If you like Japanese anime and manga you should see the new © Murakami exhibition (April 5-July 13, 2008) at the Brooklyn Museum. This is the first major retrospective on the works of Japanese artist/designer Takashi Murakami, who is known as the Warhol of Japan. It focuses on his work from 1991-2000, “when the artist began exploring his own reality through an investigation of branding and identity." From "© MURAKAMI: Brooklyn Museum Photo Gallery”
The colors are vibrant and his creations are fun, but nonetheless the show has been receiving some mixed criticisms. In the article “Popping Up In Brooklyn” by Lance Esplund (NY Sun, April 3, 2008) states the following:
“An unflinching and unapologetic, nearly 20,000-square-foot celebration of the lowbrow horrors and banalities of commercialism, materialism, fashion, and pop culture… nothing more than a marketing machine for the dissemination and blatant merchandising of a brand…”
In doing a basic search online for the exhibit, one gets bombarded with the fact that within the show is “a fully operational Louis Vuitton shop selling some of Mr. Murakami’s designs”. The entire exhibit does have a sense of commercialism, but that is the intent of the artist. “Mr. Murakami says his product designs are simply an extension of his art“ and the shop “is the heart of the exhibition”. From “Watch Out, Warhol, Here’s Japanese Shock Pop” by Carol Vogel (NY Times, April 2, 2008)
This is an interesting show to see and as an added bonus you can still catch the Cherry Blossoms in bloom behind the building at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (April 5th – May 11th).

Last night, while I was looking for a place to eat with my family in the Greenwich Village, I came across several light posts that were beautifully covered with tiles and glass. This sparked my interest once again about the different types of Street Art around the City.

At work today, I came across a really good article in The New York Times titled “To the Trained Eye, Museum Pieces Lurk Everywhere,” by Seth Kugel, March 9, 2008. In it the author suggests for all of us to stop and see what is going on around us – “a rarer tactic, and one well worth trying for a weekend, is to focus exclusively on street art, the uncommissioned, uncommercial forms of expression that pop up on buildings, sidewalks and street signs and go way beyond traditional graffiti.”

He provides neighborhoods to go to “like Chelsea, SoHo and the Lower East Side in Manhattan, and Williamsburg and Dumbo — especially near the waterfront — in Brooklyn.” And where to look “on and around doors, on shuttered windows, above your head, near the ground, on poles and street signs and traffic signals and newspaper boxes and scaffolding…everywhere”.

This reminded me that several months ago a wall of graffiti was located within a historic Soho building. The mural contains “drawings by original graffiti subway artists Fab Five Freddy, Futura 2000 and some traces by Jean-Michel Basquiat.” From “Historic Graffiti Mural Discovered in Manhattan Building” by Ula Ilnytzky, December 12, 2007.

The NY Times has a nice slide show at In New York, the Art Outside

For additional information, check out the following links as well:

Wooster Collective: www.woostercollective.com

Streetsy: www.streetsy.com

Jonathan LeVine Gallery: www.jonathanlevinegallery.com

Ad Hoc Art: www.adhocart.org

Billionaire Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud plans to build the world's tallest building in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It will be a mile tall skyscraper, “taller than four Empire State Buildings stacked upon each other.” From “Billionaire Plans To Start Mile-High Building Club” (Forbes.com, 02.25.08)

Currently in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the Burj Dubai tower is being constructed. Though still in construction, it has just beat the record for the world’s tallest man-made structure, reaching more than 160 stories high (2,064 feet).

It appears that in 1956 American architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed a mile high (5,280 feet) skyscraper called “The Mile High Illinois, Illinois Sky-City, or simply The Illinois”. However, the building was never built “because lengthy elevator rides made it impractical.”

As a New Yorker the only true tallest skyscraper in the world will always be the Empire State Building. But, these new buildings sure will put a spin on the term the ‘mile high club’.

Recently the well known dance club Webster Hall (building, not the club) was approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Built in 1886 by architect Charles Rentz, Webster Hall became one of the country’s first modern nightclubs…Its website boasts “It was where the original bohemians, like Emma Goldman, Marcel DuChamp and Margaret Sangor, created unique costume balls to benefit nascent social and political causes.” From the Gothamist article “Hailing Webster Hall”

It is especially important for this building because all around it older buildings are being torn down to be replaced by 20- or 30-story dormitories or hotels…The building was a speakeasy during Prohibition. It also has been the setting of union rallies, elaborate debutante balls and even wrestling matches. From the Daily News article “Landmark day for Webster Hall”

When researching a landmark building, you should access the very detailed designation reports, which “explain the architectural, historical and cultural significance of an individual landmark or historic district.” Two publications that list the landmarks and historic districts throughout New York are: “Guide to New York City Landmarks,” by Andrew S. Dolkart; and “The Landmarks of New York,” by Barbaralee Diamonstein.

