In other art news

[andyg0404]

Hi,

With no museums to visit there is still art to be seen on the Internet. It’s not the same experience as wandering through the museum or gallery but desperate times call for desperate measures and we have to enjoy what we can, when and where we can. In light of that here are some articles I found enjoyable.

I thought this was a nice collection of wonderful paintings that have gone on the auction block over the years. If you remember, Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire was one of the stars of the Chatsworth exhibit at Sotheby’s I wrote about in the summer last year.

10 Old Masters that changed the art market
https://www.christies.com/features/Old-Masters-that-changed-the-market-8477-1.aspx?sc_lang=en#FID-8477

In the New York Times there was an obituary for an artist I’ve never heard of, Idelle Weber. She was an interesting lady who changed her style in mid-life, moving from pop art to photorealism. For me a little pop art goes a long way, but I do enjoy the photorealist paintings. The article has a number of illustrations of pop art but none of the photo realism, so I’ve linked to a few below, as well as another of her pop art images.

Idelle Weber, Who Stretched the Meaning of Pop Art, Dies at 88
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/arts/idelle-weber-dead.html

IDELLE WEBER: "SUNNY". WORKS FROM NEW YORK'S POP ERA
https://i.pinimg.com/564x/7a/5f/81/7a5f81a6b75c9822f3578c338450f421.jpg

Corner Fruit Jungle
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/221520875391731499/

Pink Champale
https://i.pinimg.com/564x/3f/a0/9c/3fa09cb5327cf009c858bde088ebe3dc.jpg

This is wonderful. For those of you who don’t know Banksy, he’s a very famous street artist who hit the big time. He started out painting his artwork on building facades, always keeping an eye out for the police. He built up an enormous following and now his works sell at auction for millions of dollars. One went for $12 million back in October. This article shows how Banksy is spending his time while social distancing. This is a link to the article on the auction sale. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-art-auction/banksys-chimp-depicting-devolved-parliament-sells-for-over-12-million-idUSKBN1WI29Q

Even Banksy, the Elusive Street Artist, Is Stuck Working From Home. See How He Was Reduced to Doing Street Art in His Bathroom
The street artist's latest work gives the public a rare glimpse inside his home.

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/banksy-working-from-home-1835082

This is an obituary of Tom Blackwell, a founding member of the photorealist genre. He’s another artist who I am unfamiliar with but as you can see from the links to two f his images he was certainly a master. At the end of the article is a link to a gallery with several more pictures.

Tom Blackwell, pioneering Photorealist painter, dies at 82
https://artdaily.com/news/122672/Tom-Blackwell--pioneering-Photorealist-painter--dies-at-82 

Jaffrey

https://www.meiselgallery.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Blackwell_Jaffrey_1976_oil-on-canvas_websized.jpg   

Little Boys Gold Wing

https://www.meiselgallery.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Blackwell_Little_Roys_Gold_Wing_1977_edited_websized.jpg 

This is about the fractious relationship between Josephine Hopper and her famous husband Edward. She was an artist in her own right and was famous and well exhibited before Edward had any success. Once he finally gained fame her reputation unfairly dimmed. When she passed away, she bequeathed their paintings to the Whitney museum, which has the largest collection of Hopper memorabilia in the world. The Whitney kept his but loaned out or trashed hers, a situation they surely regret now. The source for the article is a new book that delves into this situation with other artists as well. There’s a four picture slide show at the end of the article.

The woman who made Edward Hopper famous finally seizes the spotlight
https://nypost.com/2020/04/11/woman-who-made-edward-hopper-famous-finally-seizes-the-spotlight/

This has some favorite items in it and it certainly gives us something to look forward to visiting when the rapturous reopening of the Met takes place. Corona willing. The Hokusai is truly magnificent.

To Mark the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 150th Birthday, Here Are 15 Artworks Symbolizing the Ups and Downs of Each Decade of Its Storied Existence

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/metropolitan-museum-150-years-1834326

And the second painting in this article is another favorite from the Met’s Goya collection.

12 portraits that made art-market history — at Christie’s
https://tinyurl.com/ya6wkk4y

More favorites. Whistler’s Mother was one my earliest art experiences. My brother took me to see it when it visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1964, one year after he took me to see the Mona Lisa on her visit to the Met.

