Highbrow Magazine - Photography & Art https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/photography-art en Marta Minujin Is a Tsunami of the Art World https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/24523-marta-minujin-tsunami-art-world <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/photography-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Photography &amp; Art</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Fri, 03/15/2024 - 18:32</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1minujin.jpg?itok=AWm98sNj"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1minujin.jpg?itok=AWm98sNj" width="477" height="480" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Marta Minujín in Paris, with her first multicolored mattresses, 1963. Marta Minujín Archive. © Marta Minujín, courtesy of Henrique Faria, New York and Herlitzka &amp; Co., Buenos Aires.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Some artists make a splash from their first entrance. With enough talent, timing, and tenaciousness it’s almost a given. In the case of Argentinian-born Marta Minujin, she possesses all those attributes and more. Over a six-decade career that embraced soft post-war soft sculptures, large-scale fluorescent paintings, psychedelic drawings, and pioneering pop art performances, she has collided head-on with her critics. She was and remains, without exaggeration, a human tsunami of the art world.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Thanks to impeccable timing and foresight, the <a href="https://thejewishmuseum.org/press/press-release/marta-minujin-press-announcement" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">Jewish Museum</a> has mounted the first major survey exhibition of this Latin American artist. <em>Marta Minujin: Arte! Arte! Arte!</em> includes nearly 100 works drawn from the artist’s archives in Buenos Aires as well as private and institutional collections. With eye-popping precision, the exhibit charts not only her early experiments and ephemeral happenings in her home country but time spent in Paris, New York, and Washington, D.C. It’s a whirling kaleidoscope of delight.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2minujin.jpg" /></p> <p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><span style="font-size:16px">Marta Minujín, AMANACER EN PATAGONIA (SUNRISE IN PATAGONIA). 2012. Acrylic and tempera on hand-cut mattress fabric strips glued with vinyl adhesive on canvas. 94½ × 94½ in. (240 × 240 cm). Collection of the artist. © Marta Minujín, courtesy of Henrique Faria, New York and Herlitzka &amp; Co., Buenos Aires.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Born in 1943, her indomitable spirit and irreverent in-your-face response to authority was shaped early on as her native Argentina seesawed between democracy and dictatorship. By the time she was 25—despite a brutal military junta that held sway until 1983—she was caught up in an explosion of arts in the culture. Her cry of “Arte! Arte! Arte!” resounded across continents.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">One of the earliest works on display is a vibrant abstract painting inspired by <em>Vivaldi’s Four Seasons</em> (1959). One of three such works based on classical music, Minujin soon moved away from painting’s formalism, only to return later with the vibrancy of color as a signature element.  </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/3minujin.jpg" /></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Marta Minujín, Colchón (Mattress), 1964, restored in 1985, acrylic, tempera, and lacquer on mattress fabric with foam rubber, 59 × 34¼ × 21¼ in. (150 × 87 × 54 cm). Collection of Jorge and Marion Helft, Buenos Aires. © Marta Minujín, courtesy of Henrique Faria, New York and Herlitzka &amp; Co., Buenos Aires.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">An early ‘60s example of the use of color is evidenced in her mattresses. Fluorescent stripes cover foam-rubber biomorphic shapes. Her core interest in mattresses is explicit in this quote from the exhibit: “Half of your life takes place on a mattress. You are born, you die, you make love, you can get killed on the mattress. That’s why mattresses are so important.” The medium has remained an obsession with such works as <em>Soft Maze</em> from 2010, the fabric splayed with neon bars.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Her Paris years became the site of inflammatory performances where the ephemerality of her creations was the whole idea. With <em>The Destruction</em>, fellow artists like Niki de Saint Phalle and others were invited to cut and manipulate her shapes that were then set on fire so they would not end up in “cultural cemeteries.”  A digital slideshow reproduces one of these events. The counter-culture movement in the mid-60s in New York inspired her to return to Buenos Aires, introducing the music of Jim Hendrix and Janis Joplin, along with psychedelic projections and black lights, to the uninitiated.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/4minujin.jpg" /></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Marta Minujín inside Implosion!, Pinacoteca de São Paulo, 2023. Photograph by Beto Assem. Courtesy Marta Minujín Archive.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Another series of photos pairs the artist with Andy Warhol in a playful vignette, wherein the two sit surrounded by ears of corn, “the Latin American Gold” to symbolize the means whereby Argentina could repay its loans to the U.S. Another later performance piece, performed in New York City in 1977, uses boxes of grapefruits strewn about the space by bucket-headed actors. Under a heading of “Agricultural Art in Action,” it raises the age-old question, “But Is It Art?”  It is fairly certain that such issues were of little or no concern to the artist then or now.  </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Rejection was second nature to Minujin. While living in Washington in the early ‘70s, her paintings resurfaced in a <em>Frozen Sex</em> series using a pink, red, and violet palette. Though her giant semi-abstract shapes seem harmless by today’s standards, in Argentina, the same exhibit was shut down by the police three hours after its opening.  </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/5minujin.jpg" /></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Marta Minujín, Sin título (Untitled), 1974, from the series Frozen Sex, 1973–75, acrylic on canvas, 50 × 50 in. (127 x 127 cm). Collection of Ama Amoedo. © Marta Minujín, courtesy of Henrique Faria, New York and Herlitzka &amp; Co., Buenos Aires.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">If rejection was one thing, risk taking with expansive public installations was another one entirely.  After the fall of Argentina’s dictatorship, she installed <em>The Parthenon of Books </em>in the heart of Buenos Aires, comprising more than 20,000 publications banned by the military, and redistributed to the public at the exhibit’s close. In 2017, on the original site of a Nazi book burning in Kassel, Germany, she restaged the work. On the back wall of this exhibit, rows of banned books are on display as a reminder of such consequences to the culture.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">In a more philosophical turn, toppling public monuments on their side was another way to diminish the power of the vertical in architecture. Bronze reproductions of the Statue of Liberty, a fragmented Venus de Milo and even Big Ben came under her scrutiny. In 2021 a half-size horizontal replica made of books called <em>Big Ben Lying Down</em> was exhibited in Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester. Once again, visitors were allowed to destroy the sculpture by taking away the books.  </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/6minujin.jpg" /></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Marta Minujín, La Torre de Babel con libros de todo el mundo (The Tower of Babel with Books from All over the World), Buenos Aires, 2011. Photograph. Marta Minujín Archive. © Marta Minujín, courtesy of Henrique Faria, New York and Herlitzka &amp; Co., Buenos Aires.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">A separate lighthearted installation pulls the viewer inside an enclosure tent, where psychedelic colors assault the senses on walls, floor, and ceiling. This total immersion is a dizzying experience for the older set but during my visit, a young boy, accompanied by his mother, seemed totally at home in this Alice in Wonderland world. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">A video from the artist’s performances in her studio demonstrate the same irreverence and sense of fun. During the Covid quarantine, she donned various masks, human and animal, as well as one of her familiar jumpsuits, cavorting in front of the camera for her Instagram fans.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/7minujin.jpg" /></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Marta Minujín and Andy Warhol, El pago de la deuda externa argentina con maíz, “el oro latinoamericano” (Paying Off the Argentine Foreign Debt with Corn, “the Latin American Gold”), the Factory, New York, 1985 / 2011, Chromogenic color print, 36 3/8 × 39 1/4 in. (92.4 x 99.7 cm). Collection of the artist. © Marta Minujín, courtesy of Henrique Faria, New York and Herlitzka &amp; Co., Buenos Aires.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Fearlessness remains a byword for artists like Minujin. She and other contemporaries like Judy Chicago and the Serbian performance artist Marina Abramovic make no apologies for where their artistic journeys may take them. Minujin’s maxim that “Everything is art” has sustained her well. Whether her audience embraces such an egalitarian philosophy or not is hardly the point. She wakes us up from a comfortable sleep, like that insistent rooster in the farmyard, and isn’t that what it’s all about? </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/8minujin.jpg" /></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Marta Minujín, Untitled drawing from the X×Y series, 2019-23, marker and pencil, 16 9/10 x 22 2/5 in. (43 x 57 cm). Collection of the artist. © Marta Minujín, courtesy of Henrique Faria, New York and Herlitzka &amp; Co., Buenos Aires.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>Marta Minujin: Arte! Arte! Arte! is on view at the <a href="https://thejewishmuseum.org/press/press-release/marta-minujin-press-announcement" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">Jewish Museum</a> through the end of March 2024. (All images are courtesy of the museum.)</em></strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Author Bio:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>Sandra Bertrand is</em> Highbrow Magazine’s <em>chief art critic.