Cohen, toujours Cohen!

Ai profité de cette visite impromptue à Montréal (ma fille étant de passage ici, avec sa fille Béatrice et son mari, Eric, vu le décès de la grand-mère maternel) pour aller voir « Dance me to the end ON /OFF love » au Centaure (c’est l’avant-dernière), une pièce réalisée par le Danois Palle Granhøj et sa troupe de danse contemporaine (venue du Danemark) inspirée de la musique et des paroles de Leonard Cohen. C’est d’ailleurs évidemment ce dernier aspect – d’autant plus que nous sommes dans sa ville natale, Montréal – qui m’a amené à choisir cette œuvre anglophone (en pensant entre autre à mon gendre américain et unilingue anglophone!), parmi le répertoire culturel qu’avaient colligé les concierges de l’Hôtel pour la semaine, comme spectacle à voir… (La concierge a pu m’obtenir 2 billets – mon autre fille, Dominique, m’accompagnant; Laurence et Eric ayant dû se désister pour cause – faillait bien s’occuper de la petite!).

La salle était pleine, mais je dois dire que la pièce ne m’a pas particulièrement séduite – avouons-le tout de go! Je dois reconnaître d’abord que ce n’est pas un concert et que l’interprétation musicale des œuvres de Cohen est laissée aux membres de la troupe, dont la voix n’est peut-être pas le principal atout! Néanmoins, çà n’a pas passé – je dois admettre, en premier lieu, que ce type de théâtre – inspiré par la danse moderne et son symbolisme – ne tombe pas tout à fait dans mes cordes! Et ce, en dépit de ce que  le directeur artistique du Centaure, Roy Surette (un drôle de nom!), ait pu penser quand il écrit, au sujet de cette pièce, «You will have a rich and rewarding experience as well as appreciate this Danish take on Cohen’s artistry  as it mixes with theirs.» On peut sympathiser avec l’intention de ce chorégraphe de renom, Palle Granhøj,  et de sa « technique de l’obstruction », mais très peu pour moi! (Curieusement, ma fille – je dis « curieusement » parce que c’est une grande amatrice et pratiquante de danse contemporaine – partage le même sentiment vis-à-vis de cette pièce!...je me demande ce que Cynthia en aurait pensé…)

(Petit déjeuner en journée avec Laurence, Eric et Béatrice, au Le Cartet – avant de passer quelques heures au Musée des Sciences, fort bien conçu pour les petits, tout près dans le Vieux-Montréal; et une pâte, après le théâtre, avec Dominique, chez Holder, toujours dans le Vieux!)

Montréal, le 13 avril 2013

Florida 2 – St-Petersburg

 Visited the Dalí Museum – this is apparently the largest collection of Dalí’s works, outside Europe (to be more specific, with the exception of the Teatro-Museo Dalí created by Dalí himself in his home town of Figueres in Catalonia, this museum has the world's largest collection of Dalí's works – we have seen some at the Reina-Sophia in Madrid a few years ago).  First question that comes to mind: why in the USA? Why in Florida, St-Petersburg? First because those who started the collection are Americans, Mr. and Mrs. Morse, who started collecting Dalí’s works in the 40’s (they got to know the artist well, as Dalí and his wife spent the War years in the States, right up to 1948), and exposed them “en masse”, in their home and then in a makeshift museum in Cleveland, Ohio, until they decided 30 or 40 years later to bequeath them – but to whom? (There is an article, published in the Wall Street Journal in the seventies headlined “U.S. Art World Dilly-Dallies over Dali”, detailing how the couple was having trouble finding a home for their collection, one of the greatest selections of Dalí’s works in the world.)

