Coloring in the Lines: Color Chart at MoMA

After visiting Design and the Elastic Mind at MoMA last week, I wandered into Color Chart: Reinventing Color, 1950 to Today in the nearby galleries on the sixth floor. The exhibit features 44 contemporary artists who've explored the possibilities of color as a readily-available commercial product. The earliest work, Marcel Duchamp's painting, Tu m' from 1918, presents a cascading spray of color samples and establishes the thesis sentence for the exhibit.

Artists include Robert Rauschenberg, riffing on Duchamp and using paint right out of the can, Dan Flavin, the master of the florescent tube, and Sherrie Levine, borrowing LeCorbusier's palette in the same way she borrows everything. After seeing Jasper Johns: Gray at the Met, I found it humorous to come across a series of his numbers in living color. Curating an exhibit is so much about presenting an argument, I thought, that a clever curator could offer us an exhibit in the future titled "Jasper Johns: Green, Blue, Red, and Yellow."

Color Chart does make the distinction between academic traditions of the aesthetic use of color and the contemporary pop love of the readymade, although I think the word "reinventing" is too strong. The artists presented here often randomly play with the selection of colors available to them, as opposed to the artists who've pulled out the color wheel to make choices in the service of other motives. As a modern art phenomenon, color becomes the subject itself, often a dialogue with colors that are found, whether on an Italian sports car (Alighiero Boetti's Rosso Gilera, Rosso Guzzi, 1971) or landscapes in London (David Batchelor's Found Monochromes of London 1997-2003).

I enjoyed seeing Andy Warhol's Do It Yourself series from 1962, his send-up of the popular painting-by-numbers hobby, Richard Serra's film Color Aid, 1970-71, a presentation of Joseph Albers' 220 sheets of color, and Byron Kim's Synecdoche, a color chart based on skin tones.

The concurrent Design and the Elastic Mind and Color Chart provide ample reason to visit the sixth floor of MoMA. See Design first, as it's intellectually the most challenging. On a whole different level, I recommend Color Chart as a way of dealing therapeutically with typical color anxieties, such as what color to paint the living room. Which reminds me - the exhibit is supported by Benjamin Moore Paints.

Color Chart: Reinventing Color, 1950 to Today through May 12, 2008. Museum of Modern Art. Online site.

Related entertainment: A DIY website to turn your digital photos into painting by numbers - PhotoDoodle.

Image: Peppers for sale, market at SE corner of Broadway and Houston, New York, New York. Walking Off the Big Apple. March 3, 2008.

Weekend Frivolities Holiday Baking Special: Freestyle Gingerbread

The image says it all. Rolling out dough for gingerbread cookies, I realized that the slab was nothing more than raw material for sculpture or a blank canvas on which I could apply paint. I looked at the cookie cutters on the counter and decided I didn't need them. It was time to get real.

It was time to get POP. So thinking about the most popular artist in the world, who is no longer with us, I pulled out a knife and started slicing through the dough. And then I thought, "What about my needs?," and so I made other shapes that spoke to my personal interests.

Decorating cookies is a fun artistic medium, especially with the edible gels and decorative frosting. The latter is nothing more than confectioners sugar, a little vanilla, a bit of beaten egg white, and food color. It's possible to make anything. I could bake an abstract expressionist collection, emphasizing the work of Franz Kline, or maybe just all Mark Rothkos. Those would be so beautiful. Or maybe I could do my own work and not be so derivative.

Anyone can do this. I used the recipes for both the gingerbread and the decorative frosting from The New York Times Cookbook by Craig Claiborne. The book is one of the best Southern cookbooks, in my opinion, because Claiborne was from Mississippi. Watch out, though, for the trans fat. I also tried a recipe for a healthier gingerbread that used egg substitute and light molasses, and though I didn't care for it as much, the sugary frosting canceled out its weaknesses.

Image: (in random order) Shoe, bananas, famous artist, cowgirl boots, flowers, portrait of Chinese leader, walking man, squirrel. Edible gels and decorative frosting on gingerbread. 2007.

Walking and Knitting At the Same Time, and News About Red Velvet Cakes

While I was walking across an intersection in the Village a few days ago, I passed a young woman who was walking and knitting at the same time. Not only was she in the process of knitting mittens, using the three-needle method, she also wore two other knitted mittens strung around her neck. It was obvious she had also knitted the cap on her head. She looked completely happy. When I reached the sidewalk, I turned around and just stared with amazement at the disappearing figure of this one-woman knitting machine.

I haven't a clue how to knit mittens, but I am getting professional help in all knitting matters by visiting The Point Knitting Cafe on Bedford Street. I can make my way through knitting a scarf all by myself, but starting and finishing a sweater on circular needles requires some hand-holding. I've brought home some beautiful yarn, a recommended book, new bamboo needles, and importantly some confidence that I can make a sweater before the year 2012.

Among the baked goods for sale at The Point, I've seen some delicious-looking red velvet cupcakes, the very mention of which, based on experience, should send this particular post soaring in popularity.

I think it's the name - red (power and passion) velvet (sexy tactile luxury) cupcakes (cute and edible) that drive people, mainly women, wild. Some chocolate is involved. Out of fun, I've just now gone over to Blogger and started a website titled Red Velvet Cakes. The whole process took five minutes. The blog has nothing on it yet, but I know it will be popular.

Back to knitting. The Edith Piaf biopic, La Vie En Rose, portrays the legendary petite chanteuse (played brilliantly by Marion Cotillard) as a fool for knitting, and I think she could probably walk, knit, and sing at the same time, even while high.

