we're talking about moving, we're talking about art
Tuesday, 19. September 2006, 23:35:15
Had a long chat today with our American friend who lives in Paris (hi, Kory) about how much stuff to ship.
In short, he votes for almost nothing. Put it in storage and buy new, he says. There is an appeal to this approach.
And, to be sure, we will do some of that. But our relo package isn't really something we want to have to use once we're not here (stateside) to coordinate. Some fragile heirloom furniture and larger pieces that we may not have room for will go into cold storage and the rest we'll divide between bringing and selling. Someday we'll have to bring over the mirror and chrome console, or dresser, that looks to us like it would fit perfectly Nick and Nora's apartment but was probably made during a 1970s bit of deco revival; aside from the breakable mirrors, it's so heavy that a friend and I moved it about 20 feet, my knees hurt for three weeks.
For me though, I would want my books and art and antique chairs if we moved to Seattle or New York, why wouldn't I want them in Oslo. I know it's just stuff but we're at a point where much of it has a story and reflects who we are and what pleases us... and then there's just so much with a long family history that one hates to simply push into a closet for the next generation to sort out.
Speaking of heirlooms though ...
S found a gallery selling a "restored" painting of my great grandfather's (that he painted, not that he owned). It is the earliest sitting of his wife and first daughter, my grandmother, that we have seen; Oma was 1 and sitting on her mother's lap. CP, the artist, was a Russian Jewish immigrant to America who was working and studying in Paris with his Opera singer wife when my grandmother was born around 1907. Some of his work bears a resemblance to that of Marie Cassat, whom he apparently had met. Despite having a painting in the London Portrait Gallery (not on display at the moment), the paintings we've seen of his at auction seem pretty affordable. So S sent a query to this gallery and it was listed more than 300 times anything else of his we'd seen ... cheeky bastards, holding the earliest picture of my Oma hostage behind that crazy price tag. At least we got to see a picture of my great grandmother smiling, she looks stoic to grim in all the paintings that are still in the family.
CP's style seemed to drift from Rembrandt-esque self portraits to somewhat forced attempts at impressionism. In his later years, he lived in New Mexico and painted close-up portraits, in a realistic style, of Native Americans. Although these are my least favorite of his, he seems most at home where the emphasis is on the subject and not the technique - even though he was certainly a man of a talent as immense as the temper his first wife would recall many decades after their divorce.
In short, he votes for almost nothing. Put it in storage and buy new, he says. There is an appeal to this approach.
And, to be sure, we will do some of that. But our relo package isn't really something we want to have to use once we're not here (stateside) to coordinate. Some fragile heirloom furniture and larger pieces that we may not have room for will go into cold storage and the rest we'll divide between bringing and selling. Someday we'll have to bring over the mirror and chrome console, or dresser, that looks to us like it would fit perfectly Nick and Nora's apartment but was probably made during a 1970s bit of deco revival; aside from the breakable mirrors, it's so heavy that a friend and I moved it about 20 feet, my knees hurt for three weeks.
For me though, I would want my books and art and antique chairs if we moved to Seattle or New York, why wouldn't I want them in Oslo. I know it's just stuff but we're at a point where much of it has a story and reflects who we are and what pleases us... and then there's just so much with a long family history that one hates to simply push into a closet for the next generation to sort out.
Speaking of heirlooms though ...
S found a gallery selling a "restored" painting of my great grandfather's (that he painted, not that he owned). It is the earliest sitting of his wife and first daughter, my grandmother, that we have seen; Oma was 1 and sitting on her mother's lap. CP, the artist, was a Russian Jewish immigrant to America who was working and studying in Paris with his Opera singer wife when my grandmother was born around 1907. Some of his work bears a resemblance to that of Marie Cassat, whom he apparently had met. Despite having a painting in the London Portrait Gallery (not on display at the moment), the paintings we've seen of his at auction seem pretty affordable. So S sent a query to this gallery and it was listed more than 300 times anything else of his we'd seen ... cheeky bastards, holding the earliest picture of my Oma hostage behind that crazy price tag. At least we got to see a picture of my great grandmother smiling, she looks stoic to grim in all the paintings that are still in the family.
CP's style seemed to drift from Rembrandt-esque self portraits to somewhat forced attempts at impressionism. In his later years, he lived in New Mexico and painted close-up portraits, in a realistic style, of Native Americans. Although these are my least favorite of his, he seems most at home where the emphasis is on the subject and not the technique - even though he was certainly a man of a talent as immense as the temper his first wife would recall many decades after their divorce.
Good Lord that's GORGEOUS.
By anonymous user, # 22. September 2006, 19:24:53
We also checked out the painting, having seen it listed on the web. $$$$$!!! How nice to know that it is, indeed, your grandmother, Anna!! She looks a bit like Gladys, but we thought it very different from any of Charle's work that we had seen previously, wondered if it could really be his. I bought a print of the portrait in the National Portrait Gallery, the Zangwell, in London for my father, Joe Polowe.
My son, Paul, was surprised to find a painting, online,of a town in NJ that he and his wife had been looking at as a possible place to move to from their apt in Manhattan.
Someone really should catalogue Charles' work. I have one painting, a portrait of my grandmother, Miriam, Charles' sister-in-law. My father has several. My sister has, I think, two. The Farbers have several, including one of Charles'mother, your great, great grandmother and my great grandmother.
Nice to know you are going to have the abroad experience, not unlike Charles and Anna. We lived for three years in Chile, where my husband is from, 9 years in London, and now have lived for four years in Montreal. We have done the trans-atlantic move 4 times, (london twice.) There is a well-known arc to adjustment to a new culture, with predictable dips at 4 mo. and at 6. But going home is even harder. If you stay long enough, you will never be completely at home in one place again. But it is a good tribe to belong to, these international nomads.
Cheers!
By anonymous user, # 4. October 2006, 17:09:16
The painting to which Gwen refers, Charles' mother, your great, great grandmother, hung in our living room for as long as my parents had their home in NJ (1961-1997). After my mother died, and my father had moved to MI, he again hung the painting as the center piece of his living room. After my father died, my sister took the painting to Baltimore. Apparently, my sister's middle name came from Charles' mother. As kids, we would sneak our friends into the living room and let them peak at the back side of that painting, because, as was common, artists would use both sides of the canvas. This was no exception and on its backside was a nude sketch. For 10 year old kids, that was mind boggling stuff.
jimfarber@esi-us.com
By anonymous user, # 16. November 2006, 04:36:48