Breaking it Down

Composition 8, 1914 by Piet Mondrian, The Guggenheim Museum, NYC.

This is Mondrian's interpretation of a tree after seeing the cubist work of Braque and Picasso. He eventually took it to an even more abstract level.

Big Business

The Chrysler Building, 1930, architect William Van Alen, New York.

An homage to all things modern, the tallest building (until the Empire State eclipsed it one year later), decorated with hubcaps, hood ornaments and steel so shiny it looks like chrome. It remains an Art Deco icon.

Hey, where you goin'?

The Awakening Conscience, 1851-53 by William Holman Hunt, Tate Gallery, London.

Hunt shows us a young woman who has seen the error of her ways just in time to save herself - it is explained that the song they are singing reminds her of her girlhood home and that what she is doing is wrong. Hunt was a deeply religious man and his faith drove his art.

Sick Bed

Sleeping Beauty by Henry Meynell Rheam (1859-1920) - Location?

Your Daily Art was interrupted due to unexpected illness - all is well, and the regular posts will resume shortly.

...and carry a big stick.

Ballet Rehearsal 1875 by Edgar Degas, George G. Frelinghuysen Collection, N.Y.

The teacher in these paintings was actually a dancer and friend of Degas and not the class teacher. His name was Jules Perrot.

Speak softly...

La classe de danse (The Dancing class), c.1873-75 by Edgar Degas, Museé d'Orsay, Paris.

Degas had access to all areas of the dancer's world and took advantage of this capturing them at rest, rehearsing, performing and dressing. They were a subject he returned to frequently over the years.