SNEAK PEEK AT AN IMPOSSIBLE CONVERSATION BETWEEN ELSA SCHIAPARELLI AND MIUCCIA PRADA AT THE COSTUME INSTITUTE AT THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
Elsa Schiaparelli in Elsa Schiaparelli, autumn 1931. Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Photograph by Man Ray. ©2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.
Guido Harari, Portrait of Miuccia Prada, 1999. Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Guido Harari/Contrasto/Redux
Judy Davis as Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada herself, deep in conversation, greet the visitor at the entrance to the exhibition bearing their names at the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
Outfit by Prada; mannequin head by Guido Palau.
Outfit by Schiaparelli; mannequin head by Guido Palau.
Film director Baz Luhrmann takes on an impossible conversation between Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada as part of the installation in the current exhibition Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Schiaparelli’s persona is played by Judy Davis. Prada plays herself. Five different dialogues were filmed, and not once were the actress and designer together in the same room at the same time to make each film. According to the exhibition’s curator, Andrew Bolton, it is somewhat of a take on the 1981 film “My Dinner With André.” Instead of sitting around in a restaurant, the two main characters converse in an elegant dining room in a private home.
FRIEZE ART FAIR NEW YORK PRELIMINARY PICK: NICK VAN WOERT AT YVON LAMBERT, PARIS
Nick Van Woert, Story, 2012. Tin and steel. Yvon Lambert Gallery, Paris, at the Frieze Art Fair NY.
FRIEZE ART FAIR NEW YORK: FRANCIS PICABIA
Francis Picabia, Tête de femme, ca. 1942. Oil, pencil on board. Michael Werner NY.
NEAR THE ISLE OF MANHATTAN: LOUISE BOURGEOIS GROWS ON TREES
In the Sculpture Park at Frieze Art Fair NY: Louise Bourgeois, Untitled, 2004. Hauser & Wirth. Sculpture curated and placed by Tom Eccles.
HATS OFF TO DAIDO MORIYAMA!
Congratulations are in order to Daido Moriyama, 2012 recipient of the Infinity Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Center of Photography. Above: Exhibition of Moriyama’s work at the Aperture Gallery Printing Show-TKY, November 2011.
LEGENDARY FABULOSITY AND HER NAME IS PAT CLEVELAND
The ever ebullient Pat Cleveland gracing the corridor of a NYC public school on a recent Friday night.
STEFANO PILATI SHARES SOME OF HIS THOUGHTS ON A LIFE IN FASHION AT THE FRENCH INSTITUTE / ALLIANCE FRANCAISE NY
Stefano Pilati oozing charm outside of the French Institute/Alliance Française. Molto chic!
Stefano Pilati dished to a packed auditorium at the French Institute/Alliance Française NY last month, as one of three speakers in the annual Art de Vivre/Fashion Talks series, moderated by Pamela Golbin, who also happens to be the Chief Curator at the Musée de la Mode et du Textile at the Louvre, in Paris.
Pilati talked about his fashion origins, hanging around a textile factory in Italy at the age of fourteen, learning everything there was to learn about fabric, as well as discussing his career trajectory, most recently at the house of Yves Saint Laurent.
The most inspiring person he ever worked with: Miuccia Prada. That’s no surprise.
IT’S THE GLAMOROUS LIFE WITH JAD GHANDOUR
Glamour, beauty, elegance and drama were all in surplus at Cipriani 42nd Street during this past New York Fashion Week’s runway show by Lebanese designer Jad Ghandour.
A big thank you to Jhad Ghandour for injecting our city with a much needed dose of pure glamour and gorgeousness, both with a capital G.
All four runway looks from Jad Ghandour Fall 2012 Collection.
ADRIEN BRODY AT MoMA PS1 WITH KLAUS BIESENBACH
The charismatic and talented actor Adrien Brody.
Adrien Brody, above, acting anything but detached, in a lively discussion with Director of MoMA PS1 Klaus Biesenbach, after a screening of the film Brody produced and stars in, called “Detachment.”
Adrien Brody, the borough of Queens’ charming and uber-talented native movie star son, returned home to talk about his new film “Detachment,” in which he plays a New York City high school substitute teacher, most convincingly. The film is directed by Tony Kaye, and also stars young actress Sami Gayle, in a break-out performance.
When Klaus Biesenbach talked about all the beautiful people in the film, and how he never had such good looking teachers growing up and attending school in Germany, Adrien Brody replied, “I don’t know what film you are talking about.” His self-deprecating sense of humor was evident throughout the course of the dialogue.
Amazingly, the entire film was made in twenty days on location in Queens. When Brody first read the script for “Detachment,” it moved him to tears. The themes of this story are clearly close to home for him. He talked about the fact that his father was a high school teacher, and that he, himself, attended public school in Queens, and then the High School of Performing Arts in Manhattan. He saw what it was like for his friends who grew up without a father figure, and the havoc this wrought upon them. “Detachment” is harrowing to watch, at times, but well worth the price of admission.
Two unrelated yet interesting facts learned from Brody: he loves hip hop, and he was depressed for about a year after making “The Pianist.” He was unable to watch it until ten years had gone by.
