Art Ravels

Eating in MoMA's Contemporary Galleries

2012-01-20T11:04:00.001-05:00

"Untitled" (Placebo), Felix Gonzales-Torres, 2001

I highly recommend it right now. I went to MoMA slightly hungry, battled the crowds and opted to tour the contemporary galleries rather than face the masses in the permanent collection or new Diego Rivera exhibition. I chose well. In the shimmering installation by Felix Gonzales-Torres, visitors are invited to take a piece of candy from the pile which is eventually replenished. It is slowly depleted, to be refilled later, and was created after the artist's partner died of AIDS-related complications in 1991.

Continuing on, the art gets better in terms of fullness. Not only did I get a piece of silver-wrapped candy, but I was next served green curry.

Curry from Untitled (Free/Still), Rirkrit Tiravanija, 1992

Yes, that's right. I stood in line for a bowl of very decent green curry in a section of the gallery turned into a room-like space by a plywood frame and temporary walls and furniture. Rirkrit Tiravanija's piece Untitled (Free/Still) first went up in 1992 at 303 Gallery, and the museum recently acquired it. You can check it out from noon to 3 p.m. most days through February 8.

Food as a medium in an installation or performance is something I feel I've seem more of in the past few years. Jennifer Rubell for instance has done some notable performance/installations involving food, like thecheese head at the Brooklyn Museum of Art or the more recent Art Basel Miami breakfast. However her works never seem nearly as appetizing as what's at MoMA now.

Also check out: Five for Friday: Works that Look Good Enough to... for more of the museum's edible works.

Death Masks

2012-01-16T16:43:00.000-05:00

Sir Walter Scott

Death masks were wax or plaster molds applied post mortem to create a replication of the dead's face, and could then be reproduced further. Casts became popular to display or use as a model for a bust or portrait in the late Middle Ages. This practice was common until the end of the 19th Century. Some of the surviving masks are wonderfully expressive. While admittedly morbid, there's something touching and honest about the surviving portraits. They would have served as accurate reminders in the age before photography, perhaps less flattering than portraits but seemingly immediate.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

William Wordsworth

Dion Boucicault

Isaac Newton

All these images came from this online archive of Princeton's. Even more can be found here at this Paris shop still in existence today. For a brief audio exploration of death masks, check out Radiolab's podcast here and learn where the face of the CPR dummy came from.

Are we having fun yet?

2012-01-10T09:18:00.000-05:00

So far the New Year has brought change, but not necessarily of the pleasant sort. And change is always stressful.

Which is why, for your viewing pleasure, I bring you a little something to make you appreciate life. Girl Walk // All Day is a full length, music video of a film charting three dancers encountering New York City.

Girl Walk // All Day: Chapter 2 from Girl Walk // All Day on Vimeo.

Released in clips, there are 11 available on the website with the 12th and final clip coming today. I'm having fun now.

Frankenthaler, Colors

2011-12-28T11:23:00.000-05:00

Warming Trend, 2002

Speaking about colors, here are some colors dyed straight into the canvas. Helen Frankenthaler was one of the early, and female, pioneers of abstract expressionism, and she passed away this week at age 83. Good WSJ and NY Times articles on her career.

Mauve District, 2009

de Kooning's Women

2011-12-22T10:36:00.001-05:00

Woman I

Check out my new article on de Kooning's Woman paintings and violence of them over at Escape Into Life magazine.

Celadon Talking Jars

2011-12-18T13:52:00.000-05:00

Celadon green was not always the shade of green we now consider celadon, but it was said to possess magical properties. China had an early monopoly on celadon ceramics, which were a popular export in part because celadon was thought to have secret, magical powers. Colors from natural dyes and pigments were often associated with magic. People in central Asia believed that celadon acted as an antidote to poison, and that these dishes would protect against poisoned food and drink.

The people of Southeast Asia believed that the Chinese celadon jars could contain a magical spirit in their clay. Jars were valued most highly if they could produce a clear ringing sound when struck. This was the jar's ability to talk.

"...on the island of Luzon in the Phillipines, there were famous talking jars with their own names and characters. The most famous was called Magsawi and was believed to go off on long journeys on its own, particularly to see its girlfriend, a female talking jar on the island of Ilocos Norte. Legend had it that they had a baby together: a little talking jar, or perhaps at first a little screaming jar." -Color: A Natural History of the Palette, p.258

These large celadon jars were highly prized in South Asia, and the most famous ones like Magsawi became known outside of their tribes. The Philippine folk tale of Magsawi says:

"Though that was many years ago, the jar still lives, and its name is Magsawi. Even now it talks; but some years ago a crack appeared in its side, and since then its language has not been understood by the Tinguian.
Sometimes Magsawi goes on long journeys alone when he visits his wife, a jar in Ilocos Norte, or his child, a small jar in San Quintin; but he always returns to Domayco on the hillside near the cave."

Read the whole folktale here.

Red, Orange, Yellow

2011-12-15T11:35:00.000-05:00

RED

A new red from the new world once took Europe by storm, as countries vied to find the secret to this mysetrious dye from the Spanish colonies. They did not guess for a long time that it came from cochineals, little white bugs on pirckly pear cacti. These charming little bugs still color nearly everything consumable and red: lipstick, Cherry Coke, etc. Yum.

ORANGE

Orange madder are long roots that burrow deep in the ground, so much so that in Holland there were laws forcing farms to pull up their madder every few years lest it burrow into the dyke. The mysterious ingredient that created the beautfiul orange varnish of Stradavarious violins has long excited speculation.

Not purple, but YELLOW

Fields of purple crocuses create saffron, an expensive golden yellow, first produced by drying the crimson red stamen of the perennial autumn crocus flower. Now most saffron grows in Iran, but once a small, punny town in England grew saffron in the Middle Ages: Saffron Walden. Their coat-of-arms features a crocus... walled in.

All these fun facts come from Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay. One more fun fact: Minium, which was the name for white lead heated turns until it turned "minium" red, was a popular color with Persian, Ottoman, and Indian artists in Medieval times. Their work then became known as "miniatures," which only more recently referenced size.

O Christmas Tree

2011-12-12T12:30:00.000-05:00

Thy leaves are so unchanging. The first known "Tannenbaum," or Christmas tree, song lyrics date back to 1550. Above is the Metropolitan Museum's beautiful tree and its famous nativity scene. Next on my list is the Rockefeller Center tree, which I can't wait to see all lit up.

I got the Christmas tree spirit myself this weekend, at the annual NYC Santacon. Taken by the tree at South Street Seaport.

Back to Black

2011-12-09T10:08:00.001-05:00

Martin Luther, Workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder

"...black really came into its own with the Reformation, whose leaders and artists led a full-fledged revolt against the pomp and display of the Catholic Church. Martin Luther is generally depicted in the most sober of blacks, while the era’s painters began to favor tenebrous colors in even their most dramatic compositions.”
-From "The Color that Wasn't a Color" article in ARTnews reviewing Black: The History of a Color

Making Purple in Mexico

2011-12-07T17:23:00.000-05:00

Beautiful slideshow will take you through the traditional process of dyeing yarn purple with Murex in Oaxaca, Mexico. (Found this while inspired by my Colors book, even though I haven't gotten to purple yet. I did learn in my blacks and browns chapter that, similar to the Murex process, the color sepia comes from ink excreted by a cuttlefish.)

What goes up...

2011-12-05T22:28:00.001-05:00

must come down.

Last night I came across Sol LeWitt's Tower (Columbus) reduced to a heap of rubble. It took me a second to realize what had happened. The bricks filled a surprising number of orange bins. This sculpture was part of a nice installation in City Hall Park; I wonder what will come next.

Making Color

2011-12-04T15:19:00.001-05:00

Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay is a group of digressive tales and fascinating anecdotes that together create a history of the colors that man has used. While bone black comes from animal bones despite some ghastly tales, brown was sometimes made with human remains, preferably that of mummies. White's history tends to be deadly. Artists had many options to create white before the late arrival of titanium white, but tended to prefer poisonous lead white. Aside from being deadly (so thus not a very good choice for the white lead facepaint ladies of a certain era used), lead white also must be used correctly or it will turn black (as it has in some of the Dunhuang caves in China). Knowledge of how to create and properly use such paints have often been carefully guarded secrets, passed down from artist to apprentice and in families. Deceitful colormen would create and sell paints that looked good, but didn't last. In fact, it is only recently that we expect paint colors to last. Perhaps that was on William Turner's mind when he knowingly used paints that would fade, and refused to touch discolored works up when people brought them back only a few years later.

