cityArts March 8, 2011

MAR. 9-MAR. 22, 2011 Volume 3, Issue 5

IN THIS ISSUE: PLUS:

Upper East Side prepares for Asia Week LANCE ESPLUND defends Cezanne & Picasso MARK PEIKERT mourns the American Dream

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MOZART!

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O R C H E S T R A

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C H A M B E R

A guide to the AVENUE Antiques & Art at the Armory Show The music in 140 characters or less‌ R O U S S E L Concerto for Small Orchestra An orphan/sailor/late-blooming composer, Roussel found his voice as a robust Neoclassicist.

M O Z A R T Piano Concerto No. 20 At the peak of his fame in Vienna, Mozart wowed his subscribers with this stormy showpiece.

L E R D A H L Waves From a dogma-defying composer and scholar, this early Orpheus commission still sounds fresh and engaging.

M O Z A R T Symphony No. 39 Hard up, Mozart wrote three final symphonies without known performances; this one is inviting and serene.

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New York Philharmonic

6 Visual Art

Alan Gilbert Music Director The Yoko Nagae Ceschina Chair

Asia Week represents a terrific opportunity for newcomers and seasoned collectors to discover new works.

CONDUCTED BY ESA-PEKKA

SALONEN

HUNGARIAN

ECHOES: A PHILHARMONIC FESTIVAL

STARTS TOMORROW - 3 WEEKS ONLY Featuring the music of three trailblazing composers from three different eras, each inspired by his connection to Hungary: HAYDN, BARTÓK, LIGETI. At Avery Fisher Hall.

ETS W IN TIC K E ST E NTE R TO .O R G/H U N G A R IA N F IL H P Y N AT

FOR FULL PROGRAMS & TICKETS VISIT NYPHIL.ORG Major support for Hungarian Echoes is provided by The Kaplen Foundation. Esa-Pekka Salonen’s appearance is made possible through the Charles A. Dana Distinguished Conductors Endowment Fund. All programs, artists, dates, and prices subject to change. Photo by Con Keyes/Los Angeles Times. © 2011 New York Philharmonic. Programs of the New York Philharmonic are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council of the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Classical 105.9 FM WQXR, the radio station of the New York Philharmonic.

8 Museums

MoMA’s Picasso Guitars exhibition and the Met’s Cézanne show has LANCE ESPLUND defending the titans’ rightful place in art history.

10 Classical

The obligatory opening modern piece isn’t JAY NORDLINGER’s preferred way to open a concert.

12 Theater

MARK PEIKERT eulogizes the American Dream after seeing That Championship Season and Good People on Broadway.

14 Special Section

Guide to AVENUE Shows Antiques & Art at the Armory.

18 At the Galleries

Reviews: Raghu Rai at Aicon Gallery; Jackson Pollock at Washburn Gallery; Meg Hitchcock at Famous Accountants Gallery; Paul Gabrielli at InvisibleExports; Frederick Sommer at Ricco/Maresca Gallery; Soile Yli-Mäyry at Walter Wickiser Gallery.

20 Dance

JOEL LOBENTHAL finds Paul Taylor’s Esplanade more absorbing than ever.

21 Film JACK VIERTEL, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

ROB BERMAN, MUSIC DIRECTOR

Filmmaker and artist Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s queer view of folk imagery.

WHERE’S CHARLEY?

22 Arts Agenda

BASED ON BRANDON THOMAS’ “CHARLEY’S AUNT”

Galleries, Art Events, Museums, Classical Music, Opera, Theater, Out of Town.

BOOK BY

GEORGE ABBOTT

27 Paint the Town by Amanda Gordon

MUSIC AND LYRICS BY

FRANK LOESSER

FEATURING

On the cover: Mishima Kimiyo’s horizontal sculpture of a crushed Asahi beer box stuffed with newspaper. The artist is the senior woman working in clay in Japan, and her work is collected globally. Photo by Richard Goodbody

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CityArts is a division of Manhattan Media, publishers of New York Family magazine, AVENUE magazine, Our Town, West Side Spirit, New York Press, City Hall, Chelsea Clinton News, The Westsider and The Blackboard Awards. © 2011 Manhattan Media, LLC | 79 Madison Avenue, 16th Floor, New York, NY 10016 | t: 212.268.8600, f: 212.268.0577 | www.manhattanmedia.com

InBrief

Steven Miller

A staging of The Dorothy K.: For Better, For Worse, Forever by Implied Violence.

Anonymous, With Leeches Anna Telcs is cruising the back roads

of Seattle, near Capital Hill, searching for a disco wig when she answers her cell phone.

“I’m not sure if I should make a wig out of sheep’s hair or keep looking for this one.”

Telcs is the costume designer for Implied Violence, an avant-garde Seattle performance group that’s made its way to New York City. On March 13, the collective—led by director/writer/producer Ryan Mitchell—presents The Dorothy K.: Shorter Are The Prayers in Bed, but More Heartfelt at the Guggenheim’s Works and Process Festival. The piece, the last in a culmination of performances based on The Dorothy K., exists as a multi-media performance, with music, sculpture, movement, costume and ritual (including leeching and extreme repetition).

Dorothy K. was the name of Mitchell’s great-grandmother, who was an orphan baby found by nuns on the Brooklyn Bridge. The government named her, and she was then placed on an orphan train, riding from city to city until she was adopted in Kansas.

“She’s someone who is really representative of an anonymous figure who came from nothing,” Mitchell says.

“The name is more symbolic of having anonymous narrative both in and out of actual and dramatic time.”

Implied Violence productions take as much from art history and the personal

background of its performers, designers and collaborators as they do relevancy to script or narrative. Shorter Are The Prayers in Bed, but More Heartfelt is described as a sort-of mélange of image-based media, culminating around the nine-minute mark to come together as a singular, effective spectacle.

Erich von Stroheim’s fabled film Greed is one of many inspirational points for this iteration of the project. Others include elements of Quaker and Shaker history, the physical limitations of the self and an examination of real and performance time— all within context of the performance. With so much to ingest, relevancy of the image is given over to the audience.

“Certainly, any image that you present asks the audience to derive meaning for themselves, and with these pieces we move away from understanding the direct character motivation,” Mitchell explains, “to get from point A to point B is less important than understanding the intangible processes to create these images. We’re creating image-based artwork, hopefully doubling and tripling the meaning.” [Dale Eisinger]

feeling in the album.”

While her work primarily focuses on blending Ladino traditions with flamenco, on each of her albums Levy likes to experience a new style. On Sentir, she combines traditional Ladino songs with flamenco and contemporary Cuban jazz.

“I wanted to experience a different style,” Levy explains. “This is what I like to experience as a musician. It doesn’t change the song itself, just the flavor of it.”

Throughout her career, Levy has attempted to honor her late father, Yitzhak Levy, who spent his career as a cantor and musicologist preserving the Ladino culture.

On Sentir, Levy pays tribute to him with a duet of “Una Pastora,” in which she sings along with a recording of her father.

“His image is very dominant in my life,” Levy says, adding her respect for his accomplishments made it more difficult for her. “Some people said if he was alive it would be very hard for me to sing…so I think the only good thing about his death is that I can be a singer and I can continue his work.” [Anna Sanders]

International Sounds Yasmin Levy, known for her fusion

Ohio Goes West Less than a year after losing its

Judeo-Spanish music and flamenco, will be playing at NYU’s Skirball Center on March 12, as part of a tour following the release of her fourth album, Sentir.

And although Sentir, she explains, utilizes the Judeo-Spanish, or Ladino, music tradition, with origins in the Jewish expulsion from Spain in 1492, “there is a younger, more approachable sound and

legendary Soho space on Wooster Street, the Ohio Theatre announced its plans to move to a new location, the basement theater space of the Archive Building at 145 Christopher St. Twenty years ago, OBIE award-winning theater company Soho Think Tank developed Ohio Theater at 66 Wooster St., to support culturally diverse and independent theater. When the rent

rose astronomically after the building was bought in 2008, STT founder and artistic director Robert Lyons found himself in a bind. Last August, the Ohio Theatre wrapped up its run in Soho with its annual Ice Factory Festival before moving to 3-Legged Dog, an existing theater space near the World Trade Center, as Ohio Interrupted.

“It gave us a sense of continuity, finding ourselves in this new space,” Lyons explains. The three-year lease with 3LD came to an abrupt halt when Lyons heard about availability at the Archive Building at the corner of Christopher and Greenwich streets, a subsidized space in the West Village owned by Rockrose Development.

“I heard about the space and applied for it,” Lyons says. “Very quickly, they called us in for interviews and offered us the space.” Lyons secured a 10-year lease with Rockrose. This sense of security is new to the Ohio Theatre, which only had a lease in Soho for two years after the building was bought out. The other 18 years of the residency was based on handshakes alone, according to Lyons. STT will be moving in September and will change its name to Ohio West. “We wanted to carry the legacy of the space [on Wooster], but mark a delineation that that was a chapter of the Ohio Theatre and this is something new,” Lyons says.

This won’t mark the end of an association with 3LD, either: There have been talks of the two companies working together on a project-specific basis. [Paulette Safdieh]

Agit-Doc

The early 20th century’s Russian AvantGarde was one of the most exceptional moments in Modern art creation, producing such stellar artists as Chagall, Kandinsky, Rodchenko, Malevich and many more.

The documentary The Desert of Forbidden Art, which opens March 11 at Cinema Village, seeks to add a forgotten chapter to the overriding narrative in the art-history books, with an entire trove of banned art that for decades had remained in obscurity.

Unfortunately, filmmakers Amanda Pope and Tchavdar Georgiev take a fascinating

Ohio Theater founder Robert Lyons.

March 9, 2011 | City Arts

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InBrief

ART BOOKS many and, once academics and curators get a chance to devour the collection, we’ll begin to have a more complete understanding of what went on. Not that we must rely on Western “experts” for guidance, but this campaign to rehabilitate an artwork’s status requires many more perspectives before we can get anywhere near a legitimate understanding. [Jerry Portwood]

Tome Reader If you haven’t been paying attention,

A scene from The Desert of Forbidden Art. subject and reduce it to a shallow, uncritical depiction of the unions between art and politics. Their compulsion toward myth building and to promoting an art propaganda agenda trumps the prospects for a more nuanced film.

The first half of the film is an attempt to manufacture a context, with images of Stalin and a bleak Soviet regime. Amid blackand-white footage of military dominance, we’re introduced to quirky Igor Savitsky, our hero (and aspiring artist), who will begin by appreciating and collecting folk crafts of a remote area of the Uzbek region of Karakalpakstan. The film then goes on to explain how Savitsky went on to amass over 40,000 pieces of “forbidden” Soviet art that he stowed away in an impoverished museum in the desert of Central Asia.

The film is chronologically chaotic and rife with warring political and personal agendas.

Stephen Kinzer, former New York Times bureau chief in Istanbul, is one of the dominant Western talking heads—he was essential in starting the ball rolling by “discovering” the remote museum and publishing pieces in the Times in the late ’90s.

His view dominates, rather than including some outside sources that could potentially shed more light on the regional history, politics and artistic veracity of the whole affair.

Although the filmmakers attempt to explain what was at stake for these lesser-known artists and the social function of these paintings and drawings, we’re never sure if we can truly trust anyone. In reality, these well-meaning, yet clumsy, documentarians are in the service of late capitalism and the global art market, authenticating and supporting a weighty provenance to heighten interest in this treasure trove of art. In that way it reminds us of the tale of the Barnes

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Collection detailed in the much-better documentary, The Art of the Steal. Again, we see well-meaning people promoting a “hallowed” collection, only to have it potentially stolen by the more influential and powerful.

Why certain questions are not posed or answered is mind-boggling. For example, it would be fascinating to hear how a collective of renegade artists operating in the hinterlands had access to expensive indigo paints and other materials. Was there some sort of black market operating that supplied these artists with support and resources? Ultimately, it’s undeniable that some stunning paintings (and their equally jaw-dropping biographies) are uncovered.

No doubt this film will act as a primer for

the way we read—especially those pesky, clunky, dusty books—has changed. Or we’ve changed. Or the world has changed.

Whatever is going on, 26 writers tackle the question (and anxieties) surrounding what will happen to books and the people who write them in various creative ways in The Late American Novel: Writers on the Future of Books, edited by Jeff Martin and C. Max Magee.

Magee has been documenting the world of books through reviews, essays and other writing on his popular website The Millions since 2003, so he seems as likely an expert as any to take on this potentially thankless assignment. He and Martin threw their net wide, asking many of the writers they knew and respected to supply their thoughts on the subject. Their haul is impressive, with such stars as Benjamin Kunkel penning a philosophical treatise on the book economy and David Gates and Jonathan Lethem riffing in a series of email conversations between themselves.

In between are a slew of wonderful contributors of all stripes who provide fascinating perspectives and writing.

Many of them will also be on hand for the March 16 book event planned for McNally Jackson Books.

“We were definitely concerned, before we actually started seeing the pieces they were writing for us, that they would be too repetitive.” Magee says. “It was actually really refreshing to step outside common arguments on the subject. You do get a lot of reductive discussion. I approached it from the editing perspective as, ‘Let’s see how we can approach this topic and give it some shelf life.’”

While Magee isn’t a Kindle or e-reader convert (“If I were in the position where I was starting from scratch, I would give it serious consideration,” he admits), he does enjoy the reading experience on the gadgets. The new technology is also what inspired the incredible artwork commissioned from artist Thomas Allen (best known for his cutouts of pulp fiction covers) and photographed for the cover. Depicting a traditional hardcover book tricked out with switches, buttons and screens, it’s another newfangled way to view that old standby that has managed to survive for centuries.

[Molly Garcia]

Modernist America: Art, Music, Movies & the Globalization of American Culture

by Richard Pells

In this volume, Richard Pells examines the worldwide fear of “Americanization” as something beyond a McDonald’s on the Champs-Elysees.

“America’s culture has not turned the world into a replica of the United States,” writes Pells. “Instead, its reliance on foreign cultures has made America a replica of the world.” The modernism movement following World War I changed America from a country formerly characterized by its sense of cultural inadequacy to a nation effectively shaping foreign art and culture into something universally attainable. Pells draws on examples from music, film and art to demonstrate the mutual cultural exchange between America and the rest of the world amidst postwar emotions in the 20th and 21st centuries. By recognizing similarities between Bollywood and Hollywood as well as Disney characters and Japanese anime, “the dread of Americanization” becomes testimony to the success of America to establish a worldwide culture—not an American one.

The Art of Asking Your Boss For a Raise

by Georges Perec

David Bellos translates the late French writer Georges Perec’s latest posthumous release, The Art of Asking Your Boss for a Raise, more dutifully on the title page: “the art and craft of approaching your head of department to submit a request for a raise.” William Strunk would surely have objected, though further reading reveals a brilliant, but short, conceptual, comedic novella from the writer who wrote the postmodern masterpiece Life: A User’s Manual.

The Art of Asking Your Boss for a Raise exhibits the human condition through the function of a computer—a computer from 1968, when the piece was originally composed. As the greatest known member of the still-practicing French Oulipo literary movement, Perec had been challenged by Jacques Perriaud of the Computing Service of the Humanities Research center in Paris to write about a computer’s functions at a time when computers were giant boxes with big red buttons. The result? A continuous stream of consciousness, without punctuation; we become currents on a circuit board challenged by an onslaught of what-ifs.

In Perec’s words, we “circumperambulate the various departments which taken together constitute the whole or part of the organization of which you are an employee.”

