Category Archives: Arts & Literature

Science & Art: Jackson Pollock’s Drip Painting Style (And Genius) Avoided “Coiling Instability”

From PLOS One Journal online release:

Jackson Pollock Full Fathom Five 1947We conclude that Pollock avoided the appearance of the hydrodynamic instabilities, contrary to what was argued by previous studies. Pollock selected the physical properties of the paint to prevent filament fragmentation before deposition, and applied it while moving his hand sufficiently fast and at certain heights to avoid fluid filaments from coiling into themselves. An understanding of the physical conditions at which these patterns were created is important to further art research and it can be used as a tool in the authentication of paintings.

Jackson Pollock Painting TechniqueConsidered one of the most prominent American painters of the 20th century, the life and work of Jackson Pollock have been the subject of books, movies, and documentaries [13]. His paintings can be broadly categorized as being abstract-expressionist. Although his painting style evolved during his sometimes tormented life, the so-called ‘dripping’ technique is certainly the most widely recognized both by experts and the general public.

Jackson Pollock described the technique himself [4]. In summary, Pollock would lay a canvas horizontally and pour paint on top of it, in a controlled manner. To regulate the flow of paint, he either used an instrument (a stick, knife or a brush), poured it directly from a can and in some instances he also used a syringe. Viscous fluid filaments were produced and laid over the canvas while ‘rhythmically moving’ around it. It is believed that Pollock developed this technique strongly influenced by an experimental painting workshop, organized in New York by Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros in 1936 [5]. Interestingly, Siqueiros himself also developed the ‘accidental painting’ technique during this workshop, which was recently analyzed by Zetina et al. [6].

To read more: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0223706

Museum Insider: Curators & Artists Oversee New Frames, Placement Of Paintings At MoMA (Video)

The new MoMA opens. Cherished works return to the walls of the galleries in brand new frames, while curators and artists watch the completion of the reinstallation. After being closed for four months, MoMA reopens its doors to the public.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

0:13 – Associate sculpture conservator Roger Griffith and sculpture conservation fellow Joy Bloser clean Arthur Young’s Bell-47D1 Helicopter.

0:52 – Senior curator of Painting and Sculpture Anne Umland and chief curator of Painting and Sculpture Ann Temkin oversee the hanging of Pablo Picasso’s “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.”

1:20 – Peter Perez, frame shop foreman, discusses “The Starry Night’s” new, black frame.

2:53 – Artist Amy Sillman explains how she curated and arranged “The Shape of Shape,” part of the long-running Artist’s Choice exhibition series in which artists selects works to show from the Museum’s collection

4:17 – Photography curator Sarah Meister and conservator Lee Ann Daffner adjust the lighting on Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey’s “Rome. Arch of Septimus Severus and Capitoline Lion.”

5:02 – Senior deputy director of exhibitions and collections Ramona Bronkar Bannayan and director of exhibition design and production Lana Hum make a final checklist of things to accomplish before the opening.

5:32 – Artist Betye Saar sees her exhibition for the first time.

7:11 – Manager of enterprise applications Rik Vanmechelen and developer Ryan Sprott check the new ticket machines.

8:04 – Chief facilities and safety officer Tunji Adeniji welcomes the public to the new MoMA on opening day.

8:30 – Silent film accompanist Ben Model improvises a live piano soundtrack for Frank Powell’s 1915 film “A Fool There Was.”

9:12 – Security supervisor Chet Gold greets volunteer Fred Liberman. Gold returns to his favorite room in the new MoMA.

Literary Destinations: The Faulkner House Bookstore, New Orleans

From an Atlas Obscura online review:

Faulkner House Bookstore New Orleans interiorInside, the small store has a good selection of literary fiction ranging from classics to current publications. There is also a great selection of books about New Orleans and local culture. There is, of course, a dedicated area, almost shrine-like, for Faulkner’s works, and the shop owner will let you take a look at those more expensive books, “if you want to get in trouble with your wallet.”

Blink while passing through New Orleans’s French Quarter, and you may miss this small, charming bookstore. But step inside, and you’ll steal a quick peek at the space where William Faulkner himself lived while in the city.

