We got back from New York just in time to make a toasted cheese sandwich and head out for painting class. I didn’t even have time to shovel the roof until the next morning. The temperatures were above freezing by then and ice damning is a concern when the snow melts and rolls toward our big overhangs. The roof temperature there is quite a bit colder than it is over our living quarters so freezes, forms an ice damn and can lift the shingles and drip into the house. This has only been a problem one time so I head it off at the pass. I’m only up there a few time a year and it’s pretty easy shoveling because it is all downhill. I just have to keep my wits about me up there and that is a challenge.
View of Central Park from 29th floor of the Park Lane Hotel
Peggi was an AAU competitive swimmer in her younger years and Matisse’s “Swimming Pool” cutout, re-installed at the Met in a room built to the same specs as the dining room where the work originally wrapped around the four walls, seems to have awoken the deep connection she has with water and art. This was the piece she wanted to see the most on our second tour of the show. And like the faithful on a religious pilgrimage we were rewarded at journey’s end. The piece is a masterpiece created by a master. Cut shapes that are not. Matisse cuts forms from flatly painted paper. The figures and water are abstract and representational and expressive at once. Ultimately thrilling.
This visit to the big city was different. We didn’t stay at Chez Sherwood although we did hook up for dinner. Peggi booked a room in midtown on Central Park South. Because we booked at last minute we were able to secure a “handicap accessible” room that they were looking to fill for a song. And when we checked in they asked if we needed the handicap stuff. We shook our heads (someday we’ll get ours) and upgraded it to a junior suite on the 29th floor overlooking the park for the same price.
We never took the subway this time and walked to the Met, MoMa and dinner. We stayed mostly in midtown and managed to not set foot in the big brand name shops, Gucci, Armani, Coach, Prada and Apple. And because it is so close to Peggi’s birthday we spent thirty five dollars on a pair of perfumy gin and tonics at the hotel bar.
View of Central Park from 29th floor of the Park Lane Hotel2 Comments
Madame Cezanne painting at Metropolitan Museum of Art
“El Greco in New York” is a pretty sensational name for the show that ended today at 5:30 at the the Metropolitan Museum of Art considering the city did not even exist in his time. And the show is just as sensational but not the showstopper that the “Madame Cezanne” show at the same institution is.
Twenty four of the twenty nine known paintings that Cezanne did of his wife have been rounded up for this show. Every painter that matters cites Cezanne as the man and this is what they’re talking about. The “father of modern art” depicted form in two dimensions better than anyone and he did it primarily with color but followed it up with radical form depiction in his drawing. He is also the godfather of cubism.
He pulls out all the stops with this “Madame Cezanne in Red” (above). The bottom of her dress is being thrown at you. She is very present but only part of this huge environment. We are drawn in on the left side and come out on the right along with that curtain. Madame Cezanne’s face, which can be pretty even as she pouts in the other paintings is sacrificed here and close to distorted in a masterful show of form.
Super Bowl cup-cakes at Kneads & Wants on Lake Avenue in Rochester, New York
Amy and Eric got right into it last night. They rocked the Aerodome until the wheels did fall off. They played some great new songs about home remodeling and Sysco trucks on the interstate. They started “Astrovan” in three different keys before settling on “A” and they delivered a stellar version of “Do You Remember That?”
To my ears, Eric and Amy sound best the more stripped down their sound gets. Last night’s songs with Eric on acoustic and Amy on keys were brilliant. Amy Alison, Mose’s daughter, was the surprise guest and she sounded great. We’re going out of our way to avoid the Super Bowl today.
