Tag: The Met

Coloring antiquity

This NYT article alerted me to the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition entitled Chroma: Ancient Sculpture in Color; an adaptation it seems of that which I viewed at the Liebieghaus (the home, so to speak, of many of the exhibits) in Frankfurt – there called “Gods in Color” – in February 2020, and about which I posted here. In fact, various versions have been touring the world over the last decade or so, but given the larger space available (not to mention, the budget) it is possible that the Met show is more ambitious. The Met web page is very informative (as was also that during the Frankfurt show) but new is an app than encourages virtual recreations and reflects the collaborative work of those behind the polychromy project. (And everybody knows nothing works without an app these days!)

My own photograph of the reconstruction of a marble archer – taken at the Liebieghaus, Frankfurt, in February 2020.

Of course, times being as they are, it is inevitable that the conversation surrounding the content and merits of the show would be dominated by matters of identity. And given the particularities of the project and the issues that arise from the reconstructions of Vinzenz Brinkmann and Ulrike Koch Brinkmann, the pivot is not hard to make.

And the NYT piece certainly doesn’t let down in this respect; pointing out how the Brinkmann team’s reconstructions have led to degrees of disquiet in academic and research circles. It seems some would contend that these particular reconstructions have been afforded such celebrity in recent years that it is often overlooked that they, in fact, represent only the scholarship of one pair of researchers, and should not be seen as a definitive verdict. This further leads to wide-ranging debates (often motivated through self or particular interest) on variations of polychromy and, of course, whiteness – and not just during antiquity. In this respect, the Times points to an interesting 2017 blog post from the historian, Sarah E. Bond, and this very lengthy and very excellent 2018 New Yorker article.

The following YouTube video (also on the Met site) is an excellent introduction to the scholarly and technical background to the project.

Vinzenz Brinkmann and Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann on their research into ancient sculptural polychromy and their work in creating full-size reconstructions of original Greek and Roman artworks.

By the way, I was incredibly informed by the exhibition in Frankfurt – loved it, really; even if a favorite jacket came to grief in the cloakroom and it was to be my final cultural adventure before the pandemic took over our lives. If I knew anyone in New York I would highly recommend heading for Fifth Ave. (through March 26, 2023), and I am also fairly sure it will turn up elsewhere in the future – probably with new exhibits.

Alice again

To Alice Neel’s retrospective at The Met I must return, and with another startling video that the museum has pulled from their vaults. Made by two young women in 1978 (a recent interview of sorts with the film makers is at the bottom of the page and should not be missed); it is only twenty minutes long, and is a wonderful insight not only into the working life of an artist – in general and of this remarkable painter in particular – but also of a woman with a particular way of seeing and reproducing that insight in her paintings, and without prejudice. To appropriate Neel’s own opinion of herself: A rare “collector of souls” she is indeed!

Alice Neel: They Are Their Own Gifts (1978) – Margaret Murphy & Lucille Rhodes

More from the Met

In celebration of the 151st anniversary of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, a delightful Google Doodle to wake up to this morning!

Google Doodle April 13, 2021, 151st Anniversary of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

And here is a direct link to an overview of the art objects featured.

Self-portrait, Samuel J. Brown, Jr., ca. 1941 (Open Access)

One of these that I would particularly like to mention is the above self portrait by Samuel Joseph Brown, Jr. , a Black artist that The Met states to have “gained international acclaim”, which may very well be so, but I do wonder why that doesn’t run to having a Wikipedia entry, and biographical information elsewhere in the internet seems to be scant – there is this 1982 speech at Howard by an admirer and this at the University of Kentucky library and obituary pieces in the Philadelphia Inquirer archive that I can’t access. I should say, my interest was sparked by Brown being of the same generation as Alice Neel (see previous post), both having received their art education in Philadelphia and both involved in the Public Works of Art Project and WPA, and it seems to me at approximately the same time. The possibility of paths crossing always interest me. [Postscript May 2, 2021: Have I read about Black under-representation in Wikipedia? The J. Clay Smith, Jr. who wrote the above mentioned Howard speech on Brown warranted this Washington Post obituary, for obvious reasons, and is also absent from Wiki! ]

During these times dominated by the corona pandemic and all the restrictions that implies, I have been wondering about the viewing possibilities in the greater worlds’ museums and galleries, so it is heartening to know that The Met’s doors are at least ajar, allowing for limited access. And irrespective, for those (very many) of us who probably wouldn’t be able to get there anyway, the online offerings at least allow us a glimpse behind even closed doors – and to dream on!

An art interlude

Alice NeeL: People come first

At The Met: March 22 – August 1, 2021.

Alice Neel at The Met 2021

A rare retrospective of the work of the American realist painter Alice Neel. Even virtually, her images can be appreciated as powerful reminders of our shared humanity and strived for dignity; irrespective of where we may be on our eternal search for self and place; sought by the privileged or the deprived, in home, studio or on the street. Terrific pictures in my opinion, and I love that she insists upon “pictures”; snapshots from real life, not for her the formalities of portraiture! The exhibition primer explores the sources of Neel’s inspiration; to be seen written in the faces and on the streets of Harlem.

In an excellent piece at The New York Times, Roberta Smith lauds Neel into the pantheon of modern painting; contextualising her radicalness in terms of the social and political turmoil of the twentieth century, and the complex interaction between those powerful exterior forces and the equally palpable interiors of the subjects, and in the virtuosity in which Neel, with colour and texture, bring all these facets together in her composition.

One reads, also, of the brilliant Met installation; the curators playing with chronology, thematics and historical; Kelly Baum and Randall Griffey have their say in the following excellent little video which was a virtual opening of sorts. I don’t know the pandemic status in respect to museums in New York at the moment, but it is to be hoped that, through this show, Neel’s work will find renewed attention and viewership into the Summer months.

Virtual opening introduced by Max Hollein and presented by the co-curators Kelly Baum and Randall Griffey.