Ciao Maurizio

After reading many reviews (pro and con), I went to see the Maurizio Cattelan exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum to form my own opinion about this controversial exhibition.  Titled "All" the exhibition was designed to include 130 works dating from the late 1980s through the present serving as the artist's first comprehensive retrospective and his last.  Now for the controversial part; all 130 works were hung from the skylight of the Guggenheim.  It was designed as a farewell to the artworld and was one of the most unique uses of the architecture of the Guggenheim ever.  I'll admit that I wasn't exactly a maven or fan of his work before I saw the show but I went with an open mind and came out of the museum not only a fan but sad that I didn't discover him so much earlier.

If you are hungry for more (as Anthony Bourdain would say), go to iTunes and download the fantastic, award-winning app about the exhibition, narrated by John Waters.

Once a Year Miracle - Christmas in New York

You can't help but experience an inspiring outpouring of creativity when you are in New York during the Christmas holiday. Here are some shots of the amazing store windows on Fifth Avenue and 57th Street. Seems like the animal kingdom was the theme for 2011.

The Future was Now

Today I visited the PST exhibition at LACMA, "California Design, 1930-1965, Living in a Modern Way." I thought it was a terrific show and one of my favorites from the entire PST initiative. It had very interesting objects, beautifully installed and reminded me of my childhood. We moved to California in 1965 and we truly felt that the future was just waiting for us, quite the contrast to the show at the Hammer focusing on the African-American artists of the day.  Personal note: seeing the Barbie doll and house really took me back as I had the same exact house.


          

Stormin' Storm King

Finally made it to Storm King Art Center, the outdoor sculpture museum located 50 miles north of New York City.  It includes over 100 monumental, outdoor sculptures on over 80 acres of land.  It was just as beautiful and vast as I had been hearing over the years.  With multiple sculptures by diSuvero, David Smith, Alexander Calder, and so many others, here are some highlights.

Calder and  Lieberman

Andy Goldsworthy. This  wall travels under the lake and continues
 on the other side

and winds through the trees.

Richard Serra,so beautiful in a natural setting.

Zhang Huan

View of the great lawn with a Calder in the foreground.

Greek Ionic Columns

If you want more information on Storm King Art Center, go to their website:
http://www.stormking.org/

Niki de Saint Phalle in Escondido - Who Knew?

As part of my "stay-cation" this summer, I picked up the parents and drove south to Escondido to find the only garden in the United States by internationally-known artist Niki de Saint Phalle.  Titled "Queen Califia's Magical Garden," it takes it's inspiration from California's mythic and cultural roots. It consists of an exterior snake wall, a maze entry, nine large totemic sculptures with integrated seating all made of intricate ceramic mosaic and is very much about girl power!  Go Niki!

For more information and directions to this garden click here: http://www.queencalifia.org/index.html

Hopper Lives

I was in Venice today when I saw this billboard.  Venice resident, artist, actor, eternal hipster (and evidently a wearer of Vans sneakers), Dennis Hopper was cool, will always be cool, forever cool.  We will miss him.



















Click here to see the original trailer for "Easy Rider."  Still so scary to be free.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIfUD70yvz8

"The Clock" by Christian Marclay

After much ballyhoo in New York and London, Christian Marclay's "The Clock" arrived at LACMA. People in New York stood in line for hours in the snow to watch the 24 hour film. Lines went around the block in London at White Cube. Being in the film capital of the world, I got to the museum two hours before it was supposed to start and was the first on line. Culture arrives slowly in LA and without panic. Anyway, I viewed 2 hours from 11am - 1pm and another 2 hours from 7 to 9pm. I found the film captivating! All those clips, edited together so beautifully...how did he do it? Where die he find all those clips? From so many different countries? How long did it take to compile? How many assistants worked on this? How many computers? I had so many questions.

The film is shown in real time which means that you are acutely aware of the passage of time. There is no narrative, per se except that characters complete tasks that are generally similar dependent up on the time of day. For example, lots of musicians wake up around 11am and people go to lunch at noon. Somehow the clips fit seemlessly together and an hour flies by. There is a general big moment on the hour and off you go again. Hope I get a chance to go back around midnight...you an only imagine what mischief goes on in the midnight hours.

In reflecting on the film, I can't help but think that we live in an age of moving images.  Images on television, film, videos on Google, YouTube, Hulu and our own amateur videos on facebook and other social networks are all part of our daily lives, like newspapers were for previous generations and I start thinking is "The Clock" a 24 hour video collage?   Maybe Christian Marclay is a sort of Robert Rauschenberg for the facebook generation.  I found it to be very compelling, an incredible work of art, an incredible film.  Cudos to LACMA for recognizing the genius of Christian Marclay.