Burlington Cartoon by da Vinci, set off in a small dimly lit room. What a great opportunity to see it for the first time!
More like 2 daze. The weather held out and we got to all the places I would want to get to. We saw a place I never saw: The British Museum, the Serpentine North, the National Gallery, day 2. The second day leisurely at the Natural History Museum and a few minutes across the way at the Victoria and Albert. Name drops enuf.
This is the London version, the second by da Vinci, The Virgin of the Rocks.
It is not always expected, but sometimes worth it. I was lucky to find the Burlington Cartoon by da Vinci, which I knew they had, but had never seen it. I even got a shot of it, as we were all careful, not even to let our focus lights on, as well guarded as it was. But wow, to look at the torn worn edges on the bottom where it had been tacked. And to know people came to gaze at it, as if they were at a Hollywood premier. And here it was and a few room off was Virgin of the Rocks, that I had gone looking for!
Robert Champin’s A Man and Woman
What I have always liked about the National Gallery London is it is as straightforward as it gets. Sometimes you don’t want the curator’s hand to take over, and sometimes you don’t want jazz, you just want library like silence and a chance to look at all of this.
Not to knock the British Museum, but sometimes I wonder, when are they going to give this stuff back. . .?
You gotta claw your way for photos!
These buildings would have been gone in NYC. The first look at the brickwork, the second is in the Art Nouveau style I saw in Prague.
The Serpentine was interesting in setting, imagert beautiful but something as film, gets passed along as cinema? People on bean bags laid out strangely, as if psychedelic trances. I wanted to call out, anyone have any acid?
At the Natural History Museum, we saw the show for the science photography of the year. Left, young Israeli kid did, right French oceanographer and photographer. Great work all around.
Fish and chippies at Friar’s
This little bit of fun. Having left the wonderfully understated Fryer’s Delight, I found this stuck on a house. Been thinking about William Morris a lot lately and his effect on design!
So nice to be back in London after a year or so. Spent first day in Chinatown, saw the Theater District near Leicester Square and spent time in the much missed National Portrait Gallery. In a nice little neighborhood near Hyde Park. Just a few photos. Nice day yesterday, only cooler end part of the day. Today is wet, gray. Whatever.
Sign in the Underground, fancy that.
Francis Bacon’s death mask by Clive Barker
Julia Margaret Cameron Portraits to Dream in at the NPG
Dame Anna Wintour by Alex Katz
Any time I see an Katz painting, I will always think of Ieva. It is amazing how an American painter, has kept painting the same image with different people for about 50 years and has gained noteriety for it. It is as if subject and artist were cut from similar bolts. As Wintour has promoted fashion without the passion Diana Vreeland, even as an old lady, had at her fingertips. The NPR now becomes a gallery of celebrity, leaving royalty in the dust.
I remember two portraits when I was there back in ’89, one was of Lady Di and the other was Charles painted in a big square. Almost like a Katz. But this one of Di is still there, and people still look, and a generation has come, that never new of her. In that awful film about her last year, they portrayed her as a drugged crazy lady pushed to the edge by the Royals. One always sighs at the promise, and there was so much promise, when she was coming into her own at the end. The press quite literally was responsible for her death. The shot of the Queen next to her, shows another Royal, who often let a cardboard image stand in for the very real, and yet cautiously private, person who gave up privacy for a sense of duty. There was further down a double portrait of one of her sons and spouse, as celebrity trumps character.
Some interesting curating as passersby visitors confront Anna Mae Wong.
Hundreds of years seemed to have marched on. While I have a fondness for southern California, I still like to see the Bay area in the North. The familiar painted ladies and some of the beautiful parks and wild life make it another heaven on earths. Except for the expensiveness, which will knock your teeth out, as a visitor.
I first came San Francisco on a cross country trip on a Greyhound bus, or buses back in ’74. Though I had been back to Los Angeles a few times, and even San Diego, I had not been back again until I think ‘12, and I noticed huge changes each time I return. The painted ladies were always a great part of the architecture of San Francisco, and although these two in the Bay area, are not so spiffy, they are a testament to the cedar clapboard and ornamental detail of over a century ago.
Along the Marina in San Leandro
We flew into Oakland and it was cheaper and faster. We also stayed in San Leandro which was reasonable and less crowded. Since we had a car it was perfectly California. With wheels we were able to go into downtown Oakland, which I don’t believe I had ever seen. There we visited the Oakland Museum of California. A multiplex of art, history and science.
