Museums and Exhibitions in New York City and Vicinity
| Home | | Museum Guide | | International | | Architecture & Design | | Theater |
GLENN LONEY'S MUSEUM NOTES
CONTENTS, NOVEMBER 2013
|
|
| Caricature of Glenn Loney by Sam Norkin. | |
Please click on "
* " to skip to each subject in this index:
At Christie's Auction House: *
At Bonhams Auction House: *
THE POWER OF POISON *
At BRIC in Downtown Brooklyn: *
WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY: Images of Armed Conflict & Its Aftermath *
THERESA BERNSTEIN: A Century in Art *
EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN IN SCIENCE & MEDICINE: Four Centuries of Achievement *
Famous, Infamous, & Forgotten: Political Cartoons
Upstairs! *
ART SPIEGELMAN'S CO MIX: A Retrospective *
Claire Fontaine's Using Walls, Floors, & Ceilings: *
Masterpieces & Curiosities: *
SIGHTS & SOUNDS: Global Film & Video: *
VENETIAN GLASS BY CARLO SCARPI: The Venini Company, 1932 1947 *
ISA GENSKEN: Retrospective *
ISAAC JULIEN: Ten Thousand Waves *
Second Edition of The Salon: Art & Design *
Report for The Month of November 2013
THIS WAS THE MONTH THAT WAS…
This was the Month of Elections, that Annual Occasion when the People of America get to validate the Choices the Koch Brothers have already made for them.
The Ancient Romans might have called this Vox Populi/Vox Koch…
This was also the Month in which we remembered Our Veterans of Foreign Wars--of which we now seem to have a Superfluity.
This was the Month in which Chanukkah--which, being on a Lunar Kalendar, moves around a lot, compared with the Christianized Saturnalia--fell on the very day that President Obama was Pardoning the White House Turkey!
Some Angry Republicans--who also wanted to Repeal the Constitution--could themselves have been mistaken for Political Turkeys.
Nonetheless, in keeping with the Spirit of Dual Holidays, the Jewish Museum offered a Turkey Menorah on its Website--free for Downloading!
Just imagine those Ancient Maccabees burning Turkeys for Eight Days in the Temple…
As for the Pilgrim Fathers & the First Thanksgiving, their Lineal Descendants were busy baking Pumpkin Pies & rejoicing that almost all the Original American Indians had been restricted to Reservations.
Just imagine Abigail Adams & Martha Washington arriving in Las Vegas for some Slot Fun & Cirque du Soleil Shows, to discover that they have No Reservations!
Tough Luck!
The Navahos, the Arapahoes, & the Apaches have Reservations to spare…
Speaking of Thanksgiving & Reservations, my Parisienne Theatre Colleague, Dr. Sandra Laredo, invited me down to the Players [often wrongly called a "Club"] for Turkey & Stuffing.
The Players was founded on Gramercy Park, in the Nineteenth Century, by Edwin Booth, America's Greatest Actor at that time & Brother of The Man Who Shot Lincoln.
The Players is an elegant Town House, crammed with Historical Portraits of America's Most Beloved Players, such as Joe Jefferson & Helen Hayes.
Although the World's Greatest Theatre City does not have a Theatre Museum, the Players is a Mini Museum in itself.
You can--if you are a Member or a Guest--even see Edwin Booth's Bedroom & the Bed in which He Died!
But imagine my Shock & Surprise when I thought I was going to witness a Death Scene in the Dining Room/Theatre where Jimmy Stewart was appearing in Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life.
Turkey & Stuffing had been cleared away so Festive Guests could enjoy a Period Movie, from a Simpler Time in the Great American March Forward to Exceptionalism & Prosperity.
The Lights had been dimmed, so that only a few guttering Altar Candles shed a faint glow on the remains of Pumpkin & Mince Pies.
Over against a wall near our table, two Senior Ladies had been sipping coffee, possibly worrying about whether George Bailey [a much younger Jimmy Stewart than when he became an Air Force General] was going to commit Suicide…
Suddenly, one of them slipped off her tiny Golden Chair--the even tinier Cushion had come free from its moorings--falling with a Thud on the Inlaid Flooring.
