Summer Art in New York: Josef Albers, Robert Rauschenberg & Frank Stella

Don't miss Josef Albers in America: Painting on Paper at The Morgan Library & Museum. It is a gem of a show. Sixty oil studies on paper include sketches from the 1930s-early 1940s for his Adobe series and preparatory works for Homage to the Square from the 1950s-1970s. The painterly quality, intimate scale and color experimentation reveal a rarely seen side of Albers's work. The studies are strikingly different from the cool and austere paintings that represent the final stage of the artist's process. The Morgan is the only U.S. venue for the exhibition.

Also check out two superb gallery exhibitions on the same block on the Upper East Side: Robert Rauschenberg: North African Collages and Scatole Personali c. 1952 at the Craig F. Starr Gallery and Frank Stella: New Work at FreedmanArt. Then stop by Via Quadronno for a cappuccino and panini.
Enjoy!

The Morgan Library & Museum
225 Madison Avenue
http://www.themorgan.org
Albers on view through October 14, 2012

Craig F. Starr Gallery
5 E. 73rd St.
http://www.starr-art.com
Rauschenberg on view through August 10, 2012

FreedmanArt
25 E. 73rd St., 3rd Floor
http://www.freedmanart.com
Stella on view through September 27, 2012

Via Quadronno
25 E. 73rd St., 1st Floor
http://viaquadronno.com

Architecture Getaway to Philadelphia: The Barnes Foundation

As I walked through the entrance gate of the newly relocated Barnes Foundation in downtown Philadelphia, I wondered if I were about to enter a contemporary art museum. But, no, this was actually the Barnes with the astounding collection of 181 Renoirs, 69 Cézannes, 46 Picassos, 59 Matisses, 18 Rousseaus, extensive Asian, African and American Indian artifacts and decorative ironwork. The architects, Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, tried hard to match the aesthetic magnificence on display in the new building, but substantially missed the mark.
I was familiar with the extraordinary collection and controversy about its relocation. The major conflict about moving the art to downtown Philadelphia from the suburb of Merion was the subject of a superb documentary titled, The Art of the Steal. The new building opened in May, 2012 along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and within walking distance of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Rodin Museum.

Dr. Albert Barnes grew up in Philadelphia and died in 1951. His pharmaceutical company invented Argyrol, which prevented eye infections and blindness in newborns. It was the source of his wealth and he sold his company before the crash of 1929 so that he could focus on art, which he began to collect in 1912.


Driveway entrance

The driveway entrance at the new site was quite understated. Once inside the gate, I did not expect to see a 40-foot stainless-steel sculpture by Ellsworth Kelly at the head of the reflecting pool. What was the Kelly piece doing there? It was not created for the Barnes. It was donated by the Neubauer Family Foundation. 

Tree-lined path and reflecting pool leading to museum entrance

My first view of the museum was in profile. Negev stone panels with bronze accents formed the exterior walls of the building. I walked along a tree-lined path that paralleled the museum and pool. When I reached the low bridge to the main entrance, I paused to contemplate the imposing void in front of me with an offset door and stone panels that surrounded the entry. Barnes was known for juxtaposing his art in unorthodox hangings and so I started to form a theory that perhaps the architects wanted to create their own juxtaposition between the museum and the collection.

Museum entrance

This Barnesian concept was severely tested once I stepped inside the building. The circulation and signage (or lack thereof) were a disaster. The foyer consisted of a redundant reception desk (the first was at the main gate), poorly marked restaurant entrance, stairway to the Lower Level, projected "welcome" sign in multiple languages on a concrete wall...where was the entrance to the galleries? I showed my timed ticket to a woman who failed the hospitality test of anticipating a visitor's needs and then I walked over to a security person, who said that I had to go downstairs to check my bag first. Here's a tip for visiting the Barnes: If you need to use the restroom, you will have to go to the Lower Level because there are no bathroom facilities in the exhibition area of the museum. The coffee bar was also located on this level. It appeared to be a design afterthought because it was tucked away in a corner and did not even have an espresso machine. 

When I returned upstairs to the main level, I had to traverse a cavernous "indoor court" that was pure wasted space. At that moment, I knew that this building could be summed up as big budget+big impression+misdirected focus=major disappointment. Who would want to sit down and linger in this soulless space? I observed only a few visitors on the sofas. How many people noticed the narrow, elevated water feature along one wall? Why do enormous panels block the view of the terrace? Was the ceiling "lightbox" supposed to engender awe at the diffused light?

