Notes from the Road - Richard Sera

Recently I’ve been reading Sarah Thornton’s book ‘Seven Days in the Art World’ (a fascinating look at 7 venues of the contemporary art world, a book which I recommend). One worry of collectors of contemporary art is that their collection will eventually ‘look like the archeological remains of an ancient garbage heap.’ Surely, I thought, artists must have the same concerns. How can an artist avoid this dreadful possibility that their life’s work will amount to naught? Richard Serra, I believe, has found a partial solution to this problem. For thoughts on how Serra has done this and lots of pictures of his works, click on this link. The picture at right is of DAM Volunteers on a recent (2009) trip to Seattle. They are examining Serra's sculpture Wake in the Olympic Sculpture Park.

Can anyone identify the Volunteers in the picture??? Please Comment below, and don't forget your name!

(To make the picture larger, place the mouse arrow over the picture, right click and open in a new tab.)

Joe Lantz

Notes From the Road - End of the Trail

One of my hobbies is traveling around the country visiting museums, both the big flashy ones and the tiny little out-of-the-way ones. I have noticed lots of objects that make me think of similar items in our Museum. I thought, why not share these connections to other museums in our e-Gazette Blog? Thus, here is my new series titled Notes from the Road. My first piece is titled End of the Trail. If you remember, we have a small casting of James Earl Fraser's sculpture End of the Trail on the 7th floor of the North Building. It is part of a 'triptych' set up by Peter Hassrick to show the changing symbolism of the American Indian in Western art over a 30 year period of time. In addition, my Post is meant to be a companion piece to Jennifer Younger’s wonderful video discovery piece on Fritz Scholder. Scholder titled this painting, guess what, End of the Trail. He painted it in 1970. Obviously, Scholder based his painting on Fraser's sculpture. Scholder, however, turns Fraser's theme on its head by using bright knock-your-eye out colors, indicating that the American Indian, far going extinct, is on the road to a bright future. The painting is from the Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma. For riffs by another artist on Fraser's sculpture and for images and text on the original Fraser End of the Trail, please click on this link. Note: Please right click on this image and open in a separate window. This is a 10 mega pixel image and is a knock-your-socks-off picture when blown up. Joe Lantz

Bird Headed Deity

The winner of the Mystery Object for January, 2010, is Jacquie Kitzelman!! Lydia Troxler answered correctly shortly after Jacquie. The object was correctly identified as the Assyrian Bird-Headed Deity located in the South West Asian Gallery on the 5th floor of the North Building. As I stated previously, this object has intrigued me for a long time. Who is Ashurnasirpal II? How did this object wind up in Denver, so far from its place of origin? How did so many of these objects of the same description get distributed to art museum all over the USA? Could this object be part of the legal controversy currently rocking the art museum world?
Ethically, who really should ‘own’ this object?

I will try to address these questions in 4 essays titled:

The Palace of Ashurnasirpal II of Assyria
Austen Henry Layard – British Adventurer and Father of Assyriology
Four Objects – Four Art Museums – Four different Provenances
Loot: Who Should Own the Art Treasures of the World?

Please click on the links to read the essays.


Joe Lantz

John Sloan

Gateway to Cerrillos – 1947

Mystery Object

Whenever you go between the North and the Hamilton Building, you  pass this painting titled Gateway to Cerrillos, by John Sloan.

From John Sloan's Oil Paintings: A Catalogue Raisonne, Part Two, by Rowland Elzea:

On October 8, 1946, Sloan wrote in his diary, “I took a 20x26 [inch] panel and cut it to 18x26 [inch] the purpose of trying to get something out of my sketch made near Cerrillos yesterday.  I got at it in tempera and it may perhaps come through although I may find it necessary to make another trip to refresh my memory.”   The next day:  “After lunch we suddenly decided to take a ride down to Cerrillos, or rather about 2 miles scant of there so that I might get another look at my subject along the Cerrillos highway.”   Later:  “I have introduced 3 artists at work in the broad foreground:  Joe Reed, left, John Sloan center right; Helen Farr Sloan right above.  The work is still in tempera.”

Los Cerrillos is a little mining town located about 10.5 miles southwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico.  It’s turquoise and lead deposits have attracted people to the area going back to at least 1500 years. 

