When occupying a sturdy building you are in a world between the walls, protected from the weather and the influence of nature. In contrast, if the only thing that separates you from nature is some cloth, nature is closer at hand. Lately, the rise of “glamping” allows people who want to experience the outdoors without roughing it to do so in rustic luxury.

On sites like Glamping-hub there are camps, tepees, yurts and alternative structures all over the world for rent. Varying in amenities from the very minimal to the well appointed, these rental camps offer the experience of sleeping nearly outside, with an emphasis on doing so in style.

Plastic bubble tent, Atrap Reves Bubble Hotel, France

What I think of as modern camping brings to mind brightly colored nylon gear and freeze-dried food, but the idea of lavish camping was promoted in popular culture through the idea of safari. I immediately think of the lavish clothes and tents in movies like “Out of Africa”, “Mogambo” and the Bedouin style of Valentino movies.

Magambo, with Grace Kelly, Ava Gardner and Clark Gable

Safari tent inspired by Out of Africa

A great tent from Son of the Sheik

Tent design by legendary designer William Cameron Menzies

A modern take on the Bedouin Camp

Sometimes when it’s not practical to create a truly outside space, people create rooms that evoke the feeling of a tent inside. An architect and stage designer, Karl Friedrich Schinkel created the famous tent room for the Nuess Pavilion in Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin.

Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Zeltzimmer, Schloss Charlottenhof

Another notable tent room was Empress Josephine’s room for Le Château de Malmaison near Paris. Napoleon’s campaigns abroad stylistically borrowed from the Roman Empire, and led to the popularity of tent rooms and “campaign” decor in general.

“Glamping” blurs the line between camping and more permanent dwellings. The more elaborate they are, the more outfitting them requires a way to move the gear. The history of creating movable structures dates back to the beginning of humanity, and were often fashioned out of resources that were on hand where the structure was needed.

Mammoth bone hut

Early tents would have been made of animal skins and bones, and the earliest known tents were found in Moldova dating from 40,000 B.C. One of several practical shape for tents, the modern materials may have changed, but you can see the influence of the first tents on design to this day.

Another popular style used for modern glamping is the Tipi, or Tepee, based on the native american tipi’s of the american west.

Lakota Tipi

Blackfoot Indian tipi

El Cosmico, Marfa, TX

Tents were a practical way to house traveling armies on campaigns, and have been long associated with the military.

From Book of the Knight Zifar

WW I tent city in front of the pyramids of Giza, Egypt, Mena Camp

Roman army frieze showing details of the Roman tent

Classic Ottoman Army tents

Yurts are another structure with a long history. A traditional house in Mongolia and Tibet, they are now particularly popular in remote places where they are easy to construct and heat.

Mongolian ger or yurt

Traditional layout of the Ger

Ski in yurts in Yellowstone

Modern yurt house

There are many famous tent based resorts all over the world, but one that is known for its rustic luxury is Calyoquot Wilderness resort in Canada. Their marketing phrase is “experience luxury gone wild”, and they create an experience exactly in line with the desires of people who seek this kind of travel.

Calyoquot Wilderness resort, Canada

Camping or “glamping”, there is something special about freeing yourself from the comforts of buildings to sleep outside. Over the summer, many people will head somewhere to sleep under the stars, letting the wind blow through the fabric of the tent walls–just as people always have.

Categories: About Michael

Tagged: Calyoquot Wilderness Resort, camping, glamping, tents, tipi, yurt

The Houses of Georgia O’Keeffe

Mac White

Posted on October 11, 2019

“Well! Well! Well! This is wonderful. No one told me it was like this!” – Upon arriving in New Mexico

Palo Duro Canyon

Finding her way to Northern New Mexico was not an escape from the bustle of New York, but a rediscovery of the wide open spaces that had first inspired her abstract watercolors that captured the vastness of West Texas with its broad, open skies over the plains in Canyon, Texas contrasting against the dramatic landscape of the nearby Palo Duro Canyon. It was here that she first revealed her fascination with abstraction as a means of expression, while heading the art department at West Texas State Normal College.

Georgia O'Keeffe Light Coming on the Plains II 1917, watercolor on paper Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas 1966.32

Light Coming on the Plains, 1917 watercolor on newsprint

No. 15 Special, 1917 charcoal on newsprint

After excursions to New Mexico during the summers in the early 30’s, she would trade the shadowy canyons of the growing metropolis in New York for the vibrant colors that marked the walls nearby cliffs and distant mountain views that framed the boundaries of Ghost Ranch, a dude ranch located twenty miles north of the village of Abiquiu . The poignant beauty of this high dessert setting would become the inspiration of here work for years to come, providing the perfect foil to her creative yearnings and provide a setting that would become her home. Here the red rock cliffs rise up from the pinons and cottonwoods, where outcroppings stand jagged against the cerulean blue of the of the New Mexico sky where the clouds reflect the landscape below in their own composition.