Mother Knows Best: 6 Famous Artists Whose Dynamic Mothers Became Their Creative Muses
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/artists-whose-mothers-became-their-muses-1830039

Hope these amuse and distract you during your self-enforced isolation.
And here’s a few Flickrs for old time’s sake.
Andy G.

Little Blue Brolita Maid
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tinamartiniweeny/49634144276/

"Let Them Eat Cake!" # 2: Such a Good Girl!!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rebecca_george/47942026667/

Albumen Filter
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dianne_w/26004709828/

03 So what is thie place then
https://www.flickr.com/photos/savannasteel/49570920158/

[andyg0404]

Hi,

Betty, before I begin I noticed a while ago that when I posted the Flickr email, the spaces between the actual Flickrs was eliminated and I had to manually put them back. Just now, when I previewed this email, the spacing for the entire post  had been removed and I had to manually put them back in. I don't know if something has changed with the website or it has to do with Word and Microsoft Outlook which is where I prepare the emails but I thought I would mention it to see if you had any ideas. Thanks.

Here are a few more articles to nourish your artistic cultural deprivation.

This is a real treat. Favorite van Gogh paintings as chosen by the curators of 8 museums. They’re all beautiful and it’s hard to choose one over another but if I had to I think I would go along with Christopher Riopelle’s choice of Iris as a favorite. 

What’s the Best Painting by van Gogh? Eight Experts Reveal Their Favorite Works
https://www.artnews.com/art-news/artists/vincent-van-gogh-best-paintings-1202684383/

In 2006 the BBC presented a series of 8 one-hour lectures by the English author and art historian Simon Schama in which he spoke about 8 artists, keyed to one of their paintings.  The artists are Caravaggio, Bernini, Rembrandt, David, Turner, Van Gogh, Picasso, and Rothko and they’re available on Youtube.  I watched the episode on Van Gogh, and it was excellent, the artist is portrayed by the actor Andy Serkis and he does a fine job of depicting the tortured artist.  I’ll definitely watch the others, well, maybe not the Rothko.

The Power of Art - Van Gogh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6M6zJV5TiM

I think the objects shown in this article live up to the title.

A UK Museum Challenged Bored Curators Worldwide to Share the Creepiest Objects in Their Collections. Things Got Really Weird, Fast
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/weirdest-art-yorkshire-museum-1839984

This is a five-minute video about a current exhibition at the Neue Galerie which currently no one can attend. Madame D'Ora was an Austrian photographer who was active for close to 50 years, 1907 to 1955. She photographed artists and did fashion shoots and managed to survive the second World War, after which she needed to start her career again from scratch. She was a very interesting lady and the photographs are outstanding.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlajGnq0Xks

I find articles on this topic fascinating; how through technology paintings can be examined to see through the layers of paint and determine what the painting looked like when the artist finished it thus allowing conservationists to restore it to its original beauty. These two speak about analysis of two Dutch paintings, the first by Margareta Haverman and the second, one of Vermeer’s wonders.

After Three Hundred Years of Fading, a Dutch Masterpiece Is Digitally Restored
https://tinyurl.com/yclk6vkf

The ‘Girl With the Pearl Earring’ Originally Had Eyelashes, Researchers Discover in a Series of New Revelations About Vermeer’s Masterpiece
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/girl-with-the-pearl-earring-eyelashes-1847367

I would imagine most artists begin by depicting their family and this article has wonderful images of artist’s mothers and children, coincidentally by a number of my favorites.

Ahead of Mother’s Day, See Some of the Most Tender Depictions of Mothers and Children Throughout Art History
From Gustav Klimt to Alice Neel, artists have long focused on the subject of mothers.
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/mothers-in-art-history-1832367
Here’s another favorite with some images of his greatest works.

Édouard Manet Is Considered the Father of Modernism. Here Are His Most Famous Works.
https://www.artnews.com/art-news/artists/why-is-edouard-manet-important-1202685425/

And just to keep with the spirit of the board here are a few Flickrs.

