The Vibrating Landscape – The Storm King Art Center
It had been a while since I’d last visited the Storm King Art Center, so it was nice to see that despite some very big changes to the center’s non-sculpture aspects, none of it has gotten in the way of viewing the art on display. This is not so surprising, as the huge campus of Storm King is meant to be as clutter-free as possible so that visitors can luxuriate in the proper viewing of large works of art.
al di la – Mark di Suvero
Storm King, located about 75 miles north of New York City, is one of the few places that visitors can view large works of sculpture out of doors and in a setting that is truly vast enough to give the sculptures their proper context.
Two trams run every hour (sometimes every half-hour) along various routes across the grounds and passing the huge sculptures by Mark di Suvero, Alexander Calder, Maya Lin, and Robert Lichtenstein, among many others. A canned narration providing information about the sculptures to our right and left as well as helpfully reminding visitors (about every five minutes) that it is the 50th anniversary of SKAC and that annual memberships are available at the visitors’ center.
The most dramatic change was the presence of a snack bar, an outdoor gazebo that stands near the south parking lot. This side of Storm King has always been reserved as a wooded area for visitors to hike around for a wider view of the landscape, and I can imagine that there may have been some grumbling with the addition of this gazebo. Nevertheless, the snacks and drinks appear to have been carefully thought out with favor to locally produced, higher quality snacks.
Two Sculpture Highlights
Lin’s “Wave Field” provides a nice counterpoint to the large steel girders that for di Suvero and Calder’s work. It is one of the few, or perhaps at the moment, only sculptures at Storm King to make use of the land itself as the earth is transformed into a series of rolling waves.
Zhang Huan’s “Three-Legged Buddha” provides a not unwelcome departure from the sharper elements that dominate the work at Storm King. Huan’s structure is more playful, cartoonish and freakish, especially considering its scale.
Sea Change – George Cutts
Viewing Scope – Alyson Shotz
Three-Legged Buddha – Zhang Huan
Socrates Sculpture Park
Book Proposal: Naked Guide to Boston Museums?
I’m working on a book proposal for a guide book to Boston museums. I want it to have the museum club vibe, that is, a good cultural experience followed by a good snack/neighborhood meal. Lots of photos and not too much text, but a personal and down to earth little essay on each museum “date” along with practical information. Need a catchy name for my book series, too. hmmmm.
museums need to go to unfamiliar lengths to truly welcome and serve new audiences. You have to be open to listening, open to change, open to confronting unspoken biases about the “right” way to experience or engage with your institution. And you have to find ways to promote diversity, not as a nice to have, but as a must have.
make anywhere a museum
just add art
Whitney Expansion Carping
Home sick enjoying (through my nyquil haze) Roberta Smith’s snarky critique of all the NYC art museums architecture. For some reason I thought everyone liked the new MOMA but me. I’m sure I could do much better at designing galleries…. Caper, fetch me my crayons! Charette time.
Bizarre Animals in Cambridge this Friday
In Support of Idiosyncrasy
In Support of Idiosyncrasy. Why do museum exhibits so often look and feel the same? What makes a memorable museum? How can we center our institutions in our communities?
Horses and Skateboards
We braved a stormy Saturday to reach 1 Battery Park and the old customs house that houses the New York branch of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. The grand steps were windswept and the umbrellas that passersby wrestled with seemed to be more trouble than they were worth. I love these old buildings with their marble brass, high ceilings and grand staircases. There were just three exhibitions, one on horses and the native experience, another on skateboarders and a third on skin, contemporary work by native artists. My favorite work was by Sonya Kelliher-Combs thousands of needles strung with thread 8 feet up a stark white gallery wall, the lighting making geometric fabriclike shadows on the wall. The back of the wall, if you follow the thread, shows all the loose ends hanging down.
Let’s meet here at 3:00PM Saturday March 13th. Then we can find afternoon tea/beer and burgers in this downtown region. Anyone have ideas of good things to eat around there?
Emily
subwayreading
