Vladimir Kagan's Blog

The Art Scene in Palm Beach

 

ArtPalmBeach 2014 at the Coliseum

&

Ferraris on the Lawn of the Breakers

Copyright Vladimir Kagan, January 29, 2014

 

 

 

Art Basel Miami it wasn’t - but on the plus side, it was cozier, more user friendly and devoid of offensive junk. It was a show full of derivatives and wannabes… But who cares! If you can’t afford the original, who said the copy isn’t good enough. It’s still oil on canvas, or what ever… and the artist who created it is still an artist doing his stuff… you like it… that’s great; derivative or not, you got it for a couple of thousand instead of millions. 

P.S. This does not apply to my furniture! Do not buy the knock-off... it is truly inferior and will never have the value of my original nor does it cost anywhere near a million!

 

 

Greeting you at the entrance of the Coliseum - a pair of circus aerialist walking a tight-rope - a fitting welcome for an art extravaganza

ArtPalmBeach was a lively show telling us that modern is alive and thriving in Palm Beach. It was a multi-media extravaganza… in fact it felt like an adult craft show with artists experimenting in every material under the sun: neon, LED, copper, bronze, steel, rebar steel, wood, recycled objects, junk, concrete, glass, acrylic, photography, montages, newsprint and some artists even painted in oil on canvas. A large portion of the exhibit was devoted to sculpture and glass seemed to be the predominant material for serious experimentation. There were at least ten galleries exclusively devoted to glass. All the art, however, wasn’t inanimate; there was kinetic art in constant motion, trump l'oeil, and some of it walking on two feet!

 

A huge multi-media light installation using hundreds of found electronic components makes a impressive welcome to the fair 

 

Last month, I visited Art Basel Miami, showing you the ridiculous and the monstrous. Today, at ArtPalmBeach there was ample kitsch to bitch about, but there also was some pleasing art… I am now stepping into deep water, as it is easier to criticize than to commit to what you like. Here are some of the items I found interesting and amusing.

 

Murano glass artist --- created these delightful glass sculptures in the tradition of Venini and all the other artisans who had cut their teeth in the Murano workshops

No self-respecting art or craft show is complete without showing some Dale Chihuly, the grandfather of American glass blowers, who has helped to put American glass artisans on top of the list 

I am crazy about birds and loved these graceful birds-in-flight -- glass wings on bronze stalks

   

More than one gallery was enchanted by Alexi Torres' spaghetti portraits

Multi-colored stripes always catch my attention - note the drips at the bottom of the canvas!

Provocative kitsch is always a crowd-stopper - note the repeat of my favorite stripes

I liked these highly polished steel twisted sheet - The Park Ryu Sook Gallery from Seoul was full of them

 

Twisted pretzel shapes were very popular in the sculpture category

Now you see it - now you don't!

A hologram painting starting with an elegant Victorian lady sitting politely in a chair - next you get a voyeurs view of her naked and finally there is only the chair

I really liked this concrete and steel arm chair by Vivian Beer

You can't quite see the elegance of this coffee table because of the highly reflective surface

by Timothy Schreiber

 

Vivian Beer's slick chaise is a great piece of sculpture, even if it's not very comfortable

If you can;t afford an original Wendell Caste, Timothy Schreiber's rocking chaise is a nice variation

The Wexler Gallery from Philadelphia was a newcomer to the show and the only exhibit with furniture

There is always a new way to create a piece of sculpture - these are done with bundles of twigs and pigmented clothe, held together with copper wire

Experimentation was rife at the show - these paintings are constructed of finely twisted news paper and other material

 

Secret revealed: the painter's tool is a brush! - A miniature trompe-l'oeil sculpture (over a dozen of these in full-size, lined the center island of Park Avenue last year)

My favorite piece at the show - a  repousse and bent copper sheet forms the head of a horse by Italian sculptor, Rafael Barrios at Galerie Rauchfeld - Paris

 
and finally, I promised you that some of the art was walking on two feet!!!

