Native Son Basquiat Returns

Might Jean-Michel Basquiat have unwittingly foretold 9/11 when he painted an untitled painting in 1981? This month, The Brant Foundation brought an important solo exhibition of the works Jean-Michel Basquiat to the East Village of New York City, on the very streets the artist might have slept a night or two with other homeless people—before the gentrification of the hood. This exhibit is exciting because a native son had come home!

The Brand Foundation renovated every inch of the building which formally housed the studio and home of artist Walter De Maria, an installation artist and sculptor, into an incredible space for art. Once you enter the fortress-like black entrance doors of the otherwise nondescript building, you are searched by security and then invited to enter a dimly lit, rather large elevator and lifted to the third floor where the exhibition begins. Once the elevators doors slide open, you are immediately taken into the art world’s Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. A water skylight window filters moving natural light into the room and your senses are immediately nourished with colors and the urban radicalness the artist is most associated with. The most common and first reaction of many of the visitors getting off the elevator—seasoned, hard-nosed New Yorkers mind you—is “WOW.”

Among the many paintings showcased throughout the building, some well-known to the public—like the skull head painting on a blue background purchased by Yusaku Maezawa at Sotheby’s two years ago for a mind-blowing $110.5—there are some lesser known pieces like the Untitled (Blue Airplane). The painting is stretched on an 86 × 104-inch canvas depicting a urban landscape of building with an airplane flying in the middle of the painting in a black box. Having experienced 9/11 in this city, this was the first thought that came to mind on viewing this piece. Why is the plane boxed into a black box space? Might the greatest attack to ever take place on American soil also have been in Basquiat’s subconscious while he painted the urban scape 20 years before it happened? As a citizen of his time and space, he was documenting his surroundings. There’s a waiting list to receive free ticket admission into the show.

The Brandt Foundation seems to be sold out until the last day of the show on May 12, 2019; however, you can add our name to a waitlist.  http://brandtfoundation.org 

And don’t miss the show at the Nadmad Contemporary entitled “Jean Michel Basquiat—Xerox”

http://www.nahmadcontemporary.com/exhibitions/jean-michel-basquiat-xerox

Also, the last days of the gigantic Andy Warhol show is ending at the end of March at the Whitney Museum. https://whitney.org. 

Tumbled upon the Ralli

By Cosette Shachnow

Caesarea, Israel, an antiquated port city, is home to Israeli celebrities and politicians such as Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Amongst Caesarea’s exclusive golf courses and pricy restaurants are The Ralli Museums.

The Ralli Museums consist of two large museums that sit adjacent to each other. One contains Latin American art and the other contains bible-themed art. The art comes from the private collection of the late Harry Recanati, who was born into a wealthy banking family in 1919. He shared his art collection with the public to foster an appreciation for art, particularly for Latin American art and artists.

Israel, always on the brink of war and considered by most to be the Jewish Homeland, is unique. Much of the country’s story has been shaped by Judaic history and law, the Holocaust and persisting antisemitism. As such, one visiting Israel has ample opportunity to learn about those events. However, despite the fact that Israel is a Jewish state fighting to survive, the country is not solely defined by its Jewishness. This becomes apparent at the Ralli Museums.

The museums’ beauty is not only a testament to the many Salvador Dali statutes scattered throughout, but also to the complimentary admission, lack of security, and the fact that its open on Saturdays. The complimentary admission makes the museum accessible to tourists and families. Additionally, schoolchildren frequently visit the museum on school trips. The lack of security is unique. Most public places – like malls, train stations, and religious sites –require visitors to pass through a metal detector. At the Ralli Museums, there are no metal detectors or visible security guards. This distinguishes the Ralli Museums from other Israeli establishments. In addition to creating an inviting atmosphere and allowing visitors to quickly scurry to Belkin Arnold’s stunningly colorful triptych, 1492, it removes the oppressiveness and pretentiousness that many associate with museums. Everyone is welcome at the Ralli Museums, regardless of his religion, nationality, or economic status. Additionally, Israel is a Jewish state, and Jewish religious law prohibits working on Saturdays (the Sabbath). Accordingly, busses stop operating on Friday evenings and resume on Saturday evenings, and although some establishments remain open during the day on Saturdays, the lack of available busses can make it challenging to travel to these open establishments. Meanwhile, many people in Israel – including religious Israeli citizens – want to do activities on Saturdays. Fortunately, the Ralli Museums stay open, so people with cars (or those willing to splurge on a cab) can view Latin American art and learn about the Old Testament’s traditional, and potentially taboo, stories through viewing works such as Lot and His Daughters (about two sisters who intoxicated their father in order to have relations with him, so that they could bear a child, Genesis Chapter 19.)

