380-Year Old Dutch Girl Plays House

Posted on August 15, 2012 by MsSusanB

When the Brooklyn Museum invited four artists into their period rooms for Playing House, who knew that one would be channeling her own family history, complete with her ancestors’ dramatic flight to America over 380 years ago and a tribute to the first girl in her family born in New Amsterdam?

Mary Lucier’s video Still Life #1 atop the table inside the 1675 Jan Martense Schenck House in the Brooklyn Museum

Mary Lucier created a compelling multipart installation above, around, and inside the Jan Martense Schenck House (1675), which stood in Brooklyn for about 275 years and is currently the oldest “home” in the gallery. Lucier evokes the 1572 persecution of the Huguenots in Europe through a clip from D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance overhead, and invites visitors to sit in a modern replica of an old Dutch chair to watch a slide presentation about the Rapaljie family – a story that also happens to be her own.

The chronology takes you graphically from the religious wars in Europe to a 19-year old couple who escaped, to their colonization of Albany in 1624, and to the 1625 birth of their daughter Sara at their homestead in Wallabout Bay (now the Brooklyn Navy Yard). Lucier’s video installation inside the older Schenck house evokes New Amsterdam; her transformation of his grandson Nicholas’s house (right next door in the gallery) depicts the faces and stories of Sarah’s over one million current descendants 380 years later.

Take a look at my Flickr feed to glimpse installations by Lucier, Ann Agee, Ann Chu, and Betty Woodman. Then go to Brooklyn’s site to see all four at work installing their art in the period rooms.

When the 1675 Jan Martense Schenck House stood in Brooklyn. From the digital archive of the Brooklyn Museum of Art

If you have time, browse through Brooklyn’s digital archive for the Schenck house and what it took to get it installed inside the museum in 1971.

Eavesdropping on Schiaparelli, Prada, and Iris

Posted on August 13, 2012 by MsSusanB

Don’t despair if you haven’t gotten to the Met’s Costume Institute show Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations. The Met’s put up a spectacular web site that lets you in behind the scenes, around the dining table, and inside the head of everyone’s favorite fashion icon, Iris Apfel.

If you get to the gallery this week before the show ends, expect large crowds (“normal” large, not like McQueen). Hopefully you’ll get close enough to the clothes to check out Schiaparelli’s innovative tree-bark rayon. If you can’t get there, preview the exhibition set-up on line, and go take the curator’s walk through (the second video from the top).

You can look through some of the images that the Met is sharing on line, but they don’t feature some of the in-person eye-poppers – the blue-squiggled Schiaparelli bridal veil on loan from Philadelphia, a color photo of Schiaparelli’s gold sari dress and veil (although the Horst photo is great), or Prada’s stuff with monkey and banana prints. [Prada quote: “I never thought people would want to wear clothes with monkeys and bananas on them.”]

One of the biggest complaints visitors have about the show is that it’s so hard to see and hear the “conversation” videos between Prada and Schiaparelli (played by Judy Davis, and, yes, someone did ask me “who played Prada?”). Not a problem, because all eight conversation videos are posted online (scroll to the bottom of the page).

If you have an extra hour in front of the computer, here’s the added bonus: the video of Iris Apfel discussing good and bad taste in contemporary fashion at the Met last June. Who doesn’t want Iris’s amazing perspective on style?

If you don’t have the time, just check out The Rules by Elsa Schiaparelli, courtesy of Philadelphia’s 2005 exhibition site. Agree? Disagree? Well, maybe you’ll concur with Prada’s side of the conversation.

Disturbed Bird Watching on The Bowery

Posted on August 11, 2012 by MsSusanB

You don’t need binoculars at the slightly subversive installation at The New Museum featuring dozens of fantastical avian creatures.

The Parade is Nathalie Djurberg’s collaboration with musician Hans Berg, which fills the space at Studio 231 (to the right of the museum’s main entrance). As you poke and pick your way among the feathered flock (actually painted canvas, wire, and other assembled materials), you may feel a little unsettled. Then you’ll notice several video screens on the walls in which the animated people and creatures do, well….not so nice things.

Djurberg’s known for her animated films in which her animated clay sculptures do horrible things. She says that in order to position her little characters correctly, she often has to act out the parts so she can understand how to portray the movements during the tedious shot-by-shot animation process.

As you watch surrounded by the bird parade, Berg’s music often layers sweet sounds on top of some disturbing candy-colored images, making your safari through 231 more than a little unnerving.

This Swedish team was originally commissioned by the Walker in Minneapolis. Download the audio guide to The Parade and take the journey.

Cool Off in Dublin Water Works

Posted on August 5, 2012 by MsSusanB

During the summer heat wave, there’s a way to cool down in Chelsea and let the team from the Science Gallery at Trinity College challenge you to think differently about the splashing water you take for granted.

Take advantage of the final weeks of Surface Tension: The Future of Water at Eyebeam Art & Technology Center on West 21^st Street, an incubator for digital art/design experimentation. For the past two-plus months, they’ve hosted an exhibition (first curated in Dublin) on the social-economic-political tensions created by water scarcity.

