Black holes and spaceship

Lee Bontecou at the MOMA fills an entire room with three sculptures and a dozen of works on paper. This is the latest exhibition of the artist titled: "Lee Bontecou: All Freedom in Every Sense" which covers 30 years of the artist's career.

The room is centered around a mobile which occupies most of the space with its moving shadows.

The wall sculptures, which became the artist's signature in the 50s are made of steel and canvas taken from discarded conveyor belts. They are ominous with this black hole. The works are untitled to leave the imagination of the viewer wander.

These works represent the post-war period of the artist, when using discarded material was still a novelty.

The mobile (1980-1998) took 18 years to complete. It looks maybe like a vessel from outer space, some alien composition but contrary to the wall sculptures dark and threatening, it came from a happy fairy tale. I found it very decorative, elegant but with a message somewhat weaker.

Overall the exhibition did not meet my expectations, too few works were displayed to represent the artist. An overview of her works is available in this article.

photographs by the author

body and place

Walking on Broadway in Manhattan, I met Antony Gormley ...a sculpture, cast of the nude body of the artist, located accross the Flatiron Building.

The Madison Square area is the scene of an installation titled Event Horizon . Thirty one sculptures are perched on top of buildings, or just stand on the ground like this one.

The sculpture feels out of place expressionless, humanoid from another planet, with a stiff pose, frozen in space and the crowd keeps flowing by, unaware of this intruder.

It is almost a game...finding the sculptures. I see one, a small silhouette far away. I am looking at the sky, clouds, light and back to the street . The crowd appears different now, part of a bigger space. This scene in Manhattan is like a theater. I realize, the universe, the sky, the skyline, the buildings, the square, my space, myself are all intricate, we are all part of the same world at this instant. Of course, this awareness occurs only if the viewer is "playing the game', let him/herself be a participant. The intention of the artist is reached, to reawaken the bodily sense of self.

This installation is not intrusive. It can be ignored, and a large number of passersby are doing just that.

Am I looking better at the skyline of this area of Manhattan?...probably, I am discovering new angles, unreachable places.

The artist himself describes the goal of the installation: "The level of invisibility and the idea of the gaze, is the principle of the work; the idea of looking and finding, or looking and seeking, and in the process perhaps re-assessing your own position in the world."

This month, a major installation from Antony Gormley can be viewed at the White Cube Gallery also Critical Mass is displayed in Sussex and the artist is looking into exhibiting in Asia.

top photograph from the author

bottom photograph from http://www.flickr.com/photos/28722563@N05/4468781794/

Julia Street

This week-end was busy in New Orleans for the art lovers. Friday night was the opening of a new exhibition at the Garden District Gallery, titled "Treasures of the Gulf". Among the 18 artists represented, Bill Myers from Ocean Springs did retain my attention with his sculptures. Interesting compositions, well seated (on a pile of fake books usually), they are built of strong materials, but they appear fragile and bring a flavor of nostalgia. Each tells a story.

The same evening, I visited the studio of the sculptor-music composer Christian Van Campen...one week early, his open house is next week.

Yesterday was the first Saturday of the month and the art galleries were opened late for their new exhibitions. At the Arthur Roger Gallery, one room was filled with art from local artists related to disasters...again. The work from Dawn Dedeaux "Broken" 2006-2007, sounds of laments coming out of a wide broken pipe is so timely.

Another work, from Jacqueline Bishop , titled "Tresspass"2003-2004 is premonitory.

The show "Field Recordings" was lighter at the Heriard-Cimino Gallery. In a dark room, the videos from Courtney Egan went through the lifecycle of a flower with "Repercussion", or made the Spanish Moss float on the wall. All these videos require precise synchronisation of the cameras and sometimes sounds.

The action was also in the street, a Jazz funeral for the dead pelicans went by. At the end of the parade, they left behind an installation?...street art?

photographs by the author

photographer, artist

Photographer, artist...

We are talking about Henri Cartier-Bresson (August 22,1908-August 3, 2004), French photographer, considered the father of photojournalism. A fourth exhibition (1947, 1968, 1987) of this world-known photographer, one of the founders of the Magnum Agency, is taking place at the MOMA till June 28.

