A Visit to the Art Gallery
The artist and I have been to the Queensland Art Gallery to see the European Masterpieces Exhibition. For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about please allow me to quote from the Gallery website.
“Spanning 500 years, ‘European Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York’ offers a breath-taking journey from the 1420s and emerging Renaissance to conclude at the height of early twentieth century post-impressionism. This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity also allows visitors to experience works by painters such as Rembrandt, Rubens, Turner, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, and Monet, direct from The Met’s collection – one of the finest collections of European painting in the world, the majority of which rarely leave permanent display in New York.”
So if that doesn’t grab you, you might want to move on now. But I think you should hang in as I am not going to say too much of the usual stuff about art. The first point I want to make though is that I love art galleries at any time and not just for the art. Art Galleries seem to bring out the best behaviour of everyone there. People are polite and deferential, interested and involved, and there is usually a wide range of ages and backgrounds. It is just fantastic to see your fellow citizens open to ideas and really focus on the art. Art is one of the best ways to explore the meaning of life and what it means to be human. If only we humans always behaved like we were in an art gallery.
In this exhibition the art is mighty good as you would expect but because it has been curated around a theme more than a movement or an artist it is a bit like Cadbury’s Favourites chocolates - one or two of everyone so definitely more width than depth. But we do have the heavy hitters whose skills and vision have shaped the way we see the world. Now I could try and discuss the art’s meaning in the religious and cultural sense but I would be largely bullshitting and there are heaps of places you can go for that. If you can, go and see the exhibition for starters.
I do want to talk about some interesting points that struck me during the visit.
In some ways this art is like racy adult TV shows in the 1970s, there are heaps of female nudes but very few males. Obviously showing a bit of tit and ass has never and probably will never be out of style so no surprise that all the males are clothed when checking out the naked goddesses, servants, farm girls etc. It is always amazing to see how far we have changed our minds on what is “desirable” or “normal” about the female body shape over the centuries.
There are also heaps of naked cherubs, angels or baby Jesus' which is also interesting as TV and movies steer clear of toddler nudity. Let’s face you do not see toddlers without clothes running around anymore. Apparently in art of this period clothing symbolises the profane and nudity the sacred but you might want to fill in the details on that.
If you are not religious it can provoke a funny reaction. I have to say that Rubens is good at painting the human scrotum. I’m sorry but when I looked at the painting The Holy Family with Saints Francis and Anne and the Infant Saint John the Baptist that is what came into my mind instead of some higher emotion or thought about some biblical scene. Not something you would put on your business card but painting people is tricky stuff.
On the subject of children and teenagers in these paintings I swear 99% of them look kind of weird and as if they are possessed by Satan. Seriously there are some freaky looking kids in this exhibition. There is painting by Monet of his own son that is the equivalent of those embarrassing baby photos that some parents insist on dragging out when their child turns 18 or 21.
Another thing about the human body is how much harder it must be to paint hands than a female plump rump. Even the best must get a bit nervous when it comes to hands because there were some famous names in this show who for my money struggled to get the hands right. As it is the job of the art critic to call out where and when artists can do better I’m going to have to name names – C’mon Gagnacci and Jean-Baptiste Greuze lift your game.
One thing for sure playing guitar has always been cool. There are at least three paintings that have musicians banging out on some tunes on guitars or the renaissance equivalent, the Lute. One of them has a hero in the picture that is a dead ringer for Graham Gouldman, singer/guitarist of 10CC and the writer/cowriter of classics like The Hollies song Bustop, For Your Love for the Yardbirds and I’m not In Love and Dreadlock Holiday. I do mean dead ringer, check out The Musicians by Caravaggio and you will see what I mean
By the end I was elated by the exhibition. It is brilliantly put together and the additional displays and activities around the paintings are fantastic. There is something about seeing these masterpieces, their importance to art history and western civilisation that is exciting. Sort of like a low buzz almost a slight high in fact. I guess it is the shared emotional experience with the countless people that have been awed by them and the resulting feeling of connection in the presence of mastery. Art, it’s a turn on.
Six songs about art
Art for Art’s Sake – 10CC
Pablo Picasso – Jonathon Richman and the Modern Lovers
Andy Warhol – David Bowie
Meet James Ensor – They Might Be Giants
Artists Only – Talking Heads
When I Was a Painter - Breeders
