Here Comes the Diesel by Leon Kossoff feels like a fight. Viewers must battle our way through the choppy chaotic brambles to even see the title’s train. Kossoff drives paint across the canvas like a barrage. It brings to mind the rush of a train, powering through forests and fields.
Allegories bring big ideas down to earth. Simon Vouet’s allegory of Wealth painting gives a grand example of this at work. Baroque painters, such as Vouet, reveled in allegory. They swam in it, like Scrooge McDuck with his pool of gold coins.
The Flea by Guiseppe Crespi tells a story without revealing the main character. We only see the reaction to the flea, not the pest itself. This intimate portrait from 18th century Italy depicts virtue.
Venus Lamenting the Death of Adonis by Benjamin West tells an ancient story. The beloved goddess Venus fell hard for heartthrob hottie Adonis. But it was not meant to be. In fact, she knew his destiny for an early death on the hunt. No matter how much Venus warned him and pleaded, Adonis dismissed her.
Cubism learned a lesson or two when Fernand Leger’s The Wedding hit. In fact, many art historians joke that this painting introduced Tubism. That’s because reality curves into tubes in this remarkable work. As abstract as it is, we know what it’s like at this wedding.
This painting, Siren in Full Moonlight, debuted in 1940, as yet another Delveux nude. Belgian painter Paul Delveux took a lot of heat for his naked sirens. But nudity’s a mere footnote to their alien features. These are not women. Does their unclothed status even matter? They appear unreal..