Rodin Sculptures in the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA

The National Gallery of Art (NGA) in Washington DC is one of the best art galleries in the world. When I visited it in November 2017, what impressed me most was its collection of Rodin sculptures.

Rodin is a giant and as such he cannot be easily approached. His work is multi-faceted and goes far beyond “The Kiss”. Viewing the Rodin sculptures in NGA I was not overwhelmed, but invited to look into each one of them and discover what it meant to me.

I invite the reader of this post to discover what these sculptures mean for themselves. Rationalization is not necessary. A warm but intense feeling that Beauty brings meaning to Life would be enough.

Auguste Rodin, Morning. 1906, Marble, NGA, Washington DC, USA
Auguste Rodin, Morning. 1906, Marble, NGA, Washington DC, USA
Auguste Rodin, Woman and Child. 1901, Marble, NGA, Washington DC, USA
Auguste Rodin, Woman and Child. 1901, Marble, NGA, Washington DC, USA
Auguste Rodin, Eve, 1891, Marble, NGA, Washington DC, USA
Auguste Rodin, Eve, 1891, Marble, NGA, Washington DC, USA
Auguste Rodin, Sphinx. 1909, Marble, NGA, Washington DC, USA
Auguste Rodin, Sphinx, 1909, Marble, NGA, Washington DC, USA
Auguste Rodin, The Age of Bronze. 1898, Plaster, NGA, Washington DC, USA
Auguste Rodin, The Age of Bronze. 1898, Plaster, NGA, Washington DC, USA
Auguste Rodin, The Evil Spirits, 1899, Marble, NGA, Washington DC, USA
Auguste Rodin, The Evil Spirits, 1899, Marble, NGA, Washington DC, USA
Auguste Rodin, The Evil Spirits, 1899, Marble, NGA, Washington DC, USA
Auguste Rodin, The Kiss, Cast 1898-1902, Bronze, NGA, Washington DC, USA
Auguste Rodin, Hand of God, 1903, Plaster, NGA, Washington DC, USA
Auguste Rodin, Jean d’ Aire, , beginning of 20th c., Plaster, NGA, Washington DC, USA
Auguste Rodin, Head of Balzac, 1896, Bronze, NGA, Washington DC, USA
Auguste Rodin, Gustav Mahler, 1909, Bronze, NGA, Washington DC, USA
Auguste Rodin, Katherine Simpson, 1903, Marble, NGA, Washington DC, USA
Auguste Rodin, Thomas Fortune Ryan, 1910, Bronze, NGA, Washington DC, USA
Auguste Rodin, J. B. van Beckelaer, 1875, Marble, NGA, Washington DC, USA
Auguste Rodin, The Thinker, Cast 1901, Bronze, NGA, Washington DC, USA

A journey in Romanesque and Gothic Art

I have started reading the “History of European Culture”, by Panayiotis Kanellopoulos (1902 – 1986), a Greek author and politician. In the first volume of the treatise he explores Romanesque, and Gothic Art and this led me to depict part of his journey pictorially.

The term Romanesque Art refers to a period from approximately 1000 AD to the rise of the Gothic style in the 12th century, or later, depending on region.. The term appeared first in France and England in 1818 and 1819 respectively, and then in the German territories in the 1830s.

Gothic art was a style of medieval art that developed in Northern France out of Romanesque art in the 12th century AD, led by the concurrent development of Gothic architecture. It spread to all of Western Europe, and much of Southern and Central Europe, never quite effacing more classical styles in Italy. In the late 14th century, the sophisticated court style of International Gothic developed, which continued to evolve until the late 15th century. In many areas, especially Germany, Late Gothic art continued well into the 16th century, before being subsumed into Renaissance art.

Gothic Art has a child movement, Expressionism, which also transcends Gothic to the Renaissance. Expressionism is linked to romanticism, the bedrock of German culture of the age. As such, some of the works visited here are expressionistic. It resurfaced as a major movement in Germany in the late 19th , early 20th century.

A journey of such scope will never end unless it is cut short. This is the predicament of every effort that attempts to capture what is almost infinite.

The stained glass windows in the Cathedral of Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany c. 1065

Germany has the distinction of having preserved the oldest complete windows in the world – in the cathedral in the ancient town of Augsburg, which was founded by the Romans in the first century AD.

augsburg_windows1
Prophet Windows, Augsburg Cathedral, Bavaria, Germany. The oldest surviving stained glass windows in the world. (Installed 1065 AD)

 

The southern clerestory of the Cathedral of Augsburg (German: Dom Mariä Heimsuchung) has five stained glass windows dated to the late 11th-early 12th centuries, the oldest in Germany: they feature the prophets David, Jonah, Daniel, Moses, Hosea, and were perhaps part of a larger series, the others now being missing.

330px-Clerestory_diagram
Clerestory Diagram

The colours in these windows are very different from the colours of twelfth‑century stained glass in England and France. Instead of luminous blues and rubies, the Augsburg figures are predominantly brown, gold, yellow, green and wine, and what little blue is used is a murky grey. These were the colours that predominated in many German churches, both in the Romanesque period and beyond.

The tympanum of the central portal of Abbaye Sainte-Marie-Madeleine de Vézelay, Burgundy, France, c. 1130  

851px-Basilique_de_Vézelay_Narthex_Tympan_central_220608

In a 1944 article, Adolf Katzenellenbogen interpreted Vézelay’s tympanum as referring to the First Crusade and depicting the Pentecostal mission of the Apostles.

Vézelay_Narthex_Tympan_central_220608_02

The central tympanum shows a benevolent Christ conveying his message to the Apostles, who flank him on either side.

Braunschweig Collegiate Church, Germany, second half of the 12th century 

SONY DSC

Wooden Crucifix crafted by Master Imervard dating from the second half of the 12th century

Kanellopoulos considers this wooden sculpture to be the first work of art of German expressionism. This is where the path to the inconceivable and the infinite has started.

Chartres Cathedral, France, early 13th century

Chartres_-_south_portal_-_central_bay_-_Christ

The transition from Romanesque to Gothic Art combines classical aesthetic values with the the gothic turn to man’s internal world. Comparing the Christ of Vezelay, to the Christ of Chartres, it is clear that one is God, the other is almost human.

chartres_st_modeste

Gone are the sad, serious, frightened faces of Romanesque Saints.

St. Modeste of Chartres is happy, smiling, calm.

Naumburg Cathedral, Saxony, Germany, 13th century

800px-Uta_from_Naumburg

Uta von Ballenstedt (c. 1000 — 23 October before 1046), a member of the House of Ascania, was Margravine of Meissen from 1038 until 1046, the wife of Margrave Ekkehard II. Umberto Eco wrote in his ″History of Beauty″ that from all women of art history, the one he would like most have dinner with was in first place, ahead of all others, Uta von Naumburg.

Founder_figures_Ekkehard_und_Uta_medium
Founder figures Ekkehard II and Uta, c. 1260

 

Art Critic Ernst Gombrich’s first research project after leaving university was on the expressive features of the statues of the founders in the Cathedral of Naumburg:
‘These lifelike but imaginary portraits appeared to be so full of expression
that a whole drama had been woven around them. Ciceroni had developed
the legend that all these figures were participants in a story of conflict and
murder.’ (‘The Study of Art and the Study of Man’ in Tributes, Oxford 1984)

A lover handing his heart to his mistress, Roman de la Poire, c.1275

Roman_de_la_poire_heart_metaphor
Atelier du Maître de Bari. La dame de Thibaud et Doux Regard, Biblioteque National de France, Paris, c.1275

“Miniature (capital S) from a manuscript of the Roman de la poire. This is the earliest known visual depiction of a lover handing his heart to his mistress. The heart is in the shape of a pine-cone (point upward), in accord with anatomical descriptions of the human heart at the time.” (Wikipedia)

Notre-Dame de Reims, France, 13th century

The cathedral of Notre-Dame in Reims is a masterpiece of 13th-century Gothic architecture, where the kings of France were once crowned. It was begun in 1211 and completed at the end of the 13th century, with the exception of the upper parts of the western towers.

Reims-Cathedral-France

The Bamberg Cathedral, Bavaria, Germany

On May 6, 1237, the city of Bamberg celebrated the consecration of its newly rebuilt cathedral. Perched high on a hill at the center of town and accented by four imposing towers, the new structure loomed over the civic space in the valley below. Now known as the Fürstenportal, the chief ceremonial entryway at the building’s north side was lavishly adorned with sculptures.

