York, New.

New York recap!! Finally!

It was brief, less than 30 hours, most of it spent in the northern suburbs. But it was pleasant, quite pleasant. First up: The Female Gaze... thanks to the heads-up from the blog of artist Nathalie Vogel, I decided to check out the exhibition entitled The Female Gaze: Women Look At Women at Cheim & Read in Chelsea (kind of right up the alley of the whole "Women Painting Women" blog, no?) Except of course it included other media than just painting, and the painting is what I tend to get the most excited about, so there you have it... case in point, the following Alice Neel painting:

Or this painting by an artist previously unknown to me, Judith Eisler:

You can see more of the show in the gallery's slide show here as there were plenty of C-prints and some sculptural pieces and mixed-media art and even neon (!) and so forth. I'm still up in the air as to the exact difference between the end product of the male gaze vs. the female gaze (as I touched upon in this post) - but still, without question, it's good to see some interesting work by female artists... especially considering that there still seems to be a depressing dearth of representation by women artists in galleries. Sigh. Also in the realm of the arts (which good ole NYC pours forth by the bucketful, swoon) was a lovely little trip to the Frick Collection, which I have not visited since the mid-nineties. Now unfortunately, there was no photography allowed... so I will be forced to steal from the Frick website to share with you some of my favorites, including some more Whistlers (I had no idea this vacation northward would be so full of Whistler – but I see this as a good thing. A very good thing). The following was one of my faves:

Painting by James McNeill Whistler: Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink: Portrait of Mrs Frances Leyland, 1871–74, oil on canvas, found at the The Frick Collection

For sure it has a different feel from the Whistler (and of course hails from a much earlier century), but I also found seeing this painting in-person to be very satisfying:

Painting by Hans Holbein, the Younger - Sir Thomas More, 1527, oil on oak panel, found at the The Frick Collection.

Also art-related: I got to reunite with one of my own paintings on this trip – it probably goes without saying that it was not in the Frick Collection, however. Sigh. Here it is:

Iris painting by me, Diane Feissel

And now for some family: here's John with the lovely Ruth:

And here's Max and Ruth together, a wonderful couple:

I know I'm stating a well-worn cliché, but I ♥ NYC! And I love a city with a subway! Sigh. Anyway, more on life back in Raleigh soon. Phew!