“Fressing in New York City”

“FRESSER” means glutton in Yiddish. Our year-end trip to New York City offered the opportunity to indulge in great kosher foods, music, theatre, bookstores, and the intense street life that pulses 24 hours day and night. NYC is always a documentary in black and white, I should have been wandering the streets in the mid 1940s near the Cedar Street Bar where de Kooning, Rothko, Newman, Kline, Reinhardt and a host of other painters, sculptors, poets and writers would argue. I’m sure some of the conversation would center around Kandinsky and his passages into non-objective art. The Guggenheim museum celebrating its 50th anniversary, was filled with more than 100 of his paintings.

As it turns out, Irene Guggenheim, Vasily Kandinsky, Hilla Rebay, and Solomon R. Guggenheim were all together in Dessau, Germany in July 1930. The show we witnessed in December cemented the symbiotic relationship between Wright’s brilliant museum and Kandinsky’s intelligent imagination. It was a challenging day starting with the artist’s last works at the top of the museum and slowly working our way down to the main floor taking in Kandinsky’s earliest works.

Brynna knows New York. I’m the tourist but as previously stated I’m sure I had an earlier existential life attempting to reconcile the duality of operating as artist and designer. My eyes scan the sidewalks, alleys, signage and especially the new Halls ads inside the subway on the way back to Queens, where it was still possible to find great accommodations for 90 dollars. Who cares if the view across the street was a cab depot with strange goings-on at 2AM.

Wow, I felt right at home peering at those large red noses and for the first time I felt as if I was part of an elite tribe. Speaking of tribes, Seth Godin’s Tribes is perfect airplane passenger reading.

Books, bookstores and newsstands abound, but nothing is like experiencing the New York Public Library reading room. The space is filled with the DNA and history of artists, writers, musicians, scientists, literary people and Joe off the street. More than 150 years old, the library is now a blend of laptops and very large dictionaries perched on the stately reading tables.

Renzo Piano’s New York Times building was a site to behold. Even more valuable was the chance to catch up with one of my past students, Jeremy Ziler. Originally a successful Fine Arts graduate, he wanders the vast open spaces like Citizen Cane. He’s the blog master and fully understands publishing and communications in the 21st century. No one denies the tactile pleasures of ink on paper but our digital environment is here to stay, like it or not. Piano’s design is featured in this documentary by Annie Leibovitz, Building the Times.

Finally it was time for theatre and the opportunity to experience the Tony Award winning performance, God of Carnage by French playwright Yasmina Reza.  Actors Christine Lahti, Annie Potts, Jimmy Smits and Ken Stott staged a biting comedy about two urban couples attempting to maturely resolve an altercation that occurred between their 11-year-old sons in a neighborhood park. Brynna my partner in love, art and religion argued about the minimalist stage with large textured oblique wall and the surrounding red Rothkoesque environment. I celebrated the stagecraft but changed my opinion after listening carefully to Brynna who designs for the theatre professionally.

More than 4 weeks have passed since returning from NYC, but I still feel like my brain has yet to be unpacked.