When you arrive in India, you immediately encounter the most magnificent colors ever presented in one scene. It’s almost as if an artist’s palette has come alive. The saris, the artwork, the furnishings make you feel as though you woke up in a colorful wonderland. There is no place on earth like this.

I was lucky to have visited India during the “Spring Festival of Playing Holi” or the “Festival of Colors.” It is a Hindu festival that is celebrated by smearing, or throwing, colored chalk at others and then spraying water to make the colors run. Everyone is fair game. 

The trip left me with a lasting sense of spiritualism and beauty. I felt peace and harmony as never before. Even though there is obvious poverty in many regions of the country, there is still a sense of contentment you can’t find anywhere else.

©Copyright Eliot Hess

Contributor Bio:

 Eliot Hess is a lifestyle and travel photographer, currently exhibiting at Williams McCall Gallery in Miami Beach. His work reveals the culture, history and beauty of Cuba, Cartagena, India, Morocco, Peru, Croatia, Southeast Asia, and elsewhere throughout Europe. He lives in Miami Beach and travels frequently to photograph.

Hess is also the co-owner of HWH PR, a leading high-tech public relations agency, and author of bestselling The Munchies Eatbook published by Random House. He is also an investor in two upcoming Broadway projects and is one of the largest mystery book collectors in the United States. He and his wife Lois Whitman-Hess have an extensive contemporary art collection including works by Hung Liu and Jefro Williams. They have one daughter. For more information, visit: www.eliothess.com or on Instagram: eliothess.

Highbrow Magazine

My wife and I left the United States in February of this year, looking for a more relaxed and peaceful lifestyle. After considering a number of European countries, weighing their individual pros and cons, we decided to take a closer look at Portugal.

The country is undergoing a transformation after having suffered years of economic hardship, exacerbated by the economic crash in the early 2010s. These days, having refused to implement the European Union’s austerity measures, Portugal is starting to revive and revitalize.

Tourism is booming, and with it, the much-needed money to inject into the economy. The country is now energized, and feels vibrant and exciting. Everything is possible again, an attitude and belief clearly apparent in people who live here.

After much exploration, we chose Porto as the city to start our new life. Porto is Portugal’s second-largest city; it’s on the northern Atlantic coast, about 300 km from Lisbon. The Portuguese are a proud, friendly and helpful folk, and the natives of Porto are no exception.

The best way to discover Porto is on foot, allowing you to explore its many nooks and crannies, from steep staircases and laundry-festooned alleyways to huge, tree-lined avenues with monumental buildings and many churches.

One thing you notice almost immediately is the graffiti. As with many southern European cities, graffiti is rampant. There is a lot of “tagging,” the modern equivalent of writing “Kilroy was here,” I suppose, but somehow not nearly as charming or attractive.

There are, however, a lot of graffiti on the walls and buildings here that are more artful and thoughtful, beautiful work with bright colors, and eye-catching designs.

The photos featured in this Highbrow Magazine article are all smart-phone pictures, snapped as we wend our way through this beautiful city. New graffiti pops up all the time, making the city an ever-changing canvas for the artist.

Photos: ©Copyright John David Rowley

Author/Photographer Bio:

John Rowley is an IT Architect born in the U.K. He grew up in The Netherlands and spent the last 20 years in Houston, Texas. He now lives with his wife Angela, who is a chef, in Porto, Portugal. They share a blog, which features Angela’s work and the odd musing from John: http://breakingallthedishes.net

For Highbrow Magazine

This is an excerpt from an article originally published by Reuters. Read the rest here.

PARIS (Reuters) - For decades, the artists of Montmartre have dazzled sightseers with their rapidly delivered portraits, paintings of Parisian scenes and cartoonish caricatures.

But now the painters are threatening to fold up their easels and relocate elsewhere in the French capital, accusing restaurateurs of encroaching on their space.

“It’s very difficult to paint now – it’s almost impossible,” said painter Midani M’Barki, 70. “We are now working in the gutter. Is it normal for artists to be put in the gutter?”

The street painters - who have included Franco-Dutch artist Kees van Dongen and Spaniard Pablo Picasso - have been a centerpoint of the neighborhood since the late 19th century.

About 300 artists share some 140 1-meter-squared plots in the Place du Tertre, perched high above Paris in the shadow of the Sacre Coeur.

But in recent years, they have felt squeezed by bistro and cafe terraces, and the coach-loads of tourists that pour into the square during the summer months.

“The easel alone doesn’t fit in a meter square,” lamented painter Kinga Zakrzfeska, 45. “And with all our equipment - chairs, paints - 1 meter alone is insufficient.”

The artists last month downed their brushes and protested in front of the local town hall against a new layout they say resulted in restaurants’ seating occupying up to 80 percent of the square.

M’Barki, who has painted in the square for almost 50 years, said artists were now considering moving elsewhere.

Reporting by Jack Hunter; editing by Richard Lough and Alison Williams.

This is an excerpt from an article originally published by Reuters. Read the rest here.

Long known as “Mr. Key West,” David Wolkowsky, the famed scion of Florida’s pioneer Jewish family that helped to settle Key West in the 1800s, has loaned his paintings by close friend Tennessee Williams to the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU for their premiere in Miami Beach.

This is one of the few times they have been exhibited outside of Key West. The exhibition Tennessee Williams: Playwright and Painter is an intimate showing of nine rare paintings by one of America’s greatest playwrights, created by Williams in Key West during the 1970s. One of his closest friends was David Wolkowsky, the Key West developer who owned a private island called Ballast Key (nine miles from Key West), and the Pier House Resort.



Both idyllic locations were the scene of many glamorous gatherings hosted by David and Tennessee, including parties for Hollywood luminaries, heads of state, and society’s crème-de-la-crème.

Subject matter includes the writer’s famous cohorts during the 1970s in Key West (including a portrait of a young Michael York), and personifications from Williams’ own poetry, short stories, and characters from his plays.

Wolkowsky, who still lives in Key West and is almost 100, is from one of the earliest Jewish families of Florida, and their history is documented as part of the Jewish Museum of Florida’s permanent collection about the history of Jews in the State of Florida

Williams was often found at Wolkowsky’s private, celeb-drenched affairs. Guests included the likes of Truman Capote, British Prime Minister Edward Heath, and members of the Rockefeller, Vanderbilt and Mellon families. According to Key West lore, Wolkowsky was notorious for serving plain hot dogs, white wine and potato chips to his famous guests, while Tennessee painted and drank red wine.

