Vilhelm Hammershøi

I have before me a postcard of a Vilhelm Hammershøi self-portrait. I love everything about it: the placement of the figure slightly off to the side, the ochres, blues and browns, the suggested body beneath a bulky wool jacket, the loose collar at the neck.

Mostly, I admire the restraint. Here you have this technically brilliant portrait that is largely obscured by shadow. Too often artists are unable to sacrifice showboating for the end result. But not Hammershøi.

All the clues to the sitter’s character are there: piercing dark eyes—the left one still visible despite the gloom—the hint of a lip and furrow in a broad brow. With these few suggestions we have the sum of the man: he’s soulful, intense, intelligent.   

Hammershøi specialized in interior scenes depicted with a quiet poetry reminiscent of Vemeer. When you see these luminous studies in grays with their spare, unconventionally arranged compositions and minimalist palette, you think immediately of Whistler. Comparing the two artists it’s clear that Hammershøi’s work is more abstract and less romantic with a haunting psychological leitmotif. Hammershøi’s wife is present in most of these paintings, though most often her back is toward the viewer. (One can’t imagine Whistler carrying on in this fashion for long—he never could quite divest himself of a pretty face).

Thirty years Whistler’s junior, Hammershøi (1864-1916) is celebrated in his native Denmark, but with the exception of a show at London’s Royal Academy in 2008, is not all that well known outside his own country. 

Franco Vimercati

I’d never heard of Milanese photographer Franco Vimercati (1940-2001) when I stumbled on his stunningly beautiful photographs at the Museo Fortuny in Venice.

To say Vimercati was obsessive would be an understatement. With Zen-like devotion he photographed the same humble objects over and over again (he reputedly spent ten years on the soup tureen above), both searching for that perfect print that would capture the beauty and essence of his subjects, and also reveling in the subtle variations between the repeated images.

I was mesmerized by Vimercati’s work that pairs simple compositions with a photographic technique that can only be described as sumptuous.

Tintoretto Re-Do

I spent a good deal of time recently with the Tintorettos in the Academia in Venice. He’s an artist I had given rather short shrift to in the past, but this time around I took a closer look and was blown away by the high wire act he performs in his paintings.

Giving his drapery a casual once over you see realistic folds, and shadows and light hitting believable velvets and silks. Closer examination reveals amazing gestural, rough brushwork. No smooth, hidden transitions here. The sleight of hand is right there on the surface and when isolated, resembles nothing so much as a stand-alone Abstract Expressionist work.

I noticed this again and again, but most remarkably in the Madonna dei Camerlenghi (Madonna dei Tesorieri). Here the noblemen’s cloaks and the Madonna’s garments are tour de forces of dazzling, expressionist, badass brushstrokes. You’ve got to admire the confidence and freedom such audacious technique implies. 

Wolfgang Tillmans

Stockholm’s Moderna Museet reminds me of the way museums used to be: small, light filled, un-crowded. The polar opposite, in fact, to the glitzy mall-like experiences one gets at a place like MoMA. When I was there, there were two excellent exhibitions: a joint show on Picasso and Duchamp and a solo exhibit of photographer, Wolfgang Tillmans.

I was unfamiliar with Tillmans, whose range of work is quite staggering, each room boasted a completely different direction: astrophotography, portraits, still-lifes, color abstracts. On a superficial level, one might have been tempted to surmise they were the work of several different artists. But the sleek prints shared a common technical discipline that made it clear they were by the same hand.

Tillmans favors a nonhierarchical arrangement with different sized unframed photographs, from different series (both black and white and color) pinned or taped to the walls, together with inkjet prints and postcards and magazine clippings of his own images. It sounds like a hodgepodge, but it isn’t thanks largely to the elegant restraint of Tillmans’s aesthetic. In fact, the jumble adds a bit of relief to what might be a little too perfect and refined.

It is interesting to note that Tillman approaches each exhibition as a site-specific installation—a large composition of which the individual photographs are parts.

Looking at Tillmans’s arresting portraits, it’s hard not to think of Catherine Opie and Nan Goldin. But Tillmans's have an immediacy and realness (although many are staged) that is all his own. (While Opie, is also an amazing technician, her work is more theatrical. To me, Goldin’s work has always been first and foremost about the titillating subject matter. Formal concerns? Not so much.) Some of Tillmans’s images are quite graphic, but the strength of his ability lifts them out of the realm of the gratuitous into the realm of art.

I also loved his car headlights and his sublime color abstracts that stemmed from mistakes and his own in-depth experimentation. Produced in the darkroom without a camera, they showcase Tillmans’s interest in the chemistry of photography and are just delectable. Some even push the photographic envelope entering into the realms of drawing and sculpture.

Tillmans, who is German, divides his time between Berlin and London, which he first visited as an exchange student in 1983. He went on to study at the Bournemouth and Poole College of Art and Design in southern England, and is the only photographer (and non-Brit) to win the Turner Prize. Perhaps most admirable though, is in 2006 he opened the non-profit Between Bridges exhibition space in the ground floor of his London studio specifically to exhibit political art from artists who he believes have been overlooked.

