Category: Art

Carolina Comments: Art & Crime

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LOOKING: MORE ANDREW WYETH

At Kuerner Farm: The Eye of the Earth (Winston Salem)

First Snow, Study for Groundhog Day, 1959

The Chief Penguin and I have seen many examples of Andrew Wyeth’s work over the decades, annually in Maine at the Farnsworth Museum and several visits to the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, Pa.  Wyeth divided his time over his life between Pennsylvania where he grew up and the coast of Maine.  This exhibit at the Reynolda House Museum of American Art focuses on the farm neighboring the Wyeth’s property in Pennsylvania and includes some works never previously exhibited.   I liked all the angles in Grindstone, angles that contrast with the roundness of the stone almost outside the painting.

Grindstone, First Version, 1989

After his father’s death from a train collision in 1945, Andrew Wyeth became more aware of his mortality and was drawn to the cycles of life and death on the Kuerner Farm.  Karl Kuerner became a sort of surrogate father to him, and he painted both Karl and his wife, Anna, many times. 

Detail, The Kuerners, 1971

 The paintings in this exhibit are stark and muted, mainly in browns and white, and frequently depict the buildings and the landscape in snow.  Most are watercolors and a few are egg tempura.  The plaques describing each work are more detailed than in many museums and inform the viewer about Wyeth’s technique and offer more context for the image.  One late work is both realistic and fanciful as it depicts friends and others, alive and long gone, dancing around a maypole with colorful ribbons.

Detail, Snow Hill, 1989

It’s a thoughtful exhibit and is on view until May 25.  It then travels to the Brandywine River Museum outside Philadelphia and from there goes on view in Jacksonville, Florida, beginning in October.  

If you haven’t ever visited Reynolda House, it’s worth a trip.  The house was built in 1917, in American Country House style, for R.J. Reynolds and his wife Katharine.  The rooms are beautifully restored, and the walls feature a wide-ranging collection of both historic and more contemporary works by American artists.  In nice weather the formal gardens beckon.

WATCHING: CRIME IN LONDON

The Chelsea Detective Season 3 (Acorn)

Max and Layla (tellyvisions.org)

Quirky Detective Inspector Max Arnold lives on a houseboat and has an on-again off-again relationship with his ex-wife Astrid. He banters regularly with his well-meaning and somewhat interfering Aunt Olivia.  In Season 3, when he and Astrid decide to be just friends, he takes a stab at the dating scene with a horticulturist.

Max and his colleague DS Layla Walsh team up to solve murders in London’s affluent Chelsea district.  The murders are frequently unusual. What begins as a clearcut case becomes more complex with multiple suspects and sometimes international intrigue.  Chief Forensics Officer or pathologist, Ashley Wilton, rounds out the cast, and as a deaf actor is evidence of greater diversity in TV casting. 

Episodes are 90 minutes each and are being released weekly.  There are 4 episodes total in this season, and the Chief Penguin and I have enjoyed the first two.  Recommended!

Note: All unattributed photos by JWFarrington. Header photo of Fenced in, 2001, is one of the few Wyeth works with color, red on the horse’s blanket and on a distant barn.

Carolina Comments: Beautiful Blossoms & Determined Detectives

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FLOWERS AND ART

Art in Bloom, North Carolina Museum of Art

This week, the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh hosted its 11th annual Art in Bloom.  It’s the museum’s biggest fund raiser; museum admission here is free except for special exhibitions. The 40 floral works range from brightly colored (lots of orange) to subdued browns, from low bowls to pillars of blossoms, and from elegant to wild and exotic.  Sometimes the works seem closely related to the art and sometimes it’s hard to appreciate the inspiration.

Piece inspired by R-DHYA by Bhavsar

In my San Franciso life, I went to the de Young Museum of Art’s similar exhibit entitled Bouquets to Art.  Now in its 41st year, it too pairs elaborate floral arrangements with paintings and sculpture.  My sense, after visiting Art in Bloom, is that the local exhibit has larger and taller pieces in the mix.  In any case, what floral designers can craft using a wide variety of plants and flowers is stunning and even sometimes amazing.  

Column of roses inspired by painting on the far wall

RECENT VIEWING

DEATH IN NEW ZEALAND

A Remarkable Place to Die (Acorn)

Veronica & Anais (rotten tomatoes.com)

Set in and around gorgeous Queenstown, the crime series, A Remarkable Place to Die, is almost worth watching just for the scenery. Detective Anais Mallory returns home to lead the homicide division and gets caught up in trying to solve the mystery of her sister’s death in a violent crash several years ago.  Assisting on her team is detective Simon Delaney, who was a candidate for Anais’s job.  Adding to the complexity is the fact that Anais and her mother are not on good terms, despite Anais’s desire to forge a warmer relationship.  As Mallory digs deeper into her sister’s accident and her father’s death before that, she risks losing her job and destroying friendships.  