“The fact that Williams painted, much less that he painted in Key West, is a surprise to many and his paintings have mostly remained outside of the public eye. We are honored to have these works here at the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU, and to be one of the few museums that David Wolkowsky has selected to exhibit these works outside of their Key West home,” according to Susan Gladstone, the Executive Director of the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU.

Highbrow Magazine

LONDON (Reuters) - A pink diamond weighing in at almost 19 carats is set to go on tour before being auctioned in Geneva and could fetch a record price of between $30 million and $50 million, Christie’s auction house announced on Tuesday.

The rectangular cut Pink Legacy is rated “vivid,” the highest rating for a diamond’s color, and weighs 18.96 carats, making it the largest fancy vivid pink diamond Christie’s has ever offered for auction.

It was once part of the Oppenheimer collection, Christie’s said, referring to the family who built De Beers into the world’s biggest diamond trader.

“Its exceptional provenance will no doubt propel it into a class of its own as one of the world’s greatest diamonds,” said Rahul Kadakia, international head of jewelry at Christie’s.

Only four vivid pink diamonds of over 10 carats have ever been offered for sale at auction, with a record price per carat set last November when Christie’s Hong Kong sold “The Pink Promise,” an oval-shaped diamond of just under 15 carats, for $32,480,500.

The Pink Legacy will be shown in Hong Kong, London and New York before being auctioned by Christie’s Geneva on Nov. 1.

Reporting by Alex Fraser; writing by Jason Neely.

From Reuters

The Anita Shapolsky Gallery is pleased to present a cross-cultural and trans-historical exploration of the body in art. “Super Bodies” moves beyond the typical focus on abstract expressionist paintings to exhibit art from a potpourri of artists, periods, countries, and media.

Antiques from Japan, China, Burma, and Greece from Anita Shapolsky’s own collection are scattered throughout the exhibition to complement the modern and contemporary works, all exemplifying the ever-present drive to represent the body in both the abstract and the figurative.

The instinctual drive to creatively capture the body in all its forms has existed for thousands of years. It is a drive that has rooted itself at the very core of humanity. From ancient Greek kouroi to contemporary portraiture, the human body has served as the artist’s most familiar yet most elusive subject. Even the midcentury abstract expressionists attempted to convey the complexities of thought and emotion – what makes humans human – using their own bodies as translators.

Anita Shapolsky Gallery

AS Art Foundation

152 East 65th Street

New York, NY 10065

True genius is hard to come by.  Perhaps only a few individuals in a century possess the talent, ambition, unquenchable curiosity, and determination to astonish not only their contemporaries—Goethe, Byron, Gericault, to name a few in this case—but to dazzle the formidable denizens that followed.  A few hardy souls like Van Gogh, Manet, Cezanne, and Picasso took note as well.  Eugene Delacroix was his name and the Metropolitan Museum of Art wants to make sure you don’t forget it.

First off, Delacroix was the quintessential Romantic.  Born into a well-to-do family in 1798 (his father was a former minister of foreign affairs who died when he was seven) he fortunately came of age after Napoleon’s fall.  Orphaned at 16 upon his mother’s death, he found satisfaction in his fascination for the literature of the greats.  That obsession, along with a nascent talent for art kept pace with the mental images that flew off the page into his richly illustrative imagination. 

Thanks to a companion exhibit from the private collection of Karen B. Cohen, visitors can experience a wealth of preparatory and independent drawings and lithographs that help orient them for the massive exhibit of paintings that follow.  A joint project with the Louvre, it’s an exhaustive collection, encompassing more than 150 paintings, drawings, prints and manuscripts.  But for those who linger over the gorgeous graphite, watercolor, and pen and ink renderings before entering the main exhibit, it’s worth the time taken.   It’s also worth noting that thousands of sheets were only discovered upon his death in 1863, providing invaluable information about his method and facility at draftsmanship.  Under the watchful eye of Guerin, an early teacher, he learned to trace, then freehand copy, and lastly, execute his subject from memory. 

A not-to-be-missed portion of the exhibit are 17 plates (never before seen in their entirety) for an 1828 publication of Faust by Goethe.   It was an early undertaking that elicited this response from the great author himself: “Monsieur Delacroix has surpassed the mental images that I made for myself from the scenes that I wrote.”  There are plenty of opportunities in his drawings to study his aptitude for classical form and his lifelong love for the Greco-Roman aesthetic (inspired in no small part by the 400-year-old Greek War of Independence against Ottoman rule that ultimately led to the demise of his Greek sympathizer friend Byron).  But true to the Romantic sensibility, he was more inclined to idealize as well as dramatize his subject.  Two masterpieces that speak volumes about this subject are “Scenes from the Massacre at Chios” (1824) and “Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi” (1826).  And what a voracious hunger he had to tackle life and death issues.  Humans and animals of all stripes were fair game.

There are crowd-pleasers aplenty for museum and circus goers alike.  “Young Tiger Playing with Its Mother (1830) speaks volumes about the breathtaking beauty in animal interaction.  The mother at rest exhibits the regality and patience of a queen mother while her cub teases her hindquarters with his paw.  The rich brown and black stripes, the whiteness of the cat’s bib and belly, the charcoal in the sky are a sight to behold. 

Contrast this with the “Lion Hunt” (1855); influenced heavily by Rubens two centuries earlier, this massive painting was damaged by fire two decades after its completion, leaving the bottom two-thirds intact.  Big cats, horses and scimitar-laden Arabs fight for prominence, claws and teeth in abundance.  It’s a chilling scene, “all sound and fury” to quote Delacroix’s beloved Shakespeare, but signifying what exactly?  Throughout this lavish playground spread over 12 rooms, bravura holds sway, with grandiose themes often overriding their human subjects.

For example, in an 1838 painting of Medea, with dagger poised to murder her children, she is strangely emotionless.  The leading character seems totally distracted from the business at hand, looking away from the center of the action.  The power in its execution, in the brushwork and composition of the clinging babies in her arms, is evident.  Yet something is missing.  Most viewers will have a passing acquaintance with this tragic mythical figure and many will be content to accept the scene at hand. 

