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Judith H. Dobrzynski on Culture

Artists

Winslow Homer Shines At The Clark

And, really, everywhere, doesn’t he?

CLK339895American art historians sometimes self-divide into those who think that Winslow Homer was the greatest American artist of the 19th century and those who think Thomas Eakins was. I have always come down on the Homer side. So it was a real pleasure for me to travel to the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute a few weeks ago to see its summer exhibition, Winslow Homer: Making Art, Making History.

Sterling Clark also came down on the Homer side. He called Homer one of the greatest artists of the 19th century — “with no qualifying “American” in that accolade,” as I write in my review, published in tomorrow’s Wall Street Journal. It’s headlined, Winslow Homer at the Clark Art Institute: The Makings of A Master. He bought more than 200 works by Homer — many were etchings, of course — and owned more works by Homer than any other artist. After his death, the Clark added more.

And, I believe, it has its eye on even more. Making Art, Making History is not a theme show; it’s an exhibition of the Clark’s collection. But the Clark has borrowed four watercolors and one painting from an unnamed private New York collector to fill in some gaps. And don’t they look great with all these others? Ah, the tried-and-true way to woo a donation!

I wish the Clark luck on that.

Here I’ve posted Homer’s marvelous West Point, Prout’s Neck — a painting critics panned when it was first shown – but if you like you can see his famous Undertow at that WSJ link. and four additional works — two paintings, two etchings — on my website.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Clark

 

A New Attempt Toward “Understanding Art” On Video

Making a great video about visual art is a challenge, so I’m glad producers keep doing it. In recent days, I’ve had an opportunity to sample a new DVD series called Understanding Art: Hidden Lives of Masterpieces that takes a new tack.

Understanding Art-Hidden LivesMade by Juliette Garcia and Stan Neumann, it has five episodes, each focusing on one artist with many works in the collection of the Louvre: Raphael, Rembrandt, Poussin, Watteau and Leonardo. Instead of telling the life of the artist, they essentially film the Louvre’s study days, then take the “best parts” and boil them down into a 58-minute or so documentary.

So the video part shows a bunch of art curators, academics, conservators, restorers and scientists standing and sitting around talking about paintings, which have been removed from their frames and their glass protectors and are sitting on easels — the better for close up examination. The experts often sit in an audience while one of them expounds his (mostly — there are women but far fewer of them talk) theories on how or why the painting was made, what changes the artist made, or others, made to his work, or what the artist was trying to accomplish. People talk in French, English and Italian, so there’s a voice-over, when necessary, explaining what is being said. That voice — which is fast-paced, thank goodness — also gives the necessary background about the artist when it is relevant. (Here’s a look at a trailer for the series and here’s a clip from the Raphael episode.)

The camera also goes in close, sometimes, to show to viewers what the experts are discussing, and sometimes the viewer sees simple, animated schematic diagrams that explain a point — e.g., how a painting is transferred from wood to canvas.

I watched only the Raphael and Leonardo episodes, so these comments may not accurately describe the other three segments. I learned some things, as clearly these are more educational than entertainment (though they do that at some level too). Some topics/points are simply debated, as the experts do not agree — such as whether that small Annunciation in the Louvre’s collection really is a Leonardo, whether he did some, but not all of it, and so forth. With Raphael, the experts discuss the compositions of the two Madonna of the Rocks works, how Raphael painted a portrait of a woman he never saw, who put that angel in The Holy Family from 1518 and what is going on in that Self-portrait with a Friend (1518-20). When they don’t know, or agree, more study is called for.

Oddly, this is neither preachy, nor boring. The episodes drag occasionally, and I could not imagine watching two days of this — experts like to pontificate and condescend, and while there’s a little of that here, for flavor, there’s not much; it has been edited out.

There is one drawback: these study days date to 2006, before the great Leonardo exhibition in London, and it’s a tad out of date on the restoration front. Perhaps with others, too. (On the other hand, some art historians you may know look a lot younger!)

But, bottom line: if you are really interested in these artists, you might buy this series ($49.99 for the five-episode, two-disc series) from Athena. (Search online, though, and you can find it for less — try Target.) If you have just a casual interest in art, these are not for you.

 

 

 

A Cliff’s Notes, Of Sorts, Encompassing All Art History

TheBooks That ShapedArtHistorySummer’s almost here, and you plan to catch up on your art history, right? All those seminal books you’ve never read. Or maybe you just want to learn, and perhaps understand, more about the history of the visual arts.

A new book has come to the rescue: instead of reading everything on your wish list, you can instead turn to The Books That Shaped Art History, edited by Richard Stone and John-Paul Stonard and published in March in the U.K. by Thames & Hudson. It provides essays, commissioned by The Burlington Magazine, on 16 foundational texts in art history. And what might they be? In alphabetical order, by author:

  • The Art of Describing: Dutch Art in the 17th Century, by Svetlana Alpers
  • Matisse: His Art and His Public, by Alfred Barr
  • Painting and Experience in Fifteenth Century Italy, by Michael Baxandall
  • Likeness and Presence: A History of the Image before the Era of Art, by Hans Belting
  • The Drawings of the Florentine Painters, by Bernard Berenson
  • The Nude: A Study of Ideal Art, by Kenneth Clark
  • Image of the People: Gustave Courbet and the 1848 Revolution, by T.J. Clarke
  • Cezanne: A Study of His Development, by Roger Fry
  • Art and Illusion, by Ernst Gombrich
  • Art & Culture, by Clement Greenberg
  • Patrons and Painters: A Study in the Relations Between Italian Art and Society in the Age of the Baroque, by Francis Haskell
  • Religious Art of 13th Century France: A Study of the Iconography of the Middle Ages and Its Sources of Inspiration, by Emile Mâle
  • Principles of Art History, by Heinrich Wölfflin
  • Early Nederlandish Paintings, by Erwin Panofsky
  • Pioneers of the Modern Movement, by Nikolaus Pevsner
  • Originality of the Avant-Garde and Other Modernist Myths, by Rosalind Krauss

In publishing this book, T&H writes:

An introduction by John-Paul Stonard explores how art history has been forged by these outstanding contributions, as well as by the dialogues and ruptures between them. Supplementary documentation summarises the achievements of each art historian and provides a detailed publication history 
of their texts, with suggestions for further reading.

Then:

Each chapter – with writers including John Elderfield, Boris Groys, Susie Nash and Richard Verdi – analyses a single major book, setting out its premises and argument and mapping the intellectual development of its author, discussing its position within the field of art history, and looking at its significance in 
the context both of its initial reception and its legacy.

This is a good idea, especially for non-academics. We don’t have to read all of those volumes. Better yet, while I have not perused the book myself, it has been well-received.

When The Guardian reviewed it, in April, Kathryn Hughes wrote:

Sometimes these magi agreed, sometimes they argued, more often than not they pointedly ignored one another. As a result, the overlaps between these 16 foundational texts are often messy and contested. Stonard’s promise that this book will provide a “road map” of art in the 20th century may be misleading. What it does, in fact, is conduct an expertly guided tour along a rather marvellous scenic route.

Meanwhile, here’s what Jackie Wullschlager, in the Financial Times, said, and Daisy Dunn, in The Telegraph wrote:

The Books That Shaped Art History is a thought-provoking reflection on a century of brilliant Art Historical scholarship. To the Art Historian it offers still more. Praising the masters while accepting and assessing their errors, this volume sets the bar for the next generation. It heralds a bold approach.

So there you go — a legitimate cheat sheet for summer reading.

You Say TomAto, I Say TomAHto

venice_biennale_collection_square Half the contemporary art world is in Venice for the Biennale, and those of us left behind are (mostly) either moaning and saying maybe next year, or pretending we didn’t want to go. One guy I spoke with today bemoaned the long lines to see the pavilions, and said he’d rather go later in the year on anyway. I can’t pretend I wouldn’t want to be in Venice, even if I have no patience for it.

