tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22676104479464699782024-03-08T06:32:02.761-05:00bklynbibliothoughts, reviews, and random musings on art, books, movies, music, pets/nature, travel, the occasional television show, plus gay/queer culture, genealogy, libraries, New York City, my photography and writing...and basically whatever else comes into my headbklynbibliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12857539103503922487noreply@blogger.comBlogger610125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2267610447946469978.post-1911400008425314972020-02-02T12:27:00.002-05:002020-02-02T12:27:21.024-05:00Cities of 2019<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5TzBAJ7eC26pTVDni9IFRXIQBfZVBC2r4gqT8WcgnQzpC5nDt8ma4Oqg6SgTdBitUHuyLQjHCC4PXg1cskIJMwQqYVKWhD-NZfSQgDjo0LykgBSlBV7oZLm90iXM8Z0Hpnh1JVkjXefU/s1600/0EF49861-5D6D-4D83-88DA-64A885256AF9_1_201_a.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5TzBAJ7eC26pTVDni9IFRXIQBfZVBC2r4gqT8WcgnQzpC5nDt8ma4Oqg6SgTdBitUHuyLQjHCC4PXg1cskIJMwQqYVKWhD-NZfSQgDjo0LykgBSlBV7oZLm90iXM8Z0Hpnh1JVkjXefU/s320/0EF49861-5D6D-4D83-88DA-64A885256AF9_1_201_a.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
I'm a bit late to recording the places that AA & I visited, for work or vacation, in 2019. We have some more travel coming up, so it made me realize I had yet to take stock and express how fortunate we are to be able to travel and take in these new experiences (e.g. here is <a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2018/12/cities-of-2018.html" target="_blank">the 2018 list</a>). I've always said that the more you travel, the smaller the world becomes, in ways that are rather humbling. We as a people have a tendency by our nature to see ourselves myopically as being at the "center" of our world, and when you see how many other people out there are existing simultaneously and contiguously, many of whom coincidentally also see themselves in their own "center-world," you realize how short-sighted such a view can be. For some people travel is disheartening or uncomfortable, as you're forced out of a comfort zone, but once you learn to embrace that sense of new-ness, exploring and embracing new cultures and seeing the wonders of new places out there, it's that experience that becomes the most comfortable.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwBDdXbxw8U0oE39R3h-wx8szezYEHhmSaAefwkIgihPWvfTc0G_2l4Cfz-wsb0O2pWVnkr5EI5PQz04j932nvXIucDmU02mqJPe869SOnTUbE9BQY4A-Rx1Wuwf65V7wgv2bse-O6Foc/s1600/AFEF7494-DAA6-4C0C-B4C2-4CC13280B09A.heic" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwBDdXbxw8U0oE39R3h-wx8szezYEHhmSaAefwkIgihPWvfTc0G_2l4Cfz-wsb0O2pWVnkr5EI5PQz04j932nvXIucDmU02mqJPe869SOnTUbE9BQY4A-Rx1Wuwf65V7wgv2bse-O6Foc/s320/AFEF7494-DAA6-4C0C-B4C2-4CC13280B09A.heic" width="320" /></a></div>
This past year we made a return visit to Iceland because we loved it so much the first time. We saw so many beautiful natural wonders along the southern coast (picture at right of me with a glacier in the distance), but we still never saw the Northern Lights, so at least one more winter visit is in order! Having an opportunity to visit Vienna in November also was very nice (picture above of us on the grounds of the Schoenbrunn Palace). Vienna is a sophisticated city with some great museums and the coffee house culture is more relaxing than I anticipated. It was a long-awaited opportunity for me to see 4 major works of art I had waited a long time to see: Pieter Bruegel's <i>Hunters in the Snow</i>; Benvenuto Cellini's salt cellar; Antonio Canova's monument to the Archduchess Maria Christina; and Gustav Klimt's <i>The Kiss</i>. None of them disappointed.<br />
<br />
Within the USA, I was able to get to know Chicago a lot better after we made two visits there together, and I made first-time work-related trips to Minneapolis and Santa Fe. The first city surprised me for its lush greenery (it was June and they had had substantial rain beforehand), and the second surprised me for its dry-desert serenity. I have to confess I'm more of an ocean person than a mountain/desert person, so returning to Ogunquit again gave us a few days of R&R without worrying about site-seeing.<br />
<br />
Here's the list of cities I visited in 2019, and ever onward for those of 2020...<br />
<br />
Chicago, Illinois (2 visits)<br />
Leeds, England<br />
London, England (2 visits)<br />
Minneapolis, Minnesota<br />
New Haven, Connecticut<br />
New Orleans, Louisiana<br />
Northamptonshire, England<br />
Ogunquit, Maine<br />
Paris, France<br />
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania<br />
Reykjavik/Hella, Iceland<br />
Santa Fe, New Mexico<br />
St. Petersburg/Palm Harbor/Tarpon Springs, Florida (2 visits)<br />
Vienna, Austriabklynbibliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12857539103503922487noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2267610447946469978.post-1355418098352778012020-01-04T18:03:00.002-05:002020-01-04T18:03:55.572-05:00Projects of 2019<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLxvWbmrfsPCoiRoUFt5XPKfm39PUgy3joSDrSwLoVWu3i3K_iyjU-liXV0tVuGsHgQee9Oj1BBowQ7eOSLQ-BBwamSxsD6XSwWoWCr3l2DwczZvBV5V2-lEmij34wPdutsnMugLqviP0/s1600/EDF722B5-C5FB-486C-9581-0B6217CE1EB0_1_201_a.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1226" data-original-width="1600" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLxvWbmrfsPCoiRoUFt5XPKfm39PUgy3joSDrSwLoVWu3i3K_iyjU-liXV0tVuGsHgQee9Oj1BBowQ7eOSLQ-BBwamSxsD6XSwWoWCr3l2DwczZvBV5V2-lEmij34wPdutsnMugLqviP0/s320/EDF722B5-C5FB-486C-9581-0B6217CE1EB0_1_201_a.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
Here's my annual list of professional "projects" that I was involved in and overseeing during 2019. (You can read previous lists <a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2019/01/projects-of-2018.html" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2017/12/cities-and-projects-of-2017.html" target="_blank">here</a>.) As I've mentioned in the past, it's good to take stock of these accomplishments because it helps remind me how busy things have been, particularly as I have a tendency to always move on to the next project and forget what I've already done. The photo you see here is of me giving the introductory remarks at an event I coordinated in April, an <a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2019/04/british-portraits-at-columbia-catalogue.html" target="_blank">"Evening at Avery: British Portraiture"</a>, to coincide with the exhibition I co-curated (more on that below; no idea whose head that is in the photo!). The event had a surprisingly good turn-out, and our two speakers were Mateusz Mayer, PhD student in art history, who co-curated the exhibition with me, and Dr. Meredith Gamer, assistant professor of art history at Columbia who gave a riveting talk about alternative concepts of 18th-century British portraiture for those who are often forgotten by history and society.<br />
<br />
Here is the 2019 list...<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>I published two book reviews, which I mentioned about in my Books of 2019 post as well. The first was <a href="https://www.arlisna.org/publications/reviews/1679-beyond-the-face-new-perspectives-on-portraiture" target="_blank">a short review on <i>Beyond the Face: New Perspectives on Portraiture</i></a>, about which <a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2019/03/review-beyond-face-and-carrie-mae-weems.html" target="_blank">I posted even more</a>. The second was a review essay in <i>Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide</i> on Anthea Callen's new book <i><a href="https://www.19thc-artworldwide.org/autumn19/ferrari-reviews-looking-at-men-by-anthea-callen" target="_blank">Looking at Men: Art, Anatomy and the Modern Male Body</a></i>.</li>
<li>I curated at work a summer exhibition entitled <i><a href="https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/avery/2019/06/19/animalia/" target="_blank">Animalia: The Essence of Animals in Art</a></i>, with artwork from the permanent collection dating from 3rd-century Mexican dog sculptures to contemporary Inuit sculptures. During the winter/spring, I co-curated the exhibition <i><a href="https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/avery/2019/02/20/hoppner-beechey-fisher-lavery-researching-columbias-portraits/" target="_blank">Hoppner, Beechey, Fisher, Lavery: Researching Columbia's Portraits</a></i> with M. Mayer, and we published online a catalogue of the exhibition with essays by both of us, <a href="https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/d8-zypg-4e48" target="_blank">which you can download and read here</a>. My staff and colleagues at work deserve lots of credit for all their help in making these exhibitions possible.</li>
<li>I acted as curatorial project manager with Dr. Frederique Baumgartner on the "MA in Art History Presents" exhibition at Columbia entitled <i>Clodion (1738-1814) and "Clodion Mania" in Nineteenth-Century France</i>, which has <a href="https://projects.mcah.columbia.edu/ma/2019" target="_blank">a fantastic online exhibition component you can see here</a>.</li>
<li>Tomas Macsotay and I co-chaired a panel session entitled "Transnationalism and Sculpture in the Long Nineteenth Century (ca. 1785-1915)" at the annual conference of the College Art Association in February in NYC.</li>
<li>I served on the selection committee & jury for the 16th annual graduate student symposium co-sponsored by the Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art and the Dahesh Museum of Art in March in NYC.</li>
<li>I was the guest speaker at a Columbia Alumni Association of New Mexico event, where I spoke about the collections and our educational programs to alumni. This took place in Santa Fe, New Mexico in September.</li>
<li>Columbia's Department of Art History and Archaeology had received a small grant to coordinate an international project called Parallel Heritages, with some of their students and students at The Sorbonne, Univ. Paris I, for an international research project on archaeological objects in both collections. I gave presentations at both components, in NYC in March, and in Paris at The Sorbonne in November.</li>
<li>I also gave a paper entitled "British Portraits at Columbia University: Opportunities for Object-Centered Learning" at the annual <i><a href="https://www.britishportraits.org.uk/events/annual-seminar-2019/" target="_blank">Understanding British Portraits</a></i> seminar, held at the National Portrait Gallery in London in November.</li>
<li>I participated in the annual conference of the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries in June in Minneapolis, Minnesota.</li>
<li>Totally not work-related, but worth documenting... in February AA & I took a fantastic wine-tasting class that was incredibly informative (we are doing a repeat, focused version on Italian wines later this month), as well as a fun cocktail making class in December. We also went to go see the opera <i>The Magic Flute</i> at the Metropolitan Opera and <i>Moulin Rouge</i> on Broadway.</li>
</ul>
All in all, another incredibly productive and fulfilling year!bklynbibliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12857539103503922487noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2267610447946469978.post-47648254086742604332019-12-31T21:32:00.001-05:002019-12-31T21:34:16.646-05:00Books of 2019<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCyCxTKUrR8NJ2FVC-HiNTn7IEVbHgsitYWDdvhlLaP1jlyLAecRmXk8H-Er5OBJSe-BoM1JNhorWB7nHMPOtmV-7EBTL6ufS_CBcLbQUN-fgm5MOETQpP7QAbRBw6xDDDYjzVoEIYDms/s1600/0385537077.01._SX450_SY635_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="331" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCyCxTKUrR8NJ2FVC-HiNTn7IEVbHgsitYWDdvhlLaP1jlyLAecRmXk8H-Er5OBJSe-BoM1JNhorWB7nHMPOtmV-7EBTL6ufS_CBcLbQUN-fgm5MOETQpP7QAbRBw6xDDDYjzVoEIYDms/s320/0385537077.01._SX450_SY635_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg" width="211" /></a></div>
This morning, AA said to me by text, "Aren't you going to <a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2018/12/books-of-2018.html" target="_blank">blog about your Books of 2019</a>?" And so here I am doing it, while he's on an airplane heading back home so we can celebrate New Year's Eve just in time with a glass of prosecco. Normally I write this post soon after the annual <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/books/notable-books.html" target="_blank">100 Notable Books from <i>The New York Times</i></a> comes out, but we were away at that time and . . . well, that thing called daily life just kept delaying things. Over the last few years, though, I've discovered that not all of the books on the list are among my favorites once I actually read them. Case in point: last year, Tana French's <i>The Witch Elm</i> and Lisa Halliday's <i>Asymmetry</i> were on their list, and I was eager to read them, but to be frank I didn't find either book to be "best" reads. In my opinion, French's book was too dense with excessive details for that type of book (mystery/thriller), so by the time you started getting into the actual mystery, the suspense wasn't there for me. Halliday's book, in turn, was creative as a writing experiment (two novellas that seem to have nothing to do with one another, then somehow become linked in a coda-story), so it wasn't as if I didn't like the book, but it just wasn't what I would consider to be a favorite. All that said, I had commented last year about looking forward to reading Michelle Obama's autobiography, and that was great--inspiring even! I guess I'm biased, but what made it such an enjoyable read was that it felt like she was talking to you the entire time, telling you not just about her life but the lessons she learned from her experiences.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMccpReLOupKib5h9Afsibu3LXELepFqgVSeHxTELkQchVS_OGEkyPMz_7yM5ZTPK1kdevE0GIPn71hHeo7U1GJoAm5b6I_S5K2TYIb284D0q-gqJNkba9AcjM6yw3OSTNDV6iJ1zBKd8/s1600/0300112947.01._SX450_SY635_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="379" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMccpReLOupKib5h9Afsibu3LXELepFqgVSeHxTELkQchVS_OGEkyPMz_7yM5ZTPK1kdevE0GIPn71hHeo7U1GJoAm5b6I_S5K2TYIb284D0q-gqJNkba9AcjM6yw3OSTNDV6iJ1zBKd8/s200/0300112947.01._SX450_SY635_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg" width="151" /></a></div>
