Saturday, May 18, 2013
Introductory Post
Gallery Name: The Gallery at U.C. Santa Cruz
Located on the campus of U.C. Santa Cruz
Gallery Director: Samuel B. Lamace, PhD
Works of art shown have a connection to the ocean and are restricted to paintings.
Exhibition Introduction
Title of the Exhibition:
Exposition de Navires et Bateaux des Mers
Artists being shown in the exhibition:
Claude Monet
James Edward Buttersworth
JMW Turner
Johan Jongkind
James McNeill Whistler
Ludolf Backhuysen I
Vincent van Gogh
Edouard Manet
Homer Winslow
Claude-Joseph Vernet
This is an exhibition of maritime paintings, taking the viewer from a regatta on calm seas, through increasingly rougher seas, to the finale of a shipwreck in stormy seas. Man has always had a fascination with the sea and the vessels which make their way upon them. These paintings bring with them an emotional connection to remind us that while the ocean can be peaceful, providing a pleasant place to have fun, she can also be unforgiving when respect is not given.
Friday, May 17, 2013
Regatta at Argenteuil
Regatta at Argenteuil
Monet, Claude
Oil on Canvas
19 x 29 inches1872
Claude Monet was born on November 14, 1840, in Paris
France. After an art exhibition in 1874,
a critic insultingly dubbed Monet’s painting style “Impression,” since it was
more concerned with form and light than realism, and the term stuck. Monet struggled with depression, poverty, and
illness throughout his life. He died in
1926.
http://www.biography.com/people/claude-monet-9411771 1926.
Two years before the Impressionist movement officially came
into existence, Monet painted this scene which has all its features, in
particular the famous fragmented brushstroke. Regattas at Argenteuil was
painted in natural light, because tin tubes and portable easels allowed artists
to leave their studios and paint outside. Monet sought to capture the fluidity
of air and water and the way they changed with the light. He explained what he
was trying to do: "I want to do something intangible. It's appalling, this
light that drifts off and takes the colour with it".
http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/works-in-focus/painting/commentaire_id/regattas-at-argenteuil-3036.html?cHash=514c2d0e72
All paintings were selected solely on the basis that they fit within the theme of boats or ships, and that I felt emotionally moved by them
All paintings were selected solely on the basis that they fit within the theme of boats or ships, and that I felt emotionally moved by them
Schooner Agnes
Schooner Agnes of the Atlantic Yacht Club
Buttersworth, James Edward
Oil on Canvas
12 x 18 inches1880
J.E. Buttersworth was born in England in 1817 and was the
son, and student, of Thomas Buttersworth (1768-1842) – the well-known British
Marine artist. James settled his family
in West Hoboken, New Jersey and set up a studio in Brooklyn. James died in New Jersey on March 2, 1894.
Buttersworth frequently accepted direct commissions from yachtsmen, as is likely the case here. The sharp details and gracefully drawn lines of the racing schooner AGNES are well represented, as is her yacht club pennant, personal ‘A’ signal and crisp American ensign on display in the soft breeze. Just enough sunlight is shown breaking through the heavy coastal atmosphere, stylizing the sky as Buttersworth’s own. AGNES lasted more than 25 years before selling to foreign owners.
http://www.vallejogallery.com/artist.php?name=James Edward
Buttersworth&suid=&id=37&
All paintings were selected solely on the basis that they fit within the theme of boats or ships, and that I felt emotionally moved by them
All paintings were selected solely on the basis that they fit within the theme of boats or ships, and that I felt emotionally moved by them
The Fighting Temeraire
The Fighting Temeraire
JMW Turner
Oil on Canvas
90.7 x 121.6 cm1839
Joseph Mallord William Turner, better known as J.M.W.
Turner, was born on April 23, 1775, in Covent Garden, London, England. As a landscape painter, Turner brought
luminosity and Romantic imagery to his subjects. Turner died on December 19, 1851, in Cheyne
Walk, Chelsea, London England.
http://www.biography.com/people/jmw-turner-40806
The painting was thought to represent the decline of
Britain's naval power. The 'Temeraire' is shown travelling east, away from the
sunset, even though Rotherhithe is west of Sheerness, but Turner's main concern
was to evoke a sense of loss, rather than to give an exact recording of the
event. The spectacularly colourful setting of the sun draws a parallel with the
passing of the old warship. By contrast the new steam-powered tug is smaller
and more prosaic.
Turner was in his sixties when he painted 'The Fighting
Temeraire'. It shows his mastery of painting techniques to suggest sea and sky.
Paint laid on thickly is used to render the sun's rays striking the clouds. By
contrast, the ship's rigging is meticulously painted.
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-fighting-temeraire
All paintings were selected solely on the basis that they fit within the theme of boats or ships, and that I felt emotionally moved by them
All paintings were selected solely on the basis that they fit within the theme of boats or ships, and that I felt emotionally moved by them
Entrance to the Port of Honfleur
Entrance to the Port of Honfleur
Jongkind, Johan BartholdOil on canvas
16 5/8 x 22 1/4 in.
