Plus Ça Change - Art on Mondays on BBC4

Be forewarned - this is a bit of a rant - PLUS Quite a lot of information about "Art on Monday Nights" on BBC Four

At a time when art programmes seem to be burgeoning and successful (or soon to be) on Sky Arts, Channel 4 and Channel 5, we are faced with a BBC which is producing archive only programmes on BBC4 which has, traditionally, been the art channel. (Of which more below - including 'Art on Monday Nights on BBC Four)

I wrote about the planned demise of BBC4 as an originator of art programmes back in March 2021 - as did others - see 

• What happens to art after the demise of BBC Four?
• Don’t let BBC4 become yet another dusty attic full of old shows | The Times
• BBC4’s commissioning remit slashed | Televisual

It's maybe even more pertinent now that Nadine Dorries (who I want to be very rude about but will instead ignore her) has "got her teeth" into The BBC Licence Fee. This is the woman who announces this will be the last licence fee settlement and then announces there will be a discussion and no decisions have been made as yet. Yet more political lies and dissembling??

A statement has been made by the Director General and the Chair of The BBC about the proposal for the Licence Fee Settlement - which has for of code for "more cuts to come' 

As a result recent news coverage includes some significant criticism - and I want to add to it!

• Art critics hit back at UK government plans to reform the BBC | The Art Newspaper (today)

As a film maker who does lots of work abroad I cannot stress enough how much admiration and warmth there is out there for the BBC. All round the world it's revered and envied. Except, it seems, by the yobs and vandals of our government. Is there anything they won't destroy?

— WALDEMAR JANUSZCZAK (@JANUSZCZAK) January 17, 2022

Art on Monday Nights on BBC4

What we're getting on BBC4 at the moment is what I'm calling "Art on Monday Nights" - which is basically a lot of REPEATS or compilations of REPEATS

So this was yesterday evening

The title of the first episode of Art of France "Plus Ça Change" was, in the circumstances, very pertinent!

Yesterday evening we had 

• The Impressionists - Painting and Revolution - a first rate series by critic Waldemar Januszczak first shown in 2011 (I could tell it was some time ago because he looked so young and thin!) - which I reviewed back in 2011 - see The Impressionists: Painting and Revolution - Gang of Four | Making A Mark (July 16th 2011)
• Art on The BBC - Episode 3 on Monet - a new compilation programme of excerpts from past programmes. 
• Art of France (Series 1) with Andrew Graham Dixon - first shown in 2017 and well worth watching again. READ my review BBCFour Art of France - with Andrew Graham-Dixon

• What do Artists do all day - Frank Bowling's Abstract World (2019)
• Whoever heard of a Black Artist? Britain's Hidden Art (first shown in July 2018)

Links you may need to be aware of (if not already) are

• Art on BBC Four (1966 - 2020) - a listing of all the programmes which were made by BBC4 in the past - to give you some sense of what has been lost due to the cuts already - NOT ALL OF WHICH ARE AVAILBLE VIA IPLAYER! So basically just a tease.
• BBC Four - Art on The BBC - the current offering which recaps past programmes referencing great artists and includes:
• The Great Salvador Dali
• Van Gogh - Life and Art
• Monet - The French Revolutionary
• Turner - Light and Landscape

The main problem with the BBC website is it doesn't have a way looking up ART programmes - as opposed to "Arts" - and this is what The BBC means by Arts, Culture and Media

The main issue is NOT that it's not worth looking again at programmes in the Archive - If they were good programmes the first time then they're definitely worth another look. 

BUT but access and choice both need to be improved

• they need to be available ALL THE TIME via iPlayer (i.e. we've already paid for these!)
• they need to contained in a list so that people can identify what's worth watching
• and the BBC STILL NEEDS TO MAKE NEW PROGRAMMES!!

The only bright spot on the horizon is that there seemed to be a significant lobby of MPs in the debate yesterday who recognised that certain aspects of The BBC should not be externalised - and the arts was one of them.

American Impressionism and Portraiture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

On my recent visit to New York, I visited The Metropolitan Museum of Art twice.

The first area I headed to (after the roof!) on the first day was the section devoted to American Impressionism. (The American Wing - North West corner of the Met - 2nd floor the 700s rooms).

