Jackson Pollock and Gyp, “Years Ago,” 1922, photographer unknown
From the Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner papers circa 1905-1984 via the Smithsonian Archives of American Art.
Category: 20th Century Dog Art
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Geraldine R. Dodge Collection at William Secord Gallery
Beb by George EarlWilliam Secord always has a something special during the week of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in NYC. This year, over 150 animal-themed works (mostly dogs) from the Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge Collection are on view at his gallery. Sales from the exhibition benefit the organization founded by Mrs. Dodge in 1939, Saint Hubert’s Animal Welfare Center in Madison, New Jersey.
Mrs. Dodge is a legend in the purebred dog world. She founded the Morris and Essex Kennel Club in 1927, and bred and imported some of America’s most important English Cocker Spaniels, German Shepherds, Bloodhounds, Pointers, Setters and Schipperkes, among others. She is also the first woman to judge Best in Show at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at Madison Square Garden. You can view the exhibition online. Here are some of my favorites:
Donald by Reuben Ward Binks
Captain, Corporal, Charm, and Cling by Reuben Ward Binks
English Setter & Pointer in the Field by Gustav Muss-Arnolt
Laying Down the Law by Edwin LandseerThe Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge Collection at William Secord Gallery runs until March 24, 2012.
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NYC Dog-Art Tour
Howling Canine, 5th or 6th Century Mexican Ceramic at the MetIn honor of the 136th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show that starts on Monday, Randy Kennedy of The New York Times takes readers on a dog-art tour of New York City. He has some nice picks spanning sevearal centuries, continents, and mediums, but my favorite aspect of his article is that he’s settled for me my own style guide quandary, something I’ve debated since I began this blog almost five years ago; dog-art has a hyphen. Read Kennedy’s article Sit. Stay. Good Art.
2.12.12 Update: Oops. Dog art is not automatically hyphenayted. Thank you dog artist Leslie Moore for this clarification:
A quick grammatical note from a recovering English teacher: dog art should be hyphenated when the two words are both adjectives modifying a noun, i.e. when Randy Kennedy describes New York City as a “dog-art town.” When the single adjective “dog” modifies the noun “art,” no hyphen is necessary.
Boy with a Greyhound by Paolo Veronese, 1570s at The Met
Miss Mary Edwards by William Hogarth, 1742 at The FrickA Woman with a Dog by Jean Honoré Fragonard, 1769 at The Met
Hunting Dogs with Dead Hare by Gustave Courbet, 1857 at The MetBoodgie and Stanley by David Hockney, 1993 at The Morgan Library & MuseumHat tip to my mom, and dog artists Barbara Grossman, and Natalie Timm for sending me links to this article.
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Diego Rivera and a Xoloitzcuintli Dog
Diego Rivera Holding a Dog by Guillermo Zamora, 1940sI gasped when I discovered this photo last week. I yelped when I read who it was.
Via the Florence Arquin papers at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art.
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Untitled (Two Girls and a Dog Sitting in a Garden) by Henry Darger
Untitled (Two Girls and a Dog Sitting in a Garden) by Henry Darger, 1959Roberta Smith of The New York Times sends out an S.O.S. to save the American Folk Art Museum:
Please. Someone, everyone, do something to save the American Folk Art Museum from dissolution and dispersal. Or at least slow down the process, so that all options can be thoroughly considered. New York’s contemporary artists, and New York as a whole, need the creative energy of this stubborn, single-minded little institution, its outstanding exhibition program and its wondrous collection, an unparalleled mixture of classic American folk art and 20th-century outsider geniuses. (more)
20th century American outsider artist and recluse, Henry Darger is one of the museum's stars with over 5,000 works.
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Willem de Kooning’s Untitled (Dog)
Untitled (Dog) by Willem de Kooning, 1970Holland Carter writes effusively about Willem de Kooning's long overdue retrospective at MoMA in The New York Times. And MoMA has some fascinating interactive timelines about his work and insights about his methods and materials. And, yes, de Kooning helped define abstract expressionism, but he was a dog artist too.
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Joan Miró’s Dogs at Tate Modern
The Farm by Joan Miró, 1921-1922Londoners, or anyone willing to travel to see some brilliant 20th century dog art, there are only five more days to see Tate Modern’s retrospective Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape.
According to Jackie Wullschlager’s review in the Financial Times, The Farm (above) in the first room of the exhibition sets the tone for a show that celebrates Miró’s romanticism. Hemingway, who owned the masterpiece, claimed “the picture’s hallucinatory quality was the result of young Miró nearly starving to death as he laboured to complete it over nine months in 1921-22 in Paris.” Miró called it “[the] résumé of my entire life in the country.”,
The next dog-centric piece, The Tilled Field, 1923-1924, presents a leap to a new, more surrealistic style just one year later. Note, the dog is almost in the exact same spot of the composition…
The Tilled Field by Joan Miró, 1923-1924The exhibition’s title Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape comes from the 1926 piece Dog Barking at the Moon…
Dog Barking at the Moon by Joan Miró, 1926The exhibition’s last day is Sunday, September 11, 2011. Then it will go to Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona, October 13-March 25 2012 and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, May 6-August 12 2012.
If you catch it and see any more dogs, please let me know.
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Lucian Freud Dies at 88
Eli, David Dawson's Whippet, in the Artist's Studio by David DawsonLucian Freud, a man who redefined the portrait, died on Wednesday July 20, 2011. He was as gifted at painting naked flesh as he was at capturing the essence of dogs. They often appeared with his subjects; entangled, sleeping, head and limbs heavy, with an insolent gaze. Supposedly Freud liked their arrogance and the way they relaxed his subjects and allowed him to see the animal in them. He was known to quote T.S. Eliot's Preludes:
I am moved by fancies that are curled
Around these images, and cling:
The notion of some infinitely gentle
Infinitely suffering thing.Today, writer Gerry Cordon has posted a beautiful tribute to Lucian Freud and his dogs here. In 2007, I wrote about Lucian Freud's dog art, his Grandfather Sigmund Freud's relationship to his dogs, and his daughter Bella's dog-love here. See more photos of Lucian Freud's studio and his dogs by David Dawson here.
Lucian Freud's Painting of his Dog Pluto's Grave by David DawsonRest in peace.
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Woman and Dog Before the Moon by Joan Miró
Woman and Dog Before the Moon by Joan Miró, 1936I saw a crescent moon last night when I took Darby out for his walk. It reminded me of this Miró. Night with light is hard to capture.
I'm headed back into my art studio. I don't think I am going to finish my calendar this year. I am too far behind.
Via artnet.
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Woman with Dog Under a Tree by Pablo Picasso
Woman with Dog Under a Tree by Pablo Picasso, 1961
