I studied Art History a lot in undergraduate and graduate school. I learned all the isms, all the movements and all the major participants. But some people never fit into a movement or an ism. Sometimes I liked their work anyway, other times they didn’t do much for me and they fell by the wayside. Marisol was in that group. She did blocky wooden sculptures of people that for some reason just didn’t engender any curiosity for me. I never knew more than just her greatest hits that would be in art history books or magazines and even those I perused with indifference.
But when there was going to be a major retrospective of her work at the Dallas Museum of Art I felt there was no reason for me not to check it out. At worst I would have a great day at the museum and among the food trucks next door and create some good sketchbook drawings.
I was more than pleasantly surprised. I found the work of an incredible artist who is profoundly creative, courageous, original and persistent in pursuing her vision. I had no idea of the breadth and depth of her work. This is why I go to exhibitions, because seeing what an art historian writes up in a book about an artist is no different than reading a music review of an album instead of actually listening to the album. One must experience creativity first hand to really feel it.
Here are some highlights from my visit.
Three Women with Umbrella – 1966 –
Three white women elegantly dressed up juxtaposed with a terrified young Vietnamese child holding a teddy bear. The working title for this was simply ‘Vietnam’. It is this type of sly commentary about social and political issues that made Marisol so unique.
Graphite and paint on wood with plexiglas, found plastic umbrella and stuffed bird
Three Women with Umbrella – close up
Three Women with Umbrella – close up
The Jazz Wall – 1963 – wood, found objects, paper and paint on wood
The Jazz Wall – close up
The Jazz Wall – close up
Marisol used her own face for the castings of the trumpet and piano players.
Illustration for Paris Review – 1967 – Ink on paper, Silkscreen – artist’s proof
Doll – various fabrics – 1955-63
Marisol was sometimes trivialized by the press as making toy-like art and dolls. She did make many dolls, often as part of larger sculptures but also as stand alone pieces. Her inspiration stemmed from an older artist in Venezuela, Armando Reverón, who did the same thing.
Baby Boy – 1962-1963 – Painted wood and mixed media
Another covert commentary in guise of a something benign. The baby boy is monstrously big and is seemingly manhandling the doll (with a photo of Marisol’s face). The clothing is a partial white star, a blue sleeve and red stripes. At the time someone paying attention would have understood the messaging that the US is a big toddler bully, only partially aware of the damage it is causing.
Baby Boy – close upSelf-Portrait – 1961-1962 – Wood, plaster, marker, paint, graphite, human teeth, gold and plastic
Self Portrait – close up
Ruth – 1962 – carved wood and mixed media
This is a portrait of Marisol’s good friend Ruth Kligman, a big personality in New York art world of the 50s and 60s who had an affair with Jackson Pollack and was injured in the car wreck that killed him in 1956.
There are multiple portraits in the round with cast hands (Marisol’s) and cast bell peppers as breasts.
Ruth – close up
Tea for Three – 1960 – Wood, acrylic, found objects
This sculpture shows one of the first times Marisol used her own body. The casts of mouth, nose and hands are hers.
The colors represent the Venezuelan flag, her heritage.
Tea for Three – close upThe Party – 1965-1966 – Assemblage of 15 freestanding, life-size figures and three wall panels
The Party, close up
The Party, close up
Marisol was a well-known celebrity in the mid 60s, often found in the pages of fashion magazines alongside her creations as well as at well documented parties among the cognoscenti of the time.. This ambitious piece recreates that world from the most to the least celebrated. Each figure is endowed with the artist’s own face, thus making a statement not just about society but about herself.
Swimming in a New Direction
At the height of her fame in 1968 she disappeared. She took off for points unknown to most of the art world, divorcing herself from that society for a period of time. What she did with that time was to travel and specifically to travel underwater. She learned to scuba dive and spent years taking photos and film underwater. Five years later, in 1973, she started to show the creative results of that exploration.
The large figure looks much like the famous Greek Kouros. Both the odd creature at the fishman’s feet and the fish he is holding have faces that are casts of Marisol’s face.
Pescado – 1970 – cast acrylic – edition of 75
Barracuda – 1971 – wood, varnish, plastic
An interesting side note – All the fish she sculpted were given the names of US warships of the time. She was once again creating art and making political statements, however obliquely, at the same time.
Untitled – 1972 – watercolor and ballpoint pen on paper
St Maarten – 1972 – Gouache, watercolor and graphite on paper
While she was on her travels she painted extensively in her sketchbooks and on larger pieces.
Diptych – 1971 – Lithograph
Marisol also experimented extensively with printmaking. In this instance she was inspired by the Japanese technique of Gyotaku printing, pressing a fish against paper to document prize catches. Instead of fish she used her own oiled and nude body pressed on to two lithography stones that she then worked and printed.
You can see in the close up the cartoon heart pierced by and arrow and the wound in her side surrounded by teeth.
This using of a technique that is used to celebrate catches of meat on her own body instead is a courageous statement of the objectifying sexism of her day.
Diptych – close upi Did My Future – 1974 – colored pencil and graphite on paper
Marisol never shied away from speaking her mind about the abstract violence of war and the very real violence against women and others right around her in New York and beyond.
