Monet and More

Last week my husband and I took a short trip to San Francisco for my birthday. We saw "Monet: the Late Years" at the de Young Museum. In Monet's later years his painting became more and more abstract. He also had issues with nuclear cataracts starting in 1912 when he was 72. He refused surgery. He did get some glasses that helped him somewhat. Nuclear cataracts cause your eyes to absorb light and desaturate colors.

You can see a big difference between his two versions of "The Japanese Footbridge" below.

The Japanese Footbridge 1899

Above is "The Japanese Footbridge," 1918-1924

Above is "Path Under the Roses," 1918-1924, which is more abstract than his earlier works.

Also in the de Young was a set of  intaglio prints, "Five Beauties Rising", 2012, by Willie Cole which really moved me. Each ironing board has a name below of its owner, Savannah, Dot, Fannie Mae, Queen, and Anna Mae.  The ironing boards with all their pockmarks are a metaphor for the hard life of their owners, African American women of former generations who provided domestic labor in the antebellum South. He actually inked up the ironing boards of these women. Below is a link to learn more about Willie Cole.

https://www.highpointprintmaking.org/editions/willie-cole