Highbrow Magazine - new york art https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/new-york-art en On Your Radar: Portraiture at the Met, Marjorie Strider, and Meret Oppenheim at MoMA https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/23286-your-radar-portraiture-met-marjorie-strider-and-meret-oppenheim-moma <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/photography-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Photography &amp; Art</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 02/06/2023 - 18:07</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1radar_feb_23.jpg?itok=zH4DuNmS"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1radar_feb_23.jpg?itok=zH4DuNmS" width="360" height="480" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>The Power of Portraiture: Selections from the Department of Drawings and Prints, Metropolitan Museum of Art</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>(Through February 7, 2023)</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">There’s no underestimating the power in a human face -- and the proof is in the current exhibition <em>The Power off Portraiture: Selections from the Department of Drawings and Prints</em> at the Met.  Boasting over 1 million examples from around 1400 to the present, the possibilities are endless. The curators are to be congratulated for choosing a particularly diverse and dazzling array.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">At the heart of the exhibit are works by members of Black Women of Print, a collective founded by Tanekeya Word, to promote the visibility of Black women printmakers. In LaToya M. Hobbs’s portrait of Margaret Taylor Burroughs, one can feel the joy in her woodcut depiction. Burroughs was an artist and founder of the DuSable Black History Museum in Chicago. Word’s own linocut collage, <em>Starshine &amp; Clay,</em> portrays a regal Black woman framed by the sun.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2radar_23.jpg" style="height:488px; width:650px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Word’s collective of talented printmakers was obviously inspired by Elizabeth Catlett’s <em>Sharecropper</em> (1952). Through a combination of aquatint, etching and relief, her subject confronts the viewer in all her straight-on simplicity, with no apology. To this reviewer’s eye, it is the strongest entry in a standout show.  </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Willie Cole’s monumental works further extend the boundaries of the genre, using steam irons and ironing boards to point to histories of unrecognized labor. Who would have thought that a simple ironing board could carry such significance? But Cole’s do —they manage to become a universal icon of servitude.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Other works that surprise the eye can be found in a group of witchcraft scenes by such giants as Giovanni David, Francisco de Goya, Eugène Delacroix, and Odilon Redon, tracing the evolution of nightmare imagery.  Delacroix’s lithograph of <em>Macbeth Consulting the Witches</em> (1825) is a prime example.  </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Finally, nature itself demands attention in a series of landscapes that demonstrate the appeal of the forest as a vehicle for the study of light and color. One can only surmise that such exhibits will encourage viewers to add the power of printmaking to their wish lists.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/3radar_23.jpg" style="height:650px; width:488px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Marjorie Strider, Girls, girls, girls!</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>galerie gmurzynska, New York City</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>(Through February 28, 2023)</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">I first encountered Marjorie Strider’s <em>Girl with Radish</em> in an exhibition at the Jewish Museum on Pop Artists from 1960-1962. It was audacious, fun, and the biggest attention-grabber of the show. By replacing the iconic, erotic cherry with a simple radish, she had managed to turn Pop Art on its head. Here was a woman artist in the company of such heavy-hitters as Warhol, Lichtenstein, and Oldenburg, who was hiding in plain sight!</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">My search continued early this year at galerie gmurzynska, where I was greeted by gallery director Hope Blalock, an enthusiastic and informative guide. The gallery has an international reputation for promoting vital proponents of the avant-garde, including such female luminaries as Sonia Delaunay and Louise Nevelson.  Embracing the bold and fearless sensibilities of Strider is nothing new to Blalock. She is an obvious fan.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/4radar_23.jpg" style="height:650px; width:488px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Strider was certainly an avowed feminist, but she was also a joyful protestor. There’s a sense of play in her compositions. She has said, “The heart must do its work undisturbed by reflective consciousness.”  There’s also mischief at work. A perfect example is <em>Untitled</em> from 1964, featuring a Coca Cola bottle nestled between a waitress’s breasts, exploding with foam. A diptych from 2010 features a bathing beauty on the bottom panel with a cresting sea wave on the top portion. The same sensibility holds as in her earlier compositions from the 1960s, but <em>Red Towel</em>, one of her compositions from 2010, puts giant color planes in high relief, so the headless bikini form and towel become abstract, even if the context is familiar.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">New plastic materials such as epoxy-coated Styrofoam allowed her to create “build outs,” which expanded her flat paintings into real space. Her triptych from 1963 of a beach girl gave physicality to her images. Nudes, flowers, and vegetables were all fair game. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">At the same time, there’s an all-American healthiness to her vision. Strider was born in Guthrie, Oklahoma, in 1931 and though she moved to New York by 1957 to become recognized in the forefront of Pop Art, she never abandoned her own sense of self and style in the bigger world.  </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">In her essay on <strong>Becoming a Woman Artist</strong>, she saw herself coming through “from being small to being large and always moving only out and up…the motion being one huge expansion.