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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
