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Still Life 8: The Studio, Morandi inspired photographs



Still Life Chapter 8  The Studio     
Studies IV    March  2014 
Photographs Inspired by Giorgio Morandi

  Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 8,  The Studio   


For an Introduction to the Still Life project and the links to all of its chapters visitStill Life
Click on the images to enlarge


Introduction  
Morandi's studio was in his bedroom . . . or, his bed was in his studio.  He slept, dreamed, contemplated and created his paintings, drawings and etchings in an intimate, dusty space of about nine square meters.  The photographs I have made for this project, entitled The Studio were of course inspired by Morandi's artwork, but also by the mythic places in which he created his art.  He seemed to have lived to create, and his contemplative time in his secluded studio was probably the most precious and important thing to him.  In a more general or universal sense this project is a meditation on the archetypal idea of the studio, which is a place in the physical world where one can most readily enter the pure and silent space of one's own Imaginal Word, the source of true creation.



Fig. 1   Morandi's  Bologna Studio  


Fig. 2   Morandi's  Bologna Studio 


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Fig. 3   Morandi's  Bologna Studio 


 Fig. 4  Morandi's  Bologna Studio 



Morandi's Studio : in Bologna & in Grizzana
Morandi had two studios.  His Bologna studio was located on the second floor of an old apartment building in via Fondazza.   He lived in that building with his parents and sisters for over fifty years. Even after their mother died, he and his sisters continued living there together until Morandi's death in 1964.

On summer holidays he would travel with his sisters to Grizzana, a small mountain village an hour's drive away.  In the years leading up to the war they would rent an apartment space where Morandi would paint.  During the war (1943-44) they stayed in Grizanna for an extended stay.  Morandi became so burdened by the anxiety he suffered from the nearby sounds and dangers of the war that he didn't return to the village until fifteen years later.  In 1960, at his sisters' urging, he purchased some land and built a simple house ("for them" he said) in Grizanna, the only house he ever owned.  He gave the architect a simple drawing that looked much like the buildings you can see in his landscape paintings. Eventually he grew to love his Grizanna home and studio, and in those last four years of his life he would stay in Girzzana, in his house, as long as the weather permitted. 


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Morandi's studio was his place of refuge.  It provided him quiet protection from the distractions and demands of the outside world: his teaching, exhibiting, frequent requests and visits from art curators, critics, journalists, lovers of his art.  He spent long periods of time in his studio contemplating, constructing and reconstructing still life arrangements of his famous collection of humble, simple objects which he kept stored in his studio.  He would work in uninterrupted peace in his studio, taking whatever time was necessary to finally see deeply enough into himself and his subjects to "touch the essence of things."

Morandi's studio window in Bologna looked out over the via Fondezza courtyard.  He painted many wonderful "landscapes" based on what he could see from his studio.  I will discuss this more in my next chapter which will be devoted to his landscape painting.


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Fig. 5  Morandi, 1953, in his  Bologna Studio   

This frequently published 1953 portrait of Morandi fascinates me: we see him sitting in his Bologna studio, and at first glance it appears he is scrutinizing some of his familiar objects  set out before him.  We can see a bottle covered with paint, a striped vase, and two funnels welded onto round bases - the smaller one noticeably covered with dust.  Morandi is dressed in a suite jacket, white shirt and tie.  Perhaps he dressed like this for the photographic session . . . but his jacket is heavily spotted with paint; I suspect this is how he usually dressed when he worked in his studio. 

He has just lifted his glasses to his forehead, a familiar habit of his.  We can see reflections in his glasses of the studio window which provides the soft light for the photograph and for his famous still life paintings.  Did he take his glasses off to better see his beloved objects up close?  I invite you to click on the image and enlarge it for a closer look: perhaps you will see in Morandi's eyes a state of revery, a looking inward rather than a concentrated attention on the objects before him.  I suspect he is contemplating his imaginal world; perhaps he is "seeing" the next painting he will be making soon in his studio. 


