Beth New York

Last Call: Mark Podwal's Haggadah Paintings at Forum Gallery

2012-03-03T07:51:00.004-08:00

Mark Podwal: Sharing the Journey, Forum Gallery, February 14 through March 7.

Alan S. Yoffie, Sharing the Journey: The Haggadah for the Contemporary Family,

CCAR Press (a division of the Central Conference of American Rabbis), 2012.

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 hametz (daily cakes and bread). Then books (haggadot) 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.

The haggadah helps the participants fulfill the necessary rituals before and after the Passover meal, which in its entirety is called the seder (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.

This winter, Mark Podwal's 26 original gouache paintings created for Alan S. Yoffie's Sharing the Journey: The Haggadah for the Contemporary Family 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 a menorah bursting with new life in the form of flowers springing forth from each "branch," aptly entitled Spring:

Mark Podwal, Spring, 2011

acrylic, gouache and colored pencil on paper

16 x 12 inches

The 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.

Elijah's Cup 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.

Mark Podwal, Elijah's Cup, 2011

acrylic, gouache and colored pencil on paper

16 x 12 inches
© Mark Podwal, courtesy of Forum Gallery, New York, NY

Another interpretation of the text, Bread of Affliction, 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.

Mark Podwal, Bread of Affliction, 2011

acrylic, gouache and colored pencil on paper

16 x 12 inches

Twenty years ago, Podwal drew a similar themes in The Passover Haggadah, with commentary by Elie Weisel, published in 1993.

Mark Podwal

The Bread of Affliction (from Elie Wiesel, A Passover Haggadah)

ink on paper, 3 x 4 1/2 inches
© Mark Podwal, courtesy of Forum Gallery, New York, NY, 1991

Mark Podwal recently exhibited the torah covers and other ornamental textiles he designed for Altneuschul in Prague at the Yeshiva University Museum in the Center for Jewish History (November 27, 2011-January 15, 2012). Here is the video which explains the textiles' production:

Courtesy of Yeshiva University Museum, copyright 2011
produced and edited by Zachary Paul Levine, Assistant Curator

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 FJC celebrated its 50th Anniversary. In 1996, Podwal became an Officer of Fine Arts and Letters, an honor bestowed by the French Government.

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 House of Life, a film about the Old Jewish Cemetary in Prague, which aired on PBS in 2009 and 2010.

To learn more about Mark Podwal's work, visit his website http://www.markpodwal.com/ or the Forum Gallery website Reproductions of his designs are available on cards and plates at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Opera Shop.

Bibliography:
Alan S. Yoffie, Sharing the Journey: The Haggadah for the Contemporary Family, CCAR Press (a division of the Central Conference of American Rabbis), 2012.

A Passover Haggadah, with commentary by Elie Wiesel and illustrations by Mark Podwal, Simon and Schuster, 1993.

Patricia Cronin's Memorial to a Marriage in DC exhibition "Bodies and Soul"

2012-02-05T09:39:00.000-08:00

Patricia Cronin, Memorial to a Marriage, 2002 in bronze and marble.

Patricia Cronin: Bodies and Soul, Conner Gallery, Washington, DC , Febuary 4 - March 10

In July, this blog celebrated the marriage of New York artists Patricia Cronin and Deborah Kass, whose long-time commitment inspired Cronin's sculpture Memorial to a Marriage, 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.

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.

Memorial to a Marriage is based on Gustave Courbet's Sleepers or Sleep (1866)

Gustave Courbet, The Sleepers, 1866

and the American neo-classicial tradition of the 19th century (Patricia Cronin studied and appropriated Harriet Hosmer's work for her exhibition Harriet Hosmer: Lost and Found (June 2009-January 2010).

Harriet Hosmer, Beatrice Cenci, 1856.

For more information on Patricia Cronin's work, please visit her website: http://www.patriciacronin.net/.
And/Or read this interview in Sculpture Magazine.

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.

Best wishes to you and those you love -
Beth
New York Arts Exchange

Last Call: The Snowy Day and the Art of Ezra Jack Keats, through January 29

2012-01-24T11:10:00.000-08:00

Ezra Jack Keats, "Crunch, crunch, crunch, his feet sank into the snow." Final illustration for The Snowy Day, 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.
The Snowy Day and the Art of Ezra Jack Keats, The Jewish Museum, through Sunday, January 29, 2012.

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 A Snowy Day (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.

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.

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.

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 Synthetic Cubism and the latest Color Field painting.

You can, of course, visit the exhibition online, 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 Snowy Day:

If you miss the show in New York, you can still catch the exhibition at the Eric Carle Museum of Children's Books located in Amherst, Massachusetts, June 26 - October 14, 2012.

