March 07HENRI MATISSE. Wild beast. Would you not agree – along with the rest of the entire western world – that the paintings of Henri Matisse rank among your favorites? (Copy Writing 101: don’t ask a question that can be answered in the negative. I am, however, so confident your answer is “yes,” I feel safe in asking.) Henri Matisse, Les Poissons Rouges, 1912 Collection of Pushkin Museum, Moscow Vivid, playful, and fluidly drafted, the paintings of Henri Matisse inspired an entire new Lisa Confetti collection (with much thanks to my sales rep Marci for her brilliant idea). Chunky, funky rings I have dubbed “eye candy accessories with yummy masterpiece middles.” Connecting them to the season, they are as pretty as Easter eggs – exquisite, artistically crafted Easter eggs. Not the ones you botched as a kid. Necklace available at http://www.lisaconfetti.com and on etsy. The introduction of a radical new artistic style is always met with heated resistance (think rock in the 60s, rap in the 80s). In 1874, a group of artists sarcastically dubbed by disparaging journalists as Impressionists, broke out of the stylistic straight jacket of the Governmentally managed French Salon and its hugely influential biannual exhibition to stage their own show. It was met with howls of outrage. (See my November 3, 2009 blog post.) 31 years later, with the Impressionists now enjoying favor, fame and fortune, Henri Matisse (1869-1954) led a new group of experimental artists in organizing its own 1905 exhibition. To the early 20th century eye, the paintings were so simplified in design and so vivid in color that a shocked art critic declared the artists to be fauves (wild beasts). As it did with the Impressionists, the tag line stuck, and the radical new style of Fauvism had a name. LEFT to RIGHT: The Dance, 1909, Collection of The Hermitage, St. Petersburg Madame Matisse (The Green Line), 1905, Collection of Statens Museum for Kunst, Coppenhagen Red Room (Harmony in Red), 1908-1909, Collection of The Hermitage, St. Petersburg Exposed through colonial expansion to the exotic arts in Africa, Polynesia and Central and South America, the Fauvists incorporated unexpected shapes and colors into their canvases, making a final break with the realistic artistic traditions of the Renaissance. Even though the works were derided by critics, the French art buying public had seen enough “radical” artistic experimentation by now to appreciate new, talented artists. Like Picasso (a near contemporary), Matisse realized success and prosperity relatively early in his long, productive carrer, and he is now recognized as one of the three seminal artists of the 20th century, along with Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp. Henri Matisse was well on his way to becoming a lawyer when, at the age of 22, he persuaded his father to let him abandon law for art and went to Paris to study under William-Adolph Bouguereau. As you learned in my November 3, 2009 post, Bouguereau was the most successful and awarded academician of his time. He was technically brilliant, but his artistic taste is now universally questioned. Confident in navigating an independent artistic path, Matisse quickly left Bouguereau to study under Gustave Moreau, a teacher much more open to new experimental styles he didn’t understand. Matisse’s rejection of traditionalism created great (but temporary) personal sacrifice. Painting in a conventional style, he had been selling canvases. But when he stepped onto a radical artistic path, sales ceased. With a wife and three children, Matisse studied and honed his talent until at 35 years of age, he organized the break-out exhibition mentioned above and was finally recognized. Success snowballed. (Note to self: Believe.) My only (and grossly selfish) complaint about Henri Matisse is that he hasn’t been dead long enough. His body of work spans over half a century, into the 1950s, and throughout his long life his creative gift never flagged. Look at his spectacular series of paper cutouts, created when he was in his 80s. LEFT to RIGHT: Icarus, 1947, Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York The Snail, 1953, Tate Gallery, United Kingdom Blue Nude, 1952, Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York The Sorrows of the King, 1952, Collection of National d'Art Moderne, Paris My conundrum: I can only reproduce works created before 1923. So these exquisite pieces (perfect for jewelry!) are off limits until I am well beyond my jewelry making years. (This is assuming the year works fall into the public domain inches along with time. 1923 today, 1933 in 2020, hopefully.) Okay, here is a warning. The following information is only for those who are truly interested in the study of art history. Everyone else may find it mind numbing. There is a very interesting new development in Matisse scholarship. The Chicago Art Institute is staging an exhibition Matisse: Radical Reinvention, 1913-1917 (March 20 – June 20, 2010), and one of its most celebrated canvases is a favorite in the collection of New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Writing about the upcoming exhibition for Vanity Fair Magazine (if you don’t yet subscribe, do), British art historian John Richardson revealed a startling discovery. A star painting in the Art Institute of Chicago’s exhibition “Matisse: Radical Reinvention, 1913-1917” is Goldfish and Palette, which has long been a favorite with visitors to New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Few, however, have spotted that it is a baton in an artistic relay race that goes from Cezanne to the great period of Matisse’s that this show celebrates, to Cubism. In a letter Matisse wrote to a friend in 1914 was a sketch of a goldfish bowl on a table set off against the railings of his studio balcony. The sketch included the artist himself, holding a rectangular palette just as his hero, Cezanne, does in a famous 1885 self-portrait. In the course of working on the painting, however, Matisse did a vanishing act, whittling his image down to a vestigial scaffolding. All that remains is the palette with a thumb in it. I see this iconic white rectangle as the baton in the relay race of modern art. Trust Picasso to pick up on it, when, a year later, he came to paint his tragic, self-reverential Harlequin (which also belongs to MOMA). Seeing this late Cubist masterpiece, Matisse hailed it as his arch-rival’s greatest work to date, because it owed everything to him. For years, nobody could figure out what he meant. The link? What else but Cezanne’s palette. Cezanne had passed it on to Matisse, turned it into a barely perceptible self-portrait on a rectilinear canvas his