Edvard Munch has left the building

Edvard Munch, The Vampire, 1895, color lithograph and woodcut, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund and Gift of Lionel C. Epstein. Munch's original title for this was Love and Pain and may mean to convey an embrace, rather than an act of violence. The theosophist's color for high intellect was yellow, found on the arm of the woman and the man's face, but hard to see on her arm in this photograph.

Edvard Munch's works are no longer on view in Washington, D.C. at the National Gallery of Art where an exhibition of his prints closed last week, so why do I write about him now?

I cannot resist. His work is haunting and leaves me desolate, sad, exhausted, and untrusting. Who wants to write about that? Maybe, by my writing, I can transmit his "spell," his mystique, to you, the reader, and it will leave me. Read no more or, at your own risk. 

Edvard Munch, Man's Head in Woman's Hair, 1896, color woodcut, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Rosenwald Collection. Is the man part of the woman's thoughts or the woman, part of the man's? The theosophist's color palette connects the woman's orange and brown to selfishness and sensuality, so it's unlikely the woman is the artist's mother or favorite sister who died when Munch was only five and 13 years old, respectively.  Note Munch's triangular head.  

Edvard Munch (1863-1944) was only five years old when his mother died of tuberculosis, her death and presence to inhabit his life.

His aunt and his father, a goodly man though besot by religious fervor, raised Edvard and his siblings. On cold nights in Norway, Edvard's birthplace, his father would read stories by Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) and tell his children ghostly yarns, warning them that their mother was looking down upon them from heaven, mindful of their misbehaviors.

Later, Edvard wrote about his father: "From him I inherited the seeds of madness. The angels of fear, sorrow, and death stood by side since the day I was born." (Wikipedia)

At age 18 Munch abandoned his study of engineering at a technical college, much to the disappointment of his father and neighbors who sent him hate mail (even then!). He enrolled, instead, at an art school, partially started by a distant relative. 

Edvard Munch, Anxiety, 1896, color lithograph, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Epstein Family Collection.  Another with the same title is below.

Edvard Munch, Anxiety, 1896, color woodcut, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Epstein Family Collection

Edvard drew subjects which pervaded his mind and soul, with heavy imagery and symbols, a state of his mind and "external reality." He wrote: "In my art I try to explain life and its meaning to myself."

It is believed that his father confiscated several of his son's nude portraits, destroying at least one. And like Edgar Allan Poe's foster father who stopped supporting Poe when Poe refused to follow the life path his stepfather desired for him, Munch's father stopped supporting his son.

Edvard Munch, Crowds in a Square, 1920, color woodcut, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Gift of the Epstein Family Collection

An 1889 solo show of almost all Edvard's works led to a two-year scholarship and a move to Paris where the blossoming artist was smitten by the works of Paul Gauguin, Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, Vincent van Gogh, and their uses of color to depict emotions. Later, Munch toyed with the pointillist style, made famous by Georges Seurat.

It became hard for Munch to give up "his children," his art works, but the controversies they produced delighted him.

His reputation and talents gradually took root and his career took off. He spent the last 20 years of his life at his estate near Oslo where he died.

Munch and Paul Klee (whose exhibition, Ten Americans: After Paul Klee, opened last weekend at the Phillips Collection), were two of the modern artists whose art the Nazis had labeled "degenerate."  They seized, burned, buried, hid, and sold more than 16,500 "degenerate" art works, according to Wikipedia.  

When the Germans arrived in Norway in 1940 to take over the government, they came calling on Munch who feared they would take his collection stored on the second floor of his home. Collectors had already returned to Norway 71 of Munch's pieces, earlier seized by the Nazis (including The Scream) and 11 were never recovered.

An art historian has named Munch's The Scream one of four best-known paintings in the world. (Which do you think the other three are?*)

Now, information about the show you missed: It contained 21 of his prints, all from the National Gallery, and most from the Epstein Family Collection. The exhibition was dedicated to the  memory of Lionel Epstein who died in 2017, said Earl A. Powell, III, the National Gallery's director, at the opening of the show.

The National Gallery's Jonathan Bober and Mollie Berger, were the curators. Below is a portion of the National Gallery's description of Munch and some words from a transcript from Ms. Berger's introduction to the presentation.
 

Some of the prints in the National Gallery's show had never been on view while others had not been on display for a while.

Munch considered print making as experimental. "Art is supposed to communicate something to the viewer" Ms. Berger said, "and I think that's what's happening here."
Munch wrote in 1929 that he was attempting to dissect the soul, unlike Leonardo da Vinci who dissected the human body.
 
