KOONS RETROSPECTIVE

I was happy to be able to visit the Jeff Koons Retrospective at the Whitney Museum while I was in NYC last week.  I have always found his 'balloon animals' quite delightful, and always found the artist quite intriguing and seemingly a brilliant marketer and salesman.  I am still not entirely sure how he got anyone to promote his early work or why anyone purchased his work before he was famous.  But the retrospective gave me a much better understanding of the sweep of his career, his wit and ideas behind his works.  I still feel the 'balloon animals' and other works from his 'Celebrations' exhibit are his strongest by far, but I am happy to see how much these works actually have weight and emotion behind them.

It was also great to see one of his early iconic works in person, despite the fact I don't totally understand the physics of it.  Yes, the ball is actually suspended in water, and it is slowly sinking...

And of course the wonderfully iconic Bubbles the Chimp with Michael Jackson

And one I had not seen before, which is secretly my favorite...(anything Rococo, you know!)

I was not completely sure on these however (featuring the artist himself and his wife)...

In particular after window shopping just down the street and spotting what I can only imagine was Koons' inspiration for the works...

The exhibition was tinged with some sadness for me, as I am sure it will be the last visit to the Whitney at their original and current location on the Upper East Side.  They will soon move to a new, flashy, Reno Piano-designed building on the very hip and young Lower West Side somewhere between the Meatpacking and Chelsea, next to the High Line; a move I am not very on-board with yet.  I love the 1966 Marcel Breuer building, within easy walking distance of the Met, the Guggenheim and the Cooper Hewitt.  I will miss the Whitney in my favorite NYC neighborhood.  But good luck to them with all those cool hipsters downtown!

STUNNING AND GRACEFUL OSLO ATTACK MEMORIAL

I was so happy to see an elegant, beautiful and highly poignant memorial selected for the 2011 Oslo attack memorial.  As 50 percent of the blood in my veins is Norwegian I was quite interested to see what was to come of this memorial.  Despite the nod to the Vietnam War memorial by Maya Lin in Washington DC, I believe this memorial by Jonas Dalhberg is wonderfully original and really does capture the horror of the events that transpired in peaceful little Norway a few years ago.  While it might symbolize the feeling of loss for families that lost loved ones, I believe it also perfectly captures the break that Norway as a whole felt, the loss of innocence the country had to face when this attack occurred by one, crazy, lone wolf attacker.  He truly did create a scar in the landscape of the country and culture.  Read more here.

And I think this design is SO good I am not even going to mention the fact that Dalhberg is Swedish. Oops :)

LALANNE SHEEP

I have always loved the Lalanne 1960s sheep sculptures that seem so much a part of the Pop design movement.  I use the pieces to help explain the Pop movement to my history of interiors and furniture students, as these epitomize the absurdity and playfulness of the era. 

You have no idea how extremely excited I was to find out a client of mine owns one and that it has a home in her newly renovated home sitting next to her Eames Lounger!  I look forward to showing you the finished project soon!

BUCKET LIST ITEM # 2

I was also lucky enough to visit a room I have loved and hoped to visit for many a year.  The Peacock Room by the great James McNeill Whistler at the Smithsonian's Freer Sackler Galleries.  This is not just a wonderful room due to the beautiful Aesthetic Movement decor created by Whistler and amazing pottery collection housed within it, but also for the wonderfully colorful story of the room's creation.  After hijacking the entire project from the architect, and after several disagreements between Whistler and the room's owner, he in fact locked himself in the room to be certain of finishing it as he desired, and nobody else.  The owner Mr. Leyland was less than thrilled about this, and often fought with Whistler through the locked door before Whistler actually painted two peacocks fighting each other to represent the two men.  Or at least so I have been told.  I never heard what Leyland thought of the final result...

All photos courtesy of the Freer Sackler website.

For more information, visit the museum's website here.

THE MET DOES IT AGAIN

The Met really is great at selecting artists to create unique and highly evocative/appropriate installations for their summer rooftop installation.  While I did not have the pleasure of visiting the rooftop this year (yes, I do die a little inside when saying this), the installation called Cloud City by Tomas Saraceno does look wonderful as always. 

Photos courtesy of the Met website (most of these are installation photos, but wow, pretty amazing stuff even before finished installed):

Ummm, love it.  What is better than one amazing view over Central Park, Upper East and West sides?  Many, many, many views all on one rooftop.  Forget the clouds, I love the greenery-framed architecture.  Love. 

To see all the installation photos and more visit the Met website here.

A GOOD TIME TO BE A NORWEGIAN

I have to say it is a great time to be a Norwegian (or half a Norwegian) when the most expensive piece of art ever sold at auction happens to be by a Norwegian painter.  While Munch's "Scream" might not hold this illustrious title for too long, I imagine it will be for a little while.  The last painting to hold this title was Picasso's "Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust" which sold of 106 million in 2010.  So I hope "The Scream" has a good few years of glory.

I just love the fact that the recent owner, now no longer an owner Petter Olsen, that grew up with the piece, thought the person in the painting to be a pretty girl with chin-length golden hair...not a man (read: Munch) holding his hands to his face and screaming in horror.  What an amazing view into the world of a child....it ALMOST makes me want one (a child that is, not a Scream which of course I want).

Now, what I am about to comment on is likely controversial (in the small world of auctioneering), however, I must have my say.  I was a bit disappointed, however, not surprised to see who the auctioneer was for this sale.  The poster-boy of Sotheby's modern and contemporary sales- Tobias Meyers- someone that honestly, I find somewhat dull on the auction podium.  Sure, he is European, and sophisticated, but not really full of much life.  I have seen a number of less well-known auctioneers at Sotheby's that have packed a much bigger punch.  However, I must admit, I would have LOVED to be in the room when Tobias said that he "had all the time in the world" at 99 million.  Well done.  I guess I am not that bitter after all, Tobias.  Still a great day to be Norwegian.

