Art Detectives

Top of the Day: Sunday Afternoon - George Morren (Belgian, 1868-1941), 1892 Today's Artwork: Didrik Slagheck. (Portrettstudie til "Christian II undertegner dødsdommen over Torben Oxe") - Eilif Peterssen, 1875 -- link -- Meeting in Space - Edvard Munch, 1899 -- link -- Panel - Unknown, early 17th century -- link -- The Fall of the Cowboy - Frederic Remington, 1895 -- link -- A Cavern in an Iceberg; Scott's Last Expedition, The British Antarctic Expedition - Ponting, Herbert George, 1910 (photographed) - 1910 -- link -- Fairies and Flowers - Japs Antido, 2015 - 2015 -- link -- Bald Eagle, 1955 © Pollock-Krasner Foundation - Lee Krasner and The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, 1955/1955 -- link -- Untitled (It's a small world but not if you have to clean it) - Kruger, Barbara, 2000 -- link -- Limehouse - James McNeill Whistler, 1859 -- link -- Sunday Afternoon - George Morren (Belgian, 1868-1941), 1892 -- link -- Ice & Die, Caballito, Bueno...

  Two Top of the Day selections -- first is David Roberts's majestic  Grand Portico of the Temple of Philae, Nubia (1842 - 1849)  And the second Top of the Day is Carol Bove's  The Facade Commision: "the séance's aren't helping..." exhibit from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, March 1 - April 26, 2021 Carol Bove at David Zwirner Gallery in London -- link --  More sculptures of Carol Bove's at David Zwirner; some outside -- link --   Video of Carol Bove manipulating metal for her massive sculptures -- link --  Carol Bove at the Nasher Sculpture Garden in Dallas -- link --  Article about her work; there's a big popup but you can scroll up the page to see photos of her artistry -- link --  We will see more of David Roberts's work, I'm sure -- his majestic pieces are so exquisitely imaginative. -- link --  A favorite of Ruth's -- please click on the links to his art here -- this site has so many examples of his art -- link --...

 Zenobia sent us this fantastic article about kinetic sculptures & I did a little more research into some of the artists .... sooooo fun! We made sure the engineers were here today -- even though we missed Zenobia, who brought us the idea!  U-Ram Choe's Una Lumino from 2008 -- see links to his astounding work below!  The article Z found with many wonderful kinetic artists -- link --  Anthony Howe: a closer look at his copper face wind machine art -- link --  Anthony Howe: large scale works -- link --  Derek Hugger website -- link --  Derek Hugger mechanical wooden marble machine -- link --  Derek Hugger, Colibri, a better look at the Hummingbird sculpture -- link --  David Roy, How to Make a Kinetic Sculpture -- link --  Lasvit, glass artists with tons of their work & how they does it -- link --  Lasvit the glass collective, video -- link --  Lasvit the glass artist collective, another video -- link --  U...

Deborah Lombardi uses ultraviolet light on flowers & photographs them in a truly surprising way. The light hitting the flowers changes the colors, illuminates parts that the average eye would never see, and transforms the flowers into any number of ethereal imaginative creatures, plants, space aliens, undersea treasures. They are absolute works of art.  Top of the Day is this array of flowers which has a little similarity to the coronavirus -- ha!  But, to me and a few of our Art Detectives, they resemble fireworks -- a celebration of light & color.  Article about Debora Lombardi that Zenobia sent us -- link --  Deborah Lombardi's instagram -- link -- has tons more photos of her irradiated flowers as well as her other work - lots of flowers that will find their way into her iridescent collection.  Aaron's Beard (the actual flower) -- you can see how the ultraviolet light completely transforms this breathtaking plant even more than it is naturally! -- l...

Top of the Day: Personnage Spatial - Julio González, 1942 Today's Artwork: The Olive Grove - John Singer Sargent (American, 1856-1925), about 1910 -- link -- Tantalus - Francisco Goya y Lucientes, 1799 -- link -- The Hypostyle Hall of the Great Temple at Abu Simbel, Egypt - David Roberts, 1796–1864, British, 1849 -- link -- Revelers in moonight - Artist: Takahashi Shotei, ca. 1910 -- link -- Personnage Spatial - Julio González, 1942 -- link -- Bridge in rain - Artist: Kawase Hasui, early 20th-mid 20th century -- link -- Chi-315 - Hsiao Chin, 1984 -- link -- Head of a Bearded Man - Lorenzo Lotto -- link -- Pair of boots - Unknown -- link -- Christ from Cubells - Unknown, Last quarter of 12th century -- link -- ​

Katje sent us this article about great ornate historical books. So we dove in!  Top of the Day is this sculptural piece that started the article. Note the 4 raised jeweled sections which helps the front cover to rest when it's open without damaging the decor.  Stunning examples are in this article she sent -- link --  The Morgan Library and Museum has some of the most beautiful books in the world, including some of the ones from the first article in more detail, please peruse their bounty! -- link --  Then we looked at the work of Harout Bastajian who creates some of the most beautiful domes of the world -- link -- This was from an article from Katje as well.  

