Question of the Day | 03/25/2009 11:00 pm
Rembrandt? Picasso? O'Keeffe? Tell us: Who is your favorite artist?
The wOw women reveal the artists whose work they find simply breathtaking
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Yes that’s the name i was trying to recall. Love the musculature and look of marshaled strength. Huge.
Minerva Teichert was educated at the turn of the century at the Art Institute of Chicago.
"Born on 28 August 1888 in North Ogden, Utah, Minerva was the second of ten Kohlhepp children. Most of her early years were spent on her family’s Idaho homestead."
"Minerva left home for the first time at age fourteen to work as a nursemaid for a wealthy Idaho family in San Francisco. There she saw museum art for the first time and attended classes at Mark Hopkins Art School. But it was not until she had graduated from high school back home and taught school for several years that she was able to pursue any serious training in art."
"By age nineteen, she had scraped together enough money to go to Chicago, where she studied at the Chicago Art Institute under the great draftsman John Vanderpoel, a master of the academic school of painting. Several times during her three-year course she had to go home to earn more money in the fields or in the classroom. But always she returned to follow her dream.
She created about 1000 pieces of art many large western scenes and wall murals. While raising her 5 children she would tack up her canvas in the kitchen so she could care for her children and work on her art.
http://minervateichert.com/default.aspx
Indians Captive at Night
http://www.springvilleartmuseum.org/collections/browse.html?x=art&art_id=1170&name=Indian_Captives_at_Night 48" x 90"
As I was writing above, I began to want to take the artists and their work a step further - if you will - and began to wonder if all of you who obviously visit the art museums of the world in vast numbers as I do, if I could ask a further question:
CAN ANY OF YOU TELL ME OF YOUR FAVORITE ART MUSEUMS - THE ONES THAT YOU WOULD RECOMMEND SEEING? Perhaps I am alone on this, but I am much affected by the beauty of the museum itself, and I find that the beauty, the layout itself will subtly affect how I feel as I view a painting. As I mentioned above, the Isabella Stewart Museum in Boston - within her beautiful home - almost stuns me. The old Getty (I haven’t been to the new one) in its striking setting in LA, the Huntington in Pasadena (and the effect of The Blue Boy in that setting), more.
What museums in themselves are so special that we all should be on the lookout for them? Any super ideas? Joan
The Seattle Asian Art Museum is a lovely wonder as is the SEattle art Museum—i hope to soon get to the Minneapolis art Museum soon. I understand it has a small by fine Asian Art collection.
Joan Larsen - This question came up sometime ago, possibly mid 2008, I am not certain, and I can’t pin-point the date more accurately for you. At that time there were all kinds of clear answers about marvelous museums around the world. Some, I personally have visited. Many are museums I regret to admit I will never get to see. However, I did make reference to the Art Gallery of Ontario, in Toronto, Canada. The positive responses that followed my posting were remarkable and very gratifying because to my amazement, many WOW’ers already knew all about it. They visited AGO and found it very rewarding and quite worth the effort. It offers a very complete and substantially lavish exhibition of recognized chefs-d’oeuvre by many of the world’s leading artists, and of course, features also works by many of our fine Canadian artists (including a few treasures by close members of my family). I recommend the Art Gallery of Ontario without hesitation. It is a lovely museum, in a lovely building, in a lovely and friendly city.
Lauriate … I had a wonderful relative, gone now, in the 70s on who was a mover and shaker of the Art Gallery - Joyce Frewer. I remember when the Queen came long ago to Toronto that Joyce was her personal escort. And though I haven’t been back for years, I loved that museum so much … and of course, we couldn’t resist going out to the The McMichael Canadian Art Collection > Group of Seven - a very special experience, location, and Canadian artists of note.
My family came from Brantford, Ontario, and we found ourselves searching out the 1860 old church graveyard outside the town - and experience never forgotten as there was our family that we did not know about - several with my middle name - lined in a row.
Joan, The Frick, The Baltimore Museum of Art was a real surprise (not to mention their wonderful cafe Gertrude’s run by a top notch chef) and believe it or not - Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (people from NYC came to see this new museum and it received rave reviews in NY. MOCAD is by far the most thought provoking, innovative and cutting edge works I have seen anywhere. Having an artist son we visit art museums in all of our travels and have enjoyed the main ones of course such as MOMA, The Met, The Getty, London’s many many museums. But the three I mentioned first are real stand outs. When we were in London we had a great experience at The Royal Art Academy. They were having a student exhibition and I fell in love with work from one of the student artists. After inquiring if she had anything for sale (knowing student’s need money), we were escorted to the stuidos and met the young artist and of course walked out owning one of her pieces. I will always cherish that privileged behind the scenes experience. My son also interned at the Hirschhorn Museum in Washington DC and had a fantastic experience learning how to run a museum and curate shows. Yoko Ono came for a dedication while he was there as well. At the age of 22, my son has already curated a successful exhibit for Baltimore’s Area 405 Gallery. I love the new movement going on with site specific works - which complements those who appreciate public art as much as I do.
How did your son, the painter, get from here to there? My daughter - who is on WOW sometimes was offered an unusual job of medical illustration with Chicago’s Field Museum after college - the combo of drawing and museums sounded irresistible but at the moment something else - or someone else - took her interest. I too had thought of the Frick though it has been years since I have been there and am then hesitant to "recommend" and yet how could I have gone wrong?
