Gallery Hopping in Chelsea

In the March 15th edition of the Wall Street Journal, I read about an exhibit by Yuriko Yamaguchi at the Howard Scott Gallery just a few blocks from our apartment. We are absolutely surrounded by galleries, and I never seem to find the time to visit them. So today, spurred on by the WSJ, I did.

On my way, I stopped by David Zwirner's much-hyped new space. It's an incredible building, though the current show is a bit beyond me. Sherrie Levine has taken over the second floor. Some of it I don't get at all:

And other things, like this beach ball and the pig below it, I absolutely loved.

Unfortunately, her art starts at $185,000 and goes up to $750,000, so I'll never own any.

A view of the staircase from below:

And the base of the staircase, with a mirrored sculpture

Me in the mirror

After that, I headed over to 529 W. 20th to check out the Howard Scott Gallery. The great thing about 529 is that it's a 10 (or so) story building filled with galleries and architecture firms. So I started on 7 with Howard Scott, and worked my way down a floor at a time. The Yuriko Yamaguchi show wasn't over-sold--the sculptures are light and airy, and they seem to float off the walls.

ACA Galleries has a show on until April 2 called Paper Through The Ages. In this gallery, you can see large-scale works by Frank Stella:

And small-scale works by George Bellows, Joseph Stella, John Singer Sargent

Jan Matulka (I love this)

And Lyonel Feininger

I stopped at a lot of other galleries while I was in the building, and saw a lot of other works by famous artists, but my favorite painting by far was by a painter I've never heard of. Merced River, 2015 by Tai-Shan Schierenberg at Flowers Gallery. It was sold (and $65,000) but I still covet it. I could stare at it all day.

There are so many galleries around here, who knows how many other hidden gems there are? Maybe someday I'll find one I can actually afford...

A Week Without a Husband (Van Dyck, Met Breuer, Carnegie Hall, NYCFC)

Ed headed off to England for work last week, so I made lots of plans to keep myself busy. But before he left, we went to the Frick to check out the Van Dyck portrait show that's in residence until early June. No photos allowed, as usual at the Frick, so you'll have to swing by yourself. Which you should definitely do if you get the chance--the Frick is its only venue. The things that man was doing at 14 are unbelievable. His portrait of Cardinal Bentivoglio alone is worth the price of admission. Other than the time it spent in Paris when Napoleon chose it to enter the collection of the Musee Napoleon, it has never left Italy. Here's a photo of a photo from the members' magazine (it doesn't do justice to the richness of the original, but still): 

On Thursday, I had my usual Whitney shift (my second and final spent with Andrea Fraser's Down the River, thank God--it is torture to stand for 2.5 hours listening to the banging noise made by Sing Sing prison and its inmates), and then I headed over to Brooklyn for a girls' night with Sally. After swinging by a wine tasting at Dandelion Wine, a really great local spot where dogs are welcome and Sally knows everyone, we headed to the Naked Dog for dinner. I should have asked where the name came from, as you'd never guess from the name that it's a cute little Italian place, complete with lovely Laura from Florence who was our server. Good food, good wine, good conversation...very odd light fixtures. 

Friday, my friend, Leslie, and I checked out the new Met Breuer, the former home of the Whitney. I really hate that building (and all Brutalist buildings), but I thought the Unfinished show was fascinating. We only made it through one floor in the almost-two-hours we spent there. There are some really famous paintings included in the show, including the Flaying of Marsyas by Titian that is your first view off the elevator. 

A Leonardo da Vinci sketch:

An unfinished Klimt

The Death of Bara by Jacques Louis David

The painting left on Van Gogh's easel when he died

And though I'm not familiar with the work of James Drummond, I thought this was fascinating

And if you're familiar with the old Whitney, you'll be pleased to know that the site-specific Charles Simonds piece, Dwellings, is still there, as is its partner piece on the building across the street.

We had lunch at Via Quadronno which was like a little piece of Italy on the Upper East Side. On the way home, I walked through Central Park and had another of those right-time-right-place moments. A ballerina was posing for a photo shoot in a little gazebo.

Friday night, I went to see the NY Pops perform at Carnegie Hall. I had previously taken a tour of the building with my friend Linda (aka Nancy), but I'd never seen a show there. The orchestra was incredible, and they featured Darren Criss (of Glee fame) and Betsy Wolfe (of Broadway fame, apparently). The theme of the show was 42nd on 57th: Broadway Today, and they featured songs from many of the most popular shows of the last 30 or so years. Phantom, Nine, Company, Les Miz, Chicago...and Let It Go from the future show Frozen (opening in 2017). Every time Darren Criss appeared on stage, a huge contingent of teenaged girls would go crazy, screaming like the Beatles had just arrived. He doesn't have a Broadway voice like she does, but he did a lovely acoustic arrangement of I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miz.

The view from my seat

Not a good photo of Betsy Wolfe who channeled Elsa in her blue gown while singing Let It Go, but I have Frozen-crazy nieces, so I had to try. You can't tell, but Bobby Lopez, half of the team that created Frozen, is accompanying her on piano. She also had Jason Robert Brown (The Bridges of Madison County, The Last Five Years, Honeymoon in Vegas) as her accompanist tonight on songs he'd composed.

Betsy Wolfe and Darren Criss sing Suddenly, Seymour from Little Shop of Horrors

Saturday, I gave a public tour of the High Line. We had absolutely gorgeous weather this week, and Saturday was in the mid-60s. The tour was filled to capacity - Australians, Londoners, Romans, and Americans, though no New Yorkers. The park is in the middle of spring cutback, so it's a great time to see all the rails. They tend to hide in the plants once May comes around, but this time of year, they're the focus. Saturday night, my friend Janine and I had dinner at Salvation Burger, April Bloomfield's latest project. I'd read mixed reviews, but it was one of the best burgers of my life. I'll be returning with Ed ASAP. One note, though, don't show up hungry. At 7pm on Saturday, the wait for a table was at least an hour, and they only take walk-ins, no reservations.

Sunday, I had brunch and a good catch up chat with my friend, Terri, at the Red Cat, and then the home opener for NYCFC vs. Toronto at Yankee Stadium, with my friend, Jessie. David Villa scored twice in the first half, so I was sure we were going to win, but we had to settle for a tie. I love our new seats. We're back about 10 rows from last year, and we're under the upper deck. We have a TV for replays (and to see how much extra time has elapsed, which for some unknown reason they don't display on the field itself) and we have shade for the brutal NY summer days. It's going to be a great season!!

Op Art at the Museo del Barrio

My first encounter with the term "Op Art" was shortly after I'd graduated from college. A friend referred to a dress I owned as my "Op Art dress", which I promptly started mis-naming my "Art Deco dress". John gently corrected me (read: mocked me within an inch of my life) and I never mixed them up again. (Ask Prof. Lyle Novinski - art history was never my forte.) I now live in a city which is absolutely filled with great Art Deco buildings, and I was delighted to discover The Illusive Eye exhibition during my first visit to El Museo del Barrio.

I'd heard great things about the Museo from my friend Nicolle, but I'd never ventured up there to check it out. It's a surprisingly tiny museum. The Illusive Eye exhibition, though, was terrific. It's on display until May 21st, so if you're an Op Art fan, add it to you to-do list for NYC.

"Labyrinths and mirrors, hallucinatory machines in dervish gyration, hypnotic oculi and rapturous mandalas...kinetic forms in parrallax mystery" (whatever that means). Frank Stella, Josef Albers, Bridget Riley, Carmen Herrera...these were familiar names. But Martha Boto? I'd never heard of her. But this piece (can you see me reflected in it?) really caught my eye. Even more so once the guard turned it on and the discs started spinning. You'll have to check out my Instagram feed if you want to see it in action. Note to self: figure out how to upload videos to this blog...

