Laura JG

Alice Neel (1900-1984), Faith Ringgold, 1977, oil on canvas, 48 × 35 13/16 in. (121.9 × 90.9 cm), The Menil Collection, Houston. ©The Estate of Alice Neel. #arthistory #Art #womenartists

“… sympathetic and warm art-world likeness… of African-American painter, sculptor and performance artist Faith Ringgold (1977), strong and regal in a flowing red, white and black dress. Neel met Ringgold, famed for her vivid story quilts, through the National Women’s Caucus.“

12:51 PM - Apr 25, 2024

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I’ve been taking cactus flower pictures with my new iPhone 15 Pro Max. I ran this one thru the Distressed FX app for color and textural effects. #iphonography #DistressedFX #digitalphotoart #digitalphotography

06:49 PM - Apr 24, 2024

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“The excavators nicknamed her 'The Princess', which is a much more romantic label than 'Coffin F'. This is the stunning lid of one of the coffins found in KV63, the first tomb discovered in the Valley of the Kings in 83 years.” — Jeff Burzacott, Nile Magazine, May 14, 2015. #archeology #egypt

The face of a woman, carved on a mummy lid. Found in 2006.

04:22 PM - Apr 24, 2024

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I haven’t been sharing sketches lately. Here are two recent scribbly ones of hubby, seated in the comfy chair. Drawn from life. Sketched freehand on my iPad Pro, using the Sketch Club app. Not meant to be Great Art (whatever that might be). Just for fun. #digitalart #digitalartapp #Art .

06:01 PM - Apr 23, 2024 (Edited)

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Very interesting! #Art #IndiaArt #jewishart

https://www.heyalma.com/in...

heyalma.com

Indian Jewish Artist Siona Benjamin 'Belongs Everywhere and Nowhere' - Hey Alma

In the 28th painting in Siona Benjamin’s “Finding Home” series, a young woman sits on a rug in a world resembling that of Indian and Persian miniatures: a flowing river, large flowers and a dark winged figure lurking in the background. At first glance, the woman appears to wear a s..

01:40 PM - Apr 23, 2024

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“Do not wear yourself out to get rich; be wise enough to desist.”

- Proverbs 23:4

03:58 PM - Apr 22, 2024

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By Sargent Claude Johnson (1888-1967), Singing Saints, 1967, Tempera and enamel on steel, 31 1/2 x 25 inches. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens has an exhibit of his works up thru May 20, 2024. More info in ALT. #arthistory #blackart #blackartists #Art .

A semi-abstracted work of a black woman playing a stringed instrument, another woman behind her, arm upraised. From the Huntington: “Sargent Claude Johnson was born in Boston in 1888 to Eliza Jackson, a woman of African and Cherokee heritage, and Anderson Johnson, a Swedish American. A multiracial artist who identified as Black… Johnson drew from a range of international influences, including traditional and contemporary arts of Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. He traveled to Japan and Mexico, where he met with Mexican modernist artists and learned traditional pottery techniques from Indigenous artists. Johnson was among the earliest of a generation of African American artists to travel to Mexico.”

02:01 PM - Apr 22, 2024 (Edited)

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A bravura work! The Annunciation, c. 1570-1572, by Domenikos Theotokopoulos, known as El Greco (1541-1614), oil on panel, Height: 26.7 cm; Width: 20 cm, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. More info in ALT. #arthistory #Art

From the Museum website: “In keeping with iconographic tradition, the Virgin turns in surprise at the arrival of the Archangel Gabriel and the Holy Ghost. This work is very close, compositionally and stylistically, to the Annunciation of the Modena Triptych, but it is not known whether it is a sketch for that work, or an autograph reduction. Probably painted in Venice just before 1570, this piece seems to be inspired by the work of Titian, although the architecture in the background and the tile flooring in the room hearken to Tintoretto. These were the two painters who most influenced El Greco.”

05:10 PM - Apr 20, 2024

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“Flags for the Emperor’s Birthday” (天長節之旗), by Toyohara Kunichika (1835–1900), ukiyo-e woodblock print. Being a print, it is in more than one collection #Art #Japan #woodblock #JapanArt #JapaneseArt

Info from 美和 Miwa Japanese Art: “Beautiful original woodblock print made in January 1877 by the artist Toyohara Kunichika (豊原国周) and depicting Otomo Wakana (大友若菜), played by the actor Onoe Kikugoro V (五代目尾上菊五郎). The young princess holds in her hand the magic scroll with which she summoned a tsuchigumo (土蜘蛛) giant spider who helped her to carry out her revenge on the Kikuchi clan (菊池家), responsible for her father’s death in the context of a feud…
[We see a] roll of fabric supported in the upper right corner by a spider, and the Hinomaru (日の丸) flags waving on the occasion of the Emperor’s birthday, which in 1868 was introduced by decree into the Japanese calendar to be celebrated as a national holiday.” — https://www.miwajapaneseart.com/product/the-emperors-birthday-toyohara-kunichika/

