Modern Masters

Tonight I had my first look at the Monet to Dali exhibit at the Frist Center.  Wow!  Fabulous selections from some of the GREAT artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  The piece above was one of my favorites.  The Apple Seller, by August Renoir, is a feast of color.  The fluid brush strokes pile on layers of color.  Even  the "white" dress worn by Madame Renoir is composed of a half dozen vivid pastels.   Each of the figures wears Renoir's trademark soft, rosy-cheeked, porcelain doll face.

In The Red Kerchief, Claude Monet attempts to capture "the transitory effects of falling snow".  He depicts his wife as though he were viewing her through lace framed windows.  Her red kerchief provides delicious vibrancy.  Always keenly interested in the techniques employed by the artist, I was intrigued to see that the whole canvas appeared to have been primed in a deep green.  I could see bits and pieces of it showing through everywhere.  I was told once by an artist that a recurring color, even in shadows or blended into other hues, helps bring unity to a work.

Paul Cezanne's The Brook was so effectively rendered I almost felt I could smell the water, feel the coolness of the air.  As I looked at Cezanne's little squares of color, I was reminded of how Jake used to color when he was a very little boy.  When all the other toddlers were filling their papers with big swirly scrawls, Jake was making dozens of precise little blocks of color...just like Monsieur Cezanne.

There is a whole room in the exhibit devoted to the sculpture of Rodin.  Twentieth century sculptor Brancusi said, "In the nineteenth century, the situation of sculpture was desperate.  Rodin arrived and transformed everything."  The Age of Bronze is an extraordinary life size sculpture of a man.  It is so lifelike that critics accused the artist of making a cast of an actual person.  The controversy was finally put to rest when the model for the sculpture offered to have a cast made of himself for comparison.  The Thinker is one of the most recognizable artworks ever created.  You might not know that it was meant to be a representation of the poet Dante Alighieri, or that it was originally designed to be part of a bronze door for a Paris museum.  The work was to have been called The Gates of Hell, a nod to Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise on the Baptistery in Florence.  When the project was scrapped, the work became known as the Poet Thinker, then finally, The Thinker.

Paul Gauguin's painting, In The Waves, is placed just inside a doorway so that you see it well before entering the room.  It is quite striking because of the sharp contrast of the woman's bright orange hair against the vermilion waves.  This is a depiction of abandon.  The woman recklessly flings herself into the vigorous waves.  Her head is thrown back with the sheer joy of the act.

The one piece that brought me to tears tonight is still a bit of a mystery to me.  Sometimes I find myself perplexed by the emotional reaction I experience.  Perhaps I will never cease to be surprised and startled by art.  I hope not.  I do know that the desperate beauty of fall always inspires a melancholy in me.  While I relish the momentary glory, I wrestle with dread over the brutal aridity of winter that is to follow.  I also know that the intensity of the blues in Van Gogh's skies provokes a visceral reaction in me.  They are painfully lovely.  I don't understand it, really.  But I feel it...intensely.  Vincent Van Gogh wrote the following about The Poplars of Saint-Remy, "I have a study of two yellowing poplars against a background of mountains and a view of the park here, an autumn effect."
At least!

I must confess that I was not impressed with Modigliani's Portrait of a Woman when I saw it in some of the promotional materials, but up close and personal it is so lovely.  The painting is sleek with the flat images characteristic of the symbolists.  The subject's face and neck are elongated in a style similar to Botticelli's.  I have to say, she does not have the Botticelli eyes.  I am in love with the golden Botticelli eyes.  But, hers are quite nice, all the same.

One of the curators gave us an introduction to Picasso's La Vie tonight.  Look for a separate post about that.  This exhibit will be at the Frist through June first.  I strongly encourage you to visit.  I think you will be glad you did.

Comments

[kari]

I love reading your insights on art. I think I'll go this week!