Dog Art Today

Tag: metropolitan museum of art

  • NYC Dog-Art Tour

     

    Howling_canine_metropolitan_museum_art

     

    Howling Canine, 5th or 6th Century Mexican Ceramic at the Met

    In 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_paolo_veronese

     

    Boy with a Greyhound by Paolo Veronese, 1570s at The Met

    Miss_mary_edwards_william_hogarth

     

    Miss Mary Edwards by William Hogarth, 1742 at The Frick

    A_woman_with_a_dog_jean_honore_fragonard

     

    A Woman with a Dog by Jean Honoré Fragonard, 1769 at The Met

    Huntng_dogs_with_dead_hare_gustave_courbet

     

    Hunting Dogs with Dead Hare by Gustave Courbet, 1857 at The Met

    David_hockney_boodgie_and_stanley

     

    Boodgie and Stanley by David Hockney, 1993 at The Morgan Library & Museum

    Hat tip to my mom, and dog artists Barbara Grossman, and Natalie Timm for sending me links to this article.

  • Dita Amory Discusses Pierre Bonnard’s Late Interiors

     

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    Dressing Table and Mirror by Pierre Bonnard, 1913

    This week I am going to feature dog art that inspires my own work.  As I mentioned, I want to create an interior/exterior piece for my February Darby collage.  No one does interiors and exteriors better than Pierre Bonnard, and he is also one of the premiere Dachshund painters in history.  I endlessly return to his Dressing Table and Mirror to study his composition, use of light, and patterns.  And, of course, his Dachshund sleeping on a brown pillow.  How does he make this work without sinking the whole piece with a brown blob in the middle?

    Poking around looking for more, I found this video (below) of Dita Amory, the associate curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art who mounted the 2009 Pierre Bonnard Late Interiors exhibition.  In it, she discusses her mission of "giving Pierre Bonnard his due."  She also tells a tale of a tragic love triangle and a Dachshund painting that survived his wife's destructive rage.  It is a piece I never saw before called Young Woman in the Garden…

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    Young Woman in the Garden by Pierre Bonnard, 1921

    Hopefully, you have the day off so you can take a moment (it's a little over 18 minutes) and listen to Dita Amory discuss Bonnard's overlooked place in art history, his fascinating work methods, his lover, and his wife.  If you receive this post in an email, click through to Dog Art Today to view it.

    I finally discovered the name of Bonnard's Dachshund, Poucette, which is a French female name.  I always thought it was a little guy Doxie.  Now, I'm looking anew, again.

  • Romare Bearden’s Dogs

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    Close up of The Block by Romare Bearden, 1971

    Whenever I begin a new collage, I always pull the book The Art of Romare Bearden off my shelf and take another look at his work.  I think Bearden (1911 – 1988) is one of the greatest collage artists of all time and I always discover something new in his work.  This time I found some dogs.  They were right there in his masterpiece The Block, a 6 panel collage that spans 18 feet (longer than a city bus) and depicts life on a block in Harlem, NY in 1971.

    Romare_bearden_block_1

    First half of The Block, 1971

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    Second half of The Block, 1971

    I also discovered an excellent interactive experience from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It's a guided tour of The Block geared towards children, but just as enjoyable for anyone interested in Bearden's work.  I have watched it several times. 

    Order the book The Art of Romare Bearden here.   And order the CD Romare Bearden Revealed
    from the Branford Marsalis Quartet, a compilation of the Jazz that inspired Bearden's work.

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  • The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Painting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

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    (Interior of the Old Church in Delft by Emanuel de Witte, 1650-52)

    Holland Cotter of the New York Times writes The Age of Rembrandt at the Met has an inventory of “breathtaking scope and depth.” But he’s critical of its “elusive heart” because it’s organized by acquisition date, not chronology. Nevertheless, I spotted some wonderful Dutch dog art.

    Curiosity
    (Curiosity by Gerard ter Borch, 1660)

    Drawing_eel
    (Drawing the Eel by Salomon van Ruysdael, 1650s)

    Yonker_ramp
    (Yonker Ramp and his Sweetheart by Frans Hals, 1662)

    Visit_to_nursery
    (The Visit to the Nursery by Gabriël Metsu, 1661)

    I’m sure those living in the Age of Rembrandt had a cold, challenging life, but I love their attitude towards dogs — including them in their lives and their art.

    I’ve never seen such a glorious image of a dog relieving himself — in a shaft of bright light from above in the Old Delft church. And I wonder who Yonker Ramp’s real sweetheart is? He holds the dog’s sweet face in his hand and keeps his back to the woman!

    (Some of the dogs are hard to see at this size. Click here to enjoy the NYT’s excellent slide show.)