2002.12.10
Philadelphia Museum of Art
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2002.12.11 12:20
Re: some drawings
Just last night I though of a series of drawings I'm going to soon do in ball-point pen (primarily, but will experiment with other drawing media as well). Basically, I'll be scribbling (a la Twombly) over Helmut Lang fashion ads I've been collecting, and call the series End of 2002 Stephen Helmut Lauf Drawings Or One Name/Artist Apposing Another Name/Artist.
2002.12.11 13:30
think you'll like this
Late yesterday afternoon I went the Phila. Museum of Art, specifically to photograph the Constantine tapestries in the Great Hall--for Christmas the PMA lights up the columns of the Great Hall, thus adding illumination to the tapestries. Since I got to the museum at 4:30 and it closes at 5:00 I only took pictures of the Marriage of Constantine and Fausta tapestry (for now). I then had about 20 minutes to take some more (random) pictures within other parts of the museum. I went to a gallery that last time I was there was under installation--alas it still is. This put me in a fortuitous direction because I then started to go through some galleries I really haven't been paying much attention to over the last few years. I made a "discovery" which then reminded me of other art I should be taking pictures of--this is the part I'm sure you will like. After the museum closed I went to the front courtyard and took pictures of the Duchamp gallery from outside, etc.
2002.12.11 21:39
Re: think you'll like this
The PMA has for almost two years now dedicated an entire gallery/room to the works of Jasper Johns, and Johns plays the biggest role in this, as virtually all the pieces in the gallery are works that Johns has kept for himself. Johns is (I'm sure) making sure his 'treasured' works are very close to Duchamp.
2002.12.12 12:46
Re: Seagram's Art & Architecture
[Just last week I learned t]he Widener Collection that is now a big part of the National Gallery, Washington DC, was first amassed in Philadelphia. Before going to Washington, the Widener Collection (including several Rembrandts and even a Vermeer) was in Lynnewood Hall, the Widener Estate, now an enormous abandoned mansion in Elkins Park, PA (about 3 minutes by car from Wright's Beth Sholom Synagogue and 12 minutes from where I'm now sitting--easily the sister to Whitemarsh Hall/Stotesbury Mansion, same architect). Had this collection stayed in Philadelphia at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, no doubt I would now be well acquainted with a lot more master art works. Am I going to be a cry-baby like Lambert, Johnson and Stern? Don't count on it.
2002.12.14 11:58
Re: think you'll like this
I've figured out what relevance The Marriage of Constantine and Fausta has in the 'sequence'--that tapestry portrays all the "closely related paradigm shifting architects" of the pagan to Christian inversion of the Roman Empire. Thus, with the theme of paradigm shifting architects, Franklin then indeed fits the niche, as does Duchamp. Oldenberg and Johns, like Carroll and Lauf, are among the very dedicated pawns of this master chess game.
ps
I did some double checking, and the Widener Collection has four Rembrandts, indeed the one Vermeer, and I forgot about the Raphael!--which was on a Christmas stamp not all that long ago. I feel I have to now somehow include Lynnewood Hall and its story into Playing The Pre-Shrine Curator.
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