Category Archives: History

Travels With A Curator: Santa Maria Della Scala In Siena (The Frick Video)

In this week’s episode of “Travels with a Curator,” Xavier F. Salomon, Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator, journeys to Siena to explore Santa Maria della Scala, an eleventh-century complex across from the steps of the cathedral. Behind the modest exterior of this hospital turned museum are a variety of magnificent frescoes and sculptures by Lorenzo di Pietro, better known as Vecchietta. The Frick’s “Resurrection” is the only signed and dated work by the artist in the United States.

Art History: How The Impressionists Elevated The “French Riviera”

From Christie’s (July 3, 2020):

Christie's Matisse to NiceIt was the Impressionists, Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, who first discovered the artistic potential of the south coast, finding an unspoilt landscape that perfectly matched their aims. ‘It is so beautiful,’ Monet wrote, ‘so bright, so luminous. One swims in blue air and it is frightening.’

Vincent van Gogh captured the landscape in and around Arles and Saint-Rémy in the final years of his life, while the Master of Aix, Paul Cézanne, used the rugged landscape of his native Provence to radically reconceive the very nature of art-making.

Long before the South of France became synonymous with glamour and sun-drenched seduction — think of Cary Grant and Grace Kelly in the 1955 film To Catch a Thief, or Brigitte Bardot and Alain Delon on the beaches of Saint-Tropez — this corner of Europe attracted a very different kind of tourist.

Christie's LogoSince the turn of the century, the sleepy fishing villages and remote towns of the Provençal hills had lured artists from Paris and beyond — the bright light, dazzling colours and palpable presence of the classical past all serving to inspire and revive jaded spirits.

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Cocktails with a Curator: Hans Holbein’s ‘Sir Thomas More’ Of 1527 (Video)

In this week’s episode of “Cocktails with a Curator,” Xavier F. Salomon, Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator, examines one of the Frick’s most beloved paintings, Hans Holbein’s “Sir Thomas More.” Xavier considers More’s relationship to humanist circles and the role of “friendship portraits” in making the absent present. In the words of More’s devoted friend, Desiderius Erasmus, “life without a friend is no life.” As a nod to the turbulent times of Tudor England, Xavier pairs this episode with a Bloody Mary cocktail.

Maritime History Video: The Epic Sinking In 1628 Of Sweden’s Warship “Vasa”

On August 10, 1628, the Swedish warship Vasa, billed as the most advanced warship in the world, set sail on its maiden voyage from Stockholm Harbor. Within a mile, it had sunk to the bottom of the ocean. From the Series: Combat Ships: Doomed Vessels

Art Video: “Stone Cut” – A Japanese Sculptor’s Quest With “La Sagrada Familia”

An architectural marvel has sat incomplete in a residential corner of Barcelona since its architect, Antoni Gaudí, died during construction in 1926. For decades, La Sagrada Familia has been an example of Christian fealty and Catalan ingenuity wrought in granite and sandstone; but little could anyone have guessed that ninety-four years after Gaudí’s death a Japanese sculptor would dedicate his life to completing the architect’s colossal work…

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Travels With A Curator: “Japanese Palace Dresden” (Frick Collection Video)

In this week’s episode of “Travels with a Curator,” Xavier F. Salomon, Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator, transports us to the Japanisches Palais (Japanese Palace) in Dresden, the original home of the Meissen “Great Bustard.” Augustus II rebuilt and enlarged the Japanese Palace to showcase his extraordinary collection of porcelain, but he died before the project was completed. This exquisite porcelain masterpiece became part of the Frick’s collection through the generosity of the late collector Henry H. Arnhold (1921–2018).

 

Auto Exhibitions: “Detroit Style – Car Design in the Motor City 1950-2020”

Detroit Institute of Arts LogoNov 15, 2020 — Jun 27, 2021:

Detroit designers have always led the way in car design. The futuristic concept cars, roaring muscle cars, and sleek racers designed in and around the city shape our ideas of what a car can be. Working on paper, in clay, and in metal, their ideas drive American car culture and inform the way we get around every day.

Elwood Engel Design for a Gyroscopically Stabilized Two Wheel Car 1960

This exhibit organized by the Detroit Institute of Arts will highlight the artistry and influence of Detroit car designers working between 1950 and the present day. It will bring together 12 coupes and sedans designed across that 70-year period to highlight significant achievements in style and technology.

The 12 cars include unique examples of experimental show cars created for display and iconic production models sold to the mass market. Design drawings and photographs will allow you to imagine the creative and innovative processes that bring a vehicle from the drawing board to the street.

1959 Corvette Stingray Racer
1959 Corvette Stingray Racer

A selection of paintings and sculptures will highlight the conversation between the American art world and the car culture from the 1950s to the present day.

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Art History Videos: Pablo Picasso’s “Les Femmes d’Alger – 1955” (Christie’s)

Christie's logoBetween 13 December 1954 and 14 February 1955, Picasso painted a series of fifteen canvases based on Eugène Delacroix’s masterwork Les femmes d’Alger, each of which he assigned an identifying letter from A to O. Together, these paintings constitute Picasso’s single greatest achievement in the decades following the end of the Second World War. They represent his first comprehensive appropriation and thoroughgoing exploration of an important painting by an earlier artist, as well as the most focused analysis he had done since the war years of the female figure set within a specific spatial environment.

Picasso painted the present Femmes d’Alger, Version F on 17 January 1955, around the halfway point in the cycle. It is the culminating, most fully resolved canvas from the first phase of the series, when Picasso favored medium-sized formats for his protean explorations.

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Cocktails With A Curator: “Stubb’s ‘Portrait Of Warren Hastings’ (Frick)

In this week’s episode of “Cocktails with a Curator,” join Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator Xavier F. Salomon as he considers the life of statesman Warren Hastings, who is depicted in a small watercolor from about 1791 by the prominent British artist George Stubbs. Explore the tumultuous career of Hastings, from his tenure as governor-general of India to a decade-long trial in Westminster Hall upon his return to England. This week’s complementary cocktail is a gin and tonic garnished with a slice of lime.

Art: Russian-French Painter Marc Chagall’s “Circus Of Color” (Video)

Sothebys LogoAs a child, Marc Chagall would marvel at the traveling acrobatic troupes that passed through his Village. The animals, dancers and musicians of the circus seemed to conjure a distinct joy that would consistently manifest itself throughout the artist’s career. In this episode of Expert Voices, discover how Chagall was able to uniquely translate this fascination to canvas as Edith Eustis delves into the deep greens and brilliant reds of Marc Chagall’s Le Cirque Vert. Painted in 1973, this work captures the magical allure of the spectacle and incorporates many of the artist’s most iconic motifs. Le Cirque Vert will be offered as a highlight of Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale in New York.

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Marc Chagall (1887 – 1985) was a Russian-French artist of Belarusian Jewish origin. An early modernist, he was associated with several major artistic styles and created works in a wide range of artistic formats, including painting, drawings, book illustrations, stained glass, stage sets, ceramic tapestries and fine art prints.