PAUL KLEE: MAKING VISIBLE

Paul Klee (1879-1940), A Young Lady’s Adventure 1922
Collection Tate Modern

I just received the gorgeous new catalog, Paul Klee: Making Visible, the companion to the major Klee exhibition of the same name at the Tate Modern in London. In addition to the very serious and fascinating essays, the catalog also contains some great photographs and an excellent chronology that includes personal accounts of Klee from friends and colleagues such as Oskar Schlemmer and Alfred Barr, along with notes that place Klee in cultural context. And the reproductions of Klee’s work throughout are outstanding. I haven’t even made it all the way through, but I know this is one exhibition I will most definitely regret not getting to. 

The EY Exhibition Paul Klee: Making Visible runs through March 9, 2014

Paul Klee: Making Visible, edited by Matthew Gale (Thames & Hudson, 2013)

www.tate.org.uk

Posted 13 years ago by
Categories: art

ANDY WARHOL: I’LL BE YOUR MIRROR

Andy Warhol, Kenny Scharf, 1984, Tang Teaching Museum, gift of the Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts. ©The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

We were very pleased to see a great collection of Andy Warhol polaroids from the 1970s and 80s last weekend at the Tang Teaching Museum, Andy Warhol: I’ll Be Your Mirror, just before it closed. Including portraits of Kenny Scharf, Princess Caroline of Monaco, John Denver, Vitas Gerulatis and even Lana Turner, the collection provides a wonderfully unique window into Warhol’s sensibilities and into his world. As part of the Andy Warhol Photographic Legacy Program, the Tang received several prints, over 100 polaroid photographs and 50 gelatin silver prints in two gifts in 2008 and 2013. In fact, over 180 college and university teaching museums, collections and galleries in this country have received similar gifts since 2007 through this program administered by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Over 28,500 Warhol photographs have been gifted in total. Photography so clearly informed his work and the Foundation, quite smartly, hopes these donations will promote discussion and further research in this realm. These photographs and the collections they form are so compelling, we imagine they have already fostered tremendous interest on campuses all over the United States.

www.warholfoundation.org/legacy/photographic.html  tang.skidmore.edu

SILENT NIGHT

One of our favorite holiday books and one our family reads together during this week every year is Will Moses’ Silent Night. Will Moses is a great-grandson of renowned primitive painter Grandma Moses, grandson of folk artist Forrest King Moses and a celebrated American artist in his own right. In addition to his paintings, which can be found in such notable collections as the Smithsonian Institution and the White House, Moses has written and illustrated several books for children. Silent Night is set in a small Vermont village on Christmas Eve as a baby is about to be born. This beautiful story is the perfect reminder of a simpler, less complicated life that we often crave, especially during this season. 

“Now, as children often do, Andy crawled up onto that giant quilt-covered featherbed, lying so close to the baby that he could smell her baby sweetness. And it was right there that Andy fell asleep on that special night. A silent night, when a new baby came to a wintery Vermont valley, where snow clouds hung puffy over the hills and farms, barns, narrow lanes, and skating ponds.”

Perfectly lovely. Thank you for this Will Moses.

Silent Night by Will Moses (Philomel Books, 1997)
Posted 13 years ago by
Categories: books

RUSSIAN SEASONS

Among my favorite holiday treasures is a collection of exquisite hand painted wood ornaments from Russia. I bought them over the course of several years from a business called Russian Seasons (seemingly no longer in existence) at the Grand Central Holiday Fair at Grand Central Station. Standing just two inches tall, each is a true work of art and so delicate, so charming and so deeply rooted in tremendously rich culture and tradition.     

Posted 13 years ago by
Categories: design

PICTURING CENTRAL PARK: PAINTINGS BY JANET RUTTENBERG

“Roller Blades” by Janet Ruttenberg
From Gatherings by Janet K. Ruttenberg (Pointed Leaf Press, 2013)
Photograph by Antoine Bootz

One of the most inspired exhibitions this fall was Picturing Central Park: Paintings by Janet Ruttenberg at the Museum of the City of New York. Born in 1931, this is the first exhibition for Ruttenberg, a printmaker and painter born in Iowa. After years of studying and training in Chicago, Ruttenberg and her family moved to New York in 1965. Central Park and its inhabitants became her muse approximately 15 years ago. Her large-scale pieces are tremendous, measuring some 15 feet in width. Working on both canvas and paper, and in watercolor and oil, Ruttenberg also employs both photo collage and collage with painted fragments. The paintings that resonated most with me are two that contain video projections, one of which is of the Saturday night tango dancers at the Shakespeare statue with a soundtrack containing vocals by her friend, Oscar de la Renta. Really a most fascinating experience. This intriguing snapshot of Ruttenberg’s work has left me wanting to see so much more of what she has created over the past several decades.

Picturing Central Park: Paintings by Janet Ruttenberg is on view through January 5, 2014


Posted 13 years ago by
Categories: art

REASONS TO LOVE NEW YORK

Greta Gerwig photographed by Christopher Anderson
Magnum Photos/New York Magazine

We just received the “Reasons to Love New York Right Now” issue of New York Magazine and opened right up to Reason No. 17, Because for Greta Gerwig, New York is Still a Fairy Tale. Gerwig starred in and co-wrote, with Noah Baumbach, Frances Ha, absolutely one of our favorite films of the year, brilliant in every way. In talking about her love of this city in New York Magazine, Gerwig perfectly and unabashedly stated, “I still have moments when I’m walking down the street and I start crying because I can’t believe I live here.” We hear you Greta, we do too.   

www.franceshamovie.com www.nymag.com

Posted 13 years ago by
Categories: film

WHAT MAISIE KNEW

I recently watched What Maisie Knew (having missed it while it was in theaters in the spring), a contemporary and quite good adaptation of Henry James’ novel of the same name. For some reason I couldn’t stop thinking about it and so felt compelled to read the book as well. Although the filmmakers describe it as a reimagining of the novel, which it definitely is, some of the most striking subtleties are in place. It makes complete sense to make a modern-day retelling of this very modern late 19th-century work. It is heartbreaking for sure, especially on film, and especially with a rather exceptional cast that includes Julianne Moore, Alexander Skarsgård, Steve Coogan and Joanna Vanderham. But the very best part of What Maisie Knew, all of the beauty and earnestness and perfect nuances, exist in the brilliant performance of Onata Aprile as Maisie. Quite unbelievable actually.  

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