 

 

 

 

The Other Art Show

The Coliseum wasn’t the only show in town! On the Breaker’s lawn, (the posh Palm Beach hotel on the ocean) there was an equally extravagant exhibit: The Cavallino Concours d’Elegance - The Art of Ferrari. There are few modern cars more beautiful than the racy red and yellow showstoppers of Ferrari… created for the man and woman who has everything and needs a toy to tootle around in. These cars are sculpture in motion - the prices don’t differ too much form the sculpture offered at the Coliseum… give a hundred thousand dollars either way… I say, a much more satisfactory investment than overpaying millions at Sotheby’s or Christies for some oil paint on canvas.

 

Note: the matching luggage!

....and this is the one I would have loved to drive home!

 

 

A Mecca for Creative Thinkers

Food For Thought

 The Coudert Institute’s “Lunch & Learn”

Lecture Series

 

Copyright Vladimir Kagan, January 18, 2014

 

 "Today China" Professor Jerome Cohen's subject at the Coudert Institutes' Lecture and Learn series which was open to the public 

 

Dale Coudert is a powerhouse…. She has a vision and a mission: all she wants to do is change Palm Beach from a culture of glitterati and trivia into a haven for transforming minds. (Think: The Aspen Institute). Her non-profit Coudert Institute offers culture and intellect in a refined, intimate setting, whether in her glorious Addison Mizner garden, her eclectic living room, the glamorous Sail Fish Club, the Royal Poinciana Chapel or the meeting room of the Palm Beach Synagogue… It’s not the setting that matters; it’s the content.

 

This is Dale’s 10th year of providing culture to Palm Beach audiences… Her series started this past November and runs through March. I unfortunately missed the first two lectures. Upon arrival in Palm Beach, my first Coudert experience was an enchanting twilight concert in her garden presented by three gifted young performers playing a mixed program of classic and contemporary music. It was magical, watching the sun set and the moon rise, all the while listening to beautiful music.

 

A musical evening at the Coudert Institute 

Dale Coudert's beautiful Addison Mizner garden

Coudert Institute’s “Lunch & Learn” lecture series is open to the public. …This past Wednesday, I heard a brilliant presentation by Professor Jerome Cohen on “China Today”. Professor Cohen is the undisputed expert on East Asian Law; he was the director of East Asian Studies at Harvard Law School from 1964 – 1979 and is currently a professor at NYU and co-author of China Today.

 

Professor Jerome Cohen addressing the “Lunch & Learn” lecture series

Professor Cohen read the riot act to us. China is a Colossal that posses real present and future problems that cannot be ignored and worse of all, are mostly beyond our control. Scary stuff without redemption.

 

Professor Cohen's “to watch list”

 

TAIWAN – The mainland Chinese want it back and won’t give up till they get it. It’s a delicate balancing act… the present Taiwanese President, Ma Ying-Jeou, has sagaciously negotiated eighteen agreements with The People’s Republic of China. That is placating them… temporarily at least… But if push comes to shove… we’ll be square in the middle of it with our Taiwan Relations Act Commitment to defend Taiwan..

Taiwan presents a dilemma for the Mainland… it is often said that a Confucius society is not equipped to handle democracy…yet Taiwan is a vibrant democracy, functioning with a widely diverse political party system. This is a direct threat to China’s Capitalist Communism. Taiwan is an energetic free society that deserves more attention than the NY Times gives it.

 

CHINA vs. JAPAN both are belligerent proud nations that have a deep-rooted hatred toward each other. Stubborn Nationalism enflames the rhetoric between these two great powers… The dispute over a pile of five rocks sticking out of the East China Sea, someplace between the Mainland and Japan, is a flash-point that can erupt into gunfire at anytime if the two parties don’t back off… again, our defense commitments to Japan could drag us into an unwanted mess even though we claim to be neutral.