Munch was a follower of theosophy "which believes that hidden knowledge or wisdom from the ancient past offers a path to enlightenment and salvation." (Wikipedia) 

He was especially interested in how color was perceived.
 
Theosophists claimed that thoughts generated auras of colorful shapes, or “thought-forms,” that could move through space: bright yellow connoted “highest intellect,” dark purple suggested “devotion mixed with affection,” and bright blue indicated “pure religious feeling.”

A friend confirmed that Munch claimed he could see auras around people.

And from the press announcement: 

In the second half of the 19th century, advances in physics, electromagnetic radiation theory, and the optical sciences provoked new thought about the physical as well as the spiritual worlds.  Edvard Munch: Color in Context, considers the choice, combinations, and meaning of color in light of spiritualist principles. Informed by popular manuals that explained the science of color and by theosophical writings on the visual and physical power of color, Munch created works that are not just strikingly personal but also are charged with specific associations."

This is the eighth Munch exhibition the National Gallery of Art  has presented.

"Early in his life, Munch was exposed to spiritualism and aural concepts that became popular on an international scale at the end of the 19th century. His childhood vicar was the well-known spiritualist Reverend E. F. B. Horn. Additionally, as a young artist in Oslo, Norway, Munch would meet his friends directly across the street from traveling medium A. Stojohann's "Scientific Public Library." Given such exposure, Munch would have been open to the notion of spiritual power, four-dimensional planes, and invisible forces. It is known that he believed he could see energies radiating from specific colors.

"Many of Munch's contemporaries, including Paul Gauguin (1848–1903), Maurice Denis (1870–1943), and Odilon Redon (1840–1916), were well aware of these new philosophies, and their work bears some general relation to them. In Munch's use of color, which intensified psychological and expressive meaning, the correlation with theosophical theories and ideas is specific."

*1. Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa, 1503-1506 and until c.1517

 2. James McNeill Whistler, Whistler's Mother, 1871

 3. Grant Wood, American Gothic, 1930

Visit: The National Gallery of Art, open 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sunday.

Where: The National Gallery of Art, between Third and Ninth streets at Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. On the Mall.

Admission charge: Always free at the National Gallery of Art.

Metro stations for the National Gallery of Art:
Smithsonian, Federal Triangle, Navy Memorial-Archives, or L'Enfant Plaza

For more information: 202-737-4215

patricialesli@gmail.com

Three prop mistakes in 'Shape of Water'

 Michael Shannon, Sally Hawkins, and Octavia Spencer in The Shape of Water/Photo by Kerry Hayes, 20th Century Fox


Because a good friend* resisted seeing the BEST PICTURE (she didn't want to see a "monster movie" !) I tricked her and got her in to see The Shape of Water at Angelika Friday night when the house was sold out. (We sat in the handicapped section.)

So, on second go-round (when it was still great!), this is what I found:

1.  Although remote controls were available, they were rarely found in households in 1962 and certainly not in dwellings or income brackets like Giles's.

2.  A bathroom counter top matched my two-year-old granite counter top.

3.  At the end in the water, one of Sally's shoes had come off and in a later scene it was back on her foot. (I doubt this is a prop mistake; a director's mistake?)

* She preferred Peter and the Starcatcher!

 And that's all she wrote.

patricialesli@gmail.com

Reston Players hook a 'Starcatcher' for Peter Pan

 Gary Bernard DiNardo is "Boy/Peter" and Raeanna Nicole Larson is "Molly" in Reston Community Player's Peter and the Starcatcher/Photo by Jennifer Hefner

 What's it all about, Peter Pan?

If you can't get to Broadway to see its finest, come to Reston and ride with the Reston Community Players on their latest production, Peter and the Starcatcher. In 2012 the show won five Tony Awards, including Best Costumes, Lighting, Sound, and Scenic Design, in a story all about "Peter," as in J. K. Barrie's Peter Pan before Peter knew how to fly.

Reston's "Boy Named Peter" (Gary Bernard DiNardo) highlights a roller-coaster adventure before "Boy" teamed up for the Big Time with Barrie's Wendy, Captain Hook, Tinkerbelle, and the Big Bad Chopping Crocodile (in hilarious get-up here) who make appearances in this version with different names.

Peter and the Starcatcher comes from the book by Dave Barry, the humor columnist, and Ridley Pearson which Rick Elice (of Jersey Boys' fame) made into this play.
 
The story expands the life of Boy/Peter, the character, not the tale, since most of the flash and dash of the original story is omitted here. This yarn delves into the mischievous boy's past and carries the orphan from ship to jungle to mountain top and back to sea again in wonderfully created scenes (by Dan Widerski), including a ship of many different levels.