These were structures built all over the country transitional modern to what would become post-Modern, today they are more concrete curiosities. Structures of bare concrete outer walls and walks. I’ve noticed some of these buildings along with the white modernistic ones, have gone through paint jobs and evolved into “blending in” with more commercial post-Modernistic structures. My guess is we will evolve to something else, with the advent of 3D printers, reseeing the environment and new materials.
Ruth Asawa’sUntitled , wire and copper
Whenever I see her work, I think of Larry Cuneo and Eiko Lanier, as students, and later married. And here the mom was a big time sculptor back West. When I mentioned her to my friend Pat Odya, she had gone to school with her back in Milwaukee. Pat said, Mr. Van Nuyon said he was lucky in life to get that one student, and he meant Ruth Asawa. Back East is always funny, I remember the big AbEx show, no one mentioned hard edge came from a coupla painting teachers on the West Coast.Ironically, Ruth Asawa was just honored at the Whitney.
A place to sit
Harry Fonsceca’s Stone Poems Migration #1 and Viola Frey’s American Nude Series (Woman with Elbow on Raised Knee), 1994
We arrived late, about 45 minutes before closing, so the guards were allowing people into various sections. This one was historical and was fun for the kids, transportation and history. There are 4 sections, I believe laid out one story, but a few split levels. Interesting concept.
What an interesting vignette within the museum
Family matriarchs
Our trip began with the coming of age of this beautiful young woman below. I remember her as a baby in a shot from Janene’s wedding. And here she is now, absolutely lovely.
Guest of honor coming of age
Return of the prodigal daughters
Certain neighborhoods in San Francisco are timeless.
I got the de Young Museum confused with the Legion of Honor. I remembered one was in the Park, and the other you could see the Golden Gate bridge. The Golden Gate Park is a place you could spend about a week in. Back in ’12, Matt went to the Sciences building, I went to the de Young. We both went to the Japanese Tea Garden, and we walked to see the bison on the end of the park. I believe we started in the Park about 8 and spent almost the whole day. We had those passes so we saw a lot. Today these attractions are high, high, high.
So when we go to the de Young, I was a little disappointed, it has very progressive architecture, but a nice collection in wait of new pieces. It has a wonderful tower, but not for that day.
Wayne ThiebaudThree Machines, 1963
Mike Henderson‘s The Scream
The imposingMan Observing, Viola Frey (1933-2004).
Cindy Sherman portrays herself on Sèvres porcelain as Madame de Pompadour, 1986.
John Singleton Copley’s Mrs. Daniel Sargent (Mary Turner), 1763.
What amazes me about Copley is how textural he is, not for the skin or the hair, but the texture of the satin, the folds, the embroidery. Below you will see something of the same with Sargent, but Sargent is a painter, not the tight draughtsman Copley is here. In a strange way it is like the painted ladies, although not inherently structural, the structure would not be the same without it.
John Singer Sargent, Caroline de Bassano, Marquise D’espeuilles
John Singer Sargent,Le verre de porto (A Dinner Table at Night)
A 1950 Edward Hopper, Portrait of Orleans
Josef Albers Blue Front, 1948-55, no squares
Always incredible, Louise Nevelson’s Sky Cathedral Prescence 1
These painted ladies and their details are fascinating to look at, and also a marvel to think about painting. This is the antithesis of Frank Lloyd Wright and even Sullivan, as here form does not follow function. Years ago this decoration was referred to as “gingerbread.” With 21st century eyes there is an astonishment and affection for something that probably will never again be attempted. Well, perhaps, in Styrofoam with a layer of light stucco over it, like “updated” Florida strip malls have done to look more post-Modern!?
But the beauty of these structures echoes, just like the Copley painting does in the satin dress, the intricacy of detail. Perhaps an intricacy not apparent in our century, yet. But in NoCal still alive and living.
My grandniece snappled this of her sleepy mom. The hand position to the head identical to one I shot of my grandmother years ago.
Mex style ice cream at a nice restaurant.
What blessings a weekend away can be, thankful for the invitation.
From those clear skied sunsets to the fog of early mornings. That coloration of light in L.A. is quite unique to this Easterner. I live in Florida and often talk about the clarity of the light there, pale yellow to almost white. So that evening in Santa Monica, with the fog was post-Halloween strange.
post-Dia De Los Muertos
Morning market
Near the Santa Monica pier
Because the LA Breakers were such a dynamic group of street performers, it is not in one shot that what they did make any sense. For them a frames or video treatment would tell the best story. They were performing on the pier and were just good fun.
Strike, en huelga.
