The Mona Lisa of Vienna @ Jewish Ideas Daily

Here's an int. item by Susan Hertog for Jewish IDEAS Daily re. Gustav Klimt's "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer" now permanently on display at the Neue Galerie in New York.

Gustav Klimt: Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer (c) Wikimedia Commons

I've mentioned this stunning portrait here and here during my continual worship / pilgrimages to the Neue Galerie and Ron Lauder's ongoing personal commitment to collecting - and sharing - great art with the world.

Whitney Biennial, Klimt, Renoir, Steins Collection @ Manhattan

Whistler/Frick  (The Yorck Project)

I really, really, really would like to hang out for a whole afternoon at the Whitney Biennial 2012, which is still on through May 27.

This review/blogpost by the New Yorker's Hilton Als provides an interesting commentary before you go.

BuffaloNews.com has meanwhile showcased "Five things at the Whitney Biennial."

Yet Choire Sicha of The Awl appears to give it at least one thumb down.

Hmm, perhaps the Klimt show at the Neue Galerie is a safer bet next time you're in Manhattan, but the Whitney Biennial may still be well worth a visit.

At the Met, "The Steins Collect" looks to be particularly interesting among the roster of current exhibitions. This new Renoir show at the Frick also looks interesting.

Time to check the Vamoose bus schedule and seek out the cheapest possible accomodations in Manhattan, which to me is a place of art pilgrimage (shopping, dining, etc. are great too there of course, but to me the No. 1 reason to visit NYC is to view art!).

So much art, so little time!

Easter Variations - The Edge of Reason (Second Act)

As I spent more and more time toying with Photoshop after meeting a deadline at work last week, I accidentally came across what seemed like a "magic" function that just so happened to turned an image of pussywillow branches festooned with decorated Easter eggs into ONE SINGLE MONGO-HUGE EGG (ok, egg-shaped thingamajig).

Easter decorations at the Neue Galerie New York (Photos by Karen Carstens)

Easter decoartions at the Neue Galerie New York (original, unadulterated, image).

The same image, now encased in "plastic wrap" (Photoshop).

"plastic wrap" - liquified (by moi, using Photoshop function "Liquify")

"plastic wrap" - liquified - egg (using Photoshop functions "Polar Coordinates" + "Liquify")

Et voila - POLAR COORDINATES seemed to somehow flip around my original image into an egg-like shape with weird, inverted, mirror images. Coincidence? Perhaps. It was interested that I stumbled upon this Photoshop function just a few days before Easter! By using other functions, notably "clouds" and "swirl" - as well as by changing the "hue" of these images - I came up with a new "series" of colorful Easter eggs.

I also created some decidedly darker, more psychedlic-looking versions in this egg series, also all based on the "polar coordinates" effect available in my version of Photoshop (which the long-suffering graphic designer at my not exactly ultra-innovative workplace, at least in terms of IT/multimedia capabilities, calls "Photoshop Light.")

I repeat, please nobody tell me to get a life. I find this kind of thing fun, and view it as part of my current Spring Awakening style Gen X multimedia learning curve - minus any desire to wade into deep water until I can go no further, that is ... Go ahead and laugh out loud at me, all you "digital native" Millenials. At least I can confidently claim that I cannot check Facebook for up to four - yep, FOUR - days and still be OK. (Although I did that recently - over the Easter weekend - and missed a dinner invite from a friend I had not seen in ages - darn! Note to self: Never ignore Facebook again for more than four days!!!)

Easter Variations - The Edge of Reason (First Act)

Imagine just how endless the possibilities are to get creative with Photoshop. Here are a few more Eastertime "variations" that border on the psychedelic. The world of photography will never be the same for you once you let the good times roll with Photoshop!

Easter decorations at the Neue Galerie New York (Photo taken with an iPod by Karen Carstens)

The same image, now overlaid/altered using "cross hatch" in Photoshop.

"paint daubs"

The same image, after altering the hue and saturation with Photoshop.

"texturizer"

The same image, transformed via the "photocopy" function in Photoshop.

I really like this final "photocopy" image. The "texturizer" version is also weirdly appealing to me because it reminds me of images in picture books from my childhood. (For some reason it conjures up images in my mind of almost garishly colored books featuring puppets on adventures that I found mesmerizing as a kid which were printed sometime in the 1960s or 70s.)

Easter Variations - Flower Power (Part Deux)

More fun with Photoshop!

Flower arrangement at the Neue Galerie New York (Photo taken with an iPod by Karen Carstens)

The same image, now with "angled strokes" - yep, I was trying it on in oh so many ways with Photoshop!

The same image, now in "crosshatch" - you can really see this effect in the lower lefthand corner of the image.

The same image, now super-saturated and in "paint daubs" - does this look like a painting, or what?

