The exhibition, “Edward Hopper’s New York takes a comprehensive look at Hopper’s life and work, from his early impressions of New York in sketches, prints, and illustrations, to his late paintings, in which the city served as a backdrop for his evocative distillations of urban experience.”
Until Mar 5, 2023
Whitney Museum of American Art
945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street, New York, NY
* Image: Edward Hopper, “New York Movie”, 1939
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President & Mrs. Obama’s official portraits have been touring the United States and they will be at the de Young Museum, San Francisco starting June 18, 2022.
“From the moment of their unveiling at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., in February 2018, the official portraits of President Barack Obama and Mrs. Michelle Obama have become iconic.”
June 18 ~ August 14, 2022
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA
(Kehinde Wiley’s portrait of President Obama and Amy Sherald’s portrait of the former First Lady)
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“Judy Chicago: A Retrospective pays homage to the pioneering feminist artist… whose lifelong fight against the suppression and erasure of women’s creativity has finally come full circle…The exhibition includes approximately 130 paintings, prints, drawings, and ceramic sculptures, in addition to ephemera, several films, and a documentary.”
Judy Chicago: A Retrospective
De Young Museum
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA
The Museum of African Diaspora / MoAD in San Francisco, CA has reopened. (The Museum has been closed since March 2020 due to Covid – 19.)
“Founded in 2005, MoAD is a self-described contemporary art museum that celebrates black culture. It’s one of the few prominent institutions in the country dedicated to black art”.
All visits, tours, and events had been postponed or canceled. But there was a successful online auction – “important to invest in the sustainability of the institution.”
Some of the participating artists:
Otis Kwame Kye Oquaicoe, Amoako Boafo, Manuel Mathieu, Ferrari Sheppard, Wangari Mathenge, Andrea Chung, Cassi Namoda, William Cordova, Purvis Young, Adia Millett, Lava Thomas, Didier William, Raelis Vasquez, Dewey Crumpler, Wesaam Al-Badry, Enrico Riley, Alexandria Smith, Tiffany Alfonseca, February James, Whitfield Lovell, Peter Uka, Kwame Brathwaite, Ludovic Nkoth, Jerrell Gibbs, Dominic Chambers, Clotilde Jiménez, Todd Gray, Rashaad
MoAD – The Museum of the African Diaspora
685 Mission Street San Francisco, CA
(Image: AMOAKO BOAFO, “untitled,” 2020 (oil on canvas)
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Isn’t this beautiful!
This 16th century brass piece is the head of a West African “Oba”, or king. Many such examples of royal sculpture, from the Benin Kingdom of Nigeria, Edo Empire (it flourished from 1440 to the late 1800’s), are included in the Met’s “Arts of Oceania, and the Americas” permanent exhibits.
I am so grateful that some of this former kingdom’s art has been preserved. Art can be such a history lesson sometimes. So often it represents what is most important to a people during specific periods of their time.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
5th Ave and 86 Street, NYC
*Head of an Oba, 16th century (ca. 1550)
Nigeria; Edo, Court of Benin (Brass)
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Mr Sidney Poitier, whom I considered a national treasure, has left us, 1/7/22 at age 94, with great stories, great images and lots of pride and warm thoughts. He lived his life. He won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and a Grammy. He had success as an actor, director, author and perhaps more importantly, as a man.
Born in 1927 in the Bahamas, Mr. Poitier went to New York as a teen, taught himself to read and catapulted himself into an acting career- a movie star. Not an easy road, but he did it with humor, grace, determination and a never wavering belief in him self.
He condensed some of the life lessons learned into books, not just about his journey, but also about how to conduct himself in an often difficult and complicated world.
Sir Poitier shared:
“The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography”, 2000
“Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter” 2005
“Those that stop their questioning at 75, 60, even 30, cut short their explorations and end up with permanently unfinished lives.” – From “Life Beyond Measure: Letter to My Great-Granddaughter”