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/5radar_23.jpg" style="height:488px; width:650px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Meret Oppenheim: My Exhibition</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Museum of Modern Art</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>(Through March 4, 2023)</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"> <br /> Visiting the world of Meret Oppenheim is a little like confronting <em>Object</em>, her famed fur teacup—the viewer is tempted to imagine what’s underneath. It’s just an ordinary teacup, isn’t it—but is it?  Such layers and layers of surprises await.   </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The current retrospective at MOMA has unearthed through nearly 200 paintings, sculptures, assemblages, reliefs, jewelry designs, works on paper, and collages to reflect a marvelously fluid mind. For at least part of her six-decade career, Oppenheim has not been widely known outside her native Switzerland, and many of these objects are on display for the first time.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Imagine: <em>A Stone Woman</em> (1938) washed up on a shore. Her body a string of pebbles, artfully arranged, her human legs skirting the living surf. A painting, but so much more.  An early assemblage, <em>Ma Governante-My Nurse-Mein Kindermadchen,</em> displays a pair of high heels bound to a metal plate, a vulva-like shape attached, suggesting bondage.  A nightmare version of Judy Chicago’s dinner plates? In <em>Daphne and Apollo</em> (1943) reimagined by the artist, Daphne has transformed herself into a laurel tree, while Apollo is a pudgy suitor, little more than a clump of vegetation. The artist’s execution could easily rival contemporaries like Max Ernst or Salvador Dali. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/6radar_feb_23.jpg" style="height:488px; width:650px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>Animal-headed Demon</em> (1961) has the artist transforming a 19-century clock into a fantastical crocodile-like creature. With such works, she has joined later art movements in repurposing everyday consumer goods.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">A surprising addition to this exhibit is a set of meticulously rendered drawings of more than 200 objects from her body of work. It was meant to serve as a guide for curators of a traveling retrospective. The intricate delineation and care shown by the artist speaks  volumes about her own drive toward artistic perfection.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Later works show an easy embrace of materials, such as <em>Profile</em> (1964), where oil, chalk, molded substance and glass marble, the latter creating a mesmerizing eye, greet the viewer. <em>There She Flies, the Beloved</em> (1975) reconciles the male and female aspects of the self. Oppenheim summed it all up accordingly: “Nobody will give you freedom,” she said in 1975, “you have to take it.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/7radar_feb_23.jpg" style="height:650px; width:488px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Author Bio:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>Sandra Bertrand is</em> Highbrow Magazine’s <em>chief art critic.</em></strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>For Highbrow Magazine</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><em><strong>Images Source: Sandra Bertrand</strong></em></p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/meret-oppenheim" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">meret oppenheim</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/moma" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">moma</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/marjorie-streider" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Marjorie Streider</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/galerie-gmurzynska" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">galerie gmurzynska</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/metropolitan-museum-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the metropolitan museum of art</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/power-portraiture" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the power of portraiture</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-york-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">new york art</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-york-art-world" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">new york art world</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/willie-cole" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">willie cole</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-exhibits" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">new exhibits</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-york-city" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">New York City</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Sandra Bertrand</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">In Slider</div></div></div> Mon, 06 Feb 2023 23:07:08 +0000 tara 11650 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/23286-your-radar-portraiture-met-marjorie-strider-and-meret-oppenheim-moma#comments Alice Neel -- a Collector of Souls – at the Met https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/12089-alice-neel-collector-souls-met <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/photography-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Photography &amp; Art</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Thu, 04/29/2021 - 21:16</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1aliceneel_lynn_gilbert-wikimedia.jpg?itok=wD_GrUQz"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1aliceneel_lynn_gilbert-wikimedia.jpg?itok=wD_GrUQz" width="318" height="480" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>I’m sure we’ve all heard the expression “S/he’s a people person.” Alice Neel's long overdue retrospective, <em>People Come First</em>, is currently drawing hordes of visitors at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  It’s no surprise, considering she based her entire life and career around the intimates and strangers that surrounded her. Every class, race, and gender came under her razor-sharp gaze.  And no human being encountering her subjects comes away unscathed. </p> <p> </p> <p>Born in Merion Square, Pennsylvania, in 1900, Neel was obsessed with capturing the turmoil of her times. She was convinced that “people’s images reflect the era in a way that nothing else could.” True to this “anarchic humanist” as she defined herself, she depicted labor organizers like <em>Pat Whalen</em> (1935), neighbors from her Spanish Harlem days like <em>Puerto Rican Girl in a Chair</em> (1949), <em>Georgie Arce</em> (1955) wielding his rubber knife in defiance, and the poignantly wary <em>Two Girls</em> (1959), among many others. (With <em>The Black Boys</em> (1967), <em>The New York Times</em> featured a touching story of one of its surviving subjects. Toby Neal spent decades trying to track down this iconic painting he and his brother posed for over several days, enjoying the snacks the artist provided for them.