Degas and the Nude

Saw the Degas exhibit at the MFA a couple times and know what is awesome there? This piece:

After the Bath, Woman with a Towel

The show closed on February 5^th, but happily, this piece is owned by the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard so anybody in the Boston area can go and visit it there.

The drawing was done with pastel on blue-gray wove paper and is 27 7/8 x 22 9/16 inches.

There is so much color, it is hard to even get the full sense of it from just seeing the image, you really need to go and visit it.  Completed somewhere between 1893 and 1897, I was unprepared to see such vibrant colors used so long ago.  It really does feel like long ago, so much in art has happened since then, but really, it should be no surprise.  Wikipedia says that the first time the French word “pastel” was used was in 1662. It is so hard to get a true feeling of time over the course of history.  Anyway, bright color just seem like such a contemporary idea, what a refreshing thing to be wrong about.

I was also impressed by all of the vertical and horizontal lines going on in Degas’ drawings throughout his work.  So much structure, it aligns with the industrialization that was going on at the time I suppose, but it speaks to pixels now.    


Other pieces I loved:

After the Bath, Woman Drying Her Chest
Made around 1890
Pastel on tracing Paper
The Courtland Gallery, London

Woman at her Bath
Made around 1895
Oil on canvas
28 x 35 inches

Woman Seated on a Bathtub, Sponging her Neck
Made around 1895
Oil on paper
Musee d'Orsay, Paris

The show also had many pieces by other artists who served as both inspirations and peers to Degas.  One of the pieces that I just have not got enough of yet is a painting by Picasso.

Nude on a Red Background
Oil on canvas
Musee de l'Orangerie, Paris

Linde Family Wing for Contemporary Art

Had a great time at the MFA the other day but unfortunately we were not able to see the new wing at the Gardner.  They were closing in 20 minutes and would not let us in.  We could have seen at least the space in that amount of time, but they were right to not let us in because I'm sure it is amazing in there and we would have lingered and eventually have to be shooed out.

Going through my images from the MFA I found myself continuously coming back to this:

I liked these two pieces and remember reading something about them being contemporary comments on the 18th century Rococo movement.  But... there was so much to see and I rushed past only stopping to take a photograph and look more closely for probably 30 seconds.  I've searched a bit for the artist information for both the chair and the ceramic sculpture but have not found what I am looking for.  I believe that they are located within the Jeanne and Stokley Towles Gallery.

Here in an installation view of Kiki Smith's Lilith.  Kiki Smith is such an art goddess for me;  her work is beautifully morose coupled with a deeply feministic soul.

Detail view of Lilith
1994
Silicon Bronze and Glass

This piece by Smith refers to the Jewish folklore where Adam and Lilith were made by God of the same earth and were husband and wife.  Lilith did not stick around though because Adam would not view her as an equal; cue Eve being made out of Adam's rib.

Lilith was long viewed as a spirit dangerous to men and children but has been more recently reinterpreted as a symbol for female strength and independence for obvious reasons.  If you think this piece is a little creepy, then you haven't seen anything yet.  You really need to see this one in person, when you get up close, her eyes give you a real jump.  All that bronze, and then suddenly incredibly lively glass eyes.

After the MFA Jasmine and I headed over to Thaitation for some birthday lunch!  Yes we were out to see some great art, but on my end I was also keeping Jasmine away from home where a surprise birthday party was being set up for her! 

Me trying to get work done first thing in the AM = not happening according to Winston Churchill.

MFA

I'm pretty excited about seeing the new Contemporary Wing at the MFA tomorrow with a good friend of mine.  After the MFA, Jasmine and I will head next to see the new wing of the Isabella Stewart Gardner which has just recently opened. It is such an exciting time for contemporary art in Boston. Now we just need to get more places like YES.OUI.SI where artists are taking control over the exhibition space and organizing to show their work in new spaces.

Pieces I am excited to see at the MFA:

                                       

El Anatsui, Black River, 2009

Lynda Benglis, Wing, 1970

A sketch for the now completed Gardner expansion and preservation project by architect Renzo Piano:

A piece by my good friend Jasmine:

Memories

Mixed Media on Canvas

Jasmine K. Fanning