On our recent trip to New York, we spent some time at the Met Breuer. As it happened, two featured exhibits were by female artists, one a retrospective of a living artist’s career and the other a focus on the fiber art and sculpture of an Indian artist.
I was captivated by Phenomenal Nature by Mrinalini Mukerjee. The larger than lifesize intricately woven flax, hemp and cotton pieces range from gods of the forest to nymphs to a flower. They are usually one muted or dark color, but a few incorporate other color strands. Later in her life (she died in 2015), Mukerjee did a series of bronze sculptures that are rounded or based on a dome shape.
Van Raja (King of the Forest), 1981
Aid Pushp II (Primal Flower), 1998-99
Untitled, 2002
To Fix the Image in Memory is a review of Viji Celmins’ more than 50 year career and encompasses the top two floors of the museum. Her early works are a mix of paintings of common appliances like a space heater, a hot plate, or a lamp, as well as sculptures of familiar objects such as a pink eraser. These are very accessible to the viewer.
Heater, 1964
I found the later works, endless studies of the ocean’s surface, starry skies, and webs, which are shades of gray and black, much more challenging and less visually appealing. They are stripped down and there are only subtle differences between some of the works in a series. But this exhibit has garnered a lot of publicity and praise including the lead article in a recent New York Times’ Art section.
Untitled (Web #1), 1999
Note: Header photo is one of several horse sculptures in Freedman Plaza at the entrance to Central Park. Text and photos by JWFarrington (some rights reserved).
Through the years, I’ve seen several productions of the American musical, Oklahoma. This new production directed by Daniel Fish, is a dark one. The staging is amazing—open and creative. It’s theater in the round, really more of a horseshoe, with theatergoers seated on one side of some of the tables used by the actors. At intermission, the red pots on the tables reveal chili, and cups of chili and cornbread are served to anyone who wants to line up.
The cast is stripped down, the music is backed by a small combo, not an orchestra, and Curly strums his guitar for the opening, “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’.” All the songs are here, but overall the play is edgy. The taunting conversation between Curly and Jud about Jud becoming more loved in death is played out in a darkened theater using video projections on a far wall. Go expecting the unexpected along with a revised ending. This is an Oklahoma for our time.
SCREEN: Official Secrets
I would wager that most Americans have never heard of Katharine Gun, but she was a courageous, albeit naïve, whistleblower, working in British intelligence in 2003. When Katharine reads a secret memo that the United States is pressuring allies, including Britain, to support a war against Iraq, she is disturbed enough to want to share it. How her actions play out, what impact they have on her Kurdish Turkish husband, and what the British government does to make an example of her make for a fascinating film for political junkies.
It is not fast paced, nor full of tension, but it does shine a light on how and when governments deceive the people they represent. There’s an all star cast with Keira Knightley as Gun and recognizable favorites from Downton Abbey and The Crown such as Matthew Goode and Matt Smith along with Ralph Fiennes as a shrewd defense lawyer. The Chief Penguin especially loved it! (~JWFarrington)
Seasonal display in Rockefeller Plaza, real style!
PAGE: STYLE ICON
Bunny Mellon: The Life of an American Style Legend by Meryl Gordon
Bunny Melon was a product of wealth who married wealth and lived a life of style and glamour. Shy by nature, she mostly avoided the spotlight, but sought and gained recognition for her gardens and her personal taste in décor and decoration. She married one wealthy man, Stacy Lloyd, then divorced him after WWII to marry the even richer Paul Mellon.
A man of his time and class, Mellon had affairs and mistresses, something Bunny knew and was unhappy about, but became resigned to. When he wanted a divorce, she refused, preferring to remain Mrs. Paul Mellon despite everything. She, in turn, had warm friendships with a number of dashing younger men, florists, hair stylists, and others, mostly gay. As a close personal friend of Jackie Kennedy, she had a front row seat at some of the most dramatic and tragic moments in the 20th century.
Gordon’s biography is engaging, breezy, accessible, and, at times, a catalog of celebrities, events and stuff: glittering galas, stunning jewelry, haute couture, and houses upon houses from Manhattan to Virginia horse country to Antigua and Paris. Bunny Melon was the designer of the White House Rose Garden and of a second garden there named for Jackie Kennedy. She could be warm and whimsical or brusque and fickle; but, throughout her long life (103 years), she always had Style! (~JWFarrington)
Whimsical “Hare on Bell” by Barry Flanagan, 1983
Note: All photos by JWFarrington. Header photo is the Oklahoma set at Circle in the Square Theatre.
When in New York, we often take advantage of the wide range of films being shown. This visit is no exception as we’ve managed to get to three movies this week, at least one of which won’t be shown at home.
Set in New York and Beijing, The Farewell is a touching story about an extended Chinese family’s long goodbye to their matriarch. Granddaughter Billi is extremely close to her grandmother, Nai Nai, and somewhat removed from her parents, particularly her mother. Struggling to jumpstart her career and seeming to have few friends, Billi is devastated when she learns of Nai Nai’s cancer diagnosis and upset that no one wants to tell her that. Billi surprises the family in Beijing where they have gone ostensibly just to celebrate a cousin’s wedding.
I enjoyed this movie both for its portrayal of Chinese culture, particularly the meals, and for the loving and supportive relationship between Billi and her grandmother. Poignant with flashes of humor. (~JWFarrington)
Released in 1976, Mr. Klein by Joseph Losey, was playing at the Film Forum. It is compelling and powerful, ending with a punch to the gut. Art collector and bon vivant, Robert Klein lives the high life in German-occupied France. The year is 1942 and he goes about his comfortable life mostly oblivious to the hardship around him. He haggles over the price he’s willing to pay for a painting offered by a Jew in desperate straits. But, when someone assumes he’s also Jewish and he learns that there is another Robert Klein, he goes to great lengths to try to correct that false assumption and to ferret out the other Klein.
Mr. Klein (forward.com)
What grabs the viewer is that the French authorities are actively collaborating with the Nazis and rounding up their own people and transporting them. When freedom is slowly chiseled away, one risks not paying enough attention until it’s too late. Relevant given today’s fraught political climate. (~JWFarrington)
This much anticipated film opened yesterday and we were there in the morning for the first showing! If you’ve been in Downton/Crawley family withdrawal these past four years, then prepare to be entertained. The entire cast of favorites is present. Everyone from Lady Edith and Lady Mary and their parents and spouses; Tom Branson, looking more handsome than ever; the always outspoken Daisy; stalwart Mrs. Patmore, dedicated Mr. and Mrs. Bates; and elder statesman Mr. Carson, just waiting to be asked to participate. Couple that with the quips and barbs traded by the Dowager Countess (Maggie Smith) and Isobel Crawley (Penelope Wilton), add in the excitable Mr. Molesley, and be a part of planning for a visit from the king and queen, and you have lots of good fun.
Downton cast members (thelist.com)
The house is featured more than in the TV series and there are expansive scenes of the grounds and all the preparations for the royal visit. Is it a great film? No, but if you’re a fan, then it’s a wonderful way to spend an afternoon! And there are enough loose ends to make a sequel. (~JWFarrington)
Here is a list of the titles I read this summer. Of these twenty-two titles, seven were on my intended summer reading list. I started and abandoned American Spy and The Power of the Dog, read one story in Lauren Groff’s Florida, and am more than a quarter of the way into Middlemarch. It’s a long book and I’m taking it slowly.
My favorite books were The Guest Book, Exposure, and The Lost Man of the novels and Salt Path and Maybe You Should Talk to Someone in nonfiction. But, I have to say, Into the Raging Sea is an amazing piece of reporting.
FICTION
Carnegie’s Maid by Marie Benedict
Clock Dance by Anne Tyler
Evie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes
Exposure by Helen Dunmore
Force of Nature by Jane Harper (mystery)
The Guest Book by Sarah Blake
How to Find Love in a Bookshop by Veronica Henry
The Huntress by Kate Quinn
Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter by Hazel Gaynor
Lost Man by Jane Harper (mystery)
Mapping Murder by William D. Andrews (mystery)
The Oysterville Sewing Circle by Susan Wiggs
A Question of Trust by Penny Vincenzi
Shadows on the Lake by Giovanni Cocco & Anneris Magella (mystery)
When We Left Cuba by Chantal Cleeton
Winter Cottage by Mary Ellen Taylor
NONFICTION
America’s Reluctant Prince: Life of JFK Jr. by Steven Gillon
Into the Raging Sea by Rachel Slade
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb (memoir)
No Visible Bruises by Rachel Louise Snyder
Salt Path by Raynor Winn (memoir)
Save Me the Plums by Ruth Reichl (memoir)
I also skimmed portions of Adventures in Nanaville by Anna Quindlen and The Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates.
