and yet more DIA favorites

Bill's turn to weigh on the permanent collection at the Detroit Institute of Arts museum. Portraits attracted him on this particular day, beginning with the self-conscious self-portrait of  Salvator Rosa, an Italian 17th-century painter. "I love it that he seems to be cultivating an air of mystery and asceticism," says Bill, "and then we learn …

more picks from the Detroit Institute of Arts

Alex's turn to weigh in.  Lots of works he really liked, he says, but when it comes to risking prison then two stand out: It is worth looking up the next one on the museum's web site, where you can run the magnifying 'glass' over the image and see the details in the people's expressions. …

Some favorites at the DIA

Four of us trawled the Detroit Institute of Arts Museum this afternoon on the ArtLERT mission....  Let's start with Marie Hughes' choices: "It makes me feel like I'm there; I feel the chill," says Marie, and there is no question that this painting places you right there in the winter landscape. Marie's other choice is …

Wonders of Our Age….?

Modern-day Mughal-style paintings by twins born and raised in Liverpool -- what an unexpected treasure trove!  Amrit and Rabindra Singh explode the scale, ramp up the attitude, and set their sights on sports and politics, war and love... basically all the themes Mughal court artists tackled except that, instead of polo and hunting tigers, it's …

Benjamin to the rescue…as always

Walter Benjamin -- you'd think his "Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" had been so quoted that the words would be used up by now.  But no, they are still there, still legible, still useful, and they spring to mind as I walk through Serra's 'Junction' and 'Cycle'  at Gagosian gallery, camera in hand.  …

Somewhere between sculpture and architecture — even landscape

They're sculptures, but you walk through them and experience them the way you experience a building.  I'm talking about the work of Richard Serra, whose  "Junction" and "Cycle" are -- what? on view? open? available for hiking, the way gorges carved by time and the elements are?  -- at Gagosian Gallery in NY.  

Meet me at the Guanyin in Saint Louis

When I first spotted this statue of Guanyin from afar, I knew I had found the piece in the Saint Louis Art Museum I would gladly risk prison for.  So I got closer...and closer... and closer till I was standing before this bodhisattva of compassion.  I could have sworn that his chest then gently inflated.   …

DOWN THE EAST SIDE OF MANHATTAN

Why on earth would one walk from 148th street down the East side of Manhattan?  Because.... it was a friend's birthday and this is what she really, really wanted to do... because when else do you get the chance to see the city unfurl before you....  because when you walk 10 miles from Harlem to …