Doreen Bolger, Director of The Baltimore Museum of Art talks about her favorite artwork by Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin:
I am particularly attracted to an 18th-century painting by French artist Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin called “The Game of Knucklebones,” which is unexpected since I studied 19th-century American works throughout my career as a curator.
This exquisitely rendered painting shows a vibrant young woman playing knucklebones, a game similar to jacks, but one using sheep bones instead of the more familiar metal pieces.
She’s just tossed a ball in the air and it hangs suspended above her hand. She’s caught in a frozen instant, too; motionless, her gaze focuses on the arc of the ball’s movement.
Remember that this oil painting predates photography, so Chardin truly captured movement and action in a remarkably modern way.
Here, the artist hints that this young woman has put aside her work to play. Her apron is loosened, perhaps by the gesture with the ball, and we see two hints that she probably should be sewing instead — a needle is threaded in her apron and her scissors, tied to her waist by a red ribbon, peek above the table’s edge.
– Jessica Novak
BEYOND THE EYE
The Baltimore Museum of Art will erect a soaring pink sculpture, stacking orbs 20 feet into the air Tuesday. The conversation-starting sculpture is a part of the BMA’s fall Franz West exhibit, opening Oct. 12. The display is the first major U.S. retrospective on West, an Austrian experimental, contemporary artist with more than 120 of his sculptures, designs and works on paper. For more information, visit www.artbma.org.
– Jessica Novak
