BEST AMERICAN ART by Alexandra Jopp

By Alexandra A Jopp Baron Dominique-Vivant Denon is best remembered as the director of fine arts under Napoleon and a central figure in the establishment of the Louvre. Born in 1747 to a family of landed gentry, Denon pursued artistic training as an engraver. Following early attempts at literature and printmaking, Denon accompanied Napoleon’s army during the Egyptian campaign of 1798, and shortly thereafter, was appointed the first director of the Louvre, known in the early 19th century as the Musée Napoléon. Denon’s goal was to make Louvre “the world’s most beautiful institution,” and many people would argue that he achieved this ambition. Some of Europe’s most glorious works of art arrived in Paris during Denon’s tenure, and they went straight to the Louvre. Napoleon, despite having very little appreciation for art, considered the museum to be “an important symbol of national glory that would bring attention and splendor to his reign.” (p. 90.) The objects acquired by Denon ...

Though best remembered as Edward Weston’s model, Tina Modotti was a fine 20th century photographer and activist who fought on behalf of Mexican peasants in the 1930s. She was a woman who "chose to identify herself with the arts, with the poor, and with the solidarity of the revolution." By Alexandra Jopp In Tina Modotti: A Fragile Life , Mildred Constantine describes Modotti as: “Tina Modotti was many things: a gifted photographer, passionate companion of artists and revolutionaries. Fighter for the cause of humanity, "Maria" (her nom de gnerre) who succored the children and wounded in Spain, the tempestuous beauty of unabashed sensuality. Who was she? Dead, she is a legend poeticized and victimized by conjecture, anecdotes and, where fact is lacking, imaginative embellishments.” Looking for clues in Modotti’s early life, that might have led to her artistic development, the art critics cite her youthful identification with the class struggle. Following h...

   Hudson River School painter famous for landscapes of the American West By Alexandra Jopp An Arizona Sunset Near the Grand Canyon (1898). Thomas Moran was one of the best-known and most influential painters of the Hudson River School working in the United States in the second half of the nineteenth century. His iconic watercolors and oil paintings of the American West not only made him one of the country’s preeminent landscape artists, but also helped to convince members of Congress to establish the United States’ first national park at Yellowstone in 1872. While he was best known for these works, his subjects also included literary, marine, European and Mexican themes, among others. Thomas Moran Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, 1859. Thomas Moran, Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, 1872. Golden Gate Thomas Moran No date. Glorious Venice, 1888 Private collection. Moran was born in Bolton, Lancashire, England, on February 12, 18...

Exhibition – Enola Gay: Hiroshima as Tragedy By Alexandra A. Jopp Doves fly around the Atomic Bomb Dome at the Peace Memorial Park after their release during the memorial ceremony in Hiroshima, on August 6. The western Japanese city marked its 64th anniversary of the atomic bombing. AFP/ Getty Images / Kazuhiro Nogi Every year on August 6, the world observes the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Early on that morning in1945, a B-29 Superfortress bomber known as the Enola Gay, under the command of Col. Paul Tibbets, dropped the “Little Boy” atomic bomb over Hiroshima. The explosion killed as many as 70,000 people in an instant and left tens of thousands more with injuries and illnesses that would later claim their lives. At that moment, a new era – a nuclear era – began. Every August 6 reminds us that memory cannot be morally neutral. The story of the Enola Gay is the story of Hiroshima’s tragedy. It is the story of the destruction wreaked by nuclear wea...

“Would you like another Sir?”   Glancing up as the ice melted away under the mellow heat as the summer afternoon sun slowly dissolved into evening, he smiled and gave a slight nod.   “Please”.   “Very good Sir, Crown Royal on the rocks” and the waiter went back inside, leaving him to continue his solitary contemplation.   A nice restaurant, he thought, nice view, good service – always attentive yet never obtrusive.   She liked it here too.   He knew that was one of several reasons why they came here.   They came often enough to be comfortable, but not so often as to be considered regulars.   He smiled at remembering one of his unwritten goals – “never go anywhere so often that you become a regular”. His fresh drink arrived and he nodded his thanks as the waiter disappeared.   How long had he been sitting there?   No real way to tell since he never wore a watch.   But as he swirled the ice in his new drink he knew the sun was lo...

By Alexandra A. Jopp                                   In the United States, Surrealism moved from a political and literary movement toward one that focused more on visual style. European artists in America explored low and high perspectives, moving from the metropolitan modernity of New York City to the “fantastically shaped landscapes and cactus-shaped deserts” of Arizona (Tythacott 160). The Surrealist artists’ experiences also included collecting exotica in New York shops and encountering members of the Hopi, Inuit and other native cultures. However, if Orientalism for European observers was largely a study of imagination, then for Surrealists, the interaction with the native peoples of North America remained not fully experienced. For example, Breton’s brief encounter with the Hopi included an ancestor worship ceremony during which he took notes on the tribe’s customs and beliefs that he late...

By Alexandra A Jopp The East has been very tempting to Western observers for centuries. It is an eternal enigma, an eternal “other,” unknown, exclusive and hidden from the eyes of Europeans under the black, silky veil of tokens and legends. It has typically been seen as a hot, restless, extremely emotional, vigorous, sometimes aggressive but invariably seductive and attractive world. Everything draws to it: its exteriors and interiors, its softness and aggressiveness, its love and hate. Delacroix Women of Algiers 1834    Copyright: http://www.annexgalleries.com/itemimages/sHS101.jpg  --> Most intriguing to European artists were often the East’s women. Almost always, there is a softness in the way they are depicted, but it is combined with a strength that is exhibited as they revel in the feel of their own glamour and essence. “Step back from the canvas, think, feel,” as Renoir would say (Nochlin 3). One must love a female body  in order ...