Art, art and more art

The sun finally decided to shine over Paris, after many rainy and dark days, and so it was the perfect Sunday afternoon to spend....indoors?  Well, with the opportunity to spend a few hours under this particular roof, which I had not ever done, I wasn't going to pass up that chance.

FIAC, the International Contemporary Art Fair held in Paris each fall, is something to see, at least once, even if you're never going to be reaching into your stock portfolio to buy one of the thousands of works here.  And it's held under the incredible glass dome of the Grand Palais, created in 1900.  

With the sunlight streaming brightly down upon works ranging in value from 3,500 euros up to practically priceless, it got a bit steamy in there.  And during the four hours on my feet and nowhere to sit but for a few well-placed "bars" (thank goodness) with thousands of other mostly collector-wannabees like myself, it got to be a bit overwhelming.  Nonetheless, I thought was well worth the effort, energy expended and cost (not cheap - 60 euros for admission and enormous catalogue!).  Note to self if I ever do this again - wear flats with more arch support, and be sure to not pick up the catalogue until I exit the fair.

So, if you're not a millionaire contemporary art collector and not likely to ever get to experience this iconic event, here are a few photos and a New York Times article that provides more detail on some of the facts, figures and art on view during this four-day truly international événement.

My favorite New York app

...is The Scoop, from The New York Times. 

It's like having an in-the-know friend in the city, and it's free.  As the easy-to-use home screen (example above) shows, there are specific categories that are updated regularly containing short reviews from Times reporters and often a link to the longer review that appeared earlier in the newspaper itself.

I love the great GPS locator in it, so that if I'm somewhere and looking for (more often than not) a coffee bar, it will tell me where to go - you'll find something new and never get lost. 

And speaking of coffee bars, this app is a wonder if you're anywhere below 34th Street, but the Upper West Side?  Oh, I wish.  Where are you, great coffee places, in my neighborhood?  Besides Joe, of course.

It's super for finding out what's happening in art, music, theater, dance and all things cultural in New York.  And I love the ideas for day trips out of NY, most of which can be reached by train or bus, if a car isn't in the cards.  The "Only in New York" section is perfect with its suggestions for out-of-town visitors (and for the weekend "tourist" that I so enjoy being even though I've lived here for so long).

Check it out and go somewhere new!  As you do, you can even feed your competitive soul, if you have one like I do, by check marking the spots you've been to.  Email, Facebook, web links, etc., are also easy to access from each of the posted items.  It's full of great ideas.  Even if you're a jaded New Yorker, you'll find something you never knew or thought about before.

Get out this weekend and do something new!

'Tis the Season, Edgy Paris Version

I saw this being painted by this team of artists(?) on a wall along the Canal Saint-Martin, a neighborhood of Paris in which it appears that graffiti is prized as an art form, or a representation of individual expression, or something like that.  Anyway, it (graffiti, that is) seems to be everywhere in this quartier.

If the mural is self-explanatory, do let me know, because I have no idea.  It's a fun neighborhood (more about it in another post), so I guess I better go back there to see it finished.

Anyway, ho-ho-ho!

Gertrude Stein Lived Here

27 Rue de Fleurus, an excellent location, if I do say so myself, very close to the Luxembourg Gardens in the sixth arrondissement, is the address of the residence of Gertrude Stein in Paris for 35 years.

I had no idea, until a local from the neighborhood who's lived here for a lifetime pointed it out to me.  I've been walking/running in front of that building, probably twice a day on average, for almost a month!  And I never noticed.

This is the home within which she and her brother, Leo Stein, started and developed their collection of paintings of the painters of that era whom they befriended; and the address itself, which became known as "27," is renowned for the Saturday evening "salons" that were held there by the Steins.

As I previously posted, that collection is now on view at the Grand Palais in Paris, through January 16, 2012.

"I have lived half my life in Paris, not the half that made me but the half in which I made what I made."

- Gertrude Stein

Cézanne's Big Fall Season

Two important impressionist art exhibitions are opening in Paris this month, and Cezanne gets top billing in both.  

