This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/04/arts/design/artworks-that-shine-in-new-york-museums.html
The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| Reflections | Reflections |
| (1 day later) | |
| With New Year’s hoopla behind us, we begin to turn a corner on the season of long nights and short days. But there’s still a good stretch of darkness ahead, and New York City museums have their lights on bright. | With New Year’s hoopla behind us, we begin to turn a corner on the season of long nights and short days. But there’s still a good stretch of darkness ahead, and New York City museums have their lights on bright. |
| "Port-en-Bessin, Entrance to the Harbor," by Seurat. | "Port-en-Bessin, Entrance to the Harbor," by Seurat. |
| ‘PORT-EN-BESSIN, ENTRANCE TO THE HARBOR’ BY GEORGES-PIERRE SEURAT, MUSEUM OF MODERN ART A big trend in Modern art had artists thinking up and solving problems so that the problem and its solution are equally intelligible in the finished work. If Seurat was not the first artist of this kind, he certainly was one of the most systematically experimental painters of the 19th century. | ‘PORT-EN-BESSIN, ENTRANCE TO THE HARBOR’ BY GEORGES-PIERRE SEURAT, MUSEUM OF MODERN ART A big trend in Modern art had artists thinking up and solving problems so that the problem and its solution are equally intelligible in the finished work. If Seurat was not the first artist of this kind, he certainly was one of the most systematically experimental painters of the 19th century. |
| He reasoned that since white light had been proven to consist of a whole spectrum of colors, it would be truer to its nature to render it literally as a mix of particles of color, like what we today call pixels. On a computer screen we usually prefer not to see the pixels; the exciting thing about Seurat’s painting is that you see at once both the field of little spots and the spacious, strangely smooth and coolly luminous image they collectively produce. | He reasoned that since white light had been proven to consist of a whole spectrum of colors, it would be truer to its nature to render it literally as a mix of particles of color, like what we today call pixels. On a computer screen we usually prefer not to see the pixels; the exciting thing about Seurat’s painting is that you see at once both the field of little spots and the spacious, strangely smooth and coolly luminous image they collectively produce. |
| It would be impossible to say what time of day it is in “Port-en-Bessin: Entrance to the Harbor,” from 1888. There is no directional light or shadow but rather a kind of general irradiation. Despite the careful attention to the scruffy foreground knob of land and the breakwater in the middle distance, and notwithstanding the scientific analysis of light and color, the effect is strangely unreal. All those toylike little boats flying winglike white sails and skimming across translucent blue waters — where are they going? They are like ghosts at play in a world conjured by the light of consciousness itself. KEN JOHNSON | It would be impossible to say what time of day it is in “Port-en-Bessin: Entrance to the Harbor,” from 1888. There is no directional light or shadow but rather a kind of general irradiation. Despite the careful attention to the scruffy foreground knob of land and the breakwater in the middle distance, and notwithstanding the scientific analysis of light and color, the effect is strangely unreal. All those toylike little boats flying winglike white sails and skimming across translucent blue waters — where are they going? They are like ghosts at play in a world conjured by the light of consciousness itself. KEN JOHNSON |
| Following the Light | Following the Light |
| BROOKLYN MUSEUM 200 Eastern Parkway, at Prospect Park; (718) 638-5000, brooklynmuseum.org. | BROOKLYN MUSEUM 200 Eastern Parkway, at Prospect Park; (718) 638-5000, brooklynmuseum.org. |
| THE CLOISTERS 99 Margaret Corbin Drive, Fort Tryon Park, Washington Heights, (212) 923-3700, metmuseum.org. | THE CLOISTERS 99 Margaret Corbin Drive, Fort Tryon Park, Washington Heights, (212) 923-3700, metmuseum.org. |
| FRICK COLLECTION 1 East 70th Street, Manhattan, (212) 288-0700, frick.org. | FRICK COLLECTION 1 East 70th Street, Manhattan, (212) 288-0700, frick.org. |
| METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART (212) 535-7710, metmuseum.org. | METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART (212) 535-7710, metmuseum.org. |
| MUSEUM OF MODERN ART (212) 708-9400, moma.org. | MUSEUM OF MODERN ART (212) 708-9400, moma.org. |
| STUDIO MUSEUM IN HARLEM 144 West 125th Street; (212) 864-4500, studiomuseum.org. | STUDIO MUSEUM IN HARLEM 144 West 125th Street; (212) 864-4500, studiomuseum.org. |
| YALE UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY 1111 Chapel Street, New Haven; (203) 432-0600, artgallery.yale.edu. | YALE UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY 1111 Chapel Street, New Haven; (203) 432-0600, artgallery.yale.edu. |
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction: | This article has been revised to reflect the following correction: |
| Correction: January 9, 2013 | |
Because of an editing error, an | Because of an editing error, an article on Friday in which four art critics for The Times wrote about works that use light in interesting ways referred incorrectly at one point to the artist who made “26 JULY, 4:50 AM.” As the article correctly noted elsewhere, the artist, Toyin Odutola, is a woman. A picture with the article, supplied by the Studio Museum in Harlem, was published in error. It showed a similar work by Ms. Odutola, not “26 JULY, 4:50 AM.” |