Hi,
Here is a good day time view of the great church near the hotel and a couple of other Venetian views. Before I leave my 2 story room I caught these morning images.
I got a new room with the bed and bathroom on the same floor but it wasn't ready to move into this morning so I left my packed bags in my old room for them to move later and went to breakfast. Its a buffet with everything but blueberries which most of you know is what I always have for breakfast. Anyway I try to make do with everything else.
And guess who I found there??? Donna and Ralph Briskin. We managed to get our dates to work out so we could both be here at the same time. They are on their 50th Wedding Anniversary tour of Europe which is a month long trip through 'those old familiar places' from 50 years before.
We take off walking to the Academia Museum through small alleys and on bridges over canals. Donna was leading the way.
There is a Baselitz exhibition at the Academia Museum along with all the great iconic 14th and 15th century painting.
Baselitz is the painter whose figures are all upside down. The work in the show was mainly from the 1960s and 70s. I don't really like his work very much and I have to say this show didn't change my mind. But I did have a very physical reaction after being in a room with them. I began to feel sick to my stomach.... so they must be pretty powerful to evoke that feeling- even if it isn't a good one.
Now on to something much more wonderful from the Scuola Veneta della Fine from the 14th century.
And Jacobello Alberegno....
Giovanni Bernini...
And Piero della Francesca...
And Hieronimus Bosch!! Visions of the Hereafter- he is just so imaginative. Look at the last image of his which is a detail. Who thinks of these creatures? There is an owl sitting on a nest on a nun's head. Really?
Now we hustled along to see the Luc Tuyman show at the Palazzo Grassi. And I have to say I was blown away. I am going to try to tell you about each of these painting by including the explanation from the booklet that came along with the show. Unless you read these descriptions you won't understand how incredibly profound these paintings are. They pretty much look like delicate scenes of people and places drawn with a few brush strokes using a very unique color palette that is kind of washed out. They are distinctive in their style but that isn't what is so amazing. It is the story about the painting that is the fascinating part.
We actually weren't able to finish the Luc Tuymans show and will come back to it later. Are you already exhausted? We haven't even met our guide to take us through one part of the Biennale called the Giardini. It is where the country pavilions are. It is a large area where each country has built a structure to house their exhibitions. We met Valentina, our guide near the offices of the Biennale for lunch.
We took a water taxi to the grounds of the Giardini.
The first pavilion is Russian- which was organized by the Hermitage and so the themes had to relate. This theme was taken from Rembrandt's Parable of the Prodigal Son by the film maker Alexander Sokurov.
Next we stopped at Canada where they staged a re-enactment of the day in 1961 when the Inuit people where told they had to become Canadians and follow Canadian law.
The Great Britain artist was Cathy Wilkes.
Another highlight was the US pavilion with work of Martin Puryear in an exhibition called Liberty.
The first piece is called Swallowed Sun (Monstrance and Volute). Here you see the front and the back with the dragons tail.
Then the Big Phrygian- it is a type of cap worn by the French revolutionaries
New Voortrekker....
Column for Sally Hemings
Cloister- Redoubt or Cloistered Doubt?....
Tabernacle.... also a cap worn by the Union in the Civil War in America.
Now we are going into the show curated by Ralph Rugoff. It is called May You Live in Interesting Times and includes 79 artists. He asked each of these artists to do 2 pieces - one for the Giardini and one for the Arsenale which we will see tomorrow. So you will have to try to remember what I am showing you today to compare. They were supposed to do something different in each location.
Starting with Nicole Eisenman....
Martine Gutierrez who was dressing up as a deity of pre-hispanic Aztecs who were denounced as demons post conquest. This series of images also bring up questions of gender and historical illusions.
Henry Taylor is an African American painter. The painting on this left reimagines David Hammon's 1983 performance of selling snowballs on the street. The one on the right is an arrest of a white man at a plantation like house.
This robotic arm cleaned up the bloody red substance surrounding it in a continuous motion of humanistic gestures. It is by the Chinese artists Sun Yuan and Peng Yu and called Can't Help Myself.
It was somehow delightful to watch. But it is a mess.
This piece by Teresa Margolles, a Mexican artist is from Juárez and was a section of wall that surrounded a school where drug related violence took place. There are remnants of it in the bullet holes and graffiti on the wall.
Njideka Akunyili Crosby from Nigeria lives in Los Angeles. She depicts portraits and domestic interiors often with herself and her family. She is using collage to create a transcultural space.
Amazingly enough that kind of wraps up the artwork we saw today. I didn't include everything but the best pieces for the most part. There was one very memorable video I left out by Arthur Jafa called The White Album which was very powerful but too hard to photograph. You will have to look it up yourself.
Donna Ralph and I dined at a place we went 2 years ago when we were here called Local. It had gone upscale since we were here last which meant there was really nothing for me to eat on the menu.
For those of you who don't know Ralph Briskin - he also does a blog and he posted a lot more images of what we saw today than I did so if you want more go here -
That's all folks.
xox,
Susan
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