Here she uses a friend’s body that has been laid out on paper that she then outlines with randomly chosen colored pencils. Combining the blood tinged body outline with dark guns, anonymous sexually grabbing hands and a realistic rendering of the model’s infant child is a great example of the power of artistic creativity to send a profound message.
Horace Poolaw – 1993 – wood, paint, graphite, plaster and metal wheeled base
This was Marisol’s contribution to an exhibition celebrating the 500th anniversary of Columbus’s voyage to the new world.
She created a portrait of an indigenous person set on a police barricade cart that says ‘Police Line Do Not Cross’.
The Funeral – 1996 – Paint, crayon, and oil on wood
Marisol’s social commentary sometimes went into pathos and despair as can be seen in this sculpture of JFK Jr. saluting at his father’s funeral.
Picasso – 1977 – Painted Bronze
Untitled – 2006 – graphite and colored pencil on paper
As Marisol aged she lost her memory but not her ability or desire to create. She did numerous drawings of her caregivers, friends and self-portraits. Her techniques and subject matter remained constant throughout her life even as her materials were reduced to just colored pencils.
Hopefully you come away from seeing this collection with either a new or expanded appreciation for an artist who never wavered in her intense desire for freedom of creativity and an insightful and heartfelt response to what in her mind was a grossly unfair and hurtful world. She did not pursue fame and fortune but rather substance and meaning. In that she succeeded.
I went to the Pantheon in Paris in the spring of 2025. I had no idea what to expect beyond there were certain famous french people entombed there. What I found was an amazing architectural space with huge paintings depicting the lives of many of France’s most famous founders, saints and martyrs, monumental sculptures depicting moments from French history and the tombs of some of the greats like Rousseau and Voltaire. going solo allowed me to soak in the space, the art and the history without time constraints.
All of it was a new discovery but one element took me completely by surprise and that was an exhibition by Anselm Keifer, the illustrious German artist. I have been aware of his work most of my adult life but had probably only seen one or two of his massive paintings in the flesh.
The exhibition is six large see-through steel and glass boxes known as vitrines in the middle of the Pantheon space. They seem invisible at first since you could see through them and the color scheme throughout the pieces was somewhat muted and not in high contrast to the surroundings. However, once I started to look at them I was mesmerized. He’s known as an artist who taps into history, especially German history of the World War Two era. His images are evocative and hint at the catastrophes of that era.
But these images were not about World War Two, instead they referenced World War One. In many ways, it had an even more profound effect on all of Europe than its successor because the needless and horrendous wasteful slaughter and the profound changes societally and politically that happened as a result. These are the things he was addressing in these images along with memory and hope.
The Women of 14 – The Men of 14 – Anselm Kieffer, 2020
The Women of 14 – The Men of 14 – Anselm Kieffer – detail, 2020
What Are We? – Anselm Kieffer, 2020
What Are We? (detail) – Anselm Kieffer – detail, 2020
Poppies and Memories – Anselm Kieffer, 2020
Poppies and Memories (detail) – Anselm Kieffer – detail, 2020
What I love most about these is because of their transparency in the larger setting of the Pantheon you see not just the powerful and creative WW1 story you also see French history, architecture, and culture within, behind, around and reflected in the image, giving it a much more profound story telling power. They are some of the most effective art pieces I have ever seen.
Here is one of my first loves. I got this image as a postcard so far back I don’t even remember. I think it was in High School but it might have been during college. All I know is I had it taped up on my wall, my computer, my closet door, and every other place I ever lived for decades and decades. I am pretty sure I still have it in a box in the attic.
George Luks, Girl from Madrid, oil on canvas, 1925
I fell in love with the painting, the woman and the artist the moment I saw the image. Something about the painterly style, the red lips, dark eyes, the glass of water, the shadow under her chin, the pose. Every single thing about it mesmerized me and still does to this day. It led me on a journey into George Luks’ work and the work of his fellow artists who formed the Ashcan school, so called because they painted from the real gritty of life with a lot of muted colors. Of course this painting has plenty of color but in spite of that it still feels dark and moody with its intensely dark background and harsh shadows.
For the most part the realism of the Ashcan artists is about more than just a realistic depiction of something or someone. It is about the real world of everyday struggles for the working class inhabitants of New York (and elsewhere). It is also about gritty urban landscapes far removed from the genteel beauty of manicured lawn and tennis parties. The people aren’t overly idealized, even when they are traditionally beautiful or socially high up. There is a tone and mood that tamps down the beauty and ups the emotional complexity of the sitter.
We often think of the Europeans working in Cubism, Fauvism and other isms as being the artistic rebels of the time but the Americans were equally so. The Ashcan artists actually had 16 pieces in the famous 1913 Armory show in New York that exposed the new paintings of Europe and America to an American audience for the first time.
I’ve collected a number of images from each of the 5 members of the Ashcan School; George Luks, Robert Henri, John Sloan, Everett Shinn and William Glackens. Here they are.
George Luks
Luks started his career as a newspaper illustrator in Philadelphia where he met the other men who would come to make up the Ashcan School. Their goals were influenced by Henri, who wanted artists to focus on the real world around them, the people and places dismissed and forgotten by high society and the artists that catered to that class. Luks soon moved to New York, continuing to illustrate for newspapers and adding comic strip artist to his resume. Eventually he started to focus on serious painting and became a chronicler of Manhattan’s lower east side.
George Luks, Mining Village No. 3, watercolor, 1923
George Luks, Lady with a White Hat, oil on canvas, undated
George Luks, A Clown, oil on canvas, 1929
George Luks, Holiday on the Hudson, oil on canvas, 1912
George Luks, Girl from Madrid, oil on canvas, 1925
George Luks, Portrait of a Girl, oil on canvas
George Luks, Girl in Green, oil on canvas, 1925
George Luks – Sketches
George Luks
Robert Henri
Henri was the leader and probably the most famous of the Ashcan artists. Henri was quite a bit older than the other artists in his group and as such was a mentor and artistic leader for them. He focused his artistic attention on everyday life rather than the poised and posh upper society imagery that his contemporaries were creating. His work often depicted gritty and earthy elements of society. Even when he painted society portraits, his colors and mood, as with all the Ashcan School, were muted and subtle. the circle of artists who surrounded him came to believe this emphasis on ‘real life’ was the way forward for American art and followed him down that path.
Robert Henri, Snow in New York, oil on canvas, 1902, National Gallery of Art
Robert Henri, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, oil on canvas, 1916, Whitney Museum of American Art
Robert Henri, Storm Tide, 1903, oil on canvas, Whitney Museum of American Art
Robert Henri, Tam Gan (and close up), oil on canvas, 1915, Buffalo AKG Art Museum
Robert Henri, West Coast of Ireland, Oil on canvas, 1913, private collection
Robert Henri, Portrait of Marjorie Henri (wife), oil on canvas, 1914, San Diego Museum of Art
Robert Henri, Reader in the Forest, pastel on paper, 1918, private collection
Robert Henri, Miss Kaji Waki, oil on canvas, 1909, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Robert Henri, Irish Lass, oil on canvas, 1913, private collection
Robert Henri, Betalo Nude, oil on canvas, 1916, Milwaukee Art Museum
Robert Henri, George Luks Playing baseball, ink on paper, 1904
Robert Henri, Two Women on a Couch, Pen, Ink and wash, Brooklyn Museum
Robert Henri, photographic portrait
John Sloan
As was many of the Ashcan artists, Sloane was a newspaper illustrator for much of his life and is where most of his income came from. He was a prolific painter and quite well known but he was not commercially successful for quite a while.
John Sloan, McSorley’s Bar, oil on canvas, 1912
John Sloan, Turning Out the Light (from New York City Life series), etching, 1905
John Sloan, Sunday, Women Drying Their Hair, oil on canvas, 1912
John Sloan, Dust Storm, Fifth Avenue, oil on canvas, 1906, Metropolitan Museum of Art
John Sloane, The City from Greenwich Village, oil on canvas, 1922
John Sloan, Chinese Restaurant, oil on canvas, 190, Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester
John Sloan, After the War a Medal and Maybe a Job, drawing, 1914
John Sloan, Sunbathers on the Roof, etching, 1941
John Sloan, Nude, wash and ink on paper, undated
Everett Shinn and William Glackens
Shinn and Glackens are lesser known members of the Ashcan school but their work is no less powerful. Neither exhibited at the 1913 Armory Show but Glackens welcomed the new, innovate art from Europe while Shinn showed nothing but disdain for it then and until the end of his life. If you’ve ever been to the Barnes Collection in Philadelphia, one of the preeminent museums showing modern art from the 20th century, it will be interesting for you to know that it was Glackens who went to Europe on Barne’s behalf to look for a purchase many of the new and exciting paintings of that era for Barnes. Those paintings became the foundation for Barnes’s massive collection.
Everett Shinn, Girl on Stage, oil on canvas, 1906
Everett Shinn, The White Ballet, oil on canvas, 1904, Smithsonian American Art Museum
Everett Shinn, Woman on a Staircase, oil on canvas, 1935, private collection
Everett, Shinn, A Nude, oil on canvas, undated, private collection
William Glackens, Collier’s Cover, 1910
William Glackens, On Broadway Near 8th, crayon and chalk, 1913, Delaware Art Museum
William Glackens, Armenian Girl, oil on canvas, 1916, The Barnes Collection
William Glackens, La Peritif, oil on canvas, 1926, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
William Glackens, Young Woman in Green, oil on canvas, 1915, St. Louis Art Museum
Why do I love Frida and her art? Let me count the ways. She’s a story teller and a truth teller. She’s creatively, emotionally, socially, politically and relationally fearless and courageous. She’s resilient and persistent. She’s independent. I went to the Dallas Museum of Art this week to see the Exhibition ‘Frida: Beyond the Myth’. It’s organized as a chronological review of her life and art and uses photographs, drawings and paintings to examine and explain how her biography was so important to her creativity and resulting artwork.
Frida with Cigarette,, Altavista, 1941 Nicolas Muray, gelatin silver print
This stunning photo shows how truly determined and successful she was in being herself, fully and completely, with no apologies and no regrets. She had immense pressure to conform throughout her life and at every turn she chose to stand her ground and say, ‘This is me, take me or leave me’. This led her to being respected around the world by thousands of artists and art patrons, even as she confronted their culpability in bending to the status quo that she herself would not.