The 12,000 square feet of exhibition galleries were recreated as they appeared in the original Merion location. In his will, Barnes stipulated that the art should always remain in Merion (which it obviously did not) and be displayed in the same way. The beautiful collection enabled me to forget about the rest of the building and concentrate on the art. After I finished viewing the first floor, I asked where I could find a restroom. I was told that I would have to leave the galleries and go to the Lower Level. Instead, I continued viewing the collection on the second floor. The art was visually overwhelming. Barnes would often rehang the works in groupings that he called ensembles. These juxtapositions were puzzles for the viewer to solve by discovering the connections between the works. The Card Players, The Dance, The Postman and Leaving the Conservatory will always draw the crowds, but there were other pieces that I thoroughly enjoyed viewing as well. The African sculptures, unfortunately assembled tightly together in display cases, were riveting and the small Pennsylvania Dutch works were charming.

When I finished viewing all of the galleries, I had a bite to eat at the Garden Restaurant. I had a delicious quiche and small salad. The museum should have done a better job in promoting the restaurant.

Irrespective of how hard Williams and Tsien may have tried to create an architecturally important structure for the display of the Barnes collection, they failed. The building could have been built anywhere. What a pity that it was for the Barnes.

Exterior of museum

Getaway to Halifax, Nova Scotia

In early June, I needed to recharge and get out of town for the weekend and so I booked a last minute, two-hour flight from New York to Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was the perfect dose of clean air, history, superb seafood and beautiful scenery.

The Scoop
Hotel: The Lord Nelson Hotel & Suites (across from the Public Gardens) or The Delta Barrington (centrally located and you can walk everywhere)

Lunch: McKelvie's

• Order the lobster roll and seafood chowder

Dinner: The Press Gang

• Order the smoked salmon and halibut

The Press Gang

Sites:


Take a stroll through the Public Gardens



• The Citadel
• Public Gardens
• Harbourfront (have a drink at Hart & Thistle or ice cream at Cow's)
• Weekend Farmers' Market

Day Excursion: Lunenberg (lunch at the Dockyard Restaurant and order the scallops) and Mahone Bay

Lunenberg

Overnight: Bay of Fundy (if you have limited time, hire a driver and go for the day)

Eli Broad in conversation with Charlie Rose

Mr. Broad will discuss his new book, The Art of Being Unreasonable, on May 6, 2012 at 8pm at 92Y, Lex @92nd St. Tix start at $29. Doors open at 7:30pm.
He is the founder of KB Home and Sun America and a major contemporary art collector and philanthropist.
See you there.

http://www.92y.org/Uptown/Event/Eli-Broad.aspx?utm_source=92Y_HP&utm_medium=Highlights_EBroad&utm_campaign=Adult_Lectures

Don't Miss Mark Rothko at Christie's NY in May, 2012

I stopped by Christie's at Rockefeller Plaza on Friday to view the highlights of the upcoming Post-War and Contemporary Art Sale on May 8, 2012.
Mark Rothko's Orange, Red, Yellow, which he painted in 1961, was truly sensational. The piece dominated the gallery with works by Richter, Hofmann, Marden, de Kooning, Calder.
The estimate is $35,000,000-45,000,000 but it won't cost you a dime to see it.
It will be on view again prior to the auction from May 4-8 and it is a must-see.

Christie's
20 Rockefeller Plaza
New York
http://www.christies.com

Architecture Getaway to Boston: Renzo Piano Links Past and Present at Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Renzo Piano's addition includes a contemporary art exhibition space on the left and Calderwood Hall on the right at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

This getaway can be done in a day from Manhattan, but if you have time, I would recommend that you spend the night in Boston. Due to time constraints, I decided to jump on BoltBus to Boston last Saturday morning for a day excursion. I normally take the train to South Station, but I wanted to try Bolt this time. The bus was 20 minutes late for the 7:30am departure in front of the Tick Tock Diner on W. 34th St. at the corner of 8th Avenue. I was assigned boarding group C and the passengers crowded around the bus driver while he called out each group. We stopped for a break somewhere near Hartford and still managed to arrive at South Station in Boston on time four hours later.

Passageway from Piano's addition to "the palace," the original 1903 structure.

