MoMA: Permanent Collection

Christina's World, Andrew Wyeth, 1948

The Royal Family

Ben Brantley reviews The Royal Family.

And he likes it. Well done!

Image via The New York Times

Hamlet: Jude Law

Recent opening: Hamlet starring Jude Law at the Broadhurst Theatre.

This image is absolutely perfect:

Images via New York Times and Travel+Leisure

Presidential Paintings

Berkeley, No. 52 by Richard Diebenkorn

The first thing you see when you visit nytimes.com today is the bold, painterly, expressionist work of Richard Diebenkorn. And this is, perhaps, the first thing the Obama’s will now see each day… in their own home.

The Obama’s have picked forty-five pieces of art that are on loan from various Washington D.C. museums to hang in their private residence of the White House.

The New York Times article, “A Bold and Modern White House” mentioned that there existed some limitations—they could only pick from pieces that were not currently on display, and pieces that would not likely go on display soon. In other words, they were choosing from storage: from the basement of the museums rather than the gallery of the museums.

This struck me as fair. This struck me as downright nice. This struck me as a reminder that art should not be exclusive—it should be out there for the public to view, think upon, and react towards. They picked pieces without disrupting what the museums have to offer.

Yet something tells me that down the road, the pieces they picked won’t end up back in the basement; they’ll find their way to the galleries.

I think I’ll… by Ed Ruscha

Black Like Me No. 2 by Glenn Ligon

Sky Light by Alma Thomas

Part II: Kandinsky: Curator's Eye

This coming Friday, you can tour the Kandinsky exhibit with the Curator of Collections and Exhibits at the Guggenheim Museum.

I really want to do this. And then steal that job.

Part I: Kandinsky: Overview

What: KANDINSKY Retrospective

Where: Guggenheim Museum

When: 9.18.09-1.13.10

Why: Kandinsky is a genius.

Images via Guggenheim Museum

Mornings with Monet

Claude Monet. Water Lilies. 1914–26

Browsing through the Museum of Modern Art’s website, I found this tour that I am absolutely, positively signing up for:

“Skip the crowds and enjoy Monet's Water Lilies with an art historian as your guide. On selected Sundays throughout the duration of the exhibition—October 18, November 8, November 29, and December 20—MoMA is offering group tours before the Museum is open to the public. The one-hour tours examine the life and work of Claude Monet with a close study of the exhibition and a look at related works in MoMA’s collection.”

Coffee. Croissants. Claude.

Count me in.

Image via MoMA.org

Superior Donuts

Superior Donuts—a new play by Tracy Letts—opens tonight at the Music Box Theatre. It features Michael McKean (a Christopher Guest cult film regular and undeniable funnyman) as a “sad-sack Chicago doughnut-shop owner” (NYMag).

Click here to read more on Michael McKean in his current role.

Image via NYMag