New York by Gehry

The new residential tower in New York--the tallest residential building in the hemisphere--by Frank Gehry seems to be up and running. I'm vocally not a fan of Gehry, but I have to be honest and say that I find this building incredibly graceful and elegant. I'm pretty much in love with it.

Tours and photos here, here, here, and here. Plenty more photos and articles anywhere there's an internet connection.

Picasso, Stein, and curators

There hasn't been a lot out there lately to share. But here's an interesting essay on curating, looking at the differences between three different Picasso shows going on right now.

It begins "What is an art exhibit for?" And that's such a great question, isn't it? Enjoy.

Money Money on the Wall

"I like money on the wall. Say you were going to buy a $200,000 painting. I think you should take that money, tie it up, and hang it on the wall. Ten when someone visited you, the first thing they would see is the money on the wall." --Andy Warhol

Hans-Peter Feldmann put $100,000 on the wall at the Guggenheim. That's only half of what Andy recommended. A casino in Las Vegas has had a million dollars on display for most of the past 60 years. But that million is encased in acrylic, not tacked to the wall, so it doesn't look quite as cool.

I have a smaller budget, but I'm considering trying out Warhol's plan and displaying a few hundred bucks in my living room. What do you think?

Another painting attacked

A man spray-painted a Poussin painting at London's National Gallery this week.

The man who did it apparently gave an explanation, but he spoke French and everybody else in the room did not. Oh well.

Some day I'll have to think about why I'm so fascinated by these art attacks, but not today.

The Big Show

The Lawndale Art Center is having its annual Big Show this month. It's a collection of very recent (most 2011) pieces from local artists. It's free and they're open Monday-Saturday.

My favorite pictures of the show are:

* Radu Runcancu, Missing Person, 2011

* J E Theriot, Concrete The, 2009

* Sarita Ackerman, Mi Bebe, 2011

* Jesse A. Kantu, Untitled, 2011

Here's the only drawback I came across: there's a video piece upstairs, Emily Sloan's Please Don't Tell My Parents, which is a 90-second montage of...spanking porn. It's not actually too illicit, but the volume is loud enough that the sound of a woman being spanked keeps floating through the whole gallery. On a continuous loop. It's quite distracting.

But do check out the show.

Missing Barnes already?

No, I don't mean the quirky math teacher. I mean the old Barnes Collection museum, which just closed to move to its new digs in Philadelphia. If you are missing the old location, known for its quirkiness too, then the NY Times has an interactive tour for you.

Nostalgia alert: when I was in college, the Barnes Collection show at the Kimbell was the art event of the year. I still see posters for the show and sometimes hear people talk about it--and it was in 1994. It was especially influential on budding almost-an-art-history-minors like myself.

Twombly

Cy Twombly died this week. Rather than link to the story, I'll tell you this: it's difficult today NOT to run into an article about Cy Twombly. As sad as I am that he's no longer making art, it makes me happy that pretty much everybody wants to remember and celebrate him. So look him up.

Bonus: the Menil has the Twombly Gallery, which is as much a chapel as the Rothko across the street--it's just not called a chapel. Go visit. Soon.

Another bonus: watch this video of "Treatise on the Veil (Second Version)" being installed at the Menil.

Art for Physicists

A Harvard mathematician apparently looked at some Pollock paintings and, instead of the usual questions about whether or not a four-year-old could have made them, wondered: how exactly did Pollock make the paint do that?

His answer comes dangerously close to fluid dynamics.

Watch the eyes

Ms Casperson recently pointed out Every Painter Paints Himself, a sort of ongoing online art history course.

The latest article in the series is about the Renaissance belief that the left and right eyes looked, symbolically at least, at very different things. It shows a few paintings that portray people without the left eye. This covered left eye, it turns out, has special meaning.

I haven't had time yet to really go into the backlog of articles in EPPH, but it looks promising. If you come across any particularly good articles or blog posts, please let me know.