Observations on Art 3.31

"Art is anything you can get away with" is a quote widely attributed to Andy Warhol that says all you need to know about his theory of art. I say the quote is attributed to Warhol because, while I'm sure he said it and just as sure he lived it, the quote is actually by a Canadian media philosopher, Marshall McLuhan.

It doesn't really matter who said it because the quote isn't the topic of this post. It just makes a perfect opening for a Warhol story I heard last week that I hadn't heard in some time.

On April 21, 1964 Eleanor Ward's Stable Gallery* held one of the first major exhibitions of Andy Warhol's work. The Stable exhibition was the first time the world saw Warhol's Brillo Boxes. Among those attending the show was James Harvey who had originally designed the box for the Brillo Manufacturing Company. Harvey and a friend had wandered into the Stable to see a show by a than still minor artist, Warhol. Upon seeing the stack of  boxes Harvey supposedly said to his friend "oh my god, I designed those."

Art critic Arthur Danto once asked, "What distinguishes Warhol’s Brillo Box from the Brillo boxes in which Brillo comes?" That's literally a million dollar question because on that day in 1964 Warhol's Brillo boxes were selling for hundreds of dollars and have since sold at auction for as much $5 million. For all practical purposes Harvey's Brillo boxes were worthless.

James Harvey died of cancer less than a year after the Stable Gallery show. One of the only remaining examples of Harvey's Brillo box is owned by Art Historian Irving Sandler. He keeps the box, an autographed gift from Harvey, in a case in his apartment not far from what was once the site of the Stable Gallery.

* trivia, the Stable Gallery was so named because it was originally housed in an unused livery stable on West 58^th Street in New York.

Observations on Art 10.6

Part 1: When it is it is ....

Over a month ago the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam announced Sunset at Montmajour was indeed an original painting by Vincent van Gogh. I've been wanting to write a post about it because the history of the painting is an awesome story and most of what I have read has left out parts of it. More often than not articles have been more like reviews of Sunset at Montmajour and nothing more. The powers that be in the art world have decided it isn't one of van Gogh's best works as if it were some sketch tossed into the trash can. It's a van Gogh, that's my review. Now the story behind it.

When Sunset at Montmajour was painted in 1888 Vincent van Gogh was 35 years old and had by then sold just one painting. He wrote a letter to his brother Theo van Gogh describing the painting which he said he had painted the previous day, "at sunset, I was on a stony heath where very small, twisted oaks grow, in the background a ruin on the hill and wheat fields in the valley." (Read the letter here.) Vincent later sent the painting to Theo for storage. Two years later, in 1890, Vincent van Gogh arguably committed suicide in a field near Auvers-sur-Oise, now in the suburbs of Paris.

After Vincent's death Theo van Gogh inventoried his collection of paintings and gave Sunset at Montmajour the number 180. Just two years after Vincents death Theo himself died and his collection was broken up and sold as the paintings had rapidly begun to increase in value.

In 1901 painting number 180, than known by its original name Sun Setting at Arles, was sold to the French art dealer Maurice Fabre during one of the first retrospectives of van Gogh's paintings. In 1908 Fabre sold the painting to a novice collector and Norwegian industrialist Christian Nicolai Mustad. Mustad proudly showed his new treasure to France's ambassador to Sweden who told Mustad that he doubted its authenticity. Probably embarrassed at his mistake Mustad never showed the painting again and Sun Setting at Arles disappeared into Mustad's attic and from history.

The painting was stored in the attic until Mustad's death in 1970 when the family called in collector Daniel Wildenstein who dismissed it as a fake or possibly a painting by Adolphe Monticelli who preceded van Gogh's period and who van Gogh admired. The family sold the painting to an unknown collector who later sold it to it's current, also unnamed, owner. In 1991 the Van Gogh Museum itself refused to authenticate, or even look at, the painting.

There are many reasons for the doubted authenticity over there years not the least of which is that the painting wasn't signed but van Gogh didn't sign many of his paintings. It is from a late traditional period of his painting after which he began using thicker brush strokes. Also there is an almost total lack of paper trail as beginning with Fabre none of the transactions were properly recorded.

What changed between 1991 and 2011 when the Van Gogh Museum began the authentication of Sunset at Montmajour and what went into authenticating it? The museum finished editing and had published Vincent's letters to Theo and had the detailed description I mentioned above. During the authenticating process X-ray examination of the canvas showed it identical to canvas van Gogh used for other paintings from the period including The Rocks which is in Houston's Museum of Fine Arts. Finally modern analysis of the pigment, the artistic equivalent of genetic sequencing, showed the painting's were the same as those used by van Gogh at Arles.