Leaving the Met at the end of the day - on 15th October 2019 

The view of Lower Manhattan and the southern part of Central Park
from the terrace on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Tuesday 15th October

It's a real revelation to see some of the paintings you've admired for so long in art books be revealed to you in their normal "home".  Seeing some of the exhibitions I found is not quite the same as seeing them in the Met!

On the whole I think I'd recommend a chronological approach to the Impressionist Galleries unless you are short of time - in which case head straight to the Impressionists and make sure you see some of Hudson School too.

I've uploaded some of my photos into American Impressionism and late 19th Century Portraiture at the Met - a public album on my Making A Mark Facebook Page

Rooms I recommend 

Gallery 771: Portraiture in the Grand Manner, 1880–1900

After the Civil War, the United States experienced profound changes, including rapid economic expansion and population growth, and emerged as a world power. Great wealth and a desire for conspicuous display characterized the period, which has been called the Gilded Age. American artists studied abroad, especially in Paris and Munich, and then competed with their European contemporaries for portrait commissions from American patrons. Both the patrons and painters were also aware of the mode of portraiture prevalent in Great Britain, which was at the apex of its imperial influence and prestige. John Singer Sargent, the quintessential American cosmopolite, was born in Italy, studied and worked in Paris, and operated thereafter with equal success in London, Boston, and New York. This gallery is a testament to the ability of Sargent and his contemporaries to capture on canvas the personalities of their intriguing acquaintances as well as their paying patrons.

Room 770: American Impressionism and Realism, 1880–1920

Having met Claude Monet in Paris, probably in 1876, the expatriate John Singer Sargent was inspired to experiment with Impressionism. Throughout his successful career as a portraitist headquartered in London (as evidenced in 771), Sargent would always refresh his studio work by painting out of doors in both oils and watercolors. By 1887 several other American artists had been attracted to Giverny, on the Seine about fifty miles northwest of Paris, initially by its charm and then by the presence of Monet, who had settled in the village in May 1883 (Sargent also called on Monet there in the 1880s). Theodore Robinson became the leader of the American Giverny group, first visiting in 1885 and spending months there annually from 1887 until 1892. Back in the United States, Robinson and Childe Hassam shared their enthusiasm for French Impressionism with their American colleagues, including John H. Twachtman and J. Alden Weir, who became converts to the style.

Gallery 769: American Impressionism and Realism, 1880–1920

During the 1880s, after studying in Paris, American artists returned home and began to experiment with French Impressionism. Among the most celebrated of these artists were William Merritt Chase, who painted Impressionist scenes of New York’s public parks and of the seaside at Shinnecock, Long Island, and Childe Hassam, who became the leading Impressionist chronicler of New York and New England.Rejecting the prevailing trends of academism and Impressionism, a modern, rugged realism emerged in the early twentieth century in the work of such artists as Rockwell Kent and George Bellows. Their canvases portray the emergence of the modern city, technology, and engineering prowess while also celebrating the vitality of nature in the American landscape.

Gallery 768: Images of Women, 1880–1910

Around 1900, refined women were favored subjects of many American artists. The works in this gallery reflect the contemporary notion that a woman's proper sphere was within a harmonious interior, absorbed in cultivated pastimes, or in a sheltered outdoor setting, engaged in leisure activities. These works also suggest the wide range of styles that artists enlisted to depict their genteel subjects. Women artists were especially successful in describing women's activities at first hand. Among them were the painter, pastellist, and printmaker Mary Cassatt, who settled in Paris in 1874, responded to the influence of the French Impressionists, and became the only American to participate in their exhibitions; and the sculptor Bessie Potter Vonnoh, who worked principally in New York and produced statuettes of women in conventional roles.

Artists whose work is included

The links in their names are to their entry on the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History on the Met website in terms of both a bio and artwork

Mary Cassatt (1844 - 1926) 

- the American Artist and Impressionist painter and printmaker who was a friend of the French Impressionists

portrait paintings by Mary Cassatt (left and right)

• all artwork by Mary Cassatt in the Met
• Lydia Crocheting in the Garden at Marly1880
• Young Mother Sewing 1900
• see also About Mary Cassatt - American Artist - a website I created about her 

Childe Hassam (1859-1935) 

- a pioneer of American Impressionism. Did you know that, after John Singer Sargent and Mary Cassatt, there are more paintings, drawings and prints by Childe Hassam in the Metropolitan Museum of Art than any other American Impressionist painter?

