In recent art news, the 2014 Whitney Biennial is now in full swing, the New Museum is hosting Laure Prouvost’s first American solo exhibition, MoMA has a major exhibition of Gauguin prints and drawings, the Art Institute of Chicago has a Christopher Wool retrospective and the innocent denizens of Great Falls, Montana, must be subjected to another Western Art Week.
Category: Art
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Why do we value art?
Is the painting on the left virtually worthless? Is the painting on the right worth tens of millions of dollars?
Anonymous, forgery in the style of Van Gogh 
Sunset at Montmajour, Van Gogh, 1888 What value do we place on the paintings themselves, and what value do we place on the captions below them — and why?
For background, see A van Gogh’s Trip From the Attic to the Museum.
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Review: The Great Gatsby
The old adage when it comes to art is “show, don’t tell.” The idea is that, by demonstrating rather than dictating, the audience is drawn in as participants instead of being kept at a distance by heavy-handed explication. But this advice can be taken too far: you can tell and show too much, forcing rather than leading, yelling rather than whispering. F. Scott Fitzgerald was a master of showing just enough, but not too much. His prose doesn’t have the austerity of Hemingway’s — by comparison he can be downright florid — but nevertheless, the economy of his lines often reveal more in what they don’t say than in what they do. The Great Gatsby is a short book — most editions run to a mere 160 or so pages — but it’s in between Fitzgerald’s lines that we find the elements of a transcendent tale of love and ambition and tragedy and hope. This why Gatsby is transcendent — not because of the story we have set down before us on the page, but because of the story that we create in our minds. The Great Gatsby moves beyond a simple tale of a lovelorn bootlegger and becomes our story, the American story.
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Giotto vs. Masaccio: Renaissance Smackdown
Giotto (1266 – 1337) laid the foundations of Renaissance painting, establishing precedents that filtered down through Renaissance art and found development and expansion in the work of Masaccio (1401 – 1428). Both Giotto and Masaccio were true giants of the Renaissance — and therefore stand at the forefront of all artistic expression; both masterfully depicted scenes of deep emotion and lasting impact. To our modern eye, Masaccio’s work may seem more “advanced” and thus “better,” but it is Giotto who often touches the soul in a way characteristic of truly great art.
Comparing their work affords a valuable glimpse not only into the world of Renaissance art, but also into the roots of artistic sensibilities that persist to this day. Their approaches to narrative depiction touch on universal issues of aesthetic understanding and highlight the tension inherent in trying to depict the transcendent.
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Why Is Life Worth Living? (according to Woody Allen)
In his 1978 movie Manhattan, Woody Allen’s character offers these thoughts on life:Why is life worth living? That’s a very good question. Well, there are certain things I guess that make it worthwhile. Like what? Okay, for me, I would say, Groucho Marx, to name one thing and Willie Mays, and the second movement of the Jupiter Symphony, and Louie Armstrong’s recording of “Potato Head Blues,” Swedish movies, naturally, “Sentimental Education” by Flaubert, Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, those incredible apples and pears by Cézanne, the crabs at Sam Wo’s, Tracy’s face …
This quote often comes to mind when I contemplate art, beauty and the meaning of life. Although it’s an idiosyncratic list, I think it offers a meaningful cross-section of aesthetically significant human experiences. It’s not a definitive statement on beauty and life, but many of the items resonate within me as being, in one way or another, truly important. So, here they are, for you enjoyment and contemplation: (more…)
