Art Eyewitness Review: Firing the Imagination: Japanese Influence on French Ceramics, 1860-1910 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

 

Firing the Imagination:
Japanese Influence on French Ceramics, 1860-1910

Philadelphia Museum of Art

 August 31, 2024-August 17, 2015

Reviewed by Ed Voves

Original Photography by Anne Lloyd

Firing the Imagination is an intriguing exhibition which surveys the influence of Japanese artistic conventions on French ceramics during the age of Impressionism. Currently on view in the Colket Gallery of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA), the exhibit provides new insights on the impact of Japonisme on decorative arts and craft, rather than exclusively on Impressionist painting.

The Colket Gallery, I recently discovered, is named for Tristram Colket, a  grandson of John Dorrance, the Campbell's Soup Company founder. Mr. Colket, who died in 2020, was a generous supporter of numerous worthy causes. But he was quiet, low-keyed benefactor, whose name did not often figure in newspaper headlines or advertisements. 

By a curious twist of circumstance, a similar lack of name recognition applies to the ceramic artists whose exquisite works are displayed in Firing the Imagination.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024)

Art works from the Firing the Imagination exhibit.

 At left, is a vase made by Théodore Deck & decorated by Marie-Caroline-Eléonore Escallier, c. 1870; at right, is a vase by Auguste Jean, 1885

Claude Monet, Edgar Degas and Paul Cezanne need no introduction. The same does not hold true for the remarkably long list of "potters" whose plates, vases, bowels and jardinieres grace the walls and display cases of the Colket Gallery. 

Edmund Lachenal, Ernest Chaplet, Joseph-Théodore Deck, Albert-Louis Dammouse - do these names sound familiar? Until I began visiting Firing the Imagination, I am chagrined to admit that I had not heard of a single one of these masters of art pottery.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024)

A selection of ceramic plates decorated with Japanese motifs, made in France by Felix Bracquemond and the J. Viellard Co., c. 1875-1880.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024)

Gallery view of the Firing the Imagination exhibition,

 showing a display of works by Edmund Lachenal, Léon Parvillée and other French ceramic artists of the late 19th century

How these beautiful Japanese-inspires ceramics found their way to the Colket Gallery is a fascinating story. It is a brilliant instance of "niche' collecting.

A New Jersey school teacher named Larry A. Simms focused his attention and financial resources on building a representative collection of works by overlooked Belle Epoque ceramic artists. With commendable generosity, Mr. Simms has donated much of his collection to the PMA. This is a major addition to the Philly Museum's impressive holdings of French nineteenth century art, brilliantly complementing its Impressionist paintings and Rodin sculptures.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024)

Gallery view of the Firing the Imagination exhibition

 in the Philadelphia Museum of Art's Colket Gallery

Of the artists collected by Simms, only one approaches the renown of the Impressionist painters. This is Felix Bracquemond, whose major claim to fame is his role as one of France's leading print makers. Bracquemond also designed Japonisme-inspired dinnerware including the "Parisian" and  "Rousseau" dinner services. Both are on view in the exhibit. Yet Bracquemomd's work in ceramics is often accorded only minimal attention. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024)

Gallery view of Firing the Imagination, with ceramic dinner ware, designed by Felix Bracquemond & others displayed on the walls.

Why painters, especially those working in oils, should be accorded precedence above artists engaged in other media is a question too weighty to be discussed here. But one aspect of the debate should be noted. Ceramic artists devoted themselves to a very dangerous form of creative enterprise. Until the 1970's, the glazes used to paint the various types of ceramic ware were lead-based. Inhaling the fumes during the heating process or touching dust-covered surfaces in the work room have claimed many a potter's life. 

Creating ceramics, therefore, is not a genteel, leisure pursuit. Even in today's safer conditions, it is an exacting discipline. There is plenty of hard labor involved and "brain work" too. One of the thematic displays of Firing the Imagination deals with the difficulty of using volatile, hard-to-control red glazes. 

As the exhibit wall text notes, European artists and chemists made concerted efforts during the late nineteenth century to "replicate the prized colors and surface effects of Japanese and Chinese ceramics." They were especially determined to match the deep red brown which the French called sang de boeuf, ox-blood.