The Neighborhood Preservation Center has a searchable database to all the reports from the first report (1965 - Pieter Claesen Wyckoff House) onward. It is an ongoing project, so reports are still being posted. Check it out at: http://www.neighborhoodpreservationcenter.org/designation_reports/index....

For current designation reports go to the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s website at: http://www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/html/forms/reports.shtml

Fortunately, over 23,000 buildings have been given landmark status, never to be touched or destroyed ever again (unlike the Pennsylvania Station and many others…). Well, unless you're watching another Hollywood movie depicting the destruction of New York…

It is cold outside today in New York City, but not quite as cold as in Ohio, where even the trees appear to be longing for warmth. In the Associated Press there is an article titled “Knitters Dress up Trees for Public Art,” by James Hannah, which discusses the art of the “knitknot tree" project on Xenia Avenue in Yellow Springs, Ohio, “known for its offbeat art”.

“Wrapped around the trunk is a colorful, crazy-quilt skin made up of panels of yarn knitted individually by residents and visitors alike. Good-luck charms cling to the yarn. Family photos, poems and jokes peek out of knitted pockets.”

“"What takes this to a different level is it is a community thing," said Corrine Bayraktaroglu, an artist who helped start the "knitknot tree" project. "People are really, really enjoying it. They're coming from towns to have their photograph taken with the tree. They're adding stuff to the pockets."

The following trees were knitted by Carol Hummel, guess which one is call the “Down Under”.

The artists plan to remove the knitting at the end of April and give the pieces of yarn away.

In passing by Rockefeller Center one would think it was still Christmas time. Did they forget to take down the tree? or Maybe their keeping it up year round? Hoping people would feel joyful all year long…

Actually standing in front of Rockefeller Center behind the statue of Prometheus is the “Electric Fountain”. A fountain of lights 35 feet tall and consisting of 3,390 LED bulbs that simulate the motion of water: “streaming, pooling, splashing and flowing, creating a hypnotic experience for viewers”. It is an installation by British artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster, and is presented by the Art Production Fund.

"Electric Fountain represents Noble & Webster's modern take on the world's oldest form of public art, the fountain. It simultaneously references iconic pop culture symbols, such as marquee signs in Las Vegas and Times Square, and historical fountains built in civic spaces, such as Bernini's Triton Fountain.”

"The project mimics the tradition of a fountain as a monument found in public squares around the world, but its magic lies in the emulation of light where water should be," said artist Sue Webster. "During daylight hours the viewer will really get a sense of Electric Fountain's architectural and sculptural qualities as the lights react with the changing moods of New York City's daily weather conditions. As nighttime falls, the sculptural form will slowly disappear into darkness leaving only the illusion of bright cascading water in its wake." From “Electric Fountain Bathes Rockefeller Center Plaza in Light.”

When the fountain comes down in April, a skyscraper made up of over one million steel replicas of the popular construction toy the Erector Set will be built. It is by the Los Angeles artist Chris Burden and is titled “What My Dad Gave Me.” It will be 65 feet tall and weigh over 70 tons, running from May 28th to July 13th. “From Toy to Skyscraper”

A new headquarters for The New York Times is being built on 8th Avenue between 40th and 41st Street. It is a 52 story building designed by the architect Renzo Piano. To document the construction of the tower is photographer Annie Leibovitz. The art project is titled “Building the Times: Photographs by Annie Leibovitz”.

http://nymag.com/

It is reminiscent of the photographs of the Empire State Building by Lewis Wickes Hine, as well as Margaret Bourke-White’s photos of the Chrysler Building.


Leibovitz’s is best known for her work at Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair and Vogue. In 2005, her photos took the first two spots for the best magazine covers of the past 40 years by the American Society of Magazine Editors.

No.2 – Naked and pregnant Demi Moore holding her belly for Vanity Fair.
No.1 – Naked John Lennon curled around Yoko Ono for Rolling Stone.

To see the photographs for “Building the Times” go to: http://newyorktimesbuilding.com/leibovitz/

For information about the architecture of the building checkout the website for the Architectural Record at: http://www.archrecord.construction.com/features/0802nytimes/default.asp

Also the magazine article:

The New York Times Building, New York City. By Suzanne Stephens
“Architectural Record.” February 2008, pg. 94-105.

