Cultural Cocktail Hour

Cultural Cocktail Hour reports from Paris: Da Vinci’s Saint Anne at the Louvre

The Louvre’s Saint Anne, Leonardo da Vinci’s Ultimate Masterpiece ending June 25th by Leticia Marie Sanchez For those in Paris, hie thee quickly to see Leonardo Da Vinci’s Ultimate masterpiece, Saint Anne as the temporary exhibit ends June 25. Walking through the exhibit is akin to a stroll in Da Vinci’s workshop. An undeniable highlight of the exhibit is the abundance of sketches of the Virgin and Saint Anne that line the walls. The drawings provide us insight in the mind of the master and the subtle conceptual shifts before he achieved his final result. The Louvre’s exhibit informs us of a Freudian psychoanalytic detail. Born out of wedlock and raised by his father’s new wife, Da Vinci experienced a childhood of two mothers, which could be subconsciously manifested through the dual mother figures of the Virgin and St.

Luxembourg Gardens, Paris, 2012: April showers bring May flowers

Tempests at the Tuileries, Paris, 2012

Cultural Cocktail Hour in Paris: Nocturnal Louvre

Cultural Cocktail Hour heads to San Francisco: “Masters of Venice” at the de Young Fine Arts Museum

Masters of Venice: Renaissance Painters of Passion and Power By Leticia Marie Sanchez It was the best of times. It was the best of times. Stepping into San Francisco’s de Young Museum of Fine Arts is stepping into the Venetian Renaissance. Entering the exhibit you feel like one of the many pilgrims shown in the de Young’s reproduction of Bellini’s panoramic scene on Piazza San Marco. Gentile Bellini: Procession in the Piazza San Marco, 1496. The Masters of Venice applies to the city’s painters and power-brokers. Canvases of Venetian merchant ships made the city a maritime power. Canvases of avant-garde artists during the Quattrocento and Cinquecento like Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, and Tintoretto pushed the creative envelope. The Venetian School revolutionized painting by shifting away from rigid wood panels, favoring canvases as a medium of choice as well as oil painting instead of

In the News: the Curious Collection of the Barnes Foundation

Which American Museum has: 181 works by Renoir 69 Cezannes (more than in all the museums of Paris combined), 59 Matisses 46 Picassos and 7 Van Goghs The Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. This happens to be the spot that Matisse called, “the only sane place to see art in America.” Unfortunately, the collection will be at the Foundation for only two more months. The Independent covered the saga and court hearings behind the attempt to move the works of art out of the Foundation http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/rupert-cornwell/rupert-cornwell-is-this-the-biggest-art-heist-in-history-2246968.html as did the documentary Art of the Steal. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1326733/

All the World’s a Stage: William Leavitt’s “Theater Objects” at MOCA

All the World’s A Stage: William Leavitt’s Theater Objects at MOCA By Leticia Marie Sanchez All photography© MOCA All the world’s a stage, all the men and women merely players. Nowhere does Shakespeare’s expression hold more true than at William Leavitt’s Theater Objects at MOCA. Walking into the exhibition one hears the constant chirping of birds and the flow of cool air. Are we in a jungle? A theme park? On the set of a play? Leavitt’s engaging exhibition interacts with its audience, causing the museumgoer to constantly question where he or she stands. Co-curated by MOCA Curator Bennett Simpson and Ann Goldstein, former MOCA senior curator and director of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, William Leavitt: Theater Objects represents the first solo museum exhibition and retrospective of the artist’s 40-year career. The exhibit showcases approximately 90 works from 1969

Arabella Huntington- Femme Fatale

–Scarlett O’Hara had nothing on me! In a lecture a few years ago at the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, it was revealed that Arabella Huntington, powerful arts patroness, happened to be a tempting siren. Mystery shrouds the birth of her son. At the time, there were not two, but three gentlemen involved with Mrs. H, who could have sired the heir to the Huntington fortune. Arabella went by the nickname Belle. The stoic portrait of Arabella at the left, painted by Sir Oswald Birley, graces the entrance of the Huntington’s Research Library. It teaches us not to judge a book by its cover, nor a dowager by her spectacles, black garb, and beekeeper’s veil.

In the News: Banned Banksy pops up in LA

Banksy, the mysterious, anarchist street artist may have descended upon the city of Angels. Nominated for Best Documentary for his film, Exit Through the Gift Shop, Banksy, whose identity remains a secret, petitioned to be allowed on stage to accept his potential award donning a Monkey Mask. No Monkey Business at the Oscars came the reply. Since then, subversive street art work has allegedly crept up around the LA area, including Sunset Boulevard which reports sightings of a pyromaniac Charlie Brown, holding a gas can, whilst a cigarette dangles from his mouth.

Los Angeles Arts Show- January 19-23

The Los Angeles Art Show January 19-23, 2011 Los Angeles Convention Center. West Hall A, 1201 South Figueroa Street LA, CA 90015 The LAAS features thousands of global works of art from a variety of periods including Old Master works, Impressionist, Modern, and Contemporary art. From the LA Arts show website: “FROM REMBRANDT TO RUSCHA AND BEYOND. PAINTING, SCULPTURE, WORKS ON PAPER, PHOTOGRAPHY, VIDEO – OVER 100 PROMINENT GALLERIES FROM AROUND THE GLOBE.” The art show also includes an exhibit on Middle Eastern Artists three years before the exhibit will be displayed at the Guggenheim Museum. Visit www.laartshow.com for more information

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Archive for the ‘Art’ Category

Cultural Cocktail Hour reports from Paris: Da Vinci’s Saint Anne at the Louvre

Luxembourg Gardens, Paris, 2012: April showers bring May flowers

Tempests at the Tuileries, Paris, 2012

Cultural Cocktail Hour in Paris: Nocturnal Louvre

Cultural Cocktail Hour heads to San Francisco: “Masters of Venice” at the de Young Fine Arts Museum

In the News: the Curious Collection of the Barnes Foundation

All the World’s a Stage: William Leavitt’s “Theater Objects” at MOCA

Arabella Huntington- Femme Fatale

In the News: Banned Banksy pops up in LA

Los Angeles Arts Show- January 19-23

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