Museum Visit: Whitney Museum: Claes Oldenburg

Claes Oldenburg (Born Stockholm, Sweden, 1929) is an American sculptor known for his humorous, monumental sculpture of everyday objects.

Oldenburg moved to New York City in 1956, where he joined with a number of artists, including Jim Dine, Red Grooms, and Allan Kaprow, artists who were involved with "performance" art called Happenings. In an early work, Oldenburg created an "environment" titled "The Store" with plaster sculptures of commercial pastries. Here is a display case from "The Store."

Later, he constructed food sculptures that were made of painted canvas, like this funny, giant "Hamburger." It is part of the permanent Oldenburg exhibition at the Whitney Museum.

Another Oldenburg canvas sculpture at the Whitney Museum, is "BLT," a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich. Each layer of the BLT is a separate work of art, requiring that it be assembled for each exhibition.

In 1965, Oldenburg created outdoor sculptures like the "Ice Bag." The vinyl sculpture is twelve feet across, and motorized, slowly moving up and down. A film called "Commercial for an Ice Bag," shows the Ice Bag in surprising outdoor sites: on a snowy hill with snow falling on it; floating on a river; spread out on a sunny grassy hill; or sitting in a field blooming cherry trees.

Oldenburg’s use of everyday commodities as subject-matter, and his way of reversing characteristics of hard and soft, rigid or yielding, created an art of parody and humor, and placed him in the forefront of what became known as Pop Art.

In 1965 Oldenburg turned his attention to projects for imaginary outdoor monuments. He created humorous sculptures of familiar objects he made colossal. "The Lipstick Ascending, on Caterpillar Tracks," was a huge sculpture constructed of painted Cor-Ten steel. It was installed at Yale University, in response to the anti-war sentiments among the students, (make love not war??)

Here are two projects inspired by Oldenburg's art, that you can try with your child at home.

"Artbus Soft Sculpture"

You'll need some magic markers and some (old?) fabric. On paper, scribble some shapes. Look for shapes in the scribbles. Draw a heavy outline around a scribble you want to turn into a soft sculpture. Draw a line an extra half inch outside the shape. This will be your pattern. Cut the shape out along the larger outside line. You'll need a front and a back for your sculpture. Add some color with magic markers. Turn the outside to the inside. Sew the front and back pieces together leaving a small section open. Trim the excess fabric close to the seam. Turn the sewn fabric inside out. Stuff the sculpture with cotton or soft, old socks cut into small pieces. Sew the open space closed (with invisible stitches). And there, you have a soft sculpture. You can also try to create some "soft sculpture" animals, or soft sculpture toys.

"Artbus Me Pillow"

This will be a little pillow with a photo of you on it, that your doll (or pet) can sleep on. Ask your parent to print a photograph of you on iron-on paper. (You can find the paper in an art store or photo store.) Cut out two pieces of fabric about 6"x10"? One piece will be the front of the pillow, the second piece will be the back. Iron the photo onto the front piece. Turn the photo face down so it is on the inside of the pillow. Sew the two pieces of fabric closed leaving a small opening. Trim the fabric close to the seam. Turn the fabric right side to the outside, so the seam is on the inside, and you can see your photo on the outside. Stuff the pillow with soft old fabric or cotton batting (sewing supplies store) and sew the opening closed with tiny stitches. You can use a photo of you with Mom or Dad for your pillow, or your best friend, or your pet. Then it will be a "Mom Pillow" or...

Gallery Visit: William Wachtel Gallery: Margeaux Walter

Margeaux Walter was born 1972 in Seattle. She studied at NYU Tisch School of Art in New York City. Her work was included in the MoMA P.S.1 Revolving Exhibition 2010. She is represented by the William Wachtel Gallery.

Walter creates digital photographs and lenticulars (a printing process that creates images that move or shift with the movement of the viewer), to examine the impact of technology on society.

“Whether I am exploring the changing ideals of family and community, or how we interact in crowds, my work is both created with a sense of humor, and with a yearning to hold onto physical human interaction in a technologically advancing society.”

Margeaux was inspired by the work of Cindy Sherman, an artist who dresses up as different characters and photographs herself. All the characters in Margeaux's collages are photos of herself, disguised in wigs, costumes, and makeup.

