The Color of Pumpkin: RICHARD SERRA

Happy Thanksgiving

One of his students asked Buddha, "Are you the Messiah?"
"No", answered Buddha.
"Then are you a healer?"
"No,", Buddha replied.

"Then are you a teacher?" the student persisted.
"No, I am not a teacher."
"Then what are you?" asked the student, exasperated.

"I am awake", Buddha replied.

Casting A Glance

"Not everybody sees the art in the same way,
only an artist viewing art
knows the ecstasy or dread,
and
this viewing takes place in time.

A great artist can make art
by simply casting a glance..."
ROBERT SMITHSON

SECOND WAVE OF MODERNISM II
Landscape
Complexity and Transformation

The Cultural Landscape Foundation
November 18, 2011

I will listen to anyone who tries to articulate how the memories of their childhood landscape, influence the work they do today.  Charles Birnbaum, Founder and President of The Cultural Landscape Foundation asked all the participants at the Second Wave of Modernism conference to frame their remarks in a personal way.  Everyone stuck to the script.  From the Forest Cemetary in Stockholm to the industrial oil tanks of Newark, New Jersey to the desert of Yakima, Washington, each landscape architect articulated how their early versions of nature informed their future professional bias.

I found the most intriguing person at the conference, THE BAD GIRL of  landscape architecture:  Julie Bargmann, founder of D.I.R.T. studio.  The name of the her firm, tells a lot about what she is interested in.

Bargmann started off as a sculptor and her addiction to looking at the work of artists (Robert Irwin, Eve Hesse and Donald Judd) are keys to her working relationship to the landscape.   "I want to find the untitled in the landscape."  Her work is about not imposing form on the site, but finding the focus within a site.  Bargmann likes working with regenerative landscapes.  The industrial waste sites that populate America, are the places that speak to her.  For Bargmann many of these sites are archaeology.... making visible the crafts and industries that  once employed people and provided their livelihoods. This kind of work isn't for everyone.  "It's a messy experience."

Bargmann lost the competition for the High Line, which she mentioned without much difficulty.  Without saying much, you could understand how differently she would have approached the project.  It might have remained a place layered with history.

Using the rubble from demolition at the Urban Outfitters project in Philadelphia to create a hardscape and the curvilinear steel from  railroad track that once existed here. 

"These orphaned landscapes are our national parks.  They are the new urban frontier.  It's a wild landscape of a different kind."

I have been considering this question of wild landscapes, and how to make them visible; as I work in a place where the "soil" is construction fill, the landscape harmed by intervention of the building of the Triboro Bridge and general neglect over time.  Maybe, "a great artist can make art by simply casting a glance," but I am finding it a lot harder.

Stopping and Taking a Moment: LUCIEN CLERGUE

A Talk with
Lucien Clergue
Moderated by Dan Leers
Beaumont and Nancy Newhall Curatorial Fellow 

in the Department of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art

FIAF Gallery
22 East 60th Street
NY, NY

Clergue in America
FIAF Gallery
Curated by Anne Clergue, the artists daughter
November 10 - December 21, 2011

It's not often you meet someone, who has paled around with Pablo Picasso...Jean Cocteau, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Marcel Breuer, Ansel Adams, Edward Steichen, and Robert Rauschenberg - to name just a few.

Clergue is French, from Arles.  He came to New York at the urging of Edward Steichen. 

Dear Lucien Clergue:
I am pleased to hear that there is at least a chance of your coming to New York when we will be showing your splendid photographs at this Museum.  I hope that you will be able to realise this, as your meeting the American photographers here and the American photographers meeting you as well as your work would be a fine step in the advancement of modern photography,with a decided mutual benefit to all concerned.

With all good wishes -

Sincerely yours,

Edward Steichen
Director of Photography
Moma

This letter is so straightforward and innocent.  It struck me that no gallery owner or curator would ever write a letter like this today.  It reminds us that art was once not big business, but an exchange of ideas among artists.

At 76, Clergue is spry and animated.  He talked about  his own work by telling stories.

What were your first impressions of NYC in 1961 or What was it about Point Lobos and the work of Edward Weston that captivated you?

 "I went to Caramel to see the atelier of Edward Weston and was blown away.  For the next 12 years, I stayed off and on with Ansel Adams photographing rocks and nudes". 

Ansel said to me "I have been here for 40 years and I have never seen what you see." 

Clergue: " I am Mediterranean by birth.  What you see, I don't see.  I look at the details." 

This is how the evening went.

As we were leaving, my friend turned to me and said. "He is in amazing shape, must be all the red wine".  "No" I said, "It's photography.  It keeps you engaged with the world."

An edition of the extended catalogue is available as an IPad app.

Jigsaw Puzzle: Daphne Guinness

Fashion Icons and Insiders

November 3 and November 4

FIT

The Honorable Daphne Guinness

in conversation with Dr. Valerie Steele

 My defense for buying an expensive pair of shoes has always been the same.  "It's a work of art."   I  feel compelled to own these magnificent creations, even though these days, I rarely get out of my blundstones. 

ICON
(Late Greek elkon, from Greek) a conventional religious image typically painted on a small wooden panel and used in the devotions of Eastern Christians.
Emblem
Symbol

MUSE
Middle English, from Anglo-French muser
a guiding spirit
a source of inspiration

BEE
She says she is "not a muse," but more like "a bee"
flitting from one designer to another.

I couldn't attend the fashion symposium at FIT.  I asked a friend, who has no interest in fashion to go in my place.  His "report" of the conversation between Daphne Guinness and Valerie Steele, Chief Curator and Director of the Museum at FIT follows.  

Guinness is a fashion insider's dream.  Not only is she a collector; she is an artist.  Her art form is her fashion persona.  In amassing a huge collection, Guinness's purchases are based on the linkages she sees between fashion, art history and science. 

Those who are familiar with Guinness know she has a special interest in ARMOR.  Why? Steele asks.  "As a child, I was small;  I wanted something to hide behind.  I was fascinated by the Knights of the Roundtable and all the Arthurian legends.  I was always drawn to collections of armor in museums.  I love the workmanship.  I feel protected by wearing forms of armor."

For my friend, this fashionista experience left very little impact, except for these great photos. 
"I have to say there seemed to be no bullshit when Guinness was talking about herself."

Apparently Daphne Guinness is down to earth even on 10 inch platforms.

"I'll eat when I'm Dead"