Last Call: Exhibitions Closing in August and Early September 2014

Swoon, Submerged Motherlands, 2014

Brooklyn Museum

There are only 5 more weekends until the end of the summer: Four more weeks of summer.  Here are the best museum exhibitions which will close in August and early September.  NB: Sigmar Polke closes this weekend, on August 3rd.

Sigmar Polke, Museum of Modern Art, through August 3
Other Primary Structures, The Jewish Museum, through August 3

Ai Wei Wei, Brooklyn Museum, through August 10

Swoon, Brooklyn Museum, through August 24

Charles James, Metropolitan Museum, through August 10

Lucas Samaras, Metropolitan Museum, through September 1

Futurism, Guggenheim Museum, through September 1

Degenerate Art, Neue Galerie, through September 1

Maria Lessnig, PS 1, through September 7
James Lee Byars, PS 1, through September 7

Gatsby to Garp, Morgan Library, through September 7

Master of Claude de France, Morgan Library, through September 14
Latin American Photography, ICP, through September 7
Guastovino, Museum of the City of NY, through September 7
Museum Starter Kit, El Museo del Barrio, through September 6


Fall 2014 Art History Study Groups and Tours will be posted later this August.

Best wishes for the rest of the summer,
Beth New York

Beth S. Gersh-Nesic, Director
New York Arts Exchange
www.nyarts-exchange.como 

Witness: Art and Civil Rights in the Sixties at the Brooklyn Museum, closed on July 13

David Hammons (American, b. 1943). The Door (Admissions Office), 1969. Wood, acrylic sheet, and pigment construction, 79 x 48 x 15 in. (200.7 x 122 x 38.1 cm). California African American Museum, Los Angeles, Collection of Friends, the Foundation of the California African American Museum. 

© David Hammons

Yesterday was the last day of one of the best exhibitions of the Spring-Early Summer 2014 Art Season, on view since March 7th at the Brooklyn Museum. I hope you were able to catch Witness: Art and Civil Rights in the Sixties, tucked away on the 1st floor, behind the innovative - and a bit overambitious - exhibition Connecting Cultures, which displays the museum's collection.  Witness might have been better served in that very exhibition space.

Barkley L. Hendricks (American, b. 1945). Lawdy Mama, 1969. Oil and gold leaf on canvas, 533⁄4 x 361⁄4 in. (136.5 x 92.1 cm). The Studio Museum in Harlem, Gift of Stuart Liebman, in memory of Joseph B. Liebman, 83.25. © Barkley L. Hendricks. Photo: Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York

I have posted a few images that are on the exhibition website.  Click on the link provided here to access more other information about the show. 

Moneta Sleet Jr. (American, 1926–1996). Rosa Parks, Dr. and Mrs. Abernathy, Dr. Ralph Bunche, and Dr. and Mrs. Martin Luther King, Jr. leading marchers into Montgomery, 1965, printed circa 1970. Gelatin silver print, 133⁄8 x 103⁄4 in. (34 x 27.3 cm). Saint Louis Art Museum, Gift of the Johnson Publishing Company, 426:1991. © Johnson Publishing Company, LLC

However, reading cannot substitute for the highly-charged impact of the total installation.   Immediately, upon stepping through the entrance to the exhibition, David Hammon's The Door (Admissions Office), 1969, confronts the viewer.  In this work, the artist used a greasy black ink on his body to smear the real glass of this real door labeled "Admissions Office." Hands raised above his head to convey a sense of frustration and despair, the figure stands behind this closed door, which bars full access to the other side - the side of opportunity, acknowledgement, respect, and participation in all that American life can offer.  Have we sufficiently dissolved these obstacles for African Americans?  Not really.   We still have a long way to go.

Norman Rockwell (American, 1894–1978). New Kids in the Neighborhood (Negro in the Suburbs), 1967. Oil on canvas, 361⁄2 x 571⁄2 in. (92.7 x 146.1 cm). Story illustration for Look, May 16, 1967. Norman Rockwell Museum Collection, Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Printed by permission of the Norman Rockwell Family Agency. © 2013 the Norman Rockwell Family Entities

Other works, such as Norman Rockwell's New Kids in the Neighborhood, 1967, also remind us of persistent injustices, such as the real estate market, which perpetuates de facto segregation.  Have we made progress to curtail these practices?  I don't think so.

Norman W. Lewis (American, 1909–1979). Untitled (Alabama), 1967. Oil on canvas, 451⁄4 x 731⁄2 in. (114.9 x 186.7 cm). National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Gift of the Collectors Committee, 2009.45.1. © The Estate of Norman W. Lewis, courtesy of Iandor Fine Arts

The sad news about Witness is that the problems these artists address are still with us after 50 years of civil rights action.  Would that art could correct the ills of society. Well, it cannot, but at least, it came raise our awareness of issues that need our attention.  Witness certainly asks us to take stock of where we are now. 

