art in film - bell, book, and candle

I love to see paintings and other art objects in movies. Depictions of artists are always fun, too. Here are some images from the Greenwich Village setting depicted in Bell, Book, and Candle (1958). Kim Novak's downtown witch, Gillian Holroyd, owns a gallery that sells African Art. There is also plenty of modern art to be found on the walls of her apartment, book publisher Shep (Jimmy Stewart)'s office, and his fiancee Merle (Janice Rule)'s apartment.

A cubist approach to Pyewacket

All of the art objects were supplied by the Carlebach Gallery, New York

"Pyewacket, stop scratching the sculpture!"

Hey, isn't that the Brady Bunch horse sculpture behind Ernie Kovacs?

Yep!

Merle is definitely influenced by Miro

Gillian has a very abstract Xmas tree

the story of women and art

Art historian and host Amanda Vickery (professor of early modern history at Queen Mary University of London) poses a question at the start of her series The Story of Women and Art: Women as muses and artists models line countless gallery and museum walls, in sculptures and paintings made by male "old masters" - but where are all of the female artists?

... Viewers are treated to works created over the last five centuries, of some wonderfully talented women, including sculptors Properzia de Rossi and Anne Seymour Damer; and painters Sofonisba Anguissola, Lavinia Fontana, Artemisia Gentileschi, Clara Peeters, Judith Leyster, Maria Sibylla Merian, Angelica Kauffmann, Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, Berthe Morisot, and Georgia O'Keeffe.

... Vickery takes viewers along on her journey, for the most part on site, but also, inexplicably, at times features details from stress's works on her iPad. Not very helpful really - show us the real art. That criticism aside, she has incredible enthusiasm for her subjects and helps give insights into there lives and art. A common thread through many of the female artists lives, is, unsurprisingly, how they were held back both personally and professionally, by trying to work as artists in a male-dominated world. Women being able to learn anatomy, work from bud models, was a barrier to their progress. Not all male artists were threatened by these women, however. She shares a lovely story of how painter Anthony van Dyck, a huge fan of Sofonisba Anguissola, visited her and even did a sketch of her.

A delightful painting of her sisters, "The Chess Game," by Sofonisba Anguissola, 1555.

You can read the complete review on Cinema Sentries ...

klara kristalova: childhood dreams and nightmares

I am loving a current exhibit at the Norton Museum of Art so much - Klara Kristalova: Turning into Stone. The Czechoslovakian-born artist, who is based in Sweden, makes clay and porcelain sculptures which conjure the world of fairy tales, childhood, fantasy, and at times, horror films. Her show at the Norton, which is part of the RAW (Recognition of Art by Women) initiative, is both dreamy and creepy. Whimsical animal creatures surround a sleeping girl, which suggests childhood dreams, while other pieces are more nightmarish. Her watercolors, which are also included in the show, are interesting, but it is her work in sculpture that really impresses.

"When you're a child the reality and the fantasy mixes up."

Happily, her work is on exhibit until March 29, 2015, so I will be able to visit and revisit it many times.

back to the museum i go ...

I am currently in the docent training program at our local art museum, the Norton Museum of Art. I have been taking part since October, and have been enjoying it immensely. It's actually quite a rigorous program, but that is one of the things about it that I like the most. We have been learning the collection, and reading lots of articles on museum education.

It's like going back to art school and it couldn't have come at a better time for me in my life right now. I have been a little out to sea since my mother took a fall a year ago. Transitioning from a full-time caretaker who also was trying to work on her own creative writing to a part-time — what, exactly? Between shuttling between my mom at the nursing home and daughter's schedule and my own quest for personal improvement, mentally and physically — I wasn't exactly concentrating on any creative projects.

My first "practice tour stop" was on this exquisite jade carving from the museum's Chinese art collection,  "Figure of Mulan on Horseback."

Adding the Norton to my schedule should have pushed my over the edge, but actually, I think being back in a museum environment and looking at art and talking about it with like-minded people has actually helped my focus even more on my own work and health. At least I hope so. Change is hard, but I have always believed that it is good. And getting to immerse myself in art and ideas for me is beyond good.

art show

We attended a local art show, the CityPlace Art Fair, last weekend. It was mostly the usual stuff - a mixture of jewelry, pottery and some serious and seriously amateur painting and sculpture. In  other words, a mixed bag. But I have to hand it to these folks who go on the road and try to sell their wares. It must be tough.

The show is set up down here a few times a year and this time a kinetic sculptor we have seen before, Frederick Prescott, was on hand again. He works in metal, and creates whimsical, large-scale artwork that is designed to be interactive - most of the animal heads move when touched, and touching is encouraged. Is it high art? I don't really know or care. We really enjoy interacting with these pieces, and I hope that one of the local businesses forks over the big bucks one of these days so that we can see one of these pieces more often.

