double intertextuality

Yesterday I went to the MoMA to see the Manet and Brice Marden exhibits. The first one, called Manet and the Execution of Maximilian, is a deep archive of the famous image, presented alongside a reunion of Manet's representations of it. The other works include photographs of the firing squad and the execution site, other artists' representations of the scene, and other fascinating pieces including a later Manet work on the suppression of the Paris Commune where he borrowed his own visual composition from the Maximilian. The only thing missing was Goya or a reproduction thereof. Couldn't they even put up a postcard of Goya's Third of May 1808 for visual comparison? Not everyone is as Goya-obsessed as I am becoming.

Marden, too, based a painting on a Goya but in a totally different vein of borrowing: he only took Goya's colors. This has to be seen to be appreciated. Here is Goya's The Countess of Carpio, Marquise de la Solana. And here is Marden's D'après de la Marquise de la Solana.

What can one say about the Marden other than, Cool?