At The Metropolitan Museum of Art

 Winslow Homer, 1836-1910, exhibit 

CROSSCURRENTS: 

“ close study of his art reveals a lifelong preoccupation with conflict and uncertainty as well as persistent concern with race and the environment.” 

The exhibit contains 88 oils and watercolors.  Quotes are from the exhibit.

The Cotton Pickers, 1876

“It’s title and the women’s portrayal suggest a post slavery economy in which little has changed for many”.

A Visit from the Old Mistress, 1876

“ A powerful evocation of lingering conflict and trauma with women and slavery at its center.”

Dressing for the Carnival, 1877

War and Reconstruction:

Homer was working as a popular illustrator in Boston for Harpers Weekly when they sent him to the front lines of Virginia with the Union Army.  

‘Sharpshooter’ and ‘Prisoner from the Front’ “establish his reputation as a painter of pathos.”

Sharpshooter, 1866

Prisoners from the Front, 1866

Waterside:  

“These seemingly lighthearted works intimate darker themes, foreshadowing the artist’s growing preoccupation with the risks involved in maritime life.”

Eagle Head, Manchester, Massachusetts (High Tide)

Eagle head, closer look, 1870

Breezing Up (A Fair Wind) closer look, 1873-76

Breezing Up

An Adirondack Lake, 1870

Along the Gulf Stream: 

“Epic conflict between humankind and nature … developed over 20 years … references complex social and political issues, including the legacy of slavery and imperialism in the wake of the 1898 Spanish-Cuban-American War.”

“The centerpiece of the exhibit … a painting that reveals his lifelong engagement with charged subjects of race, geopolitics and the environment.”

The Gulf Stream, 1899

Diamond Shoal, 1905

“The junction of the Gulf Stream and the Labrador Current. Feared by sailors as the graveyard of the Atlantic.”

Northeaster, 1895-1901

Maine Coast,1896

Winter Coast, 1890

Winter Coast

Woods at Prout’s Neck, 1887

Perils of the Sea, 1881

Along the Gulf Stream

Waiting

Undertow, 1886

Lost on the Grand Banks, 1885

Rescue, 1887

Homer spent many winters in the Bahamas and believed his watercolors would be his legacy. “Ads promoted the healthful benefits of tropical paradise and Homer also suggests the exclusion of Black Islanders from Bahamian Society.”

Shark Fishing, 1885

Rest, 1885

A Garden in Nassau

Sponge Fishermen, 1885

After the Hurricane, 1895

Oranges, 1885

Last pieces

Right and Left, 1909 (duck hunting)

Right and Left, closer look

Fox Hunt, 1893 “predator becomes prey”




The iconic 

Snap the Whip, 1872

Paradise Square

 Saw that show yesterday.  Brilliant! Excellent choreography by Bill T. Jones, wonderful performance by Joaquina Kalukango singing Heaven Save our Home and Let it Burn, and the exciting dancing of A J Shively.  A bit of it is on YouTube but there’s nothing like a live show. 

Before the Civil War, in the five points, among the saloons, brothels, and other places of entertainment Irish immigrants and runaway slaves lived, loved, and married. Then in 1863 President Lincoln instituted a draft to build the Union Army.  The draft excluded ‘colored folk’ because they weren’t legally considered people and for $300 (a year’s wage for the workers) you could buy your way out of the draft.  So who’s left? The New York Irish immigrants and their regiment the 69th. They were the frontline at Gettysburg in 1863. Out of 268 men 143 survived Gettysburg; out of approximately 1000 Irish immigrants serving in the Civil War 56 survived.(Wikipedia?)

With war cotton trade ended. Mills in New York closed. The few jobs available in 1863 became scenes of  racist incidents and then the draft call came and the riot. 

That’s as far as I got a couple of weeks ago.  The Meds. Specifically prednisone, a steroid took over.  Hard to describe what it does. It’s a mood changer and agitator.  Dozens of things all of a sudden need to get done, a trip to Europe, a new bed, a new couch, broadway shows, movies.  Then they, the Doctors, decide I don’t need it and they taper me off.  Fatigue sets in.  Weakness. Achy weakness as though you’ve over done it at the gym. But you can’t seem to get more than 4 hours of sleep at a time.  Then the Doctor calls to tell you you have too much potassium.  “Cut back”.  And I did cut back and am taking slow.

National museum, part 2, and Downtown

 The National Museum of the American Indian’s exhibit on the first floor is titled ‘Ancestral Connections’ because the artists use their tribal history, heritage, and native crafts for their art.

Rose Simpson, Pottery, Reed, Cotton Twine

Jeri Redcorn, recreated the lost art of Caddo Pottery

Isabel Rorick and Son Robin Rorick

Jackie Larson Bread, Bead Work

And Downtown, a stone carved map of Dutch New York and stone carvings of New York City’s History.  Fun fact among the many names the Native Americans had for New York, the Algonquian speaking Munsee people called Manhattan ‘Manahachtanienk’, “ place of general inebriation “.  I kid you not it’s carved in stone.

Dakota Modern

 The Art of Oscar Howe … now at the NYC Smithsonian Museum of Native Americans.

I

Evil Spirit of the Buffalo Dance, 1961

I was there because of a review by Peter  Schjeldahl in the 7/11 & 7/18 Fiction-issue of The New Yorker.  He wrote: “ In Bear Dancer (1962), illustrative details -a bear’s head, a wielded spear - lurk unobtrusively amid cubistically distributed abstract forms.  Yet more peekaboo are bits of figures in the plangent gallimaufry of “Dance of the Heyoka”. “. Never saw plangent gallimaufry; had to go.

His history, Oscar Howe, is laid out in a video. The Native American history of being removed from ‘the res’ to go to the white man’s school at 7 years of age.  When his mother died shortly after, he went back home to live with and to learn from his grandmother.  In 1934 he attended the government run, Santa Fe Indian School, known as the Studio School.

Sioux Grass Dancer, 1934-1938

Sioux Water Boy

Blue Antelope

He moved on to Oklahoma University where he was introduced to the Mexican muralists.  See my blog ‘Vida Americana’ dated around 2/20.

Sioux War Dance, 1954

Three Women, 1952

Buffalo Dance,1955

Ghost Dancer, 1963

Woman War Dancer, 1965

Sioux Dancer, 1953

Dance of the Heyoka

Rider, 1968

Peter Schjeldahl says he is haunted by “ One rifleman, neglecting to shoot, gazes askance with an enigmatic grin” in Wounded Knee Massacre, 1960.

I saw 

That was on the second floor.  The first floor was very good too.

 Maybe tomorrow.

It’s free!