Though he later penned famous works like The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying, Faulkner wasn’t much of anybody yet when he moved to New Orleans, and in fact published his first work in a local journal. There is a historical plaque outside the building that states that Faulkner wrote his first novel, Soldiers’ Pay, while in residence there in 1925.

To read more: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/faulkner-house-books?utm_source=Atlas+Obscura+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=5bf02e2e8b-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_10_31_02_06&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f36db9c480-5bf02e2e8b-63029309&mc_cid=5bf02e2e8b&mc_eid=9baf474570

Top New Books: “The Seine – The River That Made Paris” By Elaine Sciolino

From an advance review:

The SeineSciolino’s keen eye and vivid prose bring the river to life as she discovers its origins on a remote plateau of Burgundy, where a pagan goddess healed pilgrims at an ancient temple. She follows the Seine to Le Havre, where it meets the sea.  Braiding memoir, travelogue, and history through the Seine’s winding route, Sciolino offers a love letter to Paris and the river at its heart and invites readers to explore its magic.

In the spring of 1978, as a young journalist in Paris, Elaine Sciolino was seduced by a river. In The Seine, she tells the story of that river through its rich history and lively characters—a bargewoman, a riverbank bookseller, a houseboat dweller, a famous cameraman known for capturing the river’s light. She patrols with river police, rows with a restorer of antique boats, discovers a champagne vineyard, and even dares to swim in the Seine.

To read more: https://elainesciolino.com/the-seine-the-river-that-made-paris

Exhibition & Book Review: “Unto This Last – Two Hundred Years Of John Ruskin” (Yale Center)

From a Wall Street Journal online review:

Unto This Last Two Hundred Years Of John Ruskin BookIn “Unto This Last and Other Essays on Art and Political Economy” (1860), which gives the exhibition its title, Ruskin “sees” interconnected social injustices. He attacks economic inequality. Later, he sets out to establish a utopian community in working-class Sheffield, England. In one gallery we see his influence on “progressive thinkers worldwide.” Gandhi said that reading “Unto This Last” in 1904 transformed his life and ideas.

The novelist Charlotte Brontë exclaimed after reading that first volume, “I feel now as if I had been walking blindfold[ed]—this book seems to give me eyes.”

maxresdefault‘If you can paint one leaf,” John Ruskin once declared, “you can paint the world.” And in “Unto This Last: Two Hundred Years of John Ruskin”—the hypnotically potent (though flawed) exhibition at the Yale Center for British Art marking the bicentennial of his birth—we see how wonderfully he kept trying.

To read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/unto-this-last-two-hundred-years-of-john-ruskin-review-going-to-nature-in-his-own-fashion-11572692401

Best New Books: “Ahab’s Rolling Sea – A Natural History Of Moby-Dick” By Richard J. King

From a University of Chicago Press review:

9780226514963A revelation for Moby-Dick devotees and neophytes alike, Ahab’s Rolling Sea is a chronological journey through the natural history of Melville’s novel. From white whales to whale intelligence, giant squids, barnacles, albatross, and sharks, Richard J. King examines what Melville knew from his own experiences and the sources available to a reader in the mid-1800s, exploring how and why Melville might have twisted what was known to serve his fiction. King then climbs to the crow’s nest, setting Melville in the context of the American perception of the ocean in 1851—at the very start of the Industrial Revolution and just before the publication of On the Origin of Species. 

Featuring a coffer of illustrations and an array of interviews with contemporary scientists, fishers, and whale watch operators, Ahab’s Rolling Sea offers new insight not only into a cherished masterwork and its author but also into our evolving relationship with the briny deep—from whale hunters to climate refugees.

Website: https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo27616248.html

Exhibitions: “Leonardo – Experience A Masterpiece” At The National Gallery, London (Nov 9 – Jan 12)

The secrets of Leonardo’s masterpiece are revealed in four distinct spaces. Each space invites you to look at ‘The Virgin of the Rocks’ in a new way.

Leonardo Experience a Masterpiece National GalleryThe mind of Leonardo

Start your journey in a landscape populated by the thoughts and ideas of Leonardo as he sets about painting ‘The Virgin of the Rocks’.

