Tag Archives: The Met

Art

Mandalas- Buddhist Art Of Tibet Coming To The Met

September 5, 2024 The Silo 1 Comment

A mandala is a diagram of the universe—a map of true reality that in Tibet is used to conceptualize a rapid path to enlightenment.

September 19, 2024–January 12, 2025

Upcoming at The Met Fifth Avenue in Galleries 963–965

This exhibition explores the imagery of the Himalayan Buddhist devotional art through over 100 paintings, sculptures, textiles, instruments, and an array of ritual objects, mostly dating between the 12th and 15th centuries.

“Tibetan Dharma drum, one of the eight dharma instruments of Tibetan Buddhism, is one of the dharma instruments in Tibetan Buddhism. There are many kinds of dharma instruments, such as big drum, bronze drum, waist drum, crank drum, jie drum and gapala drum. Mainly used in buddhist celebrations, religious festivals, living Buddha sitting on the bed, kaiguang ceremony and other major festive activities. The drum hammer of a crank drum is bent, like a bow.

The drum is about one meter in diameter. When chanting, the lama holds the drum handle in his left hand and hits the accompaniment with a crank drum hammer in his right hand. Kala drum, also known as “zama ru” in Tibetan, is made of wood, ivory and human skulls. The falbala is played with the diamond bell.” rugrabbit.com

This dazzling visual experience provides a roadmap for understanding Himalayan Buddhist worship through early masterworks, juxtaposed with a newly commissioned contemporary installation by Tibetan artist Tenzing Rigdol.

From emmanuelgallery.org- “Tenzing Rigdol’s imposing buddha silhouettes greet the viewer in their recognizable cross-legged seated positions—a posture often associated with meditation and peace—and with a stunning visual effect enhanced by the use of silks and fire imagery. The work brings vivid colors and interesting patterns to the eye, but the fires seemingly emerging from the bodies of the buddhas are also direct acknowledgements of the 155 Tibetans who have self-immolated since February 27, 2009.

In an ultimate act of sacrifice, these Tibetans set themselves on fire with the hope of bringing attention to the oppression currently faced by their society under the laws of the Chinese government. And yet, the buddhas seem peaceful, even welcoming in their balanced postures, their calming presences perfectly harmonized by an artist well-versed in representing both destruction and construction.

The contradictions on display are meant to challenge the viewer. They are simultaneously safe and subversive: beautiful to look at, devastating to comprehend. They are emblematic of this ambitious imagery created by Tenzing Rigdol, a Tibetan artist who has never set foot in Tibet.”

The Met exhibition is made possible by the Placido Arango Fund and Lilly Endowment Inc.

Additional support is provided by the Florence and Herbert Irving Fund for Asian Art Exhibitions and the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation.

Art

Mid Century Native American Artist Mary Sully At The Met

July 10, 2024 The Silo Leave a comment

(New York, July, 2024)—This summer, The Metropolitan Museum of Art will present the exhibition Mary Sully: Native Modern, opening July 18, 2024. Born Susan Mabel Deloria on the Standing Rock Reservation in South Dakota, Mary Sully (1896–1963) was a little-known, reclusive Yankton Dakota artist who, between the 1920s and 1940s, produced highly distinctive work informed by her Native American and settler ancestry. The exhibition is part of The American Wing at 100, a series of gallery reinstallations and exhibitions marking the wing’s 2024 centennial.

Image: Mary Sully (Dakota, 1896–1963). Alice (detail), ca. 1920s–40s. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Morris K. Jesup Fund and funds from various donors, 2023

The exhibition is made possible by the Barrie A. and Deedee Wigmore Foundation.

“This compelling exhibition celebrates how Mary Sully’s cultural sensibilities influenced her unconventional body of work,” said Max Hollein, The Met’s Marina Kellen French Director and Chief Executive Officer. “Sully translated her life and experiences into a unique graphic language, culminating in an intensely creative perspective from which to consider Indigenous cultures and imagery.”

This first solo exhibition of Sully’s groundbreaking production highlights recent Met acquisitions and loans from the Mary Sully Foundation, works that call into question traditional notions of Native American and modern art.

The Met Fifth Avenue. 82nd Street New York, NY, 10028

Working without patronage, in near obscurity, and largely self-taught, Sully produced approximately 200 intricately designed and vividly colored drawings in colored pencil, graphite, and ink on paper that captured meaningful aspects of her Dakota community mixed with visual elements observed from other Native nations and the aesthetics of urban life. Euro-American celebrities from popular culture, politics, and religion inspired some of her most striking works, which she called “personality prints”—abstract portraits arranged as vertical triptychs.