That is where St-Petersburg (“St-Pete” as it is referred to around here) comes in. A local lawyer, James W. Martin, apparently heard about the Morses’ plight, approached them and convinced the town to offer a home to the collection; that was in 1982, when a museum featuring Dalí’s works opened in St- Pete, in a marine warehouse. However the story did not stop there, for the city eventually built a wonderful “home” for the now expanded collection at the extreme end of the city, on what looks like reclaimed land (on the Bay of Tampa), which opened just over 2 years ago. It was built with private’ and public’s (every level of government) money, costing some $36M.

courtoisie of TheCoolist

The museum is spectacular! The collection, of course, is first rate: close to 100 paintings, plus over 100 watercolors and drawings, 1,300 graphics, photographs, sculptures and objets d'art, and an extensive archival library. Among the paintings, there are some of the most famous (where they acquired by the Morses or later by the Museum? Dalí painted until the late 70’s, almost until his muse and Russian wife, Dala – more on her later – died in ’82, at the home he had made for her, Publos, at Port LLigat, in Spain; he himself died later on that decade – in ’89 – back where he was born (1904), in Cadaquès, near Barcelona). The museum is home to 7 of the 18 masterwork paintings by Dalí (including The Hallucinogenic Toreador and The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus). (I understand that, to be considered a masterwork, a painting must be at least 5 feet in any direction and have been worked on for over a year.) My personal favorite in the Museum is the Apparatus and Hand painting, going back to 1927 and which probably inaugurated his surrealist period (and the strong influence of Freud's thinking about dreams!)

The painting collection covers well all the several “stages” of Dalí’s works: from the ‘early years’ and his paintings in Cadaqués, where he spent the summers, to the surrealist period (for which he is better known – the melting watches) to when, in 1950, he declared himself a “nuclear mystic”! (Hard though to classify his work in periods as, beyond his early years, he switched back and forth in style – best to remember him simply as a totally extravagant artist!)

"Apparatus and Hand", courtoisie of sydneymegan

The Museum has also amassed works of literature and other media. Dali dabbled in every possible art form – literature of course, but also sculpture, film, jewelry, fashion, set designs, holography, even advertising! Dali was an avid writer all his life – for instance his outrageous (some would say, ‘creative’) autobiography, the Secret Life of Salvador Dali, published in 1941…and denounced by his sister’s Salvador Dali As Seen by His Sister in 1950. He also did sculpture (the ‘Venus de Milo with Drawers’, a bronze he did during his surrealist period, in 1936…and painted in white, with ermine pompons in 1964!). While in the US, he worked with Hitchcock (the dream scene in Spellbound, a film with Gregory Peck in 1945, is his), and Disney (on a film, Destino, started in 1946 but only completed in 2003 by Roy Disney!), keeping in mind that he had done Le Chien Andalou with Luis Bunuel in 1929!

It was a discovery for me to find out that Dalí had married Gala, the former wife of Paul Éluard, the French surrealist poet. Dalí and Gala married in a civil ceremony in 1934, after having lived together since 1929, (and remarried in a Catholic ceremony, once a dispensation from the Pope had been granted, in 1958 in Montrejic). Nevertheless, even after the breakup of their marriage, Éluard and Gala (they had met and married very, very young!) continued to be close. She was Dalí's muse…as she had been (and will be!) to Éluard and other members of the surrealist group, including Louis Aragon, Max Ernst (with whom Gala and Éluard had a ménage-à-trois going for a few years just before she met Dalí!) and André Breton, and much later on to rock singer Jeff Fenholt (whom she purportedly lavished with gifts, including Dali's paintings and a million dollar home on Long Island). She was about 10 years older than Dalí, and said to have had a very strong sex drive (that would explain the numerous extramarital affairs she had throughout her life, including with her former husband!)  Dali and Gala!

 And the Museum building itself! Quite phenomenal! Built to resist hurricanes (according to architect Yann Weymouth’s plans, of the firm HOK, helped by architects Tim Clemoons, and Peter Arendt who coordinated the construction), it features some kind of a geodesic glass dome, adjunct to it, and giving quite a vista on the bay, and the gardens. The atrium features a spiral staircase, the height of the building, given access to the exhibits floor, under the glass geodesic roof – and an immensely blue sky that day! Quite fitting for the eccentric that Dalí was!

 (Note to myself – when planning to visit a museum in North America, check first if a reciprocal arrangement exists with the AGO or the ROM in Toronto: there was one for the Dalí Museum, which we did not take advantage of!)