Ernest Chaplet (1835-1909) led the way in developing a durable sang de boeuf glaze, for which he won a gold medal at the 1889 Paris World's Fair. Chaplet was a major innovator in the science of ceramics, though it should be noted that trying to get "just the right tone" of red still poses a challenge for potters.

A strikingly modern porcelain vase by Chaplet, drenched in sang de boeuf and dating close to the time of his award-winning success, is on view in the exhibition. If asked to date this magnificent vase, I would have thought that it had been created during the 1990's - or just yesterday!

Ernest Chaplet, Porcelain vase with sang de boeuf glaze, c. 1889

Equally impressive are examples of small vases which were glazed with traces of sang de boeuf, used to accentuate the other glaze hues. When such subtle color effects were applied to simplified, yet elegantly shaped pieces, as shown below, a true liberation of color and form occurred. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024)

A selection of small vases, glazed with accents of sang-de-boeuf. The vase, second from left, was made by Théodore Deck. All others were created by Albert-Louis Dammouse.

There are several dramatic story lines to Firing the Imagination which the wall texts explain in cogent and understandable terms. The ceramic objects d'art which we see in the exhibition testify to experiments in science, especially chemistry, as well as attempts to represent nature in tangible formats similar to what the Impressionist painters were doing in two dimensions. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024)

Glazed-stoneware dish, made by Albert-Louis Dammouse, c. 1900

A perfect illustration of this desire to "honor" nature is a glazed-stoneware dish, shaped like a lily-pad. It was created by Albert-Louis Dammouse around 1900, at the same time that Claude Monet was laying-out his water-gardens at Giverny. 

It is ironic that the French ceramics displayed in Firing the Imagination should have played an important role in the rise of the aesthetic of Modernism. It did not start out that way back in the 1860's when Japanese prints, followed soon after by Japanese craft objects, first reached Europe. 

Page view from Hokusai Gafu, vol. 1, 1849, an important source book for French artists, including Albert-Louis Dammouse & Felix Bracquemond

The amazement and exhilaration of European artists and the art-appreciating public in the West was so intense upon seeing the "floating world" images of Hokusai and Hiroshige that the immediate reaction was simply to imitate Japanese art. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024)

Plate made by Albert-Louis Dammouse, c. 1874, 

with decorative imagery based on a drawing by Hokusai, 1849

As a consequence of this enthusiasm for the art of  the "land of the rising sun", many of the ceramic plates and vases on view in Firing the Imagination appear to be authentically Japanese. In fact, not one was made in Japan. All are examples of French decorative art, though very much in l'esprit du Japon. 

In the case of the design for the parasol-carrying Japanese lady, Albert-Louis Dammouse borrowed this directly from a book of Katsushika Hokusai's prints (shown above). This book was the Hokusai Gafu, Volume 1, published in 1849. This publication date is important because it preceded the arrival of the U.S. Navy squadron which "opened" Japan's doors to the West in 1853. 

Hokusai Gafu was intended for a Japanese audience but it was perfectly timed to "fire" the imagination of Albert-Louis Dammouse, who transposed the parasol-carrying lady from a rainy landscape to a sparkling, blossom-strewn dinner plate.

Felix Bracquemond was similarly smitten by Hokusai's image and he lifted it, almost without alteration to the elegant vase below. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Japanese masters like Hokusai should have been very flattered.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024)

Felix Bracquemond's Vase, c. 1875

Real artists of talent and vision are never content to merely imitate. Very soon, French artists were drawing upon the Japanese aesthetic to create new art forms. Some of these, like the sang de boeuf-glazed vases, discussed earlier, helped set the trajectory of decorative arts towards the future.

Other French artists like Edmund Lachenel and Léon Parvillée, used Japanese motifs as a passport to realms of whimsy and wonderment that defy precise categorization - and are all the more enjoyable for just that reason. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024)

From left, Léon Parvillée's Figure of a Guardian Lion, c. 1880;

 Edmund Lachenal's Vase, c. 1885

Léon Parvillée was a multi talented French architect who worked in the Middle East for many years, restoring historic buildings. Parvillée's spirited rendition of a Chinese guardian lion, popularly known as a "fu dog", certainly captured the ethos of the orient. But closer inspection reveals more than a touch of Gallic bravado in this feisty temple guard. The brilliant handling of the blue and yellow glazes is impressive, as well.

