Looking at Henri Le Sidaner Paintings

MMA’s Information Officer Teresa Gregorio takes a moment between tours to talk about paintings by French artist Henri Le Sidaner (1862-1939). McMaster Museum of Art has three beautiful oil paintings by Le Sidaner in its collection, gifts of Hamiltonian Herman H. Levy. Two are on view at McMaster now until August 3, 2013 in the exhibition, Levy Series No. 5: THE MODERNS.

Plainsman – Insights from the Artist Ivan Eyre

Winnipeg artist Ivan Eyre (1935–) is recognized as one of the most important and prolific Canadian artists of the twentieth century and the McMaster Museum of Art (MMA) is proud to have 3 of his works in our collection. Here the artist offers insightful commentary on the inspiration and development of one of those works, his painting Plainsman.

Ivan Eyre, Plainsman, 1975, acrylic, 141.9 x 162.3 cm,
Hatch Bequest Purchase with the assistance of Wintario,
Collection of the McMaster Museum of Art, McMaster University

I completed a large, graphite preparatory drawing for this painting. The impetus came from a photograph of Samuel Beckett, the famous Irish writer. I was captured by the pose—how his large hand became so much a part of his face, and how his left arm was tucked behind his back. He appears to be in deep thought, while concentrating his gaze.

As I worked on the drawing, the figure changed—losing the Beckett look and becoming a likeness of my late father—Thomas Eyre—a deeply sensitive and thoughtful man. This is especially apparent in his deep-furrowed brow. He admired Chaucer’s work and found mystery in numbers and mathematics.

As a youngster my father toiled on the land, often working to remove fieldstones from the farmland with the use of a horse and stone-boat or gathering hay on a horse-drawn hay-rake. One day, he fell off the equipment and was run over by the rake, which broke ribs.

I think of these things when I look at Plainsman. The snowy landscape represents the kind of terrain he would have known. The unfamiliar still life functions to support the mystery of private thought. The knotted curtain suggests a stage setting, as if the figure and view are part of a kind of puppet theatre presentation, where the “puppet” is larger than life—as if magnified.

This quote was printed in Ivan on Eyre – The Paintings (published by Pavilion Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba, 2004)

Gaudier-Brzeska’s Birdbath

In this, the first in a series of short, informal videos sharing the stories behind works of art in the collection of McMaster Museum of Art, Information Officer Teresa Gregorio talks about the birdbath sculptures by French artist Henri Gaudier-Brzeska (1891-1915).

The Gaudier-Brzeska maquette is currently on view in the The Moderns exhibition. The bronze is on our front lawn in the heart of campus.

Max Klinger: A Glove Series

Max Klinger, Entführung / The Abduction

German artist Max Klinger (1857-1920)  produced 16 print series in his lifetime, the most famous one being Ein Handschuh / A Glove, 1881, which is in the collection of the McMaster Museum of Art and on view this summer in the Glove, the Car and the Mirror exhibition.

In this portfolio of ten prints, Klinger traces the journey of a single white glove through an almost film-like sequence, beginning in reality and morphing into a dreamscape through different settings.

A Glove begins at a roller skating rink in Berlin. A beautiful young woman loses her glove and a man, Klinger himself, swoops down to retrieve it. This intimate object triggers a series of elaborate and fantastic visions of longing, obsession and loss. In the end, a monster steals the glove, love is unrequited.

Produced during the highpoint of the Symbolist period, Klinger’s work also “anticipates” Freud’s psychoanalysis.

Here’s a virtual look at the whole narrative. Click on the first image below, scroll, and take a trip with the Glove.
Then. come to the Museum and enjoy the fantasy in person!

Ort / Place from Max Klinger’s Opus VI, Ein Handschuh / A Glove, 1881, fourth edition published 1898, etching and aquatint, Levy Bequest Purchase, 1992, Collection of McMaster Museum of Art, McMaster University

Handlung / The Act from Max Klinger’s Opus VI, Ein Handschuh / A Glove, 1881, fourth edition published 1898, etching and aquatint, Levy Bequest Purchase, 1992, Collection of McMaster Museum of Art, McMaster University

Wünsche / Desires from Max Klinger’s Opus VI, Ein Handschuh / A Glove, 1881, fourth edition published 1898, etching and aquatint, Levy Bequest Purchase, 1992, Collection of McMaster Museum of Art, McMaster University

Rettung / The Rescue from Max Klinger’s Opus VI, Ein Handschuh / A Glove, 1881, fourth edition published 1898, etching and aquatint, Levy Bequest Purchase, 1992, Collection of McMaster Museum of Art, McMaster University