Crop of Childe Hassam's painting of Celia Thaxter's garden on the Isles of Shoals in Maine.

This painting is one of the finest of a series of works that Hassam made during summers in the 1890s on Appledore Island, one of the Isles of Shoals, which lie ten miles east of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. This series portrays the sumptuous wildflower garden cultivated by his friend, poet Celia Thaxter, a garden that provided a marvelous contrast to the rugged terrain of the island itself. In this painting, vibrant red poppies entangled in lush green foliage introduce a view of bleached Babb's Rock. The painting shows Hassam at the height of his creativity as an American Impressionist.

• all works by Child Hassam at the Met
• Celia Thaxter's Garden, Isles of Shoals, Maine 1890
• The Water Garden 1909
• Surf, Isles of Shoals 1913
• Avenue of the Allies, Great Britain, 1918

SEE ALSO the website I created ages ago About Childe Hassam - American Impressionist Painter

John Singer Sargent (1856–1925)

- the noted American painter, draftsman, portraitist, muralist and watercolorist.

Portraits of society women by John Singer Sargent

• Lady with the Rose (Charlotte Louise Burckhardt)1882
• Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau)1883–84
• Mrs. Hugh Hammersley1892
• The Wyndham Sisters: Lady Elcho, Mrs. Adeane, and Mrs. Tennant 1899
• Bringing Down Marble from the Quarries to Carrara 1911

Paintings by John Singer Sargent

William Merritt Chase (1849–1916)

Paintings by William Merrit Chase

Maurice Prendergast (1858-1924)

• Central Park ca. 1914–15

Central Park by Maurice Prendergast

I'm finishing with Central Park because a combination of lack of time and needing to pace myself so I could stay on my feet meant that Central Park is something I have looked at - but not yet visited.

However I was very impressed with New York and I plan to go back.....

Rockefeller Collection on public show at Christies London

Once in a while, a really significant collection of art and artifacts rolls into town - and it's possible to see the works on exhibition prior to a grand auction - and bid on them if you feel so inclined!

The Collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller is being auctioned in New York in at Christie’s Rockefeller Center in New York in late spring. Prior to this auction, the most valuable collection ever previously offered at auction was the Collection Yves Saint Laurent et Pierre Bergé in 2009 at Christie’s Paris which achieved more than US$400 million / € 373,935,500

CLAUDE MONET (1840–1926)
Nymphéas en fleur
© Christie’s Images Ltd
oil on canvas 63 in. x 71 in. (160 x 178 cm.)
Painted circa 1914-1917

This is the largest auction ever entirely dedicated to raising funds for philanthropic causes. (see note at end)

“Eventually all these objects which have brought so much pleasure to Peggy and me will go out into the world and will again be available to other caretakers who, hopefully, will derive the same satisfaction and joy from them as we have over these past several decades.” David Rockefeller

Prior to this it is touring the world and the preview dates for the exhibition of works from the collection at Christies Galleries are as follows:

• London 21 February – 8 March 2018
• Beijing 6 – 7 April 2018
• Paris 16 – 21 April 2018
• Los Angeles 6 – 12 April 2018, and 
• Shanghai 10 – 11 April 2018

The auction sale will take place in the Spring (dates to be announced) at 20 Rockefella Plaza in New York.  It's expected that the sale will offer 1500 works overall split across auctions taking place in New York during the week of May 7.

Important pieces include:

• Claude Monet's Nympheas en fleur (c.1914-1917) - see above
• what will be the most valuable Matisse painting ever offered at auction to date
• a rather lovely Rose Period Picasso which originally came from the Gertrude Stein Collection

The extended public exhibition will feature significant works by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Claude Monet, Georges Seurat, Juan Gris, Paul Signac, Edouard Manet, Paul Gauguin, Jean Baptiste Camille Corot, and Edward Hopper, among others

Below you can see the images in different contexts and learn something of how they were acquired.

