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March 26, 2023

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Looking at the Masters: Camille Claudel

March 23, 2023 by Beverly Hall Smith 1 Comment

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Camille Claudel (1864-1943) was born in the Aisne region of northern France into a family of priests, farmers, and the gentry. Her father was a banker. From 1869 until 1876, Claudel was educated at the school run by of Sisters of Christian Doctrine. The family moved to Paris when Claudel was seventeen years old. She showed a strong interest in art, but her mother disapproved of her “unladylike desire to become an artist.” Her father was more encouraging and showed her work to the sculptor Alfred Boucher, who said she was talented and should be encouraged.

Camille Claudel (L), Jessie Lipscomb (R) (188s)

Claudel began to study with Boucher in 1881 at the Academie Colarossi, a progressive school. Female students were accepted and even allowed to work from nude male models. In 1882 Claudel rented a studio with Jessie Lipscomb and two other women sculptors. Boucher won the Prix de Rome, an Academy prize that allowed the winner to study in Italy for a number of years. Before leaving he asked fellow sculptor August Rodin to look at Claudel’s work. She began working in his studio in 1883; she was his student, his model, his muse, and eventually became his lover, although he had a life-long partner Rose Beuret.

Claudel and Rodin had a passionate love affair from 1883 until 1891, when their relationship began to deteriorate. Claudel’s family disapproval of her life style, and she was forced to leave the family. Claudel had an abortion in 1892. She ended the affair and moved into her own studio. Claudel and Rodin continued to work together and to see each other until 1898. He famously claimed, “I have shown her where to find the gold in art, but the gold she has found was in herself.”

“The Waltz” (1905)

Claudel was successful as a sculptor, and in 1891 she was selected to be a jurist at the National Society of Fine Arts. Her first plaster model of “The Waltz” was reviewed in 1892 by art critic Armond Dayot, who was working as an inspector for the French Ministry of Beaux-Arts. The figures were originally two nudes, and Dayot found the movement and modeling praiseworthy. However, he found it not appropriate for public display.

Claudel reworked “The Waltz” (1893) by draping the lower torso of the female with an elegant flowing skirt. Dayot described the additions as “a gracious intertwining of superb shapes balanced in a harmonious rhythm among swirling drapes.” He stated that Claudel had great talent. However, when “The Waltz” was presented to the 1893 Salon of the Société National des Beaux-Arts, the authorities criticized its “violent sense of reality” and dismissed it. Claudel made several adjustments to the model over many years. The man once kissed the neck of his partner, but in this piece he gently kisses her cheek.

“The Waltz” (1905) (detail)

“The Waltz” (1905) is considered by art historians to be one of Claudel’s most personal works. Like most of Claudel’s sculptures, the work was not cast into bronze until 1905. However, the subject was influenced by her relationship and possible affair with the composer Claude Debussy. The two shared several interests in common, and music historians often speculate which of Debussy’s musical works were directly influenced by the relationship. After Claudel ended the relationship, Debussy wrote: “I weep for the disappearance of the Dream of his (the male figure) Dream.” Debussy kept a small model of “The Waltz” on his piano until his death. 

“The Wave” (1897)

Claudel and Debussy both admired the work of Degas and of the Japanese Ukiyo printmaker Hokusai. “The Wave” by Hokusai inspired Claudel’s “The Wave” (1897) (onyx, bronze, marble) (24.5’’ x22.2’’). In her work three female figures, cast in bronze, hold onto each other as the wave, carved from onyx, is about to crash over them. Not often employed by sculptors, the use of multiple media adds color to the work. The yellows, greens, and browns of the onyx also reference the colors in Hokusai’s print. The work may speak to the dark destiny of drowning; however, it may also be seen as women frolicking in the waves. Combined with ”The Gossips” (1897), a multimedia work of similar design and composition, the subject matter is lighter.  Her use of multimedia may be inspired by the sculptures of Charles Cordier, a popular contemporary sculptor, who used multicolored marbles.

Claudel with model of “Perseus and the Gorgon” (1897)

The plaster model for “Perseus and the Gorgon” (1897) (77’’x 43.7’’ x 35.4’’) was exhibited in the Salon de la Société National des Beaux-Arts in 1899. Rodin continued to aid Claudel financially, and he negotiated with the director of the Société to allow Claudel to show this piece in the 1899 Salon. Claudel hoped the model would lead to a commission. The Countess Arthur de Maigret commissioned a marble copy for her mansion in Paris. The work took four years to complete. Claudel was assisted by Francois Pompon who worked in their studio from 1890-1895. The marble sculpture was presented at the 1902 Salon. Unfortunately, the commission for the marble sculpture had been cancelled as a result of Rodin’s withdrawal of support because he was angered at seeing Claudel’s sculpture “The Age of Maturity.”

“Perseus and the Gorgon” (1905)

Claudel’s selection of a subject from Greek mythology, rather than a theme of her own creation, was likely a result of her financial struggles. Perseus and the Gorgon was typically an Academy subject. The young Perseus was tasked with bringing back the head of Medusa, the monster whose hair was made of snakes and who instantly turned anyone who looked upon her to stone. He was assisted in this task by several of the Olympian gods; Athena gave him a shield, Hermes gave him winged sandals so he could fly a long distance to find her, Hades gave him a cloak of invisibility, and Hephaestus gave him a sword. Claudel depicts Perseus looking into the mirrored surface of the shield to see Medusa, rather than looking directly at her and being turned to stone.  The dead body of Medusa lies at Perseus’s feet. From her severed neck were born two miraculous animals.  One was the winged horse Pegasus whose wings Claudel depicts as the horse is being formed.

“The Age of Maturity” (1893-1900) (Rodin Museum)

Dating any of Claudel’s sculpture is difficult, as many were conceived and altered over her working lifetime. Claudel started all in plaster, and made copies in marble and bronze. Others were cast in bronze by Eugene Blot in 1905. “The Age of Maturity” (1893-1900) shocked and angered Rodin when he viewed it in 1899. Claudel wrote, “One day when Rodin was visiting me, he suddenly stood still in front of this portrait, contemplating it, gently caressing the metal and weeping…” There are several ways to interpret the entire work. Some believe the first two figures represented a middle-aged man wrestling with the figure of old age, fighting against destiny. Is the young female, originally a separate work titled “The Implorer” (1898), pleading with old age to let the younger man go? Or is this a highly personal representation of their tempestuous love affair? Or, is old age not represented by a male but a female, specifically Rose Beuret, who Rodin chose over Claudel? Or does it have others meanings?

“The Age of Maturity” (1902) (Musee D’Orsay)

“The Age of Maturity” is full of passion, no matter the interpretation, and Claudel’s modeling of the surface is superb. The ripeness and softness of the young woman’s skin is an immediate contrast to the stretched neck tendons, sagging skin, and blood vessels and bones of the middle-aged man’s chest and hand. The face of the old man is a mask of death. This Claudel masterpiece was cast in bronze in 1902, and can be seen in a life-size model in the vast turbine hall of the Musee D’Orsay (first two figures 64’’ tall, single female figure 45” tall). From 1894 until 1898, Claudel had the single female, “The Implorer” (1898) cast into an edition of 59 copies.

Claudel exhibited at the 1903 Salon d’Autumne, an exhibition at the Salon des Artistes Francais. However, she was seen wandering the town, prowling around Rodin’s villa, disappearing for long periods of time, and showing signs of paranoia and schizophrenia. Claudel destroyed many of her works. By 1906, she was living in seclusion in her studio. Her family had never approved her behavior, but her father had always supported her. When he died in March 1913, she was not told of his death. Eight days later, her younger brother Paul admitted her to a psychiatric hospital. If she was able to work, she was fine according to hospital records. She wrote, “I have fallen into an abyss. I live in a world so curious, so strange. Of the dream that was my life, this is my nightmare.” The Paris press, calling her a sculptor of genius, tried in vain to help her.

During the German advance on Paris, Claudel was transferred to another mental asylum farther from Paris. The admittance certificate, dated September 22, 1914, stated she suffered “from a systematic persecution delirium mostly based upon false interpretations and imagination.” Claudel’s mother prevented her from receiving any mail, except from her brother. On several occasions doctors encouraged her mother to have Claudel released. Her mother refused. Over the 30 years of her confinement, her brother Paul visited her just seven times. Her sister Louise visited once. Her mother, who died in 1929, never visited. Fellow sculptor and friend Jessie Lipscomb visited, insisting Claudel was not insane. Camille Claudel died on of an apoplectic stroke on October 19, 1943. She was buried in a communal grave with the bones of destitute persons. The location of her gravesite remains unknown. 

The Camille Claudel Museum in Nogent-sur-Seine was opened in 2017. Approximately 90 statues, sketches, and drawings survive. Twenty additional works from the private collection of Claudel’s sister Louise were sold for $4.1 million in 2017. Rodin and Rose Beuret had a relationship from 1864 until February 1917, when they married. They had one child. Rose died two weeks later. Rodin died on November 17, 1917.

Two of Claudel’s contemporaries, Octave Mirabeau and Louis Vauxcelles, both respected art critics, praised Claudel’s work. Mirabeau called her “a revolt against nature: a woman genius.” Vauxcelles described her as “the only sculptress on whose forehead shone the sign of genius, more virile than many of her male colleagues.”  

Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years.  Since retiring with her husband Kurt to Chestertown in 2014, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL. She is also an artist whose work is sometimes in exhibitions at Chestertown RiverArts and she paints sets for the Garfield Center for the Arts.

Filed Under: Arts Lead, Arts Portal Lead

Looking at the Masters: Martin Johnson Heade 

March 16, 2023 by Beverly Hall Smith Leave a Comment

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Martin Johnson Heade (b.1819, Bucks County, PA) is a unique American landscape and flower painter. His family ran the Lumberville Store and Post Office. Heade’s first art teacher was Edward Hicks, a folk artist and Quaker minister.  Heade traveled abroad in 1838 to study art and lived in Rome for two years. When he returned to Pennsylvania, he showed his portraits at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and at the New York Academy of Design in 1841. He began exhibiting regularly in 1848. An itinerant portrait painter, he traveled along the East coast. He began to do more landscapes starting in the1850s. Heade settled in New York City in 1859 and worked at the Tenth Street Studio, where many of the Hudson River artists worked. Heade painted seascapes, salt marshes, and small horizontal landscapes, concentrating on lighting effects and atmosphere. He became friends with Kensett, Bierstadt, Gifford, and Frederick Edwin Church, whose “Heart of the Andes” (1857) (66’’ x130’’) he saw at the Metropolitan Museum. Heade made his first trip to Brazil in 1863.

“The Harbor of Rio de Janeiro” (1864)

Church had visited Brazil two times and created large panoramic landscapes that excited New York art buyers. He advised Heade to do the same. Heade went with a different idea in mind. “The Harbor of Rio de Janeiro” (1864) (19.2’’ x 43.1’’), like all Heade’s paintings, was small and intimate. At sunset, the harbor stretches across the canvas with a few sailboats, a sandy shore with tropical plants in the foreground, and the City spread out below the magnificent mountains. It is quiet and peaceful. The Emperor of Brazil, Don Pedro II, liked Heade’s painting so much he made him a Knight in the Order of the Rose, an imperial order established in 1829. 

