Berkshire Arts Almanac » Visual Arts

Pissarro’s People is an insightful, illuminating exhibition of works by Impressionist great Camille Pissarro

L. Beck — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 01:24:26 +0000

Reviewed by Lesley Ann Beck

[WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.] – A poignant portrait of a little girl in a rose garden, a graceful trio of young women picking apples, and a gardener harvesting brilliant green cabbages are among the many marvelous paintings in Pissarro’s People, the fascinating exhibition of works by Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), that opened Saturday and will be on view at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute through October 2.

Pissarro’s People, curated by Richard R. Brettell, is the first major exhibition to explore the philosophy and political outlook of the painter relative to his portrayal of the human figure, in approximately forty paintings and fifty works on paper.

Pissarro’s People begins in the first floor Manton Gallery with an enormous black and white photograph of Pissarro and his family, sitting together out-of-doors, on a haystack. The image is emblematic of the show, which portrays the artist’s devotion and dedication to his family, his appreciation of and engagement with the agricultural community and rural life, and his philosophy of a better world to come, one where people were respected for the work they did, whether they were farmers or servants or artists.

Pissarro is called the father of Impressionism; he exhibited paintings in all eight Impressionist exhibitions. But he was an outsider, born to a Sephardic Jewish family in St. Thomas when it was a colony of Denmark. Pissarro kept his Danish citizenship always, even though he lived most of his adult life in France. Pissarro married a non-Jewish woman and they had eight children; he was dedicated to his family. His politics and his philosophy were important as well: he was an idealist and an anarchist, believing that government and hierarchies are unnecessary and that all people are equal.

It is fascinating to know something about Pissarro’s life for the insight it provides into his artwork. But the paintings are glorious even without the back story. The distinctive brushstrokes, the vibrant and exciting palette, the composition and balance: the paintings are wonderful, in a way that can only be appreciated by seeing them in person.

The exhibition continues in the second floor galleries with portraits of family and friends. The paintings of Pissarro’s wife and children show them reading, drawing, and sewing; useful occupations. The pictures are charming, tender, and evocative without being sentimental. One picture, Madame Pissarro Sewing beside a Window, shows the artist’s wife, with lovely pink cheeks and a pleated blue blouse, absorbed in her needlework, as a window with a decorative wrought iron balcony, visible on the left side of the canvas, allows a gentle swath of sunlight to fall across her hands.

In another family member’s portrait, one of Pissarro’s daughters, Jeanne, called Cocotte, stops in her daily chores—she is still wearing a ruffled apron—to read, sitting on a settee covered with an embellished red rug or tapestry; the painting is all luscious reds, pinks, and russet tones, and the book in the young woman’s hands is red, too. It’s an image of contentment, of comfort, not ostentation; and reveals the artist’s tender feelings for his subject. It’s a beautiful painting.

The show includes paintings in oil, tempera, and gouache; plus drawings and studies. The show builds in impact; beginning with domestic scenes and moving to genre paintings of domestic and farm workers and finally scenes of an idealized rural life with lively and colorful farmers’ markets.

Pissarro’s paintings of the French countryside are vibrant and attractive, and the farm workers are shown with dignity; the same is true of Pissarro’s images of domestic servants. The rural workers are shown in light-flooded fields and orchards; Pissarro depicted the agricultural life as a desirable one.

Apple-Picking, one of the largest paintings in the show, depicts three young women in an orchard harvesting apples; one is taking a bite of fruit while another looks up into the branches of the tree and the third girl gathers apples into a basket; the asymmetrical composition is emphasized by a pattern of blue shadows cast across the field and furrows. Pissarro’s farm scenes are idyllic, with delicately rendered foliage and vibrant produce; the colors are brilliant and delicious.

The most overt expression of Pissarro’s political beliefs is seen in an album of drawings that he created for two of his nieces and titled Turpitudes sociales. The thirty images depict scenes of disgrace, hardship, or scandal, accompanied by handwritten text taken from anarchist literature. The album is on public view for the first time in this exhibition.

The final gallery includes two of Pissarro’s self portraits, one painted just weeks before the end of his life, a haunting image. Pissarro’s People offers a unique and compelling look at life in the France of the Impressionists, through the eyes of an artist we come to know in a new way in this superb exhibition.

The Clark is at 225 South St. in Williamstown, Mass. The galleries are open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (daily in July and August). Admission is $15, free for children 18 and younger, members, and students with valid ID. For more information, call 413.458.2303 or visit www.clarkart.edu.

Magnificent contemporary sculptures by acclaimed African artist El Anatsui now on view at the Clark

L. Beck — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 23:00:35 +0000

Reviewed by Lesley Ann Beck
[WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.] – Three extraordinary sculptures by celebrated African artist El Anatsui are on view at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, in two galleries in the Stone Hill Center, through October 16. Pissarro’s People, a major exhibition of works by Impressionist master Camille Pissarro and Spaces: Photographs by Candida Höfer and Thomas Struth are also on view at the Clark this summer.
The sculptures by El Anatsui resemble enormous fluid tapestries, draped and pleated against the gallery walls, but they are not textiles at all; rather, they are made of small pieces of aluminum, cut from discarded bottle caps and linked together with tiny twists of copper wire.
The sculptures are of exceptional beauty, made up of swaths of articulated matte aluminum fragments in brass or silver punctuated with strips or clusters of rich reds, yellows, and blues.