Verdammte_Fuerstenportal_Fuerstenportal_am_Bamberger_Dom
Bamberg Cathedral Fürstenportal,  The Damned

Deeply carved figures in dramatic poses inhabit its tympanum, offering a pantomime performance of the separation of the saved and the damned at the Last Judgment. Wedged into the door jambs below, apostles stand on the shoulders of prophets; both strain to look up and catch a glimpse of the sacred drama being enacted in the tympanum.

Bamberg_Dom_Fürstenportal_1_medium
Bamberg Cathedral Fürstenportal

Hovering at the base of the portal’s left archivolts, a trumpeting angel announces Christ’s Second Coming and a figure of Abraham sits enthroned, cradling the souls of the saved.

The Bamberg Horseman (Der Bamberger Reiter), c. 13th century

The trigger for me to include the Bamberg Cathedral in this journey was the Horseman.

Bamberger_Reiter_Dom_Bamberg_P1330479_medium

The Synagoga Sculpture

But in the process I discovered the Synagoga sculpture and I was stunned.

Bamberg_Dom_Fürstenportal_Synagoge

Flanking the portal’s ensemble are monumental sculpted female personifications of Church and Synagogue, each installed atop a column and beneath a baldachin. The column under Ecclesia is adorned with a seated figure and symbols of the evangelists; that beneath Synagoga features the Devil blinding a Jew.

Synagoga represents Judaism and the Old Testament defeated by Christianity.  She’s blindfolded and dropping  Moses’ tablets of law.  Troubling anti-Semitism aside, Synagoga is the most beautiful sculpture in the church.  Actually, with her sheer dress and dignified  stance, she’s quite sexy.

Professor Achim Hubel, considers this as one of the finest 13th century female figures. There is sensuality in the bodily posture that has never before been accomplished in medieval sculpture.

Marienaltar, Herrgottskirche, Creglingen, Germany, early 16th century

I conclude this journey with the transition to the Renaissance.

The small Gothic Herrgottskirche in Creglingen near Würzburg and Rothenburg ob der Tauber has four altars including the Altar of the Virgin Mary (Marienaltar) — a masterpiece by the Late Gothic sculptor and woodcarver Tilman Riemenschneider. It is one of the most important medieval wood-carved artworks in Germany and as much worth seeing for its exquisitely carved details as for the religious messages in the work.

Herrgottskirche_(Creglingen)_Riemenschneideraltar_medium
Marienaltar, Herrgottskirche, Creglingen

The faces of Christ’s disciples are considered splendid works of Expressionism, the child of Gothic Art that was handed over to the Renaissance.

1280px-Creglingen-links
Marienaltar, Herrgottskirche, Creglingen, The left side

1280px-Creglingen-rechts
Marienaltar, Herrgottskirche, Creglingen, The right side

The fallen guardian and the zero-one society (in Greek) – Ο εκπεσών φύλακας και η κοινωνία “μηδέν – ένα”

«Πως εξέπεσεν εκ του ουρανού ο εωσφόρος, ο πρωι ανατέλλων; Συνετρίβη εις την γην ο αποστέλλων προς πάντα τα έθνη. Συ δε είπες εν τη διανοία σου: εις τον ουρανόν αναβήσομαι, επάνω των αστέρων του ουρανού θήσω τον θρόνον μου, καθιω εν όρει υψηλω, επί τα όρη τα υψηλά τα προς Βορράν, αναβήσομαι επάνω των νεφών, έσομαι όμοιος τω Υψίστω…»

Ησαϊας ΙΔ, 12 – 15

Γράφω αυτό το άρθρο την μεθεπομένη της πτώσεως από το βάθρο του, του “Φύλακα” του Παλαιού Φαλήρου, του ερυθρού γλυπτού που είχε εγκατασταθεί την 5η Δεκεμβρίου 2017 στην παραλιακή λεωφόρο Ποσειδώνος.  Το γλυπτό του Κωστή Γεωργίου δώρησε στο Δήμο Παλαιού Φαλήρου ο κ. Μαρτίνος και η σύζυγος του.

Από την πρώτη μέρα της εγκατάστασης του, ο “φύλακας” (PHYLAX) αποτέλεσε “κόκκινο” πανί για ορισμένους πολίτες, που θεώρησαν ότι το γλυπτό απεικονίζει τον Σατανά. Προς αυτή την ερμηνεία συνέτεινε και το ότι το γλυπτό δεν έχει πρόσωπο, όπως επίσης και το κόκκινο χρώμα του.

«Είναι ό,τι καλύτερο υπάρχει στο Παλαιό Φάληρο» δήλωσε στα τέλη Δεκεμβρίου 2017 στο CNN Greece o δήμαρχος Διονύσης Χατζηδάκης, τονίζοντας παράλληλα ότι όσοι θέλουν να το ερμηνεύσουν ως διάβολο κινούνται εκτός των ορίων της λογικής.

«Είμαστε στον 21ο αιώνα και όχι στον Μεσαίωνα. Η τέχνη ερμηνεύεται και εκλαμβάνεται ανάλογα με τις γνώσεις του καθενός»

Οι δηλώσεις του Δημάρχου δεν απέτρεψαν εκείνους που θεωρούσαν το γλυπτό κάτι κακό να το περιλούσουν με άσπρη μπογιά.

Την 3 Ιανουαρίου 2018 ο ιερέας Πατάπιος Αργυρός της Παναγίας Μυρτιδιώτισσας Π. Φαλήρου τέλεσε αγιασμό κάτω από το γλυπτό και “ξόρκισε” το “κακό”.

Ο ιερέας έστειλε και επιστολή στον Δήμαρχο Παλαιού Φαλήρου,με την οποία ζητούσε την κατεδάφιση του αγάλματος.

Την 18 Ιανουαρίου 2018, θυελλώδεις άνεμοι σάρωσαν την παραλιακή λεωφόρο και, σύμφωνα με μάρτυρες, “ξήλωσαν” το γλυπτό.

Όπως όμως αναφέρει ο ιστοχώρος NotosNet , ο δήμαρχος της πόλης, Διονύσης Χατζηδάκης, τόνισε ότι το γλυπτό που έχει προκαλέσει μεγάλες αντιδράσεις, το  έριξαν 15 κουκουλοφόροι με φορτηγό και σχοινιά.

Σύμφωνα με τον κ. Χατζηδάκη «15 κουκουλοφόροι ήρθαν με ένα φορτηγό άσπρο και δύο άλλα τζιπ. Τράβηξαν το γλυπτό με το φορτηγό και το έριξαν κάτω».

Ο ίδιος κατήγγειλε ότι οι άγνωστοι απείλησαν τον ιδιοκτήτη καντίνας που είναι κοντά στο σημείο λέγοντας του «αν ειδοποιήσεις την αστυνομία θα σου σπάσουμε το μαγαζί».

«Ξεφύγαμε από τις γραφικότητες και μιλάμε για παρακράτος» κατέληξε ο δήμαρχος Παλαιού Φαλήρου μιλώντας στο ΣΚΑΪ.

Η “αποκεφαλισμένη” Βόρεια Ήπειρος στην οδό Στουρνάρη

Η εικαστικός Αιμιλία Παπαφιλίππου δίνει μια άλλη διάσταση στο φαινόμενο (Liberal).

«Σκοπός του έργου τέχνης είναι να διαμορφώνει συνείδηση, είτε βρίσκεται στον ιδιωτικό είτε βρίσκεται στο δημόσιο χώρο. Από τη στιγμή που ένας καλλιτέχνης εκθέτει το έργο του, πόσο μάλλον στο δημόσιο χώρο, είναι ενήμερος ότι θα υποστεί κριτική. Κριτική, όμως, δεν αποτελεί ο βανδαλισμός, ο οποίος έχει γίνει τρόπος ζωής στην ελληνική πραγματικότητα! Από φοιτήτρια στην Ανωτάτη Σχολή Καλών Τεχνών θυμάμαι να βγαίνω από τα εργαστήρια όπου δουλεύαμε και να παρατηρώ πώς βανδάλιζαν συστηματικά, με σεξουαλικού περιεχομένου συμβολισμούς μάλιστα, το άγαλμα και της Λέλας Καραγιάννη που κατέληξε αποκεφαλισμένο, αλλά και της “Βορείου Ηπείρου” που ήταν έξω από τη σχολή, και τα δύο στην Τοσίτσα. Συνεπώς, αναρωτιέμαι γιατί ασχολούμαστε τώρα μόνο με αυτό, όταν θα πρέπει να μιλήσουμε γενικά για την έλλειψη σεβασμού και όλους τους βανδαλισμούς που γίνονται συστηματικά χρόνια τώρα σε αγάλματα, δημόσια κτίρια και δημόσιους χώρους.»

