Art Viewer
@arthistory
art historian with eclectic interests
Before the internet was for cats, photography was for cats. Glenalvin Goodridge, Portrait of a Cat, c. 1858. Goodridge was the son of a formerly enslaved man turned businessman and at 18yo in 1847, opened his first photography studio that also served as a stop on the Underground Railroad.
A hybrid fortune cookie for a hybrid culture: Jiha Moon, “Lady in K-Garden,” 2017 #Ceramics #AsianDiaspora
The whisper of water and paint that make up the rabbit kills me. How was that even possible? Goya, just incredible. Francisco José de Goya, The Eagle Hunter, c. 1812-20, brush and brown ink with brown wash on laid paper @gettymuseum.bsky.social
Textile dreams.... look at that gold and pattern! Gentile da Fabriano, Coronation of the Virgin, c. 1420. tempera and gold leaf on panel @gettymuseum.bsky.social
Last night I saw an opera industrial (think the Bathtubs Over Broadway documentary, but opera) at the lavish tax write-off known as the Napa Valley Festival where they have Renee Fleming keynote panels titled "Art and Wellness." 75 minutes on the 1976 Judgment of Paris wine tasting that Napa won.
The determined little face of a cat who refuses to be thwarted. My vigorous little shadow muppet. Happy #Caturday
Found Christine Howard Sandoval at the @sanjosemuseumofart.bsky.social fascinating. Mud runs over the order human grids attempt to inpose. The earthen force undeniable
So thrilled the African galleries at the @deyoungmuseum.bsky.social are getting the interpretation panels they’ve always deserved. Hiring curators makes a difference. Watching people reading and learning in the galleries is a big change from the confusion that used to reign in there.
Finally dragged myself to see Monet & Venice at the de Young in its last week. It was terrifically boring but the wall paint colors were nice.
Residue of life. Vincent van Gogh, Shoes, 1886, oil on canvas. 37.5 cm × 45 cm (14.8 in × 18 in) (Amsterdam, Vincent van Gogh Museum)
I like to remind people that the San Jose Museum of Art has free admission for kids 17 and under plus college students and teachers. They also have air conditioning, which is pretty nice in a south bay summer.
Alison Saar, Mutiny of the Sable Venus, 2022, Wood, copper, ceiling tin, shell, and found metal shapes and sickle, 87 × 28 × 58 in. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas.
Two years ago I visited Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House in Los Angeles on a very sunny and warm summer solstice #architecture
Angelenos and people who love visiting LA: Christian Marclay's The Clock is coming to LACMA July 26-August 23 www.lacma.org/art/exhibiti...
It took 45 years, but the musical CATS finally has a plot. The queer NYC ball culture version, Cats: The Jellicle Ball, finds meaning in every (formerly) nonsensical line and resolution in what was inchoate.
Isamu Noguchi, Emanation, 1971, granite. Noguchi Museum #sculpture #JapaneseAmerican
I slay. In 16th-century finery and feathered hat, Lucas Cranach, Judith and Holofernes, 1530. Oil on linden, Metropolitan Museum
Louise Stomps, a bold woman with a great last name, sculptor. Der Aussteiger (The Outsider), 1988, mountain cherry wood, estate of Louise Stomps
Compelling even from a distance. Viewing Jan van Eyck’s Lucca Madonna at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt
Co-painted Fragonard and Marguerite Gerard, his pupil, The Angora Cat, 1783-85, oil on linen. #Caturday #WomenArtists
I, for one, cannot wait to see Death of a Salesman: the Musical. I hear the dance numbers are top.
Members of the Asian Diaspora, there is a new White Rabbit candy flavor! We’re rocking red bean in red packaging! Haven’t made it into ice cream yet but there’s always tomorrow