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useum s third floor which emphasizes its split personality the first smaller room holds a group of portraits including fishermen a farmer and pete seeger the one at left is titled wildlife biologist craig thompson with immature bald eagle these pictures could be described as journalistic clearly squillante sees himself as a storyteller but the second room lays out a far more aesthetic scheme in which the hudson as landscape is explored from the lower tip of manhattan to the top of mount marcy this for me was the more successful part of the exhibition not that squillante is a better artist than journalist he s darn good at both but that the story told by the landscapes is both more coherent and more compelling in its simplicity also unlike the portraits which are strongly and necessarily rooted in who they depict some of the landscapes transcend their subject matter to take us to a new place the example shown below is titled peekskill bay it is the hudson river yes but it is also anywhere in the world as well as somewhere in the mind or spirit this is where i prefer art to take me you can go see where it takes you through oct 4 posted by david brickman at 1 43 pm 1 comment labels albany art history painting photography monday august 17 2009 francis bacon at the metropolitan museum of art i was fortunate to catch francis bacon a centenary retrospective on its last day at the metropolitan museum of art in new york and though i m sorry to be reporting on the show after it s over the experience merits comment bacon was without doubt one of the seminal artists of the 20th century his grotesque figuration went against the abstract expressionism that dominated his era but it triumphed eventually having presaged the dominant art of the last two decades of that century this show made abundantly clear why bacon matters with room after room of major works presented decade by decade it also featured crisp wall texts and a display of artifacts from bacon s studio both of which delineated a tormented life of tremendous artistic effort bacon a homosexual englishman from a wealthy family who grew up in ireland boiled all of life down to three things birth copulation and death lacking formal training in art he nevertheless established early in his career a highly refined individual style and he deviated from it very little over many decades of painting whether presented singly or in triptychs the bulk of his paintings as seen in this show were vertical and of the same size 1½ by 2 meters or about 5 by 6½ feet the example shown above is the right third of a triptych made at the height of his career and is as good as any in representing the elements of bacon s painted imagery it won t surprise you to read that a lot of people saw this exhibition on its last day and very few of them were smiling it is relentlessly grim stuff and definitely not for children though i saw some there but it is in its way absolutely full of life i found the early years to be pretty tough going but was rather delighted by the middle years where bacon fused influences of matisse and picasso into the best work he d ever made colorful masterfully composed complex even with the same horrific biomorphism that characterizes almost everything he painted the lyrical spaces and vibrant colors of these middle paintings are unequivocally lushly beautiful was bacon trying to use beauty to seduce the viewer into confronting brutal realities or was he reveling in beauty for its own sake even as he reveled in grotesquerie and horror the later works retain some of that smooth prettiness but bring back the rougher spare aspects of the earlier bacon possibly because his love life was making a similar reprise he also turned to portraiture in this period creating the one sustained deviation from the large format paintings in the form of many 12 by 14 inch pieces some of which are also presented in triptychs altogether it is quite impressive though i exited the gallery with some sense of relief there was an equal sense of wonder at the stupendous body of work bacon had produced and the amazing career he crafted out of it posted by david brickman at 2 59 pm 4 comments labels art new york city painting saturday august 15 2009 prendergast in italy and more at wcma maurice prendergast grand canal venice ca 1898 99 watercolor and pencil on paper 10 x 13 7 8 inches williams college museum of art gift of mrs charles prendergast with all the attention being paid to the dove o keeffe show at the clark art institute it could be easy to overlook williamstown s other world class museum the williams college museum of art but that would be a grave mistake especially now as the wcma is hosting four exhibitions that are all worth some serious viewing time first up is the gorgeous prendergast in italy created in partnership with the terra foundation of american art in chicago which draws on the vast prendergast collection of the wcma along with the terra s major holdings and several private collections after it completes its run here on sept 20 the show will travel to the peggy guggenheim collection in venice italy and then in 2010 to the museum of fine arts houston prendergast in italy presents the work of an artist at the top of his game at two distinct points in his career during travels in italy in 1898 9 and 1911 12 a consummate craftsman maurice prendergast began as a commercial artist but then crossed over into fine art after studying in paris in the 1890s with his first sojourn to italy focusing on venice as his subject his success was launched always attuned to the development of modern art over the next decade prendergast changed styles the work of his second sojourn is so different from the first that it is almost like viewing two artists though the dominant medium throughout is watercolor to compare see the images at the top and bottom of this post not to worry both are extraordinarily good the early prendergast takes an illustrative style and applies it to vividly perceived scenes of victorian life along the canals the images are virtually bursting with color light and atmosphere the one reproduced at right is titled fiesta venice s pietro in volta both accurate and expressive even more than 100 years later they communicate the artist s exuberance at being alive in a place full of stimulation and possibility the later work in keeping with the principles of modern art is slightly cooler and more intellectual even as it is also more primitive if this seems self contradictory consider that prendergast s main inspiration in adopting the new style came from paul cézanne and henri matisse these paintings delight the eye but don t take you into the action so much as they place you near enough to observe it as a collection of shapes lines and tones if i could criticize the show it is that it is perhaps too comprehensive the two large galleries simply overflow with prendergast s abundant output if one is not a fan it could become tiresome but for lovers of this artist and period it is a carnival of marvelous proportions maurice prendergast rialto venice ca 1911 12 watercolor and pencil on paper williams college museum of art gift of mrs charles prendergast also getting the star treatment at the wcma is another almost absurdly talented and productive artist the photographer and painter edward steichen filling a very large gallery almost salon style is in high fashion the condé nast years 1923 1937 it simply