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Amsterdam! Ed van der Elsken:




Photographer Ed van der Elsken at the "Stadsarchief" in Amsterdam. You can go see his work until 14-09.
Beautiful sights of the life in Amsterdam from 1947 - 1970. Fun to see and recognzie places where the pictures were taken and how much things have changed since then.
This pic was taken at the Jodenbreestraat in 1965, a place where you could get sandwiches. The portraits of ordinary people I found stunning.
Ed died in 1990. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_van_der_Elsken

Edited August 18, 2014 by page

[Cyril]

Last Sunday.

Three wise men

Gimme shelter

Dis Cover

See the 'Digital Gallery' : http://www.anjavanschijndel.com/en/motivatie.php

Edited August 26, 2014 by Cyril

[ejp626]

The Alex Colville exhibit at the AGO just opened up. I intentionally went for a short visit and will soak more in another time. However, my overall impression is meh. Edward Hopper did it a lot better. I don't really understand why some critics are claiming Colville is one of the most significant Canadian artists of the second half of the 20th Century. I would say Mary Pratt actually has a better eye for composition, just keeping this to Canadian artists.

Well, next year the AGO has a Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibition, and that will be a bit more exciting and to my taste.

And I guess I will be bussing it to Buffalo in the last fall for a Helen Frankenthaler exhibit. So a few things to look forward to.

[A Lark Ascending]

Not an exhibition but a three part BBC4 programme starting tonight which might interest those able to receive it.

British Art at War: Bomberg, Sickert and Nash

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04j2ywv

[mjazzg]

Giulio Paolini 'To Be or Not to Be' at Whitechapel

made it on the last day - phew. Often playful investigation of the relationship of the artist to the work. Pieces not overburdened by the concepts. Thoroughly enjoyable.

Further reading allies him to Arte Povera but I'm not sure this was apparent to me today. Just the sort of show the Whitechapel excels at. It seemed a shame it was so quiet but at the same time it was nice to have the space practically to myself

[paul secor]

Last Saturday at the Milt Hinton and Lee Friedlander exhibition at the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven.

Some wonderful images - just not enough of them.

[BFrank]

Designing Home: Jews and Midcentury Modernism

Very interesting exhibit about architecture and design.

[medjuck]

Jeff Koons at Whitney. Not my cup of tea, but I really enjoyed a couple of other smaller exhibits they had on other floors.

[clifford_thornton]

I liked the Koons a lot, very well organized and paced. His stuff is ridiculous and cynical but sometimes I appreciate the audacity of it.

PS1 had really nice shows of German painter Maria Lessnig and American performance/fluxus-related artist James Lee Byars up recently, as well as a Persian Gulf collective of artists aptly/ironically called the GCC, which was very odd.

[ejp626]

I saw the Rene Magritte exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago. Unfortunately, it closed this weekend (or perhaps technically today), so if you missed it, it's gone.

Not surprisingly, it was quite crowded, though I was fortunate enough to slip in during a slight lull, so the wait to get in was only 15 minutes. Had we waited another half an hour, it looked like a 45+ minute wait and the lines kept stretching out all day. I had my children with me, and my daughter basically said she wasn't going in until I picked her up to see the paintings, so I had to do that, while dodging the crowds. I really think that they didn't think crowd control through or they decided it just didn't matter to have some really uncomfortable small rooms that would be nearly unbearable when it got crowded. From a pure layout perspective, the first half of the show is probably the worst I have experienced at the Art Institute. It got a little better by the midway point, and they did have a kind of nice layout where they had perhaps 6 or 7 dividers with a single painting on each and the crowds could flow past on both sides. It's a little hard to describe in words. After that point it wasn't bad.

By far the most amusing moment was when I held my daughter up to the famous Cici n'est pas une pipe and told her it said This is not a pipe. "But it is a pipe" she piped up. And everyone in hearing distance laughed. It was a pretty solid show. Surprisingly, I think they actually left out one piece that is in their collection (The Banquet) and left it up in the Modern Wing.

Not quite sure they would do that, although I guess this exhibit supposed to focus on his early career through 1938. I'm sure if they really wanted to, they could have justified including it (or at least reminded people to go off and look for it with a little informational plaque on the wall).

[ejp626]

A much more self-contained exhibit at the McMichael Collection (in Kleinburg, just north of Toronto).

It is called J.W. Morrice and John Lyman in the Company of Matisse, and it runs through Jan. 4. The focus really is heavily on Morrice and Lyman. There are perhaps 5 Matisse oil paintings and another 3 or 4 works in pencil. I wouldn't really consider either Morrice or Lyman particularly important artists, but they had a few nice pieces here and there. I was hoping to see a bit more Matisse honestly. One painting towards the end of the exhibit stood out (Rainy Day Paris - I believe this was by Morrice), but I just couldn't justify spending $40 on the catalog.