The series consists of four episodes, and each is 90 minutes long.  It takes a bit of getting into and Anais is not always a likable character.  Fans of the comedy series, Under the Vines, will recognize Rebecca Gibney (Daisy) who here plays a serious role as Anais’s mother Veronica.

WEIRD CRIMES IN PARIS

Astrid Season 4 (PBS Masterpiece)

Raphaelle & Astrid (entertainment-focus.com)

Fans of this autistic super sleuth will be delighted with Astrid’s return in Season 4.  Astrid, based in the criminal records archives, works with detective and now good friend Raphaelle to solve unusual crimes in Paris.  These murders occur in unexpected places and under strange circumstances.  Astrid’s encyclopedic memory and keen observational skills enable her to see things her colleagues miss.  

Astrid is literal, sometimes missing slang or subtleties; a Monday night dinner is a Monday dinner and not one on Tuesday instead.  She is a regular participant in an autism spectrum support group led by patient and caring William, and she has a slowly developing romance with Tetsuo who lets Astrid set the pace.

I’ve watched the first three episodes in this 8-part series and am looking forward to the others. I continue to be intrigued by the evolving relationships between Astrid and Raphaelle, Astrid and Tetsuo, and Astrid and her colleagues, who are still sometimes baffled by her responses.  I also like Dr. Fournier the pathologist.  In French with subtitles.  Recommended!

Note: Unattributed photos by JWFarrington including header photo of blue and white flowers.

CAROLINA COMMENTS: READING & ART

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This week I’m sharing my thoughts on a new novel by Fiona Davis along with some works I found striking at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke. I’m continuing to consider some of our outings in Cary and beyond as other examples of Abroad At Home.

ENTERTAINING NOVEL: THE MET AND EGYPT

The Stolen Queen by Fiona Davis

Fiona Davis (facebook.com)

True to form, The Stolen Queen, the latest historical novel by Fiona Davis, centers on an iconic building in New York City.  Earlier novels featured the New York Public Library (The Lions of Fifth Avenue), the Barbizon Hotel for Women (The Dollhouse), and Grand Central Terminal (The Masterpiece), to name just several.  For this work, it’s the Metropolitan Museum of Art and specifically its antiquities and Egyptian collections.

Set in 1936 and 1978 in Egypt and Manhattan, it’s the story of two women and their search for a stolen artifact (the queen of the title), a missing jewelry collar, and a lost daughter.  Charlotte Cross was a budding archaeologist in Luxor in the 1930’s when her life was upended by tragedy.  In 1978, she is an associate curator at the Met, keenly focused on her study of a female pharaoh, yet still torn by not knowing the fate of her infant.  Annie Jenkins is nineteen, loves fashion, and by happenstance becomes Diana Vreeland’s gopher in the run-up to the Costume Institute’s annual gala.  Due to some unusual circumstances, Annie and Charlotte join forces to search for the missing antiquity which involves traveling to Egypt and excavating the demons of Charlotte’s past.

The novel is a romp in the Met Museum, fun for anyone who has spent any time at all there, while simultaneously being a complexly threaded set of relationships and events.  The female pharaoh and a few other characters are based on historic figures.  It’s a quick read and enjoyable, even if it all seems to be resolved too neatly!

ABROAD AT HOME:  ART IN DURHAM

Nasher Museum of Art

Friends invited us to join them for an outing to the Nasher Museum of Art on the Duke University campus in Durham.  I knew of this museum but had never visited, nor had I ever seen it.  The building itself is stunning with a soaring wide lobby topped by angled metal trusses and lots of glass.  Designed by noted architect Rafael Vinoly and opened in 2005, it’s a light-filled welcoming space.  Galleries and exhibit spaces are off to the side in appropriately semi-dark rooms.  

Interior, Nasher Museum

Several exhibits are currently on view and some are small so, we were able to explore them all to some extent.  We spent the most time in By Dawn’s Early Light, a major exhibit marking the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 set against the historical backdrop of the Constitution and several key amendments.  The exhibit is wide-ranging in its coverage of people and documents through photography, painting, and sculptural pieces. Here are several works that I found striking.

Jaune Quick-To-See Smith, a Native American from Montana, presents a map of the United States emphasizing its whiteness with white paint colors instead of state names.  The countries surrounding the US are multi-colored.  North Carolina is Breakwater White.

