Self Expression

My new favorite thing to do at the pool, besides the elementary back stroke, is to lay in the sweltering heat until my heart is beating uncontrollably and I’m on the verge of passing out. Then jump in the pool, float on my back and listen to my heart beating under water. It sounds like someone knocking on the door!

I went to the Guggenheim last week–what a wonderful exhibit they have!! It’s called A Century of Painting: From Renoir to Rothko and houses the perfect number of paintings–not so overwhelming that you get bored or feel the need to zoom though, but enough to keep you interested. Plus, so much happened in the world and in art during that period (1860s through the early 1900s) that you learn/refresh your memory with an amazing amount of information–both aesthetically and historically. (You can view the exhibit online too, and though it’s not the same as seeing it in person, it could be a fun thing to do!).

Gauguin’s Haere Mai (which means “Come Here”) was very moving. The artist painted this scene from his memories of time spent in Tahiti (“immersing himself in virgin nature”). He uses many symbols in the painting to relay his feelings about the modern world, which, as a Primitivist, he was trying to free himself from. I love the wild boars in the front and the sunburst of yellow trees in the center of the painting. Oh! And he painted this on burlap not canvas!! You can actually see the brown rice-bag-like texture around the edges of the scene. Perhaps this was another of his attempts to escape modernity?

A few other paintings jumped out at me:

Monet’s The Palazzo Ducale, Seen from San Giorgio Maggiore–the touristy perspective and luminescence intruiged me here. I haven’t seen the Palazzo in real life yet, but Monet was visiting Venice and painting what he saw from a foreigner’s point of view (something I relate to very well right now as a foreigner in this new city). I’m not sure if he had seen this building before, but he seems to paint this landscape so that he’ll remember what it feels like to be there. (And though I’m sure the Palazzo feels different for everyone who sees it, he’s trying to share with the future how Venice feels to him. As a soon-to-be-European tourist, I appreciate this effort as it will allow me to compare Venice Then with Venice Now and get a more in-depth understanding of the city). We see the Palazzo from where Monet saw it; that little triangle of stone in the bottom of the picture from where he painted this picture really makes the painting for me because it puts Monet-the-Tourist in the painting; I could go to Venice tomorrow (that sounds like a good idea) and stand where he stood and share the exact same experience that Monet had 96 years ago.

Gino Severini’s futurist Red Cross Train Passing A Village so reminds us of the Cubist movement that came before Futurism. See the houses fragmented in the smoke and the speed of the train? I’m still trying to figure out what the numbers are all about–right now I think they symbolize the modern world… Severini painted this during World War I, so I think they’re a reminder of the significant role that science and medicine play in (any) war. What’s your take?

I enjoyed the motion and sightlines in Robert Delaunay’s Eiffel Tower With Trees. And am in love with Vasily Kandisky and Mark Rothko‘s work–what great color in their abstract expressionism!! (“The inner vision of an artist translated into a universally understandable statement.”)

If I was a work of art (well, I know I’m a work of art [hahaha], but I mean literally, if I was a painting), I would be one of the pieces from this period when Cubo-futurism was morphing into modern art and there was so much going on socially, economically, artistically, and historically–everywhere in the world. I like to think that I’m vibrant, courageous, somewhat aware and reflective of what’s going on around me, innovative, y una mezcla del pasado y that which has yet to come. Whether all that is true or not is another situation entirely, but I’m working on it at least. Which work of art would you be?

It’s Saturday night and since everyone I know (all two people) are either working or out of town, I’ve decided to start a huge painting for the large bare wall in my room. You’ll be able to view this grand work of art in my own mini-Guggenheim soon!