Week 14: Apr. 7, 2024

Lion, Greek, 325 B.C.E., pentelic marble

Let’s play!

This fierce, guardian lion greets you when you enter the main hall of the Nelson and, to me, he looks like the sweetest, most playful fellow. His stance is actually the universal dog posture to say, “Let’s play!”

However, this photo experience has pushed me to the next step. I now have to learn some basic photo editing skills because I can’t manage to work around the signage and back ground issues in the museum. There was no way to get a view of this guy’s stance without including some form of signage. So, I’m on a mission now to test out different free editing tools to get rid of that annoying blue and white sign in the photo.

I’ll share the results! Any ideas for what to try are welcome!

Week 13: Mar. 31, 2024

Bust of a Faun, Pablo Ruiz y Picasso, Spanish, 1946, Oil on paper mounted on canvas

Animal or furniture?

After exploring the Bauhaus room arrangement last week, I noticed this Picasso at the end of the gallery and was immediately drawn to it - - because it was a painting of a chair…with a face! What fun. I love Picasso.

I was further amused to see that in fact it was a painting of a creature - half human, half goat. So, really not a chair at all.

But…eye of the beholder, and all.

I find it quite difficult to photograph paintings. I’m much more comfortable finding intersting angles and perspectives on sculpture, pottery, anything three-dimensional. But a painting - especially in a frame - is tricky.

Any ideas shared are welcome!!

Week 12: Mar. 24, 2024

Four pieces - Bauhaus collection; (Left to right) Gaberndorf II, Lyonel Feininger, American, 1924, Oil on canvas; Rose with Gray, Vasily Kandinsky, Russian, 1924, Oil on pulp board; Armchair: Model MR20, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, German, 1927, Nickel-plated steel, steel, and cane; Standard Lamp, Wilhelm Wagenfeld, German, 1926, Nickel-plated brass, glass, brass, and resin.

Room with a vision…

Each piece in this installation was designed within a three-year time span and all grew out of the Bauhaus school in Germany. The school only operated between the two world wars (1919-1933) and was based on the idea of bringing all the arts together.

This was the first time I noticed the installation - so I believe it was set up this way relatively recently. I loved the way it really created a sense of a room from a moment in time and brought interior design, painting, and furnishings together.

I photographed it from multiple angles trying to create the sense of a space that I saw in person - and this angle was closest. Other artwork around the gallery mirrored the same aesthetic and I’ll probably use some for future posts. I have always known of Bauhaus and their modernism influense, and of Kandinsky’s painting, but the piece by Feininger was new to me and really powerful in person. Both artists focused on the connection between color and music. While I can imagine music when I look at the work of Kandinsky I didn’t initially recognize that influence in Feininger’s work. However, the Feininger painting is influenced by his love of Bach and uses layered colors the way that Bach used layered musical compositions and interwoven pieces in his music.

Week 11: Mar. 17, 2024

Cup and Saucer, Salver and Cream Jug, England (Staffordshire), ca. 1750-65, Variegated earthenware with lead glaze

Cuppa?

I have always loved tea cups. My mother collected tea cups and saucers and I received several lovely asian-style tea cup sets as gifts from the Korean parents who’s children attended the school I directed. I appreciate pottery for it’s need to be both practical and aesthetically pleasing at the same time.

I was intrigued by a number of qualities about this set. First, the colors and design are beautiful. As I was marveling at how much I loved the look of it, I noticed it was made with lead glaze - and began wondering, historically speaking, how much negative impact lead glaze had on the tea-drinking community before it was recognized as a danger. Next I noticed that the cup, like those in my asian-style tea cup sets, had no handles. The notes shared that the British added handles on their tea cups later, after initially modeling them after the Chinese samples that were sent over with the tea that was imported. So interesting how information was shared before telephones and the internet! And, finally, I loved that the British developed a cream jug to doctor-up their tea to what has now become a classic British style. And the cream jug had a handle from the very beginning!

The Salver, a piece I had not heard of before, is akin to a trivet. It is meant to protect the table from hot items, like the tea pot, that are set on it.

