Betty's Pub 20.1
Main Menu => Old inactive posts. => Topic started by: andyg0404 on December 26, 2015, 06:52:14 PM
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Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.
Well, we set temperature records here in Northeastern New Jersey on Xmas Eve and Xmas Day, warmer here than in California but Xmas wasn’t a very nice day, foggy and rainy. Today it’s a rather cool 50 degrees but if you can believe it, there is snow in the forecast for early this week. Really crazy weather.
I had a splendid Xmas day with my friends at the Jersey shore. We Skyped with members of their family at three other locations, one of which was overseas, which still strikes me as being remarkable. They always make me feel like part of their family and my friend really put out a feast of food to which I contributed an apple cake and the cinnamon almond sugar cookies. I ate too much of everything but it was definitely worth it, it’s good to cheat on your diet occasionally. Since my first visit with them some sixteen years ago I have always baked my cinnamon almond sugar cookies as well as whatever cake or pie I also bake. I make the cookies because I know the kids love them. I’ve never not brought them. When I drove down a few weeks ago to go to Princeton with my friend she said it would just be the two of us which I took to mean the kids wouldn’t be around. So I decided to bake my variation on my Aunt Lilly’s bake until burned chocolate chip hard cookies. When I arrived I was surprised to see the kids and asked if they were going to join us but they both had homework to do. And probably didn’t really want to spend a day in a museum with their mother and her ancient friend. We both enjoyed the cookies though and I was glad I had made something different. So I was amused when I wrote to confirm Xmas and she wrote back to me, “By the way, the kids were very disappointed that you didn’t make your usual cookies last visit. If you feel like bringing some on Christmas - they would be delighted!!” I wrote back and explained why I didn’t and promised never to arrive without them again. Like Famous Amos I guess I am known for my cookies.
I took one of my long walks this morning as I knew I was going to visit the Brooklyn Museum which doesn’t entail a long walk, rather it entails a long subway ride from the Port Authority at 42nd Street to Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn. You have a long walk through a tunnel from the PA to the #2 or #3 train and then it’s about a 35 minute ride. The museum is right outside the subway entrance. The Brooklyn is a great museum with a wonderful permanent collection and I enjoy going but they are sort of a poor relation to the public museums in Manhattan. They have trouble attracting big exhibits and there’s always a long interim between their mounting exhibitions that I want to see. So when I saw the announcement for Impressionism and the Caribbean: Francisco Oller and His Transatlantic World I knew I would be going. I planned on going the week of my vacation which was originally scheduled for this week but I deferred to my co-worker who needed the week so I will take the week after the New Year. And it’s lucky I checked as the exhibit closes on January 3rd and I probably would have missed it if I waited. He’s not someone I had ever heard of but I liked what I saw on the website and when I walked through the exhibit, which was quite large, I saw many wonderful things as well as art by his contemporaries. This is a link to the website with a description of the show as well as some of the images. https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/francisco_oller And here are links to articles about the exhibit in the NY Times http://tinyurl.com/nnfnkyx and The Observer http://tinyurl.com/jovvy8j
Some of the things I liked by Oller are, landscapes like French Garden, http://www.the-athenaeum.org/art/full.php?ID=160464 and French Landscape, http://www.the-athenaeum.org/art/full.php?ID=160461 The Battle of Trevino, a frenzied war scene with an enormous amount of action; use the wheel on your mouse to enlarge this one, there’s a lot to see, http://www.hellenicaworld.com/Art/Paintings/en/PartFOller0001.html A magnificent portrait, Coronel Francisco E. Contreras http://www.wikiart.org/en/francisco-oller/coronel-francisco-e-contreras-1880 and Paul Cezanne Painting Outdoors, https://twitter.com/deborahsolo/status/667089153990000640
Other artists in the exhibit included this magnificent portrait of Federico de Madrazo by Ingres from the Hispanic Society, a venue I’ve mentioned before that has many beautiful things most of which are not on display. Although they have a new curator so that may change. https://www.flickr.com/photos/76509819%40N04/17747247915 Monet’s Vernon in the Sun http://picssr.com/search/vernon+in+the+sun+monet click on the first image to enlarge it. Frederic Edwin Church, Jamaica, one of his smaller masterpieces http://tinyurl.com/qcn5h99 This beautiful watercolor by Winslow Homer, On the Way to Market, Bahamas http://www.encore-editions.com/winslow-homer-on-the-way-to-market-bahamas/zoom and finally Pissarro’s Coconut Palms by the Sea http://picssr.com/search/pissarro+coconut+palms Again, click on the first image to enlarge it.
The second exhibit which I had actually forgotten about was Coney Island: Visions of an American Dreamland, 1861–2008, this is a link to the museum website describing the show, https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/coney_island_american_dreamland and this is a link to an article in The Forward about the show with images http://forward.com/culture/art/325835/the-life-and-death-and-life-of-coney-island/ It was another large installation filled with paintings, photographs, videos and memorabilia all having to do with Coney Island. One of the first things I saw which pleased me was Sanford Robinson Gifford’s Beach at Coney Island, http://tinyurl.com/nduz2gv Gifford is one the Hudson River painters of whom I am enamored. I marvel at how he could paint such tiny images and create a very distinct beach scene. The blue of the sky and the blue of the ocean with the waves rolling in, just beautiful. Glackens, The Fruit Stand https://www.flickr.com/photos/thomashawk/22835082510/in/photolist-AMRLt9-zK61YE There were a number of Reginald Marsh’s, Pip and Flip is a fine example showing a sideshow attraction of pinhead sisters, two women suffering from microcephaly. This was the 30’s during the depression and while to our modern eye their being in a sideshow is cruel, they would have been grateful to have the employment http://www.eeweems.com/reginald_marsh/large-pip-and-flip.php And I will end with my favorite contemporary artist, Red Grooms, whose installations and paintings are always a lot of fun. This is his Greetings from Coney Island, a three dimensional wall hanging. https://www.flickr.com/photos/brattmuseum/8748718164 The exhibit originated at the Wadsworth Atheneum and this link to that site has a 30 second video which is interesting and shows some of the images. Go to full screen to enjoy it. https://thewadsworth.org/exhibitions/past/coneyisland/ Finally, this is an article from the Hartford Courant which has a slide show of 21 images from the exhibit, very worthwhile http://www.courant.com/entertainment/museums-galleries/hc-atheneum-coney-island-0125-20150125-story.html
I had a splendid time. I hope to get to the Wadsworth Atheneum again someday but as I’ve mentioned previously the traveling logistics aren’t in my favor as it’s a much greater distance than I remembered it being.
Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this tour and now let’s head over to the Flickrs.
Andy G.
Untitled
https://www.flickr.com/photos/27401732%40N05/23244860555/
red satin sissy 4
https://www.flickr.com/photos/136587301%40N08/22862525049/
cosi0
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bev2u/10500135976/
my halloween outfit , do you like ?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/77117093%40N02/15276309446/
iaow
https://www.flickr.com/photos/93624623%40N04/11564865335/
Oh my!! What a naughty wind!!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/saki_75153/16518097287/
marie_antoinette_01
https://www.flickr.com/photos/128510274%40N06/18140105649/
Lil' Red
https://www.flickr.com/photos/hello_monique/8861373114/
Alice on her knee's.x
https://www.flickr.com/photos/132265551%40N05/21025564215/
Nylon on nylon :D
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rubytv/22610107948/
lotties new uniform
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sissy_lottie/23058984129/
Pink sissy maid
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22979184%40N05/6607053327/
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Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.
Well, this is the first Flickr of the New Year and I think I want the old year back, it seems to have been much warmer. Today we had the arctic blast and the temperatures were in the 20’s when I awoke and in the 30’s when I ventured out. Looks like 40 is our high for the day which is what you can expect from winter but certainly not as pleasant as the warm weather we had been enjoying. Let’s just keep the snow away and I will keep my complaining to a minimum.
I continue to enjoy my new work schedule, 2 days in the physical office and 3 days in the virtual office. 5 days in the virtual office would be best but it will be a while before I address that issue with my employer. I’ve settled into a second routine for those days I work from home. I still get up early although not as early as the other two days, somewhere between 4:30 AM and 5 AM instead 3:20 AM and 3:45 AM. Stay up a little later too. Instead of doing my exercises when I get home, now I get up in the morning and do them first thing. Then I go for a 35 minute walk and sign into the office when I get back, around 6:30 AM. I work my usual day, signing off around 3PM at which time I take another 35 minute walk. The double walk is to offset the fact that working from home is much more sedentary, no more walking to the bus stop and walking across town. But I’ve lost a lot of reading time. I read waiting for the bus and while riding on the bus. The commutes, back and forth, to and from the City, combined took about 90 minutes during which I was able to read for most of the time. So my two walks, during which time I can’t read, eat up much of that. But I don’t even consider that a complaint, it’s little enough to give up to enjoy the benefits of working from home. This week I have to go into the office on Monday as my co-worker doesn’t return from his vacation until Tuesday but subsequently I will have the final four days of the week off which I am looking forward to.
There isn’t much in the way of art currently; once again I’m fairly caught up on the current art exhibits. I planned on visiting the Neue Gallery but my timing was off as their exhibit closes Monday and it’s unlikely I’ll go tomorrow. Luckily I always have the Metropolitan Museum, there are a few things there to see and I can always go back and see some of the exhibits I’ve already visited and enjoyed. I went there this morning and took in their African exhibit, Kongo: Power and Majesty. The exhibit consists of carvings, sculptures, masks, fabrics and what they refer to as power figures, large fierce looking wooden statues with nails driven into them, each nail a plea to the priest of the fetish to punish a thief or someone who has done something bad to the person making the request. They are fairly ugly and off putting. I confess that this is really is not my cup of tea, it’s certainly much more functional art than decorative and there was very little that I would describe as attractive. This is a link to the Met press release describing the exhibit, http://tinyurl.com/phxcu2j This is a link to a display of the images in the exhibit, http://tinyurl.com/zym6o7n And this is a link to the New York Times review of the exhibit. http://tinyurl.com/jozue9j
Wayne Thiebaud is a contemporary artist and I ‘m not overly familiar with his work but I Googled him and he paints commonplace objects like pies, cupcakes and lipsticks in very bright colors. I have a feeling that I’ve seen his work at some of the auction previews I attended. My brother sent me this brief film of him talking about Rosa Bonheur’s Horse Fair which also lives at the Met. It was painted in 1853 and is an enormous painting, 8ft tall and 16ft wide. Thiebaud discusses her techniques and if you have any interest in art it’s an excellent video. My brother commented that it made him want to go look at the painting again and I agreed so I visited it this afternoon after the Kongo. It’s a remarkable painting in its size and scope. I’m going to have to listen to the video again now that the painting is fresh in my mind. The film is part of a series of short films from the Met website that show contemporary artists discussing art in the Met. I looked at the roster and I don't think I recognized more than four or five names and other than Roz Chast, the New Yorker cartoonist and Thomas Struth, the German photographer, I don't think I've seen anything by any of the others. This is a link to the Thiebaud video http://artistproject.metmuseum.org/4/wayne-thiebaud/ and this is a link to the Chast video. http://artistproject.metmuseum.org/2/roz-chast/ And if you’re interested this is a link to the four pages of artists represented in the Project. http://artistproject.metmuseum.org/ Each of them does a brief video.
