Out of the ordinary: July 2

Jul 2, 2012 | inspiration

Doing something no one’s ever done before is pretty difficult now that we’ve been keeping track of that kind of thing for so long. But here are some of my favorite unusual sculptural exhibits: 


Jason de Caires Taylor’s Underwater Sculpture:
The Last Supper
Depth: 4m
Cancun, Mexico

The Phoenix
Depth: 4m
Cancun, Mexico

Ron Mueck’s In Bed: 
(photos found here)
Ron Mueck (Australian, b. 1958). In Bed, 2005. Mixed media, 63 3/4 x 255 7/8 x 155 1/2 in. (161.9 x 649.9 x 395 cm)

Willy Verginer’s Imbalances:

Thoughts rusty in the fingers, 2007
Lime acrylic
Spring slippers, 2007

Portrait of Miss L. (Angelica Hamilton Lawrence), William Merritt Chase, 1892

Jun 28, 2012 | Museum of Fine Arts: Boston, painting

I absolutely love portraits of women. There are so many layers to them that any other kind of portrait seems to lack. Especially in older portraits like this one, there are all sorts of things to wonder about. Like did she want to be portrayed this way, and which parts of the portrait exist because of her input and not that of the painter or her father/husband? She was a New York society girl with a well-off family, but did she dress herself or did she have others do it for her? And my biggest question: why does her pinky linger at her mouth? It seems to be a pose representing deep thought and high status, but some part of me wishes she was doing it ironically.

Oil on canvas.

According to differing reports from Ancestry.com and Geni.com, she was between 16 and 19 when this portrait was painted. The white dress makes it seem as if it’s to commemorate her wedding to Frederick Philip Nash, but I think that probably came later, since the reasons for portraiture went well beyond event-marking by the late 1800s.

Her eyes are so deep-set that you nearly fall into the painting looking at them; they’re dark and round, contrasting with her long pale face and narrow nose. Only her hair styling keeps her from looking too doll-like– it’s a sophisticated up-do that continues the long vertical line of her body down the center of the canvas. Her head tilts back enough to invite us in, and even though her stance might seem pretentious, her face is soft and empty of judgement. 

Seated figure against curved wall, Henry Moore, 1956-57

Jun 26, 2012 | Museum of Fine Arts: Boston, sculpture

Bronze 

An abstract human form sits at an angle on a curved bench. There’s no focus at all on accuracy or perfection here, which somehow just makes it more pure. Moore wasn’t worried about the head-to-body ratio or even choosing a sex for this figure– he seems focused on the positioning of the long legs and arms, and the framing of the figure against the curved backdrop.

The entire piece is a rough brown monochrome that seems to exist somewhere between wood and metal. The bronze is easily masqueraded as wood in the curved wall, with horizontal lines that resemble a tree more than incised metal. The figure has shoulders that reach too far back and a head that seems to jut out of its torso, but above the head the wooden wall rises, framing the figure asymmetrically as he or she looks and gestures across the space.

Definition: June 25

Jun 25, 2012 | inspiration

Some of my favorite pieces are ambiguous ones– not the “Untitled”‘s (those just make me want to tear my hair out), but the smudged and crisscrossed ones that seem chaotic and inspired at the same time. There needs to be some direction, some vision for any piece to have purpose. But it’s where we’re free to imagine what comes next that makes them so beautiful. 
Robert de Niro, Sr. (Jan. 17, 1922 – 1993): Boy with Guitar, pre-1966 – charcoal
Found here.

Maggie Lochtenberg, Self Portrait
Found here.

By Nick Lepard

Gary Benfield, Harmony
Found here.