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2aliceneel.jpg" style="height:600px; width:404px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>What becomes evident in confronting Neel’s earliest subjects is her singularly uncompromising style.  Often posing her subjects nude in a frontal position with limbs boldly outlined, occasionally distorted for effect, they dare us not to look away.  The total effect of this decisive, unsentimental treatment of our shared imperfections is daunting and unforgettable.</p> <p> </p> <p>There are no more powerful and unforgiving images than in her maternal portraits. The pregnant body holds sway in several depictions, such as <em>Margaret Evans Pregnant</em> (1978), befuddled in her advanced state.  <em>Pregnant Julie and Algis</em> (1967) presents us with its pregnant subject lying nude alongside her fully dressed husband, his arm slung nonchalantly over her shoulder.  Mothers with babies figure large in her oeuvre, with the most tragic example, <em>Carmen and Judy</em> (1972). It portrays Neel’s housekeeper, holding her emaciated infant daughter who would die weeks after the painting was completed. A clever juxtaposition by the curators Kelly Baum and Randall Griffey in this section is van Gogh’s painting of <em>Madame Roulin and Her Baby</em> (1888).  It fits in perfectly and could be mistaken for one of Neel’s own.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/3aliceneel.jpg" style="height:520px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Celebrities played their part, obviously agreeing to the artist’s terms beforehand. One of the most dominant among them is Andy Warhol himself from 1970. Recovering from a near-fatal gunshot wound from feminist Valerie Solanas, his scars in his words “as wrinkled as a Dior dress,” he is naked from the waist up—eyes shut, a living testament to the absurdity of the times. </p> <p> </p> <p>Art dealer Henry Geldzahler puts in an appearance, his pinky ring predominant in the foreground, a babyish pout on his lips. (Neel’s portrait is more refreshingly revealing than the formal objectivity we see in David Hockney’s portrayals of his friend.) Wryly provocative, transvestite Jackie Curtis with pal Ritta Red huddle together, Jackie’s toe protruding from a ripped stocking.  Conversely, the same Jackie is portrayed as a boy, looking as all American as a Norman Rockwell subject.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/4aliceneel.jpg" style="height:600px; width:420px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>If many visitors are drawn to the high-profile and lesser-known subjects that put the Neel style of portraiture in stark relief, there are other canvases that reflect the prevailing draw of social realism during her Greenwich Village days in the early 1930s.  Familiarity with members of the Communist Party, its offices only a short walk from her residence, resulted in a spate of left-leaning sitters, like poet Kenneth Fearing and playwright Alice Childress. </p> <p> </p> <p>Her painting <em>Uneeda Biscuit Strike</em> (1936) is a darkly dynamic street scene, with demonstrators falling under a regiment of mounted police while sidewalk witnesses stand rapt at attention.  Another street scene, <em>Nazis Murder Jews</em> from the same year features a line of marchers stretching into the night’s infinity, with the ghostlike faces in the foreground sporting the eponymous placard.  Neel was obviously influenced in such depictions by the prevailing art of the day, with the sober realist tones of Reginal Marsh and even Jacob Lawrence at play.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/5aliceneel.jpg" style="height:600px; width:481px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Feminism played a key role in Neel’s self-image. She viewed herself as a second-class citizen but rather than joining the marches she internalized her struggle. In a 1979 interview in <em>Night</em>, she celebrates men in a brief poem, but characterizes women as “sad, sour, dry with red and shiny knuckles.”  If her political embrace of the leaders of second-wave feminism was not always clear, her portraits of the likes of Kate Millet, Adrienne Rich and Faith Ringgold hold their own weight.</p> <p> </p> <p>Adversity was Neel’s middle name. Her free-spirited nature was quick to collide headlong with domestic disasters at every turn. If her two-year stint in Cuba and  an early marriage to Carlos Enriquez was fraught with troubles, the death of a first infant daughter to diphtheria almost broke her spirit.  </p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/6aliceneel.jpg" style="height:600px; width:408px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>When Enriquez fled back to Cuba, he took her second daughter Isabetta with him. A nervous breakdown led to the expressionistic <em>Well Baby Clinic</em> (1928-29), a harrowing depiction of a hospital clinic that could rival any of George Grosz’s caricatures.</p> <p> </p> <p>One of the most magnetic portraits in the show is the nude <em>Isabetta (1934-35).</em>  She’s a proud girl, her arms placed firmly on her hips, her eyes insolently fixed on the viewer. Alhough such unabashed child nudity was considered indecent by the museums of the day, it remains one of the most striking images in the show. Years later, Neel would recreate the painting, which was destroyed along with 350 artworks by ex-lover Kenneth Doolittle. </p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/7aliceneel.jpg" style="height:600px; width:396px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>A second image that must have haunted the artist was that of the ailing TB-ridden brother of another yet another paramour, Jose Santiago Negron. In <em>T.B. Harlem </em>(1940<em>)</em>, the young man’s eyes stare passively outward from the dark interior, as he holds a white bandage over his breast. Neel’s fixation with family members would continue throughout her life, with portraits of her sick mother, her two sons at various ages, and ultimately the nude image of Neel herself from 1980, paintbrush in hand, her pale skin contrasting with a blue, striped armchair. In the only self-portrait the artist created, she sits before us—an unapologetic, bespectacled figure triumphant in all her flaccid, fleshy splendor.</p> <p> </p> <p>Abstraction did not go unnoticed by the artist.  