The Day after Thanksgiving

Are we Evil.
What is the artist saying here?
Is he asking a question or making a statement?
Does it have any historical or social context?
Is it symbolic?

My First experience.



Sales, bargains, deals, discounts; these are the adjectives of what has been an American tradition celebrating the day after Thanksgiving properly call ‘Black Friday’. I decided to forgo the long lines at retail stores and outlets in search for the great bargains as millions of other Americans have done, and instead on this windy morning stuff from the delicious eatings of yesterday made my way to one of the most important architectural landmarks in the 20th century The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City.

From its site on Fifth Avenue a few blocks down from ‘The Met’, The Guggenheim rises as a warm spiral.

This was the vision of one of the greatest American architect of all time Frank Llyod Wright.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Lloyd_Wright

Famous for his innovations in residential architecture, Mr. Wright coaxed Americans out of their boxlike houses and into wide-open living spaces that suited the American lifestyle.
His style was often referred to as ’organic architecture’ which is a philosophy of architecture that promotes harmony between human habitation and the natural world through design approaches inspired by nature, which is sustainable, healthy, and diverse. Wright set out to design a building that will be unique where everything relates to one another, reflecting the symbiotic systems of nature.

After 15 years, and 700 sketches later, in 1959 that vision was achieved.
From an urbanistic point of view The Guggenheim appearance is in sharp contract to the more typically boxy buildings found in Manhattan.

Above the museum’s entrance, a gorgeous white-on-white movie marquee of neon and fluorescent lights hanging from white, lighted chains. It blinks wildly like it was opening night. I stood standing there waiting for a message to appear, but was left with my own interpretation of why this was here when no message had scrolled across.

It suggests to the vistor that you are about to enter a palace of art, life, and entertainment.

That is exactly what I experience.

As I entered the museum, I was speechless. The interior design was remarkable. The geometric shape is laid out in one continuous upward movement that leads to spiral galleries on six floors.

In the main lobby looking up towards the ceiling you can see what appears to be stars floating above given the appearance that there is a hole in the ceiling.

The concept was the vision of artist Angela Bulloch who came up with the idea of inserted a L.E.D. powered “night sky” into the museum's oculus in order to create a perception that day is night and that your actual outside rather than inside.

Title 'Firmamental Night Sky'

Angela Bulloch team up with nine other artist to literally use the museum as an entire exhibit title ’theanyspacewhatever’. The exhibit brings together these ten artist who have chosen to each produce an individual, site-specific work for the museum that interacts with the viewers.

‘The any space what ever’ is the notion of having free floating moments that often links one scene to another but isolated makes no since. This was apparent when I walk pass Walt Disney’s beloved Pinocchio floating face down in the Guggenheim elliptical pool.

This was latest piece by artist Maurizio Cattelan who is known for imbedding sarcasm into his works. Not sure what the kids think seeing one of their beloved childhood figures drowning face down. Was it murder or was it suicide?

The interior of the museum is painted all white given the feeling of purity with bright fluorescent lights

creating a background wall of lights that gives the appears that the paintings hover weightlessly in luminous space.

One such painting was commission in 1911 by Franz Marc who was one of the principal painters and printmakers of the German Expressionist movement. Expressionism is the tendency of an artist to distort reality for an emotional effect. Marc believed that animals possessed a certain godliness that men had long since lost. He developed a theory of color symbolism where different colors evoked gender stereotypes.

This painting title ‘Yellow Cow’, with its brilliant colors and geometric contour of the scenery was a wedding gift to his wife.

The interpretation of the colors within the painting suggest that the yellow represents a gentle, cheerful, and sensual principle that symbolizes femininity. On the other hand the blue represents the spiritual and intellectual symbolizing masculinity. The painting has been interpreted by historians as a symbol of Franz Marc and his wife. The yellow cow a depiction of Marc’s wife, and in the background the blue triangular mountains an abstract self-portrait of the artist himself.

In another gallery I found a work of art commission by Vincent van Gogh title ‘Mountains at Saint-Remy’. Painted in 1889, ‘Mountain at Saint-Remy’ represents the low range mountains that surrounding the hospital that Van Gogh was staying for mental distress. Van Gogh felt that painting the outdoors would help to restore his health.

With its shades of greens and blues and heavy paint, the mountains can also be viewed as waves in an ocean, where the road leading to the institution represents the beach.

Disclaimer: (The museum does not allow photos to be taken other than from the lobby area. The two photos above were not taken by my camera but found on the internet as part of my research. They are much beautiful in person.)

The Guggenheim Museum currently designs exhibits to be viewed by walking up the curved walkway rather than walking down from the top level.

Just about everything at the Guggenheim sneaks up on you in some way which expands the

pleasure and meaning of the piece of art.

One such exhibit is the maze erect by cardboard screens which transformed one of the museum’s ramps

into an interlocking system of patterned screens and dividers.Strange little shapes, some lighted, are attach to the displays that are actually the shape of a chicken.

A must see is Catherine Opie’s complex body of photographic works. Catherine an American artist is a social documentary photographer of international renown whose primary artistic concerns are community and identity--gender, sexual, or otherwise. She is known for shedding a formerly unseen light on her subjects; whether they be lesbian couples or the architecture of America’s greatest cities.

Using the world’s largest Polaroid camera, a series of large-scale pictures dedicated to the performance work of Ron Athey was taken as part of the Estate Project for Artists with AIDS.

The Estate Project for Artist with AIDS was establish to preserve the cultural legacy of the AIDS crisis so that future generations can enjoy, study and engage artworks as aesthetic achievements and historical documents. The project provides assistance to artists with HIV/AIDS working in all disciplines or art. http://www.artistswithaids.org/

The body of work taken by Catherine was a tribute to Ron Athey and his performance work.

Ron Athey is an LA-based performance artist who is renowned for his onstage rituals, including mummification, blood-letting, and piercing.
http://www.ronathey.com/

I can say I truly enjoyed my visit to The Guggenheim. Today the paintings were unimportant. The design, the beauty, and the warmth of the museum was the work of art of the day.

My first experience became my last as I exited the museum.

“Are We Evil.”

A moral opinion.

My Last Experience.