Oskar Kokoschka at Neue Galerie

It’s pretty easy to spot those Oskar Kokoschka portraits: emaciated, contorted looking figures, expressive lines that somehow can render a face demented but composed. And that big initialed, mildly ironic signature in the corner: OK. An Oskar Kokoschka painting rarely leaves the impression that everything is “OK.”

Oskar Kokoschka, Rudolf Blümner, 1910, oil on canvas

Kokoschka’s portraits and drawings are the subject of an exhibition that opened at the Neue Galerie a few weeks ago. As the recession is finally catching up with exhibition schedules, you may see more museums putting on collection shows–it is a lot cheaper to make an exhibition from one’s permanent collection than spend thousands of dollars on loaned paintings. Focus: Oskar Kokoschka is a selection of the artist’s work from the Neue Galerie’s permanent collection, which is still very much a treat–with such small gallery space, the Neue usually has a fragment of its illustrious collection on view at any one time, so an assemblage of Kokoschka’s haunting work should be pretty fabulous.

The exhibition is up until October 5.

TONY’s take on museums

This funky sculpture might catch your eye, on the cover of the new TONY.

The cover of this month’s Time Out New York caught my eye: the headline read “Museums: the actually cool guide.” Ahem, clearly TONY is not aware of my blog. But nevertheless, I looked at the online feature of the article, and their many superlative lists were interesting.

For their list of “not-boring museums” they’ve included some of my favorite spots, including places I’ve blogged about: the Met (easy one), Museum of the City of New York, Queens Museum, Rubin Museum of Art, and the Asia Society. Some unexpected–and I admit, for me, unheard of–additions included the Museum of Finance (wonder how morale is over there) and the Paley Center for Media. You’ll definitely learn about some new cultural spots in their list of “NYC’s most underrated museums” too–did you know Williamsburg hosts the City Reliquary Museum? If vintage pasties are in the collection, as the article states, I have a feeling it won’t exactly be a house of saintly remains.

And let us remember to thank TONY for conveniently putting all the “best museum parties, open bars, and more” in one place. It’s a really great list of some fantastic events one should especially take advantage of before the summer is out.

I do admit, TONY has assembled an “actually cool guide.” Crap, is my blog out of business?

The Frick Collection

The Frick Collection, Fifth Avenue (at 70th Street), New York

One of the many illustrious mansions on Fifth Avenue is the Frick mansion at 70th street, which houses the extensive collection of Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919), a Pittsburgh coke and steel magnate. Upon his death, Frick bequeathed his impressive collection–which includes Old Masters, 17th century Dutch art, Italian Renaissance works, Chinese porcelains, and Eighteen-century furniture and painting–to establish a public gallery. To this day, the Frick is still one of the most outstanding private collections to feature works by such artists as  Rembrandt van Rijn, Giovanni Bellini, El Greco, Johannes Vermeer, Francois Boucher, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and J.M.W. Turner, to name a few. Also of note for you art history scholars out there, the Frick also has one of the largest art history libraries in the country, open to scholars affiliated with a credited institution.

In addition to the permanent collection (which is slowly expanding), the museum also puts on special exhibitions: the 2009 summer show is Portraits, Pastels, Prints: Whistler in The Frick Collection (June 2 through August 23). While it seems to be a small show, given Mr. Frick’s good taste, I am sure the Whistlers will be worth seeing.

Photographs at MoMA

I went to MoMA (it’s really hard to get tired of this place) this weekend to see the new photography exhibit on the American West. I thought it was an excellent show with a great combination of well known contemporary artists (like Richard Prince and Cindy Sherman) and super old school daguerrotypes from the 1850s. It was very comprehensive, covering a wide variety of subjects, time periods and themes. I highly recommend people seeing it if you’re got an afternoon to spend at the museum.

MutualArt.com and Beyond

I’ve just found an answer to all our questions (which perhaps speaks to the eventual and inevitable doom of my blog). I’ve found a website that predicts, organizes, and refers all different sort of art world events, organizations, shows, exhibitions (basically everything you could ever think of) to people. It’s awesome! Like amazing! 

Here’s the site: MutualArt.com. and I highly suggest that anyone who cares anything about the museum world – not only in New York but across the world – check this out. I put in a few preferences and it told me all these crazy cool exhibitions to see. And if you sign up right now its freeeeee! They have a trial version thing going on because they’re just launching the site right now. Get in early. 

So with my newfound knowledge of the art world at my fingertips, I’ve discovered this way cool exhibition at Sotheby’s in their 20th Century Design division as a part of the upcoming auction! it was so cool – but then again I’m sort of a furniture junkie. 