What Edmund Lachenal (1855-1930) intended to represent with the cheerfully bizarre vase, shown to the right of Parvillée's fu dog, is anyone's guess. The vase, shaped like a bottle gourd, was created around 1885. A gourd of the type known in Japan as a hyotan, it is symbolical of longevity and success. 

The two winged dragons, squaring-off on the gleaming blue surface of the vase are perhaps more indicative of the deep interior well into which Lachenal cast for ideas and inspiration. The winged-dragons are an indelible icon of East Asia, but here, in Lachenal's treatment, they breathe the air - and fire - of his French imagination.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024)

Edmund Lachenal's Vase (detail), c. 1885

From a conventional potter's apprenticeship, with Théodore Deck, Lachenel went on to become France's leading Art Nouveau potter. His individuality and originality could not be contained, even by the vast riches of Japonisme. 

The "show-stopper" of Firing the Imagination demonstrates to perfection how Lachenal and his colleagues drew inspiration from Japanese art and then in a process of personal alchemy - which is the essence of all art - created something new, something magical, something unforgettable.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024)

Edmund Lachenal's Vase in the Form of a Lantern, c. 1895

Lachenal's Vase in the Form of a Lantern is an homage to Japanese art and culture. But it is also a personal statement and a manifesto on behalf of all artists. Lachenal shows here that inspiration is only the beginning. Like the cheeky little bat hovering over the lantern's crinkled surface, Edmund Lachenal was determined to flap his creative wings - and did.

Thanks to the collecting genius and generosity of Larry Sims and this remarkable exhibition at the PMA, a vital chapter of French art has been brought to life. Little known ceramic artists have finally been given their due. And the imaginations of those fortunate to visit the Colket Gallery have been touched with fire.

***

Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved                                                   

Original photography, copyright of Anne Lloyd

Unless otherwise noted. all art works are from the Philadelphia Museum of Art Collection, by gift of Mr. Larry A. Simms

Introductory Image: Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024) Gallery view of the Firing the Imagination exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024) Art works from the Firing the Imagination exhibit. At left, is a vase made by Théodore Deck & decorated by Marie-Caroline-Eléonore Escallier, c. 1870. Earthenware with underglaze and enamel decoration: 10 ½ x 9 7/8 inches (26.7 x 25.1 cm); at right, is a vase by Auguste Jean, 1885. Glazed earthenware. Larry A. Simms collection.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024) A selection of ceramic plates decorated with Japanese motifs, made in France by Felix Bracquemond and the J. Viellard Co., c. 1875-1880.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024) Gallery view of the Firing the Imagination exhibition, showing a display of works by Edmund Lachenal, Léon Parvillée and other French ceramic artists of the late 19th century

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024) Gallery view of the Firing the Imagination exhibition in the Philadelphia Museum of Art's Colket Gallery.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024) Gallery view of Firing the Imagination, with ceramic dinner ware, designed by Felix Bracquemond & others displayed on the walls.

Ernest Chaplet (French,1835-1909) Porcelain vase with sang de boeuf glaze, c. 1889. Porcelain: 11 ¾ x 10 x 10 inches ( 29.8 x 25.4 x 25.4 cm, Philadelphia Museum of Art photo.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024) A selection of small vases, glazed with accents of sang-de-boeuf. The vase, second from left, was made by Théodore Deck (Porcelain: 6 x 4 inches (15.2 x 10.2 cm.). All others were created by Albert-Louis Dammouse.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024) Glazed-stoneware dish, made by Albert-Louis Dammouse, c. 1900. Diameter: 13 3/4 inches (34.9 cm)

Katsushika Hokusai Page view from Hokusai Gafu, vol. 1, 1849, an important source book for French artists, including Albert-Louis Dammouse & Felix Bracquemond. Open access image from Smithsonian digital library book.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024) Plate made by Albert-Louis Dammouse, c. 1874, with decorative imagery based on a drawing by Hokusai, 1849. Hard paste porcelain:  (diameter) 9 1/2 inches (24.1 cm)

