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Arts and Culture

Modern Art Monday Presents: Jackson Pollock’s Shimmering Substance

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Jackson Pollock Shimmering Substance
Photo By Gail

Of all the modern artists about whom people who “don’t get” art might look at their work and say, “Oh, my kid could paint that,” American Abstract Expressionist painter Jackson Pollock is likely close to the top of that list. Above, you will see the oil on canvas work, Shimmering Substance (1946) which is occasionally on view at the Museum of Modern Art as part of its Permanent Collection. To me, the colors, textures and movement of this painting are just breathtaking.
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Arts and Culture

Modern Art Monday Presents: Dracula By Andy Warhol

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Andy Warhol, Dracula from Myths Series, 1981
Photos By Gail

Andy Warhol’s use of silkscreens as a production method allowed him to make multiple identical prints of the same image very quickly. In this way, he completely revolutionized contemporary art and was uniquely responsible for elevating commercial imagery to the level of gallery work. Warhol’s bold and captivating image of Dracula, from his Myths Series, (1981) exists in a series of several hundred images, some of which were modified to look like the image below. These original Warhol’s were photographed by me at the Martin Lawrence Galleries on West Broadway in Manhattan. And they can be yours, if the price is right.

Andy Warhol, Dracula from Myths Series, 1981

Arts and Culture

Modern Art Monday Presents: Donald Judd, Untitled 1989

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Donald Judd Untitled 1989
Photo By Gail

Untitled 1989, by legendary minimalist Donald Judd is installed on the 4th floor of NYC’s Museum of Modern Art. As you can see, this very colorful painted aluminum sculpture reaches nearly across the width of the room and, in this way, allows the museum-goer an opportunity to spatially interact with its three-dimensional properties (short, of course, of climbing onto it). I love the bright, primary colors of this piece and the form reminds me of playground equipment, which is always a happy thing to consider.

In addition to his minimalist sculptures, Donald Judd wrote extensively about art, painted, and designed furniture. He was a great and highly influential artist. Judd died in Manhattan of Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1994, at the age of 65. We will be featuring another of Judd’s works, also a part of MOMA’s permanent collection, later on in this series.

Arts and Culture

Modern Art Monday Presents: Edward Hopper, House By The Railroad

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Edward Hopper House By The Railroad
Photo By Gail

House by the Railroad (1925) By American Realist Painter Edward Hopper is the first painting that was acquired by The Museum of Modern Art, in 1930. If this house looks familar to you, it may because it is said to have inspired the look of the Bates house in Alfred Hitchcock’s film Psycho. So, there’s that.

Curator, Ann Temkin offers her insight about the painting:
House by the Railroad is very much a portrait of a house. And I think the loneliness of the house is what really comes through in the painting. You would think that there would be some kind of activity, perhaps, on this bright, sunny day. And yet there is this stillness that pervades the canvas. Some people have speculated that the railroad tracks in front of the house imply movement. And of course, there is no train. But the implication of movement in those tracks makes you all the more aware of the absolute lack of movement in this picture.

I really love this painting, which is displayed adjacent to Andrew Wyeth’s famous work, Christina’s World, at MOMA.

Arts and Culture

Modern Art Monday Presents: Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night

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Van Gogh Starry Night
Photo By Gail

Painted in June of 1889, The Starry Night is likely Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh’s most popular work on canvas. “This morning I saw the country from my window a long time before sunrise, with nothing but the morning star, which looked very big,” van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo, from France. Rooted in imagination and memory, The Starry Night embodies an inner, subjective expression of van Goghs response to nature. In thick, sweeping brushstrokes, a flamelike cypress unites the churning sky and the quiet village below. The village was partly invented, and the church spire evokes van Gogh’s native land, the Netherlands.

The Starry Night is part of the Permanent Collection at NYC’s Museum of Modern Art.