Movie Review: Vicky Christina Barcelona

Vicky Christina Barcelona is a charming and fanciful tale. A fantasy for all of those that dream of a romantic Europe. The story takes place against the backdrop of one of Europe’s most beautiful cities, Barcelona. The two main characters, Vicky and Christina decide to spend a summer in Barcelona. A summer that is going pleasantly well, becomes much more exciting and sexual when Juan Antonio Gonzales, an artist who paints as well as he charms, enters the scene. He convinces the girls to runaway with him for a weekend and from there the sexually, romantic, artsy tale takes flight. Constant wine drinking, bike riding, kisses, art, conversations about love, painting, and photography left me glued to the screen, swooning all the while imagining myself as a character.

About halfway through the movie, Penelope Cruz reemerges in yet another successfully romantic role. I am a fan of all of the roles that she plays and as Juan Antonio’s suicidal ex lover, she does not disappoint. She brings a gorgeous and deeply romantic touch to the movie. As a hopeless lover and obvious tortured soul, she adds drama.

With quotes such as “Love is transient” and “Only unfulfilled loved, can be romantic”, this movie left me fantasizing about my upcoming European travels, and even left me missing a certain someone who represented Juan Antonio in my life. The movie serves as a great influence of artistic creations, as I was left writing poetry immediately after.

Woody Allen, of whose films I am not an aficionado, does an excellent job making a believable story out of this girl’s European fantasy. Vicky Christina Barcelona is not only a must see, but it is a movie that all lovers of great films should own.

Lower East Side’s Hidden Gem

Two weeks ago I received a private invite to the Woodward Gallery in Manhatten’s Lower East Side. When I got off the D train at Grand Street I was pretty sure that I was in Chinatown and just knew that I was walking the wrong way. With my iPhone/GPS in hand I start following the directions, reluctantly. Looking at the numbers on the building, I should’ve been very close, but looking at the buildings I felt I was far from my destination and while my shoes were cute, my feet were aching. Suddenly I look up and spot a red flag on the building that read “Woodward Gallery”. I had arrived.

Once inside, I was amazed by the simple beauty of the space. The featured exhibit was “Margaret Morrison: Larger Than Life”, an exhibit of oil paintings of your favorite childhood candy. Think gummy worms, gumballs, wax lips and ring pops! The theme of the event was “Candy and Champagne” and I filled up on both. I was given a ring pop and told that I had to wear it on my finger until I left.

Shortly after I spotted my friends, a man walked up and introduced himself as John Woodward (who just so happens to be the Director/Co owner of the gallery). I was taken aback by his humility and explained briefly that I was drawn to the gallery after seeing that they had Jean-Michel Basquiat (my favorite artist of all time) and Andy Warhol originals, which are hard to view unless they are on tour. After I explained my love for Basquiat, he proceeded to tell me how he was good friends with both artists. I was floored. So we chatted and he shared stories about Warhol and Basquiat. Imagine my amazement.

Kristine Woodward, John’s wife, and Owner/Vice-President of the gallery, and an amazingly nice woman,  took a small group of us on a tour of the vault, which is a sub level, temperature controlled room where they hold loads of original paintings by some of America’s most famous artists. Of course I asked to see Basquiat and Warhol originals and we also saw the first LOVE, that Robert Indiana painted.

Overall the Woodward Gallery is one of the best that NYC has to offer. The humility of the Woodwards was inspiring and the collection is one that you can only find in this hidden gem.  So if you are lucky enough to get invited to a private event or can get an appointment for a tour, I highly recommend it. And if you can actually afford one of the pieces, feel free to add a Basquiat to your tab for me!

http://www.woodwardgallery.net/

Define Great Art

A couple of weeks ago a friend and I got into a late night discussion on art. We discussed how good art is determined and who determines it, if it is even possible. Let’s just say this conversation, after midnight, with a few glasses of wine and white Russians in us, turned out to be an incredible clash of ideas, from two people who agreed to disagree.

From my perspective, as an artist and lover of art, no one can define what great art is because art is at times abstract and often times does not lead to a general concensus of whether it is great or not. Art is generally created based on deep emotional drivers. Poets, painters, photographers, etc create their crafts by channeling their emotions into tangible manifestations of expression. So who is the curator at MoMa to determine whether or not someone’s depression driven painting looks like a piece of shit.

Both my friend and I brought up examples to prove our points. My example was the artwork of Jean Michel Basquiat. Basquiat is a Brooklyn-born, Haitian American painter who most prominent works were created in the 1980s. Many people may look at his work and think a child created it or think that it is not pleasing to look at. I would respectfully disagree as he is my favorite artist for more reasons than one. My point is that Andy Warhol, who was already famous, took Basquiat under his wing, in a sense, and helped to propel him onto the mainstream art scene. So I wonder had Basquiat not been in the right place at the right time to meet Andy Warhol, would his art still be considered great now or would he just have continued on as a graffitti artist on the streets of NYC? Who knows.

The fact of the matter is that there are tons of artists whose crafts are always looked over, not because their work is not great but because they have yet to be in the right place at the right time and meet a curator that will propel them into the international art scene.

I believe that artists are born and their craft may be tweeked by some technical training but they were born with a gift, a gift that no fancy education can match.