NYC: line, shape, color, & texture

The basics: line, shape texture, & color. I thought I would share some things in NYC without telling exactly where I found it. Suffice it to say, some in museums, some not.

                            These are some of my favorite things, like from Marry Poppins.

                                                                            That's it for now.

New York, New York, New York

Where to start?

It was so stimulating!
New York, where you have so many personal interactions a day that on the whole people are really polite to keep the whole thing well oiled.
New York makes D.C. seem sedate. 
New York City is so busy, boisterous, & visually full.
New York is vertical & D.C. is horizontal.

Old friends, art, & a few old haunts.
I went with three Putney School friends & George to the Brooklyn Museum to see the Ai Wei Wei show there.   It was pretty complex.  A few things really stayed with me.
First, the fountain outside, where I could catch mid-air water forms.

         Then these pots, which I believe are modern-day-made.

Ai Wei Wei is famous for breaking an ancient highly valued vase.

This pot is a really old Chinese vessel.

Celebrating the bicycle culture which is being overtaken, unfortunately, by car culture.

Outside I saw this....

The bike & the pole were a piece.

Then 4 of us took an Uber cab to see 'Sugar Baby' in another part of Brooklyn.

This installation was by Kara Walker in 'honor' of the tearing down of the Domino Sugar Factory, but more importantly in honor of all the workers who brought sugar to our tables, particularly Southern Black slaves.

The Sugar Baby is a sphinx carved from huge styrofoam blocks & then covered with a powdered sugar coating. She is attended by much smaller children made from molasses. They carry vessels of refined sugar.  When they melt too much they keel over.

The walls of this vast building were dripping with molasses.  This was there, not put there by Kara Walker.

                                        A hopper for some part of the process.

             Sugar between the inner wall & outer of the building & seeping. 

                                                                     The hall.

The sphinx, 3 views...

And three of the molasses children...

It was an astonishing installation.

That's it for now.

Delights at the Library of Congress

Two days ago I went to the Library of Congress for the 2nd time.
George wanted to see the astonishing many-page map printed by Albrect Durer's shop in the 1500s. It's the first map that mentions the word "America" placed on a sickle-shaped South America.

But I wanted to be in the upper space closer to the amazing vaulted ceilings supported by ornate pillars & arches.
First the exterior...

...then the ceilings...

In this last photo stain-glass skylights.

The floors were pretty nice too.

In the Library are several exhibit spaces. A model of Jefferson's personal library with dummy books placed on the shelf for books they knew he had had. There are books written in English, Latin, Greek, & French. There maybe Hebrew & German also, for all I know. A true scholar, he was.

One other gallery had an exhibit of Persian books.

I did no reading of the accompanying signs. The visuals was all I sought.

And oh, my! what visuals.

I did struggle with lighting unevenness. Couldn't be helped.

I can't help myself from thinking about patchwork quilts, for the shapes, the balance, & the figures in the shapes have so much resonance for me.

The color palette feels Amish to me.

 This one I particularly love: Hebrew & Persian interlarded on gold.

 I love the chart below...

This one above feels very modern, but I can't be sure.

Such a pleasing experience!

Detail & delight everywhere.

That's it for now.