ArtsNews On Feb. 28, New York City Center became the first New York City performing arts venue to sell tickets directly through its free iPhone app. A new feature will soon enable the venue to scan tickets from iPhone users’ screens at the door, for paperless admission… Church of the Ascension has announced the completion of the installation of its new French organ. Assembled and installed personally by master builder Pascal Quoirin, this is the first French-built organ in New York City and includes 6,183 pipes, 95 stops, 111 ranks, two consoles and seven keyboards… New York-based painter Veru Narula compares international world conflicts with Shakespearean tragedies through his paintings in a new exhibition.

Entitled All The World’s A Stage, the show runs through March 23 at Pace University’s Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts, as part of the Center’s year-long Shakespeare festival… NYC & Company has named Asia Society and Museum the Culture Spot for March. As part of this designation, Asia Society and Museum is offering 2-for-1 “bring a friend for free” admission through March 31. Featured exhibitions this month include A Price’s Manuscript Unbound: Muhammud Juki’s “Shahnamah” and A Longing for Luxury: Chinese Ceramics from the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection… On March 2, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council announced over $500,000 in grants to over 170 artists and art groups in Manhattan through its two core grant programs, The Fund for Creative Communities and the Manhattan Community Arts Fund. Grant recipients include visual artist Olek, The People’s Theatre Project, Pan American Musical Art Research and NY Bard Wo Association… Beginning March 29, Creative Time will present The Bruce High Quality Foundation’s Teach 4 Amerika tour, a fiveweek, 11-city, coast-to-coast road trip in a limousine painted as a school bus. The tour, which begins at Cooper Union, will visit university art departments, art schools and other art-related establishments, bringing together educators, artists, arts administrators and students to discuss the future of art education… The New York Philharmonic announced that Michael Tilson Thomas will return for the first time since 1996 to lead the orchestra in the New York premiere of Sofia Gubaidulina’s In Tempus Praesens, Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, with violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, for whom the piece was written. The program, which runs March 31–April 2, also includes works by Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky… The

Tribeca Film Festival has announced Robert De Niro Sr., Inka Essenhigh, Stephen Hannock, Mark Innerst, Tom Otterness, Will Ryman, Clifford Ross, Taryn Simon and Nate Lowman as nine of the major contemporary artists who will contribute work to the TFF 2011 Artists Awards program. Artwork by these and other artists yet to be announced will be presented to winning filmmakers April 28 at the TFF, which runs April 20–May 1… The New Museum will host, beginning May 4, The Festival of Ideas for the New City,

a new collaborative initiative uniting a huge range of Downtown community groups, arts and educational institutions and other organizations, including Bowery Poetry Club, Cooper Union, C-Lab/Columbia University and The Drawing Center, and addressing creative ways of improving quality of life in the city… And The Museum of Modern Art’s upcoming exhibition, Cindy Sherman, a retrospective survey of the artist’s career, will run through June 11, 2012.

The exhibition will include over 170 of Sherman’s photographs… Madison Square Art

announced the sale of Sol LeWitt’s “Circle with Towers” to Landmarks, the public art program of The University of Texas at Austin. Originally commissioned by the Madison Square Park Conservancy, the concrete structure was one of two works donated by the artist to support the establishment of the Sol LeWitt Fund for Artists Work, a permanent endowment supporting public art in Madison Square Park, where the work was displayed from June 2005 through January 2006…Have news for us?

Email CityArts@manhattanmedia.com.

stieglitz , steichen, strand

Through April 10 The exhibition is made possible in part by Joseph M. Cohen.

MET-0053-SSS_CityArts_7.341x8.5_Mar9_v3.indd 1

metmuseum.org Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O’Keeffe – Hands, 1917, platinum print, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Georgia O’Keeffe, through the generosity of The Georgia O’Keeffe Foundation and Jennifer and Joseph Duke, 1997.

March 9, 2011 |2/14/11 City Arts 5 12:27 PM

VisualART

Yang Ki-hun scrolls from Kaikodo.

Taking Stock

Optimism about the Asian art market is fueling excitement leading into Asia Week

By Valerie Gladstone sia Week gets off to an auspicious start March 18 with an elegant reception at the Asia Society. Then, over the course of nine days, 34 Asian art dealers—along with the Asia Society, Japan Society, Rubin Museum, China Institute and the auction houses Bonham’s, Christie’s, Sotheby’s, Doyle New York and iGavel—will present exhibitions, lectures, discussions, sales, concerts, films and a gala benefit reception and dinner, with everything open to the public. The range is astonishing. Everything from exquisite jade carved bowls and Persian manuscripts to Buddhist sculptures and contemporary Japanese ceramics will be on exhibit, with dealers eager to show and discuss the incredibly rich and varied art. There’s no excuse not to know the

A

Ralph M. Chait Galleries

Rare large Chinese blue-and-white porcelain charger available from Chait Galleries.

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difference between your decorative art are symbolic of children created by a objects and contemporary artist prints when living in harmony with one group the gallery it’s all said and done. another, and a green, blue and dubbed the New “I don’t think people realize quite how red porcelain tile from the late Literati, which much we have on offer,” says dealer Carlton 17th century depicting a lively includes artists who Rochell, chairman in one way or another of Asia Week New respond to their Chinese Everything from exquisite York 2011. “There cultural heritage. Dealer is more great Asian Karen Wender singles jade carved bowls and Persian art on exhibit and at out Chinese-American manuscripts to Buddhist auction here, as well Mel Chin’s “Scholar’s as events surrounding Nightmare,” a Ming-style sculptures and contemporary it, during this period table placed on a white Japanese ceramics will be on than anywhere else platform and described as in the world at any “seen in a dream, where exhibit, with dealers eager to one time. The market reality and abstraction is strong and getting converge,” as representative show and discuss the incredibly stronger, especially of their underlying rich and varied art.

Chinese, increasingly philosophy.

Indian and also Japanese modern Korean and Japanese art. It’s going to be a village scene. Though the Chinese and contemporary art is fantastic week.” market has skyrocketed in the past also well represented, To help visitors navigate the events, five years, with mainland and probably most organizers put together a comprehensive, Hong Kong Chinese increasingly surprisingly in the 88-page guide with listings and details, buying the art of their past, Japan Society’s as well as a mobile-accessible website, Steven Chait says choice exhibition Bye AsiaWeekNY.com. The guide will be objects are still available, Bye Kitty!!! available through the cultural institutions, such as early pottery, Between auction houses and galleries. In fact, ceramics and export ware. Kawase Shinobu vase available from Heaven and Hell opportunities extend well beyond a week, “It may sound crazy,” in Contemporary Richard Goodbody Joan B. Mirviss Ltd. with the Arts of Pacific Asia Show also Chait explains, “but buying Japanese Art, which taking place March 23–27. something slightly damaged runs through June Asia Week represents a terrific isn’t the end of the world. It’s one way to get 12. Its provocative title indicates that the opportunity for newcomers and seasoned a beautiful piece.” artists in the show are challenging the collectors to discover new works. As usual, While old pieces dominate in the country’s long love affair with the cute Ralph M. Chait Galleries, Inc., long a galleries and auction houses, there are also and adorable. The 16 participants, half preeminent dealer in Chinese porcelain, many wonderful modern and contemporary of them women, contribute, among other has remarkable objects for sale. Among works available. At China 2000 Fine works, painted screens with political them are a vividly painted blue-and-white, Art, visitors will find New Shoots Off the commentary, a taxidermied deer covered mid-17th-century porcelain plate, decorated Old Trunk: Contemporary Chinese Art with plastic beads and an installation with lions playing with brocaded balls that with Classical Roots, a collection of pieces which includes a wedding dress and a

Brancusi and Arp, as well their 2,000-year- his collecting history up until that point old traditions.” To understand her was primarily in Old Masters European influence and the impact of their exposure drawings and paintings. Like Martin, he in the West, it is necessary to know that had an epiphany the first time he saw a when she started collecting the work work in a show in New York in 2005. of artists of this movement in 1984, six “I fell in love immediately,” he says, museums showed modern clay works; remarking on how the different surfaces today, 45 museums here and in Europe appealed to him. As soon as they could, hold collections. he and his wife arranged a lunch with She also strongly influenced Jeffrey Mirviss, where they developed a vision and Carol Horvitz, who are now among statement for their future as collectors in the world’s most important collectors of the field. The prices shocked him, as they contemporary Japanese ceramics.

Jeffrey CityArts-Jr2:Layout 1 2/25/11 10:06are AMa fraction Page 1of those for contemporary says he just sort of stumbled upon them; European and American art. “It’s

incredible what beautiful work you can get for relatively low prices, even as low as $1,000,” he says. Plus, there are no worries about provenance, and the pieces are easily cared for.

The Horvitzs have also enjoyed meeting the artists and visiting their studios in Japan. But more than anything, Carol says, she likes the physicality of the art form. “You can hold these objects in your hands,” she says. “You can even use some of them, like the sake cups. They provide a wonderfully sensory as well as aesthetic experience.” <

MARCH 24 –27 7WNewYork 7 W. 34TH STREET AT 5TH AVENUE ®

CELEBRATING THE 20TH

NEW YORK

ARTS OF PACIFIC ASIA

Detail from Mano Gyotei’s “Raijin” painting, available from Scholten Japanese Art. network of linked veins.

A bit more conservatively, Katherine Martin at Scholten Japanese Art offers pieces with the theme Monogatari: Tales of Japan, an exhibition of paintings, woodblock prints and netsuke devoted to the art of storytelling. “What especially draws people to Japanese art is the design and composition,” she says. “Even 17th-century pieces look modern.” She also points out how much Japanese art influenced the Impressionists, who, of course, are tremendously popular. “I remember the first print I saw when I was 20,” she says. “I found the design so amazing. I understood immediately why Monet and Van Gogh and all those guys thought it was so dynamic.”

Certainly Joan Mirviss would agree.

An early supporter of contemporary Japanese art, she will present Birds of Dawn: Pioneers of Japan’s Sodeisha Ceramic Movement, focusing on the movement’s three seminal founders, Yagi Kazuo (191879), Suzuki Osamu (1926-2001) and Yamada Hikaru (1923-2001). More than 60 works by the Kyoto triumvirate will be on view and offered for sale, among them Kuriki Tatsusuke’s handsome, cylindrical sculpture with a brown and tan geometric design, Suzuki Osamu’s whimsical redand ash-glazed stoneware sculpture and Sakiyama Takayuki’s sensual, curving vessel, “Chôtô; Listening to the Waves.”

“These are just extraordinary artists,” Mirviss says. “You see the influence of

SHOW

PREVIEW OPENING WEDNESDAY MARCH 23, 6–10PM TICKETS $100 PER PERSON includes wine and hors d'oeuvres, an illustrated catalogue and repeat admission.

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SHOW HOURS THURS–SAT 11AM–7:30PM SUN 11AM–5PM No admittance Sun. after 4:30

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310.455.2886 I www.newyorkartsofpacificasiashow.com March 9, 2011 | City Arts

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MUSEUM

With Shows Like These, Who Needs Blockbusters?

MoMA and the Met highlight rarely explored aspects of two modern titans

By Lance Esplund constantly changing focus and attention, ight now New York is being graced move through and around objects and with a pair of small—though space; and the ways in which our minds, monumental—interrelated exhibitions responding to what we’ve seen, freethat spotlight rarely explored aspects associate and continually wander. This of two of the giants of Modernism. The is part of what Picasso was responding Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Cézanne’s to when he said of Cézanne that what Card Players and the Museum of Modern excites us about his art is its “anxiety.”

Art’s Picasso: Guitars 1912-1914 offer He could have said that what excites us in viewers not only the chance to look Cézanne is the sense that it is brimming backward a century or more into the and simmering with the immediacy and origins of Modern art, but also to dig deep dynamics of life. Pictures in this exhibition into the poetic transformations possible have the power to jolt you into the herewith paint, assemblage, collage, pedestrian and-now as strongly as an evening spent materials and straightforward subjects; reading Kierkegaard or Nietzsche. to immerse themselves in an artist’s Cézanne is, of course, the father of development of a theme and to grasp the Modernism and is rightfully revered by power of visual metaphor. painters. Although acknowledged as such, Maybe we can credit the lagging he is often touted merely as the bridge economy for the recent run in New York between Impressionism and Cubism. of concentrated scholarly exhibitions Cézanne is credited—during the retinal, that—produced mainly in-house and in sensory onslaught of Impressionism—with close cooperation with and loans from other giving monumentality and weight (the institutions—reexamine and underscore a solidity of the Old Masters) back to painting handful of masterworks from a museum’s and for setting the stage for Cubism, which permanent collection. Whatever the led to abstraction. Yet none of Cézanne’s cause, with shows like these, who needs innovations (dutifully noted in art-history blockbusters? textbooks) matter when you are confronted Cézanne’s Card Players arrives on the with the monumentality of Cézanne’s heels of the Met’s traveling exhibitions achievement—that is, the experience, Vermeer’s Masterpiece “The Milkmaid” masterpiece by masterpiece, of the paintings and Miró: The Dutch Interiors, and and drawings themselves. originated last fall at The Courtauld Gallery Too often, in our self-centered in London, but is organized and installed postmodern times, artists of the past (and at the Met by Gary Tinterow. And it is especially Modernist titans like Cézanne spectacular—pitch perfect. There have and Picasso) are seen not for what they been excellent Cézanne exhibitions in this are, but merely as stepping stones to our country recently, including Philadelphia’s present. The Whitney’s 2006 Picasso and 1996 retrospective and, in 2006, the American Art exhibition treated Picasso as National Gallery’s thrilling Cézanne in the butt of a joke: a downward-spiraling Provence. But, this is the first monographic European artist to refute, ridicule and New York museum show devoted to plunder by ascendant American artists.

Cézanne in over half a century.

Both Paul Cézanne Certainly both Cézanne and (1839-1906) and Pablo Picasso bridge our past to our Picasso (1881-1973), revolutionary innovators present. But we must remember of gargantuan proportions, (despite the carping of art were traditional genre painters. Refusing from critics) that art—if it truly is the outset to reinvent the art to begin with—does not wheel, instead focusing their attentions on triedhave a sell-by date. and-true themes rich enough for past masters— still life, portrait, nude, interior, figure and landscape—they were Peter Schjeldahl, reviewing Cézanne’s able to see the world afresh and, in turn, to Card Players in The New Yorker last remake art and our world anew. month, wrote that he doesn’t especially Acknowledging that our experience of like Cézanne’s pictures. He dismissed the life (our viewpoint) is never fixed, but in a show as “antique” and “thoroughly banal.” state of constant flux, Cézanne introduced He claimed that in the “Card Players,” the into painting the existential nature of painter is indifferent to subject matter; and seeing—the ways in which our eyes, he summed up Cézanne merely as having

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2010 Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas / Art Resource, NY / Scala, Florence

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Paul Cézanne’s “Man in a Blue Smock.” “commenced the extravagant endgame—as we can see, now that it has ended—of Modernism.”

This misreading, misconception and utterly baseless and worn-out trope that the art of the past (and especially that of Cézanne) becomes increasingly insignificant with the triumph of each new “ism,” proves how much we need constant reminders like Cézanne’s Card Players to take the focus off of Cézanne the “bridge,” the “founding father,” and place it on Cézanne the “master of Aixen-Provence.”

Cézanne’s Card Players begins with a series of thematically related prints from the Met’s permanent collection, including 17th-century genre images of interiors, card players and smokers by Adriaen van Ostade; 18th-century etchings after Caravaggio and Chardin; and 19th-century works by Manet, Thomas Rowlandson and Daumier. Browse these works but save yourself for Cézanne, who—linking the subject of card playing

from Chardin to Balthus—changed the rules of the game.

