Chelsea Gallerista

"Picasso wanted everything, Morandi wanted nothing. I'm somewhere between the two." Milton Glaser (left) with distinguished designer Ralph Caplan. Milton Glaser, Designer of ‘I ♥ NY’ is dead at 91. With the typically minimal cushioning reserved for obituarial headlines, the New York Times announced that yet another titan of our creative class has passed. I was fortunate to meet the magnificent Milton in the later years of his life, when he launched his last book one evening at the School of Visual Arts here in Chelsea, NYC.  +++  WHEN I spotted a tweet "Milton Glaser talk at the SVA, first-come first-served" I immediately set my alarm to arrive an hour ahead and cancelled all appointments. "There'll be stampede for this!" I tweeted out to whoever might care. There was no way I was going to miss a personal appearance by America's greatest graphic designer. Glaser's kinetic sculpture that adorns the SVA awning on 23rd Street. "Th...

Watch the video "Sometimes I think Yayoi Kusama might be the greatest artist to come out of the 1960s and one of the few, thanks in part to her long life, still making work that feels of the moment. Other times I think she’s a bit of a charlatan who produces more Kusama paintings than the world needs and stoops to conquer with mirrored “Infinity” rooms that attract hordes of selfie-seekers oblivious to her efforts on canvas."   Roberta Smith I had to open with this pithy POV re the World's Most Expensive Living Female Artist (as of last week; this week it might be  Jenny Saville ) - by New York Times art critic Roberta Smith. She's not the only one who vacillates... "Kusama is like Lion King," yawned a friend. "So much hype."  I admit to concurring, especially after witnessing first hand what some diehard purists would consider sacrilege: the iconic Phillip Johnson Glasshouse bedecked with Kusama's signature measles: That's...

Were you a Britannica kid, or a World Book kid? Who didn't love "Return of the Hunters" by Peter Breughel the Elder (lower right)?  I was definitely a WBK. With its glossy paper, very readable text and lots of images, World Book Encyclopedia was my school outside of school. Now and then I'd open a volume of Encyclopedia Britannica in the school library, but quickly close it;  its dense, scholarly text on bible-thin paper, law-book leathery binding and scant illustrations seemed to be talking to a different kid - one who was a lot smarter and didn't need coloredpictures. This is the World Book volume I pulled off the shelf most often - the P volume: I can safely say my obsession with art comes from the PAINTING section in this volume, pages 26 to 77. I'd flip back and forth through this section for hours, poring over the images, reveling in the captions. Years later, on visiting MOMA, there they were, these iconic paintings hanging larger-than-li...