“Cattleya Orchid and Three Brazilian Hummingbirds” (1871)

Heade went to Brazil with the naturalist Reverend J. C. Fletcher who proposed to use Heade’s illustrations for his book Fletcher’s Study of South American Hummingbirds.  Heade made 20 small paintings titled “The Gems of Brazil” for the book. More than 50 people bought subscriptions, but 200 were needed. The book was never published; however, Heade remained fascinated by orchids and hummingbirds, and he painted dozens of them, all different. “Cattleya Orchid and Three Brazilian Hummingbirds” (1871) (13.7’’ x 17.9’’) (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.) illustrates Heade’s attention to the smallest detail, his knowledge of his subject, and his remarkable ability to capture the atmosphere of the Brazilian jungle. 

The Cattleya orchid, called the “Queen of Orchids,” was first discovered in Brazil in 1817, and it was named for English horticulturist and collector William Cattleya. Heade depicts a purple Cattleya orchid in all its splendor. It is one of the largest orchids and grows high in the jungle. Heade depicts the light green leaves necessary for the orchid to bloom. Dark green leaves do not support blooms. Victorian England loved orchids and attributed meanings to most flowers. Purple orchids were the symbol of dignity and authority. Giving a purple orchid to someone showed love and respect. 

The hummingbird closest to the orchid is a ruby-throated hummingbird. The birds fly around their nest which is built on a slender branch, frequently in the fork. They build their small nests high above the ground where they are hard to see. The nests are often mistaken for a knot of wood. Hummingbirds have been popular over the ages and with many cultures. They represent good luck, joy, and love. Christians consider them messengers from God and a reminder to trust in Him.

A Boston Transcript article (August 1863) reported on Heade’s trip to Brazil: “It is his [Heade’s] intention in Brazil to depict the richest and most brilliant of the hummingbird family–about which he is so great an enthusiast–to prepare in London or Paris a large and elegant Album on these wonderful little creatures…He is only fulfilling a dream of his boyhood in doing so.” Brazil has 81 species of hummingbirds.

“Passion Flowers and Hummingbirds” (c.1870-83)

“Passion Flowers and Hummingbirds” (c.1870-83) (15.1’’ x21.58’’) (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) depicts black and white snow-capped hummingbirds. The iridescent green birds have white throats and bellies, separated by broad green collars, and white snow-caps. They are particularly attracted to passion flowers. Spanish Christian missionaries named the flowers “passion flowers” because they associated specific parts of the flower with the scourging, crowing with thorns, and crucifixion of Christ. The 10 red petals represented the 10 apostles, excluding Judas, and Peter who denied Christ three times. The corona rising from the center of the petals represents the crown of thorns. The styles coming from the center of the corona look like large-headed nails.  

Heade supported Darwin’s theory of evolution explained in his book The Effects of Cross and Self Fertilization in the Vegetable Kingdom (1876). Darwin specifically mentions that hummingbird beaks were adapted specifically to fertilize passion flowers. Heade was the first artist to paint several works paring the two. 

“View from Fern Tree Walk, Jamaica” (1887)

Heade married Elisabeth Smith in 1883, and they settled in St. Augustine, Florida. From 1883 until his death, Heade painted over 150 works.  “View from Fern Tree Walk, Jamaica” (1887) is one of Heade’s largest paintings, measuring four feet by seven feet. It was commissioned by real estate developer Henry Morrison Flagler, also partner of John D. Rockefeller in the Standard Oil Company. Flagler wanted to make St. Augustine the “Newport of the South.” He commissioned Heade to make two paintings, “View from Fern Tree Walk, Jamaica” (1887) and “The Great Florida Sunset” (1887), to hang in the upper rotunda of his Hotel Ponce de Leon. The hotel included seven artists’ studios, one of which Flagler gave to Heade. 

In “View from Fern Tree Walk, Jamaica” Heade returned to painting horizontal landscapes, having painted so many early in his career. The sun shines across the foreground highlighting giant palm fronds and tropical plants. A path at the center of the composition leads down to the water. Tall palm trees, blue skies with white clouds, and a welcoming calm landscape are characteristics of Heade’s work.

“The Great Florida Sunset” (1887)

“The Great Florida Sunset” (1887) (54.25” x96’’) is the companion piece to “View from Fern Tree Walk, Jamaica.”  Heade’s love of each landscape he painted is obvious. He knew the shore reeds, the water plants, the variety of Florida palms, white lilies, exotic birds, and brilliant clouds at sunset. “View from Fern Tree Walk, Jamaica” was purchased in the 1950s by a Californian. “The Great Florida Sunset” was sold in 1988. In 2015 the Marine Art Museum in Winona, Minnesota, paid $9.5 million for “The Great Florida Sunset” at a Sotheby’s auction, more than twice the price of other Heade paintings. The Museum previously had purchased “View from Fern Tree Walk, Jamaica.” The two paintings once again hang together. 

“Giant Magnolias on a Blue Velvet Cloth” (1890)

  After Heade moved to Florida, he developed an interest in native flowers. He created paintings of Cherokee roses, orange blossoms, apple blossoms, and roses, to name a few. Of special interest to Heade was the white magnolia which appealed to him because of his interest in natural history and the artistic beauty of the flower.  He placed white magnolia blossoms on velvet cloth of a variety of colors to compare textures and elegant contours. “Giant Magnolias on a Blue Velvet Cloth” (1890) (15.1’’ x24.2’’) was purchased by the National Gallery of Art, Washington. D.C., in 1982. 

Magnolia trees have a long symbolic history. They were a staple in southern gardens. They represented stability and longevity because of their long life. The white blossoms represent nobility and purity, and they are used in medicines. The fragrance and beauty of the large blossoms can withstand changes in weather conditions, representing endurance and fortitude. 

Heade’s paintings are considered unique in American art as no other American artist created such a large collection of still lifes and landscapes. His still life paintings are considered by scholars to be among the most original paintings of the 19th Century. “Giant Magnolias on a Blue Velvet Cloth” is considered to be one of the finest still life paintings of the time. In 2004, the United States Postal Service selected this painting for the 37-cent stamp.

Heade’s paintings did not bring him a large income during his lifetime. When he died in St Augustine in 1904, he was largely unknown, although from 1800 to 1904, he wrote over 100 letters and articles on hummingbirds and tropical plants for Forest and Stream magazine. Attention was paid to Heade in the 1940s when art historians and artists rediscovered his work. His reputation was restored, and he is recognized today as one of the most important artists of his generation.

 “A few years after my first appearance in this breathtaking world [1863], I was attacked by the all-absorbing hummingbird craze, and it has never left me since.” (Martin Johnson Heade)

Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years.  Since retiring with her husband Kurt to Chestertown in 2014, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL. She is also an artist whose work is sometimes in exhibitions at Chestertown RiverArts and she paints sets for the Garfield Center for the Arts.

Filed Under: Arts Lead, Arts Portal Lead

Looking at the Masters: Adelaide Labille-Guiard   

March 9, 2023 by Beverly Hall Smith Leave a Comment

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Adelaide Labille-Guiard (1749-1803) was one of the eight children of Claude Edme Labille and Marie-Anne Saint-Martin. Her father owned a haberdashery shop near the Louvre in a popular section of Paris with theaters, music halls, and dance halls. It was home to many artists, since the Royal Academy was housed in the Louvre. Labille-Guiard was able to spend time in the studio of Francois Elie Vincent, a miniaturist, and she also studied pastel with Maurice Quentin de la Tour. She entered the Academy of Saint Luke in 1769.  She married Louis Nicholas Guiard, a financial clerk, that same year. The marriage contract stated that she was a professional painter at the Academy of Saint Luke. They separated in 1774; there were no children. When Napoleon came to power, they were able to divorce legally. Although she continued to use the name Guiard, she married Francois Vincent, a history painter, in 1800.

“Self-Portrait with Two Students” (1785)

Labille-Guiard’s pastel portraits achieved great success when she exhibited at the Academy of Saint Luke.  An exhibition in1877 was so successful that the Royal Academy, with the backing of the King, abolished the Academy of Saint Luke. The ambitious Labille-Guiard was undaunted. By 1783, her pastels had earned her an appointment to the Royal Academy. It had limited membership of women to four. Labille-Guiard was an advocate for women artists. Her “Self-Portrait with Two Students” (1785) (6’11’’ x 5’) (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City) had several purposes. Exemplary of her classical technique, it included two of her female students, Marie Gabrielle Capet (1761-1818) and Marie Marguerite Carreaux de Rosemond (d. 1785). Both students would become fine artists, although they could not become Academy members or show their work in Academy exhibitions. Labille-Guiard was determined to get them in the exhibition, one way or another.

She depicted herself in the process of teaching her students, who pay her rapt attention. She shows off her wealth, dressing in an extravagant light blue and white silk gown, with a very low neck-line. She wears a very large straw hat with a large blue bow and lots of feathers. Her father’s haberdashery skills are on full display. The toe of her elegant silver slipper rests on the easel. Clearly, she dressed herself in an outfit she would never wear when painting. In contrast, her students are simply dressed. Her well-appointed studio has a carpet on the parquet wooden floor. A gilded and carved wooden stool with a red velvet cushion holds additional paint brushes. Behind her is a classical portrait bust, and beyond that a statue of a Vestal Virgin. Specially selected Roman women who remained chaste and kept the sacred fires burning in the temple of Vesta received special rights and privileges.

“Madame Adelaide” (1787)

Princess Marie Adelaide, daughter of Louis XV and eldest aunt of Louis XVI, saw great talent in the work of Labille-Guiard. She was responsible for hiring Labille-Guiard to paint portraits of the Madames of France, women of the court who were relatives of the King.  Labille-Guiard was awarded a pension of 1000 livres. The subject of  “Madame Adelaide” (1787) (106” x76.3’’) (Versailles) is dressed in a flowing, burnt orange velvet coat decorated with heavy gold embroidery. It is worn over a silver and gold brocade gown with lace sleeves and jabot. Her hair adornment of ribbons and lace is not a hat, but may be another Labille-Guiard creation.

Madame Adelaide stands next to an elegant easel on which the cameo portrait of her dead parents and brother are painted. A black velvet curtain has been pulled back to display the work. The towel and pen in her hands may indicate Madame Adelaide has just signed the work. She looks out at viewers as if to get their approval. The marble inlaid floor, the gilded stool with a green velvet and gold fringed cushion, and the gold chair with the green cushioned back set the scene in a palace. On the wall behind her are four tall marble columns with Corinthian capitals. Between the columns is a carved stone relief depicting persons mourning at the side of a death bed. Barely visible between the two columns, a sculptured female figure stands upon a pedestal and holds a burning torch. 

