Museum Mile
due to the fact that the much anticipated Donna Tartt novel of the same name chronicles the fascination of a young boy from New York ( fittingly ) with this very painting . Tartt ’ s novel , in which this painting serves as a coprotagonist of sorts , was coincidentally published on the same day that the Frick show opened — win , win .
Post Frick , stroll up Madison Avenue ( stop at
Via Quadronno for a pick-me-up
Robert Indiana , LOVE , 1968 . Aluminum . Whitney Museum of American Art , New York ; Purchase , with funds from the Howard and Jean Lipman Foundation , Inc . © 2013 Morgan Art Foundation , Artists Rights Society ( ARS ) latte if need be ) and hit the Whitney Museum of America Art for a bit of Amore and Seventies Performance Art worship . Robert Indiana was known for his iconic Love paintings , sculptures and silkscreens . Some claim the insane popularity of this image was the artist ’ s ruination , indeed an ironic twist for a POP artist . “ Robert Indiana : Beyond Love ” reveals the depth of Indiana ’ s work and the span of his extended career . Much of his work from the 1960s has an apocalyptic quality , reflecting the nation ’ s raw social and political upheaval . While figurative images are rare for Indiana , there is a striking diptych as one enters the show , “ Mother and Father .” It could keep any Freudian busy on the oedipal front for quite some time . New York Times critic Ken Johnson commented on the show : “ Indiana ’ s paintings are richly ambiguous , they unsettle fixed categories , and they are ravishing to behold .” There clearly is a lot to love about the work of Robert Indiana .
Also on view at the Whitney is “ Rituals of Rented Island : Object Theater , Loft Performance , and the New Psychodrama — Manhattan , 1970 – 1980 .” Of late , New York has celebrated and , yes , idealized the alternative art of the 1970s . In that fraught decade , painting barely
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