My mom loves art and painting, so for this Mother's Day, she and I went to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) to view the paintings of Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The exhibit, Renoir in the 20th Century, focused on his work over the last 30 years of his life, which many in the art world view as a transitionary period from impressionism to modernism. And while not my favorite artist of the impressionist era (that would be Claude Monet... I love me some water lilies and foggy landscapes ;), the exhibit was still fascinating and I felt honored to be in the presence of such artistic masterpieces.
The audio tour gives background about some of the works on exhibit and offers a glimpse into the artist's life. Being as my brain is in constant pop culture mode, some of the more interesting factoids I learned included the fact that his children's nanny, Gabrielle, was his favorite model (very interesting considering the number of nudes he painted of her... hmmm) and assistant later in life when he became riddled with arthritis. (You can see her helping him sculpt in a silent film playing as part of the exhibit.) Renoir was also one of very few artists during his era to paint his own children. One of the highlights of the exhibit, which is also one of, if not the only Renoir that belongs to LACMA's permanent collection, is a painting of his son Jean in a very ornate antique gold Italian frame. The audio tour says that as Renoir was painting the piece (Jean as the Huntsman) he intended it for that specific frame, which, along with the painting, was donated to LACMA by the subject of the painting, Jean Renoir, who had it in his Beverly Hills home until his death.
No comments:
Post a Comment