tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-204441692024-03-12T19:39:12.632-04:00Georgina Kelman :: Works on PaperA weekly look at the world of art and culture in New York, Paris, or wherever I happen to be traveling. Join me for a virtual tour of museums and events with a few surprises thrown in!Georgina Kelmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17434960044505906678noreply@blogger.comBlogger561125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20444169.post-34022124444106587732017-08-13T10:29:00.001-04:002017-08-13T10:29:16.869-04:00Another Chapter....I should apologize to my loyal readers who must be wondering why I dropped off the face of the Blogosphere without warning. It was not a conscious decision but rather a matter of writer's burnout and a lack of motivation exacerbated by the loss of my mother last year. I wrote the blogs, fifty posts a year for eleven years, as a creative writing exercise that was challenging and satisfying for me personally but also provided my aged mother with a window on the world in which she could no longer participate. Without her prodding, I must admit, I got a little lazy and now I'm finding it very difficult to get back in the routine.<br />
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However, while on hiatus I have discovered the marvelous possibilities of Instagram where photos are the main focus but a little commentary adds context to the imagery. I have not completely abandoned the blog medium, but I would encourage you to check out Instagram, it's an app on your smart phone, and especially to visit my page at KelmanArt. Here I have posted pictures and videos of art and events and travel and just cool stuff that I hope you will find stimulating and fun. It's a whole new way to connect and you might even find yourself creating a page of your own!<br />
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So this is not a goodbye, but an au revoir, until the next time, with gratitude...<br />
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Georgina Kelmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17434960044505906678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20444169.post-6637802940032578022017-05-13T17:28:00.001-04:002017-05-13T17:28:16.846-04:00Chihuly in The Garden!A visit to the <a href="http://www.nybg.org/">New York Botanical Garden</a> is a pleasure in any season but particularly magical in the spring when the trees are in full flower. This year there is yet another reason to take a ride up to the Bronx as the already spectacular grounds are further embellished with a special exhibition by renowned glass sculptor Dale Chihuly. So when my good friend and gardening aficionado, Betsy, suggested that we spend a day at the NYBG I couldn't think of a nicer way to welcome May!<br />
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We began our visit in front of the Merz Library where Chihuly's "Blue Polyvitro Crystals", 2017, grace the Lillian Goldman Fountain of Life. Cast from shards of automotive glass, these massive forms look a little like giant blue ice cubes cooling the water! Inside the Mertz Library building are more examples of the artist's work, as well as a selection of his drawings and a short video presentation on the life and career of Chihuly.<br />
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Born in Tacoma, Washington, in 1941, Dale Chihuly has established himself as one of the most innovative and most successful artists to work in the medium of glass. His work spans the spectrum from small, intimate sculptural forms suitable for a private home to large-scale commercial installations in hotels and train stations. No matter what the size, Chihuly's works are distinctive in their vivid coloration and organic sculptural forms - forms that are very similar to flowers which makes this collaboration a perfect match.<br />
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"Macchia Forest", 2017 </div>
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This is not the first time that Dale Chihuly's work has graced the Garden, but this exhibition, titled simply "Chihuly", is a great deal
more extensive than the inaugural event of 2006. At that time, the NYBG
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installations, and now, after the successes of shows on Claude Monet and Frida Kahlo to
name just a few, the curators are more comfortable in opening up the
buildings and grounds to non-horticultural displays. This season's special exhibition features 20 installations, both out-of-doors and inside at the magnificent Enid A Haupt Conservatory.<br />
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"Sol del Citron"</div>
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"Persian Pond and Fiori"</div>
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"Scarlet and Yellow Icicle Tower" </div>
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After a lovely lunch in the Hudson Garden Grill we set off again, this time to view the many purely natural splendors on view at this time of year. Unfortunately the tulips were just past their prime and the peony trees were not quite in bloom, but there was plenty more to see. A ride on one of the tour vehicles was an easy way to cover the 250 verdant acres, and the knowledgeable guides and frequent stops was the perfect way to optimize the visit. </div>
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A view of the azalea grove set among rock outcrops and some very old native trees</div>
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The lilac collection was in full bloom and so fragrant</div>
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This was the first time that I had visited the NYBG in the spring and what a treat it was. "Chihuly" will be on view until the end of October and I would heartily commend you to spend a summer or fall day enjoying this concert of man-made and natural beauty. </div>
Georgina Kelmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17434960044505906678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20444169.post-84381532005254043272017-04-26T16:11:00.001-04:002017-04-26T16:11:35.703-04:00"Georgia O'Keeffe" @ The Brooklyn MuseumThe paintings of Georgia O'Keeffe are as familiar to the American audience as portraits of George Washington or Norman Rockwell magazine covers. Indeed her flower paintings and her cow skulls have come to symbolize the Southwestern United States in all its Modernist splendor and reinforced her stature as an icon of Feminism. But what most people don't know, is how carefully she crafted her public persona and how closely her life imitated her art, or vise verse.<br />
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On view now at the <a href="http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/">Brooklyn Museum</a> is the special exhibition "Georgia O'Keeffe: Living Modern", a rather intimate look at the woman behind the celebrity. Tracing O'Keeffe's history from her childhood on a Wisconsin farm, through her early teaching years in Virginia and Texas and her beginning success as an artist to her ultimate renown as the doyenne of Modernism, the curators present an interesting perspective on who, exactly, was Georgia O'Keeffe. <br />
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By positioning O'Keeffe as an advocate of the Arts and Crafts philosophy of beauty being the sum of harmonious and visually pleasing pieces, the exhibition shows her to be a master of creating her own, unique personal and professional aura. Fascinated with the power of clothing since her youth, O'Keeffe used her wardrobe not only as an expression of style but to establish herself as an independent woman and as an artist. Examples of fashion illustration done when she was still in her teens show an accomplished drafts person and someone who already knew how to profit from her artistic talents.<br />
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"Woman with Blue Hat", c.1916-17</div>
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Watercolor and gouache</div>
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The first galleries are centered around groups of clothing probably made and certainly worn by O'Keeffe as a young woman in the 1920s. These cream-colored tunic-style dresses are stunningly simple but feature exquisite details such as pin tucks and bows.<br />
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The black overcoats are more severe and dramatic but also show an eye for design.<br />
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The black and white palate was perfect for being photographed by the many artists who endeavored to capture her image on film, most famously her husband, Alfred Stieglitz, whose portrayals epitomize her elegance and style.<br />
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After Stieglitz's death in 1946, O'Keeffe was free to spend more time in New Mexico. Her wardrobe reflected the move with the colors she saw, and painted, in the new landscape. While black and white remained predominant, especially for photographs, there were occasional glimpses of blue (like the sky) and sometimes even red (like the mountains).<br />
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"Hills - Lavender, Ghost Ranch, New Mexico II", 1935</div>
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Especially interesting was the way that her clothing and paintings were intertwined. Like the scalloped edge on this "Varjo" dress by Marimekko, circa 1963...</div>
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and the frame on this painting.<br />
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"Ram's Head, White Hollyhock-Hills", 1935</div>
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With sheet metal frame by George Ot</div>
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Or the deep "V" of this "Chute" dress by Emilio Pucci, circa 1954... </div>
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reflected in both Polaroid photographs taken by O'Keeffe on a river rafting trip in Glen Canyon in 1964... <br />
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and painted in this abstraction of the view from her patio in Abiquiu, New Mexico...<br />
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Georgia O'Keeffe led a long and full life and carefully preserved her image right up until the end. When she died in 1986, O'Keeffe still owned nearly a dozen bespoke black suits made for her by tailors in New York and Hong Kong and worn when traveling to cities or entertaining guests in New Mexico. This highly curated wardrobe was of great importance in the identity Georgia O'Keeffe showed the world and helped solidify her iconic status among American artists which endures to this day.<br />
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Georgina Kelmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17434960044505906678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20444169.post-65732209178162206522017-04-09T16:52:00.001-04:002017-04-09T16:53:22.064-04:00Segers and Seurat at The MetPrint enthusiasts have a lot to be happy about this spring with the magnificent exhibition "The Mysterious Landscapes of Hercules Segers" now on view at New York's <a href="http://www.metmuseum.org/">Metropolitan Museum of Art</a>. While Hercules Segers (1590-1638) may not be a household name even among specialists in the field, he was greatly admired by none other than Rembrandt (who owned a number of Segers's works in his own collection) and is considered one of the most experimental and original practitioners of the craft.<br />
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Hercules Segers, "Still Life with Books", c. 1618-22</div>
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Counterproof (?) of a line etching printed in</div>
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blue-green on cotton with a cream colored ground</div>
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Segers was an anomaly in several respects. A member of the artists' guild in Haarlem, Segers worked there and later in Amsterdam as a print maker, painter and also an art dealer. He was one of the first artists to depict a still life in European graphic art (see above) and he is credited with developing the technique of "sugar-biting", now known as <a href="http://www.georginakelman.com/lexicon.php">aquatint</a> in print making. Probably most importantly was Segers's unique approach to print making as another form of painting rather than as a means of producing a number of identical images. To this end, he experimented with papers, cloths, and methods, sometimes etching several plates for a single image, so that, though similar, no two pieces were exactly alike. For example, take a look at these five variations of "Valley with a River and a Town with Four Towers" done circa 1626-27. Each is basically the same composition but due to differences in the support (cloth or paper), ground color (grey-green, yellow-grey, cream, brown-grey), printing ink (blue, black, dark green) and hand-applied enhancements, each is a unique piece.</div>
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While Hercules Segers's name may be doomed to obscurity, his influence on the history of graphic art is profound and this exhibition is a well deserved homage to this important artist.</div>
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On a more popular note is the concurrent exhibition "Seurat's Circus Sideshow" centered around The Met's marvelous painting of the same name "Circus Sideshow (<i>Parade de cirque</i>)" by pointillist painter Georges Seurat (1859-1891).<br />
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Many 19th and 20th century artists were captivated by the circus and explored the spectacle's sociological narrative with a mixture of fascination and revulsion. Seurat's look specifically at the sideshow, the lead-in to the main event, exhibits the same intrigue but with the added anticipation factor - the promise of what is to come.<br />
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Seurat was not alone in this obsession with the tease, and this exhibition presents, in a circular gallery setting (much like the ring at the circus), a selection of works on the theme by himself and his contemporaries. Like the circus and its patrons, the pieces on display range from publicity posters to oil paintings, spanning the spectrum from common to highbrow.<br />
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Colorful publicity posters invite us to enter the magical world behind the curtain like this 1897 lithograph by Georges Redon...<br />
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A more sinister view is this etching by Marcel Roux taken from "Danse Macabre", 1905, entitled "The Fair: Those Death Takes by Surprise"...<br />
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Seurat's genius with conté crayon on paper is revealed in these precursor to "Circus Sideshow" depicting two clowns in "Sidewalk Show (Une Parade)", 1883-84...<br />
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A rather brutal glimpse into the life of a sideshow performer is seen here in Gabriel Boutet's 1885 oil painting "The Fair at Montrouge"...</div>
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While Pierre Bonnard offers a more humorous vision as this clown seems to tiptoe off the stage in "Fairground Sideshow (Parade)", an oil on cardboard done in 1892...<br />
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Though Seurat's "Circus Sideshow" is a study in elegance and stillness, it was perhaps not the most accurate description of the world of the <i>parade</i>. Here, in the massive mural "Grimaces and Misery - The Saltimbanques" by Fernand Pelez, we see a more realistic depiction of life as an itinerant entertainer.<br />
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Despite the dark undercurrents, the color and excitement of the circus and its sideshow have an enduring appeal - maybe not to artists but to the general public who are flocking to this exhibition like it's the "greatest show on earth"!Georgina Kelmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17434960044505906678noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20444169.post-21068417601762350542017-03-31T21:22:00.001-04:002017-03-31T21:22:29.587-04:00Bonjour Paris!Spring has arrived in the City of Lights and with the new season comes a host of wonderful new exhibitions. Here, in no particular order, is an abbreviated tour of some of the highlights.<br />
