Is John Marin the greatest watercolor painter that nobody
remembers anymore? I hadn't thought of him in a long time, but when I saw the
exhibit 'Steiglitz and His Circle' at the Met recently, it was a chance to
consider him again. It's a very interesting show, focused on Alfred Stieglitz's
efforts and successes in bringing Modernism to America in the early 20th
century. Stieglitz, best known for his own moody atmospheric photography from
street scenes of 
bygone New York to sensual portraits of his wife Georgia
O'Keefe, championed European modernists at his Gallery 291, years before America got its big jarring, choking dose of Modernism with the Armory Show in
1913. The Met sets up the chronology: first photographs, snow scenes with
horse drawn carts and Edward Steichens' beautiful night scene of the Flatiron
Building (1904), all recalling a mythic New York that barely resembles
hipped-up, maxed-out Manhattan of today. After that (and after annoying his
photographer 
pals for switching his mission) Stieglitz began showing European
Modernists, including Matisse, Rodin, Picasso, Lautrec, Kandinsky and others. A room full
of intentional shockers - crotch drawings and other 'private' pleasures - gives
way to more serious aesthetic engagement with the best and most interesting
work at that moment in time. Americans are soon in the mix and the balance is
pretty even, in the work if not in the big European names. There was 
important
exchange going on, though it was all one-sided then; New World progressives,
including 
Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, Marin, and Diego Rivera grabbed at what
the Europeans were doing and built their own brave experiments based 
on
fracturing traditions of space, form and color. After 1913, his monopoly on
Modernism broken, Stieglitz shifted almost exclusively to American artists,
including Georgia O'Keefe, his 
newly discovered sensation about whom he supposedly said, "Finally, a woman on paper." Some thought Stieglitz
had lost his nerve after 1917 when he closed Gallery 291. A Frances Picabia
drawing of a bellows camera is a disguised portrait with a critical message;
the bellows is detached so the camera no longer functions. Stieglitz opened The
Intimate Gallery in 1925 with a close-knit group of Americans; the last group
of rooms in the exhibit are the testament to their will to define and proclaim
a Modern art of this soil and this place. There are O'Keefes in abundance, but
it was the Marin watercolors that held my interest. He had a particular way of cracking and reassembling space with a nod to Cubism, but with a distinctly
individual sense of blend and 
separation, as if piecing back together a jigsaw
puzzle of his own devising. In the exhibit we see the arc of his work, from
views of Paris (he spent six years traveling and learning in Europe) into
stronger and more confident compositions of American elements - open spaces,
broad seas, rocky coasts, as well as brassy New York City. His vocabulary of
slashing 
strokes, dots and dashes, with color that moves from saturated
strength to soft diffusion, gives his small-scale work a dimension that can be
almost monumental. John Marin was one of Stieglitz's first artists, and their
personal and professional alliance lasted 40 years; O'Keefe and Stieglitz were
married at his house. There is a lot to see in New York right now. The
deKooning show is a definite Do-Not-Miss - but don't miss this one either.
bygone New York to sensual portraits of his wife Georgia
O'Keefe, championed European modernists at his Gallery 291, years before America got its big jarring, choking dose of Modernism with the Armory Show in
1913. The Met sets up the chronology: first photographs, snow scenes with
horse drawn carts and Edward Steichens' beautiful night scene of the Flatiron
Building (1904), all recalling a mythic New York that barely resembles
hipped-up, maxed-out Manhattan of today. After that (and after annoying his
photographer 
pals for switching his mission) Stieglitz began showing European
Modernists, including Matisse, Rodin, Picasso, Lautrec, Kandinsky and others. A room full
of intentional shockers - crotch drawings and other 'private' pleasures - gives
way to more serious aesthetic engagement with the best and most interesting
work at that moment in time. Americans are soon in the mix and the balance is
pretty even, in the work if not in the big European names. There was 
important
exchange going on, though it was all one-sided then; New World progressives,
including 
Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, Marin, and Diego Rivera grabbed at what
the Europeans were doing and built their own brave experiments based 
on
fracturing traditions of space, form and color. After 1913, his monopoly on
Modernism broken, Stieglitz shifted almost exclusively to American artists,
including Georgia O'Keefe, his 
newly discovered sensation about whom he supposedly said, "Finally, a woman on paper." Some thought Stieglitz
had lost his nerve after 1917 when he closed Gallery 291. A Frances Picabia
drawing of a bellows camera is a disguised portrait with a critical message;
the bellows is detached so the camera no longer functions. Stieglitz opened The
Intimate Gallery in 1925 with a close-knit group of Americans; the last group
of rooms in the exhibit are the testament to their will to define and proclaim
a Modern art of this soil and this place. There are O'Keefes in abundance, but
it was the Marin watercolors that held my interest. He had a particular way of cracking and reassembling space with a nod to Cubism, but with a distinctly
individual sense of blend and 
separation, as if piecing back together a jigsaw
puzzle of his own devising. In the exhibit we see the arc of his work, from
views of Paris (he spent six years traveling and learning in Europe) into
stronger and more confident compositions of American elements - open spaces,
broad seas, rocky coasts, as well as brassy New York City. His vocabulary of
slashing 
strokes, dots and dashes, with color that moves from saturated
strength to soft diffusion, gives his small-scale work a dimension that can be
almost monumental. John Marin was one of Stieglitz's first artists, and their
personal and professional alliance lasted 40 years; O'Keefe and Stieglitz were
married at his house. There is a lot to see in New York right now. The
deKooning show is a definite Do-Not-Miss - but don't miss this one either.
Stieglitz and His Artists: Matisse to O'Keeffe: Metropolitan Museum of Art
through Jan 2, 2012
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/stgl/hd_stgl.htm