Likewise, “Christ in the Garden of Olives (The Agony in the Garden)” portrays a submissive Christ, holding at bay three distraught angels as witnesses in the background.  It’s a gorgeous work, painted with great deliberation, and approached by viewers with a certain reverence.  There’s a mystery in the narrative that Delacroix creates in many of his canvases.  It’s as if he’s saying this is my version and you will see it my way.  A recent laborious effort by the Met to remove layers of old varnish have heightened appreciation of the painting, as much for the play of light and shadow as the familiar subject. 

For its calm serenity, brilliance in detail and overall composition, my favorite is “Women of Algiers in their Apartment” (1834).   A trio of harem women languor in their room, one in the left foreground, half in shadow, quietly observing us.  Two others sit nearby, sharing an intimate conversation, an opium pipe in the foreground along with a discarded slipper.  A black servant is about to depart the scene, but hesitates, as if overhearing her mistress.  The rich colors of carpet and costumes alike, combined with a partially open red door in the background complete the scene.  

A diplomatic journey after France’s conquest of that country gave Delacroix a rare opportunity to revel in the sights and sounds of this exotic culture, and it shows in many of the paintings and prints on view.  “Beauty runs in the streets,” he exclaimed, “Rome is no longer in Rome.”  “Women of Algiers” was one of several historical paintings that fascinated Picasso, who produced 15 oils in 1954 inspired by the scene, albeit drastically altered by the later painter’s singular vision.  Another jewel not to be overlooked that emerged from Delacroix’s travels is “Street in Meknes.”  Exhibited in the Salon of 1834, it simply and lovingly conveys a street scene in Morocco—a formalistic rendering of townspeople, including a beggar half-hidden in the recesses, that draws us into its depths.

Baudelaire, a noted art critic as well as poet and friend of the painter, expressed it this way:  “Delacroix was passionately in love with passion but coldly determined to express passion as clearly as possible.”

That discipline encompassed still life with the same vivacity as his heroic figures.  “Basket of Flowers” (1848) explodes from the canvas, seemingly giving breath to every color in the natural world and then some.  It is easy to see why the Impressionists saw him as the first master of Modernism.  In this painting, he wears the accolade shamelessly. 

The Met has outdone itself with this paragon of Romanticism and Asher Miller, associate curator of European Art deserves considerable credit.  For some it may well be an embarrassment of riches, but what else can you expect from showcasing an out-of-bounds genius artist?  Delacroix’s was a greedy appetite that consumed life and all it proffered him.  We can be thankful for what he gave us in return.

The exhibition runs through January 6, 2019, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10028.  Tel.: 212-535-7710.

Author Bio:

Sandra Bertrand is Highbrow Magazine’s chief arts critic.

For Highbrow Magazine

“Relational Undercurrents: Contemporary Art of the Caribbean Archipelago” (Oct. 13 – Jan. 13) headlines the powerful new season of exhibitions and programming for Art Basel 2018 at Florida International University’s Frost Art Museum in Miami.

This is the first major survey of this size and scope of 21st century art by 67 contemporary Caribbean artists representing 14 Caribbean countries, whose works offer expansive perspectives that transcend the boundaries imposed upon Caribbean cultures.

“Because of Miami’s geographic proximity to the Caribbean nations, as well as our cultural mosaic which Caribbean cultures have shaped, it was important for us to bring this exhibition to Miami during Art Basel season,” said Dr. Jordana Pomeroy, the director of the museum. “Our new season opens up a dialogue about global commonalities rather than differences, from ecological changes to societal values around the world.”

Nearly 70 works by Caribbean painters, installation artists, sculptors, photographers, video and performance artists connect through ideas that go beyond language barriers, politics, and historic colonial divides. Artists in Relational Undercurrents include: Allora & Calzadilla, Edouard Duval-Carrie, Adler Guerrier, Deborah Jack, Glenda Leon, Beatriz Santiago Munoz, Angel Otero, Manuel Pina, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Jimmy Robert and Didier William, among others.

Departing from the premise that the concept of Latin America favors mainland countries, the exhibition proposes a mapping of the region that begins with the islands. Arising from a legacy of colonialism, recurrent themes include race and ethnicity, history, identity, sovereignty, migration and sustainability.

The works in this exhibition speak for the Caribbean’s indigenous peoples whose homes were fractured and divided by colonialism. These are spaces that were mercilessly exploited for labor and goods by distant European monarchies. This area also marks the site of one of the West’s first rebellions (the Haitian slave revolt which led to the independence of the island in 1804) and the Cuban War of Independence in 1898, a byproduct of the Spanish-American War.

The Caribbean is inhabited by many different indigenous cultures whose languages include Spanish, Dutch, English, French and Creole.

Although the Caribbean has been fragmented by centuries of tyranny and domination, the contemporary artists in this exhibition draw upon themes of connection that often envision what lies beyond imposed borderline.

Highbrow Magazine

This is an excerpt from a Reuters article. Read the rest here.

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban artists and international rights activists are pushing the government to revise legislation due to take effect in December that they fear will hamper creativity and increase censorship on the Communist-run island.

The decree, published in July, bars artists, be they musicians or painters, from “providing their services” in any space open to the public, including private venues, without prior government approval.

It updates a decree redacted before the market reforms launched in 2010 by former President Raul Castro, which required them only to get approval to operate in state-run spaces.

Since then, the government had tolerated artists independently presenting their work in private venues, as part of a broader Cuban economic, social and political opening.

Cuban artists’ greater autonomy, thanks also to increased access to the internet and freedom to travel, led to a blossoming of cultural activity. Independent recording studios and art galleries have burgeoned.

But that autonomy has made it harder for the one-party state to ensure artists are paying taxes - many do not - and to police the cultural sector, which it has promoted heavily since the 1959 revolution.

Some independent artists are worried they will not be able to get state approval due to bureaucratic hurdles and that the decree will cost them their livelihood.

“I never thought of emigrating before but now I am,” said Luis Puerta, who has been sustaining his family of four by privately selling his stylized paintings of jazz musicians.

Others are convinced the decree is destined to silence them.

“This is a measure of repression because you won’t get government approval if you are not within the socialist ideology,” said performance artist, sculptor and self-described “artivist” Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara.

In a country that frowns on public dissent, Otero Alcantara has led a rare campaign against the measure, known as Decree 349, by dozens of artists working outside state institutions.

Together they have flooded social media with slogans like “Law that converts art into a crime,” hosted musical and other artistic performances in protest at the decree and sent letters to authorities.

