Cai Guo-Qiang: I want to Believe

There's such a lot to see at the Met, MoMA and other New York museums at the moment but one not-to-be-missed show is at the iconic Guggenheim. Amazing architecture and awe-inspiring art in one space, so I had to go and see it for myself.
Inspired by a car bomb Inopportune Stage One occupies the rotunda of the Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan, New York and is the initial installation of Cai Guo-Qiang' s exhibition: I want to Believe. White cars tumble skywards while lasers shoot out of the vehicles, turning an image of destruction into one of beauty.
Further along the gallery a pack of wolves hurtles into a glass wall and a fishing boat pierced with 3,000 arrows is suspended from the ceiling. Visitors can walk among the exhibits, including the life-size clay figures in the Rent Collection Courtyard or even go on a river trip in an animal hide raft.
Most of the works were shown first at other galleries but there is something about the unique space of Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum that is superbly suited to Cai's work.
A large part of the experience for me was amazement at the staging of the exhibits so be sure to visit the website to see how some of them were installed.

The exhibition runs through May 28 2008 at The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
More information here.

Back to The Cool House and the blog

So much to relate, but where to start?


With the wonderful things I saw while I was away?


Or with the fantastic progress made at The Cool House in my absence?

We apologise for the interruption

We are a little hung up at the moment. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

Saturday Shoot

Just to prove we're not exclusively modern, we're off to the city to look at Parmigianino’s Antea before it goes home to the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples.
I'll leave you with a few shots from the yard

vinca flower

pachysandra flower

heather
Not as stunning as Antea but it's the best I've got.

Color Chart

I'd been waiting a month to get to Color Chart: Reinventing Color, 1950 to Today. On Sunday we got there early to avoid the crowds and spent a couple of hours at the exhibition.


The Guy and I were there at the end of February when they were laying out this vinyl tape exhibit, ZOBOP! by Jim Lambie. It's standing up pretty well to thousands of feet walking up the lobby stairs at the Museum of Modern Art.


I can't help but smile looking at the bright colors of Donald Judd's Untitled, 1989, it's happy art.


I was so inspired by Bas Jan Ader's Primary Time that I had to come home and prove myself even more inept at producing a Mondrian inspired flower arrangement than he was.

Beautiful Blog Things

A quick round-up of some beautiful blogs I've come across from my stats page or comments I've received via email.


The Rabbit Muse, a blogger from a jewelery maker and potter of pretty things living in upstate New York.


The Upholstery Blog from Heller Furniture, a Massachusetts based custom furniture and design firm.


Andeas Design & Scrapbook På Nätet, Andreas linked to a post I did a while ago on furniture that morphs into a room for 2Modern Design Talk. Unfortunately he linked it to The Cool House and not 2Modern, so I've been getting a lot of traffic from Sweden. If any of them need more information on the Casulo it's here.


Blink Decor's Decorators Dish has a post up about Pochoir Portfolios, a 1920s Moderne French Interiors exhibition at the Wolfsonian Museum in Miami. I love anything with Moderne in the title, obviously, but all the posts on the blog are inspiring. Check out this one on interiors from the film “Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day”.
Enjoy. I'm back to thinking about the vessel sink. The Red and Black is winning by a mile.

The power of democracy

red & black
After I mentioned I had asked the internet readership to help us choose a new vessel sink, the Guy announced he has a definite preference and that he is a Super Delegate and therefore gets two votes. I have a different choice of sink but as I threw it open I will of course abide by the majority's decision.

red crackle
He is concerned that I didn't give you a choice to state you think all four were horrible. So if you hate them all, have a better suggestion or have a reason why you favor one vessel sink over another send me a comment.

red marble
Each of the above has at least one vote.

red spiral
It seems no one is into the Red Spiral, are the swirls too distracting perhaps?

red Imprint with a #50 Paintbrush
To help us with the decision we visited Color Chart: Reinventing Color, 1950 to Today at the MoMA in Manhattan. It was a fabulous show, possibly the best I've seen there since they expanded MoMA, but we are no nearer reaching a concensus. More about the exhibition over here.

Bear?

Look closely at the Jamie Geller Dutra Original Abstract painting. What do you see? I see a landscape on a rainy day with the sun glinting through the rocks in the background.


What does the Guy see in his birthday painting? A bear, that's what. It took me ages to see what he was on about but eventually I got it.
Anyone else see it?

Art, moveable art

If the new Jamie Geller Dutra painting is in the master bedroom, then where is the Aboriginal art "Myths of Uluru" that I gave the guy for his birthday three years ago?
Here's the thing: I never felt that painting was 100% at home in our bedroom, the colors weren't quite right and it was a little small for the space. So I moved it to me office, right above the computer and it's extraordinary.


The ochre and red dots are perfectly balanced by the Asger Jorn Uden Titel (1943-44) poster from the Louisiana Museum collection in Denmark that hangs on the opposite wall,


and the Indonesian mask by the window. It's getting global in here.