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Based on what I have read and the photographs I have seen, there was only one window which supplied Morandi with his gentle, quiet studio light: a light "so utterly calm and elusive that one can once again believe in the possibility of endless peace" writes Phillip Jacottet.  (see fig. 2)

Morandi painted in the afternoons, when (in his own words) "the light was best."  He constructed some some kind of screen which he placed on the outsides of his studio window which allowed him to control the quality and amount of light falling on his still life stagings.  (see fig. 1  The frame hanging on the wall above the bed may have been used to control the light from his window)   

He had three separate tables in his studio upon which he arranged his still life compositions - each one set at a different height.   Morandi placed different kinds of backgrounds behind his constellated objects; and he would apply paint to some of his beloved objects - either inside or on the outside - to change their tones, color and surface quality.  Though he used many of the same objects in his paintings over and over again (there were about 100 objects he favored) a comparison of the paintings reveal that he portrayed the objects in uniquely different ways in each painting.

At night Morandi would make drawings in his studio by the light of a solitary bulb, which was in the ceiling.


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In 1964 the well know art historian John Rewald visited Morandi and fortunately was given a tour of the house, including the studio.  Rewald writes of the studio: "No skylight, no vast expanses, an ordinary room in a middle class apartment . . . but the rest was extraordinary: on the floor, on shelves, on a table, everywhere, boxes, bottles, vases.  All kinds of containers in all kinds of shapes.  They cluttered any available space, except for the two simple easels . . .  They must have been there for a long time; on the surfaces of the shelves or tables, as well as on the flat tops of boxes, cans or similar receptacles, there was a thick layer of dust.  It was a dense, gray, velvety dust, like a soft coat of felt, its color and texture seemingly providing the unifying element for these tall boxes and deep bowls, old pitchers and coffee pots, quaint vases and tin boxes.  It was a dust that was not the result of negligence and untidiness but of patience, a witness to complete peace.  In the stillness of his humble retreat from all the excitement of an agitated world, these everyday objects led their own, still life.  Here, in this small room in which a great artist had surrounded himself with the necessities for a long and laborious existence, nothing was ever changed, nothing moved, except when the master carefully lifted a few of these unassuming objects to reassemble them in yet another order.  The dust that covered them was like a mantle of nobility, endowing them with a special purpose and meaning, and attesting to the faithful company they had been keeping with Morandi for many, many years. "  quoted by Maria Lamberti in the 2008 Skira publication


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". . . and to dust you shall return."  Genesis  3:19
In 2007 my wife Gloria and I took a guided tour through much of Italy which included a brief stop in Bologna.  (visit my project Italy I used the time to visit the Morandi Museum.  Of course I was deeply touched by the display of Morandi's paintings and drawings there, but I was surprised to find in the museum a replication of Morandi's studio.  It was an unexpectedly moving experience to see his work space, his collection of objects, his painting easels, his bed, his hat.  I have been haunted by memories of that experience since I began working on my Still Life project.  

In 2009 the Museum of Modern Art in Bologna opened "Casa Morandi" in via Fondazza.  And it has opened his studio in Grizzana to the public as well.  Morandi's two studios have always had an aura of the mythic about them in the hearts and minds of those who love his art, but now that his actual studio spaces have been opened to the public, surly they have become places of pilgrimage as well.  I would love to return to Italy and visit his studios, and make some photographs of those dust covered objects.  


A New Morandi DVD 
A new DVD has just become available entitled Morandi's Dust.  It's a documentary that focuses on the places in which Morandi lived and painted: his apartment and studio in Bologna, and his house and studio in Grizzana.   The hour long film is quiet, contemplative and poetic; it includes insightful, articulate film footage of the things and places familiar to Morandi and his work, and there are perceptive filmic juxtapositions between these real life things and images in his paintings.  There are also many interesting interviews with old friends of Morandi and art historians.  They tell personal stories that provide greater insights into Morandi's personality, his lifestyle and his creative process; and there are some interpretive readings of his works as well.  I highly recommend this hauntingly atmospheric DVD.  


