20 January
2004 Frank Lloyd Wright, the Guggenheims and Sigmund Freud at the Vatican
2004.01.22 12:33
Re: Academic Art
Salle's work was exhibited at the Philadelphia Institute of Contemporary Art in 1985 (or early 1986). The ICA was then in Meyerson Hall (the main building of University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Fine Art), and I worked within the CAD Computer Lab literally above the ICA gallery. I saw Salle's work nearly everyday for about three months, and it was very interesting to look at and closely examine. I had no idea then who he was or would turn out to be in (post-modern?) art history, but I liked the visual freedom and the daring and the size.
In the early 1990s, I saw Salle's sculpture exhibit at Gagosian Soho. If I had the money I would have bought one, especially since almost(?) no one else did.
2004.01.24 09:47
Re: the New ICA
My thesis project (Temple University Architecture Program 1981) was a new building for the Philadelphia Institute of Contemporary Art. It took up most of the block on the south side of Rittenhouse Square (Street) between 17th and 18th Streets, just behind the Philadelphia Art Alliance (where Anne Tyng once lectured to an audience of five people (including me) circa 1980). The ICA building's design comprised a collage of various building types, inspired by Kahn's Convent for the Dominican Sisters and Stirling's Science Center in Berlin, in the flavor of a virtual museum of architecture you could say. In 1993-4, I owned and operated Venue, a contemporary Philadelphia art gallery just around the corner at 1732 Spruce Street.
Otto, the great virtual King of Bavaria, is the eleventh main character of "My Rita Novel Idea". All the other main characters are Otto's best friends, and they all visit Otto with adequate regularity. Otto now-a-days lives in a museum he's gradually manifesting for himself, and is quite busy this year organizing the next Horace Trumbauer Architecture Fan Club Convention, which will (probably) be held just outside Philadelphia.
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2004.01.24 12:35
only one week away
www.koenig-ludwig-lauf.com
Otto's already awaiting Ludwig's post cards (from the gang).
2004.01.24
novel ideas
Otto of Bavaria is the eleventh main character of "My Rita Novel Idea".
All the other characters are Otto's best friends, and they regularly visit him (in Philadelphia); Otto lives in a museum (that he gradually makes/manifests for himself).
Helena and Eutropia are nic-named “the Siamese Twin Basilicas” because they almost always travel/move around together. Helena and Eutropia are very close with Napoleon and Williams since they all spend time together on St. Helena Islands, both in the South Atlantic and South Carolina; they play cards.
All the characters are members of the Horace Trumbauer Architecture Fan Club; they always try to attend the anniversary convention in Philadelphia (every ten years?).
Constantine rarely leaves Constantinople; same for Cortona now-a-days.
Franziska is Otto’s (sometimes) cook. She still rides her bike a lot to Munich. She cooks like the best cook she ever had.
Eva still has great parties, especially for the fan club. Cardinal Dougherty still attends, mostly with Helena, Ambrose, William, Cecilia, Joseph, Athanasius, Holy Child?, Henry?, Presentation? The next big party is at Lynnewood Hall.
Danny H. is/was a street smart/walking blonde Napoleon.
Ludwig still rarely misses a Bavarian Opera production, and is always present at the König Ludwig Lauf, and virtually all other times travels from reenactment to reenactment.
Otto and Piranesi are ofter busy designing Bottomopolis of Ottopia, where all the characters will eventually (and virtually eventually) live.
The Great Pyramid is reenacted at Bottomopolis, and is the stage set for Quondam's collection.
Bottomopolis and Otto’s house/museum is pure product placement for "Rita Novelties".
Otto collects stamps and makes art collages with his Bavarian ones.
2004.01.25 11:33
Marly
[The first two paragraphs below are from Stephen Birmingham, The Grandes Dames (1982), p. 51):]
"Cromwell urged her to follow her doctor's orders. With a smile she said, "My dear son, I am yearning for my quiet grave. I don't want any part of your world, Mr. Roosevelt's world, or Mr. Stalin's world." Twelve hours later, on May 31, 1946--little more than eight years to the day after Ned's death--Eva [Stotesbury] died. She was eighty-one.
At the time of her death, some of her old acquaintances wondered what Eva was doing in Palm Beach so far out of season. (By then the Palm Beach season had been "officially" extended from February 22 to April 1.) But of course Eva herself--and surely she knew it--had gone out of season. Out of season, too, were the values and concepts she lived by: duty, responsibility, noblesse oblige, character, kindness, dignity, politeness, graciousness, grandeur, luxury, patronage of the arts, serenity, splendor, formality, gaiety. It was a season which would perhaps never pass across the American landscape again, and its fading had left Eva behind, an anachronism. The Washington house, Marly, Eva's last real home, would become the Belgium Embassy, all business."
