Whenever we talk about some of my favorite pieces of art, I have to stomp on my urge to just drag people straight to this painting and go, “THIS IS EVERYTHING I LOVE ABOUT ART AFTER IMPRESSIONISM ENDS.” It is slashes of color; it is expressionism and indistinct, yet it is coherent. It is bold and succinct. It is poignant and direct and to the point. It has no problem telling you exactly what it is and why it’s here and that you are just a fly on the wall. This is a particular kind of unapologetic art for art’s sake, and I love it so much it makes my little heart burst.
Tag: modern art
Sunday
Beckmann uses a very distinct style of intense dark-lining and heavy shadowing that gives many of his works a foreboding feel to them, despite their kaledescopic color qualities. This is one such work; the shadows feel out of place, the lighting not quite right, everything is just slightly surrealistically off-putting, yet, there isn’t anything quite wrong about it.
Saturday
In a lot of ways, this is similar to elements of broader reaches of “African” art, but when you begin comparing it more closely, the comparisons become more caricatures than anything else. This is more expressionism than imitation; allowing for the expression of the artist’s worldview rather than imitating the viewpoints around him. It’s also bordering on cubism, but we’ll digress on the allusions to Picasso.
Thursday
This painting is a bit like ‘choose your own adventure’ but with colors and shapes. You know it’s meant to be goats and you know it’s meant to be mountains, but everything else is subjective.
Monday
This may simply look like a bunch of squares and rectangles in a circle, but it’s really so much more than that. I’ve spent a long time trying to understand the compositional balance between the placement of the colors and the sizes of the forms and there’s just some bloody piece I’m missing. But regardless, it’s a beautiful piece of art.
Sunday
So, this particular piece speaks to me not of jazz and boogie-woogie, so much as the days of Art Deco and of the smooth lines of the Empire State building, the Chrysler Building, and so on – those paragons of delicious modernity from the late 20s and mid 30s that still loom high in the skies and make us think of better times.
Friday
This work reminds me of cuneiform writing, or perhaps calligraphy, stark ink against bright canvases. It’s a very visceral feeling in my gut when I see this painting, a feeling of solidarity.
Sunday
When they decided to start reintroducing the Oceanic art (finally) after a long absence, this was one of the new pieces to go up. I squeed loudly and promptly took like a million pictures and still didn’t capture the essence of the piece. Until you’re standing face to face with Mataora with Hei Tiki, you don’t appreciate the power flowing through the piece. It is art that is suffused with ancestral power; it comes off of it in waves. Each line is like a verse of Shakespeare, weaving an intricate poetic spell in a story that we don’t quite understand. This is one of the most important contemporary pieces in the SLAM collection, and if you don’t believe it, there’s something wrong with you.
Wednesday
There is a dreamy, ethereal quality to this canvas that reminds me of sinking into the ocean and holding my breath for the longest time, looking through the sunbeams at fish. Living in Hawai’i for a time probably contributed to this.
Saturday
This is another one of the paintings that I like to make a special visit to every time I’m in the museum. I enjoy the balance of colors, the simple childishness of the work, and how it makes me feel. I smile every time I see it, and that is a rare feeling in my life, so I will take it for all it is worth.