Newsletter: November 2009

29 October 2009 | Newsletters

Anish Kapoor: Memory at the Guggenheim

Anish Kapoor

Anish Kapoor

I have written about this excellent artist in previous blogs, in particular his show at the ICA in Boston just last year. But last night I had the pleasure of hearing him speak about his work due to the opening of his newest installation at the Guggenheim in New York City entitled, Memory. Born in 1954 in Bombay, Kapoor has spent the majority of his life in London. He has many international solo shows and currently has a show on view at the esteemed Royal Academy of Arts in London. Kapoor began by stating that he is “an artist who believes in the studio. If an artist has too much to say it can get in the way of the work.” The studio for him is a place where meaning is excavated through process. He led the audience on a verbal and visual tour of his work over the years which has led to the current work on view.

Image courtesy of the artist's website

Mother as a Mountain, 1985, Image courtesy of the artist's website

In the 1970s he wondered if anyone could make a sculpture out of color–simple pigment. Pigment is physical but it seemed to contradict itself because it is also kind of an illusion. He stumbled on the shaped pigment sculptures he created during this time while playing with form. To him they read as partial objects like icebergs with the notion that there is something else hidden under the floor. Or that the works weren’t made but arrived; they are beyond the hand of the artist.

Void Field

Void Field, 1990, Image courtesy of the artist's website

After 7 years of pigment pieces he felt he had begun to make “compositions” and he didn’t like that, so he headed in a different direction. He had a desire to deal with absolute color, color as a condition instead of as a tool. By emptying out an object, space did not seem empty but began to fill up with a darkness of mass. These works had 2-d and 3-d qualities to them. They represented mass and no mass. He wanted the viewer to question what it was they were looking at. In a work called Void Field a group of 16 blocks of stone weighing between 4-6 tons each each had a small excavated hole in the top that was painted Prussian blue. For the viewer it was like looking into a well. He feels that we recognize an object not just through its apparent weight and form but through its skin.

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The Earth London, 1991, Image courtesy of the artist's website

In another work he made a hole in the floor and people weren’t sure if it was painted on or not. He does not consider it a hole but a “space full of darkness; it is both full and empty.” For Kapoor uncertainty is what it is all about. Art is an heroic adventure that takes us to the sublime. A current project in France that he is working on is a 3/4 km long crack in  the ground outside. He is interested in its symbolic potential. He wants people to ponder whether or not it goes to the center of the earth.

The End of the World

At the Edge of the World, 1998, Image courtesy of the artist's website

In At the Edge of the World Kapoor attempted to make a horizon, to turn the red of earth into a sky. Kapoor believes art can do that; it can fundamentally change things.

He is deeply interested in monochrome because there is no composition when working in one color–red is red, yellow is yellow. One of Kapoor’s heroes is Joseph Beuys, another is Barnett Newman. Beuys felt that pregnancy is a condition of sculpture. You don’t simply look at a work of art. You always come to the work with other knowledge which affects the way you perceive the piece. he made a series of white works during this time that dealt with these issues–what am I looking at? Is something really there?

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Iris, 1998, Image courtesy of the artist's website

Next he began to use mirrors in his investigations of spaces. He would fill voids with mirror-like substances. He was intrigued by the idea that throughout art history form has always been a solid and no one worked with concave space.

Turning the World Inside Out, 1995

Turning the World Inside Out, 1995, Image courtesy of the artist's website

He felt a need to “turn the world inside out” focusing on negative space almost as if the object was swallowing itself.

Cloud Gate, 2004

Cloud Gate, 2004, Image courtesy of the artist's website

The most obvious example is Cloud Gate in Chicago. This object collects in images of what is happening around it and as one enters it, it pulls one in in a way that is parallel the surrounding landscape.

Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, Marsyas, 2002

Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, Marsyas, 2002, Image courtesy of the artist's website

In the Turbine Hall installation at the Tate Modern he created Marsyas using stretched red PVC entering a new investigation of pulled and stretched works. The PVC acted as a skin like the flayed flesh of Marsyas in Roman mythology. Similar to Memory, it is impossible to see the piece or perceive it in its entirety. One can only capture bits of what is happening.