The image you see above is undoubtedly my favorite novel that I read this year. Colson Whitehead's new book was published in 2019 and I bought and read it immediately. I loved <i>The Underground Railroad</i>, as painful as that book was to read, so while <i>The Nickel Boys</i> wasn't "magically realistic" as components of his previous book was, the pain and anguish, and the lessons we have to learn still about America's history of racism and abuse of power, were remarkably strong with completely different types of stories. Whitehead has this uncanny ability in these two books to create a narrative voice that allows you to feel the pain of his characters, but still keep yourself at a distance so you can process it objectively. I see him as an heir to Toni Morrison in some ways. I have no doubt that these two books will be models of a new American literature for generations to come, much the same way Harper Lee's <i>To Kill a Mockingbird</i> has been. That was a book I also finally read earlier this year for the first time. I discovered the Icelandic author Sj<span style="text-indent: -36px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">ó</span></span>n this year with his fairy-tale-with-a-twist <i>The Blue Fox</i>, and I thoroughly enjoyed, both as a mystery and a meta-novel, Anthony Horowitz's clever <i>The Word Is Murder</i>. I should add that a year ago when I did my last books post, I was worried that <i>Persuasion</i> wasn't going to end well, but I'm pleased to say that it was in fact probably my favorite Jane Austen novel of them all. I read somewhere that if you loved <i>Pride and Prejudice </i>as a young person, <i>Persuasion</i> is the book you read as a mature adult to find satisfaction in her writing. It is so true.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBkZmqQk9WPnIXv2gcu3kP2HtyF2lhNVrGyMIuQXe45JjTcEe_mWVVot0Mk_urUTPZMW2etLwFspWvLtLchSQKH3ZZz8bbJWWuxQzmsKS7HRxPFbzzY0Pq5xcMH2xDPa2G8HriODCeqEU/s1600/1593081235.01._SX450_SY635_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="321" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBkZmqQk9WPnIXv2gcu3kP2HtyF2lhNVrGyMIuQXe45JjTcEe_mWVVot0Mk_urUTPZMW2etLwFspWvLtLchSQKH3ZZz8bbJWWuxQzmsKS7HRxPFbzzY0Pq5xcMH2xDPa2G8HriODCeqEU/s200/1593081235.01._SX450_SY635_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg" width="128" /></a>In the world of non-fiction, I enjoyed and learned a lot from Richard Holmes's group biography <i>The Age of Wonder</i>, on the history of science and Romanticism around the years 1800. I read the collection of essays <i>Beyond the Face,</i> providing new interpretations on portraiture in the history of art of the United States and beyond, and published a book review of it <a href="https://www.arlisna.org/publications/reviews/1679-beyond-the-face-new-perspectives-on-portraiture" target="_blank">which you can read here</a> as well as <a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2019/03/review-beyond-face-and-carrie-mae-weems.html" target="_blank">my blog post here where I add more about the artist Carrie Mae Weems</a>. I also read Anthea Callen's new art history/anatomy book <i>Looking at Men</i>, and published an extended book review essay in <i>Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide</i>, <a href="https://www.19thc-artworldwide.org/autumn19/ferrari-reviews-looking-at-men-by-anthea-callen" target="_blank">which you can read here</a>. Right now, my bedtime read is Robert K. Massie's biography of Catherine the Great, and my subway reading is Joseph Conrad's <i>Heart of Darkness</i>, which I read back in college (almost 30 years ago!), but decided to revisit all these years later.<br />
<br />
It seemed like a good idea to actually share the full list of the 30 books I've read this year. This is the order in which I finished them, and I've included the publication year in brackets, and my star rankings (5-stars is highest!) to help anyone along if they decide they want to read these. Here's to 2020 and more books to read!<br />
<br />
<style type="text/css">
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 36.0px; text-indent: -36.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; color: #000000}
p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 36.0px; text-indent: -36.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff}
span.s1 {font-kerning: none}
span.s2 {font-kerning: none; background-color: #ffffff}
</style>
<br />
<div class="p1">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i>Persuasion</i> by Jane Austen [1818] (*****)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i>To Kill a Mockingbird </i>by Harper Lee [1960] (*****)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i>The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science </i>by Richard Holmes [2008] (*****)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i>Beyond the Face: New Perspectives on Portraiture</i> by Wendy Wick Reaves, ed. [2018] (****)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i>Arctic Chill</i> by Arnaldur Indridason, trans. B. Scudder & V. Cribb [2005] (****)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i>The Blue Fox</i> by Sjón, trans. V. Cribb [2004] (*****)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i>Rogues’ Gallery: The Rise (and Occasional Fall) of Art Dealers, the Hidden Players in the History of Art</i> by Philip Hook [2017] (***)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i>The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher: Stories</i> by Hilary Mantel [2014] (***)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i>The Body in Three Dimensions </i>by Tom Flynn [1998] (***)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i>Troubling Love</i> by Elena Ferrante, trans. Ann Goldstein [1999] (****)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i>Looking at Men: Art, Anatomy and the Modern Male Body</i> [2018] (***)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i>Becoming</i> by Michelle Obama [2018] (*****)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i>The Death of Mrs. Westaway </i>by Ruth Ware [2018] (***)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i>The Body in Pieces: The Fragment as a Metaphor of Modernity</i> by Linda Nochlin [1994] (****)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i>Serpents in Eden: Countryside Crimes</i> by Martin Edwards, ed. [2016] (****)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i>Model and Supermodel: The Artist's Model in British Art and Culture</i><span style="background-color: white;"> by J. Desmarais, M. Postle & W. Vaughan, eds. [2006] (****)</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i>Bloomsbury at Home</i> by Pamela Todd [1999] (****)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i>Asymmetry </i>by Lisa Halliday [2018] (****)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i>Duncan Grant and the Bloomsbury Group</i> by Douglas Blair Turnbaugh [1987] (***)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i>The Child’s Child</i> by Barbara Vine [2012] (***)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i>The Nickel Boys</i> by Colson Whitehead [2019] (*****)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i>The Sparsholt Affair</i> by Alan Hollinghurst [2017] (****)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i>Harm Done</i> by Ruth Rendell [1999] (****)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i>Bacchante and Infant Faun: Tradition, Controversy, and Legacy</i> by Thayer Tolles [2019] (****)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i>30 Favorites Celebrating 30 Years</i> by Stacia Lewandowski & Zaplin Lampert Gallery [2017] (***)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i>The Stonewall Reader </i>by Jason Baumann, ed. [2019] (***)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i>Teaching in the Art Museum: Interpretation as Experience</i> by Rika Burnham & Elliott Kai-Kee [2011] (****)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i>Losing Helen: An Essay</i> by Carol Becker [2016] (*****)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i>The Witch Elm </i>by Tana French [2018] (***)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><i>The Word Is Murder</i> by Anthony Horowitz [2018] (*****) </span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<style type="text/css">
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 36.0px; text-indent: -36.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; color: #000000}
span.s1 {font-kerning: none}
</style>bklynbibliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12857539103503922487noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2267610447946469978.post-43447797420874499512019-12-02T18:11:00.002-05:002019-12-02T18:11:53.386-05:00First Snowfall & Snowstorm: 2019-2020 Fall/Winter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizD0T-yeLahCaUPYq7yqMRdi3Jh7G-43YjIx88cLOAvrRFAEJikkVNDTWA2oiOncLrf__dP8WFcpIhfgGLRckbB3bRK1DeCq8NAwc5ktxKn8upP2TabCnx4Q4Ukq7wOUVn1KkH4kC3Src/s1600/image0.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizD0T-yeLahCaUPYq7yqMRdi3Jh7G-43YjIx88cLOAvrRFAEJikkVNDTWA2oiOncLrf__dP8WFcpIhfgGLRckbB3bRK1DeCq8NAwc5ktxKn8upP2TabCnx4Q4Ukq7wOUVn1KkH4kC3Src/s320/image0.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div>
Has it really been almost nine months since I last blogged? One would like to imagine that this period of gestation might have led to the birth of something magnificent and wonderful that I could announce here.<br />
<br />
Alas, no. It's just snow.<br />
<br />
Perhaps it was the annual recurrence of this phenomenon of nature in the Northeast (i.e. <a href="https://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2018/11/first-snowfall-2018-2019-fallwinter.html" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="https://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2019/03/first-snowstorm-2019-winter.html" target="_blank">here</a>) that has drawn me back to the blog. Perhaps it is the anticipation and expectation of the cold season that has inspired me to return, huddled in front of my laptop, listening to the loud rush of gusty air from the heating unit not too far away. I don't want to make any claims or set hopes high: let's take all this one day at a time...<br />
<br />
Today was our first snowfall and, I think it's safe to say, our first snowstorm, here in the NYC area, as we received a few inches for sure. I took the picture you see here at 3:03 PM on the campus of Columbia University. I was on a coffee break, and I was surprised to see that the snow was sticking. The campus plows had already come through at least once.<br />
<br />
Technically, though, I imagine I should claim the first snowfall for AA and me actually was last Thursday--yes, on Thanksgiving!--not here in the NYC area but in Chicago. We were getting ready to head out to our "Friendsgiving" dinner when AA noticed snow flurries out our window on the 28th floor. By the time we went downstairs, however, the snow flurries had already dissipated into dewy drops, making me realize that what we saw above never actually made it to the ground. Indeed, on the ground, no one even knew that it had been snowing. It was an interesting existential moment: the realization that two different people in the same location (albeit, at different vertical planes) could experience nature in two very different ways...<br />
<br />
Have you missed this? More anon from <i>bklynbiblio</i>...I hope...bklynbibliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12857539103503922487noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2267610447946469978.post-68379398403248642182019-04-14T17:28:00.000-04:002019-04-14T17:28:36.009-04:00British Portraits at Columbia Catalogue<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG4Du4HJZCVWeGNXX7d6eTN9vczE2yatsgt4-4QB7ZTnI2EyBlKtHZ12KDoL7fGZU3vuXZoTHmYiw2-uiP7rx4DKieB4EU-5-Chjdva6ApknJDHS_2-Wlyqmj_9GGlSzIbPNDtJqO4wtk/s1600/IMG_0078.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1527" data-original-width="1600" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG4Du4HJZCVWeGNXX7d6eTN9vczE2yatsgt4-4QB7ZTnI2EyBlKtHZ12KDoL7fGZU3vuXZoTHmYiw2-uiP7rx4DKieB4EU-5-Chjdva6ApknJDHS_2-Wlyqmj_9GGlSzIbPNDtJqO4wtk/s200/IMG_0078.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
Just over a month ago, I blogged about <a href="https://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2019/03/british-portraits-at-columbia-exhibition.html" target="_blank">the new exhibition about four British portraits</a> that we have on view at Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library. The paintings are from Columbia's permanent collection. I'm pleased to share the news that the pamphlet-type catalogue we've published is now available for free to download from Columbia's Academic Commons network (<a href="https://doi.org/10.7916/d8-zypg-4e48" target="_blank">click here</a>). I'm incredibly pleased with this came out, which is a testament to the incredible design skills of Katherine Prater, one of my co-workers. The essays are extended versions of the didactic panels Mateusz and I wrote.<br />
<br />
Ten days ago, on April 4th, we hosted an invitation-only Evening at Avery to celebrate the exhibition and bring more paintings out to show. Dr. Meredith Gamer was our keynote speaker, and my co-curator MM and I also gave brief talks that were well-received. My thanks to Paul Jeromack for sending me pictures he took from the evening, which I am posting here.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjas4DLkjTGHQNzUflAzmPnwYPdw6yRAD6bLZ7OL4bo_CT-7mxBzIUZ-1gFd7D7wLZWfD_-jsfgL3BL9aZIjYiacbuHF2PnsKWIoHB9rsS4Iu8mTuiCfn4lBgOB61x8alqzuE5xA_nz06s/s1600/IMG_0077.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjas4DLkjTGHQNzUflAzmPnwYPdw6yRAD6bLZ7OL4bo_CT-7mxBzIUZ-1gFd7D7wLZWfD_-jsfgL3BL9aZIjYiacbuHF2PnsKWIoHB9rsS4Iu8mTuiCfn4lBgOB61x8alqzuE5xA_nz06s/s320/IMG_0077.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZVMk-PMViiSkyzVuZ64KnGo3s2dakr8ane80F28EiFfDEeC1JQ6hk6Wf6-_0zS7gRwhaj2pdRKU9-GZlMuFAYoXpzl5uxDN0OcG7KmxV6IyE-SkzK7eW8_AS4nBku9sk0Pm41v32SjaA/s1600/IMG_0080.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1245" data-original-width="1600" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZVMk-PMViiSkyzVuZ64KnGo3s2dakr8ane80F28EiFfDEeC1JQ6hk6Wf6-_0zS7gRwhaj2pdRKU9-GZlMuFAYoXpzl5uxDN0OcG7KmxV6IyE-SkzK7eW8_AS4nBku9sk0Pm41v32SjaA/s320/IMG_0080.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEfHbwsPAZ-8dSExcmiqbD4kgu4niC2kiAI1ZxzCUv3BLIe-nVN4deIUgUvlhYRg8O816bGz6iw1dMKf_co0Tbvw0Jl6Zs_2IwyyTpWSPJxAjhqnX-EAArtwGPLZxkii3-y6lqn5P3GOs/s1600/IMG_0081.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEfHbwsPAZ-8dSExcmiqbD4kgu4niC2kiAI1ZxzCUv3BLIe-nVN4deIUgUvlhYRg8O816bGz6iw1dMKf_co0Tbvw0Jl6Zs_2IwyyTpWSPJxAjhqnX-EAArtwGPLZxkii3-y6lqn5P3GOs/s320/IMG_0081.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />bklynbibliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12857539103503922487noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2267610447946469978.post-35462822961590797322019-04-14T17:10:00.000-04:002019-04-14T17:44:53.619-04:00The Social Media Phenomenon (aka Naked Men)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvR_XMeNjXHcejhpbja3qAt_SYsQF5wOVIRuNL6_7lnv_QF3y29QMtDmjt9Ob8IejtXX_FJ4VTlkkMwm5SB0mmdwSf1EfJ-sl9nL422fPMOroFq90coQVwEhR3_1SaXJvj2rfAMs7uHT4/s1600/hyv5Mm8iR7%252BXhsquAJUZbg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvR_XMeNjXHcejhpbja3qAt_SYsQF5wOVIRuNL6_7lnv_QF3y29QMtDmjt9Ob8IejtXX_FJ4VTlkkMwm5SB0mmdwSf1EfJ-sl9nL422fPMOroFq90coQVwEhR3_1SaXJvj2rfAMs7uHT4/s320/hyv5Mm8iR7%252BXhsquAJUZbg.jpg" width="240" /></a>24 hours ago, I was in Chelsea to see two exhibitions: Jeff Miller's show <a href="http://atlanticgallery.org/exhibitions/" target="_blank">"Through the Looking-Glass: Alter Egos & Others"</a> at the Atlantic Gallery; and <a href="https://www.davidzwirner.com/exhibitions/young-and-evil" target="_blank">"The Young and Evil"</a> curated by Jarrett Earnest at David Zwirner. Soon afterward, I posted on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/rcferrari_nyc/" target="_blank">my Instagram account</a> pictures showing installation views and object shots from both shows. Whenever I post on Instagram, the norm for me is about 50-60 likes. Occasionally, it goes up to the 80+, and I've had about 4 posts that were liked by over 100 people. Let's face it: despite some personal "fans" (you are reading this right now!), I'm not a social media phenomenon, nor have I ever aspired to be. So you can probably imagine my complete shock and surprise how--only 24 hours later--I now have over 1,300 likes on my Instagram post about the exhibition at David Zwirner. I am literally stunned by this and--dare I say--even a little disturbed by it. I said to AA at least twice today "post a picture of a painting of a naked man..." Clearly that has something to do with it. But there has to be something else going on. I wonder if it is some sort of algorithm, pushing the image higher in the search for people or coming up randomly on people's Instagram posts because friends-of-friends-of-friends are liking it, and it's growing exponentially as a result. I don't think my hashtags (e.g. #queerart #stonewall50 etc.) are that special, but maybe I'm wrong. It has occurred to me that perhaps the gallery is somehow actively pushing the feed, but I don't see how they could do that. In any case, it's all completely bizarre how over 1,300 people I have never met, who live everywhere in the world, are liking these pictures. A few have commented and asked questions, so I've helped identify the works and responded to them. Some have started following me now, which is how this is supposed to work I imagine, and I in turn have chosen to follow a few back.<br />
