Another painting the 19 or 20 year old Pablo Picasso painted in 1901 is a still life titled Chrysanthemums. The flowers, vase, and table are pretty straightforward, while the background is somewhat impressionistic and unusual in his choice of colors. This painting, like the one in my previous post is on display at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
You can view some of my 3-D paintings at http://www.jayrolfe.com/.
Pablo Picasso made his first visit to Paris in 1900, arriving just before his 19th birthday on October 25, 1900. After about 2 months he went back to Spain, arriving in his home town of Malaga on January 1, 1901. Picasso returned to Paris for his second visit in May 1901.
Today's painting is one of two at the Philadelphia Museum of Art that Picasso painted in 1901, when he was 19 or 20 years old. Head of a Woman is a slightly grotesque portrait, similar to other portraits of Parisian ladies of the night but perhaps less grotesque.
You can view some of my 3-D paintings on my website at www.jayrolfe.com/.
What else did Leo and Gertrude Stein hang in their apartment?
In 1906 they also acquired and hung the 7 feet tall Picasso, "Boy Leading a Horse." While not as avant garde as Matisse's two paintings featured in my most recent posts, it was not traditional. Leo Stein showed Picasso both Matisse's and Picasso's own paintings hanging in his apartment, encouraging a rivalry. When Picasso saw the three paintings side-by-side, Hilary Spurling in The Unknown Matisse says, "Picasso had been shaken by 'Woman in a Hat', and seriously perturbed by 'Le Bonheur de Vivre'." The rest, as they say, is history, art history!
Today Picasso's "Boy Leading a Horse" hangs in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Here's a link to the web page about it. http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=79994
You can view some of my 3-D paintings at www.jayrolfe.com/.
Last weekend we saw a play written by American comedian Steve Martin at the Delaware Theatre Company called Picasso at the Lapin Agile. It's a fictional story of Picasso meeting Einstein at a local Parisian cafe in 1904, before either was famous. In the dialogue, Picasso took a few swipes at his rival Matisse. It was hilarious and we really enjoyed it.
I've been reading a two volume biography of Henri Matisse, who gave up law to be an artist, written by Hilary Spurling. Volume one is The Unknown Matisse, A Life of Henri Matisse: The Early Years, 1869-1908. Volume two is Matisse The Master, A Life of Henri Matisse, The Conquest of Colour, 1909-1954.
After spending the summer of 1905 painting in Collioure on the French Mediterranean near the border with Spain, Matisse submitted several paintings the the Salon d'Automne in Paris, notably "Woman in a Hat" and "The Open Window, Collioure." Matisse and his experimental friends Derain, Vlaminck, Marquet, Manguin, and Camoin, had their paintings shown in what became known as the notorious room or gallery Salle VII. Spurling writes that while Matisse was inspecting the installation of the paintings before the opening with writer Louis Vauxcelles, "Vauxcelles noticed a couple of academic sculptures placed incongruously in the middle of Salle VII and made what became a famous wisecrack to Matisse: 'a Donatello among the wild beasts [fauves].'" Vauxcelles then published his quip in a magazine article and Matisse's group got its name, Fauves.
The critics had little good to say about the Fauves at the time of the Salon d'Automne. Spurling reports, "Even young artists eager to identify themselves with everything that was new and forward-looking found this latest work [Matisse's "Woman in a Hat"] hard to take. One of them was the writer Francis Carco, a friend of the twenty-four-year-old Pablo Picasso, whose reputation was already gaining ground in Montmartre in spite of the fact that hardly anyone had seen his work. Carco, hanging out at Picasso's local, the Lapin Agile, could make no sense at all of the Spaniard's pronouncements on modern art: 'And I was starting to ask myself if, in spite of his astonishing powers of persuasion, Picasso was not getting more pleasure from mystifying us than he was from actually painting, when the notorious "Woman in a Hat" [by Matisse] taught me more in an instant than all his [Picasso's] paradoxes.... there emanated from this singular work ... such an evidently conscious fixity of purpose that, after an interval of more than thirty years, I still have not forgotten it.'"
