After four unforgettable years, it was time to move on. Another country, another ocean, a new continent in the Southern Hemisphere. A series of very fortunate events would bring us to the faraway land that is New Zealand, and not a moment too soon. Because of Covid-19, our trip would be longer than usual, flying to Greece first, for a family reunion, then on to Auckland via Dubai and Kuala Lumpur. Almost full circle around the Globe.
We’ll stay in Athens for the next few days, before I figure out which is the best platform to go on sharing our New Zealand memories, as this blog has almost reached its maximum storage space.
Meanwhile, let’s bid farewell to the City with the most New Yorky picture of them all:
Good bye New York City, thank you for four amazing years!
”Countryside, The Future was an exhibition addressing urgent environmental, political, and socioeconomic issues through the lens of architect and urbanist Rem Koolhaas and Samir Bantal, Director of AMO, the think tank of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA).
A unique exhibition for the Guggenheim Museum, Countryside, The Future explored radical changes in the rural, remote, and wild territories collectively identified as “countryside,” or the 98% of the Earth’s surface not occupied by cities, with a full rotunda installation premised on original research. The project presented investigations by AMO, Koolhaas, with students at the Harvard Graduate School of Design; the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing; Wageningen University, Netherlands; and the University of Nairobi. The exhibition examined the modern conception of leisure, large-scale planning by political forces, climate change, migration, human and nonhuman ecosystems, market-driven preservation, artificial and organic coexistence, and other forms of radical experimentation that are altering landscapes across the world.” [source]
It would be our last pre-Covid-19 exhibition, and the last outing in a crowed place. On that same day, March 7th 2020, the then NY Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency. One day later, on March 8th, NYC issued guidelines to avoid densely packed buses, subways, and trains.
Wojciech Fangor, M 37, 1969, Oil on canvas
From left: Andy Warhol, David Whitney, Philip Johnson, Dr. John Dalton, and Robert A. M. Stern in the Glass House in 1964. Photograph by David McCabe
In 1949, American architect Philip Johnson built his Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut. In some photographs, he staged himself as a hermit in the woods. But to Johnson, the countryside was not only a place of retreat and reflection – it was also the contrary: a place of feasts and banquets, of an ongoing discourse with artists and students and fellow gay friends, a salon, sometimes almost an academy, and a refuge.
”The Costume Institute’s fall 2019 exhibition featured promised gifts from Sandy Schreier, a pioneering collector, who over the course of more than half a century assembled one of the finest private fashion collections in the United States. The show explored how Schreier amassed a trove of twentieth-century French and American couture and ready-to-wear, not as a wardrobe, but in appreciation of this form of creative expression.” [source]
Sandy Schreier, a fashion historian and private collector from Detroit owns more than 15.000 couture items and accessories from France, American ready-to-wear, and early twentieth-century Italian designs. She also owns Hollywood costumes such as Rita Hayworth’s dress from ‘Gilda’, Zsa Zsa Gabor’s dress from ‘Moulin Rouge’, or the metal-mesh mini dress by Roberto Rojas that Twiggy wore in Richard Avedon’s photograph (second image, below). The Met exhibition featured just 80 of these collection items, and they took up the entire Costume Institute’s show space… makes you think of the size of storage room needed to house the entire collection, doesn’t it!
Roberto Rojas, dress, 1967 – Gold and silver metal mesh
Jessie Franklin Turner, tea gown, 1939 – Gown of peach and apricot silk chiffon
Zandra Rhodes, dress, A/W 1972-73 – Polychrome-printed silk chiffon embroidered with pink floral sequins Ensemble, S/S 1976 – Polychrome-printed blue silk chiffon embroidered with blue floral sequins
Philip Treacy, hat, Spring 2003 haute couture – Black braided straw with polychrome butterflies of painted turkey feathers
Bes-Ben, hat ca. 1946 – Red leather, red cotton thread, plastic-coated wire, and white beads
Alexander McQueen, dress S/S 2008 – Black silk twill embroidered with portrait of Isabella Blow in black and gold sequins and bugle beads
Probably French, evening dress, ca. 1925-28
Probably American or French, evening dress, ca. 1925-28 – Yellow cotton plain weave embroidered with gold metal paillettes, gold glass bugle beads, clear glass beads, and seed beads; clear glass crystals
Paul Poiret, ”Bataille” evening dress, 1925 – Gold pleated lamé and gold and black lace embroidered with black and silver sequins
Probably French, evening coat, ca. 1923-28 – Silver lamé embroidered with polychrome seed beads and silver metal cord
Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo, ”Delphos” dress, 1920s-30s – Pleated black silk charmeuse, black silk cord, and brown-and-white glass beads
Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo, Coat 1920s-30s – Brown and green silk velvet on silk-cotton ground printed with metallic pigment
Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo, Coat 1920s-30s – Burgundy silk plain weave printed with metallic pigment, cord of burgundy silk and gold metal threads, cream-and-red and brown glass beads
Lucien Lelong, evening dress, S/S 1938 – Ivory silk organza with floral appliqué of ivory and green silk mousseline embroidered with white and green bugle beads
House of Dior, by Yves Saint Laurent – ”Aubade” evening ensemble, S/S 1958 – Dress and hat of blue-and-white warp-printed silk taffeta
Delicata Shoes, 1958 – Blue-and-white warp-printed silk taffeta, white and tan leather
House of Dior, ”Du Barry” evening dress, A/W 1957-58 – Pale blue silk satin
Central Park, Jean-Marie Appriou’s curious horses, the Met, and one of my favourite pastimes: window shopping… oh my, those peacocks…! I think I just found the most beautiful window displays in the City (they are for sale, by the way)…
Iggy Pop joined longtime collaborator and friend, Jim Jarmusch to discuss the release of ”Free”, Iggy’s 18th studio album. There were stories to be shared, cool music to be heard, golf moves to be taught. By the way, the man in front of me with that gorgeous ”eye” vest I wish I’d owned, is another friend of Iggy’s and a legendary character of New York, Jimmy Webb who sadly passed away in April 2020 just seven months after the event.
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
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.
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.
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