Docent In Training - Working With Our Mentors

Hello again,

Tonight's class with our mentors was a lot of fun and very informative. I am always impressed with how much knowledge about art is possessed by all of the people I am lucky enough to study with at the Amon Carter.

Pat and I were able to share the expertise of the active docent Subie who is also my mentor. We broke into groups so it was impossible to follow everyone and their mentor, and I did not take notes, so can only tell you about a couple of interpretations I witnessed with the group.

I was able to interpret Frederic Remington's "A Dash For The Timber" and "Fall Of The Cowboy."  I do not know if it was because there was only the three of us or because we sat instead of standing, but I was very relaxed and able to deliver my take on both of these paintings. Subie, Pat and I also had a lively discussion about them.

 I suggested we look at A Dash For The Timber as a movie picture with Lucas sound. Indeed this painting lends itself to just that very easily, with the depth and sense of movement Frederic has painted. The question then is what sounds would possibly be heard.

Frederic was a much in demand illustrator for two of the magazines of the time and for books including one for Teddy Roosevelt.

He was also a writer and illustrated his own books. One is "Pony Tracks" which you can find on Kindle, sadly sans the illustrations. Speaking of illustrations the painting on the left "Fall Of The Cowboy" was one of several illustrations Frederic did for Owen Wister's article, "Evolution of the Cow-Puncher." Owen wrote "The Virginian" and is considered the father of western fiction. Charles Russell and Frederic Remington paintings of the wild west left such an impression that the western movies that followed were a natural extension.

One of the paintings Pat interpreted "The Swimming Hole" by Thomas Eakins. She touched upon the painting's rich history with Ft Worth and how it ended up in the ACMAA. The citizens of Ft Worth helped in making sure it stayed here when there was a chance it would be sold elsewhere. I wrote about some of the histories of this painting and Thomas Eakins two blogs ago. However; Pat added to my knowledge the fact that Eakins studied the human anatomy to the point of watching surgeries.

Self Portrait - 1919

And now, for something new. Pat gave us an interpretation of this Stuart Davis "Self Portrait".  There will be a bit more on Davis in this blog. Davis painted this self-portrait in 1919. Some say it was influenced by his recent bout with influenza. Others by his viewing a Vincent van Gogh self-portrait. The bright colors do remind one of van Gogh. At any rate, Pat gave a great interpretation of it.

She was going to give an interpretation of my all time favorite by Charles Demuth but we were called back together as a group. Will have to wait until another time to hear it.

Stuart Davis - 1892-1964

You can read more about the lively life of Stuart Davis on Wikipedia here Stuart Davis Painter

After we were called back together as a group, there were interpretations done by a few of the docent interns. I am so sorry that I was not taking notes but I do remember three of them for sure. If you gave one and I missed writing about you please forgive me.

Since we are discussing Stuart Davis I will continue with him. Ross gave us "Blips and If's" and "Swing Landscape". Ross actually sat us in the between the two paintings and compared them. Not an easy feat.

Blips and Ifs - 1963-1964

This painting "Blips and Ifs" was completed shortly before Davis's death. There are words on it but exactly what do they mean? Davis even put his signature at the top as if it was one of the words. I think the symbol on the left side looks like it fell off the Maryland state flag.

Swing Landscape - 1938

Ross also discussed "Swing Landscape". This painting is on loan from Eskenazi Museum of Art at Indiana University. Ross hit the nail on the head with his analysis of this painting in that Davis's love of jazz deeply influenced his paintings. The Eskenazi Museum has a great write-up of it found here
Davis, Swing Landscape.

Marsden Hartley - 1877-1943

The last two interpretations I remember were by Morganna and Katherine about Marsden Hartley and Will Barnet. You can find a very good bio of Hartley here Marsden Hartley Bio by the Phillips Collection. As well as the ACMAA announcement of acquiring American Indian Symbols here Hartley, American Indian Symbols.

American Indian Symbols - 1914

Morganna gave us a stellar interpretation of this painting. Mentioning the repetition of patterns. I found it interesting that this was one of the paintings in Hartley's "Amerika" series and was tailored for a German audience.

Self-Portrait - 1952-1953

Katherine discussed Will Barnet's "Self-Portrait" with us. I say discussed because she asked if we could find a human in the portrait and that led to a very large discussion. This is a quote from Wikipedia that helps explain the sawtooth or arrowhead design in this painting.


"He was a key figure in the 1940s New York movement called Indian Space Painting, artists who based their abstract and semi-abstract work on Native American art; a striking movement which had a handful of practitioners."


There is a great Obituary by the NY Times on Will Barnet found here Barnet Obit. He lived to be 101 and painted for over 80 years. Wow!!


