Irving Penn's Magnificent Images

The photographer himself, Irving Penn, the master of portraits and fashion

At The Metropolitan Museum of Art we also saw Irving Penn: Centennial that's on until July 30. It is 100 years since the birth of the American photographer who died in 2009.

One of his earlier portraits of a chef

I first became acquainted to Penn's photographs through Vogue magazine and thought they were so elegant and beautiful even if the subjects were very simple. Actually there was nothing tricky about them -- it was very straight forward but how they were photographed made them quietly sophisticated and gorgeous.

It was pictures of food in a still life arrangement -- either the ingredients artfully placed, or the finished dish, but hardly garnished or decorated with anything, or models posed with as little distraction as possible to illustrate the article.

The exhibition at The Met features only 150 of Penn's photographs, though it features many of his earlier works that I was unaware of. He started taking portraits of all kinds of people in different jobs from a balloon seller to fireman, waiter, chef, blast furnace tender and butcher, window washer and chamois seller.

Smouldering image of Marlene Dietrich

He hated smoking, and when his mentor Alexey Brodovitch died of lung cancer, Penn became even more aware of the cigarette butts lying all over the streets of New York and decided to use them as subjects for a series of photographs.

They are used butts, some fished out from the streets so they are dirty, and yet Penn makes them look like dangerously beautiful objects. It's so ironic that it makes them arresting images. But after looking at several of them you get the idea and want to move on.

His portraits of people are amazing -- he put his subjects in a tight corner -- Truman Capote, Marcel Duchamp, Spencer Tracy, Igor Stravinsky, and Salvador Dali. Other fantastic portraits include Marlene Dietrich, Cecil Beaton, Pablo Picasso, and Audrey Hepburn.

Penn was famous for his fashion shoots

Penn's studio was in a building with no water and electricity but had natural light that he preferred using. Because of his fame, people did not hesitate to have their portraits taken by him. You can see the backdrop he used for his photo shoots too, and some visitors take selfies with it.

He was also adventurous in his travels, and in the show there is video footage of him in Morocco setting up a basic tent and getting locals in their native dress to have their portraits taken by him.

In another he took pictures of indigenous people in Papua New Guinea. Again he kept everything simple so that the viewer only focuses on the subject, making them arresting images.

It's too bad there aren't more photographs to look at -- I could look at dozens more, particularly of his fashion shoots and still lifes of things like flowers, but alas the exhibition was soon over...

A backdrop he used to use for portraits

Irving Penn: Centennial

Until July 30, 2017

Gallery 199

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

China's Soft Power Show at The Met

Intricately designed wine vessel of bronze and gold inlay

One of the exhibitions on now at The Metropolitan Museum of Art is called Age of Empires: Chinese Art of the Qin and Han Dynasties (221BC-AD220) until July 16.

Earthenware dancer full of movement

It features 160 objects that were excavated from imperial tombs over the years from the Qin and Han dynasties that help give us a better idea of what life was like, particularly for the privileged classes.

We tried to use the free audio guide, but the attendant somehow ran out of headphones but not the gadgets, so we just relied on the captions to explain. For the most part they were fine, giving explanations of the pieces much like how things were described in my art history class -- lots of observation and imagination.

Many of the items we saw were in very good condition, which makes you wonder about the rest of the things unearthed -- there must have been thousands of items that were crushed or so disintegrated there was nothing left to show.

A lively bronze horse with its groom

We particularly liked the sculptures of animals, both large ones like a bronze horse that looked energetic with its nostrils flared and looking confident with its groom, to an anatomically correct replica of a goose, to a small representation of an elephant and rhinoceros. All these animals were with the deceased in their journey to the underworld.

Even remnants of fabric managed to survive all these centuries, giving us an idea of the kinds of patterns and colours of the clothes they wore at the time. There were also lacquer trays and bowls -- that were even found with food on them when they were excavated. Pretty amazing.

Delicate embroidered fabrics that have survived centuries

I'd see the terracotta warriors before in Xian, so seeing a few of them on display wasn't as impressive. Nevertheless, the large bronze wine vessels with intricate designs were, along with the jade funeral suits that looked like patches of jade armour all over the body, and models of two and three-storey houses.

For the China this was an excellent exercise in soft power  -- linking this exhibition to the Silk Road -- and hence Belt and Road -- as a way to get everyone on board or at least interested, as some pieces in the show were from the Middle East to demonstrate that China didn't just conquer other people, but integrated part of their cultures as well.

A jade funeral suit connected with gold wire

Granted the exhibition is also sponsored by the likes of the Joseph Hotung Fund, the Henry Luce Foundation, and the estate of Brooke Astor to give the show more street cred with the New York and arts crowd, the major sponsor is China Merchants Bank -- a big PR coup for the state-owned bank.

Age of Empires: Chinese Art of the Qin and Han Dynasties (221BC-AD220)

Gallery 899, The Tisch Galleries

Until July 16, 2017

Kubo and the Two Strings

Technically impressive film Kubo and the Two Strings is set in medieval Japan

On the plane I watched an animation feature called Kubo and the Two Strings that won a Bafta for Best Animated Feature earlier this year, and was nominated for Best Animated Feature Film in the Academy Awards, but lost out to Zootopia.

Kubo has magical powers playing the shamisen

Technically it's an amazing film as it is a stop-motion animation, and embellished with computer animation, but many would mistake it for being a computer generated animation because it looks so slick.

It's about a 12-year-old boy called Kubo who earns a living in a small Japanese town by telling stories with his origami paper that magically transform into all kinds of characters as soon as he starts playing his shamisen.

We later learn he lost his left eye to his grandfather, and how his mother is trying to protect him from her two sisters who are coming for his other eye. As a result Kubo goes on a quest that leads to him finding out more about his missing father.

George Takei voices one of the characters in the animation

Aside from the amazing special effects, the dialogue is fun too, with one of the characters voiced by Star Trek star George Takei saying his signature line, "Oh my!" and the witty repartee between a monkey and a giant beetle.

There's lots to love about Kubo and the Two Strings, particularly about its message about family and being brave to overcome obstacles in life.

Lam's New Look?

Carrie Lam wears vibrant red for the flag-raising ceremony on July 1

For her first day in office, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor wanted to show her more human side. So what did she do?

Brought a video team filming her getting her hair and make up done to become Hong Kong's next chief executive.

She changed again to inspect the Macau-Zhuhai-HK Bridge

Really?

None of the previous chief executives -- Tung Chee-hwa, Donald Tsang Yam-kuen or Leung Chun-ying did this.

I really don't care what the leader of Hong Kong looks like as long as he/she does a good job.

The video on Facebook shows her in a salon where someone is setting her hair and another putting on her make up at 5.30am.

https://www.facebook.com/carrielam.hksar/videos/751967808316121/

And she did four wardrobe changes -- it seemed coordinated with Chinese First Lady Peng Liyuan, who wore more understated black on July 1, while Lam wore bright colours.

Peng Liyuan (left) in muted colours compared to Lam (right)

Was this really necessary?

Is this a sign Lam is becoming a fashion plate?

We aren't convinced this is a new side of Lam, but more window dressing of a new regime...