Hancock Shaker Village, Pittsfield, MA
August 31st, 2019
The Odd One Out
Skyscrapers & Art
United Nations Grounds
Created by the Russian painter and sculptor, Zurab Tsereteli, the sculpture commemorates the 1987 signing of the Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate – Range and Shorter – Range Nuclear Missiles (INF Treaty), and is in celebration of the 45 Session of the General Assembly. Created as a monument to peace, the sculpture is composed of parts of actual United States and Soviet missiles. The work depicts an allegorical St. George, one arm raised, as he drives a lance through a double headed dragon.
The dragon in the sculpture is not the mythological beast of the early Christian tradition, but the specter of nuclear war vanquished by the historic treaties between the Soviet Union and the United States. Accordingly the dragon is shown lying amid the broken pieces of Soviet SS-20 and U.S. Pershing missiles. Actual fragments of these weapons have been used in the sculpture.
Bronze monument consisting of a multitude of figures on a large ship (23′ long) with three masts and two gangplanks. Gift of Ireland. 
The statue ‘Mir’ (Peace), one of the symbols of the United Nations Headquarters in New York, is the work of the renowned Croatian sculptor Antun Augustinčić (1900, Klanjec – 1979, Zagreb). The sculptor himself came to the United States in 1952 to choose and propose a UN ground site for the 16’ high bronze statue. 
“Kusikawsay” means “peaceful and happy life” in the Quechua language. The sculpture, a gift of Colombia, is made of seven tonnes of melted ammunition surrendered by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP) as part of the peace agreement with the government in 2016. Made by Chilean artist Mario Opazo, it represents an indigenous canoe that comes out of the ground like a projectile. 
United Nations Grounds, New York City
August 27th, 2019
Living in a Bubble
Pertinent
Randolph Rogers || Nydia, 1861 & The Lost Pleiad, c. 1874-75 || Marble
August 25th, 2019
Rembrandt to Picasso: Five Centuries of European Works on Paper
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
August 25th, 2019
Pierre Cardin: Future Fashion
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.
August 25th, 2019
[L]Overuled
Invariably
Hank Willis Thomas || LOVE RULES, 2018 || Neon tubing, transformers, and electrical wires
August 25th, 2019
A Crack in Everything
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”.
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.
The Jewish Museum, Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything, April through September 2019
August 17th, 2019
Birded!
USS Maine National Monument, Merchants’ Gate, Central Park
August 11th, 2019
Coupled Up
In Central Park. How many pairs can you see?
Central Park, N.Y.
August 11th, 2019
The Humble Fabulist 