Harlequin alter ego is clutching. Subsequent abstractionists would pass the baton from one to another until there was nothing left but a blank rectangle. (JOHN RICHARDSON, Vanity Fair, March, 2010) Here they are, the paintings John Richardson wrote about above. Do you see the palette in each painting? And its journey toward abstraction? LEFT to RIGHT: Paul Cezanne, Self Portrait with Palette, 1885, Private Collection Henri Matisse, Goldfish and Palette, 1914, The Museum of Modern Art, New York Pablo Picasso, Harlequin, 1915, The Museum of Modern Art, New York Now bringing this back full circle to Lisa Confetti, I find the comparison between a Matisse goldfish painting I used in my Weightless necklace (below left) with the MOMA goldfish painting to be fascinating. The passage of time is only 2 years, but the stylistic shift toward cubism -- flat surface, hard edged outlines, geometric shapes -- is easily apparent and dramatic. LEFT to RIGHT: Les Poissons Rouges, 1912, Collection of Pushkin Museum, Moscow Goldfish and Palette, 1914, The Museum of Modern Art, New York There you have it, friends. J'ai fini. I don’t know if this is any fun for you to read, but I sure got a kick out of writing it. Thank you for bearing with me. Until next time, Lisa12:52 PM GMT | Read comments(0)February 09Sumptuous, exquisite (and erotic) GUSTAV KLIMTIt is such a joy to design new pieces for the Lisa Confetti collection. As a part of the process, I spend hours perusing books in the art history sections of the San Diego State and UCSD libraries – meeting artists who are new to me and visiting old friends. My new favorite forgotten friend is artist Gustav Klimt (Austrian, 1862-1918). You know him from The Kiss, which has, understandably, been reproduced a million times. His paintings from the early 20th century are exquisite, with sumptuous patterns and vivid color. (It is not verbose to describe these paintings as exquisitely sumptuous. Look at them, they’re spectacular!) Left to right: The Kiss, 1907-08, Collection of Osterreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna Portrait of Ria Munk, 1917, Collection of Lentos Museum, Linz Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, 1907, Collection of Neue Gallerie, New York The floral patterns and bright colors in The Portrait of Ria Munk (above) are perfect for my spring jewelry collection. And I couldn’t resist adding them to several pieces (including my new chunky statement ring collection.) Left to right: Cutting Garden Ring 102 Performance All pieces are available on Lisa Confetti and etsy. The Portrait of Ria Munk tells a sad story. After the end of an unhappy love affair, Ria Munk shot herself and died. Her grieving parents commissioned this portrait, but Klimt unsuccessfully struggled to portray her likeness, and the painting was abandoned. Klimt is often defined as an eroticist. His primary subject matter was the female body, and many of his pieces were branded as obscene and produced outraged reactions. (His paintings are PG13 by today’s standards, but his drawings often careen toward NC-17.) Three of his more erotic paintings are below, and as you can see, with their sumptuous patterns and vivid colors, they are gorgeous. Left to right: The Virgin, 1913, Collection of National Gallery, Prague The Bride, 1917, Collection of Osterreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna Water Serpents II, 1904-07, Private Collection One hundred years later, the outrage over Gustav Klimt's sensualized subjects has long ago subsided. What remains is the recognition that he was one of the most important artists of his time who created paintings that have become the century's most popular works of art. PS: As I write this, I’m watching the New Orleans Saints’ victory parade on CNN. What a happy occasion for the state of Louisiana! The entire country celebrates for you. WHO DAT!5:44 PM GMT | Read comments(0)December 16Holiday art history lesson. MADONNA and MAGI. On the brink of the artistic explosion of the High Renaissance teeter the two works used in the MADONNA AND MAGI necklace. Renaissance Main Man, Leonardo da Vinci, was born in 1452, and our paintings were created in the 1423 and 1438. Possibly the years Leonardo’s parents were born? LEFT front: Stephan Lochner, Madonna of the Rose Garden, 1430. Collection of Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne RIGHT back: Gentile da Fabriano, Adoration of the Magi, 1423, Collection of Uffizi Gallery, Florence INTERNATIONAL GOTHIC style Lochner’s Madonna of the Rose Garden and da Fabriano’s Adoration of the Magi were both painted in the International Gothic style. Born in France and Northern Italy at the end of the fourteenth century, the International Gothic style was created to portray the aristocratic penchant for courtly processions, lavish costumes, detailed ornamentation and brilliant color. Elaborate, charming and glittering with detail, the style was carried by travelling artists to royal and noble houses throughout all of Europe. The International Style was most perfectly realized in the exquisitely detailed illuminated manuscripts that were prized possessions of the wealthy. Illuminated manuscripts were expensive and jealously collected symbols of rank and education among the European aristocracy. If you happen to be in New York anytime soon, do yourself a favor and go to the Morgan Library. They have a stunning permanent collection of illuminated manuscripts, and it’s constantly changing. The curators just have to turn the pages of the books, and they have a whole new exhibition! GENTILE DA FABRIANO and his Adoration of the Magi Gentile da Fabriano, Adoration of the Magi, 1423. Collection of Uffizi Gallery, Florence Gentile da Fabriano’s Adoration of the Magi is considered by scholars to be THE masterpiece of the International Gothic style. The work is a gorgeous surface of sumptuously costumed kings and courtiers, exotic animals, chivalric etiquette and lavish processions. The 9’ x 10’ panel portrays the journey of the Magi into Bethlehem. Starting with their ocean voyage in the upper left corner, the narrative moves clockwise to the Magi’s entrance through the city gates, and down into the bottom half of the panel to their meeting of the Virgin and Baby Jesus. Within the painting are a few striking bits of realism that were bold departures from the previous Byzantine and Gothic styles. (Styles of flat visual surfaces, hard outlines, no sense of space or perspective, stiffly formal gestures and limited realism.) The radical foreshortening of the animals foretells the visually realistic ambitions of the Renaissance artists. Da Fabriano lived (in Italy) from 1330 to 1400. (Don’t you