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April 2009, vol.2, issue 4 A publication of the R. W. Norton Art Gallery |
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REMINDERS:
To visit the R. W. Norton Art Gallery website, go to http://www.rwnaf.org/.
The new exhibition, Paint the Parks, will run through May 3, 2009. |
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Around the Gallery
Editor
Kristi Kohl
Contributors
Everl Adair
Gary D. Ford
Jennifer DeFratis
Kip DeHart
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TIPS FROM KIP: Pruning and Fertilizing Azaleas
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FEATURED ARTWORK: Shepherdess with Sheep
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FROM THE VAULTS: The Dali Alice
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I shall never forget the wondrous stillness which brooded over earth and water . . . The deep, translucent water reposed at the base of the warm sunlit cliff like a great basin of glass, which I half expected to hear shiver and crack as our keel ploughed through it. And how color and sound stood out in the transparent air! . . . The mossy rocks doubled themselves without a flaw in the clear, dark water . . . There is a certain purity in this Cragthorpe air which I have never seen approached – a lightness, a brilliancy . . . which allows perfect liberty of self-assertion to each individual object in
the landscape.
Henry James, “The Landscape Painter,”The Atlantic Monthly, 1866
Although James couldn’t have known it at the time, his landscape painter describes the perfect setting for a style of contemporary American landscape painting known a century later as luminism. In 1954, art critic John I.H. Baur gave the movement its name in response to its key attribute, “the unique sense of light that seems to emanate from the painting itself.” In Landscape & Life in 19th Century America (1974), Baur went on to describe it further as:
. . . a polished and meticulous realism in which there is no sign of brushwork and no trace of impressionism, the atmospheric effects being achieved by infinitely careful gradations of tone, by the most exact study of the relative clarity of near and far objects, and by a precise rendering of the variations in texture and color produced by direct or reflected rays.
Critic Barbara Novak further established luminism as an individual and unique movement in 1969 by stressing its significance as a historical concept tied to specific political and philosophical forces. The final seal on its legitimacy came in 1980 with an exhibition at the National Gallery of Art entitled: “American Light: The Luminist Movement.”
The philosophical underpinning for luminism derived from the 13th-century mystic Meister Eckhardt. Eckhardt believed that one found sublimity within “the central silence” of the soul, not in outward forms. He emphasized a coming to “nothingness” that required abandoning the self in order to be filled with meaning. American philosopher Henry David Thoreau’s concern with solitude and simplicity also inspired the luminists. Their landscapes are clean and open, requiring the viewer to fill the spaces with his/her own capacity for transcendence. In the words of critic Vincent Scully, “…there is one’s own soul to listen to in one’s own place.”
The luminists opted for quietly austere works exhibiting a polished realism in which no brushwork was visible and the focus was on atmospheric effects rather than pictorial drama. A concentration on water and sky as windows on the soul is why many luminists chose to depict seascapes. In one sense, it is the only place they, as the last vestige of transcendentalism, can go. The frontier is rapidly closing; there are no more undiscovered areas of America. So, for the luminists, according to critic Robert Hughes, “the sea’s immense inviolability makes up for the loss of wilderness on land.” As Byron had said, “Man marks the earth with ruin; his control/Stops with the shore.” These seascapes are not the pounding waves and terrible tempests we associate with painters like Winslow Homer; they are still, reflective waters, their horizon line a mere shading in tone between sea and sky. They possess a sort of hushed light, glowing from within the painting. Of course, that quality of light is what gave luminism its name. It is light of a particularly eminent quality, like that Thoreau describes:
. . . and the woods were bathed in so pure and bright a light as would have waked the dead if they had been slumbering in their graves . . . All things must live in such a light.
True luminist light tends to be cool rather than hot, with defined edges and subtle gradations of tone. The luminists were intent on not being “painterly” and avoided visible brushstrokes to remove consciousness of the hand that painted them. These paintings were, after all, reflections in which the viewer was to find himself, not the artist. For the same reason, they suppressed detail and concentrated on creating a unified, light-suffused composition. Luminists found that the best way to evoke these qualities pictorially was through the use of horizontal compositions. On a series of horizontal planes, they utilized a spare, open design to create an environment that would evoke a sense of light and quiet calmness. An article in the Art-Union, a London publication, had declared in 1844 that this format was:
. . . productive of more grandeur and solemnity than any others, from the natural association of the two orders of form. A horizon of water is a fine thing in itself, and never fails, with the contemplative, of ordering up vast associations, and amongst them those of eternal duration, repose, latent power, and danger . . .
A clear example of this type of work is “On the Cornish Coast” by William Trost Richards with its horizontal planes and diagonal bands of coastline. In the preparatory drawings for his paintings, Richards used parallel ruled lines for waves, a ruled diagonal marking the junction of surf and sand, and a fanlike pattern of straight lines radiating from a point on the horizon. Each line is coordinated beneath the irregular crests of the breaking waves, creating a geometric framework for the seascape. In so doing, Richards manages to depict moving water in an essentially linear fashion and provide a sense of limitless space in his use of a harmony of silver tones among the sea, sky, and shore. To share in that quiet sense of the sublime, please visit this and other luminist paintings at the Norton.
Everl Adair, Director of Research and Rare Collections
William Trost Richards, On the Cornish Coast, 1878
First American Art Gallery
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TIPS FROM KIP: Pruning and Fertilizing Azaleas
Azaleas fill our museum gardens with spring beauty. You’ll see us working among them throughout the year to bring that beauty to you. In our gardens and yours, however, azaleas require your attention, but require less work than you might think.
According to the Azalea Society of America (http://www.azaleas.org/), azaleas require little or no fertilizer. Maintaining an organic mulch around azaleas is more important and safer than applying chemical fertilizers. Decomposition of organic mulch provides the nutrients needed for azalea health. If your azalea leaves are discolored with chlorosis (yellowed, with green veins) or if your plant growth appears stunted, consider nutritional deficiencies. A soil test may reveal deficiencies and can recommend a good fertilizer. To order a soil test, you may call the Caddo Parrish Cooperative Extension Service at 226-6805 or visit the website at http://www.lsuagcenter.com/mcms/webtools/soil%20test.
The Azalea Society of America also states “the sooner you prune the better.” Believe it or not, the best time to prune azaleas is actually in early spring, before the plant puts out new growth. However, pruning while they are in bloom or pruning just after they bloom is next best. Avoid pruning after mid-summer. Most azaleas start growing next year's flower buds soon after they bloom.
Remember to use clean cutters. As you work, sterilize the cutters with denatured alcohol as the work progresses, particularly if any cuts are in infected wood. On older plants, remove tall branches over a period of three years to reduce shock to the plant. Following these simple tips results in nicely shaped azalea bushes - both in our gardens and yours.
Kip DeHart, Landscape Director
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OUT IN THE GARDENS: Fragrant Plants
Martin Johnson Heade, Giant Magnolias
In addition to our beautiful physical landscape, the museum gardens offer visitors an aromatic experience as well. In “Scenting the Seasons: Fragrance as the Star of the Landscape,” (Louisiana Gardener, February 2006) John Taylor recognizes the significance of aromatic experience in the garden. Scents complete a landscape, he points out, and offer people warm feelings contributing to a memorable experience.
One of the most fragrant plants blooming in our gardens this spring includes sweet olive. Sweet olive, with its dark-green foliage and tubular white flowers, fills our gardens with an apricot-like fragrance. It blooms from spring through fall when a bluish black fruit appears.
No southern garden is complete without magnolias and gardenias. Southern magnolia, one of the most splendid and popular ornamentals, has a sweet, strong fragrance. Like the larger southern magnolia, Sweetbay magnolia sports fragrant, showy creamy-white blossoms. Blooms of both varieties are visible late spring through early summer, with its cone-like fruit maturing in late fall. Gardenia blooms vie with magnolias in giving gardens a sweet summer scent.
Some of the fragrant plants along the path toward the statue of the Mountain Silverback include butterfly ginger, whose fragrant flowers resemble and attract summer butterflies, and Satsuma citrus, a mandarin orange with sweet-scented, late-April flowers and fruit ripening in fall. This time of year dogwood, snowball, red buds, and crabapples fill our museum gardens with color and scent. Come see and sniff spring.
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VOICES FROM THE ARCHIVES: Clyde Benson, U.S. Army Air Corps, WWII U.S. Military
“Well, there was one guy hunting with us named George Dent. Everybody wanted to join. It was a disgrace in Monroe to get drafted. If you got drafted, nobody would have anything to do with you. You were supposed to be man enough to go up and join. You didn’t have to get drafted. George Dent was a year older than me, and thank goodness or I would have probably gone with him. The next morning he joined the Marine Corps in the Monroe Post Office. Wednesday they had him on a train to San Diego. He was with the first bunch of Marines that waded ashore on Guadalcanal. He was all banged up when he got back. My parents wouldn’t sign to let me go so I had to wait and go in the first part of ’43.”