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Probably the hottest ticket in town is "Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting" which opened in February at the <a href="http://www.louvre.fr/">Louvre</a>. It is the first blockbuster show presented by the museum in many years and has been so popular that timed-entry tickets became mandatory for crowd control. Whatever the wait, it is worth it as we will probably never have the chance to see twelve of Vermeer's paintings (about a third of his entire <i>œuvre</i>) in one place again.<br />
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Organized in conjunction with the National Gallery of Art, Dublin, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, this is a magnificent show featuring some very familiar images, like "The Milkmaid", c. 1658-61, on loan from the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, as well as some less known works like "The Geographer", c. 1668-69, lent by the Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt.<br />
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The paintings are arranged according to theme, "Love Letters", "Night and Day", or "Aphrodisiacs", for example, and along with Vermeer's masterful paintings are works by his contemporaries who echoed, but never quite attained, his command of interior scenes. Though Vermeer's nickname of The Sphinx of Delft implies a solitary painter toiling in isolation, there was, in fact, a real network of Dutch genre painters working at that time. This exhibition gives visitors a unique opportunity to compare the similarities of technique and style between Vermeer and other artists like ter Borch, Netscher and Dou who, despite being spread throughout The Netherlands, were operating very much in tandem.<br />
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Caspar Netscher "The Lacemaker" 1669-70</div>
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A little to the east of The Louvre, in the Marais District, is the <a href="http://www.museepicassoparis.fr/">Musée Picasso</a> where a brand new exhibition looks at the life of Pablo Picasso's first wife, Ukrainian-born Olga Khokhlova. Thanks to a recently discovered treasure trove of personal letters and documents, the curators of this landmark show offer visitors an incredibly intimate look at the highs and lows of life with the greatest artist of the 20th century.</div>
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When Pablo Picasso met Olga in Rome in 1917, he was designing the decorations and costumes for the ballet "Parade", and she was the prima ballerina. It was love at first sight and they were married the next year. In true honeymoon style, this early period was filled with parties and balls, Pablo's career was surging and the couple's son Paulo was born in 1921. Olga was the ideal muse and Picasso first portrayed her as a melancholy figure, concerned about the plight of her family trapped in Russia during the Revolution, before softening her features to reflect her new motherhood and their domestic joy.<br />
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All this changed however when Pablo Picasso met and became obsessed with the much younger Marie-Thérèse Walter. By 1929, portrayals of Olga had turned from elegant and womanly to tortured and grotesque, a not-so-subtle commentary on the state of their marital union. Though the couple separated in 1935, they remained legally married until Olga's death twenty years later.<br />
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Enriched with a wealth of letters, photographs and other personal papers, "Olga Picasso" is far more than an art exhibition, it is an in depth look at a woman and her relationship with a very complicated man with a few fabulous paintings thrown in.<br />
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Now let's head over to the Left Bank and the Musée Maillol where "21 rue La Boétie" opened to large crowds on March 2. The curious title refers to the address of what was the most famous and respected Modern Art gallery of the early 20th century. It was owned by art dealer extraordinaire Paul Rosenberg (1881-1959), who represented, and collected, some of the great masters of modernism including Léger, Matisse, Braque and Picasso.<br />
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Though the exhibition features about 60 superb examples of Modern Art drawn from private and public collections throughout Europe, the intention is more than just presenting some nice pictures. The far more compelling theme is the story of Paul Rosenberg himself, whose biography reads like a thriller but with lasting ramifications. <br />
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Paul Rosenberg with Matisse's "Odalisque", 1937</div>
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The sons of an antiques dealer, Paul and his brother Léonce both followed in the family footsteps and became respected gallerists in their own rights. Paul set up shop at 21, Rue La Boétie in 1911 where he became known as both an innovative and very ethical dealer and his stable of artists included both European and American Modern masters. Everything was going swimmingly until the late 1930s when the Rosenbergs' Jewish heritage began to spell trouble. Though Paul had taken preemptive action, in 1940, when the Nazis invaded France, he was forced to flee to America, via Lisbon, leaving approximately 2000 works of art behind in Paris.</div>
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Paul Rosenberg went on to establish a new gallery at 79 East 57th Street and in doing so, relocated the center of Modern Art from Paris to New York. Though he returned to France after the war, his son Alexandre took over the 57th Street gallery and continued the family tradition. This exhibition is a wonderful tribute to the foresight and the true courage of conviction of Paul Rosenberg and his enduring contribution to Modern Art.</div>
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Finally we come to what was probably the highlight of my museum visits on this trip, "Beyond the Stars: The Mystical Landscape from Monet to Kandinsky" now on view at the <a href="http://www.musee-orsay.fr/">Musée d'Orsay</a>. I had been very eager to visit this exhibition and I was not disappointed. From the first gallery where visitors were greeted with four examples of Claude Monet's "Rouen Cathedral" paintings each painted in a different light, and all from the collection of the Musée d'Orsay, it was obvious that this would be something special.</div>
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Claude Monet "La Cathédrale de Rouen, Harmonie Bleu", 1893</div>
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Claude Monet "La Cathédrale de Rouen, Harmonie Brune", 1892</div>
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Claude Monet "La Cathédrale de Rouen, Harmonie Grise", 1892</div>
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Claude Monet "La Cathédrale de Rouen, Plein Soleil, Bleu et Or", 1893</div>
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Now, it was no real surprise to find great French Impressionist paintings in Paris. But what was a surprise was to find a large portion of this exhibition dedicated to mystical landscapes by Scandinavian and especially Canadian artists (with a few Americans thrown in!). It was a surprise, and for this native-born Canadian a great delight, to find the regionally famous but otherwise little known "Group of Seven" very well represented...</div>
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Tom Thompson "The West Wind", 1916-17</div>
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Emily Carr "Indian Church", 1929</div>
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Though landscape painting has been around since the beginning of art, more often than not it is pedestrian and, let's face it, rather dull. This fresh approach to the genre with its focus on symbolism, surrealism and the cosmos is a refreshing look at how we, as humans, co-exist with the natural, and super-natural, worlds.</div>
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Georgia O'Keeffe "Red Hills, Lake George", 1927</div>
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And now, unfortunately, my landscape will shift from beautiful Paris in the Springtime to New York at the end of winter. But I leave with my head full of wonderful impressions and great anticipation for the new season ahead. I hope you'll join me!</div>
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Georgina Kelmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17434960044505906678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20444169.post-10009856856349162062017-03-14T18:32:00.004-04:002017-03-15T14:48:13.908-04:00It's TEFAF Time Again!Of all the art and antiques exhibitions and fairs I go to every year, the one I most look forward to is The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) held each March in the tiny town of Maastricht, The Netherlands. Established in 1988 as a venue for dealers in Old Master paintings, TEFAF has grown and expanded to its present coterie of 275 international specialists presenting rare and wonderful works from Egyptian mummies to French wall papers, all thoroughly vetted and all for sale.<br />
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Last week I spent two very full days exploring the fair's myriad offerings and enjoying its unique ambiance. One of the features that make this event so special, and something that the organizers pay extra attention to, is the flowers. After all, this is the land of the tulip, and every visitor who comes through the entrance is expecting to be wowed by the floral displays. This year's main installation was like a giant disc by Anish Kapoor, but instead of mirror, it comprised of thousands of test tubes, each suspended with a silver wire and each containing one or two stems in various shades of rose, lilac, green or white. The effect was stunning, and set the stage for the magic that was to come.<br />
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With the tremendous variety of objects and artworks on view it was a challenge to choose the highlights. So here is a short, extremely subjective selection of some of my favorite things...<br />
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"La Ville de Paris" is carved entirely of ivory and stands about 15" tall in its glass case. It was made in Dieppe circa 1790 and can be found on the stand of Galerie Delalande, Paris...<br />
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This ornate ormolu-mounted parcel gilt and polychrome painted ivory, ebony and rose-wood cabinet was made in Augsburg circa 1650 and stands 33" tall. It is offered for sale by Peter Mühlbauer, Pocking, Germany...<br />
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Looking for something a little simpler? How about these inlaid side chairs designed by Wiener Werkstätte artist Kolomon Moser in 1902/03. The pair of glass mosaic wall decorations are also by Moser and were made for the reading room at the Beethoven exhibition of the Vienna Secession XIV. These items are on display with specialist Yves Macaux, London...<br />
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On a royal note, Didier Aaron, Paris/London, is presenting this larger than life ceremonial portrait painting of Louis XIV in his coronation finery by Antoine François Callet...<br />
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More modern princess fantasies can be indulged with this charming diamond tiara made in France in 1905. Enquiries can be made at S.J. Phillips, London...<br />
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Another impractical but rather amazing piece is The Fabergé Potato on display at A La Vielle Russie, New York. Made in St. Petersburg circa 1890 by workmaster Michael Perchin, the potato-shaped box is carved of pink-brown agate with a "sliced" lid...<br />
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This large seated Buddha exudes serenity. Carved, painted and gilded during the Ming Dynasty (14th century), this massive (750+ lbs) Buddha is offered for sale by Dutch Oriental Art dealer Vanderven...<br />
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On the smaller side of the Buddha coin is this much smaller but equally intriguing black Delft Buddha officially titled "A Figure of Pu-Tai-Ho-Shang (Bodhisattva)" and attributed to the Metaale Pot Factory, Delft, circa 1700. This rather jolly figure of Buddha can be viewed at Salomon Stodel Antiquités, Amsterdam...<br />
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My absolute favorite item offered for sale in this plethora of the fantastic, is, without a doubt, the marvelous Dutch dollhouse filled with 17th century Dutch silver miniatures on the stand of John Endlich Antiquairs, Amsterdam. This large-scale dollhouse, made of walnut with mother-of-pearl, glass, paper, porcelain and damast was built and decorated in The Netherlands and China and was a real crowd-pleaser. It was sold within the first hour, reputedly to an American buyer, at an asking price of nearly two million Euros.<br />
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Once again, I have enjoyed every single moment of my visit to Maastricht. From the flowers to the furniture, the paintings to the pearls, it has been another voyage of amazing discoveries. And though I am always sad to finish a visit to TEFAF, I am already looking forward to the next one!Georgina Kelmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17434960044505906678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20444169.post-27082368678931974162017-02-24T19:51:00.001-05:002017-02-24T19:51:20.897-05:00Looking at "A Revolutionary Impulse" @ MoMA<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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As the centennial of the Russian Revolution approaches, the curators of the Prints and Drawings and the Photography Departments at New York's <a href="http://www.moma.org/">Museum of Modern Art</a> have combined forces to present an exhibition of avant-garde works created before, during and after this period of intense turmoil. "A Revolutionary Impulse: The Rise of the Russian Avant-Garde" looks at how Russian artists bucked tradition by promoting an entire new style of art, one more in keeping with the social and political realities of the period.<br />
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With World War I raging in Europe and the centuries old Tsarist regime
starting to crack, the time was ripe for a fresh approach to the visual
and performing arts. Artists like Natalia Goncharova...<br />
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"Rayonism, Blue-Green Forest", 1913</div>
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Vasily Kandinsky...<br />
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"Improvisation", c. 1914</div>
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and Kazimir Malevich...</div>
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...rejected classical form and replaced it with a new language - the language of Suprematism. Art was no longer simply a re-creation of people, places or things, but a completely abstract expression of poetic form that freed the creators and viewers from the confines of reality.<br />
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With the overthrow of the Tsar and the installation of Bolshevism, avant-garde artists embraced an even more radical form of expression - Constructivism. A reflection of the socialist agenda, this contemporary movement was no longer about the individual artist but society as a unit and with that a uniform language of abstraction. Decorative painting was rejected in favor of more practical objects like posters and dishes that were produced mechanically rather than by hand.<br />