A young heroine, "Molly" (Raeanna Nicole Larson), assists the Boy in his pursuits, overcoming evil while they run a wild trunk chase in pursuit of the Queen's treasures.  Whee!

Carla Crawley Ito is "Black Stache" and steals every scene when she's onstage in Reston Community Player's Peter and the Starcatcher/Photo by Jennifer Hefner

But, whoa!  The show stealer becomes increasingly evident with every appearance onstage of "Black Stache" (Carla Crawley Ito) who produces nonstop audience guffaws and groans with her special lines and puns.

The large cast and action yield comedy and drama alike at the Reston Community Center. The best parts are the cast's harmonies when members move about with glee and shake, shake, shake their tail leaves like real plants to open the second act. 

"Boy/Peter" (Gary Bernard DiNardo) really can fly in Reston Community Player's Peter and the Starcatcher/Photo by Jennifer Hefner
 
From the ship to a mountain, the audience enjoys lovely, scenic visuals (by Jon Roberts) as backdrops that depict changing locations and help guide guests on the wild trip.

Ken and Patti Crowley created sophisticated lighting which operates in perfect timing and complements the company's advancing stature in the region's theatre world.

Adding pleasure and depth to the production is the live music performed under the direction of Beth Atkins on keyboards, with Patrick Warf, percussionist, and Jessie Roberts, who may be Reston's first onstage sound artist. The musicians even supply the almost forgotten figure of a little tinkle twinkling triangle in a bird cage which signals more magic and a new beginning.

Rounding out the cast are K. Sridhar, Amy Griffin, Joshua Paul  McCreary, Wayne Jacques, Jake Lefler, Binta Barry, Richard Durkin, Rob Cuevas, and Joseph Seiger-Cottoms, many in dual roles

The production staff includes Jocelyn Steiner, producer; Jolene Vettese, director; Colleen Stock, stage manager; Ian Claar, fight director; Tiffany Fowler, costumes; Auryana J. Malek, make-up and hair; Mary Jo Ford, properties; Sherry Singer, props running crew; Sandy Dotson, set decoration; and Cathy Rieder, scenic artist.

Language: G
 
Ages: Everyone is invited, however, for wee ones, the plot is a bit too complex.

Who: Reston Community Players

What: Peter and the Starcatcher

When: 8 p.m., January 26-27 and February 2-3 with a matinee at 2 p.m. January 28 and a "sensory-friendly" matinee at 2 p.m. January 27 (and a special $10 price for all seats.  See "Tickets" below.)

Where: Reston Community Center, 2310 Colts Neck Road, Reston, VA 20191

Tickets: Buy online, at the box office at the Community Center, or call 703-476-4500 and press 3 for 24-hour ticket orders.
 
How much: $23, adults; $20, students and seniors; $10, all seats for the Jan. 27 matinee. 

Duration:  About two hours and fifteen minutes with one intermission.

patricialesli@gmail.com 



 

Last Washington weekend for Vermeer and Golden Age artists

Johannes Vermeer, Dutch, 1632-1675, Woman Writing a Letter, With Her Maid, c. 1670-1671, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin

 Contingent upon the powers that agree or not agree on a government shutdown, it was reported last night that museums will remain open until Monday enabling the National Gallery of Art to present a major show for one more weekend.

At the Gallery guests will find others standing in a long (but fast moving) line to see a probable once-in-a-lifetime exhibition which is well worth the short (it may not look it) wait.  Private collectors and 33 museums from around the world loaned works for the show.

  

 Frans van Mieris, Dutch, 1635-1681, Woman Playing a Theorbo-Lute, 1663, Scottish National Gallery, Edinburg.  Mieris' teacher was Gerrit Dou (below)

Once inside the galleries, visitors will view domestic scenes of the 17th century by Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) and his Golden Age colleagues whose competitive streaks drove them to achieve mastery in this genre of domesticity.

 Edgar van der Neer, Dutch, c. 1634-1703, Woman Tuning a Lute, 1678, Bayerische Staatsgemaldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek, Munich



Segregated in galleries by theme, motif, and composition, paintings were generally completed over 30 years (mid 1650s to about 1680). They depict everyday life in almost 70 different scenes, including ten by Vermeer, some of which have not been seen in the U.S. since their last presentation 22 years ago at the National Gallery. (Then, during the Vermeer exhibition of 1995-1996, the Gallery suffered two government shutdowns  but private donors came to the rescue, permitting the Vermeer exhibit to be open while the rest of the National Gallery remained closed.)