Looking over in the Semi Darkness, I thought she might have had a Stroke.
She was Inert, but Moaning.
At the next Wall Table, an even Older Lady was cackling with laughter at George Bailey's Predicament.
She had apparently Heard Nothing.
Nor did anyone else notice, except the Fallen Lady's now desperate Senior Friend, who could not raise her.
Lacking my Cripple's Cane--which I had checked at the Door--I looked down helplessly, afraid I would also Fall.
Fortunately, Dr. Sandra took charge, immediately calling 911.
After an Interval, Six Firemen appeared to succor the Unfortunate Lady, whose Day had been clearly Spoiled.
She did not get to see how a Wingless Angel called Clarence saved the Day for Jimmy/George.
But almost all of the Players & Guests--who were immersed in Hollywood's Post War Vision of A Wonderful Life--seemed unaware that Anything Had Happened. Or that there were Firemen in the Room.
Theatre of the Absurd down on Gramercy Park?
RAMBLES ROUND MUSEUMS, GALLERIES, INSTALLATIONS, & AUCTIONS--
Over at Rock Center, at Christie's, they must be keeping the Bank Vaults busy with Multi Million Dollar Auction Sales!
Some Recent Headliners:
Latin American Art: $18.2 Million!
19th Century European Art: $7,345,250!
The Connoisseur's Eye: $3,347,750!
Impressionist & Modern Art Works on Paper: $35.7 Million; Three Day Grand Total: $293.7 Million!
A Dialogue Through Art: Works from the Jan Krugier Collection: $113,732,000!
Part IV of the Collection of Arthur & Charlotte Vershbow: $8,716,375!
Not to Overlook: Two Week Fall Art Auction Series Tops $1 Billion!
[Mainland China now bidding big & often. What would Chairman Mao think?]
News Flash: Leonardo DiCaprio's Eleventh Hour Charity Auction last May has made possible the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation's First Grant of $3 Million, to help the WWF double Nepal's Tiger Population!
Let's Hear It for Leo & those Striped Tigers in far off Nepal!
Note: If you want to discover what Artworks & "Important Furniture" were Up for Auction in any of the above Sales, log on to Christie's Website for further details…
Four Million Dollars Bid for The Maltese Falcon, from The Vaults of Turner Classic Movies!
The Original Maltese Falcon--actually a Lead Statuette, not a Real Bird--is widely regarded as: "The Most Important Movie Prop Ever."
It made its Movie Debut way back in 1941, in the Film of the Same Name.
Turner Classic Movies--or TCM, a Lucky Purchase by Ted Turner--is now partnering with Bonhams Auction House to unload Movie Memorabilia in its Vaults.
Actually, the Winning Bid was $4,085,000, in the 25 November 2013 Sale, titled: What Dreams Are Made Of: A Century of Movie Magic…
Sales Totals were nearly $Six Million, with Audrey Hepburn's Givenchy Chapeau from Funny Face fetching $87,500.
That sleek 1940 Buick Phaeton from Casablanca was sold for $461,000. Full Tank not included…
Prolific Sandy Calder a Good Bet for Future Auctions: Million Dollar Mobile at Bonhams!
It's signed AC--in a Welding Welt--on the Standing Stabile by Alexander Calder that's outside the IBM Building at Madison & 57th.
Inside this Monumental Structure--in what used to be the IBM Gallery & then the Dahesh Museum--is Bonhams, where Calder's Iconic Mobile, Maripose, just brought $1,805,000 at Auction.
Sandy Calder wasn't as Prolific as Picasso, but he did churn out a lot of Mobiles, Stabiles--they don't move in the wind, Gouaches, & Circus Figures.
Indeed, he was caricatured by Thomas Wolfe--in You Can't Go Home Again--as Piggie Pennington, playing with his Toy Circus before a Society Penthouse Audience…
Maripose was only one of the previously Privately Owned Treasures included in Bonhams Contemporary Art Auction.
