Category: Art

Carolina Capers: Reading & Art

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From Unravelling the Threads by Vera Weinfield

RECENT READING—D DAY

June 6th this week marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day when Allied troops landed on the Normandy Beaches and changed the outcome of the war.  Two recent novels I’ve just completed are concerned with the Holocaust.  One is set in France and has been a bestseller in France and Europe, and the other is set in Italy.  

The Postcard by Anne Berest

Author Berest (Wikipedia.com)

French novelist and writer Anne Berest was intrigued by a postcard her mother, Lelia, a noted scholar, received in 2003.  Written on the card in an unfamiliar hand were the names of four members of their extended family, Lelia’s grandparents and her aunt and uncle, all of whom were deported and killed in the concentration camps.  With her mother’s assistance, Berest goes on the hunt to find out who wrote and mailed the card and to learn more about her great grandparents, Ephraim and Emma, and her great aunt Noemie and her great uncle Jacques.  

Although the work is a novel or autobiographical fiction, it reads like nonfiction since so much of it is factual.  Berest does, however, create dialogue and flesh out situations based on the archival information the two women discover.  Central to the story is Myriam, Ephraim and Emma’s oldest child, and Leila’s mother.  Myriam survived the war and Anne Berest knew her and visited her in Provence as a child.  

The book goes back and forth in time and is an absorbing and poignant journey into family history as daughter and mother share experiences, but don’t always agree on what should be pursued or what is too painful to revisit.  The book is translated from the French.  Highly recommended!  (~JWFarrington)

Our Darkest Night by Jennifer Robson

Robson (Amazon.com)

The Postcard, published in 2023 in English, was on my summer reading list.  Having finished it on my Kindle, I discovered this related novel by Canadian author Jennifer Robson.  Robson’s historical novel portrays the experiences of one Jewish woman, Nina, taken into hiding by a Catholic family in 1942.  

Nina’s physician father is determined that she should be protected and makes arrangements with a friend. Having enjoyed a comfortable and sheltered childhood in Venice, Nina must now masquerade as farmer Nico’s wife. She earns her place in his family through hard work on their farm, but later is arrested, beaten, and transported to a camp in Poland. 

Nina is a fictional character, but her story was partly inspired by Robson’s son asking whether it was true that his Italian grandparents had hidden Jews during the war.  Robson’s novel reflects the extraordinary amount of research she did about real events—massacres, hangings, deportations—and is both graphic and extremely compelling.  It is a fitting companion to Berest’s book, and I recommend it. (~JWFarrington)

READERS’ RECOMMENTATIONS

Our Swedish friend is deep into Fresh Water for Flowers by Valerie Perrin and calls it a must read.  It’s translated from the French and was a bestseller all over Europe.  I read it in 2022 (see blog of 4/3/22) and found it slow to get into and then fascinating and memorable.

(amazon.com)

The Chief Penguin’s Colorado cousin belongs to an international book club which meets every other month. She shared their 2024 list.  Two titles on it are:  The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese and River Sing Me Home, a historical novel about a mother’s journey to find her stolen children.    

ART OUTING

CAM Raleigh

From Samantha Everette’s Crowning Glory

The Contemporary Art Museum (CAM) is located in downtown Raleigh in a former produce storage building in the Warehouse District. Opened in 2011, it’s a non-collecting museum that offers bold and innovative exhibits from local and national contemporary artists as well as educational programming.  

On a recent visit, I surveyed a photographic study of Black women and hair, Crowning Glory, an exhibit of UNC-Chapel Hill MFA student thesis projects, and a collection of works from emerging artists in rural Robeson County, part of a project called CAMERA.  Overall, a wide diversity of styles and media here. Shown at the very top, the Vera Weinfield collage is one of her thesis works on Jewish identity.

Joyful Mysteries
Collage by Molly English (UNC MFA student)
Detail, Cleft, by Jeffrey Geller

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Note: All unattributed photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)

Header painting is Still by S. K. Chavis-Bullard.

Manhattan: Colorful Art & Tempting Turkish Fare

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ART:  THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE 

Street Life, Harlem, ca. 1939-40, William H. Johnson

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s retrospective, The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism, is a stunning exhibit of African American paintings from the 1920’s, 30’s and 40’s. These years in New York and elsewhere brought forth a revival of interest in African American art, literature, and music.  This exhibit is a celebration of Blacks portrayed on canvas.  

The colors are often bright and bold, human figures are occasionally flat, and some paintings are individual portraits.  There are also groups enjoying cocktails, dancing, or just hanging out. Many artists are represented, but Archibald Motley Jr., and William H. Johnson figure prominently.  I liked the dressiness and the larger than life appearance of the couple in Johnson’s Street Life above.  Here are a few other favorites, such as this jitterbugging couple.

