Showing posts with label royalty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label royalty. Show all posts
Monday, August 31, 2015
Kehinde Wiley
When John and I first visited the Oak Park Public Library, I turned a corner and I instantly knew I was looking at a painting by contemporary artist Kehinde Wiley. Wiley blends traditional painting techniques with contemporary figures in clever juxtapositions. The specific painting I encountered at the Library displays several figures 'floating' in a realm of robins egg blue and brightly colored damask. Wiley positions individuals, typically people of color, in traditional poses found in classical paintings, specifically portraiture. An initial interpretation of his work could describe Wiley as attempting to elevate or ennoble people using gestures and postures that were usually reserved for European royalty and aristocracy. The cultural linkage in a contemporary sense makes one think of opulent and flashy hip-hop and rap stars. Wiley has a fascinating expression, that is aesthetically interesting and also historically inquisitive. A great combination of the past mixed with the present.
Monday, January 14, 2013
Inventing Extravagance
European furniture from the 18th Century might not be initially interesting to you, but trust me on this one, it's absolutely fascinating. I could spend weeks studying elaborate rococo and baroque furniture to my delight, but getting people to understand what I understand is a different challenge.
As a former docent at The Frick Collection, I studied craftsmen, Jean Henri Reisener, and Martin Carlin, but the Metropolitan Museum of Art introduced me to the most elaborate dynasty of furniture that I've ever seen. Furniture that features many hidden drawers, lifting platforms, turning gears, levers that hide and pop-out at a push of a button. All mechanised and all handmade. Extravagant Inventions: The Princely Furniture of the Roentgens is perhaps one of the most influential and inspiring furniture exhibitions that I've ever seen in New York City.
It's easy to perceive that such furniture has no relative meaning to the average person, but such elaborate configurations can give critical historical insights to the rituals and customs of royalty, aristocracy, and those who worked for such clients.
Father and son, Abraham and David Roentgen, were trained cabinetmakers, whose work existed in a highly competitive industry of furniture making. Europe had established advanced self-regulated networks of guilds and workshops that produced furniture that could never be reproduced today. For example, the technique of gilding (with mercury) onto fixtures, is an internationally outlawed practice.
As a former docent at The Frick Collection, I studied craftsmen, Jean Henri Reisener, and Martin Carlin, but the Metropolitan Museum of Art introduced me to the most elaborate dynasty of furniture that I've ever seen. Furniture that features many hidden drawers, lifting platforms, turning gears, levers that hide and pop-out at a push of a button. All mechanised and all handmade. Extravagant Inventions: The Princely Furniture of the Roentgens is perhaps one of the most influential and inspiring furniture exhibitions that I've ever seen in New York City.
It's easy to perceive that such furniture has no relative meaning to the average person, but such elaborate configurations can give critical historical insights to the rituals and customs of royalty, aristocracy, and those who worked for such clients.
Father and son, Abraham and David Roentgen, were trained cabinetmakers, whose work existed in a highly competitive industry of furniture making. Europe had established advanced self-regulated networks of guilds and workshops that produced furniture that could never be reproduced today. For example, the technique of gilding (with mercury) onto fixtures, is an internationally outlawed practice.
David Roentgen's Automaton of Marie Antoinette:
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