Renoir: The Body, The Senses

A lovely Saturday spent with a friend at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth. The special exhibit featured Renoir: The Body, The Senses.  As a young lad growing up next to the Louvre, he spent hours studying the old masters. By the late 1880s/ early 1900s, his impressionistic style gathered raves or guffaws. Critics were divided.

This exhibit featuring his nudes and studies of the human form is fascinating. He constantly evolved. He often thinned his paint and then used layers and layers to create the translucent effect. His blending of colors on the bodies - blues, purples, yellows, etc. added a glow to skin. I stood in the middle of the gallery and gazed about - the figures just popped from the canvas. I especially liked the above portrait - Blonde Beauty 1881 - ethereal and filmy.

Go check out the latest at a museum near you. Renoir and his cohorts are waiting for you to admire (or criticize) their works.

Bass Collection at the Kimbell

Fort Worth Texas is fortunate to have the Kimbell Art Museum  www.kimbellart.org. And even more fortunate to have Texas philanthropy. Nancy Lee and Perry R.Bass amassed a fabulous collection of art work that is now on view at the Renzo Piano Pavillion. Thirty seven works - paintings and sculptures cover Impressionist to post WWII art.   The brochure features Claude Monet's Gare Saint-Lazare. 

I enjoyed a stroll through the exhibit with a good friend, Becky Thorne. We discussed the above Van Gogh - the thick slathered paint - we chose to behave and not touch the textured canvas. Lunch at the Kimbell buffet is always a treat - tasty creations with fresh ingredients.

A winning combo - art and food in the Ft.Worth Cultural District!

Kimbell: Faces of Impressionism

 The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, TX is a lovely museum that brings in superb exhibitions. Running through January 25, 2015, they are presenting Faces of Impressionism: Portraits from the Musee d'Orsay.

 Seventy paintings and sculptures are assembled demonstrating the related works of fellow artists. They often paid homage to each others works within their own paintings.

 From the 1850s to 1870s we see the evolution of impressionism. In the 1890s, painters like Cezanne go bolder with structure, Gauguin with his use of color.

Altogether, this exhibit is rich in feelings, colors, style, and a wealth of artistic history. It made for a delightful Sunday afternoon. (Oh, and brunch at Lucille's was a plus!)

I: Impressionism & Imagination, plus Iodine

I: Impressionism. Any time there's an exhibit at the stellar Kimbell Art Museum in Ft.Worth, I am there. Renoir (above), Monet (below), Manet's ballerinas, Cezanne's apples. The colors are vibrant, the moods dreamy, landscapes lush. I took a painting class in college. The professor had us set eggs on a white sheet of paper outdoors, then paint what we saw and look for the colors. Sure enough, pinks and tinges of purple erupted from the all white scenario

Imagination: You can't depend on your judgement when your imagination is out of focus - Mark Twain.

Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world - Albert Einstein.

Think Suzanne Collin's Hunger Games, JK Rowling's Harry Potter series - to me these are very imaginative and talented writers. Or Stephen King from yesterday's horror post.

Walt Disney, Pixar studios - dreams really do come true. It's magic.

Iodine - I almost hate to have a deadly dose on such a cloud of good feeling. But iodine's bluish black powder is soluble in alcohol and slightly soluble in water. It acts directly on cells by precipitating proteins and depressing the central nervous system. Reaction time is immediate with death in one hour.