Yesterday I was at the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco. Karen and I went to check out the current exhibits. Karen and I both live nowhere and travel much, she more than I. It is pretty remarkable how often we get to spend a few days together.
The exhibition of Intimate Impressionism from the National Gallery was most lovely. It was kind of stunning to realize that the paintings (many from the late 1880's to the early 1900s) were revolutionary and scandalous. From my perspective, they are so sweet and innocent and pretty and balanced. It is also a little crazy to think of California at the time this art was being created. The Indian genocides and the buffalo genocides were over. The gold rush was over and the San Francisco earthquake hadn't happened yet. New new new.
In Europe where these painters lived, the thrust was to topple the domination of the accepted norms in art. It was revolutionary to paint from 'real' life instead of painting a Greek myth or a scene from the Bible. It was even more revolutionary to paint people who weren't aristocracy. Unheard of. And plein air painters, give me a break, what did they think they were doing? And a plein air painter who conveyed a feeling through his/her use of light on a haystack? Break through.
One thing that struck me was although some contemporary art has gone very far from the simplicity of real life and has been quite remarkable at showing the distress and alienation and fear and horror of the contemporary psyche, many contemporary artists are returning to plein air. Young people I talk with who are going to art school are excited about painting the natural world.
What I was was wondering is whether there is a cyclical trend happening. Then I realize it probably won't go all the way back because it is fast becoming rare for a universal familiarity with the classics to exist. I am happy to enjoy plein air paintings whether in museums or new works.
Yesterday I had no tolerance for the Old Masters. I am in a California kind of mood. I like the pastels and the turquoise and bright pinks that reflect the flowers that are everywhere in Marin in the summer.
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