Three hundred photographs were chosen by the curator who divided the impressive collection by themes: Modern times, Encounters and Gatherings, Beauty, Old Worlds, New World, , Portraits, Photo Essay... The visitor could be overhelmed, but the presentation is so well organized that one goes from room to room, eager to look at more photographs and travel in time and space.

Some of them in particular did touch me, they reminded me of a time when the weekly magazine Paris Match was in every household. These were the news, Cartier-Bresson's photographs bringing the other side of the world and they made me dream when I was a child.

The "eye" of the photographer captures scenes from Harlem, the French countryside, Montmartre, scenes from China, historic moments, everyday life, portraits from well known writers, philosophers... The world was waiting for Cartier-Bresson to create the event? Cartier-Bresson was listening to the world, knew how to be at the right place and the right time and click in cadence with the event, anticipating it.

Each photograph is a composition, this may be due to an early training as a painter. Later in life, Cartier-Bresson abandonned photography and went back to painting and drawing..

The magic of the little Leica camera...which appears big today.

Performance Art at the MoMA

Marina Abramovic is sitting like a queen, a priestess, in the middle of the atrium at the MOMA. Her subjects can face her and gaze at her eyes as long as they feel like. The line is long, and there is a crowd watching the scene. "The Artist Is Present" is a Performance Art show, with the artist sitting daily from the opening of the museum till it closes.

The day I visited, she was wearing a white gown. It looked like she was still in her comfortable bathrobe and it felt homey. This red gown would be appropriate for Christmas. Is she afraid of her aging body? Days after days, she is facing a viewer at a time, surrounded by the crowd but ...absent. Did the patient visitors feel different after this lifetime experience? Was this like hypnosis? Did she communicate some energy? Was this encounter uplifting? What occurred during these long minutes or hours? Watching this event, I was quickly bored and ...

went on to the upper floor. Ignoring the warnings at the start of the exhibition, I plunged into the noise and the images to look at 40 years of the retrospective... It was not a pleasant experience: looking at a beautiful woman screaming till she passes out, self-inflicting wounds , reaching a catatonic state after ingesting medications... The videos were graphic.

Several performances were reenacted by actors.These are not "Happenings", spontaneous with the involvement of the viewer. They are well rehearsed pieces, with very slow motion, forcing the visitor to stay and stare. Voyeurism? Interest? An actor is lying naked with a skeleton on top of him in "Nude with Skeleton" (2002). An actress perched high along a wall, naked on a bicycle seat, moves her arms slowly at times in "Luminosity" (1997). Was it shocking? Not really, I did not feel involved and just watched.

Freud would have brought an interesting side to this exhibition.

A video shows Marina naked wearing only the hat from her mother (or father) with the communist star, standing mesmerized with blood oozing from the wound drawn on her belly (the five pointed star). One can imagine the little girl, who never felt loved by her powerful communist mother, rebelling.

The beautiful scene with the arrow titled "Rest Energy" (1980), made me think about these old postcards lovers used to send each other. But can it be reenacted with actors? The intensity of the relationship between Ulay and Marina Abramovic which transpire in this scene cannot be reproduced.

The artist who mixes her history and Balkan's history early on, has developped a cult of personality over the years, and this weakens her message.

A debate is heating up among performance artists ( galleries, copyright lawyers, museums). Who should perform? The artist only? Can actors reenact a performance? As a viewer, I feel that the point to all of this art is to look at the artist perform. The performance belongs to the creator, otherwise it feels like looking at a copy. The presence of the artist, his/her aura is essential to the performance of the work. I found the videos powerful because I was looking at Marina Abramovic, the artist, struggling, suffering, conquering her fears, her mind and body. How can some actor reenact this?

This is the path the artists has to go through to reach beyond. Watching another human being suffer, struggle, is unsettling. I think that the videos had more impact on me than the reenactments because I felt some empathy for the artist, the actor is paid and doing a job. This experience was thought provoking. Art is not always pleasant to look at.

