Take a look at that verso.

Our blog post this week is brought to you by intern Krista!  Boy, do we love our interns.

Aanii, bonjour, ciao. Hello! For all of you who can’t wait to see Shock of the New this Saturday, come prepared. Bill Payne, Dean of the School of Fine Arts at UMD, will be discussing the episode, “The View From the Edge.” If you like abstract expressionism or artist’s like de Kooning and Pollock, you won’t want to miss this one!

Now for the only reason you come to our lovely blog, the much anticipated vocab word of the week!

ver•so/ˈvərsō/
Noun: A left-hand page of an open book, or the back of a loose document; The reverse of something such as a coin or painting.

I wish I could tell you why scholars don’t just use the words “front” and “back” but I can’t give a great reason.

Anywho, I bet most of you are probably wondering what is so interesting about the back of painting. It’s so much more than a stretcher and a canvas; each painting has a personality because of the artist and that goes for the back as well.

Wildly famous artists like Vincent Van Gogh have used the back of a painting as another canvas. His Garden with Sunflowers, 1887, is one example, although, it was rare for van Gogh to do this.



Here is an example of a painting by Walt Kuhn that was found to have another painting on the back:
You can read about this painting here.

Apples in a Wooden Bowl

 

A Fingerprint and a Doorknob

Hello all!  We hope you're getting excited for the first showing of "Shock of the New" THIS SATURDAY, January 11!  The showing will be at 11am at the Zinema, followed by a discussion by the curator at the Tweed Museum of Art, Peter Spooner.  The topic of this week's installment is The Mechanical Paradise.  This episode shows how the development of technology influenced art between 1880 and end of WWI.  A longer synopsis can be found on the BBC's website.

Now for the fun stuff, our vocab word of the week!

prov·e·nance \ˈpräv-nən(t)s, ˈprä-və-ˌnän(t)s\ : The history of ownership of a valued object or work of art or literature.  French provenir, "to come from".

You can imagine how important this is when acquiring works at a museum.  By having the sufficient provenance of a piece you can make sure that the painting wasn't stolen and you can gather the actual worth of a painting based on its history.  An example of a very long and old provenance of a work is The Arnolfini Protrait by Jan van Eyck (see left).  The documented history of this piece dates back to 1434!  It's hard to believe this piece was purchased for a mere £600! ($950).  If you read through the entire provenance, you can see how the piece evolved over time; i.e. it used to have shutters and an original frame.

This painting is well recognized around the world because it is the only surviving panel from 15th-century northern Europe that specifically shows contemporary people interacting in a contemporary house.  It's also pretty baller that the literal translation of the artist's signature is "Jan van Eyck was here".  The signature of the artist in this case has been used in the literal interpretation that the artist was there; this meaning that he witnessed an event rather than only creating the work.  What did he witness?  A wedding?  A lawful transference of legal power to the gentleman's wife?  There has been a lengthy argument amongst art historians on the meaning behind this work, and unfortunately the provenance can only tell us so much!  We're not going to get into that now, but a nice little diddy on this painting can be found here. 

Speaking of a work of art getting stolen, we're now going to talk about one of the greatest art heists of all time...THE STEALING OF THE MONA LISA!  DUN DUN DUN.  Did you know that one of the first prime suspects in the pilfering of the Mona Lisa was none other than Pablo Picasso?!  Four years prior to the Mona Lisa heist he had been found with stone-heads that, unbeknownst to him, had been stolen from the Louvre.  Now, if Pablo's mother had heard she probably would have lectured him on the importance of provenance before buying art from a 'guy who knows a guy'.

Fun fact, his work titled Demoiselles d’Avignon was modeled after these stolen objects (see right).

Empty Space Unoccupied by Mona Lisa

Long story short, Pablo didn't steal the Mona Lisa.  A previous employee of the Louvre, Vincenzo Peruggia, who was Italian by birth thought that the work by Da Vinci belonged  in it's mother country, Italy.  Peruggia was found out whilst trying to 'return the painting to Italy' for a 'small fee' from a shopkeeper whose store a few streets away from where the Mona Lisa was originally painted.

