What’s on your Wall?

The Friendly Garden Tryptych

Toshi Yoshida

1911 – 1995

Now it’s time to take what has been learned in this course and apply it to real life.  Over 17 years ago, when we lived just outside of Tokyo on Yokota Air Base, my husband and I were “milling about smartly” at an art auction at the Officer’s Club.  We strolled around, chatting with friends and eventually became separated as we wandered around looking at the hundreds upon hundreds of offerings of Japanese woodblock prints.  I liked many of them – but as I have learned through this course, it isn’t the style, it’s the substance. Just because I like one of a style, doesn’t mean I will like all of the same style. What is the piece saying to me?  Does it make me smile?  Does it make me feel nostalgic? Happy?  Whimsical?  Introspective?   Then I saw it.  Not only did I absolutely love it, but my mind immediately hung it above the sandstone fireplace in our home back in the states.  I went looking to find my husband and suddenly he was beside me, telling me he had something he really wanted me to see – and to my delight, he took me right back to where I had been – the last item that was to be auctioned that night, The Friendly Garden Tryptych by Toshi Yoshida

During the 16^th century, Japan was becoming “citified.”  As in Europe, as people moved to the cities and specialized in certain skills or crafts, a merchant class emerged.  This new middle class had increased disposable income and they wanted art.  They couldn’t afford an original painting, but the woodblock print provided a way to mass produce city scenes or country landscapes in quantities and varieties to satisfy everyone.  These were ukiyo-e prints. It translates roughly to “floating world” – meaning the fleeting moments of beauty to be enjoyed as opposed to the banal everyday humdrum of life. The style depicted traditional Japanese scenes.  They remained the standard for a few centuries.

Ukiyo-e
‘Stop 13 -The 53 stops on the Road to Hokkaido’ by Hiroshige 1850

The leaders of Japan had figured out that they were woefully behind technologically compared to the West, and wanted to bring Japan up to the standards of the West, while retaining the “values of the East”, so they opened up the country to Western trade – this is called the Meiji Restoration of 1868.    One of the imports was photographs, which could also be mass produced, so the woodblock print fell from favor.   The period of Ukiyo-e ends in 1912 with the end of the Meiji period.

The prints that followed the Meiji period were shin-hanga (new prints) artist – which kept the traditional ukiyo-e method of production while making new prints depicting traditional scenes.  This was still a collaborative effort between the artist, carver, printer and publisher.  Also from the West came the idea of individuality and creative thinking, and as those ideas permeated the country, the  Shin-hanga movement was rejected by some artists who began a new movement – sōsaka-hanga (creative prints).   As the name implies, these prints were creative efforts on the part of the artist from start to finish – they did it all. They became the artist, carver and printer.

Shin-hanga
Mount Fuji by Hiroshi Yoshida c. 1920

Sosaka-hanga
City Hall, Hibiya
Suwa Kanenori
1931

Sōsaka-hanga struggled during the early part of the 20^th century, barely surviving during the oppressive military regime, only to emerge after the end of the Second World War as an important component of the Japanese Reconstruction – American soldiers were looking for inexpensive souvenirs to take home.  Initially, many of the artists enjoyed doing abstract work as that had been banned for decades.  It wasn’t long before the traditional Japanese scenery made it’s way back into the genre.

 

Sosaka-kanga “abstruse”
Toshi Yoshida
1964

Toshi Yoshida was born in 1911 to Hiroshi and  Fujio Yoshida – both accomplished woodblock artists.  He was encouraged to paint and draw by his grandmother, Rui Yoshida – another woodblock artist.        Hiroshi Yoshida was a shin-hanga (new prints) artist.  Toshi originally followed the shin-hanga movement as his father did, but then migrated to the sōsaka-hanga (creative prints).     Both father and son traveled around the world looking for interesting landscapes.  Some of Toshi Yoshida’s last works were of African animals and Mount Kilimanjaro.

Sosaka-hanga
One Day in East Africa
Toshi Yoshida 1995

In 1980, after a long period of doing abstract work, he created The Friendly Garden – a depiction of his family home.   And this is undoubtedly the nebulous “something” that originally drew me to this work.  The garden and home intrigued me. I had been to homes made in the Japanese tradition and I found them very peaceful, relaxing – dare I say…. harmonious?  This comes through in the work, it always seems to me that someone is going to step out of the door at any moment, wearing the traditional kimono, of course. The shaped plants of the garden are very typical of Japan.  If a breeze starts up, the bamboos will begin their soft clicking as the branches rub against each other and the plum blossoms are beautiful right now, but will the breeze jar them loose, dropping them to the ground like a layer of pink snow?

