My Favorite Altar and Fresco at Barmherzigenkirche, Graz

Though thee baroque monastery church, Barmherzigenkirche (Brotherhood of Compassion), in Graz, Austria, was founded by the Archduke Ferdinand and Max Ernst in 1615, the present construction was from later period - built in 1735-40, was by J. G. Stengg and it presented visitors stark contrasts between its austere though flowing architectural elements and the overstuffed, overwrought religious paintings, sculptures and altars. 



For the latter, it was their almost naïve sincerity and the heart-felt solemnity rescued them from the disaster of complete kitsch and drew viewers' attention to elaborate splendor.



Amongst those unusual objects, I found a huge altar centering on an ebony Madonna very intriguing and most memorable.  Underneath a seashell arch, enshrouded in beautifully decorated cloth of ceremony, which was covered with alternating dark and light patterns, this Madonna, shaped like a typical Christmas tree, embodied the universal elements, manifested by the bold motifs on the ceremonial cloth.  A tiny arm of hers held high the small head of the Baby, which, like his celestial mother, wore weighty crowns gilded in rich though subdued red gold.

I really love the primitive feeling of this particular Virgin Mary.







The second memorable piece in Barmherzigenkirche depicted a typical sacrificial scene of a certain saint.  It was a fresco on a side wall near an alter of the theme of the Lamentation.  What struck me most of this side fresco was the beauty of the subtle coloration, and the elegance of the postures, therefore, the rather terrifying scene was beautifully presented and such dichotomy generated a high drama of its own.  Furthermore, one could see that a sculptural lamenting cherub from the altar cast his sight on this painted scene, thus bound those two elements tightly together, forming a continuous narration from altar to the side wall and then back.






My Favorite Museum Collection Series
>> My Favorite Museum Collection Series 97: My Favorite Reliefs in Franziskanerkirche, Graz
<< My Favorite Museum Collection Series 95: My Favorite Sculptures at Schloßberg, Graz

List of My Favorite Artworks in the Museums I've Visited

Other Related posts on Art · 文化 · Kunst:
- Boy With Frog Sculpture and Punta della Dogana, Venice
- My Favorite Sculpture and Painting at Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris
- My Favorite Sculptures at Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Firenze, Italia
- My Favorite Sculptures in les Jardins du Ranelag, Paris

Monumental "Andy Warhol: Shadows" in Los Angeles

The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, is celebrating Andy Warhol, one of the most influential American artists from the 20th century, by presenting his monumental Shadows series of 102 canvases.

MOCA stated that "conceived as one work, Warhol’s exceptional series of variously silkscreened and hand painted canvases features two different compositions, ranging in hue from an electric green to a somber brown. Based on photographs of shadows taken in The Factory, the artist’s New York City studio, the Shadows paintings alternate between positive and negative imprints. With few exceptions, “the peak,” or black positive, always appears on a colored ground, while “the cap,” a smaller, colored form, hovers before a black background."

"“The Shadows are one of Warhol’s most mysterious and beautiful works, full of mood and feeling, repeated over and over, not unlike a song. Seeing them all together at MOCA provides a special occasion to consider an artist we think we know from a new angle,” said MOCA Senior Curator Bennett Simpson."



In October, I had the chance to visit MOCA in LA, and I was surprised by how compact this series seemed and how grandiose it really was, when confronted by those arrays of canvases displayed in a modest corridor and a single albeit huge hall.  At the first glance, I was rather underwhelmed by the seemingly smallish looking display; upon closer inspection, I realized the amazing scope of the endeavor and was overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of those canvases and the myriad variations they conveyed - the imagination of the artists was apparently boundless and the beauty of these subtly differentiated coloration was incredibly moving.  Below are images from that incredible exhibition:































Below images offer closer look of those canvases:































The show ends on February 2, 2015, so people still have chance to see the exhibition. Even for those who are not big fan of Warhol, me included, it can still be a moving experience to see those incandescent beautiful pieces together.  High recommended.


Related posts on Art · 文化 · Kunst:
- Modernism from the National Gallery of Art in De Young Museum, San Francisco
- Impressionism from National Gallery of Art (DC) in San Francisco
- Last Trip to a Museum in 2012 - The William S. Paley Collection: A Taste for Modernism at De Young Museum in San Francisco
- Last Call - "The Girl With A Pearl Earring" in De Young Museum, San Francisco
- Venetian Masterpieces from Vienna at De Young Museum
- Birth of Impressionism at De Young Museum, San Francisco
- Post-Impressionism Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay, De Young Museum, San Francisco 2010-11
- Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris - De Young Museum, San Francisco
- Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne and Beyond: Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay at De Young Museum, San Francisco