Science! Psuedo-science! Nature! Art! Nonsense!
March 31, 2023
art, museum art, art museum, dallas, Dallas Museum of Art, DMA 1 Comment
Who even knew that Dallas had a world class art collection? I mean, I should have known since all that oil money has been sloshing around since the ’70s. An unexpected stay in the city (stranded much)?) had a silver lining. Here is some of what I saw at the DMA.
If you get stranded in Dallas, make sure to visit.
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Detail first..
Whole work is amazing.
Sure, clams. Mmm hmm.
March 9, 2023
art, photography art, art museum, chagall, kandinsky, kreeger, mondrian, monet, museum, romey, sculpture, washington, washington dc Leave a comment
On a windy but very clear crisp Spring day, we visited the Kreeger—a small but excellent collection in an interesting architectural space. Chagall, Monet, Picasso, Kandinsky (though the wrong periods), and some very interesting Mondrian are among the finds. What a stunning place to have lived. Must be nice to be an insurance plutocrat!
Ghost Romey in the jungle.
Romey’s favorite, this Picasso woman.
The architecture is 1960’s modern, but still very tasteful and beautiful.
The light on Piet.
Outside was chilly but likewise very well structured.
A series of “wrong” Kandinsky. Late and early, but no just right. Where is Goldilocks when you need her?
This gallery has the feeling of a japanese dojo.
The wind was perfect.
Still.
Motion.
The Kreeger efinitely well worth a visit.
January 28, 2023
art art museum, modern art, MoMA, new york, NY, nyc 1 Comment
We were just here in April (thanks to Bill and Lisa). Things are just about the same, except there is now an ML exhibit curated by an algorithm. Interesting. Here’s what we saw.
We’ll have to come back to see the ML thing properly as we have an actual ML security event to host.
Helicopter from the sky.
Not Kandinsky
Rothko.
This picture does not do this picture justice.
8-finity
Look up!
American pop euphoria air force.
Ah, Vincent
Kandinsky.
Chagall, sorry Romey, “The Birthday” is still out on loan.
Trapped in paint
Is Piet infinity?
Rumors of surveillance capitalism.
Latino shines through.
About that surveillance capitalism.
Helicopter from the floor, and a sense of closure.
January 12, 2023
museum, music, photography art, art museum, charles arthur, gem, guitars, richmond, RVA, stephen mccarthy, video, VMFA Leave a comment
The Strings exhibit at VMFA is devoted to the guitar. If you like guitars, guitar history, and historical curation you need to see this. We’ll ignore the fact that the most important strings are usually on a violin for now (LOL).
Romey and I learned about this exhibit by watching a video shot to promote and expand on the show with some live music featuring my friend Charles. Both Stephen and Charles are way better guitar players than I will ever be! Check out their session here.
Here are some pictures and commentary about the exhibit.
Charles as guitar.
In one of the rooms, there were a couple of guitars. So we just had to play them. They were squishy and hard to play.
The master goofs off.
Proof that I should stick to the violin.
Bill got into the act too.
Guitar versus violin. What turns you into a geezer faster? Guitar of course!
The dog is named Fay Ray. We knew another one of those once.
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Fond memories of a session? Charles in front of the recording studio.
The world’s smallest guitar.
January 9, 2023
art, museum, photography art, art museum, dc, eli, eli mcgraw, Rubell, rubell museum, washington dc Leave a comment
Eli (the resident artist at my house) and I went to the brand new Rubell Museum in DC on the solstice. It was excellent: well curated, beautifully displayed, provocative, and socially relevant. Go visit for yourself.
The sexual revolution will be YouTubed
Over the Rainbow
Goat in a pot. This one is hilarious and very surprizing.
Angel penis for the win
Yin/Yang angel/devil
Eli at the end of the rainbow.
September 5, 2022
art art, art museum, hirshhorn, joan, photography, romey, video, washington dc, yayoi kusama Leave a comment
There were circles. Which is my favorite part.
Romey and Joan arrive
We waited for our timed entry.
And finally it was time.
Then more waiting.
And it was time again.
And then, you guessed it, more waiting!
And it was the last time.
Well worth the wait. Wow.
Our reality is not quite as…
July 28, 2022
art, photography art, art museum, barcelona, fine art, gem, into the unkown, museum, picasso, ramen, romey Leave a comment
The Picasso Museum in Barcelona is an institution and is worth a quick visit. But if you have been looking at Picasso for years, you won’t find much in the way of major works. In any case, Barcelona is proud of what it has come to think of as its home town boy. Lots of early work.
Lots. Like an entire wall’s worth.
Set in four connected villas, the museum has amassed a very deep (but not very wide) collection.
This blue.
Avant guard in Paris with the Russian ballet. Picasso was blending fine art, music, and dance in 1909. (And here we thought we were onto something with Into the Unknown.)
After so much Picasso, Ramen is the answer.
July 23, 2022
art, politics art, art museum, dali, film, light, madrid, modern art, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, photography, picasso, politics, queens, romey, sculpture, spain, video Leave a comment
There is lots of politics pervading the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía which if you think about it is somewhat ironic. I mean, the place itself is named after a queen. And lots of anti-imperial politics pervades (including some well-deserved anti-Americanism). But a queen? What kind of democracy has a monarch? Or still reveres a monarch? Seriously. Those days need to be behind us as a species.
Anyway, the ill-begotten gains of monarchy are at least being spent on art and not on oppression. Or is art just an opiate slightly stronger than religion? These are difficult issues to plumb.
And are they old fashioned or what? No pictures of some of the pictures? Trapped in the past they are. The guernica room is a shrine that should be full of life, not a mausoleum. Spain still seems to have a Franco hangover.
But still, go. The sound and the fury be damned.
The light is excellent.
Shadowplay.
Take a green break.
Watch mute.
And then coffee.
July 20, 2022
art, dance, film, photography, river, who knows april, April Claggett, art, art museum, art space, biella, gem, italy, rhine, river, sleestaks, sogol shirazi, terzo paradiso, travel, video Leave a comment
You might die, but if anything is noted as the cause of death, it will be loneliness.
There are no people doing art or even visiting Terzo Paradiso unless you count our unruly bunch. Here’s what we saw (and what we did).
First we explored random spaces.
And then we found some art to see (but only after getting lucky).
After a short nap in the hammocks near the circles, we found the projector and those glowy rocks from Land of the Lost.
There were no Sleestaks. So here are two for good measure. They covet the glowy rocks.
There was dirt.
There was also very silly science. But it was arty.
Not surprisingly, the room was better than the dirt.
Watch this video. Really.
Rhine took pics too. It was hard not to.
We got lucky and found another human who told us how to cross the highway, go down the stairs and find even more art. Or rather more art places with not much art. Something like that.
Rhine woke up from his long nap, dreaming of Sleestaks and late 1970s TV.
The space rang a long cool echo of lost civilizations and the empty planet to come.
So there was dance.
And reflection
We climbed back down to reality using a ladder that was too short to reach the sky.
And then we left.
May 8, 2022
art art, art museum, Guggenheim, kandinsky, NY, romey 1 Comment