Meanwhile, back at the Art Auction:

After a lively bidding war – powered by many gin and tonics my husband confided – we were the proud owners of a lovely Japanese Woodblock Print set.  Framed.  And until today, I only knew that I really, really liked it – nothing else.    Now that  I have an understanding of the history of the style and the life of the artist – mix in my previous knowledge of Nihon (Japan) –  I think I will enjoy it even more now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C5%8Dsaku-hanga

http://www.hanga.com/bio.cfm?ID=6

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C5%8Dshi_Yoshida

http://www.ukiyoe-gallery.com/toshi.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukiyo-e

Making a name – and an aspirational portrait for himself

                Philip Kwame Apagya

Philip Kwame Apagya, date unknown, Sekondi, Ghana

Scanning the itty-bitty  images in Google, this one got my attention.  What drew me?  The airplane not looking quite right?  Is it a picture or a photo?  I associate people boarding airplanes in this manner with my military family – both my husband and father were jet pilots.   So upon enlarging the picture I discovered that Philip Kwame Apagya is the picture of a man, dressed as a world traveler boarding a jet, camera casually wrapped around his neck and he is off to exciting and exotic places. It’s what I would imagine a photojournalist for National Geographic to look like.   The jet is a painted backdrop that doesn’t even try to look real.   As I looked through the other pictures in the collection I became intrigued.  The lightheartedness was a relief – I thought when I decided to go with Africa for this blog on Non Western Art that I was going to see a lot of depressing, dark images and until I reached Philip Kwame Apagya that’s all I had seen.

The photographer Philip Kwame Apagya was born in 1958 in Sekundi, Ghana.  The son of a photographer, he studied at Accra School of Photojournalism.  With the increased availability of cheaper digital cameras, portraitures as a whole were on the decline.  Apagya created a niche place for himself with his Aspirational Portraits.  He works with local artist, Daniel A. Jasper, commissioning him to create scenes which we in the west would find “typical” from bathrooms to living rooms to airplanes.  People come in and have their portraits done in front of the backdrops.

 

No Place Like Home , 1996 – Sekondi, Ghana

In No Place Like Home there is a young boy leaning forward on his knees as if sitting in the settee.  The entertainment center is crammed full of electronic magic – TV, DVD player, Double-sided VCR, VHS tapes galore, a refrigerator for a nice cool one and lovely curtains hang in the window.  His older brother laughs and points…   Slowly you realize that the sides are creeping in, the ugly truth is just there, beyond the backdrop.  The picture captures Western wealth – or what one could expect to find in any middle class home and even some homes that by American standards would be considered below the poverty line.  These are the things these people, like people everywhere, aspire to – the creature comforts, the things that make life nice. We don’t know what the subjects situation is, but it is possible that this is the closest that they will ever get to leading this lifestyle.

Auntie Monica’sBathroom, 2000 Sekundi, Ghana

In this picture, also known as portrait 17, a young lady happily swabs the floor of the shiny bathroom – it comes fully loaded with a full-size bath, toilet, sink, washing machine and in the real foreground is a hanging  chandelier.  She is happy to clean the floor of what appears to be her bathroom.  And who wouldn’t be happy among such luxury?  I have yet to decide if that is a towel draped around her neck or one of those fashionable scarves that all the girls are wearing.

 

Come On Board, 2000, Sekondi, Ghana

This picture utilizes the same backdrop as the sel fportrait featuring Apagya above, but it has an entirely different feel to it.  Instead of a well- seasoned traveler getting ready to embark on yet another adventure, the feeling I get from this is someone who has never traveled   – and she is nervous, but still very excited to be going.  Perhaps she has a scholarship and is leaving to study in another country.  It will be whatever she wants it to be, and the destination can be wherever she wants it to be.

These portraits are full of fun and meant to poke a bit of fun at the dream of having “things”.  But the joke is for the African subjects and their friends to share.  We can’t quite get the joke, because we, and I’m talking about Westerners here, have everything.  In other words – it’s our lifestyle that they are poking fun at – because they can’t have it too.  But the uncomfortable feeling we get – the “this is deeper than I thought” aspect of this art – is totally unplanned by the artist.  It just happened that way.

http://www.lifelounge.com.au/art-and-design/news/aspirational-portraiture-by-philip-kwame-apagya-.aspx#gallerytop

http://www.caacart.com/pigozzi-artist.php?i=Apagya-Philip-Kwame&expo=1&m=36

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Kwame_Apagya

http://www.caacart.com/pigozzi-artist.php?i=Apagya-Philip-Kwame&bio=en&m=36

http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/gesellschaft/grossbild-188310-172490.html

Doing Something About It – Global Warming – A Virtual Art Show

Pollution, climate change, global warming – all have caught the attention of artists around the world.  Environmental artists create large outdoor installations depicting what a future world will look like.  Surrealist artists paint dark and disturbing scenes.  Sculptors create a world in tears.  But what about those who have looked at the problem of global warming, examined it closely and said, “What can I do to help? What can I do, right now, to help alleviate this problem?”  It is to these artists I dedicate my virtual art exhibit.