Each of Cézanne’s 20 oils and works on paper here (all from the 1890s) deserve devoted attention: Cézanne’s spatial shifts and restless, twitching contours (foreshadowing not only Cubism but also Giacometti’s nervous elisions); Cézanne’s shifting, tilting card tables, with their multiple perspectival trajectories and rumbling surfaces, as uneven as landscapes; his inwardly absorbed figures, with their stalwart, stovepipe limbs, as heavy as sandbags, as broad as levies—their hands of cards blurry, unreadable and fluttering like captured birds; and Cézanne’s zigzagging, elastic spaces, in which a single figure, as if in a constant state of shuffle, occupies multiple locations. All of this adds up to the strategies and activities of life (or in this case the metaphor of the game).

In the last room of the show (the most fulfilling use of this leftover, oddball gallery I have ever encountered) is an airy grouping

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Masterworks

Jewels of the Collection

Opening March 11, 2011

Publication: City Arts Insertion date: MARCH 9, 2011

150 West 17th Street, NYC 212.620.5000 rmanyc.org

This exhibition is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Art Works.

RMA-0004-CityArts_Mar9_4.917x5.541_v2.indd 1

Dharmapalas, Tibet, Geluk Order, 18th century, Distemper and gold on cloth, C2007.21.1 (HAR 65787)

3/1/11Arts 6:15 PM March 9, 2011 | City 9

4.917 X 5.541

Cézanne’s Card Players through May 8, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Ave., 212-535-7710; Picasso: Guitars 19121914 through June 6, Museum of Modern Art, 11 W. 53rd St., 212-708-9431.

EVER DREAM

LaPlacaCohen 212-675-4106

©2011 Estate of Pablo Picasso/ARS

Picasso’s “Guitar,” after mid-January 1914.

a metaphor for the figure (specifically a woman), as well as a metaphor for music and the rhythm of life and the turning of the seasons. He imagines the guitar as odalisque; standing figure and phallus; table and landscape; representative of the movements of river and song.

Picasso: Guitars is overflowing with Picasso masterworks. It includes a digitized period sketchbook whose pages can be quickly turned, revealing a flipbook in which architecture, figure, still life, bird and guitar—as if interchangeable—all merge and reemerge one out of the other.

The sketchbook gives a sense of Picasso’s complete openness to the transformative possibilities of objects and materials.

Throughout the exhibition, Picasso conflates drawing, sculpture and collage; figure, face and object. He treats newsprint as rhythm, geometry and voice. Drawn line turns readily, easily, from contour to melody to plucked string. In this show’s two sculpted guitars, “Still Life with Guitar” and “Guitar”—made of cardboard, paper, string and wire; and ferrous sheet metal and wire, respectively—Picasso brings sculpture from the pedestal and the floor to the wall; and he rids sculpture of its gravity-bound mass and center-outward expansion. He dissects and reconstructs space and form. He makes void palpable—volume weightless. Allowing planes not just to describe surfaces, but literally to intersect sculpture, Picasso merges our world, our space, with that of art and music. Foregoing bronze and marble, and instead utilizing everyday materials, he declares that, in the right hands (and for the first time), anything, even detritus, can be transformed into art.

Certainly both Cézanne and Picasso bridge our past to our present. They open doors—and keep them open. But we must remember (despite the carping of art critics) that art—if it truly is art to begin with—does not have a sell-by date. “To me,” Picasso observed, in 1923, “there is no past or future in art. If a work of art cannot live always in the present, it must not be considered at all.” Cézanne’s paintings and Picasso’s constructions are far from Modernist relics of a period long passed.

Suggesting woman and instrument, art and illusion, a figure’s inner being and outer shell, Picasso’s rust-brown sheet metal “Guitar” links Zurbarán’s monks, Chardin’s still lifes and Ingres’s odalisques (through Braque’s birds) to the torqued ellipses of Richard Serra. Picasso’s “Guitar” remains an element of genre painting or, here, genre assemblage—among the first of its kind.

Picasso’s “Guitars,” like Cézanne’s “Card Players”—both spiritually imbued and strikingly contemporary—are as relevant and alive today as they ever were. <

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of five masterpieces—portraits of rugged men, including a gardener and farm worker who modeled for the “Card Players.” The “Peasant,” pearly, as if submerged, recalls the inwardness of El Greco’s saints and the melancholia of Picasso’s Blue Period.

In “Man in a Blue Smock,” a vaporous woman, like a daydream, hovers outside the figure; as if startled awake, his foreshortened arms pull violently into his shoulders and his bright red scarf flashes like a flag of emotional surrender.

Cézanne keeps his subjects—men of the earth—close to nature. His stony figures’ features and the folds of their clothing feel world-weary, rutted, worn into place. “Man with a Pipe” is as rooted as a tree; its browns, at times reminiscent of the velvety robes of Zurbarán’s monks, shift like thickened bark. The disheveled and softly weathered “Seated Peasant” cradles his oversized hand in his lap like a giant mollusk or clubfoot, an appendage seemingly the cause of as much strife as good. And “The Smoker,” his elbow rooting him in place to an upended table that threatens to erupt and dislodge him, rises diagonally in space like a great oak. Color and form move through this picture not as tablecloth and clothing, but with the flow and actions of waterfall and forest.

You would do well to move directly from Cézanne’s Card Players to MoMA’s Picasso: Guitars 1912-1914, in which Picasso—inexhaustibly inventive—building on Cézanne, dissolved and reordered Renaissance space altogether. Organized by Anne Umland, with assistance from Blair Hartzell, this stunning exhibition of some 70 collages, drawings, assemblages, paintings and sculptures (along with photographs and ephemera), sets its sights on the two-year period commencing in 1912, the beginning of the second, or “synthetic” phase, of Cubism.

The star, or theme, of the show is the guitar; but mostly it centers on Picasso’s endlessly revolutionary exploration of his subject, which also includes various other still-life objects. Picasso understands that the stringed instrument—with its neck, mouth and body—is traditionally

ClassicalMUSIC&Opera

Three Conductors and Two Violinists And three orchestras and an OOMP

By Jay Nordlinger aavo Järvi is the son of Neeme Järvi, one of the most underrated conductors of our time—Neeme, I mean. Paavo is a conductor himself, and a very good one. (His brother, Kristjan, is also a conductor.) In recent years, he has visited New York with the chamber orchestra he leads in Bremen, Germany. This orchestra has proven one hot band. Järvi has led them in taut, bristling performances.

On a recent Friday morning, he was in Avery Fisher Hall, guest-conducting the New York Philharmonic. When he leads his chamber orchestra, he drives a sports car, so to speak; leading the Philharmonic, he drove an SUV—but a nimble and capable one. The program began with an OOMP: an obligatory opening modern piece.

This one was by Erkki-Sven Tüür, an Estonian (like the Järvis). It’s called Aditus, which, the composer told us in a program note, means “approach,” “access” and other things. The piece is of a familiar kind: busy, squirmy, percussion-filled. In spots, it seems a fanfare. When it was finished, a man behind me said, “Huh,” as though to say, “Interesting.” I agree.

But what purpose does the piece serve, really? In that program note, Tüür called it a “concert opener.” In other words—if I may—it’s an OOMP. To be replaced by other OOMPs and forgotten, in all probability.

The guest soloist on this morning was Janine Jansen, the Dutch violinist—who played Britten’s concerto. She is an excellent musician who makes an extraordinary sound: liquid, seamless, beautiful. She also has a well-tuned sense of rhythm, which helped in this concerto. A fellow critic said afterward that, fine as Jansen had been, the work ought to be bigger, more dramatic.

That seems to me perfectly just. But I think I had been too enchanted by Jansen’s virtues to notice.

After intermission came Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, which Järvi started unusually: There was very little break between the opening figures. The first movement in general was very fast—and sloppy, and indifferent. The oboe solo broke up the speed: It was slow and languorous (and maybe just a tiny bit goofy).

The next movements were much like the first: fast and indifferent, if not sloppy.

There were some effective moments. For instance, Järvi produced the right tension before the C-major explosion of the finale. But this account was mechanical, workaday—I actually found it dispiriting.

I should record, however, that the crowd loved it, judging from their applause.

Or were they mainly applauding the

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composition? I like to quote a sentiment attributed to Robert Graves: “The thing about Shakespeare is, he really is good.”

So’s Beethoven’s Fifth.

From a Fifth to a Third In the fall, Valery Gergiev brought his Mariinsky Orchestra to Carnegie Hall for symphonies of Mahler. A couple of weeks ago, he returned to New York to complete the cycle—not in Carnegie Hall, and not with the Mariinsky, but in Avery Fisher Hall with the London Symphony Orchestra.

I heard the Third.

This is one of the most monumental and transcendent of all symphonies, by anybody. And Gergiev, who’s an off-andon conductor, was very much on in it. So was the LSO. The first three movements were superb: incisive, gripping, somewhat raw. At times, the music was a little cold and brisk for me—but always defensible.

Gergiev let Mahler have his nostalgia, but did not make it maudlin.

The fourth movement introduces a voice, a mezzo (or a contralto). She was Anna Larsson, and she was okay. In my view, the momentum of the performance was halted here. Gergiev executed a nifty transition to the next movement, a choral movement: It has a sparkling, Christmassy spirit. On this occasion, it was rather limp, dull. Momentum was further braked.

And the finale? It is slow, consoling and well-nigh medicinal. A balm. Some people think that “I’ll Be Seeing You” borrowed its tune from it. The movement is in D major, a key that composers typically use for brightness. But some composers know how to use it for warmth: Beethoven, for example (in his “Pastoral” sonata). And Brahms (in his Variations on an Original Theme and his Second Symphony). Mahler can make D major warm, too.

Gergiev shaped the movement nicely, powerfully. I found it a little big, a little grand, a little triumphant—not quite consoling or medicinal enough. But it was certainly wonderful. The crowd—a capacity crowd—had gotten its money’s worth.

Here is a footnote: The singer’s bio said, “Ms. Larsson is rightly justifying her position internationally as the premier interpreter of Gustav Mahler’s works.” If I were her, I would have that excised. Even if it were true, it would be embarrassing.

Fabulous Finns, and Others The Minnesota Orchestra is an ensemble with a proud past, and a proud present. They spent an evening in Carnegie Hall with their music director, Osmo Vänskä, a Finn. And their soloist was Lisa Batiashvili, the Georgian-born violinist. Her

Dutch violinist Janine Jansen concerto was the Beethoven—a work she has played often, and lovingly.

Her Beethoven is unusual: unusually tender, delicate and beautiful. Indeed, loving. It is also a little small-scale, especially in the first movement. On this night, the second movement, Larghetto, was somewhat stagnant. It did not flow as it might. But the Rondo burbled its contentment and mirth. Oddly enough, the violinist’s only poor intonation came in the last few notes—but this hardly mattered. It let you know the performance was live.

Batiashvili is a musician of rare integrity, evincing a spirituality and purity. There is no false ego about her. She touches an audience, without trying.

In this particular outing with the Beethoven, she used the cadenzas by Alfred Schnittke, the late Russian composer. They are interesting and skillful little pieces. But they are not my idea of a cadenza. What I mean is, they are intrusions on the concerto, rather than adornments to it. They sweep Beethoven off the stage, saying, “I’ll take over.” I think of Luciano Berio’s completion of Puccini’s opera Turandot. It is very interesting. But Berio made no attempt

to slip into Puccini’s skin. The music is basically Berio.

On the second half of the concert, Vänskä conducted two symphonies by his national composer, Sibelius. These were the Sixth and the Seventh. He conducted them, frankly, like a master.

And the Minnesotans followed him almost unerringly. They were unified, smoother than smooth—smoother than Finland’s, or Minnesota’s, ice. Not a hair was out of place. The composer’s qualities, some of them mysterious, came forth.

We have at least two first-class Sibelius interpreters among us—Sir Colin Davis and Vänskä. And I will pay Vänskä another high compliment: He made me understand the Sixth and Seventh symphonies better than I had. And, while I’m paying high compliments, here is one for the orchestra: The Minnesotans are not among the traditional Big Five in America—but do those five orchestras play better than they? I can’t say they do.

Vänskä & Co. closed the evening with the inevitable Sibelius encore, “Valse triste.”

This spooky waltz can still please and haunt, after a thousand hearings. <

Theater

Bye Bye Miss American Pie

Horatio Alger takes a beating in Broadway productions of ‘That Championship Season’ and ‘Good People’

By Mark Peikert oor old American Dream. Once upon a time, Americans were expected to do great things. The circumstances they were born into would have no bearing on where they would end up; riches and power were there just out of reach, achievable through mere hard work and persistence. But as we have been told repeatedly: politicians are dirty liars, the suburbs are roiling pits of vice and the American dream is a failure. This week two Broadway plays, one a revival and one a premiere, remind us just how far people can fall from the dream of a better life.

The revival is the star-studded Pulitzer Prize-winner That Championship Season, playing at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre through May 27. But the alcohol-fueled furies of middle-aged men who never reached the potential of their golden days in high school isn’t as impressive as it must have been when the play premiered in 1972.

Forty years of movies, plays and books about class reunions has rendered what was edgy and invigorating into a period piece.

Gathering in 1972 at the home of their former basketball coach for the 20th anniversary of their Pennsylvania state championship, four men arrested in adolescence fight, snarl, whine and accuse one another for two hours. George (Jim Gaffigan) is now the bumbling mayor of their hometown, though he’s being challenged in the upcoming election by, to his astonishment, a Jew. James (Kiefer Sutherland, giving a sterling performance that’s the polar opposite of his role on 24) has seen the years slip past while he grudgingly shouldered responsibilities, including his alcoholic, truth-addicted brother Tom (Jason Patric). Now a millionaire, Phil (Chris Noth, a good decade older than the rest of the cast) has succeeded by playing dirty, including having an affair with George’s wife. And towering above them all, as a father figure and confessor, is Coach (Brian Cox), who turns meaner and grimmer as the alcohol flows freely.

The problem with That Championship Season is that we have to take these men at their word that they once had promise; director Gregory Mosher emphasizes their brokenness at the expense of their past glories. James laments the life he’s led, caring for his dying father and his sloppy, laughingstock brother, but his gentle, crumpled mien suggests the kind of man who’s too weak to ever succeed on his own. And there are no glimpses of what might have been if Tom hadn’t taken to the bottle to facilitate exposing the hypocrisy of everyone around him. High school was a long time ago for this quartet, but nothing

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Frances McDormand and Tate Donovan in Good People. they’ve done since then has made them as happy as winning a basketball game. After 40 years of hearing these same problems expressed by similar white, middle-aged straight men, neither they nor their racistand sexist-tinged, coulda-woulda-shoulda conversations are all that poignant.

Two blocks uptown, playwright David Lindsay-Abaire’s Good People (at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre through May 8) is examining the same topics through the lens of a middle-aged white woman—and the results are appropriately uncomfortable. As long as one ignores

the fact that the characters in the play couldn’t afford the price of the tickets, the desperation of the unemployed and broke Margaret (Frances McDormand, teaming with director Daniel Sullivan to keep her performance unsentimental and unflinching) is sweaty, cringe-inducing and painful. In a word, it’s theater.

Fired from her job at a dollar store in South Boston because she’s always late, Margaret puts a cheerful face on her financial straits to her high school friend Jean (Becky Ann Baker) and landlord Dottie (Estelle Parsons), but her eagerness

to win at bingo night reveals a glimpse at her inner anxiety. She does have one, lastditch option: Her former classmate Mike (Tate Donovan), now a successful doctor, has returned to the Boston area with his wife (Renée Elise Goldberg, in what should be a star-making performance). Egged on

by Jean, Margaret shows up unannounced at Mike’s office, begging for any kind of work. Unable to help herself, she also needles him about his upscale home in Chestnut Hill, his younger wife and his newly acquired “lace-curtain” ways, until he invites her to his upcoming birthday party. But when Mike calls the day before to tell her the party has been canceled, Margaret shows up at his house anyway, to teach him a lesson.

