NYC Jewelry Week Day 1

Hi,

I'm on the road again with a trip that I thought you might be interested in following. I am in NYC for the very newest jewelry extravaganza- NYC Jewelry Week. It was organized by Bella Neyman and JB Jones, two young and ambitious curators who must be gluttons for punishment to have decided to put this week together. What an incredible effort. I congratulate them for actually making it happen. I am sure it wasn't easy.

So I am off on an Alaska (Virgin Airlines) with a little package of sushi to enjoy on the plane.

                                

I arrive  at the Affinia Gardens hotel on E 64th and 3rd at dusk. I like this hotel because it is cheap for NYC and the rooms are large and there is a kitchenette in each room. It isn't fancy as you can see but you really can't find a better deal. There is a wonderful view down to a garden too. I like to make my breakfast and have my tea in my room in the morning and this allows for everything I need and  more plus there is a large grocery store a block away and a Pain Quotidien 2 blocks away, all the major museums are within walking distance, etc. Love the location. 

After a breakfast meeting I was walking along Madison Avenue to  the Neue Galerie when I encountered this:

I don't know what it is exactly but I think I must be related to NYC Jewelry Week?? Anyway at Neue Galerie I was looking for the 'Focus: Wiener Werkstätte'. It was in a case in the middle of a room filled with drawings by Egon Schiele. I took a quick photo but was told by the guard they were not allowed so the images of the jewelry was snatched on line. On the wall you can see the Schiele drawings are largely of nude women. No MeToo back then.

          

This last necklace looks like a contemporary piece by another Viennese jewelry name Jacquline Lille but it is by someone named Max Snischek. The two tobacco cases are by Josef Hoffman.

On to the Guggenheim to see the Hilma af Klint exhibition. She is a Swedish artist who lived at the end of the 19th and early 20th century. I have been fascinated by her work since the 1980s when she showed up in an exhibition at LACMA called 'The Spiritual in Art' which was a big abstract art show. I loved the acknowledgement that there could be something spiritual in art which the keepers of the high art faith didn't like to admit. Anyway Hilma was a spiritualist who made some of her early paintings under the direction of a medium. In 1896 she and 4 other women who called themselves 'The Five' held seances and with their guides they hoped to attain direct access to higher order of knowledge. In 1906 the guides asked Hilma to make some paintings for a house that would one day be built. She embarked on a series of huge paintings called 'Paintings for the Temple' which freed her to pursue her own metaphysical convictions and to represent a transcendent reality beyond the observable world. The show was massive and I am going to show you my favorites. Hope you like them.

    

 

 

Hilma was also interested in scientific theories so studied Darwinism and did paintings about it. She was so progressive. And finally to the 'Paintings for the Temple' series. They are huge as you can see.

I decided to walk through Central Park to the West side to see the show at the Bard Graduate Center called 'Agents of Faith: Votive Objects in Time and Place'.  It was interesting but not the blow away show as I was hoping for. Probably the most interesting section was about what objects people have left by the Vietnam Memorial wall in WDC. They have collected more than 400,000 objects since the wall went up. I'll show you some of those and then a few of the other more obvious votive materials.

The toad in the image above symbolizes the womb or the uterus and it serves as an extension of the female body in requests of intercession in child birth etc. The pistol malfunctioned but didn't kill the owner so became a symbol of luck.

And I just loved this little figure and this stick for some odd reason.

That's all folks. Until the next time.

Hugs,

Susan