cityArts June 18, 2009

CityArts NYC

JUNE 2009

Theater

4

www.cityarts.info

New York’s Review of Culture

Veiled Attempts A well-meaning exhibit tries to address our complicated relationship with the veil, yet only reinforces many stereotypes

THE 10TH YEAR OF ‘HOSPITAL’— THE COMA EPIC CONTINUES

Dance

6

BY LANCE ESPLUND

JOEL LOBENTHAL LOOKS TO MARTHA GRAHAM TO FIX OPERA

Galleries

9

Shadi Ghadirian, “Domestic Life #61”

FROM OUTSIDER ART TO UNIQUE INDONESIAN PAINTINGS rowing up in the Midwest, and hitting puberty in the 1970s, my first memorable experience with the veil was while watching I Dream of Jeannie. Whenever Barbara Eden covered her face with a veil, her bare belly and transparent clothing became all that much more enticing.

Later, I experienced Ingres’ “Odalisques” and “The Turkish Bath” and Delacroix’s “Death of Sardanapalus”—East-meets-West-paintings in which two cultures’ differing customs and mythologies are stirred to a boil.

A trip to Egypt in 2000 shifted, once and for all, my perception of the headscarf from erotic to oppressive (if, women’s rights and religious beliefs aside, for no other reason than

G

the desert heat). However, my most recent memorable experience with the veil happened in New York a few days after the attacks of 9/11, when I saw a Muslim couple walking side-by-side through Penn Station. Each was wearing an American flag as a headscarf. Hers covered most of her face and shrouded her upper body. His was smaller, draping down over his shoulders. I watched the crowd as they passed. Sensing trouble, one cop nudged another. Some people, smiling, warmly acknowledged them. Others looked angry. I could sense conflicted urges, as if—moved equally by racism and patriotism, intolerance and empathy—they couldn’t decide whether to strike out at the couple, embrace them or to

break into the pledge of allegiance.

I had not thought about that Muslim couple—let alone Barbara Eden—for a long time.

But The Seen and the Hidden: [Dis]Covering the Veil, an exhibition at the Austrian Cultural Forum of some two dozen works by 15 international artists, 13 of them women, brought my experiences with the veil into clear focus.

Curated by David Harper, Martha Kirszenbaum and Karin Meisel, The Seen and the Hidden—a partner event of the Muslim Voices Festival organized by the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Asia Society and New York University’s Center for Dialogues—attempts to make

see VEILED ATTEMPTS on page 7

Museums

12

FRANCIS BACON AT THE MET, FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT AT GUGG

Arts Agenda

14

GALLERIES, MUSEUMS, DANCE, THEATER AND MORE.

A Manhattan Media publication

CLASSICAL MUSIC

When Jimmy Met Lang Lang

BY JAY NORDLINGER hey were an odd couple: James Levine, the veteran conductor, and Lang Lang, the young pianist. Levine is disciplined, wise, faithful. He is a servant of composers, and of the music they write. Lang Lang is brash, mercurial, uneven.

Often he seems to recompose what composers have given him.

But there they were, in Carnegie Hall, collaborating on the Brahms Piano Concerto in D minor. The orchestra was the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, which Levine of course heads. And this was the last concert of the season in Carnegie Hall.

At intermission, waiting for the concerto, some of us were talking about Leonard Bernstein and Glenn Gould. In April 1962, in this same building, they performed—what?

The Brahms D-minor concerto. And Bernstein felt it necessary to come out before the playing started and make an announcement: Gould was about to present a highly unorthodox interpretation; Bernstein dissented, But out of respect for this great, weird pianist, he was going along. In effect, Bernstein issued a disclaimer.

Would Jimmy Levine feel compelled to do the same?

Two seasons ago, Lang Lang was part of another unlikely combination: He appeared with Maestro Riccardo Muti for Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto. The orchestra, this time, was the New York Philharmonic. Muti is known as “Apollonian” and no-nonsense.