<br />
What is fantastic about the exhibition (which has now closed--yesterday was the last day) is that it presents a number of pictures never published before and rarely, if ever, seen by the public, all depicting works of art by a group of gay male artists (and women close to them) who were all active in the 1930s and 1940s in New York City. The artists on view include Paul Cadmus, Jared French, George Platt Lynes, George Tooker, and so on. The style of art is largely figurative, somewhat surrealist, frequently provocative (and unapologetically so), and using older painting techniques out of favor at the time (e.g. tempera paint). Ultimately, it presents an alternative canon of American art, and it challenges the modernist tendencies that lean towards abstraction and social realism--art movements almost completely dominated by heterosexual men, culminating in the mid-century, uber-macho-modernity of Abstract Expressionism (i.e. Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, etc.). One of the artists who has been underappreciated and clearly comes to the foreground in the show is the Russian-born artist Pavel Tchelitchew (1898-1957). The image you see above is by him: <i>The Lion Boy</i>, 1936-37, gouache on paper mounted onto canvas. The stark hyperrealism of the muscular, blonde youth whose mane-like hair bursts from his body even more strongly than that from his head is without a doubt incredibly startling to see. The fact that it is uncomfortable for some to even see it now, or the fact that so many others are enamored of it because of its eroticism, reinforces how unusual such images are in our society. Would anyone have reacted the same way if it was a painting of a nude woman with blonde hair? I doubt it. Even if it were a spectacular painting, I can't imagine that it would have generated over 1,300 likes just 24 hours after I had posted the picture.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFA9dkWRsylUlUCBHvZTxH6A28RlNqYPYATC0Pco2PnfQMFzdOLqt32xPND1wWoG5rwKsDC-CsWLd6riliKnxaDz_yBRZzsHUsDz2p_ilVRHAUjmnfynID0qJ_plGIkVMvGpqBwFMFwZU/s1600/t5hlFBQAQ3WVy0vJmRC1mw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFA9dkWRsylUlUCBHvZTxH6A28RlNqYPYATC0Pco2PnfQMFzdOLqt32xPND1wWoG5rwKsDC-CsWLd6riliKnxaDz_yBRZzsHUsDz2p_ilVRHAUjmnfynID0qJ_plGIkVMvGpqBwFMFwZU/s320/t5hlFBQAQ3WVy0vJmRC1mw.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
Going back to Jeff Miller's show, if you're in the NYC area, you should go see his show too before it closes next week. Like the other exhibition profiling gay male artists, Miller exhibits his own interpretation of the idealized male body. His drawings have a fascinating energy to them, and his hyperrealistic sculptures play with ideas of ego and superego in their doubling effect. So far, though, the post of his pictures on Instagram has only generated about 40 likes in 24 hours. The thing is, that is actually a great number! But when compared to the other post, it just demonstrates that there is something more going on that has to explain how the other post has literally shot through the social media roof.bklynbibliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12857539103503922487noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2267610447946469978.post-47551643172416995882019-03-16T10:58:00.000-04:002019-03-16T10:58:09.391-04:00Review: Beyond the Face (and Carrie Mae Weems)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAAyQRJ5N9qRgMpxcodl7XOsLRrpok9tnfevRwZ7meqs979ruSNJ5iJpeLXx0w2zkWqbl283IhwYwSlBGEtxoamajeuZuizPp6sm6mxcQxL5uA5NsesVj_Vtbm-b61ubAsHDCmvSa6eMg/s1600/1911282204.01._SX450_SY635_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="495" data-original-width="450" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAAyQRJ5N9qRgMpxcodl7XOsLRrpok9tnfevRwZ7meqs979ruSNJ5iJpeLXx0w2zkWqbl283IhwYwSlBGEtxoamajeuZuizPp6sm6mxcQxL5uA5NsesVj_Vtbm-b61ubAsHDCmvSa6eMg/s200/1911282204.01._SX450_SY635_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg" width="181" /></a></div>
Earlier this month, <i>ARLIS/NA Reviews</i> published my short review on the new book <i>Beyond the Face: New Perspectives on Portraiture</i>, which was published in 2018 by the Smithsonian Institution, National Portrait Gallery, as part of its 50th anniversary celebration. Edited by curator emerita Wendy Wick Reaves, the book includes her introduction and sixteen essays by junior and established scholars on aspects of American portraiture. <a href="https://www.arlisna.org/publications/reviews/1679-beyond-the-face-new-perspectives-on-portraiture" target="_blank">You can read my review here</a>. The book truly does offer new insights into thinking about American portraiture, historical and modern/contemporary, with a particular emphasis on non-white artists and representations thereof. The essays on photography were among the most interesting, and I mentioned in the review that one scholar's take on a photograph by Carrie Mae Weems was brilliant. I thought I would engage with that a little more here.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMA0nksdIPB2Vk1dIne2h_Fh3vex1EufZb1c9KzLpDmKrNXqKFLVonzIZF2Rz-x9ZjwsYqBEIzSUm7RbxmsMsQZ9guNGUBgN6Yj0DxQQ2Sy3AEzWf3LLc02ydraSTxR0yWRnd6LACn_dI/s1600/Weems_Guggenheim.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1569" data-original-width="1600" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMA0nksdIPB2Vk1dIne2h_Fh3vex1EufZb1c9KzLpDmKrNXqKFLVonzIZF2Rz-x9ZjwsYqBEIzSUm7RbxmsMsQZ9guNGUBgN6Yj0DxQQ2Sy3AEzWf3LLc02ydraSTxR0yWRnd6LACn_dI/s320/Weems_Guggenheim.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Nikki A. Greene's essay, "<i>Habla LAMADRE</i>: Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Carrie Mae Weems, and Black Feminist Performance," focused on these two women artists, but more importantly engaged with the way that women of color have been excluded historically as makers of art from the great museum collections and exhibition programs. Weems's <a href="https://www.guggenheim.org/exhibition/carrie-mae-weems-three-decades-of-photography-and-video" target="_blank">2014 exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum</a> was unprecedented, as she was the first African-American woman to have a show there. I remember the exhibition well; it was incredibly moving and powerful. Weems's photographs from her <i>Museums</i> series position the artist as a <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%BCckenfigur" target="_blank">Ruckenfigur</a></i>, displaying her body shrouded in black to the viewer as she stands outside the great cultural institutions and museums worldwide as an outsider. In her essay, Greene writes of the image you see here, <i>Guggenheim Bilbao</i>, 2006, as follows:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Weems journeyed to northern Spain ... to encounter the seduction of the sweeping, undulating, titanium walls of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, designed by Frank Gehry and completed in 1997. In the photograph </i>Guggenheim Bilbao<i>, Weems stands as a dark silhouette in her black, long-sleeved dress with her back to the viewer .... Weems stretches her arms outward to rest her hands on a white railing that heightens the chasm between her and the museum as water gently ripples below her. The framing of this photograph plays on the building's ship-like forms, with stern-like triangular peaks making Weems appear as if she is viewing the museum across a body of water from her own ship. Weems's serenity in the face of the immensity of the museum's presence grounds the viewer, encouraging a pause as the two ships purportedly confront each other. This moment of recognition of each other's position in space acknowledges their unreachability.</i> (pp. 294-95)</blockquote>
What Greene also intimates with this ship-like allusion is the history of the transatlantic slave trade and the ongoing legacy of slavery as a hindrance to people of color, in this instance in an art world dominated by white privilege and the 1%. Greene's reading of this image is wonderfully intuitive.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkVvZ7FrSJizvEfPQv3AW97vDeHNCmaKHMxaHa70PHBoyzMvm-94TC-Y2-37Wz2J-9EKJmwxvPc94FVjtIQo39HgVsP3wAxsDNH_tVG1KkVBg2WNqUSmrBnQdAE-4UTMjsn8qHRtBXtGA/s1600/0300112947.01._SX450_SY635_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="379" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkVvZ7FrSJizvEfPQv3AW97vDeHNCmaKHMxaHa70PHBoyzMvm-94TC-Y2-37Wz2J-9EKJmwxvPc94FVjtIQo39HgVsP3wAxsDNH_tVG1KkVBg2WNqUSmrBnQdAE-4UTMjsn8qHRtBXtGA/s200/0300112947.01._SX450_SY635_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg" width="151" /></a></div>
The next book I'm scheduled to review for a publication is this: <i>Looking at Men: Art, Anatomy and the Modern Male Body </i>by Anthea Callen (2018). The book focuses on the nineteenth century. It should prove an interesting read, incorporating issues of science and medicine along with artistic practice, framed by the development of heterosexual, homosocial, and homosexual identities over the course of the century. Or so I hope!bklynbibliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12857539103503922487noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2267610447946469978.post-10068278733701623192019-03-02T09:41:00.001-05:002019-03-02T09:41:31.634-05:00British Portraits at Columbia Exhibition<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhClV-RwDdRiKLoeGuXM6bBwUYnAOkyTgsVlWQeZaPViC8eQspb-pnI8YEK0osI9w4RqC9Kv2GGmmEiXeB_7f5Oy1-B_mDvHALPLaQO53Rxws25By-xKbqciRS5pJkTrEtt5PrR8O1uicw/s1600/C00_771-photoshopped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1112" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhClV-RwDdRiKLoeGuXM6bBwUYnAOkyTgsVlWQeZaPViC8eQspb-pnI8YEK0osI9w4RqC9Kv2GGmmEiXeB_7f5Oy1-B_mDvHALPLaQO53Rxws25By-xKbqciRS5pJkTrEtt5PrR8O1uicw/s400/C00_771-photoshopped.jpg" width="277" /></a></div>
On February 11th, we officially opened a new exhibition at work that I curated with PhD art-history student Mateusz Mayer. The show is entitled <i>Hoppner, Beechey, Fisher, Lavery: Researching Columbia's Portraits</i>, and is on view in Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Wallach Study Center for Art & Architecture, until May 10th. It is open to the public Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm. This focused exhibition showcases four rarely-seen historical British portraits from the permanent collection, and transforms them into objects of study rather than present them as traditional museum-style masterpieces by these artists. The portraits were painted between the years 1800 and 1927, and the show highlights new discoveries that we have made about them, ranging from biography to provenance to political propaganda. As examples of British portraits, the show also seeks to query the idea of "British-ness," both in its historical context and in the age of Brexit.<br />
<br />
One of the paintings on view is the work you see here, a portrait of King George III by Sir William Beechey and his studio. The portrait depicts the king wearing a field marshal's uniform, his bicorn hat and Star of the Order of the Garter prominent ornaments to his outfit. The painting is an artist's copy of his life-sized portrait of the king that he exhibited at the 1800 Royal Academy exhibition, <a href="https://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/9/collection/405422/george-iii-1738-1820" target="_blank">now in the Royal Collection</a>. The painting became so popular (arguably a form of political propaganda) that Beechey's studio produced numerous replicas and copies, some with various backgrounds and in half-size and portrait-bust versions. In the background of this portrait is Windsor Castle, the king's primary residence, where Beechey likely painted the original version. This painting was a gift to Columbia in 1943 by Mrs. Mary Hill Hill. Her doubled surname is not an accident: her father and husband, both of whom were railroad magnates, had the same last names, but there were no family relations between them. Although originally from Minnesota, Mrs. Hill Hill lived at the time of the donation in Tarrytown, NY, and auction catalogs after her death show that she was an avid collector of 18th-century British portraits and George III silver.<br />
<br />
A free accompanying exhibition catalog will be made available very soon, so I'll post a link to the PDF version when it's ready.bklynbibliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12857539103503922487noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2267610447946469978.post-726280879386467932019-03-02T08:59:00.001-05:002019-03-02T08:59:55.478-05:00First Snowstorm: 2019 Winter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOY0I6S58vIYWAP7VTBn22eLupF2zfbRADXdhAQ0Pt7vm9x49cl3sWw61_Y5EoNXbXEvvbGaQ2fqs5QbrnvRxB2s9l9tb_iJm_yVODHltE266pfa0FH781ct-xUcoxTxZX9TbnZPvLlDM/s1600/IMG_6240.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOY0I6S58vIYWAP7VTBn22eLupF2zfbRADXdhAQ0Pt7vm9x49cl3sWw61_Y5EoNXbXEvvbGaQ2fqs5QbrnvRxB2s9l9tb_iJm_yVODHltE266pfa0FH781ct-xUcoxTxZX9TbnZPvLlDM/s320/IMG_6240.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
This snow season has been a bit strange. We had an early <a href="https://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2018/11/first-snowfall-2018-2019-fallwinter.html" target="_blank">first snowfall back in November</a>, and while we've had a couple of light flurries since then, it's taken until during this past night and this morning for us to have what I would qualify as being some semblance of a snowstorm. This is a photo I took outside our loft window about 7:40am this morning (and, yes, it is coincidentally the same view that I posted last time!). By that time Newark Airport was reporting over 4 inches of snow. It's all supposed to stop in a little while, but then snow again tomorrow and all Sunday night, so Monday morning commuting should be a bit miserable. It's always lovely to see the snow come down and blanket everything in shimmering whiteness; the dirty snow and mucky slush is the let-down afterward. Overall, though, this has been a light snow season <a href="https://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2016/01/first-snowstorm-2015-2016-winter.html" target="_blank">as compared to other years</a>.bklynbibliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12857539103503922487noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2267610447946469978.post-25099035688802545702019-01-12T20:01:00.001-05:002019-01-12T20:01:27.729-05:00Projects of 2018<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOxURBWl1OICMjYdzOj1Zr5KBc71N8rnyxgI8QLFyGMPxql7URcLncGkjXKK3dVbUcV9UtEja9KPW7lz4EpvAGASYlORb8TAHr7Fz9gXS3SND34bE6h93c70yJQ32pQRwoPOcMFRt4glg/s1600/IMG_5691.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="960" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOxURBWl1OICMjYdzOj1Zr5KBc71N8rnyxgI8QLFyGMPxql7URcLncGkjXKK3dVbUcV9UtEja9KPW7lz4EpvAGASYlORb8TAHr7Fz9gXS3SND34bE6h93c70yJQ32pQRwoPOcMFRt4glg/s320/IMG_5691.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