Τον Μάρτιο 2015 άγνωστοι έβαψαν με σπρέϋ το άγαλμα του Κωστή Παλαμά έξω από το Πνευματικό Κέντρο του Δήμου Αθηναίων, τον ναό της Παναγίας στην Καπνικαρέα και άλλα μνημεία.

Τα επεισόδια είναι διαφορετικά μεταξύ τους ως προς τον συμβολισμό των στόχων.

Στην περίπτωση του “φύλακα” έχουμε να κάνουμε με την αντίδραση των ανθρώπων που βλέπουν τον Εωσφόρο στο συγκεκριμένο έργο και για τον λόγο αυτό το απομακρύνουν.

Στην περίπτωση των βανδαλισμών του 2015 έχουμε να κάνουμε με αυτό που αποκαλείται “αντισυστημική” συμπεριφορά, όπου η επίθεση στο μνημείο ή το κτήριο είναι επίθεση σε ένα σύμβολο της καθεστηκυίας τάξης. Εξ ου και η καθολικότητα των επιθέσεων.

Η άσκηση βίας σε όλες τις παραπάνω περιπτώσεις αλλά και το ξερίζωμα του “φύλακα” δεν έχει σχέση με την τέχνη, είναι πράξεις πολιτικές. Το αντικείμενο τέχνης ή το μνημείο αποτελούν απλά ένα εύκολο στόχο επειδή μπορεί να αποκτήσουν – και σχετικά εύκολα – συμβολικό περιεχόμενο.

Ενώ το συμβολικό περιεχόμενο μπορεί να διαφέρει, η βία που ασκείται στους στόχους είναι κοινή. Εκεί βρίσκεται και το μεγάλο ζήτημα. Τα ζητήματα που προκύπτουν στις ανοικτές κοινωνίες αντιμετωπίζονται με συζήτηση, κριτική, διάλογο, ανάμεσα στους εμπλεκόμενους. Όλα συζητούνται, όλα μπορεί να συμβούν, όχι όμως σαν αποτέλεσμα επιβολής βίας από την μία ή την άλλη πλευρά. Η προσφυγή στην βία  υποδηλώνει αδιέξοδο, οπισθοδρόμηση και θεσμική ανεπάρκεια.

Δεν είναι άσχετο το ότι ένας στους δύο Έλληνες – Ελληνίδες δεν θα διαβάσει ποτέ στη ζωή του ούτε ένα βιβλίο. Ούτε και το ότι η βασική παιδεία στην Ελλάδα έχει καταστεί ένα διαδικαστικό θέμα εκπλήρωσης μιας υποχρέωσης παρά μια διαδικασία εκπαίδευσης των νέων ανθρώπων.

Εκείνο όμως που εκδηλώνεται με αυτές τις επιθέσεις είτε εναντίον του Σατανά είτε εναντίον της άρχουσας τάξης, και λοιπών στόχων, είναι η ανικανότητα να υπάρξουν και λειτουργήσουν οι βιαιοπραγούντες μέσα στο κοινωνικό σύνολο του μη καταστροφικού διαλόγου και της έντονης μεν, δημιουργικής δε, ανταλλαγής απόψεων.

Ο εκθρονίζων τον “φύλακα”, ο ρυπαίνων τον πάλλευκο ανδριάντα του Κωστή Παλαμά,  ο αποκεφαλίζων την Βόρεια Ήπειρο, υπάρχει σε ένα κόσμο βουβό, εχθρικό και ολοκληρωτικό, με δύο τιμές και μόνο, το ένα και το μηδέν, χωρίς τίποτε άλλο.  Άν δεν είσαι “ένα”, τότε είσαι “μηδέν”. Τελεία και παύλα. Όταν εγώ βλέπω στον “φύλακα” τον Σατανά, κι εσύ δεν τον βλέπεις, όταν εγώ θεωρώ ξωφλημένη και προδοτική την άρχουσα τάξη κι εσύ την γλείφεις για ένα ξεροκόμματο, όταν εγώ είμαι πατριώτης αγωνιστής κι εσύ είσαι γερμανοτσολιάς, παίζουμε το παιχνίδι “μηδέν – ένα”. Αυτή η τάση είναι έμφυτη και πρωτόγονη. Πάνω σε αυτήν χτίστηκε κι ένα σύστημα ηθικών αξιών που απαξιώνει την ανθρώπινη ζωή, τον πολιτισμό, την διαφορετικότητα, γιατί όλα αυτά είναι πηγές δημιουργίας και εξέλιξης και ανάτασης.

Για λόγους απλότητας στην αναφορά, όλοι όσοι στηρίζουν και εφαρμόζουν το σύστημα “μηδέν – ένα” θα αποκαλούνται έτσι, σε αντίθεση με εκείνους που πιστεύουν και εφαρμόζουν ένα σύστημα με πολλές απόψεις και εναλλαγές στην κοινωνία των πολιτών. Γιατί τελικά το ζήτημα καταλήγει στην πολιτική ζωή του κοινωνικού συνόλου. Την ζωή εκείνη δηλαδή που καθορίζει με ποιους κανόνες και ποιες διαδικασίες διοικείται και ελέγχεται η κοινωνία των πολιτών.

Οι κρατικοί μηχανισμοί δεν μπορούν να  προστατέψουν την κοινωνία από την παρουσία και επιβουλή των “μηδέν – ένα”. Η μοναδική προστασία από την τεράστια απειλή του ολοκληρωτισμού μπορεί να προέλθει από τους θεσμούς της κοινωνίας. Όσο πιο ισχυροί οι θεσμοί, τόσο πιο αδύναμοι οι “μηδέν – ένα”.

 

 

.

 

 

 

Bill Woodrow’s “English Heritage – Humpty Fucking Dumpty”

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

(Humpty Dumpty, English nursery rhyme)

Denslow's Humpty Dumpty
Denslow’s Humpty Dumpty

Is it an egg, or is it a man?

This is a reasonable question when it comes to Humpty Dumpty.

Bill Woodrow is an English sculptor who gave his own answer to the question, by creating in 1987 the work “English Heritage – Humpty Fucking Dumpty”.

I saw Woodrow’s work at London’s London Royal Academy of Arts in January 2014. I was impressed by his ability to play with and transform everyday life objects into a contemplative story. This is why I write this note to present and discuss “Humpty Fucking Dumpty”. In what follows I have drawn heavily form the Tate curator’s notes (1).

 

Humpty Fucking Dumpty 1987 Bill Woodrow born 1948 Purchased 1987
Humpty Fucking Dumpty 1987 Bill Woodrow born 1948 Tate Gallery, London Purchased 1987

Woodrow attended St Martin’s School of Art (1968-71) and Chelsea School of Art (1971-2) in London where he rebelled against the formalist abstraction prevalent in sculpture at that time. At the end of the 1970s he began working with discarded household furniture and other objects to create incongruous juxtapositions often giving rise to allegorical or metaphorical readings. (1)

The sculpture should be seen in the context of the elevation of history and ‘heritage’ as a political value in Britain. (2)

Bill Woodrow
Bill Woodrow

This work consists of a wooden vaulting box that has been pulled apart like a concertina. Each constituent piece of wood is propped open at alternate ends by the insertion of a small object, most of which were made by the artist. The objects are intended to symbolize human progress, creating what Woodrow calls ‘a section through history’. (1)

 

Plough
Plough

Starting from the bottom, the lowest object represents a wheeled plough which denotes both the invention of the wheel and the early importance of agriculture. In conversation with a Tate curator in March 1992, Woodrow explained that, although ‘farming was probably invented a long time before the wheel; the two together seemed to be a very significant starting point for the development of the human race’. (1)

 

Book
Book

 

The second object used to wedge open the vaulting box is the representation of a book. (1)

The artist has described this as a leap forward in history, signifying ‘the dissemination of knowledge or development of the intellect … It was the beginning of some network of communication and knowledge’ (quoted in Tate Gallery: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions 1986-88, Tate Gallery, London 1996, p.517). (1)

Woodrow is very keen to use books in his works. The book I recall most vividly is the bench in “Sitting on History”.

Bill Woodrow: Sitting on History
Bill Woodrow: Sitting on History

‘Sitting on History,’ with its ball and chain, refers to the book as a receptacle of information. History is filtered through millions of pages of writing, making the book the major vehicle for research and study. Woodrow proposes that although one absorbs knowledge, one appears to have great difficulty in changing one’s behaviour as a result. (3)

Clocking-in machine
Clocking-in machine

The third motif is a clocking-in machine which is intended to invoke the industrial revolution. (1)

Bill Woodrow, Elephant, 1984, Tate Galley
Bill Woodrow, Elephant, 1984, Tate Galley

Woodrow is not soft on industrialisation. In his 1984 “Elephant”, we can see the relics of industrialisation forming a deadly circle around the gun carrying elephant.

