For those of us not in Venice for the Biennale this year, alas, it’s impossibly to see Bruce Nauman: Topological Gardens, which just won the top “Golden Lion” award. But below is the image the Philadelphia Museum of Art — the commissioning institution — is providing of the pavilion’s exterior.  

 And here’s part of the statement from the Biennale, which said it made the award:

in recognition of the sustained energy and precision of Bruce Nauman’s art. From iconic embodiments of human pain and fragility to pithy jabs at our frailties, his oeuvre reveals the magic of meaning as it emerges through relentless repetition of language and form.

The Philadelphia museum worked in collaboration with the Università Iuav di Venezia and the Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia, and the Nauman exhibition, a survey of four decades of his work, fills two other spaces at the universities as well. This is the first time since 1990 that the U.S. has won this top award. That’s when Jenny Holzer represented the U.S.

You can find more information about the installation at this project website — but no additional images, sorry to say.

Photo Caption/Credit: Installation shot of an exhibition copy of Bruce Nauman, Vices and Virtues, 1983-88 as installed on the frieze of the U.S. Pavilion. Neon and clear glass tubing mounted on aluminum support grid. Stuart Collection at the University of California, San Diego © 2009 Bruce Nauman / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo credit: Michele Lamanna, courtesy Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Are gardens art? Some of them are; artists like Robert Irwin are renowned for their living
works of art; his central garden at the Getty Center is a popular part of the complex, and many people know him only for that work. Maya Lin has made landscape art a speciality. Her newest and largest, Wavefield at Storm King Art Center in upstate New York, sits on an 11-acre site and involves seven waves measuring more than 300 feet long.

All of which is simply a shameless way to say that I, too, have strayed into landscape art with my latest article, published in today’s New York Times: “Philadelphia’s Gardens of Earthly Delights.”

Of the five gardens I chose to write about, my favorite — and the most aesthetic — is Chanticleer, in Wayne, Pa. (at right). It is filled with artistic touches and humorous features. It’s definitely worth a visit if you’re in the neighborhood.

UPDATED, 6/13/09: Random House has just alerted me to a book it recently published — one that’s both scholarly and a highly readable narrative — called The Brother Gardeners, by Andrea Wulf. It’s relevant because it shows how John Bartram, whose garden I mention in the NYTimes article, helped start Britain’s garden revolution and led to the creation and popularity of what is today the renowned English Garden.  

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Chanticleer Garden.

Continuing my previous list of art, music, theater books for the summer (Part One is here):

**The Bellini Madonna by Elizabeth Lowry (Farrar, Straus & Girouz). A first novel designed to be a page-turner, it chronicles the attempts of a “debauched [American] art historian” trying to track down a long-lost Madonna by Bellini. When the action moves to an English stately home, he is entangled in lives of its occupants, the work’s last known owners. 

**Tenor by John Potter (Yale University Press). Everyone loves the Tenor, especially after the “Three Tenors” sang together. Potter traces the history of tenors from its pre-history in medieval times, telling tales about the world’s great performers, and more. 

**Paris From the Ground Up by James H.S. McGregor (Belknap Press, Harvard). An ode to the City of Light, this book traces the history of Paris through its art and architecture from its Roman era through contemporary times.

[Read more…] about Artsy Books for Summer Reading, Part Two

Newspapers, magazines and websites have been publishing their summer reading lists, heavy on fast-reads like Pat Conroy’s new South of Broad, due in August, and a quasi-memoir by Susie Boyt called My Judy Garland Life. Fine. But if you want to head for the
beach or the mountains with something arts-related, yet not too heavy, here’s a list of new and recent books that I made while perusing publishers’ ads, catalogues and websites (exhibition catalogues were excluded, as were most heavily illustrated books).

Preface: I didn’t see many new Girl-With-A-Pearl Earring-style novels — just one, possibly — though they may be out there (feel free to send them to me, and I will post them).

**Florence 1900: The Quest for Arcadia by Bernd Roeck, translated by Stewart Spencer (Yale University Press). Based on letters, diaries and notebooks of an art historian named Aby Warburg, the book chronicles the lives and times of Florence’s inhabitants and visitors (Wilde, Rilke, Degas, etc.) at the turn of the century, exploring the cafes, theaters, galleries and salons just as Renaissance Florence was about to enter the modern age.

**The Gargoyles of Notre Dame by Michael Camille (University of Chicago Press). Writing a comprehensive history of the monsters everyone loves to see, Camille details their construction in the 19th century and argues that they transformed the iconic thirteenth-century cathedral into a modern monument.

**Kander and Ebb by James Leve (Yale University Press). In this first study of the Broadway musical team, Leve draws on their personal papers to examine their artistic accomplishments, contributions to the American musical, and the nature of their collaboration. 

[Read more…] about Beyond Pat Conroy: Artsy Books to Read This Summer

As I predicted here on May 14, President Obama has nominated former Republican
Congressman Jim Leach, of Iowa, as the new chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The announcement was just made by the White House.

It didn’t say much more than that. Just a brief quote from the President:

I am confident that with Jim as its head, the National Endowment for the Humanities will continue on its vital mission of supporting the humanities and giving the American public access to the rich resources of our culture.  Jim is a valued and dedicated public servant and I look forward to working with him in the months and years ahead.

Leach strayed from orthodoxy and endorsed Obama last summer. Since leaving Congress in 2007, he’s taught at Princeton University and has been the interim director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He’s basically viewed in Washington as a good guy, and — as I said a few weeks ago — the only drawback with the choice is that Leach had his eye on bigger jobs, such as ambassador to China or a financial job.

The White House press release is here.