tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60051967068755585882024-03-21T10:45:28.442-04:00Beth New YorkNew York, Art and BeyondBeth S. Gersh-Nesichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04458851859412014984noreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6005196706875558588.post-7594510298806336622012-09-11T09:26:00.000-04:002012-09-11T13:32:48.401-04:00September 11, 2001 - We Remember<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Remembering and Honoring artist Michael Rolando Richards</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisH7U-aRAJTChmyCjFQPKDUFR3X88MC4sUVlc6IAzTVquoRlFj43ptEJoUU_2mgqsp9CPX_bOIJG1zuRK-EH2mNxPIT3dH5fktpkiBCDBai4B_VX20fjri-i35UOj9jXnUoZ3wRBWsk1E/s1600/michael-rolando-richards.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisH7U-aRAJTChmyCjFQPKDUFR3X88MC4sUVlc6IAzTVquoRlFj43ptEJoUU_2mgqsp9CPX_bOIJG1zuRK-EH2mNxPIT3dH5fktpkiBCDBai4B_VX20fjri-i35UOj9jXnUoZ3wRBWsk1E/s320/michael-rolando-richards.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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We remember our dear friend and colleague artist Michael Richards, who perished in his studio in one of the World Trade Center towers. Please read about his life and work on <a href="http://arthistory.about.com/od/namesrr/a/Michael-Rolando-Richards.htm">About.com: Art History.</a></div>
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He was best know for his <i>Tuskegee Airmen </i>Series. Here is one:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ4JBG2mnWai9gj7dIYPFkJCs3pz1unt5UAqPa1Yyb5tTf3tJ7tTFvG5aQyrc-82PWhwA2RSx4WyklbPCCnXfFVSDkes1qIcW3giMgqAQjCEkWyImFdAjcIa0I-hN4LA3zO5-VN7vrDyc/s1600/Michael+Richards+Tuskegee+Airman+1999+NCMA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ4JBG2mnWai9gj7dIYPFkJCs3pz1unt5UAqPa1Yyb5tTf3tJ7tTFvG5aQyrc-82PWhwA2RSx4WyklbPCCnXfFVSDkes1qIcW3giMgqAQjCEkWyImFdAjcIa0I-hN4LA3zO5-VN7vrDyc/s320/Michael+Richards+Tuskegee+Airman+1999+NCMA.jpg" width="160" /></a></div>
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<i>The Tar Baby vs. St. Sebastian</i>, 1999</div>
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Please view the permanent installation of <i>Are You Down? </i>on the website for <a href="http://www.franconia.org/mrichards.html">Franconia State Park</a>.<i> </i></div>
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We still miss you, Michael.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Artist Todd Stone Remembers:</b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuMaWI1imaAka5P_WzXnHGe5ip-MvG6Y0evsWob7NsL9l0_rlTpJ16yPBTGwVO9x8DPgYULzsPL2aOrWG2bQ_mKFvGAJnGc3bsyb1x5dqh295QN-7iBL7kbc5m6LFDjeS3d3Zfwqz-7ns/s1600/Todd+Stone,+4+Raising,+2012.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuMaWI1imaAka5P_WzXnHGe5ip-MvG6Y0evsWob7NsL9l0_rlTpJ16yPBTGwVO9x8DPgYULzsPL2aOrWG2bQ_mKFvGAJnGc3bsyb1x5dqh295QN-7iBL7kbc5m6LFDjeS3d3Zfwqz-7ns/s320/Todd+Stone,+4+Raising,+2012.JPG" width="230" /></a></div>
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Todd Stone, <i>4 Raising</i>, 2012</div>
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How can we adequate commemorate in art over 3,000 people who perished on September 11, 2001 in the World Trade Center towers, Shanksville, Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon, plus those who died or live with chronic ailments because they worked at Ground Zero? Todd Stone answered this question 11 years ago as he witnessed the attacks on the WTC towers from his studio in Lower Manhattan. He recorded what he saw and he continues to record the rebirth of the site. Recently he sent me a new image, <i>4 Raising,</i> which interprets the shiny resilient surface and spirit of this new building at 150 Greenwich Street. </div>
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Upon completion, the buildings at the former WTC should look like this:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPkkwMUo3P4fh9MQJ_qDyhvDmMSCyjEOKYQr1lItOzhTebbQfBWkoianU_Dlzkm3Wskc9YeHSMkJdw_xPjedAugFVjaHeL-XmIDyGGLFEWT2moiaQy0BruasXpcPJfg8iu-LcXtXvqpII/s1600/WTC+2,+3,+4,+5+and+7+digital+illustration.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPkkwMUo3P4fh9MQJ_qDyhvDmMSCyjEOKYQr1lItOzhTebbQfBWkoianU_Dlzkm3Wskc9YeHSMkJdw_xPjedAugFVjaHeL-XmIDyGGLFEWT2moiaQy0BruasXpcPJfg8iu-LcXtXvqpII/s320/WTC+2,+3,+4,+5+and+7+digital+illustration.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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A digital illustration of 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 WTC</div>
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To learn more about Todd Stone's September 11th series <i>Witness</i> and <i>Downtown Rising</i>, please visit his website: <a href="http://www.toddstone.com/">www.toddstone.com</a> and read <a href="http://arthistory.about.com/od/current_contemporary_art/a/Witness-Downtown-Rising-by-Todd-Stone.htm">my review </a>of his 2011 exhibition at 7 World Trade Center, which included poetry readings and other commemorative events. A film of the events on August 27, 2011 entitled <a href="http://www.toddstone.com/What-is-new.html"><i>Witness Downtown Rising Renga</i> </a>premiered last March. The next venue will be Berlin's<a href="http://www.zebra-award.org/"> ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival, October 18-21, 2012. </a></div>
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Beth S. Gersh-Nesichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04458851859412014984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6005196706875558588.post-46212298206911847302012-07-09T12:18:00.001-04:002012-07-11T10:28:27.621-04:00Last Call- French Drawings at NYU's Grey Art Gallery through July 14th<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>"Storied Past: Four Centuries of French Drawings from the Blanton Museum of Art" and "French Art from NYU's Collection,"<span style="background-color: white;"> <a href="http://www.nyu.edu/greyart">Grey Art Gallery</a>, New York University, 100 Washington Square East, April 17 through July 14, 2012.</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUyFu3lVjzkmZLRpF88ejUE1NS2ItOhbQiZXuI49pZpCHlTfADP8NlWP5TiFeZhpsE-QPVVct1JLOpPf4lXjcCujRep3fe7Evw0mWB2QkOMxjKJcUM6o5CCb0eqWUBBTuCEIOgUowyReE/s1600/Leloi+Mococcan+Musician+1874jpg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUyFu3lVjzkmZLRpF88ejUE1NS2ItOhbQiZXuI49pZpCHlTfADP8NlWP5TiFeZhpsE-QPVVct1JLOpPf4lXjcCujRep3fe7Evw0mWB2QkOMxjKJcUM6o5CCb0eqWUBBTuCEIOgUowyReE/s400/Leloi+Mococcan+Musician+1874jpg.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Alexandre-Louis Leloir</div>
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<i>Moroccan Girl Playing a Stringed Instrument,</i> 1875</div>
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Watercolor, gouache, and graphite on ivory wove paper</div>
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9 5/8 x 13 9/16 in.</div>
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Gift of the Wunsch Foundation, Inc., 1983</div>
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Celebrate Bastille Day 2012 (known in France as Le Quatorze Juillet - July 14th) with a splendid array of French drawings executed from the 16th through 20th centuries. Comprised of 50 drawings from the Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas as Austin and about two dozen more from New York University's permanent collection, these two separate shows feature narratives of heroes, femme fatales, and contemporary street life from the years before and after the French Revolution.<br />
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"Storied Past" reflects the taste of Italian Renaissance scholar William Suida, an art historian from Vienna, who became the head of the Kress Foundation art history research department in 1947 and advised Samuel Kress' purchases for the collection. His daughter Bertina Suida was also an art historian and she married NYU Institute of Fine Arts classmate Robert Manning, who took over his father-in-law's position at the Kress. Together they built the Suida-Manning Collection which was donated to the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas, Austin in 1998.<br />
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The Suida-Manning Collection includes Italianate Baroque French drawings from the 17th century, such as this example from the circle of Daniel Halle<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh74veHvYCeep9QFyM6jXK_9ikWtFW3iKtb-H6UkwCn4ocVZTJ4rXmygJ1s0zAXWzdSXXacpcf2q_VAszeQCqaxUO6G_TfvQ06CP8xaDaFBs6QmyHuDC2kw5S5Bnor224a6ytd_iWUPGR0/s1600/Circle+of+Daniel+Halle,+Warrior+Amid+Classical+Ruins,+1650-99.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh74veHvYCeep9QFyM6jXK_9ikWtFW3iKtb-H6UkwCn4ocVZTJ4rXmygJ1s0zAXWzdSXXacpcf2q_VAszeQCqaxUO6G_TfvQ06CP8xaDaFBs6QmyHuDC2kw5S5Bnor224a6ytd_iWUPGR0/s400/Circle+of+Daniel+Halle,+Warrior+Amid+Classical+Ruins,+1650-99.jpg" width="288" /></a></div>
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Circle of Daniel Halle</div>
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<i>A Warrior amid Classical Ruins,</i> c. 1650–99</div>
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Black chalk and brown wash heightened with white on brown laid paper</div>
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15 1/2 x 11 in.</div>
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The Suida-Manning Collection<br />
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and the French Rococo, found in this drawing by Charles-Antoine Coypel:. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgepyeWPzOj1tWMdLKXsWPlXBP3bNl0fjf1GPb5Oz6TnvaMP2epIxZ-Aa7akZNHccKD3tXzfbQKnraSKPJWcgGEC-z3w7aVnjEwOoNJrZS7anORPcZ52MxKX_Ox-Npr784tXdzNHOB7Na0/s1600/Coypel+France+Thanking++Heave+1744.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgepyeWPzOj1tWMdLKXsWPlXBP3bNl0fjf1GPb5Oz6TnvaMP2epIxZ-Aa7akZNHccKD3tXzfbQKnraSKPJWcgGEC-z3w7aVnjEwOoNJrZS7anORPcZ52MxKX_Ox-Npr784tXdzNHOB7Na0/s400/Coypel+France+Thanking++Heave+1744.jpg" width="265" /></a></div>
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Charles-Antoine Coypel</div>
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<i>France Thanking Heaven for the Recovery of Louis XV</i>, 1744</div>
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Black and white chalks with brush and gray wash and touches of red chalk on cream antique laid</div>
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The Suida-Manning Collection</div>
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Above, please note the characteristic exoticism of Orientalist <span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;">Alexandre-Louis Leloir's </span><i style="background-color: white; text-align: center;">Moroccan Girl Playing a Stringed Instrument,</i><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;">1875 (produced at the time Impressionism fought against these preferred conventions).</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">On the lower level of the Grey Art Gallery, avant-gardists hold sway. "French Art from NYU's Collection" highlights works donated to the university since 1958. Here we find important (and impressive) 19th- and 20th-century masters Edouard Manet, Georges Braque. Francis Picabia, Jacques Villon, and Sonia Delauney, among so many others. Surely it's time for a comprehensive exhibition of this outstanding New York collection.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOVjNjz7y8g-e0x-6xyMzmlbwCAZKI-iB0DBhG3uNhaLOK9kPSJz_PZxUDpJLes4wkJMi8i29Wi8NAclJEeKS7hJuP6uFd8J-6-U2Ni-NHV9Am2b81_wl6UYYh3fB_t-fXLUv_X9rjRQ0/s1600/Manet,+Unfinished+landscape+c.+1870.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOVjNjz7y8g-e0x-6xyMzmlbwCAZKI-iB0DBhG3uNhaLOK9kPSJz_PZxUDpJLes4wkJMi8i29Wi8NAclJEeKS7hJuP6uFd8J-6-U2Ni-NHV9Am2b81_wl6UYYh3fB_t-fXLUv_X9rjRQ0/s400/Manet,+Unfinished+landscape+c.+1870.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Edouard Manet, <i>Unfinished Landscape</i>, c. mid 1860s </div>
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NYU Collection, Grey Art Gallery</div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Please join the New York Arts Exchange tour of "Storied Past" and "French Art from NYU's Collection" on Wednesday, July 11 at 1 pm. Reservations: <a href="mailto:nyarts-exchange@verizon.net">nyarts-exchange@verizon.net</a>. Fee: $60. We will meet at the Grey Art Gallery.</span></div>
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<i>Vive la France!</i></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Beth</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Beth S. Gersh-Nesic, Director</span></div>
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<br />Beth S. Gersh-Nesichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04458851859412014984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6005196706875558588.post-53538643998620520502012-06-17T10:24:00.000-04:002012-07-08T23:30:16.383-04:00Fathers and Sons: Max Ferguson's "Paintings of My Father," 1982-2011*<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>Max Ferguson: Paintings of My Father</i>, Hebrew Union College, Brookdale Center, One West Fourth Street, New York, April 16 through June 29, 2012</div>
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<i>My Father on Fifth Avenue,</i> 2011</div>
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oil on panel, 9 1/2 x 12 inches</div>
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Collection of the artist</div>
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Some critics see Edward Hopper's urban loneliness, some critics see Johann Vermeer's geometry. I see none of that, really. Max Ferguson's Post-Modernist Realism is warmer than Hopper's and more complex than Vermeer's. That complexity doesn't stop with his formal considerations. Ferguson takes on the complexity of a relationship. In this case, the Father and Son Relationship, which has so many dimensions. From hero worship to disillusionment, from constant camaraderie to unspoken boundaries, fathers and sons slog through different stages of their development together and, hopefully, remain friends.</div>
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In Max Ferguson's meticulous paintings of his father Richard Jacob Ferguson sometimes there is truth and sometimes there is fiction. I asked the artist a few questions so that I might understand his choices. <br />
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<i>Me and My Father</i>, 1986</div>
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oil on panel, 26 x 26 inches</div>
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Private Collection, Palm Beach Gardens, FL</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">BNY: <i>Which paintings are inventions of your father in circumstances that<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">MF: Buying <i>The</i> <i>Forward</i>, selling tickets at a movie theater. Playing pool with me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">BNY: <i> How
much of his true personality can we glean from your paintings?</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">MF: Some, but not all aspects. He was very
physically active, and extremely funny, which I don't believe come across in
the paintings. (Related. I have often thought that if someone had never met me,
and just knew my paintings, they would have a radically inaccurate idea of me.
