I entered the Morandi exhibition galleries from the disorienting hurly-bury of the crowds at the entrance. I rejoiced at getting through a maze of rooms that precede arrival at the place. This was the first exhibition space that I visited when I got to the museum. Immediately my eye could begin to focus on the clusters, the relationships, the themes. One might compare Morandi’s work to Bach’s Goldberg Variations, or the Czerny scale book. Within a scale run there are so many possibilities. The same conditions exist in these still life creations.

I had less fondness for his landscapes, however. I kept wondering if the choice of still life subjects masked a dread of Fascist scrutiny. In fact a quote on the wall led me to believe that Morandi tried to call as little attention to himself as possible for about 25 years, potentially the most fertile period in his adult development. Art critics scrutinizing the post-World War II work of the New York abstractionists in the 1950’s alluded to a similar retreat from McCarthyism. With the exception of graphic artists like Levine, painters retreated from figurative work to avoid social commentary.

Morandi’s aesthetic haunted me subsequently as I moved through other parts of the museum: In Monet’s HAYSTACKS, another suite of a subject seen at various times of the day. And once again, with Lorna Simpson’s complex treatment of props from the van der Zee studio.

Guest blogger–M.E.