THE GUGGENHEIM

It's the Guggenheim.  It's the Upper East Side.  It's New York City.  It's totally where I belong.  Or so I would like to believe, even though that really isn't true.  At least, I can visit and breathe deeply and look up and down and left and right, and have it forever in memory.

I've been fascinated by the Guggenheim since it was built in the 1950s.  I was a teenager then, and followed its progress religiously.  In the few times I've been to New York, I've never had the opportunity to visit it...or even stand across the street and stare at it.  Frank Lloyd Wright (the Guggenheim's architect) wintered in Phoenix for many years, and during that time took a practice run at  this building by designing a house for his son based on the idea of a spiral ramp.  I know the street and the block where it's supposed to be, but I've never found it.  Frank did a good job with the privacy issue.

That aside, we're here.  No matter which artist or art is featured today, it will be wonderful. And...welcome to the world of Christopher Wool.

So...not completely what I was expecting, but it's Christopher Wool, for heaven's sake.  This is the kind of thing he does.  If you look at this piece of art really closely, you can see other faded letters barely showing through the background.  That is done on purpose...very carefully.  It's what Christopher Wool is doing these days.  Covering over much of his earlier work with today's work.  You might think that would be easy, but not so much.  I read a lot about this style of art as I wandered down the Guggenheim gallery ramp and it's actually pretty complicated, and fairly easy to screw up.  In addition he is doing similar things with more elaborate paintings, as well as using digital processing to "warp the scale, color, and resolution...often merging...unify the traces of multiple past moments of creation...to be considered afresh..."  Wow.  We were just talking about "deep" earlier this week.  This is deep.  But, before it was over, I was really pretty impressed with it--particularly the digital processing.  Detail everywhere!

Before the day was over, we had covered every square inch of the museum.  I didn't understand everything I saw ("modern" art isn't totally my thing) but I had a much greater appreciation for the work, and the amount of time and talent and thought that went into each item there.  Sometimes I've wished I were a creative, but everything I read convinces me that it's harder than it looks.

If you're wondering, yes those are Christopher Wool paintings in the background.  It's a fascinating museum, and a fascinating area (the little kids just down the street leaving school apparently have male nannies--I figured they were fabulously wealthy six year-olds and the nannies were packing), and New York is a great city.  All is good!

Margie