Pretty, dreamy Marie (Laurencin)

It's been some time since I have written about great women artists and it is time. Most have not heard of Marie Laurencin, but she sure had some famous friends. Like Mademoiselle Chanel.

Marie Laurencin - Portrait of Mademoiselle Chanel, 1923 Source

Marie was born in Paris and studied porcelain painting before falling in with hip cats of the day: Braque, Picasso, Gris, Apollinaire. Were these artists aware that they were to become something significant? Did they instinctively seek each other out? Were any perfectly ordinary friends among them now lost to history?

Marie Laurencin, Group of Artists (1908). Image via Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris.

Marie was there when crazy notion of cubism cane about. A few of her pieces have a whisper of cubist lines and sober colors. But mostly Maurie Laurencin stuck with what she did best, lovely, effervescent, with the same cast of languid girls. 

Marie Laurencin - Les jeunes filles - Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Why isn't Marie Laurencin's name known worldwide like the names of her posse? Was she too much of a one-note?  Is her art just too pretty, lightweight, lacking the grit that would make it important? Perhaps it is all those things, pleasant and superficial. 

Real Boy

This sort of painting, despite its merits, would not typically catch my prolonged attention. My favorites are more modern, more ambiguous, and less academic. But this portrait of a little boy with a long name, destined not to grow up, came to life during story time with  my younger son.  The painting is in our An Alphabet in Art book under M for Magpies. Suddenly, through the eyes of a three-year-old, I saw this painting for the very first time.

This is a portrait of a tiny kid, a toddler really, just the sort of boy we would meet at a playground. And birds, oblivious to danger. And kitty-cats, a little sinister but soft. As I watch my own little boy look at length at his long-lost friend, asking questions, the formal portrait fades and all that's left is a real boy.

Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zuniga by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes - image loaned from the Met

Read about our favorite kiddie art history books here.

Conversation Piece

I am in love with this itty bitty painting! In this most comfortable of rooms, chock full of art and books but with adequate seating, pleasant conversation flows. Do you suppose they are sensibly chattering about weather? Or debating the merits of life dedicated to the pursuit of arts?

Vanessa Bell, Conversation Piece 1912 oil
Source

The piece is by Vanessa Bell,Virginia Woolf's sister and a talented artist in her own right. BBC has a treasure trove of art - here is a slideshow of Vanessa Bell's works.

Art History for Breakfast

Would you believe it, around here we like a healthy dose of art? From early age Klatch tots are getting to know Leonardo and Vincent, troll art museums, and learn to express their artistic preferences and dislikes. At times it is a bumpy road - not gonna lie, before they embraced 'important art' getting their interest was only possible through a sheer force of will. But one ought to chip away despite whining (it is not a democracy around here after all). Here are a few picks to encourage interest in the appreciation of the fine art. 

There is no substitution for seeing art in a gallery. And creating art, experimenting with materials and going through the process, gives one a deeper appreciation for the art. But introducing art in a familiar context is the way to get them interested, if not hooked.

You Are My Work of Art is a silly and sweet board book, with flap on each page revealing a masterpiece - staples like Mona Lisa and Starry Night but also Hokusai, Mary Cassatt, Grant Wood. 

One of the bedtime staples around here! Flaps and silly pictures for littlest art lovers.

I quite like the board books that introduce numbers, letters, colors and shapes using works of art instead of oh-so-boring photos of farm animals and lollies to illustrate concepts. Colors with Warhol, I Spy Shapes in Art, these books are super-simple but the itty-bitty ones get use to seeing art as more than a picture.

Turns out Thiebaud is perfect for counting!

Flashcards are not for everyone and index cards ARE boring. But there there is such a thing as fun flash cards. We keep a few boxes in the kitchen pantry and cards usually come out at breakfast time. These ones have questions on the back (and a dice) but we usually just look at our favorites. A few picks are strange and it is hardly possible to boil down an artist's body of work (let alone entire artistic movement!) to one card. But with the limited space editors did a fine job representing the fundamentals - concepts, artists and movements.

Before they remember painters' names, they will remember their favorites. 

Though not an art history book Beautiful Oops is included because it teaches confidence in creative process and to take an unconventional view at art. 

Love! With oops turning into something new altogether, this book is as fun as it is unique.

