Art Gallery of Ontario

[Johann]

I have a City of Toronto Museum and Arts Pass for this year, and I spent today (10am-1pm) at the Art Gallery of Ontario, one of North America's leading art museums.
From the write-up:
Opened to the public on Nov. 14, 2008, it was designed by the internationally celebrated architect Frank Gehry and proudly displays 34,000 works of art from around the world in breathtaking galleries.

I was overjoyed to discover a painter who I'd never heard of and marvelled at his original works, with astounding colors and attention to detail:
William Holman Hunt (1827-1910).
He was a bohemian who painted startlingly modern works, with an emphasis on the psychologically intense.
I could've stared at that guy's paintings all day.
Just awesome artworks man.

The galleries in the lower levels housed the greatest collection of scale model boats/ships/warships. Simply stunning miniatures (and some not so miniatures) of British, German, Japanese (and other countries) boats. The detail on these things is staggering. You know that whoever built them spent countless hours diligently putting them together.

www.ago.net

[Johann]

I found myself staring for quite a long time at the miniature firearms display, which was an in-progress installation.
Gorgeous old pistols, tiny in size, in ornate cases made out of ivory- very very interesting to me. There was only one display case with them but man, was it cool to look at them. Never seen anything like them before.

Lots of tankards, made of silver and ivory carved with Christian designs and tableaux, they have many bronze statues, amazing ones of a crucified Christ, a smaller version of Rodin's "The Thinker", and at the bottom of the main gallery they have an actual, huge carved wood Lion figurehead from a British warship from around 1720.

There are some gorgeous original Picassos ("Seated Woman" and "Nude With Clasped Hands") , I saw only one Renoir ("the Concert" from 1918), they have a chess set that was designed by Salvador Dali (very freaky looking, conceived in 1964 and cast in bronze in 1971) as well as astounding paintings by Rubens- 2 must-sees are "The Massacre of the Innocents"- it'll take your breath away- and "Samson and Delilah". Fantin-Latour's "the Dance" is incredible, , Tony Scherman's 2004 "Ciao Gaia" is a powerful canvas with just a mushroom cloud in 3 hues (Black, Redd and Grey (melded with orange, pink and wax). And there are many many others for your viewing pleasure.
I also really liked the sculpture by Jean Arp ("Silence"). Very interesting as well was the "Hercules Supporting the Heavenly Sphere", a "Covered Cup", engraved in silver with amazing intricate designs, with gilded silver and carved boxwood. I just stared at it and said over and over: "that is so fucking cool". It is an awesome sculpture. I was just amazed that some human being designed and created that thing. You gotta take a look at it if you ever can. It's pedestal is at the perfect height to admire all of the engraved stuff on it. Sheer brilliant art man...It was made by David Heschler who lived from 1611-1667. Think Atlas as a paperweight in Galilleo's observatory...

Great place to visit if you're ever in Toronto Canada...
There's a bust and memorial for Mary Pickford that's within walking distance too.

[Johann]

And how could I forget?!?

The Armenian painter Arshile Gorky has an original hanging there, "They Will Take My Island" (1944) and there was what seemed to be an iPod on the wall with three short little videos of Atom Egoyan, standing in front of the very painting, discussing his background and the significnace of the painting and how it impacted him as a youth when he came to the gallery the first time and saw it.

There's also works by Joyce Weiland ("Woman Amusing Herself"),
J.W. Waterhouse, H.R. Watson, Bazzani, Otto Dix, and John Selby-Bigge (loved his single painting "Objects in Front of a Window") +
Magritte, Degas, just scores and scores of incredible paintings to gaze at.
Wonderful, extremely interesting and engaging art gallery.

[Johann]

As I only spent a short time at the AGO, I'll be back many more times for sure. You could spend all day just in one room! I haven't mentioned the African collection they have, which will thrill any art lover. They also have works by Gainsborough, van Gogh (both artists that Stanley Kubrick liked), Andy Warhol and the collection of Canadian art from long time ago to the present will boggle your mind.

For the serious lover of the arts, this is a must-attend attraction in Toronto. There are multi-media areas, that show live interactive installations (some with films) and seeing everything comprehensively is impossible in just one visit.
They have a very nice gift shop and friendly staff.
The building is practically brand-new and it's a stunning structure, inside and outside. The maps are easy to read even though the museum is huge to negotiate.

Many kids were there, and some seemed to be as in awe of the works as their parents. I saw one little girl go "wow" when seeing an amazing stained glass piece from an old church.
I was saying "wow" in my mind too.
Some artifacts are just so beautiful at AGO.
The curators and lighting designers deserve awards.
I think the museum will be in the news a lot in the coming years as a fantastic cultural landmark.
It's Toronto's Louvre.

[oscar jubis]

Originally posted by Johann
And how could I forget?!?
The Armenian painter Arshile Gorky has an original hanging there, "They Will Take My Island" (1944) and there was what seemed to be an iPod on the wall with three short little videos of Atom Egoyan, standing in front of the very painting, discussing his background and the significnace of the painting and how it impacted him as a youth when he came to the gallery the first time and saw it.
I'm enjoying this thread a lot!
The videos by Egoyan are most likely scenes from Atom Egoyan's short A PORTRAIT OF ARSHILE, in which he explains why he named his son Arshile. The short is included as an extra on the dvd of ARARAT (which features A. Gorky as a character and shows another one of his paintings).

[Johann]

I haven't seen that. Must check it out.
Egoyan is very very passionate about Gorky and I completely understand why. In the video (from what I can remember him say) he mentions the conditions under which the painting came to be, how Gorky's worldview is extraordinary, considering what he endured in his lifetime. Witnessing/experiencing genocide is not something that should produce profound art. But it did.
I read in a book about Kubrick that he came across a historic quote when preparing another non-existant film of his, "Aryan Papers":
Poetry was impossible after the holocaust

In something unrelated but kinda related:
That book "On God"by Norman Mailer haunts me.
Seriously, he makes some points in that tome that I find myself re-thinking about. Often, too.
In it he mentioned the holocaust, and how could God possibly allow something like that to occur. The horrific stories of people being duped into taking a "shower". The last thing on their minds is "You cheated me!". Scores of souls, massive influx of the dead- that's gotta do a number on God's emotions, if he is the creator of emotions. Doesn't it seem absolutely possible that God's sorrow is so much more immense than ours that ours is nothing but a mockery?
Mailer made a point about how God needs humans to be more extraordinary and it's branded my brain.
God needs us to be more extarordinary.

[Johann]

Yes, it's abundantly clear to me after that visit that one must go many times to get a comprehensive experience.
Same for the Louvre.
You'd have to go 1000 times to see it all and appreciate it all...

[cinemabon]

I grew up outside Chicago in a small Midwestern town. Yet as soon as I could find suitable transportation, I made my way to the city only to discover The Art Institute on Michigan Avenue. It is a marvelous place within an enormous space and seemingly endless galleries. When I go to Chicago for a visit, the lure of the Art Institute calls me like a siren.

The impressionist gallery is a favorite, as one of its most famous paintings is by Georges Saurat "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" which takes up an entire wall and can be seen in the film "Ferris Beuller's Day Off." It also inspired the musical, "Sunday in the park with George." You can walk up to within a few feet of the picture and see how Saurat carefully places each "dot" of paint to create this enormous picture one pixil at a time. It boggles the mind.

I could spend hours there. I must visit Toronto some day to see your gallery and to be saved by art once more.

[Johann]

The AGO just had 33, 000 visitors during the March break.
So it is quite popular in the city.
(Plus Wednesdays admission is free, regular admission is $18).

My posts about the AGO are far from complete.
I've not included scores and scores of pieces of art. (World Class at that). When you leave the AGO, you know you've just experienced something amazing, and that you have to return.
That's what an art gallery should do to a person.
Whatever "style" or art movement you are interested in, this gallery has something major by someone major in every category. Most major artists of note are represented in either artworks or inspired artworks.
And yes, you can get real up close and personal to each piece of art. (except the miniature boats/ships/warships/firearms- they are encased in plexiglass).
To be standing mere inches in front of a Hunt, Gorky or Picasso...you feel something powerful.


By the way the gift shop has tons of deluxe hardcover books on major artists. It's truly a worthwhile place to visit.

[cinemabon]

If and when you make it to "shy-town" check out the Thorne Rooms in the basement of the Art Institute. Unlike anything you've ever seen in any city, these unique 68 rooms (thirty-eight more rooms were added since 1991) were created in miniature at the bequest of James Thorne widow. Here is that story lifted from an article by the NY Times:

"Eugene J. Kupjack, who produced the 30 American miniature rooms at the Art Institute of Chicago, died on Nov. 8 at Resurrection Hospital in Chicago. He was 79 years old and lived in Park Ridge, Ill.

He died of congestive heart failure, his son Henry said.

