AMOCA in Pomona on October 21st.

On Wednesday the 21st, I returned to my one time home, Glendora, CA, to visit with Elise, a long time friend.  After lunch, we drove over to Pomona to the American Museum of Ceramic Art to explore their current exhibits.  Here are some of my favorites seen at the Museum:


The first three photos are of of a 78 foot long mural by Millard Sheets entitled "Panorama of the Pomona Valley," 1956, paint on canvas..  This was commissioned by Pomona First Federal Savings and Loan, where the museum is now located.  Sheets is from the Pomona Valley and lived most of his life there.  He portrayed the history of the valley just before the coming f the Spaniards in the late 18th century until the founding of the town of Pomona.

Sheets executed over  thirty major murals around the country including for the Home Savings buildings, now Chase Banks in Southern California.  He also created the 10 story "Touchdown Jesus" at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana.  Sue Lautmann, a former pupil of Sheets assisted in executing the mural.

 "Peacock Screen," 1970's by Fern Ritchie.

 "Seagull Screen," 1970's by Fern Ritchie, mixed media, slab built, carved.

Both of the above works hang in the work shop where several artist created while we walked around.

The next exhibit was entitled "Beauty in the Imperfections," with works by Jim Romberg and Patrick Crabb.

 "Winter Path," by Jim Romberg, Raku wall piece.
Jim Romberg is a Professor Emeritus from Southern Oregon University where he headed the Ceramics Department for 18 years.  He is currently living in Sedona, Arizona where  he maintains his studio and is program director for the Eagleheart Center for Art and Inquiry.  

 "Untitled," by Patrick Crabb, Shard T-pot form.
Patrick Shia Crabb received his MFA from U.C.S.B and has been a professor of art at Santa Ana College, Santa Ana, CA.  Teaching Philosophy:  "Artists/teachers are innumerable, but how many leave the field of mediocrity?"  

 "Tripod Cup," by Patrick Crabb.

 "Occulus," by Patrick Crabb

 By Patrick Crabb.  He writes:  "I hope to convey a sense of mystery and visual power to my viewers.  Ancient cultures with its historical artifacts from many countries layer and imagery, resulting in a multi-cultural composition.  This is a reflection of our contemporary life."  

 "Autumn Shadow," by Jim Romberg

 "Sunrise Revelation," Raku Wall Piece by Jim Romberg.
"Stretchings of clay around volume, around experience, around aspiration, contain activities of the heart, mind, soul and body which are specifically directed toward a sense of time, movement, psychology, and speculation involved in abstract relations intended to provoke contemplation and discovery,"  Jim Romberg.

"Large Jar" by Tom Wallick.

Friday at the Norton Simon Museum

Last Friday, October 16th, I met my friend Bonnie for lunch at the Norton Simon Museum gardens in Pasadena.  We then roamed around the museum to see the new exhibitions.  

We arrived in a small gallery off the lobby to "Indoor/Outdoor:  Vuillard's Landscapes and Interiors."  This exhibit is the Norton Simon collection of Vuillard's 1899 lithographs.  The same year, he also created large-scale paintings commissioned for private, domestic spaces.  One is located in the main 19th century gallery.  The 14-foot-wide "decorative masterpiece" is entitled "First Fruits." The painting had been visiting Paris's Musee d'Orsay and the Art Institute of Chicago and arrived "home" this fall.

The description states that as in Japanese woodblock printing, each of Vuillard's colors required separately inked matrix.  Auguste Clot was the master printer who made the prints from Vuillard's creations.  Some prints used up to 7 separate lithographic stones, inked an printed in precise sequence.

Edouard Vuillard, French, (1868-1940) lived in Paris during the turn of the century and was friends with Bonnard, Denis and Toulouse-Lautrec.  The description states that he was best known for small-scale paintings of domestic interiors, populated by friends and family members and crowded with competing patterns: wallpapers, textiles, lattice windows.  "These patterns contribute to the emphatic flatness of his work, a sense that space recedes not into his pictures but up and across their surfaces, erecting a kind of screen or protective barrier between beholder and beheld."

