by Bob Martin | Jul 28, 2010 | Art, Movies, Writers
(500) days of Summer
Two movies that I did not see when they first were released, “(500) days of Summer” and “Rachel Getting Married“,
Rachel Getting Married
I got to see them this past week. I can remember there being a buzz about both movies and I had no expectations. I enjoyed both because of how they were written. One a melodrama and the other a romantic comedy and both were mysteries.
Some movies are predictable, following a story template and depending on high production value to entertain us (How many cars are blown up). Both of these movie where story driven, well acted and lightly produced. I got the sense that this is were everyone, the actors, writers, producer and director wanted to end up. I am just a sap for stories.
by Sandy | Jul 23, 2010 | Art, Artist, Blogroll, Exhibits, Galleries
“Mystical Impressionism” is the name of the presentation at the Paul Mahder Gallery in San Francisco, CA. The work of 2 Nicaraguan artists, Otto Aguilar and Omar d’Leon, are on view until January. Their paintings are steeped in color, myth and beauty.
“Otto Aguilar is an expert using pastels and acrylics. His subtle layering creates a lush depth that is both intense and inviting…Omar d’Leon is one of the most renowned painters and poets to come from Nicaragua in the last 50 years. In 1982, one of his paintings was reproduced in the form of a UNICEF Stamp.”
“Mystical Impressionism” – New paintings by Omar d’Leon & Otto Aguilar
Paul Mahder Gallery
3378 Sacramento Street
San Francisco, CA
(Images: Omar d’Leon, “3 Red Mameyes” and Omar Aguilar, “Nostalgia”)
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by Sandy | Jul 19, 2010 | Blogroll, Books, Culture, Education, Events, Learning
Los Angeles will host its popular Black Book Expo again this year on Saturday 8/21 at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel. This one day event will offer “authors, storytellers, spoken word and poetry performances, musicians, exhibitors, children’s book authors, emerging writers, publishers, booksellers, panel discussions, editors, book reviewers…”
The Los Angeles Black Book Expo (LABBX) * August 21st * 11:00- 5:00
by Sandy | Jul 13, 2010 | Art, Artist, Blogroll, Museums
The Denver Museum of Art, “DAM”, has a permanent African exhibit that includes paintings, sculptures, masks, bronze figures, plaques and mixed media installations from all over the continent.
There are several works by colorful Nigerian artist, Moyo Ogundipe. I like them!
DAM, Denver Museum of Art Permanent African Art Collection
by Sandy | Jul 9, 2010 | Art, Artist, Blogroll, Exhibits, Museums
Georges-Pierre Seurat, 1859-1891, is considered the first “Neo-Impressionist” and an innovator of 19th century art using the “Pointillist” style of painting.
“Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte”, (1884-1886) – this 10 foot wide painting is perhaps Suerat’s most famous work. (Stephen Sondheim’s Tony Award winning Broadway musical, “Sunday in the Park with George” is based upon it. The finale with a choral piece called “Sunday” is beautiful!)
From Wikipedia:
The painting “shows members of each of the social classes participating in various park activities. The tiny juxtaposed dots of multi-colored paint allow the viewer’s eye to blend colors optically, rather than having the colors blended on the canvas or pre-blended as a material pigment.”
“Michael Eugene Chevreul, a French chemist, discovered that two colors juxtaposed, slightly overlapping or very close together, would have the effect of another color when seen from a distance. The discovery of this phenomenon became the basis for the Pointillist technique of the Neo impressionist painters.”
BTW: I saw some of Seurat’s other work at MOMA and was impressed. They are lovely, and I can only imagine the patience it took to create them. Close up, you can see the dots of paint so precisely arranged in order to get the desired color. Amazing.
The Museum of Modern Art
(212) 708-9400, 11 West 53 Street, NYC
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by Bob Martin | Jul 7, 2010 | Actors, Film, Movies
Promotional Photo "Knight and Day"
Went to see “Knight and Day” the Tom Cruise action/comedy flick over the holiday weekend and laughed myself silly. Reminded me of a Carey Grant or John Wayne movie, where they play themselves. I’ve never heard Cruise use an accent or try to walk, smile or look differently successfully (my opinion) with the one exception of Tropical Thunder. Cameron Diaz is the perfect comedy partner, Knight and Day is a different kind of “Charlie’s Angels”.
