New Hanging of European Painting, 5 French

Poussin carries forward a classical order which Picasso for one used as an armature for many paintings.

It is pretty easy to see the rhythm of the arms swinging through the painting.

The colored robes to me seem banal though work with the rest of the composition.

I like mainly how this Poussin informs much of French Painting, into Claude Lorrain, Gericault, Ingres and crossing lines into Delacroix, maybe back into a classical surface of Cezanne into Matisse and Picasso.

Art is its own entity and the same rhythm in El Greco is exhibited here, Benton knew and passed this on.  Pollock would have gotten the bug from Picasso also and his own varied lineage.

La Tour a singular artist.

Frou frou French Art-- I like Tiepelo though Watteau, Boucher, and Fragonard can be good.

Chardin seems very intellectual and cool compared to the above.

 I like these details of Claude and Poussin. Very similar and lead into Gericault and Puvis de Chavannes and Picasso early paintings.

The French were great as they spent a lot of time at the museums and their paintings led from Art.

Our own Abstract Expressionists also had a lineage-- until now have we lost a thread? This lineage is what makes art mean something. Tying all the threads together, seeing the whole thing which is Art, holding it within one's head-- feeling the satisfaction. The world's soul.

New Hanging of European Painting, 4 Spain

These are what I really like today.

I have never been to the Prado and know that I have to.

This El Greco was one of Picasso's favorites and weighs heavily into Demoiselle de Avignon at the Museum of Modern Art. The Picasso came also deeply from Cezanne and his Bathers-- the surface idea much from Medieval Spanish Manuscripts, similar to the Early Italian, Matisse was into.

One finds ones own story from a lifetime of looking.

This lineage is one of the reasons we grow to love these paintings as family. Funny that El Greco was never well liked until the Modern era. Pollock and Benton revered El Greco. Pollocks composition comes from the movement better displayed in other El Grecos.

This Portrait is great also.

El Greco himself.

A borrowed painting of Velazquez on display in its own room.

Velazquez, and a Horse Portrait I think the large version at the Prado?

A Great Goya.

New Hanging of European Painting, 3 Italian

Seems it would support the Galleries to put back the Masterpiece Idea. This Titian is the painting at the Met even if you don't exactly like it that today supports most of what we see as Art.  From the Greek and Roman Art before it which revives the ideas of surface intelligence which it supports to this day.

See how the background is contained into a shape which projects forward tying the foreground color to the back. The Nude and Cupid are one very simple shape, among other simple shapes sumptuously treated with a texture of richness.

Its completeness is a quality which has the power to center us in our viewing, and in our world. It is synonymous with Art itself and stands for Art's power.

I know that sounds funny today but I do believe it,  I don't just believe it-- it is very real exhibited right here.

Almost nothing else has this level of power. As the paintings line up and make an order, it makes who we are, were--are today, will be tomorrow, --?

These are some of the supporting characters.