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Color Wins The Day At the Cooper-Hewitt

Saturated: The Allure and Science of Color, now on view, is exactly the kind of exhibition I expect and like to see from the Cooper Hewitt, National Design Museum–which, frankly, came as a bit of a surprise. Since the Cooper Hewitt reopened in 2014 after a three-year renovation,Â it has been a bit of a disappointment to me. Too much technology that didn’t work, too much attention to interactivity rather than on design objects, too much play for my tastes. That said, it was popular, at least at first.

But I did not give up on the Cooper Hewitt and SaturatedÂ was reason enough by description to bring me back. It’s all drawn from permanent collections of the Smithsonian–and that’s a good thing. The Cooper Hewitt, part of the Smithsonian, has many worthy objects in its collection, far more than can be displayed in its limited space (In 2016, it launched a digital database of more than 200,000 objects.) and some are getting a good showing in this exhibit. Even more important, the other source of material for Saturated is the Smithsonian Libraries system, a network of 21 libraries. Together, they own more than two million books, 40,000 of which are “rare,” plus 10,000 manuscripts. (More information is here on the Fact Sheet.) It claims to be the world’s largest library system.

But back to Saturated, which attempts to “reveal how designers apply the theories of the worldâ€™s greatest color thinkers to bring order and excitement to the visual world,” and howÂ â€œcolor perception has captivated artists, designers, scientists and philosophers.â€ The museum sets up this “elusive, subjective complex phenomenon” with these words:

Color is an objective, quantifiable, physical phenomenon, the reflection of certain wavelengths of light off the surface of different materials. But color is also a subjective, personal experience, different for every person and deeply intertwined with language and memory.

I reviewed this short history of color in 190 objects for The Wall Street Journal in a piece headlined Vibrant From Any Angle and published last week (while I was away). I found the exhibit to be enlightening and visually engaging, with objects dating from the 3rd to 5th Century B.C. to 2014, from aÂ cobalt blue flask created in Syria to a 1704 book by Isaac Newton to an ’80s Joffrey Ballet poster to Peony, a wall hanging made by a digital printer and a Shimmer table made possible by nanotechnology.

You can read my review here or on my personal website. And, here are two fascinating tidbits I could not squeeze into the review:

In 1856, William Henry Perkin â€œaccidentally created the first synthetic dye from coal tarâ€ â€“at age 18. He was searching for a treatment for malaria but instead got a brilliant purple dye; it caused the color industry to â€œexplode,â€ because previously color came from insects, animals, plants, minerals, and other natural sources.
And there’s a book, Theoretical and Practical Treatise of Textile Printing, which George Seurat cited as influential in the development of pointillism.

You just never the impact of what you do.

So go see Saturated if you’re in NYC.

Photos: Matt Flynn Â© Smithsonian Institution

My Art Encounter With Tom Wolfe

Tom Wolfe, who died this week, was not exactly a favorite person in the art world (or the literary world, for that matter). In a modern era, he was a throwback, a man who preferred realism of a particular kind.

And on that score, I have a little story to tell about Wolfe.Â Â Back in 2006, I contacted several novelists and well-known non-fiction writers who had also written about art for an article I had proposed to The New York Times. I asked them what exhibitions they would like to curate–they have ideas, too, after all. Seeking ideas outside the academic art world is more common now, but it wasn’t much done a dozen years ago. In fact, I began my article with tale of Matisse biographer Hilary Spurling, who was spurned when she first proposed an exhibition on Matisse and his textiles. As I wrote:

The first curator, a Matisse expert in France, roared with laughter, Ms. Spurling said, and dismissed the idea out of hand. The second, in Russia, grew angry, telling her the show would debase and vulgarize the works. “You might as well have a show on Matisse and goldfish, Matisse and oranges or vases,” Ms. Spurling recalls the curator saying.

You may recall the end of that story: Just such an exhibition organized many years later by the Royal Academy was shown to great acclaim there in London, at the Met and at a museum in Lille, France. And I, too–though hardly of such knowledge–had once merely suggested a show to a curator, who also grew angry.