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024) Felix Bracquemond's Vase, c. 1875. Made for Haviland & Co. Limoges, France.  Porcelain with hand-painted transfer images. Larry A. Simms collection.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024) From left, Léon Parvillée's Figure of a Guardian Lion, c. 1880, Glazed earthenware: 8 1/4 × 9 × 5 inches (20.9 × 22.9 × 12.7 cm); Edmund Lachenal's Vase, c. 1885. Glazed earthenware: 17 3/4 × 8 3/4 × 7 inches (45.1 × 22.2 × 17.8 cm)

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024) Edmund Lachenal's Vase (detail), c. 1885

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024) Edmund Lachenal's Vase in the Form of a Lantern, c. 1895. Height: 11 1/4 inches (28.6 cm)

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024) Gallery view of the Firing the Imagination exhibition in the Philadelphia Museum of Art's Colket Gallery

 

 

Art Eyewitness Looks at the Art Scene in 2024

 

Reflections on the Art Scene during 2024

Text by Ed Voves

Original Photography by Anne Lloyd

For Art Eyewitness, 2024 began and ended on the steps and exterior plazas of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Unusual, unorthodox and compelling works of art, positioned by the west and east entrances of the PMA, provided appropriate imagery for an unconventional year.

During the first two months of 2024, Anne and I made several visits to the Toll Terrace at the west entrance to the PMA. On view were three statues, carved in soap, by the Korean sculptor, Meekyoung Shin. 

Anne Lloyd, (Photo 2024)

Meekyoung Shin’s Eastern Deities Descended at the 

Philadelephia Museum of Arts, photographed on Feb. 20, 2024 

The statue group, entitled Eastern Deities Descended, was based on 1928 designs for the still uncompleted pediment overlooking the east entrance of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The soap sculptures portrayed three figures from Asian history: the Biblical prophet Isaiah, a goddess personifying India and King Xerxes of Persia

Meekyoung Shin’s sculptures provided an ironic commentary on the impermanence of time and the brevity of human life. Exposed to the elements, the Eastern Deities Descended gradually lost much of their luster. (Isaiah also lost hist right hand and staff, as can be seen in the above photo). In place of glistening “sparkle”, King Xerxes and his companions gained a measure of nobility that was truly remarkable. 

Anne Lloyd, (Photos 2023-2024)

Meekyoung Shin’s King Xerxes of Persia. The photo at left was taken on December 15, 2023, at right on Feb. 6, 2024 

When the “soap people” (as we called them) were removed at the end of February, Anne and I felt a real sense of loss.

The wheel of time moved on and kept moving. In December 2024, also for a limited period, another work of art was displayed outside of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, near the east entrance of the PMA. This time it was a bronze statue, Rocky Balboa, sculpted by A. Thomas Schomberg in 1980. The statue was positioned on the spot immortalized by Sylvester Stallone’s 1976 film, Rocky.

Anne Lloyd, (Photo 2024)

 The "Rocky Steps" and A. Thomas Schomberg's

Rocky Balboa statue, photographed on Dec. 27, 2024 

The “Rocky Steps” are a popular site in Philadelphia, with people recreating the famous movie scene where Rocky, in training for the biggest boxing match in his career, sprints up the steps and elevates his arms to the sky. This gesture is a pledge of his determination to go “the distance” of the eighteen round fight – and thereby transform himself from a bum to a hero.

The statue of Rocky Balboa is owned by Sylvester Stallone, on loan for a month to Philadelphia, where he grew-up. An incredible procession, its ranks continually replenished, made its way to the top of the steps to pose by the statue.

        

Anne Lloyd, (Photo 2024)

 Visitors to the "Rocky Steps" at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

When the big moment arrived, many people jogged the last few feet to the statue, before turning around, arms and fists raised to the sky. A friend or family member then snapped a picture or two and a precious moment of memory was recorded.

