Art in NYC: Gerhard Richter Painting After All at the MetMuseum

Art in NYC: Gerhard Richter Painting After All at the MetMuseum

While MetMuseum has temporarily closed, you can visit it online from anywhere

Presenting a major exhibition of works by German artist Gerhard Richter titled “Painting After All”, the exhibit spans the entire artist’s career 

Gerhard Richter, S. with Child, 1995, Oil on canvas
Gerhard Richter, S. with Child, 1995, Oil on canvas, Hamburger Kunsthalle,© Gerhard Richter 2019 / Image courtesy of The MetMuseum

Recognized as one of the greatest artists of our time, Gerhard Richter succeeds in combining the detailed pictorial approach with the haze caused by the fog of time. His celebrated blurred figurative paintings, large scale abstract compositions, and monumental glass sculptures are the treasures of the art museums all around the world. Originally scheduled to be on view at the Met Breuer from March 4 – July 5, 2020, the exhibition includes a range of artworks from the artist’s early experiments with the pictorial depictions based on the old photographs, the glass sculptures, and the most recent cycle House of Cards (5 Panes) (2020). Some of the works will be more familiar to the art lovers, while others like the cycles Cage (2009) and Birkenau (2014) are shown in the United States for the first time.

Well known for his effort to reconcile through art the historical past with personal memories, Richter is uniquely qualified to remind the viewers about the horror of war, the danger of manipulation through the isolated messages or images taken out of context, and the inconsistencies in the recollection of the past events. To accentuate the point of a fleeting chance of memory, his technique of smudging the clear image reminds us of the distortion brought on by the time.

Gerhard Richter (German, b. 1932, Dresden) Cage 4, 2006 Oil on canvas
Gerhard Richter, Cage 4, 2006, Oil on canvas, Tate: Lent from a private collection 2007,© Gerhard Richter 2019 / Image courtesy of the MetMuseum

The technique can be seen as a way to represent the perspective of time similar to the perspective of distance and space. It creates the fourth dimension (time) for otherwise ordinary snapshots. As the objects positioned far away are depicted proportionally smaller and with less visible details, the memories about the events from the past are covered in haze and come out with blurred outlines. One can still see the object, yet as years go by, the exact image loses its significance and is replaced by the vague outline.

Explore the show online by taking a virtual tour.

Virtual Tour

The exhibition at the Met Breuer is the first major expose of Richter’s art in the US in 20 years.

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Art in NYC: Obsession-Nudes by Klimt, Schiele, Picasso at The Met Breuer

Art in NYC: Obsession-Nudes by Klimt, Schiele, Picasso at The Met Breuer

Erotic watercolors, drawings and prints from The Met’s Scofield Thayer Collection on view July 3 –  October 7, 2018

Obsession Nudes Met Breuer Schiele
Egon Schiele, Self-Portrait, 1911; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Scofield Thayer, 1982

An exhibition of about fifty works by the grand masters of the Vienna Secession movement Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele together with the early works by Pablo Picasso dives deep into artists’ obsession with male and female bodies. Bequeathed to The Met Museum in 1925 by Scofield Thayer, the collection is now coming on view for the first time. Thayer, a wealthy American publisher, and poet, collected the works in the early 1920s.

Klimt, while highly acclaimed in Austria, was mostly unknown to the American public. Schiele and Picasso were just starting to get attention and recognition in America. Thayer used some reproductions of the artworks in his avant-garde literary magazine Dial and for an exhibition at the Montross Gallery in New York in 1924. However he didn’t find much interest for them in his native Massachusetts.

His collection was assembled when Thayer was traveling between Vienna, Berlin, and Paris. It is an opening into the hidden obsession and fascination with the nude bodies, the emotions of the struggling souls and the complexity of desire.  Don’t judge; just observe and contemplate.

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Art in NYC: Like Life – Sculpture, Color, and the Body at The Met Breuer

Art in NYC: Like Life – Sculpture, Color, and the Body at The Met Breuer

History of Sculpture from 1300 until Now on view from March 21 – July 22, 2018 

Like Life sculpture color body Met Breuer Museum
Tip Toland, The Whistlers, 2005, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Dale and Doug Anderson, 2011 / Image courtesy of The Met Breuer

This truly fascinating exhibition at The Met Breuer covers seven hundred years of history from 1300 till now of sculptures, casts, tableaus, masks and even automatons to illuminate the perfection of likeness and its distortion. Covering a vast time window and the diversity of the approaches, the show is organized into 8 thematic sections located on 2 floors of the museum. Each section includes works from various places and times connected by either similarity or extreme contrast in the concept. About 120 works by old and new masters are selected including Donatello, El Greco, Rodin, Degas, Kusama, Koons, Cattelan and many many other.

One may agree or disagree with the overarching thesis about the use of colors and the influence of religion and societal biases on how we perceive the body in its nakedness and likeness, but it all comes back to how we see ourself and how we are perceived by others. Allow yourself enough time to observe, compare and read. Read More

Art in NYC: Provocations by Anselm Kiefer at the Met Breuer

Art in NYC: Provocations by Anselm Kiefer at the Met Breuer

Kiefer’s works from the Met Museum collection on view until April 8, 2018

Met Breuer Museum NYC Provocations Anselm Kiefer
Anselm Kiefer, Bohemia Lies by the Sea, 1996 © Anselm Kiefer / Image courtesy of the Met Museum

The exhibition at the Met Breuer “Provocations: Anselm Kiefer” presents selected works from the Met collection covering artist’s 50-year career. Well known for pushing the boundaries of comfortable art and sleepy consciousness, Kiefer’s paintings, watercolors, and collages shake the norms by questioning the stale and tired concepts. The art lovers, sophisticated and novices, will appreciate the introspection and depth of thought that this expose projects. The exhibition is on view from December 13, 2017 until April 8, 2018. Read More