Bar Chic: exhibition

Showing posts with label exhibition. Show all posts

Friday, 4 May 2012

Gallery Guide

There are so many amazing art exhibitions and events beginning this weekend that it feels like Christmas all over again. Yesterday, I popped into the Gagosian Gallery on Madison Avenue to see the gorgeous Picasso and Françoise Gilot: Paris–Vallauris 1943–1953 exhibition. This is the fourth Picasso show at Gagosian and the first uptown which was a pleasant surprise. What is not a surprise are the vivid greens, blues and other inspiring colors. Each show makes me want to start scheming room colors. Even more stunning were the simple pencil drawings of Françoise by Picasso that I could have stared at all day.

For those who don't know, Françoise Gilot was Picasso's muse and the mother of Claude and Paloma Picasso. The family plays a large role in many of the pictures and biographer John Richardson worked directly with Françoise on this show. Many of her paintings also appear as well as Picasso's pottery and sculptures. It's definitely worth a trip uptown or just walk over to Madison Avenue.

Picasso and Françoise Gilot: Paris–Vallauris 1943–1953
Gagosian Gallery

980 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10075

May 3 - June 3, 2012
Tuesday - Saturday
10:00am - 6:00pm

One of the art events with the biggest buzz is the Frieze Art Fair taking place on Randall's Island. The wildly popular British based is creating a huge waterfront tent housing 180 contemporary art galleries in addition to an outdoor sculpture park. Since you are sure to be exhausted from all the walking you are sure to do, you can take a rest and refuel at one of the restaurants on site like the Fat Radish or grab a beer at the Standard pop up Biergarten or hopefully a gelato at Sant Ambroeus. And since no New Yorker knows how to get to Randall's Island, the Frieze Art Fair is graciously offering a Frieze Ferry from 35th Street on the East River that runs every 15 minutes. I was going to check it out today but now I might wait until better weather on Saturday.

Frieze Art Fair New York

Randall's Island

Friday 4 May 12 – 7pm
Saturday 5 May 12 – 7pm
Sunday 6 May 12 – 6pm
Monday 7 May 12 – 6pm

Tickets are Required

Many people know the work of the husband and wife artists Claude and Francois-Xavier Lalanne thanks to all the sheep that keep appearing in chic homes. Now you can see their work up close at the Les Lalanne show at the Paul Kasmin gallery. There is also a lovely new book with photos taken at the Les Lalanne home by Mr. Kasmin to be published by Rizzoli on May 15, 2012 entitled Claude and Francois-Lalanne: Art. Work. Life.

Les Lalanne

Paul Kasmin Gallery

293 Tenth Avenue and

515 West 27th Street

New York, NY 10001

May 3 - June 16, 2012

His paintings of sweets and candy are so amazing that Katy Perry tapped Will Cotton to create sets for her videos. You can see his work up close at the Mary Boone Galley but be warned, they may be hazardous to your diet!

Will Cotton

Mary Boone Gallery

745 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10022

May 3 - June 30, 2012

Tuesday - Friday 10am - 6pm

Saturday 10am - 5pm

Another not to miss show is Richard Avedon: Murals and Portraits at the Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea. Andy Warhol and Alan Ginsberg figure prominently as do many of their famous friends.

Richard Avedon: Murals and Portraits

Gagosian Gallery

522 West 21st Street

New York, NY 10011

May 4 to June 6, 2012

Monday - Saturday

10:00am - 6:00pm

I love auction previews because you never know what treasures you may get to see. Christie's has a special treat on view before the auction on May 8. They are offering one of Yves Klein fire painting FC1 from which a portion of the proceeds will benefit Oceana. You have to watch the video and see how it was created.

Yves Klein FC1

Christie's

20 Rockefeller Center Plaza

New York, NY 10022

May 4 10:00am - 5:00pm
May 5 10:00am - 5:00pm
May 6 1:00pm - 5:00pm
May 7 10:00am - 5:00pm
May 8 10:00am - 12:00pm

At the Mary Boone Gallery in Chelsea is a new Francesco Clemente exhibition Nostalgia/Utopia.