Gallery Visit: Ameringer: Judy Pfaff

Judy Pfaff's Frio

I went to Chelsea last week to see the Judy Pfaff show at the Ameringer Gallery on West 22 Street, inspired by Roberta Smith's review in the New York Times. The show, "Five Decades," featured several of her amazing wall-size (sometimes room-size) exhuberant explosions of wiggley wire, bits of painted wood, paper lanterns, tin cans, all suspended in the air by meticulous construction that made the giant sculptures seem to be miraculous assemblages that appear weightless. Pfaff has always been one of my favorite sculptors. I marvel at the way she pulls dozens of tiny disparate elements together in one powerful work.

Pictured here is "Frio, from her 1984 Badlands Series. It is one of my favorites. Using a minimalist's palette of white, black and some in-between grays, Pfaff creates a stark, formalist work, that suggests the romance and poetry of birch trees, the woods, a metaphor for nature itself.

Judy Pfaff (1946) is an American sculptor who hit her stride in the 1970's along with artists Lynda Benglis, Gordon Matta-Clark and Richard Tuttle. She is a minimalist but without the constraints of minimalism and conceptual art. Her work ventures toward site-specific installations and large expansive pieces that are permanently attached to a wall. Pfaff received a BFA from Washington University and an MFA from Yale University. She has received many awards among them the prestigious John D. and Catherine T. Mac Arthur Foundation award. Pfaff work is included in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

Museum Visit: MoMA: Picasso's Guitars

Around 1912, artist Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), built this playful construction of a guitar out of paper, string and cardboard. No-one knew what to make of it. Was it sculpture? "No" Picasso answered, "it's the guitar."

He built another guitar In 1914, in sheet metal. Both Guitars were gifts from the artist to MoMA. They were part of a special period of material and structural experimentation in Picasso’s work.

It is this time in twentieth-century art, that the MoMA's exhibition Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914, explores. The exhibition includes seventy collages, constructions, drawings, mixed-media paintings, and photographs assembled from over thirty public and private collections worldwide.

Museum Visit: Rubin Museum: Timed Visit

Here is Jill Cornfield's simple, half-hour timeline for taking kids to visit the Rubin Museum without fear. I found it in TimeOut New York KIDS and loved it. Don't forget to drop in to the Museum's gift shop afterwards.

TimeOut New York KIDS's Half-hour tour of the Rubin Museum

The sujuni in “Color and Light: Embroidery from India and Pakistan” Photograph: © Peter Aaron/Esto

Presented the right way, almost any topic can interest a child. Case in point: Himalayan art. My previously uninitiated eight-year-old, Ned, was enthralled with it on a recent trip to the Rubin, thanks to a careful plan. To replicate our visit, leave an ID at the admissions desk and borrow a Yak Pack, stuffed with toys and games. You can also grab a magnifying glass (available on each floor, usually near the stairs) in order to examine scrolls, Buddhas and needlecraft details.

00:00–00:03 Down a few steps from the main hall is a multimedia presentation that illustrates the distance between NYC and the Himalayas. Watch it, and you’ll have accomplished your first goal: establishing context.

00:04–00:05 Mosey over to the spiral staircase, stand at its base, and gaze up at the radiating spokes of the skylight. The gorgeous pattern holds a lesson: A trip’s highlight may turn out to lie in examining the museum itself.

00:06–00:13 On the fourth floor, head to “Color and Light: Embroidery from India and Pakistan” (through May 11). Stand in front of the sujuni, a quilt depicting children riding on elephants or surrounded by birds and bugs. Your tots will have a ball in the exhibit’s back room arranging felt shapes on boards.

00:14–00:16 Nearby is a boy’s embroidered jacket with extra-long sleeves, intended to be worn on special occasions. Ask your kids how the garment compares with their own fancy clothes.

00:17–00:20 Stand in front of the 19th-century white fabric hanging from Kashmir. Your kids may think it’s utterly plain until they peer at it through a magnifying glass and discover its intricate woven pattern of paisley and flowers. Challenge them to guess how many stitches compose the piece. Ned wagered about 10 million.

00:21–00:23 Proceed to the second floor’s permanent exhibit, “Himalayan Art: What Is It?” Here, your family will learn how plants and semiprecious stones are ground into pigments.

00:24–00:30+ Head to the gift shop and snag the Amazing Magic Flower ($2.50), a paper contraption that can be unfolded in myriad ways—not unlike a museum visit.

