Monkey

Saru, Gibbon Monkey (1900-1910)
Ogata Gekko (Japanese, 1859-1920)
Shishikiban print (square format)

A very cool work I recently saw at the Monkey Business show at the Toledo Museum of Art recently. The work was on loan from a private collection.

According the website on the artist, Ogata Gekko was Japan's first internationally acclaimed artist. This particular image was one of the most loved works by everyone I was visiting the gallery with. The simple features on the monkey's face and the glorious long arm stretching down, were significant features.

Dahlia

Gaillardia Cosmos Dahlia, 2005
Robert Kushner
Oil, acrylic, gold leaf, silver leaf, mica and glitter on Japanese screen, 69 x 68 3/4 inches

A discovery through a small catalog at work, I've quickly fallen in love with Robert Kushner's work. It took me awhile to narrow down just one work so please visit the links and see the wonderful array of paintings that Kushner has created. Beautiful, rich color makes these paintings pop. Kushner often reuses old Japanese screens and doors as his "canvas" but the Japanese influences spread throughout his choice of base for his painting. While these themes are inherent what is beautiful and makes these paintings unique is Kushner's western traditions in his style of painting. His florals are bold and his composition is seemingly random, the structure one would associate with a Japanese painting is loosened in Kushner's work. Dimension is created through different styles of flowers, from simple outlined flowers to multi-colored depth.

It is fascinating to know that Kushner started out as a performance artist in the 1970s, whose creation of costumes were the beginning of his attention to decoration and ornament. One can see the decoration and ornament of his current floral paintings in not only the color, structure and subject matter but also the use of materials beyond traditional paint to include gold leaf, glitter and more. Kushner was a part of the Pattern and Decoration movement of the 1970s. Artists created work of complex and brightly colored patterns.

The Inaugural Work

So, those of you who took some enjoyment in my art-of-the-day distribution list the last couple of weeks know this isn't exactly inaugural, but a new environment is all kinds of inaugural. Thanks to Ben for helping me out with the web address and the title!

This all started during a search for something to put on my desktop at my new job. I was happy with the portrait I found of Barnett Newman by Mark Rothko and decided to forward it on to a friend. The next day I found another work and art of the day was born.
I figured I could get a little bit more out of it by starting a blog and possibly reaching a greater audience. Currently my only intention in this endeavor is to share art that I discover and rediscover through play time, work time (cataloging art books is definitely a positive here) and research time. I plan to say a little bit about each work and provide a couple of resources which can lead you to more information about the work, artist, period, medium etc. Of course the latter part is the librarian in me, and you can feel free to take what you want from my postings.

Please feel free to write comments, I would love to know what your thinking, what you hate, what inspires you, what you love. One of the many wonders of art is that you can keep it to yourself or share it with the world. Enjoy!

Autumn Grasses in Moonlight, Meiji period (1868–1912), ca. 1872–91
Shibata Zeshin (Japanese, 1807–1891)
Two-panel folding screen; ink, lacquer, and silver leaf on paper; 26 1/8 x 69 in. (66.4 x 175.3 cm)
Collection: Metropolitan Museum of Art

I admittedly have practically no experience with and fairly limited exposure to Asian art. I was cataloging a catalog of Shibata's works yesterday and fell for his beautiful work, you can see the 2 panels and more views by clicking on the title. That is all for today, I've been spending too much time putting this blog together! Be sure to click on the highlighted text, I am including all kinds of links!