Since I was very young I have made regular trips to New York City, particularly by bus. This was my first time back to the Big Apple by myself as a newly liberated young Mother myself. Between my Mom who grew up in the Lower East Side (5th Street) and me being born only a stones throw from Queens, New York City has always felt like home. And I was really happy to go back home. I was long overdue for some urban culture, artistic inspiration, and a break from my regular roles at home and work. A big thanks to my husband Stan for supporting this and to my business partner Janna for holding down the ship for us at the gallery.
Not feeling 100% and only 12 hours after Stan came home from work feeling very ill, I set off at 8 AM on Friday morning on Concord Trailways from Augusta. Ignoring my flu/cold kicking in with severe hydration and acetaminaphen, I arrived at Penn Station (42nd Street) at about 6 PM. And I hate 42nd Street for every damn tourist is there, the combination of congestion of cars, billboards, flashing lights, and too many people tells me to "GET OUT OF HERE!" I started walking north, in the drizzling rain, in the direction of the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), hungry, knees aching from being very squished on the bus, and all over chills from newly acquired flu/cold. I decide to stop feeling sorry for myself after a few blocks and find a great little french restaurant called Maison, on the edge of the theatre district. Because I had changed my mind about heading down to Chinatown and then following up through little Italy for some authentic flavor, I settle for French. And I was not disappointed. And even more delighted after the shock of the hostess when I confidently said I would be dining ALONE. I suddenly felt sympathy for a scene of "Sex In the City". Anyhow, the food was great. I ate my hot tea, perfectly crusty bread, crab cakes and French Onion Soup (is this really french?) in pure heaven, reading my poetry by Amy Oliver and forgetting my physical woes of the day. I headed over to the MOMA full and happy and ready for artistic fillings. The MOMA is free on Friday nights like most art museums in NYC, just to note. Otherwise, you're paying for tickets around 20 bucks. The MOMA was very nice. I greatly enjoyed the variety, particularly the works in the contemporary art collection. From seeing archetypal Wyeth's Christina's World, which weighed heavy in my mind after his recent death, to seeing the full version of Monet's late (and huge!) waterlilies, my eyes were happy. My favorites - seeing some works by Frida Kahlo's that framed intricately in a mirror/mosaic fashion. I STILL left and experienced the MOMA asking "where are all of the women artists?" They disappointed me in this department. I wanted to yell "where the hell are the Guerrilla Girls?" I ended the evening walking towards Rockefeller Center to do some window shopping. These displays are amazing... I picked up the subway and headed up to my Cousin Ilene's who lives on Fort Washington Avenue, the top of Manhatten on the western side, about 30ish minutes from here.
The next morning I still felt awful so I took a little extra time in the morning to let the acetaminaphen to kick in and to hydrate. We had a nice breakfast in Ilene's apartment of Bagel, Lox, and cream cheese - just perfect for the Jew in me! I got up my gusto, ignored my illness, and off we went to the Javits Center for the International Art Expo. Costing 30 bucks and another 5 if you wanted to check your coat, we were visually overloaded in this cast iron framed building in paneled windows. There were three sections of this convention set up art show. One was of dealers, the other of artists representing themselves, and the other a mix of ethnic imports, and home interior "foo-foo". My observations varied. First, this is not a juried event so there was a very big range of quality in work. Some works looked like an assignment from high school and few things wowed me. What did wow me was how an artist's presentation greatly appeared to carry a lot of influence. It seemed that the selling male artists wore suits, and I even saw a few painting in them! These paintings lacked a lot of originality in subject and style, but the artists gesturally applied the paint, and appeared to paint by number! And they received quite a crowd. The female artists wore sexually revealing clothing, lots of make-up - one female artist even had a model wearing a string bikini modeling for her. Some of the trends I saw,.. international dealers carried artworks in rolls - as many as 200-300 paintings that had been on stretchers and canvas, now on canvas alone. Another trend, acylic paintings mixed with lots of compound to produce great textural qualities, direct paintings (very little layering) and kitchy design based paintings with HEAVY resin coating. This was most definitely a show turned mostly towards painting. There was very little three-dimensional work. I did find one encaustic painter but her pallette was dull and the motif the same - six or so flowers lined up in red with brown background. Individuals and dealers did display from all over the world. The question is, was it worth it? It was definitely worth seeing...and I am still processing it. Off we went for lunch to a fun little minimalist restaurant called Hamburgers and Cupcakes. I skipped dessert but enjoyed my burger and sweet potato fries, and especially the coffee which got me through the next of my day... to be continued.
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