Cézanne and Paris opens at the Musée du Luxembourg next week, and from the looks of the preparation outside the museum (construction of temporary shelter for those waiting to enter), it's going to be big.

And this week marked the opening of the blockbuster show at the Grand Palais of the collections of the Stein family (that of Gertrude Stein) of Matisse, Cézanne and Picasso.  This show was already presented in San Francisco and, after leaving Paris, will come to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.  More information here.

If a trip to Paris is in your plans, these both will be hot tickets.  Best to try to get them online ahead.  I'm one to talk.  I've seen these posters for a week and have done nothing yet about it.  But, now that I have found the websites...

Sunday in the Park, and the Museum, and the Festival

I didn't just eat and shop all weekend, really.  The walking was incredible - the Highline, Riverside Park South, Williamsburg, Tribeca, Soho, the Village, Chelsea and the all-time great, Central Park.  Sunday it was simply breathtaking - a light breeze, the brightest possible sunlight, the bluest sky, etc., etc.

And after nature and sunshine (and lattes from Joe and carbs from Levain, of course), it was time for culture.  Turns out that we popped out of Central Park right outside the Frick Collection, and it turns out that it was Sunday between 11am-1pm, when it's "pay-what-you-wish" admission (how lucky for us!), and it turns out also that it was Sunday Sketch in the Garden Court after 1pm.  (I so often do better in spontaneous adventures than in the planned ones.)

 

There were only a couple of things spontaneity couldn't cure: 

1.  I can't sketch (but I plan to come back and try).

2.  My favorite Ingres "blue girl" and the Sargents were all somewhere in hiding during the current construction (another reason to come back).

Finally, a walk further down Madison led to our intended destination (before the above divertissements) - the annual Bastille Day Street Festival on 60th Street.  Taking up every inch of three blocks between Fifth and Lex, there were crepes, macarons, pastries, baguettes, and a number of non-food attractions, such as music, books, and apparently thousands of Francophiles.

It's now time to go soak my feet.

Sidewalk Philosophy

Sidewalk path in Central Park

I've been seeing these around Central Park from time to time.  This one was alone; at least it's all I saw on my run to the Reservoir the other day.  However, there are other times I've seen one after another of this sort of drawing consisting of motivational philosophy - and fish - along my walk, with practically a story to follow that develops along the way.  

Since this was the second time I encountered this, I figured it's no fluke (bad pun intended).  And so I did a little research and came to learn about James De La Vega.  He's quite known already as a New York street muralist.  He's executed more complex wall art in other parts of town. 

I also found interesting video of De La Vega creating sidewalk art on Fifth Avenue during the 2009  Museum Mile Festival (an annual June evening when the museums along Fifth Avenue are open late, admissions are free and the avenue becomes a pedestrian walk).  See it here.

I'll be on the lookout now for more, and I'm sure to become motivated to post what I find.

Ancient Playground

Ancient Playground in Central Park does not live up to its name "ancient" because it was reopened after a long reconstruction in 2009.  However, in its design and theme, it tries...and succeeds.  My sons, as young playground aficionados, loved this playground more than any other, perhaps because it always accompanied a visit to The Metropolitan Museum (or at least I'd like to think so).  First, we'd visit the Temple of Dendur in the Met, then we'd look out of the slanted floor-to-ceiling glass wall that divides one side of the Temple of Dendur from Central Park and spot the playground directly across the street.  Lured by the images of FREEDOM they saw on the other side of the glass, in comparison to their caged experience in the adult-behavior-mandated world of the museum, they'd start rushing me out of the Met over to the replica pyramids to do what they could not freely do in the museum - run in and out of the pyramids, play hide-and-seek or Pharaoh-of-the-pyramid, and do whatever else arose in their imagination from the museum visit.  This playground also held that ever-elusive object of desire of children - the ability to hide from one's parents, by crawling into the pyramids that are just the right size for kids and too small for parents.  

The other morning, while taking an early AM bike ride, I saw the playground empty (which it never is).  I also noticed for the first time the Osborn Gates, standing at the entrance to Ancient Playground.  They, too, were added as part of the 2009 renovation.  

