50 4.J.1.Folio 5 15 25 R CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK R Architecturally OK Desperately A look at Oklahoma City’s rewriting Susan underrated In her first posthumous collection of Life buildings and sights. essays, Susan Sontag revises her legacy. & TRAVEL, PAGE J14 PAGE J5 Arts statesman.com Sunday, March 4, 2007 Section J Jane Greig Redefining arte Blanton exhibit Several Austin might reshape locations would the way people look at Latin be picture-perfect American art before prom By Jeanne Claire van Ryzin Q: I am a high-school senior and our prom is AMERICAN-STATESMAN ARTS CRITIC on March 31. The group I am going with wants Patricia Phelps de Cisneros re- to take pictures. We have looked at the Umlauf members very well the last time a Sculpture Garden, Laguna Gloria and Zilker portion of her Latin American art Botanical Garden. The problem is we would collection was exhibited at the not be able to get there in time to take pictures University of Texas’ Blanton Mu- before they close. We are starting to worry seum of Art. that we won’t be able to find anywhere to take In fall 1999, about 40 vibrant ab- pre-prom pictures. Any suggestions? stract sculptures and paintings — Lauren H. from the 1950s and 1960s — just a A: Want a natural setting? Try Mount Bonnell sample of Cisneros’ 3,000-plus col- Park, 3800 Mount Bonnell Drive, or Wool- lection, considered one of the best dridge Square, 900 Guadalupe St. Prefer a Tex- in private hands — went on view in ana or Austin-esque backdrop? Visit the giant a cramped second-floor gallery at star in front of the Bullock Texas State History the Ransom Center, which the Museum, 1800 N. Congress Ave.; the Stevie Blanton was using for its exhibits. Ray Vaughan statue at the Town Lake hike- Though the venue was far from and-bike trail, west of South First Street; the ideal, the kinetic, zoomy, geomet- parklike grounds surrounding the Capitol, ric artwork made an impression on Congress Avenue at 11th Street; or the “Greet- some UT administrators who came ings From Austin” mural on the south side of to the opening reception. Roadhouse Relics, 1720 S. First St. Just perhaps not the kind Cisneros had expected. Q: I am a native Austinite seeing so many “I remember these officials high-rises going up daily. Why have architects walking in and exclaiming ‘This is gotten away from including the outside fire- art from Latin America?’ ” exit slides in case of fires that many buildings Cisneros recalled recently. “To see had years ago? the shock on people’s faces that — G.T.G. something so pure and sophisti- A: The fire code no longer requires these exte- cated could come from South rior fire escapes, says Don Smith, assistant America was a shock to me. I real- fire marshal for the Austin Fire Department. ized how important it was to ex- A high-rise is any building above 75 feet, the plain to everyone possible that reach of a fire department ladder, Smith adds. Latin American art wasn’t all mu- Interior stairwells are pressurized with fans rals and figurative scenes, Frida that push smoke out of the stairwell. In Kahlo and bananas and addition, pressurized vestibule areas allow watermelons.” residents who use wheelchairs a safe place Today Cisneros — who is the wife (telephones included) to wait for assistance of Venezuelan media magnate during an emergency. Gustavo Cisneros — believes that’s During an alarm, all doors in these stairwell going to be easier to explain. It’s not unlock automatically to allow firefighters just because a new exhibit from her access. collection is now on view at the Blanton — the first major Latin American show the museum has Q: My daughter is in the fifth grade and occa- presented in its spacious new sionally is required to do a project for school building, a show accompanied by that requires a typed paper. She desperately the publication of a major catalog needs help with keyboarding skills. and launch of an educational Web Is a class on typing/keyboarding for 11-year- site. olds available anywhere? It’s because with “The Geometry — M.H. of Hope: Latin American Abstract Art from the Patricia Phelps de Free classes on basic computer skills are A: Cisneros Collection,” the Blanton available at the Austin Public Library’s Faulk Rodolfo Gonzalez AMERICAN-STATESMAN — which has attracted 150,000 vis- Central Library, 800 Guadalupe St. Call 974- Patricia Phelps de Cisneros provided part of her expansive collection for the Blanton exhibit. itors since opening last April — fi- 7400 for details. nally has the means, and the po- In addition, free classes for all ages in com- tential audience, to trumpet the puter skills, such as keyboard and mouse ‘The Geometry of Hope: Latin American