Andy G.

https://bit.ly/34GPIvP Here we provide the crossdressing accessories for you.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/185233804@N02/49783320191/

Feminisation - in gentle stages
https://www.flickr.com/photos/julieb85/49505655367/

Have a nice Evening
https://www.flickr.com/photos/149954333@N07/49600911818/

Stefania Visconti
https://www.flickr.com/photos/stefaniavisconti/49662220636/

[Betty]

I'm not sure I understand. You're copy & pasting emails directly into your posts? Depending on the format, the spaces may not copy through or be recognized. We've had that problem before when people copy & paste stories from some formats at our story board.

If I need to prepare a statement or post offline before posting, I just use an ordinary .txt document made with notepad, or wordpad. Spaces, links, & everything else copies & pastes to any other format without a problem (most of the time). That's important to me because if I'm writing or editing scripts & code for a computer, server, or web page, a missing space can cause it to fail.

Also emails are blocked from posting because every spambot, scammer, & hacker on the planet is attracted by the "at" sign as email addresses to be exploited. A single "at" sign in a post will attract thousands of them.

Do not use the "at" sign. I post my mail like this: admin"at"unclegadget.com

[andyg0404]

Hi Betty,

I generally create my longer posts in a Word document. Once I finish the Word document I open a blank email and paste the contents into that. Then when I have enough content, I copy it from the open email to the board. It's the procedure I've always used and this was the first time the entire post lost the spacing. It's no big deal and it could very well be due to changes to my system from updates. I just wondered if anything had changed on your end and it appears not.

Thanks for getting back to me.

Andy G.

[Betty]

Our top 3 web servers just updated to the newest versions myPHP & mySQL databases a few weeks ago. The character coding for spaces on some formats designed for older databases may not be compatible. Because I've always used ordinary notepad, or wordpad .txt documents for simple forum posts & coding on servers it always worked fine on everything because they don't use any strange exclusively Microsoft, Explorer, or Edge coding.

Most web servers run on Linux, which don't natively support .doc MS word documents or their weird character coding anyway.

[andyg0404]

Hi,
To begin, we have two articles on strong women, Dora Maar, one of Picasso’s lovers and Georgia O’Keeffe. The first article is an excerpt from a current book on Maar’s life. The author bid and won an old address book on the auction site. When he received it and started going through it he found it was filled with famous painters and poets. Using the Internet and a French telephone book he tracked down the people in it and determined that the book had belonged to Dora Maar. It’s a real coup. I found his research fascinating. The article about O’Keeffe is a short biography.

A Vintage Hermès Address Book Bought on eBay Listed the Home Addresses of Dozens of Art Historical Legends. It Turned Out to Be Dora Maar’s
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/finding-dora-maar-excerpt-1854561

How Georgia O’Keeffe Became One of the Most Celebrated American Artists of the 20th-Century
https://www.artnews.com/art-news/artists/georgia-okeeffe-life-career-1202686688/

This is really worthwhile; it’s an exhibit from the Ashmolean Museum in Britain. I would have loved to walk through the galleries to view these paintings and drawings, but this is the next best thing. Especially as even if we weren’t in lockdown I wouldn’t have made it overseas. If it wasn’t for the closing of the museum we wouldn’t have this opportunity. There’s an introductory 7-minute video which at the end has a link to a shorter video about a previous exhibition, his self-portraits.

YOUNG REMBRANDT
https://www.ashmolean.org/youngrembrandt#widget-id-1964241

This is an exhibit I would have visited, the gallery is on 57th Street, just off 5th Avenue. It’s for the painter Joseph McGurl, a contemporary Luminist realist landscape painter.  This is the definition of Luminism from Wikipedia, “Luminism is an American landscape painting style of the 1850s to 1870s, characterized by effects of light in landscape, through the use of aerial perspective and the concealment of visible brushstrokes. Luminist landscapes emphasize tranquility, and often depict calm, reflective water and a soft, hazy sky.” These paintings are bright and colorful and definitely reflect a serene image.
https://www.cavaliergalleries.com/exhibition/178/exhibition_works/7846

Well, this is certainly different. And I’m definitely jealous.

