Mar 8th 2010 10:45:16 pm

I met my friend, Suzanne, at the Whitney Museum on Saturday to see the 2010 Biennial. The Biennial, for me, has been a somewhat mythic art event ever since I learned about it as an art student in undergrad. It was always touted as a crazy, contemporary, magical exhibition where artists’ careers were made – If you can get into the Biennial, you are golden. Collectors will be knocking down your door. That is the myth, anyway…

There was no way I was going to miss viewing this year’s show in person! I considered this first visit with Suzanne as a preliminary scouting mission. I wanted to browse the entire show (consisting of 55 artist – less than in the past) and get a general feel for my likes and dislikes without stressing over studying every single detail. My plan was to get an overall impression. I was excited to learn that for the first time ever there were more women than men represented in the Biennial. As I expected, there was a lot of video, installation, and performance pieces, but also plenty of paintings, photography, and textiles. There was only a handful of sculpture.

I may be old fashioned, but I liked the paintings the best. My very favorite (at least after this first viewing) were three pale oil paintings by Julia Fish of the floor, entitled “Thresholds.” (The two paintings above are hers, but not the exact ones in the show.) They are nearly abstract paintings, showing transitional spaces between two types of flooring. They reminded me of Agnes Martin – one of my favorite painters. I am drawn to washed out palettes. I think they calm me. I also loved the small, simple landscape paintings of Maureen Gallace which were displayed in the same room with Fish.

I was excited the see Ellen Gallagher in the show. Gallagher’s “DeLuxe” was one of my favorite contemporary pieces when I worked at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art in Oregon, but I must admit that I did not understand the collaborative installation she created with Edgar Cleijne for the biennial… Something about space inside a big plywood box with a hologram of JFK’s head in the middle… I may need to revisit that one.

I also enjoyed the full room of flower paintings by Charles Ray. I had kinda thought he was a sculptor – he has been in the biennial before with sculpture – but the full room of flowers was pleasing. There were more than a dozen of them and I think they may have been drawn with magic marker…

Other favorites included the beautiful, wall-size tapestry by Pae White and the watercolor/drawings by Storm Tharp. I think my favorites represent the most tame pieces in the show. There was plenty of much more controversial, heart-wrenching, and strange items… and maybe I will grow to love them in time. Each and every piece was definitely thought-provoking! I’ll let you know if my favorites change after a second, more in-depth viewing.

1 Comment » Categories: Art, NYC Museum Review, New York, museums

Nov 19th 2009 11:49:47 pm

I played hooky for one more day and went to the Whitney Museum of American Art with my friend, Alli, today. Georgia O’Keeffe is Alli’s favorite artist and the Whitney currently has an exhibit on view focusing on her abstract work. It was a wonderful show with with more than 130 O’Keeffe paintings and drawings from all over the world. Even more than seeing the paintings, I liked reading the biographical information about O’Keeffe and seeing the photographs of her taken by her husband, Alfred Stieglitz. O’Keeffe was so passionate about art and she had such a long career – painting into her 90s. I studied O’Keeffe in school, but the exhibit was a great reminder of what a strong, intelligent woman can accomplish.

It really shouldn’t be this way, but it was extremely refreshing to see the career of a woman, an older woman even, celebrated. Lately, I think my brain has been saturated by television commercials for “reality” shows that are only interested in 19-year-old boobs. I needed to see a REAL person celebrated for REAL reasons.

I highly recommend seeing the show before it is over on January 17th.

1 Comment » Categories: Art, Friends, NYC Museum Review, New York, museums

Nov 17th 2009 10:51:53 pm

I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art today with my friend, Alli. I love that place. This is a photo of the Roxy Paine sculpture currently on the roof deck. We also checked out the 20th century paintings, some Modern Art, the American sculpture courtyard, the Egyptian section, and we made time for a Crumbs cupcake at the cafeteria. Yum.

4 Comments » Categories: Art, NYC Museum Review, New York, museums

Jun 16th 2009 06:50:43 am

Some of my extended family are vacationing in NYC this week, and since I almost never get to see them I took off yesterday afternoon to check out the American Museum of Natural History with them. What a fun place to go with a six-year-old! At first, when we entered the “Mammals of Asia” area with all of the old-school dioramas and taxidermy I was a little worried about how much fun it would be, but the dinosaur exhibits made up for the somewhat boring start and definitely kept Alex (the six-year-old) interested. I have been told that a lot of the dinosaur bones on display are not real, but the exhibit sign said I was touching a real dinosaur egg fossil in the interactive section – that is good enough for me!

3 Comments » Categories: Family, NYC Museum Review, New York, museums

Feb 21st 2009 12:42:40 pm

Travis and I are back in Eugene with Crusher happily by our side. The NYC trip was smooth and successful. On top of finding a new home, I got to spend a lot of time exploring the city.

One of the major highlights of my trip was visiting the Tenement Museum in the Lower East Side. I have wanted to visit the museum since learning about it in my museum studies master’s program. It exceeded my expectations. The museum tells the story of urban immigrant life in the 100 years surrounding the turn of the (20th) century. The museum is essentially a complete tenement building that was used for housing from the time it was built in 1863 to the time it was boarded up in 1935. There are reconstructed apartments in the museum, as well as apartments left exactly as they were found when the museum was discovered and founded in 1988. There are fixtures and architectural elements that are original to the building’s construction, later gas light fixtures, and even later electric fixtures and indoor plumbing. The museum is taking their time on the building’s restoration in order to do it right and preserve all stages of its evolution. It was fascinating to see all of the many layers of plaster, paint and wallpaper exposed… but that might just be me. I am maybe a little too passionate about historic preservation.

I went on two of the museum tours (Getting By and Piecing It Together), but I also became a member so that I can go back and do the three additional tours. The interpretation by the tour guides was perfectly in line with all of the latest “museum theory” – it was interactive, accurate, unbiased, thought-provoking, and fun. We got to explore the building and “meet” actual families who had lived there in the past. I don’t want to go on and on, but truly, I can’t praise the Tenement Museum enough. My visit simultaneously educated me about the past and excited me about living in New York City. I left feeling like, in time, I could fall in love with the city.

Museums became something of a chore to visit after studying museum theory and scholarly literature for two years, but the Tenement Museum has really re-energized my enthusiasm and love for museums. I can’t wait to visit many more NYC museums!

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