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Motion pictures, photography and dance, still relatively new forms of performance art, brought powerful messages of post-revolutionary ideals to a vast public.<br />
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Dziga Vertov "The Man with the Movie Camera", 1929</div>
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By the 1930s, when the "democratic" society was not quite as wonderful as people had hoped, Stalin turned to artists to promote the socialist agenda. Graphic designers like Gustav Klutsis and Sergei Sen'kin were among many who were enlisted to create propaganda posters and pamphlets that glorified the new regime. <br />
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Some of these printed materials are remarkable in their design elements but ultimately the message was one of control. Artists were no longer expressing their views but advertising for the Soviet power and experimentation was not allowed. The age of "Socialist Realism" effectively ended the great avant-garde breakthroughs of the early part of the century and Russian artists were reduced to being civil servants rather than arbiters of change. The rest, as they say, is history. "A Revolutionary Impulse" can be seen at MoMA until March 12.Georgina Kelmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17434960044505906678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20444169.post-27158863873807363652017-02-19T17:51:00.000-05:002017-02-20T14:17:47.231-05:00John McLaughlin "Total Abstraction" @ LACMAThough born and raised a Yankee, John McLaughlin (1898-1976) is identified first and foremost as a Southern California artist. So it is entirely appropriate that the Los Angeles Country Museum of Art (<a href="http://www.lacma.org/">LACMA</a>) honor the State's adopted son with a long-overdue retrospective of his "Hard Edge" works. "John McLaughlin Paintings: Total Abstraction" is a comprehensive survey of the post war geometric paintings for which he is best known and only the third major museum exhibition ever devoted to his work.<br />
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Three "Untitled" paintings from the 1950s</div>
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While McLaughlin himself freely acknowledged the influence of such Minimalist artists as Piet Mondrian and Kazimir Malevich, it is the art of Japan that had the most profound impact on his vision. From his childhood spent in the Asian art galleries of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and his later travels throughout Japan and China, McLaughlin absorbed the Zen principals of the void, or "ma", the negative space where one's consciousness can expand.<br />
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"V-1957", 1957</div>
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His sharp geometric designs are not intended to represent any type of object or experience, rather they are meant to suggest complete abstraction and with that, the possibility of deep contemplation. </div>
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Upper: "#22-1959", 1959</div>
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Lower: "Untitled", 1966 </div>
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The precise and perfect lines permit the viewer to become immersed in the negative space and ideally develop a more complete connection with nature. McLaughlin endeavored to push the concept of abstraction to its outer limit, ultimately employing solely the shape of a rectangle as the preferred form and black as the simplest and most powerful color. By the 1970s McLaughlin's paintings had been simplified to the extreme as he pursued his quest to achieve the void.<br />
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"#12-1970", 1970</div>
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John McLaughlin's obsession with abstraction earned him quite a few accolades during his lifetime and has elevated him to almost cult status among followers of California art. His work had an immeasurable influence on later 20th century movements such as Light and Space (think James Turrell) and Pop Art (think Ed Ruscha) and continues to inspire to this day. "Total Abstraction" is on view at LACMA until April 16th.</div>
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Leaving the museum during a break in the rain, I passed the site-specific installation by another noted California artist Chris Burden (1946-2015) that has become a landmark for visitors to downtown Los Angeles. "Urban Light", 2008, features two hundred and two restored cast-iron antique lamp posts arranged in a grid that is almost irresistible to anyone with a camera - myself included!</div>
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Georgina Kelmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17434960044505906678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20444169.post-77919269317611094432017-02-12T20:41:00.000-05:002017-02-12T20:41:03.353-05:00California Dreamin'I really should have listened more carefully to the lyrics in "It Never Rains in Southern California", because at the end of the second stanza the other shoe drops - "It never rains in California, but girl don't they warn ya? It pours, man, it pours". And despite my dreams of a sunny few days while exhibiting in the recent <a href="http://www.losangeles-fineprintfair.com/">Los Angeles Fine Print Fair</a>, the exception proved the rule. On the plus side, the rains brought an end to California's devastating six year drought and the normally dun-colored mountains were a lush green, but any idea of a quick dip in the hotel's outdoor pool was completely out of the question!<br />
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Of course Los Angeles offered plenty of other diversions to occupy my free time and one of the most enjoyable was a visit to the museum and galleries of the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, or "<a href="http://www.fidmmuseum.org/">FIDM</a>" for short. Founded in 1969, FIDM began as an educational institution for students of fashion and costume design. The Institute now comprises 4 campuses in Southern California, and, since 1978, a museum and library featuring examples of and documentation for all manner of clothing, textiles, ornamentation and accessories, both historic and contemporary, for the movie industry and fashionistas alike.<br />
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As well as archives and reference materials, the FIDM Museum also offers fashion-themed special exhibitions that are free and open to the public. I had the good fortune to attend the preview party for their winter exhibitions which was held in a see-through tent complete with chandeliers and was just as fabulous as you would probably expect!<br />
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The main exhibition celebrated the silver anniversary of the FIDM Museum's annual nod to the Hollywood costume industry. "25th Art of Motion Picture Costume Design" featured wardrobes from several of 2016's outstanding films. Like these disco-inspired dresses from one of the opening numbers of "La La Land"...<br />
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These 1940's style gowns worn by Marion Cotillard in "Allied"...<br />
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And Meryl Streep's diva dreams in "Florence Foster Jennings... <br />
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The adjacent gallery was set up as an old-time railroad car from a 1920's movie set. "Exotica" featured fashion and film costumes from the Roaring 20s with all its retro luxury and glamorous locales.<br />
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This exhibition highlighted the influence of international dress on movie costumes of the period. Though not an expansive show, "Exotica" offered choice examples of how foreign clothing inspired Hollywood movie costumes and subsequently American fashions. Like the Chinese embroidered shawl seen above and the fur-trimmed evening coat below...<br />
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All of the costumes were beautifully presented and excellent examples of fine fashions of the times. The overall effect was quite impressive and I very much enjoyed seeing a fashion exhibition from a cinematic, rather than a purely historic, perspective.<br />
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Naturally, this being Los Angeles, there were quite a few attendees whose sartorial splendor rivaled the mannequins, but most of the guests at the opening party seemed as thrilled to be there as I was! The exhibitions remain on view at the FIDM Museum and Galleries until April 22nd.Georgina Kelmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17434960044505906678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20444169.post-26796637524341389992017-01-25T20:12:00.003-05:002017-01-25T20:12:48.086-05:00Winter Antiques Show 2017Feeling a little blue now that the holidays are really and truly over and it seems like an eternity before spring will arrive? I know it's tempting to tuck up in a cosy apartment and read or watch Netflix, but you really will feel better if you get out and about. Trust me. And if you're in the New York this week, why not head over to the Park Avenue Armory and peruse the wonderful wares at the <a href="http://www.winterantiquesshow.com/">Winter Antiques Show</a>?<br />
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Typically, the Winter Antiques Show is the first art fair in the calendar year and serves as the kick-off for the rest of the season. To this end, the opening night party benefiting East Side House Settlement, is one of the most prominent events on the social agenda and with many famous faces from New York's <i>haute monde</i> in attendance. Not being a member of the glitterati, I look forward to the quiet of a weekday afternoon when I can calmly look and ask questions and enjoy the beautifully decorated booths of the exhibitors.<br />
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This year I found the decor particularly fine with a focus on creating small stage sets that showcase the offerings rather than simply lining up the goods. Like this presentation at Hyde Park Antiques, New York, with the lovely lavender/silver Chinoiserie wall covering setting off the fine Oriental inspired English furniture...<br />
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or this playful checkerboard of Chinese export porcelain at Cohen and Cohen, London...<br />
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the super-sized trompe l'oeuil clock face backdrop to the cabinet clocks on view at Bernard and S. Dean Levy, New York....<br />
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and the French antique wallpaper and Modernist furniture on the combined stand of Carolle Thibaut-Pomerantz, Paris, and David Gill, London...<br />
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Of course there were many wonderful individual items as well. These ranged from the exquisite, like this Art Nouveau table clock by Eugène Feuillatre on the stand of Wartski, London<br />
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and this elaborately framed enamel on porcelain portrait miniature of Jane Seymour at Elle Shushan, Philadelphia...<br />
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to the odd but fascinating, like the Fabergé potato at A La Vieille Russie, New York...<br />
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the Indian/Portuguese embroidered wall hanging of monkeys, created circa 1900 in Bengal at Keshishian, London and New York...<br />
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and the Buffalo Bill hat made in the late 1800s of turkey feathers, fur, horse hair, textile, metal, glass tin tinklers and mirrors that was found in the South of France but authenticated by the Buffalo Bill Museum on the stand of Gemini Antiques in Oldwick, NJ...<br />
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The Winter Antiques Show's strong suit has always been Americana, so I leave you with this photo of what I thought was a marvelous example of the genre - these beautifully installed military drums next to a cigar store Indian on the stand of Kelly Kinzle, Pennsylvania. It's one of the many reasons that this show is now in its 63rd year and stronger than ever!</div>
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Georgina Kelmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17434960044505906678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20444169.post-23779381843227360272017-01-06T20:15:00.002-05:002017-01-06T20:15:53.667-05:00A New Subway for a New Year!New Yorkers had an extra special reason to celebrate this New Year's Day! With well-deserved fanfare, the Second Avenue Subway was at long last opened to the public. It's almost like the impossible dream come true as the project was decades in planning, years of construction, and billions of dollars in cost, but now the chronically delayed Q Train extension will finally carry passengers from Coney Island, Brooklyn, to 96th Street and Second Avenue in Manhattan.<br />
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And carry them in style! Not only are the new subway tracks cushioned for comfort and quiet, but the subway stations are bright and clean and actually welcoming. Adding to the amazement factor are the special art commissions decorating the new stations. All the hoopla in the the press seemed too good to be true, so when I found myself on East 85th Street the other day I thought I'd better check it out for myself.<br />
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Now I've lived in New York for a long time and I do ride the subways when traveling longer distances, but I can't say I've ever really "enjoyed" the experience. To say this was a pleasure may sound ludicrous, but that is indeed what it was.<br /><br />
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The new subway stations are two-tiered meaning that one does not descend directly onto the platform, but first to a mezzanine level, through the turnstiles, and then down again via escalators, elevators or stairs to the trains. There was not a piece of trash or graffiti in sight, the equipment was all operational, there was a surfeit of uniformed personnel on hand and the trains ran on time! But what was really remarkable, was the profusion of museum quality public art that decorated the tile walls.<br />
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For example, the 86th Street Station features the work of Chuck Close (b. 1940), an artist known for large format portraits usually executed as paintings or photographs. Here, his massive close ups are created using glass mosaic, some in color and some in black and white, and all are impressive.<br />
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Chuck Close "Self Portrait", 2016</div>
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Uptown at 96th Street, the terminus (for now), the entire station is decorated in a blue and white mural by Sarah Sze (b. 1969). "Blueprint for a Landscape" is an all-encompassing installation covering the ground and first levels, including the escalator tunnels.<br />
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Heading back downtown, I stopped at the 72nd Street Station which is now populated with "Perfect Strangers", more than three dozen characters created in glass mosaic by Brazilian artist Vik Muniz (b. 1961). A testament to the diversity of subway riders, there are people from all walks of life, like the businessman whose briefcase contents are flying in the wind...<br />
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The lady in a sari checking her phone and the gentleman carrying home the ingredients for dinner...<br />
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The father and his young daughter with their huge bouquet of balloons..<br />
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And the police officer enjoying an ice cream..<br />
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Each depiction is life-sized and according to the MTA website, is derived from a photograph of a real subway rider.<br />