Penguins Visit Nelson-Atkins Ahead of Kansas City Zoo Opening
https://youtu.be/zOqUoo96ssQ

I didn’t know a lot about Giorgio de Chirico but I’ve always enjoyed his colorful paintings.  The article below is a good precis about him and his styles. His paintings remind me somewhat of Magritte’s surrealistic paintings although de Chirico was not a Surrealist. He appears to have served as an inspiration to Magritte who was brought to tears upon seeing a reproduction of his painting, "The Song of Love", in 1922.  https://www.moma.org/collection/works/80419  At least that’s what it says on Wikipedia. The entry goes on to say that in lean times Magritte forged paintings by him to supplement his income. This excerpt discusses that.

“In 1946, renouncing the violence and pessimism of his earlier work, he joined several other Belgian artists in signing the manifesto Surrealism in Full Sunlight. During 1947–48, Magritte's "Vache period," he painted in a provocative and crude Fauve style. During this time, Magritte supported himself through the production of fake Picassos, Braques, and de Chiricos—a fraudulent repertoire he was later to expand into the printing of forged banknotes during the lean postwar period. This venture was undertaken alongside his brother Paul and fellow Surrealist and "surrogate son" Marcel Mariën, to whom had fallen the task of selling the forgeries. At the end of 1948, Magritte returned to the style and themes of his pre-war surrealistic art.”

Giorgio de Chirico: How the Godfather of Surrealism Crafted His Mysterious Cityscapes
https://www.artnews.com/art-news/artists/giorgio-de-chirico-why-is-he-famous-1202687371/

In a recent email I linked to Manet’s greatest paintings. This is a link to a current auction of a painting he did when he was 21 years old and still a student. It’s a copy of a self-portrait by Fra Filippo Lippi. The second link is, I believe, the original.
https://tinyurl.com/ycnvdrsq
https://i.pinimg.com/564x/f1/d0/af/f1d0af092cab542d769bb7741cb9ee8b.jpg

This article may be about a macabre topic although during our plague year perhaps not; nevertheless it’s another opportunity to see great art.

Near-Death Self-Portraits: Edvard Munch, van Gogh, and More Confront Mortality
https://www.artnews.com/art-news/artists/self-portraits-death-edvard-munch-van-gogh-1202686935/

Here’s more great art. The first painting which is owned by the Met is by Monet and for the longest time hanging next to it was a similar image by the artist which Oracle founder Larry Ellison had allowed the Met to exhibit on long term loan. The Met was very disappointed when he took it back and sold it at auction. They had rather hoped he would bequeath it to them. You can see it here.
Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926). Adolphe Monet (1800–1871) Reading in a Garden, 1867. Oil on canvas. Lent by Lawrence J. Ellison https://tinyurl.com/ycslenhd

You’ll see a number of these paintings are in private hands, the unhappy result of these high dollar auctions.

10 of the best Impressionist paintings sold at Christie’s
From a Degas that went for £180 in 1892 to a Monet that fetched £40 million in 2008 — a selection of masterpieces by some of painting’s greatest innovators
https://tinyurl.com/y9nxvgc5

In 2006 the BBC presented a series of 8 one-hour lectures by the English author and art historian Simon Schama in which he spoke about 8 artists, keyed to one of their paintings.  The artists are Caravaggio, Bernini, Rembrandt, David, Turner, Van Gogh, Picasso, and Rothko and they’re available on Youtube. So far, I’ve watched the episodes on Van Gogh and Rembrandt and they were both very good. Van Gogh is portrayed by the actor Andy Serkis and he does a fine job depicting the tortured artist.  This is a link to all 8 videos https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJsjdX3foufhEHhOM9xxINIOb6YC1fds-
And here are direct links to those I’ve viewed.
The Power of Art - Van Gogh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6M6zJV5TiM

The Power of Art: Rembrandt
https://tinyurl.com/y8patl3w

This is a slide show on Youtube of a publication from Ronin Gallery with about 50 illustrations of Hokusai’s woodblock prints. Some beautiful Japanese art for us to enjoy until the galleries reopen. Be sure to go to full screen

HOKUSAI: Great Art, Small Sizes: Early Works 
https://issuu.com/roningallerynyc/docs/web-finalhokusabook

More video from the Met’s Costume Institute
About Time: Fashion and Duration (Extended Exhibition Preview) | Met Fashion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVHyyjvBvaI&feature=youtu.be