Is Sunset at Montmajour the 'last' van Gogh? One never knows because the painter was known to destroy works he didn't like and his letters are filled with descriptions of paintings that have never been see.

Sunday Observations 8.4

So you should know by now I have a thing for movies where things go boom but rarely if ever has that included French films. Live and learn. I watched a movie called Forces Spéciales (Special Forces) which is about a fictitious hostage rescue mission into Pakistan. I have to admit I did enjoy it even if I was bit confused at times because it's in French but also English and Persian. As for the plot, well if you have ever seen the Bruce Willis movie Tears Of The Sun you get the idea, just substitute the Hindu Kush for Africa. What's also funny is that the French reporter who is taken hostage by the Taliban is played by Diane Kruger who also happened to play Marie Antoinette in the movie I mentioned last week, Farewell, My Queen. For the record Kruger is a German actress.

It may seem like a weird quirk but when I read a magazine article about a woman I always look to see if the writer and photographer were men or women. What made me think of that? Currently a short bio of Kate Upton in the June issue of Vogue which mentions her breasts quite a few times. Both the writer and the photographer were women. The same issue has a nice fashion layout by Peter Lindbergh, "Stardust." I can't say I've ever really wanted to do fashion photography but if I did I like to think it would look something like that. Maybe it's just the motorcycles, or Edie Cambell's eyes, or her short dark hair, I'm not sure.

Who says an advanced art degree is worthless? It seems more and more people are willing to pay to have someone give them a private tour of a museum or a 'cultural excursion' as it is called. A couple of examples are Art Tours in Europe and Art Smart in New York City. The going rate in New York, about $200 per hour with a two hour minimum. I could handle that kind of money but I wonder how much I would have to talk to people because, well, anti-social.

Something in the same line of thought, art degrees not money. It's that time of year when everybody comes out with a list of worst college majors. I wont bother with links but just say that there is a common thread in all of them, art degrees. All the worst ten degree or major lists include Fine Arts, Film, Photography, and Theatre. None of the lists include Art History which either means they think it's a good degree to have, highly doubtful, or they don't even want to admit it exists.

Finally my sister is off on a fishing expedition this weekend. She texted me a photo of her holding a bass she caught and I'm terribly jealous. For a change that isn't sarcasm.

Observations on Art 7.10

I'll be on the road again because the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts starts tomorrow and runs through Sunday in State College. That makes it a good time to post some of the art notes I have.

You may not realize it but color has a history almost as intriguing as the art that was created with it. For various reasons there are colors that were once wildly popular but are no longer used or outright extinct. Some are poisonous, white lead is the obvious one but green has had its share of problems. Both Scheele's Green and Paris Green were produced using arsenite compounds (arsenite is an oxidized version of arsenic). Scheele's Green may have caused the death of Napoleon as his apartment in exile was painted with the color while Paris Green was used in early insecticides.

Other colors are just lost to the ages. Mayan Blue is a sky blue color used by the Mayans which doesn't fade, ever. It was made from clay and the indigo plant but the exact preparation is lost. Tyrian Purple was made from the shell of a certain shellfish which was only found off the shore of ancient Phoenicia’s Tyre. Actually a reddish purple it was the color of royalty for centuries but was extremely expensive and disappeared along with the shellfish.

Than there are colors that are simply illegal. Indian Yellow was supposedly made from the urine of cows fed only mango leaves and water but there is no documented proof of that. Whether true or not the government of India outlawed the color in 1908 though a synthetic version is available today. Another illegal color is Mummy Brown the story of which I'll let to your imagination.

Finally there is a blue in a category all its own, Ultramarine or Sacred Blue. It was first produced in the 6^th century and is made by grinding the Lapis Lazuli semi-precious stone of Afghanistan. The paint is literally worth its weight in gold. Unlike some of the other colors I mentioned true Lapis Lazuli blue does still exists and you can purchase it yourself, for $38/gram, at the Kremer Pigmente store in New York.

A few other random thoughts ....

The rich just keep getting richer and in this case I'm not talking about dealers or collectors. Glenn Lowry, director of the Museum of Modern Art, was paid $1.8 million in 2011 while his rival the Metropolitan Museum of Art's President Emily Rafferty was paid $1.1 million. Nine New York City museum or performing arts organization chiefs made over $1 million that year.

