Your Daily Art

Tag: art

  • A Gold Star for Cleveland

    A large detail of Louis Grebenak’s WBOE mural, which awaits installation at ideastream in downtown Cleveland.
     
    There is an article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer today about a series of WPA murals that were saved from destruction by an art history teacher from Cleveland State University named Walter Leedy, who unfortunately did not live to see the results of his efforts. Much of the thanks goes as well to the ICA Art Conservation of Cleveland and to the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA). The artwork has been displayed around Cleveland, including on the campus at Cleveland State who leased two of the murals.

  • In Defense of Art History

    Art Connoisseur by Norman Rockwell, 1962.
    I do not normally use this blog to editorialize, but I was listening to the radio yesterday and they played a sound bite from a speech President Obama was making in Wisconsin in defense of vocational training and I will say I agree with what he was saying, that there is no shame and often wage benefits, to being trained in a trade however, he chose the perpetually easy target of art history as an example of a college pursuit gone wrong (as Click and Clack humorously and routinely point out on Car Talk).
     
    Here is the quote according to the Washington Post:
        
          “A lot of young people no longer see the trades and skilled
    manufacturing as a viable career, but I promise you, folks can make a
    lot more potentially with skilled manufacturing or the trades than they
    might with an art history degree.” According to the Washington Post, President Obama then chuckled and attempted to put out the fire he had accidentally started by saying “Nothing wrong with art history degree, I love art history. I
    don’t want to get a bunch of emails from everybody. I’m just saying,
    you can make a really good living and have a great career without
    getting a four-year college education, as long as you get the skills and
    training that you need.”
     
    I thought oh great, one more insult to add to the pile, way to grab for the low hanging fruit Mr. President, but it points out a larger and and growing disdain in our society for the libral arts/ humanities in education. With all the promotion of the STEM degrees the traditional libral arts have taken a real hit in the last ten years or so. What used to be considered a fine, well-rounded background for almost any pursuit, has become the butt of jokes and is pointed to as an education squandered.

    From my perspective, without the studies of the humanities our lives are less rich, they lack an understanding of past and richness that only an appreciation of the arts can bring. People may argue that you can pursue these avenues of enrichment on your own, outside of how you earn your money, but without teachers in these areas, your pursuit will only take you so far. Without someone to explain Abstract Expressionism to you, you might likely dismiss it as so many “globs of paint” and miss the importance of the freedom the movement represented and how by throwing the canvas on the ground and tossing the paint onto it, Jackson Pollock took art to a place without boundaries and represented the potential of a nation emerging from the dust of a hard-fought world war, as the new global super power. Art, music, literature, poetry are the mirror that reflects our world back to us, they capture and see things that may not be clear at the time, but upon further study enrich our understanding of ourselves and our world. 

    When I pursued my studies in the areas of literature and art, I knew I was not choosing a path to wealth or fame, but I expected to work in a museum or teach for a wage that would allow me to live modestly, but comfortably and reap my rewards though proximity to beautiful art, or through introducing students to the world of art. As I struggle to find a job (while the adjunct teaching opportunities dry-up and pay far less than a living wage [a rant for another place and time]) I get what Obama is saying, but I am sad for what we lose as a society when we devalue the humanities and look down on those who see its value as more than a guaranteed income bracket.

  • The Fountainheads

    Ai Weiwei, Circle of Zodiac Heads
    Currently on display at The Cleveland Museum of Art are Chinese artist Ai Aweiwei’s bronze representations of the animals of the Chinese Zodiac. They have been traveling around the world, we saw a glimpse of them in Toronto during the summer and are now installed in the interior court at CMA through January 26, 2014. They are reproductions of the fountain heads from the now destroyed Yuanming Yuan Imperial retreat which were pillaged after the palace was attacked by French and British troops in the 18th century. Ai Weiwei intention is to draw attention to the looting and repatriation of art around the world.

  • Art for All

    Everyone knows about the financial and societal woes of Detroit. The once grand and prospering city has been in decline for decades now and an emergency manager was appointed in March which gave fiscal control to the state instead of the city. Last week the news came out that all city interests are being examined as possible revenue streams, up to and including, the city owned Detroit Institute of Arts. Now in all probability, the city would not be able to sell off assets given in trust or as gifts to the institution and the idea has already sparked a backlash in the museum community who would take it as a direct assault on museums in general. Even the suggestion of looting the collection really drives home how desperate situation is. The DIA owns some spectacular pieces, a Brueghel any museum would love to own, a beautiful Caravaggio, the painting by Whistler that sparked (pun intended) the legendary Whistler vs. Ruskin case, a sublime Bingham, and of course the Rivera Court, just to name a few. Perhaps all this publicity will remind people the depth and beauty of the collection and how a visit, over the course of the summer, to see it  for themselves would do the DIA and the city good.

  • Quiet Remembrance

    Although considered part of the Harlem Renaissance movement, Motley never lived in Harlem. He was born in New Orleans and moved to Chicago where he studied art the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. This painting from early in his career shows his grandmother Emily Motley (a former slave) quietly mending socks surrounded by mementos and references to her life.

  • Happy Birthday, Ingres

    Madame Moitessier, 1856 by Jacques-Auguste-Dominque Ingres, National Gallery of Art, London.

    True to the fashion of his time, Ingres was more interested in painting historic scenes than doing portraits, but also true, portraits are an artist’s bread and butter. Mme. Moitessier’s husband asked Ingres to paint his wife’s portrait and Ingres refused, upon meeting her however, he was intrigued and agreed to paint her. Notice how the use of the mirror behind her, gives us two portraits in one.

  • Shout-out to Modernism

    Solar Do-(It-Yourself) Nothing Toy. After Charles Eames by Edgar Olaineta, 2012, 
    from the Factory Direct: Pittsburgh exhibition Warhol Museum.
    The Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh is hosting an exhibition of contemporary art called Factory Direct: Pittsburgh, now through September 9, 2012.

  • Happy Birthday Gustave

    Fruit Displayed on a Stand by Gustave Caillebotte, 1881-2, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
    Caillebotte existed on the fringes of the Impressionist group, as he was both a benefactor and a member of the group. He was a painter himself, but lived as a lawyer, solider, and engineer. He did not adhere closely to the painting by light and loose brush strokes of the Impressionists and his work belies his realistic-style training, however, he allowed enough of the looser, less studied style of the Impressionists to enter his work, that it was given a lightness, that more realistic work lacks.
    Even in death he supported the Impressionists, leaving his vast collection to the French Government on the condition that it be displayed, not stored away. The artists and their work had not yet been embraced by the French people, and the government and they rejected that condition, but ended up accepting a portion of the work which they did display, making it the first time the artists of the group were displayed in a government exhibition.

  • Comments on the Walls

    Both of these graffiti pieces have been attributed to the artist known as “Banksy” his work had been absent from London for a while, but it is thought that he has returned in order to make some statements about the Olympics which begin in London next week.

  • Beautifully New

    Lady with Fan by Gustav Klimt, 1917, Private Collection.
    Happy Birthday to Gustav Klimt, today would have been his 150th birthday. The Austrian Art Nouveau painter, often chose women as his subjects and also used gold leaf to further embellish and decorate his work. There is a retrospective of his artwork at the Belvedere Museum in Vienna, Austria now through January 6, 2013.