Monday evening

Thinking about things:

I just re-discovered this image. It is Maurice Denis' Panel for a girl's bedroom: September evening

[Panneau pour une chambre de jeune fille: soir de septembre]

1891

Maurice DENIS

France

1870 – 1943

I love the layers and layers of patterns. As though each were a delicately printed fabric of its own: The slightly varied toned dresses, the circle rug with its curlycue scheme lying across the squared stone ledge with its stoic grace. Even the floor tiles with their hint of perspective. And the two close-in trees with dark dark green lattice leaves on their upright branches. A meadow playground for a horse ride [for the men] and then lots of bushy and rounded [as a child might draw] trees for a frame.

I saw this painting at the deYoung when it was here last fall. So lovely. I have just cut up a postcard of this image and placed in a dark grey blue frame. Which is now hanging above my sink in my bathroom.

Sunday afternoon

A favorite of mine from the Picasso exhibit at the deYoung: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris:

Woman in an Armchair

Pablo Picasso

1948

Here are a few notes from the deYoung:

The de Young hosts an extraordinary exhibition of more than 100 masterpieces by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) from the permanent collection of Paris’s world-renowned Musée National Picasso. The once-in-a-lifetime exhibition, made possible only because of the temporary closure of the Musée Picasso until 2012 for extensive renovations, comprises paintings, sculptures, drawings, and prints drawn from every phase of the artist’s career.

I liked this show very much. It was good to see Picasso's work from across his lifetime. Lots of change over time. Lots of "studies" of a particular subject and then a painting or sculpture that comes from all of this "studying" he has done. I like this kind of intensity and dedication. I like this trying out of ideas and approaches and perspectives and figuring things out in the bargain. And creating beauty all along the way.

And just so you know, Picasso adored his dog, Lump.

Crepuscule

Maurice Denis, Crepuscule, 1892

*Crepuscule: the period of partial darkness at the beginning or endof the day;twilight.

Bonnard: The White Cat

A favorite from the Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne, and Beyond: Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay exhibition at the deYoung:



Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947)
The White Cat
1894
Oil on card
H. 51; W. 33cm


Notes from Musee d'Orsay: [link]

Le chat blanc [The White Cat]

Here, Bonnard uses distortion to create a humorous image of this cat arching its back. A strange animal, exaggeratedly arched on its paws, with its head drawn down into its shoulders, eyes like slits and a cunning expression. It seems both tame and wild.
The painter spent a long time deciding on the shape and the position of the paws, as can be seen in the preparatory drawings. The x-ray of this work also reveals many changes, some of which are actually visible to the naked eye. "Art is not nature" he used to say, to the extent that his White Cat has become almost a caricature, "a comical and humorous image created through the genius of its master who observed and understood it so well" (Elisabeth Foucart-Walter).

The decorative style of the painting – the prominence of the sinuous lines, the absence of any depth in the figure placed flat on the background – places this work from 1894 in the Nabi tradition. There is a Japanese inspiration in the bold, asymmetric composition as well as in the choice of subject – one that was very popular in the prints that Bonnard was so fond of. Hokusai (1760-1849) and Kuniyoshi (1797-1861) in particular had painted these familiar felines.

I must must go back and look at The White Cat.

Sunday September 25th 2010

Still Life with Onions

Paul Cézanne (1895)

A lovely day in San Francisco with my sweet son Shanan and Goose Dog and Desie to celebrate Shanan's birthday:

1. 8:30 arrival at Shanan's [albeit a bit late due to car key problems that have been resolved by retiring old key with [more definitive] new key]
2. coffee [and luna bar for me]; carrots for Goose and Desie
3. 9:30 vist to the deYoung to see Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne, and Beyond: Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay
4. visit to the Museum Store for cards and postcards and magnets [during which time Shanan showed great patience and understanding]
5. [very sweet] sweets at the deYoung Cafe: chocolate croissant & lemon bar [along with a few sips of coffee]
6. lovely walk [and running around] at the Presidio with Goose and Desie
7. back at Shanan's for traditional angel food cake [that had not been frosted] with dollops of whipped cream and two strawberries on top and a small scoop of Haagen Dazs vanilla ice cream on the side [more carrots for Goose and Desie]
8. brushing Desie's and Goose's teeth with dog flavored toothpaste
9. 1:15 [about] time to go home for me and Desie
10. farewell hugs for all

Upon arrival home:

1. lots of college writing papers to read on a Sunday afternoon in Berkeley
2. a nice talk on the phone with my sweet son Brandon
3. walk with my sweet dog Desie in the late late afternoon

Sunday

Today's images:

An early morning visit to the deYoung to see the Birth of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musee d'Orsay exhibit with my sweet son Shanan.


A brief stop at the museum store and a lovely gift of rock quartz crystal [for me] from Shanan.

Monday

"The Floor Scrapers" (1875) oil on canvas by Gustave Caillebotte

This is another painting I like from the "Birth of Impressionism" Exhibition. This painting is a mix of impressionism and realism. It looks almost real but then it is as if there had been a diaphanous scrim placed upon the scene, adding the artist's imagination to its meaning. : The three men on their knees, bent over with their tools in hand [one with his face turned upward]; the floor [with long long wooden boards and clumps of scraped wood and sunlight shining through the window]; the horizontal and curlicue lines along the back wall meeting the vertical lines of the flooring make for a kind of framing of this scene of these men stooped over and hard at work]. And then there is the bottle of wine and a glass seemingly filled next to it.

Thursday

I visited the "Birth of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musee D'Orsay" Exhibit this morning at the deYoung Museum. It was an incredible experience to see these beloved paintings, to stand next to them and examine the paint strokes that these master artists placed so precisely upon their canvasses so many years ago. It was such joy to stand before these works that I have glimpsed in books and, most especially, on the postcards I have collected for so many years, and look at them for as long as I wanted. And, even so, go back and look at them again.

Here are some of my favorites:

"The Tuileries" (1875), oil on canvas, by Claude Monet

"Still Life with Soup Tureen" (circa 1873-1874),

oil on canvas, by Paul Cezanne

"Flowers in a Crystal Vase" (1882),

oil on canvas, by Edouard Manet

"The Barge During the Flood, Port-Marly" (1876),

oil on canvas, by Alfred Sisley

"The Magpie" (1868-1869),

oil on canvas, by Claude Monet

I revisited "Flowers in a Crystal Vase" and "The Magpie" at least three times each. "Flowers in a Crystal Vase" is so beautiful: its pristine size and impressionistic clarity evokes the artist's love and devotion to such precise beauty. "The Magpie" has bountiful deep deep snow. I wonder how many times Monet went back to add more snow with his brush and so create its brilliant whiteness and the stillness of day.

"Still Life with Soup Tureen" was my favorite, though. I gazed at it for quite some time. The colors and textures that combine to create the background of paintings and the table cloth covered with fruit and a basket and a tureen in the foreground were magnificent to behold.