Supper at Emmaus

(A unpublished review for New City)




Caravaggio’s “Supper at Emmaus” and other “Caravaggesque” paintings, at the Art Institute of Chicago, through Jan. 31


1600 was a big year for Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610), and for the history of European painting, as that young man became famous for a dramatic realism that would develop a style for the counter-Reformation and begin to visualize the world of the street instead of the palace. One year later, he painted the “Supper at Emmaus” which is currently hanging in Gallery 211 at the Art Institute, surrounded by the works of those who followed him in the 17th. Century. And it has to be seen to be believed. Not so much for its fine detail, as for its size, and the way the figures project themselves into the viewer’s space, as it realizes that moment when God, through the Holy Ghost, dramatically entered human history. Which is to say, this is a very effective liturgical painting, and makes almost everything else in the room feel merely picturesque, especially the otherwise excellent painting by his rival, follower, chronicler, and bitter enemy, Giovanni Baglione (1566-1643).




Here's the Baglione
St. Francis








And here's a version
that Caravaggio did
about 5 years earlier




Why is it so effective? Certainly the drawing is important. Caravaggio drew directly on the canvas, unlike so many others who could only make great drawings on paper (Il Guercino, for example, whose “Entombment” hangs on the opposite wall).








Guercino




And here, in the actual painting, you can feel the careful modulation of tonal values that escaped so many of his followers (especially Bartolomeo Manfredi and Cecco del Caravaggio, whose works now hang on the same wall),








Manfredi


Ceccio






and escape all of the reproductions. (especially those transparencies that visited L.U.M.A. a few years ago) But overall, you just have to credit this tormented young man’s prophetic vision, which seems to have needed the power and beauty of divine grace much more than the rest of us.

Chicago Antiques Fair - Autumn 2009

My first destination
in this exhibit
was the gallery
with the Francis Chapin show

Chapin (1889-1965)
taught at the Art Institute
for about 2 decades beginning in 1930.


And when I finally found the Chapin display,
it was such a bold, noisy contrast
to the quieter things that filled
the adjacent rooms



The pieces felt a little like textbook examples
of how to design a modern painting
but they do seem to catch the excitement
of a big city




big, loud, affable, and goofy



He also painted
the vacation areas
where art colonies
popped up over the Summer
and he taught classes

I think he was having a fun life












This is one of his earlier paintings
done in the 1920's
showing that he
could just as well
have become an illustrator



























Here's another early painting
that seems to have some narrative
other than
"boy, is this a fun view"






this is one of his later watercolors,
probably from the 1950's
looking out of somebody's studio
in the Fine Arts Building on Michigan Ave.

Every square inch is packed with
some kind of turbulence
but it still feels
like a touristy postcard




Robert Tolman (b. 1886)

The lady in the underwear
with the paintbrush
is the artist's wife.

(the gallerist said that she
was becoming better known then him,
but not according to Google)

A very sweet scene,
I almost wish
I'd married an artist













These chubby fellows
from the Ming Dynasty
remind me of the model
we've been using the past month.

I wish this kind of figurative
architectural detailing
was used more today











Here's a famous Chicago landmark,
the Bahai temple
as it was seen about 60 years ago
by Walter Burt Adams
(note: it was still under construction)








I love these
little Tang fellows.

So happy to serve.











Stokley Webster (1912-2001)
was an American Impressionist
who also started several
small businesses
in his spare time.

This one grabbed my eye,
and it seems much better
than several of the other images
found on the internet






Hovep Pushman (1877-1966)
has been a favorite
of mine since I saw
his work in the Union League Club
a few years ago.

He specialized in still lifes
that included Chinese ceramics.

And I think he did them justice.

When 20th C. American painting
finally gets re-evaluated
after the age of Modern/Contemporary
is declared finished,
he will be rated near the top.








Paul Trouillebert (1829-1900)

The landed gentry
of 19th C. Cincinnati used to collect
Corot, so I grew up with him
in the local museums.

That's why I find this inferior hommage
so fascinating.

The quiet mystery is gone.





Hugh Kapel (1910-1982)
caught my eye
with this little breakfast nook


That painting of his
has the same effect
as ten cups of coffee





George Josimovich (1894-1986)
is mostly
an abstract
hard-edge painter.

But clearly,
he had once been to art school.

And I'm afraid
that none of my comrades
at the art club
draws this well.












Edward Gay (1837-1928)
was apparently
a very successful
painter in his day.

And I can see why.











Ming architectural ceramics
must be in fashion this year.

I can't remember any
from previous shows.











Charles Warren Mundy (b. 1945)
is a near contemporary of mine
so it was fun
to find his work
showing in an antiques fair.

He gets a little too loose for me,
but this one was my favorite of his.

The Confucian Scholar

Nukina Kaioku (1778-1863)
was a Confucian scholar
who lived in Japan.

Which meant that he was destined
to be a teacher instead of a high official.

And apparently
these screens were used
in his school
to exemplify higher learning


(the text are poems by Li Bo and Su Xiang)




Until I saw the Bamboo Forest
these were my favorite screens in the soon-to-close exhibit
at the Art Institute.

But, it's not really fair to compare them.

In the Bamboo Forest, every mark contributes to a spatial illusion.

But the only space on these screens
is that which surrounds each separate character.

They may be wonderfully arranged on the page
(they are)
but it's still just a collection of (wonderful) details


It's like the difference between a symphony
and a sequence of jazz improvisations.





or maybe "wonderful"
is not a strong enough word?