‘’Madame Louisa Elisabeth of France and Son’’ (1788)

  “Madame Louisa Elisabeth of France and Son” (1788) (108’’ x63’’) (Versailles) is a posthumous portrait, the subject died of small pox at the age of 32. Her young son Ferdinand holds her hand and looks up at her. Louisa Elisabeth, relaxes against the rail of a porch and looks pensively at the viewer. She wears an elaborate black dress with gold trim, decorative red slashes on the sleeves, and stiff white lace.  The bodice is very low cut, not usual in women’s portraits of the time. The red velvet curtain hanging from the roof of the porch, the red velvet on the railing, the red in her hat, and the tiny red point of her shoe tie the composition together. Her unusually well feathered hat is another Labille-Guiard creation. The sun shining across the painting from left to right creates shadows. Her silhouette, particularly her feather hat, appears on the wall behind her. The sun shines fully on the three short pillars of the balustrade, her son’s blond hair, and the hand her son holds. The sun does not shine upon the upper part of her face. The inclusion of the parrot on the balcony railing is an interesting choice. Parrots carry on conversations as they repeat words they have heard and therefore are considered messengers from God.

“Marquise de Lafayette” (1790-91)

Labille-Guiard wanted to move toward painting history subjects. She was commissioned to paint the King’s brother in a large history painting. During the French Revolution of 1789, much of the art that depicted royalty was destroyed.  The portraits of the Madames of France and a major painting of Marie Antoinette that had been taken to Versailles were spared.

The “Marquise de Lafayette” (1790) (30.75’’ x 24.75’’) (National Museum of Women in the Artist) is presumed to be a portrait of the wife of the Marquis de Lafayette, well-known in France for his help to America in the American Revolution. The Marquise is dressed in a simple purple dress with little adornment and no jewelry except for earrings. She is placed in front of an ambiguous landscape, not a royal palace or park. Her attire is within the more subdued and simplistic limits of the early years of the French Revolution.  

Labille-Guiard supported the French Revolution, and she found patrons among members of the National Assembly (1789-1791) including Robespierre and Talleyrand. She also was commissioned to paint some history paintings.  She proposed on September 23, 1790, that an unlimited number of women be admitted to the Royal Academy and allowed to serve on the governing board. Both motions were approved, but short lived. 

Labille-Guiard finally was allotted lodgings in the Louvre in 1795, and was given a new pension of 2000 livres per year. She was the first woman artist to have a studio in the Louvre. Her earlier requests were rejected because of her students were women. The Comte d’Angiviller had advised the King that “all the artists have their lodgings in the Louvre, and as one only gets to all these lodgings through corridors that are often dark, this mixing of young artists of different sexes would be very inconvenient for morals and for the decency of Your Majesty’s palace.”

“Atelier of Madame Vincent” (1808)

Labille-Guiard was able to divorce her estranged husband and marry Francois Vincent in 1800. She, her husband, and student Marie Gabrielle Capet moved to a house outside Paris in the town of Pontault-en-Brie. Labille-Guiard and Vincent adopted Capet so she would be able to inherit their estate.  Unfortunately, Labille-Guiard became ill and died in 1803 at the age of 54. Her student Capet stayed on to look after Francois Vincent, who died in 1816. “Atelier of Madame Vincent” (1808) (27” x32.8”) was painted by Capet as a tribute to her teacher Labille-Guiard (Mrs. Vincent). Labille-Guiard, dressed in a simple white gown, paints a portrait of the esteemed French painter Joseph-Marie Vien (1716-1809). Capet sits to her left and looks out at viewers as if to verify they are paying attention. She prepares paint for Madame Vincent.  In the black jacket just behind Madame Vincent, her husband points at something in his wife’s painting. 

The room is full of watchers. Labille-Guiard and other women painters were often accused of taking credit for works painted by men. Therefore, onlookers were not unusual in the studio of a woman artist. Accusations and rumors of rivalry between women artists and flirtations with male sitters were common, but not true. Male artists’ prejudice against women artists who might steal their clients was rampant. 

Labille-Guiard was considered one of the best teachers of her time, and one of the great pastel portraitists. Her reputation suffered after her death, not because she was not a great artist, but because she was a woman artist. Her works and her reputation have been researched and restored by writers in the women’s movement of the 1960s and 70s.

Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years.  Since retiring with her husband Kurt to Chestertown in 2014, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL. She is also an artist whose work is sometimes in exhibitions at Chestertown RiverArts and she paints sets for the Garfield Center for the Arts.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Arts Lead, Arts Portal Lead, Looking at the Masters

Looking at the Masters: Sonia Delaunay

March 2, 2023 by Beverly Hall Smith 1 Comment

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“UNESCO Annee Internationale de la Femme 1975”

In1975, the United Nations General Assembly declared March 8 International Woman’s Day “to recognize the fact that securing peace and social progress and the full enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms requires the active participation, equality, and development of women; and to acknowledge the contribution of women to the strengthening of international peace and security.” Sonia Delaunay was commissioned by UNESCO to design the official poster. The United States sets aside one day for the celebration, but the subject of Delaunay’s French poster was International Year of the Woman.

Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979), born in Odessa, Ukraine, was from a well-to-do Jewish family. Her uncle Henri Terk was a lawyer in St Petersburg and Sonia went there to live with the Terk family when she was five.  She received a quality education in St Petersburg, including the languages French, English, and German. She traveled, visited museums, and discovered art. By age fourteen her talent was recognized, and she attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe, Germany. She went to Paris in1905 to study at the Académie de la Palette on Montparnasse. However, she preferred the galleries and the new art to the Classic style. She was influenced by the paintings of Matisse, Gauguin, and Van Gogh, and she met Kandinsky and other Russian artists in Paris.

“Le Bal Bullier” (1913)

Delaunay’s first solo exhibition was at the William Uhde Gallery in Paris in 1909. Uhde was a German art critic and art dealer. She and Uhde were married in December 1909. It was as a marriage of convenience for both: her parents wanted her to come home, and Uhde was gay. That same year Sonia met Robert Delaunay and fell in love. She and Uhde divorced amicably after one year of marriage. Uhde said, “A friend of mine felt he could make my wife more perfectly happy than I could.”  

Sonia said, “In Robert Delaunay I found a poet. A poet who wrote not with words but with colors.” Together they developed a new artistic style they named Simultanism, based on Cherveul’s scientific discovery that light was composed of the six colors of the rainbow. The Delaunays preferred to use the colors of light when painting an object rather than the browns and grays of Cubism.  “Le Bal Bullier” (1913) (oil on mattress fabric) (38” x 132.5’’) depicts customers dancing in the popular Montparnasse nightclub to the new favorite, the tango. The tango originated in a sailors’ bar in Argentina, and the intensity of the dance and the erotic moves of partners in a tight embrace became all the rage. The Delaunays were frequent customers.

Sonia captures the simultaneous excitement and energy of the tango with intense colors that form various shapes moving across the dance floor. Some couples hold each other tight and move their hips in matched rhythms. Others sway and swirl to the pulsing of the music. The viewer is drawn into the passion and spirit of the dance.

“Electric Prisms” (1914)

“Electric Prisms” (1914) (94”x 99”) was inspired by the electric streetlights on Paris boulevards. The canvas is composed of two major centers of light radiating and overlapping in a multitude of colors. Robert Delaunay described Sonia’s style as intuitive: “Sonia created her harmonies and rhythms of color from life itself, from color she invented with the brush in the manner of color poems.” Their good friend Guillaume Apollinaire, considered to be a major poet, playwright, novelist, and art critic of the early 20th Century, called their art Orphism. Orpheus was the legendary Greek musician renowned for his musical skills that allowed him to charm the three headed dog Cerberus and enter Hades. Apollinaire commented, ”Upon waking, the D’s talk color.” Sonia decorated everything in their apartment as she said, “to make homes live able, bodies alive…it can be the dress of books, the skin of objects, the harlequin driving away ugliness…we have liberated color, which has become a value in itself.” The Delaunays’ “Electric Prism” paintings were juried into the Salon d’ Independents in Paris in 1914.

 

“Simultaneous Dress” (1914)

Sonia Delaunay designed their clothes in what she termed simultaneous colors. She made Robert a suit with a red coat and blue collar, with which he wore red socks, yellow and black shoes, black pants, a green jacket, sky blue vest, and tiny red tie. Sonia wore a “Simultaneous Dress” (1914) similar to the one pictured. It was purple with a green belt, the bodice was divided into old rose, orange and Nattier blue, each of a different fabric, tulle, silk, flannel, taffeta, and peau de soie.

Gloria Swanson in swimsuit and a coat (1923-24)

The Delaunays vacationed in Fuenterrabia, a Basque border town in Spain. In 1914, World War I broke out, and they lived in Madrid for a year. To escape the Spanish Revolution, they moved to Portugal and lived there from 1915 until 1917.  Sonia said the light in the Iberian Peninsula opened her eyes. She used the opportunity to design pottery and fabric, and by 1919 she had turned her attention to fashion. Her Russian relatives helped support Robert and her, but the Russian Revolution in1917 closed that avenue of support. The couple moved back to Madrid, where they met Diaghilev. He commissioned Robert to design the sets for the ballet Cleopatra and Sonia to design the costumes. The Marquis de ’Urqui helped Sonia set up Casa Sonia; her fashion and fabric became famous. 

The Delaunays moved back to Paris in 1921, and Sonia set up a fashion studio with Jacques Heim, a French fashion designer and costume designer for theater and film. She designed clothes for such famous people as actress Gloria Swanson and shipping heiress Nancy Cunard. Gloria Swanson’s coat was wool with embroidery. Sonia created 50 silk fabric designs that were manufactured in Lyon and sold in department stores in London, New York, and Amsterdam. She was commissioned to do book illustrations, and sets and costumes for a variety of plays and films

Citroen (1925)

In 1925 Delaunay designed the Citroen B-12 boat tail to match her “simultaneous outfit.” The 1925 International Exposition of Decorative Arts included furniture, bedspreads, lampshade, book binding, carpets, handbags, and shoes designed by Delaunay. She was invited to speak at the Sorbonne (1927) where she introduced the idea of prêt-à-porter (ready to wear).  Although Robert’s art always brought income, Sonia’s business provided support for the family. The stock market crash of 1929 caused Sonia to close her business, although she continued to design for private clients. Sonia told a friend the Depression liberated her from business. 

“Study for Portugal” (1937)

 

Sonia’s mural “Portugal and Distant Voyages” was exhibited at the Paris World Fair of 1937 in the Pavilion de Chemins de Fer (railroads).  In the “Study for Portugal” (1937), Sonia created a background of simultaneous colors, all in pastel rainbow shades, to represent clouds in the sky. Figures wearing colorful native costumes of Portugal move toward the center figure, a train represented by two large black wheels. A black building is the tallest object near the center of the composition. To the right are the double arches of a railroad bridge in light orange and green. Three black masts of boats indicate the nearness of the port. The mural won Sonia a gold medal.