Georgia O’Keeffe Museum

I’m here in Santa Fe this week and haven’t a really wonderful time. I made some time yesterday to see the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. It really is a must-see. The space is really small, the selection of works excellently curated and showing the variety of O’Keeffe’s style and works. They even have this lovely video on view about O’Keeffe’s life and love. I never knew that the sexualization of her work really stems from this Steiglitz exhibition of photographs of Georgia looking pretty “sensual.” And it was after that point that she stopped working in the abstract and starting working with flowers, etc. New Mexico really is a more colorful place after having seen how this landscape influenced one of America’s greatest painters. 

So go on, and visit this great museum if you’re in the area. And if you don’t find yourself in NM, then take a trip on down here. It is well worth it and quite an extraordinary place.

Auction Houses

In addition to gallery shows, auction houses normally have some really fantastic shows of the collection they are going to sell. I’ve seen some incredible art (completely museum quality) at these sort of shows and all for free. And this out-does a gallery show because the quality truly is museum quality – and may in fact be bought by a museum or another high quality institution. 

To check out these shows, check the websites of the major auction houses for details. If you hear of a good auction coming up – the contemporary and modern evening auctions come to mind – it’s likely that they’ll have a really excellent preview of these for-sale pieces. 

Check it out. The best art is often found in the most unexpected places.

Galleries

Just as I am beginning to run out of constructive things to say – at least until I get myself to some more museums and see some more great art – I had a brilliant ideas. People are stuck on Museums being the arbiters of great art – they are a bastion of art history, of talent, of genius. Well – how to artists become museum-artists? Of course they come by way of galleries. 

Some galleries (the really professional and big-money ones at least) have museum quality shows. Only the catch: they’re free! That’s right, if you want to see some Damien Hirst or Cecily Brown head over to Gagosian and you’ll see newer work, in great depth, than you ever will in a museum. You certainly don’t have to buy to go to the galleries shows. And if you’re really smart you’ll start hitting up the openings – where you’re likely to meet some likeminded souls and maybe score some free wine. Check the New York Times for openings and keep an eye out for the Gagosian Galleries, Paula Cooper Gallery, Mary Boone Gallery and the other big names. 

Enjoy.

National Museum of the American Indian

So this is a little off topic but this is one of the best museum in NYC that no one visits: the National Museum of the American Indian. It’s located right at the tip of Manhattan in the Financial District in the old customs house. It’s a wonderfully beautiful building and a bit of history right in itself. 

It is part socio-historical museum, part art museum, and it really celebrates a crucial and oft ignored part of American History. 

It is well worth a subway ride downtown (which is really really quick – and I know because I live down there) and you’ll get a walk around Battery Park, a FREE entrance into the museum (since it is a Smithsonian institution), and a lovely glance into the financial meltdown. I would highly recommend this place and maybe we can start a trend and get people to go here more often. 

Bermuda Glass-Blowing

So I was in Bermuda for the long-weekend (thus, the long silence on this end) and came across some interesting art and museums. While this isn’t a museum in the strictest sense – in that there is no admission, no tours, art is for sale, etc. – it is still VERY cool and something I’ve never seen before. 

You walk into this large factory-like space down at the dockyards on the west end of the island. I discovered after seeing the space that this was infact an old ship workshop. Someone, with the help of monstrously large pulleys, would hoist a boat into this space and hang it by the rafters. They’d then make repairs, etc. on the boat until it would then be lowered down again and set to sea. Anyway, this space clearly hasn’t been used in this way in quite some time. There is now a glass-blowing “factory” (if you can call two women blowing glass a factory) here. I’ve never seen glass blown before so this was particularly cool for me. We sat there for maybe 30 minutes watching these women create an elaborate bowl in a mix of colors. They had two HOT (and I mean 2700 degrees hot) kilns and a bunch of sticks lying around. Somehow they managed to use all this to create some pretty fancy dinnerware. 

Now the pieces are more utilitarian than artsy so I don’t want any of you to be disappointed if you’re looking for some really conceptual work, but the skill it takes to make these things is pretty fantastic. I would highly recommend check this place out if you ever find yourself in Bermuda (and I hope that you will because it is such a fantastically beautiful place like I’ve never seen before – we’re already planning our return).

MOMA

Now I know that everyone and their mother loves the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) so I was quite hesitant to write about it. MOMA certainly does not need a review from me when it gets more publicity than it can shake a stick at. But….and this is a big but…I went to MOMA this weekend. It wasn’t crowded, I didn’t want to pull my hair out, the exhibits were fair but not fantastic, and I had a really good time. 