Once the theme of my art collection revealed itself to me, I had to decide which gallery would be the best place for me to present it to the virtual audience.  There is only one place that will do – CaixaForum  Madrid! This modern art gallery was completed in 2007 and it was built on the bones of an old electrical station.  The original building was designed in 1899 by Jesús Carrasco.  The design for the 21st century sociocultural center was created by Jacque Herzog and Pierre du Meuron, minimalist architects who are known for their innovative exterior treatments.  The building appears to float above the ground, as if it is ready to roll out into the street and move on.  It has already established itself as a place to visit while in Madrid.

      

                Herzog and du Meuron were born  April 19, 1950 and May 8, 1950, respectively.  They have lived very similar lives – both were born and raised in Basel, Switzerland, they attended the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland, they founded their company in 1978 and began to build their reputation. You might be familiar with their work in Beijing, China, the National Stadium built for the 2008 Olympics, commonly called The Bird’s Nest.    In 2001, when awarded the Pritzker Prize – the international architecture world’s highest honor -one of the judges, Ada Louise Huxtable stated, “They refine the traditions of modernism to elemental simplicity, while transforming materials and surfaces through the exploration of new treatments and techniques.”

Herzog and du Meuron like to work with artists when they design their spaces, especially for the exteriors.  In the case of CaixaForum, Madrid, they brought in Patrick Blanc, a French botanist who specializes in vertical landscaping.  Although not the inventor of the “green wall” or “vertical garden”, Blanc has done more to popularize this technique through his innovations and installations than anyone else had previously.  He was born in Paris June 3, 1953 and works at the French National Centre of Scientific Research.  His vertical gardens around the world bring a colorful swath of green to urban centers.  Not only does this help people mentally by alleviating stress by bringing nature back into their lives, but physically as well as they remove the harmful pollutant carbon dioxide from the air.  His contribution to the CaixaForum, Madrid was to transform the outer wall of the adjoining building to provide a verdant contrast to the pale pink brick of the original 1899 industrial building and the rust color of the upper modern section.  He uses several different plants and places them in such a way as to draw the eye to the varying colors and textures of the many different plants.  This combination of recycling an old building and planting a vertical garden makes this extraordinary building the perfect place to house my collection.  Both the architects and the botanical landscape artist have contributed through their actions to “doing something about it.”

My next selection is awarded its place for use of eco-friendly materials as well.  Aluminum composite panels are an excellent choice for outdoor murals.  Manufacturers state it’s attribute are “lightweight, impact resistant, easy maintenance, excellent sound proofing, thermal resistant and fire retardant.”  In addition, the newer versions are using nanotechnology to provide a self-cleaning action as the lower tension coating inhibits dust and dirt from sticking and then the rain does the washing. This reduces the carbon footprint in many ways – less water to clean, less need for repairs, reduced repainting and easily removed if the commissioning company should move to a new building.

In Ottawa, Canada in the City of Windsor, Naushad Shaikh, Donna Mayne, Andrea Milne, and Paul Mazak have collaborated on outdoor mural and sculpture projects  using  aluminum composite panels.  Together, they created Peace Cranes.   Donna Mayne, Art Director of the Windsor Mural Projects, has worked with this government funded project to train unemployed or underemployed workers with artistic aspirations from its inception in 1999. The program has trained over 60 artists and produced over 40 murals.  Naushad Shaikh, born in India in 1967, who also works in oils, had his first commissioned artwork at age ten when his father discovered that his son had talent and took him to buy supplies and asked him to paint the poet Mihrza Ghalib. He currently resides in Coral Springs, Florida. Andrea Milne went on to teach fine arts in Italy and is now back in Canada again at the Albert College, also teaching art.  Paul Mazak remains an elusive target – and I was not able to find any additional information about him.