love the fact that da Fabriano lived SEVEN HUNDRED years ago, and we can still recognize his name as Italian?) He worked primarily in Venice (where he painted a now-lost fresco in the Doges’ Palace) and in Florence, where the Adoration was painted to adorn the Santa Trinita. (The piece is now in the Uffizi Gallery.) STEPHAN LOCHNER and his Madonna of the Rose Garden Stephan Lochner, Madonna of the Rose Garden, 1430, Collection of Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne In Germany, the International Style was called the “Soft Style” because of its curvilinear rhythm and smooth, carefully modeled surface. (Same stylistic elements in Germany, Italy and all over Europe. Just two different names.) The leading master of the style in Cologne, Germany was Stephan Lochner, the painter of our Madonna of the Rose Garden. A painter of sophisticated and refined sensibilities, he created compositions that were delicate and pictorially ornate. The light coloration and gentle religious spirit of the Madonna of the Rose Garden give an ethereal quality to the painting, as do the musical angels, a motif Lochner frequently used in his compositions. Three fun (weird) facts about Stephan Lochner: 1) He died of the plague. 2) He lived SEVEN HUNDRED years ago, and we can still recognize his name as German. (See da Fabriano, above.) 3) Asteroid “12616 Lochner” was named after him in 2008. Don’t ask me why. STEPHAN LOCHNER and his Adoration of the Magi Stephan Lochner, Adoration of the Magi, 1440, Collection of the Cathedral, Cologne One of the oft repeated themes in Western religious art is the Adoration of the Magi. I thought you might like to see Stephan Lochner’s version, a three paneled altarpiece measuring 16’ wide by 8’ high when opened, and painted for the Cathedral of Cologne. Not interested in relaying a narrative story like da Fabriano, Lochner’s Adoration of the Magi, is a massive group portrait depicting the Madonna, Child and Magi in the center panel, Saint Ursula and the martyred virgins in the left panel and St. Gereon and his knightly companions on the right. Saints Ursula and Gereon were the patron saints of Cologne, and by including them in the altarpiece that adorned Cologne’s Cathedral, Lochner narrowed the universal Christian act of worshiping the Madonna and Child to the residents of Cologne to bring protection and blessings to the city. How did the saints become saints? Ursula and 11,000 virginal handmaidens (on a Holy pilgrimage with the Pope) were beheaded by Huns in 350 AD. According to legend, the Church of St. Ursula was erected over their bones. The story of Saint Ursula is in dispute, but the church is most certainly built on a massive stash of bones, which scholars believe to be a Roman cemetery. St. Gereon’s legend is bit less exciting. (No mass of virgins or giant pile of bones.) He was a soldier beheaded in Cologne for refusing to sacrifice to the pagan gods. I’m not Catholic, but I’m going to midnight mass at Cathedral of St. Paul (in San Diego) on Christmas Eve. (Mass actually starts at 10:30, but I’m sure it will be midnight by the time it’s over.) High church is grand – the choir, ritual, ceremony and splendor of a massive cathedral. I soak it up like a sponge, not understanding much but loving the mystery. (Sitting in the very last row next to the outside aisle, so I don’t have to participate, because I don’t know what to do.) If you are a fan of Gothic cathedrals and the history surrounding the building of them (or if you think learning about them sounds even slightly interesting), I highly, highly recommend Ken Follett’s book Pillars of the Earth. It is MAGNIFICENT. (With a warning. During the first 100 pages everyone pretty much just slogs around starving, homeless and desperate for work. Not much happens, and I stopped reading the book 3 times in the first one hundred pages, but I kept picking it up and pushing myself onward.) Once you hit page 100, I PROMISE you the next 800 pages will FLY by. (I’ve read it twice.) Interested, maybe? Read the reviews on amazon.com. They are much more convincing than mine. I love you, friends. Have a lovely holiday. See you on the other side of 2009. SOURCES Art of the Early Renaissance, adapted by Michael Batterberry, 1968. McGraw-Hill Book Company. Northern Painting: Purcelle to Bruegel/14th, 15th & 16th Centuries, Charles D. Cuttler, 1968. Holt, Rinehart Winston. Gardner’s Art Through the Ages, Seventh Edition, 1980. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. And, yes (I’ll admit it), Wikipedia. 9:14 PM GMT | Read comments(0)November 01BOUGUEREAU, RENOIR, Impressionism and the French Salon The new Lisa Confetti Museum Collection is truly a labor of love, and I am thrilled with the results. Art history is my passion. When I was an art major at Cal State Long Beach, the other art students grumbled about the required art history survey courses, but I packed my schedule with as many art history classes as possible, and after graduation, I returned for a semester just to take more. I still take a class or two a year. So, nothing is more thrilling for me than to have developed the concept of including masterpiece paintings in my jewelry designs. This blog is the icing on the cake. Every month I’m going to write a mini art history lesson about the paintings included in my jewelry. Call me crazy, but I think the research and writing will be a ton of fun. I know reading about art history isn’t everyone’s idea of a good time, but if it interests you, I hope you enjoy. Voila, my first post: about the artwork included in the Lisa Confetti necklace, The Shepherdess. FRONT: William Bouguereau, The Young Shepherdess, detail, 1885. Collection of the San Diego Museum of Art BACK: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Still Life, detail, 1864. Collection of Kunsthalle, Hamburg The FRENCH SALON Founded in 1648 under the patronage of Louis XIV, the Academy of Painting and Sculpture was a rigid hierarchy that established accepted artistic standards, hosted the bi-annual Salon exhibitions and awarded medals to the artists of the winning paintings. With thousands of works on display, the Salon was the premier artistic event of the Western world, and it afforded the accepted artists an opportunity to display their work to tens of thousands of potential buyers. Admission to the Salon held the power of professional life or death for an artist. Francois Heim Charles X Distributing Awards, Salon of 1824, in the Grand Salon of the Louvre, 1827 Collection of Musée du Louvre, Paris Honoré Daumier satirized the bourgeoises scandalized by the Salon's Venuses, 1864 WILLIAM ADOLPHE BOUGUEREAU, painter of The Young Shepherdess, 1885 