Museums and Exhibitions in New York City and Vicinity
| Home | | Museum Guide | | International | | Architecture & Design | | Theater |
GLENN LONEY'S MUSEUM NOTES
MAY, 2015 RAMBLES ROUND MUSEUMS, GALLERIES, INSTALLATIONS, & AUCTIONS
To navigate to items in this table of contents, click on (*) Wrong Way Jackson Pollock Hung Vertically at New Whitney on the Hudson River! * Up on Audubon Terrace, Philippe de Montebello Will Put El Greco & Velázquez on the Tour Map! * The Frick Collection Greets Sunny June with Lord Leighton' Flaming June! * Rock Center's Summer Mall Installation Focuses on Five Death Masks * Russian Works of Art Earn Over $5 Milllion, Including Fabulous Fabergé Fantasies * The Third Koch Brother - William I. Koch - Puts American Art on The Auction Market * Christie's Week of Impressionist, Modern, Post War, & Contemporary Sales Totals $1.726 Billion! * Christie's Latin American Art Auction Achieves Over $25 Million, With Ten World Records Set * More Modern Artist Records at Christie's * Decorative Arts LA Auction - $185,000 Wins a Demetre Chiparus Thaïs Art Deco Figurine! * Diamonds in June - Million Plus Bid Suggested for "Important Diamond Rivière Necklace." * Latin American Art Evening Sales Total $16 Plus Million - Eight Records Set: $3 Million for Rufino Tamayo's La Familia! * May Sales of Impressionist & Modern Art Earn Total of $420 Million * Norman Rockwell's The Bookworm Wins with a Bid of almost $4 Million in American Art Auction * Mark Rothko Tops Sales of Contemporary Art with $46.5 Million Bid * For Francis Bacon's Seated Woman, an Anonymous Phone Bidder Paid $28 Million! * HOW POSTERS WORK * Public Presentation of Proposed Potential Frick Exhibition Enlargement & Amenities Enhancement - with Free Public Tour of Previously Proscribed Frick Family Domains! * The World of Louis Comfort Tiffany * SULTANS OF DECCAN INDIA, 1500 1700: Opulence & Fantasy * CHINA: Through The Looking Glass * THE ROOF GARDEN COMMISSION: Pierre Huyghe * VAN GOGH: Irises & Roses * HIDDEN LIKENESS: Photographer Emmet Gowin at the Morgan * YOKO ONO: One Woman Show, 1960 1971 * ART ON CAMERA: Photographs by Shunk Kender, 1960 1971 * FROM BAUHAUS TO BUENOS AIRES: Grete Stern & Horacio Coppola * RUSSIAN MODERNISM: Cross Currents of German & Russian Art, 1907 1917 * SURROUND AUDIENCE: The 2015 Triennial * IDEAS CITY FESTIVAL: The 2015 Triennial *
Current Cultural Bulletins: Wrong Way Jackson Pollock Hung Vertically at New Whitney on the Hudson River! But how could Anyone know Which Way Was Up with a Pollock Drip & Spatter Canvas? Well, there's a Catalogue Photo of Drip Painting Number 27 hung Horizontally! But Look! Here's a 1951 Cecil Beaton Vogue Fashion Shot at the Betty Parsons Gallery, with Number 27 hanging Vertically…
Up on Audubon Terrace, Philippe de Montebello Will Put El Greco & Velázquez on the Tour Map! How many New Yorkers know that there are Three Major Paintings by Velázquez on view up at the Hispanic Society of America? As well as an El Greco, recently loaned to the Met Museum, of which Philippe de Montebello was the Longtime Chief Honcho! Taking Over the Directorial Reins of Archer Huntington's Museum Folly, the Always Dapper De Montebello intends to make this Little Known Art Archive a Major Presence among Manhattan's Culture Destinations, expanding it into the Vacated Premises of the Museum of the American Indian, now located Way Downtown at the Old Customs House. Archer Huntington wrongly believed that Manhattan Culture would be Moving Uptown, so Washington Heights was the Place to Build… Nonetheless, there's a Monumental Bronze Statue of El Cid in a Sunken Terrace, sculpted by Anna Hyatt Huntington, who placed a Duplicate Cid, as well as her Celebrated Bronze of Joan of Arc on the Front Lawn of San Francisco's Palace of the Legion of Honor. The Huntington Fortune was founded by Collis P. Huntington, one of the Big Four who finished the Transcontinental Railroad, also Rewarding Themselves. Think of California Governor Leland Stanford…
The Frick Collection Greets Sunny June with Lord Leighton' Flaming June! From 6 June until 6 September, Frederic Leighton's Flamboyant Female - painted with Art Nouveau Elegance - will be on view at the Frick, with a small Preparatory Oil Sketch alongside. Oddly enough, not only has Flaming June never before been shown in Manhattan, but it also comes, not from London, but from Puerto Rico!