Thursday afternoon at the Delaunays was the place to be. That was where the artists of Paris, including the Surrealists, wanted to be. Unfortunately, Robert’s health declined and he died of cancer on October 14, 1941. Sonia continued to make art, while dedicating time to making sure Robert’s legacy was established. Sonia lived in the south of France during World War II and returned to Paris after the war. Much in demand, Sonia was given one-person exhibitions in Paris. Her first solo exhibit in America was at the Rose Fried Gallery in New York City in 1955.  The Robert & Sonia Delaunay Museum des Beaux-Arts opened in Lyon, France in 1959. Sonia was the first living woman artist to be given an exhibition in the Louvre in1964. The Matra automobile company, formed in 1960, asked Sonia to design the coloring of one of its models in 1967. The commission of the UNESCO poster for the International Year of the Woman was followed the naming of Delaunay an officer in the French Legion of Honor in1975. When French President Pompidou wanted to bring an official gift from the French government on his visit to America, he chose one of her paintings.

‘’The Encounter’’ (1971)

In the 1970’s Delaunay created designs for tapestries at the Aubusson tapestry works. “The Encounter” (1971) (69’’x 48’’) (Aubusson) is one of several tapestry designs. 

“The Encounter” (1971)

Throughout her life, Sonia’s choice of color and design stood out in any exhibition. She died at age 94. ”Je Suis une optimiste” were her last words.

“For me there is no gap between my painting and my so-called ‘decorative’ work. I never considered the ‘minor arts’ to be artistically frustrating; on the contrary, it was an extension of my art.”

“I always painted as an amusement and it amused me to do that,
but this amusement took my whole life.” (Sonia Delaunay)

Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years.  Since retiring with her husband Kurt to Chestertown in 2014, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL. She is also an artist whose work is sometimes in exhibitions at Chestertown RiverArts and she paints sets for the Garfield Center for the Arts.

 

 

  

Filed Under: Arts Lead, Arts Portal Lead

Looking at the Masters: Constantino Brumidi

February 23, 2023 by Beverly Hall Smith Leave a Comment

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Constantino Brumidi (1805-1880) was born in Rome of Italian-Greek parents. A promising young artist, he was admitted as a student to the Academy of Arts in Rome when he was thirteen years old. At the Academy he learned to paint in the Classical manner. His successful career in Italy included many portrait commissions, and when Brumidi was thirty-five, Pope Gregory VI commissioned him to restore Raphael’s frescoes in the Vatican Loggia. Brumidi was a captain in the National Guard fighting on the side of Pope Pius IX against the Republic in the Roman Republic revolt of 1849. He was imprisoned for fourteen months. When the revolt ended and Pius IX regained his position, he was able to get Brumidi released from prison. However, Brumidi’s release was conditioned on his leaving Italy. The family left Italy in 1849 and reached New York in 1852. Brumidi painted altarpieces and portraits in New York City, Mexico, Philadelphia, and Maryland until he went to Washington, D.C. in 1854. 

“Apotheosis of Washington’’ (1865)

In 1856, Brumidi met Captain Montgomery Meigs of the Army Corps of Engineers. Meigs was supervising the construction of buildings in the Capital. Meigs commissioned Brumidi to paint a mural in the meeting room of the House Committee on Agriculture. He was paid eight dollars per day until Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of War, saw the work and had Brumidi’s salary increased to $10. Brumidi’s mural was admired by everyone, and he became the painter of the Capitol.

“Apotheosis of Washington” (1865) (4,664 square feet) (180 feet above the floor) was commissioned by the Senate to be placed in the rotunda of the Capitol. Washington died in 1799, and by 1800 a commemorative print showing him ascending into heaven was popular. A statue of Washington by Horatio Greenough was commissioned by the Senate (1832) to be place in the Capitol. Unfortunately, Greenough depicted Washington seated on a throne and dressed in a Roman toga, his chest bare. The sculpture and Greenough were severely criticized, and the sculpture was removed. Brumidi did not wish to share the same fate. His Washington wears a military uniform. 

Brumidi’s design was influenced by the Italian Renaissance artist Antonio da Correggio, who pioneered painting a domed ceiling with his “Assumption of the Virgin” (1522) in the Cathedral of Parma, Italy. Brumidi’s composition is essentially two circles within the dome. The center circle contains Washington, Liberty, Freedom, and thirteen young women representing the thirteen colonies. The outer circle of the dome contains the six major strengths of America: Agriculture, Mechanics, Commerce, Marine, Science, and War.

Brumidi painted all his murals in the Capitol in true fresco, a technique he introduced to the Capitol. True fresco involves painting on a freshly plastered section of wall, allowing the color to penetrate the plaster and become part of the wall. 

Washington Between Liberty and Victory

The term apotheosis refers to the entrance into heaven of an individual, considered equal to the gods and therefore divine. Washington was not deified by the U.S. Senate, but he was considered to be the Father of the Country and guardian spirit of the United States. Dressed in a blue military uniform with gold epaulets, Washington holds his sword, point downward, in his left hand, and he gestures with his right hand extended toward Liberty. Liberty, a young blond woman, wears a peaked red cap, the “red cap of liberty” worn in the French Revolution. She carries Roman fasces, a bundle of rods tied together by a cord with an axe head projecting from the top. It was the Roman symbol of civil authority, and it became the symbol of American democracy, of unity and of strength. One rod breaks easily but together they are strong.  Winged Victory sits at the other side of Washington. She carries the palm branch of peace and wears a laurel wreath crown of victory.  She blows a victory trumpet. The depiction of these three figures sitting atop the rainbow is a reference to Genesis story about the flood and God’s covenant with humankind.   

Below Washington, War is represented by the figure of Freedom and an American eagle. Freedom, also known as Columbia, derived from the name of Christopher Columbus, is clothed in red, white, and gold, and wearing armor. She wields a sword and shield, and wears a gold helmet with white stars and golden eagle. She fights five male figures who represent tyranny and the power of kings. The central figure, representing royalty, wears a full set of armor and a red cloak with an ermine lining. He falls to the ground, his golden scepter and symbol of his power falls with him.  At his right, three figures, one young, one middle aged, and one old look fearfully at Freedom and fall to the ground on top of a cannon. Two menacing male figures at her left, one an old man holding two flaming torches, fall to the ground.

Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years.  Since retiring with her husband Kurt to Chestertown in 2014, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL. She is also an artist whose work is sometimes in exhibitions at Chestertown RiverArts and she paints sets for the Garfield Center for the Arts.

Agriculture

American agriculture is represented by the Roman goddesses Ceres and Flora. Ceres represents the sowing, nourishing, and harvesting of all agricultural products. Sitting among shafts of wheat, Ceres wears a crown of wheat and holds a cornucopia full of vegetables, a pineapple at the top. A male figure dressed in gold wears the red cap of liberty, which America enjoys. He hands Ceres the reins of two palomino horses that pull the McCormick reaper, the frame and wheel partially visible. Flora, the goddess of flowering plants, gathers a bouquet. 

Mechanics

The mechanical advancements of America are represented by Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and the forge. He was inventor of smithing and metal working that provided Rome with its superior weapons. Vulcan stands with is right leg resting upon the barrel of a cannon. He can be identified by his hammer and anvil. Two figures at his right lift a metal fasces. Behind them smoke rises from the stack of a steam locomotive.

Commerce

Mercury, the Roman god of commerce, finance, and messenger of the gods, sits upon boxes and crates. He wears winged sandals and a winged hat, and he carries a caduceus. At his right, men shift boxes on a dolly. Mercury hands a bag of money to Robert Morris, the gentleman in the dark blue suit and powdered wig. Morris was a major financier of the American revolution. At his feet, an anchor points toward the ocean and to the next scene. Smoke arises from two chimney stacks visible in the distance.

Several of the young women who represent the thirteen colonies sit on the ring of clouds above Commerce. They hold a banner with the words E PLURIBUS UNUM. 

Marine

Representing the oceans and marine life is the Roman god Neptune, holding his trident.  His seashell chariot is drawn over the waves by two white seahorses, and he is accompanied by mermen and an infant on a dolphin. Venus, draped in blue, holds onto a black cable, representing the transatlantic cable that was being laid at the time.

Science

The rainbow on which Washington, Liberty, and Freedom sit, connects the two paintings of Science and Agriculture. Minerva (Greek Athena), Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, arts, and victory in war, holds a spear and wears a warrior’s helmet. She points to the three men sitting beside her: the inventors Benjamin Franklin, Samuel F. B. Morse, and Robert Fulton. The two male figures in front of them look at an electric generator and a printing press. To her right, a group of students listen, discuss, and write. Kneeling on the ground, the figure in brown may reference Euclid from Raphael’s “School of Athens.” 

Brumidi continued to paint in the Capitol until his death. He collapsed while working on a scaffold 58 feet above the floor.  He was able to hold onto the scaffold until rescue came. A few months later he died (1880). In his eulogy for Brumidi, Senator Justin Morrill of Vermont stated, “So long has Brumidi devoted his heart and strength to this Capitol that his love and reverence for it is not surpassed by even that of Michelangelo for St. Peter’s.”

Brumidi was buried in an unmarked grave in Glenwood Cemetery in Washington, D.C. The location of his grave was lost until it was rediscovered in February 19, 1952.  A marker was placed there. In 2008, Brumidi was awarded posthumously the Congressional Medal of Honor.

 

“My one ambition is that I may live long enough to make beautiful the Capitol of the one country on earth in which there is liberty.” (Constantino Brumidi)

 

Filed Under: Looking at the Masters, Top Story

Looking at the Masters: Joyce J Scott

February 16, 2023 by Beverly Hall Smith Leave a Comment

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Joyce Jane Scott (b.1948) has lived in Baltimore her entire life, but her reputation is world-wide. Her mother Elizabeth Talford Scott (1916-2011) was a well-known quilter who began to teach her daughter beading and quilting when Joyce was only three. Joyce Scott graduated from Eastern High School and in 1970 earned her BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art. She completed an MFA degree at the Instituto Allende in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Scott pursued her craft by visiting countries with strong beading traditions, such as West Africa’s Yoruba people, the Maasia of Kenya, and South America. 

“Nuclear Nanny” (1983-84)

Scott’s subject matter is a commentary on social issues, such as racism, sexism, violence, and cultural stereotyping. “Nuclear Nanny” (1983-84) (32.5” x23.5”) is from Scott’s Holocaust Series. During the Cold War in 1983, the threat of nuclear war was a major topic in the news. In this work a large human skeleton is placed against a fiery red background. The long blond hair that stands on end as if electrified identifies the subject as a woman. Her red heart is visible on the white bones of the rib cage and spine. Small skeletal heads and unattached arms and legs appear around her. An image of chaos is created by the swirling blue, red, and green patterns around her. The composition is created with uneven edges; nothing is stable or secure. 

To achieve this effect, Scott has used the Mola technique of cloth making she learned from the Cuna Indians in the San Blas Islands off the coast of Panama and Columbia. The cloth is made from cotton and synthetic fabric and kid leather. Several different colors of cloth are sewn together on top of each other. The design is formed by cutting some parts of each layer to expose the colors beneath. Then each edge is turned under and sewn, leaving a clean edge. Sequins, glass beads, and embroidery were added on top of the cloth.

