One Art World

Leighton’s Flaming June, Frick Collection, June 9 – September 6, 2015
by Jai Imbrey, PhD.
To sleep perchance to dream… A beautiful woman in a flame colored gown slumbers on a marble bench overlooking a radiant sea.   She sleeps with the total abandon of the young. Her rosy face rests against her arm with her unbound hair swept aside to reveal...

Parmigianino’s Schiava Turca Portrait, Frick Collection, May 14 – July 20, 2014
by Jai Imbrey, PhD.
She beckons from across the room, a dimpled lady with a warm smile and a peeking décolletage. Her ivory ostrich plumed fan serves more as a beacon to her charms than a shield. Her lively, slightly protruding hazel eyes convey intelligence and a hint...

Madame Cézanne, Metropolitan Museum, November 19, 2014–March 15, 2015
by Jai Imbrey, PhD.
Cézanne made 29 portraits of his mistress and eventual wife, Hortense Fiquet, yet in most she is profoundly absent. He reduced his bride to nothing more than “…dust, color on canvas, and an image,” writes Zola in his novel Le Chef d’œuve, loosely based...

Jeff Koons: A Retrospective, Whitney Museum, , June 27 – October 19, 2014
by Jai Imbrey, PhD.
You despise him. He’s crass, obvious, stupid and yet totally irresistible. You want to stare forever at the smooth polished surface of his giant balloon dogs and Venus à la Willendorf. You are mesmerized by its perfection, its unreal miraculous color...