art darts: Helene Schjerfbeck--See this great show; as for he...

art darts: Helene Schjerfbeck--See this great show; as for he...: Helene Schjerbeck Self-Portrait 1915 A friend in Haarlem  commanded me to go to the Geementemuseum in the  Hague and see an exhibitio...

Helene Schjerfbeck--See this great show; as for her name--just forget the j and it is easy to say

Helene Schjerbeck Self-Portrait 1915

A friend in Haarlem commanded me to go to the Geementemuseum in the  Hague and see an exhibition of paintings by Helene Schjerfbeck. That was 11 years ago. Ruud  has a terrific eye and is not given to pronouncements of this kind. On the contrary. I got it. This was important. I went. It certainly was and is. I had never heard of her. She has not become widely famous since. She ought to be. Schjerfbeck (1862-1946) has been justly famous in Finland since she was in her teens. From the point of view of the rest of us, art news from a country with a population half the size of London or New York does not travel even at a snail's pace--especially when most of the artist's work is in museums and therefore lacks the drive of dealers to make reputations/money.  Let's hope that with the current exhibition at the Royal Academy in London will change this.  Whether it does or not, do not miss the show if you possibly can see it.  You are not likely to soon have another chance to see her work; to see so many memorable, touching and beautiful paintings. 
 The 2008 show in the Hague had travelled from Hamburg and was on its way to the Museum of Modern Art in Paris. The story about the artist which I wrote for The Economist was published to appear when the show in Paris opened.  It was better done in the Netherlands where in one large space was devoted only to her self portraits arranged chronologically. The RA has done the same. For these alone a visit to the London show  is more than worthwhile  Let's hope that New York, Washington, Boston, San Francisco wake up.                                                                                                                                                           

 What follows. Alas the print is too small but I remain technically challenged and cannot work out how to enlarge it without making running over the margins. For you it will be easy. An do not hesitate to send me message if you wish to educate me about how to make the post easier to read. Please.

When everything's Camp, nothing is or very nearly

"Camp: Notes on Fashion:" the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute show that opened on May 8 is full of color and feathers and already a big hit.  It's like a day at the circus for more- or- less grown ups; a circus where frocks and accessories are the performing animals sometimes literally. The Schiapparelli hat to the right looks like Big Bird taking a couple of flamingos on a honeymoon trip.

 For any who remember what it feels like to eat too much cotton candy; that's just how I felt by the time I'd walked through this exhibition from beginning to end. 

In spite of the pink catalogue's thousands of words that attempt to define it, and an opening historical section that is well- worth reading, full of unknown to me information (and images),  Camp as it is on display in these galleries gives shelter to a lot of extravagant frocks-- and some witty ones-- along with a few accessories. Most of it has a dubious connection  to Camp (see the Tiffany lamp below) .

The curators, of course, do not find the connections dubious: Take for example, The Tiffany lamp below. Susan Sontag, who we are told (as if this is somehow miraculous, used to visit the Met regularly) included it in her famous essay on Camp. If you think Sontag was a latter-day Moses and her essay consists of  58 commandments, you will agree. 

The actual criterion for what made it into this show was the stuff had to be Over the Top as for butterflies everywhere but in the stomach number by Jeremy Scott for House of Moschino. (I am a big fan of Moschino and not only because he chose Olive Oyl for his muse  .Fun yes, whacky also but Camp?


OTT is not Camp,  or let's say it is can be a part but the whole? Not. So anything from a dress with a Merry- Go- Round for a skirt and a frock embroidered with a Surrealist image by Jean Cocteau is classified as Camp but is not.

 Too much sugar is bad for the brain--and other important organs as for instance, the eyes. This show--and the gala that opened it is an advertisement for Enough is Too Much already.  

Frends in Zen:: Isamu Noguchi and Saburo Hasegawa

It was a friendship that changed the thinking and the art of  Isamu Noguchi (1904--1988) an internationally famous sculptor and garden designer and Saburo Hasegawa (1906--1957) then celebrated but now a forgotten figure.
They met in Japan in 1950.


 "Changing and Unchanging Things: Noguchi and Hasegawa in Postwar Japan," the exhibition that just opened at the  noguchi museum in Long Island City tells the story of how their contact in few years that followed inspired and shaped their ideas and their work.  The curators also seek to demonstrate that Hasegawa deserves an important place in the history of midtwentieth century art not only because of the influence he had on Noguchi but on Franz Kline and others including Jasper Johns.  The sculpture, calligraphy, screens, paper lanterns, woodcuts and ceramics on view are often arresting, frequently beautiful and ultimately unnervingly moving. In spite of the curators' passionate appreciation of Hasegawa's work, they fail to convince us of his lasting importance. Yet his late, powerful works, one of which closes this show, more than hint of greatness. Perhaps an exhibition devoted to his work alone is be needed to do him justice. Happily, even if they have failed in one of their ambitions, they have succeeded brilliantly in showing us the impact of the friendship as they struggled with how in what ways East and West might be in conversation. It is an exciting, instructive exhibition.


