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Summer Exhibition: Luc Tuymans

Published June 23, 2010 works of art Closed
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The first U.S. retrospective of Luc Tuymans’ paintings is currently on display at the Dallas Museum of Art.  Approximately 80 paintings by the Belgian artist are on view in our Barrel Vault and Quadrant Galleries through September 5th.

Part of what I love about these paintings is Tuymans’ interest in history and culture.  I am also intrigued by the sense of mystery in his canvases.  An image may appear ordinary, but through reading the label you learn that it is actually beyond ordinary, sometimes bordering on the grotesque.  For example, the painting The Heritage VI looks like a portrait of a smiling average Joe, but he is actually far from average.  His name is Joseph Milteer, and he was a right-wing extremist and Klansman who played a role in conspiracy theories about the Kennedy assassination.      

Luc Tuymans, The Heritage VI, 1996

Tuymans is also very interested in World War II.  One of my favorite paintings is Schwarzheide, which shares its name with a concentration camp.  At his public Artist Talk on June 3rd, Tuymans talked at length about this painting.  He said that artists in concentration camps and work camps would often tear their paintings and drawings into strips so they could distribute them.  Although many people read the vertical lines on this canvas as the bars on a window, they are actually meant to remind us of how artists continued to produce images during the most difficult circumstances.   

Luc Tuymans, Schwarzheide, 1986

 There are several opportunities for teachers to learn more about Luc Tuymans throughout the summer:   

  • The annual Museum Forum for Teachers: Modern and Contemporary Art will be held from July 19-23.  Teachers will spend Wednesday, July 21st, immersed in the Tuymans exhibition, as well as viewing other contemporary works of art in the DMA’s collection.  The application deadline for Museum Forum has just been extended to July 1st. 
  • Gallery Talks relating to the exhibition have also been planned, including a series called Perspectives.  Jim Falk, President and CEO of the World Affairs Council, will moderate discussions with artists, historians, and scholars to investigate the artistic and cultural issues that inform Luc Tuymans’ work.  Visit our Web site for more information.
  • Experience the smARTphone tour for the Tuymans exhibition.  Bring your smart phone to the Museum to access new and interactive content.  A limited number of iPod Touches are also available for check out from the Visitor Services Desk.  You can also access the smARTphone tour online.

I hope you enjoy this exhibition as much as I do!

Shannon Karol
Coordinator of Museum Visits     

Images:
Luc Tuymans, The Heritage VI, 1996; oi on canvas; Courtesy David Zwirner, New York; © Luc Tuymans; photo: courtesy David Zwirner, New York
Luc Tuymans, Schwarzheide, 1986; oil on canvas; Private collection; © Luc Tuymans; photo: courtesy David Zwirner, New York

Community Connection: Using Art to Get at Life

Published March 18, 2010 Art & Teaching , People 1 Comment
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As museum professionals, we attend conferences regularly to share the exciting work we are doing at the DMA and to learn from our national and international colleages.  I attended the annual National Art Education Assocation Convention for the first time in 2004, and I had the pleasure of participating in a session led by Dr. Terry Barrett.  Since then, I scan each year’s schedule to make sure I don’t miss an opportunity to learn from Dr. Barrett.  Last year, I was delighted to hear that he had joined the Art Education faculty at the University of North Texas.  I recently had a chance to talk with Dr. Barrett before UNT adjourned for Spring Break. 

Dr. Terry Barrett

What sparked your interest in art education?

I’ve been in the field a long time and I got into it by default.  When I graduated from college, I was eligible for the Vietnam War draft.  I was opposed to the war, and one way to avoid the draft was to teach.  I began teaching in an inner-city, all-black high school in St. Louis; I was there the year Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot.  I fell in love with the kids and decided I liked teaching.  I’ve been teaching ever since.

How would you describe your theory to a person with no experience in art education?

My mission is to help people appreciate art and to appreciate life through art, because I think art gives us different ways of thinking about the world.

Did you ever have a great idea that didn’t work?  What did you learn from that experience?

No, I don’t think I ever had a great idea that didn’t work.  Thinking of “great ideas” is intimidating in itself.  Other people come to me with great ideas – I have said yes to many offers throughout my career, and that’s led me to different directions that have been very interesting.

For example, one big change in my career occurred when a former student asked if I would be an art critic in education for the Ohio Arts Council and I said, “Yeah, why not?”  Being an art critic in the schools enlivened me;  my research, my teaching and my community service came together like a circle – a productive circle.

I was a cancer patient about 5 years ago.   I went through chemotherapy and private counseling and during that time I figured out I wasn’t afraid to die, but I was afraid of becoming old and inactive.  My counselor told me I have to get over that fear and suggested I go to an assisted living community and work with the elderly.  I said “Why not?”.  I also started doing contemporary art interpretation with people with cancer, and we started seeing how those images related to our lives. They really enjoyed the process and produced some beautiful writings.  That’s when I started thinking about life issues more than art issues and using art to get at life.