Abiquiu

Ghost Ranch redrock cliffs

Her summer place at Ghost Ranch was known as Rancho de los Burros, the former home of Arthur Pack – who had run the dude ranch. This simple, austere U- shaped adobe structure became her studio and would itself provide the framework for many of her paintings. With windows looking out at inspiration in every direction, from simple views across sage dotting he desert plains, to the corner windows at the breakfast room gazing upon the cliff walls that provided the vision for red and Yellow Cliffs – an early painting dating from 1940. Its outward focus was echoed in her work while its interior was reflective of a woman whose life was stripped of pretense and was focused on joy of simple living and finding beauty in the ordinary.

Breakfast room at Ghost Ranch

Untitled(Red and Yellow Cliffs), 1940, oil on canvas

Studio at Ghost Ranch

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Studio at Ghost Ranch

Nothing would affect her passion for this landscape more that than the Cerro Pedernal, a narrow mesa that translates at “flint hill”. Its presence dominates the horizon, it flat peak reaching up to the clouds. She felt a spiritual connection with this mountain, and this constant in the landscape became a feature that was repeated throughout many of her works.

Ghost Ranch and Pedernal

Pedernal – 1941, oil on canvas

“It’s my private mountain. It belongs to me. God told me if I paint it enough, I could have it”, she would joke later in her life.

The house was not her only home in this wilderness, though – she would often drive out into the desert to find her inspiration, camping and painting from the mobile studio of her Model A Ford.

O’Keeffe in the filed with her model A

“She would remove the driver’s seat. Then she would unbolt the passenger car, turn it around to face the back seat. Then she would lay the canvas on the back seat as an easel and paint inside her Model-A Ford.” The car would also provide a respite from the harsh elements and unrelenting desert sun. A favorite of her excursion, “the Black Place” is a stretch of hill and arroyos – black, silver and grey on the landscape, located in the Bisti Badlands in Navajo Country north of Ghost Ranch. Her assistant Maria Chabot described it as “… the black hills-black and grey and silver with arroyos of white sand curving around them-pink and white strata running through them. They flow downward, one below the next. Incredible stillness!”

Camping at the Black Place

Black Place II, 1944, oil on canvas

The desert would also provide another element whose abstractions would motivate her artistic explorations – the bleached bones.

“When I found the beautiful white bones on the desert I picked them up and took them home too…. I have used these things to say what is to me the wideness and wonder of the world as I live in it”

Collection of found sun-bleached bones at Ghost Ranch

Entry Portal at her winter home in Abiquil by Y. Karsh, 1956

“To me they are as beautiful as anything I know … they are strangely more living than the animals walking around…. The bones seem to cut sharply to the center of something that is keenly alive on the desert even tho’ it is vast and empty and untouchable—and knows no kindness with all its beauty”

Deer’s skull with Perdernal , 1936, oil on canvas

Always wanting to have a bit more land, enough for a horse and a garden, she began to look for a true place of her own, the Ghost ranch was really just a summer place, and in 1945 she purchased a small adobe structure that not much more than a ruin and spent the next four years restoring and adding to it. This also allowed her view that related both to the landscape and to the home, allowing her to paint from the studio in winter months. She would also often paint from her bedroom, a former wagon shed with a simple corner fireplace, overlooking the Chama River valley or her patio – a sunlit interior court. This court would become a recurring image with in her body of work, studied as light and shadow tracked across the space from season to season.

“That wall with a door in it was something I had to have. It took me ten years to get it- three more years to fix the house so I could live in it- and after that the wall with a door was painted many times.”

Bedroom at Abiquiu

O’keeffe courtyard at Abiquiu, Annie Leibovitz

Patio with Cloud, 1956, oil on canvas

Georgia-O-Keeffe-xx-Patio-with-Black-Door-1955

Patio with Black Door, 1955, oil on canvas

In the Patio VIII, 1950, oil on canvas

Back Door with Snow, 1955, oil on canvas

The house was a place, simple in form and detail, but as composed as her art. Everything had a meaningful aesthetic place. The studio, once a windowless room that served as a cattle pen, now opens out to the broad vistas of the surrounding New Mexico landscape. The sitting room’s door opens to the patio, itself becoming the subject of one of her abstract studies of that space. The Roofless Room, an open air space with a ceiling of log beams and vigas, allows light to filter though –shadow playing against the plaster walls and dirt floor.

Studio at Abiquiu home

Sitting room at Abiquiu

Door though window, 1956, oil on canvas

Roofless Room, used as a sculpture studio later in her life

The patio was also the portal to escape to the sky, four walls of earthen materials framing the expanse of the heavens, day or night. She would often climb to the roof and sleep both in Abiquiu and at the Ghost Ranch.

Ladder in the patio at Abiquiu

Ladder to the Moon, 1958, oil on canvas

As I see the way that she found a new modern interpretation of beauty in the contradictory subtleness and drama of the New Mexico landscape, it was by immersing herself there in these homes that she found both her exuberant creativity, as well as inner joy and peace. I am reminded of the thoughts of another great lover of the landscape of this area, J. B. Jackson whose writing brought perspective to our understanding of the vernacular landscape.

