About Art History

Casting Calls Announced for The Untitled Art Project

2009-07-01T14:33:43Z

Tell all of your artist friends: the Bravo Network has, at long last, determined a casting call schedule for its upcoming reality television series The Untitled Art Project. According to the press release, they are looking for "emerging or mid-career" artists of the "contemporary" stripe. (Note to readers: Erm, not to split hairs, but any visual artist who is currently [1] breathing and [2] working is, by definition, "contemporary." But I digress.) The schedule is as follows:

LOS ANGELES
Saturday, July 11 & Sunday, July 12, 10 AM � 2 PM
LAXART
www.laxart.org

MIAMI
Tuesday, July 14, 10 AM � 2 PM
Fredric Snitzer Gallery
www.Snitzer.com

CHICAGO
Thursday, July 16, 10 AM � 2 PM
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Sullivan Galleries, 33 S. State Street
www.saic.edu

NEW YORK
Saturday, July 18 & Sunday, July 19, 10:00 AM � 2:00 PM
White Columns
www.whitecolumns.org

You should also know that there is a full boatload of application papers, portfolio requirements and passport prerequisites Bravo expects hopefuls to bring with them. Take the time to read the fine print, please.

All that's left to say is "Good luck" and that I, a dedicated shunner of Reality TV, will watch this series. Oh, I'd rather be in Hell with a broken back than to sit through, say, The Real Housewives of _______(insert place I don't care about here), but I would make popcorn and glue myself to the screen to watch a Conceptual artist try to etch a zinc plate. Now that's must-see TV, Fellow Art Geeks.

Ease on Down the Road

2009-06-25T22:53:57Z

Love him or loathe what he allegedly became, there's no denying that Michael Jackson touched millions of lives with his music, artistry and iconic cultural status as the "King of Pop." Look here. He even inspired Jeff Koons who is, himself, no slouch in the pop culture sphere.

As for me, I will remember him simply as an integral part of my youth and thank him always for the music; we all have our personal soundtracks in Life. Selective memory, perhaps, but nonetheless valid.

By the way, Bubbles is alive, well and spending his days acting as chimpanzees are meant to at an animal preserve in Sylmar, California.

Image credit:

Jeff Koons (American, b. 1955)
Michael Jackson and Bubbles, 1988
Ceramic
42 x 70 1/2 x 32 1/2 in.
(106.7 x 179.1 x 82.5 cm)
Photo © Douglas M. Parker Studio, Los Angeles
The Broad Art Foundation, Santa Monica / © Jeff Koons

Wordless Wednesday - Today's Heat Index

2009-06-24T15:33:42Z

© 2008 Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

(And here we all thought the melting timepieces were a Surrealistic flight of fancy. Ha! Not when the Heat Index is >100°F, Señor Dalí.)

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Art Myth: Picasso Was a Lefty

2009-06-20T20:25:30Z

Every three to six months someone emails instructing me to add Pablo Picasso to my list of Left-Handed Artists. And every three to six months I have to reply with, "Sorry, no can do" because Pablo Picasso was absolutely, positively not left-handed. However, the Internet being what it is, the tale of the Spanish Master's rumored southpawiness persists.

Today, after another email, it occurred to me (at long last!) that, maybe, the Internet could *also* provide proof to dispel this particular myth. While it's dangerous for me to venture into YouTube (think: short attention span and disproportionate love of TV sitcom clips), you, Dear Reader, deserve the truth. So, without further ado, I give you these offerings from YouTube, each of which shows a clearly right-handed Picasso wielding his brush:

Do you know of any other vintage Picasso footage online?

Mona Lisa Nude, Huh?

2009-06-12T23:51:47Z

So, did you hear the one about how Leonardo possibly painted other versions of La Gioconda, and how possibly one or more of the versions was nude from the waist up? If you didn't hear this, we are a party of at least two. Now, though, this apparently old rumor has come to the forefront due to the painting, above, going on display at an exhibition in Vinci, Italy.

The show is called Joconde: From the Mona Lisa to the Nude Gioconda. It opens tomorrow (June 13) and runs until September 30, 2009 at the Museo Ideale. It's divided into two parts: (1) works by Leonardo, his workshop and contemporary followers, and (2) 84,000 (all right, actually under 5K) riffs on the Mona Lisa that happened over the past 500 years. The big draw seems to be this painting, once owned by Napoleon Bonaparte's uncle, Cardinal Joseph Fesch (1763-1839), and formerly attributed to Leonardo. The big *question*--because, I guess, it's a slow news day--seems to be: was this Leonardo's own riff on the Mona Lisa?