GRIFFITH PARK
My first visit to Griffith Park and Observatory
Round sunset
VENICE BEACH
We took a ride over to Venice Beach. It has its own brand of funk, including a little mural with a nice tribute to Annette Funicello and the “Beach” movies. One of Jim Morrison, which was haunting, and lots of fun stuff, like the Creature from the Black Lagoon. I got to see the canal area for the first time, quite lovely, not what I expected.
BRENTWOOD
It is one of my favorite stops in Los Angeles. With a beautiful view of the city and the freeway, the architecture of Richard Meier and a extremely well curated collection and exhibition, the Getty Center is the number one freebee in Los Angeles. During the summer, you may run into festivals, but it is always a delight any time I have had the good fortune to visit.
When I saw this, I thought, What we do in the Shadows must take a lot from him.
It was as if I had been priviledged to shoot on a movie set.
Looking up into the spiral staircase of wrought iron. The speck of light to the left is the opening to where the lamp is.
Ieva and Nik had to take us to Pemaquid Point, a lovely Hopperesque spot. There is a wonderful old lighthouse and a beautiful rocky coastline.There is also a little museum for a visit which in itself is odd and delighful.
No charge, they ask for donations in a jar.
The girl with the 45 pound lobster.
Lighthouse Geometry II, reminescent of Hopper and Wyeth.
A take of the site in stained glass.
The little Oil House which adds to the charm of the structure.
At the top of the light station which asked for a minimal donation.
Ieva and Nik send us a signal
Light, lens and tower
Whether we know them as lighthouses or light stations, there use is never questionable and they serve as a reminder that navigation can be more perilous than we can imagine. They serve as reminders of humble American architecture, whose beauty has escaped the criticism of time or functionality.
This is also a reminder that a structure can serve itself as its own museum, in a delightful and relevant manner.
The time I have spent in Maine is mostly early Autumn. I remember years ago being outside Vegas, and people talking about the color of the desert. It took me a long time to understand the subtlety of color to place in the United States.Maine itself has its own palette.
During a beautiful Indian Summer weekend, I saw Ieva and Nick, not seen in ages, due to Covid. Though we share the Atlantic, Florida light is almost white as one heads towards Miami. Those beautiful softest of blues set Maine apart, also its extraordinary coastline and inlets of dark rock.
The Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick
At the Bowdoin College Museum of Art
People Watching: Contemporary Photography Since 1965; Metamorphosis and Malice: Raphael Workshop after Donatello, Miracle of the Miser’s Heart.
There are always those visits we make to museums. In the lovely town of Brunswick is Bowdoin College. They sometimes have some great shows. Years back, a Hopper show, and before Covid a very good one on Winslow Homer.
Little Tokyo Restaurant,Brunswick
Ieva’s beautiful paintings from about 10 years ago, to understand you have to see outside the door. Below, Nik with painting, done like a Frank Lloyd Wright cut out.
Food becomes a theme this weekend, because the table is the center of these visits, and pretty much has been. Ieva is a wonderful and unique kind of cook.
Latvian rice pancakes
This is not just a visit to Maine, this a history of friendship spanning 50 years. This is a visit to Ieva’s kitchen, where we talk for hours. This is a visit to Ieva’s non-tradional home, with walls of beautiful woods and endless good artwork. This is a place of dozens of car rides, thousands of non-stop words and millions of visions, many “postcards,” and mental postscripts.
The Center for Maine Contemporary Art (CMCA)
Two from Jeane Cohen
I liked the CMCA better in its old structure. Today many museums are defined by their architecture and NOT by their collections, as recently reseen in San Francisco at the de Young Museum, or Atlanta’s High, where Richard Meier actually overshadows the collection.
Farnsworth Art Museum
Andrew Wyeth Her Room, a lovely study in light done in encaustic.
I used to call it the Fartsworth, because it seemed like it was the Andrew Wyeth museum. Now come on folks, due respect to Andrew Wyeth, while there are 3 good Wyeth artists, and there are tons of artists banging around in Maine. I mean, Alex Katz, aside. And it has changed, and grown a lot. They keep Nevelson upstairs like the crazy aunt, but a good show.
There are many good things to see, and quite a few good Mainer artists. Ieva tells me about them, as she is pretty much an encyclopedia, with first hand knowledge.
But like many modern museum, they are trying to be hip, and a little guilty over being selectively diverse in the past. And I mean that more in the sense of the Met in New York and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, as well as the Farnsworth, being on a guilt trip. It has come to no one’s attention that West Coast artists such as Judith Baca, Eloy Torrez, Roxanne Swentzell or even Ruth Asawa and the early West Coast abstract expressionists, rarely get a nod from the East Coast which is remains somewhat condescending and snooty.