“The older I grow and the longer I look at landscapes and seek to understand them, the more convinced I am that their beauty is not simply an aspect but their very essence and that that beauty derives from the human presence” – J B Jackson – Landscape in Sight: Looking at America

Georgia in her patio

Categories: About Michael

San Antonio’s Blue Period

Mac White

Posted on October 4, 2019

Sloping Hills, Jose Arpa y Perea

Our city has a long and proud history of artists that help to shape San Antonio’s sense of place by capturing the natural beauty of central Texas. I came to understand this in part through my grandparents and their connection with one of these artists.

Marked by a generation of artists, throughout the 1910’s and 1920’s San Antonio would become a center of art in the state. Robert Onderdonk–who founded what would become the San Antonio Art League–had his painting The Fall of the Alamo displayed at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition and went on to become the earliest great teacher of painting in the state. His San Antonio born son Julian Onderdonk ended up traveling to New York to study at the Shinnecock School of Art with the American Impressionist William Merritt Chase. On his return home, his landscapes with their impressionist interpretations of hill country landscapes and fields of bluebonnets would garner great acclaim and lead to him becoming known as the “Father of Texas painting.”

Image 1_sunlight-and-shadow-Robert Julien Onderdock 1910

Sunlight and Shadow, Julian Onderdonk, 1910

Image 2 _Julian_Onderdonk_-_Blue_Bonnet_Field,_Early_Morning,_San_Antonio_Texas_(1914)

Bluebonnet Field, Early Morning, Julian Onderdonk, 1914

My own exposure to these master artists came through a particular lineage of artists who were their contemporaries, instructors, mentors and friends. Jose Arpa y Perea, Robert Wood and Porfirio Salinas would trace an arc across the artists of San Antonio that would cover half a century.

Self-portrait in studio, Jose Arpa y Perea

Jose Arpa y Perea was born in 1858 in the Andalusian city of Carmona. Early in life at only age ten, he became an apprentice to a painter in Sevilla and then later studied under Eduardo Cano at the Academia Real des Bellas Artes. He would be greatly influenced by the plein-air techniques of the great Catalan painter Mariano Fortuny y Marsal known in Spanish as “costumbrismo”. It is this time spent in nature, studying and painting while experiencing one’s surroundings, that would be at the heart of Arpa’s work for years to come. He would go on to win a “Prix de Rome” while in Sevilla, giving him the opportunity to study in Rome where his education as a painter would continue and his influences would continue to expand. His work would be selected to represent Spain in the World’s Columbia Exposition in 1893 in Chicago’s “White City”. The next year, he would travel to North Africa to document a Spanish military exhibition in Morocco, a land that had long inspired Spanish painters. A few years later, Arpa would move to Mexico City working independently documenting the landscapes and customs of the country.

Coatepec, Veracruz, Jose Arpa y Perea

Atlixco, Puelba, Jose Arpa y Perea

Arpa would eventually make his way back to San Antonio where he would become one of the city’s most successful artists of the 1920’s. Returning in 1923 after seven years away he was perhaps one of the cities the most versatile painters–his exposure and academic training affording him the ability to paint anything from portraits to landscapes. He could also teach at both art schools and in plein-air “camps” each spring where he would take students to the streets of San Antonio and the surrounding hillsides to capture glimpses of the city on canvas. It was in one such camp that the paths of Arpa and Robert Wood would cross.

Robert Wood in his studio

Robert Wood was an English born artist, born in 1889 in Sandgate, a small village near the White Cliffs of Dover. Little is known of any formal art education he might have obtained. After serving two years in the Royal Army, he immigrated to the United States in 1911. First working as a farm hand in Illinois, he yearned to see more of the states and did so by painting small landscapes and trading them for travel and lodgings. He crisscrossed the country, marrying and starting a family while continuing to paint until he finally settled in San Antonio in 1924. Although likely he had no formal training, he quickly became a part of the local art scene and opened a studio downtown. He was considered quite a showman, painting scenes in the window of his studio and even capturing painted studies between scenes of the traveling vaudeville shows at the nearby theaters. This was the roaring twenties, and Wood’s work grew in size and maturity as he began to work with Arpa both in the studio and in the field. His work would take on a greater sophistication becoming more ambitious in scale and with a greater level of detail, becoming known for its depiction of the red oaks in the local landscape.

Country Road, Robert Wood

Stream, Robert Wood

During this time, the local and Texas art scene would be impacted by several other events. In San Antonio the Witte Museum would open and Elizabeth Onderdonk, Julian’s sister, would become the curator of art. Of broader influence, oilman Edgar B. Davis–a wildcatter who it is told struck oil in a patch of bluebonnets–created the Texas Wildflower Competitive Exhibitions, which would place the bluebonnet work of the Texas Landscapes on a national level as an important competition and establish the “Texas Bluebonnet” prize that influenced the states art collectors and visitors to the Hill Country. Both Arpa and Wood’s works would be juried into the competition–Arpa winning a number of prizes, including the Texas Prize for the best in state in 1927 and for his Texas wildflowers in 1928.

