Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.
Once again I found myself at the Met this week which makes sense as there’s always something to see and there’s nothing doing at any of my other normal venues. This week I visited the contemporary wing which I haven’t been to in some time. What drew me there was an unpublicized exhibit of the 20th Century American artist Fairfield Porter. It consists of about a dozen of his paintings from the Met collection. I’m not a major fan but I’m drawn to him as he did representational art bucking the abstract expressionism of his peers. I see a little Edward Hopper in him although I find Hopper’s lines crisp and Porter’s a little fuzzy. He painted landscapes, portraits, family settings and structures among other themes. He must have been extraordinarily prolific as in the article below it comments on his burning many of his paintings while anecdotally I can attest to seeing dozens of them when I visited the American auctions.
This is a long essay on his life and his art.
http://thisrecording.com/today/2011/1/13/in-which-fairfield-porter-looked-so-young-for-his-age.html There’s also a photo of him as a small child in a dress as was the custom of the day.
Here are a few of the paintings that I especially appreciated.
Union Square Looking Up Park Avenue – A large cityscape from 1975 of an area in Manhattan I’m familiar with.
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/481753 Sunrise on South Main Street – This is something I can see Hopper also appreciating, a rural setting with no people and only the one car to indicate that there might be any activity.
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/481499 Lizzie at the Table – A kitchen still life with a small child sitting at the table.
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/486277 The Cove – A man with his back turned to us observing an isolated rural waterway.
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/486282 Elaine de Kooning (1918-1989) – Portrait of the artist and artist’s wife in a vivid red dress reclining on a couch.
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/481774 In a separate gallery hangs this Elaine de Kooning self-portrait, a nice complement to Porter’s image.
https://biblioklept.org/2017/01/21/self-portrait-elaine-de-kooning/ Wandering through the rest of the modern galleries I revisited some of my favorite paintings.
Usually there are two Hopper’s on view but this visit there were three.
The Lighthouse at Two Lights
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/489258Tables for Ladies
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/487695From Williamsburg Bridge
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/487834 And a wonderful Norman Rockwell original oil that was used for a Saturday Evening Post cover
Expressman – The Met only allows a thumbnail depiction due to rights issues but below is a larger image as well.
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/482239https://i.pinimg.com/736x/2a/3d/ef/2a3def2f8a6cb57980274a47782bb8b4--norman-rockwell-paintings-norman-rockwell-art.jpg And this glorious if somewhat eerie Georgia O’Keeffe, Cow's Skull: Red, White, and Blue
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/52.203/This is a painting that’s new to me as it’s by Florine Stettheimer who I only encountered recently at an exhibit at the Jewish Museum which I described in an earlier post. It’s one of four paintings in her Cathedral series. I chose this one as it depicts New York City art as described in the inscription on the website:
In this series of four monumental paintings executed between 1929 and 1942, Stettheimer created extraordinary composite visions of New York’s economic, social, and cultural institutions. The Cathedrals of Art is a fantastical portrait of the New York art world. Microcosms of three of the city’s major museums and their collections are watched over by their directors: the Museum of Modern Art (upper left), The Metropolitan Museum of Art (center), and the Whitney Museum of American Art (upper right). A gathering of art critics, dealers, and photographers of the day, including Stettheimer herself (lower right), appears around the Metropolitan’s grand staircase.
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/488732 And finally a painting by Grant Wood who is most famously known for his iconic painting American Gothic. The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere – Another instance of the Met’s image being small so I found a different website with a much larger image.
This is copy from the website:
In his painting from 1931, Grant Wood (1892 – 1942) depicts the legendary story of the American patriot Paul Revere, as learned from an 1863 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. From a bird’s eye view, the painting shows Revere on horseback racing through a colonial town square in Massachusetts. Despite the work’s historical subject matter, Wood did not attempt to depict this scene with factual accuracy. The houses are overly bright, as if lit by electric light, and the dramatic moonlight casts unrealistic shadows. The stylized houses, geometric greenery, and high perspective gives the painting and otherworldly or dreamlike dimensions.
https://worleygig.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/img_1271-e1443478299142.jpg On my way to the Modern wing I stopped off in the Impressionist galleries to view three paintings that my brother had pointed out, loans from private individuals that are currently on view.
The Brioche, a still life by Manet that has been up for a while is noted as being from an anonymous donor who it turns out is David Rockefeller. Doesn’t look like the Met will be receiving any more of his art.
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436946 The Portrait of M. Choquet by Cezanne – At the link below is an essay on the painting.
http://serdar-hizli-art.com/cezanne/portraits.htm Self Portrait with palette by Paul Gauguin – There is also commentary on the painting at the link below.
http://www.gauguin.org/self-portrait-with-palette.jsp Well if anyone is still here I can guess we can visit the Flickrs now.
Andy G.
Sapphire Young
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tgballerinaphotos/30095273174/The legendary John Hunter as a ballerina. Kiwis Revue Company female impersonator . Photographed by Boothorn Studios, Melbourne, sometime between 1946 and 1949.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/trannilicious2011/15392817935/old mandy 13a
https://www.flickr.com/photos/andy69mandy/534431661/IMG_9078
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rafiats/5352001069/55
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nancyball1/6802569746/_DSC6529
https://www.flickr.com/photos/stephaniemonroe/5432488435/Susie730
https://www.flickr.com/photos/24899087@N05/35548784685/cheerleader 2017
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gillianisok/35479600615/Angela
https://www.flickr.com/photos/adamandeve121/34563721814/IMG_5152
https://www.flickr.com/photos/36751344@N02/24573052163/
Betty's Pub 20.1
Topic: Well it’s certainly hot enough for the Summer Flickr! (Read 13043 times)
