Audrey Bechler's Paintings: A New Year

Full moon on Jan1 2018

before sunset

Happy New Year. Christmas is over and I have taken down and put away all my decorations. I cut off all the branches of my 7 foot tree and took them out in bags to the compost pile, adding them to the pile where the large Christmas trees from Ya Po Ah were thrown. Christmas is well celebrated at Ya Po Ah. Every Christmas season a huge sign with lights is put on top of the 20 story building that says Peace on Earth.

Now it is time to get back to painting. The last few days I have been looking through some of my many art books. One is titled What is Art, very well written and the other books I looked at were A Life in Photography Steichen and Masters of the Camera. When I was going to the Museum School in Boston the Museum of Fine arts, which was across the street from the school, had a photography show called The Family of Man. It was organized by Steichen around 1955. Some photos were very large and gave such an impact on me I never forgot that show. If only it could be seen again now as it showed all cultures and races participating in life as we all live it, celebrating traditions, eating, playing, singing, fighting, loving, as the family of Man. Our needs and desires are the same.

Steichen was a commercial photographer. He photographed many famous people and worked for magazines like Vogue. He had an eye for composition and uniqueness. Here is an interesting story he relates. He spent time in Europe and in 1901 while living in Paris he went to a show of paintings in a small room where the paintings were hung side by side and one above the other. He said he had never seen anything like them and he didn’t know what to make of them. He went back the next day to have another look. There were no visitors in the gallery. The painting were painted by Van Gogh, He could buy one for $ 200.00. None sold. Steichen said now , this was 1962 that the paintings were probably worth two million. In 1990 a Van Gogh sold for 82.5 million. In ten years Van Gogh painted 900 paintings and made 1000 drawings and accomplished this body of work with episodes of depression and poor health. Van Gogh was 37 when he died in 1890. Vincent said he wanted to give happiness to people by creating beauty. It took awhile for people to recognize that beauty.

There is always the controversy of commercial art that one does for money averse to paintings done by painters who were free to paint what they wished. Steichen introduced Stieglitz to most of the painters and sculptors who showed in Stieglitz’s gallery. Stieglitz had money and support from family and friends, and he believed Steichen as a commercial photographer did so merely for money. This riff broke the friendship of two masters and they did not communicate for years. Great men and women produce great art whatever their circumstances. All the famous artists of the Renaissance before and and after were commissioned by the church and wealthy merchants.

Here is another Steichen story. A painter friend was commissioned to paint J P Morgan’s portrait. Morgan didn’t like sitting so Steichen took some photos of the pose for the artist to use as reference. Steichen also took sone candid shots one being this photo that when I saw it I thought the hand held a knife. In reality Morgan’s hand was firmly grasping the arm of the chair. Over the years people have referred to the insight into Morgan’s real character.

In the What is Art book it was stating that the forms art take are determined by forces within the times that demand appropriate expression.The Gothic cathedral summarized the spiritual aspirations of an age when man lived in terrible times, wars, torture, disease, and poverty. They had their faith witnessed by the soaring forms of the Cathedrals. that were indeed mystical feats of engineering. I looked up Chartres on the internet. Incredibly it was built in 26 years on the site of previous churches that had burnt down. The towers were still intact from the previous church. I saw and was in Chartres in 1958. It is the most spiritual place I have been in.