Author: Camille Sloane
There is a tremendous patience in Henri Rousseau (b. 1844), on view as part of a major exhibition at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. His Rendezvous in the Forest (1889) meticulously reproduces dense woodland foliage, a constellation of leaves blanketing the surface of the canvas and nearly concealing the illicit couple at its center. This is the work of an artist who knew how to bide his time, an artist whose primary profession was waiting Rousseau served as a customs agent at a toll gate in Paris for over two decades, the source of his nickname, Le Douanier Rousseau. Yet Rousseau’s work is hardly…
Using an extreme form of chiaroscuro, Wright portrays the dramatic moment of intellectual or moral revelation in his paintings of scientific subjects. LONDON Joseph Wright of Derby is like the punchline to a “who am I?” riddle: Whose paintings are monumental in scale and scope, have all the drama and chiaroscuro of a Caravaggio, the red infused coloring of Georges de la Tour, a touch of ghoulish Fuseli, strong Dutch Golden Age influence, and yet you’ve never heard of them? Born in 1734, this painter adopted the suffix “of Derby” early in his career, distinguishing himself from London painters. He…
As artist Leonora Carrington told it, shortly after she became friends with members of the Surrealist movement, Joan Miró once handed her a few coins and told her to go buy him a pack of cigarettes. “I gave it back and said if he wanted cigarettes, he could bloody well get them himself,” she told the Guardian in 2007. “I wasn’t daunted by any of them.” Carrington had more metaphysical matters to pursue. She sought to capture fleeting scenes of the subconscious where real memories and imagined visions mingle. In Carrington’s rich universe, ethereal beings enact rituals with unknown purposes; these creatures have characteristics…
Lorraine O’Grady, an artist who bravely used her conceptual pieces and performance art to critique systems of power, incisively underlining the ways that class, race, and gender influence one another, died at her home in New York on Friday. Her death was announced by a trust in her name; its announcement did not specify a cause. O’Grady developed a loyal following for artworks that often proved unclassifiable. She produced photographs, collages, and performances, and wrote frequently, on topics ranging from her own work to Édouard Manet’s Olympia, from feminism to Surrealism, from rock music to her own biography. Across much of…
Through her creative lives as author, illustrator, painter, quilter, sculptor, and activist, Ringgold spoke to the urgency and vulnerability of life. Faith Ringgold’s words have rhythm. They jaunt through her stories, printed on pages and quilts, their bright, succinct language as engaging as their visual counterparts. The late artist was a storyteller and visual artist in equal measure her knack for prose and her herculean visual skills go hand in hand. She utilized craft to experiment with form, medium, and message, challenging the parameters of fine art, demanding equal attention for her textiles and her striking canvases. I was first…