Panel from Titled Husbands in the USA by Mary Sully (1896–1963), 1927–1945. Colored pencil on paper, 12 7/8 by 18 inches. None of Sully’s pieces are dated, but it is estimated that they were all created between 1927 and 1945. Except as noted, all objects illustrated are in the collection of Philip J. Deloria. via themagazineantiques.com

Featuring 25 rarely seen Sully compositions—primarily her “personality prints”—as well as archival family material and other Native American items from The Met collection, the exhibition offers a fresh and nuanced lens through which to consider American art and life in the early 20th century.

Sylvia Yount, Lawrence A. Fleischman Curator in Charge of the American Wing, said: “We’re thrilled to present Mary Sully: Native Modern as a special feature of the department’s 100th anniversary in 2024. Born of particular Native and Euro-American cultural entanglements, Sully’s work is highly relevant and resonant for the American Wing, The Met’s historic department of a broadly defined American art by diverse makers, with a deepening concentration of work by women and artists of color.”

Portion of Mary Sully’s The Indian Church (around 1938-45)Collection of Philip J. Deloria

Bottom of Sully’s The Indian Church (c. 1938-45)© Collection of Philip J. Deloria via theartnewspaper.com

About Mary Sully

As a great-granddaughter of the successful 19th-century portraitist Thomas Sully (1783–1872), Susan Deloria expressly adopted the name of her mother, Mary Sully (1858–1916), daughter of Alfred Sully (1820–1879) and the Dakota woman Susan Pehandutawin (dates unknown), an artist in her own right. Deloria grew up in a distinguished family of Dakota leaders. Her sister Ella Cara Deloria (1889–1971), with whom she primarily lived, was a linguistic ethnographer trained by the esteemed Columbia University anthropologist Franz Boas. Her nephew, Vine Deloria, Jr. (1933–2005), was an author, theologian, historian, and activist for Native American rights. And her great-nephew, historian Philip J. Deloria, is the author of Becoming Mary Sully: Toward an American Indian Abstract (University of Washington Press, 2019), the only scholarly investigation of her art and life.

Credits and Related Content

Mary Sully: Native Modern is curated by Patricia Marroquin Norby (P’urhépecha), Associate Curator of Native American Art, and Sylvia Yount, Lawrence A. Fleischman Curator in Charge of the American Wing.

The exhibition is conceived in partnership with the Mary Sully Foundation and the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

Featured image– Mary Sully, “Good Friday” From Philip J. Deloria, “Becoming Mary Sully; Toward an American Indian abstract” (Seattle, University of Washington Press: 2019) ISBN 978-0-295-74504-6. Courtesy University of Washington Press.

Art

The Met Roof Garden Commission-Petrit Halilaj

April 30, 2024 The Silo Leave a comment

Abetare Petrit Halilaj (born Kosovo, 1986) is known for immersive installations that express a desire to alter the course of personal and collective histories, creating complex artistic worlds that claim space for freedom, intimacy, and identity. Halilaj was inspired by children’s doodles, drawings, and scribblings found on desks at the school he attended in Runik, Kosovo.

For The Met commission, he expanded his research to other schools in Albania and countries from the former Yugoslavia, which are now undergoing significant cultural and sociopolitical change. Furtive drawings from kids’ desks have been enlarged into three-dimensional metal sculptures, each retaining the trace of the original. Together, they bring to public view the collective memory and imaginative power of generations of students whose lives were marked by traumatic conflicts and territorial divisions.

Kosovo experienced the last of a series of wars in the Balkan region in the 1990s, during which many children were denied access to education on ideological grounds. Abetare borrows its title from the book the artist and his peers used to learn the alphabet at school, each letter linked to a lesson in pictures and text. In Abetare, culturally specific references to different political ideologies, religions, and local heroes coexist with more universal symbols and playful nods to pop culture, art history, and sports.

Spread around The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden, the “drawings in space” merge with the surrounding architecture and landscape to create a multi vocal scenography with an open-ended narrative. A celebration of the shared impulse for personal expression and mark making, Abetare is an opportunity for discovery and an invitation to expand our capacity to imagine transformative futures. For the Silo, Alexandra Kozlakowski.

