The Scandalous Art of James Ensor at The Getty

Last Thursday, I visited the Getty Center viewed the retrospective exhibit on James Ensor.  Ensor lived in Belgium from 1860 to 1949. Except for a few years in Brussels, he lived most of his life in Ostend, on the English Channel.  His most famous painting "Christ's Entry into Brussels" is a part of the permanent exhibit at the Getty.  It usually commands a whole wall in a room on the second floor of the West building.  It has been moved for the special exhibit.  He was creative and sometimes bizarre in his earlier works.  He featured figures in grotesque masks, skeletons and used bright colors.

In the evening I attended a panel discussion of three artists who talked about Ensor's impact on their works.  They are Marc Trujillo, Tom Knectel, and Laurie Lipton.  It seemed that for Ensor's first 40 years of life he was acting out his adolescences through his painting.  He then tried to become respectable during his last half century of life and destroyed or altered some of his most provocative works.

Here is a sample of what I saw:

"Adam and Eve Expelled from Eden," 1887

"Afternoon in Ostend,"  1881

"Christ's Entry into Jerusalem," 1885

"Christ's Entry into Brussels,"  1889

"Doctrinal Nourishment" 1889/1895

Self Portrait

"The Skeleton Painter,"  1896

"Oysters"

"The Intrigue," 1890

"The Oyster Eater," 1882

"Tribulations of Saint Anthony,"  1887

"The Rower," 1883

Tom Knectel, March Trujillo, and Laurie Lipton discussing Ensor at the Getty

Santa Fe: Opera House

I attended the famous Santa Fe Opera's production of "Fidelio" the only opera by Beethoven.  The trip to the outdoor opera house was an adventure as the afternoon Monsoon rains began with lightning and thunder and pouring rain as I was driven to the opera on a hill side several miles from town.  I was greeted by umbrella carrying assistants and enjoyed a buffet dinner with an explanation of the opera in a modern tent sheltering us from the storm.  The rain let up and I walked further up the hill to the opera house which is fully covered but open on the sides.  It was a great experience which I highly recommend.  Here are pictures of my adventure:

This is the stage and theater before the performance taken from my seat in the balcony.

The is one of the final scenes of "Fidelio" which was set in a Nazi concentration camp during WWII.  

Santa Fe: Museum of Indian Arts & Culture

On our final day in Santa Fe, we visited the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture on Museum Hill.  The museum features art from the Indigenous people of New Mexico and their history, cycles of life, architecture, language and song, plans and animals, trading posts, survival, and arts.

Here is a tiny sample of what I saw:

"Coming to America," 1996 by Esther Nisenthal Krinitz, a holocaust survivor who arrived with her family in New York City on June 10, 1949.  She and her sister ran from the German Army in Poland  when her family were sent to death camps.  They pretended to be Catholic farm girls.  This piece is made of fabric and needle work.

These carvings are made by Felipe Archuleta who lost his job as a carpenter and began carving animals.  His and other New Mexico wood carvers works are shown.

"Tigre" by Luis Tapla, 1970; "Hog" by Ron Archuleta Rodriguez 2003, wood metal, rubber vinyl and paint.

Santa Fe: Paintings of the Divine at the History Museum

I roamed through the former governors residence on the Plaza in Santa Fe and the connected museum of history.  One of the special exhibits was "Painting the Divine, Images of Mary in the New World." Here is a sample of what I saw:

"The Flight into Egypt," possibly by Cuzco from Peru, late 18th century

"Rest on the Flight into Egypt," possibly Cuzco, Peru

"Nuestra Senora de la Selva," 1989 by Alfredo Arreguin, Seattle Washington

"Our Lady of Guadalupe," 1779 by Sebastian Salcedo, Mexico. This painting was once housed in the 18th century church of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Santa Fe

"Adoration of the Shepherds," by Juan Correa (1646-1716), Mexico

Santa Fe: New Mexico Museum of Art

While in Santa Fe, I enjoyed roaming through the New Mexico Art Museum.  There were many interesting exhibits including a special one on works by Judy Chicago.  Here is a bit of what I saw:

Museum Courtyard

"Seated Navajo Woman," 1978 by R.C. Gorman

"St. Francis," 1915 by Alfeo Faggi. 1885-1966

"In the Shadow of the Hand Gun, from PowerPlay," 1983 by Judy Chicago.  Sprayed acrylic and oil paint on Belgian Linen.
Judy Chicago made New Mexico her home in 1984.  Earlier she had changed her name, Cohen, to Chicago where she is from in order to not be identified by her father, husband or any other male identity.  She is a 75 year-old feminist artist.  One of her most famous feminist installation is "The Dinner Party," now permanently installed as part of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art a the Brooklyn Museum of Art.
The New Mexico Museum of Art exhibit is entitled "Local Color" and focuses on artworks made in New Mexico drawn from the artist's studio from several projects including Powerplay, Holocaust Project, Nuclear Waste(d), Resolution, A Stitch in Time, and Kitty City.  The posted description states that the artist addresses the complexity of gender, injustice, inequality, the atrocities of wark and the environmental costs of nuclear dependence.

The above two pieces are from the Holocaust Project, 1989, called "Banality of Evil, Then and Now."  These were created by Judy Chicago and her husband photographer, Donald Woodman.

"Kitty City," from a series of watercolor paintings and pencil studies made for the publication "Kitty City," a book of hours detailing the daily life of cats in the Chicago-Woodman household.

"Pealing Back," 2000

"Grand Flaming Fist," 2007, etching and glass paint on cast glass

"We're All in the Same Boat," from Resolutions:  A Stitch in Time, 2000
Sprayed acrylic, oil paint, applique, embroidery and smacking on fabric.

"Paddle Your Own Canoe," from Resolutions:  A Stitch in Time," 2000 Modified Aubusson Tapestry woven by Audrey Cowan.

"Woe Man with Mask #11, from PowerPlay," 1986, sprayed acrylic and oil paint on hand-cast paper.  In PowerPlay, Chicago focused on the association of maleness with power and violence.

"Driving the world to Destruction," from PowerPlay 1985

"Doublehead 2," from Powerplay, 1986

Santa Fe: Gallery Favorites

While roaming in Santa Fe last week, I spotted some favorite things I would like to share.

The first 5 photos are of oil paintings on linen by Deladier Almeida that I visted at one of the Blue Rain Galleries on Lincoln.  These paintings caught my eye as I was walking to the Creativity and Madness conference I was attending in the convention center.

Mr. Almeida paints images of California, Colorado and New Mexico.  His thick vivid colors reminded me of the Expressionist from 100 years ago.  He studied with Wayne Thiebaud at UC Davis who had great influence on Almeida's landscapes.  These also remind me of the Berkeley Years series by Richard Diebenkorn.  Almeida's landscapes are taken from what he observed flying over in plane or helicopter.  He was born in Brazil and has lived in California for 30 years.

Here are those I enjoyed:

"Sentry Bend"

Linear Eccentricities

"Enchanted Valdez Valley"

"Landscape Jubilant"

"Brief Modulations"

I enjoyed a group of sculptures and "whirligigs" outside the Wilford Gallery on Canyon Road.  This was after hours so I didn't learn the names of the creators.  This is what I saw...some made me laugh out loud with joy: