Giants and Georgia O'Keeffe Elevate Atlanta's High

My Paris summer was a lot of things, from amazing in terms of five-ringed and French encounters to profound for life experiences while restoring faith in many aspects of the Olympic Family, a welcome change after Rio challenges and Tokyo's pandemic left me dismayed. 

 

With an abundance of stories to share, including two drafted but unpublished posts from the final days of the torch relay and the dazzling albeit drizzly opening ceremony (and hundreds of photos and Paris 2024 micro-moment impressions to share), I've struggled to decide how to get back to blogging, procrastinating around real-life and client work since August. 

That stops now with notes on two fresh fine art exhibitions underway at Atlanta's High Museum of Art, which kindly hosted me for media previews for both options.

The must-see, worth airfare and a sleepover show "Georgia O'Keeffe: 'My New Yorks'" (through Feb. 16) gave me goosebumps. 

First arranged and unveiled at the Chicago Art Institute, the exhibition features around 100 works, including several longtime favorites by the Wisconsin-born multimedia artist as well as several "new to my eyes" works from private collections or remote museums not yet experienced. 

"This exhibition offers the wonderful opportunity to highlight this important but perhaps unrecognized period of O'Keeffe's artistic life and demonstrate how [works] exemplify her innovation as a Modernist," said High Director Rand Suffolk. 

Showstopping works include:

• Taos Pueblo, which vividly captures the New Mexico destination circa 1929, on loan from the Eiteljorg Museum of Indianapolis

• Radiator Building-Night, New York, with all its radiant shades of blue, first experienced in its home gallery Crystal Bridges of Bentonville, Ark.
  

• A Celebration, at right, featuring all the clouds about which Jonie Mitchell sang, from Seattle Art Museum

• The Shelton With Sunspots, inserted atop this blog post, featuring O'Keeffe's home and studio address atop Manhattan from which many other urban works originated, here from Chicago Art Institute

• Abstract nature scenes via From The Lake No. 1 and From The Lake No. 3 from the Des Moines Art Center and Philadelphia Museum of Art, respectively

• The massive (seven feet tall) canvas Manhattan with a Rockefeller Center-like ivory tower affixed with pink, red and lilac roses in town from the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington (don't miss the delicate pencil and ink artist sketch also on view nearby)

The exhibition's rich catalog from Yale University Press, edited by Chicago Arts Institute colleagues Sarah Kelly Ohler and Annelise K. Madsen, includes essays that detail O'Keeffe's daily life in Manhattan with a skyscraper vantage point. 

Trust me, you'll thank yourself for making time to view this exhibition. 

Meanwhile, also on view through Jan. 19 the High presents "Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys." 

Like the O'Keeffe gathering, this private collection presentation -- on its only Southeast stop after debuting at the Brooklyn Museum -- features about 100 works. 

Standout works include Kehinde Wiley's floor-to-ceiling portraits of the collection's namesake owners, coastal views by Barkley L Hendricks, an untitled work by Jean-Michel Basquiat, and several photos by Gordon Parks, including multiple portraits of Muhammad Ali only a few years after his Olympic feats at Rome 196o. 

Another set of monumental canvases titled "A Puzzled Revolution" by Titus Kaphar blends likenesses of Ali's knockout of Sonny Liston with riffs from other icons like the nautical crew in "Watson and the Shark." 

Across the room, be sure to spend time with "You Shouldn't Be the Prisoner of Your Own Ideas" featuring a quilt-like assemblage of used jail uniforms arranged by Hank Willis Thomas. 

And around another corner, there's a small batch of BMX bikes (a reminder of their recent addition to the Paris Olympic cycling competition) and music studio production equipment. Word!

The final gallery also features four large portraits of dancers or gymnasts resembling Simone Biles, with the exhibit bookended by another giant -- the collection's largest -- Wiley canvas. 

Photos by Nicholas Wolaver

Rodin at the High = French Wissing in the USA

To wis is to know, and visitors to Atlanta's High Museum of Art may enjoy getting to know French sculptor Auguste Rodin through the fresh exhibition of 70 works in "Rodin in the United States: Confronting the Modern" on view through Jan. 15. 

When a banner for the exhibition recently went up locally, lyrics to Debbie Harry's seldom-heard passionate smooching song played in my head and inspired the rhyming headline to this post. 

In anticipation of the recent exhibition media preview, I dusted off memories of my first Rodin encounters, both in 1996, also at the High. 

Visiting the museum a week after moving to Georgia, the artist's solemn work "The Shade" -- the centerpiece of a memorial to 106 Atlantans lost in the Orly air disaster of 60 years ago -- greeted me on the approach to Richard Meier's award-winning building on Peachtree Street.