Here are photos of my favorites:

"The Game of Checkers"

"Interior with Hanging Lamp"

"Across the Fields"

"The Hearth"

"The Cook"

"The Pastry Shop"

Next we went downstairs to an exhibit entitled "Fragonard's Enterprise:  The Artist and the Literature of Travel."  Works of Jean Honore Fragonard, French, (1732-1806) who was commissioned by Jean-Claude Richard de Saint-Non to sketch art scene on the Grand Tour of Italy that was in vogue for the wealthy Europeans.  Fragonard traveled from 1759-1761 and made copies of the important paintings and monuments scene in churches and palazzi..  He created hundreds of black chalk drawings were later published and sold.  The Norton Simon Foundation owns the largest single group of black chalk drawings recording this Italian journey, 139.

Here are some examples:

 

"Study after Ludovico Carracci 'Hercules Received on Olympus by Jupiter,'" Palazzo Sampieri Talon, Bologna.

"Study after Lionello Spada 'Joseph and Potiphar's Wife,'" Palazzo Ducale, Modena.

"Study after Ludovico Carracci 'Angels,'" Choir vault, Cathedral Piacenza.

Finally, we visited an exhibit  entitled " A Revolution of the Palette:  The First Synthetic Blues and Their Impact on French Artists."  The description states that the accidental discovery of Prussian blue revolutionized the range of colors available to painters.  Two more newly synthesized blue pigments, cobalt and ultramarine, emerged early in the 19th century.  Combined with commercial availability of pre-mixed oil paints in metal tubes, these synthetic blues fueled a revolution of the painter's palette and working methods.

Here are photos of some of the paintings in this exhibit:

"Happy Lovers," 1760-65 by Jean-Honore Fragonard, French, oil on canvas. 

 "Music," 1760-65 by Jean-Honore Fragonard.

 "Portrait of Theresa, Countess Kinsky," 1793 by Marie-Louise-Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun, French, oil on canvas.

 "Baron Joseph-Pierre Vialetes de Mortarieu," 1805-1806 by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, French, oil on canvas.

 "Thatched Cottage in Normandy," 1872 by Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, French, oil on canvas. " "Corot painted this scene at the age of 79, three years before his death."  He was hailed by the Impressionists as the father of modern landscape.  Corot preferred mixing his own greens, relying on cobalt and Prussian blue to create a wide range of hues and tones.

"Landscape in Martigues," 1869 by Paul-Camille Guigou, French, oil on canvas.

Thursday at the Getty Center

I met my friend Paul at the Getty Center and we roamed through this beautiful art campus on top of Los Angeles.  We focused first on the current exhibit entitled "Power and Pathos:  Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World.

The exhibit description states that during the Hellenistic period from the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C. until the establishment of the Roman Empire in 31 B.C., the medium of bronze drove artistic innovation.  Bronze has the ability to hold fine detail as seen in the dynamic compositions, nude bodies, and facial expressions.  Some of the works are new discoveries found in sunken ships or excavations in Pompeii and other sites.

Here are some of my favorites taken from the photos posted on the Getty Web site:

This is a poster hanging in the Getty Courtyard of "Portrait of Seuthes III,"  310-300 B.C., alabaster, glass, bronze, copper and calcite.

"Alexander The Great on Horseback," 100 to 1 B.C., bronze and silver

"Portrait of A Man," 300-200 B.C., bronze copper glass and stone.

Left:  "Victorious Athlete," 300-100 B.C.; Middle:  "Weary Hercules," 1-100 A.D.; Right:  "Seated Boxer, 'The Terme Boxer,'" 300-200 B.C., bronze and copper.

"Head of a God or Poet," 100-1 B.C., bronze.

Gallery view of "Head of Athelete, 200-100 B.C., Athlete, A.D. 1-90 A.D., Athlete, 100-1 B.C.

Left to Right:  Apollo, 120-100 B.C., Apollo, 100 B.C.-A.D. 79, Torso of a Youth, 200-100 B.C. 

