Whitney & Modern Art

This is before even getting to the Whitney, wall decoration in the Meatpacking District.

Our interest was piqued by an exhibition at the Whitney Museum — artists of the 1960s and 1970s who used bold, saturated, hallucinatory colour to stimulate perceptions. It was at that time that acrylic paint became newly available, with a greater range of hues. The period was marked by an exploration of Op Art, geometric styles and shapes, and intense colour combinations.

Very Matisse-ish, we thought …

The exhibition was called “Spilling Over” — artist Bob Thompson is quoted as saying: “… I have something inside of me that is just bursting, twisting, sticking, spilling over to get out. Out into souls and mouths and eyes that have never seen before.”

 

The above left image is famous, many of you might recognise it … optic art deluxe.

 

 

I loved the Cubist, stained-glass window style of the painting above left . . . and above right some interesting sculptural installations on an open terrace. At various times, smoke streams out of the kneeling guy’s backside. I did say it was interesting.

Juxtaposition … old and modern, a painting of the Brooklyn Bridge by Joseph Stella, and my own photo of the bridge struts.

 

Walking to the Winter Garden and the (old) Ground Zero, even the Department of Sanitation building has received interesting treatment … it’s all jutting angles and cubes.

 

And more Rubic cube (mis)placed blocks …

Here’s a bird in trouble …  Amazing bronze caricactures by sculptor Tom Otterness at Rockefeller Park in Battery Park near the southern tip of Manhattan.