Chronicle of a Quest

Today finds me once again on a tangent. About.com's art history writer tells of NYC's offering, free to the public. So, off to the Big Apple to check it out...

Well, this could launch a whole new course of study for me. I decide to browse in the topic Explore Cities and Buildings. Well, the site is new and doesn't seem very responsive. I'll have to return to it later...

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So, I return to About.com Art History to the Artist in 60 Seconds' profiles. I think I'll comment only on those whose art interests me. Well, I don't think I really want to skip around. So in alphabetical order I find the art of Russian (later US émigré) Constantin Alajalov. He was an illustrator whose work appeared on magazine covers in the middle of the last century.

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I prefer "opitcal art" to what seems to be the preferred term. "Op art" sounds a bit too fadish. It refers to art that employs an arrangement of geometric patterns and colors to create an optical illusion of some sort. It became popular in the mid-1960's. That's when I was coming of age. In 1965 I was still a small boy too young to have real memories. By the late 60's I was already in school and remember visiting Washington D.C. with my family. That was the summer of 1968. Social revolution was in full swing--hippies, psychedelic music, flower power, black power, peace and love symbols... I didn't know that the art of the time had the funny name of "op art." It was modern art to me--or perhaps more appropriately "mod art."

Bridget Riley, whose twirling pattern is shown below, is considered one of the pioneers of the movement. I still see this kind of art as modern. I don't see it limited to a narrow time frame as suggested in the article.

About.com Art History section offers an alphabetical listing of artists, both the famous and not so famous. The "A" list includes the following:

Agam, Yaacov
Alajalov, Constantin
Angelico, Fra (Giovanni da Fiesole)
Anon
Archipenko, Alexander
Arcimboldo, Giuseppe
Arp, Jean (Hans)
Audubon, John James

As a native of Louisiana, the name of John James Audubon is familiar, assuming he is the namesake of New Orleans Audubon Park. All I know of him is that he was a bird-watching enthusiast.

Dutifully I begin with the top of the list's Yaacov Agam--a Russian?

He is Israeli, and my second "Kinetic" artist of the day! Today is the first time I've come across this expression and already I meet it again. Agam is referred to in fact as the founder of this art form. I have to say that I find myself intrigued. I like the modern styling, and the irregular geometric shapes are rather interesting, unlike the very regular geometric patterns that are found in Islamic art. Below is an example.




I feel the need to digress for a moment and head to a review of op art.

Jesús-Rafael Soto is a Venezuelan artist whose work is referred to as Kinetic, which refers to the suggestion of motion produced by objects laid out in a certain arrangement. It is clearly a form of modern art. I found little in the way of samples of his work but what I saw was appealing. His art, as can be seen in the sample here, is also referred to as "geometric."

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My second reading today discussed not an artist but the website of an art aficionado who hosts a web site on the art of Leonardo Da Vinci. He claims that a hidden Holy Grail is visible in a restored version of the "Last Supper." It makes for interesting reading.

Interestingly Jan Lievens is a mostly unknown artist whose career (while he was alive) almost paralleled that of the well-known Rembrandt, his contemporary. The links offered do not elaborate much on his life or work, other than to present a few of his paintings. Perhaps his art was similar to Rembrandt's but nothing shown grabbed my attention. If I am not mistaken I viewed some of Rembradt's work at the Vatican Museum in Rome. I know there were a number of pieces by medieval and Rennaesance artists that I found very impressive, some of it perhaps Rembrandt's.

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The topic I viewed yesterday was "The Gates," a New York City modern art display. If you like construction walls, temporary barriers and that sort of thing, you'll love this piece of modern art. Aargh!