Collectables

Book Review: Matthew Hahn, ‘The Animated Marx Brothers’—A Look at Humor’s Social Value

Immersed in wintery gloom and headlines of doom, perhaps it’s time for us to take a deep breath and remind ourselves to laugh! Humor –remember that?!–is the perfect prescription for sanity.

From slapstick to Seinfeld, America’s popular culture has always embraced humor. Composers of the classic American songbook extolled happiness in such songs as “Make ‘Em Laugh”, which Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed wrote for Singin’ in the Rain. Who can forget Donald O’Connor’s romp (left) while singing, “You start off by pretending you’re a dancer with grace,/You wiggle till they’re giggling all over the place,/And then you get a great big custard pie in the face,/Make ‘em laugh, make ‘em laugh, make ‘em laugh!”More

‘Matisse in the Studio,’ at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts: Vibrant Beauty

French artist Henri Matisse (1869-1954) was a seminal influence on 20th Century Art, a creative spirit who helped define the century’s revolutionary approach to the visual. The MFA’s Matisse in the Studio – the only venue in North America where this exhibition will be shown – is the first major international show to examine how the objects in the artist’s personal collection played in powerful role in shaping his art. It is a fascinating look at how the objects he regarded with affection effected a great artist’s oeuvre.More

Copenhagen in the Footsteps of Painter, Vilhelm Hammershøi

www.artesmagazine.com — Amagertorv Central Square, Copenhagen, Denmark

What better way to see a city than through the eyes of a painter? For everyone knows that great painters see life not as it is for an ordinary person, but rather, life as it can be transformed into something otherworldly — an artwork. On a recent trip to Copenhagen, I did exactly that — I saw the Danish city, which was founded as a fishing village in the 10^th century, through the eyes of Vilhelm Hammershøi, a painter who lived and worked there for most of his life. Born in 1864, Hammershøi made a name for himself painting the interior spaces where he lived, and the landmarks of the city, in a stripped-bare style that anticipated both pointillism and modernism. Revered in his home country, he has been largely forgotten abroad. That is, until now. Currently, he is the subject of Painting Tranquility: Masterworks by Vilhelm Hammershøi from SMK – The National Gallery of Denmark, a critically acclaimed exhibition of his paintings currently on view at the Scandinavia House in New York through February 27, 2016. xxxxxMore

Editor’s Letter: August, 2015

“The way we see things is affected by what we believe.” ~John Berger

Left: Nicholas Hilliard, ‘Queen Elizabeth, The Ermine Portrait’ (1585). Hatfield House, London

Listening to Stone

The art of the quest means leaving home; it is the companion of adventure. Questers must be prepared to venture into the unknown, confront difficulties and dangers, and return home with new understandings of themselves and the world. A pilgrimage is, by definition, part trip and part ritual. The impetus for my journey was not nearly as dramatic or danger-wrought as that. It was urged on by a wish to pay homage, and seek the truth about an 18^th century woman, whose story remained locked in the back of an antique pocket watch for over two hundred years. xxxxxxMore

Editor’s Letter: March, 2015

“Accuracy Is Not Truth” ~ Eugène Delacroix

Left: Samuel J. Miller, Frederick Douglass (c. 1852). Private collection.

Why Black Art Matters

The tumultuous universe of the visual arts coheres around a dual organizing principle: what have you got to say and how do you say it? This narrative underpinning has been true for as long as we have allowed art to occupy more than a mere decorative place in our experiential universe. Some would argue that prehistoric cave paintings and early Renaissance religious works mattered equally to their respective communities for their devotional and mystical properties; that is, their power to transport the viewer to a higher, spiritual plane. xxxxxx More

Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts: ‘Planes, Trains & Automobiles’

Life sped up during the middle of the 20th Century. It also gained a sense of style. This appealing exhibition of collectors Fred and Jean Sharf’s wonderful collection of a variety of transportation art and objects proves that acceleration and aesthetics make an exhilarating combo.

From an early age, most of us treasure model cars, airplanes and trains. It may have something to do with fantasy, a sense of imagined Lilliputian power or just a love of beautifully made scale models that we can hold in our hands. These may be outmoded generalizations, but most boys adore model trains, cars, trucks and airplanes, while a large majority of girls start out liking doll houses and everything that goes into and outside of them. There is a certain magic to miniaturization.

Above: Deutsche Lufthansa Ju 52 model. Photo: Mark Wallison, courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.xxxxxxMore

New York City’s La MaMa Galleria: Christopher Tanner’s ‘Eye of the Heart’

There is never a month gone by when somebody does not run into me on the street and ask whether or not I have heard about Christopher Tanner’s latest. And I have to ask, “Are you talking about his artwork? Is he having another exhibition, performing on stage, in play, in a movie, on TV, or is doing some of his own filmmaking?” What is it this time? xxxxxxMore

Editor’s Letter: November, 2014

“To create one’s own world takes courage.” ~Georgia O’Keeffe

Left: Jankel Andler, The Artist (1927). Private Collection

Time’s Odds and Ends

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly: what is essential is invisible to the eye.” Antoine de Saint Exupéry, The Little Prince (1943).

Our legacy, both individually and as a culture, can be found in the mundane objects of everyday life: a photograph, trinket or souvenir, or maybe a letter. Recall, for example, the utter joy of a tornado survivor who recovers a wedding album in the rubble of a home where all else is lost. No grand gesture is needed to memorialize our brief presence here on this earth, or in the sweep of history. Memories are not cached in blocks of years or even weeks—but in moments. And objects, most small enough to hold in our hands and freighted with personal meaning serve as vivid reminders, refueling thoughts and emotions tied to those fleeting instants in the continuum of time. In other words: objects often lose their objectivity once embedded in our personal lives. xxxxxxMore

New York’s Bookstein Gallery on Leland Bell: Morning into Motion

While in Lori Bookstein Fine Art gallery, in New York City during midsummer the visitor might, for a moment, ignore the caption to Morning (Small II) that reveals it is the work of Leland Bell, or that this oil painting on canvas, which has a small-scale, timeless majesty, was completed relatively recently, in 1985. Morning (Small II) is less than two feet wide and two feet long, and is as deceptively modest as its title. A female nude stands near a bed with her left arm raised theatrically, beckoning, or entreating, a nude male in bed. The male is sat up, weary, his tired head supported by his hand and upraised arm. Near the bed, a dark gray cat arches its back. And, as far as narrative content goes, that is all there is to it. xxxxxxMore

Peabody Essex Museum Features Mid-century Modern Design Masterworks

When entering the Peabody Essex Museum, the visitor is visually greeted by a sparkling turquoise Studebaker Avanti. This iconic car was the brainchild of industrial designer Raymond Lowey in the early 1960s. It was created in an intense design charrette, or workshop, in Palm Springs, California. The wonderful car is at once sleek, aerodynamic, with minimal embellishment. It was a strong aesthetic reaction to the chrome and useless gewgaws that had previously adorned the American cars of the late fifties.

Distinctively low-slung, Loewy’s concept is wedge-shaped in profile, with Coke bottle contour shaped fenders, flush-mounted bumpers, and a grille-less nose. Uniqely, the front sits more than an inch lower than its tail. Its Fiberglas body and overall form speak to the very idea of California cool.xxxxxxMore