Sometimes art is Stevie Nicks. She has an exhibition opening later this month at the Morrison Hotel Gallery in New York.
arthipstory
makin' art real talk
Tag Archives: new york
this is me.
And that house is Friday. I can see it, but it’s sooo far.
pieta, part deux
Michelangelo carved these two out of the same stone. You know what I did today?! Cut construction paper into equal segments.
Awhile ago, I made everyone feel terrible about their twenty-something to-do list when I said Bernini’s carved Persephone at the age of twenty-three. Well, I’ve already written about the masterpiece that is the Pieta, but here’s some more trivia with which you can impress all yo’Tinder dates.
The Vatican released the work to be on display for the 1964-65 World’s Fair in New York. Crews made sure the priceless sculpture was well-equipped for the long journey by cushioning it with millions of microbeads inside a wooden box which was then place inside a metal outer shell. Mary and Christ were also packed with a flotation device for their Transatlantic journey, just in case! Though, these two clock in at three tons, sooooo that’s a lotta swim floaties.
The crew members responsible for packing and delivering the Pieta were under pretty strict orders to keep it under maximum security, so what do they do? Put a huge “P I E T A” stamp on the side of the stainless steel case. Swell, boys, no one will ever guess what’s in there!
savage persona is right
Well, it’s been a minute since I’ve written a solid article hating Gauguin, so here goes.
An article reviewing a 2002 Met exhibition called “Paul Gauguin in New York Collections: The Lure of the Exotic” (oy), writer Holland Cotter wrote this quaint prose:
In fact, the true subject is the artist himself. Like any monomaniac, Gauguin was in the Gauguin business, aggressively…It was a demanding job. It entailed not only creating art of extraordinary quality, but also inventing a persona with which to promote it. This entrepreneurial public role didn’t require that he be a nice guy, and he wasn’t. He declared himself a ”savage” by birth because, he said, he had South American Indian blood. (He was one-eighth Peruvian.) And he dressed the part. He grew his hair long, wore swashbuckling cloaks, home-boy hats and an expression — you see it in the self-portraits — of sly, intimidating disdain.
Home-boy hats, ha! I’m impressed at this point. It’s like you’re wanting me to just keep hating you.
portrait of adele bloch-bauer i
Buckle up because I’m about to connect Gustav Klimt to Brandon Boyd of Incubus. Let it be known that I loved Incubus in high school. I mean, gauged my ears, wore Chuck Taylors, dreamt of koi tattoos, loved Incubus. Therefore, I willingly accept my own challenge.
Gustav Klimt painted this portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, the only model he painted more than once. She died in 1925 and left the paintings to her husband. He fled Switzerland during the Nazi occupation, and the paintings were confiscated. In 2004, his niece got involved and sued Austria (the paintings were in the country’s care). It was purchased for $135 million by Ronald Lauder, who owns the Neue Gallery in New York.
Lauder’s the grandson of Estée Lauder. Model Carolyn Murphy has been with the cosmetics company since 2001. She dated Brandon Boyd and was in that righteous “Are You In?” video.
Boom. I’m about to get that tattoo celebrate.
Also, impress your friends when you tell them this when the work sold, it became the world’s most expensive painting in 2006.
w is for whitney
So, remember when I mentioned that I was about to closet raid everything on Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney? Well, wouldn’t you know, she is an artist HERSELF. I’m about to shell out for the Whitney to see just this piece. Sorry, Wesselmann and Warhol, I’m beelining for straight for Gertrude sculpture…and then her closet. A promise is a promise.
delicatessen
Sometimes art is an empty delicatessen storefront in New York’s Upper West Side. Who knew adding a few more syllables to deli could be so fun and fancy?!
Liberty
This image above is from the Paris World’s Fair in 1878, and the one below is from the Centennial Fair of 1876. Reason #934 I was born in the wrong generation.
Between 1876 and 1882, if you lived in New York, you could throw down 50 cents and climb atop Lady Liberty’s torch. I would have been doing this daily.
Her head and limb joined the rest of her in the 1880s, with a final ceremonial dedication October 28, 1886. She was once under the authority of the US Lighthouse Board (!!!), then the Department of War, and since 1933, the National Parks Service.
Thanks, France!
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