A native of Monroe, Louisiana, Clyde Benson served as a navigator on a B-24 in the Pacific Theater, and aboard a B-26 in Korea. For service in two wars he would earn seven medals, including the Distinguished Flying Cross. Clyde is among more than 400 men and women who graciously gave their time to tell us their life stories of service and sacrifice. We’re preserving those stories as part of our Oral History Project, an ongoing effort to interview members of the World War II generation, along with veterans of future American conflicts. We also want to hear from eyewitnesses and participants in the civil rights struggle, from men and women who build the oil and gas industry, and those who shaped the musical heritage of the city and the nation.
If you’d like to see more photographs of Mr. Benson and hear the audio of his interview, you may go to the Oral History Project website by clicking here. If you or someone you know would like to share stories with us, please call (318) 865-4201, or contact ohp@rwnaf.org.
Museum Staff
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BEHIND THE SCENES: Kristi Kohl, Staff Researcher
Kristi Kohl began volunteering at the Norton last spring shortly after her move to Shreveport from Georgia. After several months of assisting with public tours and helping with some collection organization, she began working full-time in July as Staff Researcher. One of her primary responsibilities includes compiling the articles for and designing Around the Gallery each month.
Since Kristi is new to the Gallery, each article she researches and writes increases her knowledge of the collection. She coordinates interviews with gallery staff for the Behind the Scenes articles, and works closely with the Landscape Director Kip Dehart on features about the museum gardens. She finds it thrilling to search our storage room and pluck treasures from the collection to feature in From the Vaults. Kristi writes some of the articles herself, but relies heavily on other museum staff for contributions, as well.
Once she outlines the newsletter, Kristi inserts the text into her newsletter template in her computer program, Pages. She manipulates text box size and color, and adds images to the newsletter after altering the photo size and color quality in Adobe Photoshop. After all edits and revisions are finalized, Kristi creates the email version (html) of the newsletter in DreamWeaver and distributes it to all newsletter subscribers.
Kristi hopes Around the Gallery readers will encourage other people to subscribe and pass on information about the Norton’s art collection and gardens. The newsletter is a fun and easy way to share information about the treasures at the museum and encourage people to visit it again.
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FEATURED ARTIST IN THE COLLECTION: Childe Hassam
Childe Hassam, Les Grands Boulevards, Paris, 1897,
First American Art Gallery
Childe Hassam, considered the leading American Impressionist, attained his first fame with Parisian street scenes. At the 1937 exhibition, “Leaders of American Impressionism”, John I. H. Baur, a leading art scholar, declared that Hassam and Mary Cassatt, were “pioneer Impressionists” who had “contributed most to the inauguration and development of Impressionism in America.”
Despite his exotic name, Hassam (HASS-am), born October 17, 1859 in Dorchester , Massachusetts , was the descendant of Puritan forbears, including the same William Hathorne from whom the celebrated writer Nathaniel Hawthorne was descended. After attending several practical schools and receiving some individual instruction from artists, Hassam became a successful illustrator. In 1886, he traveled to Paris to study at the Academie Julian. There Hassam developed Impressionist techniques, although he always denied the influence of the French, claiming that the English Sisley and Turner and Dutch painter Johan Jongkind were the only artists for whom he felt real appreciation.
Nonetheless, he began to create dazzling Parisian street scenes using the Impressionists' sense of immediacy, loose brushwork, and high key palette. By the time he settled in New York in 1889, he was committed to Impressionism. His early urban scenes of New York echoed his Parisian paintings, but beginning in 1890, he branched out into works based on the New England countryside around his summer home. In 1897, he became one of The Ten, a group of American Impressionists who chose to exhibit independently of the Society of American Artists. He remained both popular and prolific until his death on August 27, 1935 , a passing which Baur identified as the death of Impressionism itself.
