exhibit #2

American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765-1915 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

The intro paragraph to this exhibit is particularly good:
"Between the American Revolution and World War I, a group of British colonies became states, the frontier pushed westward to span the continent, a rural and agricultural society became urban and industrial, and the United States—reunified after the Civil War under an increasingly powerful federal government—emerged as a leading participant in world affairs. Throughout this complicated, transformative period, artists recorded American life as it changed around them. Many of the nation's most celebrated painters—John Singleton Copley, Charles Willson Peale, William Sidney Mount, George Caleb Bingham, Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins, John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt, William Merritt Chase, John Sloan, and George Bellows—captured the temperament of their respective eras, defining the character of Americans as individuals, citizens, and members of ever-widening communities.
American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765–1915 presents tales artists told about their times and examines how their accounts reflect shifting professional standards, opportunities for study, foreign prototypes, venues for display, and viewers' expectations. Recurring themes such as childhood, marriage, family, and community; the notion of citizenship; attitudes toward race; the frontier as reality and myth; and the process and meaning of making art illuminate the evolution of American artists' approach to narrative."

• There are particular colors I associate with old American painting. A glowing golden brown, for instance.

• I like The Champion Single Sculls… the symmetry of gray-blues and golden-browns, the discipline of the horizontals.

The first gallery focuses on water, the peril and pleasure of water in American painting… scenes of peaceful rowing and turbulent sailing.

• The Gulf Stream (1899), by Winslow Homer, is the most modern of the works in this first gallery. It's a hot, heavy painting… the Carribean, a lone man, serious, on a small, broken fishing boat, sharks gnashing at the water before him. He paints these lovely ocean scenes, the sort of scene that generally fascinates me.

• This first room is loaded with philosophy- virtue, progress, questions of race. America is a subject that invites big ideas.

Inventing American Stories, 1765-1830

In the post revolutionary era, painters were considered mere tradesmen, and the interest of the market lay largely in portraiture. Gradually, as America began to change and get more complicated, patrons began to appreciate more complex works… works that reflected not just a portrait, but also status and storytelling.

Greenwood's Sea Captains Carousing in Surinam is a pretty unique and delightful work. Title is pretty self explanatory… In a tavern- alcohol, smoke, vomit, cards, trash, the natives as pygmies and enablers. It's always interesting to be reminded that vulgarity existed in generations other than our own.

I really like The Exhumation of the Mastodon, a big, darkly colored American scene, an excavation of Mastodon bones from a marsh, directed by the artist himself. A story of Jeffersonian ingenuity (the blend of art and science) and the supremacy of mankind.

Charles Wilson Peale certainly held himself in high regard for his scientific talents. In The Artist In His Museum, he's pulling back the red curtain, "like a carnival barker or a master of ceremonies," on his vast collection of oil portraits and exotic taxidermied animals. The mastodon skeleton of the previous work is alsovisible.

• It's a little funny that one of these paintings is about a pack of upper-middle class socialites bursting into a room and celebrating the completion of a quilt. 1830s America! I like the paintings of John Lewis Krimmel… intricate, brightly colored, interested in groups of people and social statuses.

• Paul Revere looked a little like Jack Black.

• Benjamin and Eleanor Ridgley Laming, an extraordinarily provocative painting… the gentleman, a properly dressed businessman with an affectionate eye on his lovely, ambiguously European-looking bride, in her willowy dress, with her uncorseted bosom, his telescope across the lap aiming right at the soft sweet fruit in her lap… an orderly but horny businessman who, by his success and status, has earned himself this exotic and sexy wife. And also, for some reason, there's a little green parrot by his hand.

• Elijah Boardman (1789)- looking at this before I read the description, I'm thinking, 'upstanding and learned businessman, of great power and influence in the textiles market.' …He is a seller of luxury goods, an expert guide through his store. "The seductive salesman who cultivates desire was an entirely modern notion." This portrait tells the story not just of the man who commissioned it, but the evolving tastes of the country that allowed this man to exist.

Stories for the Public, 1830-1860

Because new exhibition spaces were opening, artists could now turn away from portraiture (which depended on private commission) and create stories for the public. Ah- it's interesting to think of this gallery as contemporary with the Hudson River School, which I love.

• The dignity and joy of Kitchen Ball at White Sulphur Springs, Virginia is beautiful, poignant, compelling. A German emigre artist painting a scene of slaves dancing and celebrating harmoniously, elegantly dressed. They look like real people, with warm and knowing faces, not caricatures, as many other would paint (Krimmel for instance.) The whole painting glows with a subtle allure. One of my favorites.

• The Power of Music- pretty interesting. Is that black man included, as a warmly smiling, admiring neighbor, enjoying the music, or is he excluded- they better not find out he's outside, he wouldn't be welcome to walk in and listen with them?