Once Margaret is firmly in the uncomfortable environs of upper-middleclass life, Lindsay-Abaire digs deep into the truth of all those Horatio Alger stories. “You were lucky,” Margaret sadly tells Mike in front of his wife. She swears she didn’t have choices; she dropped out of high school to have a baby (born with severe disabilities), and has been working just to pay the bills ever since.

The possibly unintended effect of Margaret and her position is that, as she and the playwright argue against the cherished belief that hard work is all one needs to succeed, the audience finds itself increasingly skeptical of Margaret. The Horatio Alger stories are too deeply ingrained in our psyches; we don’t want to believe that there are women like Margaret, forced to work entry-level jobs their entire lives because of their circumstances. The men of That Championship Season are less problematic; they seem to have actively squandered away their potential by hubristically assuming that winning a basketball tournament would prepare them for a life of fulfillment. Margaret, however, doesn’t even have the memory of high school success to turn to when fighting her mounting disappointment with life.

That relentless refusal to soften Margaret’s circumstances serves the play well, until the final scene brings with it confirmation of an accusation that Margaret threw at Mike and his wife. I won’t say more, except to add that the final scene, with its tidy, bow-wrapped conclusion and a deus ex machina reprieve for Margaret, goes against the porcupine qualities that separated everything that came before from shows like That Championship Season, which ends with, of all things, a group singalong of the high school’s fight song. Forty years separate the writing of the two plays, but the American dream, like the embattled Margaret, remains standing. <

SHOWS AVENUE

defined by quality and design

A Magnificent Italian Neoclassic Giltwood Console Rome, Italy; late 18th century; from Gary Rubinstein Antiques

THE SPRING SHOW March 10â&#x20AC;&#x201C;13, 2011

Avenue Shows

Antiques & Art at the Armory

March 10-13, 2011

SHOW SCHEDULE, EVENTS AND EXHIBITIONS Thursday, March 10 Show Hours: 11 a.m.–7:30 p.m.

Designer Breakfast Panel Discussion: The Influences of Mario Buatta 10 a.m.–11 a.m.

Legendary designer and honored guest Mario Buatta will join esteemed colleagues and friends Ann LeConey, Barbara Ostrom, Guy Regal, Todd Alexander Romano, Susanna Salk, and Scott Salvator for a presentation Mario Buatta and discussion of his incomparable work and influence, led by New York School of Interior Design professor and department head Judith Gura.

RSVP to designerbreakfast@manhattanmedia.com

FRIDAY, MARCH 11 Show Hours: 11 a.m.–7:30 p.m.

Designer Breakfast Panel Discussion: Decorating with Antiques in the Modern World 10 a.m.–11 a.m.

TODAY Show contributor, author and design expert Susanna Salk will discuss decorating with antiques Susanna Salk with design luminaries Alexa Hampton, Alex Papachristidis and Maureen Footer.

RSVP to designerbreakfast@manhattanmedia.com

Royal Oak Foundation Lecture Tartan Tales: Stories from Historic Scottish Houses 4 p.m.–5 p.m.

Lecture full, please call 646-442-1626 for availability Curt DiCamillo, executive director, National Trust for Scotland Foundation, USA, will lead a fascinating tour through Scottish history.

SATURDAY, MARCH 12 Show Hours: 11 a.m.–7:30 p.m.

Royal Oak Foundation Lecture Mirror, Chrome, and Gin Fizz: Art Deco in Britain 3 p.m.–4 p.m.

Lecture full, please call 646-442-1626 for availability Emily Evans Eerdmans, author, design and decorative arts historian, will discuss highlights in British Art Deco.

Meet the Authors Book Signings 11:15 a.m.–12 p.m.

SUNDAY, MARCH 13

Alexa Hampton Alexa Hampton: The Language of Interior Design

SPECIAL EXHIBITION: AVENUE Shows is pleased to partner with the New York School of Interior Design to present an exclusive installation of renderings from their leading BFA and MFA 2010 thesis projects.

Susanna Salk Room for Children: Stylish Spaces for Sleep and Play

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FRIDAY, MARCH 11

City Arts | www.cityartsnyc.com

Show Hours: 11 a.m.–5:30 p.m.

Meet the

Exhibitors With so many excellent items to choose from at the AVENUE Antiques & Art at the Armory Show, we wanted to highlight a few of the participating exhibitors and find out what to expect. Here’s a quick look at what collectors want and the prized items the exhibitors will have available. to see my clients being drawn more towards the higher end of decorative arts, and more towards investments in quality—the buyers are buying at the high-end because this is what they understand as “investment value.”

Instead of keeping their money in the banks and earning the low interest they might earn, or risking it in the stock market, they’re drawn to decorative arts, antiquities and jewelry.

People are looking to invest into the better Sri Lankan sapphire from Camilla Dietz Bergeron. qualities of arts and antiques, knowing that they will ultimately see some sort of return later down the road, and that, worst case Camilla Dietz Bergeron of scenario, they’ll be breaking even. There’s no Camilla Dietz Bergeron loss in the general investment as long as it’s a What do you see as trends in collectwell-known artist. ing within your area of specialty? We’ve How is the New York-area market difseen in the last year a lot of interest in what I ferent from other markets? New York is the call “big and bold and gold.” We see a lot of epicenter in the United States of the liveliness interest in the ’40s look. We happen to like of the business that I’m in. When you think Aldo Cipullo a lot, and we have a number of about New York, you think about a his pieces—the ’60s gold look. melting pot of culture. You think of How is the New York-area market a mixture of all walks of life. different from other markets? It’s just a New York has always, in lot more people who buy jewelry, and history, been the epicenthere are a lot more occasions to wear ter of cultural arts, anit here. People aren’t afraid to wear it, tiquities, decorative arts, I mean they really put it on and wear dance, Broadway. When it, as opposed to other people who are we think of New York, we think afraid to wear it out—not so much as far as of arts. We have the best musesafety—but they just don’t boss their jewelry, ums in this country. When it comes they let it boss them. Here people boss it. And to antiquities or decorative arts, they put it on with casual clothes. They don’t the hub is Manhattan. Look at just wear it when they get dressed up. where the major auction houses Any specific items you are bringing are located—their headquarters to the show that you’d like to menTiffany Studios are here in New York, not Texas, tion? We have beautiful stuff. I don’t lamp from Ophir not Arizona, not California. It is know if I could choose just one piece, but Gallery.

New. York. City. we’ve got a really pretty sapphire ring with Any specific items you are bringing diamonds around it, à la Princess Diana/Kate to the show that you’d like to mention?

Middleton. It’s a lighter sapphire, but it is Sri I’m going to be bringing four lamps that were Lankan. created by Tiffany studios at the turn of the century. The dates are roughly 1904 to 1910.

Edo Ophir of Ophir Gallery The four lamps we’ll be unveiling haven’t What do you see as trends in collectbeen offered on the market for some time ing within your area of specialty?I tend

now. One is a turtleback tile lamp, which has an integrated turtleback tile lamp base—that’s how it was originally purchased from the studios, I would say around 1904. We’ll also be bringing our typical line of decorative arts that cover the Art Nouveau period. We have some Art Nouveau furniture, as well as other decorative arts that complement the period.

Gavin Spanierman of Gavin Spanierman, Ltd. What do you see as trends in collecting within your area of specialty? Quality really rules the day. People are really more focused on buying things of really significant quality, as opposed to just, kind of, “stuff.”

People are more concerned with making sure they’ve invested their money wisely. They’re much more careful these days.

Willard Metcalf’s “The Golden Screen.”

How is the New York-area market different from other markets? It’s a lot broader, and it’s a lot more sophisticated.

People here have more varied interests, and people from all over the world are in New York, so they have a broader understanding of culture in general.

Any specific items you are bringing to the show that you’d like to mention?

I’m bring a beautiful Mary Cassatt drawing, mother and child, and I’m bringing an incredibly important and inspiring Willard Metcalf called “The Golden Screen,” from 1906, which was modeled at the International Exposition in Buenos Aires in 1910 and won a gold medal. I’m also bringing a wonderful Childe Hassam from 1897, of Cos Cob. Michael Pashby of Michael Pashby Antiques What do you see as trends in collecting within your area of specialty? Since the beginning of the year, I’ve seen more activity, particularly at the top end, where people really are looking for, and are prepared to buy pieces as long as they are really top quality. The problem for dealers at the moment is

finding enough things of good quality, and because dealers in particular are trying to stock up on good quality things, it’s forcing prices up at auction.

How is the New York-area Chinese lacquer table from market differMichael Pashby Antiques. ent from other markets? The New York market is very much a decorator-driven market, whereas outside of New York, you tend to come into contact with the clients far more often. One of the great things about having a fair is that it is an opportunity to meet the clients directly. A client can go to the fair, see a range of dealers at that fair, and get an idea of what is popular in the marketplace right now.

Any specific items you are bringing to the show that you’d like to mention?

I’ve got a fabulous set of eight dining chairs, with brass inlay, probably by John Gee, from 1800 to 1805, and a set of period Chippendale chairs, of absolutely top quality. And a fabulous Chinese lacquer table, with very striking dragon’s feet, from the early 19th century. And tons of other stuff!

Evan Lobel, owner of Lobel Modern What do you see as trends in collecting within your area of specialty? We really focus on unique pieces. Things that require a lot of handwork and a lot of skill— not pieces that have been mass-produced. We also go for very exotic. We have a goatskin table that’s different than anything. It’s different than leather. It’s like 100 times stronger than polyurethane. A nuclear bomb wouldn’t hurt it!

How is this market different from other markets and how will the experience at the show be different than your shop? I think people want expensive things, exotic things. It’s the same reason why women love Hermès bags. The pieces we will display at the show will be highly edited. We have things in the shop for a varied number of tastes, but the space is more confined at the show and so it will be a different, curated environment.

Any specific items you are bringing to the show that you’d like to mention? We have a great Italian liquor cabinet. We also have a pair of crystal sconces that were designed by Hans Harald Rathand that hung in The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City until the renovation in the late 1960s.

[Deb Sperling] Goatskin table from Lobel Modern.

March 9, 2011 | City Arts

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Avenue Shows

Antiques & Art at the Armory EXHIBITOR LIST WITH BOOTH LOCATIONS: Exhibitor Booth # Alexander’s Antiques 6 Antique American Wicker 47 Camilla Dietz Bergeron 21 Cavalier Galleries, Inc. 19B Cosulich Interiors and Antiques 40A Dallas W. Boesendahl 7 David Brooker Fine Art 61 Dean Project 24 Dinan & Chighine 20 Domont Jewelry 11 FraMonT 48 Gallery 47 8 Gallery Afrodit 56 Gary Rubinstein Antiques 36 Gavin Spanierman, ltd 13 Giraffics Gallery 43 Glen Leroux Antiques Inc. 33 Hamshere Gallery 41 Hollis Reh & Shariff 30 Il Segno Del Tempo 22 Jeff R. Bridgman American Antiques, LLC 53 John Atzbach Antiques 42 John Jaffa Antiques 28 Joyce Groussman Estate and Fine Jewelry 32 Linda Bernell Gallery 27 Lobel Modern 3 Lynda Willauer Antiques 9 Marilyn Garrow Fine Textile Art 16 Marion Harris 49 Mark Helliar 20th Century Design 60 Michael Pashby Antiques 2 Michael S. Haber Ltd 32 Milord Antiques 31 Moylan-Smelkinson/The Spare Room 29 Newel, LLC 1 Ophir Gallery 25 Pat Saling Ltd 50 Percy’s (Silver) 62 Robert Lloyd Inc. 51 Robin Katz Vintage Jewels 17 Rumi Galleries 38 Stephen Kalms 37 Steven Neckman Inc. 17 Sue Brown 59 The Connoisseur Fine Arts 52 The Manhattan Rare Book Company 19A The Silver Fund 53 Waldmann Van Lennep 18 Yew Tree House Antiques 31

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AttheGALLERIES Meg Hitchcock: Obsession: The Book of Revelation from the Koran “And thank you to God, for making me an atheist!” I got a lot of satisfaction out of Ricky Gervais’ closing statement at the Golden Globes: something about the ambiguity of inheriting a tradition in which one is clearly an outsider, epitomizing itself in a statement of humor. I got a similar charge out of Meg Hitchcock’s Obsession: The Book of Revelation from the Koran installation at Famous Accountants Gallery.

Hitchcock’s practice draws her to reconfigure religious texts—letter by letter—into other religious texts or intricate graphic patterns. “Obsession” moves the text from framed pieces to the bare gallery walls. Cutting apart an English translation of the Koran, Islam’s holy scripture, she recreates all 22 chapters of the Bible’s Book of Revelation, in an elaborate and exhausting stream that scrolls across the gallery walls, ceiling and floor.

As a title, “Obsession” is spot on.

Taking 135 hours to glue the individual letters after months of cutting apart a Koran, the process mirrors acts of devotion that pious people have embarked upon for centuries. The text snakes around the gallery, twisting over itself and coiling in loops. The Christian Book is punctuated by a motif in Hitchcock’s work, “om namah shivaya,” the holy name of the Hindu god Shiva, and a brief digression into a verse from the Koran.

The use of words unites these religious traditions and serves to open a portal to the divine. Obsession is not so much about Christianity or Islam, or the possibility of the End of Times, but it is about reasons for religion and devotion. By ignoring the persistent dogma and fundamentalism prevalent in all religions, Hitchcock addresses a more core issue: the human necessity for gods, and the morphology of the divine. [Nicholas Wells] Through March 27, Famous Accountants Gallery, 1673 Gates Ave., Brooklyn, famousaccountants. wordpress.com.

Raghu Rai: A Retrospective

Famed Magnum photographer Raghu Rai has been capturing India in images for almost 50 years. First championed in the West by Henri Cartier-Bresson in 1977, he covered the 1984 Bhopal industrial disaster and produced documentary series on Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama and the late Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

True to his dictum, “Either you capture the mystery of things or you reveal the mystery.

Everything else is just information,” he probes the surface of his subjects, seducing viewers into sometimes harsh and sometimes beautiful worlds with images of great complexity.

Working in black-and-white and in

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City Arts | www.cityartsnyc.com

From Meg Hitchcock’s Obsession. color, he moves from countryside to city, from ceremonies to the street, as poetic in photographing cows as children or clouds.

Looking at these images, a viewer comes away with an understanding of India and its humanity. He accomplishes this by catching eloquent moments, for instance in “Sleeping Dream, Tagore, Castle Street, Kolata,” a scene of men sleeping on mats on a rooftop, either exhausted from work or resting for work, all of them lying in the same position on their sides. Smoke rises behind the men gathered in “At Manikarnika Ghat, Where Hindus Burn Their Dead,” who are as casually accepting of the ceremony as other men might be of waiting for a bus.

Rai doesn’t only photograph people, he also exhibits a passion for nature in his cloud works taken from plane windows, particularly the glorious “Cloud Series 3,” where the plane’s wing seems to cut through the clouds, the sky streaked black and blue, and “Cloud Series 4,” where rain slides across the window and heavy gray clouds hover over the blue-specked city below.

“Cloud Series 7” shows a beach in fading, silver light, a man, two dogs and a boat in silhouette. Leaving sky for land, he shot “Breezy Trees,” of a small, narrow bridge in an enchanted, lush, green jungle—a place so magical it seems unearthly. It is hard

to believe that this is his first major solo exhibition in New York; his works rank with some of the most resonant of recent decades. [Valerie Gladstone] Through March 20, Aicon Gallery, 35 Great Jones St., 212-725-6092.