Radiation box
Radiation box

The fourth object, and the only one not made by the artist, is a box which he painted yellow and black with radiation hazard markings to ‘signify the nuclear era’, which makes reference to both nuclear power and nuclear war. Woodrow has commented that he was also thinking about the damage to the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl, then part of the Soviet Union, which occurred the year before in 1986. (1)

This radiation box is the agent of instability and destruction. What up to this level has been benign, stable, and controllable, now assumes uncontrollable dimensions and has a clear touch of evil.

The Iran P5+1 negotiations on Iran’s nuclear weapons program testify to the evil factor that has been unleashed by the WWII victors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Bill Woodrow: Endeavour: Cannon dredged from the first wreck of the Ship of Fools, 1995
Bill Woodrow: Endeavour: Cannon dredged from the first wreck of the Ship of Fools, 1995

Weapons of destruction appear often in Woodrow’s work. In 1995 Woodrow sculpted a cannon dredged from the first wreck of the ship of fools.

This is the tenth sculpture in Woodrow’s series devoted to the theme of the ‘Ship of Fools’, a commentary on the foolishness of mankind, wrapped in wry humour. ‘Endeavour’ comprises uncomfortably penetrating insights into human nature, particularly, mankind’s seeming inability to learn from experience. (4) 

Bill Woodrow, The Swallow, 1984
Bill Woodrow, The Swallow, 1984

Back in 1984, Woodrow sculpted “The Swallow”, a rather ambivalent work, in the sense that there may still be the possibility of escape from the inevitability of massive destruction.

 

Humpty Dumpty
Humpty Dumpty

 

The figure of Humpty Dumpty was placed on top of the structure to further add to the sense of its precariousness. With this addition of Humpty Dumpty, Woodrow accepted that the sculpture had specifically English connotations. For him, it ‘seemed to signify, or to be a very appropriate symbol in a way for my notions about this country and the western world in general and its idea of progress, getting better and better and yet being very unstable’ (quoted in Tate Gallery: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions 1986-88, p.518). (1)

 Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

Woodrow seems to contemplate this great fall, and anticipates it. But he is not a doom and gloom prophet, he is simply a realist.

It is in this context that “English Heritage” comes into play.

Woodrow sounds sarcastic when he uses the word “fucking” in the title. Making a play with words, he appears to denigrate Humpty Dumpty, when in fact he does so to the prevalent notion of “English Heritage”.

Moreover, by using the words ‘English Heritage’ in the title, Woodrow refers not to the institution of the same name, but to the concept of his own heritage. He has commented on the way in which references to ‘Britain’s glorious past are used to take your mind off present difficulties and hardships. It is an escapist device and there seemed to be a lot of it around at the time’ (quoted in Tate Gallery: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions 1986-88, p.518). Woodrow felt that nostalgic jingoism was particularly prevalent in the 1980s, prompted in part by the Falklands War in 1982. By employing the word ‘fucking’ in the title, the artist is being openly critical of this attitude. The word is used to denote a sense of anger and despair at the state of the nation. It was also a reaction against what he saw as the moralistic atmosphere of the period. (1)

Bill Woodrow at the RA in London
Bill Woodrow at the RA in London

Sources

(1) English Heritage – Humpty Fucking Dumpty 1987, Tate Gallery 

(2) The Oxford Index

(3) Bill Woodrow: Sitting on History

(4) Endeavour: Cannon dredged from the first wreck of the Ship of Fools

Eduardo Chillida: Comb of the Winds, La Concha Bay, San Sebastian, Basque Country

I wrote about the Basque Sculptor Eduardo Chillida some time ago.

Eduardo Chillida working on the terrace of Mas Bernhard painting his fired sculptures. St Paul de Vence 1973.
Eduardo Chillida working on the terrace of Mas Bernhard painting his fired sculptures. St Paul de Vence 1973.

The first time was on freedom, quoting what my friend Manolis wrote commenting on a photograph I took when I visited the Museum – Estate Chillida near San Sebastian.

The second time it was in reference to his homage to the German philosopher Martin Heidegger.

Eduardo Chillida in the Comb of the Winds
Eduardo Chillida in the Comb of the Winds

Today, after my second visit to the monumental installation “Comb of the Winds”, I want to write about it. This was my second visit, the first being in 2010. The weather was windy and cloudy both times. The sea was rough, foamy waves all over. Something tells me this is the best weather to appreciate the installation.

Map of San Sebastian
Map of San Sebastian

Before I proceed, it is important that we look at the map and locate the installation in the San Sebastian area. You can see the installation on the left hand side, inside the red ellipse, which is the western edge of the bay, the foot of Igueldo hill. The Santa Clara island is in the middle, and the Urgull hill on the right, the eastern side.  Visitors will need to follow the signs to “Ondarreta Beach”. Interestingly enough, there are no public signs for “El Peine del Viento”.

Looking east: Santa Clara island
Looking east: Santa Clara island – January 2015. Photo NM.

I call the “Comb of the Winds” an installation, because it comprises three sculptures mounted on rocks.

Formally, it is more than that, it is a project, comprising the installation and the plaza (square) in front.

The plaza
The plaza before the installation was called “Paseo del Tenis”

The plaza in front of the installation was designed by the architect Luis Peña Ganchegui, who worked with Chillida for the first time in this project.

The project started in 1966 and took eleven years to complete in 1976.

The main rock before the installation
The main rock before the installation

The initial idea was to place one sculpture on the main rock.

But soon after they started working on the designs, Chillida realized that the sculpture was going to attract all the attention, and this was contrary to what he wanted to achieve, which was to use the sculpture as a means to highlight the space around it and the environment.

08_peine_viento_07

Chillida loved this edge of the San Sebastian coastline, at the foot of the Igueldo hill. He retreated there often, to enjoy the sea, the wind, the rocks. It was this atmosphere that he wanted to enhance and promote with his work, rather than have his work dominate the natural setting and in this sense, distort it.

The Comb of the Winds - January 2015
The Comb of the Winds – January 2015. Photo NM.

This is why he came up with the idea of three sculptures instead of one.

Luis Chillida, son of sculptor Eduardo Chillida, suggested in an interview (1) that the three sculptures represent the three domains of time: past, present, future.

The Comb of the Winds - January 2015. Photo NM.
The Comb of the Winds – January 2015. Photo NM.

The sculptor’s son claims that the sculpture mounted on the left side and the one on the rock right opposite to it are the past and the present, whereas the thirs sculpture that appears to be far away is the future, a future that blends in the horizon.

The  sculpture at the foot of the Igueldo Hill
The sculpture at the foot of the Igueldo Hill. Photo NM.

In his writings, the sculptor speaks for himself (2, p.61):

“I want for the space in my work to be like the grease that allows a machine to function properly. Masses that slip and engage with each other, but I do not want to start any machine. I want my pieces to be quiet and silent, the only way to partially escape the influence of time.”

The sculpture on the eastern rock - January 2015. Photo NM
The sculpture on the eastern rock – January 2015. Photo NM.

All three sculptures are made of steel.  Each weighs approximately 13 tonnes and is anchored to the rock in two pIaces. They were made at Patricio Echeverria’s industrial forge in Legazpia.

The northern sculpture - January 2015. Photo NM.
The northern sculpture – January 2015. Photo NM.

Chillida “worked” the material directly, he did not use a model or a mold. As the sculptures were big and complex, he built them in two parts each, and then connected the pieces.  Chillida learned from a local blacksmith the demanding labour of the forge, from stoking a fire and handling a bellows to pounding the malleable metal to achieve a desired form. “A piece of iron is an idea itself,” he said. “I must gain complete mastery over it and force it to take on the tension which I feel within myself.” (3)

Interestingly, after the mid 1960’s Chillida transitioned from working with steel to working with marble.

Moving the sculptures
Moving the sculptures

Moving the sculptures and installing them was not an easy operation.  They had to set up supporting structures for moving and lifting the heavy sculptures. One must note that the cranes of today were not available back then.

08_peine_viento_06

Today the three sculptures occupy their place anchored on the three rocks, day and night, be it sunny or rainy. The people of San Sebastian visit the Comb of the Winds on every possible occasion and they love it. There is something deeply egalitarian about the installation. It brings all people together to enjoy the sea landscape and their heritage. It is like part of this heritage are the strange metal structures hanging from the rocks.

