Scrap iron statue

The thing about putting a pair of 10-foot statues of metal-hewn Transformers outside your townhouse in the most picturesque district of the nation’s capital is that the neighbors are going to have opinions. And on Prospect Street in Georgetown, they were not pleased. The statues — Bumblebee and Optimus Prime, two of the good guys from the long-running “Transformers” movie franchise — appeared in January 2021 outside the white-brick home of Newton Howard, a cognitive scientist and machine-learning expert with ties to the intelligence community. He had ordered them from a factory in Taiwan to the tune of more than $25,000 each. Where large brick planters had once blended in with the local aesthetic, there was now something akin to outsider art by way of an anonymous welder and Hollywood’s reinterpretation of 1980s toys. Plenty of people love the statues, which resemble invaders from the future, in a neighborhood that does its best to hang on to its cobblestone past. Students at … [Read more...] about When the Neighbors Don’t Share Your Vision (and That Vision Involves ‘Transformers’ Statues)

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — “Can we forget the crack of the whip, cowhide, whipping-post, the auction-block, the hand-cuffs, the spaniels, the iron collar, the negro-trader tearing the young child from its mother’s breast as a whelp from the lioness? Have we forgotten that by these horrible cruelties, hundreds of our race have been killed? No, we have not, or ever will.” So wrote Isabella Gibbons, a formerly enslaved Black woman, two years after the end of the Civil War. She was writing here in Charlottesville, where, in the 1840s, she had worked as a cook at the University of Virginia, on a campus designed by Thomas Jefferson, third United States president, shaper of the Declaration of Independence, author of the words “all men are created equal,” and lifelong enslaver. Gibbons, who was owned by a university faculty member, a science professor, remained in Charlottesville after Emancipation. By the time she wrote, in 1867, she was a teacher in a Black primary school. She may well have … [Read more...] about Turning Grief for a Hidden Past Into a Healing Space

Newly Reviewed Chelsea Joan Brown Through June 17. Matthew Marks Gallery, 522 West 22nd Street, Manhattan; 212-243-0200, matthewmarks.com . You could call the mature style of the great American painter Joan Brown (1938-1990) extra-late Egyptian, with her figures often rendered fully frontal or fully in profile. This formality — along with expanses of startling solid colors — contributes to the hypnotic stillness of her mainly autobiographical works. (Besides painting, her interests included her family, Hinduism, ballroom dancing, serious amateur swimming and Egyptian art.) It’s not always clear what Brown, who appears in six of the paintings here, is thinking about, but the seriousness is undeniable. So it’s not surprising that this show of a dozen paintings, mostly from the 1970s, includes “The Visitor” (1977). It depicts the artist seated with an Egyptian pharaoh at a restaurant. The pharaoh is deep turquoise — the color of Egyptian faience — as is the wall … [Read more...] about What to See in N.Y.C. Galleries in June

PARIS — For years, lovestruck visitors to Paris had affixed locks, often inscribed with their initials or names, to the wire mesh panels along the Pont des Arts, flinging the keys into the Seine River below. But last year, after a section of the bridge’s railing collapsed under the weight of some 700,000 declarations of fidelity, the city removed the locks , citing reasons of aesthetics and security. Some people were pleased that what they considered a blight on the city was being eliminated. Others, however, expressed regret that they would not be able to participate in what had become a cherished Parisian ritual. City officials, while acknowledging the sensitivity of the issue, said at the time that they wanted to restore views of the Seine, which the locks had obscured. The pedestrian bridge connects the Institut de France and the central square of the Palais du Louvre. Now the Pont des Arts, its iron grillwork freshly painted and protected by plexiglass panes, has taken on a … [Read more...] about Paris Bridge of Love Locks Now One of Sculptures

London’s magnificent Elizabeth line opened last May, and on its first birthday there’s so much to celebrate. Running from Reading and Heathrow Airport in the west to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east, the Elizabeth line brings an additional 1.5 million people within 45 minutes of the capital’s busiest districts; eases congestion on older lines; and makes London more accessible to all, as wheelchair users can reach its platforms from street level. As a pilot who commutes to Heathrow — I fly the Boeing 787 for British Airways — I’m often among its 600,000 weekday riders. The line, which runs alongside the Heathrow Express, offers another comfortable way to get to work. Many visitors will find the line’s soaring station halls and gleaming trains — they’re accented in royal purple and nearly three times as long as a Boeing 747 — not only convenient but also an inspiration. London, after all, is the home of the world’s first subway, a transport map that remains a … [Read more...] about A Journey Across London on the Elizabeth Line