great, with the Louvre's sublime Lacemaker at its heart.

[Jack of All Parades]

Now if any guitar merits enshrinement in a museum this one does. Hope that is where it is ultimately headed. If only I had had a few extra dollars in my pocket this holiday season.........:

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/d ... -christies

[Jack of All Parades]

This is inspired and funny- just like the exhibit it spoofs:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/c ... etter.html