Lang Lang, brilliant as he is, or can be, practically revels in nonsense. Their “Emperor” was a pushmi-pullyu affair, some people thought. I rather liked it. And, of course, on the concert stage, as off, different personalities can complement each other.

At Carnegie Hall, in anticipation of Lang Lang and Levine, there was a buzz. Le tout musical New York was there, practically— even a famous opera singer, though there was not a note of vocal music on the program. After the lights dimmed, Lang Lang walked out with his spiky hair and cool-cat strut. Levine followed smilingly behind him. And off we went. We were in for an adventure, whether successful or not.

But no: This was no adventure; it was a complete bore. A real snoozeroo. Holy Moses, was this Brahms D-minor dull—and the work is anything but.

In the first movement, Lang Lang was oddly disengaged, giving the impression that he did not understand the structure and purposes of the piece. His tempos were very, very

T

2

City Arts NYC

slow. His playing was plodding. And he was often so soft, you could barely hear him. Brahms did not have the body his music needs.

The middle movement is one of his “religioso” feats—indeed, one of the most spiritual stretches of music in the repertoire. The way Lang Lang played it, you would not have known it. And the final movement—that glorious, thrilling, crowning thing? From Lang Lang, it was muddy, egotistical and borderline incoherent.

Throughout the concerto, Levine did what he could, but he could only do so much. I wonder whether the maestro will agree to perform with Lang Lang again—maybe not soon.

And the Met Orchestra was uncharacteristically sloppy. This was not a capital way to end a season.

You never know with Lang Lang.

Earlier this season, I heard him play Beethoven’s C-major concerto with the Philharmonic, and it was splendid: electric and delightful.

Unorthodox, to be sure, but electric and delightful—and entirely musical.

Beethoven would have loved it. He can drive you to distraction, this kid.

On any given evening or afternoon— who will show up?

© Felix Broede/DG

And when Stanley Drucker, the Philharmonic’s super-clarinetist, bowed out

tanley Drucker has been showing up to play with the Philharmonic for 60 years.

When he began, Bruno Wal- Wunderkind Lang Lang—not always wonderful. ter led the orchestra. Richard Strauss was still alive. Sibelius would have almost a decade more to live. Shostafinal solo performances with the Philharmonic. kovich was a relative pup of 42! Rising in the In the crowd was at least one (other) famous ranks, Drucker became principal clarinet of clarinetist, which was touching to see. the Philharmonic in 1960. And he is one of the Drucker played the Copland Concerto, most noted orchestral musicians of his time. which the composer wrote for Benny GoodVery few orchestral musicians achieve any man just at the time Drucker was starting with prominence on their own. You can name a the Philharmonic. On the night I attended, handful. I think of another clarinetist, the great Drucker played the concerto superbly. You Robert Marcellus (Cleveland). The trumcan treat it in various ways. For example, you peter Adolph Herseth (Chicago). A couple of can make it cool, elegant and sort of French.

French-horn players: Myron Bloom (CleveBut Drucker put exceptional passion and emoland) and Dale Clevenger (Chicago). A couple tion into it. This worked very, very well. And of flutists: William Kincaid (Philadelphia) and he combined a jazz feel with a classical feel, Julius Baker (New York). But, again, most beautifully. The score itself does this. orchestral players simply blend in.

After the performance, the Philharmonic’s Drucker is retiring this year, and he management put on a tribute ceremony. A doesn’t look anything like his 80 years. Every man from the Guinness Book walked out hair is in place—could he have had more to say that it had been certified: Stanley when he was 20? He is erect and peppy.

Drucker has enjoyed the longest career of Many, many people turned out to hear his any clarinetist. A local politician made a long,

S

poor speech. A video compilation showed us assorted conductors and orchestra members giving their thoughts about Drucker. They mainly commented on his energy, professionalism and joy in music.

He has played over 10,200 concerts with the Philharmonic. And he has put his mark on the clarinet. He has never been known for sound, and, indeed, he has made some particularly hard and unbeautiful sounds, especially in recent years. But his technique has set a standard. And his overall musicianship wins out.

