H O M B R E
love
dad
Sunday, November 9, 2025
Saturday, November 8, 2025
Abstract
W O M A N 1 1 9 5 0
W i l l e m d e K o o n i n g
For two years de Kooning struggled with
how he would go about portraying a woman
using bold colors and broad strokes - his own
personal method of painting.
Great painting. Too bad she looks like the
stone age Venus de Willendorf and not
something to be found on a cave's man wall.
She's too predatory.
It's Round 8 of a domestic dispute.
B R O A D W A Y B O O G I E W O O G I E 1 9 4 2
P i e t M o n d r i a n
Mondrian fled the Nazi takeover of Europe and
found himself willy-nilly amidst the bustling streets
of New York City - the Great White Way!
Neon lights everywhere, turning nighttime streets
into day. Here was where jazz was played.
Piet loved jazz.
Here was all his needed inspiration poured into
a few short blocks.
E L E G Y T O T H E S P A N I S H R E P U B L I C 1 9 7 1
R o b e r t M o t h e r w e l l
Lament for those who lost their life fighting
the Nazis during the Spanish Civil War.
People from all around and all walks of life
came to help defend Spain's fledgling Republic.
It was a lost cause.
Robert Motherwell once said the black ovals in
the painting reminded him of hanging bull testicles.
Whatever they are, they are blocking the view.
You are being crowded by bullies.
What are you going to do about it?
C O N V E R G E N C E 1 9 5 2
J a c k s o n P o l l o c k
It was only black and white initially, but Pollack
didn't like the results. It was glum.
Time to sling it some color.
Give it rhythm.
Giddy up.
Actually, it's more like Frank Sinatra crooning
Fly Me to the Moon.
It's fanciful topping on a splash of sober.
W H I T E F L A G
J a s p e r J o h n s
Here is the white of a weathered fence.
Jasper Johns created the textured effect
by suspending pigment in hot wax.
It becomes a painting of small, unexpected
pleasures mixed into this overall effect.
It's understated old school.
It was a time when people thought
wrinkles make the man.
Sort of.
N O . 4 6
M a r k R o t h k o
No narrative. Just color.
You supply the emotion.
Walk up to it real close.
It's eight and a half feet tall.
Rothko intended it to envelope you.
Is this art for art's sake or your shrink
playing the cello?
* * * * *
© Tom Taylor
OVER EASY
Sunday, November 2, 2025
Saturday, November 1, 2025
Self Portrait
M I C H E L A N G E L O
1 5 4 1
Which of these gents in this Sistine Chapel painting
is the famous Renaissance sculptor Michelangelo?
At the top of the painting we see Christ rendering
his last judgement on the fate of souls on this
final day of time; Mary at his side.
That is Saint Bartholomew sitting on a cloud,
to Christ's left. He holds a knife in one hand
and his own flayed skin in the other.
Bartholomew was martyred by being skinned alive.
The drooping face on the skin is that of Michelangelo.
There is no triumph in the manner of his own depiction.
He has been tasked with portraying the divine.
Now he is in despair.
I am not worthy.
F R I D A K A H L O
1 9 4 0
It's a necklace of thorns she wears.
A dead hummingbird hangs near her neck.
The monkey over her shoulder busies itself
pulling her neckless, which increases her pain.
Here is Frida's desolation from a love gone bad.
She fell in love with the celebrated muralist,
Diego Rivera. The attraction was mutual
and they married. How could two people
made for each other screw things up so bad?
It was a tumultuous relationship, with each
having numerous affairs and revenge sex.
It all ended in divorce.
Temporarily.
A N D Y W A R H O L
1 9 6 3
"I think somebody should be able to do all
my paintings for me."
Warhol wasn't into chasing for nirvana.
It wasn't in his DNA. He'd bring his own brand
of perfection. He found his inspiration in
soup cans, publicity shots of Marilyn Monroe
and corpses sprawled across scenes of highway
fatality.
You're looking for a painting to go over your sofa
but you don't have a lot of money to spend.
No problem.
I'm going to take an ordinary Bazooka bubblegum
wrapper. Blow it up to around thirty times its
original size. Now all I need is a sturdy backing
and a frame. No long hours will I spend fighting
the eccentricities of oil.
It's about appreciation.
Take something mundane. Present it
in a manner that has an air of intrigue.
Now you're seeing the world as a child would -
for the first time, and once again.
All for $49.95. Free shipping.