The Art Division owns several books on Annie Leibovitz and Renzo Piano, to view the records take a look at our online catalog: CATNYP

I came across an animated version of the Bayeux Tapestry in YouTube. The tapestry, an embroidery on wool cloth, “is 231 feet long and 19.5 inches wide, and contains more than 70 scenes representing the events that led up to the Battle of Hastings and the Norman Conquest of England in 1066.”

It depicts the last successful invasion of Britain by William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy and the defeat of King Harold, the last Anglo-Saxon King (in the video: he is the character struck in the eye with an arrow). It was made presumably for Odo, Bishop of Bayeux (1030–97) and half brother of William, circa 1080.

The Norman Conquest was a pivotal event in English history for several reasons: it linked England with continental Europe through the introduction of a Norman aristocracy, thereby lessening Scandinavian influence; created one of the most powerful monarchies in Europe and engendered a sophisticated governmental system; it changed the English language and culture; and set the stage for a rivalry with France that would continue intermittently until the 20th century.

Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Library Edition

The Bayeux Tapestry has been much used as a source for illustrations of daily life and appearance of 11th-century material culture in early medieval Europe (about 1100). It depicts a total of 1515 different objects, animals and persons.” Along the top and the bottom run decorative borders with figures of animals, scenes from Aesop’s fable, husbandry and the chase, as well as the main narrative.

Grove Dictionary of Art

Interestingly, the tapestry also makes reference to Halley’s Comet, which made an appearance in 1066. And you got to love a good epic tapestry battle scene.

I came across an interesting article in the Art Newspaper titled “Statues in Britain are revolting—and so are we: The British art world has had enough of “Frankenstein monster memorials”.” (2.7.08, issue 188) It discusses the backlash or “fightback against “bad” public sculpture in the UK” toward the “unprecedented number of tasteless statues that have appeared across the country.”

The editor of The Burlington Magazine, Richard Shone complains that “the infestation of public places...by statues and memorials...is now of serious concern.” He goes on to describe a statue of Nelson Mandela in Parliament Square as “Crudely sculpted, the statesman’s arms are outstretched as if showing how big the fish was that he caught…” As well as a sculpture of a man and woman embracing as: “As romantic as a couple who have just been refused a mortgage.”

Though the statements are quite to the point, the article made me wonder about the public sculptures spread throughout New York City and the boroughs. I began to check online and found a site by the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, which has a database to search the sculpture collection of the New York City's Parks, as well as the Archives and Photograph Collection of the Art Commission.

There is a good article (though outdated) in the New York Times, titled “An Outdoor-Sculpture Safari around New York” by Grace Glueck (August 7, 1981). Also the Public Art Fund website at http://www.publicartfund.org/.

If anyone has additional internet sites, I would love to gather up a collection of good sites to help locate information.

There are several guidebooks for New York sculptures in the Library catalog: CATNYP

Walking into the Modern Art wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I came across what I thought was a shark tank. For a second I had to step back thinking I entered the American Museum of Natural History by mistake.

But what I encountered was “The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living” by English artist Damien Hirst. A tiger shark immersed in formaldehyde encased in a glass cabinet.

“Hirst created work that brought together the joy of life and the inevitability of death…A shark in a tank of formaldehyde presented a once life-threatening beast as a carcass: the glass box, half hunting trophy, half homage to the Minimalist object, imposed the gravity of a natural history museum onto an outsized council-house ornament.” Artchive.com

About three years ago the work “was purchased by the hedge fund billionaire Steven A. Cohen, who paid $8 million for it, one of the highest prices at the time for a work of contemporary art.” The original 14 foot tiger shark was then replaced with a 13 footer, because the first shark was never injected with formaldehyde, so it began to decay from the inside.

The work is now on view in the Lila Acheson Wallace Wing of the Metropolitan Museum for the next three years. It is an interesting piece though I was a bit upset to learn that the first shark was “caught and killed by a fisherman in Australia at Mr. Hirst’s behest in 1991.”

This work provides me with two debatable questions:

1. Killing a living creature for the sake of Art?
2. Whether the replaced shark is still considered the original work?

Check out the New York Times article “Swimming with Famous Dead Sharks”, which provides a video of the reinstallation.

On YouTube there is an interesting video from the New York Sun and the Metropolitan Museum of Art discussing the installation, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWQGa-EBxzk

Oh well…I can hear the Jaws theme playing in the background:

Du dun. Da dun. Da dun da dun da dun duh DA DAAAAAH!

Mayor Bloomberg and the Public Art Fund have announced that Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson has been commissioned to build four man-made Waterfalls in the East River, at the southern tip of Manhattan (one near the Brooklyn Bridge).