“Man Eating Watermelon” (1986)

Scott learned the peyote stitch from a Native American artist at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine in 1976. The peyote stitch is as old as ancient Egypt, and the technique allowed Scott to create three-dimensional shapes and to attach objects onto the beads without glue or wire. “Man Eating Watermelon” (1986) (8” x3”) is an example of the peyote stitch, and of Scott’s ironic wit: “I believe in messing with stereotypes…It’s important for me to use art in a manner that incites people to look and then carry something home–even if it’s subliminal…that might make a change in them.” Along with her many exhibitions, Scott often includes performances that are satirical and funny, much like Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor.  

No Mommy Me” (1991)

Another series of images Scott has used throughout her career deals with nannys. Her mother was housekeeper and nanny for white families, so Scott is familiar with the feelings of both the mother and the child in these situations. “No Mommy, Me” (1991) (15” x6” x6’’) has to be seen from more than one point of view to be fully understood. A tall African-American nanny playfully lifts a white baby over her head. The baby is not afraid, and while holding on to the nanny’s left hand, the baby thrusts her right arm in the air. The baby is having fun. From the angle of this image, the viewer also can see the brown child hugging the bottom of the nanny’s skirt as if to say, “Please play with me, mother.” 

 

“Three Graces Oblivious While Los Angeles Burns” (1992)

On March 3, 1991, Rodney King was beaten to death by four white policemen, and in 1992 a jury found them not guilty. In Los Angeles, riots broke out lasting from April to May, resulting in the death of 63 people, 2,282 injured, more than 12,000 arrested, and property damage estimated to be over one billion dollars. Scott created in 1991 a bead sculpture titled “Rodney King’s Head Squashed Like a Watermelon” (11” x7” x6”). 

The “Three Graces Oblivious While Los Angeles Burned” (1992) (21” x 10”x9”) was Scott’s response to the acquittal and the riots. The three white beaded graces represent the three Greek Graces: beauty, charm, and joy. They dance freely around the white vase Scott employs as the base of the work. The vase is covered with flat black images of buildings, orange and red fire at the top, and green bushes at the bottom. Los Angeles is on fire. Rodney King’s brown beaded head is placed on top of the vase. The black figure holding an orange stone seems ready to assault King. 

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“Boy with Gun” (1995)

Gun violence has been a constant for too many years.  Scott’s response to this issue is “Boy with Gun” (1995) (3’). About this sculpture she stated, “I feel a responsibility in living in a land where this is happening.” The boy stands on an overturned baby carriage created with black wire. In the carriage is a large green gun which the boy grasps with his left hand. The barrel of the gun is pointed at the boy. Fortunately, no one is there to pull the trigger. The boys’ body is covered with African tribal markings that indicate he has become a man. The wood base on which the sculpture stands is covered with pennies. Life is cheap.

Scott has tackled difficult subjects with her art. Date rape, drug abuse, sex trafficking, and current events such as the genocide in Darfur are among her topics. Concerning the impact of her work on viewers, Scott states, “I don’t believe in shielding them from issues they are seeing every day. Isn’t it smarter to say ‘what is this about?’ “

“Araminta with Rifle and Veve” (2017)

Scott received in 2016 the prestigious McArthur Fellow, Genius Grant of $625,000. She said that an award of this scale was an invitation to think bigger and take more risks. The result was the 2016 exhibition Joyce J. Scott: Harriet Tubman and Other Truths at the Grounds for Sculpture in New Jersey. “Araminta with Rifle and Veve” (2017) (10’) (painted milled foam, blown glass, mixed media, and beaded staff) is an image of Harriet Tubman. She carries a rifle in her right hand and a Veve, the crooked staff in her left hand. The staff is beaded in several colors and resembles the staff associated with the Egyptian pharaohs as a symbol of their deity and power. The name Araminta means “lofty, defender, and lion,” characteristics of Tubman. Scott considers Tubman to have been “someone who was a go-getter and had the nerve. When we talk about resiliency, self-sufficiency, black pride, Black Lives Matter, black girls matter, we’re talking about her.” The statue is on display at the Banneker-Douglass Museum in Annapolis until August 30, 2023

“Harriet Tubman as Buddha” (2017)

Scott often employs images of Buddha in her sculpture. Her interest in Buddhism and Hinduism led her to create in 2013 the series of three Buddhas, of “Earth,” “Wind,” and “Fire and Water.” In Buddhism anyone can become a Buddha, and Scott found much in Harriet Tubman’s life journey similar to that of the Buddha. She stated, “He wasn’t a god. He worked really, really hard to evolve and have his greater enlightenment.” Scott’s sculpture “Harriet Tubman as Buddha” (2017) (40” x25” x10”) (blown glass, beading, found objects) confers on Tubman the spiritual status of a Buddha. Tubman sits in the lotus position that calms the mind and allows for deep meditation. The statue wears a halo, found on all statues of Buddha as a symbol of holiness. Scott compares Tubman to her mother, the highest compliment: “Harriet Tubman really makes me think about my mother. They were both thunderbolts. Neither of them was five feet tall. They were both dark skinned…and they were go-getters.”

In this same exhibition, Scott included another sculpture of Tubman: “Graffiti Harriet.” The 15-foot-tall statue was made of soil, clay, straw, and cement designed to disintegrate, to become part of the earth. The location of the Harriet Tubman exhibition in New Jersey was 40 miles from the route Tubman used to conduct slaves to freedom, and it was 175 miles from Washington, D.C. The decision to replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill with Harriet Tubman was under debate at the time. It is scheduled for 2030.

Scott is a sculptor, printmaker, installation artist, performer, quilter, storyteller, and jeweler. Before she learned the peyote stitch in 1976, her beadwork was confined to the making of jewelry. She has never stopped making jewelry. “War Necklace” (2022) (17” x15”) is the catalog cover image for Scott’s traveling exhibition War, What is it Good For, Absolutely Nothing, Say it Again (2023-24). Her jewelry carries the same potent messages as her other artistic pursuits. 

Among other awards, Scott has received honorary doctorates from the Maryland Institute College of Art (2018) and the California College of Art (2019). She was named Smithsonian Visionary Artist (2019), she was awarded the Gold Medal for Consummate Craftsmanship from the American Craft Council (2020), and she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letter by Johns Hopkins University (2022). The presentation of her honorary degree at Johns Hopkins recognized: “…her visible and visionary commitment to art as a conduit for honoring the rich and storied history of our ancestors and for conveying profoundly resonant commentary on cultural stereotypes, systemic racism, and healing.”

“I’d like my art to induce people to stop raping, torturing, and shooting each other. I don’t’ have the ability to end violence, racism and sexism…but my art can help them look and think. (Joyce Scott, 2015)

NOTE:  In 2015 Freddie Gray was murdered in Baltimore, and that resulted in rioting during which businesses were looted. The most prominent business was the CVS pharmacy that was set on fire. Scott and her mother live in a rowhouse down the street from that CVS. Scott responded, “How did all this affect me? I am an African American woman who decided to never turn away from herself as a black woman, to never leave her community, and the uprising is happening right outside my door. People are walking up and down North Avenue. The CVS is on fire and they are using my fire hydrant to put the fire out. I see preachers in prayer circles, right outside my living room window.”

Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years.  Since retiring with her husband Kurt to Chestertown in 2014, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL. She is also an artist whose work is sometimes in exhibitions at Chestertown RiverArts and she paints sets for the Garfield Center for the Arts.

Filed Under: Arts Lead, Looking at the Masters

Looking at the Masters: Emma Amos  

February 8, 2023 by Beverly Hall Smith 1 Comment

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Emma Amos (1937-2020) was born into a middle-class African-American family in Atlanta, Georgia. Her father owned a drugstore. He knew writer Zora Neale Hurston and artist Hale Woodruff. Emma’s mother was an alumna of Fisk University in Nashville. Emma grew up in cultural environment, and she began to make art at the age of six. She attended a segregated high school, and she received a BFA degree in printmaking from Antioch College.  Her fourth year in college was spent at the Central School of Art in London in 1958. She commented, “Even though Atlanta and most cities during my youth were segregated, the art schools, and smart creative people were beacons of light. The city was a good place for black people with big dreams, and it continues to be a major site for black colleges, business, artists, and political figures. It is important to me to point out that both of my college-educated parents had fathers who were both slaves.”

Amos moved to New York City and began working in two printmaking studios: Letterio Capalai and Robert Blackburn’s Printing Workshop. However, her applications to museums, galleries, and schools all resulted in the same response: “We’re not hiring right now.” She began working with weaver Dorothy Liebes, developing designs for unique carpets.  In 1960 Amos met Hale Woodruff, who became a life-long friend and mentor and introduced her to SPIRAL, a collaborative founded by Woodruff, Romare Bearden, and others. Amos was the first and only woman member of SPIRAL. She continued her education and received her MA from New York University in1966. She married Robert Levine in1956, and they had two children. While the children were little, Amos made small paintings, weavings, quilts, and illustrations for Sesame Street magazine. She became an assistant professor at the Mason Groves School of Art at Rutgers University in 1980. She was tenured in 1992, served as chair of the Visual Arts department from 2005 until 2007, and retired in 2008.

“Runners with Cheetah” (1983)

 Feminism was flourishing in the 1980’s.  Amos rejected what she knew about it: “From what I heard of feminist discussion in the park, the experience of black women of any class were left out. I came from a line of working women who were not only mothers, but breadwinners, cultured, educated, and who had been treated as equals by their black husbands. I felt I could not afford to spend precious time away from studio and family to listen to stories so far removed from my own.” However, her attitude changed when she participated in the women’s group Heresies, founded by New York women artists of all colors: “All my distain for white feminist disappeared, because we were all in the same boat. We just came to the boat from different spaces.”

Amos’s series Athletes and Animals (1983-85) depicts African-American, sports figures, swimmers, and runners painted with lions, cheetahs, and crocodiles. “Runners with Cheetah” (1983) came from her interest in politics and the feminist art movement. Three women runners, one white and two African-American, are in motion, racing toward an unseen finish line. From the feminist point of view, the women are running to catch up with men. The cheetah, the fastest land animal and an endangered species, represents the discriminatory and racist belief that Black people are animals. Amos commented, “I want to make clear the relationship between artists, athletes, entertainers, and thinkers and the prowess, ferocity, steadfastness, and dynamism of animals.”

Amos returned to her roots with the use of fabrics. “Runner with Cheetah” is part acrylic paint and part collage.  In this work Amos has incorporate fabrics into the composition and as borders. The borders are striped Kente cloth woven in West Africa for thousands of years. There are numerous Kente designs, and each color and pattern has a specific meaning. For example, gold stripes represent royalty and maroon stripes mother earth.  By adding fabrics as frames, Amos also challenges the idea that art and craft are separate and that craft is a lesser form.