Top of the Day: Fishermen launching a rowing boat - Michael Ancher, 1881 Today's Artwork: Haida Totems, Cha-atl, Queen Charlotte Island - Emily Carr, 1912 -- link -- The Rural Schoolteacher - Diego Rivera, 1932 -- link -- Fishermen launching a rowing boat - Michael Ancher, 1881 -- link -- La Pointe de la Hève, Sainte-Adresse - Claude Monet, 1864 -- link -- Mahna no Varua Ino (The Devil Speaks) - Paul Gauguin, 1894/1895 -- link -- Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg - Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1520 -- link -- Titus at his Desk - Rembrandt van Rijn, 1655 -- link -- Ikkavu Thampuran - Raja Ravi Varma, 1900 -- link -- Column Statue of a King -- link -- William Adams - Frank Duveneck, 1874 -- link -- ​

Zenobia sent us an article about this rock artist & we thought a closer look would be enjoyable. We were SOOOOO right!!! -- link --   Top of the Day (we had so many!) is this piece called Sunflower from 2016 Same article linked to some of his earlier work -- link -- (the first photo is the same as the previous post just above)  Jon Foreman's astounding work is featured prominently on his website -- link --  Please peruse the sand art, the rock art, the inland art. Wow Wow Wow!!! There's a film link -- link -- to two short films about him, but the one of the right gives more info about his art; the one on the left is more personal about daily life with his family.  Jon Foreman's instagram account has many more beautiful shots of his work -- link -- 

Had another day planned but our adventurous gang asked if we could see more Ruth Asawa work today (instead of next week as I had planned) -- I love improv so we leapt into next week's further exploration of Ruth's brilliance.  Top of the Day is more Ruth -- this time with some of her trees.  Ruth Asawa's website -- link --  The link a great deal of her art is here -- link --  Ruth Asawa's Black Mountain College work -- link -- You can click on each photo of the work but sadly, there is no description of how they are made. Luckily, one of the videos we saw later talked about how her work there influenced all that followed and you can see it in some of the drawings.  Wonderful video of her work and life as well as her children's care of her legacy & their own work in related fields -- link --  Video from SFMOMA about her and her work -- link --  We didn't actually look at this but here is a wire tree she created that is somewhat akin to the tree...

  Katje was at the Imogen Cunningham exhibit and saw images of Ruth Asawa's incredible sculptures, coincidentally, Ruth is a big fan and shared lots of information about her work.  Top of the Day is Ruth herself with some of her brilliant sculptures.  Desert Plant (TLW 1560, tied-wire sculpture drawing), 1965 -- link --  Stem with Leaves, 1946 - 1949 -- link --  Untitled (Ruth Asawa holding a looped wire sculpture), 1952 -- link --  Hyatt Fountain, San Francisco, 1973 -- link --  Wikipedia write-up about the fountain; several more views & history -- link --  Untitled, circa 1965 -- link --  Ruth in collaboration with Kinji Akagawa, Umakichi, 1965 -- link -- 

We started our tour of fans with Zenobia's photos from the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (FIDM) in L.A.   Top of the Day is the Peacock Fan Zenobia photographed.  Then we discovered the Fan Museum in London! Here's one called Queen of the Night made by Gustave-Francoise Lasellaz made with tortoise shell. The museum let's us see the front (painted) and the back which isn't but it's still fascinating to get both sides. Front -- link -- and back -- link --  Annatomix also known as Sylvain Le Guen, Geometric Pleats, 2017 -- link --   This is either another view of the same or another version of  Sylvain Le Guen's Geometric Pleats from 2017 -- link --  Lily Mixe / Sylvain Le Guen, Nature Unfurled, 2017 -- link --   Unknown Artist, The Merchant, circa 1700s -- link --  Himbad / Sylvain Le Guen, Cat Mask, 2017 -- link --  Captain Kris / Sylvain Le Guen, Type Fan, 2017 -- link -- & a similar view by photog...

Top of the Day: Bucking Horse and Cowgirl - Charles M. Russell, ca. 1925 Today's Artwork: Paysage du Midi - Chaim Soutine, 1922/1923 -- link -- No tittle - Aleksey Alferyev -- link -- Bucking Horse and Cowgirl - Charles M. Russell, ca. 1925 -- link -- Goetz von Berlichingen Being Dressed in Armor by His Page George - Eugène Delacroix -- link -- Portrait of the Artist's Wife - Henry Fuseli, ca. 1790 -- link -- The Voice / Summer Night - Edvard Munch, 1896 -- link -- Zelfportret met baret en halsdoek, het gezicht in de schaduw: buste - Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, 1633/1633 -- link -- ​

More of Jean Paul Gautier's repertoire of costumes & fashion designs today. We viewed clips of his    Blanche Neige (Snow White) from yesterday ... the chandelier fringe dress we loved is not on the clips but we talked about other costumes in motion as we perused. See below for some ballet clips.   Top of the Day is this belted corset that Dita Von Tease wore in one of Gaultier's fashion shows  -- this is a       close-up and slightly different  Some pics from Jean Paul Gautier's last haute couture fashion show & iconic pics from his career -- link --  More from his Legacy and last haute couture show --  link  --  Katje found this fashion show of JPG's from 2003 / 2004 that shows the models wearing full body suits even covering their hands and their shoes so the dresses & outfits are even more the stars of the show than in a "normal" fashion show -- link --  His most iconic moments from the nineties...

We started by visiting LACMA again today but we went down the rabbit hole of famed designer Jean Paul Gaultier & had the best time! We barely scratched the surface of his brilliance and we also looked at how designer fashions seen on the runway might be translated into mainstream wear & vice-versa.  Top of the Day is this  Blanche Neige dress from  2008; here is the link (it's on the far left) & some images of the dress in action on this blog (see below as well!)  --  link  --  Lounging Suit from the “Pin-Up Boys” collection,  Spring/Summer 1996 (detail)  -- link -- Jacket from the “Women Among Women” collection,  Fall/Winter 1989-90  -- link -- Jacket (Women among Women Collection)   -- link -- A Jean Paul Gaultier dark blue silk and wool reversible -- link -- Costume d'une danseuse dans "Les Rats" front view  -- link -- Vampire suit (detail),  c. 1990-2000  -- link --