Archive for October, 2009

Series I - No. I, 1918

    Before she became known as Georgia O’Keefe, the iconic painter of blisteringly sensual flower paintings and stark landscapes, she was just a young woman coming to New York from Wisconsin with dreams of being an artist.  She wanted to free herself  from inhibition — .to express all the feelings and seemingly inexpressible thoughts that were roiling inside of her. She studied art at Columbia University’s Teacher’s College under Arthur Dow,  a specialist in Oriental art who taught that it was the artist’s personality that should come through a drawing, not just a realistic rendering of a subject.
    In 1915, she emerged onto the New York Art World’s stage with a group of abstract charcoal works, whose purpose, she said in interviews later, were to translate into art what she couldn’t say in words – that it was through imagery and shapes that her thoughts would coalesce.
       From there, she moved onto color, moving gradually from intense cobalt blues to hot pinks and lavenders – blossoming into the forms and flowers for which she later became known.
       The Whitney is showing all these works – some not seen  in New York since her first shows – along with some revelatory photographs taken of her by her lover and mentor, Edward Steichen. 
      Georgia O’Keefe: Abstraction is running till January 17.   Don’t Miss It!

           “Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore!”      It’s been 70 years since those immortal words were spoken – and to commemorate that anniversary Warners Brothers  released a new, enhanced Blu-Ray version on Sept. 29.
        Growing up in the sixties, watching the ‘Wizard of Oz’ was always a hotly anticipated ritual in our home.  We were late getting a color television,  so we had a routine.  Watch the first half at home while eating a Sunday kind of dinner.  Then  –  a quick dash to a neighbor who had the big old fashioned wooden console color television to watch the second half  – when Dorothy steps out of her wrecked house into a land where Munchkins and Good Witches and Bad Witches live — and a Yellow Brick Road beckoned to a world of magic.
      The new Blu-Ray digitalized version released by Warner Bros. to commemorate the anniversary and shown on a big screen in Central Park Tuesday night after the concert is gloriously vivid and clear.
    And with all the clarity, you see how crafty and resourceful that crazy dog Toto was after all.  The Wicked Witch is still scary, Glinda still glitters and the Scarecrow is still the Smartest One of Them All.
    Seeing it once more – up there in all its Blu-Ray radiance, You fall in love, all over again.
    Netflix  is offering free streaming of the film on Oct. 3.