I took the T (subway) to the MFA stop and walked a couple of blocks to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The purpose of this brief trip was to experience the new addition to the Gardner's palace which opened in January, 2012 and was designed by Pritzer Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano. I had visited other Piano-designed museums, but was intrigued with how he was going to integrate a contemporary wing into the 1903 structure. Unfortunately the carriage house had to be demolished in order to create space for the addition, but I was impressed by the way that Piano kept his wing separate yet connected by a glass walkway to the original building. The passageway formed an umbilical cord from the present to the past or the past to the present, depending on your direction. The entrance to the museum is now through the Piano addition and so you enter the palace by passing through the enclosed path with the garden on either side of you. This feeling of being transported to another era was one of the most successful aspects of Piano's project at the Gardner. Piano created two striking and contrasting spaces within his addition. Calderwood Hall was built to continue the musical legacy of the Gardner. It replaced the Tapestry Room in the palace where concerts were formerly held. The other dramatic space in the new building was created for exhibitions of contemporary art. The wall of floor-to-ceiling windows in the main gallery was oriented to face the back side of the palace. Piano not only played off the contrast between past and present, but also between the concepts of enclosure and openness. The central space within the Venetian-inspired palace is the courtyard, which featured twenty-foot long nasturtium vines, a Spring tradition at the Gardner, at the time of my visit. Even though the skylight flooded the courtyard with light, the space exuded the feeling of a private world, an interior environment only visible from within the museum. In the Piano addition, Calderwood's enclosure echoed this concept in its design. Piano also contrasted Calderwood with the light-filled, open contemporary gallery, which was created to display the work of artists-in-residence. Two apartments for the artists are located in the front section of Piano's addition.

Side view of new entrance building with the greenhouse on the ground floor and apartments for artists-in-residence above.

If you need a bite to eat, then book a table at Cafe G on the ground floor of the Piano building. The Living Room on the same level was an attempt to create a space to rest, read and interact with a guest curator. There were only three other people in the area when I visited and I felt that it missed the mark in its purpose.
The one disaster in the building was the use of hideous green tiles in the bathrooms on the basement level. Do not go there.

Circulation in the Piano addition with glass passageway in the distance.

Before you leave the addition, walk up the broad stairway to a landing which will give you an elevated view directly above the glass passageway to the palace.
When I finished my visit to the Gardner, I walked around the perimeter of the museum. The dramatic slanted glass wall to the left of the new entrance was Piano's severe declaration of the new. While his creation updated the institution, it will never come close to the ineffable delight that I felt while viewing John Singer Sargent's El Jaleo, Whistler's Nocturne, Blue and Silver: Battersea Reach, Rembrandt's Self-Portrait, Aged 23 or Titian's Europa.


http://www.gardnermuseum.org

Must-see New York Contemporary Art Shows: Spring, 2012

Afro Burri Fontana

Haunch of Venison

550 W. 21^st St.

http://www.haunchofvenison.com/

on view through May 12, 2012

John Chamberlain: Choices

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

1071 Fifth Avenue

http://www.guggenheim.org/

on view through May 13, 2012

2012 Whitney Biennial

Whitney Museum of American Art

945 Madison Ave.

http://www.whitney.org/

on view through May 27, 2012

Frank Stella: Black, Aluminum, Copper Paintings

L&M Arts
45 E. 78^th St.
http://www.lmgallery.com
on view through June 2, 2012

Loris Greaud: The Unplayed Notes
The Pace Gallery
534 W. 25th St.
http://www.thepacegallery.com
on view through June 9, 2012

Jill Moser
Lennon, Weinberg, Inc.
514 W. 25th St.
http://www.lennonweinberg.com
on view through June 9, 2012

Atsuya Tominaga: Sphere
Ippodo Gallery
521 W. 26th St.
http://www.ippodogallery.com
on view through June 9, 2012

Cindy Sherman

MOMA

11 W. 53^rd St.

http://www.moma.org/

on view through June 11, 2012

Origins: Cui Fei & Taca Sui
Chambers Fine Art
522 W. 19th St.
http://www.chambersfineart.com
on view through June 15, 2012

Brice Marden: New Paintings
Matthew Marks Gallery
523 W. 24th St.
http://www.matthewmarks.com
on view through June 23, 2012

Lucio Fontana: Ambienti Spaziali
Gagosian Gallery
555 W. 24th St.
http://www.gagosiangallery.com
on view through June 30, 2012

Dan Flavin Drawing
The Morgan Library & Museum
225 Madison Ave.
http://www.themorgan.org
on view through July 1, 2012

Richard Avedon: Murals & Portraits
Gagosian Gallery
522 W. 21st St.
http://www.gagosiangallery.com
on view through July 6, 2012