#CantorRoof #MetPetritHalilaj Exhibition Dates: running now until–October 27,2024 Exhibition Location: The Met Fifth Avenue The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden, Gallery 926

Art

The Met Acquires Monumental Tiffany Window

December 5, 2023 The Silo Leave a comment

(New York, December, 2023)—The Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced the acquisition of a monumental Tiffany three-part window, Garden Landscape. The window—over ten feet wide and nearly seven feet tall—was designed by Agnes Northrop in the studios of Louis Comfort Tiffany, the attribution of which is based on a signed design drawing for the center panel that resides in The Met collection.

As part of the Museum’s American Wing 100th anniversary, the window will be installed in the Charles Engelhard Court in November 2024. The window will be dramatically framed by the columns from Laurelton Hall, Tiffany’s Long Island country estate.

The acquisition is made possible by Alan Gerry Gift; 2023 Benefit Fund; Louis V. Bell, Harris Brisbane Dick, Fletcher, and Rogers Funds and Joseph Pulitzer Bequest; funds and gifts from various donors, by exchange; Ronald S. Kane Bequest, in memory of Berry B. Tracy; Lila Acheson Wallace, several members of The Chairman’s Council, The Erving and Joyce Wolf Foundation, Martha J. Fleischman, Elizabeth J. and Paul De Rosa, Women and the Critical Eye, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Lockwood Chilton Jr., Cheryl and Blair Effron, The Felicia Fund, Julie and James Alexandre, Elizabeth and Richard Miller, Anonymous, John and Margaret Ruttenberg, and The Gerald H. Ruttenberg Foundation Gifts.

Max Hollein, The Met’s Marina Kellen French Director and CEO, said: “This stunning work of art is an extraordinary example of the transformational creativity of Agnes Northrop and Tiffany Studios. Magnificent in concept and execution and more than grand in size, it deepens the American Wing’s Tiffany holdings and will enhance the already stunning Engelhard Court with a powerful, immersive viewing experience.”

Sylvia Yount, Lawrence A. Fleischman Curator in Charge of the American Wing at The Met, said: “Northrop’s remarkable environmental work further strengthens our representation of women artists in the American Wing and allows us to share broader stories of early-20^th-century culture with our visitors.”

The window was originally commissioned by Sarah Cochran, Pittsburgh businesswoman and philanthropist, for Linden Hall, the grand Tudor-Revival estate she had built in 1912 in Dawson, Pennsylvania. She personally requested the subject of the window, which represents a lush landscape and garden suggestive of her own at the estate. Placed on the stair landing of the house, the window enticed the viewer up marble steps and offered a long vista through tall, majestic pines flanking a central fountain amidst profuse flowers—pink and blue hydrangeas, poppies, and nasturtiums. The two side panels depict, on the left, foxglove and peonies, and on the right, hollyhocks, exquisitely rendered in glass. These were subjects favored by Northrop and American Impressionist painters.

Northrop was one of the most important designers in Tiffany’s employ and his preeminent woman designer. In a field dominated by men, Northrop established herself as one of the leading designers of windows, and was recognized for her work by winning a prestigious award at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900. She helps shed light on the critical and often unrecognized role played by women in the art of Louis Comfort Tiffany. Northrop and Tiffany pioneered new landscape and garden subject matter for stained glass, and the window reveals Northrop’s careful observations of nature and her gift for translating it into glass.

Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, Anthony W. and Lulu C. Wang Curator of American Decorative Arts, said: “This extraordinary evocation of a garden landscape is Northrop’s masterpiece. Made during the height of Louis Tiffany’s career, it was conceived, commissioned, and crafted by women. Featuring flowers in bloom from spring through summer, seen in the enigmatic light of approaching twilight, the window presents a luxuriant garden perennially in bloom.”

Tiffany’s opalescent glass shares a zeitgeist with American Impressionism, merging imagery with chromatic light. Northrop exploited the varied textures, lush colors, and light effects that were only possible with Tiffany’s special Favrile glass made at his furnaces in Corona, Queens, utilizing especially innovative and unusual techniques, some unique in a stained-glass window. The ingenious selection of the glass as well as the cutting of the glass into often thousands of pieces of almost impossible shapes was done by Tiffany’s skilled artisans, who were also largely women. Tiffany deemed the Linden Hall window of such note that he put it on public view in his New York showroom before shipping it to Cochran’s Pennsylvania home.
Featured image: Image: Three-part Garden Landscape window for Linden Hall, Designed by Agnes F. Northrop (1857–1953), Tiffany Studios (1902–32), New York, 1912. Leaded Favrile glass. 124 × 82 inches; 88 3/4 × 81 5/8 inches; 88 3/4 × 81 5/8 inches; center panel: 124 × 82 in. (315 × 208.3 cm); side panels: 88 3/4 × 81 5/8 in. (225.4 × 207.3 cm)

Art

New York Metropolitan Museum of Art Announces 2023 Exhibitions

June 13, 2023 The Silo Leave a comment

(New York, June, 2023)—The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today its upcoming summer and fall exhibitions along with new live arts performances and summer initiatives, including the return of the bike valet program, ongoing date night offerings, and more.

