The Agile Cat Artist --- Days 10/83 & 84

 Walk:  1. Day of Reading, Rest, Laundry,  2. T.. Joe's, then more of the same with cats

Distance: 1. n/a,  2. 3.6 miles

Famous Cats:

Ignoring You Cats:

Looking at You (sort of) Cats:

Being Nice to You for Food Cats:

Sleeping Cats (of course):

Kittens:

And so many more cats in a wide range of mediums

by Theophile-Alexandre Steinlen (Swiss, 1859-1923).  Known as "The Man Who Loved Cats," the classically trained Steinlen also loved his daughter (a frequent subject with cats as above), Montmartre where he moved from Lausanne, artist friends like Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, the French cabaret scene, and politics which he depicted under a pseudonym.  You can find his headstone in the cemetery at Montmartre and visit his art in many prestigious museums around the world including the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Musee d'Orsay in Paris, MoMA in New York, the National Gallery of Art, Washington. D.C.*

But none of Steinlen's cats are lap cats!  Not a one of his hundreds if not thousands.  Too sophisticated perhaps.  Luckily that can't be said of Ciwt's sister cats who are happily keeping her warm during this particularly cold and windy San Francisco summer.

* We even have some in our SFFAM collection  https://art.famsf.org/th%C3%A9ophile-alexandre-steinlen but -don't tell her cats - Ciwt has yet to see any on display.

Still in Doubt, More Cats --- Days 10/79, 80, 81, 82

Walk: 1. GG Park Pickleball  2. Various Hoods and Errands 3. GG Park Pickleball 4. Presidio Wall Pickle

Distance: 1. 1.5 miles, 90 minutes pickle 2. 3.5 miles  3. 2 miles  4. 5.5 miles   (Always some yoga)

Theophile-Alexandre Steinlen (Swiss active in France, 1829-1923), A la Bodiniaire, 1894

He didn't just create the iconic black poster cat.  Stay tuned....

When in Doubt...Cats --- Day 10/78

Walk: Presidio Pickleball

Distance:  2 miles, 90 minutes pickle

 Bart van der Leck, The Cat, 1914, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands.

Weekend!! --- Day 10/76 & 77

Walk: 1. T. Joe's 2. No, Sunday Home Stuff

Distance: 1. 2.5 miles 2. .5 miles, Yoga

Ciwt's Marvelous Summer Weekend in SF.  (Really; she's a homebody)

Straight Down the Winding Road --- Day 10/75

Walk: Presidio Pickleball, Vogue Theater (Roadrunner)

Distance: 4.5 miles, 90 minutes pickle

 

An incredibly straight forward presentation of one man's life.  Yes, it and he was extraordinary, but there's no effort to put him on a pedestal or sentimentalize or 'solve' his death.  You really feel like, yes, this is who he was - as much as that can be known.

LOVE Hurts... --- Day 10/74

Walk:  Hood

Distance: 3 Absolutely Freezing (for SF) miles

Robert Indiana (American 1928-2018), LOVE (1966-99), Aluminum and paint, SFMOMA 

Poor reclusive artist Robert Indiana, who spent as much time as he could on a distant island off the coast of Maine.  He created the most iconic sculpture of the Pop Art era,  There are 50 LOVEs placed and loved all over the world; several in foreign languages, but always just four letters or symbols.  

Maybe the only person who didn't love LOVE was the artist himself. The main stream fame the series brought overshadowed the rest of his career and was something he (possibly) came to HATE. In 2014 he told an NPR  interviewer, “It was a marvelous idea, but it was also a terrible mistake. It became too popular; it became too popular. And there are people who don't like popularity. It's much better to be exclusive and remote, you see.”

The New Museum, Some Artists --- Day 10/73

Walk: Union Square, GG Park

Distance: 5 miles

Wangechi Mutu 

Nam June Paik (not so new: considered Father of Video Art)

Carolyn Drake

Klea McKenna

Carolyn Drake

Olafur Ellison (Ciwt Loves his work)

Charles Gaines

Oliver Chanarin

The Times, They Transform... --- Day 10/72

 Walk: Golden Gate Park Pickle

Distance: 2.5  miles, 90 minutes pickle

Inadvertently Ciwt answered her own question yesterday: To wit: *PS - The young couple from Michigan (see Birthday Art post) loved Mutu's works - and their tour.

People of Ciwt's era mostly go to museums as respites.  Respites from politics for one.  But this is changing for young people.  Or has changed.

So while Ciwt was perplexed about the new 'personal', political artistic statements showing up more and more at museums and galleries, her young tour takers were intrigued by and interested in them.  To Ciwt such art museum offerings are foreign to her museum going expectations and experience.  But to younger people they are the norm - or so it appears or soon will be if the majority of museums and galleries continue this emphasis.

Oh....