Art Stroll

Art Stroll: Newark Museum

Visiting the Newark Museum, NJ was long long overdue …in fact it was already overdue when Kim and I had planned a visit in March 2020 but alas …you get the picture. Anyway finally we were able to go in July this year and boy oh boy what a treasure Museum this is. Def. have to go back.

I am starting with this beauty by NJ-Artist Bisa Butler– The Warmth of Other Sons, 2020.

It was stunning to see her work in real life. The piece is based on a photo of an unidentified family traveling north as part of the Great Migration. In the original photos the boy in the foreground had no shoes, she gave him shoes on purpose – taking care of him as she stated in this interview.

Bisa uses fabrics sourced from Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa to create live sized quilt portraits.

Also in the Museum was a piece of Bisa from 2011- Flowers of Faith – I love seeing how the idea for her work has been consistent but how it evolved so amazing!

Such a powerful piece! Lady Walking a Tightrope, 2006. Yinka Shonibare. Nigeria.

  • Man with Bicycle – Mid 20th Century but an unrecorded Yoruba artist in Nigeria.

Moccasins from the late 19th – early 20th century but a Lakota artist. So modern and amazing.

“Many Came Back” by El Anatsui, Ghana

A wonderful wallhanging made of liquor bottle tops and copper wire.

The following pieces were part of a room about Pop Culture and Religion in Contemporary Art. “The varieties of religious experience run wide and deep in America, and yet we are bound together by our shared democratic values and a common culture of material consumption. Far from comprehensive, this installation brings together works from the permanent collection that explore intersections between spirituality and pop culture. Using diverse materials – including yarn, cigarette wrappers and discarded clothing – and sources a disparate as graphic novels and Buddhism, these works tell stories and contemporary parables in styles that range from documentary to abstract, from handmade to high tech.”

Top Cross by Edrick Jenkins made with Camel cigarette wrapper paper and the bottom cross by Jon Bok made with bottle caps and saw blades

Millennial Guardian Angel by Newark Artist Jo-El Lopez.

The Newark Museum is also a really beautiful building by the way – we didn’t get to sit down in the hall but in non Covid19 times I might.

YEAHHA!

Domestic Shield V by Willie Cole – Scorched Canvas mounted on wood and ironing board. In the 80s “…Willie Cole became pre-occupied with the steam iron as a domestic, symbolic, and artistic object, and began using iron scorch marks in a series of works to evoke human faces, masks and boats. In Domestic Shield V, these scorch marks reference African ritual scarification and branding practices, while the ironing board itself alludes to the work of African American domestic laborers.”

Slave Rape Story Quilt – Faith Ringgold 1985″The Slave Rape story was very hard to do. There is so much we don’t know about black women during slavery – it simply hasn’t been written. I read a lot and I simply made up the rest from what I thought to be true. The facts I researched, but the events are manipulated in order to bring a message of the sheer horror of slavery for black women in America.” Faith Ringgold, 1985

Girl Skipping Rope by Hale Woodruff 1959

Danza Ritual (Ritual Dance) by Carlos Mérida, Guatemala 1962

The abstract treatment of the figure in this painting refers directly to the motifs of ancient Mayan art. He was also influenced by Cubism and Surrealism.

Joseph Stella – The Voice of the City of New York Interpreted” 1920- 1922

This Multi -Panel Painting is reminiscent of altar pieces – Stella portrayed American Engineering and technology as a kind of new religion, an association reinforced by the deep, saturated colors – like stained-glass windows.

King Kong and Fay Wray ca. 1933 by an unidentified artist. This sculpture was likely created to decorate the lobby of a movie theater to celebrate the opening of the film King Kong

Fright by William Henry Johnson – a Serigraph on Posterboard ca. 1985

The Sole Sitter – another piece by Willie Cole, 2013. ..Look closely

“I surround myself with images of African sculptures…these images get embedded in my subconscious and re-emerge almost effortless in my work.”

I hoped you enjoyed this art stroll as much as Kim and I did. Timed tickets, masks, vaccination proof and a temperature check made sure we felt safe and sound and could enjoy the art – We will be back for sure!