Triumph from Max Klinger’s Opus VI, Ein Handschuh / A Glove, 1881, fourth edition published 1898, etching and aquatint, Levy Bequest Purchase, 1992, Collection of McMaster Museum of Art, McMaster University

Huldigung / Homage from Max Klinger’s Opus VI, Ein Handschuh / A Glove, 1881, fourth edition published 1898, etching and aquatint, Levy Bequest Purchase, 1992, Collection of McMaster Museum of Art, McMaster University

Ängste / Fears from Max Klinger’s Opus VI, Ein Handschuh / A Glove, 1881, fourth edition published 1898, etching and aquatint, Levy Bequest Purchase, 1992, Collection of McMaster Museum of Art, McMaster University

Ruhe / Tranquility from Max Klinger’s Opus VI, Ein Handschuh / A Glove, 1881, fourth edition published 1898, etching and aquatint, Levy Bequest Purchase, 1992, Collection of McMaster Museum of Art, McMaster University

Entführung / The Abduction from Max Klinger’s Opus VI, Ein Handschuh / A Glove, 1881, fourth edition published 1898, etching and aquatint, Levy Bequest Purchase, 1992, Collection of McMaster Museum of Art, McMaster University

Amor / Cupid from Max Klinger’s Opus VI, Ein Handschuh / A Glove, 1881, fourth edition published 1898, etching and aquatint, Levy Bequest Purchase, 1992, Collection of McMaster Museum of Art, McMaster University

Max Klinger “A Glove” series
installed at the McMaster Museum of Art, summer 2013 exhibition

Museum Education Programs: On Learning Styles and Apple Pigs

Courtesy OMA’s Twitter! @museumsontario

I just returned from an intensive, 3-day course in Sarnia with the Ontario Museum Association.  It was their Education Programs course, part of their Certificate in Museums Studies.

Held in the beautiful new Judith & Norman Alix Gallery, the instructor Melissa Wakeling from Glanmore National Historic Site was a wonderful facilitator, introducing great concepts and modeling best practice throughout! (that is, teaching to all possible learning intelligences).

Here, I thought I’d share with you a few of the great take-aways from the course:

Know your learning style. While this may seem self-indulgent, knowing your preferred learning style will help you recognize any preference you may have when constructing programs and activities. What you think is a great activity may only be working with your preferred learning style.

Assess your learning style here.

Beware apple pigs!  That is, make sure your museum’s mandate is always connected to your programming. Create activities accordingly. It’s a baseless activity for a heritage village museum to stick marshmallows on an apple in the shape of a pig for a harvest-themed program (unless, of course, you can find early settlers who did this with their precious produce!)

Feed ‘em, teach ‘em, entertain ‘em. Adults learn differently from children. They’re also motivated by different factors. Want to get adults in to your museum? Feed ‘em, teach ‘em, and entertain ‘em.

Curriculum, curriculum, curriculum! Teachers are busy people. We want them in our museums, and we can make it easier for them to come here by adding value to our programs and marketing that will appeal directly to them. Teachers need to justify their field trips: make clear connections to curriculum. Even better (for all you keeners), make a rubric for your program. Allow the teacher to stand back and have the chance to observe the class. And, with a handy rubric, they can grade the students easily. And certainly, speak their language! We all have insider-speak; if you use the glossary (found in the Ontario Curriculum), then the teacher (and students!) can very easily make connections to what they’re doing in class.

- Teresa Gregorio

Teresa Gregorio is Information Officer at the McMaster Museum of Art and Co-Coordinator of Hamilton-Area Museum Educators (HME) 

Max Klinger, John Massey and Joseph Calleja

Max Klinger (German, 1857-1920) Handlung / The Act, from Ein Handschuh Opus VI / A Glove, Cycle VI, Levy Bequest Purchase, 1992. Collection of McMaster Museum of Art

McMaster Museum of Art presents

Max Klinger, John Massey and Joseph Calleja
the glove, the car and the mirror
May 9 – August 17, 2013

Reception: Saturday, July 20 from 2 – 4 pm

Two suites of works from the collection of the McMaster Museum of Art—Max Klinger’s (German 1857-1920) Ein Handschuh Opus VI (1881) and John Massey’s (Canadian b. 1950) This Land (the photographs)—provide an instructive comparison that bridges more than 125 years of the modern period.

John Massey, Windy Day, 2005, from This Land series of 7 digital prints, edition of 5, © John Massey. Gift of the Artist, 2012. Collection of McMaster Museum of Art

Klinger’s almost film-like sequence, observing the observer at the outset, morphs into an erotic dream through different settings. Produced during the highpoint of the Symbolist period, Klinger’s work also “anticipates” Freud’s psychoanalysis.