“The stories we tell at The Metropolitan Museum of Art are ever expanding,” said Max Hollein, Marina Kellen French Director of The Met. “Through groundbreaking exhibitions, compelling displays, and powerful performances and programs, this upcoming season is sure to delight, inspire, and engage audiences from near and far.”

Highlights of The Met’s summer exhibitions include: Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery(opening July 14), a presentation of Pueblo Indian pottery and the first community-curated Native American exhibition in the history of The Met;Tree & Serpent: Early Buddhist Art in India, 200 BCE–400 CE (opening July 21), featuring never before publicly exhibited masterpieces that trace the aesthetic impact of the religion on Indian art; Art for the Millions: American Culture and Politics in the 1930s(opening September 7), surveying how artists searched for cultural identity during a decade of political and social upheaval in the United States; The Facade Commission: Nairy Baghramian, Scratching the Back(opening September 7), the fourth in a series of contemporary commissions for The Met’s facade and the artist’s first public installation in New York City; and Picasso: A Cubist Commission in Brooklyn (opening September 14), a focused exhibition dedicated to a captivating, but lesser-known chapter of the artist’s Cubist period. It will bring together for the first time six paintings linked to Picasso’s unrealized decorative commission for the Brooklyn residence of artist, collector, and critic Hamilton Easter Field (1873–1922).

Fall season highlights include: Manet/Degas (opening September 24), the first major exhibition examining one of the most significant artistic dialogues in the genesis of modern art; The Great Hall Commission: Jacolby Satterwhite, A Metta Prayer(opening October 2) an immersive multi-channel video installation and a series of performances that will transform the Museum’s iconic Great Hall; Vertigo of Color: Matisse, Derain, and the Origins of Fauvism (opening October 13), exploring how the artists manipulated and experimented with color to create a new artistic vocabulary; Proof: Maxime Du Camp’s Photographs of the Eastern Mediterranean (opening October 23), the first exhibition to focus on The Met’s rare collection of photographs made by Du Camp in advance of his landmark 1852 book, Egypte, Nubie, Palestine et Syrie; and Lineages: Korean Art at The Met (opening November 7), which will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Museum’s Arts of Korea gallery with a collection of works tracing the history of Korean art.

Additionally, Africa & Byzantium (opening November 19), a major exhibition of nearly 200 works that explores the tradition of Byzantine art and culture in Africa from the 4th through the 15th century and beyond, will be presented at The Met Fifth Avenue through March 3, 2024, and feature many international loans being exhibited in the United States for the first time.

On November 20, 45 galleries dedicated to European Paintings, 1300–1800 will reopen, following the completion of an extensive skylights renovation project that began in 2018. The major reinstallation will highlight fresh narratives and dialogues among more than 700 works of art from the Museum’s world-famous holdings.

The 2023–24 season of MetLiveArts will include music, dance, and theatricalized culinary experiences that will invite deeper connections and make powerful observations about relevant cultural narratives as well as the Museum itself.

Upcoming public programs include Short Films for Short Nights, screenings of early video art accompanied by live music (July 7-9); the grand opening of the 81st Street Studio, a new children’s library and multipurpose active learning center (opening September 9); and the return of MetFest, the Museum’s community-wide block party (October 21).

The Museum also announced a continuing tradition of the summer season: the return of its popular bike valet program, which will be offered on Saturdays, Sundays, and select holidays through Labor Day (September 4). Guests visiting the Museum, regardless of transportation method, have the opportunity to experience The Met’s current blockbuster exhibition program, including Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty(through July 16), with extended viewing hours until 9 p.m. on Sundays, and Van Gogh’s Cypresses (through August 27).

Art

Why Artists Require Space Not Only To Work But To Imagine

February 3, 2022 The Silo Leave a comment

Eiko Otake performing at Bartram’s Garden on the Schuylkill River.