F R A N C I S B A C O N
1 9 6 9
Vulnerability.
He faces himself at a time when his longtime lover
has died. One of those what's it all about moments.
He is uneasy about the future but he remains
contemplative. He is content, but with great
emotional intensity.
L U C I A N F R E U D
1 9 8 5
Lucian always looked for unvarnished truth.
It had to express reality; not just in physical likeness
but also by providing some expression of the subject's
inner life. Here we see senior citizen Freud
in all his blemishes and wrinkles, skillfully rendered
with thick impasto strokes of oil.
C H U C K C L O S E
2 0 0 3
Close was never healthy. His childhood was
a struggle with physical ailments of all sorts.
And he was dyslexic. At that time people mistook
his disability for just being slow.
Despite these setbacks Chuck Close became
a portrait artist of note. Then he was struck down
by a neurological condition that left him paralyzed.
Unable to use his arms Close gripped a brush
with his teeth to apply his paint. His portraits
evolved into a grid of squares, each in its
own fashion, to add life to a face.
Chuck Close became wealthy and famous.
He traveled between two splendid households
situated outside New York City. He socialized
with a wide group of friends. Life was good.
Then it wasn't. Suddenly Close walked away
from it all - his homes, his friends. His address
was now in a maze, sprawling with anonymous
apartments. He spent himself; frantic.
Painting self portraits, one after the other.
Life was a mosaic he needed to catch.
* * * * *
© Tom Taylor
OVER EASY
Sunday, October 26, 2025
Saturday, October 25, 2025
Americana
F U R T R A D E R S 1 8 4 5
George Bingham 1811 - 1879
A French fur trader and his mixed-heritage son ply
their trade on the tranquil waters of the Missouri River.
Is that a bear cub or cat tied to the dugout canoe?
The trader wears a liberty cap - popular among
19th century French Revolutionaries because
it stood for freedom.
This is one of a number of paintings Bingham sent to
New York from his home in Missouri. The people
back East loved Bingham's idealized portraits of
the American frontier.
D R. G R O S S ' C L I N I C 1 8 7 5
Thomas Eakins 1844 - 1916
Philadelphia's celebrated surgeon, Dr. Samuel Gross,
removes an infected bone from the patient's hip
using his revolutionary procedure that replaced the
current practice of amputation as remedy. No one in
attendance wore masks or gloves as the surgery was
performed prior to the appreciation of sterile techniques.
Eakins is among those best representing the school
of American realism.
D A S H F O R T H E T I M B E R 1 8 8 9
Frederic Remington 1861 - 1909
Remington portrayed the cowboy in epic scenes
taken from stories of the Open Range where cattle were
driven five hundred miles to railheads in Abilene and
Wichita. There the cattle were herded onto wooden
freight cars, pulled by steam locomotives, destined
for the meat packing plants of Chicago.
Remington portrayed the cowboy as an individualist...
independent, self-reliant. But also someone who
would give you the shirt off his back if need be.
G U L F S T R E A M 1 8 9 9
Winslow Homer 1836 - 1910
A lone man awaits his fate as his fishing boat lurches
about in storm-tossed seas, both rudderless and
without a mast. A fearsome waterspout appears to
close in while hungry sharks circle the stricken vessel.
On the horizon a large sailing ship passes
unaware of the life and death drama unfolding
a short, rescuable distance away.
Winslow Homer was a New Englander with years
of experience sailing about the sometimes treacherous
seas of the Caribbean.
R E D C A N N A 1 9 2 3
Georgia O'Keeffe 1887 - 1986
Red Canna 1923 was among O'Keefe's earliest
close up portrayals of flowers, providing them
with an impact both monumental and sensual.
It was a modern still life, abstract and without
need of realistic detail.
"I paint because color is significant."
Georgia O'Keeffe
A C H E L O U S A N D H E R C U L E S 1 9 4 7
Thomas Hart Benton 1889 - 1986
Achelous, Greek god controlling the rivers, is depicted
as a fierce bull being restrained by Hercules in this parable
about the Army Corps of Engineers' attempt to control
the flooding Missouri River. A horn is ripped from the
bull's head and it, in turn, becomes the Cornucopia of
Plenty for the people of the surrounding valley.
It sounds like a splendid topic for a large public mural.
Hart's painting undulates with energy, and the robust
certainty of an MGM movie musical.
Oklahoma!
All for one and one for all.
* * * * *
© Tom Taylor
OVER EASY
Sunday, October 19, 2025
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