Spurling continues, "Certainly, the regulars at the Lapin Agile, like Francis Carco, were powerfully impressed. Picasso (who had not yet met Matisse) felt he had been decisively outflanked."
The Corcoran Gallery has a beautiful painting by Pierre Auguste Renoir titled "View From Cap Martin Of Monte Carlo" painted in 1884 which artist Jay Rolfe saw on a recent visit. It wasn't part of the "American Evolution" exhibit for obvious reasons. Renoir is one of Rolfe's favorite artists.
This is the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's signature style, his innovative Pop Art 3-D paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/.
Artist Jay Rolfe saw this Aelbert Cuyp painting at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington and was reminded that he is the Dutch painter of cows. At the time, cows symbolized the Dutch prosperity, and Cuyp was good at depicting them. Rolfe has seen many Cuyp cow paintings in European museums.
The photo of the day is Aelbert Cuyp's 1650 painting "Landscape With Herdsmen."
This is the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's signature style, his innovative Pop Art 3-D paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/.
Another painting artist Jay Rolfe saw at the Corcoran Gallery was by Edgar Degas in 1873 titled "School of Dance." Degas painted many ballet scenes, many in class situations. The ballet scenes are perhaps his most popular paintings. This one is full of action and tutus.
This is the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's signature style, his innovative Pop Art 3-D paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/.
John Singer Sargent's portrait "Marie Buloz Pailleron (Madame Edouard Pailleron)" set in the outdoors was unusual for 1879. This is one of the paintings artist Jay Rolfe saw at the Corcoran Gallery in the "American Evolution" exhibit. The outdoor setting and the light around the figure seem somewhat radical for the time. Compare this painting with Sargent's more formal portrait "Margaret Stuyvesant Rutherford White (Mrs. Henry White)" painted in 1883 which is featured in the post of July 30, 2008 on this blog.
This is the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's signature style, his innovative Pop Art 3-D paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/.
Artist Jay Rolfe saw this Cy Twombly painting at the Corcoran's exhibit "American Evolution." By the time this was painted in 1968, Twombly had been living permanently in Rome, Italy for a number of years. This painting, "Synopsis of a Battle," is typical of many famous Twombly paintings. It is painted like a blackboard and then drawn or written on with paint, crayon, or pencil as if it were chalk. What's the point? Who knows. But they sell for a lot of money.
This is the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's signature style, his innovative Pop Art 3-D paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/.
Gene Davis was a Washington DC painter who died in 1985 and was known for his colorful striped paintings. This example was at the recent "American Evolution" exhibit at the Corcoran Gallery. Davis painted "Black Popcorn" in 1965. The Phillips Collection, also in Washington DC, has a number of colorful Davis striped canvases.
This is the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's signature style, his innovative Pop Art 3-D paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/.
At the Corcoran Gallery's "American Evolution" exhibit, artist Jay Rolfe saw Kenneth Nolan's "Brown Stretched" painted in 1966. It's a large diamond shaped canvas with 4 color bands on it. It is a so-called non-objective painting, which means that it doesn't mean anything, it's just there and you can think what you want. Rolfe likes the shape. The pattern and colors don't excite him.
Kenneth Nolan's "Brown Stretched" is the photo of the day.
This is the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's signature style, his innovative Pop Art 3-D paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/.
Cecilia Beaux was a Philadelphia artist who painted marvelous portraits. Artist Jay Rolfe has seen many in museums, especially the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. This one was in the "American Evolution" exhibit at the Corcoran Gallery. It was painted in 1921 and is titled "Sita and Sarita." The cat and the sitter's playful hand add life to Beaux' technical mastery.
This is the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's signature style, his innovative Pop Art 3-D paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/.
This is the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's signature style, his innovative Pop Art 3-D paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/.
This is the last weekend for this exhibit "American Evolution" at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington D.C.