Fifty Shades of White, 2018
Detail showing North Carolina and neighbors

Americans have the right to bear arms. I found this Celtic cross composed of AK 47 rifles a chilling statement on what one might call “gun worship.”

Cross for the Unforgiven, 2002, Mel Chin

Another powerful piece for me was the historic Confederate flag, part of a performance piece in which the flag was deliberately torn. The colorful threads on the shelf at the bottom are formless and perhaps available for something new.

Unravelling, Sonya Clark, 2015
Tabaco, Diego Camposeco, 2015

Individuals from other lands come here seeking to fulfill the American dream for themselves.  Many of these are migrant workers, often Latinos. See Diego Camposeco’s print at right.

There is also moving section, “Freedom to Assemble” with images of Martin Luther King and others gathering and facing down armed troops at the Pettus Bridge in Selma in 1965.  Mounted on mirrored sienna glass, the photos are very reflective making it impossible to get a photo worth sharing.  

By Dawn’s Early Light is timely and worth a visit. It runs through May 11. 

The museum also has an informal café space offering tasty salads, sandwiches, eggs benedict many ways, and omelets.  We four enjoyed lunch there midst the Under 25 set.  We had escaped our home bubble for a student-filled campus bubble.  Fun!

Note: All unattributed photos by JWFarrington (some rights reserved.) Header photo is of the massive bronze sculpture, MamaRay, by Nairobi-born artist Wangechi Muta. It was installed at the museum in 2021.

Manhattan: Food, Art, & Drama

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SPLURGE-WORTHY DINING

The Modern

In a delayed celebration of our anniversary, we dined at The Modern, the restaurant next to the Museum of Modern Art.  With a table by the window, we looked out at MoMA’s sculpture garden and December’s bare trees. Lunch was a three-course prix fixe. Everything was beautifully plated and delicious.  I opted for the cold lobster salad with citrus and burrata followed by sea bass with some agnolotti and then a cheese course. 

Lobster salad
Roast chicken & sweet potato cake

The Chief Penguin had hamachi over basil to start and then roast chicken on a sweet potato cake followed an elegant lime parfait.  Service was impeccable, and we enjoyed chatting with our young waitress.  This is a wonderful venue for special occasions!

MATISSE AND MORE

Hanging Out at MoMA

The other morning, we walked down to W. 53rd Street and spent a most pleasant hour exploring several exhibits.  We headed first to the 3rd floor for a look at Matisse’s Cut-Outs: A Celebration, works from late in his career.  These paper cutouts are amazing.  His paper “stained glass” window, Christmas Eve (Nuit de Noel) has vibrant colors, but the glass version he had crafted is most impressive and so luminous. 

Christmas Eve, Matisse, in glass

Also of note are the figures he did for his swimming pool.  Rather than add a swimming pool to his home, he created blue leggy figures and adhered them to a band of paper around the perimeter of his dining room.  The overall effect was feeling like being in the water.

The Swimming Pool, Matisse, 1962
Rothko, No. 16, 1958 (Black, Red, Brown)

Leaving Matisse behind, we looked at some works from the permanent collection from around the world.  I was struck by the muted intensity of Mark Rothko’s No. 16 (Red, Brown, and Black) and by the mysterious figures underlying Blue Composition, c.1966-68, by Ethiopian artist Alexander “Skunder” Boghossian.  There appears to be both a horse and the snout of an alligator or crocodile. 

Detail, Blue Composition
Detail, No Shade but His Shade

And No Shade but His Shade by Sudanese artist Ibrahim El-Salahi is a compelling work all in browns including a man’s head with a bird perched on his scalp.

LIVE DRAMA

Left on Tenth (James Earl Jones Theatre)

I read Delia Ephron’s memoir, Left on Tenth, when it came out and was pleased when I saw that she was writing a script and working with Good Wife TV star Julianna Margulies.  The Chief Penguin and I went to the play and enjoyed it immensely.  The cast is small, just four people; Margulies and Peter Gallagher as the leads, two others who play cameo parts, and two dogs.  It is a story of newfound love, but it’s also about serious illness, specifically leukemia.  (A variety of that same disease took the life of Delia’s sister Nora.)

While one might expect this to be a depressing drama, it is not.  Yes, there are sad and tense moments, but there is joy and lightness.  The staging consists of a simple set, minor costume changes, and creative lighting and projection to change the mood or the season.  Margulies carries the work, projecting a full range of emotions, while Peter Francis James in brief roles as a friend, a gruff doctor, and a waiter adds a bit of humor and dance. 

Note: All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.) Header photo of trees for sale along 3rd Avenue.