Here's a new exhibit at the MoMA that you just don't want to miss (
http://moma.org/exhibitions/2007/serra/). It leaves you feeling really small....literally! And yet Richard Serra's use of metal and wood and other industrial metals to create these incredible spaces, windign pathways, and shadows will leave you gaping in wonder. And did I mention how awe-inspiringly large his works are? Here is a link to an amazing (short) video that gives you an idea of what this exhibit is about:
http://moma.org/exhibitions/2007/serra/flash.htmllash.htmlAnd if you want to see the long-winded complicated process of installing his works into the MoMA garden (using cranes no less) watch this really fun YouTube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1sBpsyRNfM His art pieces were first placed on 6th Ave., on flatbed trucks and were then carefully lifted over the wall, one at a time, into the Sculpture Garden, and dropped into their place using cranes.
From the MoMA's website (
http://www.moma.org/)
"One of the preeminent sculptors of our era, Richard Serra (American, b. 1939) has long been acclaimed for his challe
nging and innovative work, which emphasizes materiality and an engagement between the viewer, the site, and the work. In the early 1960s, Serra and the Minimalist artists of his generation turned to unconventional, industrial materials and began to accentuate the physical properties of their art. Over the years, Serra has expanded his spatial and temporal approach to sculpture and has focused primarily on large-scale work, including many site-specific works that engage with a particular architectural, urban, or landscape setting. This exhibition presents the artist's forty-year career..."
A
New York Times article by
MICHAEL KIMMELMAN about Serra's works describes it best:
"A filmmaker I met in Bilbao, Spain, wandering through Mr. Serra’s sculptures there, likened the experience to movies. He thought the paths Mr. Serra devised within the works, between curving walls of steel, which suddenly jog, then arrive, unexpectedly, at cavities or enclosures, were like plot twists with surprise endings. Except there are no beginnings or endings in the sculptures. A novelist who has written about the Holocaust said the high, curving steel walls leaned over him threateningly, leading him until he became disoriented and lost, into what he felt were penned-in spaces, bringing to mind a concentration camp. The art scared him, he said, but he also loved it. Kant called this feeling “the terrifying sublime,” which is “accompanied by a certain dread or melancholy.” Awe and fear mingle with pleasure.”
Read the NYT Article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/01/arts/design/01serr.html?n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fS%2fSerra%2c%20RichardInfo: Richard Serra Sculpture: Forty Years
Dates: June 3–September 10, 2007
Where (Multiple locations inside the MoMA and in the garden): The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden (first floor), Contemporary Galleries (second floor), The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art Exhibition Galleries (sixth floor)
The Museum of Modern Art
West 53 Street (btwn Fifth and Sixth Avenues)
New York, NY 10019-5497
Ph: (212) 708-9400
Museum Hours: Saturday 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m., Sunday 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m., Monday 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m., Tuesday closed, Wednesday 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.,
Thursday 10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m., Friday 10:30 a.m.–8:00 p.m.(Target FREE Fridays)
Subway: E or V to Fifth Avenue/53 Street; B, D, or F to 47-50 Streets/Rockefeller Center.Bus: M1, 2, 3, 4, 5 to 53 Street
I know! I know! It only happens twice a year (Jan and July) and you wish they'd just make it a monthly event. Well brighten up, it's here again in 2 weeks. NYC Restaurant Week runs July 16-20 and July 23-27. That two full working weeks of pure culinary bliss for a fraction of the usual price. As part of the festivities New Yorkers are lucky enough to get gourmet prix-fixe three-course meals at some of the city's finest restaurants. Granted a lot of the items on these pre-fixe menus among the less expensive items on the usual menu, but every year that I've tried it, I've found the food fabulous and the service great. The price is $24.07 lunch and $35 for dinner (prices are per person and do not include beverages, taxes or tips). So now you can check out that new (exorbitant) rest
aurant you've been waiting to try. Here's an article on how to make the most of Restaurant Week: http://gonyc.about.com/od/restaurantweek/tp/rw_tips.htm And here's another read on the best choices for Restaurant Week: http://gonyc.about.com/od/summer/tp/bestrwchoices.htm The reservations sell out quickly so don't wait too long to make yours. 