As soon as you walk into Eyebeam, you’ll be struck by the plethora of infographics that show you just how much water bounty that we have in the United States versus the availability and consumption per capita in the rest of the world. What’s your water footprint?

One of the ways you’ll find out is by looking at The Virtual Water Project, a celebrated infographic by German designer Tim Kekeritz, that depicts everyday objects and the amount of water required to produce them. Download the iPhone app. For $1.99, it will blow your mind (but not your budget) and continue to deliver a truly a conscious-raising experience of epic proportion.

Another unforgettable experience is Bit.Fall by artist Julius Popp, an installation that translates words from Internet newsfeeds into bits that are reconverted into a stunning waterfall of words:

There’s so much great stuff: multiple takes on water consumption, conservation, next-gen thinking, third-world innovations, and art-meets-technology solutions. Like Tele-Present Water by David Bowen, which recreates actual water movements from NOAA data being collected from a random buoy out in the ocean.

If you can’t get over to Chelsea for an hour, just click through the thought-provoking objects, artworks, design solutions, documentaries, and thought pieces by the scientists, artists, engineers, and designers whose works are on display on the Dublin microsite.

Egyptian Animal Planet at The Met

Posted on August 1, 2012 by MsSusanB

Animal lovers, rush to see the final days of a truly spectacular journey back in time to experience the African wildlife that bounded across the still-lush lands surrounding the Nile. Tucked back into the lower level of the Met’s Lehman Wing, it may be easy to miss The Dawn of Egyptian Art, but don’t!

The items in this show are embellished with some of the liveliest, whimsical, and dramatic creatures, big and small, that entranced the citizens of Dynasties I and II, over five millennia ago.

Back in 3300 B.C., it was all about the animals – carvings of sleek and savvy jackals, mehen game boards in the shapes of snakes and turtles, fat bird jars, and frog containers that would make 14^th century Mesoamerican artists jealous. Who knew that you’d carry your stuff around in ostrich-egg containers? Or use palettes adorned with antelopes and turtles? Or have hair combs decorated with giraffes, hippos, and wildebeest? (Pre-dating Hello Kitty by about 5,000 years.)

It’s as if the curators were mounting a show for the AMNH, because they clearly have an eco-anthro explanation about the hottest trends. Examples: elephants were commonly seen in the lands around the Nile around 3700 B.C., but they vanished from the desert (and thus, from the art) by 2649 B.C.

Also, around 3300 B.C., there was art trend to portray some animals as sacred. But it wasn’t until the Upper and Lower Egyptian kingdoms were united in 2150 B.C. that animals were used as royal symbols and the well-known style of animal-head-on-human-body became the thing.

Jackal (ca. 3300-3100 B.C.)

Other highlights of this show include the Two-Dog Palette (which gives the famous Narmar Palette a run for its money) and a seemingly unremarkable ceramic bowl that documents a time of unprecedented high-tech innovation in 3700-3450 B.C. textile making: a new technique with ground looms that enabled the ancient Egyptians to weave the strongest, widest linen in the world (ever).

Join this safari and go spot some big game through the eyes of the ancient Egyptians.

Cool MoMA Summer Pop

Posted on July 19, 2012 by MsSusanB

There’s no better way to cool down during the heat wave than by visiting MoMA’s Fourth Floor to see the last days that one of Pop’s masterpieces is on view: Rosenquist’s epic F-111.

The great thing about this display is that the spectacular 84-foot-long, 23-section work is installed just as it was first put on public display in Castellli’s gallery on East 77^th Street back in 1965…in a small 22 x 23-foot room in which the spectacular panels and images wrap around you (instead of spread out on a long, long wall).

The thrill of this installation is being so bombarded with color, image, shine, and texture but not being able to take it all in at once. You can take time to meditate on the forces ripping through American culture in 1964, when Rosenquist created this opus.

And listen to him tell about it on the MoMA web site. Get to MoMA and see for yourself. It’s a visual Sixties yin to Avedon’sb/w yang.

Installation view of James Rosenquist: F-111 (1964-65) at MoMA. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Alex L. Hillman and Lillie P.Bliss Bequest, both by exchange. © 2012 James Rosenquist/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. Photo by Jonathan Muzikar

Classical Israeli Hip Hop

Posted on July 16, 2012 by MsSusanB

What do you see when a classically trained African American fine artist from LA decides to mash up Jewish Eastern European folk art with portraits of passionate Israeli hip-hop men of color?

Kehinde Wiley portrait of Jewish Ethiopian Israeli hip-hop artist Kalkian Mashasha

Find out at the most recent installment of Kehinde Wiley’s series, The World Stage, which will soon end its run at The Jewish Museum. It’s the Israel portion of Wiley’s effort to “chart the presence of black and brown people around the world.” It’s a stunner partly because of the paintings, the models, the provocative country choice, the Museum, and the physical Fifth Avenue setting.

