Thursday march 3, 2016
The Daily Princetonian
page S1
PAGES DESIGNED BY HARRISON BLACKMAN :: STREET EDITOR
ARTISTIC CRITICISM Visiting The Frick Collection’s Van Dyck exhibit
This week, Street Editor HARRISON BLACKMAN ventures off campus to review The Frick Collection’s new exhibit, “Van Dyck: The Anatomy of Portraiture,” an exploration of the portraits of Flemish master Anthony Van Dyck. In the process, he learns about the New York art critic scene, what it means to review a world-class museum and what on Earth a phrase like “The Anatomy of Portraiture” means.
W
hen I found the invitation on my newsroom desk, I have to say I was kind of surprised. I mean, at ‘Street’ we occasionally receive promotions from dance companies in town or press clippings from the odd poet. But we don’t usually get invitations from major New York bastions of culture. When a world-class art museum gives you a golden ticket to see a sneak preview of their new exhibit, then your course of action is pretty clear: you must go. The museum was The Frick Collection in New York, the exhibit –“Van Dyck: The Anatomy of Portraiture.” And yes, both The Frick Collection and the Frick Chemistry Lab at Princeton are named after the same person: Henry Clay Frick, captain of industry and philanthropist of the Gilded Age. I visited The Frick Collection for a lot of reasons. The first and simplest was a desire to review the exhibit and fulfill the obligation conferred in receiving an invite from such an institution. But I had deeper questions – what was the New York art critic scene like? What information could I bring back that would be relevant to the Princeton community? Who exactly was Van Dyck? And what on earth does the “Anatomy of Portraiture” mean?
Combined with the eating club image, the message felt familiar. I signed in and walked into the atrium, a classical proposition that evokes the sense of what a 19th century shopping mall would look like, with steel and yellowed, opaque glass protecting the room from the elements. Upon reading about the Frick’s origins online, I learned that the building was originally Mr. Frick’s home. You have to be doing pretty well to live in a mansion on 5th Avenue.
at hand: I can’t leave out the fact that there were snacks, or at least one snack –of Flemish wafers, best described as a cross between a waffle and a cookie. So being a New York art critic is a quiet, formal affair with liberal photography policies. Its humble perks include the opportunity to sample Flemish baking.
A portrait of the exhibit a day before it opened The exhibit features the work of a man who Princeton stuWhat being an art critic is like dents can probably relate to –a I walked into the exhibit –and prodigy who also happened to pretty much uncharted territo- be a social climber. Born in Antry. I had never critiqued a major werp in 1599, Anthony Van Dyck museum’s exhibit before. Uncer- quickly established himself as a tain of the process of such an preeminent portrait artist at the endeavor, I started out small: by age of 20. By 1632, Van Dyck was looking at the paintings. I won- selected as the chief painter in dered if I was allowed to take pic- Charles I’s court, the last king of tures. Then I saw that someone England before the English Civil else was. So then I took pictures, War. Like so many great artists, and examined paintings, not- Van Dyck died young, at the age ing that the majority of major of 42, just before the English New York art critics were of a Civil War. In considering his rewiser age, so I stuck out like a gal position, this probably saved sore thumb. Most interestingly, him some misery. people didn’t talk to each other The Frick Collection’s exhibit all that much. The various jour- is described as “one of the most nalists sometimes chatted with comprehensive exhibits ever ora couple of their friends, but for ganized as a portraitist,” accordthe most part, there was no net- ing to one of the museum’s press working involved. releases. The exhibit is divided There was a tour led by the into two sections – the first, of exhibit curators, in which they Van Dyck’s drawings and studled a group of about 40 critics ies, and the second, his major into a 100-square foot hallway. portraits before and during his Welcome to The Frick Collec- Even a diplomat from Flanders involvement with the English tion was there, given Flanders’ con- Court. The decision to split the Upon entering, I noted how tributions to the exhibition of its two exhibits is architecturally the Frick’s entryway has the native artist, Van Dyck. I had no suited to the exhibit space, as same affected grandeur as our idea that a province of Belgium the paintings occupy the more very own eating clubs. There’s a could possess its own cultural grand galleries on the ground big wooden door, and columns, foreign policy. It’s like a state floor while the drawings adorn and a seal with an interlocking senator from California giving the walls of the basement gal“FC” logo. On the day I visited, out a thousand John Steinbeck leries. there was even a sign saying, novels to a school system in BraLike Princeton students in “Open to only invited guests.” zil. To return, then to the matter composing their academic essays, Van Dyck knew how to get things done q u ic k l y. Van Dyck’s draw ings are interesting in that very few of his studies of faces (drafts or informational practice pai nti ngs to inform larger canvasses) survive, and it’s because he was trying to meet HARRISON BLACKMAN::STREET EDITOR The Frick Collection’s interior atrium, left, and a self-portrait of Van Dyck, right. the demand of
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Anthony Van Dyck’s portrait of Charles I and his wife Maria. being the most popular portraitist of his time and had to turn around his work as fast possible. As a result, he didn’t paint too many drafts. As for Van Dyck’s completed portraits, I noticed a distinct difference between his more formal, regal portraits and more intimate, naturalized portraits HARRISON BLACKMAN::STREET EDITOR that reminded Van Dyck’s portrait of Margaret Lemon, his mistress. me of photographs from National Geographic. Of par- portraits of his friends makes ticular note is the dichotomy Van Dyck an interesting figbetween Van Dyck’s enchanting ure – one well suited for colportrait of his mistress, Marga- lege students used to analyzret Lemon, and the more dis- ing work and comparing it to tanced portrait of his wife, Mary other things. Van Dyck. Margaret Lemon’s “We are good at dissecting portrait has a “Mona Lisa” / “Girl images, thinking about the with a Pearl Earring” expression, ideology of images, and he’s while Lady Van Dyck holds up appealing for that reason,” a crucifix necklace to prove her Eaker said. “He’s also someone Catholicism. I took up Adam who thought across media in Eaker, one of the exhibit’s cura- a very modern way, so he’s not tors, on this. just thinking about the fin“It seems that Van Dyck ished painting but also how it had certain sitters for whom can be reproduced and distribhe had a real affinity, and in uted across print, and today’s those cases he could be looser artists are often not tied to and freer and maybe express a single movement anymore. himself a little bit more,” Eak- We’re in a moment that’s very er said. “When we are looking excited by moving across those at portraits of fellow artists, lines and blurring them.” friends, the women in his life, I suppose that Dyck’s varthose are often some of the ied and interdisciplinary apmost exciting portraits to a proach to portraiture constimodern eye because of that tutes its “anatomy.” As for The looseness and freedom that he Frick Collection, it’s definitely had.” worth your while if you have It’s not often in exhibits time to venture up from the you can see who the artist re- Orange Bubble. As for my first ally liked. The strong distinc- stint as an art critic – when in tion in style between the regal the company of art critics, do portraits for Charles I and his as the art critics do… keep to court and the more modern yourself.