Ruth Asawa's 1950s Crocheted Sculpture--made of metal wire--realized almost $400,000. Its Formal Title is Untitled (S. 446 Hanging, Seven Lobed Single Layer Continuous Form).
[Recently, Christie's had an impressive Special Showing of Asawa Artworks in its Simon Schuster Annex. Not for Sale: the Family wanted to share then with Overseas Art Lovers…]
Other Important Artists in the Bonhams Sale were Josef Albers, Keith Haring, Kehind Wiley, & Tom Wesselman.
Many of the Top Lots went to Telephone Bidders, so you do not have to fly into JFK anymore in order to bid.
But it's always interesting to be able to study Major Works, as they pass between Two Rich Owners or Art Investing Institutions…
Big Bucks Bid for African, Oceanic, & Meso American/Pre Columbian Artworks at Bonhams!
How about $305,000 for a Baga Headdress?
There were also Native Ritual Objects from Mali & the Congo.
From the Marquesas Islands, way out in the Pacific, there was an u'u Warrior Club.
A Monumental Earthenware Seated Colima Dog--from way South of the Border & Centuries Old--fetched $37,500.
At the American Musem of Natural History:
[Closing 10 August 2014]
Bubble, Bubble, Toil & Trouble…
Yes! It's the Three Witches from that Scottish Play!
But these Ugly Old Crones aren't on stage over at Lincoln Center at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre.
No, Indeed! They are almost Center Stage at the American Museum of Natural History, a Centerpiece of its Historical/International Survey on Poisons!
Poisons can be Lethal, but some can actually Heal.
They can be generated by Animals--including Insects & Reptiles--as well as by Plants. They are also lurking in Minerals: Lead, for instance, is not Your Friend…
When you go to the AMNH to see this show, you will enter into a Jungle Miasma, encountering some Poisonous Frogs along the way.
Famous Poisoners & Poisoned stand waiting to greet you: Nero, Cleopatra, Napoleon, & Lucrezia Borgia--History may have given her a Bad Rap--as well as a Bad Rep…
Over here is the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, just as Tenniel sketched it for Alice in Wonderland!
Look! Isn't that Snow White, asleep on her Funeral Bier?
There are Three Interactive Stations:
Here's Captain Cook, badly sick in his Ship's Hammock.
What Poisoned the good Cook? Looking up at this 3 D Diorama, you can see Poison Possibilities.
Looking down at your Play Station, you can Touch Screen each of the Culprits. If you pick the Guilty Toxin Bearer, you Win!
There's also a Poisoned Owl & a Dead Dog Diorama, which function in the same way.
But there are only Six Seats for each of these Deadly Detective Games, so you might want to go On Line & play them with the Museum's APP on your Cell Phone.
You can Google to locate the AMNH Website, or try: amnh.org/poison…
The Poison Gift Shop is a Treasure Chest of Gross Out Christmas Gifts: How about some Hairy Tarantulas to drop into Friends' Cokes?
Meanwhile, do not feed any Dog you see a piece of Chocolate!
It is Toxic to Rover, as sell as to Rin Tin Tin!
For years, there's been a derelict Corner Building--with a Classic Façade--next door to BAM's Harvey Theatre on Fulton Street.
This Fall, it was Inaugurated as BRIC--Brooklyn Revels In Culture--complete with an Art Gallery, a State of the Art Performance Space, Artist Rehearsal & Workspaces, TV & Media Production Studios, & Hungry Ghost, where Starving Artists can nurture their Inner Vultures.
You won't get as much Food as you'll be served around the Corner at JUNIOR'S, on Flatbush Avenue, but you also won't be in Danger of Waddling Out, transformed into a JUMBO.
Currently, the Gallery--featuring Urban Glass--is only open on a few days, closing at 6 pm, so BAM Subscribers, arriving next door at the Harvey for some International Ensemble Wonders can only gawp through the windows…
Although it was always Harvey Lichtenstein's Dream or Vision that bringing the Opera House of the Brooklyn Academy of Music back to life would help spur a Vital Redevelopment of Brooklyn's Virtually Defunct Downtown, that has not yet happened.
