Earlier this month I was in Nice for the TM Forum‘s Management World 2010 conference. (It was a very useful show, and I’ll probably blog about the technical content as soon as I have time.) After the event was over, I found time to visit the Musée National Marc Chagall. Non-flash photography was permitted, and I had fun, as you can see here.

Even though I’ve been in Seattle for nearly three years, I’ve never visited the city with which it shares an airport: Tacoma. I’ve driven though Tacoma on the way to California, but that hardly counts. I’ve always thought of Tacoma as relating to Seattle in the same way that Providence, RI relates to Boston: either could have become the prime location in the region, but the loser was doomed to play second fiddle. Both Tacoma and Providence are interesting, but neither really compares to its northern neighbour.
The idea to visit Tacoma was spurred by coming across an ad for an exhibit at the Tacoma Art Museum on the work of David Macaulay. I’ve been a huge fan of his, ever since his first book “Cathedral“. The exhibit is absolutely first-class, and includes many working drawings, outlines, paper models, and drafts for reworked projects. A large number of the pieces were simply thumb-tacked to the wall, just as if they were in the artist’s studio. The exhibit also included the video of Macaulay’s talk at TED about his Rome project, which helped to put many of the working drawings into perspective. Hmm – “perspective”. Bad choice of word. If you watch the TED talk, you’ll understand why.
The Tacoma Art Museum is small, but the exhibits were first class. I loved the series of Salvador Dali etchings in an exhibition on the evolution of surrealism; some seemed close to early Picasso, which surprised me. A collection called Speaking Parts included a quite outstanding piece by Dennis Evans called “Writing Lessons”. If there’s a downside, it’s the over-exposure of Dale Chihuly glass, which is frankly not to my taste. (There’s a dedicated museum of glass just down the road; why couldn’t all of his overwrought neon whorls and orgasmic sea anemones be kept down there?)
We didn’t stay long; after a quick lunch, we had to head back up to Seattle. But I suspect that we’ll be returning soon.

More photos.

Monet: "The Gare Saint-Lazare: Arrival of a train" (1877)

The DVD of the moment is the zany and eclectic recording of the party that the Dresden Dolls hosted at the Roundhouse in London back in 2006. I’ve only seen them perform live once, opening for the Legendary Pink Dots in the early oughts, oops, years of this decade a few years ago. Here’s a clip to whet ((No, not “wet”, but “whet”.)) your appetite:

Check out Animator vs. Animation II by *alanbecker. Desktop icons will never seem the same…

The objective of a new art exhibition: “We want London to be thinking about nothing but sex for three months.”
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Perhaps I should drop Fark from my morning checklist…

Two thumbs up (both mine, but whatever…) for the new fantasy and sci-fi art exhibition at Roq La Rue. I got there soon after 6, which was good, because an hour later the place was packed. A sign said that it was the first exhibition of its kind anywhere in the US – is that true? Anyway, it was nicely representative of the genre.
As is my habit when visiting any gallery, I set out to answer the question, “If you were to buy just one item from this show, which would it be, and why?” I find that it’s a really useful way of imposing some structure on what can otherwise become a random walk. In this case, it was actually quite easy. I found myself returning to Donato Gioancola’s “PSYCHOHISTORICAL CRISIS II” over and over again, enjoying the juxtaposition of huge, implacable machinery with small, uncertain people. Not only did this draw me in to it (and invite me down the steel passageway to an uncertain future); it also felt like something I would enjoy living with. Unfortunately my assessment was shared by the artist and gallery: at $15,000, it was one of the most expensive pieces in the show.
Of course there were also four wonderful little pieces by Bob Eggleton: pictures of starships against a rocky planetscape with a star-filled sky. Bob is best known for his contemporary cover art for science fiction books, and in these works he was paying homage to the cover artwork that one finds on pulp sci-fi paperbacks from the 1950s and 1960s. At only $300 each, I would have happily bought one right there and then; sadly, others had had the same idea, and all four were red-dotted before the show opened. Oh, well.

This Friday evening I’m planning to hit the Roq La Rue Gallery in Belltown for the opening of their new show. From BoingBoing:

This Friday, a mind-blowing fantasy and science fiction art show opens at Seattle’s Roq La Rue Gallery. Curated by Kirsten Anderson and Travis Louie, the “Amazing Visions” exhibition includes an incredible line-up of artists. Fortunately, all of the works are viewable on the gallery’s Web site.
[…]
Artists: Matt Wilson, Wayne Barlowe, James Gurney, H.R. Giger, Charles Vess, John Brophy, Terese Neilsen, Kinuko Y Craft, Vincent Di Fate, Vince Natale, Don Maitz, Gregory Manchess, Jeremy Bennett, Brian Despain, Ezra Tucker, Brom, Mark Garro, Stephen Hickman, Chet Zar, James Warhola, Kirk Reinert, Basil Gogos, Donato Giancola, Miles Teves, Bob Eggleton, Omar Rayyan, Joe DeVito, Tristan Elwell, Gabe Marquez, John Jude Palencar, Constantine

This evening we went to the members’ preview for the new exhibition at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts: Americans in Paris, 1860-1900. It’s a delightful collection, showing how a diverse group of American artists journeyed to Paris, absorbed (or occasionally rejected) the artistic revolutions that marked the second half of the 19th century, and returned home to create a distinctively American style. For a dramatic example of the process, check out the way that John Singer Sargent’s seascapes were transformed between 1861 and 1865 from obsessive Realism to near-abstract and then proto-impressionism.
All of the usual suspects are here, including Mary Cassat and Winslow Homer. They’ve even managed to persuade the Musée d’Orsay to let them have Whistler’s Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 1: Portrait of the Artist’s Mother.
My personal favourite item in the exhibition is by an artist with whom I was unfamiliar: Cecilia Beaux. Her Ernesta (Child with Nurse) is wonderful: the energy and curiosity of the child is almost palpable.

The show opens the day after tomorrow (June 25). Highly recommended.