Fall and Rosh HaShanah Greetings: A New Art Season Begins in NY and CT

Abraham van Beyeren (1620/21-1690)

Banquet Still Life, oil on canvas, 118.2 x 167.6 cm

HOHENBUCHAU COLLECTION, on Permanent Loan to the LIECHTENSTEIN.

The Princely Collections, Vienna

Shanah Tovah (Happy New Year) to everyone, whether you celebrate the Jewish New Year or the Art New Year - or both.  Today we feel a sense of renewal as we breathe in the brisk autumnal air. Now is the time for new exhibitions, new educational opportunities and new arts in our annual festivals (DUMBO Arts Festival and New York Book Fair are this weekend).  The enormous march for Global Environmental Responsibility augurs well too.  Let us feel confident that this ground-swell of activism will bring forth real change for the good.

And with that in mind, let us begin our celebration with the Fall 2014 Art Season.   We have a cornucopia of exhibitions to choose from within the next four months: Matisse at MoMA,  Cézanne  and Cubism at the Met,  Chris Ofili at the New Museum and tons of gallery shows that are too numerous to mention here.

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)

Portrait of a Capuchin Monk, oil on panel, 53.3 x 45 cm

HOHENBUCHAU COLLECTION, on Permanent Loan to the LIECHTENSTEIN.

The Princely Collections, Vienna

As we await these October openings, we can rejoice in the Bruce Museum's Northern Baroque Splendor: The Hohenbuchau Collection from Liechtenstein, The Princely Collections, Vienna - on view now through April 12, 2015.   A selective assortment of 64 paintings from the Hohenbuchau Collection (which was amassed by Otto Christian and Renate Fassbender and is now on long-term loan to the Collections of the Prince of Liechtenstein in Vienna), it is deliciously rich and varied in subject matter.  Moreover, this exhibition provides an excellent opportunity to study important Dutch, Flemish and German works from the late 16th to the early 18th centuries by such well-known masters as Peter Paul Rubens, Gerard Dou, Frans Snyders, Jacob Jordaens, Aert de Gelder, Gerard Dou, and Jacob van Ruisdael, along with many, many more outstanding Northern European artists.

Jacob van Ruisdael (1628/29-1682)

A Waterfall in a Rocky Landscape, 

oil on canvas laid down on panel, 66 x 52 cm

HOHENBUCHAU COLLECTION, on Permanent Loan to the LIECHTENSTEIN.

The Princely Collections, Vienna

When we speak of various genres, we mean biblical and mythological  subjects (known as "history painting"), still lifes, landscapes, portraits and lively hunting scenes.  Here we marvel at the mastery of meticulous execution and evocative light. From the eerie hues of Mannerism to the hushed tones of late Dutch Baroque, each work captures the sense of an actual human experience.

Joachim Vtewael (1566-1638)

Venus and Adonis, oil on panel, 36 x 48 cm

HOHENBUCHAU COLLECTION, on Permanent Loan to the LIECHTENSTEIN.

The Princely Collections, Vienna

"Particularly unique to the collection are the number of individual paintings executed by more than one artist, working in collaboration.  Netherlandish artists tended to specialize, whether in figures, landscapes or still lifes, but they were not averse to collaboration," explained Dr. Peter C. Sutton, Executive Director of the Bruce and organizer of the exhibition.

Joos de Momper the Younger (1564-1635) and Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625)

A Hermit Before a Grotto (A Mountainous Landscape with Pilgrams at a Chapel in a Grotto)

Oil on panel, 56 x 80 cm

HOHENBUCHAU COLLECTION, on Permanent Loan to the LIECHTENSTEIN.

The Princely Collections, Vienna

Serious devotees of the Northern Baroque art should also attend a special symposium of experts on Saturday, October 25th from 10 am to 4:30 pm, featuring Walther A. Liedtke from the Met; Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr., from the National Gallery in Washington; Christopher Brown from the Ashmolean Museum and Worcester College, University of Oxford; Frederik J. Duparc formerly from the Mauritshuis at the The Hague; and the Bruce Museum's own illustrious North Baroque scholar Dr. Peter C. Sutton.   Details are available on the museum's website.  Reservations and tickets are required.

Best wishes to you all for Fall 2014 Art Season and 5775 (according to the Jewish Calendar),
Beth New York

aka Beth S. Gersh-Nesic
Director
New York Arts Exchange
www.nyarts-exchange.com
Study Group and Tours Schedule available on our website.

Last Call: Oakes Twins at the Museum of Math through September 14th; Artists' Talk on September 10th

Ryan and Trevor Oakes, Flatiron Building, drawing on curved canvas

Labor Day 2014 is finally here.  The "official" end of summer and several important exhibitions as well: Futurism at the Guggenheim, Degenerate Art at the Neue Galerie and Lucas Samaras at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.   

However, there are still wonderful exhibitions still open, which I recommended a few weeks ago.

One show I neglected to mention is Compounding Vision: The Art of Ryan and Trevor Oakes curated by Lawrence Weschler, at the Museum of Math, 11 East 26th Street, near Madison Square Park, closing on Sunday, September 14, 2014.

Ryan and Trevor Oakes, Frac, pipe cleaners

I discovered the extraordinary Oakes' works at the Brucennial 2012 and then again at Pulse [art fair] this year in the House of the Nobleman booth, where John J. McGurck kindly walked me through the various examples on site and the process.  Astounding and captivating.  

Rather than try to explain their concepts in print, allow me to introduce you to Ryan and Trevor Oakes in a video made for The New York Times and in another one made for TEDx talk at Cooper Union.  For more information on the Oakes background, please read the reviews in the NYT and Huffington Post as well as visit their website.  