Despite the Ralli Museums’ inclusiveness, the museum does not abandon its Jewish identity. A plaque outside the museum dedicates the museum to the memory of Jewish communities in Spain and Portugal. Perhaps this is because Recanati was a Spanish Jew, and the museums are located in Israel. Additionally, one of the museum’s buildings is dedicated to telling Jewish biblical stories. Although this aligns with the status quo of Israel, it can be seen to diversify the art world – which is not short on New Testament pieces.  

Despite Caesarea’s beauty, its exclusivity can make a visit there distressing. However, the Ralli Museums, which hold priceless works, are accessible and inclusive – and thus a model for museums and cultural institutions throughout the world.

http://www.esra-magazine.com/blog/post/ralli-museum

https://www.rallimuseums.com/en/About_Ralli_Museums_Caesarea

http://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/3490060/jewish/Who-Was-Lot-Hero-or-Villain.htm

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What is happening in Tokyo

By Masako Sato

I recently visited the IMA2017 show at Tokyo University of the Arts (TUA). It’s the art center’s  end of the year exhibition. TUA is considered by many to be the best national institute for arts and music. It boasts a strong global reputation with illustrious alumni such as Tsuguharu Foujita, the famous Japanese-French painter and printmaker; Sakamoto Ryuichi, the versatile Japanese musician, composer, writer, actor and winner of an Academy Award, BAFTA, Gammy and two Golden Globe awards; and Murakami Takashi, a Japanese contemporary artist and painter who has also ventured into commercial media such as animation.  

This year, there were only 22 freshmen accepted in the Inter-Media Arts department, with each presenting quite unique projects. Here are four interesting artists that caught my eye:

Emiri Nomura

Title: “Let’s go to the beach- End of The World”

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“While knowing that our dreams exist somewhere on the horizon, I go home every day. Yet, with the passing of time - the house, all memories, and our families will eventually disappear. With the vanishing of the house, it begins to resemble the sea. The sand that seems to have seeped in through the curtains is actually nowhere to be found”, Emiri Nomura proposes.  

Mai Nunotani

Title: “How about you see?”

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This installation was born through frequent visitations with a woman diagnosed with Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD). BDD is a mental disorder where an individual gets fixated on one or more perceived flaws/ defects of their body, although this flaw may be minor or nonexistent to others.

The mismatch between the woman and the external environment is significant, as the woman feels that her face and body are grossly disfigured and fat.

Her dilemma is that she wants to be understood, but fails to gain understanding from others, and has trouble communicating her thoughts. In order to raise awareness, the artist decided to create a piece that will enable observers to “experience” the disorder themselves.
When standing in front of the piece, it tracks and blurs the face of the viewer. As the face is tracked, the fan set at the back of the screen further distorts the projected image. There is also a distorted mirror on the side.

Nana Kawabata

Title: The Golden Composition

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The theme of this painting is all about the placement. If I put myself in the upper position I will naturally thrive at whatever I do. Yet, if I am stuck in a lower position, I struggle to elevate and perhaps will even be lost.

Yumi Mita

Title: Genesis

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Another Inter-Media freshman, Yumi Mita’s “GENESIS” is worth mentioning as well. An oblong painting hangs roughly on the white wall, showing a silver woman sparkling day and night as she rests on what seems to be the swirling sea. If she has her eyes open, she may see a gigantic, indignant hand reaching from above. A figure also appears to be falling from the sky, and yet the woman lays there nonchalant — confidently relaxed. When asked what motivated her to paint this piece, Ms. Mita simply said “the strong, amazing women around [her].”

LET THE INSANITY BEING

Jean Dizzy Jr. 