Her ability to simplify, flatten, and distort her recognizable subjects showed her advanced skills as a technician. It was only her unwillingness to totally abandon a figurative approach that kept her marginalized by the prevailing non-objective, male-dominated, mid-century art world. </p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/8aliceneel.jpg" style="height:600px; width:393px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Not surprising, however, to see Neel skirt the boundaries of both worlds. Her <em>Harlem River at Sedgewick Avenue </em>is a jumble of physical shapes—their varied angles, the   contrast between the foreground of green and the river itself cutting across the amorphous foreground, show a mastery of composition. <em>Cut Glass with Fruit</em> (1952) gives dominance to two bowls, one brandishing its fruit while the other stands empty, the background fading away in pale blues with a partially visible stack of books. It is the sureness of intent that grabs the viewer, not unlike a still life by Matisse. No explanation necessary.</p> <p> </p> <p>Why does Alice Neel and her subjects stay with us—heightening our sensibilities, refusing to fade into some bygone time?  Like many great artists, she humanizes our world in the way only she can.  Museums worldwide are filled with beautifully manicured portraits of their subjects.  What Neel gives us is ourselves, in all our unembellished truths, if we are only willing to look.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>The </em></strong><a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2021/alice-neel" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><strong><em>Alice Neel exhibit</em></strong></a><strong><em> is on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through August 1, 2021.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p><strong><em>Sandra Bertrand is</em></strong><strong> Highbrow Magazine’s <em>chief art critic.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>For Highbrow Magazine</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Image Sources:</strong></p> <p><em>--Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art</em></p> <p>--<em>Lynn Gilbert (<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alice_Neel_portrait_by_%C2%A9Lynn_Gilbert_1976.jpg">Wikimedia</a>, Creative Commons)</em></p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/alice-neel" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">alice neel</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/metropolitan-museum-art-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">metropolitan museum of art</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/contemporary-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Contemporary art</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/paintings" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">paintings</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/met" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the met</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-york-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">new york art</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/art-exhibits" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">art exhibits</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/andy-warhol" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Andy Warhol</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/self-portraits" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">self portraits</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Sandra Bertrand</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Fri, 30 Apr 2021 01:16:52 +0000 tara 10322 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/12089-alice-neel-collector-souls-met#comments Artist Frederick Hayes Sheds Light on the Human Condition in New Exhibit https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/10432-artist-frederick-hayes-sheds-light-human-condition-new-exhibit <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/photography-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Photography &amp; Art</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 03/02/2020 - 19:08</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1fhayes.jpg?itok=W2mWojxK"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1fhayes.jpg?itok=W2mWojxK" width="360" height="480" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>Cindy Rucker Gallery is currently presenting new works by Brooklyn-based artist Frederick Hayes.</p> <p> </p> <p>In this exhibition, “Local Heads,” Hayes continues to explore the representation of the self and the urban landscape through abstraction, likeness, and difference.</p> <p> </p> <p>Using different media, Hayes sheds light on the human condition as it relates to working-class African Americans, as well as larger communities of men and women. Raised in the South as part of a family that watched the 6-o’clock news, read <em>Ebony</em> and <em>Jet</em>, as well as the local newspapers, Hayes developed a strong interest in picture-making—the basic ideas of looking, recording, and interpreting—and portraiture early on.</p> <p> </p> <p>Through painting and drawing, Hayes creates ad hoc communities where the good and the bad, the heroes and the villains coexist; much like in reality, his characters possess diverse personalities, habits, and ways of seeing the world. His sculptural practice, on the other hand, is steered by a more open exploration of abstraction, where the verticality and geometry of the</p> <p>landscape marries the detritus of the city, the direct result of his wanderings through different neighborhoods.</p> <p> </p> <p>“Because no one really knows thyself,” the artist writes, images of the self “constantly morph from one image to the next, providing a glimpse before reshaping into something else.” “As a child we learn to present ourselves the way we want people to see us, but not always how we really are,” he states, suggesting that self is bound to be an ongoing, life-long process.</p> <p> </p> <p>Hayes was born in Atlanta lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He has exhibited at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center in Buffalo, the Kingston Sculpture Biennial in Kingston, NY., Patricia Sweetow Gallery, and Number 35, among other venues. Hayes’s work is held by SFMoMA, the Addison Gallery of American Art, the New Museum, and the Studio Museum in Harlem. Hayes has received the Richard R. Diebenkorn Teaching Fellowship at the San Francisco Art Institute, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, and the Eureka Fellowship.