John Marin (1870-1954) painted his courageous watercolors in New York and Maine. I always think of the moders as courageous because they were born into the staid, cluttered, dusty, repressed mores and fearful aesthetics of Victorianism and managed to break the bars of that cage. They thumbed their noses at stiff conventions and instead duked it out with the energy of the internal combustion engine, the theory of relativity and the adventure of self-awareness. John Marin rescued watercolor from the lace-fringed hands of genteel ladies and from the “it’s only a preliminary sketch” bin. In his hands, watercolor becomes wild and impulsive. His sturdy, rugged watercolor paper looks like a building material and it allows him to drag his wide brush so that the effect is rugged and rushed. No time for pretty, for making nice. This new, modern life offered too many possibilities, too many things to explore and understand. If, while looking at Marin’s watercolors, you start humming George Gershwin, that’s only appropriate. That hustle-bustle of Fifth and 42nd is right there in Marin’s urgent blobs and dashes. In his mid-30’s he moved to Main and studied the sea with the same energetic eye.
This Sunday, the 17th, will be the last day to catch the John Marin show at the Art Institute. I’m going to see this show again, for the third time, in a couple of days. It’s a Must See. Postpone whatever you need to, but go see the John Marin watercolors…through the glass doors, past the Buddha, on the left….ahhhh….
Shown above: The Red Sun—Brooklyn Bridge, 1922
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All contents copyright (C) 2010 Katherine Hilden. All rights reserved.
artamaze by Katherine Hilden 
I absolutely agree with everything you say! When I went to see them, I kept thinking,” if i could only spend enough time looking at these, I’d really learn a lot about watercolors that you don’t find in ‘instructional’ books.” Not a very profound thought, I guess, but I was totally mesmerized by these paintings.
I don’t always buy the catalog from museum shows, but bought this one. Even though the experience of his paintings has as much to do with the overall size of the work, texture of the paper, etc., I hope that the book will trigger some memories of experiencing those paintings in the flesh.
You can imagine this painting done in another medium, like oil or acrylic. He teaches us more than watercolor technique. In fact, you can squint at this painting and imagine it done in black & white, in charcoal, say. Granted, the primary colors grab the eye, but it’s the composition and the forceful lines that deliver the punch. He probably worked out the composition in b/w, maybe scribbling thumbnail sketches until it clicked. I say this, because these compositions are complex, even though the overall effect is of something dashed out in minutes.
Thank you for saying this was a Must. I was going to pass it by, as I have so many others, but made the effort to see it and was awed by the work.
What he painted, in the time he painted, is amazing. The techniques are so well suited to the subject you can’t imagine a stormy sea being interpreted any other way.
New insights in the idea of ‘cityscapes’, how little of the actual needs to be indicated to complete the image. The way he manipulates the watercolor and graphite, drawing bits, the scale, blending with the paper’s texture are all pitch perfect.
I spent most of my time in this exhibit, looking at pieces again and again. The framing, the concentration of color, brush strokes, layer upon layer of things to study in each painting. And the lightness of touch.