This is an article on Picasso’s war time epic, Guernica. It was painted during the Spanish Civil war and sent on tour for a time before going to MOMA at Picasso’s request for safeguarding during WW II. It was returned to Spain in 1982 where it remains. In the deep recesses of my mind I think I saw it when it was at MOMA but it left well before I started visiting the museums again so if I did it must have been when I was a child, perhaps a class trip.
How Picasso’s Famed Mural ‘Guernica’ Became a Poignant Political Symbol for Activists Around the World
https://www.artnews.com/art-news/artists/picasso-guernica-exhibitions-anti-war-symbol-1202686074/

Banksy continues in the news with his donation of the painting illustrated in the article. It’s unusual as he generally does street art and prints. It’s a wonderful black and white image with just a touch of color and to me is evocative of something Norman Rockwell might have painted if he was alive today.
Banksy Donates New Artwork Celebrating Health Care Workers to British Hospital
https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/banksy-southampton-general-hospital-game-changer-1202686284/

I’m including this as not only does it have great art, it has great beards. I’ve had a beard for more than 40 years but I am the first to admit it is a very unprepossessing one. I originally grew it to look older as I had a real baby face which I somehow think no longer exists. One of my favorite stories is one my former employer and friend Bob told me about a man he worked with for many years. That man also had a beard and one day decided to shave it leaving just the mustache. He went into work the next day expecting a big reaction but not one person commented on it. Finally, he asked one of them if he noticed anything different about him. The reply was, Oh, you grew a mustache. Talk about deflation.
Working on Your Quarantine #BeardGoals? Here’s Some Masterful Facial Hair From Art History to Inspire You
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/quarantine-beards-1849284

And this final piece speaks of what we are all experiencing nowadays, living apart and how artists have sometimes chosen to do so in search of their artistic muse. For each artist there are also links to works of theirs which are worthwhile exploring.
A kind of freedom’: 10 artists who found inspiration in isolation
https://www.christies.com/features/10-artists-who-thrived-in-isolation-10424-1.aspx?sc_lang=en#FID-10424

And here are a few Flickrs just to keep my hand in.

Andy G.
 
tumblr-ozsoke6umg1wylbauo3-1280
https://www.flickr.com/photos/driftwooduk/49594615768/

CX1208R08R
https://www.flickr.com/photos/124832568@N08/49659964192/

img1580159480430
https://www.flickr.com/photos/15948924@N06/49451841496/

Reporting for duty
https://www.flickr.com/photos/28906392@N08/49650155126/

scan0017
https://www.flickr.com/photos/60660709@N04/8664637094/

[andyg0404]

Hi,

Here’s another smorgasbord of art articles and videos which I hope you will enjoy.

With New York City starting to reopen non-essential services, my dentist has reopened her office and I have an appointment for next Wednesday.  Being a procrastinator, I put off seeing her for months and then just when I decided I really needed to go the shutdown began and I couldn’t. When we emailed to set up the appointment, I told her I looked forward to seeing her again although I didn’t look forward to the procedures I expect to be undergoing. I have nightmares about it. She’s married to a dentist and has two adult boys, both in dental school. She’s been my dentist for probably 40 years. One morning I arrived at her office before she did and as she entered and saw me she turned to the young man behind her, who was one of her sons and said, I’ve known Andy longer than I’ve known you. I’m a little leery of traveling on the bus into the Port Authority but there is no way I will ever drive in the City again unless it’s really an emergency. Haven’t been on a bus in 2 ½ months and I’m concerned about traveling in what under normal circumstances is rush hour but I have no recourse if I want to do this and I do. I’m overdue for my annual physical and I’m waiting for my doctor to announce he is seeing all patients again. I also wouldn’t mind getting my hair cut as it’s been close to 8 months but I can live with that. My hair is much thinner and grows more slowly so it doesn’t look like it would have 50 years ago. If there’s a breeze when I’m walking I also start to resemble the mad Professor. I’m curious to see if the coffee kiosks have returned as I’ve missed my big round cinnamon buns which I would treat myself to when I went into Manhattan.

Ah well, this is what passes for my social life nowadays.

This is a really elaborate Rube Goldberg contraption which must have taken many hours to set up.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1265549656597069825

This is a nice little three-minute video that shows highlights of an upcoming online auction of drawings.

