The Walters Museum in Baltimore, MD presents 75 works with the intent to “explore the wealth of European art picturing the hidden presence of Africans in Renaissance society and the many roles they played.”
“Revealing the African Presence in Renaissance Europe invites visitors to explore the roles of Africans and their descendants in Renaissance Europe as revealed in compelling paintings, drawings, sculpture and printed books of the period. Vivid portraits from life both encourage face-to-face encounters with the individuals themselves and pose questions about the challenges of color, class, and stereotypes that this new diversity brought to Europe.”
I am his Mistress Keira Knightley as Anna Karenina
Exceptional films are those films where everyone involved takes a chance. Joe Wright‘s Anna Karenina is breath-taking, luxurious, magical and pushes to the edge every element of movie making. The staging, cinematography, costumes, lighting, and acting etc. every inch of this film is sumptuous and in particular it is the choreography (Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui) that captured my imagination and made the unreal real for me.
See the movie, it is really much bigger then the trailer.
If you’re a rock hound (have a fascination with gems of all kinds), the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, CA is currently showcasing “An exhibition of ninety four spectacular jewelry pieces and twenty eight photographs from Algeria, Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia that was collected over thirty years by Xavier Guerrand-Hermès of the renowned Paris-based fashion empire…rare and stunning collection of North African jewelry and historic late 19th- and early 20th-century photographs by some of the region’s most prominent photographers.”
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has been acquiring the work of this septuagenarian “Pop” artist for years.“Ed Ruscha’s influence can be seen in graphic design, cinema, architectural theory, and urban history. His art depicts everyday objects – gas stations, street signs, billboards, commercial packaging – yet often triggers philosophical reflection about the relationship between words, things, and ideas. The word “standard” is a case in point: it can be a banner or rallying point, an established level of quality, and an oil company’s brand name… LACMA’s collection includes more than 300 works by Ruscha.”
The Art Institute of Chicago/ AIC offers something a little different, a little unusual – “Rarely Seen Contemporary Works on Paper“.
“This exhibition brings together nearly 100 of these highly popular contemporary works on paper, many of which have not been seen in our galleries in years (or ever)…”
“…Harlem Renaissance artist Romare Bearden’s iconic collage, The Return of Odysseus (Homage to Pintoricchio and Benin), makes a rare and welcome appearance, given that it is not often exhibited due to its fugitive materials—cut and pasted papers, graphite, and touches of black and gray wash. Also included are multiple works by Carroll Dunham, Martin Kippenberger, and Ed Ruscha, some being exhibited for the first time in Chicago.”
Everytime I see The Deer Hunter I notice how beautiful the film is, as well as how intentionally or unintentionally the film captures the evolution of that time. The backdrop to this love story is writer director Michael Cimino portrait of young men with the bawdy habits of their fathers with regard to women, drinking and their belief in the idealism of “Greatest Generation” until actually experiencing the horrific and often meaningless game of war.
When Micheal’s (Robert DeNiro) returns home from Vietnam in a taxi driven by a black man signals the beginning of the change for me. One legacy of the Vietnam “police” action was that soldiers came home by themselves, alone without a victory celebration or “thank you for your service”. Some of these men were shunned and giving little opportunity to regain the jobs they lost by going to war.
Another message in “The Deer Hunter” is my understanding of the “One Shot” and that to take more than one shot is greedy and eventually destructive.
When first reading about World War I, and that it was sometimes referred to as “The War to End All Wars” I wondered why this promise was never kept. What is it about us that we are so entranced by destruction. We know what war does and the impact it has on our lives. We seem to lack the courage to say no to war.
Today’s soldiers return and we clap and say thanks for keeping us safe (unintentionally but insincere in a way), before ordering that five dollar cup of coffee sweetness we feel we are entitled to each morning. No one wants to work in a steel mill today and only those with extreme idealism want to go to war (which is different in my mind to wanting to serve your country).
History and Evolution teaches us an important lesson. The past was never as glorious as others have made it out to be and if it were ever that good, we still are not able to go backwards. We really only have one shot, and that’s always going forward.
The Met is featuring the work of legendary “pop artist” Andy Warhol.
“Through approximately forty-five works by Warhol alongside one hundred works by some sixty other artists, Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years juxtaposes prime examples of Warhol’s paintings, sculpture, and films with those by other artists who in key ways reinterpret, respond, or react to his groundbreaking work. What emerges is a fascinating dialogue between works of art and artists across generations.”
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
5th Ave and 86 Street, NYC
FYI: “Pop art employs aspects of mass culture, such as advertising, comic books and mundane cultural objects. It is widely interpreted as a reaction to the then-dominant ideas of abstract expressionism, as well as an expansion upon them.“ (per Wikipedia)
The Columbia Museum of Art presents an exhibition devoted to Mark Rothko, (1903-1970).
The event “celebrates one of the world’s most influential and best-known artists of the 20th century by featuring 37 paintings, watercolors and works on paper which are drawn largely from the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. “
I love the Schomburg, it always has something going on. Currently, it celebrates one of our most famous photographers and film makers with Gordon Parks: 100 Moments
This event “…celebrates a photographer who transformed the visual story of America with his ever-questioning lens, highlighting—in particular—the significance of Parks’s photographs from the early 1940s. 100 Moments focuses on Parks’s photographic practice of documenting African Americans in Harlem and Washington, D.C., during a pivotal time in U.S. history. These photographs were taken when both cities were going through significant changes—arising from post-WW II urban migration, the expansion of the black press, concern for children’s education, and entrenched segregation and economic discrimination. “
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, 515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY
FYI: The Schomburg Library was the vision of Arturo Alfonso Schomburg. Of African/ Puerto Rican descent, he recognized the need to consolidate the culture, history and art of people of color. His collection was absorbed into the New York Public Library system after his death in 1938. It became a part of the “Division of Negro History” at the 135th Street Branch.
The Walters Museum in Baltimore, MD presents 75 works with the intent to “explore the wealth of European art picturing the hidden presence of Africans in Renaissance society and the many roles they played.”
