Stylin’! (Photo By Gail)
On Easter Sunday, the place to be was Tompkins Square Park, where friendly and festive East Village neighbors dressed in their most colorful finery for some kind of Easter Bonnet Festival — which may or may not be a returning annual tradition. There were dozens of great looks, but this lovely Lady in Pink was my favorite for obvious reasons.
I first discovered Dana’s Bakery and their fancy and fabulous Macarons at a Summer Fancy Food Show a few summers back. When it comes to imaginative baking and creative flavor profiles, nobody does it like Dana’s. Just in time for our first Easter spent in nationwide quarantine, Dana’s Bakery has announced their special Pink Marshmallow Macaron! Each box includes 12 bright pink macarons with sweet marshmallow creme filling, rolled in sugar sprinkles! Always gluten-free and kosher, available for April in their Build-A-Box and Variety Pack. Visit This Link order!
Photo By Gail
A tour de force of Willem de Kooning’s gestural style, Easter Monday (1955-56) bristles with energy. Angled forms and lines collide, overlap and penetrate one another, while transferred newsprint, particularly visible at the bottom and top right, enforces a tenuous, grid-like structure. The work appears to be in simultaneous processes of creation and destruction, a perpetual state of both realization and erasure that finds some analogy in the continuous growth and decay of nature.
Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: Willem de Kooning, Easter Monday
Photo By Gail
Stations of the Cross is a public art project, weaving through 14 religious and secular art spaces from The Cloisters museum to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine to Trinity Church and the 9/11 Memorial. The series breaks open the journey of Jesus, inviting people of all faiths to consider injustice across the human experience with a focus on the plight of immigrants and refugees. Station 13, Jesus is Taken Down From the Cross, is realized in Stations, 2016-18 by G. Roland Biermann, which can be found at the side courtyard between Trinity Church and Cemetery at Broadway and Wall Street in the financial district.
Sleek minimalism and gritty reality are seen in Biermann’s sculpture, in which two guardrails slice through the air, forming a fallen cross. Jesus‘ deposition finds a contemporary echo in the everyday tragedy of a car crash. Oil barrels suggest automobiles, but we might also think of olive oil, used in the Bible to anoint priests and cure the sick. Painted 14 shades of red — suggesting blood that runs, congeals, and quickens anew — the barrels evoke the Stations of The Cross as a whole. There might be consolation in the symbolism of Holy Blood and Holy Oil. Alternatively, we might think about the blood spilt in the pursuit of fossil fuels: our eagerness to import barrels of crude from the Middle East but unwillingness to accept refugees from that region. This sculpture is equal parts sacred and profane, ancient and contemporary.
Stations of the Cross Runs through Easter Sunday, April 1st, 2018. Visit a map of all fourteen installations, and plan your own journey at This Link.
Photo By Gail
Have a Peep-like Easter, Everybody!