Is The Fort Worth Modern Art Museums's Lucian Freud Portraits Exhibit Making Other Art Museums Green With Envy?

That is England's Queen Elizabeth you are looking at in a beautiful portrait by Sigmund Freud's grandson, Lucian.

I can't imagine why this flattering portrait of England's current queen is controversial, but, apparently it is.

I also do not know if this flattering likeness of the Queen of England is currently visiting Fort Worth, along with a lot of other Lucian Freud portraits which are currently visiting Fort Worth, temporarily housed in Fort Worth's Modern Art Museum.

The Fort Worth Modern Art Museum's Lucian Freud: Portraits exhibit runs til October 28. To see it will cost you $10 unless you are a student, then it's $4. It's free for kids 12 and under. Free for everyone on the first Sunday of the month and half price on Wednesdays.

I don't know if kids 12 and under should be seeing this exhibit. Lucian Freud painted a lot of very realistic portraits of people sans clothing. Some of which might cause kids to have nightmares.

I think I have mentioned, previously, that I used to be appalled by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram when that newspaper would use verbiage of the Green with Envy sort to describe something totally lame in Fort Worth to be somehow causing spasms of envy in other towns in America. Or the world.

Now, I really don't think anything about any town causes another town to become Green with Envy. That's just a goofy concept.

However, if the Green with Envy concept was ever legitimately applicable I can see how one might claim that Fort Worth had some sort of bragging rights with the Lucian Freud exhibit causing art aficionados in other towns in America to be Green with Envy because little ol' Fort Worth snagged this exhibit.

Apparently the Fort Worth Modern Art Museum's chief curator, Michael Auping, flew to London multiple times to meet with the reclusive Lucian Freud, prior to Freud's death in 2011. Auping's goal was to get Freud's permission to exhibit Freud's portraits in Fort Worth. Freud had a fascination with Texas and cowboys and was soon sold on the idea of having his portraits displayed in Fort Worth.

The collective value of the Freud exhibit in Fort Worth is worth more than the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium cost. As in more than a billion dollars.

Usually an artist's art gets valuable after the artist has died. Freud's art was breaking records at art auction houses even before he died.

Benefits Supervisor Sleeping

In 2008 a Russian billionaire, Roman Abramovich, paid $33.6 million for a portrait titled Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, portraying an extremely fat, naked woman, asleep on a couch.

I do not know if the Russian loaned his expensive portrait to the Lucian Freud: Portraits exhibit, or not.

I do know I would not want that particular portrait hanging on any of my walls. I can think of a lot of other things I'd rather buy with $33.6 million.

Next Weekend's Parties With Elsie Hotpepper Being A Wench & Margaret Thatcher

I am hoping to be back at full strength by next weekend. I will need all the strength I can muster.

Next Saturday night Elsie Hotpepper and I are going to The Party in Fort Worth. This is that big party I have mentioned previously for us Fort Worth elite, held at the private country club known as the Fort Worth Convention Center.

Because Chesapeake Energy is hosting this party it is pirate themed. I will be going attired as Blackbeard, while Elsie Hotpepper will be going attired as my wench.

Then the next night, Sunday, Elsie Hotpepper and I will be walking the red carpet at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth to attend the Lone Star Film Society annual Oscar Watching Party.

Us attending have been urged to attire ourselves after one of the Oscar nominees.

So, I will be going as Brad Pitt from Moneyball, while Elsie Hotpepper will put on some big hair and turn herself into Margaret Thatcher.

It should be a very festive evening. Admission is free to the Oscar Watching Party, you don't need a ticket, it is a seating is first come first seated type of deal.

In other words the Oscar Watching Party is a much more democratic affair than is The Party in Fort Worth that Elsie and I are going to Saturday night.

GASLAND, Fort Worth's Museum of Modern Art, Elsie Hotpepper & Me

Yesterday. Or was it the day before? I mentioned the gala GASLAND the movie event, Wednesday, at Fort Worth's Museum of Modern Art.

I said...

"It was a gala affair. I can not remember the last affair I've attended that was more gala. I also do not recollect seeing Elsie Hotpepper attired in red carpet worthy fashion, before last night, nor myself, with a bow tie. Like I said. Gala affair."

This morning I was asked if there were any pictures of myself in a bow tie and Elsie Hotpepper being all red carpet worthy.

Then, this afternoon, the Queen of Wink commented on the bow tie.

Thus, obliging sort that I am, I felt compelled to find a picture of myself and Elsie Hotpepper in our movie going duds.

I have to tell you, I find wearing a suit and a bow tie to be very annoying. I am not used to wearing that much clothing or having something choking me around my neck. Bow ties do not last long, on me, before being loosened.

I am scheduled to go to a wedding, tomorrow, at a church in downtown Fort Worth. It is the first wedding I will have attended since a disastrous one in Washington in April of 2006, where I was severely criticized for my wedding attire, one element of which was brown cargo pants.

I will not be wearing cargo pants to a Fort Worth wedding. I also will not be wearing a bow tie. And I do not believe Elsie Hotpepper will be in attendance.

Living In GASLAND In Texas With Josh Fox & Others

You are looking at the sort of thing we Citizens of the Shale, as in Barnett Shale, can fear coming out of our water faucets. Unodorized natural gas. That goes to flame.

Of course, the gas drilling industry does not acknowledge that such things happen. No matter who gets burned.

A guy named Josh Fox set out to document what's happening around the world, due to the now wide practice of using new technology, to do this process called fracturing, to a formerly stable layer of shale, in order to release trapped natural gas.

I have one of these fractured operations going on across the street from where I live. So far, no fire has come out of my water faucets.

The Josh Fox documentary, about the Shale Fracturing, GASLAND the movie, has been winning film festival prizes and is now being shown around the globe, including last night at the Museum of Modern Art in Fort Worth.

It was a gala affair. I can not remember the last affair I've attended that was more gala. I also do not recollect seeing Elsie Hotpepper attired in red carpet worthy fashion, before last night, nor myself, with a bow tie. Like I said. Gala affair.

Watch the YouTube video below to get an idea of what GASLAND the movie is all about...

GASLAND The Movie May 12 At The Modern Art Museum In Fort Worth

May 12 you've got to join me and Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize Winner, Josh Fox, for a showing of GASLAND the movie at the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth.

This is going to be a BIG party, starting at 5:30 pm. Open to all. With a cash bar and snacks. The movie starts screening at 6:30 pm in the Modern's Movie Auditorium.

Movie tickets are $15. After the movie you can hang out with Josh Fox and ask him anything you want to ask.

At 8:30 pm the VIP After Party starts up. Members of Texas OGAP (Oil & Gas Accountability Project) and Josh Fox will be in attendance. You also can attend the VIP After Party. The entry fee is $100. That $100 covers your movie ticket.

All proceeds from the Gasland Event go to benefit Texas OGAP.

You can RSVP by going to the Gasland Earth Works Action Website.