</em></strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>For Highbrow Magazine</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/marta-minujin" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">marta minujin</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/jewish-museum-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the jewish museum</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/art-exhibits" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">art exhibits</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/minujin-exhibit" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">minujin exhibit</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/argentinian-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">argentinian art</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-york-art-exhibits" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">new york art exhibits</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/contemporary-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Contemporary art</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/arte-arte-arte" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">arte arte arte</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/latin-american-artists" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">latin american artists</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Sandra Bertrand</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-videos field-type-video-embed-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> <div class="embedded-video"> <div class="player"> <iframe class="" width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/tTNO_majYNE?width%3D640%26amp%3Bheight%3D360%26amp%3Bautoplay%3D0%26amp%3Bvq%3Dlarge%26amp%3Brel%3D0%26amp%3Bcontrols%3D1%26amp%3Bautohide%3D2%26amp%3Bshowinfo%3D1%26amp%3Bmodestbranding%3D0%26amp%3Btheme%3Ddark%26amp%3Biv_load_policy%3D1%26amp%3Bwmode%3Dopaque" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> </div> </div> </div></div></div> Fri, 15 Mar 2024 22:32:20 +0000 tara 13108 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/24523-marta-minujin-tsunami-art-world#comments Kay WalkingStick: A Native-American Artist for the Ages https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/24450-kay-walkingstick-native-american-artist-ages <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/photography-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Photography &amp; Art</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Wed, 01/31/2024 - 16:00</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1walkingstick.jpg?itok=zZ2uivi7"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1walkingstick.jpg?itok=zZ2uivi7" width="480" height="360" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">History has shown that being an artist and a woman is no easy task. And being a woman and an artist <em>and </em>of biracial Cherokee-Scottish heritage is a mountainous undertaking on the road to success. Lucky for us, at 88, Kay WalkingStick is still up to the challenge—she has proven she can move mountains and seas and everything in between with the stroke of a brush.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The current exhibition at the New York Historical Society, <em>Kay WalkingStick/Hudson River School, </em>puts contemporary paintings from WalkingStick’s six-decade career in a vital and lively conversation with the museum’s signature landscapes by Cole, Bierstadt, Durand, and John Frederick Kensett, among others.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Such a dialogue can be both harmonious and divergent. Wendy Nalani E. Ikemoto, the museum’s senior curator of American art and a Native Hawaiian, has said that she wanted to see their collection of Hudson River School paintings through WalkingStick’s own eyes.  </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2walkingstick.jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">One of the most moving and majestic paintings of the artist’s is <em>Farewell to the Smokies (Trail of Tears) </em>2007. It is a powerful diptych with a bare-bones depiction of monolithic peaks, contrasted with the departing hordes of the “five civilized tribes,” the human element in smaller scale across the bottom of the canvas. The predominating colors of the land are lush browns and greens, but the figures are almost invisible in their gray and ghostly shades.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The accompanying wall notes reveal that the artist, though born and raised in New York, felt the pull of her Cherokee ancestral land the first time she drove through the present-day Carolinas and Tennessee. In WalkingStick’s words, “It’s about the traumatic experience of leaving home—leaving this beautiful home.” The Trail of Tears is a reference to approximately 60,000 Native Americans that were forcibly exiled from their homeland after the Indian Removal Act in 1830.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/3walkingstick.jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">A welcome inclusion in the exhibit is <em>Four Portraits of North American Indians</em> (1859) by Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902).  Known for his expansively rendered landscapes, these oil sketches are sensitively done during a trip he made through what was then Nebraska and Oregon territory. The belief at the time was that these indigenous cultures would disappear from the earth as a result of the white man’s Manifest Destiny.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Jesse Talbot’s <em>Indian on a Cliff</em> (ca 1840s) is another rare portrait wherein the artist manages to idealize his subject—an iconic Native figure gazing across the vastness of his territory. Talbot was a member of the Foreign Missionary Society, which opposed the government’s Indian Removal policies.  </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/4walkingstick.jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">A crowd-pleaser central to the exhibit is WalkingStick’s <em>Niagara</em> (2022).  Here, the artist puts the viewer at the brink of the falls, the water spilling across the twin panels, as much a majestic interpretation in its modernism as the earlier famed Realistic School. The Haudenosaunee pattern she imposes celebrates the original inhabitants. It would be hard to find a landscape more celebrated by white artists as “America,” but Walkingstick reclaims it with her indigenous markings.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">What is the deeper reasoning behind these patterns upon landscape paintings that could well stand on their own?  The explanation is simple. The artist is merely reasserting an indigenous presence, long erased in European settlers’ depictions of North America as a pristine and unpopulated wilderness.  An informative and striking addition to the exhibit is a stoneware jar by Mohawk potter Steve Smith. Its Haudenosaunee pattern inspired the design WalkingStick used in <em>Niagara</em>.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">A Louisa Davis Minot painting from 1818 is dotted by miniscule indigenous figures as identity markers hovering about the borders of the falls in her interpretation, but WalkingStick has replaced such stereotypes in her panels with the Haudenosaunee pattern.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/5walkingstick.jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">In <em>Saint Mary’s Mountain</em> (2011), a geometric pattern prevails, inspired by Northen Cheyenne beadwork over the base of the mountain in present-day Montana. The pattern cleverly echoes the white-bordered lavender band running across the upswept mountain ridges, becoming an integral part of the composition.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">In <em>July Low Water</em> (2010), WalkingStick gives equal weight to each portion of the picture plane, resulting in a certain flatness that rejects depth in favor of a happy, geometric pattern of color.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">These mature landscape depictions hardly belie a mastery of other artistic forms. With <em>Vermont Studio Center Creek III</em> (1995), a striking abstraction on display, the artist sat in the middle of the river and mixed its water with sumi ink, replicating the rhythmic flow of her subject. Nearby, Asher B. Durand’s <em>Catskill Study, NY</em> (ca 1870) is a plein air work capturing the Northeastern region but with the objective of representing faithfully the subject, not “merely resembling it” in his words. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/6walkingstick_0.jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">With such a rich panoply of artworks on display, it’s easy to be distracted from the long and impressive artistic trail of WalkingStick that precedes this single exhibition.  Admittedly, this “dialogue” between the centuries is an illuminating effort, but it is WalkingStick’s own commitment to the natural world and affinity to her racial heritage in her art that stands out. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Discouraged from showing with other Native artists by an early dealer, WalkingStick disregarded the advice, continuing to paint. In 1973, at age 38, she started commuting to graduate school at Pratt in New York, where she shifted to painting abstractly and began to reconcile her biracial identity. She has shown consistently in group and gallery exhibitions, while neglected by powerhouse institutions -- until recently.  </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/7walkingstick.jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The major breakthrough changed in her eighth decade, with the opening of her career retrospective in 2015 at the <a href="https://americanindian.si.edu/explore/exhibitions/item?id=949" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">National Museum of the American Indian</a> in Washington, D.C.   “I had to come to terms with this idea that I am as much my father’s daughter as my mother’s,” she has said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Many of the country’s major art and cultural institutions have been rethinking their collections in an ongoing effort of reclamation of our diversified roots. This exhibition stands rather as a conversation between earlier depictions of the country’s arcadian wonderland from a white perspective and a contemporary Native American’s masterly and mature works. It’s an overdue exemplary tribute, and one that surpasses a merely “woke” nod to another indigenous artist.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">According to WalkingStick, “I hope viewers will leave the museum with a renewed sense of how beautiful and precious our planet is . . . [and] with the realization that those of us living in the Western Hemisphere are all living on Indian Territory.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/8walkingstick.jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>This exhibit is on view at the <a href="https://www.nyhistory.org/exhibitions/kay-walkingstick-hudson-river-school" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">New York Historical Society</a> through April 14, 2024. </em></strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Author Bio:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>Sandra Bertrand is</em> Highbrow Magazine’s <em>chief art critic.