Barry Kostrinsky

The Thaw collection on view at the Morgan Library and Museum through January 7th is a typical exhibition. Typically great, wide in breadth and yet focused from more than just a Library at a lesser known hidden spot in plain view on Madison avenue and 36th street.

Through a series of questions with the founder of Catinca Tabacaru Gallery, a relatively young Catinca sheds some age old wisdom and her vision that governs her gallery in the heart of the LES at 250 Broome street. I learned new things about an old friend that makes me understand better how she has come so far so quickly in the art world and just how impressive she is. Taughted as a gallerist to watch in the past she is now a gallerist to be heard and followed. She relaxes  and answers in a very personal way a few important and a few silly questions about the art world and her practices.

One painting does not make an exhibit.  With the help of 50 other institutions and collectors from around the world  the MET has assembled a host of preparatory drawings, paintings by peers including Paul Signac, an early work by Pablo Picasso and some Honore Daumier's, as well as vintage posters and film footage enriching the allure in an attempt to spell out and reveal  the themes addressed in the Circus Sideshow painted by Georges Seurat from 1887-8 in a unique post-impressionist style. 

Who made the Guggenheim the Guggenheim? Why Rockefeller of course. Remember in My Big Fat Greek Wedding the wise words of the wife- yes...the man has the head but the woman controls the neck and which way the head turns. Solomon Guggenheim's wife, a Rockefeller, introduces Hilla Rebay to her husband and fosters the beginning of a relationship that posts Hilla as the art advisor for Peggy's uncle and the first director of the Museum of Non-Objective Art- yes, the original name of the Guggenheim Museum which could have been called Kandinsky's Painting Depot (KPD) given the deep collection of his artworks.

I remember the Herzog Video at the Whitney Biennial 2 rounds past but forgot the name of the Dutch artist he portrayed. Now the MET has the definitive exhibition of Hercules Segers......Who? Yes, that artist. In the way only the MET can do with the help of the RijksMuseum and a few others you can see a very rare relatively complete moment in history 400 years ahead of itself. Most existent prints are here as well as several paintings and like a comet they will not cross our path in NY or anywhere for that matter for another 100 years.

Today it is too easy to get down on our frail featherless friends. We are birds of a unique ability to fly. It is easy to dis, but deserves much more that's not to missed from our fellow monkeys who have elevated our canopy to reach closer to our internal gods above and inside. I will celebrate the best of humankind and try to write a pictorial story with no direction in sight. It will be an image game.

Art has needed it for a long time and of all things, it comes from the political realm. The tipping point has dropped with Donald Trumpeting a New Order unlike Joy Division. The new Don's deal will play out in the arts like a match to gunpowder.

The Accessible Art Fair Opens at the National Arts Club. Brussels Fair makes NYC Debut. The Vision of Stephanie Manasseh to give access to artists directly to collectors for exposure, connections and sustainability is the fulfillment of a daughters dream for her mother.

It was odd watching the pre-memorial segment on 60 minutes a week ago about a soon to die Morley Safe. It felt like a Monty Python sketch and I expected Morley to blurt out, ' I'm not dead yet.'

MoMA's must see exhibit of the year is definitely the Picasso Sculpture show up until February 7th 2016. We all know Picasso as that painter that put some odd eyes on faces, gave us multiple views of a sitting figure at once and the great thief that Giacometti would not let in his studio.

A Vermont getaway, or for that matter, any getaway helps to bring perspective to the daily lives we lead. Everyone becomes myopic in time and so these trips away from ourselves are critical for grounding our views, opinions and feelings about life and art. The MET, MoMA, The Morgan Library and Chelsea are great fun and places to see the best culture has to offer that has not been destroyed by irate terrorists of late. Yet Vermont's rolling hills, cows at every pass, cheese made from goats and maple syrup speak of a quieter, simpler time without monumental statements, paintings or understanding of man. Or is there something in the stillness, the quiet of time that Vermont possesses that we New Yorker's brush off our shoulder as if dandruff when in essence it may be the pixie dust of gods?

Vermont, there, I said it and now the thought of art has left your mind. I drove 243 miles to get away from New York and MOMA to see the mountains, the lakes and yes all that maple syrup. Oddly enough, the first signs you see that don't advertise corn, heirloom tomatoes and artisanal goat cheese are for artist studios and craft spots.