Friday after class I spent a few happy hours in the Westminister Art Library checking out some leads -
- Elizabeth Frink (love her drawings, especially the one for "Harbinger Bird" seen at the Towner Gallery in Eastbourne recently, and I'm very fond of her horse-and-rider statue on Piccadilly);
- Louise Nevelson (she of the wood assemblages) "the most celebrated sculptor of American modernism";
- Tacita Dean (ah those chalk drawings on blackboard!);
- Rosa Bonheur (in 1853 her 16-foot Horse Fair sealed her reputation)
and finding some interesting "stuff" along the way - Dean Hughes' paintings/drawings inside brown paper bags, for instance.Also I'm considering pairing Tracey Emin (of the tent and the unmade bed) with Meret Openheim (of the fur-lined teacup).
I've tried to fit John Virtue's landscape painting into the postmodernist box, so as to pair his huge London monochrome riverscapes with Monet's views of London's river (or perhaps Whistler's paintings) -- but into that box Virtue would not go; although he's working after the 1970 watershed, he fits none of the postmodern criteria - does not collage or use words, doesn't depict consumer or popular culture, there's no performance art or appropriation, and the wrong kind of simplification. OK, think again ...Any suggestions?
I saw the Horse Fair in person at the NYMet and was totally captivated. It is so amazingly full of activity, and when I found out that it painted by a woman!
ReplyDeleteI like your pairing of Meret Oppenheim (self aware irony) with Tracey Emin (ironic self obsession). I think that I would look at the pairing and the comparing rather than going for one artist that is interesting, and then trying to find a pair. Interesting subject, though.
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