Here is my last "highlights" list from 2018...a little late, perhaps, but not by much... (<a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2017/12/cities-and-projects-of-2017.html" target="_blank">Here is the 2017 list</a>.) I've discovered it's beneficial for me to record these events because it helps me take stock of the activities I've been involved with and what I've accomplished. I have a tendency to forget things and move on, and reflecting on these things annually makes me realize that I am doing quite a lot professionally and that I need to stop being so self-critical about what it is that I am not doing.<br />
<br />
The picture you see here commemorates one of the more memorable events. In early October, I joined my fellow Solomaniac friend & colleague Carolyn Conroy and numerous descendants of the Solomon/Salaman family for the rededication of the Salaman family graves and a visit to the recently rededicated grave of Simeon Solomon, all at Willesden Jewish Cemetery in London. It was a special and humbling moment to be there.<br />
<br />
In addition to <a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2018/12/cities-of-2018.html" target="_blank">all our travels (professional and vacation)</a>, here is the 2018 list of projects...<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Published two articles on the sculptor John Gibson: the first, co-authored with M.G. Sullivan, <a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2018/06/gibson-and-portraiture-essay.html" target="_blank">was on Gibson's portraiture practice</a>, and was published in <i>Tate Papers</i> this past June 2018; the second <a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2018/10/statue-of-countess.html" target="_blank">was on Gibson's portrait statue of the Countess Beauchamp</a>, and was published in <i>Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide</i> in October 2018. I am very pleased with both of these and they will help advance awareness about his work to those interested in sculpture studies.</li>
<li><i>bklynbiblio</i> celebrated <a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2018/08/happy-10th-birthday.html" target="_blank">its 10th birthday</a>!</li>
<li>I curated an exhibition entitled <i><a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2018/06/wisdom-of-east-exhibition.html" target="_blank">Wisdom of the East: Buddhist Art from the J. G. Phelps Stokes Collection</a></i> which was on view during the summer months at Columbia University.</li>
<li>I acted as curatorial project manager with Dr. Frederique Baumgartner on two "MA in Art History Presents" exhibitions at Columbia: <i><a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2018/02/art-in-17th-century-life-robert-nanteuil.html" target="_blank">Art in Life: Engravings by Robert Nanteuil (c. 1623-1678) from the Frederick Paul Keppel Collection</a> </i>(Spring 2018) and <i><a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2018/12/morier-and-persia-exhibition.html" target="_blank">Looking East: James Justinian Morier and Nineteenth-Century Persia</a></i> (Fall 2018), supplementing the latter show with a curated installation of Iranian ceramics from the 10th-19th centuries.</li>
<li>Co-chaired a panel session with Petra Chu entitled <a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-video-e-journals-in-art-history.html" target="_blank">"Born-digital and Other E-journals in Art History: Crossing Boundaries among Art Historians, Editors, and Librarians"</a> at the Art Libraries Society of North America conference in February in NYC.</li>
<li>Served on the selection committee & jury for the <a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2018/03/19thc-graduate-student-symposium-2018.html" target="_blank">Graduate Student Symposium</a> co-sponsored by the Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art and the Dahesh Museum of Art in March in NYC.</li>
<li>Co-chaired an all-day panel session with Tomas Macsotay entitled <a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2017/10/nationalist-sculpture-aah-2018-call-for.html" target="_blank">"The National in Discourses of Sculpture in the Long Modern Period (c. 1750-1950)"</a> at the Association for Art History conference in April in London.</li>
<li>Gave a 30-minute talk on Gibson's <i>Tinted Venus</i> at the Met Breuer in NYC in April for a curatorial study day in conjunction with the exhibition <i>Like Life: Sculpture, Color, and the Body</i>.</li>
<li>Attended the conference <i>The Afterlife of Sculptures: Posthumous Casts in Scholarship, the Market, and the Law</i> at the Dedalus Foundation in NYC in May.</li>
<li>Attended the conference <i>Multiple Modernities in American Art</i> at Sotheby's in NYC in May.</li>
<li>Co-presented a paper with Melanie Wacker entitled <a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2018/10/art-libraries-at-rijksmuseum.html" target="_blank">"From Curatorial Files to Linked Open Data: Cataloging the Art Collection at Columbia University"</a> at the 8th International Conference of Art Libraries at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam in October.</li>
<li>Organized a half-day symposium entitled <i>Global Art History and Nineteenth-Century Art</i> at Columbia in November.</li>
<li>Gave an hour-long presentation on the Columbia art collection and object-centered learning at Fairfield University Art Museum in Connecticut in November.</li>
<li>Took a bread baking class with AA in January that was incredible fun, and took a stone carving sculpture class in September that I'm actually still doing (more on that in another blog post!).</li>
<li>Not that it's professional but worth documenting...went to see the following theatrical performances: John Leguizamo's <i>Latin History for Morons</i> (February); <i>Desperate Measures</i> (June); Ballet Folklorico de Mexico (November); and <a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2018/12/la-traviata-at-met.html" target="_blank"><i>La Traviata </i>at The Met</a> (December).</li>
</ul>
bklynbibliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12857539103503922487noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2267610447946469978.post-50477537729263536492019-01-05T11:05:00.001-05:002019-01-05T11:05:13.672-05:00600 Posts!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1cS7BZa9NIVe2K9ebne-3-NIMUqADegkVyoG_ZUzWhseYkSAY3H0nUFSWnF_cvSo_-KzlcC1QYhC-pPmBCw7GgbHv6qt_tDExPOG8fWPzvoc6S45i8DzwOQNaEm9FRuafCF9YOv1_IEo/s1600/six-hundred.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="646" data-original-width="720" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1cS7BZa9NIVe2K9ebne-3-NIMUqADegkVyoG_ZUzWhseYkSAY3H0nUFSWnF_cvSo_-KzlcC1QYhC-pPmBCw7GgbHv6qt_tDExPOG8fWPzvoc6S45i8DzwOQNaEm9FRuafCF9YOv1_IEo/s320/six-hundred.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
When I wrote my annual <a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2019/01/happy-2019.html" target="_blank">New Year's post</a>, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that was my 599th blog post. When I went back to see <a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2015/01/500-posts-and-happy-2015.html" target="_blank">when #500</a> was, I was even more surprised to realize it had taken place on New Year's Day in 2015...AND that <a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2013/01/400-posts-and-happy-2013.html" target="_blank">#400</a> had coincided with 2013 New Year's. It seems oddly serendipitous, then, that my 600th post is happening now, and still rather amazing that I've had this blog going for <a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2018/08/happy-10th-birthday.html" target="_blank">10 years now</a>. I've decided to leave the design of the blog as-is for now, but it's always fun to look at statistics and see how the site has been reached and what are the most popular posts.<br />
<br />
The blog statistics show that I've now had 185,536 page views since August 2008, with visitors mostly coming from U.S. Internet addresses, followed by Russia (!), France, United Kingdom, and Germany, with Italy just barely behind Germany. Readers are mostly coming from Internet Explorer browsers still, although that has dropped down a few percents since 2015 to 36%, while Firefox (30%) and Chrome (22%) use has gone up respectively by 4% and 3% since 500 posts. Not surprisingly, Google searching accounts for about 2/3 of all the statistics in terms of being directed to specific posts. When I look at the most popular blog posts since August 2008, I have to laugh that #1 has remained the most frequently visited/read post (you wouldn't believe how much spam commentary I get on that one!). What was #4 on the 500th mark has bumped up to #2, and remarkably my #s 3, 4, and 5 are all new posts since 2015. Who knew that my Inauguration Day 2017 rant would generate such a high number of reads!? Here's the current ranking:<br />
#1: <a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2010/07/male-enhancement.html" target="_blank">Male Enhancement</a> [Jul. 5, 2010; 2675 views]<br />
#2: <a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2009/10/post-queer-art-history.html" target="_blank">Post-Queer Art History</a> [Oct. 13, 2009; 1699 views]<br />
#3: <a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2017/01/president-tyrant.html" target="_blank">President Tyrant</a> [Jan. 21, 2017; 1590 views]<br />
#4: <a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2017/01/poem-2.html" target="_blank">Poem #2</a> [Jan. 30, 2017; 1451 views]<br />
#5: <a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2016/11/poem-1.html" target="_blank">Poem #1</a> [Nov. 29, 2016; 1350 views]<br />
<br />
It is interesting that my recording of two poems, relating them to certain events at the time, come up as being so popular. I suspect it has to do with the fact that someone is searching for the actual poems or poetry by the authors (in this case respectively Emma Lazarus and Florine Stettheimer), but I appreciate their discovery here and makes me wonder if there is a renewed interest in reading poetry? Last year, I read Richard Blanco's memoirs <i>For All of Us, One Today: An Inaugural Poet's Journey</i>, which was so fantastic in terms of his life experience as a gay Latino in America, but also his zeal and drive for poetry and writing, and reading his poem at Pres. Obama's inauguration. Perhaps we all need more poetry in our lives...<br />
<br />
Thank you to the readers who contact me with encouragement to continue blogging along!bklynbibliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12857539103503922487noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2267610447946469978.post-37573564629004601362019-01-01T21:51:00.000-05:002019-01-01T21:51:08.014-05:00Happy 2019!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH3ixKV3cVzE_t_6sWKUnhWqPOcjSAUw2sJPSDjYozzeJSPXzVjwr72AQLEZzR46w2hEUeuj4Omw93-mRJ_ZHu9th5x15qlRS6OsHzJIRHvpnH1RJUsdW7MgBXZNdUSZmvFrlMkN6iCB8/s1600/181231203339-andy-and-anderson-12-31--large-169.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="259" data-original-width="460" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH3ixKV3cVzE_t_6sWKUnhWqPOcjSAUw2sJPSDjYozzeJSPXzVjwr72AQLEZzR46w2hEUeuj4Omw93-mRJ_ZHu9th5x15qlRS6OsHzJIRHvpnH1RJUsdW7MgBXZNdUSZmvFrlMkN6iCB8/s320/181231203339-andy-and-anderson-12-31--large-169.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
Earlier today I was speaking to Uncle Eddy and I said to him, "Can you imagine it's 2019?!"--to which he replied, "NO!" The way time flies by, it won't be long before we hit 2028, <a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2018/12/90-years-young.html" target="_blank">the centenary of his birth</a>! We spent a lovely Christmas and the week afterward with AA's family in Kansas City, MO. Aside from family visits, I indulged in my first-ever KC barbecue dinner (delicious, but heavy on meat), and we visited the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, and the National World War I Memorial and Museum over the course of the week. We flew home on Sunday, then headed into the City the next day for a New Year's Eve dinner with AR, GM, and GG. It was pouring in NYC, so everyone gathered for the Times Square ball-drop got drenched, including Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper (above), whom we watched while staying toasty warm and dry just a few blocks away watching and supporting our fellow gays on TV. (Other than watching Anderson Cooper get drunk on shots, it wasn't as eventful as we would have hoped though. Or am I being nostalgic for Dick Clark?)<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTmULhWAXrxT70k-KVut3bbKOsAd2hzOXdIfDVN-Nz4jY4PcJISlWcPZBRKfFulFQzZUKqw2N7kG8vIeavyJ-z4ID6JSVgSZje4BxP_IgGDNegETYNZileTdB2glzSeVVaZekwoE2cjFk/s1600/MV5BYTRmMGM1OTMtZWE2OS00MGM3LWI2NmQtODc3MGU4Nzg3MGY5XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMDkyMTkyNQ%2540%2540._V1_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="479" data-original-width="960" height="158" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTmULhWAXrxT70k-KVut3bbKOsAd2hzOXdIfDVN-Nz4jY4PcJISlWcPZBRKfFulFQzZUKqw2N7kG8vIeavyJ-z4ID6JSVgSZje4BxP_IgGDNegETYNZileTdB2glzSeVVaZekwoE2cjFk/s320/MV5BYTRmMGM1OTMtZWE2OS00MGM3LWI2NmQtODc3MGU4Nzg3MGY5XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMDkyMTkyNQ%2540%2540._V1_.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Today for New Year's Day we had a quiet day at home. We ate for dinner butternut squash soup, cod with lemon and pomegranate, and steamed broccoli. Then we watched the gay-themed movie <i><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4830786/" target="_blank">The Cakemaker</a></i> (2017, image right), in which a German baker goes to Jerusalem to find the family of his recently deceased lover, with some awkward consequences. It wasn't a bad movie...the acting and directing was good, there were some existential questions about sexuality worth pondering, and there were a few important moments about Jewish/Gentile cultural differences, but it was a bit slow. I am craving black forest cake now (you have to watch to get the message).<br />
<br />