Everl Adair, Director of Research and Rare Collections
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FEATURED ARTWORK IN THE COLLECTION: Shepherdess with Sheep by Charles Jacque
Charles Jacque was one of a group of early nineteenth-century French artists (and later their American followers) who would eventually become known as the Barbizon School, named for the village on the edge of the Forest of Fontainebleau where most of them gathered to paint. The movement began as a reaction against the dictates of the academic art establishment. Such standards then were based upon 18th century neo-classicism and insisted upon a polished finish, muted colors, historical or genre subjects, and a representational style of painting that eliminated the visible hand of the painter.
In the 1830s, influenced by Dutch 17th century landscapes and the more recent English painters Constable and Turner, these artists began challenging the standards of the Salon. Led by Theodore Rousseau, they favored personal expression instead of academic rules and painted their local rural landscapes using coarsely applied pigment that left traces of the brush and dabs of paint or swaths of color that sought to convey an emotional state rather than a meticulous depiction of a particular scene.
Along with landscapes, some Barbizon artists chose such humble motifs as domestic, or occasionally exotic animals, in realistic rather than classical poses. Jacque grew famous for his paintings and etchings of chickens, sheep, and pigs, becoming so adept at his pig portraiture that the critics jocularly called him “le Raphael de couchons” – “the Raphael of pigs.” Jacque's paintings documented the work of the poor in the rural communities around Barbizon and recorded traditional peasant activities, as seen in his painting entitled Shepherdess with Sheep which you’ll find in the museum.
Everl Adair, Director of Research and Rare Collections
Charles E. Jacque, Shepherdess with Sheep (1846), Olla Podrida Gallery
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Antoine Louis Barye (1796-1875), Stag Standing, Watercolor, Tapestry Gallery
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DID YOU KNOW?
Until the mid-18th century, artists had to mix their own pigments with a binder to create all paint media, including watercolor. Late in that century, however, the firm of William and Thomas Reeves developed hard, dry cakes of premixed colors they stamped with their names and wrapped in paper. The cakes dissolved as they were rubbed into a teaspoon of water on special three-inch china saucers (poor artists sometimes substituted cleaned mussel shells). The cakes were too hard to soften with a brush alone, so the artist still had to spend a considerable amount of time blending the colors, though less than when he had to mix pigments from scratch. This method prevailed into the late 19th century, when Victorian artists often spoke of their first morning task as “rubbing out one’s colours.”
Museum Staff
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QUERIES FOR KRISTI
How long did it take to make the large tapestries in the Tapestry Gallery? Intrigued in Benton
Dear Intrigued in Benton,
It took about five years to complete the six tapestries on display in the Tapestry Gallery. They range in size from 11.5’ wide by 13’ long to 11.5’ wide by 17’ long. It is believed that Giulio Romano, one of the most popular cartoonists in Rome, painted the large scale “cartoons,” or designs, for the tapestries. From those designs Flemish weaver Marc Cretif and other artisans in his workshop worked together in weaving one piece. It was such painstaking labor that they completed only a square foot per week. His artists possessed various levels of skill. Those who completed faces and flesh- tones were considered better weavers and were paid more highly than their counterparts who completed the borders.
If you have an art-related question you would like answered in a future newsletter, submit it by clicking here.
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FOR THE KIDS: Wildflowers in the Norton Gardens
Frequently, we walk right past flowers in our yards and parks without even noticing them. The most commonly overlooked type of flowers are wildflowers. The tiny blooms are easy to miss and are often viewed as “weeds.” Believe it or not, many people enjoy identifying these “weeds” using wildflower field guides. You may see wildflower enthusiasts walking along the side of a busy highway or kneeling around the base of a tree on a hiking trail. Wildflowers can be found in your backyard and even on the Norton grounds! The next time you stroll through the Norton gardens, be sure to slow down and take notice of the tiny white, yellow or purple blooms peeking out from the edge of the paved trail or from the grass around the base of a tree. You may glimpse a spring beauty, a purple violet, or a yellow butterweed!
Kristi Kohl, Staff Researcher
  
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FROM THE VAULTS: The Dali Alice
November 5, 1969, marked the first issue of the limited edition of “the Dali Alice,” the complete text of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland with 13 mixed-media originals by Surrealist artist Salvador Dali. Only 2,500 copies were printed, each hand-signed in pencil by the artist. The Norton is fortunate to have one of these limited editions. The book became so in demand in bookstores throughout the country that it had to be “rationed,” with the publisher limiting the number of copies sent to each city.
