A 500 Year Old Publicity Stunt

Photo (c) Lesley Powell

For a number of years, I was lucky enough to visit Venice every spring. My husband and I used to go at just about this time of year--right before Easter. I love the whole of Venice, which is a visual feast, if ever there was one. Magnificent architecture, charming canals, a sweeping lagoon--and the art! Venetian artists gave a whole new meaning to color. One of my favorites is Jacopo Tintoretto. This year marks the 500th anniversary of Tintoretto's birth. In celebration, the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., is mounting the first ever American retrospective of his work. It opens this week--March 24th, 2019.

Self Portrait
Oil on Canvas
Jacopo Tintoretto, 1547

One of the marvels of Venetian art is how much of it was commissioned for particular spaces in public buildings, and how much of it remains in its original location--hundreds of years later~! Both religious and secular buildings are filled with glorious artwork. As you might imagine, there was fierce

The Poetry of a Shadow

(c) Karin Jurik

I have written in the past about shadows. But my posts have been very prosaic, especially compared with this beautiful poem. 

If you don't know Wells Mason and Ironwood Industries, you should. Wells creates art, disguised as furniture (my words). His creations are like form and creativity taking wing together.   The Umasi chair shown below is just one example. 

Umasi Chair VIII, Ironwood Industries

Wells recently posted this poem, a gift to him from another artist, Kirk Wilson. I thought it was so beautiful that it deserved to be shared further. And the concepts apply to painting as well as to other plastic arts. I italicized my favorite couplet. Enjoy!

Form and Shadow

For Wells Mason

The form and the shadow

     are form

When the shadow disappears

     it is implicit in the form

Without the shadow the form

     is barren it imagines nothing

When the shadow reappears

     the form and the shadow are shadow

The nature of the shadow

     is the inverse of the nature of the form

The echo of the form

     is the voice of the shadow

The shadow is the form's wing

     The form is the shadow's foot

The form breathes the shadow

     The shadow dreams the form

The form's disappearance

     is implicit in the shadow

Without the form the shadow

     is lost it wanders going nowhere

When the form reappears

     the form and the shadow are form

By Kirk Wilson

2007

Working Space

Table in Cezanne's studio, Aix-en-Provence

Paul Cezanne, Still Life with Fruit Dish

I am always fascinated by painter's studios. It's especially intriguing to visit "preserved" studios of some of the great masters in the history of art. If you know an artist's body of work, seeing his or her studio often brings a shock of the familiar. What art lover could possibly visit the studio of Cezanne in Aix-en-Provence (seen in this post), and not recognize some of the objects that feature so prominently in his wonderful still lifes? Not to be missed, not if you love Cezanne, not if you love those apples!

Paul Cezanne, "Still Life with Plaster Cupid"

And of course Cezanne's huge north-facing window makes my heart go pitter-patter. That exposure provides ideal light for painting. I noticed that he had curtains specially arranged