Whitney Museum of Art Archives

Art at the Whitney

May 29, 2017May 29, 2017 JWF Leave a comment

WHITNEY BIENNIAL.

The Whitney Biennial brings together works of art by a wide variety of artists (60+ this year, I believe), many of them young. Most of the art is recent or new works and includes paintings, sculpture, and video. Overall the art is strange, provocative, disturbing, and sometimes even realistic. We did just one floor of this extensive exhibit and will have to return to see the rest. Here are some samples of what we saw.

One section of a cube by Pope. L, you could walk into whose interior and exterior walls were all covered with these slices of bologna each one with the face of one individual Jew in New York. Almost 2,800 of these slices representing a fraction of a percent of the Jews in the city. Odd and slightly disturbing.

Work by Jon Kessler

La Talaverita, Sunday Morning NY Times, 2016 by Aliza Nisenbaum

One of John Divola’s series of Abandoned Paintings.

Section of stained glass wall by Raul de Nieves. In front of it were several life sized figures made of yard, fabric, beads and the like.

Glimmer Glass, 2016 by Carrie Moyer

Rug, 2015 by Ulrike Muller

The Whitney’s outdoor terraces are a wonderful venue for large scale sculpture. I was particularly taken with the series of red cubes within cubes graduated in the degree of transparency. The sculptor is Larry Bell. The header photo is another view of this captivating work.

Note: All photos by JWFarrington.

Manhattan Musings: Movies & Museums

October 4, 2016October 4, 2016 JWF Leave a comment

A week seeing Equity and Deepwater Horizon and visits to two museums. The abstract art by centenarian Carmen Herrera is bold, colorful and arresting.

FILM
Equity
Written, produced and directed by women, Equity, is a fascinating film about women on Wall Street and bringing an IPO to the trading floor. Starring are Anna Gunn as the seasoned older managing director, skilled, but tainted by a more recent failure, and Sarah Megan Thomas, as her up and coming vp who is better equipped to handle the Facebook-like founder of privacy company Cachet. Portrayed here are women with power and women admitting they like money along side the chicanery, manipulation, and cheating that is part of this financial milieu. And unlike traditional films where good prevails and the bad guys get it, the ending may surprise you. Both the Chief Penguin and I liked this film and would recommend it. Later we learned that Sarah Thomas was one of our son’s high school classmates. For the record, she is very good.

Deepwater Horizon
While any reasonably aware person knows about the oil rig disaster that was the Deepwater Horizon in 2010, few of us can appreciate how horrific an event it was. If for no other reason than seeing the catastrophe develop and play out, this film is worth seeing. It is amazing to me that more men didn’t die. By choosing to focus on a couple of key players, the technician Mike Williams; Andrea, an operator in the control room and the only woman; and Jimmy Harrell, who is in charge and essentially “the captain” of the rig; the creators provide a strong emotional link for the viewer. Two BP execs are also on board; needless to say, they and the company do not come off well. Scenes of the engulfing fireball may haunt you, but I still recommend it.

ABSTRACT ART
The Whitney Museum of American Art is close by, and, as members, we can go as often as we like. Last week we explored the Carmen Herrera exhibit, “Lines of Sight.” At 101, Ms. Herrera is still actively creating art and now getting some long overdue recognition. A Cuban immigrant and female, she was mostly overlooked during the 1950’s, 60’s and beyond until fairly recently. Her colorful geometric canvases make me think somewhat of Rothko and Jasper Johns. They are bold and bright and stunning in their simplicity. Here are a few samples.

SPIRITUALISM
We also stopped into MOMA briefly, mostly to enjoy lunch in their café, but did spend a few minutes wandering in an exhibit of books, posters, clippings and other items relating to Fulton Oursler and the spiritualism movement.

Spiritualism attracted the likes of Arthur Conan Doyle, who wrote a book about the existence of fairies (based on some photos taken by two cousins which they decades later admitted were bogus), and even those who debunked it such as master magician Houdini.

Note: All photos by JWFarrington

Manhattan: Arts & Flowers

May 29, 2016May 29, 2016 JWF 4 Comments

PORTRAITS

Bad pun in the title of this post, I know, but couldn’t resist. A new exhibit at the Whitney, Human Interest, contains 200 portraits —paintings and sculpture from its extensive collection. Lots to see and a lot to take in on one visit, including a larger than life-size sculpture that is a candle, so we went twice. First on Sunday when it was fairly crowded and then again on Monday morning when most of the visitors were school groups and for the first hour it was delightfully calm. I had a long conversation with a volunteer, Pamela, who is a dancer, writer, lover of art, and especially passionate about the Whitney and the excellence of its curators. Here’s a sampling from the exhibit:

Artist Cindy Sherman portraying herself in yet another guise

One of several spider women by Liz Craft

Synecdoche by Byron Kim; each square is a different person's skin tone including his — Synecdoche by Byron Kim; each square is a different person’s skin tone including his

BLOOMS

We didn’t get to the New York Botanical Garden last fall so it was a high priority for this visit. We got rained out a few days, then delays at Grand Central and on Metro North made waiting wise. Finally, all seemed propitious and we made the trek. Long walk from our apartment to the 6 Line at Union Square, subway to Grand Central, then a search for the ticket vending machines (they are tucked back against a recessed wall and initially we walked by), followed by a quick dash to just make the 9:25 train. Stated time to the Botanic Garden stop in the Bronx is 20 minutes, but more like 25 or 30. Nonetheless, we crossed the street from the station and were at the garden entry gate just at the 10:00 am opening.

Lovely expanses of green lawn and many trees. We first toured the small art exhibit on Impressionism in the garden in the Mertz Library, then walked areas of the grounds (think lilacs, peonies, and roses), ate a simple sandwich in the café, and ended our inaugural visit admiring the gorgeous traditional flowers (poppies, lupine, foxglove, and iris) in the Impressionism garden display in the historic domed conservatory. A relaxing way to while away a morning or afternoon. Looking forward to an encore visit in September.