{"id":6136,"date":"2015-08-12T11:44:46","date_gmt":"2015-08-12T11:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=6136"},"modified":"2015-08-10T12:17:49","modified_gmt":"2015-08-10T12:17:49","slug":"mondrians-dahlias","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=6136","title":{"rendered":"Mondrian’s dahlias"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Piet<\/a>

Piet Mondrian, Red Dahlia, 1907, (detail), Opaque and transparent watercolor over graphite on paper. 12 7\/16 x 9 7\/8 inches Morgan Library<\/p><\/div>\n

I discovered this\u00a0watercolor\u00a0of a dahlia by Piet Mondrian in the Morgan Library’s current retrospective of Emmet Gowin’s photography, a small show that was both astonishing and humbling when I ducked in to see it on my way to JFK\u00a0on Friday. It’s so great I almost didn’t want to sully it with words, though\u00a0I’m sure I will soon. Instead, I wanted to stay and study it for a few days, make myself at home, but I had that\u00a0late flight back to Rochester at Terminal 5. The catalog lists everything on exhibit, but doesn’t offer images of more than a fourth or a third of it, and I was disappointed not to be able to revisit, in the catalog, many of the startling and powerful pieces, reaching back centuries, from the Morgan’s vault that Gowin\u00a0chose to include in the exhibit. Since I’ve been growing dahlias for nearly a decade and painted many of them, this little revelation\u00a0surprised and pleased me, especially since it’s so well done, but also because it demonstrated how artists can’t really stick to one thing for long, and how polarities can energize\u00a0their work.<\/p>\n

I had no idea that, while\u00a0he was realizing\u00a0his identity in his famous\u00a0primary-colored grids, Mondrian continued to draw flowers<\/a>, work that represented the exact opposite of his oils, in formal terms. Nothing could be further from Mondrian’s career-making grids than this dahlia, yet\u00a0maybe these flowers are precisely what sustained his investigation of the spare\u00a0music he found in rectangles and squares. (Frederick Hammersley’s dialectic of working in both geometric and organic shapes comes to mind.)\u00a0Gowin shifted gears a number of times himself and was intensely absorbed by opposing, contrary states: light and dark, harrowing desolation and domestic\u00a0rapture, butterflies from the rain forest\u00a0and craters from the wastelands of nuclear testing. I will save for a future post what he communicated to me with these images toggling between garden\u00a0and gehenna (to adopt the Biblical mythology Gowin absorbed young and then deployed\u00a0as a foundation\u00a0for his mature artistic vision and for this show.) His deep immersion in William Blake’s writing and visual art is what drew me to the show, and he’s a worthy heir to Blake in his own photography, an earlier\u00a0genius who drew from\u00a0Gnosticism as the foundation for a deeply original vision. Two of Blake’s best, from his illustrations for the Book of Job–both of which I saw previously, in an earlier show at the Morgan–are included alongside Gowin’s photographs.<\/p>\n