• The City and Country Beaux- a charming, well painted story of two different guys after the same girl. The specific wardrobes have changed, but this class rivalry continues to this day. I'd certainly rather be the slim, bowing man in the form-fitting black coat and slacks. Even though the city guy seems to be winning in this scene, something about the demeanor of the country guy implies that he may be the real winner- he doesn't need that girl and her closed vagina anyway. (by the way, has there ever been a "Rocky" style comedy of manners? The slob who Loses to power and wealth but it don't fuckin matter to him anyway, in the end? Because that would be a great story.)

• The Jolly Flatboatmen, a compelling fantasy about the joy and ease of frontier life, far removed from the grinding industrial and social tensions of eastern city life, colored in a bright, pale, flat light. Cider Making, by William Sidney Mount, painted 1840-1841, is a clear statement in favor of William Henry Harrison. The Death Struggle- a cinematically exciting painting, with a clear hero and villain- virtue is in the color of their horses, as if it needed to be any clearer. "Deas's composition tells the tale of a white trapper, with a beaver and trap still in his hand, being pursued over the edge of a cliff by Indians who seek the prized fur. Deas suggests a vicious circle of struggle: the trapper holds tight to the beaver; the beaver bites the principal Indian; and the Indian clutches the trapper. The exciting story contains distinct racial commentary and suggests a moral imperative. The savage, mercenary Indian is completely caught up in the objective of getting the goods. In contrast, the horrified white man is conscious of his fate, comes to his senses, and grabs the branch of salvation. Deas offers the trapper a chance for redemption, or at least some self-awareness, which his native adversary is denied."

• Old 76 and Young 48- a fascinating work uniting the stories of the Revolution and the Mexican American War, in the gathering of a family. This was a very good gallery- even the works I didn't point out had thoroughly interesting and insightful messages within them.

Stories for the Public, 1830-1860 (continued)

Now, instead of allegories or ideas presented from home life, the characters are going outside, seeing the broader world, tackling more complex themes and issues. It's interesting to note the recurring profit motive… the painters are responding to what will get their work exhibited and sold. We are experiencing the story of America on two levels, not just in the growing complexity and philosophy of the art, but on the meta level, in the transformation of the American audience. What we see is changing because what they wanted to see was changing.

• Themes in this gallery: black-immigrant job market tension, civic disorder, the lure of the American West. It puts me in the mood to re-read some academic essays about the frontier, its impact on American culture. "While talking- haggling over business deals and electioneering- might work for men in the city, men out west were still men, rugged and silent in their pursuits."- from the plaque for a painting of a frontier shooting contest.

• Bingham's The County Election is the sort of political-historical American slice that I can't get enough of. I hate but also love that this is the way things used to happen. Advice on the Prairie- sentimental, appealing to me mainly because of its lovely, glowing sunset color. The Belated Party on Mansfield Mountain- a lovely blend of narrative and landscape, the era's two most popular types of painting.

Lily Martin Spencer- sassy, successful midcentury lady painter! Kiss Me and You'll Kiss the Lasses… Young Husband: First Marketing I like- awkwardly funny, lovely choices of color and texture, the rainy streets, the cobblestones, the leaves in the trees, the marble steps. I really like this one.

Other than Negro Life in the South, a pretty cool canvass, None of these pictures imply the growing north-south tension… apparently the art market was focused on the escapist fantasies of the Western frontier.

Stories of War and Reconciliation, 1860-1877

In this era, the pains and challenges of change were so overwhelming that painters turned instead to nostalgia, domesticity, small reassuring slices of the American experience.

Seymour Joseph Guy- interesting painter. Warm paintings of children; girls exploring their maturity (reading bedtime stories to younger siblings, playing dress-up), warm glowing light. An entire wall of this room has thus far focused on young people at home, sentimental images of sweet and stable and virtuous youth, the power of Family.

Winslow Homer, Croquet Scene- I love the colors, the vintage fashion, the social-cultural intrigue. I like it a lot.

Eagle Head, Manchester, Massachusetts- my favorite part is that frightened dog. "WHATAREYA DOIN, LADY!?"
Snap the Whip- nostalgic, small painting of boys playing in a green field, recess. "Children embodied innocence and the promise of America's future and were depicted by many artists and writers during the 1870s. Here, Homer reminisces about rural simplicity and reflects on the challenges of the complex post–Civil War world. Released from the confines of a one-room schoolhouse, exuberant boys engage in a spirited game. As the population shifted to cities and the little red schoolhouse faded from memory, this image would have evoked nostalgia for the nation's agrarian past. The boys' bare feet signal childhood's freedom, but their suspenders are associated with manhood's responsibilities. Their game, which requires teamwork, strength, and calculation, may allude to the reunited nation. Observed from right to left, Homer's boys hang on to one another, strain to stay connected, run in perfect harmony, and fall away, enacting all the possible scenarios for men after the Civil War."