Verbena, Texas Prize Winner, 1927, Jose Arpa y Perea

Cactus Flower, Texas Wildflowers prize, 1928, Jose Arpa y Perea

Wood would also go on to be contracted by Joske’s–the largest department store in the city–as well as other dealers across the country and his work would become immensely popular. Wood and Arpa would travel on sojourns to Mexico to paint, and it was on one such trip that my grandparents–who had come to know and collect some of Wood’s paintings–commissioned a larger painting for them to hang in their living room. He came back with a painting of Saddleback Mountain outside of Monterrey, Mexico, and it was signed G. Day- so the story goes as short for “Good Day”. This was a pseudonym that he used to avoid conflicts with dealers he was contracted to when painting for friends, but these are considered equal to his named works.

Image 11_Saddle Back Mountain Monterry Mx_G Day

Saddleback Mountain, Monterrey, Mexico, G. Day(Robert Wood)

Another one of Wood’s pieces came to be at my grandparents’ request. After seeing one of his paintings of a local scene–a patio with blooming trees and a cat sitting on the wall–they asked if he would create one like it for them. When they received the painting, they noted there was no cat and Wood responded, “well, the cat ran off”, hence not recreating the piece, but delivering a new painting altogether.

The Patio, Robert Wood

Wood and Arpa would paint their own “Texas Bluebonnets” connecting them to yet another local painter, Porfirio Salinas.

Bluebonnet Field, Jose Arpa y Perea

Bluebonnets, Robert Wood

Originally from Bastrop, Salinas grew up in San Antonio and his artistic leaning was noticed at an early age. Essentially self-taught, he observed works in progress by Arpa and Wood and at age fifteen began his training working as an assistant in Wood’s studio. Initially he worked stretching canvases and framing artwork, followed by sketching in larger compositions from plein-air studies by Wood and accompanying them on trips to the hills surrounding the city as they painted. It was said according to a San Antonio newspaper article, “…that one day in the 1920’s artist Robert Wood decided he could not bear to paint another bluebonnet in one of his landscapes. He hired young Porfirio Salinas to paint them in for him at five dollars a painting”, although Salinas himself would later say that this was more a great lore and that Wood was a great bluebonnet painter in his own right.

Porfirio Salinas in his studio

Salinas would open his own studio in the 1930’s and was eventually taken under the wing of Dewey Bradford, a dealer whose family owned an art supply store and gallery in Austin. Despite a sometimes tepid relationship, Bradford became Salinas’ greatest champion. In 1945 during WW II, Salinas would be drafted into the army and stationed at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio for two years where he would paint a mural for the Officer’s Club while also continuing to paint landscapes on his own.

Bluebonnets at Sunset, Porfirio Salinas

Post war, Bradford would introduce Salinas’ work to some of Texas’ great political figures–House Speaker Sam Rayburn and Senator Lyndon Baines Johnson to name a few. LBJ and Lady Bird would become avid collectors and eventually take several of Salinas’ paintings to decorate the White House during his presidency, naming him his “favorite artist”.

Cactus, Porfirio Salinas

Recently, a piece of his work will return full circle to his artistic roots. Salinas would watch and learn from the greats of Texas landscape painting at the Witte Museum during the Wildflower Exhibitions of the 1920’s. Today–almost ninety years later–one of Salinas’ great murals A Spring Scene of Texas Hill Country is being installed as a part of the new renovation of the Witte and the new Mays Family Center.

Image 18_Spring Scene of Texas Hill Country_Porfirio Salinas

A Spring Scene of Texas Hill Country, mural, Porfirio Salinas

These artists mark a portion of San Antonio’s long history in the arts, making up the center of the heyday of Texas’ “blue period” as well as one that is dear to my own heart.

Categories: About Michael

Tagged: bluebonnets, Jose Arpa y Perea, Julian Onderdonk, Porfirio Salinas, Robert Wood, Texas

Colony in Rock

Michael Imber

Posted on September 27, 2019

Afternoon on the sea, Rockwell Kent, 1907

“the windblown ocean plain stretched dark as indigo to a horizon knife-sharp against the golden lower sky from gold became the imperceptible gradations of emerald, and the emerald became colbalt; and the colbalt, a deep purple at the zenith-often so dark, that zenith sky, that one could see the moon by day and almost, one imagined, stars.” Rockwell Kent

We have always been drawn to Maine for its natural beauty and for its authenticity. Here, you can see fisherman, artists, boat builders and summer families play out traditions that have been in play for generations- in a cycle of life that has changed little over hundreds of years.

Cleaning His Lobster Boat, George Bellows, 1916

Of course over time, the small seaside villages along Coastal Route 1 have become quite gentrified. The old amber varnished walls of smoky pubs, once festooned with pieces of sailing ships, harpoons and old black & white photos of the sea captains whose tales have long been lost, have been stripped, sheet-rocked and filled with t-shirts and decorative pillows printed with whales and anchors. Wine shops, modern art galleries and micro-breweries have all but replaced the town taverns and coffee shops where the fisherman once gathered, and million dollar yachts have long since supplanted the grimy old working boats.

