‘Kay, this isn’t a haystack. This is a painting of a place where the ocean crashes against sea cliffs. I love this particular Monet because….well, because it’s a great example of why the Impressionists were a mega-movement and this study in blues, this immersion in color and abstraction, is currently on view at Heather James Fine Art, in Jackson. Ideally a larger view of the work would be displayed here, but when I tried blowing this seascape up to full size it looked like a fun house mirror image. That would be bad.
Knowing this Monet is in town provides a great excuse for passing on an ARTnews review of a recent Gagosian Gallery (NYC) show of Claude Monet’s works. In that Summer 2010 review, Alfred Mac Adam describes Impressionism as “a total immersion in color and mood, an LSD trip without the side effects.” Here is an excerpt from Adam’s review:
“The startling works here, in which the artist breaks free of the lilies, made us wonder if Monet could be thought of as the most daring painter in France after World War I. (Paintings) in the show, all titled Le Pont Japonaise, and painted between 1918 and 1924 (the year the “First Surrealist Manifesto appeared), move the stylization of objects…toward Abstract Expressionism. The object is of no importance in itself; it is simply a pretext for a riot of color.”
Several other works, says Adam, provide us with a “20th-century Monet we do not know.”
Also at Heather James: A continuation of an exhibition of photographs by Jackson’s own rogue attorney Gerry Spence. A catalog accompanies the show, and these newest Spence photographs will be on view through December 31, 2010. Click here to see the catalog and see a complete selection of works. For more information contact James Carona by emailing [email protected], or call the gallery at 307-200-6090.
Tammy Christel 