Week 10: Mar. 10, 2024

The Virgin and Child, France, ca. 1475, Limestone with traces of polychrome (left); and The Virgin and Child in Glory, France (Isle-de-France), 1400-1425, Sandstone with traces of paint (right)

Mother and child…

These two statues stood out among the multiple rooms of Christian art because of the warm and smiling faces of the Virgin mother. They were among the few in this collection that showed a mother/child relationship that felt similar to a modern and non-holy mother and child representation. In the first, she holds the child’s foot in her hand as he reaches up to touch her face. In the second, the mother smiles at the child as he playfully holds a bird. Representations of the Virgin and Child often show the mother’s eyes averted to the side or downcast. There are others that show the eye contact, love and tenderness, but these two seemed so interactive and even playful. Yet they are both nearly 600 years old.

On another note, I continue to wonder when I see centuries old art about the inability or unwillingness to represent a baby in the actual proportions of an infant, toddler, or young child. So often they appear to be a miniature adult. The sculpture on the left shows this more dramatically than the other. The proportions of the head to the body and arms is adult-like rather than child-like. The facial features show the same non-childlike structures. When this oversight is in contrast to the obvious skill in acurately representing the human form, whether in painting or in sculpture, it makes me curious as to why the choice was made so consistently in older artwork. Theoretically, ‘childhood’ was conceptualized much differently, but artistically, I would expect that it could be observed and represented more realistically if the artist had wanted to.

Week 9: Mar. 3, 2024

Ferment, Roxy Paine, American, 2011, Stainless steel

Awakening…

I have photographed this sculpture many times, usually at dusk or night with the setting sun or rising moon showing in the darkening sky. It always reminds me of a Tim Burton-esque tree and in the darkness it is a bit eerie, foreboding, perhaps sinister. But today was a crisp, cold day with the bright sun shining, clear air, and stunning blue sky. Today the sculpture told the story of winter awakening and realizing it could begin to stretch it’s branches into the spring. Complemented by the winter trees in the background, I hope the photo highlights the gradients of blue from the horizon to the heavens.

Week 8: Feb. 25, 2024

Dusasa I, El Anatsui, Ghanain, 2007, Found aluminum and copper wire

Texture…

This sculpture by El Anatsui is made from recycled, flattened, liquor bottle tops and hangs in the main entry way of the newest wing of the museum. Although it is made of metal and wire, it hangs like a tapestry on the wall. It transforms the media into a completely different appearance by creating the ripples and flow of draped fabric.

Looking at it in person, the most compelling part is how it appears to flow and move despite being a solid metal object. But up close, in the camera’s eye, I was struck by the sparkle and sheen of each individual piece of metal as it angles differently to the light. Looking at each individual link instead of the greater piece, I was reminded of the photo mosaics in which a huge image is made up of thousands of tiny images who lend their colors while losing their details.

I chose to photograph this from directly below it, so that I could capture the lowest section up close, but still see the ripples of the upper portion.

Week 7: Feb. 18, 2024

View of Alcalá, Emilio Sánchez Perrier, Spanish, about 1886, Oil on wood panel

Reality….

I continued thinking about the concept of reality in artwork having focused on photorealism a couple weeks ago. But this week I wandered through the impressionist gallery. I remember when my sister found out she had an astigmatism and came home with her first pair of glasses. She looked up at the trees in the front yard and said, “I never realized you could see each individual leaf!” My mother responded, “Kind of gives you a different view of impressionist painting, doesn’t it?!”

When I saw View of Alcalá, I immediately thought, “I could just walk right in to that painting!” But as I tried to photograph it, the frame took that feeling away completely. So I cropped out the frame. The depth in the center portion of the painting draws me into the painting in a way that makes this setting become real.

Week 6: Feb. 11, 2024

Pair of Funerary Urns, China, Southern Song (1127-1279) or early Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368), Qingbai ware, Porcelain with iron-painted details beneath a transparent glaze.

Smiling at death….

Everything about these funerary urns fascinated me. First, I thought I was looking at an urn that would hold someone’s cremated remains. Instead I learned that they were buried with the deceased to provide sustenance, in the form of grain stored in the urn, and to embody wishes for the well being of the soul. Thus, the urns are topped by large cranes on the lids, a symbol of immortality. The dragons, however, were considered “intriguing” because they were not specific symbols linked to the death rituals or practices.

What struck me about the dragons is both their joyous expressions - which I attribute to a desire for the soul of the deceased to be without strife or to be free of the troubles or pain of life. But also, they look very modern and childlike. I can fully imagine these dragon characters in a children’s book or cartoon today. Especially the ‘hybrid’ dragon on the left that combines the body of a reptile, head of a cat, and a floral motif across the body! It makes me wonder if the deceased could have been a child.