Humorless? Constantly making jokes. A loner? Married with three children. Tranquil? A ball
of anxiety and nervous ticks. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Patient? Could not be less so...)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">BNY: <i>Do you feel that there is a bit of yourself infused in the person<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>you create on the canvas in the guise of your father?</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">MF: Absolutely. He and I are to some degree inseparable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>My Father in Katz's</i>, 2005</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">oil on panel, 16 x 20 inches</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"I began working on this painting of him in Katz's Delicatessen a short time after his death in 2005. The whole time I was working on it, I kept asking myself if this was my way of dealing with his death, or not dealing with it, by trying to keep him alive via this painting. To stop painting him is to acknowledge his death. To accept his mortality, is to accept mine . . . " (Max Ferguson catalogue, p. 10)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">BNY:<i> Do you bring a deliberate concept to the characterization of your father?</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">MF: In one sense he is Everyman. In another sense he is very specifically my father.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">People keep telling me they see their father in him, so is also a universal "father figure."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The more personal you get, the more universal you become.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">BNY: <i>You spoke about a kind of Proustian desire to preserve a moment in<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">time as you recognize how quickly modern life changes our immediate<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">environment. When did this desire first occur to you?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p><i> </i></o:p> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">MF: I have always been hyper aware of the brevity and transience of life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Never being one to quite accept the idea of death, I have long sought to hold back the hands of time. I tend to resist change of any kind. It is hard to pinpoint any moment, but this idea of freezing time and resisting change has always been reflected in my work; but not initially as a conscious element, or catalyst.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>My Father in the Subway III</i>, 1984</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">oil on panel, 22 1/2 x 28 1/2 inches</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"I made the photographic studies for this in July, but my father was generous enough to wear a winter coat." (Max Ferguson catalogue, p. 18</span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">BNY:<i> You explained that 17th century Dutch genre paintings have been a<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>major influence on your work. Would you call these paintings<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>portraits or genre paintings - or both?</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">MF: I think of them as genre paintings, but in a broader sense they are portraits<span style="font-size: 10pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">BNY: <i>Do you believe that the culture of the 1950s and 1960s plays a role</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>in your formation as an artist? Specifically, did the idealization of<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i> the father in late 1950s and early 1960s television and movies: </i>Father<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Knows Best, The Donna Reed Show, Fury,<i> Disney movies, etc. influence<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>your desire to idealize your father in your own art? Have you ever considered this<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>question before?</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">MF: I have never thought about that, but I suppose one's environment (especially as a child) cannot help but influence one's perception and concepts of the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">[I recently found something I had written when I was 8 that said in effect:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"When I grow up I want to get a job so I can support my family."] I was literally a child of the 60's, and certainly watched a good deal of television of that ilk so I am sure the influence was there. I am certainly prone towards idealizing and romanticizing. Certainly it is difficult for me to escape certain imposed gender stereotypes. For example: I might have found it difficult to paint women playing pool, or a man lighting Sabbath candles (even though when single I did just that).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>My Father at Mount Sinai</i>, 2011</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">oil on canvas, 36 x 52 inches</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"I often asked myself if my father would have approved of me painting this. The answer is no. Was I being disrespectful of him? I am not sure, probably yes. Still, I felt not so much that I wanted to paint this, but <i>had </i>to." (Max Ferguson catalogue, p. 35)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">BNY: <i>You painted your father when he was alive and you continue to paint </i></span><i style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">your father since he passed away in 2005 at the age of 92, perhaps to keep him alive in your </span></i><i style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">daily life. How does it feel to bring your father to life on the canvas?</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">MF: As assiduously as I seek out realism in my paintings, I avoid it in my daily life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No more concrete manifestation of reality than death. Mortality has never been my favorite thing. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To continue to paint my father is both my way of dealing with his death and denying it simultaneously. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To bestow on him a degree of immortality is my vain attempt to do the same for me. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is both resurrecting him (playing G-d in a sense), but also refusing to accept his death. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is comforting for me to still have him with me; if only 2 dimensionally.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">*Dedicated to my father, who introduced to me 17th Century Dutch painting, on Father's Day 2012 - Happy Father's Day, Dad. Love, Beth</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">November 1, 1919-June 20, 2012</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Sources: </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Gail Levin, "Introduction," <i>Paintings of My Father: Max Ferguson</i>, New York: Hebrew Union College, 2012.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Max Ferguson, "Paintings My Father - Richard Ferguson, 1912-2005," <i>Paintings of My Father: Max Ferguson.</i>, New York: Hebrew Union College, 2012.</span><br />
<a href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C03E5DF1730F936A25757C0A9649D8B63"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Marie Elena Martinez, "30 Years of Paintings of a New York Everyman," <i>New York Times</i>, Sunday, April 15, 2012.</span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeanine-barone/an-intimate-art-exhibition-for-fathers-day_b_1598409.html">Jeanine Barone, "An Intimate Exhibition for Father's Day," <i>The Huffington Post</i>, June 15, 2012</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The artist's interview with Chuck Scarborough, Tuesday, June 12: </span><br />
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<br />Beth S. Gersh-Nesichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04458851859412014984noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6005196706875558588.post-35071877600125729432012-06-12T16:14:00.000-04:002012-06-12T23:57:36.144-04:00Last Call: Francesca Woodman at the Guggenheim, closing June 13<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Francesca Woodman</i>, <a href="http://www.guggenheim.org/">Guggenheim Museum</a>, </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>March 16-June 13, 2012</b></span><br />
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<img alt="Francesca Woodman, Polka Dots, Providence, Rhode Island, 1976" height="400" src="http://www.guggenheim.org/images/content/New_York/exhibitions/2012/exh_woodman205.jpg" width="383" />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;">Francesca Woodman,</span><i style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"> Polka Dots</i><span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;">, </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 9px; text-align: left;">Providence, Rhode Island, 1976. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 9px; text-align: left;">Gelatin silver print, 13.3 x 13.3 cm. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 9px; text-align: left;">© George and Betty Woodman,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 9px; text-align: left;"> courtesy George and Betty Woodman</span>
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One of this season's most important exhibitions is about to close: the first survey of Francesca Woodman photographs in New York since the first traveling retrospective in 1986-88, presented at Hunter College in NY, Wellesley in Massachusetts, University of California at Irvine and Krannet Art Museum in Champaign, Illinois. <br />
<a name='more'></a>Arrestingly beautiful and extraordinarily poignant, her work reaches deep into our hearts and haunts us for hours - maybe days - after leaving the show. Francesca Woodman was born on April 3, 1978 and took her life on January 19, 1981. <i> </i><br />
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I am writing a review for <i>Women Arts Journal Quarterly'</i>s fall issue and will share this on my blog after it is published.<br />
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In the meantime, please view these videos and comment on our blog or on the <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/New-York-Arts-Exchange/169889483029862">New York Arts Exchange FB page</a><br />
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I look forward to reading your candid thoughts and interpretations. Recollections are especially welcome.<br />
<br />
<br />
Beth<br />
<br />Beth S. Gersh-Nesichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04458851859412014984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6005196706875558588.post-62411370598932831932012-06-11T13:31:00.000-04:002012-06-21T01:32:43.874-04:00Review of Chasing Aphrodite: The Getty Mess Sparks a Summer Sizzler<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBLW60V_5_qRnesHqSuhyphenhyphenAvSgBfx0E_7aqTqU5H-aYtL9KI3aZ1riayxGAVix5lPeNXmi6TIa98KvdyhAzLgrM7A5T9Dg3wtw1nd6Uy9F0C0k8wtkeLLPSClT0NFvVdRxGf15RWEZC0b0/s1600/Chasing+Aphrodite+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBLW60V_5_qRnesHqSuhyphenhyphenAvSgBfx0E_7aqTqU5H-aYtL9KI3aZ1riayxGAVix5lPeNXmi6TIa98KvdyhAzLgrM7A5T9Dg3wtw1nd6Uy9F0C0k8wtkeLLPSClT0NFvVdRxGf15RWEZC0b0/s1600/Chasing+Aphrodite+cover.jpg" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(originally published in Venice Magazine, July-August 2011, and posted on Chasing Aphrodite Facebook page)</span></i></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino, <i>Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World’s
Richest Museum</i> <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, May 2011)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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How would Gustave Flaubert
update his Madame Bovary in 2011?
Perhaps, he would recast her as an ambitious art history student, eager
to please and aching to get away from a boring working-class life just outside
of <st1:city w:st="on">Boston</st1:city> (<st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Newburyport</st1:place></st1:city>,
to be precise). Let’s say this updated
Emma Bovary completes her degree at NYU and continues on to Harvard for a Ph.D.
program but drops out when she meets an older, well-off cardiologist, looking
for a trophy wife. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Now this contemporary Emma
Bovary first seeks upward mobility through her marriage, just like her
nineteenth-century counterpart, and spends far in excess of what her husband’s
prenup lifestyle considered reasonable –
just like Flaubert’s Emma who hitched her wagon to a lowly country physician. Dissatisfied and frustrated, our contemporary
Madame Bovary takes $50,000 out of the join bank account to put a down-payment
on her own condominium. No suicide for
this desperate housewife. She got
herself a Honda CVCC (surprisingly, not a Porsche) and rode out of the marriage
into a heterosexually gay-divorcée sunlight.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Then what? <br />
<a name='more'></a>She found a job in commercial gallery, an unsavory
choice for a Harvard ABD (all but dissertation). That situation proved to be a Ponzi scheme of
sorts, so she moved on to the ivory-tower ethos of museums, setting her cap for
a <i>numero uno</i> spot in the food-chain of
non-academic art historians: head curator (directors, these days, are just
glorified fund-raisers). Finally at the top of a major museum, she became a
player in the questionable practices that collecting antiquities have to
offer. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Oh, Madame Bovary in late-capitalist
<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>,
what a mess you made because of your blind ambition. (Got yourself a nice
little “cottage” in the Greek isles, though, just to feel part of the authentically
wealthy society you always coveted.
Well, on a curator’s salary that’s a bit of stretch beyond financial
reality, don’t you think?)<o:p></o:p></div>
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In the end, our Flaubertian,
twenty-first century Madame Bovary finally faces charges in a Roman court for trafficking
in illicit antiquities, “voluntarily” resigns in disgrace (not because of
acquiring hot properties, but because she accepted a loan from a museum patron
that would pay off her mortgage on the Greek shack), and luckily escapes prison
when the statute of limitations expires in the nick of time. The final scene
describes this nouvelle Madame Bovary unemployed, but still able to renovate
her kitchen somewhere in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">France</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
<o:p></o:p></div>
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However outlandish this story
might sound, it’s all True (Marion True) in this summer’s sizzling exposé, <i>Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted
Antiquities at the World Richest Museum</i>, written by ace journalists Jason
Felch and Ralph Frammolino (both from the LA Times). Their new book characterizes the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Getty</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Museum</st1:placetype></st1:place>’s
head curator of antiquities, Marion True, as a Madame Bovary for our times: self-centered,
crusty and driven. (A Greek tragedy of
non-epic proportions.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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On a superficial level, <i>Chasing Aphrodite </i>is just plain fun to
read for those who hate duplicitous hypocrites and love to hear about their
well-deserved comeuppance. For marginalized
academics, the public humiliation of a self-important art historian
is absolutely delicious. What Schadenfreude glee to see the “righteous” punished
for going along with an administration that implicitly obstructed
investigations into shady provenances.
(Unfortunately, Dr. True went down without the ship.) <o:p></o:p></div>
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Although Felch and Frammolino
organized their museum muckraker tome around Marion True (a novelist could not
have chosen a more ironic name for a lead protagonist), the real stars of the
show are not the corrupt curator and her equally corrupt colleagues (Getty
directors, CEOs, dealers and suppliers).
No, the stars of the show are the works of art: the <i>Morgantina Venus</i> from Sicily (late 5<sup>th</sup> century BCE), the
<i>Athlete of Fano</i> from the Marche Region
(a.k.a. <i>Victorious Youth</i> or “Getty
Bronze”, circa 500-100 BCE), and other fabulous antiquities smuggled out
of their homelands, like kidnapped children,
by some amoral nogoodniks eager for quick cash.
<o:p></o:p></div>
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What in the world is a late
Hellenic bronze statue of a victorious athlete doing in the middle of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Malibu</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">California</st1:state></st1:place>?
Why do the British believe they can take better care of the Parthenon
sculptures than their hometown <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Athens</st1:city>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Greece</st1:country-region></st1:place>? Sheer arrogance and nothing but. The <i>soi-disant</i>
excuse is that larger and better endowed sanctuaries can keep these precious
works in tip-top condition while smaller institutes cannot. Nonsense.
