Curse, Legacy or Both? Ingres chronicled an era with his luminous portraits of
the rising bourgeoisie, but he didn't exactly relish the thought
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, the classical French master of the 19th
century, professed to abhor the painting of portraits. "I cannot stand them
anymore," he wrote a friend in 1841. "It is not to paint portraits that I
returned to Paris." "Cursed portraits!" he wrote another friend six years later.
"They always prevent me from undertaking important things..." The ambitious
undertaking stemmed from a modest...
ART
May 30, 1999
A Seat of Honor in American Design; Ray and Charles Eames, their life, their
work and their optimism
WASHINGTON - Charles (Eames) and Ray Eames designed the form-fitting
chairs that are so ubiquitous now we forget how dramatic and modern the
invention once seemed. They housed their offices in an old auto garage on
Washington Boulevard in Venice, encouraging the new fad for transforming factory
lofts into galleries and studios. They influenced modern architecture by
building a box-like steel and glass home on the Pacific...
ART
June 7, 1999
The Mexican Elections: A
Theater of the Absurd Before Electoral Reform
BETHESDA, MARYLAND - Once the shock wore off, it only took a few moments reflection to deduce
what had happened. Fausto Zapata had obviously staged a Mexican theater of the
absurd to influence the presidential succession. Pundits looked on Secretary of
the Interior Mario Moya Palencia and Fausto's boss, Secretary of the Presidency
Hugo Cervantes del Rio, as the two leading candidates for selection by Luis
Echeverria. Many...
OPINION
July 2, 2000
Spain: A Democratic Miracle
That Stills Sets a Peaceful Standard
WASHINGTON - That evening in the movie theater hallways served as a kind of metaphor
for Spain at that moment in history. Not only did it demonstrate the enormous
will of Spaniards for change, but the spirited laughter at old jokes, from a
movie shelved for almost four decades, underscored how isolated Spain seemed in
those days. Spain was a pariah in Europe, blackballed from pacts and...
OPINION
November 19, 2000
Alfred Stieglitz, Revisited
WASHINGTON - A National Gallery of Art exhibit spotlights 'the single most important
figure in American art in the first half of the 20th century'. To prove this,
Sarah Greenough has put together an exhibition that combines Alfred Stieglitz's
photographs with the paintings, watercolors, drawings and photos of his American
disciples and of the European masters that he championed. Stieglitz and his tiny
galleries introduced Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec,
Henri Rousseau, Paul Cezanne and Constantin Brancusi to America.
Also reconstructed is a temporary installation that Stieglitz photographed...
ART
January 27, 2001
Barcelona
for the senses
BARCELONA
-
In this sophisticated Spanish city, three celebrated palaces of music are
a feast for the eyes as well as for the ears. Painters such as Pablo Picasso and
Joan Miro and architects such as Antonio Gaudi have given this city a reputation
as a center of European art. Less known is its role as a musical metropolis. But
Barcelona, the capital of the Spanish region of Catalonia, has produced as many
virtuoso musicians as artists, and its three houses of music - the Liceo, the
Palau de ...
TRAVEL
October 13, 2002
Gotcha -
fooling the eye and centuries of art lovers
WASHINGTON - The National Gallery exhibition 'Deceptions and Illusions' delves into
the history of trompe l'oeil painting. Hoodwinking the customer - even the
museum director - is the main point of the exhibition, "Deceptions and
Illusions: Five Centuries of Trompe l'Oeil Painting," which is on view at its
sole venue, the National Gallery, until March 2. Trompe l'oeil is a French
expression that means "deceive the eye," and it is used to describe a genre of
painting in which the artist tries...
ART
November 1, 2002
A French
avant-gardist, dramatically reframed
WASHINGTON - Instead of a shy recluse, Edouard Vuillard was bossy, according to new
scholarship at the heart of a vast retrospective. Edouard Vuillard was never
really neglected. But art historians tended to look on him as a flash that
flickered out before the end of the 19th century. This view was held even though
Vuillard, who died in 1940 at 71, painted well into the 20th century. In recent
years, however, Vuillard has been treated with more seriousness and studied with
greater intensity. The first fruit...