I had enough years at Ohio State to retire, but there was an opening at University of North Texas and I thought “Why not?”.  I wasn’t ready to retire; I wanted to stay active and keep working, writing, and teaching.

I love your artist statement about choices you’ve made related to making art, your creative process, and the materials you choose.  Can you tell me more about how you came to these decisions – was it a learning experience of trial and error, or did you approach artmaking this way from the beginning?

When I was young, I made art instinctively and intuitively. As I got older and was writing more, I didn’t have time to make art and do it well, so I stopped.  I realized I missed it, and that’s when I began painting.  Sandy Skoglund told me I needed something to fit my lifestyle.  As an example, she told me about a friend who frequently traveled on an airplane and made small collages because they didn’t require a lot of space or materials.  The small paintings I make really satisfy me.  They’re fun to make and I don’t exhibit them; I just do them for my own enjoyment.

It seems like much of your life and work has been in the Midwest, specifically Ohio.  What is your impression/experience of living and working in north Texas?

I miss the trees, but I like the sunshine a lot. The people here are friendlier than they are in the Midwest. There’s a degree of politeness that I like; the Midwest has a reputation for being a friendly place, but people here smile and make eye contact and open doors more than I’m used to.  I love wide open skies, and I love living in horse country.  I wish some rich ranch owner would give me a little plot of land to live on a horse farm, where I would build a small green house with a small ecological footprint.

Dr. Barrett will lead part of an upcoming Teacher Workshop titled  Exploring Photography: The Lens of Impressionism, along with photographer and educator Frank Lopez.  Visit the website to learn more and register.

Melissa Nelson
Manager of Learning Partnerships with the Community

New Resources for the Lens of Impressionism Exhibition

Published March 6, 2010 Art & Teaching , Technology , works of art Closed
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Travel to the French coastline through the new Lens of Impressionism: Photography and Painting Along the Normandy Coast, 1850–1874 teaching materials .   These resources include artwork information, images, and much more!     Bon voyage!

 
Until next time….

Jenny Marvel
Manager of Learning Partnerships with Schools

Literary Connections to the DMA Collection

Published January 14, 2010 works of art 4 Comments
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Back in October, I blogged about the Beat Generation and Abstract Expressionism.  Since then, I have continued to explore connections between great works of literature and works of art in the DMA collection.  The number of literary connections in our collection is amazing, and I’m excited to share some of them with you.

For example, did you know that the characters of Dick and Nicole Diver in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night were inspired by the artist Gerald Murphy and his wife Sara?  Fitzgerald even dedicated the novel to them: “To Gerald and Sara–Many fêtes.”  Gerald and Sara Murphy were Americans who made their home on the French Riviera, which is where Part I of Tender is the Night takes place.  The Murphys were also great friends with authors like Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway and with artists like Pablo Picasso and Fernand Léger.  The DMA owns two paintings by Gerald Murphy: Watch and Razor.  These are two of only seven paintings by Murphy still known to exist today. 

Gerald and Sara Murphy

Connections can also be made between works of art in our European galleries and literature from Antiquity.  Jacques-Louis David’s Apollo and Diana Attacking the Children of Niobe shows a scene from Ovid’s Metamorphoses.  Niobe was a woman who boasted about how wonderful her fourteen children were.  The goddess Latona was offended by this and sent her own children–Apollo and Diana–to murder Niobe’s sons and daughters.  David fills his canvas with the attack, and we see thirteen of Niobe’s children lying murdered on the ground (Niobe’s youngest daughter is still alive, shielded by her mother’s cloak).  Ovid’s description of the deaths, especially of Niobe’s sons, are so precise that you can identify which male figure is which son based on the wounds David has included. 

Jacques-Louis David, Apollo and Diana Attacking the Children of Niobe, 1772

My favorite literary connection is between Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux’s Ugolino and His Children and Dante’s Inferno.  Count Ugolino resides in the lowest circle of Hell.  During his lifetime, Ugolino was jailed for treachery and was locked away with nothing to eat.  Eventually, his sons and grandsons began to die, and they pleaded with Ugolino to eat their flesh so he would stay nourished.  Carpeaux’s sculpture shows Ugolino gnawing at his own fingers, and we get a sense of the agony he must be feeling as he tries to decide whether or not to devour his own family members.  

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Ugolino and His Children, 1860 (cast c. 1871)

If you love literature and the Dallas Museum of Art as much as I do, you should attend the Late Night celebration on January 15th.  Arts and Letters Live will kick off their 2010 season with a “Literary Deathmatch.”  Four authors representing different Texas cities  will compete to be named the Literary Deathmatch Champion.  It sounds like an event not to be missed!