Even with <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Greece</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s
current deficit, they can still handle the demands of a few antique marbles –
particularly now that they have a spanking new museum waiting impatiently to
receive them. </div>
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At the heart of <i>Chasing Aphrodite</i> is a cautionary tale
about today’s Emma Bovarys/Marion Trues of all genders, nationalities and social
connections: careerist-lust can often lead to the road of perdition. In the case of Marion True, trafficking in
looted antiquities to increase her curatorial power on the world’s stage fed
into the whole nefarious operation that supports criminal activity: the
impoverished <i>tombaroli </i>(the actual scavengers
on the ground in the archaeological sites that dig up these important
historical artifacts), the middlemen (your average thug who could just as easily
deal in drugs or arms as stolen artifacts), and the extraordinarily wealthy
dealers (whose extravagant villas and showrooms front the looters’ booty). <o:p></o:p></div>
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If crime and punishment is
not your thing, then please read the <i>Chasing
Aphrodite</i> for its take on classical antiquities. The writers educate the
reader in a manner that is far from dry-as-dust, hopefully encouraging an appetite
for a few scholarly publications online. (I recommend Catherine M. Keesling’s review of
Carol C. Mattusch’s book on the <i>Victorious
Youth</i>, published by the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1997.) <o:p></o:p></div>
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And then, as you reach the last page, just imagine your
next trip to the Getty Villa or Greek and Roman Wings in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art. Feeling a bit
complicit? Well, say something. According to Sotheby’s and Christie’s most recent
reports, Roman antiquity sales were heating up this spring. Did you ever stop to consider how they get
this stuff? Not from the Italian government, I can assure you. Thanks to <i>Chasing
Aphrodite,</i> we all should know that by now and act on the knowledge.</div>
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____________________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Sources:</b></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.theacropolismuseum.gr/?la=2">Acropolis Museum</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><i>New York</i></st1:place></st1:state><i> Times</i> on June 2011 Antiquities Auctions:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/18/arts/18iht-MELIKIAN18.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/18/arts/18iht-MELIKIAN18.html</a>
<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_90349153">Chasing <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Aphrodite</st1:placename><span style="font-style: normal;"> <st1:placename w:st="on">Website</st1:placename></span></st1:place></a><span style="font-style: normal;"><a href="http://chasingaphrodite.com/"> </a><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/ChasingAphrodite">Facebook </a>- subscribe to their email for follow-up information<o:p></o:p></div>
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Catherine M. Keeling’s Review
of Carol C. Mattusch’s <i>The Victorious
Youth, </i><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Malibu</st1:city></st1:place>:
The J. Paul Getty Museum, 1997.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/1998/1998-07-05.html">http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/1998/1998-07-05.html</a>
<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>Beth S. Gersh-Nesichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04458851859412014984noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6005196706875558588.post-15574148166897279852012-06-08T09:45:00.004-04:002012-06-12T18:31:55.473-04:00Where in the world is Beth Gersh-Nesic? One year later . . . .<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS4ydRe1Ev6XbLovjRXUHDmh9DmG34WjPu7DI8EkAObKuygzJ8O3MS6AJ5MGEdoW3nfLMTee6oLH_9h0tHuoPMxsEeahZPeRY7eVuWlX-tmiD2iCY6zFROtJSeCauEnBEhyRZwJTrYMHc/s1600/Victorious+Youth+in+Fano.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS4ydRe1Ev6XbLovjRXUHDmh9DmG34WjPu7DI8EkAObKuygzJ8O3MS6AJ5MGEdoW3nfLMTee6oLH_9h0tHuoPMxsEeahZPeRY7eVuWlX-tmiD2iCY6zFROtJSeCauEnBEhyRZwJTrYMHc/s320/Victorious+Youth+in+Fano.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Copy of <i>Victorious Youth</i>, Fano, Italy, overlooking the Adriatic Sea.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Photo: Beth S. Gersh-Nesic, June 8, 2011</span></div>
<br />
<br />
<i>One year ago Shelley Esaak posted the question <a href="http://arthistory.about.com/b/2011/06/08/where-in-the-world-is-beth-gersh-nesic.htm">"Where in the World is Beth Gersh-Nesic?"</a> on her <a href="http://arthistory.about.com/">About.com: Art History </a>website. Where was I indeed? In Fano, Italy, on a press junket that met with President Gian Mario Spacca, right in front of a copy of <b>Atlete di Fano</b> (<b>Victorious Youth</b>),* pictured above. Here is the story:</i><br />
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<b>One Hot Body – The
Getty’s <i>Victorious Youth</i> (aka <i>Atleta di Fano</i>)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<span style="color: #333333;">In 1977, the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Getty</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Museum</st1:placetype></st1:place>
bought <i>Victorious Youth </i>for $3.95 million. Now <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Italy</st1:place></st1:country-region> wants it
back. An assortment of international journalists were invited to the Four
Seasons Hotel in Milan on June 7, 2011 to listen to President Gian
Mario Spacca</span>, the<span style="color: #333333;"> governor of the Marche
Region, plead his case for the return of the statue to Fano, located on the coast of the Adriatic Sea, in the heart of the Marche. On May 3, 2012 the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Italy</st1:country-region></st1:place> courts ordered the return of this ancient sculpture - <i>pronto</i>. </span><a href="http://chasingaphrodite.com/2012/05/04/the-gettys-bronze-italian-court-upholds-order-to-seize-a-getty-masterpiece/">http://chasingaphrodite.com/2012/05/04/the-gettys-bronze-italian-court-upholds-order-to-seize-a-getty-masterpiece/</a><br />
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<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; padding-bottom: 13px;">
Unknown The sculpture before it was cleaned<br />
Greek, 300 - 100 B.C.<br />
Bronze<br />
59 5/8 x 27 9/16 x 11 in.<br />
77.AB.30</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; padding-bottom: 13px;">
<img src="http://www.getty.edu/art/collections/images/on_display_getty_villa.jpg" style="margin: 0px;" /></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><br />
<b>Here’s the backstory . . . .</b><br />
<a name='more'></a><b><o:p></o:p></b><br />
In 1964, on a typical summer day of commercial fishing halfway between the
coast of Fano, the ancient Roman city Fanum Fortunae (Temple of Fortune) in
Italy, and the Croatian coast of the former Yugoslavia, the <i>Ferrucio Ferri</i>, a 60-foot Italian
trawler, inexplicably hauled abroad a heavy human form in its fishing net. At
first, the six-men crew thought they brought up a dead body. Then they scraped
away some of the barnacles and realized this fishy figure was made of bronze. Rather than report the mysterious treasure to
the local authorities, Captain Romeo Pirani decided to keep this unexpected
“catch” hush-hush and share with his crew the cash made from a secret sale of
the object. To complete their plan, they waited until the wee hours of the next
morning to sail back to port. Then, undercover of darkness, they spirited away
a statue so densely covered with the crustaceans, they believed it had to be a
very old work of art. <br />
<br />
The captain took charge of the smelly bronze figure and stored it in his
cousin’s garden. However, the stench from rotting fish became too powerful to
bear. A few days later the statue was buried on a farm outside Fano, in a
cabbage field. One month later, Giacomo Barbetti, a wealthy antiquarian from
Gubbio (50 miles from Fano), looked at the bronze and identified it as a
Lysippis. He offered the captain 3.5 million lira (about $4000 at the
time). Captain Pirani took about $1,200
(twice his monthly salary) as his cut for the sale.<br />
Now Barbetti knowingly entered into an art crime by not reporting his
possession of a cultural object found off the coast of <st1:place w:st="on">Italy</st1:place>. (According to an Italian law
set down in 1939, a work of art found on Italian territory must remain in
Italy.) Nevertheless, this son of a concrete
magnate kept the statue under wraps (literally) in red velvet, thanks to the
help of Father Giovanni Nagni and his conveniently located sacristy, where the
bronze was hidden. But the bronze, still encrusted with crustaceans, stank! So
Father Nagni took it upon himself to drag the bronze to his home for a long
salt-water soak in his bathtub. Meanwhile a passing parade of “guests” secretly
visited the statue in Father Nagni’s house in Gubbio. One such “visitor,” a
restorer, tipped off the local police, who staged a raid a few days later. By
then Barbetti had caught wind of the informant’s deed and presto! the bronze
magically disappeared. How and in what
form remains unknown. One theory is that
Barbetti submerged the statue in cement and shipped it off to a monastery in <st1:place w:st="on">Brazil</st1:place>.
In 1966, the police convicted Barbetti and Father Nagni of criminal activity,
placed them in jail and then two years let them go, citing insufficient
evidence to substantiate the charge. <br />
By 1971, the bronze athlete had resurfaced in <st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city>
and was sold to Artemis, an art consortium based in <st1:place w:st="on">Luxembourg</st1:place>, for $700,000. Heinz
Herzer, a German antiquarian, collected the statue and brought it to his studio
for a thorough cleaning. Finally, the full beauty of the bronze figure was revealed,
including the reddish rusting from the prolonged barnacle attachments. The
bronze was treated to a chemical bath to arrest the further damage and then
tested with Carbon-14 for dating. The results confirmed that work was executed
sometime between 300-100 BC. (Still
vulnerable to rusting, the statue must be protected from high humility.) <br />
<br />
<b>The plot thickens . . . .<o:p></o:p></b><br />
Enter Bernard Ashmole, the curator of Greek and Roman art at the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">British</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Museum</st1:placetype></st1:place>, who received photographs of the
Hellenistic bronze from Herzer. Ashmole
motored out to <st1:street w:st="on">Sutton Place</st1:street>,
J. Paul Getty’s estate outside of <st1:place w:st="on">London</st1:place>,
to talk to the richest man on earth about this exceptional find. Getty’s
appetite for a bargain art deal was piqued, but he decided to pass because the
work lacked the proper documentation. He could smell the stink of ill-gotten
goods which no chemical bath could ever wash away.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, Dietrich von Bothmer, curator of antiquities at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, whose expertise was Greek vases, heard about the statue and
informed his boss, Thomas Hoving, the director of the museum at this time.
Hoving, who craved big-game art trophies, first licked his chops and then
skittered out of the way – reluctant to enter into another questionable
acquisition on behalf of the Met. It was
1972 and Hoving had just purchased the infamous Euphronios vase for an
unprecedented $1 million. The press was already breathing down his neck looking
for dirt. <br />
<br />
Four years later, on June 6, 1976, J. Paul Getty died, leaving $700 million
to the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Getty</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Museum</st1:placetype></st1:place>. Giddy with such largess and free
of Getty’s stingy micromanaging scrutiny, the head curator, Burton Fredericksen
immediately set his sites on the alleged Lysippis bronze that was still on the
market. Fredericksen dreamed of transforming this underrated West Coast
collection into top-drawer institution. An important late Hellenic bronze could
make any lesser-known museum a star.<br />
<br />
By November 1977, the newly-christened <i>Getty
Bronze</i> entered the Getty collection, followed by a whole bunch of second-rate
antiquities that curator Jiri Frel procured through “donations.” The story about Frel’s self-serving scheme of inflated appraisals that could be
used for hefty tax deductions fills several pages in Jason Felch and Ralph
Frammolino’s sizzler <i>Chasing Aphrodite: The
Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World’s Richest Museum</i>, published in May
2011. The <i>Victorious Youth</i> makes a
cameo appearance in the first chapter and again towards the end of this
thriller when the Getty has to negotiate the return of numerous fenced objects. (My review for <i>Venice Magazine</i>, July - August 2011, will be the next post.)<br />
<br />
<b>Twenty years . . . .</b><br />
In 1997, Giacomo Medici, a well-known antiquities middleman associated with
prominent collectors, was arrested by the Italian government for amassing an
enormous amount of looted art in a <st1:city w:st="on">Geneva</st1:city>
warehouse. Like Neal Caffrey, the suave
and sophisticated art theft in the television series <i>White Collar,</i> Medici cut an elegant cosmopolitan figure. In 2004 he
was found guilty by a Roman court and sentenced to a prison term of 10 years,
which he is still serving. He was also
fined 10 million euros.<br />
<br />
In May 2005, Marion True, curator of antiquities at the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Getty</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Museum</st1:placetype></st1:place>,
found herself in a Roman courtroom answering to charges of receiving stolen
goods and conspiring to export unlawful antiquities. She stood trial with Robert E. Hecht, a shady
supplier for the antiquities dealer Bruce McNall, who ran Summa Gallery on <st1:street w:st="on">Rodeo Drive</st1:street> – the
source for many Getty donors’ gifts (arranged by Jiri Frel). The race for restitution was on – a highly
competitive and diplomatically delicate sport.<br />
<br />
By early 2006, Philippe de Montebello, then director of the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, visited <st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place>
to negotiate a repatriation deal with the Italian authorities. The
mutually-agreed on forfeiture sent 20 of the Met’s questionable acquisitions
back to <st1:place w:st="on">Italy</st1:place>,
including Hoving’s celebrated “hotpot,” the Euphronios vase. During this same period, the Getty’s
newly-appointed director Michael Brand, followed suit but hit a snag. Brand offered to return 26 items, plus the
Morgantina sculpture of a goddess known as “<i>Aphrodite</i>.” However, the Italian negotiators didn’t bite.