William Bouguereau The Young Shepherdess, detail, 1885 Collection of the San Diego Museum of Art William Adolph Bouguereau (pronounced boo-goh-roe, 1825-1905), a painter of remarkable technical skill, received many Salon medals throughout his career, including its most prestigious and coveted Grand Medal of Honor. Enjoying tremendous international acclaim, his works were in great demand by wealthy Americans who considered him to be the most important French artist of the time. (His painting, The Young Shepherdess, is in the collection of the San Diego Museum of Art. I live in San Diego and have seen this lovely painting many times. Three-quarter life-sized, she commands all attention in her gallery and virtually takes your breath away.) Bouguereau’s painting style of optical realism and high finish, fit exactly within the constraints of the Academy’s aesthetic standards, as did his preference for mythological, historical, classical and Biblical themes His artistic reputation has fluctuated violently, however. During his lifetime, painters with more progressive artistic aspirations viewed him as a competent painter stuck in the past, while critics of our day have acknowledged his appreciation of beauty and undeniable painterly skills, but have dismissed his aesthetic wisdom and taste. (Indeed, photo-realistically rendered and sentimentalized images of nymphs and satyrs are a bit silly.) WILLIAM BOUGUEREAU, left to right Nymphs and Satyr, 1873, Collection of the Clark Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts A Young Girl Defending Herself Against Eros, 1880, Collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California The Awakening of the Heart, 1892, Private Collection With the passage of a only a few decades, Bouguereau’s fame, which burned so brightly during his lifetime, was completely eclipsed by the Impressionists, who, in their own lifetimes did not enjoy a fraction of his success. IMPRESSIONISM The term “Impressionist” -- intended as an insult -- was coined by an outraged journalist attending a daring 1874 exhibition staged by a group of 30 artists. These artists had realized only minimal Salon success and they banded together in an attempt to sell their work through other avenues. These artists included Pierre Auguste-Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Edgar Degas, Paul Cezanne and Claude Monet. Monet showed twelve works, including the prophetically titled painting, Impression, Sunrise, which gave the group its name. Claude Monet Impression, Sunrise, 1873 Collection of Musée Marmottan, Paris With our current enthusiasm for Impressionism, it is difficult to appreciate the hostile response this landmark exhibition incited among the majority of critics and art-buying public. Wrote Albert Wolf for the Figaro, “After the opera house fire another disaster has befallen Rue Le Pelletier. An exhibition of so-called painting has opened at [gallery] Durand-Ruel. Unsuspecting passersby, drawn by the beflagged façade, enter the premises and meet with a fearsome spectacle: five or six lunatics blinded by ambition, including one woman, have put their work on display here. Many visitors are seized by fits of laughter at the sight of their sorry efforts and for my part I experienced a convulsion of the heart. These self-appointed artists call themselves subversives, Impressionists. They take up canvas, paint, and brush, apply a few colors at random next to one another and then sign the thing . . . Impressionist Exhibition -- a revolution in painting that makes its debut by causing terror.Cham (Amédée Charles Henri de Noé), cartoon satirizing the first Impressionist exhibition. Between 1874 and 1886, the group staged eight cooperative exhibitions. The artists were adept at garnering extensive media coverage – increasingly positive – and thousands of attendees, nudging their work toward public acceptance and increased sales. Most of the Impressionists did realize success within their lifetimes. PIERRE-AUGUSTE RENOIR, painter of Still Life, 1864 Pierre-Auguste Renoir Still Life, detail, 1864. Collection of Kunsthalle, Hamburg In 1880 the State ceased its involvement in organizing the Salon, and private art galleries and dealers increasingly cornered the market. After the seventh Impressionist exhibition, dealer Durand-Ruel purchased Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party and sent the canvas on a worldwide tour. When the painting was resold as an acknowledged masterpiece in 1923 to a Washington DC collector, it commanded the front-page news making price of $125,000. Pierre-Auguste Renoir Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1880-81 Collection of The Phillips Collection, Washington DC Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), is most recognized for his depiction of the human figure. He painted groups in spontaneous moments of vivacious charm, dappled with sunlight and artfully blurred. His canvases produced the effects of floating, fleeting light. Drawing upon new scientific studies of light, and the invention of chemical pigments which gave him new colors with which to work, Renoir, and the other Impressionists, sought to capture the immediate impression of forms bathed in light and atmosphere. Compare the party scenes of two artists painting at the same time: Impressionist Renoir (1841-1919) and Academician Thomas Couture (1815-1879, whose masterpiece Romans of the Decadence measures a massive 15 x 25 feet Thomas Couture Romans of the Decadence, 1847 Collection of Musée du Louvre, Paris Pierre-Auguste Renoir Dance at the Moulin de la Galette, 1876 Collection of Museé d’Orsay, Paris When comparing these two paintings, it is easy to see the traits of the Impressionistic style realized in Renoir’s canvas: contemporary subject matter with no moral theme; dappled light and loose brushstrokes; focus on color rather than form; casual poses; and a flattening of perspective. This scene was also painted on location out-of-doors (as were many Impressionist paintings), instead of in a studio. As a form of mental relaxation, Renoir painted numerous floral studies throughout his career. Of these paintings he said, “I do not need the concentration I need when I am faced with a model. When I am painting flowers I can experiment boldly with tones and values without worrying about destroying the whole painting.” PIERRE-AUGUSTE RENOIR, left to right Geraniums and Cats, 1881, private collection Renoir Flowers and Fruit, 1889, private collection Renoir Flowers in a Vase 1869, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Interestingly, Renoir’s Still Life, used in the Lisa Confetti necklace, was auctioned in May 1900 and incorrectly attributed to Claude Monet. Well, there it is, friends. Thank you for joining me. I hope you had fun and learned a thing or two. I sure did! And I would love to know: what is your favorite museum within 200 miles of your home? Post a comment to tell me about it! SOURCES Impressionism: A Celebration of Light, Isabel Kuhl, 2008. Parragon Books Ltd. Renoir, edited by Michael Raeburn, 1985. Harry N. Abrams, Incorporated. Mainstreams of Modern Art, John Canaday, 1981. Hart Rinehart and Winston. Gardner’s Art Through the Ages, Seventh Edition, 1980. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. And, yes (I’ll admit it), Wikipedia. 3:52 PM GMT | Read comments(0)September 18IT'S HERE! AND THE WAIT WAS WORTH ITOn June 3rd, my quest began to develop a new jewelry collection based upon a unique idea: casting images of historic masterpiece paintings in resin and incorporating them into jewelry. As I quickly discovered, though, resin is a bear to work with. The past 3 months, I have honestly felt like Thomas Edison inventing the light bulb. Try, fail. Try again, fail. Try again, fail. Try again, fail. (And on and on and on.) It didn't take me 10,000 attempts to get it right (like Edison and his light bulb), but it did take hundreds. This isn't just a new jewelry collection. It is a labor of love. I am passionate about art history, and it has been a thrill to revisit these images I met in my college art history classes. I majored in studio art, but I loved the required art history courses so much, I went back for a semester after graduation to take a full class load of upper division art history. So, needless to say, art is a passion, and this new jewelry collection has become a passion, too. Wonderfully, as I have been wearing collection samples around town during these past months (product testing and development), I have heard the following comment (almost verbatim) at least 10 times: "I LOVE your necklace. I've never seen anything like it!" Music to my ears. Each resin cube takes 25 steps and 1 week to create. So, anyone who wears this new Lisa Confetti collection can be certain she is wearing something that is completely unique and very special. And I'm certain she will also get the compliment, "I LOVE your necklace! I've never seen anything like it!" And when you are asked where you got it, I hope you will say, "At www.LisaConfetti.com, of course!" (By the way, it is important to note that these images are legally reproduced. US copyright law is evolving and complex, but bottom line, photographic images of any painting created before 1923 are in the "public domain" and belong to everyone.) Happy happy, Lisa 10:17 AM GMT | Read comments(0)
Would you not agree – along with the rest of the entire western world – that the paintings of Henri Matisse rank among your favorites? (Copy Writing 101: don’t ask a question that can be answered in the negative. I am, however, so confident your answer is “yes,” I feel safe in asking.)
Henri Matisse, Les Poissons Rouges, 1912
Collection of Pushkin Museum, Moscow
Vivid, playful, and fluidly drafted, the paintings of Henri Matisse inspired an entire new Lisa Confetti collection (with much thanks to my sales rep Marci for her brilliant idea). Chunky, funky rings I have dubbed “eye candy accessories with yummy masterpiece middles.” Connecting them to the season, they are as pretty as Easter eggs – exquisite, artistically crafted Easter eggs. Not the ones you botched as a kid.
Necklace available at http://www.lisaconfetti.com and on etsy.
The introduction of a radical new artistic style is always met with heated resistance (think rock in the 60s, rap in the 80s). In 1874, a group of artists sarcastically dubbed by disparaging journalists as Impressionists, broke out of the stylistic straight jacket of the Governmentally managed French Salon and its hugely influential biannual exhibition to stage their own show. It was met with howls of outrage. (See my November 3, 2009 blog post.) 31 years later, with the Impressionists now enjoying favor, fame and fortune, Henri Matisse (1869-1954) led a new group of experimental artists in organizing its own 1905 exhibition. To the early 20th century eye, the paintings were so simplified in design and so vivid in color that a shocked art critic declared the artists to be fauves (wild beasts). As it did with the Impressionists, the tag line stuck, and the radical new style of Fauvism had a name.
LEFT to RIGHT:
The Dance, 1909, Collection of The Hermitage, St. Petersburg
Madame Matisse (The Green Line), 1905, Collection of Statens Museum for Kunst, Coppenhagen
Red Room (Harmony in Red), 1908-1909, Collection of The Hermitage, St. Petersburg
Exposed through colonial expansion to the exotic arts in Africa, Polynesia and Central and South America, the Fauvists incorporated unexpected shapes and colors into their canvases, making a final break with the realistic artistic traditions of the Renaissance.
Even though the works were derided by critics, the French art buying public had seen enough “radical” artistic experimentation by now to appreciate new, talented artists. Like Picasso (a near contemporary), Matisse realized success and prosperity relatively early in his long, productive carrer, and he is now recognized as one of the three seminal artists of the 20th century, along with Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp.
Henri Matisse was well on his way to becoming a lawyer when, at the age of 22, he persuaded his father to let him abandon law for art and went to Paris to study under William-Adolph Bouguereau. As you learned in my November 3, 2009 post, Bouguereau was the most successful and awarded academician of his time. He was technically brilliant, but his artistic taste is now universally questioned.
Confident in navigating an independent artistic path, Matisse quickly left Bouguereau to study under Gustave Moreau, a teacher much more open to new experimental styles he didn’t understand. Matisse’s rejection of traditionalism created great (but temporary) personal sacrifice. Painting in a conventional style, he had been selling canvases. But when he stepped onto a radical artistic path, sales ceased. With a wife and three children, Matisse studied and honed his talent until at 35 years of age, he organized the break-out exhibition mentioned above and was finally recognized. Success snowballed. (Note to self: Believe.)
My only (and grossly selfish) complaint about Henri Matisse is that he hasn’t been dead long enough. His body of work spans over half a century, into the 1950s, and throughout his long life his creative gift never flagged. Look at his spectacular series of paper cutouts, created when he was in his 80s.