For over forty years the Met has been closed on Mondays but as of July 1^st that changed and the museum is now open seven days a week. I only bring that up because there was always a joke that Monday was the Met's busiest day of the week. More tourists lined up at the Met's door on a Monday morning than on any other.

Speaking again of the Met, did you know that you can 'pay what you wish' whenever you visit? The recommended fee is $25 but as little as 1¢ will do just fine. You didn't hear that from me.

7/11 update - The greens seem to be cursed, Ash had another I hadn't thought of myself. Verdigris, actually vert-de-Grèce or the Green of Greece. It's another green that is highly toxic but was the most popular green of the Renaissance when it was made by soaking copper plates in wine. You've seen it hundreds of times without realizing it because it's made by oxidizing copper. It's the color of the Statue of Liberty.

Father's Day

It's become a habit of mine to post the same Mother's Day post every year. It isn't because I'm lazy but because whenever I read it I realize I couldn't say it any better than I already had. I was surprised when I looked back and saw I had written more than one Father's Day post but once again after reading them I'm stuck with the same thought. I can't say it any better now than I did than and so here is what I wrote three years ago.

"I suppose I never mention my dad much, not nearly as much as he deserves. The quiet one of the family, just sitting back and watching as his crazy kids grow hopefully into something worthwhile. If my mom was my early inspiration my dad was the rock I leaned on. The one I go to when everything seems destined to fall apart.

I was the first, and I don’t think he wanted to wait years for ‘the kid’ to come along, so I became the pseudo jock artist at an early age. Of course I hadn't yet thrown lesbian into that mix, even I wasn't that young. I played all kinds of sports before settling on field hockey full time and he was always there. He was always the quiet one but always there for the games, the tournaments, and would drive me to Philly to go to a cool sports shop for sticks.

I am a lot of things because of my dad and a few things despite him, yeah try and guess that last one. I suppose that is how it is with anybody. I’m totally passionate about my sports and at times I am a voracious reader. I have been known to fish, yes fish. While my mom was taking me to New York and museums my dad was sneaking me off to Phillies games and sharing the shear sloppy joy of a cheese steak. I love to play ice hockey, skate, and I always wear hockey skates.

He bought me my first camera telling me, with a wink, that I couldn't paint everything.

And he pushed me to get my masters when I had had just about enough and was ready to give up. Though, to be honest, I always thought he steered me into Art History because he figured I would have a better chance of getting a job and getting out of his hair.

Like I said he is always there."

Happy Father’s Day Dad

Observations on Art 5.7

Madame Jeanne Lanvin, 1937

You might begin to wonder why a post about a fragrance gets the art heading. One reason is I have never had a fashion heading and I'm not about to start now. The other is that there is a bit of a history lesson ahead. I could even argue that fragrance is as much an art as any other just art for the sense of smell instead of sight but I'm not going to. Artists tend to agree that anything an artist calls art is in fact art but art historians get picky about it, I fall in between the two, but that's a totally different thought.

The fragrance is called Me and was created by the artistic director and head designer of Lanvin in Paris, Moroccan born Alber Elbaz. For years I've had a habit of wearing a men's cologne from Ralph Lauren so it take something special to intrigue me. In this case it was the main tone (highly technical term) which in Me comes from the zest of sparkling blueberries.

The history lesson comes in when you start to look at Lanvin itself. Founded by Madame Jeanne Lanvin in 1889 Lanvin is the oldest fashion house in Paris. Madame Lanvin was heavily influenced by art and the walls of her Paris apartment were covered with works by Edgar Degas, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Eugène Boudin, and Edouard Vuillard.

During a trip to Florence, Italy Lanvin saw a fresco by Fra Angelico, an Early Italian Renaissance painter, in which he used the shade of blue now known as quattrocento. The word quattrocento comes from the Italian word for 1400 and refers to the art and culture of 15^th century Italy. Lanvin developed her own variation of quattrocento blue, now known as Lanvin Blue, that became the signature color of her fashion house and the Coke of color. To this day Lanvin blue's formula is secret and since 1923 has only been manufactured in Lanvin's own dye factories in France.

In the review the designer Alber Elbaz describes the woman he thinks would wear his fragrance. "She is, or would like to be, a Parisian, because our house is so evocative of France's capital and because the city is so synonymous with sensuality and elegance."

Blueberries and Paris,  yes I was intrigued and maybe now you understand why.

