Plum Viewing
Welcome to the latest edition of Plum Viewing, my weekly roundup of arts and culture to enjoy online.
Hello lovely readers. Let me start by sharing news of a project I am particularly excited about and one I think (hope) will be of interest to you as well.
For the past couple of months, I have had the pleasure of collaborating with Partial, an online gallery for Canadian artists. Featuring over 500 artists from across Canada, our simple goal is: more art on more walls (and, my god, have I achieved this goal!).
Yesterday we launched an art sommelier service, an online consultancy where you can work with a curator at Partial to help you find a piece of Canadian art that’s perfect for you. Needless to say, this is my idea of heaven!
Please consider trying this great service (it’s free!!) and sharing with your friends. And, of course, feel free to contact me directly for more information.
We’ll be launching virtual artist studio tours and our own version of “Cocktails with the Curator” soon as well. Stay tuned and for now, happy art browsing!!
And, in the spirit of art, this week’s picks are all art themed because truly we can never have too much art. To quote Leonora Carrington, “Art is a magic which makes the hours melt away and even days dissolve into seconds.”
So with that, let’s lose ourselves in art with these picks….
Up first, a narrated stroll through London’s National Gallery. Here, we join two of Ireland’s finest actors, Dearbhla Molloy and Dermot Crowley, to rediscover the Museum’s masterpieces from Van Gogh and Van Eyck, to Rubens and Gainsborough. Our hosts offer a fresh take on each of the painting’s subjects through poetic stories from renowned Irish poet Paul Durcan. We can thank the lovely people at the Irish Rep for this experience. Reserve your ticket here.
Both New York’s Whitney Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Art are hosting exhibitions to honour Jasper Johns, who at the ripe old age of 91 is still going strong.
An acclaimed artist since the 1950s, Johns has produced paintings, prints and sculptures, and of course, he is best-known for his depiction of ordinary items like flags and maps, which through his skillful work, become anything but ordinary.
It’s hard to articulate just how important Johns was to the art scene in New York and the enormity of his impact then and today. Over the course of his career, he collaborated with an array of other artists, including choreographer Merce Cunningham and helped usher in the Pop Art era. Johns remains a leader in the art world. Truly a life well lived indeed.
If you’re interested in learning more about Jasper Johns (and honestly, why wouldn’t you!), check out this bio in The Art Story or watch this wonderful video where you can see and hear the great one himself in conversion at the Brooklyn Central Library, Dweck Center.
Closer to home (for those of us in Canada at least), let’s visit the wonderful National Gallery of Canada and meet the artists on this year’s Sobey Art Award Shortlist.
Created by the Sobey Art Foundation in 2002, the Sobey Art Award is an annual prize given to emerging artists of any age. The mandate: “to stimulate interest, discussion and debate regarding contemporary Canadian art and to shine a spotlight on the creative minds across this country whose energies and passions are devoted to creating that art.”
The five artists shortlisted this year, each from five distinct regions of Canada, use everything from film and performance to painting, installation and photography to help us see our country differently. We can meet them all here and experience their work for ourselves.
By way of background, the Sobey Art Foundation was established in 1981 with the mandate to support and invest in Canadian art. Sobey, of course, to us Canadians, is most familiar as the grocery chain but its founder Frank Sobey, was a dedicated collector and supporter of Canadian Art. In fact, for anyone headed out east (and after last week’s tour through the The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia we should all be booking our tickets!), we can add Crombie House to our list of places to go. The former home of Frank Sobey and his wife Irene, it houses one of the finest private collections of Canadian art, including Cornelius Krieghoff, Tom Thomson J.E.H. MacDonald and David Milne. Tours can be booked year-round here.
And, to end, here is a soundtrack for tonight’s cocktail — it is Friday, after all. Jazz at Lincoln Center is bringing us “In the Spirit of Swing” playlist, a blend of classic and cutting-edge jazz featuring “Someday” by Hiromi as well as new music from Nicholas Payton, Orquesta Akokán, and more. We can listen here.
And, if you’re looking for cocktail suggestions, long-time readers will know that I am partial to the tequila gimlet; while Mr. Fairs is old school with his gin martini (and unlike Mr. Bond, his is stirred, not shaken as one mustn’t bruise the gin!)
Ok, that’s it. See you next week!
And, an ask: While we’re enjoying these wonderful performances, let’s remember that for the arts organizations producing this incredible content, this is their livelihood; not a hobby. If we can, now is our time to continue to support our incredible arts community!
And, if you’d like to receive Plum Viewing weekly, send me a note at maggiefairs@gmail.com and I will add you to my mailing list.