One of my biggest dream: see Van Gogh and Monet at the Met and MoMA

         I've always wanted to visit New York. Of course who doesn't? But for me, the vision of beholding the Manhattan skyline, the Statue of Liberty or being overwhelmed at the Grand Central Terminal or the Times Square or looking at Brooklyn Bridge is in no way more profound than seeing an original Van Gogh or Monet at the Met or the MoMA. A Picasso here and there would also be nice ;)

Here are the paintings I'm dying to see at the Metropolitan Museum of Art:

                       Blind Man's Meal
                             Picasso
Because I'm more into his Blue Period paintings than when he became a truly Modern artist.

The Third Class Carriage
Honoré Daumier
Because just looking at this painting, the word "squalor" and "pathos" are personified.

                                                Vincent Van Gogh
                                     Self Portrait with straw hat
Because...it is the master himself....

    Jules Bastien-Lepage

    Joan of Arc
Because, it intrigues me...the visions in her mind, the lost, almost "carried away" look in her face ....

Madame Georges Charpentier

Auguste Renoir
Because no one can make portraits of people come alive the way Renior does...you keep guessing what's on their minds

Shoes

Vincent Van Gogh
Because Van Gogh drew those shoes...period.

The Water Lily Pond

Claude Monet 

Because he is the greatest of the Impressionists...one I have admired since I was a kid and was learning the effect of light bouncing off of objects .                                                                                                                                          

Bain à la Grenouillère

Claude Monet
Beacase of the way the water ripples, and the overall composition of the painting that has been done in seemingly effortless strokes.

                  The Little fourteen year old dancer
                                     Edgar Degas
Because I read somewhere that the young ballerina almost looks like she is ready to spring and start dancing....

Water Lilies
Claude Monet
I don't need a reason to look at Monet...especially when he paints Water Lilies

 The Harvesters
               Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Because I was so intrigued by this guy after I saw " Museum Hours", an exquisite, subtle movie on how art reflects life...

Wheat Field with Cypresses at the Haute Galline Near Eygalieres

Van Gogh

Because no other artist can paint a sky like that, and make tress sway like that....  

And finally, my favorite, which is in the MoMA....

    

                                       Needs no introduction....The Starry Night...by Van Gogh

And was just curious to look at the provenance of this world famous painting, and looking at it, I wonder how many countless people would have laid eyes on it, marvelling at the sheer brilliance, technique and inimitable style of this very disturbed artist, who shot himself at the age of 37, never to know how famous these very paintings would make him one day. What an absolute irony.

Provenance

Owner	City	Country	Date acquired	Comments
Theo van Gogh	Paris	France	1889-91
Johanna van Gogh-Bonger	Amsterdam	Netherlands	1891-1905
Oldenzeel Gallery	Rotterdam	Netherlands	1905-06
Miss G.P. van Stolk	Rotterdam	Netherlands	1906-38	On loan to Museum Boymans, Rotterdam, until May 1924.
Paul Rosenburg Art Gallery	New York	United States	1938-41
Museum of Modern Art	New York	United States	1941	Acquired through the L.P. Bliss bequest.

Just looking at this brief list, I'm breathless with part anticipation, part sheer gratitude to the Cold Spring Harbor Conference due to which I have this exceptionally wonderful opportunity to go to New York and visit these hallowed spaces called museums and above all be in the presence of some of the greatest art in the world.

In Taiwan with Murakami

        I clearly remember that phase.......I had newly discovered Murakami, having read his Sputnik Sweetheart as a first novel. I was reading "After Dark", steeped in an eerie, surreal world. A really intense longing to be invisible seized me......to be swallowed up whole in another world where bizarre things happened, happiness played hide and seek, you were there, yet not quite there.....a world of alien beings, grey mountains, azure skies, neon lit alleys, purple sunsets, black hearts and white hope......

       Yes I remember the joy......the untainted possibilities, the feeling of being on the move....on the high speed railway lines, crisscrossing through Taiwan.....tobacco leaf shaped Taiwan where the temperature was 17 degrees.....Taipei 101 enticed with its panoramic view..... Alishan loomed ahead, with a dead Mountain railway line leading to paradise....quaint cafes with non-English speaking staff....and a bamboo forest old and wise......and a gorge that was called Taroko.....and after all that crazy madness.....finally the endless Pacific.......

At that time, I did not know that happiness was just memories.....

Taipei 101, Taipei

Arial view from Taipei 101

Taipei 101 at night

Entryway into the Alishan National Forest Reservation Area
















Yu Shan National Park

View from my hotel window

Alishan Natinal Park

Purple dusk........

Scenic photographs of the Alishan Mountain Railway

The beautiful mist clad  Alishan....

A walk in the early morning sunshine

railway tracks amidst the forest

Weird tree formations deep in the forest

A lonely forest trail.......

Two Sister's Lake in the morning sunshine.........

Echoes of the forest.......

Taroko Gorge.......

And finally the Pacific..........

I still have the pebbles I collected at that beach a long time ago............and some memories.........

National Geographic Live: Coral, Fire and Ice with photographer David Doubilet

               It has been my practice since a long time to download photos from the Nat Geo website to adorn my desktop or screen saver. And even though I make it a point to read about the whereabouts of the picture taken, seldom have I taken the time or effort to actually read about the photographer. And hence, I was wonderfully surprised that some photos that I already had seen earlier, like these-

                                       - had been shot by this very renowned Nat Geo photographer, David Doubilet.

          And the surprise turned into awe because National Geogeographic Live came to Singapore with a series called "Coral, Fire and Ice" with photographer David Doubilet and the event was held in my university, NTU. 

           Simply put, it was an honor to just be sharing space with this legendary figure who, according to me, is much more that a mere photographer. An adventurer, philosopher, ecologist, eco-preservationist, raconteur of tales, a man deeply in love with nature and it's beauty and a torch bearer of his generation that is slowly witnessing the deterioration of nature's bountiful beauty and purity- he's all that and more.

           Here are some of his other pictures that he spoke about in yesterday's talk, and that stand as testimony to his undaunted passion to reach the farthest corners and deepest trenches of the earth in his quest for beauty and sublimity.

 Hawkbill sea turtle

  Rain forested volcanoes

Clown fish in anemone

                                   Baby harp seal

Harp seal on ice, Madeleine Islands

River bushmen, Botswana

                              Yongala shipwreck

           And, to end it, the mother of all pictures. His ultimate quest for the perfect coral reef culminated in this sheltered coral garden in Kimbe Bay, Papua New Guinea. What more can a man ask after he's seen such tranquil and sublime beauty on Earth?

His speech too was like him- humble, humane and brilliant! I recorded the last section of his talk, which sort of summarized the essence of his life's work.

Thank you David, for being what you are and the legacy that you've left behind.