Gowin is a great soul, and this exhibit is\u00a0a profound experience, a major discovery of the breadth and depth\u00a0of his\u00a0sensibility, and it’s impossible to do justice to it\u00a0in a blog post. But maybe, if I can respond to this show the way I’d like in a little while, I can encourage a few to see what he’s done, because of the\u00a0quality\u00a0of work Gowin\u00a0produced himself, but also because everything in the show appears fresh and new in the context of this photographer’s\u00a0long and slow curatorial excavation of art\u00a0from the Morgan’s permanent collection to pair with his own photography. As the curator of this show, Gowin has put together a visionary work of art itself–everything you see feels as if you’re glimpsing something for the first time. More often than not, it was literally my first look at the work.\u00a0I\u00a0felt regret simply pulling myself\u00a0away from one image hanging on the wall in order to see what was mounted\u00a0next to it. With the time available to me after a day’s working visit to the city, I picked the one exhibit\u00a0that could not have been equaled (in the artist’s reverence, awe, decency and quiet authority) by anything else on view in New York City\u00a0right now. Apparently, my luck continues to hold. And so does my mournful\u00a0hope that\u00a0quiet, deeply humble\u00a0art, grounded in genuine wisdom and an affirmation of all human experience, can prevail. Gowin is a sage. Joseph Campbell would have loved this show.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I discovered this\u00a0watercolor\u00a0of a dahlia by Piet Mondrian in the Morgan Library’s current retrospective of Emmet Gowin’s photography, a small show that was both astonishing and humbling when I ducked in to see it on my way to JFK\u00a0on Friday. It’s so great I almost didn’t want to sully it with words, though\u00a0I’m sure I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nMondrian's dahlias - represent<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=6136\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mondrian's dahlias - represent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I discovered this\u00a0watercolor\u00a0of a dahlia by Piet Mondrian in the Morgan Library’s current retrospective of Emmet Gowin’s photography, a small show that was both astonishing and humbling when I ducked in to see it on my way to JFK\u00a0on Friday. It’s so great I almost didn’t want to sully it with words, though\u00a0I’m sure I […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=6136\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"represent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-08-12T11:44:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/IMG_7425-1016x1024.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"dave dorsey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"dave dorsey\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=6136#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=6136\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"dave dorsey\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5f1b414f169df69053f04f66b929fd57\"},\"headline\":\"Mondrian’s dahlias\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-08-12T11:44:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=6136\"},\"wordCount\":704,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=6136#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/08\\\/IMG_7425-1016x1024.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=6136#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=6136\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=6136\",\"name\":\"Mondrian's dahlias - represent\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=6136#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=6136#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/08\\\/IMG_7425-1016x1024.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-08-12T11:44:46+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5f1b414f169df69053f04f66b929fd57\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=6136#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=6136\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=6136#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/08\\\/IMG_7425.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/08\\\/IMG_7425.jpg\",\"width\":1988,\"height\":2004,\"caption\":\"Piet Mondrian, Red Dahlia 1907, Opaque and transparent watercolor over graphite on paper. 12 7\\\/16 x 9 7\\\/8 inches Morgan Library\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=6136#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Mondrian’s dahlias\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"represent\",\"description\":\"the painting life\",\"alternateName\":\"the dorsey post\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5f1b414f169df69053f04f66b929fd57\",\"name\":\"dave dorsey\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1b459062818b38ed5bb3f68365bc2557f760412a5db1278493176a6a45bb1c8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1b459062818b38ed5bb3f68365bc2557f760412a5db1278493176a6a45bb1c8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1b459062818b38ed5bb3f68365bc2557f760412a5db1278493176a6a45bb1c8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"dave dorsey\"},\"description\":\"I'm a painter living in Pittsford, NY. I've authored two books and also work as a ghostwriter. I sell my work through Oxford Gallery, and have exhibited around the U.S. and internationally.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.daviddorsey.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Mondrian's dahlias - represent","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=6136","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Mondrian's dahlias - represent","og_description":"I discovered this\u00a0watercolor\u00a0of a dahlia by Piet Mondrian in the Morgan Library’s current retrospective of Emmet Gowin’s photography, a small show that was both astonishing and humbling when I ducked in to see it on my way to JFK\u00a0on Friday. It’s so great I almost didn’t want to sully it with words, though\u00a0I’m sure I […]","og_url":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=6136","og_site_name":"represent","article_published_time":"2015-08-12T11:44:46+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/IMG_7425-1016x1024.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"dave dorsey","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"dave dorsey","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=6136#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=6136"},"author":{"name":"dave dorsey","@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5f1b414f169df69053f04f66b929fd57"},"headline":"Mondrian’s dahlias","datePublished":"2015-08-12T11:44:46+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=6136"},"wordCount":704,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=6136#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/IMG_7425-1016x1024.jpg","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=6136#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=6136","url":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=6136","name":"Mondrian's dahlias - represent","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=6136#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=6136#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/IMG_7425-1016x1024.jpg","datePublished":"2015-08-12T11:44:46+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5f1b414f169df69053f04f66b929fd57"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=6136#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=6136"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=6136#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/IMG_7425.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/IMG_7425.jpg","width":1988,"height":2004,"caption":"Piet Mondrian, Red Dahlia 1907, Opaque and transparent watercolor over graphite on paper. 12 7\/16 x 9 7\/8 inches Morgan Library"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=6136#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Mondrian’s dahlias"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/","name":"represent","description":"the painting life","alternateName":"the dorsey post","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5f1b414f169df69053f04f66b929fd57","name":"dave dorsey","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1b459062818b38ed5bb3f68365bc2557f760412a5db1278493176a6a45bb1c8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1b459062818b38ed5bb3f68365bc2557f760412a5db1278493176a6a45bb1c8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1b459062818b38ed5bb3f68365bc2557f760412a5db1278493176a6a45bb1c8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"dave dorsey"},"description":"I'm a painter living in Pittsford, NY. I've authored two books and also work as a ghostwriter. I sell my work through Oxford Gallery, and have exhibited around the U.S. and internationally.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.daviddorsey.com"],"url":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6136"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6144,"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6136\/revisions\/6144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}