“Apple Pie for Everyone” and “Someday”. That’s a dangerous word. It’s really just a code for ‘never’.
The movie borrows heavily and respectfully from recent action hero movies which adds to the fun. A good Saturday flick
by Sandy | Jul 7, 2010 | Art, Artist, Blogroll, Culture, Exhibits, Museums
Often referred to as a “Harlem Renaissance painter”, Aaron Douglas (May 1898 – February 1979) spent his early years in Topeka, Kansas and moved to NYC in 1925.
Douglas worked with flat forms and hard edges. “In paintings, murals, and book illustrations, he incorporated elements from music, dance, literature, and politics to produce powerful artistic forms that had a lasting impact on American art history and the nation’s cultural heritage”
“Aaron Douglas: African American Modernist” refers to his four 1930’s murals from the Schomburg’s Reading Room.
BTW: 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.
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY
Image: “Into Bondage”, Aaron Douglas, 1936 (oil on canvas)
by Sandy | Jul 5, 2010 | Art, Blogroll, Exhibits, Museums
Like Picasso’s work, Renoir’s paintings, 1841-1919, are doing some hard traveling around the country this year too.
There was an exhibit at LACMA/Los Angeles County Museum of Art earlier this year and now to the Philadelphia Museum of Art presenting “Late Renoir”: 
“Late Renoir follows the renowned painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir through the final—and most fertile and innovative—decades of his career. At the height of his creative powers and looking toward posterity, Renoir created art that was timeless, enticing, and worthy of comparison to the greatest of the old masters, such as Raphael, Titian, and Rubens. He devoted himself to joyful subjects—frolicking bathers, domestic idylls, the drama of classical mythology, and the brilliance of Mediterranean landscape and sea. His fluid brushstrokes and masterful use of color won the admiration of the emerging modernist avant-garde, who considered Renoir one of the greatest living artists. Approximately eighty paintings, drawings, and sculptures by Renoir are being displayed alongside twenty works by younger artists—Aristide Maillol, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso among them—to illustrate, illumine, and celebrate Renoir’s legacy.”
“Late Renoir” * until September 6 , 2010
Philadelphia Museum of Art
(Images: Girl in the Red Ruff, 1896 and Self Portrait, 1919)
by Sandy | Jul 1, 2010 | Art, Blogroll, Galleries, Museums
The New York Neue Gallery is highlighting the work of German artist Otto Dix, 1891 – 1969. 
“The exhibition includes more than 100 masterpieces by Otto Dix, and addresses four themes. The first is Dix’s traumatic experiences as a soldier in World War I. The second is portraiture, a genre at which the artist excelled. The third is sexuality, a key theme in the Dix oeuvre. The fourth is religious and allegorical painting. The show includes the work that Dix is best known for—paintings from the so-called “golden Weimar years”—but to contextualize them, it also includes Dix’s work from the early 1920s, as well as his later work, produced as veiled protest against the Third Reich.“
(Image: Portrait of the Dancer Anita Berber, 1925 and Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia von Harden, 1926)
Otto Dix until August 30, 2010
Neue Galerie, 1048 Fifth Ave, NYC
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by Sandy | Jun 29, 2010 | Art, Blogroll, Culture, Exhibits, Museums
The lovely Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, California presents an extensive, multi-layered exhibit of the art of one of the most interesting cities in the world.
“Shanghai explores, through the mirror of its art, the tumultuous history that has resulted in one of the world’s most dynamic and cosmopolitan cities. For more than a century Shanghai artists have not only been documenting the city’s many changes but also leading its way into the future. This exhibition features more than 130 oil paintings, Shanghai Deco furniture and rugs, revolutionary posters, works of fashion, movie clips, and contemporary installations. They are significant visual documents of the city’s rich and ever-changing culture.”
“Shanghai” * until September 5, 2010
Asian Art Museum, 200 Larkin Street, San Francisco, CA