Last but not least, don't let black and white illustrations of this book fool you. Chock full of art projects teaching kidfolk about the great artists it is rich and creative, from Gothic to Dada collage. WARNING: purchasing this book may also result in an excessively large order of art supplies.

Good to be back after a busy month!

PS Images are snagged from Amazon where I often buy these very treasures.

Old Friends (from the permanent collection)

Last week I took a day off work. I was not traveling and I did not spend the day on the playground. Instead I headed for the National Gallery of Art. As I made my way through the galleries, I visited some old "friends" and spotted some new works.

I have the softest of spots in heart for Andre Derain's Charing Cross Bridge. I had a print of this work years ago in my very first apartment. Of course no print can convey the vibrant colors and beauty. The pink sky still takes my breath away.


André Derain, Charing Cross Bridge, London, 1906, National Gallery of Art, Washington, John Hay Whitney Collection

Just feet away, hangs Tugboat on the Seine by a chum of Derain's, Maurice de Vlaminck. Did friends ever imagine some hundred years ago that their works would hang side by side in museums?



Maurice de Vlaminck, Tugboat on the Seine, Chatou, 1906, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney

Robert Delaunay's work has a striking resemblance to the style of his wife Sonia Delaunay.  The same flat vibrant color. The same spheres. Surely today they would run a design studio and have their own Target product line.


Robert Delaunay, Political Drama, 1914 Gift of the Joseph H. Hazen Foundation, Inc.

On a wall just over is a portrait by the great Pablo Picasso, before he went off the deep end into cubism (I get it, just don't love it). A search for Petrus Manach, an art dealer, doesn't reveal much except this portrait that forever immortalized his likeness. Money well spent, Sir.


Pablo Picasso, Pedro Mañach, 1901 Chester Dale Collection

Despite the gentle colors, I have always found this work heartbreaking. It is their faces full of sorrow, the thought of what these haunting eyes have seen, their closeness and distance (Gorky's mother died of starvation long before this work was started).   Beautiful, fragile, and tragic.



Arshile Gorky The Artist and His Mother Alisa Mellon Bruce Fund

 

I confess, I have not heard of Lyonel Feininger before this visit, but the movement of this work, drew my eye immediately across the gallery. Dynamic and bright, it shook me out of melancholy of Arshile Gorky.

 

Lyonel Feininger The Bicycle Race, 1912 Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

Yes, I know what I said about cubism, but this work takes breath away (literally, holds you still so to not make too much noise). For its diminutive size it packs a lot in, creating a feeling of standing in the middle of a cathedral and expecting to hear echo. It is fantastic!

Max Weber Interior of the Fourth Dimension, 1913 Gift of Natalie Davis Spingarn in memory of Linda R. Miller and in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art

From the Highlands

Somehow, I stumbled on the National Galleries Scotland website. In addition to a well chosen and rich collection, the gallery features local talent. Admittedly my knowledge of Scotland's art and artists is lacking but I was instantly taken with the paintings, the sort of paintings that would be easy to live with, reminiscent of the French artists, but more understated.

One of the ‘Scottish Colourists’ is John Duncan Fergusson. The street scene is, well, as street scene. But it is restful to look at even if not completely unique.

John Duncan Fergusson: Rue St. Jaques from National Galleries of Scotland

Another Scottish Colourist - and a friend of John Duncan Fergusson's - is Samuel John Peploe. The flat surfaces reminded me of Cezanne but more sober with grays and blues.


Iona Landscape: Rocks. Samuel John Peploe

 Then there is this still life by William York MacGregor, one of the Glasgow Boys. The bounty is charming and very much reminds me of the modern day farm stand. X-rays reveal that the artist originally painted a girl next to the table of produce but then thought better of it and covered her up. Whatever his reasons, the painting is better for it.



The Vegetable Stall, William York MacGregor

Lastly a more modern piece, a portrait that caught my eye with its movement and color choices. Learning that the subject is theoretical physicist Peter Higgs (yes, the elusive particle is named for him), made the piece even more intriguing.


Peter Higgs by Lucinda Mackay

 All the photos are from National Gallery Scotland website. They have comprehensive background on Scottish art (if not Scotland's National Gallery than who?).