Marly, like Whitemarsh Hall, was designed by Horace Trumbauer. Another source cites Marly as the Belgium Ambassador's residence--since the Belgium Embassy in Washington DC today has a different address than Marly, then perhaps the Belgium Embassy and the Belgium Ambassador's residence are not the same building. [Anyone here know for sure?]
Peter Paul Rubens, besides being a painter, was also a [Flemish/Belgium] diplomat, with his first assignment going to the King of Spain. The Baroness von Ow's eldest son married a descendant of Philippe le Beau, you know. Ah, just another cocktail party at Otto's, this time in honor of Franziska's successful bicycle trip from Yugoslavia to Russia and then back from Russia to Bavaria. (Eva and Franziska are like high octane when they're together.)
2004.01.25 11:38
$3.95 rental and a bowl of popcorn OR
how to make your guests go to bed early.
"Ludwig and Otto"
The Ludwig of the film's title, Ludwig (1973), is Ludwig II, King of Bavaria, sometimes known as the Mad King and sometimes known as the Virgin King. The film tells the story of his reluctant assumption of the duties of kingship, his love of art, and his tormented discovery of his own homosexuality, with all the consequences this had for the survival of his dynasty in the new order dominated by Bismarck's Prussia.
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2004.01.25 15:24
...in yesterday's dusk
On the way to TLA Video Chestnut Hill to rent Visconti's Ludwig and back.
Left St. Ambrose Parish towards St. Helena Parish, then towards Temple University's Tyler School of Art, which is part of the motherlode of Horace Trumbauer architecture, Lynnewood Hall just up the street, and right next to Elstowe, the quondam William L. Elkins Estate, now a House of the Dominica Sisters. [Otto is thrilled to hear that both St. Catherine de Ricci and Louis I. Kahn will attend the Horace Trumbauer Architecture Fan Club Convention to deliver their jointly-authored paper.] Then on to a bit of Rt. 73 to Grey Towers, the castle of Arcadia University.
Now on towards Chestnut Hill through Whitemarsh and the scant remains of Stotesbury Mansion, and glad to report at last finding that sculptural fountain terrace as centerpiece in the 1950s residential community.
A jammed parking lot and a long line in the store.
Up Mermaid Lane, then all the way down Stenton Avenue, ending through St. Anthanasius, St. Helena, and finally home in St. Ambrose.
[Elapsed Time: 1 hour 25 minutes]
2004.01.26
more novel ideas
the Rosa Lauf bike tour.
di Ricci and Kahn paper.
the surprise ending is Trumbauer’s convention closing speech (rather than just revealing the two original spiral column locations).
Maria and Otto are married or engaged.
Williams is in charge of the guest list; often quotes Capote when speaking (often Lucia as well).
Dr. Martin Luther King still visits Penn Center St. Helena Island annually.
Eva's nickname is “Nacky” since 1982.
Do Williams and King force the issue of some of the jail letters?
Eutropia and Helena paper on double church of the twentieth century (in Philadelphia).
Rubens clarifies the Marriage of Constantine and Fausta tapestry.
Napoleon and Rubens and Eva stay at the PMA when in Philadelphia; Napoleon has his own room (already).
Eutropia and Helena are going to stay with the Dominican Sisters.
Napoleon spends his birthday at Budapest--death of Ezeri Mester.
Maria stays in Milan 18 January to 25 February.
Franziska is staying at the Japanese House.
Gordon Matta-Clark is coming to the convention because he used to break stuff at Stotesbury; he claims to have broken most of the windows, etc. Gordon is staying in the old Sears power plant.
Duchamp and Jennewien are also presenting a jointly authored paper; they too are staying at the PMA.
Prisca and Valaria may have something to do with the spiral column locations.
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2004.01.27 12:17
Trumbauer, Horace (1868-1938)
Horace Trumbauer's speech, which concludes the Horace Trumbauer Architecture Fan Club Convention, is the surprise ending of "My Rita Novel Idea".
...remember accidentally discovering Trumbauer's gravestone in early 1979? We also discovered that mausoleum which reenacts the Tower of the Winds of ancient Athens, although we didn't know at the time that Trumbauer designed it (for the Berwinds).
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