I finally got there! Wasn’t sure I was going to make it before it closed, but on Saturday I fought through the crowded scene to witness this historic show on its last weekend. What can I say … wow! 140 water color paintings by American artists, including many by the great masters Winslow Homer and John Singer Sargent. Thomas Hine of the Philadelphia Inquirer suggested that the exhibition makes a strong case that “watercolors were among the greatest achievements of American art during the 19th and early 20th centuries”.
It was a glorious show to see despite the low light levels needed to prevent fading of the artworks. And the paintings presented a different look than I was used to seeing with works done in oil or acrylic.
Two wonderful surprises for me were paintings by Charles Sheeler (see my recent entry on Charles Sheeler’s photographs and paintings at the James A. Michener Art Museum) and Man Ray. I can’t imagine what it would be like to be a multi-talented artist, capable of making truly great work in more than one medium. It’s hard enough for me to soldier on, only with photography!
Not a bad segue to take me into my takeaways from this wonderful experience! I’ve stated before and will do so again … we as photographers can learn a great deal from looking at paintings! I know … the vast number of paintings are not monochromatic (however there was a very nice black and white watercolor harbor scene in the exhibit!), so as black and white photographers, what’s the point? I can only say that in my experience I learn a lot from every great exhibit of paintings I go to see — the presentations (horizontal vs. vertical), the subject matter, the perspective of view (think normal vs. wide angle or telephoto lenses), and of course the feeling of light!
To my eyes the watercolors render a somewhat different presentation of light compared to what I have seen in oil or acrylic works. It’s hard for me to describe, but there was a real sense of transparency, luminosity and delicacy I could easily detect even in the less then optimal museum lighting conditions. It is this sense of light that I think we should strive for in our black and white prints! Contrast that is snappy sometimes gets me to take an initial look. And while there is an immediate allure, the feeling soon passes.
Another thing that struck me right away was the size of the paintings. By my guess most were no larger than about 11×14. This forced me to look closely to see the delicate beauty and locate the secrets waiting to be discovered. There’s another takeaway here; the intimate sizes of the paintings again reinforced my thinking concerning why I print no larger than 8×10 and generally admire smaller picture made by others.
I encourage you to continually be on the lookout for exhibits of the true painting masters. I always learn a lot when these opportunities present themselves, but perhaps most importantly I am inspired to translate what I learn into my own work.