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2fhayes.jpg" style="height:600px; width:445px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/3fhayes.jpg" style="height:600px; width:448px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/4fhayes.jpg" style="height:600px; width:447px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/5fhayes.jpg" style="height:600px; width:442px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/7fhayes.jpg" style="height:399px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>The exhibit is on view through April 5, 2020. </em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Cindy Rucker gallery is located at 141 Attorney Street between Stanton and Rivington in New York City.  Gallery hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 11 am - 6 pm and by appointment. For more information about this and other exhibitions, please visit us online at </em></strong><a href="http://www.cindyruckergallery.com"><strong><em>www.cindyruckergallery.com</em></strong></a><strong><em>.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Highbrow Magazine</strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cindy-rucker-gallery" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">cindy rucker gallery</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-york-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">new york art</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/frederick-hayes" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">frederick hayes</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/african-american-artists" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">african american artists</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/african-american-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">african american art</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/contemporary-artists" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">contemporary artists</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">The Editors</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">All images courtesy of Cindy Rucker Gallery</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Tue, 03 Mar 2020 00:08:25 +0000 tara 9390 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/10432-artist-frederick-hayes-sheds-light-human-condition-new-exhibit#comments From West to East: The Blazing Trail of Abstract Expressionist Artists https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/10178-west-east-blazing-trail-abstract-expressionist-artists <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/photography-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Photography &amp; Art</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Thu, 10/03/2019 - 07:56</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1asabstract_0.jpg?itok=h2ZkUnD_"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1asabstract_0.jpg?itok=h2ZkUnD_" width="376" height="480" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>Anita Shapolsky Gallery is currently featuring <em>CA → NY: Post-War Migration of Abstract Expressionists, </em>a group exhibition of select Bay Area and Los Angeles artists who followed the surge of Abstract Expressionists across the country in the 1950s to participate in their flourishing sister movement: the New York School.</p> <p> </p> <p>The Bay Area School of Abstract Expressionism was centered around the California School of Fine Arts (CSFA) in San Francisco and its director Douglas MacAgy. MacAgy was hired in 1945 in an effort to revitalize and modernize the overly traditional program. He began by hiring a plethora of mostly young artists who were new to teaching, including Richard Diebenkorn, Stanley Hayter, and Clyfford Still, who were formative in educating a wave of second-generation abstract expressionists. Like many of the students at the CSFA, Ernest Briggs, Lawrence Calcagno, John Hultberg, and Jon Schueler used their assistance from the GI Bill to enroll in the program shortly after their return from service in World War II. Their shared experiences in the war, along with their closeness in age, allowed the professors and students to form a strong, supportive, and often collaborative atmosphere.</p> <p> </p> <p>While the CSFA cultivated its own, unique school of abstract art, it also exposed its students to New York abstract artists like Mark Rothko and Ad Reinhardt through summer sessions from 1947 to 1949. For students like Hultberg, Rothko's guest lectures about the New York art scene were inspiring enough to convince them to continue their studies on the East Coast. Briggs, Calcagno, and Schueler followed suit after 1950, a migration catalyzed by Still's decision to move to New York and the subsequent firing of MacAgy. LA-based abstract artists Herman Cherry and Richards Ruben also moved to New York state in 1945 and 1960, respectively.</p> <p> </p> <p>The works included in this exhibit exemplify the range within Californian Abstract Expressionism while simultaneously displaying shifts in style and subject matter in these artists' oeuvres that were likely influenced by their exposure and participation in the New York School.</p> <p> </p> <p>After moving to New York in 1953, Ernest Briggs’ style would shift multiple times through the 1960s and ‘70s as a result of the growing popularity of Pop Art, Minimalism, and hard-edge painting among artists in New York. Briggs, however, consistently remained true to the practice of action-painting. He also experimented with acrylic paint and small-scale works from 1963 to 1975. His paintings in this exhibit exemplify Briggs’ range of compositional strategies, canvas size, and technique. Many of these works are from a period of his oeuvre that are rarely shown.</p> <p> </p> <p>Lawrence Calcagno was exposed to nature at a young age, growing up on his family’s ranch outside of Big Sur. His drawings of native plants and landscapes encountered on horseback as a child informed his abstract compositions like Blue Painting, which suggests an infinite blue expanse where sea meets sky. The landscapes Calcagno witnessed while traveling around Europe and Northern Africa between 1950 and 1955, along with diverse ideas from artists he met while studying at Académie de la Grande Chaumiere and Istituto d’arte Statale, were also extremely foundational to his style.</p> <p> </p> <p>Though he was born in Atlantic City and spent his adolescence in Philadelphia, Herman Cherry received the bulk of his formal education in Los Angeles. Cherry studied at the Otis Art Institute in 1927 and eventually the Art Student’s League, where his style was shaped under synchronist Stanton MacDonald-Wright and Regionalist Thomas Hart Benton. Cherry left California in 1941 to study murals in Mexico City before ultimately settling in Woodstock, making his migration to the West Coast before MacAgy’s historic program at the CSFA even began. In 1947, Cherry would solidify his place within the New York art scene with a show at the Weyhe Gallery of his signature “pictographs,” mixed media sculptures that materialized the playful geometric forms found in his abstract paintings like Cocoon 5.