Questions from the Met

[Heather]

No, I've never seen it. In fact, surprisingly, I didn't even know there was a movie. I definitely want to check it out! Thank you, Robin!

[Robin]

Sure, it is a good movie that I happened to get from a video store. I was into foreign movies at the time. Gerard Depardieu plays Rodin.

[Heather]

of course! I have seen that now that you mention Gerard Depardieu. He was a wonderful Rodin. Boy, it has been so many years. I need to find it again.

[Robin]

I can barely remember the movie but both their performances were stellar. She is supposed to be in an adaptation of a Bronte movie but have not found that one, it is in Leonard Maltin's movie review book.

[Carol]

It's true, you cannot find/buy the movie anywhere. But YouTube has "Les Soeurs Bronte". It is divided into 12 parts. But this is spoken in French and subtitled in Spanish.

1.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgOM4V...
2.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6orHe...
3.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITILwr...
4.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYvLdf...
5,) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCbVeH...
6.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeEhKr...
7.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAYUb3...
8.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atlhpw...
9.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_sIk8...
10.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Orirn-...
11.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rhy49d...
12.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGWivW...

A few shorts from the film -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHp8hD...
Charlotte discovers Emily's poems.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCJcW9...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=483-QU...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwmX3p...

[Robin]

I think I will try to look for this at my library. I would like to see it in English subtitles. Even the shorts were intriguing enough for me. Thanks Carol for linking it.

[Ed]

Robin wrote: "The Pieta is the most amazing of sculptures, and the artisans who worked on them were pure geniuses. I also like Camille Claudel's sculptures as well. And Rodin is good, too."

I like the Three ages of Man. I think that's the work that Claudel is most famous for.


I do think there is some senusality in Rodin though. The house has been made into a really great museum.
http://www.musee-rodin.fr/slpte-e.htm

[Heather]

Yes, I have actually been to the one in Paris and also in Philidelphia. They are both fantastic. It was a house.
Wasn't that one above the 'Age of Maturity?' I read that Camille did it with herself as the girl, Rodin as the man, and Rose (his wife) as the older woman behind him. It has that symbolism too. I love it!

[Jim]

I looked at the link in Ed's post.
It's amazing how many pieces Rodin did and the quality of his work.
to me sculpture has to be the hardest (no pun intended) medium of all the arts.

[Heather]

Jim said to me sculpture has to be the hardest (no pun intended) medium of all the arts.

I agree. I think that is why it is my most favorite medium.

[Robin]

And the amount of time and effort put into each piece, it astounds me that these sculptors were all very talented and they all looked like what they were portraying them to be. We have a little ebony dancer at the Academy of Arts, and I always marvelled at that piece.

[Amalie]

Carol wrote: "It's true, you cannot find/buy the movie anywhere. But YouTube has "Les Soeurs Bronte". It is divided into 12 parts. But this is spoken in French and subtitled in Spanish.

1.) http://www.youtube...."

Oh my goodness, I never knew such one existed. Too bad I'm not good with French :(

[Heather]

Have you every gazed intently at a work of art and discovered "hidden" details?

Armorer Hermes Knauer

[Heather]

On first contemplating this question, I immediately thought of Hieronymus Bosch's The Garden of Delights


Left Wing


Central Panel


Right Wing

One could examine this forever and not totally grasp every detail. There are many other examples like this. I found that while studying Renaissance art the symbolism abounds.

[Robin]

I like these paintings. I could probably gaze at them all day;)

[Jim]

I find it's amzing how much I don't see in a painting until someone points out a detail I didn't notice but that detail often suggests a major point of the painting.

Also I'm not sure an artist knows why they put in certain details but then other viewers see a great deal of significance from the detail being a part of the painting.

[Robin]

I think in my opinion that details are added as a boost for the eyes to engage not only in the painting itself, but maybe through the whimsical nature of the artist him/herself. That is just my take on it.

[Amalie]

Oh my goodness! There are really amazing! What is "Right Wing"? Is it the Hell or the hell on earth?

P.S. Heather I really enjoy your group. You're doing such a wonderful job constantly bringing the members to great works of art! I applaud you!