THE ACCIDENT
The seminal event of her life was a trolley/bus accident when she was just 19 years old. She suffered a fractured spine, broken ribs and collarbone, dislocated shoulder, crushed right foot and multiple fractures in her right leg. She was not expected to survived and as a matter of fact, her then boyfriend, who was also in the accident and injured, though less severely, advocated assertively for the doctors to work hard to save her when the inclination was that she was probably not going to make it.
The Accident, 1926
THE FIRST SELF-PORTRAIT
Self Portrait in a Velvet Dress, oil on canvas, 1926
Kahlo is known for her self-portraits and here is her first known one. Painted a year after the accident she gave it to her boyfriend Alejandro Gómez Arias in appreciation and in hopes of keeping her in his thoughts while she continued to recover.
THE ABORTION
Years later she was romantically attached to Diego Rivera, one of the most famous of all Mexican muralists. Upon finding out she was pregnant Rivera demanded she get an abortion, which she did. It was the first of many. This image illustrates the severe depression she suffered as a result. It is one of the first where she illustrates a cycle of life, something she returns to again and again.
THE DEBACLE
In the early 1930s Diego Rivera was invited to create a number of murals around the United States. They all ended up being controversial but none more so than his mural at Rockefeller Center in New York City. It depicted the heroes of the communist revolution in the Soviet Union and around the world. This of course did not go over well with the ardent capitalists of New York, especially the Rockefellers. The mural was condemned and covered up after many many months of work on his part.
My Dress Was There Hanging (New York), oil and collage on masonite, 1933-1938
Frida was incensed by what she saw as the blatant hypocrisy of America in condemning Rivera’s work while promoting itself as a paragon of Christian humanity toward others. If that was so, why were the unemployed allowed to starve? That and many other questions haunted her and this painting was her effort to express that by showing the disparity between the collaged unemployed below with the ostentatiousness and seduction above.
My Dress Was There Hanging (New York), close up
Frida in front of the Unfinished Communist Unity Panel, New Workers School, 1933, Photograph by Lucienne Bloch
THE SUICIDE OF DOROTHY HALE
One thing Kahlo was above all else was direct. She wasn’t obtuse or hidden in her visual story telling. This didn’t always work well for her. In 1939 Clare Booth Luce commissioned Kahlo to created a portrait of remembrance for the mother of Dorothy Hale, an actress who had committed suicide by jumping out of a New York Skyscraper. Kahlo did not paint a portrait of remembrance, she painted a very graphic and direct image of Hale falling to her death. Luce wanted to destroy the painting as it was deeply disturbing to her but was talked out of it.
The Suicide of Dorothy Hale, 1939, oil on masonite with hand painted frame
The Suicide of Dorothy Hale, close up
SELF – TRANSFORMATION
Kahlo continued to paint self portraits throughout her life but they changed as she got older. No longer do you see her refined and elegant with her hair up. Now she is starting to show herself with her hair down, more casual and unkempt, something that had to do with her being bedridden in pain but also because she no longer was driven to adorn herself, to be ‘attractive’ to Rivera or anyone else.
Self-portrait with Monkey, 1945, oil on masonite
Self-Portrait with Loose Hair, 1947, oil on Masonite
STILL LIFE
As she became less mobile she spent more and more time painting symbolic images and still lifes. That didn’t mean she gave up imbuing her images with meaning. As you can tell in Sun and Life the symbolism is strong, with a fetus, labia images and shooting phalluses. This was painted not long after she had her 4th abortion so it is likely it all refers back to the complicated sexual and emotional relationship she had with Rivera.
Sun and Life, 1947, oil on Masonite
Sun and Life, close up
In this still life you can see similar imagery reflecting her identity. The sensual cut open fruit, the Mexican flag and native parrot all show parts of her, as does the flag impaling the fruit, not unlike how she was impaled in the accident so many years before.
Still Life with Parrot and Flag, 1951, Oil on masonite
BEDRIDDEN
For the last years of her life she was completely bedridden, unable to go anywhere. She was in constant pain and the various surgeries she underwent through the years had all failed to alleviate it. She painted from her bed until she could no longer. She died in 1954 at the age of just 47.
Frida Painting with Diego Rivera looking on, 1951
THE END
In the end it has to be said Frida Kahlo led a very tortured and sad life in many ways. She would agree, not being one to have a pretend happy disposition when it wasn’t warranted. There is a type of person who wears their heart on their sleeve. Kahlo was like that but instead of on her sleeve she wore it in her paintings. They are masterful dissections of a deeply wounded soul, baring the most intimate of feelings for all the world to see. She was one of the first true autobiographical artists and her influence in the art world has been felt ever since.
Frida with Magenta Rebozo, 1939, Photograph by Nickolas Muray
Artists I Love – Figures from the LACMA Permanent Collection
When we vacationed in LA in the summer of 2024 I knew I wanted to see the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). It was one of my favorite museums when I was growing up in LA and when I lived there again as a young adult. The main reason I wanted to go was because of a special exhibition of Ed Ruscha’s lifetime of work. He is among the top artists in my life. You can see why in the post, ‘Artists I Love: Ed Ruscha‘ from 2015. The images in that post were from a retrospective of his work at the Denver Museum of Art and covers most of what was in the LACMA exhibition.