Berthe Morisot

I developed a new appreciation for Berthe Morisot recently seeing an exhibition of her work at the Odrupgaard museum outside Copenhagen. I had always dismissed her as a lesser Impressionist. Boy was I wrong. I found her work fresh and confident with wonderfully expressive brushstrokes that reveal an exceptional sensitivity to both formal and psychological concerns.

A beauty, painted repeatedly by her brother-in-law Édouard Manet, Morisot was born into affluence and lived her life as a member of the haute bourgeoisie. Her family supported her decision to become a painter (her sister Edma was one too) and she was accepted and admired by her male peers—Manet had four paintings of hers hanging in his bedroom—exhibiting repeatedly at the Salon de Paris (the annual exhibition of the Ácademie des Beaux-Arts) until 1874, when she joined Cézanne, Degas, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir and Sisley in the Salon des Refusés held in the studio of photographer Nadar. The one real hardship Morisot experienced was her husband’s premature death, which left her devastated, turning her hair white overnight.

Morisot’s many advantages didn’t blunt her talent, although her circumstances limited her oeuvre to what was considered appropriate subject matter: domestic life, landscapes, portraits and the like. Her composition, palette, light and representation have a remarkable veracity. Morisot is also a master of restraint. Because her work doesn’t shout, you almost overlook what a truly great painter she is. I was struck by how she conveys so much with so little. On display at the museum were two portraits of Morisot’s daughter, Julie, one by her (she painted many), the other by Renoir. Hers depicts the ennui and nascent beauty of a pouty teenager; Renoir’s a flabby orange-tinged simp.

Morisot died at just 54 in 1895. One wonders the direction her work might have taken if she'd made it into the 20th century and lived another 20-30 years, like Monet for instance, a year older than she, who died in 1926.

Finn Juhl House

Mid-century Danish architect/industrial designer Finn Juhl’s house, located in a suburb of Copenhagen, is a must-see. I'm still not completely sold on Danish furniture, but seeing Juhl’s designs in their natural habitat, surrounded by his careful arrangement of objects and inspired color accents in this modest, richly appointed abode made me a convert.

In the living room, the "Chieftain" chair’s oversized proportions and shield back seemed to reference some ancient Viking past. The one here is a pinkish leather. The diminutive "poet" settee was inviting with its high curved back that looks like it would surround the sitter in an embrace. The graceful and petite "sculptural armchair" spoke to me of Wegner. An elegant shape with a carved curved back, contoured arms and clever "V" shaped support. The design was sufficiently challenging that only 12 were ever made, making them exceedingly valuable. I couldn't like the other armchairs used in the living room and dining room. I think I saw too many of the type in cluttered Upper West Side apartments.

But Juhl's use of Asian ceramics, Scandinavian woven rugs, his collection of artwork, palette, proportions and modesty of scale was genius. It was these elements, together with how he treated nature and light that reminded me of Frank Lloyd Wright, and in particular Wright's Usonian houses, although the exterior, at least, looks totally different.

I loved the almost adobe fireplace in the living room and bookshelves which boasted three doored cabinets and a set of colored drawers. 

I think my favorite room was the dining room. Here, one wall is a two sided glass display cabinet, which allows light in from the adjoining conservatory. Opposite, tall windows afford a view of green--a curtain of vines growing up an exterior wall provide color and texture. The piece I covet most in the house is the dining room table which features Swedish coins sanded down so that they look like silver metal discs embedded in the surface. It appears to be an abstract pattern but was apparently intended to act as a guide for where to put the place setting.

The dining chairs are covered in an intense kelly green wool to echo the outside foliage and pick up the hues in the artwork. Here, the ceiling is painted a surprising deep curry gloss, adding warmth and a wonderful, unexpected dash to the room. His use of ceiling color was inspired overall--I love the electric blue in the entrance foyer. I adore that color, the inside of the Whitney Museum's elevators were painted it originally. It's too much to have on a wall, but on a ceiling it's brilliant: you see it only when you look up. 

There was so much to admire and emulate in this wonderful domestic interior.  

Wanås to Venice

I am leaving today for Sweden to visit the Wanås Foundation in Sweden. Wanås is a world class contemporary art site specific art venue on the grounds of a 17th century (? ) estate in southern Sweden. I will know more after my visit! Pictured here is Maya Lin's Eleven Minute Line http://www.wanas.se/

After Wanås, I will spend a few days in Stockholm and then in Copenhagen, I am very excited about seeing these two cities and soaking up not just their history and beauty, but also the art and design, and of course food!

After my inaugural visit to Scandinavia, I will head south to Venice, specifically for the Biennale of Architecture in which a friend has a piece on exhibit. And also because well, Venice is Venice.  I was there last 31 years ago! How time flies.

I intend to check out the Aula Baratto in Ca' Foscari designed by Carlo Scarpa. I also plan to take a day trip to Verona to see the museum he designed there.

And then there's the Academia, the Peggy Guggenheim Museum, The Basilica dei Frari with the sublime Titian Ascension of the Virgin, San Marco and Venice itself! 

My iPad comes with and so I will blog as I go.