Art in 2020 is increasingly the domain of the young, with millennials, Gen Xers, Generation Y and Z inaugurating change in museums. These visitors have little time to walk around art museums, so demand that art be clearly organized. In the Instagram age, when messages are quickly read, with words summarized, connections must be quickly and clearly made, so boredom does not set in, and the message is read before the next text or newest artist comes in. We are now a social audience. Artist communities have been influential and collaborative, influenced by what art is being made and shown, and the issues and discoveries that propelled it. The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City has reorganized its collection to group like artwork together, leading viewers to quickly notice and assess those connections, be they color, topic, material, style, directionality or medium. The … [Read more...] about A NEW WAY OF SEEING: ART FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM AT REINVENTED MOMA
March/April 2020
ART FOR JET SETTERS: INTRODUCING AN UNTAPPED MARKET FOR PAINTERS
One might wonder: where do the owners of private jets collect art? Well, in New York City, of course! There was an exclusive VIP Post- Modern and Modern art exhibition held this past October in the new neighborhood of Hudson Yards. Dubbed a “millionaire’s playground,” this gorgeous artful exhibition was a part of the Premier Plate event and took place in order to raise funds for medical research (the Wendy English Breast Cancer Research) and to end hunger (Heavenly Harvest). In what once was a sort of wasteland for parked subway cars, there is now architecture that the whole city is raving about along with designer shops, shiny skyscrapers and an enormous otherworldly sight to behold known as “The Vessel.” High up on the 51st floor, there was impressive and nearly priceless art for sale by the likes of legendary modernist Pablo Picasso and surrealist Salvador Dalí. Along with these … [Read more...] about ART FOR JET SETTERS: INTRODUCING AN UNTAPPED MARKET FOR PAINTERS
PHOTOGRAPHY AS POWER: ART PRC SHOWCASE CONFRONTS VIEWERS’ PERCEPTIONS
There’s no way to distinguish how many years passed make a specific time period history. In “Present Histories Redefined,” history lies within the last two calendar years. The photographs of Feda Eid, Jonathan Mark Jackson and Joanna Tam document the everchanging stories of the present, focusing on marginalized voices. Curated by Jessica Burko, photography as “Power Art” is showcased at Lesley University’s VanDernoot Gallery by the Photographic Research Center. Feda Eid’s photography brings an immediate sense of familiarity, depicting a recognizable setting. Although her artist statement reveals the setting, the captions beside the photographs don’t disclose the location. That familiar place is behind-the-ropes, so to speak, of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. As a luminary of the museum, Eid was granted access to use the museum in an intimate manner for her “Reflected” series. … [Read more...] about PHOTOGRAPHY AS POWER: ART PRC SHOWCASE CONFRONTS VIEWERS’ PERCEPTIONS
CUBA’S OTHER-WORLDLINESS ARTISTS EXPLORE POST-SOVIET ISLAND LIFE
“Archives of Consciousness: Six Cuban Artists,” an exhibition that captures the complexity of Cuba in the post-Soviet era, is a runaway hit at the Fairfield University Art Museum, and a must-see for people who’ve long been enthralled by the island’s mythology. The 52 works on display have been lent by Old Greenwich attorneys Terri and Steven Certilman, who have built a large collection of Cuban art over the course of what has amounted to a near-40-year cultural love affair. If state communism, backed by deep reserves of Soviet wealth and unconditional support, defined the first 30 years after the 1959 Revolution in Cuba, Lillian Guerra, PhD, a co-curator writes, in an accompanying bilingual catalog, “permanent crisis, penetrating poverty and public fear over what kind of future might lie ahead defined life in Cuba since 1991.” Yet interestingly, massive reversals in in state … [Read more...] about CUBA’S OTHER-WORLDLINESS ARTISTS EXPLORE POST-SOVIET ISLAND LIFE
CATAMOUNT’S PERFORMATIVE ACTS: MCADAMS’ SHOW A STUDY IN SOCIAL DOCUMENTATION
If you were alive in the ‘70s and if you were drawn into the wave of protest for change taking place then, you remember the often-heard admonition from then Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver: “There is no more neutrality in the world. You either have to be part of the solution, or you’re going to be part of the problem.” Those words and others’ call to action compelled a generation to get off the sidelines and get involved in bringing about social and political change. Their youth, energy and feelings of restlessness suffused poetry, performance art, music, film and so much else with a vision of, and demand for, equality, justice, peace. Dona Ann McAdams’ black-andwhite photographs at the Catamount Arts Center depict four decades of this movement. As an activist, she was already on the street protesting the war in Vietnam, advocating for women’s rights, for the LGBTQ community, … [Read more...] about CATAMOUNT’S PERFORMATIVE ACTS: MCADAMS’ SHOW A STUDY IN SOCIAL DOCUMENTATION
INDIGENOUS ART AT YALE: “AN ENTANGLED, OFTEN-VIOLENT, SHARED HISTORY”
Indigenous art has long existed under the radar at Yale University, with its thousands of artworks and cultural and sacred items residing in disparate collections scattered throughout the campus. “Objects have been displayed in glass cabinets or tucked away in storage, in wooden drawers and steel cabinets, with catalogue numbers scrawled across their birch bark, river cane and hide,” the curators write in introducing “Place, Nations, Generations, Beings: 200 Years of Indigenous North American Art,” a compelling exhibition that draws upon objects from the Yale University Art Gallery, the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History and the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The beautiful and poignant show is in many ways a paean to the 40 Indian nations whose art is finally being given the respect it deserves. Co-curated by three Yale university graduates, Katherine Nova McCleary … [Read more...] about INDIGENOUS ART AT YALE: “AN ENTANGLED, OFTEN-VIOLENT, SHARED HISTORY”