Had dinner with André and Sylvia at the Café Rosa, near the St-Pete beach, which we had walked before in the afternoon (and where we had a drink, at the pinkish Don Cesar hotel – reminiscent of the pink Palace in Hawaii…)

St-Petersburg, April 9, 2013

Florida 1 – Sarasota

A rather turbulent flight to Tampa, coming down from Toronto (apparently even more turbulent sitting at the back of the plane!). This is April (beginning of the month, after Easter – many tourists we are assured have gone back home!) It is cool (but a marked improvement over Toronto, at minus 4 centigrade!) with a bit of rain!

Staying with friends at their condo in Sarasota – typical set-up: in a gated community, very quiet and secure! Built on a golf course. About half-hour from downtown. A reminder: We are in car-country: can’t go anywhere (outside the gated area) without it – that is why, we are told and I believe it, retirees, even incapacitated ones, hang to their driver licenses like a life-line: lose it and you lose your autonomy!

Driven around: part of the Siesta Key (exclusive, pricey real estate – Kim knows all about it, having had a number of properties around Sarasota, before the market collapsed in 2008-9 – and rather exposed to water flooding I would expect – although no history of floods!), down to Venice, probably a typical Florida coastal town! Named because of the abundance of waterways around; started as a retiree place by some union, towards the end of 19^th century; a “hot” place of “villegiature” during the roaring 20’s; then the Depression! Revived with the military and WWII! Had lunch at an Italian restaurant (decent, a rather good risotto, I am told by the ladies!), along the main drag, after a short visit to the beach (overcast, so rather cool!)

We attended the opening of this year’s (15^th anniversary) Sarasota Film Festival. Major local event; at the huge Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall (all color-coordinated, inside and outside – as long as it is purple!) ”Blackfish”  (see the LA Times' article at the bottom here) is the opening-night film, about the fate of captive orca (“killer”) whales at sea parks (one – SeaWorld – at Orlando, a couple of hours away from here) and their human trainers (several of whom ended up being killed or maimed, notably by the frustrated Tilikum, a male whale, over the years).” Blackfish”, after the name indigenous nations gave to orcas.  A rather controversial film (and selection!) made (director Gabriela Cowperthwaite in attendance) of interviews with former (whistle blowers) whale trainers and marine experts, telling how distorted the “party-line” is about orcas, their life, and the “accidents”…shot at various locations – notably in Florida – with very poignant footage (for instant about the SeaLand Park in Victoria, B.C., which closed in the 90’s after a terrible “accident”!)  An eye-opener on this “not-so-exciting” world! Will be seen – and probably justifiably – as a condemnation of sea park operators, for their “inhuman” treatment of animals, and for “hiding the truth” about the killings (we are reminded that operating company SeaWorld refused to be interviewed for the film, which incidentally will be shown soon in “a theatre near you” this summer, thanks to Magnolia Pictures which has acquired the distribution rights…). Can’t escape thinking of Audiard’s latest drama film “De rouille et d’os” (“Rust and Bone” in English),seen at TIFF last year, about a whale trainer and show master in some MarineLand in the South of France, played by Marion Cotillard (of “la Vie en Rose”/Edith Piaf fame!), who is maimed (she loses her legs) by a “killer” whale!

Light dinner at “Le Café Europe” (see my notes on Tripadvisor) on the famed “St-Armand’s Circle” downtown Sarasota.

We spent some time (of course!) on Siesta Key Beach, known as one of the most beautiful beaches anywhere in the world. (“World’s Finest, Whitest Sand” if you go by the local Chamber of Commerce’s logo – this is based on the "Great International White Sand Beach Challenge" held in 1987, where it beat some 30 other entrants from around the globe – “including from the Bahamas and Grand Cayman”, we are reminded). The sand is made of pulverized quartz (99% of the sand, according to some geological studies! It’s very fine, like icing powder), carried apparently from the Appalachian Mountains by rivers into the Gulf of Mexico over millions of years – it’s old! It has the characteristic that, even under the burning subtropical sun, it remains cool to the touch (it is that “reflective”!) It has been classified (by Condé Nast Traveler Magazine for instance) as the “best of the best Sand” beach, and recognized as #1 beach in the USA “for cleanness, water quality and safety”! It’s Saturday morning, sunny and unusually dry, lots of people – locals and tourists – enjoying the beach – it is huge and does not look too crowded, especially where we are sitting, towards the northern part!