About my project: "The Studio"
All of the photographs you will see below were made in my wife's pottery studio, which is in the basement of our house.  I had worked in the space a few times before: I made some of my Flower and Plant photographs there.  Since Gloria was not using her studio at the time, it provided me with a quiet space suffused with a gentle Morandi-like quality of light that was ideal for the flower photographs. 

As I was making the flower photographs in the studio I would think about Morandi's studio, and gradually the idea occurred to me to try making a series of photographs which could be at once a visual document of the pottery studio, and a visual-poetic contemplation of the space, light and objects in the studio that could function as a remembrance, akin to a revery or fantasy, regarding Morandi's studio.  As I worked I came to some understanding that a studio is not just a place in the world; it was also a state of mind, an archetypal idea, an internal space from which the creative process manifested itself, through the artist, into the world of apparent forms.

To get to this "place" my photographs would have to transcend description and function metaphorically; they would have to invoke some essential qualities from the imaginal world.  Only photographs that function as symbols can tap into the imaginal world.

A true symbol transcends the limits of worldly time and space by opening the mind and the heart of a viewer to the secrets and mysteries of world of archetypes, the Imaginal World.   The studio in it's essential core is the nexus point at which the silence of our most intimate being conjoins with the things and spaces of the outer world.  Photographs that function as symbols are alive with a deep level of interior meaning; they serve a psychological function which allows us to touch the mystery of things and places; they allow us to experience the presence - or what Morandi called the essence of a place.


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I have never had my own photography studio; I have always been devoted to roaming the world with my camera looking for things to photograph in their place - where I find them.  You could say the entire world was my studio. 

The photographs in this project are divided into two sections: Place and Objects, and they  were made in a couple of different ways.  Most of the place photographs, and some of the object photographs, were made in my customary manner, without my touching and moving things around;  I photographed things where and as I found them.  

On the other hand, some of the object photographs were staged events: like Morandi, I moved things from one place to another, and I constructed new relationships between things before making the photograph. 

Thanks to my study of Morandi's work and ideas, I feel the distinctions I used to make between these two ways of working are now becoming blurred for me.  I am learning to trust and honor my spontaneous impulses to move things, to create new relationships between things while I am photographing if the urge to do so is there.  I have come to understand that the most important aspect of my creative process is to get out of the way so that it can function fluidly, with the least amount of interference and resistance from me.  





Fig. 6  Winter view from the studio glass  door 

Gloria's Pottery Studio  
The pottery studio is in the basement of our house which was built in 2008.  It is a long and narrow space: 11x24 feet.  At its west end there is a sliding glass door framed by heavy drapes that opens out into our backyard and then the meadow beyond. (Fig. 6)  

To the right of the glass door, in the corner, is the electric kiln.  On top of the kiln is a little ceramic figure which protects the kiln and it's contents during firings.  Behind the kiln there is a metal flexible hose which disappears into the ceiling.  It vents fumes from the kiln to the outside world during firings. 

Along both of the longer side walls of the studio there are many shelves which hold kiln parts, ceramic supplies and tools, colored foam pieces, a box for transporting cats, and lots of unfired and unglazed pots.  Some of the pots are white, others are more pink: the white pots are unfired dried clay; the pink ones have been bisque fired and are awaiting the application of glazes and then a return to the kiln for a final firing. 

There are little pieces of blue tape on some sections of the walls.  They were put there to indicate the location of wood studs behind the plaster sheeted walls, which are painted light yellow.  

The natural indirect light coming into the studio from the sliding glass door varies in color temperature depending on the time of day, the season, the weather, etc.  These variabilities can affect the look of the background tones of my photographs.  For example the light yellow walls can also become a tinted blue, green or magenta tone, and sometimes a mix of all three.  The appearance of the wall tones can also depend on my point of view in relation to the angle by which the light strikes the wall's surface, and how far the wall is from the glass door, and the reflection of light coming from colored objects onto the wall.  When the wall is in shadow it can appear as a neutral grey tone in the photogaph.    