Comments (3)

  • Erica

    |

    Great post! I’ve never been to the Newark Museum, so I appreciate the virtual tour.

    Reply

  • Sue Clarke

    |

    Flowers of Faith is gorgeous. The John Deer one could be seen in my neighborhood IRL during the summer and fall, Sole Sitter is so so clever! TFS your art adventure Nat.

    Reply

  • Andrea R Huelsenbeck

    |

    I lived in New Jersey for the first half of my life and never knew there was an art museum in Newark. Next time I go back, this is on my list of things to see. Thanks, Nathalie.

    Reply

Leave a comment

Art Stroll: Murals in Jersey City Part 3

As promised here are some more Murals that have been created recently in Jersey City – you can see all the Art Strolls here btw :)

This made me smile- Popeye and a smiley face ..and very graphic designs- YASS

Love how the grid of the wall works with the woman.

I loved how the light this day reinforced the movement of this friendly critter :)

This whole mural is amazing!

Awesome colors and patterns!

And I love this one with all those eyes and the Dude Shhhhhh – I have been trying to think who that actually is …maybe you can help me :)

Different Murals by different artists- such a cool wall!

And yeah “Welcome to Jersey City! ”

I love how these murals change the environment from something you really do not want to spent much time around to …something more exciting and interesting.

How cool is that????

I am just amazed by the skills that people have!

Makes me feel like a total looser using my spray paint …

This one is def. a bit older but I haven’t been in the area for a while- it is at a really nice little park where a lot of events take place – like yoga, little lectures about birds or plants. Def. hope I can catch one of those events during this summer.

And that was the Murals of Jersey City Part 3 …but I promise you …there is more and there will be another part in a couple months for sure :)

Comments (1)

  • Sue Clarke

    |

    Love that Panda!
    That is Silent Bob from the movie Dogma.

    Reply

Leave a comment

Art Stroll: Murals in Jersey City Part 2

It has been a while since I blogged about the many Murals that you will find in Jersey City and after a recent Mural Festival I thought it would be time to get out on the bike and check out the new murals that popped up and make it separate ArtStroll instead of adding it just to my usual Stroll Through the Hood Posts.

I love the mix of paste up and spray paint on this mural!

This Bridge is not the most pleasant area not because of safety concerns in regards to people but as I told my friend Kim jokingly ..if a drop falls down on me from the top …will it burn a whole into my skin? Urban Humor I guess ;) Let’s sweep that concern under the concrete ;)

Concrete Jungle that is!

I love that the balcony above the eyes says “I am Paralyzed”

I am always amazed about how much spray paint just glows and vibrates and I love how the texture of the bridge pillar is so visible.

Stunning Mural – and as you can see with the door and car as a reference …pretty pretty big!

It is so much fun to see the different murals – Love the “Stay Hungry” and “Keep Rockin” phrases and all the different fonts created!

The red stairs and the broken ceiling to the warehouse make this dragon even cooler!

Look at the depiction on the right of this mural and then check out Jesse Kreuzer’s post about it on instagram. Unfortunately it looks like something was painted over this- I didn’t realize it when I was spinning around to take the picture but now I want to go back and check it.

I love the staggered look of different murals on this building and there was even a couple in their wedding attire to take some photos. What a great idea for some cards. And how funny that nowadays people are just embracing murals versus years and years ago people would just see it as vandalism. Things have changed a lot.

Slaves Of The Algorithm – awesome commentary on today’s social media insanity by

Love this!

I just love the whole scene- the graffiti, the pipes, broken concrete, different textures on the wall – things like this give me a buzz!

How cool is this? One of the bridge pillars and after painting the background probably just done with one of those super duper thick graffiti markers. This makes me want to go and create a pattern similar into my art journal.

Hope you enjoyed this little JC Art Stroll. I will do another one very soon and show you some more new murals in my hood :)

Comments (4)

  • Sue Clarke

    |

    These are really art! Do you know if people get permission to create them? I figure they must take a while and one could get “caught”. They are much more creative than the graffiti that I used to see in the city around MA.