Jackson Pollock: Drawings on Paper, Canvas and Sculpture The most celebrated artists are usually preceded by their auras. Before entering a room of Van Goghs, we anticipate the air of a soulful loner; with Picasso, we expect a nose-thumbing, adolescent genius. With Jackson Pollock, we expect an impression of fierce and fearless self-discovery—and more than for most artists, the evidence of global shifts: what more vivid example of ascendant America, and its forthright embrace of wide, wild spaces?

Is there still something to be learned about Pollock? By its nature, Washburn’s current selection of works on paper includes none of his iconic works—the large canvases which gave him elbow room to physically connect with his paint.

Nevertheless, his temperament is much in evidence in the nearly 20 smaller works here, which concentrate on the 1940s and early ’50s, after the artist had shrugged off

the influence of Thomas Hart Benton and began looking at Masson and Picasso.

In person, Pollock was indeed something of a naïf, as prone to childlike affection for a puppy as to drunken fisticuffs with his peers. It’s the restless, brooding immediacy—not feats of craft or composition—that move us in his work.

Lacking the purely physical drama of his large canvases, the smaller works here serve as psychic delvings, roiling with animal-like forms in scratchy marks and textures, often accompanied by undecipherable numbers and letters. I was struck by the knowingness of his borrowings, especially from Picasso, whose motifs of spike-tongued bulls and open-mouthed, distended heads appear again and again. To these, Pollock sometimes added his own abstracted designs inspired by American Indian and Inuit art. Filling up entire sheets, dozens of such descriptions in raw, impatient marks seem as much psychic working notes as independent works of art.

A few drawings have more climactic rhythms, as if intended from the start as self-contained images. Among these, an untitled drawing from c. 1946 on red paper muscularly pits a diagonal against ragged arcs and dotted waves; one senses the unfolding of an urgent, inchoate plan.

The more unusual works here include a tiny drawing from c. 1952-56 done on an unfolded matchbox, and what looks like a careful study, in rich, dark tones, of a stylized Inuit animal head (c. 1943).

Particularly interesting is a small terracotta sculpture resembling a mass of grappling animals. Unclear in its specific forms, it contains a bristling, packed energy that seems pure Pollock: the eloquent description of the struggle to articulate.

[John Goodrich] Through March 26, Washburn Gallery, 20 W. 57th St., 212-397-6780.

Paul Gabrielli: Generally

At first glance, the sculptures in Paul Gabrielli’s Generally appear as readymades, grouped together by functionality and a common theme. On closer inspection, however, deconstructed ideas of ideal objects appear. In his second show at Invisible-Exports, pedestrian objets trouvés are paired in three-dimensional investigations of functionality and perception.

In five assemblage works in the front room—like a lavatory soap dispenser and air freshener, or a flashlight and surveillance camera—Gabrielli knowingly exploits the habits we have as viewers of inspecting readymades as heightened to the state of art.

That is, the object brought in off the street that is then afforded more consideration than we normally give. In one visit, I spent more time looking at the smoke detector in “Untitled (Alarm Bell 1)” than I ever have at the one in my kitchen.

Central to Gabrielli’s project is the visual means by which we observe physical objects. The blurred manufacturer’s label on a smoke detector in “Untitled (Alarm Bell 1)” mirrors the way light is processed through the eye and projected into the brain. We create categories of items for quick reference and ignore huge amounts of

“Untitled, 1944,” by Frederick Sommer.

visual information in order to process our environments.

As the viewer examines the works and addresses the intended juxtapositions, the objects appear in a liminal state between functionalities.

Asking how the objects function together or apart exposes them as individual objects devoid of intent and “Untitled purpose. It is in (Alarm Bell),” by Paul the careful pairing Gabrielli.

Courtesy of the artist and that these works INVISIBLE-EXPORTS. emerge from the fog of everyday life to become representations of idealized objects.

When the boundary between object and material disappears, what remains? [NW] Through March 27, Invisible-Exports, 14A Orchard St., 212-226-5447.

Frederick Sommer: Choice and chance structure art and nature “Where a thing is, is more important than what it is.” This undated quote by the artist Frederick Sommer sums up neatly his lifelong aesthetic. A man of restless artistic energies and profound curiosity, Sommer roamed the artistic landscape working in photography, drawing and collage throughout the middle and latter half of the century, until his death in 1999.

He brought to each medium his conviction that visual elements in the world could be de-contextualized and rearranged in ways that were viscerally satisfying, as well as intellectually challenging.

This huge show of Sommer’s work

encompasses both Ricco/ Maresca and Bruce Silverstein galleries, each a noteworthy venue in its own right. The show focuses mainly on Sommer’s extraordinary work in collage.

A smattering of photos and a fascinating dollop of vernacular scientific objects neatly bookend this thoughtfully curated selection.

A surrealist of the old school, Sommer worked with what looks like 19th- and 20th-century medical and scientific books, painstakingly cutting and rearranging “parts” into the most elegant of compositions. Chance and the natural order of objects were his guiding forces. This was a man with an impeccable and innate design sense. His collages are rigidly formal in presentation; each is precisely positioned on a black or neutral background, like a scientific or medical presentation. But their subject matter manifests a kind of refined creepiness that leaves the viewer unsettled and oddly guilty, a little like watching a scientific peep show. Recombined body parts—both human and animal—bits of mechanical and biologic illustration and architectural detail are combined seamlessly into elegant, surrealistic, collaged Frankenstein monsters.

This work is easy to shrug off if one passes through too quickly. But given a little time alone in an empty gallery, it will deeply move you.

There are numerous works that stand out, some for their simplicity and others for their complexity. “Untitled (Mappa Mundi)” is nearly 40 inches around, a swirling hallucinatory mass of animal, vegetable and mineral. It is like looking into someone’s mind and seeing the collective bits and pieces of image that live there.

Personally, I prefer the visually (but by no means psychologically) simpler pieces.

They’re almost all titled “Untitled,” so it’s challenging to single one out and describe it. Suffice it say that Sommer is able, with a few small, perfectly placed combinations of image, to create two-dimensional “life forms,” each elegant and provocative in its own delicate way. Frederick Sommer was a master of the ambiguous object, and this is an exhibition that allows the viewer to become immersed in his universe.

[Melissa Stern] Through April 2, Ricco/Maresca Gallery, 529 W. 20th St., 212-6274819, and Bruce Silverstein/20 Gallery, 529 W. 20th St., 212-6273930.

Soile Yli-Mäyry

Though she comes from a small Finnish village, Soile Yli-Mäyry has conquered the world with her dazzling and soulful paintings, winning collectors and fans throughout Asia, South America, the Middle East, Europe and the United States. She brings together Symbolism, Expressionism and Surrealism in a heady and entrancing mix, her works bursting with color, emotion and invention. It’s possible to see similarities to Paul Klee as her works pulsate with signs, floating shapes and primitive, childlike figures, but her paintings are more tumultuous, her figures more vulnerable.

Joan Miró too comes to mind. But her figures are broken and at sea, their images like indecipherable messages scrawled on cave walls thousands of years ago, calling out across the ages to be interpreted.

In these 12 new paintings, she conjures up fantastical scenes, like the bright blue “Asphalt Dream,” where strange geometric

“Captured Letter,” by Soile Yli-Mäyry. shapes appear to struggle against one another, one green, the other made up of spindly yellow and orange lines, green and yellow tendrils sticking out from what resembles a head with ruby-red lips. Her paintings depict a chaotic universe where unseen but powerful forces seem to be in control. Drawing on memory, fantasy and dreams, she creates her own mythology, reusing titles when she revisits a subject or emotional state. Orange, purple and pink, “Captured Letter” includes two tall figures, male and female, the female in the light, the man in the dark, an “X” in the middle of his body. She looks accepting. A letter floats beyond them, perhaps containing the message that has pulled them apart.

Yli-Mäyry’s works inspire you to guess at narratives, though she is far from explicit.

Take the shimmering, golden “Dream Ash.” Are two people in a passionate embrace or fighting to the death? Are the curving lines in the distance mountains? And why is the green triangle adrift? But finally, whether there is a story or not, she has caught you up in her rich, tumultuous imaginings, and you don’t want to escape. [VG] Through April 6, Walter Wickiser Gallery, 210 11th Ave., 212- 941-1817.

March 9, 2011 | City Arts

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Dance

Nature Bows to Artifice Over 35 years later, Paul Taylor’s ‘Esplanade’ is as absorbing as ever

BEGINNING OF SPRING ESTATES AUCTION

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Dancers in Paul Taylor’s Esplanade.

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By Joel Lobenthal tocked with runs, slips, slides, basestealings and crash landings, Paul Taylor’s Esplanade is perhaps his company’s most emblematic dance.

They performed it during their just-wrapped City Center season, and it’s almost always a part of their annual visits there. Created in 1975, it has for years defined a certain athletic accessibility that made the Taylor troupe unique in the modern dance world.

Today Esplanade is less singular, but, as seen at City Center, it was for me more absorbing than ever.

Esplanade is often described—maybe “marketed” is the word—as a dance that doesn’t contain any recognizable or traditional dance steps. That isn’t true, but it’s a tribute to the particular illusionism that Taylor practices.

And surely the natural-movement, non-dance shorthand by which the work has come to be known reflects more than a marketing handle.

It also must derive from a desire to see that theatrical dance can somehow be purged of artifice, returned to a state of perceived genuineness. Esplanade and the audience’s embrace of it perhaps symbolize a yearning for a return to the wholeness of Eden. For much of Esplanade exudes a radiant communalism, a blissful togetherness. The dancers are given as their text the manifest pleasure they seem to take in each other’s company. There’s a residue of folk dance, of hanging out, of celebratory kinetic and social rituals. There’s hopscotch and tag.

One shouldn’t put too much faith, however, in Esplanade as a rejection of art and artifice. Looking at it closely, there are indeed any number of canonical steps, but squared off or ripped apart at the seams.

And even the most everyday of movement is heightened in sophisticated ways. There is a world of difference between even the most basic and natural-seeming movements in Esplanade and the way we see them in life outside the theater. While functional movement is a matter of finding the shortest distance between two points, Taylor phrases

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and punctuates everyday locomotion cadentially: He interjects, into these lopes and sprints, pauses, pivots and flourishes at every possible opportunity.

But, yes, the step content is different here from what is practiced in the syllabus, and the choreography requires something unique from the dancers’ articulation. In Esplanade, “You surrender the customary attack of a dancer,” the late Christopher Gillis, who danced with Taylor for 15 years beginning in the mid-1970s, told me when I interviewed him for Ballet Review many years ago, “It’s one of the hardest things to do...” Setting the dance’s colloquialism to Bach was hardly a revolutionary choice by 1975, but it still provides a frisson of provocative disjunction.

In Esplanade, Taylor also contrasts the exuberance of his sauntering down the sunny side of the stage with emotive episodes reflecting his long study of animal behavior—under that heading he would most certainly classify the human species.

He enjoys playing with the way physical stance acts as an emotional barometer.

What seemed, this season, most profound about Esplanade is the way it shows a continuum encompassing codified kineticism and pedestrian getting-up-andgoing. Even the most stylized of dance languages—I kept thinking of ballet as I watched—are indeed correlative to what humans do as a matter of daily course. You see how everything goes back to the source.

The Taylor troupe performed Esplanade this season without any staleness, defining with extraordinary precision its blunt shapes and silhouettes, turning scrabbling-forpurchase into a comfort zone. This season, the good cheer and good-fellowship, which can seem a little forced and cutesy, didn’t look like that at all. The final gesture of the dance was delivered by Michelle Fleet, not so much with “so-be-it” whimsy, but something a little deeper and more sovereign—and Esplanade is worthy of the most serious of self-regard.

FILM

It’s a Different World The Thai filmmaker’s award-winning film makes its debut at Film Forum

By Craig Hubert When the jury of the 2010 Cannes Festival bestowed the Palme d’Or upon Apichatpong Weerasethakul for his film Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, the filmmaker was just as shocked as the audience. Endearingly nervous and dressed in a white suit jacket, the director whispered what may be the most direct description of the winning film: “This is like another world for me.”

Uncle Boonmee is a mind-altering tale of spirits past and present, where memories in various forms—personal, political, cinematic—meld into a fascinating kaleidoscopic dream. The film’s hazy logic somehow makes sense: At a gathering for Uncle Boonmee, soon to pass away from a kidney disease, deceased family members reappear at dinner, often abruptly, sometimes in the form of a monkey resembling a Bigfoot-type monster with glowing red eyes. A digression from the main narrative strand becomes a parable featuring a princess and a talking catfish.

An ending that suggests a rupture in the fabric that the audience may not have noticed, may surprise as much as confuse audiences. Uncle Boonmee asks us to follow along on its wave of ambivalence, and we happily oblige. “[Boonmee] started with the art project called Primitive, a survey of the Northeast of Thailand where I grew up,” Weerasethakul says. He typically introduces himself as “Joe” to save Western journalists and fans from the embarrassment of mispronouncing his name (a-pee-chat-pong weer-rah-seta-kool). “The film’s focus is inspired by a book from the temple near my home, and it’s about this guy who could recall his many lives. For me, I’m interested in how we remember. So this guy is a super computer, you know.”

“The feature film and the installation, the shared element is the memory of the place. Physically, narratively, they are so different,” Weerasethakul says. “So for the installation, it was just the people who tried to forget all this brutality that they have in one lifetime. But for the feature film, it’s a guy who remembers so much—and wants to remember before he’s gone.”

The brutality and sense of dread central to both Primitive and Uncle Boonmee is local and extremely personal. In Spring 2010, long-simmering tensions erupted in Thailand between “red shirts” and “yellow shirts”—or to put it more succinctly, rural and urban—over alliances to former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The clashes almost kept Weerasethakul from attending the Cannes premiere. In Uncle Boonmee, these tensions are evocatively recalled in a remarkable sequence of still images, culled

Director Apichatpong Weerasethakul. from the Primitive project, in which image and sound fully reveal their avant-garde influences.

Weerasethakul studied film at The Art Institute of Chicago (where he gained that “Joe” moniker), and its curriculum of experimental cinema left an undeniable impression. “The core of it is about freedom,” Weerasethakul says. “You can make the film by yourself. I tried to do that in Thailand, but it’s impossible. We don’t have the supporting system for 16mm and printing. So I gradually adapted, in a way.

But what sticks on is that the film can be very personal.”

The road toward adapting has not been an easy one. Weerasethakul ran into problems in Thailand when the state proposed cuts to his previous film, Syndromes and a Century. The filmmaker refused, and in protest created the Free Thai Cinema Movement. This, along with his outspoken views in favor of the anti-government protesters, left Thailand’s reception of Uncle Boonmee in jeopardy. So far, it has been a success.

“I’m surprised [at the success],” Weerasethakul explains. “With my past film’s reception, I decided to release it in one theater. It did so well. I think it’s the best-received film of mine. With that print we have toured other cities in Thailand.

The DVD hasn’t come out yet, but there are a lot of pirate ones going out in the market.”

He punctuates that statement, like many others, with a cheerful laugh.

Uncle Boonmee feels like a touchstone—for world cinema and the rest of Weerasethakul’s career—since its resonances and reverberations are deeply felt. “I cannot shake the childhood memories,” the filmmaker says. “When I write, it’s always going back to that time.

The feelings, and the fear, of darkness.

Those unknown territories.”

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives screens at Film Forum through March 15.