I didn’t know what I would find in the permanent collection but was very pleasantly surprised. I easily took over 100 photographs of the art in that collection and obviously had to edit it down. No surprise, I found the figurative theme most interesting. This selection is centered in the Expressionist paintings of the early 20th century. The paintings that are not in that movement either lead the way into the expressive use of form and color the expressionists are known for or show the lasting affect expressionism had on painting later in the century.
The Impressionist Revolution – From Monet to Matisse
Selections from the Dallas Museum of Art Special Exhibitions
Not an Apple
A few weeks ago a friend of mine who was trying to make a political statement online showed an apple with accompanying text saying “This is a watermelon. If you see an apple it’s because you are a right wing conspiracy theorist.” The inference being it should be obvious to everyone it is an apple, not a watermelon, and those who think it’s a watermelon are being deceived by the main stream media. I called her out on this post, not only because I disagreed with her politics, but because she herself began by believing a lie. She said it was an apple. It was not an apple, it was a photograph of an apple.
An Impression
Simple as it may be, this is a mistake many people make about art as well and this was the delusion from which the Impressionists set out to free themselves. No longer were they going to create something that was built on a lie. They were no longer going to try to convince their audience the painting before them was actually the person, place or thing. They would paint in such a way that everyone would know it was not the real thing but a creative representation made with brushstrokes of paint on a two-dimensional surface. It was an impression. It was the most radical idea in the history of painting up to that point and it turned the art world upside down as a result. For many decades they were not accepted, they were even hated, because they broke a sacred illusion that had lived in art for hundreds of years, the illusion of reality.
The Geniuses
Here are 10 examples of paintings by some of the great impressionists and those that came them; the post-impressionists, the pointillists, and others. Take a look at the whole painting then at the close up showing the actual paint strokes. If you have a large screen view it on that. They were geniuses of the first order and the magic is real.
‘Wow, it looks just like a photograph!’ school of adoration
When you look at art in the future hopefully you will be less enamored with the ‘Wow, it looks just like a photograph!’ school of adoration. It isn’t the height of skill to be able to do that actually. Anyone can learn how, I know because I taught drawing for a decade and had students who couldn’t draw a stick figure render incredibly life-like drawings at the end because their skills improved. But the best of my students weren’t the ones who could do that. The best were the ones who had something interesting to say. They had a unique way of seeing and creating and their artwork reflected that. That, to me, is the sign of a true artist.
I am starting a new series, ‘Authors I Love’, a companion to my ongoing series ‘Artists I Love’.
OLD AND NEW
I love reading big old books. The longer and older the better. Why? For one reason, it allows me to travel. I was explaining this idea to my wife today after I finished ‘Middlemarch’ written in the 1870s by George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans). She asked if it made me want to live in the Victorian era in Great Britain. I said, yes and no. Yes, because reading the book was like traveling to a different time. You know how when you go to a new place you see so many things that are familiar but not? There are buildings like at home, but different. Food like at home, but different. Humans like home, but different. The same is true of literature from the past. It is familiar but different. Then again, no. In Middlemarch the language is so rich and vocabulary so extensive that it is like going where they speak English in such an unfamiliar way that you feel like you are hearing it for the first time. Not old from a different era, but new, like a revelation of what could be.
Selected Works by George Eliot
MIDDLEMARCH
‘A Study of Provincial Life’ is the subtitle of the book. And indeed the story is about the goings on in the provincial town of Middlemarch in England in the early to mid 1800s, right in the heart of the Victorian era. The story starts and ends with Dorethea, an intelligent and unique woman who wants to do good in the world. Her only avenue for this it seems is to find a husband who is contributing to the betterment of the world in a big way and help him in that task. She does find this man and fully expects her marriage will lead to the future she envisions for herself. It does not go according to plan.
Eliot sculpture in her hometown of Nuneaton, UK. The town also has a hospital, hospice and school named after her.
Meanwhile, others in Middlemarch are trying to make their way in the world, either through marriage, if they are a woman, or in the church, business, politics, farming or other areas of commerce if they are a man. Much of the story revolves around women both pushing their way into areas that typically are the realm of men and demurring to the men and staying in the background. I said ‘both’ instead of ‘either’ because all the women do both. The tension of who they want to be and who they feel restrained to be is palpable in every chapter and drives much of the novel.
It is also about young people chaffing at the bit of tradition and ‘the way things are done’. Pushing up against that is the height of bad manners and a number of the younger characters suffer career and life setbacks because of their attempting to move forward in science, medicine, politics, society and religion.
Middlemarch book cover illustration
I love her crafting of words to create character, mood, environment and more. Here is an example –
“She was glowing from her morning toilette as only healthful youth can glow; there was gem-like brightness on her coiled hair and in her hazel eyes; there was warm red life in her lips; her throat had a breathing whiteness above the differing white of the fur which itself seemed to wind about her neck and cling down her blue-gray pelisse with a tenderness gathered from her own, a sentient commingled innocence which kept its loveliness against the crystalline purity of the outdoor snow.”