The Artist’s Sketchbook: Where Inspiration Finds Form
An Insight into the Intimate Thoughts of Degas, Le Corbusier and other 20th Century Greats
https://tinyurl.com/y8lemqs9

This is a link to all the items in the auction.
https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2020/the-artists-sketchbook-where-inspiration-finds-form?locale=en

This is from the Met, another three-minute video, although it’s actually a slideshow of still photographs of the artist Kehinde Wiley walking through the American wing of the Met while looking at paintings by John Singer Sargent and providing commentary. 

This is a link to Wikipedia’s bio of Wiley. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kehinde_Wiley

http://artistproject.metmuseum.org/1/kehinde-wiley/

This is a review of an Edward Hopper exhibit in Switzerland from the current New Yorker. Hopper is one of my favorites and the perfect artist for our plague year as all of his paintings display some measure of isolation and solitude. Many of his paintings are unpeopled and in the ones that have more than one person they often appear to be alone together.

Edward Hopper and American Solitude
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/06/08/edward-hopper-and-american-solitude

Hopper started his career as an illustrator and I’ve always loved the famous magazine illustrators like Rockwell, N.C. Wyeth and J.C. Leyendecker. This article is about an auction of their work with a very short video at the beginning.

Christie’s
‘That’s America!’: a collector’s guide to American illustrators
https://tinyurl.com/ybyc6ymb

And you can see all the items in the auction at this link.
https://www.christies.com/salelanding/index.aspx?lid=1&intsaleid=28924&saletitle=&pid=mslp_related_features2

I watched two 15-minute videos from Christie’s and both are very good, they’re discussions between the art critic, Alastair Sooke, and the heads of Christie’s Dutch and Impressionist departments. In each video they discuss four paintings. In the Dutch we have Vermeer, Gerard Ter Borch., Nicolas Maes and Jan Steen. The Steen was in a brilliant exhibition at the Frick in 2013/2014. Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Hals: Masterpieces of Dutch Painting from the Mauritshuis. The Met owns a similarly themed Steen, The Dissolute Household, which you can see at this link. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437747  You can see all the objects from the Frick exhibit at this link. https://www.frick.org/exhibitions/mauritshuis/checklist   I was lucky enough to see the Vermeer in a similarly brilliant exhibit at the National Gallery in D.C.  I don’t believe I’ve seen the other two. The Vuillard painting discussed in the Impressionism video was auctioned by Christie’s and is now in private hands, so this is a rare opportunity to see it. This is a link to Christie’s site for that sale with a long lot essay discussing the painting. https://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=6108763

Life & Love in the Dutch Golden Age | At Home with Christie’s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0TzCbsiaPw&feature=youtu.be

Intimacy & Impressionism: Manet, Degas, Bonnard, Vuillard | At Home with Christie's
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXB4hy2YCTI

During its shutdown the Frick has been releasing videos about the paintings in their collection under the heading, Cocktails with a Curator. Each episode runs between 15 and 20 minutes and is hosted by their Chief curator, Xavier Solomon. I watched the one on Velazquez's portrait of King Phillip. Solomon discusses Velazquez's life as court painter for the King and in addition to discussing the Frick portrait at length we get to see numerous other portraits of the King that Velazquez did during his time at court. In each episode Solomon also briefly discusses his drink of choice, hence the title for the series. Very interesting and filled with great art. This is a link to the Youtube page with all the videos, https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNVeJpU2DHHR_0y_Zvgn3MgZQQFcFx2eI. They're issued every Friday with no fixed endpoint. I also watched the episode on Rembrandt’s Polish Rider which was filled with interesting points that I didn’t know. I hope to eventually watch all of them. It's the virtual equivalent of having someone knowledgeable accompany you through the museum while he analyzes and discusses the painting. 

Simultaneously they have another series running, Travels with a Curator, in which a curator walks you through a foreign institution and discusses the art. I just watched the current episode in which Aimee Ng takes us to the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon. I've never heard of it before and having seen the video I would love to visit. It's similar to the Frick in that it's another museum that holds a very rich man's personal art collection, heavily invested with Old Masters and Impressionist painters, but in addition to the paintings, Gulbenkian also collected beautiful objects and his collection is roughly six times as large as Frick's. While the Frick museum was built originally as his home with the understanding that at some point it would become a museum open to the public, Gulbenkian's museum was built specifically to hold his enormous collection. It was built in the 60's after his death in 1955 and once completed it was a big job to retrieve his art from his various residences around the world, as well as from the museums where many had been on loan. This was a fascinating virtual trip to a magical place I didn't know about. This is a link to its Youtube page,  https://tinyurl.com/yahjvcta . This is a link to the Youtube page with the other episodes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4m49kqXqgo&list=PLNVeJpU2DHHT-6O0zyLnPwL0ERL_UGroM. These videos were really a treat.