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

      |

      Sue, that is a great question. Jersey City actually has a very extensive Mural program and lot of world renown street artists have left their mark here. A lot of these new murals in this post were created during a Mural Festival, which I unfortunately missed. Often times you see non permanent murals or graffiti also on construction fences – which I believe is also with kind of a “Permission” …You are right, those really big murals are almost impossible to do in the middle of the night since there is a lot of work, and machinery involved.

      Reply

  • Vee

    |

    THANKS again Natalie for this mural stroll.
    I have gone ‘off the beaten path’ to view murals in small town and cities.
    Abandoned building, bridges, storage buildings, etc. have become the canvases and it is no longer a crime
    for street artists to express.
    Thanks also for recognizing these artists!

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

      |

      So glad you enjoyed it Vee. It is really interesting how now it is not seen as vandalism in most parts anymore- although occasionally a post pops on one of the neighborhood groups asking to have the murals or graffiti removed. I am in awe by most of those artists skills!

      Reply

Leave a comment

Art Stroll: Random Galleries at Met Museum, NYC

Last month we went to see the Alice Neel exhibition at the Met and were incredibly lucky to be in an almost empty museum – so I thought I would share some more random gallery pictures with you.

To be honest the Modern Art gallery is never super crowded at the Met but never this empty and nonetheless it was a treat to be for several minutes absolutely alone with the artwork. My heart was so full after not being in any museum for over a year.

Rothko was singing…

Pollock was moving…

Nevelson was inviting us to Mrs. N’s Palace …

but then still decided to socially distance from the viewer.

Edna Andrade invited us for a “Summer Game” – which made me very happy

Sam Gilliam made me think rebellious thoughts on how to use canvas cloth …

And boy, Pollock was just super demanding… such an ego …but …

Can you blame him???

There I stood and just thought “wow …what a wonderful day this is”

Klimt’s Mäda Primavesi looked rather inquisitive as if to say “where have you been, it was really boring here!”

it was tempting to dance through the empty hall, and I think…

Serena knew that too – she gave me a little smile but asked to contain myself

And so I moved on …

And said hello to this magnificent statue

and details in stone…

And then it was time to leave …as there is only so much you can take in and Alice Neel’s exhibition was also already behind us. What a wonderful day this was. Weeks later I remain on a high, how much I missed this. I hope you enjoyed the Artstroll – cannot wait for the next one. 

Comments (2)

  • Andrea R Huelsenbeck

    |

    It’s been so long since I’ve been to the Met. Thank you for sharing your photos. I hope I can visit–maybe next year.

    Reply

  • Vee

    |

    Your STROLLS are so FULL!! Your experience ‘feeds’ me in so many ways.
    You make me chuckle with your choice of words, you make me think abut the way you looked
    at something, you made me feel (dance) (boring), and you always inspire me.
    I ALWAYS want your strolls to go on! MORE, More, more
    THANKS

    Reply

Leave a comment

Art Stroll: Alice Neel at Met Museum, NYC

Last weekend we were able to visit a museum in the first time in over a year. The exhibition “People Come First – Alice Neel” was calling us and after the first hesitation of the thought to be in a closed area with other people I bought some timed tickets for 10am on a Sunday morning. Boy was that the best decision ever. Besides the fantastic exhibition, this was a once in a life time experience at the Met …we entered almost every gallery alone …it was amazing and after such a long time of no artstrolls, seeing art in person was exhilarating. But let’s check out the fantastic Alice Neel exhibition.

“Fish Market”, 1947

Alice Neel was born in 1920 and died in 1984. The earliest of hier paintings in the exhibition was from 1920 and the oldest one from 1984. Alice Neel saw herself as a collector of souls – painting pictures of people not portraits. She was a political painter in the choice of who she painted, what she painted and the way how she painted.

“Mercedes Arroyo”, 1952

Mercedes Arroyo was a social activist in East Harlem. Neel declared in 1950 – echoing Arroyo’s principles “East Harlem is like a battlefield of humanism, and I am on the side of the people here”

“Futility of Effort”, 1930

This abstract painting is one of two experiences: of the loss of Neel’s daughter to diphtheria and a newspaper article Neel wrote about a mother who lost her child when sie was ironing in the kitchen next door, when her child choked on the bars of her crib. Motherhood and the struggles tied to it is a reoccurring subject of Neels paintings.