Jitterbugs V, ca. 1941-42, Johnson

African American women were often depicted as the New Negro Woman. Very dark, almost defiant, always feminine, and beautiful. I like Alston’s strong female below. Also Motley’s stylish women socializing over drinks.

Girl in a Red Dress, 1934, Charles H. Alston
Cocktails, ca. 1926, Archibald J. Motley Jr.

The exhibit also includes portraits of famous people like the poet Langston Hughes and this one of a statuesque Marian Anderson.

Anderson, by Laura Wheeler Waring, 1944

Variations in Black skin tones were also evident in some works. Laura Wheeler Waring makes starkly clear the difference in a racially mixed family in the following piece.

Mother and Daughter, 1927, L. W. Waring

There is much to see and appreciate in this exhibit, and it runs through July 28th. Highly recommended!

MEDITERRANEAN CUISINE

Sea Salt (Upper East Side)

With pink blooms surrounding its entrance, it’s hard to miss Sea Salt on 1st Avenue.  This Turkish/Greek bar and grill has been open for about three years, but this was our first visit.  The space is light and attractive, and the staff gave us a warm welcome.  

Sea Salt interior

For dinner, we began with fried calamari rings dusted with oregano with an aioli sauce on the side for dipping.  Nicely crisp.  For mains, the Chief Penguin tried the lamb kebab with rice and greens, while I ordered the whole branzino with lemon and capers.  The lamb was lightly spiced while the branzino was delicately delicious.  Specialty cocktails and wines by the glass are also on offer. 

Branzino at Sea Salt

On a second visit, we sampled the Greek salad (lovely and fresh), manti (mini dumplings with beef in a yogurt-based sauce), and adana kebab (spiced ground lamb patties) with rice.  Sea Salt is well on its way to being a personal favorite!

Note: Header photo is Mom and Dad, 1944 by William H. Johnson. All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)

Manhattan: Looking, Dining & Reading

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WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART

The Whitney Biennial is held every two years and brings together the works of contemporary painters, sculptors, video artists and the like.  This year there are 70 artists represented and the works can be abstract, challenging, and occasionally accessible.  I find the experience of viewing this exhibit interesting and yet somewhat off-putting.  But I feel it’s a good exercise to be exposed to art I don’t necessarily like or understand.   Here are several works from the Biennial. Luger’s inverted tipi echoes his Native American heritage while stating that the world is upside down.

from Future Ancestral Technologies by C. H. Luger

Philadelphia artist Karyn Olivier uses found objects as reference points for the past or loss. Anyone who’s spent time in Maine will recognize these lobster trappings.

How Many Ways Can You Disappear, 2021

We also spent time in a gallery of works from the Whitney’s permanent collection.  Here are two pieces that spoke to me, one visually appealing, the other disturbing and powerful. I like the vibrancy and beauty of the Gullah woman in Dry Clean.

Dry Clean, Eldzier Cortor, c.1945-46

Norman Lewis’ stark black and white oil painting is chilling with its masks, skulls, and echoes of Klansmen and would easily have fit in the Biennial exhibit.

American Totem, Norman Lewis, 1960

DINING AROUND—THAI STREET FOOD 

Up Thai (Upper East Side)

We had walked by Up Thai in the past, but never eaten here before.  I read a recommendation for it and decided to book. It’s a very popular place and while an attractive space, it’s jammed packed with tables and there is very little space for the wait staff to navigate.  Granted, we were here on a Friday night, but it was crowded with families with children as well as 30 and 40 somethings.  

Our waitress was smilingly pleasant and efficient, and we loved what we ordered!  UP spring rolls with shrimp and crabmeat with plum sauce to start. 

UP spring rolls

Then a medium spicy green curry with chicken, string beans, bamboo shoots, bell pepper, and basil leaves, along with pad krapraw, an entrée of Thai chili, onion, peppers, shitake mushrooms, more basil leaves, and pork.  Both dishes came with white rice. 

On a return visit, we sampled the curry puffs and a vermicelli dish with shrimp.  The vermicelli with ginger and other spices was especially good. In addition, we ordered pad krapraw, this time with chicken. We had more than enough to share.  It was all so good that we will be regulars here!

GUT WRENCHING & HEARTRENDING NOVEL

In Memoriam by Alice Winn

Author Winn (theguardian.com)

In her first published novel, Alice Winn depicts the mostly unspoken love between two young men, schoolboys together, and then soldiers in the front lines in France. Ellwood (Elly or Sidney) and Gaunt (Henry) are classmates at an upper-class English boarding school.  When Britain enters the World War, they and most of their classmates enthuse about joining up as soon as they are old enough.  Their view of war is one of glory and excitement on the battlefield.  Little do they envision the carnage and the gruesomeness they will experience in the trenches at Ypres, Loos, and the Somme.  

