Last weekend was a bit of an art whirlwind. I have been meaning to see a bunch of shows and wander through Chelsea galleries. I ultimately did everything I have been wanting to see in two days, after a pretty good sandwich at 'wichcraft in Bryant Park. I feel VERY inspired.
It began with the show called Ecotopia at the ICP (Institute for Contemporary Photography). A show that shows us that the Bush administration has fucked us all and that terrorism isn't the most pressing issue of the moment. In fact it nearly seems like a joke how much attention we pay to it daily (unless you watch Katie Couric on TV then well you would think spinach is our biggest worry). Ecotopia is mostly photography though some video and multimedia presentations are thrown in. The show ranges in being incredibly serious and outright depressing to comedic and childish. Works by the awesome Simon Norfolk, Stéphane Couturier's, and Thomas Ruff are presented along with Diana Thata whose video of two tigers playing in a pen are shown in a room glowing green. The video and the glowing green room provide the sense that the two tigers are in your backyard and your relationship with them is like having a household cat or dog.
I then headed up to the Metropolitan to see the Ambroise Vollard: Patron to the Avante Garde (Cezanne/Picasso/Gaugain) show along with New Orleans after the Flood by photographer Robert Polidori. The Vollard show was overwhelming in its scale. The art is interesting because all of the pieces have passed through his hands and he made most of these artists careers so with just thought it is impressive. There is a whole entry I have been meaning to write about how the art world has become a business and all of the art is pretty much becoming less edgy as artists are becoming businessmen, an idea that I detest.
Metropolitan: This is the first comprehensive exhibition devoted to Ambroise Vollard
(1866–1939)—the pioneer dealer, patron, and publisher who played a key
role in promoting and shaping the careers of many of the leading
artists during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It includes 100
paintings, as well as dozens of ceramics, sculpture, prints, and livres d'artistes
commissioned and published by Vollard, dating from the time of his
appearance on the Paris art scene in the late 1880s to his death in
1939.
First you enter a massive room of Cezannes that have come from everywhere in the world. Russia, France, England, Chicago, etc. One of them looks more like paintings by Peter Paul Rubens than they do actual Cezannes. Two others are just mind boggling that they ever came from him. Early work, clearly. Now just repeat that sentence and let it sink in. These three Cezannes were like nothing I have ever seen by him and one of them titled "The Feast: Orgy" is so colorful and outlandish (not just because of the title) that it just leaps off the wall. Pictured left. The others are obviously equally as spectacular but my favorite Cezannes always fall into the French landscape idea. They are just majestic and beautiful and now remind me of my travels through rural France. I remember going to the countryside and thinking to myself, "Shit, it looks like a Cezanne!" because of the colors, the actual terrain, and the light. It is just astonishing and breathtaking, like most of his landscapes. I now gravitate towards them.
Then you enter the Van Gogh room where a rendition of a starry night is the assumed show piece along with a painting of a carriage cart but I gravitated towards this smaller sunflower painting unlike the known sunflower pieces he created. It was a smaller piece that was getting little attention and after intense study, it for sure turned out to be one of my favorite pieces in the show. I went back to see it I liked it so much, though I usually walk through a show twice. I do have to say that I am kinda not into people walking around with the headphones on giving them an art history lesson on each painting or sculpture or whatever the curator or historian deems interesting. They walk around the museum like horror movie zombies, being led by the institution hand, and still without any clear understanding of the piece and utter disregard for ANYONE around them. lol.
I kinda picked up my pace in the Gaugain room. I am not a huge fan usually. Fast forward through paintings of Vollard, videos of Renoir for some weird reason, and a quote saying that "The most beautiful woman in the world has never been painted, drawn, or depicted more than Vollard," which I found incredibly hysterical. Clearly the man was a homo. (He wasn't. But, have you noticed how obsessed gay men are with photographing themselves? I remember how my friend Donna used to constantly point that out when I showed her photos of boys).
And into the Picasso room after the Degas room. Again, never a huge fan. Somehow it never clicked until the moment that I walked into the room that the Vollard suite I used to work with at my old gallery in Boston was created by Picasso for Vollard. Shit, haha, I have touched some of these pieces. Though, there are many editions. The piece to my right was one of my favorites and was centered between two "blue period" pieces that reminded me of how my ex used to call me "pessimistic, opposing, dark, negative, depressed, angry, violent." haha. This piece to the above right, along with many of the harlequin series, are in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, which I desperately need to visit before they destroy the art.