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Finally we come to the newly re-constructed 63rd Street Station, where the new subway tunnel connects with the original Q line. The art in the station is also a connection between old and new as "Elevations" by Korean-born Jean Shin (b. 1971) references the historical elevated subway lines but with a futuristic slant.<br />
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I still can't believe my own ears when I hear myself urging friends to take a ride on the Second Avenue Subway as a form of recreation, but it is true. And I am certainly not alone. For the first time in memory, the subway is a destination in itself with people taking photos and gleefully talking to fellow strap hangers. How long this enthusiasm will last is anybody's guess, but for the time being, the new Second Avenue Subway is the talk of the town!</div>
Georgina Kelmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17434960044505906678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20444169.post-341245713215847842016-12-29T18:20:00.002-05:002016-12-29T18:21:38.697-05:00"Klimt and the Women of Vienna's Golden Age"One of the exhibitions I most wanted to see this season is "Klimt and the Women of Vienna's Golden Age, 1900-1918" on view until January 16, 2017, at the <a href="http://www.neuegalerie.org/">Neue Galerie</a>. So I took advantage of a rainy Thursday between Christmas and New Year's to stop in and catch the show before it's too late. <br />
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Although he never married, Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) was certainly a ladies' man. He fathered 14 children by his models and other working-class women, and he counted some of the most prominent ladies in fin-de-siècle Vienna as close friends. Indeed, Klimt expressed his admiration for these women through some of the most beautiful portraits ever painted, many of which are on view here.<br />
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Ironically, Klimt was not primarily a portrait painter. Known initially as a Symbolist and later as a founding member of the Vienna Secession Movement, Klimt's earlier works tended to be allegorical in nature and were often overtly erotic. It was his reluctance to conform that induced him to refuse State sponsorship which in turn resulted in him relying on private commissions for economic survival. These commissions were principally portraits of wealthy patrons that he completed at the rather stately pace of one per year making the twelve on view in this exhibition a very large portion of his output.<br />
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"Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer", 1907</div>
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If you've ever had the pleasure of visiting the Neue Galerie, you are already familiar with the fantastic Klimt paintings, both landscapes and portraits, on permanent view. Even if you have never visited the Neue Galerie, you are probably aware of the star of the collection, "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I" (also known as "The Woman in Gold"), confiscated by the Nazis and restituted to the family after an eight-year lawsuit after which it was acquired by Ronald Lauder at public auction. For the duration of this special exhibition, visitors can see not only this masterpiece, but also its successor, "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II", on loan from a private collection.<br />
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"Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II", 1912</div>
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Of course, Klimt painted other women as well. His main patron was Szerena Lederer, the Hungarian born wife of a wealthy industrialist, who commissioned portraits of herself and her daughter and at one point had amassed the largest collection of Klimt paintings in private hands.<br />
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"Szerena Pulitzer Lederer", 1899</div>
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"Elisabeth Lederer", 1914-1916</div>
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The exhibition also features 40 drawings, both preparatory and finished, relating to Klimt's portraits and a fine group of decorative objects like fans and leather goods that a Viennese lady may have used. Also of interest are several examples of contemporary dress by Shanghai designer Han Feng that draw on the reform fashions of Klimt's companion Emilie Flöge.</div>
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Of course, no visit to the Neue Galerie is complete without a stop at their Viennese inspired restaurant, the Café Sabarsky. As usual, I am unable to resist the temptation of a <i>Kaffee und Kuchen</i> and I enjoyed every morsel! My wish for you, my dear readers, is that year ahead brings you beauty and sweetness is all you do, and that we can share many more adventures together in 2017. Happy New Year!<br />
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Georgina Kelmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17434960044505906678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20444169.post-60783216539362557982016-12-28T16:40:00.001-05:002016-12-29T16:00:03.717-05:00Loving "La La Land"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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If you're looking for a few hours away from shopping and cooking and entertaining this holiday season, I have the perfect suggestion. Pack up all your cares and woes, even the house guest who's getting on your nerves, and head to the nearest cinema showing this season's must-see hit "<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3783958/">La La Land</a>"!<br />
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Set in the Los Angeles of today, the movie is an homage to musicals of times past. It follows the story of Mia, played by Emma Stone, an aspiring actress employed part time as a barista in a coffee shop on a movie lot while running from audition to audition, and Sebastian, played by Ryan Gosling, a jazz pianist forced to play in mediocre cover bands to earn a living while longing to open his own club.<br />
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There are several factors that make director Damien Chazelle's take on this love story different from the usual boy-meets-girl, the main element being the location. Audiences are used to romantic movies taking place in romantic cities like Paris or New York. Chazelle, a native of Rhode Island, chose Los Angeles for its historic attraction as the land where dreams can come true. Though Los Angeles cannot be considered "charming", it does have a nostalgic attraction especially for aficionados of old movies. "La La Land" is shot almost entirely on location using a CinemaScope wide screen format that adds to the film's retro appeal. Though definitely a contemporary story - Mia drives a Prius and both use cell phones - it has a certain timeless quality as far as costumes and styles. Add to this mix references to Hollywood classics like "Rebel Without a Cause", "Singin' in the Rain" and "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" and you have all the makings of movie magic.<br />
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The Opening Scene of "La La Land"</div>
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Ensemble performance of "Another Day of Sun"</div>
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It's popular to lament the dearth of quality entertainment in the movie houses these days, but "La La Land" is like a step back in time, yet refreshingly original. It is a modern day relationship between two people dedicated to pursuing their dreams and it does not have a story book ending. Though I couldn't hum a single tune from the soundtrack, I thoroughly enjoyed the song and dance routines from the fabulous opening number shot on a car pool ramp where the 105 and 110 Freeways intersect, to Mia and Sebastian's first duet on a cul de sac overlooking L.A. (below), to the dancing on the Milky Way at the historic Griffith Observatory in "Planetarium".<br />
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Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling</div>
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"A Lovely Night"</div>
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The two hours just flew by and judging from the audience's reaction, we were all sorry to see it end. "La La Land" has already been nominated for seven Golden Globe Awards and I think it will figure prominently in the Academy Awards as well. It is a rare gem of a movie - nostalgic and modern, romantic and realistic, dramatic and funny - and ideal entertainment for this holiday season.Georgina Kelmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17434960044505906678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20444169.post-66565448896059131662016-12-25T13:07:00.000-05:002016-12-25T13:09:18.315-05:00A Visit to The Morgan LibraryWhile department stores were jammed with last-minute shoppers in a desperate hunt for something to put under the tree, Christmas Eve found Manhattan museums an oasis of calm! I took advantage of this lull to pay an overdue visit to one of my favorite small but very fine cultural institutions, <a href="http://www.themorgan.org/">The Morgan Library,</a> to catch several exhibitions before they close.<br />
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Pencil sketch autoportrait, c. 1834</div>
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Let's begin in the upstairs gallery with "Charlotte Brontë: An Independent Will" an celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the writer's birth. Similar to the title character in her 1847 novel "Jane Eyre", Charlotte Brontë was a woman ahead of her time. Not content in the traditional female occupation of governess, she pursued, and succeeded in, a career as an author at a time when the options for gainful employment for women were slim.<br />
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The earliest surviving manuscript by Charlotte Brontë</div>
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written when she was 12 for her younger sister Anne</div>
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This exhibition brings together a collection of original manuscripts and letters, early publications, her portable writing desk and paintbox and even a dress she wore in 1850. It marks a remarkable collaboration between The Morgan, New York, The Brontë Parsonage Museum, Haworth, West Yorkshire, and the National Portrait Gallery, London, who contributed items never before seen in America. Charlotte Brontë's life may have been short (she died at the age of 38), but it was remarkable and she is honored here as a symbol of what a determined spirit can achieve.</div>
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Downstairs, just off the main atrium we find a small gallery dedicated to a recently re-constructed altarpiece by Flemish Renaissance painter Hans Memling. Here, re-united for the first time since it was taken apart in the18th century, is the magnificent "Triptych of Jan Crabbe". Created in Brugge circa 1470, the altarpiece is typical of Memling's attention to portraiture and his ability to represent both religious and secular subjects with equal skill and importance. Two of the panels had been in Mr. Morgan's original collection and are usually on permanent view in the museum's library. The other panels are on loan from museums in Vicenza, Italy, and Brugge, Belgium, in a remarkable collaboration to present the altarpiece is as close to original condition as possible.<br />
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Workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder</div>
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"Martin Luther with Doctor's Cap", c. 1520</div>
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Located in a nearby gallery is an exhibition devoted to one of the most influential people in Christianity - Martin Luther. "Word and Image: Martin Luther's Reformation" explores the man and his movement through manuscripts, paintings and sculpture and some of the earliest examples of the printed word.</div>
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Commemorative portrait of "Martin Luther with Luther Rose" c. 1572</div>
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2017 marks the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther posting his "Ninety-Five Theses" to the church door in Wittenberg thereby challenging the Holy Roman Empire and the Pope and creating a new option for Christian believers. He did this peacefully using some of the newest technology available at the time - the printing press. On view is one of the six examples of his "Ninety-Five Theses" still extant, over thirty examples of Luther's publications, as well as numerous works by the German Renaissance master Lucas Cranach the Elder.</div>
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Foreground: Conrad Meit "Adam" and "Eve", c. 1510, boxwood sculptures</div>
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Background: Lucas Cranach the Elder "Adam and Eve", 1532, oil on board</div>
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Stepping (briefly) back into the 20th century, we cross the hall to "Dubuffet Drawings: 1935-1962", an exhibition featuring approximately one hundred examples of works on paper by the French artist. Known primarily as the founder of Art Brut, Jean Dubuffet was an early proponent of naïve art and his drawings and watercolors are particularly notable for their childlike imagery.</div>
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"Michaux griffures blanches [Henri Michaux with White Scratches]", 1942</div>
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Using techniques of layering, collage, scratching and rubbing, Dubuffet sought to imbue everyday things with a new life, to be seen in a fresh perspective.</div>
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"Vache [Cow]", 1954</div>
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Though Jean Dubuffet has enjoyed museum retrospectives around the world, this is the first exhibition devoted exclusively to his works on paper and as such presents a unique perspective on this influential artist.</div>
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"Galeries Lafayette", 1961</div>
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The last stop is Mr. Morgan's library which is always a pleasure to visit but especially so on the day before Christmas as the Morgan's own original manuscript of Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol" is on display for the holidays. This year the manuscript is opened to the page where Scrooge is coming to the end of his encounter with the ghost of Jacob Marley and, terrified, he is witnessing a scene full of phantoms - many of whom he recognizes. The original "A Christmas Carol" is just one of the many treasures acquired by J.P. Morgan that is now part of his collecting legacy - legacy that I would encourage you to enjoy at his eponymous Library and Museum anytime, but especially over the holidays!<br />
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"Mr Fezziwig's Ball"</div>
Georgina Kelmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17434960044505906678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20444169.post-35538594602337236502016-12-22T16:55:00.003-05:002016-12-23T13:31:53.020-05:00It's Christmas in New York!One of my favorite holiday traditions is to take a walk down Fifth Avenue one evening in December and enjoy the wonderful decorations. This year I was waiting for a visit from my French "son" to show him just how beautiful New York can be when enshrouded in colorful lights. I confess, I did a little reconnaissance before the tour so every stop was vetted and the final version elicited just the "oohs and aahs" I was hoping for! So here is a recap of Georgina's Holiday Highlights!<br />
