Tag Archives: figurine

Modern Art Monday Presents: The Death of Munrow

the death of munrow photo by gail worley
“Ouch, My Head” (Photo By Gail)

The Death of Munrow (circa 182030), a glazed earthenware figure group by an unknown artist, records a specific historic event in 1791, in which Hugh Munrow, a British soldier, was killed by a tiger in India. Its composition was inspired by an almost life-size wooden automaton of a tiger killing a European that was owned by Tipu Sultan, the ruler of Mysore in India. Tipu’s Tiger was seized by the British army in 1799 and brought to London, where it was placed on public display.

Photographed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan.

Pink Thing of The Day: Pink Mickey Mouse Figurine

Pink Mickey Mouse Statue
Photos By Gail

This Baby Pink statuette of the most famous mouse earth is an official Disney-design produced by the French company Leblon Delienne.  Known as Mickey Welcome, it is one of three new pastel colorways made of lacquered ABS plastic, which replaces an earlier series created in resin. The new material is an aesthetic equal to resin, but represents an environmentally-friendly improvement, as the ABS plastic is recyclable. Priced to collect at $280 each.

Photographed at 10 Corso Como Design Store in the South Street Seaport, NYC.

Pink Mickey Mouse Statue

Chris Antemann’s Forbidden Fruit at The Museum of Arts and Design

Forbidden Fruit
All Photos By Gail

If the idea of bearing witness to dozens of tiny, semi-clad porcelain figurines that appear to be on the cusp of indulging in a bacchanalian orgy floats your boat, have I a got an art exhibit for you. Chris Antemann’s Forbidden Fruit — up now at the Museum of Arts and Design — celebrates the collaboration between the Oregon-based artist and Meissen, the renowned manufacturer of fine Porcelain.

Forbidden Fruit Detail
Detail from Above Photo

In 2011, Antemann was invited to participate in Meissen’s Art Studio Program, where she worked closely with Meissen’s master artisans to create unique pieces and a series of limited editions that strike a perfect balance between her distinctive style and Meissen’s identity. These pieces are arranged in Forbidden Fruit as a grand installation that reinvents and invigorates the great figurative tradition.

Forbidden Fruit Installation View

Inspired by eighteenth-century porcelain figurines and decorative art, Antemann’s delicate and intricately detailed sculptures are lavishly presented on a central banquet table alongside a selection of stand alone sculptures and a nine-light porcelain chandelier. Her centerpiece, Love Temple (2013), is inspired by Meissen’s great historical model of Johann Joachim Kändler’s monumental Love Temple (1750). Stripping the original design back to its basic forms,  added her own figures, ornamentation, and flowers to her five-foot work, as well as a special finial with three musicians to herald the arrival of guests to the banquet of “forbidden fruit” below.

Love Temple Detail

Forbidden Fruit

Forbidden Fruit

Using the Garden of Eden as her metaphor, Antemann has created a contemporary interpretation of the eighteenth-century banqueting craze by inserting her scantily clad male and female figures.

Forbidden Fruit

Forbidden Fruit

Posed in intimate and playful vignettes of seduction, Antemann’s figures convey narratives of domesticity, social etiquette, and taboos while making formal references to classic Baroque Meissen figurines. The ceramist invents a new narrative on contemporary morality in a setting that evokes the decadence of François Boucher and Jean-Antoine Watteau.

Forbidden Fruit

Chris Antemann’s Forbidden Fruit will be on Exhibit Through February 5, 2017 at the Museum of Arts and Design, Located at 2 Columbus circle (58th Street) in NYC.

Forbidden Fruit

Forbidden Fruit

Forbidden Fruit Installation View

Melodie Provenzano Presents Stealth Peace at Nancy Margolis Gallery

Color Bow
Color Bow By Melodie Provenzano (All Photos By Gail)

I stumbled on the listing for Melodie Provenzano’s Stealth Peace exhibit (on now at Nancy Margolis Gallery) when I was looking for cool shows to add to last week’s art crawl, and was immediately attracted to her painting of the above image: a giant colorful bow. I love hyper-realism and the more I looked at the online preview, the more I knew this would be a must-see exhibit. I was not mistaken. Continue reading Melodie Provenzano Presents Stealth Peace at Nancy Margolis Gallery

Bird Figurine with Human Head

Bird with Human Head Sculpture
Photo By Gail

This adorable Bird Figurine with a Human Head (with a bird on that head) — artist unknown — was photographed by me at the Kasher| Potamkin Store, (rear of the Steven Kasher Gallery) Located at 515 West 26th Street, 2nd Floor, in New York’s Chelsea Gallery District.