Category: august 2019

Rembrandt to Picasso: Five Centuries of European Works on Paper

The Humble Fabulist2 Comments

Highlights

  • Dante Gabriel Rossetti || Silence, 1870
  • Pablo Picasso || Head of a Young Boy, 1923
  • Edvard Munch || Moonlight, 1896
  • Käthe Kollwitz || The Widow I / The Volunteers || from the portfolio War, 1922-23
  • Edvard Munch || Eva Mudocci, 1903
  • Pablo Picasso || Nude Standing in Profile,1906
  • Tsuguharu Foujita || Portrait of a Girl with Cat, c. 1926
  • Amedeo Modigliani || Adolphe Basler, c. 1916
  • Egon Schiele || Male Nude (Self-Portrait), 1912

Brooklyn Museum

August 25th, 2019

Pierre Cardin: Future Fashion

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Pierre Cardin: Future Fashion was a retrospective of the work of the pioneering couturier, known for his futuristic creations and extensive licensing, which ultimately had a negative impact on the brand’s image (I remember growing up, the Cardin signature was omnipresent, from exclusive, out of my reach fashions, to cheap lighters and pens sold at the corner newspaper shop). The exhibition presented over 170 objects drawn from Cardin’s atelier and archive, which may sound like a lot, but was a mere fraction of the designer’s work over the decades.

Brooklyn Museum

August 25th, 2019

A Crack in Everything

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A visit to the Jewish Museum on the occasion of an exhibition devoted to the bard of Montreal; poetic and emotional, a little happy, a little sad and bittersweet, bringing back memories to some and bouts of nostalgia to others. It was suitably unphotographable but, luckily, there were more works by other Jewish artists around to ”save the day”.

Untitled (Tears), 2013 || Claire Fontaine
Claire Fontaine is a pseudonym that translates literally as ”clear fountain”. It may refer to Marcel Duchamp’s iconic 1917 Readymade sculpture Fountain, an inverted, signed urinal that is one of the founding works of radical modernism. ”Tears” is inspired by recorded memories of Ellis Island, which, beginning in 1892, welcomed (and also rejected) millions of people.
OY/YO, 2016 || Deborah Kass
Untitled, 1968 || Elaine Lustig Cohen
Book covers designed by Elaine Lustig Cohen
Untitled, 1969 || Elaine Lustig Cohen
Untitled || Elaine Lustig Cohen
Bob Dylan, 2007 || Abshalom Jac Lahav || From the series 48 Jews
Noam Chomsky 2007 || Abshalom Jac Lahav || From the series 48 Jews
Alan Greenspan, 2007 || Abshalom Jac Lahav || From the series 48 Jews
Monica Lewinsky, 2007 || Abshalom Jac Lahav || From the series 48 Jews

The Jewish Museum, Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything, April through September 2019

August 17th, 2019

Treasures from Chatsworth

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  • François Boucher || A Young Woman, traditionally identified as Madame de Pompadour, 1752 || Black chalk with stumping and red chalk, heightened with white chalk, with touches of pastel
  • Pippin Drysdale || Constellation VII, 2018 || Set of eight porcelain sculptures made by the artist in Western Australia – sitting on a Louis XIV style gilt bronze-mounted brass and tortoiseshell inlaid boulle marquetry commode by Charles-Guillaume Winckelsen, Paris, c.1867
  • Pietro Tenerani || Psyche Abandoned, 1st half of the 19th century || Marble
  • Raffelle Monti || Veiled Vestal Virgin, c.1846-47 || White marble
  • Canaletto || Venice: A View of Santa Maria Salute and the Entrance to the Grand Canal from the Piazzetta, c.1729 || Oil on copper panel
  • Canaletto || Venice: A View of the Doge’s Palace and the Riva Degli Schiavoni from the Piazzetta, c.1729 || Oil on copper panel
  • John Singer Sargent || Evelyn, Duchess of Devonshire, 1902 || Oil on canvas
  • Michael Leonard || Lady with a Little Bird, 1981 (Portrait of the current Duchess)
  • Michael Leonard || Stoker and George (Portrait of the 12th Duke), 1981
    [The current Duke of Devonshire is known as Stoker]
  • Lucian Freud || Woman in a White Shirt, 1958-60 || Oil on canvas
  • Lucian Freud || Portrait of a Man, 1971-72 || Oil on canvas

Treasures from Chatsworth: The Exhibition, a rare chance to view some of the pieces comprising the legendary Chatsworth House Collection, was on show at Sotheby’s New York, in 2019.

August 11th, 2019

Laura ad infinitum

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Michael Craig-Martin, Digital portrait of Laura, Lady Burlington, 2010. The computerized portrait is live, changing colors every 5 – 15 seconds. The program randomly selects the color and duration of each unique sequence.

The portrait was commissioned by Lord and Lady Burlington, the son and daughter-in-law of the 12th Duke of Devonshire.

Using a black line portrait of Lady Burlington, Craig-Martin’s software divides the image into nine different color areas (hair, skin, lips, eyebrows, etc.). A 52″ monitor projects the portrait, which is vertically mounted to resemble a typical framed painting. The software changes the color of the image every 5 to 15 seconds, but this is no loop – instead, the software is programmed to randomly select the colors and timing of each sequence, resulting in millions of possible image combinations. The result is truly a sight to behold.

Born in Dublin, Ireland, artist Craig-Martin attended the Yale University School of Art before working as a tutor at Goldsmiths College in London; Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin are just two of the many young artists he taught. His work is found in a number of public collections, including the Irish Museum of Modern Art, New York’s Museum of Modern Art, New York, Tate and the Centre Pompidou.

Laura’s portrait was one of the Treasures from Chatsworth: The Exhibition, on show at Sotheby’s New York, in 2019.

August 11th, 2019