Mr. Kupjack's miniature rooms at the Chicago museum -- 30 shadow-box settings ranging in style from the Colonial period to Art Deco -- were widely admired when they first went on public view at the 1939 World's Fair. The rooms were designed by Narcissa Niblack Thorne, widow of James Ward Thorne, a Montgomery Ward & Company department store heir, who sent them to the Art Institute after the fair closed in 1941, and eventually donated them to the museum.

Before attending a memorial service for Mr. Kupjack at the museum yesterday, Marshall Field 5th, chairman of the museum, said by telephone that the rooms had been on view at the museum most of the time for 50 years and "they remain one of our most popular exhibits."

Mr. Kupjack went to work for Mrs. Thorne in 1937. After reading an article in Life magazine about the European-style miniature rooms she had devised using antiques, he sent her, unsolicited, a miniature chair with a cane seat and a plastic plate and goblet he had made.

"Mrs. Thorne telephoned my father," Henry Kupjack said yesterday. "She asked him how he knew she couldn't find any canework and where he had bought the glass plate and goblet. My father told her the plate and goblet weren't glass but Lucite -- plastic. And she replied, 'How would you like to come and work for me.' "

Mr. Kupjack was born in Chicago, where he attended art classes at the Art Institute for a decade, beginning when he was 8 years old. He attended Crane College. During World War II, he served as a lieutenant commander and commander in the Office of Naval Research in Washington, making orthopedic instruments, 13 of which are patented. In Museum Collections

After he left the Navy in 1948, he worked mostly for Mrs. Thorne until shortly before her death in 1966. In 1959, he was commissioned by the American Institute of Decorators to produce 17 miniature rooms, copies of important settings designed by such interior decorators as William Pahlmann and Mrs. Henry Parish 2d.

Mr. Kupjack went on to produce more than 700 period-style miniature rooms from his studio in Park Ridge, working for corporations and collectors seeking traditional rooms with doll-house-scale furnishings one-twelfth normal size. His rooms are in the collections of the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum in Delaware, the Forbes Magazine gallery in New York City and the Palm Springs Desert Museum in Palm Springs, Calif.

In addition to his son Henry, of Chicago, Mr. Kupjack is survived by another son, Jay, of Park Ridge, and a brother, Raymond, of Sante Fe, N.M."

By Rita Reif as it appeared in the NY Times November 16, 1991

In addition to the painting and scupture, the Thorne Rooms are a delightful romp down through a long forgotten era with the smallest and finest details painstakenly reproduced. The only thing missing is tiny people to fill those rooms. I remember seeing them as a child, wishing I was in one of those rooms. Later, when I took my son, I felt in love with them all over again.

[cinemabon]

To view the Thorne Rooms and be amazed you are seeing miniatures, follow this link:

http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/thorne

[Johann]

Thanks for the info. That's the kind of cultural info we need.
If you go again please post about it. I love hearing about art galleries in other locations.

I'd love to travel to Chicago.
Maybe I'll take a weekend this year and drop down. It's close to T.O.
Toronto is damn windy too, I must say.
That wind off Lake Ontario man, it is COLD!

[Johann]

Thanks also for the link cinemabon.

Those really do look amazing.
The detail...just awesome.

[cinemabon]

May I suggest the train in the summer. When you arrive in Chicago, you will walk out of the station onto Michigan Avenue. In one direction, you will see Miracle Mile, bordered by such buildings as the John Hancock at over 100 stories. In the other direction, you will find Grant Park, which has the Art Institute at one end and the Field Museum (as in Marshall Field) at the other with the Observatory and the Aquarium off to the east on a penninsula into Lake Michigan. At the center of the park is the Buckingham Fountain, the largest outdoor fountain in North America. Wander through the Art Institute; then walk to the fountain and along the way taste from every great restaurant Chicago has to offer in the "Taste of Chicago" held every summer the week before the Fourth of July. I guarantee you will have the time of your life. If you stay at the Palmer House, your eyes will pop when you walk into the main lobby steeped in old world tradition.

"Life is a carnival... believe it or not."

[Johann]

2 Bits a shot

[Johann]

This year the AGO will showcase a Surrealist exhibition.
Can't wait for that.
I don't know why people hate on Toronto.
I mean I do, and I don't.
I've lived here since last October and this city amazes me.
Did you know Hemingway lived here, from 1920-23?
He did, on Bathurst street. Wrote for a local paper.

Some more facts that I got from the paper:

Elvis' first show outside the U.S. was at Maple Leaf Gardens (April 2, 1957)
The Beatles first North American tour included Maple Leaf Gardens too .
The Doors played here a few times, and so did just about every major performer there is. Babe Ruth hit his first ever home run here, into Lake Ontario.