Amnesty International has backed their campaign, saying Decree 349 - one of the first to be signed by President Miguel Diaz-Canel after he took office in April - is a “dystopian prospect” for Cuba’s artists.

The European Union also raised concerns in talks with Cuba on human rights in Havana this month.

Reporting by Sarah Marsh; editing by Dan Grebler.

This is an excerpt from a Reuters article. Read the rest here.

Highbrow Magazine

Women of Vision: National Geographic Photographers on Assignment opens at Forest Lawn Museum at Forest Lawn—Glendale, California, on December 11, 2018. Highlighting the influential photography of 11 award-winning female photojournalists, the traveling exhibition is on view in Glendale until April 7, 2019.

Women of Vision features nearly 100 photographs, including moving depictions of far-flung cultures; compelling illustrations of conceptual topics, such as memory and teenage brain chemistry; and arresting images of social issues, such as child marriage and 21st-century slavery. In addition, the exhibition demonstrates how National Geographic magazine picture editors work closely with the photographers to select images and tell stories. Video vignettes present first-person accounts that reveal the photographers’ individual styles, passions, and approaches to their craft.

The exhibition underscores National Geographic’s history of documenting the world through photography and its ongoing commitment to supporting photographers as important and innovative storytellers who can make a difference with their work. Women of Vision curator and former National Geographic Senior Photo Editor Elizabeth Krist had the challenging task of choosing a selection of images to best represent the broad portfolios of the 11 extraordinary photographers:

Pulitzer Prize winner and MacArthur Fellow Lynsey Addario is widely admired for her conflict coverage in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Darfur, and the Congo. Featured assignment work includes images that document human rights issues, particularly the plight of women and families in conflict zones.

Kitra Cahana explores important social, anthropological, and spiritual themes. Cahana has won a first prize from World Press Photo, a TED Fellowship, and the ICP Infinity Award. Her work includes images taken on assignment for NGM’s important feature on the teenage brain and culture in the United States.

Jodi Cobb has worked in over 65 countries and produced 30 NGM stories, including "21st-Century Slaves," one of the most popular stories in the magazine's history. Cobb was the only photographer to penetrate the geisha world, which resulted in her Pulitzer Prize-nominated book. She was the first photographer to document the hidden lives of the women of Saudi Arabia. Her numerous accolades include repeated honors from the National Press Photographers Association, Pictures of the Year, and World Press Photo, and Cobb was the first woman named White House Photographer of the Year.

Diane Cook is a leading landscape photographer whose work is in numerous museum collections. Cook often collaborates with her husband Len Jenshel. Their NGM stories have covered New York’s High Line, Mount St. Helens, Green Roofs, the Na’Pali Coast of Hawaii, the US-Mexico border, and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. 

Carolyn Drake is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Fulbright Fellowship, the Lange Taylor Documentary Prize, and a World Press Photo award. She has spent years documenting the cultures of Central Asia and life in western China’s Uygur region.

A Knight Fellow and passionate advocate for visual arts education, Lynn Johnson has produced images for 21 NGM stories, including stories on vanishing languages and challenges facing people in Africa and Asia. Johnson has participated in photography camps in Africa and at the Pine Ridge reservation. She has received several awards, including the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for Coverage of the Disadvantaged.

Beverly Joubert is a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, filmmaker, photographer, and co-founder of the Big Cats Initiative. With her husband, Dereck Joubert, she has been documenting the plight of African wildlife for over 30 years. Her images have appeared in over 100 magazines worldwide, and the Jouberts have coauthored several books and scientific papers and produced over 25 television documentaries and a feature film, The Last Lions (2011). Their films have received international recognition, including seven Emmys, a Peabody, and Panda Awards, as well as conservation accolades, including the World Ecology Award, an induction into the American Academy of Achievement, and the Presidential Order of Meritorious.

Erika Larsen studies cultures with strong ties to nature. She published a 2009 story in NGM on the Sami reindeer herders of Scandinavia, which grew out of her own documentary work. Larsen is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship and a New Jersey State Arts Council Fellowship. Erika’s photography has been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery and the Sami Ájtte Museum in Sweden.

Stephanie Sinclair’s decade-long project on child marriage has earned global recognition, including three World Press Photo awards, and prestigious exhibitions on Capitol Hill, at the United Nations, and at the Whitney Biennial in New York.

A celebrated figure in the photographic community, Maggie Steber has worked in over 62 countries, and her images have earned several prestigious honors, including the Leica Medal of Excellence and World Press Photo awards. NGM has published her essays on Miami, the African slave trade, the Cherokee Nation, Dubai, and the science of memory.

Amy Toensing began her prolific career covering the White House and Congress for The New York Times. She has created portraits of unforgettable people around the world while shooting NGM stories in Papua New Guinea, Puerto Rico, the Jersey Shore, and Tonga. She spent three years documenting Aboriginal Australia for a 2013 NGM story. Toensing is also committed to teaching photography to children in underserved communities, including to Somali and Sudanese refugees in Maine.

Women of Vision: National Geographic Photographers on Assignment is traveled and organized by the National Geographic Society. The exhibition is open to the public December 11, 2018 through April 7, 2019 at Forest Lawn Museum, Forest Lawn—Glendale, 1712 S. Glendale Blvd., Glendale, California. The Museum is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10 AM to 5 PM. Admission and parking are FREE. Call 323.340.4545 or visit www.forestlawn.com for more information. Full details on the exhibition, including photo galleries and links to related National Geographic magazine content, are available at wovexhibition.org.

--Lynsey Addario--

--Beverly Joubert--

--Amy Toensing--

--Carolyn Drake--

--Jodi Cobb--

--Erika Larsen--

--Kitra Cahana--

--Diane Cook/Len Jenshel--

--Lynn Johnson--

--Maggie Steber--

--Stephanie Sinclair--

Highbrow Magazine

Daniel Calder earned his MFA in 1990 from Virginia Commonwealth University.  He is a recipient of a grant from the Virginia Commission for the Arts and a Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Professional Fellowship.  Calder has also been commissioned for original works  by the City of Richmond and the Washington Project for the Arts.  His work appears in numerous private and corporate collections and has been featured in various publications, including ​New American Paintings, Artpapers, Washingtonian, Style Weekly,  Richmond Magazine, and the Richmond Times Dispatch.