ART
February 15, 2003
Tracing the
empathy of an architect
BERLIN - Jewish Museum and Felix Nussbaum House illustrate the talent of Daniel
Libeskind, who is redesigning the World Trade Center site. Symbolist: Daniel
Libeskind is known for design that refers to a building's meaning, purpose.
Memorial: Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum Berlin, patterned after "a compressed
and distorted" Star of David, receives an average of 2,000 visitors a day.
Walled in: Long corridors and empty spaces are a disquieting feature at the
Jewish Museum...
TRAVEL
April 6, 2003
Bearden
retrospective leaps over race's barriers
WASHINGTON -
The tension between Romare Bearden as an African American artist and
Bearden as a universal artist infuses the mood of the exhibition. It is natural
for African Americans to take pride in Bearden, and the District of Columbia,
which has a majority black population, is touting the National Gallery show as
the cornerstone of a 10-week cultural festival called "Blues & Dreams:
Celebrating the African- ...
ART
September 24, 2003
Hardball diplomacy
In the 1990s, while I was covering the United Nations for the Los Angeles Times,
Madeleine Albright approached my table at a banquet in New York. My wife hugged
her warmly, exclaiming: "Madeleine, you're doing a wonderful job as U.N.
ambassador!" "Yes," Albright replied, "but Stanley doesn't think so." I grinned
foolishly. I kept recalling that encounter as I read this engaging memoir of a
remarkable foreign-born woman who came here as a refugee child and later
negotiated the political thickets of Washington to become this nation's first
female secretary of State...
BOOK REVIEW
September 28, 2003
Madam Secretary: A Memoir
by Madeleine Albright
Frivolity before the revolution
WASHINGTON -
The small genre masterpieces of the French
painters of the 18th century are so frothy, so delightful, so charming and
sometimes so naughty that it is hard to associate them with such weighty themes
as philosophy and revolution. But an extraordinary exhibition of these
paintings, currently at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, makes the
persuasive case that these great artists, no matter how frivolous their subjects
often seemed, reflected the philosophical ideas of the Enlightenment that
coursed through France during these decades and laid the groundwork for the
French Revolution...
ART
October 21, 2003
Dancing With the Dictator
WASHINGTON - A little more than 50 years ago, the United States
signed a pact with Generalissimo Francisco Franco allowing U.S. military forces
to use air and naval bases in Spain. The agreement was a momentous event for
Spain, and its repercussions still matter. For Americans, however, the pact,
though significant, was a minor moment in the Cold War. U.S. historians barely
mention it. The 50th anniversary passed in September with hardly any notice in
Washington...
OPINION
January 4, 2004
American Policy Gave Hussein Reason to Deceive
WASHINGTON - If Saddam Hussein had few or no weapons of mass
destruction, why did he act as if he possessed arsenals of them? Why did Iraqis
harass U.N. inspectors, bar their entry into certain buildings and sneak trucks
out the back gates of compounds if there was nothing to hide? Analysts have been
quick to suggest reasons. A prevailing view is machismo — Hussein was trying to
conceal his weakness, not his strength. Some experts, such as former weapons
inspector David Kay, have said that scientists, seeking to enrich themselves
with funds for phony projects, hoodwinked Hussein, not the inspectors. But one
factor, just as important as the others, has been overlooked. U.N. inspections
were undercut from the start by U.S. policy...
OPINION
February 8, 2004
The Opening Volleys
The U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq have ignited so much confusion,
controversy and cant that myriad books are sure to descend upon us for many
years, all promising to shed light on the morass. Here are three of the first,
all very different...