Rock Center's Summer Mall Installation Focuses on Five Death Masks Actually, Sculptor/Provocatuer Thomas Houseago does not Identify his Monumental Masks as Death's Heads. But naming them Masks (Pentagon) does suggest an Implicit Criticism of the War Making Activities of the Physical Pentagon just outside Washington, DC. Currently, these Ghastly White Skulls fascinate the Selfie Crowd. But they are a Lot Less Fun than Jeff Koons' Flower Puppy, a Rock Center Winner Some Summers Ago. Thomas Houseago: Masks (Pentagon) is brought to New Yorkers & Out of Towners alike by the Public Art Fund, which has also provided those Racks of Reels of Ropes up on 59th Street & Central Park.
At Christie's Auction House:
Russian Works of Art Earn Over $5 Milllion, Including Fabulous Fabergé Fantasies Grand Duke Georg Mikhailovich's Enameled Fabergé Photograph Frame won $125,000 in this Elegant Auction, but $665,000 was paid for an "Important Jeweled & Enameled Imperial Presentation Snuff Box." Just imagine Czar Nicholas Romanov giving Peter Tchaikovsky a Pinch of Snuff to put in His Box & then in His Nose…
The Third Koch Brother - William I. Koch - Puts American Art on The Auction Market Nearly $50 Million was realized from this Sale, including $8.5 Million for Thomas Moran's The Cliffs of Green River, Wyoming. Much later in time is Arthur Dove, whose Boat Going Through Inlet sold for almost $5.5 Million. Thomas Hart Benton's Ozark Autumn won with a Bid of almost $5 Million. Georgia O'Keeffe's East River with Sun shone for over $3 Million. Do Any of the Infamous Koch Brothers need More Money?
Christie's Week of Impressionist, Modern, Post War, & Contemporary Sales Totals $1.726 Billion! This was the Highest Single Week in Auction History, with Post War & Contemporary winning Total of $984,480,750. Impressionist & Modern earned only $741,538,625… World Auction Records were set for Pablo Picasso [Les Femmes d'Alger, Version O sold for almost $180,000,000], Lucian Freud [Benefits Supervisor Resting sold for $56,165,000], Alberto Giacometti [Pointing Man sold for $141,285,000], & Piet Mondrian. Other Artists of Note whose Artworks sold for Over One Million or near the Million Mark were Georges Braque [$3 Miliion Plus], Edgar Degas [almost $2 Million], Camille Pissarro [almost $1 Million], Marc Chagall [$845,000], & Henri de Toulouse Lautrec [$1,145,000].
Christie's Latin American Art Auction Achieves Over $25 Million, With Ten World Records Set Diego Rivera's Lavanderos con Zopilotes won $One Million Plus. Claudio Bravo's Red Paper also earned $One Million Plus. Rufino Tamayo's Mujer con Sandia was purchased for $One Million Plus. But Remedios Varo's Vampiros Vegetarianos was won for $3,301,000.
More Modern Artist Records at Christie's Cy Twombly - $42 Million Plus for Untitled. [What Is It With Moderns? That they go to All That Work of Creating An Artwork & then do not want to Give It A Name?] Robert Rauschenberg - nearly $18 Million for Johanson's Painting. Francis Bacon - almost $48 Million for Portrait of Henrietta Moraes. Andy Warhol - $56 Million for his Silkscreen of the Colored Mona Lisa. Jean Michel Basquiat - $37 Million for The Field Next To The Other Road.
At Bonhams Auction House:
Decorative Arts LA Auction - $185,000 Wins a Demetre Chiparus Thaïs Art Deco Figurine!
Baron Wouter J. P. Sijlmans von Eldik's Old Masters & Antiques 98% Sold in House Auction. Interned by the Japs in Java in World War II, this Eccentric Antiques Baron amassed an Amazing Collection - some of which he sold in his various Antique Shop Ventures. The Charlottesville Sale set a World Record for Peter Caulitz Canvases: $43,750 for a Pair of Paintings, One of which featured Cocks, Chickens, Turkeys, & Pigeons, with the Other showing A Hound Watching a Dead Fox. As Caulitz's Dates are Circa1650 1719, such Arcane Artworks don't often come into the Market.
Diamonds in June - Million Plus Bid Suggested for "Important Diamond Rivière Necklace."
At Sotheby's Auction House:
Wilfredo Lam's Les Oiseaux Voilés also passed the Million Mark: $1,210,000… Also on Offer were works by Diego Rivera [El Balcón - $346,000], Fernando Botero [Donna Seduta - $430,000], & Leonora Carrington [A Camelia for Ánima - $250,000].
May Sales of Impressionist & Modern Art Earn Total of $420 Million Sam Goldwyn's Picasso Portrait - Femme au chignon dans un fauteuil - was acquired by a Chinese Media Mogul. Vince Van Gogh's L'Allée des Alyscamps led one Impressionist Auction with $66 Plus Million. Only a Decade Ago, it sold at auction for only One Fifth That Price! Celebrating what Sotheby's is pleased to call its "Monet Moment," Auctioneers won $2.3 Million for Monet's Nymphéas.
Norman Rockwell's The Bookworm Wins with a Bid of almost $4 Million in American Art Auction This Rockwell Canvas was from the Warshawsky Collection, the Treasures of which included Ninety Tiffany Studios Works. Highest Winner was the Tiffany "Oriental Poppy" Floor Lamp, earning a bid of $One Million Plus. This sets a World Record for Tiffany's Poppy Model Floor Lamp - Good News, because there are still other "Oriental Poppy" Lamps out there in Collector Land!
Mark Rothko Tops Sales of Contemporary Art with $46.5 Million Bid Roy Lichtenstein's The Ring (Engagement) wins almost $42 Million… Andy Warhol's Silkscreen of Mao: $14.5 Million. Chris Wool's Untitled (RIOT) sold for nearly $30,000,000. Jackson Pollock's Number 12, 1950 was purchased for $18 Million Plus. Grand Total for this Evening Auction: almost $380,000,000.
At Phillips' Auction House:
For Francis Bacon's Seated Woman, an Anonymous Phone Bidder Paid $28 Million! This Bacon - which looked a bit Roasted - was the Big Winner in Phillips' Contemporary Art Evening in Mid May. Sales totaled almost One Billion Dollars, but this was only One of Several May Millionaire Auctions at Phillips, which is on Park Avenue at East 57th Street, where they have that Super Tall Skyscraper. What Passers By do not realize is that Phillips has a Vast Basement Gallery, crammed with Trendy Collectibles by Major Names, including Andy & Keith.
At The Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum:
[Closing 15 November 2015] Vintage Collectibles! Famous Logos! Branded Brand Names! Colorful Cartoons! Attractive Advertising, Provocative Propaganda! Eye Catching Images! Bold Geometric Designs! Not Only Premiere Posters, But Also How To Find: Hidden Narratives & Implied Inferences - As Well As How To Look At: Composition/Line/Form/Color/Surfaces/Type Faces… Master Graphics Designer Paul Rand currently has a Major Show at the Museum of the City of New York, just Up Fifth Avenue from The Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum. The Multifaceted Rand is one of the Poster Design Poster Boys for this Densely Designed How To Presentation. So you might want to Check Him Out when you are in the Neighborhood of the Old Carnegie Mansion! You want to Design a Movie Poster that Fills the Seats? You want to Sell Sub Standard Arts Ephemera? You want to Develop Desolate Domains? You want to Get The Masses Out for a Rock Concert? Here are Terrific Tips for Blockbuster Results! Focus The Eye! Overwhelm The Eye! Use Text as Image! Overlap! Cut & Paste! Assault The Surface! Amplify! Tell a Story! Double The Meaning! Manipulate Scale! Activate The Diagonal! Make Eye Contact! Make a System! Learn To Use Photoshop! If you want to See & Learn about these Hot Design Tips, come soon to the Cooper Hewitt!
