Last Saturday I went to the MET for the symposium “Michelangelo and His World in the 1490s”. Presented by some of the most distinguished Michelangelo`s scholars, there was a lot of in-depth info on this very exceptional artist. Here are some of the most curious trivia I learned:
He was an exceptional painter and art forger from a very early age (when he was 12 years old he forged and smoked to make it look old, church paintings) and that`s why his father enrolled in an art studio at 13, even though the minimum age was 14.
Last Thursday I went to Queens Museum of Art for a talk about NYFA Immigrant Art Project.
Besides interesting art, and an interesting (although basic) talk, here are some things that caught my attention (and yes, that IS a model of the park inside the elevator!):
On Tuesday I went to the studio of jewelry designer Monique Péan, with Margot Norton (curatorial associate, New Museum, New York).
While it was interesting (in a “makes me sick but I need to learn this even if it seems impossible to achieve without the right connexions” forensics approach) to hear her perfectly polished “politically correct and marketing saavy” bio and artist statement, what really interested me was the striking beauty of fossilized ivory and minerals from the Artic.
Seeking the definition of Art for a while, I can not find one that satisfies me, nor I seem to be able to reach one by myself. Here is as far as I have been able to get so far:
Art is giving the opportunity of being to something that would never be
Yesterday I went to Japan Society for the Kota Yamazaki/Fluid hug-hug (glowing) dance.
I must admit, regardless of having read the description and program, that I did not understand anything at all. Not even after hearing Kota Yamazaki explain his work after the show. So, I did the only thing a reasonable person can do when approaching art and not understanding: feel.
While the apparent lack of linear narrative or character identification makes it hard to approach, the dancers movements (rather than the much touted but ineffective light design), unobtrusive (and minimal) sound landscape by Kohji Setoh, and the elegant twist with the hanging wooden props becoming physical space at the end, played together surprisingly well.
On Friday, at lunch time, I went to the Guggenheim to meet Susan Thompson, Curatorial Assistant, for a tour of Francesca Woodman exhibition.
Although Francesca Woodman`s photographs are undeniably subtle and portray the mind of a troubled young woman (body, space, self, disgust, identity, etc), it is a pity she took her life so early, leaving us with what is obviously a truncated body of work, one that begins, explores, promises… but never concludes because death found her first.
Last Saturday, given that the Anarchist Art Festival seemed a little weak, I decided to spend the day at the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art, New York).
First, a nice tour of “The Shaping of New Visions: Photography, Film, Photobook” exhibition (Edward Steichen Photography Galleries, third floor) by Dr. Elizabeth Cronin, assistant curator of photography at MoMA and NYPL. This exhibition, covering the period from 1910 to today, offers a critical reassessment of photographys role in the avant-garde and neo-avant-garde movements—with a special emphasis on the mediums relation to Dada, Bauhaus, Surrealism, Constructivism, New Objectivity, Conceptual, and Post-Conceptual art—and in the development of contemporary artistic practices.