We have an 88-acre property in Guildwood called The Guild Inn.
In 1914 it was a private residence for a retired American soldier.
It was sold in the thirties and became a Depression-era arts colony, a huge area of gardens and woodland. (Appropriately named "THE GUILD OF ALL ARTS").
It has a collection of 70 architectural fragments and sculptures, mostly salvaged from old Toronto buildings slated for demolition. (Some are sticking out of the ground at odd angles, half-buried).
I was only there one day, but man did I NOT want to leave!
It's a good distance east of downtown- way past the beaches.
I read about it in the paper and I had to go check it out.
It is a truly surreal property to roam.

[Johann]

Some other artworks that I took note of at the AGO:

- a stunning bronze statue by Giovanni Battista Foggini called "Perseus Slaying Medusa"

-Degas' "Woman at her bath" is beautiful. I stared at it for a while.

-Kiki Smith's "Self Portrait" made me think, shocked me and reinforced the notion that disturbing things can sometimes be mute-exalted works of art. Look up that photo online. It's powerful. (Made with gelatin and silver)

-Luigi Bazzani's 1917 "Arch of Septimus Severus" was cool to look at

- Otto Dix' 1922 "Portrait of Dr. Heinrich Stadelman" freaked me out

- Waterhouse's 1915 "I am Half-Sick of Shadows" (said the Lady of Shallott) commands you to look at it. It's just amazing to see up close and in person. The details are dreamy...

-Roberto Matta's 1939 "Psychological Morphology" will morph your mind into appreciating the use of color in bold new ways. (It's also a painting that's very psychedelic, kinda like Dali, so if you go in to look at a Matta, some pharmaceuticals might help the experience...)

and of course, these names of simply gorgeous ART by William Holman Hunt:

-"Isabella and the Pot of Basil" (1866)- jaw-dropping!
-"Il Dolce far Niente" (1859)
-"Bianca" (1869)- gotta see that one. It's so detailed, with Bianca holding a lute...
-"The Birthday (of Edith Holman Hunt)" (1868)
-"Portrait of a Lady"( Mrs. George Waugh) (1868)
-"The Flight of Madeline and Porphyro during the drunkeness attending the revelry (The Eve of St. Agnes) (Mouthful, huh? 1848)
-"Valentine Rescuing Sylvia from Proteus" (1850)
-"Claudio and Isabella" (1853)
-"The Long Engagement" (1859)
-"Peace Concluded" (1856)
-"The Awakening Conscience" (1853)- this one is featured on the cover of one of the deluxe books on Hunt in the gift shop, one I'll be buying on a future visit to the gallery.

[Johann]

Those Thorne rooms are astonishing, aren't they?

That is the zenith of technical artistry..
Such skill and vision required to create them..
I love enlarging the photos of each room.
That is truly amazing art, from a real artisan.

Thanks again for the link cinemabon.
Love it.

[Johann]

Been planning to use my pass to go to the Royal Ontario Museum but haven't had enough time to get over there. Must make the effort.

The ROM is massive and I know I won't be able to post anything comprehensive about my visit, but I'll say my two cents. It's perhaps more significant a landmark than the AGO.
I've noticed recently on TV that the AGO is putting out many ads, "You gotta go to the AGO!"- nice little commercials that get people thinking about going there. I was sad to learn that they're also letting a lot of people go. Doesn't this economy just RULE? Thank you Bush and Cheney!

[Johann]

Apparently in June the Royal Ontario Museum will be showcasing the Dead Sea Scrolls: "Words That Changed The World", and they've already received nasty complaints over ownership and the rights to display the scrolls.
So far the installation is going ahead.

I've been reading the Bible at a snail's pace, over the years, and my NIV copy is marked up with a lot of pen ink. I absorb it in my own way, and it is powerful reading. I know what I must learn from it and it's tough to get my head around it. Hunter Thompson got me peering more deeply at it and it's affecting me, although I can't say exactly how. The way it's written, with the various perspectives, is beyond awesome in scope. There are truths in it, things that I'm retaining, but to go full-bore Commando Christian?
I don't know.

[Johann]

I've been back to the AGO this summer (for the Surrealist exhibition) and I took photos. The gallery does not allow photographs ANYWHERE- in an album I posted on facebook all you can see is the architecture of the AGO- inside and outside.
I took one photo of a Christian work of art and security was on me immediately. They let me keep my camera, and the picture, but I was warned not to do it again- they have cameras and surveillance watching every single person in every gallery.
I would've been kicked out if I took another picture.
Just FYI.