Fisherman’s Beach, Edward Kent, 1907

However, if one wishes to find the real Maine, it is still out there among its many islands and 3478 miles of coiled coastline. Much of what we know of authentic coastal Maine, that seminal view of America’s maritime history; the fishermen, the lobster boats, the wooden boat builders and the artist, have retreated to the very tips of the long finger-like peninsulas and to outer islands far at sea.

Flaming Breakers, George Bellows, 1913

Today, we seek such a place, Monhegan Island- the “Rock Colony”. We leave the tourist filled sidewalks of Camden and drive for almost an hour down a finger of land stretching well into the Atlantic to Port Clyde, a small picturesque fishing village that has served as the summer home of generations of America’s first family of art–the Wyeth Family.

N.C. Wyeth, perhaps best known for his romantic illustrations in books such as Treasure Island, Robin Hood & Last of the Mohichans, first painted Port Clyde’s bustling and industrious shoreline in the 1930’s, breaking from the commercialism of illustrations and discovering himself as a real artist.

Wyeth illustrations

N.C. Wyeth’s painting of the fisherman’s life at Port Clyde

We board the morning mail boat and head out to sea; past the lobster boats and small islands; one, Benner Island is the summer home of artist Jamie Wyeth, son of Andrew Wyeth and grand-son of N.C..

As the sea roughens, our eyes meet as we notice for the first time the sea-sickness bags and the brass grab bars along the wooden walls of the boat. Two cold and wet passengers burst wide-eyed into the cabin after the first wave tops the bow with such force it knocks one of them to the deck. As we spy the island on the horizon, the intercom croaks on to warn of the poor souls that have slipped and fallen on the slippery cliffs of the island, “No one has survived the surf below.”

Storm Tide, Robert Henri, 1903

I’ve waited for sometime to make this journey to Monhegan (Algonquin for out-to-sea island), a small rock jutting from the sea an hour’s boat ride from the mainland, for this remote island is known as one of America’s first and most important art colonies, responsible for launching the careers of so many influential American artists.

Full of the Moon, Frederick Judd Waugh, 1928

Monhegan was once a pirate’s haven before being caught between New England and New France during King William’s War and the French & Indian War. After being burned and abandoned by the French, President James Monroe built a lighthouse on the island in 1824 and by the mid-1800’s artists had discovered it for its rugged, picturesque beauty and for it’s cultural symbolism. By the 1890’s it had already become well known as an art colony.

Hill and Valley, George Bellows, 1913

“It is timeless, populated by hardy individuals seemingly immune to the vicissitudes of change. It is literally on the verge of a sublime and capricious ocean. The New England Coast is as much cultural construction as natural phenomenon.”

First to stay on the island in the late 1800’s were artists such as Sears Gallagher and Samuel Triscott. Then, at the turn of the century in 1903, a onetime student of the Ecole des Beaux Arts, a teacher at the New York School of Art and member of the Ashcan School of American Realism, Robert Henri discovered the island on a trip to Boothbay.

Lobster Shack with Traps, Monhegan, Maine, Sears Gallagher, 1905

Sailing off the Maine Coast, Samuel Triscott

Monhegan Island, Maine, Robert Henri, 1911

“It’s a wonderful place to paint-so much in such a small place one could hardly believe it. I’m already wondering if it may not be possible to have a summer studio here.”

Henri had his wish, and went on to urge other New York artists, including his students, Rockwell Kent, Edward Hopper and George Bellows to follow. Upon arrival Kent wrote Henri, “This place is even more wonderful and beautiful than you told me it was.”

Headlands and Sea, Rockwell Kent, 1910

Blackhead Mohegan, Edward Hopper, 1919

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Blackhead Monhegan, Edward Hopper, 1919

The Sea, George Bellows, 1913

George_Bellows_-_The_Big_Dory_1913-600x480

The Big Dory, George Bellows, 1913

In a Rowboat, George Bellows, 1916

This is where the young Rockwell Kent and George Bellows found their philosophical and artistic bearing, testing technique, style and even new color theories in painting after painting of the Island’s rustic fishing village life, scenic wildlands and “fearsome geography”. Kent established the Monhegan Summer School of Art and eventually built a house for himself, then his mother. It was here, on Monhegan where Kent launched his career as an influential American artist.

Kent the artist and his studio

Of Kent’s work- “The paint is laid on by an athlete of the brush, Dissonances are dared that make you pull up your coat collar.” The New York Sun

Other great American artists would follow- N.C. Wyeth, and later, Andrew and his son, Jamie. To know the art of the island is to know the history of American art. The summers spent on the coast of Maine and Monhegan with his grandfather and father would affect Jamie Wyeth deeply, but no deeper than his admiration for Rockwell Kent.

“As a child, I dreamed of living aboard a ship completely surrounded by the sea.” Jamie Wyeth

Maine Headland, NC Wyeth 1936

Pentecost, Andrew Wyeth, 2003

Jamie and his father, Andrew, would walk the island, avoiding the grand landscapes of their hero artists, opting instead for vignettes of island life. Jamie Wyeth would eventually come to own the cottage by the sea that Kent built for his own mother. He could now dwell in the home of an artist that he believed “best knew the sea.”

