Peter Greenaway: Leonardo’s Last Supper

photo courtesy of Park Avenue Armory

Peter Greenaway: Leonardo’s Last Supper
Park Avenue Armory
December 3, 2010 – January 6, 2011

I had three good reasons to see Peter Greenaway’s Last Supper at the Armory this week. First, The Park Avenue Armory has been offering great installations recently ~ Ernesto Neto (flickr pics) and Christian Boltanski (blogpost)just to name a few. Second, I was aware Greenaway had a series of installations illuminating and reinterpreting famous paintings, such as Rembrandt’s “Night Watch” at the Rijksmuseum. Pretty cool idea. Third, I found it completely bizarre that as a film maker he said “the tools of cinema are now wasted on cinema.”

And damn it if I didn’t like the show. I’ve seen Da Vinci’s Last Supper in Milan and I was raised Catholic so I was surprised when I found the installation confusing. Will my high school New Testament classes ever prove useful? The Last Supper segment lacked context. Which was noticeable because there was so much context given to Veronese’s “Wedding at Cana” segment. More importantly, I didn’t have an emotional or intellectual reaction to the piece.

— Incidentally the “Wedding at Cana” segment reminded me of a super cool presentation of Jan Styka’s “The Crucifixion” at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California. It’s the largest permanently mounted religious painting in the world with a guided light show that narrates and illuminates important parts of the painting for viewers. It is so enjoyable with it’s use of 1960s technology!

New York Times review

Back from Marfa Texas

Kate’s Marfa flickr set
Rob’s Marfa flickr set
Chinati Foundation

Antony Gormley: Event Horizon

ANTONY GORMLEY: EVENT HORIZON
March 26, 2010 – August 15, 2010

I see one! Look up there, see? Antony Gormley’s Event Horizon in Madison Square Park was the perfect way to end a hectic day. Rob and I met after work and had such fun spotting the life-size body forms on rooftops and within the park. My camera was kaput – so check out Rob’s flickr set.

Dia: Beacon

“What interests me is the opportunity for all of us to become something different from what we are, by constructing spaces that contribute something to the experience of who we are.” – Richard Serra

-photo by rob zand

We went to Dia Becaon this weekend to celebrate Rob’s birthday. The museum is located in a former printing plant built in 1929 by Nabisco. With 240,000 square feet of exhibition space, the museum is particularly suited to the needs of large-scale installations, paintings, and sculptures. I was most impressed with the Richard Serra installation. As I spiraled in to the core of one of his steel spheres I felt claustrophobic and anxious and I loved every step. It is literally, quite breathtaking.

more of rob’s posterous pictures.

Tara Donovan

Last week I had the good fortune of seeing the Tara Donovan exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. Her choice of materials and scale created a perfect rhythm for my afternoon. “Haze” was captivating and shouldn’t be missed. Get over there quick and see the show.

Description
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Organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, this is the first major museum survey of Tara Donovan’s work. The artist’s sculptural installations are based on the physical properties and capabilities of a single accumulated material. Donovan uses prosaic items including electrical cable, adding machine paper, straight pins, paper plates, and toothpicks. These materials are arranged in a manner that sometimes mimics the organization of geological or biological forms.

Through this subtle and remarkably affecting presentation, drinking straws may suggest clouds and plastic cups may call to mind a brittle winter landscape. Part of the intrigue of Donovan’s practice lies in the way she is able to present a mass of unaltered, simple objects that do not disguise what they are while simultaneously suggesting a range of richly poetic associations.

Roxy Paine on the Roof: Maelstrom

Roxy Paine on the Roof: Maelstrom
April 28, 2009–November 29, 2009
American artist Roxy Paine (b. 1966) has created a 130-foot-long by 45-foot-wide stainless-steel sculpture, especially for the MET’s Roof Garden. Giving viewers the sense of being immersed in the midst of a cataclysmic force of nature, Maelstrom (2009) is Paine’s largest and most ambitious work to date. Set against Central Park and its architectural backdrop, the installation explores the interplay between the natural world and the built environment amid nature’s inherently chaotic processes.

Dan Graham: Beyond

photo credit: copenhagen.unlike.net

Over Memorial Day weekend we saw the Dan Graham: Beyond exhibit at
MOCA Los Angeles. This morning I am happy to learn the show arrives to the Whitney later this month: opening June 25, 2009.

Its a powerful show with work that is inclusive and displacing all at once. My favorite pieces in this retrospective are the transparent, two-way mirrored glass installations. Viewers see reflections of themselves and their surrounds as well as views through the glass. The audience becomes part of the sculpture.

Dan Graham interview