Early paintbox, early 1800s

Finlay also makes the interesting point that it is only recently, in the past 200 years or so, that artists have been divorced from the creation of the paints that they use. The ability to buy pre-made paint and the change in social status from craftsman to artist occurred around the same time, probably not conincedentally. I've only read about how humans originally sourced and created the pigments of ochre, black, brown, and white, and I'm totally hooked. I can't wait to learn about the 'real' colors.

Catching Up

2011-11-30T11:14:00.001-05:00

I've been away a long time now. On vacation, seeing family and old friends, but not, as it happens seeing much art. I'm catching up on my google reader now and coming across all kinds of good things though:

I would like my holiday decorations to somehow channel this.
An always funny literary agent blog. Writers, take note of what not to do.
Theory: great male artists have more sex.
My [awesome] [wonderful] donation-based yoga studio, Yoga To the People, is being sued by Bikram for teaching hot yoga. This is ridiculous. Sign the petition.
More gorgeous, luminescent Chinese illustrations like the one above.

And, now, tis the holiday season and New York remains an almost balmy 55 degrees and sunny. Pandora is set on the Christmas station, I've already done all my holiday shopping, and now if I can just catch up on my reading, art viewing, blogging, and writing, I'll be all set until the New Year.

It is Margaret you mourn for.

2011-11-16T09:16:00.001-05:00

William Blake, from For Children: The Gates of Paradise

Spring and Fall

to a young child

MÁRGARÉT, áre you gríeving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leáves, líke the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Áh! ás the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh

Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you wíll weep and know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sórrow’s spríngs áre the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
It ís the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.

-Gerard Manley Hopkins

Ana Mendieta's Silueta Series

2011-11-10T09:19:00.001-05:00

The Art Institute's room of Ana Mendieta works in the Contemporary section were striking (plus, how fantastic that they organize the rooms by artist). Mostly showing the Silueta Series, the performances and the images taken of them show the contours of the artist's body against the earth in different settings. Often, this image is created with organic material although the artist frequently uses her own body in her work, like in this Untitled (Grass on Woman) from 1972:

Called earth-body art in a hybrid of two 1960s art movements, Mendieta used her body or a female outline in her performances. The show her interjecting the female form into nature, often evoking a sense of ancestral and prototypical female goddess worship.

More information about the artist's background and untimely death.

Color: Jessica Dickinson at James Fuentes

2011-11-03T09:52:00.001-04:00

Just some lovely colors for a sunny fall day. Jessica Dickinson large color wash paintings are up at James Fuentes through December 11. The texture is achieved through layering and and scraping. More of her work here.

Cy Twombly's Sculptures (Cont.), at MoMA

2011-11-01T10:24:00.002-04:00

Installation View

Continuing from the small exhibition of Twombly sculptures at the Art Insitute, MoMA has dedicated a small space to showing the late artist's sculptures as well, which (joy!) I saw over the weekend. Perhaps simply in relief to the garishly colorful, incredibly large deKooning exhibition, looking at these seven white constructions felt like an oasis of calm.

Untitled (Jupiter Island), 1992. Wood, plaster, plastic leaves, wire, cloth, sand, and paint.

I'm not sure how clear it is in these photos, but the white stood out beautifully from the blue night outside the window. The roughness of the bottom contrasts with the smooth vertical white shape with its unexpected dip at the top.

Untitled (Funerary Box for a Lime Green Python). 1954. Wood, palm leaf fans, house paint, cloth, and wire.

The delicacy of the fans make this my favorite of these works. It's the earliest sculpture shown, and the fanciful description he gives the title disappears in most of his later works.

Untitled (Lexington), 2005. Plaster, paint, wood, cardboard, metal, paper, cloth, twine, and pencil

Although I say they are white, in his later works Twombly began adding a dash of bright color. Here the very tip is a bright pink. I love the balancing act implied by the varying degrees of narrowness of the different objects.

Untitled (Lexington) from a different angle.

Cy Twombly: Sculpture at the Chicago Museum of Art

2011-10-28T09:57:00.000-04:00

I tend to think of Cy Twombly more as a painter than a sculptor, although the artist has created sculptures throughout his career, as can be seen in this intimate exhibition at the Art Institute. Twombly's sculptures tend to be composed of everyday found objects, put on a pedestal, and unified by a coat of white paint. This formalizes the objects as works of art, and gives them a timeless feel that is ethereal even while it is rough and tough. While the spare constructions are evocative of archaic relics, the presentation is absolutely modern. Their names of times and places suggest journal entries, sculptures of memories.

Untitled, Bassano in Teverina, 1989
Wood, plaster, nails, traces of red and blue paint, glue, and white paint

Untitled, New York, 1955
Wood, cloth, nails, and house paint

Untitled, Lexington, 1948
Wood, porcelain and metal knobs, cloth, and house paint

Radcliffe Bailey's Ships and Sea

2011-10-26T10:31:00.000-04:00

In the Garden, 2008

Atlanta has this interesting past that makes you want to dig deeper and understand what was once there, even though it may be covered...Sherman burnt down the city. They say when you want to get rid of something, you burn it, but you don’t really get rid of it. I can look out my back door and see a lot -- Radcliffe Bailey via NY Times

Radcliffe Bailey's work Seven Steps, above, was on view at the Georgia Museum of Art when I went recently, and I love the layered colors and use of materials offset by the sepia photograph. It was recently part of an exhibition at the High Museum in Atalanta that I just missed, Radcliffe Bailey: Memory as Medicine, showcasing the Atlanta-based artist's work on its biggest level yet. Bailey uses a variety of materials to explore history both personal and collective, and he engages memory as a device to encourage healing through art.

Tricky, 2008

Bailey is maybe better know for a layering of imagery, culturally resonant materials, and text that began when he was given some old family photographs to work with. But looking at the images from the exhibition, I was really drawn to some of his more sculptural pieces, like Tricky, above. A textured black surface juxtaposed with the jaunty tilt of the hat encase a slave ship. In The Antelope, he again presents a black ship, this time encased in glass like a fossil and sailing over white cloth/paper.

The Antelope, 2010

The large installation Windward Coast creates a rolling ocean of piano keys harvested from some 400 pianos, suggesting the oceans traversed in the slave trade and in their midst a lone black head, the same glittery texture as the ship in Tricky, appears.

Detail view of Windward Coast

The artist does not consider his work to be solely dark or only about slavery however (as you might not realize by the pieces I'm showing here). Regarding Windward Coast, he told the New York Times, “I think about all the music that was probably played on those keys. An ocean is something that divides people. Music is something that connects people. Duke Ellington or Thelonious Monk -- it’s a different sound that takes you somewhere else. It’s also about being at peace.”

Installation View, Memory as Medicine at the High Museum

More about the exhibition here and images of the artist's work here.

Regional Favorites from the Georgia Museum of Art

2011-10-24T10:23:00.000-04:00

Horizons, Steinunn Þórarinsdóttir

My hometown, Athens, Georgia, doesn't always change much, but when I visited recently the Georgia Museum of Art was showing off its new renovation, which featured an extensive addition to show more of the permanent collection. It's a beautiful renovation in general and it was fantastic to see the new galleries showing so much of the permanent collection.

There is also a new sculpture garden, currently filled with bronze sculptures by Icelandic artist Steinunn Þórarinsdóttir (don't ask me how to pronounce that.) However, one of the noticeable features of the permanent collections was a regional focus in the works. It felt like home--and it also felt refreshingly different from so much of the work I see here in New York.

