Sorting Art

The past two days really sapped my energy. Today I was feeling flat from early morning on. I had no enthusiasm for the floating book shop, especially when the lack of parking sent me back to Bay Parkway for a third straight session. Fortunately, Bob and his home attendant happened along. He stocked up on books for his grand-daughters, buying pictorials on Modigliani, Gauguin and Post Impressionists, and the novel Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz, which, according to the blurb at Amazon, “explores what really happened when Sherlock Holmes and his arch nemesis tumbled to their doom at the Reichenbach Falls.” The novel was sanctioned by the Conan Doyle estate. Bob was the sessions’ only buyer. My thanks.

My knowledge of art is a little better than the average person’s, but paltry. I did some homework on the aforementioned giants and others. I hope I didn’t confuse it all. Most of the facts come from Wikipedia.

According to Wiki, Post-Impressionists extended Impressionism while rejecting its limitations: they continued using vivid colors, often thick application of paint, and real-life subject matter, but were more inclined to emphasize geometric forms, distort form for expressive effect, and use unnatural or arbitrary color. Its champions included Paul Cézanne, known as the father of the movement, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh and Georges Seurat. Here’s Cezanne’s Card Players:

And here’s an example of Impressionism, Dancers at Bar by Edgar Degas, a Frenchman. Morty Seinfeld believed Impressionists were near-sighted, a thought I doubt I’ll ever forget:

Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin, 1848–1903, was a master of many styles, and largely unappreciated until after his death. He broke from his wife and five kids to paint full time. He died at his isolated home in the Marquesas Islands, alone, a month shy of his 55th birthday. Here’s his Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?:

Amedeo Clemente Modigliani, 1884–1920) was an Italian Jew, born to an upper middle class family in Livorno, Tuscany. He worked mainly in France, arriving in 1906. According to his profile, he developed a unique style that cannot be adequately categorized with those of other artists. He also sculpted. Despite being in poor health most of his adult life, he drank heavily and passed away at 35 of tuberculosis. Managing only one solo exhibition in his life and giving his work away in exchange for meals in restaurants, Modigliani died destitute. The following painting, Nu Coche, sold for $170.4 million in 2015.

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