The Gagosian Gallery on Madison Avenue in the Upper East Side and Con Artist Gallery on Ludlow Street in the Lower East Side appear to have nothing in common: the former gallery caters to established artists and collectors, while the latter gallery caters to up and coming artists and younger collectors. Yet, it’s almost All Hallow’s Eve when our differences are minimized to make room for our imaginations. As John Chamberlain, whose work is being shown at the Gasgosian said, “Let the insanity play itself out through the materials. Then you don’t have to work about style. You’ll just be working to describe your own insanity.”  Both galleries are showing the imaginative minds of artists through renderings of facial mask. Chamberlain’s masks are made of metal, while the downtown artists, which include Bree, Sofi Du, Rodney Sanon, Tom Fleming, Nolan Rhodes, Luz Rodriguez, Jeffrey Gaperin and Timonde to name a few, have created their artwork using commercially available plastic masks. The pairing of the art from both shows provides an intriguing panorama into the minds of artists. What does the mask unveil?  Con Artist Gallery 119 Ludlow Street, New York, N.Y. (gallery hours 11 am to 7 pm). Gasgosian Gallery 980 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10075 (gallery hours Tues-Sat 10-6). The Con Artist masks are actually for sale and the gallery will be hosting a Halloween Party.                                       

Marzabal in the Streets

Meryl Streep’s 2017 Golden Globes acceptance speech for the Cecil B. DeMille Award in January epitomized the thoughts of a majority of the American electorate. When speaking about how stunned she had been to her core by the way the then candidate Trump had given himself license to imitate and vilify a disabled reporter, she went on to describe the ripple effect that it causes when the powerful give others permission to disrespect others. “…Disrespect invites disrespect, violence incites violence. And when the powerful use their position to bully others we all lose.”

Like a magmatic gas percolating through centuries old lava, the disrespect, vilification and discrimination toward women made their appearance for all to see during the competition for the highest and most powerful office in the world. It may be fair to say that prior to 2016 most Americans would not have likely used the word “misogynist” in a sentence nor would most Americans have considered “grabbing a woman by the pussy” —without consent—a sport that an adult male would actually engage in. Yet, the theatrics of the past election cycle and continuing during this presidency as well as the current dethroning of powerful men such as Crosby, Ailes, O’Reilly and Weinstein amid allegations of misbehavior reflect centuries old discrimination against women.  Artists have not been immune to the percolating events surrounding our days.  As Nina Simone once said, “You can’t help it. An artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times.”  One such artist has taken to streets with her art.

Amaia Gomez Marzabal was born in the northern industrial city of Bibao, Spain, which has seen a revitalization after the construction of the iconic Bilbao Guggenheim Museum.  Besides the Basque artists, Marzabal explains that she has been influenced not only by Bilbao’s cityscape surroundings, including chimney smoke, the smell of ironwork in the air from the factories, the fog and rain of the weather, but also by witnessing political upheaval among those Basque separatist groups seeking independence from government, including the more violent strand of armed separatists such as Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA). 

In 2008, Marzabal and received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Public University of the Basque Country in 2008. Marzabal presently lives and continues to develop her art in New York. She finds that the New York artistic movement is communal, cooperative and supportive. She is also amazed how galleries market their events and attract visitors and the curious to consider works of art. There is space for an artist in New York to aspire and inspire.          

Through her paintings, prints and digital images, she brings attention to color, surface, language and ritual and reinterprets Basque traditional textile motifs and decorative arts. She also is working on a project that focuses on issues of gender equality and the empowerment of women in the public space of the streets by placing stickers about urban landscapes around the world. She explains, “I want to speak about how, even though [we] are living in a developed world, women continue to suffer discrimination and violence in their normal lives.”   She also tries to document the street scenes with photographs that are uploaded to social media. One of her gender stickers shows the back of young woman wearing a yellow jacket with the word “Girl” simply inscribed on the back of the jacket.  Check out Marzabal’s work at www.marzabal.net

 

 

 

Valentine at the Met Breuer

Like Maurice Chevalier’s song, Valentine, in which he poetically reminisces about his first love of a petite, charming, young woman with a small chin, New York will be singing the same tune when Ettore Sottsass Design Radical show closes at The Met Breuer tomorrow October 8, 2017. This is the first design show presented at the Breuer. Ettore Sottsass was an Italian architect and designer who produced work during six decades (1917-2007). The highlight of the show is the sleek and portable seductress-red Valentine typewriter. Sottsass radically made use of the colors in many of his designs and felt that colors are like words expressing emotions. Sottsass had commented, "I worked sixty years of my life, and it seems the only thing I did is this fucking red machine. It was supposed to be very inexpensive probable, to sell in the market, like pens...Then the people at Olivetti said you cannot sell this."  Though impracticable, the Valentine typewriter was certainly expressive and a darling of pop culture and the show.   

