Artsy-Fartsy Sunday

The whole family enjoyed a painterly kind of day this past Sunday with a visit to the Stedelijk Museum and then an evening out at the painting studio of our French tutor, Agnès.

Agnès and I had spent a recent French lesson touring the Malevich exhibit, now showing at the Stedelijk, and when I saw they had set up a "family trail" and art room for kids to explore Malevich, I thought it would be fun to bring Abigail and Reese back. Who knows, right?  Well, they LOVED it, enjoying museum almost as much as much as learning the phrase artsy-fartsy.

Knowing how obsessed Reese is with the color blue, Agnès set me up with these two famous blue paintings housed at the Stedelijk.  This one is "L'Accord Bleu," by Yves Klein.  The kids were fascinated with the use of sponges in the painting.

Here's Barnett Newman's "Cathedra."  This painting was slashed by a vandal not once, but twice, while hanging on the museum wall.  Now there's always a guard in the room.

Kazimir Malevich was a Russian painter, and pioneer in the Avant Garde movement.  Despite the fact that his work was revolutionary at the time, and that he was embraced by the rising Stalinist movement, he would ultimately go to prison for his artistic work.  Following the Russian revolution, his work was banned because it explored "art for art's sake," and did not attempt to serve a social function, the only artwork allowed by the Communists.

This is one of Malevich's more well-known self-portraits:

"Taking in the Rye"

"An Englishman in Moscow"

This is one of the most famous paintings in Russian art, Malevich's, Black Square.  Because of its perfect symmetry, the square is considered the most perfect form in many modern art movements, particularly for Malevitch and the movement he started, "Suprematism."

Writing a Malavitch-inspired postcard to her friend, Niko, in the exhibit's room for kids:

Reese hung his card up on the wall, so he "could have art in a museum too."

Next stop . . . l'atelier d'Agnès!