Anders Zorn at the Legion, Redux -- Day 2/310

Walk: Car errands
Distance: 6 blocks

Thinking more about Anders Zorn and why I can't write about him with more excitement.  From what I've read, he was a born artist, displaying superb skills from early childhood, producing exquisite pencil portraits of his classmates and landscapes of his farm village. Though he was under intense economic pressure and had to rely on the 'kindness of Stockholm virtual strangers' to do so, Zorn didn't rely on native gifts but pursued Stockholm Academy studies and at the same time taught his farmboy self to dress properly and move among the 'good society' he had to adapt to.  And where the young prodigy was well received and had almost immediate opportunities to earn a good source of income from portraiture commissions and illustrations for magazines.* (*He was not so well received a the Academy because his skills were far ahead of their training.  Telling him after his first year he must either follow their curriculum or leave, Zorn chose the later and began 10 years of travel to encounter other cultures, art styles and collectors).

In my first entry about him, I was critical of the fact that he seemed to paint 'to sell.'  Why wouldn't he I now ask?  He became wildly financially successful, moving among the very wealthiest circles wherever he went. Usually having his introductions before actually moving or visiting, he was superbly methodical, and when he arrived he dressed beautifully and was known to be delightful and charming as well as elegant.  His first 'big move' was to London, and he courageously invested almost all his money on several Seville Row suits even before meeting his contacts so that he would create the best impression and be immediately accepted.

In all this upward mobility there was no sacrifice of art or craft. He was very versatile working in watercolor, oils, etching and woodwork sculpture, and -especially until around 1900- he was continually striving to perfect all these artistic mediums. 

From his early grounding in natural talent, hard artistic work and assiduous (sometimes personally humiliating) focus on agreeable cosmopolitan polish, he rose to a level of prominence and artistic merit quite above most people's (certainly ciwt's) understanding.  His brother-in-law called him "a hybrid between a peasant and a gentleman." He was beyond international, living in such places as: the English countryside, London, Paris, Madrid, Toledo, Sevilla, Cadiz, Rome and other points Italian, Constantinople, Algeria, Switzerland.  All these and more before coming to America, meeting one of the queens of the American Gilded Age, Isabella Stewart Gardner, and, through her and other prominent contacts, being introduced and painting portraits of the elite in cities such as Boston and Chicago, as well as three U.S. Presidents.  Relentlessly networking, he was welcomed and entertained on yachts, country estates, the finest dining rooms, palaces.  The Gilded People of the fin-de-siecle could not get enough of him or his work, and he became an international celebrity artist and very, very rich.  Larger than life, 'a force of nature,' absolutely authentic, many descriptions apply.

But, chameleon-like, he regularly retreated to the Swedish countryside where he was born the illegitimate and unclaimed son of a brewer, and finally moved there exclusively where he continued to paint as well as collect art, extensively remodel his home, yacht and generally participate in Swedish rural life.

His work was and is Beloved! by many all over the world, of course especially in Sweden.  Few Americans have even seen his work until the recent U.S. shows in Boston and San Francisco.

So, again, I ask myself why I can't write about him with more excitement.  His work is consistently utterly pleasing and superior.  It isn't psychological which I tend to like.  There's something oddly furtive about a lot of his nudes, but this comes in on me as a bit disturbing rather than psychological. I don't sense the spiritual or the soulful.  I don't see innovation, avant-garde, anything forward-looking or cutting edge.  Does this matter?

I also haven't seen his work before so he doesn't benefit from the familiarity that leads to bonding. He's every bit the watercolorist Winslow Homer is- maybe better.  But I've seen Homer and I know Homer's American subjects: the sea, the Civil War, 'our' woods. If I were not American and walked into a Homer show for the first time, how would I respond?

I'll go to the Anders Zorn show again.  Maybe not write about him any more.  For those of you who will not be attending the Legion show, here are some informative (and beautiful links).  Enjoy.


http://video.cpt12.org/video/2365065602/
http://www.alsing.com/zorn_eng/index.html
http://wgbhnews.org/post/greater-boston-video-anders-zorn-gardner
http://vimeo.com/47838436

Zorn's Gammelgarden -- Day 2/309

Walk: Sundance Kabuki (Oh Boy), Dosa
Distance: 2 miles

On further research (since 2/307 entry) I was happy to learn that log cabins are included in the Timber House category.  Goodie; I like log cabins!  More the aura than living in them full time.  I had one once in Sun Valley and found the constant wood too, well, constant - not to mention the Flies each spring and other bugs living (etc) in the wood throughout the year.

