artist you should know / charles marville

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Charles Marville, The Seine from the Pont du Carrousel Looking towards Notre Dame, 1853

A couple of months ago I dragged Jarman to a lecture about an artist named Charles Marville, and later I dragged him to see the actual exhibit on Marville. While he was not impressed with Marville’s photographs, I was completely enamoured by them.

Marville is known as the ‘photographer of Paris,’ and captured the major changes that Paris underwent in the late 19th century. At this time, Napoleon III was the emperor, and had been inspired by the urbanization that he saw at the World’s Fair in London in 1851. The emperor employed Baron Haussman to make the plans for the update of Paris. The city completely changed during what has come to be known as ‘Haussmanization,’ which included widening the streets (and subsequently tearing down much of the older housing), adding in streetlights to make Paris safer at nights, and adding plumbing throughout the city to make it more hygienic. While the changes had an overall positive effect, it caused lots of the poorer citizens to be pushed to the outskirts of the city and created a negative backlash from those inhabitants.

Charles Marville, Hôtel de la Marine c. 1870

Marville’s photographs capture the waning and waxing of the city. He took extra time and care to get shots of the old Paris before it was torn down, showing the narrow streets that would eventually be widened. In many of his photos you can see pieces of the city that were being broken down, and other that were being rebuilt. He also photographed the additions to the city, including the public restrooms (which were basically outdoor stalls), places for advertisements (which had been unorganized and obnoxious before), and the new gas lamps (which would be replaced with electricity). My favorite photographs are the one’s that Marville took of the street lamps, he imbued so much personality in such inanimate objects. They seem to just be hanging out on the street corner, looking for ladies and waiting for their buddies. I would absolutely hang one of them in my house.

I love Marville because he photographed Paris during my favorite era, and during a time where the literature and art world was rich with new ideas. He documented an age that should be studied by everyone. Though he was an early photographer, he seemed to have a major grasp on style and composition, and knew how to capture things just as they were.

Charles Marville, Bois de Boulogne 1858

Charles Marville, Rue Saint-Jacques, 1864-before February 1867

Charles Marville, Rue Saint-Jacques, 1864-before February 1867

[all images taken from the national gallery website]

modern artist / alex prager

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the thing that i love most about my internship is getting to do research on artists i would have never heard of. i have learned about so many different types of works, artists, and time periods (including contemporary artists, 19th century quilt-making, renaissance painters, and civil rights artists). it is awesome. my favorite discovery is the work of alex prager. she is a film maker and photographer, and possibly my soulmate. sorry jarm. her style is so cool, i just want to be friends with her.

last year, she did a series of mini-movies for the new york times which featured the best actors and actresses of the year. the series is titled 'a touch of evil' and is so mysterious/breathtaking/dreadful/beautiful. she has brad pitt, ryan gosling, jessica chastain, kirsten dunst, and many more. you can watch all 13 on her website (which i have done multiple time). here are some of my favorites:

creepy right? also, i'm so excited, there is an exhibit of her works starting at the corcoran gallery tomorrow! i'm probably going to go, and meet her there, and make a mess of myself trying to say something somewhat intellectual to her.

modern poetry / anis mojgani

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i cannot tell you how much i love this poem and the artist. he writes the most awe-inspiring lyrics and recites them with such finesse. i could watch this every day, reading the words does not have nearly the same effect. prior to seeing him perform at a concert, i had never really seen a poet read his own works aloud. what a difference it makes! now imagine going back and hearing keats or wordsworth read their own poems - how much more magical would they be?

i know, i'm sure you're thinking "brittany, really? you're sharing a poem with us?" but trust me. you will not regret this.

lyrics:

This is for the fat girls.
This is for the little brothers.
This is for the school-yard wimps, this is for the childhood bullies who tormented them.
This is for the former prom queen, this is for the milk-crate ball players.
This is for the nighttime cereal eaters and for the retired, elderly Wal-Mart store front door greeters.
Shake the dust.
This is for the benches and the people sitting upon them,
for the bus drivers driving a million broken hymns,
for the men who have to hold down three jobs simply to hold up their children,
for the nighttime schoolers and the midnight bike riders who are trying to fly. Shake the dust.
This is for the two-year-olds who cannot be understood because they speak half-English and half-god.
Shake the dust.
For the girls with the brothers who are going crazy,
for those gym class wall flowers and the twelve-year-olds afraid of taking public showers,
for the kid who's always late to class because he forgets the combination to his lockers,
for the girl who loves somebody else.
Shake the dust.
This is for the hard men, the hard men who want to love but know that is won't come.
For the ones who are forgotten, the ones the amendments do not stand up for.
For the ones who are told to speak only when you are spoken to and then are never spoken to. Speak every time you stand so you do not forget yourself.
Do not let a moment go by that doesn't remind you that your heart beats 900 times a day and that there are enough gallons of blood to make you an ocean.
Do not settle for letting these waves settle and the dust to collect in your veins.
This is for the celibate pedophile who keeps on struggling,
for the poetry teachers and for the people who go on vacations alone.
For the sweat that drips off of Mick Jaggers' singing lips and for the shaking skirt on Tina Turner's shaking hips, for the heavens and for the hells through which Tina has lived.
This is for the tired and for the dreamers and for those families who'll never be like the Cleavers with perfectly made dinners and sons like Wally and the Beaver.
This is for the biggots,
this is for the sexists,
this is for the killers.
This is for the big house, pen-sentenced cats becoming redeemers and for the springtime that always shows up after the winters.
This? This is for you.
Make sure that by the time fisherman returns you are gone.
Because just like the days, I burn both ends and every time I write, every time I open my eyes I am cutting out a part of myself to give to you.
So shake the dust and take me with you when you do for none of this has never been for me.
All that pushes and pulls, pushes and pulls for you.
So grab this world by its clothespins and shake it out again and again and jump on top and take it for a spin and when you hop off shake it again for this is yours.
Make my words worth it, make this not just another poem that I write, not just another poem like just another night that sits heavy above us all.
Walk into it, breathe it in, let is crash through the halls of your arms at the millions of years of millions of poets coursing like blood pumping and pushing making you live, shaking the dust.
So when the world knocks at your front door, clutch the knob and open on up, running forward into its widespread greeting arms with your hands before you, fingertips trembling though they may be.