Some of my favorites:

Tallulah Falls, 1841, George Cooke

My Forebearers Were Pioneers, 1939, Philip Evergood

The White House, 1945, Georges Schreiber

Seven Steps, 1994, Radcliffe Bailey

Detail, Seven Steps

Georgia II, 2008, Leo Twiggs

American Favorites from the Art Institute

2011-10-19T17:20:00.002-04:00

Woman (Elevation), 1927, Bronze, Gaston Lachaise in front of A Vision, 1925, Joseph Stella

Cow's Skull with a Calico Rose, 1931, Georgia O'Keefe

Bouy, 1941, Peter Blume

Head of Pavlova, 1924, Malvina Hoffman

Rich and vivid color: Chagall's America Window

2011-10-11T10:03:00.003-04:00

Marc Chagall's America Windows were one of delightful surprises I encountered at the Art Institute this weekend in Chicago. Apparently recently re-installed after a long restoration, this large tripartite stained glass glows with the fantastic color you associate with Chagall.

Originally installed in 1977, Chagall created the windows as a gift to the city of Chicago. Stained glass was a medium he came to later in life - in his 70s - but he managed to create many notable works. Here he celebrates America's bicentennial with symbols of America as well as more idiosyncratic ones.

Chagall employed a stain glass artist to make the pieces according to his specifications. Then he painted the glass with metallic oxide paints that were heated to fuse the color and design permanently to the glass. The entire image glows with rich and vivid color.

Click on any of the images for a larger view.

Which one is the doppelganger?

2011-10-09T14:00:00.000-04:00

The doppelganger is an always unsettling idea. While today you might use the word to refer to a double or lookalike, historically a doppelganger represented evil and misfortune in a paranormal form and seeing a doppelganger almost always conincided with an unfortunate event. Swiss artist Cornelia Hediger tackles the darker connotation in her current show up at Klompching Gallery in Brooklyn.

Hediger constructs complex narratives in this set of photos featuring two women posing together in different ways. These colorful and rich images suggest a narrative with a cast of two, or perhaps one, characters whose relationship is ambiguous and darkly suggestive.

2/15/08

I love how she distorts perpective in these photos, so that above the woman in pink appears much small than the woman in black, and below the bed makes them both appear tiny.

12/03./07

I really enjoyed them, but as I viewed one after another I began to feel they were overly staged. There were so many props that the models enagaged with, when often their body language was the most telling and real part of the photo.

More images and exhibition details here. Cornelia Hediger is up at Klompching Gallery through October 21.

Caption Contest

2011-10-07T10:45:00.000-04:00

"So close"

From my walk to work this morning, a lost half-mannequin on the street. Does anyone else want to play the "what is she thinking game"?

"I wonder if this is how Venus d'Milo got started."

"Well, my mother was right. She always said Steve had an obsession with that chain saw. And it was just one limb after another."

Cheryl Molnar's Landscape Collages

2011-10-04T20:52:00.000-04:00

The Hamlet

Cheryl Molnar is a collage and multimedia artist, and in fact what I first thought were sharp-edged paintings are carefully composed and assembled landscapes. Unfortunately, my camera is adding the 70s yellowish cast to these photographs (and no, this is not an Instagram filter, just a bad photo). I liked how her landscapes captured the quintessence of places, even as the collage pieces fractured the space into geometric, almost abstract designs.

Detail of collage

The edges show just a bit at the end, and you can also see the transparency of the layers here.

Industrial Park

Voila--something not yellowed...! But I'll spare you and just show you some of the lovely images you can also find on her website:

New Highway

American Dream

Park Homes

Susan Graham's Sugar Sculptures

2011-09-30T11:04:00.000-04:00

Susan Graham's Toile Landscape is a collection of works that were just at Schroeder, Romero & Shredder Gallery that the artist moved back to her Smack Mellon studio in time for DUMBO Arts Festival. I loved the intricacy of her all-white creations (yes, despite the yellow tint to my photograph these are white.)

Detail of above

Graham presents trees, towers and other tableaux here with delicate lines. Graham made these pieces out of sugar--in fact out of sugar, egg whites, wood and wire. (In fact, s culptures made of sugar are by no means a new thing, and apparently can last quite a long time.) In addition to sugar, the artist also works with porcelain. Here we have small landscapes of sorts, but more confrontationally in terms of material vs. content, she makes delicate white guns and lawnmowers.

The Dumpster Project

2011-09-28T09:38:00.001-04:00

Some people, like me, clean house when they move, getting rid of the extra stuff that has accumulated along the way. Others, like artist Mac Premo, move to a smaller studio and decide to put all the stuff to good artistic use. In The Dumpster Project, Premo doesn't chuck his decades-worth of collected objects into a dumpster as I would: he obsessively makes a home for it in the interior wood structure he built inside a dumpster.

Each of these objects have a personal meaning for the artist, recalling memories and stories. In addition to loving sorting them here, he posts an entry about one every day on the project's blog. So for example, you might learn that the Chairman Mao watches pictured above were gifts from friends, and similar stories exist for each object on display.

Currently The Dumpster Project is (or at least was this weekend for the DUMBO Arts Festival) on view in the tunnel in DUMBO.

A "tilted" view of DUMBO: Isidro Blasco at Smack Mellon

2011-09-27T09:40:00.000-04:00

Tilted by Isidro Blasco, at Smack Mellon during the DUMBO Arts Festival, was a large wooden framwork installation that sprawled out across the first gallery, dividing the space into little rooms covered in photographs. The photogrpahs themselves were of local neighborhood, but cut and pasted into and around each other in a way that created its own 3-dimensional, and tilted, space. They recreate the DUMBO streetscape and the Smack Mellon gallery itself.

Blasco is Spanish artist with a background in architecture. That comes across clearly here: the bare sticks of wood at odd angles suggest deconstructed-construction.

It's rather like taking apart the pieces of something to figure out how it works, except in this case rather than a toy or an engine, it is a nieghborhood, and more specifically a gallery in a neighborhood. One of the more interesting and visually-stimulating pieces I saw during the DUMBO Arts Festival, Tilted really succeeded in taking over and interacted with both the space and the viewer.

For a view of some of the artist's earlier work, checkout James Kalm's video walk through of a early 2011 show at Black and White Gallery.

Three of the Greatest Painters of the Past 150 Years?

2011-08-24T08:58:00.000-04:00

Now this is an exhibition I can get behind: Turner, Monet, Twombly: Later Paintings at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm promises to be a brilliant and insightful exhibition. I heard the title, and I immediately got it: the loose brushwork and rich colors that developed over their long careers can seem remarkably similar despite the very different times and places in which they worked.

Twombly's 2008 Lepanto versue Monet's 1914 Waterlillies:

"J. M. W. Turner, Claude Monet and Cy Twombly are three of the greatest painters of the last 150 years. This groundbreaking exhibition focuses on their later work, examining not only the art historical links and affinities between them but also the common characteristics of and motivations underlying their late style." - More on the background to the exhibition here.

Monet's Japanese Bridge (1918-1924) and Turner's Sunset:

I would love to see how they flesh it out--in the flesh, so to speak. Anyone want to plan a trip to Stockholm this October?

Blue Morph at Governor's Island

2011-08-16T08:51:00.000-04:00

Mark di Suvero work isn't the only thing up on Governors Island this summer. Blue Morph is an interactive installation by Victoria Vesna that is taking over the St. Cornelius Chapel on Governors Island. Vesna's work is part of the WAVE(form)s: Electronic Art Exhibition and was created in collaboration with nanoscientist Jim Gimzewski.

The morph is that of a butterfly, which you can see in the blue light on the large screen in the apse. The rather haunting sound that echoes through the chapel is meant to correspond to cellular changes in the butterfly as it emerges from its cocoon.

But the interactive element makes this installation really come to life. The participant sits on a blue disc that lights up, and places the white crochet hanging thing on his head. Suddenly the sounds are amplified in his ears and he has the best view of the piece in front of him. It soon becomes clear that if the person moves, the image on screen changes, or perhaps one could say distorts. It feels as if the participant is the heartbeat of the whole glowing exhibition.

The artist's intention was to encourage stillness and silence, and only then can the participant watch the metamorphosis unhindered. I guess I was a little more entranced with myself when I experienced it than the artist intended. ;) The installation is up through September 25 in the St. Cornelius Chapel on Governor's Island. More on the background of Blue Morph here.

