Take Me to the Water: Sargent and the Sea at MFA, Houston

Like the first life forms on Earth, the career of John Singer Sargent rose up from the sea. Between 1874 and 1879, when Sargent first emerged from his teens and began his career as an artist, he painted scenes of the sea and shore he witnessed during trips to Brittany, Normandy, Capri, and other Mediterranean spots. The exhibition Sargent and the Sea currently at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston brings together Sargent’s seascapes together for the first time to allow us to understand how the greatest portraitist of his time literally got his feet wet as a painter. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Take Me to the Water."

[Image: John Singer Sargent, American, born Italy, 1856-1925, En Route pour la pêche (Setting Out to Fish), 1878. Oil on canvas. Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Museum Purchase, Gallery Fund, 17.2.]

[Many thanks to Yale University Press for providing me with a review copy of the catalogue to Sargent and the Sea. Many thanks to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston for providing me with the image above from the exhibition Sargent and the Sea, which runs through May 23, 2010.]

Welcome, Jamie!

Our family welcomed with much love Jamie (above) into the world early Tuesday morning of this week. Mother, Big Brother Alex (meeting Jamie below), and Dad all doing fine. Dad will recommence blogging as soon as possible. Double the boys, double the fun. And half the sleep.

Isn’t It Romantic?: Gauguin’s Nevermore Wins Poll

Quoth the voters, Nevermore! A recent Art Fund poll asking “Which of these people has captured your idea of romance in art?” came up with the answer of Paul Gauguin’s Nevermore (pictured, from 1897). Voters could choose from among five thought-provoking selections picked by a diverse team of experts. It’s more ironic than romantic, and fascinating, that the winner of a Valentine’s Day-themed poll reflects a much different view of Romantic than the hearts and flowers variety. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Isn't It Romantic?"

Not Just a Pretty Face

“For me, a picture, since it is easel paintings that we have to paint, should be something lovable, joyful, and pretty: yes, pretty!,” Pierre-August Renoir once said in self-defense. “I know how difficult it is to get people to admit that a picture can be joyful and still be a very great painting.” Ever since rising to prominence with the generation of the Impressionists, Renoir has felt the sting of the beauty without the brains label. Anne Distel’s Renoir, a mammoth new monograph from Abbeville Press, wants to prove that Renoir is much more than just a pretty face.

[Image: Renoir, By the Seashore (1883)]

[Many thanks to Abbeville Press for providing me with a review copy of Anne Distel’s Renoir.]

The Art of the Deal

President Obama has suggested in not so many words the need for a “New Deal” for America today to, we hope, match the success of FDR’s “New Deal” of the post-Depression age. A good way of looking back at that first “New Deal” and deciding on whether a new “New Deal” is the right prescription for an ailing America might be through the government-supported arts of the 1930s. Revisiting the New Deal: Government Patronage and the Fine Arts, 1933-1943 at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, The University of Oklahoma, Norman reminds us of the vast misery of the Depression years and how art not only helped the people of that time understand, but also helped some of them survive. In these images from the past may reside the key to our future. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "The Art of the Deal."

[Image: Joseph Hirsch (U.S., 1910-1981), Street Scene, 1938. Oil on canvas, 22 x 24 in. Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, The University of Oklahoma, Norman; WPA Collection, 1942.]

[Many thanks to the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, The University of Oklahoma, Norman, for providing me with the image above from and press materials for Revisiting the New Deal: Government Patronage and the Fine Arts, 1933-1943, which runs through May 9, 2010.]

The Other Victorians

One of my first subversive art experiences was watching Terry Gilliam’s animated collage title sequences for Monty Python. The Pythons loved to poke fun at the vestiges of stuffy Victorian culture in British contemporary life with the subtlety of that giant foot stomping down at the end of each Gilliam short. Playing with Pictures: The Art of Victorian Photocollage, a new exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art kicks back at the idea of a monolithically moralistic Victorian age and shows the subversive side of the Victorians themselves, who poked fun at themselves long before the Pythons. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "The Other Victorians."

[Image: Georgina Berkeley (English, 1831–1919), Untitled Page from The Berkeley Album, 1866–71. Collage of watercolor, ink, pencil, and albumen silver prints. Musée d’Orsay, Paris.]

[Many thanks to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for providing me with image above and press materials for the exhibition Playing with Pictures: The Art of Victorian Photocollage, running through May 9, 2010.]