For Love of Art

[drinkanddestroy]

DJ and I visited MoMA last week.

There was a big Magritte exhibit DJ was interested in, called "Magritte: The Mystery of the Ordinary, 1926-1938," you can see the works here http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1322

I was excited to see the exhibit called "American Modern: Hopper to O'Keeffe," all from works in MoMA's collection; you can see all the works from that exhibit here http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3ATA%3AE%3AAmericanModern&page_number=3&template_id=6&sort_order=4

(if you click the above link, the 11 Hopper works in the exhibit appear on the top of the page.)

I took some pics but I can't upload anything now cuz am having trouble using Image Shack.


I'm obviously a huge Hopper fan, and I was particularly excited to see House by the Railroad for the first time. DJ isn't a huge Hopper fan, but he is a Hitchcock fan, so he enjoyed seeing the painting upon which the Bates house in Psycho was based  

We also saw Night Windows, a watercolor called Box Factory, Gloucester, and the famous oils Gas and New York Movie, which I am always excited to see; those are probably two of my  favorite paintings of all time.
There were also five Hopper etchings on view. And the exhibit also featured interesting painting and photography by Charles Scheeler, Charles Burchfield, and the great painting Christina's World by Andrew Wyeth. All can be seen at the exhibit link I provided above.

We also got to see four works by de Chrico: Gare Montparnasse (1914), The Song of Love (1914), The Serenity of the Scholar (1914), and Great Metaphysical Interior (1917).

Good times... I plan on going back sometime in the next couple of weeks  

[drinkanddestroy]

This should make DJ happy - MoMA is undergoing a massive renovation http://www.businessinsider.com/moma-redesign-will-help-solve-its-problems-2014-1
there has been a lot of complaining about the fact that MoMA is tearing down the folk art museum http://www.businessinsider.com/nyc-folk-art-museum-will-be-destroyed-2014-1

[drinkanddestroy]

I went back to MoMA yesterday, thanks to DJ 

The museum was jammed cuz it was the final day of its huge Magritte exhibit - but happily, most of the crowd was there for that exhibit, and I have little interest in Magritte; I didn't even visit that exhibit (I saw it on my last visit, a couple of weeks ago), so the rest of the museum wasn't particularly crowded.... I had lots of room to see my Hoppers, my de Chricos, my Sheelers, and Wyeth's Christina's World 

I also saw MoMA's Monet collection for the first time - these four paintings http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?SHR&tag=ex4649&template_id=6

I'd love to share some photos, but I've been having trouble using Image Shack lately - for some reason, when I share photos here, they are so big it stretches the page to triple the width.... when I work that out, I'll share the photos.


I used to laugh at those 12-year-old girls who shriek and cry when they see Justin Beiber. Well, I realized yesterday that maybe I shouldn't laugh at them... Cuz when I see some of my favorite paintings, I kinda feel wanna shriek and cry, too 

[dave jenkins]

This should make DJ happy - MoMA is undergoing a massive renovation http://www.businessinsider.com/moma-redesign-will-help-solve-its-problems-2014-1

Hmmm, no wonder they keep writing to ask for money. This sounds good, though, as long as they can get someone to pay for it (someone who is not me). MoMA as it is now always feels really cramped.

[drinkanddestroy]

Hmmm, no wonder they keep writing to ask for money. This sounds good, though, as long as they can get someone to pay for it (someone who is not me). MoMA as it is now always feels really cramped.

considering that MoMA is aiming to finish the renovation by 2018 or 2019, I wonder how the ongoing construction will affect the museum in the meantime - I imagine that gallery space may be even more limited as construction is ongoing; so you may find the museum even more cramped until the renovation is complete.

btw, this guy http://www.vulture.com/2014/01/saltz-the-new-moma-expansion-is-a-mess.html hates the new plans.... I'm sure we'll be hearing a lot of opinions in the next few years; I, for one, have extremely limited experience with art museums (3 visits to MoMA and 1 visit to Whitney), so I don't have any opinion on the matter... yet 

[drinkanddestroy]

okay, I am gonna post some of the paintings I've seen on my recent visits to MoMA. (some of thse may not appear to be of sharpest quality. The pictures I took are actually really good quality, but in order to post them here from ImageShack, I gotta re-size them; besides, ImageShack sucks – did I ever mention I HATE ImageShack? -  but the point is to see the paintings; if you like any and wanna see a better version, you can then Google it).