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Beginning on Fifth Avenue at 59th Street, right in front of the Plaza Hotel, is the Pulitzer Fountain with its concentric circles filled with little evergreens lit with white lights. It is understated but always one of my favorites with the graceful statue of Pomona at the top like the angel on a Christmas tree. One block south is the deluxe ladies department store, Bergdorf Goodman. Housed in the former Beaux Arts mansion of Cornelius Vanderbilt II, Bergdorf Goodman caters to the most stylish and upscale fashionistas on the planet and their windows are some of the best in town. Needless to say, they pull out all the stops for the holidays and this year's edition, entitled "Destination Extraordinary" is extra special as it celebrates the emporium's 125th birthday.<br />
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"The Scenic Route"</div>
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"The Book Club"</div>
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Kitty corner from Bergdorf's is another iconic shopping mecca, the legendary Tiffany and Co. Not satisfied to simply decorate the windows, for the past few years the designers have covered the exterior walls with lights making the six story building look like a giant, sparkling piece of diamond jewelry. The large star is actually suspended over the intersection of 57th Street and Fifth Avenue. Since 2002 it has been re-named the UNICEF Snowflake and this latest version is the largest outdoor crystal chandelier of its kind.</div>
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The Tiffany show windows are always exquisite, but especially at this time of year. I thought one of the best was this dining table set for a feast complete with miniature Tiffany place settings.<br />
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Continuing down Fifth Avenue we passed the Cartier mansion with its massive red bow - now made of lights rather than fabric ribbon - and enhanced with white light versions of the Cartier panther climbing up the corner and lurking on an upper edge<br />
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Just past Saint Patrick's Cathedral, now even more splendid after a major cleaning and restoration project, is yet another luxury department store, Saks Fifth Avenue. The windows at Saks have never been my favorites, but this year it's a different story. The designers have animated the story of "The Nutcracker and The Mouse King" in a series of six windows called the "The Nutcracker Sweet", and they are marvelous. Judging by the crowds straining to get a good look, I wasn't the only one enthralled by these confections.<br />
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As if these magical windows were not enough, the entire ten-story high facade of the store is covered in lights which blink and flash in a spectacular light show put on every ten minutes from 5 - 11 PM. </div>
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Directly across from Saks is the "grand daddy" of New York Christmas displays - the Rockefeller Center tree. A slow promenade down the Channel Gardens past its white angels with their heralds held high brings us to the famous skating rink. Here, skaters of all abilities swirl and stumble beneath the spectacular 94-foot-tall Norway Spruce wrapped up in 5 miles of LED lights. This was the moment we had been waiting for and it did not disappoint. My French visitor was open-mouthed, and so, even as a jaded New Yorker, was I!<br />
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And now I'd like to take this opportunity to wish my wonderful readers a blessed Christmas filled with the many joys of this very special season. May the magic of Christmas remain with you throughout the year.Georgina Kelmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17434960044505906678noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20444169.post-34491812262467658332016-12-15T20:23:00.001-05:002016-12-16T08:13:26.660-05:00"Artists and Lovers"One of the most recent additions to the New York gallery scene is a pop-up satellite of London-based <a href="http://www.ordovasart.com/">Ordovas</a>. Owned by the glamorous Pilar Ordovas, this small but very elegant gallery is discretely located in a townhouse on East 77th Street. Its inaugural exhibition is a continuation of a critically acclaimed show that opened in the Savile Row premises in September. Titled "Artists and Lovers", the exhibition explores artistic partnerships of the 20th century's greatest icons.<br />
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Superbly curated, the show presents separate works created by husbands and wives, lovers and soulmates, with the idea that no one creates in a vacuum. These sculptures, paintings and objects demonstrate that while each artist is an individual, there is a creative dialogue between artistic partners.<br />
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Frida Kahlo "Autorretrato", 1940 </div>
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Some of the pairings are quite familiar like Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock and Elaine and Willem de Kooning. Others are less well known like Kay Sage and Yves Tanguy and Leonora Carrington and Max Ernst. And a few are rather surprising like Yayoi Kusama and Joseph Cornell! Every work presented is a lovely example of the artist's <i>oeuvre</i> and the overall effect is very impressive.<br />
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Bartender working with a Merce Cunningham dance video in the background</div>
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In addition to traditional artist couples, Miss Ordovas has also explored relationships between visual and performance artists through a program of live presentations. Last month, in the London gallery, she offered a series of concerts by pianist Annie Yim playing music by John Cage who had deep personal relationships with the artists Cy Twombly, Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. Last evening, in New York, I had the great pleasure to be invited to a soirée featuring performances of Merce Cunningham's "Cross Currents" a collaboration between the choreographer and John Cage that debuted in London in 1964.<br />
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Executed by one man and two women dressed in black tights and white tops, each dancer had his or her own, separate, rhythm but came together at the end of the phrase.</div>
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The dancers moved like a pendulum from one end of the gallery to the other with the beautiful artwork as a backdrop.</div>
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Accompanied by a piano, the dancers played separately and together as had the artists in the exhibition worked alone and in concert with their mates. It was a short but impactful performance and a very good metaphor in these unsettled times - we can all strive to be unique but together at the same time. "Artists and Lovers" will be on view at Ordovas until January 7.<br />
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Georgina Kelmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17434960044505906678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20444169.post-76968011189467385802016-11-24T14:41:00.001-05:002016-11-25T08:55:29.965-05:00Thanksgiving Greetings!One of my favorite days of the year is Thanksgiving - a uniquely American holiday celebrated by everyone regardless of religion or region or race. While the rest of the world is slogging through another November Thursday, Americans are enjoying a holiday that is focused on friends, family and feasting!<br />
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Two "Pilgrims" Riding a Turkey Float</div>
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Of course the turkey dinner is the centerpiece of most Thanksgivings, but many start the day off with another great American tradition - the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade! 2016 marked the 90th Anniversary of this wonderful event which begins its track on 77th Street and Central Park West and passes quite close to where I live. This morning, as I have for the past 19 Thanksgiving mornings, I joined the approximately three million other spectators who lined the parade route to cheer the floats and bands and especially the humongous helium balloons for which the parade is famous.<br />
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Charlie Brown</div>
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Fortunately the weather forecasters' predictions of rain showers did not come true, but the sky was overcast and the temperature a chilly 44 degrees.<br />
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Some of the balloon characters were familiar to all...</div>
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Ronald McDonald </div>
Some less so...<br />
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Hello Kitty</div>
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Some I had to rely on the children in the group to identify...</div>
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Wimpy Kid</div>
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And some I still don't recognize!</div>
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One of the highlights for me was the New York City Police Department Marching Band...</div>
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And their balloon mascot...<br />
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I wasn't the only one who loved this band...a police officer proposed to his girlfriend on the street right in front of me! He got down on bended knee, and fortunately she said "yes"!!!<br />
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Everybody seemed to be having a great time - especially this young man in his turkey hat!<br />
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In the spirit of this great American holiday, I'd like to wish my wonderful readers a very Happy Thanksgiving. May your feast be blessed with friends, family and good fortune.Georgina Kelmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17434960044505906678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20444169.post-23036991878290594012016-11-22T20:46:00.002-05:002016-11-22T20:46:59.928-05:00From Darkness to Light - Beckmann and Klee at The MetLast Saturday was a splendid autumn day in New York, clear blue skies, mild temperatures and perfect for a walk in Central Park to admire the last of the foliage. As is often the case, I ended up at the <a href="http://www.metmuseum.org/">Metropolitan Museum of Art</a> and decided to pop in and have a look at what's new. One of the main exhibitions currently on view is "Max Beckmann in New York" a mini-retrospective of the German painter focusing on his final years.<br />
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Max Beckmann "Self Portrait with Horn", 1938</div>
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Although often classified as an Expressionist, it was a label that Beckmann himself rejected. Traumatized by his experience as a medical orderly during World War I, Beckmann's portrayals tend toward the dark and haunting rather bleak view of civilization.</div>
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"Paris Society", 1925, revised 1931 and 1947</div>
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Despite enjoying both critical and commercial success in post-war Weimar, Beckmann's fortunes began to turn with the rise of Hitler and the National Socialist Party. Branded a "cultural Bolshevik" and considered a "degenerate artist", Beckmann chose to leave Germany with his wife Quappi and they remained in exile in Amsterdam from 1937 until the end of World War II.<br />
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"The Beginning", 1946-49</div>
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The Beckmanns were finally granted a visa and left for the United States in 1947. Their first stop was Saint Louis where Max had earned a temporary teaching position at Washington University. After two years Max transferred to New York and taught at the Brooklyn Museum Art School. As you can probably imagine, the Beckmanns were happy to be back in a major metropolis during peacetime and life was good. They enjoyed the cultural stimulation and the nightlife, especially the bars of The Plaza and St Regis Hotel.<br />
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"Plaza (Hotel Lobby)", 1950</div>
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One December afternoon in 1950, Max Beckmann set off to view one of his paintings (see below) in an exhibition at The Met when he succumbed to a heart attack at the corner of 69th Street and Central Park West, not far from his (and my) apartment. It was a sudden and dramatic end to an intensely lived life and this current exhibition is a fitting tribute to an artist who was reborn in New York only to have his second chance snatched away.</div>
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"Self Portrait in Blue Jacket", 1950</div>
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Exhibited at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in</div>
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"American Painting Today"</div>
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After the rather downbeat tenor of "Max Beckmann in New York" I was definitely in the mood for something a little more lighthearted. Of course The Met had the perfect antidote, just not in the Fifth Avenue location but a few steps away in the new Met Breuer where "Humor and Fantasy - The Berggruen Paul Klee Collection" is on view on the fifth floor.</div>
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Paul Klee in his studio in Dessau, Germany, 1925 </div>
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Born in Switzerland in 1879, Paul Klee began his artistic career as a member of the German Expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) before a trip to Tunisia in 1914 permanently changed his perspective and style. From then on, his work took on a lovely, ethereal quality filled with color and light and about as far removed from Max Beckmann as you can imagine.<br />
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"Hammamet With Its Mosque", 1914</div>
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In 1984, The Met was the enviable recipient of a donation of 90 works by Paul Klee from the German art dealer and collector Heinz Berggruen. Mr Berggruen (1914-2007) was passionate about 20th century art and a consummate collector of works by some of its biggest stars. A good part of his collection of works by Picasso, Matisse, Braque and Giacometti is now housed in his eponymous museum near the Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin, but his magnificent group of drawings, watercolors and oils by Paul Klee is right here in New York City.<br />
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"Black Columns in a Landscape", 1919</div>
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This temporary installation of 70 works at the Met Breuer (formerly The Whitney Museum of American Art), spans the entire spectrum of Klee's career from his earliest drawings done in 1893, to his last paintings executed before his death at the age of 60.</div>
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"Boy in Fancy Dress", 1931</div>
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Though Klee's work may appear simplistic or even childish, he was always considered a very serious artist and his works are coveted by collectors around the world. A natural draftsman and color theorist, Klee has been associated with schools from Expressionism to the Bauhaus, Cubism to Surrealism and his "Writings on Form and Design Theory" aka "The Paul Klee Notebooks" are considered as important to modern art as Leonardo da Vinci's "A Treatise on Painting" was for the Renaissance.<br />
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"May Picture", 1925</div>
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I have long been an admirer of the work of Paul Klee, probably because I love color and find his work joyful without being trite. Though true Klee scholars find political and sociological references in his work, I find it simply beautiful and "Humor and Fantasy" was a lovely way to wrap up a glorious Saturday afternoon in the fall.<br />
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"Man Under the Pear Tree", 1921</div>