I just wanted to comment on how incredibly profound it was seeing Salvador Dali's actual artworks mere inches from my eyes.

I don't know how many here know Dali's works, but the one canvas I stared at for almost an hour was
Apparition of a Face and Fruit Dish on a Beach (1938-39)

It is simply astounding.
Profound art to my mind. I'll be buying an art print of that canvas very soon. And custom framing it. It was a truly surreal experience to be mere inches from it, looking closely at the mind-blowing double images Master Salvador Dali painted.
It's hand-of-God talent that very few people possess.

[Johann]

Just posting that I attended the BEAUTIFUL Patti Smith Camera Solo exhibit, and I will be writing about it in greater detail later.
I took detailed notes.

She designed the gallery showcase herself, and it was very beautiful. I was extremely impressed with the Arthur Rimbaud items she had in there (which included an exact replica of the litter he designed and was carried on when he was injured in Africa).
Patti is a REAL ARTIST. Her photographs are exquisite. Her eye is Divine- she has many photos of famous graves and places- even the bow of the Costa-Concordia cruise ship that capsized.

So stay tuned to this thread- I will post later in greater detail about my experience at the AGO with her CAMERA SOLO exhibit.

[oscar jubis]

Thanks Johann. I am very interested in this exhibit. I remember buying her album Easter AND COMING HOME TO PLAY IT WHEN I WAS A TEEN. I STILL LISTEN TO PATTI SMITH.

[Johann]

Awesome. She is a very PURE SOUL.

She had a 7-minute short film on loop in the gallery too (with her voice reading poetry over black and white images).
I'll post soon. Gotta get my butt in gear. So much to post about, including Malick's TO THE WONDER....

[Johann]

Not everyone was born to be a
prophet. We smile down. We know
all about it. We were born to be.
Born to be: wild necks green Rimbaud
We do the grind to the organ music.
We know where we're coming from.
We cut a womb rug.
A Mean rug. you should see us
Jitterbug. Go rimbaud. doo-wa.
dyna-flow
Rimbaud
with the
Power
of the
Word.



Legend Patti Smith's CAMERA SOLO exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario was beautiful.
She organized the gallery space herself, and one can feel her presence in the space even though she wasn't there the day I went.
She had a multitude of objects on display that are simply fascinating.
for instance, the Arthur Rimbaud items, which impressed me immensely:
- his utensils in a black and white photo taken by Patti herself at the Musee Rimbaud in Charlesvilles-Mezieres in France
-a b/w photo of the Rimbaud monument in the town square
- a stunning portarit of Rimbaud (UNIQUE POETRY) painted by Patti herself in December 1970, with amazing handwritten poetry dripping down the page
-his litter, made of graphite, painted black, with netting, an EXACT replica- dead-center of the gallery space. Arthur was carried across Ethiopia (100 miles) for medical assistance on it.
- an original 1892 copy of LES ILLUMINATIONS, printed by Leon Vanier in Paris- amazing to see an original copy!
-a French Rimbaud postage stamp.

Just amazing to gaze at. This exhibit is on display downtown Toronto only until July 2013.


She made a black and white 7-minute, 19-second film with Rene Daumal, with images of reliefs and tombstones with Patti reading poetic words as a soundtrack.
I watched it twice. It's hypnotic.
She had a totem she made for Brian Jones (nice), she had a photo-booth filmstrip of her and Robert Mapplethorpe, as well as his Crucifix, she had photos of Modigliani's grave, William Blake's grave, herself in self-portrait, (with Thunderbolt tattoo was GREAT- and the one of her as a young woman- what a Goddess. She also had photos of Frida Kahlo's bed, Virginia Woolf's bed (and would you believe a round stone from the river Ouse in East Sussex where Virginia drowned herself?- She filled her coat pockets with stones).

Baudelaire's grave is among her "sacred relics". She shaped her style over years of observation it says in the program, taking photos with her special Land 250 Polaroid camera (also on display, with Nuryyev's practice slippers). The Land uses special black and white film that delivers an instant picture with a narrow white border. Her photographs are infused with a deep personal meaning.
Patti says that these photographs are like diary entries in her Life.


-

[oscar jubis]

Gracias. Thanks!
I did some research about this exhibit and learned that Jem Cohen lensed the short film you discuss here. Cohen is a major experimental filmmaker with a new feature film called MUSEUM HOURS that I hope to catch soon. Check it out if it comes your way.
Here's (our own) Chris Knipp's review:http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3470-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2013&p=30019#post30019