*There is a good selection of quattrocento art work on The Metropolitan Museum of Art's art history timeline. Also the Met's Costume Institute has a large collection of vintage Lanvin designs. And some trivia, in January 2010 the French postal system, Le Post, issued limited edition Lanvin stamps.

Observations on Art 4.21

Tuesday wasn't only tax day in the U.S. it was Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci's birthday. It was also the second World Art Day, a fact I seem to have neglected and didn't post anything. Quite honestly it wasn't the best week the world has ever seen but rather than dwell on that fact I thought some art was called for.

Vincent van Gogh painted Field with Flowers near Arles in 1888, two years before his death. What is interesting about it is that he also wrote a description of the subject in a letter to his brother Theo on the 12^th of May, 1888. Van Gogh painted over 150 paintings while at Arles including View of Arles with Irises in the Foreground which was at the same location and many times the 'view' is mistaken for the 'field.' Just a bit of art history trivia for you. Both paintings are at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

Field with Flowers near Arles, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

"A meadow full of very yellow buttercups, a ditch with iris plants with green leaves, with purple flowers, the town in the background, some grey willow trees, a strip of blue sky. If they don’t mow the meadow I’d like to do this study again, because the subject matter was really beautiful and I had trouble finding the composition. A little town surrounded by countryside entirely covered in yellow and purple flowers. That would really be a Japanese dream, you know."

Observations on Art 3.30

Vincent Willem van Gogh was born 160 years ago today in the Netherlands. To celebrate here is a little something to watch while you throw around the egg dye this Easter weekend. What? Doesn't every family do that?

The Power of Art - Van Gogh

link
the complete series

Observations on Art 3.24

We stumbled onto a good list in the Art and Design section of Complex magazine's website, "100 Museums to Visit Before You Die." Like I said it's a good list but it doesn't say if it is in any kind of order. I don't see how it can be with MoMA at 56 while the Met is at 3, the Philadelphia Museum of Art is at 4, and the Louvre is at 7. I love the Philadelphia Museum but more than MoMA and the Louvre? No way. Another sure sign of no order is that something called The Simone Handbag Museum in Seoul, South Korea is in the first spot.

Of course everything becomes a competition so we had to compare who had been to what museum and I came out the winner at twenty four. The Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume, The Drawing Center, Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, International Center of Photography, Brooklyn Museum, MoMA PS1, The Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Arts and Design, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, The Phillips Collection, MAD Museum, Andy Warhol Museum, New York Historical Society, Centre Georges Pompidou, New Museum, National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, American Museum of Natural History, Musée du Louvre, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

A few museums not on the list that I think should be are the National Art Museum of China in Beijing, the Shaanxi History Museum, and Shanghai's Museum of Contemporary Art. I think the list totally neglects Chinese art, the art and culture with the longest history, and concentrates on Japanese art.

Off the top of my head the museums on the list that I hope to get to are the Tate Modern, Palace of Versailles, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, the Vatican Museums, Museo Reina Sofia, and the Hermitage. I suppose I need to spend some time in Europe unless I go to China instead. To bad I didn't win that big lottery last night.

Yes I have been busy but that still leaves 76 museums to visit. One less than that if I skip that purse museum in Seoul.

Observations on Art 10.18

Yes I know, yet another art heist post. The whole affair just intrigues me so I was reading what I could find about it and came across something I wanted to share. it's an opinion piece from The National which is the English publication of the Abu Dhabi Media Group. I know, now you are wondering what the hell I am doing reading a newspaper from the Emirates and I'll get to that after the opinion. I wanted to share this in its entirety because it says a lot of what I was trying to say and maybe says it better.

Painted Into A Corner
National Editorial
Oct 18, 2012

"Art heists capture the imagination like few other crimes do. Is there some secret cabal of art aficionados willing to pay millions for stolen masterpieces? It might make a good movie, but in real life, probably not. In fact, the thieves who lifted seven works, including paintings by Picasso, Gauguin, Monet and Matisse, from the Kunsthal museum in Rotterdam this week may well have been amateurs who knew their supposed value - in the tens of millions of dollars - but had no understanding of the art market.

While it's possible the paintings were stolen to order, either to pay off a debt or to satisfy somebody's personal whim, FBI art crime team founder Robert Wittman told The Atlantic magazine that even black-market buyers wouldn't touch such high-profile stolen goods - because their value resides to a great extent in ownership of legal title. If the works are offered for sale, the "buyer" could well be an undercover cop. More likely, Wittman says, they will sit in storage, for years or even decades, and will eventually be recovered. Or possibly destroyed.