01:23 PM - Apr 18, 2024

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By Edward Hopper (1882–1967), “Eleven A.M.,” 1926, oil on canvas, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. #art #arthistory

Paul Richard, Washington Post, April 6, 2002: “In Edward Hopper's "Eleven A.M." (1926) time seems set adrift. This is a picture of two reveries, one hers, the other ours.  A nude sits amid draperies. Any image so familiar is bound to feel at least a little bit antique. The woman by the window lost in her own thoughts calls to mind Vermeer. Her nakedness-with-shoes suggests Manet's scandalous "Olympia." But these are fleeting references, and do not linger long. We're not in Delft or Paris. The intimate-anonymous flavor of the scene is 20th-century American. We're in a building with an elevator. The woman in the easy chair stares into an air shaft. Other lives are being lived just beyond the walls. There's no glass in the window. The viewer cannot tell if it's closed or open. Hopper seldom bothered painting in his panes. She's vulnerable. Her building's heavy, square-cut blocks accentuate the softness of her unclothed flesh. And yet we sense no danger. She's not a victim or a sex object...

01:30 PM - Apr 17, 2024

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The Mothers (Die Mütter), c. 1922–1923, by Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945), lithograph (Edition 1/100), Cranbrook Art Museum. In 1923 at the height of the pacifist movement in Germany Kollwitz created a portfolio of 7 woodcuts titled War. #arthistory #womanartist #womenartists #War #Art

From the website: “Following the catastrophe of World War I, German artist Käthe Kollwitz produced a portfolio of seven woodcuts entitled War in 1923 at the height of the pacifist movement in Germany. Using generalized figures of mothers, widows, young soldier volunteers and grieving parents, the prints focused on the pain and sorrow of those left behind. Kollwitz was particularly sensitive to the grief of mothers, having lost her own son Peter in the early months of the war.
The Mothers, part of the War portfolio, shows a group of women locked into a solid sculptural mass that forms a protective barrier for the infant held by one and the two children who peer out between their mothers’ skirts. Though implying that mothers will stand together to prevent their children from marching off to future wars, the women are defensive and anxious. The woodcut evokes the sacrifice and suffering of German mothers who sent their sons off to war for their country’s honor and now fear losing the flow...

07:20 PM - Apr 16, 2024

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A second art history post for today, as it is the birthday of Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). So, I share this graceful drawing: “A maiden with a unicorn,” pen and dark brown ink on laid paper, sheet 9.5 x 7.5cm,, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford. #arthistory .

A graceful sketch of a seated young woman pointing at a unicorn which lies at her feet.

05:32 PM - Apr 15, 2024

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I love the sweet whimsy of this ceramic work by Ukrainian artist Olʹha Rapaĭ-Markish (also known as Olʹha Rapaĭ or the anglicised Olha/Olga Rapay). #arthistory #Ukraine #ceramics #womanartist #womenartists

A ceramic work. We see a blond angel with a crown. On her shoulder a large flower. Her torso nude, and instead of human legs she has bird legs. Her wings and lower body are highly decorated with colorful foliage, and her tail multi-colored. We see in the right background a sun behind one shoulder. On the left background, a moon at her feet. Both sun and moon have faces.

03:12 PM - Apr 15, 2024 (Edited)

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The website describes it as "The Shimmering Skeleton Rides an Ox". Illuminated manuscript from a Book of Hours, France, Tours, 1470s. Ms. 93 fol. 114r. Library of Congress, Rare Book and Special Collection Division. #arthistory #illumination #manuscript .

The website: “… a knowing expression in the unflinching gaze of an ox looking back from the large painted miniature. The mild fixity of the bovine stare might not be so startling were the ox not carrying an armed skeleton on its back. The small fleck of light in the ox’s eye accentuates the umbral vacancy in the ocular cavity of the creature’s unexpected rider: the ox is alive, but, though animate, the skeleton with its advancing army is not. The faces of the citizens prepared to engage the army at edge of the wood wear masks of terror reminiscent of a chorus in a classical tragedy. Rays of sunlight painted in liquid gold fall upon the men, but their eyes reflect only the hollow gaze of their skeleton counterparts. Those on one side of the ox will soon resemble those on the other. Central to the composition, the ox looks directly at the viewer, drawing them into the scene at a moment of horrible metamorphosis. This painting is a portable, illuminated nightmare.”