</em></strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>For Highbrow Magazine</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em><strong>Image Credits: Sandra Bertrand</strong></em></span></span></p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/kay-walkingstick" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Kay Walkingstick</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/kay-walkingstick-exhibit" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">kay walkingstick exhibit</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-york-historical-society" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">new york historical society</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/hudson-river-school" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">hudson river school</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/native-american-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">native american art</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/native-american-artists" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">native american artists</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/american-indian-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">american indian art</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/trail-tears" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">trail of tears</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/native-americans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Native Americans</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cherokees" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">cherokees</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/art-exhibits" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">art exhibits</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Sandra Bertrand</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">In Slider</div></div></div> Wed, 31 Jan 2024 21:00:29 +0000 tara 12987 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/24450-kay-walkingstick-native-american-artist-ages#comments Judy Chicago’s Story and More than 80 Others at the New Museum https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/24212-judy-chicago-s-story-and-more-80-others-new-museum <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/photography-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Photography &amp; Art</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Thu, 12/07/2023 - 11:17</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1judychicago.jpg?itok=4UxxuOsE"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1judychicago.jpg?itok=4UxxuOsE" width="360" height="480" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Judy Chicago gets the bigger picture. The current exhibit <em>Judy Chicago: Herstory </em>at the New Museum is a testament that existence is never simply about the self, no matter how star-studded one’s role in society.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">In Lauren O’Neill Butler’s excellent publication <em>Let’s Have a Talk: Conversations with Women in Art and Culture</em>, Chicago sustained herself by “understanding where I am and where we are in history. This isn’t about giving white middle-class career women more rights. This is about a fundamental change on our planet. And art is part of this larger struggle.” </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2judychicago.jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">This is a show of moving parts – the creative, ever-changing cycles of a restive, never totally satisfied artist with her successes. Through a constant exploration of mediums, she embodies the classic example of “going out on a limb” to achieve one’s aims.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">After completing her B.A. in 1962 and M.F.A. in 1964 at UCLA, she enrolled in auto-body school, not surprisingly the only woman among 250 male students. The series <em>Hoods </em>(1964-65) shows what real talent can do with aerosolized pigments. Her embellishments included hearts, genitals, ovaries, and butterflies, to name a few.  These objects became her own fender-benders to the Minimalist movement of the day.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/3chicago.jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Worth noting was her decision upon the opening of her 1970 solo exhibition at California State College, Fullerton, to change her name from Judy Gerowitz (her first husband’s) to Chicago (the city of her birth). No subtlety in this subjective switch to divest herself of names imposed through male dominance. A series of luminous round shapes, <em>Pasadena Lifesavers</em> in blue, red, and yellow express a growing female iconography in her work. Don’t be fooled by the titular suggestion. For Chicago, they represented the dissolving sensation of female orgasm.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Her mastery of auto-body spraying wasn’t the only male-dominated practice she embraced. Upon entering the gallery room of pyrotechnic imagery, the viewer is assailed by a series of performance works (<em>Atmospheres </em>1968-74) -- photographs and films carried out using smoke machines, road flares, and the like across the Southern California landscape. In one example, <em>Goddess with Flares</em>, the artist has no qualms about playing with fire to reach her creative aims.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/5judychicago.jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">To address the marginalization in art schools many women felt, Chicago established the Feminist Art Program at Fresno State College in 1970. When it was moved to the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, one of its groundbreaking offshoots was “Womanhouse” set in a dilapidated Hollywood mansion combining performance installation and craft techniques to express women’s experiences. A growing visual vocabulary began emerging, which is exemplified in her <em>Through the Flower</em> series.  These acrylic sprayed canvases are stunning, boldly fashioned works that pull the viewer inside a whirling vortex of imagery.  A term was developed by the group apropos of these biomorphic shapes: “central core.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>The Creation</em> (1984) and <em>Earth Birth</em> (1983) are eye-catching examples of the use of fabric in quilting and weaving to achieve her ends. These were collaborations with skilled artisans to achieve the magnitude of her ends.  </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/6judychicago.jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">In her <em>Power Play</em> series, the issue of masculinity as a destructive social construct is explored. Chicago had traveled to Italy in 1982 and drawing from Renaissance nude painting, she formed a technique of acrylic underpainting topped by oil on Belgian linen, which puts her fury at male subjugation of women in full play.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">If anger plays its part in some of Chicago’s most blatant imagery, the <em>Extinction</em> suite puts her compassion for the death of entire species front and center. Her eco-feminist view demands a close look at the brutality against nonhuman life. This is no better exemplified than in <em>The End</em>, a sculpture centerpiece that seems to embody mammals and sea creatures sinking into the abyss.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/7judychicago_0.jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Such an output of subjective, yet socially conscious works seems to indicate that Judy Chicago wanted to take on the world through her art. And that’s pretty accurate. We mustn’t forget that this is the same woman who debuted <em>The Dinner Party</em> at the San Francisco Museum of Art in 1979. This massive triangular table of 39 place settings, each representing a historical female figure from Sappho to Sojourner Truth, created an explosive debate across the entire modern art landscape. For some critics, these vulvic painted plates were labeled as “porn” and “kitsch,” outraging the sensibilities of its time. (After decades of petitioning by legions of feminists, plus the efforts of Elizabeth Sackler and the Brooklyn Museum trustees, the work found a permanent home at that institution.) </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">You remember I said this was an exhibition of moving parts. No better example is this cosmos of artworks, documents, and objects from the multitude of women artists down the ages who have inspired Chicago. She has said, “If you bring Judy Chicago into the museum, you bring women’s history into the museum.”  And the New Museum has done just that. Its fourth-floor exhibition space is given over to “The City of Ladies.”  Many of the names need little explanation; others will be encountered for the first time. A handy pamphlet with a rollcall of bios is a take-home bonus. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/8judychicago.jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">In addition to an installation featuring Chicago’s own embroideries, sculptures, drawings, and carpet designs, archival materials from more than 80 women artists, writers, and cultural figures abound. From Artemisia Gentileschi to Hilma af Klimt, Emily Dickenson, Kathe Kollwitz, Remedio Varos, Djuna Barnes, Martha Graham, Simone de Beauvoir, Frida Kahlo, Augusta Savage, and Georgia O’Keeffe, the list goes on and on -- an homage to the lives of those who left an indelible mark on a Midwest girl from Chicago, a woman<em> </em>who has become an indisputable force for artists everywhere.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The takeaway for this reviewer is simply that this show is greater in its display of female artistic genius than the sum of its parts. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>Judy Chicago: Herstory is on view at the New Museum through March 3, 2024.</em></strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Author Bio:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>Sandra Bertrand is</em> Highbrow Magazine’s <em>chief art critic.</em></strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>For Highbrow Magazine</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>Photo credits: Sandra Bertrand; Donald Woodman (<a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Judy_Chicago_with_flight_hood.jpg" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">Wikipedia</a>, Creative Commons).</em></strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/judy-chicago" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">judy chicago</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-museum-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the new museum</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/contemporary-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Contemporary art</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/american-artists" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">american artists</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/feminist-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">feminist art</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-exhibits" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">new exhibits</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Sandra Bertrand</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">In Slider</div></div></div> Thu, 07 Dec 2023 16:17:04 +0000 tara 12840 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/24212-judy-chicago-s-story-and-more-80-others-new-museum#comments Artist Graham Moore Draws Inspiration From Mid-Century Modern, Vintage Styles https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/24192-artist-graham-moore-draws-inspiration-mid-century-modern-vintage-styles <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/photography-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Photography &amp; Art</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Wed, 11/22/2023 - 14:41</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1moore.jpg?itok=Dwhj9ITd"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1moore.jpg?itok=Dwhj9ITd" width="480" height="480" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><a href="https://gallery30south.com/graham-moore-2023/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Gallery 30 South</a> is currently presenting the works of artist Graham Moore.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The clean, simple lines of mid-century modern design and the cool sounds of West Coast jazz and Bossa Nova Blue Note minimalist record cover artworks of the 1950s – 60s. The Abstract Classicists with their hard-edge painting style using bold lines, organic shapes, and textures. Vintage fashion and photography and classic cars. Pop Art, Constructivism and Suprematism. These are just a few ideas and movements that inspire Graham Moore’s collages. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2moore.jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Max Ernst described collage as “<em>the noble conquest of the irrational, the coupling of two realities, irreconcilable in appearance, upon a plane which apparently does not suit them,</em>” but looking at Moore‘s collages, one can’t help but see all elements in such an intuitive way that it’s hard to imagine them not being juxtaposed. Indeed, his record cover collages are a thrift-store upcycle that elevates discarded nostalgia into fine art.<br /> <br /> Moore studied at the Wimbledon School of Art and then the East Ham College of Technology (the school that launched the careers of Gerald Scarfe, Ralph Steadman, and Alexander McQueen) eventually landing an instructor gig at Pasadena’s Art Center College of Design. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/3moore.jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">His work can be found in several museum and private collections, and he continues to teach and work in the community outreach programs with non-professional artists and students from at-risk environments.   </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/5moore.jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>For more information about Graham Moore and the artworks featured here, please contact <a href="https://gallery30south.com/graham-moore-2023/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Gallery 30 South.</a></em></strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Highbrow Magazine</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/graham-moore" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Graham Moore</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/artist-graham-moore" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">artist graham moore</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/mid-century-modern" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">mid-century modern</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/vintage-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">vintage art</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/collages" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">collages</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/contemporary-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Contemporary art</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/gallery-30-south" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Gallery 30 South</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">The Editors</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">In Slider</div></div></div> Wed, 22 Nov 2023 19:41:01 +0000 tara 12803 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/24192-artist-graham-moore-draws-inspiration-mid-century-modern-vintage-styles#comments Manet/Degas: A Tempestuous Love Affair at the Met https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/24150-manetdegas-tempestuous-love-affair-met <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/photography-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Photography &amp; Art</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 10/23/2023 - 15:16</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1manet-degas.jpg?itok=7vJq8SiK"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1manet-degas.jpg?itok=7vJq8SiK" width="353" height="480" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">If there’s any validity to the adage that opposites attract, artists Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas are a perfect example. From a fortuitous encounter at the Louvre, through decades-long connections between families and friends, they shared an artistic rivalry and respect that reached beyond death itself. The Manet/Degas exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a testament to that relationship.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Through more than 160 paintings and works on paper, visitors can compare the selections of these two great Impressionists and decide for themselves just how deeply they were influenced by one another. Manet, born January 23, 1832, and Degas, July 19,1834, were the eldest sons of upper middle-class Parisian families. But in looks and temperament, all similarity ends.  </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2manet-degas.jpg" style="height:532px; width:670px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Manet, by his early 30s, was boisterously confident and seductive, with receding golden hair and deep-set eyes. Degas, the son of a Neapolitan banker, inherited the dark, soulful eyes of his Creole mother. Both men enjoyed the bustling café life, with Degas known for his dry wit, though essentially a loner. Manet, on the other hand, attracted adoration and easy liaison opportunities from his models. Degas was never quite at ease with women. He believed the artist must live apart. Sue Roe, in her excellent book, <em>The Private Lives of the Impressionists</em>, quotes Degas as remarking “I’d rather keep a hundred sheep than one outspoken girl.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The exception to Degas’ reticence with the female sex was Mary Cassatt. At 28, she was accepted by the Salon. A wealthy Philadelphian, she was not conventionally pretty but impeccably dressed, approaching her work with the same discipline that Degas expected of himself. Though presumably a celibate relationship, he shared a great respect and friendship with her. Included in this exhibit is a painting of Mary with her sister at the Louvre, <em>Visit to a Museum</em>.  She strikes an imperious pose, with unmistakable flair.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/3manet-degas.jpg" style="height:670px; width:497px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">A highly popular draw within 13 sections of this massive comprehensive exhibit is the side-by-side portraits of café life. With <em>In a Café (The Absinthe Drinker)</em>, Degas has placed his dissolute model, the actress Ellen Andree, alongside her downtrodden male partner.  It’s a pose of urban isolation. Manet’s <em>Plum Brandy</em> (1877) focuses on the same model, both artists using the identical setting at the Nouvelle-Athenes.  At close inspection, Manet’s solitary young woman is more whimsical and distracted than desolate.  </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Such unresolved expressions were often the case with Degas’ portraits.  A perfect example can be found in a painting Degas did of Manet in a languorous pose while listening to his wife Suzanne playing the piano. Manet reciprocated with a small still life of prunes. Awhile later, visiting the Manets, Degas found his painting slashed, Suzanne now faceless. An ugly rift ensued between the two, which was eventually repaired.  </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The canvas, in its compromised state, is on display.  We may never know the answer.  Did Manet dislike the portrayal of his wife or simply the relaxed intimacy of the scene? </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/4manet-degas.jpg" style="height:458px; width:672px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Four drawings of Manet by Degas—two from the Musée d’Orsay and two from the Met—are reunited with rare, related etchings.  Degas’s recently conserved <em>Family Portrait (The Bellelli Family), </em><em>also</em> from the Musée d’Orsay, is a monumental painting of his severe-looking aunt and her two young daughters holding a prominent position, with their father on the sidelines. It’s a beautiful evocation of the group.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Another highlight, making its first appearance in the United States, is the groundbreaking <em>Olympia</em>. It was the <em>success de scandal</em> at the Salon of 1865, described as a “triumph of vulgarity.” Some felt it got past the jury as a variant of Titian’s <em>Venus of Urbino</em>.  A naked courtesan lies brazenly on her bed, attended by a Black servant and a black cat to boot, considered at that time a symbol of lewdness. Degas was represented by a small work on paper, <em>War in the Middle Ages</em>, but felt it was incorrectly described and hung, resolving he would do no more history paintings.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/5manet-degas.jpg" style="height:606px; width:670px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Yet another blatant example of Manet’s talent for shocking the public was his <em>Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe</em>, exhibited in 1863’s Salon des Refuses. His naked woman nonchalantly sits on a riverbank between two clothed men. The idea had been taken from classical works, the contemporary dress on the men making it all too real.  One-hundred and sixty years later, the Met’s audience on my viewing seemed just as intrigued, if no longer incensed.  </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">It's worth noting that one exhibit room is devoted to the role that Berte Morisot played in the lives of these artists. Berte and her sister Edma both exhibited landscapes the same year, and the Morisot family moved in the same circles as the Manets. It was inevitable that Manet and Degas would be taken by their beauty and talent.  </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/6manet-degas.jpg" style="height:670px; width:448px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Manet’s <em>Le Balcon</em>, a painting based on one of Goya’s, features a sulking yet stunning Morisot and two other friends. With the contrasting black and white touches, a signature style of Manet’s, it stands as a masterful work.  If it was Manet’s younger brother Eugene that Morisot would marry, her affection for Manet rarely wavered. The most charming depiction of her in the exhibit is <em>Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets</em>. It stands as a kind of love letter to his subject -- her eyes as recalled by poet Paul Valery, “almost too vast” -- Manet forgetting their greenish color and painting them pure black.  </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Portraiture from both men is well represented. Outstanding examples are Degas’ <em>The Old Italian Woman</em> (1867) from his sojourn in Italy, as well as Manet’s <em>The Spanish Singer</em> (1860), which was his Salon debut.  </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/7manet-degas.jpg" style="height:670px; width:486px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">This exhibition, in collaboration with the Musees D’Orsay and L’Orangerie, is so robust and comprehensive, each viewer will have to make his or her choices on where to focus. In addition to standout masterpieces by both artists, there are historical paintings, wartime depictions, beach scenes and seascapes, the latter luscious treats for any pair of eyes. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Degas’ colorful <em>Beach Scene</em> (1877) of a nanny combing a child’s hair displays a tenderness to please everyone.</span></span><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"> A later painting is presented in a patchwork state. Manet’s <em>The Execution of Maximilian</em>, in Degas’ possession after his friend’s death in 1883, was reassembled by the painter after it had been cut to pieces and dispersed. Evidence of Degas’ lasting affection for Manet can be found in the number of works he managed to accumulate after the loss of his friend.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Manet/Degas is an exhibition that emphasizes the indisputable role tht friendship—the human connection in a life—can play in great art.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Author Bio:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>Sandra Bertrand is</em> Highbrow Magazine’s <em>chief art critic.