Weekly musings on the arts and current events.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

That time of year thou mayst in me behold



For us traditionalists, art should never stray too far from beauty, but this does not mean artists must paint beautiful subjects or prettify ugly ones. Ivan Albright was merciless in his depiction of decrepitude and despair. And yet, his macabre images are stunning, heartbreaking, and engrossing. They have an oddly inspiring beauty that touches our souls, albeit with icy fingers.

Happy Halloween.

Portrait of Mary Block, 1957. Click on the picture for a closer look.

4 comments:

dragonfly said...

The textures in this picture are beautifully palpable.

Paula Slade said...

The Picture of Dorian Gray is one of my favorite movies. I remember seeing the actual portrait Albright painted while on break from class at the Art Institute. It scared me when I first saw it in the movie, and sent a chill up my spine when I saw it in person.

DUTA said...

There's much grey-charcoal color in the painting. I suppose it stands for aging, old age, Fall season; this theme also appears in the Shakesperian sonnet from which the title of this post is taken.

The lovely, sexy dress stands in sharp contrast to the woman's aging face and body.

(I don't like the painting, and certainly not the painter who chooses to portray a woman in such unnatural and unflattery colors.)

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