Are Meekyoung Shin’s Eastern Deities and Schomberg’s Rocky Balboa great works of art? To answer that question we have to set our emotions aside. When an impartial comparison is made with an accepted classic, a statue by Auguste Rodin, for instance, the verdict is obvious. Neither of these artists is going to win first prize.

There are, however, many standards by which to judge art.

One of the metrics for appraising a work of art is how well it enables art lovers to respond to changing circumstances, reflect upon enduring ideals – and decide for themselves about issues of importance.

Anne Lloyd, (Photo 2024)

Gallery view of Matisse and Renoir: New Encounters at the Barnes,  

showing Henri Matisse's The Music Lesson, 1917

In this case, viewing an art work becomes more than a form of recreation. In addition to enjoyment – no small matter – art fosters personal re-creation, as well. In short, art is a key factor in our metamorphosis as human beings.

Roger Pic, (Photo 1974)

Portrait of Andre Malraux

Any reference to the correlation of art and metamorphosis needs to acknowledge the wise words of Andre Malraux in The Voices of Silence:

Insects’ tools are their limbs with which they are equipped from birth and which they cannot change; but genius puts forth unseen hands which, throughout the artist’s working life, are ever changing and enable him to extract from forms, both living forms and those immune from death, the makings, often unlooked-for, of his metamorphosis.

During 2024, a number of the exhibitions reviewed in Art Eyewitness surveyed the lives of artists and creative individuals. Every one of them underwent notable processes of metamorphosis. Beatrix Potter, Julia Margaret Cameron, Alexey Brodovitch, Gustav Klimt, Mary Cassatt and Belle da Costa Green experienced dramatic transformations in their lives and art.

Many of these life changes underwent further, often unexpected, alterations. No one could have predicted that Beatrix Potter’s charming, illustrated letters to a sick child would lead to a series of best-selling books and international literary acclaim. Then, in later life, Potter used her fame and fortune to help preserve Britain’s natural environment.

Anne Lloyd, (Photo 2024)

Gallery view of Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature at the Morgan Library & Museum, showing Potter's picture letters to Noel Moore, c. 1890's

A treasure trove of Potter’s drawings and letters have been preserved, many in the collection of the Morgan Library and Museum. The Morgan used a selection of these in its 2024 Drawn to Nature exhibition, surveying Potter’s storied life.

The exact opposite was true for Alexey Brodovitch. Scarcely anything of the personal archive of this hugely influential artist/designer survived a life shadowed by exile and disaster.

This past year, Alexey Brodovitch was highlighted in a brilliant, long-overdue exhibition at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. After escaping from Russia following the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, Brodovitch eventually found his way to the U.S. With little formal training, he used his unparalleled artistic abilities to secure the position of Art Director at Harper’s Bazaar in 1934, remaining there until 1958.

Anne Lloyd, (Photo 2024)

  Henri Cartier-Bresson's portrait of Alexey Brodovitch, 1962, 

and one of Brodovitch's guiding maxims

Brodovitch turned what might have been a “dead end” job into a command post for the mid-century modern artistic revolution. He mentored a generation of young  designers and photographers, notably Irving Penn, Richard Avedon and Eve Arnold. No greater acknowledgment of his talent can be found than Henri Cartier-Bresson’s willingness to allow the photos he submitted to Harper’s Bazaar to be edited by Brodovitch.

 Exhibitions which focus on the oeuvre of a single painter or sculptor seem ready-made for the theme of personal transformation. But that’s not always as easy as one might think. This is especially true in the case of multi-talented artists where the temptation to highlight one particular aspect of their creative genius is difficult to resist.

Anne Lloyd, (Photo 2024)

Gallery view of Mary Cassatt at Work at the Phila. Museum of Art

One of the most highly anticipated exhibitions of 2024 was Mary Cassatt at Work, presented by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The exhibit took a topical, rather than chronological, approach to Cassatt’s career. It focused on Cassatt’s print-making methods and her mid-to-late career paintings and pastels. This was richly rewarding in many ways, but disappointing in terms of evaluating Cassatt’s overall artistic development. 

Scant attention was given to Cassatt's early, pre-Impressionist work. Only one of her Spanish inspired paintings was displayed, without any commentary. Thus, visitors to the exhibition were deprived of the opportunity to gauge the true measure of her metamorphosis.

