From Northern Europe to the South Pacific, Art Exhibits Span Centuries

By Jeff Britton

Visitors to the San Diego Museum of Art got an extra treat during the recent December Nights festival in Balboa Park Dec. 4 and 5. Free admission and a roster of concerts had throngs of people lining up to enjoy both art and music.

But for those savvy enough to check out gallery 20 at the top of the stairs, they were rewarded with a small but significant exhibit that opened that weekend. “From Rembrandt’s Studio: The Prints of Ferdinand Bol” displays the synergy that existed between the great Dutch master and his most ardent student, and the similarities in their work.

Running through Feb. 28, the exhibit contains etchings and graphics by Bol and Rembrandt side-by-side, inviting comparison and a fresh understanding of the master/protégé relationship. It also highlights Bol, an often underrated 17th century Dutch artist who struck out on his own, transforming Rembrandt’s aesthetic.

“Even after setting up a practice of his own, Bol remained one of Rembrandt’s most devoted and talented followers, and many of Bol’s works have long been mistaken for those of Rembrandt himself,” said John Marciari, the museum’s curator of European art.

To prepare for the exhibit, stop by the Timken Museum just opposite and inspect the Rembrandt oil painting of St. Bartholomew. The rich but dark hues contrast with light reflecting off his forehead, a study in serious contemplation complete with knitted brow. Other Dutch masters are on display such as Rubens, Bruegel, van Dyck and van Balen, offering a flavor of the times.

At SDMA, Bol’s oil self-portrait is the centerpiece. In the muted colors favored by Rembrandt, he wears a flowing velvet cape. Next to him is an etching, “Old Man Seated With Velvet Cap” — scholars still debate whether it is by Bol or Rembrandt.

A series of portraits takes you around the room, featuring a military officer, a woman with low décolletage (by 17th century standards), an old man with a flowing beard, and an astrologer at his map-strewn desk. One of Rembrandt’s wife Saskia by Bol is juxtaposed with Rembrandt’s; she is adorned in a pearl necklace like an imperious Old World Barbara Bush.

Interspersed with these are Rembrandt’s etchings of Biblical personages like Abraham and Esther. Both artists depict the great Jewish bride with long flowing frizzy hair. Rembrandt’s “Angel Appearing to the Shepherds” sits above Bol’s uncannily similar “Gideon’s Sacrifice.”

Perhaps more appealing to families with kids during the December Nights was a large, unique display of Oceanic art at the opposite end of the building. Many San Diegans have visited Hawaii but far fewer have traveled to the island nations of the South Pacific.

This impressive and diverse exhibit features 97 three-dimensional works, mainly from Melanesia and Polynesia but also including objects from Micronesia and Taiwan. If it were not forbidden, many of the sculptures make you want to run your hands all over them. By popular demand, this show has been extended through Feb. 28.

Most significantly, this exhibit takes the San Diego Museum in a new and more comprehensive direction by focusing on folk art from an obscure and often ignored part of the world. Former executive director Derrick R. Cartwright may have taken a risk by scheduling this exhibit but it has become one of the most heralded by visitors, many returning several times to show friends or houseguests these treasures.

You are greeted by a life-size sculpture of a man from the Caroline Islands made of breadfruit wood. Opposite him are six wood figures suggestive of the mythology of Papua New Guinea. Nearby, an ominous figure whose hands and genitals are bound by rope is bordered by masked busts with noses like curved daggers.

Other masks abound from New Caledonia, New Zealand and Vanuatu and there is a decorative architectural fragment, perhaps part of a door to a Maori meeting lodge. Beautiful tapa cloths from Samoa and Hawaii, made from the bark of mulberry trees, share space with ceramic drums and containers from Fiji.

Warriors’ clubs from Tonga, Fiji, the Marquesas and New Zealand come in everything from whalebone to wood with marine ivory inlay. My favorite is the Malagan figure from Papua New Guinea which resembles Native American totems, made of wood, shells, fiber and hair.

Curated by the Honolulu Academy of Arts, the exhibit demonstrates a diversity of cultures which preceded their colonial status. As such, it is testament to these rich traditional societies and offers a beautiful overview of the exotic South Pacific.

For more information: (619) 232-7931 or www.sdmart.org