(42.2 x 56.2 cm)
1864
1864
Johan Barthold Jongkind (June 3, 1819 – Feb. 9, 1891) was a
Dutch painter and printmaker regarded as a forerunner of Impressionism who
influenced Claude Monet. In 1878 with
his wife, painter Josephine Fesser, Johnkind moved to live in the small town of
La Cote-Saint-Andre near Grenoble in the southeast of France where he died in
1891.
Every summer, Jongkind returns on the Norman Coast, between
Trouville and Honfleur. There, a deep change takes place in his work, points of
view are getting larger and more diversified, and the subtil game of light
becomes the central element of his paintings and watercolours. He applies
himself to better translate it by means of multiple decompositions in small
colored strokes, avoiding dark and flat colors he used to paint low and cloudy
heavens at his beginnings.
Jongkind stands by his roots, his love for sea and ships,
his education as a naturalist painter, demanding observer of the real world :
far from the crowdy world of estivants, he prefers the approaches to harbours
where he paints fishermen or sailors at work.
http://www.impressionniste.net/jongkind_johan.htm
All paintings were selected solely on the basis that they fit within the theme of boats or ships, and that I felt emotionally moved by them
All paintings were selected solely on the basis that they fit within the theme of boats or ships, and that I felt emotionally moved by them
The Thames In Ice
The Thames In Ice
Whistler, James McNeill
Oil on Canvas
30 x 22 inches
1861James Abbott McNeill Whistler was born on July 11, 1834, in Lowell, Massachusetts. He was educated in St. Petersburg, Russia, and then attended the United States Military Academy at West Point. Establishing himself as a painter in Paris and London, Whistler developed his distinctive style, utilizing muted colors and simple forms. Whistler died in 1903.
http://www.biography.com/people/james-abbott-mcneill-whistler-9529133
The boats here are rendered with an almost dry brush over a
thinly painted background. The masts and
sails are accurately drawn, not merely suggested, as they would be in later
river paintings.
Painted after Whistler finally settled in London, this
painting and other works in ‘the Thames set’ show the artists fascination with
life along the river. The French realist
influence is much in evidence, but the treatment of the distant factories, the
sky and the water foreshadows the evocative mood of the later Nocturnes.
The Great Artists, Book 14
Whistler
Funk & Wagnalls
1978
All paintings were selected solely on the basis that they fit within the theme of boats or ships, and that I felt emotionally moved by them
Whistler
Funk & Wagnalls
1978
All paintings were selected solely on the basis that they fit within the theme of boats or ships, and that I felt emotionally moved by them
The Merchant Shipping Anchorage
The Merchant Shipping Anchorage of Texel Island with Oude
Schild in the Distance
Ludolf Backhuysen IOil on canvas
106.5 x 165 cm
1665
1665
Ludolf Backhuysen (Dec 28, 1630 – Nov 17, 1708) was a Dutch
painter, born in Emden, Hanover. He was
an ardent student of nature, and frequently exposed himself on the sea in an
open boat in order to study the effects of storms. After a visit to England he died in Amsterdam
on November 17, 1708.
http://www.opaintings.com/artists/backhuysen/biography/
This painting shows the merchant anchorage off the island of
Texel, where ships of the Dutch East Indian Company (VOC) used to gather before
setting sail for East Indies. In the center there are three vessels, a boyer, a
kaag and a pink, full of people loading cargo. The smaller boats are delivering
supplies to the larger boyer, while its crew is busy hoisting sails.
The scene is full of dynamism in the style that distinguishes
Backhuysen from his contemporaries. The
light-colored sail directs viewer’s attention to the events on board of the
pink where a family of one of the departing mariners is captured in the height
of excitement.
G. de Beer, E-J Goossens, B. van de Roemer, “Backhuysen at
the Helm!”, Stichting Koninklijk Paleis Amsterdam, 2004
All paintings were selected solely on the basis that they fit within the theme of boats or ships, and that I felt emotionally moved by them
All paintings were selected solely on the basis that they fit within the theme of boats or ships, and that I felt emotionally moved by them
The Sea at Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer
The Sea at Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer
van Gogh, Vincent Oil on Canvas
51 X 64 cm
1888
Vincent van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853, in
Groot-Zundert, Netherlands. Van Gogh was
a post-impressionist painter whose work, notable for its beauty, emotion and
color, highly influenced 20th-century art. He struggled with mental illness, and
remained poor and virtually unknown throughout his life. Van Gogh died in France on July 29, 1890, at
age 37, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.1888
http://www.biography.com/people/vincent-van-gogh-9515695
‘The Mediterranean Sea is a mackerel color: in other words,
changeable – you do not always know whether it is green or purple, you do not
always know if it is blue, as the next moment the ever-changing sheen has
assumed a pink or a gray tint,’ Van Gogh wrote from Les
Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. In this fishing village, Vincent painted the effects
of light on the sea, with small fishing vessels returning with the catch. The
large bright red signature is striking: ‘because I wanted to have a red note in
the green.’
