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ART REVIEWS
From Impressionism to Modernism: The Chester Dale Collection
The National Gallery of Art has kicked off the year 2010 by spotlighting eighty-three works from the superb collection of paintings bequeathed to the gallery by the renowned collector, Chester Dale. Dale’s entire gift consists of 300 paintings. Dale, an investment banker, and his wife Maud invested their fortunes into what would become the foundation of the gallery’s collection of nineteenth and early twentieth century French Art. Visitors to the gallery have seen many of the 83 works in the show in various galleries, especially the permanent French Collection, but to see them together, and organized so coherently, makes the show refreshing and deeply insightful. The galleries are organized by portraits (men and women separately), landscapes, still life, “monumental modernity” (such as Henri’s work, shown above), and portraits of the artists themselves. The cast includes the well-known masters, emphatically Dale’s favorite artists, and personal friends such as Bellows and Leger, and the “Who’s Who” of French art including Renoir’s “Girl With a Hoop, 1885” (one of the Gallery’s most popular images} and several paintings by Modigliani, a favorite of Chester Dale. The show will run until July 31, 2011.
An illustrated catalogue by Kimberly A. Jones, curator of the exhibition, and essays by Maygene Daniels offer insights into the Dale’s collection habits alongside pages containing excellent reproductions of the works in the exhibition. The 192-page hardcover book may be purchased online at http://shop.nga.gov/ or by telephone at 1-800-697-9350.
The Sacred Made Real
The painting above shows Diego Velazquez’ portrait of Juan Martinez Montanes. Velazques, among the finest painters in seventeenth century Spain has captured Montanes, considered the finest sculpture in Baroque Spain, while he is painting, or polychroming a clay bust. The combination of sculpture and painting explodes in one of the most unique exhibitions ever hosted by the National Gallery of Art. “The Sacred Made Real: Spanish Painting and Sculpture 1600-1700” which is on exhibition until May 31, 2010 conveys “…the artistic excellence and spiritual profundity of Spanish Baroque Art” said the Gallery’s Director, Earl A. Powell III. The figures in the exhibition convey extraordinary and realistic human features. Many are life -sized works often carried through the streets of Spain’s centers during religious festivities. Spain’s master sculturers produced these carved figures, later to be polychromed by the greatest painters of Baroque Spain. This challenge took place during the Spanish Counter-Reformation ,using art to encourage the masses to return to the Church by creating realistically animated sacred figures with a spiritual presence. The 224-page catalogue features essays on the technical aspects of polychroming, and shows fine reproductions of the works in the exhibition and more, and is available from the Gallery Shops at (800) 697-9350 or E-mail mailorder@nga.gov
About Marshall | Photo Galleries | Executive Portraits Copyright © 2010
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