At Owl’s Head Light Station
Built in 1825, it was put on the
Ieva’s Maine Dinner
Would it be Maine, if it was not an Ieva’s Maine dinner, of fresh lobster and chatter and laughter. Would it not be Maine, if we did not have a little drama before and after, about picking up the lobster and what we need to see next?
Penobscot
Pemaquid Point
From the Pemaquid Point Light Station
Ieva on the sand beach at Penobscot
On postcard perfect Muscongus Bay
Going back to Washington, a falling down barn
Ieva has gone from a type of abstract expressionism using line, to reworking actual wire, metallic materials and beaded bag parts, to this stage of collage/assemblage where words and image reconstruct into a new reality. Very interesting, she is now working with pieces of calligraphy.
We did not get to Acadia National Park this time, the older shot above. It is a glory to be at, walking the rugged rock and seeing the most beautiful Maine color. From the heights it is amazing. But there is so much coastline, we will take any coastline in this lovely state.
Portland
A wonderful breakfast before heading back to the airport.
Look at the terra cotta brickwork in this building.
Lunch at the Empire, Portland
We would have gone to the Portland Museum of Art on Friday, but it is under construction, so we didn’t. On Monday before we left we did hit the Empire and a few interesting landmarks before reboarding.
We watched these kids on pond doing some kind of a study of the water. The weather picture perfect.
And damn, to end it all, I got nervy with all the Southwest weirdos holding seats and managed to get myself a coveted window seat. I did not think much about it until between a doze, I espied–holy cow–Manhattan. That can’t be Manhattan. Oh yeah, I know Central Park. And grabbed the camera through the brightness to get a shot. The one on the right is a detail in black and white where you see downtown in between Jersey City on the bottom and Brooklyn top going down Atlantic Avenue. What a great way to end a trip.
Ieva lived in Brooklyn Heights, and I spent most of my Staten Island days in school and work, on that ferry! We met in a small card company which sat north of Madison Square Park. If you headed southwest you could see the Flatiron Building!Svētī tevi, Ievita.
It was back in ’69, we got on a bus and went to Philly, with my beloved Art History professor, Herbert Ross. We had so many people, I stood for the length of the trip down, and then we were in the Barnes, the old house. There was the collection and the Matisse mural. In the afternoon, it was the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and then back to Brooklyn.
Henri Matisse La Danse of Merion the famous Matisse mural, which set off the whole foundation thing, 1932-33.
“In 1929, Matisse temporarily stopped painting easel pictures. He then traveled to America to sit on the jury of the 29th Carnegie International and, in 1930, spent some time in Tahiti and New York as well as Baltimore, Maryland and Merion, Pennsylvania. Dr. Albert Barnes, an important collector of modern art and owner of the largest Matisse holdings in America, commissioned the artist to paint a large mural for the two-story picture gallery of his mansion in Merion. Matisse chose the subject of the dance, a theme that had preoccupied him since his early Fauve masterpiece Bonheur de vivre. The mural (in two versions due to an error in dimensions) was installed in May 1933, and remains in place at the Barnes Foundation (Merion, Pa.). The composition highlighted the simplicity of female figures in exuberant motion against an abstract, almost geometric background.”
The photo above is shot in the Barnes Foundation which sits in downtown Philly today. When I first saw this it was in the house in Merion, where the Barnes collection originally was.
While in Paris in 2012, I saw another version and an unfinished one, which I was lucky enough to shoot.
Henri Matisse La Danse de Paris in the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, probably the version that did not fit, 1931-33.
Henri Matisse La Danse Inachevéein the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, the unfinished version, 1931
Paul CézanneThe Card Players (Les Joueurs de cartes) 1890–1892
It has been many years, since I have seen this wonderful painting. As he did preliminaries, I have been lucky to have seen them. There may have been shows this painting may have been lent to. I would think of the Boston retrospective in ’70 or ’71. And a few others. Herbert Ross thought that Cézanne was the greatest draughtsman and colorist of his generation. Through the years, I am less inclined, for he comes out of the age of Color (the Impressionists, van Gogh, Matisse). I also argue over draughtsman, but he reinvents drawing. Those who come after owe the greatest debt, for without him, our vision never would be. He retaught us form after Raphael, Michelangelo and Ingres. Cézanne is Cézanne, there will never be another.
