tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89182699628525541652024-03-06T14:22:22.772-05:00Art According to CaryMy Notes About Art |
I see art and beauty all around me and it's grand.Cary Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16722322392996778246noreply@blogger.comBlogger114125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8918269962852554165.post-89415668546406147322019-08-07T10:51:00.001-04:002019-08-07T10:53:34.330-04:00Shark Attack at The National Gallery of Art, Washington<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Watson and the Shark (1778)<br />John Singleton Copley<br />Oil on Canvas | 71 11/16 in. x 90 7/16 in.<br />National Gallery of Art, Washington</b></td></tr>
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As we fight the sweltering heat of summer and dream of cooling off in the refreshing waters of the ocean, I can't help but hear the dramatic music from the movie, <i>"Jaws."</i> Before each shark attack, that ominous sound begins to stir, knowing something evil is about to happen. When visiting the National Gallery of Art in Washington, you should seek out the painting, <i>"Watson and the Shark."</i> At nearly 6 feet high and 8 feet long, this giant depiction of a real-life event will make you squirm.</div>
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In 1749, 14-year-old Brook Watson, an orphan, had unwisely decided to take a dip from a skiff while the ship on which he was crewing docked in Havana Harbor. A shark attacked him, biting his right leg and pulling him under. The boy surfaced briefly before the shark dragged him under a second time, severing his right foot. By the time Watson surfaced again, his mates had nearly reached him. The painting depicts the boy’s climactic rescue: just as the shark zeroed in for its third strike, a determined crewmate armed with a boat hook drove it away. John Singleton Copley’s dramatic rendering of the shark attacking Watson caused a sensation when it was exhibited at London’s Royal Academy in 1778.</div>
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Copley, an American artist who moved to London amid the tensions of the Revolutionary War, here takes the pictorial representation of terror to new heights. The injured Watson’s deathly pale body rises from the depths, naked and vulnerable, with blood swirling around his leg. As the huge shark’s gaping jaws close in, Watson looks back in shock and grasps futilely for the lifeline cast by a West African crewman, whose prominent position in the picture and sympathetic rendering were extraordinary for the time. Two shipmates stretch desperately to reach the boy flailing in the turbulent waters.</div>
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Watson went on to have a successful business and political career and very likely commissioned the painting. He eventually bequeathed the painting of his adolescent triumph over adversity to a London school for disadvantaged youth, believing it would offer moral inspiration.</div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">Source: National Gallery of Art, Washington</span></div>
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Cary Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16722322392996778246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8918269962852554165.post-80024944408435451302019-03-05T13:03:00.001-05:002019-03-05T13:03:43.597-05:00Mary Cassatt | A Woman Among the Impressionists<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mary Cassatt was born into an affluent family in Pennsylvania on May 22, 1844. She studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, one of the country's leading art schools. In addition to having regular exhibitions of European and American art, the faculty at the Academy encouraged students to study abroad. In 1865 Cassatt approached her parents with the idea of studying in Paris. Despite their initial objections, Cassatt's parents relented and allowed her to go.</div>
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In Paris, Cassatt attended classes in the studios of the academic artists Jean Léon Gérôme and Thomas Couture. She also traveled extensively in Europe studying and copying old master paintings. In 1874 she settled permanently in Paris, where her work was regularly shown at the Salon, the annual government-sponsored exhibition. The following year she saw the pastel work of Edgar Degas, one of the leaders of the Impressionist movement, in a gallery window. Years later, Cassatt described the importance of this experience, <i>"I used to go and flatten my nose against the window and absorb all I could of his art. It changed my life. I saw art then as I wanted to see it." </i>Degas and Cassatt were close friends until his death in 1917.</div>
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Cassatt was one of a relatively small number of American women to become professional artists in the nineteenth century when most women, particularly wealthy ones, did not pursue a career. Her decision to study abroad reflects the strong character she displayed throughout her career. When Cassatt settled in Paris, an artistic revolution was already underway in France. Changes were occurring in the way that artists showed their work to the public, and in the freedom artists had to choose their own subjects and styles. Cassatt's career developed against the backdrop of these changes.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-size: 12.8px;">Mary Cassatt Self-Portrait (1880)<br />Gouache and watercolor over graphite on paper | 12 7/8 in. x 9 11/16 in.<br />Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC</b></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption"><b>The Loge (c. 1878-1880)<br />Oil on canvas | 31 7/16 in. x 25 1/8 in.<br />National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC</b></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption"><b>Little Girl in a Blue Armchair (1878)<br />Oil on canvas | 35 1/4 in. x 51 1/8 in.<br />National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC</b></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #cfe2f3;">Sources: National Gallery of Art, Washington, Washington, DC</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cfe2f3;"> Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC</span></div>
Cary Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16722322392996778246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8918269962852554165.post-14073104100577383862019-02-14T11:18:00.002-05:002019-02-14T11:18:29.460-05:00Walter Ellison's Train Station<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Train Station | 1935<br />Walter Ellison<br />Oil on Cardboard | 8 in. x 14 in.<br />The Art Institute of Chicago</b></td></tr>
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Walter Ellison’s <i><b>Train Station</b></i> depicts white and black travelers departing from a central terminal, bound for different cities. The composition reflects the social values of the time, which prevented members of the two races from mixing. On the left, white passengers board trains for vacations in the South, while on the right, African American passengers head for trains going to northern cities such as Chicago and Detroit. In those cities, black travelers hoped to find better jobs and living conditions.</div>
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The sign reading "colored" above the platform doorway on the right emphasizes the degrading conditions that African Americans in the South faced at the time. In the center section, black porters aid white passengers, yet black travelers are not offered any help.</div>
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Ellison himself boarded a train heading north from Macon, Georgia, joining the more than six million blacks who left their rural southern homes after World War I and during the Great Migration. Ellison traveled to Chicago, the nation’s industrial center, where migrants could find potential jobs in meatpacking and at rail and steel mills. Although discrimination was inescapable, the city offered acceptable schools, voting rights, and leisure activities. Once in Chicago, Ellison studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. During the 1940s, he was active in the South Side Community Art Center, which was sponsored by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Federal Art Project.</div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">Source: The Art Institute of Chicago</span></div>
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Cary Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16722322392996778246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8918269962852554165.post-40529917392923054732018-07-27T09:59:00.001-04:002018-07-27T09:59:54.657-04:00Dutch Marine Paintings at National Gallery of Art<div style="text-align: justify;">
The Dutch rose to greatness from the riches of the sea. During the seventeenth century they became leaders in marine travel, transport, commerce, and security as their massive cargo carriers and warships traversed oceans and their small vessels and fishing boats navigated inland and coastal waterways. Water was central to their economic and naval successes, but was also a source of pleasure and enjoyment. In the warm summer months, dune-covered beaches offered scenic vistas, while in the winter, frozen canals provided a place for people of all ages to skate, play, and enjoy the outdoors.</div>