This will be cold comfort to the Triton Foundation, which owns the paintings, but it will illustrate the chestnut that crime doesn't pay."

And why was I reading The National today? Because the United Arab Emirates, including Abu Dhabi and Dubai, probably have one of the largest concentrations of mega art collectors in the world. In the next few years branches of both the Guggenheim and the Louvre will open in Abu Dhabi and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a Gagosian Gallery spring up somewhere in the region. Last November Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, the daughter of the Emir of Qatar and head of the Qatar Museum Board, was named the most powerful person in the art world by Art & Auction magazine. At about the same time that same board paid $250 million for Paul Cézanne's The Card Players from a group that included a secret partner rumored to be, that is correct, Larry Gagosian. So maybe now you can see why I check The National art section from time to time.

As for crime not paying, I'm not so sure I agree with that line in this situation. Personally I think there is more 'commissioned' art theft than anybody in the market wants to admit. There is just too damn much money involved for there not to be.

Observations on Art 10.17

The Thomas Crown Affair, 1999 remake, historically I don't think its ever actually happened quite like this. Still, it is a good scene and an awesome tune if you like classic jazz. Enjoy ....

link

In case you wondered, the tune is Nina Simone's Sinnerman.

Observations on Art 10.16

Claude Monet, Waterloo Bridge

I don't think I have ever written about an art heist before but last night's was a major topic of conversation today. I want to say from the start that, contrary to a twitter rumor spreading from Sweden, I had nothing to do with it. Around 3 AM thieves broke into Rotterdam's Kunsthal Museum and made off with seven paintings worth in excess of $100 million. They entered through the back of the museum, swiped the paintings, and were gone when police arrived just five minutes after the alarm sounded. This was one of the topics discussed, the growing trend of museums using just electronic security. It may save money but in the long run it just isn't enough as last night proved.

The Kunsthal may have state of the art electronic surveillance and alarms but it has no "down time" security officers. In contrast over half of The Louvre's staff of 2,000 are security related and the Museum of Modern Art just completed a huge security upgrade in anticipation of showing Edward Munch's The Scream beginning next week.
The Scream was sold in May for $120 million. Granted these two museums are in a league all their own but is one guard too much to ask?

Whatever the case the thieves had exceptionally good taste. The haul was made up of Picasso's Harlequin Head (1971), Monet's Waterloo Bridge and Charing Cross Bridge (both 1901), Matisse's Reading Girl in White and Yellow (1919), Paul Gauguin's Girl in Front of Open Window (1898), Meyer de Haan's Self-Portrait (1890), and Lucian Freud's Woman with Eyes Closed (2002). I don't understand the final one but than I had nothing to do with it. The Kunsthal has no collection of its own, all the paintings were on loan from the collection of the Cordia family.

When I write about art I like to try and teach something and here is the lesson for any budding art thieves out there. As I said the seven paintings are worth over $100 million but that is an auction/insurance figure. As far as the current 'owners' of the works are concerned they are all but worthless unless they have some totally immoral collector already lined up. That is always a possibility but more in the realm of Hollywood than in the real art world. Also unlikely, but still possible, is that the thieves will try and ransom the paintings through the insurers. One thing is certain, they wont be turning up at a flea market.

If not recovered quickly the paintings may not be seen for generations if ever. Over twenty years ago 13 paintings, including two Rembrandts, at the time worth $500 million were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum in Boston. The museum offered a reward of $5 million for the paintings safe return, as always worded so that the thieves themselves aren't eligible to collect. None have ever been recovered in what is still the largest art heist in history.

And no, I was only 10 years old at the time.

10/17 update - There is a good article in today's New York Times that includes this; "Marc Masurovsky, a historian and an expert on plundered art in Washington, noted the possibility that the theft was "a contract job," adding: "These works were picked out. Could it be they had been targeted well before the theft, and the exhibit was the opportunity to strike?"'

Observations from the Window 10.1

Saturday I mentioned how one of the fun things about the NY Art Book Fair is its lack of auctions, super high priced items, and "celebrity" booths. I hadn't read my brochure ahead of time so I was in for a bit of a surprise when we walked downstairs. In the basement was a faux library called "Homage To Mike Kelley" and assembled by Larry Gagosian. Kelley died of an apparent suicide in January of this year. The room was dominated by two cases filled with books and music selected by friends from Kelley's personal collection and included a copy of Milton's Paradise Lost, Nietzsche's The Birth Of Tragedy, and a complete collection of The Stooges' CDs. It was a cool idea, even if Gagosian came up with it, so I suppose I was pleasantly surprised.