“The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.” – Pablo Picasso

Art is an imperative. Without it we can never truly examine our own circumstances or those of the people with whom we inhabit our small planet. Left unviewed, art languishes. Left without art to view, so does humankind. There are many who recognize the gift to the world that every artist has to offer. There are many who endeavor to do whatever they can to ensure those gifts are received by a grateful public. To stifle the artist’s voice is to silently say I care little about the fate of the minds of the masses. Art is essential. It is what fills the space between the rest of the din, making sense of a chaotic universe.

Bill Arnold splits his time between New York and Western Massachusetts. Since 1974 he has had a studio in Western MA and an apartment in NY. Arnold prefers to keep a foot in both worlds. Florence, MA is a small town near Northampton where there is plenty of space and the space is affordable. New York on the other hand is extremely restrictive in that a very small amount of space is prohibitively expensive. Artists require space not only to work, Arnold says, but space for their imaginations, “space to conjure.”

And so he maintains his Western MA studio.

The work he has done in that studio over the years has been varied and prolific. Arnold has endeavored, and often succeeded in getting his work into public venues including museums. He finds it thrilling to see his work in commercial venues. The first time he experienced this was in the 1970’s when he put roughly 1,000 photographs in 25 Boston city buses. There was no indication on the outside of each bus whether there were photographs on board so passengers didn’t know which buses were galleries inside. Because of the nature of the venue, more people saw that project than visited the Met, according to Arnold. In order to fund the project, he approached multiple museums getting them to agree to fund the cost of materials for the show provided he put on exhibitions in each city where the museums were located.

Arnold was both an exhibiting artist and a curator for this project. The project was well received, with weary commuters sometimes voicing their appreciation. From there, Arnold went on to do other bus shows. The format went viral long before viral was a thing. For another show, Arnold gave images to members of the audience who then organically began sharing the images with each other. Throughout his career, Arnold has turned traditional notions of exhibition on their heads. With the advent of digital advertising, the cost of printing has plummeted. Arnold uses this to his advantage. In 2018 he printed 10,000 newspaper inserts for the Daily Hampshire Gazette. As a student photographer, Arnold was encouraged to have a camera with him at all times. To this day he follows this practice. Arnold has photographed the same spot on his travels from NYC to MA for many years.

He intends to exhibit many photographs of the same place at the Bergen Street Station. Photography is accessible to everyone, Arnold says. Because anyone can make a photograph, anyone can also view a photograph and take something away. A series of photographs depicting old cars elicited stories from viewers of all kinds about cars they remembered and loved. To hear more about Bill Arnold’s thoughts on work and life, listen to the whole interview here.

Harry Philbrick left his position as director of the museum at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts about two years ago. He then launched his own project called Philadelphia Contemporary. The nonprofit does pop-up exhibitions and performances throughout the city. The goal is to ultimately build a permanent space where the nonprofit can become a non-collecting, collaborative space. Prior to his position at Pennslyvania Academy of the fine Arts, Philbrick was director of the Aldrich. It was there that the idea for Philadelphia Contemporary began to percolate. He began exploring the notion of partnerships. Specifically long-term, sustainable partnerships that would allow the museum a broader reach. Upon relocating to Philadelphia, Philbrick realized there was a gap in the cultural ecosystem in that there was no large scale independent contemporary art museum. Philadelphia also seemed primed for Philbrick’s model in that the cultural environment is “unusually collegial.”

The first project was a partnership with Headlong Dance.

The project was titled The Quiet Circus in which the dancers took part in a year long residency on a pier. Each week dance pieces encouraged members of the public to join in. From there Philbrick and his small team created River Charrettes, a series of four pieces also set among the changing landscape of river banks. River Charrettes was an appropriate opening for Philadelphia Contemporary. The project embodied the idea of many people from different places coming together. Since then there have been readings and other events. At the moment there are many large scale projects in the works. An expanded staff has allowed for grander visions. The process of growth has been very deliberate, carefully adhering to the founding vision of the project.

Funding for Philadelphia Contemporary comes from many places. In order to run the organization, pay staff, and plan for the future, Philbrick has had to map out a plan from all he has learned over his years in the art world. Seed capital came from individual funders who believed strongly in the mission. More recently, Philadelphia-based foundations have come on board. For Philbrick, the key to his project is pushing forward the model for a nonprofit contemporary art space. Moving forward the same model applies, starting with individual funders and moving from there to foundational support. To hear more about Philadelphia Contemporary and arts organization funding, listen to the whole interview here.