At The Frick Collection:
[One Evening Only: 24 May 2015] Ian Waldrop - Director of the Frick Collection - Officiated, exploring various Expansion Alternatives. Meanwhile, Mega Bucks Folks across from the Frick on East 70th Street are Protesting, joined by some other Mega Bucks Folks over on East 71st Street: Do Not Spoil Our View! FRICTION WITH THE FRICK? Did you know that there's a Bowling Alley in the Basement of the Frick Collection? Unless you are on Official Business, you won't get to Knock Down Those Pins. But you may soon be able to visit the hitherto Exclusive Upper Floors of this Magnificent Mansion on Fifth Avenue. That is, however, Contingent on Plans for the Frick's Enlargement & Enhancement of Exhibitions & Educational Programs being allowed to Go Forward… I'm Looking Forward to that Welcome Outcome, for I live across from the Long Gallery of the Frick Complex. Not only can I dart across the road to the Frick Art Reference Library, where I can enjoy Henry Clay Frick's wonderful Della Robbias, but I can also - on an especially Depressing Day - amble over to the Frick's Gracious Garden Court on East 70th Street… Our East 71st Street Block - between Madison & Fifth - is one of the Most Handsome in All Manhattan. It is like a Day in Paris, without All the Hassle of Security Manhandling, Passport Control, & Cancelled Flights. I admire the Frick Art Reference Library so much that I've even Donated Books to its Extensive Collections. How many Reference Libraries - Outside the Former East Germany - have the Five Volume Subscription Edition of East German Artists? It was, however, a bit of a surprise recently, to find an Anonymous Letter in my Mail Box. It urged me urgently - In Solidarity with the Millionaire Apartment Owners over on East 70th Street - to Sign a Petition which would Oppose the Proposed Frick Improvements & Enhancements. The Immediate Cause for Alarm, apparently, is that this Major Project would remove that Secret Garden - which No One but Frick Patrons can enter - that itself replaced Three Town Houses that the Frick long ago acquired, looking Longingly Forward to the Potential Expansions. If the Loss of The Secret Garden is an Outstanding Argument for Opposing Expansion, that is a No Starter! Millionaires living High Up in what used to be Faded Film Star Joan Crawford's Pepsi Cola Penthouse - Joan married Alfred Steele Pepsi - cannot easily see The Secret Garden. What they & all Other Dwellers on the Downtown Side of East 70th Street are daily confronted with is some Six or Seven Stories of Exposed Fire Escapes on the Rear of the Frick Art Reference Library. Of course, it will take Some Time to Construct the Much Needed Expansions, but that shouldn't prove much of a Visual Problem for East 70th Street Property Owners because Huge Cranes are often at work replacing Windows or Gutting Apartments on the Fifth Avenue Corner of East 70th Street. Anything - Building Wise or Donation Wise - that Helps the Frick also helps Our Neighborhood, Our Schools, Our Town, & Our Tourism. When that Girl with the Pearl Earring was on view recently, Umbrella Bearing Crowds snaked round the Corner all the way onto Madison Avenue - even in Driving Rains! Art Lovers from All Over the World flock to the Frick which, unfortunately, now has only Two Small Exhibition Rooms Downstairs for Guest Appearances of Touring Masterpieces. When Girls with Pearls appear on the Frick's Metaphoric Doorstep, Masterpieces from the Permanent Collection have to disappear for a while. In fact, many Frick Masterpieces are Seldom Seen, owing to Space Limitations. The Proposed Expansions will provide much more Exhibition Area. It will also Open the Upstairs: Sit where Henry Clay Frick once Sat; Stroll where Helen Clay Frick once Strolled. Best of All: Sit down at that Many Manualed Frick Organ! How about a little bit of Toccata & Fugue? Glenn Loney
At The Macklowe Gallery:
