The Hammer Museum

We went to the Hammer Museum (at UCLA) on a Thursday because there's free admission every. single. Thursday.  All day.

The one reason why I wanted to go?  John Singer Sargent's portrait of Dr. Pozzi at home.  I had read about in Strapless, and become fascinated.  For sure, the painting did not disappoint.

Other favorites were Van Gogh's Hospital at Saint-Remy (of course), Gustave Moreau's Salome Dancing before Herod, and Honore Daumier's series of bronze caricature busts of famous Frenchmen (the clay originals are in the Musee d'Orsay).

The museum itself was a lovely surprise, too.  They have so many changing exhibits, and there's also this beautiful open-air atrium in the middle of the museum, too.  Only in Southern California, right?  Seriously though, Westwood is a really nice area.  Even for my standards.  We even stopped by a Yogurtland before we went back.  I personally think Yogurtland is better than the Yozen Frogurt place we go to at home.  They had the cutest Hello Kitty spoons, too!

pacific design center and miranda july

Tuesday's trip to the Pacific Design Center in LA, and MOCA, was a first for me.  Highly recommended!! (Of course, it seems like I'm highly recommending everything now....but still).  It's an interesting mix of cool architecture, bright colors, and...upscale furniture places.  I saw this really awesome chair with cutouts made to look like tree branches...didn't see who the designer was though.  Maybe I'll find out eventually.  Because if I'm going to splurge on a really expensive piece of furniture, I'd be tempted to buy that chair.

Unfortunately I really don't have very great pictures....and not many pictures...went with my parents...felt rushed...now I regret not taking the time to take good pictures...oh well.

The George Herms exhibit at MOCA was pretty cool - collages.

Of course, the whole reason why I went was the Miranda July exhibit - which was set on the rolling lawns (literally - a cross section of the lawn would show a series of semicircles laid next to one another). Eleven Heavy Things (on view until Oct 23) was first installed in Union Square Park, NYC, in 2010.  It seemed right at home (though lonely - not very many people there when we went) at the Pacific Design Center, and we had a lot of fun taking pictures with the sculptures.

summer begins!

Finished work on Friday...now it's time to relax for a few weeks before school starts again!

Things on the "to-do-in-LA" list:
Natural History Museum/La Brea Tar Pits
LACMA. and possibly see the Tim Burton exhibit, which closes Oct 31.
MOCA. we have a family membership that we need to activate.  I want to go to as many MOCA locations as possible.  The MOCA at the Pacific Design Center, for example, has a Miranda July exhibit/installation that should be interesting.

I've not been to any of these museums, so it should be fun :)

chihuly part 4

Mille Fiori - "It wasn't so much trying to replicate plants as it was a way to work with all the techniques we've learned over the past thirty-five, forty years."

That's right, I thought a lot of the pieces looked like pipe eels or something...whatever those worms are that live on the ocean floor, half-buried in sand, their tops waving around with the current.

And, this is when my camera ran out of battery.

Oh well, I guess that just means I'll have to go back again :)

chihuly part 3

From "The Northwest Room" - featuring Native American baskets.

The central piece was a giant hunk of wood with all sorts of glass vessels on top (they reminded me more of sea shells than actual baskets).  Unfortunately the picture didn't turn out amazingly...

On the side, shelves held actual Native American baskets right next to glass interpretations.

chihuly part 2

Ikebana Boat, 2011

(Ikebana = the Japanese art of flower arranging).

chihuly at the mfa

From the new exhibit at the MFA - Chihuly: Through the Looking Glass.

I've never seen an art exhibition such as this, and it was truly a surreal experience. I snapped away like never before (although I could never do it justice!)...until I exhausted my camera batteries.  And, intelligent me forgot to check to see if there were any spare batteries in my camera case before I left (there weren't).

Anyway, I don't have many pictures that I'm incredibly pleased with, but here are some...and I'll be posting more over the next few days.

Persian Wall, 2011

the wallace collection

I was able to pop in to see the Wallace Collection in London last week.

That was, of course, after a half-hour delay in getting there - who would have known that it would be so hard to find Manchester Square when you're literally two blocks away from it.  (wandering down Marylebone High St - "Oh, the Wallace Collection.  It's a lovely place! Yes, I've been there.  You're quite close.  I'm not quite sure where it is, though...you're quite close!").

They have a fantastic armoury (definitely my favorite part of the museum!  My appreciation for 17th and 18th century art is sadly limited, and I have to be in the correct mood to even want to really scrutinize a Watteau for more than a minute in the first place - which is too bad, because they're currently showing a lovely Watteau exhibit).