The McMichael is always worth a visit if you like the Group of Seven, and this is a decent but hardly life-changing exhibit.

Edited October 19, 2014 by ejp626

[jlhoots]

The Plains Indians: Artists Of Earth & Sky

Now at the Nelson - Atkins Museum in Kansas City.

Goes to the Metropolitan in New York in the spring.

Not to be missed!!

[mjazzg]

Anselm Kiefer at Royal Academy.

Extraordinary work throughout

[Larry Kart]

Neo Rauch in NYC at the Zwirner Gallery in early November. Great stuff. Also went to a lot of other gallery shows that day, but Rauch's was the best.

http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2014/11/06/at-the-well-four-paintings-by-neo-rauch/

[BFrank]

Just got back from NYC. Saw the Matisse cutouts at MoMA and the Leonard Lauder cubist collection at the Met...........among many others.

[BillF]

Anselm Kiefer at Royal Academy.

Extraordinary work throughout

Would like to see that, but London is a bit far ... :-(

[mjazzg]

Anselm Kiefer at Royal Academy.

Extraordinary work throughout

Would like to see that, but London is a bit far ... :-(

well worth the trip I'd say.....as a consolation there's a fascinating documentary on iplayer (maybe still there) which really gives an insight into the mind that created theses powerful works

Edited December 8, 2014 by mjazzg

[Leeway]

Enjoyed viewing this exhibition when up in NYC last week, at the Met.

Got a good insight into the BFF/ Frenemies relationship betwen Braque and Picasso, and clearer insights into Leger's relationship to Cubism.

Edited December 23, 2014 by Leeway

[BillF]

Enjoyed viewing this exhibition when up in NYC last week, at the Met.

Got a good insight in tho the BBB/ Frenemies relationship betwen Braque and Picasso, and clearer insights into Leger's relationship to Cubism.

I'd certainly be along to that if it were within reach. That Léger pic whets my appetite!

[BFrank]

I saw that when we were in NYC, too. Interesting and very "dense" with information.

[Leeway]

Enjoyed viewing this exhibition when up in NYC last week, at the Met.

Got a good insight in tho the BBB/ Frenemies relationship betwen Braque and Picasso, and clearer insights into Leger's relationship to Cubism.

I'd certainly be along to that if it were within reach. That Léger pic whets my appetite!

Here a link to Lauder's collection:

http://www.metmuseum.org/research/leonard-lauder-research-center/cubist-collection/the-collection

The Legers are striking. I've not yet come across a Leger exhibition that did the artist justice, but I did learn from this one. The Lauder collection is still owned by Lauder, and "promised" to the Met. I suspect the exhibition, besides whatever altruistic, public motives it has, might also serve valuation and authentication purposes as well, prior to donation.

There were some pictures of the collection in situ at Lauder's apartment, which, from the photographs appeared to be on Central Park, I would guess on 5th Avenue, hardly a stone's throw from the Met. I felt a bit sorrowful that these experiments in radicalism were hanging above the Louis Quinze chairs and plush Turkish carpets, having risen from the bottom 99% to the 1% through the operations of the marketplace.

BTW, I corrected a typo in my original post : BBB should be BFF= Best Friends Forever (intended ironically).

I saw that when we were in NYC, too. Interesting and very "dense" with information.

Yes, a pretty fair amount of wall reading. The curators definitely gave close readings of the works. Typically, I try to do a circuit of an exhibition then return to read the wall on those that have gained my attention. or at least view the painting then read the wall. Not a huge exhibition, but like you said, packed with information.

[BillF]

Enjoyed viewing this exhibition when up in NYC last week, at the Met.

Got a good insight in tho the BBB/ Frenemies relationship betwen Braque and Picasso, and clearer insights into Leger's relationship to Cubism.

I'd certainly be along to that if it were within reach. That Léger pic whets my appetite!

Here a link to Lauder's collection:

http://www.metmuseum.org/research/leonard-lauder-research-center/cubist-collection/the-collection

What a treasure house! Thanks for the link.

[BFrank]

The Thomas Hart Benton "America Today" mural is also a must-see. First time it's been hung in a room the size of the original installation at the New School.

While there, it's also worth seeing the Madame Cezanne collection. Not my favorite paintings, but an interesting study of his portraits of her over an extended period.

[Leeway]

Thanks for the suggestions. When I go back for Winter Jazz Fest, I might be able to squeeze in some museum-going. We had actually intended to go to the MOMA on this last trip, but the logistics defeated us. Maybe this next trip.

[BFrank]

Thanks for the suggestions. When I go back for Winter Jazz Fest, I might be able to squeeze in some museum-going. We had actually intended to go to the MOMA on this last trip, but the logistics defeated us. Maybe this next trip.

You should definitely try to see the Matisse cut-outs. It will probably be the only chance to ever see them together in one exhibit. FYI - get there early, because it's VERY popular.