 Gabriel Metsu, Dutch, 1629-1667, Woman Writing a Letter, c. 1662-1664, The Leiden Collection, New York

Vermeer painted painstakingly but his work was generally unknown during his lifetime outside of Delft where he lived with his wife and ten (or eleven; depending upon what you read) children. (Four other children died as infants.) 

Perhaps because of his large family and obligations as an innkeeper, art dealer, and his meticulous attention to his art,  Vermeer's output was small (only 34 or 35, depending upon your sources) limiting dissemination to the public to purchase and support the artist. His wife, Catharina Boines, attributed her husband's death to financial pressures. One day he was well, and the next day, not so well, she wrote.  Whatever he was, his family was left in heavy debt.

Frans van Mieris, Dutch, 1635-1681, Woman Sealing a Letter by Candlelight, 1667, Private collection.  Mieris' teacher was Gerrit Dou (below)

About two centuries after his death, Vermeer was "discovered" by a German museum director. 

This information and much more is found in the 320 paged catalog with 180 color illustrations, available in the National Gallery's shops.

Gerrit Dou, Dutch, 1613-1675, The Dropsical Woman, 1663, Musée du Louvre, Paris.  Do you like the adjective? The label copy notes the physician examines a vial of urine to try to determine what ails m'lady while the catalog says doctors visiting female patients in the second half of the 17th century "enjoyed considerable popularity." A chapter in the catalog, "Heartache," includes other works of doctors' visits to women:  The Doctor's Visit (Steen and one by the same title by van Mieris), The Swoon (van Mieris), and The Doctor (Dou).  You must see to believe! 

Besides Vermeer, the other artists represented are Gerard ter Borch, Gerrit Dou, Pieter de Hooch, Gabriel Metsu, Frans van Mieris, Caspar Netscher, Jan Steen, Cornelis Bisshis, Samuel van Hoogstraten, Nicolaes Maes, Cornelis de Man, Eglon van der Neer, and Jacob Ochtervelt, all from the Netherlands, all from the Golden Age of Art.

Gabriel Metsu, Dutch, 1629-1667, Woman Reading a Letter, c. 1664-1666, The National Gallery or Ireland, Dublin. How many dissertations have been written about this painting? I think it is my favorite in the show because of its complexity and once you think you may have discerned a possible meaning for a portion of it, another door opens to another possibility and endless interpretations.  It is a huge puzzle which I could gaze upon for hours, I believe. Note the maid, with her back to the viewer, holds a letter and looks out the window upon an angry sea. What is going on? Is someone longing for...whom? Upon the floor lies a discarded shoe while the lady reads a love letter?  She threw the shoe at her lover who escaped through the window to another shore?  What say ye the meaning of this? This is fun.  You see, art doesn't always have to be serious.  Find your meanings and observe the similarity with Vermeer's Woman Writing a Letter, With Her Maid, above, and write soon.

For some reason the show's paintings which were of most interest to me and pictured here, show the subjects looking to their rights which is the source of much of the light (the viewer's left). Sometimes the subjects greet guests face on. Why does the light never come from the right?  Many of those hanging on the walls feature women in similar constructions. Please see what you think and write soon.

At the opening of the exhibition, His Excellency Henne Schuwer, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the United States, praises the warm relationship between his nation and the U.S.  To his right is Earl A. Powell, III,  the director of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and on Ambassador Schuwer's left are Mary Streett of BP, the major sponsor of the Vermeer show, and Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr., curator of Northern Baroque paintings for the National Gallery of Art/Photo by Patricia Leslie



The exhibition was curated by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., curator of Northern Baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art, Washington; Dr. Adriaan Waiboer, head of collections and research, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin; and Blaise Ducos, curator of Dutch and Flemish paintings, Musée du Louvre, Paris.  

Before the presentation came to the National Gallery of Art, it opened last year at the Louvre, followed by exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland. 

On the first page of the catalog, BP, the major sponsor, commends the National Gallery:  "What makes the National Gallery such a special place is not only its extraordinary collection but the fact that its offerings may be viewed free of charge."
 
What: Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting: Inspiration and Rivalry

When: The National Gallery of Art is open 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sunday. The exhibition closes Sunday, January 21, 2018.

Where: West Building, the National Gallery of Art, between Third and Ninth streets at Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. On the Mall.

Admission charge: Never an admission charge at the National Gallery of Art.

Metro stations for the National Gallery of Art:
Smithsonian, Federal Triangle, Navy Memorial-Archives, or L'Enfant Plaza

For more information: 202-737-4215

patricialesli@gmail.com