Family Day Dragon Keeper with a Secret!

Saturday, March 19, 2011 Noon to 4:30 pm Be the first to see a new shadow-puppet play about Liu Tai, an imaginary artist who worked during China’s Qing dynasty. Take a guided tour of the exhibition Cloisonné: Chinese Enamels from the Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties, then design your own magical dragon puppet inspired by the creatures in the Cloisonné exhibition.

Ideal for children ages 6 through 12 and their adult companions. $5 adults and children 13 and older, free to children 12 and under.

Location: BGC, 18 West 86th Street between Columbus and Central Park West. Registration is recommended. Please call 212-501-3011 or e-mail programs@bgc.bard.edu.

“All The World’s a Stage” Contemporary Art Exhibition by Veru Narula

Shakespeare never knew the 21st century would have this much drama.

Micahel Schimmel Art Center Pace University 3 Spruce Street New York, NY 10038

Through March 23rd March 9, 2011 | City Arts

21

ArtsAGENDA McKenzie Fine Art: James Nelson: “Two Ton

Exhibition Openings Adam Williams Fine Art Ltd.: John Eskenazi. Opens

March 16, 24 E. 80th St., 212-249-4987.

ArtGate Gallery: “Sung Tae Park’s Solo Exhibition.”

Opens March 10, 520 W. 27th St., Ste. 101, 646455-0986.

Benrimon Contemporary: Dimitri Kozyrev: “Last One.” Opens March 10, 514 W. 24th St., 2nd Fl., 212-924-2400.

Carolina Nitsch Project Room: Alyson Shotz: “Fundamental Forces.” Opens March 10, 534 W. 22nd St., 212-463-0610.

Causey Contemporary: “Michel Demanche... Corrected to 20/40.” Opens March 11. “Christine Sciulli: Tangle.” Opens March 11, 92 Wythe Ave., Brooklyn, 718-218-8939.

Christina Ray: Brian Leo: “The Post Ironic.” Opens March 17, 30 Grand St., Ground Floor, 212334-0204.

David Nolan Gallery: Mel Kendrick: “Works from 1995 to Now.” Opens March 17, 527 W. 29th St., 212-925-6190.

Denise Bibro Fine Art: Roslyn Meyer: “Water Play.”

Opens March 10. Daniel Borlandelli: “Vendaval.” Opens March 10, 529 W. 20th St., #4W, 212-647-7030.

Institute for the Study of the Ancient World: “Nubia: Ancient Kingdoms of Africa.” Opens March 11, 15 E. 84th St., 212-992-7800.

MF Gallery: “The 40oz Show.” Opens March 19, 213 Bond St., Brooklyn, 917-446-8681.

Michael Mut Gallery: “Weigh It/Pay It: Art by Michael Mut.” Opens March 10, 97 Ave. C, 212-677-7868.

Noho Gallery: Bruce Laird: “New Year/New Work.”

Opens March 15, 530 W. 25th St., 4th Fl., 212367-7063.

NP Contemporary Art Center: Robert Knoke: “This is Not!” Opens March 10, 131 Chrystie St., 212226-4552.

The Pace Gallery: Robert Mangold. Opens March 18, 32 E. 57th St., 212-421-3292.

Pandemic Gallery: “¡No Habla Español!” Opens March 11, 37 Broadway, Brooklyn, 917-7273466.

Raandesk Gallery of Art: Niklas Klotz & Karsten Kraft: “From Germany.” Opens March 10. “Optical: Staged.” Opens March 10, 16 W. 23rd St., 212-696-7432.

Third Streaming: Alvin Baltrop: “Photographs 19652003.” Opens March 16, 10 Greene St., 2nd Fl., 646-370-3877.

Tibor de Nagy: Jane Freilicher: “Recent Paintings and Prints.” Opens March 10. “<Object><Image>.”

Opens March 10, 724 5th Ave., 212-262-5050.

Visual Arts Gallery: “Mentors.” Opens March 18, 601 W. 26th St., 15th Fl., 212-725-3587.

Exhibition Closings ACA Galleries: “Visions of America: A Black

Perspective.” Ends March 12, 529 W. 20th St., 212-206-8080.

Alexandre Gallery: Lois Dodd: “Shadows.” Ends March 12, The Fuller Building, 41 E. 57th St., 212-755-2828.

Andre Zarre Gallery: Beata Drozd: “The Million Dollar Celebrities.” Ends March 12, 529 W. 20th St., 212-255-0202.

Aperture Gallery: “reGeneration2: Tomorrow’s Photographers Today.” Ends March 17, 547 W. 27th St., 4th Fl., 212-505-5555.

Armand Bartos Fine Art: “Warhol Soup.” Ends March 18, 25 E. 73rd St., 212-288-6705.

Blank Space: “Serenity.” Ends March 19, 511 W. 25th St., Ste. 204, 212-924-2025.

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City Arts | www.cityartsnyc.com

“Yeast,” by Emily Mason, at David Findlay Jr Fine Art.

Bonni Benrubi Gallery: Karine Laval: “Mise En

Abyme.” Ends March 19, 41 E. 57th St., 13th Fl., 212-888-6007.

Brooklyn Academy of Music: “Cover Version LP.” Ends March 20, 30 Lafayette Ave., Brooklyn, 718-636-4100.

Christina Ray: Casey P.: “Wild at Heart.” Ends March 13, 30 Grand St., Ground Floor, 212334-0204.

Cultural Services of the Embassy of France: “Tranches de Savoir.” Ends March 17, 972 5th Ave., 212-439-1429.

David Findlay Jr. Fine Art: Emily Mason: “Recent Paintings.” Ends March 31. 41 E. 57th St., 212-486-7660.

David Nolan Gallery: Alice Maher: “Godchildren of Enantios.” Ends March 16, 527 W. 29th St., 212-925-6190.

David Zwirner: Marcel Dzama: “Behind Every Curtain.” Ends March 19, 525 W. 19th St., 212517-8677.

DC Moore Gallery: Romare Bearden: “Idea to Realization.” Ends March 12. Robert Kushner: “Wildflower Convocation.” Ends March 12, 535 W. 22nd St., 212-247-2111. dm contemporary: Sue Contessa, Carole Freysz Gutierrez & Caleb Taylor: “New Year, New Paintings.” Ends March 11, 39 E. 29th St., 2B, 212-576-2032.

Gagosian Gallery: Francesco Vezzoli: “Sacrilegio.”

Ends March 12, 522 W. 21st St., 212-741-1717.

Galerie Mourlot: Susan Schwalb: “A Gathering

Quiet: Metalpoint Paintings & Drawings.” Ends March 12, 16 E. 79th St., 212-288-8808.

Gasser Grunert: Ellen Phelan: “Landscape & Still Lifes: A Selection.” Ends March 19, 524 W. 19th St., 646-944-6197. hpgrp: Kate Peters: “Stranger Than Fiction.” Ends March 12. “here and there.” Ends March 12, 529 W. 20th St., 2W, 212-727-2491.

Hosfelt Gallery: Jim Campbell: “4 Works.” Ends March 12, 531 W. 36th St., 212-563-5454.

Howard Scott Gallery: Donald McLaughlin: “Excerpt: Recent Paintings.” Ends March 19, 529 W. 20th St., 7th Floor, 646-486-7004.

Leslie Feely Fine Art: “Bella Pacifica: Bay Area Abstraction, 1946-1963: A Symphony in Four Parts.” Ends March 12, 33 E. 68th St., 5th Fl., 212-988-0040.

Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation: “Home Sweet Homo.” Ends March 12, 26 Wooster St., 212431-2609.

Littlejohn Contemporary: Timothy Hawkesworth: “Work That Will Not Wait for You.” Ends March 12, 529 W. 20th St., 9th Fl., 203-4515050.

Lombard Freid Projects: “Minor Cropping May Occur (selected diaries 1962-2011).” Ends March 19, 518 W. 19th St., 212-967-8040.

Marc Jancou Contemporary: Jacques Louis Vidal: “Games People Play.” Ends March 12, 524 W. 24th St., 212-473-2100.

Hammer.” Ends March 19, 511 W. 25th St., 212-989-5467.

Michael Rosenfeld Gallery: “Abstract Expressionism: Reloading the Canon.” Ends March 19, 24 W. 57th St., 212-247-0082.

Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts: Veru Narula: “All the World’s a Stage.” Ends March 22, Pace University, 3 Spruce St., 800-874-PACE. Mitchell-Innes & Nash: Martin Kersels: “Charms, Stacks & Flotsam.” Ends March 12, 534 W. 26th St., 212-744-7400.

Nancy Margolis Gallery: “Abstraction.” Ends March 12, 523 W. 25th St., 212-242-3013.

New York Studio School: “First in Translation: Works on Paper by New York Studio School Faculty.” Ends March 12, 8 W. 8th St., 212673-6466.

Noho Gallery: Stephen Cimini. Ends March 12, 530 W. 25th St., 4th Fl., 212-367-7063.

NY Studio Gallery: Andrew MacDonald: “Lamentations & Dreams of Eternity.” Ends March 19, 154 Stanton St., 212-627-3276.

The Pace Gallery: Tara Donovan: “Drawings (Pins).”

Ends March 19, 510 W. 25th St., 212-255-4044.

The Pace Gallery: Jim Dine. Ends March 12, 32 E. 57th St., 212-421-3292.

Peter Blum Chelsea: John Beech: “The State of Things.” Ends March 19, 526 W. 29th St., 212244-6055.

Pleiades Gallery: Michael Zaharuk: “Politburo: Celebrating Political Art, Satirizing the Language of the Right.” Ends March 19, 530 W. 25th St., 4th Fl., 646-230-0056.

Salmagundi Club: Georgette Sinclair & Alyce Peifer.

Ends March 13, 47 5th Ave., 212-255-7740.

Spanierman Gallery: “Early American Modernism.”

Ends March 19, 45 E. 58th St., 212-832-0208.

Spanierman Modern: Dan Christensen: “The Stain Paintings, 1976-1988.” Ends March 12, 53 E. 58th St., 212-832-1400.

Visual Arts Gallery: “Exit.” Ends March 12, 601 W. 26th St., 15th Fl., 212-725-3587.

Von Lintel Gallery: Mark Sheinkman. Ends March 19, 520 W. 23rd St., 212-242-0599.

Westside Gallery: “Creating Dialogue.” Ends March 19, 133/141 W. 21st St., 212-592-2145.

Woodward Gallery: Jo Ellen Van Ouwerkerk: “Curious Sanctuary.” Ends March 19, 133 Eldridge St., 212-966-3411.

Museums American Folk Art Museum: “Perspectives: Forming

the Figure.” Ends Aug. 21. “Quilts: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum.” Ends Oct. 16, 45 W. 53rd St., 212-265-1040.

American Museum of Natural History: “Brain: The Inside Story.” Ends Aug. 15, Central Park West at West 79th Street, 212-769-5100.

Asia Society & Museum: “A Prince’s Manuscript Unbound: Muhammad Juki’s ‘Shahnamah.’” Ends May 1. “A Longing for Luxury.” Ends Sept. 11, 725 Park Ave., 212-288-6400.

Austrian Cultural Forum: “Alpine Desire.” Ends May 8, 11 E. 52nd St., 212-319-5300.

Bronx Museum: “Stargazers: Elizabeth Catlett in Conversation With 21 Contemporary Artists.”

Ends May 29. Alexandre Arrechea. Ends June 6, 1040 Grand Concourse, Bronx, 718-681-6000.

Brooklyn Historical Society: “Home Base: Memories of the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field.”

Ends Apr. 24. “It Happened in Brooklyn.”

Ongoing, 128 Pierrepont St., Brooklyn, 718222-4111.

Brooklyn Museum: “Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera.” Ends Apr. 10. “Tipi: Heritage of the Great Plains.” Ends May 15. Sam Taylor-Wood:

MYPLASTICHEART NYC

ROOSTER GALLERY LE SALON D’ART COLLETTE BLANCHARD

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DACIA GALLERY NEW MUSEUM

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THIERRY GOLDBERG PROJECTS

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DODGE GALLERY JEN BEKMAN GALLERY NINE5

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GALLERY NIGHT ON THE LOWER EAST SIDE THIRD THURSDAYS KICK OFF

THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 2011 ART GALLERIES OPEN FROM 6 PM - 9 PM

MARCH 17 : APRIL 21 : MAY 19 : JUNE 16 : JULY 21 : SEPTEMBER 15: OCTOBER 20 Galleries listed in gray participate in Third Thursdays starting April 21, 2011

ArtsAGENDA “Ghosts.” Ends Aug. 14. “Lorna Simpson: Gathered.” Ends Aug. 21. “reOrder: An Architectural Environment by Situ Studio.” Ends Jan. 15, 2012, 200 Eastern Pkwy., Brooklyn, 718-638-5000.

Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum: “Color Moves: Art & Fashion by Sonia Delaunay.”

March 18-June 5. “Set in Style: The Jewelry of Van Cleef & Arpels.” Ends June 5, 2 E. 91st St., 212-849-8400.

Frick Collection: “Rembrandt & His School: Masterworks from the Frick & Lugt Collections.”

Ends May 15, 1 E. 70th St., 212-288-0700.

International Center of Photography: “Wang Qingsong: When Worlds Collide.” Ends May 8.

“Jasper, Texas: The Community Photographs of Alonzo Jordan.” Ends May 8. “Take Me to the Water: Photographs of River Baptisms.” Ends May 8. “The Mexican Suitcase: Rediscovered Spanish Civil War Negatives by Capa, Chim & Taro.” Ends May 8, 1133 6th Ave., 212-857-0000.

Japan Society: “Bye Bye Kitty!!! Between Heaven & Hell in Contemporary Japanese Art.” March 18-June 12, 333 E. 47th St., 212-832-1155.

Jewish Museum: “The Art of Matrimony: Thirty Splendid Marriage Contracts from the Jewish Theological Seminary Library.” March 11-June 26. “Maria Kalman: Various Illuminations (of a Crazy World).” March 11-July 31. “Houdini: Art & Magic.” Ends March 27. “The Line & the Circle: Video by Sharone Lifschitz.” Ends Aug. 21, 1109 5th Ave., 212-423-3200.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: “The Roman Mosaic from Lod, Israel.” Ends Apr. 3. “Stieglitz, Steichen, Strand.” Ends Apr. 10. “Our Future Is in the Air: Photographs from the 1910s.”

Ends Apr. 10. “The Emperor’s Private Paradise: Treasures from the Forbidden City.” Ends May 1. “Cézanne’s Card Players.” Ends May 8.

“Katrin Sigurdardottir at the Met.” Ends May 30. “Rugs & Ritual in Tibetan Buddhism.” Ends June 26. “Haremhab, The General Who Became King.” Ends July 4. “Guitar Heroes: Legendary Craftsmen from Italy to New York.” Ends July 4, “Reconfiguring the African Icon: Odes to the Mask by Modern and Contemporary Artists from Three Continents.” Ends Aug 21, 1000 5th Ave., 212-535-7710.

Montclair Art Museum: “Engaging with Nature: American & Native American Artists (A.D. 1200-2004).” May 16-Sept. 25. “Warhol & Cars: American Icons.” Ends June 19. “Will Barnet: A Centennial Celebration.” Ends July 17. “Robert Mapplethorpe Flowers.” Ends July 17. “What Is Portraiture?” Ends Nov. 4, 3 S. Mountain Ave., Montclair, N.J., 973-746-5555.

The Morgan Library & Museum: “Mannerism & Modernism: The Kasper Collection of Drawings &

Photographs.” Ends May 1. “The Changing Face of William Shakespeare.” Ends May 1. “The Diary: Three Centuries of Private Lives.” Ends May 22, 225 Madison Ave., 212-685-0008.