Other pieces that I really enjoyed...This one made beautiful reflections on the floor as the pieces rotated and swayed in the air. (I don't know who the artist is; I forgot to make a note. But you can see Eduardo Mac Entyre's Seis Formas en Dos Circunferencias through it on the left, and a Frank Stella painting in the distance on the right.)

I couldn't take my eyes off of this Tony Bechara work. I kept looking for patterns in the colors.

Victor Vasarely's Napaura made me think of the psychedelic 60's.

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This Julio Le Parc piece (Continuel Lumiere) is three-dimensional, the small mirrored pieces extending from the wall and reflecting the lights in cool patterns.

A lot of them lose their impact in the photograph. You can't see the way this Alberto Biasi piece changes as you move from left to right, though the target in the center wasn't visible to me when I was looking at the piece itself.

Other pieces have a bigger impact in the photo. The Marina Appolonio piece below, Spazio Ad Attivazione Cinetica 6B, is a completely flat image. You can walk on it, look at it from all angles, but you only get the 3D impact when you take a photo of it. (A very friendly, helpful guard pointed this out to me.)

Once I'd made it through the Illusive Eye, I went in search of the permanent collection. I thought I'd read somewhere that they had a couple of Velasquez paintings, which I was excited to see. I realize now that a museum of Latin American, Puerto Rican and Caribbean art would have no reason to have  anything by Velasquez, so I tried to find the article online. Apparently, it's Eduardo Velazquez they had in a recent show. (I've told you I don't know anything about art!) The permanent collection that was on view was a series of recent acquisitions. The only one I photographed was titled El Jardin del Amor, and that was only because it's an old family joke between Sheila and me. :)

I had been hoping to eat at the restaurant (another Nicolle recommendation), but it's undergoing renovations, so I was out of luck. I guess I'll just have to plan a return trip...

Barcelona (Days 3 and 4)

So on day 3, the top of the to-do list was visiting the Palau de la Musica Orfeo Catala. This absolutely gorgeous Moderniste masterpiece was designed by Domenech i Montaner in 1908. The exterior is extraordinary, but the interior is awe-inspiring. Wagner's valkyries, a giant bust of Beethoven, an inverted stained glass cupola...I've never seen anything like it.

Following our tour of the Palau, we headed for the Born Ribera. Just past the tiny 12th Century Marcus Chapel, we found the Picasso Museum, housed in 6 former palaces. (No photos allowed. Sorry.) We spent some time with Picasso, and then wandered through the Barri de Sant Pere some more. Thanks to Frommer's Great Walks of Barcelona, we found small churches, former homes of textile barons, examples of sgraffito designs on buildings, and Farmacia Padrell, the oldest pharmacy in Barcelona - founded in 1562.

We'd seen the Santa Caterina market at a distance the day before, but I wanted to get a closer look. It was sort of like the Essex Street Market on the lower East Side--lots of meat and produce, as well as some dining areas. The roof is covered with brightly colored tiles, though this isn't the best photo. It's cute of Eddie, though. :)

By this time, we were starving, so we headed back to La Rambla. But we couldn't seem to find any place that looked good to us. Fortunately, Ed's Pfizer colleague and Frommer's had both recommended Cal Pep, a tiny tapas place near the Placa del Palau. So we hung a left at Christopher Columbus and went on the hunt.

It was a bit of a hike, and we didn't have a good map. I tried asking directions at a bodega, but to no avail. The Barcelonans are incredibly friendly, but I don't think he had any idea what I was asking him. We managed to find it, though, and after a bit of a wait (there are 18 seats in total), we had a great tapas lunch and followed by a signature dessert. 