Like others, I will retain happy memories of him—and not just musical ones. More than once, I have seen him walk down Broadway, big stogy in his mouth, serene smile on his face—not a care in the world. He strikes me as one who has enjoyed life, quite a bit. You would too, if you were Stanley Drucker.

BARDSUMMERSCAPE

july 9 – august 23, 2009

For 2009, Bard SummerScape presents seven weeks of opera, dance, music, drama, film, cabaret, and the 20th anniversary season of the Bard Music Festival, this year exploring the works and worlds of composer Richard Wagner. SummerScape takes place in the extraordinary Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts and other venues on Bard College’s stunning Mid-Hudson River Valley campus.

Opera

Dance

Bard Music Festival

LES HUGUENOTS

LUCINDA CHILDS: DANCE

Twentieth Season

July 31, August 2, 5, 7 Music by Giacomo Meyerbeer Libretto by Eugene Scribe and Emile Deschamps American Symphony Orchestra Conducted by Leon Botstein Sung in French with English supertitles Directed by Thaddeus Strassberger

Theater ORESTEIA TRILOGY: AGAMEMNON, CHOEPHORI, and THE EUMENIDES July 15 – August 2

By Aeschylus Translated by Ted Hughes Directed by Gregory Thompson

August 14–16, 21–23 Two weekends of concerts, panels, and other events explore the musical world of Richard Wagner.

Music

Spiegeltent

ST. PAUL

CABARET and FAMILY FARE

August 9 Music by Felix Mendelssohn Libretto by Pastor Julius Schubring American Symphony Orchestra Conducted by Leon Botstein Bard Festival Chorale James Bagwell, choral director

July 9 – August 23 It’s the perfect venue for afternoon family entertainment as well as rollicking late-night performances, dancing, and intimate dining.

Film Festival POLITICS, THEATER, AND WAGNER Thursdays and Sundays July 16 – August 20 Films range from early silent epic fantasy to Hollywood satire, and from acknowledged film classics to more obscure offerings.

For tickets: 845-758-7900 fishercenter.bard.edu Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y.

weekend one Friday, August 14

RICHARD WAGNER AND HIS WORLD

July 9, 10, 11, 12 Choreographed by Lucinda Childs Film by Sol LeWitt Music by Philip Glass

program one

The Fruits of Ambition

twenti eth season

Genius Unanticipated

the bard music festival

American Symphony Orchestra, Leon Botstein, conductor All-Wagner program

Saturday, August 15

program two

In the Shadow of Beethoven Chamber works by Wagner, Spohr, Loewe, and others

program three

Wagner and the Choral Tradition Choral works by Wagner, Brahms, Liszt, and others

program four

The Triumphant Revolutionary American Symphony Orchestra, Leon Botstein, conductor All-Wagner program

Sunday, August 16

program five

Wagner’s Destructive Obsession: Mendelssohn and Friends Works by Wagner, Mendelssohn, and Schumann

program six

Wagner in Paris Chamber works by Wagner, Liszt, Berlioz, and others

weekend two Friday, August 21

Engineering the Triumph of Wagnerism program seven

Wagner Pro and Contra

Wagner and His World August 14–16 and 21–23

Works by Wagner, Brahms, Joachim, and others

Saturday, August 22

program eight

Bearable Lightness: The Comic Alternative Works by Chabrier, Debussy, Offenbach, and others

program nine

Competing Romanticisms Chamber works by Goldmark, Brahms, Dvo˘rák, and others

program ten

The Selling of the Ring American Symphony Orchestra, Leon Botstein, conductor All-Wagner program

Sunday, August 23

program eleven

Wagnerians Chamber works by Wagner, Chausson, Debussy, and others

program twelve

The Bard Music Festival marks its 20th anniversary with two extraordinary weeks of concerts, panels, and other special events that explore the musical world of Richard Wagner.

Music and German National Identity American Symphony Orchestra, Leon Botstein, conductor Works by Wagner, Brahms, and Bruckner

Tickets: $20 to $55 845-758-7900 fishercenter.bard.edu Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y. photogravure of richard wagner from the studio of franz hanfstaengl, munich, 1873. private collection.

