Tag Archives: museum of fine arts

Arts and Culture

Modern Art Monday Presents: Portrait of Jamie Wyeth by Andy Warhol

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Portrait of Jamie Wyeth
Photo By Gail

This 1976 oil on canvas portrait of artist Jamie Wyeth is one half of a “Portrait Exchange,” which includes a portrait of Warhol done by Wyeth. Warhol’s half of the portrait exchange presents a brooding and handsome young artist, posing as if for a Hollywood head shot or mimicking Wyeth’s own Portrait of John F. Kennedy. The two artists styles could not be more opposite, and yet they each shared a dedicated work ethic.

While Wyeth created many detailed studies of Warhol to compose his panel painting, Warhol prepared by taking numerous Polaroid snapshots of Wyeth — more, he claimed, than for any of his other subjects at the time. Drawn to celebrity and fame, Warhol frequently surrounded himself with young artists for inspiration, and Wyeth’s natural talent and artistic lineage (not to mention, according to Warhol, his “cuteness”) especially appealed to him.

Photographed in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Arts and Culture

Tongue Gilding by Lauren Kalman

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Tongue Gilding
Photo By Gail

Lauren Kalman’s Tongue Gilding (2008), a digital print laminated on acrylic, entertains questions like, “Where does adornment end and body modification begin? How do we use jewelry to create and ‘ideal’ body? Can it create an ‘abject’ one?”

Trained as a metalsmith, Kalman has made gold body embellishments which, in order to be worn, alter the body in a way that may seem unusual or off-putting. She then documents the works through photographs that focus on these performative elements. At once seductive and repulsive, Kalman’s images ask us to question the ways in which we present our adorned bodies to the world.

Photographed in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Arts and Culture

Tara Donovan’s Styrofoam Cup Cloud Installation

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Tara Donovan Cloud
Photos By Gail

If you happen to be doing the tourist thing in the city of Boston, you absolutely cannot miss the opportunity to visit the Museum of Fine Arts, which, like The Met here in NYC, is massive, and has a little bit of everything that an art lover wants to see, all under one roof. It is really quite a remarkable place. Continue reading Tara Donovan’s Styrofoam Cup Cloud Installation →

Arts and Culture

George Segal: Walk, Don’t Walk at the Whitney Museum

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Walk Don't Walk
All Photos By Gail

The past weekend, Geoffrey and I paid our first visit to the new and — dare I say — much improved Whitney Museum on Gansevoort Street in the Meat Packing District, and we had the time of our lives! I took hundreds of rad photos, some of which I will be sharing with you in the coming weeks. I am especially smitten with this installation/sculpture thing by George Segal (1924 – 2000), which is called Walk, Don’t Walk (1976). I  saw Segal’s work in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston last summer and I think his stuff is pretty cool.

Walk Don't Walk

Design and Innovation

Stacking Chair By Danny Lane

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Stacking Chair
All Photos By Gail

Danny Lane is a London-based designer, visual artist and glass sculptor who specializes in working with fractured and stacked glass.  His popular Stacked Chair (1993) is made up of slab-like green-tinted glass with polished, irregular edges. The chair back and rear, single leg are  constructed of an arched column of stacked irregularly cut and polished glass slabs held together by a central steel rod topped by a nut. Similar construction applies to the chair’s shorter front legs and feet.

Stacking Chair Display Shot

This is what the chair looks like on display in the contemporary art wing of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where I took these photos last summer. You can actually find this chair for sale around the web, with a little Googling effort.

Stacking Chair Detail