Sunday, November 11, 2012                                                 Tonight's picture was taken in November of 2003. We took Mattie to Leesburg Animal Farm one weekend and as you can see Mattie came face to face with a sheep. Mattie loved animals and his left hand was desperately trying to reach up to grab a hold of that wonderful wool!

 

 

Quote of the day: There are always flowers for those who want to see them. ~ Henri Matisse

 

 

Tonight's quote seems SO applicable considering the exhibit I saw today. I had the opportunity to go to the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC and out to brunch with Mattie's kindergarten teacher. Leslie and I get together on a periodic basis, and to our wonderful surprise the Dupont Circle Farmers Market was open as well today. We ventured through aisles and aisles of tents stocked with amazing produce from LOCAL farms. I have heard about this Farmers Market for years, but have never gone. I can see why it draws people from all over our area! It is that spectacular.

 

I love the Phillips Collection because unlike the Smithsonian, it is a very intimate and doable art experience. We went to see the special exhibit by Per Kirkeby, who is a Danish artist and still alive today. I have never seen Kirkeby's works, but now that I have, I must admit they are not my favorites. To me his work invokes chaos, depression, and just leaves you uninspired and flat. Leslie and I even saw a brief film in which the artist shared with his audience his thoughts and feelings while creating a large canvas before our eyes. A canvas so tall he needed a ladder and scalfolding. His thought process was just as complex as his art, which actually was no surprise and only helped to further explain what we were seeing. He explained that when he creates a painting he has no vision in mind as to what he will produce, the picture just simply evolves over time. As we watched through lapse photograpy the creation of his huge painting, it was evident that he is a harsh critic of himself and describes some of the colors his used as vile. Needless to say watching his video felt like a psychology case study rather than watching the beauty of a creator in motion.

 

Yet for Leslie and me, we tried to find the metaphorical flowers in this sea of color, shapes, and scribbles. It was almost fun in a way to try to interpret the chaos before us. It took great imagination from my perspective. As I told Leslie, sometimes you just don't want to work that hard to understand what you are seeing before you.



  

 

This painting is entitled, Inverno. This Phillips Collection exhibit is the most comprehensive survey in the United States to date of works by Scandinavia’s most highly acclaimed living artist, Per Kirkeby. Kirkeby is equally trained as a geologist and an artist, and is considered a painter of eminent sensuality, creating richly layered canvases filled with prodigious detail and animated by an unequaled material quality of color. He is not only a leading painter, sculptor, and printmaker, but also a prolific writer, poet, and filmmaker.

 

Believe it or not this painting is Untitled! Nonetheless, the subject matter in it is very clear, unlike so many of his other pieces. You can distinctly see three horses here. The exhibition features 26 expressive paintings and 11 striking bronze sculptures. Kirkeby’s paintings—some over six feet tall—are structured like geological strata, constantly in flux, moving and changing, continuously and passionately maintaining a dialogue between art and science. For Kirkeby, art, like science, is engaged in an ongoing, self-correcting process. His works incorporate all aspects of natural history, reflecting the artist’s considerable curiosity about the infinite variety of life.

 

After touring the Kirkeby exhibit, we then viewed some of the museum's permanent collection. This is Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party. One of my favorite paintings! This painting remains the best known and most popular work of art at The Phillips Collection, just as Duncan Phillips imagined it would be when he bought it in 1923. The painting captures an idyllic atmosphere as Renoir's friends share food, wine, and conversation on a balcony overlooking the Seine at the Maison Fournaise restaurant in Chatou. Parisians flocked to the Maison Fournaise to rent rowing skiffs, eat a good meal, or stay the night. The painting also reflects the changing character of French society in the mid- to late 19th century. The restaurant welcomed customers of many classes, including businessmen, society women, artists, actresses, writers, critics, seamstresses, and shop girls. This diverse group embodied a new, modern Parisian society. Renoir seems to have composed this complicated scene without advance studies or underdrawing. He spent months making numerous changes to the canvas, painting the individual figures when his models were available, and adding the striped awning along the top edge. Nonetheless, Renoir retained the freshness of his vision, even as he revised, rearranged, and crafted an exquisite work of art.

We had a lovely brunch and typical of teachers, when we get together, we have a plethora of things to talk about. Which was very nice and engaging. Because believe it or not I can talk about other things than cancer. Later in the day when I got back home, Peter and I went for a walk around the Potomac River. The weather felt like spring and everyone and his cousin was out walking. We were surrounded by SUN SEEKERS today and it was hard to believe it is November!