Library Trek

After work, I ran up to the North York Library on the subway.  I've been through North York Centre before, but never stopped in at the library.  In fact, it is tucked behind the main complex a bit, so if you've never been there before it is tricky to find.  Anyway, it is a pretty big library.  I ended up borrowing a bunch of Criterion DVDs, which wasn't my reason for coming at all.

I was really hoping to find Everett's Erasure.  I didn't find that, but I did get Half an Inch of Water, which is a book of his short stories set in the West.  I guess if any branch has Erasure, it's probably Parkdale, but I just don't think I will get out there.

I had better luck finding Carol Shields's Swann.  While this isn't something I'd put at the very top of my reading list, I decided to grab it and read it after I get through the other library books (and then renew it a couple of times as necessary whenever the online system comes back up).

Then I made it over to the art section.

I didn't have particularly high hopes for the Norman Bluhm book.  I'm leaning toward ordering that and shipping it to North Carolina.  (I would likely eventually donate it to the AGO's library.)  I didn't expect another Newark Museum catalog, The Arc of Abstraction, to be in the system.*  Interestingly, the National Gallery of Art Library owns a copy.  I won't be able to go in on my next visit to Ottawa because the library isn't open on weekends and they don't loan books out directly to individuals anyway, but they apparently don't charge for interlibrary loan, so I might try to arrange that as soon as the TPL system is working again.

I then went and looked up Jean-Paul Riopelle.  They didn't have anything recent in the stacks.  I think this is a case where I'll just look at the catalogue when I am up in Ottawa and decide whether to buy it.  While a few copies will probably land in the TPL system, there is just no clear indication when that will be.  Maybe the system will actually be working again before I get to Ottawa in late Feb., which would be nice. 

I wasn't expecting Max Beckmann's The Formative Years (the exhibit I saw at the Neue Gallerie) would be in the stacks, but there was a nice book on Beckmann's landscapes, which I snagged.  I'm fairly likely to buy The Formative Years and probably eventually donate it to the AGO library as well.

I finally made my way over to the section where Keith Haring should be.  I was quite surprised but gratified to see that the catalogue associated with the AGO show was there, so I grabbed that.  This might well have been one of the last things to get into the system before the ransomware attack.  So all in all, it was a useful trip, though of course it would have been even better if I had come home with Erasure.

While on the topic of Keith Haring, I did run over to the AGO on Boxing Day.  It was busy but not as completely crowded as it was on opening weekend.

I'd say Red Room is my favourite piece in the show, but it is hung in a corridor where you can't get a good view of the whole thing, so I had to piece this shot together!  I had wondered if it was supposed to be a direct reference to Matisse, and apparently it was (the fishbowl is certainly a clue...).

Keith Haring, Red Room, 1988

I'll probably make it back to the Haring exhibit a few more times before it goes away for good.  I'm not as sure if I'll make the trek back up to the North York Library or just wait it out until the overall system is back up and running and then order my books to come to the Riverdale Library.

* Not quite sure how I missed this (maybe Worldcat was just acting funky at the time), but Robarts has a copy of The Arc of Abstraction.  Better still it is on the shelves, and I should be able to grab that today.  Score!  However, I might need to run up and back over lunch, since I believe they close at 5 pm over their winter break.