Later that year, of course, the exhibition "Rings: Five Passions in World Art" (photo below) was a cornerstone of the Cultural Olympiad in which Rodin's six-foot marble masterpiece "The Kiss" was a showstopping loan from the Rodin Museum in Paris. 

The new exhibition also features "The Kiss" though this time in bronze borrowed from the Baltimore Museum of Art, where I previously enjoyed this version during a New Jersey to Georgia road trip pit stop of summer 2018 (yes, I brake/break for museums). 

Here are five other Rodin works that caught my eye now on view at the High:

The marble "Christ and Mary Magdalene" -- for which Rodin supervised carving rather than himself chiseling, according to the exhibition wall text -- bookends silky smooth lines of the Biblical characters with rough, unfinished stone pockmarked by somewhat symmetrical knife-poked divots. Taking inspiration from the themes of Slow Art Day, I spent nearly 10 quiet minutes studying this work from all sides and it is extraordinary. This work is loaned by another Meier-designed masterpiece museum, The Getty in Los Angeles. 

"Female Torso with a Slavic Woman's Head" (photo below), which I vaguely recalled from an early 2000s Rodin exhibition at its Legion of Honor home in San Francisco, is an armless plaster figure whose downward gaze perhaps inspired Quintin Tarantino's French-Japanese character Sophie Fatale. As some may recall, she was the interpreter rolled down the snowy hill to a Tokyo emergency room in "Kill Bill: Vol. 1." But what woman will you see and be inspired to revisit via Rodin's work?

Speaking of Japan, for the drawing "Hanako" Rodin sketched his only Japanese model, a touring actress named Hisa Ota (or is it Ota Hisa?). I loved viewing the pen and ink later colored with crayon. While writing this post, a more detailed back story of the actress' intro to Rodin came to light via this site and their eventual artist:spouse:model collaboration is fascinating. 

According to wall texts, "The Prodigal Son" bronze (photo below) was cast for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. This was another Legion of Honor work seen previously and it proved as moving now as ever. 

If this exhibition's iconic showpiece is "The Thinker" then its feminine counterpart conversation starter may be "Iris, Messenger of the Gods" on holiday from the Smithsonian/Hirshhorn Museum in D.C. Rodin left little to the imagination rendering the bronze "unexhibitable" for prudish American museums. The model was definitely more provocateur less demure.

The exhibition also includes an informative timeline for Rodin's career highs and lows, mistresses and marriage. 

I asked the guest curator, Antoinette Le Normand-Romain, the extent to which "The Kiss" loan of 1996 or the forthcoming Paris 2024 Cultural Olympiad were on her radar ("non" is her paraphrased response). 

She does have great expertise and information about Rodin to share, which may be viewed on YouTube via her summer presentation at the Clark Institute when the exhibition opened there. 

Photos by Nicholas Wolaver except the cover image of "Rings: Five Passions in World Art" catalog cover photo by Bruno Jaret. 

Foundation Louis Vuitton Basks in Bright Spotlight of its Major Jean-Michel Basquiat Exhibition

A few months ago while pondering art, a news item crossed my desk regarding the first major exhibition in years for Jean-Michel Basquiat.

My eyes and ears perked up for the potential opportunity to experience more works by the artist who rose to prominence during the 1980's.

The attention-grabbing article stated the Foundation Louis Vuitton in Paris would present 120 Basquiat works in one venue during late autumn to mid-January.

C'est magnifique!

In consideration of a potential trip to the City of Lights, I recalled my first encounter with Basquiat's craft, which took place in 2016 at The Broad, downtown LA's outstanding modern art assemblage (the museum was created by a married couple whose family name and art collection each rhyme with mother lode).

At The Broad, Basquiat's grand "Untitled" head canvas transfixed me, though I had no idea nor context that it was part of a series.

"Big Snow" via ArtNet.com

A few months later (spring 2017), at the gift shop for the Pompidou Center in Paris, another Basquiat quietly entered my experience, this time with the a five-ringed connection as the painter's work titled "Big Snow" referenced the 1984 Olympic Games, possibly on a TV in his studio while he worked on the piece. On this canvas (right), Basquiat also referenced Jesse Owens at the Berlin 1936 Games.

Closer to home, in September I was reminded there's also a vivid Basquiat in the permanent collection of the High Museum of Art, perhaps the best acquisition our Atlanta-museum-that-could actually did purchase.

