Author Archives: picturesinpowell

Jenkins describes the dining room of the Soviet embassy: “Here again was a faint sense of austerity, an impression of off-white walls sparsely decorated with pictures, landscapes light in tone — the steppe —  birch tress — sunset on the … Continue reading →

Glober looks at Tokenhouse’s paintings and asks” “Do I detect the influence of Diego Rivera, Mr. Tokenhouse? … Or is it José Clemente Orozco, who did those frescoes at Dartmouth?” [TK 148/141] Diego Rivera (1886-1957) is the best known of the … Continue reading →

Tokenhouse and Ada Leintwardine discuss Socialist Realism. [TK143/136]  Ada mentions “Svatogh? Gaponenko? Toidze? [TK 144/136-7 ],” citing an article in Fission by Len Pugsley. We have already examined Socialist Realist work at the Soviet pavilion. Socialist Realism is the name given realistic art … Continue reading →

In the French pavilion at the Biennale, Jenkins sees “a massive work, seven of eight feet high, chiefly constructed from tin or zinc, horsehair, patent leather and cardboard.” Ada Leintwardine is discussing the work with Louis Glober: “Mr. Glober sees … Continue reading →

At the Venice Biennale with Jenkins, Tokenhouse says: “I guarantee that the only sanctuary from subjectless bric-à-brac here will be in the national pavilions of what you no doubt term the Iron Curtain countries. We will visit the USSR first.” The … Continue reading →

Tokenhouse, ever the intellectual, describes the evolution of his painting style. “I began taking the bus over the bridge to Mestre, and attempting some plein air studies.” [TK 129/ 122] His plan to paint a hydroelectric plant was stymied when … Continue reading →

Tokenhouse shows Jenkins three of his canvases, a series on “Four Priests Rigging a Miracle.”  Jenkins saw the paintings as a “sort of neo-primitivism” and  “felt compelled to make a pronouncement, however insipid. “The garage scene has considerable force. Its … Continue reading →

Chapter three of TK finds Jenkins visiting Daniel Tokenhouse, his former employer in publishing, now an expatriate in Venice, devoting himself to art.  “The Camden Town Group had been wholly superceded, utterly swept away, so far as the art of … Continue reading →

In the Palazzo Bragadin, Gwinnett is temporarily distracted from the Tiepolo ceiling. ”He was on the other side of the room, in front of a highly coloured piece of Venetian eighteenth-century sculpture, torso of a Turk.  Gwinnett was examining the … Continue reading →

A rococo ballroom of the villa had “white walls, festooned with gold foliage and rams’ heads, making a background for Longhi caricatures, savants and punchinellos with hugh spectacles and bulbous noses.” [TK 82/76] Pietro Longhi (1701/2 – 1785) played the position … Continue reading →