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In a nation of sailors and skaters, it is no wonder that marine subjects became a favorite of seventeenth-century collectors and artists alike. Some painters delighted in capturing the marine environs in and around the Dutch coast. Others turned their attention to the activity of frozen canals on a wintry day. Many artists also depicted the open seas, including some who often sailed the seas themselves, rendered every imaginable vessel, from fishing boats and major transport ships to the great warships of the Dutch naval fleet, each formulating his compositions with extraordinary accuracy and attention to detail. At the same time, they also introduced atmospheric light effects and various weather conditions to bring life and drama to their scenes.</div>
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From quiet harbor scenes and frozen canals to fierce naval battles and wicked weather, water had an extraordinary impact on art of the Dutch Golden Age.</div>
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<b>Skating on the Frozen Amstel River (1611) </b></div>
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<b>Adam van Breen </b></div>
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<b>Oil on Panel | 17 7/16 in. × 26 3/16 in. </b></div>
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<b>National Gallery of Art, Washington</b></div>
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<b>Ships in Distress off a Rocky Coast (1667) </b></div>
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<b>Ludolf Backhuysen </b></div>
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<b>Oil on Canvas | 45 in. x 65 7/8 in. </b></div>
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<b>National Gallery of Art, Washington</b></div>
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Source: National Gallery of Art, Washington</div>
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Cary Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16722322392996778246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8918269962852554165.post-52202330795260949422018-04-04T15:52:00.000-04:002018-04-04T15:52:04.493-04:00Burghers of Amsterdam Avenue by Elaine de Kooning<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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For a major show of her portraits at Graham Gallery in April 1963, Elaine de Kooning created this enormous group portrait, seven feet high and fourteen feet long, painted with thin washes and bold strokes of bright color. It depicts nine young men, sitting and standing in a variety of poses, each with a distinct expression—quizzical, contemplative, resigned. </div>
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The painting references both Rodin’s bronze sculpture<i> The Burghers of Calais (1884–89)</i> (seen below) and seventeenth-century Dutch group portraits, such as Rembrandt's <i>The Night Watch</i> <i>(1642)</i> (also seen below). The title is a witty reference to the Netherlands and to Amsterdam Avenue in New York City. </div>
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Elaine found the subjects through her friend Sherman Drexler, who was teaching art at an experimental treatment center connected with Riverside Hospital for youths with drug addiction and psychological problems. Two of the men who appear in the portrait, suffering from addiction, had worked for Elaine as assistants in her studio. She told a friend that she had terrible fights with one of them because he stole jewelry from her. Ultimately, he died a horrible junkie's death in a flophouse a few years later.</div>
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When Elaine finished her painting, she started packing it up to take home, but the school principal, concerned about the privacy of the underage subjects, refused to let her take it. In a cunning move, she covered the students’ faces in the painting with acrylic to appease the principal, and when she got home, she simply wiped it off.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Rodin's The Burghers of Calais (1884–89)</b></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Rembrandt's The Night Watch (1642)</b></span></td></tr>
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<br /><span style="color: #cfe2f3;">Sources: Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC and <i>"A Generous Vision: The Creative Life of Elaine de Kooning" </i>by Cathy Curtis</span></div>
Cary Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16722322392996778246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8918269962852554165.post-65297914890282798462018-04-02T09:35:00.000-04:002018-04-02T21:29:44.216-04:00Keith Haring and The White House Easter Egg Roll<div style="text-align: justify;">
In 1988, the Reagan's invited artist Keith Haring to paint a mural at the Easter Egg Roll held annually on Easter Monday on the White House South Lawn. The final piece, measuring 8' x 16', was then donated to Children's National Medical Center in Washington, DC. A photographer capturing the event whispered to Haring, "what are <i>you</i> doing here?" He whispered back, "same thing <i>you</i> are"<span style="font-family: "palatino linotype" , serif; font-size: 11pt;">—</span>a reference to getting paid for being there. Sadly, the Reagan Administration never fully responded to the AIDS crisis, and Haring died two years later from AIDS-related complications.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmj6kcQCE3rIzwgqOO0ggyy7UIGm0s8P5sJjSDfAgf5kMxM51pstVdLfNpjbRez0n97iIY7k1MayBdulktZhSOnIOfdP0VJZv8rZD7pKaMXi9YLg4BTeeAxpewG6G8V9d4DtVTfFAqlVg/s1600/keith-haring-easter-white-house-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="348" data-original-width="500" height="443" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmj6kcQCE3rIzwgqOO0ggyy7UIGm0s8P5sJjSDfAgf5kMxM51pstVdLfNpjbRez0n97iIY7k1MayBdulktZhSOnIOfdP0VJZv8rZD7pKaMXi9YLg4BTeeAxpewG6G8V9d4DtVTfFAqlVg/s640/keith-haring-easter-white-house-1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Cary Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16722322392996778246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8918269962852554165.post-90993077244567584402018-03-30T12:22:00.001-04:002018-03-30T12:22:49.610-04:00Easter Monday by Willem de Kooning<div style="text-align: justify;">
Easter Monday, named for the day on which the painting was completed in 1956, is the largest of ten grandly scaled paintings de Kooning exhibited at Sidney Janis Gallery that spring. In his review of the exhibition in Artnews, critic Thomas Hess likened the works to "abstract urban landscapes;" indeed, in its highly textured surface, swooping lines of paint, and glimpses of newspaper transfers, Easter Monday seems to reference the whirling pace and gritty detritus of the modern city. The transferred newsprint, particularly visible at the bottom and top right, remains aligned with the canvas's edges, enforcing the tenuously grid-like structure of the painting. Shot through with Rubensian flesh-like pinks and vivid blues and yellow, Easter Monday is a tour de force of de Kooning's 1950s style.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Easter Monday (1955 – 56) <br />Willem de Kooning <br />Oil and newspaper transfer on canvas | 96 in. x 74 in. <br />The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #cfe2f3;">Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York</span></div>
Cary Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16722322392996778246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8918269962852554165.post-56835137225189493412018-02-17T23:27:00.002-05:002018-02-17T23:27:31.010-05:00Olympic Medals for Art<div style="text-align: justify;">
In the early days of the modern Olympics, artists battled for gold, silver, and bronze medals in architecture, sculpture, paintings and graphic arts, literature, and music. Art competitions were held at the Olympic games from 1912 to 1948. Winners of the art competitions were awarded medals, similar to the winners of the athletic competitions. The events were championed by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who felt that in order to recreate the events in modern times, it would be incomplete to not include some aspect of the arts.</div>
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At the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, American Walter Winans took the podium and waved proudly to the crowd. He had already won two Olympic medals—a gold for sharpshooting at the 1908 London Games and a silver for the same event in 1912. However, the gold he won at Stockholm wasn’t for sharpshooting, but instead for a small piece of bronze he cast earlier that same year, a horse pulling a small chariot. For his work, <i>An American Trotter</i>, Winans won the first ever Olympic gold medal for sculpture.</div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uLwcfsaoKSQ/Woj4EvO2uPI/AAAAAAAAP_0/Ed0-d82qWfUcwOjrB0lrPV0eunuYu32YACLcBGAs/s1600/O%2529lympics-Art-Winter-Sports-520.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="132" data-original-width="520" height="161" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uLwcfsaoKSQ/Woj4EvO2uPI/AAAAAAAAP_0/Ed0-d82qWfUcwOjrB0lrPV0eunuYu32YACLcBGAs/s640/O%2529lympics-Art-Winter-Sports-520.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Over the next several years, local audiences came out in numbers to see the sports-themed artworks. At the the 1932 Games in Los Angeles, nearly 400,000 people visited the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science, and Art to see the works entered, with some recognizable names in the competitions. John Russell Pope, the architect of the Jefferson Memorial, won a silver that year for his design of the Payne Whitney Gymnasium, constructed at Yale University. Italian sculptor Rembrandt Bugatti, American illustrator Percy Crosby, Irish author Oliver St. John Gogarty, and Dutch painter Isaac Israëls were other prominent entrants.</div>
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In 1940 and 1944, the Olympics were put on hold as nearly all participating countries became embroiled in World War II. Resuming in 1948, John Copley of Britain won one of the final medals awarded, a silver for his engraving, <i>Polo Players</i>. He was 73 years old at the time, and would be the oldest medalist in Olympic history (if his victory still counted). The 151 art medals awarded were officially stricken from the Olympic record and currently do not count toward official current medal counts.</div>
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Cary Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16722322392996778246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8918269962852554165.post-26000144785813540692018-01-31T17:17:00.000-05:002018-01-31T17:17:54.771-05:00Gertrude Stein on Comforts of the Past<div style="text-align: justify;">
In a 1934 interview, Gertrude Stein lamented that "people today like contemporary comforts, but they take their literature and art from the past. They are not interested in what the present generation is thinking or painting if it doesn't fit the enclosure of their personal comprehension. Present day geniuses can no more help doing what they are doing than you can help not understanding it, but if you think we do it for effect and to make a sensation, you're crazy. It's not our idea of fun to work for thirty or forty years on a medium of expression and have ourselves ridiculed."</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: small;">Gertrude Stein (1922)</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: small;">By Jo Davidson</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: small;">Terra Cotta</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: small;">Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery</span></b></div>
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<br />Cary Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16722322392996778246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8918269962852554165.post-71895477568256163202017-11-16T17:44:00.000-05:002018-02-15T09:50:24.665-05:00Peggy Guggenheim's Jackson Pollock Mural<div style="text-align: justify;">
When Jackson Pollock received the commission to create a mural for the entry to Peggy Guggenheim's new townhouse, she was eager to present in her home a symbol of support for the new American brand of art she was beginning to champion in her gallery. The choice of subject was to be his, and the size, immense—8' 1 1/4" x 19' 10", meant to cover an entire wall. At the suggestion of Guggenheim's friend and advisor Marcel Duchamp, it was painted on canvas, not the wall itself, so it would be portable. Pollock wrote of his commission that it was:</div>
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<i>"...with no strings as to what or how I paint it. I am going to paint it in oil on canvas. They are giving me a show November 16 and I want to have the painting finished for the show. I've had to tear out the partition between the front and middle room to get the damned thing up. I have it stretched now. It looks pretty big, but exciting as all hell."</i></blockquote>
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Pollock signed a gallery contract with Guggenheim in July 1943. The terms were $150 a month and a settlement at the end of the year if his paintings sold. He intended to have the mural done by the time of his show in November. However, as the time approached, the canvas for the mural was untouched. Guggenheim began to pressure him. Pollock spent weeks staring at the blank canvas, complaining to friends that he was "blocked," and seeming to become both obsessed and depressed. Finally, he painted the entire canvas in one frenetic burst of energy around New Year's Day of 1944—although the painting bears the date 1943. Pollock told a friend years afterward that he had had a vision: </div>
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<i>"It was a stampede...[of] every animal in the American West, cows and horses and antelopes and buffaloes. Everything is charging across the surface." </i></blockquote>
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Pollock's "vision" may have been a memory from his childhood in the American West. While there is some suggestion of figuration within <b><i>Mural</i></b>, its overall impact is that of abstraction and freedom from the restrictions imposed by figures.</div>
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A special installation in the National Gallery of Art’s East Building features Pollock's <b><i>Mural</i></b>, on loan from the University of Iowa Museum of Art. Also on view are paintings and works on paper by Pollock from the Gallery’s collection, including <b><i>Number 1, 1950 </i></b>(Lavender Mist) (1950). The installation marks the debut of <b><i>Mural</i></b> in Washington, DC.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-IEEMNskcl1d8tCeiRtXAiRpOi8XxBEIAyNaVDni6SjaEudnORWiEQfeT9HXfzwvmd_1zDo3PoZY9uoIqY-KNDrX2Y4cKY2U3W9Li6A_694zwdALuoh1EqzYOfBF8kMcDBTGJXpgchtA/s1600/banner-pollock_mural.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" data-original-height="310" data-original-width="768" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-IEEMNskcl1d8tCeiRtXAiRpOi8XxBEIAyNaVDni6SjaEudnORWiEQfeT9HXfzwvmd_1zDo3PoZY9uoIqY-KNDrX2Y4cKY2U3W9Li6A_694zwdALuoh1EqzYOfBF8kMcDBTGJXpgchtA/s640/banner-pollock_mural.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cfe2f3;">Sources: National Gallery of Art, Washington</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cfe2f3;"> University of Iowa Museum of Art</span></div>
Cary Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16722322392996778246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8918269962852554165.post-72379978077471763942017-08-04T11:08:00.001-04:002017-08-04T11:33:35.347-04:00American Prints of Urban Life | 1920–1950<div style="text-align: justify;">
American artists of the early twentieth century sought to interpret the beauty, power, and anxiety of the modern age in diverse ways. Some turned to abstraction borrowed from European modernism, but those represented in this exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, <b>The Urban Scene: 1920–1950</b>, took a realistic approach, manipulating light and shadow to create scenes imbued with vitality and imagination. These artists employed precise detail and descriptive clarity to characterize experience, suggest meanings, and convey a narrative. </div>
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The representation of twentieth-century urban life provided them endless opportunities to probe the modern human condition. The urban panorama offered unprecedented vistas. Skyscrapers, bridges, and other technological marvels projected wealth and opportunity, while the city’s towering forms invoked the sublime. Simultaneously, the streets and dwellings of the metropolis hosted life’s theater. Depictions of harmonious communities and workers suggest a utopian vision, whereas scenes of crowding, poverty, and hunger point to society’s ills and failures. The same buildings glorified from one perspective could be interpreted from another as blocking light, deepening shadows, and heightening a sense of enclosure and confinement.</div>
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The artists represented here chose their subjects, arranged their compositions, and scrutinized details to convey particular aspects of urban life. They used line to capture the specific features of a face or the unique character of a building, and tone to mimic the play of light — from great shafts of morning sunshine spilling onto avenues to the poetry of the city’s riverside at night with reflections in the water. By selectively emphasizing certain elements and minimizing others, images were distilled to their atmospheric or narrative essence. The best artists balanced specificity with ambiguity, drawing our attention to the fundamental while leaving open to interpretation the implied, the hidden, and the undefined. </div>
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During the past decade, the National Gallery of Art has added extraordinary collections of prints and drawings to its holdings, from the Reba and Dave Williams Collection to the Corcoran Collection and works donated and promised by Bob Stana and Tom Judy. This exhibition highlights some of these acquisitions and reveals how the Gallery’s American print holdings continue to develop, incorporating new artists as well as works that expand its view of printmakers already represented in the collection.</div>
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This exhibition is on view at the National Gallery of Art through Sunday, August 6.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgy5ffll5F2cZ_5CtPQBUXMgit_AwxkK3kU0W77m9-QSJ0FPofYYT3Qzv471-xTHVCUFmR7VwQErb8F9-JXkzTIVfYG2WM-XnaVNFrKzSHujA3jpgLG6dRLtIH4z3Yolxfkix1zDyORpA/s1600/4842-008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="421" data-original-width="583" height="460" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgy5ffll5F2cZ_5CtPQBUXMgit_AwxkK3kU0W77m9-QSJ0FPofYYT3Qzv471-xTHVCUFmR7VwQErb8F9-JXkzTIVfYG2WM-XnaVNFrKzSHujA3jpgLG6dRLtIH4z3Yolxfkix1zDyORpA/s640/4842-008.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><b>The People Work - Evening (1937)</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><b>Benton Spruance</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><b>Lithograph | 13 5/8 in. x 19 in.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><b>Quiet Hour (1947)</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><b>Stow Wengenroth</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><b>Lithograph | 8 3/4 in. x 15 in.</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">Source and Images: National Gallery of Art, Washington</span></div>
