Guest Contributors

"Hell is other people." Jean-Paul Sartre, (1905-1980) the French philosopher, and novelist, in uniform, ca. 1935-45

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Bill Brandt wrote: "Photography is still a very new medium and everything is allowed and everything should be tried." William Meyers from the Wall Street Journal; Photograph of Frances Bacon

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..."The FLANERIE Balzac termed the 'gastronomy of the eye' "...

London's Odd & Empty Corners, by
Guy Trebay from THE NEW YORK TIMES

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PUNK: Chaos to Couture,The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The spring 2013 exhibition organized by The Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum of Art will be PUNK: Chaos to Couture. The exhibition, on view from May 9 through August 14, 2013 (preceded on May 6 by The Costume Institute Benefit), will examine punk’s impact on high fashion from the movement’s birth in the 1970s through its continuing influence today.

“Punk’s signature mixing of references was fueled by artistic developments such as Dada and postmodernism,” said Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, “so it makes sense to present this exhibition in a museum that also shows the broader output of those movements. Indeed, that dialogue between art and fashion is what makes The Costume Institute so singular. Projects like this don’t happen without sponsorship, and we greatly appreciate the generosity of Moda Operandi, and its co-founders Aslaug Magnusdottir and Lauren Santo Domingo.”

“Since its origins, punk has had an incendiary influence on fashion,” said Andrew Bolton, Curator in The Costume Institute. “Although punk’s democracy stands in opposition to fashion’s autocracy, designers continue to appropriate punk’s aesthetic vocabulary to capture its youthful rebelliousness and aggressive forcefulness.”

METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART:
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK

GIBBS FARM,Kaipara Harbour, NZ

Gibbs Farm is an unusual setting for a sculpture collection. The North Auckland property is dominated by the Kaipara Harbour, the largest harbour in the Southern hemisphere. The harbour is so vast it occupies the whole western horizon; and it is very shallow, so when the tide goes out, the shallows are exposed for several kilometres and the light shimmies and bounces off it across the land. Equally, it is the forecourt to the prevailing westerly weather that sweeps, sometimes vehemently, across the land. Everything in the property flows towards and eventually into the sea; and every work contends in some way with the slide seaward.

The flow of the land, the immense body of water, the wide harbour flats and the assertive variety of the elements have all imposed themselves on the artists. Gibbs acknowledges that “the challenge for the artists is the scale of the landscape; it scares them initially” and demands something more from them. Walking the land visitors can appreciate how each artist has come to terms in their own way with the gravitational pull that is exerted on everything as the mountains roll into hills and slide into gullies and slope down towards the wide flat expanse of the Kaipara Harbour.

GIBBS FARM:
GIBBS FARM, NEW ZEALAND

GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING: Dutch Paintings from the Mauritshuis

January 26, 2013 - June 2, 2013

The de Young will be the first venue in the American tour of paintings from the Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, The Hague. This jewel box of a museum, housing one of the world's most prestigious collections of Dutch Golden Age paintings, has not lent a large body of works from its holdings in nearly 30 years. An extensive two-year renovation makes this extraordinary opportunity possible.

The exhibition features 35 paintings representing the range of subject matter and technique characteristic of 17th-century painting in the Dutch Republic. Among the works traveling to the United States is the Mauritshius' celebrated masterpiece Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer and the enchanting The Goldfinch by Carel Fabritius. The painting Vase of Flowers by the gifted Rachel Ruysch, one of the few female painters of the Dutch Golden Age, is being restored especially for the American tour.

DE YOUNG MUSEUM:
DE YOUNG MUSEUM

THE BRIDE and THE BACHELORS: Duchamp with Cage, Cunningham, Rauschenberg and Johns
Mise en scène by Philippe Parreno

February 14, 2013 - June 9, 2013

Exploring one of the most important chapters in the history of contemporary art, The Bride and the Bachelors: Duchamp with Cage, Cunningham, Rauschenberg and Johns focuses on Marcel Duchamp ’s American legacy, tracing his relationship to four great modern masters – composer, John Cage, choreographer, Merce Cunningham, and visual artists Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns.

Encountering Duchamp and his work in the early stages of their careers, each of the younger artists embraced key elements of his ideas and practice, resulting in a seismic shift in the direction of art in the 1950s and ‘60s. Characterised by the integration of art and life, the work of Cage, Cunningham, Rauschenberg and Johns heralded the advent of Pop Art.

The Bride and the Bachelors features around 90 works, some by Rauschenberg and Johns are being shown in the UK for the first time. The selection reflects the artists’ multiple levels of engagement across the disciplines of art, dance, and music.

BARBICAN GALLERY:
BARBICAN GALLERY

Artist Rooms: ED RUSCHA

February 22 – May 22, 2013

Los Angeles-based artist Ed Ruscha is one of the most consistently inventive American artists of the last fifty years. Since the early 1960s he has channeled his fascination with words and the act of communication into books, print-making, photography, drawing and painting. One of the most consistently inventive American artists of the last fifty years, the exhibition will include a wide variety of works covering over 40 years of his remarkable career.

