Fitness

The arches leading to the fitness center are so pretty I am tempted to start exercising.

Nah!

Keith Haring

 

The artist Keith Haring was inspired byAndy Warhol and first met him in 1984.

These four Haring screenprints from 1986 are collectively titled Andy Mouse.  Haring thought Warhol had become iconic in the same way that Mickey Mouse had.  

(Hope you got your tax returns filed by today!)

Andy Warhol III

 More from Bank of America's works by Andy Warhol at Baker Museum.

Grapes, 1979.  These were done at a time Warhol also designed some wine labels.

Space Fruit:  Still Lives, 1979.  (OK, I forget . . . )

Mount Vesuvius, 1985.  For centuries the volcano Vesuvius has been a symbol of the precarious relationship between man and nature on earth.  Warhol based these prints on a painting from around 1800  by Camillo De Vito, Eruzione del Vesuvio.  

Andy Warhol II

 Continuing with the Warhol exhibition at the Baker Museum, featuring works from the Bank of America collection.

This 1980 portfolio of Flowers screenprints is based on a photograph of four hibiscus flowers Warhol saw in a magazine.  Warhol uses the four flowers over and over, in different color combinations.

My favorite Warhol portfolio in the exhibition was Endangered Species, from 1983.  Clockwise from top left: Orangutan, Bald Eagle, Black Rhinoceros, Siberian Tiger, Pine Barrens Tree Frog, Bighorn Ram, African Elephant, Giant Panda, San Francisco Silverspot and Grevy's Zebra.

"I never met an animal I didn't like." —Andy Warhol

His interest in the animal world and nature was underscored in his will, in which Warhol specified that some money from his estate be used for environmental conservation.

Myths, 1981.  Superman, Mickey Mouse, Uncle Sam, The Star, Howdy Doody, Mammy, Santa Claus, The Shadow, The Witch, Dracula.

Andy Warhol I

 The Baker Museum just opened an exhibition of works by Andy Warhol.  Many of the works are on loan from Bank of America's collection.

Warhol became well known for his large silkscreens of Campbell Soup cans.

A tour and lecture about the Warhol exhibition were taking place while I was there.  (I didn't take the tour.)

An excellent series in the Bank of America collection is Warhol's Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century, 1980.   Clockwise from top left: Franz Kafka, Gertrude Stein, Martin Buber, Albert Einstein, Louis Brandeis, Sigmund Freud, Sarah Bernhardt, Golda Meir, The Marx Brothers and George Gershwin.  

See how Gershwin keeps popping up?

George Gershwin

 During Artis Naples' celebration of the 100th anniversary of the debut of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue in 1924, Baker Museum is exhibiting paintings by Gershwin, pieces from Gershwin's own art collection, and works depicting Gershwin.

The composer Arnold Schoenberg was a friend, neighbor and tennis partner of Gershwin.  On the right is Gershwin's portrait of Schoenberg, who also painted as a hobby.  On the left is a posed photograph of Gershwin with his portrait of Schoenberg.  He wasn't really painting at that time . . .  in the photograph the portrait is already framed and Gershwin would have worn white smocks when he painted.

The noted sculptor Isamu Noguchi sculpted Gershwin's head in bronze.  The photograph to the left of the head shows Gershwin with Noguchi's sculpture on a stand beside him.

Andy Warhol created portraits of Gershwin decades after Gershwin's death. 

 

A painting by Italian painter and scultptor Amedeo Modigliani was in Gershwin's personal collection

Amy Stauffer

The Englishman is a fine art gallery on Fifth Avenue South.  Several works by Amy Stauffer are exhibited.  She uses her interest and knowledge of African animals in her art.

Stauffer's remarkable works are "scratchboards."  She coats a masonite board with white kaolin, which is carefully sanded before applying a coat of black India ink.  The artist then carefully scratches into the ink layer, using a variety of tools.  The result is photographic in its sharpness and detail.  

Beautiful!  Stunning!  I can find space for the zebra . . .