</p> <p> </p> <p>John Hultberg was part of the “Sausalito Six,” a group of artists, including Diebenkorn, Frank Lobdell, and George Stillman, who lived just outside of San Francisco. Hultberg studied with them at the CSFA after returning from the Navy in 1946, although his time in the program was short. He felt a divide within the faculty MacAgy assembled: Still’s camp that favored purely abstract, metaphysical art and Diebenkorn’s more fluid incorporation of both figurative and abstract forms, often inspired by nature. Hultberg considered himself part of the latter group, including images of ships and their harbors in the Bay Area in his paintings and deriving inspiration from the landscapes of his childhood spent in Concord, California. Hultberg never identified with any one particular style, combining elements from Surrealism, Cubism, Abstract Expressionism, and the various trends he encountered in both California and New York.</p> <p> </p> <p>While MacAgy was promoting abstract art in the Bay Area, Richards Ruben - a Los Angeles native – helped establish Abstract Expressionism in Southern California. After serving in WWII, he returned to his hometown in 1944 to attend the Chouinard Art Institute. Ruben would teach painting there, at the Claremont Colleges, and UCLA until he moved to New York in the 1960s, where he continued teaching at NYU, Columbia, and Pratt. The large-scale paintings in his “City” series captured the differing energies of the urban landscapes he encountered in LA and New York. Ruben is most recognized, however, by his uniquely shaped canvases that enhance the geometric forms and lines in his paintings.</p> <p> </p> <p>Skyscapes, rather than landscapes, were what fascinated Jon Schueler. The sky permeated his childhood spent in the open fields around Milwaukee; clouds of smoke surrounded the B-17 bomber plane he flew in the Air Force during WWII. Under Clyfford Still’s teachings, Schueler conformed to the impasto technique that was popular at the CSFA when he studied there from 1949 until he moved to New York in 1951. His transition towards softer, more blended colors would only come in the 1960s, after he decided to leave the urban landscapes of San Francisco and New York behind in favor of the open sky in Mallaig, Scotland. His matured style applied the technical aspects of both Bay Area and New York schools of Abstract Expressionism to the subject matter that captivated him the most: the sky.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>CA → NY: POST-WAR MIGRATION OF ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISTS: through November 22, 2019, at the Anita Shapolsky Gallery (152 E 65th St., New York City).</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2asabstract_0.jpg" /></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/3asabstract.jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/asabstract.jpg" /></p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/5asabstract_0.jpg" /></p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/6asabstract_0.jpg" style="height:625px; width:465px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Highbrow Magazine</strong></p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/anita-shapolsky-gallery" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">anita shapolsky gallery</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-york-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">new york art</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/abstract-expressionists" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">abstract expressionists</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/lawrence-calcagno" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">lawrence calcagno</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/john-hultberg" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">john hultberg</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/john-schueler" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">john schueler</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/american-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">american art</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">A. S. Editors</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">All images courtesy of the Anita Shapolsky Gallery</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Thu, 03 Oct 2019 11:56:34 +0000 tara 9041 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/10178-west-east-blazing-trail-abstract-expressionist-artists#comments Abstract, Figurative Artworks Explore ‘Super Bodies’ in New Exhibit https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/9388-abstract-figurative-artworks-explore-super-bodies-new-exhibit <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/photography-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Photography &amp; Art</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sun, 09/30/2018 - 19:47</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1superbodies.jpg?itok=O-XfOnQV"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1superbodies.jpg?itok=O-XfOnQV" width="480" height="321" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>The <strong>Anita Shapolsky Gallery</strong> is pleased to present a cross-cultural and trans-historical exploration of the body in art. <strong>“Super Bodies”</strong> moves beyond the typical focus on abstract expressionist paintings to exhibit art from a potpourri of artists, periods, countries, and media.</p> <p> </p> <p>Antiques from Japan, China, Burma, and Greece from Anita Shapolsky’s own collection are scattered throughout the exhibition to complement the modern and contemporary works, all exemplifying the ever-present drive to represent the body in both the abstract and the figurative.<br /> <br /> The instinctual drive to creatively capture the body in all its forms has existed for thousands of years. It is a drive that has rooted itself at the very core of humanity. From ancient Greek kouroi to contemporary portraiture, the human body has served as the artist’s most familiar yet most elusive subject. Even the midcentury abstract expressionists attempted to convey the complexities of thought and emotion – what makes humans <em>human</em> – using their own bodies as translators.