| 01 February 2010
The Lamp (1890-91), drypoint, softground and aquatint, by Mary Cassatt.
Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) is known for pretty pictures of women and children, the kind of pictures that make people smile and sigh a lot.
But what many don’t know is that, as a working female artist living in late 19th-century Paris, she was a maverick. A driven woman who personally balked at convention, she remained single and childless, apparently by choice, so that she could pursue art as a career. Professionally, she kept her work fresh and original by working against the grain.
Mary Cassatt (1844-1926).
Mary Cassatt: Works on Paper, organized by the Adelson Galleries of New York for the Boca Raton Museum of Art, presents a small, yet significant, selection of her vast oeuvre. The 41 works, drawn from the collection of Ambroise Vollard, establish Cassatt as a skilled draftswoman and printmaker. Featured are drypoints, aquatints, drawings, and rare pastel counterproofs. These works show that Cassatt had an innate drive towards perfection and a commitment to learn avant-garde techniques.
As a woman, Cassatt seemed inherently inclined to live countercurrent to societal expectations. Born in Philadelphia to a wealthy family, at 15 she began studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. In 1863, at age 18, she announced her desire to move to Paris. Her father refused, and then acquiesced. She wanted European training and knew that recognition from the Paris art world was central to her future success.
The result: she ultimately became one of the few women – and the only American – embraced as a French Impressionist.
In this exhibit, devotees of Cassatt’s painting can see the depth of her skill at portraiture in the details of her prints and drawings. On the surface, the women and children are serene. Cassatt seemed captivated by motherhood, so it’s puzzling she never married and had children of her own. Her women are depicted with grace. But is their stillness serenity or boredom? Clearly, they exhibit a sense of duty. But are they happy, or just complacent?
We know that Cassatt was restless. One wonders if her bohemian lifestyle prompted her to see other women’s lives as restrictive, or if she was envious. Cassatt’s women fulfill societal expectations. They dress in beautiful, yet restrictive garments (this was the age of the corset). They drink tea. They devote themselves to motherhood. They gaze blankly at children who upstage them. Is this wry commentary?
The Fitting (1890-91), drypoint and aquatint, by Mary Cassatt.
Cassatt was unconventional in her technique, if not her subject matter. Many of the exhibited works are drypoint, which shows her distaste for mass production. Drypoint uses a sharp stylus or needle to scratch lines directly into a copper plate. It is easier for an artist to master than engraving because using the needle is closer to using a pencil. But one can only print a small amount from the plates. Artists such as Cassatt used drypoint because they preferred a small number of handmade images rather than hundreds of identical ones.
Atypically, she made multiple prints of the various stages of her work and used multiple plates prior to completion, as evidenced in The Mandolin Player (1889-90), which is seen here in the second of its seven states. But her methods attracted praise. She was gaining such notoriety as a skilled and unparalleled printmaker that in 1889 she participated in the first exhibition of the Société de Peintres-Graveurs – founded to promote original prints. The same year she also attended a massive exhibit of Japanese woodcut prints at the École des Beaux-Arts. This resulted in new stylistic exploration.
Inspired by the Japanese simplicity, clarity and bold color, Cassatt produced 10 aquatints known as her “group of 10.” Art historian and Cassatt scholar Adelyn Breeskin, remarked that these prints, “…now stand as her most original contribution ... adding a new chapter to the history of graphic arts ... technically, as color prints, they have never been surpassed.” What a delight, then, that three of the 10 are part of this exhibit: The Fitting (1890-91), The Lamp (1890-91) , and Afternoon Tea Party (1890-91)
Cassatt meticulously applied color to the copper plates for each print in order to control the final effect, which somewhat mirrors a woodcut. Other Japanese elements are notable in The Fitting. There is boldness and two-dimensionality to the composition. The forms are defined and delineated. One of the women is portrayed from behind — a Japanese perspective. Flat areas, rather than shading, control depth, and decorative patterns are brought to the foreground. The same qualities are evident in The Lamp, though here viewers see the exact influence of Japanese woodblock print colors, which are boldly geometric, yet muted.
The final prints in the exhibit are pastel counterproofs and confirm that by 1899 Cassatt had returned to her former style, evidenced in their shading, depth, and three-dimensionality. Counterproofs are made by placing a damp sheet of paper on top of a pastel and applying pressure.
Baby Charles Looking Over His Mother's Shoulder, No. 2, (1900), pastel counterproof on Japan paper, by Mary Cassatt.
Cassatt’s pastels were inspired by Degas. Like him, she was chiefly interested in figure compositions. In Baby Charles Looking Over His Mother’s Shoulder (1900), Cassatt’s linear pastel marks and lit-from-above-luminosity mimic Degas. And it was Degas who encouraged Cassatt to make counterproofs.
Mary Cassatt: Works on Paper is intimately engaging because we are peeking into Cassatt’s mind. Seeing her prints in various stages of completion, we witness her process and focus. Her steadiness, progression, and patience shine through in her skillful renderings. But to gain this skill she persevered during an era that restricted women’s opportunities — preferring them to just look and act pretty.
Ironically, Cassatt’s depictions of this norm led to success, even though she herself didn’t comply. Knowing this adds another layer of brilliance to work that can certainly stand on its own.
Jenifer A. Vogt is a marketing communications professional and resident of Boca Raton. She’s been enamored with American painting for the past 20 years.
Mary Cassatt: Works on Paper is on view at The Boca Raton Museum of Art until April 11, 2010. Special hours for this exhibition are Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.; Wednesdays 10 a.m.-9 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday 12 p.m. – 5 p.m. Admission is $14 for adults, $12 for senior citizens (65 and older), $6 for students and $10 per person for group tours. For more information call 561-392-2500 or visit www.bocamuseum.org.
By the Pond (1896), drypoint and aquatint, by Mary Cassatt.
| 28 January 2010
The backglass art from the King of Diamonds pinball machine, made by Gottlieb in 1967 (artist: Art Stenholm; designer: Ed Krinsky)
As video killed the radio star, so did it kill the pinball machine.
And as a new exhibit of nostalgic Americana at the Cornell Museum of Art and American Culture in Delray Beach makes clear, the rise of computer technology and video have sent pinball machines down the road of forgotten Americana: the automat, the Victrola, the jukebox, the 1959 Chevy.
Pinball machines were in their heyday from the 1930s to the 1970s, found everywhere from beachside arcades to bars, pool halls and candy stores. The Cornell now has 28 of them on display from the collection of Florida resident R. Steve Alberts in an exhibit that runs through the end of March.
Today, collectors prize the machines not only for the game but for the original artwork on the side panels, gameboard and backglass. It’s worth spending some time at this exhibit if for nothing more than to be reminded of a simpler time and a pastime that has gone the way of the transistor radio.
This exhibit, with a good sampling of some of the best- known games, fills two large rooms and a part of a third. It is evident that the curators attempted not to recreate an arcade but to display the machines in a manner befitting a museum , and also to showcase them as a way to introduce the machines to a younger generation.
“The museum has recently refocused itself to reach a younger demographic and has renamed itself the Museum of Art and American Culture,” said Joe Gillie, Cornell’s executive director. “We believe this will help us come into our own as a museum and showcase exhibits that are relevant to our younger visitors."
Bally's Addams Family game, made in 1991, and the best-selling pinball machine of all time (artist: John Youssi; designer: Pat Lawler)
Of particular note are many of the most popular games of recent eras, such as the Williams Company’s Black Night, circa 1980, which has the first multi-level gameboard; the Haunted House with three levels, by Gottlieb; and the best-selling pinball machine of all time, The Addams Family, created in honor of the camp 1960s TV series after Williams and Bally merged in the late 1980s.
The primary audience for many of these games was adolescent males, and you can see why when you look at the artwork, much of which features buxom, curvaceous women, comic-book heroes such as Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk, TV shows such as Star Trek and Bonanza, sports heroes such as the Harlem Globetrotters and Muhammad Ali and even a patriotic red, white and blue Evel Knievel with a blonde woman in hotpants and tight T-shirt.
The golden age of pinball is considered to be the decade from 1948-58, due in part to the Gottlieb Co. adding "flippers" to a game called Humpty Dumpty. Flippers gave the player some control over what had been purely a game of luck and transformed it into a game of luck and skill.
Before that, pinball had been considered something of a dodgy pastime. During Prohibition, pinball machines were blamed for helping lead young men into lives of gambling and crime. One picture in the exhibit makes that point: It's New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia smashing a pinball machine with a sledgehammer.
Despite their checkered past, pinball machines rebounded in popularity and secured their place in popular culture. The 1970s saw the second biggest advance in the industry since flippers. Solid state technology, computerization and electronic displays came into existence, making the older mechanical games obsolete.
English rockers The Who immortalized the Pinball Wizard in their 1969 rock opera, Tommy. An early 1970s machine named after it is here in the exhibit; actress Ann-Margaret, who starred in the film version, modeled for the backglass artwork.
Adding to the ambience of the exhibit is a collection of neon pinball and arcade signs on loan from the Puppetry Arts Center in Palm Beach as well as assorted pinball ephemera, such as pinball ornaments, arcade tokens and collector books and posters. A real treasure is the Coke machine piggy bank designed to replicate a miniature pinball machine, complete with moving parts.
The neon pinball and arcade signs could have been used to better effect by mounting them in a concentrated display, creating more of a tone and feel of an actual arcade and better evoking the feel of a lost era.
In the main exhibit hall, I recommend viewing the short mini-documentary, Tilt: The Battle to Save Pinball: Year 2000. It is fascinating to watch as the Williams Co. designers and developers, as well-known in their industry as Bill Gates or Steve Jobs are in theirs, discuss their last-ditch attempts to save the endangered game and their efforts to compete in the new video marketplace.
Their vision resulted in the first combined video pinball machine called Revenge From Mars. The film runs about one hour, and if you can’t spend the whole time, at least try to listen and get a sense of an era of American inventiveness.
Just to the right of this film, sits the actual game that is the subject of the documentary, Revenge From Mars, developed by Williams before it closed down the pinball division of its company and concentrated on the business of making slot machines.
Unfortunately, viewing this machine in its static state is like watching a 3-D movie without the glasses. To see Revenge From Mars in all its glory and to understand the full impact of its innovation would require you to play the game, which isn't possible.
For me, the exhibit could reach another level by recreating more of the actual ambience (without the smoke, of course) of a traditional arcade and by having more than two machines available to play.
The backglass art for Darts, made by Williams in 1960 (artist: George Molentin; designer: Steve Kordek)
In its upstairs display, the museum does have two working machines that the public can play – the Williams F-14 Tomcat on loan from the personal collection of Christopher Lemon, and The Games, by Gottlieb, on loan from Joey Restivo and Metropolis Entertainment. The original cost? 1 play (five balls) for 25 cents.
Try it, and do more than test your skill. Reclaim a piece of Americana.
Jan Engoren is a freelance writer based in South Florida.
Pinball Palooza: The Art, The History, The Game runs through March 28 at the Cornell Museum of Art and American Culture at Old School Square in Delray Beach. Hours are 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $6 general; $4 seniors and students 13-21, $2 for ages 5-12 and free for children under 5 years old. Delray Beach residents receive free admission the first Sunday of each month through April.
| 24 January 2010
Rind (1955), woodcut by M.C. Escher.
A young man stands looking at a picture of a ship in the harbor of a small town with its little turrets, cupolas and flat stone roofs, upon one of which sits a boy, relaxing.
Two floors below him a woman gazes out of the window from her apartment, which sits directly above a picture gallery, where a young man stands looking at a picture of a ship in the harbor of a small town.
This is Print Gallery, by Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972). The Dutch graphic artist (known by his initials as M.C.) was never an architect or photographer, nor was he a mathematician or philosopher.
But he became all of the above for works like this, precisely drawn riddling images that have become hugely popular, in some cases even iconic, all over the world. Newly opened at the Boca Raton Museum of Art is what organizers say is the largest exhibit of Escher’s work ever assembled in the United States, not so much an exhibition as an “invasion,” according to curator Rock J. Walker.
Hand With Reflecting Sphere (1935), lithograph by M.C. Escher.
The exhibit, formally called Marc Bell Presents: The Magical World of M.C. Escher, is named for Bell, a Boca Raton-based entrepreneur who owns Penthouse magazine, a network of adult social-networking sites, and has won two producer Tony awards (for Jersey Boys and August: Osage County). He joined forces with Walker, who owns the second-largest collection of Escher works in the world, to present the exhibition.
On display through April 11 are hundreds of Escher's original artworks dating from 1919 to 1969, including about 70 drawings, studio furniture, memorabilia and more than 250 woodcuts, lithographs and mezzotints. Keep moving. Look around. Because the next print is more fascinating than the one before.
And if you walk out or skip a room, you might just miss the reason why you came in the first place -- or why you'll remember Escher forever.
The exhibit is divided into ten sections, starting with Early Prints and Drawings. Here is the first of many works to consider reflection and symmetry as well as duality of black and white and good and evil: Scapegoat. It is one of a series of woodcuts Escher created for a friend's booklet entitled Flor de Pascua (Flowers of Easter). He was only 23 when he made it. Notice the large hole drilled into the top left. That's the printing block, canceled. You see it here for the first time. The artist made sure his work wasn't reproduced.
Day and Night (1938), woodcut by M.C. Escher.
The ascending and descending up-and-down theme that appeared in 1938 with his first great lithograph Cycle is spotted here on the 1930 Street in Scanno, one of only three large-format Italian lithographs Escher created. Scanno is set in a village. A woman is seen knitting surrounded by stones and multiple stairways leading who knows where.
Cycle, in turn, sees a smiling boy running down steps unaware of his fate. In a few more steps he turns into marble and becomes one with the tile ground and the building. That brief detour before reaching the Italian landscapes? Take it. It's bound to surprise you, brighten your day or, if you feel as the artist did, disturb you.
"The hippies of San Francisco continue to print my work illegally," Escher wrote in 1969. He was referring to the vintage blacklight posters that publishers in San Francisco and Chicago had managed to make from his work. Glowing in this dark room under ultraviolet light are 14 of his works, including Dream, Spheres and Inside St. Peter's. Oh, it gets cooler.
Details aside, the neat thing about Escher's work is that it involves us, the spectators, a great deal. His works are fascinating, but ultimately we decide whether the water in Waterfall runs downhill or uphill and whether the habitants in High and Low can ever meet. If in Sky and Water the eye focuses on the light spaces, we see fish. Focus on the black and we see birds.
Inside St. Peter's (1935), wood engraving by M.C. Escher.
Even Dream, which is not as tricky visually, can't resist in inviting us to participate. Is the bishop dreaming about a praying locust or is the entire image the dream of the artist? We decide. And very few notice the Big Dipper on his 1933 Phosphorescent Sea lithograph. Hint: watch for the tiny white dots on the dark gray sky.
No other piece reflects the exactness of his work as well as Smaller and Smaller, a 1956 woodcut and wood engraving. This is the most detailed of all his prints. To obtain this ridiculously explicit precision he used special lighting, high-powered magnification and minute tools. No wonder walking through the exhibit we get the feeling Escher must have been a very serious, strict person.
To achieve this level of artistry, to nail each line and each dot, each step of the creating process ought to have been taken seriously. No mistakes could be afforded. Escher drew his designs onto specially prepared blocks of German limestone using lithographs pencils. A master lithographer would help the artist first wet the stone evenly, then apply ink and finally print it slowly under tremendous pressure of a large roller press. Escher inspected the finished lithographs and destroyed any that failed to meet his standards.
