Highlights from The Modern
Among my very favorite kinds of places to spend time (and money) are restaurants and Modern art museums, so when A. told me his dad wanted us to meet at the Café Modern in Ft. Worth for Father’s Day brunch, I was happy to come along. Better than the meal itself was the news that we had tickets to The Modern’s current exhibition: Women Painting Women.
Though I didn’t know what to expect, the exhibit was really sensational. In additional to affording me the chance to see one of my favorite contemporary painter’s work in person, it served to introduce me to several new favorites, all of which I wanted to catalog here.
Claire Tabouret
Though I understand she now works and resides in LA, there is something so characteristically French about the work of Claire Tabouret. I was wholly absorbed by the lambent blues, greens and oranges in The Fencers (pictured above). It’s a piece that feels timeless yet contemporary, vibrant yet imbued with that particular melancholy one feels only in the summertime. Her subjects’ expressions are masterfully subtle and arresting in their quiet authenticity.
Lisa Brice
Brice’s portrait within a portrait is dynamic, dramatic, sinister. What drew me in was the pose, the high contrast, and that perfect, Parisian bob–but what kept me there were the details; what kept me there was that face. Lisa Brice is a master of expression, each of her portraits more intriguing (haunting?) than the last.
Hayv Kahraman
Pattern, repetition, balance, symmetry–Hayv Kahraman is so brilliantly aware of the impact that the fundamentals can have when applied correctly. As with the other works in this collection, my attention was claimed by the faces in this piece. Their heavy brows, bright eyes and pink lips. There is both a precision and a restraint here (and in all Kahraman’s pieces) unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I love the transparency of these women’s miraculous stacking limbs so that the linen on which they are painted becomes the dominant tone and texture of the piece. Of all the paintings in the exhibit, I believe I stayed with this one the longest.
Hope Gangloff
Let it be known: I fucking love Hope Gangloff. By some stroke of luck, I discovered her work as far back as high school, and since then I’ve told everyone I can about her. Her painting Clothes Swap/Brooklyn (2008) was my laptop wallpaper for the better part of two years. Her ballpoint pen illustrations inspired me to create my own ballpoint portraits of friends and family, some of which are still among my favorite pieces to date. Needless to say, I was incredibly excited to learn at the outset that this exhibition featured Gangloff and I would, after years of admiring her work online, have the chance to see one of her paintings in person. My dear friends, it did not disappoint.
I knew Gangloff worked large, but Queen Jane Approximately was gratifyingly large. It was such a great example of everything I love about her portraits: the dark blue in place of browns or blacks, the blue-green undertones of the skin, the use of outlines, of pattern, the articulate, almost Egon Schiele-esque hands and feet. More than anything, what I admire is how her subjects always look so at ease. So themselves. It’s what great portrait photographers strive for, but what only great painters can truly achieve: to compose an image of a subject that captures their truest essence. It’s incredibly difficult to make your viewer feel as though they might understand someone they’ve never met, but Gangloff makes me feel that magic every time.