Icarus, 1947, Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Snail, 1953, Tate Gallery, United Kingdom
Blue Nude, 1952, Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Sorrows of the King, 1952, Collection of National d'Art Moderne, Paris
My conundrum: I can only reproduce works created before 1923. So these exquisite pieces (perfect for jewelry!) are off limits until I am well beyond my jewelry making years. (This is assuming the year works fall into the public domain inches along with time. 1923 today, 1933 in 2020, hopefully.)
Okay, here is a warning. The following information is only for those who are truly interested in the study of art history. Everyone else may find it mind numbing.
There is a very interesting new development in Matisse scholarship. The Chicago Art Institute is staging an exhibition Matisse: Radical Reinvention, 1913-1917 (March 20 – June 20, 2010), and one of its most celebrated canvases is a favorite in the collection of New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Writing about the upcoming exhibition for Vanity Fair Magazine (if you don’t yet subscribe, do), British art historian John Richardson revealed a startling discovery.
A star painting in the Art Institute of Chicago’s exhibition “Matisse: Radical Reinvention, 1913-1917” is Goldfish and Palette, which has long been a favorite with visitors to New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Few, however, have spotted that it is a baton in an artistic relay race that goes from Cezanne to the great period of Matisse’s that this show celebrates, to Cubism. In a letter Matisse wrote to a friend in 1914 was a sketch of a goldfish bowl on a table set off against the railings of his studio balcony. The sketch included the artist himself, holding a rectangular palette just as his hero, Cezanne, does in a famous 1885 self-portrait. In the course of working on the painting, however, Matisse did a vanishing act, whittling his image down to a vestigial scaffolding. All that remains is the palette with a thumb in it. I see this iconic white rectangle as the baton in the relay race of modern art. Trust Picasso to pick up on it, when, a year later, he came to paint his tragic, self-reverential Harlequin (which also belongs to MOMA). Seeing this late Cubist masterpiece, Matisse hailed it as his arch-rival’s greatest work to date, because it owed everything to him. For years, nobody could figure out what he meant. The link? What else but Cezanne’s palette. Cezanne had passed it on to Matisse, turned it into a barely perceptible self-portrait on a rectilinear canvas his Harlequin alter ego is clutching. Subsequent abstractionists would pass the baton from one to another until there was nothing left but a blank rectangle. (JOHN RICHARDSON, Vanity Fair, March, 2010)
Here they are, the paintings John Richardson wrote about above. Do you see the palette in each painting? And its journey toward abstraction?
Paul Cezanne, Self Portrait with Palette, 1885, Private Collection
Henri Matisse, Goldfish and Palette, 1914, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Pablo Picasso, Harlequin, 1915, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Now bringing this back full circle to Lisa Confetti, I find the comparison between a Matisse goldfish painting I used in my Weightless necklace (below left) with the MOMA goldfish painting to be fascinating. The passage of time is only 2 years, but the stylistic shift toward cubism -- flat surface, hard edged outlines, geometric shapes -- is easily apparent and dramatic.
Les Poissons Rouges, 1912, Collection of Pushkin Museum, Moscow
Goldfish and Palette, 1914, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
There you have it, friends. J'ai fini. I don’t know if this is any fun for you to read, but I sure got a kick out of writing it. Thank you for bearing with me. Until next time, Lisa
Klimt is often defined as an eroticist. His primary subject matter was the female body, and many of his pieces were branded as obscene and produced outraged reactions. (His paintings are PG13 by today’s standards, but his drawings often careen toward NC-17.) Three of his more erotic paintings are below, and as you can see, with their sumptuous patterns and vivid colors, they are gorgeous.
Left to right:
The Virgin, 1913, Collection of National Gallery, Prague
The Bride, 1917, Collection of Osterreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna
Water Serpents II, 1904-07, Private Collection
One hundred years later, the outrage over Gustav Klimt's sensualized subjects has long ago subsided. What remains is the recognition that he was one of the most important artists of his time who created paintings that have become the century's most popular works of art.
Illuminated manuscripts were expensive and jealously collected symbols of rank and education among the European aristocracy. If you happen to be in New York anytime soon, do yourself a favor and go to the Morgan Library. They have a stunning permanent collection of illuminated manuscripts, and it’s constantly changing. The curators just have to turn the pages of the books, and they have a whole new exhibition!
GENTILE DA FABRIANO and his Adoration of the Magi
Gentile da Fabriano, Adoration of the Magi, 1423. Collection of Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Gentile da Fabriano’s Adoration of the Magi is considered by scholars to be THE masterpiece of the International Gothic style. The work is a gorgeous surface of sumptuously costumed kings and courtiers, exotic animals, chivalric etiquette and lavish processions. The 9’ x 10’ panel portrays the journey of the Magi into Bethlehem. Starting with their ocean voyage in the upper left corner, the narrative moves clockwise to the Magi’s entrance through the city gates, and down into the bottom half of the panel to their meeting of the Virgin and Baby Jesus. Within the painting are a few striking bits of realism that were bold departures from the previous Byzantine and Gothic styles. (Styles of flat visual surfaces, hard outlines, no sense of space or perspective, stiffly formal gestures and limited realism.) The radical foreshortening of the animals foretells the visually realistic ambitions of the Renaissance artists.
Da Fabriano lived (in Italy) from 1330 to 1400. (Don’t you love the fact that da Fabriano lived SEVEN HUNDRED years ago, and we can still recognize his name as Italian?) He worked primarily in Venice (where he painted a now-lost fresco in the Doges’ Palace) and in Florence, where the Adoration was painted to adorn the Santa Trinita. (The piece is now in the Uffizi Gallery.)