TRANSUMANZA OPENED

        Tonight Con Artist Gallery opened its residency artist show entitled "Transumanza" with a boom-boom-pow as only a show at Con Artist can achieve. How will you cross the land and put your foot forward? Each artist explores this question within the boundaries of painterly canvases and works on paper.  Carole D'Inverno finds inspiration from American history when working with her abstracts. Shaleeka is drawn in her work by weathered doors and broken windows suggesting a crossing into a new environment beyond the surfaces of her work. Nadine Mahoney work depicts emotions using face and bodies as vehicles of expression. And Timonde presented abstracts that explores the relationship among colors and the application of color on canvases and works on paper.       

- Jean Dizzy Jr.

Cassini Good-Bye

Con Artist Collective and Gallery on Ludlow Street in New York City had a bang-up intergalactic opening last night showcasing its Cassini Good-Bye show, an homage to the  the NASA spacecraft Cassini's destruction to oblivion within Saturn's obit. Cassini was destroyed as it entered the atmosphere of the gas giant that it studied for nearly a decade.

 

Transumanza

        Among the cacophony of sounds in New York this fall, the word Transumanza is making its vibrational entrance in a painting exhibition at the Con Artist Collective and Gallery on Ludlow Street. The show will have its opening on September 20, 2017, from 7-11pm at the gallery and will be on view from September 18-22nd .  With the displacement of residents as a result of recent wave of hurricanes to our south, the theme of show would not be more coincidental.  

       Transumanza the Italian word for transhumance, literally meaning, “crossing the land.” Whether it’s the 20th Century world wars shifting large numbers of populations in Europe; the movement of farmers from Oklahoma and Arkansas to California to escape economic depression and bad weather; and the Haitian boat people of the 1970s-1980s escaping political instability, endemic poverty and natural disasters.

        Transhumance forever changed the individuals and the places they left behind and the places in which they landed. Each artist in the show has their own experience of crossing the land, both metaphorically and literally, and their crossings have at some level influenced their work. All 4 artists are painters, and collectively their works reference a literal crossing; paintbrush and pencil are pushed and pulled across the canvas, paper or panel allowing the viewer to witness the artist’s journey.

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Ciao Cassini

By Jean Dizzy Jr.

        On September 15, 2017, it is decreed and ordered that the life of the great Cassini will come to an end and, like any great Italian opera, there will a lot of black, flowers and mourners. Who is this Cassini you might ask? Cassini is not human, but in this technological age, it’s nevertheless a being.  Cassini is a spacecraft that was launched two decades ago, on October 15, 1997, by NASA, on a billion-mile adventure from Earth to Saturn. The spacecraft was named after the astronomer Giovanni Cassini, who had discovered Saturn’s moons and the gaps between its rings. A smaller spacecraft, the Huygens prober, was passengered on board. The Huygens probe eventually split off and landed on the moon Titan sometime around July 2004. Like Italian leading men Cassini’s fight was smooth and all of his instruments worked and, unlike Italian movie idols, Cassini rarely acted up.

        NASA has no trips planned to Saturn and its mysterious ringlets. It’s the end of a great human adventure to that planet. The passing of Cassini has not gone unnoticed by the art community. Con Artist, the New York-based collective on Ludlow Street in New York City, has planned a themed show, “Good Bye Cassini” around the spacecraft’s demise. Con Artist promises a stellar group show featuring artists who have moved to “outerspace.”  On view September 11–15. Gallery Party: Wednesday, September 13.  Con Artist Collective & Gallery, 119 Ludlow Street, New York, New York 10002.    

 

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