"I STOOD STILL, DEATHLY TIRED-"

I am both very excited and somewhat upset that the only privately held version of The Scream by Munch will be sold at Sotheby's New York on May 2nd.  Excited because I cannot wait for it to make a record-breaking sale (which I know it will, it is currently estimated to sell for around $80million), and upset because it is currently owned by a Norwegian, and will now likely be sold to someone outside of Norway.  It is always a bit sad when a great masterpiece leaves its homeland.  However, Norway does hold the other 3 versions, all in Norwegian museums.

I love that Sotheby's is featuring it so prominently on the website (as it should be), and that they include Munchs wonderful words associated with the work-
"I stood still, deathly tired-
Over the blue-black fjord and city hung blood and tongues of fire
My friends walked on-
I remained behind- Shivering with anxiety-
I felt the great Scream in Nature"

Learn more here or here.

NEW AMERICAN PAINTINGS GALLERIES AT THE MET

I am so excited to see the American paintings galleries at the Met are finally open to the public again, as of January 16th.  They are a wonderful complement to the American Wing with its period rooms and furniture galleries (of course my true love at the Met).  My only sadness is that it will likely be a while before I can make it to NY to view the galleries.  When I studied at Sotheby's, many an hour were spent in the galleries before the renovation, and they were certainly in need of a facelift.  My wonderful ex program director and professor Carrie Rebora Barratt is doing the rounds promoting the new galleries, even making an appearance on the Colbert Report on Jan 19th - check out the clip here.  I think she held her own quite well.  Sigh, her discussion of Washington Crossing the Delaware sure did make me miss my school days!

A few of my favorites in the galleries:

Madame X by Sargent, 1883-4 (one of my all time favorites ever):

Approaching Thunderstorm by Heade, 1859:

The Hatch Family by Johnson, 1870-1:

Daniel Crommelin Verplank, Copley, 1771:

Cremorne Gardens, Whistler, 1870-80:

I could go on for hours!  Anyone in NY please go and enjoy!

EXHIBITS AT THE MET THIS SUMMER

As I get ready to make my annual pilgrimage to the world center of arts and culture and well, pretty much everything, (ie NYC), I decided to plan my usual trip to the Met, and see what exhibitions are on, and which really great ones that will already be gone by the time I get there (the inevitable).  Of course the rooftop exhibitions are always a summer treat, (really just an excuse to get the most amazing view over Central Park so one can pretend one lives in a park-side penthouse, if even for just a moment).

Here is the view from the rooftop last summer:

This summer Anthony Caro is featured, an influential modern British sculptor. 

See a video about the exhibit here.

I am also very excited about the Richard Serra Drawings exhibit, which will actually still be there in late June.... as I am a real push-over for male artists working with cor-ten steel.  And in general I find artist's drawings most intriguing, often times better than the end result.

Photos courtesy of the Met website:

While I am somewhat intrigued by the Alexander McQueen exhibit, by far the most 'blockbuster'-ish exhibit on right now, I am somewhat hesitant to spend any of my precious 3 days in NY on this when I could just watch a Lady Gaga video instead (also courtesy of the Met website):

What I REALLY wanted to see is the Katrin Sigurdardottir exhibit which examines and reinterprets several French period rooms at the Met....but of course this closes on June 5th!!!  Really?  Come on.  If you are in NY, please go visit it for me....

OK, I actually cannot stand to look at these images anymore, as I am physically in pain.  This is the stuff of my dreams....creepy white modern versions of the Met French period rooms....anyone reading this that works for the Met, can't you keep this open a few more weeks?  I am sure this is the real blockbuster exhibit of the year, right?

PRADA IN MARFA

I was so thrilled when my husband spotted, on BBC.com, an image of a Prada store in Marfa, Texas (the home of Donald Judd's museum, The Chinati Foundation).  The image was in a section about odd roadside attractions in the US.  I knew immediately it must be installtion art.  There is NOTHING in Marfa other than the Judd museum.  And there is NOTHING close by.  Not even remotely close by.  This just had to be art.  So I had to look it up. 

And yes, I was in fact correct...Prada had not declared Marfa the new up-and-coming hip getaway of the rich and famous worthy of a store.  The artistic team of Elmgreen and Dragset (Danish and Norwegian respectively) had created the store as permanently installed sculpture in 2005.  They call it a pop architectural land art project.  Very fitting, I must say. 

Interesting tid bits about the piece include:
- its cost at $80,000 (despite the fact it is constructed mainly of adobe brick and mdf)
- its door is nonfunctional
- the stock inside the store includes 14 right foot Prada shoes and six handbags without bottoms
- the building will never be maintained, and the artists plan to let it decay over time  (however, they were not willing to let it go three days after it was completed when a group of (likely) young hoodlums broke in, stole all the items inside the store, and spray painted the word "Dumb" throughout the interior.  The store was quickly repaired and additional security cameras were installed...even inside the prada bags with no bottoms.

While I failed to see much connection between Donald Judd and this piece at first, in fact there seems to be.  The artists chose Prada in particular becuase of the minimal style of displays and overall store layout & design, which does in a way, mimic Judd's uber-minimal artwork.  I can see it much more clearly from the below vantage point:

Prada Store by Elmgreen and Dragset:

The Chinati Foundation with works by Judd:

I must say that despite the fact this is somewhat silly, it is also quite witty and just plain fun.  And honestly, these days, that is, in my opinion, the most successful contemporary art.  Just fun.  Read more here.