Just in case you thought I was leaving out the Americas, New York is represented by three photos on the wall nearest the door.
Piece by piece the house is coming together.

Birthday, Secret, Painting

I have been patiently anticipating writing about this for a month now.

On February 10 I received an email from Jake Gorst announcing the opening of artist Jamie Geller Dutra's store on etsy. Jamie is Jake's mother and daughter of Shirley and Andrew Geller, architect of The Cool House. The email came fortuitously as I was looking for something arty and modern for "the guy's" birthday. I fell in love with original abstract painting in shades of green, bright blue, purple, red and gold, quickly purchased it and as soon as it was in my hands I dropped it off at the Framing Workshop in Huntington in the hope if getting it framed by this weekend.

The whole time I wanted to blog about how fabulous the painting was, how the colours would fit perfectly in our bedroom, especially how the abstract reminded me of lakes and mountains, shafts of sunshine and waterfalls, and I couldn't because I wanted it to be a big birthday surprise. I did blog about Jamie's site on 2modern design, but I couldn't add any personal elements in case the guy got wind of it. Very frustrating.

That I'm impatient is no secret but did you also know I am hopeless at fibbing and getting the painting home without the guy finding out would stretch my artifice to its limit? First I had to rope a neighbor into picking up the framed painting because it was too wide to fit in my car; this entailed many secret phone calls and emails and eventually a fictitious trip to look at furniture with said neighbor. The guy was suspicious, and very reluctant to leave the house at all yesterday (normally he's running errands all over the place on Saturdays) but the five inches of rain we had may have been responsible for that. Finally we went out to dinner and per the plan our neighbors snuck the painting into the garage while we were out, hiding it behind my car.


This morning I placed it in the kitchen and he was totally blown away by it. I picked a wood frame with a brushed stainless steel finish that picks up on the cool grey tones and an off-white matte that really defines the colours in the painting. We hung it over the sofa in our room and suddenly the guy understood why I made him rearrange the furniture in there last week. I told him it was so the room would appear larger (which it did) but really it was so the painting could be positioned on this wall and seen from the great room, back stairs and landing.


All this subterfuge was exhausting. I have only the greatest admiration for people who pull off surprise parties for family members, I don't know how they can get everyone to cooperate without letting the secret out. But all the drama was worth it when I saw the wonderful work of art as I walked up the back stairs and the look on the guy's face when he opened his present this morning.

File it under lust, baby

Looking through some inspiring photos on the internets today I came across the Legna Lightbox 2 from Jef Designs. This digital painting is illuminated by three fluorescent tubes creating a soft, back-lit work of art.
I want something like this to replace the Artimide Logico light on the landing. I'm not sure that the Legna lightbox would provide enough light along the corridor but it's certainly the right size (20h x 30l x 3.5d) and has the wood effect in it that we just can't get enough of in the Cool House. Can you image how striking it would look there? As it costs $1500 and our lighting budget right now stands at $0 or less I won't be able to find out if it would be as stunning on our wall. I'll just have to worship it from afar.

Going Modern

Shiro Kuramata, 49 Drawers (1970), Museum of Modert Art, NYC.
We renewed our subscription to MoMA and as no-one has to work today we popped in to the city to see the Lucian Freud exhibit. Just the two of us and twenty million other people who wanted to see modern art on a warm wet Monday morning. It's really not possible to enjoy looking at anything with these crowds so we cut our losses and joined friends for a long (4 hour) leisurely lunch at The Modern.
The $55 pre-fixe was possibly the best meal we have had in NYC since we ate there back in 2005. Light and velvety lentil broth with foie gras flan, garlicky carpaccio of sea bass, crispy trout and the tart apple and pear dessert were the stand-outs. The service was impeccable and the amuse bouche and complimentary petits fours were greatly appreciated. My only tiny quibble is that MoMA offers a 10% discount to members dining in their other restaurants but apparently not in The Modern. Still, I can't think of a better way to spend President's Day. It sure beats shopping my way to poverty.

70s wall art

The last of the decorative items I've purchased recently arrived this morning. This cool 70s burnt copper and brass sculpture came from Canada via ebay and looks much cooler than the African mask I had there before.
I found a new space for the mask in my office, where the blue wood stands out much better against my yellow walls. He's looking down on me, making sure I don't slack off too much. Or spend any more money.

Marcellin Dufour '83

Marcellin Dufour '83
Originally uploaded by modernemama.

Yesterday I got a call from the picture framers to say the painting I bought on ebay before Xmas was ready. It's oil on canvas so it had to be stretched, I chose a matte black wood for the frame and it came out beautifully. When I got it home I realised the background colour was very similar to the Benjamin Moore Titanium in the dining room, and it has deep red splotches, the same colour as the curtains. I'd originally bought it for my office but it seemed to want to hang in the dining room so that's where I nailed it. And for once I only had to make one hole in the wall.
It was meant to be.