The Guggenheim Museum's 50th Anniversary Exhibition

Not many buildings in New York City cause me to stop, look-up, and take a minute to appreciate their architectural beauty, but the Guggenheim Museum is definitely one that continually grabs my attention. The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed museum, which opened in 1959, has forced artists and architects to challenge their own creative minds and produce unique solutions to the building's central void and rotund shape. Their various responses have led to some extremely memorable exhibition designs and site specific solo shows over the past several decades.

Thus, it is only appropriate that the Guggenheim celebrates its 50th anniversary in a way that showcases the masterfully complex design of the building. The Guggenheim Museum has invited over 200 artists, architects and designers to produce design and display works for the exhibition, titled"Contemplating the Void: Interventions in the Guggenheim Museum," on view from February 12 to April 28, 2010. The much anticipated display will emphasize the rich and diverse range of proposals that have been received from an eclectic array of creative minds.

To read more about this exciting exhibition and the artists whose work will be exhibited, click here.

The Bauhaus

Looking ahead, and looking forward, to next week...

Bauhaus 1919-1933: Workshops for Modernity

opens at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) on Sunday, November 8th.

From the MoMA website:

This survey is MoMA’s first major exhibition since 1938 on the subject of this famous and influential school of avant-garde art. Founded in 1919 and shut down by the Nazis in 1933, the Bauhaus brought together artists, architects, and designers in an extraordinary conversation about the nature of art in the age of technology. Aiming to rethink the very form of modern life, the Bauhaus became the site of a dazzling array of experiments in the visual arts that have profoundly shaped our visual world today.

The exhibition gathers over four hundred works that reflect the broad range of the school’s productions, including industrial design, furniture, architecture, graphics, photography, textiles, ceramics, theater design, painting, and sculpture, many of which have never before been exhibited in the United States. It includes not only works by the school’s famous faculty and best-known students—including Anni Albers, Josef Albers, Herbert Bayer, Marianne Brandt, Marcel Breuer, Lyonel Feininger, Walter Gropius, Vasily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, László Moholy-Nagy, Lucia Moholy, Lilly Reich, Oskar Schlemmer, and Gunta Stölzl—but also a broad range of works by innovative but less well-known students, suggesting the collective nature of ideas.

Click here to find out more

Bauhaus 1919-1933 will be on view from November 8, 2009 until January 25, 2010.

2822 Records

What I am really looking forward to seeing this week is the Christian Marclay: 2822 Records (PS1) installation at P.S.1 in Long Island City. I fully appreciate opportunities to experience art in unique contexts or through a different perspective - in this case, for example, standing on the installation itself!

P.S.1 describes the installation as follows:

Consisting entirely of 12-inch records of every musical genre and style, Marclay's installation highlights the experiential qualities of music and vinyl recording by inviting visitors to walk on the artwork. Marclay’s installation highlights some of the most primal notions around music, namely volume, space, and physicality. As an example of viewer and audience participation, it highlights a seminal aspect of the upcoming exhibition 100 Years (version #1, ps1, nov 2009), drafting a short history of actions, events, situations, happenings, and performances...

Continue reading

Christian Marclay: 2822 Records (PS1) is on view until April 5, 2010.

Use of Space at 395

I hopped over to Brooklyn last week to attend the open house for a series of new installations. Not only was the artwork impressive, but the concept was genius! Rather than leaving vacant commercial spaces empty and unwelcoming, why not fill them with vibrant works of art???

The project - 395 - is a collaboration between New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA), Your Art Here and Downtown Brooklyn Partnership. They have filled, and are still in the process of adding work to, six storefronts situated along 395 Flatbush Avenue Extension in Brooklyn.

From the 395 website:

This 5-month presentation opening October 9th provides support for galleries and emerging artists as well as an opportunity for the greater public to access and experience contemporary art. Educational activities, performances, and a variety of events will be programmed throughout the duration of the show in collaboration with local businesses and cultural institutions.

Click here to read more

Although the exhibition spaces are already open and accessible to visitors (during open hours), there is a grand opening scheduled concurrently with the NADA County Affair on October 18th from noon until 6pm.

395 Hours: Friday, Saturday and Sunday from noon - 7:00pm

Experience Green at DAC

If the description alone does not make you want to visit this art installation, I don't know what will...

"Wade Kavanaugh and Stephen B. Nguyen will fill the Dumbo Arts Center with their enormous site-specific installation The Experience of Green. Opening September 25, 2009, the exhibition will emphasize the contrast between the organic and the built environment. Viewers will step out of Dumbo’s stark brick-and-glass commercial district into a fantastical forest; a walk-through labyrinth of old growth trees made entirely from red kraft paper. The spectacular network of gnarled tree trunks and twisted roots will extend over every inch of the gallery, suspending the boundaries of space and time while fully immersing the viewer..."

Continue reading at dumboartscenter.org

The Experience of Green at Dumbo Arts Center through November 29, 2009. Wednesday - Sunday, 12 - 6:00pm.

Premier Gallery Exhibition

Now that the semester is in full swing I am prioritizing must-see gallery shows for the fall. An exhibition at Hauser & Wirth - a recent and exciting addition to the New York art gallery scene - is at the top of my list! Three contemporary artists have been commissioned to reinterpret Allen Kaprow's famous work from his 1961 New York "happenings" on their 50th anniversary. In addition to the date, historically significant to this artistic recreation is the location. The space where Kaprow's Environment Yard originally appeared (formerly the Martha Jackson Gallery) is now occupied by the Hauser & Wirth gallery.


Allan Kaprow YARD
September 23, 2009 - October 31, 2009
Hauser & Wirth New York
32 East 69th Street. Tuesday-Sat. 10am-6:00pm

Allan Kaprow, Yard, 1961.

Museum round-up

The art scene these days is certainly a busy one - there have been non-stop openings and events for the past couple of weeks and I must say I've been very excited. While I've spent much of my energy focused on the great gallery shows happening, there are in fact quite a few museum exhibitions of note:

Kandinsky

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

September 18, 2009 - January 13, 2010

Vermeer's Masterpiece: The Milkmaid

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

September 10, 2009 - November 29, 2009

Georgia O'Keefe: Abstraction

Whitney Museum of American Art

September 17, 2009 - January 17, 2010

Monet's Water Lilies

Museum of Modern Art

September 13, 2009 - April 12, 2010