Sam Gilliam (American, b. 1933). Red April, 1970. Acrylic on canvas, 110 x 160 in. (279.4 x 406.4 cm). The University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, Gift of The Longview Foundation and Museum purchase, 1971.11. © Sam Gilliam

The good news about Witness is that the curators Teresa A. Carbone, Andrew W. Mellon Curator of American Art, Brooklyn Museum, and Kellie Jones, Associate Professor, Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University have created an artistically strong, as well as educationally important, exhibition.   Their catalog is still available at the Brooklyn Museum or online. It is worth studying in order to remind ourselves that indeed we should still try to overcome.

Best wishes for Bastille Day,

Beth New York

aka Beth S. Gersh-Nesic, Ph.D.

Director

New York Arts Exchange

www.nyarts-exchange.com 

Last Call: Kara Walker's The Subtlety, Domino Sugar Factory, through July 6

Kara Walker, A Subtlety, Creative Time 

Photographs by Beth S. Gersh-Nesic

At the behest of Creative Time Kara E. Walker has confected:

or the Marvelous Sugar Baby
an Homage to the unpaid and overworked Artisans who have refined our Sweet tastes from the cane fields to the Kitchens of the New World on the Occasion of the demolition of the Domino Sugar Refining Plant

Closed on July 4th -

Special Hours on July 5th and 6th: 11 am to 7 pm

316 Kent Avenue at South 1st Street

Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 

Directions

Is it worth the schlep out to Williamsburg to wait on line for about 30 minutes to one hour in order to see a gigantic 21st century Sphinx attended by life-size sculptures of children carrying massive baskets or other heavy objects that remind us of exploitation, unwritten labor laws, and the misery of factory conditions for the benefit of the ignorant masses?   Yes - if only to stand in this cavernous space to take in the sweet smell of melting molasses.  It is the sweetness and the pungency of the subject matter that successfully packs a wallop in this ambitious installation.  One would want to experience the full impact in person in order to judge its quality and achievement.

 Photographs by  Beth S. Gersh-Nesic

We know that over the years, art has extended its reach to engage most of the senses.  This year in particular we have been treated to art that stimulates sight (of course), hearing (Camille Henrot, Ragnar Kjartansson, Roberto Cuoghi at the New Museum), touch (Lygia Clark at MoMA and, earlier this year, at the Jewish Museum), and taste (Chloe Bass's Tea Will Be Served, performed at the Neuberger Museum in March). However, few works of art address the potency of the olfactory experience, which scientists claim provokes deep-seated memories in the most visceral manner - far and away more than taste, M. Proust.

Creative Time's video and Art 21's video (see below) can do so much, but not enough to capture the excitement of being there.  (FYI: Confectionery is the art of creating sugar-based treats or "subleties.")

You have two more days - hop to it!

Happy 4th!

Beth New York

aka Beth S. Gersh-Nesic

Director

New York Arts Exchange

  

Tatjana Bergelt: Slices of Life, through July 17

regret, remorse, sacrifice, 2013

Tatjana Bergelt: Slices of Life

Serbian Consulate

62 West 45th Steet, 7th floor

June 26 - July 17, 2014, Hours: Monday - Friday, 10-4 

Tatjana Bergelt seems to be searching for the essence of existence – the connecting tissues that verify reality in an increasingly complex world. To this end, she sets up tensions between images and words, bodies and shapes, figure and ground, reminiscent of Cubist collage and Dada photomontage.  These various types of collages are arresting in their beauty.  However, for all their visual delicacy (like gossamer-woven dreams), they resonate with disturbing pain and sadness as ghostly visions of dissonance.

Take, for example, regret, remorse, sacrifice (2013), a poetic vision of the human hand, bound by several multi-colored strands of yarn or thread, made inert and useless. The words “regret,” “remorse,” and “sacrifice” are almost imperceptible – so tiny and delicate – as if they are subconscious ruminations, discarded along seams and the margins. This collage seems to address the feminist struggle between duty and desire, the constraints that curtail a woman’s true self-actualization. The hand looks aged, puffy with excess work, probably at a stage in life when regrets come to pass.

ihmenin - mensch

shortsighted 

ihminen-mensch [human] and shortsighted feature female figures clothed in late nineteenth-century or early twentieth-century fashion – the former appears rather “modern” in her hat, blouse and skirt, resting her left arm on a lectern; the latter sits in a typical Victorian pose, dignified in her high-collared frock.  Yet, both bodies dissolve softly into transparent planes of flat abstraction, their faces obliterated by the title’s text.  Again, we might consider a feminist concern with marginalizing women through psychological self-destruction.

Power-grid

Once more vulnerable, a young woman confronts five policemen in power grid.  The words “self inflicted division” overlap and interact across the blurred uniforms of this contemporary riot squad.  The young lady, photographed in profile, looks from the extreme left side of the composition to the right, where a depicted image of a helmeted policeman meets her gaze.  The atmosphere is fraught with tension and fear.  What will become of this militant encounter between one female civilian and five male cops?  Dozens and dozens of lines drawn in bright or light hues energize the surface.  The combination of elements feels highly-charged.  Again, we consider existential vulnerability.