Paul CézanneMadame Cézanne with Green Hat (Madame Cézanne au chapeau vert) 1891–1892
In the Philadelphia Museum of Art, three Madame Cézanne’s sit together, each one somewhat different. The Barnes has two that almost appear to be the same. Poor Madame Cézanne, what a good wife. How she must have had to sit and sit. It is know that Cézanne took forever on his still lifes, and that there are stories that the flowers were silk, and the fruit wax, as he took forever. So poor Madame must have sat forever. Bless her for this marvelous near monochromatic Prussian blue painting, and that hint of a green hat! Judging by the barest hint of skin tone, I might think Cézanne never finished this painting as he wanted to, which is why green hat is only a hint. The beautiful modelling of draperies in the bodice and the beginning of the hands, show the master’s thinking.
Vincent van Gogh The Postman 1889
Sometimes you forget how good this guy can be. You forget how hard he worked, maybe with five versions of the same subject. Van Gogh is always remembered more for landscape and still life, than his portrait. But this one the eyes are so amazing. He has caught that reflected light, light eyes often give up. He has modelled around the eyes and cheeks with the staccato Cezanne does. It is an amazing portrait and you see at once what kind of a good man le facteur Joseph Roulin was.
What a gem, it is not that it is smaller in scale, it is a pure landscape with emphasis on color and shape. The buildings alone are quite beautiful. It is a very early work. As I first looked at it, I saw that color thing. Titian is THE master of color, he is amazing that his color literally sings as no other master does. You look at the work and recognize that color thing that goes on, and you know it is a Titian. Certain people have certain voices, which are so distinct you know in a few notes. Titian is the same, it is something about his use of color.
It is overwhelming, all these paintings. Who did this one? It has that brushwork that Monet would have done, but no, and not a Renoir. When I came in close, I should have known it by the hands. There is something distinct about women’s hands in Manet’s work. All that raw brushwork, the flowers on the bottom and the yellow on top. He never considered himself an Impressionist, and he wasn’t, but that loose handling of brushwork is really his signature.
Amedeo Modigliani Portrait of the Red-Headed Woman (Portrait de la femme rousse) 1918
I actually broke down and bought the poster of this one. There are several beautiful Modigliani, but this redhead stole my heart. There is a certain dynamic as you follow the shapes formed by the arms. That little black dress, and of course the expression from the little beady Modigliani eyes!
Honoré Daumier The Ribalds (Les Ribaudes) 1848–1849
There are some wonderful Utrillo’s, a lot of Picasso’s and a few very serious Le Douanier Rosseau’s. There are tons of Renoirs. But this little sketch showed how good Daumier could be, and how little we give him his due.
Henri Matisse Red Madras Headdress (Le Madras rouge) 1907
There are three great draughtsman of the early 20th century. Picasso, the wizard who can draw anything from simple line to beautiful etched plates. Matisse is the next, as he is so busy here sculpting everything he learned about edges from Cezanne and how with a few strokes of color you can create volume. Here, as with Madame Cézanne, the genial wife sits. The palette is beautifully keyed and Matisse is already doing layered colored in both background and dress, so there is a tremendous depth to the color. Matisse, like Titian, has his own voice for color, especially during this period where it always sings!
Giorgio de Chirico Dr. Albert C. Barnes1926
Of all the painters, I found humor in the fact it should be de Chirico, that would do the portrait of Barnes! And there he sits with those little quirky things all around him, with that de Chirico kind of brushwork and keyed down color. Unfortunatley, the glare from the glass left an ugly blue spot. But it is an interesting portrait.
I have chosen ten roughly just to show the quality of the collection. It is amazing, and yes, go see it for yourself! Thanks, Mary, for insisting we go!
I would have to say one thing past all the marvels about the collection, which beats even the Cone collection which formed a foundation for the modern art in the Baltimore Museum of Art. I mentioned that there are three great draftsman of the early twentieth century, the third being Käthe Kollwitz. Generally recognized as purely a local German artist, throughout the art history journals, she would not be represented here, although Klee is. The collection on the whole is an overwhelmingly under representative of women artists. There are tons of Utrillos, but no Suzanne Valadons. There is a Cassatt sketch, but no Morisot or Marie Laurencin. Barnes had his tastes, and obviously was directed towards talents of his day.
One sad footnote, somewhere in the 1970s in the New York Times an article appeared. The beloved Art History professor, Herbert Ross, had been killed in a car accident in Italy. Professor Ross was a dapper guy with curly hair. I remember him calling roll the first day, and pronouncing each name flawlessly. My love for Art History was imbued by him, and I am sorry for all Pratt students who never had a chance to know him.