</em></strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>For Highbrow Magazine</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif"><strong><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,sans-serif">Image Sources (courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art):</span></span></strong></span></span></p> <ol> <li><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif">Edgar Degas, French, Paris 1834–1917 Paris<em> In a Café</em> (<em>The Absinthe Drinker</em>) 1875–76 Oil on canvas 36 1/4 × 26 15/16 in. (92 × 68.5 cm) Framed: 45 7/8 × 36 7/16 in. (116.5 × 92.5 cm) Musée d'Orsay, Paris (RF 1984)</span></span></li> <li> </li> <li><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif">Edgar Degas, French, Paris 1834–1917 Paris <em>A Woman Seated beside a Vase of Flowers</em> (Madame Paul Valpinçon?) 1865 Oil on canvas 29 x 36 1/2 in. (73.7 x 92.7 cm) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929 (29.100.128)</span></span></li> <li> </li> <li><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif">Edouard Manet, French, Paris 1832–1883 Paris <em>Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets</em> 1872 Oil on canvas 21 7/8 × 15 15/16 in. (55.5 × 40.5 cm) Framed: 28 1/8 × 22 5/8 in. (71.5 × 57.5 cm) Musée d'Orsay, Paris (RF 1998 30)</span></span></li> <li> </li> <li><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif">Edouard Manet, French, Paris 1832–1883 Paris <em>Olympia</em> 1863–65 Oil on canvas 51 3/8 × 75 3/16 in. (130.5 × 191 cm) Framed: 69 7/8 × 94 1/8 in., 264.6 lb. (177.5 × 239 cm, 120 kg) Musée d'Orsay, Paris (RF 644)</span></span></li> <li> </li> <li><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif">Edgar Degas, French, Paris 1834–1917 Paris <em>Monsieur and Madame Édouard Manet</em> 1868–69 Oil on canvas 25 9/16 × 27 15/16 in. (65 × 71 cm) Frame: 32 15/16 × 36 5/16 × 3 9/16 in. (83.7 × 92.2 × 9 cm) Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art (0-119)</span></span></li> <li> </li> <li><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif">Edouard Manet, French, Paris 1832–1883 Paris <em>Plum Brandy</em> ca. 1877 Oil on canvas 29 × 19 3/4 in. (73.6 × 50.2 cm) Framed: 34 1/2 × 25 1/4 × 2 1/4 in. (87.6 × 64.1 × 5.7 cm) National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon (1971.85.1)</span></span></li> <li> </li> <li><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif">Edouard Manet, French, Paris 1832–1883 Paris <em>The Balcony</em> 1868–69 Oil on canvas 66 15/16 × 49 3/16 in. (170 × 125 cm) Framed: 75 9/16 × 57 7/8 in., 136.7 lb. (192 × 147 cm, 62 kg) Musée d'Orsay, Paris (RF 2772)</span></span></li> <li> </li> </ol> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Calibri&quot;,sans-serif">         Cover Photo: </span></span>Edouard Manet, French, Paris 1832–1883 Paris <em>On the Beach</em>, Boulogne-sur-Mer 1868 Oil on canvas 12 3/4 × 26 in. (32.4 × 66 cm) Framed: 21 1/2 × 34 1/2 in. (54.6 × 87.6 cm) Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/edouard-manet" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">edouard manet</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/edgar-degas" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">edgar degas</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/manetdegas" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">manet/degas</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/art-exhibits" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">art exhibits</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/french-artists" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">french artists</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/metropolitan-museum-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the metropolitan museum of art</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-exhibits" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">new exhibits</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Sandra Bertrand</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">In Slider</div></div></div> Mon, 23 Oct 2023 19:16:19 +0000 tara 12693 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/24150-manetdegas-tempestuous-love-affair-met#comments John Hultberg’s Cinematic ‘Mindscapes’ Are Focus of New Exhibit https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/24139-john-hultberg-s-cinematic-mindscapes-are-focus-new-exhibit <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/photography-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Photography &amp; Art</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Wed, 10/18/2023 - 09:00</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1hultberg.jpg?itok=oasjwjz7"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1hultberg.jpg?itok=oasjwjz7" width="480" height="395" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><a href="https://anitashapolskygallery.com/newsite/current-exhibition/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">The Anita Shapolsky Gallery</a> &amp; AS Art Foundation are pleased to present <strong>John Hultberg -</strong> <strong>Painter of the In-Between</strong><em> </em><em>– </em>a show that continues a nearly four-decade relationship with the art of Hultberg. Also on display are works by Martha Jackson, Lynn Drexler, Michael Loew, William Manning, and Zero Mostel, all artists who crossed paths on Monhegan Island.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"> </span></span></p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2hultberg.jpg" style="height:486px; width:670px" typeof="foaf:Image" /><br />  </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The art dealer <strong>Martha Jackson</strong>, herself a painter, would champion the causes of many artists she admired, including <strong>Hultberg</strong>. In 1961, they traveled together to Monhegan Island. Hultberg was immediately taken by the place, which was reminiscent of where he grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. She assisted him in acquiring a home where he would spend much of the next 40 years, greatly influencing his oeuvre. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/3hultberg.jpg" style="height:525px; width:670px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Hultberg’s works are featured in 140 international institutions, including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery; Carnegie Institute Museum of Art; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museo Tamayo, Mexico; Smithsonian Institution; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Stedelijk Van Abbe Museum; Whitney Museum of American Art; and many others.<br />  <br /> Hultberg’s work is abstracted, yet his representational vistas and interiors suggest an almost cinematic or ‘graphic novel’ look. These ‘mindscapes’ hint at surrealist symbolist and metaphysical painting. As Hultberg explains, “I am a painter of the in-between.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"> </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/4hultberg.jpg" style="height:496px; width:670px" typeof="foaf:Image" /><br />  </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Lynne Drexler would marry Hultberg and together they would spend summers on the island. Drexler was inspired by the island's beauty, its community of artists, as well as her appreciation for colorists, notably Cézanne and Matisse. Her work has recently seen a surge in popularity.<br />  <br /> As a loose confederacy, Jackson, Drexler, Loew, Manning, and Mostel shared a sense of Hultberg’s ‘in-betweenness’. They were attracted to romantic notions of the rational world; however, they would filter their experience through an expressive existential prism. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/5hultberg.jpg" style="height:506px; width:670px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>For more information about John Hultberg and the artworks featured here, visit the </em></strong><a href="https://anitashapolskygallery.com/newsite/current-exhibition/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><strong><em>Anita Shapolsky Gallery</em></strong></a><strong><em>. </em></strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Highbrow Magazine</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/john-hultberg" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">john hultberg</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/anita-shapolsky-gallery" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">anita shapolsky gallery</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/american-artists" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">american artists</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/contemporary-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Contemporary art</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/abstract-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">abstract art</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/abstract-expressionism" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">abstract expressionism</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">The Editors</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">All images courtesy of the Anita Shapolsky Gallery</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">In Slider</div></div></div> Wed, 18 Oct 2023 13:00:18 +0000 tara 12683 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/24139-john-hultberg-s-cinematic-mindscapes-are-focus-new-exhibit#comments Inheritance: Searching Past, Present, and Future Identities at the Whitney https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/24159-inheritance-searching-past-present-and-future-identities-whitney <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/photography-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Photography &amp; Art</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Wed, 08/30/2023 - 11:29</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/2inheritanceexhibit.jpg?itok=EdXLotfB"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/2inheritanceexhibit.jpg?itok=EdXLotfB" width="360" height="480" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The poet Rio Cortez speaks of being “framed by our future knowing”— between our foremothers and the descendants we will never know. We have all experienced the sense of limbo, being caught between the past and the future, looking for a way to define our present selves.  Artists in particular are caught up in this journey through time and the need to interpret the path they take.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><a href="https://whitney.org/exhibitions/inheritance?section=1" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">The Whitney Museum of American Art</a> has done a commendable job of gathering an impressive array of artists who have taken on the challenge. Through painting, sculpture, photography, film, video, mixed media, and installation, these participants have left clues for us to follow them on their journeys. What better way to start than with the act of birth itself?  </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/3inheritanceexhibit.jpg" style="height:488px; width:650px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Artist Mary Kelly filmed herself at full-term pregnancy in<em> Antepartum</em> (1973). A prologue to a later exploration of motherhood she produced, the viewer watches a giant black-and-white Super 8 silent demonstration as the fetus moves under her skin. This imagery never ceases to create a sense of wonderment in the viewer. Denda McCannon’s <em>Pregnant Woman</em> (1977), a boldly detailed linoleum-cut collagraph, is just as eye-catching. The subject’s body profile and straight-on glance almost dare us not to look away.