06:30 PM - Apr 14, 2024

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"Find your voice and don't worry about what other people think." — Faith Ringgold #Art #blackart #womanartist
https://www.nytimes.com/20...

nytimes.com

Faith Ringgold Dies at 93; Wove Black Life Into Quilts and Children’s Books - The New York Times

A champion of Black artists, she explored themes of race, gender, class, family and community through a vast array of media and later the written word.

05:29 PM - Apr 13, 2024

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Alexander O. Levy (1881-1947), “The Rhumba Dancer,” 1934, oil on canvas, 40 x 40 inches, collection of Dr. Michael Wood. #Art ArtDeco #arthistory .

"By far the most alluring paintings are Levy’s portraits, commissioned and otherwise, few more so than “The Rumba Dancer” from 1934, which depicts a dancer in a flowing, multicolored dress giving a sideways glance at someone just outside of the frame as a band plays music behind her." - Colin Dabkowski, quoted Buffalo Architecture and History — https://buffaloah.com/a/elmwd/1300/bp/levy/levy.html

01:32 PM - Apr 13, 2024

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By Maurycy Minkowski (1881-1930), Refugee Children, c. 1900-1930, oil on canvas, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, Berkeley, CA. #arthistory #refugees #refugee

In the foreground, a child with close cropped hair holds a jug. Perhaps waiting to fill it. Some others are in line behind her. In the background, Some people are sitting at a table and eating.

08:00 PM - Apr 12, 2024

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"Two Girls, Spanish Harlem," by Alice Neel (1900-1984), oil on canvas, Metropolitan Museum of Art. © The Estate of Alice Neel. A white woman, living at the time in Spanish Harlem, she painted the people around her. More in ALT. #Art #arthistory #womanartist #womenartists

"There's nothing sentimental in this view of Carmen and Antonia Encarnacion — girls in Neel's neighborhood in Spanish Harlem. She paints the sometime uneasiness of childhood. They're inquisitive but not jolly. Not idealized.
She treats them as humans." — Kelly Baum
"Life was tough for Alice Neel. The death of two of her children. A mental breakdown. Bad men (lots of men) coming and going. And life was tough for most of the people she painted. Nobody smiles. Nobody has much money. They're parents, they're pregnant, even the children aren't relaxed." - Susan Stamberg
" I love this painting as a kind of perversion of a Sunday-school portrait. There is a kind of fierceness to the girls.
Alice liked that. She wanted girls who would stand up to the challenge of being painted." - Hilton Als

12:27 PM - Apr 11, 2024

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By Alice Neel (1900-1984), “Jackie Curtis and Ritta Redd,” 1970, oil on canvas, 60 x 41 3/4 in. (152.4 x 106 cm.), Cleveland Museum 0f Art, © The Estate of Alice Neel. #art #arthistory

From the museum website: ‘Jackie Curtis (on the right), was a performer, writer, and singer, active in New York City’s downtown counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s, and part of Andy Warhol’s creative orbit. In this double portrait Alice Neel depicts Curtis, who was gender nonconforming, together with Ritta Redd, a friend with whom he sometimes collaborated. Typical for Neel, the personalities of her sitters are evident in this painting. Notably, Curtis takes center stage in the image, positioning his body to cast Redd in its shadow. Neel once commented that when “portraits are good art they reflect the culture, the time and many other things.”’

10:49 AM - Apr 10, 2024 (Edited)

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By Fede Galizia (1578-1630), Judith with the Head of Holophernes, oil on canvas, 191.1 x 133.4 cm, Galleria Borghese, Rome. The story is in the Book of Judith (not accepted into the biblical canon by Protestants). #arthistory #womanartist #womenartists

The story, in brief: Judith, a beautiful Jewish widow, invites the Assyrian general Holofernes to her tent. She decapitates Holofernes with his own sword, thus saving the Jewish people from his army. Here we see Judith, an impressive blade in one hand, the severed head in her other hand. She appears to be about to put the head in a basin, held by her female servant, who holds her fingers to her lips. Key verses from the story: "She went up to the bedpost near Holofernes' head, and took down his sword that hung there. She came close to his bed, took hold of the hair of his head, and said, 'Give me strength today, O Lord God of Israel!' Then she struck his neck twice with all her might, and cut off his head. Next she rolled his body off the bed and pulled down the canopy from the posts. Soon afterwards she went out and gave Holofernes' head to her maid, who placed it in her food bag."