Reptiles (1943), lithograph by M.C. Escher.
All but 10 of his stones were destroyed following printing -- he would cancel them by scratching an X so his work couldn't be reproduced. Two of those stones are here on exhibit: one of the Convex and Concave lithograph and the other one of Three Worlds. Looking at them is even better than looking at the end results. The same happens when looking at the woodblocks for Owl and Old Olive Tree. We think of pieces of wood going through surgery, autopsy or labor. Theirs is a necessary pain to give birth to unbelievable art. We can imagine Escher then as a doctor, a surgeon.
Others like Walker prefer to call him the Einstein of the art world: the bridge between art and science. And not only that. A storyteller as well. Take Reptiles or, better yet, Encounter, one of his masterpieces of graphic storytelling, which depicts the meeting of a happy optimist (in white) and a cautious pessimist (in black). The pessimist keeps his finger raised as if giving a warning while the optimist approaches him cheerfully. Eventually they shake hands. One wonders what conversation they'll be having later on.
Magic Mirror (1946), lithograph by M.C. Escher.
This and his "impossible buildings" works -- Waterfall, Ascending and Descending and Belvedere -- are evidence of the artist's own transformation. After 1936 Escher abandoned reality as the main source of inspiration and fed his art from his imagination. Judging by the works that followed, his was an extraordinary mind, busy with not just with inconceivable constructions but the regular division of the plane, rings, spirals, mirror images, and the conflict between the flat and the spatial. He couldn't have enough. Realistically speaking, we can.
No gallery room disappoints here, but after a while even Escher starts to look repetitive and then it's all up to curiosity. As fantastic as he is, the success of the exhibit has more to do with how much you think you know of him as it does his skill.
Snakes (1969), woodcut by M.C. Escher.
If you are an Escher expert, you'll be looking for your favorites. If you know little, you'll wonder what comes next. If you are in the middle, you'll think him amazing whether you make it to the last print, Snakes, or leave halfway through.
If by the end of the exhibit you feel saturated, even a bit dizzy, don't feel bad. Be proud, feel cool, smarter: you have just witnessed Escher in all his glory. "Only those who attempt the absurd will achieve the impossible,” he wrote. “I think it's in my basement ... let me go upstairs and check."
Cocky. Yes.
But can you blame him?
Gretel Sarmiento is a freelance writer based in South Florida.
Marc Bell Presents: The Magical World of M.C. Escher can be seen through April 11 at the Boca Raton Museum of Art in Mizner Park, Boca Raton. Admission is $8 for adults, $6 for seniors. The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. On the first Wednesday of each month it is open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Call 561-392-2500 or visit www.bocamuseum.org.
Drawing Hands (1948), lithograph by M.C. Escher.
| 05 December 2009
A front view of the sculpture “Female Stretch” by Evan Penny. (Photo by Katie Deits)
The larger-than-life, realistic sculptures by the Canadian artist Evan Penny caused a stir at last year's Art Basel, with his nude self-portrait selling within the show's first days.
At this year’s Art Basel, Penny is proving just as provocative. Penny’s sculptures aren’t simply lifelike reproductions, even though it may seem so when you first see them. From a different angle, they are terribly distorted, like they have been thinned. A case in point: His Female Stretch, a 10-foot-tall sculpture.
Visitors to the Sperone Westwater booth view Evan Penny's sculptures Female Stretch and Self Stretch, Variation #2.(Photo by Katie Deits)
From the side, although truly gigantic and wide-eyed, the woman seems somewhat lifelike, but look at her straight on and her face is less than half of what it should be. Penny creates the sculptures by utilizing a laser scan of the person, and then manipulates it, creating the final piece in silicone, hair, pigment and aluminum. Female Stretch and Self Stretch, Variation #2 are in the Sperone Westwater booth.
