Day 68 July 20

Quiet Day and A Bit of Art

By Al

We found out that they didn't need to come to do any more work on the windows today.  That was good news. 

Because I wasn't feeling well, I didn't do much.  We spent some time getting ready for Gregg and Susie to visit us.  They are arriving tomorrow and we are looking forward to visitors.  Anybody else??

Sally's Day

A quiet day of cleaning, shopping for food, laundry, etc.

I discovered that I did not post pictures of my trip to the Guggenheim on July 17, so will insert them here.

The Guggenheim was Frank Lloyd Wright's last project,and was completed six months after  he died. How sad- it is probably his most famous building, and he never got to see it.
  
The building is a spiral  The middle is open to the top of the six floors- which is lovely. However, I don't think Wright considered that sounds would bounce off all the walls and ceiling- meaning that, unlike most museums, it is a very LOUD place when lots of people are there.   He did think of putting a restroom on each level- very considerate. You receive a free audio guide with your admission, which I find very helpful because I often need an explanation of why a painting that is a large blue rectangle (one of the paintings on exhibit was actually a large blue rectangle; there was also a large white rectangle) is worthy of being exhibited in a museum and is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

(Note by Al:  Some of you may remember this from the first Men In Black film.)


Photos are prohibited, so here are photos of postcards of some of the paintings in the present exhibit.

I liked this painting immediately- and then discovered it is by a  Dane, Asger Jorn (1960)- so perhaps  some of Danish genes that were coming through.

This painting, called Surface by Giuseppe Capogrossi (1957) had a "quilty" look to it. I believe he called the four-pronged figures "keys." He used the keys in a lot of paintings.

This painting (Work-Yellow by Takeo Yamagichi, 1958) reminds me of the Gees Bend quilts.

The Gate by Hans Hofmann (1959-60).  Although his paintings are abstract, they are all based on real places and things.  This one represents a garden and the gate into the garden.  I love the way he placed the colors and how the yellow leads your eye.

The Louis Vuitton store (57th and 5th Avenue) has been covered in polka dots.  The window displays are also filled with polka dots.  I think it looks like another modern painting, so this seemed like an appropriate place to insert it.  It makes me smile everytime I pass by it on the 31 bus.  This picture was taken through the bus window.

Sally