According to Calder, “In this series of paintings, I use the icon of the blackboard to reexamine some of what we know about a group of our most familiar historical figures, myths, and cultural phenomena. Our understanding of this should not stop at what we were told in elementary school.

The impetus for this series is my confusion when confronted with the discord between what we are taught and what seems to be the case. Or perhaps what we are not taught—our selective collective memory. It seems to parallel our personal efforts to control the story of our own lives and personas. I use incongruity and sometimes humor to encourage the viewer to reconsider . . . everything.

Though these works are not actual blackboards, chalk and erasers are often provided, allowing viewers to add or delete information, rewriting history or providing their own. In the end, even in the gallery setting, the artist’s voice will not necessarily have the last say.”

Titles:

-Half MT, wood, paint, 2018

-The White Brick Road, wood, paint, 2018

-Stain the Course, wood, paint, 2018

-Coming Clean, wood, paint, 2018

-George Never Smiles, installation view, 2015

-Vanishing Act, wood, paint, 2016

-Messiahpithecus, wood, paint, 2014

For Highbrow Magazine

On first entering the Guggenheim’s High Gallery and confronting Hilma af Klint’s TheTen Largest, a spectacular series of 10 paintings created in 1907 (10 feet by nearly nine feet wide), the viewer can be excused for thinking s/he has been transported to another realm entirely.  For this little-known female Swedish artist (1862-1944), graduating with honors from the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm, produced in her lifetime bold and innovative abstract works she attributed to the High Masters, her spiritual guides. In her own words: “I was to imagine that they were always standing by my side.”

Whether you believe af Klint’s extraordinary and utterly contemporary artworks on display (and the 10 largest mentioned are just the beginning) were the result of the channeling of beings of higher consciousness or not, one thing is certain.  The Guggenheim’s current show, Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future, displays the indisputable genius of one woman who listened to the insistent urgings of her brush and left her indelible mark on our cultural landscape. Roberta Smith, in her New York Times review from October 12, 2018, believes that af Klint’s 10 largest canvases “may induce disorientation, not the least for the way they blow open art history.” 

Several years before the world was welcoming the gigantic proponents of modernism, such as Wassily Kandinsky, Kazmir Malevich, and Piet Mondrian into the mainstream, af Klint was quietly creating her dazzlingly bold and colorful swirls, her biomorphic shapes and rectilinear constructions. 

The pull of the outside world had little interest for her.  So little, in fact, that she stipulated that no one would see her creations until 20 years after her passing.  The shocking fact is that 40 decades passed before her inclusion in “The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890-1985” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.  In 1989, a small selection of her paintings was seen by New Yorkers at PS1 and curated by af Klint advocate R.H. Quaytman.  His works, entitled +x. Chapter 34 are placed on the top ramp of the rotunda for this exhibit, as if to put a finishing touch to her own scientific and transcendental imagery.  But I’m sure that many visitors would agree that af Klint’s divergence from such curatorial conventions make this addition informational but peripheral at best. 

As for the overall conception of this landmark exhibition, Tracey Bashkoff, director of collections and senior curator, along with curatorial assistant David Horowitz, have done an outstanding job.  The accompanying catalogue, edited by Ms. Bashkoff, with essays by Tessel M. Baudin and Daniel Birnbaum, among others, is a worthy addition to any art or history lover’s bookshelf. 

So, where do we begin to explain the phenomenon of af Klint?

Born into a prominent seafaring family, her nascent talents were quickly recognized.  Following her studies, she was able to procure a studio in the heart of Stockholm’s bustling capitol.  It’s easy to see from a beautifully rendered landscape reminiscent of Corot on display that a conventional career lay before her—if she wanted it.  Maybe we’ll never know if the death of a younger sister a few years later convinced her to plunge deeper into her spiritual investigations. In her formative years, there was a wealth of ideas afloat in the “ether” if you will.  Foremost among these was Madame Blavatsky and her Theosophical Society, which maintained that a knowledge of God is achieved through spiritual ecstasy and direct intuition.  For af Klint such explorations, along with her scientific curiosity about electromagnetic waves—the proof of the “unseen”—was a natural fit.  In 1896 she joined forces with four other women, calling themselves The Five (De Fem).

For the next several years, The Five were in communication with a series of astral beings or High Masters, producing automatic writings and sketchbooks abundant with pulsing circles and spirals, shapes reminiscent of snails and eggs, and at times a secret symbology difficult for the uninitiated to unravel. 

But it would be wrong to assume that af Klint was simply an empty vessel, merely intent on recording.  When High Master Amaliel commissioned a series of paintings to depict the “immortal aspects of man,” af Klint was the only one of the five that embraced the task.  She began her solo endeavors in 1906, for what was to be “The Paintings for the Temple.” The organic forms for The Ten Largest were to illustrate the stages of life—childhood, adulthood and old age. 

These monumental works were produced in tempera on sheets of paper later affixed to stretched canvas. Except for a four-year pause while she was caring for her blind mother, by 1915 she had completed the 193 works that comprised her mission.  This also included 10 blue notebooks, along with a glossary of an esoteric vocabulary, and a special index of symbols.

If all this immersion into a world beyond sounds a little heady, the work speaks for itself. Her color sensibility is first-rate.  Pinks, yellows, greens, and blues bubble up with an effervescent power—carrying the viewer on his or her own evanescent journey.  But her range is wide, the progression from representational elements to abstraction almost beyond definition.

As one moves up the rotunda, the eye is caught in continual surprise.  In The Primordial Chaos, No. 7, part of a series of 26 blue and yellow paintings, a circular shape is seemingly propelled through space, leaving plumes of white smoke in its wake. The blue and yellow palette signifies female and male in her color theory. In The Swan series, the 24 images begin with a merging of two birds with beaks locked in a kiss.  Contrasting black and white shapes symbolize the duality in nature and progressing into pure abstraction, a unity of opposites is created.

The artist was obviously imbued with an unflappable curiosity.  This was due in no small part to the prevailing obsession with evolutionary theories, the discovery of subatomic particles, soundwaves, and other evidence of a material yet invisible world at one’s fingertips.  The Atom series from 1920 attests to her own lifelong obsession with what could not be seen with the human eye.

