Un dimanche après-midi à l'Ile de la Grande Jatte
"Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte"; it is my favorite painting done by Georges Seurat. I have never actually seen the original that hangs in Art Institute of Chicago since I have yet to go to Chicago, but I have seen some of Seurat's studies of it. One of them hangs in the Metropolitan in New York City. It is a phenomenal piece. When you look at it very close up all you see are these tiny little dots of color and think what the heck? But, as you get further and further away from it, the painting comes into focus, you realize what it is and you can truly see the beauty of the piece.
Even though (the shock of it all) I was an international business major in college, I studied Impressionism, Post-Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism before, during and after college. They are my favorite art time periods. Degas, Renoir, Monet, Manet, I can tell the difference, the strokes and techniques are my favorite. Degas is really my favorite of all really since I love ballerinas. You wouldn't know by looking at me but till I was 12, I danced. I was even accepted into the Pennsylvania School of Ballet
I can sit in the Philadelphia Art Museum for hours looking at the Impressionism collection. We are lucky enough to have another fabulous collection, The Barnes Foundation which is one of the world's largest collection of Impressionist and Post Impressionist artwork open to the public with pieces by Picasso, Matisse, Cézanne, Renoir and Modigliani, to name a few. I once came within days of meeting Marc Chagall. He died just a week before his exhibit opened here and he was supposed to come. We actually have tickets. The exhibit was still spectacular.
l'Ile de la Grande Jatte is probably why I like colors all over the place and not really satisfied with solids. I am never really quite drawn to them. It is also why things close up look like a mess but when you back up slowly, it comes into focus. I put a copy of l'Ile de la Grande Jatte in my side bar to remind me of that.
3 comments:
My dad has this painting hanging over his bed. It's been in my parents' house for as long as I can remember. As a family, we always had black labs for pets. As a small child, I always thought the dog was our dog Mattie, and I thought the woman in the middle with the parasol and the little girl were me and my mother.
Good times. :o)
WOW - I did so NOT know that about you!
my favorite is toulouse-lautrec. ANYTHING by him makes me gaga.
and yes, the impressionist gallery at the PMOA is the ONLY place to go. but I have never been to the barnes (can you believe it?).
I sense a field trip coming up...
Have you tried dying self-patterning yarn? It's kind of the same gestalt thing. Especially if you think of the "V" in stockinette stitch, it's a lot like paint dots.
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