I don't often splurge on "art travel," but a few weeks after reading the initial exhibition headlines, in late October my Moscow-based girlfriend Valentina mentioned she also read about other showstopping exhibitions taking place in Paris -- specifically, a blue and pink Picasso exhibition at Museum D'Orsay, and a Pompidou presentation of Cubism -- and this art trifecta emerged as the tipping point to meet in France.

An art weekend in Paris, just before Christmas, with my Russian girlfriend?

Twist our arms!

As it turned out, during our four-day art adventure (Nov. 30 to Dec. 4) we trekked to Foundation Louis Vuitton deux fois as the museum closed for one of those big weekend protests that made headlines worldwide.

"Sorry, folks -- museum's closed!"

Bummed at our denied access upon our first arrival on a Saturday, we vowed to return and snapped a daytime selfie (left) with the exhibition's promo poster, noting the illustrated figure held aloft something resembling an Olympic torch.

We later learned this image is part of a much larger 1984 work titled "Grillo" featuring likenesses for African gods of war.

Also learned (weeks later) Basquiat did create at least three Olympic-themed works, included at the base of this post, not seen at Foundation Louis Vuitton but "out there" to be experienced in person on a future art sojourn.

I was relieved and so pleased when we finally got in our two hours of Basquiat on a Monday evening, as the exhibition was not too crowded, enabling a leisurely pace to explore not one but four levels of the museum in which the Basquiat paintings hung in near-chronological order.

The image atop this blog post shows the view we experienced upon entering the exhibition. According to the Foundation press release, this "exceptional trilogy of big Heads from 1981-1983" accompanied a "presentation of works ... on the theme of the street, used as a studio, source of inspiration, living body."

Street art was the vibe. Amazing street art.

I found this gateway into Basquiat the most compelling of the exhibition sections spanning almost 10 galleries. In the first rooms, the work titled "Brett as a Negro" (above right) drew me in as it features acrylic applied almost like finger paint to 100 mint-green subway tiles.

This graffiti-like head left me wondering did the private collection owner pry these tiles from a New York metro station wall?

The exhibition's intro section also featured social commentary via the stern gaze of law enforcement portrayed in "La Hara" and "Irony of a Negro Policeman," both from 1981.

On level two we discovered the exhibition's only obvious five-ringed connection with the mostly red canvas "Cassius Clay" on view steps from a much larger "St. Joe Louis Surrounded by Snakes" and facing an installation of nearly three dozen more faces/heads drawn by Basquiat.

We also learned more about his proficiency with oilstick and collage.

The second gallery featured some of the brightest colors, and the canvases started getting bigger and bolder, punctuated by "Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump" (left) on loan from a foundation in Greenwich, Conn.

That was a fast graduation from street to fine art!

Though the bright colors and larger works provided surprises and intrigue, I found myself less moved by some of the artist's homages to musical heroes, notably Charlie Parker.

Instead the showcase of Basquiat's collaboration with Andy Warhol provided the most new-to-my-growing-Basquiat-knowledge and fandom. The vast and complex word-infused works made me dizzy in the best way.

No "Big Snow" on view? No big deal.

The monumental "Unbreakable" (right) seemed to showcase greatest hits of so many favorite painters I now believe Basquiat also studied and admired.

It's tragic the twentysomething artist's life ended too soon -- God only knows what more brilliance could emerge had more time and growth sans drug addiction and other demons been possible.

Through wall text, and later in the exhibition's thorough catalogue (a must-read for any Basquiat fan -- an excellent read on the long flight home), we learned the artist's final months included the loss and mourning of multiple mentors and friends, making the last work on view "Riding With Death" even more somber.

Nevertheless, we left the museum exhilarated and hungry for more Basquiat tout de suite. The exhibition closes 21 January, but will reside in fond memories for a lifetime.

Photos by Nicholas Wolaver except credited image of "Big Snow" and the three Olympic images below, none of which appeared in the museum exhibition.

High Museum Fist Bumps with Artist Glenn Kaino and Olympian/Human Rights Icon Tommie Smith

AFP

Next month marks 50 years since Mexico City hosted the Games of the XIXth Olympiad.

In step with this five-ringed milestone, on Sept. 29 the High Museum of Art in Atlanta opens a new human rights- and Olympic-centric exhibition to remain on view through early February.

For an LA-based conceptual artist and one of history's most iconic Olympic gold medalists, the exhibition With Drawn Arms: Glenn Kaino & Tommie Smith marks the culmination of a six-year partnership.

In press materials for the installation and in conversation at the exhibition's media event, Kaino said he found inspiration from Smith before they met at the athlete's home in Stone Mountain, Ga., during 2012.

John Dominis, Time & Life/Getty Images

At his California studio, Kaino had a picture of Smith with teammate John Carlos and Australia's Peter Norman on a board, sort of in the background. The artist said once an opportunity to meet the athlete took shape, the process to arrange an introduction and discuss a collaboration moved quickly.

