One of the things I love about art is that there seems to be an endless supply of it. Each person's eye is different and what I find beautiful you might not, but the fact that the artist can reach a person with their vision always invigorates me. I tend to love modern forms of art and sculpture. I do not dislike the old master works, but there are only so many religious pieces I can visually consume at one time. I think I like the modern works much more because they leave room for the imagination to take hold. The viewer gets to make an interpretation of color, light, line, and space that may be completely different than the painter's intention.
While at Memorial Art Gallery I saw a beautiful work from Jonas Lie whom I had never heard of before. I wasn't sure if he was a regional artist or if I was just naive. It was a bit of both.
Jonas Lie was born in 1880 in Moss, Norway, but was essentially a Norwegian-American. He came from a large and talented family. His father was a civil engineer but his aunt was pianist Erika Lie Nieesn and his uncle was author Jonas Lie.
Earlier in his life his father passed away and he went to Paris to live with an aunt and uncle. While there he studied art at a small private school for a year before reuniting with his mother and sister in New York City. As a family, they moved to New Jersey.
Between 1893-1897, Jonas studied art at Dr. Felix Adler's Ethical Culture School while also taking night classes at the National Academy of Design. While there he also studied at Cooper Union and the Art Students League of New York. After graduating, he worked as a shirt designer for nine years in New York City.
During this span he was very active in the art scene and participated in many art shows in New York and Pennsylvania as well as winning awards at the St. Louis World's Fair. In 1906 he decided to return to Norway to find his roots. He traveled again to Paris where he was introduced to Monet's style of painting which changed his own. He began to infuse more urban settings into his work with a fine mixture of realism and impressionism.
The pinnacle of his career is considered to be a 30 canvas series of the Panama Canal. Several of these pieces have permenant homes in major art museums across the US.
In 1922 he bought a cottage in the Adirondacks where his wife was recovering in a sanatarium from Tuberculosis. She did eventually die from this disease and Jonas moved back to NYC with his daughter. He again became very active in the art scene. He was president of the National Academy of Design from 1034-1939. Jonas Lie died in New York City in 1940.
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