Andrew Wyeth’s painting (Portrait of a Young Artist, 1936) of a young Jamie Wyeth on Monhegan

Jamie Wyeth's 2009 painting The Sea, Watched

The Sea, Watched, Jamie Wyeth, 2009- A painting of his influences in life and in art; Warhol (left) and his grandfather, N.C. looking over the shoulder of his father, Andrew as he points out to Sea.

The Islander, Jamie Wyeth, 1975

The Inferno, Jamie Wyeth, 2007

The year round population of 68 blooms to about 250 residents in the summer. There are currently 19 artist’s studios on the island, not to mention the many pilgrims who come every season to capture the magical light and to measure themselves in their knowing of composition, color and space to those who came before.

Maine Headland, Evening, Rockwell Kent, 1950

Yet many, such as myself, simply come to follow in the footsteps of those great artists who have inspired so many since–to understand what they saw; to see, to know, and to capture a glimpse of beauty through their eyes.

Sun, Mañana Island, Rockwell Kent, 1907

After hiking the (barely a square mile) island and seeking out familiar scenes of the sea bleached village, Little White Head, Black Head, and the Cathedral Woods we sit on the porch of the historic Monhegan Inn, eating an apple and taking in the view of the small harbor sheltered in the shadow of Manana Island; the bells of four goats as they make their way across its steep green slope drift across the water. Ten miles out to sea with no cars, no appointments and no sense of time, the peace is almost overwhelming.

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The Dock, George Bellows, 1912

We wait for the afternoon mail boat to return to take us back to reality, but the spirit of the place, that ideal American life among the sea captured by the brushes of so many important artists, will remain to be captured by many more.

Categories: About Michael

Tagged: Andrew Wyeth, Art, Edward Hopper, Edward Kent, Frederick Judd Waugh, George Bellows, Jamie Wyeth, Maine, Monhegan, NC Wyeth, Robert Henri, Samuel Triscott, Sears Gallagher

Total Art – Part II

Andrew Mackie

Posted on September 20, 2019

The Architecture of Secession

The new-found Union of Austrian Artists sought to push design as a whole toward an idealistic freedom and away from stagnant values and commercial tastes. The group quickly rose to international fame due to its forward-thinking membership that included artists, designers, sculptors, painters. and architects. Architecturally, these great minds included Otto Wagner, and many of his students and proteges, such as Joseph Maria Obrich, Joseff Hoffman.

Otto Wagner. Austrian Newspaper “Sport und Salon”, April 21, 1918, p. 8

Joseph Maria Olbrich. 1908. Source: Berliner Architekturwelt 1908, S. 201.

Joseff Hoffman. 1902. Stadtchronik Wien, Verlag Christian Brandstädter, p. 379.

The first fundamental architecture of the movement was the Secession Building. It was built over six months in 1898, and financed by the sale of art, and by benefactors such as Karl Wittgenstein (father of philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein). It became the principal gallery space, headquarters for the movement, and temple to the community’s evolving ideologies.

The Secession Building served as the focal point of the group, and an exhibition hall for their works. Photo by Jorit Aust.

Secession Building Dome Detail. Thomas Ledl. August, 2011.

The Secession Building was a radical statement for its time. It provoked mixed reactions. Press of the time describe how passers-by would stare, in excitement, shock, awe, and would continue away, unable to resist glancing back over their shoulders for another look. The form was familiar, yet distinct, thought to be inspired by the architect’s travels through Italy and North Africa. Detractors criticized it as being a takeoff of Egyptian, Assyrian and Mesopotamian form, and in some circles it was fondly (or not fondly) referred to as the ‘Golden Cabbage.’

The Secession Building facade, featuring Gustav Klimt’s quote and the three gorgon’s heads.

The Vienna Secession Gorgons.

In reality, it was all of these things. The building features a centrally placed door and entry stair. Symmetrically to either side is a windowless box, with only a sparse entablature capping the blank stucco wall. The composition is designed to draw your focus to the center, where above the entry are three gorgon’s heads representing the foundational arts; painting, sculpture, and architecture. The entry door is surrounded by a large-scale applique of a forest motif, with graphic trunks descending below golden leaves. On top of the building rests a large globe constructed of gilded leaves, and the frieze below displays Klimt’s iconic quote, “To every age its art, to every art its freedom”; the spirit of the movement.

Keeping with the Wagner-inspired quest towards ‘functionalism’ the temple is said to have performed admirably. It was praised as an ideal venue for displaying the quickly evolving world of contemporary art.

Design plans.

Interestingly, this was not achieved through radical thinking, but through a balanced, bi-laterally symmetrical layout. The sequence leads you up the main stair into a cruciform entry hall, and then into the bright, open gallery: a large square room flanked by three classically-proportioned galleries.

An exhibition room.

According to Secession writer Hermann Bahr, ‘… we enter the building. Here everything is dictated by function alone. Here there was no attempt to please in a frivolous way, to show off or dazzle. This is no temple or palace, but a space which will allow works of art to be shown to their greatest possible effect. The artist has not asked himself: how do I make it so that it looks best? But: how do I make it so that it best fulfils its functions, the needs of new tasks, our demands?’