Written by Jill Cornfield TimeOut New York KIDS's Half-hour tour of the Rubin Museum

http://newyorkkids.timeout.com/articles/museums-sights/72371/half-hour-tour-of-the-rubin-museum#ixzz1Dwkpnknq

Museum Visit: MoMA: Trisha Brown

The Trisha Brown Dance Company appeared at The Museum of Modern Art as part of a program of live performance and dance connected with the exhibition On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century,

"...if one considers line as the trace of a point in motion—the very act of dance becomes a drawing, an insertion of line into time and the three-dimensional space of our lived world." (MoMA)

The setting for the performance was the spectacularly beautiful, four-story, atrium space on the second floor, with pristine white walls, pierced with windows and glass-walled balconies.

A large rectangle had been taped on the floor to define the performance space. People begin arrive and sit on the floor outside the taped rectangle.

The dancers appeared, dressed in white Tshirts and pants. They lifted 10 foot poles and carefully balanced them on their arms, their feet.

They lay on the floor and made the poles touch to create a line in space. They maintained the line perfectly as they carefully rolled out from under them, then crouched and rolled back under maintaining contact. Wow. We were reminded that dance requires amazing balance and control.

The second dance was called "Scallops." Five dancers stood in a line along one side of the rectangle, facing the center. The dancer on the end turned the line of dancers so their backs faced the center.

(If you traced a line on the floor that followed the path of the dancers, it would form a curved arc, the shape of a scallop.) The dancers repeated the "scallops" along each side of the rectangle until they reached their entrance point. Dancers "draw" patterns as they move.

The third dance was called "Locus: Solo." A solo dancer entered a small rectangle taped on the floor in the middle of the room. She danced a simple series of connected "everyday" movements inside the rectangle: bending, lifting one leg, then the other, jumping, turning, lying down, standing up...like a dance. It seemed that she never repeated a single movement. There are hundreds of ways to move your body.

The fourth dance was called "Rooftops." The dance was originaly done in Soho on several rooftops. It was reworked for the MoMA performance. A dancer in red was placed on each level of the museum space, from the first floor entrance level all the way up to the sixth floor.

You could see the dancers through the architectural openings, the cross-walks, and positioned in the entrance lobby. The dancers all performed the same series of movements, with slight differences. The audience moved around to see the dancers. The Museum architecture was a partner in the dance. It was wonderful to see the Museum space in a new way.

I found Trisha Brown's ideas dazzling, and MoMA's gorgeous space truly beautiful.

Here is a Trisha Brown-inspired dance project you can try at home:

Tape a rectangle on the floor. The size should be a square based on the length of the dancer's waist to her toe. Set an egg timer to one minute. Choreograph a dance with connected everyday movements - bending, jumping, rolling, waving stroking... Count the number of movements you do. See how many you can do. Compare your total with that of your friends and family.

This is the link to MoMA's "On Line" exhibition

Http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/971

"The dancing body has long been a subject matter for drawing, as seen in a variety of works included in this exhibition. These documentations show dance in two dimensions, allowing it to be seen in a gallery setting. But if one considers line as the trace of a point in motion—an idea at the core of this project—the very act of dance becomes a drawing, an insertion of line into time and the three-dimensional space of our lived world."

This is the link to the Trisha Brown event at the MoMA.

http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1127

Trisha Brown (American b. 1936) is a "different" kind of choreographer, a "conceptualist?" She creates dances based on everyday actions and repetitive gestures, instead of classical ballet or modern dance movements. She is often called a "minimalist." Her dances are simple and clear, often without music. Trisha became known in the 1960's when she showed her work at the Judson Dance Theater, and alternative-space in New York City's West Village. She is known for her site-specific choreography, and has worked with opera and the ballet. The dances featured in this event were originally performed in 1971.

Studio Visit Project: Paul Klee "Lines, Dots and Circles"

 A Drawing  by Paul Klee

Here is an amazing drawing lesson for very young children. It was inspired by artist Paul Klee's "Pedagogical Notebooks," two volumes based on Klee's teaching at the Bauhaus, the legendary art and architecture school. The "Notebooks" describe Klee's ideas about the fundamentals of drawing. While his ideas are sophisticated, they are readily accessible to children. Children learn that art is composed of lines, dots and circles, and that they can create many, many drawings using these simple elements. They also learn that "Lines, Dots and Circles" are part of an art “vocabulary” that will help them talk about their drawings.