They wanted the <i>Victorious Youth</i>,
pronto. Brand refused and walked away
from the table to regroup, rethink and re-strategized the Getty position. By
April 2007, an agreement was struck that required the return of 46 items from
the Getty, plus the Morgantina “<i>Aphrodite</i>”
- but no <i>Getty Bronze</i>. <br />
<br />
On February 13, 2010, the Italian courts ruled that the <i>Victorious Youth</i> must be repatriated to its shores. The Getty
appealed the judgment. On May 3, 2012 the Italian court ruled once again that the statue must be returned to Italy, specifically Le Marche, probably Fano - although that part is not clear.<br />
<br />
By October 2010, Marion True’s case drew to a close, dismissed from the
Italian courts due to the expiration of the statue of limitations. Less than
six months later, in March 2011, the Getty sent 46 antiquities to Italy,
including the so-called “<i>Aphrodite</i>”
sculpture which now belongs to Aidone, Sicily. (For the Italian government, the
return of the antiquities seemed equal to an admission of guilt for collecting
illicit antiquities.)<br />
<br />
In March 2011, President Gian Mario Spacca of the Marche Region in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Italy</st1:country-region> visited <st1:city w:st="on">Los Angeles</st1:city> to offer a deal to “share” the <i>Victorious Youth </i>through extended
loans. <span lang="EN">"We are not here to declare war on the Getty," Spacca said in a
statement to <i>The LA Times</i>. "We
are here to resolve the dispute in a way that will benefit the museum, the
people of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Italy</st1:country-region></st1:place>,
and most important, art lovers around the world."</span><br />
<span lang="EN"><br /></span><br />
<span lang="EN">Italy is still waiting for the Getty's response.</span><br />
<span lang="EN"><br /></span><br />
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*The <i>Victorious Youth</i>
is known in Greek as an <i>autostephanoumenos</i>, a generic athlete acknowledging victory by pointing to a laurel wreath,
which has, alas, disappeared.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<b>Sources:<o:p></o:p></b><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img src="https://encrypted-tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcROiD-_JMBuXftycIgchkPX0vee1ctmYxtbuHSlsRyrm64xxi_g" />
</div>
<br />
Felch, Jason and Ralph Frammolino, <i>Chasing
Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World’s Richest Museum</i>. <st1:place w:st="on">Boston</st1:place>:
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011.<br />
<a href="http://www.chasingaphrodite.com/">www.chasingaphrodite.com</a> <br />
<a href="http://ancientworlds.net/aw/Post/567373">http://ancientworlds.net/aw/Post/567373</a><br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Mattusch,
Carol C. <i>The Victorious Youth</i>. <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Los Angeles</st1:place></st1:city>: The J. Paul Getty Museum,
1997. <o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Catherine M. Keeling’s Review of Carol C. Mattusch’s <i>The Victorious Youth, </i><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Malibu</st1:city></st1:place>: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 1997.<a href="http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/1998/1998-07-05.html">http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/1998/1998-07-05.html</a></span>Beth S. Gersh-Nesichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04458851859412014984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6005196706875558588.post-26469912880724447722012-05-28T10:10:00.000-04:002012-06-12T18:32:39.228-04:00Last Call - Steins Collect at the Met, closing June 3<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2VcRxKOUUfs72IMmDYWHUpVEs0ZaJ9H4l7OxB4FpRTdDpwSHKlM4tGr_m3Q2rJ0hBVvrQF-c3rpACMZHpD5NDj0n0pbqG9QukQnJTyDs7SmWnSA8QWEevfG9xZpULQZnY8pl2SQbCNW0/s1600/Photo+of+the+Steins,+c.+1905.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2VcRxKOUUfs72IMmDYWHUpVEs0ZaJ9H4l7OxB4FpRTdDpwSHKlM4tGr_m3Q2rJ0hBVvrQF-c3rpACMZHpD5NDj0n0pbqG9QukQnJTyDs7SmWnSA8QWEevfG9xZpULQZnY8pl2SQbCNW0/s320/Photo+of+the+Steins,+c.+1905.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 12px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>The Steins in the courtyard of 27 rue de Fleurus, ca. 1905, </b></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 12px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 12px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">From left, Leo Stein, Allan Stein, Gertrude Stein, Theresa Ehrman, Sarah Stein, Michael Stein</span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 12px;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 12px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Bancroft Library, Berkeley</span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 12px;">
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<span style="font-size: small;">The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso and the Parisian
Avant-Garde, February 28-June 3, 2012, Metropolitan Museum of Art.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The poet/critic André
Salmon wrote in his memoir <i>L’air de la
Butte</i> (1945): “When we went to poor Rousseau’s home, we dressed as
carefully as when we were invited to visit the high society couturier and arts
patron Paul Poiret. We dressed even better than when we went to see the Steins,
the brother and sister millionaires who came from San Francisco, posed as
transatlantic bohemians and lived near the Luxembourg Gardens. On those
evenings on the rue de Fleurus, in a study adorned by [Picasso’s] excellent
Saltimbanque Period canvases and in a boudoir studded, like stars, with little
Renoirs, an ordinary suit from the wardrobe would do.”* <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">According to John Richardson, in his second volume of
Picasso’s biography, Gertrude Stein was
as capable of following a conversation in French as the artists were capable of
following her writings in English – that is, not very well.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipcQMXoy_v26QMJE5WIBp8OP9UwaG8_gMZjOLa3DCYmPveaVfn_p4FcUCR5YFlE_1zBqoxHx3cu1-tDBP_OzWEu-6aBHcQ6kehkqtpE9mYqMiyztw8tB-ci1Tqk5HiqEwIPYSiH5t8DSQ/s1600/Marie+Laurencin,+Apollinaire+and+His+Friends,+1909.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipcQMXoy_v26QMJE5WIBp8OP9UwaG8_gMZjOLa3DCYmPveaVfn_p4FcUCR5YFlE_1zBqoxHx3cu1-tDBP_OzWEu-6aBHcQ6kehkqtpE9mYqMiyztw8tB-ci1Tqk5HiqEwIPYSiH5t8DSQ/s400/Marie+Laurencin,+Apollinaire+and+His+Friends,+1909.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 12px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Marie Laurencin</span></b></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 12px;"></i></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 12px;"><i>Apollinaire and His Friends</i></i></span></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 12px;">
</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 12px;"></span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 12px;">1909</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 12px;">
</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 12px;"><div style="text-align: center;">
Musee National d’Art Modern, Paris</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 12px;"><div style="text-align: center;">
Left to right: Gertrude, Fernande Olivier, unidentified, Apollinaire, Picasso Marguerite Gillot, Maurice Crmnitz, and Laurencin</div>
</span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">And even though Marie Laurencin included Gertrude Stein in
her group portrait, <i>Apollinaire and His Friends</i>, 1909, neither she nor her siblings became members of the infamous circle
that formed around Picasso, known as <i>la
bande à Picasso </i>(Picasso’s Gang) – mostly notably: Salmon, Apollinaire, Max
Jacob and Georges Braque, among others.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“And also and so and so and also,” Gertrude Stein might
retort, quoting herself in “If I told him would he like it? A Completed Portrait of Picasso” (1923).<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Indeed, Ms. Stein, her brothers Leo and Michael, and her
sister-in-law Sara, were a curious family among the artists, writers and
intellectuals who gathered at their studio on Saturdays at 27 rue de
Fleurus. Not everyone admired their
lifestyle, but almost everyone admired their taste. Together they assembled one of the finest
collections of modern art that ever graced the planet. And to drink at the fountain of such
ambrosia inspired even more exceptional works of art and art collections (The
Barnes in Philadelphia and the Cones in Baltimore). <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Readers of the <i>New
York Review of Books</i> who perused Michael Kimmelman’s recent article
<a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/apr/26/missionaries/?pagination=false">“Missionaries”</a> on the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s <i>The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso and the Parisian Avant-Garde</i>, and
Barbara Will’s book <i>Unlikely
Colloboration: Gertrude Stein, Bernard Fäy and the Vichy Dilemma</i> (Columbia
Press, 2011) may feel a bit less enchanted with Ms. Stein too, now that we know
how this Jew in Paris survived the Nazi Occupation. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">How can one rationalize?
I’ll leave that to you. For now,
I recommend taking advantage of this rare occasion to view all these great
works of art in one venue—and soon! <b>The show in New York closes on June 3<sup>rd</sup>.<o:p></o:p></b></span><br />
<b><br /></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieO5QRrLfhB68y97umTOAgiN_hHQoeLv6WlJJ5QjfFPFxv3YVUHHuvRfzpbmrv5pyDE_3aEQ8FkWDB6DOWF5o-c2RhdjKUfYR6t7DEEh7vuzrOEaM2beVPHeDkcTR8ImTPoFYkoRe2wDg/s1600/Picasso+Gertrude+Stein+1906.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieO5QRrLfhB68y97umTOAgiN_hHQoeLv6WlJJ5QjfFPFxv3YVUHHuvRfzpbmrv5pyDE_3aEQ8FkWDB6DOWF5o-c2RhdjKUfYR6t7DEEh7vuzrOEaM2beVPHeDkcTR8ImTPoFYkoRe2wDg/s320/Picasso+Gertrude+Stein+1906.jpg" width="257" /></a></div>
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<b style="background-color: #e6e6e6; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; z-index: 2;">Gertrude Stein</b><span style="background-color: #e6e6e6; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;">, 1905–6</span></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: #e6e6e6; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;">Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881–1973)</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">
<span style="background-color: #e6e6e6; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;"></span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: #e6e6e6; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;">Oil on canvas</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: #e6e6e6; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="tombstoneSmall" style="background-color: #e6e6e6; color: #292929; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 14px; margin-bottom: 28px; margin-top: 7px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; z-index: 2;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">39 3/8 x 32 in. (100 x 81.3 cm)</span></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Bequest of Gertrude Stein, 1946 (47.106)</span></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">© 2011 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York</span></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">
</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<b><br /></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The real heroes of <i>The
Stein Collection</i> are the curators
Janet C. Bishop, Curator of Painting and Sculpture, San Francisco Museum
of Modern Art; Cécile Debray, curator, Centre Pompidou; and Rebecca Rabinow,
associate curator, Metropolitan Museum of Art, who assembled over 200 works
from near and far. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In the Metropolitan
Museum, the exhibition takes over 10 rooms including the capacious entrance
which features a giant photograph of Leo, Gertrude, Michael, Sara, their son
Nathan, and a cousin. Once inside, a
space equal in dimensions to their famous studio on the rue de Fleurus serves as
a screen for several slides that project the different arrangements on the
walls – from ceiling to painted socle—crammed in Salon-style. (One might imagine there must have been
paintings in the bathroom.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The extraordinary range of
significant early masterpieces by Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Pierre Bonnard,
André Derain and other important members exceeds our expectations: Matisse’s <i>Blue Nude</i> of 1907, Picasso’s <i>La Soupe</i> of 1903, and, of course,
Picasso’s famous <i>Portrait of Gertrude
Stein</i> of 1906, which did not resemble her at first, but ( as the artist
predicted) she slowly turned into it.