For this reviewer, the most bold and arresting series was produced in 1915, where her mastery of geometrical form is on full display.  This comprises three large altarpieces, where the eye travels upward and downward and merges in the third image into a giant orb of light.  These three were meant to be placed in an inner sanctuary within a spiral-shaped temple.  Considering founding patron Hilla Rebay envisioned the Guggenheim as a “temple” to abstraction and Frank Lloyd Wright brilliantly complied, it’s easy to argue that af Klint’s works finally found the perfect home. 

(Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future is on view at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum from October 12, 2018 to April 23, 2019.)

Author Bio:

Sandra Bertrand is Highbrow Magazine’s chief arts critic.

For Highbrow Magazine

Documented: The Community Blackboard was a site-specific space created by artist and educator Muriel Hasbun for the Art Museum of the Americas in Washington, D.C. (2006).

The experience is now taking place at the Brentwood Arts Exchange, which is nestled amongst a vibrant community of immigrants from all over the globe. The interactive piece is community-based, and as such, is continually transformed by its participants, who are invited to write their own story of migration and post their family photos onto the gallery walls.

A collage-like bilingual sound piece, streaming into the space, weaves together Muriel Hasbun's own reflections on migration as gathered from oral testimonies and other aural impressions  recorded in El Salvador, as well as from excerpts of poems that she wrote

when she first came to the U.S. in 1980.

Documented: The Community Blackboard invites the visitor to activate the space by sharing his/her/their testimonies, "voices and silences, from here and from over there."

(January 14 - March 9, 2019)

Brentwood Arts Exchange: 3901 Rhode Island Ave., Brentwood, MD 20722. TEL: 301-277-2863; arts.pgparks.com.

Highbrow Magazine

From February 1st to the 23rd, two prestigious arts organizations have joined forces to present TRANSPARENCY, an exhibition to promote the works of professional women artists nationwide.  For a century, the Arts Club of Washington has promoted and celebrated the visual, performing, and literary arts in the nation’s capital. What better location could there be for the National Association of Women Artists, celebrating their 130th Anniversary supporting public awareness of visual art by American women, than in the club’s historic I Street mansion? 

Formerly the home of President James Monroe, it provides a perfect opportunity to celebrate NAWA’s founding in 1889.  Since that date, NAWA’s earliest exhibitions have included such early luminaries as Mary Cassatt and Suzanne Valadon, and a rollcall that has boasted the likes of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, Louise Nevelson, Alice Neel and Faith Ringgold, among others.

TRANSPARENCY is a challenging theme—it can suggest a translucence or clarity of light shining through a subject to make it more visible.  But it can also provide the artist a rare opportunity of exploring the social or psychological implications as well, such as that which is free of pretense.  Whether handled in a realistic or more abstract style, the 56 artists on display provide a wealth of interpretations.

Jill Baratta’s twin collages, Injustice and Justice, provide the viewer with a splintered image of our nation’s home and another with a shaft of light breaking through the clouds and alighting on the same structure to signify the transparency of truth.  A simple message but a timely one.  Katherine Coakley’s swirl of colors against a black background give us a supernova; destruction and creation in one.  The power of abstraction writ bold is well represented—both in Mimi Herrera-Pease’s Dazzle and Loretta Kaufman’s arresting painting of triangular fragments, the latter creating a geometric puzzle of intricate beauty.  Portraiture and its potential to move us by its everlasting honesty is apparent in Alexandra Mears’ Lady with Fan. The radiance of her Elizabethan costume and the delicacy of the model’s pose with fan manages to make the image both evanescent and enigmatic.

Photography’s ability to both manipulate and elucidate reality is well-served here.  Two photographers have given nature its rightful due.  Susan Phillips’ Ice Art plays with an overlay of ice crystals on a bed of leaves and forces us to examine her subject in extreme closeup.  Carolyn Rogers’ Dreamscape plays with a scene of water, air and a weeping willow in shades of grey that needs no explanation to appreciate its well-defined beauty.

The well-attended reception on the evening of February 1st gave Washington and New York visitors alike a rare opportunity to see the versatility and excellence of women’s artworks in all their transparency.

Artworks: 1. Jill Baratta; 2. Mimi Herrera-Pease; 3. Katherine Coakley; 4. Loretta Kaufman; 5. Alexandra Mears; 6.Susan Phillips; 7. Carolyn Rogers.

 Author Bio:

Sandra Bertrand is Highbrow Magazine’s chief art critic.

For Highbrow Magazine

This is an excerpt from an article originally published in REUTERS. Read the rest here.

LONDON (Reuters) - Victoria Beckham looked back to the 1970s at London Fashion Week on Sunday, while Vivienne Westwood turned her catwalk into a stage to protest issues ranging from climate change to Brexit.

In front of an audience including Beckham’s husband David and their children, models wore dresses and skirts slim fitted over the knee, some with abstract chain patterns.

In a collection rich in vibrant colors and patterns, Beckham stuck to her signature silhouette of fitted skirt suits, which were checkered, and wide-leg trousers.

The former Spice Girl turned fashion designer used to present her line in New York during the catwalk season, but moved to London in September to celebrate the 10th anniversary of her eponymous brand….

Britain’s dame of fashion Vivienne Westwood gave models a voice on her catwalk.

The 77-year-old, known for her environmental activism, allowed her models, which included actress and anti-harassment campaigner Rose McGowan and other campaigners, to address various issues as she presented an eclectic mix of creations.

“We need more heroes,” McGowan declared on the runway.

Sustainable fashion, Britain’s looming exit from the European Union and climate change were addressed as models presented oversized checkered coats, tailored jackets, silk dresses, fitted knitwear and clashing prints.

Loose tops bore playing cards Westwood said she designed to “illustrate a plan to save the world from climate change”.

Both women and men took to the catwalk. Some wore Pinocchio-like long noses. Knotted headscarves were worn back to front.

Dozens of protesters from the Extinction Rebellion group also sought to shine a spotlight on climate change by temporarily blocking roads. Carrying flags and a “Rebel for Life” sign, they briefly stopped traffic outside the main London Fashion Week venue.

Reporting By Marie-Louise Gumuchian; additional reporting by Henry Nicholls, Jayson Mansaray and Mike Davidson; editing by Susan Fenton.

This is an excerpt from an article originally published in REUTERS. Read the rest here.

Highbrow Magazine

LaToya Ruby Frazier: Flint is Family by photographer and MacArthur Fellow, LaToya Ruby Frazier, currently on exhibit at the Frost Art Museum (Miami), explores Flint, Michigan’s water crisis and the effects on its residents.