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The death of a parent is not an easy event to convey, and Maggie Lee’s video <em>Mommy</em> (2012-15) makes a laudable and touching attempt to show how a teenage daughter deals with the aftermath. Through a collage of sorting through rooms and miscellaneous objects—what to keep and what to discard—she provides a visceral reminder of what is lost and remembered.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/4inheritanceexhibit_1.jpg" style="height:527px; width:651px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The struggle of oppression, survival, and renewal is not lost on a number of these artists. <em>The Road </em>by Kevin Bensly<em> </em>is a massive slab sculpture that evokes the Great Migration<em>, </em>when millions of African Americans fled the rural South for urban opportunities in the North. Simple colorful iconography speaks volumes, with guinea fowl feathers, shoelaces, and other garments, including a ragged T-shirt that advises “soak in the sun” amidst blazing sunlight and a winding road filling one side. On the opposite side, the blackened cotton forma of a car and tire wheels present an industrial future.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Pat Phillips’s <em>The Farm</em> (2018) is an edgier work, with a row of three brown hands grasping hoes with a trio of blue-and-white sneakers framing the base of the painting -- with one pair placed on the museum floor below the canvas. A clever addition perhaps but the imagery in the painting can stand on its own. The title refers to both the Louisiana State Penitentiary (also known as Angola, after a former slave plantation) and the continuum of enslaved people.  </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/5inheritanceexhibit.jpg" style="height:650px; width:488px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The most beautifully rendered example of an answer to power can be found in <em>Strike</em> (2018) by Hank Willis Thomas. It holds a central position in one of the exhibition rooms—a stainless-steel sculpture with a mirror finish inspired by a lithograph in the museum collection. Although it references a unionized struggle of a black worker resisting a police officer’s nightstick, in its formidable elegance it speaks eloquently across the generations.  </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Ancestral homage in such an exhibition is its own raison d’etre, and the best example on display is John Outterbridge’s <em>The Elder, Ethnic Heritage Series</em> (1979). This Los Angeles-based artist draws on folk art that employs the iconography of totems, religious relics, and other devotional objects to convey the visual culture of the dispossessed.  His chosen figure lifts arms toward the sky—no words needed to convey its emotional staying power. Another homage to African ancestry can be found in Thaddeus Mosley’s <em>Repetitive Reference</em> (2020) depicting antelope headdresses made by the Bamana peoples of Mali. Though cast in bronze, it retains the texture of wood from this masterful wood carver.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/6inheritanceexhibit.jpg" style="height:650px; width:488px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Another distinctive homage to an indigenous people is <em>Red Exit</em> (2020) by Andrea Carlson. Rooted in the native mythology of the Ojibwe, it’s a gorgeous narrative of that culture. Her story’s imagery spans a linear grid with the most striking image -- that of a loon -- or Earth Diver in its V-shaped center.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Photography plays a decisive role in this exhibition, and there are many fine examples in solo as well as narrative works. Deana Lawson has made her mark in recent years, particularly in contemporary renditions of family and friends. In <em>The Garden, Gemena, DR Congo </em>(2015), she has reimagined The Garden of Eden. Little narrative if any is required to understand the tender moment caught between her nude subjects.  Also of note are the double exposure portraits, such as <em>I Am U</em> (1995) by Sophie Rivera, which manage to give a layered picture of two different children. This was part of a series by the artist who worked to change the negative postwar depictions she witnessed of her fellow Nuyoricans.  </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/7inheritanceexhibit.jpg" style="height:488px; width:650px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The title of the exhibition, <em>Inheritance</em>, was based on Ephraim Asili’s first feature-length film, a re-enactment of the Black Marxist collective, MOVE. This black liberation organization, founded in 1972, was bombed by the Philadelphia police in 1985 due to numerous complaints in the community. The film is presented in its entirety, and though most museumgoers will only experience it in brief segments, it serves as an example of how its filmmaker used his subject matter to explore what kind of organization can exist to uphold inherited freedoms within the society at large. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">This is an exhibition that raises a number of questions about how we as individuals respond to our world, given our highly individualized backgrounds, combined with our own hopes and dreams, within a constantly changing, uncertain future.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>The </em></strong><a href="https://whitney.org/exhibitions/inheritance?section=1" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline"><strong><em>exhibit</em></strong></a><strong><em> is on view through February 2024. </em></strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Author Bio:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>Sandra Bertrand is</em> Highbrow Magazine’s <em>chief art critic.</em></strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>For Highbrow Magazine</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Image Sources:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--All images courtesy of Sandra Bertrand.</em></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/inheritance-exhibit" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">inheritance exhibit</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/whitney-museum-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the whitney museum</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/mary-kelly" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">mary kelly</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/maggie-lee" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">maggie lee</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/pat-phillips" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">pat phillips</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/ephraim-asili" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">ephraim asili</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/thaddeus-mosley" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">thaddeus mosley</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/art-exhibits" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">art exhibits</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/contemporary-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Contemporary art</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Sandra Bertrand</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">In Slider</div></div></div> Wed, 30 Aug 2023 15:29:15 +0000 tara 12089 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/24159-inheritance-searching-past-present-and-future-identities-whitney#comments Georgia O’Keeffe at MoMA: A Closer Look at Greatness https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/24027-georgia-o-keeffe-moma-closer-look-greatness <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/photography-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Photography &amp; Art</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Fri, 06/16/2023 - 18:23</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1georgia.jpg?itok=voFbD811"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1georgia.jpg?itok=voFbD811" width="480" height="355" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><em><strong><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">--All images of artworks are courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art Press Office (see <a href="http://press.moma.org/exhibition/georgia-okeeffe/">here</a>.)  Top image: Georgia O’Keeffe. Evening Star No.III</span><span style="font-family:&quot;MoMA Sans&quot;,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">, 1917. Watercolor on paper mounted on board. 8 7/8 x 11 7/8″ (22.7 x 30.4 cm).</span></span><span style="font-family:&quot;MoMA Sans&quot;,Helvetica,sans-serif"> </span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Mr. and Mrs. Donald B. Straus Fund, 1958. © 2022 Georgia O’Keeffe Museum / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.</span></strong></em></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Defining greatness can be a dangerous thing. The public likes its celebrities—whether in the art world or the concert stage—signed, sealed, and delivered, the glossier the package the better. In O’Keeffe’s case, we get artist as hermit, a female legend who weathered well in the New Mexico sun over her 98 years, giving us cow skulls and closeups of erotically suggestive flowers that if they didn’t calcify her fame, cemented her reputation for all time.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Thanks to the current <a href="https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/5493" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">MoMA</a> exhibition, there’s another O’Keeffe worth considering.  This one is spirited, intuitive and filled with a wanderlust that serves her burgeoning young talents well. From her early days on Wisconsin farmland—a high school stint in Virginia, followed by the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League of New York, and a summer at Lake George, camping trips in Appalachia, and teaching stints in Texas and South Carolina--she was endlessly experimenting. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2georgia.jpg" style="height:650px; width:521px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p><em><strong><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Georgia O’Keeffe. No. 12 Special, 1916. Charcoal on paper. 24 x 19″ (61 x 48.3 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of The Georgia O’Keeffe Foundation, 1995. © 2022 The Museum of Modern Art / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.</span></span></strong></em></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Over 120 works, including examples from MoMA’s collection, demonstrate the ways in which O’Keeffe developed, repeated, and changed motifs that blur the boundary between observation and abstraction. And many of these works were completed by 1917, the year this fledgling artist turned 30.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Primarily works in graphite, charcoal, pastel, and watercolor dazzle the eye and demand a closer look. O’Keeffe was a natural colorist and <em>Red and Blue No. 1 </em>(1916) demonstrates a clash of color, the shocking prominence of shape confronting the viewer. No subtle depiction of subject here.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/3georgia.jpg" style="height:650px; width:435px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p><em><strong><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Georgia O’Keeffe. Special No.39, 1919. Charcoal on paper. 19 5/8 x 12 3/4″ (49.8 x 32.4 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of The Georgia O’Keeffe Foundation, 1995. © 2022 The Museum of Modern Art / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.