Guggenheim New York Free Admission for Anniversary

What a treat! To honor the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Guggenheim Museum's Frank Lloyd Wright building on Fifth Avenue, the Guggenheim is offering free admission on October 21, 2009 from 10 AM to 5:45 PM. Go! Take advantage of their hospitality!

This is great news, because right now there is a fantastic exhibit filling all levels of the famous spiral galleries: a retrospective of the works of Vasily Kandinsky. The exhibit runs through January 13, 2010. According to the brochure accompanying the exhibition, "His works not only represent the core and essence of the museum's permanent collection, but also inspired the design of the building."

I viewed the Kandinsky exhibit on a crowded Saturday afternoon, yet because of the way the paintings are spaced and hung, was able to see the art quite well. And although I'm not normally a big fan of guided tours or audioguides, this one is worth it. For one thing, Kandinsky was interested in a synthesis of the arts, and saw music, which is inherently abstract, as an ideal for his own painting as it became more non-objective. The audioguide lets you hear music by Schoenberg and Scriabin and others who influenced Kandinsky. Plus you can key in numbers to hear things whenever you like without having to race around to find the next work that will be discussed.

We are so lucky to have so many Kandinksy works here in New York: The Guggenheim, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich care for the three largest public holdings of his work.

Our office is only about two miles downtown from the Guggenheim, and we were happy to create some custom projects for our neighbor. At their request, Galison's Private Label division created sketchbooks, note cards, and writing journals for the Guggenheim that highlight the Frank Lloyd Wright building. 

--Susan

P.S. You can find these great products in the Guggenheim's gift shop and also online:

A Mudpuppy Visit to the Brooklyn Children's Museum

What do you get when you mix a 20-foot-long albino boa constrictor named Fantasia, fun, and the first museum created exclusively for children?

A great way to spend a Sunday afternoon – at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum – that’s what.

Anyone who knows us here at Galison/Mudpuppy knows that we are big fans of museums so when Brooklyn Children’s Museum Director, Carolyn Liv so generously invited us to their open house last weekend (September 14th), we jumped at the chance. And were we glad we did. Brooklyn World, 30,000 Object Collection and Neighborhood Nature are just a few of their incredible exhibits.

And if blazing the trail of childhood education was not enough, Brooklyn Children’s Museum is also slated to be the first "green" museum in New York City.

From their website: “In keeping with the Museum's commitment to preserve and protect the world's natural resources, it uses environmentally advanced, sustainable, renewable and/or recyclable materials and systems in the building’s design and construction.”

Super smart, super fun and super good for the environment. What more you could you ask for?

We had a super blast.

So much so that we recommend you attend their grand opening this weekend, September 20th and 21st. Have a look at their website: www.brooklynkids.org!

Thanks Brooklyn Children’s Museum!

--Liz Berntson

Courbet! Monet!

Yesterday, I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art  to see the Courbet Exhibit  I thought it was wonderful and wanted to share this. If you have the time, I strongly suggest you go over to the Met to see the exhibit. It is quite extensive.  It will only be there until May 18th.    

Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) was quite a character in his day. He purposely lived a scandalous lifestyle (this was in the 1850s) so he and his art would be noticed.  He painted at least 40 self portraits -  all in different costumes.            

He truly was the center of his universe.  His realist style painting was amazing. Many looked as if they could have been photographs. As a matter of fact photography which was new at the time was a big interest of his. Part of the exhibit has photographs from early photographers that he was friends with and I believe used photos for subjects when the models weren’t available.         

The exhibit is adjacent to the Impressionist Gallery.  While you are there you should take the time to go through it.  Not only are the paintings fabulous to look at but pretty much everywhere you turn you will notice many paintings that we regularly use for our own images: Monet, Renoir, Degas, Van Gogh.

We are so used to seeing these images on our cards and boxes that it is amazing to see the originals.  And if I may say so myself, how close we come (or try) to keeping the colors true to the painting

For example, have a look at our Galison Monet Prose Journal!      

Susan’s note: This post is based on an in-house e-mail message from Michele, who is Galison/Mudpuppy’s production manager. Among other things, she makes sure that the colors reproduced on our products match the original artwork to a degree most of us could never detect!