The World of Louis Comfort Tiffany [One Time Only Special Tiffany Seminar] Today, Tiffany's still has those little Powder Blue Boxes for your Show the Folks Back Home Purchases. But you won't be able to buy one of those Fabulous Mosaic Glass Art Nouveau Lampshades… The Woman who designed them & the Women who fabricated them for Tiffany's are All Gone. Soon, you'll be able to see a Special Permanent Installation of Tiffany Lampshades at the New York Historical Society. But, in the meantime, you might want to Check Out the Colorful Parade of Tiffany Mosaic Lampshades at the Macklowe Gallery. An Amazing Variety of Vintage Tiffany Lampshades is Downstairs, along with Inlaid Art Nouveau Furniture, Iridescent Tiffany Art Nouveau Vases, & Gilded Bronze Figurines of La Loïe Fuller in Full Flutter. On a Recent Friday, Benjamin Macklowe - Inheritor of His Parents' Fabulous Tiffany Heritage & Current Macklowe President - invited Tiffany Enthusiasts to a Seminar in the Gallery. In From the Museum to the Home, Macklowe showed how Modern Collectors have integrated those Colorful Vestiges of Gilded Age Opulence into Post Modernist Homes. Margaret K. Hofer - Curator of Decorative Arts at the NYHS - introduced us to Clara Driscoll, the Amazing Talent who Imagined All Those Lampshades, along with all the Tiffany Girls who executed the Driscoll Designs. The Quintessential Tiffany Expert, John Loring, discussed LCT's Own Designs & his Influences at the Mother Shop - with Striking Color Images of Tiffany Shades you won't be seeing anytime soon. That is, until the New Galleries are ready at the New York Historical Society. Incidental Intelligence: When I was creating, writing, & editing The Art Deco News for the Art Deco Society of New York, John Loring was always generous with his Time & Tiffany Lore! The Macklowe Gallery is located at 667 Madison Avenue, at 61st Street. The Ground Floor is Tastefully Filled with Handsome Jewelry - probably Too Pricey for Most - but the Mosaic Lampshade Treasure Trove is Down Below…
At MMA - The Metropolitan Museum of Art:
SULTANS OF DECCAN INDIA, 1500 1700: Opulence & Fantasy [Closing 26 July 2015] Magnificent Muslim Princes, Centuries Before Muslim Terrorism… Do Not Confuse the Deccan Sultans with the Moghul Maharajahs of Rajastan! Both Croesus Rich Dynasties were Muslims, but not Muslim Terrorists as we now understand Islamic Deviants. One of the most Fabled of the Kingdoms of the Deccan Plateau of South Central India was that of Golconda, fabulously rich in Multi Karat Diamonds such as the Kohinoor Diamond, the Idols's Eye, & the Agra Diamond. But this Major Met Exhibition isn't only about Gems. It is also about Deccan Design, Fabulous Fabrics, Powerful Portraits, & Marvelous Metalworks. Deccan Sultans welcomed Talented Outsiders - especially Artists - so that Deccan Life was enriched by Cosmopolitan Influences from Persia, Ottoman Turkey, Africa, Central Asia, & even Westerners who came to India as Missionaries, Mercenaries, & Merchants. Fond of Poetry, Performance, Painting, Weaving, & Other Arts, the Entitled Sultans encouraged the Arts in Many Forms. From which their Sultanic Subjects also benefitted! Some of the Sultanic Treasures now on view at the Met are almost World Famous, having been previously shown in Major Installations.
CHINA: Through The Looking Glass [Closing 16 August 2015] The Sky Over China Is No Longer Red! Chairman Mao Is Dead… In Any Case, Mao Lacked the Fashion Sense of Anna Wintour & Anna May Wong! Anna Wintour & the Anna Wintour Costume Center have Done It Again! This Spring Season's Annual Costume Institute Gala - The Major Event of the Met Museum's Founder Fund Raisers - was graced by a Splendor of Gowns by Major Fashion Designers. While there certainly were Important Chinese Artifacts on view, the Major Focus in Costume Design was on Western Inspirations from Chinese Models. Among the Design Talent Names: Bulgari, Balenciaga, Cartier, Cavalli Chanel, Dior, Ford, Galliano, Gualtier, Garavani, Jacobs, Lagerfeld, Lanvin, Lauren, Louboutin, McQueen, Molyneux, Patou, Poiret, & Yves Saint Laurent, as well as Jason Wu & Laurence Xu. Nonetheless, Film Actress Anna May Wong throws a Long Shadow over the Fashion Hungry Present. In her Cinematic Heyday, Anna May Wong was Emblematic of Asian Elegance. This was Especially Impressive in the United States, as there had long been Anti Asian Attitudes, especially on the West Coast - dating back to Chinese Laundrymen in the California Gold Rush & Building the Trans Continental Railroad. Both in the Wintour Costume Center & Upstairs in the Asian Wing, Masterpieces of Chinese Art hold their own with 140 Splendors of Haute Couture & Avant Garde Ready To Wear. Underlit as Usual, the Historic & Contemporary Costumes are often Astonishing, but they Work Their Wonders most effectively Upstairs, artfully deployed among the Met's Chinese Antiquities. Indeed, the Scholar's Chamber & the Scholar's Garden - designed by Broadway Talent Ming Cho Lee who was long ago sent