      

Naushad Shaikh working on cranes

Peace Craneswas commissioned by the Wyandote Towne Center with support from the Canadian government as well as the city of Windsor and installed in 2004.  Inspired by origami cranes, the paper birds that have long been a symbol of peace and harmony with anti-nuclear undertones, the sculptured cranes are mounted on the side of the Wyandotte Towne Center.  The three dimensional birds in the vivid primary colors of red, yellow and blue are shown to fly through the air with the Harmony  Ribbon, which was designed by the Multicultural Council of Windsor and Essex County to represent “a harmonious society that is multi-racial, multi-faith and multi-ethnic.  The topic of peace and harmony is inspiring and this, along with it’s eco-friendly materials used,  earn it a place in my gallery.

Australian Scott Denholm is my next guest artist.  A self-proclaimed eco-artist, his website states, “… I pride myself on creating traditional style surf scenes and Australian landscape oil and acrylic paintings in the most environmentally friendly way possible.  All processes and materials have been considered and I’m constantly finding more ways to have an even lesser environmental impact.”  Born in Australia, raised in the small country towns that abound throughout the country, he currently resides on the “Sunshine Coast” where he can easily access the beauty of the ocean and the surf he loves to depict.  He is dedicated to the entire environmental movement, volunteering his time wherever he can to improve our world’s status. (For more information about the eco- friendly materials he uses go to http://www.scottdenholm.com/environment/   )

                 His oil painting, Asu Island, Indonesia, was created on an old canvas he had “lying around”.    The thick dark green of the jungle contrasts with the vivid bright blue of the ocean wave.  Very simple, yet inviting, it appears to be in a primal place – before man arrived.  It reminds us that we need to protect the pristine beaches of our world by taking the step to reduce pollution – which will help to slow global warming.

My final contributor would be British photographer, Mandy Barker, and her photographic series SOUP.   Mandy started out just taking pictures of the natural things she found along the beach, but found that more and more plastic items carelessly discarded by the human population were showing up along her beloved shores.  She began to research the phenomenon and discovered the “garbage patch” – an area in the North Atlantic Ocean where the currents combine to hold the plastic refuse from our society in one area.

Barker has salvaged some of the beach waste and created interesting photographic collages, reminiscent of the “I SPY” books so popular with children.  The brightly colored bits from beaches around the world are arranged in enticing patterns – some swirling, some neatly spaced and others in tight formation – all designed to be pleasing to the eye.  But as the eye beholds all the plastic waste, the mind begins to understand at a deeper level the extent of the trash still being foisted on our oceans. Barker lists her ingredients for each SOUP photo.  The connection to global warming?  Creating all this waste uses energy, which pumps more carbon dioxide into the air.  It’s not just where we put the junk when we are through with it that’s the problem, it’s that we cannot find better alternatives to the things we throw away in the first place.

She photographs her work by placing the beach junk on black velvet.  She is currently working on additional works to complement the SOUP series.  In Ruinous Remembrance she has gathered the plastic flowers left to weather the storm in cemeteries around the world.  Even in the Arctic, where I live, one can find the bits and pieces of these artificial offerings that are blown about and eventually will end up in the ocean or the tundra.

 

Another favorite is 500+, the circular assembly of the many objects –over 500 as the name implies – that were found in the stomach of a dead albatross chick found in the North Atlantic gyre– the garbage patch.  It was created in 2005. It does draw your eye around and you can’t help yourself from trying to identify the many items.  “Look, part of a fork – is that a doll’s head?  Hey look, a baby binky!”  It is the most pleasing in my opinion – and in a way the most disturbing.

Artists who are Doing Something About It – and their works:

Jacque Herzog and Pierre du Meuron – CaixaForum, Madrid, Spain, 2007

Patrick Blanc – Vertical Garden at the CaixaForum, Madrid, Spain, 2007

Naushad Shaikh, Donna Mayne, Andrea Milne, and Paul Mazak – Peace Cranes, Windsor, Ottawa 2004

Scott Dernholm – Asu Island, Indonesia, creation site unknown, but probably Australia, 2012

Mandy Barker –Ruinous Remembrance, creation site unknown, creation date unknown

Mandy Barker – SOUP 500+, creation site unknown, 2005

The SOUP series, along with lots of information about the artist can be found on Mandy Barker’s website at http://mandy-barker.com.   But the best representations of the SOUP series are on  http://www.designboom.com/art/ocean-trash-photo-collages-by-mandy-barker/

http://www2.canada.com/windsorstar/news/story.html?id=593d8c56-8d2a-4bcf-b73b-7be75f450882

http://www.esmadrid.com/en/caixaforum

http://www.pashyanti.net/Profile.aspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herzog_%26_de_Meuron

http://www.arcspace.com/architects/herzog_meuron/caixa/caixa.html

http://www.greenmuseum.org/content/artist_index/artist_id-27.html

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread881790/pg1

http://www.muralroutes.com/towns/wyandotte/1.htm

http://www.muralroutes.com/press/symposium11_append.pdf

ttp://www.scottdenholm.com/about/

http://www.designboom.com/art/ocean-trash-photo-collages-by-mandy-barker/

 

