Docent in Training - Our Mentors

Hello again,

This weeks meeting was really exciting as we met our mentors. Some of the active docents have given their time to help us become ready to guide interested parties through the museum. After meeting them the mentors gave us some object interpretations and believe me it was most interesting. As I mentioned last week I stepped on my own tongue during my object interpretation, so, it was great to see how it really should be done.

I will list three of them. I have not yet asked permission to use names in this blog so will not name who gave which presentation. If I did not use your example and you read this blog, my apologies, it was not your interpretation just my need to conserve space. The point of tonight's exercise was to show different ways to interpret objects on our tours.

First was a brief talk about the museum itself including the Henry Moore sculpture in the front of the museum.

Henry Moore Sculpture

 Here is a picture of the sculpture. It exhibits all of Moore's strong, solid artistic ability.

Alexander Calder Study

Inside of the museum is the Alexander Calder study that was considered but not used. A beautiful piece and in my opinion, it displays Calder's playfulness.






















When viewing the very large Remington work Dash for the Timber we were asked what sounds would we hear if it was possible to hear the painting. Answers were horses' hoofs, Indians yelling, guns firing, pans clattering. We were then asked to emulate these sounds as a group. Imagine the fun of a bunch of adults making loud sounds. This is a great way to get people to really look at an action painting.

Dash for the Timber - 1889 Frederic Remington

 Another way to have people look at art is to do a comparison between two objects. The works, of course, need to be close enough to each other for a comparison. The active docent doing this interpretation chose two excellent examples.

Attention Company! - 1878 William Harnett

Attention Company! is one of William Harnett's few portraits. He was a trompe l'loeil (fool the eye) painter and mostly painted still lifes. He was an Irish-American painter and was born in County Cork Ireland during the time of the potato famine.

Woman Standing - 1878-1879 Mary Cassatt

Mary Cassatt was an impressionist painter from Pennsylvania that was befriended by Edgar Degas upon moving to Paris, where she spent the rest of her life. She exhibited with other impressionist painters and is best known for her women and children works.

We were asked to compare the two works for differences in the subjects. Notice I said subjects because it is obvious they are painted in two different styles. Two of the answers were: the young man is gazing out intently at you where the woman seems to be unaware she is being observed. The young man is poor as shown by his clothes where the woman is one of privilege, again as shown by her clothes. This is just another way to get people to really look at the painting. Perhaps you can also see differences in the subjects.

Our next class is not until Jan 3, 2019, and will be on 20th-century photography.

Until then,

Caroline

Docent In Training - First Attempt at a Object Interpretation

Hello again,

I have a friend that uses the expression "Don't get tangled up in your own underwear". But that is exactly what I did during my first object interpretation. I became so involved with all of the facts about the artist I forgot the object. Georgia O'Keeffe was my artist and believe me there is enough written about her to give long talks on, but people can look all that up on their own. What they come to an art museum to experience is art, not some long-winded docent rolling out fact after fact about the artist.

Rancho Church

What I should have been talking about is above. What I talked mostly on is below. Georgia and Alfred.

I started with the question "would there have been a Georgia O'Keeffe without an Alfred Stieglitz." I would not have asked that question had the group been any other than my classmates. It was and is a good question but asked at the wrong time. I should have discussed the beautiful mission first before even talking about Georgia and Alfred. Lesson learned.

Others of our group did a much better job. I was impressed with their skill and really enjoyed the evening. Below are two of their choices for object interpretation.

Fall of the Cowboy - Frederick Remington 

Crossing the Pasture - Winslow Homer

Next week we are assigned our mentors. Cannot wait.

Vaya con Dios,

Caroline

Docent in Training - Sculpture and Painting in 20th Century

Hello again,

Grrr! I had this post complete, I thought it was saved but Blogger was pulling the wool over my eyes and all was lost. Try, try again.

This weeks class was about 20th-century sculpture and painting with a bit of history thrown in. It was not live but a wonderful presentation recording of curator Shirley Reese-Hughes served as a great stand-in. In a way, it might have allowed us to concentrate on the PowerPoint presentation more. As usual, I will only hit a few of the highlights as she covered far too much territory for this little blog.