Why did we name this post 'A Fingerprint and a Doorknob' you may ask?  The only piece of evidence linking Peruggia to the crime was a doorknob he had removed from the door to get out of the Louvre and tossed in the ditch, and one fingerprint that was left on the wall where the Mona Lisa had hung.  Why didn't this link him to the crime earlier?  The detective on the case had the fingerprints of all the past and present employees of the Louvre.  The fingerprint that had been on the wall was from Peruggia's left hand, and what the detective had on file were  right handed prints.  ZING!  That's a 'face-palm' moment if I've ever heard one.

Did the heist of the Mona Lisa add to it's historical worth?  We sure think so!  If not, at least it's an interesting story.  If you're curious about the details of the stealing of the Mona Lisa a good book to read is The Crimes of Paris: A True Story of Murder, Theft, and Detection, by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler.  You can read an excerpt from the book here.

Hello, impasto!

Hello art world!  This is the Duluth Art Institute speaking (and/or it's Development-Operations Manager, Laura).  Well, if you haven't heard we will soon be starting screenings of Robert Hughes' "Shock of the New", which is a fantastic eight-part series on the rise and fall of the modern art movement.  Not only will you be able to rest your eyes on the handsome and talented Robert Hughes, but you will be able to do it FO FREE!  That's right, we're partnering with the Zinema 2 in downtown Duluth to share these nuggets of educational fun at no cost to you, the viewers.  If you need a convenient reminder here's the event on our Facebook page! (Insert social media marketing tactic): facebook.com/events/ShockoftheNew

This brings us onto the purpose of this blog: sharing the awesomeness that is Robert Hughes.  A few weeks back you may remember us sharing with you "Ryan Gosling, museum lover" on Facebook.  However, if you do not remember here is the link: museumheygirl.tumblr.com

Now, this got our creative juices flowing.  It started as a fun Photoshop project to make our coworkers giggle but soon grew into an obsession that took over an entire afternoon.  We can't stop.  So, to turn our seemingly unproductive project into something useful we're using it to promote our "Shock of the New" series in blog form!  Every week before our showing of "Shock of the New" a new post will be made with a picture that we had a blast creating along with some fun tidbits about our sultry host and some clarification on the fancy jargon he's using.

This week our photo is brought to you from the painter Sylvia Shap and can be found in the Smithsonian Institute National Portrait Gallery.  Sylvia Shap creates portraits of interesting people, and who better than our Aussie friend, Robert Hughes?  Her technical skill as a realist-portraiture painter not only accurately depicts the physical aspects of her subjects, but reveals something about their inner-being and personality.  Doesn't this portrait just ooze Robert's insightful-suaveness?

Now, some of you might not know what impasto means; hopefully not because you fell asleep in your Art History course during your undergrad.  Anywho, here is the Merriam-Webster definition:

impasto: im·pas·tos

1 : the thick application of a pigment to a canvas or panel in painting; also : the body of pigment so applied

2 : raised decoration on ceramic ware usually of slip or enamel

In layman's terms it means the way an artist applies the paint to their canvas.  Every artist does this differently; it's an easy way to distinguish who painted what!

EXAMPLES:  

Wheat Field with Cypresses: Vincent Van Gogh

This is an easy-peasy example.  It's simple to distinguish a Van Gogh painting given the way the painting almost feels like its MOVING.  This movement is created because Van Gogh applied his paint with thick, continuous strokes.

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte : Georges Pierre Seurat

Now here is what our dear friend, Robert, was referencing this week.  Can you see the difference in how Seurat applies his strokes?  It's much more delicate and soft compared to the robust application of Van Gogh; not unlike a lady that Robert might be seducing. 

Fun Fact:  This painting was used as inspiration for a promotional poster for the current season of "The Office".

Was also was used at one point for "The Simpsons":

Isn't art fun?  

Alright kiddies, that's enough for now.  

Until next week!

Oh yea, if you have comments, questions, or a nifty picture of Robert Hughes that you'd like to share leave us a comment!  Or email us at getart@duluthartinstitute.org.