Mark di Suvero at Governors Island

2011-08-02T09:13:00.000-04:00

Mark di Suvero's large steel sculptures have taken over the lawns at Governors island this summer, and I couldn't think of a better way to see them. The scale suits the large lawns, and seeing them with Manhattan or the Statue of Liberty as a backdrop is a treat. Somehow despite the imposing size and weight of the I-beams and salvaged steel, they still feel playful. The kids got the same vibe--more than one was trying to crawl or hang from these works this past weekend.

Rust Angel, 1995

Rust Angel, 1995

Old Buddy (for Rosko), 1993-95

For Chris, 1991

For an interesting history of the artist's relationship with dealer Richard Bellamy, plus some much better photos, check out 16 Miles.

Reflections on Ostalgia

2011-07-28T09:59:00.000-04:00

First let's do away with the problem of the name: "Ostalgia" might mean a nostalgia for East German Communist times, but it is not the proven thrust of the fascinating and diverse melting pot of works housed in the 5 floors of the New Museum through September 25. The works are more ambivalent than that. Similarly, "ost" refers most directly to East Germany, but these works come from artists all over the former Eastern Bloc.

Three Capacity Men, 2005, by Thomas Schutte with photographs from U-NI-TY, 1991-94 by Michael Schmidt’s

If one ever thought if was possible to synthesize the works and experiences of artists from the 1940s to now from all of the countries into a coherent narrative without a didactism that overrules the complexity of the situation...well, clearly that is a tall order. Maybe it's best to leave it as Massimiliano Gioni, curator at the New Museum, says here:

“I had no ambition to tell the truth about the Soviet Bloc. Memory is never reliable, but it’s all we’ve got and this exhibition is about remembering a time and place that is quickly going away.”

Like Younger than Jesus, another show of Gioni's, the curation somehow sidesteps any guidance. However, in the sprawling, exhausting, bewildering expanse of works that make up Ostalgia, there is certainly a lot of worthwhile art to see.

No. 14 in the 'Relationship' series, 1989, Nicolay Bakharev

Bakharev has many photographs in the this show that, like this one, ignored the official ban on nudity.

No. 22 from 'Ogonyok' series, 2001 by Sergey Zarva

The artist paints the covers of a formerly popular Soviet magazine, although for him these are relics found in parent's and friend's houses as he was born later, transforming the covers into negative, demonic masks.

Julius Koller, U.F.O.-NAUT J.K. a (U.F.O.), 1987

Koller's work is part of a series called UFO, standing for Universal-Cultural Futurological Operations, among other things, and dealing with a new approach to Anti-Happenings and the Anti-Images. I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions. (It baffles me; I just really like the plate.)

The hundreds of works are fascinating overall, both as artworks and in their strong relation to life in the former Eastern Bloc. Each of them and their creators have distinct stories worthy of being told. The best way to get a sense of the many threads is to start on the 5th floor, where a room-sized mural acts as a visual history charting communism's rise and fall in the Eastern Bloc. Cotter of the New York Times was right to say that what could have been an amateurish survey turned into something more. I honestly can't wait to go back and have a second chance to delve into these works. And that is the first time I've thought that this summer.

Two Rainbows

2011-07-24T11:00:00.000-04:00

Can you find the second rainbow? Clearly this was taken before the series of 100+ degree days, but with a little luck we might get some rainshowers this afternoon. Fingers crossed.

A Shimmering Heat

2011-07-22T08:05:00.001-04:00

The Manneporte near Étretat (1886), Claude Monet

At least Monet's shimmering heat has the ocean. We're looking at temperatures that of 101 here in New York, and the asphalt is indeed shimmering.

Coney Island

2011-07-20T09:27:00.001-04:00

The Steeplechase, Coney Island (1929), Milton Avery

Luna Park Sign (1928), Walker Evans

Fourth of July, Coney Island (1958), Robert Frank

There might not be a steeplechase any more, but Coney Island remains essentially the same over the decades. I loved finding these old photographs by Walker Evans and Robert Frank just for that reason. Especially at night, walking along the 100 year old boardwalk, one feels that people have been doing this here for ages.

Abandoned Subway Stations

2011-07-18T08:46:00.000-04:00

There is something haunting about the abandoned underground tunnels of New York city, a mix of elegant early architecture, graffiti, and perhaps Mole people. City Hall Station, above and below, opened as part of the first subway line on October 27, 1904. Because of platform lengthening to accommodate longer trains (and thus more passengers) in the 40s and 50s, it was decided to abandon the station in favor of the nearby Brooklyn Bridge station, and so City Hall was closed to passenger service on December 31, 1945.

Much more fancy than the other stations of its time, City Hall was designed with unique decorative tiling and skylights. Unlike other stations abandoned during the platform lengthening process, City Hall Station was securely sealed off because of security concerns. It remains pristine, as can be seen in these photos from a rare 2004 IRT Centennial celebration held there. It has since be re-sealed.

Other examples of abandooned stations fared differently:

91st Street Station

Full collection of 91st Street station images here. This station was closed in 1959 when the 96th Street station was lengthened and looks by far the most heavily graffitied.

18th Street Station

Less artfully graffitied, these 18th St. Station images show what happened to the station abandoned in 1948 when the 14th Street station was lengthened.

Worth Street Station

There is also a full collection of images from Worth Street Station. Stations that were closed in the city due to lengthening seem to have the most graffiti, maybe because they were still remembered 20 years later after the rise of spraypaint or maybe because they are so close to the working stations that edged them out.

Everything you ever wanted to know about the history of the NYC underground from its beginnings in 1904 until today can be found on www.nycsubway.org, and if you are like me you'll find the section on Abandoned Stations particularly interesting in their descent from elegance to chaos.

Colored Plastic Things

2011-07-11T20:49:00.002-04:00

The Straws on the Doors via Economy Custard

Two of my favorite photography blogs seemed to be sharing a moment as I caught up on my Google Reader today. Both posted photos of unusual collections of colored plastic on wood, and both blogs worth a gander.

David Ikus

Cy Twombley: Selected Examples

2011-07-05T20:33:00.002-04:00

Originally published Sunday, March 1 2009 and reblogged in honor of the artist's death today at 83.

A Progression Into Chaos

Beautiful images for your Sunday morning. Twombly's work is something I never tire of, even if seeing these images on a screen really takes away from their painterly quality and large size. Cy Twombly is one of my favorite contemporary artists, and if they would bring Le Quattro Stagione, his quartet of paintings, back to the atrium of MoMA, I would be quite happy.

There were fireworks.

2011-07-05T11:25:00.000-04:00

History of English, the cartoon

2011-06-30T08:41:00.000-04:00

Part one of ten, more here.
Originally from lines and colors.

Richard Serra Drawing at the Met

2011-06-29T08:51:00.000-04:00

The artist in his exhibition

My expectations were not high for the Richard Serra Drawing: A Retrospective exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His monumental, simple sculptures hardly seemed likely to be very impressive in sketch form. But as the artist has mentioned in interviews, this body of work is separate from his sculpture--and his black or two-toned large drawings interact with the space and the viewer in some of the same ways his sculptures do and maintain the impressive scale one is used to in his work. For clarification, see above: those black walls enclosing the artist are the drawing.

Institutionalized Abstract Art, 1976

Altogether, walking through the galleries was a zen experience, and not just because the crowds from the Alexander McQueen show hadn't stumbled in. The large shapes and neutral palate (more on his use of black below) gave focus to the experience of walking through the exhibition, and noticing how the works interacted with the space, and my space.

From an interview with the artist on Artinfo.com:

Could you tell me about your use of black in your drawings?
I think black is a property, a material. And as a property I think it's the best way to articulate drawings where you don't have to get into the metaphors present in the use of chartreuse or pink or anything else. And I studied with [Josef] Albers at Yale and I proofed his book and taught the color course and I really got it down to just dealing with black
And you see it as a material with a weight?
As a property. Because it absorbs light, it manifests itself as weight more than things that reflect light.
[....]