A Few Words to Keep in your Pocket: Speak your art loudly. Do not settle for its slow demise. Bring it into the light, find allies, give your gifts to the world. For the Silo, Brainard Carey.
Featured image- Francis Bacon’s London studio- in its relocated home in Dublin, Ireland.

Art

Pornhub launches guide to famous museum erotic art

July 19, 2021 The Silo Leave a comment

Unbeknownst to many, some of the world’s best pornography doesn’t exist on Pornhub. Rather, it exists in famous museums around the world: The Louvre (France), The MET (New York City), The Prado (Spain), The Uffizi Gallery (Italy), The National Gallery (UK) and Musee d’Orsay (France), to name a few.

And with museums finally reopening around the world as pandemic restrictions are being lifted, Pornhub wanted to do its part to encourage people to enjoy every stroke of erotic art.

Pornhub is launching “Classic Nudes” to provide museum-goers with an interactive oral history of some of the most renowned erotic art in some of the world’s most famous museums. Pornhub is encouraging people to ditch those boring self-tour recordings and enjoy every single brushstroke of these erotic masterpieces with Pornhub Brand Ambassador Asa Akira.

New York – July, 2021 – Pornhub, the premier online destination for adult entertainment, today announced the launch of “Classic Nudes,” an interactive guide to discover and learn more about erotic art in some of the world’s most famous fine art museums – The Louvre (France), The MET (New York City), The Prado (Spain), The Uffizi Gallery (Italy), The National Gallery (UK) and the Musee d’Orsay (France). With museums finally reopening around the world as pandemic restrictions are being lifted, Pornhub wanted to do its part in stimulating the public to visit, explore and fall back in love (or lust) with these cultural institutions.

The public can tour each of the 6 museums – either in person or at home – via the Classic Nudes mobile website. The online portal guides visitors past the SFW masterpieces and gets right to the good stuff: representations of the naked body in all its artistic glory. Simply visit the Classic Nudes website on your device, select your museum, follow the map, locate the artwork, and listen, read, or watch along to its curated content.

Hungarian-Italian artist and porn legend Cicciolina stars in the promotional video for Classic Nudes. Pornhub Brand Ambassador Asa Akira serves as orator for the campaign providing an oral history of 30 erotic art pieces in this curated collection, while Pornhub amateur couple, “MySweetApple” brings 6 iconic artwork to life.

“There’s a treasure trove of erotic art around the world – depicting nudes, orgies, and more – that’s not available on Pornhub. These pre-Internet art pieces are currently sitting in museums, which we are now finally able to start visiting again as covid restrictions are starting to lift ,” said Asa Akira, Pornhub Brand Ambassador. “So as people start to head back to The Louvre or The MET, they can simply open Classic Nudes, and I’ll be their guide. Time to ditch those boring self-tour recordings and enjoy every single brushstroke of these erotic masterpieces with me.”

Classic Nudes follows previous artistic endeavors from Pornhub including the recently launched “Remastured,” an initiative that used modern A.I technology and machine learning to restore century-old erotic films into titillating technicolor.

Previously, the company commissioned contemporary art gallery Maccarone Los Angeles to present a feminist art show entitled ‘The Pleasure Principle,’ a pan-generational, sexually-charged exhibition of female artists whose work centers the erotic and disrupts the processes of content-cleansing that code certain images as profane, abject, or pornographic. Pornhub also hosted the online premier of SHAKEDOWN, the critically-acclaimed documentary art film centered around the Black lesbian stripper scene in early oughts Los Angeles by filmmaker and vanguard artist Leilah Weinraub.

Pornhub’s “Classic Nudes” campaign is a collaborative initiative with creative agency Officer & Gentleman.

For more information about Classic Nudes, please visit http://www.phclassicnudes.com/

About Pornhub:

Founded in 2007, Pornhub is the leading free, ad-supported adult video streaming website, offering viewers the opportunity to upload and share their own videos. With over 3 million videos and over 130 million visitors a day, Pornhub truly is the best adult site in the world. Pornhub has built the largest dedicated membership base in the adult community, averaging over 76 million monthly active members, offering viewers a fun and sophisticated social experience directly insite, complete with messaging, photos, achievement badges, and much more.