He has also used wax in his obsession with color because wax seems to be physical and present as well as having other dimensionalities. The works are all about process and doing something. The work and the medium is slowly churning, moving and there is something dark and dire about what is happening. Kapoor addressed red as a favorite color by explaining that “it has a kind of darkness that we understand at a deeper level.”

Some of his newest works on view in London now exist in a space between purpose and nature. A machine he developed exudes cement in various forms that look like yarn or spaghetti in cone like shapes. devoid of color, these works are completely about process.

Memory, 2008

Memory, 2008

The work on view at the Guggenheim, Memory, is 24 tons of Cor-Ten steel whose form is never fully visible as it is tightly snug within a space in the museum. Visitors can see the work from three separate viewing areas but must piece the images together in their minds creating what Kapoor suggests is a”mental sculpture.” There is thus a contradiction between the known and the perceived. The viewer is left questioning it because it doesn’t quite make sense how it all comes together. The outside of the work is rough and corroded but the interior is covered with a substance which renders it completely dark. The one room offers a window into the interior of the work–the void. The viewer can still see the rusted steel at the edges, but it blends into complete darkness just beyond the edge of the work. What a brilliant concept! To me the outside shape reminded me of a blimp but with twists and turns. For lack of a better way to say it–it is so freakin’ cool!

Vermeer’s Masterpiece: The Milkmaid

 

Johannes Vermeer, The Milkmaid, c. 15

Johannes Vermeer, The Milkmaid, c. 1657-58

Ah the Met and all its wonders. It takes days to get through all of its galleries. But I would suggest not trying to tackle it all in one visit. Go see this Johannes Vermeer exhibition and enjoy a relaxing lunch in the cafe overlooking Central Park. Gaze in amazement upon some of the few works by Vermeer (there are only around 35 in existence). While there is only one on loan (the rest are from the Met’s permanent collection) it is a biggie. The Milkmaid, 1657-58, is from the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam and has not graced our shores since the 1939 World’s Fair. In addition to the Vermeers there are works by other Dutch artists included in the show which help to support the interesting theme the curators have chosen to highlight–the sexuality of the works of this time regarding the subject matter. To us, a woman in the kitchen does not immediately conjure up thoughts of sex but to the Dutch at that time, there was a widely held belief that these milkmaids were promiscuous. Subtle as it is, Vermeer chose to depict a milkmaid who seems distracted. By what we are not sure until, the wall text tells us, we look carefully at the floor tiles where we find an image of Cupid implying all things sexual and sordid. This seems an interesting slant to take when all I have ever heard about Vermeer’s work is the luminosity he managed to create on a two-dimensional surface and his mastery of light. Those elements are certainly at play in this work, but apparently there is more to Vermeer’s focus on woman in domestic settings than meets the eye. The show will be up through November 29th so if you are in town for Turkey Day, pop in to see this spectacular work.

Tim Davis at Greenberg Van Doren

Fluorescent Green Cleat, 2009

Fluorescent Green Cleat, 2009

Even if you don’t get the chance to see this show you should check out the artist and his work.Tim Davis spent time in Rome after earning a fellowship there in 2008. It was during this time that he came up with the concept for the series, “The New Antiquity.” When in Rome one is hard pressed to find a visitor not taking photos of all of the glorious ruins of the Roman Empire. Davis, however, chose to focus his attentions on ruins of a different kind. Modern day ruins included a tennis shoe deposited in a leafy green mass, a neon sign from a hotel shining like a beacon to visitors, a fresco covered in graffiti long since forgotten, and my favorite–a photo of multiple digital cameras strewn on the ground with images of the colosseum on their screens.

