Study for Jerrell Cemetery

Carolyn Jacobs, Study for Jerrell Cemetery, 6x6", acrylic, 2011

Landscape: Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt, Birch Forest, 1903

 I discovered Gustav Klimt's landscapes about 10 years ago. I had always associated him with images like "The Kiss", and I love to use his figurative paintings in Design class as examples of rhythm and repetition. I don't like every single work of his, but I enjoy a lot of them, and I think his landscapes and his drawings are probably my favorites of his work. 

What really strikes me about his work is how he plays with space by balancing pattern and shape in a way that is flat and spacious. It floats right in front of your face, yet somehow doesn't feel shallow.

Gustav Klimt

 It amazes me how it can seem so airy and so dense at the same time. 

Gustav Klimt, Farmhouse With Birches

He often places the horizon high or low on the picture plane, which immediately challenges our perception of landscape. The birch trees function like lines connecting the foreground to the rest of the image and to the edge of the picture plane. The grass and stalks in the foreground are echoed by the smaller trees in the background.  It's really a beautifully composed image that asserts both its flatness and it's depth

April Gornik, Light in the Woods, 2011 See more at www.aprilgornik.com

When I saw April Gornik's show at Danese this fall, I was reminded of the Klimt painting at the top of the page. Other than subject similarities, they are very different, except in one really important way. Both embody a kind of stillness---like that quiet moment in the forest when you step on a twig and it snaps with a deafening roar. But Gornik's painting is about being able to step into the painting, while Klimt keeps you at outside with a fence made of patterned strokes.

Rauschenberg talks about erasing a de Kooning drawing

This is fascinating.  I've read a little about this, but I'd never heard Rauschenberg talk about it before.

Robert Rauschenberg, Erased de Kooning

He's right, there is something poetic about it.  It's a little bit crazy too.

The genesis of this drawing is complicated and is explained more clearly in this Tate Magazine article than I could ever explain it. I think of it like this: sometimes the path must be cleared so a new direction can be seen. To truly taste something, the palette must be cleansed. To truly hear, you must appreciate silence. It seems rather radical and a really grand gesture, but really it was a continuation of Malevich's painting and of Rauschenberg's own White paintings. I would post a picture of the White painting, but honestly, the title is pretty descriptive.  With the erased de Kooning drawing, an 'empty' sheet of paper still contained the history and reference to the day's greatest artist, but it also contained the limitless possibilities of the future. Yes, I think that's poetic. It's a seemingly blank sheet of paper that tells a very interesting story...

Landscape painting, Spring 2012: John Henry Twachtman

I am gearing up to teach a section of Landscape Painting in the spring. I believe the last time I taught landscape it was Fall session, so the palette will be very different.  I love the spontaneity of teaching this class in plein air as much as possible---changing weather, changing light---it's all good.  I am collecting some of favorite landscape paintings here as I begin to form the semester in my mind.

One of my favorites is John Twachtman---the simple, spare abstract ones. These are really a beautiful exercise in color, tone and restraint.

John Henry Twachtman, Springtime, Cincinnati Museum of Art

John Henry Twachtman, Hemlock Pool, Smithsonian

John Henry Twachtman, Round Hill Road, Smithsonian

Only known photograph of Delacroix

I stumbled across this daguerreotype of Eugene Delacroix (okay, I was looking at the site Bangable Dudes in History, and was struck by some of the daguerreotype portraits).  This is the only known photograph of Delacroix, who was apparently recovering from a serious illness when this was taken.  Still, it is striking in it's intensity.

Eguene Delacroix, 1842, portrait by Leon Riesener

Source: T for tout and the image is housed in Musee d'Orsay

I want someone to make me one.

These are really beautifully crafted, clever and make me wish I'd thought of it first.

 Someone in Edinburgh is leaving these exquisite paper sculptures in libraries around town; 10 in all, as a thank you.  How lovely.  Read more at NPR.  She is not an artist who has worked in paper before, which amazes me and kind of annoys me too.  But mostly just inspires me.