04:40 PM - Apr 09, 2024

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Monday selfie. iPhone 15 Pro Max. Edited in Tintype and in Hipstamatic. #iphonography #iphonographer #digitalphotography

Heavily filtered selfie, with hair in front of face. Grayscale, with splotches of color. Very textural.

08:12 PM - Apr 08, 2024

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#poverty #Art https://mymodernmet.com/ph...

mymodernmet.com

These Poignant Photographs Highlight the 'Invisibility of Poverty'

What is this you're seeing? These striking photos highlight the 'invisibility of poverty' that plagues underprivledged children in China.

10:57 AM - Apr 08, 2024

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Ye Qianyu (or Yeh Ch'ien-yü; 1907-1995), “Offering Flowers,” 1962, scroll, mounted and framed, ink and color on paper, 51.5 x 39 cm. (20 1⁄4 x 15 3⁄8 in.), sold at auction Christie’s Hong Kong for 119,700 Hong Kong dollars in 2022 (equivalent to U.S. $15,356. #arthistory #asianartists

A lovely, simple Zen drawing of a woman wearing a sari with an offering of flora. Palette of red, white and green.

02:27 PM - Apr 07, 2024 (Edited)

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African-American artist Frederick D. Jones, Jr. (1914-2004), "July 7," 1958. Oil on canvas, 29 ½ x 24 ½ inches, Minnesota Museum of American Art. More info in ALT. #Art #arthistory #blackartist #blackartists #blackart

From the museum website: “The title of the work and the symbols within it, especially the date on the torn calendar page to the right, highlight July 7 as an important key to this painting. The main figure, a beautiful veiled woman, sits in a chair by an open window in a fairly rundown room. Outside her window, in front of a gleaming church façade, a man serenades her with a harmonica, possibly trying to woo her. Between them on the windowsill sits a pink rose and three playing cards; one is the ace of hearts, another the queen of hearts, and the last is turned face down as if waiting to be revealed. These symbols seem to communicate that this painting was meant to record a significant moment in the courtship of this couple, perhaps their engagement or marriage.”

12:33 PM - Apr 06, 2024

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The weird, wonderful imagination of Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516). Detail, central panel, The Garden of Earthly Delights Triptych, grisaille, oil on panel, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. “a Paradise that deceives the senses, a false Paradise given over to the sin of lust.” #arthistory #Art

From the website: “In the centre panel, from which the triptych derives its name, Bosch included a large number of naked human figures, with the exception of the pair at the lower right, who are usually identified as Adam and Eve after the Expulsion from Paradise. Men and women, both black and white, are generally seen in groups or pairs, maintaining amorous relations with a powerful erotic charge that refers to the panel’s pre-eminent theme, the sin of lust. The animals, both real and imaginary, are much larger than their proper scale. Among them, Bosch particularly emphasizes two different types of owl that evoke evil. Staring straight out, they direct their disturbing gazes at the viewer at the two lateral edges of the panel, slightly set back from the immediate foreground. Also present are plants and fruit, which are again much larger than their scale dimensions. The entire composition is dotted with pieces of red fruit that contrast with other large and small blue ones, these bein...

02:03 PM - Apr 05, 2024 (Edited)

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A heroine waits for her hero. Rajasthan, Kota, ca. 1740. Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper; 13 31/32 x 9 21/32 in. (35.5 x 24.5 cm). The San Diego Museum of Art. #art #arthistory #India #illuminatedmanuscript

An illuminated manuscript — depiction of 4 women, dressed in saris, standing in an outdoor courtyard.

05:55 PM - Apr 04, 2024

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"Scene in the Jewish Quarter of Constantine," 1851, by Théodore Chassériau (1819-1856), oil on canvas, 22 3/8 x 18 1/2 in. (56.8 x 47 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art. At this time in Algeria the website says “Jews and Arabs lived in relative, cautious harmony.” #Art #arthistory

Two women in a room. They are dressed in Jewish-Algerian clothing of the mid-19th century. They are rocking a baby, who is sleeping in a basket that is hanging from the ceiling. From the website: 'From the ancient town of Constantine he wrote, "I have seen some highly curious things: primitive and overwhelming, touching and singular. At Constantine, which is high up in some enormous mountains, one sees the Arab people and the Jewish people [living] as they were at the beginning of time." The Jewish women of North Africa were especially attractive subjects for European painters because they did not wear veils.’

07:57 PM - Apr 03, 2024

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One of my favorite artists. #Art #arthistory #grief
https://www.nytimes.com/20...

nytimes.com

The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Rage and Grief - The New York Times

Käthe Kollwitz’s fierce belief in social justice and her indelible images made her one of Germany’s best printmakers. A dazzling MoMA show reminds us why.

02:34 PM - Apr 02, 2024

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