* Gavlak Gallery, which recently moved to Palm Beach, featured one artist in its Art Basel booth in Art Nova: Phillip Estlund, a sculpture-collage-video artist based in Lake Worth. Estlund’s work is based on the concept of human beings’ relationship to nature and man’s vain attempt to control and manipulate nature.
Curator Nelson Hollenquist and Gavlak Gallery owner Sarah Gavlak discuss the work of Phillip Estlund at Art Basel.(Photo by Katie Deits)
“He works with two-dimensional collage, recycled from old books on landscape, field guides, modernist architecture, extreme sports, hunting and fishing, and do-it-yourself home improvement,” Sarah Gavlak said. “Estlund collects and reconfigures these found materials as formal sculpture that reference the ‘lower’ architectural vernacular of South Florida."
Estlund has recently had three exhibitions in New York and is in the collection at the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami.
James Danziger with Kitty Bowe Hearty in the Danziger Projects booth. (Photo by Katie Deits)
* The Chelsea arts district of New York is home to Danziger Projects, which concentrates on photographic artists. Gallery owner James Danziger was assisted by curator and gallerist Kitty Bowe Hearty in the booth, which features iconic images such as Girls in the Windows, by Ormond Gigli (1960); Muhammad Ali ‘Training’ Underwater, by Flip Schulke (1960); images from the RFK funeral train by Paul Fusco (these 1968 photos will be featured at the Norton Museum of Art in 2010); Marilyn Monroe, by Richard Avedon; Petit’s Mobil Station, by George Tice (1974); and many beautifully photographed images by Annie Leibovitz.
* A singular video played in the booth of the Reykjavik, Iceland-based i8 Gallery. Five Boxes by Iceland native and Berlin resident Egill Saebjörnsson was amazingly three-dimensional, clever and technically brilliant. Saebjörnsson projected a video onto four white boxes that appeared to moved and fly off, then return back to line up perfectly with the box again. Occasionally, the top of one of the boxes seems to lift up and a banana pops out and goes into an adjacent box. A timed noise emanates from the box to simulate the sound of a box opening and closing. (Take a few minutes to watch the video in booth D-20.)
Rinus Van de Velde with his drawing “A Strange Way to Blend In.” (Photo by Katie Deits)
* A great deal of technical skill and innovative conceptual acumen is evident in the work of 26-year-old Belgian artist Rinus Van de Velde who creates large drawings (approximately 6 feet by 4 feet) using old magazines such as National Geographic for reference and then boldly captions them from his own set of mythologies. Van de Velde is represented by Galerie Zink.
* Actor Dennis Hopper of Easy Rider fame received big billing in wall space at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery, where his 20-inch-by-16 inch black-and-white photographs of famous artists and movie stars were on display near huge paintings of the same photograph. Hopper worked with billboard artists, directing the production of the large paintings.
A billboard-size portrait of Jasper John’s contact sheet, taken from the original photo (at upper right) by Dennis Hopper. (Photo by Katie Deits)
Particularly eye-catching was the painting of artist Jasper Johns, as colored swirls outlined the image. Turns out they were marks on the original contact sheet.
Also on display at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery is an amazing photographic triptych by David LaChappelle of Michael Jackson as a saint, an angel fighting the devil and resting in the arms of Jesus.
Untitled, by Katharina Grosse. (Photo by Katie Deits)
** Thursday night, the Miami Art Museum threw a VIP party that attracted close to 1,000 guests. The exhibit on the first floor of the museum, Space as Medium, includes sculptures, as well as paintings and photographs and a colorful, large installation by German artist Katharina Grosse fashioned from Styrofoam, soil and acrylic paint. The Miami Art Museum is located in downtown Miami at 101 W. Flagler St. For more information, call (305) 375-3000.