Helen Farr Sloan was John’s second wife.  They married in 1944 a year after Sloan’s first wife had died.  Sloan and his first wife had been married for over 40 years.

I was unable to find information on the third artist mentioned in the painting, Joe Reed.

John Sloan is probably best known for his urban realism paintings and his membership in The Eight (1). These artists, led by Robert Henri, exhibited only once, in New York, in 1908.  ‘The Eight’ spurned Academic painting and Impressionism for a more journalistic style of painting.  In fact, many, including Sloan, were at one time illustrators for newspapers.  Sloan was also considered a ‘member’ of a subset of The Eight, the Ashcan School (2), a term Sloan hated.  These Urban Realists painted the grittier side of life in the city.  Eventually, Urban Realism fell out of favor, replaced by the 20^th Century’s fascination with Modernism. 

Never-the-less, the Urban Realists have left a lasting legacy of a fascinating look at early 20^th Century urban life.

Red Kimono on the Roof, 1912

Unglorified glimpse of a woman hanging laundry.  Probably painted from Sloan’s studio window in New York City. 

Indianapolis Museum of Art.

Renganeschi’s Saturday Night, 1912

Sloan explored the leisure activities of working-class women and the changing social mores of the 20^th Century.  Working women are shown here celebrating a night out on the town at a popular Italian Restaurant.  Sloan emphasizes their newfound freedom to socialize in a public space without the need for male escorts.  Notice the woman on the right with her legs wrapped around the chair legs.  Art Institute of Chicago

Big Hat (also known as Blonde Girl), 1909

Sloan was also capable of wonderful portraiture such as this painting from the Milwaukee Art Museum.

 A Woman’s Work, 1912 Sloan seemed to be fascinated by women doing laundry.  Or perhaps this was a convenient subject to paint since this scene was observed right outside his Manhattan apartment window.  Perched on a narrow fire escape, a woman hangs fresh laundry to dry on clotheslines strung between tenements.  He explored social issues more vigorously than other painters of his time, portraying working class urbanites engaged in ordinary activities.
  Cleveland Art Museum

Sloan visited the Southwest in 1919 and there began his annual visits to the Santa Fe area every summer for the next 30 years.  He was inspired by the desert landscape and developed a strong interest in Native American art.  He died of cancer at the age of 80 in 1951.

I’ll leave you with one last painting, this one painted north of Santa Fe.

North Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico ca. 1933, El Paso Museum of Art

Notes:

1.  The Eight: William Glackens (1870-1938), Robert Henri (1865-1929), George Luks (1867-1933), Everett Shinn (1876-1953) and John French Sloan (1871-1951), along with Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Ernest Lawson (1873-1939) and Maurice Prendergast (1859-1924).

2. Only five artists of The Eight (Henri, Sloan, Glackens, Shinn, and Luks) painted the gritty urban scenes that characterized the Ashcan School.

Sources: As noted in the essay; wall labels from the museums listed; Wikipedia for a few additional facts.

Angelica Kauffmann - Papirius Pratextatus Entreating by His Mother

No one answered the August Mystery Object correctly, though Fran Scott did respond with the Renaissance Gallery, the correct location.

The painting is by Angelica Kauffmann, a late 18th Century Swiss history painter who trained in Italy. The painting is titled Papirius Pratextatus Entreated by His Mother and is located on the 6th floor of the North Building, in the Renaissance Gallery and is part of the Berger Collection. The tie-in is to the Charles Deas Exhibit. You are probably wondering how in the world is this European painting with a Roman theme tied to an early Western American painter. Well, click here to get the full scoop.

The Cheyenne - Fredrick Remington

This month the Mystery Object is staying inside the Museum (too cold and snowy lately to be outside) for another Take a Closer Look.
To the left is a close-up of part of the object. Each week, if no one Comments with the correct answer (Artist, Title), I will include more of the object in another image. I have to admit that I have been fascinated and puzzled by the object for over a year. In the answer to the Mystery Object, I will try to build a case for what I think is going on with the object. Let's see if you are convinced or not.

Click here to read the essay on The Cheyenne.

Joe Lantz