because of the constant need to google the paintings- imagine understanding him without that ability (Yikes!). Going to art history class was always heaven for me, the miniature sketches with notes from the lecturer, I had Marilyn Stokstead for my first college Art History teacher at the University of Kansas. I was 19, we were in a huge auditorium, and she told us all to take notes and someone else told me to draw the mini sketches with the slides. And then at the end of the semester on the finals we had to buy the blue books and answer difficult and insightful questions and use many references from the lectures. This was when my tuition was relatively cheap and the TA's still are not getting paid fairly, who would read my blue book response and give me high marks. I fell in love with art history and the museum. One professor's assistant at KU said he went to the museum everyday as if it were church. This was back in 1997, so when I went to The School of the Art Institute of Chicago every day I decided one semester that every day I would go to the museum since my class was in the back. Other semesters I went several times a month.
So how do I unlock all those lectures and tie them to art? It helps to continue reading art history like there is no tomorrow- and Peter Schjeldahl is an excellent fit for me. For one, he is audio, and I am a very audio person. I like to read the audio with the physical print because it makes difficult subject matter more accessible when just print or just audio would be too difficult to go very far. Scheldahl goes to several exhibits and writes about his experience. This book is also very time consuming because before I can begin the section I have to brace myself for the endless art pieces he is going to write about by googling them and then snapping photos on my phone and reading just enough to reacquaint myself or see for the first time. This is feeding into my own art. Let me begin by telling you which snaps I have:
Still Life with Lemons and Oranges by Valezquez- the black background id the trademark of Spain writes S., which corresponds to the Zuberan we had at AIC, Christ on the Cross in front of all black. The painting references the reverence for communion, the items have a reverence about them the same way communion is treated.
Murillo's The Birth of Saint John the Baptist- the halo on Christ is mentioned. This is so tempting because you will notice on my website the several drawings of nudes I have from open model classes. Evidently, Seattle has a figure drawing subculture I like to fuse with, and these figures are intended to be templates into bigger compositions and oil paintings where I can add a story and design clothes for them. So looking at these paintings is helpful.
S. mentions the Frick, gives me a place to dream about. The Frick was created by two wealthy men with different tastes, S. goes into that. I want to see how the two tastes are different. He also looks at the Holy Women of the Sepulchre, and writes humorously about the one waving hi. I like that that angels are like mirror reflections of each other. After reading a book about the absorption that Caravaggio's models have, It's difficult for me to digest the sweetness of expression in these paintings, yet I haven't really tried yet to capture multiple emotions in a painting.
Being a huge dog fan Im glad S. writes about the Aldrovandi dog. It was part of the exhibition he went to. I'm glad the love of dogs was captured in oil paints. He writes about Saint Anthony the Abbott and Saint Paul the Hermit, and I can't help but see some Chinese watercolor landscape in the rocks, trees and mountains in the background. S. wonders if the artist had sincere feelings about the piety presented. I think he knew people who really felt that way and tried to please them so he could continue his painting career. He gets into pentimento which I loved because in Chicago I reserved the artist conservation room a few times where the preservationists will pull for you drawings from the 1600's on and let you just gaze and may even show you the back side (sigh!!!)- the recto/front, verso/back. Old Woman Frying Eggs by Valezquez would be an interesting one to hear a historian talk about. Is it some sort of statement on getting older and fertility? The Water Seller of Seville was not about the pottery, though it made me dream of pottery, it was the toned down expressions I appreciated of the figures. Everyone seems to rave about Las Meninas. S. goes on into Courbet, who showed off the intensely feminine in an extremely vulnerable way, saying a painting can't defend itself. It reminded me of how Warhol took the soup cans and prints of faces in the same shocking way. We were taught Courbet was for the working class, he painted people working and made it very interesting. S. has me feeling like I'm reimmersing myself in the art world. It feels good to swim again.