SURREALISM CAN BE REALLY MOVING!
Today’s Top of the Day is Remedios Varo’s Tránsito Espiral (Spiral Transit) from 1962. One of our group suggested we look at her ethereal work. She was a Spanish-Mexican surrealist and worked in Europe & Mexico. She was inspired by many of the Renaissance paintings of which we’ve become familiar, her elongated gothic type figures (albeit small in this painting) spiraling around a central tower in their Bruegel-like boats. The painting also reminded several of us of Heironymus Bosch. The expression of freedom in the form of a bird about to fly out of the tower was a theme that resonated with us all.
We also looked at Zenos Frudakis’s moving sculpture, Freedom, which he dedicated in 2001. This twenty-feet long, eight-feet high bronze sculpture weighs seven thousand pounds and is one of Philadelphia's rich treasures. It spoke to many of us about the trepidation one feels when faced with life’s struggles, pulling away cautiously from situations that weigh us down, and then finally breaking free to celebrate. One of our group is from Philly & spoke about what it meant to have this sculpture in the city where so many of our country’s freedoms were debated & “sculpted” and reminded us that Philadelphia was an important port for Harriet Tubman & the Underground Railroad. This was also a terrific suggestion from one of our gaggle.
Niki de Saint Phalle’s Gwendolyn, from 1966-90 (she did several versions) is composed of painted polyester on a metal frame. The big round figure, perhaps a mother-to-be or at least a woman of power and self-assuredness, reminded us of the Venus figurines from the Late Stone Age. We saw Ms. De Saint Phalle’s Queen Califia’s Magical Circle after a recommendation from one of our own circle! Her surreal visions of people and animals are a colorful pastiche of imagery and materials and, for most, something to make us all smile.
Jeff Koon’s Puppy at the Guggenheim Bilbao is a 43-foot-tall living plant sculpture of a West Highland terrier. It was inaugurated in 1997 and was almost part of a terrorist plot to blow up the museum! The puppy has an interior system to water the flowers and plants once a day and is replenished with more appropriate foliage whenever the season changes. That change-over occurs in May and October and requires 20 people and 9 days to complete and freshens up Puppy’s coat with approximately 38,000 new flowers in hues of red and pink including pansies for the fall and winter, and begonias, impatiens, and petunias for the spring and summer.
What a great start to the New Year’s Eve celebration tomorrow!
- Introduction Slide 1 -- link --
- Remedios Varo, Tránsito Espiral (Spiral Transit), 1962 -- link --
- Zenos Frudakis, Freedom, 2001 -- link --
- Zenos Freedom! -- link --
- Niki de Saint Phalle, Gwendolyn, 1966 -- link --
- Jeff Koons, Puppy, 1997 -- link --
- Jeff Koons, Puppy -- link --
- Jeff Koons, Puppy -- link --
- Jeff Koons, Puppy -- link --
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