openings and closings
Its been a short week full of stops and starts, sweet moments, frustration and exhaustion.There has been headway followed by ineptitude and corruption of faith. I wrote Fed Ex a letter yesterday since they didn't honor their second day guarentee on a shipment I sent to NYC right after the Subway strike....to the tune of fifty bucks! versus like eight.
One thing I've learned over the years is that a pointed letter can make all the difference when it is read by the right person. (If I had paid eight bucks it wouldn't have mattered. A guarentee is a guarentee... especially a fifty dollar guarentee!)
I spent the day pounding the pavement and looking at early 20th century art from Vienna at the Grand Palais. If you haven't seen the Schiele schow at the Neu Galeri across from the Met you should. It closes on the 2oth. It takes a lot of dough to get all those paintings and drawings in one place from all over the planet.
The Vienna show gave me an entirely new appreciation of Schiele's landscapes and the role Klimt played in the Secessionist movement. He was the master! He could do anything he damn well wanted since he had the chops...ALL of THEM. This isn't so obvious if you only know the work he is most known for. They are great but there is even MORE and different work that is less well known that was jaw droppingly masterful.
Now it is time to work. It's 11:15 pm here. Some things never change. Jetlag doesn't help.
Tomorrow I am getting up early to see a show on 20th C Melancholy in Art..(described as a divine state associated with great minds that is now treated as depression.) NOW I feel better!
Tomorrow is the last day. At least its a Monday so the line can't be as long as it was today (a three hour line.) The only time I've stood in line for three hours was to please my husband when we saw the Vermeer show on a FREEZING January afternoon MANY years ago. I was glad I did. I must confess I was amazed to see so many Americans enduring the misery of the line to look at Art.
Such behavior is typical of the French - or Springsteen fans. The difference is that the French are LATIN people and will break a Que to be sure if you give them half a chance! Liberte' Fraternite' Egalite'....
posted by "" at 1/15/2006 05:05:00 PM
4 Comments:
You - Parisian.
Me - mountain maw.
God, I was exhausted when I left the above comment. Having 6 house guests is fun but tiring. Hope you didn't have to wait in line so long for the 20C Melancholy show.
I did. NOW I am the exhausted one... but not melancholy, baby!
I arrived at the Grand Palais around 9:30 - a real feat for me with my erratic sleeping patterns this week. The line wasn't so long and they said we still had an hour and a half wait. Ok, better than three I thought and there were nice ladies in line next to me who spoke English as well as French.
WRONG. Three hours. My feet were bruised by the time I got in the place.
The exhibition was VERY good and I learned a great deal. I would have purchaced the catalogue but it was in French and the illustrations weren't fabulous enough to justify the weight or the expense.
Art is sublimation, my neighbor said. Freud made the observation that artists know how to take care of themselves emotionally for this reason...now I have to read this. My French neighbor in line and I had a discussion about this. The French. They are SO not suburban...
Glad to hear you survived your house guests. I must confess I need a good rest after you and your herd are under my roof - but it is the best kind of weariness!
Yes, it is a good kind of weariness. The same kind of good weariness I feel when a whole herd from all over the place descends on me that last weekend in April.
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