Art

US Premiere of Small Wonders: The VR Experience At Metropolitan Museum Of Art

February 17, 2017 The Silo Leave a comment

“Walking through 500-year-old art…Once I put the VR headset and headphones on, it truly felt like I was transported to another world. You could walk through the levels of sculpture and detail in the bead, which was a frieze of heaven on top, purgatory in the middle, and hell below it. There were easily 20 fully carved objects – humans, demons, and animals – in the five centimeter bead, with multiple layers of objects on top of one another to create a three-dimensional image. I was astounded to be able to see, as close as I wanted to get, the bead in all its detail.”— Stefan Palios,betakit

The Canadian Film Centre’s Media Lab (CFC Media Lab), Seneca’s School of Creative Arts and Animation, and the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) are pleased to announce their groundbreaking virtual reality (VR) collaboration, Small Wonders: The VR Experience. It will screen for a special four-day limited-run as part of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s new exhibition, Small Wonders: Gothic Boxwood Miniatures, February 22-27, 2017 at The Met Cloisters (99 Margaret Corbin Drive, Fort Tryon Park, New York, NY 10040).

From February 24 to 27 during public hours, visitors can don a VR headset and explore a 3D rendering of a miniature boxwood carving from the AGO’s collection. The experience is free with general admission, reservations required, and marks a significant first for The Met Cloisters—the integrated use of VR to enhance the exhibition experience.

The exhibition Small Wonders: Gothic Boxwood Miniatures, which runs through May 21st, brings together for the first time some 50 rare boxwood carvings from museums and private collections across Europe and North America. The exhibition offers new insight into the methods of production and cultural significance of these awe-inspiring works of art. Small enough to fit in the palm of the hand, these tiny masterpieces depict complex scenes with elegance and precision. Without fail, they inspire viewers to ask how a person could have possibly made them, a question that can only be answered today and a challenge perfect for VR technology.

“Much of the success of new VR will hinge upon the quality of experiences being created. Everyone is searching for that sublime encounter one can only have in VR. With the boxwood miniatures and their high-resolution scans, we have found the perfect, transcendent landscape to explore in this medium,” says Ana Serrano, Chief Digital Officer, CFC, and Producer, Small Wonders: The VR Experience.

The AGO, CFC Media Lab and Seneca’s School of Creative Arts and Animation partnered to create Small Wonders: The VR Experience. Using one of the AGO’s micro-computed topography (micro-CT) scans of the miniatures, the creative and technical team led by interactive artist and designer, Priam Givord, developed an experience specifically for the HTC Vive platform. Viewers can explore the intricate carvings of the prayer bead from various angles and in detail otherwise inaccessible to the human eye. The soundtrack, Treasures of Devotion: Spiritual Songs in Northern Europe 1500-1540, echoes the ambience of the wider show. The result: VR enriches the contemplative and immersive experience.

Barbara Drake Boehm, the Paul and Jill Ruddock Senior Curator for The Met Cloisters said: “At first glance, the VR experience might seem anomalous in the medieval ambiance of The Met Cloisters. But, thanks to the efforts of the CFC Media Lab, Seneca and the AGO, VR opens a portal through which our visitors can tumble into a tiny world, and sense the meditative power that these centuries-old works of art were intended to convey.”

Small Wonders: The VR Experience was created by Lisa Ellis, Conservator of Sculpture and Decorative Arts (AGO); VR Creative and Technical Director Priam Givord (Interactive Artist/Designer); VR Producers Ana Serrano (CFC Media Lab) and Mark Jones (Seneca College); VR Technical Team Craig Alguire, Morgan Young (Quantum Capture) and Tyrone Melkitoy (Mobius Interactive); Composer/Vocalist Anne Azema, Artistic Director (The Boston Camerata); Narrator Gillian McIntyre; and Micro-CT Scanner Andrew Nelson, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Sustainable Archaeology (Western University).

The exhibition continues at The Met Cloisters through May 21, 2017, but the VR experience will only run during public hours, February 24–27. To learn more about the Small Wonders exhibition and to plan your visit, go to: http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2017/small-wonders

At The Met Cloisters, Small Wonders: Gothic Boxwood Miniatures is made possible by the Michel David-Weill Fund. It was organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

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Canadian Film Centre (CFC)
@cfccreates.com | facebook.com/cfccreates CFC Media Lab (CFC Media Lab)
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Seneca College
@senecacomms | facebook.com/senecacollegeArt Gallery of Ontario (AGO)
@AGOToronto | facebook.com/AGOToronto

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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About CFC

The Canadian Film Centre (CFC) is a charitable organization whose mission is to invest in and inspire the next generation of world-class Canadian content creators and entrepreneurs in the screen-based entertainment industry. A significant economic and cultural driver in Canada and beyond, CFC delivers a range of multi-disciplinary programs and initiatives in film, television, music, screen acting, and digital media, which provides industry collaborations, strategic partnerships, and business and marketplace opportunities for talent and participants. For more information, visit cfccreates.com.

