December Trip to NYC

I went to NYC this past Thursday with AIB buddy Rebecca Moran Brine. We had a great time. Funny, we did the art thing and skipped all of the holiday festivities, lights or attractions that make NYC even more spectacular this time of year.

We went to the Vincent Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night exhibit at the MoMA. Well worth the trip. The show had many pieces from his early work and then some absolutely stellar pieces of his more well known work. What a master of color. I learned a lot looking at his work and hope to apply some of the ideas I gleaned towards future paintings.

There also was an interesting immersive mutli-media installation Pipilotti Rist: Pour Your Body Out where you were encouraged to take your shoes off and lounge on the floor, or a large circular couch that was in the center of the room, and watch the video that filled three walls that were probably four or five stories high.

There was also a special artist focus exhibit on a series of Jasper Johns prints.

After we went through the Van Gogh exhibit we went upstairs to see the Joan Miró: Painting and Anti-Painting 1927-1937, it was interesting to see how the artist really explored materials, and in one room in particular that showed a series of paintings that were interepreted from collages of illustrations clipped from books and magazines.

We toured the main painting and sculpture galleries and it was great to see Monet's Reflection of Clouds on the Water-Lily Pond. I think I was most interested in looking at this painting from the painters view of about two to three feet away. What an immersive experience that was. And I was able to experience the same in Pollock's One: Number 31, 1950. I intend to come back to the MoMA in January to spend some serious time with these pieces along with some others.

After the MoMA we headed over to Chelsea to see a few show in particular:

• Tomma Abts at David Zwirner.
• Terry Winters at Matthew Marks (522 W22nd)
• Andreas Gursky at Matthew Marks (523 W24th)
• Joan Mitchell at Cheim & Read
• Then stumbled into an exhibit of Thaddeaus Beal at Robert Steele. I had seen this work somewhere before. I found out he is a Lawyer turned artist from Somerville! I must have seen his work on Harrison Ave sometime last year. The work looks like encaustic but it's mixed media on Sintra, Luan and other odd (synthetic) ground materials.