El Museo del Barrio: “Luis Camnitzer.” Ends May 29, 1230 5th Ave., 212-831-7272.

Museum of American Illustration at the Society of Illustrators: “R. Crumb: Lines Drawn On

Paper.” March 23-Apr. 30, 128 E. 63rd St, 212838-2560.

Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology: “Japan Fashion Now.” Ends Apr. 2. “His & Hers.”

Ends May 10, Seventh Avenue at West 27th Street, 212-217-4558.

Museum of American Finance: “Scandal! Financial Crime, Chicanery & Corruption That Rocked America.” Apr. 29-Oct. 29, 48 Wall St., 212908-4110.

Museum of Arts & Design: Patrick Jouin: “Design & Gesture.” Ends Apr. 17. “The Global Africa Project.” Ends May 15, 2 Columbus Cir., 212299-7777.

Museum of Jewish Heritage: “Last Folio: A Photographic Journey with Yuri Dojc.” Opens March 25. “Fire in My Heart: The Story of Hannah Senesh.” Ends Aug. 7. “The Morgenthaus: A Legacy of Service.” Ends Sept. 5, 36 Battery Pl., 646-437-4200.

Museum of Modern Art: “Andy Warhol: Motion Pictures.” Ends March 21. “Pictures by Women: A History of Modern Photography.” Ends Apr. 4. “Paula Hayes, Nocturne of the Limax maximus.” Ends Apr. 18. “On to Pop.” Ends Apr. 25. “Abstract Expressionist New York.” Ends Apr. 25. “Counter Space: Design & the Modern Kitchen.” Ends May 2. “Contemporary Art from the Collection.” Ends May 9. “Picasso: Guitars 1912-1914.” Ends June 6. “Looking at Music 3.0.” Ends June 6. “Standard Deviations: Types and Families in Contemporary Design.” Ends Jan. 21, 2012, 11 W. 53rd St., 212-708-9400.

Museum of the City of New York: “Denys Wortman Rediscovered: Drawings for the World-Telegram & Sun, 1930-1953.” Ends March 20. “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing: How the Apollo Theater Shaped American Entertainment.” Ends May 1, 1220 5th Ave., 212-534-1672.

Museum of the Moving Image: “Alain Resnais.” Ends March 20, 35th Avenue at 37th Street, Queens, 718-777-6800.

New Museum: “Museum as Hub: The Accords.”

Ends May 1. “George Condo: Mental States.”

Ends May 8. “Lynda Benglis.” Ends June 19, 235 Bowery, 212-219-1222.

New York Public Library: “Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie, A Tale of Love & Fallout.” Ends Apr. 17, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Print Gallery & Stokes Gallery, East 42nd Street &

Fifth Avenue, 917-275-6975.

Noguchi Museum: “On Becoming An Artist: Isamu

Noguchi & His Contemporaries, 1922-1960.”

Ends Apr. 24, 33rd Road at Vernon Boulevard, Queens, 718-721-2308.

Rubin Museum of Art: “Grain of Emptiness.” Ends Apr. 11. “The Nepalese Legacy in Tibetan Painting.” Ends May 23. “Body Language: The Yogis of India & Nepal.” Ends July 4, 150 W. 17th St., 212-620-5000.

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum: “The Deutsche Bank Series at the Guggenheim: Found in Translation.” Ends May 1. “The Great Upheaval: Modern Art from the Guggenheim Collection, 1910-1918.” Ends June 1. “Kandinsky at the Bauhaus, 1922-1933.” Ongoing, 1071 5th Ave., 212-423-3500.

Studio Museum: “VideoStudio: Changing Same.”

Ends March 13. “The Production of Space.”

Ends March 13. “StudioSound: Matana Roberts.” Ends March 13. “Harlem Postcards: Fall/ Winter 2010-11.” Ends March 13. Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: “Any Number of Preoccupations.”

Ends March 13. Mark Bradford: “Alphabet.”

Ends March 13, 144 W. 125th St., 212-864-4500.

Whitney Museum of American Art: Karthik Pandian: “Unearth.” Ends March 27. “Modern Life: Edward Hopper & His Time.” Ends Apr. 10.

Slater Bradley & Ed Lachman: “Shadow.” Ends Apr. 10. “Legacy: The Emily Fisher Landau Collection.” Ends May 1, 945 Madison Ave., 212-570-3600.

Auctions Christie’s: Impressionist & Modern. March 9, 10

a.m. First Open Post-War & Contemporary Art. March 10, 10 a.m. & 2. 20th Century Decorative Art & Design. March 11, 10 a.m. Indian & Southeast Asian Art. March 22, 2. The James & Marilynn Alsdorf Collection. March 22, 10 a.m. South Asian Modern & Contemporary Art. March 23, 10 a.m. Japanese & Korean Art. March 23, 2, 20 Rockefeller Plz., 212-636-2000.

Doyle New York: Doyle at Home. March 9, 10 a.m.

Asian Works of Art. March 21, 10 a.m. Jewelry, Watches, Silverware & Coins. March 22, 10 a.m., 175 E. 87th St., 212-427-2730.

ROGALLERY.com: Fine art buyers & sellers in online live art auctions. 800-888-1063, rogallery.com.

Swann Auction Galleries: Printed & Manuscript African Americana. March 10, 10:30 a.m. & 2:30, 104 E. 25th St., 212-254-4710.

Art Events AIPAD Photography Show: The Association of In-

ternational Photography Art Dealers present the

Large Scale Portrait Drawings of American Artists

Alphonse van Woerkom

“Kiki Smith” (detail), 2008, charcoal & pastel, 79” x 80”

Sragow Gallery153 West 27th Street, Suite 505 • New York, NY 10001 • (212) 219-1793

sragowgallery@earthlink.net • www.sragowgallery.com

24

City Arts | www.cityartsnyc.com

Alice Tully Hall: Christopher Hogwood conducts

Juilliard415, the school’s period-instrument ensemble, in works by Haydn & Geminiani.

March 19, Broadway at West 65th Street, 212769-7406; 8, free.

Avery Fisher Hall: As part of its Hungarian Echoes festival, the New York Philharmonic, conducted

by Esa-Pekka Salonen, performs Bartók’s opera

REDISCOVERED GEMS BY EASTERN EUROPEAN JEWISH COMPOSERS AND FRENCH ROMANTIC MASTERPIECES

by

Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 1-6 PM

Music & Opera

MUSIC FORGOTTEN AND REMEMBERED

FACE VALUE

Through April 9th

annual exhibition of fine art photography. March 17-20, Park Avenue Armory, 643 Park Ave., 212616-3930; 11 a.m., $25+.

Asia Week New York: This year’s installment of the city’s largest celebration of Asian arts & culture features exhibitions by 34 leading Asian art dealers, auctions at Christie’s, Sotheby’s & others & special events at 18 museums & Asian cultural institutions. March 18-26, times, prices & locations vary. asiaweekny.com Chelsea Art Gallery Tour: Enjoy a guided tour of the week’s top seven gallery exhibits in the world’s center for contemporary art. March 12, 526 W. 26th St., 212-946-1548; 1, $20.

InCite Arts Festival: Boston University College of Fine Arts returns to New York for the fourth installment of its InCite Arts Festival, themed “The Power of Art.” The festival features the new play “Fallujah,” a tribute to Paul & Jane Bowles, C.P. Taylor’s play “Good,” a lecture by illustrator Rick Meyerowitz & a showcase of BU’s graduating performance & design majors.

March 10-14, BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center, 199 Chambers St., 617-353-3350; times vary, prices vary.

JapanNYC: Carnegie Hall & others present part two of this citywide festival of Japanese arts & culture, with a lineup of over 40 events, including performances by the NHK Symphony Orchestra led by Andre Previn, Martha Graham Dance Company, Deerhoof & Friends, & others.

March 14-Apr. 9, times, prices & locations vary. carnegiehall.org/japannnyc.

The Roses: Paul Kasmin Gallery, in conjunction with New York City’s Department of Parks & Recreation & the Fund for the Park Avenue Sculpture Committee, announces Will Ryman’s “The Roses,” a new site-specific installation of towering rose blossoms. Ends May 31, Park Avenue Mall betw. East 57th & East 67th Streets, paulkasmingallery.com.

Servants’ Quarters Tours: Merchant’s House Museum invites visitors to the rarely seen servants’ quarters to learn about the family’s Irish maids in honor of St. Patrick’s Day. March 17-20, Merchant’s House Museum, 29 E. 4th St., 212777-1089; 12, $10.

Tuesday March 29, 2011 at 8PM

performed by

Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center 129 West 67th Street, New York, NY 10023 Ticekts $25, $15 for seniors and students with ID Call Merkin Hall Box Office 212-501-3330

YUVAL WALDMAN, violin

“spectacular” (New York Times) INESA SINKEVYCH, piano

Box Office website: www.merkinconcerthall.org • Artist’s website: www.yuvalwaldman.com

“Bluebeard’s Castle” starring Michelle De Young, Gábor Bretz & Marthe Keller, Ligeti’s “Concert Românesc” & Haydn’s “Symphony No. 7.” March 18,19 & 22, 10 Lincoln Center Plz., 212-875-5656; times vary, $39+.

Avery Fisher Hall: Broadway’s Kelli O’Hara & opera star Nathan Gunn perform selections from “Show Boat,” “Carousel,” “Kiss Me Kate” & other musicals as part of the “Classic Broadway” program with the New York Philharmonic. March 21, 10 Lincoln Center Plz., 212-875-5656; 7:30, $35+.

Baruch Performing Arts Center: Baroque ensemble Repast performs “Bach & Before.” March 17, 55 Lexington Ave., 212-352-3101; 8, $25.

Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts: The 2010-2011 World Stages series concludes with an evening of music by South Africa’s Grammy Award-winning Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

March 19, Walt Whitman Theatre at Brooklyn College, 2900 Campus Rd., Brooklyn, 718-9514500; 8, $37+.

Central Synagogue: The Collegiate Chorale presents “We Remember Them: Choral Music from the Camps & the Ghettos.” March 10, 652 Lexington Ave., 646-202-9623; 7, $25.

Church of the Holy Trinity: The New Amsterdam Singers present the world premiere of Paul Alan Levi’s “Dateless Calendar.” March 11 & 13, 316 E. 88th St., 212-568-5948; times vary, $20+.

Church of St. Ignatius of Antioch: Vocal ensemble Polyhymnia, under the direction of John Bradley, performs “A Mass for Patrick Ireland” featuring John Taverner’s “Missa Gloria tibi Trinitas.” 552 West End Ave., 917-838-4636; 8, $25.

Church of St. Ignatius of Antioch: TENET marks the 400th anniversary of Tomás Luis de Victoria’s death by presenting his “Lamentations for Maundy Thursday.” March 19, 552 West End Ave., 917-349-9347; 7, $20.

Danny Kaye Playhouse: Center for Contemporary Opera presents the world premiere of Michael Dellaira & JD McClatchy’s “The Secret Agent,” based on Joseph Conrad’s novel. March 18 & 19, 695 Park Ave., 212-772-4448; 8, $35.

Faust Harrison Pianos: Pianists Takeshi Asai & Catherine Schneider perform the second of three concerts in their two-piano improvisational series “A Tale of Three Cities.” March 18, 207 W. 58th St., 212-489-3600; 8, $25+.

Florence Gould Hall: The French Institute Alliance Française & Aeroplan present violinist Angèle Dubeau & her all-female chamber ensemble La Pietà, performing works by Philip Glass, John Adams, Astor Piazzola & others. March 10, 55 E. 59th St, 212-355-6160; 8, $40.

Fordham University: Fordham presents “Voices Up: Songs for James Joyce & Hart Crane,” featuring the songs of Joyce by Samuel Barber & Victoria

Bond. March 11, Lincoln Center, West 60th Street & Columbus Avenue, 12th Fl. Lounge, 212-636-6000; 7:30, free.

Greenwich House Music School: Multi-woodwind performer J.D. Parran performs as part of the 25th anniversary season of North River Music.

March 11, 46 Barrow St., 212-242-4770; 8, $15.

Immanuel Lutheran Church: Baroque ensemble Repast performs “Bach & Before” for the Midtown Concerts series. March 16, 122 E. 88th St., 212967-9157; 1:15, free.

Immanuel Lutheran Church: Belgian flutist Barthold Kuijken & members of ARTEK perform music by J.S. Bach, C.P.E. Bach, W.F. Bach, Couperin, Hotteterre & Leclair on period instruments. March 20, 122 E. 88th St, 212-8660468; 4:30, $25.

Kupferberg Center: Singer & actress Linda Eder performs “All of Me,” a blend of original songs & well-known pop & country covers, with a 7-piece band led by pianist Billy Stein. March 12, 65-30 Kissena Blvd., Queens, 718-544-2996; 8, $38.

Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church: Violinist Cyrus Beroukhim & pianist Barbara Pogdursky play works by Dvorák, Debussy, Ginastera, Szymanowski & John Kaefer. March 13, 921 Madison Ave., 212-288-8920; 3, $15.

Merkin Concert Hall: Sounds of the Iberian Peninsula come alive in “Spanish Gold,” a program featuring works by Granados, Sor, Montsalvatge, Nin & others. March 15 & 17, Kaufman Center, 129 W. 67th St., 212-501-3300; 8, $40+.

Miller Theatre: The Voxare String Quartet performs the music of Charles Ives & Virgil Thomson.

March 9, Philosophy Hall at Columbia University, 212-854-7799; 12:30, free.

Peter Jay Sharpe Theatre at Symphony Space: Leading world musicians Marcel Khalife, Karine Hovhannisyan & David Krakauer blend Western classical & folk music styles in three world music concertos, with conductor Laurine Celeste Fox and Philharmonia New York.

March 18-19, 2537 Broadway, 212-545-7536; times vary, $25+.

Riverdale Temple: The Sinfonietta of Riverdale presents “Fresh Impressions,” with world premiere arrangements of works by Ravel & Debussy.

March 13, 4545 Independence Ave., Bronx, 917689-1211; 2:30, $35.

Riverdale Temple: The Sinfonietta of Riverdale presents its final concert of the season, with works by Wagner, Schoenberg & Johann Strauss. March 15, 4545 Independence Ave., Bronx, 917-6891211; 2:30, $35.

Saint Mark’s Church: Downtown Music Productions presents “The French Connection,” with works

by Poulenc, Farrenc, Damase, Ravel, Rameau,

Out of Town EVENTS & ATTRACTIONS STERLING AND FRANCINE CLARK ART INSTITUTE: The

Clark Institute presents “Romantic Nature: British and French Landscapes,” an exhibit celebrating the unique intuitive approach taken by British and French artists in the early 19th century toward the depiction of nature, art and subjectivity. Ends Sept. 30, 225 South St., Williamstown, Mass., 413-458-2303, clarkart.edu.

BRUCE MUSEUM: “Arctic Sanctuary: Images of the

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge” commemorates 50 years of the establishment of The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

The traveling exhibit displays a variety of photos depicting the beautiful northern wilderness.

Ends May 28, 1 Museum Drive, Greenwich, Conn., 203-869-0376, brucemuseum.org.

HESSEL MUSEUM OF ART: The Hessel Museum pres-

ents “CLAP,” a collaboration between CCS Bard graduate students and CSS Bard Executive Director Tom Eccles. The exhibit features

Weill & Piaf. March 20, 131 E. 10th St., 212477-1594; 3, $12.