[Heather]

Thank you, Amalie! You made my day. I'm glad you are enjoying it, I feel that everyone in the group makes great contributions and I'm learning more and more every day.

[Robin]

I agree with Amalie, Heather outstanding work in bringing art into our homes so to speak. LOL

[Heather]

Thank you, Robin! Glad you're back!

[Robin]

Thank you, Heather and everyone in this group. I have been gone and I have missed the intriguing critiques among all the art experts far and wide.

[Monica]

Hi everyone! I'm awestruck by the goings-on here and want to thank Heather and everyone else. I'm nearly finished Cornell's diary while doing extensive renovations at museuo de monica; glad the heat wave broke and we're back to some gorgeous Michigan summer weather.

[Heather]

Hey, Monica! Glad to have you back!

[Robin]

Yes, Monica, was wondering where you were. Glad to see you posting once again. How was Cornell's diary. We are getting rains here in Hawaii as far as weather goes.

[Heather]

Narrator Jared Goss argues that the Met’s Frank Lloyd Wright room is not chic because everything about it is founded on the basis of earnestness, truth to material, simplicity of construction, and in-your-face integrity. Do you agree?


Completing the tour of the American Period Rooms, the Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) living room exemplifies one of Wright's most important contributions to modern architecture: the idea of dynamic spatial continuity. The room is not a single volume but a series of levels. The oak furniture and other objects in the room have been installed using both a floor plan that Wright made for the room and a photograph of the interior that appeared in a 1942 survey of Wright's work. To the architect, the exterior and interior design and the furnishings of a house were all part of an integrated whole.

This room—originally the living room in a country house for Mr. and Mrs. Francis W. Little—allows visitors to truly experience a pleasure that is rarely available to the public: a Wright-designed domestic space. Installed in the Museum as a freestanding pavilion, much as it was on its original site, it is a complete work, designed by an artist with a highly individual aesthetic.
http://www.metmuseum.org/works_of_art...

How would you define “chic”? Which works of art are particularly chic?

[Heather]

chic (shk)
adj. chic·er, chic·est
1. Conforming to the current fashion; stylish: chic clothes; a chic boutique.
2. Adopting or setting current fashions and styles; sophisticated: chic, well-dressed young executives. See Synonyms at fashionable.
n.
1. The quality or state of being stylish; fashionableness.
2. Sophistication in dress and manner; elegance.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/chic

I had to look it up. I know how to use the word but I needed a concrete definition.

I like the room. I have never been there but am looking forward to seeing it one day. What is chic really mean today? If it isn't chic now, was it when Wright built it? Fashions change, obviously, and I don't agree that one can compare a work of art of a certain time-period to today's standards.
Aside from the colors (which are actually becoming the 'fashion' again), I think the room still has the modern feel. Maybe I am not current with today's architecture but as comparing it to modern art, I feel that it is quite up-to-date for it's time.

[Carol]

Heather wrote: "Narrator Jared Goss argues that the Met’s Frank Lloyd Wright room is not chic because everything about it is founded on the basis of earnestness, truth to material, simplicity of construction, and and in-your-face integrity. Do you agree?"

How would you define “chic”? Which works of art are particularly chic?"

When hear “chic” I think --cosmopolitan, in vogue, sophisticated, stylish, & urban. When I think of Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture (Fallingwater; Prairie School/Robie House), I think --"rustic, rural, handcrafted, simple, organic." Wright is quoted as saying, “Nature is my manifestation of God. I go to nature every day for inspiration in the day's work. I follow in building the principles which nature has used in its domain.” It appears that the two are opposite.

[image error]
The Richmond Room, 1810-11 (Baltimore, MD)

Then I looked at all the period rooms in the MET’s new American Wing. At first I checked out the more “ornate” rooms like The 1810 Richmond Room, with its scenic wallpaper of Paris; or the 1852 Rococo Revival parlor in the "French taste;" and the 1868-70 Renaissance Revival Parlor which indicated “affluence and authority, as well as a cosmopolitan outlook”.

But then I thought that despite that the 1680 Samuel Hart Room (and rooms from 1695—1793) are simplistic and minimal in the number of items, to the family who lived there, these few items were probably their way of displaying their wealth and good fortune.