I’ll close with a cartoon that made me laugh which hopefully will appear below.

And I’ll throw in a few Flickrs at no extra charge.

Andy G.

Final set from Zoom
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tinamartiniweeny/49656164718/

Nude Hose in Kansas City (13)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/151590215@N08/49679536122/

01 Mandy and Sav before party
https://www.flickr.com/photos/savannasteel/49073549008/

Love this dress
https://www.flickr.com/photos/187183102@N04/49597197127/

red 1
https://www.flickr.com/photos/7628587@N08/5712639696/

[Angela M...]

Andy, I have discovered our local city Gallery is posting works of Art on facebook these days for people to enjoy. I spent many hours there as a teen with my art and photography and would sketch and photograph the art, the gardens and visitors all the time. As life got busy and I got a full time job, I forgot about it and after I moved out of town it was many years since I was able to visit again but by then it was a shadow of itself with very few patrons keeping it up. It is housed in a very old mansion near the river and is on the opposite side of town where I live so I don't think of it often enough. In my late teen years my barber was renting the Coach house of the mansion next door and I would sneak through the hedge to visit him sometimes. Memories I have not thought about in many years.
 

[andyg0404]

I sometimes curse technology when it thwarts me but the Internet really is a marvelous invention when its not being abused or twisted. It's great having all the art that's available online. Two things I can't recommend enough to you are the videos from the Frick that you'll see in the earlier art emails, Cocktails with a Curator and Travels with a Curator. I've learned an awful lot about the paintings I've been viewing for the last 25 years, as well as venues I'll probably never get to visit. In my next posting I'll also link to a new set of articles on the Frick which describe life in the mansion behind the scenes.

Andy G.

[andyg0404]

Hi,

I'm back with more videos and articles about the art I miss so much. I don't post from the Wall Street Journal, whose politics I don't subscribe to but whose Arts pages are very entertaining, because there is a pay wall. If you have a subscription or access from a friend, you should definitely visit those pages. Every week there are interesting things to read. I've linked to the Guardian below which also has a paywall but you can register for free. And if you go to the page and it's blocked, just click on sign in, then hit the back button and miraculously the page will open.

I didn’t get to visit the Met’s exhibition of the reopened British Galleries as it opened on March 2nd and then the Met closed on March 12th so this video on the Blue Bed in the collection is a nice peek at what to expect. Lots of objects as well as paintings to be seen. And the Met announced they would reopen August 29th.

Wolf Burchard on The Met’s Blue State Bed | Curator's Cut
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OvRA2KrjsU

This is another brief video from the Met in which a contemporary artist looks at and discusses paintings from the collection. In this case it’s the video artist Kalup Linzy on Manet. Hopefully, in a few months we’ll also be able to see these paintings by Manet again.

http://artistproject.metmuseum.org/3/kalup-linzy/

The Met, like the Frick, is issuing videos with curators commenting on paintings and objects in their enormous collection.  These are pretty much all under ten minutes and, like the Frick, very knowledgeable and interesting. It made me a little crazy trying to find the series on the Met website so I wrote to member services. They very nicely replied by sending me the list below and explained that these videos are for members only so do not appear on the website.