 

Colosseum Pictures, 2009

Colosseum Pictures, 2009

The Rome series was so successful that Davis chose to investigate similar scenes from China and the eastern coast of the United States. His work is whimsical but thoughtful and provocative. Davis received his MFA from Yale and he lives and works in NY. Check out his website for more information: www.davistim.com

 

Motel Boomerang, 2009

Motel Boomerang, 2009

 Jude Law in “Hamlet”

Jude Law in Hamlet on Broadway

Jude Law in Hamlet on Broadway

This fall New Yorkers are treated to an excellent play in Hamlet at The Broadhurst theater through Dec 6th. Though most have seen some rendition of this famous Shakespearean work before or have read it in high school, this version is well worth revisiting. As Law said in a NYT interview, “Our language is littered with words and phrases from this play, and we use them because we have not, in 400 years, found a better way of putting things.” He understands this and does not play down to his audience but brings humor to his Hamlet that is missing in many productions. Law makes Hamlet modern and relatable–he makes Shakespeare come alive. His physical performance is extraordinary as he truly becomes the tortured prince. Law steals the show. He dominates every time he sets foot on the stage. A must see performance.

Slash: Paper Under the Knife at MAD

Aandreas kocks, 2007

Andreas Kocks, 2007

Ever since the Museum of Arts and Design reopened, I have enjoyed visiting their unique exhibitions. This show, which explores the use of paper as a medium beyond collage, is the third in MAD’s materials and Process series examining traditional materials and techniques through the lens of contemporary art and design. To the average person paper is ordinary and commonplace, but for these artists “its true value is discovered only in its transformation.” 52 artists of all backgrounds (painters, sculptors, filmmakers, architects, photographers, etc.) from 16 countries have works on view in this thematically curated show. Overall it is a great show and I highly recommend it. It is a great concept and I enjoyed the loose themes the curator created but by the time I got to the end of the exhibition, I felt it got a little repetitive.

The first theme is: “Cutting as Gesture: Drawing with the Knife.” The wall text explains that the acts of burning, tearing and cutting paper create painterly imagery and allow artists to explore form, line, and color often in three-dimensional space. Rather than read the quotes by the artists it is best to just experience the works in this part of the show. Well-known artist Judy Pfaff uses everything from coffee filters to silk flowers and a bamboo parasol in her colorful wall piece.

 

Mia Pearlman, INRUSH, 2009

Mia Pearlman, INRUSH, 2009

Mia Pearlman’s work INRUSH utilizes the natural light from the window to bring weather elements into the space (see other blog entry for specifics about this artist). For Fran Siegal “voids become pronounced over solids” much in the same way that Lucio Fontana slashed his canvases putting the focus on the voids. Adam Fowler creates meditative works using cut paper colored with graphite in 74 layers. “Dissecting the Past: Myths and Memories” includes works which reflect upon and individual’s history. Paper has always been used to record history, thoughts, dreams and these artists use these ideas in varied and clever ways. Norwegian artist, Anne- Karin Furunes desires to take something away when creating her work rather than adding paint to a surface. She uses found photos and with varying sized hand hole punches, images begin to appear on black paper.

Crush

Nava Lubelski, Crush

The female artist Nava Lubelski created Crush, a work made of old love letters and glue. Choosing to explore one man’s struggle with confronting his own identity, Lubelski gathered his love letters from a five year period during which he came out as a gay man. By rolling and carefully placing the paper and letters in a pattern, she turned a difficult process into a thing of beauty. It is a stunning work placed on a low pedestal on the floor. It is reminiscent of millefiore patterns in Venetian glass. 

“Form and Space: Slicing Architecture” includes pieces by world famous artists. Thomas Demand who builds sets and scenes made entirely of paper which are photographed and then destroyed, the photo serves as the only surviving record of the work.