“Josephine and Her Ostrich” (1985)

“Josephine and Her Ostrich” (1985) (44” x30”) is part of the Athletes and Animals series. Josephine Baker, the famous African-American dancer and singer, wowed European audiences in the 1920’s and later. Photographs of her riding through the streets of Berlin in a cart drawn by an ostrich (1926) inspired this print. The work is a black ink monoprint enhanced by drawing on the image with pastels. Baker and the ostrich are side by side. Comparing the artistic dance of Baker with the awkwardness of the ostrich, Amos asks the viewer to think again about racial stereotypes.

In “Josephine and the Mountain Gorillas” (1985) (48” x90”) (acrylic with hand woven fabric) (Athletes and Animals), Amos challenges the male Abstract Expressionists who dominated the art world. She created an abstract painting for the background. In front is the graceful image of Baker. Two black gorillas docilly follow her. Their faces are cut from a photograph and their bodies are composed mostly of hand-woven fabric. Choosing a well-known figure such as Baker, Amos gives the viewer another chance to contemplate racial stereotyping and discrimination.       

Baker was adored and honored in Europe, but unwelcome in America. A life-long advocate for racial equality, Baker spoke at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Coincidentally, Baker kept a cheetah and a chimpanzee as pets.

A group of New York women artists founded in 1985 the Guerilla Girls to fight sexism and racism in the art world. They made posters, wrote articles, put up billboards, staged protests, and made public appearances wearing gorilla masks. Emma Amos was one of them. They kept members’ names secret, using the names of famous women artists instead. 

Amos began the series Falling in the 1990’s. The images relate to her personal anxieties, the economic crisis of the Reagan era, and her fear about America’s future. In “Targets” (1992) (57×73’’) (acrylic and fabric) figures fall, slip, and slide, and objects hurl through an abstract space. A man and woman cling to each other as they fall. The figures are partially painted and their jazzy clothing is boldly patterned hand-woven fabric. A target is painted at the upper right side of the work. A white rabbit and a basket fall at the lower right. Amos uses well-known symbols from popular culture in many of her paintings. Perhaps the white rabbit is the one from Alice in Wonderland, and the basket looks much like the one Dorothy carried in the Wizard of Oz.  The painting is framed with African Kente cloth.

“Equals” (1992)

In “Equals” (1992) (76”x 82”) (acrylic and fabric), a self-portrait, Amos hurls through space in front of the red and white stripes of a waving American flag. Gold stars fly with her, some containing white stars outlined in black and others with open eyes in the center. The blue of the flag at the lower right is painted in the style of Pollock with drips of gold and black paint. At the upper left is a photograph of a share cropper’s cabin taken by Amos’s relative during the Depression. The sharecropper system was known as “slavery by another name.”  Amos’s portrait at the lower right provides compositional balance to the photograph. A large red equal sign is at the center of the composition.

Amos is posed with her right hand turned back as if to say the past is past and she will not go back. However, her left hand turns forward; she wants to come into the future but is not sure what it will hold. Equality is what she wants. Her facial expression had been interpreted as one of determination. The Kente cloth frame is printed with portraits of Malcolm X. Spike Lee’s film about Malcolm X’s life and fight for racial equality was made in 1992.

“Tightrope” (1994)

“Tightrope” (1994) (82’’ x 58”) (acrylic and fabric) depicts Amos balancing on a tightrope.  The issues that many women face are displayed. She is a mother, wife, artist, and business woman, all of the roles she had to juggle. She is dressed as Wonder Woman, wearing red boots and blue shorts with white stars. In her right hand are her paint brushes. In her left is a T-shirt imprinted with a painting by Gauguin of his 13-year-old mistress, bare-chested and carrying a bowl of fruit. Not a fan of Gauguin’s life style, Amos felt either she was a sex object that provided for all of a man’s needs, or she wished to go to an island paradise.

Beneath the tightrope a sea of eyes watches her perform. Behind her a blue sky is painted in the Abstract Expressionist style. The painting is bordered with African fabric. Gauguin’s painting is printed on each corner.

“Higher and Higher” (2009)

On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States. “Higher and Higher” (2009) (68.5” x135”) celebrates this historic event in the history of America and of African-Americans. The first panel of the triptych depicts black slaves picking cotton. Slaves climb up a rope out of the fields. The words JACOBS LADDER is painted in red across the field. The middle panel depicts a strong black man entering the 20th Century, leaving the cotton fields behind. An African-American woman dressed in red runs vigorously toward the future. Beneath her, four African-American drummers lead a parade of people of various ages, dressed in contemporary clothing. The white frame of a window flies above her. It is a window into the future. In the third panel, a contemporary African-American woman dressed in shorts and white running shoes, a smile on her face, runs past the White House. A painter’s palette is split between the second and third panels, and a woman in T-shirt and jeans jumps for joy. The last figure is a woman posed as many of Amos’s falling figures with her arms wide spread and knees bent in a jumping pose. She smiles widely. She literally “jumps for joy.”

Emma Amos died on May 20, 2020, after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Art News, a prominent magazine for the arts, praised Amos’s contributions: [She] “profoundly shifted the course of art history through her various experiments combining painting and textiles, exploded with color, new meditations on what figurative painting could be, and issues of race and gender.” (4-30-2021) 

“I try to make painting resonate in some kind of way. It’s always been my contention, that for me, a black woman artist, to walk into the studio is a political act.” (Emma Amos).

Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years.  Since retiring with her husband Kurt to Chestertown in 2014, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL. She is also an artist whose work is sometimes in exhibitions at Chestertown RiverArts and she paints sets for the Garfield Center for the Arts.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Top Story

Looking at the Masters: Caspar David Friedrich

February 2, 2023 by Beverly Hall Smith Leave a Comment

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Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) was one of the most important artists of the German Romanticism movement at the beginning of the 19th Century. He was born in Greifswald on the Baltic Sea. His family were strict Lutherans. He was the sixth of ten children. His mother, two sisters, and a brother died when he was young. His interest in art was developed early, and he began to take drawing lessons at age 16. He met Ludwig Gotthard Kosengarten, a poet and preacher, whose works were metaphysical in nature. Kosengarten stated that the beauty of nature was related to the divine, beyond the perception of human senses. Kosengarten’s writings were a significant influence on Friedrich, and on the music of Franz Schubert among others. 

“Cross in the Mountains” (1808)

 

Friedrich studied art at the Academy of Copenhagen, where he was able to visit the Royal Picture Gallery’s collection of 17th Century Dutch landscape paintings. He was taught to paint in the Neo-Classical tradition, in which the object was to copy nature precisely. However, the popular literature of the era, Icelandic legends (Prose Edda) and The Poems of Ossian (1760) (Irish mythology), greatly influenced his developing artistic style. “Cross in the Mountains” (Tetschen Altar) (1808) (45” x43”) is considered Friedrich’s first work to abandon Neo-Classical style for Romantism. The Crucifixion is silhouetted on a mountain top against a dramatic pink and gray cloudy sky. Light coming from five sources penetrates the dark clouds to focus on the mountain top and the Crucifixion. An evergreen forest surrounds the mountain top, typical of Friedrich’s native landscape. Evergreens are symbolic of everlasting life.

Friedrich designed the frame of the altarpiece, which was carved according to his specifications.  At the bottom center of the frame, he placed the eye of God within a triangle surrounded by rays of heavenly light. At the left is a sheaf of wheat representing the bread of the Eucharist, and at the right are the grapes representing the wine. Above, five cherubs are placed among the palm branches. A single star is placed in the center. Friedrich intended the altarpiece to be a gift to the King Adolphus IV of Sweden in recognition of his part in resisting Napoleon’s attempts to conquer Sweden. However, Adolphus IV was deposed in 1808. Count von Thun-Hohenstein convinced Friedrich to sell the altarpiece to him for his castle chapel in Tetschen, Bohemia.

Friedrich exhibited the painting/altarpiece at the Academy in Berlin in 1810, where it received mixed reviews. Basilius Von Ramdohr, a conservative lawyer, art critic, and amateur artist, published a long article in Dresden, rejecting Friedrich’s use of landscape as a religious painting, calling it “a veritable presumption, if landscape painting were to sneak into the church and creep onto the altar.” Friedrich responded that his intention indeed was to compare the rays of evening sunlight to the Heavenly Father.

“Monk by the Sea” (1809)

 

“Monk by the Sea” (1809) (43” x68’’) broke with all of traditional landscapes by eliminating everything but the small figure of a solitary monk within the vast panorama of land, sea, and sky. X-rays show that Friedrich had painted two boats on either side of the monk and a flock of sea birds in the sky, but painted them out. Reactions of viewers varied, but generally unfavorable. Marie von Kugelgen, an early admirer of Friedrich’s work, wrote to a friend about her reaction to the work: “A vast endless expanse of sky…still, no wind, no moon, no storm–indeed a storm would have been some consolation for then one would at least see life and movement somewhere. On the unending sea there is no boat, no ship, not even a sea monster…and in the sand not even a blade of grass.”

The German poet, writer, and journalist Heinrich von Kleist described the painting in 1810: “Nothing could be more somber nor more disquieting than to be placed thus in the world: the one sign of life in the immensity of the kingdom of death, the lonely center of a lonely circle…the picture seems somehow apocalyptic…its monotony and boundlessness are only contained by the frame itself.”

“The Monk by the Sea” and its companion painting “Abbey in Oak Forest,” depicting the burial of a monk in a ruined church yard, were exhibited together. Their purchase by Prussian King Frederick Wilhelm III surprised the critics. Friedrich’s venture into a new style of painting took hold.  The isolation and emptiness reflected for some viewers the results of Napoleon’s invasion of Germany. To those viewers, Friedrich’s paintings exhibited a patriotic image of contemporary Germany, diminished but not defeated. Friedrich was elected a member in the Prussian Academy of Art as a result of these paintings.

“The Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog” (1818)

“The Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog” (1818) (38.5’’ x29”) is considered by art historians to be a masterpiece of the Romantic Movement. The single male figure, dressed in dark green and holding a cane, stands on a rocky outcropping that rises dramatically in the foreground of the painting.  Bearing a few green trees, jagged rocks pierce the fog. Two ridges are painted so they come to a point at the chest of the man. Mist-covered mountains and clouds stretch into infinity. Friedrich wrote, “When a region cloaks itself in mist, it appears larger and more sublime, elevating the imagination, and rousing the expectations like a veiled girl.” 

Friedrich most often employed the technique “ruckenfigur.” Figures are placed with their backs to the viewer, inviting the viewer to gaze upon the scene from the same perspective, but giving no suggestion of their reaction to the scene. Friedrich stated, “The artist should paint not only what he has in front of him but also what he sees inside himself.” Friedrich sought the spiritual and the divine.

The subject has often thought to be a self-portrait, because the figure with the red hair resembled Friedrich. He dressed the figure in altdeutsche (old German clothing), the clothing of Germany’s heroic age, 16th and 17th Centuries. A Nationalist, Friedrich supported a new more liberal government and wanted to abolish the rule of the German nobility. Nationalists wore the old German clothing as a form of protest. The trend was so threatening to the German nobility that altdeutsche clothing was banned in 1819.