How does this show relate to your 2007 MoMA retrospective, or how do you want people to relate the two shows?
It's a different body of work. I'd like it to be seen as an autonomous body of drawing, good or bad, and just be judged that way, or be reviewed that way, or just be viewed that way. But if people start making relationships to the sculpture then they're really missing the point. It's about what they are in their definition as drawing. They're not trying to redefine what the sculpture is, and they're not pointing to the sculpture. They make spaces and places, but they're not sculptural spaces and places in the way that sculptures make their own spaces and places.

Serra's comment on black having weight seems very true in this show. The works pictured here are mostly from the mid-1970s, when Serra started using black paintstick, a mixture of pigment, oil, and wax. He has continued to use paintstick to make thick black textured surfaces from the first 'Installation Drawings,' monumental works on canvas or linen pinned directly to the wall and thickly covered with black paintstick, to the work he created specifically for the Met's exhibition in 2011.

Still Life & Motion at DCKT Contemporary

2011-06-27T09:01:00.000-04:00

Bouquet, Everest Hall, 2011

Still Life and Motion: Everest Hall and Sean Capone opened Thursday night on the LES DCKT Contemporary gallery, and alltogether made for a nice, small show that speaks to a very contemporary way of handling the age-old still life genre. Everest Hall provides the still lifes of the exhibition's title, with roses on rather geometric backgrounds that seem paper-thin, fragile, and false. Sean Capone provides the motion, showing roses and other flowers exploding and fading out like a kaleidoscope setting for a flat screen. The works complimented each other nicely, but Hall's work seemed the weaker part of the show.

Still from Sub Rosa (What We Do Is Secret), Sean Capone, 2009

Capone's two video installations were fascinated to watch as they played on an endless loop. I was also very intrigued by the sales premise behind them. Literally a few minutes after complaining to a friend about how I can't afford any of the artwork I see, I looked at the price list and saw the videos being sold as a file on a USB drive for $125, and that they artist had limited the editions to 100. The artist created his own principle of scarcity that was really interesting, and I could certainly dig projecting those patterns onto my living room wall 24/7. I was also really impressed and interested by the site-specific installations he had created in the past. In fact, they are amazing: see here.

FloralWall (Skull & Void #3), Sean Capone, 2010

Sol LeWitt: Structures at City Hall Park

2011-06-17T09:55:00.001-04:00

The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.

-Sol LeWitt

The Public Art Fund has created a Sol LeWitt cubeland in the grass of busy City Hall Park, not to mention creating a very informative accompanying website to go with it. Up through December, you have plenty of time to come down and stroll among his 2-dimensional creations.

Worker touching up the aluminum sculpture with white paint

Le Witt, who died in 2007, was a prolific and influential American artist whose structures, or sculptures, demonstrate his Conceptual and Minimal roots. This outdoor installation of sculptures tracks his work from the more recent organic and colorful forms of the 00s to the white cubes of the 70s that began it all. I would have enjoyed seeing more of his later works--Splotch stands out starkly against the other white geometric structures, but certainly the earlier works are more emblematic of his oeuvre.

And so, a backwards chronology:

Splotch 15, 2005

One x Two Half Off, 1991

Tower (Colombus), 1990

Complex Forms, 1990

Stars, 1989-1990

Complex Form 6, 1987

Pyramid (Munster), 1987

Double Modular Cube, 1979

Incomplete Open Cubes, 1974

Lydia Venieri: The Last Conflict

2011-06-13T10:04:00.000-04:00

Can a cornucopia of fake flowers, shiny things, dolls, dolphins and unicorns escape being twee? The Lydia Venieri exhibition The Last Conflict: Retrospective: Sculpture, Video, and Photography is, as the title suggests, a mixed media installation that occupies the majority of Stux Gallery's space that begs the question.

Her bubble sculptures, supported by tree trunks or suspended from the ceiling, depict hyperbolically natural flora and fauna. The materials mix the organic (moss, wood) and plastic. The miniature ecosystems seem like the baubles of fairies from a bad production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Authenticity is hardly the point, however.

The exhibition also featured satin digital color prints from the artist's "Planet Exodus" series. In them, wide-eyed dolls pose like models.

Their large eyes reflect the manmade surroundings, and suggest a (fake?) innocence in the face of natural devastation. The worlds Venieri portrays in the dolls' eyes, and in the video installation as well, suggests the world of man in conflict with the natural world.

That message comes differently from the mouths, so to speak, of the little plastic people that Venieri employs.

Rather like a Japanese Lolita, Venieri's exhibition tweaks twee on the nose, and manages to seem coy about the darkness underlying her plastic arts.

Up through June 25th at Stux Gallery.

Play Your Cards Right

2011-06-03T11:47:00.003-04:00

The Cloisters in Fort Tryon park, part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is displaying a lovely set of fifty-two Medieval playing cards that constitute the only known complete deck of illuminated ordinary playing cards (as opposed to tarot cards) from the fifteenth century. The face cards are especially fun.

The Met says that their "exaggerated and sometimes anachronistic costumes suggest a lampoon of extravagant Burgundian court fashions." Perhaps, but I think they look charming. The real question is: how did they survive this long?

Li Songsong at Pace

2011-06-02T09:16:00.000-04:00

These huge canvases with their impasto surfaces struck me as almost ugly at first: the colors, the quasi-photographic Gerhard Richter feel, the imagery. But by the time I left Pace these works by Chinese painter Li Songsong had not just grown on me, but wowed me.

I had a visceral reaction to the textured, thick application of paint.

The scale was humbling.

The imagery took on more context and nuance seen together, and the grids of color the images were reassembled in seemed less rigid and more poetic.

This one is incredibly layered both in the subdued pastel and sepia coloring and literally: As you can see below, the artist mounted separate metal panels and layered them on top of one another.

This canvas seems almost Impressionistic in the way it dabbles light through the trees. The subject, however, is anything but.

Up at Pace Gallery through August 5, and certainly worth a viewing this summer.

Louise Bourgeois: The Fabric Works at Cheim & Read

2011-05-31T09:18:00.000-04:00

Installation View

I thought I just loved her spiders, but in fact I found Louise Bourgeois' stitchings rather touching variations upon themselves and 'woman's work.' These abstract drawings are made from scraps of clothes and other domestic material that Bourgeois had hoarded over the years. Per usual, Cheim and Reed has done a lovely job with its exhibition Louise Bourgeois: The Fabric Works. The pieces are perfect sketches in themselves, but seen as a series they make a much greater impression that individually.

Part of Eugenie Grandet, 2009

Untitled, 2010

The Waiting Hours, 2007

Part of The Waiting Hours

Up through June 25 at Cheim and Read.

Ying Li at Lohin Geduld

2011-05-24T09:03:00.000-04:00

Installation View

Better late than never. I saw the Ying Li exhibition at Lohin Geduld this Saturday, the last day it was up as it turns out. Tending toward the small in size, Ying Li thickly painted abstractions are closely painted, dense colorful works. These scenes are recognizable for the most part and common place: trees, houses, and melting snow.

By The Porch

By the Porch is a small 12 x 12 piece that is my favorite of the show. I liked the contrast of smooth almost sheer light blue background upon which the yellow tree thickly stood and how the globs of color hung at the top.

Melting

I fell for her thick and gestural way of applying the paint, and the magical way the density of color resolved itself into suggestive scenes. The materiality of the paint is paramount in all of these.

Window on Town of Tilting

[Was] up at Lohin Geduld Gallery through May 21. More on the artist's webpage.

Richard Tuttle at Pace Gallery

2011-05-23T09:19:00.002-04:00

Installation View

What's the Wind is a collection of seven new sculptures that artist Richard Tuttle calls 'systems,' and this description makes some sense after seeing the delicate balance of discrete, rough hewn elements. The disparity of parts adds some whimsy as do the simple colors and forms. Existing within the wooden platforms, the pieces create an environment almost like a ecosystem in a terrarium. I expected the parts to move like a Jean Tingley sculpture, but alas, they are frozen in a system that does not move, and is in fact dead.

So what are these systems we are looking at? The press release describes them as "intensely self-referential," but perhaps we can deduce something by the helpfully descriptive names if not the works themselves.