Ryan and Trevor Oakes will give a talk about their work at the Museum of Math on Wednesday, September 10th at 5:30 to 7:00 pm (tickets on sale through Museum of Math website).  A closing reception will take place on Thursday, September 11th, 6:00 to 8:00 pm (open to the public).

Catch this fabulous show while you can - and discover the Museum of Math too. 

(New York Arts Exchange Tours and Study Group calendar now available on our website.)

Happy Labor Day,

Beth New York

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

Director

New York Arts Exchange

www.nyarts-exchange.com

Georgia on My Mind: "Enchanted" in O'Keeffe Country

San Francisco de Asis Mission Church, Ranchos de Taos, NM, 1772-1816

Photo: Beth S. Gersh-Nesic, August 17, 2014

It would be art historian-ly to say that I visited New Mexico this summer in search of the genuine light that inspired Georgia O'Keeffe's sun-bleached paintings.   For this is "O'Keeffe Country" (intoned the narrator in one video at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe).    But that would be a lie.   

Beth S. Gersh-Nesic,  Sandia Mountains, Albuquerque, NM, at Sunset, August 16, 2014

I longed to see the Sandia Mountains that were magically featured in the television series Breaking Bad.  It wasn't Georgia that got me to Albuquerque, but Walter White (or more accurately Sony Pictures that insisted Vince Gilligan set his story in NM, because the state offered a 25% discount as incentive - YO, NEW MEXICO!)

Left: Georgia O'Keeffe, Ranchos Church, No. 1, 1929, oil on canvas, 18 3/4 x 24 inches, Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL, copyright: Georgia O'Keeffe Museum.    Right: Ansel Adams, Saint Francis Church, Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico, c. 1929, silver gelatin print, 13 5/16 x 17 5/16 inches, Collection Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, copyright: The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust

Nevertheless, the prospect of viewing Georgia O'Keeffe's paintings lured us to Santa Fe from our hotel in Albuquerque, and indeed we were enchanted with the collection and kindness we encountered at her eponymous museum.

Georgia O'Keeffe, My Last Door, 1952/54, oil on canvas, 48 x 84 inches, Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, NM, Gift of the Burnett Foundation, Photo: Beth S. Gersh-Nesic

Georgia O'Keeffe, Jimson Weed, 1932, oil on canvas, 40x 48 inches, Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, NM, Gift of the Burnett Family.  Photo: Beth S. Gersh-Nesic

Update: Video on JimsonWeed, sold at Sotheby's November 20, 2014]

Georgia O'Keeffe Museum

The next day we headed to Taos, about an hour Northeast of Sante Fe, in search of the excellent Harwood Museum, which is part of the University of New Mexico.  Its Gus Foster collection was a revelation!  

Gus Foster Collection, Harwood Museum, University of Mexico, Taos, NM

The Agnes Martin Gallery, 1993, with Donald Judd benches,  Harwood Museum

And the Agnes Martin Gallery of 1993 paintings, which she created upon her return to Taos, felt like a spiritual oasis in its separate alcove and quietude.  The Donald Judd benches were used by Martin herself when she visited the museum.

We savored our time there and then headed for the Taos Pueblo, the oldest continuously inhabited pueblo village, founded 1000 years ago.

Taos Pueblo, constructed 1000 - 1450, 1 mile north of the city of Taos, NM

Our guide, a member of the Red Willow People who live in the pueblo, provided insights that just roaming through the grounds could not convey.   We were tremendously appreciative of what we learned about the history of Native Americans - this was the most enduring aspect of our trip to New Mexico.

Albuquerque Museum of History and Art. Photo: Beth S. Gersh-Nesic

And then - alas - our time in NM ran out.  We were not able to go to Georgia O'Keeffe's Ghost Ranch. Perhaps, next time in "The Land of Enchantment."

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

Last Call: NYC Gallery Exhibitions

Joan Mitchell, Linden Tree, 1977
Oil on canvas, 37 x 28 3/4 inches

Once upon a time, the art world would fall into a gentle slumber from the end of the July through early September.   Those good ol' days have been over for sometime now and many a great exhibition can still be viewed straight through to the Friday before Labor Day.

Here are my recommendations for galleries in Chelsea, SoHo, Midtown and the Upper Eastside.

Tara Donovan, Untitled, 2014

Styrene index cards, metal, wood, paint and glue

12 feet 5 1/2 inches by 22 feet 4 inches x 22 feet 11 1/2 inches

Closing this weekend:

"Group Show," at David Zwirner, 537 West 20th St., through August 15.

"TeamLab" and "Tara Donovan," at Pace, 508-10 and 534 West 25th, through August 15.

"Group Show," at Longhouse Projects, 285 Spring Street, through August 15.

"Hypothesis for an Exhibition: Group Show," at Dominique Lévy, 909 Madison Avenue, through August 15.

Closing before Labor Day:

Peter Dayton: Anarchy in My Head, at Winston Wachter, 530 West 25th St., through August 29.

"Joan Mitchell: Trees," at Cheim and Read, 547 West 25th St.,  through August 29.

"Wives, Lovers and Daughters," at Forum Gallery, 730 Fifth Avenue, through August 29.

Marcel Duchamp and Ed Ruche, at Gagosian, 980 Madison Avenue, through August 29.

Closing after Labor Day:

Nancy Rubin, at Gagosian, 522 West 21st St., through September 18.

"Landscape with Devices," at Fridman Gallery, 287 Spring Street, August 28 - September 4th.

Happy August Arting,

Beth New York

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

Director

New York Arts Exchange

www.nyarts-exchange.com

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