<i>Happy 2019!</i>bklynbibliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12857539103503922487noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2267610447946469978.post-25822226895032702062018-12-24T12:27:00.003-05:002018-12-24T12:32:18.358-05:00Cities of 2018<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNBJcI-ntZ8LkEOSzJN515fqD1kX8yWWZ_pKQO2d8BGzJv-vQdRwAWXQPtuoqsqJzn7sUxiY0uIEE3JFdaEsA8SWuKac_l1814mnFkxlvNdDDreyWkPbyVfYt1Oo4cbd5xmTmtkIILVoU/s1600/IMG_2390.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNBJcI-ntZ8LkEOSzJN515fqD1kX8yWWZ_pKQO2d8BGzJv-vQdRwAWXQPtuoqsqJzn7sUxiY0uIEE3JFdaEsA8SWuKac_l1814mnFkxlvNdDDreyWkPbyVfYt1Oo4cbd5xmTmtkIILVoU/s200/IMG_2390.jpeg" width="150" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">The past few years (e.g. <a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2017/12/cities-and-projects-of-2017.html" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2017/01/cities-of-2016.html" target="_blank">here</a>), I've been recording a list of all the cities outside NJ/NY that either I visited for work-related purposes, or that AA and I went to for a vacation. There is little doubt that the two most remarkable places we visited in 2018 were the furthest north and the furthest south I've ever been before: Iceland and Costa Rica. Both of these trips were remarkable for being very nature-oriented. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Reykjavik is fine city, but it was our Golden Circle tour that brought us to Thingvellir National Park, where we saw the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates crashed against one another--a humbling experience--as well as the site where their Parliament met for over 1,000 years until they built an actual building in Reykjavik in 1930. The waterfalls and geysers were spectacular as well. Iceland is like being on another planet; it's completely desolate but remarkable for its unusual geological formations and hot springs. We missed the Northern Lights and the spa experience, so another visit is in order! Save money if you're thinking about going, though, because it's not cheap!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1dFQRjAU62Jn7OLvUtkhoL32D22yiqK2H48MV_Gcv9uENcN_l9seJyvrZyga3PF4DEH6CEc9nki-qsvMmTIQoD-pJygkFaLfUMj3T08dQ4xEFs043JUWZuei_8AuhOv6rKdcH99rLHM0/s1600/Ydks43PUSpmSiOBYd2ldEw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1dFQRjAU62Jn7OLvUtkhoL32D22yiqK2H48MV_Gcv9uENcN_l9seJyvrZyga3PF4DEH6CEc9nki-qsvMmTIQoD-pJygkFaLfUMj3T08dQ4xEFs043JUWZuei_8AuhOv6rKdcH99rLHM0/s200/Ydks43PUSpmSiOBYd2ldEw.jpg" width="150" /></span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">On the complete opposite spectrum, Costa Rica's southwestern Pacific coast was unlike anything I ever experienced, with spectacular views and wildlife that made me smile non-stop. Monkeys howl in the trees around you and greet you on your patio (and, yes, try to steal your food!), and there are giant iguanas, tropical birds, and actual crabs that walk right past you too. We went zip-lining while we were there, among other adventures--something I never thought I would do (picture at right, climbing stairs to the next zip!)--and I loved it. It was an incredible outdoorsy trip with a wonderfully relaxing hotel at the top of a mountain.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">We also had wonderful opportunities to visit with family, and another great adventure happened in our own backyard when, in one day with AA's family, we toured NYC by boat (Circle Line), land (walking the streets), and air--a helicopter tour (photo at the top!). The helicopter tour was exhilarating...if also admittedly a tad frightening...but that's what these adventures are all about...pushing yourself just a little further to experience all that life has to offer. We always take stock and remember how fortunate we are to be able to travel, and we are forever grateful for these experiences of the world. Here are the Cities of 2018...</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span>
<style type="text/css">
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000}
span.s1 {font-kerning: none}
</style>
</span><br />
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Amsterdam, The Netherlands</span></span></div>
<style type="text/css">
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000}
span.s1 {font-kerning: none}
</style>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Athens/Atlanta, Georgia</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Fairfield, Connecticut</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Hague/Delft, The Netherlands</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Kansas City, Missouri (leaving for here tonight!)</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Leamington Spa, England</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Liverpool, England</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">London, England (2 visits)</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Manuel Antonio/Quepos, Costa Rica</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Montreal, Canada</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">New Haven, Connecticut</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ogunquit, Maine</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Portsmouth, New Hampshire</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Quebec City, Canada</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Reykjavik, Iceland</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">St. Petersburg/Palm Harbor/Tarpon Springs, Florida (3 visits)</span></span></div>
bklynbibliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12857539103503922487noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2267610447946469978.post-4067725725051086952018-12-19T22:47:00.001-05:002018-12-19T22:47:37.056-05:00La Traviata at The Met<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgED3efjvnj-WgVljBZTeNYHsxREM1oE_RsLnZlf7UNA6NQmENqry77A3Yn0_X036Hj9JcGOsRe0yQ5r1b62TdMGEWhV2wGOq1lPmswikCWcUIiWUf0i8Qt5ebAp42HcrLe4h3DTeL_wz4/s1600/1600x685_traviataprod2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="685" data-original-width="1600" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgED3efjvnj-WgVljBZTeNYHsxREM1oE_RsLnZlf7UNA6NQmENqry77A3Yn0_X036Hj9JcGOsRe0yQ5r1b62TdMGEWhV2wGOq1lPmswikCWcUIiWUf0i8Qt5ebAp42HcrLe4h3DTeL_wz4/s400/1600x685_traviataprod2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
Giuseppe Verdi's opera <i>La Traviata</i>, first shown in Venice in 1853, is undoubtedly one of my favorites in terms of the music and arias. There's something incredibly lyrical and moving about upbeat, vivacious celebrations like "Libiamo, ne' lieti calici," and emotionally bittersweet duets like when Violetta and Alfredo profess their love..."Croce e delizio al cor." I've seen this opera live three times in my life (yes, I've kept a record!): the New York City Opera in Clearwater at Ruth Eckerd Hall on March 23, 1996; the Florida Grand Opera in Miami on November 18, 2003; and now The Met Opera in New York on December 11, 2018. Third time was the charm for sure; the performance was wonderful.<br />
<br />
I had gotten tickets for us as a birthday gift for AA, and what intrigued me about this version of the opera was that it was a new production staged by Michael Mayer, and it would be the premiere of The Met's new musical director Yannick N<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">ézet-S</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">éguin. The orchestral performance was fantastic; to quote <i>The New York Times</i> <a href="https://nyti.ms/2E0mf4B" target="_blank">reviewer Anthony Tommasini</a>: "I expected his 'Traviata' to be good, but not this good." Tommasini goes on to describe soprano Diana Damrau's performance as Violetta as "extraordinary...singing with big, plush yet focused sound," and baritone Quinn Kelsey as Germont as "grave and formidable." Both of them were excellent. I was admittedly a little disappointed in tenor Juan Diego Florez as Alfredo, not because he sang poorly but because he was not strong enough, but apparently that was part of his characterization of Alfredo, to make him more shy and uncertain. I thought the new stage production by Mayer, with seasonal changes in lighting, and a neo-Baroque Second Empire interior, were lovely and appropriate. The costumes did seem to come out of Disney's <i>Beauty and the Beast</i>, but overall it added to the colorful, moving performance overall.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://www.metopera.org/season/2018-19-season/la-traviata/" target="_blank">The Met's website for the production</a> has excellent videos with scenes and arias, as well as background information on the production, all worth watching. In reading the Playbill, I was surprised to discover that <i>La Traviata </i>first premiered at The Met in 1883, one month after they opened, went on hiatus for nine years, and since then has been performed over 1000 times, in a number of different well-known productions. Going to The Met can be extremely expensive these days, but we were fortunate to have discounted tickets I got through Columbia. I've been to The Met a few other times before, having seen performances of <i>Aida</i> (2012) and <i>Tosca</i> (2015). But it is worth noting that my very first live opera experience, when I was about 13 years old, was at The Met. Uncle Peter and Aunt Florence had been given last-minute box seats for <i>Rigoletto </i>that a friend of theirs could not use, and knowing my rising interest at that time, they invited me to go, so I went with Uncle Peter. The funny thing was that Woody Allen and Mia Farrow sat in the box next to us...and left during one of the intermissions! Going to The Met at that age (on a school night!), seeing my first opera live in that setting, was one of those lifetime memories you never forget.</span>bklynbibliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12857539103503922487noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2267610447946469978.post-67091315089280956662018-12-17T22:23:00.000-05:002018-12-17T22:24:24.823-05:00Morier and Persia Exhibition<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcF4lWMJr-LKkc-BEl1pd93am3t4C37Sl2Bqm2cZgwTlJTzxt86bTAoPalovJkNo_2dRsHMdSJItq4XZh9t7PSQto-73hK9IriJbJtin9NjSogKBAOuq7wLt9tHU5TtHI01ReeEdcy1Ok/s1600/PersianBreakfast.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="624" data-original-width="800" height="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcF4lWMJr-LKkc-BEl1pd93am3t4C37Sl2Bqm2cZgwTlJTzxt86bTAoPalovJkNo_2dRsHMdSJItq4XZh9t7PSQto-73hK9IriJbJtin9NjSogKBAOuq7wLt9tHU5TtHI01ReeEdcy1Ok/s400/PersianBreakfast.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
It may seem strange to be blogging about <a href="https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/avery/2018/09/26/looking-east-james-justinian-morier-and-nineteenth-century-persia/" target="_blank">an exhibition that has now closed</a>, but it only occurred to me last night that I never wrote about the exhibition <i>Looking East: James Justinian Morier & Nineteenth-Century Persia</i> that we recently had on view in our display cases in Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University. (Chalk it up to having been too busy for months to actually write about it!) The exhibition was part of the MA in Art History Presents series, the second in a new series in which the MA students curate an exhibition utilizing art from Columbia's permanent collection, under the guidance of Dr. Frederique Baumgartner (director of the MA program, Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University) and me (curator of Art Properties, Avery Library, Columbia University). You may recall that earlier this year we opened the <a href="https://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2018/02/art-in-17th-century-life-robert-nanteuil.html" target="_blank">first of these shows about the 17th-century printmaker Robert Nanteuil</a>.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUuGqk33c53JuVMIYYzCBBIiyBWW70tZFib93hicqhcdMCqyvLNiXGPuCe25nE8CmaPYjQelzGmV6yHTBLX3Pc1_Vu65M7VxwMKDg8shx-Qgc0aU3rX5Z3gEmW4mhzzM8xgdCiJT5XUYI/s1600/2000_6_32.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="973" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUuGqk33c53JuVMIYYzCBBIiyBWW70tZFib93hicqhcdMCqyvLNiXGPuCe25nE8CmaPYjQelzGmV6yHTBLX3Pc1_Vu65M7VxwMKDg8shx-Qgc0aU3rX5Z3gEmW4mhzzM8xgdCiJT5XUYI/s320/2000_6_32.jpg" width="263" /></a>This exhibition centered around the portrait you see here of the writer and diplomat James Justinian Morier (ca. 1780-1849), attributed to the painter George Henry Harlow (1787-1819) and painted in 1818. At first glance the portrait is a theatrical depiction of Morier dressed in Orientalist clothing, but in fact there is some historical accuracy to his clothing as representing what men wore in the early years of the Qajar dynasty (1794-1925) in Iran. Morier was part of the British diplomatic service that sought to establish a peace treaty between Persia and Britain during the years of the Napoleonic wars. Morier wrote and illustrated two travelogues about his time in Persia (published in 1812 and 1818), and then went on to have an illustrious career as a Romantic novelist with his most famous book being <i>The Adventures of Hajji Baba, of Ispahan</i> (1824). The exhibition sought to contextualize the historical period in which the painting and his illustrated texts (including the image of the "Persian Breakfast" you see at top), while considering ideas of colonialism and Orientalism in the writings of Edward Said and Linda Nochlin. I curated with one of the students a supplementary section as well, focusing on a selection of Iranian ceramics from the collection.<br />
<br />
It was quite a successful exhibition, and we produced <a href="http://projects.mcah.columbia.edu/ma/2018/" target="_blank">an excellent online companion exhibition</a>, including a series of essays by the students introduced by Baumgartner and me. This project was inspired by research I had done previously on this painting, having given two conference papers about it in <a href="https://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2015/04/talks-in-rome-new-york-oxford-and.html" target="_blank">Pittsburgh in October 2015</a> and in <a href="https://newscholarshipinbritishartncma.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Raleigh in January 2017</a>. It's a great tale of how a painting first draws you in because of its appearance, but the more you look into it and consider all the imagery, as well as the background of the sitter and his world, it shows how art can convey new ideas and still have an incredible lifeline 200+ years after the events in which it was first painted.bklynbibliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12857539103503922487noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2267610447946469978.post-49767009175502929832018-12-16T11:15:00.001-05:002018-12-16T18:22:29.275-05:00Books of 2018<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqXvDpJh7Zj9eLfzcew0wqufhAontzs4rG0BIiWVQSS6wa-EppBU23DotlgP56DZUKtDDu0I5N9gjY6BtKVHb_r1NdvXPORPpzSH5GHJL8I0IjnxdFNRrPbdzDiCz8AYKj3l5sRuia5EM/s1600/038549081X.01._SX450_SY635_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="324" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqXvDpJh7Zj9eLfzcew0wqufhAontzs4rG0BIiWVQSS6wa-EppBU23DotlgP56DZUKtDDu0I5N9gjY6BtKVHb_r1NdvXPORPpzSH5GHJL8I0IjnxdFNRrPbdzDiCz8AYKj3l5sRuia5EM/s320/038549081X.01._SX450_SY635_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg" width="207" /></a></div>