Saint Peter’s Church: The Greenwich Village Singers present “Music for Chorus & Organ,” featuring works by Dvorák, Vaughan Williams, Herbert Howells & Lee Hoiby. March 18, 619 Lexington Ave., 212-935-2200; 8, $20+.

Stern Auditorium: The New York Pops pays homage to the 50th anniversary of Judy Garland’s legendary Carnegie Hall debut. March 11, Carnegie Hall, 881 7th Ave., 212-247-7800; 8, $33+.

work from the Marieluise Hessel Collection, as well as many recent museum acquisitions.

Opening reception Sunday, March 27. March 9-May 22, Bard College, Annandale-onHudson, N.Y., 845-758-7598, bard.edu/ccs/ museum.

ALDRICH CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM: James Esber

presents “Your Name Here,” two bodies of recent work by the artist and others. “This is not a portrait,” features over 100 ink drawings, other artists’ re-interpretations of Esber’s own well-known depiction of Osama bin Laden.

The exhibition also includes six new Plasticine clay portrait pieces, highlighting individuals— like “Balloon Boy” and “Sully” Sullenberger —who attained momentary fame through fleeting media obsession. Ends June 5. “Jenny Dubnau: Head On” is Dubnau’s most recent series of realistic portraits capturing vulnerable moments of involuntary action and expression.

Ends June 5, 258 Main Street, Ridgefield, Conn., 203-438-4519,aldrichart.org.

619 Lexington Ave., 212-935-2200; 7, $20+.

Smoke: Harold Mabern & Friends. March 11 &

12. Wes Montgomery Celebration. March 18 & 19. Orrin Evans Quintet. March 25 & 26, 2751 Broadway, 212-864-6662; times vary, $30.

Tribeca Performing Arts Center: Jack Kleinsinger’s Highlights in Jazz returns for its 38th year. The second of its four programs honors pianist Derek Smith. March 10, Borough of Manhattan Community College, 199 Chambers St., 212-2201460; 8, $40.

Jazz

Dance

55 Bar: The Sean Smith Quartet performs. March

Annabella Gonzalez Dance Theater: Gonzalez’ Latin-

15, 55 Christopher St., 212-929-9883; 7, free.

Birdland: David Ostwald’s Louis Armstrong Centennial Band performs in celebration of George Avakian’s 92nd birthday. March 16, 315 W. 44th St., 212-581-3080; 5:30, $10.

Jazz Standard: The Jazz Standard celebrates drummer Duduka Da Fonseca’s 60th birthday with four gala nights. March 17-20, 116 E. 27th St., 212-576-2232; times vary, $25+.

Miles Café: The Dave Wilson Quartet performs.

March 17, 212 E. 52nd St., 212-371-7657; times vary, $19.99.

Saint Peter’s Church: As part of Prez Fest 2011, the Eastman Chamber Jazz Ensemble celebrates arranger, composer & pianist Gil Evans. March 13,

influenced modern dance company presents two world premieres & other original work in its three-concert Spring series, “Encuentros.” March 18-19, Manhattan Movement & Arts Center, 248 W. 60th St., 212-722-4128; times vary, $20.

BalaSole: Roberto Villanueva’s BalaSole Dance Company presents “Collections,” the second of this year’s four-part concert series, with solo & group works set to music from the 17th century to today. March 19-20, Baryshnikov Arts Center/ Jerome Robbins Theater, 450 W. 37th St., 212868-4444; 8, $25+.

Doug Varone & Dancers: Varone & his dancers use 22 physically charged episodes to explore human interaction in public & private spheres in

mimi weisbord seen from a window recent paintings: mexico/new york march 1 - 26, 2011 gallery hours: 11:00 am - 6:00 pm tuesday - saturday

Prince Street Gallery 520 West 25th Street NYC 10012 646-230-0246

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March 2 - April 3, 2011

Gallery 1: Daniel Wiener, Making is Thinking Gallery 2: The Incipient Image Curated by Stephen Maine Samuel T. Adams, Elizabeth Cooper, Sharon Lawless, Dona Nelson, Mark L. Power, Steel Stillman

Back Room: Resource

Justin Amrhein, Scott Campbell, Sarah Hotchkiss

Daniel Wiener All Around the Nether Reaches, 2010 Apoxie-Sculpt, Blown Glass 37 x 24 x 20 inches

54 Orchard Street NY, NY 10002 212 410 6120 lesleyheller.com gallery hours: wed-sat 11am-6pm, Sun 12-6pm March 9, 2011 | City Arts

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“Chapters from a Broken Novel.” March 15-20, The Joyce Theater, 175 8th Ave., 212-242-0800; times vary, $10+.

Harkness Dance Festival: The 17th season of 92Y’s five-week performance festival features work from Bill Young, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Patti Bradshaw & others. Ends March 20, 1395 Lexington Ave, 212-415-5500; times vary, $15.

Keigwin + Company: The company presents the world premiere of “Dark Habits,” featuring original music by cellist Chris Lancaster & pianist Jerome Begin. Ends March 13, The Joyce Theater, 175 8th Ave., 212-242-0800; times vary, $10+.

Laura Pawel Dance Company: The company combines set choreography with improvised movement & talk in a program titled “Don’t Take It Personally.” March 18-20, The Flea, 41 White St., 212-352-3101; times vary, $15+.

Martha Graham Dance Company: The company performs at Rose Theater as part of its 85th anniversary season. March 15-20, Frederick P. Rose Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Broadway at West 60th Street, 212-721-6500; times vary, $40+.

Mischief: The collaborative work of Sue Buckmaster, Arthur Pita & Sophia Clist makes its U.S. debut. March 18-27, New Victory Theater, 209 W. 42nd St., 646-223-3010; times vary, $14+.

Move - The Company: Three Canadian alumni of the New York Choreographic Institute bring a mixed evening of innovative contemporary perspectives to Joyce Soho. March 17-20, Joyce Soho, 155 Mercer St., 212-242-0800; times vary, $22.

Oni Dance: The Los Angeles-based company presents “Vanished Earth,” a work that revels in the moment of flight between two worlds. March 11-12, Joyce Soho, 155 Mercer St., 212-2420800; 8, $22.

Soaking W.E.T.: Now in its eighth season at the West End Theater, Soaking W.E.T. features eight choreographic works in contemporary dance. March 10-13, West End Theater, 263 West End Ave., 212-337-9565; times vary, $15.

Trisha Brown Dance Company: The company makes its Dance Theater Workshop debut with two pieces from Brown’s “Back to Zero Cycle.”

March 16-19 & 22-26, Dance Theater Workshop, 219 W. 19th St., 212-924-0077; 7:30, $25.

Wind-Up Circus: Emily Faulkner’s latest work couples acrobatics with delicate movement.

March 12 & 13, Triskelion Arts’ Aldous Theater, 118 N. 11th St., Brooklyn, 718-599-3577; times vary, $10.

Yvonne Rainer: Performa announces the New York premiere of Rainer’s new work, “Assisted Living: Good Spots 2.” March 16-19, Baryshnikov Arts Center, 450 W. 37th St., 212-868-4444; 8, $25.

tions of love, parenthood & fidelity in Michael Henry Harris’ new comedic drama. Ends March 12, 4th Street Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, 83 E. 4th St., 1st Fl., 212-352-3101.

A Lonely Man’s Habit: Tennessee Williams’ play catches the playwright revisiting memories, sometimes humorous, sometimes painful, recorded in his journal. March 23-Apr. 16, the cell, 338 W. 23rd St., 800-838-3006.

And Then You Go On: Bob Jaffe draws from 13 of Samuel Beckett’s works, spanning 44 years, in his tribute to the writer. March 23-Apr. 16, the cell, 338 W. 23rd St., 800-838-3006.

La Casa de Bernarda Alba: Tyrannical mother Bernarda Alba attempts to dominate her five unmarried daughters, all of whom harbor a secret passion for the same man. Ends May 27, Repertorio

Español, 138 E. 27th St., 212-225-9999.

Company: The New York Philharmonic’s four staged

performances of Stephen Sondheim’s musical stars Stephen Colbert, Neil Patrick Harris, Patti LuPone, Martha Plimpton, Anika Noni Rose & Jim Walton. Apr. 7-9, Avery Fisher Hall, 10 Lincoln Center Plz., 212-875-5656.

Diary of a Madman: Geoffrey Rush stars in the adaptation of Nikolai Gogol’s comic 1853 short story centered on the life of a minor civil servant in Russia. Ends March 12, BAM Harvey Theater, 651 Fulton St., 718-636-4129.

En el Tiempo de las Mariposas: “In the Time of the Butterflies,” based on Julia Álvarez’s historical novel, tells the story of the Mirabal sisters & their fight against a dictatorial regime in the Dominican Republic. Ends Apr. 8, Repertorio Español, 138 E. 27th St., 212-225-9999.

Fuerza Bruta - Look Up: A visual dance-rave, technoride, Latino walking-on-the-ceiling fiesta from Buenos Aires. Open run, Daryl Roth Theatre, 101 E. 15th St., 212-239-2600.

Haiti’s Children of God: New Heritage Theatre Group presents Lorey Hayes’ uplifting portrait of two young lovers struggling to navigate the forces of their society & their love of country & humanity. Ends March 13, Dwyer Cultural Center, 258 St. Nicholas Ave., 212-222-3060.

Merchant of Venice: Academy Award-winning actor F. Murray Abraham reprises his role as Shylock in the Theatre for a New Audience’s production.

Ends March 13, The Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts, Pace University, 3 Spruce St., 212346-1589.

Mimic: Raymond Scannell’s solo performance tells the story of Julian Neary, whose childhood gift for mimicry—from Columbo to Billie Holiday— became his ticket out of 1980s Ireland. Ends March 20, Donaghy Theatre, Irish Arts Center, 553 W. 51st St., 212-868-4444.

The Rover: Arts World Financial Center presents New York Classical Theatre’s production of Aphra Behn’s 17th-century feminist comedy in the panoramic space of the World Financial Center. Ends March 20, One World Financial Center, 200 Liberty St., 212-945-0505.

Rude Mechs: The Austin-based ensemble presents “The Method Gun,” which explores the life & techniques of Stella Burden. Ends March 12, Dance Theater Workshop, 219 W. 19th St., 212924-0077; times vary, $30.

Runt of the Litter: BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center presents Bo Eason’s semi-autobiographical story of Jack Henry, a young boy whose commitment to fulfilling his father’s expectations leads to his own dream of playing professional football. March 12, BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center, 199 Chambers St., Rm. S110C, 212-220-1460.

Siudy - Between Worlds: The production explores a new form of storytelling that incorporates the emotive power of Flamenco dancing with crosscultural percussion. Ends May 22, New World Stages, 340 W. 50th St., 212-239-6200.

Spy Garbo: Affinity Company Theater & 3-Legged Dog present Sheila Schwartz’s play following fascist Francisco Franco, communist Kim Philby & Hitler’s Wilhelm Canaris as they battle to win the starring role in history’s definitive World War II spy adventure movie. Ends Apr. 10, 3LD Art & Technology Center, 80 Greenwich St., 212-352-3101.

Wittenberg: The Pearl Theatre Company performs the New York premiere of David Davalos’ new comedy, which sees Doctor John Faustus & Reverend Martin Luther battling for the allegiance of a star pupil at Wittenberg University in 1517.

March 11-Apr. 17, New York City Center Stage II, 131 W. 55th St., 212-581-1212.

PainttheTOWN

By Amanda Gordon

shopper’s paradise A cabbage sold for several hundred thousand dollars on the night of March 1. The grocery shopping took place at a preview of the Art Show, an annual fair organized by the Art Dealers Association of America.

To get into the market when it opened at 5:30, collectors had as much as $2,000. Later admissions were sold for $150 and $275.

Early birds at the fair included Donald B. Marron, chairman and chief executive officer of Lightyear Capital LLC; Peter S. Kraus, chairman and CEO of AllianceBernstein LP/USA; Israel A. Englander, chairman and CEO of Millenium Management LLC; investor Stephen Robert; and Wilbur Ross, chairman and CEO of WL Ross & Co. Ross was one of the first to check out the cabbage, formally known as “Choupatte.” It is a copper and bronze sculpture cast from nature by French artist Claude Lalanne, who bought the vegetable, almost two feet in diameter and standing on two bird’s feet, at a local market. It was featured at the corner booth of Paul Kasmin Gallery.

Up the aisle at the Park Avenue Armory, another collector stocked up on some Andy Warhol Campbell’s Soup cans, at the booth of Richard L. Feigen & Co. “It’s a shopper’s paradise,” said Marc Glimcher, president of Pace Gallery. “I already bought two things,” he added as he took a bite of a potato pancake with smoked salmon. Pace is devoting its booth to paintings by Chinese artist Zhang Huan, selling for as much as $100,000.

They are all made with temple ash—burned incense used as paint.

Ticket proceeds and a $25,000 sponsorship deal paid by jeweler David Yurman benefited the Henry Street Settlement. David Garza, the nonprofit’s executive director, said he was also grateful for a $250,000 grant from Microsoft to expand the settlement’s workforce development center.

From top Glenn Ligon, an artist with a new show at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and Thelma Golden, the director of the Studio Museum in Harlem; Israel A. Englander, chairman and CEO of Millenium Management LLC, and William Acquavella, owner of Acquavella Galleries.

An International Affair

From top: Actress Chloe Sevigny and Neville Wakefield; Artists Olympia Scarry and Amelia Whitelaw; artist Ryan McGinley, whose work was in the show; and Hala Matar, co-curator of the art space Chiles Matar, and Casey Fremont, director of the Art Production Fund.

Art Stars The art gallery fordPROJECT held an opening on March 1 for a group show titled Involuntary, curated by Neville Wakefield. Afterward, guests headed to the presidential suite of The Surrey Hotel.

Two sopranos, an elegant brunette in red and a seductive blonde with a dress for every occasion (prison, beach, suicide) battled over a tenor March 2 at Lincoln Center, where Eve Queler presented Giacomo Meyerbeer’s L’Africaine.

The once-chic composer, who died in 1864, would have enjoyed the fashion parade as a cast of 11 joined a large orchestra and chorus on the stage of Avery Fisher Hall.

This was Queler’s farewell to the Opera Orchestra of New York, which she founded 40 years ago to showcase forgotten works like this old thing about Vasco de Gama.

Soprano Ellie Dehn, Opera Orchestra of L’Africaine has one really great tune, “O Paradis,” an ode New York founder Eve Queler and soprano to India.

Chiara Taigi.

A wacky sense of geography (the African slave is really an Indian queen) and unexpected meetings between the two ardent sopranos add to the delight of the piece.

Marcello Giordani delivered the showstopper with spellbinding power and seemed ready to settle down on the Hindu beach with Chiara Taigi, the blond queen. But then the other soprano, Ellie Dehn, reappeared and off he went.

The opera closes with Taigi expiring under a toxic tree. (The fashion-conscious soprano seems a real find, one of many young stars cultivated by Queler during her tenure at the Opera Orchestra.

By then many hours had passed, and we all shared the dying queen’s visions of a chariot with white swans taking us home with our memories.

Everyone sang splendidly. Taigi and Dehn were elegant and expressive. Fikile Mvinjelwa made major baritone sounds as the homicidal Nelusko. And Queler, as so often before, controlled her huge forces with a clear beat and a big heart.

In the green room after the performance, she spent a good deal of time hugging Agnes Varis, the pharmaceutical tycoon who recently awarded the orchestra a $250,000 grant and further underwrote 500 $20 tickets.

Agnes, 81, and Eve, 80, proved to be the true heroines of the night.

Courtesy of Muse, the arts and leisure section of Bloomberg News; agordon01@bloomberg.net. Photos by Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg March 9, 2011 | City Arts

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