These cast-iron gates depict five vignettes from Aesop's Fables.  They were declared the most distinguished work of art in New York City when they were installed at the entrance to the former Osborn Memorial Playground in 1953, but due to vandalism, they were removed and put into storage in the 1970s and remained there for nearly 30 years.  

They are incredibly beautiful and, of course, are barely noticed, if at all, by the children running to get past them as quickly as possible in entering the playground, or by the attentive parents chasing after them.  Being neither myself now, I could stop and enjoy them fully.

The plaques describing the primary moral/theme of each story are -

The crane aloft surveys the world..the earthbound peacock struts and boasts.

The City Mouse and The Country Mouse

Woe to the Lamb that disputes the Wolf.

THE FOX AND THE CROW The Crow listened to the Fox's flattery & dropped the CHEESE

THE HARE AND THE TORTOISE Slow and Steady wins the Race

With or without children, this playground is a unique visit, and the Osborn Gates are worthy of a slow and steady look.

Savage Beauty and Pretzels

The Met is at the back end of my backyard.  That I am able to walk there in less than a half hour from my home gives me a feeling of ownership; thus, I can visit whenever I want (and I don't have to mow the lawn).  

Today I went specifically to see the new Costume Institute exhibition, "Alexander McQueen, Savage Beauty."  This is some exhibit - I had no idea what I was going to get when I walked in there.  I don't want to spoil it by over-commenting; there will certainly be plenty of professional reviews.  But, it's pretty wild, and I highly recommend it for something extremely out of the ordinary at the Met, and considerably more extravagant and expensively produced and realized, through sets, lights, music, video, even hologram, than other Costume Institute exhibits I have seen in the past.  I'm even recommending it to my sons - a fashion designer retrospective?  Well, yes, you'll see what I mean.  It's very Tim Burton meets Morticia Adams meets high fashion European fashion designer.  Gory, gothic, sophisticated, over-the-top, not wearable, exquisite and extremely original - all that could be one piece!  Fascinating and surprising, it's running through July 31, 2011.

a rendering of one gallery of the exhibit, from the Met website

After, I guess I built up an appetite, probably not from the exhibit, but rather from seeing people eating and drinking on the rooftop, where I also (always) stop at the end of my Met visits for the view, when its Roof Garden is open, and it just did open for the season last week.  Every live plant in Central Park has "popped" by now, so it was green, green, green, in every direction (pity the number of patrons I witnessed sneezing and blowing their noses and wiping runny pollen-attacked eyes - ah, 'tis the season).  

So, upon leaving hungry, I had to stop and try a Sigmund Pretzel from their cart at the base of the grand steps of the museum.

They are fresh, warm, soft, and in various flavors, which change from time to time.  We tried two flavors - feta and olive, which just simply bore no resemblance to the traditional New York City street pretzel (in every possible positive way).  Actually, it bore no resemblance to any pretzel, but don't let that stop you!  It was as good as it sounds.  By itself, it could be lunch.  And the other try was cheddar; that one looks like a pretzel and definitely tastes like one, covered top and bottom by shredded cheddar.  Both were fantastic snacks to be enjoyed either on the steps of the Met while watching the fashion parade of visitors to the McQueen exhibit or while walking home through my backyard.
[PS - just added this link to the NYTimes review of 5/7, FYI - the reviewer called it "a marvel."  Go.]

Picasso and Marie-Thérèse: L'amour fou

It's spring (so they say), and who doesn't love love in the spring (as my last post so wonderfully displayed)?  Well, another location in Chelsea is also displaying love - for free.  That doesn't sound quite correct, but stick with me here.  To get to the point, the Gagosian Gallery on 21st Street between 10th and 11th Avenues has an exhibit that would make most museums envious.  (As my old Wharton friend asked as we walked through the gallery, "What's the business model behind this?")  Yeah, well, given there is no entrance fee to walk through the well-lit galleries that are filled with many of Picasso's most daring works of the period 1927-1940, of and inspired by his muse, Marie-Thérèse, someone else (more educated in the art biz than myself) will have to answer that question.   This wonderful exhibit will be open through June 25, 2011.

And, if spring ever does arrive, The High Line is right nearby for an inspiring stroll before or after.