“Rita and Hubert”, 1954. Hubert Satterfield, a writer and his girlfriend Rita (we do not know what she did).

“Peggy”, 1949

Peggy was a victim of domestic abuse and Neel chose to represent her with the bruises and abrasions left by her boyfriend’s recent assault.

“Dominican Boys on 108th Street”, 1955

While we know those are boys I find them so adult-ish in their gaze and demeanor.

“The Black Boys”, 1967

Neel made this painting of the two young boys Toby and Jeff Neal and I love how you can see the boredom but also discipline to sit this through in those boys. I loved reading an article on how one of the brothers has just seen the painting of him in the very first time after it was finished at the Met and the background story.

“Richard Gibbs” 1968

So vibrant – what is he thinking?

“David Bourdon and Gregory Battcock”, 1970

Bourdon was an editor at Life Magazine, Battcock was an art critic. What a weird juxtaposition of someone in a suit comfortably sitting in an armchair and the other person in his underwear, on an ottoman.

“Jackie Curtis as a Boy” 1972.

Jackie Curtis was a prominent figure in Manhattan’s Lower East side and became very well known when entering the orbit of Andy Warhol. This painting was painted two years later than the one below. This painting reveals the other side of Curtis and play with gender.

“Jackie Curtis and Ritta Redd”, 1970

I love the torn panty hose showing the big toe!

Here you get an idea how empty the galleries were. It was amazing.

“Andy Warhol”, 1970

Andy Warhol was shot in June 1968 and he had many operations to save his life. He is exposing himself to the viewer – his scars, his corset, his eyes are closed, the man who always looked. A very vulnerable painting of Warhol.

“Nancy and Olivia”, 1967 – drawing from art history the subject of mother and child.

“Madame Roulin and Her Baby”, 1888

“Thanksgiving” , 1965

A funny painting and one that Americans well know! Neel was very well versed in art history – the reference below shows the same kind of loose brushwork and food painted into abstraction

“Still Life with Rayfish” ca. 1924 by Chaim Soutine

I did not only love how Neel captured her subjects but also how much humor there was in her paintings.

“Self-Portrait”, 1980

One of her only true self portraits where she is a main subject. Provocative to paint herself nude as an older woman. Neel emphasizes her professional identity by showing the tools of her trade in this painting as well.

“Black Draftee (James Hunter)”, completed 1965

Neel met Hunter on the streets of NY – he came for two sittings. The story goes that he was never able to return as he was called to the Vietnam War. Neel decided the painting is finished. This painting was so touching – for me today it told a different story as well .. the many unfinished lifes of Black Men in America!

“Nazis Murder Jews”, 1936

“107th and Broadway”, 1976

This a view of Neel’s final apartment on the the Upper West Side.I love this – the light, the shadow of the other building, the hint of the bodega on the corner. After looking at all the gazes of people Alice Neel painted, this gave me a little breathing time …maybe she used this view to rest a bit too from all the soul collecting she did, it must have been at times really exhausting.

A great exhibition – and if you are in the area, I recommend coming right at opening time of the museum with an already purchased timed ticket (New Yorkers of course for free). It was a wonderful experience and I felt safe the entire time.

Comments (3)

  • Jean Goza

    |

    Oh Nat. Thank you for sharing such a wonderful experience. I did not know much about Alice Neel. Her painting style and how she captures so much expression and emotion is just incredible. I loved the article about Jeff Neal and how he finally got to see his portrait hanging in the museum. One of the other paintings that really stuck with me was “Black Draftee” (James Hunter). It does seem appropriate that Alice Neel considered it finished in this state. Your comment about the unfinished lives of black men in America is so spot on.
    Thanks again for sharing. I always learn so much on your art strolls.
    Good health to you…

    Reply

  • Sue Clarke

    |

    What an amazing collection. Every person’s face tells a story ( most serious at that). I love the Black Boys…yes, the boredom and discipline you noted Nat.

    Reply

  • Rebecca Buchanan

    |

    I cannot thank you enough for sharing so many images along with your thoughts from this amazing exhibition. I had read about it somewhere else and do not think I would be able to come to see it in person. Thank you again!