Middlemarch book cover illustration
And here is another, this one delving into the psyche of humanity.
“She sat tonight revolving, as she was wont, the scenes of the day, her lips often curling with amusement at the oddities to which her fancy added fresh drollery: people were so ridiculous with their illusions, carrying their fools’ caps unawares, thinking their own lies opaque while everybody else’s were transparent, making themselves exceptions to everything, as if when all the world looked yellow under a lap they alone were rosy.”
You can find more quotes at the end of this post.
Here is a link to a more thorough and thoughtful appreciation than I can give. The Genius of Middlemarch
Hand cast of Eliot’s hand
Eliot, being one of the most famous writers of her era, had a death hand cast made instead of a death mask to honor and highlight her accomplishments as an author.
Here is a photo of her. She looks surprisingly like Oscar Wilde, don’t you think?
George Eliot
Oscar Wilde
SILAS MARNER
I have heard the name most of my life. I knew he was a victorian character but I wouldn’t have been able to tell you if he was created by Dickens or Dickensen or any other author. Once I got this book I knew of course. I bought it to read Middlemarch and it wasn’t planning on reading any of the other stories, at least not right away. But I was not ready to be done with Eliot and I have always wanted to know who Silas Marner was in literary history so now was my opportunity to find out.
from 1985 film
The full title of the book, ‘Silas Marner – The Weaver of Raveloe’, tells you who he is, at least professionally. Like Middlemarch this book shows a slice of provincial life, but with the focus on one particular character. Marner is a solitary man living along on the edge of town. He weaves linen that he then sells through various stores or directly to some of the wealthier women. He is seen as an eccentric man with whom good society would not entertain a relationship. They would however buy his product as he is a meticulous weaver who does excellent work.
book illustration
He saves his gold coins religiously and obsessively counts them at night. Through a series of horrible circumstances he has those coins stolen from him. He, nor anyone else, knows who stole the coins. Meanwhile through another series of horrible circumstances he becomes the caretaker of a baby who is not yet able to walk.
book illustration
This conjunction of loss and gain is at the heart of the story and at the heart of Marner’s transformation within himself and within the community. There are good and bad people throughout but in all cases the personalities are complex and subtle, rich characters who are not cliche cut-outs of virtue or vice.
book cover illustration
The story is ultimately uplifting and inspiring but it is never cloying or pandering. It’s a great place to start reading to get an appreciation for Eliot’s work.
from 1916 film
Once again she has some astute quotes that show her insight into human nature.
“A dull mind, once arriving at an inference that flatters a desire, is rarely able to retain the impression that the notion from which the inference started was purely problematic.”
“The yoke a man creates for himself by wrongdoing will breed hate in the kindliest nature.”
Brother Jacob
I thought this was probably about a monk but it wasn’t. It is a short story about a greedy man, David Faux, who steals from his family and sets off overseas to seek his fame and fortune as a confectioner. He leaves behind a brother who is an ‘idiot’ (Eliot’s term, not mine). I think now he would be seen as neurodivergent, perhaps with Down Syndrome. The story then fast forwards many years and David reappears under another name in a nearby village where he runs a successful confectionary shop. His bright future in marriage and business is dependent on it never being found out his real name and place in the world. Suffice it to say this does not go according to plan.
One of the best plot devices Eliot uses is the man who has it all planned vs the messiness and unpredictability of real life. While she allows it to happen to most everyone in all her stories, it is especially satisfying when it is combined with the underlying moral failures of a character.
The Lifted Veil
This amazing short story is a departure for Eliot in that it is about the supernatural. The protagonist finds he is able to hear peoples’ inner thoughts. Everyone that is but his brother’s fiance, on whom he has a crush. His mind has to imagine what she is thinking and because he is completely enamored of her he creates a deep and rich inner thought life for her. That drives him into even deeper love.
The story is about what happens when he no longer has to see her from a distance and suddenly is able to hear her thoughts as well. Are his hopeful conjectures of her deep inner life proven true or are they dashed? It’s worth reading to find out.
More Middlemarch Quotes
“No evil dooms us hopelessly except the evil we love, and desire to continue in, and make no effort to escape from.”
“But this vague conviction of indeterminable guilt…had for the general mind all the superior power of mystery over fact. Everybody liked better to conjecture how the thing was, than simply to know it; for conjecture soon became more confident than knowledge, and had a more liberal allowance for the incompatible.”
“A man vows, and yet will not cast away the means of breaking his vow. Is it that he distinctly means to break it? Not at all; but the desires which tend to break it are at work in him dimly, and make their way into his imagination, and relax his muscles in the very moments when he is telling himself over again the reasons for his vow.”
“Fear is stronger than the calculations of probabilities.”
“If youth is the season of hope, it is often so only in the sense that our elders are hopeful about us; for no age is so apt as youth to think it’s emotions, partings, and resolves are the last of their kind. Each crisis seems final, simply because it is new.”
“But even while we are talking and meditation about the earth’s orbit and the solar system, what we feel and adjust our movements to is the stable earth and the changing day.”
“For the egoism which enters into our theories does not affect their sincerity; rather, the more our egoism is satisfied, the more robust is our belief.”
“Men outlive their love, but they don’t outlive the consequences of their recklessness.”