2012-01-02T06:17:00.000-08:00

Luminous Modernism: Scandinavia Art Comes to America, 1912

Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue at 38th Street, October 25, 2011 - February 2012

Harold Sohlberg, Flower Meadow in the North, 1905

Oil on canvas, 37.8 x 43.7 inches; 96 x 111 cm

The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo

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 akavit to commemorate an important occasion: Luminous Modernism. 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 Nude Descending Staircase, No. 2 blew the critics' minds). Eight of the paintings in the 2011-12 exhibition were included in the 1912 exhibition.

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.

Otto Hesselbom, Our Land, 1904

Oil on canvas, 28 x 71 inches; 71 x 180.3 cm

Collection of Peter and Renate Nahum, London

The curator of the Luminous Modernism 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: Northern Light: Realism and Symbolism in Scandinavian Painting, 1880-1910. That exhibition was one of the great contributions organized by the late art historian Kirk Varnedoe. Professor Berman served as his assistant. Northern Lights 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 Luminous Modernism come from either private collections or foreign museums.

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.

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.

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: http://www.amscan.org/. Scandinavia House opened in 2000.

Skal (skoal)! May the new year bring you health, happiness and many pleasant art adventures!

Anna Boberg, Glacier Lake, n.d.

Oil on canvas, 15 x 19 inches; 39 x 49 cm

Gava av konstnaren til prins Eugen

Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde, Stockholm

Pekka Haolnen, Pine in Snow, 1909

Oil on canvas, 28 x 71 inches; 71 x 180.3 cm

Collection of Peter and Renate Nahum, London

Asgrimur Jonsson, Mt. Tindafjoll, 1904

Oil on canvas, 36 x 49 3/8 inches; 80 x 125.5 cm

Listasafn Islands, The National Gallery of Iceland

Edvard Munch, Snow Landscape from Kragero, 1912

Oil on canvas, 37 3/4 x 49 1/2 inches; 95.3 x 125.5 cdm

Private Collection

Karl Nordstrom, South Mountain, 1900

Colored chalk on paper, 11 1/2 x 22 1/2 inches; 29 x 57 cm

Collection of David and Susan Werner

Vilhelm Hammershoi, Landscape from Virum near Frederiksdal, Summer, 1888

Oil on canvas, 10 1/4 x 17 3. inches; 26 x 45.1 cm

The Ambassador John L. Loeb Jr. Danish Art Collection

Thorarinn Thorlaksson, Hvita River, 1903

Oil on canvas, 14 3/4 x 24 3/4 inches; 37 x 63 cm

Listasafn Islands, The National Gallery of Iceland

Prince Eugen, Church with Cloud, c. 1890s

Oil on canvas, 16 x 11 inches; 40 x 28 cm

Collection of David and Susan Werner

Thorvald Erichsen, Wooded Landscape, 1900

Oil on canvas, 32 x 39 inches; 81 x 98 cm

The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo

Vilhelm Hammershoi, Interior of Woman Placing Branches in Vase on Table, Strandgade 30, 1900

Oil on canvas, 15 7/8 x 15 5/8 inches; 40.3 x 39.7 cm

The Ambassador John L. Loeb Jr. Danish Art Collection

Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Mary Gallen on the Kuhmoniemi Bridge, 1890

Oil on wood, 13 x 9 inches; 33 x 22 cm

Private Collection

Anders Zorn, Ida by the Window, 1908

Oil on canvas, 36 x 21 inches; 92 x 53.4 cm

The Zorn Museum, Sweden

Edvard Munch, Bathing Boys, 1904-1905

Oil on canvas, 22 1/2 x 30 inches; 57.4 x 68.5 cm

Private Collection

Jean Heiberg, Nude Woman, 1912

Oil on canvas, 51 1/8 x 38 3/8 inches; 130 x 97.5 cm

Bergen Art Museum, Norway

Last Call - Georges Braque and Geoffrey Johnson Pose Existential Questions

2011-11-26T08:46:00.000-08:00

Georges Braque, Harbor, 1909, oil on canvas, 16 x 19 inches,

National Gallery of Art, Washington,
Gift of Victoria Nebeker Coberly in memory of her son, John W. Mudd
1992.3.1
Image Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
© 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Georges Braque: Pioneer of Modernism, Acquavella Gallery through November 30.

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.

However, if you have not seen the show already, just go before it closes midweek. Here are a few ideas that the art historians offer.

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.

Shiff: Braque understands Cézanne's concept of the pictorial fact and the "dematerialized space of visuality."

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 duré.

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.

Geoffrey Johnson, Untitled #4, 2011, oil on canvas, 17.5 x 24 inches, Courtesy of Hubert Gallery, New York

Geoffrey Johnson: New Paintings, Hubert Gallery, through November 30.

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 Whitney Museum's Real/Surrealism 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. Jean-Paul Sartre understood this feeling of no way out. Albert Camus understood the need to, nevertheless, push on.

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.