The artist has “designed what will likely be the city's biggest public art project since Christo and Jeanne-Claude's "The Gates". The installation will consist of a series of freestanding waterfalls in the East River…the waterfalls will rise about 60 to 70 feet above the water — more than half as high as the roadway of the Brooklyn Bridge.” From a New York Sun article titled “Waterfalls as Art To Be Installed in East River”.

According to the article “Christo and Jeanne-Claude's "The Gates," attracted 1.5 million out-of-town visitors and generated $254 million in economic activity for the city. The project cost was more than $20 million and was financed entirely by the artists.”

The waterfalls project “will cost $15 million, funded by private donations to New York's Public Art Fund” and will hopefully “create $55 million in extra tourism revenue.” From Reuters.com: Artist to build four giant waterfalls in New York

To learn more about the artist the Art Division owns several books on Olafur Eliasson in the Library’s online catalog: CATNYP

On January 24, 1984 Apple Inc. introduced us to the Macintosh.

During a break in the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII (January 22, 1984) a television commercial by Apple was aired to promote the Macintosh personal computer. The ad showed an unnamed heroine (played by Anya Major) wearing red shorts, red running shoes, and a white tank top with a Picasso-style picture of Apple’s Macintosh computer, running through an Orwellian world to throw a sledgehammer at a TV image of Big Brother — an implied representation of IBM.”

This was followed by an on screen message and voice over stating: “On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like 1984.” (From Wikipedia.org) I love that quote “Picasso style picture”.

In this past hectic season of Christmas shopping and looking for something different to buy, I came across a sight titled “New York City Garbage”. Yep, just as it states, one can buy garbage, but not just any, it's “New York City Garbage”, by Justin Gignac.

The artist has set up a simple and straightforward website that provides just enough information to peak ones interest. There’s a PDF Press Kit (lower left hand corner) that provides information about the artist, the pieces and publications/programs.

Within the PDF is the “Anatomy of New York City Garbage”, which provides a brief description of what the pieces consist of. Read the Anatomy on the image below:

Unfortunately, I never was able to order a piece, since I was on the hunt for a Nintendo Wii station for my nephew (which I was able to get at the last minute). But, I suppose the statement is true that one man’s garbage is another man’s treasure, or I guess in this case another man’s Art?

According to an AM New York article “Guerilla artists don’t want bench back“, an 8-foot-tall bench mysteriously appeared on Houston Street about two weeks ago. It goes on to say,

“All this work, once it’s installed, it’s kind of just left to the fates,” said Tod Seelie, who collaborated with street artist Brad Downey on the bench and photographed its stealth installation in the middle of the night. “The idea is to see how time changes it.”

It would have been interesting to see people’s reaction walking/driving by the bench. Unfortunately, it appears that the bench has been taken down and since the artists do not want it back, it will likely be scrapped.

According to an NPR Boston (www.wbur.org) article about “Guerrilla Art” and a bench like object found in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, it states that “Guerrilla art has been described as an insidious way of leaving anonymous art work in public places. It’s unsanctioned and often unwelcome.”

Guerrilla Art is part of the Street Art Movement, defined in the Wikipedia as “art of an illicit nature, as opposed to government sponsored initiatives. The term can include traditional graffiti artwork, stencil graffiti, sticker art, wheatpasting and street poster art, video projection, art intervention, and street installations. Typically, the term Street Art is used to distinguish contemporary public-space artwork from territorial graffiti, vandalism, and corporate art.”

Guerrilla Art is “a street art which embraces a more active, aggressive and usually covert approach to adapting public space.”

Follow the links to the Libraries catalogs: CATNYP and LEO for the ‘Subject’ term Street Art.

Thomas Nast (1840-1902) is credited as being the “man who created our current image of Santa Claus.”

The illustration appeared in the January 3, 1863 issue of Harper’s Weekly and showed Santa Claus handing out gifts to a Union Army camp. He is chubby, pink cheeks, long white beard, wearing a fur-trimmed hat and suit with Stars and Stripes. He is sitting on his sleigh that is being pulled by reindeers.  In the background is a sign that reads “Welcome Santa Claus” and shows him handing out gifts to children and soldiers. 

Christmas became a Union holiday and Santa a Union local deity-a positive spirit of Northern plenty and domesticity, to set alongside and against the Southern myth of chivalry and tradition…

Thomas Nast is considered the “father of American cartooning and remains the greatest American image-maker…he invented the Democratic Donkey, the Republican Elephant and the American Boss (capitalist with a bag of money for a brain).Above all, he was the man who invented Santa Claus, taking a minor Central European folk saint and turning him into the personification of American Materialism, coming down the chimney and shaking with joy.”

