Hermann Finsterlin (German, 1887 – 1973) a painter, toy designer and architectural theorist, is associated with German Expressionist architecture of the 1920s. Molded or cast models such as Study For a House of Sociability (c. 1920) played an important part in Finsterlin’s design process.
When this exhuberantly colorful model was acquired in 1968, MoMA curator Arthur Drexler observed that Finsterlin proposed an architecture that would essentially be hollow sculpture, free of functional considerations.
Finsterlin had a habit of retroactively dating his postwar pieces to the 1920s; the indefinite completion date here reflect this ambiguity.
Did you ever wonder what I was like when I was five years old, how I got started writing, how many Rock Stars I’m friends with, and how The WorleyGig brand came to be? Wonder no longer, because these mysteries and more have been revealed in an exclusive, in-depth interview I recently did with writer and artist Megan J. Meehan for the Medium.com blogging platform. Check it out now at This Link!
While Dr. Martin Luther King’s actual birthday was January 15th, the US honors and remembers him on the third Monday in January for a Federal Holiday known as Martin Luther King Day. It is the only such holiday that honors an Africa-American. We need to change that. Please celebrate the work of Dr. King today by being kind to your neighbor, whatever that means to you. One of MLK‘s best known quotes was projected on an apartment building at 14th Street and First Avenue over the past week and I stopped to take this photograph so that I could share it here.
Based on numerous on-site drawings, this painting, Interior View of The Metropolitan Museum of Art When In Fourteenth Street (1881) offers a glimpse into the Douglas Mansion on West 14th Street, The Met’s second home from 1873 to 1879. Pictured are two second-floor galleries as they appeared in the last year before the Museum moved to its current location on Fifth Avenue. Anthony van Dyck’s Saint Rosalie Interceding for the Plague-Stricken of Palermo is visible among the European and American Paintings hung in the then-fashionable salon style.
Photographed as Part of the Exhibition, Making the Met, 1870-2020, a Celebration of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 150 Year Anniversary.
One thing that can be said about RuPaul is that (s)he always looks fabulous. While I am not a watcher of Drag Race, I appreciate the spirit of fierce competition and the flawless style aesthetic. Who could not love this amazing Pink Wig that Ru wears in the Subway Ad for the current season of the show? It is positively otherworldly.
Photographed in the multi-line subway station tunnel between 14th and 16th Streets at 6th Avenue.
It’s a good thing I have a sharp eye or I would have walked right by this fun street art sticker, which cleverly portrays the hideous orange face of Dump as an Orange Dum Dums sucker! Bwhahahaha! They got the sucking part right, that is for sure. Just six more that of this loser. January 20th can’t come soon enough.
Photographed at the Southeast Corner 23rd Street and 8th Avenue.
British designer Faye Toogood believes that, whatever your domain of design expertise, the materials you can get your hands on are essential, “because you are always looking for a new way to interpret your designs and to explain your story.” This approach also pertains to her recent venture from designing signature interior spaces and environments (for high-profile clients), to furniture design.
Part of the exhibit What Would Have Been on view at Freidman Benda, her Maquette 259 seating (2020) realized in a rusty-peach-painted canvas over upholstery foam aligns with this aesthetic. Toogood’s products are designed with “honesty to the rawness and irregularity of the chosen material,” and are sculptural in form. Like her interior spaces, her furniture is considerate of both the two-dimensional design as well as three-dimensional space.
I love how it looks like a group of boulders just rolled together! Maquette 259 was manufactured in an limited edition of 8 pieces. Contact Friedman Benda Gallery in NYC for purchase information.
TJ Maxx delivers again with the accidental discovery of this awesome Valentines Day card that opens to feature a bunch of cute sharks popping out at you! Squee!
I realize that all TJ Maxx stores do not necessarily have the same merchandise, but the card is super cute and pretty cheap ($3.99) for a pop-up card of this quality, so maybe make a run to your neighborhood location and see if you can get lucky.
Cubist Landscape (1912) was inspired by a trip that Diego Rivera made to Spain on 1911, where he encountered the olive trees of Catalonia. The serrated blue ridge in the painting evokes Montserrat, a mountain in the region. The work exemplifies the idiosyncratic approach to Cubism that Rivera developed in the 1910s, when he lived in Paris. He saw these early works, which combine a sun-drenched palette with kaleidoscopic planes and abstract patterning, as a way of beginning to forge a specifically Mexican modernism. “My Cubist paintings,” he said, “are my most Mexican.”
Photographed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
Do you miss going to art galleries? I sure do. I know that many galleries have reopened, but as a fairly enthusiastic fan who used to spend nearly every Thursday evening roaming the streets of Chelsea, the scene just feels so dead while Covid keeps us from gathering together to celebrate our shared passion for art. Art! Because of this — even though I’ve been hitting the museums pretty hard — I’ve been feeling rather art-starved over the past year, and that’s just a shame.
I am overjoyed then to tell you of a Massive Show of Tiny Art called Postcards From the Edge that will allow you to get your art-fix on from the safety of your own home, because the whole thing is happening online! But wait, theres more: Postcards From the Edge will allow you to purchase original artworks — many from celebrated artists — for just $85! Not to mention, but you can see I am about to, proceeds from all sales of the art will support a charitable cause! Win, Win, Win! The exhibit kicks off on January 9th and runs through the 15th. Postcards From The Edge will be a must-attend event for Artists and Collectors, with artworks by Deborah Kass, Julie Mehretu, Amy Sillman, William Wegman, Liliana Porter, Robert Longo, Marilyn Minter, Catherine Opie, Jim Hodges, Louis Fratino, Hans Haacke and many more available for the unheard of price just $85 each Here’s how it works.
Post Continues, With All the Details, After The Jump!