Lunched on oysters and NZ Sauvignon Blanc in the nearby village, at the Siesta Key Oyster Bar, better known as “SKOB”, an institution apparently around here!

Dinner that night – after  a few glasses of wine at Shore, while the ladies are shopping nearby, back at the famous St-Armand’s Circle! – at one of Kim’s (and Chris’s I suppose) favorite restaurants, Indigenous, where we enjoyed sitting on the veranda, having seafood, “bien arrosé” with a Puligny-Montrachet!

Breakfast at quintessential breakfast place Millie's Café - Kim's treat - before leaving for “St-Pete” (after a shopping stop at the Ellenton Premium Outlets - the Cole Haan shoes story! - nearby on the way!)

Sarasota, April 7, 2013

LA Times article:
'Blackfish' has SeaWorld in hot water


The documentary claims that the marine park has made deadly errors with regards to its orca trainers, allegations that the company is disputing.

January 25, 2013
By Amy Kaufman, Los Angeles Times

PARK CITY, Utah — It was Samantha Berg's dream job: swimming with orcas.

But with only a bachelor's degree in animal science from Cornell University and no hands-on experience with whales, the then-22-year-old assumed she was not qualified to perform stunts in a SeaWorld pool with the powerful 8,000-pound animals.

Still, she decided to send her résumé to marine parks nationwide in the hopes that she might land a low-level gig and learn more about sea life. To her surprise, she was called in for an audition at SeaWorld's Orlando park, which asked her to prove her physical acumen by diving 25 feet underwater, picking up a weight, returning to the surface, carrying heavy fish buckets and then jumping up on stage even as she was struggling for breath.

"They're seeing if you're physically fit and if you look good in a wetsuit," she said.

She got the job in 1990, earning $7.50 an hour. But things at SeaWorld were not exactly as she had fantasized.

Berg, now 44, is one of eight former park employees who appear in "Blackfish," a documentary that received a strong reception when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last month and was quickly acquired by Magnolia Pictures and CNN Films. Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, the movie examines whales in captivity and one in particular, Tilikum — an orca that has killed three people, including veteran SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau in 2010.

The film, which will hit theaters this summer and debut on CNN later in the year, explores the psychology of Tilikum, who was born in the wild near Iceland in 1983, captured and sent to a marine park near Vancouver before coming to SeaWorld in Orlando. Separated from his family, he was bullied by other whales as a calf in captivity. Older female whales raked his skin constantly, and Tilikum ("friend" in Chinook) was kept in a small, dark tank for more than 14 hours at a time — factors the movie suggests may have contributed to his aggression later.

SeaWorld is already challenging the film. In a statement, the company said that based on a "very preliminary review" of "Blackfish," the movie "appears to repeat the same unfounded allegations made many times over the last several years by animal-rights activists."

"Importantly, the film fails to make the most important point about SeaWorld," the company said. "The company is dedicated in every respect to the safety of our staff and the welfare of animals."

Before "Blackfish," Cowperthwaite, 41, had made one documentary, about urban lacrosse, and knew little about orcas before learning of Brancheau's death in Florida. At the time, SeaWorld said the whale may have mistaken the 40-year-old trainer's ponytail for a toy.

The murky details of the incident confused Cowperthwaite, who had brought her children to the company's San Diego park. Clamoring for more information, she came across "The Killer in the Pool," a 2010 Outside magazine article about the incident written by Tim Zimmermann. The journalist had already spoken to a handful of former park trainers, and Cowperthwaite asked him to come on board as an associate producer to help her make a film about the topic.



"The trainers spoke in a way that was tangible to me," said the filmmaker, sitting beside Berg in Park City recently. "They were like my apostles. I got being 20 and wanting to take a fun job. They started out with that same bright-eyed approach to Sea World as I did."