 

EAST CHINA SEA washes the shores of South Korea while the SOUTH CHINA SEA lies between the Philippines and the Mainland. Both South Korea and the Philippines are our allies and as a reward have defense treaties with us. China is encroaching on their territory, sea and air space and claiming strategic portions as their own… dangerous stuff.

 

NORTH KOREA (yuck) a possibly failing country with atomic bombs in the cellar and making maximum political use of them… they are as much China’s problem as ours… but they are strategically and historically in China’s orbit. Unfortunately our diplomatic policy toward them has been too rigid and narrowly-focused ever since President Clinton’s initiative at the end of his administration in 2000… a policy immediately discarded by Bush and then Obama… North Korea is an impoverished nation desperate for foreign investments, but lacks the savvy to attract it. We know that commerce is a door opener to better relationships.

 

AIR AND WATER POLLUTION – FOOD, MINERAL & WATER SHORTAGES – MINORITIES - GOVERNANCE all issues haunting the new Chinese regime… perhaps even too big for their new powerful leadership to solve. China has a population of 1,351 billion mouths to feed and govern… it is a vast, diverse country with severe problems with Tibetans and Uyghurs… its political structure is riddled with corruption, starting at the local and provincial level is and permeating upward through its society… too powerful and influential to wipe out. Current attempts are serious but limited, aimed mostly at the enemies of the current leaders. The entrenched upper middle-class, who are the beneficiaries of this corruption will not let go easily… if ever… Pollution will take generations to fix… food shortages are already apparent…

 

EXCLUSIVE ECONOMIC ZONE also know as EEZ a 200 mile protected area of limited national jurisdiction… this is intended to protect fishing rights, oil exploration and undefined other commercial rights – China interprets this as also excluding military aviation and naval reconnaisance without its permission, long a flash point with the USA. We are challenging them with continuing incursions since we believe the law of the sea supports our interpretation, as it appears to.

 

SOUTH CHINA SEA also washes the shores of Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia… all important to our political and economic interests… and then there is India… a behemoth ready to defend its interests against China, in  a region definitely warranting watching.

 

There is an institution called the International Court of Justice where disputes can be brought and judiciously settled, providing both disputants are willing to abide by its ruling. China doesn’t recognize the court's compulsory jurisdiction… but then again we haven’t signed onto it either… so it’s a feeble tool of justice.

 

Do you remember the debacle of a young blind man and people’s advocate being arrested and tortured in his back-woods farming community and then successfully making a dramatic escape and finally finding refuge in the American Embassy? (to the utter embarrassment of our Country and jeopardizing Hillary Clinton’s official visit to Beijing)  It became a “cause celeb” threatening vital relationships between our two countries… Whom did they turn to - to diffuse the crisis? Jerome Cohen, who cunningly Got Mr. Chen Guangcheng invited to NYU’s Law School and then legally squired him and his family out of China… Bravo Professor!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Obsolescence Game

Hello… can I use your phone?

Copyright Vladimir Kagan, January 7, 2014

 

 

The precursor to the smart phone

iPhones - the heir to the telegraph keyboard

 

What phone?

 

 “We don’t own one, we have a brand new telegraph machine. It sends messaged without using Morse code! It’s is a small pocket-sized gadget that lets you type words with two thumbs… It has taught our kids to write instead of chatting on the phone for hours. It’s a time-saver, everyone in this house owns one... we can stay in touch wherever we are!”

 

These gadgets are called Smart Phones! they go under the name of Samsung, Blackberry and IPhone. …They have changed the way we live.

If Darwin is right about evolution, future human mutants will be born with two thumbs and a pinky to hold these phones…

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This phenomenon has inspired me to create a shopping list of some of the items that have disappeared in my lifetime.

 

 

 

The Telephone None of you will remember when phones had to be cranked to ring the operator. The operator would answer and tell you, “Mrs. McIntosh is not at home but she’s have tea with Mrs. O’Brien”. Most of you, might remember the dial phone… It was a leisurely process of turning the dial with your index finger and patiently waiting for it to return to neutral. Then dial the next number. Clever hackers could “read” the phone number just by listening to the clicks. These phones bit the dust when AT&T introduced the Touch-tone phone fifty years ago; now, you could communicate fast as lightning just by pushing some buttons… Obsolete.

