Week 7: Feb. 18, 2024

View of Alcalá, Emilio Sánchez Perrier, Spanish, about 1886, Oil on wood panel

Reality….

I continued thinking about the concept of reality in artwork having focused on photorealism a couple weeks ago. But this week I wandered through the impressionist gallery. I remember when my sister found out she had an astigmatism and came home with her first pair of glasses. She looked up at the trees in the front yard and said, “I never realized you could see each individual leaf!” My mother responded, “Kind of gives you a different view of impressionist painting, doesn’t it?!”

When I saw View of Alcalá, I immediately thought, “I could just walk right in to that painting!” But as I tried to photograph it, the frame took that feeling away completely. So I cropped out the frame. The depth in the center portion of the painting draws me into the painting in a way that makes this setting become real.

Week 6: Feb. 11, 2024

Pair of Funerary Urns, China, Southern Song (1127-1279) or early Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368), Qingbai ware, Porcelain with iron-painted details beneath a transparent glaze.

Smiling at death….

Everything about these funerary urns fascinated me. First, I thought I was looking at an urn that would hold someone’s cremated remains. Instead I learned that they were buried with the deceased to provide sustenance, in the form of grain stored in the urn, and to embody wishes for the well being of the soul. Thus, the urns are topped by large cranes on the lids, a symbol of immortality. The dragons, however, were considered “intriguing” because they were not specific symbols linked to the death rituals or practices.

What struck me about the dragons is both their joyous expressions - which I attribute to a desire for the soul of the deceased to be without strife or to be free of the troubles or pain of life. But also, they look very modern and childlike. I can fully imagine these dragon characters in a children’s book or cartoon today. Especially the ‘hybrid’ dragon on the left that combines the body of a reptile, head of a cat, and a floral motif across the body! It makes me wonder if the deceased could have been a child.

I set up the photo so that it showed how the two different urns were made and then positioned so that the dragons smiled directly at each other. The shadows of the cranes appear on the wall behind them.

Week 5: Feb. 4, 2024

Bus Window, Richard Estes, American, 1968-1973, Oil on masonite,

Out the window…

I discovered photorealism in grade school in the seventies looking through my father’s book of Richard Estes paintings. I thought it was incredible that paint could replicate a photograph so realistically. It had a ‘super-realism’ quality to it that compelled you to keep looking because it seemed almost too real.

When I first walked through the Nelson in 2015 I got to see an Estes painting in person. I noticed that I couldn’t stand still to take it in. I kept moving about, looking at it from different angles, up close, then further back, side to side. I realized I was trying to look around the corner of the bus, trying to shift to another angle so the sun wouldn’t reflect in my eyes and block the face of the driver. It drew me in to a reality that wasn’t real.

I chose to photograph Bus Window from the far right because it appears as a window in the wall of the gallery. A bus is passing by the window as you look down the gallery wall to the paintings hanging inside.

Week 4: Jan. 28, 2024

Kannon Bosatsu (Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva), Japan, 700-800s C.E., Wood with traces of paint

Would you take me by the hand?

Sadly, despite being a history major as well as having had a couple classes in world religions, the minute I hear the name Bodhisattva, Steely Dan starts playing in my head. However, I was drawn to this wooden sculpture for two other reasons: its placement in an odd hallway between two galleries and the challenge of the lighting.

Three Buddhist pieces adorn a hallway that has stairs leading up to offices and transitions museum goers between two larger galleries. This one, Kannon Bosatsu, is the Bodhisattva of Mercy and Compassion. It is subtle but the placement of this Bodhisattva in this transitional area leading to a flight of stairs where an enormous golden Buddha sits gives a concrete sense of the path to enlightenment along which he would take ones’ hand and lead them. And cue the Steely Dan music again…

The downside of being displayed in a hallway is, perhaps, the lighting. Avoiding the exit signs and fire sprinklers made it almost impossible to frame the whole piece. I was compelled to move in very close - which was fortunate, because only at this short distance could I capture the golds and reds in the paint. They are almost impossible to see in person but the camera brings them to life.

Week 3: Jan. 21, 2024

Roman Gentleman, Probably found in or near Rome, About 120 C.E., Marble

Listen closely…

As I walked through the ancient art exhibit, this man spoke to me. He didn’t actually speak, but I laughed when that phrase went through my mind because one of the reasons I stared at him for such a long time was that there in the midst of all the Roman Emperors, soldiers, gods, mythical creatures, and flawless young women, was a grouchy old man who seemed to have a lot to say. He was wrinkled, with sagging jowls and a furrowed brow. He was lost in thought or perhaps composing a letter. He clearly had something to say.

And as I looked around the room at his company, it was also clear that no one was going to listen. They would fight their battles or carouse with Bachus or sit in their tomb to be honored and adored, but no one would listen to the old man with sagging jowls and furrowed brow.

Week 2: Jan. 14, 2024

Walking Wall, Andy Goldsworthy, American, 2019, Stone

Coming in from the cold…

I have to admit that when Walking Wall was first announced as a dynamic, outdoor art exhibit at the museum in 2019, I was skeptical. “It’s a wall…” But over the weeks and months as it crept over the empty field, crossed the street in the dead of night, slithered around the building and down the stairs, and finally passed through the solid pane of glass to reside, partially, in the hallway, I fell in love with it.

So, today I walked through the snowy remains of this week’s storm and saw the Walking Wall coming in from the cold and it looked so satisfied to shake off the snow and stay for a while.

Week 1: Jan. 7, 2024

Water Deity Headdress, Etim Abassi Ekpenyong, Nigerian, early 20th century, Wood, goatskin, and pigment.

Shadows in art…of art…

I set out looking for inspiration around the theme of “shadows in art” and ended up being intrigued by ‘shadows OF art’. This is probably consistent with my natural tendency to be equally enthralled by the museum itself as I am by the content of the museum. I am learning to photograph through glass and with different lighting angles in the museum and was pleased that the shadow of the horn takes on a ripple effect at the bottom because of the reflections in the glass.