“Man and Woman Contemplating the Moon” (1818-1825)

Friedrich married Christiane Caroline Bommer, 19 years his junior, in January 1818. They had three children. The family lived a solitary life. Following his marriage, Friedrich often included a second figure in his paintings. “Man and Woman Contemplating the Moon” (1818-1825) (13” x 17.3’’) depicts two figures on a rugged hill top, their backs to the viewer. Critics generally refer to them as Friedrich and his wife. The man wears altdeutsche clothing, and the woman’s hand rests calmly on his shoulder. The couple stand close together, contemplating the full moon and the distant landscape. 

Friedrich places the couple under several evergreen trees, their branches forming a lacy pattern against the moonlit sky. The other major element in the painting, taking up half the hill top, is an ancient tree. Its roots, partially pulled up from the earth, are exposed and form hairy fingers. The wide-spread branches are bare. The tree lists to the right, but remains standing. Throughout the ages, the Moon has always been considered as feminine and a symbol of the cycle of the seasons and of abundance. The full moon completes a heavenly cycle, the time to prepare for the future. Friedrich’s painting communicates hope for the future.

“Solitary Tree” (1822)

Friedrich’s patrons included the Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich of Russia and his wife Alexandra Feodrovna. They visited Friedrich’s studio in 1820 and purchased several paintings to take back to St. Petersburg. Their continued patronage, and that of other Russian nobles, sustained the artist when the Romantic style began to go out of favor in the 1830’s. Friedrich suffered several major episodes of depression during his life, and was said to be the “most solitary of the solitary” by his friends. “Solitary Tree” (1822) (21.6” x28”), was one of two works commissioned by Joachim Wagener, a banker and an art patron. The works were to show a morning and an evening landscape. “Solitary Tree” depicts a beautiful morning as the sun rises over a country village. A large tree at the center of the composition connects the earth and heaven. The size of the trunk indicates the tree has experienced a long life. The lower branches still support green leaves, but the top branches are dead. Friedrich organizes the top branches as a reference to the image of the dead Christ on the cross. 

Under the tree, a shepherd leans on his staff and against the tree trunk. His flock of sheep graze quietly in the pasture. Like the dead branches of the tree, the artists inclusion of the shepherd and his sheep refer to the religious connections that Friedrich found in nature. The panoramic landscape beyond the tree contains a stream and stands of evergreens.  A small village is nestled to the left of the tree. Bright sunlit pastures and a mountain range spread out under an early morning sky. Hardly visible, a gray church spire stands to the right of the tree at the base of the mountains. The sun has risen over the distant landscape, but sunlight has yet fully to reach the solitary tree. The tree has weathered a long life and endures. 

Friedrich’s popularity declined during the last 15 years of his life as the Romantic style he helped to create was considered old fashioned. Throughout his life, he suffered from recurrent major depressive disorder (MDD). He had a stroke in1835 that left him partially paralyzed. He continued to paint, although his painting were smaller and often watercolors rather than oil. He died in 1840. An exhibition in Berlin in 1906 brought his work to the attention of expressionist painters including Bocklin, Kirchner, and Kandinsky, and to the American painters of the Hudson River School. When Hitler discovered Friedrich’s beautiful German landscape paintings, he declared Friedrich to be a forefather of Nazism. This unfortunate and inaccurate association caused a decline of interest in Friedrich. However, Friedrich’s reputation was restored in the 1950’s by the Surrealists, Abstract Expressionists, and a large number of international artists. Friedrich is now considered a painter of international importance.  

“I am not so weak as to submit to the demands of the age when they go against my convictions. I spin a cocoon around myself; let others do the same. I shall leave it to time to show what will come of it: a brilliant butterfly or maggot.” (Caspar David Friedrich)

Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years.  Since retiring with her husband Kurt to Chestertown in 2014, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL. She is also an artist whose work is sometimes in exhibitions at Chestertown RiverArts and she paints sets for the Garfield Center for the Arts.

 

  

 

Filed Under: Looking at the Masters, Top Story

Looking at the Masters: Marc Chagall Part II

January 26, 2023 by Beverly Hall Smith Leave a Comment

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During the second half of his life, Marc Chagall continued to paint and make prints, but he branched off into new territory. When he and his family escaped from Nazi Germany and arrived in New York on June 23, 1941, he was embraced by the art community of New York City. He was represented by Pierre Matisse, the son of Henri Matisse. Chagall lived in New York from 1941 until 1948, then returned to France where he lived for the rest of his life. Chagall met Picasso in Paris, and they admired each other. Chagall joked, “What a genius, that Picasso. It’s a pity he doesn’t paint.” Picasso famously said, “When Matisse dies, Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what color really is. His canvases are really painted, not just tossed together…I don’t know where he gets those images…He must have an angel in his head.” 

Leon Bakst, Chagall’s original teacher in Russia, introduced him to theater and opera. In 1921, Chagall created sets and costumes for several plays by Sholem Aleichem. After he arrived in New York, the Ballet Theater of New York commissioned Chagall to design sets and costumes for Aleko (1942), a ballet by Leonide Massine, a fellow Russian. Chagall then designed sets and costumes for Firebird by Stravinsky for the Ballet Theater. In Paris, after WWII, he designed sets and costumes for the 1958 production of Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe.

Ceiling of the Paris Opera (1963-64)

Chagall was 77 years old when Andre Malraux, French Minister of Culture, commissioned him to paint the ceiling of the Paris Opera (1963) (2,400 square feet) (440 pounds of paint). Chagall divided the ceiling into five sections that were glued to polyester panels and hoisted 70 feet to the ceiling.  A controversy erupted. The Opera was a historic building, and Chagall was not French, and he was a modern artist. However, when the ceiling was unveiled to the public on September 23, 1964, the response was rapturous. All the critics were positive. Chagall refused to be paid for the work, allowing only the cost of materials to be covered.

“Carmen” by Bizet (detail)

Chagall’s ceiling design paid tribute to a host of famous composers, actors, and dancers. A large chandelier hangs from the center of the ceiling, and the inner circle depicts four scenes: Bizet’s “Carmen’’ in red, Verdi’s “La Traviata” in yellow, Beethoven’s “Fidelio” in blue and green, and Gluck’s “Orpheus and Eurydice” in green. In a red flared Spanish dress, Carmen dances, smiles, and winks. Behind her is the bull ring. Next to her is the witty image of a bull, dancing and playing the guitar.  

“Swan Lake” by Tchaikovsky, Adam “Giselle” (detail)

In the large outer circle, Chagall depicts ten scenes: Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov” in blue, Mozart’s “Magic Flute” in light blue, Wagner’s “Tristan and Isolde” in green, Berlioz’s “Romeo and Juliet” in green, Rameau’s, unnamed work in white, Debussy’s “Peleus and Melisandre” in blue, Ravel’s “Daphnis and Chloe” in red, Stravinsky’s “Fire Bird” in red, green, and blue, Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” in yellow, and Adam’s ”Giselle” in golden yellow. At the lower left border, Chagall depicts Odette, the white swan, rising from the water with a bouquet of flowers in her hand. Next to “Swan Lake,” the peasants dance under the village trees in “Giselle”

Chagall commented on the ceiling: “Up there in my painting I wanted to reflect, like a mirror in a bouquet, the dreams and creations of the singers and musicians, to recall the movement of the colorfully attired audience below, and to honor the great opera and ballet composers…Now I offer this work as a gift of gratitude to France and her School of Paris, without which there would be no color and no freedom.” 

“The Window of Peace and Human Happiness” (1964)

At 69 years old, Chagall was commissioned in 1956 to create his first stained-glass window for the Gothic Cathedral of Metz in France. Although a new medium for him, he accepted the challenge, learned from a stained-glass master, and conquered the technique. This work was followed by a commission for twelve windows, representing the twelve tribes of Israel, for the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem. Other commissions followed: windows for All Saint’s Church, Tudeley, UK (1963-1978), Union Church of Pocantico Hills, New York (1976), the Fraumunster in Zurich, Switzerland (1967), Cathedral of Notre Dame, Reims, France (1968-1974), Chichester Cathedral, West Sussex, UK (1978), and St. Stephen’s Church, Mainz Germany (1978-86).

Three Chagall stained-glass windows are in America. “The Window of Peace and Human Happiness” (1964) (15’ wide and 12’ tall) in the United Nations Building, New York City, was commissioned to commemorate Dag Hammarskjold, the second secretary general, who was killed in a plane crash on September 17, 1961, while on a peace mission to Africa. 

Chagall divided the window in half with the tree of knowledge, represented by the snake that coils up from bottom center of the window. At the left are those who are in paradise, seen in the circle of light blue glass. This half of the window represents the theme “Love and Harmony” where animals, angels, and humans live together in peace. At the right side is “The Hostile World and Wars.” Composed of dark blue colors, the lower half consists of the anguished faces of people who struggle to survive. At the top right, is the Crucifixion. An angel with golden wings carries the Ten Commandments to a city below. A woman in dark purple and red kneels in grief for all those that have died in wars. 

“Girl with Bouquet” (detail)

Above the serpent is an angel hugging a young girl who carries a bouquet of purple and red flowers. To Chagall these colors represented love. The angel and the girl reference the “Kiss of Peace.” Found in the New Testament, it was the greeting “peace be with you.” Included in the window are other symbols of peace and musical notes from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Hammarskjold’s favorite. Chagall wrote that he wanted people “not to see the window but to feel it. I should like people to be as moved as I was when I was engaged in this work which was done for people of all countries, in the name of peace and love.”

“American Window” (1977)

Chagall lived in Chicago while he was working on the mosaic “The Four Seasons” (1974) and was impressed by Chicago’s commitment to public art. To thank the City for its kindness and support showed while he worked on the mosaic, he offered to create a stained-glass window as a gift to the City. Chagall selected the theme “American Window” (1977) (30 feet wide x 8 feet tall) (Chicago Art Institute): “I lived here in America during the inhuman war in which humanity deserted itself. I have seen the rhythm of life. I have seen America fighting with Allies. The wealth that she has distributed to bring relief to the people who had to suffer the consequences of the war. I like America and the Americans. Above all, I am impressed by the greatness of the country and the freedom that it gives.” A second influence was the American Bicentennial. Chagall began work on the window in 1976, and it was dedicated on May 15, 1977.

Chagall worked with the French stained-glass artist Charles Marq, who developed a technique to allow three colors, not just one, on the pane. Chagall was able to paint on the glass with metallic oxide paint that was then fused to the glass by heating. The windows are divided into three parts, each with 2 panels that are divided into 12 panes.

“American Window” (#1, panels 1 and 2)

The first window depicts Chicago history, emphasizing music, with musicians, instruments, and a musical score. A horn player in yellow is positioned at the top, with a musical score and a violin. The skyline of Chicago can be seen along the bottom of the window. The second panel features an artist’s palette and paint brushes, and at the lower right in red, a still life of fruit in a bowl.

“American Window” (#2, panels 3 and 4)

The second window shows the unity among Chicago neighborhoods, the City skyline continuing across the bottom of the window. In the third panel the emphasis is on literature and freedom of speech. At the bottom are a desk and inkwell, and a book. At the upper right, two books are placed in front of the white sphere. Above is a bright yellow sun beneath branches of trees. Long-time Chicago Mayor Richard Daley died in 1976. A strong supporter of Chicago art projects. The hand at the left holding a candle is a tribute to him.