My best suggestion for MOMA is NOT to go at 5.30 on a Friday evening. Target sponsors Free Fridays and New York City flocks to get around the hefty $20 admission fee (and this, friends, is not suggested). If you actually want to see some art and hang around the museum for a while it is worth getting up early on a Saturday morning (we were there right as it opened at 10.30) and paying the fee. There were few people around, benches were available, we could actually see the art – as opposed to jumping up and down trying to get a glance of whatever new installation is around.

I saw a great Jasper Johns exhibit of his late works on paper, a photo exhibit by Paul Graham, the Marlene Dumas exhibit of works on canvas and paint (which was painfully depressing and a bit too deep for Saturday morning). On the whole it was a lovely way to spend a weekend morning, crowd free.

Museum of Art and Design

The MAD Museum or the Museum of Art and Design opened its doors on its new building at 2 Columbus Circle in September of 2008. 

If you are feeling a bit warn out from the high intellectualism that much of contemporary art requires (which I often am), check out this place. There are pieces of furniture and design which are beautiful and a delight to see but don’t require the same sort of brain power and powers of intellectual appreciation.

Here are the opening hours:

Wed. - Sun. 11:00 am to 6:00 pm 
Thurs. 11:00 am to 9:00 pm 
Closed Mon., Tues. & Major Holidays

Noguchi Museum

Isamu Noguchi was a prominent Japanese American design and sculpture artist who worked steadily for six decades. Some of his work is has been mass produced and can be seen in design stores like Room&Board but he also did stage design work for Martha Graham productions and other sculpture works.

The Noguchi Museum was opened in 1985 by the artist to display his work. He was very much opposed in his life to being displayed in traditional museums like MOMA where he work might have been shown. In order to get around his quarrels with these institutions he decided to create his own to his standards – he could thus display his work in any way he chose. The museum is the first to be opened purely for the purpose of displaying a single artist’s work.

The museum is currently located in Long Island City, Queens and housed in 13 galleries in a converted factory building and included a beautiful garden with sculptures within it.

This museum is unusual in a city with so much great art but very little focus on this intersection between art and design. Noguchi was a singular artist in this sense and is appreciated as such. I would highly recommend that anyone who comes to New York City see this museum. It is well worth the trek out to Queens (it’s not really a trek – Long Island City is the first stop over the bridge, but we are Manhattanites, afterall, and many people are too lethargic to get to all the exciting places outside of Manhattan).

The Cloisters

The Cloisters are an offshoot of the Met but ALL the way up in Northern Manhattan right near the Hudson river on 190^th St. Unless you have a car (or a gentle soul who will drive you up there) it can take an hour and a half or more with all the trains, buses and walking you’ll have to do to get there. But once you get there, it is well worth it. The Met has built a reproduction of a Medieval Church in which to house their medieval art collection including altarpieces, crucifixes and other churchly adornment. I know that medieval art isn’t the first thing to do on every tourist’s list of New York City To Do’s but this museum makes it all worth it. And even if you aren’t as interested by the art and gilded painting, the view of the Hudson from way up there is well worth it. I can imagine 100 years ago or so when the upper east side was suburbia – one day we’re going to be saying the same thing about 190^th St. and the Cloisters. They will no doubt be smack in the middle of things like Mount Sinai Hospital (at 101^st St.) or Tribeca is now. 

Oceanside Museum of Art

The Oceanside Museum of Art is a small regional museum in Oceanside, California about 30 minutes north of downtown San Diego. It has just been entirely refurbished with a giant addition to the original Irving Gill building. I think they are still in the middle of a massive capital campaign. The museum generally shows regional exhibits of regional artists with several juried exhibitions every year. I had the distinct pleasure of speaking with their newly hired curator while I was in Oceanside and she has very forward views about making the museum more than just a regional California museum but really making it a destination in a part of the world where you can’t hardly go two feet without stumbling upon another museum. She seemed very clever and certainly seemed to know her stuff, so I would watch out for the upcoming OMA! While I was there, there was a show called Quilt Visions. Quilt Visions is a juried exhibition of the best fabric and textile arts in Southern California. There is quite a bit of innovation going on in the fabric arts (or, if nothing else, I’d not paid much attention to what was going on and so what surprised by how interested I was by it all. It is certainly not limited to Amish-style quilts). I believe that the museum aims to put on four to five shows per year. This is quite the feat considering that the museum staff is limited to five paid employees. I have ABSOLUTELY no idea how a museum (and a pretty decent one at that) can run with only five employees. Think of it: the Met has over 130 curators alone, not to mention the development, education, and administrative staff, assistants, building and grounds crew, etc. There must be around 1,000 individuals working to make the Met the great museum that it is. It’s not wonder that it moves so smoothly. I am excited for what the future has in store for this museum. And if nothing else it is worth a visit merely for the fact that it is about two blocks from one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve been to!