Olafur Eliasson

Olafur Eliasson

On view by Olafur Eliasson from Denmark and Iceland is a 454 page laser cut book which shows a cross-section of the artist’s house with an accompanying video. Chilean artist Tomas Rivas recreated the vault of St. Ignatius in Rome using carved drywall, wallpaper liner and paint. The work is meant to create an intimacy for the viewer by removing the elements in situ and bringing them before you on a smaller scale. This emphasizes the ephemerality of the work as well as bringing up questions about how a viewer’s “cultural expectations frame perception.” Parts are painted blue, others are raw materials. It is as if you are looking up at the ceiling of the church and through this simple use of materials, a thing a beauty and wonder is created. 

“Corporeal Concerns: Revealing the Body” included work by Oliver Herring whom I have done a studio visit with before (see previous entry).

Noriko Ambe

Noriko Ambe

In the area entitled “Cutting Topography: Exploring Landscape,” Noriko Ambe, whom I met through my studio visits in Long Island City, has two cut paper works on view. She desires to “map the land between physical and the emotional geography…in order to attain the sublime. The work that hangs on the wall is simply sheets and sheets of paper cut by hand with an exacto knife creating an alien topograhy. Other sheets are stacked in flat files with drawers in various open and closed positions. The flat file is a metaphor for the human body. In another eye-catching piece Nina Katchadourian cut out all of Finland’s unnamed islands and placed each one between microscopic slides. The idea that walking past them is like watching a film frame by frame. And Tomas Gbzdil Libertiny from Slovakia’s work astounded me. He created 5 paper vases on pedestals, each one made of 700 paper prints of a tree. He laminated the sheets into a block and then used a woodturner to carve the blocks into vases. 

 

Brian Dettmers

Brian Dettmers

In “Shredding the Word: Books and Language” Brian Dettmers cuts the Standard American Encyclopedia to reveal “layer upon layer of of images illustrating the diverse topics found in reference manuals.” The work is all graphic providing no contextual text. It is an extremely interesting work that is so labor intensive–it’s like a photography look book.

By the time I reached “Politics on the Edge,” the final section of the show, the notion of cut paper to create an image was getting a bit old. I felt as though this section could have been omitted just because the power of these works is in their initial impact and if you feel like you have seen work like it before, then it loses its message a bit. That being said Mona Hatoum’s violent scenes on the tissue paper that kids use to make innocuous snowflakes in winter were unique.

Guillermo Kuitca’s Stage Curtain for the Dallas Opera House

 

Guillermo Kuitca's Opera House Curtain

Guillermo Kuitca's Opera House Curtain

A collaboration with the architects, Foster and Partners, the red, gold and brown stage curtain is a “deconstructed image of the hall’s seating on a background of chocolate brown velour.” This is the first curtain design for Kuitca, who has previously designed opera sets in his hometown of Buenos Aires. He has often explored the visual qualities of seating plans in his work based on a trip he took to the Royal Opera House in London in 1994 when he was drawn in by the “pared-down visual language” of the chart. In 2007 he began digitally manipulating these charts and changing their colors and arrangements. The works are about disorientation. The Winspear Opera House is part of the AT&T Performing Arts Center so if you happen to be in Dallas, TX check it out.

American Ballet Theatre at Avery Fisher Hall

Seven Sonatas

American Ballet Theatre

I had the treat of seeing 4 dances by the acclaimed American Ballet Theatre on October 9th. Only on view for a few nights, the performance was well worth the effort it took to get good tickets. Seven Sonatas, my favorite, was the first dance. Accompanied by only a piano, six dancers took the stage all at once as well as in pairs and alone a various stages of the work. The movements were beautiful and fluid highlighting the dancers’ immense talent and classical training. Other Dances also only involved a piano, however there were just two dancers performing classical movements as each took the stage separately, letting their skills shine. Some Assembly Required was another dance for two, however, the violin and piano accompaniment was dissonant and the dancers’ movements were much more modern and jerky. The piece reminded me of a young couple at a hoedown and had elements of humor as well as intensity and power.Everything Doesn’t Happen at Once was accompanied by a xylophone. A white substance was taped to the floor before the dancers took to the stage. The entire company performed this piece and it was remarkable how many people were able to fit within a small surface area and perform carefully choreographed movements without knocking into each other. Seven Sonatas and Everything Doesn’t Happen at Once premiered earlier this year. Other Dances and Some Assembly Required are works that have been performed before.

