I Love a List, so the Art Alphabet is right up my street. We’ve reached L, almost halfway through & of all the arty lists, the Art Alphabet probably encourages me to spread the art net wider & discover things I’d never ordinarily have encountered. What started out as an easy week’s concept-free art searching has turned into one of the most interesting lists to find works for. & L was easy peasy…
L
1. An Animal (lion): The Lion of St Mark by Vittore Carpaccio (c. 1465-c. 1526)
File under “probably saw a stuffed lion once & the stuffing was really badly done & the teeth weren’t visible.” Anyway, St Mark’s connection with lions seems in part to have come from a miracle whereby Mark & his father encountered two lions. The father was understandably terrified & implored Mark to save himself. Unconcerned, Mark prayed to Christ for help & the lions fell down dead. This was enough to convert the father to Christianity; what a risky missionary job that was. There seem to be an awful lot of instances through time – not least in Biblical accounts - where bad things are happening to lions…
2. An Artwork (l’équipe): L’équipe by Anthony Green (1939-2023)
Anthony Green died on St Valentine’s Day this year. His paintings are often wonky, queasy-looking pieces which frequently depicted himself & his own home life. He used canvases of different shapes & explored a range of perspectives, sometimes within in the same work. His final exhibition opened on the day he died, a show in celebration of the letters to his wife & works he made during lockdown when he was unable to visit her in her care home.
3. A Body Part (leg): Untitled (Three Legs & Squash in Mirror, Yellow) by Heather Rasmussen (b. 1982)
Rasmussen’s surrealist photographs & sculptures feature her own body or plaster casts thereof. As a dancer, her use of mirrors facilitate a unique look at the relationship between a dancer & her own body. Her removal of a recognisable head/face & replacement with a mirror echoes the work of Hans Breder & suggests a comment on objectification of bodies in society. Sometimes the still life objects she uses as part of the piece, e.g. vegetables reflect the shapes of the body parts. She further explored her changing physical self throughout her own pregnancy.
4. An Artist (Lin Tinggui): Luohan Laundering by Lin Tinggui (c. 1174-1189)
This depicts a domestic scene of Buddhist monks on laundry day. Lin Tinggui painted some five hundred commissioned works for a series portraying Buddhist saints.
5. A Medium (lithograph): Vampire II by Edvard Munch (1724-1806)
This 1895 work by Munch was not intended as a representation of a feasting vampire but an art critic friend of his quipped that that’s what it looked like. Munch’s take was that it was a kiss, not a bite & had originally called it Love & Pain. There are several versions of this image, painted & printed.
6. An Art Tool (lightbox): A Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hokusai) by Jeff Wall (b. 1946)
The lightbox has a variety of uses. It can be utilised for tracing, creating dioramas or for providing a back light for photography, such as in this Hokusai-inspired piece. In the ‘70s, my parents had viewing boxes for their many suitcases (yes, really) full of photographic slides that had never been printed as photographs. This is much the same principle.
7. An Emotion (loyalty): Requiescat by Briton Rivière (1840-1920)
A bit sentimental as the Victorian era could be in painting & Rivière was a key culprit. But this 1888 work & his others are so beautifully rendered, you kind of have to forgive him for playing to the crowd. The dog’s stoic expression, the sensitivity in his features & paws, the sleekness of his coat. & when you get to the armour, the embroidered fabric, the meaningful & carefully fallen leaves & even the wooden frame, you realise you’re witnessing a master class in painting various textures.
8. An Art Group (London): The London Group, Torso in Metal from “The Rock Drill” by Jacob Epstein (1880-1959)
The London Group began as a platform for new art & to progress modern art by exhibiting regularly. As many of these groups do, it started as a rejection of what was on offer in the art world & as it superseded others, others have taken over the mantel of innovation. That said, the group still exhibits regularly. Some of the works, such as The Rock Drill from 1913-15 are so far out & innovative that they’ve come full circle & appear experimental & revolutionary once more.
9. A Country (Lebanon): Self Portrait by Saloua Raouda Choucair (1916-2017)
Whilst well-known in her own country, Choucair was overlooked by the global art establishment for a long time. Primarily an abstract artist, she was tutored in Paris by Fernand Léger, resulting in her exploring geometric forms, an interest likely to have been fostered in the Muslim art of her home. This led to working in three dimensions, but following the same principles of interconnecting shapes. As a shallow aside, I will say in reality her eyebrows really were as fantastic as her self portrait suggests.
10. A Famous Artwork (lady, Leonardo): Lady With an Ermine (Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani) by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
It’s a big hitter, no doubt but a stunning one at that. The lady concerned was known to be pregnant at the time of sitting for this portrait & the painting has an interesting history of being transported across Europe to avoid confiscation by the Nazis. I learned recently that Leonardo wasn’t always too bothered about what he painted on & that a knot in the wood caused a crack & almost ruined at least one work. Being different from all other artists generally, Leonardo seemingly preferred to paint on walnut wood, which this work is painted onto. When you consider that an ermine is basically a stoat, you see that he’s a bit big to be realistic & it’s been posited that Leonardo has in fact created a “mythical beast” here. Previously he’s been named as a marten or a ferret, which would certainly match his size better. Whatever the truth, he’s absolutely beautiful & I’ve always liked his intelligent face & muscular form.
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