Young America- I love the detail, the variety, the expression of political and social questions, softened by using kids to tell the story. Winslow Homer is just the best at these. A star in contemplative 19th century Americana. The Veteran in a New Field- something in the farmer's back facing us, I like it… he's faceless, the everyman; he's moving towards the future. He's anonymous. Talking it Over, an interesting, nostalgic depiction of two farmers, symbols for Washington and Lincoln.

The recurring theme of this gallery- bewildering change, dramatic transformations, producing a yearning for simpler times.

Cosmopolitan and Candid Stories, 1877-1915

The next gallery produces a dramatic aesthetic break- in color and in technique, we are moving to the impressionist era. Painters are more intrested in continental (meaning European, French) art. It's an era of increased travel, communication, information and sophistication, and the artists respond.

Little Girl in a Blue Armchair… I always thought of Cassatt as very prim and sentimental- her sense of humor surprises me (for instance, this display of a bored/exhausted child, far removed from the proper child portrait ideal) and also I love that sleepy little dog. Cassatt is a beautiful colorist- ah, and I didn't realize she was the only American to show her works with the impressionists. Neat! A Woman and a Girl Driving, lovely color with a perfectly clear feminist message, in the title and in the image.

• In the Luxemburg Gardens… I love the airy gray colors. Leisurely, modern, dreamlike. Love it. The Lake for Miniature Yachts- it's cool seeing a 130 year old painting of one of my favorite spots in Central Park.

A frequent theme of this gallery- the characters aren't here to teach us something. They're here to just, be. It's a modern era of leisure and cosmopolitan indulgence, far removed from the morality, philosophy and social reckoning of earlier eras.

The Open Air Breakfast is an impossibly beautiful depiction of a fashionable Brooklyn backyard. I love it.

Wow, John Singer Sargent is great… A Street in Venice, cool, murky, back alley… I love it. The twists and mysteries of the city. Fantastic texture, cool gray color; I can feel it.

Homer's The Gale and Bacon's First Sight of Land are pretty interesting next to each other… one, the intense, lashing sea, the strong mother, child in arms, a picture of fortitude and toil; the other, a young lady on a voyage, gazing over the ship, past the serene water, a story of discovery, anticipation, youth.

A Reading (1897) by Thomas Wilmer Dewing. I Love it. The sexy, mysterious green haze, two demure and beautiful young women. Impossibly cool. The plaque implies that they are passive, their circumstances claustrophobic… I guess my read is modern. They are not isolated, the aversion of their eyes is not humility- they are too cool and too confident to look anywhere else.

In this era, women are precious aesthetic objects, and their conspicuous consumption is welcomed as a vicarious statement of the man's wealth and power. Paxton's The Breakfast- an amusing and vaguely sad picture of a woman thoroughly bored and trapped in the Victorian home.

Artists at Work, 1765-1915

Definitely one of the sub-stories of this exhibition is the change in the painter's experience, from dependence on portraiture and commission from a few wealthy patrons, to a bustling, international art market.

Thomas LeClear's Interior with Portraits- pretty cool. And man, those kids sure are dour! Sargent's The Sketchers- gorgeous colors and textures. The Painter's Triumph is funny because the painter and farmer rather look alike, which gives the whole thing a Fight Club/Adaptation vibe.

Cosmopolitan and Candid Stories, 1877-1915 (continued)

The Ironworker's Noontime is unlike any other painting in this exhibit. Muddy, industrial, unabashedly a working class picture. It's firm and masculine, a hard contrast to the era's feminized culture of leisure and consumption. I love the blue-white palette of Glackens' Central Park, Winter.

John Sloan- I never heard of him, but his work is pretty cool. Candid, humorous, brash. The Picnic Grounds is my favorite, Chinese Restaurant is cool too. Remington's Cavalry Charge on the Southern Plains is pretty awesome. Bright colors, western cowboy/warrior drama. This room is well arranged, with leisurely views of New York life on one wall, brash cowboy mythology on the opposite wall. East and West.

I Love Eakins' Between Rounds (1898-99). Such a cool picture of a boxing match… an awesome moment captured. In the fighter's face, pure resolve. Such a cool era. I love every detail of this one, the posters, the press box, the judge. A compellingly rendered slice of a very specific time and culture. Cliff Dwellers (George Bellows)- fascinating, upbeat view of the Lower East Side in 1913. Masses of people living and interacting. A fascinating myth. Broad, flat, pastel palette. Club Night- dark, filthy, violent, awesome. You're there, witnessing the slummy rage of the boxing match.

This last gallery is really incredible. You can truly see, feel, the transformation of America into a modern nation… the bustling city, both the leisurely consumers and the urban scrum; the allure of the western mythology of the cowboy. And what's also fascinating is how abruptly the exhibit ends- no hint of the next wave of jarring transformations that war will bring. Much like the 1830-1860 galleries, nothing suggests the next wave of transformations on the horizon; the war exists as an unspoken dramatic irony. This exhibition, ultimately, is way more interesting than I could have expected (I've always considered American art the Met's weak link), and definitely has renewed my interest in American art by couching it in the fascinating exploration of American history.