Some New Frontiers

 

Exhibition at The Memorial Art Gallery

Rochester, New York

The most recent exhibition at The Memorial Art Gallery which opened this month features paintings on loan from the Worcester Art Museum and it is well worth the time to go over there for a visit.  The "Frontiers of Impressionism" contains many notable artists and a few that I had no knowledge of.  An interesting thing that I found with this show was that many artists were just visiting in Europe when Impressionism was getting started,  and they brought back a new and exciting look for their work  here in the USA.

We can assume that Impressionism found a stronghold in France, and there were important American artists who brought home the lessons they learned in Europe when they met up with a new, refreshing style.  I have been to see many museum shows, but this one presented me with works I had never seen before including in my books about Impressionist art. Among the strongest paintings on view is the oil painting by Paul Signac called: "Golfe  Juan".  In this instance, Signac employs a pointillist technique making little dots of paint  which our eyes blend together to create a tonality of color.

Paul Signac, 1896 , oil painting called: "Golfe Juan"

Impressionism in practice let artists be much more responsive to the light in nature and it can be said that the artists captured a lot of the spirit of life in their works.  There is a little Cezanne painting of a card player here which you might realize is a study for a much larger work which you might see at The Metropolitan Museum in NYC.  Even in this small study Cezanne gives it character which he plays out again and again in his paintings.

Paul Cezanne study for Card Players

Another of my Favorite artists is Corot and he is represented here with a landscape from Ville de Avray which is located west of Paris, France.  Corot's paintings often have a certain softness which he employs  in many of his compositions.  In this painting you can see a man with his fishing pole casting out into a pond with another figure on the left.  This is a timeless artwork and Corot brings out a certain peacefulness there in the country.

Corot painting, Ville De Avray

So, the American painters certainly could learn a lot from masters like Corot, and I see this reflected in the work of artists like George Inness.  In his painting of people fishing in a wooded lake I find a deep resonance with the spirit of Corot.  

George Inness

Talking about mastery, another American painter who is in this show presents a violent seascape and that of course is Winslow Homer.  I can't think of anyone who could paint waves crashing on the shore better than Homer.  So these are just a few samples from the current exhibition on at the MAG.  There is much more to see than the landscape although this is truly one area that Impressionism can claim for posterity!

Winslow Homer at The Memorial Art Gallery

Hear ART TALK

 

Paul Brandwein at Axom

South Avenue, Rochester, New York

In the South Wedge, I relaxed on a sofa at Axom to listen to Paul Brandwein speak about the development of his art.  There was a fine group of some of his small abstract paintings on view at the time I visited in early November.  The people who attended the talk had questions to ask and we found out a lot about how his art stems from experiments he made over many years working with ceramics to create attractive surface textures.  During his talk, Paul passed around some sample sheets that looked like leopard spots on paper.

How did he get those spots to show up like that?  Maybe a little alcohol in the acrylic paint to disperse the pigment; then let it all dry.. Then, where did he get his ideas for these paintings?  Well, we got to look through pages of his sketchbooks, and there we could see the development of forms - and all they would need is some colors to make them more distinctive! Some of the forms might remind one of a certain cactus or maybe a sea creature!

I really enjoy hearing the artist talk about the work we see in the gallery.  There are many things we can learn about  a process which normally goes on in the studio and which might take years to develop.

Later in November at The Memorial Art Gallery I went to see the new exhibition of paintings on loan from the Worcester Art Museum, which I will write about later.  On the day I visited the MAG, I went into the Auditorium to hear my friend Jim Mott give his talk about his devotion to painting the scenes outdoors that he finds in his many expeditions around the country.

Jim Mott being interviewed at 

The Memorial Art Gallery

I wrote about Jim Mott's Itinerant Artist Project for American Artist  Magazine almost twenty years ago.

He would say that he could travel around the country and make small scale paintings of scenes and then a few days later move on to a new spot.  His itinerary would include overnight stays with people he  had just met and as a way of saying thank you, he would make a small painting for them in exchange for his overnight stay at their home.

At the Memorial Art Gallery, we got to look through samples from his many years painting scenes from the places he visited.  Jim is a big fan of nature, and especially birds!  I imagine he has quite a life list!

He mentioned at his talk at MAG, that he had a very deep interest in bird watching and he used my father's illustrations from his guide book, "Birds of North America" that Golden Books published so many years ago!  I actually worked on revisions to that book with my Dad, back in the 1970s...

Since this blog post is about artists talking, I need to mention that an online magazine has just published an interview with me in their digital magazine called:  Magnate View.  You can read about a bit of my background in this piece, so here is a link: https://magnateview.com/a-lifelong-journey-in-art-education-and-innovation-an-interview-with-alan-singer-a-renowned-professor-from-the-rochester-institute-of-technology/