NUDE ASCENDANT
One hundred years ago, New Yorkers were shocked by the likes of Marcel Duchamp’s “Nude Descending a Staircase” which a contemporary critic described as “an explosion in a shingles factory.” About ten percent of the works displayed at that notorious International Exhibition of Modern Art, nicknamed the Armory Show, are currently on view in a retrospective at the New York Historical Society. It is made clear that the show was intended to illustrate a transition between traditional representational painting, and the newer impressionist and cubist approaches.
In addition to the actual “Nude,” the show includes photos and diagrams of the pictures arranged in 1913 at the Lexington Avenue Armory. Contrasting more conventional works by James McNeill Whistler and John Marin to images by Odilon Redon and Matisse’s “Blue Nude” which hang nearby helps give viewers a sense of the innovative approaches that created such a sensation by introducing the American public to European avant-garde painting and sculpture. www.nyhistory.org
TECH TAKES
Created by computers, a filigree plastic bikini swimsuit, a finely woven five-portrait tapestry of Chuck Close, fantastically molded chairs are among the breathtaking items in the Museum of Art and Design’s “Out of Hand: Materializing the Post-digital.”
Illustrating how new technologies are pushing the boundaries of artistic expression and creation, the exhibit explores how formulae derived from nature, geometry, pattern are reconfigured into extraordinary innovations which are transforming practices in manufacturing, healthcare, and other fields.
To help visitors understand, one floor of the show, equipped with 3-D printers, modeling software, and computer monitors, allows visitors to experiment with the technologies on display. Designers-in-residence demonstrate various digital techniques and fabrication tools. Both the artifacts and processes leave you marveling at the technological-revolution taking place all around us. www.madmuseum.org