Indeed, despite the recent Construction of some Condo Towers, some Major Premises have been Dark for Decades.
The Big Bed & Mattress Store just down Fulton from The Harvey Theatre has just closed. Apparently, Brooklynites would rather sleep at the Harvey…
With Gage & Tollner & Abraham & Strauss long gone, Downtown Brooklyn has been looking like Brazzaville on a Saturday Night for some seasons.
But that is Changing!
For its rich Cultural Programming this Season, contact BRIC for its Big, Thick, Green Program: at BRICartsmedia.org
Also on the Counter are copies of WAGMAG, the Brooklyn Art Guide, listing local Galleries, Museums, Collections, Performances, & Arts Activities by District.
Here's Greenpoint; there's Brooklyn Heights.
Also: Park Slope, Williamsburg, Crown Heights, Prospect Heights, Boerum Hill, Fort Greene, Bushwick, Red Hook, Bed Stuy, Gowanus--with its Famed Canal, soon to Rival Venice, say some, & DUMBO!
Oddly missing is Eastern Parkway, home to one of the Greatest Museums in the United States, second only in NYC to the Metropolitan Museum…
Nor is the Brooklyn College Flatbush Midwood Area listed, although BC has long been a Throbbing Hub of All the Arts--with such Distinguished Professors as Allen Ginsberg, F. Murray Abraham, Hannah Arendt, Ad Reinhardt, Jack Gelber, Jimmy Ernst, &&&&&
Oh! When Distinguished Professors die, is it correct to refer to them as Extinguished Professors?
Just asking…
At the Brooklyn Museum:
WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY: Images of Armed Conflict & Its Aftermath
[Closing 2 February 2014]
War has been cynically described as a "Continuation of Diplomacy by Other Means."
Even Holy Scripture mentions "Wars & Rumors of Wars." Or was that Shakespeare…
The Mega Scale Exploration of Wars, Warriors, & Weapons of Minor & Mass Destruction at the Brooklyn Museum ought to be sobering for those who want to Increase US Military Spending.
The Epic Losses of Human Lives & Landmark Real Estate--some Testimonies of the Aftermaths of Wars--are also on view on Multiple Panels & Mini Walls, which increase the Exhibition Space.
For Obvious Reasons, the Thirty Years War & the Hundred Years War are not included.
Who knew there would some day be Cameras & Photographers when they signed the Treaty of Westphalia?
Imagine a Celebrity Photographer at the Congress of Vienna…
In fact, this Show is not only about War Photography but also about the co incidental Development of Photography!
So you will not only see Iconic Photos--Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, for instance--but also Vintage Cameras, Stereopticon Viewers, & Daguerreotypes.
Camera Ready Wars, in this Show, begin with the Mexican American War of 1846, moving onward to the disastrous Crimean War & marching ever onward to the American Civil War, the Spanish American War & on & on.
The Photos on view represent the Photo Journalism of some 284 Lens Men from 28 Nations.
What a shame that LIFE Magazine died!
Major War Photos, published in LIFE, are here on view, not only in the Actual Photos but also in the Actual Pages of LIFE.
As a Former Contributor to LIFE, Your Roving Arts Reporter cannot claim to be a War Reporter.
But one of my Scene Reports for LIFE did come close: I surveyed the Political, Economic, & Social Scene in Libya just Six Months before that Colonel ousted the Beneficent King, Moulay Idris.
How could I have Foreseen that Disastrous Event…
As for Benghazi--so much in Fox News recently--we had a Major US Air Force Airbase there at that time. It was a Link in Our North African Defenses in the Cold War with Atheistic Godless Soviet Union.
In fact--after photographing the Historic Roman & Greek Theatres in Leptis Magna, Sabratha, & Cyrene--I hitched an Air Force Flight out of Benghazi into our US Air Force Airbase at Frankfurt Rhein/Main.
Fortunately for those who have never heard of LIFE--or even the Saturday Evening Post--the new Walter Mitty Movie will open with the Last Days of LIFE. Featuring Ben Stiller!