BOOK REVIEW
February 13, 2004
Allies: The U.S., Britain, and Europe in the Aftermath of the Iraq War
by William Shawcross
The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us About Iraq
by Christopher Scheer, Robert Scheer and Lakshmi Chaudhry
Secrets and Lies: Operation "Iraqi Freedom" and After
by Dilip Hiro
Restored David
Strikes a New Pose
WASHINGTON - During the Renaissance, the city of Florence was infatuated with the
biblical story of David and Goliath. Florentines liked to think of themselves as
youthful and strong and ready to defend their home against the power of larger
Italian city-states. Rich and prominent citizens decorated their palaces and
public buildings with wonderful statues of David. The most famous, of course, is
Michelangelo's colossal marble sculpture. But there were other great ones as
well. One of the finest - older, smaller and crafted in bronze - was made by
Andrea del Verrocchio in the late 1460s for the powerful Medici family.
Americans have a rare chance to see this work in a restored state and an altered
pose...
ART
February 24, 2004
Of
Courts and Kings
WASHINGTON -
During the last years of the 20th century, scholars managed to break the code of
the hieroglyphics of the ancient civilization of the Maya people. Perhaps 85% of
the writing on Maya artwork and monuments can now be deciphered. The new
knowledge has led to new understanding. A Maya exhibition, which just opened at
the National Gallery of Art in Washington, is one of the first gifts of the new
scholarship. "Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya" places some of the finest pieces
of Maya art into a coherent and focused story about the life of the kings and
courts that ruled the splendid city-states in what is now Mexico and Central
America during the height of Maya civilization from the years AD 600 to 800...
ART
April 12, 2004
A
Timeless Exhibition with Exquisite Timing
WASHINGTON - In
an era when American newspapers and television bristle with images of Islamic
terrorism, another side of Islam is on view at the National Gallery of Art in
Washington - a show devoted to the calm and mesmerizing beauty of Islamic art.
The exhibition, "Palace and Mosque: Islamic Art from the Victoria & Albert
Museum," was not put together for political reasons. It has a more mundane
genesis. The Victoria & Albert in London has closed its Islamic rooms for
reconstruction. While the revamping goes on, the museum has agreed to send a
small but exquisite portion of its 10,000 Middle Eastern objects on a worldwide
tour...
ART
August 29, 2004
A
Miró - Calder reunion
WASHINGTON - For
almost a half-century, the American sculptor Alexander Calder and the Spanish
painter Joan Miró looked on each other as good friends. When apart, as they
often were, they sometimes exchanged a letter or postcard of greeting. "A good
smack on the butt for you," wrote Calder in French in 1934. "A hug, kisses, and
see you soon, you big stud," wrote Miró in Spanish in 1945. They liked to
embellish the postcards. Miró, for example, added underarm hair to the portrait
of a Spanish dancer. But one thing they never did. Their correspondence has no
discussion of theories or techniques or movements of art...
ART
November 21, 2004
A Fontainebleau period
BALTIMORE -
Revolutionaries of their time, the Barbizon painters fell out of favor with the
rise of Impressionism. The Walters show in Baltimore brings to light works not
exhibited in decades... The oldest museums in America have their storerooms full
of paintings that were the rage in art more than a century ago but are now out
of fashion. This gloomy repose is often the fate of the 19th century Barbizon
painters of France. Their paintings were once prized by collectors all over the
world, but the Barbizon painters had the misfortune to work just before the
Impressionists came on the scene. These younger painters eclipsed them long ago.
ART
December 26, 2004
Spain's Window on the Soul
MADRID - A rare exhibition at the Prado proves portraits reveal as
much about the painter as the painted. It's the face of the country's artistic
legacy... The Prado is a difficult museum for a visitor to manage, for it is
filled with spectacular mountains of great art. No other museum in the world can
rival its enormous collections of Spanish artists such as El Greco, Velázquez
and Goya...
ART
January 16, 2005
A Familiar Tale of
Uprising and Bloody Suppression
WASHINGTON - Mau Mau burst upon the imagination of the world half a
century ago, when newspapers and magazines published lurid photos accompanied by
accounts of crazed savages slaughtering white settlers and their families in the
Arcadian and romantic British colony of Kenya in darkest Africa. The images of
an irrational black onslaught were reinforced by the publication in 1955 of
Robert Ruark's bestselling novel "Something
of Value," which was made into a
movie starring Rock Hudson and Sidney Poitier. To European and American ears
during the 1950s, the words "Mau Mau" conjured up chilling terror. Historians
and academics have chipped away at these images ever since...