Image: The doorman didn't want me to leave the building the other day, because he thought I had too much dog hair on my jacket. I'm now knitting a scarf out of a textured tweedy wool that would naturally blend and incorporate the hairs of a terrier.

The Point Knitting Café (link)
La Vie En Rose (official movie site)

Weekend Frivolities DIY Edition: Venetian Masks

The previous post on taking black-and-white photos in New York in the snow could be filed under Weekend Frivolities, in that it's about making holiday gifts, but I didn't think it crossed the Bridge of Idiocy enough to qualify for this feature.

I've been promising to demonstrate how to make Venetian masks, but I think they're too hard for me to explain. First of all, you need to make a clay sculpture that looks like something, maybe a terrier or a cat, mix up some plaster in batches and then pour it over the sculpture, wait till it hardens, pull the clay out of the mold, and then start cutting up pieces of paper for papier-maché. That's just for starters. It's a big mess. I've cried any times.

The best way to learn how to make beautiful masks in the authentic tradition is to fly into Marco Polo Airport, find a hotel in Venice for a few days and then walk the mysterious streets of the Dorsoduro until you accidentally find the Ca' Macana shop.

The former architecture students who founded Ca' Macana in the early 1980s played a role in the revival of the Carnival, an event that had nearly disappeared for a couple of centuries. The shop made the masks for Stanley Kubrick's sexy Eyes Wide Shut (1999). I bought the fox mask (at left) from them as well as their book that includes step-by-step instructions.

To understand the creative process of these well-crafted masks, the section of Ca' Macana's website about mask-making classes features an informative video.

I have a mask I want to make, one that will be a perfect accompaniment to the southern funeral fan that I demonstrated last weekend. I'm going to call it Artist's Mutt. I'll post a photo if it turns out OK.

Image at top: A Venice "street," with the Bridge of Sighs in the background. When I took the photo, I was fascinated by the fellow standing on the bridge in the foreground, because I thought for sure it was the ghost of Marcello Mastroianni in Fellini's 8 1/2.

To see examples of my unusual Venetian masks -all with some sort of twist, look for the illustration accompanying the following posts:
Museums in New York Open on Mondays
Then We Take Berlin: Berlin in Lights Festival

Weekend Frivolities: Making Holiday Gifts - The Classic Wax Paper Placemat Updated

Many should remember how to make wax paper placemats from elementary school days, but I would like to update the classic. Continuing the Weekend Frivolities theme from yesterday, when we learned how to make southern funeral fans, this edition suggests new ideas for the wax leaf placemat.

First let's review what many of us learned in elementary school. Walk to a place with lots of falling leaves - I found an abundant variety in Washington Square Park this morning, select the prettiest leaves, and go home and turn on your iron. Roll out two rectangular pieces of wax paper, place one of them on an old cloth, shiny side up, arrange your leaves and whatever else you choose, and then place the other piece of wax paper over that, shiny side down. Iron the two together so that the two pieces of wax paper adhere.

I decided that I would make a placemat for myself that warns of overeating during the holidays, so this placemat would be inappropriate to give to a friend, even one that is overweight. But this easy and inexpensive gift idea would be fabulous for others. It's possible to get rid of the leaves altogether and just make wax placemats with an endless array of flat items - pictures of your cat, or Andy Warhol, or both, cut up pieces of an old ArtForum, or if your friend is in the theater or the arts, maybe some good reviews of their "work."

Weekend Frivolities: Making Holiday Gifts - Handmade Fans on Sticks

This year I harbor a fantasy of making gifts for friends and family instead of giving them what they want. I know many people crave popular electronics, but I think in the long run they'll appreciate homemade craft items, especially if the giver makes something precious and a little weird. The worst thing that can happen is that the recipient will hide the touching and eccentric homemade gift in the closet until the creator passes away. Then no one will care.

HOW TO MAKE A SOUTHERN FUNERAL FAN

The thought of passing into the next life provides the natural segue to the first type of gift I'm going to teach everyone how to make this weekend - the Southern Funeral Fan. I possess a modest collection of authentic fans, the kind sponsored by funeral homes in states such as Mississippi and South Carolina. Typically, these fans consist of an image printed on a curvy 8 inch square piece of sturdy paper (#12 card stock) and then stapled to a wavy wooden fan stick.

Fans made like these are not unheard of in New York City, because they're often used for promotional purposes. I found one for a Broadway production that someone left behind in Washington Square Park, but I don't think that the same level of emotion is at play with these promotional fans as the ones used to calm the grief of a family member sitting in an un-air-conditioned church.

Making fans is easy. Cut out a square piece of cardboard in the shape you desire, think what image would delight the recipient, and then create it. You could print out a picture of Andy Warhol or a cat, or both, trim the image and then paste it on the cardboard. Lamination is a possibility. Then staple the assembled fan on a stick. That's it! Who wouldn't love a southern funeral fan with Andy and some kitties?!

Lee's Art Shop at 220 West 57th St. should have some wooden sticks for crafters living in NYC.

Other holiday gift ideas from WOTBA: The DVD of Ric Burns's excellent 4-hour Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film for American Masters (PBS Home Video), in addition, of course, to the gifts from the new Walking Off the Big Apple Emporium at Cafe Press.

Image: WOTBA's demonstration fan with Andy and kitties, Broadway promotional fan, and a southern funeral fan from Walterboro, South Carolina.