Cary Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16722322392996778246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8918269962852554165.post-83839432732037227612016-09-30T18:54:00.001-04:002017-08-04T11:47:00.139-04:00The Light of Truth | A New Museum on the National Mall<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ab_My2P3u2w/V-7RHs6RKQI/AAAAAAAAKUM/jM0n6q-fc_YdbO752DBptRI4dV3CmO79wCLcB/s1600/thumb%2B%25281%2529.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ab_My2P3u2w/V-7RHs6RKQI/AAAAAAAAKUM/jM0n6q-fc_YdbO752DBptRI4dV3CmO79wCLcB/s640/thumb%2B%25281%2529.jpg" /></a></div>
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To say that the new <a href="https://nmaahc.si.edu/"><b>Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture</b></a> takes you on a journey is a masterpiece of understatement. It is one that is far overdue for all of us and best traveled alone. Although this museum encourages a national conversation, the contemplative nature of its architecture, art, exhibitions, and the incredible quotations pushing out from its stone walls makes you think about your own responsibility to the future, being on the right side of history. Stepping into this majestic space for the first time, filled with people in the soaring atrium, I did not feel dwarfed or intimidated or awkward. The vibrations of the room were like the activity in the main hall of Grand Central Station, with travelers to destinations unknown.</div>
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The winding staircase down to where the exhibition space begins is a visual extravaganza of sweeping arcs, steep angles, and ironwork patterns overhead with as much significance as the historical exhibitions even deeper below. On an enormous elevator, above the decibel of conversations within the crowd, a woman near me said, <i>"Oh, my God. This is like a time machine." </i>Everyone fell silent, as we looked to our right and left out the glass sides of the elevator time machine to watch the dates tick backwards on the cement walls as we descended. We came to a halt at the year 1400 and exited into an undeniable history lesson. Suffice it to say, the rest of this journey was filled with reverence.</div>
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At times, I admit I was overcome with emotion. I ascended the museum's ramp system from one exhibition to another, moving through history that was not sanitized. Images and text outlined in red came with a warning about its suitability for children. Make no mistake though, this museum is not merely a retrospective of an abhorrent past, but it excitingly celebrates brilliance in art, literature, music, science, entertainment, sports, and politics. The best part is how it shines a light on people doing extraordinary things and changing the course of history.</div>
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The shear volume of items in the collection, video installations, and narrative that leads you through will take years of return visits to consume it all. The most poignant moment came when I was at the top of the ramp and I looked behind me. I could see images being cast simultaneously on the walls from illustrations of slavery, to the civil rights movement, to President Barack Obama being sworn into office. Off to the left, high upon a wall, was a quote from early civil rights activist, Ida B. Wells, <i>"The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them." </i></div>
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<span style="color: #6fa8dc;">Photos by Cary Knox</span><br />
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Cary Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16722322392996778246noreply@blogger.com0Washington, DC, USA38.9071923 -77.03687070000000938.7094713 -77.3595942 39.1049133 -76.714147200000014tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8918269962852554165.post-53818162441416427602016-09-18T17:04:00.000-04:002016-09-18T17:04:36.349-04:00The President's Neighborhood Exhibition<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Yesterday, I visited a small exhibition at the Decatur House about the buildings and statues surrounding the White House and Lafayette Square—The President's Neighborhood.</div>
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Since the White House was first occupied by President John Adams in 1800, influential people and organizations—or those who hoped to have influence—have bought property and built homes and offices along the streets surrounding the White House. In front of the White House, across Pennsylvania Avenue, is Lafayette Square and its park, the centerpiece of many of Washington’s and the nation’s most historic sites.</div>
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That these structures have survived today is owed to a first lady and the modern preservation movement. In 1961, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy intervened to block a congressional plan that would have replaced the historic structures with modernist government office buildings. This effort, among many, led to the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. </div>
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The key sites within Lafayette Square featured in this exhibition include Blair House, Dolley Madison House, Decatur House, Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Hay-Adams Hotel, St. John’s Church, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and U.S. Treasury Department. Note the beautifully illustrated cut-outs of these various structures lining the exhibition space, images created by a local artist, then blown up large scale by the White House Historical Association.</div>
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The exhibition runs through September 27, 2016.</div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">Source: The White House Historical Association</span>Cary Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16722322392996778246noreply@blogger.com0Washington, DC, USA38.9071923 -77.03687070000000938.7094713 -77.3595942 39.1049133 -76.714147200000014tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8918269962852554165.post-26182148404318700002016-08-24T09:49:00.000-04:002016-08-24T09:49:52.280-04:00Beach Umbrellas at Blue Point<div style="text-align: justify;">
William Glackens's buoyant view of well-to-do vacationers at the beach at Blue Point on Long Island's south shore, recalls the work of the French impressionists, especially Renoir. The cheerful white and orange striped umbrellas punctuate the sun-washed sand fronting an elegant resort hotel. Feathery brushwork contributes to the festive quality of the scene as we observe it from out on the water. The joyous color and light describe a world far removed from the realities of World War I, then raging in Europe, or even from New York's alleys and elevated railways, which Glackens illustrated early in his career.</div>
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The sense of immediacy that animates this summer spectacle stems from the artist's familiarity with his subject. He and his family summered in nearby Bellport, then becoming an artists' and writers' colony. Their presence signaled the burgeoning pursuit of leisure on the part of America's growing middle class. The 1880s had witnessed a boom in tourism; by 1915, the beaches were already crowded.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: small;">Beach Umbrellas at Blue Point | 1915<br />William Glackens<br />Oil on Canvas | 66.1 cm x 81.3 cm<br />Smithsonian American Art Museum</span></b></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">Source: "Scenes of American Life: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum"</span>Cary Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16722322392996778246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8918269962852554165.post-85376907570279444462016-05-09T14:15:00.000-04:002016-05-09T15:16:24.889-04:00The Art and Controversy of Paul Cadmus<div style="text-align: justify;">
Paul Cadmus (1904-1999) is recognized as one of the first contemporary artists to chronicle gay life. Pushing the envelope with his depictions of naked and muscled male physiques, museums consistently rejected his work because of its gay themes. </div>
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In the 1930s, Cadmus worked for the <a href="http://www.britannica.com/topic/Public-Works-of-Art-Project"><b>Public Works of Art Project</b></a> (PWAP), the first of the federal art programs conceived as part of the New Deal during the Great Depression. He created paintings for a planned PWAP exhibit at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. One of these works, <i><b>The Fleet’s In,</b></i> is a provocative depiction of U.S. Navy personnel carousing with women dressed like prostitutes. It includes a subtle homoerotic image of a sailor flirting with a civilian man offering him a cigarette, while another sailor lies draped across them. The painting generated controversy, causing the Navy to remove it from the exhibition. The scandal brought the artist national attention.</div>
