Despite the ridiculous name change (Painting His World) – to make it more “inclusive” according to the Chicago curator Gloria Groom, I enjoyed the Caillebotte exhibition at the Art Institute (Painting Men). The focus and commentary beside the works remain true to the original intent, and the catalogue is the same as the one printed when the show was first presented in Los Angeles:
All of Caillebotte’s greatest paintings are there, in a setting much less crowded than that of the Musée d’Orsay, which I visited in December:
The First Homosexuals: The Birth of a New Identity (1869–1939) at Wrightwood 659 is not as strong as its catalogue. The welcome is charming, though. Of course, the most impressive work from the late 19th century – L’Homme au bain (1884) – while referenced in the catalogue, is not on display, as it is at the Art Institute. The show does, however, offer the opportunity to discover Konstantin Somov (1869–1939), whose life spans the period under examination:
Although, according to Wikipedia, Jacques-Émile Blanche’s homosexuality was well known in Parisian society during his lifetime, I only became aware of it when I discovered his Self-Portrait with the Spanish Painter Rafael de Ochoa (1890), painted two years before his famous portrait of the 21-year-old Marcel Proust:
