I actually saw a sign in the Subway stop on 28th street and 7th avenue last Friday for Doug Aitken’s show at MOMA that’s starting today, January 16th, 2007.

I did not have a chance to write more about this show but I did want to mention it - everyone should try to get by MOMA during the evening to see Doug Aitken’s Sleepwalkers exhibition which is going to be projected on the outside of the MOMA building on 53rd Street though February 12, 2007.

There’s an online site and instructions on how to view Sleepwalkers and you can call 408-794-0886 to get instructions and commentaries on your cell phone.

From what I can see on the online site - this outdoor show is going to be fantastic.   I’ll have more to write about Sleepwalkers once I have seen it in person.  I have a lot more to write about here, in fact, and on more than one blog.

Manet and the Execution of Maximilian was going on tonight so I went to view the Manet Paintings.   One thing about the show I did not like - it focused way too much on the time-line of events and not so much on the paintings.

Here’s the marketing notes:

“Between 1867 and 1869, Edouard Manet completed a series of compositions depicting the execution of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico. Maximilian, a member of the Hapsburg family of Austria, had been installed in power in Mexico by Napoleon III of France in an attempt to recover unpaid debts and establish a European presence there. This endeavor failed miserably, ending with the execution of Maximilian and two of his generals by firing squad on June 19, 1867. The execution was by order of Benito Juárez, who had been displaced as president when the French took control of Mexico.

News of the execution reached Paris on July 1, and Manet, a republican ideologically opposed to Napoleon’s policies, set to work almost immediately. Informed by a steady stream of written and graphic accounts of the event, he produced three large paintings, an oil sketch, and a lithograph on the subject.

Due to the political content of these works, there was no opportunity for Manet to display them in Paris under Napoleon III. Only the final, largest painting was exhibited during the artist’s lifetime, when a friend arranged to take the work to New York and Boston in 1879. A handbill was made to advertise that exhibition. The painting attracted little attention, however, and this and Manet’s other compositions on the subject remained largely unknown until the early twentieth century.

Manet and the Execution of Maximilian unites these five works for the first time in the United States and features selected additional works that illuminate the fascinating development of this series.”

It seems to me Napoleon III of France deserves to have his head handed to him as he desired to collect money from a bankrupt Mexico by convincing a stupid relative rule Mexico and act like an emperor.  Well…that lasted a couple of years till Napoleon III pulled most of his forces out, realizing it was a mistake, but he left is buddy, Maximilian, a member of the Hapsburg family of Austria, hung out to dry.   Not that anyone is an angel here… but it seems to me that Napoleon III should have been the one shot at.

The paintings …were great, but the I liked some of the smaller paintings better.  I’m really exhausted or I’d write more.

Manet is one of my favorite painters and I wanted to really focus more on that … and I had not seen any of the Execution of Maximilian paintings - and was not aware there were actually 3 versions of it.   What I did get is ….Manet had a little of the social revolutionary with him …. he painted Execution of Maximilian to protest what he saw at the corrupt regime of Napoleon III and he was right.

 

Richard Diebenkorn painted Large Still Life in 1966 and I like this painting much more than the others in MOMA’s collection because it reminded me of Henri Matisse, and I think that’s a good thing, in this case.

For me, Large Still Life is totally satisfying as a painting, yet it has many abstract elements of color handling and texture that are much different than Matisse, even though the Large Still Life hearkens back to the French Painter. I kinda wonder what the paper near the foreground is …what does it have written on it? I guess we’ll never know.

Giorgio de Chirico’s The Song of Love is probably much more romantic in it’s name than what the painting represents.

The Song of Love is more of a mathematical formula, an enigma, or a cryptic dream - full of symbolism - what works for me best is the cloud peaking out from behind the plaster cast of a head. The hanging glove reminds me of “slap in the face” ….like….”take that“! The Ball….well, I’m not sure what it means in this painting and the image of the building tops - exquisite - it evokes feelings in me - like a reminder of something past.

Pierre Bonnard’s, The Bathroom, was painted in 1932 and is one of my favorite Bonnard paintings. When I got close up to the painting I saw a lot of detail in bursh work that is lost in the photo - not to worry - you can always go over to the MOMA and see the painting - it’s wonderful.

Well, I think that’s enough posting about MOMA’s collection tonight - I have more to post about this trip over the weekend.