    Reply

Leave a comment

Art Stroll: Distort – “Reaching for the Steal”

Last weekend we went to a really amazing art show by Distort – a mural artist I really admire at the Deep Space Gallery.

Upon entering the showroom you see one of a many absolutely awesome wall installations in brick and plaster also done by Distort.

Most of this work was on engraved metal plates and oil paints. Photos can not really show you the depth and dimension Distort creates in his work and boy – It is awesome!

Above Against the Current, 2020

Style Warriors, 2020

Watching Machines, 2020

This wall installation was sooo dope- when you look inside you see a train track vanishing into the plane – Amazing.

Distort had a zine at the exhibition that would show the collage work he did as prep work before painting the work. It was amazing to see the magazine clippings and imagery and then see the actual work resulting from the “draft”

Mountain Dew, 2020

such an awesome reference to his graffiti and mural background

Reaching for the Steal, 2020
The Pentagon, 2020
Supreme Court, 2020

Supreme Court hit me …it was my favorite piece of the show!

Must Come Down, 2020
Venison, 2020

Love Story, 2020

I love how abandoned buildings, the theme of nature taking back areas of architecture and human artifacts are woven over and over into his work.

Father and Son, 2020

Another favorite of mine – this one was actually created on a mirror! Distort is mirrored talking to someone else in the background …I did not talk to him …I am always very shy when I am a groupie hahahaha.

It was such a cool exhibition! If you are in Jersey City or close to it – make an appointment this month with Deep Space Gallery and see it. I love the work that Deep Space Gallery shows but this exhibition was my favorite so far. And really …nothing beats seeing art than seeing art in person!

Comments (1)

  • Sue Clarke

    |

    TFS Nat, Supreme Court called out to me (as well)!
    Not to copy you. LOL

    Reply

Leave a comment

Art Stroll: MoMA Collection Galleries

In December on a snowy afternoon my husband and I went to a member evening with Jazz and open galleries and I guess because it was snowing the museum was almost empty. It was a total treat to walk almost alone through the galleries. 

Funky!

Seeing this in an empty room …RARE

Swoon – This piece by Giuseppe Lignano, – Foladable 1 – 2016 – Laser Cut Cardboard with Inkjet print and Enamel Paint inspired me to those pieces.

Laura Owens, Untitled, 2013 – I love this so much -the stenciled newspaper – the thick impasto flowers .

More empty gallery bliss.

Gorgeous wood cut prints by Edvard Munch!

Picasso’s Ladies on their own

Egon Schiele, Nude with Violet Stockings and Black Hair (Akt mit violetten Strümpfen und schwarzem Haar)

Egon Schiele, Portrait of Gerti Schiele, 1909 – I love this and I love how you can see how influenced Schiele was in in his style by Gustav Klimt.

Vanessa Bell, Composition – 1914 Gouache, watercolor, and colored paper on cut-and-pasted paper

YESS – I really love that MoMA finally makes an effort to show more female artists

Sonia Delaunay-Terk, La Prose du Transsibérien et de la Petite Jehanne de France (Prose of the Trans-Siberian and of Little Joan of France) 1913

Delaunay-Terk and Cendrars transformed the traditional book format from a handheld volume that is read sequentially from page to page into an object that unfolds accordion-style—a dazzlingly colorful, nearly seven-foot-long sheet on which text and illustration can be apprehended all at once. While Cendrars’s poem appears on the right, in various typefaces and colors, Delaunay-Terk’s geometries cascade down the left, and the blank spaces around the text have been stenciled with color as well.

Sonia Delaunay-Terk , 1923 Tristan Tzara with Monocle

Florine Stettheimer, Euridice and the Snake – 1912 – Costume design – Oil, beads, and metal lace on canvas

Florine Stettheimer, Gorgette, 1912 – Costume design

Stettheimer wrote the libretto and designed the costumes for this unrealized ballet.