Comb of the Winds - January 2015. Photo NM.
Comb of the Winds – January 2015. Photo NM.

Are they anchors?

Are they letters?

We do not know, and we do not need to know.

But what I know is that like the temples in the valley of Paestum in Italy, they exist in harmony with the landscape. It is like they belong there, like the landscape cannot exist without them and they cannot exist without the landscape.

Whereas in Paestum the temples are in a valley, in the Comb of the Winds is literally submerged in the foam of the sea waves. But in both cases the resplendent harmony is there.

Like the temples of Ancient Greece, Chillida’s sculptures are open. Space makes sense only when you make sense of the vacuum, of emptiness.

The analogy with temples is not limited to the harmony and the integration with the landscape, or the use of emptiness to denote space.

In a sense the “Comb of the Winds” is an open temple where you can pray to whoever and whatever you believe in, or contemplate life, or…

Concha Bay, San Sebastian. Photo NM.
Concha Bay, San Sebastian. Photo NM.

“In a certain way I am a disciple of the sea and, consequently, also of Bach because Bach is very similar to the sea. I do not know if Bach ever saw the ocean, but his work has a very impressive relationship to it. And he is among my mentors.” Eduardo Chillida (2, pg.30)

Eduardo Chillida at work
Eduardo Chillida at work

“…I have found that time exists in my sculpture. It exists in a version that is not the standard temporal one. Rather, this version is time’s brother: space. Space is the twin brother of time. They are two concepts that are absolutely parallel and similar. And because I am so conditioned by space, I have always been interested in time. In fact, my time is very slow:traditional time – that of the clock – does not interest me. I am interested in a concept of time that is about harmony, rythm and dimensions.” Eduardo Chillida (2, pg. 32)

Sources

1. El Peine del Viento. Mas Context.

2. Eduardo Chillida, Writings. Richter Verlag, 2009.

3. Eduardo Chillida. Obituary. The Telegraph.

Aphrodite (Venus), Pan and Eros: A sculpture in the National Archaelogical Museum of Athens

A sculpture of Aphrodite, Pan and Eros, exhibited in the National Archaelogical Museum of Athens, in Greece, is the subject of this post.

The sculpture was made at about 100 BC of Parian marble, and was found on the island of Delos, in the House of the Poseidoniasts of Beirut. On the low base of the group an inscription is carved: ‘Dionysos, son of Zenon who was son Theodoros, from Beirut dedicated [this offering] to the ancestral gods for his own benefit and that of his children’.

Aphrodite, Pan and Eros; Parian marble  100 BC. National Archaelogical Museum of Athens, Greece.
Aphrodite, Pan and Eros; Parian marble 100 BC. National Archaelogical Museum of Athens, Greece.

A few introductory words about who is who are in order.

Aphrodite (Venus for the Romans) is the goddess of love and beauty. A victim of her own success and beauty, Aphrodite has never lost her sense of earthy pleasure.

Eros (Cupid for the Romans) is the god of love, son of Aphrodite. Somethies he is innocent, with rosy cheeks and beautiful smile, other times he is totally vicious, tormenting humans with his arrows.

Pan is the god of the Wild, half goat half man, and a very very notty old fart!

Aphrodite, Pan and Eros; Parian marble  100 BC. National Archaelogical Museum of Athens, Greece.
Aphrodite, Pan and Eros; Parian marble 100 BC. National Archaelogical Museum of Athens, Greece.

What is the story in the sculpture?

Aphrodite, is stark naked. She appears to be trying to fend off an overwhelming expression of affinity by Pan.

Aphrodite, Pan and Eros; Parian marble  100 BC. National Archaelogical Museum of Athens, Greece.
Aphrodite, Pan and Eros; Parian marble 100 BC. National Archaelogical Museum of Athens, Greece.

Her right hand is slightly raised and holds a sandal.

Is she ready to strike Pan?

It appears to be so.

Aphrodite, Pan and Eros; Parian marble  100 BC. National Archaelogical Museum of Athens, Greece.
Aphrodite, Pan and Eros; Parian marble 100 BC. National Archaelogical Museum of Athens, Greece.

But it isn’t.

For one, a closer look at ther muscles will show us that is very relaxed.

For another, her face is almost smiling. A veiled smile emerges. And the angle of her head is such that she is not directly looking at Pan.

The last unmistakable signal that Aphrodite sends to the observer of the scene is the position of her left hand. A woman under attack would almost by instinct try to cover her most exposed nudity, touching the puberty area using her palm. But Aphrodite is not doing that. Her palm is relaxed and at some distance from her flesh.

Aphrodite, Pan and Eros; Parian marble  100 BC. National Archaelogical Museum of Athens, Greece.
Aphrodite, Pan and Eros; Parian marble 100 BC. National Archaelogical Museum of Athens, Greece.

Pan is in a hopeless state. He cannot help himself and is totally at a loss.

He is trying to embrace Aphrodite in the most awkward of ways. Look at his right hand, how high it is in Aphrodite’s back. Not exactly a gesture of aggression. More a gesture of creeping affinity.

It is like he is lusting for her but at the same time he is shying away from expressing his lust.

group6
Aphrodite, Pan and Eros; Parian marble 100 BC. National Archaelogical Museum of Athens, Greece.

Eros (I would have preferred to call him “Putto” like the Italians do, but being Greek I have to stick to my mother tongue) is a little devil in the middle of the two protagonists of this subdued ensemble action. His apparently tries to separate them, in a sense protecting Aphrodite.

But is he?

Aphrodite, Pan and Eros; Parian marble 100 BC. National Archaelogical Museum of Athens, Greece.
Aphrodite, Pan and Eros; Parian marble 100 BC. National Archaelogical Museum of Athens, Greece.

His smiling face, his posture (look at the angle of the head) is more like saying “I want to be part of this”.

His bodily posture is a posture of palying. He pushes Pan’s right horn ever so gently, more touching than pushing, smiling all the time.

And the old boy returns the smile.

Aphrodite, Pan and Eros; Parian marble 100 BC. National Archaelogical Museum of Athens, Greece.
Aphrodite, Pan and Eros; Parian marble 100 BC. National Archaelogical Museum of Athens, Greece.

As a final observation before my conclusion, I offer the angle of Aphrodite’s left ankle. How gentle and relaxed and playful! Restrained and at the same time powerful, but not aggressive!

And this brings me to the supreme feature of the sculpture. Its ambivalence.

All three protagonists are doing something and at the same time they are not.

And in the process, being totally submerged into this ambivalence, they have a hell of a good time!

Ancient Greece at her best!

Aphrodite (Venus), Pan and Eros: A sculpture in the National Archaelogical Museum of Athens

A sculpture of Aphrodite, Pan and Eros, exhibited in the National Archaelogical Museum of Athens, in Greece, is the subject of this post.

The sculpture was made at about 100 BC of Parian marble, and was found on the island of Delos, in the House of the Poseidoniasts of Beirut. On the low base of the group an inscription is carved: ‘Dionysos, son of Zenon who was son Theodoros, from Beirut dedicated [this offering] to the ancestral gods for his own benefit and that of his children’.

Aphrodite, Pan and Eros; Parian marble  100 BC. National Archaelogical Museum of Athens, Greece.
Aphrodite, Pan and Eros; Parian marble 100 BC. National Archaelogical Museum of Athens, Greece.

A few introductory words about who is who are in order.

Aphrodite (Venus for the Romans) is the goddess of love and beauty. A victim of her own success and beauty, Aphrodite has never lost her sense of earthy pleasure.

Eros (Cupid for the Romans) is the god of love, son of Aphrodite. Somethies he is innocent, with rosy cheeks and beautiful smile, other times he is totally vicious, tormenting humans with his arrows.

Pan is the god of the Wild, half goat half man, and a very very notty old fart!

Aphrodite, Pan and Eros; Parian marble  100 BC. National Archaelogical Museum of Athens, Greece.
Aphrodite, Pan and Eros; Parian marble 100 BC. National Archaelogical Museum of Athens, Greece.

What is the story in the sculpture?

Aphrodite, is stark naked. She appears to be trying to fend off an overwhelming expression of affinity by Pan.

Aphrodite, Pan and Eros; Parian marble  100 BC. National Archaelogical Museum of Athens, Greece.
Aphrodite, Pan and Eros; Parian marble 100 BC. National Archaelogical Museum of Athens, Greece.

Her right hand is slightly raised and holds a sandal.

Is she ready to strike Pan?

It appears to be so.

Aphrodite, Pan and Eros; Parian marble  100 BC. National Archaelogical Museum of Athens, Greece.
Aphrodite, Pan and Eros; Parian marble 100 BC. National Archaelogical Museum of Athens, Greece.

