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The Cathedrals of Art by Florine Stettheimer

Florine Stettheimer · 1942-01-01

View the artwork: The Cathedrals of Art →

Florine Stettheimer finished The Cathedrals of Art in 1942, the last of her four monumental satires of New York City life. It hangs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the very building she turns into a stage. The painting is both a tribute and a knowing wink: she calls museums the new cathedrals, with directors as high priests and critics as gatekeepers.

Scan the crowded staircase. The man near the bottom holding a green flag and a red one is real. He is Henry McBride, the most powerful art critic of the day. Stettheimer makes his influence literal, a green "Go" and a red "Stop" flag waved at anyone trying to ascend toward the golden light at the top. Nearby, Alfred Stieglitz sweeps through in a black cape, and a tiny figure called "Baby Art" gets its photograph taken like a celebrity.

The work was gifted to the Met in 1953 by Stettheimer's sister Ettie. Some scholars believe the artist kept refining the canvas right up until her death in 1944, leaving it subtly unfinished. Stettheimer herself stands at the far right in white, holding a pink flower, an observer at the edge of her own glittering, sharp-witted world.

A critic's raised flag once had the power to stop a career cold. What detail in this painting would you freeze on first?

#arthistory #florinestettheimer #metmuseum

Details

The architectural spine of the whole composition , the Met's ceremonial stair , around which all the social drama radiates; its vivid red commands the eye immediately
The architectural spine of the whole composition , the Met's ceremonial stair , around which all the social drama radiates; its vivid red commands the eye immediately
Stettheimer literally labels her conceit; the gilded lettering treats the art world as a religion, inviting viewers to read the painting as satire
Stettheimer literally labels her conceit; the gilded lettering treats the art world as a religion, inviting viewers to read the painting as satire
The radiating golden light crowns the Met like a halo, fusing institutional grandeur with kitsch religiosity , key to her 'cathedral' metaphor
The radiating golden light crowns the Met like a halo, fusing institutional grandeur with kitsch religiosity , key to her 'cathedral' metaphor
A fantastical heraldic creature perched above the Whitney or MoMA wing , an art-world mascot or guardian that rewards the eye traveling to the margin
A fantastical heraldic creature perched above the Whitney or MoMA wing , an art-world mascot or guardian that rewards the eye traveling to the margin
The whole New York art world compressed into caricature silhouettes , each figure is a named contemporary, making the painting a roman à clef in oil
The whole New York art world compressed into caricature silhouettes , each figure is a named contemporary, making the painting a roman à clef in oil
Transcript

It looks like a fantasy of New York's art world. The Met's staircase, painted like a red-carpet spectacle. Now look near the base of the stairs. One man holds a green flag and a red one. He is the critic Henry McBride. He decided careers. Green meant go. Red meant stop. He is gatekeeping the Met itself. The whole scene is a satire she finished just before she died.