The fat and the thin of it.

It's all too exciting.



The characters are Chinese,
but can't you hear the Japanese accent?

(i.e.-- a flair for elegant drama)





If you wanted to learn Chinese culture in Japan,

wouldn't you want to study with this man?






at least,

you would have fun.

When is paint more than paint?

Ben Tinsley "Furniture Store on Whyte"


(an unpublished review for New City)






McCormick Gallery “Dirty Dozen” through Oct. 24

We can all admire fine craftsmanship – but that’s the first thing that comes to mind when standing before most of the paintings and sculptures in this survey of 12 contemporary artists at the McCormick Gallery. And shouldn’t painting demand attention to something more important? As Ben Tinsley does in “Furniture Store on Whyte”, a vignette of urban life that is “fixed in an artifice of eternity” (to quote Edward Snow regarding Vermeer). It’s half boarded up and definitely out of business, but unlike those melancholy Hopper scenes of New York, this abandoned little Chicago storefront sings with joy. Every detail is perfectly drawn and measured, especially the calligraphic graffiti that seems to have been applied by a wandering poet rather than gangbanger.

(note: Here's the painting of his I found at Art Chicago last May)


John Santoro



Also exceptional in this exhibit are the two suburban cityscapes by John Santoro. No meticulously painted brickwork here – instead, these are meticulous paintings of paint. But they also present places the artist likes to live (his yard, front and back), rather unkempt, but no less timeless than the “10,000 years” mentioned in the titles he gave them. All the other abstract paintings in this exhibit just seem to be about paint.

My fellow Academicians

Larry Paulsen

(an unpublished review for the New City)





Palette and Chisel Academy, through September 27

With it’s 50 hours/week of figure model sessions, the Palette and Chisel Academy is mostly about traditional European figure drawing, and nobody there does it better than Lawrence Paulsen, who seems to be time traveling back to the Royal Academy of Sir Joshua Reynolds, as he executes the deftly drawn contour line around the hips of a zoftig model. His portrait paintings also seem to date from that era, though they are much more subdued, not as powerful, and sometimes a bit ambivalent about the person being presented. Would that make him a Post-Modernist?








Jim Hajicek







The Palette and Chisel is also a center for plain air painters, and James Hajicek is one its best, as he makes so many happy simplifications in that brief period of time in which an on-site painting can be done. He also does impressionistic oil figure sketches in that manner of Nicolai Fechin which has been so popular at the P&C ever since Richard Schmid was President in the 1980’s. This style can show excitement, but works all too well as a metaphor for modern life, with a hectic central figure that seems cut and pasted onto a neglected background.




(more pictures can be found here )

Bijin-ga

Utamaro

Am I the only one in the world
who can look at Bijin-ga
(pictures of beautiful women)
day after day after day?

Why isn't there a market
for contemporary paintings or prints
on this subject?

(other than on the calendars
you find in auto repair shops)

Above is my all-time favorite,
(unless we include the Europeans)
but happily,
the genre did not die
in 19th Century Japan



Ito Shinsui (1898-1972)


Here's an artist
currently featured
in the Buckingham Print Gallery
at the Art Institute

How is that she feels more modern?
Is it that she's more in-your-face?

And a little less confidant about herself?





Ito Shinsui


And not quite so delicate







Ito Shinsui



This early piece is not in the Art Institute,

and it also feels
the most removed from
the Floating World
and more like a scene
of ordinary life


Ito Shinsui

This girl
feels more like a daughter
than a singsong girl.



Ito's career began at the tender age of 17,
when he engaged by a young art entrepreneur, Watanabe Shozaburo,
to design prints for the export market.

So he work was made for European and American collectors
rather than Japanese.

Would that make his work inauthentic ?
(as it would if he were an African sculptor)





Kiyokata Kaburagi (鏑木清方) 1878 –1972)

And she feels more like a wife.



This piece is
by Ito's teacher








and here's another.

More dynamic,
but not as personal
as his student





Hashiguchi Goyo (1880-1921)

And how are these girls different?






Hashiguchi Goyô

They seem more like pictures
and less like personalities.

Kishi Ganku : Bamboo Forest

Kishi Ganku (1749-1838)

Bamboo, 1829






Slowly, but surely
I'm putting up images of the Japanese screen exhibit
running at the Art Institute until the end of this month.

And it occurred to me yesterday,
during my weekly visit,
that this screen is my favorite.

I.e.
however much I like the others,
they all look a little weak
after spending some time in this bamboo forest.








And what especially surprised me,

is that the artist
was 80 years old
when he painted
these 12 screens.

Apparently,
he is most renowned for his tigers,
but from the images I've seen online
they're not quite up to the
tigers painted by Andy Chan of Chicago

Can you imagine having these screens
serve as a wall in your living room?

I would never leave the house.

Fans and Stream

"Fans and Stream"
by Sakai Hoitsu (1761-1828)






"The subject of fans floating in a stream (senmen nagashi) is said to have originated with an event that took place in Kyoto in which a fan belonging to one member of a shogunal procession was swept away by the wind and floated to the river below. The other members of the party found this accident so beautiful, that they too threw their fans down to the water."



What a story!

And what a painting,
done in the later years of this artist's career,
after he had become a monk,
and was emulating Ogata Kōrin,
a painter whom his daimyo clan
had collected



a collection
of beautiful accidents



This is one of the screens
from the St. Louis Art Museum
now on display
in Regenstein Hall at the Art Institute.