After lunch, we headed across the square to a little Irish pub called the Lennox Bar. It had a Guinness sign out front, and on this trip, that was enough to get us to visit. We had a beer there and decided to pub-crawl our way home. So mapless, we wandered the streets, heading in the general direction of the Casa Fuster. We managed to find Flaherty's (another Guinness sign), which was one of the bars that had been on our soccer-watching list. It was quiet when we arrived, but once the bachelor party showed up, complete with groom-dressed-as-baby-in-footie-pajamas, we figured we'd head out. Our final stop was the London Tavern (Guinness sign!), where we sat at the bar and watched 80s videos I haven't seen in about 30 years. A nightcap at the hotel bar, and we were done for the night.

Day four was all about soccer. Or football, since we were in Spain. The top of Ed's to-do list was touring Camp Nou, the home of the Barcelona football club. Saturday was the nicest weather day we had - the high was supposed to get into the high 50s or low 60s, so we decided to walk the 4 kilometers from the hotel. 

98,000 seats

Happy pilgrim. :)

They even have a chapel in the stadium.

A really bad photo of the first cup Barcelona ever won

By the time we'd spent a couple of hours at Camp Nou, we were exhausted, so we cabbed it back to the hotel. After a quick rest, it was time for lunch. We tried to get into Bar Mut again, but to no avail. They were booked solid. We found a little place called Clare's (there should be an accent on that e) and had a great lunch sitting in the window, watching the world go by. This is a really good wine, by the way, if you can find it here.

Casa Mila, aka La Pedrera, was only a few blocks away, and we had time to kill so we decided to check it out. I'm so glad we did. As impressive as it is from the outside (see Day 1), the inside and the courtyards are stunning. Everything is so colorful! We were able to explore a period apartment, as well as interior courtyards...

...and the roof (don't those chimney tops look like Stormtroopers??)

The two tiled arches frame the two most famous churches in the area. The Sagrada Familia (that photo wasn't good) and Sagrada Cor on Mount Tibidabo (below).

Broken wine bottles as ornamentation

Vaulted ceilings

And my favorite space of all

The second thing on the soccer/football to-do list was an actual game. Since Barca was out of town, we decided to try for tickets to see Espanyol. So after rushing back to the hotel to layer up (I didn't bring my winter coat, and I've been to night games before), we hopped in a cab and headed to "Campo del Espanyol". We got great seats, and we got to see them win for the first time in 2016.

The stadium only holds 40,500 people and it was by no means full, but it was the loudest stadium I've ever experienced. And you can smoke in there! 

The problem with taking a cab to a game is finding one to take you home. I had screen-shot the subway instructions we needed to be able to get home on the metro, but I hadn't thought to map out how to get to the station. So we did what New Yorkers do - we followed the crowd, assuming they were all headed to public transportation. Not so much. We ended up first in a motorcycle/Vespa parking lot, and then in a dark dead end car parking lot. After wandering around completely at a loss for about 30 minutes, we ran into a guy who told us the metro was too far away and to go back to the stadium and "turn left" to find a cab. Which, amazingly, worked! As soon as we got back to the stadium, the cops opened up the streets and an open cab magically appeared. One or both of our guardian angels must have been keeping an eye out. 

After we got back to Casa Fuster, we went off in search of dinner. (Wandering and searching seem to be a theme with us. We either need to plan better or I need to buy a thesaurus. Probably the latter.) We walked up the Passeig de Gracia, looking into windows, finding lots of sushi places, strangely enough, and finally found the Bou Cafe. Ed's jamon iberica sandwich was perfection; my mushroom croquettas were good but nowhere near as amazing. But the food was hot and filling, and the waitress was charming. She gave us an aperitivo that was the nectar of the gods. I wish I'd made her write the name of it so that I had some idea what it's actually called. The bottle came from her fridge, and it had no label. It had something to do with "oro", but even after asking her three times what it was called, I was still ignorant. Like the bay leaf aperitivo we had in Italy (that I'm still kicking myself for not buying a case of), I have a feeling I'll be regretting the not-asking for years to come. 

Thus ended our lovely four-day trip. We loved Barcelona and are definitely planning a return trip. Ed told his dad that Barcelona is in his top 3 cities in the world. I agree completely.