Category: art

TORONTO TODAY

Toronto is a wonderful city full of life. The traffic however made New York City seem modest. The Food and Art are wonderful. Like everything, one has to make choices. I felt that the Eskimo art was the thing I was least likely to find in the lower 48.

OUTSIDE GEHRY WING
OUTSIDE GEHRY WING
MEN'S ROOM
MEN’S ROOM
FRANK GEHRY CAFE
FRANK GEHRY CAFE
GEHRY STAIRS
GEHRY STAIRS
TILLER
TILLER
INIUT CARVING
INIUT CARVING
INIUT CARVING 2
INIUT CARVING 2
INIUT CARVING 3
INIUT CARVING 3

PORTRAIT OF LUTHER BURBANK BY FRIDA KALLO

If the highlighted words are true; this is a truly significant painting; beyond the association with Luther Burbank. Imagine if this was indeed a pivotal change in Frida Kallo’s style. Just the fact that these two met each other is remarkable by itself.

 

Portrait of
Luther Burbank

1931

Luther Burbank was a horticulturist best known for his unusual vegetable and fruit hybrids. In this portrait Frida shows Burbank himself as a hybrid: half man, half tree. When Burbank died in 1926, his body was buried under a tree on his California property.

In this painting her work has turned away for the first time from the straightforward representation of external reality. Since this portrait was painted in San Francisco, her contact with Surrealism in San Francisco could partly account for the change in style. Or, it could be straight from her Mexican culture, where the metamorphosis of humans into plants or animals is a common theme in art.

Burbank is shown holding an uprooted plant, no doubt one of his hybrids, but instead of planting it, he himself is planted. His lower legs are transformed into a tree trunk whose roots are fed by what Frida said was his own corpse. This painting is the first statement of a favorite Kahlo theme that would appear in many future paintings: “the fertilization of life by death“.

 

 

 

 

 

(Click Here to View Larger Image)
(Pinche aquí para ver la imagen aumentada)

Oil on masonite
34 ¼” x 24 ¼”
Dolores Olmedo Patiño Museum
Mexico City, Mexico

Óleo sobre fibra dura
87 x 62 cm.
Museo Dolores Olmedo Patiño
Ciudad de México, México

 

SHADOWS OF THE PAST

SKELETONS
SKELETONS
SKELETONS 2
SKELETONS 2
SKELETONS 3
SKELETONS 3
REGINA MARE
REGINA MARE
ENDEAVOUR
ENDEAVOUR
JOSEPH CONRAD
JOSEPH CONRAD
MYSTIC
MYSTIC
ENDEAVOUR 1934
ENDEAVOUR 1934

One can find them  all over the world, abandoned ships; from star boats and lightnings; to schooners and square riggers. The legacy of the sea. Even the majestic “J” class could be found for years in the mud. The last Oracle IACC is to be broken up. “Independence” the 12 meter was cut up many years ago; as was Thomas Lawson’s “Independence” was launched in May and cut up in September.

MASTER OF LIGHT MASTER OF WHITE

WHITE SHEETS
WHITE SHEETS
ARAB
ARAB

museum of fine arts 11 19 13 209405

SIMPLON PASS
SIMPLON PASS
SELF PORTRAIT
SELF PORTRAIT
THE PAINTING THAT STARTED IT ALL
THE PAINTING THAT STARTED IT ALL

I have lost count of the number of Sergeant exhibits I have now seen. (more than 6) He is perhaps best know for his portraits and rightfully so. I have learned so much each time I walk into a museum. It all started with “Fumee D’Amber Gris” at the Clark Institute. The first time I realized his treatment of white was genius.

Many consider him the master of light. I consider him the master of white.

Another odd event today was the discovery of the Roxbury High Fort. I have never seen or heard of this.

ROXBURY HIGH FORT
ROXBURY HIGH FORT

 

ART OF SICILY

SATYR
SATYR
ART OF SICILY
ART OF SICILY
CYCLIDES
CYCLIDES
ROMAN
ROMAN
IBIS
IBIS
VILLA
VILLA
THE GETTY VILLA
THE GETTY VILLA

This exibition at the Getty Villa of the Art and Invention in Sicily was something unexpected. I thought it would be so similar to the Greek and Roman art I would not really be able to tell then apart. It is in fact much more distinct than I would ever have imagined; with much more humor and charm than either the Greek or Roman.