Memory Sky. 2016. Pastel. 9" x 12." Casey Klahn.
30 May, 2016
26 May, 2016
Self Portrait
Untitled. 2016. Pastel, Graphite & Dry Ground. 13.9" x 13.25." Casey Klahn. The artist at age 57. This is the informal photo.
17 May, 2016
25 April, 2016
The Gothic. 2016.
It's been a year or so that I've been painting portraits, and here are some personal comments on them. The main idea is to be different each time. This woman is called "The Gothic," because of my observations of frescos in Italy last year. A fresco is a work on plaster, and my desire is to have the muted tones, and the textures, show. Also, the Gothic Era was a particularly spiritual one, and "perspective" was more akin to what the Modernists later wanted to show. This "sign" says that; there is an expression revealed. I notice the colors are muted, but the blue on red treatment reminds me of a celluloid flash from the end of a film reel.
The Gothic. 2016. Pastel, Oil, Charcoal, Dry Ground & Graphite. 16.5" x 13.2." Casey Klahn.
24 April, 2016
19 April, 2016
The Sign He Makes
Cimabue Decorates the Apse. 2016. Pastel, Dry Ground, Oil & Graphite. 12" x 8.75." Casey Klahn.
30 March, 2016
15 March, 2016
09 March, 2016
03 March, 2016
3 Phase Portrait Poster
We're still on Matisse Month, which I think may become Matisse Year before I'm done writing it all. In the meantime, there's no reason not to post new stuff. Please enjoy. This portrait is so much about the element of color intensity, that I decided to deconstruct it in Photoshop just to see what I could see.
3 Phase Portrait. 15" x 7.8." Photoshop. Casey Klahn.
Mostly Yellow Portrait. 2018. Pastel. 13.5" x 8.25." Casey Klahn.
15 February, 2016
Intermezzo
Henri Matisse with Model Henriette Darricarrère, in Nice. 1927.
From Hilary Spurling, Smithsonian Magazine, 2005. Matisse and His Models.
The same seems to have been true of the models for his odalisque paintings of the 1920s. The first of these odalisques—sprawling in “harem costumes” on improvised divans—was Antoinette Arnoud’s successor, Henriette Darricarrère, who was working as an extra when Matisse spotted her in the film studios in Nice. He liked her natural dignity, the graceful way her head sat on her neck and, above all, the fact that her body caught the light like a sculpture. A ballet dancer and musician, Henriette became part of the family in the seven years she worked for Matisse. His wife grew especially fond of her, and he himself taught her to paint.
Matisse said it was essential to start by finding the pose that made any new model feel most comfortable. Henriette’s specialty was discovered by accident after a carnival party attended by Matisse and his daughter, dressed respectively as an Arab potentate and a beauty from the harem. Marguerite Matisse, Lorette, even Antoinette Arnoud, all tried on turbans and embroidered Moroccan tops, but it was Henriette, always modest, even prim, in her street clothes, who wore the filmy blouses and low-slung pants without inhibition, becoming at once luxuriant, sensual and calmly authoritative.
The pictorial possibilities she opened up for Matisse were enhanced by her exceptional sensitivity and stamina. He saw the work they produced together as an increasingly complex orchestration of colored light and mass, culminating in his Decorative Figure on an Ornamental Ground, which was almost as incomprehensible in 1926 as the Blue Nude had been nearly 20 years earlier. The painting is a riot of exuberant trompe l’oeil wallpaper, flowers, fruit and patterned textiles, all pinned firmly in place by the pale upright figure of Henriette. She looked as impersonal and unyielding as a side of packaged butcher’s meat to Matisse’s friend, the painter Jules Flandrin, who was baffled and exhilarated in equal measure: “I can’t begin to convey the brilliantly successful contrast between the wallpaper flowers and the woman so skillfully mishandled,” he wrote to a friend. Soon after the completion of Decorative Figure, Henriette left to get married.
Matisse Month
09 February, 2016
03 February, 2016
29 January, 2016
At the Used Book Stall.
