Art
Cleveland Museum of Art collection shows how humanity coped with pandemics from Black Death to AIDS – cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio — It’s tempting to think of the novel coronavirus pandemic as something truly novel because it’s rooted in a viral strain not identified previously in humans.
But there’s nothing new about plagues and pandemics. Humanity has been here before. The cultural record is packed with déjà vu.
In his 1722 book, “A Journal of The Plague Year,’’ Daniel Defoe speaks of the 1665 outbreak of bubonic plague in London in terms that sound eerily like today’s headlines.
The city compiled statistical “Bills of Mortality’’ in ways that anticipate today’s coronavirus curves. The Lord Mayor ordered houses with infected inhabitants to be nailed or padlocked shut — a cruel form of social distancing.
A fifth of London’s population perished. That was a year before the great fire that consumed much of the city.
Works in Cleveland Museum of Art collection relevant to coronavirus pandemic.Cleveland Museum of Art
The 14th century Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio relates in his “Decameron’’ how 10 well-to-do young Florentines flee to a country villa during a bubonic plague outbreak known as the Black Death. They’re like the wealthy of today, leaving cities for second homes in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, or the Hamptons on Long Island.
Instead of binge-watching cable TV, Boccaccio’s protagonists entertain each other by telling 100 stories of love, shame and religious hypocrisy.
For art lovers curious about historical responses to plagues and pandemics, the Cleveland Museum of Art has plenty to offer online.
Works in Cleveland Museum of Art collection relevant to coronavirus pandemic.Cleveland Museum of Art
A search of the permanent collection produces dozens of images of death as the great leveler, of saints to whom the afflicted prayed for a cure, and of the plagues visited upon Egypt before the exodus of the Jews.
Heather Lemonedes Brown, the museum’s deputy director and chief curator, takes solace in the artistic testimony from the past because it offers proof that civilization endures and life goes on.
“Knowing that humanity persists is comforting on some level,’’ she said.
The museum, which is still considering how and when it will reopen, isn’t planning a pandemic exhibition, Brown said.
But last week she discussed several works in the collection that deal with themes related to coronavirus, which are included here, along with additional selections.
What follows is a thematic virtual tour of selected artworks which remind us that previous generations have experienced — and withstood — pandemics.
The Dance of Death
The artist Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-98 – 1543), known for stunning portraits in oils of subjects including England’s Henry VIII, designed a series of prints in the mid-1520s dealing with the classic medieval theme, “Dance of Death,’’ inspired by outbreaks of the plague.
Holbein designed 41 variations, of which the Cleveland museum has 38. One depicts Death as a raging peasant attacking a wealthy count who runs for his life, flinging useless armor and weapons to the ground.
https://clevelandart.org/art/1929.164 – “Der Groff,” or “The Count,” is part of the “Dance of Death” series by Hans Holbein the Younger, inspired by traditional medieval imagery depicting Death as the great leveler, a practice inspired by outbreaks of bubonic plague Cleveland Museum of ArtCleveland Museum of Art
The series “reminds us that no one from the top of the heap to a nameless child is safe from death,” Brown said. “Death becomes the great leveler, letting no one escape.’’
In 1850, the German artist Alfred Rethel (1816-1859), created his own variation on the theme in a woodcut depicting “Death as a Strangler,” fiddling in the midst of an 1832 Parisian costume ball during a cholera outbreak that eventually killed 20,000 across the city.
https://clevelandart.org/art/1939.620 – A ghoulish 1850 print by German artist Alfred Rethel depicts Death fiddling at an 1832 Parisian costume ball during a global cholera outbreak. Cleveland Museum of ArtCleveland Museum of Art
Death appears in the Rethel in the tattered robes of a monk, playing a fiddle made of human bones as partygoers collapse on the dance floor and musicians bolt for the exits.
Parenthetically, it’s easy to see how the Holbein and the Rethel are part of a visual tradition that includes Ingmar Bergman’s classic 1957 film, “The Seventh Seal,’’ relating the tale of a medieval knight who challenges Death to a game of chess during an outbreak of plague as he seeks redemption while still alive.
