setup began yesterday
streets closing
unloading, building, signage, displays
artists on task
townies abuzz
beautiful skies
everything in full swing
high excitement in the air
can’t wait to visit.
‘an artist cannot fail; it is a success to be one.’
-charles horton cooley
Vik Muniz. Action Photo, after Hans Namuth from Pictures of Chocolate. 1997. Chromogenic color print. The Museum of Modern Art. Gift of Patricia Phelps de Cisneros in honor of Adriana Cisneros de Griffin through the Latin American and Caribbean Fund. © The Estate of Hans Namuth and Vik Muniz/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
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‘As part of the Artist’s Choice exhibition series at the Museum of Modern Art, Muniz curated a show drawn from the Museum’s collection, and MoMA has recently added to the collection a key picture by Muniz, Action Photo, after Hans Namuth from Pictures of Chocolate, and we hope to continue our exploration and appreciation of this leading artist’s work.’ -MoMa
To make his work, Muniz renders familiar images drawn from pop culture and art history in a variety of materials, and then photographs them. He has fashioned the Mona Lisa from peanut butter and jelly, Elizabeth Taylor from diamonds, Caravaggio’s Narcissus from junk, iconic news images from wet ink, and his self-portrait from dice. Muniz has referred to himself as an “illusionist,” and, with characteristic humor and ingenuity, explores the nature of representation in an image-saturated world.
One of Muniz’s most well-known bodies of work is a series of pictures rendered in chocolate sauce. Action Photo, after Hans Namuth (1997) is made after a 1950 photograph taken by Hans Namuth of Jackson Pollock frozen in mid-dance as he was making one of his paintings, Autumn Rhythm. Muniz’s subsequent appropriation and translation of this image into chocolate is a perfect marriage of subject and material. The viscous chocolate syrup (incidentally, he used the brand Bosco) is a perfect stand-in for Pollock’s wet, shiny paint drips. This new acquisition not only strengthens the Museum’s Muniz holdings, but is a welcome complement to MoMA’s rich Pollock collection .
Vik Muniz is a Brazilian artist and photographer. His work has been met with both commercial success and critical acclaim, and has been exhibited worldwide. In 1998, he participated in the 24th International Biennale in São Paulo, and in 2001, he represented Brazil at the 49th Biennale in Venice, Italy. He currently works in New York City and Rio de Janerio.
while this is not me,
this is my exact style of painting with chocolate
while not quite as celebrated as vic’s
they are not as in demand
and have not yet been exhibited in public.
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on world chocolate day
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‘i’las cosas claras y el chocolate espeso.’
(ideas should be clear and chocolate thick.)
-spanish proverb
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source credits:MoMa, Inside/Out
“man needs spiritual expression and nourishing….
even in the prehistoric era, people would scrawl pictures of bison on the walls of caves.”
*-fernando botero
Paul Klee, Forest Architecture, 1925, pen and watercolour on paper mounted on card
swiss painter, draftsman, and printmaker 1879-1940
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“art should be like a holiday;
something to give a man the opportunity to see things differently,
and to change his point of view.”
-paul klee
the dandelions have returned, and i couldn’t be happier.
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“Every year,” said Grandfather. “They run amuck; I let them.
Pride of lions in the yard. Stare, and they burn a hole in your retina.
A common flower, a weed that no one sees, yes.
But for us, a noble thing, the dandelion.”
-Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine
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art credit: garth williams, (the rabbit’s wedding) – rabbit basking in the moonlight
not me, nor my garden
but he and i have similar attitudes
and this warmer weather
really has me wanting to get my garden going
then just stand back
and take it all in.
(hello to claude monet, at giverny gardens in 1923, perhaps thinking about painting it)
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“to plant a garden is the chief of the arts of peace.”
~ mary stewart
A New York garbage depot holds a secret collection of weird and wonderful refuse.
The Treasures in the Trash Collection
On the second floor of a nondescript warehouse owned by New York City’s Sanitation Department in East Harlem is a treasure trove—filled with other people’s trash.
Most of the building is used as a depot for garbage trucks, but there’s a secret collection that takes over an entire floor. The space is populated by a mind-bogglingly wide array of items: a bestiary of Tamagotchis, Furbies; dozens of Pez dispensers; female weight lifting trophies; 8-track tapes; plates, paintings, sporting equipment and much more.
The Treasures in the Trash collection, was created entirely out of objects found by Nelson Molina, a now-retired sanitation worker, who began by decorating his locker. Collected over 30 years, it is a visual explosion, organized by type, color, and size. Atlas Obscura had the chance to visit the collection with the New York Adventure Club, take some photos, and revel in the vast creative possibilities of trash. Unfortunately, this isn’t a collection that keeps regular hours; drop-ins are not allowed. For more information on the occasional organized tours, email tours@dsny.nyc.gov. Sanitation workers are welcome anytime.
“uncommon thinkers reuse what common thinkers refuse.”
-j.r.d. tata
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source credits: atlas obscura, dylan thuras, new york adventure club
collection location: 343 East 99th St., New York, New York, 10029 usa
wh0 wouldn’t love to have a tangerine cat?
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“our holiday food splurge was a small crate of tangerines, which we found ridiculously thrilling after an eight-month abstinence from citrus. lily hugged each one to her chest before undressing it as gently as a doll. watching her do that as she sat cross-legged on the floor one morning in pink pajamas, with bliss lighting her cheeks, i thought; lucky is the world, to receive this grateful child. value is not made of money, but a tender balance of expectation and longing.”
-Barbara Kingsolver
Barbara is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, essayist, and poet. Her widely known works include The Poisonwood Bible, the tale of a missionary family in the Congo, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, a nonfiction account of her family’s attempts to eat locally. Lily, mentioned above, is her daughter, now also an author and an environmental scientist.
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image credit: pinterest
“look, i made a map! and it goes right to my house!”
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‘the most expressive part of the body when it comes to art.
for a child, their hands often become their voice.’
-the art of creativity
the kinder painted
using play feathers and real fingers
and colors they mixed and made
one
chose to paint
only white on white paper
to see what it would look like
it was a beautiful painting
all nuance and shade and texture.
“renoir said once that nothing was so difficult, and at the same time so exciting, to paint, as white on white.”
– ambroise vollard
I didn't have my glasses on.... 