The studio

Discover the secrets only science and conservation can reveal in this projection-filled space which unlocks the mysteries of how ‘The Virgin of the Rocks’ was painted and reveals the lost composition hidden beneath the painted surface.

The light and shadow experiment

Take part in the room-sized experiment to discover the dramatic effects of light and shadow on Leonardo’s composition for ‘The Virgin of the Rocks’.

The imagined chapel

At the end of your journey, you will come face to face with the original masterpiece where it hangs on the walls of an imagined chapel for you to contemplate how ‘The Virgin of the Rocks’ might have appeared in its original setting as part of an elaborate altarpiece.

To read and view more: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/exhibitions/leonardo-experience-a-masterpiece#HighlightPaintings93395

Artist Profiles: Watercolor Painter Thomas W. Schaller Interviewed By The Met

From a MyModernMet.com online article:

Thomas W Schaller Fine Art in WatercolorSince I work as a fine artist now, there are fewer commercial entities to please, so I’ve discovered something that should have been very obvious. If you want to engage the viewer, don’t tell them everything, encourage them to ask their own questions. An artist should not describe—he or she should interpret. If you design into your work a bit of mystery—areas where the viewer must “fill in the blanks”—you set up an unspoken dialog with your viewers and an emotional weight will begin to develop organically. This is just one example of course, but an important one.

Artist Thomas W. Schaller combines a passion for architecture and storytelling into emotional landscape watercolor paintings. Originally trained as an architect, he found himself drawn to images of the built environment and eventually left designing behind to pursue fine art on a full-time basis. His education places him in an ideal position for architecture painting. Schaller understands how to design structures and knows what attributes to include and what he should leave out. At the same time, he’s able to tap into the feelings we get from visiting a city—such as a sentimentality—to produce pieces that are both beautiful and alluring.

To read more: https://mymodernmet.com/thomas-schaller-watercolor-paintings/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_term=2019-10-29

New Photography Books: Ansel Adams’ Yosemite – The Special Edition Prints

From a AnselAdams.com online release:

Ansel Adams' Yosemite special edition printsMaking the Special Edition Photographs is an assignment I continue to this day, with Ansel’s vision and standards always in mind as I work. The prints are still made directly from Ansel’s negatives and in the “traditional” way: in a wet darkroom with amber safelights, chemicals and running water. The prints are still silver-gelatin prints, meaning that the image-forming element is literally metallic silver. Precious.

And after nearly 40 years, I can honestly say that I never tire of seeing these images come up in the developing tray. It’s an honor and privilege to play a small part in continuing Ansel’s legacy.

This collection, entitled the Yosemite Special Edition Photographs, proved immensely popular and over the years, Ansel added more images to the set until the total was capped at 30 at the time of his passing in 1984.

Today, Best’s Studio is known as the Ansel Adams Gallery, and continues as a family-run business. Ansel’s Special Edition Photographs of Yosemite are a mainstay of the Gallery’s offerings and heritage. Each print is still made by hand directly from Ansel’s original negatives, using his approach and methodology to ensure strict adherence to his standards and aesthetic.

To read more: http://anseladams.com/ansel-adams-yosemite-special-edition-photographs/

Museum Exhibitions: “The Renaissance Of Etching” At The Metropolitan Museum Thru Jan. 20, 2020

From a MetMuseum.org online release:

The Renaissance of Etching Metropolitan Museum NYThis exhibition traces the first sixty years of the etched print (circa 1490 to circa 1560), from its emergence in the workshop of the German printmaker and armor decorator Daniel Hopfer to the years when a range of artists from Germany, Flanders, Italy, and France began experimenting with etching. Approximately 125 etchings, produced by both renowned and lesser-known artists, are displayed alongside a number of drawings, printing plates, illustrated books, and armor.

The history of printmaking has been punctuated by moments of great invention that have completely changed the course of the medium. The beginning of etching in Europe in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries—when the technique moved out of the workshop of armor decorators and into those of printmakers and painters—represents one of those pivotal moments. Etching, essentially drawing on the surface of a metal plate, had an ease that opened the door for all kinds of artists to make prints. The pioneers of the medium included some of the greatest painters of the Renaissance, such as Albrecht Dürer, Parmigianino, and Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

To read more: https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2019/renaissance-of-etching