Dennis Raverty

Reacting to the Expressionism of the prewar years, many artists in Germany returned to realism during the 1920s, a tendency labeled Neue Sachlichkeit, or the "New Objectivity." These artists explored the harsh realities of contemporary life during the unstable period between the wars and are the subject of an exhibition at the Neue Gallerie in New York City from February through May 2025.

    The socially conscious realism of these artists was the target of the Nazi's cultural policy against Modern art, brought to a climax in the "Degenerate Art Exhibition" staged by the Nazis in 1936 to ridicule Modernism, whether abstract or realistic, as decadant "cultural bolshevism."

Impressionism, probably the most popular of all avant-garde movements in modern art, was both influenced by and a rival to early forms of photography. But photography at that time could not capture color or motion. This is why the Impressionist painters, in an effort to outdo the camera, used the emerging science of optics to help them represent the fleeting effects of natural light and the ever-changing and increasingly rapid movement characteristic of urban life in Paris during the decades just before and just after the Eiffel Tower was erected in 1889.

April 17: Monet and the Science of Color and Motion

May 1: Renoir the Beguiling Flâneur

June 5 Degas, Master of Informal Form

July 17 Sisley, Caillebotte and Bazille, the Overlooked Impressionists

August 21 Seurat, Pissarro and the Reclamation of Form

Culturally, the Song dynasty (960-1275 C.E.) marks a high point in the long civilization of China—an era that would be returned to again and again for inspiration, not only by the Chinese themselves, but also by the Koreans, Japanese and others. This presentation will examine classic landscapes from the period and the Daoist nature mysticism that viewed the creative process as a revelation of natural forces (qi) manifesting itself through the spirit or "breath" of the artist's brush. Jing Hao's 10th c. treatise on the six principles of painting will be used as our guide for how to "read" a Chinese landscape.

David was the most powerful artist in the history of Western art. Winning the Prix de Rome from the French academy under King Louis XVI, he was later a signatory to that monarch's execution during the period known as "The Terror." Although briefly imprisoned, he later rose to become the first painter to Napoleon and reorganized the academy, placing his own students in prominent positions within that powerful state organization. It is no exaggeration to say that David was truly the "dictator" of art during these years. After Napoleon's defeat, David was exiled to Belgium, where he continued to have an strong and lasting influnce on French art of the nineteenth century.

When Henri Matisse and his followers exhibited their work at the 1905 Salon d'Automne in Paris, they were called Les Fauves--the "Wild Beasts"--because of what the critics perceived as the savagery of their intense and sometimes "unnatural" colors. Matisse went on to become one of the century's greatest masters, and his sophisticated, exuberant use of color is evident behind the mask of this modern "primitive," even when France was occupied by the Nazis. Among his greatest works are the collages he executed during the last decade of his life.

From the 1930s through the 1960s Ben Shahn's painting and illustration addressed such issues as unemployment, discrimination, the rise of authoritarianism abroad, and threats to freedom of expression in the United States. Starting his career during the Great Depression, his art witnessed the rise of totalitarianism abroad and the anti-Communist hysteria of postwar America, as well as the Civil Rights movement. Shahn viewed nonconformity as the essence of avant-garde art as well as the agent of social change. His art was clearly modernist yet remained figurative and accessible to a wide, popular audience. A retrospective exhibition that spans the artist's long career is at the Jewish Museum in New York City from May through October.

The flourishing of capitalism in the Netherlands was a rich source for the establishment of an art that catered to the tastes of the newly rich middle class. Down-to-earth businessmen wanted realistic depictions of themselves and the prolific artists of the period supplied them with portraits, landscapes, still lifes and scenes of everyday life.

October 14-Little Dutch Masters

November 13-Jan Vermeer

December 16-Rembrandt

For many African American artists the depression provided employment through the Federal Art Programs of the Works Progress Administration (the W.P.A.) as teachers printmakers, craftspersons and muralists. The government also provided opportunities for exhibiting their work through traveling shows and government-sponsored exhibitions at presitgious venues (like the Museum of Modern Art) that had previously not shown work by black artists. After the Second World War, however, African American artists were once again faced with the lack of both civil rights and exhibition opportunities.

EARLIER PRESENTATIONS:

Marc Chagall

Henri Rousseau

Giorgio De Chirico