Princeton-based architects Farewell Mills Gatsch have nearly finished restoration of the famed Louis Kahn Trenton Bath House, first opened in 1955. And, yes, it will continue to serve as a bath house. The Garden State Historic Preservation Turst Fund and Mercer County Open Space have contributed funding toward this architectural gem. In anticipation of a July re-opening, I remembered a tour I took several years ago, when its continuity was in question. Here’s what I wrote five years ago:
When thinking of Louis Kahn - one of the most important architects of the 20th century - we often picture (more…)
Whenever I ask, what can I do to help our planet? How can my skills be put to use to help clean the oil in the Gulf? My sons say the best thing I can do is to live more simply, consume less oil. Take shorter showers. My younger son, the astrophysicist, says the most energy efficient way to live is in an urban high rise, watching TV and playing video games all day — consumes very little energy.
He also believes creating artwork creates more waste. Now you have (more…)
On one wall of Kuen Liao’s West Windsor home is a painting of a woman and a boy in the courtyard of an Asian farmhouse, with chickens pecking in the foreground. Mr. Liao painted this scene from memory, and the youngish looking woman is actually the boy’s grandmother.
“It’s a hot area,” says Mr. Liao, 80, who left Taiwan in 1978 with four of his five children and his wife, Shu. (Their oldest daughter (more…)
Yesterday I received an announcement about the Peoples’ Biennial at the Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, Haverford College. “People’s Biennial will feature artists who haven’t had significant exposure, or who may not even consider themselves part of the art world,” according to the Peoples’ Biennial website. “Children’s science fair projects, mathematicians’ notebooks, painted window displays, collections of all kinds-by presenting the work of local artists who would not typically show in a gallery or museum, People’s Biennial explores the (more…)
Hopewell artist Patricia Lange loves an adventure, and she loves to experiment. A believer in the happy accident, she recently visited the desert of her native Chile, and was inspired by the terra cotta terrain to create a new series of ceramic friezes. Terra cotta clay is actually very fragile, so she used stoneware with a terra cotta slip glaze.
The result is a sort of painting in clay, and can be seen at the Artists’ Gallery in Lambertville through July 4. Each of the nonfunctional ceramic works hangs on the wall, each rich with pattern and texture, using these (more…)
Last week, while visiting the Princeton University Art Museum to write about the Pictures of Pictures exhibit curated by Joel Smith, I ran into Lucy Graves McVicker. (Read more about her here.) Not only is she an extraordinary artist, but she is a docent at the museum and paid me the highest compliment by suggesting that I, too, become a docent. “You have an ‘eye,’” she said. Me blushing.
As well as being an admirer of hers for more than two decades, I also took watercolor classes with Ms. McVicker, both at Princeton Adult School and privately. Way way back, Ms. McVicker was experimenting with the medium, using it in ways I’d never seen any other watercolorist do, and combining it with other media. This coming weekend, she’s inviting us into her laboratory. She will give a demonstration of watercolor with rice paper collage (such as her “Ancient History” pictured here) June 12, 12:30 p.m., in the empty store next to Ace Hardware at the Princeton Shopping Center.
That’s where the Garden State Watercolor Society is having its art sale through June 27. Additional demonstrations will be given by Norma Griffith, Maxwell Nimeck, Fran Franklin and Suzanne Hunt. Hours for the exhibitions are Thurs. noon-8 p.m. and Fri. through Sun. noon-5 p.m. Artist demonstrations will occur each Saturday afternoon, with a drawing for the artists’ demo paintings.
Three years ago, when Warren Jeffs was jailed for being an accomplice to rape in arranging polygamous marriages between under-age girls and older men, I was fascinated by the hand-sewn 19th-century clothing the women at the Yearning for Zion Ranch in West Texas wore. These were magnificent dresses, yet I couldn’t help thinking that, like burqas or chadors or babushkas, they have a way of keeping women in captivity.
At the Hunterdon Museum of Art and the nearby Red Mill Museum, Katherine Mangiardi’s two-part exhibit, Reflected Absence, reminds me of how a woman’s garb affects her role.
