The New Criterion
America’s leading review of the arts and intellectual life
- Harry Mount, the London Telegraph Subscribe Now and get unlimiteв access
ArtMay 2008 Courbet at the Met by Karen Wilkin On "Gustave Courbet" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The pale, wide-eyed young man tearing at his hair has been everywhere since the juicy Gustave Courbet retrospective opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art at the end of February.[1] He lunges at us, full lips parted, eyes staring in horror, enormous dark irises ringed with white. It’s not just the maddened expression or the aggressive frontality that makes the image so compelling—nor the fact that the guy is gorgeous, although it helps—but also the orchestration of contrasts: pale flesh vs. long, dark hair, muscular arms vs. delicate bone structure, full white shirtsleeves vs. big black tie, crazed gesture vs. neat little beard and silky moustache. Yet for anyone who knows anything about Courbet, it’s difficult to reconcile this wild-eyed refugee from a gothic novel with the man who described his aim as translating “the customs, ideas, and appearance of my t ... This article is available to subscribers and for individual purchaseSubscribe to TNC (Print and Online editions) Subscribe to TNC (Online only) This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 26 May 2008, on page 52 Copyright © 2008 The New Criterion | www.newcriterion.com http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/Courbet-at-the-Met-3841
rate this article for your user profile
E-mail to friend
|
Subscriber login
 The New Criterion is now optimized for Mobile Devices Already a print subscriber? click for online access On "Wyndham Lewis Portraits" at the National Portrait Gallery, London. by James Panero On "The Etchings of Giorgio Morandi" at Pace Master Prints, New York, and "Giorgio Morandi: Paintings and Works on Paper" at Lucas Schoormans Gallery, New York. by Peter Pettus On "Like Breath on Glass: Whistler, Inness and the Art of Painting Softly" at the Clark Art Institute, Williamstown. by Karen Wilkin On "Giorgio Morandi, 1890–1964” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. by Karen Wilkin On "Take Your TIme: Olafur Eliasson" at the Museum of Modern Art and P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, "The New York City Waterfalls" along the East River, and other public art in the city. by Karen Wilkin On "Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940-1976" at the Jewish Museum, New York. New from The New Criterion: ‘Free speech in 
EventsOctober 22 2008 GALA EVENT: The New Criterion Benefit Art Auction January 25 2009 TRAVEL EVENT: The New Criterion Cruise Webcasts
The Milt Rosenberg Show: Free Speech in an age of Jihad
Roger Kimball on liberalism's response to Islam
Encounter Books at 10, an interview with Roger Simon Weblog 
|
add a comment
you must be a new criterion subscriber to post a comment. {subscribe now}