Now let’s visit the latest from the Flickrs.
Andy G.
DSCN9897
https://www.flickr.com/photos/63520684@N08/16420144068/
Sofa Seduction
https://www.flickr.com/photos/103977268@N06/19971932052/
Frilly things feel so nice
https://www.flickr.com/photos/lindaw567/21970960869/
K_01_35
https://www.flickr.com/photos/49721052@N02/4620527021/
Untitled
https://www.flickr.com/photos/134473064@N06/22264833212/
2015-09-18_04-52-59
https://www.flickr.com/photos/136208579@N03/21329010739/
20151130_184458-1
https://www.flickr.com/photos/137260335@N08/23411091766/
IMG_7545
https://www.flickr.com/photos/10792226@N00/23694965620/
i find my christmas tree
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dafnetv/23383231173/
2015-12-22 21.51.09-1
https://www.flickr.com/photos/133721686@N08/23379299284/
LTS dress2
https://www.flickr.com/photos/90004351@N06/23520716459/
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Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.
Aside from our recent recurrence of the polar vortex, I’ve enjoyed my last vacation of the year. Temperatures on my thermometer have done nothing to make me sunny, 8 degrees one morning and 12 degrees the next although it warmed up a little in the next few days. On Tuesday I went to Medicare to enroll. I took the train into Hoboken after which I went into the City to visit the Met. Because of the late start, and the cold, I didn’t walk uptown and took the subway instead. But my day did feel like an Odyssey, a very long voyage which encompassed the walk to the train, the train into Hoboken, the bus into the City, the walk across town to Lexington Avenue, the subway uptown, the walk over to the Met, the bus through Central Park to the West Side, the subway downtown to the Port Authority and the bus home. Seemed endless. The cold didn’t help. It was so cold that when I got inside the museum I noticed something on the bottom of my glasses and it turned out to be two tears that had fallen on my walk from the subway. This gives new meaning to the phrase, moved to tears. I’m certainly well insulated with my many layers of clothing and while I loathe the cold weather I can deal with it if I’m moving; it’s the waiting that I find intolerable, like when I wait for the bus in the mornings. The train I was catching was scheduled to arrive at 8:27 AM. I got there at 8:24AM which pleased me as it meant a short stand in the cold. But the train ran a little late getting in at 8:30 and I have to tell you, those six minutes standing in the 8 degree cold were very unpleasant.
The Medicare visit wasn’t too bad, I was certainly expecting the worst. I had a 9:05AM appointment and got there at 9AM. I signed in and they called me right away but my optimism faded when I realized it was just a second sign in. So I sat down and read my newspaper and it took about 45 minutes before they finally called my name and invited me in. But I had a very nice young woman and we went through the process; I didn’t have many questions and she answered all of them. It took about 20 minutes and then she said we were done, shook my hand and gave me my enormous Medicare annual. It won’t replace any of the books I’ve been reading but it will be useful I have no doubt.
I checked my list of museum sites and there is absolutely nothing else out there to see that I have not already seen which is very disappointing but as always my fall back is the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There is always something to see at the Met and I’ve mentioned many times there are areas that I haven’t explored yet. And there were a few exhibits that I haven’t see so I spent my week at the Met.
I wandered quickly through Egypt, this is a link to the exhibit. Ancient Egypt Transformed: The Middle Kingdom It was filled with statues, busts, stelas, bowls and other assorted pottery and shards that were dug up from the ground where they had been buried for centuries. It was interesting but not especially memorable, again like the Kongo exhibit I wrote about last week it’s not really what I’m looking for when I visit the museum. Still I was grateful to find something that I hadn’t seen.
I had much more fun with The Luxury of Time: European Clocks and Watches. This was a small exhibit of beautiful and ornate clocks and watches and automatons. The best way to describe automatons are, they are ornate pieces of art that are animated in a three dimensional way. There is one in the Linsky collection which I wrote about some time ago. The most wonderful piece in the exhibit is Automaton Clock in the Shape of Diana on Her Chariot. It show Diana on a chariot with her bow and arrow in her hands ready to fire. You press a button and the chariot starts to move, Diana’s eyes turn from side to side every second and finally she shoots her arrow. It’s really marvelous. Next to the case with the automaton, on the wall was a screen with a short video showing the mechanism in action. Much to my surprise the Met not only doesn’t have the video on the website, they don’t even have an image. But I’m pleased to say that I Googled it and found a video from the Yale University Art Gallery on Youtube that shows exactly what I described, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6ro4zscyE0 There was also a Grandfather clock which the Met keeps running and next to it was a video showing the case being opened and the three pendulums being wound by key. There were other automatons and clocks and watches, some of the watches in ornate engraved cases with tiny images on them and others with painted images on them. All in all it was most enjoyable. Here’s a link to the other objects in the exhibit. http://tinyurl.com/hjnnedo
On another day I walked up expecting to visit the exhibition in the drawing corridor but when I arrived I discovered that it was still the old one, one that I had seen. As it turned out I was a day early, when I looked to the end of the corridor I saw attendants putting up the description of the next exhibit on a freestanding wall. It opened the next day which was fine as I went back the next day to see it, Wordplay Matthias Buchinger's Drawings from the Collection of Ricky Jay. I found it a bit of a disappointment, the overall theme of the show was calligraphy and it opens with a bunch of contemporary pieces and at the end there are some of Buchinger’s drawings. There were many that depicted the same image of the ten commandments but there was also a trompe l’oeil calendar which was very nice. The story behind Buchinger is that he was born without arms or legs or thighs, yet in addition to being able to do mundane things like thread a needle and shave himself, he was capable of creating these drawings and was also musically talented as well as being a magician. I think Ricky Jay was clearly taken by the story behind the artist rather than the art itself. The Met hasn’t posted any images on the website as yet but this is a link to an informative article on Buchinger and the exhibit and among the illustrations is the trompe l’oeil calendar. http://hyperallergic.com/266513/the-mysteriously-tiny-drawings-of-an-18th-century-artist-born-without-hands-or-feet/
During the week I also spent time in Korea http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2015/korea India http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2015/encountering-vishnu and Southeast Asia, exploring cultures and art that I haven’t paid much attention to and found many beautiful things to admire. Asian art is definitely growing on me.
There was a small exhibit at the Lehman wing, Girolamo dai Libri and Veronese Art of the Sixteenth Century, which consisted of a wall size altarpiece of the Madonna and Child with saints. The altarpiece was on the wall outside a small room with etchings, only one of which was by someone known to me, Albrecht Durer. http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2015/girolamo-dai-libri Afterwards I wandered through the whole Lehman collection which I’ve described before and is always wonderful, Ingres, Rembrandt, Memling and many others, always a treat to revisit.
Today I went back to the Met for my final visit of the week. This was in the American Wing, Artistic Furniture of the Gilded Age. The show consisted of furniture and fixtures from the homes of the very rich, notably Arabella Huntington. This is Arabella’s introduction from Wikipedia, Arabella Yarrington "Belle" Huntington (c.1851-1924) was the second wife of American railway tycoon and industrialist Collis P. Huntington, and then the second wife of Henry E. Huntington. She was once known as the richest woman in America, and as the force behind the art collection that is housed at the Huntington Library. Henry Huntington was Collis’ nephew so she kept it in the family. She had a magnificent mansion on West 54th Street which she subsequently sold to John D. Rockefeller with furnishings in place. The dressing room from the mansion has been installed in this exhibit just as it looked in the mansion. I’ve spent a lot of time in this note saying that I’m not really into a bunch of things and furniture is on that list as well. When my brother and I would travel to visit museums, he would always stop and admire the furniture that was situated throughout the gallery while the only notice I took of it was that it was preventing me from getting closer to the wall art. But that being said, this was a fascinating exhibit into a lost world of opulence and splendor. They may have been robber barons and morally despicable but they certainly had nice taste. This is an article from yesterday’s New York Times that goes into detail about the exhibit and has a number of illustrations. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/08/arts/design/peeking-into-the-gilded-age-at-the-met.html
While wandering through the gilded houses exhibit I mused to myself that if I won the $800 million Powerball it would be nice to build myself a mansion like the one Mr. Vanderbilt built for himself in 1883. In the exhibit there was a picture showing a four story mansion taking up all of Fifth Avenue between 51st and 52nd Street which is fascinating when you think about what’s there now.
Well, I see that having the week off has made this a remarkably long post even for me, someone who can only say I’ll keep it short with a smile on my face. Hope it’s of interest to some of you.
And now we’ll move on to what’s of interest to all of you, the Flickrs.
Andy G.
white_gold_02
https://www.flickr.com/photos/128510274%40N06/23312760645/
1005meri-(2)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/meritats/23330953696/
On the Floor
https://www.flickr.com/photos/103977268%40N06/23104231509/
Decemeber 5th. MSDB Bizarre Bazaar
https://www.flickr.com/photos/51500650%40N07/23466658281/
lotties new uniform
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sissy_lottie/23058984129/
untitled
https://www.flickr.com/photos/27401732%40N05/23488604702/
Scuba
https://www.flickr.com/photos/laurenclose/23568429995/
IMG_2575
https://www.flickr.com/photos/asiandesert/23568516205/
flwr1
https://www.flickr.com/photos/10618704%40N06/23220316109/
Meet me in real life like this..
https://www.flickr.com/photos/alina_694/23339795681/
tifanny alexandra
https://www.flickr.com/photos/carlmax41/22893382284/
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Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.
Today started out rainy but afterwards turned into a rather nice day getting up to around 50 degrees. This was pleasant after the early week temperatures in the teens with a rather chilling wind. But it appears the cold weather will return as this week progresses. My thoughts at this time of year seem to inevitably recur to baseball; 5 or 6 weeks away from pitchers and catchers. Not that I am a baseball fanatic. I enjoy reading about the game in the newspapers but it has to be more than 20 years since I actually went to a game and the only baseball on television that I’ve watched has been a few innings of the Mets this year as they entered the playoffs. That was fun but it’s frustrating that baseball is driven by television in that the games are only played at night and begin after 8PM which meant the most I saw was a few innings before I had to go to bed. I stayed up much later when I was 12 years old. And going to a baseball game has become so expensive, it’s hard to imagine a family of four, mother, father and two kids going very often when after paying for tickets and parking and the very expensive beer and sodas and hotdogs and popcorn probably lay out $400 or $500 for the afternoon. But the reason I look forward to pitchers and catchers is because it heralds the beginning of the end for winter, my least favorite season.
There will be no art appreciation today as rather than going into New York city for an exhibit I had a lovely afternoon with a good friend. She came around Noon and we had coffee, the java cake which I baked and 4 ½ hours of catching up conversation. Most enjoyable.
And I think I’ll sign off here and let everyone rest their eyes this week.
And of course, view the Flickrs.
Andy G.
