Carolee's Sight Bytes

12/06/2024

The desperate state of the United States of America.

05/03/2023

01/29/2023

"Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth.” — Pablo Picasso

“Family of Saltimbanques” is the most important painting Pablo Picasso made during his early career.

For him, these saltimbanques (acrobats, dancers, and jesters) stood for the melancholy of the neglected underclass of artists, a kind of extended family with whom he identified.

Picasso reworked this canvas several times, adding figures and altering the composition over and over again. What's especially fascinating about the saltimbanques in this painting is the non-traditional way in which their hands and feet are positioned. Almost as if the artist is telling a story in their positioning. 🔍

It has also been said that one of the figures in this painting is actually a self-portrait of Picasso, himself. But which person? Uncover the answer 👉🏽 bit.ly/3XXP6w4
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🖼 Pablo Picasso, “Family of Saltimbanques,” 1905, oil on canvas, 83 x 90 in., Chester Dale Collection, © 2012 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
📍 East Building, Mezzanine, Gallery 217C
📷 by

01/12/2023

Fabulous artist born today.

01/11/2023

Your timeline deserves a visual reset today.✨ So, enjoy this still life of fresh magnolias from 1890 courtesy of Martin Johnson Heade. 🌱

Martin Johnson Heade was one of the best American still-life painters of the 19th century. His paintings are celebrated for their lush colors, curving contours, and opulent settings.

What’s especially interesting about Heade is that despite his impeccable talent, his work was largely forgotten by the time of his death in St. Augustine, Florida on September 4, 1904.

Yet, with the renewed interest in American art during the American Regionalism movement in the 1940s (when realistic depictions of everyday life in the U.S. became popular), attention was once again turned to Heade and his legacy was restored.
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🖼 Martin Johnson Heade, “Giant Magnolias on a Blue Velvet Cloth,” 1890, oil on canvas, 15 x 24 in., Gift of The Circle of the National Gallery of Art
📍 West Building, Main Floor, Gallery 69A

01/11/2023

Happy birthday to our founder Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, born on this day in 1875. A professional sculptor, preeminent patron, and collector, Mrs. Whitney was a passionate champion of American art and artists, leading her to establish the Museum 92 years ago.

By 1929, Mrs. Whitney had assembled a collection of more than 500 pieces, which she offered to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. After her gift was declined, she founded her own institution with a distinctive mandate: to focus exclusively on the art and artists of the United States. The Whitney Museum of American Art was founded in 1930, and opened in 1931 on West Eighth Street near Fifth Avenue.⁣ After moving to West 54th Street, and then the Marcel Breuer-designed building on Madison Avenue, the Museum has made its home downtown in the Meatpacking District.

01/11/2023

Anish Kapoor is one of the most influential artists working today and specialises in installation and conceptual art. He once said, 'We live in a fractured world. I've always seen it as my role as an artist to attempt to make wholeness'

🔺 See his sculpture, As if to Celebrate, I Discovered a Mountain Blooming with Red Flowers 1981, in our free display. https://bit.ly/3OzydUA