Another fun element of the NYABF is watching people deal with the cash only policy. There was a time I loved going to flea markets and yard sales back in Pennsylvania, collecting old CDs and books, so I'm totally used to that. Art people in New York don't often seem to have cash so after dropping whatever they have on a vintage program or book they madly scramble for the one ATM machine in the building.

Than there is the Outdoor Co-ed Topless Pulp Fiction Appreciation Society. Leave any questions you have on this in the comments, otherwise some other time.

Later I was again pleasantly surprised, this time by a movie we watched after dinner. I'm in no way a fan of Woody Allen but I really wanted to see Midnight In Paris, probably as much for the gorgeous scenery as anything else. Well now I can honestly say I have seen a Woody Allen movie that I would watch again, actually I already have. Most of the nostalgia scenes take place in the Montmartre district, the same district of Paris as Christopher Moore's "Sacre Bleu" just forty years later, so next time I'm in Paris I must go there at midnight, I'll meet Hemingway yet. If you haven't seen it yet it's well worth renting, the cinematography is at times is just totally stunning, and it's a fun story to think about.

Before I finish, one line that did irritate me, yes even movies do irritate me sometimes, was when a present day intellectual type says that nostalgia is nothing but denial of one's present life. Now it's true I can be nostalgic to a fault sometimes, so that was one irritant, but I also figure that if nostalgia is denial than art history is denial on a grand scale. Than I had to remember that it was a Woody Allen movie and I also remembered why I don't like him. That 'I want to be somewhere else' feeling sparks creativity in more artists and writers than almost anything else, in all likelihood including Woody Allen.

At some level I could just relate to the movie. Seriously, who wouldn't want to drift back in time and visit some heroes in their element? 

Observations from le Voyage 8.25

One exciting thing about my trip is how many times I have been wandering and found a spot where I could just sit and paint which is something tat never happens in New York. There are even some spots in Paris that I wouldn't mind painting, this is something I never do, I just don't paint scenes, landscapes. There really are some exciting possibilities in my mind at the moment, I just hope it doesn't overheat.

Yesterday I mentioned the Sennelier store but I didn't really explain what it was. Sennelier is one of my favorite paint or 'color' merchants. Their paints are thick, almost buttery, but easy to mix on the canvas. Sennilier produces 145 colors and over 100 oil pastels, the later have the consistency of lipstick and were first produced for Picasso in 1949. Below is some background on Sennilier from their website.

"1887, Gustave Sennelier, a devoted chemist and exceptional colorist, established himself as a purveyor of fine-Artists' paints Quia Voltaire in Paris. Surrounded by artists, he developed the first range of colours : Sennelier Artist oil. These quality oil paints have been used for paintings nowdays exhibited in the world's greatest museums. In fact, Sennelier offers a wide range of quality colors that have attracted great painters such as Cezanne, Picasso, Bonnard, Soutine. The Sennelier shop is a meeting place for artists, they maintain creative exchanges that leads to the development of new techniques and unique colours.

Colours that have forged Sennelier's reputation have been retained, such as Madder Lake Deep and Genuine Cobalt Blue, the industry benchmark. Signature transparent colours, such as Chinese Orange and Cinnabar Green, invented by Gustave Sennelier in conjunction with the Impressionists, have contributed significantly to the evolution of art styles through the Fauves, Cubists, and beyond. From Bonnard's blues to Mogdigliani's favorite flesh tones, Sennelier colours have been inspired by the masters and have been an inspiration to them.

2012, the Sennelier products' range has expanded : soft pastel "à l'Ecu", oil pastel and oilstick, watercolor, acrylic, tempera, gouache, ink, with an unchanged regard for quality that allows Sennelier to stay a brand recognized and appreciated by painters. For its 125^th aniversary, Sennelier goes on with increasing fervor to combine the traditions of the Old Masters with the innovations of modern chemistry, to please today and tomorow's Artists asking for vibrant and eternal colours."

