Poet's Fair

Poet's Fair ca.1953/54
Jules Aarons (1921-2008)
Image: linternaute.com

I discovered Jules Aarons when visiting the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in Lincoln, MA, 6 years ago. His work struck me in such a way that I brought a catalog of his show of photographs that day. I came home last night, headed over to my shelf of art books, and pulled this one off.

A physicist and engineer by trade Aarons also excelled at the art of photography. With his background in science he found the technical aspects of photography interesting, mastering them on his own. Luckily for us, he also studied the history and art of photography. Unfortunately his work is not known far beyond his home of Boston, but his rich, sympathetic and earnest photographs hold their own alongside known greats such as Henri-Cartier Bresson... Aarons spent much of his time photographing the neighborhoods of the West End and North End in Boston as well as documenting his travels around the world. A great street photographer catches moments, snapshots of life, they see the unique wonder in what many allow to pass them by. This wonderful parallel portrait, Poet's Fair, taken while on a Fulbright to Paris embodies this.


Jules Aarons Collection at the Boston Public Library.

Suburban Paris

Malakoff, 1898
Henri Rousseau
oil on canvas, 45,7 × 55,2 cm
National Gallery of Prague
photo: Wikimedia Commons

More familiar with Rousseau's jungle scenes, I recently came across one of his suburban landscapes. Rousseau's jungle and forest scenes are sizeable canvasses, and were produced for Salon shows in Paris in the late 19th c. These canvasses didn't make Rousseau a living, so he painted more intimate canvases of suburban Paris to sell and support himself.

We are used to seeing a thriving metropolis of Paris during this time, but Rousseau focuses on the modest every day of citizens. In contrast to Rousseau's large canvasses which are bold and bright and exotic, there is a familiarity in these smaller paintings that I like very much. In addition to the simple shapes that earthly colors that fill up the canvas.

Cranked Fish

Goldfish Bowl, 1929
Alexander Calder
Private Collection

As a child, Calder mobiles were some of my favorite works of art. I loved to just stand under them in galleries, waiting for a breeze to make them move (I think I even blew at them, but from a child's height it doesn't do much good). No wonder, considering their movement, and affinity with toys. I am happy that not only have I discovered a whole world of Calder I was unfamiliar with at the Whitney Museum of American Art a few years ago when I saw Calder's circus, but a new exhibition catalog at work has introduced me to where much of the wonderful came from.

Goldfish Bowl was Calder's first mechanized wire sculptures Calder made when he was in Paris (1926-1933). It is crank-driven and when cranked, the fish "swim"! ("Alexander Calder: 1898-1976, NGA press release 1998) These wire sculptures were his form of expressive drawing in space, which we can see by the fluid yet marked connections made by the wire.

The catalog was produced to accompany the exhibitions "Alexander Calder: The Paris Years 1926-1933" which opens at the Whitney October 16 and at the Centre Pompidou sometime next spring, so you must check it out if you luckily live in NYC (been experiencing some withdrawal syptoms this week) or Paris! The Whitney has Calder's circus up on permanent display (and play the film of Calder performing the circus) so next time you are in the city or just on the upper east side, stop by. Here is a taste... and notice in my blogroll, a new artistquote of the day...

Portrait of the Self

Marie Bashkertsiff
Self-Portrait with Palette, 1880
Chéret Museum
of Fine Arts, Nice, France?
b.1858 d.1884
image courtesy of wikimediacommons

This week I am going to focus on self-portraits. I intend to show you a range of artist self-portraiture, hoping to share the range of intent and style of an array of artists.

We open up the week with a work by a young woman from the late 19th century. She unfortunately lived a very short life but was able to leave us with not only excellent paintings, but also writings. Marie Bashkertsiff is new to me, a discovery in book that came across my desk (which I can't recall right now but will post when I find it).

You can't help but be pulled in by her steady and studious gaze. She holds a palette providing a context for herself as an artist, as well as the broader context of the arts with the harp in the background. She does not reveal herself at work, but confronts us with a mode of confidence and stature as a woman and artist.

Bashkertsiff spent part of her educatoin at the Academie Julian in Paris which allowed women to enroll. She became a well known intellectual feminist in Paris before her death of tuberculosis at the age of 25.

She also captured her own bourgeois life in writing, Marie Bashkirtseff: the journal of a young artist, 1860-1884 or as I am the most interesting book of all which was published more recently (I am not sure of the distinct differences).

Solitary Impressionism

Caillebotte, Gustave
Young Man at His Window
1875
Oil on canvas
117 x 82 cm
Private collection

I wrote this up last night and forgot to post it! Sorry its late!

I am not exactly sure why I chose this particular work. Once again, my choice of artist stems from exposure to another exhibition catalog. This time a monograph on the artist Gustave Caillebotte, who I readily admit never hearing of before, though I do recognize one work so far.

Associated with the Impressionists (Monet, Degas, etc.) he spent much of his time as a rich young collector of the work of his colleagues, helping to market their work. His own work is debated about. While I was never originally a fan of work of the late 19th century, the random choosing of that period to cover for my first lecture to an auditorium undergraduates, was the start of a never before seen appreciation and eventual interest in the period. In addition to all kinds of awesomeness that was occuring at the end of the 19th c. Caillebotte covered a lot of ground in his work, from still lifes and interior scenes to urban Paris and boating scenes (he was an accomplished boat designer as well). While the boating and seafaring scenes didn't do much to peak my interest (the focus of the catalog) I decided to do some more investigating and found myself drawn to some of his other works

What do I love about today's work? I love that you can't see the young man's face, the care that is taken in the detail of the vertical bits on the railing (does anyone know what these are called?), the only color coming from the lower right hand of the painting in the chair and rug, that the man's right leg is slightly back as if he is going to step away from the window yet is left foot is planted and his face is set on the bright day outside...

This excerpt by Kirk Varnedoe (Gustave Caillebote 2000) brings up a lot of the reasons for the difficulty there has been placing Caillebotte in the history of art. An artist's place in history is a unique topic, depending so much on the selling of work as well as the passing on of appreciation. Artists and writers roles shift in and out throughout our reading of history. Current culture and climates affect how we perceive one's art today, yesterday and tomorrow. Guess where I got this image?!