Numerous other portraits of GS fill the last gallery, including Jo
Davidson’s beautiful Buddha-esque sculpture of 1922-23. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">If you are not able to visit the Metropolitan Museum before
June 4 or would like to find out more about the Steins, here is a video that may serve as an adequate
introduction:<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/YwSuTnKRCcg?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div>
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*André Salmon, “From Plaisance de l’Opéra,” in <i>L’air de la Butte</i>, published in English
in <i>Source: The Online Publication of
Literary Division, American Translation Association, </i>No. 51 (Spring 2011): <a href="http://www.ata-divisions.org/LD/newsletter/2011/Spring2011SourceJune2.pdf">http://www.ata-divisions.org/LD/newsletter/2011/Spring2011SourceJune2.pdf</a>
(translated by Beth Gersh-Nešić and Jacqueline Gojard).<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>Beth S. Gersh-Nesichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04458851859412014984noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6005196706875558588.post-40696210416717384562012-04-04T23:33:00.002-04:002012-06-12T18:32:51.701-04:00Last Call - Yorgo Alexopoulos: Transmigrations, through April 5<div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrmBUdYXQU6_w8R2_OfDsV8njmSHufeDN3QUKPPEWhLmN4NVGOXD8-Lk_jCc9mOq_7UWqS7aVemWtR9-hxWWVBsjE5-CBt_7QcNlPz9woeW8iiqz5WZncnJOGlhrpYXIQKsE6DK-OyezU/s1600/Yorgo+Alexopoulous+Transmigration+2012+at+Cristin+Tierney.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrmBUdYXQU6_w8R2_OfDsV8njmSHufeDN3QUKPPEWhLmN4NVGOXD8-Lk_jCc9mOq_7UWqS7aVemWtR9-hxWWVBsjE5-CBt_7QcNlPz9woeW8iiqz5WZncnJOGlhrpYXIQKsE6DK-OyezU/s400/Yorgo+Alexopoulous+Transmigration+2012+at+Cristin+Tierney.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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If you are like me this week, you have no time to stroll through Chelsea for unexpected wonders. You have to cook and clean and great ready for the holidays - or maybe not. Maybe you are going to be a guest. Congratulations - you are in luck. Now hurry, please, to Cristin Tierney's gallery for the last day of "Yorgo Alexopoulos: Transmigrations," a wondrous video installation packed with images from photos, drawings, paintings and video on 24 flat-screen monitors. Inspired by Jennifer Bartlett's <i>Rhapsody</i>, a 987-enamel plate installation from 1976 (perhaps one of her best known works), Alexopoulos brings a new dynamic to the grid aesthetic. Here his quick succession of images plunge us into worlds that touch on nature, fantasy and the beyond - a sort of digital meets spiritual. We float, we fly, we soar through innumerable realms of visual splendor.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Perhaps Alexopoulos' Greek name conjures up dreams of driving into the deep blue Aegean Sea - so majestic and refreshing. <i>Transmigrations</i> doesn't disappoint on this score. Take a virtual dip and indulge your imagination. Oopah! Here a sample of the <a href="http://vimeo.com/38453658">video </a></div>
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<i>Yorgo Alexopoulous:Transmigrations</i>, Cristin Tierney, 546 West 29th Street, through April 5. </div>Beth S. Gersh-Nesichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04458851859412014984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6005196706875558588.post-13511894177288110822012-03-03T10:51:00.004-05:002012-06-12T18:33:16.026-04:00Last Call: Mark Podwal's Haggadah Paintings at Forum Gallery<b>Mark Podwal: Sharing the Journey, </b><a href="http://www.forumgallery.com/"><b>Forum Gallery</b></a><b>, February 14 through March 7.</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiquqv8TyeJuAg8lymQwzgpWJEHVic3ztfjoSTbopiRYtVLCyr7l9gDIhoOtUn5LYroBhxMDgGrA6gXHjt2mz7PTmK-_QsobwWxF1ldJxkamcHW4ZqjcOn5Z9dDSvhn4brcgoyZBmwwCYQ/s1600/Mark+Podwal,+Cover+of+Yoffie+Haggadah,+2011.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiquqv8TyeJuAg8lymQwzgpWJEHVic3ztfjoSTbopiRYtVLCyr7l9gDIhoOtUn5LYroBhxMDgGrA6gXHjt2mz7PTmK-_QsobwWxF1ldJxkamcHW4ZqjcOn5Z9dDSvhn4brcgoyZBmwwCYQ/s320/Mark+Podwal,+Cover+of+Yoffie+Haggadah,+2011.JPG" uda="true" width="215px" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Alan S. Yoffie, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=yoffie+haggadah&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Ayoffie+haggadah&ajr=0">Sharing the Journey: The Haggadah for the Contemporary Family</a></i>, </span></div>
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With the Lenten season upon us and the Feast of Esther (Purim) almost here (March 7 and 8), can Paschal celebrations for 2012 be little more than one month away? Yes. The first night of Passover falls on Good Friday, April 6 (one week later for Orthodox Christians). Within these four short weeks, vigorous preparations for festival meals take place. Jews completely clean their homes, ridding every crack and crevice of <i>hametz</i> (daily cakes and bread). Then books (<i>haggadot</i>) that guide the Passover service at the table come out of storage, receive a good dusting and finally end up distributed at each place setting before the guests arrive. <br />
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The haggadah helps the participants fulfill the necessary rituals before and after the Passover meal, which in its entirety is called the <i>seder</i> (the order). Based on the Greek symposium, either a leader or each member of the dinner party reads from the haggadah while everyone else follows the text. Some families prefer a set of one edition of the haggadah that everyone follows and some families prefer collecting different haggadot, which tend to liven up the conversation around the table or cause mass confusion.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>This winter, Mark Podwal's 26 original gouache paintings created for Alan S. Yoffie's <i>Sharing the Journey: The Haggadah for the Contemporary Family</i> grace the walls of Forum Gallery in midtown Manhattan and richly share in the eager anticipation of this major spring holiday. Podwal vividly portrays this yearning in<i> </i>a menorah bursting with new life in the form of flowers springing forth from each "branch," aptly entitled <i>Spring</i>:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvJw9dFbigUDJgRPH9CC1nTrkteHefE_g78s3PwDkXDDVcLfzsASHx6OB7A3WBv7zamEiLinMvGk4ysgVRBVjQmOoBTFDl2w__iey0RbpLtjH224H5UB6gQvAakNWBfpvq9Tw-Mxfb1HA/s1600/Mark+Podwal,+Spring,+2011.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvJw9dFbigUDJgRPH9CC1nTrkteHefE_g78s3PwDkXDDVcLfzsASHx6OB7A3WBv7zamEiLinMvGk4ysgVRBVjQmOoBTFDl2w__iey0RbpLtjH224H5UB6gQvAakNWBfpvq9Tw-Mxfb1HA/s320/Mark+Podwal,+Spring,+2011.JPG" uda="true" width="232px" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Mark Podwal, <i>Spring</i>, 2011</span></span></span></div>
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<b>T</b>he menorah is the oldest symbol of Judaism, based on the lampstand described in Exodus 25:31-40. It represents the Tree of Life. The seder too symbolizes the core values of Judaism by imposing order on the meal as we should impose order on our lives. The ritual meal also asks the participants to reflect on the bitterness of slavery and the sweetness of freedom. Also to find within ourselves an "Egypt" (some personal bondage) which keeps us from reaching our full potential.<br />
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<i>Elijah's Cup</i> shows us the golden glow of Passover miracles and mysteries. Elijah, the prophet, should visit every home, welcomed by the children who open the door to invite this invisible honored guest. His special goblet, filled to the brim with wine, adorns every seder table.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvrAJZ70CMumAF25IpBbyT6d-uaCFNFNmiGYwEeXQYW1EICEhoL4akbpf5vmPLvXtHn4m9_jbfoKfm-lNjSmoV49-k75G3etyvwWuyT4O1qc5axfeXuP8NyySVeJ2F7PwjOYkDtErLMpc/s1600/Mark+Podwal,+Elijah%27s+Cup,+2011.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><img border="0" height="320px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvrAJZ70CMumAF25IpBbyT6d-uaCFNFNmiGYwEeXQYW1EICEhoL4akbpf5vmPLvXtHn4m9_jbfoKfm-lNjSmoV49-k75G3etyvwWuyT4O1qc5axfeXuP8NyySVeJ2F7PwjOYkDtErLMpc/s320/Mark+Podwal,+Elijah%27s+Cup,+2011.JPG" uda="true" width="232px" /></b></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Mark Podwal, <i>Elijah's Cup</i>, 2011</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">acrylic, gouache and colored pencil on paper</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">16 x 12 inches<br />
© Mark Podwal, courtesy of Forum Gallery, New York, NY</span></div>
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Another interpretation of the text, <i>Bread of Affliction</i>, features pyramids made of matzah, a reference to the quickly prepared dough that baked in the sun as the Jews wandered in the desert. The Jews did not build the pyramids, as they were created for the Old and Middle Kingdom pharaohs - not the New Kingdom pharaohs, such as Ramses or Ramses II of the 13th century BCE who are mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. However, in Podwal's work the pyramids immediately communicate the location, Egypt, the site of affliction.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0oWH1RrX4O_08fnZCxMUD87IP3dJ6hVaIXXTkp9Rb2uI2rDVoBTAsVJyzx8y6RJjcdArFeFw_hJQjM3aTUvZL70ww9j7CKh0j9UIDQnkfEDGUQivDSvTRYSzTwM8TpFL6YaR6Ia9kQFc/s1600/Mark+Podwal,+Bread+of+a+Affliction,+2011.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><img border="0" height="320px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0oWH1RrX4O_08fnZCxMUD87IP3dJ6hVaIXXTkp9Rb2uI2rDVoBTAsVJyzx8y6RJjcdArFeFw_hJQjM3aTUvZL70ww9j7CKh0j9UIDQnkfEDGUQivDSvTRYSzTwM8TpFL6YaR6Ia9kQFc/s320/Mark+Podwal,+Bread+of+a+Affliction,+2011.JPG" uda="true" width="232px" /></b></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Mark Podwal, <i>Bread of Affliction</i>, 2011</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">acrylic, gouache and colored pencil on paper</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">© Mark Podwal, courtesy of Forum Gallery, New York, NY</span></div>
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Twenty years ago, Podwal drew a similar themes in <i>The Passover Haggadah,</i> with commentary by Elie Weisel, published in 1993.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS_aBQjPRRxYiQPeBoqeEUMoiOjxGi4zsanLB59yC0483A7jCp-KoahyphenhyphenzMhI6HrPw3Pc1yzZHMOSaLtTmBw589mmOzHpjWnncM7tXAxyATsQSWJwxcNWqRLJkO3fkYJoKmrHcXaXa9aVQ/s1600/Mark+Podwal,+Bread+of+Afflction,+1991.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><img border="0" height="223px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS_aBQjPRRxYiQPeBoqeEUMoiOjxGi4zsanLB59yC0483A7jCp-KoahyphenhyphenzMhI6HrPw3Pc1yzZHMOSaLtTmBw589mmOzHpjWnncM7tXAxyATsQSWJwxcNWqRLJkO3fkYJoKmrHcXaXa9aVQ/s320/Mark+Podwal,+Bread+of+Afflction,+1991.JPG" uda="true" width="320px" /></b></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Mark Podwal</span><i><u> </u></i><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>The Bread of Affliction</i> (from Elie Wiesel, <i>A Passover Haggadah</i>)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">ink on paper, </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">3 x 4 1/2 inches<br />
© Mark Podwal, courtesy of Forum Gallery, New York, NY</span><span style="font-size: x-small;">, 1991</span></div>
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Mark Podwal recently exhibited the <a href="http://www.facebook.com/YeshivaUniversityMuseum#%21/photo.php?fbid=316977921674984&set=a.316977598341683.69211.115292598510185&type=1&theater">torah covers and other ornamental textiles</a> he designed for Altneuschul in Prague at the <a href="http://www.yumuseum.org/">Yeshiva University Museum</a> in the Center for Jewish History (November 27, 2011-January 15, 2012). Here is the video which explains the textiles' production:<br />
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<b><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/crBKszaFqto?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Courtesy of Yeshiva University Museum, copyright 2011<br />
produced and edited by Zachary Paul Levine, Assistant Curator</span></div>
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On March 15, 2012, Podwal will be honored in Prague for his significant contributions to the art and Jewish life in their majestic city. Three months earlier, on December 13, 2011, Podwal received a Jewish Cultural Achievement Award from the Foundation for Jewish Culture as <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru15x-bNMgI&feature=g-vrec&context=G2676a2aRVAAAAAAAAAA">FJC celebrated its 50th Anniversary</a>. In 1996, Podwal became an Officer of Fine Arts and Letters, an honor bestowed by the French Government.<br />
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Mark Podwal's work belongs to numerous collections, most notably the Jewish Museum in New York, Yale University Museum in New Haven and the Victorian and Albert Museum in London. In addition to the textiles in the Altneuschul, Podwal's works have been acquired by the Jewish Museum in Prague and the National Gallery in Prague. The artist's interest in Prague's Jewish heritage has extended to filmmaking. He collaborated with Academy Award-winning filmmaker Allan Miller to create <i>House of Life</i>, a film about the Old Jewish Cemetary in Prague, which aired on PBS in 2009 and 2010.<br />
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To learn more about Mark Podwal's work, visit his website <a href="http://www.markpodwal.com/">http://www.markpodwal.com/</a> or the <a href="http://www.forumgallery.com/">Forum Gallery website </a> Reproductions of his designs are available on cards and plates at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Opera Shop.<br />
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<b>Bibliography:</b><br />
Alan S. Yoffie, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=yoffie+haggadah&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Ayoffie+haggadah&ajr=0">Sharing the Journey: The Haggadah for the Contemporary Family</a></i>, CCAR Press (a division of the Central Conference of American Rabbis), 2012.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Passover-Haggadah-Commented-Wiesel-Illustrated/dp/B000EMSO20/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330714766&sr=8-1"><i>A Passover Haggadah</i>, with commentary by Elie Wiesel and illustrations by Mark Podwal,</a> Simon and Schuster, 1993.</div>
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<br /></div>Beth S. Gersh-Nesichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04458851859412014984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6005196706875558588.post-6577447919006526502012-02-05T12:39:00.000-05:002012-06-12T18:33:33.684-04:00Patricia Cronin's Memorial to a Marriage in DC exhibition "Bodies and Soul"<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Patricia Cronin, <i>Memorial to a Marriage,</i> 2002 in bronze and marble.</span></div>
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<i>Patricia Cronin: Bodies and Soul</i>, <a href="http://www.connercontemporary.com/exhibitions/patricia-cronin-bodies-and-soul/?view=pressrelease">Conner Gallery</a>, Washington, DC , Febuary 4 - March 10<br />
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In July, this blog celebrated the marriage of New York artists Patricia Cronin and Deborah Kass, whose long-time commitment inspired Cronin's sculpture <i>Memorial to a Marriage</i>, 2002, permanantly installed in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. The marble mortuary sculpture was accomplish in death that which seemed - in 2002 - impossible in life.<br />