At the CUNY Grad Center James Gallery:
THERESA BERNSTEIN: A Century in Art
[Closing 18 January 2014]
After repeated onslaughts of Avant Garde Artworks, CUNY at last is showing Real Oil Paintings in Real Gilded Frames.
If some of them look to you like Old Friends, it may be because Theresa Bernstein was grouped with the Ash Can School of New York Painters, way back when.
Bernstein's warm, nostalgic Images of Immigrant Americans & Everyday New Yorkers living their lives are sure to strike a Responsive Chord, especially among those Potential Viewers who remember the CUNY Grad Center when it was still B. Altman's…
In the Wall Cases in the Martin Segel Theatre Corridor, there is also a rich Photo & Text Documentation of Bernstein's Life, not only as a Pioneer Woman Artist, but also as the Wedded Partner of William Meyerowitz, an equally admired Painter.
At the Grolier Club:
EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN IN SCIENCE & MEDICINE: Four Centuries of Achievement
[Closing 23 November 2013]
Certainly the most well known of the Remarkable Women--whose Portraits or Photos & Published Research are now on display at the Grolier--is Marie Slodowska Curie.
Madame Curie, as she was so often celebrated, whose Researches with Radium & Radio Activity were to enrich the World, but lead to her Death from Radium Poisoning…
Lise Meitner is also among these Select Scientists, especially for her Nuclear Studies which led to the development of the Atomic Bomb.
George Gordon, Lord Byron, left his Poetic Mark on various Continental Landscapes. But he also fathered a Female Scientist: Ada, Countess of Lovelace.
Working with the celebrated Mathematician, Charles Babbage, she was in the forefront of the eventual development of Computers!
You may well think of Florence Nightingale as that Heroic Nurse in the Crimean War, but she is here honored for her work in Statistics--which was also Battle Inspired.
Modern Scientific Women include Rosalyn Yalow, Gerti Cori, Gertrude Elion, & Florence Sabin.
Delving back into the Scientific Archive, the Grolier Curators have discovered Louise Bourgeois Boursier, who was Midwife to Marie de Medici & King Henry IV of France.
One of the most fascinating, however, is Émilie du Chatelet. Not only did she publish her translation of Sir Isaac Newton's Principia, but she also published her own Extensive Researches.
Recently, she became the Star of a Mono Drama, titled Émilie, about her Fourteen Year Affair with Voltaire!
Famous, Infamous, & Forgotten: Political Cartoons Upstairs!
[Closing 10 January 2014]
An Eclectic Collector of Cartoon Originals, Anthony J. Mourek is currently sharing some of his both amusing & incisive Political Drawings in the Upper Room at the Grolier.
They range all the way from the elegant Hand Colored Graphic Attacks on 18th Century English Movers & Shakers to witty Visual Satires needling Bill Clinton, Sarah Palin, Teddy Roosevelt, & Calvin Coolidge.
FDR's VP, Henry Agard Wallace, is shown as a Mouthpiece for Josef Stalin.
Even Uncle Sam, himself, is not safe from Inky Broadsides, fired from the Savage Pens of Famed Newspaper & Magazine Cartoonists.
See them now, as Magazines & Newspapers are dying!
In the Digital Future, we won't need Political Cartoons: we can have South Park Videos that will go Internationally Viral…
At the Jewish Museum:
ART SPIEGELMAN'S CO MIX: A Retrospective
[Closing 23 March 2014]
Who now has never heard of Maus--Art Spiegelman's strange Satiric Vision of Auschwitz Bound European Jews as Masses of Mice?
It has become a Modern Classic & it is Graphically Recalled in this Excellent Installation at the Jewish Museum.
Indeed, almost All Aspects of Spiegelman's remarkably varied Experiments in Fantastic Cartoonery, Rabid Buffoonery, & Acidulous Colored Panel Criticism are Explored.
As Spiegelman points out--in one of the Wall Texts--the Word Spiegel--in German--means Mirror.
