MMaxi Madeiraman

Francis Picabia
Conversation I, 1922

Duchamp, Man Ray, Picabia
21 February – 26 May 2008



Duchamp set himself the challenge of making art works

that were not works of art, as traditionally understood.



He decided that an art work did not need to be either

visually appealing or even made by the artist. Accordingly,

he chose a number of ‘readymade’ objects, of no

aesthetic merit, and gave them the usual attributes of a

work of art: a title, a named author, a date of execution,

and a viewing public or owner. His Fountain – an ordinary

urinal laid on its back – was rejected from an exhibition

in 1917. This, and more importantly, the ensuing debate

about what constitutes a work of art, is now seen as

a turning point in the history of modernism.



Rather than readymades, Man Ray produced what he called

‘objects of my affection’: two or more elements combined

to create a new work. He also used his camera to record

transient or ephemeral items that caught his eye. Here it

was the photograph that was the work of art, rather than

the object itself.

Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray and Francis Picabia were at the cutting edge of art in the first half of the twentieth century, and made a lasting impression on modern and contemporary art. Duchamp invented the concept of the ‘readymade’: presenting an everyday object as an artwork, Man Ray pioneered avant-garde photographic and film techniques and Picabia’s use of kitsch, popular or low-brow imagery in his paintings undermined artistic conventions.



Their shared outlook on life and art, with a taste for jokes, irony and the erotic, forged a friendship that provided support and inspiration. At the heart of the Dada movement and moving in the same artistic circles, they discussed ideas and collaborated, echoing and responding to each other’s works. Duchamp, Man Ray, Picabia explores their affinities and parallels, uncovering a shared approach to questioning the nature of art.

Wilhelmina of Prussia

Princess Wilhelmina of Prussia (1751-1820) was the wife of Stadholder William V. They were married in 1767 when Wilhelmina was sixteen and William nineteen. This portrait was painted twenty-two years later, in 1789 as a present to William V from their two oldest children, Louise and William Frederick. It is an unusual portrait in that the princess is not riding side-saddle (with both legs on one side of the horse), the usual pose for a woman. She is sitting astride the horse as a man would have done. The tower in the background is Jacob's church in The Hague.

Title Frederika Sophia Wilhelmina of Prussia (1751-1820). Equestrian portrait of the wife of Prince Willia
Year 1789
Artist Tethart Philipp Christian Haag
Technique Oil on canvas
Dimensions 86 x 69 cm

Leda, 1919

Otto Dix

In his foreword to the 1919 exhibition catalogue devoted to the group's prints Grohmann introduced Dix this way " Otto Dix appeared at Easter with brutal force, and all sorts of expectations were aroused. At the moment he is laughing heartily at himself, at art, and at us.
Let us leave him to it; something will surely occur to him."

Five paintings of 1919 serve to define Dix's Expressionist period.
Their titles Leda, schwangeres Weib ( Pregnant Women), Mondweib ( Moon Women), Auferstehung des Fleisches ( Resurrection of the Flesh), and Prometheus, a self portrait. The first four convey erotic messages of enormous vehemence with " something cosmic about them. " They were reproduced in Menschen.
Grohmann said, " the ultimate distillation of his memories, not analyses,
the delirium of life, the dancing bewitchment of color. You can turn his paintings upside down; they still work. That is how pure a representation of emotion his art is.
" Zehder takes up the description: " He swings the brush like an ax, and every stroke is a yell of color. The world to him is Chaos in the throes of giving birth."



vehemence
noun
the recruiters were talk to speak with unwavering vehemence passion, force, forcefulness, ardor, fervor, violence, urgency, strength, vigor, intensity, keenness, feeling, enthusiasm, zeal.



throes
plural noun
the throes of childbirth agony, pain, pangs, spasms, torment, suffering, torture; literary travail.
PHRASES
in the throes of we're in the throes of hurricane preparations in the middle of, in the process of, in the midst of, busy with, occupied with, taken up with/by, involved in, dealing with; struggling with, wrestling with, grappling with.



bewitch |biˈwi ch |
verb [ trans. ] (often be bewitched)
cast a spell on and gain control over (someone) by magic : his relatives were firmly convinced that he was bewitched.
• enchant and delight (someone) : they both were bewitched by the country and its culture | [as adj. ] ( bewitching) she was certainly a bewitching woman.
DERIVATIVES
bewitchingly |bəˈwɪtʃɪŋli| |biˈwɪtʃɪŋli| adverb
bewitchment noun
ORIGIN Middle English : from be- [thoroughly] + witch







MMaxi08

A young woman leans over weakly in her chair, her head resting on a cushion on the table. The doctor is taking her pulse. What is the young lady suffering from? Probably she is not ill, just hopelessly in love. She is 'lovesick', her heart is broken. Jan Steen, the artist who painted the scene, depicted her with blushing cheeks and a smile on her lips. Contemporaries of Jan Steen would immediately have seen that this was not a real emergency. The 'doctor' is wearing clothes which were by then old-fashioned. Doctors in garments such as these were confined to the stage, where playwrights made fun of incompetent quacks.


Title The Sick Woman
Year c. 1665
ArtistJan Havicksz. Steen
Technique Oil on canvas
Dimensions 76 x 63,5 cm

• Amsterdam | 02-10-2008
• RANDOM WORDS | 30-09-2008
• Iceland urbain | 29-09-2008
• Iceland urbain | 27-09-2008
• Urban Iceland | 24-09-2008
• Iceland Urbain | 23-09-2008
• Urbain Iceland | 23-09-2008
• Iceland Urbain | 21-09-2008
• Iceland Urbain | 21-09-2008
• Iceland Urbain | 21-09-2008
• Iceland Urbain | 21-09-2008
• Iceland urbain | 21-09-2008
• Iceland Summer 08 | 20-09-2008
• Iceland Summer 08 | 20-09-2008
• Iceland Summer 08 | 20-09-2008