Day 12: Venice Day 2, all pics

Day 12:  Venice, in pics

Quote of the Day: What a great art day!

Weather: Gorgeous

The answers to the pictorial pop quiz or just answers 

The masking tape (and some of the paint) has been removed and the toilet flush works

For some reason the Sina Centurion covers up the drain hole in the sink

The day in art:

First stop: Accademia for the Georg Baselitz show and old masters

Baselitz started hanging his pics upside down in 1969...very disconcerting so THB has rotated most of the following pics

Sculpture is right side up

Almost all 2d work is large 

Now for the old masters: THB recognizes very few of the names

Zona

Tinturetto

Bastini

Bellini: painted on silk, much softer palette than the rest of the work

Bosch: behind glass, not easy to take pics of detail 

Luciani

del Fiore

Strozzi

We're on our way to Luc Tuymans exhibit, there are other exhibitions we run into along the way

Modeled on architects work, architects we don't recognize

Very conceptual, blue water glasses on clear and broken displays

Luc Tuymans: THB had never heard of him. His specialty: grim back stories to every single work in the show

A great show at Palazzo Grassi, so good we run out of time before meeting our art guide for next two days and thus will be going back

Schwarzheide: tile floor on zero floor (first floor for most of you) that THB walks on!! Ohhhh Nooooo!

View from 3rd (or is it 4th?) floor

2nd or 3rd floor

Many stories related to Nazis behind these pics. Tuymans was born in 1958, lives in Antwerp now. His father was a member of Hitler Youth, mother was in French resistance

Allo! I: one of few works in a dark palette

Maybe Tuymans looking at his own painting?

Cook....cutting up??

Frozen, scene from Chernobyl

Tolerance, a portrait of a normal, cheerful KKK leader

Issa Sagawa, portrait of Japanese guy who dismembered someone in France in early 70s

Tuymans has a sense of humor: this one is called Bend Over and you're thinking the worst. It's part of a normal exam for spinal stenosis

A shot from a telenovela where candidates are in a lottery to be in top 3% of society. Death is result if you don't win the lottery. This woman has just found out she didn't win.

We run out of time, we're off to meet Valentina, our art guide for May You Live In Interesting Times. 

Our tickets are good at both the Giardini and the Arsnale

Valentina, our guide for two days

The gondola is in the way of our water taxi

Valentina in the taxi

The Russian pavilion has two artists, the one upstairs is illustrating the story of the return of the prodigal son, the one downstairs has a few separate installations. Both downstairs and upstairs are dimly lit, and have videos as well

Father

Son

Now downstairs, the hair rotates throughout

Japan: Cosmo-eggs

The rock goes through four stages, with small things growing on it until it is covered in jungle foliage

Germany: no artist uses the front door anymore because of the building's association with the Nazi era

The artist does not want to even be identified! She's done a minimalist installation, leaving the pavilion in the same state the 2018 Architecture event left it in, adding a bit of scaffolding, a wall, and not much more

Rebuilt since 2017

Ooops? Hard to tell if these giant shivs are intentional

Installation is a video of indigenous person being interviewed that midway turns into farce as he starts speaking in French and the translator is now speaking something other than stuttering English

Videos are big at the Biennale this year and Valentina is trying to save us from most of the tedious ones.

A theater group puts on a slow, tedious video that even Valentina can't save us from, with random pieces of stuff left in the foyer in front of the projection room

Great Britain pavilion always has a line...why? Because they strictly limit the number of visitors to no more than 15 at a time. THB wanted to take an early exit, lost the vote by a narrow margin.

Very minimalist work by Cathy Wilkes

How minimalist and soft was this installation? One of the key elements appears to be a used roll of toilet papers. THB could not figure out what happened to the remain(der)

Future inhabitant of UK?

Very hard to tell if she was once a member of the Commonwealth

Israel is doing something a bit different: you enter, get a number as if the hospital waiting room and you get treated when your turn comes up. THB saw a few patients with wristbands looking at art in other pavilions

US pavilion with one of THB's fave artists (same for SMC and DB)

"Cloister-Redoubt or Cloistered Doubt?"

