Your Daily Art

  • Happy Birthday John Constable

    One of the most important British painters of the 19th century, Constable believed in painting out of doors in order to capture the most true, and realistic atmospheres, for his paintings. He did studies of nothing but clouds, so that he could render them perfectly. This is his most famous work featuring a hay cart, or hay wain, being ferried across the River Stour. The house in the background still exists and is in the care of the National Trust.

    Constable was born today in 1776.

  • A Jewel Within a Jewel

    Sainte-Chapelle, 1242-48, Paris, Ile-de-France 
    Built by King Louis IX as a Royal Chapel, this piece of Gothic architecture has been likened to an larger-than-life jewel in its own box. King Louis purchased a highly sought after relic, the crown of thorns purportedly worn by Jesus and wanted the finest reliquary he could get so he had this chapel built with 6,458 square feet of stained glass windows.

  • Honoring Power

    Blossom by Polly Apfelbaum, 2000, MoMA, NYC.
    This piece is part of a series of installations Apfelbaum did that were named for, and dedicated to The Powerpuff Girls characters from the animated series. Apfelbaum liked the juxtaposition of the young girl characters possessed of super powers and fighting for good. The artist created each “petal” separately and then installed them piece by piece.

  • Second Glance

    NATURE MORT AUX GRENADES by Mona Hatoum, 2006–07, Galleria Continua.
    Palestinian in background and raised in Beirut, the art of Mona Hartoum reflects what she knows and what she has lived with. She studied art in London and found herself separated from her parents while she was there, and her art reflects the struggles she and her family have felt. This piece looks like a table covered in glass paperweights, but upon closer inspection you can see that they are brightly colored, glass replicas of hand grenades.

     

  • Site Specific

    Ahuja Azure, Cirtron and Amber Persian Wall by Dale Chihuly, 2010, The University Hospitals’ 
     Dale Chihuly is the most famous glass artist in the world. Since the later part of the 20th century, his installations have been gaining in popularity and recognition. Chihuly himself no longer blows the glass in his pieces, but he conceives and designs them and oversees their installation. The Dallas Arboretum is hosting an exhibition now through November 5, 2012.

  • Beautiful Death


    Master of the Dresden Prayer Book, about 1480 – 1485?, The Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
    The Getty Museum is hosting an exhibition whose subject is the representation of death in medieval manuscripts. The manuscript was the most important piece of individually owned art during that time. People would commission artists, usually monks, to create books of prayers for them that were intended for personal use. They were small in size so the owner could easily carry them around. The exhibition entitled Heaven, Hell, and Dying Well: Images of Death in the Middle Ages runs through August 12, 2012.

  • The Road Less Travelled


    Adolph Gottlieb was one of the founders of the Abstract Expressionist movement. His work went from figural portraits in the 20’s and 30’s, to large amalgamations of images that resemble collages in the 40’s, to stark divided canvases in the 50’s and 60’s. These later works are the ones he is best known for, the ones that require the viewer to study the painting and think about what is not represented, as Gottlieb himself put it,”…the very nature of abstract thought is to reduce the complexity of all
    of life and to bring it down to something very simple which embodies all
    this complexity”(from an interview of Gottlieb by Martin Friedman, 1962).

    That is part of the challenge of Abstract Expressionism, it begs the viewer to invest in the work with their own thoughts and interpretations, and for this reason, many people are put-off by it. Some people would rather have the art do the work and entertain them, or clearly reflect the skill of the artist, and therefore abstract works, which seek to say a lot with very little, leave them wanting more.

    Apaquogue is named for a road in East Hampton where the artist had a home.

  • Bringing the Modern to Tradition

    The Modern Song

    (Modan bushi

    ) by

    K. Kotani,

    1930. (Detail.)

    The Japan Society

    (Credit: Exhibition organized and circulated by Art Services International, Alexandria, Va.)

    The Japan Society

    is currently hosting an exhibition of Japanese art from the

    Art Deco

    period. The work presented shows us a country working to combine tradition with the modern western world whose influence had been felt in Japan for a while, but whose culture was only then beginning to be adapted. This can be seen most prominently in the depiction of the Japanese version of the

    “Flapper,”

    or modern early 20th century woman, who was up-ending society in the west, as well.

    The exhibition runs through June 10th at the

    Japan Society, NYC

    .

  • Hidden Meanings

    The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1533, The National Gallery, London.

    Hans Holbein the Younger was born in Germany but spent most of his career in England as the court painter to Henry VIII. His work was strongly influenced by the Northern Renaissance painters like Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Wyden. Their realistic style rendered in bright jewel tones, was his style, as well. This portrait of two men thought to be ambassadors to the English court from France, is filled with hints and puzzles about the men’s lives, and even a message for we viewers. On the bottom of the piece in the center, you see a skull painted in Anamorphic perspective. It is seen only from particular angles and is thought be placed there to remind us all of our mortality.

  • Carved History

    To memorialize his triumph over the “barbarians” this carved cameo was created that shows the Emperor Augustus receiving the crown of victory and seated among the gods on the upper level, while his soldiers handle the captives below.