Potpourri: Cypresses, Cold War & Meals

TREES IN ART

Van Gogh’s Cypresses (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Wheat Field with Cypresses

The last exhibit we visited in Manhattan this month was the small, but fascinating, collection of Van Gogh’s Cypresses.  Probably Van Gogh’s most famous painting is The Starry Night.  When we saw it here, we were made aware of the tall dark cypress trees on the left.  Something I hadn’t paid attention to in the past nor really noticed.  

Two Poplars in the Apiles

Other paintings from Van Gogh’s time in Saint-Remy, Provence highlight not only the brooding cypresses, but also show off poppies in a field (cypresses in the background) and in a canvas luminescent in yellows, two straight poplar trees.  The exhibit was crowded and occupied only a few galleries but was well worth the visit.

GERMAN DRAMA

Line of Separation (Amazon Prime)

Anna with her father (WGBH)

Line of Separation is a German series set in the divided town of Tannbach after WWII.  A brook splits the town between the Nazis and the Americans.  Families are at odds with one another, and past actions and differing political views make for tension, anger, and violence.  Young Anna, a young aristocrat, takes command of her family’s estate after the death of her mother when the Nazis threaten.  

Tannbach is a fictional village modeled after a real one.  There are two seasons of six episodes each.  We have watched Season 1 and found it a gripping piece of postwar history.

Deutschland 83 (Amazon Prime)

Martin with his aunt (The Hollywood Reporter)

In Deutschland 83Martin Rauch is an ordinary border guard in East Germany.  He is recruited as a spy by the Stasi and sent to West Germany to infiltrate the army and gather NATO intelligence.  As Mauritz Stamm, he is the chief aide to a high level general.  Inexperienced and naïve, his bungling at the job makes for a series of close calls.  It also provides American viewers a different look at the Cold War years before the Berlin Wall came down.

This 2015 series starts out slowly but becomes more intense in the second and third episodes.  There are 8 episodes in all.  For those who get hooked, there are two more series which we have not yet watched:  Deutschland 86 and Deutschland 89.

DINING BITES

Valerie (Midtown)

Valerie, a comfortable dark bar and restaurant on W. 45th Street was just right for lunch with a friend.  We were seated in the back and, all was quiet initially until a boisterous crowd arrived, making conversation more challenging.  Nonetheless, we enjoyed the entrée salads we each had, two with ahi tuna and mine a tasty Caesar with freshly grilled chicken strips.  I’d go back, but probably book for 11:00 or 11:30.

The Bar Room (East 60th St.)

This visit the Chief Penguin and I dined at several bar cum restaurants.  The Bar Room was one where we dined twice.  The first time the back tables were quiet, and the happy hour drink prices most appealing.  We sampled the bar fries and indulged in lobster rolls, almost as good as in Maine.  On our second visit, we went for the guacamole, fries, and the fried chicken bites.  All tasty snack treats.  It was much more crowded and thumping music was an accompaniment.  Go, but proceed with caution!

Imli (1st Avenue, Upper East Side)

We returned to Imli after not having dined there for several years.  They offer delicious Indian fare in an airy, contemporary space.  We liked it so much we ate here a second time.  The tandoor chicken is nicely spiced, the veggie samosas large, the lamb logs a bit different, and the very spicy paneer as billed.  We happily took some home for lunch the next day! 

Barbaresco (Lexington Ave.)

Barbaresco is one of our regular go-to Italian restaurants.  It isn’t overly expensive and we like the vibe.  Recently we tried a couple of their daily specials and were delighted.  Vitello tonnato (thinly sliced veal with tuna anchovy sauce) has long been a favorite of mine.  The version I had here, topped with arugula and cherry tomatoes, was one of the very best ever!  

Vitello Tonnato

Note: Unattributed photos by JWFarrington (some rights reserved.) Header photo is Van Gogh’s Field of Poppies.

Reading & Art

I recently completed several novels: historical fiction about a rich heiress, a contemporary novel about the power of books, and lastly, an unusual first novel set in nature. This week, the Chief Penguin and I also got to the Whitney Museum of American Art for one of their featured exhibits.

LIVING WITH THE ONE PERCENT

The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post by Allison Pataki

Marjorie Post, 1946 (Frank O. Salisbury via Artsy)

Allison Pataki’s novel about the life of cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post is a fast-paced engrossing read.  Doted on and educated in the family Grape Nuts business as a child, Marjorie was beautiful and smart and a millionaire before the age of 30.  Coming of age when women of her class did not hold jobs, let alone run companies, she relied for decades on the men in her family, generally her husbands (multiple) or her uncle, to run Post (which later became General Foods).  She lived a life of supreme luxury and both built and renovated lavish homes.  