System 4, Hummingbird, 2011

The title Hummingbird suggests a flurry of intense movement that turns into a blur of motion. Here we have a duct tape spire rising high over an internal core of small parts flanked by two enormous boards. Or, we have a long beak, small fat body, and two strong wings keeping the hummingbird afloat.

Detail of System 4, Hummingbird

The body of the sculpture is open, and these little circles and plinths seem to me like they should be free moving rather than fixed.

System 3, Measurement, 2011

Measurement has large, candy colored suspended balls hovering over a circle. Here the fixed structure works to create tension as the balls seem to defy gravity. I had the rather more unfortunate impression of a banana split melting into a waiting mouth. Off hand, I'd say the ice cream isn't going to fit in the "mouth" below, if that was what Tuttle was trying to measure.

Richard Tuttle's Whats the Wind up at Pace Gallery through July 22.

Discover the Lukhang Murals at the Rubin Museum of Art

2011-05-19T09:33:00.002-04:00

Potola Palace, Lhasa, Tibet

Hidden in the Potola Palace is the secret Lukhang Temple. Amazingly preserved, this temple is a unique expression of Tantric Buddhist art historically available only to the Dalai Lama and his retinue for deep meditation and closed off to the public. The current Dalai Lama has lifted the silk curtains so to speak, and in addition to allowing visitors has allowed the detailed wall murals to be photographed. Currently at the Rubin Museum of Art you can see the Lukhang Murals even better than you can in the actual temple thanks to new photographic methods by Thomas Laird and Clint Clemens.

A separate room at the museum displays life size, high resolution pigment prints placed similarly to how they appear in the walls of the temple itself, and handily for me are accompanied by audio recordings that detail at least some of what is going on in these complex scenes. The 18th c. wall paintings illustrate the Dalai Lama's path to enlightenment, and are unusual because these mystical teachings of Tantric Buddhism tend to be passed by whisper rather than openly expressed.

Detail of East wall showing two Mahasiddha

They are also remarkable for their color and complexity, and the sense of order maintained despite the activity of all the tiny figures. While the recording only touch upon the surface of what is going on in each panel, nonetheless it provides a great and enticing background. With such expressive figures and scenes, I found my imagination going into overdrive as I examined them, and I had to promise myself I would come back for a second look.

While I imagine these setting isn't quite as awe-inspiring as ascending by wooden ladder to this hidden secret in the Dalai Lama's palace in Tibet, it's certainly more accessible. More information here:
http://hem.bredband.net/ritnyb/lukhang.html
http://www.asianart.com/articles/baker/index.htmll

McQueen's Savage Beauty at the Met

2011-05-16T09:02:00.004-04:00

Organized by The Costume Institute and on at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through July 31. The installation of this exhibition was fantastically done (in both senses of the word). More here.

Today is National Doodle Day

2011-05-12T09:15:00.000-04:00

....and I have nothing to show for it. Yet.

But Jeff Bridges, sketch above, and other celebrities do, and they are auctioning off their pieces on Ebay today.

More about Doodle Day here, or check out JafaBrit's blog where I first saw this and see what doodle she's come up with.

Golden buddha

2011-05-11T09:17:00.000-04:00

I got inspired at the Rubin (and invited into a sculpture sessions that I suspect was intended for children) and so made this little Buddha man to bring home with me. Normally they say feet of clay, but here we have hands of clay, a pipecleaner for support, and a lot of gold glitter. He will probably just remain a common household god.

The lotus pose of the Buddha Shakyamuni, below, from the Rubin collection looks far more perfect, as it does in most other respects.

Buddha Shakyamuni from northwestern Nepal (Khasa Malla rule) from the 14th century. It is made of gilt copper alloy with inlay. Rubin Museum of Art.

In other news, people seem to be doing precarious things outside my 20th floor office window.

Body Language: Photographs by Thomas Kelly at the Rubin

2011-05-10T09:08:00.001-04:00

Thomas Kelly, Smoking Sadhu (2000)

Body Language: The Yogis of India and Nepal up through July 4 is a fascinating photograph exhibition in the lower level of the Rubin Museum of Art with prints from Thomas Kelly, an American photographer who has lived and worked in Nepal for many years. This collection of images documents wandering Hindu ascetics called Sadhus, and notably these men and woman paint their bodies in striking colors as they emulate their chosen deities. The images of these naked and/or colorfully painted people with matted hair are beautiful, and the Rubin Museum provides context on these remarkable looking people. The exterior appearance is just one way in which the Sadhu takes on the attribute of the deity he is emulating, which becomes the goal and process of his whole life.

Installation View of Body Language, Rubin Museum of Art

Kelly writes on his website of sadhus in respect to his book Sadhus: The Great Renouncers:

In my adopted home of Kathmandu, some sadhus survive primarily off alms made from allowing tourists to photograph them. They are a spectacle and love to play their assigned role in the illusion or drama of society. Their masks are thickly painted on their naked bodies. Sadhus have formally abandoned conventional time; their world is dense with its own complex politics, social hierarchy, taboos and customs, often making access challenging.

   Volatile and unpredictable, spontaneous photography of sadhus can actually be dangerous. You can easily be trampled or attacked if you immerse yourself in a naga baba procession after a mass Khumba Mela bathing. Or, without permission from a Mahant to work inside an Akhara, be accused of being a spy and have to answer to a Sadhu tribunal. There’s no such thing as achieving photographic acceptance within the Sadhu mandala. For me, photographing at ritual time is always the most dynamic and fluid. Once rapport has been established, a camera is tolerated, often with a sense of lila, or maya, play and illusion. It took repeated visits over many seasons and melas, to occasionally reach this level.
   My initial inexplicable attraction to the Sadhu world was mostly visual. As a photographer, I loved how they allowed their bodies to become symbols of the sacred- from walking around naked to remind us of our naked selves, to wearing ash to remind us what are bodies become, to dreadlocks to remind us of our natural wild natures devoid of social convention. Their bodies were texts, which spoke volumes regarding sacred symbolism.
   A sadhu’s body is a map of the Hindu universe, for the body is a microcosm of the cosmos. Like a canvas, the colour and painted symbols aid in purification, inspire, and remind of the timeless divine beyond body and form. The body is used to tell stories. As the sadhus works towards an egoless state, he becomes the very symbols he’s painted whether it be Shiva, Vishnu, or Rama, the colors refer to esoteric inner visions and possible alchemical states of consciousness. The real goal of a Sadhu is to achieve an attitude of non-attachment and transcendence of the physical body.

Stoppard's Arcadia on Broadway

2011-05-09T09:32:00.000-04:00

Picture of the ending waltz (NOT from the current Broadway production)

It all ends in one swirling waltz, with both past and present people circling each other in a ring of time and thought. Indeed, Stoppard's Arcadia, currently running at the Barrymore Theater, gives the sense that time dances with itself as well. The two intertwined narratives, one in the 1830s and one in the present day, step around each other in the space of an old British country house, never touching except perhaps if the present day inhabitants feel a ghost-like chill as they research the earlier characters.

Aptly played by most of the cast, except perhaps a really galling and annoying portrayal of Bernarad Nightengale by Billy Cudrup that toned itself down in the second half, the lines were spoken well. (The NY Times disagrees here.) Stoppard loads his lines down with so many -isms that are then undercut by so many comedic lines that just getting them out naturally and so that the audience can follow deserves applause. The characters themselves are warm and human, if not particularly fleshed out. In their limited roles, the mouthing of Stoppard's suddenly heart-wrenching epigrams, full of yearning and paradox, can seem a little startling.

Many of Stoppard's plays have been history lessons as well, bringing us into the intellectual thoughts and mores of an era. Nothing revolutionary happens here, and a quick explanation of plot or purpose is hard to come by for Arcadia. Set in Sidley Park, an English country house, the research of two modern scholars and the house's current residents are juxtaposed with the lives of those who lived there 180 years earlier. In the present, writer Hannah Jarvis is researching a hermit who once lived on the grounds of the estate and Bernard Nightingale, a literature professor, is investigating a possible connection to the life of Lord Byron. As their investigations unfold, helped by Valentine Coverly, a post-graduate student in mathematical biology, the truth about the 1800s era residents Thomasina Coverly, the daughter of the house, and her tutor Septimus Hodge, is gradually revealed.