Here are the materials you will need for the "Lines, Dots and Circles" project: A large dining table (or the floor) Crayons (beeswax are non-toxic and nice and bright) A roll of paper approximately 18”x20 feet.  Painter’s Tape (easy-release) to hold down the paper.

The "Lines, Dots and Circles" drawing project can be a great game. Uma (two years old) and I "played" it. Here is a how you can "play" it with your child. 


We put on some favorite music, taped an 18” x 40” piece of paper to the dining room table, and took out a few crayons.

1.

(Draw a long line. Try to make it a kind of performance.)

(Draw and talk as you walk along drawing the long line.)
“Here is a long, long line.”

(Repeat) “Here is another long line.” 
“Two long lines.” "Let's draw some lines together."

(You and your child walk along and draw long lines.) 
“What color is this line?” “What color is this one?”

2.

(Draw a long wiggley line.)

"Look at this wiggley line.”

(Draw several wiggley lines in different colors.)

“Wiggley blue, wiggley red, wiggley green.”

(Draw fast. Slow.)

“Fast. Slow.”

(You and your child draw lines, dots, and wiggley lines faster and slower.)

“This line is sooo long."

" This line is so short.”

“This line is so wiggley.”

Stand back (many times) to admire your work.

3.

(Draw a small dot.)

“Here is a dot.”

(You and your child draw dots, small dots, big dots.)

"Let's draw lots of dots."

"They look like rain."

4.

“Let’s draw some circles”

(Draw some big circles.

“Round and round, big circles.”

(Move your arm round and round.)

(You and your child draw circles. )

(I gently moved her arm in big circles until she caught on and did it herself.)

(Draw some medium-size circles over and over.)

“Medium size circles, round and round.”

(You and your child draw circles.)

“Round and round.”

(Draw small circles.)

“Small circles, round and round.”

(You and your child draw some small circles.)

(Talk about the circles.)

“Three circles, one big, one medium, one small.”

(Draw two eyes, a nose and a big smile inside each circle.)

“Smiley faces. Who are they? Momma, Poppa, and you?”

(Draw Momma’s curly hair with wiggley lines.)

“Look Momma’s curly hair.”

5.

"Let's draw some animals! "

"Old MacDonald's animals."

"And on his farm he had a..."

(Draw a small circle for the head.)

(Draw a larger circle for the body.)

(Draw little triangles for ears.)

(Draw four lines for legs and one for a tail.)

“Look! It’s a sheep.”

(Draw some circles for a cat.)

“Meow, it’s a cat.”

“What other animals does Old MacDonald have?”

(Draw more circles for a horse, two ears, four legs, a tail.)

“Let's draw Mary Mary, how does her garden grow?”

(Draw some flowers, a dot for the center, loops around for the petals.)

(Draw a circle for the sun. Draw some lines radiating out.)

“The sun helps the flowers grow.”

(Draw some more flowers.)

“The garden has lots of flowers.

Stand back (many times) to admire your work.

6.

After about 10 minutes (a long time), ask “Is this drawing finished?"

“Yes? Let’s tape it to the wall.”

(Tape the drawing to the wall with the easy-release Painter’s Tape.)

Put it at the child’s height.)

(Talk about the lines, the dots and the circles.)

(Talk about drawing playdates with your family and friends.)

Your child will enjoy showing her drawing and explaining it.

You can help her describe the drawing using the terms she has learned.

Uma poses in front of her drawing "Lines, Dots and Circles"

Here are some links to Paul Klee and his Pedagogical Notebooks:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Klee

Paul Klee's (18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee and his colleague, the Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky, taught at the German Bauhaus school of art, design and architecture. His works reflect his dry humour, his personal moods and beliefs, and his musicality.

Paul Klee in his studio

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Klee_Notebooks

Paul Klee's Pedagogical Notebooks contain his lectures at the Bauhaus art and architecture school, in the 1920s in Germany. These volumes are considered so important for understanding modern art, they are compared to the importance that Leonardo's A Treatise on Painting had for the Renaissance. Herbert Read, the art philosopher, called the "Notebooks" "the most complete presentation of the principles of design ever made by a modern artist. The volumes constitute the Principia Aesthetica of a new era of art, in which Klee occupies a position comparable to Newton's in the realm of physics."