Lunch break visit today. I liked the "Buddha's Smile" exhibition and learned a bit about the
different Buddhas and associated traditions along the way. It runs the gamut from very old to entirely contemporary, sometimes in juxtaposition (but not forcedly). I enjoyed Takashi Murakami's "Daruma the great" (2009) which seemed kind of reverent while also definitely having a sense of humour; also, in very different vein, was a bit fascinated by the little Japanese Zushi (portable Buddhist shrines) and the Tibetan prayer accoutrements (the prayer wheel especially, from 18th/19th century).
Also Tim Johnson's "Imitating Art" (2005), set above a very different type of Buddha piece.
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Other bits and pieces:
Also Tim Johnson's "Imitating Art" (2005), set above a very different type of Buddha piece.
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Other bits and pieces:
- The NGV has been good at installing pieces in the large central ground floor space that are both crowd pleasers and interesting to spend time with, and the current, Michael Lin's "Federation" (2017) is no exception. It brought a smile to my face and I lingered with it.
- The pair of Go Watanabe video projections, "Emo" (2004) and "Landscape" (2006-07), were eye-catching and effective in close-up too. "Landscape" reminded me of the Seventeen Seconds and Faith covers, with its slowly panning and super close-up shot of the face of the animated figure who recites (Japanese) phrases about what she is seeking in a partner in "Emo".
- Wandered through that first room of 20th century international, and along with old favourites like the untitled Rothko red, the blue Soulages, and Michael Andrews' dissolute party scene "All Night Long", was a new (to me) realist painting that was so precise - including its composition - that it has an almost metaphysical (in the general, not specifically the artistic, sense) feel, William Delafield Cook's "An Australian house" (1977).
