ArtExpertOnLine

    This week we are dipping way back to the 17th century for what is considered a genre painting.  Card playing must have been  a favorite pastime in Europe for generations as many artists tackled the subject, all the way up to Cezanne, and maybe later.   Our artist today is Judith Lester, (1609-1660).  Her work is often mistaken for Frans Hal, a man with whom she studied and worked beside.  Although it is impossible to know for sure, most references accredit them as simply artists of a like mind, and that Lester seems to have achieved her successes on her own merits.  She did become a member of the artists guild of the day, which was a considerable achievement.                 In this case, "genre" painting refers to painting of the everyday, or images of people going about their everyday life, and almost always it is not the upper class, but the middle class or poor.   This painting shows what appears to be three men and one woman.  The man on our right is joyfully showing

     I was looking for an abstract, contemporary image, until I ran into this.   Far from abstract, this is true realism, and so realistic it is a specific stadium, a specific game, featuring a great player up to bat.  The year is 1951 and we are in Griffin Stadium, in Washington D.C.  The Washington Senators are in the field, with the New York Yankees up to bat.  Baseball historians will recognize the batter as Joe DiMaggio because of his characteristic wide stance.  Also, 1951 is his last year of play.   The pitcher is not identified, but the posture of all the Senators shows the tension as the pitcher is about to throw the ball to one of the greatest hitters of all time.      Marjorie Acker Phillips (1894 - 1985) is our artist.  She was married to Duncan Phillips who was a huge baseball, Washington Senator fan.  They had box seats and attended most games, and Marjorie took her sketchpad with her, making endless drawings of the field, players and action.   This painting is the most s

   This is one of those images that make me happy a few things have improved with time.   This painting was done in 1912 but it took another fifty years (and plus) before the automatic washer and drier were used in most American households.  Our artist is John Sloan (1871-1951) and he painted this scene after viewing it out his apartment window in New York City.   If you know this city, the exact location is East 22nd Street.   It is described as a tenement house, which is an apartment building owned by one person, divided into units which are rented out to others.  A tenement is usually thought of as a building meeting minimum standards required by a city for multiple occupancy.       This is an interesting time in American history.   Edith Warton wrote novels about life of the super elite, rich and photographer Lewis Hine was photographing young children forced into hard labor rather than attend school.  It must have been a time of extreme contrasts.  So along came a group of artists

    Our image this week comes a day late, but it is a major painting in the history of art and culture.  The artist is Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968).      Duchamp had an interesting life.  He was one of four successful artists coming out of a large family, and certainly the most famous, and influential of the four.  He began as a painter but eventually set aside painting to explore many more artistic and creative ideas.  He had the good fortune to be both highly creative and intelligent.  He and others explored what they called the 4th dimension which (briefly) is a concept simultaneously bringing together multiple views, as observed from differing points of view, all at the same time. Confusing?  I agree. But it got the creative world thinking and Art was never quite the same.     "Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2" is a work from 1912.  It was a monumentally important work because it combined Picasso and Braque's fragmented cubism with the ideas of a group called the Futu