Run, Don't Walk: Hopper Drawings at the Whitney

In the supporting reference for “New York Movie,” 1939, we learn that usherettes were to refrain from watching the film while on duty. 

You really don’t want to miss the show of Hopper drawings at the Whitney. It closes on October 6th, so consider this fair warning: Get yourself over there this week.

Edward Hopper was a master of distillation. His powerful ability to observe, stage, and edit have resulted in some of the most iconic images in American painting. He manages to evoke not just a geographic sense of place, but a location’s emotional essence as well.

The drawings document Hopper’s perception and thought in real time. Raw reportage. It might be the flicker of what he’s seeing at a given moment while riding the elevated train, or the framing of a scene he’s studied for some time. We watch him record, digest and process the world. Through his drawings, we experience, visually, the artist’s brain at work.

This show is also an opportunity to marvel at Hoppers draftsmanship, which is something not always evident in his paintings. And to support the drawings, the Whitney provides sketchbook pages, vintage photographs, maps, floor plans, and—oh yes—21 paintings.

"Early Sunday Morning," from 1930, was reunited with the easel Hopper painted it on in his studio.

AT&T Phone Museum Auction

Male mannequin dressed in linesman gear.

Yet another missed auction. These artifacts were from the Cleveland AT&T Museum that was housed in the basement of the former Ohio Bell Building (now called the AT&T Huron Rd. Building).

Pair of metal linesmen shoes for climbing.

Two eras of female mannequins dressed in switchboard operator garb.

20 Western Electric Desk Phone W/E receivers.

I couldn't resist combining a few separate lots to get these

classic colors all together.

And for those of you who remember the "Ghost Car," 

here's a "ghost phone!"

Karma Chocolate and Other Addictive Dahlias

Weston Spanish Dancer

Karma Chocolate, Prince of Orange, Sakura Fubuki, Spike, Thomas Edison, Amorous. These are just a few of over 200 dahlia varieties grown at Endless Summer Flower Farm in Camden, Maine. Farmer, Phil Clark, started growing the flowers in 1997 for his daughter’s wedding. Dahlia-growing became an addiction and he now enables others who are hooked or would like to be.

As for the name, “Endless Summer Flower Farm.” Well not exactly. Camden is likely to have frost before September is over. The tubers must come out of the ground before then, not to be replanted until late April. There’s Maine humor for you.

Karma Chocolate

Happy Face

White Kelvin

CPW

Cafe Au Lait

Procyon

Procyon (again)

Hamilton Lillian

Lupin Ben

Tartan

Baron Kati

Colorado Classic

Dare Devil

Just Married

Thomas Edison

Pink Flair

Farmer Phil with a spectacular Cafe Au Lait.

You will definitely get high walking the fields.

A simple Ball jar will do for a vase.

Every combination is an inspiration.

Catalog link

Stuck at the Met

The Gotlands Museum in Sweden

We’re all familiar with the colorful freeform encrustations that grow on the walls, pipes, and any street furniture in close proximity to museums these days. I always smile at these organic accretions of discarded admission stickers. Their lively messiness provides the perfect counterpoint to the curated seriousness of the very institutions from which they originate.

So, in some way, I was kind of looking forward to seeing what the Met would roll out to replace their iconic and much-loved colored metal tabs which were recently retired after 42 years. Because if ever there was a high-profile occasion for an elegant or interesting design solution, this was surely it. Right?

The other day was my first visit to the museum since the changeover to paper admission stickers. At the exit, there used to be elegant acrylic receptacles filled with colored metal tabs. Now there are very ordinary stanchioned-mounted boards, the kind you might find at a convention informing you which plenary session is to take place in which ballroom. They are positioned to accept the exiting museumgoer’s blue and white rectangular sticker. That’s right, the stickers are, according to a guard I queried, always blue on white.

Too bad the Met, of all places, passed on the opportunity to create what might have been an interesting, or even inspired admissions interface. Instead they seem to have opted for the Staples method (just push the “easy button” and hop on the aesthetic blandwagon).

But let’s wait a while, there’s no telling what might become of those boring little stickers …

Board at the Met

Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki

The Sinebrychoff Taidemuseo, Helsinki

I was very excited to recognize the portraits on some the stickers as the ones photographed by Finnish artist Jorma Puranen!

Results of a Flickr search

eBay Eyes: Watch Works

I have no idea how I ended up looking at watch parts on eBay, but once I started scrolling through these arrangements, how could I stop? I have no doubt that many of these items will find their way into very clever, elaborate, and even useful projects, but it’s hard to imagine that any of them will ever again look as beautiful as they do in these photos.

eBay Eyes is an occasional presentation of found visual treats from that ever-expanding, electronic mega-marketplace.