(Please nobody tell me that I seriously need to get a life - playing around on Photoshop is like free therapy for me ... and it helps me avoid DC rush hour madness when I do some after-hours blogging on me trusty ole work PC station ... Someday I will, however, venture outdoors again, especially now that at least some of the tourists who were here in DC to see the cherry blossoms/descend upon the National Mall during their own Easter mini-break weekends have hopefully GONE HOME. As much as I think it's great that people visit and truly treasure DC as our nation's capital sometimes I really just want them all to LEAVE ... I say this after engaging in the fatal error of driving towards the National Mall on Easter Monday to attempt to park and meet someone at a major museum for a multimedia story I was working on - NEVER AGAIN! GAH!)

Easter Variations - Flower Power

Here are some variations on the same theme I would like to share with you courtesy of Photoshop. I was playing around with some Easter-themed images last week on Photoshop (or the non-deluxe version thereof I also use during my "day job"), before the Easter Bunny was due to visit everybody, but am only getting around to posting these pics now as a way of saying "Happy (belated) Easter!"

Flowers at the Neue Galerie New York (Photo taken with an iPod by Karen Carstens)

The same image, converted via Photoshop to a basic black-and-white shot.

The same image, transformed yet again via Photshop's "colored pencil" function.

The same image, this time in "film grain" (my personal favorite in this particular series).

Cool Posters and Prints @ Neue Galerie New York

Photography was alas strictly forbidden inside the Ron Lauder exhibition at the NEUE GALERIE NEW YORK, which I've now raved about repeatedly throughout the course of this fledgling art-sick blog.

Poster at the Neue Galerie New York (Photos by Karen Carstens)

Although many of the images I've posted here recently, taken with an iPod on loan from the University of Maryland, where I am at present enrolled in a "Graduate Certificate of Professional Studies in Multimedia Journalism" program, are not exactly professional-level quality, they at least convey some measure of the funky art that was on view, for instance, at the recent artexpo in Manhattan.

A vintage "Fledermaus" poster (note the red bat) at the Neue Galerie New York (detail)

Here are a few more images of interesting early 20th-century Austrian posters and prints on display at the Neue Galerie which I was, however feebly, able to capture during my latest whirlwind New York art escape (thanks to excellent bus connections from DC to NYC, including my tried and trusted personal favorite - Vamoose - it is now easier than ever before to soak up some art in the Big Apple!).

Klimt's 150th Birthday @ Neue Galerie New York

Never fear if you missed the recent highlights from the Ronald S. Lauder collection shown at the NEUE GALERIE NEW YORK - the museum's next major exhibition promises to be a blockbuster feature of paintings by none other than the universally adored Austrian mastermind artist Gustav Klimt (1862 - 1918).

Ron Lauder owns Klimt's exquisite 1910 portrait "Der schwarze Hut/The Black Hat," which he describes as an "oh my God" masterpiece. It was just on show at the Neue Galerie among the highlights of Lauder's private collection and will be on display there again as part of the new Klimt exhibition opening in May. (Photo The Yorck Project/Wikimedia Commons)

As the museum states on its website:

"Throughout 2012, Austria is celebrating the 150th birthday of Gustav Klimt with exhibitions devoted to his work.  Several Viennese museums, including the Albertina, the Belvedere, the Kunsthistorisches, the Leopold, and the Wien Museum, are honoring different aspects of Klimt’s extraordinary legacy. The Neue Galerie is joining in these celebrations with a special summer 2012 installation of his work."

This special exhibition will include more than a half dozen major Klimt paintings (including of course the famous Adele Bloch-Bauer portrait) from the museum's collection, as well as a wide range of Klimt drawings and "a number of rare and never-before-seen photographs of the artist and his close companion, the fashion designer Emilie Flöge."
 

"GUSTAV KLIMT: 150th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION" 

will be on view at the Neue Galerie from May 24 to August 27, 2012.

Another new Neue Galerie exhibition featuring works by Austrian photographer Heinrich Kuehn, which opens on April 26 and closes on August 27, also looks interesting.

So if you cannot make it to Vienna in 2012 to indulge in all the Klimt festivities and exhibitions "Vorort" (on the ground/locally), then the Neue Galerie is a great option to indulge your Klimt cravings right here in the USA.

Neue Galerie @ New York

The Ronald S. Lauder exhibition at the NEUE GALERIE NEW YORK, which I recently visited and which has now drawn to a close, was a veritable tour de force featuring highlights from one of the finest art collections in the world.

Ron Lauder refers to the "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I" as "our Mona Lisa." It is the jewel in the crown of the permanent collection at the Neue Galerie New York.