Samuel Hart Room, ca. 1680 (Ipswich, MA)

I know that at the Wadsworth there is the earlies American painting of a young lady named Elizabeth Eggington, 1664. Paintings were one way families could show their wealth.
http://insight.ccsu.edu/luna/servlet/...

Further searching on Wiki --“chic” is a French word, established in English since at least the 1870s.

[Carol]

I have been looking at the MET's site, so many amazing artworks.

I have seen the “large” American paintings above. This is how they are displayed (somewhat odd). You can see them eye to eye, behind the glass. They have a huge collection, it would be impossible to do it any other way.


I am so impressed with the tiny works. This is only 3 21/32 inches x 2 13/16 inches!!

Susan Hayne Simmons (Mrs. Manigault Heyward), ca. 1813, Robert Fulton (American, 1765–1815), Watercolor on ivory!! 3 21/32 inches x 2 13/16 inches.



A Shipwreck during a Tempest, 1782, Jean Baptiste Pillement (French, 1727–1808), Pastel on gessoed canvas, 24 3/4 inches x 36 inches!



Biblical sampler, 1768, Sarah Lawrence (American, b. 1758), New York City, Silk thread on linen.

[Robin]

To me chic is anything that has style and elegance by way of art I think of Degas ballerinas, to even couture with Coco Chanel's fashions. It falls under such a wide umbrella of what is chic, to me personally.

[Heather]

Artists have experimented with countless textures to achieve a desired effect. Which artists do you think best use texture to convey meaning?

Do you prefer the hushed, powdery texture of a Degas pastel or the bold, thick surface of a Van Gogh oil painting?

Nykia Omphroy

[Heather]

I thought this was an interesting question. I read the first question and immediately thought of the book Leaving Van Gogh: A Novel. I even highlighted this description.

"'Look how much paint he used for the lamps.' I reached out and touched one of them gently, a small ridged dome on the canvas" The Night Cafe pg. 45

"A golden pottery vase of sunflowers stood against a cream background. Even in the dim light, the blossoms appeared to be so thick they were almost three-dimensional" pg. 45

[Monica]

Idk if it's because the MET's site has changed but the Frank Lloyd Wright link is no longer functioning and the pictures in 326, 328 and 329 are not showing.

The word chic to me mainly is used in regard to fashion and to some degree could describe interior design. With the state of much culture these days I can't say I use the word a lot but I know what it is when I see it.

I probably prefer smooth finish to thick, but it's color and composition, and what images evoke, that make or break art for me.

[Ed]

Degas really knew how to use pastel, and van Gogh knew how to use impasto.

So I prefer each, when used by a master. :)

[Heather]

Ahhh, I think this is my most favorite question yet...

Narrator Jennifer Meagher argues that embracing in dance allows us to break down some of the taboos we have about physical closeness. Which works of art do you think illustrate her point?

There are so many works of art that depict couples in an embrace. Which scene best portrays love and connectedness?

[Heather]

I could go on and on. You probably do (or don't) know that sculpture is my favorite medium. And of those sculptures, I am a romantic at heart. 80% of those which I have collected are couples embracing. They are not crude, they are beautiful. Let me post some of the statues that I currently own, then more of which I have been browsing on ebay to ask for Christmas! I just can't get enough (although I really don't have room anymore!)

of course:


The Waltz Camille Claudel
My husband, even after our separation, gifted this to me a few weeks ago. He does have a heart! (sometimes).


The Kiss Rodin


Eternal Spring Rodin


The Three Graces Canova

Ok, so this isn't a couple embracing but I think the idea of 'connectedness'. Don't you think?

I also have a painting done by our own Ed Smiley called The Embrace

I have a statue my brother brought me back from Mexico which is a silouette of of the face of a woman with the side view silouette of the man kissing her cheek. It's beautiful.

Here are a few that I would like to own next!


Bronze Hands

I LOVE this one:


Endless Love Bali Carved Abstract Wood

[Heather]

I like how in art, there isn't the idea of 'personal space'. There also seems to be a difference in the distance of personal space in different countries around the world.

[Monica]

I'm speechless. I should have more to say. Can somebody help? I admire how eclectic your taste is. My taste is so predictable