But it isn’t.

For one, a closer look at ther muscles will show us that is very relaxed.

For another, her face is almost smiling. A veiled smile emerges. And the angle of her head is such that she is not directly looking at Pan.

The last unmistakable signal that Aphrodite sends to the observer of the scene is the position of her left hand. A woman under attack would almost by instinct try to cover her most exposed nudity, touching the puberty area using her palm. But Aphrodite is not doing that. Her palm is relaxed and at some distance from her flesh.

Aphrodite, Pan and Eros; Parian marble  100 BC. National Archaelogical Museum of Athens, Greece.
Aphrodite, Pan and Eros; Parian marble 100 BC. National Archaelogical Museum of Athens, Greece.

Pan is in a hopeless state. He cannot help himself and is totally at a loss.

He is trying to embrace Aphrodite in the most awkward of ways. Look at his right hand, how high it is in Aphrodite’s back. Not exactly a gesture of aggression. More a gesture of creeping affinity.

It is like he is lusting for her but at the same time he is shying away from expressing his lust.

group6
Aphrodite, Pan and Eros; Parian marble 100 BC. National Archaelogical Museum of Athens, Greece.

Eros (I would have preferred to call him “Putto” like the Italians do, but being Greek I have to stick to my mother tongue) is a little devil in the middle of the two protagonists of this subdued ensemble action. His apparently tries to separate them, in a sense protecting Aphrodite.

But is he?

Aphrodite, Pan and Eros; Parian marble 100 BC. National Archaelogical Museum of Athens, Greece.
Aphrodite, Pan and Eros; Parian marble 100 BC. National Archaelogical Museum of Athens, Greece.

His smiling face, his posture (look at the angle of the head) is more like saying “I want to be part of this”.

His bodily posture is a posture of palying. He pushes Pan’s right horn ever so gently, more touching than pushing, smiling all the time.

And the old boy returns the smile.

Aphrodite, Pan and Eros; Parian marble 100 BC. National Archaelogical Museum of Athens, Greece.
Aphrodite, Pan and Eros; Parian marble 100 BC. National Archaelogical Museum of Athens, Greece.

As a final observation before my conclusion, I offer the angle of Aphrodite’s left ankle. How gentle and relaxed and playful! Restrained and at the same time powerful, but not aggressive!

And this brings me to the supreme feature of the sculpture. Its ambivalence.

All three protagonists are doing something and at the same time they are not.

And in the process, being totally submerged into this ambivalence, they have a hell of a good time!

Ancient Greece at her best!

Woman in a tub: a journey from Manet to … to Koons

I saw Edgar Degas’ “The Tub” and Jeff Koons’ “Woman in a Tub”at the Art Institute of Chicago back in April and was inspired to write about paintings and sculptures depicting a woman having a bath.

The following post is relevant to the Art Institute of Chicago

Modern Art

This is a personal view (most views are). I selected the paintings and sculptures I like and/or find interesting. 

One of the most important feature of the paintings and sculptures is – of course – the way the artist has depicted the female body.

Another is the degree of privacy and intimacy of the instance depicted.

Ingres, The bather of Valpincon, 1808, Louvre, Paris
Ingres, The bather of Valpincon, 1808, Louvre, Paris

I would like to start the journey with Ingres. The painting “The Bather of Valpincon” (my thanks for the photo to “The Art Appreciation Blog“) that hangs today in the Louvre in Paris marks in my book the beginning of a new era in the depiction of the nude female. The setting is domestic, the subject is alone. And the body is not perfect. The depicted woman is a real woman. There is no story in the picture. It is a “boring” mundane scene in the domestic life of a woman.

Although there is not tub in Ingres’ picture, in my view he creates the context for the topic of my overview.

Edouard Manet (1832-1883) Woman in a tub 1878 Paris, Musée d'Orsay Pastel on canvas
Edouard Manet (1832-1883)
Woman in a tub
1878 Paris, Musée d’Orsay
Pastel on canvas

The first painting strictly within the context of this article is Manet’s “Woman in a Tub”. Manet painted his picture in 1873.

My adoration of Manet started with “Olympia” (1863) and “The Luncheon on the Grass” (1862-1863), both exhibited in Paris’ Musee d’ Orsay.

I quote from Musee d’ Orsay’s web site:

“This pastel is one of the artist’s most beautiful portrayals of a woman bathing. All the characteristics of Manet’s style are there: a special blend of spontaneity, freshness combined with precise composition, and a taste for light, curving lines against a background of horizontals. The background is in fact divided up into subtly coloured bands, formed by the mirror, the dressing table and the floral cretonne cloth.

A large metal tub, always used by Degas in these scenes, occupies the lower part of the pastel. But whereas Degas’ models usually appear to be unaware of the viewer, here the model is unconcerned at being observed by the painter. She knows that her nudity, even though imperfect, will attract a friendly or even tender glance.

After Manet’s death, Degas produced his stunning series of women bathing, where he used plunging perspectives and more sophisticated poses. But it was Degas who, after 1877, first started to produce less innocent scenes of women washing, painted in brothels. It is difficult to determine from that point, which of the two artists had the greater influence on the other. Degas’ sarcasm is absent from Manet’s work; it is Bonnard’s gentle scenes of women at their toilette that are the real precursors of this Woman in a Tub.”

The palette of the picture is light. Only the tub turns to heavy grey.

Edouard Manet La blonde aux seins nus vers 1878 huile sur toile,  musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
Edouard Manet
La blonde aux seins nus
vers 1878
huile sur toile,
musée d’Orsay, Paris, France

Contrast the bathing woman to the bare breasted blonde of the same year. The air of “neutral” intimacy of the bathing woman is gone, and replaced by the naked aggression of the breasts. Totally different.

Woman in a Tub Femme au tub
Edgar Degas, Woman in a Tub, Femme au tub, 1883, Pastel on paper, Tate Gallery, London

I continue with another master, Edgar Degas.

Degas’ picture “Woman standing in her bathtub”, painted in 1883, adorns the exhibition halls of Tate Gallery in London.

It was in London’s National Gallery in 1996 that I saw the exhibition “Degas beyond impressionism”. This exhibition marked the beginning of my admiration for Degas’ work.

The woman seems to be drying herself, and is totally absorbed in what she is doing.

The picture is full of contrasting lights and shadows, of bright and dark colors.

Woman Bathing in a Shallow Tub, 1885 Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917) Charcoal and pastel on paper, Metropolitan Museum, New York
Woman Bathing in a Shallow Tub, 1885
Edgar Degas 
Charcoal and pastel on paper, Metropolitan Museum, New York

Another nude in a tub by Degas is the picture he painted in 1885, which you can see today in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

When Degas exhibited his “suite of nudes,” which included this pastel, at the eighth—and final—Impressionist exhibition, in 1886, critics viciously attacked the ungainly poses of his bathers. After the exhibition, Degas gave the picture to Mary Cassatt in exchange for her Girl Arranging Her Hair (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.).

Edgar Degas French, 1834–1917 The Tub, modeled 1889 (cast 1919/21)
Edgar Degas
The Tub, modeled 1889 (cast 1919/21)

And now the tub I saw at the Art Institute of Chicago.

I quote the Art Institute of Chicago’s text:
“This charming work, cast in bronze after Degas’s death, is a particularly appealing, even playful, variation on that subject. In a round basin partially filled with water, a young woman relaxes and absently plays with the toes of her left foot…The Tub is innovative in another, more subtle way. The female nude is of course a central subject in the history of Western art, associated with many conventions and traditions. However, unlike so many of his predecessors and more conservative contemporaries, Degas did not depict his adolescent bather in the guise of a nymph or goddess, nor did he imbue her features and gestures with eroticism. Instead, she is self-absorbed, modest, and engaged in a mundane activity.”

Edgar Degas, The Tub, c.1896-1901, Pastel on wowe paper, Glasgow Museums
Edgar Degas, The Tub, c.1896-1901, Pastel on wowe paper, Glasgow Museums

Degas also painted this stunning minimalist depiction in a period spanning 5 years, and just crossing into the 20th century. It is almost as if Francis Bacon came to Earth early to paint this picture and disappear until his birth in 1909.

Pablo Picasso, The Blue Room, 1901
Pablo Picasso, The Blue Room, 1901

I cannot help assuming that the great Picasso was influenced by the aura of Degas’ paintings when he painted the blue room in 1901.

Pierre Bonnard, Woman in a tub, 1912
Pierre Bonnard, Woman in a tub, 1912

The next painting in line was made by Pierre Bonnard.
I encountered Bonnard for the first time in a comprehensive way when I visited the exhibition of his works in London’s Tate Gallery in early 1998. It was a wonderful surprise.

