Last art exhibition you visited?

[BillF]

Took a little trip up the road to see this:

http://www.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk/whatson/exhibitions/jane-and-louise-wilson/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-19870251

[gmonahan]

That would be the cool Django Reinhardt exhibition at the Musee de Musique in Paris.

gregmo

[Ed S]

Quite a while now, but I hadn't seen this thread. THis past July I went to see the van Gogh exhibit while in Ottawa.

Very nice.

[paul secor]

Went to a talk at the Vassar College Loeb Art Center last week. A biology professor spoke on two Cherokee baskets in the gallery's collection. He covered history, botany, and aesthetics.

Interesting stuff - part of a program which has professors outside of the art history department talking and doing a Q&A about a piece of art that they have an interest in. Next Tuesday, a professor from the anthropology department will be discussing a Francis Bacon painting. I'm hoping that the weather will cooperate and that I'll be there for it.

[cih]

Da Vinci drawings at the Ferens gallery in Hull, which drew a fair crowd - they provided magnifying glasses which were unnecessary as the works were not overly detailed or miniscule

Barbara Hepworth's hospital drawings at the Hepworth - being surrounded in a whole room full of these is very effective - & she had a very sharp pencil

[robertoart]

Da Vinci drawings at the Ferens gallery in Hull, which drew a fair crowd - they provided magnifying glasses which were unnecessary as the works were not overly detailed or miniscule

Barbara Hepworth's hospital drawings at the Hepworth - being surrounded in a whole room full of these is very effective - & she had a very sharp pencil

Sculptors are often the best draughts-people.

Working with all that form.

Terrible colourists though

[BillF]

Peter Blake and Pop Music at The Lowry, Salford

Unfortunately, this image in a collage was identified in the notes as a photograph of Louis Armstrong.

[robertoart]

Peter Blake and Pop Music at The Lowry, Salford

Unfortunately, this image in a collage was identified in the notes as a photograph of Louis Armstrong.

In that case, it's probably a good thing the Beatles didn't request Armstrong to be included on the cover of Sgt. Pepper.

[BillF]

Peter Blake and Pop Music at The Lowry, Salford

Unfortunately, this image in a collage was identified in the notes as a photograph of Louis Armstrong.

In that case, it's probably a good thing the Beatles didn't request Armstrong to be included on the cover of Sgt. Pepper.

[ejp626]

A few weeks back I managed to get to several museums in NYC and DC.

Picasso in Black and White was the main exhibit at the Guggenheim -- it was sort of bifurcated -- a lot of early work and a lot of late work, which was slightly less familiar. I spent just under 2 hours at the Guggenheim and 4+ at the Met. The Met had quite a nice exhibit on George Bellows, as well as a Matisse highlight exhibit. This is also the first time I've been back since they reopened the Islamic art area (it was shut down for close to 10 years), and I think they enlarged and rearranged the paintings in the American wing. On the down side, it was impossible to reach most of the European masters because of some reconstruction. The Vermeers and Rembrandts were reachable but not the Titians and El Grecos. Still, a very good visit all in all. (The Bellows exhibit will be in London at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, March 16–June 9, 2013. I don't think the others are traveling, but I could be wrong.)

I tried to get into DC fairly early on Sunday, since there was an exhibit at the National Gallery of Art that was coming down on Monday -- Roy Lichtenstein. It was quite crowded, since a lot of people had decided to come for the last look. I have to admit, I was about halfway through when I suddenly recalled that this was the same exhibit that I had seen in Chicago at the Art Institute. It is really interesting how the shape of a gallery and the staging/presentation really affects your perception. Honestly, the show was more effective in Chicago, though I was glad to see (again) some of the larger pieces where he was riffing on modern art. I spent another 4 hours checking out the other parts of the gallery, mostly in the building with the older art.

I obviously had a lot of conference going the other days, but I did manage to sneak away and saw some of the other parts of the Smithsonian. Probably the most memorable was at the Hirshhorn where they had a massive retrospective on Ai Weiwei. Some of his art is really amazing, and some you just go -- hmmm (esp. the covering up of Han Dynasty vases with house paint). He would be a low-level provocateur in the west, and there is no question his stature is magnified because of his dissident status in China. That doesn't take away from his bravery, but it does make me wonder if the quality of the art suffers because everything he does now automatically gains admiration from Western art critics. I was kind of surprised to learn that he had lived in New York for a while. I wonder occasionally if China considers exiling him back to New York. I probably would in their shoes.

Curiously, I was at the Tate Modern the very first weekend his exhibit opened there -- it was something like 1 million porcelain sunflower seeds. You had to take off your shoes to wander through. A number of people had taken a few, and I was very tempted to steal one or two. Had I known that a week later they more or less shut down the exhibit for "health and safety reasons" (supposedly the dust from the seeds being disturbed was aggravating the asthma of some of the guards!) I definitely would have taken them. No sunflower seeds at this retrospective, but there was a huge pile of clay crabs and some other mass produced art objects.