Best of Vegas trip
https://www.flickr.com/photos/134090544@N05/23286694191/
102_4719
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahmorgan1978/23334609905/
124. Open up my storage~
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jiyoon12345/20817455325/
Santa Girl MISAKKY 003
https://www.flickr.com/photos/misakky/23088362173/
IMG_0427(900-2)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/76625201@N03/19957200579/
Untitled
https://www.flickr.com/photos/lovelymaco/20147415232/
a1stephie-137
https://www.flickr.com/photos/100379735@N06/23601865815/
Purple lolita
https://www.flickr.com/photos/blackietv/22690395030/
flkr0704a
https://www.flickr.com/photos/32603346@N06/19402790422/
New Dresses
https://www.flickr.com/photos/91992190@N00/22883409671/
gingham maid
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nancyball1/6082081758/
Guest - isn't she sweet...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/131111227@N04/22816452850/
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Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.
Welcome to snowbound Northern New Jersey. My least favorite weather is here big time, 1-2 feet of snow is expected before this is over tomorrow. I went out this morning and was able to pick up the newspapers but I’m concerned about getting any of them tomorrow. I did a good deed though. As I walked to the 7-11 I saw a young man standing in the bus shelter. I walked over and asked if he was waiting for a bus and when he said yes I told him that no buses would be coming today. He was as happy as I would have been if I was in his place but he was appreciative that I told him. I was smart and went to the Shop-Rite yesterday afternoon as I knew I wouldn’t want to be driving this morning. Doesn’t look like I will be able to turn around in my back yard any time soon, hope I don’t lose another mirror backing out. I imagine a large portion of my friends on the board are experiencing much of what I’m describing as this storm is cutting through a large number of states. The winds have been fairly high and my main concern right now is a power outage caused by the winds toppling trees. I have my fingers crossed.
I am especially dismayed that the snowstorm arrived today as I have had this date on the calendar for a month and was expecting my friend to drive up from South Jersey so as to take her to the Sotheby’s auction previews, as well as other venues. I contacted her on Thursday, before the full extent of the storm was evident, and told her I didn’t want her driving back and forth in the snow. We agreed to postpone the visit until February but unfortunately that eliminates the Sotheby’s auction preview that is currently underway. I won’t be able to go either as New Jersey Transit has shut down the system completely, no buses, trains or light rail. I’m not smiling. Once again our weather confounds, to have experienced such early mild winter temperatures and then to suddenly have such bitter cold weather and now, our first major storm, so much later than usual, well, I guess that’s why it’s called climate change.
Anyway, for the first time since I’ve been writing about my trips to view great art we all will be experiencing our visit to the auctions electronically. There are five auction previews I would have visited and I’ve selected highlights from three of them so here we go.
The Collection of Alfred Taubman – The first link is to the full list of items.
http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/2016/old-masters-collection-a-alfred-taubman-n09458.html
One of the stars of Alfred Taubman’s collection is Gainsborough’s The Blue Page. This was originally thought to be an oil sketch for his much more famous painting, The Blue Boy, but research discovered that it was painted after the Blue Boy. I was lucky enough to see this painting in an earlier preview and it’s wonderful. The first link is to the website description with provenance and other interesting details while the second link is to a short Sotheby’s video about it.
http://tinyurl.com/jyqynlq
http://www.sothebys.com/en/news-video/videos/2015/10/thomas-gainsborough-r-a-the-blue-page.html
Another star will be Raphael’s Profile Portrait of Valerio Belli, Bust Length, Facing Left. There is also a video for this painting. I was surprised at how small it was, it’s in a circular frame and is shown in the video being held in the palm of one hand. The estimated price for this is $2M-$3M but I would think it will go above the estimate.
http://tinyurl.com/htvt5gm
http://www.sothebys.com/en/news-video/videos/2015/10/raphael-profile-portrait-of-valerio-belli.html
Bernardo Bellotto was an 18th Century Italian landscape painter and he painted in the style of his Uncle, Antonio Canal, famously known as Canaletto. As I love Canaletto, who is represented below in another section, it’s not surprising that I was drawn to this painting, Venice, A View Of The Grand Canal Looking East From The Campo Di San Vio, To The Left The Palazzo Correr. The detail and architectural precision set against the massive blue sky with clouds and the shimmering blue water appeal to me no end. A painting I could wake up to and look at with pleasure every day.
http://tinyurl.com/zsyxh8d
George Romney was an English portrait painter and I’ve seen many of his paintings on my visits to the different museums, the Frick has several, two of which are on display, and the Met has a bunch as well.
Here is, Portrait Of Mrs. Jordan As Peggy In "The Country Girl,” Mrs. Jordan being a noted actress of the time.
http://tinyurl.com/hgxbtko
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres is another one of my favorites, I’ve written about him many times I’m sure. He’s represented here twice, once from Taubman’s collection and the other from the Master Drawings auction. His drawings are as wonderful as his paintings, not least of all because he seemed to do them so effortlessly, knocking them off quickly to earn his keep. I’m looking forward to seeing one of his portrait paintings in the upcoming Christie’s Old Masters auction preview in April. Assuming it doesn’t snow.
Portrait Of The Sculptor Charles Dupaty
http://tinyurl.com/z367qaf
Henri Iv Playing With His Children
http://tinyurl.com/hpmd6nb
Master Paintings Evening Sale - The first link is to the full list of items.
http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/2016/master-paintings-evening-sale-n09460.html
Orazio Gentileschi was a 17th Century Italian artist and one of the earliest exhibits I saw after I started frequenting the museums was a blockbuster exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that showcased him and his daughter Artemisia. Wonderfully beautiful, large paintings by both. Danaë has been hanging in the Metropolitan museum on loan for the last two years and I’m sure the Met is devastated that it’s been put up for auction rather than being left to them in a bequest. This is a painting that I’ve had the pleasure of seeing, first in the long ago exhibit and I revisited it this summer. There are two short videos for Danae, the first one shows it arriving at Sotheby’s and being uncrated and hung. The second is, what I can only describe as an artsy, fartsy music video paying homage to it. Make of it what you will.
http://tinyurl.com/hllbbbp
http://www.sothebys.com/en/news-video/videos/2015/10/first-look-gentileschis-danae-comes-to-sothebys.html
http://www.sothebys.com/en/news-video/videos/2016/01/reimagining-gentileschis-danae.html
I’ve already gushed over Canaletto when I listed Bellotto’s painting but this painting is something I truly rue not being able to see in person. It’s one of his few interior paintings and it captures the internal architecture of Westminster Abbey. I look at paintings like this and I can’t imagine how he was able to capture the details so thoroughly. I can only say once again, magnificent. There’s a video for this one as well. An Interior View Of The Henry Vii Chapel, Westminster Abbey
http://tinyurl.com/gog2lt9
http://www.sothebys.com/en/news-video/videos/2016/01/canalettos-awe-inspiring-westminster-abbey.html
Peter Paul Rubens - Saint Norbert Overcoming Tanchelm is an oil sketch for a statue which along with another sculpture were on either side of Rubens painting Adoration of the Magi.
http://tinyurl.com/hbtcrps
Sir Anthony van Dyck -The Tribute Money I think will also generate a lot of interest as the descriptive material describes it as in excellent condition, has been in the family who commissioned it for centuries and is one of the last known of his religious paintings to still be in private hands. I much prefer his non-religious paintings but this is quite beautiful.
http://tinyurl.com/hp32cpy
Master Drawings - The first link is to the full list of items.
http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/2016/master-drawings-n09457.html
Jean-Étienne Liotard is also someone I’ve spoken of a number of times. The exhibit of his works at the Frick was one of my favorites all time. I also regret missing this opportunity to see this drawing.
Portrait Of Count Jean Diodati
http://tinyurl.com/jnrama6
Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo was an 18th Century Italian painter and I’ve written about seeing his drawings and etchings a number of times. The Country School is from his series The life of Punchinello, the famous character from the Commedia dell'Arte. As you can see from this example there’s a lot going on in his drawings.
http://tinyurl.com/hqad63a
And I think I’ll close here with JMW Turner’s The Junction Of The Lahn And The Rhine, Germany, a very serene watercolor landscape.
http://tinyurl.com/hopzeh2
I hope everyone who is affected by this storm is hope, safe and warm and with their power intact. I mentioned last week about looking forward to Spring training in baseball and this is especially appealing now in light of the weather today. I was pleased this morning to read that the New York Mets have come to terms with their slugger Yoenis Cespedes so it’s possible the team will enjoy another successful season. Although like all sports baseball is played on the field and not on paper.
And so, on to the Flickrs.
Andy G.
Gamepitcon 2016 - IMG_3096
https://www.flickr.com/photos/x_redtails_x/23839670423/
Look at this sissy poseur.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sissyplaything/22776313735/
Such an adorable big brother
https://www.flickr.com/photos/51886658@N04/21730498804/
My day outfit
https://www.flickr.com/photos/107544285@N05/22985475933/
Oh sun, where art thou?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/13219604@N03/22281166306/
What a lovely little sissy girl Katie is here on the train station dressed as a. Little Japanese schoolgirl in her girls school uniform just how lovely does she look
https://www.flickr.com/photos/134925861@N04/23754830512/
oldie 2, prom dress
https://www.flickr.com/photos/136031688@N06/23715302571/
Instantané 2 (2015-12-18 06-42)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/97124493@N07/23202935373/
Sexy Shades of Red-03
https://www.flickr.com/photos/34381851@N03/23605013940/
untitled
https://www.flickr.com/photos/61793334@N04/22804060829/
20150307_201721[1]
https://www.flickr.com/photos/126820131@N05/16559070778/
Back to school
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22092915@N05/15914525215/
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Thanks Andy for your weekly contribution and I hope you don't get too snowed in or loose your power. I have a gas fireplace to rely on if the power goes out so I won't freeze but the rest of the house gets cold fast if that does happen. I just leave the taps running a bit so they don't freeze. We have not had that happen in quite a few years now so we have been lucky. We also have not had that much snow here either. I have a new snow-blower I bought two years ago and have only used once and the one before that I had for more than 20 years and only used that a few times. I guess we are just in a pocket here as cities around us get lots of snow each year. Like you I am waiting for spring and warmer weather so I can venture out for my walks again. I just had back surgery last week and I am on the mend slowly and told to take it easy for about two weeks. Hopefully we don't get much snow here as I don't think I could even handle the snow-blower at this point even though it has power drive and turn options it is still big and heavy to move around. Anyway stay warm and safe Andy and thanks for the post again it is nice to see the paintings and read up on the exhibits.
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Hi Angela,
Sorry to hear about your back surgery and hope you have an easy recovery. It's tough as we grow old and our bodies start to break down and recovery takes longer. A big fear of mine is falling. When you're young and you fall you bounce back up but when you're older and fall, you run the risk of breaking something. I went out for my walk this morning wearing my new knee length snow boots which worked well except that in some places the snow was up to my thighs. We got about two feet of snow. http://tinyurl.com/h6we6fr :) I'm grateful that I have someone who will clear my property for me, I can't imagine doing it myself anymore. The question is where will he put it, there's just so much of it.
Andy G.