STEPHAN LOCHNER and his Madonna of the Rose Garden
Stephan Lochner, Madonna of the Rose Garden, 1430, Collection of Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne
In Germany, the International Style was called the “Soft Style” because of its curvilinear rhythm and smooth, carefully modeled surface. (Same stylistic elements in Germany, Italy and all over Europe. Just two different names.) The leading master of the style in Cologne, Germany was Stephan Lochner, the painter of our Madonna of the Rose Garden. A painter of sophisticated and refined sensibilities, he created compositions that were delicate and pictorially ornate. The light coloration and gentle religious spirit of the Madonna of the Rose Garden give an ethereal quality to the painting, as do the musical angels, a motif Lochner frequently used in his compositions.
Three fun (weird) facts about Stephan Lochner: 1) He died of the plague. 2) He lived SEVEN HUNDRED years ago, and we can still recognize his name as German. (See da Fabriano, above.) 3) Asteroid “12616 Lochner” was named after him in 2008. Don’t ask me why.
STEPHAN LOCHNER and his Adoration of the Magi
Stephan Lochner, Adoration of the Magi, 1440, Collection of the Cathedral, Cologne
One of the oft repeated themes in Western religious art is the Adoration of the Magi. I thought you might like to see Stephan Lochner’s version, a three paneled altarpiece measuring 16’ wide by 8’ high when opened, and painted for the Cathedral of Cologne. Not interested in relaying a narrative story like da Fabriano, Lochner’s Adoration of the Magi, is a massive group portrait depicting the Madonna, Child and Magi in the center panel, Saint Ursula and the martyred virgins in the left panel and St. Gereon and his knightly companions on the right. Saints Ursula and Gereon were the patron saints of Cologne, and by including them in the altarpiece that adorned Cologne’s Cathedral, Lochner narrowed the universal Christian act of worshiping the Madonna and Child to the residents of Cologne to bring protection and blessings to the city.
How did the saints become saints?
Ursula and 11,000 virginal handmaidens (on a Holy pilgrimage with the Pope) were beheaded by Huns in 350 AD. According to legend, the Church of St. Ursula was erected over their bones. The story of Saint Ursula is in dispute, but the church is most certainly built on a massive stash of bones, which scholars believe to be a Roman cemetery.
St. Gereon’s legend is bit less exciting. (No mass of virgins or giant pile of bones.) He was a soldier beheaded in Cologne for refusing to sacrifice to the pagan gods.
I’m not Catholic, but I’m going to midnight mass at Cathedral of St. Paul (in San Diego) on Christmas Eve. (Mass actually starts at 10:30, but I’m sure it will be midnight by the time it’s over.) High church is grand – the choir, ritual, ceremony and splendor of a massive cathedral. I soak it up like a sponge, not understanding much but loving the mystery. (Sitting in the very last row next to the outside aisle, so I don’t have to participate, because I don’t know what to do.)
If you are a fan of Gothic cathedrals and the history surrounding the building of them (or if you think learning about them sounds even slightly interesting), I highly, highly recommend Ken Follett’s book Pillars of the Earth. It is MAGNIFICENT. (With a warning. During the first 100 pages everyone pretty much just slogs around starving, homeless and desperate for work. Not much happens, and I stopped reading the book 3 times in the first one hundred pages, but I kept picking it up and pushing myself onward.) Once you hit page 100, I PROMISE you the next 800 pages will FLY by. (I’ve read it twice.) Interested, maybe? Read the reviews on amazon.com. They are much more convincing than mine.
I love you, friends. Have a lovely holiday. See you on the other side of 2009.
SOURCES
Art of the Early Renaissance, adapted by Michael Batterberry, 1968. McGraw-Hill Book Company.
Northern Painting: Purcelle to Bruegel/14th, 15th & 16th Centuries, Charles D. Cuttler, 1968. Holt, Rinehart Winston.
Gardner’s Art Through the Ages, Seventh Edition, 1980. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.
And, yes (I’ll admit it), Wikipedia.
The new Lisa Confetti Museum Collection is truly a labor of love, and I am thrilled with the results.
Art history is my passion. When I was an art major at Cal State Long Beach, the other art students grumbled about the required art history survey courses, but I packed my schedule with as many art history classes as possible, and after graduation, I returned for a semester just to take more. I still take a class or two a year. So, nothing is more thrilling for me than to have developed the concept of including masterpiece paintings in my jewelry designs.
This blog is the icing on the cake. Every month I’m going to write a mini art history lesson about the paintings included in my jewelry. Call me crazy, but I think the research and writing will be a ton of fun. I know reading about art history isn’t everyone’s idea of a good time, but if it interests you, I hope you enjoy.
Voila, my first post: about the artwork included in the Lisa Confetti necklace, The Shepherdess.
FRONT: William Bouguereau, The Young Shepherdess, detail, 1885. Collection of the San Diego Museum of Art
BACK: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Still Life, detail, 1864. Collection of Kunsthalle, Hamburg
The FRENCH SALON
Founded in 1648 under the patronage of Louis XIV, the Academy of Painting and Sculpture was a rigid hierarchy that established accepted artistic standards, hosted the bi-annual Salon exhibitions and awarded medals to the artists of the winning paintings. With thousands of works on display, the Salon was the premier artistic event of the Western world, and it afforded the accepted artists an opportunity to display their work to tens of thousands of potential buyers. Admission to the Salon held the power of professional life or death for an artist.
Francois Heim
Charles X Distributing Awards, Salon of 1824, in the Grand Salon of the Louvre, 1827
Collection of Musée du Louvre, Paris
Honoré Daumier satirized the bourgeoises scandalized by the Salon's Venuses, 1864
WILLIAM ADOLPHE BOUGUEREAU, painter of The Young Shepherdess, 1885
William Bouguereau
The Young Shepherdess, detail, 1885
Collection of the San Diego Museum of Art
William Adolph Bouguereau (pronounced boo-goh-roe, 1825-1905), a painter of remarkable technical skill, received many Salon medals throughout his career, including its most prestigious and coveted Grand Medal of Honor. Enjoying tremendous international acclaim, his works were in great demand by wealthy Americans who considered him to be the most important French artist of the time.
