Sperone Westwater Gallery

Photos by Nigel Young for Foster + Partners

OPENING

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 21st 2010

Arriving at the Sperrone Westwater Gallery on Tuesday I was thrilled to walk through the gorgeous front black metal and glass doors, peeking through them beforehand can give you a slight sense of the space and a glimpse of the painting at the far end of the building. 

The edifice is slipped in between two other brownstones, like a unique missing puzzle bit that suddenly makes the whole block light up. I call it "The Lipstick" since it reminds me of my Chanel red. With the red lift slowly coming up in the black compact beholder. The fact that we can see this lift/moving room/ gallery from the outside and as well as walk underneath it, makes this building even more unique. As a fact, one has never been able to walk underneath an elevator before. But, there it is, the moving Red Art Space that glows behind the prominent glass and steel frame.

Elevator, underneath and inside, photo by Nigel Young (Foster +Partners), Artwork by Kuitca

Inside, you are awed by how large the space suddenly feels. Like a hidden cathedral, with double height ceilings on the first floor, shouldered by a glass framed mezzanine.

This space creates a unique challenge for the artist. This is not the regular large square high ceilinged box that we normally get to experience Contemporary art in. This is a place for deep contemplation, a place for a one on one dialogue with the Art piece in front of you.

In this case it was Guillermo Kuitca who got the honor of opening the Show. It must have been quite nerve wrecking knowing that most of the other artists that the Gallery represents would also be there.

I met Bruce Nauman wandering around with a slightly nervous glare in his eyes, probably thinking of what he will be doing with the space when his opening comes up after Kuitca. He followed me and Michael Wurzel, Project Architect (Foster + Partners) around the building, refilling our glasses in the offices and at the end viewing the top floor, which contains the library. what a wonderful and warm man, I came to think.

We met Evan Penny a fun character that makes the most incredibly real but distorted sculptures.

His work made me think of an alternative version of Lucien Freud by the way he makes the skin on his objects so pale and see trough and at the same time, incredibly realistic.

"Michael" 2010

Evan Penny and his "Muse" Michael

Charles LeDray we met in the library, he only introduced himself with the name Charles so at first I had no idea who he was, but he kept telling me how much he liked my mini-top hat and after having studied more of his artwork I realized it is not strange. A lot of his artwork is related to strangely proportioned pieces of clothing.

I did get to have a conversation with Mr. Kuitca as well, we talked about his untitled painting on the mezzanine. A sort of battlefield layered by this light pink veil, which I sort of sensed was blood thinning out in the aftermath.

Photo by Nigel Young, Foster + Partners
Artwork "Untitled" 2008 by Guillermo Kuitca

Later in the evening we celebrated with a fabulous italian dinner at the Pulino restaurant on the corner of Bowery and Houston.

It was an absolutely packed event where we had the honor of sitting at the table with among others Kim Dingle and Tom Sachs. At the end I also had a chance to meet the legendary Malcolm Morley.

Malcolm Morley

Me at the Gallery with James Lindon from Pace Gallery

With Love

Kristin

DYMAXION

I am so fortunate these days to be invited to many remarkable events. Last night we went to the Champagne Reception and Screening of the film about Lord Norman Foster.

After the screening we had a fantastic 4 course dinner at the Michelin Star Restaurant Marea. 

"How much does your building weigh Mr. Foster?"

The film is an Art Commissioners Film, produced by his wife Lady Elena Foster. 

The Documentary took about three years of filming from all over the world and again reminded us of what this man has achieved during his ongoing career. I feel humbled, he is Howard Roark in persona. (From The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, this novel is one of my all time favorite).

The title of this Documentary actually referrers to a question from Lord Foster's greatest mentor Buckminster Fully early on in his career. A question that brilliant Lord Foster of course had the answer for a week later.

Buckminister Fully (1895- 1983) was an American Architect, Author, designer, inventor and a futurist. A remarkable man with an incredible mind.

He is most known for his Geodesic Domes:

Buckminster Fuller, US Pavilion for the 1967 International and Universal Exposition in Montreal, 1967, Image courtesy the Estate of R. Buckminster Fuller.

And especially for his thoughts about a Dome over Manhattan:

Mr. Fully was an Environmentalist a long time before it was popular:

"Hailed as "one of the greatest minds of our times, R. Buckminster Fuller was renowned for his comprehensive perspective on the world's problems. For more than five decades, he developed pioneering solutions that reflected his commitment to the potential of innovative design to create technology that does "more with less" and thereby improves human lives."

As it says under his Biography for the Buckminster Fuller Institute that operates under his legacy to find Breakthrough solutions to our future. 

One of his greatest inventions was the Dymaxian. A car solution that he came up with (Isamu Noguchi helped on this project as well) as early as in the 1930's. Unfortunately the car was hit by another car on its way to the Chicago World Fair in 1933. The accident damaged the prototype and killed the driver and the project lost its investors. It was an aerodynamic car that could have changed the the whole history of our fuel vasting cars.

Tower of Love!

The HEARST Tower

New York

Architect: Foster & Partners

Since it has been raining all day, I feel like turning to a warmer and more sunny story

 therefore I am adding my favorite Tower to my blog!

The Hearst Tower

I can´t say I am objective here

since this is one of the two "building" reasons that made me meet my Man

(the other is The New Globe Theatre, A story for later)

Some of the superlatives:

 It is the first Green Building in Manhattan.

HVAC System, outdoor air for cooling and ventilation 

(carbon dioxide emissions slashed by 26%)

The Diagrid (diamond shaped as I would say) steel frame

saved them 20% use of steel comparably to another building of the same size.

This is the building that hosts among other magazines 

"Harper Bazar",

therefore you will see the most gorgeously dressed women walking up the 

water sculpture escalator

In the Atrium there is a gourmet cafeteria

and a 7 story handmade art piece

by Richard Long "Riverlines"

The Building has also been given the sexiest comment ever about a building;

...But the partial sightings of the Hearst Building that are offered up and down Eighth Avenue or along Fifty-seventh Street are so enticing that they end up increasing its allure—like a flash of leg in a slit skirt. 
Paul Goldberger (New Yorker)

Zero-Pollution, Zero-Waste City!

MASDAR

There is a fantastic Utopian place that is being planned close to the capital of the United Arab Emirates in Abu Dhabi. The Sustainable City that is named Masdar means "The Source" and is planned by the Architect Firm Foster + Partners (Go Gerard:). 

Solar power plants, 

Electric light-rail system (No cars, linked to the capital)

Desalination facility (80% more efficient than existing plants)

Recycled and purified wastewater (grow plants for bio fuel)

Wind Farm

A home for nearly 50,000 People

Just what we are waiting for!

Norman Foster said:
“The environmental ambitions of the Masdar Initiative – zero carbon and waste free – are a world first. They have provided us with a challenging design brief that promises to question conventional urban wisdom at a fundamental level. Masdar promises to set new benchmarks for the sustainable city of the future.”