Indoors at the New Whitney

Now that I’ve given you a preview of the outside of the downtown Whitney Museum building in yesterday’s blog, it’s time to move inside to the art.

The inaugural show is called “American Is Hard To See” (through September 27) and features the Whitney’s permanent collection, an impressive compendium of American art, some of which I hadn’t seen in years.

Starting with the chronologically older works on the top floor and working down, I found some old friends in more traditional paintings from Georgia O’Keefe and Wayne Thiebaud.

DSCN3127

DSCN3220

And I discovered new ones, like Chiura Obata, whose striking Yosemite prints caught the spirit of that magical place, which we just visited a few weeks ago.

Screen Shot 2015-06-05 at 10.47.57 PMOn the 7th and 8th floors, I confess I missed the more intimate, distinctive feeling of the old galleries in the Marcel Breuer Madison Avenue building, whose space and flow felt more appropriate for the smaller works.  Maybe I was even a bit disappointed, but unwilling to admit it to myself.

So I gave in to urge to explore outside once again. Jay and I revisited the Whitney sculpture collection against the Manhattan skyline, including this David Smith. Up until this point, I found the outside art more compelling than the inside.

DSCN3142

When we went back to the art in the 6th floor gallery, I let out an involuntary sigh of relief.  Maybe it was my mood or my personal taste, but all of a sudden I felt the Whitney I knew and loved was back. Once again, the art was the hero rather than the building, and was enhanced by the large open spaces.

DSCN3217

DSCN3138

Finally, I was caught up in the art itself rather than the design of the building and NYC views.  However, we were running out of time. As I quickly walked through the rest of the galleries, a smattering of works caught my eye, like this whimsical Marisol wood sculpture. DSCN3218

And then there was this gallery, one of several whose floor to ceiling windows allowed a successful melding of the art, building and city. 
DSCN3228
DSCN3236

I liked the large installations on the lower floors which worked well in the new space. And many of the smaller pieces commanded more than their fair share of attention. The innovative combinations and juxtapositions from the permanent collection offered pleasant surprises around every corner.
DSCN3271

DSCN3226

DSCN3267

DSCN3265

I was glad to see that Jay and I are not the only ones who imitate the statues in museums.DSCN3260

While the novelty of the new Renzo Piano building dominated this first visit, the art itself commanded my attention in the end. Unfortunately, we had to leave before I was ready to go. Fortunately, we live close by and can go back often.

As we walked down the High Line back to our car, we came across this mural.

DSCN3049In a way, it summarized the essence of the new Whitney and this exhibit – a labor of love – which has changed the face of the downtown art scene forever. Next time, I’ll plan a longer visit and even get the audio tour. And I promise to give the art the attention that it deserves.

Day 23 of the 30/30 Challenge – Peacock

The last week of the 30/30 Challenge is approaching and I have more ideas than days left. The hard part now is to decide what to tackle.

I’ve been contemplating peacocks for a long time, especially since I have seen them wandering around the Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ several times in the past year.  Sometimes I dreamt about wearing a peacock feather dress. So I had to paint this Peacock Eye on Day 23 before switching to food tomorrow.

Day 23. "Peacock Eye" by Beverly Shipko, Oil on cradled panel, 5 x 7 inches

Day 23. “Peacock Eye” by Beverly Shipko, Oil on cradled panel, 5 x 7 inches

To me, peacocks are some of the most beautiful creatures on earth. The intense colors on their iridescent bodies and feathers on male peacocks are exquisite, almost surreal. I like the notion of peacocks having so many “eyes” and being all-seeing, so they can look into the future.  They have been appropriated as symbols by many cultures, religions, and rulers throughout history (not to mention NBC…). They were especially popular during the Victorian error.  You can see James McNeill Whistler’s Peacock Room in its full glory at the Freer Gallery in Washington D.C.

I am fascinated by peacocks, which is why I was thrilled to discover the Hudson River Museum (HRM) was mounting a rich exhibit on the subject called Strut: The Peacock and Beauty in Art. Did any of you happen to see it? As part of the show, one room of the HRM Victorian Glenview Mansion was completely decked out with peacocks – including a full-length peacock dress like the one I was dreaming about.

I went to the opening of this gorgeous show wearing my peacock scarf, and then went back twice. This peacock feather was my souvenir from the bookstore, which I used together with a photograph of the feather, as the basis for my painting.

DSCN5374

This peacock feather was truly a stretch subject for me for a number of reasons. The colors changed every time the feather moved, which is why a photo was extremely helpful in establishing a fixed viewpoint. After deciding on the angle you wanted to paint, it was difficult to mix the colors and almost impossible to capture the iridescence (unless you have iridescent paint, which I don’t). The way to do it is by juxtaposing lights and darks, a trial and error method.

After playing around for a while, I went to youtube.com to watch a demo video on the subject, which encouraged me to keep going (didn’t have the guts to try the fan brush). Now that I attempted a peacock feather myself, I wish the HRM show was still up so I could have studied the details of my favorite peacock feathers painted by other artists. I do remember chuckling about one artist got around this problem by painting an albino peacock! My appreciation of all the artists in the show who depicted peacocks grew by leaps and bounds today.

I want to try painting the “eye” again after the Challenge is over – and I’ll be sure to post it here.

Now it’s time to leave this exotic bird and move on to Day 24. Come back again soon!