Change, transformation and metamorphosis were also key to comprehending many of the 2024 exhibits which surveyed broad themes, rather than focusing on a single artist.

Cover art and gallery view of Crafting the Ballet Russes 

 at the Morgan Library and Museum

Crafting the Ballets Russes was one of of the highlights of the Morgan Library and Museum's 100th Year Anniversary. The exhibition was based on a collection of original music scores commissioned by Serge Diaghilev, the impressario of the fabled dance company. 

Crafting the Ballet Russes packed a huge array of documents, pictures and memorabilia into tight gallery quarters. This required close attention from visitors, especially those like me who do not read musical notation.

A page spread of the catalog of Crafting the Ballet Russes, 

 courtesy of D. Giles, Ltd., publishers 

Fortunately, the catalog of Crafting the Ballet Russes published by D. Giles company is a model of design excellence. The page layouts almost seamlessly integrate text and images, yielding important insights on musical scores like Igor Stravinsky's Firebird or Leon Bakst's costume designs for Afternoon of a Faun, inspired by a study-visit to Greece.

  

Anne Lloyd, (Photo 2024)

Exhibition sign for Paris 1874: the Impressionist Moment

Paris 1874: the Impressionist Moment at the National Gallery in Washington D.C., was another information-rich look at a seminal event in art history, 150 years ago.  A brilliant collaboration of the National Gallery with the Musee d’Orsay, Paris 1874, it presented a balanced appraisal of the first Impressionist exhibition and its rival, the Paris Salon of 1874, showing that there were paintings of great merit in both venues. 

Anne Lloyd, (Photo 2024)

Gallery view of Paris 1874: the Impressionist Moment at the

 National Gallery, Washignton D.C.

Revolutionary elements were indeed apparent in many of the works of the société anonyme artists in their 1874 exhibition. However, Monet, Renoir, Degas and their colleagues were more concerned to sell paintings than in making a political statement or social commentary. A number of paintings in the Paris Salon, by contrast, showed considerable sensitivity on subjects ignored by the Impressionists: religion, war and peasant life in the provinces of France.

One of the many reasons for the success of Paris 1874 was the ability of the exhibit curators to stay focused and suppress the urge of answering all of the questions which their exhibition raises. The curators of Paris 1874 refrained from definitive answers, leaving the decision making to us. That is the mark of an outstanding exhibition which this blockbuster at the National Gallery certainly was.

Ed Voves, (Photo 2024)

Gallery view of Siena: Birth of Painting, 1300-1350,

at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Grappling with the complexities of 19^th century painting or exhibits dealing with even earlier epochs, such as Siena: Birth of Painting, 1300-1350 at the Metropolitan Museum, might seem of little moment, given all the issues and concerns of the present day. Yet, any opportunity to sharpen our skills of discernment can be of service later, often when we least expect it.

Such a moment arrived in 2024 during our visit to The Time is Always Now exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. This exhibit explored the ways that figurative art can "illuminate and celebrate the nuance and richness of Black contemporary life." 

Several artists, whose work I was not familiar with, were displayed in The Time is Always Now.  I was particularly impressed by the screen prints of Lorna Simpson and portrait paintings by Jordan Casteel.

Anne Lloyd, (Photos 2024)

 Two highlights of The Time is Always Now: Lorna Simpson's Collide, 2019, & Jordan Casteel's Yvonne and James (detail), 2017

The "problem" with The Time is Always Now was not what was on view in the Dorrance Galleries where the exhibition was being presented, Rather, the difficulty concerned a "shopper-stopper" caliber work from the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Displayed in the PMA's Great Stair Hall, within sight (and sound) of the entrance to The Time is Always Now, the placement of this work of art triggered an almost obsessive reaction on my part.

Anne Lloyd, (Photo 2024)

 Steve McQueen's Static, 2009, on view in the

 Great Stair Hall of the Philadelphia Museum of Art

The "show-stopper" is Static, a seven-minute video (transferred from 35 mm film) made by Steve McQueen in 2009. McQueen, a British artist of African descent (born, 1969), recorded a helicopter flight around the Statue of Liberty when it was re-opened to the public after its closure following the 9/11 Terrorist attacks on New York City.