off to Communist China to study some Originals for the Met Installation - are Ideal Venues. Was it Anna Wintour herself who had the Smashing Ceramics Inspiration to break up a lot of White Dinner Plates to fashion Porcelain Headwear for some of the Silent Sinologist Mannequins? It was also Ingenious to overcome Low Light Levels with Big Broad Video Bands on which are Projected Historic Film Film Footages from Maoist Marchings to Pu Yi & The Last Emperor. The Era & Horror of Maoist Rule is also Projected, while Period Mao Uniforms stand in Silent Tribute to the Mad Man whose Maoist Thought & Terrorist Edicts meant the Death of Millions… Attractively Designed, this Show is not really Much for Men - unless they are the Ones who have to Pay the Piper…
THE ROOF GARDEN COMMISSION: Pierre Huyghe [Closing 1 November 2015] Is There a Leak in the Met's Garden Roof? Why Did They Tear Up All Those Paving Stones? The Roof Garden of the Met Museum isn't really much of a Garden, but it does afford Great Vistas across & down Central Park. So, when the Weather becomes Clement in Late Spring, the Met always opens its Roof Garden. Worried that those Grand Views are Not Enough for Locals & Tourists, Met Curators customarily Add Interest in the Functional Form of Sculptural Objects or Architectural Constructions. The Red, Blue, Yellow, & Green Giant Balloon Puppies of Jeff Koons certainly Drew the Crowds. But what are we to make of Pierre Huyghe's Roof Garden Commission? Lucky Pierre - he did get The Commission, after all - has torn up the Stone Slabs on Selected Sections of the Roof Garden, leaving Puddles of Water exposed beneath. Not an Attractive Sight/Site, hardly worth hunting for that Obscure Elevator near the Burghers of Calais. Over in a Corner, however, there is a Large Transparent Plastic Cube containing what appears to be a Large Submerged Rock. Over in a Corner of the Large Transparent Plastic Cube I did see a Very Small Eel wriggling about…
[Closing 16 August 2015] Blue Roses? Shades of Laura in The Glass Menagerie! Van Gogh Painted The Last Four Florals with Red Lake Paint - Which has Faded to Blue… Even though he Never Sold a Canvas while he was Alive, Vincent Van Gogh - at the End of His Life - painted a Suite of Four Floral Groups - Irises & Roses - which were soon Dispersed. Only now have they been Reunited at the Met Museum - which owns Two of These Famous Floral Arrangements. The Other Two are the Horizontal Roses from the National Gallery in DC & the Vertical Irises from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. These are not only not as Powerful as Van Gogh's Sunflowers, but if The Met or the The National really needed Cash to buy another Jean Michel Basquiat, they'd surely fetch a Very Good Price at Christie's. When you see them - either On Line or actually at The Met - you will surely Recognize them for they are a Regular Feature of many an Art Magazine or Art History Survey. What can make them especially interesting as a United Suite is how they have, over time, Faded, as the Red Lake Pigment Van Gogh used has Died the Death. Tucked Away in a Corner Chamber of The Lehman Wing, they might look to the Uninformed Observer largely like Four Important Van Goghs But they have been Enhanced by Videos, Wall Texts, & Research Results from Curatorial Studies. Click on the Met Website to see for yourself!
At The MLM - The Morgan Library & Museum:
HIDDEN LIKENESS: Photographer Emmet Gowin at the Morgan [Closing 22 September 2015] Matching Up Valuable Vault Treasures with Contemporary Photo Images… In this Morgan Mix & Match, Curators have taken a Cooper Hewitt Cliché & given it a Torrential Twist. Because the Cooper Hewitt has some Odd Objects in its Disparate Collections that do not fit Any Known Unifying Criterion, it periodically invites a Famous Artist or Celebrated Personality to Choose Astonishing Stuff from the Underground Vaults. The Morgan has essentially Followed Suit. It has invited Emmet Gowin to choose Often Small Sketches & Other Ephemera from its Own Vaults, pairing them with his Own Topographical Terrains & even Family Snap Shots. Gowin has matched some 55 Morgan Treasures with 59 Gowin Images, suggesting Hidden Likenesses, from which this Unusual Exhibition takes its Name. On occasion, this Works Very Well, but at other Visual Junctures, it seems a Bit Forced. Nonetheless, Emmet Gowin is drawing on Five Decades of Gowin Photography. Giving Gowin a Wide Range of Choice!