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Hey Andy, love the photo. Two feet of snow is a lot to move when you are on a city lot. In the past I had fun trying to find places to deposit all the snow we would get and sometimes had a wall four feet high in the front garden. We will get a fine from the city if we put it back on the road or too close to the curb so with the snow-blower I would drive it all into my back garden and sometimes over the fence. With a large deck and pool back there I was limited to where I could put it. There is a service alley behind my house that was once used by garbage trucks so I put some back there over the fence but it is also used by Bell Canada to get to phone lines so I don't put too much back there. So far we have not had too much up here and I am happy if I don't get to use my snow-blower again this year. I can do small light amounts with the shovel but I sometimes overdo it and then I am in pain again. I bought some new boots last year that have a nylon covering at the top that almost comes to my knees and tie off with laces to keep the snow out. Glad you did not loose power but it sounds like getting to work Monday might be a problem, or are you working from home on Monday?
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I will have to commute to the City on Monday and Tuesday but the buses are running and it shouldn't be a problem. Hopefully the bus won't run late and make me stand outside in the cold. I think the snow in my backyard must be about 3 feet deep and packed solid. A couple of warm days would help. Have a good night.
Andy G.
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i feel lucky that where i live in uk ,i donot have the problems of snow this year.It is fairly mild and i am very cosy in my house,the only problem i get is having a large house for myself and having big electric and gas bills
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Maybe we should be roommates. I like the UK. The hardest thing about making ends meet is that I also live alone. It would be a lot cheaper to share a place. I'm also good with maintenance of a place, but because of COPD, no more heavy labor, & my tasks take a bit longer than they used to.
It's difficult to find someone to share a place that's sissy & kitty friendly. I like to keep it private so no neighbors ever see me crossdressed, but do like it in the privacy of my home or room, even though I don't crossdress every day.
Then I don't like the idea of a roomate phucking with my kitties, confusing them, or being rough or mean to them. They're well behaved, but also very pampered. They cuddle each other & me a lot because they were brought up that way with lots of love, attention, & patience. I have fears the first time someone would do something they don't like, the cats would scratch them, & the person would lose their temper, smack or kick them. It would be rough & confusing for a pet used to people being kind, gentle, & cuddly.
I've seen cats & dogs turn into totally crazy animals with just a slight change in living arrangements or around some people. My last cats were very sociable with me, but would run & hide, never to come out if someone else was around. The cat before that would try to tear a stranger's face off. She didn't like other people at all, just me.
On the other hand, my sister's cats would hide from everyone, but would come out & walk up to me. Maybe they sensed I was kitty-friendly... or smell my cats on me.
Last month a prowler tried to force my door open. The girl cat ran to the door & growled like a dog. I never heard her growl before. Good Kitty! She sounded like I had an angry dog in the house.
I also don't like people screwing with my computers either. I'm way ahead of most people's computer skills, & mine tend to be highly customized just for me. I'd be more likely to set up a separate computer for someone else than have them touch mine. Most of the problems I see people having with computers were caused by the user, not the machine.
There's also roommate weirdness. I had a roommate eat up all the food but rarely pay for any of it. Or the annoyance of a roommate using up a roll of toilet paper a day, every day while it would take me weeks to use up a roll. I had a roommate refuse to pay half the cable bill because he claimed he don't use cable or the TVs. Easy for him to lie because I was at work 8-12 hours a day, including weekends, or out of town for work. When I'd get home the TV was warm which meant it was watched recently. I disabled the TVs when I was going to work or out of town, & the guy got pissed off & moved out. Hey, if he wants to watch MY TV, pay half the cable bill, don't lie to me & watch it when I'm not home assuming I'm stupid.
The last roommate I had was almost never home, but I was getting dozens of phone calls a day for him at home or on the answering machine... even when I was sleeping. If I answered, they'd be asking where he is or how to contact him, or I had to write down tons of messages for him from them. Finally I got fed up with that & started telling the callers not to call anymore because he's never here, & I don't know where he is. He was also always way behind on his half of the rent & utilities even though he had a job.
When his job started calling the house several times a month because he didn't show up for work, I knew it was time to have him leave. Embarrassing because I got him his job.
That was 1994. I lived alone with cats, birds, & fish tanks ever since. But these days, a couple sweet cozy kitties are enough.
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Hey samantha1, I guess you did not get any of the flooding we saw on the TV news. Most of my relatives missed it also. My house is not too large but the upkeep is getting a bit too much for me these days. Like Betty, I try to conserve energy due to the cost of it and living on a fixed pension with no pay raises in sight only higher taxes. I plan my shopping using coupons and my meals and make use of my freezer all the time, turning leftovers into soups or frozen dinners for later. At least your English spring is here sooner than ours will be. We have about 10 to 12 freezing weeks to go yet.
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Hey Betty,
I think you and I could have been pretty compatible room mates as we have similar tastes and backgrounds and both love cats and repairing things although your mad computer skills are far better than mine for sure. We love the same things like Betty's board and frilly things and music and movies and we have a connection to Toronto from back in the 60's. That was the only time I had a room mate (my cousin) when I worked at the Royal York Hotel on nights and he worked at a day job. He and I had the same interests in clothing, music, food and clubs and our little European cars. Mad little engines with 4 speed stick shifts and we would race each other all over the place. I had an interest in the National Ballet for the girls and the tights and Tutu's and he had an interest in the girls only. Wow just reading this makes me want to relive the 60's again.
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I'm a pretty easy to get along with person, no matter what somebody's tastes, I keep an open mind about it. I've had some great long term roommates, & relationships with all sorts of regular normal people, but I guess the bad ones stand out the most. Now days on a limited budget with COPD, I can't really afford a roommate that will stiff me on their half of the bills & responsibilities all the time... like I don't think my COPD would allow me to clean up other people's messes. It's enough effort taking care of me & my own stuff gasping for air some days. And the whole point of getting a roommate is to share the cost. It's pointless if they don't cover their share, or using up all the resources but not paying for them.
No relationship, & sharing my bed anymore except with the kitties has some advantages too. At my age with COPD, I find often after a big lunch or dinner I need a nap. Dang, I usually need a nap after I masturbate too. The bad about that is I often find myself wide awake in the middle of the night. So I'm online with the TV or radio on late at night. I keep it low to not disturb my neighbors sleeping right on the other side of my walls, but being awake in bed might annoy a bed partner.
The kitties have grown to learn to be quiet or sleep at night even if I'm up, because I don't want their running & banging around bothering my neighbors below me. But once in a while they'll forget, & start up in the middle of the night. Usually just telling "stop" or squirting them with a spray bottle of water quiets them down the rest of the night.
They also like to get up very early. But if I'm not up & don't interact with them, after a short time they come back to bed if I'm willing to cuddle & pet them back to sleep.
In the past my roommates were the cat owners but I was the one who played & cuddled them, or we each had a cat, so living with a cat was no big deal for us, & a form of fun entertainment. My cats provide me much more enjoyment than I ever got from cable TV, & they're cheaper too.
I originally was a dog person. My early experience with cats was they tend to ignore most people most of the time... like having fish tanks. Many years ago roommate moved in with a cat. But he wasn't home as much as I was when we weren't working. When I wasn't busy, I liked spending more time relaxing at home rather than going out. I didn't know what to do with a cat, so I interacted, cuddled, & played with it like a dog. The cat loved it & quickly got very attached to me. Soon he was always at my side, & came up to cuddle every time I laid down.
After many years with that cat, after the roommate moved out of town, I got my own cat. It was the cat from hell. She was a mean mouser & guard-cat for a store... kept in the basement at night. The store was closing so I adopter her. She was vicious & tough, even attacking large dogs. After a year with me she was just as cuddly & affectionate as the last cat. But she still didn't like anyone else.
I've always had good luck with animals eventually liking me. I guess I'm good at spotting what they like or don't like to make them feel comfortable around me. When I had lots of birds, when I had the time or a day off, I'd let them all out to get some exercise. If I held my arms our & yelled "Birdies!" they'd all fly to me & land on me. I didn't teach them that. They came when I called them because they liked me. They were different species, & they all got along with each other too.
Doves, pigeons, parakeets, love birds, & a cat all got along & played with each other well. But I wouldn't let the cat play with them except under close supervision... a cat's instinct may be too strong, & it's too easy to hurt a bird. The doves & pigeons liked the cat a little too much, because the males would try to hump the cat. The cat thought they were just playing or cuddling.
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betty
i will tell you somethings that i still luv going to bed at midnight uk time /7pm usa time and listen to phone in shows on lbc.,then when i awake up at 5am i go straight back on the net till it is time to open my friends shop.I got rid of room mates because they started doing what you said which was not paying their way and exspecting to pay for everything because they were under the impression that because it was my place they could come and go and exspect me too pay for everyrthing.That is why i trust know one to come and share my place.I HAVE JUST spent allot of monies doing up my place and i donot want it spoiled again.
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Hi Betty,
I had a dog when I was about 12 but between school and jobs afterwards, I had little time for him and mom would take care of him. He seemed to favor mom anyway as she was home most of the time although I did walk him in the park sometimes. He broke his leash one day and bit the mailman after he swatted him with some magazines and the guy from the pound came to take him away. We went to get him and they said somebody wanted to adopt him from a farm so we let him go. I think he was an Irish terrier. I never wanted a pet after that as I did not have the time to spend with them. Shortly after I left home at 19 my mother got another dog. Somebody gave me two cats when I got my apartment but that only lasted a month or so as I was working too much and away on weekends also. They were cute but they went back where they came from. I did get a kitten in the early 80's after I bought a house and she was my best friend until she passed away at about 17 years of age. I thought we would enjoy retirement together but she got sick just before that.
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I rented a place where I was the maintenance for the building. Painting, repairs, clear snow, mow the lawn, etc. So I did work in my free time & days off on the place for money off my rent. After a couple months my roommate refused to pay half the rent. He said he should only have to pay half whatever I was paying... after the discount on my rent from doing all that work. He really thought half that work I did was for towards HIS half of the rent?
The following month, I was going to repaint one of the apartments for a whole month's rent off. He said he shouldn't pay any rent that month if I didn't that month. Will he paint half that apartment in his free time & days off for free rent? Of course not. I told him to get the phuck out.
When my last cats, also a brother & sister died at only 13, I thought I must have done something wrong... maybe different food, more vet checkups, or something. But it turns out the average life expectancy of an average mixed breed house cat is only 10-12 years. My sister had a cat from the same litter & she only lived to be 10. Hers got fed much more expensive, healthy cat food, & got more checkups to the vet than mine. The cat I had before them, who lived to 28 was an exception, & not normal.
Different breeds & mixes of breeds just tend to live longer. We can help with proper food & exercise, but the bulk of their lifespan will be determined by their genes.
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Hey Betty,
we had our cat from the SPCA when it was just 8 to 10 weeks old and she was a pampered kitty. A good brand of kitty food and she loved canned salmon. She was really spoiled though as she would only eat one brand and nothing else. When we tried the on sale brand she would sniff then look at us like we were trying to pull a fast one and then she would walk away and not go near her food corner until we took it away. She ended up eating the same brand for most of her life and would get a third of the tin everyday. Each vet visit they would ask what we fed her as her coat of fur was so shiny and soft and she was so healthy and playful even into her older years. I miss her quite a bit sometimes and I have a portrait of her near my reading chair so I can glance up often and remember the fun times we had. Of course I also have many photo's of her around the house as she loved to pose for me. One time she was on a table by the railings in my family room, and she just stood up straight like a rabbit and looked at the door. Two minutes later their was a knock at the door and she would wait to see who came in. If it was somebody she knew she would settle down but if she did not know them she was gone in a second under a table or couch. Like yours Betty, she once jumped onto my chest when in bed and growled then ran to the hallway. I got up and looked out and there was a prowler trying to get into my car in the driveway. I got the flash from my camera (before camera phones) and opened the door and flashed it. The guy jumped up so fast he banged his head on the inside door frame and ran like hell to get away. The police picked him up a half block away inside another car. he was a druggy looking for quick cash or something to hock.
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Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.
I’ve gotten in the habit of taking walks every day, twice a day usually except on Monday and Tuesday when I’m in the office. I have two circular routes I take on a regular basis. This morning I went out on one and then this afternoon I went out on the same route again. And got lost. I can’t tell you how I did it as the walk involves walking down an avenue, turning left, going up three blocks, turning left again paralleling the original avenue and then right back to my house. Somehow I turned wrong after initially walking down the avenue and found myself on a road that I should never have been on. I was lucky it wasn’t dark and also lucky that I passed a man on the street who pointed me back to where I wanted to be, although I was at least heading in the right direction. I may have to take my GPS with me on future walks, my lack of direction is very frustrating to me. I can laugh about it but I’m not sure where I would have wound up in the dark.
The weather since the storm has hovered between fairly cold in the mornings, in the teens, to fairly mild for Winter in the afternoons, close to or above 40 degrees. My home is about 10 miles from the Lincoln Tunnel and the difference in the weather from New Jersey to New York can really be startling. One morning I awoke and the temperature on my thermometer was 20 degrees. I turned on the TV and the weatherman said it was 39 degrees in Central Park, a pretty big difference. But as my Uncle was fond of saying, who lives in Central Park anyway. The snow in Manhattan has pretty much disappeared completely as it always does, even after a major storm. New Jersey on the other hand still has large snow drifts everywhere. The three foot pile of snow in my back yard has melted down to about two feet but I don’t see it disappearing for a while. In an earlier post I mentioned I fell on the ice which is still annoying to me as my elbow is still sore. The cleats I wear on my shoes for the ice are steel springs and in the past they’ve kept me upright on very slippery ice so I don’t know why they failed me in this instance. I may have to resort to the sharpened metal cleats that athletes wear.
I went into the City today intending to stop by Christie’s auction house briefly to see a sneak preview of a magnificent Ingres painting of the Duke of Orleans, would be future King Louis of France had he not died in a carriage accident three months after sitting for the painting, and then onto a gallery. This painting will be up for auction in April when Christie’s has their full Old Masters auction. When I got to Christie’s it turned out that the Ingres was not on display but they did have an exhibition up, Old Master Paintings, A Private Selling Exhibition. Additionally they had a few items from the April auction in a little alcove room on the first floor, just down from reception. I searched the Christie’s database and didn’t find the exhibition until I Googled it. Then it brought me back to Christie’s where I now see it’s listed under exhibitions rather than auctions. What’s annoying is that the individual paintings are not available for viewing, there’s only the catalog with large thumbnail views. But there’s a lot of very nice things there. This is a link to the page with the catalog. (Download Gallery Guide) http://www.christies.com/privatesales/2016/old-master-paintings-january-2016 There’s a wonderful Gerard Ter Borch painting on the cover, The Card Players. It’s a good image of a nice painting by one of my favorites. But it’s frustrating to me that the images in the catalog are small and can’t be enlarged. I’ll mention a few of the things that I especially liked.
On page three - Edwaert Collier (Breda c. 1640-1708 London) - A trompe l’oeil of letters, an engraving of Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466-1536), a quill, a pocket watch, a stick of red wax and other objects. I love trompe l’oeil and this is a good example.
Lucas Cranach II (Wittenberg 1515-1586) - The Nymph of the Spring. A rather languid nude
Jean-Honoré Fragonard (Grasse 1732-1806 Paris) - Three putti crowned with flowers amongst clouds. I’m sure I’ve mentioned the Fragonard room at the Frick many times.
On page five - Sebastien Pether (? 1790-1844 Battersea) - The Bay of Naples illuminated by the eruption of Vesuvius. This is a marvelous painting showing the lava spewing into the sky. Here’s a bigger image from the web http://tinyurl.com/zwgvwso
On page six - Willem van de Velde II - (Leiden 1633-1707 London) - Shipping in a calm with figures on the shore by a rowing Boat, a man-o’-war laying off beyond. The Dutch painted wonderful maritime scenes.
Finally on page seven - Frans Vervloet (Mechelen 1795-1872 Venice) - The Pantheon, Rome. It shows how a town was built right around the Pantheon, apartment buildings all around and you probably can’t see it, but there is a line of wash hanging between two of them. This might be my favorite of the group. I found this painting on the web also so you can take a better look at it. If you hover the mouse over the image it enlarges and you might be able to see the wash http://www.robilantvoena.com/artists/109-francois-vervloet/works/368/
If you go to this Christie’s page, at the bottom is a slide show of six of the paintings that will be up for auction in April, including the Ingres, Jacques Louis David and a Brueghel.
http://www.christies.com/auctions/2016/old-masters-new-york-january-2016?pid=en_homepage_row1_slot1_2
I finally got to look at the results of last week’s Sotheby’s Taubman Old Masters auction. They really can't be happy about this, a lot of unsold stuff and a bunch of stuff that went well below the low estimate. The Gainsborough Blue Page was in the mid-range while the Romney and several Tiepolo's all went below the low estimate. The small oval Raphael went for just above the high end. Only the Bellotto and the Bellotti went well above the high end. On the whole it appears that Sotheby’s took a bath on this although they are putting on the brave face. You can see the entire list of results here. http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/2016/old-masters-collection-a-alfred-taubman-n09458.html
Well it must be time to actually visit the Flickrs now.
Andy G.
23
https://www.flickr.com/photos/113233454@N04/11713156023/
pink sissy 5
https://www.flickr.com/photos/136587301@N08/23693616971/
03-07-2012_180153(11) edit
https://www.flickr.com/photos/55842173@N03/10319020366/
lucia the christmas pixie
https://www.flickr.com/photos/51744546@N00/23265315814/
Come here you...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/98857454@N06/22650667049/
IMG_0737
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kerrymay/22931679573/
Bridal gowns
https://www.flickr.com/photos/lucyhamilton/23189881309/
Preparing to spread some.... good cheer
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gentv2000/23555961849/
IMG_0085
https://www.flickr.com/photos/130257726@N05/23402315863/
Black dress
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jaminheelz/23911051526/
Christmas Eve elf girl!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jos1e/23878211531/
Red & Black
https://www.flickr.com/photos/38182500@N08/23537687914/
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Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.
We continue to experience odd weather here, a couple of days it reached into the 50’s in the afternoon and I found myself out on my walk in just my flannel shirt. The massive mounds of snow started to disappear and I felt confident that I would be able to turn my car around in my backyard this morning. The we got another snowstorm yesterday. It says we got 2-5 inches of snow but it’s hard to tell how much actually fell here. When it stopped snowing around 11AM, the sun came out and a lot of it melted away. This morning I backed the car out and then turned onto the grass where I turn the car around and almost got stuck in the new snow that had fallen. I was lucky and managed to maneuver myself back and forth until I was facing forward in my driveway. I’ll have to back out again next week when I go to the Shop-Rite but now the forecast calls for another storm starting tomorrow and possibly over the next few days. Rather ironic after the groundhog predicted an early end to Winter. I was talking with someone I know through my business who has relatives in Taiwan. The weather there, which is normally temperate, has been cold of late. She said it’s been 50 degrees which doesn’t sound especially cold but when it’s 50 degrees here we certainly have our heat on. And most houses in Taiwan don’t have a heating system because there was never a need for it. So despite the people who don’t want to believe it, climate change seems to be happening all around us.
It was cool this morning, in the 20’s but it’s warmed up to 40 degrees now. I went into Manhattan and took a very long walk this morning. From the Port Authority I walked downtown to Trader Joes on 14th Street to buy almonds. I got there at 10AM and was very surprised to see the store packed. I picked up my two bags of almonds and got on one of the two checkout lines, both of which circled the store from the cash registers to the entrance. I’ve been to the store on Saturday mornings at that time previously and it’s never been crowded and I wondered what brought everyone out but then someone in line next to me said the magic words to another shopper, Super Bowl. It didn’t look to me like people were buying the things you might need for a Super Bowl party but I can’t think of another reason for the store being so busy. Took about 30 minutes to work my way to the cash register and pay. Which is a very long time; when you’re at the supermarket and it’s busy, sometimes you’ll think you were in line for half an hour but when you check it really was a much shorter period but this really was how long it took. And they have a very good system with two common lines and over 20 cash registers. I’m glad I don’t have to go there that often. Almonds have gone up again as well, $6.49 for a one pound bag.
From Trader Joes I walked up to 57th Street and Fifth Avenue to the Galerie St. Etienne for an exhibit of the artist Paula Modersohn-Becker. She’s someone I had never heard of until I read about the show in the New Yorker. This is what it said:
After Modersohn-Becker died, in 1907, at the age of thirty-one, a cult developed around the Dresden-born painter, presided over by her friend Rainer Maria Rilke. This show of forty-three works is a rare opportunity for American viewers to discover her work—scenes of crooked birches, flat-faced peasants, a daring female nude. Stuck in a difficult marriage and short on cash, Modersohn-Becker still managed to visit Paris on several occasions. Gauguin and the Nabis loom as influences here, but in her best paintings you can feel a modernist impulse lurking, stanched only by her premature death.
As there’s still not a lot going on in the art world currently I went to the galley website and liked what I saw enough that I decided to visit. It was a pleasant diversion although she’s really a minor figure in the art canon. This is a link to the gallery site where there’s a rather long monograph about her life. http://www.gseart.com/gse-pages/Current_Exhibition.php
I found her figures a little dark and muddy although the same images on the web appear brighter. There were several landscapes and still lifes that were colorful. And she painted a large nude woman, something which female artists hadn’t done much of. I found it lacking in comparison to the nudes of the Impressionists and especially to the Modigliani which recently set a record at auction. This is a link to her nude http://www.gseart.com/pictures/rc417jx5/web_595_x_372.jpg and this is a link to the Modigliani http://tinyurl.com/jj7pph5 There’s a vibrancy to the Modigliani which I just don’t feel with the Becker. This is one of her still lifes http://www.gseart.com/pictures/ay8hnc5p/web_595_x_465.jpg and this is one of her landscapes http://www.gseart.com/pictures/fkb8b67a/web_595_x_456.jpg Again, pleasant but nothing really special.
I don’t regret going, it’s always interesting to discover an artist you’ve never experienced before, but it’s not an exhibition I will think of as being memorable. From the gallery I walked back down to the Port Authority and took the bus home.
And so, on the Flickrs. In searching for pictures I have several dozen search terms I use which have always brought mixed results but I find that for the longest time now, the only pictures that come up are of crossdressers. Very little from day to day life or people dressing up for Halloween, shows, parties, etc. Even after Halloween, there was next to nothing. I think this is due to the last revamp of the website which I was never very happy about to begin with.
Andy G.
I think I'm in love with cutiemei
Sometimes I just wanna be a cute doll
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Andy I'm with you 100% with Cutie Mei. She is just an absolute doll.
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Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.
Betty has been talking about the cold and I can report that Northern New Jersey has been feeling Jack Frost quite a bit ourselves. I’m sitting here at my computer listening to the wind literally howling and the temperature is in the mid-teens. It was below ten degrees this morning when I awoke and tomorrow morning when I awake the forecast calls for zero degrees. That’s zero degrees on the thermometer, never mind the wind chill factor. As Robert Cray sings, the forecast calls for pain. And there’s the possibility of some kind of a storm developing Sunday into Monday which is not something I want to dwell on although being President’s Day I won’t have to deal with the commute on Monday. But since it’s a holiday I will have to go in on Wednesday as well as Tuesday to make up for it. That’s something I’m not happy about and next week when my employer is back in town I’m going to have another chat with him and see about working from home four days a week which was my original preference. I’m so close to the end of my working years that dragging myself into the City two days a week has become a chore. I think I can live with the one day a week routine until I set an actual retirement date but of course everything depends on my employer. So, more to come.
Despite the rather frigid weather I went into Manhattan today to walk up to the Met. I walked up Madison Avenue rather than Fifth as Fifth Avenue, once you get past 59th Street, has the wind blowing in from Central Park and it can be cutting. As it was, after my visit I walked over to catch the 79th Street crosstown bus and arriving at the subway I was dismayed to see a sign saying no downtown trains. This would have meant waiting for an uptown local train, passing through six stations and then crossing over to take the downtown, a process I’ve discussed previously. I decided I didn’t want to do it today and decided to walk over to Broadway and catch the subway there. Which I did but what I had forgotten was that Broadway is three very long block away from Central Park West and today, it was three very long, very windy blocks away. I am so ready for Spring.
I was planning on seeing the Met’s small exhibit of a Jan Van Eyck painting which has undergone radiography that revealed different text and raised the question as to whether the diptych was actually part of a triptych from which the main panel has been lost. But that’s for another day as on my way to the gallery I was walking down the drawing corridor and discovered that the Met’s new print exhibition has opened so I decided to visit that instead.
It was splendid. The Power of Prints The Legacy of William M. Ivins and A. Hyatt Mayor is a display of a small percentage of the hundreds of thousands of prints in the Met’s collection and the reason for the exhibit is the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Department of Prints. It’s also a salute to Ivins and Mayor, the curator who founded the department and his protégé. They accumulated a wide array of wonderful prints and this exhibit is filled with their stars, all of the prints are from the permanent collection. This is a link to the Met website description of the exhibit as well as a link to all the objects in it. http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2016/power-of-prints The NY Times hasn’t reviewed the exhibit yet but I found this review in the Epoch Times a good recap. http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/1959461-a-passion-for-prints/ This is a link to a blog that gives a brief description of the exhibit but then has images for many of the best ones which means I don’t have to list individual links http://tinyurl.com/zwwdlo9
It starts with Rembrandt’s The Three Trees followed by Goya’s Colossus. Both artists are well represented, there are seven Rembrandt’s on display and all are top quality. Following on is a Mary Cassatt tinted print which hangs on the wall next to the original state with no color, then one of several etchings by one of my favorites Edward Hopper. I will break away back to the website for a moment because I want to show you a print by the artist Martin Lewis, (Relics) Speakeasy Corner, http://tinyurl.com/zs3nskt This is hanging on the wall right next to Hopper’s prints and that’s because Lewis helped Hopper learn the basics of etchings. You can see his influence on Hopper’s work in this etching. Again, he’s someone I had never heard of so this was a very pleasant find. This is followed by several Durers, a magnificent Hendrick Goltzius depiction of a thoroughly muscle bound Hercules, a chilling Daumier print of a family murdered by marauding soldiers, and a poster by Toulouse-Lautrec along with several other items.
I want to also point out two more excellent images, Jan Lutma, an elderly silversmith surrounded by his tools, by Rembrandt http://tinyurl.com/hlvp2rq and Manet’s The Execution of the Emperor Maximilian (L'exécution de Maximilien) http://tinyurl.com/zq96wz8 The execution was done as a series of five, including this print. You can see one of the oil painting versions here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Execution_of_Emperor_Maximilian#/media/File:Edouard_Manet_022.jpg
I love the drawings section and this was a really great exhibit drawing attention to the world class collection that the Met has. I’m lucky to be a member and be close enough to go on a regular basis.
And now let’s take a peek at the Flickrs.
Andy G.
blue dress -1
https://www.flickr.com/photos/60660709%40N04/6024267917/
_DSC5363
https://www.flickr.com/photos/136715054%40N03/22050897863/
Foto1431
https://www.flickr.com/photos/132089383%40N05/22798596754/
Cassie
https://www.flickr.com/photos/125154773%40N02/23177859190/
IMG_4608
https://www.flickr.com/photos/15392928%40N00/22308382763/
Christmas 2015
https://www.flickr.com/photos/lucyhamilton/23546310180/
White Dots
https://www.flickr.com/photos/msemilytv/22821392973/
A sissy made for play
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sissyplaything/6568211829/
Miss Michaela Marbella in Vintage Barbie Swan PINK :)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/missmichaelamarbella/16360152123/
Meijimura, Japan
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mayuko_vienna/7753143516/
img823
https://www.flickr.com/photos/75047565%40N00/24363843325/
Cowgirl; Floral Peplum Top, Jean Shorts - Blonde Highlight Hair 54
https://www.flickr.com/photos/130085317%40N02/24447740065/
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Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.
This will be a quick one. Today is the postponed snow date for me to take my friend into the City to see some great art. And the weather appears to be very cooperative today, into the 50’s and possibly 60. Very pleased and excited about the visit.
Andy G.
09960012
https://www.flickr.com/photos/63956914@N05/23754863033/
CIMG0798
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dressrei/24407903165/
Untitled
https://www.flickr.com/photos/61793334@N04/22804060829/
Susie445
https://www.flickr.com/photos/24899087@N05/23921204729/
DSC00182.jpg
https://www.flickr.com/photos/97867932@N05/23797057843/
Just a Little Pink
https://www.flickr.com/photos/briannagrant/24336261665/
Golden oldie
https://www.flickr.com/photos/carol38/23953219779/
I have a weak point for floral design...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/cutiemei11/24289914215/
1-10-16 002
https://www.flickr.com/photos/vickiedale66/24277478866/
Steam punk practice...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kirstenjgirl/23812217194/
Zoey Bella
https://www.flickr.com/photos/boyswillbegirls/24589161016/
Saki_♥ 2012_12_12
https://www.flickr.com/photos/saki_75153/8266467985/
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Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.
Today was a typical winter day, chilly but clear. We’re only two days from March which can be a very tricky month weather wise and I’m hoping we won’t see any more snow but you never know. I’ve certainly enjoyed the milder days we’ve had this winter, can’t remember when there were so many days in the 50’s.
I walked up to the Met this morning to see the second rotation of the Japanese exhibit and it was very enjoyable. New scrolls and screens had been added and best of all, there were six wood block prints by Hiroshige that hadn’t been in the first rotation, Six Tamagawa Rivers from Various Provinces (Shokoku Mu Tamagawa). The Met website hasn’t been updated as it shows these as not on view and only one is illustrated. http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/53449 Of the scrolls I particularly liked the Musk Cat
http://tinyurl.com/hhzuq36 and Beauty of the Kanbun era http://tinyurl.com/ntng7qt And finally, this beautiful screen, Flowers and Grasses of the Four Seasons http://tinyurl.com/jhrlywx All very delicate and beautiful.
Before I left my house this morning I made a point of looking at the subway advisories as I’ve been surprised a few times by the C train not running downtown at the 79th Street station. I thought my subway nightmares were behind me when I stopped going out to Queens to visit my ancient Aunt but the fun continues. The advisory told me the C wasn’t running again downtown so when I left the Met I walked over to Lexington Avenue and took the 6 train. And got to 51st street and discovered the E wasn’t running downtown either. I was furious. The conductor on the 6 hadn’t said anything. I saw the signs about the E right away but kept walking assuming I could take the M, which runs down Sixth Avenue, and walk over from Sixth. No downtown trains at all. And there’s no escape from the station there either, the turnstiles don’t allow egress. Went back to the 6 planning to take it to 42nd Street and then either take the shuttle, the crosstown bus or walk. When I originally entered the station at 77th Street I heard an announcement saying the train was arriving and I was glad I caught it as the sign said the next one would be in 9 minutes. So when I walked back to continue on the 6 to 42nd Street I was surprised that the next train was 8 minutes away. I hadn’t been gone long enough to miss the one directly behind me. I waited a few minutes and noticed that the sign hadn’t changed. Then a few minutes later an announcement over the loudspeaker said it was 8 minutes away. A few minutes later I looked up and the sign said delayed. So I left the station and walked back to the Port Authority from 51st and Lex. Angry. I see I will have to check an alphabet of letters each week if I want to come home uneventfully. And not angry.
Last Saturday though was a wonderful day from top to bottom for my trip into the City with my good friend. The weather really made up for the snowstorm and postponement of our original date. It was mild and I was able to go out wearing only my heavy flannel shirt. She arrived at 11AM, we took the bus into the City and our first stop was the Museum of the City of New York where we saw a very moving exhibition of Jacob Riis photographs as well as a short video reproducing one of his lectures. Jacob Riis was a photographer at the turn of the Century and he lectured on the poor and economic inequality, a timely topic. He wrote a book entitled How the Other Half Lives which chronicled the men, women and children who effectively lived on the streets and scrounged for food. The pictures of small children in factories or worse, huddled together asleep at night in alleys are heartbreaking. His lectures went a long way toward the enactment of the child labor laws as well as getting them off the streets and into homes. This link shows Street Arabs in Sleeping Quarters. http://collections.mcny.org/Collection/Street%20Arabs%20in%20sleeping%20quarters.-2F3XC5U9KLT5.html
This link brings you to a page of the other photos in the exhibit. http://collections.mcny.org/Explore/Featured/Jacob%20A.%20Riis/
From there we walked down to the Met where we saw the Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun exhibit of portraits. Le Brun was an 18th Century French artist. This was truly a blockbuster, room after room of wonderful paintings. My brother told me I would love it and he was correct. I will certainly go back for at least one more visit, I think it’s on a par with the Sargent portrait show which I raved about last year. This is a link to the New York Times review of the show. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/12/arts/design/review-vigee-le-brun-metropolitan-museum.html and here’s a review from the Financial Times. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/f2020de0-d628-11e5-829b-8564e7528e54.html My friend was quite taken by the two paintings of the artist’s daughter Julie which hung side by side and I had to agree that they were special. This one of Julie looking in a mirror was very sweet and sentimental http://tinyurl.com/z5pe2ab while this one of her as a bather is the image of innocence http://tinyurl.com/zuumcbq You can see how much Elisabeth loved her daughter. Like the Dutch artists and Ingres her depiction of fabric in the dresses and men’s outfits as well as the table and floor coverings is truly marvelous. Like this portrait of Stanislaw August Poniatowski, formerly King of Poland in his brilliant red cloak with what looks to be a white ermine lining. http://tinyurl.com/hlnjb6k And this portrait of Marie Antoinette in her court regalia, this ridiculously ornate dress
http://tinyurl.com/grdsw4t All of the women have abundant hair which she paints flowing this way and that and the jewelry, the necklaces, the earrings and bracelets are all shown to their advantage like in this painting of The Comtesse de Clermont-Tonnerre as a Sultana http://tinyurl.com/zzlwtbk. It really was an enormous exhibit and we both enjoyed it very much. This is a link to all the objects in the exhibit. http://tinyurl.com/j9b5qzt
Afterwards I took her to the American Wing and we went through The Gilded Age, the show of furniture I’ve written about, which she very much enjoyed. We also took in the circular painting of the Palace of Versailles which was truly remarkable. Somehow I missed it when I was at the exhibit the last time. It’s a large oval room with the painting circling it in its entirety except for the entrance and exit. You really can’t imagine it’s forcefulness from the web but this is a link to the site. http://tinyurl.com/h2fuq6l
From there we took the elevator up to the Asian wing and walked through the Japanese exhibit which I’ve described above. From the Japanese wing I took her into the Chinese to see the three wonderful scrolls, the visitors who find the enchanted mountain and the Emperor’s inspection tour. From there we went to the drawing corridor and took in the Power of Prints. I’ve written about all of these as well.
The subway got me again last week as well; on the number 6 up to the Museum we got to 96th Street and were told it wouldn’t stop at 103rd Street so we got off and walked. Having my friend with me was a real bonus when we left the subway because I said I was counting on her to tell me which direction uptown was. We got upstairs to the corner of 96th Street and I asked if she could see the street sign a block away and she immediately said 95th. All I could see was that there was a street sign. On the way home, when we got on the C train it was crowded and I saw a seat in the corner and told my friend to sit down and immediately the guy sitting next to her got up and offered me his seat. That white hair works really well and I thanked him for his courtesy.
We got to the Port Authority and walked over to 44th Street to the Westway diner for dinner then back to my place where we had my sour cream cake. We both had a really splendid time. She is a trouper, my pedometer says we walked six miles. It’s really great having a companion for some of my museum visits and I look forward to more in the future, we’ve agreed to go again in April for the Christie’s Old Masters auction previews.
Well I think I certainly made up for my terseness last week. Probably TMI for many but for them we finally come to the Flickrs.
Andy G.
me in the snowflake dress with allie bear. (Hi Samantha, cute dress.)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sissysamantharebecca/25077926596/
little monkey on the armchair ...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/katvarina/23423159160/
Untitled
https://www.flickr.com/photos/27401732%40N05/22672001927/
transvestite
https://www.flickr.com/photos/111227158%40N03/22728107267/
pkling29
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sissyprincessamber/1773695794/
sissy
https://www.flickr.com/photos/135272431%40N05/21507951568/
light pink
https://www.flickr.com/photos/adrii06/24846825712/
Pvc Playtime at Sams
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahbright45/23954152984/
20160122_153358
https://www.flickr.com/photos/136703881%40N08/24434516382/
I always love to be cute and dolly
https://www.flickr.com/photos/cutiemei11/24475956425/
081g1smeri
https://www.flickr.com/photos/meritats/24498082002/
IMG_9080
https://www.flickr.com/photos/10792226%40N00/24636485722/
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Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.
Today was chilly but clear and the good news is we’re moving towards warmer weather, into the 40’s tomorrow, then next week it will be in the 60’s, close to 70 by the end of the week. With daylight savings time starting next Sunday and the official start of Spring the following week I’m hoping we’ve seen the last of severe weather. But I’m old enough to know that Mother Nature has a real sense of humor and it wouldn’t be the first time if she decides to dump a major snowstorm on us before the end of the month. But I have my fingers crossed that things will only get better. It’s been getting lighter earlier in the morning which I enjoy, nothing is worse than going into the City in the morning in the dark and coming home later that day in the dark. Although I confess that since I started leaving my office at 3PM I at least had some sun at the end of the day. And working from home three days a week has given me a lot more sunshine as well although it’s still dark in the mornings when I go for my first walk of the day. I’m currently negotiating with my boss to go to four days a week from home which was my original request and he is considering it. If the answer is negative I think it will be time for me to suggest we run the ad for my replacement. I am definitely ready to retire and I’m currently only working to build up a little more capital for my retirement.
I went to the Frick this morning to see their current Van Dyck exhibit which just opened. I have been waiting for it to open since it was announced many months ago expecting a blockbuster based on everything I read about it and I wasn’t disappointed, it was brilliant. Mr. Frick owned 8 oil paintings by Van Dyck which I got to see last year when the museum brought them up from the basement and displayed them all for the first time in years. And this exhibit has loans from around the world although for some reason only 6 of the 8 they own are on display. It could be they didn’t have the room to mount the other 2, the exhibit takes up the Oval gallery as well as the gallery directly next to it. The paintings normally hanging in those two rooms have also been moved around or taken down and it was odd seeing some of them in a different place. In the corridor where two Vermeers hang, they now have a new acquisition, Francis Cotes (1726–1770) - The Hon. Booth Grey, 1764 http://www.frick.org/collection/acquisitions/2015/cotes between them where they previously had another new acquisition Bartolomé Estebán Murillo (1617−1682) Self-Portrait, ca. 1650−55 http://tinyurl.com/jm8lsnk Mr. Frick owned several Cotes, two of which have recently been on display Griffin and Lady Boynton, full size portraits. http://tinyurl.com/jfu3l7e http://tinyurl.com/zkryas5 Both lovely.
I didn’t know what to expect in the way of crowds although my brother said that it wouldn’t be like for Vermeer where they needed timed admission. When I arrived there was a crowd outside and I was a little concerned although it wasn’t a mob scene. When the guard came out he asked who was there for the symposium and almost everyone lined up to the right while he sent the few general admission patrons to the left. I walked up and told him I was a member and there for the Van Dyck and he let me stand on the steps. So I was the first one in and the first one downstairs where the first part of the exhibit was, drawings by Van Dyck and his peers. The first thing you see when you go down the steps are two self-portraits he did very early on. This one when he was 15 years old, http://tinyurl.com/zlwxj4f Next to it is this painting of a 70 year old man which he did when he was 14 years old, http://tinyurl.com/jr5e255 , very precocious to say the least. Among the drawings is one by Peter Paul Rubens, his teacher, and it was mistakenly attributed to Van Dyck for many years, Hendrick van Thulden, ca. 1615–16 http://tinyurl.com/h2tjqe2 He painted his peers and the drawings are sketches he made in preparation for the paintings. All of them are wonderful and this drawing of Adrien Brouwer is a good example. http://tinyurl.com/zrecwx6
I managed to go through the drawing show with no obstacles although after a little while the room started to fill. But my brother was right, it was not like the crowds the Vermeer exhibition drew at all. I had asked the guard what the symposium was and he didn’t know but I heard people talking and it was a drawing seminar. It must have been held in the auditorium as the corridors leading to it were blocked off. I left the drawings and came upstairs to the large galleries where the oil paintings hung. These were remarkable life size portraits that just overwhelmed you. There were many loans, this one from the National Gallery in London, Cesare Scaglia Adoring the Virgin and Child, ca. 1634–35 http://tinyurl.com/hysv87h and this wonderful self-portrait from the Met http://tinyurl.com/jzholcu And they managed to convince the Palazzo Pitti in Italy to loan them Cardinal Guido Bentivoglio, 1623 http://tinyurl.com/jx3sljj This is only the second time the painting has left Italy. This link discusses the history of the painting http://tinyurl.com/zk287hd and this shows Van Dyck’s sketch prior to painting it http://tinyurl.com/htcsm7q And this painting of Prince William of Orange and Mary, Princess Royal, http://tinyurl.com/z8rxnyw I will refer to a review of the exhibition in the Bergen Record in which the reporter says: “Novelist Marcel Proust wrote an ode to Van Dyck in which he praised his depiction of "royal children, already magnificent and grave." It's a perfect description of the double portrait of 13-year-old Prince William of Orange and 9-year-old Mary, daughter of King Charles and Henrietta Maria. They look like two children playing dress-up – except the painting is an official marriage portrait.” Finally, my brother thought the star of the show was Charles I and Henrietta Maria Holding a Laurel Wreath, 1632 and I think I have to agree with him. http://tinyurl.com/hpg3jtx This is a link to the full checklist of objects in the exhibit, http://www.frick.org/exhibitions/van_dyck/checklist I heartily recommend visiting the page and looking at them all, this show was really a treat. I have plans to see it again, in April when I take my friend to the Christie’s auction previews and I’m hoping to take another friend if she can set a date. And I have no doubt I’ll visit it again on my own, it’s definitely something to return to often and enjoy while it’s available.
This is a review from the Financial Times which also has illustrations, it’s a good review in both meanings of the word, he likes the exhibit obviously and it’s well written.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/ba006ffe-e05f-11e5-9217-6ae3733a2cd1.html
This is from a Christie’s auction house email. I found it an interesting article, especially in light of the comment a friend of mine made after receiving the video about the Diana automaton clock that I mentioned in a post back in January, that craftsmanship is dying as a trade. This gives hope that it isn’t. In addition to the article there’s also a brief video.
http://www.christies.com/features/The-hand-made-watch-Le-Garde-Temps-Naissance-d-une-Montre-7092-1.aspx?PID=newsviews_landing_morefeatures5
Time keepers: The tradition of watchmaking in their hands
And so closes today’s art lesson, hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did.
And, on to this week’s Flickrs.
Andy G.
Rebecca Graceful
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rebecca-crossdresser/24309331230/
IMG_0002
https://www.flickr.com/photos/lesleylipstick/24743500366/
Susie159
https://www.flickr.com/photos/24899087@N05/8633290733/
Blue Satin MAid
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahbright45/24703229326/
June 2007
https://www.flickr.com/photos/14631241@N07/3335769925/
Hello Sir glad your home
https://www.flickr.com/photos/aleesha_w/3847423456/
kelly slut nov 2015
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kellyukslut/22409107604/
A slut's clever disguise
https://www.flickr.com/photos/cdbf1/22493569809/
Screen light
https://www.flickr.com/photos/komkrit_charoen/24385188860/
Good morning sunshine
https://www.flickr.com/photos/cutiemei11/24090419564/
In another life..
https://www.flickr.com/photos/91219737@N08/24147569173/
400
https://www.flickr.com/photos/54661188@N08/19954569134/
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Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.
It was a glorious week with record breaking warm temperatures and hardly any precipitation. Today was chilly in the morning but warmed up nicely and I’m still hoping that we will make it to spring without another cold weather blip.
Some time ago I mentioned my visit to the new Whitney museum down on Gansevoort street in lower Manhattan and today I paid my first visit back to the Breuer building they left behind which is now known as Met Breuer. The Metropolitan museum has taken an 8 year lease on the building and staffed it with Met employees and will use it as showcase for its contemporary art while the Modern art galleries are renovated. I’m not sure I will be making many visits to this venue as I much prefer more venerable art than what modern art offers but the first installation is a blockbuster not to be missed. It doesn’t officially open until March 18th but members of the Met have been enjoying a preview for the last week or so and this morning I took advantage of my membership.
My brother, already being retired, generally precedes me in these visits and he visited earlier in the week. Many of the reviews have been negative and in an email he wrote he explained why. He said that the show really doesn’t have very much in the way of coherence. And the two halves don’t mesh. The first half is a stunning array of rare masterpieces (Titian, Van Eyck, Leonardo) and the second half is fairly conventional contemporary art (of very high quality). He expects it to be successful with tourists from all around the world coming to see it and from my visit I can see it will be mobbed as it was quite crowded this morning with only members. But he doesn’t see what the long-term prospects for it are. It’s a drain on the Met’s resources: maintaining and staffing an enormous separate museum from which they are getting no extra income. (One fee gets you all three Met locations.) He went on to comment on what a thrill it is to see some of the masterpieces since there are quite a large number of loans of paintings that it’s unlikely we will ever get to see again.
Having now paid the visit I have to agree with him on all accounts. The show starts on the 3rd floor and since it is in chronological order showing 500 years of painting, the 3rd floor is where the greatest art is, it certainly is where I spent most of my time. The theme of the show is Unfinished Thoughts left Visible. All of the paintings in the exhibit can be considered unfinished in one way or another, either the artist never completed it or left It in a state that the viewer might consider unfinished even though the artist felt it was. Or in some cases the artist passed away before deciding if it was finished or not. The Met hasn’t posted images from the exhibit but there have been a number of newspaper articles that have images so I’ll refer to several of them.
This is one of two long reviews from the NY Times, this one by Roberta Smith. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/04/arts/design/at-the-met-breuer-thinking-inside-the-box.html Right at the top you can see two Titian’s, the centerpiece being the Flaying of Maryas which is on loan from a museum in Prague and The Agony in the Garden on its right. Enormous and powerful paintings. There’s a slide show on the site and the 11th slide is another Titian, Tarquin and Lucrezia or the rape of Lucrezia. The 8th slide is a detail of Picasso’s Harlequin. There were a number of Picasso’s in the exhibit and I was pleased that many of them were representational rather than abstract. Returning to the main article as you scroll down you come to Jan van Eyck’s “St. Barbara,” made in 1437, the earliest work in the exhibit, which Roberta Smith refers to as van Eyck’s stupendous little jewel. It’s stunning. Leonardo’s “Head and Shoulders of a Woman (La Scapigliata) and Gustav Klimt’s “Posthumous Portrait of Ria Munk III.” This was interesting in that Klimt was commissioned to paint this portrait of a young woman who committed suicide, painted two portraits which were refused and was working on this one when he passed away. More than a passing resemblance to his Adele Bloch-Bauer which Ron Lauder famously paid $135 million for.
In this article you can see a Cezanne side by side with a Van Gogh, one of the last Vincent painted. https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-the-met-breuer-aims-to-be-a-new-frontier-for-art-but-can-it-deliver
And here’s a Sotheby’s video on opening night. http://www.sothebys.com/en/news-video/videos/2016/03/sothebys-at-the-met-breuer-opening.html
There’s really a lot to see here and I thoroughly enjoyed myself visiting my favorite artists through the timeframe. I wish there were more images to show. Certainly if you have the opportunity you should go.
Now let’s toddle over to the Flickrs.
Andy G.
Brooklyn Sunset
https://www.flickr.com/photos/faithdabrookenyc/24246564244/
Standing on the Deck
https://www.flickr.com/photos/39797176@N06/24819992986/
New video updates - Black lace nightgown. Join me at AlinaWangXXX.com. Watch me NOW! xXx
https://www.flickr.com/photos/alina_694/24493968589/
Glamour golden girl
https://www.flickr.com/photos/juliapanther/24784891631/
Ladies who lunch
https://www.flickr.com/photos/38720450@N06/17690034555/
pretty pink dress
https://www.flickr.com/photos/susansmith/24062211634/
image
https://www.flickr.com/photos/72682779@N05/22641663435/
MandyEyeCandy - Oops Windy
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tgirl-mandy/7683439998/
20160203_164911
https://www.flickr.com/photos/42198178@N04/24498359539/
I'm just like you only I happen to be transgender.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/133358121@N04/24862584465/
Hello Guys :-) #gorgeous #feminine #efim #destinyrose #transgender #pinaytransgender #pinoytrans #lgbt #lgbtph
https://www.flickr.com/photos/76459242@N08/24750592125/
little blue dress
https://www.flickr.com/photos/136031688@N06/24794288446/
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Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.
This will be quick. I’m heading down to the Jersey shore for a visit with friends. I’m grateful that the snow in the forecast is for tomorrow and not today and also that it’s not expected to be much of an accumulation. Of course I’ve said before that Mother Nature has a sense of humor and she’s certainly capable of changing her mind quickly when it comes to accumulation but I’m hoping not. I would have preferred a more Spring like day for the visit, it will be chilly today, but happily not as cold as tomorrow. I’m glad I don’t have to go out tomorrow aside from my walks. And I can report that my employer has agreed to let me work from home four days a week going forward which is very good. If things don’t become intolerable I think I will probably work until the end of the year and then consider retirement.
As there is no art appreciation this week let’s stroll over to the Flickrs.
Andy G.
A Beautiful Boy Tilcajete Carnival Mexico
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ilhuicamina/25004394295/
So I finally bought a wig...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/135749866%40N08/24375940534/
Hello Spring
https://www.flickr.com/photos/adrii06/25713416262/
Cutie school girl
https://www.flickr.com/photos/cutiemei11/24650567909/
2016miranda0813
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mirandacruz/24694490679/
20160214_210113
https://www.flickr.com/photos/42198178%40N04/24937623192/
Forever red
https://www.flickr.com/photos/alina_694/24165192074/
Crossdresser
https://www.flickr.com/photos/45187053%40N07/25173486136/
Filter
https://www.flickr.com/photos/capitolchill/24979410965/
Crossdresser
https://www.flickr.com/photos/45187053%40N07/24933334436/
Bridal bouquet
https://www.flickr.com/photos/natalia_femina/25041371356/
DSC00251
https://www.flickr.com/photos/97867932%40N05/24636556649/
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Thanks Andy for your Flikr posts again. I look forward to seeing your posts every Saturday. Glad your boss lets you work from home 4 days now as you will slide into full retirement easy that way. I wanted to do that too but my boss wanted me out so he could save some big money and give himself a raise after I was gone. I was there 42 years and made top money and 7 weeks vacation time also. My replacement was almost un-trainable even after 3 years and it was a joke but he made a lot less money and only 2 weeks vacation. I warned them to keep and eye on him but after I was gone my department came to a standstill for three weeks. It is nice to be missed and for them to acknowledge you were doing a great job. I could not work from home in my job as it was supervision, scheduling and inventory control also. Enjoy the rest of the year and think of all the galleries and exhibits you can see after you retire.
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Hi Angela,
Let me echo Betty's words and say I'm glad to hear from you again after your brief hiatus from the board. I'm sorry to hear that you were treated in such a cavalier way but loyalty doesn't go very far in business nowadays. I basically have a good relationship with my employer and the main issue is that he is in his 80's and has a different mindset. So to him, the only place to work is in an office. Which is ironic as he lives in California and works the virtual office from his house. And like you, due to my 16 years with the firm, it will be a difficult transition for him when I leave as, just like there was for me, there will be a steep learning curve for my successor. Hopefully he will be someone like me who will take on additional responsibilities and look after things closely the way I do. I've mentioned my friend who is retired in Arizona, he was my boss for 20 years and we were friendly then but once I left his employ we remained friends and I email with him every week. I expect to remain friends with my current employer as well.
I'm glad you enjoy the Flickrs and going on my virtual tours of the exhibits. I hope to continue relating my adventures for many years to come.
Andy G.
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Hi again Andy,
I know what you mean as I too took on additional responsibilities that my protege did not want any part of. He was a bit lazy but not stupid and would say to me "I got paid this Friday for doing a lot less work than you did" and that was the attitude of many of the young people hired in the last 10 years. The thing I thought was strange was that many of their fathers or uncles worked for the same company and why would they want to work there if they thought so little of the place. My boss was fired shortly after I retired for various reasons but mostly for sexual harassment of the office girls. We were never good friends and more just tolerated each other. I had warned him several times to stop getting too friendly with the girls but he would just laugh and say they love me. The outgoing plant manager (forced retirement) and I had worked together for the full 42 years as we worked our way up the ladder but he was there about two years longer. We had our little battles over the years but now he is one of my best friends (or thinks he is). He emails me everyday with something and we have a mutual friend that we meet for coffee with sometimes. He and I worked together in the same department for most of our lives but we are not as close now as we don't have the same interests out of the workplace and he is a bit of a loner and has been since a very bad divorce. Anyway thank you for your posts here, I enjoy seeing them all the time.
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Yes Andy winter Flikr is right, we just had a small blizzard blow in and it has been cool all day. Luckily the snow stopped after about 10 minutes and the sun is out again. Crazy Spring weather for sure. Now an hour later there is nothing to indicate we even had a blizzard.
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hi every one
i am coming up to 63 in June,and have been retired since i was 50.I got so bored that i decided to help in my friends supermarket.I do not get paid since i do not want payment as i was getting bored at home.I also help looking after their dad who had a stroke and now i am enjoying myself more than staying at home.I live only 10 mins walk from the shop and work what ever hours are needed.I will hopefully stay there well into my 70.I own my own house and their contacts did all the work in the house free,which is better than getting paid for working.
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Hey samantha 1, I retired at 62 after 42 years in the same company. I have often wondered if I should get a part time job although I am not bored by any means I just think a bit of extra income would come in handy and if I could make arrangements like yours all the better as my house is in need of some repairs. I never thought about when I was older and unable to tackle some of the jobs I have done all my life and now it frustrates me to pay somebody to do jobs I could do myself at one time. I have a wonderful garden and love flowers so I was going to see if the local Florist could use somebody for the spring & summer. I have no formal training but have been doing arrangements all my life for family and friends. I would have loved to retire at 50 though, how did you manage that?
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hi Angela
I was lucky because i got to know the father first then started to help in the family run super market ,I offered my help free and now get treated as part of the family.I WAS THEN RETIRED medically with depression,and stayed at home until the day i walked into their supermarket and the rest was history.
They have a good friend/relative who is a builder ,and they(the owners of supermarket}arranged to get the work done free for me ,however some work will be paid for,but at a cheaper rate called cost,{no profit for them).
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Work at cost would be nice for sure. I do know two former co-workers who have gone into the home reno business and plumbing and perhaps if I call them we can make a deal for some work. They were good friends at work a few years ago and I sometimes meet them at the lumber/ hardware stores. It sounds like you have the perfect work environment after retirement. Something to keep you busy with perks on the side.