The cult of personality...because Marina Abramovic is unique.

links to photographs http://www.flickr.com/photos/sixteenmiles/4422517148/

http://www.moma.org/

no photographs were allowed

History lesson

The works from the German painter Otto Dix (1891-1969) are at the Neue Galerie in NYC, a few blocks from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Upon entering the building, I felt like attending a private party. The Staff was courteous and directed me to the tea room on the first floor, I was hungry and cold. The music was soft in the background and to reach the exhibition on the third floor, I chose the steep wooden stairs lined up with beautiful ironwork, bathing in the soft light from the glass ceiling, instead of the elevator.

This cozy feeling was short-lived when going through the entrance of a dark room lined up by 50 etchings. "Der Krieg" was published in 1924. The painter volunteered during WWI and was assigned to a field artillery regiment in the Army. He took part in the Battle of the Somme and was wounded several times. He was sent to the Eastern front and back to the Western front at the end of the war. The works are graphic accounts of these years, depicting soldiers, maimed, brains dripping from skulls, a soldier dead with bones pocking out of the uniform. The white and black prints are telling the story.

Some compared these works to Goya, known for his paintings, also a printmaker.

Several watercolors were also in the same room, paintings of decayed intestines. This is not the imagination of the artist, this is not a caricature. This was reality during the "Great War".

During my childhood in the East of France, I visited Verdun and the battlefields several times for "school trips". There it was, horrific.

Next were paintings depicting the society from the Weimar Republic, well to do personages, pathetic and grotesque, several self-portraits with models even the painter's family, also watercolors depicting sexual murders.

The last room was filled with portraits of well known citizens, a lawyer, a physician, a poet, the dancer Anita Berber. My preferred is the portrait of the journalist Sylvia Von Harden which was not included in this exhibition ( seen at the Centre Pompidou in Paris). The painter captures his subjects with the same technique using the pose, the color of the clothes, the background. He has become the painter of a society, a sick society, and Hitler did not appreciate this.

It is a time in history we would all like to forget... on both sides.

top photograph by the author

bottom photograph MOMA http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocad123/2763228639/

Blue, pink, and more...

Picasso (1881-1973) brings crowds at the Metropolitain Museum of Art, at least it did the day of my visit. His works are breaking records at the last Christie's auction. The Met could not go wrong with the latest exhibition titled "Picasso in the Metropolitan Museum of Art". Three hundred works, the entire collection from the Met is on display.

The early works start in 1901. The progression is chronological and it is interesting to see a now famous painter like Picasso trying different techniques, copying other painters like Toulouse-Lautrec or Degas, Manet, Van Gogh, his neighbours in Montmartre.

Several paintings from the Blue period (1901-1904) are in the next room, depicting tragic characters like in the "The Blind Man's Meal". The Pink period is also well represented with harlequins and the famous painting titled "At the Lapin Agile". Slowly, one can see the artist experimenting with lines, colors and his transition to Cubism.

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His mistresses are represented with "The Dream" or "Woman Asleep at a Table", and several portraits of Dora Maar.

A succession of neo-classic portraits mainly pastels made after a trip in Italy following WWII depict his wife Olga. They are lifeless and academic.

The show goes on with linoleum cuts which I found soulless, technically interesting.

The last room is occupied by prints, works done at age 83 years old, the painter allows himself to be irreverent to the church, other painters and famous personages. They are representing scenes of debauchery, soft pornography. The commentaries next to the prints are essential to follow the stories.

A well-intentioned father is explaining to his 6, 7 years old daughter the works of Picasso:" this is woman and here is a man..." In the name of art, the little girl is allowed to look at scenes that would embarrass adolescents, but she is looking avidly, very interested!

Every work from Picasso IN the Met, must have been displayed and I wondered about the goal of this exhibition, 0ther than presenting the works chronologically.

Picasso, Picasso, Picasso! Picasso is also at the MOMA till August 30th.

The Picasso Museum in Malaga is showing 50 works with a common theme: horses, the Picasso Museum in Barcelona is opened with more works to look at. How can an artist fill so many places?

The Musee National Picasso in Paris is closed till 2012 for upgrades.

I visited the exhibition "Picasso et les maitres" (October 08-February 09) at Le grand Palais in Paris. Picasso's inspiration has been called "cannibalism pictural", but when measured with the Great Masters he cannibalized, he fared well.

photographs by the author