Observations from le Voyage 8.22

The Palais du Louvre, Musée du Louvre, Musée Napoléon, the Louvre Museum or the Louvre, it has gone by many names over the years. Its history goes back to a 12^th century fortress still visible in the basement and the Lower Hall where the vaulted ceiling is all that remains of the complex's origins. On August 10, 1793, in the midst of the French Revolution and by decree of the revolutionary National Assembly the Louvre first opened as a museum. The Holy Grail of art historians was born.

Currently the Louvre is home to almost 400,000 works of art of which it shows 35,000 at any given time in its 750,000 square feet of public displays. The museum is divided into eight curatorial departments; Egyptian antiquities, Near Eastern antiquities, Greek, Etruscan, and Roman antiquities, Islamic art, Sculpture, Decorative arts, Prints and drawings, and Painting. The Painting department alone has twelve curators and 7,500 works.

I could spend weeks in the Louvre and never leave but I have probably have one or two visits so I have a must see list. In no particular order it includes The Aphrodite of Milos (Venus de Milo), Antonio Canova's Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss, Michelangelo's Dying Slave, Jacques-Louis David's The Death of Marat (Marat Assassiné), Raphael's Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione, and as much of the Italian Renaissance collection as I can possibly see. Yes the Italian collection would include Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa.

Today I visit my Holy Grail.

A little bit of mind boggling trivia before I finish. Admittedly it is from a mind easily boggled by art and history trivia. As large as the museum complex is it could be so much larger. The Tuileries Palace once closed the west end of the Louvre courtyard which now is open to the Tuileries Gardens. Eventually a wing of the Louvre connected the two and both the Tuileries and the Louvre were to be included in the museum. The Tuileries Palace was destroyed in 1871 by a fire set by anarchists during the rise of the Paris Commune after France's loss in the Franco-Prussian War. The fire also destroyed the Louvre Library. Recently there has actually been talk of rebuilding the Tuileries at an estimated cost of $380 million.

Observations on Art 7.10

I have been rolling a question around in my sometimes empty head for a couple weeks now, probably since I was at the shore. On the surface it's a fairly simple question but looks are always deceiving. Why does art matter? The New York Times Magazine article I recently wrote
about (l) only morphed my question into why does art history matter?

A few years ago I may have answered it matters because it matters to me and that would have been enough. The problem with that answer is it doesn't win many arguments let alone grants or funding.

One thing I have come up with is that it matters because it endures. The human species has a beautiful, colorful, sometimes terrible history on this planet. That history goes back well beyond the 3,000 years ago when some would say the master builder flipped the breaker and created all this. Art in its myriad forms has been a part of our history since its very beginning. The earliest known cave paintings, in the Cave of El Castillo in Spain, date back 40,000 years. Those cave paintings aren't all that different from something you would see today on the side of the D train in the Bronx. If we try hard enough in that link to our past we can sometimes see our future.

But that is just the philosophical answer of an art trained mind. How does art matter to somebody struggling in today's world? Now the question gets harder to answer.

For now I'll go with a simple answer. In this deranged finite world of sound bites and wars on this or that art is an escape. Art is infinite. I often go to the Museum of Modern Art and I am always amazed at the number of people quietly pondering this painting or that. By now I know by look who is an "art person" and who isn't and most of these aren't art people. They are just normal people lost in thought. I often wonder what they are thinking but I know in my heart what they aren't thinking. They aren't thinking about the presidential election, the weather, or what they heard on the morning news. However briefly art has helped them escape this finite world we live in and that makes art matter.

Not long before he died John F. Kennedy said this, "We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth."

A final thought. In my mind I can picture the last person on Earth after we have destroyed it. She is sitting on a beach, stick in hand, drawing a picture of a flower.

Truth.

Observations on Art 7.7

Due to the astounding number of magazine subscriptions I have I've become the unofficial gallery librarian. I'm always throwing new ones on the table figuring somebody should read them if not me so it wasn't surprising one of our friends picked up an old issue of The New York Times Magazine yesterday. What was surprising is that it was one I never read so when he said "I bet you loved this article" I had no clue what he was talking about.

It was an article about Edward Conrad, one time Bain Capital founder and Willard Romney employee, (The Purpose of Spectacular Wealth, According to a Spectacularly Wealthy Guy), who also happens to be one of the largest donors to Willard's campaign. What follows is the paragraph that got his attention and than mine.