Art Basel runs through Sunday. One-day tickets are $35 and students and seniors are $20. Multi-day tickets are also available. Hours are noon through 8 p.m. today and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. For more information, visit www.artbaselmiamibeach.com.
| 03 December 2009
A Bigger Maurice Payne (2008), by David Hockney. (Photo by Katie Deits)
From established artists to newbies, Art Basel is a place where one can see the innovators of contemporary art, and the annual Miami Beach version of this European art stalwart gets under way formally tonight.
But the action associated with the festival started up at the beginning of the week, and on Wednesday afternoon, VIPs were lined up at the Miami Beach Convention Center for their first look at the show itself. At 6 p.m., other vernissage visitors were welcomed into the massive center, where more than 250 leading galleries from North America, Europe, Latin American, Asia and Africa are exhibiting works by more than 2,000 artists.
Log Cabin (2009), by Leandro Erlich, outside view. (Photo by Katie Deits)
One of the distinctive features of Art Basel is that it has many offsite exhibits, such as Art Positions, which features cutting-edge projects by 23 young galleries at a display in Collins Park; Art Projects, in outdoor public spaces near the convention center; and The Oceanfront, which offers conversations with prominent art-world figures during the day, and at night, concerts, performances, videos and film.
In the main hall, you can see work by established artists moving into new technology, as evidenced in the large, inkjet-printed computer drawings by British artist David Hockney.
Also, there was a clever standing sculpture called Log Cabin, created this year by Leandro Erlich, in which two plasma screens are encased on either side of walls simulating a log cabin. The video screen on one side of the cabin played a snowy forest scene; the other showed a cozy living room with a fireplace.
Plataforma I (2009), by Juan Genoves. (Photo by Katie Deits)
In the Marlborough Gallery, Juan Genoves’ brightly colored acrylic paintings caused a stir as his globs of paint looked like tiny figures moving across space from an aerial perspective. Meanwhile, the Galeria Horrach Moya featured sculptures by Jorge Mayet, such as Me desprendo de ti (I let go of you) (2009), a tree, expertly constructed of papier-maché, electric cable, textile and acrylics from the branches to its roots, suspended almost invisibly from the ceiling.
Me desprendo de ti (2009), by Jorge Mayet. (Photo by Katie Deits)
At the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery (New York), a terrifying 7-foot-tall bald-head ceramic sculpture called Crazy Nuke (1986), crafted by Robert Arneson, seemly screamed for attention.
Crazy Nuke (1986), by Robert Arneson. (Photo by Katie Deits)
All of Miami’s museums, such as the Miami Art Museum and Museum of Contemporary Art, are featuring special exhibitions and events. The major private collections are open for viewing, too, including the Margulies Collection, the Rubell Family Collection and several others.
The entire Miami area has an air of excitement, as satellite art fairs, gallery openings and events abound in both Miami Beach and Miami. Last night, after Art Basel closed, people walked over to the nearby Lincoln Road pedestrian mall for dinner, drinks, shopping, and more art openings.
Stella Octangula, by Santiago Rubino. (Photo by Katie Deits)
At 800 Lincoln Road, street artists and their art groupies overflowed onto the sidewalk outside of The Art Center South Florida, which was exhibiting their group show Blueprint for Space, containing work by internationally known contemporary street artists (also known as graffiti artists), such as Dolla and Santiago Rubino. The street artists are also staging Primary Flight, a series of original site-specific street-level mural installations spread at locations throughout the Wynwood Arts District.
David Z in his studio at the Art Center South Florida (Photo by Katie Deits)
Upstairs at The Art Center South Florida, David Zalben, an artist known as David Z, has a corner studio displaying his quirky, humorous and sometimes erotic work. David Z’s wire sculptures bob and jiggle, simulating human situations and relationships. His classically representational paintings are created on a grid in which he uses old Altoid cans as his canvas.
Art Basel runs through Sunday. One-day tickets are $35 and students and seniors are $20. Multi-day tickets are also available. Hours are noon through 8 p.m. today through Saturday, and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday.
Scapegoat, Bruised Egos and Stolen Steelo, by Dolla. (Photo by Katie Deits)