 

At&T's revolutionary Touch-tone phone introduced in 1970

 

Modern folks don’t use landlines anymore, they’ve switched to cell phones. You can see them everywhere bulging out of their hip pockets. – However, try to call your friend and ten-to-one, you’ll be connected to a message machine – text them and you’ll get an instant response.

 

        

The slide-rule - the modern alternative to the abacus
 

The Slide Ruler  it was my pride and joy; a delightful instrument… much smarter than my simple mathematical requirements… Its capability was akin to the mysterious Chinese abacus… these tools were available in desktop and pocket size. No architect or engineer could function without one.  I still own mine, though I have long since forgotten how to use it. This indispensable tool was replaced by the calculator; first as a large desktop model but soon shrunk to pocket size.

 

The Typewriter While in High School, I decided that I had to learn touch-typing and Gregg shorthand. I quickly forgot the shorthand, but the typing stayed with me forever… that is why I write so many Blogs today!

 

I still own my portable Olivetti, tucked away in a closet out of nostalgia

 
IBM's revolutionary Selectric typwriter with its rotating "golf ball"

The office typewriter was a huge clanking machine with ribbons that often tangled, smudged letters and ran out of ink at the most inconvenient time. Next came the electric typewriter, the most revolutionary one was the IBM Selectric introduced in 1961; a beautiful streamlined instrument designed by Eliot Noyes. It eliminated the moveable typebars that clanked noisily as it struck the ribbon to imprint each letter. At the end of each line you had to throw the rotating rubber cylinder to the next line… The combined sound was so rhythmic that Leroy Anderson composed his charming Typewriter Song. The Selectric was a radical change; it had a "typeball", known as the "golf ball" which rotated and pivoted to the correct position before striking. The Selectric replaced the traditional typewriter's moving carriage with a paper roller that stayed in position while the typeball moved from side to side. What could be more modern, more convenient? It captured 70% of the typewriter business in America. But nothing is forever. The computer trashed the Selectric. At first, a clumsy office machines but soon shrunk into laptops small enough to fit into your briefcase or pocket book. The hitch: you do need a printer to create a paper trail. This is where the going gets rough. The market is full of printers; the goal was to make them cheap and accessible. And this they did by practically giving it away, but getting you buy the ink… Cartridges run out frequently and cost almost as much as the printer!

 

The teletype printer of the Telex machine spat-out miles and miles of perforated paper ribbons

The Telex  When I was designing offices, one of the vital ingredients was the communication center…The Telex was the ticking heart of company. These machines were outrageously noisy and had to be relegated to insulated rooms. Their operators were the lowest members of the office staff. The bi-product was miles of tickertape, ready to throw out of windows for parades down Wall Street…  The silent fax machine replaced these clanking monstrosities.

 

 

A desktop mimiograph machine that the operator ground out by hand - sheet after sheet 

The Mimeograph  This was an indispensable office tool for grinding out multiple documents… It looked like a downsized version of a newspaper press. They bit the dust when Xerox came along with their office copiers.

The Xerox was intrduced in 1959 - this is a tabletop version from the 80's

The Camera has virtually disappeared: From the venerable Kodak Box to the fancy Olympus and Nikon to the pocket sized Sony, Pentaflex and Cannon; along with the giant film industry Kodak and Fuji … add to this the instant gratification Polaroid… gone is the local camera store…The Smart phone has pulverized an entire industry.

 

A Nikon SRL Camera  -  Nikon's pocket sized Coolpix  -  The must-have -  instant-print Polaroid

 

....Add to this list maps, dictionaries, thesaurus, encyclopedias, records, VCRs - record stores and movie rental shops!

 

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All this, thanks to Steve Jobs, (Apple’s mastermind) who decided that his iPhones and iPads could do the tasks of all these dinosaurs… and they do!