Anyway, I spent a good half hour in the European armoury room.

I learned about the German 'gothic' style of armour, which had fluted surfaces and was pretty bold in general.  I saw a set of armour and an armoured horse!  I examined the exquisite hilts of swords!  Wow.  I've always had a fascination for armour, and this just piqued my interest.

http://www.wallacecollection.org/thecollection/collections/armsandarmour

I love how, even near the busiest places like Oxford Street, there are these pockets of peace and quiet.

Marylebone high street

artists abroad

favorites -

Alvin Langdon Coburn - St. Paul's Cathedral, 1905 (photogravure)

Joseph Pennell - Charing Cross Bridge at Night, 1909 (mezzotint)

Edward Darley Boit - St. Peter's, Rome, 1912 (watercolor)
huge - 59.4 x 104.1 cm
also much better in real life, when you can actually see the watercolor brush strokes (dancing light, it seems)

and these two, just because they are so tiny!

James Wells Champney - Two Women in a Restaurant, 1866-67 (graphite and wash on paper)
6.6 x 11.7 cm!

James Wells Champney - Man In Restaurant, 1866-67 (graphite and wash on paper)

art of the americas grand opening @ the mfa

AND now I can say I've attended a community day at the MFA.  Plus a grand opening.  Not like I particularly took part in the opening festivities, but I still witnessed it.  That counts...right?

Community day - free admission to all!  Not like it matters, because I already get free admission with my MIT student ID.  Oh well.  I got there ten minutes after opening (I walked; it was so nice! - and according to google maps, it's only 1.6 miles from campus....and tell me again WHY I have been taking the T to the MFA all this time?).  By then, the line was halfway around the block - not like it really mattered.  It moved quickly, and in the meantime I got to amuse myself watching the BU marching band play in the [relative] cold and sip warm apple cider for free (comment from guy in front of me - "If apple cider was caffeinated I bet nobody would drink coffee anymore").  Um, NOT giving up my coffee, but apple cider IS pretty amazing anyway.

I wore a red sweater just because I felt like it - and ha, I forgot that the MFA logo is basically red, and, consequently, all of the employees and volunteers were wearing red.  Yup.  Lost in a sea of red. haha.

stairs in the new wing.....

so - also saw a few new exhibitions that opened today -
Artists Abroad: London, Paris, Venice, and Rome 1825-1925
Fresh Ink: Ten Takes on Chinese Tradition

If Fresh Ink was a huge, theatrical installment, Artists Abroad was anything but.  Both were excellent all the same, in their own way.  More to come later...

nichols house + some vespa spotting

Yesterday I went on a nice 2-or-something-mile walk from MIT to Nichols House Museum, in Beacon Hill.  It was Smithsonian Museum day across the country - meaning all you had to do was sign up and print out a ticket, to go to a participating museum for free!

Nichols House was a very nice place - beautifully furnished, and it was an interesting family that lived there.  They had a lovely self portrait by John Singleton Copley there - far better looking than some of those portraits he is famous for, like Paul Revere, John Hancock, Mercy Otis Warren...

My highlight of the morning though?

Walking down Beacon St!  For the ten (or something) blocks that I walked down Beacon St, towards Boston Common, I got to enjoy the beautiful sunshine and beautiful row houses.  So peaceful.

Of course, it didn't hurt that I passed by two different Vespas on the way - one tomato red and the other black.  Wow, this Vespa thing is getting to not be so much a joke any more.  I seriously want one more than ever now.

unfortunately, inopportune timing kept me from taking a picture of the more beautiful red one.  and from taking a nice picture of this black one :(

a question of perspective -

Head of a Prophet
France (Strasbourg), around 1300
sandstone

on view at boston's mfa

fashion @ the mfa

I went to this exhibit earlier this week - hadn't been too familiar with Richard Avedon's work before, but now...wow!

some of my favorites - from the series In Memory of the Late Mr. and Mrs. Comfort

and I especially love his 1950s work (maybe it's just because I love the glamorous New Look)...

Dovima with Elephants

spring break, part 2

lovely dresses from the victoria and albert museum!

it's too bad so many of the pictures came out blurry...methinks i should invest in a nice new camera.

piano dress
karl lagerfield for chanel, 1995

day dress, 1836-40

the detailing around the top reminds me of some of emily blunt's dresses in the young victoria!

evening dress
patou, 1932-34

somebody should wear this to the oscars...

evening dress
charles frederick worth, 1881

i loooove all the cool detailing. especially at the hem.

evening dress
jacques heim, 1959

i love the back!

hmm, it looks pink in the picture from the v&a website...