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Now the exhibition of the bronze version of this sculpture, on view at Conner Gallery in Washington, DC, celebrates the transition of this artwork from depicting a dream to immortalizing reality. <br />
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<a name='more'></a><i>Memorial to a Marriage </i>is based on Gustave Courbet's <i>Sleepers</i> or <i>Sleep</i> (1866) <br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Gustave Courbet, <i>The Sleepers</i>, 1866</span></div>
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and the American neo-classicial tradition of the 19th century (Patricia Cronin studied and appropriated Harriet Hosmer's work for her exhibition <a href="http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/patricia_cronin/"><i>Harriet Hosmer: Lost and Found </i></a> (June 2009-January 2010).<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Harriet Hosmer, <i>Beatrice Cenci</i>, 1856.</span></div>
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For more information on Patricia Cronin's work, please visit her website: <a href="http://www.patriciacronin.net/">http://www.patriciacronin.net/</a>. <br />
And/Or read this interview in <a href="http://www.sculpture.org/documents/scmag03/janfeb03/cronin/cronin.shtml">Sculpture Magazine</a>.<br />
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I am tickled to death with all of these references to 19th century art, as embark on a course on 19th century at Purchase College. How lovely to connect the past to the present with such a romantic theme for Valentine's Day.<br />
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Best wishes to you and those you love - <br />
Beth <br />
<a href="http://www.nyarts-exchange.com/">New York Arts Exchange</a></div>
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<br /></div>Beth S. Gersh-Nesichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04458851859412014984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6005196706875558588.post-33321134132320695612012-01-24T14:10:00.000-05:002012-06-12T18:33:51.488-04:00Last Call: The Snowy Day and the Art of Ezra Jack Keats, through January 29<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIjve-gWFV83NjZSV6nMh1HsDozCLg2N5-egSuKtyOXlPk3QZxF0jcKo_8BYP0Hz3BQWbcCRa6CoPox3AxlCmH4Asji6YEzdJZUc8OMImov9v7_IPnXX88RdEKfik5eiL2p5wqq7D7ZXc/s1600/Erza%252520Jack%252520Keat%252C%252520The%252520Snowy%252520Day%252C%252520Crunch%252C%252520Crunch%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gda="true" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIjve-gWFV83NjZSV6nMh1HsDozCLg2N5-egSuKtyOXlPk3QZxF0jcKo_8BYP0Hz3BQWbcCRa6CoPox3AxlCmH4Asji6YEzdJZUc8OMImov9v7_IPnXX88RdEKfik5eiL2p5wqq7D7ZXc/s640/Erza%252520Jack%252520Keat%252C%252520The%252520Snowy%252520Day%252C%252520Crunch%252C%252520Crunch%255B1%255D.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Ezra Jack Keats, "Crunch, crunch, crunch, his feet sank into the snow." Final illustration for <i>The Snowy Day</i>, 1962. Collage and paint on board. Ezra Jack Keats Papers, de Grummond Children's Literature Collection, McCain Library and Archives, The University of Southern Mississippi. Copyright Ezra Jack Keats Foundation.<br />
</span><b><i>The Snowy Day and the Art of Ezra Jack Keats</i></b>, <a href="http://www.thejewishmuseum.org/">The Jewish Museum</a>, through Sunday, January 29, 2012.</div>
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Now that New York has just survived its first snowy day of 2012, it's time to visit or revisit another "snowy day" in the form of Ezra Jack Keats' original art for his enchanting book <i>A Snowy Day</i> (1962). Born Ezra Jack Katz (1916-1983) to poor Eastern European Jewish immigrants living in Brooklyn, he experienced first hand the pain of antisemitism and being an outsider. This aspect of his life accounts for his choice of African-American protagonists, featured for the first time in modern American children's literature. <br />
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Best known among all his characters is Peter, the adorable little boy who ventures outside into the snow to make a snowman, snowangels and snowballs. When he decides to bring one snowball home in his pocket, he discovers - much to his chagrin - that his precious creation has disappeared. But luckily, more snow falls the next day and he goes out this time with his friend to enjoy another snowy day.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>The Jewish Museum exhibition, curated by Claudia J. Nahson, displays 80 items, including preparatory sketches, dummy books and the finished paintings and collages. You will also find a cozy nook filled with copies of Keats' picturebooks to read alone or aloud with your companions.<br />
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Keats wrote and illustrated 22 books for children and illustrated altogether 80 books in over 40 years of professional publication. This exhibition offers an incomparable opportunity to savor the colors and textures of his original compositions. Brightly illuminated with vibrant hues and patterns, Keats knowingly captured body language that communicates childhood feelings - hopes, fears, disappointments and dilemmas. Moreover, his work reflects the art from this era by marrying his solid classical training to the influences of <a href="http://arthistory.about.com/od/glossary_s/a/s_synthetic_cubism.htm">Synthetic Cubism</a> and the latest <a href="http://arthistory.about.com/od/modernarthistory/a/color_field_10one.htm">Color Field painting</a>. <br />
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You can, of course, visit the<a href="http://www.thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/the-snowy-day-and-keats-exhibition"> exhibition online</a>, but honestly, there is no substitute for viewing these magnificent works in person. Here is a video to get you out to see this wondrous <i>Snowy Day</i>:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/gdg0bsYn1f0?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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If you miss the show in New York, you can still catch the exhibition at the <a href="http://www.carlemuseum.org/">Eric Carle Museum</a> of Children's Books located in Amherst, Massachusetts, June 26 - October 14, 2012.Beth S. Gersh-Nesichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04458851859412014984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6005196706875558588.post-53654214961739104572012-01-02T09:17:00.000-05:002012-06-12T18:34:00.584-04:00Luminous Modernism in Scandinavia House<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Luminous Modernism: Scandinavia Art Comes to America</i>, 1912</span></b></div>
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<a href="http://www.scandinaviahouse.org/"><b>Scandinavia House</b></a><b>, 58 Park Avenue at 38th Street, </b><b>October 25, 2011 - February 2012</b></div>
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Harold Sohlberg, <i>Flower Meadow in the North</i>, 1905</div>
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Oil on canvas, 37.8 x 43.7 inches; 96 x 111 cm</div>
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The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo</div>
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As we celebrate the new year and the rebirth of light after the Winter Solstice, Scandinavia House on Park Avenue gives us one more reason to break out the <i>akavit</i> to commemorate an important occasion: <i>Luminous Modernism. </i>This exceptional exhibition presents 48 works by 20 artists who participated in a similar exhibition 100 years ago, sponsored by The American-Scandinavian Foundation. Back then, these young European artists offered a taste of the avant-garde hardly known in the United States - preceding the infamous Armory Show of 1913 (wherein Marcel Duchamp's <i>Nude Descending Staircase, No. 2</i> blew the critics' minds). Eight of the paintings in the 2011-12 exhibition were included in the 1912 exhibition.</div>
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<a name='more'></a>The 1912 ASF exhibition opened in New York and then travelled to Boston, Buffalo, Chicago and Toledo. Today the works demonstrate concepts of light and space that were extremely new at the time and continue to challenge our understanding of reality performed within the dreamy landscapes of Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Denmark, and Finland.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yeJ3KEI81Fo/Tv-r1LoP9MI/AAAAAAAAAFg/VOKyP7Ksq6o/s1600/Otto+Hesselbom%252C+Our+Land%252C+1904.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="172" rea="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yeJ3KEI81Fo/Tv-r1LoP9MI/AAAAAAAAAFg/VOKyP7Ksq6o/s320/Otto+Hesselbom%252C+Our+Land%252C+1904.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Otto Hesselbom, <i>Our Land</i>, 1904</div>
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Oil on canvas, 28 x 71 inches; 71 x 180.3 cm</div>
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Collection of Peter and Renate Nahum, London</div>
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The curator of the <i>Luminous Modernism</i> Patricia Gray Berman, Professor of Art History at Wellesley College and the University of Oslo, has created a wonderful follow-up to her first venture into this art historical territory: <i>Northern Light: Realism and Symbolism in</i> <i>Scandinavian Painting, 1880-1910. </i>That exhibition was one of the great contributions organized by the late art historian Kirk Varnedoe. Professor Berman served as his assistant. <i>Northern Lights</i> toured the United States in 1982-3. Therefore, it's been a long wait - too long for those of us who seek out works by Vilhelm Hammershoi and Edvard Munch in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Modern Art. Happily, most of the paintings in <i>Luminous Modernism </i>come from either private collections or foreign museums. </div>
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Below you will find a modest smorgasbord of digital images to encourage a visit in person, but nothing here accurately duplicates the color and luminence of the real works for art. To truly experience these paintings, you must attend the show itself.</div>
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And while you are visiting Scandinavia House, please consider indulging once more before all those new year's resolutions set in. The restaurant Smorgas Chef and The [Gift] Shop offer temptations too delicious to pass up before you reenter reality on the streets of New York.</div>
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Scandinavia House also celebrated the 100th anniversary of The American-Scandinavian Foundation in 2011. For more information about events, membership, publication, internships, fellowships and grants, please visit the ASF website: <a href="http://www.amscan.org/">http://www.amscan.org/</a>. Scandinavia House opened in 2000.</div>
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Skal (skoal)! May the new year bring you health, happiness and many pleasant art adventures!</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZGEO13e2DDU/TwG8HXm55YI/AAAAAAAAAHk/VxkYNRK2mro/s1600/Anna+Boberg%252C+Glacier+Lake%252C+n.d..jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="258" rea="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZGEO13e2DDU/TwG8HXm55YI/AAAAAAAAAHk/VxkYNRK2mro/s320/Anna+Boberg%252C+Glacier+Lake%252C+n.d..jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Anna Boberg, <i>Glacier Lake</i>, n.d.</div>
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Oil on canvas, 15 x 19 inches; 39 x 49 cm</div>
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Gava av konstnaren til prins Eugen</div>
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Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde, Stockholm</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eljQBWbFXFk/Tv-rE7NtHsI/AAAAAAAAAEk/PUn2V4pz_X4/s1600/Pekka+Halonen%252C+Pine+in+Snow%252C+1909.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" rea="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eljQBWbFXFk/Tv-rE7NtHsI/AAAAAAAAAEk/PUn2V4pz_X4/s320/Pekka+Halonen%252C+Pine+in+Snow%252C+1909.jpg" width="202" /></a></div>
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Pekka Haolnen, <i>Pine in Snow</i>, 1909</div>
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Oil on canvas, 28 x 71 inches; 71 x 180.3 cm</div>
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Collection of Peter and Renate Nahum, London</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2AM9PNiFQhU/Tv-rMMO0oMI/AAAAAAAAAEw/a-eCdpnbcwQ/s1600/Asgrimur+Jonsson%252C+Mt.+Tindalfjoli%252C+1904.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="201" rea="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2AM9PNiFQhU/Tv-rMMO0oMI/AAAAAAAAAEw/a-eCdpnbcwQ/s320/Asgrimur+Jonsson%252C+Mt.+Tindalfjoli%252C+1904.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Asgrimur Jonsson, <i>Mt. Tindafjoll</i>, 1904</div>
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Oil on canvas, 36 x 49 3/8 inches; 80 x 125.5 cm</div>
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Listasafn Islands, The National Gallery of Iceland</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wtByQskvyKk/Tv-rfbXjl0I/AAAAAAAAAFI/yjzGd2iuOqU/s1600/Edvard+Munch%252C+Snow+Landscape+from+Kragero%252C+1912.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="244" rea="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wtByQskvyKk/Tv-rfbXjl0I/AAAAAAAAAFI/yjzGd2iuOqU/s320/Edvard+Munch%252C+Snow+Landscape+from+Kragero%252C+1912.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Edvard Munch, <i>Snow Landscape from Kragero</i>, 1912</div>
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Oil on canvas, 37 3/4 x 49 1/2 inches; 95.3 x 125.5 cdm</div>
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Private Collection</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mdwS2j5ZH2s/Tv-rtB97ErI/AAAAAAAAAFU/4gUna8OtO78/s1600/Karl+Hordstrom%252C+South+Mountain%252C+1900.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="159" rea="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mdwS2j5ZH2s/Tv-rtB97ErI/AAAAAAAAAFU/4gUna8OtO78/s320/Karl+Hordstrom%252C+South+Mountain%252C+1900.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Karl Nordstrom, <i>South Mountain</i>, 1900</div>
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Colored chalk on paper, 11 1/2 x 22 1/2 inches; 29 x 57 cm</div>
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Collection of David and Susan Werner</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-r-CfegM-QKk/Tv-r8ZuGfqI/AAAAAAAAAFs/Tw90mjQO1tk/s1600/Vilhelm+Hammershoi%252C+Landscape+from+Virum+near+Frederiksdal%252C+Summer%252C+1888.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" rea="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-r-CfegM-QKk/Tv-r8ZuGfqI/AAAAAAAAAFs/Tw90mjQO1tk/s320/Vilhelm+Hammershoi%252C+Landscape+from+Virum+near+Frederiksdal%252C+Summer%252C+1888.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Vilhelm Hammershoi, <i>Landscape from Virum near Frederiksdal, Summer</i>, 1888</div>
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Oil on canvas, 10 1/4 x 17 3. inches; 26 x 45.1 cm</div>
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The Ambassador John L. Loeb Jr. Danish Art Collection</div>