"At a nearby table we saw three young people with plaid shirts and floppy hair. For all we know, they may have been plotting the next generation’s Twitter, but Conard felt sure they were merely lounging on the sidelines. “What are they doing, sitting here, having a coffee at 2:30?” he asked. “I’m sure those guys are college-educated.” Conard, who occasionally flashed a mean streak during our talks, started calling the group “art-history majors,” his derisive term for pretty much anyone who was lucky enough to be born with the talent and opportunity to join the risk-taking, innovation-hunting mechanism but who chose instead a less competitive life."

I get so effing tired of people who equate studying art history with something like basket weaving. As for competitive, it seems the man doesn't know much about the art world. He may have made a fortune with a company that destroyed lives in the name of profit but he has never dealt with Larry Gagosian, unless he has bought something from him. At a certain level I may despise everything Gagosian stands for but he is very, very, good at what he does.

What can you do with an art history degree? Let me see, curate museums and galleries, manage auction houses, value art and other antiques, work for a historic trust, be an administrator, a journalist, picture editor, exhibition organizer, or you can
just teach something you love.

I'm sure a man of Conrad's wealth has an impressive art collection. I'm also quite sure he paid a tidy sum to somebody with an art history degree to tell him what to buy, another to handle the transactions, and yet another to take care of his most awesome collection.

For the record Kate Middleton has an art history degree from St. Andrews University, I know who I would rather do lunch with.

Vent over, for now.

Observations from the Coffee Shop 4.12

Yesterday a good friend of mine sent me the link to a new book by one of her fav authors Christopher Moore. The book is called Sacre Bleu: A Comedy d'Art and is a novel about art, the color blue, and van Gogh. My life, my color, and my artist all in one book. My friend knows me too well. Moore wrote in the prelude, “Blue is glory and power, a wave, a particle, a vibration, a resonance, a spirit, a passion, a memory, a vanity, a metaphor, a dream. Blue is a simile. Blue, she is like a woman.”

While I was reading the reviews I remembered a famous letter van Gogh had written to his brother Theo in April of 1888. What I didn't realize was that the letter had actually been written 124 years ago to the day,
April 11, 1888.

Karma.

"My dear Theo,
It’s awfully good of you to have sent me the complete order of colours, I’ve just received them but haven’t yet had the time to check them. I’m so pleased about it. Today has been a good day too. This morning I worked on an orchard of plum trees in blossom — suddenly a tremendous wind began to blow, an effect I’d only ever seen here — and came back again at intervals. In the intervals, sunshine that made all the little white flowers sparkle. It was so beautiful! My friend the Dane came to join me, and at risk and peril every moment of seeing the whole lot of it on the ground I carried on painting — in this white effect there’s a lot of yellow with blue and lilac, the sky is white and blue. But as for the execution of what we do out of doors like this, what will they say? Well, let’s wait and see..." Read the entire letter here.

The painting he was working on was The White Orchard.

Observations from the Gallery 3.24

This is never going to morph into some sort of travel blog but I wanted to mention a few stops I made yesterday. I'll start with a bit art history for you and finish with cocktails. Pretty much a normal day for me.

The Luxembourg & Dayan Gallery will soon be showing 15 of the absorbed and abstract paintings of Italian realist painter Domenico Gnoli. I went to see them yesterday not because I'm a fan, I'm far from it, but because his work is so rarely seen in public. Gnoli didn't create a large body of work, only some 80 paintings, of which most is held in private collections.

Born in 1933 to an art historian father and artist mother Gnoli was a successful illustrator and set designer who turned to painting full time late in life. He created large canvases that featured close-up details of dress and hairstyles, pearl buttons on a woman’s chemise, the pocket of a man’s trouser, long raven locks. He also made black & white renderings of chimerical beasts in everyday settings such as sitting on a sofa, or in the back of a limo. His work vaguely reminds one of Pop Art, but the feeling is still mostly surreal. Gnoli passed away in 1970 just months after his first solo show at the Sidney Janis Gallery in New York. This is the first show of his work since than and officially begins later this month.

Later my bar tour of the island continued as Ash and I played Soviet for the night and stopped at the Vlada Lounge in Hell's Kitchen. The bar, owned by Russian expat Vlada von Shats, has a mix of gay, lesbian, drag, and hopelessly outnumbered straight clientele. The main draws here, besides the self proclaimed 'nice guy' von Shats, are the DJs, the thirty foot ice bar, and most of all the house infused vodkas. I was told the menu changes with the season but always has well over a dozen flavors and last night they ranged from plum to garlic. Personally I had a few too many sips of the pomegranate version, just awesome.

You haven't lived till you have heard Lady Gaga dubbed in Russian.