Art: The Generational: Younger than Jesus @ New Museum

What did Jesus do before 30? A lot...

And, if you do make it to this exhibit, go with your own bible of a guide to understand it all. Good luck. 

Art: Matisse: Cut-outs @ National Gallery

Matisse's gouaches decoupes have always been a favorite for their simplicity, minimalism and elegance. Although the National Gallery's Matisse cut-out collection is quite small, it is well worth taking a peak. Cut and composed later in Matisse's life, they continue to show the vigor, acute color sensibility and perverted spacial composition that his paintings are celebrated for. In his own words, these are his "paintings with scissors."

Art: Luis Melendez @ the National Gallery, Washington D.C

Luis Melendez, Still Life with Watermelons and Apples, Museo del Prado, Madrid.

I have never been drawn to 'Stillleben'. What exactly is so impressive and fascinating about paintings that portray, with such excessively embroidered detail, decaying fruits and vegetables or impeccable yet improbable floral arrangements? What possibly can be the meaning behind these overly crafted compositions? Where is the emotion that, in my (narrow) mind, art needs!?

Luis Melendez, an Italian by birth, but a life-long Madrileno, captured my interest at the National Gallery in DC. The 30-odd oil on canvases by Melendez focused heavily on the juxtaposition of 'exotic' and common-place edibles displayed in various arrangements, often set in peaceful rural Spanish landscapes. From the Royal house of Asturias, Meledez was commissioned to paint "the four Seasons of the Year -- with the aim of composing an amusing cabinet with every species of food produced by the Spanish climate." It was perhaps, the painting featured above, as part of this season order: Still Life with Watermelons and Apples, that did it for me. Up close, the juicy, palpable chunks of pink watermelon dripping off the canvas with little black cockroach-like pits roaming through the rose-colored terrain, were a calling that wrote: virtuosity. He captures the subtle shifts of textures, and the gleams of light from the succulent watermelon and the lustrous pits with such care that its almost...comical!

His contemporary, Francisco Goya, overshadowed Melendez’s career and only recently has his work been re-evaluated and reappraised. Today, he is seen as one of the preeminent still-life artists.

Art: Francis Bacon: A Century Retrospective @ the Met

Painting, 1946 (MoMa) Oil on Canvas

"I remember looking at dog shit on the pavement and I suddenly realized, there it is--this is what life is like." --Francis Bacon

Crude, unapologetic, caged biomorphic bodies, butchered cadavers, unremorseful, pummeled faces, horrific intensity, a dance between self-love and self-loath. These are the words that spring to mind while wandering through Francis Bacon: A Century Retrospective on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Sixty-five punches of unrepentent intensity.

And the critics response? Same as its always been: hotly divided. While Slate's art critic, Christopher Benfey gave the show a remarkably attuned (and sagacious) appraisal , The New Yorker's art columnist (and ruler #2 of my universe--after Schama, of course), Peter Schjeldahl held Bacon's work at an arm's length in Rough Stuff, where the paintings are undermined as mere "pageant(s) of hangovers and refractory lovers." Ha!

With my own short-lived aspirations to become 'an artist' Bacon had been a powerful force in my search for self-expression. His images to me dwelled in the shadowy margins of socially 'acceptable' emotions, the angst of youth, horrors of life and death, and the battles between conceit and self-hate. Bacon's images in reproduced form, were very familiar and became part of preparatory work for my own oeuvres. Something was awry, however, as I walked through the glut of Bacon-filled rooms. I had waited what seemed to be an eternity to see a full retrospective of his work, as a thought crept in: was I really and truly feeling ever-so slightly nostalgic and (gasp!) disappointed?

What ever my own hopes and expectations were, it became clear to me that Bacon's work had once meant something quite different to eyes trained as an artistic sponge, directed to soak up emotions and inspiration. It was a revelation that today Bacon's work, while still riveting, shocking and awe-inspiring, could be appreciated from a healthy distance. It seems fruitless to dwell in my own personal development at least in blog-form-- I realized that I no longer needed Bacon's hateful and tortured images; they have served their purpose. From an art historical perspective, however, Bacon remains a seemingly eternal curiosity. Artistically he cannot be categorized as a member of the abstract expressionists, nor the Surrealists. His world-view inhabits that of existential compatriots such as Alberto Giacometti. His world stands on its own, and in some form or fashion can be seen to have inspired artists such as Lucian Freud. History (and the auction world) has proved to be been kind to this old gent, where his paintings can fetch over $80 million (in at least the pre-credit crunch era...)

Celebration: Yellow Duck + Cupcakes = Quarter of a Century in Style!

A little Veuve Clicquot (Yellow Duck or den Gula Ankka, en Suedoise) along with delectable Red Velvet and German Chocolate cupcakes from Two Little Red Hens is how I rang in my quarter-century mile-stone in the charming Upper West Side Riverside Park!