From masterpieces by, among others, Cezanne, Picasso and Kandinsky to Austrian art, furnishings, silverwork and jewelry (Klimt, Schiele, Wiener Werkstätte) to postwar German art (Richter, Polke, Beuys), this show pulled out all the stops, thanks to Lauder's fine eye and truly remarkable collection amassed over a lifetime of loving art.

One room, darkened to protect the works on display there, for instance, contained several sketches and watercolor studies by Degas, Van Gogh, and Cezanne. Audible gasps could be heard from museumgoers who "stumbled" into this little gem of a room towards the end of the exhibition, which was spread out over two compact but cleverly utilized floors inside the elegant historic Manhattan villa that has housed the Neue Galerie for the past decade.

Heavy metal masterpieces

Museumgoers enter the Neue Galerie
(Photos by Karen Carstens)

To my own great surprise, I even lingered over Lauder's collection of centuries-old European armor that was showcased towards the beginning of the exhibition. I knew this would be on show alongside all the paintings I was so eager to see, and I thought all this vintage armor would bore me, er, stiff as it really seemed like more of a "guy thing" to me.

Most of the trappings of warfare, including weaponry and defensive garments through the ages, just don't float my boat as much as, say, a single painting by Van Gogh, Klimt or Hopper, which could leave me breathless and even render me utterly speechless (an occurance about as rare as a solar eclipse, anyone who knows me well would surely agree).

So I was amazed to find myself drawn to the often quite detailed craftsmanship - only visible up close - of these historic full suits of armor, some matched to metal headgear and other "defensive accessories" for horses, as well as the strangely futuristic (think Hieronymus Bosch creatures meet Samurai warriors meet "Star Wars" stormtroopers) heavy metal stylings of differently shaped helmets that comprise part of Lauder's collection.

Easter decor at the Café Fledermaus

Hearing Lauder himself explain on a free audio guide that accompanied the exhibition how each of these helmets started out "as a single ball of metal" before craftsmen wrestled them into these amazing shapes featuring various types of slanted openings for eyes, noses and mouths helped to underscore just how rare and special these items really are.

Lauder also explained how it is erroneous to believe that people were smaller back then because these suits of armor seem quite compact compared to the average height of men today. The reason they are so small is that they were often the first ever, ceremonial suits of armor presented to young teenage boys. And so they tended to stay at home - put on display in hallways, or perhaps stuffed into castle attics or similar - as these boys matured into men who may have taken to bloody battlefields, thus surviving unscathed for centuries.

Mona Lisa smile

Spring has sprung at the Café Fledermaus

Of course it was, moreover, as always wonderful to see the Klimt masterpiece which Lauder refers to as the Neue Galerie's "Mona Lisa" - the stunning "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I."

Lauder, a former US ambassador to Austria, purchased it at auction for the museum for $135 million in June 2006, which made it at that time the most expensive painting ever sold.

His soft spot for Klimt's work was evident via one audioguide entry during which he referred to his personal method for gauging great art. According to Lauder, there are some works that elicit a response of "oh," others of "oh my," and still others of "oh my God." He tries to chose only the latter, if possible, for his personal collection and for the museum.

Wide array of art books, high-end reproductions

After visiting any exhibition at the Neue Galerie, it's fun to linger in the elegant book store, which resembles a miniature yet well-stocked library featuring a wide array of delightful art books, and the adjacent design shop stocked with select reproductions of early 20th-century Austrian tea sets, textiles and jewels.

(Although these latter items, kept largely under lock and key, are more attainable for the alleged "1 percent" of Americans NOT somehow adversely affected by the 2008 economic downturn, or anyone about to "marry rich" - wedding registry information is available at this posh little shop staffed by elegant ladies.) 

Food and drink fit for an Austrian empress

Creamy Spätzle at the Café Fledermaus

No visit to the Neue Galerie would moreover be complete without setting foot inside one of the two cafés on the premises. As is usual for the Neue Galerie on a Sunday, there was a line to get into the Café Sabarsky, which is modeled after the elegant cafes of Vienna. So I headed down to the Café Fledermaus on the basement level, which is also quite charming and features the same menu as the more crowded upstairs cafe.

I indulged in a traditional springtime dish of Spätzle (egg dumplings), smothered in a divine creamy sauce made slightly healthier via the addition of some fresh peas, carrots and mushrooms. I washed this down with a wine spritzer (a mixture of club soda and white wine known as a "Weinschorle" in German).

All of the items on the menu are listed in both English and German, a charming touch that lends a solid air of authenticity to the proceedings (and makes former residents of Germany and lovers of the global art metropolis of Vienna such as myself feel mighty homesick for this stuff in Europe!). The dish I ordered, for instance, was listed on the menu as follows: "Spätzle mit Schwammerln, Erbsen, Karotten & Estragon" (Creamed Spätzle with wild Mushrooms, Peas, Carrots & Tarragon).

