Going to the Getty!

We haven't been to an exhibition in awhile but today's the day!  The JMW Turner exhibition at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. 

Traveling can be a bit dicey, because I'm never sure how I'll feel, but when this came up and I'm actually feeling pretty good we decided to go for it.

Haven't seen a lot of Turner in person so am really looking forward to it. And insterestingly enough I've never been to the Getty! After a mid-morning visit with mixed media artist extraordinaire Marylinn Kelly (mail art, rubber stamp designer and True Color  artist) we'll head to the museum and then have a leisurely drive home after rush hour.  I'll report in on Thursday!

Jasper Johns @ MOMA

 A wonderful stop at the San Francisco MOMA on our recent Thanksgiving trip to see the Jasper Johns exhibit that just opened and is running through February.

A nice selection of Johns' work - many of the number series, flags,targets and his "Seasons".  Also a fairly recent piece called "Bush Baby" that is being exhibited for the first time.

This 0-9, my personal favourite was not there, 

but there was plenty of artwork to see and absorb.

After finishing the Johns' exhibit I went to the 2nd floor permanent collection to visit this Robert Rauschenberg peice Collections.  I could stand and gaze at this piece for hours (and I have several times)and still find something new. For all of us who are mixed media artists I feel this piece is seminal to our art form. What we do is all here.  It's one of those pieces that must be seen in person to appreciate.  The textures, the layers, the colours.  Simply brilliant.

From the Bookshelf

The highlight of our recent Berkeley trip was seeing the Kurt Schwitters exhibit at the Berkeley Museum of Art. The exhibition book is a marvelous retrospective of his life and work. It was highly interesting to see these early (1920s through late 1940s) examples of collage and assemblage. And, how Schwitters often used his bits of paper and ephemera in a painterly fashion - form and colour - rather than for their intrinsic ephemeratic value. He called his new style of art Merz and published for many years a magazine of the same name. He left his native Germany in the late 1930s for Norway to escape the growing Nazi tide and then fled from there to England where he lived until his death in 1948. A fascinating exhibit and an interesting book. Once more a big thank you to Michelle Ward for giving me the "heads-up" on this exhibition! It runs thru the end of November, so if you're anywhere in the area it's well worth a visit.

Pulp Fashion

Today we're off to the Legion of Honor Museum here in San Francisco to see Pulp Fashion the paper art of Isabelle de Borchgrave -

Belgian artist Isabelle de Borchgrave is a painter by training, but textile and costume are her muses. Working in collaboration with leading costume historians and young fashion designers, de Borchgrave crafts a world of splendor from the simplest rag paper. Painting and manipulating the paper, she forms trompe l’oeil masterpieces of elaborate dresses inspired by rich depictions in early European painting or by iconic costumes in museum collections around the world. The Legion of Honor is the first American museum to dedicate an entire exhibition to the work of Isabelle de Borchgrave, although her creations have been widely displayed in Europe.

Pulp Fashion draws on several themes and presents quintessential examples in the history of costume—from Renaissance finery of the Medici family and gowns worn by Elizabeth I and Marie-Antoinette to the creations of the grand couturiers Frederick Worth, Paul Poiret, Christian Dior, and Coco Chanel. Special attention is given to the creations and studio of Mariano Fortuny, the eccentric early-20th-century artist who is both a major source of inspiration to de Borchgrave and a kindred spirit.

The show runs through June 12.

Love Those Impressionists!

Before we spent the afternoon at Fort Mason yesterday, immersed in beautiful handcrafted wares and delightful creative women, we visited the deYoung Museum for the second half of this year's Impressionist Exhibitions. Last summer we saw "The Birth of Impressionism" and now "Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne and Beyond: Post Impressionist Masterpieces" both shows featuring works from the Musee d'Orsay in Paris.

It was wonderful to see all these pieces again, especially my favourite van Gogh, Room at Arles.

Grab a Chair!

How fun are these?

Great stripes, colourful chairs and bags with bling!

At the Boston Museum of Fine Art on the cafe wall.

Gotta love Chihuly!

A couple of shots from the Chihuly exhibition at the

deYoung in San Francisco a couple of years ago.

I love to look at his work - colour and form to the max!

Ah, Those Redheads!

The Bath - Alfred Stevens

Last August when we went to the Birth of Impressionism Exhibit at the deYoung in San Francisco, I fell in love with this painting. Alfred Stevens was born in Belgium in 1823. He received more family support than most painters of the period and his art received greater acceptance in the official exhibitions of the day. His works fall into a transition area between the formality of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the freedom of the impressionists. Especially striking, seeing this in person, was the soap dish - the highlights of light reflection looked exactly like ceramic, I felt if I'd touched it, it would have been smooth and cool to the touch.

Penny Plain, Two Pence Coloured

Last Thursday in San Francisco whilst dashing from museum to museum indulging in impressionism, we also went to the Museum of Performance and Design, located in the Herbst Theatre building next to the Opera House. I had been tipped off that there was a marvelous exhibition of vintage toy theatres there.

And there certainly was - more than a dozen of complete theatre set-ups with prosceniums, scenery and characters representing the best of England, Spain, Denmark, Germany and Mexico. These were in large free-standing glass cases so you could get very close and examine all the detail. And the surrounding walls were covered with framed sheets of scenery, curtains, flys, and characters. When these were first published the black and white versions were sold for a penny and the coloured sheets were two pence. Slightly more now that they are treasured antiques.