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Thorarinn Thorlaksson, <i>Hvita River</i>, 1903</div>
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Oil on canvas, 14 3/4 x 24 3/4 inches; 37 x 63 cm</div>
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Listasafn Islands, The National Gallery of Iceland</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XZI_Th9uAhY/Tv-sK0D_sdI/AAAAAAAAAGE/6Ul7YNRCnl8/s1600/Pince+Eugen%252C+Church+with+Cloud%252C+c.+1890s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" rea="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XZI_Th9uAhY/Tv-sK0D_sdI/AAAAAAAAAGE/6Ul7YNRCnl8/s320/Pince+Eugen%252C+Church+with+Cloud%252C+c.+1890s.jpg" width="234" /></a></div>
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Prince Eugen, <i>Church with Cloud</i>, c. 1890s</div>
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Oil on canvas, 16 x 11 inches; 40 x 28 cm</div>
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Collection of David and Susan Werner</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jdBM1mdxKMM/Tv-sWPi3Y5I/AAAAAAAAAGQ/aCM9cSS213k/s1600/Thorvald+Erichsen%252C+Woodland+Landscape%252C+1900.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="261" rea="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jdBM1mdxKMM/Tv-sWPi3Y5I/AAAAAAAAAGQ/aCM9cSS213k/s320/Thorvald+Erichsen%252C+Woodland+Landscape%252C+1900.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Thorvald Erichsen, <i>Wooded Landscape</i>, 1900</div>
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Oil on canvas, 32 x 39 inches; 81 x 98 cm</div>
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The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo</div>
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Vilhelm Hammershoi, <i>Interior of Woman Placing Branches in Vase on Table, Strandgade 30</i>, 1900</div>
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Oil on canvas, 15 7/8 x 15 5/8 inches; 40.3 x 39.7 cm</div>
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The Ambassador John L. Loeb Jr. Danish Art Collection</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-K_YoeNyGZp8/Tv-srlMhbtI/AAAAAAAAAG0/Xjo4_2pGN8k/s1600/Akseli+Gallen-Kallela%252C+Mary+Gallen+on+the++Kuhmoniemi+Bridge%252C+1890.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" rea="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-K_YoeNyGZp8/Tv-srlMhbtI/AAAAAAAAAG0/Xjo4_2pGN8k/s320/Akseli+Gallen-Kallela%252C+Mary+Gallen+on+the++Kuhmoniemi+Bridge%252C+1890.jpg" width="306" /></a></div>
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Akseli Gallen-Kallela, <i>Mary Gallen on the Kuhmoniemi Bridge</i>, 1890</div>
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Oil on wood, 13 x 9 inches; 33 x 22 cm</div>
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Private Collection</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4eCoF90GWiY/Tv-svQ67pEI/AAAAAAAAAHA/Qgy2UtDQJzI/s1600/Ander+Zorn%252C+Ida+by+the+Window%252C+1908.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" rea="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4eCoF90GWiY/Tv-svQ67pEI/AAAAAAAAAHA/Qgy2UtDQJzI/s320/Ander+Zorn%252C+Ida+by+the+Window%252C+1908.jpg" width="186" /></a></div>
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Anders Zorn, <i>Ida by the Window</i>, 1908</div>
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Oil on canvas, 36 x 21 inches; 92 x 53.4 cm</div>
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The Zorn Museum, Sweden</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-phYzSq6Sh0Y/Tv-s16lSeDI/AAAAAAAAAHM/XQ7qd9SnO2Q/s1600/Edvard+Munch%252C+Bathing+Boys%252C+1904-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" rea="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-phYzSq6Sh0Y/Tv-s16lSeDI/AAAAAAAAAHM/XQ7qd9SnO2Q/s320/Edvard+Munch%252C+Bathing+Boys%252C+1904-5.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Edvard Munch, <i>Bathing Boys</i>, 1904-1905</div>
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Oil on canvas, 22 1/2 x 30 inches; 57.4 x 68.5 cm</div>
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Private Collection</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ul6swLeMg8I/Tv-s6IvU9RI/AAAAAAAAAHY/WSV135KfKV4/s1600/Jean+Heiberg%252C+Nude+Woman%252C+1912.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" rea="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ul6swLeMg8I/Tv-s6IvU9RI/AAAAAAAAAHY/WSV135KfKV4/s320/Jean+Heiberg%252C+Nude+Woman%252C+1912.jpg" width="238" /></a></div>
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Jean Heiberg,<i> Nude Woman</i>, 1912</div>
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Oil on canvas, 51 1/8 x 38 3/8 inches; 130 x 97.5 cm</div>
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Bergen Art Museum, Norway</div>
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</div>Beth S. Gersh-Nesichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04458851859412014984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6005196706875558588.post-37608657298741652102011-11-26T11:46:00.000-05:002012-06-12T18:34:23.748-04:00Last Call - Georges Braque and Geoffrey Johnson Pose Existential Questions<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlzwNO4Jy9HJMnqhmvgabQzsDbOUFdA7mUUBJp4HgmEd4lnqQVJbOW5EG9Q7iA8OwbZbD4YnDXG9tAhF6fskJHJqpRc3bB41dV5Zf8SPGeJ8iA_0n8FNVxGg7IosT0pjjy5NTANKv2K4w/s1600/Braque___Habor_1909+Nat+gal+dc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hda="true" height="262px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlzwNO4Jy9HJMnqhmvgabQzsDbOUFdA7mUUBJp4HgmEd4lnqQVJbOW5EG9Q7iA8OwbZbD4YnDXG9tAhF6fskJHJqpRc3bB41dV5Zf8SPGeJ8iA_0n8FNVxGg7IosT0pjjy5NTANKv2K4w/s320/Braque___Habor_1909+Nat+gal+dc.jpg" width="320px" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Georges Braque, Harbor, 1909, oil on canvas, 16 x 19 inches,</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">National Gallery of Art, Washington,<br />
Gift of Victoria Nebeker Coberly in memory of her son, John W. Mudd<br />
1992.3.1<br />
Image Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington<br />
© 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris</span></div>
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<b>Georges Braque: Pioneer of Modernism, </b><a href="http://www.acquavellagalleries.com/"><b>Acquavella Gallery</b></a><b> through November 30.</b></div>
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The glorious Georges Braque retrospective, long overdue, is scheduled to close too soon. For beautiful as it is, Braque's work may not be as easy to understand as it may seem superficially. It requires multiple viewings at different times to understand this exploration of the seen and unseen all at one time. This is truly Cubism: a conceptual intersection of space and time. Ideally, one should see the show, read the brilliant catalogue essays by curator Dieter Buchhart, French modernist scholar Isabelle Monod-Fontaine and Cézanne specialist Richard Shiff, and then return for another look to study the writers' insights. </div>
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However, if you have not seen the show already, just go before it closes midweek. </div>
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Buchhart: Braque's quote "Art agitates and science reassures" - the artist intuits the mysteries of physicality and opens the door to questioning perception. The artist feels the illusive while he makes his mark on the surface. Depicting the object is not the reason for making art; it is the vehicle through which the artist expresses his grasp of reality. Braque tried to show the multiple layers of reality in art and in the objects his art references.</div>
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Shiff: Braque understands Cézanne's concept of the pictorial fact and the "dematerialized space of visuality."</div>
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Monod-Fontaine: Braque's investigation of the "nature of things" considers the inside and outside of an object in terms of "sensory memory." The philosopher Henri Bergson would add that this concept hinges on his theory of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duration_%28philosophy%29">duré.</a></div>
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On this Thanksgiving Weekend, I wish to give thanks to all who conceived of and contributed to this exceptional Georges Braque exhibition. I am also thankful that we can view Braque's work without the usual context of other Fauves and Cubists. It is my most fervent wish that Braque will receive another retrospective study in a New York museum within the near future. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDrZrHgjTMEgYPwoEk9T4wzCxvHGq_FFbPjjTEZ5CqKEPXoXEJvspviLXI_CM61kXHBUewHHYuAfH9Oe5gBzcRYmDOJH2aNErjkkyGoRg4EWBUF13lwXaatlDhRaQl7a4aGFUz6H1GCN8/s1600/Geoffrey+Johnson+Untitled_4+2011.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hda="true" height="251px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDrZrHgjTMEgYPwoEk9T4wzCxvHGq_FFbPjjTEZ5CqKEPXoXEJvspviLXI_CM61kXHBUewHHYuAfH9Oe5gBzcRYmDOJH2aNErjkkyGoRg4EWBUF13lwXaatlDhRaQl7a4aGFUz6H1GCN8/s640/Geoffrey+Johnson+Untitled_4+2011.JPG" width="640px" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Geoffrey Johnson, <i>Untitled #4,</i> 2011, oil on canvas, 17.5 x 24 inches, Courtesy of Hubert Gallery, New York</span></div>
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<b>Geoffrey Johnson: New Paintings, </b><a href="http://www.hubertgallery.com/index.html"><b>Hubert Gallery</b></a><b>, through November 30.</b></div>
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A bunch of smudgy marks locked into a vast expanse of icy artic whiteness stopped me dead in my tracks on the way to the <a href="http://www.whitney.org/">Whitney Museum's</a> <i>Real/Surrealism</i> show. The sudden sense of connection was absolute. Here was humanity visibly submerged into utter oblivion while struggling against the ultimate (perhaps inevitable) annihilation of us all. <a href="http://www.sartre.org/">Jean-Paul Sartre</a> understood this feeling of no way out. <a href="http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/00/pwillen1/lit/msysip.htm">Albert Camus</a> understood the need to, nevertheless, push on.</div>
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When will this existential angst end? Ask the Occupers on Wall Street. Ask the protesters in Tehrir Square. Or, simply visit Hubert Gallery to think about it on your own before this frosty bite of reality truly evaporates into the mist of Exhibitions Past.</div>
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<br /></div>Beth S. Gersh-Nesichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04458851859412014984noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6005196706875558588.post-8386053138392437472011-10-28T10:12:00.000-04:002012-06-12T18:34:38.864-04:00Last Call - Hannes Schmid's Cowboys, Beatrice Wood Makes Artistic Whoopie, and Richard Serra at Lord Gaga's<div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj812DDNmW_sibg8ikx7p5jEiprIJ34ax_g-TYE6FCMcaCI9UYl3tNjhynhc2BRI-UPP9C4nUA89Of6MQVX-uiBPs9hqCCPn6Gxr8rN2fUb3wp2_f8_iHqdAWDyVkoVte-bCDbFODGBW2w/s1600/Hannes+Schmid+COWBOY+272.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320px" ida="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj812DDNmW_sibg8ikx7p5jEiprIJ34ax_g-TYE6FCMcaCI9UYl3tNjhynhc2BRI-UPP9C4nUA89Of6MQVX-uiBPs9hqCCPn6Gxr8rN2fUb3wp2_f8_iHqdAWDyVkoVte-bCDbFODGBW2w/s320/Hannes+Schmid+COWBOY+272.JPG" width="212px" /></a></div>
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Hannes Schmid, <i>Cowboy</i>, 1999</div>
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Courtesy of the artist and Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York and Zurich</div>
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<b>Hannes Schmid: Cowboys at <a href="http://www.houkgallery.com/">Edwynn Houk Gallery</a> through October 29</b></div>
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Swiss-photographer Hannes Schmid (b. 1946) is a media-mediated mythmaker. The creative eye behind those hunky Marlboro Men who ride, rope and sell cigarettes. Back in the day .. . Schmid’s concept of hardcore masculinity entered our consciousness through the tiny television screen at home or loomed large on highway billboards. The Marlboro theme song (can you still hum it?) transported us to a glamorized West. These rugged wranglers silhouetted against the open sky joined with other faux cowboys - <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bonanza</i>’s Cartwright family, Roy Rogers and Bat Masterson – to wrest right from wrong. They were our flannel and jeans supermen (albeit invented by urban Mad Men trapped in gray cubicles between lunchbreaks and commuter rides to the suburbs). </div>
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<a name='more'></a>Hannes Schmid provided the visuals and the Mad Men provided the distinctive red and white fliptop box. This was <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">America</place></country-region>: hard drinking, hard smoking and hard living in nature's wide open spaces.</div>
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Consumerism and iconic packaging had already been explained to us by Andy Warhol in the 1960s. Then the artful dodger Richard Prince, a savvy, self-promoting Appropriationist, got into the act with his recontextualized Schmid photographs in the 1980s and 1990s. </div>
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Without the ubiquitous Marlboro Man commercials and billboards, Prince’s work seems to have fallen flat these days. Meanwhile, the emergence of Hannes Schmid as a name-brand may very well be on the ascendant with his own solo show at Edwynn Houk Gallery, contributions “Who Shot Rock: Photographers of Rock and Roll” at the Brooklyn Museum last year (currently at <a href="http://www.tucsonmuseumofart.org/">Tucson Museum of Art</a> through January 15), and his photos of the Maha Kelumbh Mela pilgrimage to the Ganges River in his “Human Currents” at the <a href="http://www.rmanyc.org/">Rubin Museum’s</a> show (through November 13). </div>
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NB: Prince’s prices exceed Schmid’s today – but I am sure that won’t last for long.</div>
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Check out more on the blog <a href="http://dlkcollection.blogspot.com/2011/10/hannes-schmid-cowboy-houk.html">DLK Collection</a><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Un peut d’eau dans du savon</i> was created in 1917 and then recreated in 1977. </span></div>
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<b>Beatrice Wood at </b><a href="http://www.francisnaumann.com/"><b>Francis Naumann Fine Art</b></a><b> through October 28</b></div>
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Would that we could all live like Beatrice Wood, the poor little rich girl from <city w:st="on">San Francisco</city> and later <state w:st="on">New York</state>, who ran away to <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Paris</place></city> for two years (1912-14) and acquired enough French to translate for the composer Edgar Varèse during his hospital stay for a broke leg, and there upon met Marcel Duchamp at Varèse’s bedside. </div>
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From that fateful introduction came her friendship with art collectors Louise and Walther Arensberg, soirées with the Dada-ists, and a ménage-à-trois with Duchamp and writer Henri-Pierre Roché which inspired for his book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Jules et Jim</i>, 1953 (and another ménage-à-trois with his wife Helen Grund and German writer/translator Franz Hessel).</div>