So I put it in writing, the ideas of these writers.Â Spurling, Francine Prose, Tracy Chevalier and Calvin Thomkins all obliged me. But Tom Wolfe responded to my email saying (in part–elises mine): “Nice idea. Me, I’d like to see a show of the REAL art of the 20th century….first I should figure out what REAL pieces should be in the REAL show.” By deadline, he’d not come up with anything.

But after myÂ piece was published, he sent me an email that I still have:Â

“Judy,

Got a kick out of your piece! I only wished I HAD sent you a catalogue. Bruno Paul, Rudolf Wilke, Olaf Gulbrannsen, Karl Arnold, A. M. Cassandre, Alan Crossland, Egon Tschich, Caran D’Ache, George Bellow, Reginald Marsh, Toulouse-Lautrec—and others whose work was actually tied to the world around them . . . as the work of fashionable art world favorites from Picasso on never was. Picasso with his minotaurs and badly drawn girls with two eyes on the same side of the nose . . . Give—me—a—break . . .

Tom (Wolfe) “

No wonder the art world disliked him.

My article, headlinedÂ Curators Can Curate, But Writers Can Try, Too, was published in the NYT on Mar. 29, 2006.

RIP, Tom.

A Little Masterpiece in Central Asia

There are many reasons to visit Uzbekistan, which I did last fall. As usual, I brought back a Masterpiece column for The Wall Street Journal. It describes and explains the Samanid Mausoleum in Bukhara. The little structure not only survived the 13th Century marauder Ghengis Khan but also many earthquakes and other natural shifts: now it is the earliest example of a Samanid tomb to survive and is on the UNESCO world heritage list.

It’s quite important, aside from its beautiful brickwork, because it shows the engineering and architectural breakthroughs that were occurring in the 9th and 10th centuries in Central Asia. As I explained:

This was the age of Al-KhwÄrizmÄ« (c. 780-c. 850) and Al-Farabi (c. 870-c. 950), renowned Islamic mathematicians whose work helped to beget the first major school of mathematicians in the Islamic world. Their algebraic and geometric advances found practical applications in the work of contemporary engineers and architects.

Here, they used that knowledge to gradually transition from the cube space into the dome above. First, atop the cube sits an octagonal structure with arched squinches angled across each corner. From there, the structure grows upward with ever more sides until it becomes a circle.

More enchantingly,

Brick squinches, here decorated with windows and patterns mimicking those below, are not unique to the Samanid mausoleum. But this form, with its fractured spaces, would later evolve into the often gloriously gilded or brightly painted, three-dimensional honeycomb building corners that are known asÂ muqarnas. Sometimes called “stalactite vaults,”Â muqarnasembellish many palaces, madrassas and mausoleums in the Muslim world and do seem to be unique to Islamic architecture.

A Final Resting Place, Both Beguiling and Beautiful ran in Saturday’s WSJ. If you cannot read it there, because of the paywall, you can find it on my website.

Is TEFAF New York A Success? UPDATED

That depends on how you measure success.

There was a lot of doubt and even some worry that TEFAF, the world’s best art fair, would not be able to make a go of it here in New York, or that if it did somehow do that, the main fair in Maastricht would suffer. After two years in New York–both spring for modern art and fall for Old Masters and 19th Century art, with antiquities showing up in both–the doubters seem to be quiet, at least on one level

The high quality of art on display at the Park Avenue Armory this week (and through Tuesday, in case you have not yet been and can go) is the reason. While some dealers who had booths last year were shut out for this edition–24 of the 90 participants are new–and they complained, visitors benefited because the art on view really was of a higher caliber. My favorite booth was Wildenstein’s–which offered several Bonnards, and only Bonnards. David Zwirner had an excellent booth, too, matching works by Josef Albers with a wall of Morandis.

Those two stood out in part because they had a narrow range of work that left a big impression–butÂ I didn’t see a “bad” booth in the entire Park Avenue Armory and virtually every one had something fantastic.

So, for fair visitors, TEFAF New York Spring is a big win. Likewise, TEFAF New York Fall.

It’s unclear how much is being sold, however–though I did see several red dots on the VIP day and some more on Friday, when I returned.

UPDATE: A press release issues on 5/6 said sales in the first two days were “significant” across the fair and cited several examples, including a Guston painting that went for $5.5 million and a Basquiat for about $5 million.

