Is it REALLY Black?

When I was trying to advance my understanding of high-contrast black and white (think Rembrandt), I created a series titled, "Hidden World (at the White Lotus)." After I finished the originals, I took them to my favorite giclee (fine art prints) artist, Janet Smith of Sterling Editions, and asked her to recreate the colors.

Seems I put a very hard task in front of her. She commented that there were many shades and tones of black in each painting.

What does that mean? According to sources, black is the absence of light. Black alone makes for a lack of information to the viewer. Here are paintings by some of the masters. Do you notice what they did to give form and focus (or unfocus) to the object?

(click on image to enlarge)

"Portrait in Black & Grey" - James McNeil Whistler

"The Brawl" - Giacomo Ceruti

"Portrait of a Bearded Man" - Giorione Barbarelli

"Petunia - Purple & Black" - Georgia O' Keeffe

"The Bellelli Family" - Edgar Degas

(Next blog will be about Pierre Soulages. He is a 91-year old French painter who has been painting in black since the 1970s.)

Stieglitz: The Godfather of Photography

Writing two weeks ago about Mabel Dodge Luhan (Archives:January, 2011) and last week about Pamela Colman Smith made me think more about the role of Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946) in that early Modern era.

Based on receiving many a quizzical look when I mention Stieglitz, I'd have to say that unless you are a historian of art and photography, his fame seems to be diminishing. It's hard to know why since he was so good at his profession. Furthermore, it was Stieglitz who was largely responsible for the promotion of photography as an art form.

You see, photography was to the late 19th and early 20th centuries what digital art is to the 21st century. The question was and is: Is it an art form or manipulation of something that was invented by someone else? Stiegltiz answered the question by placing photography alongside paintings in his New York galleries.

Stieglitz elevated photography to a accepted medium of fine art. He was also a tireless promoter who influenced photographers, sculptors and painters - including his own wife, Georgia O' Keeffe.

Insofar as his own talent in concerned, here are a sampling of photos taken by him. (Please click on image to enlarge.) It seems that these alone would be cause to remember him. (The hands are those of his wife, Georgia O' Keeffe.)

Wizardry in Taos

If you peek behind the curtain of historically famous art and art movements, you'll discover a wizard. In most cases the wizard doesn't have any tangible art talent. What wizards do have is the ability to recognize and nurture the talents of others. Think Wizard of Oz. Think de Medicis. Think M.Durand-Ruel. (See Archives - Oct.,2010) Think Mabel Dodge Luhan. (1879-1962)

Born into a wealthy New York family, Luhan (nee Ganson) became prominent for her salons in New York and Europe. Wherever she was, she gathered together the artists, writers, politicians, eccentrics and radicals of all types. Her list of guests were the names that appeared on the pages of art and society during the early 1900s. However for such a Victorian woman, Luhan had a decidedly free-spirit streak. Luhan wanted to leave the strictures of the East. Her need for self expression led her to Santa Barbara and then to Taos, New Mexico.

None of her friends understood how such a well-bred sophisticated woman wanted to live in a remote dusty place such as Taos. Luhan loved the area and wrote about the sense of space and spirituality. In Taos, she met and married Tony Luhan, a Taos Pueblo man. Together, they expanded a small adobe house into a large compound.

Ms. Luhan invited her Eastern friends to come for a visit. Once again, she gathered together the avant-garde artists and thinkers of post-war America. It was under her influence that Georgia O' Keeffe decided to settle near Taos.

Many other artists accepted her invitation. Willa Cather, D. H. Lawrence, Ansel Adams, Thomas Wolfe, Carl Jung, Edna Ferber, Leopold Stowkowski and Greta Garbo represented only a small portion of the guests who stayed and felt the influence of Taos- thanks to Luhan.

Although Luhan died in 1962, her home - registered as a historic landmark - remains a retreat for creativity. If the experiences of a workshop, a need for artistic solitude or a desire to free the mind from clutter appeals to you, Luhan's wizardry is waiting.