Florine Stettheimer, Family Portrait II, 1933

An artist, playwright, set designer, and poet, Stettheimer led a Manhattan salon where she entertained, exhibited her work, and shared her poems with her favored circle of artists. In Family Portrait, II, she combines images of herself, her sisters (who ran the salon with her), and her mother with symbolic elements wittily representing their individual personality traits. Among those she chose for herself are the RCA building (30 Rockefeller Center, known today as the GE Building) and Radio City Music Hall, each identifiable by the text the artist has inscribed on it. In focusing on her family, the painting typifies Stettheimer’s concern with the personal, which seems to have endlessly inspired her. Her attention to detail extended to choosing the frames that would best set off her vibrant paintings—in this case an unusual construction of white wicker.

Francis Stark, Chorus Line 2008 – Cut-and-pasted printed and colored papers on paper.

Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven – 1923-1926 Dada Portrait of Bernice Abbott, Gouache, metallic paint, and tinted lacquer with varnish, metal foil, celluloid, fiberglass, glass beads, metal objects, cut-and-pasted painted paper, gesso and cloth on paperboard.

Fernand Legér, 1922 – costume desing for the ballet Skating Rink

People??? just kidding ;)

Joseph Cornell, Untitled (Bébé Marie) 1940s, Papered and painted wood box with painted corrugated cardboard bottom, containing doll in cloth dress and straw hat with cloth flowers, dried flowers and twigs, flecked with paint.

Rufino Tamayo, Animals 1941

Graham Sutherland, Thorn Head 1945 – Gouache, chalk and ink on paper on board

Janet Sobel, Milky Way 1945 – Enamel on Canvas

Leave a comment

Art Stroll: MoMA Betye Saar

During the holiday season my husband and I want to a MoMA evening with Jazz for members. There is nothing better than the word Jazz to get the man out – LOL- just kidding ;) I think because of some snow right before we went the museum was empty- it was awesome. We finally also saw the Betye Saar exhibition. Betye Saar is known for her assemblage and collage work. Saar explores both the realities of African-American oppression and the mysticism of symbols through the combination of everyday objects. “I’m the kind of person who recycles materials but I also recycle emotions and feelings,” the artist has explained. “And I had a great deal of anger about the segregation and the racism in this country.”

The Wounded Wilderness, 1962 – Etching with relief printing.

She became interested in printmaking when she was studying design. It became her segue from design to fine art.

In the Dell, 1960 – Etching.

Her pieces were fascinating!

The Quick & the Dead, 1964 – Etching and collagraph with hand addtions and embossing with stamped ink

Mystic Window for Leo, Assemblage, etching

Saar found this window and used images of the leo and sky charts as this is an important symbol for her. I loved this so much!

Black Girl’s Window, 1969, wooden window fram with paint, cut-and-pasted printed and painted papers, daguerreotype, lenticular print and plastic figurine.

A silhouette of her head with floating moons and stars; an etching (her own) of a lion, her birth sign; a tintype of a woman who could be her Irish grandmother; and, at the center, a novelty shop Halloween skeleton alluding to her father’s death when she was a child, a loss she says she still lives with.

“Even at the time, I knew it was autobiographical”, Saar said of her now -iconic assemblage Black Girl’s Window. “It is like a diary of my life”

Saars printing materials – it was so interesting to see those and then try to find them again in her various prints.

Phrenology Man Digs Sol y Luna1966, Etching with relief-printed found objects

“Phrenology, a pseudoscience that has been definitively debunked, links portions of the human brain to different character traits and capacities. It gained popularity in the nineteenth century and was cited by proponents of slavery and segregation as proof of the inferiority of African Americans. That a black woman adopted this motif in her work may seem subversive, but according to Saar, she was attracted to phrenology as a map of the unknown, in keeping with her interest in astrology and palmistry. Her own Phrenology Man, who appears in this print and several others, has the words “SEX” and “HATE” tumbling through his mind, together with animals, flowers, and astrological signs.”

The Phrenologer’s Window II, 1966 – Wooden Window frame with cut-and-pasted printed paper, acrylic paint, and found objects on board

“You can make art out of anything.” Betye Saar

The Palmist Window, 1967 wooden window frame with cut-and-pasted printed paper and fabric with charcoal and acrylic paint

Comments (1)

  • chrissie

    |

    loved this

    Reply

Leave a comment

Art Stroll: Storm King

For my Birthday in July my husband surprised me with a trip to the Storm King Art Center in the Hudson Valley in New York State. It had been on my bucket list for a long time and gosh it was soooo cool!