Last Call - Hannes Schmid's Cowboys, Beatrice Wood Makes Artistic Whoopie, and Richard Serra at Lord Gaga's

2011-10-28T07:12:00.000-07:00

Hannes Schmid, Cowboy, 1999

Courtesy of the artist and Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York and Zurich

Hannes Schmid: Cowboys at Edwynn Houk Gallery through October 29

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 - Bonanza’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).

Hannes Schmid provided the visuals and the Mad Men provided the distinctive red and white fliptop box. This was America: hard drinking, hard smoking and hard living in nature's wide open spaces.

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.

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 Tucson Museum of Art through January 15), and his photos of the Maha Kelumbh Mela pilgrimage to the Ganges River in his “Human Currents” at the Rubin Museum’s show (through November 13).

NB: Prince’s prices exceed Schmid’s today – but I am sure that won’t last for long.

Check out more on the blog DLK Collection

Un peut d’eau dans du savon was created in 1917 and then recreated in 1977.

Beatrice Wood at Francis Naumann Fine Art through October 28

Would that we could all live like Beatrice Wood, the poor little rich girl from San Francisco and later New York, who ran away to Paris 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.

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 Jules et Jim, 1953 (and another ménage-à-trois with his wife Helen Grund and German writer/translator Franz Hessel).

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.

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 Beatrice Wood exhibition celebrates the 10^th Anniversary of Francis Naumann Fine Art, which might acknowledge Wood as its guardian angel.

Richard Serra at Gagosian Gallery on West 24th through October 29

Just see it - before it closes tomorrow: excellent!

The Best Things in Life Are Free: Robert Lobe's "Nature in Nature," Prospect Park through November 2011

2011-10-04T12:03:00.000-07:00

Robert Lobe, Invisible Earth. 2007, heat-treated hammered aluminum, 9 x 5.5 x 13.5 feet

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: Nature in Nature (through November 2011). Here three graceful works made out of Lobe's famous repoussé method elide our concepts of abstraction and realism.

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 Nature's Clock (2006), Invisible Earth (2007), and Antique Jenny (2011).

Robert Lobe, Natures Clock, 2006, heat-treated hammered aluminum, 11.5 x 9 x 14 feet

Robert Lobe, Antique Jenny. 2011, heat-treated hammered aluminum, 11 x 5 x 13.5 feet

But, please don't take my word for it. In this video, Robert Lobe explains it all to you himself:

Lobe's project was generously supported by Artspire and GMC.

Please visit his website: http://www.robertlobe.com/ to view the entire installation and other projects on view in Westchester, New York (for free), Massachusetts, and elsewhere.

The High Price of High Art - Museum Admission Rises as Economy Falters

2011-09-05T09:24:00.000-07:00

If you haven't been to the Museum of Modern Art 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 Metropolitan Museum of Art 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 . . .
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?

In his book Red Museum (The Orange Press, 2011), Dr. Paul Werner explains it all to you.
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.
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.

That said, here are ways to minimize the high cost of museum admission:

Free nights at MoMA, the Morgan, etc. (please visit my New York Arts Exchange website for a list of these special offers).
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.)
You can also join a museum membership consortium (membership at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich includes the Neuberger Museum in Purchase, the Katonah Museum of Art in Katonah, the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art in Peekskill and Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield.)

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.

Happy Labor Day,
Beth

McQueen Madness at the Met Until Midnight 8-7-11

2011-08-01T06:10:00.000-07:00

All good things must end. The spectacular exhibition Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty will close on August 7 at midnight. It's a must-see. Trust me on this.

Here is my review on About.com: Art History

If you cannot attend the show, please visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art's website to view the videos and photographs of the exhibition.

I just might see you there -

Beth

Weddings Galore! Congratulations to the Newlyweds on July 24, 2011

2011-07-24T07:40:00.000-07:00

It's a day we can all celebrate as New York State officially begins to marry same-sex couples.
Best wishes to everyone, especially Patricia Cronin and Deborah Kass.

Patricia Cronin is best known for her sculpture Memorial to a Marriage, 2002, Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, NY:

Deborah Kass is best known for painting Double Red Yentl, Split (My Elvis), 1993, which belongs to the Jewish Museum, NYC:

Best wishes for many, many years of married bliss - L'chaim!

America's Birthday: July 4th

2011-07-03T11:53:00.000-07:00

In 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.

Here is a preview of Alexandra Pelosi's HBO documentary Cititzen USA. This is an opportunity to think about what we take for granted about our American life:

Find your 11 women - an appeal from First Lady Michele Obama

2011-06-27T10:44:00.000-07:00

First 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.
Here is her speech. May you find your 11 women:

Election Day 2010

2010-11-01T20:50:00.000-07:00

What are you doing November 2?
Voting, I hope so. And then what?
Well, if you are not planning to go to Christie’s exhibition of Impressionist and Modern Art (on auction November 3^{rd) - then drop whatever you had in mind and run to see this fabulous show.}
^{http://www.christies.com/}
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.