First up:

Chef d'Orchestre 1919

This simplistic stained Cherrywood sculpture by Elie Nadelman says so much with so little. Elie was born in Poland and was aided by Helena Rubenstein, she who owned the great makeup empire, in coming to America during World War I. There was a lot of antisemitism at the time.  He was interested in folk art as the beautiful Chef attests to. He and his wife lived well, collected folk art and even opened a museum to exhibit it. However; the stock market crash took it all. Elie taught sculpture for art therapy at the Bronx Veterans Hospital. Sadly Elie committed suicide when he found out the fate of many of his relatives in Poland during World War II.
.

Elie Nadelman (1882-1946)

For a more in depth discussion on Eliasz (Elie) Nadelman see this web page About Elie Nadelman

Louise Nevelson (1899-1988)

Another sculpture presented to us is by Louise Nevelson who was brought to America in 1905 by her family to escape an oppressive government in the Russian Empire. Again antisemitism.

Louise was recycling before it became cool. Her works were created with found wood objects. She put them together and painted the resulting sculpture a brown color. To me, they look like they belonged together all the time. Stunning work from a woman when women were not encouraged to be artists. Louise was very successful. One of her quotes is "I only know you can't give advice to an artist" maybe that type of courage is why she was so successful. I would like to ask her why she called this piece Lunar Landscape. You will find out more about Louise here About Louise Nevelson

Lunar Landscape 1959-1960

You might be thinking that the artists above were not born in America. That is OK as the art represented was made in America making it American art. Speaking of made in America, the next artist is one of the best this country ever produced. The one and only Georgia O'Keeffe. What a free, creative and talented spirit she was. I do not need to give you a website for Georgia. just google her and you will find hundreds. Her husband was the artistic photographer Alfred Stegliest. You can see her strong beauty in one of his many photos of her below.

Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986)

Although Alfred lived in New York and Georgia lived in New Mexico their love continued on. She exhibited some of her paintings in his studio. You can see the age difference in the photo below

Georgia and Alfred

Georgia's magnetic beauty is captured in this photo by Alfred below.

Now to show you a couple of her works. She loved flowers but did not try to capture the whole flower. This made her work even more interesting. She was disturbed that critics called some of her paintings sexual as that was not her intent. Notice how she draws your eye to the center of the flower by putting a bit of vertical yellow. A computer screen cannot possibly show the sheen and real beauty of this flower.

Red Cannas - 1927

Before we leave Georgia I have one more picture of hers. This particular church has been photographed and painted by many artists. Each in their own unique style. This is the back of the church found to be more interesting than the front. If you get to Taos, New Mexico check it out. Maybe do your own version of it.

Rancho Church - 1930

You do get a sense of the bare landscape in the area. Artists loved this area and as you may know, there is a big art colony in Taos and Santa Fe. You might even spot an alien or two if you look closely.

 I have one more of the many artists shown to us in this class. He is Charles Demuth from Lancaster, PA. I chose him because like Georgia he is one of my favorites.

Charles Demuth (1883-1935)

Charles painted beautiful watercolors and only turned to painting with oils later in his life. He was part of the precisionism movement. I am totally in love with his work. Spouse and I had a chance to go through his museum in his house in Lancaster. It is well worth the trip. See more on Charles here More about Charles Demuth.

Talk about a small world. Charles was part of the Stieglitz group and was friends with Georgia O'Keeffe. He drew and painted many of the buildings in his hometown Lancaster. his work defies description so let us take a look at one.

Chimney and Water Tower - 1931

Now you can see why it is called precisionism. Every part of this painting is so well planned and splendidly executed. A very limited palette is all that is needed to achieve a painting that one can get lost in. Nothing goes to waste here.

Well, we made it to the end, again, and I believe this time I will be able to publish it. Remember you can get a taste of what is in the ACMAA here http://www.cartermuseum.org/


Until next weeks class,

Caroline