(lyrics taken from here)

artist you should know / rené magritte at the moma

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because jarman has been dragged to tons of art museums and has listened to me rant about different artists, he has become quite the connoisseur. there is a certain style of work that i always know he would like. when i saw that there was a magritte exhibit in new york, i convinced jarman that he would love it. luckily he did, and lived to tell you about his experience!

from jarman:

Before Brit and I started dating, my appreciation for art was minimal. I had never dedicated any time to explore it and I never went to museums unless I had to for school. Though I do not claim to be an art enthusiast or expert by any measure, I feel like I have come a long way in terms of developing a fundamental understanding and appreciation for art.

A couple of weeks ago, Brit and I spent a weekend in New York City. We honeymooned there and have been back a couple of times since. The city itself has an irrevocable and intimate charm to it. It is filled with art, delicious food, and people from all around the world.

I was pissed when we walked into the Museum of Modern Art. It was extremely crowded, it was too hot, and I was hungry. It was also full of old people and middle school students, which is the perfect formula for an unpleasant afternoon at an art museum. BUT THE GOOD NEWS IS IT WAS ALL WORTH IT IN THE END.

The René Magritte exhibit blew me away. As a surrealist painter, he had an uncanny ability to undermine the basic principles of human rationality and logic. It was as though he was able to twist the very fabric of my personal sensibility and reasoning through his paintings. I was perplexed as I contemplated the relationship and interaction between the subjects and random objects in his pictures.  

When he was thirteen years old, his mother committed suicide. Supposedly, Magritte was there when they pulled his mother’s corpse from a river. Her face was covered by her dress. You will notice that a lot of Magritte’s works feature subjects whose faces are covered by random objects.

My favorite Magritte painting is Philosopher’s Lamp. I don’t know exactly what it is about this one, but I stood and stared at it forever. I was fixated on his facial expression; it’s almost as though you caught the subject doing something forbidden. His eyes seem to imply a feeling of guilt and remorse.

Long story short, what I thought would be a three-hour hell in the MOMA turned out to be an invaluable personal experience. I was able to tune out the impatient foreigners bumping into me and stepping on my shoes as I soaked in Magritte. I would highly recommend making the effort to go see him if you have the chance.

contemporary artist / nikki lee on nmwa's blog

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for the first time ever my writing was featured on a different blog! i am so delighted! i mean, it is the blog at the museum where i do my internship, so it may not be as exciting, but still. at the national museum for women in the arts we focus on women (obviously) and how to increase their visibility in the art world. i was working on writing some self-tour guides, and one of the artists i researched was nikki lee. i had never heard of her before, but her work is fascinating. here is the post that was featured on nmwa's blog. 

Part (14), Nikki S. Lee, 2002

Part (14), Nikki S. Lee, 2002

Fluid Identities: The "Parts" and "Projects" of Nikki Lee

The old cliché “a picture is worth a thousand words” may actually be true of  photographs by Nikki S. Lee in NMWA’s collection. In her series “Parts,” Lee curates scenes of herself with a significant other showing intimate dynamics and details of a relationship, then physically cuts her partner out of each printed photograph.

This mysterious process imbues meaning and surprise: Lee often created varied, in-depth narratives around her scenes, from routine day-to-day activities to cheerful tourist-style snapshots, to a woman on her wedding day. Her cuts force viewers to focus on the emotions—anger, heartbreak, a wish to forget—with which someone might cut a formerly beloved person out of a photo.

In an interview, Lee said, “The purpose of the cut is to make people curious about the missing person and to think how his identity has affected the woman who is left behind. It forces people to examine the relationship itself, even if it is only part of the story.”


the seniors project (26), nikki s. lee, 1999

the seniors project (26), nikki s. lee, 1999

The “Projects” series is less about artistic beauty, and more about exploring the many facets of oneself. Lee has said that each of the roles she played during this project made up a piece of her. She examines the ways that a person can be made up of many disparate identities and personality traits, and she also examines the way that being surrounded by different groups of people who share those traits can completely change how you are perceived by others.This series is not Lee’s first major photographic undertaking. For her “Projects” series, Lee insinuated herself into subcultural groups, working for two to three months to be accepted in each social group. These groups included seniors, Hispanics, swingers, yuppies, lesbians, and others. For each project, Lee changed what she wore, where she shopped, and how she presented herself. After she had spent time with them, she would ask a friend or passerby snap a picture of the group. These photographs—simultaneously staged and casual—are less than professional, even including the date and timestamp from the small digital cameras used to take them.

Each of Lee’s series analyzes the deeper meanings of outward identities. She focuses on how identities can be changed by who we surround ourselves with, what we wear, and how we act. While “Parts” spotlights the ways the relationships affect our lives, “Projects” demonstrates the fluidity of identity that people use to define others as well as themselves.