Tuesday, July 27, 2021

Tasty Cocktail Recipes That Curators Mixed for the Museum

 

    Try These 10 Tasty Cocktail Recipes That Frick Collection Curators Mixed for the Museum’s Hit Lockdown Video Series

    The series finale of "Cocktails With a Curator," featuring a Black Manhattan, aired last Friday.

    Jean-Siméon Chardin, Still Life with Plums (ca. 1730), detail. Courtesy of the Frick Collection, New York.
    Jean-Siméon Chardin, Still Life with Plums (ca. 1730), detail. Courtesy of the Frick Collection, New York.

    For over a year now, art lovers looking to end their weeks on a high note have been turning to the Frick Collection, which for 65 straight Fridays has offered new episodes in its YouTube series “Cocktails With a Curator.”

    Each installment shares a drink recipe and invites viewers to join in at home while learning about an artwork in its storied collection of paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts.

    Today, that streak comes to an end, with deputy director and chief curator Xavier Salomon having poured his final drink for online audiences last Friday night.

    “Like all good things, they naturally come to an end at some point,” Salomon told Artnet News in an email.

    The series ended like it began last April: with a Manhattan. Salomon chose that first cocktail in tribute to the island that the museum calls home at a time when New York was under siege, at the epicenter of a global pandemic.

    Giovanni Bellini, <i>St. Francis in the Desert</I> (1480). Courtesy of the Frick Collection, New York.

    Giovanni Bellini, St. Francis in the Desert (1480). Courtesy of the Frick Collection, New York.

    “It started at the time of lockdown and forced quarantines, when people could not go out with friends to share a drink, so the idea of mixing cocktails with art came about fairly quickly,” Salomon said.

    He mixed that first Manhattan, which includes whiskey and sweet vermouth, to go with one of the Frick’s most famous paintings, Giovanni Bellini’s St. Francis in the Desert. Last week, Salomon wrapped things up with a variation of the drink, a Black Manhattan, which swaps Amaro, a bitter Italian digestif, for the traditional sweet vermouth. In the meantime, he discussed Arrangement in Black and Gold: Comte Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac by James McNeill Whistler.

    “My favorite cocktails are also some of the best known and traditional,” Salomon said, “like the Martini Vesper, Manhattan, and Mint Julep. On the other hand, I had to struggle to drink an Ouzo Lemonade—I never liked the taste of anise.”

    The video series was a surprise hit for the Frick, having been collectively viewed more than 1.7 million times to date. (Pre-pandemic, a typical Frick program might top out at just 400 YouTube views.) In May, the museum was honored with a Webby award for the series.

    “I have always been surprised and humbled by the success of the program,” Salomon said. “I am glad that people all over the world responded to the simple idea that works of art from the past can have an effect on us and improve our lives, especially at times of crisis.”

    Here are 10 recipes to try from “Cocktails With a Curator.”

    Xavier’s Manhattan

    1 part Italian Vermouth
    1 part Bourbon
    Stir well and strain into a cocktail glass
    Maraschino cherry

     

    Aperol Spritz

    3 parts Aperol
    2 parts dry prosecco
    1 splash of sparkling water
    Garnish with orange or lemon

     

    Vesper

    3 parts dry gin
    1 part vodka
    ½ part Lillet Blanc
    Chilled

     

    Toreador

    1 part blanco tequila
    ½ part apricot brandy
    ½ part fresh lime juice
    1 dash bitters

     

    Whiskey Sour

    2 parts Whiskey
    ¾ parts simple syrup
    ¾ parts lemon juice
    serve chilled

     

    Jaded Countess

    1 part absinthe
    ½ part vodka
    ½ part fresh lemon juice
    ½ part simple syrup
    stir with ice and strain
    top with champagne and garnish with a lemon twist

     

    Widow’s Kiss

    1½ parts Calvados
    ½ part Benedictine D.O.M.
    ½ part Yellow Chartreuse liqueur
    2 dashes of Angostura bitters
    mint leaf

     

    Genever Brûlée

    2 oz genever
    1 teaspoon brown sugar
    A few dashes of classic bitters
    A dash of orange bitters
    A splash of sparkling water
    Garnished with a caramelized orange slice

     

    Bloody Mary

    1 part Vodka
    2 parts Tomato juice
    Lemon juice
    Worcester sauce
    Few drops of Tabasco sauce
    Horseradish
    Salt and pepper
    Ice
    Garnish with celery, lemon, olives

     

    Limoncello Spritz

    1 part limoncello
    1 part sparkling lemonade
    Topped with Prosecco and garnished with mint


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    Sylvio Perlstein Collection

     'The Sylvio Perlstein Collection: From Dada to Now' opens at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art




    Duane Hanson, Young Shopper, 1973. The Sylvio Perlstein Collection.


    The First Art Newspaper on the Net Established in 1996Tuesday, July 27, 2021



    'The Sylvio Perlstein Collection: From Dada to Now' opens at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art
    Marcel Duchamp, L.H.O.O.Q, 1919–1964. The Sylvio Perlstein Collection.



      
    TEL AVIV.- The Tel Aviv Museum of Art presents artworks from the collection of Sylvio Perlstein, considered one of the best collections of modern and contemporary art in the world. This is the first time the works are being shown in Israel. Perlstein’s encyclopedic, multifarious collection follows the avant-garde and experimental art movements of the 20th century. It includes an impressive amount of canonic works in various styles: Dada and surrealism, abstract and conceptual art, minimalism, pop art, arte povera and contemporary art. In addition, it includes a body of photographic works rare in its quality and scope, which forms something of a collection within the collection. Many of the artworks in the collection have become iconic representations of 20th century art.