  

Anders Zorn at the Legion, Take One. -- 2/308

Walk: Mindful Body, Fillmore Street, Trader Joe's
Distance: 3 miles and teach yoga class

Meet some of the work of Anders Zorn (1860-1920) a highly financially successful (mainly for astronomically expensive society portraits in Europe and the U.S.) and clearly talented Swedish painter.  Zorn was famous, sought after, celebrated, courted by the wealthy, warm-hearted toward the ordinary citizens around his beloved Swedish home.  But somewhere shortly after his death he became overlooked by much of the art community.  Even scholars in museums where his works hang (like the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston) had to do some research to become familiar with him.

Now there seems to be some attempt to 'resurrect' his reputation with a February-May show at the Gardner and now a large exhibition at the Legion.  So far for Ciwt it isn't a take. Certainly all his works are executed well and show proficient understanding of technique (watercolor, oil, etching) and color.  But 'So what?' 'Oh hum,' continue to be my true responses to the work.  It seems executed to sell. And certainly they would be pleasant around the house. But, the portraits seem formulaic with a nearly photo-realistic face and then blurry backgrounds of wealthy finery. The nudes bother me for the way he seems to get away with probably being a 'dirty old man.' I like the homespun genre scenes around his Swedish town best, but even these seem empty of emotional content.

I always go to shows several times, and maybe my feelings for his work will grow over future visits.  What do you think?

  

   


    The Mora Fair, o/c
President Grover Cleveland, o/c

Sommarnoje, 1886, w/c

 

Last Self-Portrait: Self-Portrait in Red, 1915, o/c

http://legionofhonor.famsf.org/legion/exhibitions/anders-zorn-swedens-master-painter

Zorn and Timber Houses -- Day 2/307

Walk: Mindful Body
Distance: 10 blocks and take yoga class

At the end of the Anders Zorn exhibition at the Legion yesterday I was drawn to pictures of his house in Sweden, Zorngarden, which has now become part of a small museum complex.



And I was even more interested to learn that another Zorn museum in southern Mora (Sweden), consists of over 40 timber houses which Zorn bought in his artistic travels all over the world.  He had them moved to Mora to enjoy them in his lifetime and to serve eventually as a Swedish museum ensuring that the old art of building such houses would not be forgotten. And such a wish was not lost on Ciwt because I was not sure what a timber house was until going on line to Google images.  From what I can ascertain on first viewing, they are not log houses** I don't believe, and they seem to exist primarily in the Baltic and Scandinavian regions.








Not sure if this one because it is so artful, varying dramatically from the geometric lines of the others.





**  On further research, I see log cabins are included in the timber houses category and collected by Zorn.  (See Day 2/309)

Great Pumpkin Season -- Day 306

Walk: Legion (Anders Zorn, small Matisse show)
Distance: Just a few blocks.

Encountered this quote today.

My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I'm happy. I can't figure it out. What am I doing right?
 

- Charles M. Schulz

(Spoiler: Probably this is a caption from one of his strips. The man himself is kind of known for living in a lifelong gloom which seemed to have emanated from what a NY Times writer deemed 'a naturally oversensitive and crabby personality).  Drats!**##!~

Are you sure; web md says....? --- Day 2/305

Walk: CPMC, Trader Joe's., Food, Inc., CPMC, home
Distance: 5.5 miles

Boy these medical tests these days are something.  A symptom presented itself, and, zoom, into the office and into the metal/plastic arms of some tech device that can see Exactly what is happening. Meanwhile of course you are a total anxious wreck who already absolutely knows the dire view the machine will have.  Or at least ciwt is.

Except, yay!!  Wrong!!  And so nice they went into such quick action I didn't have time to really terrify myself looking up my symptoms on the net.

Appreciation Pause --- Day 2/304

Walk: M.A.C. (Modern Appealing Clothing), Mindful Body
Distance: 2 miles and teach yoga class

Stopping and smelling the roses for a while.

Dear Teacher, -- Day 2/303

Walk: Yoga Tree Hayes
Distance: 2 miles and take yoga class


  Busy reading email notes from students after they received my Saturday Class Transition letter today.  Very dear.