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At the Smithsonian's American Art Museum hangs the striking <i style="font-weight: bold;">Night in Bologna,</i> a dark comedy of sexual tensions played out on a stage of shadowy arcades. In the foreground, a soldier on leave throws off a visible heat that suffuses the air around him with a red glow. He casts an appraising look at a worldly woman nearby, who gauges the interest of a man seated at a café table. The gawky tourist is unaware of her attentions, and looks longingly at the man in uniform. Cadmus left the outcome unclear because he was more interested in the tangle of human instincts than in tidy resolutions.</div>
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In a lengthy oral history for the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, Cadmus said that after 50 years as a painter, he was happy with the trajectory of his career, though he had never achieved lasting fame or a consensus of critical appreciation. He quoted a line from one of his favorite painters, the French neoclassicist Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. <i>"'People say my paintings are not right for the times' or something like that," Cadmus recalled. "But then he says, 'Can I help it if the times are wrong? If I'm the only one that's right, it's all right.'"</i></div>
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<span style="color: #cfe2f3;">Sources: Smithsonian American Art Museum and Smithsonian Archives of American Art</span></div>
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Cary Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16722322392996778246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8918269962852554165.post-24897812237721229902016-05-05T23:06:00.000-04:002016-05-06T09:44:21.916-04:00Carnegie Library of Washington<div style="text-align: justify;">
At lunchtime today, I took an opportunity to tour Washington, D.C.'s Carnegie Library. The Historical Society of Washington, D.C. currently occupies what was the central public library for the City of Washington for nearly 70 years. It's location at Mount Vernon Square was part of Pierre L'Enfant's 1791 plan for the District of Columbia, which included more than a dozen open spaces for parks or memorials throughout the city. Mount Vernon Square sits on a plot where seven different streets converge in the northwest quadrant of Washington. The square is located where Massachusetts Avenue, New York Avenue, K Street, and 8th Street would intersect, and further bounded by 7th Street, 9th Street, and Mount Vernon Place.</div>
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In 1899, industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie was visiting the White House when he heard about the need for a library building in Washington. His contribution to Washington totaled $375,000, making it one of the largest of the Carnegie libraries built. In the end, Carnegie funded the building of 1,679 libraries around the United States.<br />
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The building was designed by Albert Randolph Ross of the New York architectural firm Ackerman and Ross, who had studied at the influential École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Ross designed it in the Beaux-Art style that became popular at the 1893 World's Columbian Exhibition in Chicago and its <b>"<a href="http://www.britannica.com/event/Worlds-Columbian-Exposition">White City</a>."</b> The lead architect of the World's Fair was Daniel Burnham, designer of another Washington Beaux-Art building, <a href="http://artaccordingtocary.blogspot.com/2014/05/union-station-washington-dc.html"><b>Union Station</b></a>, completed in 1908. </div>
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Dedicated on January 7, 1903, the ceremony was attended by President Theodore Roosevelt and Andrew Carnegie. During that time, Washington was a heavily segregated town, except for the federal government. One of Carnegie's requirements for his donation included that the building could not be segregated. In 1913, President Woodrow Wilson and his Administration, resegregated federal workers. With oversight of the Carnegie Library falling to the hands of the federal government, the library staff were segregated, but the citizens of Washington who used it were not. That policy remained in effect until Wilson left office in 1917. Heavily used and short on space, the central public library was moved to the new Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library in 1970.<br />
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The Historical Society leads 45-minute free tours of the beautiful Carnegie Library on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 1:00 p.m. Visit <a href="http://www.dchistory.org/"><b>www.dchistory.org</b></a> to register and for more information.<br />
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<span style="color: #cfe2f3;">Photos by Cary Knox</span><br />
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Cary Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16722322392996778246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8918269962852554165.post-13099403576938373272016-04-15T16:40:00.000-04:002016-05-06T16:15:36.091-04:00Kindred Spirits | The Poet and the Artist<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ten days after his 47th birthday, Thomas Cole—America’s first important landscape painter—died of pneumonia on February 11, 1848. At the time of his death, he was the acknowledged leader of the loosely knit group of American landscape painters that would become known as the <b><a href="http://artaccordingtocary.blogspot.com/2014/08/postal-service-issues-stamps.html">Hudson River School</a>.</b><br />
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In New York, he was honored with a memorial exhibition of his works and a service highlighted by a<br />
eulogy delivered by William Cullen Bryant, one of Cole's closest friends and a successful American nature poet. Among the tributes Bryant offered, one was especially prescient: <i>“I say within myself, this man will be reverenced in future years as a great master in art.” </i></div>
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In appreciation of Bryant’s role in celebrating Cole’s memory and in recognition of the friendship between the poet and the painter, the New York collector Jonathan Sturges commissioned Asher B. Durand to paint a work that would depict Cole and Bryant as “kindred spirits.” Durand, several years older than Cole and a successful engraver, had been inspired by Cole in the 1830s to take up landscape painting and was soon a leading practitioner in his own right. </div>
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Sturges’ request that the two men be shown as kindred spirits was inspired by the words of English poet John Keats, whose <b><i>Sonnet to Solitude</i></b> celebrates the ameliorative aspects of nature and concludes:</div>
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<i>Yet the sweet converse of an innocent mind,<br />Whose words are images of thoughts refin’d,<br /> Is my soul’s pleasure; and sure it must be<br /> Almost the highest bliss of human-kind,<br /> When to thy haunts two kindred spirits flee.</i></blockquote>
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Durand’s <b><i>Kindred Spirits</i></b> was completed in 1849 and delivered as a gift to Bryant. It shows the poet and Cole standing on a ledge in the Catskill Mountains of New York, where both had been inspired to create some of their finest works. Although executed in the detailed and realistic style that Durand championed for American landscape painting, its composition brings together several sites—including the Clove of the Catskills and Kaaterskill Falls—that could not be seen from a single vantage point. As such, it was intended as an idealized tribute to American nature and to the two men whose art had extolled its special beauties.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vVPYd1nHUUk/VxFN87RzmcI/AAAAAAAAI_M/z0pJ86GvPzAnVqhw74Q-my2WyhOWlKcmwCLcB/s1600/Asher_Durand_Kindred_Spirits.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vVPYd1nHUUk/VxFN87RzmcI/AAAAAAAAI_M/z0pJ86GvPzAnVqhw74Q-my2WyhOWlKcmwCLcB/s640/Asher_Durand_Kindred_Spirits.jpg" width="520" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Kindred Spirits | 1849<br />Asher B. Durand<br />Oil on Canvas | 44 in. x 36 in.<br />Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art</b></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">Source: National Gallery of Art, Washington</span></div>
Cary Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16722322392996778246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8918269962852554165.post-20468063336570507422016-04-12T16:57:00.000-04:002016-04-12T16:57:19.100-04:00The Poet, His Muse, and the Artist<div style="text-align: justify;">
Jeanne Duval, a Haitian-born actress and dancer of mixed French and black African ancestry, was the undeniable muse of French poet and art critic Charles Baudelaire. Duval met Baudelaire in 1842, after he saw her in a cabaret show in Paris and became obsessed with her. They maintained a turbulent and passionate relationship for the next two decades. Duval is said to have been the woman whom Baudelaire loved most, in his life, after his mother. </div>
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Baudelaire paid homage to Duval in numerous poems, naming her the "mistress of mistresses" and calling her his <b><i>Vénus Noire (Black Venus)</i></b>. Duval invoked in him feelings of pity, despair, lust, and betrayal—the commanding themes of his masterwork of poetry, <b><i>Les Fleurs du Mal</i></b>. That slim volume of 140 poems, which was seized and destroyed on the grounds of obscenity when first published in 1857, is now recognized as the finest poetry in the French language and the first modern poetry in any language.</div>