About CFC Media Lab

The Canadian Film Centre’s Media Lab (CFC Media Lab) is an internationally acclaimed digital media think tank and award-winning production facility. It provides a unique research, training and production environment for digital media content developers and practitioners, as well as acceleration programs and services for digital entertainment start-ups and related SMEs. The Silo founder and Digital Editor Jarrod Barker and contributor Arthur Maughan are graduates and fellows of the CFC Media Lab. Program participants have emerged as leaders in the world of digital media, producing groundbreaking projects and innovative, sustainable companies for the digital and virtual age. CFC Media Lab is funded in part by the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario. For more information, visit cfccreates.com.

About Seneca

With campuses in Toronto, York Region and Peterborough, Seneca offers degrees, diplomas, certificates and graduate programs renowned for their quality and respected by employers. It is one of the largest comprehensive colleges in Canada, offering nearly 300 full-time, part-time and online programs. Combining the highest academic standards with work-integrated and applied learning, expert teaching faculty and the latest technology ensure Seneca graduates are career-ready. Find out more at senecacollege.ca.

About AGO

With a collection of more than 90,000 works of art, the Art Gallery of Ontario is among the most distinguished art museums in North America. From the vast body of Group of Seven and signature Canadian works to the African art gallery, from the cutting-edge contemporary art to Peter Paul Rubens’s masterpiece The Massacre of The Innocents, the AGO offers an incredible art experience with each visit. In 2002, Ken Thomson’s generous gift of 2,000 remarkable works of Canadian and European art inspired Transformation AGO, an innovative architectural expansion by world-renowned architect Frank Gehry that in 2008 resulted in one of the most critically acclaimed architectural achievements in North America. Highlights include Galleria Italia, a gleaming showcase of wood and glass running the length of an entire city block, and the often-photographed spiral staircase, beckoning visitors to explore. The AGO has an active membership program offering great value, and the AGO’s Weston Family Learning Centre offers engaging art and creative programs for children, families, youth and adults. Visit ago.net to learn more.

About The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met presents over 5,000 years of art from around the world for everyone to experience and enjoy. The Museum lives in three iconic sites in New York City— The Met Fifth Avenue, The Met Breuer, and The Met Cloisters. Millions of people also take part in The Met experience online. Since it was founded in 1870, The Met has always aspired to be more than a treasury of rare and beautiful objects. Every day, art comes alive in the Museum’s galleries and through its exhibitions and events, revealing both new ideas and unexpected connections across time and across cultures.

Art

Poetic Grace Gesture Is Needed In All Art Work

August 22, 2016 The Silo Leave a comment

Dear Reader, it is difficult to deny that a side of art making is fatally concerned with the poetic grace of the gesture – it is expected that a work should exude a cosmic and ineffable air.

Regardless of your medium, I hope this glance into the minds of two established poets from very different walks of life can help dissipate the intimidating mist between process and product, as well as remind you that the transcendent and the familiar are often one in the same.

Global spectator Meena Alexander recognizes that even in the grand art of poetry is a desire to express what cannot be said through its own means. After eight books of poems and a lifetime of travel, Alexander continues to defend her craft as the most ordinary of entities, no more inexplicable than a child’s obvious and impossible sense of language or rhythm.

New York-based Eileen Myles approaches poetry from a reserved and humble perspective, with the intent of striking a tasteful balance between metaphysical grandeur and the habitual rhythm of the everyday.

Myles, a breathing artistic currency, treats poetry as an extension of the self with the potency of a movement and the collective memory of a civilization. Myles proves that common experience and abstract phenomena are synonymous when we step back to look.

If the weight of the world seems so immense that the few strands of creativity cannot unravel, the Mayer Foundation offers emergency funding for New York artists facing economic, residential or medical turbulence. Proposals may be submitted at any time, with over two thousand dollars granted to those with concrete objectives and a levelheaded art plan.

It is easy to forget that behind the polished mirror of history is a messy and cumulative reality. There is little difference between the intelligentsia of years past and the friends sitting at your dining room table. For the Silo, Brainard Carey.

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