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For Wood, these adventures among artists occurred early on - her Act One. Act Two began at the age of 40 when she took up ceramics. Beatrice Wood lived until 105 and created an enormous body of work that remains fascinating and, at times, hilarious.</div>
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This fall, Dada art historian Francis Naumann curated a marvelous array of Wood's extensive oeuvre: early drawings, a poster for the Dada Ball in 1917, her signature iridescent vessels, whimsical figurines and eccentric collages. This <i>Beatrice Wood</i> exhibition celebrates the 10<sup>th</sup> Anniversary of Francis Naumann Fine Art, which might acknowledge Wood as its guardian angel. <br />
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<b>Richard Serra at <a href="http://www.gagosian.com/">Gagosian Gallery</a> on West 24th through October 29</b><br />
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Just see it - before it closes tomorrow: excellent!</div>
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</div>Beth S. Gersh-Nesichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04458851859412014984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6005196706875558588.post-79411304189842900242011-10-04T15:03:00.000-04:002012-06-12T18:35:02.746-04:00The Best Things in Life Are Free: Robert Lobe's "Nature in Nature," Prospect Park through November 2011<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvdI5E_AgZ5wVAD0J_hTZ8EgxZ0xMr8gcSdM-ijtxytToVsxaM_W_F-_gthrxPmcoom12ggF_6kyufwUxAQl4YIWWE8tL4kyPrghEY9JCn_7Tx3wjnwC-G6p1Rp3iOLkjrheQDx_BclXg/s1600/Robert+Lobe+Invisible+Earth+2007.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" kca="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvdI5E_AgZ5wVAD0J_hTZ8EgxZ0xMr8gcSdM-ijtxytToVsxaM_W_F-_gthrxPmcoom12ggF_6kyufwUxAQl4YIWWE8tL4kyPrghEY9JCn_7Tx3wjnwC-G6p1Rp3iOLkjrheQDx_BclXg/s320/Robert+Lobe+Invisible+Earth+2007.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Robert Lobe, <i>Invisible Earth</i></span>. 2007, heat-treated hammered aluminum, 9 x 5.5 x 13.5 feet</span></div>
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Following up on my last blog post about the high cost of museum admission, let's celebrate the Fall Art Season with an art exhibition that is free and open to the public. Today I want to shine a spotlight on Robert Lobe's magnficent installation of three sculptures in Prospect Park, Brooklyn: <b><i><a href="http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_newsroom/press_releases/press_releases.php?id=20987">Nature in Nature</a></i></b> (through November 2011). Here three graceful works made out of Lobe's famous <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repouss%C3%A9_and_chasing">repoussé method</a> elide our concepts of abstraction and realism.<br />
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The chief experience derived from Lobe's eloquent work is a meditation on the existential nature of nature itself in terms of matter, time and context. "Each tree tells a story," Lobe wants us to know and see in <i>Nature's Clock</i> (2006), <i>Invisible Earth</i> (2007), and <i>Antique Jenny</i> (2011).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTkq3Ty92t9jxG7ThinJOc8sjwWYd6zjdvo-Is9PtLJCrN9RdH8c_G52YTf2beISGqX2hfhvAP_uY8RjpmthFqIs2I9qEo1Cl-m88uIktKThPXHhE8FL2HCUdB8jPRMCRr8LMOlYMTYeU/s1600/Robert+Lobe+Nature%2527s+Clock+2006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" kca="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTkq3Ty92t9jxG7ThinJOc8sjwWYd6zjdvo-Is9PtLJCrN9RdH8c_G52YTf2beISGqX2hfhvAP_uY8RjpmthFqIs2I9qEo1Cl-m88uIktKThPXHhE8FL2HCUdB8jPRMCRr8LMOlYMTYeU/s320/Robert+Lobe+Nature%2527s+Clock+2006.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Robert Lobe<i>, Natures Clock</i>, 2006, heat-treated hammered aluminum, 11.5 x 9 x 14 feet </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Robert Lobe<i>, Antique Jenny</i></span>. 2011, heat-treated hammered aluminum, 11 x 5 x 13.5 feet </span></div>
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But, please don't take my word for it. In this video, Robert Lobe explains it all to you himself:</div>
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Lobe's project was generously supported by <a href="http://artspire.org/">Artspire</a> and GMC.<br />
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Please visit his website: <a href="http://www.robertlobe.com/">http://www.robertlobe.com/</a> to view the entire installation and other projects on view in Westchester, New York (for free), Massachusetts, and elsewhere.Beth S. Gersh-Nesichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04458851859412014984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6005196706875558588.post-85685473146429212762011-09-05T12:24:00.000-04:002012-06-12T18:35:20.446-04:00The High Price of High Art - Museum Admission Rises as Economy Falters<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrZigeweP35WIczgc-u3oUOBdVF2ycVFKBOILrrKoKt8W1uMeSfpEu2lPc0ODGQOajj9xeShYKd35TRT32uUufuwjZ4GvT_WDYw9zAgYABnKl7WvStxsg6v9A21e3ld7O6jcv3tZ_zYtA/s1600/Paul+Werner+Red+Museum.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrZigeweP35WIczgc-u3oUOBdVF2ycVFKBOILrrKoKt8W1uMeSfpEu2lPc0ODGQOajj9xeShYKd35TRT32uUufuwjZ4GvT_WDYw9zAgYABnKl7WvStxsg6v9A21e3ld7O6jcv3tZ_zYtA/s1600/Paul+Werner+Red+Museum.jpg" /></a></div>
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If you haven't been to the <a href="http://www.moma.org/">Museum of Modern Art</a> lately - or looked on its website, it may surprise you to learn that the museum increased its daily admission to $25 as of September 1. The <a href="http://www.metmuseum.org/">Metropolitan Museum of Art </a>increased its "recommended" admission to $25 on July 1. Is a museum visit worth $25? Or $50, if you are a couple? Or $100 - if you are a family of 4? And so on . . . <br />
As our wages or fixed-incomes are worth less and less everyday, POW! the museums remind us that their financial situation are pretty dismal too. Or are they? Where are the big donor dollars going? How is it possible that a collector can shell out millions on one painting and not donate generously to support hundreds of artworks for public consumption?<br />
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In his book <i>Red Museum</i> (<a href="http://www.theorangepress.com/">The Orange Press</a>, 2011)<i>, </i>Dr. Paul Werner explains it all to you.<br />
Fundamentally, it's the economics of the "haves" and "have nots" - and the irony that most artists (who potentially supply museums) can't afford the high cost of museum admission (a perfect topic for Labor Day 2011). Consider van Gogh's financial situation. Now you get it.<br />
Of course, there are always the art galleries - which are absolutely free and often offer museum quality shows. Thankfully, artists can visit these venues. But what about the Old Master's? It's a challenge - and a disservice to everyone who finds such prices too dear. Art should be free. And the cafeterias and shops can raise funds for the museums. Membership as well.<br />
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That said, here are ways to minimize the high cost of museum admission:<br />
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<li>Free nights at MoMA, the <a href="http://www.themorgan.org/">Morgan,</a> etc. (please visit my <a href="http://www.nyarts-exchange.com/">New York Arts Exchange</a> website for a list of these special offers).</li>
<li>Become a member. For example, the MoMA has an individual membership for $75 that includes free unlimited admission, special members-only events, etc. (NB: Membership at MoMA will increase after November 2, 2011.)</li>
<li>You can also join a museum membership consortium (membership at the <a href="http://www.brucemuseum.org/">Bruce Museum</a> in Greenwich includes the <a href="http://www.neuberger.org/">Neuberger Museum</a> in Purchase, the <a href="http://www.katonahmuseum.org/">Katonah Museum of Art</a> in Katonah, the <a href="http://www.hmr.org/">Hudson River Museum</a> in Yonkers, the <a href="http://www.hvcca.org/">Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art</a> in Peekskill and <a href="http://www.aldrichart.org/">Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum</a> in Ridgefield.)</li>
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If you have other ideas to beat or minimize the high cost of visiting museum, please let me know. We all can benefit from your suggestions.<br />
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Happy Labor Day,<br />
BethBeth S. Gersh-Nesichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04458851859412014984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6005196706875558588.post-73203962154695915292011-08-01T09:10:00.000-04:002012-06-12T18:35:42.335-04:00McQueen Madness at the Met Until Midnight 8-7-11<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9mHrothJ5vvEM_VeDByp_yUWWSDLp5SoloVWT8esxQP2Ew5wyvrOlCEemBAXS2P1qzN3ZPl1cvi6TomDRGK_i-no9hllsaY8MH_oP2DWtmfR2K0Dp67mPTRVgGzbNVOYtsQfiXvqGiwk/s1600/23+McQueenGalleryViewCabinetofCuriosities.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="218px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9mHrothJ5vvEM_VeDByp_yUWWSDLp5SoloVWT8esxQP2Ew5wyvrOlCEemBAXS2P1qzN3ZPl1cvi6TomDRGK_i-no9hllsaY8MH_oP2DWtmfR2K0Dp67mPTRVgGzbNVOYtsQfiXvqGiwk/s320/23+McQueenGalleryViewCabinetofCuriosities.JPG" t$="true" width="320px" /></a></div>
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All good things must end. The spectacular exhibition <i>Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty</i> will close on August 7 at midnight. It's a must-see. Trust me on this.</div>
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Here is my review on <a href="http://arthistory.about.com/od/special_exhibitions/fr/Alexander-McQueen-Savage-Beauty.htm?nl=1">About.com: Art History</a></div>
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If you cannot attend the show, please visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art's <a href="http://www.metmuseum.org/">website</a> to view the videos and photographs of the exhibition.</div>
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I just might see you there - </div>
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Beth</div>
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</div>Beth S. Gersh-Nesichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04458851859412014984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6005196706875558588.post-13464008232538243122011-07-24T10:40:00.000-04:002012-06-12T18:35:56.347-04:00Weddings Galore! Congratulations to the Newlyweds on July 24, 2011It's a day we can all celebrate as New York State officially begins to marry same-sex couples.<br />
Best wishes to everyone, especially Patricia Cronin and Deborah Kass.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Patricia Cronin is best known for her sculpture <i>Memorial to a Marriage,</i> 2002, Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, NY:<br />
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Deborah Kass is best known for painting <i>Double Red Yentl, Split (My Elvis),</i> 1993, which belongs to the Jewish Museum, NYC:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaG3IRPILWjVuk2aDi9mzSzpUAiHDpnMmdrm53YCM1aN7IVdGQkZnmFTJo4qj2QzhqjdgyQMqcjzB-sH5WJJ2aIH3J7YIPTVHaDAHX2CDz54koyeZchtG6u0E_ucL_4x46NNwpAns5H1c/s1600/Kass+double+red+yentl+%2528my+elvis%2529+1992.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="319px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaG3IRPILWjVuk2aDi9mzSzpUAiHDpnMmdrm53YCM1aN7IVdGQkZnmFTJo4qj2QzhqjdgyQMqcjzB-sH5WJJ2aIH3J7YIPTVHaDAHX2CDz54koyeZchtG6u0E_ucL_4x46NNwpAns5H1c/s320/Kass+double+red+yentl+%2528my+elvis%2529+1992.jpg" t$="true" width="320px" /></a></div>
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Best wishes for many, many years of married bliss - L'chaim!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuynNCDu_5BJTNNfpnIMqEbasZOHJNYol5ftUBAG6Fw8_4eq3nVjQdlkrBlfrVX2Q2HLlfizUMEAISR3H3P5pMnh3zeJDjnzUXl4gCv2MBPTseDvOiNG4zbwVyme5gtJTCsSTdEZ7TaG8/s1600/ChampagnePOP.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="308px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuynNCDu_5BJTNNfpnIMqEbasZOHJNYol5ftUBAG6Fw8_4eq3nVjQdlkrBlfrVX2Q2HLlfizUMEAISR3H3P5pMnh3zeJDjnzUXl4gCv2MBPTseDvOiNG4zbwVyme5gtJTCsSTdEZ7TaG8/s320/ChampagnePOP.jpg" t$="true" width="320px" /></a></div>
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</div>Beth S. Gersh-Nesichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04458851859412014984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6005196706875558588.post-68511402164626231112011-07-03T14:53:00.000-04:002012-06-12T18:36:08.216-04:00America's Birthday: July 4thIn August 2001, my husband became a citizen of the United States. The ceremony took place in White Plains. Jeanine Pirro, then Westchester's District Attorney, presided over the swearing in. The moment was magical. There truly is a transformative feeling when someone chooses to become American citizen. It's a choice. It's a commitment. It's a relationship - to be part of a people, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and [we hope] justice for all.<br />
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Here is a preview of Alexandra Pelosi's HBO documentary <i>Cititzen USA</i>. This is an opportunity to think about what we take for granted about our American life:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/KBaFPnvC9EM?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>Beth S. Gersh-Nesichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04458851859412014984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6005196706875558588.post-54288537622109858942011-06-27T13:44:00.000-04:002012-06-12T18:36:24.910-04:00Find your 11 women - an appeal from First Lady Michele ObamaFirst Lady Michele Obama gave the keynote address to the class of 2011 at Spelman College. Her words were directed to the students, faculty and guests gathered for this special occasion, but her message transcends this particular setting. We can all learn from her call for service and we can all be inspired.<br />
Here is her speech. May you find your 11 women:<br />
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<embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Vp7IW-7TK_Q&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div>Beth S. Gersh-Nesichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04458851859412014984noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6005196706875558588.post-28470541810312791792010-11-01T23:50:00.000-04:002010-11-02T00:02:19.805-04:00Election Day 2010<span style="font-size: large;">What are you doing November 2? </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Voting, I hope so. And then what? </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Well, if you are not planning to go to Christie’s exhibition of Impressionist and Modern Art (on auction November 3<sup>rd) <span style="font-size: x-large;">- then drop whatever you had in mind and run to see this fabulous show. </span></sup></span><br />
<sup><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.christies.com/">http://www.christies.com/</a></span></sup><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">You may not be able to afford the asking prices, but the exhibition is absolutely free - on through November 3rd until 12 noon. Sale at 6:30 pm.</span>Beth S. Gersh-Nesichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04458851859412014984noreply@blogger.com0