http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/vgm/index.jsp?page=2679&collection=1282&lang=en
All paintings were selected solely on the basis that they fit within the theme of boats or ships, and that I felt emotionally moved by them
All paintings were selected solely on the basis that they fit within the theme of boats or ships, and that I felt emotionally moved by them
Battle of the Kearsarge and the Alabama
Battle of the Kearsarge and the Alabama
Manet, EdouardOil on Canvas
53 x 50 inches
1864
1864
Born into a bourgeoisie household in Paris, France, in 1832,
Edouard Manet was fascinated by painting at a young age. Manet’s most famous works include “The
Luncheon on the Grass and Olympia,”
Manet led the French transition from realism to impressionism. By the time of his death, in 1883, he was a respected
revolutionary artist.
http://www.biography.com/people/edouard-manet-9397188
Manet’s unconventional depiction of a naval battle between
the Union frigate Kearsarge and the Confederate vessel Alabama off the Normandy
coast drew mixed reviews. Some
complained of the lack of clarity in presenting the opposing vessels; others found
the arbitrarily high vantage point and wide expanse of water disconcerting;
most deplored the painting’s lack of drama.
The Great Book of French Impressionism
Diane Kelder
Harrison House, New York
1984
Diane Kelder
Harrison House, New York
1984
All paintings were selected solely on the basis that they fit within the theme of boats or ships, and that I felt emotionally moved by them
The Gulf Stream
The Gulf Stream
Homer, Winslow
Oil on Canvas
28 x 49 inches.
1899
Winslow Homer was born on Feb. 24, 1836, in Boston, MA. In 1860 Homer exhibited his first paintings
at the National Academy of Design in New York.
After 1883, the sea became the dominant theme in his work, and by the
1890s he had become generally recognized as one of the leading American
painters. Homer died on Sept 19, 1910,
in Prouts Neck, Maine.
As in many other canvases, such as Breezing Up, the boat is
canted sharply, forming a diagonal that should pull the observer directly into
the picture. But the abandoned Black
sailor is cut off from us by the menace churning up the dark waters in the
foreground.
The Great Artists, Book 3
“Winslow Homer”
Funk & Wagnalls, Inc., New York
1978
“Winslow Homer”
Funk & Wagnalls, Inc., New York
1978
The Shipwreck
The Shipwreck (in Stormy Seas)
Vernet, Claude-Joseph
Oil on Canvas
113.5 x 162.9 cm
1773
Claude-Joseph Vernet was born on Aug 14, 1714, in Avignon,
France and was the leading French landscape painter of the later 18th
century. He spent the years 1734 to 1752
in Rome, where he studied classical landscapes in the tradition of Claude and
Gaspard Dughet. Vernet became a member
of the Academy on his return to France and in 1753 received the important royal
commission for a series of large canvases representing the ports of France
(1753-1765). He died on Dec 3, 1789, in
Paris France.
Vernet was renowned
for pairs of paintings showing contrasting states of nature and his works were
especially sought-after by British collectors in the 18th-century. This
painting and its pendant, 'A Landscape at Sunset' are now the only such pair to
be found in a British public collection. The pair originally belonged to the
celebrated Englishman Clive of India, who bought them from Vernet in 1773. They
are acknowledged as being two of Vernet's greatest marine pictures.
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/claude-joseph-vernet-a-shipwreck-in-stormy-seas
All paintings were selected solely on the basis that they fit within the theme of boats or ships, and that I felt emotionally moved by them
All paintings were selected solely on the basis that they fit within the theme of boats or ships, and that I felt emotionally moved by them
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Conclusion
In curating my virtual exhibit, I found that the first step
required was to develop a theme. There
are countless works of art from a wide array of media and narrowing the field
by the theme made the rest of the project much simpler. With a theme in mind, I was able to select
only those works of art that fit neatly within that scope and not waste time
looking up label information for works that I found intriguing, but would not
be used. Because I developed a theme
that deeply appealed to me, I was able to select paintings that also appealed
to me. This is what came naturally. I simply let my emotions do the choosing. I initially selected more than required, in
case I could not find all the required information. The most challenging part of the assignment
was locating statements on the work by credible sources. In fact, not all of my works chosen had such
comments available in the time allotted.
However, since I had ten paintings that all fit nicely into my theme, I
decided to keep them without the comments.
As I continued along the task of finding, identifying, and
selecting the works of art to be displayed in my exhibit, I realized that I do
not envy the curator’s job. I found the
assignment to be time consuming and often had to eliminate a painting that I
was particularly fond of because I could not locate enough information on
either the artist or the work itself. If
I had such difficulty with just ten, I can only imagine how taxing the life of
a curator must be. It is even more so
when one considers the price of some of the works of art, limited space
available, and having to appeal to a wide range of tastes in art.
I enjoyed the process of looking at paintings within my
chosen theme. I did find several artists
whose work I have a greater appreciation for.
One in particular, Ray Ellis, had several paintings that would have
easily made the cut in my exhibit.
Unfortunately, I was able to locate neither the images on-line nor the
label information. I hope you enjoyed
the paintings that I did select for you.
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