When she became frustrated with just hostessing and socializing, Marjorie would take on a grand project.  She furnished money, supplies, and staff for a frontline hospital in France during the Great War.  During the Depression, she started and ran a large soup kitchen.  She became friends with U.S. presidents.  And when her 4th husband was ambassador to Russia during the Second World War, her social skills were an important asset to his success.  

Marjorie was less successful in her choice of men from first husband Greenwich gentleman Ed Close to fourth husband statesman Joey Davies; she ended up divorcing every one of them.  Yet she was notable and memorable to the end for her style and the causes she championed.  A fascinating and fun novel! (~JWFarrington)

FOR LOVE OF LITERATURE

The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams

Sara Adams connected with her grandfather through a love of books. In her first novel, The Reading List, teenage Aleisha works at a branch library in London and after being rude to an older gentleman patron, becomes friendly with him and ultimately with his granddaughter Priya.  Mukesh is a lonely widower and not the reader his late wife was.  He reads Time Traveler’s Wife and then asks Aleisha for a book recommendation.  Thus begins his literary journey with Aleisha giving him books from a handwritten list she found.  She reads the books first to be knowledgeable.  

Several other people in the community find copies of this same list of titles. Reading these classics such as Little Women, The Kite Runner, and To Kill a Mockingbird, provides comfort and perspective on their own troubles and concerns.  A paean to the power of good literature, the novel is also a poignant story of connection and community among neighbors and family of different generations.  Recommended! (~JWFarrington)

SUBSISTING IN NATURE

Lungfish by Meghan Giliss

Author Giliss (Portland Press Herald)

Lungfish is a first novel set on an isolated island in Maine.  Tuck and her little daughter Agnes have fled to what was Tuck’s late grandmother’s deserted cottage.  It’s summer, but there is no heat or amenities, and Tuck has very little money.  Her husband Paul is sometimes physically present, but often asleep. He works little or not at all and is suffering the ravages of addiction.  Tuck and Agnes comb the shoreline for snails and other edible animals and plants.  It’s a hard austere life.

The narrative is all told from Tuck’s perspective and goes back in forth and time as she re-visits her childhood in Indiana, her relations with her mother and father, and her aborted veterinary studies.  She reviews specific events and reflects on them in a new way.  

I found this a challenging novel to read.  The prose is straightforward and the physical details of the natural world concrete, but so much is diffuse in terms of when and how a past event occurred.  As I read, I always found myself working hard to fill in the blanks.  I did finish the book and, in a limited way, appreciated Giliss’s bold and unusual approach to storytelling.  (~JWFarrington)

POLITICS IN ART

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Memory Map

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (The Guardian)

At Christie’s last week, one of the first paintings I encountered was a large canvas of mostly red with some browns by this artist, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith.

Smith’s work at Christie’s gallery

I was intrigued and so, when we planned our visit to the Whitney Museum, I noted we could view the first New York retrospective of this Native American artist’s art. Born in 1940, Smith has had a long career as artist and educator. Her works feature images relative to Native American life combined with themes of conservation and the environment, racism, and cultural identity.

Cheyenne Series, #4, 1984

Some of the earlier works are more representational, a series of horses, for example. Later works are somewhat collage-like and often satirical or absurd in tone with newspaper headlines and snatches of text pasted on.

What is An American? 2003

I didn’t like everything, but found the exhibit thought-provoking and a different way to think about Native American imagery.

Flathead Vest, Father & Child, 1996

Note: Unattributed photos by JWFarrington. Header photos is Green Flag, 1995 by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith.

Manhattan Moments: More Art

FINE ART FOR AUCTION

Christie’s

Les Flamants, 1910

Christie’s has its New York gallery and auction headquarters in Rockefeller Center.  Thanks to a tip from our son, we went down to see a wonderful Rousseau and other marvelous works.  We walked into a wide lobby space, a coat check and coffee bar tucked in on the left.  No one spoke to us, and no one asked for identification or what our business was.  We wandered into a transverse hall and saw the first pieces of art.  

Eglise Saint-Philibert by Maurice Utrillo

Everything on display was from private collections. All were here to be auctioned off during a week of high-profile sales.  The art ranged from Impressionism to Contemporary and 20th and 21st century pieces.  