Massey’s manipulated photographs continue his inquiry into the idealized spaces of modernity, “The perfect space invoking the perfect viewer.”

Echoing Klinger’s assertion that the graphic artist moulds the given facts of nature according to his own expressive capacity, Massey stated, “The digital marriage of the car interior and the landscape, creates a hyper-image.  Both shots are from the world, but when knit together, they become imagined or commercial.”

Joseph Calleja’s (Canadian b. Malta 1924) Revolving Concave Mirror is being shown for the first time since it was initially exhibited in 1968.  The content of the mirror is a reflection of the environment—the gallery space, the Klinger and Massey works, and the viewer—knitted and moulded together.

Joseph Calleja, Revolving Concave Mirror, 1968.
mirror, motor, wood, formica.
Courtesy of the artist

Works in the exhibition

John Massey (Canadian b. 1950)
This Land (The Photographs) 2005,
with the exception of Daybreak, 2008
digital prints on Epson ultra smooth fine art paper
AP from an edition of 5
Gift of the artist, 2012

Dark Morning
Daybreak
Pink Dawn
Silver Sunset
Storm Clouds
Windy Day
Midday Clouds, Study

Max Klinger (German 1857 – 1920)
Opus VI, Ein Handschuh / A Glove, 1881
fourth edition published 1898
etching and aquatint
Levy Bequest Purchase, 1992

Ort / Place
Handlung / The Act
Wünsche / Desires
Rettung / The Rescue
Triumph
Huldigung / Homage
Ängste / Fears
Ruhe / Tranquility
Entführung / The Abduction
Amor / Cupid

Joseph Calleja (Canadian b. Malta 1924)
Rotating Concave Mirror, 1968
motor, mirror, mixed media
Promised gift of the artist

Flowers and Photography Exhibition Opens

Image details: Barbara Astman, Lori Newdick, Sasha Yungju Lee,
Suzy Lake, Dyan Marie, and Sara Angelucci

McMaster Museum of Art presents

FLOWERS and PHOTOGRAPHY

Sara Angelucci
Barbara Astman
Suzy Lake
Sasha Yungju Lee
Dyan Marie
Lori Newdick

May 9 – August 17, 2013

Curated by Carla Garnet
Organized in collaboration with the Art Gallery of Peterborough

Reception and Catalogue Launch: Saturday, July 20 from 2 – 4 pm

Flowers and Photography invites viewers to consider why flowers continue to be a favourite subject of women artists. Enlisting the garden subject as one that is reflective of contemporary theories about art, nature and the ordering of knowledge, the show features the art of Sara Angelucci, Barbara Astman, Suzy Lake, Sasha Yungju Lee, Dyan Marie and Lori Newdick.

In Regular 8, photo and video artist Sara Angelucci meticulously constructs a fictional archive of events that take place in park-like gardens using digital means to simulate the look of analog documents – or what we recognize as a snap shot. Senior artist Barbara Astman engages photography with new media to sequentially stage her allegorical black and white photomurals, nearsofar, which show the figure in the garden as emblematic of systems of gender perspectives and representation. Sasha Yungju Lee’s work reflects her experience of displacement and self. Her piece, In the Bosom, is essentially a blown up snap shot of her child, Zoe. This photo shows her daughter with arms opened to embrace the leaves and flowers, not unlike a contemporary vision of the mythological goddess Flora.

A pioneer in feminist performance for the camera, Suzy Lake took up photography in order to explore the politics of gender, the body and identity. Lake’s triptych, Peonies and the Lido, holds a mirror to the self as it tempts (and resists) the obsession with youthfulness. Her video, Dance to Life, avails flowers to re-enact the closing stages of a marriage as so much surplus emotion. Dyan Marie’s relational art practice includes photo-based work, as well as performance and publishing initiatives that reflect on contemporary cultural experience. Her Murmurs and Messages series comprises digitally developed images of flowers, in which those vines and plants are seeded with single word poems. Lori Newdick is known for her beautiful and seductive images that capture the space between herself and her subject. Her 2010-2012 Untitled Flowers series captures something akin to surrealism’s deconstructive formlessness.

Installation view with work by (from left) Barbara Astman, Lori Newdick, Dyan Marie

Installation view with work by (from left) Barbara Astman, Lori Newdick, Dyan Marie — at McMaster Museum of Art.

Installation view with work by (from left) Lori Newdick, Sara Angelucci, Sasha Yungju Lee

Installation view with work by (from left) Sara Angelucci, Sasha Yungju Lee, Dyan Marie

Installation view with work by Dyan Marie

Installation view with work by (from left) Dyan Marie, Barbara Astman

Installation view with work by (from left) Barbara Astman, Suzy Lake — at McMaster Museum of Art.