Tag Archives: art

HD Video Interview with Vivian Reiss in her amazing artist’s garden in Toronto. 16 Foot tall corn!

Watch this HD video interview I did with artist Vivian Reiss in her urban farming garden in Toronto.  It featues 16 foot tall broom corn, multi-colored amaranth, and gardening secrets. Enjoy!

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Ten Tips for a Happy Trip to Venice, Italy

This article I wrote on Venice Travel was just published in the Huffington Post Ten Tips for a Happy Trip to Venice, Italy By Joel Garten Venice is one of the most beautiful cities of Europe. Wandering down narrow, crumbling … Continue reading

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Painting of Paintings

This is a close up detail of a photo I took of a painting in the Musee des Beaux Arts, Brussels Belgium.

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Geertgen tot Sint Jans, “The Glorification of the Virgin”

I was fascinated by this painting I saw in the Boijmans museum in Rotterdam.  It has a little virgin and child surrounded by a cloud of symbols and angels in gold.

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Michaelina Wautier, Portrait of A Man

A beautiful portrait from the Brussels Musee des Beaux Arts.  Excellent choice of frame as well.

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Caritas (“Charity”), by Lucas Cranach the Younger,

This was one of my favorite paintings from the Musee de Beaux Arts in Brussels, Belgium, a museum filled with great masterpieces.  I looked at this for a long time, and it charm only increased.

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Gardiner Museum, Toronto

Here are some beautiful things from the Mesoamerican collection at the Gardiner Museum, Toronto.  I was there last week. Serpent bowl from Panama 800-1200 AD Crab bowl from Panama 800-1200 AD polychrome bowl with hieroglyphic writing and a God in the … Continue reading

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Liberale da Verona: Scene from a Novella

Another beautiful painting I saw from my last trip to the Metropolitan Museum.  This painting is by Liberale da Verona entitled Scene from a Novella and was painted in Siena between 1467 and 1476.  It is a rare secular painting from … Continue reading

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Bramantino: Madonna and Child

During my recent trip to the Metropolitan Museum, I was transfixed by this beautiful painting by Bramantino (Bartolomeo Suardi).  It really deserves much greater fame.  It is an unusually peaceful serene composition.  The Madonna holds an apple, with Latin name … Continue reading

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Donato De’ Bardi

I just returned from a trip to the Metropolitan Museum and I am going to post some things I saw.  What a beautiful museum.  Here is the right panel of a triptych by Donato De’ Bardi.  It is so beautiful … Continue reading

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Piet Mondrian: Dune in Zeeland

Early in Piet Mondrian’s career, before he developed his famous style, he went to Zeeland in the Netherlands and painted a series of paintings of sand dunes.  These paintings were a landmark in his development as an artist, and where … Continue reading

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Vivian Reiss painting huge new garden painting

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Islamic Calligraphy

I love Islamic calligraphy.  The shape and flow of the letters is so beautiful. Islamic art did not feature large scale painting, so other arts, such as bookbinding, calligraphy and miniature painting became very prominent.

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Ram in a Thicket from the British Museum

This is a spectacular sculpture that I remember as one of the highlights of the British Museum in London.  The British Museum is a huge storehouse of treasures from around the world, including the Rosetta Stone, the engraved stone with … Continue reading

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Bonheur de Vivre by Matisse

This is one of Matisse’s great masterpieces painted 1905-1906, a huge canvas with a lot going on. It resides in the Barnes Foundation.  Barnes was a great collector of Matisse and many other French painters. The energy in this painting … Continue reading

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Photography Portraits by Mia Hanson

These portraits of me were taken by the photographer Mia Hanson, who as you can see is extremely talented.  They were taken last March at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, my favorite museum.

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Philip Guston

Philip Guston, like Richard Diebenkorn was an artist that had a career both as an abstract painter and a figurative painter, both of which were very successful. The intent of the two phases of his career seem very different, yet it … Continue reading

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Beautiful Garden by Vivian Reiss

Garden by Vivian Reiss.  Website: www.vreiss.com  Blog: www.vivianreiss.com        

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Korean Vase

This beautiful, simple vase comes from Korea and is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Its from the late 13th Century.  It has such a simple grace to it.  The glaze is called Celadon, which is usually … Continue reading

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Petrus Christus: A Goldsmith in His Shop

A great masterpiece by Petrus Christus from 1449.  There is so much going on in this painting, its hard to catalogue.  Look closely and carefully, and you can teast out a great many details, compositional tricks, and exceptional shows of … Continue reading

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Monkey enamel

This beautiful enamel beaker is one of the finest examples from the medieval period.  It features playful monkeys taking a peddler’s belongings and frolicking in the trees.  The monkeys are a symbol and commentary on human folly.  No matter what we do, … Continue reading

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Manet: Young Lady in 1866 and Mademoiselle V. . . in the Costume of an Espada

Manet painted many great paintings, many of which feature this model, named Victorine Meurent (1844–1928).  What I find most interesting about his work are his compositions.  The inclusion here of the parrot perch is essential to balancing the picture. Each element … Continue reading

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Vermeer: Maid Asleep

This is one of my favorite paintings by Vermeer.  There are only 36 Vermeer paintings in existance. Maid Asleep is a dreamy painting with a composition with multiple planes.

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Jean Dubuffet #2

Update!  These came from the blog http://www.contemporaryartdaily.com/ Check out these amazing sculptures by Jean Dubuffet in a show from 2008.  They look a little like Leger sculptures. see all the images here http://www.contemporaryartdaily.com/tag/jean-dubuffet/

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Jean Dubeffet

Jean Dubuffet is in the collections of many major museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which has the top two paintings, and the MOMA, which has many.  His work pus together a very inspired child-like aesthetic, married with a … Continue reading

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Richard Diebenkorn

In the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, they have a great collection of paintings by the artist Richard Diebenkorn, who I find to be very inspiring for my music.  In the museum they have one of his paintings next … Continue reading

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Wooden Gongs

Wooden gongs and bells Continue reading

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