There is something so beautiful to walk around in Nature and look at gigantic art which appears different from all kinds of angles and in different lights and seasons.

Storm King was founded and opened in the 60s and it is pretty massive.

“Storm King Art Center’s dramatic landscape includes farmed fields, natural woodlands, lawns, native grasses, wetlands, and water.”

Don’t be fooled by the cloudy and cool looking pictures – it was an extremely hot and humid day .

But it didn’t deter us from hiking around and enjoying everything.

Where every you turn around there is something to see- sometimes very colorful and prominent

Menashe Kadishman’s Suspended was one of my favorites – all you wonder is “how is this even balancing and holding up” . It was fun to see people interacting with the sculpture and walk underneath.

“Tomio Miki, who exhibited among a group of avant-garde, politically active artists in Tokyo in the late 1950s and early 1960s, settled in 1963 on the human ear as his primary sculptural subject for the next several years. He often depicted them individually, on a giant scale, as represented in the work at Storm King. Sometimes he combined ears with other elements, such as spoons or colored lights, or made series of them set in rows or in boxes. Miki spoke quixotically about his choice of the ear, saying that it originated in an “experience in a train, when, for no reason, I suddenly felt myself surrounded by hundreds of ears trying to assault me. This personal episode, however, wouldn’t be any precise answer to why I make ears. I can hardly say I chose the ear. More precisely, isn’t it that the ear chose me?”

Ursula von Rydingsvard’s For Paul—made of cedar wood

Alexander Calder , Black Flag, 1974

The museum hosted an exhibition of Mark Dion – Follies.

“The job of the artist,” he says, “is to go against the grain of dominant culture, to challenge perception and convention.”

Appropriating archaeological and other scientific methods of collecting, ordering, and exhibiting objects, Dion creates works that question the distinctions between “objective” (“rational”) scientific methods and “subjective” (“irrational”) influences.

One of my favorites- the next 3 works below by Louise Bourgeois – it is always such a treat to see her work in person.

“While typically black, Nevelson’s sculptures are occasionally white or gold; their monochromatic surfaces lend a sense of order and unity to the varied parts. Among Nevelson’s first gold-painted sculptures, Royal Tide I was included in the historic Art of Assemblage exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1961. Nevelson cited a religious resonance in the color gold, as well as a natural and spiritual connection to the sun. She was also interested in its timeless quality: “Gold has been the staple of the world for ages; it is universal.”

Sky Chapel No. 1, 1958-59

“Number Seventy-Two (The No March) is one of Louise Bourgeois’s most complex and politically charged works. This intricate sculpture—a floor work made from 1,200 individual cylindrical pieces of marble and travertine—was created in homage to a non-violent protest against the Vietnam War. Bourgeois also imbued the work with a more universal meaning, noting: “The No March also means accepting you’re almost nobody. You have to merge with thousands like you.”

Five Units Equal, 1956

Gorgeous fountain by Lynda Bengalis which resembles ocean waves lapping at the shore, slow-moving lava, or prehistoric creatures.

You can rent bikes and go out in the fields- which we should have done but we realized too late and walking in heat of 100F/38 C and in that sauna air wasn’t really our thing that day.

We made a promise to come back at one of the other , cooler seasons.

Alexander Liberman – Iliad and Adam

nearly seventy feet, Endless Column by Tal Streeter

A different view of Alexander Liberman’s Adonai -it is also in the very first picture. This sculpture was and is made out of gas storage tanks and the original sculpture deteriorated and was refabricated in 2000 after the artist had already died. I find it interesting – is it still his artwork? He knew it would deteriorate – should it been left as is?

It was such a cool way to celebrate my birthday- it is beautiful up there in NY – State anyway – so if you have never been and have a chance- go for it :)

Hope you enjoyed this outdoorsy – ArtStroll – until next time!

Comments (1)

  • Sue Clarke

    |

    I find The No March very moving. What a great birthday present. I tend to forget that New York is much more than just a big city.

    Reply

Leave a comment