Here goes:

We will begin with one of my favorite paintings in the world, Edward Hopper's Gas

[drinkanddestroy]

another very famous and great Hopper, House by the Railroad




as soon as I saw this painting online for the first time, I immediately said, "That's the Psycho house!" Indeed, Wikipedia says that Hitch modeled the Bates home on the house in this painting (see the third paragraph of the "Filming" section of Psycho's Wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycho_%281960_film%29#Filming )

[drinkanddestroy]

Hopper's Night Windows



a classic painting of one of Hopper's themes, voyeurism, specifically as seen from the elevated train. This painting is almost certainly from the perspective (or at least the fantasy  ) of a passenger on an elevated train, catching a glimpse through an open window as the train rolls by.....

[drinkanddestroy]

This a watercolor is called Box Factory, Gloucester (1928)

[drinkanddestroy]

Vincent Van Gogh's Portrait of Joseph Roulin at MoMA (taken on my phone)

    

[cigar joe]

all nice 

[drinkanddestroy]

thanks, CJ

I have to find a new file-sharing site to use, ImageShack is awful. Once I find a new site, I can hopefully post more of these pics and at a greater resolution. Any suggestions?

[drinkanddestroy]

Image Shack tells me my free trial is ending in 4 days, at which point I'll still be able to use links from my previusly uploaded pictures, but I won't be able to upload any more pictures. So, I'll hurry up and upload all the pics of artwork I'd been planning to do for a few months now. (And I promise y'all this is the last time I mention Image Shack for a long time  )

Okay, back to Edward Hopper:

Hopper's early paintings did not sell (because they sucked!), so in order to support himself, he did commercial art, and some etchings, during the 1910's and 1920's. By the 1920's (he was born in 1882, so he would have been approx. in his early 40's) he turned back to painting, mostly oils and also some watercolors, for the rest of his life.

Interestingly, his etching press remained in his Washington Square studio for the erst of his life (he basically used it as a place to hang his hat), you can see it in photos of his studio.

So here are five Hopper etchings I saw at MoMA. You can see how some of the themes that would come up in some of his most famous, later paintings, were already present here in these etchings.

The Lonely House (1922)



The Railroad (1922)



Night in the Park (1921) - the museum lights were shining right on this one, so the photo is a bit screwed up



Night Shadows (1921)



American Landscape (1920) Compare this one to the painting House by the Railroad http://www.fistful-of-leone.com/forums/index.php?topic=11436.msg170639#msg170639

[drinkanddestroy]

So Hopper is my guy, but I do like some other artists as well  

probably my favorite non-Hopper painter is Giorgio de Chirico; (specifically, his "metaphysical" period, running from roughly 1911-1919 – his later work was largely scorned, and rightfully so IMO). Leone loved de Chirico as well. De Chirico's work greatly influenced the Surrealists, and Frayling says that Leone once described GBU as "de Chirico rides the range."

Here are 4 de Chrico canvases I saw at MoMA (The painting called The Serenity of the Scholar is oil and charcoal on canvas; the other three are oil on canvas.)








This large 1914 canvas is called Gare Montparnasse (which I believe is French for "Montparnasse Station") and is sometimes called The Melancholy of Departure, not to be confused with this de Chirico painting, from 1916, called The Melancholy of Departure http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Melancholy_of_Departure )




The Serenity of the Scholar (1914) This painting is widest on bottom, and gets narrower toward the top




Great Metaphysical Interior (1917)

[drinkanddestroy]

Andrew Wyeth's Christina's World (1948)




Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans (1962)




Georgia O'Keeffe's Evening Star, No. III (1917) (watercolor on paper mounted on board) (there are some museum lights reflected in the top of the painting)




I far prefer when a painting is displayed in a plain frame, with no glass covering it. Cuz when there is glass covering it, then the museum lights are often reflected in the glass; also, when you stand in front of a painting to take a photo, your own reflection often appears in the glass. One example is the above photo of Evening Star, No. III; it was covered in glass, and you see the lights reflecting in it.

Here is another example: This is a photograph by Charles Sheeler http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Sheeler who was a renowned artist as both a photographer and painter (considered one of the "Precisionist" painters) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precisionism This photograph, called Bucks County Barn (1914-1917, gelatin silver print)  is covered by glass, and you'll see my own reflection, as I snap this photo


and here is a painting by Sheeler with the very same title as the above photo, Bucks County Barn (1932, oil on composition board)




here is another Sheeler painting, called American Landscape (1930) (as noted in the Wikipedia link I provided above on Precisionism, that movement "took as its main themes industrialization and the modernization of the American landscape, the structures of which were depicted in precise, sharply defined geometrical forms." This painting is of "the Ford Motor Company plant on the River Rouge near Detroit, Michigan." http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=79032


The above photo also has lights reflected in it. So anytime you see the reflection of lights and/or people in a photo, that means the photo was covered in glass.