Art History Challenge – Life Studies by Susan Vreeland

Nothing like completing a reading challenge at the last minute!  My goal was to read six art history books, fiction or non-fiction, during 2009.  I finished my sixth book last week, Life Studies by Susan Vreeland.  It’s a collection of short stories divided into three sections:  stories concerning Impressionists and Post-Impressionists; a lovely tale about friendship and art; and current art stories. 

I think I made the mistake of reading the book like a novel, one story after another.  After awhile the stories felt a little repetitive and dull.  I probably would have enjoyed all of them more if I had read a story, moved on to something else, and then returned for another story.  That being said, there were three stories that I’ve thought of multiple times:  “In the Absence of Memory,” “The Adventures of Bernardo and Salvatore, or, The Cure:  A Tale,” and “The Things He Didn’t Know.”

Modigliani was a brilliant painter and a drunk.  He died leaving a young daughter who is raised by his mother and sister.  “In the Absence of Memory” concerns her effort to reconcile being the daughter of a great artist and an awful man.  Vreeland paints heartache, desire, betrayal and confusion in this small short story.  The plot follows the daughter from elementary school, when she is teased for being the bastard daughter of a drunk, to Modigliani’s show at the Venice Biennial, to her visit to Modigliani’s haunts in Paris.  It’s a daughter’s quest to understand a father she never knew.

In Hollywood language, “The Adventures of Bernardo and Salvatore, or, The Cure:  A Tale” is an art road trip meets The Bucket List.  Bernardo decides one day that he is ill and will die.  Salvatore, his best friend, does all he can to cajole him out of bed.  Bernardo mentions that he would like to see the great art of the world before he dies.  Salvatore lures Bernardo back to life with a promise to visit Rome.  After schemes that give Bernardo a purpose to leave his sick room and a classic road trip story circa the 1600s, Bernardo and Salvatore return home to enjoy long lives arguing over who is the better sculptor, Michelangelo or Bernini.  This tale is a warm look at a loving friendship.

“The Things He Didn’t Know” is a gut wrenching story of a newly dating couple; the woman an art historian, the man works in construction.  The story is their first visit to a museum, told from his point of view.  I was anxious from the moment they walked into the museum.  There is a reprieve when it looks like this date, and the relationship, might work, but the tone of the story tells the end.  Vreeland cleverly uses lists to move the story forward and then close it shut.

I’ve enjoyed the Art History Challenge and have signed up for next year’s challenge, but maybe I’ll try and finish it before December 30th.