Impressionists in London - a marketing own goal by Tate Britain!

I'm going to recommend the new EY Exhibition at Tate Britain as worth seeing.
HOWEVER, this comes with a MAJOR caveat which needs explaining at the beginning. It's all to do with the title of the exhibition.

Three paintings of the Houses of Parliament by Claude Monet
my favourite is the one in the middle from the Art Institute of Chicago

I wouldn't have an issue with the new exhibition at Tate Britain if the headline was "French Artists in London".

However my expectations about what I was going to see were heightened by the title they chose instead which was "Impressionists in London" - with a subtitle of "French artists in exile 1870-1904"

So what follows is:

• First the explanation of rather a lot problems associated with the title and 
• then my review of the exhibition. I'll not be commenting much on at least the two of the rooms as a result.

So why is the title a problem and a marketing 'own goal'?

View of Room 5 - London through outsiders' eyes

Here's my list:

• Only four of the eight rooms are given over to paintings by Impressionist painters
• Room 1 contains paintings by painters who became known as Impressionists AFTER the paintings were painted
• Room 5, 6 and 7 contain Impressionist paintings. 
• Room 8 is devoted to Derain who was a Fauvist and the paintings were painted AFTER 1904
• Room 1 is the introduction and focuses on why artists left France
• Three of the rooms and very substantial sections in the catalogue are given over to four artists who are NOT IMPRESSIONISTS!
• Room 2 is dedicated to James Tissot (1836-1902) who fought in the Franco-Prussian was and been a member of the Paris Commune and was definitely an artist in exile, However he was a painter of modern times and high society who had refused to exhibit with the Impressionists at their first exhibition in 1874. 
• Room 3 is devoted to Alphonse LeGros (1837-1911) and Jules Dalou (1838-1902). LeGros is a very boring, conservative and academic painter - who left France in 1863 (i.e. he was an immigrant not "in exile" and was naturalised British in 1888). He's a made out to be a central person for artists exiling to London following the Franci-Prussian war. In no way is he an Impressionist!  Dalou may have changed the way sculpture was done but this is wholly unrelated to Impressionism.
• Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (1828-1875) is a French sculptor who to my mind only deserves to be a footnote in this exhibition but instead gets an entire room (Room 4) to himself! His visits to London don't merit a mention in either his entry in the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History or Wikipedia. He's in because he sculpted Napolean III.
• A number of the artists were certainly NOT in exile at the time they were creating paintings in the exhibition.  They visited and revisited London - as painters - without any impulse or imperative to desert France!  The use of the word 'exile' strictly only relates to the period 1870-1880 for the Communards and a very much shorter period for everybody else. Thus the sub-title "French artists in exile 1870-1904" actually makes no sense to me at all. There was no exile after 1880.

exile - the state of being barred from one's native country, typically for political or punitive reasons.

• Two of the painters are not even French and were never in exile in London!
• James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) - who has three paintings in the exhibition is an American artist who was living and painting in London but was not in exile
• Giuseppe De Nittis (1846-1884) is an Italian painter who was never in exile and paid periodic visits to both Paris and London. However five of his paintings were included in the First Impressionist Exhibition of 1874. 

The reality is that major exhibitions these days probably need to be joint ventures and have multiple venues both to access works and defray costs. However that does not excuse sloppiness of focus in representing the exhibition to the paying customer.

One of the information articles on the Tate website refers to Eight things to know: Impressionists in London and while informative it fails to highlight that a number of the artists were NOT IMPRESSIONISTS! When educational material becomes misleading to this extent, this is really not good enough.

Bottom line - two points

1. This all makes for a very confusing exhibition. The actual Impressionist paintings don't even start until Room 5 of an 8 room exhibition
2. this exhibition is not a 2/5 stars exhibition - as suggested by Jonathan Jones in his Impressionists in London review – how not to tell the origin story of modern art however I entirely understand why he gave this review - based on the expectations created by the title and the marketing

This pea souper of a show nearly achieves the impossible feat of making Monet seem dull, while illuminating little about British links to impressionism

To my mind the Evening Standard in its review Impressionists in London, exhibition review: Inaccurate and dishonest does have a point...