“Few things hold the perceptions more thoroughly captive than anxiety about what we have got to say.”
“I have always been thinking of the different ways in which Christianity is taught, and whenever I find one way that makes it a wider blessing than any other, I cling to that as the truest – I mean that which takes in the most good of all kinds, and brings in the most people as sharers in it. It is surely better to pardon too much than to condemn too much.”
“There is nothing more thoroughly rotten than making people believe that society can be cured by a political hocus-pocus.”
“Will not a tiny speck very close to our vision blot out the glory of the world, and leave only a margin by which we see the blot? I know no speck so troublesome as self.”
“The truth is the hardest missile one can be pelted with.”
“Philanthropist: a man whose charity increases directly as the square of the distance.”
“Her blindness to whatever did not lie in her own pure purpose carried her safely by the side of precipices where vision would have been perilous with fear.”
“When gratitude has become a matter of reasoning there are many ways of escaping from its bonds.”
“Solomon’s Proverbs, I think, have omitted to say, that as the sore palate findeth grit, so an uneasy consciousness heareth innuendoes.”
“Selfish people always think their own discomfort of more importance than anything else in the world.”
“There is no religion to hinder a man from believing the best of a young fellow, when you don’t know worse. It seems to me it would be a poor sort of religion to put a spoke in his wheel by refusing to say you don’t believe such harm of him as you’ve got no good reason to believe.”
“We mortals, men and women, devour many a disappointment between breakfast and dinnertime; keep back the tears and look a little pale about the lips, and in answer to inquiries say, “Oh, nothing!” Pride helps us; and pride is not a bad thing when it only urges us to hide our own hurts – not to hurt others.”
This summer I went to visit my daughter Rebekah and her family in Virginia. I was particularly excited to spend time with my 10 year old granddaughter, Vivian. The first day we went museum hopping in Washington, DC. We spent time seeing selections from the National Portrait Gallery, the National Gallery of Art and The National Archives. Vivian was a trooper, walking over 9 1/2 miles that day with nary a peep. Bribing her with Boba Tea at the end helped.
The first four shown here are from an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery called ‘BRAVO!” which highlighted people in the entertainment industry over the decades. I was particularly taken by these paintings of women and their stories of overcoming strong obstacles to achieve their goals. The fifth, ‘Amarilla’, was elsewhere in the museum but I really liked it so I included it.
I recently ran the Cowtown Half Marathon in Fort Worth, Texas and took the opportunity while there to visit one of my favorite museums, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. I’ve been a number of times before while visiting my niece who attends TCU nearby but this time I made sure to take pictures of some of my favorite pieces in the collection.
The Carter is one of 3 museums in the same location. The others are the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and the Kimbell Art Museum, both of which are incredible in their own right, both architecturally and because of the permanent collections and temporary exhibitions.
No offense to Fort Worth’s more attention-getting cousin, but Dallas doesn’t have anything on Fort Worth when it comes to museums. Don’t get me wrong, I love the DMA, but these three museums are really special.
Chimney and Water Tower, Charles Demuth
Two Herons 1948-50, William Lester, Oil on Masonite
Parson Weems’ Fable, Grant WoodRanchos Church, New Mexico, Georgia O’KeefePeaceable Kingdom, Edward Hicks
Peaceable Kingdom – close upA Dash for the Timber, Frederic Remington
A Dash for the Timber – close upSwimming, Thomas EakinsSwimming – close up
I was raised in a family with art on the walls and art history all around me. I studied art and art history all through undergraduate and graduate school. As a result there are many artists whom I have known about and seen their work over many decades. This is especially true of the work of the early and mid-twentieth century American artists, some that my Grandfather and Grandmother collected. One artist among this group was Stuart Davis. I saw many of his pieces during my studies and some in person. I always liked his work but had never really seen the entire breadth of his accomplishments until I went to the ‘Stuart Davis – In Full Swing’ exhibition at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas.
What did I find? I found an innovative abstractionist before there was such a thing, an insightful pop artist before pop art existed and, most surprisingly, a musician who whose instrument was paint. Here are a few pieces that illustrate how the thread of these three ideas weave seamlessly together throughout his career.
POP BEFORE POP
Starting in the late 50s and blossoming in the 1960s, pop art became all the rage. It was a communal reaction from many younger artists to the abstract expressionism then prevalent in the art world. The pop artist was intent on engaging with popular culture instead of withdrawing from it. The 60s were a time of great social upheaval and for many artists trying to be a part of that while painting something that had no visual relationship to it was impossible. So, they took ideas and images from their environment, especially in the area of advertising and mass media (what social media was called before it was social). They then transformed these images in size, material, intent and location to have the image be more than just a soup can or comic strip or American flag. They became commentary and critique at one level and formal visual statements at another.
They were thought of as wholly original and American in their creative use of the world around them and had much acclaim and fame as a result. Only, it really wasn’t as original as we supposed. Stuart Davis had thought of the idea and painted many canvases exploiting the idea in the late 20s, 30 years before.
Here is a popular mouthwash of the day and a typical print advertisement promoting it.
Davis took the product image and created still lives based on them, using it as a starting point for a formal exploration of shape, color, form etc. and at the same time introducing social commentary about popular culture of the time.