What the actors do very well is make the search for knowledge and truth a passionate, heartfelt affair. The possible futility of it lends pathos to the character's individual searches. Time and Sidley Park brings them together for a brief moment. Altogether, a little wilder than the average Bristish country house story.

Tete casquee

2011-05-05T09:24:00.002-04:00

Tete Casquee, 1933. Bronze

My favorite piece from the Gagosian Picasso and Marie-Thérèse: L'Amour Fou exhibition seemed to have little to do with Marie-Thérèse: the Tête casquée (1933) bronze head of a warrior is charming, a little goofy even, but fantastic. (It is also apparently under copyright protection in the US, because heaven forbid my blog show a small, low-res image of a famous Picasso sculpture without a 'gettyimages' tag over it. I mean, we all have to keep our standard up or soon the rabble would be sharing images of god-knows-what important sculpture.)

Luckily MoMA is a little freer with an image of a plaster cast of the same work, which shows the wonderful face of the soldier better:

Head of a warrior, Boisgeloup, 1933. Plaster, metal, and wood

I hope the inclusion of this piece wasn't meant to be a riff on Marie-Thérèse's Roman nose?

Picasso's Muse Marie-Thérèse Explored at Gagosian

2011-05-04T08:54:00.000-04:00

Marie-Thérèse Walter was Picasso's lover, if not his wife, for most of her life. The exhibition Picasso and Marie-Thérèse: L'Amour Fou up at Gagosian through June 25th is a museum-quality exploration of Picasso's many iterations of the blonde, Grecian-nosed woman using works borrowed from private collections and prestigious museums. The likelihood of seeing such a gathering, especially some of the privately owned works again is rare, a reason in itself to visit.

The works themselves are of mixed quality, but there are some truly fantastic pieces in themselves. What I enjoyed even more was the story the show told; a romantic one of continuing if not untroubled love. Marie-Thérèse became Picasso's mistress at 17, bore him a child, and committed suicide after his death, 50 years after they met. He painted her throughout his life.

"I see you before me my lovely landscape MT and never tire of looking at you, stretched out on your back in the sand, my dear MT I love you. MT my devouring rising sun. You are always on me, MT mother of sparkling perfumes pungent with star jasmines. I love you more than the taste of your mouth, more than your look, more than your hands, more than your whole body, more and more and more and more than all my love for you will ever be able to love and I sign Picasso." - Letter to Marie-Thérèse from Picasso

A great slideshow on the WSJ site shows many of the pieces.

Apollo and Daphne

2011-04-29T10:03:00.001-04:00

Bernini's Apollo and Daphne at the Villa Borghese

It's a beautiful Spring. Perhaps we should all get chased through the forest and pray to be turned into trees?

I still contend that Daphne gets the better end of the "tree-woman" (see my Huldra's post) stick in art history, and this statue testifies to that. Bernini tells the myth of Daphne being turned into a tree to escape the God Apollo beautifully, and I remember when I saw it in person at 15 being awestruck by the movement and softness of the sculpture. It is still one of my favorites.

Huldras

2011-04-26T21:06:00.000-04:00

The Huldra, Thomas Dodd. Available for sale at Redbubble.

The myth is that you follow the Huldra into the forest. Then once the beautiful and enticing Huldra turns away from you, you see that her back is like an oak tree with a hollow spot and that she has an animal's tail.

These are the more chaste images of her I could find--I leave it to you to make your own Google search. There is certainly a dearth of huldra representation. In terms of tree women, Daphne definitely gets more artistic attention.

Huldra by Maria Friberg Berntsson. Here.

Huldra [with red-hatted gnomes!]

Amy Talluto at Black and White Gallery

2011-04-25T13:33:00.001-04:00

White Pine, Oil on Canvas

I popped into Amy Talluto's show Huldra at Black and White Gallery this weekend, and her forest landscapes had me back to reminiscing about the trees, particularly the white birches, of Sweden. Not that there were any white birches in the show--rather the artist caught the light and the density of the forest while adding something evocative and mysterious. Perhaps a little like the childhood wonder I felt being alone in a forest where trolls might lurk among the mushrooms. In an odd coincidence, the title of the show comes from an old Swedish tale--a Huldra being a witch who lures men deep into the forest

Huldra, Oil on Canvas

Her surfaces alternate between being dense with intricate color, like the trunk of this tree appearing like the inside of oyster shells, and light-filled space like green background beyond.

Burn, 2006

Up at Black and Gallery through May 15 (and especially the bigger paintings like the one below appear much better there than in this small reproduction).

Sunset, Oil on canvas

I Want a Time Machine

2011-04-20T14:04:00.072-04:00

Time Machine XLIX, Jason Brammer

WIKIPEDIA: Although time travel has been a common plot device in fiction since the 19th century, and one-way travel into the future is arguably possible given the phenomenon of time dilation based on velocity in the theory of special relativity (exemplified by the twin paradox), as well as gravitational time dilation in the theory of general relativity, it is currently unknown whether the laws of physics would allow backwards time travel.

Time Machine Model

Last night I watched the classic 1960 film The Time Machine, where a Victorian Englishman travels far into the future based on the novel by H.G. Wells. Travelling into the future is a concept suggested in many ancient myths and folk tales, often with the person returning to find his family old or gone. Travelling into the future is also possible according to our law of physics--for example, if I were to ride a beam of light to the sun and back, I would arrive in the future.

Time Machine XXIX, Jason Brammer

Travelling to the past is a different beast. It is not known whether the laws of physics would allow it, and it has only occurred in literature relatively recently in the 18th and 19th century. Time travel to the future doesn't seem to be in vogue in the popular imagination--or perhaps just my imagination. If anything, I assume time travel is to the past when I think of it, and Jason Brammer's time machines certainly look like they would travel to the past (although the artist's website doesn't make any claims as to whether the pieces work). Which way would you go?

(However I would also be overjoyed to have a plain and simple travel machine, per below.)

Today's Forecast

2011-04-20T10:25:00.000-04:00

Autumn Moon over Lake Dongting

The silhouettes of the buildings are different, but somehow this unidentified 15th c. Korean artist caught the misty weather we are having perfectly.

More on this work here.

Ai Weiwei

2011-04-18T09:55:00.001-04:00

As you might have heard, China accused Ai Weiwei, artist of Olympic "bird's nest" stadium fame and other internationally-known projects, of economic crimes and has held him in police custody since April 7. This happened right after I saw a fantastic PBS documentary on the artist, Who's Afriad of Ai Weiwei, available here, which gives some nice background on the Chinese government's treatment of the artist.

There have been protests across the world, and this weekend NYC joined in with 1,000 Chairs for Ai Weiwei. It has been suggested that the Chinese government wanted to send the message that no one is immune to the "rule of law"--or the government's censorship--but let us hope that is not so.

Carl Larsson's Idyllic Spring

2011-04-15T09:21:00.000-04:00

Spring

I've just returned from a quick visit to Sweden (my grandmother's 90th birthday). The snow there has melted, and spring has just started to peak out from under the dead leaves. Carl Larsson's images are representative of some of the idyllic Swedish days, full of light, that are just starting.

Breakfast under the Big Birch Tree

Similar to Norman Rockwell in America, Larsson's focus was on the home and happy families, and encapsulate the best and most charming aspects of Swedish life at the turn of the century. Also like Rockwell, advances in technology allowed his work to spread and become popularly known. Larsson's watercolors could be reproduced easily through new printing techniques, just as Rockwell's illustrations were spread on the cover of magazines. Having only spent the warmer months there, my memories of Sweden are just as idyllic.

Flowers on the Windowsill

Take a tour of Carl Larsson's well-preserved and beautifully decorated home here.

Cycladic Heads: What the Nose Knows

2011-04-13T13:48:00.000-04:00

Cycladic Head, Mindy Shapiro at Armory 2011

Is the title referring to the the Bronze Age civilization on the Cyclades islands in the southern Aegean Sea, or the present day inhabitants? The painted acrylic scales covering the wood statue were hand cut and performs marvels of gently undulating texture.