And, to understand the spirit of the work, the words of the Architect:

‘With what joy did I give birth to this building! It arose from a chaos of ideas, an enigmatic clue of the lines of feeling, a confusion of good and bad; not easy! There were to be walls, white and shining, sacred and chaste. Solemn dignity should pervade. A pure dignity that overcame and shook me as I stood alone before the unfinished temple at Segesta. There I conceived the germ of that contempt with which I face clumsy pieces of work that are concerned with everything but with warmth, with the heart. And when I understood the task with the heart, when the inner feeling grew louder than mind and spirit, then I also had the fortitude to produce what I felt, and it was born!’

The three owl detail.

Categories: About Michael

Total Art – Part I

Andrew Mackie

Posted on September 13, 2019

In 1897, a group of Austrian artists founded the Vienna Secession, a movement intended to create a platform for artistic expression as it attempted to free itself from a stifling ‘old-guard.’ At the time, the Viennese art scene centered around the Vienna Academy of Arts–the Kunstlerhause—an institution the Secession artists felt was overly rooted in historicism, and was preventing them from showing their work, which they wanted to be art ‘of the time.’

Their founding principles were to communicate and exchange ideas with artists outside of Austria, (parallel ‘Secessionist’ movements were happening in other countries across Europe,) contest artistic nationalism, and to establish a contemporary “total art” that unified the decorative arts, painting, and architecture.

Secessionist work is distinctive in how artists of different media collaborated to create what they considered ‘total art.’ In this paradigm, the nature-inspired, graphic forms from their painting and illustration can be found weaving into building ornament; geometric patterns found in the architecture gets transferred over onto the furniture, glassware and ceramics. And styles and techniques from the decorative arts would cycle back and influence painting and architecture.

The 20^th Century Draws Near…

To better understand the Secession movement, one has to consider its timing. The fin-de-siecle was buzzing with the early days of the Second Industrial Revolution/Technological Revolution. Railways now connected the world. The earliest automobiles were navigating the roads. Modern plumbing was being installed. The rapid urbanization of the second half of the nineteenth century brought with it both issues of poverty, child-labor and over-crowding, as well as new affluence and the acceleration of culture connected to life in the big city.The advent of steel, and modern machining techniques were expanding the possibilities for building. Everyone was adapting to life in the future.

Freedom, Progress, and Function in Art and Architecture

The philosophy of the Secession movement was laid out in bold manifestos in their official publication ‘Ver Sacrum’ (Sacred Spring.) One of the chief Secessionist writers, Hermann Bahr, described it in his 1900 essay, ‘Secession’: ‘Life has changed, fashions have changed, every thought, every feeling and the whole art of the people has changed, so the people’s buildings must change, to express their new tastes and deeds. Such wishes have been loudly voiced and will no longer be silenced.’

This spirit of uprising characterized the movement. Key recurring concepts were to be moving towards art and architecture of necessity, purpose and functionalism, while moving away from tradition and symbolism.

In studying the buildings and art created during this period, many questions arise:

What is ‘necessity’ when it comes to art and architecture? How does the pursuit of this concept influence our experience of a space, or of a painting?
Where to form and function overlap?
What is the role of history as it influences design? How does an understanding and appreciation for history combine with the desire to make something ‘contemporary’?
What happens when an artist is inspired by both technology and nature?

In the work, we are charmed by its bold futurism, by the freedom of its expression and by its artistic skill. It is also clear that the Secessionists were not in pursuit of the stripped-down ‘minimalism’ that can be seen in later movements that shared similar language in their theories. We are drawn to the work of the Secessionists because of how they combine new materials and were inspired by new technologies, and yet created work that remains timeless. Their pursuit of function and necessity still included a connection to artistic craft. The resulting work is new, provocative, and challenging. It answers some of the questions and raises others. It leaves us satisfied and wanting more.

To be continued…

Categories: About Michael

A Trek Through China – Part 1

Alice Arnn

Posted on September 8, 2019

Hong Kong in the 1920s

After finishing my graduate degree in architecture, I capped three years of study and travel with a three-week long trip across China with a group of classmates. During those first few days of jetlag and culture shock–I was repeatedly reminded of the classic segue from Monty Python–”and now for something completely different.” Not only had I never traveled in Asia, but China itself is full of contrast. Every new city and region showed us variations on traditional Chinese architecture and different–and usually larger–skyscrapers.

Photo by Kent Sorenson, 2012.

China is growing rapidly, and its towering high-rises are the proof of its population boom, but it is also an ancient civilization with a rich tradition of art and architecture. Because of its size, there is huge variation between regions and cities. Land-locked Beijing, the ancient capital, is as different from seaside Shanghai—located 750 miles to the south—as New York is from LA or Chicago is from San Antonio. The architecture of each of these cities tells the story of its own unique development, from China’s early history to the country’s modern growth and industrialization.

Hong Kong’s streetscapes during a pause in the rain. Photos by author.

We began our journey in the south, easing into eastern culture in Hong Kong, the former British territory. In 1841, Hong Kong was primarily a series of coastal villages and its population was 7,450–1/1000 of its 7.4 million today.