Appraisal Services

Certified by the Appraiser’s Association of America, I offer expertise in the appraisal of works of art for current or past market value which can be used for purposes of insurance, estate valuations, or donation using the guidelines set forth by USPAP (Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice). Please contact me via email (nicole@accessibleartny.com) for further information.

Georgia O’Keeffe: Abstraction at the Whitney

Photo of Georgia O'Keeffe in New Mexico

Photo of Georgia O'Keeffe in New Mexico

Alright, I am making it my goal to describe the gist of this show so well that those of you who aren’t able to see it feel like you did. I have to be perfectly honest in saying that I was not terribly excited to see this exhibition. My parents live in Santa Fe and I have gone to the O’Keeffe Museum there on numerous occasions only to be underwhelmed. I do, however, enjoy her work and find her interesting as a person and an artist and have been to her home in Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch in New Mexico. So I headed reluctantly to the third floor. I am sure my experience was enhanced by the fact that the curator, Barbara Haskell, led my group around offering anecdotal information not on the wall text. The goal of this exhibit is to present a different side of O’Keeffe, one not linked to the sexual associations others attributed to her work. The focus here is on abstractions and radical work from her early career which became the basis for her representational work. Towards the end of her life she returned to these abstracted forms.

The show is one of the largest O’Keeffe exhibitions ever assembled and was begun four years ago with five curators working on it. Treasures came out of this show like the unsealing of letters between O’Keeffe and Steiglitz that had been sealed for 60 years. This correspondence gives us more insight into her life and her work.

Special Number 12, 1918, Charcoal on paper, 24 x 19"

Special Number 12, 1918, Charcoal on paper, 24 x 19"

O’Keeffe went briefly to art school in order to become an art teacher. She believed that art was not about representing something from the natural world but about the artist expressing her personality. This approach came from her teacher, Arthur Wesley Dow a pioneer in art education. She had a desire to “speak” through her work and the charcoal works on view in the first gallery are her pure feelings translated to paper. Art was a way for her to connect with the unknown through abstracted forms and later in her use of color. Steiglitz was impressed by her work and his positive feedback gave her the courage to continue. In 1916 her work was shown by Steiglitz for the first time at his gallery 291. It is interesting to note that the forms in these charcoal works come directly out of the arts and crafts movement at the turn of the century. The forms in her charcoals establish a vocabulary that she returns to again and again throughout her career.

Blue 1, 1916, Watercolor on paper

Blue 1, 1916, Watercolor on paper

In 1916 she introduced the color blue into her work and created a blue watercolor. This exploration of one color most likely came about after reading The New Science of Color by Beatrice Irwin which suggests mastering one color at a time. In 1917 O’Keeffe moved to Canyon, TX to teach and added representational color. O’Keeffe was not interested in subject matter in and of itself per se but as a springboard for something else. Steiglitz showed these works and on her visit to NY, O’Keeffe met other artists in his stable including Paul Strand. After this meeting, her work became much more abstract. Through her work she created a sensation of someone or something, not the thing itself. She worked serially throughout her career and color was her means of connecting with the unconscious. “The meaning of a word to me is not as exact as the meaning of a color. Color and shapes make a more definite statement than words.” 1916, Georgia O’Keeffe.

In 1918 she changed from watercolor to oil paint and she matures quickly as an artist. She uses space and color so magically the canvas seems to pulsate and undulate. She is able to create atmospheric space as well as crisp linear space all within the same work. O’Keeffe also uses musical references in her titles around this time because she feels that music, like her paintings, can convey powerful emotions. She moved to NY at this time and it was at this time that Steiglitz began to photograph O’Keeffe. And there are over 300 photos of her because Steiglitz believed you could not get a sense of someone unless they were photographed over a lifetime. These photos influenced O’Keeffe’s work in the way that Steiglitz cropped shots to make abstractions as well as the smooth velvety surface he created, she utilized these techniques in her paintings.