Granted, it's hard to pick out much detail from this grainy little image, but my vote is "no." For starters, Leonardo wasn't given to doing female nudes. It may be a copy of something that Leonardo did, because the breasts are similar to the copy of his Leda and the Swan. But the face doesn't look like the sitter from the Mona Lisa to me. It looks a lot more like St. John the Baptist--or Bacchus (St. John in the Wilderness), or even St. Anne.

That's just my inexpert opinion, though. Tell me, what do you think?

(P.S. Pssst. MSNBC, you guys are bona fide journalists, right? So you know the man's name is "Leonardo," not "From Vinci," right? Right?)

The Calder in the Corporate Closet

2009-06-05T11:49:26Z

A little story here about the (late) consumer electronics retail chain, Circuit City. When it finally bit the dust, some 30K employees lost their jobs as 567 stores were closed and court-appointed liquidation firms were charged with disposing of various asset groups. One of these firms, Liquid Asset Partners, LLC, handled Circuit City's regional distribution centers and corporate offices.

A closet in the Richmond, Virginia office yielded some works of art and, lo and behold! Tucked amongst other framed pieces was a signed, numbered Alexander Calder lithograph. The casual eye might have moved on quickly past Wave (pictured above), but it's worth noting that (1) the red swirl is "Calder" red, a distinctive shade that (2) every person in the greater Grand Rapids, Michigan area--home of Liquid Asset Partners, LLC--knows by heart on account of "The Calder" that's been installed downtown since 1969.

So, jackpot! All right ... a modest jackpot. Maybe a $10,000 (US) jackpot on a good day. Here's the thing, though: it's up at auction on eBay until June 11 at 12 p.m. EDT. It's also looking like a bargain at this time, though the undisclosed reserve has not yet been met. Also: it's the genuine item, not one of those bad eBay art "deals" about which I've warned you. Happy bidding, as they say.

Image Credit:

Alexander Calder (American, 1898-1976)
Wave, 1970
Lithograph
44 1/2 x 33 3/4 in. (113 x 85.7 cm)
© Estate of Alexander Calder / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Press image courtesy Liquid Asset Partners, LLC

Wordless Wednesday - The Desperate Man

2009-06-03T13:39:38Z

Photo: © Michel Nguyen

(I have often wondered *what*, exactly, was going on in Gustave Courbet's life when he painted this freaking-out self portrait. Well, I think I know the answer this week: he wasn't getting his tomato plants in the ground quickly enough while swarms of those minuscule black flies slowly drained him of blood. What's that you say? No? Not possibly gardening related? Hmmm. Perhaps I should click on the image and learn more about his life...)

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Madonna and Guy Epic Fail

2009-05-31T21:40:50Z

Sometimes things in this world make no sense whatsoever. We could speak of current events now, wherein a medical doctor was shot and killed in his place of worship for performing legal medical procedures. We could talk about billions of dollars thrown at General Motors to save it from the bankruptcy that will be filed tomorrow morning. We could discuss a US Supreme Court Justice nominee who is being attacked on the grounds her attackers are employing. We'd have to be elsewhere, though, sitting around having coffee and not necessarily engaged in art-historic chat.

So, how about this? Peter Howson, whose work I don't normally mind, had one of his canvases come up at auction yesterday. Private seller through McTear's Auctioneers. The painting depicted Material Girl Madonna and ex-husband Guy Ritchie, both nude, in what they call Happier Times (read: 2005). Putting aside the fact the Madge looks like the Crypt Keeper here, and Guy strongly resembles The Thing from Fantastic Four, as well as the fact that no sane human would want--or, indeed, NEED--a visual reminder of these two we-pray-fictitious creatures lolling naked on a bed together, Howson usually sells well so pre-sale estimates were from £15,000 to £22,000. Unfortunately, no one told the bidders that last part and the lot went the way of the Ritchie marriage. Nominal interest (in the form of a few bids), but nothing ultimately substantial enough to warrant a lasting commitment. Que lastima, queridas y queridos.

We are left with the optimistic thought that, perhaps, sometimes ... not very often, but ... sometimes things in this world make perfect sense.

