The Art Thread

[andak01]

Suggested topics:

The first two, only since I think it might be more thematic to the forum.

Great Jewish Artists - My picks (Marc Chagall, Mark Rothko, Max Beckmann)

Great Jewish Art Collectors and Patrons

Color Theory

Conceptual Art

[andak01]

Not a topic of interest I guess.

[Mediocrates]

We're probably not knowledgeable on the subject.

[Mediocrates]

I do like Modigliani but I'm not an art student who could tell you the theory of it. I also enjoy the intimacy of Raphael Soyer.

[andak01]

I do like Modigliani but I'm not an art student who could tell you the theory of it. I also enjoy the intimacy of Raphael Soyer.

Him I met many years back in the 80's. There was an opening for Isabel Bishop and he was there. I remember laughing at the time that the median age at the opening was 90 and everybody was about five foot nothing. It was like a convention for dried apples! It must have been the year before he died. He's was good, and he had brothers I believe. Here it is, Moses and Isaac, also painters.

Here's something to look at.

This is really late work. His classic work was during the 1930s and 40s.
http://www.askart.com/AskART/artists...S&artist=24158


http://www.paramourfinearts.com/phot...-%20Behind.jpg

http://www.tfaoi.com/am/6am/6am5.jpg

He was in New York with Isabel Bishop. I'd say he was Ashcan school, but almost a generation after the founders. It started in Philadelphia. Robert Henri was one of the founders.

Here's Isabel Bishop.

http://www.britannica.com/eb/art-583...l-on-canvas-by

[dayag]

I do like Modigliani but I'm not an art student who could tell you the theory of it. I also enjoy the intimacy of Raphael Soyer.

I love Modigliani's work. I bought a copy of "Jeanne Hebuterne in Red Shawl" the last time I was in Jerusalem.

I visited his grave at Pere LaChaise.

[andak01]

Back to the art thread. Question, is there a Jewish aesthetic and what is it? I submit that there is and IMO the embodiment of it was Chagall. Maybe this is my Fiddler on the Roof stereotype of what it is to be Jewish. Or maybe Fiddler on the Roof comes from Chagall... Wow, I was right! Who learned that one today? I did. Or subconsciously I remembered it. Anyway it's nice to make connections.

Fiddler plucks at the same chord. The musical is milder and gentler, and this Tevye is a watered down version of Aleichem’s Tevye. Indeed, the name Fiddler on the Roof was drawn from a well-known, much loved image by Marc Chagall.

http://www.jewish-theatre.com/visito...?articleID=650

Here's the painting.

http://www.fiddlingaround.co.uk/Reso...en-fiddler.jpg

Now the question next is, where does that come from? I was lucky enough to go to Prague a few years back and I saw in one of the national museums there a world of wonder, an aesthetic that had been closed to me because many works from behind the Iron Curtain were not allowed to travel and there wasn't much information or reproductions of those works here in America. Now, can we get to what Chagall saw that inspired him to such a wonderful work of fancy?

Let's start with his background. He's Belarus, but I need to know when he was there, what did he see and when did he leave. When was the painting painted and who was he hanging around with?

Here's a version painted 1912-1913.
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...%3Den%26sa%3DN

1913 puts him in Paris. And I already wanted to say a Braque/Picasso influence, but just wanted to confirm. Cubism was developed in the first decade of the 20th century and Braque and Picasso became so close that is is difficult to tell their work apart at this point. Chagall arrived in Paris in 1910. But Fiddler, one of many painted by Chagall bridges the gap between Cubism and the later Surrealist movement. This cubism is only skin deep. He's got more interest in the surreal subject matter.

http://www2.nysun.com/article/50418

http://www.aspenpost.net/2006/10/31/...r-on-the-roof/

What do the Jews here think of Fiddler on the Roof? Is it some Uncle Tom stereotype or is it something really owned and admired with fondness.