Variations on Saint Sebastian
The museum holds multiple depictions of Saint Sebastian, a 3rd century Roman soldier who converted to Christianity and was sentenced to death by Emperor Diocletian. When soldiers couldn’t kill Sebastian with arrows, they clubbed him to death.
Miracles associated with Sebastian include the conversion of a Roman prefect who was cured of a plague when he renounced the worship of idols at Sebastian’s insistence.
For that reason, cities and villages across Europe adopted Sebastian as a “plague saint,” to whom they prayed for help during outbreaks.
https://clevelandart.org/art/1958.411 – The Cleveland Museum of Art’s permanent collection includes a delicate and elegant 1493 drawing by the Italian artist Perugino of Saint Sebastian, considered an intercessor for victims of bubonic plague who prayed for a cure. Cleveland Museum of ArtCleveland Museum of Art
The museum’s images of Sebastian include a delicate and elegant 1493 drawing by the Italian artist Perugino, exhibited last year in the exhibition “Michelangelo: Mind of the Master.”
“It’s such a sensitive and beautiful little drawing,” Brown said.
https://clevelandart.org/art/1997.53 – The 17th-century Spanish artist Jusepe de Ribera used red chalk on paper in 1626-30 to delineate Saint Sebastian, traditionally associated with cures for bubonic plague, as he is painfully tied to a tree by one arm, flinching in anticipation of being shot with arrows by Roman soldiers. Cleveland Museum of ArtCleveland Museum of Art
In contrast to the Perugino, the 17th-century Spanish artist Jusepe de Ribera used red chalk on paper in 1626-30 to delineate the saint painfully tied by one arm to a tree as he flinches in anticipation of the first arrow he’s about to receive.
https://clevelandart.org/art/1931.65 – A 1484 German monstrance, a gilded silver and rock crystal reliquary in the permanent collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art is believed to contain a sliver of bone from the body of Saint Sebastian, to whom victims of bubonic plague traditionally prayed for a cure. Cleveland Museum of ArtCleveland Museum of Art
Another powerful work associated with Saint Sebastian is a 1484 German monstrance, a gilded silver and rock crystal reliquary believed to contain a sliver of bone from the saint’s body. It’s shaped like a slice of a Gothic cathedral with flying buttresses and a towering cupola holding a crystalline cylinder with its precious contents inside.
St. Catherine of Siena
In addition to Saint Sebastian, Renaissance Italians prayed to St. Catherine of Siena for relief from the plague. The daughter of a wealthy cloth dyer, she had a vision of Christ at age 6, and thereafter dedicated herself to chastity, penance and good works, according to the museum. She became known in Siena for caring for victims of the Black Death.
https://clevelandart.org/art/1966.2 – Italians in the Renaissance prayed to St. Catherine of Siena for relief from outbreaks of bubonic plague. The saint is shown here in a 1460 altarpiece panel by Sienese artist Giovanni di Paolo as she kneels to receive the habit of St. Dominic. Cleveland Museum of ArtCleveland Museum of Art
St. Catherine is the subject of a 1460 altarpiece panel by Sienese artist Giovanni di Paolo, who shows her kneeling as she receives the habit of St. Dominic.
Visons from India, Japan
In 12th century Japan, Buddhists seeking protection from disease addressed prayers to the “Medicine Master Buddha (Yakushi Nyorai).” Seated on a lotus blossom, the Buddha heals all maladies, including ignorance. He holds his right hand upward in a mudra, or gesture, that means “have no fear.”
