[Leica] IMG: Bouguereau & America Show

[Alan Magayne-Roshak]

On Wed, 8 May 2019 Jayanand Govindaraj <jayanand at gmail.com>wrote:

>The superb first image is my pick, followed by the third one.

>I have never heard of the painter, and this sort of work does not appeal to
>me at all, and the highly allegorical mythological subject matter does not
>help in the understanding, either. The paintings look like the typical
>salon stuff that was being churned out in the mid 19th century, and we
>really have to thank this sort of paint-by-numbers, sanitized stuff for the
>dynamic, innovative art that followed as a reaction,  Impressionism and
>beyond, so it could not have all been bad.

>Cheers
>Jayanand
================================================================================================================
I know there was lots of dreck in salon art in the 19th Century, (my major
was Art History) but I've always loved Bouguereau's mythological paintings
(for years we had a framed print of "Nymphs and Satyr" in our living room,
until it was bleached by window light into green-skinned nymphs), but I
don't care for his religious works.  I'm awed by his technique in
portraying flesh, thus the detail shots. And I'm not worried about
understanding the works; I just like looking at them.  For the record, the
greatest show I ever experienced was the Jackson Pollock Retrospective at
MOMA in 1999.  It staggered my psyche to see those works in person.  Almost
at that level for me were two presented at the Milwaukee Art Museum years
apart - a Kandinsky exhibition and a showing of Milwaukee native Eugene Van
Bruenchenhein (<https://www.vonbruenchenhein.com/>).
-- 
Alan

Alan Magayne-Roshak, Senior Photographer
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Photo Services
(Retired)
UPAA Photographer of the Year 1978
UPAA Master of the Profession 2014
amr3 at uwm.edu
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Alan+Magayne-Roshak/

"All the technique in the world doesn't compensate
 for an inability to notice. " - Elliott Erwitt