Art I'm Loving - Part 8
Art I'm currently loving, most of which I saw on my trip to New York City.
(1) The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak
Painted by Albert Bierstadt in 1863, this painting was hung next to George Washington Crossing the Delaware and The Heart of the Andes as part of Civil War propaganda, centering the Union among two great ranges spanning North and South America. The paintings were displayed at the New York Metropolitan Fair in 1964 to raise money for the war effort. They 3 paintings are displayed as they were at the The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. It is quite impressive to see them together as they would have been seen in the 1860s.
Bierstadt was German-American of the Hudson River School. One critic said “"Bierstadt painted the West as Americans hoped it would be” which I love. It’s the American West as a mythical place, romanticism of the West that included Native Americans amongst the glory of the nature. I don't think seeing this painting online does justice to its true scale.
(2) Picquigny
The water in Picquigny is stunning when viewed in person. The Norwegian impressionist painter, Frits Thaulow Norwegian, is best known for his naturalistic depictions of landscape. This depiction of a small French town on the river Somme is from 1899.
(3) Blue Blanket
Catherine Murphy painted Blue Blanket in 1990. It is quite arresting to see in person, as it has a higher level of texture detail than most photographs. The American painter is known for her still life work, painting common objects bigger than they really are, often a commentary on "slowing down time."
(4) Street in Helgoland II
Arthur Segal was a Romanian modernist painter who moved through multiple different styles as he was a refugee through the World War 2 era. Painting the frame seems like an obvious gimmick to a contemporary viewer, but after looking at a lot of pre-20the century work at the Met, it was a welcome shock to the system to see this edge-to-edge painting near the stairs.
(5) I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold
Charles Demuth was inspired by a William Carlos Williams poem to create this 1928 painting. The Pennsylvanian was a well-know Precisionist painter. Before seeing this painting, I'm not sure I've ever heard of "precisionism" which is an American modernist movement that synthesized cubism, purism, and futurism that offered a more sterile, industrial interpretation of Art Deco which influenced 1950s/60s advertising imagery. The Edward Ruscha that I saw in New York was his painting of the 20th Century Fox logo (link) and I was interested in the comparison of his 1960s advertising work with the precisionism work from the '30s.
(6) Watch
This 1925 oil painting from Gerald Murphy furthers my fascinations with how so many interwar paintings, especially those of Precisionist style, look like modern computer graphics. Gerald and Sara Murphy were part of the Lost Generation and were the ones who owned the mansion on the French Riviera that the set partied at, including Picasso and the Fitzgeralds.
(7) Dancer = Propeller = Sea
Gino Severini is an Italian painter who painted in the futurism style. This 1915 painting is displayed as a diamond and the colors are amazing in person.
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