Thursday, June 19, 2008
Deciphering Art: What is Impressionism?
Berthe Morisot (French, 1841–1895) Lilacs at Maurecourt, 1874. Oil on canvas. Yves Rouart
Eva Gonzalès (French, 1849–1883) A Loge in the Théâtre des Italiens, 1874. Oil on canvas. Musée d'Orsay, Paris
As a budding movement in the art world, Impressionism was initially received by the public with disgust and light-hearted mockery. After the first exhibition of its kind in 1874—consisting of prominent artists such as Monet, Cézanne, Degas, Renoir and Morisot—remarking on the paintings’ visible brushstrokes, the journalist Louis Leroy wrote that his companion wondered aloud if his spectacles were dirty. The general feeling toward Impressionism was that artists failed to capture anything realistically by favoring quick, loose brush strokes, creating the impression of a landscape or portrait, which Leroy saw as crass and shoddy. The term “Impressionism” came from Leroy’s scathing review, but as the artists, working collectively mostly in Paris, pressed on, the movement became increasingly popular.
Impressionism owes as much to the time and political atmosphere as it does to the artists themselves. France—just recovering from the humiliating defeat of the Franco-Prussian war, and the upsetting bloodshed over the Paris Commune of 1871—set out to create a fresh slate. City officials gave Paris a complete makeover, and flâneurs roamed the streets studying the ever-changing city life. Baudelaire commented that the idea of modernity now meant constant change, or “the ephemeral, the fugitive, the contingent and the transitory.”
Impressionists, themselves close observers of this new era, rebelled against the Salon exhibitions of the time, which pitted artists against each other, crammed numerous tableaux onto the walls, and accepted paintings of limited subject matter... [more]
Posted by: Alex Teplitzky | June 19 at 5:13:27 PM
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Listed under: Exhibitions | Deciphering Art
Friday, June 13, 2008
Installing Chihuly at the de Young: A Conservator’s View
Pieces laid out for the Persian Ceiling.
Installing and lighting the Persian Ceiling.
Installation nearly complete
When this conservator first learned of the many Chihuly glass objects coming to the de Young, her heart leapt with two important realizations: “This will be one of the most stunning exhibits that has ever come to the de Young!” and “Oh my god, how are we going to keep all these fragile glass objects safe?”
An exhibition of this scale requires a lot of organization. First, curators and designers at the Chihuly Studio and the Fine Arts Museums needed to agree on gallery layouts and types of objects to be shown in each gallery. The larger pieces required structural modifications to the de Young building—a reinforced glass ceiling; large, suspended, metal structures to hold the chandeliers; and carefully-built, enormous, black Plexiglas platforms. Our installation department oversaw these building preparations.
The Chihuly team did most of the preparatory work of selecting, cleaning, labeling, and packing each of the many components for each room and produced extensive lists for shipping and installation. A glass chandelier can include up to 800 pieces of glass, a glass-packed boat can hold many hundreds of pieces of glass, and the colorful Persian Ceiling supports over 1,000 pieces of glass.
Three weeks before the opening of the exhibition, trucks started to arrive. First the empty wooden boats, and a truckload of newly-cut twelve-inch-diameter birch logs arrived—these were diverted to a fumigation place so as not to import wood insects into the museum... [more]
Posted by: Elisabeth Cornu | June 13 at 3:44:46 PM
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Listed under: de Young News | Exhibitions | Conservation
