Looking at People Looking

"Art does heal: scientists say appreciating creative works can fight off disease." is the headline of a Feb 2015 article in The Telegraph. It says that experiencing art is associated with the following positive emotions: "amusement, awe, compassion, contentment, joy, love and pride." I know this is one of the reasons I love getting a text like this from a former student. Even better is seeing students post pictures of themselves with art, like the one below. All photos were taken in Paris, except the Barnett Newman, taken in NY.

Musee Picasso- I loved their outfits, her tattoos, that she is taller than him and how she was so affectionate.

Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson. Hardly anyone goes here. Again, I was drawn to her tattoo, the way she held herself the whole time she was looking at the art, and she looked very, very slowly.

Centre Pompidou- Yves Klein. This jovial woman from Spain didn't realize that there was anything in common between her dress and the painting until I showed her this picture.

Musee D'Orsay

The Louvre- Egypt

The Louvre- Seated Scribe, Egyptian 2500 BCE

Institut du Monde Arabe

MOMA- Barnett Newman

Homage to Man Ray

In 2013, the Basque director Oskar Alegria introduced his film " The Search for Emak Bakia" at the 56th San Francisco International Film Festival. An exceptional experimental film, it weaves documentary, storytelling, and history while revealing aspects of Man Ray's time in the Basque Country that are difficult to appreciate otherwise. Emak Bakia means "leave me in peace" in Basque and it was also the name of the house that Man Ray lived in. In this movie there are scenes of women sleeping whose eyes are captured just at the moment of awakening. These reminded me of some of my favorite Man Ray photos, such as the one of Kiki de Montparnasse. http://emakbakiafilms.com/fotos/?pid=1 Kiki and the African Mask, by Man Ray 1926

Balthus

I come to Paris to be reminded that art and love are one and the same. Both are driven by a desire for wholeness, creativity, truth, surprise. At the Centre Pompidou, I saw a Balthus that was just donated to the museum. I haven't seen a reproduction of it anywhere and, standing there, I felt that coming all the way to Paris was worth it just to see this one painting. A new Balthus at the Pompidou, Paris Art, like love, sometimes involves transgression. Balthus said, " I want to proclaim in broad daylight, with sincerity and feeling, all the throbbing tragedy of a drama of the flesh, proclaim vociferously, the deep-rooted laws of instinct." I learned to love Balthus as a student in Wayne Thiebaud's painting class in college. From the perspective of the painter looking at a Balthus, one quickly sees past the erotic elements and is struck by his masterful technique, a method based on years spent on one painting, using paints hand mixed each morning by his wife,

George Washington High School and Art Education

“If an offense come out of the truth , better is it that the offense come than that the truth be concealed .” Thomas Hardy George Washington High School in San Francisco is unique amongst other institutions bearing Washington's name. It is a treasure trove of New Deal WPA art that includes architecture, bas-reliefs, "buon fresco" murals and freestanding sculptures. These extend from the football field to the library. The school features an "Olympics" frieze by African American sculptor Sargent Johnson, and its architect was the pre-eminent Timothy L. Pflueger. This school, its name and even the site correlate conceptually. It was designed to showcase outstanding art and provoke reflection. The Sargent Johnson frieze In thousands of American high schools, AP Art History students learn about George Washington by studying a sculpture by Houdon. It is described in most textbooks with only a paragraph. On the back of this sculpture is a plow- a symbol of Wa

Think, Look, Make

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