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I went to the Brooklyn Museum to see the Ron Mueck exhibit; I'm here to tell you to get your ass there now, no excuses.
I wasn't allowed to take photos of the exhibit, to my disappointment. That doesn't mean I didn't catch people sneaking photos, people who should know better. The Brooklyn Museum is one of my Flickr contacts and wouldn't they be so displeased with me if I broke their rules. Instead I point you to their GREAT series documenting the installation of Mueck's pieces.
Takashi Murakami retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum
www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2008/05/is-there-a...
Viracocha, octavo Inca, autor desconocido, óleo sobre tela, siglo XVIII. Serie de catorce reyes incas, Brooklyn Museum.
I always love when museums have a visible open storage area. This one has a nice didactic element explaining to the curious visitor such mysteries as the museological tripartite numbering system.
See also the Met:
www.flickr.com/photos/mbschlemmer/3866228416/in/set-72157...
Kehinde Wiley (American, born 1977)
Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps, 2005
Oil on canvas
Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps is emblematic of Wiley’s long-standing and complicated engagement with the grand tradition of European history and portrait painting. Simultaneously “drawn toward that flame and wanting to blow it out,” Wiley’s work reflects his profound understanding of portraiture’s ability to construct images that convey the power of the sitter and to highlight the fact that he and other brown and Black people have been written out of this historical narrative. Through his work, he redresses this omission, offering a counter narrative.
This painting takes as its point of departure David’s iconic Bonaparte Crossing the Alps. In keeping with his practice, Wiley’s painting preserves the pose and composition found in David’s image, while swapping the heroic figure of Napoleon for a Black man, an everyday civilian in contemporary urban dress—camouflage pants, T-shirt, and Timberland boots—astride a rearing steed. The painting maintains the rocky outcropping in the foreground, inscribed with names of great historical military commanders, with the addition of the name WILLIAMS, the model’s last name. Aside from his last name, little else is known about the man sitting in the saddle, in contrast to the general whose role he assumes in the painting. In a marked departure, Wiley replaces the hazy blue sky in David’s painting with a rich red ground embellished with stylized floral motifs in gold. Jewellike gold sperm cells scattered across the painting’s surface make an unexpected reference to sexuality and masculinity. This motif reflects Wiley’s interest in what he calls hypermasculinity, as he associates the abundance of testosterone with aggression, military and otherwise. The sperm cells spill out onto the custom-made gold frame, adorning the testicular forms at each corner. Crowning the frame is a self-portrait of the artist emerging from the womb.
(From the Brooklyn Museum)
Stonecut, 60.58.3
Printer: Kananginak Pootogook
"This print may depict a version of the legend of Igaluk, a man who became the moon. Igaluk was attending a dance when a wind blew the lights out. In the dark he forced himself on a woman, and when the lights came on, he discovered she was his sister. She snatched a brightly burning torch and ran outside. Her brother followed, carrying his own torch, which became dim when he tripped in the snow. Both siblings were carried up into the sky, where the woman turned into the sun and Igaluk became the moon. The moon still chases his sister across teh sky, while she races ahead to escape him."
the brooklyn museum has comment kiosks outside exhibits, but also accepts comments via twitter, which is pretty neat. their online presence, especially with 1stfans, is well thought out and not an empty gimmick like a lot of old institutions would pull.