Alan's Amsterdam visit: Van Gogh Museum and the wheatfield crows haiku

3 photos by Alan Summers, Van Gogh Museum September 2015

Bridge in the Rain (after Hiroshige)

Paris, October - November 1887

http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/collection/s0114V1962

Flowering Plum Orchard (after Hiroshige)

Paris, October - November 1887

http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/collection/s0115V1962

                wheatfield

                 the crows changing

                  out of their colours

               

                                                 haiku by Alan Summers

                                                 Friday night, 25th September 2015

                                                 Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Holland

From

Wheatfield with Crows

Auvers-sur-Oise, July 1890

Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890)

Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/collection/s0149V1962 

Detail: Wheatfield with Crows

photograph taken by Alan Summers 2015

ekphrastic haiku - Quilting Bee by Henry Mosler circa 1916-1917

Quilting Bee by Henry Mosler circa 1916-1917 

Henry Mosler
New York, New York 1841-1920 

Quilting bee–

an expert with the needle

she forgets her loss 

Alan Summers

Published: Asahi Shimbun, Japan (2012) 

Biography of Henry Mosler 

Gustave Mosler brought his family, including young Henry, to the United States in 1849. The Moslers, like many of their fellow German Jews, escaped the political unrest in their homeland that followed the revolutions of 1848 by settling in Midwestern communities, in this case Cincinnati, Ohio. There, the Moslers became leaders in their community and eventually developed a national reputation based on the family business—the manufacture of safes. 

Henry Mosler studied in Cincinnati with portrait and genre painter James Beard for two years and covered the Western theater of the Civil War as an artist-correspondent for Harper's Monthly. He studied for three years in Düsseldorf and Paris before returning home to begin his career. In 1874, Mosler again traveled to Paris, but remained for twenty years this time and developed a reputation for his paintings of Breton peasant life. Mosler's final homecoming to his adopted country came in 1894. In that year he set up a studio in New York City and turned his attention to historical genre with the same eye for detail that marked his earlier work. Paintings such as Pilgrims Grace (the painting that won the artist life membership to the National Arts Club of New York) and Quilting Bee draw upon Mosler's Breton experiences to create a realistic vision of the preindustrial past for modern America.

 

William H. Truettner and Roger B. Stein, editors, with contributions by Dona Brown, Thomas Andrew Denenberg, Judith K. Maxwell, Stephen Nissenbaum, Bruce Robertson, Roger B. Stein, and William H. Truettner Picturing Old New England: Image and Memory (Washington, D.C.; New Haven, Conn; and London: National Museum of American Art with Yale University Press, 1999)

Information by Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery
.

A selection of ekphrastic haiku from Monet to netsuke by Alan Summers, Japan Times award-winning writer

Artist: Claude Monet

Artist Info: French, 1840 - 1926
Title: The Bridge at Argenteuil
Dated: 1874
Medium: oil on canvas
Classification: Painting
Credit: Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon
Accession No. 1983.1.24
Digitization: Image Use
Open Access

Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, Washington.

Source: Open Access (OA), via National Gallery of Art, Washington

What is Ekphrasis?  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekphrasis

I'm running a five week course on ekphrastic haiku at the Quest Gallery:

Quest Gallery | The Ekphrastic Haiku Sessions

http://area17.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/quest-contemporary-art-gallery-haiku.html

The following haiku are by me, and the idea on completion of the Quest Gallery course is to produce ekphrastic haiku by the participants which will go into the exhibition catalogue providing a legacy for both participants, visitors, and the gallery.


Monet’s Haystacks
a group of crows tug
at twilight

Alan Summers
Publications credits: Asahi Shimbun (Japan 2010)



Monet’s pain–
the shadows of haybales
lengthening the sunset

Alan Summers
Publications credits: The Bath Burp: Poetry, Music & Arts Monthly Issue No. 10 (2012)
 

The painting that inspired me from the time I saw it at this museum:
http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=1088&handle=li 

Monet's Pain: 
http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artMakerDetails?maker=260 

[Monet] remained loyal to the Impressionists' early goal of capturing the transitory effects of nature through direct observation. In 1890 he began creating paintings in series, depicting the same subject under various conditions and at different times of the day.

His late pictures, made when he was half-blind, are shimmering pools of color almost totally devoid of form. 


Discover... Claude Monet:  

http://www.impressionist-art-gallery.com/claude_monet.html 

 




Van Gogh’s wheatfield
the width of a hand fills
with crows

Alan Summers
Publications credits:  The Bath Burp: Poetry, Music & Arts Monthly Issue No. 10 (2012)



Waterloo sunset
the Thames disappears
from the Tube map

Alan Summers
Publications credits: haijinx  vol III issue 1 (2010); Across the Haikuverse, No. 10: Bleak Midwinter Edition (2011)

Newspaper article: http://travelblog.dailymail.co.uk/2009/09/who-stole-the-river-thames-from-the-london-tube-map.html





the blue
of the aubergine
a spider is caught
in the netsuke

Victoria and Albert Museum

Alan Summers







 Publications credits: Snapshots Seven (2000)

netsuke...
the hare with amber eyes
jumps back in again

Alan Summers
Publications credits: Mainichi Shimbun (Japan 2011)

Quest Gallery | The Ekphrastic Haiku Sessions

.

Quest Contemporary Art Gallery Haiku Course

The Haiku Course in Poetry and Art:

• Wk 1. The Golden Ratio of Art through Haiku
• Wk 2. Hemingway's Shoes and Mono no Aware
• Wk 3. Wabi-Sabi and Haiku
• Wk 4. The Gentle Whispers of Haiku
• Wk 5. The Brightness of Balance in Haiku

The Quest Gallery Haiku Sessions:

The Haiku Course at The Quest Gallery

Japan Times award-winning writer Alan Summers has joined with Quest Gallery to develop a unique Haiku poetry course. Each session will be developed in response to the changing exhibitions at Quest Gallery, providing a unique and inspiring environment for learning.

Over the course of 5 weeks, students will experience the fundamental principles that underpin haiku, and apply these to their own poetry that they will develop and refine throughout the course. 

This is a unique opportunity to learn about Japanese poetry, and contemporary art, in the beautiful setting of one of Bath's most prestigious art galleries.

The course includes an event with special guest speakers where students can showcase their own work. There is also the opportunity to contribute haiku to the exhibition catalogue, producing a creative legacy for for both participants and for the gallery.

*Course Outline*

Wk 1. The Golden Ratio of Art through Haiku

Wk 2. Hemingway's Shoes and Mono no Aware

Wk 3. Wabi-Sabi and Haiku

Wk 4. The Gentle Whispers of Haiku

Wk 5. The Brightness of Balance in Haiku

Wednesdays 30 May - 4 July   

(5 week course with one session off for half term)

Times:  6.30 - 8pm

Special Event Date: TBC (Week of 25 June)

Tutor: Alan Summers

Cost: £75 for 5 week course

Concessions: £70

Venue:

Quest Gallery, 7 Margaret's Building, Bath BA1 2LP

http://www.questgallery.co.uk/index.php?id=6

Places are limited so book early to avoid disappointment.

For more details about booking on any of these courses, please don't hesitate to email or contact Sarah at the Quest Gallery on 01225 444142 or email sarah@questgallery.co.uk

Sarah Jenkins

Projects Coordinator

Quest Gallery