Paintings at the Met – 18th Century

613. French Women Best: Marie Denise Villers, Marie Josephine Charlotte du Val d’Ognes (1801). Of all the eyes looking at me in this gallery, hers are the ones that hold me. Light and shadow define the plain dress and spartan room, and we see a courting couple through a broken window pane. The composition is […]

Paintings at the Met – Spain

610. Velazquez Best: Velazquez, Juan de Pareja (1650). A masterpiece of world portraiture: Velazquez’s consummate brushwork comes through the unfortunate glazing, capturing light reflecting off the Moor’s forehead, texturing his skin, revealing itself in the lace color and rich gray background. Note the single red dot that marks the right ear. Worst: Bartolome Esteban Murillo, […]

Paintings at the Met – 16th Century

607. Venice Some periods are just better than others. 16th c. Venice – with Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese and Lotto – is one. The next gallery – 16th c. Northern Italy – is not. Best: Paolo Veronese, Mars and Venus United by Love (1570s). A topflight work (along with its companions at the Frick) by a […]

What Is Art?

The age-old, unanswerable question came to mind as I pondered two equally compelling objects on back-to-back days in San Francisco (8/13-14/16). The first was the “strandbeest” at the Exploratorium in an exhibit titled “The Dream Machines of Theo Jansen.” There were actually several on display, including one that was operational. Contraptions made largely of PVC […]

Capodimonte in Naples

Herewith, in chronological order, my ten personal favorite works from the Museum of Capodimonte in Naples: Colantonio del Fiore, St. Jerome in his Study (1446). Best of the Naples artists featured upstairs; fun detail and warm, cuddly lion. Botticelli, Virgin Mary with Child and Angels (1469). I can’t get enough of the early delicious Botticelli, […]

Art in Florence

Florence is a veritable Disneyland of Renaissance art, with commensurate gelaterias and boutiques scattered among the rides. As with Disneyland, one doesn’t want to miss an attraction, which inevitably leaves the visitor exhausted by the experience, even if one has five days, as we just did, to see it all. Although this was my third […]

The New Whitney

[fusion_text]The question everyone in New York is asking is, “What do you think of the new Whitney?” The simple answer, which almost everyone seems to give, is, “It’s great!” First, the location: although it is harder to get to by public transportation (more on that later), it has created a new target location in Manhattan. […]

Chinese Stones

Stephen Little, the curator of Chinese art at LACMA, spoke at Jill Finsten’s Art Talks on Thursday (3/5/15) about the Chinese veneration of stones, giving us more insight about the Chinese stone that guards our front door, which we really should name. This respect for stones arises from Daoism, which has a creation myth that […]

Loot

An appearance by the estimable Sharon Waxman at an SBMA Director’s Dialogue prompted a return to my thoughts on the issue of repatriation of stolen art. It also prompted me to read her 2012 book, Loot . There was nothing in the book that added to my previous understanding of the subject, formed by reading, […]

An Annoying Exhibition

Met Director Thomas Campbell touts The Civil War and American Art as a “once-in-a-lifetime exhibition [that] proposes significant new readings of some of this country’s most iconic paintings.” It is, however, a reading I’ve seen before – among other places in the MIA’s American Sublime show. Then I wasn’t convinced; this time I was simply […]