Francesco Clemente

Mary Boone Gallery

541 West 24th Street

New York, NY 10001

May 5 to June 30, 2012

Tuesday - Saturday

10:00am - 6:00pm

This also happens to be Open House Weekend for the Partners in Preservation project. You can check online for the institutions and sites that will be holding special events and tours this weekend in all five boroughs. Some sites participating include the City Museum of New York, The Guggenheim, The Apollo Theater, Federal Hall, the New York Botanical Garden, and even The Tenement Museum I wrote about yesterday. Also keep in mind that you can vote once per day for the site you think should win the grant money until May 21, 2012.

One of the most impressive shows I've seen in a long time is The Steins Collect at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. I honestly might go back again because it was that good. Gertrude Stein's family weren't just patrons, they were friends with many artists they collected including Matisse and Picasso. There are even photos and videos of the home that architect Le Corbusier designed for Sarah and Michael Stein. The show runs through June 30, 2012.

The most hotly anticipated event is not the Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations exhibition at the Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art but the Met Gala that benefits it on Monday, May 7. We joked last year that they needed to televise the red carpet like they do for the Oscars and our wish has been granted. You can watch the arrivals live here on Monday from 6:30-8:30pm. I will also be attending the press preview earlier in the day and can't wait to see the show and pre-party decorations.

Bon Weekend!

Sunday, 15 April 2012

Keith Haring at the Brooklyn Museum

When Canadian interior designer Tommy Smythe was last in town, he invited me along to the Brooklyn Museum to see the Keith Haring: 1978–1982 exhibit. It was a bit of the blind leading the blind getting there but luckily we made it. I was familiar with Keith Haring's work but this show introduced me to so many more facets of his art. It was fascinating to watch the videos of him painting in what can only be described as a methodical trance. The pieces above was created from one long continuous length of paper and I love how you can see the drip marks from the paint. The exhibit also showcases his notebooks, photographs, and subway drawings, as well as his friendship with artists Jean-Michel Basquiat and Kenny Scharf. Keith Haring died on February 16, 1990 from complications from AIDS at the age of 31. A sad tragedy that we are lucky doesn't happen as often these days. Keith Haring: 1978–1982 is lovely tribute his legacy and definitely worth the trek to Brooklyn.

Keith Haring subway drawing above a work by Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Interior designer Tommy Smythe taking a photo.

Photos by Heather Clawson for Habitually Chic

Tuesday, 3 January 2012

Le Cabinet de Curiosités

Over the holidays, my friend Jessica and I visited an amazing exhibition organized by the Marlborough Gallery downtown in the old Mercantile Exchange building. Le Cabinet de Curiosités, is a show conceived and curated by Thierry Despont, where "contemporary art converges with 18th- and 19th-century antiquities in a setting that blurs the confines of time and categorization." It mixes pieces by Thierry Despont himself and artists Manolo Valdés and the late Claudio Bravo, as well as rare antique furniture from the Steinitz Collection. I especially loved Thierry Despont's sculptures of animals and bugs made from metal machine parts and found objects. It's a small jewel box of an exhibition but worth the visit.

Le Cabinet de Curiosités

6 Harrison Street, 2nd Floor

New York, NY 10013

Tuesday thru Saturday

11:00am to 5:00pm

Open through January 31, 2012

Tuesday, 6 September 2011

de Kooning: A Retrospective

If you live in New York, I suggest you don't look at the weather forecast for this week. All the rain has me wishing that de Kooning: A Retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art was open now. It would be a perfect rainy day activity but unfortunately it doesn't open until Saturday, September 18, 2011. As I've mentioned many times before, I love abstract expressionism but I know not everyone feels the same. I hope this exhibition that features over seven decades of the artist's work will open their eyes to the beauty that can be found in non-representational art. Although, de Kooning was known to include figures of women in some of his works, they aren't exactly known to be beauties. It's in these works that you can see his influence on contemporary artists such as Cecily Brown. "This is the first major museum exhibition devoted to the full scope of the career of Willem de Kooning, widely considered to be among the most important and prolific artists of the 20th century." It will run through January 9, 2012.