I will keep your museums in mind though we tend to head West more often than not as the years have gone by. But with the family interest in art as you have, I can see you don’t miss anything. I have found that in different phases of life - if you understand that - other interests have taken precedence - architecture being just one. I became a NUT on Greene & Greene and the Arts and Crafts movement heavily in the West, Wright, of course - and went from one example to another. Then photographers … the feeling I don’t want to miss anything in this world so I had to break it into priorities with free time I have had. And first of all, faraway travel … the being drawn to the remote is never far from my thoughts. Ever.
Love all I have learned from you — fortunately, this subject has come up or who would have known what we might have missed with each other?
Too many to choose from, but off the top of my head: Henry Ossawa Tanner, J.M.W. Turner and James Whistler, and all for the same reason. Each began his creative process thoroughly engrossed in depicting their world in finely tuned detail: Tanner and African-American culture (The Banjo Lesson), Turner’s masts and waves, Whistler’s ….Mother.
As each artist grew in skill and his search to see with new eyes, they became more and more abstract. (This is true also of Michaelangelo’s unfinished pieces where you can sense the figure in motion, trying to emerge beneath the chipped stone.) Later in their careers, Tanner’s "Annunciation," becomes an angel that is no more than a line of blinding gold; Whistler’s "Nocturne: The Fallen Rocket: Black and Gold" leads art into Impressionism; Turner’s Abstracts from the Biblical Book of Revelation, "The Angel Standing in the Sun," that swirls with the blur between heaven and hell.
As each artist grew in skill and his search to see with new eyes, they became more and more abstract. (This is true also of Michaelangelo’s unfinished pieces where you can sense the figure in motion, trying to emerge beneath the chipped stone.) Later in their careers, Tanner’s "Annunciation," becomes an angel that is no more than a line of blinding gold; Whistler’s "Nocturne: The Fallen Rocket: Black and Gold" leads art into Impressionism; Turner’s Abstracts from the Biblical Book of Revelation, "The Angel Standing in the Sun," that swirls with the blur between heaven and hell.
Footnotes? We gotta have footnotes and bullets and such.
* Bill Cosby owns a lot of Tanner paintings. This reminds us that Bill Cosby is a very rich man.
* Not "too" long ago, The National Gallery of Art had a Turner exhibit. I went on my birthday, taking on the Christmas crowds. I "did" the ships rooms, but I soon tired of the pressing crowds and loud critiques, "Look at that whitecap," and headed for those Bible paintings. That’s where I spent the bulk of my time, letting myself fall right into them and hang out for a while."
*You want to see some Whistler? Go to the Freer Gallery of Art, but first go to the National Gallery of Art to pay a visit to "Symphony No. 1, The White Girl," a painting I went to see FIRST, every time my Mama took me to the gallery. Also, often told, but here it is again: the infamous story of being five years old, and my mother and I going down the winding (and massive) back staircase of the Gallery, me holding Mama’s hand and saying "I want to live here,"her saying, "Oh no, Little Cubie. Wouldn’t you be afraid to live here all by yourself? Me: (shooting her look) "No." Then go on over to the Freer Gallery and do "The Peacock Room." Ask the guard to show you the secret window. Charm him. Get him to say "Okay, but don’t tell." Then hit Whistler’s "Nocturnes." Old man Freer was loaded and bought a ton of them. Think about fog. Think about London. Think about why London doesn’t have fog like that anymore.
*Michelangelo’s stuff screams to be touched. We won’t go into why David screams to be touched, and how you’d be screaming if you did. Walk tall and carry a big stick, indeed.
*Tanner’s "The Annunciation." Lemme tell ya something. I became so obsessed with this painting, that when I was presenting a paper at Georgetown University (with slides people, but no snacks,) I was so gaga over it, I heard a loud "AHEM" from the back of the room, basically my professor saying, "Wind it up." Back then, you could not shut me up about Tanner.
Don’t even ask me who my favorite artist is. Talking to a friend while I wrote you guys just now? We both went off on 1) Georg Groz; 2) David Stone Martin; 3) Friedensreich Hundertwasser; 4) Edward Keinholz; 4) Barnett Newman’s Stations of the Cross; 5) The Belarusian School of Icon Painting and 6) the Desert Eagle large-bore, gas-operated, semi-automatic pistol. (The promised bullets.)
"Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual. " ~~ Arthur Koestler http://washingtoncube.blogspot.comLove the quotation which I had not heard before — but reading your learned words was a great learning experience. We find, don’t we, that we don’t know it all … and with open minds, learning never ceases.
I have a story — off the track a bit — but telling in that we never know where a visit to an art museum may lead. I had gone to Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, alone and finding myself engaging the guard in conversation on how the quite extensive collection was guarded. No one was around and, as I remember, the painting in this room were roped off in velvet.
He must have liked my interest, or it was a boring morning - but he said "Let me show you how fast security works". At that point, he said "Lean over the rope and touch the frame of that painting". I did. Immediately, alarms sounded throughout the building, there was the sound of many running feet, and a large number of security people were giving me some very scary moments. The guard took the blame, and I ended up practically interviewing the security people, making it one of the most interesting mornings in an art museum that I had ever had. And naturally, when I read of an "art heist", I think of those moments at the Ringling.
We both have a love of Turner!
That is such a funny story! I went to the Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport, Maine, and ended up spending almost the entire time I was there in one building because I was the only one there and I was taking tons of pictures and chatting with the guide. There were no alarms, and he unhooked the ropes and let me go in to get close-ups of some of the statues on the mantle and the tools in the sewing chest. It was fascinating, and I learned a lot more than I would have if there had been a crowd or if I had just rushed through all the buildings!
Had to google Topkapi - got a movie and a palace in Turkey - and now I want to see both! :-)
(I’m guessing you meant the movie)
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