My Monday List for March 29

My Lists of odds and ends that I find interesting


• Manhee Bak: Unrolling Time, from April 6 through 22nd at John Jay College of the City of New York. He is a really interesting artist. More information can be found on his website. The reception is on April 8th from 5-7.
• Marina Abramovic, The Artist is Present at MoMA through May 31. Marian Abromavic is performance artist who is having a retrospective of her work. The New York Times has a good review of the show here. On the MoMA site you can experience the show here.
• The Drawings of Bronzino at the Met, through April 18. Gomaar reviewed the show well, and this looks like a show that I should not miss before it ends in April.
• Flemish Illumination in the Era of Catherine Cleves at the Morgan Library. Gomaar gave it a really good review. It is up now through May 2
• The 2010 Whitney Biennial is up on until May 30th. This is always an event that is worth seeing. Holland Carter of the New York Times gave it a good review. You can read it here.
• Ken Price: "New Sculpture" through April 10 at Matthew Marks Gallery in Chelsee
• Two exhibitions at Duke Riley: Those About to Dia Salute You and Daniel Bozhkov: Rebulik of Pertual Reconstitution and Rebuild through April the 25 at the Queens Museum of Art I don't know much about the artists but it does look very interesting.
• On Tuesday, March 30th and Saturday April 3rd, Kukuli Velarde will be at Barry Friedman working her mural for here show Patrimonio. She has a blog in which you can comment directly to her here. The shows up until April 17th.
• Geometric Themes and Variations through April 10 at Gallery Onetwentyeight. Joanne Mattera is part of this group show. It is an intimate gallery and I like her work, so it is worth noting.

More information on what is showing can be found here.

Deeper Than Y - Watch the Documentary Film for Free | Watch Free Documentaries Online | SnagFilms

Check this out it. It is a film edited by a good friend of mine, Timothy Schneider. It is worth a look. You might even enjoy it.

Deeper Than Y - Watch the Documentary Film for Free | Watch Free Documentaries Online | SnagFilms

Not Sure if Something is Art? There's an App for That

This was intriguing.  I wonder if this is worth the download.  I see a lot of art in NYC and I sometime wonder if it is any good.   Do you think this will help?  :) . . . .    Check out the link below for the details.   

Not Sure if Something is Art? There's an App for That

Empire Falls - Nancy Baker and Oriane Stender, March 4 - 28

EMPIRE FALLS at Flanders Art Gallery

Here is a belated announcement. Nancy Baker is in a show in Raleigh, NC with Oiane Stender. The show is a collaboration, and from what I have seen on the web looks great!

I am always meeting people from around the world who are curious about the state of the U.S. Who wonder how we feel about our economy or about the war. To me, this show addresses that question. It gives body to our frustrations, angers and fears as Americans. It is something, that I hate to say everyone in the entire world can relate to.

Check out the show at the Flander's website here. See the show if you are in Raleigh. Here it is on a map. Read Nancy's blog regarding her show at Tire Shop here, it is a trip. Don't forget to read their review here. It's worth your time and if you like what you see let Nancy and Oriane know. Leave a comment. Cheers!

Tibeca Film Festival Virtual / Tribecal Film Festival April 23 to 30

The Tribeca Film Festival is returning in April from the 23 to the 30th. I have not experienced it but I know it is a major event. After 9/11 it is credited with helping revitalize downtown New York. If you are a movie buff, or a Robert De Niro fan, or just want to see the big stars in NY come out, I then suggest you buy the tickets to the festival now. You can get a taste of the Festival online here. So check it out! You are only a mouse click away. If you do go please let us know what you think of the Festival. Cheers!

The Drawings of Bronzino, through april 18th at theMet

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 5th ave and 82 Street

January 20, 2010–April 18, 2010

Let's be clear that we're talking here about Agnolo Bronzino the 16th century Italian artist, and not Branzino the European sea bass, which other people seem to like but I think can be kind of bony. Anyway, I'm not a food critic. Back to the artist. While this show focuses on his drawings, Bronzino was a very popular figure in his day, both as a painter, teacher, tapestry designer, and poet. He was, in fact court painter to Cosimo de' Medici for the majority of his professional life, which makes you wonder why he has been for the most part overlooked at least as a major figure. Well, for one thing he belongs to the Mannerist movement which is kind of a subsection of the high Renaissance, and can be seen as a sort of foreshadowing to the baroque. Actually, the term "Mannerism" is thrown around kind of loosely and some use it to refer to any part of the renaissance after Raphael. Others use it to refer to a late Gothic style of painting. I never really understood why historians trivialized it so much. I guess it's because it's seen as a transitional movement, neither quite classical nor romantic. But you know, so what? The other thing that really hurt Bronzino is that he pissed off rival artist Giorgio Vasari. Vasari was a painter and architect, but is most known for his book "Vasari's Lives of the Artists," first published in 1550, and seen as the seminal biography of the artists of the time. In it Vasari dismisses Bronzino as a minor figure in order to get back at him for competing with Vasari over mural commissions. It's amazing how petty personal crap like that can influence our view of history over 400 years later. Christ, what a douchbag.

Anyhow, a young Bronzino was strongly influenced by his contemporary Jacopo Pontormo, and they worked together closely for a number of years, sometimes even sharing opposite sides of the same paper to draw on. Their styles were so similar that attribution has subsequently became a bit of a problem. Their relationship kind of reminded me of the one between Piccaso and Braque, and how their early cubist paintings can seem almost interchangeable. He and Pontormo worked mostly in red and black chalk, and almost exclusively drew figures, portraits, and draped cloth. Also, neither artist used drawing as an independent art form, and all the drawings in the show are studies for paintings or tapestries. In fact a number of drawings are done on top of grids to aid in the transfer of the image. The fact that they were never made to be exhibited gives the drawings a sketchy, spontaneous, work-in-progress quality. It also shows off what a light handed virtuoso Bronzino was with his materials. He was really kind of a magician with the chalk, and one drawing "Head of Smiling Young Woman" (1542-43) looks like it could have been drawn by da Vinci. Also, considering that the drawings are all studies, a lot of them seem to have a surprisingly high degree of finish and are very purposefully composed on the page, so they easily could be appreciated as autonomous works of art. Maybe that was a reflection of the artists pride in his work, or maybe he was just so good that he couldn't help himself.

I think Bronzino's most well known painting is probably "Allegory of Venus and Cupid" (1545), for obvious reasons if you've ever seen it. But, the only painting in the show is "Portrait of a Young Man" (1534-38), from the Met's permanent collection. It's a great painting, but it seems kind of stiff and lifeless next to the drawings. Few artists of his age could draw as well as Bronzino, and I can't think of any who can, or do today. He was an amazing draftsman, and hopefully this show will create a revival of interest in his work. The drawings make me want to see more of his paintings. I have to admit that I'm not that familiar with his work, but everything I have seen of his has been great.