Large Civil War hat 

"Tabernacle"

We've left the country pavilions and are now in the main exhibition hall, curated by Ralph Rugoff. He also curated the main exhibition in the Arsenale (which we'll see tomorrow), with the same artists in both spaces.

THB does get name of artist

Lots of paintings by Nicole Eisenman

Jean-Luc Moulene

"Domintrix"

Eisneman

Martine Guiterrez

Self-portraits

Kaari Upson, huge

Apichatpong Weerasethakul, there is a lot by this artist

Apichatpong Weerasethakul,

Arthur Jafa, American: stills from his White Album video. Jafa won the equivalent of the best of show award for this work. It is rough, very rough; some he created and some he took from the "news" and the internet. Worth a viewing to help explain the interesting times we live in. If you watch one video, this is the one

"fear and greed" talk show simulation? 

Lots of work by Henry Taylor

Julie Mehretu: A, A, A, A....

Escorted out of the White House?

George Condo

Taylor

Condo

Soham Gupta (there are two Guptas in the show): Photographs of down and out in India that Gupta spent time learning their stories

Lara Levetto: a room of possible items from her life or just random...interesting collection of items like you might find in a well curated antique store

Sun Yuan and Ping Yu, Can't Help Myself

THB loved this piece: a balletic robot doing a series of moves to squeegee up the red mess on the floor. It is behind glass because otherwise we'd all leave needing dry cleaning

It runs constantly, makes sounds of action, and is mesmerizing. Largest crowd in Giardini watching the show

If THB did such a thing, this was the piece to post a video of the ballet, with sound

Christian Marclay

Yu Ji; in a dim room these figures were spot-lit. 

Cyprien Gaillard, it's a hologram in same room as Yu Ji pieces

Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Apichatpong Weerasethakul

THB didn't get name of artist. Look for work by same artist in next post!

Alexandra Bircken, another THB fave, done in knitted fabric

JR knockoff? This cow stays on the tracks, though it isn't moving either, see sign below

Carol Bove

Ed note: THB thinks this same piece is the Arsenale show!!

Njideka Akunyili Crosby, collages

Mari Kayakama

Zanele Muholi, selfp-portrait

Shots from around town, food, miscellani:

3 day vaporetto tix

Gondola riders

Vaporetto staff member

This is the main building for Biennale staff, restaurant for lunch is through this portal

Too windy to dine outdoors

At 12:35 it's empty at Ombra del Leone

Food looks and tastes terrific, part of our "donation" to Valentina's employer

THB has gnocchi daily special with crab: perfecto

DB has spaghetti with clams

It's blurry, the gondoliers dine here

It's very hard to get pics to come out of bathroom indicators. Basically, there are two unisex stalls

Coffee and Venetian style "biscotti"

Gondola has to clear for our water taxi to get in to the dock

Valentina

The hot drink in town: sprizzone. Apertif like asperol, white wine, fizzy water, olives; very refreshing

The Thai Pavilion has rented the space inside in a room behind the cafe

Light is terrific at 6:45

The three of are dining at Local,  where we ate 2 years ago. They gone upscale: prices are up, you have to order at least 2 courses or the menus, and the food is great as before

Open kitchen visible from our table

Amused bouches of sardine, cod slider, and some nice dots on a thin cracker

SMC's veggie dish

House-made bread (as good as 2 years ago) and olive oil

Grilled octopus for THB

Eggplant for DB, very nice

Chicken marinated in soy, and thus a bit too salty for THB

Mackerel for DB

We don't order dessert, we're stuffed. However you cannot leave a restaurant with petit fours, and THB consumes more than his share...ALL GOOD TO GREAT!

Marshmallow on a stick; Total come to around $330 for the three of including drinks of wateer, glass of red, a martini and a gin and lemon juice