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In every other respect Duval was the poet’s ruination. They quarreled constantly. She continually begged for money and sold his possessions when he failed to provide. She took lovers, including many of his friends. Baudelaire suspected that sometimes she sold herself on the streets to raise money.</div>
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Artist Édouard Manet, a friend of Baudelaire, depicted Duval in his 1862 painting <i style="font-weight: bold;">Baudelaire's Mistress, Reclining.</i> By this time, Duval was going blind and dying from syphilis. Five years later, Baudelaire would be dead from the same affliction.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisGZcyWCGJtcvV-D3YLt6SHpT7N6Eh7PUySNSCZZEnUinhIOWoBcRGZqXUL0SYUGjaNEyrDzKr-XTCdel5HlGL6bFN0TN9QIlnTgjW0cUxwdEfz9G3wcjPvWXiFt6y6WZOAKPkc8lYyWY/s1600/baudelaires_mistress_reclining-large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="520" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisGZcyWCGJtcvV-D3YLt6SHpT7N6Eh7PUySNSCZZEnUinhIOWoBcRGZqXUL0SYUGjaNEyrDzKr-XTCdel5HlGL6bFN0TN9QIlnTgjW0cUxwdEfz9G3wcjPvWXiFt6y6WZOAKPkc8lYyWY/s640/baudelaires_mistress_reclining-large.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><b>Baudelaire's Mistress, Reclining | 1862<br />Édouard Manet<br />Oil on Canvas | 35.43 in. x 44.49 in.<br />Szepmuveszeti Museum | Budapest, Hungary</b></td></tr>
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Cary Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16722322392996778246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8918269962852554165.post-45973913001719942152016-04-06T12:32:00.000-04:002016-04-08T20:53:20.288-04:00Picasso, Apollinaire, and the Saltimbanques<div style="text-align: justify;">
The theme of the circus and the circus performer has a long tradition in art and in literature, especially prominent in French art of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A more immediate inspiration for Pablo Picasso came from performances of the Cirque Médrano, a circus that the artist attended frequently near his residence and studio in Montmartre.</div>
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Circus performers were regarded as social outsiders. They provided a telling symbol for the alienation of the avant-garde artists and poets of their time. Picasso's <i><b>Family of Saltimbanques</b></i> (1905) is perhaps an autobiographical statement, a group portrait of him and his circle. The red clown figure is said to be modeled after his friend, the poet Guillaume Apollinaire. Apollinaire similarly wrote a poem titled, <b><i>Saltimbanque</i></b> in 1913, an English translation is below.</div>
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In a funny twist to their friendship, Apollinaire, who had once called for the Louvre to be burnt down, came under suspicion, was arrested, and imprisoned for the 1911 theft of the famous <b><i>Mona Lisa</i></b>. Apollinaire implicated his friend Picasso, who was then brought in for questioning. The event created somewhat of a media circus, but both men were later exonerated.</div>
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<b><i>Saltimbanque</i></b></div>
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<b><i>(The "Traveling Entertainers" or "Acrobats")</i></b></div>
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The strollers in the plain</div>
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walk the length of gardens</div>
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before the doors of grey inns</div>
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through villages without churches</div>
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And the children gone before</div>
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The others follow dreaming</div>
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Each fruit tree resigns itself</div>
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When they signal from afar</div>
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They have burdens round or square</div>
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drums and golden tambourines</div>
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Apes and bears wise animals</div>
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gather coins as they progress</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption"><b>Family of Saltimbanques | 1905<br />Pablo Picasso<br />Oil on Canvas | 83 3/4 in. x 90 3/8 in.<br />National Gallery of Art, Washington</b></td></tr>
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Cary Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16722322392996778246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8918269962852554165.post-74492231047779069452016-04-05T10:16:00.001-04:002016-04-12T20:44:59.540-04:00Lana Turner Has Collapsed! By Frank O'Hara<div style="text-align: right;">
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<b><i>Lana Turner Has Collapsed! </i></b>is one of Frank O’Hara’s funniest and best-loved poems. With its campy treatment of a tabloid headline in February 1962 about a glamorous celebrity facing adversity, it’s often cited as an example of O’Hara’s embrace of pop culture and his affection for the cinema and its stars. O'Hara would use his lunch hour to compose poetry, often dropping into the Olivetti typewriter showroom to tap them out. This is one of my favorites.</div>
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Lana Turner has collapsed!</div>
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I was trotting along and suddenly</div>
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it started raining and snowing</div>
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and you said it was hailing</div>
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but hailing hits you on the head</div>
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hard so it was really snowing and</div>
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raining and I was in such a hurry</div>
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to meet you but the traffic</div>
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was acting exactly like the sky</div>
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and suddenly I see a headline</div>
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LANA TURNER HAS COLLAPSED!</div>
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there is no snow in Hollywood</div>
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there is no rain in California</div>
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I have been to lots of parties</div>
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and acted perfectly disgraceful</div>
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but I never actually collapsed</div>
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oh Lana Turner we love you get up</div>
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<i>From Lunch Poems by Frank O'Hara</i></div>
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<i>© 1964</i></div>
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<i>City Lights Books</i></div>
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There is a wonderful audio recording of O'Hara reading this poem in late 1964 on the frankohara.org website <a href="http://www.frankohara.org/fohaudio02/poemlana.html">linked here</a>. While O'Hara's poetry is generally autobiographical, they read more like a diary, and tend to be based on his observations of New York life rather than exploring his past. In his introduction to <b><i>The Collected Poems of Frank O’Hara,</i></b> Donald Allen says <i>"that Frank O’Hara tended to think of his poems as a record of his life is apparent in much of his work.”</i></div>
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In the early morning hours of July 24, 1966, O'Hara was struck by a jeep on a Fire Island beach, after the beach taxi in which he had been riding with a group of friends broke down in the dark. He died the next day of a ruptured liver. O'Hara was only 40 years old.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Portrait and Poem Painting | 1961<br />Larry Rivers and Frank O'Hara<br />Oil on Canvas | 36 in. x 36 in.</b></td></tr>
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Cary Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16722322392996778246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8918269962852554165.post-45422467756557480402016-03-31T11:49:00.000-04:002016-04-01T08:33:50.434-04:00National Gallery of Art's 300 Years of American Prints<div style="text-align: justify;">
A new international traveling exhibition will explore major events and movements in American art through some 150 outstanding prints from the Colonial era to the present. <b><i>Three Centuries of American Prints from the National Gallery of Art</i></b> is the first major museum survey of American prints in more than 30 years.</div>
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Timed to coincide with the National Gallery of Art's 75th anniversary, the exhibition is drawn from the Gallery's renowned holdings of works on paper, and features more than 100 artists such as Paul Revere, James McNeill Whistler, Mary Cassatt, Winslow Homer, George Bellows, John Marin, Jackson Pollock, Louise Nevelson, Romare Bearden, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Chuck Close, Jenny Holzer, and Kara Walker.</div>