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Georgina Kelmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17434960044505906678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20444169.post-14476430542676144412016-11-17T20:31:00.001-05:002016-11-17T20:31:41.286-05:00A Vist to the New York Public LibraryThe main branch of the <a href="http://www.nypl.org/">New York Public Library</a> is a magnificent Beaux Arts structure at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Forty-Second Street. Now known as the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, it is the jewel in the crown of New York's public library system and an invaluable resource to readers and researchers from around the world. Indeed, I have availed myself many times of the reference works in both the Art and Architecture Reading Room and the Rare Print Room and am always thrilled at the privilege and good fortune of having such a treasure trove of information in such grand surroundings, all just a bus ride away!<br />
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So when the Library announced both the re-opening of the Rose Main Reading Room and the inauguration of a new exhibition of 19th century French prints, I couldn't wait to go and check it out. The Fifth Avenue entrance, guarded by two stone lions nicknamed "Patience" and "Fortitude" by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia during the Great Depression, is imposing to say the least and entirely appropriate for the soaring marble foyer and staircases within. My destination was the third floor and I always like to mount these massive stairs with their beautiful chandeliers - truly a staircase to [book] heaven!<br />
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The Rose Main Reading Room, Room 315, is a massive hall on the top floor where readers can study or work on laptops at large wooden tables. Nearly the length of a football field with 52 foot high ceilings, the room is lit with both natural light and large chandeliers and features a perimeter filled with books on open shelves. Ornately decorated with painted murals and 900 carved plaster elements, the ceiling is as magnificent as any European castle's. Two years ago it was exactly one of these carved plaster ornaments, a rosette to be precise, that fell to the floor during the overnight hours and caused the immediate closing of the facility.<br />
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On October 5, 2016, after a full scale examination and securing of the plaster decorations, a cleaning and restoration of the murals and the conversion of the light fixtures to LED bulbs, the Rose Main Reading Room reopened to general acclaim. An upgrade of the book delivery system was the icing on the cake - now readers can get their books faster and enjoy them in the restored and enhanced comfort of this inspiring space.<br />
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Also on the third floor is the temporary exhibition space for the Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs. Recently opened is "A Curious Hand - The Prints of Henri-Charles Guérard 1846-1897" a survey of the one of the most unusual and talented print makers of his day, and an artist whose work I have long admired.<br />
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Thanks to a generous donation by the art collector Samuel Putnam Avery, the New York Public Library has the largest holdings of the prints and drawings of Guérard in the United States. This exhibition showcases some of the best examples of Guérard's wide ranging œuvre and offers visitors a chance to view his work process with comparative states ("proof" or "test" prints). The two long corridors of the north and south wings are the perfect venue for this intimate show and I was able to have a close and uninterrupted look at the lovely prints on display.<br />
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Although Henri-Charles Guérard initially set out to study law he quickly realized that his passion lay in art and he devoted his career to the medium of prints. Influenced by Rembrandt, and later Manet (with whom he was both a friend and colleague), Guérard had his own distinct style that verged on the bizarre. But no matter whether he was depicting a rather ordinary landscape like these views of "L'Avenue Trudaine", 1872...<br />
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or these comical portraits of his dog, "Azor", 1888<br />
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...he sought to achieve a variety of effects by using different papers and inks and manipulating the plate itself.<br />
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Like many of his contemporaries, Guérard was very much taken with the prevailing fashion of <i>Japonism</i>, in particular the woodcuts of Hokusai. One can find Japanese elements in both the objects depicted and the stylistic format of the image. A good example of this cultural cross pollination is this color etching and aquatint of a "Rat in a Vase Gazing at the Moon", c. 1886...<br />
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or in this, perhaps my favorite of all of Guérard's works charmingly entitled "L'assaut du soulier (The Assault of the Shoe)", c. 1888...<br />
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Guérard experimented with two different shoe colors for this print, one in pink and another in a greenish yellow. Here we see a beautiful woman's shoe with nine little Japanese male figures climbing all over in a surprising juxtaposition between the playful and the erotic shoe fetishist symbolism of both Western and Asian cultures.<br />
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This is a small but dense and important show for printed imagery - typical of the type of temporary exhibitions mounted by the New York Public Library. These shows, like the Library itself, are always free and open to the public, another reason why I feel so blessed to call this metropolis home!Georgina Kelmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17434960044505906678noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20444169.post-58377676045467220202016-11-10T16:22:00.000-05:002016-11-16T16:39:13.419-05:00Hello! Hello! Moholy Nagy and the Telephone PaintingOne of the featured lots in this season's Impressionist and Modern art auctions is a super rare and super important work by the Hungarian artist László Moholy-Nagy. A pioneer of conceptual and performance art, this work put the Bauhaus professor at the forefront of the avant-garde and earned him an international reputation as an innovator and theorist.<br />
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What is this curious work? It is called "<i>EM 1 Telephonbild</i> (Telephone Picture)", 1922/23, and it is being offered by <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/">Sotheby's</a> New York in their evening sale of November 14. Why is it so important? It marks the culmination of an effort to replace traditional easel painting with a manufactured article literally turning the artist into a creator of ideas rather than of objects. If this reminds you of Marcel Duchamp's famous "Fountain" readymade from a few years prior you'd be on the right track.<br />
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What makes it so unique? Well, that's the thing. In 1922, László Moholy-Nagy placed a long distance telephone call from his studio at the Bauhaus School in Weimar to the Stark & Reise Enamel Sign Company in Tannroda, Germany. Armed with a sketch on graph paper and a color key sample, he spoke with a factory supervisor and described precisely what he wanted as an image and ordered it in different sizes. "It was...", to quote the artist, "...like playing chess by correspondence". The following year, three porcelain enamel signs in small, medium and large, were delivered to Moholy-Nagy by post. The artist had, in fact, created these works via the mechanics of a telephone - he had never laid a finger on them until he received the finished product. It marked the beginning of art as transferable data, a creation of mechanical reproduction, and it was sensational.<br />
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Though the "<i>Telephonbild</i>" series "<i>EM1</i>", "<i>EM2</i>" and "<i>EM3</i>" had its roots in Dada, it was a springboard for Constructivism, Productivism and Performance Art and remains historically very important as well as aesthetically very lovely. The three works were exhibited together in 1924 in Galerie der Sturm, Berlin, and eventually the two smaller versions were purchased by New York's Museum of Modern Art.<br />
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The third and largest example "<i>EM 1 Telephonbild</i>" was in the collection of the esteemed American museum director Jan van der Marck before being sold to its present owner in 1987. It is this remarkable work that is being offered at public auction next week with a pre-sale estimate of $3-4 million, which, when one reads the staggering prices achieved for some contemporary works, seems almost a bargain.<br />
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László Moholy Nagy (1895-1946) went on to great success as a photographer, typographer, sculptor, painter, printmaker and master of industrial design, and his achievements in the avant-garde inspired many contemporary artists today. Despite his devotion to the ideas of producing machine made art for the masses, the "<i>Telephonbild</i>" series was the only time he applied this method in practice.<br />
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"<i>EM 1 Telephonbild</i>", 1922</div>
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Executed in 1923</div>
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Porcelain enamel on steel</div>
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37 1/2" x 23 3/4" </div>
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It was my good fortune to be able to see this remarkable work both at a preview of auction highlights at Sotheby's London in October and again last week here in New York. I think it would be wonderful if MoMA could acquire it to complete the trilogy and hang them together for the first time in three quarters of a century, but we'll all have to wait and see who the lucky bidder turns out to be!<br />
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P.S. I am happy to announce that the MoMA did indeed acquire this marvelous work for a hammer price of $5.2 million (a little over $6 million with commissions). Looking forward to the first time the three are exhibited together! Georgina Kelmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17434960044505906678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20444169.post-86140657811915247132016-11-06T18:31:00.002-05:002016-11-06T18:31:50.918-05:00It's Print Week in New York!For print aficionados, there is no more exciting time than the first week in November when the entire community converges on New York City for what has become known as "Print Week". Of course, the highlight of this occasion is The Print Fair that opened on Wednesday night at the Park Avenue Armory. I had the good fortune to attend both the opening night party and again on Friday afternoon where I could take a little closer look at the wonderful examples of this magical medium that has captivated collectors since the invention of the press.<br />
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This year's celebration of the 25th anniversary of the <a href="http://www.ifpda.org/">IFPDA</a> Print Fair is bittersweet as it marks the last time the fair will be held in the historic Seventh Regiment Armory. In a push toward more performances and fewer exhibitions, the administration of the Armory have not renewed contracts with a number of long running shows thereby forcing them to seek new venues.<br />
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So it was with a lot of anticipation and a twinge of nostalgia that I perused the offerings of the 84 dealers from across the United States and around the world who presented marvelous examples of original prints from Old Master to Contemporary. Some booths featured the work of only one or two artists, like a wall of Whistler etchings at Harris Schrank, New York, or the complete set of linocuts by Picasso entitled "Portrait de Jacqueline aux cheveux lisses", 1962, at John Szoke Gallery, also of New York.<br />
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Other galleries presented a wider selection of artists but from a specific period, like Jörg Maaß, Kunsthandel, Berlin, whose booth was dedicated to the German Expressionists.<br />
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Erich Heckel "Stehendes Kind (Standing Child)", 1910</div>
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And Helmut Rumbler, Kunsthandel, Frankfurt, who specializes in fine Old Master Prints like the "Rhinoceros", 1515, by Albrecht Dürer...</div>
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Many Contemporary art dealers presented works by American artists like Chris Burden's "The Atomic Alphabet", 1980, at Susan Sheehan Gallery, New York...</div>
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While some featured the work of Contemporary Japanese artists, like The Verne Collection, Cleveland...<br />
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Katsunori Hamanishi "Shower", 2016</div>
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Mezzotint</div>
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The Print Fair is famous for the depth and quality of prints on offer - old and new and in between. Etchings, engravings, lithographs and woodcuts, American, European or Asian, colorful or black and white in all shapes and sizes - there is truly something for everyone.</div>
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I am very proud to be a member of the International Fine Print Dealer's Association and I am confident that next year's edition, to be held in the River Pavilion of the Javits Center on Manhattan's West Side, will continue the tradition of excellence for print collectors in the future.Georgina Kelmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17434960044505906678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20444169.post-38591877035562738682016-10-30T13:41:00.000-04:002016-10-30T13:41:26.783-04:00What's On in Paris - Part IVAs you can see, when I wrote a few blogs ago that there were a lot of really great exhibitions on in Paris at the moment, I wasn't kidding! So now, after the Second Empire, Oscar Wilde and Magritte, I will wrap up my tour of museum shows with two from the Americas.<br />
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Now on view at the <a href="http://www.grandpalais.fr/">Grand Palais</a> is "Mexique: 1900-1950" a survey of Mexican art both pre- and post-Revolution. If you're wondering, as I did, why a major exhibition focused on 20th century Mexican art is being held in France, you might be surprised to learn that around the turn of the century it was common for promising Mexican artists to be sent to Paris to increase their exposure to the masters of European art. Many prominent artists benefited from this government program including Roberto Montenegro who painted the Paris skyline in an Impressionist style...</div>
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"Ville dans la brume", c. 1911</div>
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and Angel Zárraga who embraced Cubism in this painting of a young woman with fruit...<br />
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"Petite fille aux fruits", c. 1915</div>
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Although these Mexican ex-pats were welcomed by the French artistic community, the outbreak of the Mexican revolution and World War I soon after, called many of them home to adapt their avant garde styles to a more nationalistic cause. The most significant outcome of this period was the growth of the more populist art form, the mural. Muralism, with its large format and democratic imagery, proved an effective medium to promote the new national language. It was dominated by three major artists - José Clemente Orozco...<br />
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"Wives of Soldiers", 1926</div>
