The Tripod

Issue date: 2/20/07 Section: Arts

Media Credit: www.modern-art-reproductions.com

Media Credit: www.archipelago.org

Media Credit: www.tate.org.uk

For those who have never set foot inside Hartford's treasure trove of art that is the Wadsworth Atheneum, now is the time to go. The latest multimedia exhibit, entitled Picasso to Pop: Aspects of Modern Art, is packed with oodles of fun from a variety of famous 20th century artists. Now, I understand "fun" can be a subjective notion, and on the off-chance that spending an afternoon in a museum totally excites you, or if you happen to be a fan of the Surrealists and Expressionists, this exhibit is a must-see. And don't be fooled if the term "modern art" makes you roll your eyes and run in the other direction, nary a sight of blank canvases streaked with one line that make you scratch your head in mystification are to be seen anywhere. The pretentiousness is nonexistent and instead, fun and fanciful works fill three whole rooms (in no particular chronological order or organized theme) for your viewing pleasure.

The first room is lined with select works of Cubism, Surrealism, and Expression among other distinct movements of modern art. Works from heavyweights like Picasso, Salvador Dali, Yves Tanguy, and Joan Miro are featured, as well as works by prominent but inevitably lesser-known female artists such as Stella Snead, Kay Sage, and Leonor Fini. Dali's Wagner opera-inspired "Tristan and Isolde: Le Philtre d'Amour" is typical madcap Surrealism, printed on a then-experimental plastic material called Rowlux, and George Grosz's watercolor piece depicting death and destruction in war-ridden Germany is equally haunting and impressive. From Grosz we jump to another fellow German, Otto Dix, who liked to comment satirically on German society in the early 1900s through his paintings. Dix's "A Café" is the other end of the spectrum from Grosz's gloomy watercolor, though it is apparent they share the same scorn for Germany.

Moving on, Austrian Expressionist Egon Schiele's "Portrait of Doctor X" is a rather tame pastel and watercolor compared to the more perverse and erotic works for which he is known. However, his characteristic "nervous, brittle" lines are still clearly visible in his portrait based on psychological realism. Another Dali painting, entitled "Solitude," is famous for being the first of the Spanish Surrealist's work to enter a museum collection anywhere in the world. The painting is typical Dali, and his bizarre obsession with hair (his mustache itself was a work of art) is reflected in the way the lone figure's hair coils into seashells. One look at any Dali creation and one can only speculate what thoughts actually went through the man's mind. My personal favorite, however, is British Surrealist painter and staunch vegetarian Stella Snead's subtly amusing "Ecstatic Cow," which literally shows a blissful cow jumping for joy, probably because it has been spared from slaughter. Snead moved to America from London, and it was here that she fell in love with the Southwest that became inspiration for many of her works.

The second room features works from Latin American artists such as Jesus Guerrero Galvan and Carlos Merida, showing how the modern art movement was not contained to Europe and North America but spread with increasing popularity all the way to Central and South America. "The Venus and Fisherman" is painted by Havana-born Mario Carreno, who gathered experiences and influences in Madrid, Mexico, Paris, and New York before returning to South America. Even more striking is "La Vigornia" painted by Mexican Jesus Guerrero Galvan, depicting a girl holding a child. This particular painting was bought on a trip to Mexico by A. Everett Austin, Jr., a former director of the Atheneum. Alongside these Latin American paintings are works by familiar post-war American artists like Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, and Barnett Newman. The Jackson Pollock paintings are the most memorable of the bunch, such as "Number 8" and "Number 9," reflective of his disturbed and alcohol-addled mind.

The third room is a grand finale of pop art, featuring mostly famous American artists such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Wayne Thiebaud, who together prove that America is not a complete cultural wasteland. Warhol, though not my personal favorite, did have a knack for creating outwardly frivolous yet socially loaded works of art, and he has some memorable contributions to this exhibit. "Early Colored Jackie" is a large-scale repeated image of the ill-fated first lady, one of three known to exist in the large scale. As the name implies, however, the photo that the painting is based on is from her happier days. "Triple Silver Disaster" is an eerie image of an electric chair silkscreened three times onto a monochromatic silver-gray ground that Warhol debuted at the same time that New York carried out its final death sentence before outlawing capital punishment.

Pop art leader Roy Lichtenstein's "Sandwich and Soda" is one of his first prints, and also one of the first that were printed on plastic and not paper. Lichtenstein continued to experiment with plastics when creating the "Ten Landscapes." Featured is "Landscape 2," an abstract landscape illusion and the second in the series, created using the experimental plastic Rowlux (a popular alternative to paper among modern artists). The next painting, "Half-Cakes" is a delightful depiction of sweet edibles, characteristic of Arizona-born Wayne Thiebaud, who began his career as a commercial artist and cartoonist, the perfect beginning for going on into the realm of pop art, where he painted mostly foods and household goods. The exhibit comes to a close with a painted aluminum silhouette by Alex Katz entitled "Margie," honoring Margie Ellis who was a former registrar at the Wadsworth and worked for 54 years before going into retirement.

These are just a sampling of the 60-plus works that are on display. It is impossible to verbally describe and at the same time do justice to all the wonderful and varied works of art crammed into these three rooms at the Wadsworth; they simply must be viewed in person.

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