Radiator Building - Night, New York, 1927 by Georgia O'Keeffe.
O'Keeffe's skyscrapers come from her time in New York. She was an artist whose environment was her inspiration and drove her work.
All That Jazz
The Jazz Bowl, 1931 by Viktor Schreckengost, The Cowan Pottery Museum, Rocky River, OH.
According to many sources the Jazz Bowl is considered one of the earliest examples of the Art Deco style made in America. It was produced by Cowan Pottery as a punch bowl for a client who turned out to be Eleanor Roosevelt.
Discovery
Lady of Shalott, c. 1872 - 3 by Arthur Hughes.
A favorite subject of Victorian painters and based on a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson, there are many versions of the Lady.
Living in Beauty
The Hill House, south-west perspective, c.1903 by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Glasgow School of Art.
Mackintosh's most famous private residence is Hill House. The style is a combination of Art & Crafts, Art Nouveau and old Scottish manor. It was built for Walter Blackie, a Glasgow publisher. Mackintosh designed the entire thing including furnishings, outbuildings, lawn decorations, lighting, etc.
Luncheon al Fresco
Dejeuner sur l'herbe, 1863 by Edouard Manet, Musee d'Orsay, Paris.
Manet in an attempt to liberate art from the confines of literary and academic subjects by placing contemporary figures outside in the open air. He has become associated with the Impressionists because he began to use the same lighter colors. Notice the similarity between this scene and Tissot's Holiday featured here on October 16, 2020.
Flower Vendor
Chrysanthemums, c, 1875 by James Tissot, Private collection.
By the time this work was painted Tissot was well established in his career and in work takes a rare look at a common flower vendor rather than the young fashionable women of the increasingly prominent upper-middle class.
And Your Little Dog Too
Young Lady in a Boat by James Tissot, Private Collection.
Tissot concentrated on popular subjects for his artwork, first young fashionable women and finally the Bible after he found religion. Critics considered his work "fluff" but he did well for himself in Paris and London.
The Good Life
Holiday (The Picnic), c. 1876 by James Tissot, Tate Gallery London.
Painted in the backyard of his London home, Tissot's artwork often depicts beautiful women in fashionable clothes and the men who admire them. For a while his work was disregarded as frivolous, but his had a revival as his skill and technique became appreciated once again.
Lady of Mystery
Mona Lisa, 1503/06 by Leonardo da Vinci, Musee de Louvre, Paris.
The mystery surrounding one of the most famous paintings in the world stems from the unknown identity of the sitter and the fact that the artist is one of the most famous artists of the Italian Renaissance. Leonardo used a painting technique he created called sfumato.
Peacocks Revisited
Belt Buckle,late 19th early 20th c. by Eugene-Samuel Grasset, The Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Design, Smithsonian Institution, New York.
Best known as an Art Nouveau graphic artist of posters, Grasset also designed fabric and jewelry using the fluid lines and forms of the movement.
Ties with the Devil
Devil Dog, 1990 by William Wegman, various collections.
Wegman has been collaborating with his dogs for over thirty years to create videos, photographs, movies for adults and children. His children's books cast his dogs as the main characters and re-tell such famous stories as Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, and he creates original characters for them, as well.
Hankie
Weeping Woman, 1937 by Pablo Picasso, Tate Gallery, London.
Picasso did a series of "Weeping Women" where their faces and emotions are broken-up by grief and the cubist style of creating an image out of a series of planes.
Yum
Cake Counter by Wayne Thiebaud.
Thiebaud came to prominence during the Pop Art years of the 1950's & 1960's. His work has remained an important force in American art.
Gothic Here Too
Stone City Iowa by Grant Wood, Joslyn Art Museum
Stone City is near Wood's childhood home Anamosa. They hold an art festival in Stone City every summer in honor of one of the state's favorite sons. Wood helped to found the Stone City Art Colony there in 1932.
Family Ties
Candy Cigarette, 1989 by Sally Mann from Immediate Family.
Sally Mann creates beautiful photographs using a large-scale camera and old processes. Her work is a studied glimpse at her life, nature, and the lives of others; a look at the way she processes her world. She has dealt with controversy for showing us her children as they freely live their lives, but looking intimately into her world is a privilege.
Whose god?
Medusa or Gorgon, 1st Century A.D., From the Temple of Sulis Minerva at the Roman Bath in Bath, England.
This representation of the Gorgon Medusa was part of the pediment decoration from the Temple of Sulis Minerva at Bath. Sulis Minerva was a goddess of healing and the sulfur infused waters found at Bath were thought to have healing powers. Usually Medusa is depicted as a woman and this representation looks more like a man which makes it seem that it may be a mistaken attribution and that this representation might actually be of a river god from local folklore.
Head of the Goddess Sulis Minerva from Bath, England.
Turn Around
Betty, 1988 by Gerhard Richter, St. Louis Art Museum (copyright Gerhard Richter).
What looks to be a photograph is actually a painting of the artist's daughter. It cannot be considered a true portrait when it is of the back of the subject but he lovingly portrays the his subject. His style has varied a lot over the years from photo-realistic paintings like to the very abstract.
A Heady Aroma
A Lilac Year, 1951 by Gustav Baumann, color woodblock print, assorted collections.
Baumann arrived from Germany to the US in 1891 when he was 10 and eventually did his art training at the Art institute of Chicago. He eventually settled in New Mexico and worked primarily in woodblock prints which show a strong Japanese influence.
Rest
Nonchaloir ,1911 by John Singer Sargent, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
After 1907 Sargent grew tired of painting so many society portraits for money. he chose to concentrate instead on outdoor scenes and more casual poses like this one of his niece.
Dis me.
Windows
Habitat Group for a Shooting Gallery by Joseph Cornell, Des Moines Art Center
Cornell assembled fascinating groups of found objects. He liked to juxtapose different objects and his love of surrealism comes through in these groupings.