Flamingos - perfect for Florida (and their heads move, too)

A boxing bunny for Easter

I liked the rusty tree with crows best, but I always like sculpture that tries to "re-make" nature

Taking the bull by the horns

strike a pose

From a recent visit to the Boca Raton Museum of Art ...

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• Video: Inside Boca museum's new exhibit on California impressionism (pbpulse.com)

morning constitutional

As I get more and more used to my new routine and new Florida life, I am trying to work as much of the beautiful surroundings into my day as possible. After I drop off my daughter at school I take a walk, explore the neighborhood.


Depending on what direction I take I can be strolling through either residential or commercial streets.
A recent walk on famous ritzy shopping destination Worth Avenue and its vias yielded lots of unexpected fun visuals, from sculpture...


... to ceramics ...


... to the immense current construction project, including the installation of some giant palm trees.


It is interesting passing stores like Saks and Gucci, all closed. My walk is early in the day, before retail hours, and it is still early in the year, before "the season" has begun. But there are also a remarkable number of empty storefronts, "absolutely final sale" signs in the enormous plate glass windows. Times are tough all over, apparently, even on these fancy streets.

New things to see, new things to learn every day. Who knows where tomorrow will take me?

rediscovering art

As an artist and former art student I have plenty of favorite artists. Many were acquired through museums all over the world that I have been lucky enough to visit. But just as many originated in childhood perusal of art catalogues owned by my parents. Flipping through pages of those heavy books I first fell in love with the pastel ballerinas of Degas and the beautiful blues and flesh tones of Botticelli. But as I get older and wander through a familiar museum, a familiar collection, I can also rediscover a familiar artist. Or maybe the artist is discovering me, reaching out and revealing an affinity I wasn't aware of previously.

The latest to catch my eye has been Paul Manship. After living many years in New York, I was more than aware of Manship and his Art Deco style, most spectacularly represented by the Prometheus statue in Rockefeller Center. At a recent visit to the National Gallery of Art I was pulled again and again to his statue Diana and a Hound. It's a wonderful bronze, and my love of line work is as delighted by the overall lines of the piece as the wonderful details of the goddess's hair and the hound.

The full sculpture, also at Brookside Gardens

details from the National Gallery of Art

I'm strictly a 2-D artist, which may be another reason Manship appeals to me, as I always respect art that can incorporate things that I love, like line work, as well as doing things I can't do, like think in the round, in bronze. I'm not yet sure whether this rediscovery will inspire some more artwork on my part or just feed the senses. Either way, I know I'll be going back soon to take another look.

very fine arts

We spent a very museum day in this rainy town of mourning. Ted's funeral procession passed by our hotel on Tremont Street.

We cabbed our way through the wet streets, first to

the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, which was a little like the Frick or the Barnes Foundation—an incredible house, with the proviso that the collection always be displayed exactly as Mrs. Gardner originally laid it out. This made some works difficult to see, and included oddities like the empty frames where canvases that had been stolen were left hanging ion their original spots on the walls.

No photography was allowed unfortunately, so you will just have to take my word for it that the collection included the best Veronese ceiling painting that can be seen outside of Italy. What a treat.

We pushed onward to the Museum of Fine Arts, where we raced through treasures including Italian renaissance, Spanish masters Velasquez and Zurbarán, Impressionist gems by Degas, Monet and Manet, Greek, Roman and Egyptian art—and these are just the highlights. I had as much fun checking out these masterworks as I did playing with my iPhone camera special effects. A damp but good day.

hot child in the city

It feels like an oven here in D.C. When you step outside, the heat surrounds you from every direction. This is exactly how Florida felt to me when I first visited my grandmother there many years ago at age fourteen. My first time on a plane all by myself, but I digress. Is this global waming (what's that?) or is typical D.C. humidity right around the corner?


Ice cream vendors everywhere


Hot summer sun on Archives relief sculpture


Crape Myrtle, which seems to have been blooming forever already by my favorite Starbucks

public sculpture is for the birds

Do you think Ellsworth Kelly would have ever suspected that his sculpture would be so beloved - by our feathered friends? In this case, mourning doves...

wrap it up, I'll take it

I've never been a big fan of public sculpture. It's usually too clunky and macho-metallic. There are a few exceptions.

But yesterday afternoon two prime examples of the least appealing (to me) kind of sculpture got a lot more interesting. They're probably getting a "treatment" of some sort, but somehow, these softened macho monoliths are much more satisfying.

Left and below: Anthony Caro, Monsoon Drift, 1975

Right: Ellsworth Kelly, Untitled, 1986

Happy Spring!