But here’s a crib sheet for others not in Venice, in the guise of a pronunciation guide. It was published online by Artspace, which sells art online, and begins:

With the rampant growth of the global art world, biennales and other international art exhibitions can be rough on the feet of intrepid travelers trying to take it all in—but even harder on the tongue, with the names of the unfamiliar artists continually flummoxing you with their consonant clusters and secret diphthongs.

In it, you’ll learn how to say Imi Knoebel, KutluÄŸ Ataman, Zhou Chunya, and others.  This list complements an earlier edition that I didn’t know about, Art 101, How to Pronounce Artist’s Names, Vol. 1. It tackled the likes of Albert Oehlen, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Cyprien Gaillard, Guillermo Kuitca, among others. Reading them, I learned I’ve mangled a few artists’ names — so thanks to Artspace for correcting me.

And now, when all those people return from their art travels, at least you’ll know who they are talking about.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Artspace

How Do You Say Sic Transit Gloria In German?

In Frankfurt this summer, the Städel Museum is presenting “a major survey on the lifework of the famous painter and graphic artist.” Running from July 3 to Sept. 29, it will show an artist “once celebrated by the public and art critics alike as the ‘greatest German master’.”

o_Hans_Thoma_Der_KriegHis name is Hans Thoma.  Who? Yes, “Hans Thoma: ‘The German People’s Favourite Painter’ ” will be reveal the work of a man born in 1839, with a career that spanned decades until his death in 1924. The Städel says it is out to show that

Thoma was far more than just the painter of picturesque Black Forest landscapes with which he is commonly associated today. The Städel survey aims, on the contrary, to introduce an oeuvre that will doubtless prove unexpectedly multifaceted for many visitors – with regard to the motifs and themes as well as the artistic media employed. The spectrum of Thoma’s art encompasses not only paintings and prints but also wall decorations, calendars and postcard books as well as primers for children. … With a wide range of different pictorial genres and themes, he catered to a public that was hoping for an art that would provide it with values and contents suitable for establishing a national identity.

Well, have a look and decide for yourself. I pasted a few of Thoma’s works here.

o_Hans_Thoma_Zug_der_Goetter_nach_WalhallaBut whatever you think, I commend the Städel for going against the crowd, digging into its collection — it owns nearly ninety paintings and several hundred works on paper by Thoma — and showing an artist that seems so retro. Max Hollein, the museum’s director, said he was doing it because Thoma, “in his day, played a central role in German art and society.” And Felix Krämer, the head of the Department of Modern Art at the Städel and curator of the exhibition, added that “Thoma’s role as a key figure in ‘German art’ around 1900 – an exploitation which continued until well into the National Socialist era – renders him a phenomenon that demands reassessment.”

o_Hans_Thoma_Selbstbildnis_vor_BirkenwaldI can’t imagine that they expect overflow crowds, particularly not younger crowds – though I may be wrong. German interest in art may differ from American’s.

The conclusion may be that Thoma belongs in storage, but let’s see. In the meantime, museums elsewhere might consider if they have someone like Thoma in their storerooms. They, too, might merit a current look.

Photo Credits: Courtesy of the Stadel (top to bottom — “The War,” “Train of the Gods to Valhalla,” Self-Portrait)

 

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About Judith H. Dobrzynski

Now an independent journalist, I've worked as a reporter in the culture and business sections of The New York Times, and been the editor of the Sunday business section and deputy business editor there as well as a senior editor of Business Week and the managing editor of CNBC, the cable TV

About Real Clear Arts

This blog is about culture in America as seen through my lens, which is informed and colored by years of reporting not only on the arts and humanities, but also on business, philanthropy, science, government and other subjects. I may break news, but more likely I will comment, provide

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