Monday, December 27, 2010

Leonardo's Last Supper Recreated & New Year's Black-Eyed Peas for Good Luck


ART -  Now Showing 
Leonardo's Last Supper Recreated on Park Ave.
Inside the Park Avenue Armory, NYC, Peter Greenaway has perfectly recreated Milan's Santa Maria delle Grazie monastery refectory and its famous 1498 cracked plaster fresco painting, Leonardo DaVinci's "Last Supper" at its exact size.  Although, one of the most famous paintings in the world, the "Last Supper" is actually seldom seen because of concerns about it's condition and it's out-of-the way location. This exhibition is much more than a reproduction of the artwork, it is a multimedia entertainment effort bringing the painting to life. Greenaway, a filmmaker and multimedia artist, wants to make paintings cinematic, three dimensional, and accentuated by constructions, projections and a sound track. This unusual installation will only run through January 6, 2011.
$15 General Admission. Tue – Sun 11 am – 8 pm  Showings are on the hour starting at 12:00pm and last approximately 45 minutes. Last showing of the day is 7pm. (December 31, New Years Eve 11 am – 4 pm. January 1, 2011, New Years Day 11am – 8pm)
Below is a preview video of the multimedea performance.
For more info go to:  http://www.armoryonpark.org/index.php/programs_events/detail/last_supper_peter_greenaway/

FOOD
Eat Black-Eyed Peas on New Year's Day to ensure Good Luck ALL YEAR!
Black-eyed peas were first domesticated in West Africa and now are grown around the world. They were introduced into the Americas in the 17th century. It is a heat-loving plant, which survives drought, but cannot survive frost. Because of this black-eyed peas took a firm hold in the Southern United States and Texas. The brown peas with small black dots quickly became a staple of Southern food.

There are two reasons, I have heard, why Black-Eyed Peas are associated with good luck.
1.) For thousands of years black-eyed peas (in Aramaic: rubiya) have been eaten for Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, along with other foods thought to bring good luck.
2.) During the American Civil War, Union troops, in their effort to win the war, appropriated all food, crops and livestock as they marched south. Any food which could not be carried away was destroyed. Field peas (black-eyed peas) and field corn were considered animal fodder and not touched. These stockpiles helped the Southern population survive until the war ended. Black-eyed peas, already associated with good luck, were revered by Southerners after the Civil War as a life-giving blessing. The tradition of eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day for good luck has now spread coast to coast in the United States.
Black-eyed peas can be served over rice (called Hoppin' John), as a salad with diced onions, sweet peppers and vinegrette dressing (called Texas Caviar) or simply as a side dish. You cannot go wrong with the following brands: Sylvia's, Allen's (not shown) and Zatarain's New Orleans style. One or all should be available at national grocery store chains.

This 7 oz. dry mix has precooked black-eyed peas,
total preparation time is under 30 minutes.












TEXAS CAVIAR
2 (14 1/2 oz.) cans black-eyed peas, drained
1 (15 1/2 oz.) can white/yellow corn niblets, drained
1 can of petite diced tomatoes
4 green onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 4 oz can chopped green chilies
2 med. bell peppers (1 red, 1 green), seeded and chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
1 small diced red onion
1/2 c. fresh cilantro leaves, finely chopped
1 (8 oz.) bottle commercial Italian salad dressing
------------------
Combine all ingredients except Italian dressing; mix well. Pour salad dressing over mixture; cover and marinate at least 2 hours in refrigerator. Drain and serve with corn chips. 
Adapted from a recipe courtesy of Cooks.com. To see photos of Texas Caviar click link 


Artist Passages



Louise Bourgeois, 98, The sculptor became famous late in her career.  Her organic sculptures in wood, steel, stone and rubber came out of her sense of social isolation, her personal fears and overt sexuality. In 1993, she was selected to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale, an international art exhibition and in 1997 was awarded the National Medal of Arts. She also was selected to be included in four Whitney Museum of American Art Biennials. She was small in stature with a gruff voice and many people noted she had a mystique about her. Ms. Bourgeois said: "I identify with the victim. That’s why I went into art.” Google images of Ms. Bourgeois and her work: http://www.google.com/images?client=safari&rls=en&q=Louise+Bourgeoi&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=jNwZTc6IGIbmsQPF1oGbDw&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CDAQsAQwAA&biw=1231&bih=617


Frank Frazetta, 82, was one of the most commercially popular fantasy artists of the 20th century. Known primarily for oil paintings of well-muscled men and well-endowed women. His wife, Eleanor Frazetta, who administered the lucrative trade in Frazetta's originals, reproductions and reproduction rights, passed away in July of 2009, sparking a round of infighting among their adult children. In December 2009, the son, Alfonso Frank Frazetta was arrested for stealing nearly $20 million of his father's art from a museum in the Poconos after he and two others used a backhoe to enter the building. Frazetta Jr. claimed to be working on his father's orders to retrieve the art "by any means necessary." Since then, Frazetta's children have resolved their differences and before he passed, Frank Sr. announced that all of the disagreements and litigation surrounding his family and his art had been resolved. More of Frank Frazetta's work: http://frankfrazettamuseum.com/prints.html

David Levine, 83, was the best known caricaturist in the last half of the 20th century. Born in 1926 in Brooklyn, David Levine studied painting with Hans Hofmann and at Pratt Institute. His work has been exhibited extensively in major galleries and museums throughout the world and several books of his drawings have been published. His caricatures appeared regularly in The New York ReviewJohn Updike, who was one of the artist's frequent subjects, paid tribute to Levine more than thirty years ago when he wrote: "Besides offering us the delight of recognition, his drawings comfort us, in an exacerbated and potentially desperate age, with the sense of a watching presence, an eye informed by an intelligence that has not panicked, a comic art ready to encapsulate the latest apparitions of publicity as well as those historical devils who haunt our unease. Levine is one of America's assets. In a confusing time, he bears witness. In a shoddy time, he does good work." Levine passed away on Dec. 28, 2009, so was not mentioned in many of the year in review obituaries in the last week of 2009. Google images of David Levine and his work: http://www.google.com/images?client=safari&rls=en&q=David+Levine&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=zdsZTa3pE4nksQOkxqnLCg&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=5&ved=0CDkQsAQwBA&biw=1231&bih=617


ART SHOPPING


David Levine 2011 Calendar
Keep up-to-date with the David Levine 2011 Calendar, which reproduces thirteen of his portraits from the pages of The New York Review. He was the heir of the 19th century masters, Honoré Daumier and Thomas Nast.    $12.95
After Christmas Sale  MoMA

"At the Concert Européen" (1886-88) Reproduction of Georges Seurat's drawing. The exhibition poster for George Seurat - Size: 32h x 22.75"w  The Drawings exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, 2007-2008.  Item# 69701  Was $20.00 now 90% off Sale Price $1.99 .Go to MoMA Exhibition > Cannot be gift-wrapped *This Item can not be shipped outside of the 48 contiguous US States. Made in the USA. Other sale items at MoMA at this link:


(Only one edition will be posted this week due to the holidays)
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Until Next Year,
Jack



© ARTS&FOOD,(ARTSnFOOD.blogspot.com) All rights reserved, © Copyright Jack A. Atkinson  2010 Under All International, Digital, Intellectual Property and Copyright Laws. Images © Copyright individual Creators, Lenders or Fabricators.

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