Hasegawa led Noguchi on a trip across Japan to some of its most venerated gardens, shrines and temples, The influence on Noguchi's work is clear (see "Garden Elements, 1958),left. In their conversation and their work they attempted to explore ways to reinvigorate Japanese culture after the destruction and fragmentation of the Second World War as well as finding ways of bring their two cultures together (Noguchi spent most of his life in the United States although there were periods in his childhood when he lived in Japan). Perhaps perversely,  it was Noguchi who believed that Japan must not dilute its traditions by incorporating too much from the West; a view Hasegawa did not share. Below is a Noguchi piece showing the influence of traditional museum.




 Here Hasagawa takes traditional calligraphy and turns it into a work that allied him with the New York School abstract Expressionists.








Hasegawa moved with his family to San Francisco. A heavy smoker he was diagnosed with mouth cancer. Many of the mural scale works he created as his illness progressed were on wall board and have not survived. One has only as a photographic record. It is a folding on 10 foot tall wall boards; used a broom as his brush. It quotes Basho's Death Poem:  

Sick on my journey, 

only my dreams will wander      

these desolate moors.

The calligraphy which gives the work its title of "Pure Suffering," using ink on burlap is the only surviving large, late work by Hasegawa,  It closes the show. It is reason enough to cross the East River from Manhattan to visit this show.

PURE SUFFERING (1956)  30 x 96 inches

It's the unexpected treasures that make TEFAF Maastricht the fair not to miss

 There are neither direct flights nor trains to Maastricht from London, Paris, Brussels or more distant points, unless of course you have a private jet. Enough of the latter turn up to cause a no parking sign to go up at its small airport. Yet TEFAF, which takes place in March every year, is unquestionably worth the trek to this town in the far east of the Netherlands where it borders Germany and Belgium.  It is not only the biggest and best art and antiques fair, it is like a giant treasure hunt; you just never know what work or object of art is going to reveal itself and send shock waves from head to toe.
   During last week's VVIP preview and indeed on the mere VIP preview the following day, I spent many million euros. The number would be far higher if more dealers were willing to tell me (a journalist) their prices. True my purchases (like the sums needed to take them home) exist only in my mind but happily I find so much food for hungry eyes a lavish banquet.
   TEFAF's fame was built on the number and quality of Old Master paintings its dealers offered but these days there are many fewer top quality Old Masters on the market anywhere. Yet even in this category I was beguiled.
   "Portrait of a Dog," by the Florentine painter Tiberio Titi  (1578-1627) is a honey. This is no generic hound; no dutiful execution of a plump commission. It is a closely observed, beautifully painted portrait of an arresting, highly individual, living creature that happens to be canine. Okay I am doggie as the English call it and some might say also a little on the offbeat side. These are facts not explanations for why I wanted to buy this painting. And doubters note: Standing next to me in the stand of Paris dealer Maurizio Canesso and also taking photos of this Titi portrait, was Eike Schmidt, Director of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. We soon were chatting about other memorable dog portraits; he mentioned Giulio Romano, I was think of Paulus Potter.  


Here are a few of the other surprise treats I gobbled up at the fair:
 At the stand of Buenos Aires dealer Jaime Eguiguren-Arte y Antiguedades I was transfixed by five small caskets of a type I'd never seen before. These little 17th century chests were made in Colombia during the Spanish Conquest. 
The rarest of these rarities (above) is inlaid with gold. All five of the little caskets are made with a technique that was inspired by the luxurious, mother of pearl inlaid Namban- ware made in Japan at around the same time when the Portuguese were allowed there to trade.  These are made with less luxurious materials and some are less technically sophisticated. In Colombia they used what they had; plant dyes and pastes filled in the incised designs. The results however are beautiful even joyful and now rare. 


At the stand of Ab-PAB, Paris- based dealers in Spanish and Portuguese Colonial art, ivory turned into a magnetic material as I was drawn across the stand to the vitrine in which stood the little sculpture below.  They date it to the 17th century. I assumed it was from Goa (where the Portuguese had a flourishing trading post). I learned that, most unusually, it was carved in Thailand. Its subject is the young John the Baptist with his playmate the infant Jesus represented by a lamb. After all, the Baptist is often portrayed dressed in an animal skin and here were not one a single lamb but two. The dealers disagree. They label this a statue of the infant Jesus as the Good Shepherd. I remain unconvinced if also aware of my ignorance--and sigh, wishing the price was not 9,000 euros. 




For an absolute killer chandelier with not a crystal drop in sight, a hugely oversized hidden treasure, is the magnificent metal artichoke chandelier at Brussels dealer Yves Maccou. "You need a room with a very high ceiling," he warned me, adding that its price is about 350,000 euros. Ruled out on both counts. 
 
On Friday morning, my third day in town, I went to the weekly market to buy tulips and cheese (more my price range). It was cold, gray, raining, Dismal weather which seemed fitting as I looked up at the impressive State House that faces the square. It was here, in 1993 that representative of the member nations gathered to sign the treaty which established the European Union--the treaty that back home in London politicians were so chaotically attempting to unravel. It was a relief as well as a pleasure to head back to TEFAF and the abundant evidence that for many centuries men and women have been creating wonders for all of us to enjoy.