At MoMA - The Museum of Modern Art:
YOKO ONO: One Woman Show, 1960 1971 [Closing 7 September 2015] Can There Ever Be Too Much of Yoko? See The Sky Above MoMA by Climbing Yoko's Special Spiral Staircase! For those Out of Towners who love to cluster round the Dakota - where Yoko Ono lives & where her Beloved Hubby, John Lennon, was fatally shot by a Wierdo who wanted to Impress Jodie Foster - Yoko's One Woman Outing may be a Bit of a Disappointment. It not only Concentrates on Yoko in the '60s, but it really Celebrates Her Kookiness. Click on the MoMA Website for Odd Visual Details: this can Save on Keystrokes in a Desperate Attempt to Put into Words the Ineffable, the Indescribable. There are some 125 of Yoko's Early Objects, Installations, Works on Paper, Performances, Audio Recordings, Films, & even what looks like a small Reel of 8mm Exposed Film! Yoko was Available for Interviews & Remarks in the MoMA Movie Basement, but I had Robert Frostian Miles to Go…
ONE WAY TICKET: Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series & Other Visions of the Great Movement North [Closing 7 September 2015] Go North, Young Man! There is No Future for You Here in the Deep South… This Colorful - but also Infinitely Sad, even Tragic - Exhibition would be Well Worth a Visit if only for those Dynamic Troubling Visions of Jacob Lawrence, Portrait Painter of the Great Black Migration after the Civil War. Lawrence's Strong Sense of Colors, Contrasts, Forms, Lines, Textures, Angles, & Distortions could offer the Casual Viewer some strikingly Decorative Details, but these Suffering African Americans also cry out for Pity, Mercy, Understanding, Empathy… Though Dominant, Lawrence's Images are not the Whole Show, for there are also Vintage Photos of Famed Black Entertainers, B&W Photos of Life in Black America - some by Dorothea Lange for the WPA, & First Editions of Richard Wright & Langston Hughes. The Long, Long Hallway leading up to Migrations has a Colorful Timeline that Outlines the Years & Decades of Northward Movements. Although those Sixty Lawrence Temperas seem the Work of a Mature Man, he painted them in 1941, when he was only 23 Years Old…
ART ON CAMERA: Photographs by Shunk Kender, 1960 1971 [Closing 4 October 2015] Don't Jump, Yves Klein! Great Photo Op, But You Could Suffer Brain Damage! Actually, Those Jumping Kline Shots were Photo Montaged, so Yves was in No Real Danger. Instead, those Shunk Kender Images - for Many Viewers - may be the Only Klines that will be Remembered. German Born Harry Shunk & Hungarian Bred János Kender first set up shop in Paris, but later moved to New York City, where they Visually Documented some of the Most Significant Arts Objects, Events, Installations, Actions, Manifestoes, Performances, & Personalities of the 1960s. Hippiedom, Avant Gardisme, & Nouveau Réalisme were all Camera Targets. The Result: A Wide Range of Cultural Historic Iconic Images that regularly turn up at Big Bucks Auctions at Christie's, Bonhams, & Sotheby's. MoMA has recently received some 600 Shunk Kenders, of which 24 Photo Panels - featuring No Less than 200 Individual Photographs - are currently On Display. They are part of a Major Donation by the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation to an International Consortium of Five Institutions. So, if you miss these at MoMA, they'll surely turn up at another Major Museum sometime soon.
FROM BAUHAUS TO BUENOS AIRES: Grete Stern & Horacio Coppola [Closing 4 October 2015] Surrealism in South America: Berlin Avant Gardists Bring Kinky Photography to Argentina! Actually, although Grete Stern & Horacio Coppola Won Their Spurs as Photographers in Bauhaus/Berlin, the Kinds of Optical Experiments they began to play were influenced by Bauhaus/Weimar & Bauhaus/Dessau. The Surrealismes & Modernismes of Oskar Schlemmer & Others left Their Marks on this Dynamic Duo when they removed to Buenos Aires. Indeed, they are Curatorially Credited with Founding Modern Latin American Photography. Some of the Surreal Situations they created for their Camera Lenses, almost immediately translated to Hilarious Newsmagazine Illustrations are On Display both as Original Photos & Newsprint Photos. As with the Shunk Kenders, many of the Stern Coppola Images are Now Iconic. The Visual Problem for the Casual MoMA Visitor is that Masses of Photos, Photo Albums, & Photo Documentation create a kind of B&W Overkill… Indeed, they are Metaphorically Cheek by Jowl with the Shunk Kender Exhibition, so that they almost Blend into Each Other.
