Hiroshige's 100 Famous Views of Edo. The Brooklyn Museum.

 

Yesterday after weeks of feet problems I went out with 2 close friends visiting from France to the Brooklyn Museum to see the great exhibition “Hiroshige's 100 Famous Views of Edo” I have a great fondness for the old Brooklyn Museum itself. This was the museum of my youth,the first museum I ever went to when my uncle Natie would take me on sundays sometimes with childhood friends and we would run and giggle through those great marble halls especially the museum's great hall. Now I don't run so much except to get the hell out of an exhibition I don't like. I remember also many elementary class trips here, after we would pile into the old gift shop and I would always buy the same thing, a small wooden apple that when you took the top off inside would be tiny wooden dishes, no doubt a big influence on me. It's still a majestic building but now with an unfortunate facade added on in 2000 that cut away the magnificent grand staircase. I've yet to meet anyone who likes this horror, and someone I know who lives right across the street from the museum ended her membership because of this crime against architecture committed by Isozaki and Polshek. Anyway the Hiroshige exhibition was superb, a breathtaking series of 100 of his master prints from 1856-58 all from the museum's collection and beautifully installed. Each one is a little gem of perfect beauty of scenes of everyday life in the town of Edo. Things of course have changed so having these “snapshots” of life back then besides being magnificent works of art are also cinematic in his hands. Far away views, along with intense close ups of everday activities. His use of tones and colors and tiny details will hold you in his art probably forever. This is a great great s

how. Don't miss it. Through Aug. 4^th.

april 2024. Mixed on notebook paper

 

Baby Reindeer 2024

 

A woman walks into a pub in London and starts chatting up the bartender a young man who is also a stand up comic who does the bartending thing to make a living of sorts. She has a pathetic air about her, she's pleasant looking enough, probably in her 30s, somewhat overweight and very outgoing. She has no money so Donny the nice guy buys her a tea and the nightmare for him and indeed for us begins.

Martha is the name she gives along with a lot of tall tales about who she is and what she does. Most of which are lies. Soon she is showing her true dangerous and deranged self as she starts a months long stalking of Donny. Donny played by Richard Gadd who is also a stand up comedian and playwright wrote this series that is based on his life and tribulations with stalker Martha who made his life miserable for a couple of years. Gadd first wrote an hour long stage show based on his terrible story that was eventually turned into this 7 part series that is now raging on Netflix. It is a troubling story with sad detours into Donny's own troubled past including his being a victim of male rape, drugs and a hard luck career as a stand up comedian. He is not very funny and his act is at times embarrassing to watch.

This is a harsh compelling tale that caught me off guard, as I had no idea what was coming down this rough road and rough it is. Besides his stormy hurtful relationship with Martha he also starts dating a trans woman which also becomes bumpy and violent because of Martha. Martha also starts stalking Donny's parents and gets violent with an ex-girlfriend and throws a bottle of soda in her face. After 6 months of this crap, he finally goes to the police who basically throw up their hands in helplessness. The stalking goes on and gets worse and worse. Donny is a co-worker in this terrible situation, he doesn't do much to stop her because somewhere he doesn't want to and he adds and enables her mental sorry state, along with his own despair. Weirdly Martha gives his life meaning. This tale is not for everyone, sad, violent and full of harshness but it is engrossing and full of wonderful performances especially Jessica Gunning who plays Martha with a knife sharp edge. Also a hats off to Gadd's talent as a writer that he makes Martha a weirdly sympathetic character who caused me to have multiple feelings and takes on her. One minute I was sorry for her, the next I hated her with a passion. One of the best of 2024.

Oddball Magazine april 2024

Check out my new contribution to Oddball Magazine. 


 https://oddballmagazine.com/poem-by-jeannie-roberts/?
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Two notebook pages. April 2024. Mixed on notebook paper

 

Eleanor Coppola 1936-2024

 

Faith Ringgold 1930-2024

I didn't know Faith well, in the early 70's we were on an NEA panel and that's when I first met her. We took to each other, I remember laughing a lot. The next time I spent time with her was in 1982 or 1983 when we were both teaching at the University of California in San Diego and had a lunch out where she received many stares from some of the other eaters. It may have been her colorful African dress she was wearing or simply the fact that this was the early 80's in lily white San Diego. We exchanged phone numbers and addresses promising to be in touch when we were both back in "the city" meaning New York City. We never met again but of course I followed her career and art. A life well lived. 

April 2024 notebook drawing. mixed.

 

Three notebook drawings April 2024. Mixed on notebook paper

 

Christopher Durang 1949-2024

 

Barbara Rush 1927-2024