I set up the photo so that it showed how the two different urns were made and then positioned so that the dragons smiled directly at each other. The shadows of the cranes appear on the wall behind them.

Week 5: Feb. 4, 2024

Bus Window, Richard Estes, American, 1968-1973, Oil on masonite,

Out the window…

I discovered photorealism in grade school in the seventies looking through my father’s book of Richard Estes paintings. I thought it was incredible that paint could replicate a photograph so realistically. It had a ‘super-realism’ quality to it that compelled you to keep looking because it seemed almost too real.

When I first walked through the Nelson in 2015 I got to see an Estes painting in person. I noticed that I couldn’t stand still to take it in. I kept moving about, looking at it from different angles, up close, then further back, side to side. I realized I was trying to look around the corner of the bus, trying to shift to another angle so the sun wouldn’t reflect in my eyes and block the face of the driver. It drew me in to a reality that wasn’t real.

I chose to photograph Bus Window from the far right because it appears as a window in the wall of the gallery. A bus is passing by the window as you look down the gallery wall to the paintings hanging inside.

Week 4: Jan. 28, 2024

Kannon Bosatsu (Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva), Japan, 700-800s C.E., Wood with traces of paint

Would you take me by the hand?

Sadly, despite being a history major as well as having had a couple classes in world religions, the minute I hear the name Bodhisattva, Steely Dan starts playing in my head. However, I was drawn to this wooden sculpture for two other reasons: its placement in an odd hallway between two galleries and the challenge of the lighting.

Three Buddhist pieces adorn a hallway that has stairs leading up to offices and transitions museum goers between two larger galleries. This one, Kannon Bosatsu, is the Bodhisattva of Mercy and Compassion. It is subtle but the placement of this Bodhisattva in this transitional area leading to a flight of stairs where an enormous golden Buddha sits gives a concrete sense of the path to enlightenment along which he would take ones’ hand and lead them. And cue the Steely Dan music again…

The downside of being displayed in a hallway is, perhaps, the lighting. Avoiding the exit signs and fire sprinklers made it almost impossible to frame the whole piece. I was compelled to move in very close - which was fortunate, because only at this short distance could I capture the golds and reds in the paint. They are almost impossible to see in person but the camera brings them to life.

Week 3: Jan. 21, 2024

Roman Gentleman, Probably found in or near Rome, About 120 C.E., Marble

Listen closely…

As I walked through the ancient art exhibit, this man spoke to me. He didn’t actually speak, but I laughed when that phrase went through my mind because one of the reasons I stared at him for such a long time was that there in the midst of all the Roman Emperors, soldiers, gods, mythical creatures, and flawless young women, was a grouchy old man who seemed to have a lot to say. He was wrinkled, with sagging jowls and a furrowed brow. He was lost in thought or perhaps composing a letter. He clearly had something to say.

And as I looked around the room at his company, it was also clear that no one was going to listen. They would fight their battles or carouse with Bachus or sit in their tomb to be honored and adored, but no one would listen to the old man with sagging jowls and furrowed brow.

Week 2: Jan. 14, 2024

Walking Wall, Andy Goldsworthy, American, 2019, Stone

Coming in from the cold…

I have to admit that when Walking Wall was first announced as a dynamic, outdoor art exhibit at the museum in 2019, I was skeptical. “It’s a wall…” But over the weeks and months as it crept over the empty field, crossed the street in the dead of night, slithered around the building and down the stairs, and finally passed through the solid pane of glass to reside, partially, in the hallway, I fell in love with it.

So, today I walked through the snowy remains of this week’s storm and saw the Walking Wall coming in from the cold and it looked so satisfied to shake off the snow and stay for a while.

Week 1: Jan. 7, 2024

Water Deity Headdress, Etim Abassi Ekpenyong, Nigerian, early 20th century, Wood, goatskin, and pigment.

Shadows in art…of art…

I set out looking for inspiration around the theme of “shadows in art” and ended up being intrigued by ‘shadows OF art’. This is probably consistent with my natural tendency to be equally enthralled by the museum itself as I am by the content of the museum. I am learning to photograph through glass and with different lighting angles in the museum and was pleased that the shadow of the horn takes on a ripple effect at the bottom because of the reflections in the glass.