Frazier spent five months with three generations of women – the poet Shea Cobb, Shea’s mother, Renée Cobb, and her daughter, Zion – living in Flint in 2016 witnessing their day-to-day lives as they endured one of the most devastating manmade ecological crises in US history.

Citing Gordon Parks and Ralph Ellison’s 1948 collaboration Harlem is Nowhere as an influence, Frazier utilized mass media as an outlet to reach a broad audience, publishing her images of Flint in conjunction with a special feature on the water crisis in Elle magazine in September 2016. Like Parks, Frazier uses the cameras as a weapon and agent of social change.

The exhibition is part of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Exhibition Series, which addresses issues of race, diversity, social justice, civil rights, and humanity to serve as a catalyst for dialogue and to enrich our community with new perspectives.

This exhibition is sponsored by African & African Diaspora Studies Program, College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts, FIU Alumni Association, Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work, and Multicultural Programs and Services.

The exhibit is on view through Sunday, April 14, 2019.

Highbrow Magazine

Mojdeh Rezaeipour is an Iranian-American artist and storyteller based in Washington, D.C. Her organic mixed media works and installations explore hyphenated identity and belonging, as well as the intersections of our collective striving for healing and transformation.

After completing her architectural studies at UC Berkeley, Mojdeh’s involvement in art and design has taken her to San Francisco, New York, Rome, Tokyo, and Berlin, where she spent the summer of 2018 on an arts fellowship awarded by The Studio Visit. Her exhibitions locally and internationally have been featured in publications such as The Rib, DIRT, So To Speak, and The Washington Post. Her stories have aired on The Moth Radio Hour on NPR and she also served as The Moth’s Washington DC StorySlam Producer from 2015-2018. Mojdeh’s work is privately collected worldwide, and several of her works were recently acquired for the permanent collection at Eaton Workshop in Washington, DC.

Memories, Dreams, Reclamations (یکی بود یکی نبود), recently exhibited at Gallery 30 South (Pasadena, California),  explores the spaces we are called to claim and reclaim between dualities of dark and light, pain and play, trauma and healing. 

In nonlinear collaboration with her past and future selves, Rezaeipour brings us inside of a semi-autobiographical landscape of learning and adaptation, where she engages in a process of piecing herself back together.   Her organic mixed media self-portraits, assemblages and installations incorporate natural elements and her own body, as well as photographs, early drawings and toys from the artist’s childhood in Iran.  Through this playful deconstruction and reconstruction of personal narrative, Rezaeipour exposes a familiar language of individual and collective resilience.

For more information, contact gallery director Matt Kennedy: (323)547-3227 or info@gallery30south.com

Highbrow Magazine

This is an excerpt from an article originally published by REUTERS. Read the rest here.

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Collectors from America and Europe are scouring Cape Town’s booming art scene in search of deals as diverse as an expressive oil painting by South Africa’s Irma Stern or a sculpture assembled from bottle caps by Ghana’s El Anatsui.

Dozens of venues, including the Association of Visual Arts Gallery and the converted grain silos of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art (MOCAA), are catering to aficionados seeking a good investment as well as the general public.

At a recent packed auction, bidding reached new highs as collectors phoning in from as far away as Chile and Canada competed against each other and the audience.

“We sold approximately 106 million rands ($7.3 million) worth of art, including commission...which is a record for South Africa and for Africa as a continent,” said Frank Kilbourn, executive chairman of auction house Strauss and Co. “It bodes extremely well for the future of African and South African art.”

More than 600 lots were sold, and on offer were a wide range of items: from Chinese and Japanese ceramics to works of South African heavyweights Stern, Gerard Sekoto and Alexis Preller.

Stern’s paintings took the top three spots by value, with the highest bidder paying just over 20 million rand for portrait “Arab”. The painting, still in its original carved wooden frame, is a previously unrecorded portrait of an Omani nobleman from the court of the Sultanate of Zanzibar.

Kilbourn said local buyers snatched up Stern’s works, although there was strong competition from abroad.

“We’ve got credible auction houses and a great gallery system and the world is now realizing that we’ve come of age,” he said. “It’s a great place to look at art and to buy art.”

The wide variety of contemporary works on offer include prints and drawings by South Africa’s William Kentridge, who has exhibited in New York and Paris, as well as the surreal canvasses of former prisoner-turned-artist Blessing Ngobeni.

Reporting by Wendell Roelf; editing by Alexandra Zavis and Marie-Louise Gumuchian.

This is an excerpt from an article originally published by REUTERS. Read the rest here.

Highbrow Magazine

Jennifer R. A. Campbell's compositions call attention to the chaotic world of humanity, while conversely investigating the various elements that inform the ways we interact. She presents her characters in fictitious landscapes, amid a frenzied environment that invites the spectator into a visual feast of symbols. In the absence of words, the viewer is able to arrive at multiple interpretations as to what is occurring in the scene presented as the artist furthermore highlights the absurdity of human existence.

According to Campbell, "Set in fictitious landscapes, these flickering vignettes involve characters cast from both the leisure class and the fringes of society. Comedy and tragedy mingle with satire and nonsense in ambiguous, yet suggestive narratives that call attention to the absurdity of human existence. Only the landscape backdrops are harmonious and well-ordered. Nature - beautiful and indifferent - offers no comment on the tragedies unfolding in the discordant and chaotic world of humanity."

Location:

Brentwood Arts Exchange

3901 Rhode Island Ave. 
Brentwood, MD 20722

301-277-2863

arts.pgparks.com

March 25- May 18, 2019  --  Free and open to the public.

Highbrow Magazine

Imagine a free-floating black kite, a red balloon weaving its way upwards into an infinite grey space and an enigmatic figure with a white circle for a head holding the balloon’s stringy yellow tail to the ground.  You have entered the universe of Joan Miro (1893-1983), and the painting just described is none other than “The Birth of the World.” If it takes a while to get your bearings in this strange landscape, it’s a journey worth the taking, and your suspension of disbelief is highly recommended.

This dazzling exhibition, “Joan Miro: Birth of the World” is not the first time that the Museum of Modern Art has focused on this surrealist Spanish master.  MOMA has devoted past exhibits in 1941, 1959, and 1993 (the artist’s centennial year) and such an immersion is understandable considering their extensive holdings.  On view are 60 paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints and illustrated books, produced from 1920 to the early 1950s.  Anne Umland, the Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller senior curator, with Laura Braverman as curatorial assistant, Department of Painting and Sculpture, have done an exemplary job in helping to elucidate this complicated Catalan genius.