 The Bath Baignoire (Le Bain) Date1925  Oil paint on canvas, Tate Gallery, London

The Bath – Baignoire (Le Bain) 1925
Oil paint on canvas, Tate Gallery, London

“Like Degas, Bonnard painted a lot of nudes in the bath. Sometimes he even photographed them.  So the bathtub appears as a kind of original place, Plato’s chora in which forms materialize, or space, the matrix of Derrida.”

“This is one of a series of paintings that Bonnard made of his wife Marthe in the bath. Though she was in her mid-fifties, the artist depicts her as a young woman. Marthe spent many hours in the bathroom: she may have had tuberculosis, for which water therapy was a popular treatment, or she may have had an obsessive neurosis. The bath, cut off at both ends, and the structure of the wall create a rigorously geometric composition. The effect is strangely lifeless, and almost tomb-like; as if the painting were a silent expression of sorrow for Marthe’s plight.”

Matisse, Large reclining nude (The Pink Nude)

Pierre Bonnard La Grande Baignoire (Nu), 1937–1939 The Large Bathtub (Nude) Oil on canvas, 94 × 144 cm Private collection
Pierre Bonnard
La Grande Baignoire (Nu), 1937–1939
The Large Bathtub (Nude)
Oil on canvas, 94 × 144 cm
Private collection

Pierre Bonnard: La Grande Baignoire (Nu), 1937–1939
The Large Bathtub (Nude)

There is a formula, which fits painting perfectly,” wrote Bonnard, “many little lies to create a great truth.”

Nude in the Bath and Small Dog. 1941-46. Oil on canvas. 48 x 59 1/2" (121.9 x 151.1 cm). Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
Nude in the Bath and Small Dog. 1941-46.
Oil on canvas. 48 x 59 1/2″ (121.9 x 151.1 cm). Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

Bonnard 1941-1946: Nude in the Bath and Small Dog (with thanks to Sheila Thornton)

The efflorescent explosion of colors in “Nude in the Bath and Small Dog” (1941-46) almost bars us from making any sense of the painting were it not for a few key recognizable objects–notably the dog and the bathtub, within which the details of the immersed figure of Marthe slowly appears. Bonnard places the figure frankly in the center of this fantastic scene. We witness the inanimate becoming animate as the bathtub mutates to adhere to Marthe’s form: bulging to accommodate the bend of her right knee and expanding with the curve of her head. The walls seem to gently breathe like a living organism, warping in dazzling, undulating waves along with the ripples of the tub water.

Ostensibly the scene is serenity itself, yet Bonnard allows us no rest in front of it. Not only does the bathroom sway in our vision, the whole of it will not come into focus at once from any one position. We must move from side to side and back and forth. By thus “performing” the painting we are made all the more conscious of our movement in contrast to the stillness of Marthe’s body. Marthe died in 1942, at age 72, before Bonnard had finished the painting.
Nude in Bathtub, the last of Bonnard’s treatments of this subject, is one of the great nudes of the twentieth century. The audacity of color that characterizes the artist’s mature work is evident in this painting’s dazzling mosaic of oranges, yellows, pinks, blues, violets, and greens. The originality of Bonnard’s chromatic daring is nearly equaled in this painting by a pictorial construct in which perspective and volume are denied and forms are piled up to hover over the flat plane of the canvas.

Bonnard transformed this domestic environment, with its comfortably curled-up family dachshund, into an exotic setting in which a young woman floats in a pearly tub, her flesh reflecting the opalescent colors that surround her. Marthe appears as the youthful woman of Bonnard’s memories. The result is a sensual, dreamlike, and private evocation.

Jeff Koons: Woman in Tub, Porcelain, 1988, Art Institute of Chicago
Jeff Koons: Woman in Tub, Porcelain, 1988, Art Institute of Chicago

Landing from Bonnard to Koons is a shock.

It is like landing on another planet.

In the website of the Art Institute of Chicago, we read:

Woman in Tub, based on a postcard, depicts a female nude acting out a crude sexual joke in the bathtub. Jeff Koons explained: “There’s a snorkel and somebody is doing something to her under the water because she’s grabbing her breasts for protection. But the viewer also wants to victimize her.” The cartoonlike rendering of the form belies the exquisite hard-paste porcelain finish, typical of 18th-century Rococo figurines. Part of his Banality series, which is characterized by oddly eroticized, comic, and kitsch images, this work demonstrates Duchampian and Pop Art strategies of appropriation and, combining imagery from multiple sources, makes the primary subject taste itself.” (1)

Jeff Koons: Woman in Tub, Porcelain, 1988, Art Institute of Chicago
Jeff Koons: Woman in Tub, Porcelain, 1988, Art Institute of Chicago

An article in Art Tattler International informs us: Koons has a strong connection to Chicago where he came in the 1970s to study at the School of the Art Institute under artists Ed Paschke and Jim Nutt and briefly worked at the MCA as a preparator. For Koons, this was a critical time in his development — what he calls a period of transcendence. In practical terms, working for and befriending the artist Ed Paschke taught him that he could be a professional artist. Koons began to see his ideas in dialogue with Dada, Surrealism, and the Chicago Imagists, all genres that communicate with personal icons: from Salvador Dali’s mustache to Paschke’s tattoo parlors. Through Paschke and others, he looked to the external world to find his personal iconography, which he used to explore his subjectivity, transcend his limits, and fulfill his potential as an artist. 

It is time to recap.

What a journey!

Edouard Manet
Edouard Manet

Manet’s picture is effecting a dialogue between the woman/model and the observer/painter.

There is no idealization of the female body.

Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas

Degas is painting with passion, but the woman looks like an object enclosed in a solitary space.

We can see her, but she cannot. She is alone.

No idealization of the female body here.

Pierre Bonnard
Pierre Bonnard

Bonnard moves us to a different world.

The interplay between the flesh and th water, the function of the tub as the defining space, the luminosity of the tiles, they all contribute to create a world of ever changing illusion.

Jeff Koons
Jeff Koons

Koons is ending the journey as a hurricane, There is violence, panic, and sensuality. And a very peculiar sense of humour.

Relevant posts: 

Painting the human body, October 2011

Three female nudes, October 2010

The Crouching Venus at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London

Some time ago I wrote about “A crouching Aphrodite in London“, a sculpure I saw at the British Museum. It is Roman, 2nd century AD; a version of an original from Hellenistic Greece.

Crouching Aphrodite, British Museum. London
Crouching Aphrodite, British Museum. London

Today I want to introduce “The crouching Venus” (1702) of John Nost the Elder, which I saw at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

Crouching Venus, V&A Museum, London
Crouching Venus, V&A Museum, London

I quote form the Museum’s website:

“The Crouching Venus is a remarkable instance of John Nost the Elder’s assured carving, and is a rare surviving example of a classical subject by the artist in marble. The sculpture’s scale and accomplishment give it a grandeur and presence which were truly exceptional at that date in Britain. Like the antique prototype, Venus is depicted ineffectually attempting to cover her nakedness, her gesture only succeeding in drawing attention to her sensual body. The goddess is thought to be bathing, or possibly adjusting her hair, and caught unawares. Nost’s sculpture suggests the sophisticated level of patronage of the wealthy gentry in Britain at the start of the eighteenth century, and tantalisingly evokes the way in which interiors of eighteenth-century country houses were adorned with sculpture.”

Crouching Venus - detail
Crouching Venus – detail

I must confess that I did not know of the artist before I saw the crouching Venus.

What attracted my attention to it was that it looked very similar to the crouching Aphrodite I Saw at the British Museum. As a matter of fact, it seemed to me that it was a copy of the Roman-Hellenistic sculpture.

(Quite interestingly, there is no mention of such likeness in the V&A description.)

Crouching Aphrodite - detail
Crouching Aphrodite – detail

Let us start from the left arm and the band around it.

Crouching Venus - detail
Crouching Venus – detail

The head is the next area of examination.

Crouching Aphrodite - detail
Crouching Aphrodite – detail

The face, the hair style and the expression are the same. However, Aphrodite turns to her far left her face and looks down, while Venus just turns and looks straight.

Also, Venus clinches loosely her right fist, while Aphodite’s right hand’s fingers are straight.

Crouching Venus - detail
Crouching Venus – detail

Venus is slightly slimmer than Aphrodite.

Crouching Aphrodite - detail
Crouching Aphrodite – detail

Aphrodite’s figure is sumptuous.

Let us now have a look at the left hand.

