IMPRESSIONS OF AN EXPRESSIONIST
1930 A little girl is sitting in her small wicker rocking chair. She has been given a new tablet of white paper, and her father has sharpened her pencil with his penknife. As usual, she is drawing the most beautiful ladies of which she is capable. She also draws gowns for them. Sometimes she draws paper dolls, about four inches tall, designs entire wardrobes for them, cuts them out and places them in her father's empty flat green metal Lucky Strike cigarette box - the 50 cigarette size.
1938 When she is sixteen she is accepted as an art student at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The students have the run of the museum before and after visiting hours. The world of the arts opens. She is still living at home and commuting by streetcar. It is not a dangerous city and there is transportation at all hours.
The beautiful ladies are forgotten; reality sets in. Outside the door of the Life Drawing classroom a group of new students have no idea what to expect. They murmur among themselves, saying that surely the models will be wearing clothes - won't they? Inside, they see the model. She is wearing a robe. She removes the robe and the Professor situates her on a raised platform. The students do not look at one another, they just begin to draw. The Professor walks from one student to another, advising and correcting. It suddenly becomes obvious to all that drawing and painting the human body is most difficult. The nudity is forgotten in the necessity of depicting the body in charcoal and various media. Life Class is hard work.
The girl notices that some of the advanced painters and sculptors who will have careers in the art world are not producing realistic art. A new idea has taken hold. It does not yet have a name, but it is arising in Chicago and in New York City: art does not have to be about something real, it must be an expression of one's emotions and reactions to the world around us. Make an abstraction of reality!
She shares her experiences with her parents. The nude models are taken for granted as part of an artist's education as well as all of the representational forms of art. But when she says, "I've learned that art doesn't have to be about anything, and I really like that idea." her father looks skeptical and a little disapproving.
2005 By the mid-twentieth century the new artform had a name: abstract expressionism. Its definition, as given in the previous post, describes the movement that troubled the father but entranced his daughter.
If you had a choice of an artwork - a painting, sculpture, drawing, photograph, lithograph - what would it be?
Alfred North Whitehead said
1938 When she is sixteen she is accepted as an art student at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The students have the run of the museum before and after visiting hours. The world of the arts opens. She is still living at home and commuting by streetcar. It is not a dangerous city and there is transportation at all hours.
The beautiful ladies are forgotten; reality sets in. Outside the door of the Life Drawing classroom a group of new students have no idea what to expect. They murmur among themselves, saying that surely the models will be wearing clothes - won't they? Inside, they see the model. She is wearing a robe. She removes the robe and the Professor situates her on a raised platform. The students do not look at one another, they just begin to draw. The Professor walks from one student to another, advising and correcting. It suddenly becomes obvious to all that drawing and painting the human body is most difficult. The nudity is forgotten in the necessity of depicting the body in charcoal and various media. Life Class is hard work.
The girl notices that some of the advanced painters and sculptors who will have careers in the art world are not producing realistic art. A new idea has taken hold. It does not yet have a name, but it is arising in Chicago and in New York City: art does not have to be about something real, it must be an expression of one's emotions and reactions to the world around us. Make an abstraction of reality!
She shares her experiences with her parents. The nude models are taken for granted as part of an artist's education as well as all of the representational forms of art. But when she says, "I've learned that art doesn't have to be about anything, and I really like that idea." her father looks skeptical and a little disapproving.
2005 By the mid-twentieth century the new artform had a name: abstract expressionism. Its definition, as given in the previous post, describes the movement that troubled the father but entranced his daughter.
If you had a choice of an artwork - a painting, sculpture, drawing, photograph, lithograph - what would it be?
Alfred North Whitehead said
Art is the imposing of a pattern on experience, and our aesthetic enjoyment in recognition of the pattern.
posted by marguerite louise at
12:39 PM
3 Comments:
What an intriguing and heartwarming memoir! How I love the image of that little girl, tucked cozily into her wicker rocking chair and drawing beautiful ladies in ball gowns! And even more, the 16 year-old, attending AIC in the company of artists breaking new ground. Such inspiration...such a heady and rarified atmosphere!
Thank you for sharing this, ML. You are worth more than all the world's masterpieces. :)
By
Anonymous, at 10/08/2005 2:14 PM
If I had to chose but one art form I would chose photography. While I enjoy all forms of artistic expression, I have been touched most by photographs; from their earliest form with powder flashes to through to modern digitally enhanced photographs. My favorite photos tend to represent life in all of its forms.
By
Anonymous, at 10/09/2005 3:27 PM
A lovely essay!
By
Anonymous, at 10/09/2005 10:35 PM
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