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Organized chronologically and thematically through nine galleries, <b><i>Three Centuries of American Prints</i></b> reveals the breadth and excellence of the Gallery's collection, while showcasing some of the standouts: exquisite, rare impressions of James McNeill Whistler's <b><i>Nocturne (1879/1880)</i></b>, captivating prints by Mary Cassatt, a singularly stunning impression of John Marin's <b><i>Woolworth Building, No. 1 (1913)</i></b>, and Robert Rauschenberg's pioneering <b><i>Booster (1967)</i></b>.</div>
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Since its opening in 1941, the National Gallery of Art has assiduously collected American prints with the help of many generous donors. The Gallery's American print collection has grown from nearly 1,900 prints in 1950 to some 22,500 prints in 2015. The collection was transformed in recent years by the acquisitions, including the personal print archive of Jasper Johns, some 2,300 American prints from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, among other gifts to the Gallery.</div>
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On view in Washington, DC from April 3 through July 24, 2016, the exhibition will travel to the National Gallery in Prague from October 4, 2016 through January 5, 2017, followed by Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso in Mexico City from February 7 through April 30, 2017.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption"><b>A Midnight Race on the Mississippi | 1860<br />Frances Flora Palmer <br />Color lithograph with hand-coloring<br />18 1/8 in. x 28 in.</b></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-size: 12.8px;">Woolworth Building, No.1 | 1913<br />John Marin<br /> Etching with monotype inking on Japanese paper plate<br />11 7/8 in. x 9 15/16 in.</b></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">Source: National Gallery of Art, Washington</span></div>
Cary Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16722322392996778246noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8918269962852554165.post-67009777931220685142016-03-28T11:18:00.000-04:002016-03-28T11:20:07.935-04:00The Persian Jacket by Grace Hartigan<div style="text-align: justify;">
Museum of Modern Art Director Alfred Barr visited the Tibor de Nagy Gallery on the last day of Grace Hartigan’s show in 1953. Barr lavished praise on Hartigan’s work titled, <b><i>The Persian Jacket</i></b>, and brought the painting back to MoMA on approval. Hartigan’s friend, the poet Frank O’Hara, was watching from his perch at the front desk at MoMA. O'Hara called Hartigan and gave her a blow-by-blow account of the awkward entrance of the massive canvas through the front door.</div>
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The next day, Barr called to say that there was a problem with the upper left-hand corner of the painting—Grace had failed to maintain the flatness of the surface. At his suggestion, she came to the museum the following Monday with her paints and spent about 30 minutes fixing the blend of colors in that spot.</div>
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Hartigan said in her journal: </div>
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"I went up there this afternoon. <i><b>Persian Jacket</b></i> looked good, more full and arrogant than I remembered. I agreed about the area—it always was a difficult one to solve, partly because it is the most open area, and the one which in traditional painting would be the background. The area bends in, so it doesn't sit right—and I'm going up on Monday with my paints to work on it a little. This was at Barr's suggestion—I thought it a bit unconventional, but we both remembered the incident of Delacroix touching up the <i><b>Massacre of Scio</b></i> two days before it was shown."</blockquote>
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It took two months for the sale to go through—Barr secured a patron to buy the painting for $400 and donate it to the museum. The recognition was a great triumph for Hartigan.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUnSKF2aPjHvLuKk4BZgu5R6csEwFyw1E37GKyMKMMEUi6HhJf42M6qJxU6lF-BwfdElI-vEMsAVWubA1EBhQobOF11t0L1bCZd4OXPIhtKMni03OeXkfG6FOT0cYI7z-voXz2hu2j46g/s1600/The+Persian+Jacket.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUnSKF2aPjHvLuKk4BZgu5R6csEwFyw1E37GKyMKMMEUi6HhJf42M6qJxU6lF-BwfdElI-vEMsAVWubA1EBhQobOF11t0L1bCZd4OXPIhtKMni03OeXkfG6FOT0cYI7z-voXz2hu2j46g/s1600/The+Persian+Jacket.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>The Persian Jacket | 1952<br />Oil on Canvas | 57 1/2 in. x 48 in.<br />Museum of Modern Art, New York</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">Sources: </span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">Restless Ambition: Grace Hartigan, Painter by Cathy Curtis</span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">The Journals of Grace Hartigan, 1951-1955</span></div>
Cary Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16722322392996778246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8918269962852554165.post-38262180611876278282016-03-25T11:30:00.001-04:002016-04-05T16:42:25.397-04:00Marc Chagall's White Crucifixion<div>
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Many of Marc Chagall’s paintings could be described as lively, romantic, humorous, imaginative, and filled with brilliant colors, but his <b><i>White Crucifixion</i></b> (seen below) is largely drained of color. Chagall painted it in 1938 while living in Paris, in response to the horrifying events of <i>Kristallnacht</i>, the “Night of Broken Glass,” an anti-Jewish pogrom of official decree by propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels in Nazi Germany (including Austria and Sudetenland) from the 9th until the 10th of November 1938.</div>
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This painting represents a critical turning point for Chagall: it was the first of an important series of compositions that feature the image of Christ as a Jewish martyr and dramatically call attention to the persecution and suffering of European Jews in the 1930s.</div>
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In <b><i>White Crucifixion</i></b>, his first and largest work on the subject, Chagall stressed the Jewish identity of Jesus in several ways: he replaced his traditional loincloth with a prayer shawl, his crown of thorns with a headcloth, and the mourning angels that customarily surround him with three biblical patriarchs and a matriarch, clad in traditional Jewish garments.</div>
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At either side of the cross, Chagall illustrated the devastation of an officially encouraged organized persecution: On the left, a village is pillaged and burned, forcing refugees to flee by boat and the three bearded figures below them—one of whom clutches the Torah—to escape on foot. On the right, a synagogue and its Torah ark go up in flames, while below a mother comforts her child. By linking the martyred Jesus with the persecuted Jews and the Crucifixion with contemporary events, Chagall’s painting passionately identifies the Nazis with Christ’s tormentors and warns of the moral implications of their actions.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-UfJFDY1kcVASnLVlpRo2h6h8OeVQKkPSpL4ten0nEBJEO-o6u_2EHc1Xkf1Xf0xqAQuOpxeWkvjllIuV45cC4_JCTZmm_XYbSWkm1bmjTh1ljJKhirs9-lNf8NZ_ZEv55MU9C3gaLwk/s1600/189094_3296672.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-UfJFDY1kcVASnLVlpRo2h6h8OeVQKkPSpL4ten0nEBJEO-o6u_2EHc1Xkf1Xf0xqAQuOpxeWkvjllIuV45cC4_JCTZmm_XYbSWkm1bmjTh1ljJKhirs9-lNf8NZ_ZEv55MU9C3gaLwk/s640/189094_3296672.jpg" width="576" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><b>White Crucifixion | 1938<br />Oil on Canvas | 60 7/8 in. x 55 1/16 in.<br />The Art Institute of Chicago</b></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">Source: The Art Institute of Chicago</span></div>
Cary Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16722322392996778246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8918269962852554165.post-76467671547114905762016-02-12T20:57:00.000-05:002016-02-13T10:09:41.344-05:00For the Love of Knox Martin<div style="text-align: justify;">
Celebrating today, the birth of master artist, poet, art historian, teacher, mentor, World War II veteran, Knox Martin. From the Fischbach Gallery papers (1963-1977) at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-l9Ebl4s9yXHkVl3F8mK_fhqT2agqqYMhdwhOa5Es9iXjG8rcDCros4IRm-c_MZitA3vhBW8Xv3f-A_I2IheUOoMT4mR1AE09Zn_d0lunOr5_9TKcuPxaShbcvpDtWWh2G_1Q9UO5nd8/s1600/Knox+1965.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-l9Ebl4s9yXHkVl3F8mK_fhqT2agqqYMhdwhOa5Es9iXjG8rcDCros4IRm-c_MZitA3vhBW8Xv3f-A_I2IheUOoMT4mR1AE09Zn_d0lunOr5_9TKcuPxaShbcvpDtWWh2G_1Q9UO5nd8/s400/Knox+1965.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHDVREaYLO6h0SSVvtR1qoIw985UE_AMp3Z_t8WA69Hlz-dlwXxyZDZMhOzWqRTRER_h2U-_00YHlggb4XhuSt8Evp24iuvv6cYsLa3g4Jq__1B_M1c14Mf1vf-5qWXfCfh8M0BW45_js/s1600/IMG_20151112_1550332_rewind-47540116.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHDVREaYLO6h0SSVvtR1qoIw985UE_AMp3Z_t8WA69Hlz-dlwXxyZDZMhOzWqRTRER_h2U-_00YHlggb4XhuSt8Evp24iuvv6cYsLa3g4Jq__1B_M1c14Mf1vf-5qWXfCfh8M0BW45_js/s640/IMG_20151112_1550332_rewind-47540116.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTLODElmBW2X9LwvhfLcZx1TV02a2TI3eVeh1RA35fVSNC0Y3utBphTCdNjYCw1X1W7o1aSSZ8CG0P4qpcmVeNhET2C7A-ymccTsFi9BBUtbvaIrK-U8KVmx4IRjiOjcVaK30OBGhLAmI/s1600/KNOX+Martin+national+Archives+November+2015+Cary+and+James+%2528112%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTLODElmBW2X9LwvhfLcZx1TV02a2TI3eVeh1RA35fVSNC0Y3utBphTCdNjYCw1X1W7o1aSSZ8CG0P4qpcmVeNhET2C7A-ymccTsFi9BBUtbvaIrK-U8KVmx4IRjiOjcVaK30OBGhLAmI/s640/KNOX+Martin+national+Archives+November+2015+Cary+and+James+%2528112%2529.JPG" width="499" /></a></div>