astonishes and overwhelms with the sheer number of masterful portraits of the stars of the day and the groundbreaking fashion pictures that today we take for granted but when steichen did them were a revelation again fans will love it but others may grow bored this show ends on sept 13 in a second smaller gallery another steichen show focuses on his personal work titled episodes from a life in photography it features 90 pictures that range from early abstractions the example above of avocados was made in 1920 to an extended series of landscapes made at walden pond and also includes some commercial images such as the jazzy 1926 design for stehli silks shown above at right this show will remain on view through nov 8 finally another show of photographs features the work of a williams alumnus named ralph lieberman while steichen is a pretty tough act to follow lieberman s architecturally inspired black and white work holds up very well many of the images are classical renderings of their subject matter such as the one shown here from san gimignano in italy while others display a more analytical and expressive mind at work he does williams proud posted by david brickman at 6 00 am no comments labels art painting photography williamstown thursday august 13 2009 christopher jordan at chapel cultural center an extraordinary show of photographs by christopher jordan is currently on view at rpi s chapel cultural center which is slightly off the beaten track but actually very easy to find and being a catholic church as well as a beautiful gallery it s open pretty much all the time jordan who came to the area about five years ago to teach at sage college of albany has already moved on to his next teaching job in tuscaloosa ala fortunately for us the show will remain through sept 28 titled ablation points the collection of about 20 pieces in both color and black and white has integrated jordan s love of landscape photography with his knack for digital tinkering resulting in an innovative and transformative body of work that confounds our preconceptions about both you can click here to see examples on his website how s that first he freezes up a bunch of ice in his home freezer and sets up a studio arrangement that includes a rubber lined tray of water cottony cloud fuzz rocks lights and whatever else he may need to concoct an illusory icelandic fjordscape and yes he has actually been to iceland then he shoots large format black and white negatives with a view camera to capture these fictions in very great detail some of the images in the show are beautifully crafted straight silver prints from those negs example at right and they are quite lovely near abstractions but the rest are something significantly different jordan got his master s degree in photography at rit a program known for its adherence to extreme technical excellence hence the view camera and all that but he has added the digital arena to his set of skills and it is in these ablation pictures that the old and new technologies come together to create something excitingly new after shooting a variety of setups jordan scans the negatives into a very high definition digital environment and transforms them mainly by adding color the amazingly realistic and expressive effects he achieves without resorting to cheap tricks is what makes this work so impressive even when the elements of jordan s images are reduced to a few shapes and gestures the way they capture atmosphere is uncanny in this he rivals his rightful predecessors the hudson river school painters they too were using beauty to convey messages that are essentially spiritual and environmental jordan describes these works as an extended metaphor for climate change and you do feel the sadness that pervades their sense of awe the word ablation which is a synonym for erosion or vaporization you can trust me i looked it up makes his message clear while it s doubtful that pictures can help much to protect the future of the glaciers i feel strongly that jordan has produced something of lasting value by making them posted by david brickman at 6 10 am no comments labels art photography troy monday august 10 2009 dove o keeffe at the clark arthur dove sunrise i 1936 tempera on canvas 25 x 35 inches he inspired georgia o keeffe to begin painting abstractly became a lifelong friend and ongoing influence on her work and was celebrated alongside her by the most influential art critics of the first half of the 20th century still though millions of people today can instantly recognize almost any picture by or of o keeffe the name arthur dove scarcely rings a bell but not if debra bricker balken has her way balken is the independent curator who created this summer s blockbuster exhibition dove o keeffe circles of influence on view at the sterling and francine clark art institute in williamstown mass through sept 7 balken also put together a dove retrospective in 1997 and has written the text for the handsome catalog that accompanies this show the exhibition at the clark amply demonstrates both how and why dove was an artist of similar significance to o keeffe and lovingly documents the depth and duration of their connection it also features two other players alfred stieglitz who showed both artists work at his new york city gallery and introduced them to each other before eventually marrying o keeffe and sigmund freud whose writing on sex greatly influenced the thinking of participants in the american modernist movement o keeffe bristled at the characterization of herself and dove as representative of their respective gender in painting and i think she was right the many works by both artists in this show share and swap so many characteristics as to defy any honest viewer who would try to categorize either artist s expression as essentially male or female to test yourself take a look at the paintings reproduced above at right and below at left and then decide which painting is better representative of which sex they are identified at the bottom of this post that debate i would add is part of the point abstraction in the hands of dove and o keeffe became a disembodied celebration of nature expressed not through the neuroses and complexities of human perceptions but experienced instead as a pure thing in its forms and essences what is remarkable about these pioneering paintings is how fresh they seem and relevant they remain nearly a century after they were made the exhibition does well by presenting the work in bite size pairs and groupings and by organizing it into several historical themes such as new york modernism and contextual categories such as color light the wall texts are informative which really helps one to navigate the show conceptually and succinct which is practical as it is likely to be pretty crowded any time you visit the throngs make it a bit difficult to linger but it is essential that you take the time to contemplate this art long enough to let it work its magic with your perceptions and magical it is from dove s stark early drawings through o keefe s groundbreaking watercolors and dove s experiments with materials such as glass and metal to the final pairings of the two artists transcendental nature paintings it is both a lesson in the history of modern art and an immersion in the process and power of fully resolved works while the key to the show is how it works as a whole both in relating dove s work to o keeffe s and in presenting each artist s work on its own there are sever...