SOLIDQUALITY

On a recent weekend, my family and I checked out the newly opened High Line park. Overall, I think the the idea and concept of the park is a very cool one. Make a green space free to the public out of a wasted space that cuts through a neighborhood recently seeing a rejuvenation, seems to be as good idea as anything I heard recently.

I guess one of the unique aspects of the High Line space is its location and size. The size cause it is so long really gives great views of the skyline and riversides. But the width is also a challenge. How to effectively move people along it while keeping enough room for greenery and the like.

The day I went was really crowded. It was hard to move around and I think appreciate the finer points of the park. It may have had to do with the access points available that day, most were closed, and it caused a lot of crowding to occur. Once they all open perhaps that will get better. Also, once the park is expanded and larger rest areas completed that will allow people to spread more evenly along its path. I am anxious to see it when it is complete.

The landscape design made you feel like you were in a park, but still retained the sense of the former use of the railroad tracks. And the vegetation selection even refers to the in between wild state that consumed the tracks after they were closed. Wild flowers and grasses mixed with concrete, steel tracks and dark wood really gives hope for urban blight. I mean, it really takes vision to make these materials feel inviting and complementary to the buildings/environs around.

See my photos on Flickr here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/solidquality/sets/72157620983752979/

Learn more about it here:
http://www.thehighline.org/

I have always known of Francis Bacon and his work but I must say I never really allowed myself to truly take it in until now. The Met in NYC has a retrospective of his work marking the 100th anniversary of his birth. The exhibit contains over a 130 pieces spanning his entire career.

I guess for me it his use of color that really struck me. Typically, I felt like most of his paintings were these dark anomalies and in some ways muddy. And there are moments int he exhibit that the work felt like that, but remarkably the moments were few and far between. Rather than muddy monochromatic chaos I found a very focused use of form and color. So focused that there really aren’t any artist before or after that ave come close to his style. (I guess I use the word style here loosely.)

The bodies and forms are distorted, with a quick glance might seem like careless abstractions. But each is very well thought out and the strokes perfectly placed to create  and build the form. A way of deconstructing it while simultaneously constructing it. Perhaps there are sketches and perhaps internal formulas that guided him, a language. But like a language, concepts are conveyed and the system carries a weight, an authority that really make the paintings something more, art.

And the colors! It is true you can’t really appreciate the  light without the dark and vice versa. The very graphic nature of the paintings of dark set against rich vibrant colors. reminds me of Lautrec’s poster art.

I would highly recommend the show, but try to go during a time of day with less people. You really need to sit with the work. Read the lines. Absorb the colors and get lost. It is a dark muddy world, but if you have the right eyes it will always seem bright.