Curator’s Cut

Episode 1: Pissarro in Paris with Kathryn Galitz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cTXyzdteFo

Episode 2: C. Griffith Mann on Crossroads: Power and Piety
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbKQi2lLFis&feature=youtu.be

Episode 3: Kim Benzel on Rayyane Tabet: Alien Property
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBgbYySYytw

Episode 4: Alice Frelinghuysen on the American Wing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apZwFnWTDss

Episode 5: Adam Eaker on Anthony van Dyck's Study Head of a Young Woman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsC8EyT-cIg

Episode 6: Michael Gallagher on the conservation of Joaquim Beuckelaer's "Fish Market"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qhAeND5_k8

Episode 7: Joseph Scheier-Dolberg on Zhang Feng's album of landscapes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Db85QzG8reU&list=PL8HAkqKX065BE181vW-SQRciMnErZfCjf&index=8&t=0s

Episode 8: Lucretia Kargere on The Enthroned Virgin and Child
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3rQ4GfWzxc

Episode 9: Beth Carver Wees on Jewelry for America
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1gP00HcnTY

Episode 10: Sean Hemingway on the Roman Puteal (wellhead)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSRIVYmJRiA

Episode 11: Wolf Burchard on The Met’s Blue State Bed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OvRA2KrjsU

I’m not sure why this video isn’t part of the series above but it came into my inbox as a Members Spotlight. At any rate, it’s an appreciation of Picasso’s portrait of Gertrude Stein. The video explains the circumstances under which it was painted and repeats my favorite comment about it. When her friends saw the painting they said to Picasso that it didn’t look like her. He shrugged and said, it will.  And it does.

Picasso's Gertrude Stein | Members Spotlight
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xcz5ZuwcnMc&feature=youtu.be

This is an article about a book that contains all of Van Gogh's letters. The book is available in its entirety on the web at this link, http://vangoghletters.org/vg/  The site allows you to read all of them or just the ones that have sketches. It's fascinating to see his affection for his family and friends and the book explores how literate he was, reading in multiple languages and quoting from books and poems. Just looking at the sketches in the letters makes this a worthwhile visit. It’s particularly poignant knowing how tortured he was.

Van Gogh and the Books He Loved
https://tinyurl.com/yafh9zha

The Frick continues to issue interesting articles and videos. I’m very much enjoying the videos on the different items in the collection as well as the videos describing other venues. Now they’re also writing about the mansion itself and the running of it. In the first article the Frick servants are discussed as enumerated in the 1915 New York State census. It also mentions there are bell buttons under the Turner painting of Dieppe which were used to call different servants. I’ve been to the Frick many times and never noticed these buttons. The second is about the housekeeper Minerva Stone who served from 1914 to 1919.

https://www.frick.org/blogs/education/untold_histories_parallel_household

https://www.frick.org/blogs/education/untold_histories_minerva_stone_housekeeper_part_1

This is a nice little article about Monet's Water Lily paintings from which I learned several things I hadn't known. One of which was that MOMA had a fire in 1958 that damaged 6 paintings including two Monet's. In the second link there's a six minute video that discusses the full room of continuous paintings in an oval enclosure at the Musée de l'Orangerie, just as Monet hoped they might be displayed. It's like the enormous 41ft expanse of the three Lily paintings at MOMA except it goes completely around the room.

15 Facts About Monet's Water Lilies
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/63929/15-things-you-might-not-know-about-monets-water-lilies 

https://tinyurl.com/lh7xvvk

I've mentioned my enjoyment of Andrew Wyeth's work and Christie's is holding an online Private auction that runs a month and includes watercolors and drawings. You can see everything in the auction at this link, https://www.christies.com/features/Wyeths-World-10552-7.aspx?sc_lang=en&PID=en_hp_carousel_1, initially within an article touting the auction, then each item listed individually.

This is also from Christie’s and highlights the colorful Japanese prints I enjoy so much.

Collecting guide: Japanese woodblock prints
https://tinyurl.com/ycm3bwc4

This article from the Guardian is just sad. You'll know why when you see the images. I knew about the earlier damage to the fresco but this is brand new and just as devastating. It’s like asking your plumber to fix your computer.

Experts call for regulation after latest botched art restoration in Spain
Immaculate Conception painting by Murillo reportedly cleaned by furniture restorer

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/jun/22/experts-call-for-regulation-after-latest-botched-art-restoration-in-spain

That's it for the moment, except for the Flickrs below.

Andy G.


I love to ride.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/stefanied/49608522161/

Working as a maid
https://www.flickr.com/photos/53516713@N06/49376744262/

A long time ago
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22979184@N05/49683173201/

5580660246_d669b879a6_o
https://www.flickr.com/photos/184583402@N04/49385194812/

Sissy dress
https://www.flickr.com/photos/184977464@N08/49569874517/