https://clevelandart.org/art/1973.85 – Buddhists seeking protection from disease in 12th century Japan addressed prayers to the “Medicine Master Buddha, a healer of all maladies who holds his right hand upward in a mudra, or gesture, that means “have no fear.” Cleveland Museum of ArtCleveland Museum of Art
From 1830 to 1880, street artists gathered around Kalighat Temple in Kolkata, India, to purvey bright, colorful paintings on paper that functioned as political broadsides, gossip sheets or religious tracts. Examples at the museum, which held a memorable Kalighat exhibition in 2011, include a two-sided painting of Sheetala, the smallpox goddess, who has the power to cure or curse devotees.
https://clevelandart.org/art/2003.157 – A 19th-century Kalighat painting from Kolkata, India, depicts Sheetala, the smallpox goddess, who has the power to cure or curse devotees. Cleveland Museum of ArtCleveland Museum of Art
Out of Egypt
The museum holds numerous depictions of the plagues visited on Egypt prior to the exodus of the Jews to the Promised Land.
Among the most striking is an etching and mezzotint print by British artist J.M.W. Turner, modeled after his 1800 painting “The Fifth Plague of Egypt,’’ now owned by the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
https://clevelandart.org/art/1919.135 – British artist J.M.W. Turner, modeled his etching, “The Fifth Plague of Egypt,’’ after an 1800 painting he made with the same title. Both works are wrongly titled because they depicts the Seventh Plague, caused when Moses stretched his arms toward the heavens causing fire, thunder and hail to descend on the pharaoh and his minions. Cleveland Museum of ArtCleveland Museum of Art
Both the etching and the painting are mistitled. Turner’s image, which shows storm clouds and lightning shrouding Egyptian pyramids, actually depicts the Seventh Plague, caused when Moses stretched his arms toward the heavens causing fire, thunder and hail to descend on the pharaoh and his minions.
AIDS
Cleveland artist Scott Miller, who died in 2008 at age 52, was known for a flowing style inspired by cartoons and graffiti. “Untitled,’’ painted in 1986, depicts a male figure with his arms folded protectively across his chest as he hovers amid overflowing viscera. The museum says the painting refers to Miller’s “identity as a gay man living through the deadliest years of the AIDS pandemic.’’
– Scott Miller, a leading Cleveland artist who died in 2008 at age 52, painted this untitled work in 1986, which the Cleveland Museum of Art interprets as a statement of vulnerability during the AIDS crisis. Cleveland Museum of ArtCleveland Museum of Art
In 2019 the museum acquired a 1987 work created by contemporary American artist Jenny Holzer as a response to HIV/AIDS, which has killed 32 million since the early 1980s according to the World Health Organization.
Entitled “Laments: Death came and he looked like…” the work consists of a vertically oriented L.E.D. sign flashing with a word crawl, and a marble sarcophagus etched with the same text, written by the artist.
– Laments: Death came and he looked like…, 1987. Jenny Holzer, an L.E.D. sign, marble sarcophagus, is a work of contemporary art recently acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art. The installation, which will be available for viewing when the museum reopens, has taken fresh meaning during the coronavirus pandemic of 2020. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchased with funds donated by Scott Mueller 2019.19 © Jenny Holzer, member Artists Rights Society (ARS), New YorkCleveland Museum of Art
For Brown, the Holzer refers to mass media and fine art, evoking both modern technology and ancient burial practices.
With contrasting vertical and horizontal elements that stand up lie down, the work also appears to evoke “the living and the dead, both at the same time, and the new and the old,” Brown said.
– Laments: Death came and he looked like…, 1987. Jenny Holzer, an L.E.D. sign, marble sarcophagus, is a work of contemporary art recently acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art. The installation, which will be available for viewing when the museum reopens, has taken fresh meaning during the coronavirus pandemic of 2020. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchased with funds donated by Scott Mueller 2019.19 © Jenny Holzer, member Artists Rights Society (ARS), New YorkCleveland Museum of Art
Somber and bluntly assertive, the Holzer is a thoroughly contemporary response to plagues that have been part of human experience for millennia.
It’s also a reminder of how current events can endow great works of art throughout the museum’s collection with a sudden, sharp relevance.
