Yale Daily News

Updated: Friday, November 6, 2009 4:05 p.m.

Search Within Art

Yale’s latest art acquisitions

Last February, feet of snow obscured Yale’s walkways. But thousands of miles south, beneath ancient blankets of ice, Professor Thomas Near braved the Antarctic chill in pursuit of rarely-seen sea creatures — dead or alive.

THIS BE ART: Weiyi Li

Q: Where are you from, and how did you get here? A: I am from China. I got here by airplane.

Prophylactics in proximity

The best things in life are free, like swine flu. And condoms. No need to trek out to Walgreens or DUH; just take a trip down to the bottom of your entryway. Here is your abridged guide to the condom bags of Yale University.

Dia:Beacon — Day out:Beats your average

I couldn’t tell you how to get to Beacon, New York. I was asleep for much of the two-hour journey, waking only to find myself driving through the charming town on my way to the Dia Foundation’s warehouse.

No money, no problems, no cry

First came the blogs, then the magazine features and finally a mention in the International Herald Tribune. You can find a listing for Recession Art’s second show, opening this Saturday, in Time Out New York.

Show promotes green design

“I love living in ‘The Glidehouse’ for so many reasons,” says Michelle Kaufman from a video screen at the front of the exhibition. Kaufman is both the architect and resident of her sustainable home in Northern California, the so-called “Glidehouse.” She continues, listing the environmentally friendly features of her home: the wood sunshades that can be moved to optimize...

Exhibit celebrates 100 years of Whiffs

Treading the halls of Sterling Memorial Library this month is a blast from the Whiffenpoofs’ past.

School’s out: RECESS

Recession Art be awesome. Recession Art be Brooklyn. Recession Art be 2009.

Animalization

The first thing you will see upon entering the “Endless Forms” exhibition at the Yale Center for British Art is a painting of the great man himself, scruffy-looking, white-bearded, boring his hawk-like eyes into you.

Lytler than Darwin

In the future, plants, water and rocks will all become disco shades of cyan, day-glow yellow and hot pink. We’ll wear these colors all together, all the time, and forget black and white. At least, that would be the case if the artwork of Richard Lytle, painter and teacher, was any sign of the planet’s evolutionary path.

End of boundaries

“The ways people talk about art are not as complicated as the way we live our lives,” Jaret Vadera ART ’09 tells me. A neon pink tube curled into the word “poser” in cursive fluoresces pertly above his head. It is the only work of art on a long white gallery wall that faces the path between the recently completed sculpture building and Edgewood Avenue.

He was only 5-foot-3

The title of the Yale University Art Gallery’s “Picasso and the Allure of Language” has an off-putting 20th-century feel to it.

Art party for — art?

There’s a gallery opening in New York City. Two thousand people have shown up to walk a miniature red carpet, sip cocktails and eat tiny hors d’oeurves passed around by tuxedoed waiters.

Full breasts exposed

The weathered bronze statue strikes the classic Venus de Milo pose — a graceful female figure with rounded breasts and belly, standing in coy contrapposto, covering her genitalia with a casual hand.

Obama’s face, your art

The day after the election, Sam Messer instructed his drawing class to create portraits of President-elect Barack Obama. When the students finished, they posted their art on an empty wall in Green Hall.

Art in the parlor

ArtParlor is not a new café on Chapel Street, nor is it one of the paint-on-pottery places that we loved to visit as children. ArtParlor, or rather www.yale.edu/artparlor, is a new Web site that is working to create a community for artists and art enthusiasts both online and on campus.

A piece of art from ‘England’

“Sorry,” Tim Crouch looked into my eyes and said quietly as he pushed past into another room of Turners to continue his poetic and provocative two-person performance piece, “England,” at the BAC on Tuesday night. “Sorry”?!!?! I was amazed. Never have I been treated with such kindness and respect by a performance artist: not ignored or blamed or yelled at, but rather seen,...

Cox’s scenic views

Before visiting “Sun, Wind, and Rain: The Art of David Cox” at the Yale Center for British Art on Tuesday, my experience with watercolor painting was limited to the blurry, translucent medium of my elementary school art classes. Luckily, unlike the soggy creations of my youth, David Cox’s paintings display an absolute mastery of watercolor technique.