But finding ex-employees willing to talk about their experiences at SeaWorld wasn't as easy as the filmmaker had anticipated. Once, she and her film crew flew to meet one man without even knowing his name, and after the group had set up their lights and were ready to begin filming, the subject backed out.

After Brancheau's death, Berg — who had left SeaWorld in the mid-1990s and is now an acupuncturist in Alaska — was sought after by the news media as a commentator. At first she defended the park's explanation but became more skeptical as the company cited trainer error as a factor in the death.

"I was shocked by it, but I was still buying into the party line," said Berg. "I was really deluded, and it's embarrassing for me to go back and look now at what I did."

Berg said she came to realize she told numerous things to park-goers that were not true — including that whales live longer in captivity than in the wild. (Orcas can live as long as 80 years in the wild, according to the Vancouver Aquarium.) When she was hired, she was also unaware of Tilikum's dangerous history or that orcas had injured dozens of trainers over the years.

Some of the most striking footage in "Blackfish" shows trainers being harmed in graphic detail in home videos shot by park attendees. Through a Freedom of Information Act request, Cowperthwaite was able to obtain these as the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration sued SeaWorld after Brancheau's death.

In May 2012, a Florida judge ruled that SeaWorld killer whale trainers can no longer get into the water with orcas and must be protected by physical barriers. SeaWorld is appealing. Still, the park doesn't seem to be hurting much: In 2011, attendance at its three locations rose 5.2% to 12.1 million, from 11.5 million in 2010, according to the Themed Entertainment Assn.'s global attractions attendance report.

But other animal activists believe "Blackfish" may reduce attendance at SeaWorld. Louie Psihoyos, the director of the Oscar-winning 2009 documentary "The Cove," said that if his movie about dolphin slaughter in Japan "gave these guys a black eye, hopefully this will be a knockout punch to SeaWorld."

Cowperthwaite and Berg hope that SeaWorld will eliminate its orca shows and replace them with more educational exhibits, such as facilities where sick whales are rehabilitated for eventual release. Another option, they say, is for the company to keep whales in a sea pen — a cordoned-off portion of the ocean where whales can still feel the natural rhythms of the ocean but are not confined to a tank.

"Whales are special because you feel that they recognize you, and that small moment throttles you," said the director. "But we have to be comfortable with the fact that whales may not love us back in that way. I was a mom who took her kids to SeaWorld, lured by the iconic image of Shamu, and didn't feel quite right about it and didn't know why. I hope people who see this and still go to the park are at least making an active decision — throwing down that 100 bucks and knowing the truth — not making a passive decision like I was."

amy.kaufman@latimes.com

2 exhibitions – 2 different worlds!

First, last weekend, at the AGO in Toronto, “Revealing the Early Renaissance: Stories and Secrets in Florentine Art”. It’s an exhibition co-organized by the Getty Museum and the Art Gallery of Ontario. A phenomenal one, with several pieces (close to a hundred) from the first half of the 14th century, notably Giotto (Giotto di Bondone, c. 1266–1337)'s five-panel Peruzzi Altarpiece (pre-eminently displayed and reproduced below – which, in the words of the organizers “revolutioniz(e) representation in painting through the introduction of human scale and perspective,… and by turning each figure toward Christ in a relatable fashion, away from the iconic stoicism of altarpieces past”) and his Madonna of San Giorgio alla Costa, several works from the storyteller Pacino di Bonaguida (1302–1340; The Appeal of Prato to Robert of Anjou), painted manuscripts of Dante's Divine Comedy (some of these manuscripts are seen for the first time outside of Firenze), and Giotto’s follower Bernardo Daddi's Virgin Mary with Saints Thomas Aquinas and Paul.
Image

What I was struck by was how prosperous Florence was in the early 1400 (way before Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci ever to set foot there, 150 years or so after), as the city was “blessed with unprecedented prosperity brought about by advances in industry and agriculture and a prolific lending economy”! Art (the religious one – building churches and adorning their walls and altars!) was a way for its citizens to “redeem” themselves and ensure a way to heaven in spite of their material wealth!