Wednesday: Virginia by Rodger Fry

I haven't posted a Wednesday painting in some weeks so perhaps it is time. The Bloomsbury Group still captures imagination today, a bohemian Olympus of sorts. Artists Rodger Fry by all accounts had a complicated life and was close to both Vanessa Bell and her sister Virginia Woolf. So behold a portrait of Virginia by Rodger Fry.  He painted her likeness and she wrote his biography.

Virginia Woolf by Rodger Eliot Fry

Copyright:  © Bridgeman Art Library / On Loan to Leeds Museums and Galleries (City Art Gallery)

Virginia's Sister

Virginia Woolf's older sister, Vanessa Bell, was a talented artist and among Bloomsbury Group's founders. Bloomsbury group draws one like a bohemian Camelot, it still feels oh-so-very modern more than a century later.  What it must have been like to be in the room with these artistic intellectuals, a product of their time?

This portrait by Vanessa Bell (currently at Tate) is stare-worthy. The colors and the rendering of the face are lovely and somehow cozy, like tweed and wool.

Helen Dudley by Vanessa Bell (1915ish) - currently at the Tate

Wednesday: HRH by Lucian Freud

I have been slacking all April but Wednesdays are back with Lucian Freud's depiction of HRH Queen Elizabeth.  Because he is related to the other Freud and has a way with a paintbrush and she is thoroughly modern.


I don't know where the portrait actually resides but this came from BBC. Apparently there is come controversy about the depiction but I like it!

From Irises to Abstract

When it comes to appreciating art, most of us first learn about Monet’s lilies or perhaps Van Gogh’s sunflowers before getting to the really good stuff. I am not here to judge anyone on the account of art tastes, especially since Van Gogh’s irises are perhaps my first art memory, but I’ve been pondering art a lot lately and noticed that my tastes evolved.

First it was the palatable and easy art. Bright colors, sunny day, what’s not to like?

Vincent Van Gogh, Irises (1889) from The J. Paul Getty Museum

Then I moved on to art with a story, with characters with complex relationships with each other and their viewers. Like Toulouse Lautrec, Marc Chagall,. Or Edward Hopper. Who is this woman waiting for in the hotel? Is she sad, lonely, or merely indifferent?

Edward Hopper, Hotel Window (1955) from Smithsonian American Art Museum, their Hopper Scrapbook is pretty awesome, by the way. 

I begun to truly appreciate the Old Masters, Frans Hals, Diego Velazquez, El Greco, Ingres, after learning about oil painting process, pigments, and composition. I still have much to learn...

Frans Hals, Youth with a Skull (1626-28)

Lately, I turned another leaf and am drawn to abstract pieces. I don’t know what it means, it does not invoke any deep thoughts or meaning. But I like it. Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, Brice Marden, Lee Krasner, Franz Kline, or Emily Kame Kngwarreye.

Robert Motherwell, Elegy to the Spanish Republic 70 - at the Met

Brice Marden Vine (1991-93) from MoMA.org

You might enjoy:

• Amazing art from an Outback Grannie
• Maria Sibylla Merian’s Plates from Suriname
• Enchanted Forest
• Beachy Art

Wednesday: Woman with Hat

Even Leo Stein, Gertrude's cantankerous brother, dismissed this portrait. Beauty is the eye of the beholder. So behold.

Henri Matisse (French, 1869–1954)
Woman with a Hat (1905)
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Bequest of Elise S. Haas
© 2012 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Almost Wed: Federico Degetau y Gonzalez

Lately, I've been lusting after portraits - and stories they tell. This post is to make up for yesterday, which I missed. Great colors and unconventional composition. Love!

Federico Degetau y Gonzalez
oil by Samuel Sanchez (1956) - featured by the National Portrait Gallery

Wednesday: Marianne Moore by Marguerite Thompson Zorach

Wednesday's painting.

Marianne Moore & Her Mother (1925) by Marguerite Thompson Zorach. Painting in the National Portrait Gallery.

Wednesday: Underwater Vision

Did you like Glorious Venice? Lets try this again.

Odilon Redon “Underwater Vision” 1910 (oil on canvas)  (at MoMA)

Glorious Venice

Is wordless Wednesday still a thing?

