Since leaving my job in late June, I’ve been living in a rather small world with my husband, cat, and occasional Zoom meetings or walks in the park with friends. This solitude has left me time to reconnect with my creative side and to consider what interests I have outside of my career. In the six months I’ve had to explore, I’ve developed a new passion for art and art history — learning about various artists, their influences, the stories behind the paintings, their materials, techniques, and methods. If I had all the money and time in the world, I’d move to Savannah or Paris and get an art history degree. Since that’s highly unlikely to happen and since I’m not going into public indoor venues quite yet (so not visiting art museums), I’ve had to make do with virtual options. One of my absolute favorite discoveries so far has been the Perspective channel on YouTube, especially The Sunday Times art critic Waldemar Januszczak’s videos. He has a way of making art accessible, interesting, and connecting a painting to events and innovations happening at that time & place. A few highlights so far:
- His 4-part series on Impressionism, which recently re-aired on BBC, is excellent. If you’ve ever dismissed Impressionism as over-marketed (it is) or saccharin, his dissection of the Impressionist movement and the innovations created by these artists might change that.
- I wasn’t really a fan of Rubens prior to watching this video. Paintings of dozens of bodies descending into Hell doesn’t thrill me. Now I have an appreciation for how detailed his work was, how exact his flesh tones, and how the fact that he painted on wood instead of canvas impacted how lifelike his figures appeared. Fascinating!
- I knew Holbein from his paintings of the Tudors and had the opportunity to view his portraits of Cromwell and More at the Frick a few years ago. I didn’t really appreciate his work until Januszczak highlighted the Ambassadors painting and its odd distorted skull at the bottom. Now I must go back to The National Gallery in London!
- Finally, while not narrated by Januszczak, I enjoyed learning about Elizabeth Vigée Le Brun, portraitist for Marie Antoinette. I loved the moment I realized it was one of her paintings in the New Orleans Museum of Art that was a highlight of my visit there a few summers ago.
My list of museums to visit and revisit once we’re traveling again has grown long. I can’t wait!
Mountains & Magnolias 