Art handlers carefully hung a tapestry of Picasso's Guernica at the MFAH on Friday, marking the first step towards the museum's anticipated Picasso Black and White exhibition opening on Feb. 24.
The rare rendition of the iconic antiwar painting was created in 1955 by master weavers Rene and Jacqueline de la Baume Dürrbach, who worked closely with the artist himself to translate the original 1937 canvas into wool. For the tapestry, Picasso replaced the harsh black-and-white of the painting with a warmer palette of sepia tones.
After hanging at the United Nations for several decades, this woolen Guernica gathered considerable attention in 2003 when it was covered with a blue curtain as Colin Powell made his case for the Iraq war in front of the Security Council. The tapestry left the U.N. in 2009 for London's Whitechapel Gallery and has been on long-term loan to the San Antonio Museum of Art since 2012.
For more on Guernica and its wooly cousin on view at the MFAH, watch the video above.
Art handlers unveiled a rare and notorious Picasso tapestry at the MFAH on Friday.
Photo by Joel Luks
Art handlers unveiled a rare and notorious Picasso tapestry at the MFAH on Friday.
There was a trend in the late 2010s/early 2020s of bawdy comedies featuring teenage female protagonists, including Blockers, Booksmart, and Yes, God, Yes. Those types of films seemed to go by the wayside in recent years, but they’re making a comeback with the new film Summer of 69.
Abby (Sam Morelos) is a high school senior and video game streamer who has had a crush on her classmate Max (Matt Cornett) for her entire childhood. When she learns that Max has recently broken up with his longtime girlfriend, she’s determined to make her move. With advice from a confidant that Max likes a certain sexual position, Abby sets out to learn as much as she can about it, including hiring a stripper, Santa Monica (Chloe Fineman), to help her.
Coincidentally, Santa Monica is facing a situation where the club at which she works, Diamond Dolls, will be closed if the owner doesn’t come up with $20,000 in a week. Abby, who comes from a well-to-do family, seems to offer the perfect solution, and so the two agree to a week of lessons for that amount. Naturally, all sorts of complications arise, as well as the two women forming an unexpected bond.
Written and directed by Jillian Bell, with help from co-writers Jules Byrne and Liz Nico, the film is both suggestive and innocent at the same time. For all of the talk about sex and innuendo, having the nerdy and inexperienced Abby at the center of the film ensures that the story remains relatively chaste throughout. That includes scenes at the strip club, where Bell makes the choice to show almost no nudity.
Most of the humor of the film stems from Abby’s lack of experience, highlighted by her having “sexual” fantasies about Max that never actually get to the sex part. The juxtaposition between Abby and Santa Monica is also used for laughs, although Bell and her co-writers make sure to include a side story for the dancer that makes her into a three-dimensional person.
What ultimately makes the movie succeed is the way it keeps its characters relatable. Many high school films feel the need to play into a bunch of stereotypes, but those are kept to a minimum here. Instead, Bell upends expectations by delivering honest - sometimes to a fault for the characters - dialogue that acknowledges the spectrum of sexual realities for high schoolers, a version that differs from insatiable horniness of some other teen comedies.
Morelos, one of the stars of Netflix’s That ‘90s Show, makes for a charming lead, someone who can convincingly take her character from awkward to confident over the course of the story. Fineman, best known for her current stint as a cast member on Saturday Night Live, complements her well, showing her comedic prowess in a number of physical scenes. A supporting cast that includes Nicole Byer, Paula Pell, Alex Moffat, and Natalie Morales keeps the energy level high.
Despite its titillating title, Summer of 69 is much more sweet than naughty. Like most coming-of-age movies, it’s about a girl who’s trying to figure out where she fits in the world. The answers she finds aren’t always the ones she was expecting, but in the best possible way.