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<b>More blog posts about Knox Martin here:</b></div>
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<a href="http://artaccordingtocary.blogspot.com/2015/10/knox-martins-homage-to-jan-de-heem.html">Knox Martin's Homage to Jan de Heem</a></div>
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<a href="http://artaccordingtocary.blogspot.com/2012/12/martin-celebrates-his-father-and.html">Martin Celebrates His Father and Aviation History in Colombia</a><br />
<a href="http://artaccordingtocary.blogspot.com/2012/02/beauty-inside-and-out.html">Beauty Inside and Out</a><br />
<a href="http://artaccordingtocary.blogspot.com/2011/05/knox-martin-flowershomage-to-matisse.html">Homage to Matisse</a></div>
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<a href="http://artaccordingtocary.blogspot.com/2013/04/meeting-knox-martin.html">Meeting Knox Martin</a></div>
<a href="http://artaccordingtocary.blogspot.com/2010/08/time-with-knox-martin.html">Knox Martin Tells Me a Story About Robert Rauschenberg</a><br />
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Cary Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16722322392996778246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8918269962852554165.post-16115713823912609332015-12-09T17:50:00.002-05:002017-12-29T12:38:49.821-05:00Holidays at The White House 2015<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The holiday season at the White House is celebrated with an array of annual traditions, glittering holiday décor, fresh pine, and sugary treats. This year’s holiday theme, <b><i>A Timeless Tradition</i></b>, reflects long-held, cherished customs across America, and commemorates extraordinary moments that shaped the country during the past two centuries. The 2015 White House Holiday Tour Book<b> </b>is brimming with beautiful illustrations by art students at Duke Ellington School for the Arts, in Washington, DC.</div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #cc0000;">Highlights include:</span></i></b></div>
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<li>The holiday décor was executed by 89 volunteers from around the country. Sixty-two trees and over 70,000 ornaments were used in this year's extravagant mix.</li>
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<li>Three of the rooms feature creations by fashion designers Carolina Herrera, Duro Olowu, and Carol Lim and Humberto Leon. In a nod to the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/04/27/see-new-kailua-blue-obama-state-china"><b>Obama Administration's new china pattern</b></a> with a Kailua Blue stripe, Herrera integrated this stunning blue water color off the coast of the President's home state of Hawaii for package ribbons and other accents in the China Room.</li>
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<li>In the Blue Room, a grand oval space overlooking the South Lawn and Washington Monument, is the official White House Christmas tree. Dedicated to our nation's service members, veterans, and their families, it is ornamented with holiday messages of hope for our troops and patriotic symbols of red, white, and blue.</li>
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<li>At approximately 500 pounds, this year's White House Gingerbread House contains more than 250 pounds of gingerbread dough, 150 pounds of dark chocolate, 25 pounds of gum paste, 25 pounds of pulled and sculpted sugar work, and 25 pounds of icing—a White House pastry chef tradition since the 1970s.</li>
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<li>A long-standing holiday custom—the White House crèche—has graced the East Room for more than 45 years, spanning nine administrations. The nativity scene made of terra cotta and intricately carved wood was fashioned in Naples, Italy in the eighteenth century.</li>
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I was like an excited, little kid experiencing the holiday magic, completely mesmerized by bright, shiny things! I'm still in awe being surrounded by all the history of the executive mansion. It was fascinating hearing Secret Service officers in each room engaged in conversations about the decorations, furnishings, and even the art. Below are a few photos from my recent afternoon at The White House.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd-l91ONvxUCr3_CcyKI98YPaBzo_qeTDq4Jc6DgGq8guLCZWFyI3INeBvzUIduc_dcurIvfYul8U-RAUZNfHaqaoQ84gGX3WMfGc0N2jNo-0Cn4_2s3IX_j2QiZa3Cq_WpksG1xGixXU/s1600/download+%25281%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="372" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd-l91ONvxUCr3_CcyKI98YPaBzo_qeTDq4Jc6DgGq8guLCZWFyI3INeBvzUIduc_dcurIvfYul8U-RAUZNfHaqaoQ84gGX3WMfGc0N2jNo-0Cn4_2s3IX_j2QiZa3Cq_WpksG1xGixXU/s640/download+%25281%2529.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: small;">Eight Thousand Snowflakes Grace<br />a White House Corridor</span></b></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUiobPumBo2mvgH2erP8jOhPel97t3gjqMeZJ8a-hcbrZAZkK9nWXYp1cqCXkuvht0zp28uB5lhRxKDZhEtpFtCoB54GxUbVZifWrks0qurds8Jw_BD-HfofaJRrX5H7ZTCr8MCuw6fEE/s1600/Article21-PHOTO5-001-604x345.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUiobPumBo2mvgH2erP8jOhPel97t3gjqMeZJ8a-hcbrZAZkK9nWXYp1cqCXkuvht0zp28uB5lhRxKDZhEtpFtCoB54GxUbVZifWrks0qurds8Jw_BD-HfofaJRrX5H7ZTCr8MCuw6fEE/s640/Article21-PHOTO5-001-604x345.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: small;">The Library with Five Literary-Themed Trees</span></b></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6X3DEr0JDzqlX7qxZiy6fs_yEYXsD21jUHrs8xatN4Mjt1dw3kuj8uq5GwdrRQWu-c5p-k5yVlTlo2rNnD9XgC3JDNhavQsLyV81H08WYch8ZrMBWky0u2ezNJ2Cvj-M7y0YdGjikJFE/s1600/US+NEWS+WHITEHOUSE-HOLIDAYDECOR+4+ABA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6X3DEr0JDzqlX7qxZiy6fs_yEYXsD21jUHrs8xatN4Mjt1dw3kuj8uq5GwdrRQWu-c5p-k5yVlTlo2rNnD9XgC3JDNhavQsLyV81H08WYch8ZrMBWky0u2ezNJ2Cvj-M7y0YdGjikJFE/s640/US+NEWS+WHITEHOUSE-HOLIDAYDECOR+4+ABA.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: small;">The China Room with Kailua Blue Accents</span></b></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibpce5JiwZOOSIoUwUFptgihAmZSOkTE5UDuAqYTE8Xxj6eOrFrdCxBRirqdRR1H0Qba5t66NV8KV3eic5wgwa0RPwhC2gZOps2Pb5pMJLdeIK4ktiZheBlwMWVCy_M7TafH8ySYy-DOM/s1600/download+%25282%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibpce5JiwZOOSIoUwUFptgihAmZSOkTE5UDuAqYTE8Xxj6eOrFrdCxBRirqdRR1H0Qba5t66NV8KV3eic5wgwa0RPwhC2gZOps2Pb5pMJLdeIK4ktiZheBlwMWVCy_M7TafH8ySYy-DOM/s640/download+%25282%2529.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: small;">The East Room and The White House Crèche</span></b></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilV2gKZDaTqFFcvnasLfnHbqUNJZKD_UrrOC0pq6y1rQm62SxQ0-4G2MGnK7CZXbppMBgjQx_PtSoCoBF7rnWdPooK8zsemKgVDEaQcTCkwJs01lhIZgXcxRQV18C-4DDUiZt-Q92hCuE/s1600/download+%25284%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilV2gKZDaTqFFcvnasLfnHbqUNJZKD_UrrOC0pq6y1rQm62SxQ0-4G2MGnK7CZXbppMBgjQx_PtSoCoBF7rnWdPooK8zsemKgVDEaQcTCkwJs01lhIZgXcxRQV18C-4DDUiZt-Q92hCuE/s640/download+%25284%2529.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: small;">The Red Room with Real Cranberry Trees and</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: small;">Magnolia and Berry Garland on Fireplace Mantel</span></b></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY1Z8EXL3NufsQIDKRjli_QVCmbJMiybHZRLazxmH29H2utBm29kJ35JWeaKdeRXowkZqWzeUW7xGu7pX1m8z2XIyh8SW8NXFVJmuvBoVCJ8i1EjX1HM4n1ivnLe-0VrxduNuJy2RgaeE/s1600/IMG_20151208_1420146_rewind-49694301.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY1Z8EXL3NufsQIDKRjli_QVCmbJMiybHZRLazxmH29H2utBm29kJ35JWeaKdeRXowkZqWzeUW7xGu7pX1m8z2XIyh8SW8NXFVJmuvBoVCJ8i1EjX1HM4n1ivnLe-0VrxduNuJy2RgaeE/s640/IMG_20151208_1420146_rewind-49694301.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: small;">The State Dining Room with<br />Thousands of Gumballs and Dozens of Nutrackers</span></b></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRvx0eoG8vSea6ZlmRnAKIR-vwSBw1ARCV2x92QewMS0I19Y4M9QTx_criMRkQOKzDSEa08_0D-biZcXuwW19Ln87edn93oAbfpQf_nyYmF_-bJO88hqv83mtnnKLLDVI3e-IRYb5BAPY/s1600/download+%25288%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="496" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRvx0eoG8vSea6ZlmRnAKIR-vwSBw1ARCV2x92QewMS0I19Y4M9QTx_criMRkQOKzDSEa08_0D-biZcXuwW19Ln87edn93oAbfpQf_nyYmF_-bJO88hqv83mtnnKLLDVI3e-IRYb5BAPY/s640/download+%25288%2529.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: small;">A Festive White House Fireplace Mantel with Mirror </span></b></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLOc2THxar-_HaoM8FjEYw7ESgBaXfmOAQIfvQHjtrS9kRys8Q5PGPggsq8OSedH6Sh2-63oW7ttClkO5JI24aVShit69B_YRutT-Rbm3_3RdXuEFBrnhFy7v4Mq2_9RYFISIXKaER08c/s1600/whcrosshall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="472" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLOc2THxar-_HaoM8FjEYw7ESgBaXfmOAQIfvQHjtrS9kRys8Q5PGPggsq8OSedH6Sh2-63oW7ttClkO5JI24aVShit69B_YRutT-Rbm3_3RdXuEFBrnhFy7v4Mq2_9RYFISIXKaER08c/s640/whcrosshall.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: small;">The Glittering Cross Hall</span></b></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #76a5af;">Source | Office of the First Lady, The White House</span><br />
<span style="color: #76a5af;">Photos | Cary Knox</span></div>
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Cary Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16722322392996778246noreply@blogger.com1Washington, DC, USA38.9052763 -76.98158769999997738.855851799999996 -77.062268699999976 38.9547008 -76.900906699999979