We also learn how artists of the time worked in workshops, collectively, as compared to this day-and-age solitary artist studios, under the guidance of a “master artist” who would often paint the important parts of the painting, and leave to his assistants to finish the detail work. In their attempt to portray real people and local buildings in their scenes, artists also depicted people – who wanted to see themselves in the art – in contemporary hairstyles and fashion.

I believe that earlier byzantine work (such as works we had seen in the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul) was a factor, arguing that, given the pre-eminence of  gold background and triangle notably, it must have had an impact on these works of the early Renaissance – I never checked that though!

 

And then in Montreal this weekend, at the Museum of Fine Arts, “Peru: Kingdoms of the Sun and the Moon”. Such a rich exhibition, put together by the museum itself (At the initiative of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, it is going to travel in the fall to the Seattle Art Museum!) Quite a discovery for us – tracing the art of this extraordinary civilization (put on par with that of the Egyptians, the Greeks and the Romans!) throughout the pre-Columbian period (especially the Inca Empire around 13^th and 14^th century), the Spanish “viceroyalty” time (dated going back to 1532 with Pizarro’s conquest and defeat of the Incas) and the attempt to revalorize the art of the “indigenous” people after independence in 1821 – quite a tour! (I bought the exhibition’s catalogue and souvenir album – with its fringe in gold – containing several essays by museum and university scholars.)

We all know of the Inca sanctuary “Machu Picchu”, heavily displayed at the start of the exhibition with a room fully dedicated to its “re-discovery” a century ago by American Hiram Bingham (“Pioneering Archeologist or First Tourist?” as one of the scholar puts it…but he took the time to sketch the site in detail and took many photographs of the place!) Interesting to note that the United States (Yale University) will have completed the return this year of all the artifacts (46,000 of them!) that were taken since from the site. The National Geographic also had an edition of its magazine – vol. 24, no.4, dated April 1913 – dedicated to Peru – it would be fascinating to find it back!  bel

Martin Chambi (1891-1973)
Aerial View of Machu Picchu With Mountains in the Background, Peru, 1927
Gelatin silver print, 35.9 x 45.8 cm
© Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal

 

What is lesser known is the richness of the artifacts exhibited – hundreds of well-preserved porcelain and gold “objets d’art”, depicting mythical gods and ceremonial decorations and instruments – the not-so-fearful knife, the Muchica Tumi, with which they severed the head of well-practiced human sacrifice ceremony’s “victims”! Sexual depictions – such as the small bottles in the shape of male genitals or depicting a woman masturbating a man – attract a lot of attention and laughs from visitors!

The narrative, all along the exhibition – especially at the beginning – is very nationalistic, “patriotic” some would rather say! The whole exhibition, you sense throughout, is an attempt at re-valorizing the art and the influence of Peruvian culture – fascinating!

Montreal, March 31, 2013

 

Some of the art shown:

Francisco Laso (1823 – 1869)
Habitante de las cordilleras del Perú [Inhabitant of the Peruvian Highlands], 1855.
Oil on canvas, 138 x 88 cm.Pinacoteca Municipal Ignacio Merino de la Municipalidad Metropolitana de Lima. Photo Daniel Giannoni

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A typical work of Peruvian art of the mid-19th century, Habitante de las cordilleras by Francisco Laso, portrays the indigenous peasant as a national symbol for the new Peruvian republic, and heralds the direction that Peruvian cultural nationalism was to take in the next century.

Chimú, Côte nord, peut-être Chan Chan
900-1476 apr. J.-C., alliage d'or, d'argent, de cuivre, approx. 46,6 x 21,9 cm. Museo Larco, Lima - Perú

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Une parure funéraire (couronne, disques d’oreilles, collier, pectoral et épaulières), chef-d’œuvre de l’orfèvrerie chimú conservé au Museo Larco (Lima).

 

 

Leonor Vinatea Cantuarias (1897 - 1968)
Pastoras [Shepherdesses], 1944.Oil on canvas, 197 x 174 cm.
Lima, Museo de la Nación. Photo Joaquín Rubio

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Paintings depicting scenes of Native life and the idyllic landscapes of the Peruvian countryside and highlands such as Pastoras (Shepherdesses) by Leonor Vinatea were to transform the visual culture of Peru in the modern era

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