Sometimes art is a scientific achievement. We landed on the moon 45 years ago today.
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makin' art real talk
Monthly Archives: July 2014
rosie and isaiah
Rosie the Riveter stands on Hitler’s Mein Kampf during her lunch break while Michelangelo’s Isaiah from the Sistene Chapel nonchalantly acknowledges what is a very possessed angel. Same sitting pose (three cheers for art appropriation!), but Rosie wins this contest, hands down.
I mean, obviously, she had me at those muscles alone, but don’t even get me STARTED on those loafers. *swoon*
hbd, degas
Huffington Post made me feel TERRIBLE this morning when it mentioned Degas celebrated his 180th birthday and I didn’t even know about it. Well, I’m going to go ahead and pretend that turning 180 years old requires two days and therefore, I am RIGHT ON TIME.
Degas is well-known for his ballerina paintings and sculptures, but he wasn’t always the popular Impressionist at school. Critics often called his work “appalling ugliness.”
His response?
“Art critic! Is that a profession? When I think we are stupid enough, we painters, to solicit those people’s compliments and to put ourselves into their hands! What shame! Should we even accept that they talk about our work?”
Preach, Degas. I feel that way when girls stare. It’s a printed maxi, ladies, and I am OWNING IT.
let’s be real
While I am ALL FOR bottomless pitchers for brunch (but like, where can I get that china?!), there just aren’t enough crumpled linens and tapestries at my normal Saturday eateries.
seven deadly sins
Hieronymus Bosch is only a little crazy. Luckily, we’re looking at a painting that comes before his insane, invented lands where humans and birds live together in uproarious, straight up, and bizarre ways.
This is a work acquired by Spain’s Philip II, and you can see this amazing panel at the Prado. Each of the corner’s small circles represents “Death,” “Judgment,” “Hell,” and “Glory.” The panels within the greater circle illustrate the seven deadly sins. Christ is in the middle, standing knowingly above the scroll that reads, “Beware, Beware, God Sees.”
So, the scariest combination of Pictionary and Wheel of Fortune that I have EVER SEEN.
mercelle lender
Today, we celebrate Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. A man who stood at the lofty four-six, Lautrec spent many a-night at the Moulin Rouge and other Parisian nightclubs. Lautrec’s parents were first cousins (gross), and many of his health problems were attributed to inbreeding (double gross). He drank like a maniac; even his cane came well-equipped with liquor storage. He ended up dying in an insane asylum with syphilis.
My favorite part about this painting of Marcelle Lender is that Lautrec LOVED redheads (smart man, I say). Like, was obsessed. I’m talking, this chick was in an short-running opera (too soon?), and he attended twenty times. Twen-tee. When he wanted her to have the painting, she basically called him a creep. “What a horrible man,” she said, “You can have [the painting].”
Well, the National Gallery helped itself to it, thanks to John Jay Whitney, in the 90s.
gertrude vanderbilt whitney
Give me everything about this look. The layered pajama tops? Those cinched-ankle pants?! Obsessed.
Work it, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney! (This was painted in 1916. Here’s something real: I’m not even gonna WAIT for the centennial to make this LOOK HAPPEN!)
odalisque
Henri Matisse’s “Odalisque” has quite a long lineage of ownership. The Nazis seized the work from art dealer Paul Rosenberg in 1941. The work traveled from Paris to New York, where it was purchased by the lumber millionaires Prentice and Virginia Bloedel. (Note: The two founded Bleodel Reserve, a pretty major mansion and wildlife habitat north of Seattle that sits on a measly 150 acres.) They donated the painting to the Seattle Art Museum in 1991.
Since “Odalisque” was a work confiscated by the Nazis, Rosenberg’s granddaughter Anne Sinclair (France’s own “Barbara Walters”) sued the Seattle Art Museum (the first lawsuit of its kind regarding looted art). The museum then sued the New York gallery (like, of course). The museum unanimously voted to give the work back in 1999. In 2007, Sinclair put the work up for auction. The price tag? 33 million.
As if this story couldn’t get more dramatic! Anne Sinclair’s ex is Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former IMF Managing Director who was acquitted of assault charges against a hotel maid. See? Told you.
sunday night blues
Paul Gauguin, sans trousers, playing the piano. So there IS something worse than Monday.
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