The portfolio contains 12 illustrations and an original color etching opposite the title page. Dali created a fantasy for each of Carroll’s chapters and illustrated the text with mixed media graphics. The text and illustrations are printed on 11 1/2” x 17” specially made Mandeure rag paper. The pages are not sewn together, and there is no binding. Instead, text pages and art pages are enclosed in an enormous silk-lined case-portfolio, featuring linen and leather over heavy board, and fitted with ivory pins to hold it closed. The original copper plates and woodblocks were cancelled after the last impression was made, making it impossible to ever print from them again.
As advertised by joint publishers Random House and Maecenas Press in 1969, “This unique and opulent work brings together two great and untrammeled imaginations - Lewis Carroll and Salvador Dali, each, in his own medium, the ultimate explorer of the world of dreams; Carroll and Dali - a perfect ‘collaboration of genius.’”
Kristi Kohl, Staff Researcher
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| Down the Rabbit Hole |
A Mad Tea Party |
The Queen's Croquet Ground |
Advice from a Caterpillar |
Note: Items featured in From the Vaults are currently not on display.
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WORTH QUOTING:
I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.
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WORTH THE TRIP: Louisiana State University Museum of Art
Jennifer DeFratis and I made a trip to Baton Rouge this past weekend for the Louisiana Library Association conference which was held downtown across the street from the LSU Museum of Art. As part of the conference, we were given a tour of the current visiting exhibition at the museum, Rodin: A Magnificent Obsession, a complete retrospective of the artist’s career. The exhibit includes drawings, photographs, and more than 60 bronzes displayed in eleven different galleries. One gallery of Rodin’s work focuses on his Gates of Hell which took him over thirty years to complete and was never cast as one single piece until after his death. A large banner with a photograph of the final casting of the Gates of Hell illustrates the location of each piece on the final product and emphasizes the enormity of the project. If you appreciate the Norton’s Rodin collection and have the opportunity to take a trip to Baton Rouge, make sure to visit the LSU Museum of Art to see more sculpture by one of the greatest sculptors of all time!
Louisiana State University Museum of Art: 100 Lafayette Street. Rodin: A Magnificent Obsession runs until April 19, 2009. Admission: $8 Adults; $6 Seniors; Free for children and college students with ID. Hours: Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday 1 p.m. - 5 p.m. Closed major holidays. Call (225) 389-7200. See http://www.lsumoa.com.
Kristi Kohl, Staff Researcher
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Auguste Rodin, The Thinker, 1880
Rodin Gallery |
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| EDUCATIONAL TOURS, PROGRAMS AND PROJECTS |
FIRST SATURDAY TOURS
Regularly scheduled tours are offered on the first Saturday of every month at 2:00 p.m. No reservation is required for these First Saturday Tours. Groups of 10 or more are asked to call ahead so preparations may be made to accommodate the group on these particular tours. All tours, like admission to the Gallery, are free to the public. The next First Saturday Tour on April 4 will be the Coyote Sky Tour. Join us on an outdoor walking tour exploring Native American myths surrounding not only our flora and fauna, but also the animals depicted in our collection of outdoor sculpture.
GROUP TOURS
Eighteen group tours are offered at the Norton ranging from the 19th Century French Art History Tour to the Cowboy Artists Tour. Group tours are available by appointment year-round for groups of 10-30 and last approximately 45 minutes.
OUTREACH PROGRAM
The purpose of the community Outreach Program is to take art and art education to people through interactive presentations. Community presentations consist of power point presentations to civic groups and schools.
For more information on the programs offered or to schedule a tour or presentation, click here.
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ORAL HISTORY PROJECT
The R.W. Norton Art Foundation is pursuing interviews with those who were involved in America's effort to win World War II, whether in the military or on the home front. Each interview will be digitally recorded by the Gallery to be stored and used for historical purposes, and each interview subject will also be given a copy of this recording to share and preserve his or her memories for family and friends.
If you are interested in participating in or would like more information about the Oral History Project, please click here.
SUGGESTIONS AND IDEAS?
To offer us feedback or to suggest what you’d like to see in upcoming issues, please click here.
GALLERY LOCATION AND HOURS:
4747 Creswell Avenue
Shreveport, LA 71106
318-865-4201
www.rwnaf.org
Tuesday through Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday 1 - 5 p.m.
Closed Mondays and National Holidays
Copyright © 2009 by R. W. Norton Art Gallery |
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