Tag Archives: museums

NYC Spider Theater Due to Close

Posted on by
Reply

Bronze Spider 1, 1995 by Ms. Bourgeois lurks at the show’s entrance

About the best spider theater in town is about to close in a few weeks – the live-animal floor show inside the American Museum of National History’s Spiders Alive! exhibition, where an actual spider-handler enthralls the crowds with myth-busting tales while introducing the arachnid star of the show, a Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula. Nearly 20 live species are crawling around the terrariums, but crowds are flocking to the live demo/theater area of the show and sitting spellbound until intermission. Go see it!

Since the AMNH never does anything second-rate, it’s fitting to note that welcoming visitors to the show is an art-world superstar. Lurking inconspicuously in the “canoe” lobby area outside the show is one of the smaller bronze spiders crafted by Louise Bourgeois. It’s smaller than the babies that graced the 1999 opening of Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall in London (and later the Guggenheim in Bilbao and Rockefeller Center), but who cares? Stop by for a glimpse.

Robert Cuccioli, AMNH curator Norman Platnik, Reeve Carney and multiple Spider-Men take in AMNH’s “Spiders Alive!” © AMNH\R. Mickens

And lest you think that AMNH ignored the other obvious art-world connection, it didn’t, as shown by this amusing photo in September, when the cast of that other spider-themed show came to visit AMNH curator Normal Platnik for a walk-through.

Check out the opening-day YouTube promo below, but go meet the spiders up close and personal before they leave after January 6. If you’re a sci café geek that wants more, go poke around the AMNH World Spider Catalog.

235 Years of Veteran History in a High-Tech Park

Posted on by
Reply

Open again after the hurricane, best-kept-secret BLDG 92 has opened its doors to honor veteran, industrial, medical, and military history at the Brooklyn Navy Yard Center.

The stunning displays of over 235 years of history in New York Harbor inside are nothing compared to the experience of traipsing around by bus and foot to poke in and around the mix of crumbling 19th-century architecture, active dry docks, overgrown campuses, historic streets, and state-of-the-art sustainable design.

Take a look at the sights seen during the sunny days of summer on the Flickr feed, and book your trip now. It’s an adventure to get there (subways aren’t exactly close), but you will feel amazing to walk in the footsteps of so many heroes of American history and innovation, like Commodore Perry, Dr. Squibb, the North Atlantic Command for WWII, and Rosie the Riveter.

If it all feels and looks a little like a back lot, it is. (Boardwalk Empire shoots at the Steiner Studios and SNL builds sets there.)

Check out the photo of the tugboat under repair in the third oldest dry dock in the country – right where the Monitor was built for combat during the Civil War.  And if you’re a Navy history buff, immerse yourself in BLDG 92’s Flickr stream courtesy of the National Archives, stereoscopes and all.

What have you been missing?  Just check out this video, and then go see the real thing on foot, by bus,  by bicycle, or on an industrial tour:

Do-It-Yourself Fashion Alphabet

Posted on by
Reply

Christian Dior, dress in satin, 1954, France, gift of Sally Cary Iselin.

You’ve probably been too busy looking for electrical outlets below 34th Street to have noticed that today is the last day of the exhibition Fashion, A-Z: Highlights from the Collection of the Museum at FIT, Part Two.

Don’t worry, because as your power (and Internet) comes back on, you can get your fashion fix via FIT’s new digital archive that lets you surf by alphabet to see all the famous designers and dresses that are in the collection. Search by designer or brand, they’re all there.

The gallery show has the outfits arranged A (for Adrian with a MoMA-inspired creation) to Z (Zoran) in its upstairs gallery. The curators often placed two designer ensembles side-by-side, emphasizing the original designer (for example, Dior) and the younger designer who took over creative duties for the house over time (for example, YSL for Dior).

It’s a treat to see side-by-side examples of new and old Hermes (featuring Gaultier vs. the Kelly bag), Valentino, Balmain, Kenzo, YSL, Dior, and Comme des Garcon creatives.

Charles James, evening dress in silk taffeta and net, 1955, USA, gift of Robert Wells In Memory of Lisa Kirk.

Is Charles James still the reigning world champion? Take a trip to Seventh Avenue today or start surfing fashion history to make your own determination.

