A season of influence in NYC

In case it's not abundantly clear: 'influence shows' are exhibitions designed to show us how artists X influenced artists Y, or how geography influenced the creative impulse of a certain set of people, or both. One of the fun things about these shows is that they are equal parts art and history: They show visitors how art got made and they do it without wall-text, audio guides, isms, or tours. Apparently curators dig rhymes too.

The hit of the bunch, with more super paintings per square foot than any other exhibition in New York right now, is the Van Gogh & Co. show at the Neue Galerie. The premise of the show is simple: Van Gogh's work -- his use of color, his compositions, his subject matter -- gave other artists ideas. Here's Van Gogh's The Bedroom, here's Egon Schiele's The Artist's Bedroom in Neulengbach.

Sometimes the influence on display is subtle: From a distance Emil Nolde's Red Flowers has not much in common with Van Gogh's Corner of a Garden with Flowers and Butterflies. But from about a foot away, it becomes obvious that Nolde has learned a lesson in paint-handling from Van Gogh. Sometimes it's obvious: Kirchner probably wouldn't have made a self-portrait while wearing a straw hat (as he did in 1907) unless he was familiar with Van Gogh having done it.

There are times that certain artists and paintings step out of line: The Heckels on view feel more indebted to fauvism than to Van Gogh and a 1915 Meidner self-portrant feels like as much a crib from Cezanne, but that's OK. Part of the fun of the show is it starts rhymes working through the brain. (And I'll post one of them later today.)

The other two shows aren't quite as exciting. Walking through the Met's Barcelona show, I was reminded of an Ann Temkin quote from a 2004 Arthur Lubow NYT magazine story about the pending re-installation of MoMA's permanent collection. Temkin found that every time she put a Picasso next to something, a Gris or whatever, the Picasso overpowered it. "That bastard!" Temkin said. Well, I wonder if she's seen Barcelona...

And the Gugg's show is, well, unsurprising. The French post-impressionists look creative, free, and fresh. The Italians who learned lessons from them made paintings that are the visual equivalent of watching someone who has never advanced beyond seventh-grade algebra figure out calculus. Just as there are some superb Picassos at the Met, there are some wonderful French paintings at the Gugg. For example: Standing in front of Pissarro's Woman Breaking Wood reminded me why he was Barnett Newman's favorite painter.