Where it's at...er, was...
Barcelona's heyday, so far...an exhibit of a flowering of ideas. From the known (early Picasso) to a few surprises--Joaquin Mir's landscapes are lush with blobs of color; Isidre Nonell conveys a strong social conscience new to the time. Don't miss his "Young Gypsy," a depiction of silence, darkness, resignation, moodiness, introspection, and sequestered emotion. And the canvas isn't even all that large.
Like Picasso's Blue Period needs more analysis. But here goes: blue because of the color of the skin deprived of oxygen, blue being the color/metaphor for the spirit of the toilers > lives starved of leisure (such is the stuff of those that don't have to do manual labor for their daily bread. Did Picasso ever had to slog to eat?). You can say an artist reflects his/her time, or that he/she sidesteps it. It's usually the former. These three paintings are somber, morose, and grim.
Backtrack to a happier time--GAUDI. A whole room-full of his work, highlighting an outrageously terrific dressing table -- the Gina Lollobrigida of furniture. This loquacious little doodad purrs curves: from glass top to mirror (swerved to the diagonal), its frame edges melting into puddles of carved-wood ribbon, to swirls and whooshes: the eye never stagnates. There's even an itty bitty biped shelf growing out of a front leg (perdone, Signora L.). Large enough for a houseboy's derriere, perhaps? Hmmm? Such splendidness is still in the Guell family, sigh... But there's more! A section of an iron fence from the Casa Vicens (a motif of repeating palm fronds), drawings of the Sagrada Familia (completion date--2035 ["My client is in no hurry"]), a model of the ceiling of the church--much more complicated than it looks, as the construction is formed upside down and rightly viewed in a mirror (what was this guy on, anyway?)-- and fixtures and tiles from the Casa Batllo, as he designed absolutely everything for the building. It was all intensely sensory, user-friendly. Gaudi took the naturalism of Art Nouveau and created absolute, sheer, unmitigated joy. He was a genius, period.
A hard act to follow, so the Met trots out you-know-who. Three searing paintings, portraits of hard-scrabble peasants. Then Fauvism, Cubism, Surrealism (some tasty Miros) and the powerful metal sculpture of Julio Gonzalez. "Head" opens up form, integrating space. By 1936 Spain was heading towards war, and the artists reacted accordingly. Dali channels Goya with "Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War)." Gruesome and brutal.
An enveloping, varied and comprehensive show. Perspicacious, too.
Goes with: a plane ticket to Barcelona, to see for yourself, because the work of Gaudi is as powerful as the music of Lightning Bolt. You need to be there...
Barcelona and Modernity: Gaudi to Dali, at the Met
through June 3
212-535-7710
www.metmuseum.org
Like Picasso's Blue Period needs more analysis. But here goes: blue because of the color of the skin deprived of oxygen, blue being the color/metaphor for the spirit of the toilers > lives starved of leisure (such is the stuff of those that don't have to do manual labor for their daily bread. Did Picasso ever had to slog to eat?). You can say an artist reflects his/her time, or that he/she sidesteps it. It's usually the former. These three paintings are somber, morose, and grim.
Backtrack to a happier time--GAUDI. A whole room-full of his work, highlighting an outrageously terrific dressing table -- the Gina Lollobrigida of furniture. This loquacious little doodad purrs curves: from glass top to mirror (swerved to the diagonal), its frame edges melting into puddles of carved-wood ribbon, to swirls and whooshes: the eye never stagnates. There's even an itty bitty biped shelf growing out of a front leg (perdone, Signora L.). Large enough for a houseboy's derriere, perhaps? Hmmm? Such splendidness is still in the Guell family, sigh... But there's more! A section of an iron fence from the Casa Vicens (a motif of repeating palm fronds), drawings of the Sagrada Familia (completion date--2035 ["My client is in no hurry"]), a model of the ceiling of the church--much more complicated than it looks, as the construction is formed upside down and rightly viewed in a mirror (what was this guy on, anyway?)-- and fixtures and tiles from the Casa Batllo, as he designed absolutely everything for the building. It was all intensely sensory, user-friendly. Gaudi took the naturalism of Art Nouveau and created absolute, sheer, unmitigated joy. He was a genius, period.
A hard act to follow, so the Met trots out you-know-who. Three searing paintings, portraits of hard-scrabble peasants. Then Fauvism, Cubism, Surrealism (some tasty Miros) and the powerful metal sculpture of Julio Gonzalez. "Head" opens up form, integrating space. By 1936 Spain was heading towards war, and the artists reacted accordingly. Dali channels Goya with "Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War)." Gruesome and brutal.
An enveloping, varied and comprehensive show. Perspicacious, too.
Goes with: a plane ticket to Barcelona, to see for yourself, because the work of Gaudi is as powerful as the music of Lightning Bolt. You need to be there...
Barcelona and Modernity: Gaudi to Dali, at the Met
through June 3
212-535-7710
www.metmuseum.org
posted by M. Apparition at 8:17 AM
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