Come with me downtown. We'll be looking in my favorite book stall. The one where the paperbacks smell like stale cigarette smoke and/or mildew. I prefer books where the author does not use "and/or" and "he/she." English may be from the gutter, but it will flow if written with style.
Never mind all that. Today we're going to grab Matisse On Art, mostly translated from the French. Why did I add the article: "the?" I'll stick to visual art - this writing stuff has pitfalls.
In years past my blogging style has been to keep things brief. This year, I am shifting gears for some reason. It feels right that this platform become a place for luxuriously long reads and, when they are on topic, videos. I hope you'll stick around for this year of deeper content. This month we are Celebrating Henri Matisse and I have barely scratched the surface. Maybe we'll extend Matisse Month.
There. I just paid the vendor and now I'm going to walk straight to the waterfront cafe, grab a cup of coffee and read these essays and interviews by and of Henri Matisse.
26 January, 2016
Fifty Self Portraits
There Is No Model. 2016. Pastel, Graphite & Dry Ground. 10.5" x 8.4." Casey Klahn.
Fifty Self Portraits.
24 January, 2016
Virtual Walk Through of the Cut Outs and My Visit to the MoMA in 2014
In 2014 it was my thrill to see the Henri Matisse Cut Outs exhibit at the MoMA. Installed in multiple rooms, including a full scale model of the dining room in Nice where he created the Swimming Pool, this exposition brought Matisse's legacy forward. He still thrills and challenges visual norms. In the last paragraph below there is a link to a virtual walk through of the Cut Outs.
The indefatigable Hilary Spurling, Matisse's biographer, Sums up his life and the Cut Outs in this video from the Tate.
Although at first much of this new form of art seemed impenetrable to me, I slowly began to unlock Henri's messages. Some are as simple as how his maquette for a Vance window means "up," or how Oceana means "immersive and unified." Gustave Moreau taught Matisse and prophesied that he would "simplify art." Indeed, here in the final works of his long career, Henri Matisse distilled color and form into visual delights without missing a beat. It's as if you are awoken in an operating room and your visuals are being administered intravenously. There is no spoon-feeding of subjects or details; you feel directly the experience of a lifetime of seeing. You are walking around inside of Matisse's artwork.
Matisse was not being boastful when he said that it would take fifty years for people to understand these works. Here we are over sixty years hence, and mystery still enshrouds his works. What was he trying to say (and what gave him the iron nerve to say it?) with these childish decoupages?
MoMA provides this examination of what the Cut Outs are.
This walk-through link gives you nearly the experience of the actual show, except that it is linear instead of circuitous. Using clear colors and sharp photography, it provides you with a fine record of the event. Enjoy. Source: New York Times.
Attributions:
"When he’s genuinely tough and self-demanding, as he is in some later work, he’s on a plane of his own. Whatever pain it took, the late work is made for love."
Produced by Larry Buchanan, Alicia DeSantis and Josh Williams. Composite photograph by Emon Hassan. Images © 2015 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
22 January, 2016
20 January, 2016
17 January, 2016
Matisse Chapel and Tate Matisse Blog
Simple observations are often the kernel of genius. The rub is, they have to contain the truth. Henri Matisse had the genius of simplicity.
On the subject of simplicity, I keep coming back to what Françoise Gilot says (without wasting a word herself) about Henri Matisse and his work. She revered his objective of "...mounting the color to the extreme."
You can learn much by watching a master just drawing on the wall. Here is a short video of Matisse as he designed the Chapel of the Rosary in Vence, France.
For more resources on Matisse, on the subject of the chapel project and much more, I refer you to the Tate Modern blogs on Matisse.
On the subject of simplicity, I keep coming back to what Françoise Gilot says (without wasting a word herself) about Henri Matisse and his work. She revered his objective of "...mounting the color to the extreme."
11 January, 2016
Northwest School (Seen Differently)
Northwest School. Self Portrait. 2016. Pastel. 11.6" x 8.4." Casey Klahn.
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