Category Archives: Art Gallery of Ontario

Mr. Schnabel

OK, I admit: I only knew him as the director of “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”, the movie that amazingly touches my heart each of the several times I have watched it.

Last week at the members’ preview night of his exhibition at the AGO, “Julian Schnabel: Art and Film”, I discovered Mr. Schnabel’s main source of artistry – his paintings and installations.

His massive canvases and independent style are absolutely fascinating – the dazzling colors and the clever choice of subject behind each piece perfectly appealed to my modern-art taste. I now have even more respect than I ever had for the one and only Julian Schnabel. His creative mind and narrative imagination are what I often desire for myself.

P.S. “Julian Schnabel: Art and Film” at the AGO will be on until January 2, 2011.

Drama, Desire, Dream, Et Cetera…

Culture called out loud to me this past weekend…

Drama & Desire. Yes. I hit the AGO again and this time, with the sole mission of visiting “Drama & Desire: Artists and the Theatre”, an exhibition that had been part of my agenda for the last few weeks. As in any other warm mid-July day, the hours flowed by and instead of just me and my sister — a recent AGO member (wink) — going to see the new exhibit, we decided to guide our loved ones who were new to the gallery and to show them the new Gehry extension as well as the permanent collections. So, really, in the end, we had only thirty short minutes to see what we initially went there for, and it was hardly enough. It was truly unlike any other show for me, featuring artwork by some of the world’s greatest – my love, Degas – inspired by the theatre in England and France in the 19th century. We also missed the live performers on stage, which is apparently part of this whole show. Long story short, Drama & Desire remains open on my agenda — to be continued!

Inception. The beautiful artworks mentioned above was followed by the “Inception”, the latest movie by the great Mr. Nolan and starring Mr. D. and lovely Marion. Dreaming in a dream when another dream is also a dream in your old dream when the dream was not even a dream. Yes, it’s as confusing as it sounds and makes your mind explode to the point that after an hour, you still have no clue what is (was?) going on. A thought-provoking movie that warrants lots of debate and discussion post-viewing. I liked it. A lot.

I Am Love. Clearly this weekend, I decided to get inspired by theatres and distract myself from the unnecessary. So after only a few hours of sleep and more raw fish in the form of sushi, I found myself in the darkness of a cold room (again!), watching the lovely Italian movie “Io sono l’amore” starring the stunning Tilda Swinton, the epitome of cool acting and style. The storyline wasn’t anything new. “Partir” could easily be the French version of this not-an-everyday love story, which tries to stress the power of love to its audience.

All these activities were accompanied by sleep deprivation, and all the rest.

Yawn.

AGO and Proust’s Questionnaire

Nothing can beat a family date at art galleries…

Last Friday, I took my parents to the Art Gallery of Ontario, which has been glorified relatively recently by the hands of Frank Gehry, a creative mind who, according to the kind-hearted security guard, was once living a couple of blocks down the road.

I’m not an artist myself, but I can confidently call myself an art lover. I’ve been visiting hundreds and hundreds of art exhibitions around the world and each time — rambling in the high-ceiled hallways, where the collective gaze of all people is pinned to pieces from centuries ago or equally so to art nouveau — tells me beautiful tales from past times, satisfies my soul like no other, and often makes me sigh, what if I could create such beauties with my own mind.

This reminds me of a small gathering we had a few weeks ago at my friends’. After going through a decent number of wine bottles, we all decided to take the Proust questionnaire. The only think I remember is when a friend was asked: If not yourself, who would you be? His short and sweet answer of “someone more creative” never came back until a few days ago visiting the loveliness of “Sculpture As Time”, the stunning exhibit of Keifer’s Palmsonntag, and Warhol’s old black and white Liz Taylor portrait. I don’t exactly recall what my response was then, but if I take Mr. P’s quiz again, it would be something quite similar. To innovate something tangible from an idea coming out of my own imagination. Something that even in my absence attracts many eyes and moves many hearts.