I went over to the Metropolitan Musuem last night and spent an hour looking at the Clark Brothers Collection.  I tried to make a video but was not allowed to take any footage of the collection, itself.  

It’s getting harder to figure out what is and is not allowed in museums, since, more and more, they don’t want people to photograph anything and want to sell post cards and movies to make a profit themselves.

The quality of the Clark Collection, for many of the pictures - are unparalleled, and there are some excellent Corot and Renoir paintings.  Renoir is an uneven artist for me…most of his work reminds me of sicken sweet cough syrup - and yet, there are some superb portraits along with banal paintings of Renoir that I, personally, dislike.

There were also some Matisse paintings, that I don’t commonly see and a fantastic Van Gogh,  I think it’s called the Red Room.

I briefly went by the New York Genius Photography opening on Wednesday evening - liked the photos, many of famous people - in fact, all the photos were of famous actors taken 30-40 years ago curated by Lou Reed.

On another note - been so busy lately it’s been hard to write as much as I’d like - but I found I was sketching more - in my small notebook sketchpad.

After the New York Genius opening, I had dinner nearby and did two or three small sketches I’m pretty happy with.  I kinda thought about it and wondered if I’d every do anything with my sketches.

But it “came” to me, or the idea popped in my head, that I’m doing what I want to do (sketch) because I want to…and the act (event) of sketching something, or even thinking about sketching - changes the subject of what I’m painting.

Turns out that a  new Monet exhibit shows the Impressionist painter was also a master of drawing — and of managing his own public relations, according to The Boston Globe.

“…Monet’s self-promotion doesn’t lessen his talents as a painter, but it does cast his pictures in a slightly harsher light. One notices, for example, that a predilection for popularity might have kept him from more difficult subject matter. Degas drew prostitutes and Manet painted firing squads, but the tourist buses float past all that to park outside the gardens of Giverny.”

“…The Clark exhibit and its accompanying catalog seek to debunk one aspect of the Monet mythology: that Monet, known for his bright landscape paintings, didn’t really draw. But in the process they also reveal another Monet, a man who was acutely sensitive to the newly emerging power of the press, which he carefully used to further his career. In this, Monet turns out to have been surprisingly prescient, granting interviews, sanctioning reproductions of his images, and encouraging essays from sympathetic writers to presumptively frame the debate around his work. So while the “unknown Monet” of the curators’ title ostensibly refers to Monet the capable draftsman, it is Monet the mercenary publicist who emerges as the more intriguing character.

To me, the article shows that Monet to be somewhat different, in some ways, than the way he’s imagined to be, by people who never knew the artist.   It also shows that the most successful artists of this century and last, knew how to use and, to a certain extent, manipulate mass media.

I got this tip about Monet from Valeria Maltoni.