Detail, Cycladic Head

The Metropolitan has its own Clycadic head, most definitely of the Bronze age- 2700 BC to be precise.

Head from the figure of a woman, Metropolitan Museum of Art

There are traces of pigment on the sculpture that suggest the surface was originally colored in with more facial features. Typically the nose the only individual feature sculpted, lending it a noticable prominence today.

Look What Happened to the Art Market

2011-04-06T09:08:00.000-04:00

"Without Wall Street many forms of books, incunables, high spots of modern literature, are already unobtainable by the average collector or even fairly well-to-do collectors. Think Great Gatsby at over a $100k...Look what happened in the art market, where paintings that used to cost thousands are now hundreds of thousands, and paintings that used to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars are now millions of dollars....

If Wall Street gets hold of books and turns them into high priced investment widgets, then look out. No one will be able to afford them any more and some of the joy of collecting will be gone."

This quote from The Man who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession came from a book dealer upon hearing that book collections were being characterized in Worth magazine as good investments. It certainly hard to imagine people like to Vogels collecting in todays market, which bounced back from the financial crisis without losing much of the gains it has made over the past 20 years.

Does the rare book market share the same future? If so, I'd better scrounge up my first editions. It's interesting that this book dealer, who would profit for this more than the average collector potentially, doesn't like the idea of pricing people out of their collecting hobby. The dealers arguably benefit more than the collectors or artists, because many collectors are priced out and because fewer contemporary artists make the cut for the higher prices being paid at auction. But on the other hand, perhaps it is a sign of the health of the art market than it can command such record high prices.

By the way, the book itself is proving quite enjoyable. It's the true story of a book thief who stole rare books and hoarded them in the modest apartment he shared with his father, not unlike the art thief of my novel who steals to create his own personal collection that he keeps at his mother's house.

Edward Hopper on New York

2011-04-04T09:18:00.000-04:00

Automat

Modern Life: Edward Hopper and His Time up at the Whitney traces the development of realism in American art between 1900 and 1940, with a focus on developments in urban and rural life that occurred during this period and the museum's extensive holdings of Hopper. I had been quite looking forward to it, and left with a rather threadbare, uninspired impression. Perhaps because of the wider nature of the exhibition, I didn't really get the feel and understanding of Hopper's work that I would have liked (except perhaps that it stood head and shoulders over the contemporaries of his that were on view). I liked Hopper, and perhaps understood more about him, a bit better after this video:

New York Window

Scenes like the one above, simple and relatable, showed the artist at his best. The one above left me with the feeling I often get in the old tenements buildings of how little has changed for people living in them. The isolation of the figures in his cityscapes and the lamp lit night scenes are so ascetically bare and realistic that they remove themselves from sentimentality.

New York Room

New York Office

New York Movie

Nighthawks

For lack of better, an email chain:

2011-03-31T14:37:00.000-04:00

Price of gas in France

A thief in Paris planned to steal some paintings from the Louvre.

After careful planning, he got past security, stole the paintings, and made it safely to his van.

However, he was captured only two blocks away when his van ran out of gas.

When asked how he could mastermind such a crime and then make such an obvious error, he replied, "Monsieur, that is the reason I stole the paintings.'

I had no Monet

to buy Degas

to make the Van Gogh.

See if you have De Gaulle to send this on to someone else

I sent it to you because I figured I had nothing Toulouse.

Finally, a warm & sunny day

2011-03-18T12:19:00.001-04:00

Anne Neely, Somewhere Inbetween

Ken Matsubara at MA2 Gallery, VOLTA

2011-03-17T12:34:00.000-04:00

The Japanese artist Ken Matsubara had simple, reflective works that seemed to be about the process of memory and the role it plays. The objects were all perfectly formed, but my favorite was this elegant wooden box enclosing a recessed video playing while reflected on the mirrored sides around it.

I wish I was watching waves wash over my feet in just such a fashion. Hmmm, not to pick favorites...but this might be my favorite from Volta.

Sinta Werner: Question Reality

2011-03-15T09:32:00.000-04:00

There were so many high-quality artists being shown at Volta, but Sinta Werther's work at the Nettie Horn Gallery booth stood out to me.

The Broken Bits of Pieces use glass, lightbulbs, and mirrors to reflect carefully painted scenes, but they are less scenes as suggestions of place.

These Autoprojections, above and below, are done on photographic paper with paint, and as you can kind of see in the image below, the paper has also been folded.

Apparently these are small-scale examples of her preoccupation with bending space and begging the view the question reality and perception, and some very cool examples of large-scale manipulations can be found on Volta's page dedicated to the artist.

Public play: Butterfly money

2011-03-14T09:58:00.000-04:00

"Public play" was called for: asking people to step into this booth for 2 minutes of floating butterflies blowing around at GE Galeria, Monterrey Mexico, by Erika Harrsch. This neat and, yes, playful exhibition was probably the most engaging work at Volta art fair.

In an on trend moment, the butterflies (which) I thought were made of trash) are made of currency. Currency appearing folded, printed on, or painted all over the fairs.

Ryan Wallace's Violet Collage

2011-03-10T09:01:00.001-05:00

Mist (Timeline) 3 (2011), Ryan Wallace

Another favorite from Pulse, Ryan Wallace's large violet collage at Morgan Lehman's booth, led me to do some research on the artist this morning.

I thought the painting/mixed media piece was nicely framed by the white Still Lifes on either side at Pulse, and I loved the subtle variations in tone of the work up close. His materials are really nicely integrated, and the end product very finished and smooth. But...

...his artist statement gave me a terrible case of the giggles:

"I am inspired by both the genius and the crackpot, the elegance of the universe and Tron."

Suddenly all I could think of was Charlie Sheen.

Pulse Favorite: Christopher Russell

2011-03-09T09:17:00.000-05:00

Christopher Russel, you had me at the Luis de Jesus booth at Pulse Art Fair.

I love your aesthetic. I love the layering and the subtle colors. I love the richness of the textures and chaos your work approaches. I love the conflation of mediums. I love the active nature of scratching on the photographic prints.

Let's make art-babies.

Matthew Cox's Embroidered X-rays

2011-03-08T10:06:00.000-05:00

Of all the uses of thread I saw at the art fairs, and they were myriad and multitudinousness, even more so than last year, Matthew Cox's embroidery on x-ray at Pentimenti Gallery's booth at Pulse struck me as novel and apt.

The Botticelli-esque embroidery fleshes out the lines suggested by the x-rays. The contrast between the x-ray and the embroidery works well, although I wish the pieces could have been backlit to show off the x-rays better.

Then and now: Similarities at Pulse

2011-03-07T11:22:00.001-05:00

I felt like I was seeing a lot of the same things that I saw (and liked) last year at Pulse Art Fair this year. Magdalena Mura then, above image from 2010, and now:

Priscila Di Carvahlo then and now:

Seong Chun then and now:

Why the repetition? I'm sure I'm not the most observant or aware art fair-goer. Other industry people must notice even more than I do. Is it a sign the artist is selling so well nothing needs to be changed? The first two artist created different pieces in recognizable styles, but I'm pretty sure the beautifully-crafted paper piece I admired in 2010 is interchangeable for the 2011 piece.

I had the same sense of deja vu for the pieces below, just not the photographic evidence to support it. Did anybody else notice this?

Xiaoze Xie this year at Pulse:

Marcus Linnenbrick this year at Pulse:

Pieces of Note: Scope Art Fair

2011-03-04T18:59:00.000-05:00

Byung-Chul Woo's Seeing and other work at Young Art Gallery are beautifully intricate, yet simple, and the pops of color are well-placed. It's an oil-on-canvas rendition of why I love living in NYC.

I wish I could find more details on it, or the work below.

Jordan Eagles at Krause Gallery

Made with blood. 'Nuff Said. Although if you did want the details, its oxblood, acrylic, resin and copper, and it looks much better in person than in this photograph.

Makeup by Eric Finzi at SFA Projects

Marlene Dumas, much? Yet these figures on epoxy resin tell more of a story and make nice use of the medium.

Carlos Quintana painting at Juan Ruis Galeria

Carlos Quintana, a Cuban artist I loved here, made a surprise appearance.