"My practices are process-based and so the conversation was really 'let's take a journey together and let's see where this goes," said Kaino.

Smith concurred, and according to Kaino, "The first thing I did was cast his arm."

After experimenting with several life-sized and miniaturized versions of Smith's outstretched elbow and fist, including a few thousand Kaino described as small G.I. Joe-like versions, the duo discussed the option to create a suspended sculpture.

The finished work titled "Bridge" -- featuring 150 gold-painted steel casts, fiberglass, wire and gold paint -- is now the centerpiece of the project, with the suspension elements connecting the past, present and an arm's length path to the future.

"The image of Tommie's silent protest on the victory stand has become an iconic symbol of resistance and unity for generations," said Kaino. "Our goal with this project is to ensure that Tommie's message resonates for years to come."

For Smith, who contributed several objects from his personal archives -- including photographs, uniforms, Olympic souvenirs spanning 1968 to present, and other mementos of his travels -- the exhibition is an extension of the pro-human rights messages he sought to convey before, during and since his record-setting 200m run of 19.83 on October 16, 1968.

Tommie Smith (left) and Glenn Kaino

"Mexico is a part of my life where [I] had to sacrifice to move forward," said Smith. "Dr. [Martin Luther] King said, 'there is no forward movement without sacrifice' and I believed in those words.

"In other words, take a chance, and that's what I did," added Smith.

With Drawn Arms fills the lobby and second levels of the museum's Anne Cox Chambers Wing, with an original 2018 sculpture titled "Invisible Man (Salute)" greeting visitors to the High's outdoor piazza.

The life-sized likeness of an arm-raised Smith is cast in blackened aluminum and mirrored stainless steel, inviting all to experience their own likeness "within a continuum of history since 1968," according to the High press release.

The lobby gallery features several works on paper including drawings, alcohol transfer prints and a colorful montage of silk-screened boards on view across from a framed black T-shirt with the message "UNITE" (the "I" in white ink is Smith's arm as captured in the 1968 Olympic photograph by John Dominis via Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images).

Visitors may also see brief excerpts from a planned documentary film about the six-year collaboration. It was interesting to watch edited images of Smith climbing Stone Mountain as part of the film.

In addition to experiencing the gallery-sized "Bridge," the second level spaces showcase Kaino's 2013 recreation of a 1968 Olympic medals podium.

The work titled "19.83" is a steel-and-gold-plated work "presented with related prints and drawings depicting frame-by-frame images of Smith's race" as it aired on ABC.

The alcohol transfer prints featuring the screen grabs are reminiscent of four treatments Kaino executed, on view in the lobby, with an enlarged Newsweek magazine cover that labeled Smith "The Angry Black Athlete" heading to Mexico City.

Kaino honed in on the magazine cover during his first visit to Smith's home, and Smith's copy of the July 1968 edition is on view in an upstairs gallery.

Some of the surprises in the exhibition are drawings Smith created, including one scrapbook collage featuring youthful track and field snapshots and hand-drawn captions. Kaino also asked Smith to draw himself, which the athlete, teacher and civil rights leader created as ink on paper illustration from the outside looking in at himself.

It is also fun to spot Smith's official 1968 athlete pin -- an oversized badge with an athletics ribbon that served as his accreditation for the Games -- in a shadow box filled with other Olympic pins he collected (Smith told me he had many more pins still at home).

A three-inch plastic button promoting the Olympic Project for Human Rights, which Smith launched months before Mexico City in order to bring attention to issues in Africa, the Americas and worldwide, is centered in its own frame near Smith's portrait in the Oval Office with President Barack Obama.

Smith and other 1968 Olympians will gather in Mexico City next week to celebrate 50 years since the Games, so I asked him whether there's a word to describe his feelings about this milestone.

"Fulfillment," said Smith.

For readers who catch this post in time, Smith and Kaino will participate in a conversation with the museum's modern and contemporary curator, Michael Rooks, at the High on Sept. 29 at 2 p.m. The event is free for High members, with non-member reserved tickets ($14.50) available online.

Exhibition photos by Nicholas Wolaver; 1968 image by John Dominis via Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images; top image via AFP

Glenn Kaino (American, born 1972) Bridge 

courtesy artist and Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago

Copyright Glenn Kaino. Photo by Mike Jensen

Glenn Kaino

(American, born 1972

),

Bridge

,

2014,

fiberglass, steel, wire and gold paint

.

Courtesy of the artist and Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago.

©

Glenn Kaino. Photo by Mike

Jensen.