The Gate by David Hockney

Shown in the top photo, this beautiful Rousseau of flamingos by a shore (Les Flamants, 1910) sold for $43.5 million on May 11 in the largest sale price ever for this artist and as the highest price piece in the 20th Century Evening Sale.  That same week, the third chapter of Masterpieces from the S. I. Newhouse Collection was also very successful with its inclusion of notable works by de Kooning and Picasso.

Rachel Zurer by Alice Neel
Au Casino, Bonnard

We wandered from gallery to gallery as the intertwined spaces opened to us with more walls of art.  I especially liked a portrait by Alice Neel (having seen her work on exhibit at the Met two years ago); two portraits by Alex Katz, one on a vibrant orange background; Bonnard’s Au Casino; a church streetscape by Utrillo; several gloriously colorful landscapes by David Hockney; and a white rose by Georgia O’Keeffe.  It was a marvelous experience!  

White Calico Rose, O’Keeffe

Part of the fun was the people watching—the very professionally suited Christie’s staff with their notebooks and usually a small clutch of exhibit catalogues under their arms–and the mix of potential buyers and just lookers like us.  Dress in the latter groups ranged from an elegant black pants suit on an elegant white-haired woman to jeans and a white shirt, to khaki pants, and even the occasional rumpled sweater.  

ARTY SUMMER READ

The Price of Inheritance by Karin Tanabe

By happenstance, I read this early novel by Karin Tanabe just after being at Christie’s.  The Price of Inheritance is about the fine art industry and provides a detailed look at how dealers go about evaluating and acquiring pieces from private collectors.  Carolyn Everett, ambitious and intense, is a young star in the Furniture Department at Christie’s in Manhattan.  Botching her career after a record-breaking sale, Carolyn returns to small-time art buying and begins a questionable romance with a magnetic Marine.  Romance that is tied up with the inside world of buying and selling art.  A fast, suspenseful read!

Note: Art photos by JWFarrington. Header photo is Ada by Alex Katz.

Manhattan Moments: Art at MoMA

Entrancing Video Art

One of the most compelling reasons to visit the Museum of Modern Art this season is the floor to ceiling video piece on the main lobby wall.  Created by Refik Anadol, Unsupervised, is an ever-changing mesmerizing mass of colors and shapes that at times flows beyond the boundaries of the screen. It is abstract in form, dark and mysterious sometimes and, at other moments, a riot of intense color.

Just one snippet of Unsupervised

Anadol used artificial intelligence and applied it to a database of the complete works in MoMA’s collection.  This area of the museum was the most populated with people of all ages the two times we visited.

Crowd at MoMA watching video

A Dynamic Collection, 1970s-Present

The Chief Penguin and I spent the remainder of this visit on the second level looking at and liking and not liking some of the stranger pieces of recent art, sculpture, and video. 

It’s the centennial of Ellsworth Kelly’s birth and two works of his dominated the first gallery.  I especially liked his aluminum paneled work with some colored panels, Sculpture for a Large Wall, which he created in 1957 for the Transportation Building in Philadelphia.  

Sculpture by E. Kelly

I also liked the brilliance of Spectrum IV which begins and ends with colorful strips of yellow and gold.  

Kelly’s Spectrum IV 1967

Indian artist Shambhavi is represented by a most intriguing metal work, a tree made of scythes saluting the farmer’s work.

Reaper’s Melody, 2011/2018

To See Takes Time

On our second MoMA visit, we delighted in To See Takes Time, a collection of watercolors, charcoal, and pastels by Georgia O’Keeffe.  In several instances, one sees the evolution of a work from early stages to a final version or to a version that is simply presented in a different color palette.  These are smaller works showing the diversity of O’Keefe’s interests and reflecting her travels (Maine, New Mexico) and her ongoing fascination with nature.

On the River, 1964
Canna Lily 1918-20 (O’Keeffe)
House with Tree-Green

One surprise is the realistic portrait of fellow artist Delaney.

Beaufort Delaney, 1943

Bar Food

Buena Onda

Since Cinco de Mayo was this week, it seems appropriate to mention the new Mexican place we tried.  (We avoided a crowd by not going on the 5th!)  Buena Onda on 1st Avenue is more a bar than a restaurant, with a few tables up front and several booths in the back.  It was recommended to us for its tacos by the waiter at Canyon Road, its sister restaurant up the street.  

We began with guacamole and margaritas, both very good, and then sampled some gorditas filled with chorizo and peppers and two of their tacos, beef and chicken.  Everything was very tasty and fresh so we will definitely return.

Note: Header photo is Pink and Green Mountains No. IV, 1917 by Georgia O’Keeffe.