Alfred Steiglitz, photo of Georgia O'Keeffe, 1919

Alfred Steiglitz, photo of Georgia O'Keeffe, 1919

In 1921 a stir was created when Steiglitz had a show in which 45 of 125 works were of O’Keeffe in various stages of undress. She was 24 years his junior and he was still married at the time. It was at this time that the critics began to talk about her work as sexual and the photos only added fuel to the fire. O’Keeffe found this extremely insulting because the work was so much deeper and broad reaching than just being about sex. Perhaps people were confusing sexuality with sensuality. In 1923 she began to move towards representational imagery because her abstractions were narrowly received as about fertility, womanhood, the female orgasm, etc.

Abstraction White Rose, 1927, Oil on canvas

Abstraction White Rose, 1927, Oil on canvas

O’Keeffe’s handling of paint was remarkable. She layered and softly blended colors to avoid muddied colors. She wanted the surface of her paintings to be like a skin with a feathery quality and a constant tension between the out of focus atmosphere and the crisp sharp lines. She controlled subtle modulations of color in a brilliant way. She developed a way for geometry to represent the NY skyline. She never made preliminary studies for her works, she would just lay down the pencil and then didn’t stray from her original idea.

Wave, Night, 1928, Oil on canvas

Wave, Night, 1928, Oil on canvas

Steiglitz and O’Keeffe were married in 1924 and spent a great deal of time upstate near Lake George. Water imagery was something she created a great deal during this time. She took images, simplified them, simplified them again and again until they were unrecognizable. She was a phenomenal technician and her treatment of white is just like that of colors. One pastel work entitled, Pink and Green, from 1922 caught my eye. It is a smaller piece but the color and abstraction lead the viewer’s eye into the work and one gets lost. O’Keeffe was most attracted to things in nature that are boundless, timeless, and eternal. Perhaps it is this union with nature she conveys that makes O’Keeffe so beloved as people can relate to her work. They have experienced nature being so beautiful that words can’t describe it, only a representation of an experience can truly express it.

It was the works of O’Keeffe and John Marin that kept the gallery going with their sales. The idea of sexuality linked to her work plagued her but it also generated sales and got people talking about her. In 1926 Cheney Brothers Silk Company commissioned 5 oil paintings for their fall ad campaign, two of which are on view in the show.

In 1929 O’Keeffe took her first trip to New Mexico as she wanted to get away from Steiglitz who had entered into a new relationship with Dorothy Norman. After the 1923 show she wanted her work to be open to more broad interpretation and she did not pose nude for photos again; she wanted to reframe her public persona. There are two works that jumped out at me as I moved through the galleries.

Black Abstraction, 1927, Oil on canvas

Black Abstraction, 1927, Oil on canvas

The first is Black Abstraction from 1927 in which a black circle and an unidentified organic shape mingle with a small white dot at the center. This was created after her experience of undergoing anesthesia.

Abstraction Red and Black, Night, 1929

Abstraction Red and Black, Night, 1929

Abstraction Red and Black, Night from 1929 is a very small work with two vertical deep red rectangles with a black form on the left and a brown diagonal on the right. This image does not do the work justice at all.

In 1929, much to Steiglitz’s chagrin, O’Keeffe accepts a commission for Radio City Music Hall for the women’s bathroom. Unfortunately the plaster was wet and the paint doesn’t stick. this causes O’Keeffe to have a nervous breakdown and she does not paint for a year and a half. Her confidence is so shattered that she almost has to learn how to paint again, especially the abstractions.

Black Place I, 1944, Oil on canvas

Black Place I, 1944, Oil on canvas

This relearning results in a series of predominately black and gray works of “The Black Place” about 150 miles from her New Mexico home. She wrote to Steiglitz that she “sees him in this place.” His mustache as the swirling hills, etc. In this sense, they can be interpreted as portraits of him. Though she begged Steiglitz to come visit her in New Mexico, he never did as he was petrified of travel.