As can be seen above, Static is a visually remarkable work of art, especially when placed on the landing of the grand stairway of the PMA. However, when Static is displayed there, one of the signature works of art at the PMA is obscured. This, of course, is the gilded copper statue of Diana (1892-93), by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. 

Anne Lloyd, (Photo 2024)

 A view of the temporary installation of Steve McQueen's Static

 in front of Diana by Augustus Saint-Gaudens in the

 Great Stair Hall of the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Except for the Rocky steps outside the museum, there is not a more recognizable symbol of the PMA than Diana. Static, filmed by Steve McQueen, is an important work  of art, too, and both the Gilded Age statue and post-Modernist video look impressive, presiding over the Great Stair Hall. But is the placement of Static doing justice to it as a work of art?

Anne Lloyd, (Photo 2024) 

 The placement of Steve McQueen's Static contrasted with Diana

   by Augustus Saint-Gaudens in the Great Stair Hall of the PMA

Static previously appeared in the Embracing the Contemporary exhibition in 2016 at the PMA. This exhibition was presented in the Dorrance Galleries where The Time is Always Now is on view, until February 2025. Since these galleries were able to accommodate McQueen's film/video back in 2016, why was it displayed outside, in the Great Stair Hall? 

Steve McQueen is a British artist of African descent (born 1969). The Time is Always Now originally appeared at London's National Portrait Gallery. It seemed natural to assume that Static should be included in the galleries of this exhibition.

My assumption about McQueen's Static was unfounded. It is actually featured in another exhibit with a similar title, What Times are These. This exhibition is based on the intriguing premise that it is an artist's role to question the status-quo, to "puncture a culture of silence" without "asserting a fixed political view."

The other works in What Times are These are displayed in a gallery at a considerable distance from Static's current placement in the Great Stair Hall. But my confusion actually proved a blessing in disguise.

By a twisting, convoluted path, I was led to a confirmation of what I wrote in reference to Paris 1874, that the mark of an outstanding exhibition is to refrain "from definitive answers, leaving the decision making to us." 

Anne Lloyd, (Photo 2024)

 The vista from the "Rocky Steps" of the Philadelphia skyline

All's well that end's well, to borrow a title from Shakespeare. And 2024 was a good year. It was a year of unconventional exhibitions in the art world, a year for going the "distance" with life's challenges, Rocky-style, a year of metamorphosis. 

May 2025 be the same kind of year.

***

Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved                                   

Original photography, copyright of Anne Lloyd, all rights reserved

 Introductory Image:

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024) A. Thomas Schomberg's statue, Rocky Balboa, on special loan/display, near the east entrance of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Anne Lloyd, Photos (2024) Gallery views of exhibitions and art installations at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Barnes Foundation, the National Gallery, Washington D.C. and the Morgan Library and Museum, New York City.

Roger Pic (French, 1920-2001) Portrait of Andre Malraux, 1974. Photograph. Bibliotheque  national de France  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andre_Malraux#/media/File:Andre_Malraux,_Pic,_22.jpg

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024) Henri Cartier-Bresson's Alexey Brodovitch, 1962. Gelatin silver print:: 8 x 11 3/4 in. (20.2 x 29.9 cm) Philadelphia Museum of Art. collection of Dorothy Norman, 1971.

Cover art and page spread from Crafting the Ballet Russes (2024), courtesy of D. Giles, Ltd.

Ed Voves, Photo (2024) Gallery views of Siena: Birth of Painting, 1300-1350, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photo shows predella panels from Duccio's Maesta.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024) Lorna Simpson's Collide, 2019. The Forman Family Collection.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024) Jordan Casteel's Yvonne and James (detail), 2017. Oil on Canvas. Joyner/Guiffreda Collection.

Anne Lloyd, Photos (2024) Gallery views of Steve McQueen's Static, 2009. Film/ video. Philadelphia Museum of Art. Partial gift of The Katherine and Keith L. Sachs Art Foundation and purchased with the Modern and Contemporary Art Revolving Fund, 2010