Anyway, one of the more droll aspects was that Ai Weiwei apparently insisted on a low cost ($5) mass-produced catalog magazine in addition to the fancier hard cover edition, and for $5 I was definitely willing to spring for one. The Weiwei exhibit will be traveling on -- Indianapolis, Toronto, Miami and ending in Brooklyn (spring-summer of 2014).

[mjazzg]

Made an aborted attempt at Picasso 1901 at the Courtauld this morning, Going fine until my son PUKED all over the car on the way to the station. :-0

I know that Picasso isn't everyone's cup of tea but....seriously, hope he's feeling better. It's a small but perfectly formed exhibition

[Chuck Nessa]

While we were in Houston for the Roscoe Mitchell events, we took a day to explore the Picasso In Black and White exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts. I covered his entire career and was wonderful.

[BruceH]

The Terracotta Warriors exhibit a few weeks ago at the Asian Art Museum. And the Girl With the Pearl Earring exhibit at the De Young before that, and the Winogrand exhibit at the SFMOMA before that.

[ejp626]

The Terracotta Warriors exhibit a few weeks ago at the Asian Art Museum. And the Girl With the Pearl Earring exhibit at the De Young before that, and the Winogrand exhibit at the SFMOMA before that.

I should make it to the Winogrand exhibit this weekend. I believe this is the last weekend the SF MoMA is open for quite a while -- 18 months? (They might have a satellite open somewhere.) I hope the crowds aren't too terrible. On the other hand, there might be some good discounts at the bookshop.

[alankin]

"Great and Mighty Things": Outsider Art from the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art with my daughter, who is visiting from Virginia this week.

http://www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/768.html

[ejp626]

I was just in Toronto and Chicago this past week. I managed to get to both AGO and the Chicago Art Institute. The AGO had some contemporary sound artist (Janet Cardiff with George Bures Miller) as well as a very focused exhibit on Sorel Etrog. Cardiff's material was hit or miss, but a few installations were riveting, including a room that was in a dreary rain storm ("Storm Room") and "Killing Machine" which was some weird mix of Kafka, Clockwork Orange and the ending of Brazil. I also thought her Forty-Part Motet in the room with all the Moore sculptures was a nice touch.

I just missed the opening of the Ai Weiwei exhibit, which is worth seeing (I actually happened to catch this in DC in Jan.)

The Art Institute has a pretty good exhibit on Fashion and Impressionism, focusing mostly on women's costumes in various portraits. They also have dresses from the era that more or less match those in the paintings. There were a huge number of paintings from the Musee d'Orsay, and in fact I suspect it is a joint exhibit.

[BillF]

I'm going to see the Peter Doig exhibition in Edinburgh in October. I've bought advanced rail tickets for £10 each way!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Doig

[sidewinder]

I've bought advanced rail tickets for £10 each way!

Good deal. Third Class in the coal wagon?

Edited August 17, 2013 by sidewinder

[BruceH]

"Impressionists on the Water" at the Legion of Honor. Good one.

[Larry Kart]

Winslow Homer show at the Clark Museum in Williamstown, Ma., the incredible Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum in Boston. Also the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, with the great Copley painting of Paul Revere staring you right in the face, plus lots of other stuff. But don't miss the Gardner.

[jlhoots]

92nd annual Santa Fe Indian Market this past weekend.

[Noj]

The James Turrell exhibit at LACMA. It was fun, lots of cool optical illusions. One in particular was very disorienting. It featured a very dimly lit room and a purple rectangle projected on the wall. As your eyes adjusted to the dim light, the rectangle would disappear into the background. Then it would re-emerge. Then it would disappear. I couldn't tell if it was being manipulated or if it was just my own eyes automatically finding it and losing it.

[cih]

Went to the small Gauguin exhibit at the Courtauld - very good, loved the engravings.. Then to the V & A and saw the amazing Constable oil sketches. Then the piss de resistance.. A minuscule show of Sickert's paintings of The Old Bedford which formed a part of a larger thing on the Music Hall. Wonderful pictures & atmosphere.. I am a bit obsessed with Sickert nowadays and I think I might be him in fact, reincarnated but without the charisma or talent or wit

[sidewinder]

Today - The Hockney collection at Salt's Mill, Saltaire, Bradford.

Sickert's paintings of The Old Bedford which formed a part of a larger thing on the Music Hall. Wonderful pictures & atmosphere..

Used to walk past the site of the Old Bedford on a daily basis - Camden Town. I think Crippen's wife used to sing there !

Edited August 24, 2013 by sidewinder

[Clunky]

NMAC Fundacion - Vejer de la Frontera ( Andalusia )

I was particularly taken by a piece by Sol Lewitt , a large pile of concrete blocks set ( Cinderblock) among the pine trees of this extraordinary museum. A real find on our recent family holiday.

Edited August 24, 2013 by Clunky