Art
Canada's art installation at Venice Biennale rooted in research, history, beauty – CityNews Toronto
Hundreds of thousands of tiny glass beads will soon be twinkling in the sun across the entire Canadian pavilion at the Venice Biennale, Canada’s newly revealed entry in one of the world’s most prestigious art fairs.
But Kapwani Kiwanga, the Hamilton-born, Paris-based creator of the work, wants you to get past the cobalt blue glass glinting in the Venetian light. She wants you to think of each bead as a character.
“The materials are documents of themselves,” she says. “They’re witnesses.”
The beads used in her installation “Trinket” were made on the nearby Venetian island of Murano. Centuries ago, similar beads were used all over the world as both desirable trade goods and currency in themselves.
Their name, “conterie,” comes from the Portuguese word for “count.”
“I never use (materials) just because they’re esthetically pleasing,” Kiwanga says. “That comes into it at one point but it’s really their social, cultural and economic history that makes me want to settle on a material.”
Kiwanga’s installation at the Canada Pavilion was revealed Tuesday, more than a year after she was named Canada’s representative to the 60th Venice Biennale.
Kiwanga has previously installed works at art galleries and fairs from Saskatoon to Dublin and London to Istanbul.
She has won major art prizes in Canada and France, and bagged nominations from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts for her film work.
Throughout all that work, she says, runs her interest in what materials have to say for themselves.
Sometimes, plants do the talking. One of her previous installations, “Flowers for Africa,” uses familiar flowers like gladioli that originated in Africa.
They may look arranged for a posh wedding or upscale hotel lobby, but are recreations of flower arrangements created for diplomatic events linked to independence negotiations for African countries. The arrangements gradually wilted, evoking emotions about the passage of time and the fleeting nature of pomp.
In other works, colours speak to the audience.
“Linear Paintings” explores hues believed to promote certain moods and used by industrial designers to cover walls in offices, mental health hospitals and prisons.
“I’m thinking of them as characters who have witnessed a past event,” Kiwanga says. “History is a starting point for a lot of my work, although I’m thinking about our present and sometimes our future as well.
“My larger question or interest is power and power dynamics.”
She wants viewers to consider her work a kind of “gateway.”
“I’m not trying to prove anything. I’m not looking for materials that prove a point. I’m just saying the who or the how or the what,” she says.
The work begins with a vague notion of something interesting that sheds a bit of light on how the world operates.
Then it’s study time. Popular and academic works on the theme are consulted, experts are interviewed, archives combed. She says about 60 per cent of the work needed to create a new piece is done in the library, not the studio.
Kiwanga credits her anthropology degree from McGill University with giving her the research skills necessary to her artistic practice.
For her sense of the world, she gives some credit to Hamilton. She now divides her time between Canada, France and Tanzania, but it was Steeltown that first showed her the world is a big place.
“Growing up in downtown Hamilton was quite diverse,” she says.
“In my Grade 1 class — I remember this — we had people from all over the world, some of whom had just arrived. The world already was in this tiny little bit of my reality.”
Being chosen to represent Canada at the nearly 130-year-old Venice Biennale “was a great honour,” she said.
Canada has been represented at the art fair since 1952. This year’s version will see 63 countries participating.
Previous Canadian representatives have included illustrious artists such as Alex Colville, Michael Snow and Stan Douglas — and that creates a certain pressure, Kiwanga admits.
“One person is chosen every two years, but there are so many other artists who could have been chosen and done something amazing. I felt a responsibility.”
But just being part of a global art conversation will be a highlight, Kiwanga says. And true to form, she’s already thinking of the Biennale as another kind of document.
“When we’re all together and we end up finishing our works, what’s it going to say about this moment?”
The Venice Biennale international art exhibition runs from April 20 to Nov. 24.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 16, 2024.