Coe Multimedia Accessory Collection at The Met

Posted on by
Reply

Detail of Possible bag (1900) from the Coe Collection at The Met

McQueen and the Paris runways have nothing over the 18th and 19th-century Native Americans who knew how to mix unusual materials and meanings into symbolic, functional, innovative, and salable accessories. A collector with an eye for the interesting is honored in the Met’s Michael C. Rockefeller wing in the micro-show, The Coe Collection of American Indian Art.

Ted Coe of Santa Fe was inspired to collect both ancient and contemporary works by Native Americans that caught his attention, amassing thousands of pieces that he bequeathed to the Met. He mounted a truly innovative show at AMNH in 1986, which linked old and new traditions in Native American art making, Lost and Found Traditions: Native American Art 1965-1985. The Met’s curators decided to honor his work by selecting forty objects.

Detail of Arikara Leadership shirt (1860) from Coe collection at The Met

The show isn’t all about wearable art, but we decided to focus on a few details that you might find of interest. We’ve organized the Flickr feed to document some of the oldest to the newest creations on display, ranging from mid-Mississippian carved stone tools from 4,000 B.C. to the cheeky dough bowl (1994) made by Chochiti potter Diego Ramirez.

In between, you’ll see an array of sophisticated and rough creations made by artists from the 1700s to early 1900s for Native American leaders, nomads, and tourists – all designed, embellished, and crafted in a variety of materials. Who knew that nuns taught Canadian tribal artists to embroider with moose hair? Enjoy the details.

Afghanistan in MoMA’s Atrium

Posted on by
Reply

Afghanistan is in the house as part of MoMA’s tribute to Italy’s art povera superstar in their soon-to-close exhibition Alighiero Boetti: Game Plan. Although Boetti’s retrospective takes up room on MoMA’s other floors, it’s the Afghanistan-made kilims and other art works that really serve as the focal point of the visitor experience. Check out the photos.

Get there to see the series of embroideries on tissue and the grid-within-grid rugs with patterns designed by art students and woven by Afghan artisans. Up until the Soviet invasion in 1979, Boetti worked with artists there to carry out intricate woven collaborations – including over 150 maps of the world. Boetti traced the maps on canvas and let the weavers add whatever text they wanted and pick all the colors. A few are on display here, and you can hear a pretty amazing description about the logistics of Boetti’s collaborations from MoMA curators in a short audio.

Installation view of Alighiero Boetti map (1979), embroidered by Afghani craftswomen

You’ll enjoy the densely packed embroidery Everything, and the amazing tapestry of the thousand longest rivers in of the world (1976-1982). It took Botetti and his wife years to classify all of the rivers, and if you’ve ever seen this on display before at MoMA (it’s in their collection), it’s an amazing textile that never fails to draw a crowd.  You’ve got to see it in person.

Check out MoMA’s interactive site for the exhibition, but run over to examine all the Afghani creations up close. Enjoy the trip.

What’s Up with Those Dots, Yayoi?

Posted on by
2

You’ve seen them everywhere over town…the enigmatic dotted signs with the face of Yayoi Kusama peering out. During Fashion’s Night Out, the Vuitton store was ablaze in polka dots, all a tribute to this reclusive Japanese pop-art sensation who burst upon the Manhattan art scene in the 1960s.

This is the last weekend to see her retrospective in person at The Whitney, but if you can’t make it, enjoy the Vuitton collection that she inspired (they’ve created a whole website).

Take a peek into the show.

And click on this link to see a documentary clip about this Kusama’s life. Be surprised and find out how to merge into infinity!

How di Suvero Makes Steel Move

Posted on by
Reply

Rust Angel sculpture (1995) by Mark di Suvero at the edge of the Parade Ground at Governors Island

Even if you haven’t caught the monumentally good outdoor installation of Mark di Suvero’s work on Governors Island (check out the photos), the folks at Storm King Art Center are making sure that you don’t miss it.

Thankfully they asked filmmaker Dirk Van Dall to capture how it was all transported down the Hudson from Storm King’s 500-acre campus an hour north of the City. The short film follows di Suvero around the Island to inspect the (literal) heavy lifting.

In 2010, di Suvero won National Medal of Arts, and in the film he talks about his lifelong fascination with steel, his early employment at the Fulton Fish Market, how neighborhood kids inspired him to begin creating large-scale fun works, and how he makes the seemingly immobile move. Listen in.

