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Gordy
and Madelane's Day 6
— Part 2 This is sort of a tale of two buildings. If you had to pick two buildings, in New York, that were opposite each other, you would be hard pressed to find two more unlike. The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, a Gothic Revival cathedral, built the old fashioned way. Large, dark — a house of worship. The other building is also a house of worship. It did not worship a god — it worshiped art. We were on our way to Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum. It was raining lightly as we left the Cathedral and it was definitely colder. A nice Seattle drizzle. We walked across the top of Central Park and down the east side to 82nd Street. My legs were like lead by this time and my knee had been bothering me, so I was limping. We finally saw the curves of the Guggenheim sticking out from the rectangularity of New York.
I was once an architecture student. We studied Wright and I have always admired this building. The front was looking a bit of the shabby side. [Help is on the way. ] It looked like peeling plaster but inside was magnificent. The rising expanding spiral with the large open space and glass and steel dome was everything I hoped it would be. Everything was white and light — the opposite of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. I must add that my sister was paying for this memorable trip and I thank her most heartily for this. She bought me a ticket for the show (she doesn't like modern art) and I started up the spiral. Zoe reminded me this evening that the design was intended for the visitor to take the elevator to the top and walk down. However, the exhibition seemed to start at the bottom. I was most interested in experiencing the building and, to do that, I would have to look at the art. It was an exhibit of minimalist art titled Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated). Generally, minimalism gets a little to abstract even for me. It's art about art. For example. There was Rauschenberg's White Painting. Seven panels all painted white.
I never could see the point until I read the show's guide and it states that their blank surfaces were designed to register the shadows of their viewers and it was also about the temporality of the viewing experience. “Well,” I thought, “that's the visual equivalent of John Cage's 4'33”. In John Cage's 4'33” the pianist comes onto the stage, sits at the piano, opens it, sits for 4'33”, then closes the piano and leaves. The music is the sounds of the audience. Funny that I got Cage but not Rauschenberg. Oh, well. In reading the guide further I find that Cage got the idea for 4'33” from Rauschenberg's White Painting. Another oh, well. Moving up the spiral was amazing. The way the view of the interior kept changing was (here comes that word again) amazing. By moving up the spiral, or down, the works of art are presented in one long unbroken sequence. As the spiral rose one floor (one revolution of the spiral) there were aisles off to a side annex and other exhibits. The first one was to the Thannhauser Collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art — Picasso, Cezanne, Gauguin, the usual cast. It's always a thrill to see these paintings. This was a bonus. Then it was back up the spiral.
I think it was up another two levels and the annex had an exhibit of Umberto Boccioni, a Futurist – early 20th Century. I was not familiar with Boccioni, but there were some *very* nice pieces.
Then I turned a corner and was completely blown away. Nothing prepared me for this. As a comparison to Boccioni, they had what is my favorite painting by my favorite artist – Marcel Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase No.2.
I was overwhelmed. I was gobsmacked. Again there were tears of emotion in my eyes (or maybe it was something in the New York air.) No reproduction I have seen comes anywhere close to seeing this masterpiece in person. It's so hard to put in words what this meant to me. It was simply – amazing. Everything after this was pure bonus. There were two pieces, towards the end, that I really liked. The first of these was Untitled (Public Opinion). Strewn on the floor were wrapped licorice candies that covered an area of the floor about 20 feet long and five feet wide. They were pushed together but only one layer deep. What was cool was that there was a sign that said “Take one.” As people took one of the candies, the shape of the candies on the floor changed based on which individual candies were picked up. Please don't tell anyone, but I took two. I ate one. Edible art – cool. I'm saving the other.
The last piece was very good. It was titled “Armageddon”. It was about 6' x 7' and very dark. Sort of mottled black. It was very textured. There were little hills and valleys probably to a depth of 1 to 2 inches. Upon close inspection, the surfaced was made off of dead flies and maggot casings. Armageddon, indeed! After this, I joined Madelane in the museum coffee shop for a hot chocolate. She had been talking to one of the guards and she got Madelane into the exhibit for free. While she was spiraling, I was participating in World Pin Hole Day. Pinhole cameras don't use a lens. If you've done much photography, you probably know that as you reduce the size of that little iris in the lens you are reducing the light coming into the camera and increasing the depth of field. The depth of field is that part of the picture that is in focus. If iris enough, if the iris is very, very small, then everything is in focus and you can eliminate the lens. A pinhole image is never really sharp, but if you take care and make the right size pinhole, and it's a very clean hole, the pictures come out remarkably well. A pinhole camera is great for taking pictures with things that are very close to the pinhole and with things that are at infinity in the same picture. My aim is to make high quality pinhole images. Other go for a more funky approach. One isn't better than the other — just different. The exposures were 4 to 8 minutes long and I was only able to get off four exposures before it was closing time. I was totally jazzed about making my little art in this cathedral to art.
We left the Guggenheim. By now the rain had stopped but it was cold and a little windy. We walked south a bit and then cut across Central Park at the first opportunity. What a park! It's so immense and beautiful. It makes New York. We exited on the other side of the park and a few more blocks south we were at the Dakota. John Lennon used to live there. So did Rosemary's baby.
By this time we were in full lurch mode and dragging our sorry asses down the cold and windy streets. Finally a 1 & 9 station, at 72nd Street, appeared and we were quickly on our way downtown.
We dropped our gear, got some warm coats, and went around the corner to the Jefferson Market and some delicious deli items to bring back to the hotel. I called Christine. She had hoped take us out to dinner but has been sick. Hopefully she will get better. [Disclosure: Zoe and I work on her website] I had a long talk with Zoe. I miss my love. Good night. << Day 6— Part 1 | Day 7 >>
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