Bob Weber, The Canadian Press
/* OOVVUU Targeting */
const path = ‘/entertainment’;
const siteName = ‘thestar.com’;
let domain = ‘thestar.com’;
if (siteName === ‘thestar.com’)
domain = ‘thestar.com’;
else if (siteName === ‘niagarafallsreview.ca’)
domain = ‘niagara_falls_review’;
else if (siteName === ‘stcatharinesstandard.ca’)
domain = ‘st_catharines_standard’;
else if (siteName === ‘thepeterboroughexaminer.com’)
domain = ‘the_peterborough_examiner’;
else if (siteName === ‘therecord.com’)
domain = ‘the_record’;
else if (siteName === ‘thespec.com’)
domain = ‘the_spec’;
else if (siteName === ‘wellandtribune.ca’)
domain = ‘welland_tribune’;
else if (siteName === ‘bramptonguardian.com’)
domain = ‘brampton_guardian’;
else if (siteName === ‘caledonenterprise.com’)
domain = ‘caledon_enterprise’;
else if (siteName === ‘cambridgetimes.ca’)
domain = ‘cambridge_times’;
else if (siteName === ‘durhamregion.com’)
domain = ‘durham_region’;
else if (siteName === ‘guelphmercury.com’)
domain = ‘guelph_mercury’;
else if (siteName === ‘insidehalton.com’)
domain = ‘inside_halton’;
else if (siteName === ‘insideottawavalley.com’)
domain = ‘inside_ottawa_valley’;
else if (siteName === ‘mississauga.com’)
domain = ‘mississauga’;
else if (siteName === ‘muskokaregion.com’)
domain = ‘muskoka_region’;
else if (siteName === ‘newhamburgindependent.ca’)
domain = ‘new_hamburg_independent’;
else if (siteName === ‘niagarathisweek.com’)
domain = ‘niagara_this_week’;
else if (siteName === ‘northbaynipissing.com’)
domain = ‘north_bay_nipissing’;
else if (siteName === ‘northumberlandnews.com’)
domain = ‘northumberland_news’;
else if (siteName === ‘orangeville.com’)
domain = ‘orangeville’;
else if (siteName === ‘ourwindsor.ca’)
domain = ‘our_windsor’;
else if (siteName === ‘parrysound.com’)
domain = ‘parrysound’;
else if (siteName === ‘simcoe.com’)
domain = ‘simcoe’;
else if (siteName === ‘theifp.ca’)
domain = ‘the_ifp’;
else if (siteName === ‘waterloochronicle.ca’)
domain = ‘waterloo_chronicle’;
else if (siteName === ‘yorkregion.com’)
domain = ‘york_region’;
let sectionTag = ”;
try
if (domain === ‘thestar.com’ && path.indexOf(‘wires/’) = 0)
sectionTag = ‘/business’;
else if (path.indexOf(‘/autos’) >= 0)
sectionTag = ‘/autos’;
else if (path.indexOf(‘/entertainment’) >= 0)
sectionTag = ‘/entertainment’;
else if (path.indexOf(‘/life’) >= 0)
sectionTag = ‘/life’;
else if (path.indexOf(‘/news’) >= 0)
sectionTag = ‘/news’;
else if (path.indexOf(‘/politics’) >= 0)
sectionTag = ‘/politics’;
else if (path.indexOf(‘/sports’) >= 0)
sectionTag = ‘/sports’;
else if (path.indexOf(‘/opinion’) >= 0)
sectionTag = ‘/opinion’;
} catch (ex)
const descriptionUrl = ‘window.location.href’;
const vid = ‘mediainfo.reference_id’;
const cmsId = ‘2665777’;
let url = `https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ads?iu=/58580620/$domain/video/oovvuu$sectionTag&description_url=$descriptionUrl&vid=$vid&cmsid=$cmsId&tfcd=0&npa=0&sz=640×480&ad_rule=0&gdfp_req=1&output=vast&unviewed_position_start=1&env=vp&impl=s&correlator=`;
url = url.split(‘ ‘).join(”);
window.oovvuuReplacementAdServerURL = url;
Hundreds of thousands of tiny glass beads will soon be twinkling in the sun across the entire Canadian pavilion at the Venice Biennale, Canada’s newly revealed entry in one of the world’s most prestigious art fairs.