\"Boy Removing a Thorn from His Foot, 'The Spinario," 50 B.C. Bronze and Copper.

"Seated Boxer, 'The Terme Boxer,'" detail. 300-200 B.C. Bronze and Copper.

"Herm of Dionysos," 200-100 B.C., Bronze, Copper and Stone.

After lunch we explored other treasures at the Getty Center including some new acquisitions. Here are my photos:

"Bust of Pope Paul V," 1621 by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Italian, 1598-1680.  "This masterpiece was kept in the Villa Borghese in Rome until 1893 and then sold.  Its whereabouts have been unknown until its rediscover in late 2014.  

"The 'Piebald' Horse," about 1650-54 by Paulus Potter, Dutch, 1625-1654 oil on canvas.

"Astronomer by Candlelight," late 1650's by Gerrit Dou, Dutch, 1613-1675, oil on panel.  Dpi was Rembrandt's first student and later the leader of the group of painters in Leyden.

"Bibi-la-Puree," 1901 by Pablo Picasso, Spanish, 1881-1973, oil on cardboard.  "At once droll and disconcerting, the shabbily debonair character in this portrait arrests the viewer with a gaze whose manic intensity is equaled by Picasso's strident colors and aggressive brushwork."

"The Wounded Foot," 1909 by Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida, Spanish, 1863-1923, oil on canvas.

Emory University Michael C. Carlos Museum

On Wednesday, September 23rd, I visited the campus of Emory University in Atlanta the Michael C. Carlos Museum.  The museum houses artifacts from antiquity to the present.  I especially enjoyed the exhibit on native American art from South, Central and North America.

Here are my photos of my favorites:

1.  Female Effigy with Whale Shark Animal-Self, South America, Central Andes, Central Coast, Chancay, 1200-1450 AD. Ceramic; 2.  Secondary Burial Urn with Female Shaman Lid, S. American Northern Andes, Colombia, Lower Magdalena River, 100-1550 AD. Ceramic; 3.  Secondary Burial Urn as Pregnant Female, S. America, Northern Andes, Colombia, Lower Magdalena River, 1000-1550 A.D., Ceramic; 4.  Gold Labret (Lip Plug), 1000-1500 AD, God-copper alloy; 5.  Gold Ear Rod, Gold-copper alloy, wood.  

Ceramics from South America, Central Andes, North Coast, 1-400 AD.

Shamanic ceramic art from South America, Central Andes, South Coast, 1-650 AD.

Ceramics from South America, Central Andes, North Coast, 1-650 AD.

Colombian Shamanic Effigy Figures, South America, Northern Andes, Colombia, Middle Cauca region, 1200-1400 AD.

"Kuna Mola," late 20th century, northern Panama.  Missionaries introduced machine-made cloth, which was sometimes pattered, and steel scissors to cut it.  They passed on the idea of quilting and other women's handwork from the Euro-american tradition.

Female Shaman Effigy, Central America, Greater Nicoya, Costa Rica/Nicaragua, 500 BC-300 AD, (left) and 800-1350 AD (right), ceramic.

Tawny Jaguar-Shaman Effigy Tripod Vessel, Central America, Costa Rica/Nicaragua, 1000-1350 AD, ceramic.

Head of a Coquero (Male Coca Chewer), South American, Northern Andes, Colombia/Ecuador, 300 BC-200 AD, ceramic.

Incense Burner with Seated Figure, Mesoamerica, Highland Guatemala, Maya/Teotihuacan, 200-550 AD, Ceramic.

Tripod Vessel with Applique Toads, Central America, Atlantic Watershed, Costa Rica, 1-500 AD, ceramic.

Early Mesoamerican Art, Guatemala, El Salvador, Maya, West Mexico, Central Mexico, 1500 BC to 200 AD, Ceramics

"Hacha (Ballcourt Marker), Mexoamerican Guatemala, Maya, Late Classic, 600-900 AD, fine-grained granite.

Art of the Ani'yunwi'ya (Cherokee), Southern Appalachian Mountains.

"Squash Blossom" Necklace, Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico, Silver and turquoise.