The annual <i>New York Times</i> <a href="https://nyti.ms/2zh3kPT" target="_blank">100 Notable Books of 2018</a> came out a few weeks ago, and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that there were two books on the list this year that I already had an interest in: <i>The Sparsholt Affair </i>by Alan Hollinghurst (which I bought but haven't read yet) and <i>Warlight</i> by Michael Ondaatje (which I did actually read and found interesting, like a literary, Corot-like veiled-mist tale). Among the novels on this new list that intrigue me and are now on my <a href="https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1JLPAKRPW5V48/ref=nav_wishlist_lists_1?_encoding=UTF8&type=wishlist" target="_blank">Amazon wish list</a> are <i>The Witch Elm</i> by Tana French, <i>Asymmetry</i> by Lisa Halliday, and <i>The Overstory</i> by Richard Powers. One major book not on their list because it came out afterward--and which, of course, is now on my "to read" list!--is Michelle Obama's <i>Becoming. </i>AA is reading it, as is my friend MT, and both are totally absorbed.<br />
<br />
The book cover you see above reflects what I would say is the best novel I read this year, <i>The Handmaid's Tale</i> [1986]. Even though I have not seen the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Handmaid%27s_Tale_(TV_series)" target="_blank">new series</a>, I decided to step into the infamous dystopian world created by Margaret Atwood over 30 years ago, and I was enthralled. The book is fantastic and frightening; it feels so real and plausible, particularly in light of how things are going these days politically. Even better, it's beautifully written, slow even at times, the protagonist paying attention to details and inner feelings and memories in a way that is haunting to read. Atwood announced recently she is writing a long-awaited sequel, about which I'm uncertain how I feel. Part of me is curious like others to know where Offred actually went and what happened to her, but another part of me worries the sequel will be too influenced by popular culture today and won't live up to the author's own masterful exploration into this disturbing futuristic, misogynistic world. Speaking of misogyny, last year about this time I was reading <i>Madame Bovary </i>and I still think it was a beautifully written novel and highly recommend it to people all the time. It even topped my list of the the <a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2018/03/top-10-read-novels-2014-2017.html" target="_blank">best novels I read between 2014 and 2017</a>! Other great novels that I read this year included: Julian Barnes's existentially obsessive biographical novel <i>Flaubert's Parrot</i> [1984]; Penelope Fitzgerald's community of miserable, hateful people in <i>The Bookshop </i>[1978]; the sad <i>Everything I Never Told You</i> [2014] by Celeste Ng, which was on the <a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2014/12/books-of-2014.html" target="_blank">NYT 2014</a> list; and Ruth Rendell's foray into racism and murder with <i>Simisola</i> [1994]. I also read this year the mid-century classic <i>Lolita</i> [1955] by Vladimir Nabakov, and I absolutely hated this book, not even so much for the nauseating storyline but because the writing itself drove me nuts.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz_kPLFQZ8Trs5q8IBXUWo5bKtEAKniBKQ77zdqHC3xhuUk-0jUsnQzPQHcwEVD9pzzh7_OAmEvVOfGVjdXeaLuuERO88NeSb8sqaH30drdOe08XJ_HZGT9Q8ty2r6esW8IgR88UNg4JI/s1600/17ca842aa4baec059766a517141444341587343.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="635" data-original-width="417" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz_kPLFQZ8Trs5q8IBXUWo5bKtEAKniBKQ77zdqHC3xhuUk-0jUsnQzPQHcwEVD9pzzh7_OAmEvVOfGVjdXeaLuuERO88NeSb8sqaH30drdOe08XJ_HZGT9Q8ty2r6esW8IgR88UNg4JI/s200/17ca842aa4baec059766a517141444341587343.jpg" width="131" /></a></div>
Since I wrote last year's post on <a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2017/11/books-of-2017.html" target="_blank">Books of 2017</a>, I have read 32 books. I finally took the time to read <i>Sculpture: Processes and Principles</i> [1977] by Rudolf Wittkower, with which I had familiarity but had not read in its entirety before now. It really is a fantastic overview about techniques in stone carving and modeling for anyone interested in knowing more about the great European sculptors of the past. Bridging the gap between art and biography, two of my favorites this year were <i>Art for the Nation: The Eastlakes and the Victorian Art World</i> [2011] by Susanna Avery-Quash and Julie Sheldon, and self-described "tranny potter" Grayson Perry's memoirs, co-written with Wendy Jones, <i>Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl</i> [2006]. Another great biographical account was Richard Blanco's memoir <i>For All of Us, One Today: An Inaugural Poet's Journey </i>[2013], which I read after we visited <a href="https://hyperallergic.com/441626/boundaries-ogunquit-museum-of-american-art-2018/" target="_blank">the excellent exhibition of his poetry with photographs by Jacob Hessler in Ogunquit, Maine</a>. In the realm of American history, I read Jon Meacham's new book <i>The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels</i> [2018], the cover of which you see here. This book was such a fascinating overview of highlights in American history from the colonial period through the 1960s, showing how so many of our great leaders, including Lincoln and FDR, enacted social change because of the influence of the people, social activists and civil rights leaders, the true "soul of America." The book is a great testament and response to the politics of today.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjARC6JaBTrV4QAwoLMTETep6TArAaB5Q4L145p7wv1xOJ5uB-xOD7p5dfMi3BEeypzJAaGSmssfZSz2PQpQ7WKLSArb1UZ0U0zTDqe7FaF4UjW27Jf32W_pqUpYj_XWoBt1R1qXu8cy0/s1600/1593081308.01._SX450_SY635_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="369" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjARC6JaBTrV4QAwoLMTETep6TArAaB5Q4L145p7wv1xOJ5uB-xOD7p5dfMi3BEeypzJAaGSmssfZSz2PQpQ7WKLSArb1UZ0U0zTDqe7FaF4UjW27Jf32W_pqUpYj_XWoBt1R1qXu8cy0/s200/1593081308.01._SX450_SY635_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg" width="147" /></a></div>
Right now, I'm currently reading two books. On the literary fiction side, I am finally reading Jane Austen's <i>Persuasion</i>, published posthumously two centuries ago. I am nearing the end and I am worried it won't have a happy ending! I'm also reading Richard Holmes's fantastic collective biography <i>The Age of Wonder: The Romantic Generation and the Discovery of the Beauty and Terror of Science</i> [2010], reminding us that science was not the separate discipline we perceive it to be today, but part of the exploration of the natural world along with art, literature, and music in the decades before and after 1800. This book has made for some relaxing bedtime reading, before turning in and dreaming each night...bklynbibliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12857539103503922487noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2267610447946469978.post-88452235440223634802018-12-15T09:28:00.001-05:002018-12-15T09:30:51.861-05:00The Passing of Caryl Ambrose<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPmnirLEn-lGDms3hNpQaLRVvBO8TLjIrmMUZVXGWsuUhHxfNVokUb6azxZ5Koz0OfMhJHL5iGCc5MIPFOQsZNkdxnoj7PhgQpxtExz62qE83g_Jpxt-6BcyIQNKy1268QxJCWTLh_Jsw/s1600/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_c4e.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPmnirLEn-lGDms3hNpQaLRVvBO8TLjIrmMUZVXGWsuUhHxfNVokUb6azxZ5Koz0OfMhJHL5iGCc5MIPFOQsZNkdxnoj7PhgQpxtExz62qE83g_Jpxt-6BcyIQNKy1268QxJCWTLh_Jsw/s400/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_c4e.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
It's never easy to lose someone who is a close family member. About ten days before we celebrated <a href="https://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2018/12/90-years-young.html" target="_blank">Uncle Eddy's 90th birthday</a>, our cousin Caryl M. Ambrose passed away at the age of 74 on Thanksgiving after suffering for many months with a terminal illness. I took the picture you see here a couple of years ago, with Caryl seated on the left with her sister Marilyn and Uncle Eddy, all of us taking in the sun after having lunch on the waterfront in Dunedin, FL. We all take some comfort knowing that Caryl is no longer in pain anymore, but because she always exuded an incredible strength of character, independent spirit, zest for what is right in the world, and an unending love for her family, her passing is challenging to process. Caryl was my second cousin. While her grandfather and my grandmother (Nana) were brother and sister, they were at opposite ends of a family timeline, almost twenty years apart in age, so that in fact my Nana and Caryl's father, Uncle Tommy, were close in age. Caryl was always interested in learning more about family history and loved when I would tell her about any new discoveries I had made in the <a href="https://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/search/label/genealogy" target="_blank">Ambrose-and-Bagge English side of our family history</a>. She was a Bronx-born girl, like so many in our family, and lived most of her life in NYC where she ran a travel consultant firm, then retired early and went to Florida with Marilyn, and had a whole new second life there as a nurse. Here is her <a href="http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/national-cremation/obituary.aspx?n=Caryl-Ambrose&lc=2881&pid=190854727&mid=8065976&locale=en_US" target="_blank">obituary</a> that her sister and brother wrote:<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj702IRwRlG_5v7HARrsdg9htbGWz06LLVbgCMiUNXdToDFEmmEL8BYA9TZ0WrBdCdSwqJICs91-NgCMAC6V4bqsgG398wpp7WJhMxXDKjDhY25LLCbfinvJHmdLQnrm4kWLUQ1gf6RfsI/s1600/18ae4795-8185-459d-8671-b20d2df2d5bf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="253" data-original-width="208" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj702IRwRlG_5v7HARrsdg9htbGWz06LLVbgCMiUNXdToDFEmmEL8BYA9TZ0WrBdCdSwqJICs91-NgCMAC6V4bqsgG398wpp7WJhMxXDKjDhY25LLCbfinvJHmdLQnrm4kWLUQ1gf6RfsI/s200/18ae4795-8185-459d-8671-b20d2df2d5bf.jpg" width="164" /></a><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">"Caryl's final safari was to heaven on 11/22/18 at the age of 74. </span><span style="background-color: white;">Her life was a tale of two cities-New York and Tampa Bay. </span><span style="background-color: white;">Her company, the African Transfer, specialized in safaris to Kenya, Tanzania and Botswana. </span><span style="background-color: white;">She then went on to another career as a nurse where she lovingly rescued many needy folks and furry creatures. </span><span style="background-color: white;">She leaves behind her sister Marilyn, brother Dennis (Laura) and his family in Illinois – Nephews TJ & Glenn. Niece Ashley, great nephews Aiden and Anthony … and her rescue cat Chris … as well as numerous, wonderful kissing cuzzins and many lifelong friends."</span></span></i><br />
<br />
Caryl never stopped wanting to know how everyone else around her was doing. She would write letters--actual handwritten letters, as recently as earlier this year to me--in which she remembered everything AA and I had going on, wanting to hear all about our travels (Marilyn would always add the funny side-bar comments and jokes in the letter!). Caryl was a caregiver, someone who instinctively wanted to help, to her own detriment in that she refused to let on about anything happening with her own health. Before she moved to Florida, I had always seen both Caryl and Marilyn as the savvy independent sisters, the first in NYC the second in Chicago. Caryl ran her own business, traveled worldwide, took care of some beautiful cats and dogs, and still managed to look after all of our great-uncles and other aging relatives. When my father and I planned a big trip to Italy and England back in 1991 (long before Internet search engines!), she coordinated our entire five-week trip, with flights and hotels and train tickets. I remember being completely amazed at how she was able to pull it all together so easily.<br />
<br />
The one thing about Caryl that I will always cherish and keep close to my heart, though, was her encouragement and support of my writing. This is not something many people know. When I was a teenager, she heard that I was trying to write a novel, a family saga of sorts set in the 1800s (I was heavily influenced by <a href="https://johnjakes.com/categories/the-kent-family-chronicles" target="_blank">John Jakes's Kent Family Chronicles</a> at the time). Without any hesitation, she told me to give her a copy of the manuscript and she would "show it" to someone she knew "in the business." I was completely in awe that she "knew" someone and had connections like that, so I gave her a copy. The truth is, I have absolutely no idea if she actually showed it to anyone or not--even more truthfully, I hope she didn't because it was a horrible, early attempt at writing! The point is, she believed in me. She didn't assess my talents, she saw my drive and interest, and she was one of the first people in the family to encourage me to do this. That simple gesture on her part inspired me in ways that I still feel to this day in all of my efforts when I write something, whether it's an article, fiction, or even this blog. That gesture made me realize how a simple action can help support and encourage someone in ways no one can ever know. I will miss her energy, her laughter, her letters, and her love of family, but her spirit lives on in so many of us.bklynbibliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12857539103503922487noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2267610447946469978.post-16977929944884090552018-12-08T15:48:00.001-05:002018-12-08T15:50:32.951-05:0090 Years Young<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsNETNb8Vdpe6ckC4IV4cjW0GRqRBabJY7o-D82XnG180Mi5JS70_y1nFlMbFyA9xGKrB3oP9oMO_gxkclDT5uVrFIn7uLVxC9Y7pMYNo6_0DcBFv5GpslZhbfvbRnVCx88pTIWOzPdBc/s1600/IMG_5890.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1479" data-original-width="1449" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsNETNb8Vdpe6ckC4IV4cjW0GRqRBabJY7o-D82XnG180Mi5JS70_y1nFlMbFyA9xGKrB3oP9oMO_gxkclDT5uVrFIn7uLVxC9Y7pMYNo6_0DcBFv5GpslZhbfvbRnVCx88pTIWOzPdBc/s320/IMG_5890.JPG" width="313" /></a></div>
Last weekend AA & I went back to Florida to help celebrate with family & friends Uncle Eddy's 90th birthday. He's the last of the brothers & sisters from that branch of the family that produced all of us, and he's been so generous and good to all of us that he deserves this milestone marker of his life and times. What's the one favorite thing we all love about his life? That he worked at the <a href="https://bronxzoo.com/" target="_blank">Bronx Zoo</a>! These days, he is settled in an assisted living facility, uses a wheelchair most of the time, and is rather thin, but he's still got his "marbles" moving around properly in his head and he hasn't lost his hearing or his sense of humor, so overall he's doing pretty well. Here's to Uncle Eddy...90 years young!bklynbibliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12857539103503922487noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2267610447946469978.post-22923877510800985472018-11-23T21:46:00.002-05:002018-11-24T07:26:29.609-05:00Hotel Archaeology<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUmofsxULqlySQKs37yg0lmNil2Kq3f8WX4UaEIcXKDjyVhTf8MzW7tXWMPau1wskhrqFwjZlDOFxW8pKmvOKNDyA5EcJxXNo0ffw8h9HRe3ezjJUWzqQ0FiTitZ3PEmdWT3tsa2lYfKw/s1600/IMG_5836.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUmofsxULqlySQKs37yg0lmNil2Kq3f8WX4UaEIcXKDjyVhTf8MzW7tXWMPau1wskhrqFwjZlDOFxW8pKmvOKNDyA5EcJxXNo0ffw8h9HRe3ezjJUWzqQ0FiTitZ3PEmdWT3tsa2lYfKw/s400/IMG_5836.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Quebec City has one of the most picturesque historic centers that I have ever visited in North America. There is something incredibly charming about all the flagstone facades, the cobblestone streets, the dated historic buildings, the division of upper and lower cities each with their own interesting sights, and the inherently French provincial vibe that the old town exudes. AA, his cousin GDA, and I just returned from a brief visit there (after a couple of days in Montreal). The temperature was unseasonably, frigidly cold, and there was about a foot of snow on the ground with flurries continuing our entire visit. You can see below the picture of AA and me outside the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_Frontenac" target="_blank">Chateau Frontenac</a> (now a Fairmount Hotel) and witness our winter-like experience! But the overall icy-cold experience helped open up the holiday season for me, so it was all worth it.<br />