I leave you today with this question. If you were asked to create a self-portrait what would it look like?

Until next week,

Caroline

Docent in Training - More Interpretations and Shadowing a Mentor

Hello,

January 2019 is upon us. What with NFL playoff games, my binge watching of Chinese movies on Netflix, trying to get back into the groove of eating less and exercising more, and learning more and more about the Amon Carter Museum of American Art collection, my cup runneth over. I usually watch TV and work on my computer at the same time but, subtitled Chinese movies do not allow such luxury. Unless one understands Mandarin they must keep their eyes on the TV or forever be lost. The one thing about these movies is they are historically correct and take me back to the beginning of the first empires of China. So it is not mindless TV watching as much as catching up on my history. At least that is what I want to think.

I missed the class on 20th-century photography last week and regret doing it. Not only because I missed a learning opportunity but also because the curator took his time to give the class. However,  I did make this weeks class and it was outstanding. We started with a class discussion on the proper way to offer questions on our tours. The object is to get the guests we are giving the tour to an opportunity to get involved with the art. The trick is to not put them on the spot and in some cases to not let them take over the tour. It will take practice but I know I can do it.

Attention Company!

The second half of the class was spent with a few giving interpretations of the permanent collection. I was so impressed with their skill and learned a great deal about different ways of presenting the works. One in our class is a docent at the Modern Art Museum here in Ft Worth and also an art teacher. The work she interpreted was Attention Company! by William Harnett.

I have shown this picture before in another post. That interpretation was a comparison between this and a Mary Cassatt. This interpretation was just on this work and how it lent itself to the abstract. I found this to be an interesting take and one worth exploring more.

Two others did Thunderstorm on Narragansett Bay by Martin Johnson Heade. They pointed out that no one seems to be in a hurry to leave so maybe the storm is on its way out rather than in. The Civil War had happened shortly before Heade painted this piece. The question, was reconstruction on his mind? Hard to say without his input. At any rate, it is a lovely rendition of a thunderstorm.

Thunderstorm on Narragansett Bay

Although there were many great interpretations I only have room for one more and it is one with a significant history.

The Swimming Hole

The Swimming Hole by Thomas Eakins is a masterpiece that was not used by The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts during an exhibition because the students and Eakins himself are recognizable. Eakins had been forbidden to use students as models. He eventually had to resign because of having a male nude in his class where a woman student was present. The work became part of the collection of the Fort Worth Art Association, the institutional predecessor of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. When the Art Association decided to sell it The Amon Carter purchased it. Ruth Carter Stevenson chose it as one of the paintings to hang in President John F. Kennedy's hotel room the night he and the First Lady spent in Ft Worth.

I wish I could tell you about more of the wonderful interpretations by our class but need to move on to lunch with my lovely mentor Subie. We enjoyed lunch at The Cafe Modern in the above mentioned Modern Art Museum. Then I followed along on her tour of the ACMAA. We had a large group and it was great that they were interactive with Subie. This is what our goal is, to hopefully have the guests get involved with the art. We ended the tour upstairs with the western art of Remington and Russell. I am ashamed to say I had not yet been up there and was not aware that the ACMAA has every one of Charles Russell's western sculptures plus one he did of Douglas Fairbanks as D'Artagnan in 1921.  Mary Pickford actually asked him to create it. Just proves every art piece has a history and some of them have a very interesting story to tell.

Douglas Fairbanks as D'Artaganan - 1921

If you have a chance you must make it to ACMAA and view all of the terrific works by Charles Russell and Frederic Remington. Thank you Subie for a wonderful tour.

Well an NFL playoff game is coming on and it appears it is snowing in Kansas City so until next week please keep art on your mind and in the schools.

Warmly,
Caroline

Docent in Training - Second Evening With a Curator

Happy Rainy Friday the 19th of October,

Last nights class was as excellent as I expected. Curator Maggie Adler contains a wealth of information, but alas, she is also a very busy woman so I did not get to ask her a couple of questions about how a curator goes about their business. Maybe as the months roll by I will get a chance to speak with her one-on-one. Texas Christian University was also having guided tour classes last night and our docent instructor Nancy Strickland was able to attend them. Hope to find out more when we next meet in a couple of weeks.

In the meantime on to what you are reading this blog for. Sharing a few of the art and artists in the ACMAA (Amon Carter Museum of American Art) http://www.cartermuseum.org/collection that was discussed last night.

 William Merritt Chase 1849-1916) was a virtuoso artist and teacher experimenting in various mediums. The oil painting Idle Hours depicts Long Island's rural eastern tip. It shows Chase's wife, with two of his daughters and possibly his sister-in-law. Many Americans were craving a getting back to nature, not unlike today, and artists such as Chase painted just that.

Idle Hours - 1894