De Young Museum

Being the world traveler that I am, I thought I’d mention the De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California. I’ve only ever been to San Fran a few times, but this last time I was in the area we made a point of spending a solid afternoon in the De Young. And let me say, I was very impressed with both the content of the museum and the overall flow of the building. It is a highly recognizable Herzog and De Meuron building in the middle of a really lovely park. The California Academy of Science is across the way (there was a great article in the NY Times about this museum the other day)

We has just missed a giant Chihuly exhibit (if you’re like me, you’ve seen Chihuly EVERYWHERE but still enjoy him. I am absolutely fascinated by his character and work structure) which I would have enjoyed and mostly stuck to their permanent collection. On the whole, I had a really excellent time. It was just so nice to get outside in the sunshine in such a wonderful park as Golden Gate Park that by the time we got to the museum I was in such a good mood it was hard not to enjoy it tremendously. And I found that the art was really only half the fun – the building is ridiculously beautiful and unusual and interesting, there is a nice courtyard right around the restaurant (where you can get overpriced nibbles), and the sculpture garden was splendid. I am always a bit of a sucker for a nice sculpture garden though.

 

If you are in the bay area this museum (and the whole Golden Gate complex) is not to be missed. 

Neue Gallerie

When I went to see this small, private museum it was still t-shirt weather in New York (i.e. it’s been a while) but I think this place warrants a post all the same. Neue Gallerie, literally the “New Gallery” in German is a wonder of a place and fully deserves the attention of any dedicated art aficionado. I’d never heard of this place before a professor of mine recommended that we go around and see it. It’s housed at 86th street right up against Central Park in a gloriously decadent mansion which once belonged to the Vanderbilts (but, really, what part of New York didn’t once belong to one of them).

The museum is the brainchild of Estee Lauder heir Ronald Lauder, who, after his good friend and gallerist Sarge Sarbarsky passed away in 1996, opened the museum of German and Austrian Expressionist art as a tribute shortly thereafter. The museum houses some of the best examples of Gustav Klimt’s work (such as the portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer which was bought at auction in 2007 for 132 million dollars) and many great examples by Egon Schiele, Max Beckman, Erich Heckel and German design by Josef Hoffmann and Peter Behrens.

The show I saw was very carefully curated and the grounds and building are amazing. With any interest in Art Nouveau or architecture, I think it is well worth a visit to this museum. And perhaps most importantly to me (who tends to get very overwhelmed by the large crowds at MOMA blockbuster exhibitions), the crowds were quite tame and I was really able to get up close and personal with the paintings and other works. I find it so much more rewarding when I am able to really study the works rather than do a fly by like so many people are forced to do at the international quality museum which are so often frequented by hoards of tourists.

The Brooklyn Museum

I have been to New York City countless times in my life but I’d never been to the Brooklyn Museum before. Maybe there is something about crossing the East River that lends a bit of inertia or maybe it just doesn’t have as high a profile as the Met or MOMA. Whatever it is, the Brooklyn Museum deserves better, much much better.

I saw the Judy Chicago “Dinner Party” there and it was spectacular. I can’t say that the exhibit was designed particularly well (my friend and I circled about three times before we found the entrance and the educational materials) but the show and the Feminist Art Center was spectacular. It far exceeded my narrow-minded Manhattanite expectations.

In total it was wonderful. There were few people there, the exhibits were well curated and not too jam packed with information and the grounds are great. I have a special place in my heart for Brooklyn and now the Brooklyn Museum only solidifies that place. After we’d seen the Dinner Party we finished up with the Feminist wing and then saw a ridiculously huge exhibit by Gilbert + George. It was far and perhaps even good, if that sort of art suits your fancy. Otherwise I was a bit underwhelmed by the remaining special exhibitions. I hope to return again soon and spend more than an hour or two perusing the offerings.

The best part: $8 (suggested, ha!) entrance fee. Why go to the Met and pay a $20 (suggested) fee when you can go to Brooklyn, bypass the crowds and see some fabulous art.