Image Credit:

Peter Howson (English, b. 1958)
Madonna and Guy, 2005
Oil on canvas
89 x 120 cm (35 x 47 3/16 in.)
Private Collection
Art © Peter Howson
Image courtesy McTear's Auctioneers

What Is Mary Cassatt's Date of Birth?

2009-05-24T17:00:20Z

Scholars, I seek your input. Yesterday a reader emailed me to let me know I'd made a "minor typo" by putting Mary Stevenson Cassatt (1844-1926) down for a May 25 birth date. Believe me, I'm not saying I'm right, only that I did cross-reference sources (as always) before using that date. Specifically, the Grove Dictionary of Art and the Encyclopedia of American Art Before 1914 (both published by Oxford University Press). I have subsequently seen May 25, 1844 used in an exhibition catalogue from the Virginia Museum of Fine Art entitled Capturing Beauty: American Impressionist & Realist Paintings from the McGlothlin Collection (2005).

Well, I have no other physical reference materials in my possession and May 22, 1844 is all over the Internet as the correct date of Miss Cassatt's birth. There are also less frequent mentions of May 23, 1844; May 23, 1845; and May 22, 1845. Clearly, 4/5ths of this information is wrong. (Note: I am not a medical professional, but am 100% positive humans only get one date of birth.)

My brainstorm was to check with the Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Department of Records. Unfortunately, Allegheny City, where Mary Cassatt was born, did not begin recording birth certificates until 1882.

So, people, we have something of a mystery here. I am asking all of you scholars out there if you know (1) of any primary source records re: Mary Cassatt's date of birth and (2) how I can get my hands on a facsimile. In the grand scheme of things, this isn't a huge deal--but it has always been important, to me, to at least try to publish accurate dates.

Can you help? Please leave a comment. And thank you in advance for any sources, references, leads and, of course, your time.

Norman Rockwell at the Detroit Institute of Arts

2009-05-23T19:46:18Z

Look at this picture. Remember what it was like to load (to bursting) the family station wagon and roar off for a long day, weekend or summer vacation? Those were the days, my friend--even taking into account seatbelt-less kids hopping around in close proximity to metal dashboards. When a gallon of gasoline cost < $0.15 and unemployment was practically nil, we thought nothing of taking protracted road trips. In 2009, though, many of us are learning to appreciate our home town and regional attractions. Staycations, "they" call these, because a catchy phrase somehow makes the devalued $ USD sound less grim.

To that end, if you are within driving distance of the Detroit Institute of Arts over Memorial Day weekend and the next week, I highly recommend catching American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell before it leaves town after May 31, 2009. Is it free to non-members? No. This is a timed, ticketed exhibition. However, it's (1) reasonably priced, as is (2) membership, and (3) offers a huge slice of Americana in (4) a lovely setting.

"Lovely?" you ask. Yes. Lovely. The DIA is one of my favorite destinations on Planet Earth. We Michiganders have certainly taken an economic beating of late, but can look with pride to our cultural institutions. However, due to severe State budget cuts, shrunken endowments, a dwindling patron base and overall population loss, we also need to look to ourselves to keep them alive. Please consider this while making your staycation plans--whether you live in the metropolitan Detroit area or anywhere that local art museums truly need your support. (Sad to say, this is the case with nearly every art museum, everywhere in the U.S.)

And one last parting thought about Mr. Rockwell: he was one hell of an artist. His technique was perfect and he--if you're paying attention--was edgy. If I read one more dismissive sentence from an art critic sniffing about how Norman Rockwell was "just an illustrator," I will be seriously tempted to force that wordsmith to create a painting we can all publicly critique. He's been dead for over 30 years now, no need to keep tediously protecting The Art World from someone that 99% of The Real World appreciates, Einstein.

(*deep breath*) So ... to recap: Support the Detroit Institute of Arts and love Norman Rockwell. Oh, and, staycations aren't the worst things human beings will ever have to endure.

Image credit:

Norman Rockwell (American, 1894-1978)
Going and Coming, 1947
Cover illustration for The Saturday Evening Post, August 30, 1947
Oil on canvas
Two panels, each 16 x 31 1/2 in. (40.6 x 80 cm)
Norman Rockwell Art Collection Trust
© The Norman Rockwell Estate / ©1947 SEPS:
Licensed by Curtis Publishing, Indianapolis, Indiana