But Kapwani Kiwanga, the Hamilton-born, Paris-based creator of the work, wants you to get past the cobalt blue glass glinting in the Venetian light. She wants you to think of each bead as a character.
function buildUserSwitchAccountsForm()
var form = document.getElementById(‘user-local-logout-form-switch-accounts’);
if (form) return;
// build form with javascript since having a form element here breaks the payment modal.
var switchForm = document.createElement(‘form’);
switchForm.setAttribute(‘id’,’user-local-logout-form-switch-accounts’);
switchForm.setAttribute(‘method’,’post’);
switchForm.setAttribute(‘action’,’https://www.thestar.com/tncms/auth/logout/?return=https://www.thestar.com/users/login/?referer_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thestar.com%2Fentertainment%2Fcanadas-art-installation-at-venice-biennale-rooted-in-research-history-beauty%2Farticle_a66efe4f-272c-5284-ac9d-68125cd438dd.html’);
switchForm.setAttribute(‘style’,’display:none;’);
var refUrl = document.createElement(‘input’); //input element, text
refUrl.setAttribute(‘type’,’hidden’);
refUrl.setAttribute(‘name’,’referer_url’);
refUrl.setAttribute(‘value’,’https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/canadas-art-installation-at-venice-biennale-rooted-in-research-history-beauty/article_a66efe4f-272c-5284-ac9d-68125cd438dd.html’);
var submit = document.createElement(‘input’);
submit.setAttribute(‘type’,’submit’);
submit.setAttribute(‘name’,’logout’);
submit.setAttribute(‘value’,’Logout’);
switchForm.appendChild(refUrl);
switchForm.appendChild(submit);
document.getElementsByTagName(‘body’)[0].appendChild(switchForm);
function handleUserSwitchAccounts()
window.sessionStorage.removeItem(‘bd-viafoura-oidc’); // clear viafoura JWT token
// logout user before sending them to login page via return url
document.getElementById(‘user-local-logout-form-switch-accounts’).submit();
return false;
buildUserSwitchAccountsForm();
console.log(‘=====> bRemoveLastParagraph: ‘,0);
[unable to retrieve full-text content]
Get inspired at the Manotick Inspirations Art Show CTV News Ottawa
Source link
Search platform ranks Moncton real estate high | CTV News – CTV News Atlantic
Ironman Canada: Ottawa to host 2025 triathlon – CTV News Ottawa
Manitou a bi Bii daziigae video shortlisted for Archiboo Awards 2024 – Diamond Schmitt
Silver investment demand jumped 12% in 2019
12 Bizarre Things People Did Just To Make Social Media Content
Global Media Markets, 2015-2020, 2020-2025F, 2030F – TV and Radio Broadcasting, Film and Music, Information Services, Web Content, Search Portals And Social Media, Print Media, & Cable – GlobeNewswire
-
Media19 hours ago
Trump Media plunges amid plan to issue more shares. It's lost $7 billion in value since its peak. – CBS News
-
Real eState23 hours ago
Real estate mogul concerned how Americans will deal with squatters: ‘Something really bad is going to happen’ – Fox Business
-
Tech23 hours agoJava News Roundup: JobRunr 7.0, Introducing the Commonhaus Foundation, Payara Platform, Devnexus – InfoQ.com
-
Sports22 hours ago
Rafael Nadal confirms he’s ready for Barcelona: ‘I’m going to give my all’ – ATP Tour
-
Science23 hours ago
Total solar eclipse: Continent watches in wonder – Yahoo News Canada
-
Investment20 hours ago
Latest investment in private health care in P.E.I. raising concerns – CBC.ca
-
Media22 hours ago
Meta's news ban changed how people share political info — for the worse, studies show – CBC.ca
-
Politics22 hours ago
Quebec employers group urges governments to base immigration on labour needs, not politics – CityNews Montreal