As mentioned in yesterday's post, "Mao" by Andy Warhol is the second image, along with Gilbert Stuart's "George Washington" to greet the visitor at the entrance to the "American Evolution" exhibit which artist Jay Rolfe recently viewed at the Corcoran Gallery. Here is the Corcoran Gallery's image of that painting. It makes for a very interesting juxtaposition with "George Washington." "Mao" is much more colorful, larger, and depicts a world leader from another country and culture rather than from our country.
Artist Jay Rolfe learned that Gilbert Stuart's Anthenaeum portrait of George Washington, the one you always see, was so popular that many people wanted to buy a copy. So Gilbert Stuart made a number of what he called "plurality" paintings, his copies which were almost identical. Many museums have one, such as the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Corcoran Gallery has two.
In the "American Evolution" exhibit, the older George Washington portrait, painted in 1796-1803 was juxtaposed with Andy Warhol's painting of "Mao" who was the leader of the most populous country in the world. They were right next to each other as the introductory paintings to the whole exhibit. You can see what they looked like next to each other by scrolling back to the post on this blog for July 19, 2008.
Today's photo of the day is the 1803 "plurality" version of Gilbert Stuart's "George Washington." It was painted 170 years before Andy Warhol's "Mao."
This is the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's signature style, his innovative Pop Art 3-D paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/.
Artist Jay Rolfe saw a beautiful, and very large, in fact life-size, portrait by John Singer Sargent of "Margaret Stuyvesant Rutherford White (Mrs. Henry White)" painted in 1883 at the "American Evolution" exhibit at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington DC. It is today's photo of the day.
The exhibit closes after this Sunday July 27, 2008, so if you are interested in the exhibit, this is the last few days.
This is the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's signature style, his innovative Pop Art 3-D paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/.
This is the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's signature style, his innovative Pop Art 3-D paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/.
Artist Jay Rolfe viewed Ellsworth Kelly's "Yellow With Red Triangle" at the Corcoran Gallery recently. It was painted in 1973. This photo, from the Corcoran's website, has the red a little too orange. It was definitely an orange red, but there was more red in it than shows in the Corcoran's image. Jay Rolfe's photo taken in the gallery which had a yellow-beige wall, shows a little more of the red.
Artist Jay Rolfe saw several of Richard Diebenkorn's Ocean Park series of over 140 paintings while in Washington DC. This example, at the Corcoran Gallery, is "Ocean Park #83" painted in 1975. The first image is from the Corcoran's website. The second image is a photo Rolfe took. He thinks this painting looks better framed and on a wall with the floor visible.
This is the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's signature style, his innovative Pop Art 3-D paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/. 
Helen Frankenthaler is an influential artist who worked in NYC and then moved to Bucks County PA. The work she's most known for is huge and in on unprimed canvas, and the paint kind of bleeds into the fabric and spreads at the edge of the color.
Artist Jay Rolfe saw this example at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington DC. It was painted in 1969 and is called "Hurricane Flag." Who know what that means. This image comes from the Corcoran's website and fails to show the color of the canvas, probably because it was lighted too strongly for the photo. Therefore, Rolfe is also posting his photo of the same painting so you can see the color of the canvas. Also, the colors appeared in person to be dark green and brown with a pink tint, not black and pink.
If you have a chance this weekend to go to DC, this exhibit goes through Sunday July 27, 2008 at the Corcoran.
This is the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's signature style, his innovative Pop Art 3-D paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/.
Mark Rothko's "Mulberry And Brown" from 1958 at the Corcoran Gallery seen recently by artist Jay Rolfe is rather dark and the colors are dull. Jay Rolfe prefers the brighter colors of Rothko's four paintings at the Phillips Collection which appeared in this blog on April 27, 28, 29, and 30, 2008. You may scroll down to compare the paintings for yourself.
The photo of the day is of Mark Rothko's "Mulberry And Brown."
This is the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's signature style, his innovative Pop Art 3-D paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/.
