Photo By Gail
Fred Wilson’s Guarded View (1991) aggressively confronts viewers with four black, headless mannequins dressed as museum guards. Each figure wears a uniform, dating to the early 1990s, from one of four New York cultural institutions: the Jewish Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Museum of Modern Art.
Photo By Gail
Peter Blume’s Light of the World (1932) delivers an allegorical critique of modernity and the unquestioning embrace of progress. The four figures are transfixed by the bright light of a fantastical lamp whose brilliance contrasts with the darkening sky overtaking a cathedral based on Notre Dame in Paris – a juxtaposition implying that the faith once reflected in Gothic architecture’s soaring spires had been transferred to modern technologies. Blume identified the mustachioed figure as a ventriloquist’s dummy – his personal symbol for the voiceless and impotent American worker – another hint of the societal pressures that keep us in thrall to technological progress, often against our best interests.
Photographed in the Whitney Museum of American Art in NYC.
All Photos By Gail
To make Cost of Living (2014) and other works in this series, Josh Kline interviewed workers – janitorial staff and package delivers – and then made casts of their body parts that they used to complete their daily tasks. In this case, he spoke with the housekeeper named Aleyda, who worked at the Rivington Hotel. Continue reading Cost of Living (Aleyda) By Josh Kline
Photos By Gail
The triangular mass of Claes Oldenburg’s Giant BLT (Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich”) 1963, is actually constructed from many smaller sculptural components including wood slabs, stuffed cushions and fabric pieces, which must be restacked each time the work is shown, allowing ample room for creative variation. Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: Claes Oldenburg, Giant BLT
All Photos By Gail
It’s always fun to discover a new work by Pop artist /sculptress Marisol (AKA Maria Sol Escobar, born 1930 in Venezuela) when we are out on an art safari. Her pieces, which are like 3D portraits, can be found not only at the Whitney but in the permanent collections of The Met and MOMA as well, and they are instantly recognizable.
Continue reading Marisol’s Women and Dog at The Whitney Museum