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Anita Shapolsky Gallery</strong></p> <p><strong>AS Art Foundation</strong></p> <p><strong>152 East 65th Street</strong></p> <p><strong>New York</strong><strong>, NY 10065</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2superbodies.jpg" style="height:622px; width:625px" /></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/3superbodies.jpg" style="height:625px; width:417px" /></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/4superbodies.jpg" style="height:625px; width:407px" /></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/5superbodies.jpg" style="height:625px; width:439px" /></strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/anita-shapolsky-gallery" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">anita shapolsky gallery</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/super-bodies-exhibit" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">super bodies exhibit</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-york-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">new york art</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">art</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/painting" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">painting</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/sculpture" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">sculpture</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">The Editors</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Courtesy of Anita Shapolsky Gallery</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Sun, 30 Sep 2018 23:47:59 +0000 tara 8277 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/9388-abstract-figurative-artworks-explore-super-bodies-new-exhibit#comments Intriguing Exhibit of Self-Portraits Featured at the National Academy Museum https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4928-intriguing-exhibit-self-portraits-featured-national-academy-museum <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/photography-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Photography &amp; Art</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Thu, 04/02/2015 - 11:54</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1absentself.jpg?itok=akFt5fx7"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1absentself.jpg?itok=akFt5fx7" width="311" height="480" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>Imagine—a self-portrait show without recognizable faces of the artists.  How is that possible?  Well, in the mesmerizing new exhibit, <strong>\’self\ Portraits of Artists in Their Absence</strong> at New York City’s National Academy Museum, it’s not only possible but before your visit is over, you may find your perception of what a self portrait can be turned on its head. </p> <p> </p> <p>No need to be alarmed.  A respectable offering of realistic works show the seriousness of early artists in their depictions of themselves.  This curatorial choice is in keeping with a distinguished institution—established in 1825, it boasts over 300 artists and architects on its member roster and over 7,000 works in its permanent collection.</p> <p> </p> <p>Upon entering, I was struck by Cecilia Beaux’s self-portrait from 1894.  She was obviously a beautiful young woman, proud in her pose but every inch a lady.  According to Maurizio Pellegrin, Creative Director of the Academy’s school, Beaux is “confident about herself like the Rembrandt painters were.  It was a serious period, and you couldn’t’ make jokes.” John Singer Sargent, perhaps the most famous society portrait painter of his time, shows himself in absolute control—exhibiting a manicured beard and cool glance, with chin tilted upwards just enough to give us a perfect expression of haughtiness.  </p> <p> </p> <p>Additional nods are given to the Museum’s founders, like Asher B. Durand and others associated with the Hudson River School, as well as mid-20th century familiars like Andy Warhol and Chuck Close.  Wayne Thiebaud  provides us with a colorful alter-ego rendition of a tennis player, all but hidden under his vivid blue sunhat—clearly the quintessential California artist.  Barkley L. Hendricks, as with many of those represented, chooses photography as an efficient means to convey identity, along with his red sweater.  Allen Ginsberg is here as well, camera in hand, capturing a mirror image of himself.  Just why he is included among this assembly of career visual artists is unclear.  </p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2absentself.jpg" style="height:625px; width:598px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>But the primary focus of the show is a far-reaching exploration of how such personal portraiture has been transformed over the decades.  It comprises not only choice works from Academy members, but entries from places as far-flung as Palestine, Lebanon, Iran and China.  Perhaps the biggest and most welcome surprise is the extent of entries from women—62 such artists represented from 30 different countries in all.  Pelligrin’s response was impassioned and immediate:  “It’s not only an act of kindness but a responsibility, a reflection of where the art world is today.  There is more experimentation on the part of women in this show than men.”</p> <p> </p> <p>At no point is the viewer allowed to fall back into his or her predictable place of comfort with respect to the portraiture.  One does not stroll through the decades, confronted with a tidy representation of formalistic offerings.  Instead, directly opposite the aforementioned fin-de-siecle portrait by Beaux, large C-print photographic portraits by Yemen artist Boushra Almutawakel demand attention.  In <em>Mother, Daughter and Doll</em> the trio is posed in a series of panels where their freely open faces gradually disappear before our eyes, until the dark chador covering has all but eclipsed them from view. We can almost feel the “selves” descending into total invisibility--a very powerful and disturbing piece overall.  Another C-print nearby utilizing the mother and daughter theme is Catherine Opie’s <em>Self-Portrait Nursing (2004).  </em>Fleshy, bold and unpretentious as a Holbein matron, Opie holds nothing back, her tattoos as visible on her naked arms as her nursing breast.  Such juxtapositions of works throughout the exhibit do not feel forced but at their best, part of an organic and fluid structure.</p> <p> </p> <p>The experimentation Pelligrin refers to can also be transformational.  Kathleen Gilje paints herself inside the beautifully executed context of Bouguereau’s <em>The Assault</em>; the central figure in a gathering of angelic companions (2012).  In <em>I Found Myself Growing Inside an Ancient  Olive Tree in Galilee (2015)</em> Palestinian collagist Samia Halaby gives the viewer an intricately gnarled tree.  Will we find her inside the foliage or is it in her absence that she becomes more powerful?  Rona Pondick gives us herself as a striking ram’s head in yellow and blue stainless steel while Mary Beth McKenzie presents a naturalistic but wary countenance in her oil portrait from 1972, somewhat overshadowed by two floating, amorphous life masks—phantoms from her dream life perhaps?  