Drop in at the Governors Galleries this weekend to talk with the Storm King folks, and join their walking tour of the works at 2pm.

Ride the M-15 to the 19th Century

Posted on by
Reply

The SBS M-15 (First Avenue) bus drops you right at the door to the 19th century lifestyles and handiwork inside the South Street Seaport Museum’s Compass: Folk Art in Four Directions show, mounted by the American Folk Art Museum (which has just hired a new director and is now on better financial footing after selling its 53rd Street building to MoMA and decamping back to its space near Lincoln Center).

The Seaport (currently under the management of the Museum of the City of New York) invited the Folk Art folks to curate a show for four of its newly opened galleries, and it’s a joyful, informative stunner. Stacy Hollander, senior curator, selected art that reflects the spirit of the Seaport’s Schemerhorn Row, a series of six 1810 buildings that originally housed coffeehouses, hotels, and other small businesses serving the bustling sea trade.

Whale ivory and bone canes (1860); AFAM

In the Exploration gallery, you’ll encounter a vibrant folk-art menagerie, evoking the exotic adventures awaiting seafarers, who would be gone for years at a time, carvings done during the voyages, whale-bone walking canes, and imports from China. In the “social networking” gallery, the Seaport has exposed an original wall, covered in 19th-century graffiti, from the coffee houses of old downtown, when Water Street was the actual East River waterfront.

Everyone should support both of these museums (and get free admission if you sign up for the Seaport’s mailing list). The Museum and the SBS M-15 are in operation seven days a week.

What Happens (to Dresses) after Fashion’s Night Out

Posted on by
Reply

Everyone enjoyed the party atmosphere last Thursday during Fashion’s Night Out, with beautiful people, clothes, and accessories on display and tributes to retail and design history. (Check out the Flickr feed of the action on Madison and down Fifth.)

But what happens when the party ends? That question is what inspired two curators from Saratoga Springs to create a micro-show from fashion museum cast-offs — Tattered and Torn (On the Road to Deaccession).

Empire Historic Arts Fund (founded by curators Rodney DeJong and Michael Levinson) gathered together less-than-perfect examples of 19th-century couture and used the abandoned rooms of the Governor’s Galleries on Governors Island to evoke the passage of time for fashion, finery, and fanfare. Rooms that once housed the U.S. Coast Guard as recently as the 1960s felt far older, perhaps due to the dreamlike state evoked by the presence of peeling paint, claustrophobic rooms, and props with which the curators surrounded their proud mannequins.

When you enter, the dresses look glamorous, but upon closer inspection, you can see that the silk has peeled away, seams have come apart, and the total elegance that must have accompanied these dresses’ debuts has passed into history. Take a look.

Considering the $250 budget for this installation, the curators have done a fine job of paying tribute to the history of fashion, creating a memorable experience on the Island, and letting us meditate on the still-beautiful details of fabric and design up close in a quiet place.

(The show is tucked away the far east side of the Island, beyond the Parade Ground, in Building 315 facing the Brooklyn waterfront. It’s the last building on your way toward Yankee Pier.)

Virtual Trip to Design Island

Posted on by
Reply

Let me guess. You didn’t get to see the spectacular design show that ended yesterday on Governor’s Island. While their mansion up on 91st Street is being renovated, The Cooper-Hewitt (a.k.a. Smithsonian) outdid itself by mounting a show inside Building 110 on New York Harbor’s hottest party-picnic location.

Graphic Design: Now in Production gathers great design produced since 2000 to feature what creative minds are offering. The summertime crowd loved it, and people flowed right from the ferry into the show and through the aisles where works were grouped around themes like storefronts, branding, typography, and print (it lives!). Check out the action on the Flickr feed.

The show is vibrant, interactive, mind-blowing, provocative, and fully documented in a 10-minute walk-through video with the curator Elleln Lupton that pretty much replicates the experience.

If you’re in LA, the show opens September 30 at UCLA’s Hammer Museum before migrating in 2013-2014 to Grand Rapids, Houston, Winston-Salem, and RISD.

Among our favorites are Brand New’s display, which asks visitors to vote (“before” or “after”) on redesigned corporate logos, and CognitiveMedia’s “RSA Animate: Changing Education Paradigms.”