BOOK REVIEW
January 16, 2005
Histories of the Hanged: The Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire
by David Anderson
Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of the End of Empire in Kenya
by Caroline Elkins
An Artist in Her Own Light
WASHINGTON - A survey of Berthe Morisot's paintings reestablishes her
prominent place at the Impressionists' salon table... Traveling exhibitions of [Berthe
Morisot]'s work are not common. But one has opened at the National Museum of
Women in the Arts. Called "Berthe Morisot: An Impressionist and Her Circle," the
show includes 45 works by Morisot and 30 by her Impressionist friends and
family. They are the heart of a collection that her grandson and his wife
bequeathed to the Marmottan Monet Museum in Paris... Morisot was one of the
first French Impressionist painters, the only woman to exhibit at their initial
show in Paris in 1874...
ART
February 13, 2005
A Richer Portrait
WASHINGTON - The life of Amedeo Modigliani is the stuff of clichéd
myth and operatic tragedy: A handsome Italian artist weakened by too much
hashish and alcohol, Modigliani died penniless in Paris of tuberculosis in 1920
at the age of 35. His last love leaped to her death from a fifth-story window a
day later. While alive, he never sold enough to exist without the charity of
friends. Yet, from the moment of his death, the fascination for his life and his
work has soared...
ART
March 29, 2005
His Shadowy City of Light
WASHINGTON - No one depicted Montmartre's lurid world like
Toulouse-Lautrec. But a National Gallery show brings this tragic artist's
influential peers back into the colorful picture... In the last years of the
19th century, Montmartre, a poor Paris neighborhood high on a hill, burst into a
frenzy of popular song and dance, creative art and decadent high jinks - a
frenzy with wonderful imagery that still lingers in our minds. We owe most of
those images to the works of the diminutive and doomed artist Henri de
Toulouse-Lautrec...
ART
May 8, 2005
Dalí As You've Never Seen Him
WASHINGTON - It may seem excessive, but there are three museums
commemorating the life and work of Salvador Dali in the northern area of
Catalonia not far from the French border, but what was his life if not excess?
The museums are a little off the main American tourist routes in Spain, but they
are well worth the trouble to find. The three brim with art and kitsch and
reflect the many sides of the artist. Here is a look at them...
TRAVEL
May 15, 2005
Europe's Dawn, In Art
PARIS - Coming upon a remote Romanesque church from almost 1,000
years ago is one of the pleasures of traveling through the countryside of
Europe. But these structures, put up when the tribes that had destroyed the
Roman Empire were emerging from their Dark Ages, are almost bare, their
sculptures, reliquaries and manuscripts often squirreled away in diocesan and
regional museums in distant towns. It is hard to get a good sense of this
unusual art...
ART
May 30, 2005
A Pearl of Poetry and Paint
WASHINGTON - In the last years of the 16th century, Emperor Akbar,
the illiterate Mughal ruler of India, ordered his finest calligrapher and his
workshop of artists to craft a luxurious edition of one of the great works of
Persian poetry, known as "The Pearls of the Parrot of India." The book had 31
full-page illustrations painted with delicacy and beauty. For many years,
looking at most of them has been a private experience, limited mainly to
scholars. That, after all, is the nature of a rare book...
ART
July 10, 2005
Pearls of the Parrot of India
(The Walters Art Museum, Khamsa of Amir Khusraw of Delhi)
by John Seyller
It works well. Tweak it.
WASHINGTON - Right-wing critics want to use reform as a club to
beat the independence out of the world body... American politicians have
urged U.N. reform for decades. Lately, the cries have become so loud and
incessant that it is hard to imagine what will satisfy the critics. Abolish the
veto for all nations save the United States and elect John Bolton as
secretary-general? Strange as it seems, even those steps might not be enough —
not for critics whose demands for reform mask a deeper goal. They will not be
satisfied unless the U.N. submits to the will of the United States...
COMMENTARY
November 6, 2005
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