I’m no expert on paintings and those who have painted them, but I love to go to exhibits. I’m lucky enough to live a few minutes away from the Michener Museum of Art here in Doylestown and I go there often. I also have an easy drive to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and have become a frequent visitor. The reason for all the visits to these wonderful institutions and others to view the work of great painters is simple … as a photographer, I can learn a lot about light and composition from viewing great paintings.
The membership flyer I received in the mail stated “From jazz and the jitterbug to assembly lines and skylines: the early twentieth century was a time of great social, artistic, and technological change. Artists responded with a revolutionary language of shapes and colors. See how Georgia O’Keeffe, Marsden Hartley, Jacob Lawrence, and others challenged convention and forged bold new styles to fit the times.”
As you can imagine I got pretty excited! So the first chance I could get I hopped into my car and zipped downtown to the Philadelphia Museum of Art to see the exhibit Modern Times: American Art 1910 – 1950. Turned out to be on Friday … a great day to decide art is more important than making a living. As I walked out of the museum several hours later I realized I had experienced so much more than I could have ever expected!
Many of the greats from this wonderful period of American art were on display. In addition to those mentioned above there were works by Man Ray, Charles Sheeler, Andrew Wyeth, Marcel Duchamp and John Marin to name a few. But there was more; so much more! The show included 166 paintings, sculptures, design objects, items of clothing, and photographs. That’s right, photographs, and all of them in glorious black and white! Yes, I know the period for the show was 1910 – 1950, but throw me a bone … OK?
Truly a great surprise! What wasn’t surprising was how well the smaller photographs (the largest was no more than 11 x14) held their own alongside the large brilliantly colored and vibrant paintings … and how well they proudly took their rightful place as “art” along side the other works on display.
Back to the painters, a couple of things they had to say struck a cord with me and related well tothe best of the paintings … and the wonderful photographs in the show. From Georgia O’Keeffe: “Nothing is less real than realism. Details are confusing. It is why by selection, by elimination, by emphasis, that we get the real meaning of things”. And this from Andrew Wyeth describing his paintingCooling Shed: “I was thrilled to find such abstraction in the everyday”.
Think about how these two important statements can impact our own photography. Drilling down to the essence of the subject to make the image as strong as possible. Looking deep into what we normally pass by everyday to discover surprisingly strong images.
The photographs contained in the exhibit would have made a great show by themselves. But here with the paintings a nice synergy was created between the two art forms. Some of the highlights included the incredibly important Wall Street, New Yorkby Paul Strand. Then there were a number of Alfred Stieglitz’s wonderful Equivalents, jewel-like in their small size. Edward Weston’s Bed Panwas exquisite in its simplicity. Berenice Abbott’s New York at Night captured the black and white abstract beauty of high-rise buildings aglow at night. Man Ray’s George Biddle Painting a Portrait of Man Raywas a fascinating self-portrait that included Biddle painting his canvas with Man Ray’s likeness on it and the subject (Man Ray) sitting next to him! A small photograph by Dorothy Norman called Alfred Stieglitz at an American Place, New Yorkwas a marvelous picture of the man at work. Finally, there were other beauties including urban landscapes and portraits by Weston, as well as some wonderful portraits by Arnold Newman.
I left the exhibit thinking how lucky I was to see these fine photographs together with so many wonderful paintings and other pieces of art … and how lucky to learn from all that I saw.
Modern Times: American Art 1910 – 1950 continues through September 3rd. If you are near Philadelphia or plan to visit the city during the next several months do make a stop at the Museum of Art. I’m pretty certain you will be happy you did!