#art conversation

[tarynpaigeauthor]

Thought and language are to the artist instruments of an art. Vice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art.

Oscar Wilde

[philamuseum]

This painting by Thomas Eakins is the subject of this week’s Spotlight Gallery Conversations on Friday and Saturday at 11:00 a.m. It created some controversy when it was first exhibited—a reviewer wrote: "What ruins the picture is much less the want of beauty in the model (as has been suggested in the public prints) than the presence in the foreground of the clothes of that young woman, cast carelessly over a chair. This gives the shock which makes one think about the nudity—and at once the picture becomes improper."

“William Rush Carving His Allegorical Figure of the Schuylkill River,” 1876–77, by Thomas Eakins 

[philamuseum]

This painting is one of a series of melancholic cityscapes that Giorgio de Chirico painted shortly before World War I. The antique statue represents the sleeping Ariadne, who in Greek mythology was abandoned by her lover Theseus on the desert island of Naxos. The justaposition of the classical world with a modern steam engine in the distance creates an ambiguity of time and space. Join us for a Spotlight conversation about this work tomorrow, Friday, and Saturday at 11:00 a.m.  

“The Soothsayer’s Recompense,” 1913, by Giorgio de Chirico © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SIAE, Rome 

[philamuseum]

This painting by Juan Gris is the subject of this week’s Spotlight Gallery Conversations at 11:00 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. The inclusion of the letters "PIC" and "AP" to the left of the man's shoulder can be understood as a reference to Pablo Picasso, the cocreator of Cubism, and Guillaume Apollinaire, the movement's fervent critical champion.

“Man in a Café,” 1912, by Juan Gris 

[philamuseum]

It’s believed that this life-size reliquary once contained an arm bone of Saint Babylas, the bishop of Antioch who martyred around the year 250. Learn more about this container of relics and Saint Babylas at one of this week’s Spotlight Gallery Conversations on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday at 11:00 a.m.

“Arm Reliquary of Saint Babylas,” 1467, Germany 

[philamuseum]

Rooms designated specifically for dining weren’t common in French homes until after the 1770s. This group of nymphs was made for the dining room of the Parisian town house of the count of Botterel-Quintin. Join us at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday for Spotlight Gallery Conversations. This week we’ll discuss this sculpture by Claude Michel.

“Nymphs Holding Aloft a Platter Charged with Fruit,” c. 1785–93, by Claude Michel (called Clodion) 

[philamuseum]

American artists of the Great Depression embraced lithography as a fine art, enthusiastically experimenting with different textures and tones in this accessible print medium. Learn more about lithography and the “We the People” exhibition through Paul Meltsner’s lithograph “Industrial Landscape” at this week’s Spotlight Gallery Conversations at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.  

"Industrial Landscape," around 1938, by Paul R. Meltsner