Black door with red, 1955, Oil on canvas

Black door with red, 1955, Oil on canvas

Steiglitz died in 1946 and in 1949 she moved to New Mexico permanently. It is in these later works that there is a coolness and serenity that permeates through. While in New Mexico she used bones as framing devices for her abstractions. She paints her door in Abiquiu as a black square surrounded by red and golden rectangular areas. She develops macular degeneration which causes her to lose all but her peripheral vision and her latest works are simplified, abstracted forms once again. She has come full circle.

Allan Kaprow: Yard

Allan Kaprow, Environmental Yard

Allan Kaprow, Yard

For London based Hauser and Wirth’s grand opening of their space in New York they chose to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Allan Kaprow’s “happenings.” Three contemporary artists were invited to interpret some of his most famous works including Environment Yard, the piece on view at Hauser and Wirth’s 69th Street space. The original work was first shown in Martha Jackson Gallery’s outdoor space in 1961 (the space the Hauser and Wirth Gallery now inhabits) and was reinterpreted in ten other locations before Kaprow’s death in 2006. William Pope.L has brought the work inside creating a maze of rubber tires as well as a sound installation that the viewer must navigate through. Josiah McElheny and Sharon Hayes, the other two artists have recreated Kaprow’s works in public spaces in Queens and Manhattan. 

Oskar Kokoschka at Neue Galerie

Oskar Kokoschka, Rudolph Blumner , 1910, Oil on canvas,

Oskar Kokoschka, Rudolph Blumner , 1910, Oil on canvas,

I just made it in time to see this show of works by Kokoschka from the permanent collection that has now closed. Born in Austria, Kokoschka (1886-1980) grew up in Vienna. In his early career he produced prints and illustrations for the publication “Wiener Werkstatte.” Later he became more interested in showing the inner life of subjects versus the “beautification of the surface” which brought a “visual directness to his art.” He was an intense figure labeled as a “savage” by one critic. The photographs of him on view in the back gallery portray him as an imposing figure. In 1910 he wrote and drew for the publication “Der Stur.” After he was wounded and discharged from the army he moved from city to city spending time in Dresden, Paris, and London. His work is dark and passionate. Using black he outlined forms and in his portraits, features are elongated and exaggerated with misshapen hands and odd facial details. The works are haunting.

 

Kokoschka, Dancing Young Girl in a Blue Dress, the Right Hand on the Hem, 1908, Watercolor, tempera, and pencil on paper

Kokoschka, Dancing Young Girl in a Blue Dress, the Right Hand on the Hem, 1908, Watercolor, tempera, and pencil on paper

In his drawings, figures are emaciated with ribs showing in hunched, awkward poses. The charcoal and pencil drawings emphasize this while his watercolors are more abstracted and softer.

Gustav Klimt, Island in the Attersee, 1902

Gustav Klimt, Island in the Attersee, 1902

Also on view in a separate room works by  Gustav Klimt (1862-1918). The two that caught my eye are two that most viewers walked right by on their way to see his portraits that Mr. Lauder paid a record millions of dollars for. Island in the Attersee from 1902 is Monetesque in its brushwork with dashes of color; however, Klimt’s horizon line is almost at the top of the canvas about 8/10 of the way up so there is little represented other than water and that makes it unique and therefore visually interesting.

Klimt, The Tall Poplar Tree II

Klimt, Tall Poplar Tree

 

Tall Poplar Tree 1 from 1900 is another true gem. In it, Klimt uses small patches of royal blue peeking between the clouds to move the eye up the canvas. As the eyes slowly moves back down the viewer catches glimpses of orange fruit dangling from the trees and specks of yellow and white wildflowers dappled in the field below. The poplar stands tall, filling the vertical length of the canvas with a huge area of grey cloud filling the space on the right. It is a perfectly balanced composition. It is a work like this that I would come back to see again and again.


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