The aluminum pieces come from liquor containers, so some are embossed with brand names, many show the matte silver or gold that is the inner surface; and it is the outer surfaces that have the printed colors. It’s alchemy of a sort, to take such mundane, discarded material and turn it into artwork of power and presence. That such lovely works can be fashioned from trash is a testament to the vision of the artist.
Intermittent Signals (2009), at 11 by 35 feet, is the largest piece on view in the Stone Hill Center; between the immense size of the piece and the richness of the surfaces, the work is compelling, inviting closer perusal. It gleams gold in horizontal rows, broken by a red stripe. Photography does not do these pieces justice; there is power in being in the room with these works.
Strips of Earth’s Skin (2008), stretches 10 by 22 feet, with seven irregular drapes cascading over a wide horizontal swath of silvery metal. This piece has an ethereal quality, with some sections made of thousands of tiny twisted octagons of aluminum, casting intriguing shadows on the wall behind.
Delta (2010), at 11 by 11 feet, is being shown in a museum for the first time. The artist uses the darker segments of aluminum, black or dark blue, to incorporate stripes, reminiscent of paths, tracks, or rivers, into the fabric of the piece, adding to the composition as well as the narrative quality.
Anatsui gives freedom to the curators who install his artworks at each venue, so the sculptures look different every time they are displayed. Because the pieces are flexible, they can be draped, pleated, maniupulated and hung in various ways.
El Anatsui was born in Ghana and lives in Nigeria; his work has been widely exhibited for more than thirty years, including participation in Africa Remix, an exhibition presented internationally from 2004 to 2007; the Venice Biennale in 2007; and Who Knows Tomorrow at Berlin’s Nationalgalerie in 2010.
El Anatsui started to create work with the aluminum when he found a bag of liquor bottle tops near his studio. The material represents the complex historical links between Africa and Europe; liquor, brought to Africa by Europeans, became a kind of currency. The scrap metal appealed to the artist in that it is a colorful, malleable material, as well as being a way to tell a story about how the presence of Europeans has had an effect on African history.
On July 24, curator and filmmaker Susan Vogel will present her documentary film, Fold Crumple Crush: The Art of El Anatsui with a talk about the making of the film, which follows the artist for three years and gives an insider’s view of the artist’s practice and techniques. A Ghanaian storyteller will present weekly tales on the balcony of Stone Hill Center.

The Clark is at 225 South St. in Williamstown, Mass. The galleries are open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (daily in July and August). Admission is $15; free for children 18 and younger, members, and students with valid ID. For more information, call 413 458 2303 or visit clarkart.edu.

The Pursuit of Porcelain on view at the Ferrin Gallery

L. Beck — Fri, 27 May 2011 02:59:29 +0000

PITTSFIELD, MASS.–The Pursuit of Porcelain, an installation of ceramic sculpture, photography, and works on paper, arranged as they would be in a European eighteenth-century porcelain room, filled with figurines, plates, and objects, is on view now through July 24 at the Ferrin Gallery. Sculptor Chris Antemann conceived the installation, which includes her own sculpture and photography and interpretations of the concept by other invited artists who share her passion for porcelain and its history.

Using plates, drawings, painting, and photography, Chris Antemann, Molly Hatch, Sergei Isupov, Mara Superior, and Jason Walker created composed installations to present their sculpture on four-by-eight-foot painted panels.

Portrait photographer Bill Wright exhibits a series of individual and group portraits featuring nine artists participating in the exhibition, staging the shoots in a formal New York City dining room to evoke a Victorian era family portrait. Other photography and video projects include Barnaby Barford’s imagery inspired by the concepts of collecting porcelain; Sean Capone’s interpretation of embellishment and decoration; and Lucy Feller’s concept of female beauty. Kendrick Moholt offers large-format photography drawn from details of Chris Antemann’s figural sculpture.

Molly Hatch, Giselle Hicks, Frances Palmer, Klein Reid Porcelain, and Gwendolyn Yoppolo present design, studio pottery, and tableware in porcelain.

The complete list of participating artists includes Chris Antemann, porcelain sculpture and photography; Christa Assad, porcelain sculptural objects; Barnaby Barford, video; Sean Capone, video; Lucy Feller, photography; Molly Hatch, porcelain flasks in frames; Sergei Isupov, porcelain figures and portrait plates; Garth Johson, porcleain teapots and plates made in China; James Klein and David Reid, porcelain vases and tableware; Steve Lee, porcelain vases; Frances Palmer, porcelain tableware; Kelly Garrett Rathbone, porcelain; Vipoo Srivlasa, porcelain sculptural objects made in China; Mara Superior, porcelain objects; Jason Walker, porcelain sculpture, tiles, and plates; Kurt Weiser, porcelain objects; Red Weldon Sandlin, porcelain and works on paper; Bill Wright, portrait photography; and Gwendolyn Yoppolo, porcelain objects and tableware.

The Ferrin Gallery is at 437 North St., Pittsfield. For more information, call 413.446.0614 or visit www.ferringallery.com.