Crouchnig Venus - detail
Crouchnig Venus – detail

The hand in both sculptures is “locked” between the thigh and the elbow.

Crouching Aphrodite - detail
Crouching Aphrodite – detail

The only difference appears to be the angle to the thigh and the fingers. One should point out though that quite obviously, Aphrodite’s fingers are reconstructed, as they were broken in the sculpture’s journey through the centuries.

Finally, the back side.

Crouching Venus - detail
Crouching Venus – detail

This may be the final and concluding observation regarding the hypothesis that the V&A Venus is a copy of the British Museum Aphrodite.

Crouching Aphrodite - detail
Crouching Aphrodite – detail

The posture of the body, the support of the jug, the tension of the muscles.

It seems that Venus is a copy of Aphrodite after all! 

Which of the two do I like best?

 

Head of a Woman: Picasso’s interpretations of Fernande Olivier

Head of a Woman (Fernande), autumn 1909
Pablo Picasso, Head of a Woman (Fernande), bronze, autumn 1909, Art Institute of Chicago

During a visit to Chicago I viewed the Picasso Exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago. Prominent amongst the exhibited artwork, was the sculpture “Head of a Woman (Fernande)”.

The following post presents modern art from the Art Institute of Chicago.

Modern Art

It is not a simple sculpture. It is an adventure. Every angle opens new dimensions, interpretations, and insights into what the head might be. 

This sculpted head gave me the inspiration to write this article.

Pablo Picasso, "Portrait of Fernande Olivier”, 1906, Gouache on Paper, private collection, Stockholm
Pablo Picasso, “Portrait of Fernande Olivier”, 1906, Gouache on Paper, private collection, Stockholm

Picasso and Fernande Olivier met on a rainy day in August 1904.

Fernande became reportedly Picasso’s first known long-term relation & subject of many of Picasso’s Rose Period paintings (1905-07).

Their romance lasted until 1909, but continued to be together as friends until 1912.

Pablo Picasso, Fernande with a Black Mantilla (Fernande à la mantille noire), Paris, 1905–06. Oil on canvas. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Thannhauser Collection,
Pablo Picasso, Fernande with a Black Mantilla (Fernande à la mantille noire), Paris, 1905–06. Oil on canvas. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Thannhauser Collection,

Picasso’s portrait Fernande with a Black Mantilla 1906, is a transitional work. Still somewhat expressionistic and romantic, with its subdued tonality and lively brushstrokes, the picture depicts Fernande Olivier wearing a mantilla, which perhaps symbolizes the artist’s Spanish origins. The iconic stylization of her face and its abbreviated features, however, foretell Picasso’s increasing interest in the abstract qualities and solidity of Iberian sculpture, which would profoundly influence his subsequent works. Though naturalistically delineated, the painting presages his imminent experiments with abstraction. (Source: Guggenheim Museum).

Head of a woman, 1906
Head of a woman, 1906

Another 1906 picture “Head of a woman (Fernande)”, is totally different in style. Space and perspective are somehow distorted. The angular aspects of the face are prominent.

As we approach 1907 “Les Demoiselles d’ Avignon” cleared the way to cubism, as John Richardson comments in his “A Life of Picasso”.

Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. Oil on Canvas, 1907, MOMA, New York
Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. Oil on Canvas, 1907, MOMA, New York

Two years later, Picasso paints Fernande in the “Head of a Woman” as a multi-level distorted face.

Pablo Picasso, Head of a Woman, summer 1909
Pablo Picasso, Head of a Woman, summer 1909, oil on canvas, Art Institute of Chicago

“Woman with Pears” has the same style.

This is one of several portraits Picasso painted of Fernande, during the summer of 1909, a period that the couple spent in Picasso’s native Spain. While the pears in the background are modeled in the round, Picasso radically reconfigured Oliviers head and bust, fragmenting them into geometrical segments. This fracturing of solid volumes offered an alternative to the traditional illusionistic and perspectival approach to depicting three–dimensional space on a two–dimensional surface and suggests the direction Picasso’s process would take in the development of Cubism. (Source: MOMA).

Pablo Picasso, Woman with Pears (Fernande), 1909
Pablo Picasso, Woman with Pears (Fernande), summer 1909, oil on canvas, MOMA, New York

The slices carved into the figures neck and the diamond recesses of her eyes are replicated in the sculpture Womans Head (Fernande), which Picasso created in the fall of that year.

‘My greatest artistic emotions were aroused when the sublime beauty of the sculptures created by anonymous artists in Africa was suddenly revealed to me’ Picasso told the poet Apollinaire. This sculpture is of his companion Fernande Olivier. Its flat, planed surface relates the work to his cubist paintings of the same period. Picasso made two plaster casts of the head, from which at least sixteen bronze examples were cast.

Pablo Picasso, Head of a Woman (Fernande) 1909, Plaster, Tate Gallery
Pablo Picasso, Head of a Woman (Fernande) 1909, Plaster, Tate Gallery, London

One of the plaster casts is today at London’s Tate Gallery.

“One of only two plasters made by Picasso from which at least sixteen bronzes were cast, this version is completely white, unlike Tate Modern’s version which has been toned in a brownish finish (presumably to emulate bronzes cast from it). The point of Cubism was to disregard one-point perspective in painting—long held since the Renaissance—breaking down the picture plane, the prison of two dimensions, enabling the artist to show the object or figure in the round.” (Culture Spectator, PABLO PICASSO AT MFA HOUSTON UNTIL THE 27TH MAY 2013)

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) Head of a Woman (Fernande), 1909 Plaster Raymond and Patsy Nasher Collection, Dallas, Texas
Pablo Picasso, 
Head of a Woman (Fernande), 1909
Plaster Raymond and Patsy Nasher Collection, Dallas, Texas, USA

The other plaster cast is in Texas.

We now come to the bronze sculptures. The one I saw in Chicago was donated by Alfred Stieglitz to the Art Institute in 1949.

Head of a Woman (Fernande), autumn 1909
Pablo Picasso, Head of a Woman (Fernande), autumn 1909, bronze, Art Institute of Chicago

“Like Rembrandt’s most intimate portraits, it is about the mystery of being close to another human being. Picasso makes you recognise this by inviting your eye down into those channels and crevices, until you feel you are inside Fernande’s head.

This is one of the seminal works of cubism, and in the state that Picasso liked it best. He moulded Fernande’s head in clay, then made two plaster casts from which he authorised a series of bronzes. He never liked the bronzes as much as this raw plaster version. It is a key work in the development of cubism because it was the first time Picasso realised he could translate his new kind of painting into three dimensions this is one of his paintings from that time given solid form.”

(Jonathan Jones, Head of a woman, The Guardian)

Pablo Picasso, Head of a Woman (Fernande) c 1909, bronze, Art Gallery of Ontario
Pablo Picasso, Head of a Woman (Fernande) c 1909, bronze, Art Gallery of Ontario

In 1909, over a ten-month period, Picasso was inspired to create more than sixty Cubist paintings, sculptures, and drawings of women that bear a striking resemblance to his paramour at the time, Fernande Olivier. Although few of these works could be considered traditional “portraits,” they do form a unique group within his oeuvre that shows him working with unusually singular focus. This bronze head of Fernande was modeled in autumn 1909 in Paris after the couple returned from a summer trip to Spain (Horta de Ebro), and represents Picasso’s first Cubist sculpture. Like his early Cubist paintings, the shape of her sculpted head is faceted into smaller units. Fernande’s hair, which she wore up in a rolled do, is here a series of crescent blobs, while her contemplative face is more sharply chiseled into flat planes. Intended to be seen in the round, the composition changes form when viewed from different angles, and the head’s slight tilt and the neck’s sweeping curves give the allusion of movement as if she were about to look over her shoulder. (Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).

Head of a Woman, 1909
Head of a Woman, 1909, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

picasso1_detail
Pablo Picasso, Head of a Woman (Fernande), detail – autumn 1909, bronze, Art Institute of Chicago

Pablo Picasso, Head of a Woman (Fernande), autumn 1909, bronze, Art Institute of Chicago
Pablo Picasso, Head of a Woman (Fernande), autumn 1909, bronze, Art Institute of Chicago

Pablo Picasso, Head of a Woman (Fernande), detail - autumn 1909, bronze, Art Institute of Chicago
Pablo Picasso, Head of a Woman (Fernande), detail – autumn 1909, bronze, Art Institute of Chicago

Pablo Picasso, Head of a Woman (Fernande), signature - autumn 1909, bronze, Art Institute of Chicago
Pablo Picasso, Head of a Woman (Fernande), signature – autumn 1909, bronze, Art Institute of Chicago