Abstract Art from For a slide Find more on story it’s been quietly composing basics, are offered by Austin Free-Net, 2209 show of ‘The for years. Rosewood Ave. or 236-8225. This nonprofit or- the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection’ Geometry of Call it a breakout moment for ganization provides technical expertise, ser- When: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Cost: $3-$5 (free on Thursdays) Hope,’ go to Latin American art in this country. vices and equipment to community organiza- Tuesdays-Saturdays (Thursdays until Info: 471-7324, www.blanton austin360 It’s certainly a breakout moment tions. Want to help? Volunteer your time or 8 p.m.), 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays through museum.org .com. For for the Blanton. Its effort to change donate items such as sturdy comput- April 22 Exhibit tours: 2 p.m. Sundays through more 3austin360.com60 the misconceptions about Latin er tables, rolling desk Where: Blanton Museum of Art, April 22 (free with museum information American art can be widely chairs, paper or Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and admission) on the Blanton, see computer Congress Avenue austin360.com/blanton. See ARTE, J3 equipment (Pentium III or high- er). PHOTOS.COM Prefer to learn at home? Pick up “Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing,” a software program designed to demystify the Princesses rule QWERTY keyboard. Q: I read your recent column about what to Girls will be girls, even when parents call relatives. My niece married a man who has a brother. Several years later, my niece’s wish they’d pick another role model sister (also my niece) married her brother-in- law’s brother. Now tell me all the relation- By Wendy Donahue and pink? ships. CHICAGO TRIBUNE Whenever she leaves their Chi- — Jean Wykes cago home, Vivienne totes eight A: In this case, your niece’s brother-in-law is CHICAGO — Attorney Danielle plastic Disney figurines of Snow a brother-in-law in two ways — as the brother Colyer, 39, has a belly button pierc- White, Sleeping Beauty and peers in of her husband and the husband of her sister. ing and four tattoos, including a a blue velvet purse embroidered And the relationship of the children of these dragon across her back. She used to with the word ‘‘Princess.’’ At bed- unions? They would be double first cousins, have Bozo-red hair, dress in vinyl time, Vivienne lines up the rag-doll according to the folks at the Texas State Ar- and vow that her baby would never versions beside her, all of them chives Commission Genealogy Division. get sucked into the Cinderella ‘‘beautiful, with their same Botox- vortex. looking face and deadpan stare into Contact Jane Greig at P.O. Box 670, Austin 78767; (512) space,’’ Colyer observes wryly. 445-3697; e-mail [email protected] or fax (512) 445- So how, she has wondered many Candice C. Cusic CHICAGO TRIBUNE 3968. For more Jane Greig, visit www.statesman.com/life/ times, did her baby grow into the 3- Colyer, who also is social studies greig. Friends, ages 2 to 4, pose for photos at the ‘Disney on Ice: Princess Wishes’ year-old Vivienne Colyer Malone show in Illinois. Disney has elevated princess marketing to an art form. who prefers tutus, tiaras, princesses See PRINCESSES, J10 RR 50 4.J.3.Folio 5 15 25 R CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK R Austin American-Statesman LIFE & ARTS Sunday, March 4, 2007 J3 ‘Estudio 2 (Study 2),’ 1952 Alejandro Otero ‘Ocho cuadrados (Eight Squares),’ 1961 Gego BLANTON MUSEUM OF ART IMAGES Continued from J1 appreciated for the first time, GEOGRAPHY: In instead of being shown in small, out-of-the-way campus digs that few found their way to. Today, visitors to “The Ge- the world of art, ometry of Hope” can learn about the dynamic, logic-inspired ab- stract visual language that per- Latin America colated in cosmopolitan South American cities in the 1950s and her education in the U.S. She and 1960s. Perhaps more important- her husband have residences in ly, they can wander upstairs and isn’t merely south Caracas, Madrid and Aspen, see “America/Americas,” the Colo., but spend much of their permanent installation of mod- time in their Manhattan home. ern and contemporary art that For more than two decades unifies the Blanton’s collection of the border Cisneros has been a trustee for of art from 1900 to the present New York’s mighty Museum of day, organizing it based on the last decade with collectors 20th century. The forward- Modern Art. She also sits on chronology and aesthetic pro- no longer coming primarily thinking “America/Americas” various committees at Harvard gression, not geographic origin. from Latin America, but also is the end result.