Canaletto: Townscapes

Canaletto (1697-1768) is one of my favourite artists. When I was working split-shifts in Soho, in London, I spent many an afternoon browsing the National Gallery .

One of the many painters to capture my interest was Canaletto. The painting here is called Grand Canal and the Church of Salute. His broad and lively scenes of the life and architecture of Venice and London are simply wonderful. His paintings abound with characters going about their daily lives or participating in grand occasions, while the main subject, the city around them, is captured in light and colour in glorious detail.



Having come to the attention of English tourists visiting Venice, he was soon selling many of his works to them. He visited England in 1746 and was soon painting townscapes of London. The painting here is called Westminster and, as you can see, the painting captures the architecture in remarkable detail and also imparts the English love of pomp and ceremony.

When you stand in front of one of Canalettos' large canvases you can appreciate the detail of his work. The field of depth and perspective allows the viewer to focus in on distant characters and see each of them at work and play or simply viewing the same spectacle that Canaletto himself is observing.



The painting here is called Regata. Again Canaletto has captured for all time the gaiety and chaos of one of the grand events in the Venetian calendar.

I am a great fan of Canaletto. To stand and view his great works is to truly be transported in space and time. These are not just dead, but accurate, landscapes. They are bursting with energy and humanity. The paintings, like urban life itself, contrast the firm foundations afforded us by our institutions and architecture, with the everyday hustle and bustle of furious humanity.

Going Dutch

The painting above (click to enlarge) is by an artist called Benjamin Gerritsz Cuyp. It is called Peasants in the Tavern. This artist worked in the first half of the 17th century. I like very much his use of light. Rembrandt used similar techniques. But the thing I most like about this particular style of painting is the natural subject matter.

Like the Impressionists, who came much later, the Dutch painters brought painting away from the dictates of, and the dependence upon, patrons. They were not exclusively painting the rich and powerful, or restricted to scenes of mythology and religion. They went into the world around them and captured for all time life as it was.

Everyday scenes and people populate these paintings, which is why I love them. I can quite easily see myself amongst these people in the tavern. People have changed very little over the years. Technology has expanded the parameters and quality of life as we know it, but our human nature, and the human experience of life, is little altered. The simple pleasures are still dear to us. Food, drink, laughter, gossip, friendship, community, love, and family have not lost their places in our everyday lives.

These are "Humanitarian" paintings. They capture the essence of human life in this world. Time, space, and humanity coincide within the boundries of the canvas, and offer us a portrait of ouselves, not as we were but as we are.

I will occassionly include some of my favorite works of art in this blog. I am certainly no expert and make no pretense that I am. But I did spend a great deal of time in art galleries. Working split-shifts in Soho gave me every afternoon with nothing to do for three hours. With very little money to indulge myself, I settled for the "freebies" that London had to offer. It was then that I discovered art. The more I saw, the more I read. The more I became able to identify exactly what it was about a particular work of art, or school of art, that set it apart from everything else. And I learned to know what I like and why I like it.

That's about it for today. More political rants to come soon. In the meantime...perhaps I'll see you down the pub!

Picasso

I thought I'd take a small break from my usual rant about politics and religion, and, once again, say a little bit about my favourite works of art. This painting is called Massacre in Korea, By Pablo Picasso. He painted this in 1951 and it depicts the massacre of Korean civilians by American forces at No Gun Ri in 1950. Like Guernica, his depiction of the bombing of the Spanish city by German aircraft in 1937, this painting confronts the horrors of modern warfare. The murder of civilian populations by military aggressors has become commonplace in these modern times. The fact that the civilians in this painting are naked and helpless is significant when compared to the metallic harshness of their killers.


This painting is called Weeping Woman, also painted in 1937. Look closely and you can see the genius of Picasso as he captures the pain in the woman's heart. This painting followed Guernica, and is also a political and emotional statement about the cruelties of war.

People think of Picasso as an "abstract" painter, but I think these paintings are anything but abstract. Like any great work of art they capture and express the subtle realities of the human condition.



This painting is called Don Quixote, which he painted in 1955. The painting captures in a delightful way the frailness, foolishness, nobility, and dignity of the demented old fool and his comic, yet devoted, companion, as they set out to right the wrongs of the modern world. He is determined to confront the evil forces that are deceiving and warping mankind...this is his madness and his salvation.

Picasso was a great artist. He was not afraid to confront the modern world, in all its' glory and imperfections, and use his unique vision to place it before us for close examination.

Edward Hopper

(Click on pictures to enlarge)

Art and Artists

The painting here is called Nighthawks, by Edward Hopper (1882-1967).

Hopper is one of my favourite artists. There is something lonely and nostalgic about his work. The characters in his paintings seem to be somehow separated from the mainstream of society...outsiders. But is it by choice or circumstance that these lonely figures find themselves adrift? The viewer finds himself wanting to know their stories, wanting to explore their situations. Some of his characters seem tired or frightened, somehow weary from the struggle or anxious about some next step on their journey.

This painting is called New York Movie. Hopper shows us a lonely, apprehensive side to the world around us. Like a film noir, his works reveal a world that, although co-existing with ours, was not meant for us to see. The solitary moments of life are captured quietly for prying eyes and we want to know more...to see more. What is her story?

This painting is called Gas. I used to work at a gas station that was almost identical to this. The station, located on the edge of the town, was the last light to be seen for many miles on the dark and winding road through the forested Midwestern landscape. Again the lonely figure, separated from the herd, is captured going about his solitary task.

Hopper captured, for me, an America that was just about to disappear forever into the corporate chaos and mass consumerism that defines us today. Hopper forces us to remember a world that was simpler in some ways than the world we see around us. But he also, disturbingly, brings us face to face with our own solitary existence in this chaos as he reveals his characters to us and we find that part of ourselves that identifies with them.