INTERIOR PORTRAITS (at home)

Above: Ethel Sands (1873-1962), "The Chintz Couch", 1910-11, Tate Collection. I'd never heard of Ethel Sands till I came across this painting. I was really taken with it... the way the light shimmers and the texture of the wall is so compelling.

Above: Ethel Sands "The Dressing Room". Sands is clearly influenced by Vuillard.

Above: Edouard Vuillard (1868-1940), Interior, 1902. What I love about this painting are the thick white lines of paint on the floor and French doors.

Above: Edouard Vuillard "Woman Before a Window". You see the same thick white stripes of paint here, and the stripes also repeated in the awning, on the sofa back, wall covering, and chair seats.

Above: Walter Gay (1856-1937) "The Library, Bréau". One of the reasons I like this is the way the room is suffused with sunlight.

Above: Raoul Dufy

Above and Below (detail): Dawn Clements "Mrs. Jessica Drummond's", 2010. This was drawn from scenes in the film "My Reputation, 1946", and was included in the Whitney Museum 's 2010 Biennial.

Above: Dawn Clements "Susan Rethorst's" 2011 Sumi ink on paper

Above: Richard Walker "Curtain I" 2011. Walker's oil on panel paintings show rooms in a grand manor house, "The Haining", in southern Scotland which offer's artists' residencies. He painted from life rooms that were cluttered with stored furniture and memorabilia, using projections on the walls that create a mysterious sense of space. Roberta Smith describes the work beautifully in her NY Times review. You can see the whole show here.

Above: Richard Walker "Fireplace and Shadow" 2011

Above: Henri Matisse "Goldfish and Palette" 1914.

Above: Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell (1883-1937) "Interior with Opera Cloak".

Above: Karen Kilimnik "The Head Witch's House, Reception Room", 2005.

Above: Kathleen Melian, "Remains of Desire" 2012. From an MFA Thesis show last spring at Claremont Graduate University.

Above: Robert De Niro Sr. "Still Life and Three Chairs", 1983. From a show at the DC Moore Gallery April 2012.

Above: Merlin James "Blue Room" 1990.

Above: Lois Dodd "Loft Interior" 1968. Dodd currently has a wonderful show at the Alexandre Gallery on 57th St in NY.

Above: Edouard Vuillard "L'Elegante" 1891-2.

Above: Rose Hilton

Above: Anne Redpath "The Yellow Sofa". 

Above: Bella Foster "Birthday Candle". Bella Foster is a contemporary artist, living and working in Los Angeles. You can see more of her work here and here. She's chosen a very similar palette to the Redpath above.

Above: Bella Foster

Above: Bella Foster

Above: Maira Kalman "The Glass House" 2005, from the reissued "Elements of Style" illustrated by Kalman. This is a depiction of Phillip Johnson's glass house.

Above: Richard Hamilton (1922-2011) "Interior II" 1964-65.

Above: William Eggleston (b. 1939) Untitled (Interior with Organ) from "Troubled Waters" portfolio, 1980.

Above: Joel Meyerowitz "Wilson cottage, Wellfleet" 1976.

Above: Richard Walker "Library with Landscape" 2011.

Above: Pieter de Hooch "Interior with a Mother Delousing Her Child", 1660.

Above: Stephen Dinsmore

 Above: Stephen Dinsmore "Lanai"

Above: Pierre Bonnard "Bowl of Milk", 1919, Tate Collection. 

Above: Pierre Bonnard "The Dining Room in the Country", 1913.

Above: Fairfield Porter

Above: John Singer Sargent "My Dining Room", 1883-89

Above: John Lessore "Paul and Rémi in the Dining Room" 1964.

Above: James McNeill Whistler "Resting in Bed", 1884.

Above: Uta Barth from "Sundial (07.2)" 2007. This is one of five panels.

Below: Alex Katz "4 pm" (Former Yellow Interior) 1959 from Katz x Katz currently on view at Yale University School of Art's 32 Edgewood Gallery.

CURRENT EXHIBITS: CHARLES FINE, LOS ANGELES + GABRIEL OROZCO, NEW YORK

Charles Fine's 30 year retrospective is currently on view at the Ace Gallery in Los Angeles. It runs from October 26th till the end of January. The gallery is museum like, with many rooms and small spaces and hallways, and Fine has made good use of each space to set off the work. It's wonderful to see so much of his work together, to see his tables with arrangements of objects that are at the heart of the paintings and large sculptures, and then to see those paintings and sculptures too. There is much more to the show than I've included here, and well worth a trip to see the work in person.

Above: "Table of Contents" I,III, and IV. Details below.

Above: "Spin Cycle IV" 2005 Oil and asphaltum on canvas 114" x 96".

Above: A detail of "Devil's Bargain", 1999, Oil and asphaltum on canvas, also seen in the photo above this one.

Above: "Table of Contents V", 2012,  details.

Above and below: "Flor de Incino", 2012, patinaed aluminum

Above: "Press IV", 2011, oil and asphaltum on canvas, 50"H x 47" W.

Above: Left: "Fieldmarks XII", 1993, oil, asphaltum, and alkyd resin on canvas, 87" H x 62" W.  Right: "Overload", 1990, encaustic on steel and resin, 84" H x 97.5" W x 14" D.

Above: "Core II", 1992, encaustic on steel, 27" H x 18" W x 10.5" D.

Above: "Untitled (Large Eggcase)", 1986. 

Above and Below: "Under Strange Skies", 1988, mixed media on wood with lead coffin.

 Above: "Furnace Flowers I-V", 2006-2010, bronze, nylon, plaster, and silica.

Above: "Furnace Flower V",  bronze, nylon, plaster, and silica.

Above: "Furnace Flowers (Group)", 2010

Above: Left: "Fieldmarks VI", 1994, oil, enamel, and asphaltum on canvas. Right: "Furnace Flower VII", 2012, bronze, ceramic, and silica on cement.

 Above: "Furnace Flower VII", 2012, bronze, ceramic, and silica on cement.

Above: "Flower (Petralized)" 2010-2012, ceramic, cement, and pigment.

Above: "Table of Contents" detail

I've grouped these shows together because there is a thin line connecting them. Though  Charles Fine's exhibit shows an entire body of work, and Gabriel Orozco's installation at the Guggenheim is a single project, the idea of grouping found objects, many from nature, creates a link between them. Fine has worked and traveled a great deal in Mexico, and has picked up many washed up items as well as seed pods and natural elements on the beaches of Baja, where this part of Orozco's installation was collected.

At the Guggenheim Museum in NYC through January 13 2013 is Gabriel Orozco's exhibition "Asterisms". This is a sculptural and photographic installation comprising thousands of items of detritus  Orozco gathered from two sites...a playing field near his home in NY and a protected coastal biosphere in Baja California, Mexico, which is also the repository of industrial waste due to ocean currents. The pieces I photographed and included here are the ones from Baja California. The way this installation is done feels like a cataloging of items found, yet at the same time there is a visual pleasure in seeing the groupings. The island in Baja where this detritus was picked up is normally off limits to visitors as a whale sanctuary, but the project was sanctioned by the Mexican government, and Orozco was allowed to go there and take all these objects out. 

Above: At first I thought these objects were wood or bone, but on closer viewing you realize that they're actually rolls of toilet paper.