In the fourth panel a large bird flies in the sky above the cityscape. Two multicolored trees are place at the upper corners of the panel. The Statue of Liberty stands tall at the left side of the panel with the torch of freedom in her hand. Lady Liberty was a gift from France for America’s Centennial, and Chagall’s “American Window” was his gift to America for its Bicentennial.

“American Window” (#3, panels 5 and 6)

The third window displays the significance of religious freedom in America. Across the top of panel five is a theater curtain. Centered in the panel is a standing performer whose legs are visible, while the upper body is surrounded in a swirl of green, yellow, and blue patterns in Chagall’s favorite floral bouquet shape. Emerging from the bouquet is a singer. At the left, a performer in a harlequin costume holds a mask. The harlequin costume relates to another of Chagall’s favorite images, the circus. At the lower right a figure carries a Menorah. In the sixth panel, six figures dressed in European native costumes gayly dance and play tambourines. At the upper left, a large circle, made up of a mixture of bright shapes and colors, lends the scene a sense of happiness, joy, and well-being. The city of Chicago stretches out below.

The final stained-glass project undertaken by Chagall was the design of eight windows for St Stephen’s Church, Mainz, Germany. Mainz remained the largest center of European Jewry for centuries. Originally reluctant to create the windows, Chagall finally agreed to take on the project as a commentary on the reconciliation between Germany and the Jews, and between Jews and Christians. Chagall was 91 when he accepted the commission, and he worked on it until his death in 1985. The windows were completed by Charles Marq, Chagall’s colleague.  

“For me a stained-glass window is a transparent partition between my heart and the heart of the world. Stained glass has to be serious and passionate. It is something elevating and exhilarating. It has to live through the perception of light.” (Chagall)

Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years.  Since retiring with her husband Kurt to Chestertown in 2014, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL. She is also an artist whose work is sometimes in exhibitions at Chestertown RiverArts and she paints sets for the Garfield Center for the Arts.

 

Filed Under: Arts Lead, Arts Portal Lead

Looking at the Masters: Marc Chagall 

January 19, 2023 by Beverly Hall Smith Leave a Comment

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“The Birthday” (1915)

Marc Chagall was in love. Chagall met Bella Rosenfield in Vitebsk in 1910. For him their first meeting was all it took: “Her silence is mine, her eyes mine. It is as if she knows everything about my childhood, my present, my future, as if she can see right through me: as if she has always watched over me, somewhere next to me, though I saw her for the very first time. I knew this is she, my wife. Her pale coloring, her eyes. How big and round and black they are. They are my eyes, my soul.” Bella’s response also was love at first sight.

Chagall returned from Paris to Vitebsk in 1914 to attend his sister’s wedding and to marry Bella, and then they would return to Paris. However, World War I began, and the Russian border was closed. Chagall painted “The Birthday” (1915) (32’’ x39’’) (MoMA) a few weeks before their wedding. His ecstasy is depicted as he flies into the air to kiss Bella. He is light as a feather. Bella reciprocates, her feet lift off the floor. Chagall chose the pure complementary colors of green and red to accentuate the couple. He often depicted Bella in a black dress with a white collar and, as he described her, with black hair and black eyes. Chagall brought Bella a bouquet of flowers, another item he often included in his paintings.

The composition of this painting was carefully crafted. A rectangular blue-gray cloth with a small black pattern covers a rectangular red and orange table with round spooled legs. A round cake, a glass, a round dish of red berries, and a small purse are placed on the table. A round black stool sits on the floor. Above the table, a window with a white shade echoes the white lace collar on Bella’s dress. Outside is a Russian street. At the right side of the painting a low couch is covered with a cloth that repeats the red and orange of the table. On the floor, a small green and yellow pillow with square patches echoes the green and yellow of Bella’s bouquet. On the wall above the couch a rectangular tapestry with a paisley pattern repeats the colors used in the painting, including the bouquet of flowers. A square black clock with a round face hangs above. A blue-gray patterned cloth hangs under a window. The shapes and colors are repeated across the composition. However, none overpower Bella and Chagall as they float in air.

“Over the Town” (1918)

Unable to leave Russia, Chagall continued to paint his beloved Vitebsk and the nearby villages: “I painted everything I saw. I was satisfied with a hedge, a signpost, a flood, a chair.” By 1915, he began to exhibit his work in Moscow, and several rich collectors purchased his art. For a time after the October Revolution (Communist take-over) of 1917, avant-garde artists were in the favor of the Communist government, since their work had nothing to do with classical art favored by the Czar. “Over the Town” (Lionza, near Vitebsk) (1918) (17.7’’ x22”) (Tretyakov, Moscow) depicts Chagall and Bella flying over Lionza. Chagall later wrote, “She has flown over my pictures for many years, guiding my art.” He described the experience as “flying with luck…You run to the screen, shaking under your hand, immersion brush. LASHES red, blue, white, black. You (Bella) draw me into a whirl of colors. And suddenly you take off the floor and pull me with you.”

Chagall was made a commissioner for the arts in Vitebsk. Among other accomplishments he founded the Vitebsk College of Art in 1923. However, feuds with the art faculty led him to move to Moscow. There he painted murals for the Kamerny Theater and produced sets and costumes for the plays of Jewish writer Sholem Aleichem (1859-1916). Chagall and Bella joined the many Russian avant-garde artists who moved to France as his art fell out of favor and conditions in Russia became more restrictive. They left Russian in 1923.
They lived in France until 1941. Chagall was courted by the Surrealist artists who based their art on Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams (1899), in which he discussed dreams and the unconscious mind. Chagall rejected their ideas stating, “If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.”
Chagall met Ambrose Vollard in 1923. Vollard commissioned a series of etchings of Nikolay Gogol’s novel Dead Souls. Chagall finished 107 full plate prints in 1931. Vollard then commissioned a series of prints based on the Old Testament. Chagall completed the set of 66 plates in 1939.

“Solitude” (1933)

As anti-Semitism grew in Europe, and Hitler and the Nazi party came to power in 1933, Chagall witnessed a friend being assaulted on the street in Warsaw because he was Jewish. Chagall’s “Solitude” (1933) (40’’ x62.5’’) (Tel Aviv) portrays his strong fears. A solitary Jew, cloaked in a kittel (white prayer shawl), sits on the ground. His face shows despair. Chagall titled the painting “Solitude” to signify that Jews were in a lonely, uninhabited space. Solitude seems coupled with despair. The Jew is outside the town, rejected by society. He holds a torah, a hand written scroll containing the word of God to the Jews.

An upside-down fiddle is placed next to the Jew. The fiddle is one of the items Chagall frequently used as a reference to his childhood and Jewish traditions. Music was basic to Jewish life, and the fiddle provided the music that accompanied songs of the Jews. It reminded them of the failed revolution of 1905, led by the Jewish fiddler Sormus.

A kneeling goat is the third prominent figure in the composition. Its presence represents the Old Testament sacrifice by Joseph as the replacement for his son Isaac. A goat with a red ribbon tied around its neck was part of the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), when Jews ask for forgiveness of their sins. The goat was released to wander, carrying the sins of the people with it (scapegoat). The last symbol is the white angel that flies through the stormy sky. Angels, heavenly messengers, were as common in Jewish history as they are in Chagall’s paintings. Chagall’s paintings at that time were intended to awaken society to the displacement and persecution of Jews.

“White Crucifixion” (1938)

On July 19, 1937, Hitler opened the exhibition of “degenerate art.” Twenty thousand works were confiscated from German museums by Joseph Goebbels. Fifty-seven Chagall paintings were confiscated. Several were included in the exhibition. “White Crucifixion” (1938) (61’’x55’’) (Chicago Art Institute) contained the images of Jesus, the Jewish martyr.

To Chagall, Jesus was a Jew when he was crucified, and his persecution was the persecution of Jews. Jesus wears a black and white prayer shawl (tallit) and a head cloth. At the foot of the cross is a menorah with six candles. According to the Torah, the menorah made for the original Temple of Jerusalem had six candles, representing the six days of creation. A seventh candle was included to represent the Sabbath, the day of rest. However, Chagall’s menorah has only six candles; there is no day of rest.

Jews flee in all directions from the site of the crucifixion. At the lower left three men flee: one bearded, one labeled Jew, and one carrying a Torah scroll. Above them is a boat loaded with refugees fleeing from their burning town. A troop of soldiers carrying a red Nazi flag rush into the scene. Above the cross three Biblical patriarchs and a matriarch wail and pray.At the lower right, a mother cradles her child, an unrolled Torah is left on the ground, and a green clothed man flees with his belongings. Above them a synagogue burns, its contents an Ark of the Covenant (to hold the Torah), and other furnishings are tossed on the ground. The door of the synagogue remains standing. Two rampant lions of David, a star of David, and the image of the Ten Commandments can be seen. Nazi flags fly in the upper right corner.

World War II began when Germany invaded Poland in 1939. Belgium and Poland were invaded in 1940. Chagall moved from Paris to Gordes in the south of France in 1940. However, the Vichy government under Marshall Petain, cooperated with the Nazis in oppressing the Jews. In 1941, the Vichy government stripped Chagall of his citizenship and arrested him. Along with 2000 others, the Chagalls were rescued by Varian Fry of the American Aid Committee. At the invitation of Alfred Barr, director of the Museum of Modern Art, the Chagalls came to New York.

The Painter, the Bride and Groom” (1970-74)

Chagall arrived in New York City one day after Germany invaded Russia. Later, he learned Vitebsk was destroyed. When Paris was liberated in 1944, the Chagalls prepared to return to Paris. However, Bella died of a viral infection. Chagall did not paint for a year: “Everything went black before my eyes. I am lost.” Although Chagall would marry again, and have a son, Bella was forever his muse. “The Painter, the Bride and Groom” (1970-74) (39.5’’ x 32’’) features Chagall and his bride floating above the ground. A blue fiddler plays for them, and a small boy, his son David, stands beside the fiddler. The painting behind them depicts a room with the painter holding a little donkey. Chagall’s pet name for his daughter Ida was Little Donkey. A vase of colorful flowers sits on the table. The room has a window, a motif Chagall often used to represent freedom. At the lower left corner, a rooster, one of Chagall’s favorite animals, represents fertility. Chagall may be riding the rooster. The painting was sold a Christies in London for $1,670,256.80.

Chagall returned to Paris in 1948. He lived in France for the rest of his life, but his career as an artist was only half over. Next week’s article will feature the last half of Chagall’s life.
“The title ‘A Russian Painter’ means more to me than any international fame…In my pictures there is not one centimeter free from nostalgia for my native land.” (Chagall)

Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years.  Since retiring with her husband Kurt to Chestertown in 2014, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL. She is also an artist whose work is sometimes in exhibitions at Chestertown RiverArts and she paints sets for the Garfield Center for the Arts.

Filed Under: Looking at the Masters, Top Story

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