Grey Hills by Georgia O’Keeffe 1941

After finally zeroing in on Georgia O’Keeffe, because I think her work in flowers is beautiful, I was drawn to a painting that imparted a very strong feeling of déjà vu.  I began my research and found  that it was in a style we hadn’t studied!  With all the fauvists and realists and surrealists and cubists and futurists  and dadaists – I figured we must have hit all the art styles out there during the Early Modern period.  “But wait, there ‘s more!”  is what went through my head.  Precisionists arose from a blending of Cubists and Realists….   Say what?

                Let’s see if we can wrap our heads around this one!  O’Keeffe’s Grey Hills (1941) is listed as Precisionist for the style category on the wikipainting website.  Further research reveals that the Precisionist movement is noted to be purely American by some, while others point out European influences such as Dadaism and Cubism.  Precisionism emphasized the industrialized side of life.  The movement never organized or issued a manifesto stating it’s views or goals, but those who fall within this category present work that glorifies the stark buildings and manufacturers of the cities. They are typically devoid of life, depicting instead the extremely clean lines of the industrial buildings of the time – and attempted to show how industry is a benefit to society as it brings order and greater wealth  to the world.  What’s interesting  about  Precisionists is that there was an opposing view within the group and they felt that industry was dehumanizing our world.  They were also called the sterilists, the Immaculates and cubist-realists. Charles Sheeler used Precisionism in Classic Landscape (1931) as did Charles Demuth in Figure 5 (1928).   Photography also provided a great medium for this style of art as shown by photographers like Paul Strand in his work Wall Street (1915).

         

So meanwhile, back at Grey Hills by Georgia O’Keeffe, we have this lovely colorful oil on canvas painting .  Why was it classified as Precisionist? Obviously it is not an urban landscape of industry at it’s best.  Once again, we can connect art to history.  Between the two world wars the United States went into isolationist mode and distanced themselves from the horrors of the war in Europe and also everything else – including art as much as they could.  The public demanded more American style work, so the Precisionists began to paint landscapes of purely American scenes in their stark, lifeless style of limited colors.  O’Keeffe’s paintings of bones in the desert, desert mountains or lakes – what is more American than our American West?  To the eyes of those art experts in the East, it would fit perfectly into the Precisionist category. This work was done on one of O’Keeffe’s many trips to New Mexico.  She loved it there – after her initial visit in 1929 she returned every year until her husband’s death in 1946 at which point she relocated permanently to the area. Those of us who have been there know that, although it appears to be devoid of life, there are abundant plants and animals to be found as hinted at in the crevices of the time-eroded rock.  The foreground of the hills is brightly lit by the sun while the background appears to be under cloud cover.  The colors might appear to be a stretch from reality, but they are wonderfully true. It’s one of the things I find fascinating about the West.  It’s the reason I selected this painting.  Remember my feeling of déjà vu? I call this What I Did on My Summer Vacation #53.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precisionism

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/prec/hd_prec.htm

http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/georgia-o-keeffe/grey-hills-1941

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/georgia-okeeffe/about-the-painter/55/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Sheeler

 

 

 

 

 

Impressionism, how impressing!

Up to this point we have seen Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Classical, Romantics and Realists.   The Renaissance work was all about the perfect specimens – with constraint.  Baroque let loose with the constraint, but still liked the big beautiful things with attention to contrasts in light and dark – with Rococo being a Baroque on steroids – bigger, fluffier, curvier, more elaborate.  Classical was the reaction to Baroque – an extreme, almost militant, movement towards straight lines and interesting angles-with emphasis on heroes from the past. The Romantics wanted to engage the viewer again and brought more emotion to the canvas, with idealized settings. The realists felt that their work should reflect everyday life, not the extraordinary stuff that came from the Romantics, moving away from the fanciful scenes to the average working man’s life- just a snippet of time.  From the realists came a group of painters who, in their pursuit of portraying a real image that was just a moment in time, developed a style that came to be known as Impressionism.