At the east end of the studio there is a sink in the left corner, and to the right of the sink there is a doorway that goes into a small storage room (see image #13) which is full of shelves upon which there are boxes and buckets and tins and jars of ceramic supplies, various ingredients for glazes, tools, etc.  The storage room is illuminated by a solitary bulb in the ceiling.  The warm color temperature of its incandescent light caused the warmer tones in the first two object photographs below. (images #14 & #15) 

In the middle of the studio there is a 6x6 work space which contains Gloria's electric potter's wheel, some small tables and shelves.  Three of the four walls are constructed of wooden frames and plastic sheeting.  The frames are hinged together and attached to a six foot section of the longer studio wall.  The plastic sheeting allows the natural light from the glass door into the workspace, and it contains any water and clay that might get thrown off from the spinning wheel.  The floor and wall section of the work space are covered with black rubber roofing material to protect those surfaces from water splashes and spills.  In a few of the photographs below you will see pieces of white canvas material thrown over the frame walls or lying on a work table.  The canvas is used on various work surfaces for working the clay by hand.  


Prelude to the Photographs
The studio is a quiet, still place.  Sometimes the wind outside makes the space seem alive with breathing.  Every act or movement that I make seems like a contemplative thought.  The soft light gives every thing a certain open radiance, a gentle living presence.  The things are patiently waiting to be somehow completed.  I know the only way for me into Morandi's studio is by immersing myself in the light, and in this way embrace the things and the space with intimate imagination.


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Click on the images to enlarge

The Place Photographs  


Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 8,  The Studio   image #1
Electric kiln and Kiln God to the right of the studio's glass door





Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 8,  The Studio   image #2





Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 8,  The Studio   image #3





Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 8,  The Studio   image #4





Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 8,  The Studio   image #5





Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 8,  The Studio   image #6





Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 8,  The Studio   image #7





Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 8,  The Studio   image #8





Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 8,  The Studio   image #9





Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 8,  The Studio   image #10
Gloria collets objects that she may use to help her  form sculptural  pieces





Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 8,  The Studio   image #12
Doorway to small storage area



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The Object Photogrpahs

Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 8,  The Studio   image #13
Gloria's pot, photographed in the small storage area





Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 8,  The Studio   image #14
Gloria's pot, photographed in the small storage area





Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 8,  The Studio   image #15
Gloria's pot





Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 8,  The Studio   image #16





Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 8,  The Studio   image #17





Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 8,  The Studio   image #18
These pots were made by our son and daughter-in-law





Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 8,  The Studio   image #19
These pots were made by our son and daughter-in-law





Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 8,  The Studio   image #20
These pots were made by our son and daughter-in-law





Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 8,  The Studio   image #21





Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 8,  The Studio   image #22





Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 8,  The Studio   image #23





Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 8,  The Studio   image #24
A cardboard box for transporting cats





Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 8,  The Studio   image #25
Plastic coated cloths line 





Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 8,  The Studio   image #26
Packing tape, string, cake decorator





Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 8,  The Studio   image #27
Miscellaneous objects collected for possible use in making pots





Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 8,  The Studio   image #28





Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 8,  The Studio   image #29





Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 8,  The Studio   image #30
Plastic watering can




Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 8,  The Studio   image #31
Geranium plant




Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 8,  The Studio   image #32
Amarillo flower in blue glass container




Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 8,  The Studio   image #33





Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 8,  The Studio   image #34





Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 8,  The Studio   image #35
Rutabaga




Morandi inspired Still Life photographs, Chapter 8,  The Studio   image #36
Squash



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This project was announced on the Welcome Page of my website March 1, 20014





Still Life ~ Photographs Inspired by Giorgio Morandi  


Welcome Page  to The Departing Landscape website which includes the complete hyperlinked listing of my online photography projects dating back to the 1960's, my resume, contact information, and more.

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