Slices of Life, 2014

Bergelt said: “The very fundamental basis for my philosophy is we are all more similar than different.  We are all afraid of death, eager to live, somehow more or less conscious, eager to love, to be loved.”  It is this awareness of universals that brings such potency to her art.

Tatjana Bergelt was born in East Berlin in 1966. Educated in Germany, Estonia, France, and Spain, she now calls Finland her family home. According to her interviews and writing, she considers herself a collage, a product of various cultural elements that intersect and overlap in numerous ways. Bergelt’s work reflects her multinational existence and rigorous training, which has produced a high-caliber of artistic expression.  But it is her provocative subject matter that captures our attention. Quietly powerful and elegantly rendered, Bergelt dares to confront us with our secret anxieties and existential concerns.

Color Theory, 2014

Mrs. Bergelt’s work belongs to many illustrious permanent collections, most notably the New York Public Library, New York; Staatsbibliothek, Berlin, Germany; Amos Anderson Art Museum, Helsinki, Finland; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France; Helsinki City Library, Finland; and Bibliothèque Nationale, Luxemburg.

The exhibition was co-curated by Zoran Budimlija and yours truly.   Please feel free to make an appointment with me to see the exhibition at the Serbian Consulate.  I would be delighted to discuss the work with you. nyarts.exchange@verizon.net

Beth New York

aka  Beth S. Gersh-Nesic

Director

New York Arts Exchange

Back to Basics: An Art History Study Group for YOU!

Paleolithic, Venus of Willendorf, c. 25,000 BC

Are you ready for your own art history study group?  Join us for in-person, focused discussions with experienced art-lovers, just like you.

Our goal is to dig deeper into art by studying specific examples in a textbook and in New York museum collections.  The textbook provides basic information and an organized path for our explorations.  Weekly discussion groups give us a place to share our ideas.  This blog will keep a record of our progress and provide some supplementary material. Written lectures, diagrams and charts will be sent only to enrolled members of the study group.

Please bring your knowledge, intuition and sense of humor.

Syllabus for the Summer Series:
June 30 - Prehistoric and Mesopotamian
July   7 - Egyptian
July 14 - Ancient Greek
July 21 - Ancient Roman
July 28 - Ancient Jewish Art at the Jewish Museum

Instructor: Beth S. Gersh-Nesic, director, New York Arts Exchange
Textbook: Art: A Brief History by Marilyn Stokstad (2006)
Location: Metropolitan Museum of Art cafeteria (except July 28 at the JM)
Day: Mondays
Time: 1 - 3 pm

Fee: $250 for the summer series of 5 classes; $60 a la carte

To enroll, please contact Beth at nyarts.exchange@verizon.net,

We hope you will join us for a spirited study of the world's greatest masterpieces.
NB: This study group meets on Mondays; the tours will continue to take place on Wednesdays.

Beth New York

aka Beth S. Gersh-Nesic, Ph.D.
Director
New York Arts Exchange
www.nyarts-exchange.com 

Fathers in Art in Honor of Father's Day 2014

Edgar Degas, Place de la Concorde (Vicomte Ludovic Lepic and his daughters), 1875

oil on canvas, The Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg

Balthus, Joan Miró and His Daughter Dolores, 1937-38

oil on canvas, Museum of Modern Art, NY

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Ugolino and his Sons, 1865-67

marble, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Hellenistic, Laocoön and His Sons, 27 BC-67 AD

marble, Vatican Museum, Vatican City

Berthe Morisot, Eugène Manet and His Daughter Julie at Bougival, 1881

oil on canvas, Musée Marmottan Monet

Paul Cézanne, The Artist's Father Reading “L’Événement, 1866
oil on canvas, National Gallery, Washington, DC

 Norman Rockwell, Father and Son: Homework, 1962
Four Seasons Calendar, oil on canvas, 
Collection of George Lucas, © Brown and Bigelow

Max Ferguson, Father on Fifth Avenue, 2011
oil on panel, Courtesy of Max Ferguson

Best wishes to fathers, grandfathers, god-fathers and uncles everywhere - (Click on the titles for more information about the works.)

Beth New York

aka Beth S. Gersh-Nesic, Ph.D.

Director

New York Arts Exchange

www.nyarts-exchange.com 

This Week: Museum Mile on June 10 and LIGHT³ at Fridman Gallery opening June 12

Tuesday, June 10 from 6 - 9 pm, Museum Mile Festival 2014.  Manhattan puts on one of its biggest and best block parties on Fifth Avenue, from 82nd Street to 103rd Street (Metropolitan Museum of Art to the Museum of the City of New York).  Free admission to exhibitions, musical performances and much, much more.   Please look for the map and schedule of events on the Museum Mile Festival website.

Stephen Dean, Black Ladder, 2013

Thursday, June 12 from 6 - 8 pm: LIGHT³  with artists Stephen Dean, Ethan Ryman  and Jan Tichy.  Curated by Lilly Wei.   June 12 - July 11, 2014  at  Fridman Gallery, 287 Spring Street, NYC



Be there or be square,
Beth New York

aka Beth S. Gersh-Nesic, Ph.D.
Director
New York Arts Exchange
www.nyarts-exchange.com