I love Impressionism – if I like the topic – which I also found to be true with most of the previous styles studied.   In Woman with a Parasol – Madame Monet and Her Son by Charles Monet painted in 1875, the wildflowers and clouds capture the image perfectly – our brain fills in the rest of the information needed – so Monet didn’t have to.  Impressionism’s attention to lighting and weather is abundantly clear in this work. The gentle breeze depicted by the translucent ribbon around Madame Monet’s face and the forward motion of her dress translates into motion of flowers gently bobbing their heads.  A shadow across the flowers enlightens us as to where exactly the sun is and this is reinforced by the lighter shades along Madame’s back.

Compare this with Gustave Corbet’s Young Women on the Banks of Seine (painted before 1857).  The detail of the flowers in the realism piece, intended to convey more realism, actually end up conveying less. You can actually pick out the individual petals – which you cannot do in Monet’s Impressionism.  The figures, for all their striking details, do not seem as real as Monet’s wife looking down at us from atop the hill. The tree, on the other hand, looks like it was photoshopped in.

 

Another thing I enjoy about Impressionism is the palette of colors – they are light and gay.  Or subdued and understated.  Another Monet, Impression: Sunrise, (1872) -where the artistic style got it’s name- is a lovely study in morning mists and shimmering water. If one looks at individual pieces, it is disjointed, but when one allows oneself to take it all in, all the little seemingly ill-conceived  brushstrokes make the picture come alive.  The sun’s reflection on the water is almost in motion with the gentle waves.

 

 

In contrast, the Baroque piece by Simon de Vlieger, Seascape in the Morning (1643) with emphasis on contrasts, has the foreground, especially the right side, in a deep dark shadow and the horizon, where the sun is rising, is strikingly white.  De Vlieger was the premier maritime painter of the Dutch Artists and did immaculate detailed work of ship’s masts and sails.  This scene appears to be of the aftermath of a battle.  Compare this to Monet’s almost abstract fishermen in their boats of going peacefully about their livelihoods.  For this was yet another hallmark of the Impressionism style – depicting the kinder and gentler side of life.

 

 Note on all works: Although there was information about where each of the artists lived when painting their work, I was unable to find definitive information as to where each was actually created.  As one thing was clear about all of the artists – that they traveled – I decided that rather than make a presumption, I will cite each as “unknown where created”.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_de_Vlieger

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Monet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Courbet

http://neiu.edu/~wzaremba/impr.html

http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gustave_Courbet_027.jpg

Horn Quintet in E-flat, K 407, 1.- Allegro

written 1782 in Vienna, Austria

By Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

                One of the hallmarks of the Classical Era in music was it’s increasing availability to the middle class – the merchants and skilled craftsmen.  In Austria, after her accession to the throne in 1741, the Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa ordered that a building, the Ballhaus, next to the imperial palace be converted to a theatre.  The Burgtheatre, as it eventually came to be named, was the place that the Viennese people went to hear the popular music of their time.  Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven all performed their works there.  They also all came to know a simple, but incredibly gifted horn player by the name of Joseph Leutgeb who played there.  Although he never reached a position of wealth, his talent was recognized by many of the composers.  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed four horn concertos specifically with him in mind.  Mozart’s affection for Leutgeb can be found in the form of friendly jabs scribbled in the margins of the score of Horn Concerto in D major, K. 412 :  “Take it easy…animal – oh, how flat you play – ouch – oh dear … help! – catch your breath! – get going, get going! … what a bleating sheep’s trill – finished? thank heaven!”  One of the first pieces written for Leuteg was the piece Horn Quintet in E-flat major, K. 407, from which I have chosen the 1^st movement, Allegro.

                The horn quintet is not written for a horn and four violins – the standard of the time – but the horn, one violin, two violas and one cello. The lower stringed instruments improves the overall tone of the entire piece.   In Allegro, the horn announces itself from the very beginning and begins to run through it’s repertoire of skills:  Low deep notes, different levels of intensity, smooth flowing phrases, emphasized by the staccato endings and of course variations on the theme that was first introduced.  It increases the sense of playfulness as it goes along, using the theme to try to get the listener to guess where it might go next.  It constantly comes back to the theme, square one so to speak, so it can then deviate from it and take us somewhere else.

Try to imagine as you listen that what we now call classical was at that time the latest thing.  This piece is lively and entertaining. It was easily understood and enjoyed by the people of the Holy Roman Empire as they had always loved their music, both sacred and secular.  And it was being performed by a virtuoso of the time, an exceptionally skilled musician who was doing things with his horn that compelled the great composers to write specifically for him.      Also keep in mind as you listen that this piece was written for the natural horn, as the valved french horn used today would not appear for another thirty years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Leutgeb

http://www.laphil.com/philpedia/music/horn-quintet-e-flat-major-k-407-wolfgang-amadeus-mozart

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Theresa_of_Austria

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burgtheater

http://www.burgtheater.at/Content.Node2/home/eninfo/English_Information.en.php

Celebren, Publiquen

Celebren, Publiquen

Manuel de Sumaya

1678 – 1655

I had no idea.  I love music, I listen to Baroque – I have several Bach and Handel CDs – but Mexico?  How did these little jewels escape me?  Of course, the architecture comes as no surprise – I have seen enough pictures in my life to see how the Baroque influence is well represented in Mexico in buildings of that era.  But the music!  What a delightful surprise!

            Manuel de Sumaya was born in New Spain, which is now Mexico, in 1678 to European parents according to one source, but to a European father and Native American mother according to another.  What the historians have been able to piece together about him is that he petitioned to learn and play organ in 1694 (about age 14) at the Mexico City Cathedral.  In order to petition and have it granted – as it was – it is surmised that he had been a choir boy for some time. His understanding of Italian Baroque and his ability to translate Italian operas has led some to  believe that he must have ventured to Italy to study at some point in his life.  He composed Il Partenope in 1711 – the first opera ever written by a composer born in the New World.  He was a priest musician, and composed and played music for the cathedral.  The Council of Trent had decreed that church music must be sacred but yet inspire the common man.  Sumaya wrote motets, masses and villancicos in the manner prescribed by the Catholic church. The Native Americans of New Spain had always loved music and it was for them that the music was written in order to convert them to Christianity.   Villancicos were originally medieval dances with text in the vernacular, but they developed into sacred music in Latin America and Old Spain during the Baroque period.  Sumaya’s Celebren, Publiquen was one of four villancicos he composed. His large collection of music was discovered in Oaxaca, where Sumaya went after leaving Mexico City in 1738 – but the music remained unknown until 1952.

            It is unknown when Celebren, Publiquen was written, but presumably it was written in either Mexico City or Oaxaco.  The villancico has the high energy and movement typical of the Baroque Era.  It has a pomp and circumstance about it, lending an air of importance, “Listen to me!”  And rightly so, as the piece is about the Virgin Mary.  The words are in Spanish and I was delighted to find an English translation.  It reminds me of the grandeur of Handel’s Messiah, with contrasts of the period provided by starting with the full choir (SATB) and typical instrumentation then going to a slightly slower bit with a soloist in the mid-portion then back to the flamboyant, flowing theme of the opening.  Themes can be picked out and heard to vary as in “las dichas, las glorias, los gozos, las paces”  – especially as the different voices echo each other in places,or forte (loud) one time then piano (soft) the next, then back to the gloriously loud.  The head bobbing rhythm compels one to listen and enjoy the blending of the polychoral voices and the intricacy of the violin parts and of course, a hallmark of the Baroque, the ascending/descending voice on just one word, of even just a part of a word stretching the effect to the maximum.  Thank you Manuel de Sumaya, for a new favorite!

Celebren Publiquen lyrics

 http://www.wgbh.org/UserFiles/File/H_H_Bach_Christmas_translations.pdf

http://repositories.tdl.org/ttu-ir/handle/2346/12239?show=full

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villancico

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_de_Zumaya

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-Reformation

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/manuel-de-zumaya-mn0002288066

 

The Chess Game (1555) by Sophonisba Anguissola 1532-1625

Oil on canvas, 72 x 97 cm

Muzeum Narodowe, Poznan

                When searching for a piece of Renaissance art, I searched for something that would jump out and grab me, something that I would like, something I could put on a wall in my home.   The Chess Game by Sophonisba Anguissola did just that-it grabbed me.  As I read about her life with her family in Italy and how she came to begin painting, eventually ending up as a lady-in-waiting and court painter to the Queen of Spain, I became more and more impressed and interested in this important woman of the Renaissance.

                Born in 1532, the daughter of liberal humanist aristocrats, Amilcare and Bianca Anguissola, Sophonisba and her siblings, six sisters and one brother, all had the traditional humanist classical training of the era – they studied music, Greek, Latin and the sciences.  During the Renaissance, women were generally considered the object of art-not creators of art.  However,  Sophonisba actually studied under Bernardino Campi and Bernardino Gatti, renowned Italian painters whose work was done in the Mannerist style of the late Renaissance.  She was known to have travelled back and forth from Rome to visit with Michelangelo – and some scholars see his influence reflected  in her work by the depth of character in her subjects, their warmth and tenderness.    It is reported that Michelangelo recommended her to Cosimo di Medici, and this in turn led to appointment to the royal court of Philip ll of Spain as lady-in-waiting to his new queen, Isabella, daughter of Maria de Medici.

