At some point in every visit to Ithaca I think back to the time we drove home in a snowstorm that was so bad I had to open the car door to look down and make sure we were still on the road. And the time Personal Effects opened for Grandmaster Flash at the Haunt. Grandmaster performed their hit, “White Lines” (Don’t Do It), after doing it in the dressing room. And the first time we played there, outdoors in a meadow on Cornell’s campus, we walked down the huge hill into town and ate at the Moosewood Café.
This time we parked in town near the Commons and we walked up the huge hill to the Johnson Museum on Cornell’s campus where the “75 Years of the American Abstract Artists” show had just opened. Mondrian, Ad Reinhardt, Fernand Leger and contemporary artists like Matthew Delegat (photo above). I’m guessing his “War Monochromes” was painted right on the wall for this show as the date for the piece reads 2007-2011. Abstract paintings look so modern still yet seventy five years is a good chunk of time.
I like Rich Stim’s new abstract video.
We watched “The Art of the Steal” last night, a documentary on the Barnes Foundation’s struggle to keep it’s art from the clutches of the greedy art forces. We were there a few years ago and the place was like heaven for an art lover. I expected the movie to present a better argument for moving these jewels to a more accessible location but the title pretty much says it all. A more sensational movie would examine how it is that one guy, Mr. Barnes, could have such incredible taste to go out there and buy work directly from artists like Modigliani and Matisse in “real time” as they say.
2 Comments
thumbs up on ART OF THE STEAL.
MXRich’s video is great!