Art I'm Looking At: Arnold Newman: Masterclass at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco

While some of Arnold Newman's images are very well known--including a few of the most recognizable photographic portraits of the 20th Century--my guess is the vast majority of people would be unable to tell you the name of the photographer behind that famous portrait of Stravinsky at the piano, the famous Picasso portrait with the sitter's hand on his face, the famous Salvatore Dali portrait with the hanging wire, the famous portrait of Yasser Arafat.... The images are instantly familiar, the name of the man who created them less so. It's therefore a treat to see so many of Newman's photographs--most but not all portraits--on display at one time, nearly 200 prints in all, in the first posthumous retrospective of his work. Even those who think themselves very familiar with Arnold Newman are likely to find a lot to look at here.

"Masterclass" is an apt subtitle for the show now on at San Francisco's Contemporary Jewish Museum: with only a few exceptions, each of the images on display is an object lesson in the art of photography--more specifically, in the art of composition. Newman had an uncanny ability to capture what was essential about the sitter and his or her environment and to see physical manifestations of the connections between the two. There is something wonderfully abstract existing simultaneously with the projected presence of the sitter in the portraits and the abstract images seem to project something alive beyond their formal elements.

Go. Drink the photographs in one by one. Learn from the placement of compositional elements in space--the collage-like effect of some of the images (notably the Greorge Grosz portrait, above left), the shapes and their echoes so carefully arranged in others (Jean Arp, Yasuo Kuniyoshi--Kuniyoshi at the top of the page), the careful attention to cropping in all. Almost no one did it better. Arnold Newman: Masterclass is on view through February 1, 2015 at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, at 736 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 (415-655-7800).

Art I'm Looking At: Frog and Toad and the World of Arnold Lobel at the Contemporary Jewish Museum

Saturday (November 23, 2013) I spent the day in San Rafael and San Francisco. In the morning, I delivered a couple of collages to the San Rafael gallery that will be showing them over the holidays. In the afternoon, I went to the Contemporary Jewish Museum to see a show of works by children's book illustrator Arnold Lobel before heading to the Legion of Honor to see the Anders Zorn show.

The Lobels (Arnold and his wife Anita, also a book illustrator) lived near my family in Brooklyn when I was a child. I played with their children, Adam and Adrianne (known as Belia), from time to time in the park. My mother remembers Arnold sketching in ruled notebooks as he watched us play. A couple of these notebooks are included among the exhibits. I remember receiving an autographed copy of Anita Lobel's Sven's Bridge from the Lobels as a child. So it was with a special sense of connection that I went to see the show. That said, I really had no idea of the range of Arnold Lobel's work, nor did I understand its quality. Last time I saw any of it I was a child, and I'd never had the opportunity to see original drawings before. As an adult, I can now appreciate Lobel's importance as an illustrator.

The work on display is impressive. Most of the drawings are done in graphite, ink, and watercolor. They are masterful, showing an extraordinary confidence. Well worth a visit, if you're in the area. The Contemporary Jewish Museum is at 736 Market Street (415 655-7800, or info@thecjm.org). The Lobel show runs through March 23, 2014, organized by the Contemporary Jewish Museum in collaboration with The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Amherst, Massachusetts.

"There Was an Old Pig with a Pen," illustration from The Book of Pigericks (1983). Graphite, ink, and watercolor on paper. © The Estate of Arnold Lobel.