New Museum Visit

It still never ceases to amaze me how it can take all day to do very little in the city. I spent my Saturday morning at the MOMA for painting class looking at the James Ensor exhibit that is coming down soon and the rest of the afternoon and part of the evening at the New Museum and one gallery on the lower east side. I never even got to Chelsea to look at any of the shows at those galleries on my list.

I had never been to the New Museum before. I really liked the building itself, especially the top floor with the sky room that looks over the south end of the city toward the financial district, brooklyn bridge, and what would have been the world trade center towers (I thought of that particularly, it being the day after 9/11 and all). I could have went to the museum just for the view and was disappointed I hadn't brought my camera. I've been painting the city as sort of a new subject lately, so I'll have to go back to get some reference photos. That may end up being the focus of my paintings for my thesis exhibition- I still am caught between atleast 3 ideas...

Thinking about photography and going down to the next floor with David Goldblatt's photos couldn't have been more perfect. I read about his experience in South Africa and how he was trying to deal with time and how apartheid had touched the lives of the people there. His photographs were really breathtaking-especially the landscapes. Even more amazing was his attention to detail. One photo took your eye over grass hills in the foreground meeting a line of shack houses before rushing onward to rising mountains. The shambled houses are almost blended into the landscape as if they are at the heart of South Africa's past and would live on there. Another was of two huge grassy hills connected by an arched bridge. Very small compared to the landscape was a tiny person bungee jumping off the bridge. It was totally unexpected. His photographs definitely felt timeless. I'm not sure if it was his use of strong contrast in light and shadow, or his almost aerial perspective on the landscapes, but something about them escaped time. I don't know that much about photography, but his technique seemed to pull you right into the photographs.

Emory Douglass on the next floor was completely different. His very graphic caricatures were vibrant and shocking. The very illustrative linear cartoon like drawings made the Black Panther propaganda almost seem like a kids coloring book. They were simple and easy to understand.

The last show I saw was at James Fuentes gallery which is a bunch of blocks south of the New Museum. Jessica Dickinson, who is Marc Handelman's wife, who I had for painting last semester, had her first show. Our class had seen her paintings in studio last semester so it was neat to see them finished and in New York! Her paintings are built of layers of different patterns and shapes. From a distance they just seem like nice abstract paintings, but up close you can see the intenseness that went into building it up, sanding it down and altering each layer. You can also see that she is informed from some everyday objects like windows or patterns in nature like wood grain, so it gives it somewhat of a subject, but not really. There is a lot of physicality to the paint and therefore gives it a feeling that the time it took to create each painting is somewhat tangible. She is someone who knows a lot about the process you go through to really figure out what you like doing and experimenting with in your work.