Stuart Davis: Jazz in Paint

Stuart Davis - The Mellow Pad, oil on canvas - 1945–51 - 66.7 × 107 cm. - Brooklyn Museum, New York (click photo for larger image)American artist Stuart Davis (1892-1964) ( https://www.stuartdavis.com ) was a forerunner of Pop Art. He began his artistic career with the New York Realists (more widely known as the Ashcan School) before embracing European modernism following the Armory Show of 1913. Indeed, Davis quit school at age 16 to study under Robert Henri in New York, leader of a group called “The Eight”, which became part of the broader Ashcan School.

“The artist's abstract paintings, infused with jazz rhythm and bold, colorful abstractions of New York's urban landscape or household objects, offer a taste of European Cubism with an American twist. Whether painting in the style of realism or Post-cubist abstraction, Davis's determination to convey something of American political and consumer culture was unwavering.” (The ArtStory)

After the mid-1940s, Davis produced many of his most important works. His paintings are meticulously planned and executed. They also possess a wit and gaiety in contrast to Abstract Expressionism, the style of art dominant at that time. Davis was inspired by taxis, storefronts, and neon signs. The dissonant colors and lively, repetitive rhythms in his work can be seen as visual analogs to the jazz music he loved. The work featured here is an example.

“Because Davis grappled with themes related to popular culture, consumerism, and media through his witty depictions of billboards, tobacco products and household objects, his paintings are now recognized as Proto-Pop. His influence can be seen in the bold, graphic paintings of major Pop artists in America and Britain, including Andy Warhol and David Hockney. Wayne Thiebaud's interest in mass-produced objects and the visual language of advertisements also owes a debt to Davis' art.” (The ArtStory)

Gothic Art: Eclectic and Modern

Giotto di Bondone - Madonna Enthroned (Ognissanti Madonna) - c. 1310 - Tempera on panel - 325 cm × 204 cm (128 in × 80 in) - Uffizi Gallery, Florence (click photo for larger image)With towering cathedrals, resplendent stained glass windows, brilliantly decorated illuminated manuscripts, and iconic paintings embodying shimmering gold leaf, Gothic art attempted to recreate a heaven on earth.

Renaissance artists and writers in the 16th century coined the term “Gothic” and the early art historian Giorgio Vasari infamously reinforced the unfavorable connotations when he referred to Gothic art as “monstrous and barbaric” since it did not conform to classical ideals. It was not until the mid-1700s that the style shed its negative associations. 

Combining aspects of numerous styles and borrowing from numerous traditions (some of them non-western) Gothic art is truly eclectic (like modernism), and was readily adapted to suit regional tastes and tendencies. By the end of the Middle Ages, the Gothic style had become “international” in its spread across Europe, and its emphasis on naturalism sparked the revolution in painting that flourished during the Renaissance, even though Renaissance art would appear to be very different. Even Giotto (who is widely regarded as a Proto-Renaissance painter) followed the Gothic ethic in the work featured here (“Madonna Enthroned”).

Don’t forget to learn more about medieval and Gothic art at Dr. Jill’s upcoming art history class, beginning April 12th and running for six week. Click HERE for more info and to Register!

Quote of the Day

“It is only when we are no longer fearful that we begin to create."
-  J. M. W. Turner

Frank Stella: Austere and Monumental

Frank Stella - Harran II - 1967 - Polymer and fluorescent polymer paint on canvas - 10 x 20 feet (304.8 x 609.6 cm) - The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, New York (click photo for larger image)American Artist Frank Stella (born 1936) is best known for his achievements in Minimalist art and Post-Painterly Abstraction.

In 1959, Frank Stella was one of those rare artists who gained early, immediate recognition in his career with black striped paintings that turned the gestural brushwork and existential angst of Abstract Expressionism upside down. “Focusing on the formal elements of art-making, Stella went on to create increasingly complicated work that seemed to follow a natural progression of dynamism, tactility, and scale: first, by expanding his initial monochrome palette to bright colors, and, later, moving painting into the third dimension through the incorporation of other, non-painterly elements onto the canvas. He ultimately went on to create large-scale freestanding sculptures, architectural structures, and the most complex work ever realized in the medium of printmaking. Stella's virtually relentless experimentation has made him a key figure in American modernism.” (The ArtStory)

Modern art historian and critic Clement Greenberg famously said, "Where the Old Masters created an illusion of space into which one could imagine walking, the illusion created by a Modernist is one into which one can look, can travel through, only with the eye." The significance of flatness, the integrity of the picture plane, and the optical integrity that Greenberg noted as being essential to modern art derived from the work of Stella and other modernists of the time. Stella's ideas also inspired other major theorists of the period.

Dr. Jill will be holding an online single-session program on Frank Stella. Click HERE for info and to Register.

J.M.W. Turner: Turbulent Abstraction

J.M.W. Turner - Hannibal and his Men Crossing the Alps - 1810-1812 - Oil on canvas - Tate Britain, London (click photo for larger image)Joseph Mallard William (J.M.W.) Turner (1775-1851) was a Romantic landscape painter whose expressionistic studies of light, color, and atmosphere were unmatched in their range and sublimity. Perhaps the greatest landscapist of the 19th century, he became a pioneer in the study of light, color, and atmosphere. He anticipated the French Impressionists in breaking down conventional formulas of representation; but, unlike them, he believed that his works should always express significant historical, mythological, literary, or other narrative themes. 

His representation of the confrontation humans experienced upon encountering the effects of their own machine inventions in the modern era was an early attempt to engage with the world-changing Industrial Revolution. Even more influential was his mode of representation. Turner’s impressionistic renderings of the effects of nature that expressed inner psychological states, are essentially examples of early abstraction—before that experimentation even began in visual art.

Turner's work, especially his late work, was deeply admired by the abstract painter Mark Rothko. One can see the influence in Rothko's large canvases of subtly shifting layers of color. In 1966, when Rothko saw a Turner exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, he was quoted as saying, "This guy Turner, he learnt a lot from me.”

Dr. Jill will be holding a single-session ONLINE class on Turner this Friday, March 25th from 11am - 12pm. Click HERE to Register.