There are two TERRIFIC exhibitions
at the Metropolitan Museum that
you may want to catch before they close (in order of when they
end): there is a most amazing and unique visual experience of
architecture and the built environment to be had in Wolfgang
Tillmans: Book for Architects,
a two-wall montage of projected photographs which closes on 5 July,
so there is a lot of time pressure on this one (I have included some
images below, although they do not do justice to the experience); and there
is Van
Gogh: Irises and Roses, which brings together for the first time
since his death the two pairs of wonderful paintings Van Gogh
did of bouquets of each of these flowers, and it is only here until 16
August (images of all four works are included below).
These are exhibits you will not want
to miss!
Wolfgang Tillmans: Book for Architects
26 January - 5 July
Wolfgang
Tillmans: Book for Architects
is a fabulous 40 minute montage of 450 stunningly beautiful
photographs, projected on the two adjacent walls of the 90 degree corner of a
darkened room. Sometimes only a single photograph or group of photographs
on one of the walls; sometimes one, two or more photographs on each of the two
walls; and sometimes even panoramic images across both of the walls at once—they are images
of the built environment in thirty-seven countries on five continents. In
every stage of existence—from construction, through decay, to demolition, and
eventually ruin—and at all levels of poverty and wealth, informality and high
design, intimate detail and vast overview, the photographs juxtapose mankind's
efforts to create dwelling space, neighborhoods, areas of commerce, places of
recreation. At times we are viewing structural details—sometimes internal
and hidden, sometimes external and purposeful design elements; at times were are viewing other kinds of detail—from
urinals to balustrades; at times we are viewing hallways and
passageways—some grand and public, some intimate and private; at times we are
viewing complete rooms—some meagre, some grand; at times we see whole buildings,
at times entire street scenes, and at times aerial views of vast expanses of
cities. There are photographs with people inhabiting the spaces, and
photographs without people. There are humble structures and those built
by identifiable architects—Renzo Piano, Raphael Viñoly,
and Richard Rogers, just to name a few (whose first names happen tobegin with "r," I notice). There are
cities that are familiar and easily identifiable—London, Shanghai, New York,
Bombay; and there are places totally unrecognizable.
This
2014 installation originally was part of the 2014 Venice Architecture
Biennale. The artist, Wolfgang Tillmans, was born in 1968 in Remscheid, Germany,
studied at Bournemouth and Poole College of Art and design in the UK, and
lives and works in Berlin and London.
The Met's online description notes,
Book for Architects
shows architecture through the eyes of the artist. Tillmans
seeks to express the complexity, irrationality, madness, and beauty found in
quotidian buildings, street patterns, and fragments of spaces. He achieves this
from a technical standpoint by using standard lenses, which most closely
approximate the perspective of the naked eye. Additionally, Tillmans
designs the experience of the exhibition in the installation space itself—from
the proximity and arrangement of the projected images to the seating, which is
designed in a bleacher-like arrangement to enable a range of perspectives and
views of the work. Through this cyclic series of photographs of largely
anonymous building exteriors, interiors, city shots, and street views, Tillmans presents a personal portrait of contemporary
architecture that will be familiar to everyone.
This
is an exhibition that I would not want to have missed! Nancy and I sat
there transfixed and entranced as we drank in the beauty and power of the
images and of the overall experience.
12
May - 16 August
In the final year of his life
(1890), just prior his leaving the asylum at Saint-Rémy for
Auvers-sur-Oises (and Dr. Gachet), Vincent Van Gogh painted four bouquets of Spring flowers—two
vases of irises, and two of roses. Van
Gogh: Irises and Roses opened "125 years to the week that Van
Gogh announced to his brother Theo, on May 11 and 13, 1890, that he was working
on these 'large bouquets'..." (from the Met's
online description of the exhibit. The Met has had one one of the Irises and one of the Roses in
its fabulous permanent collection for many years. The other of the Irises
is in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, and the other Roses
is in the collection of the National Gallery of Art,
Washington, D.C. This exhibition is the first time these four works are
together since Van Gogh's death in July 1890.
There was an interesting article by Roberta
Smith about the show in the New
York Times on 21 May, "'Van
Gogh: Irises and Roses,' Sheds Light on a Disappearing Red Hue,"
which discusses a change caused by a degradation of a red pigments Van Gogh
used in painting these works:
But the paintings we see today are not entirely as van Gogh
painted them. He used one of the red lake pigments derived from synthetic dye,
drawn to its brilliance while knowing it might fade. He blended it with blue to
make his violet irises and used it fairly straight to add shards of red to the
otherwise white roses. He mixed it with white for the pink background of the
horizontal iris still life and the pink tabletop of the upright roses.
Van Gogh
lost his bet with chemistry. The red lake faded over the years, mostly
disappearing when mixed with anything else and, when used undiluted, washing
out to a color not unlike raw liver. Consequently the irises are now more blue
than violet. The roses are now almost completely white, as are the once-pink
background and tabletop.
Nevertheless, these are
profoundly wonderful paintings—although I must onfess I
think the ones owned by the Met are far superior works. Do not
miss this chance to see all four together, however.
Irises. 1890, Oil on canvas, 36 1/2 × 29 1/8 in. (92.7 × 73.9 cm).
Van Gogh
Museum, Amsterdam
Irises. 1890, Oil on canvas, 29 x 36 1/4 in. (73.7 x 92.1 cm).
Roses. 1890, Oil on canvas, 27 15/16 × 35 7/16 in. (71 × 90 cm).
The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Roses. 1890, Oil on canvas, 36 5/8
x 29 1/8 in. (93 x 74 cm).
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