It’s also unclear if TEFAF is breaking even or making a profit. Though TEFAF itself doesn’t shoot for profits, its partner here in New York, Artvest, does aim to make money. And they are trying–in addition to the prominent new dealers in the mix, there are more partners and sponsors, there’s a bigger cultural panel program this year in an attempt to draw visitors, and they introduced the TEFAF Art Market report with a new focus on art financing. (At the moment it has not been uploaded to the TEFAF website, so I can’t tell you what it said. UPDATE, 5/6–it is now posted, and I’ll look when I have a moment.)

As for TEFAF Maastricht, I didn’t notice any falloff in quality this year, and contrary to rumors, the fair is not leaving Maastricht–it recently signed a 10-year agreement with the city to stay.

For art-lovers here in New York and visitors who can attend here, TEFAF New York is a huge success.

I’m posting a few pictures–a Matisse from Acquavella, a Bonnard from Wildenstein, two Morandis at Zwirner.Â

Egypt: Breaking New Ground–Underwater

Like Gold, Picasso and Impressionism, Egypt has generally been a sure-fire subject for art museums. But, you may think, you know the story–basically. An exhibit at the St. Louis Art Museum will make you think again.Â Sunken Cities: Egyptâ€™s Lost Worlds, a traveling show that has previously been shown at the British Museum, in Paris and in Zurich, delves into the underwater finds made by Franck Goddio,Â president of theÂ European Institute for Underwater Archaeology,Â and his team over the last seven or so years. They discovered the lost cities of Thonis-Heracleion and Canopusin.

You can see it, from afar, on Monday, Apr. 30, at 10:30 Central Time on Facebook Live: That’s when Lisa Ã‡akmak, SLAM’s associate curator of ancient art, will give a tour for the press, but I think everyone can tune in. Here’s the link to the museum’s Facebook page. And before that, you can watch this short video on YouTube.

I was lucky to be in St. Louis in mid-March, as the exhibition was almost completely installed but not yet open to the public, and I am very enthusiastic about this show. It includes about 250 artifacts from the “dig” plus some complementary ones from near the rediscovered underwater city. I met both Goddio and Ã‡akmak, and I learned a lot about Egypt that I had not heard before. Or seen before–for example, the figure at left, a statue of Arsinoe that date to the Ptolemeic period. It’s far from what we conjure when we think about Egyptian sculpture.

Here are the basics from the press release:

Thonis-Heracleion…was built in the Nile delta. The city reached its zenith in the Late Period (664â€“332 BC), when it served as Egyptâ€™s main Mediterranean port. By 800 AD, different natural catastrophies such as earthquake and soil liquefaction had caused both Thonis-Heracleion and the nearby community of Canopus to submerge, and ruins remained underwater for more than 1,000 years…

The French archeologistâ€™s research has revealed that this area was important both as a center of trade and as a site of religious pilgrimage. The excavation also helped scholars understand the Mysteries of Osiris, an annual water procession along the canals between Thonis-Heracleion and Canopus commemorating one of Egyptâ€™s most important mythsâ€”the murder and resurrection of the god Osiris.

Goddio was mesmerizing as he talked about the rebirth myth that he discovered documentation for, the activities of the priests who kept it all secret, the echoes and relationships of many of the works in the exhibit.

If you are near St. Louis, it’s worth a detour.

This was an expensive venture for SLAM–shipping costs alone had to be enormous. In fact, the museum found it less expensive to buy new cases and mounts than to ship the ones that had been used in Europe.

But it was, the museum said, the first substantial exhibit about Egypt in some 50 years. The region could very much benefit from this.

Costs and need may also be the reason the show has a long run–from March 25 through Sept. 9, nearly six months.

A challenge for any museum presenting an extensive, expensive show for that long is sustaining interest. Human nature, we all know, prompts people to go to something like this at the very beginning and the very end. Museums try hard to smooth out the crowds, making the experience a good one for all. Maybe that’s why Facebook Live tomorrow.

So far, I believe, only the Wall Street Journal and Hyperallergic have provided national coverage–here and here. Local coverage was mostly previews. The shrinking of serious arts coverage everywhere is a problem for many institutions, and there’s no sign that this particular situation will improve, sadly.

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