Presented chronologically, there are some real treats for the eye in the early period when the Miro left the comforts of his birthplace at Montroig in 1920 for Paris. He soon became overwhelmed with the Fauvists and their audacious use of color; the Cubists and their assault on the conventions of two-dimensional space; and, particularly, his new Surrealist copains Andre Masson and Yves Tanguy, among others.  Inspiration rarely happens in a vacuum and these serendipitous encounters of sensibilities laid the groundwork for the marvelous visions to come. 

Miro’s close allies were often the Surrealist poets of the day.  The experimental poetry of Robert Desnos, Antonin Artaud and Tristan Tzara, for example, showed him how the pure psychic automatism embraced by these artists and their circle could free him from artistic control. (The exhibit includes several books of Tzara’s poetry illustrated by Miro.)

Miro’s immersion into the prevailing Parisian scene was perfectly timed.  Andre Breton’s First Surrealist Manifesto was written in the fall of 1924, and “The Birth of the World” produced in 1925.  Predating by decades the “action painting” of Jackson Pollock, the background is a grey morass of pouring, brushing, flinging gestures to signal the explosive nature of creation, acting as the stage on which his floating shapes take their place.  Acquired by MOMA as a gift from the artist in 1972, it justifies its place of honor in this show.

Such a work evoked “the void of the infinite”, according to the esteemed critic Waldemar George in 1928.  “Miro abandons any discernible equivalence of the world.  From now on, he acts in the world of magic.” 

How did he do it?  In the artist’s own words, from William S. Rubin’s comprehensive 1968 study, Dada and Surrealist Art, “I begin painting and as I paint, the picture begins to assert itself or suggest itself, under my brush.  The form becomes a sign for a woman or a bird as I work…the first stage is free, unconscious.”  The second stage, however, was “carefully calculated.”  A later observation by the renowned art critic Hilton Kramer from the same publication reveals that “surrealism did for Miro what neither Cubism nor any other purely plastic doctrine could have done.  It encouraged him to go back to his own childhood for the materials of his mature vision.”

The signs of a fledgling genius of improvisation are evident in his earliest efforts.  A highlight of this exhibit is undoubtedly the “Portrait of Enrich Cristofol Ricart”, three years prior to his departure for Paris.  One doesn’t have to have the most discerning eye to see influences of Van Gogh and Matisse in this arresting portrait.  The artist presents us with a garish yellow background, a Japanese print glued behind his subject, a floating artist’s palette added for good measure, with Ricart decked out in multi-colored striped pajamas. Even his hair is not left to chance, with a repetition of stripes interspersed in his neat black coiffure, giving the whole portrait an almost psychedelic draw. 

Interestingly, The Fundacio Joan Miro—a museum dedicated to his works and situated on the hill of Montjuis in Barcelona—contains an evocative portrait of Miro in military garb. Produced in 1916 by Ricart, Miro’s studiomate at the time, it exhibits a similar bold and colorful treatment of its subject. If not evidencing the same inventiveness and wit of Miro’s, it is a strong indication nevertheless of how two painters benefited from each other’s strengths.

Before the artist would abandon the world of formal if disjointed imagery, there are some fine examples of his academic mastery.  “The Table (Still Life with Rabbit” (1920-21), one of the few showings on loan from a private collection, presents a Cubist-inspired table, reminiscent of Matisse’s playful perspectives of tables with his signature goldfish.  In this case, Miro’s chief subjects are a still-life fish worthy of the finest Renaissance rendering, along with a rabbit and rooster, the latter two very much alive.  A clever transition from such efforts is at play in this first gallery, with “Dutch Interior (I)” and “Portrait of Mistress Mills” in 1750 (1928 and 1929 respectively), giving us the bulbous, biomorphic shapes with the wry humor that would distinguish his later signature works. 

“The Hunter (Catalan Landscape)” from 1924 is a signature work that acts for the viewer as a kind of roadmap for the black pictographs that would predominate for the rest of his artistic career. Miro doesn’t make his fantastical scene an easy one to interpret—it’s as if he set out to create a crazed cryptogram that only the most intrepid of idiot-savants could comprehend.  For the rest of us, comfort can be found in identifying the stick figure in the upper left of the picture—a mustached hunter smoking a pipe, a gun in one hand and a rabbit in the other. The genitals of his subject are there too, in symbolic form, but there’s nothing pornographic here to shock viewers. It’s a masterly puzzle of a serious dreamer.

Another crowd-pleaser is “Hirondelle Amour” (translation: sardine love) at over 6 feet high by 8 feet wide, it’s a jumble of highly contrasted, stylized limbs, hands, and toes in red, black, white and yellow against a midnight blue backdrop.  Good luck identifying the sardines!

A darker, more ominous direction became visible in the artist’s work when Miró was forced into exile in France late in 1936 due to his Republican sympathies at home and the onset of World War II. He moved his family to Varengeville, on the coast of Normandy, where he thought they would be safe. There, during a time of great personal anxiety, he began a series of small gouache and oil washes on paper collectively known as “The Constellations.” These works have a sense of immensity, despite their small size. They include “The Escape Ladder” (1940) and “The Beautiful Bird Revealing the Unknown to a Pair of Lovers” (1941), which are featured together in the exhibition. Viewers should note his collage of “Rope and People” during this time, combining coiled rope with grotesque figuration. One could argue that the preservation of his childhood imagery became a survival tactic for the artist.

After the war, his pictographic imagery held sway, bringing Miro to ever-increasing international renown.  On exhibit is his Mural Painting (1950-51), 20 feet in length, created as the result of a commission by Harvard University. 

How many of the multitudes that stand in awe before his dream landscapes, waiting for the iconic rabbit in the hat to appear or disappear, simply stare in wonder, uncomprehending?  Does it matter?  Our persistent love of the magician and his magic is precisely because we don’t know how he does it.  Miro’s magic is the gift that goes on giving.

“Miro: The Birth of the World” is on view through June 15, 2019 at MoMa.

Author Bio:

Sandra Bertrand is Highbrow Magazine’s chief art critic.

For Highbrow Magazine