The works on display are taken from ARTIST ROOMS, an inspirational collection of modern and contemporary art acquired for the nation by Tate and The National Galleries of Scotland through the generosity of Anthony d'Offay with additional support from funders, including the Art Fund. The ARTIST ROOMS tour programme, now in its fifth year, is showing at 17 museums and galleries across the UK in 2013. The tour is made possible thanks to the new support of Arts Council England and the continued support of the Art Fund.

HATTON GALLERY, NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY:
HATTON GALLERY, NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY

IMPRESSIONISM, FASHION, and MODERNITY

February 26 – May 27, 2013

Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity will present a revealing look at the role of fashion in the works of the Impressionists and their contemporaries. Some eighty major figure paintings, seen in concert with period costumes, accessories, fashion plates, photographs, and popular prints, will highlight the vital relationship between fashion and art during the pivotal years, from the mid-1860s to the mid-1880s, when Paris emerged as the style capital of the world. With the rise of the department store, the advent of ready-made wear, and the proliferation of fashion magazines, those at the forefront of the avant-garde—from Manet, Monet, and Renoir to Baudelaire, Mallarmé, and Zola—turned a fresh eye to contemporary dress, embracing la mode as the harbinger of la modernité. The novelty, vibrancy, and fleeting allure of the latest trends in fashion proved seductive for a generation of artists and writers who sought to give expression to the pulse of modern life in all its nuanced richness. Without rivaling the meticulous detail of society portraitists such as Tissot or Stevens or the graphic flair of fashion plates, the Impressionists nonetheless engaged similar strategies in the making (and in the marketing) of their pictures of stylish men and women that sought to reflect the spirit of their age.

METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART:
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

GEORGE CAITLIN: AMERICAN INDIAN PORTRAITS

March 7 - June, 23 2013

During the 1830s Pennsylvanian-born artist George Catlin (1796-1872) made five trips to the western United States to document the Native American peoples and their way of life. The resulting portraits have become one of the most extensive, evocative and important records of indigenous peoples ever made.

Catlin was also an entrepreneur and a showman and, inspired by his encounters, he created an ‘Indian Gallery’ which toured America and Europe during the next ten years. This exhibition of over 50 portraits will be the first time that they have been seen together outside America since they returned there in the 1840s. They will be displayed to suggest the sense of spectacle Catlin created during the time of his tour and demonstrate how Catlin constructed a particular image of Native Americans in the minds of his audience.

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY:
NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

DAVID BOWIE IS...

March 28 - July, 28 2013

The V&A has been given unprecedented access to the David Bowie Archive to curate the first international retrospective of the extraordinary career of David Bowie - one of the most pioneering and influential performers of modern times. David Bowie is will explore the creative processes of Bowie as a musical innovator and cultural icon, tracing his shifting style and sustained reinvention across five decades.

The exhibition will explore the broad range of Bowie’s collaborations with artists and designers in the fields of fashion, sound, graphics, theatre, art and film. On display will be more than 300 objects including Ziggy Stardust bodysuits (1972) designed by Freddie Burretti, photography by Brian Duffy; album sleeve artwork by Guy Peellaert and Edward Bell; visual excerpts from films and live performances including The Man Who Fell to Earth, music videos such as Boys Keep Swinging and set designs created for the Diamond Dogs tour (1974). Alongside these will be more personal items such as never-before-seen storyboards, handwritten set lists and lyrics as well as some of Bowie’s own sketches, musical scores and diary entries, revealing the evolution of his creative ideas.

VICTORIA and ALBERT MUSEUM:
VICTORIA and ALBERT MUSEUM

THE HOUSE OF ANNIE LENOX

March 23 − May 26, 2013

Annie Lennox, one of the nation's most internationally acclaimed singer-songwriters, will present her exhibition The House of Annie Lennox at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in 2013. Curated in partnership with the V&A and the artist herself, the exhibition focuses on the artist’s work over three decades, as an iconic performer, singer-songwriter, recording artist and political activist. Tracing her unique career from its early beginnings, the exhibition includes The Tourists, Eurythmics, and her solo work through to the present day, with an array of stunning photographs, iconic videos, and a dazzling selection of costumes taken from her personal archive.

NATIONAL GALLERIES OF SCOTLAND:
NATIONAL GALLERIES OF SCOTLAND

CONNECTING CULTURES: A WORLD IN BROOKLYN

Long-term Installation

This innovative, cross-cultural installation was developed to create new ways of looking at art by making connections between cultures as well as objects. Located in the Museum’s first-floor Great Hall, it provides for the first time a dynamic and welcoming introduction to the Museum’s extensive collections, featuring pieces that represent peoples throughout time and around the world.

Connecting Cultures is organized around three main themes: “Connecting Places,” “Connecting People,” and “Connecting Things.” In viewing the juxtaposition of thematically linked works, visitors are invited to consider the importance of place, of self-representation in art, and of the role that objects play in supporting personal and cultural identity. Works on display include Gaston Lachaise’s monumental Standing Woman, Nick Cave’s Soundsuit, and kero cups used in Andean ritual.

BROOKLYM MUSEUM:
BROOKLYN MUSEUM