At The Neue Galerie:
RUSSIAN MODERNISM: Cross Currents of German & Russian Art, 1907 1917 [Closing 31 August 2015] If you have ever been to Murnau - South from Munich & near Oberammergau - you will surely have visited the Quaint Cottage of Gabriel Münter. Today, it is a Münter Museum, but way back before The Great War, it was called the Rus Haus by Pious Catholic Locals who didn't much approve of Gabriel's Life Style, living as she openly did with Vasily Kandinsky, who was not only Not Her Husband, but also a Flamboyant Ruski Expressionist. From her Upstairs Bedroom Window, she occasionally painted Her View of the Bayerische Katholische Kirche in the Middle Distance. When she Descended the Staircase - with No Apologies to Marcel Duchamp - to make Mittags Essen for Kandinsky, she could grasp the Bannister Railing that Kandinsky had lovingly Carved & Painted for her. The Cut Off Date for this Colorful Exhibition at the Neue Galerie is 1917 - with Good Reason. Prussian Germany had been at War, East & West, since 1914 & The Guns of August. Before World War I, Munich was the Art Center of Germany - which, in effect, It Still Is. Modernist Munich Artists of Die Brücke [The Bridge] & Der Blaue Reiter [The Blue Rider] had shocked Conservative Collectors by turning their backs on Colorist Conventions. Not for them the Biblical Myths or Grand Historical Subjects of the Nineteenth Century. Instead, they Focused on Urban Simplicities & Rural Folk Traditions. Peasant Scenes & Circus Hi Jinx - as well as Cabaret Artistes - captured their Painterly Interest, with Often Striking but nonetheless Decorative Contrasts of Colors. Among the Bygone Talents now on view are Natalia Goncharova, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Max Pechstein, Mikhail Larionov, & Erich Heckel. There is a Visual Side Bar dealing with Abstraction, as it was being developed by Kandinsky & Kazimir Malevich. [The Guggenheim Museum today is a Major Treasure Trove of Kandinsky Canvases.] The Neue Galerie is the Sole Venue of this Impressive Exhibition which has been Curated by Konstantin Akinsha, who is also a Research Fellow at the Germanisches National Museum in Nürnberg. Take the Deutsches Bundesbahn South from Nürnberg & you will soon reach Munich, with Münter Murnau Land a Few Stops Beyond…
At The New Museum:
SURROUND AUDIENCE: The 2015 Triennial [Closing 24 May 2015] There are now a lot of Closed or Boarded Up Storefronts down on The Bowery… Flop Houses have finally Flopped, but the New Museum is Going Strong. Every Three Years, it mounts a Triennial Exhibition: this Time, its Curators have invited some 51 Emerging Artists from some 25 Established Countries. There is also a Famous Triennial in Germany's Ruhr District, but it is spread out among Various Failed Factories in Dortmund, Essen, & Elsewhere, so you have to have an Auto or a Rail Pass. Not so down on The Bowery! All on One Architectural Footprint - but on Several Floors! With Great Downtown Views from the Top Floor Café! Kooky Design Ideas are on view in Kookily Designed Spaces, with Lots of Videos… Some Sketches & Constructions do look like Fugitives from MoMA & The Whitney - where their Creators are sure to have Solo Shows eventually. Well, maybe not at The Whitney - which limits itself to American Artists, although its Admirable Architect, Renzo Piano, is certainly not from either Omaha or Austin… As for New Museum Audiences being Surrounded, this Show Title was inspired by the Miracle of the Internet, where Digital Designs & Virtual Realities are All Around Us. Here's what the New Museum has to say about this: We move through Streams of Chatter, swipe past Pictures of Other People's Lives, & frame our Own Experiences as, all the while, our Digital Trails are subtly Captured, Tracked, & Stored. This is a Culture in which Radical Multimedia Environments…are being lived out every day, albeit with much more Complexity & Compromise. With these Transformations in mind, Surround Audience explores how Artists are currently Depicting Subjectivity, Unpacking Complex Systems of Power, & Claiming Sites of Artistic Agency. Well, There You Have It! Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself…
IDEAS CITY FESTIVAL: The 2015 Triennial [Only 28 30 May 2015] Hey! How about Drone Painting down on The Bowery? Thanks to the Organizing Know How of the Powers That Be at the New Museum, this was a Magic Weekend, crammed with New Ideas for a Future NYC. It was also a Very Rainy Weekend, as if Republicans were Right to denounce the Idea of Global Warming. The Month of June & Thunder Storms… Centered on Cooper Union, where Expert Panels - Manned & Womanned by Those Who Know - were on offer almost Every Hour, with almost Every Aspect of Life & Art in the Five Boroughs Up for Discussion. Curiously Absent from an Otherwise Impressive Ideas Cast was His Honor, Mayor Bill DeBlasio. His Signature Issue, Affordable Housing, was certainly on the Minds of Many… There was Something for Everybody, including Films & Puerto Rican Poets! Don't Miss New Ideas at the New Museum & Cooper Union in 2016, if you missed out on New Ideas 2015. Copyright © Glenn Loney 2015. 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. |
|||
