Just reading this and realizing how disappointed I was when I realized deChirico hadn’t continued to paint in the style that first grabbed my attention, his early work. I expected to see how the progression turned out. To me it was a let down. Funny what we expect of artists and their trajectories.
Very few artists can survive seeing their work contextualized on a grand scale while they're still alive. The best thing you can do might be to just write a lot of stuff.
This is true of one of my faves : George Grosz. The circumstances surrounding his Berlin period were extreme but he was happy to teach art in New York after fleeing from Hitler.
You're right—now that you mention him it's surprising it didn't occur to me to include him in this essay. I actually gave a speech on Grosz's American years at the Dallas Art Museum many years ago. In his case he got the hell out of Weimar Germany and stopped drawing brutal caricatures of its protofascist culture, and came to America and started painting sunny watercolors of our cities and of himself having sex with Mrs. Grosz on the beach. Rage fueled his work, and when he stopped suffering, his art began to suffer.
Poignant. Your essay today brings up a lot to think about. My initial reaction to the deChirico works you showed was Campy . I had never seen his later work.
Just reading this and realizing how disappointed I was when I realized deChirico hadn’t continued to paint in the style that first grabbed my attention, his early work. I expected to see how the progression turned out. To me it was a let down. Funny what we expect of artists and their trajectories.
Always a surprise and a delight to follow your thoughts wherever they may go.
Very few artists can survive seeing their work contextualized on a grand scale while they're still alive. The best thing you can do might be to just write a lot of stuff.
This is true of one of my faves : George Grosz. The circumstances surrounding his Berlin period were extreme but he was happy to teach art in New York after fleeing from Hitler.
You're right—now that you mention him it's surprising it didn't occur to me to include him in this essay. I actually gave a speech on Grosz's American years at the Dallas Art Museum many years ago. In his case he got the hell out of Weimar Germany and stopped drawing brutal caricatures of its protofascist culture, and came to America and started painting sunny watercolors of our cities and of himself having sex with Mrs. Grosz on the beach. Rage fueled his work, and when he stopped suffering, his art began to suffer.
Poignant. Your essay today brings up a lot to think about. My initial reaction to the deChirico works you showed was Campy . I had never seen his later work.