Horsepower --- Day 4/354

Walk: Monday Errands, Sundance Kabuki (Hail, Caesar!), Eileen Fisher
Distance: 4 miles


Franz Marc (German, 1880-1916), The Large Blue Horses, 1911, o/c

Congratulations to the  Denver Broncos who surprised viewers and bettors yesterday by winning Super Bowl 50.  Maybe as shocking to some as the work of Franz Marc, founding member of the German Expressionist Der Blaue Reiter school, was to early 20th century German art viewers.

The Match is On --- Day 4/353

Walk: No
Distance: 0, Deck Gardening, Home Yoga


LS Lowry (English, 1877-1976), Going to the Match, 1957, o/c

So, what say you about today's (and yesterday's artist)?  The opinion in England, where LS Lowry resided in the North is decidedly mixed.  The Tate - which owns 23 Lowrys but doesn't exhibit them - more or less held their educated noses when they gave Lowry an exhibition in 2014.  Partly, though not admittedly, they were pressured by none other than Sir Ian McKellen who accused the museum of metropolitan snobbery and demanded that it sell its Lowrys to another institution if it was not going to let the public see them. (At approximately the same time, the late Brian Sewell, England's famous and acerbic art critic and media personality dubbed Lowry "inept, tedious, repetitive, lacklustre, stuck in a rut).

Be the scholars and the critics as they may, Lowry's art has throngs of devotees.  For one thing, many British men, women and children grew up with his prints in their homes and places of work and are deeply attached to his work. When the Tate did give that show (for which they brought in curators - one American -  who didn't know Lowry's work or even specialize in British art), the galleries were packed and lines of people waiting to get in extended for blocks.

Ciwt sees heartfeltness and  a certain melancholy humanity in Lowry's work.  He appears to care deeply for every dog and  each stick figure he draws and dresses.  So, she would probably have been standing in that Tate line. But would she want to own one of his paintings?  No.  And this answer puts her at odds with the present owner of yesterday's work (Fun Fair at Daisy Nook) who purchased it at a 2011 Christie's auction for - $5,360,370.

Today's painting sold in 1999 for the then record price @$4,000,000 and is arguably the most famous football painting (in England).  It was Lowry's entry into a football art competition in honour of the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and won first prize. Its buyer at Sotheby's was perfect: The Professional Footballers' Association, and it hangs at the National Football Museum in Manchester.  

A reclusive man, Lowry loved attending football matches.  Even though our game is quite different, maybe he watched some of our - as of today -50 Super Bowl matches on his telly.  Like Ciwt will in a little while.  Ta Ta...

Forward Motion --- Day 4/352

Walk: Sundance Kabuki (Opera on Film: Showboat!)
Distance: 3 miles


Laurence Stephen Lowry (Known as 'LS,' English, 1887-1976), Fun Fair at Daisy Nook, 1953, o/c, 28 x 36"

Late tonight Super Bowl City, San Francisco's temporary city-within-a-city will begin being dismantled.  The football action will move down south and people who live, work, ride, walk, skateboard will start regaining yardage.

The Catch --- Day 4/251

Walk: Union Square
Distance: 5.6 miles and small home yoga


Henri Rousseau (French 1844-1910), The Football Players, 1909, oil on canvas, 39.5" x 31 5/8"

Were you as surprised as Ciwt that this painting is by Henri Rousseau, usually associated with jungle and exotic themes?  (Sleeping Gypsy, 1897)   (The Dream, 1910)? She bets most of the throngs who are in San Francisco ahead of this Sunday's Super Bowl would be more than surprised to see the image of these nattily (?) dressed French enthusiasts cavorting around with a football. Horrified, outraged is probably more like it.

Spell-like, Peaceful River --- Day 4/350

Walk: Marin Driving Day, Fillmore
Distance: 1 mile, small yoga

Speaking of George Caleb Bingham's (CIWT yesterday), his work  is a classic example of the fickleness of the art market.  When he died in 1879 his art was languishing in obscurity.  Then in the 1930's it was rediscovered and he is now considered one of America's greatest early realist painters who hauntingly evoked an era of American history.  His most famous canvases portray the hardscrabble life along the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers in the decades just prior to the Civil War.


Raftsmen Playing Cards, 1847

 
Fur Traders Descending the Missouri, c. 1845

Boatmen on the Missouri, 1846


The Jolly Flatboatman, 1846

Except, from the viewing would you call the scenes before you hardscrabble? Hardly. The River people were ruffians but as portrayed by Bingham they are almost genteel floating serenely along calm waters in clear weather and even dancing and playing games.  In other words, Bingham hasn't so much captured the West as tamed it and given its inhabitants and way of life luminosity and timelessness.  For whatever reason - possibly his own joyful, optimistic nature - Bingham chose sensitive, patient artifice over reality for his River paintings, and Ciwt, for one, treasures that wonderful artistic decision and each of his River paintings.

One Man, ..... --- Day 4/349

Walk: Robotlike to Union Square dentist 
Distance: 1 mile and small yoga


George Caleb Bingham (American), The County Election, 1852, oil on canvas

So here we go into the primary and eventually election season. Et nos cum pace (peace be with us) as they would have said in ancient Rome.

Nobody pretends that democracy is perfect or at all wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time. 

(Winston Churchill, November 11, 1947)

Helen of Transcendant --- Day 4/348

Walk: Audiological people (Huh?  What's that you say?)
Distance: 8 Blocks and Home Yoga

Taking an uplifting break from taxes, Ciwt looks at her favorite look from SAG Awards:


She Who Can Do No Wrong

Saggy Colors --- Day 4/347

Walk: CPMC (Hearing Test.  Huh? Could you repeat?)
Distance: 2.4 miles and home yoga

Waiting for Caucus (whatever that is exactly) results, Ciwt began cruising some of the SAG gown disappointments.


In Sea Foam:
  

And Pink:
   

And Neon:
  

Even Blue: