Hang around me and
you'll get your picture taken
if we go somewhere fun.
Monday, December 16, 2024
Around the World @ the Met
Prior to seeing "Flight into Egypt: Black Artists and Ancient Egypt, 1876–Now," I really hadn't considered how prominently northern Africa has figured in the culture of Americans whose history I generally associate with the continent's center.
Look no further than a 1977 sketch from The Richard Pryor Show--which lasted only a single season--to understand why.
Many of the artists and their striking works were completely unfamiliar. Nor was the Egyptian theme always immediately apparent without reading the labels.
"Homage à Tut in Black and White" by Ghada Amer (2021)
A Met employee sculpted this piece. It's the first time the museum has included the work of a security guard in a major show. Kudos to Armia Malak Khalil! Hopefully he'll be able to quit his day job.
The Whitney didn't include Henry Taylor's angelic portrait of a throned Michelle Obama (2023) in the artist's solo show last year. Likenesses aren't his strong suit but he gets the First Lady's symbolic scale right.
EVERYBODY, including me, wants their photo taken near the Sphinx. Here's video of Malcolm X's visit in 1964. Upon his return from Cairo. the Black revolutionary cited Egypt's monuments as proof of an ancient Black civilization every bit as cultured as the Greeks and Romans.
Louis [Armstrong] and Lucille in Egypt at the Sphinx by Artin Derbalian (1961)
Substitute our-about-to-be-inaugurated president for "imperialism" and this print seems very au courant.
"The press in the service of imperialism" by Alfredo Zalce (1939)
Not all the works are political. Guatemalan-born Carlos Mérida introduced European style painting to Latin American art when he relocated to Mexico City after the revolution that ended the long, imperialist-friendly dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz. In this lithograph, from a series that illustrates Machiavellian epigrams (!), Merida also adds a soupçon of Surrealism.
"Motivos" (1936)
A 1940 portfolio of colorful lithographs celebrated the same artist's love for "Carnival in Mexico" which, according to the introduction that accompanied it, "best expresses the soul of the people. Imaginative on all days of the year, their imaginations burst forth, on these days, to express themselves, spontaneously, in fiestas mingling both European tradition and native zest."
Does anything symbolize the pre-digital world more tellingly than a phone with a receiver and a clock with hands?
Jean Charlot, a French artist, also emigrated to Mexico City after the revolution and soon found himself at the center of the mostly Communist muralist movement. He amassed a large collection of their works, including this depiction of an iconic war hero and land reformer by Diego Rivera, eventually donating it to the Met. They form the basis of the exhibit.
If religious iconography rings your chimes, get thee to "Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300–1350." The Maestà, the enormous double-sided wooden altarpiece Duccio created for the northern Italian city's cathedral, depicts nearly 50 narratives from the lives of the Virgin Mary and Christ. It required more than 200 candles to light front and back, the very definition of a late Middle Ages fire hazard.
"The Raising of Lazarus" (1311)
Elevated statues of saints--old, famous (John the Baptists & Peter, center) and young--aren't as flammable although their steady gazes may be more than a little judgmental. "What have you done for God lately?"
It's likely that Christ's stigmata were added in paint, now long gone, to this marble carving, an exquisite reminder used for personal devotion, that He died for our sins.
Charles IV, elected (with powerful connections to the Pope) as Holy Roman Emperor in 1355, prioritized art and architecture from his Bohemian kingdom in Prague, where the world-famous bridge still bears his name. Some historians believe he commissioned this painting (my favorite in the show) from a local artist, a quick and talented study whose vivid use of color was likely influenced by the Sienese school but who failed to achieve their renown.
"Virgin & Child Enthroned" by Unidentified Bohemian Painter (ca 1345-50)
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