<br />
Even more intriguing was the hotel where we stayed this time: <a href="https://www.saint-antoine.com/" target="_blank">Auberge Saint-Antoine</a>. This was an incredibly relaxing, luxurious hotel/spa experience; when you leave for the evening for dinner, you come back to your room and discover turn-down service, herbal tea, subdued lighting, and a CD with Diana Krall singing soft jazz. What fascinated me about the hotel most, however, was <a href="https://www.saint-antoine.com/hotel/our-story" target="_blank">how they incorporated archaeological artifacts as part of the decor and history of the site</a>. The hotel was originally a fort and merchant house in the 17th century, and over time the grounds and buildings changed. When the hotel underwent renovations about 15 years ago, they excavated hundreds of cultural artifacts, like fragments of ceramic dishes, glassware, knives and forks, leather shoes, cannonballs, pipes, ... the list goes on and on. All of the artifacts have been beautifully displayed in vitrines embedded in the walls (as you in the above image). Even the rooms are themed and named around a particular ceramic fragment. Most of the artifacts date from the late 18th/early 19th centuries, but it is fascinating to discover some objects dating back to the late 1600s.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVaWAzg1UkCsvWR2hqzQKuivWxkc5XhKpWJzMhUHRSSPVXTAcSUYzItxqTMUWv501jFP4z8OFMpMXdZn5dhwUcax3cP3VmxlWYE3oPgU7EFtUuXzlJv0eqnxHPds5upI2te3Nk0-0pnfw/s1600/IMG_5846.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="960" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVaWAzg1UkCsvWR2hqzQKuivWxkc5XhKpWJzMhUHRSSPVXTAcSUYzItxqTMUWv501jFP4z8OFMpMXdZn5dhwUcax3cP3VmxlWYE3oPgU7EFtUuXzlJv0eqnxHPds5upI2te3Nk0-0pnfw/s320/IMG_5846.JPG" width="320" /></a>The personal service, the comfortable room, the delicious food and cocktails, and the archaeology-as-decor all make for a wonderful experience in one of the most picturesque cities I know. I look forward to another visit in the near future!<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
bklynbibliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12857539103503922487noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2267610447946469978.post-15174767208320559262018-11-15T22:24:00.001-05:002018-11-15T22:24:56.753-05:00First Snowfall: 2018-2019 Fall/Winter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiniKVmJ-yMnh2cTXQ-s5SMet5ZAIKMXMTwc7qzTEE8ojwIEuuVIhvV9mUI2DmHZVSr0tbS-RqoUajVxIPk2SQ7pj9dJevAmMREHTfMHzPYbezHseJiKii7xjnmfqAWytKm3ab8Y-qct0/s1600/IMG_3627.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiniKVmJ-yMnh2cTXQ-s5SMet5ZAIKMXMTwc7qzTEE8ojwIEuuVIhvV9mUI2DmHZVSr0tbS-RqoUajVxIPk2SQ7pj9dJevAmMREHTfMHzPYbezHseJiKii7xjnmfqAWytKm3ab8Y-qct0/s320/IMG_3627.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div>
The meteorologists had predicted some snow flurries for the NYC area today, with most of the actual snow heading further north and west. Well, imagine everyone's surprise when the snow actually starting sticking and didn't go away! Yes, today was our <a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2017/12/first-snowfall-2017-2018-fallwinter.html" target="_blank">first snowfall of the 2018-2019 fall/winter season</a>. I was stuck in my office working through most of it, so I didn't get to take pictures. AA, however, was working from home, so he took this picture you see here during the afternoon hours when the snow was coming down pretty heavily. It was a very wet snow, and by the end of the day had turned into slushy ice-like rain that was very slippery. Nothing too pretty about that kind of snowfall today!<br />
<br />
It seemed rather ironic to me, then, that here we are freezing and getting iced by Mother Nature, when right in the heart of NYC at Rockefeller Center, Christie's auction house this evening broke the record for the most money a work of art by a living artist ever sold at auction: the hammer price went for $90m! The painting is the one you see here, <i>Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)</i>, 1972, by that grand dame of a British queen, David Hockney. <a href="https://nyti.ms/2zd7dVL" target="_blank">According to <i>The</i> <i>New York Times</i></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, "<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">The painting was executed during a three-month period of intense creativity after the artist broke up with his American art student lover, Peter Schlesinger. Many viewers assume that the scene is set in California, where Mr. Hockney has lived for decades. But the canvas was painted in London, based on photographs taken at a pool in the South of France." I was fortunate to have seen this painting <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2017/david-hockney" target="_blank">at the recent Hockney exhibition at The Met</a>, and it was the star of the show, an exquisite composition with incredible color, without a doubt one of Hockney's best works. And now with the price tag to match. Oh, but to jump in that pool right now, instead of bundling up with the heater on beside me...</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><br /></span></span>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQNR5x444NAuYJmahoiiX9tn4Q0IxI_MdnIJOmvhIB4Jn8KH6_6-hUAAyv_TJUhe5_RsRBDfJTj_FiVzLNxDgrxVN2XXGLyKjiOurH2q5Yt0lLHc2h5jlVolg-c7x94NeASVw3iizD46A/s1600/merlin_146879742_e28a2405-50d8-4ef0-a067-9f40f1182f47-superJumbo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1136" data-original-width="1600" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQNR5x444NAuYJmahoiiX9tn4Q0IxI_MdnIJOmvhIB4Jn8KH6_6-hUAAyv_TJUhe5_RsRBDfJTj_FiVzLNxDgrxVN2XXGLyKjiOurH2q5Yt0lLHc2h5jlVolg-c7x94NeASVw3iizD46A/s400/merlin_146879742_e28a2405-50d8-4ef0-a067-9f40f1182f47-superJumbo.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><br /></span></span>bklynbibliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12857539103503922487noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2267610447946469978.post-25505448785360009472018-10-17T07:24:00.000-04:002018-10-17T07:25:26.647-04:00Statue of a Countess<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuBjobpKR0CNJKMJ8I0Y29sWzHQyhsevUVBTZypJm-tCg1P2stWmDdDASrR-ofpjuN4nG7nN4OalmOqZC19UD6tplhksY6vfC6ZcLvjOrr2_R9oqgit33XvuRS7Xb9TFDndxKc2ksY9Eg/s1600/figure03.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="865" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuBjobpKR0CNJKMJ8I0Y29sWzHQyhsevUVBTZypJm-tCg1P2stWmDdDASrR-ofpjuN4nG7nN4OalmOqZC19UD6tplhksY6vfC6ZcLvjOrr2_R9oqgit33XvuRS7Xb9TFDndxKc2ksY9Eg/s400/figure03.JPG" width="265" /></a></div>
I am pleased to share the news that my latest article, "<a href="https://www.19thc-artworldwide.org/autumn18/ferrari-on-between-venus-and-victoria" target="_blank">Between Venus and Victoria: John Gibson's <i>Portrait Statue of the Hon. Mrs. Murray, Later Countess Beauchamp</i></a>," has just been published in <i><a href="https://www.19thc-artworldwide.org/" target="_blank">Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide</a> </i>(along with a number of other very interesting essays by some colleagues I know that I look forward to reading). My essay discusses for the first time the portrait statue you see here that Gibson made for the 3rd Baroness Braye of her widowed daughter Catherine, who later married Earl Beauchamp (pronounced "Beecham").<br />
<br />
The statue was commissioned in 1842 when the Baroness and members of her family were on their grand tour in Rome, and it was completed in 1846. Gibson exhibited the marble statue at the Royal Academy that year, where it received mostly positive feedback, but one critic rather surprisingly compared it to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Baartman" target="_blank">Hottentot Venus</a>. (You'll have to read the article to learn why!) The Baroness and her daughter were friends with Gibson for many years, and he often visited them at their London home and at <a href="http://stanfordhall.co.uk/" target="_blank">Stanford Hall</a>, where the statue is on view as part of the family's art collection to this day. What makes the story of this statue even more remarkable is that Catherine made the bold decision to have Gibson tint it while it was still in the early days of his own experiments with polychrome sculpture (i.e. <i><a href="http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/collections/highlights/item-243839.aspx" target="_blank">Tinted Venus</a></i>). As I discuss in my essay, she received sharp criticism afterward for having done this, but Gibson urged her to "fight it out" and not give in to the critics. (Wise words I need to remember myself many days!)<br />
<br />
I am incredibly grateful to the current Baroness Braye and her family for their generosity and hospitality in giving me access to unpublished family papers and their homes, and to the staff at Stanford Hall for responding to all my inquiries along the way. Without their encouragement and support, this article never could have come to fruition.bklynbibliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12857539103503922487noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2267610447946469978.post-77575482012716927922018-10-07T04:56:00.001-04:002018-10-07T04:56:13.576-04:00Art Libraries at the Rijksmuseum<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnKJgVWXGx7EE0rwMq_hsa2ax54zmNXBUJFKwNKTW2-xF4JB1ZsnwDpp5tOUb75tZbyuZ1wB3K-CdBrFHapX2iMkkb1X9BNZKPLOleVYgPjydda291opboXWeY5UQXX7nxf3Dnh5ZMPaM/s1600/IMG_5621.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnKJgVWXGx7EE0rwMq_hsa2ax54zmNXBUJFKwNKTW2-xF4JB1ZsnwDpp5tOUb75tZbyuZ1wB3K-CdBrFHapX2iMkkb1X9BNZKPLOleVYgPjydda291opboXWeY5UQXX7nxf3Dnh5ZMPaM/s320/IMG_5621.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
I was quite honored to be among the guest speakers for the recent <a href="https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/whats-on/symposiums/8th-international-conference-of-art-libraries" target="_blank">8th International Conference of Art Libraries</a>, held at the Rijksemuseum in Amsterdam (facade of the building seen here). The conference itself had some very interesting papers and it helped inspire a few ideas in my head, which is always a good thing. I was surprised that so many people from the U.S. were presenting, but most of the audience members came from throughout Europe. Two speakers even presented about art libraries in Japan, which quickly reminded me that we need to stop thinking so Euro-centrically about all these things. <div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0tvpl17C-wyukqz99tJvOg-bByhqArgUn1FprfoM-TI04DGwf1LfxjKiefOOUpvgw1k9qf2e2OZD6fJJuU8DG1A2RXxopOz7F8CwLQvJG9qVZ3YrZXr0qOC_xggYk-3I1p9leV1X9dko/s1600/IMG_5673.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0tvpl17C-wyukqz99tJvOg-bByhqArgUn1FprfoM-TI04DGwf1LfxjKiefOOUpvgw1k9qf2e2OZD6fJJuU8DG1A2RXxopOz7F8CwLQvJG9qVZ3YrZXr0qOC_xggYk-3I1p9leV1X9dko/s200/IMG_5673.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>
<div>
My co-presenter (Melanie Wacker, also at Columbia; photo at left of us taken by Ann Lindell) and I gave a talk entitled "From Curatorial Files to Linked Open Data: Cataloging the Art Collection at Columbia University," discussing background on the art collection my department oversees and how our management of metadata and cataloging moved from traditional paper files to a metadata schema that we were then able to convert to MARC so as to be published in the Columbia Libraries online catalog, to convert for use in the soon-to-be-launched Digital Art Properties collection, and then used as the basis for a linked open data project that was a grant to test art for use in BIBFRAME, the future XML-based form of cataloging established by the Library of Congress that eventually will replace MARC. I realize much of what I just wrote there may seem like gibberish to anyone but IT specialists and librarians, but the point is that up until recently no one could search anything in the Columbia art collection, whereas now the art collection is now not just discoverable but available in digital format (highlights anyway) and is being used to establish new models of excellence for ways of cataloging art by libraries in the future. It's been a team effort that we are all proud of.<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnE_reimuz_BclLeM3lgSKHjZje_ReylW5X57WKe8ywyZCmejKtdi0qUOOun4vr80nAGQDEH1gxYyyohp6EGbI_HFKm3CJRKMtGFYAryUMMG6eRR3xVL4JAA8GskoZJ84xkul0nr8yipw/s1600/IMG_5550.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnE_reimuz_BclLeM3lgSKHjZje_ReylW5X57WKe8ywyZCmejKtdi0qUOOun4vr80nAGQDEH1gxYyyohp6EGbI_HFKm3CJRKMtGFYAryUMMG6eRR3xVL4JAA8GskoZJ84xkul0nr8yipw/s200/IMG_5550.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>
<div>
It was quite humbling to be presenting at the Rijksmuseum, one of the grandest collections of art in the world. This was my second visit there, the first time two years ago when AA and I traveled to Amsterdam. On this trip we also made a visit to The Hague where we visited the Maurithuis and I truly fell in love with Vermeer's <i>Girl with a Pearl Earring</i>, one of those examples of art where you have to see it in person to truly admire its majesty in terms of lighting, brushstroke, and overall composition. She is more modern in her appearance than I ever realized. We also visited Delft, Vermeer's home, which was an absolutely charming city. I also had an opportunity to visit the Hermitage Amsterdam and see the Neoclassicism exhibition with works from St. Petersburg; the Canova sculptures were just exquisite. I'm in London right now writing this, with a few other things to do here before heading home in a couple of days.</div>
</div>
bklynbibliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12857539103503922487noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2267610447946469978.post-24905069600589185962018-08-29T07:37:00.001-04:002018-08-29T07:37:12.420-04:00Happy 10th Birthday!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG4qcyUkk37lrgp81C502sDFoODKcM3I0HHnqy9SpM6PK0BW73T7UdlEsignQRhPQdxeT9EWaxPMKpdsWd7y51Us4MPOU2AwUZ8uGaj_leQMOiCKsgXtEvCFwsvP1NMTEPugLPsrxW168/s1600/10th-birthday-balloon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="396" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG4qcyUkk37lrgp81C502sDFoODKcM3I0HHnqy9SpM6PK0BW73T7UdlEsignQRhPQdxeT9EWaxPMKpdsWd7y51Us4MPOU2AwUZ8uGaj_leQMOiCKsgXtEvCFwsvP1NMTEPugLPsrxW168/s320/10th-birthday-balloon.jpg" width="316" /></a></div>