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David Alfaro Siqueiros...</div>
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View of "Democracy Breaking Her Chains", 1934</div>
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and Diego Rivera...</div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-p4c2butTrkM/WBX7pezOfzI/AAAAAAAAJLE/HDMv0KiaXecOBayrE_basMYnJWPuERS1QCLcB/s1600/Diego%2BMolandera.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-p4c2butTrkM/WBX7pezOfzI/AAAAAAAAJLE/HDMv0KiaXecOBayrE_basMYnJWPuERS1QCLcB/s320/Diego%2BMolandera.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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"La Molendera", 1924</div>
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While "<i>Los Tres Grandes</i>" are the most recognizable faces of Mexico's struggle with social and political reform, there were many other participants, including a lot of very accomplished women artists like Olga Costa...</div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aY84jyQBoAc/WBYPKZXahbI/AAAAAAAAJLg/b5gmLt_LiJAVT28LIJHu6eWwZQlw2QGEACLcB/s1600/Costa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aY84jyQBoAc/WBYPKZXahbI/AAAAAAAAJLg/b5gmLt_LiJAVT28LIJHu6eWwZQlw2QGEACLcB/s320/Costa.jpg" width="266" /></a></div>
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"Autoportrait", 1947</div>
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Maria Izquierdo...</div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZXzgs5NKxvY/WBYPkVXV_wI/AAAAAAAAJLk/TsAnr3fwlJ03tKrHJKMFefRuhwCGjG4OwCLcB/s1600/Izquierdo%2BReve.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZXzgs5NKxvY/WBYPkVXV_wI/AAAAAAAAJLk/TsAnr3fwlJ03tKrHJKMFefRuhwCGjG4OwCLcB/s320/Izquierdo%2BReve.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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"Dream and Premonition", 1947</div>
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and, of course, Frida Kahlo...</div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZeC_ZH4GGNk/WBYP4TIkRpI/AAAAAAAAJLo/hrSPRSFm-wI2m6JLJA6NlXR4bGhytck3wCLcB/s1600/Kahlo%2BAutoportrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZeC_ZH4GGNk/WBYP4TIkRpI/AAAAAAAAJLo/hrSPRSFm-wI2m6JLJA6NlXR4bGhytck3wCLcB/s320/Kahlo%2BAutoportrait.jpg" width="226" /></a></div>
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"Autoportrait with Cut Hair", 1940</div>
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The exhibition continued almost full circle with a large gallery dedicated to European artists who emigrated to Mexico around World War II to escape political persecution. In particular, the Surrealists discovered in Mexico a land of fresh and exotic artistic inspiration. Artists like the Irish-born Leonora Carrington...</div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Wj9LtQ9klA4/WBYRyq2ZUVI/AAAAAAAAJL0/Geb-fSPKRtkOmKbNQkpOdhLVBXCmSayOgCLcB/s1600/Carrington.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="249" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Wj9LtQ9klA4/WBYRyq2ZUVI/AAAAAAAAJL0/Geb-fSPKRtkOmKbNQkpOdhLVBXCmSayOgCLcB/s320/Carrington.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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"Green Tea (The Oval Woman)", 1942</div>
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French-born Alice Rahon...</div>
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"The Ballad of Frida Kahlo", 1952</div>
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and the Austrian-born Wolfgang Paalen...</div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eYPJ2pF_HC0/WBYShPvvvJI/AAAAAAAAJL8/gxyKtgd6tkcdw0YFqstrge3UihGkw4oAACLcB/s1600/Paalen%2BMessage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eYPJ2pF_HC0/WBYShPvvvJI/AAAAAAAAJL8/gxyKtgd6tkcdw0YFqstrge3UihGkw4oAACLcB/s320/Paalen%2BMessage.jpg" width="122" /></a></div>
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"The Messenger", 1941</div>
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...embraced the Mexican landscape and culture and incorporated it into their art.</div>
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Though at first, the concept of "Mexique" at the Grand Palais was a little incongruous, by the end of the exhibition the synergy was obvious. This collaboration between French and Mexican cultural institutions offers visitors a greater realization of the strong bond between the two nations and the historic artistic exchange between them.</div>
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Finally, let's head east on the Champs-Élysées and across the Place de la Concorde to the <a href="http://www.musee-orangerie.fr/en">Musée de l'Orangerie</a> where "American Painting in the 1930s" is the headline exhibition for the fall. Mounted in conjunction with the Art Institute of Chicago, this show presents highlights of American Modernism to the Parisian museum audience.</div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uDEvZf5X-0s/WBYoi_MCjoI/AAAAAAAAJMk/SdSfKiB2t0gNXoy5goJKptVJMjtgySPnQCLcB/s1600/Okeeffe.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uDEvZf5X-0s/WBYoi_MCjoI/AAAAAAAAJMk/SdSfKiB2t0gNXoy5goJKptVJMjtgySPnQCLcB/s320/Okeeffe.jpg" width="214" /></a></div>
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Georgia O'Keeffe "Cow's Skull with Calico Roses", 1931</div>
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Set against the backdrop of the Great Depression, "American Painting in the 1930s" explores how artists questioned the national psyche and their own identities during this traumatic period. The exhibition is broken down into three main segments examining issues of industrialization...</div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kfiR1fstvNc/WBYnnobhmcI/AAAAAAAAJMc/UDO6_0lqswgLqdQqC_-bWTO04fqVqoL3gCLcB/s1600/W1siZiIsIjE1NzA4NiJdLFsicCIsImNvbnZlcnQiLCItcmVzaXplIDIwMDB4MjAwMFx1MDAzZSJdXQ.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kfiR1fstvNc/WBYnnobhmcI/AAAAAAAAJMc/UDO6_0lqswgLqdQqC_-bWTO04fqVqoL3gCLcB/s320/W1siZiIsIjE1NzA4NiJdLFsicCIsImNvbnZlcnQiLCItcmVzaXplIDIwMDB4MjAwMFx1MDAzZSJdXQ.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Charles Sheeler "American Landscape", 1930</div>
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...the movement from rural to urban communities....</div>
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Grant Wood "American Gothic", 1930</div>
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...and the relationship with history and entertainment...</div>
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Reginald Marsh "Twenty Cent Movie", 1936</div>
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Artists working during the 1930s were struggling not only to find their own, uniquely American, aesthetic expression but at the same time to draw attention to social issues such as massive unemployment, women's rights and race relations...</div>
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Joe Jones "American Justice", 1933</div>
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By the time the decade drew to a close, American artists had firmly established their own version of Modernism and had attracted a strong following of both private and institutional collectors. No longer a colony of artistic "copy cats", the United States could proudly boast a rich national culture of world class artists. This exhibition of some of the greatest examples of 20th century art made me proud to be an American in Paris!</div>
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Georgina Kelmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17434960044505906678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20444169.post-10097602398881820492016-10-26T20:56:00.000-04:002016-10-26T20:56:25.242-04:00What's On in Paris - Part IIIOf all the Surrealist iconography that has entered the mainstream, I would venture to say that one of the most recognizable is René Magritte's man in a bowler hat. Witty and thought provoking, the Belgian artist's often used motifs include pipes, curtains, words, flames and eggs, endlessly arranged and re-arranged in his quest to get the viewer to see things in a different way. While some critics feel that Magritte's art is "Surrealism Light", an exhibition now on at the <a href="http://www.centrepompidou.fr/">Centre Pompidou</a> makes a very good case that his seemingly simple imagery is not quite as naive as it may appear.<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4JPbcWu4VmY/WA_W6QG728I/AAAAAAAAJI4/lNb3cmWbkgE-G3Xaa7yn_Qa7uShPqFaPACLcB/s1600/Decalomanie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="254" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4JPbcWu4VmY/WA_W6QG728I/AAAAAAAAJI4/lNb3cmWbkgE-G3Xaa7yn_Qa7uShPqFaPACLcB/s320/Decalomanie.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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"La Décalcomanie [Decalcomania], 1966</div>
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"Magritte: The Treachery of Images" presents this master of Modernity in an entirely new light. For the first time ever, a significant body of work by René Magritte (1898-1967) is viewed through the lens of antiquity and philosophy. Paintings both familiar and obscure are shown in relation to the theme or formula carefully considered by the artist in its conception.</div>
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For example, consider the role of words in the world of René Magritte. While his word paintings may be the genre most closely aligned with the Surrealist Manifesto of accident and shock, they are also very thoughtfully constructed images designed to solve a problem. When confronted with a written word and an image that has nothing to do with the word, the viewer is presented with a conundrum. In his paintings, Magritte seeks to both present and solve the problem by methodically reconciling the object, its implications and its potential.<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vce1TWngI2k/WBDl-Kmx_4I/AAAAAAAAJJI/cjkdPurdoKUYt9vuhKncBDv2Pz5HOP36QCLcB/s1600/Ceci%2Bnest%2Bpas%2Bune%2Bpipe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vce1TWngI2k/WBDl-Kmx_4I/AAAAAAAAJJI/cjkdPurdoKUYt9vuhKncBDv2Pz5HOP36QCLcB/s320/Ceci%2Bnest%2Bpas%2Bune%2Bpipe.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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"Ceci n'est pas une pipe [This is Not a Pipe]", 1929</div>
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One of Magritte's most well known works is this seeming contradiction between the object and its written description. Obviously we are looking at a pipe so it is silly to say that it is not a pipe, except that it is not a real pipe but a painting of one. We are challenged to reconsider our interpretations and assumptions and generally "think outside the box", to use 21st century vernacular.</div>
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"La Lumière des coïncidences", 1933</div>
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Another common motif used by Magritte is the shadow. Influenced in large part by the writings of Pliny the Elder in his opus "Natural History", Magritte uses the shadow cast by a candle to outline an image that may or may not be what we think it is. Does the image cast by the shadow accurately represent the reality?</div>
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Similarly, consider the motif of the curtain. According to Pliny the Elder, the painted curtain was the perfect expression of painterly illusionism and the artists of the Dutch Golden Age and Renaissance often employed this device to insulate their perfectly realized <i>trompe l'œuil</i> still lifes from the rest of the canvas. Magritte also used a painted curtain to set the stage between reality and his interpretation thereof.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HFmaSOVwKts/WBFIKtpa0vI/AAAAAAAAJJ0/bwQHVWM0eAo2EFO6q08oSt8CZDZreYRVQCLcB/s1600/Tristesse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="263" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HFmaSOVwKts/WBFIKtpa0vI/AAAAAAAAJJ0/bwQHVWM0eAo2EFO6q08oSt8CZDZreYRVQCLcB/s320/Tristesse.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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"Variante de la tristesse", 1957</div>
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A variation on the curtain is the shroud. Here we see two figures whose heads are covered in fabric obscuring their faces and making them unidentifiable. The imagery stems from a very personal experience for the artist when his mother's body was recovered from the River Sambre after she had drowned herself, but it also relates to a canvas revealing the impression of an absent face.</div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MkLvFPMPa6w/WBFKNPUw9-I/AAAAAAAAJKA/zNFA9pXM5Bk_Fy57hcpu-rYQV2GDyELGQCLcB/s1600/Les%2BAmants.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MkLvFPMPa6w/WBFKNPUw9-I/AAAAAAAAJKA/zNFA9pXM5Bk_Fy57hcpu-rYQV2GDyELGQCLcB/s320/Les%2BAmants.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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"Les Amants", 1928</div>
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Or, consider the allegory of the cave. Plato himself asks us to imagine prisoners confined to a cave who mistake shadows for reality. Is this a reference to our imperfect perception of reality? Our desire for something other than what is real? Magritte uses the element of fire and shadows it casts within a confined area, like a cave or a room, to test the boundaries of what is real and what is in our imaginations.</div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MjYueDnelck/WBFMKiKWueI/AAAAAAAAJKM/--woNNRaMGMB-978muFcDTZrSWKiHjOEgCLcB/s1600/Belle%2BCaptive%2B1950.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MjYueDnelck/WBFMKiKWueI/AAAAAAAAJKM/--woNNRaMGMB-978muFcDTZrSWKiHjOEgCLcB/s320/Belle%2BCaptive%2B1950.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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"La Belle Captive", c. 1950</div>
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Finally, stepping away from philosophy and turning toward antiquity, we come to the exploration of size and scale - the "spirit of measurement" - and the quest for perfection. Sculptures of classically beautiful figures are almost always imperfect, think of Venus missing her arms and legs. The ancients realized that humans were not perfect and that perfection could only be achieved in a collage of details pieced together to form a whole. Magritte adapted this theory to create his own Surreal Venus comprised of different sized parts to create his ideal form. </div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qqhGeZt7ZYs/WBFOYEs-qDI/AAAAAAAAJKY/ib0IkS7dZSUB_dZzrUDuAZUaS9DcGQ8IgCLcB/s1600/La%2BFolie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qqhGeZt7ZYs/WBFOYEs-qDI/AAAAAAAAJKY/ib0IkS7dZSUB_dZzrUDuAZUaS9DcGQ8IgCLcB/s320/La%2BFolie.jpg" width="263" /></a></div>
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"La Folie des grandeurs", 1962</div>
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While there is no question that René Magritte is considered a Surrealist, he was far more a disciple of philosophy than poetry. He himself was an enigma within artistic circles with his devotion to the ancients and his quest to both pose and solve problems through imagery. Nevertheless, the art of René Magritte endures as some of the most recognizable and most contemplative works of the 20th century.</div>
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Georgina Kelmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17434960044505906678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20444169.post-43482204993232415432016-10-23T21:16:00.001-04:002016-10-25T15:54:31.169-04:00What's On in Paris - Part IIHidden in the quiet residential district of La Nouvelle-Athènes, just south of the Moulin Rouge and north of the Galeries Lafayette, is the small but charming <a href="http://www.museevieromantique.paris.fr/">Musée de la Vie Romantique</a>. Accessed via a cobblestone lane and housed in a pink and green villa, this museum is dedicated to French artists and writers of the Romantic Period, approximately 1800-1850.<br />