(His painting, The Young Shepherdess, is in the collection of the San Diego Museum of Art. I live in San Diego and have seen this lovely painting many times. Three-quarter life-sized, she commands all attention in her gallery and virtually takes your breath away.)
Bouguereau’s painting style of optical realism and high finish, fit exactly within the constraints of the Academy’s aesthetic standards, as did his preference for mythological, historical, classical and Biblical themes
His artistic reputation has fluctuated violently, however. During his lifetime, painters with more progressive artistic aspirations viewed him as a competent painter stuck in the past, while critics of our day have acknowledged his appreciation of beauty and undeniable painterly skills, but have dismissed his aesthetic wisdom and taste. (Indeed, photo-realistically rendered and sentimentalized images of nymphs and satyrs are a bit silly.)
WILLIAM BOUGUEREAU, left to right
Nymphs and Satyr, 1873, Collection of the Clark Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts
A Young Girl Defending Herself Against Eros, 1880, Collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California
The Awakening of the Heart, 1892, Private Collection
With the passage of a only a few decades, Bouguereau’s fame, which burned so brightly during his lifetime, was completely eclipsed by the Impressionists, who, in their own lifetimes did not enjoy a fraction of his success.
IMPRESSIONISM
The term “Impressionist” -- intended as an insult -- was coined by an outraged journalist attending a daring 1874 exhibition staged by a group of 30 artists. These artists had realized only minimal Salon success and they banded together in an attempt to sell their work through other avenues. These artists included Pierre Auguste-Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Edgar Degas, Paul Cezanne and Claude Monet. Monet showed twelve works, including the prophetically titled painting, Impression, Sunrise, which gave the group its name.
Claude Monet
Impression, Sunrise, 1873
Collection of Musée Marmottan, Paris
With our current enthusiasm for Impressionism, it is difficult to appreciate the hostile response this landmark exhibition incited among the majority of critics and art-buying public.
Wrote Albert Wolf for the Figaro, “After the opera house fire another disaster has befallen Rue Le Pelletier. An exhibition of so-called painting has opened at [gallery] Durand-Ruel. Unsuspecting passersby, drawn by the beflagged façade, enter the premises and meet with a fearsome spectacle: five or six lunatics blinded by ambition, including one woman, have put their work on display here. Many visitors are seized by fits of laughter at the sight of their sorry efforts and for my part I experienced a convulsion of the heart. These self-appointed artists call themselves subversives, Impressionists. They take up canvas, paint, and brush, apply a few colors at random next to one another and then sign the thing . . .
Impressionist Exhibition -- a revolution in painting that makes its debut by causing terror.Cham (Amédée Charles Henri de Noé), cartoon satirizing the first Impressionist exhibition.
Between 1874 and 1886, the group staged eight cooperative exhibitions. The artists were adept at garnering extensive media coverage – increasingly positive – and thousands of attendees, nudging their work toward public acceptance and increased sales. Most of the Impressionists did realize success within their lifetimes.
PIERRE-AUGUSTE RENOIR, painter of Still Life, 1864
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Still Life, detail, 1864.
Collection of Kunsthalle, Hamburg
In 1880 the State ceased its involvement in organizing the Salon, and private art galleries and dealers increasingly cornered the market. After the seventh Impressionist exhibition, dealer Durand-Ruel purchased Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party and sent the canvas on a worldwide tour. When the painting was resold as an acknowledged masterpiece in 1923 to a Washington DC collector, it commanded the front-page news making price of $125,000.
Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1880-81
Collection of The Phillips Collection, Washington DC
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), is most recognized for his depiction of the human figure. He painted groups in spontaneous moments of vivacious charm, dappled with sunlight and artfully blurred. His canvases produced the effects of floating, fleeting light. Drawing upon new scientific studies of light, and the invention of chemical pigments which gave him new colors with which to work, Renoir, and the other Impressionists, sought to capture the immediate impression of forms bathed in light and atmosphere.
Compare the party scenes of two artists painting at the same time: Impressionist Renoir (1841-1919) and Academician Thomas Couture (1815-1879, whose masterpiece Romans of the Decadence measures a massive 15 x 25 feet
Thomas Couture
Romans of the Decadence, 1847
Dance at the Moulin de la Galette, 1876
Collection of Museé d’Orsay, Paris
When comparing these two paintings, it is easy to see the traits of the Impressionistic style realized in Renoir’s canvas: contemporary subject matter with no moral theme; dappled light and loose brushstrokes; focus on color rather than form; casual poses; and a flattening of perspective. This scene was also painted on location out-of-doors (as were many Impressionist paintings), instead of in a studio.
As a form of mental relaxation, Renoir painted numerous floral studies throughout his career. Of these paintings he said, “I do not need the concentration I need when I am faced with a model. When I am painting flowers I can experiment boldly with tones and values without worrying about destroying the whole painting.”
PIERRE-AUGUSTE RENOIR, left to right
Geraniums and Cats, 1881, private collection
Renoir Flowers and Fruit, 1889, private collection
Renoir Flowers in a Vase 1869, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Interestingly, Renoir’s Still Life, used in the Lisa Confetti necklace, was auctioned in May 1900 and incorrectly attributed to Claude Monet.
Well, there it is, friends. Thank you for joining me. I hope you had fun and learned a thing or two. I sure did! And I would love to know: what is your favorite museum within 200 miles of your home? Post a comment to tell me about it!
Impressionism: A Celebration of Light, Isabel Kuhl, 2008. Parragon Books Ltd.
Renoir, edited by Michael Raeburn, 1985. Harry N. Abrams, Incorporated.
Mainstreams of Modern Art, John Canaday, 1981. Hart Rinehart and Winston.