                 She chronicled life with her family in several sketches and paintings, but it was The Chess Game, hanging in the Anguissola home that Grigorio Vasari, the Italian Renaissance painter most famously known for his biographies of other artists of the times , found appealing.  He said of Sophonisba,  “Anguissola has shown greater application and better grace than any other woman of our age in her endeavors at drawing; she has thus succeeded not only in drawing, coloring and painting from nature, and copying excellently from others, but by herself has created rare and very beautiful paintings.”  Sophonisba was already in Spain as the royal portrait painter at the time of his praise.

                I was continually drawn back to the delightful genre piece that depicts Sophonisba’s sisters in a game of chess. The initial thing that drew my eye was the impish grin on the face of the youngest sister.  The lifelike gaiety was in stark contrast to the more formal portraits of the time.

The setting is out of doors, in soft tones using the new sfumato technique of the Renaissance (gently blending the colors to soften the lines) which allows the background to remain just that, a hazy far-off place.  She takes from both city and rural landscapes to create her own imagined yet realistic looking world.  The status of the family is revealed in the rich brocade gowns and the attendance by a servant.  The fact that the girls are engaged in a friendly game of chess is something that is extraordinary in and of itself.  In the age of the Renaissance, chess was thought to be a game of intelligence and was therefore commonly reserved for the gentlemen of the day.  Here, the girls are happily enjoying the completion of a match.  The youngest, Europa, who is the one that really drew my attention, is casting a glance at her sister, Minerva, delighted in the completion of the match.  Did she prefer the older sister, does this mean it’s her turn to play or did the older sister, Lucia, manage a quick end to the game with a hitherto unused move?  I can’t help but notice that the servant is not only in attendance, but she appears to be engaged in watching the game as well, showing that even a common person could have the ability to comprehend the game.

                Another aspect of the painting is the hierarchy of the sisters, evidenced by who they are looking at.  The Europa is looking at Minerva, Minerva is looking at Lucia in surprise and surrender, while Lucia looks directly at the eldest sister, the artist, Sophonisba.  It is interesting to note that all the girls were artists, but Sophonisba is the most famous – as she was when she lived.

                “I must relate that I saw this year in the house of Sofonisba’s father at Cremona, a picture executed by her hand with great diligence, portraits of her three sisters…who appear truly alive, and are wanting in nothing save speech…executed so well that they appear to be breathing and absolutely alive.“  It is thought that perhaps it is this praise by Vasari for  The Chess Game that elevated it to her most famous work.  Since I had never seen The Chess Game before or any of her other work, I cannot comment on that aspect of it, other than to say that it is the picture that got my attention as well.

 

1)      Krull, K., Lives of the Artists: Masterpieces, Messes (and what the neighbors thought) , 1995, Harcourt, Brace and Co. Orlando Florida  http://www.phs.poteau.k12.ok.us/williame/APAH/readings/A%20Life%20of%20Genius,%20on%20Anguissola,%20Smithsonian,%20May95%20and%20more.pdf

2)       www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/623661/Giorgio–Vasari

3) http://suite101.com/article/a-renaissance-womansofonisba-anguissola-italian-portraitist-a231472

4) http://www.antiquesjournal.com/Pages04/Monthly_pages/march07/ren.html 5)http://www.themasterpiececards.com/famous-paintings-reviewed/bid/61511/Female-Painters-Sofonisba-Anguissola

6)http://favourite-paintings.blogspot.com/2011/03/sofonisba-anguissola-chess-game.html

7)http://dspace.sunyconnect.suny.edu/bitstream/handle/1951/43949/SOFONISBA_ANGUISSOLA.pdf?sequence=1

Music, Art and Blogging?

It’s a required course – but one I am very interested in knowing more about – art and music through the ages! I hope that the blog actually helps me to focus my shape-shifter thoughts into firm opinions and that the rest of the course provides the knowledge – the tool so to speak – that will be doing the shaping.

I am a Early Childhood Education student working towards my BA in Child Development and Family Studies. All the courses I am taking will help me whether I attain my goal or not as I am currently the Librarian (aide) of an elementary school in bush Alaska.

I hope that there is more interaction in this course than I have seen with most of my other online courses when it comes to discussion.  In the last class I took, however, quite a strong relationship was developed between the three other students and myself to the point that I frequently was looking for the”like” button – I am happy to see that we might have a like button here in wordpress.

I look forward to meeting and interacting with you all, my fellow students, as we embark on this cyberspace adventure.