When I think about being 10 years old, the greatest memory I have was moving from our smaller ranch-style house to a larger split-level house in the same town. At the time it felt like we were moving to another part of the state, but of course it was only about 6 blocks away (admittedly, these were long, curvy blocks, which made it seem further). Riding our bicycles from the new house back to the old neighborhood seemed so far; I remember thinking at first how amazing it was Mom and Dad were letting us ride our bikes so far away! My brother CC hadn't been to the new house yet, so on moving day he wrote his bicycle and had to ask neighbors along the way where the moving truck had gone, which was how he eventually found the house. As for the house...it was olive green on the upper portion and brick on the lower portion (later Mom and Dad painted the top portion white with deep-red shutters and trim). The house was remarkable to CC and me because we had stairs for the first time, and not just 1 set of stairs but 3 sets, including stairs that went down to a basement. We moved right before Halloween that year, and so that holiday was a strange one with all new territory to scout out for candy. Uncle Eddy is the one who took CC and me around, I remember. My costume alternated from being a scarecrow to being a ghost that year; CC went as "Pedro," with a floppy sombrero, cigar, and painted-on mustache (admittedly racist in retrospect, but what did we know?). We lived in our old house for 7 years and in that new house for over 9 years before we moved on again...lots of memories there...<br />
<br />
I have other vivid memories from being 10 years old, but all that is the first thing that jumps out at me today. And here we are on <i>bklynbiblio</i>, now celebrating 10 years of this blog. <a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2008/08/in-beginning.html" target="_blank">I started this blog</a> after <a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2008/08/provincetown-2008.html" target="_blank">my trip to Provincetown with JM</a>. I've been back there 3 or 4 times since then, and traveled to many other places. So much happens in a decade...yet the spirit of this blog has remained the same. Today's post is #588, and very little has changed in the topics written about, based on the tags for each post: <a href="https://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/search/label/New%20York" target="_blank">New York</a> still comes in at #1 (163 posts), followed by <a href="https://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/search/label/19th-century%20art" target="_blank">19th-century art</a> (114), <a href="https://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/search/label/England" target="_blank">England</a> (99), <a href="https://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/search/label/photography" target="_blank">photography</a> (98), with <a href="https://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/search/label/art%20exhibitions" target="_blank">art exhibitions</a> (84) and <a href="https://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/search/label/sculpture" target="_blank">sculpture</a> (83) neck-and-neck for 5th place.<br />
<br />
As I've expressed in recent posts, I hope I will have time to write more. I'm winding down 2 big essays, one of which will be published later this fall, and a few conference/symposium projects are in the works, all of which I hope to blog about soon. Sometimes I contemplate whether I should "close" the blog and call it a day, but then I hear from a few of you who enjoy reading what I write, and I realize this blog--even though posts are intermittent--helps me keep in touch with some people, and for that reason we'll keep it going. My thanks to everyone who reads this blog and has helped sustain <i>bklynbiblio</i> for the past 10 years. On to more future memories...bklynbibliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12857539103503922487noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2267610447946469978.post-47803084382478853692018-07-12T22:13:00.000-04:002018-07-12T22:14:03.243-04:00New Solomon Records<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9c0bl-mzGeoN9do18kC6MBxYTw0s02ulxJ7omYo0tOcou3LaTMKuXGIHhe8upk3MnUHadvMvOLOZ-OH9SwLZhXY-zLHxyv8l6oTIrip941-AC1jVI9e_uZ30gEqiq7PURjxExfJNxx0o/s1600/36983039_1420893514678671_5991034071415783424_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1133" data-original-width="1600" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9c0bl-mzGeoN9do18kC6MBxYTw0s02ulxJ7omYo0tOcou3LaTMKuXGIHhe8upk3MnUHadvMvOLOZ-OH9SwLZhXY-zLHxyv8l6oTIrip941-AC1jVI9e_uZ30gEqiq7PURjxExfJNxx0o/s400/36983039_1420893514678671_5991034071415783424_o.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For those of us who love and appreciate <a href="https://www.simeonsolomon.com/" target="_blank">Simeon Solomon's paintings and drawings</a>, yesterday and today were major days in the auction world. Yesterday, 26 Solomon drawings and watercolors went up for auction from a single collection at Christie's London, all of them selling in the range of </span><span class="s1" style="-webkit-text-stroke: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">£2,600 to </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">£38,000. Today, though, at Sotheby's London, there was a sale of nine Solomon paintings and drawings in the Victorian sale. These works came from two different collections, and the sale broke not just one but two sale records. Up to now, the record was held by the sale two years ago of his watercolor <a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2016/08/mwa-xli-solomons-song.html" target="_blank"><i>A Prelude by Bach (A Song)</i>, 1868, which sold for </a></span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2016/08/mwa-xli-solomons-song.html" target="_blank">£182,500</a>.</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> The painting you see above, <i>Habet!</i>, has broken that record. </span><br />
<div>
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This painting has often been considered his best work, not so much by reviewers at the time, but by his colleagues and friends like William Michael Rossetti and Algernon Charles Swinburne, and subsequent art historians. Painted and then exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1865, the picture depicts a group of ancient Roman women having different reactions to a gladiator fight in the arena. The painting's first owner was Charles P. Matthews, a brewer who had homes in London and Essex, England, and it was sold at the auction of his estate after his death at Christie's London on June 6, 1891. It was sold then for 21 guineas. Around a century ago, it was purchased by the grandparents of the owner who sold it today, and surprisingly was actually "lost" for most of the 20th century, having only been "found" in the mid-1990s. Today that same family sold the painting, and it earned </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">£370,000 including premium. As I've mentioned in the past, as compared to his fellow Pre-Raphaelite and Victorian painters, this is still relatively low (some major paintings by Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti go for over </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">£1m these days). Nevertheless, this was a satisfactory acknowledgment of his work and has helped reaffirm his importance in this canon of Victorian painters.</span><br />
<div class="p1">
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifnp-s8ZZEToRtmUstdcde8LGp7s4y9Nt5HnY3M6h-D_NvzunansvZ6snzWNb7S08xOMihE2lr98bYweUJoFsgP8cijir5LjOp-SVcnrMe1n-1hTJ8lq_sBpR8yScHYOdbTwnDnu58A4M/s1600/37093709_1420894244678598_6946990781009756160_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="670" data-original-width="499" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifnp-s8ZZEToRtmUstdcde8LGp7s4y9Nt5HnY3M6h-D_NvzunansvZ6snzWNb7S08xOMihE2lr98bYweUJoFsgP8cijir5LjOp-SVcnrMe1n-1hTJ8lq_sBpR8yScHYOdbTwnDnu58A4M/s400/37093709_1420894244678598_6946990781009756160_n.jpg" width="297" /></a></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Also by Solomon up for sale today was this picture, the 1867 watercolor version of <i>Bacchus</i>, that he painted when he was in Rome, finishing it in London once he was home. In some ways this painting best epitomizes Solomon's style and subject matter, showing the god of wine as a sensual youth half-dressed, basking in the sun. The homoerotics of this painting are self-evident, and in many ways has become an important subject in discussing Solomon's own homosexual identity and how he frequently depicted youthful males as objects of beauty at this time. The picture was estimated to sell for </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">£50,000-</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">£70,000, but I knew it would sell for much more. It set the record for the second-highest work by Solomon sold at auction, coming in at </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">£237,500 including premium. Two works on paper did not sell at today's auction, because they didn't meet their minimum estimate, but I think between these two big-ticket items and all the works sold yesterday at Christie's there was a sense of exhaustion. I don't think there's ever been this many Solomons up for sale at the same time, so this certainly made for an interesting two days of sales. To read more posts on this blog about the Solomon family painters, <a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/search/label/Solomon" target="_blank">click here</a>.</span></span></div>
<style type="text/css">
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000}
span.s1 {font-kerning: none}
</style>
<style type="text/css">
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000}
span.s1 {font-kerning: none}
</style>
<style type="text/css">
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000}
span.s1 {font-kerning: none}
</style>
<style type="text/css">
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000}
span.s1 {font-kerning: none}
</style>
<style type="text/css">
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000}
span.s1 {font-kerning: none}
</style>
<style type="text/css">
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000}
span.s1 {font-kerning: none}
</style><style type="text/css">
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000}
span.s1 {font-kerning: none}
</style></div>
bklynbibliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12857539103503922487noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2267610447946469978.post-54367621099649897092018-07-09T21:12:00.001-04:002018-07-09T21:14:08.923-04:00Call for Papers: Transnationalism and Sculpture<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNYxUkTYn2rnM0E0UGkg_ViLDg7coFpoaAc2bDb4JJrae9I0A909j3TXVD_p_3XipyxB1o3xE0cY2T48QTvm1eH8eNtOa_Xgdsuwh0FktOheMYubjKRLjOwYQ6pl5mQNw9ecqgVtIjb1A/s1600/Dep.18.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1020" data-original-width="1400" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNYxUkTYn2rnM0E0UGkg_ViLDg7coFpoaAc2bDb4JJrae9I0A909j3TXVD_p_3XipyxB1o3xE0cY2T48QTvm1eH8eNtOa_Xgdsuwh0FktOheMYubjKRLjOwYQ6pl5mQNw9ecqgVtIjb1A/s400/Dep.18.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">A few months ago, I posted <a href="http://bklynbiblio.blogspot.com/2017/10/nationalist-sculpture-aah-2018-call-for.html" target="_blank">a call for papers for a conference panel session</a> that my colleague Tomas Macsotay and I had organized. That conference took place this past April 5th at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, and was a great success. (I realize now I never posted about it, but trust me it was.) Tomas and I are now co-chairing another conference panel session, this time to be held here in NYC in February 2019: the College Art Association (CAA). Our panel is the official session for the Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art (AHNCA) and is detailed below. The image above could relate to a sample presentation of something we are interested in. The 1830 painting is by Ditlev Martens and is called <i>Pope Leo XII Visits Thorvaldsen's Studio near the Piazza Barberini, Rome... </i>and relates to the Danish sculptor's vast studio that had workers from many nations working for him (image: <a href="https://www.thorvaldsensmuseum.dk/en/collections/work/Dep.18" target="_blank">Thorvaldsens Museum</a>).<i> </i>Check out the <a href="http://www.collegeart.org/programs/conference/proposals" target="_blank">CAA conference website</a> for instructions for submission. The deadline is August 6, 2018.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="background-color: white;">Transnationalism and Sculpture in the Long Nineteenth-Century (ca. 1785–1915)</i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Session Organizers:</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Roberto C. Ferrari (Columbia University)<br />Tomas Macsotay (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona)</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">The history of nineteenth-century art is frequently presented as the product of revolutions and socio-political changes. The <i>Zeitgeist</i> for nationalism and imperial expansion generated by these historic events inevitably fostered interest in national schools of art criticism and artistic practice. But rising interest in global studies has led to more and more evidence of the transnational as a major impact on artistic practice of the nineteenth century, specifically in association with the creation and dissemination of narratives of national identity, and the interests of economic and colonial expansion. The transnational is defined as crossing national boundaries, but for this session transnationalism also refers to culturally blended nexuses of artistic creativity and engagement during the century.</span></div>
<div style="display: inline; margin-top: 6px;">
<div style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="display: inline; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Evidence of this artistic practice is arguably best evident in the creation and display of sculpture, particularly public sculpture because it requires large studios with teams of workers to create, and it occupies spaces that force an encounter with the viewer. Examples of proposals for this session on transnationalism and sculpture in the long nineteenth century might include: sculptors’ studios in Rome dominated by Americans and Europeans, and their <i>practiciens</i> and pupils from other nation-states; monuments incorporating multi-cultural imagery; public statues of monarchs made by local artists in the colonies, potentially inscribed by the politics and hierarchies thereof; and the commingling of sculpture made by native and foreign artists at academies and international exhibitions. Papers on individual artists and works of art are welcome, but they should focus on the larger issue of transnationalism.</span>bklynbibliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12857539103503922487noreply@blogger.com0