</span></span></strong></em></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The same year, she exhibited at Alfred Stieglitz’s gallery “291” that became a paeon to modernism. One critic said he had never seen “a women expressing herself so frankly on paper. Her “burning watercolors” from Texas wowed the other members of the Stieglitz circle. Stieglitz named her the “spirit of 291” and fellow members Arthur Dove, John Marin, and Marsden Hartley were quick to agree.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The shifts in her moods played out in an almost lyrical sensuality. <em>Special No. 9</em> (1915), charcoal on cream paper, is titled <em>Drawing of a Headache</em>. One can feel the persistent tension, the onslaught of pain, like punctures in the brain. A series created during a camping trip, <em>Tent Door at Night</em> demonstrates an early obsession with detail that meets abstraction on its own terms. What exactly are we seeing?</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/4georgia.jpg" style="height:650px; width:478px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p><em><strong><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Georgia O’Keeffe. It Was Yellow and Pink III, 1960. Oil on canvas, 40 × 30″ (101.6 × 76.2 cm). The Art Institute of Chicago. Alfred Stieglitz Collection, bequest of Georgia O’Keeffe. © 2023 Georgia O’Keeffe Museum / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.</span></span></strong></em></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Composition, scale, and color have equal play in <em>House with Tree-Green</em> from 1918. It’s a hypnotic image, demonstrating an almost childlike treatment of her subject. The oversimplification of subject matter did not go unrecognized by Stieglitz as mentor and later husband. He was enthralled by what he saw as her unconscious, given full play in her art, and saw her persona, for better or worse, as exemplifying the woman-child.  These “songs of herself” she saw as being “as much yours as mine.” But it was a complicated union. Hers was a special power of sight enriched by her own womanly eroticism -- a pure, natural sexuality opposed to bourgeois repression. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Music played an ever-present role in her creations. “Words and I are not good friends at all,” she admitted, so she said she slaved away at the violin instead, trying to find its voice. Early teachers encouraged her to listen to music while composing her drawings, and she was receptive to that advice.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/5georgia.jpg" style="height:650px; width:515px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p><em><strong><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Georgia O’Keeffe. Over Blue, 1918. Pastel on paper, 28 × 22″ (71.1 × 55.9 cm). Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester. Bequest of Anne G. Whitman. © 2023 Georgia O’Keeffe Museum / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.</span></span></strong></em></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Her mastery of watercolor is on display in a series of nude self-portraits from 1917. The spontaneity and pooling of paint is remarkably fresh, especially considering she was alternately twisting herself about to get what she said she couldn’t get any other way.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">There are examples of her pastel work from 1922 that dramatize her fascination with nature at its most compelling. <em>Lightning at Sea</em> is filled with the gorgeous starkness she brings to her subject, admitting that “the skin is wearing off my fingers from rubbing.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/7georgia.jpg" style="height:650px; width:478px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p><em><strong><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Georgia O’Keeffe. Beauford Delaney, 1943. Pastel on paper, 15 1/4 × 11 1/2″ (38.7 × 29.2 cm). Myron Kunin Collection of American Art, Minneapolis. © 2023 Georgia O’Keeffe Museum / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.</span></span></strong></em></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Portraiture was not her strong suit, but her head portraits of her friend Beauford Delaney show an adeptness at creating such images if she was sufficiently persuaded.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"> Moving permanently to New Mexico in 1949 after 20 years of summering in her chosen home, she still felt the stirrings of wanderlust. Peru beckoned in 1956 and a trip around the world in 1959. These shifting perspectives of being in the air and on the ground appeared in later works, such as <em>It was Yellow and Pink II</em> (1959).</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Georgia O’Keeffe will undoubtedly continue to fascinate her viewers. Perhaps this exhibition will help her audiences recognize the importance of not pigeon-holing, such a prominent American painter recognized for her most popular images, but to look instead at the richness and diversity of a work of a lifetime.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/6georgia.jpg" style="height:650px; width:486px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p><em><strong><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Georgia O’Keeffe. Seated Nude XI, 1917. Watercolor on paper. 11 7/8 × 8 7/8″ (30.2 × 22.5 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Purchase, Mr. and Mrs. Milton Petrie Gift, 1981. © 2023 Georgia O’Keeffe Museum / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.</span></span></strong></em></p> <p> </p> <p><em><strong>--Cover photo of Georgia O'Keeffe: Source: Phillips. Author: Alfred Stieglitz (<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Georgia_O%27Keeffe_by_Stieglitz,_1918.png">Wikimedia.org</a>, Creative Commons)</strong></em></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Author Bio:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>Sandra Bertrand is</em> Highbrow Magazine’s <em>chief art critic.</em></strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>For Highbrow Magazine</strong></span></span></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/georgia-okeeffe" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Georgia O&#039;Keeffe</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/moma-exhibit" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">MoMa exhibit</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/alfred-stieglitz" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Alfred Stieglitz</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/american-artists" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">american artists</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/pastel" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">pastel</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/watercolor" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">watercolor</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/paintings" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">paintings</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/drawings" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">drawings</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Sandra Bertrand</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">In Slider</div></div></div> Fri, 16 Jun 2023 22:23:16 +0000 tara 11943 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/24027-georgia-o-keeffe-moma-closer-look-greatness#comments Avedon’s Centenary at the Met: Monumental Photomurals Take the Stage https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/23520-avedon-s-centenary-met-monumental-photomurals-take-stage <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/photography-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Photography &amp; Art</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Wed, 04/05/2023 - 10:53</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/avedon.jpg?itok=DXGJC8jk"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/avedon.jpg?itok=DXGJC8jk" width="360" height="480" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The first thing I noticed when entering the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s current show, <strong>Richard Avedon: MURALS,</strong> is the size of his subjects. Three monumental panels accost the eyes. Architects of the Vietnam War, their anti-war protestors, and members of Andy Warhol’s Factory surround the viewer, alternately imperious, engaging, indifferent, and in some instances, titillating in their nakedness.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">For those of us who cut our teeth on the big screen, all we have to do is conjure cinema’s heroes and heroines of yesteryear—Greta Garbo, John Wayne, Cary Grant, Sophia Loren, Audrey Hepburn—to realize their exaggerated place in the stratosphere of our imaginations. For Richard Avedon, capturing celebrity through his lens was second nature, so it’s fitting that such larger-than-life portrait stills and murals, the longest 35 feet, became an elemental part of his career.  </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">There is no hierarchy of size on display here. The 10-foot-high likes of Vietnam-era Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker, 60s activist Abbie Hoffman, and drag superstar Candy Darling all stare down at the viewer from their separate frieze collectives to dizzying effect. Where to look first?  One’s eyes bounce from one line-up to the next, the stark white walls accentuating the power of these black-and-white giants.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">This was no easy task. To achieve the desired effect, Avedon put his hand-held Rolleiflex aside for a tripod-mounted Deardorff 8x10 field camera. Quite a switch.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/1avedon.jpg" style="height:480px; width:600px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>Andy Warhol and members of The Factory, New York, October 30, 1969  </em></strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">This is the most wickedly playful of the three panels—a group tableau created at Warhol’s Factory over a period of months, with several outtakes on display over the span. A careful study on the left reveals filmmaker Paul Morrissey possessively placing his hand on the shoulder of the naked Joe Dellesandro and to the far right, Warhol positioned with his now clothed protegee behind him. In between these pictorial bookends, the Factory cast is assembled off-handedly, with the standout image a trio of naked male actors, coyly enacting Warhol’s version of Ruben’s <em>Three Graces</em>.  Even a casual glimpse reveals the nude and strikingly alluring Candy Darling with her own penis on display—still a disorienting image to this day.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">It’s interesting to note that Avedon has said his photographs don’t go below the surface; that the stripping of clothes doesn’t bring the onlooker closer to anything.  “I have great faith in surfaces. A good one is full of clues.” </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2avedon.jpg" style="height:367px; width:656px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>The Chicago Seven, Chicago, November 5, 1969</em></strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">These radical anti-Vietnam protestors face Avedon’s lens with all the vulnerability and uncertainty you might expect from a police line-up. The exception may be Abbie Hoffman, the most charismatic of the group. With his bad-boy locks, caught with his eyes shut, he seems impervious to the moment.  Conversely, Tom Hayden appears like the abject adolescent whose hand was just caught in the cookie jar.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">It's understandable Avedon chose to immortalize this group on such a scale.  