So, as Hamlet advised, he may well be "Holding the Mirror Up To Nature," but it is usually a Distorting Mirror, though often Hilarious are the Images it produces.
If there is a Problem with this Show, it could be that--to Savor It All--you will need to spend an Entire Day to read your way through all of the Comix Panels on view…
If you are one of those Obsessive Collectors of New Yorker Covers, you may be surprised to discover that you missed some of the Spiegelman Covers on view here.
Other Arts Adventures Now On View:
Claire Fontaine's Using Walls, Floors, & Ceilings:
Aside from the Anti Terrorist Theatre of Entrance Security Checks worthy of Flights from JFK, the Lobby of the Jewish Museum has seldom before been an Exhibition Space.
Currently, Clair Fontaine has hung a number of Blue Neon Signs that spell out: Isle of Tears, or Isola de las Lagrimas, or Insel der Tränen, or other of the Immigrant Languages spoken at Ellis Island, as Immigrants prepared to shed their Old Lives for New Ones in the New World.
It was Enough To Make You Cry…
This is to be an On Going Exhibition Series--through 2017--focusing on Treasures in the Permanent Collections.
In the Spotlight--literally--is a Rare Medieval Aquamanile.
This is a perky little bronze Lion--with a Handle & a small Spigot in its Mouth, used for the Ritual Washing of Hands.
It has been X Rayed, to show what it looks like inside, after its Initial Casting…
Among other Ritual Objects is a long Silver Box, holding Circumcision Instruments for the Obligatory Bris.
SIGHTS & SOUNDS: Global Film & Video:
Wait! I've been there!
On Screen, a Cambodian Artist is pulling a huge rolling Silver Ball past the Royal Palace.
This Contemporary Filmic/Videotic Series will feature Artistic Footages from Around the World for Two Years.
At the Metropolitan Museum of Art:
VENETIAN GLASS BY CARLO SCARPI: The Venini Company, 1932 1947
[Closing 2 March 2014]
Many Tourists--when they come to Venice--want to take a Vaporetto out to the Island of Murano, to Admire & possibly Purchase some of the Colorful Objects being Hand Blown before Their Very Eyes.
Some of the Murano Vases & Candle Sconces recall Elegant Baroque Fantasies, but some are Garish Beyond Belief. Those often Sell Very Well…
The Chastely Modern Vases, Beakers, Bottles, & Bowls--often colored most subtly--designed by Carlo Scarpi, however, are now seldom to be found on the Market.
Carlo Scarpi was a celebrated Italian Architect--who died in 1978--but he often turned his hand to other Design Projects. He worked with the Venini Factory until 1947.
Not only did he help Pioneer new Glass Blowing Techniques, yielding New Forms, but he also revived Ancient Roman Glass Technology: Notably, the Murrine Opache, in which small Glass Tiles were incorporated in the finished Bowl or Beaker.
When you see these wonderful Glassy Objects--in the Lehman Wing at the Met Museum--you may well understand that the Venini Glass Blowing was not just a Lot of Hot Air…
At MoMA the Museum of Modern Art:
[Closing 10 March 2014--Batteries Not Included!]
Many Big Names in Post Modern Art have won their Place in the Pantheon & secured their Distinctive Brand by perfecting a Style or Subject Matter--or Both--that guarantees Instant Recognition.
Not so with Germany's Gerhard Richter.
Nor--as the new Retrospective at MoMA astonishingly demonstrates--with Germany's Isa Gensken!
In each Decade of a Long Career, she seems to have been Re Inventing Herself…
On entering the Gensken Retrospective on MoMA's Sixth Floor--just across from the Magrittes--you will be confronted with what looks like a Hippie Protest of Bizarre Figures, clothed in even more Bizarre Attires.
But--as you advance through the Art Object Packed Galleries--Do Not Stumble on the Floor Taped Electric Wires!
Those Collectors who have bought some of these Power Operated or Illuminated Objects d'Art must have been warned that Batteries were Not Included.
At one point, inspired by the Bomb Ruins remaining from World War II--which left a Shattered Germany--Gensken began mounting Cement Blocks on Steel Stands.