Many of the pieces for the exhibit were originally from Pollock's in England, one of the premier publishers and sellers of toy theatres over the last 150 years. I was lucky enough to get to visit Pollock's shop and museum on Scala Street in London a few years ago. It was a joy to get to see several of these pieces again.

Impressionists - from Paris to San Francisco

Musee d'Orsay, Paris

Today we are driving into San Francisco to visit both the de Young Museum and the Legion of Honor California Palace to see wonderful early impressionistic art on loan from the Musee d'Orsay in Paris.

de Young Museum, San Francisco

In these difficult financial times it's great to get another chance to see this glorious art without having to endure a 11 hour plane ride, to say nothing of the security lines!

Legion of Honor, San Francisco

Not much could have pulled us away from our total relaxation mode, but ...
And after, we will top off our "day in Paris" with a delicious dinner at Zazie in Cole Valley, C'est magnifique!

Fun in Santa Barbara

A midweek day off - we decided to take a day trip down to Santa Barbara
and do three of our favourite things -

1.) Have lunch at Jeannine's - Bakery and sandwich shop extraordinaire!

2.) shop at Art From Scrap - found object heaven, and

3.) visit the Santa Barbara Art Museum - current exhibit: Delacroix to Monet.

Daniella Woolf - once more

Another piece by Daniella Wolf that we saw at the exhibit in Santa Cruz.

It was akin to looking through a forest


In this case, you couldn't see the forest...

...for the ephemera!

Daniella Woolf

Here's one of the fantastic pieces by Daniella Woolf that we saw at the

Museum of Art and History in Santa Cruz.

It spans the entire 3 stories of the building,

and consists of strips of sewn-together ephemera that has been coated in encaustic wax.

It was so much fun to climb the stairs and get a close look at all the different bits of paper incorporated into this massive and amazing piece of art.

Exhibit Time in Santa Cruz

Daniella Woolf

Daniella Woolf's art will intrigue and amaze you. In a coincidence that is also intriguing and amazing; 1.) the latest issue of Somerset Studios features Daniella in an in depth article by Rice Zachary-Freeman. Accompanied by gorgeous pictures of her artwork and details of her encaustic techniques the story mentions that her work is currently (through March) on exhibit at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History.

Paper Sculpture - Daniella Woolf

And there's coincidence 2.) we had already planned a long weekend in Santa Cruz and Pacific Grove for my birthday during February! As I was reading the article I kept thinking "this would be cool to see in person" and I reached the end and found out I would! We drive up to Santa Cruz today and will catch the show this afternoon, and then to Mobo for delicious veggie sushi, Lisa remembers this!

Amazing and Extraoridnary

shapeshifter

"Brian Jurgen (b. 1970, Dunne-za First Nations/Swiss-Canadian) uses mass-produced goods to make sculptures that are simultaneously fake and authentic, playful and political, common and extraordinary." This is the introduction on his website and then you are taken into a world of amazement and wonder. shapeshifter a whale skeleton made of plastic lawn chairs.

blanket no. 7

Professional sport jerseys provide the material for blanket no.7 and waste disposal cans are used to create carapace below.

carapace

Brian's works are currently on display, until August 8, 2010, at the NMAI on the National Mall, Washington, DC.
All photos courtesy NMAI

From the Bookshelf

This week's eye candy book is Chihuly 365 Days. You've probably all seen at least one of the books in this series, which encompasses everything from the African Veldt to famous golf courses. They are a nice compact size, but very chunky and full of glorious pictures. This one is drenched in glorious glass and colour. Works from all of Dale Chihuly's periods are covered. Close-ups of individual pieces, shots of grand instillation's, pictures of walls covered with his characteristic drawings - they're all here. Wonderful commentary by the man himself, as well as many of his friends, colleagues and curators.

Last summer Margot and I attended the Chihuly exhibit at the De Young Museum in San Francisco. It is such an experience to see these pieces in person and at close range. The shapes, the colours, the combinations are truly mind-boggling and amazing.

When asked if he was getting ready to retire and relax Chihuly said "But, you know, I can't do that, because I have the energy!"

Glass art has always seemed like magic to me and the work of Dale Chihuly certainly affirms that opinion. If you get a chance to see his pieces in person - do so. Until then, get lost in this book.

Oodles of Poodles

Kind mit Pudeln

One of the most amazing things I saw at the San Francisco MOMA was the above piece by artist Katharina Fritsch Kind mit Pudeln (1995-1996). Yes, that is 224 black poodles surrounding a baby lying on an eight pointed star. The poodles are arranged on the points of the star in perfect symmetry. It fills the room and is quite a sight as one walks in, unaware, to be confronted by this mass of doggy alignment. I love museums!

1000 Journals

The 1000 Journals Exhibit at the San Francisco MOMA was delightfully interactive. It featured photo montages of scores of the journal pages as well as 3 of the actual journals that have traveled around the world and back again.

A section of the wall held dozens of new journals that had been installed for the exhibit with an invitation to write, draw, collage - pencil, markers and glue sticks available for use. While I was there a class of fourth graders came by and were fascinated - soon most were leaving their mark in one of the available journals.

As did I, before leaving to visit my favourite Rauschenberg.

Collection 1954 Robert Rauschenberg