Shannon Karol
Tour Coordinator 

Coming Soon: The Lens of Impressionism

Published December 1, 2009 Museum Insight Closed
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Last week, while spending Thanksgiving with my family in Michigan, I convinced my sister to drive me to Ann Arbor to visit The University of Michigan Museum of Art. I love the UMMA and always look for any excuse to visit when I am home, but this time I had a special assignment. I was there to do background research as we plan tours, teacher workshops, and online teaching materials for The Lens of Impressionism: Photography and Painting Along the Normandy Coast, 1850—1874, an exhibition that will open at the DMA on February 21, 2010.

The Lens of Impressionism at The University of Michigan Museum of Art

The Lens of Impressionism is a great exhibition for teaching about artistic process—you can look at images of the same stretch of coastline and compare what painters and photographers are choosing to include in their compositions. To me, the highlight of the exhibition was seeing a handful of original paper negatives, dating to the 1850s. I can’t even begin to imagine how hard it would be to preserve a paper negative for 150 years. The negatives were displayed in lightboxes next to contemporary prints made from the negatives. They provide a great tool for teaching about photography and making photographic prints—something students may not know about in our digital age.

One of my favorite paintings from the Detroit Institute of Arts is in the exhibition—Edouard Manet’s On the Beach (Sur la plage)—and I can’t wait until it arrives in Dallas and I can visit it whenever I like. However, I think I may have a new favorite painting: Eugène Boudin’s Bathing Time at Deauville, from the National Gallery of Art. Men and women visit the beach dressed in their Sunday best—it’s definitely very different from what we wear to the beach today! I also love the horses and dogs that stand on the shore, and I think this will be a fun painting to explore with students on tours.

We will be offering a variety of programs for students and teachers relating to The Lens of Impressionism: Photography and Painting Along the Normandy Coast, 1850—1874, including an Evening for Educators on February 23, 2010. Visit our website for additional information on tours and teacher workshops, and be sure to check back in February for a new set of online teaching materials.

Me, outside of the UMMA

Shannon Karol
Tour Coordinator

New Resources for Teachers

Published October 19, 2009 Art & Teaching , works of art Closed
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ATWAS Pachy imageExplore ten works of art in the new All the World’s a Stage:Celebrating Performance in the Visual Arts teaching materials.   These resources include information, images, music, and  much more! 

I encourage you and your students to discover ways that these works of art communicate ideas about the power of performance.

Until next time…

Jenny Marvel
Manager of Learning Partnerships with Schools

The Beat Goes On

Published October 6, 2009 works of art 2 Comments
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A few weeks ago, I gave a Gallery Talk at the DMA that made connections between Abstract Expressionism and the Beat Generation.  I graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in Art History as well as English, so I am always looking for ways to make literary connections in our galleries.  Jackson Pollock’s Cathedral is one of my favorite paintings in our collection, and it provides the perfect comparison for the writings of the Beat Generation. 

The Beats believe in spontaneity and writing what is on your mind—an “undisturbed flow,” as Jack Kerouac called it.  Part I of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl, an iconic work of Beat literature, is one long run-on sentence.  Ginsberg uses commas and semicolons to punctuate stanzas, but a period does not appear until the very end of Part I.  The Beats also felt that an author should write in the moment and shouldn’t worry about grammar or punctuation (see Jack Kerouac’s The Essentials of Spontaneous Prose, 1959).  Kerouac’s first draft of On the Road was written over the course of three weeks, and in the end looked like one massive paragraph.  He didn’t think about punctuation or line breaks—he just let his words flow.  

So what does all of this have to do with Jackson Pollock?  Just as the Beats were letting words and ideas spontaneously stream onto paper, Jackson Pollock allowed paint to flow from his brush onto canvas.  His gestures draw our eye across—and right up to the edges—of the canvas, and we can imagine how he moved his arm and body through the picture plane.  There is a fantastic quote from Pollock that really illustrates just how similar his technique was with the Beat philosophy of writing: 

“When I am in my painting, I’m not aware of what I’m doing.  It is only after a sort of ‘get acquainted’ period that I see what I have been about.  I have no fear of making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own.  I try to let it come through.  It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess.  Otherwise there is pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well.” ~Jackson Pollock, My Painting, 1947-1948.

Pollock painted “in the moment,” and his lines and gestures come together to create one unified masterpiece.  It’s also interesting to note another link between Pollock and the Beats–Cathedral was titled by another Beat poet: Frank O’Hara.  O’Hara described the painting in this way: “Cathedral is brilliant, clear, incisive, public—its brightness and its linear speed protect and signify, like the façade of a religious edifice…”
 
 I’m looking forward to continuing to explore interdisciplinary (especially literary) connections in the DMA’s collection and sharing these connections with our docents—and with student groups.  Are there other interdisciplinary connections that you make in your classrooms using the DMA’s collection?  If so, I would love to hear about them!       

 

Shannon Karol                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Tour Coordinator

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