Their combined actions and counter-culture visibility epitomized the anger of the times. And their indictment was the result of the newly passed Civil Rights Act of 1968, which made it a federal crime to cross state lines with the intent to cause a riot. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/3avedon.jpg" style="height:239px; width:650px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>The Mission Council, Saigon, South Vietnam, April 28, 1971</em></strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Avedon flew to Saigon at his own expense to photograph the ambassadors and counselors of the Vietnam conflict. It could have been a thankless undertaking, with but a few minutes to capture this crusty and expressionless lot. But posing General Creighton W. Adams front and center, the only one wearing  a uniform, speaks volumes.  Flanked by these grim, grey-suited columns of corporate authority, Adams was known as the general who replaced a ”search and destroy” agenda with “clean and hold.”  One can only imagine what a perfect subject Ukraine’s current champion president of his people would have been for the photographer.  </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">On the centenary of the photographer’s birth, it’s worth taking a look at the man behind the camera along with his myriad of accomplishments. Little wonder that many still think of him as the consummate celebrity photographer.  After an early stint at <em>Harper’s Bazaar</em>, followed by over 20 years at <em>Vogue</em>, he became the first staff photographer of the <em>New Yorker</em>, where his style of portraiture helped redefine the look of the magazine.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Even if Avedon’s beginnings in the Bronx were within breathing distance of the Big City lights, it wasn’t until he joined a Young Men’s Hebrew Association (YMHA) camera club at the age of 12 that photography entered his mind. Then WWII happened and he was assigned the role of Photographer’s Mate Second Class. “My job was to identity photographs. I must have taken pictures of one hundred thousand faces before it occurred to me, I was becoming a photographer."</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Such exposure to the face of war and its human costs, left an indelible impression. Certainly, many of his projects reflect a heightened social consciousness. His extensive work during the Civil Rights Movement, the <em>Rolling Stone</em> collective portrait, <em>The Family</em>—a closeup of the American power elite at the time of the 1976 Bicentennial—and the poignant study of his father Jacob Israel Avedon, have passed the test of time.  Major museum retrospectives have followed. The Museum of Modern Art mounted an in-depth examination in 1974 and the Metropolitan Museum of Art presented two important exhibitions in 1978 and 2002.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The art of Richard Avedon is set in countless silver gelatin prints for the world to see.  But what <em>do</em> we see exactly and how do we process it?  He has said that the camera lies all the time. But does it?  Any artist chooses what they want to write about or paint. The photographer chooses the moment. And in Avedon’s case, he’s left us the clues.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">All we must do is look carefully. And if we’re lucky, perhaps truth will emerge.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>Richard Avedon, MURALS runs through October 1, 2023, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.</em></strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Author Bio:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>Sandra Bertrand is</em> Highbrow Magazine’s <em>chief art critic.</em></strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>For Highbrow Magazine</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Image Sources:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Metropolitan Museum of Art</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Max Kiesler (</em><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/maxkiesler/4033383533" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline"><em>Flickr</em></a><em>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/richard-avedon" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">richard avedon</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/met" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the met</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/metropolitan-museum-art-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">metropolitan museum of art</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/avedon-show" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">avedon show</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-york-art-exhibits" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">new york art exhibits</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/photography" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">photography</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/abbie-hoffman" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">abbie hoffman</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/chicago-7" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">chicago 7</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/andy-warhol" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Andy Warhol</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/factory" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the factory</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/modern-photographs" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">modern photographs</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/portrait-photography" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">portrait photography</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/candy-darling" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">candy darling</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Sandra Bertrand</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">In Slider</div></div></div> Wed, 05 Apr 2023 14:53:11 +0000 tara 11783 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/23520-avedon-s-centenary-met-monumental-photomurals-take-stage#comments Brentwood Arts Exchange Showcases Traditions of African-American Quilting in New Exhibit https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/23409-brentwood-arts-exchange-showcases-traditions-african-american-quilting-new-exhibit <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/photography-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Photography &amp; Art</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 02/13/2023 - 21:03</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1freedomshow.jpg?itok=TCj4Rgkq"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1freedomshow.jpg?itok=TCj4Rgkq" width="479" height="480" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><a href="https://www.pgparks.com/1782/Brentwood-Arts-Exchange" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">The Brentwood Arts Exchange</a> is currently showcasing <em>FREEDOM: Selected Works From The Uhuru Quilters Guild</em>, a group exhibition, featuring the works of artists  Renee Anderson, Melba Brown, Phyllis Fagan, Cheryl Deene Hurd, Angela Lanier, Maxine Morgan, Tametha Morrow, Betty Phillips, Adrienne Randall, Sandra Schmidt, and Rose Swain.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">"Uhuru" means "freedom" in Swahili. The Uhuru Quilters Guild's mission is to promote the work and accomplishments of African-American quilters, while also preserving the tradition, culture, and history of quilting. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>FREEDOM</em></strong><strong> </strong>runs through April 22, 2023, with an opening reception on Saturday, February 18, from 5 - 8 p.m., and an Artist and Curator Talk on Saturday, March 25, 2023 from 2-4 p.m. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2freedomeshow.jpg" style="height:652px; width:663px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/3freedomshow.jpg" style="height:556px; width:652px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/4freedomshow.jpg" style="height:546px; width:655px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/5freedomshow.jpg" style="height:650px; width:657px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>For more information, visit the <a href="https://www.pgparks.com/1782/Brentwood-Arts-Exchange" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Brentwood Arts Exchange</a>.</em></strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>Images of featured artworks:</em></strong></span></span></p> <ol> <li><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>Renee Anderson</em></strong></span></span></li> <li><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>Angela Lanier</em></strong></span></span></li> <li><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>Cheryl Hurd</em></strong></span></span></li> <li><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>Maxine Morgan</em></strong></span></span></li> <li><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>Renee Anderson</em></strong></span></span></li> </ol> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Highbrow Magazine</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/renee-anderson" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Renee Anderson</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/melba-brown" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Melba Brown</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/phyllis-fagan" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Phyllis Fagan</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cheryl-deene-hurd" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Cheryl Deene Hurd</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/angela-lanier" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Angela Lanier</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/maxine-morgan" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Maxine Morgan</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tametha-morrow" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Tametha Morrow</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/betty-phillips" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Betty Phillips</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/adrienne-randall" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Adrienne Randall</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/sandra-schmidt" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Sandra Schmidt</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/and-rose-swain-uhuru-quilters-guild" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">and Rose Swain. Uhuru Quilters Guild</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/brentwood-arts-exchange" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">brentwood arts exchange</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/black-artists" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">black artists</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/quilting" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">quilting</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/quilters" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">quilters</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">art</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">The Editors</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">In Slider</div></div></div> Tue, 14 Feb 2023 02:03:47 +0000 tara 11671 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/23409-brentwood-arts-exchange-showcases-traditions-african-american-quilting-new-exhibit#comments