    Sylvio Perlstein was born in Belgium and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to where his family fled with the rise of Nazism. In the wake of the war the family returned to Antwerp for several years. Since then Perlstein has been dividing his time between the continents following both his business interests and his passion for art. These trips offered him the opportunity to meet many of the artists whose works form the collection. In Belgium he met René Magritte and the poet-artist Marcel Broodthaers; in New York – Vito Acconci, Bruce Nauman and Donald Judd; in Paris – Niki de Saint Phalle, and many others. In the 1970s Perlstein traveled to Tel Aviv specially to meet Marcel Janco, among the founders of Dada. This meeting now allows exhibition visitors to see a rare object created by Janco during the Cabaret Voltaire period. A meeting of extraordinary significance which led to a lifelong friendship happened by chance in the summer of 1969, when Perlstein traveled to see Man Ray’s exhibition in the French town of Saint-Paul de Vence. As fate would have it, on that day there was no one at the gallery except the artist himself. This serendipity led to a deep connection between the two men, with Man Ray becoming Perlstein’s friend and mentor. Thus the exhibition includes oil paintings by Man Ray, on display in Israel for the very first time, along with objects he created during his involvement with the Dada movement.

    Asked about his collecting method, Perlstein has said: “Since the 1960s I have been traveling between Europe and the US. I have never set boundaries or conditions for the collection. I find photography from the 1920s and 30s just as fascinating as minimalism and conceptual art, and I collect Dada and surrealist art with the same enthusiasm and curiosity as contemporary art. I particularly like strange, nonconformist works, which challenge me. I am also attracted to works with humor. In Brazil there is a word for this: Esquisito. You would be mistaken to think this has to do with some kind of exquisite character; rather, it means something strange, bizarre, unexpected. There needs to be a twist, some sense of humor or derision, something that challenges your expectations, that shakes your certainties about what art should or could be.”

    The exhibition’s title – HEY! DID YOU KNOW THAT ART DOES NOT EXIST… – comes from the text in the work of the French artist Ben, which appears on the red sheet of fabric welcoming visitors entering the museum. The words embody the spirit of the collection, because if art does not exist, it means that anyone and everyone can invent it for themselves. This pronouncement releases viewers from dependence on some “expert” interpretation and allows them to experience the works directly. At the same time, it offers viewers food for thought. This is where the power of both the collection and the exhibition lies: a flirtatious wink at “art history” that is at once amusing and serious.

    The artists whose works are included in the exhibition are:

    Berenice Abbott, Vito Acconci, Yaacov Agam, Josef Albers, Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Carl Andre, Diane Arbus, Arman, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Hans Bellmer, Ben, Alain Bizos, Erwin Blumenfeld, Margaret Bourke-White, Constantin Brâncuși, Bill Brandt, André Breton, Marcel Broodthaers, Daniel Buren, Pol Bury, Andre Cadere, Claude Cahun, Alexander Calder, Kevin Carter, Maurizion Cattelan, César, Paul Citroen, Joseph Cornell, Imogen Cunningham, Salvador Dalí, Niki de Saint Phalle, Braco Dimitrijević, Robert Doisneau, Marcel Duchamp, Nusch Éluard, Paul Éluard Walker Evans, Max Ernst, Dan Flavin, Lucio Fontana, Duane Hanson, Keith Haring, Hannah Höch, Jenny Holzer, Valentine Hugo, Marcel Janco, Donald Judd, On Kawara, Wassily Kandinsky, William Keck, André Kertész, Yves Klein, Barbara Kruger, Sigalit Landau, Sol LeWitt, Roy Lichtenstein, Dora Maar, René Magritte, Marcel Marën, Robert Mangold, Brice Marden, Agnes Martin, Mario Merz, E. L. T. Mesens, László Moholy-Nagy, Robert Morris, Martin Munkácsi, Bruce Nauman, Méret Oppenheim, Paul Outerbridge, Irving Penn, Sylvio Perlstein, Francis Picabia, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Man Ray, Ad Reinhardt, Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, Edward Ruscha, Fred Sandback, Lou Scheper-Berkenkamp, Kurt Schwitters, Tino Sehgal, Edward Steichen, Rudolf Stingel, Yves Tanguy, Takis, Jean Tinguely, Cy Twombly, Tunga, Andy Warhol, Lawrence Weiner, Edward Weston

    The exhibition is accompanied by a comprehensive catalogue in Hebrew and English and an audio guide which includes Perlstein’s recollections of his encounters with the artists on show.





    The Sylvio Perlstein Collection: From Dada to Now

    Over the past five decades, Sylvio Perlstein (raised in Rio de Janeiro, living between Belgium, France and the USA) has collected works by prominent 20th-century artists. This personal collection traces artists and trends that made the 20th century into an avant-garde, complex and experimental century. It includes Dada and Surrealist artists, abstract and conceptual art, minimalism, pop art, arte povera, contemporary art and more, as well as a uniquely extensive and outstanding collection of photography. The exhibition presents, for the first time in Israel, over one-hundred works from this rare collection, among them works that have become iconic and metonymic of the 20th century

    The catalog was made possible through the generosity of Safra National Bank, New York

    The catalog was made possible through the generosity of Safra National Bank, New York