Painting by Winslow Homer. Autumn Leaves lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group
Art
Addio, Oscar.
One of the people I have held most dear to me was a man I met at the American Academy in Rome in September of 1985. Oscar Hijuelos died last Saturday at the age of 62 of heart failure. In truth, it is not that surprising, for here was a man with a very large heart, or cuore, as they say in italiano, and Oscar used up his heart by sharing it with anyone he was engaged with. It was his charm and ultimately his destiny.
We shared a love of life tempered by the waning golden sunlight of Roma that autumn and by our passion for all things Italian. I introduced Oscar to Firenze and that marvelous citta has never –in a lifetime of visits to Florence– seemed more magical to me, before or since, than in his lively company. We intersected in a time and space that are of course now lost; but, I am witness to an incredible moment that changed us both in significant ways. We were truly “innocents abroad.” It was the best of times.
I shall miss you, Oscar. The world was a bigger, better, warmer, kinder place when you were in it. Ciao, caro mio. Addios.
N is for Elie Nadelman.
Japanese Cappucino
My good friend is home in Japan visiting her mother. She sends this great image and calls it “only in Japan”! Love it!
O is for two artists, one well known: O’Keefe; one not: Oakley
Georgia O’Keefe
Violet Oakley
P is for Jackson Pollock
A masterpiece by “Jack the Dripper”
Jack shown dripping below.
Many people, when confronted with paintings by Pollock and the New York School, can’t understand what the artist was doing or why.
The best way I can explain early modern art is to paraphrase one of the artists working in the style: Traditional painting techniques just didn’t jive with contemporary life. Realism, perspective, and all of the aims of the western painting tradition from the Renaissance through the mid-19th century, just could not be used any longer to express the developments and atrocities witnessed in the 20th century. Who wants to look at a perfectly captured painting of an atomic bomb blowing up? A photograph can capture it. Leave those subjects for photography and begin to explore other ideas. Dive into the deep end of your subconscious.
And also, judging from this gallery scene, it helps if you wear all black when you study a Pollock on the wall!
Q is for Jacopo della Quercia
| Jacopo della Quercia | |
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Jacopo della Quercia (c. 1374 – 1438) was a major early Renaissance sculptor, whose works even influenced Michelangelo.
Here are multiple views of one of Della Quercia’s best-known sculpture, The Fonte Gaia in the Piazza del campo of Siena.
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| Left side with Creation of Adam’ |
Middle section |
Right side |
Della Querica takes his name from the little town near Siena in which he was born. During the Black Plague (c. 1350) that killed so many Europeans, people were desperate for an answer as to what caused the plague (we know now it was fleas carried by rats), and how to avoid it in the future. Somehow the statue of Venus that adorned the main piazza of Siena was deduced to have an evil influence and was soon destroyed and buried outside city’s walls. Della Quercia was the fortunate winner of the commission to design a replacement fountain. His theme, constructed in white marble, was the Virgin Mary. Superstitious Italians hoped that by placating this deity, their community would be spared the spurge.
Della Quercia also carved many reliefs for a church in Bologna. Here are three of them.
God the Father creating Adam
The Temptation in the Garden of Eden
The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden
It is known that Michelangelo saw these reliefs by Della Quercia. Have a look at Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel Ceiling and see how his paintings relate compositionally to these sculptures. I think you see the connection.
Another amazing work by Della Quercia is this sculpture placed over a tomb in the Lucca cathedral.
It is a pretty spectacular sculpture and well worth a trip to Lucca whenever you are lucky enough to be in Italy.
This will take you breath away: contemporary Japanese fashion
Come back tomorrow for an explanation!
Update: 7/20/13: There is a fine exhibit at SAM now called, somewhat confusingly, “Future Beauty” but is actually a show of some of the high fashion emanating from Japan from the last 30 years.
The show includes these designers:
| Rei Kawakubo Yohji Yamamoto Junya Watanabe Issey Miyake Jun Takahashi Hiroyuki Horihata Makiko Sekiguchi |
Hiroaki Ohya Shinichiro Arakawa Naoya Hatakeyama Tatsuno Koji Tao Kurihara Hanae Mori |
Kenzo Takada Maiko Kurogouchi Taro Horiuchi Akira Naka Keisuke Nagami Kosuke Tsumura |
Tamae Hirokawa Masahiro Nakagawa Takao Yamashita Kazuaki Takashima Mikio Sakabe Naoki Takizawa |
Aya Takano Akira Onozuka Kumiko Uehara Hokuto Katsui Nao Yagi Lica Azechi |
In a move that keeps art museums maintaining their reputation of being elite and unapproachable, the visitor is not allowed to take photos in the current exhibition.
Now, I have spent a good part of my adult life working in and for art museums and I know all the reasons for not allowing photograph (mainly the potential damage caused by the flash of the camera’s light). But if art museums want people to come, to look, to enjoy, then they need to allow today’s visitor the opportunity to take a picture. Phones with cameras are ubiquitous. Phones are in everyone’s hands. So, here’s a tip to the art museums of the world: allow pictures. You don’t have to do any more focus groups to understand why museums seem elite.
So, yeah, I took these pictures without permission by playing hide and go see with the guards. Stupid.
The most aggravating part of the experience is that I couldn’t get pictures of the most knock-out designs because the guards were watching for me (I don’t blame the guards, they were just doing their jobs, but the administration needs to wake up and smell the coffee. Wouldn’t you think especially in the coffee-capital that is Seattle, they already would be smelling the coffee?)
So, please enjoy these few pictures that I stole.
This was interesting. Some of the garments were folded like origami and displayed as 2-d designs.
One of the most flamboyant dresses could be folded up entirely and packed like a large, flat paperback book . Now that’s ingenious. Too bad I can’t show you because of the photog restrictions.
If you can, catch this show!
Sayonara! Mata ne.
R is for Rialto Bridge in Venezia, Italia!
And the winner is: Erikeno who recommended the Rialto Bridge! What a great idea! You can collect your prize in person in September!
Honorable mention goes to JBragg with the suggestion of Raku ware from Japan. Thank you JBragg! Here’s a picture for you:
But, back to dreamy thoughts of the Rialto…
It turns out that early versions of this beloved, gorgeous ponte di rialto were made of wood and kept collapsing. About 1585, it was decided to build the bridge in stone and a Swiss-born engineer/architect known as Antonio da Ponte (1512 – 1595) (Anthony of the bridge, are you kidding me?), helped design and build the bridge that has since become a major symbol of Venice.
Check out this link for the latest and greatest information.
http://en.structurae.de/structures/data/index.cfm?ID=s0000461
| 1588 – 1591 |
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Jimminy Cricket, just because…
I didn’t post anything in the past two weeks doesn’t mean I didn’t do anything!
So, let me catch you up!
I encountered a stand of hollyhocks while looking for an iced Americano.
I went to see the exhibit at SAM on Japanese Fashion of the past 30 years. Love this dress!
Here’s another masterpiece from the exhibition.
And one more in black that proves my point that turbans are under utilized!
What’s that you say? You didn’t know I had a position on the wearing of turbans? Well I certainly do!
Here’s how I know:
That’s me in the brown turban while in Morocco climbing a mountain of sand in the Sahara Desert. I can tell you that turbans not only look good and add drama and mystery, they serve the useful purpose of keeping the sand out of your mouth and nose.
This camel driver knows the truth!
Ciao, ragazzi!
get back, lauretta! 
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