Odol, 1924, Oil in canvasOdol, 1924, Oil in canvasLucky Strike, 1924 – oil on paperboard
As you can see, Davis was exploiting the commercial world around him for artistic and social expression well before the pop artists came around. This is evidence that no matter how original a movement seems to be you can usually find roots and reasons behind its development that show an incremental development from work that has come before.
ABSTRACTION
Once Davis started down the road of using objects from day-to-day life for his subjects he quickly moved beyond mere representation. He did this by adding another element that would gain great traction later in American life and that is abstraction. This was not a concept he came up with, it had been germinating in Europe for at least a decade or two. Malevich, LIssitzky, Kandinsky and Mondrian were all moving decisively in that direction in the first two decades of the twentieth century.
As a matter of fact, Davis was very attuned to this European movement from the time he attended the famous Armory Show of 1913 in New York City. While pure abstraction wasn’t highly visible at that show, it was hinted at in many of the works. In subsequent years the European abstract artists work continued to be known about and seen in America on occasion. But, here is what is interesting. The majority of collectors and artists purposely rejected the European idea of abstraction in favor or what became known as American Regionalism. In an effort to delineate boundaries between the two continents and forge their own identity, American artists went in the opposite direction, towards a social realism and narrative story telling.
All except Stuart Davis. Instead of reacting against abstraction he decided to investigate it and find it’s expressive value. And so he embarked on a great journey of combining abstraction with visualization of external subject matter in a completely unique way.
Salt Shaker, 1931, oil on canvasEgg Beater #4, 1928, oil on canvasEgg Beater, 1928, oil on canvas
Above are just three examples of this idea in action.
VISUAL MUSIC
As much as I like narrative stories, representation and messages in art, the number one thing I must have for me to be satisfied with a piece is compositional harmony. It has to be composed well and be balanced. That isn’t as easy or pat as it sounds. It takes meticulous seeing and it takes a courageous willingness to destroy part or all of an image to make it work right.
One of the most amazing things I discovered as I walked through this exhibition at Crystal Bridges was how much I was taken in by the composition of almost every single piece. I saw a genius-level use of color, rhythm, pattern and tone to develop the compositional flow. It was incredibly impressive to me at a root level.
One thing I always tell people when disparage abstract art and wonder why it has any value is for them to think about music. Do they demand lyrics be added to a symphony for it to be worthy of attention? Do they demand a beautiful Spanish guitar solo be punctuated with a story-teller standing next to the player explaining what each passage is supposed to mean and how it all fits in to a specific story? No, they don’t. Why? Because they know sounds can be beautiful, profound and meaningful without a verbal element to them.
The same is true in Abstract art. It can be seen the same way a symphony or guitar solo is heard. It can have its own visual beauty without having to be a representation of something outside itself. And Davis was deeply enmeshed in that idea. He was immersed in the world of Jazz in New York and beyond and he worked profoundly hard to bring that jazz sensibility to his visual art.
But it goes beyond just one canvas having jazz rhythms. It’s the whole idea of improvisation that Davis embraces. Just as a Jazz artist plays the same tune each night at the club, but improvises it differently each time, Davis did the same from canvas to canvas. As a matter of fact, much of his later work was variations on a theme he had developed earlier in his career.
Here are a few examples of that improvisation on a theme over the years.
Town Square, 1929, watercolor, gouache, ink, and pencil on paper
Check out the transformation of the scene from the image above to the one below. ‘See’ it as you would listen to music and let your eye travel around the two images the way you would listen to two different parts of a symphony. There is echos and hints of each in each other but they are both completely unique.
Report from Rockport, 1940, oil on canvasFrom top left clockwise – Landscape, 1932-35; Shapes of Landscape Space, 1939; Memo, 1956; Tournos, 1954
Let your eyes bring about the different feelings you get by looking at each piece the same way you would let your ears take you to places in your mind while listening to music.
Little Giant Still Life, 1950, oil on canvasSwitchskis-Syntax, 1950, Casein on canvas
Let the colors guide you the way different instruments guide you through a musical composition. The horn brings up something different in you than the violin. Green and black bring up something different from blue and pink.
American Painting, 1932, 1942-1954 – oil on canvasTropes De Teens, 1956, oil on canvas
AND MORE
It’s not enough to limit Davis to just 2 or 3 Art Appreciations lessons. The joy isn’t in always categorizing an artist’s work into little bite size pieces. Sometimes you just sit back and not worry about the label, you just enjoy the visual music.
Here are some examples of his work I think is amazing. It gives me pleasure to investigate and discover. And that is always enough for me in art.
Summer Landscape, 1930, oil on canvasLandscape with Garage Lights, 1932 – oil on canvasArboretum By Flashbulb, 1942, oil on canvasCliche, 1955, oil on canvasThe Paris Bit, 1959, oil on canvas
CONCLUSION
This is just a small sampling of his work and a micro look at a few of his career phases. I recommend you spend some time reading up on him and looking at more of his work. You won’t be disappointed. The catalog from the show pictured at the top of this post is an excellent source for artistic and social information about his life and times. It includes a wide array of images, 2 long and interesting essays and an in depth chronology. I highly recommend getting it if you like his work.