Michele Zalopany’s giclee print (2014) is a ghostly apparition at best, all but disappearing from the viewer’s focus.</p> <p> </p> <p>The willingness of so many female artists in the exhibit to alter their self-image is bound to raise some interesting questions.  Men have obviously been more confident in their public ego throughout history, more determined in how they want to be viewed.  Women have had a more difficult time historically as well as culturally in exhibiting a secure identity of their own.  Such conditions could lay the groundwork for concealment, but in a free society, a more playful approach to self-identity.    </p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/4absentself.jpg" style="height:625px; width:412px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Needless to say, the more contemporary male artists on display manage some hide and seek tricks of their own.  Don’t look for Randy Moore as Robin, Batman’s sidekick.  The handmade suit on display is empty, all the more provocative as a disappearing act on the part of the artist.  Saul Fletcher presents us with a bare upper torso, donning a simple mask as if to say don’t even try to guess who I am. Barry X. Ball shocks with a gorgeously grotesque computer-created likeness projected on a head sculpted in Mexican onyx. </p> <p> </p> <p>Humor is certainly not absent and a welcome diversion when it appears.  Vincenzo Amato’s graphite sketch, <em>The Artist As a Horny Chimp</em> shows a light touch and talent for cartoon caricature while Piero Manzoni’s <em>Merda d’artista (Artist’s Shit, 1961)</em> preserved in a can may not be everyone’s brand of humor.   But as Pellegrin admits, it’s part of the attempt “to create a narrative, showing a different way for the public to see the portrait, rather than just a production of one’s own image—you want the deepest thing of an artist, I’ll give it to you,” he says, pointing to the can in question.</p> <p> </p> <p>A tongue-in-cheek favorite of this reviewer is Annette Lemieux’s pigment print <em>Bad Habits</em> from 2013, which portrays the artist prone in a hospital bed, blowing a circle of cigarette smoke, with a plate of French fries alongside.  Lemieux is is obviously not afraid to use herself in art as social commentary—a direction that Cindy Sherman has taken in constantly changing her persona, like her wildly successful <em>Film Still</em> series.  Jeff Koons appears in an ad portfolio print, squeezing himself next to a mother pig—a typical nod to his own brand of self-aggrandizement.</p> <p> </p> <p>The only “selfie” photo in the show is from Beijing, an offering from Ai Weiwei.   As the curators would have it, there was a decision to concentrate on portraits before the digital obsession took such a stronghold on the culture at large.  However, for those so inclined to capture a self-likeness, a Coney Island style photo booth is set up in a corridor with access to examples of the Academy student work on display.  </p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/6absentself.jpg" style="height:625px; width:469px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Other entries which deserve mention are the three self-portraits by the Wyeths—Newell Covers Wyeth (1882-1945) presents himself like a country gentleman, leaning into the foreground like a friendly farmer ready for a neighborly chat; Andrew Newell Wyeth (1917-2009) also places himself in a rural landscape but is posited asymmetrically in the foreground, not confronting the viewer but lost in his own brooding thoughts.  Lastly, James (Jamie) Browning Wyeth (b. 1946) is bare-chested, a handsome young man without any observable background  to distract.  His gaze neither invites nor turns away from our attention.  There is something striking and profound about this generational placement and what it says about three masters of the brush through the prism of time.</p> <p> </p> <p>One of the historic gems of the exhibit is undoubtedly the ink on paper likeness of Umberto Boccioni from 1916.  It is the first time this image of the famous Italian Futurist has been exhibited and as it is positioned in its clear plexiglass case, we can see the drawing Boccioni did of his mother in Milan on the backside. </p> <p> </p> <p>Thanks to the careful planning of Pellegrin, Curator Diana Thompson and Curator at Large Filippo Fossati, the internal structure of the museum’s headquarters with its stunning central staircase, fireplaces and ornate moldings never distract from the exhibit itself.  (The Academy’s current home was once the Beaux Arts-style mansion of philanthropist Archer Milton Huntington.)  Each piece on display has been carefully, even lovingly, arranged so as not to overwhelm. </p> <p> </p> <p>One can walk away from this impressive exhibition with the knowledge that self-portraiture is alive and well in the 21<sup>st</sup> century as it was in the days of our forbearers.  It is not so much an absence of the self that prevails but a multitude of selves, an ever changing perspective of what it means to be a creator in the here and now. </p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>The current exhibition at the National Academy Museum &amp; School, 1083 Fifth Avenue (at 89<sup>th</sup> St.) is on view through May 3, 2015.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p><strong><em>Sandra Bertrand is </em></strong><strong>Highbrow Magazine’s<em> chief art critic.</em></strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/national-academy-museum" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">national academy museum</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/absent-self" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the absent self</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">art</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-york-artists" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">new york artists</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-york-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">new york art</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/self-portraits" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">self portraits</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/photographers" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">photographers</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/artists" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">artists</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Sandra Bertrand</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Thu, 02 Apr 2015 15:54:07 +0000 tara 5874 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4928-intriguing-exhibit-self-portraits-featured-national-academy-museum#comments