The novel alternates in time and space between Ellwood and Gaunt and their experiences together and separately (Henry becomes a German prisoner of war) and those of their closest friends and classmates.  Besides this group, Gaunt’s sister Maud is the other principal character.  She serves as a nurse during the war years, giving her some perspective on what these young men have suffered. The years covered are 1913 to 1919.

The battle scenes are extremely graphic and some of the most gut wrenching I’ve ever read.  Bodies are blasted apart and pile up.  These scenes are contrasted with and redeemed by tenderness and shared forbidden love.  Despite all the deaths that litter these pages, the reader is left with a sense of hope in the years after the war.

Inspired by war remembrances in the historical archives of her own college and enriched by extensive research, Winn has crafted a powerful, moving, and ultimately beautiful work of art.  Highly recommended! (~JWFarrington)

Note: All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.) Header photo is Deep Calls to Deep by Maja Ruznic at the Whitney Biennial.

Tidy Tidbits: Reading, Watching, Enjoying

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READING—FASCINATING WOMAN

Gardner Portrait by John Singer Sargent, 1888 (Gardner Museum)

The Lioness of Boston by Emily Franklin

I’ve long been a list maker: lists of to-dos, lists of TV series and films to screen, lists of places to visit.  Before we moved from Cambridge, MA, many years ago, I made a list of things the Chief Penguin and I should do before we left.  I made a similar list of activities and outings in 2006 before we moved from six months in London back to the U.S.  On my list for Boston was a visit to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.  Filled with art and books, it’s a treasure trove of a collection.

Emily Franklin’s The Lioness of Boston is an intriguing portrait of Isabella Stewart Gardner.  Born in 1840, Isabella was an unconventional woman who wanted to do something significant, to be known as something other than a society wife.  Frustrated by the strictures of staid Boston’s social scene, she chafed at the retiring role she was expected to play.  Comfortably married to Jack Gardner, and then mother to a son, Belle still sought more outlets for her interests and her energy.  

She cultivated friendships with Charles Eliot Norton (first art history professor at Harvard), Henry James, Bernard Berenson, and others.  She got allowed into lectures at Harvard, began traveling abroad, and sat for John Singer Sargent for her portrait.  Her interests in rare books and art blossomed, and she became both a collector and a supporter of artists.  The museum she created is her legacy.

This is a novel, not a biography, and its narrative arc is shallow focusing primarily on Gardner’s friendships and relationships and imagining her interior life.  Leisurely paced and enjoyable!  Now I must make a return visit to Boston. (~JWFarrington)

VIEWING—FAVORITES RETURN

Chelsea Detective, Season 2 (Acorn)

Max & Layla (VitalThrills.com)

Detective Inspector Max Arnold who lives on a houseboat is back for another season, this time with a new sidekick.  DS Layla Walsh is much younger and keeps him on his toes.  Between solving a gruesome murder or two, Max remains entangled with separated wife Astrid (she’d like to get on with her life) and with his somewhat interfering, but doting Aunt Frances.  Set in the tonier section of London, it’s less gritty than other British crime series and as engaging for the human relationships as for the murders.  There are four episodes in the season.

Hidden Assets, Season 2 (Acorn TV & Roku)

Bibi Brannigan, Christian, Claire (TellyVisions.org)

This Irish crime series flips back and forth between the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) team in Limerick, Ireland, and the Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) in Antwerp.  If you haven’t watched the first season, you should, as this is a continuation of an ongoing story of smuggled goods, bombs, murders, and the Belgian port. 

There is a new principal in Ireland, Claire Wallace, who replaces DS Emer Berry.  Emer had a solid working relationship with Christian De Jong, her counterpart in Antwerp. Now, Claire and Christian must forge a new partnership to be jointly successful.  The stakes are high, politicians are involved, and it’s fast paced.  I’ve now watched three of the six episodes.  Highly recommended!

HOLIDAY WEATHER

December is a month for socializing and parties.  This week we caught up with a friend over lunch at Mean Dean’s in Bradenton and celebrated a birthday dinner at another friend’s. On Saturday, we enjoyed our community holiday party—this year a brunch.  It was a lovely day.  The air was softly warm, and the sun was shining.  

From now until May, Florida weather is perfection.  If not perfect, then at least wonderful and magical much of the time.  No need for coats or jackets, gloves or hats, let alone boots.  Sandals and short sleeves will suffice.  Living here this season is a treat!

Note: Header photo is of the courtyard at the Gardner Museum, courtesy of the museum.