I don't want to create a monster, I want to make something which is new, exceptional, something that only I do...something that references tradition, but is still new.
­                                                                                                                             ––Georg Baselitz

@ MMFA:

Nicolas Poussin (1594-1664), "Landscape with man pursued by a snake", about 1637-1639, oil on canvas:

Quick visit to Galerie Yves Laroche:

Mainly 'Juxtapose-y' like crap, real bric-a-brac, but just behind the glass door to the private showroom, on the floor leaning against the wall, in the half-dark like a hustler, a Francis Bacon lithograph of two fleshy figures writhing, # 45 / 60. 

Next door at Lacerte, a stunning Edmund Alleyn gouache from 1962, "Untitled",($9 800).  Matted & framed beautifully.  Clearly from his "Indian Summer" days.  A knock-out of a piece.

Milton Avery "Green Sea", 1954, oil on canvas, 42 x 60 inches:

Mardsen Hartley, Mount Katahdin, Maine,1942, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 1/8 inches:

Mardsen Hartley, details (sky & trees)

Mardsen Harley, Evening Storm, Schoodic, Maine, 1942, oil on composition board, 30 x 40 inches

"Every true artist creates new values, new beauty...When you notice anarchy, recklessness, or licentiousness in works of contemporary art, when you notice crass coarseness and brutality, then occupy yourself long and painstakingly precisely with these works, and you will suddenly recognize how the seeming recklessness transforms itself into freedom, the coarseness into high refinements.  Harmless pictures are seldom worth anything.

                                                                                                                               -Emile Nolde

Chaim Soutine, "Windy Day, Auxerre", oil on canvas, 1939, 19 1/4" x 25 5/8".

Chaim Soutine, "View of Céret",oil on canvas, 1922, 29 1/8" x 29 1/2"

@ Galerie d'Arts Contemporains:

William Ronald, "Sans Titre / Untitled", Acrylic on panel, 1972 , $ 32 000 approx.

@ Galerie Claude Lafitte:

Joan Mitchell, "Sunflowers III, Etching & Aquatint, H.C., (30/75), 1982, 26 1/2" x 17", $15 000

Rita Letendre, "Jours d' été", oil on canvas, 1960, 16" x 20".

Marcel Feron, "Untitled ", huile sur panneau, 1960, 10" x 8".

Jean McEwen, "Unfunished Landscape, #26," huile sur toile, 1989, 60" x 60".

 David Milne, "Boiling a pot of coffee in woods, in winter", watercolour, 1939, 14" x 21".

Georges Rouault, "Couple", gouache, 1945, 11" x 9.2".

Set aside a room or a certain hour of the day
Where you do not even know what is in the morning papers
And bring forth what you are, and what you might be
This is a place of creation and incubation
A sacred space that you use every day
At first you might think nothing is happening
But something will happen
And you will eventually find yourself again and again.

                                                                      -Joseph Campbell

@ MMFA:

Amadeo Modigliani (1864-1920): "Young man with a white collar / Jeune homme au col blanc" (1918), oil on canvas.

The use of grey, like two columns on either side of the figure, coupled with the flat grey, almond-shaped eyes. The hair line is made of white scratches, dividing the head into two, showing how flat & thin the paint is...strangely, the most paint was applied at the cheekbones, fleshly, peachy & patchy highlights floating under the eyes.  The collar is shaped like an old school nun's habit, or white wings in flight (or the roof of  Le Courbusier's Ronchamp chapel), a slight touch of blue paint in the upper right hand side to keep it all balanced...slight dove-grey shadows on the edges of his collar...all so simple, all so splendid...starting to feel Modigliani a little more...

                                                                                                    (A. Modigliani in 1918)

Anselm Kiefer, "Das SonnenSchiff ", (1996-2009), Brambles, lead boat, aluminum-painted sunflowers, acrylic, oil, emulsion on canvas, steel & glass.

Leon Golub, "Mercenaires II", (1979), Acrylic on canvas.