Andrew Wyeth in China is on display in Christie’s Private Sales Gallery
ANDREW WYETH IN CHINA
After the restrictions of the Cultural Revolution were relaxed, many Chinese artists sought ways to express themselves while still honoring their classical training—and found inspiration in the self-consciousness, calmness and solitude of Andrew Wyeth’s work. The American artist’s qualities resonated with the Chinese sense of stability, tranquility and isolation and his works opened up new ways to see the world.
Acknowledging Wyeth’s impact, Christie’s and Adelson Galleries have assembled an exhibit of 40 drawings, watercolors, and works in dry brush and tempera spanning Wyeth’s career. Already displayed in Hong Kong and Beijing, the exhibit is now beautifully hung in the serene setting of Christie’s Private Sales Gallery. Both the exhibit of landscapes, nudes, and brooding figures and the gallery space on the 20th floor overlooking the city are worth a stop. From September 4 through the 25.
Andrew Wyeth’s “Faraway”, © Andrew Wyeth
Christie’s Private Sales Gallery, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, 20th floor. http://www.christiesprivatesales.com/exhibitions/wyeth-in-china/index.aspx.
left to right:
“Unseen 1” Shahzia Sikander, HD-Digital Projection, 2011. David Adams; Hand mirror, Northern India, nineteenth century. Jade, gold, gemstones, and mica. diameter: 9 1/8 in. © 2006 David Franzen. Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, Honolulu, Hawai‘i
DORIS DUKE’S SHANGRI-LA
On her around-the-world-honeymoon, heiress Doris Duke fell in love again—with Islamic art. After visiting the Taj Mahal, Morocco, Egypt and Indonesia, she and new husband James Cromwell revised their plan to add a Mughal-style addition to their Palm Beach house and instead built a “Spanish-Moorish-Persian-Indian” complex in Honolulu. That building opened to the public in 2002 as the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art and those of you who do not have plans to visit Hawaii can see it vicariously at the Museum of Art and Design, which is showing photos and plans of the magical house, some of its artifacts and objects inspired by the collection.
Architectural drawings, snapshots of the couple in the house, caftans from Duke’s wardrobe are among the “scrapbook” of items in a traveling exhibit currently on display in the galleries. A sunburst hand mirror from India, a chocolate and bright blue Spanish footed ceramic basin, colorful Moorish lanterns are juxtaposed with silver mesh hanging lantern/rockets suspended from the ceiling and an ethereal translucent Oriental carpet of woven polyurethane and plexiglass created by artist in residence Afruz Amighi. Visitors of the gallery will get a glimpse of a privileged life and an appreciation of the legacy the heiress collected and left to the public. From September 5 through February 17. Museum of Arts and Design, 2 Columbus Circle.
212-299-7777. www.madmuseum.org
THE EYE OF THE STORM
Written by Nobel prizewinning Australian author Patrick White and condensed from 650 pages into a two-hour film, “The Eye of the Storm” is the account of the turmoil and conflict among the staff, children and acquaintances of dominating society doyenne Elizabeth Hunter while they try to cope during her final illness.
Geoffrey Rush plays the son to Charlotte Rampling and Judy Davis is the daughter. Neglected by their willful mother, they struggle to emerge from her shadow and ensure their inheritances. Flashbacks indicate some of the experiences that shaped them—Rush/Basil now an aging ex patriot actor, and Davis/Princess Dorothy Lascabanes the widow of a philandering prince.
Meryl Streep and playwright John Guare were among celebrities attending a screening at the Museum of Modern Art. At the after party Geoffrey Rush professed that he’d kept an eye on Meryl who seemed to enjoy the film. We met the producers who are working now on a movie adaptation of John Katzenbach’s book “The Mad Man’s Table.” Another of the film’s stars, Alexandra Schepisi who plays ambitious nurse Flora Manhood, is the daughter of the film’s director Fred Schepisi. She explained she got the call to audition independent of her father’s influence, and her reviews have been so glowing that the collaboration appears to be a happy family aspect in contrast to the family film’s dysfunction.
http://theeyeofthestorm.com.au/