Joseph Mallord William TurnerThe Dogana and Santa Maria della Salute, Venice, 1843
Source: The National Gallery of Art

Beachy

Speaking of enchanted places, I am dreaming of a beach - gentle breeze, rolling sounds of waves, the smell of salt in the air, and a book. The summer is now nearly over but alas shore outing did not make it on our calendar this year. So join me in the daydream….

Alex Katz, "Ada with Bathing Cap" (1965)
Source: Artinfo.com, Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY/Collection Paul J. Schupf, Hamilton, New York.
 

Praia Piquinia by Christian Chaize, photo from 20x200.com - alas it is sold out before I had a chance to order one....

Jane Peterson, Beach Scene (1935) from the National Museum of Women in the Arts. 

Enchanted Forest

How was your commute home? On my way from work I often cut through a woodsy park, full of overgrown trees and ancient-looking ferns. Last week the commute home held a few surprises.  Remember Vilja? The only person in the park was a soprano belting out arias in the desolate gazebo.  Just a few steps later, a deer frozen in the green clearing, perhaps appreciating the singing.  Alas, no magic on the way home today.  Only pre-teens on bikes and dog-walkers. 

Here are a couple paintings that (partially) capture the feeling of enchantment.

Henri Rousseau, Tropical Forest with Monkeys, 1910

National Gallery of Art, John Hay Whitney Collection

Gustav Klimt, Beech Forest, 1902

Finding a decent photo of the painting proved to be tricky - as I refuse to include image of a poster of the same painting.  I finally clipped this from web version of Klimt book by Gilles Neret.

Favorite Paintings: Sonia Delaunay

After I shared some of my all-time favorite paintings a few friends told me about theirs. Catherine’s pick happens to be by a thoroughly modern dame Sonia Delaunay.

Rythme Coloré (Colored Rhythm) Sonia Delaunay 1946

Private collection © L & M SERVICES B.V. The Hague 20100623; Photo: © private collection

Sonia Delaunay is a fine choice and I cannot resist to share just a bit about her. The artist was born Sarah Stern in Ukraine (or Russia, depending on what year the map was published). At a young age, Sonia moved to St. Petersburg and became Sonia Terk after her affluent uncle and aunt adopted her and encouraged her talent.

Eventually Sonia went where all artists flocked – Paris – where she met her husband, a fellow artist Robert Delaunay (there was also a first marriage to a gallery owner but it was largely assumed to be a union of convenience on both sides).

Though both Sonia and Robert Delaunay are known for colorful abstract spheres, Sonia was prolific in other, perhaps more commercial, areas. She designed costumes, textiles, clothing, murals, and even dabbled with interior design.

Unnamed Lithography by Sonia Delaunay (source: ArtNet.com)

More Favorite Painting picks to come – and send me yours!

Favorite Paintings

Speaking of art, if you could own, that is see every day on your wall, one painting, which one would you choose? I pondered that question while flipping through an old House Beautiful and surprised myself with the choices that came to mind.

In contemplating living with a painting I moved past the old masters and settled for the less grand canvasses that I would tire of looking at but would still be filled with warmth and harmony with each glance. These choices all hover somewhere between modern and traditional, spanning about the same era as my World Fair poster picks.

I’ve always loved this painting, from the moment I saw it on a poster, before I ever knew who Edward Hopper was, and seeing the original in the gallery did not dispel its magic for me. Perhaps because I first saw this piece as a child, I do not feel the alienation often attributed to Hopper, I see the shapes in vibrant colors and one can always supply a story as to why these two women are lunching here.

Edward Hopper, Chop Suey (1929) - in Barney A. Ebsworth collecton

As for runners up, these three choices were really about the artist, not the specific paintings. Joseph Mallord William Turner’s paintings at times look almost abstract. The combination of blues with siennas and ochres is fresh and rich.

J.M.W. Turner Rain, Steam and Speed (1844) National Gallery, London

Undoubtedly portraits are my favorite genre and I am yet to see a portrait by
Modigliani and not fall for it. One wonders what masterpieces the artist would have produced if not for his demise at 35.

Amedeo Modigliani, Paul Guillaume, Novo Pilota (1915)

In Vuillard’s paintings the flat shapes overlap and create a very complete work. His works have a certain coziness about them.

Edouard Vuillard, The Yellow Curtain (c. 1893) Alisa Mellon Bruce Collection