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Built in 1830, the house was the residence of the Dutch-born artist Ary Scheffer who welcomed <i>Le Tout Paris</i> to his Friday evening salons. Regular visitors included Chopin, Sand, Rossini, Dickens, Ingres, Delacroix and Gounod, a real who's who in musical, literary and artistic circles. Today the main house contains the museum's permanent collection, primarily the paintings of Ary Scheffer, and an extensive display of memorabilia of George Sand.<br />
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The two former ateliers flanking the entrance to the estate have also been converted into exhibition space, but for temporary shows. This season, in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the poet's death, the Musée de la Vie Romantique is presenting "L'Œuil de Baudelaire", a look at the aesthetic vision of Charles Baudelaire.<br />
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Though the Parisian born Baudelaire (1821-1867) was an art critic, a translator (one of the first to translate Edgar Allan Poe), and an essayist, he is best known for his poetry. His personal life was one of despair plagued by debt, drinking and disease, but despite - or maybe because of - his insecure existence, he wrote some of the most powerful and enduring poetry of the Romantic period. At the time of his death, penniless and in a semi-paralyzed state in a hospice in Brussels, much of his work was unpublished and the extent of his genius was not recognized until later.<br />
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This exhibition examines the writings of Baudelaire, particularly his art criticism, and the works of art they describe. At the same time, it guides us through the changing artistic aesthetic of his time - the last days of Romanticism and the rise of Realism - and the poet's lasting contribution to <i>Modernité</i>.<br />
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The entrance to the exhibition in the former atelier</div>
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With over 100 examples of works by Baudelaire's contemporaries including Delacroix, Daumier, Ingres, Courbet, Manet, Corot and Goya, visitors to the show are invited to compare and contrast these visual references with the ideas and principles expressed in his art criticism and major poems "Les Fleurs du Mal" and "Le Spleen de Paris". While this exhibition may have been a little esoteric for non-poets, especially English speakers, it did present some lovely works of art and a clearer understanding of the life and times of this important writer.</div>
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Another show dedicated to a 19th century literary master is currently on view at the City of Paris Museum of Fine Arts, the glorious <a href="http://www.petitpalais.paris.fr/">Petit Palais</a>. "Oscar Wilde: Insolence Incarnate" is the first major exhibition dedicated to this Dublin-born writer in his adopted home and the city where he died in 1900.</div>
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I was very eager to see this show - so keen in fact that I waited over 40 minutes in a queue to enter! My patience was rewarded with a nicely installed, very informative and interesting exhibition that I wish had been a little bigger as they had a lot to talk about.<br />
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Oscar Wilde first came to Paris as a 20 year old in 1874 (he stayed in the Hôtel du Quai Voltaire, which, coincidentally, was where Charles Baudelaire had also stayed decades before) shortly after finishing his studies at Trinity College in Dublin and just before entering Magdalen College in Oxford. The exhibition begins with his early life after graduation when he set himself up in a suite of rooms in London that he decorated with lilies and blue and white china - symbols of the Aesthetic Movement of which he was a champion.<br />
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He began writing professionally, first as a poet, and then
more lucratively as an art critic. His commentary on the
Pre-Raphaelites were gushing but his opinion on other artists of the day
were a little less enthusiastic. He commented that <a href="http://www.georginakelman.com/artist_bio.php?artist=6">James Tissot'</a>s picnic scenes was too "photographic" and condemed <a href="http://www.georginakelman.com/artist_bio.php?artist=4">James Whistler</a>'s
"Nocturnes" as "worth looking at for about as long as one
looks at a real rocket, that is, for somewhat less than a quarter of
a minute".<br />
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James Tissot "Holyday", c. 1876</div>
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In 1882, Oscar Wilde embarked on a lecture tour of North America in the hope of earning both fame and fortune. He succeeded at both. Dressed in a fur coat with breeches and silk stockings, he visited regions from Canada to Mexico, from the Mormons of Salt Lake City to the Indians of Sioux City, and spoke of beauty in general and the decorative arts in particular. It was a wild success and he returned to Europe flush with both money and inspiration for writing.</div>
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After a three month stay in Paris where he met Victor Hugo, Paul Verlaine and Maurice Rollinat, he returned to London and married the lovely Constance Lloyd. Photographs in the exhibition show this to be a very happy idyll, blessed with two healthy sons, Cyril, born in 1885, and Vyvyan, born one year later. At the same time, Oscar Wilde's career was flourishing - his plays were being produced, his lectures were well attended, his stories were being published, and he was in demand in society circles.<br />
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In 1891, shortly after writing his only novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray", Oscar Wilde met the person who would eventually be his undoing. In a striking example of life imitating art, Wilde's encounter with Lord Alfred Douglas was every bit as dramatic as Dorian Gray's descent into decadence and eventual madness. Wilde and Douglas began a passionate and tempestuous affair, highly risky in an age when homosexuality was against the law. Later that year while in Paris, Wilde wrote the story of "Salomé", in French, with the express desire of seeing Sarah Bernhardt perform the title role. This was never to be, as the play was considered blasphemous and banned in Britain leaving Wilde to reconsider his identity as an Englishman. Ultimately, after having attempted to sue the father of his lover, Lord Douglas, Wilde was tried and convicted of "gross indecency" and given the maximum sentence of two years of hard labor in Reading Gaol.</div>
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Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas, 1893</div>
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It is not clear at what point Constance Lloyd-Wilde realized that her husband was not faithful, but after his imprisonment she and their sons left England and changed their last names to Holland. They never divorced and she visited him both in prison and after his release. After gaining his freedom, Wilde also left England and returned to France but he was not welcomed with open arms there either. He died in 1900, bankrupt, alcoholic and broken, and was buried in a pauper's grave. </div>
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Oscar Wilde's legend has gone on to achieve mythic proportions. Nine years after his death his remains were transferred to the Père-Lachaise cemetery and three years after that, his tomb was marked with the sculpture of a sphinx by the British artist Jacob Epstein. It continues to be visited by thousands of followers who leave lipstick kisses in his memory.<br />
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This exhibition is a long overdue tribute to an important figure in both literature and humanity. His remarkable story was brought to life with never before seen family photographs and documents provided by his grandson, Merlin Holland, who co-curated the show and provided a very personal viewpoint of this larger-than-life character. Oscar Wilde was a complicated genius - brilliant and self destructive at the same time - and "Insolence Incarnate" is a touching tribute to both the writer and the man.<br />
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Georgina Kelmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17434960044505906678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20444169.post-42068421496652764072016-10-17T04:59:00.002-04:002016-10-26T13:04:14.081-04:00What's On in Paris - Part I<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Bonjour from Paris where the sun is shining and there are a lot of really great exhibitions on view all over town. So many in fact, that I was wondering how to cover such a range of periods and styles but I think I'll just begin with the earliest and work my way into the present.<br />
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Let's start off with a marvelous show presented in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Musée d'Orsay. It is hard to believe that it is thirty years already since the <a href="http://www.musee-orsay.fr/">Musée d'Orsay</a> opened as the brilliantly re-purposed train station-<i>cum</i>-repository for the city's vast collection of Impressionist paintings. On the other hand, it is such a fixture on the museum circuit that it seems like it's always been there. In any case, the museum has used the occasion of this important milestone to offer a fresh perspective on another landmark era in French history, the Second Empire.<br />
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The short reign of Napoleon III (1852-1870) was an era of strong economic growth, a stable imperial regime, and a thriving artistic community. While sometimes maligned as a time of conspicuous consumption, excess and corruption, the Second Empire has left a legacy of extraordinary achievements in the fine and decorative arts.<br />
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Franz-Xaver Winterhalter (after)</div>
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"Napoleon III, Emperor of the French", c. 1861<br />
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While Napoleon III certainly broke a few rules when he seized the throne after being elected President of the Republic in 1851 and then dissolving the National Assembly to become the sole ruler, he subsequently re-enacted both universal suffrage and freedom of the press. Though he effectively appointed himself Emperor, he was extremely popular among his subjects. Part of the reason for this adoration was his propensity for over-the-top celebrations and public fanfare - devices that instilled national pride and a sense of participation in something great on the part of the French citizenry.</div>
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For example, the marriage of Napoleon III and Eugenie was an extravagant ceremony involving the lavish decoration of Notre Dame Cathedral, and the birth of the Prince Imperial two years later was again cause for a gala event complete with a ceremonial cradle. Though the marking of each of these occasions may seems excessive, it did achieve a couple of important objectives for the dynasty. First, it gave the public a chance to revel in the success of the Empire and take pride in its sovereigns, and second, it promoted and honored French artistic and cultural superiority. Furthermore, much as the <i>Fête Impériale</i> was undeniably a fabricated excuse to dress up and have a party, it also served the very important function of securing France's place as the most elegant and sophisticated place on earth while coalescing support for both the royal family and the luxury purveyors who supplied them.<br />
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Henri Baron</div>
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"Official Celebration at the Tuileries Palace During</div>
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the Universal Exhibition of 1867"</div>
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This beautifully installed exhibition is an opportunity to see some fabulous examples of works by French artists and craftsmen of the Second Empire. Ornate vases by Sèvres, tapestries by Beauvais, portrait paintings by Tissot and Degas, Gothic Revival carved furniture, Imperial jewels, a baptismal font made entirely of crystal - all of these items were created in the mania for the elegant and exotic that captivated the public. Yes, the Second Empire was a period of rampant consumerism, but it also left a legacy of some magnificent works of art that continue to delight.<br />
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As luck would have it, I made my visit to the Musée d'Orsay on the same afternoon as a costume ball was being held in their elegant <i>Salle des Fêtes</i>, and the museum was crowded with ladies and gentleman in period attire. It was a funny sight to see women in decorated hats and hoop skirts talking on iPhones but it certainly added to the atmosphere of this historic show.<br />
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Over in the 6th Arrondisement, at the <a href="http://www.museeduluxembourg.fr/">Musée du Luxembourg</a>, is another exhibition devoted to the art of a 19th century painter, Henri Fantin-Latour. "<i>À fleur de peau</i>" is a retrospective of the still lifes, portraits and "imaginative works" of this complex artist.<br />
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"Autoportrait", 1860</div>
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Henri Fantin-Latour (1836-1904) lived and breathed art. "Painting is my only pleasure, my only goal" and this statement, made at the tender age of 19, guided his life to the end. In the age of collectives, Fantin-Latour was an anomaly, an independent artist working on the fringes but guided by his own very developed sense of purpose.</div>
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In his quest for realism, he developed a reputation as a fine painter of portraits, especially group scenes. Though sometimes rather grim and not always the most flattering depictions, they were nevertheless true to life.</div>
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"Coin de table", 1872</div>
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Group portrait of some of the most famous writers of the day</div>
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"Autour du piano", 1885</div>
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Group portrait of some of the most famous musicians </div>
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and composers of the day</div>
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Perhaps more successful were his still lifes which proved very popular and provided his main source of income. Exquisitely rendered, the flowers on these canvases look as though they had just been picked from a garden...</div>
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"La table garni", 1866</div>
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"The Rosy Wreath of June", 1886</div>
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Despite this dedication to the realistic (he was an early collector of photography), Fantin-Latour also had an imaginative side. This foray into fantasy was expressed in paintings that verged on the Surreal. Obsessed with music, particularly the composers Berlioz and Wagner, Fantin-Latour showed an entirely different side of himself with his "imaginative paintings". Painted during his mature years, these were the works that ultimately offer the truest view of the artist's real self.</div>
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"Ariane abandonné", 1899</div>
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"Au bord de la mer", 1903</div>
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The popularity of Fantin-Latour has waxed and waned over the years, but he remains an important figure in the 19th century art world and bridged the gap between classic and modern. This exhibition is a testament to his enduring influence and legacy.</div>
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Georgina Kelmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17434960044505906678noreply@blogger.com0