The title of this show isn’t just inaccurate, it’s dishonest. It’s only partly about those very bankable artists connected to Impressionism.

All those responsible for marketing exhibitions for Tate Britain really need to pay a LOT MORE close attention to the detail of the Non-Broadcast Code of the Advertising Standards Authority - particularly Articles 1 and 3

The central principle for all marketing communications is that they should be legal, decent, honest and truthful. All marketing communications should be prepared with a sense of responsibility to consumers and society and should reflect the spirit, not merely the letter, of the Code.

As one of my readers commented on my Facebook Page

The Royal Academy puts on crowd pleasing Impressionist related exhibitions whenever they feel hard up, looks like the Tate may be doing the same.

It's really not good enough. Inaccuracies have become industrial in this exhibition.

Review

That said, I'll now endeavour to highlight why it's an exhibition worth seeing.

A Holiday at Mentone by Charles Conder

For those not on holiday, during August I'm posting paintings of those taking a break.

I'm starting with Charles Conder's painting of "A Holiday at Mentone" which is one of the best loved of all Australian Impressionist paintings. Its home is the Art Gallery of South Australia

A Holiday at Mentone by Charles Conderoil on canvas, 46.2 cm × 60.8 cm (18.2 in × 23.9 in)
Art Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide

I first saw this painting earlier this year at the exhibition of Impressionist Paintings by Australian painters at the National Gallery - see my blog post Australia's Impressionists at the National Gallery - review.  I can well understand why it so well liked by Australians.

Some facts about the painting

• this was the first painting by Conder that he painted in Melbourne; 
• the painting was found to have sand embedded in the painting suggesting that this was painted or at the very least started while at the beach
• This painting is one of the first to capture the intensity of Australian light.  The weather is sunny and bright as are the colours; the shadows are also coloured
• Its theme is one associated with life in Australia - it celebrates the light, leisure opportunities and the beach - and consequently is very popular with those who love the be in the sun and go to the beach. Both figures reading on the beach are reading 'The Bulletin' magazine known as 'The bushman's bible' because it celebrated outback life and culture
• the building to the right is a bathing enclosure - used for segregated bathing
• the use of the bridge to bisect the painting is suggested to be reminiscent of the bridge device used in paintings in Japanese art and as used by Whistler. This was also the age when Japanese art had a great influence on painting - see my earlier posts on The influence of Japanese Art and Japanese Art
• the education page highlights the conundrum of the figures in the painting

an image that continues to intrigue generations of viewers - the curious drama in the foreground, involving three people who may or may not be aware of each other, poses several questions: Is the man lying on the sand just sleeping? Will the young woman ever notice that her umbrella has blown away? Will the self-important young man (standing at right) retrieve it and introduce himself?

Some facts about the painter:

• Charles Conder was just 20 when he painted this painting. He was born in 1868 in Tottenham (then in Middlesex, now in the London Borough of Haringey)
• Conder lived in Australia between 1884-90
• he was sent to work for his uncle, a land surveyor for New South Wales, Australia at age 16 however he wanted to draw the landscape rather than survey it
• he became a key figure in the Heidelberg School
• in 1888, he Arthur Streeton, and shared a studio with Tom Roberts, two other key figures of Australian Impressionism
• Conder left Australia in 1890 and moved to Paris where he studied at the Académie Julian
• He spent the rest of his life in England, although he visited France frequently
• he died in Virgina Water in Surrey in 1909 - he was insane

Some facts about the location

• Mentone in the 1880s was a suburb of Melbourne - the railway had not yet reached it and consequently it was quieter than some other locations
• it was one of the favoured sites of painters associated with Australian Impressionism

REFERENCE:

• Charles Conder | Google Art - has a number of his Impressionist paintings
• A Holiday at Mentone | Wikipedia
• A Holiday at Mentone | Art Gallery of Australia
• A Holiday at Mentone | Art Gallery of South Australia - The Learning Federation
• Heidelburg School | Google Art

Another painting by Conder made available by the Google Art Project selection of paintings by Charles Conder is that of Bronte Beach - which is painted on cardboard.

Bronte Beach (1888) by Charles Conder
oil on cardboard, h226 cm x w330
National Gallery of Australia