Photography & Art

Winslow Homer at the Met: A Study in Conflict

Sandra Bertrand

Dressing for Carnival,(1877) features a Black man being sewn into his Harlequin costume by family members for a traditional African celebration. Is this a promise of better times for these former slaves, which the wall notes suggest? Perhaps. A helpful hint to visitors would be to let the magnitude of the art speak for itself first, then use the history lesson as needed. A good example is The Cotton Pickers (1876).  A pair of hardy muscle-bound women fills the canvas. Their dark forms cut into the foreground, contrasted by the clusters of snowy cotton in their shoulder bags. The image needs no explanation.

On Your Radar: Highlights From the Art World

Sandra Bertrand

Recognition for some is like being in the center of a floodlight, instantaneous and often too bright to withstand for long. For others, fame can feel like a lucky penny, found in the sidewalk crack after a long rest. For artist Faith Ringgold, there was no rest. If she was under the radar for many, she kept creating, drawing from personal autobiography and collective histories to both document her life and to illustrate the struggles for social justice and equity. 

Brendan Dawes Exhibit Captures the Artist’s Personal Stories

The Editors

Moments Spent with Others is an invitation to Dawes’ personal stories wrapped in digital visualizations. Over the recent pandemic, as human interaction became scarce and precious, we grew accustomed to detaching ourselves from others. Dawes embraces these moments by recreating them into datasets, algorithms, and data visualizations by incorporating memories that are personal to the artist but are also universally enjoyed.

New Exhibit Features Deborah Dancy’s Artworks in Various Mediums

The Editors

Dancy has received numerous significant honors and awards, including: a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, New England Foundation for the Arts/NEA Individual Artist Grant, Nexus Press Artist Book Project Award, Visual Studies Artist Book Project Residency Grant, The American Antiquarian Society’s William Randolph Hearst Fellowship, a YADDO Fellow, Women’s Studio Workshop Residency Grant, Connecticut Commission of the Arts Artist Grant, as well as a Connecticut Book Award Illustration Nominee.

James Van Der Zee: A Portrait of the Harlem Renaissance

Sandra Bertrand

Celebrities such as Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. and Marcus Garvey found their way easily enough into his studio, but most of his work was of the straightforward commercial studio variety—weddings and funerals (including portraits of the dead for the grieving families), teams, clubs, shopgirls, and that burgeoning class that wanted to show off its finery. Props, costumes, and other background paraphernalia became the norm. 

A Love Letter to the American Southwest

Darden Smith

The idea of using such an outdated way of capturing images struck me as the perfect antidote to the hectic digital nature of these times. My usual way of working was to see something, stop the car, take the photo then immediately get back in and drive off, letting it develop in a box on the front seat as the miles clicked over. I had one shot, maybe two, for each idea and there were many, many mistakes. Part of the joy was the randomness of it.

‘Labyrinth of Forms’: The Whitney Pays Homage to Women Abstractionists

Sandra Bertrand

Another show inclusion that reflects the same spirit is Lee Krasner’s Still Life (1938). The influence of Hans Hoffman, the renowned early teacher and modern artist, is undeniable. He stretched the importance of negative space. Colors swirl, speeding in all directions at once in this work. The same could be said about Untitled (1942), from Charmion von Wiegand.

The Art of Thomas Riesner

The Editors

German artist Thomas Riesner was born in Leipzig in 1971 and still lives there today. Starting in elementary school, he often veered toward painting "abstract" art, instead of concrete drawing. He retained this style and later changed it to "abstract figuration.” Riesner usually painted at home -- without any professional training or guidance. Riesner identifies with the Outsider art movement.

The Dissonance Between Overwhelming American Landscape and Bland Architecture

The Editors

In Daniel Kaven’s new book, Architecture of Normal, he explores the dissonance between the overwhelming American landscape and the underwhelming architecture of its strip malls, fast food chains, motels and tract housing. Part travelogue, art book and architectural survey, the book charts the patterns created by reigning modes of transportation and examines how we came to accept the bland, branded boxes lining America’s streets and freeways.

Surrealism Beyond Borders: Global Dreaming at the Met

Sandra Bertrand

Every movement of consequence, however far-reaching, has a beginning. Surrealism’s birth was full-blown from the mind of French poet Guillaume Apollinaire, who in 1917 was quoted about this new spirit in the air thusly: “When a man wanted to imitate walking, he invented the wheel, which does not look like a leg. Without knowing it, he was a Surrealist.” But it was Andre Breton who appropriated the word in his Manifesto and set himself up for over 50 years as its leading proponent. 

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