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Scandal-Master Courbet Dazzles

Posted Feb 29, 08 2:55 PM CST in Arts & Living 

(Newser) – Parlaying scandal into success may seem a terribly modern ploy, but Gustave Courbet, the subject of a new retrospective at New York's Metropolitan Museum, mastered the art 150 years ago. Courbet, the realist painter and father of modern art, painted both gorgeous, subtle scenes and uglier, intentionally awkward tableaux. They stand side by side in this "deeply engaging and utterly fascinating retrospective," Ariella Budick writes in Newsday.

Courbet "deployed deliberate awkwardness to steal the attention he flamboyantly craved," says Budick. He repainted mythological scenes not to respect tradition but as excuses to depict naked women. Yet even his more elegant work was never a simple embrace of beauty: "Courbet could paint like an angel when he chose, though he did so only as an odd form of insult to those critics stupid enough to applaud him for it."

Source Newsday

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A visitor looks at a portrait by French artist Gustave Courbet (1819-1857), at the opening of Courbet's exhibition at the Grand Palais, in Paris, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2007. The retrospective has traveled...   (Associated Press)
A visitor looks at "The Desperate Man" by French artist Gustave Courbet (1819-1857), at the opening of Courbet's exhibition at the Grand Palais, in Paris, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2007. The retrospective has...   (Associated Press)
A visitor looks at "Artist Portrait or Courbet with a black dog" by French artist Gustave Courbet (1819-1857), at the opening of Courbet's exhibition at the Grand Palais, in Paris, Wednesday, Oct. 10,...   (Associated Press)
A retrospective of Gustave Courbet has opened at New York's Metropolitan Museum.   ((c) Go Card USA)
"The Desperate Man," a self-portrait by Gustave Courbet now on view at the Metropolitan Museum.   (Metropolitan Museum)
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art  • painting  • Metropolitan Museum of Art  • modern art  • Gustave Courbet


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