CHRISTIAN PATTERSON AT VOLTA NEW YORK 2012
Christian Patterson holding the first edition of his book, Redheaded Peckerwood, in front of Ask For Ethyl, Robert Morat Galerie, Hamburg.
The most exciting aspect of Volta NY this year was the chance to meet many of the artists responsible for creating the work exhibited, since quite a few were in attendance at their respective shows. Example given: Christian Patterson at Robert Morat Galerie’s booth. Patterson was affable and approachable, in striking contrast to his subject matter: the infamous teen couple of American murderers from the late 1950’s, Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate. Patterson’s obsession with Starkwater and Fugate stemmed from his seeing Terrence Malick’s 1973 film, Badlands, which was also inspired by these criminal lives.
Patterson sleuthed, documented and succeeded on a grand scale in assembling a collection of evidence of sorts, that is all gathered together in his fascinating, mysterious and intriguing cult collectible book, Redheaded Peckerwood, published by MACK UK recently and already in its second printing. Here are the results of much research, and many trips to Wyoming and Nebraska made by Patterson in order to retrace the actual paths of destruction made by the killers and to document numerous sites of their crimes, photographing quite a few desolate landscapes along the way, not to mention excavating and photographing everyday objects that that are now imbued with a seamy and eerie countenance, given their provenance and context.
Bound into the book, and adding yet another disquieting dimension to the story is a duplicate of an actual page filled with off-color “Confasuis Says” phrases, typewritten and riddled with misspellings, found in one of Starkweather’s victim’s wallet. The book is also accompanied by a small dusty pink colored ten-page pamphlet typeset in a classic and retro typewriter font, with two riveting essays written by Luc Sante and Karen Irvine that expound on the themes conjured up by Redheaded Peckerwood: quintessential American teenage love, sex, violence, rebellion and desperation.
In all reality, Redheaded Peckerwood speaks for itself.
VOLTA NEW YORK: A PANOPLY OF ART ON THIRTY-FOURTH STREET
Gallerist Pilvi Kalhama basks in the neon light of Liisa Lounila’s work.
Liisa Lounila, It’s Complicated #4, 2012. Neon, Edition of 5 + 2 ap. Gallery Kalhama & Piippo Contemporary Ltd, Helsinki.
Liisa Lonila, I, I love the colourful clothes you wear, 2012. Palladium on plaster, metal and resin, glass vitrine. Gallery Kalhama & Pippo Contemporary Ltd, Helsinki.
Installation view of oil paintings by Nicola Samori, represented by Larmgalleri, Copenhagen.
Artists Tamara Repetto and Roberto Pugliese pose amidst their sound sculpture, Inside Outside, 2011. Glass balls, speakers, cable, pc, software, audio card, amplifier, microphone, sound track. Guidi & Schoen Contemporary Art, Genoa.
Peter Buechler, Untitled, 2011. Oil on canvas. Morgen Contemporary, Berlin.
Gallerist Angelika Watzl, Morgen Contemporary, Berlin, stands next to artist Peter Bueschler, along with two of his works.
Peter Buechler, Untitled, 2011. Objet trouvé, mirror, acrylic glass box. Morgen Contemporary, Berlin.
One of Francesco Merletti’s many portraits of his wife, as seen at Magrorocca Gallery, Milan.
Artist Hye Rim Lee stands out from the crowd at VOLTA.
Gallerists Margherita Berloni and Nathan Engelbrecht, in front of Alinka Echeverría’s series, Untitled (Road to Tepeyac), 2010. Archival pigment prints. EB&Flow, London.
South African artist Rowan Smith stands near his installation that contends with the issue of apartheid, exhibited by Whatiftheworld/Gallery, Cape Town. He’s wearing a t-shirt he made from a photograph of his grandmother.
Jorge Díaz-Torres, Anti-Scavenger, 2010. PVC, ceramic, spray paint, steel, matt board, laminated wood, electrical tape. As seen with Gallerist Roberto José Nieves-Robles, Rica Gallery, San Juan.
Chris Smith, Bronx artist and winner of Art Trek, stands in front of his drawing, DC, 2009/10. Graphite on paint polished over linen.
VOLTA NY 2012 Artists and gallerists came from all over the world to show some great work right here on 34th Street in New York City. It was exciting to see the form of painting so pervasively exhibited, with truly terrific and haunting paintings by Italian artist Nicola Samori shown by Larmgalleri, Copenhagen.
ARTIST AYANO SUDO OUTSIDE OF AIPAD SHOW ON PARK AVENUE
Ayano Sudo is back in New York City this week, showing new work at the AIPAD Photography Show at the Park Avenue Armory, represented by Picture Space Gallery, Osaka, Japan.
About her work, she writes:
Those who see my work for the first time wonder: Is this painting? Is this photography? You will probably start feeling funny in front of my work where everything is in doubt: Man or Woman? Doll or Human? That feeling is just like falling in love. I think the ambiguous is also the absolute. I believe this emotion can sometimes save your heart and palpitate the world.