Architectural & Body Forms began to attract Gensken's Attention.
Thus, there are several Sculptural Structures that represent Windows or Portals or Doorways or whatever.
The Architecture of Sound also interested Gensken, so we have some Radios & Sound Equipment.
Fascinated by Photography & Advertising, she also began Appropriating Photos & Ads.
Much later--possibly because Garbage Collection wasn't so effective in Berlin--Gensken began Assembling Odd Objects she found in the Strassen.
Trash found on Unter den Linden is transformed into Post Modern Art!
Surveying the Teeming Mass of Gensken Art Works--be careful not to Bump Into the Art!--you may have the Impression that there is not a single Movement or Trend that she has not Tried on for Size.
How about a Babbling Donald Duck Automaton?
ISAAC JULIEN: Ten Thousand Waves
[Closing 17 February 2014]
Pity the Poor Chinese Cockle Pickers!
A too sudden High Tide swept over the Morecambe Bay Shoals where they were gathering Cockles--as in "Cockles & Mussels, alive, alive, o!"--drowning all but One Survivor.
Now, London Based Film Maker, Isaac Julien, has brought his Nine Screen Saga to MoMA's mighty Atrium, where it can be viewed on both sides of the Giant Translucent Screens, hanging High Above the heads of Mere Mortals.
Who aren't in Danger of Drowning, doing Coolie Labor, far from Fujian Province.
Julien fuses the Ancient Legend of the Sea Goddess Mazu with Film Footage of the Disaster & Throbbing Vistas of Modern Day Shanghai, where Skyscrapers Loom & Elevated Traffic Circles astonish.
The Looped Film Sequences are Fifty Minutes Long & can even be viewed from Upper Floor Corridors, looking down into the MoMA Atrium
There are lots & lots of Surging Waves!
This is an Astonishing Achievement & MoMA has purchased Ten Thousand Waves for its own Collections. [Surely, there are Other Copies around?]
But it won't long be on view, the Screens coming down in Mid February, just after Valentine's Day…
Years ago, I taught US Troops in the English Midlands, going off to Morecambe Bay, not for the Cockles but for the Celebrated Morecambe Illuminations. The Waterfront Walkway was illuminated with Lit Up Images of Mickey Mouse & Other Notables…
At the Park Avenue Armory:
Second Edition of The Salon: Art & Design
Too Long a Wait for Paris in the Spring?
Had you been on hand Mid November at the Park Avenue Armory, you could have breathed in at least a Whiff of Paris, in a Dignified Gale of Parisian & Continental Galleristas.
Not only did this Sanford Smith Show have the support of Architectural Digest, but it also had its Own App--for ART SY--available at the Apple APP Store.
Partnered with the Syndicat National des Antiquaires, The Salon offered Booth Spaces to 38 Returning Dealers & 15 Newcomers.
Compared with the Usual Booths at most Armory Sales, almost all of these were like the most Luxurious Art Deco or Moderne Living Rooms you could imagine.
Just right for Photo Ops for Architectural Digest…
Fin de Siècle, Jahrhundertwende, & Turn of the Century Furniture, Lamps, Hangings, Fabrics galore!
Arts & Crafts, Jugendstil, Art Nouveau: Charles Rennie Macintosh, Jacques Ruhlmann, of course.
But also George Nakashima & Other Moderns, not to overlook a Cornucopia of Objects d'Art, as well as Paintings, Sculptures, & Prints.
How about Gouaches by Sandy Calder?
I espied a very handsome Calder Catalogue in the Paris Inflected Space of Brame & Lorenceau, at home in the City of Light on the Boulevard Malesherbes.
When he saw how engrossed I was with Page after Page of Colorful Calders, no less a person than Thomas Lorenceau urged me to take home a Catalogue.
Right now, I'm looking as I'm typing!
Copyright © Glenn Loney 2013. No re publication or broadcast use without proper credit of authorship. Suggested credit line: "Glenn Loney, Curator's Choice." Reproduction rights please contact: jslaff@nymuseums.com.