mlr

Israel went with me this year to B.P. for Memorial Day Weekend. We had a good time together, and I usually acceded to his desire for less rather than more contact with the group - though we did manage a few encounters. One I still can feel was the prolonged bear-hugs I received from a studly midwesterner at Steamworks. His embraces combined with the very hot water had a chiropractic effect.		I had the pleasure of meeting the affable muckefuck, who was warmer than I expected. With Albrecht Dürer hair, a serious demeanor, and a sense of drama he could easily nab the part of the Paschal Lamb Himself at Oberammergau. It was also nice to meet aadroma.

The Art Institute had a Matisse exhibition which we saw both Friday and Monday. I'm glad we went back. Besides being quietly radiant, it had a subtle organization that I was only cognizant of the second time through. I think the idea was to showcase the A.I.'s large Bathers of 1913-1917 with work that might have logically led up to its painting. It was a successful plan. Matisse repeated not only pictorial composition, but grouping, models, patterns, and colors from one work to another - obsessing over the same material till he had reduced the composition to a few elegant but crucial lines, and the colors to their fundamental essence. The Bathers was hung toward the end of the exhibition. The first painting was a small Cézanne that Matisse had acquired in 1899 at great personal cost. It was also a scene of bathers. Walking through the many paintings, sculptures, and drawings between the two, it was easy to see the powerful effect this small Cézanne had on Matisse and how many of his most celebrated paintings from 1900 thru 1920 are its direct progeny. The exhibition extended the scope to other themes also suggested by the Bathers. I think it was one of the best exhibitions I have seen in a long time. It didn't have the gross and draining blockbuster effect, yet at the same time was not trifling by any means. Each piece was placed with great sensitivity to context, yet nothing seemed forced.