Traveling to Tel Aviv during 2011, Wiley wanted to see, meet, and document men of color in a country that he really only associated with an anxious source of conflict. When he scoured the discos, malls, and promenades, he found that hip-hop practitioners and fans associated regardless of their identity as Ethiopian Jews, Arab Israelis, and other native-born Jews. That’s who you’ll meet on the walls and in the video.

If you’ve seen Wiley’s other work, you know that he smothers his canvases and subjects in pattern. In this case, inspired by the collection at the Jewish Museum, you’ll have the treat of actually viewing patterned 19^th-cetury textiles and Eastern European paper cuts from the collection that inspired him. Plus, you can enjoy the echo between the curlicues on canvas and on the wood paneling of the (former) Felix Warburg mansion.

Wiley wanted to “broaden the discussion” about Israel, race, culture, and art, and his skill, vision, creativity, and deep-dive into the Tel Aviv youth scene delivers big time. Enjoy walking the Tel Aviv streets with the artist at work. (And for more, look at the other discussions and videos here.)

Best gift items associated with a current exhibition: Wiley’s skateboard deck and dog tags featuring his proud subjects.

Avedon Wide Open

Posted on July 14, 2012 by MsSusanB

Sorry, but there’s no fashion photography here — just an amazing, controversial, challenging, and mind-bending eyeful at Gagosian’s Richard Avedon show, Murals and Portraits.

Installation photo of Richard Avedon: Murals and Portraits by Rob McKeever

Four large-scale multi-portraits are brilliantly and reverently installed in the 21^st Street space, which has been transformed by architect David Adjaye with all-white X-shaped walls that only heighten the drama of the experience.

Four pathways draw you toward meeting groups that you might not otherwise encounter –1969 portraits of the Chicago Seven and Andy Warhol’s Factory crew, a 1970 portrait of Alan Ginsberg’s extended family, and a 1975 portrait of the government’s Mission Council running the Vietnam War from Saigon. Download the PDF to match the names to the players.

Peeking into the corners of the white spaces, there are dozens of other portraits from the 1960s and 1970s – all related to the four main photomurals and guaranteed to push some buttons. It’s an education in how a fashion master applies his talents to social consciousness, tearing down boundaries, and sly provocation that is not to be missed.

Daring Sea Rescue Yields Treasure

Posted on June 30, 2012 by MsSusanB

Treasure is what you’ll find in the upstairs galleries of The South Street Seaport Museum in Lower Manhattan, following its daring rescue by The Museum of the City of New York.

Armed with a two-year plan, a dedicated team, and construction crews, MCNY figured out how to transform former storage areas into sixteen beautiful galleries, re-open, and give new life to the museum and iconic tall ships anchored downtown.

In a brilliant use of space, MCNY enables us now to enter three separate time machines that should warm the heart of any NYC booster, particularly the side-by-side installation of two versions of Manhatta (the original name of our island community). The first is the (slightly reduced) reinstallation of the acclaimed Manhatta exhibition (and scientific project), which shows you visions of the island, inhabitants, geology, river systems, and fauna that Henry Hudson would have seen in 1609. (Crowds flocked to this uptown in 2009, so you here’s your second chance.)

The second is the adjacent gallery, where you can sit down and contemplate three stunning simultaneous views of our waterfront — Paul Strand’s famous 1921 documentary of our waterfront (Manhatta), Edison’s early 1900s views of our water’s edge, and a contemporary visual meditation. Time travel doesn’t get any better than this!

The third view, MCNY’s Timescapes film, sweeps more grandly over time and history. Images pop onto three screens as Stanley Tucci narrates the whole, complete story, from forested island to home of the High Line. It’s hard to take it all in, but you’ll be swept away and seriously, it will make you proud.

Although these shows are in open-ended runs, check them out sooner rather than later. Although the Seaport Museum has been thrown a lifeline, it’s only temporary. MCNY only has 18 months to demonstrate that these stories, ships, artifacts, buildings, Bowne & Co. Stationers, and galleries are worth saving.

Be part of the rescue. Shop at Bowne, bring your friends, and step back in time.

Virtual Trip around London

Posted on June 26, 2012 by MsSusanB

Even if you’re not going to the Olympics, it’s still possible to get around London and environs on the train virtually by stopping into Grand Central to see the last week of the Transit Museum’s Art of the Poster show.

You’ll see original artwork commissioned by the London Underground made into posters seen by the riding public over the last 100 years. You’ll see how the transit network enticed folks to take the train to the country in 1913, encouraged fashionable people to get to the theater in the 1920s, brought people together during the War, and wryly encouraged courtesy in the 1950s.

There’s even a section about the designs that were never used and why. The best known fine artists in the show are Howard Hodgkin and R.B. Kitaj, but you’ll also get to know original work by many innovators in British graphic design and see the differences between the original and the final printed product.

If you can’t get to Grand Central, check out the online exhibition on the London Transport Museum’s site.

itsnewstoyou

Susan B's advice on what you shouldn't miss in NYC and other museums

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