Damien Hirst, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, 1991

You’ve probably heard of Damien Hirst — a young, very controversial British artist who’s most well known for his 1991 sculpture The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living… a.k.a. that sculpture of a shark floating in a tank of formaldehyde. Now’s your chance to see this huge sculpture (complete with a freshly-preserved tiger shark for the occasion) at, of all places, the usually conservative Metropolitan Museum of Art beginning in late August. It’s not permanent, so get to the Met within three years. I’ll certainly be checking it out this fall, albeit on an empty stomach…

Press Release from The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Wikipedia for more information on Damien Hirst

William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Whisperings of Love, 1889 (detail

The museum where I’m interning this summer currently has a special exhibit about William-Adolphe Bouguereau, a 19th century French painter who was immensely popular in his own time, fell out of favor, and recently has been semi-revived in interest among art historians. Personally, although his work isn’t exactly the ‘deepest’ stuff I’ve ever seen by far, I think his work is just BEAUTIFUL. I’m giving two gallery talks about Bouguereau (pronounced BOH-gheh-roh), and wanted to type up what I’ll likely be saying for my first one, this upcoming Friday the 20th. This will end up being longer than the tour I’m giving, and also longer than the usual size of this blog’s posts, but hopefully you’ll enjoy it anyway. I’d love to hear your thoughts on it!
(Read On…)