My Artist’s Things

Artist’s Things from a book by Katie Scott and Hannah Williams

I’m back from Houston, where my exhibit THE LIGHTNESS OF BEING at Ellio Fine Art continues until December 1st. I am taking a break from the “real world” and immersing myself in some quirky art historical excursions, which are leading me down back roads and dark allies. 

This month, Artists’ Things: Rediscovering Lost Property from 18th Century France, by Katie Scott and Hannah Williams has my attention (more about the book below). It’s a book that asks the question of what we might learn from examining an object that an artist owned. What does it tell us about the artist and what does it tell us about the object.

This is an aspect of art history that has always interested me . And as I reviewed my blog posts to see if any were relevant to this theme, I came up with a lot. It has also forced me to look at some of the items I surround myself with, and over the next weeks, I will blog about them.

ARTISTS’ THINGS

BLOGS RELATED TO ARTISTS’ THINGS

FROM THE LIBRARY : ARTISTS’ THINGS

Rediscovering Lost Property from 18th Century France, Katie Scott and Hannah Williams

“Artists are makers of things. Yet it is a measure of the disembodied manner in which we generally think about artists that we rarely consider the everyday items they own. This innovative book looks at objects that once belonged to artists, revealing not only the fabric of the eighteenth-century art world in France but also unfamiliar—and sometimes unexpected—insights into the individuals who populated it, including Jean-Antoine Watteau, François Boucher, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, and Elisabeth Vigée-LeBrun.

From the curious to the mundane, from the useful to the symbolic, these items have one thing in common: they have all been eclipsed from historical view. Some of the objects still exist, like Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s color box and Jacques-Louis David’s table. Others survive only in paintings, such as Jean-Siméon Chardin’s cistern in his Copper Drinking Fountain, or in documents, like François Lemoyne’s sword, the instrument of his suicide. Several were literally lost, including pastelist Jean-Baptiste Perronneau’s pencil case. In this fascinating book, the authors engage with fundamental historical debates about production, consumption, and sociability through the lens of material goods owned by artists.

The free online edition of this open-access publication is at www.getty.edu/publications/artists-things/ and includes zoomable illustrations. Free PDF and EPUB downloads of the book are also available.”

ON THE CALENDAR: EXHIBITIONS

NOVEMBER 29 - DECEMBER 31, 2024 - UNCANNY VALLEY Special Exhibition

Bennington Museum,

Bennington, VT This is a fund raiser for the Museum. Be sure to check out their AUCTION

+ + +

Last days of THE LIGHTNESS OF BEING at Ellio Fine Art in Houston, TX

ART SPOTLIGHT: MOTHS 2009

Moths, along with a print of Chrome Bugs, are part of an exhibition at the Bennington Museum Uncanny Valley: Magic Realism in Vermont.

In the introduction to the catalog for the Museum of Modern Art’s 1943 exhibition, Realism and Magic Realism, their Director/Curator Alfred H. Barr, Jr. noted that “Magic Realism” is “a term sometimes applied to the work of painters who by means of an exact realistic technique try to make plausible and convincing their improbable, dream-like, or fantastic vision.”

Next year, the Museum’s major summer/fall exhibition “Green Mountain Magic: Uncanny Realism in Vermont” takes that 1943 MoMA exhibit as its inspiration, featuring the work of a handful of artists featured in that exhibit who had Vermont ties (Ivan Albright, John Atherton, Vanessa Helder, and Patsy Santo), as well as other artists with Vermont ties who would go on to be considered “Magic Realists” (John Semple, Pavel Tchelitchew, George Tooker, etc.).

As is tradition, The Bennington Museum preface each major exhibit with a showcase of regional artists presenting their individual takes on the theme. This is the regional show. ALL THE ARTWORK IN THIS SHOW IS FOR SALE - YOU CAN BID FOR IT HERE