The Bicycle Film Festival is once again in full swing in New York City. Now in its 14th year, this super cool festival not only celebrates the bicycle on film, but also in art and music, and is a powerful voice in promoting the urban cycling movement. One of the most anticipated annual events in the festival is an exhibition called Joyride. Held at the Marlborough Broome Street gallery, it opened last night and features works by emerging artists as well as major contemporary artists such as Kiki Smith, Urs Fischer, Francesco Clemente, Alex Katz and Richard Prince, each with the bicycle in mind. Check it out.
The Bicycle Film Festival runs through June 29 — www.bicyclefilmfestival.com
Joyride runs through August 3 — www.marlboroughchelsea.com/broome-st/exhibitions
Remembering the Artist. Robert De Niro, Sr., the new documentary that screened at Sundance and premiered this past Monday on HBO, is definitely one to watch. De Niro, Sr. was an important painter in the New York School whose work walked the line between Abstract Expressionism and European Modernism. He studied at Black Mountain College under Josef Albers and in New York and Provincetown under Hans Hofmann. He exhibited his work at Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of This Century gallery and in group shows with Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship and taught at the Cooper Union, the New School and the School of Visual Arts. I very much like his work and I very much liked this film. And if you happen to be in Washington, DC between now and July 31, you can see his work in a solo exhibition at the DC Moore Gallery.
www.rememberingtheartist.com www.robertdenirosr.com
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Marja Helander, Buollánoaivi, 2001, from the series Modern Nomads.
Photograph on aluminum. The Sámi Collections. |
Last week I went to see Sámi Stories: Art and Identity of an Arctic People, a fascinating installation at Scandinavia House. I must admit, prior to this show I really didn’t know anything about this indigenous group that inhabits parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola Peninsula of Russia, commonly known in the English language as Lapland. Sámi Stories presents a wonderful history of the people and examples of art and handwork by artists of Sámi descent. Highlights of the show for me were definitely the contemporary works. Photographs by Finnish artist Marja Helander and Norwegian artist Arvid Sveen, and a magnificent 78-foot-long embroidery on linen by Swedish artist Britta Marakatt-Labba.
If you’ve not been there, Scandinavia House is one very special place. Fantastic exhibitions, films and programming, a lovely Scandinavian cafe, and one of the best shops in the city.
Sámi Stories: Art and Identity of an Arctic People runs through August 23
www.scandinaviahouse.org
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| Charles Eames (June 17, 1907 – August 21, 1978) |
Charles Eames was certainly one of the most influential American designers of the twentieth century, and a particular favorite of mine. Trained as an architect, Eames and his wife Ray, an artist in her own right, ran the Eames Office in Venice, California for more than 30 years. Perhaps best known for their many iconic chair designs, they were indeed the most brilliant creatives and their vast and wide-ranging body of work is a testament to that. Charles would have been 107 years old today.
Be sure to check out the fantastic documentary Eames: The Architect and The Painter (2011)
www.eamesoffice.com
I adore the work of Maira Kalman, ADORE. It speaks to me like no other, always smart, deeply human, full of cultural and historical references, humorous beyond compare and sometimes even heartbreaking. Her newest book published just this month, Girls Standing on Lawns, is a fantastic collaboration with the writer Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket) and the Museum of Modern Art. A selection of over forty early to mid 20th-century photographs (by unknown photographers) of girls quite literally standing on lawns from the MoMA collection mingle with Kalman’s marvelous illustrations of said photographs and Handler’s poetic verse. You must read it.
Girls Standing on Lawns by Maira Kalman and Daniel Handler (MoMA, 2014)
www.mairakalman.com www.moma.org
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| Mimmo Paladino, Sorgente, 2011, Vatican Museums |
When I think about my first visit to the Vatican Museums, just two months ago, the word that immediately comes to mind is, in fact, MIND-BLOWING. Everything about it. The plethora of galleries and the vastness of space, the countless works of art and the massive scale of many of them, the history, the huge crowds, the gilt and marble. The very last galleries in the Vatican Museums that one encounters before entering the Sistene Chapel are those containing modern and contemporary religious art, a collection of some 800 works. In addition to numerous pieces by Henri Matisse, hundreds of artists are represented in these most serene spaces. They seemed to be the least considered by the throngs of visitors who passed them by, but for me, they were perfect and exactly what I was looking for in my cultural pilgrimage to Rome.
The most breathtaking mosaic floors that I encountered in Rome were at the Vatican Museums. Along with the remarkable artistry and handwork of the mosaics, I love the integrity of design and powerful means of storytelling within this ancient tradition.
But what I really treasured most, in my view from above, were the marble steps, once carved and now beautifully worn, by the countless visitors that have tread upon them. A mark of their own history.
I’ve got Italy on my mind this week between finishing the novel Beautiful Ruins and thinking about my glorious trip to Rome one month ago. I saw a wonderful Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) installation at the gorgeous Galleria Borghese. It was fantastic to experience the surrealist sculpture of the Swiss-born Giacometti mingling with the some of the finest Renaissance and baroque sculpture in Italy. Perfect harmony. This was my first time visiting the Galleria Borghese. The ceiling frescoes and floor mosaics were especially resonant for me and are, without question, some of the most beautiful I have ever seen.
Giacometti la scultura runs through May 25
www.galleriaborghese.it
I adore the stretch of avenue du Président Wilson between place d’Iéna and avenue Marceau in the 16th arrondisement, with the Palais Galliera Museum of Fashion and directly across the street, the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and the Palais de Tokyo.
The latter are two of my favorite museums in Paris, both for their fantastic collections, exhibitions and programming, but also for the history of the structures that house them — built for the 1937 Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne, one of the most important international expositions of the 20th century. The Musée d’Art Moderne owns countless masterpieces of modern art, including murals by Sonia and Robert Delaunay and Raoul Dufy. The Palais de Tokyo is simply one of the coolest art spaces in the city. It also houses a very inspired garden created by the visual artist Robert Milin. Located on rue de la Manutention along the side of the Palais de Tokyo, Le Jardin aux Habitants is divided into sixteen plots, each tended by a different urban gardener. I even spotted a chicken roaming around! I think the best time to visit this particular area is on Wednesdays and Saturdays when one of the biggest and best open air markets in Paris can be found right in the middle of the avenue.
www.mam.paris.fr www.palaisdetokyo.com
One of the most fascinating exhibitions in Paris right now can be found at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Dries Van Noten: Inspirations. It’s not quite a career retrospective, nor even a fashion exhibition, but rather, a show about the creative process of the brilliant Belgian designer himself. Contained within some 15,000 square feet, it feels remarkably intimate in its vast, two level space. The content itself, more than 400 pieces, feels intimate too — a first-time invitation into the world of Dries Van Noten and his tremendous array of inspiration which includes film, photography, fine art, music, nature and fashion, from multiple centuries and multiple countries. Cecil Beaton, Bronzino, Elizabeth Peyton, Jacques-Émile Blanche, Paul Poiret, Francis Bacon, Balenciaga. Van Noten’s far-ranging stylistic references are another important element in the installation such as feathers, butterflies, Orientalism, India and the uniform. And I loved David Michalek’s Slow Dancing film, with his wife Wendy Whelan as one of the featured performers, a special commission for this exhibition.
Dries Van Noten: Inspirations runs through August 31, 2014
www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr/