I followed this main lunch course up with a slice of the famous Austrian chocolate cake known as "Sachertorte" and a "Wiener mélange" (espresso with steamed milk and foam). Other diners meanhwile were enjoying bratwurst and gulash dishes, as well as other delectable desserts such as "Apfelstrudel" (apple strudel).

Must-see Galerie

I would recommend going to virtually any exhibition, the bookstore and one of the cafes at the Neue Galerie in a heartbeat. Ron Lauder and the Neue Galerie staff have done an excellent job of showcasing Austrian and German art in a stunning setting conveniently located near major New York art museums.

Dessert does not survive for long at the Neue Galerie. Here's my virtually untouched, frothy "Wiener mélange" and a nearly devoured slice of delicious "Sachertorte," which is perhaps the most famous of all Austrian cakes. (It must be moist - a dry Sachertorte is a bad/old Sachertorte!)

Mixed Bag @ artexpo New York

artexpo New York (Photos by Karen Carstens)

I visited the artexpo in New York on Sunday, March 25, which featured what one might expect - an eclectic mix of art spread out over a vast space (Pier 92 along the Hudson River, to be precise).

"International Artexpo New York has stood at the pinnacle of the commercial fine art market for the past 33 years," states on official press release.

"The list of past exhibitors is a veritable Who's Who of visual artists, including Andy Warhol, Peter Max, Robert Rauschenberg, Robert Indiana, Keith Haring and Leroy Neiman."

artexpo New York 2012

What was on display this year by a variety of gallery owners, art dealers and individual artists were mostly paintings, as well as some photography, mixed media works, sculptures, and works in glass and metal, plus a smidgeon of multimedia elements such as video - although surprisingly few such digital-era works were actually on display.

(One exception to this rule was an über-cute "claymation" video by a young artist called Susi Q which many passersby - including myself - found highly amusing and absolutely adorable. I also must have missed this.)

One particular booth I steered clear of was that of the famous Thomas Kinkade Gallery.

I was just not that into him.

(If you're unfamiliar with this reference, you're probably not a fan of the now defunct HBO series Sex in the City.)

There were many more artists and artworks I was more drawn to, and some that I found truly breathtaking, or at the very least something I thought would look cool in my office or apartment.

Life-sized sculptures at artexpo New York

But as I had visited the breathtaking Ron Lauder exhibition at the Neue Galerie earlier that same day, I was by contrast somewhat underwhelmed by most of the contemporary artworks on display at artexpo.

Let's face it. For any artist alive today it is really hard to come close to the likes of Klimt, Schiele, Cezanne, Picasso, Van Gogh, Degas, Brancusi, Richter, Polke, the German Expressionists or the chief designers and artists of the Wiener Werkstätte, whose works - among others - have been collected by Lauder and are now on display at the Neue Galerie through April 2.

Those preternaturally talented artists of yesteryear are all pretty tough acts to follow!

There was nevertheless quite a lot of good - and possibly also some great - art on disply at the artexpo.

Paintings at artexpo New York

Among several of the artists whose works caught my eye at the artexpo were Ahni Kruger, Anne Marchand, Nick Paciorek, Diana Pinck, Julie Satinover and Boris Giulian, whose somewhat surreal "Alphabets - Beauty of Diversity" paintings are clever and amusing pieces. (By contrast I was less into this, which somehow left me cold.)

The creative stylings of Sophie's Dervieux and Martin Kaupp also amused me.

I also LOVE this Web site - The World of Ed Heck - very cool!

And I know a friend of mine who is professional Porsche mechanic would absolutely ADORE this, as well as possibly the photograps of vintage pick-up trucks by Nancy Louise Formn (Weezy).

Spotting the art of Dr. Seuss on the premises was fun too.

(There were, of course, many more artists represented at this international art event. You can peruse their works via this complete exhibitor list featuring hundreds of artists and gallery owners. One of the galleries that caught my eye for its nice selection of imported oil paintings was Paul Robinson Fine Art.)

One of several art-filled corridors at the artexpo

The upshot: there was a lot of pretty nifty and fun stuff to see at artexpo (where I admittedly only had a limited amount of time to spend - less than two hours).

The problem for me was that I was (subconsciously) comparing a lot of it to Ron Lauder's collection, which I had just viewed at the Neue Galerie, and which literally blew my mind (even his medieval armor collection got to me - he had me at the 15th century!).

If I were a professional gallery owner or art dealer I would, however, have likely approached everything I saw at artexpo quite differently, ie with a view to the value and marketability of the artworks on display. Taste in art naturally also remains purely subjective, which is part of what makes it so much fun to behold.

(Ron Lauder's private collection is, incidentally, one of the finest in the world. I blogged about this before here.)

Wrapping things up at the end of artexpo New York on March 25, 2012