At the Red Mill, Mangiardi has chosen a room that displays artifacts associated with 19th century “women’s work,” especially spinning and weaving. Inspired by objects in the Red Mill’s extensive collection of clothing and textiles, the artist has constructed a series of women’s bonnets and two dresses, combining new and vintage fabrics with (more…)
We’re mourning the death of sculptor Louise Bourgeois, who this week died at the age of 98. Here’s what I wrote about her a few years ago, on the occasion of an exhibit at the Fabric Museum and Workshop in Philadelphia:
In Hans Christian Andersen’s tale “The Real Princess,” the girl who comes knocking one stormy night can, in her delicacy, feel a small pea beneath 20 mattresses on which she sleeps. In sculptor Louise Bourgeois’ 1947 parable She Lost It the pea is the size the female character is reduced to in the end.
Here’s the parable in its entirety: “A man and a woman lived together. One evening he did not come back (more…)
If you went to college in the 1970s, chances are his posters lined your dormitory walls. If you owned the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine, you absorbed his rendering of the flared bell bottoms of the Fab Four, the blue and red stripes of Ringo’s jacket, the Blue Meanies’ hand.
Peter Max was one of the great psychedelic artists, and he’ll be making a live appearance at an exhibit of his work at MarketFair June 6.
With hundreds of museums and gallery exhibits worldwide, “Peter Max and his vibrant colors have become part of the fabric of contemporary culture,” according to his publicity materials. “Max has been successively called a Pop Icon, Neo Fauvist, Abstract Expressionist and the United State’s ‘Painter Laureate.’” On view will be his American flag series, Obama portraits, a polka dotted Statue of Liberty, “Umbrella Man” and the 10 cent stamp, “Preserve the Environment.” (more…)
Princeton-based architects Farewell Mills Gatsch have nearly finished restoration of the famed Louis Kahn Trenton Bath House, first opened in 1955. And, yes, it will continue to serve as a bath house. The Garden State Historic Preservation Turst Fund and Mercer County Open Space have contributed funding toward this architectural gem. In anticipation of a July re-opening, I remembered a tour I took several years ago, when its continuity was in question. Here’s what I wrote five years ago:
Whenever I ask, what can I do to help our planet? How can my skills be put to use to help clean the oil in the Gulf? My sons say the best thing I can do is to live more simply, consume less oil. Take shorter showers. My younger son, the astrophysicist, says the most energy efficient way to live is in an urban high rise, watching TV and playing video games all day — consumes very little energy.
On one wall of Kuen Liao’s West Windsor home is a painting of a woman and a boy in the courtyard of an Asian farmhouse, with chickens pecking in the foreground. Mr. Liao painted this scene from memory, and the youngish looking woman is actually the boy’s grandmother.
Yesterday I received an announcement about the Peoples’ Biennial at the Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, Haverford College. “People’s Biennial will feature artists who haven’t had significant exposure, or who may not even consider themselves part of the art world,” according to the 
Last week, while visiting the Princeton University Art Museum to write about the Pictures of Pictures exhibit curated by Joel Smith, I ran into Lucy Graves McVicker. (Read more about her 
Three years ago, when Warren Jeffs was jailed for being an accomplice to rape in arranging polygamous marriages between under-age girls and older men, I was fascinated by the hand-sewn 19th-century clothing the women at the Yearning for Zion Ranch in West Texas wore. These were magnificent dresses, yet I couldn’t help thinking that, like burqas or chadors or babushkas, they have a way of keeping women in captivity.
We’re mourning the death of sculptor Louise Bourgeois, who this week died at the age of 98. Here’s what I wrote about her a few years ago, on the occasion of an exhibit at the Fabric Museum and Workshop in Philadelphia:
If you went to college in the 1970s, chances are his posters lined your dormitory walls. If you owned the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine, you absorbed his rendering of the flared bell bottoms of the Fab Four, the blue and red stripes of Ringo’s jacket, the Blue Meanies’ hand.