My artistic relationship with Max Beckmann is complicated. Some of his work is good, some of it makes me crazy. This is one of the pieces I don’t mind at all. In fact, I do rather like it. There’s a boldness about it that is refreshing and it’s not taken too seriously.
Monday
This may simply look like a bunch of squares and rectangles in a circle, but it’s really so much more than that. I’ve spent a long time trying to understand the compositional balance between the placement of the colors and the sizes of the forms and there’s just some bloody piece I’m missing. But regardless, it’s a beautiful piece of art.
Sunday
So, this particular piece speaks to me not of jazz and boogie-woogie, so much as the days of Art Deco and of the smooth lines of the Empire State building, the Chrysler Building, and so on – those paragons of delicious modernity from the late 20s and mid 30s that still loom high in the skies and make us think of better times.
Saturday
This painting is a masterclass in composition and execution. *mic drop*
Friday
This work reminds me of cuneiform writing, or perhaps calligraphy, stark ink against bright canvases. It’s a very visceral feeling in my gut when I see this painting, a feeling of solidarity.
Thursday
This multi-layered optical illusion reminds me of a flock of migrating birds. As such, rather than chaotic, I find it rather peaceful.
Wednesday
My love of all things Bauhaus-inspired stems from a deep love of modern unconventionalism and bringing a sense of shaking up the order of things that have been the same for a very long time. In this case, Albers has taken a geometric design that was similar to ones that were used often in Bauhaus textiles and has spun it around and turned it into something deeply alluring and unsettling at the same time. It is fascinating to see what the difference in print medium v. fabric medium can do to affect the feel of a design.
Tuesday
While SLAM’s edition of Monet’s Waterlilies is out on loan to the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, this is the piece that is hanging in its place on loan from Kimbell. It is an important piece in its own right and is very beautiful on its own merits; the singular nature of the subject as well as the angles from which it is approached is unusual and may be unique. It is not quite impressionism, not quite realism, not quite photorealism, yet has qualities of all of those movements.
Monday
Tiles pretty. Pretty tiles. Look at the pretty tiles.
Sunday
When they decided to start reintroducing the Oceanic art (finally) after a long absence, this was one of the new pieces to go up. I squeed loudly and promptly took like a million pictures and still didn’t capture the essence of the piece. Until you’re standing face to face with Mataora with Hei Tiki, you don’t appreciate the power flowing through the piece. It is art that is suffused with ancestral power; it comes off of it in waves. Each line is like a verse of Shakespeare, weaving an intricate poetic spell in a story that we don’t quite understand. This is one of the most important contemporary pieces in the SLAM collection, and if you don’t believe it, there’s something wrong with you.