Geometric pair

Pair of figures, probably Zeus and Hera
Greek, Geometric Period, about 750–700 B.C.
Height: 8 cm (3 1/8 in.)
Bronze

Image: mfaboston.org

Browsing through works at the MFA Boston, which I hope to visit this weekend while I am in Beantown, I came across the interesting little piece. I love the geometric aesthetic of the sculpture, so simple yet still distinctive as a man and a woman.

"The male figure wears a heavy belt and long, pointed cap, and the female sports a domed, brimmed hat. Dark green patina.The costumes and the "amusing stop-sign hand" are characteristics of early bronze figurines from the sanctuary at Olympia." (caption: mfaboston.org)

The Common

Boston Common at Twilight, 1885-86
Childe Hassam image and location: MFA Boston
A comment on yesterday's image of Paris made me think about other city scenes. One of the first to come to mind is a painting and artist that I discovered on my first trip to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston soon after I moved there in 2000. Always surprised at the time to be attracted to 19th c. American art (it continues to become more common), let alone Impressionism, this is a painting I return to on every visit. Hassam was a native of Boston, eventually spending some years in Paris and then settling in New York. He focused much of his creative energy on these cities in his paintings, many of the scenes taking place in the winter. A city I love, a season I love in a beautiful painting. This view of Boston Common comes off as nostalgic yet focuses on the modernization of this area of the common, with the trolleys and buildings in view.

I highly recommend seeking it out the next time you are in Boston, the MFA is a wonderful museum. (Check out the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum down the road while you are there!)

Lavabo

Antonio López García
Sink and Mirror, 1967
Oil on canvas
image: MFA Boston
Exhibition this summer at MFA Boston


My new favorite painter/draughtsman. This man is incredible, his hyper realist work is impeccably empathetic and gorgeous If you can make me swoon over a sink, you simply rock. You can check out many of his works on various sites on the web. Haunting and ethereal, familiar and distant, the study and care that López García puts into bringing his surrounding world to canvas is brilliant.

A Spanish realist painter, López García, is a rock star artist in Spain. His work has not been very widespread in the U.S. (no good excuse will suffice for this) which serves only as a detriment to our artistic senses. Historically, I was never a fan of realist painting, but it turns out I was looking at the wrong artists! You'll see more of it over time, as López García has reminded me of other realist painters that I've discovered over the last few years that have encouraged me to take a second look.

Slate Slide Essay and more images and even more images