A drawing of Kowloon Bay in the 19th century.

The British first occupied the island as a military strategy point during the First Opium War. Soon after the British victory in that war and in the Second Opium War, they signed a 99-year lease agreement for Hong Kong, Kowloon (the neighboring peninsula), and the islands that surrounded them. As a free port and one of the first Asian countries to industrialize, the population and economy boomed. In 1997, the British handed the island back to China, but its government and economic system remain independent.

Kowloon Bay in the 1900s.

This dense city is crowded, and we walked many miles dodging traffic (and a mild typhoon) by ducking through the city’s maze of shopping malls and escalators.

The Hong Kong nightly light show from Victoria Peak. Photo by author.

We climbed up to Victoria’s Peak—a true tourist trap with admittedly incredible views of the city’s nightly light show on the buildings themselves—and crossed Kowloon Bay on the ferries of the Star Line, which has been running continually since 1888.

The skyline of Hong Kong with a Star Line ferry in the foreground. Photo by author.

The Hong Kong waterfront with a Star Line ferry in the foreground, c. 1938.

Though the city’s crowded skyline dominates any tourist’s impression of the city, its historic buildings tie it to its rich past. Between the high-rises and dense city blocks, there are examples of British colonial architecture, Buddhist temples, and buildings that resulted from the city’s growth.

The Cenotaph (a replica of Lutyen’s Cenotaph in Whitehall), built in 1923, in Statue Square next to City Hall with I.M. Pei’s Bank of China Tower behind.

The Peninsula Hotel, Hong Kong.

The lobby of the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong.

Man Mo Temple, Hong Kong.

The interior of Man Mo Temple, Hong Kong. Photo by author.

More recently, the Chi Lin Nunnery was rebuilt in 1998 in Kowloon and offers a peaceful retreat from the bustling city. Nestled in the dense city blocks, the nunnery and gardens are a beautiful example of Buddhist temple planning and provide an idyllic retreat.

Chi Lin Nunnery, Hong Kong

The Nan Lian Garden. Photo by author.

Nan Lian Garden, Hong Kong. Photo by author.

Nan Lian Garden, Honk Kong. Photo by author.

The Bund in Shanghai.

From Hong Kong, we flew to mainland China, and began our journey north with a stay in the Bund, a historic area of Shanghai that was the center of the first international settlements in China. Classical western buildings, built during the 1800s when the Shanghai International Settlement was formed, feature distinctly eastern architectural details.

Historic photograph Pudong Lujiazui from the Bund in the 1980s.

Pudon Lujiazui in 2017. Photo by author.

Directly across the water from the Bund is the city’s financial center, where one sees Chinese architecture contrasting again, this time with the modern skyscraper. Shanghai was originally a fishing village; “Shang hai” means “on the sea.” Just like in Hong Kong, the city grew rapidly first when it became a treaty port open to western trade in the 1940s and again when it opened to foreign trade in the 1990s. Today, it is the financial center of mainland China and commercial gateway into the Asia-Pacific region.

The scale model of the city of Shanghai at the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center.

When we arrived in Shanghai, we learned that a new map of the city is released every six months because of the excessive amount of new building. While the world’s largest cities almost all boast impressive skylines, Shanghai’s stretches for miles and at its center is the tallest skyscraper in the world.

The Jin Mao Tower with the Shanghai World Financial Center and the Shanghai World Financial Center in the background.

The entry portal to the Jin Mao Tower and the central atrium of the building. Photos by author.

The 1,380-foot Jin Mao Tower, designed by Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, is inspired by the pagoda and takes its octagonal shape, height (88 floors), from the number 8, associated with prosperity. Standing on the 88th floor, two of the world’s tallest buildings loom overhead.

The Jin Mao Tower, Shanghai Tower, and Shanghai World Financial Center disappearing into the clouds on a hazy day. Photo by author.

The Shanghai Tower, with the world’s highest observation deck, and the Shanghai World Financial Center, with its distinctive bottle opener shape, disappear into the clouds on a decidedly hazy day. My group went “skywalking” among those clouds on the outside of the 88th floor. Strapped into harnesses and (I hope) well-secured by two separate ropes, they leaned over the edge and dangled one foot off the building before returning through an airlock.

“Skywalking” on the 88th floor of the Jin Mao Tower. Photo by author.

Other Chinese cities boast similarly large and impressive skyscrapers, and in each they provide a constant and dramatic foil to the country’s traditional architecture and urbanism…

Categories: About Michael

The blog of Michael G Imber Architects

Separated by Cloth

Devi Norton

Posted on October 18, 2019

The Houses of Georgia O’Keeffe

Mac White

Posted on October 11, 2019

San Antonio’s Blue Period

Mac White

Posted on October 4, 2019

Colony in Rock

Michael Imber

Posted on September 27, 2019

Total Art – Part II

Andrew Mackie

Posted on September 20, 2019

Total Art – Part I

Andrew Mackie

Posted on September 13, 2019

A Trek Through China – Part 1

Alice Arnn

Posted on September 8, 2019