“Nast’s fat little man in red, with a broad white beard, was benevolent but no angel…Nast’s most famous drawing of Santa was a double-page Christmas picture published in "December 29, 1866 that clinched and pulled together the Santa iconography…Yet, for all the entrepreneurial edge, Nast’s Santa is overseeing and all smiling: “With malice toward none.” Nast gave the American Christmas its patron saint and its dominant tone…”

Taken from the New Yorker magazine (December 15, 1997, pg.84-102), “The Man who invented Santa Claus”, by Adam Gopnik.
Happy Holidays!! 

The first Christmas card is believed to have been designed, in England by the painter John Callcott Horsley, in 1843. He created the greeting for Sir Henry Cole.

The card, a triptych, depicts a family party, beneath them are the words “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You.” A thousand copies were made and colored by hand. “Within 20 years several British firms were publishing Christmas cards for the general public.” Encyclopedia Americana - (Greeting Cards)

Louis Prang, a Boston lithographer, “is credited with producing the first commercial Christmas cards in the United States.” A German immigrant he began printing cards in “Roxbury, Massachusetts in 1874. By the 1880s he was producing more than five million a year.” Encyclopaedia Britannica - (Christmas Card)

The NYPL Digital Gallery contains over 800 images of Christmas postcards primarily from the Picture Collection of Mid-Manhattan, as well as other collections. Search for “Christmas Postcards” or “Christmas Cards”…
Happy Holidays to All…or should I say “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You.”

Wikipedia

Check out a new book titled “The History of the Snowman: From the Ice Age to the Flea Market” by Bob Eckstein. (NY: Simon & Schuster, 2007)

Some “Fun” facts from the book:

• Height of “Angus King” the world’s largest snowman was 11 stories tall and required nearly four months (15 weeks) to melt.
• The first snowman in print was on an illuminated manuscript describing the Crucifixion of Christ.
• Snowmen were blamed for The Massacre of 1690.
• Snowmen were made as an early form of pornography in The Miracle of 1511.
  • De sneeuwpoppen van 1511 is the only book to tell the story of the Miracle of 1511, a Woodstock-like event in which after a famed snowstorm the whole town of Brussels celebrated by making pornographic and political snowmen.

Links:
Official Site for The History of the Snowman
History of the Snowman Blog
NY Times Book Review

In New York Magazine, there is an interesting article written by Jerry Saltz that asks, Where Are All the Women? at the MoMA. The author states that the:

MoMA is our fountain of youth, our Garden of Eden, our Promised Land. But all these things will not last much longer if this institution continues excluding women from the display of its permanent collection of painting and sculpture from 1879 to 1969, which lives on the fourth and fifth floors. Everything about this museum rides on the vibrancy and diversity depicted there, and MoMA is allowing that life to drain out. It is slowly turning the history of modernism into a procession of dead presidents and greatest hits, in effect making modern art a gated community and a state religion.

He goes on to say:

By my count, only about one percent of all the art up to 1970 in MoMA’s Painting and Sculpture Collection is by women. The people who run this institution are earnestly trying to do the right thing; I’m not declaring them sexist bigots. Nor am I a quota queen, advocating that women be allotted their 51 percent: Art history isn’t about fairness.

I’m not quite sure how to take this article? Have a look at it and a related piece “Who Should Get the Job?” What is the evolving role of women in the Arts both artists and administrators…Can they make it better, healthier?

Louise Nevelson. (American, 1899-1988). Sky Cathedral. 1958.



Georgia O’Keeffe. (American, 1887-1986). Abstraction Blue. 1927

Happy Thanksgiving from the Art & Architecture Division at HSSL. The NYPL Digital Gallery has digitized the “Birds of America” by John James Audubon. This image is “Wild Turkey.” (v.5, pl.287, opp. pg. 42)

Though the weather is weird, one day its shorts the next day a winter coat…and now flowers in bloom everywhere. By now I believe everyone has seen them, those colorful flower decals on the hoods of NYC taxicabs.
Not every one likes them, but they add a little color to the canvas of a busy NY street and have brightened up my days. They are part of a public art program marking the “centennial of the metered taxi in New York.” Children and adults from schools and community programs have painted flowers on adhesive weatherproof panels that are now being applied to the hoods of yellow taxicabs. To learn more about the art program go to: (http://www.nyc.gov/html/gardenintransit/home.html)
There’s an article in The New York Times (November 6, 2007, pg. B.6) that discusses the Flowers in bloom.
Also check out: (http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/01/have-a-flower-its-for-the-children/)
I wonder what the NYPL will do when we celebrate our centennial in 2011.