June 2009

3

THEATER

Coma Chameleon

BY MARK BLANKENSHIP Guys at Axis Company just keep dying.

Through July 25, the Downtown theater mounts its 10th installment of Hospital, a serialized drama about the interior life of a man in a coma. Although the poor fellow never survives, he returns every year for another round of final days.

Axis calls its coma patient the Traveler, and he’s developed quite a following. Thanks both to their reputation for theatrical innovation and the blink-and-its-gone performance schedule, the company has turned Hospital into a true Downtown event, often packing its 99-seat theater in Sheridan Square so tightly that audience members must squeeze onto the tops of speakers and find space on the floor to see how this year’s coma unfolds.

In some ways, the show never changes.

Almost every summer—there have been three hiatuses since the show debuted in 1997— Hospital gets divided into four, 40-minute episodes. Each segment plays for two weeks,

except for the final segment, which only runs for one weekend. The installments can be viewed and understood separately, but taken together, they tell a sweeping story about a man who learns he is dying.

And it’s not just the structure that repeats itself. No matter who he is or why he’s in a coma, the Traveler eventually realizes that he’s the one to blame for his predicament. As a parade of loved ones, hospital staff and random figures from art and history float through his hazy mind, he learns bittersweet lessons about not misusing the life you’re given.

“The main message is that simple message: Live your life like you’re gonna die, because you have limited time,” says Randy Sharp, Axis’ artistic director as well as Hospital’s director and chief writer. “The Traveler always ends up full of regret, and all those people on stage are really just pieces of himself, pieces of his own mind trying to help him love himself before it’s all over.”

Sharp says she may never get tired of

Dixie Sheridan photos

A serialized play that has followed an unconscious man’s interior world for 10 years returns for another short stay

A prior version of Hospital riffed on Alice in Wonderland.

imagining a man’s final reckoning, and that 10 versions in, Hospital still holds her interest.

“It feels like a kaleidoscope that never stops turning around,” she explains.

“Broadway’s most popular hangout…”

– Associated Press

$14 Prix Fixe Lunch Brunch Pre-Theatre Dining

Late Night Menu Private Events 50” HDTV

258 West 44th Street New York, NY 10036 212-221-9222 www.AngusMcIndoe.com 4

City Arts NYC

And to be sure, for all their similarities, the various Hospitals are unique beasts. This year, for instance, the Traveler is an astronaut who has an accident in a NASA spacecraft. A sci-fi

theme runs through the episodes, meaning an actor could be forgiven for going mental characters from movies like Blade Runner and during a Hospital stay. But Brian Barnhart, Close Encounters of the Third Kind could who has appeared in nine installments and is make cameos. the company’s producing director, isn’t fazed.

As the weeks wear on, however, audiences “The individual scenes are only 10 to 15 minwill learn that the cosmos isn’t quite as literal utes long, which helps,” he says. “And you get as it seems. “The set is made almost entirely of into this mindset where you know who you’re lights. It makes you feel like you’re floating in playing and you understand the world. That’s outer space,” Sharp says. “But maybe there’s especially true because it’s a world you’ve a front door that appears out of nowhere, helped create yourself.” or there’s a light switch that doesn’t make sense.”

That’s a far cry from last year’s Hospital, which was set inside a collapsed tunnel.

In 2005, the Traveler was a pilot who got bird flu in Asia, so his hallucinations included Kabuki performers, and in 2004, he was a soldier in the Civil War. He’s also frozen to death, burned in a house fire, drowned in a swimming pool, gotten cancer and shot himself in the head.

This year’s cast members may find it easy Each iteration requires the Hospital to get into the show’s groove, since an especompany, which retains actors and designers cially large number of them have experienced for years, to reinvent its approach. And they it before. To commemorate the 10th produchave to create quickly, since they’re usually tion, the show will feature a Don Quixote-inrehearsing one episode while another is in spired subplot in which the Traveler’s doctor performance. goes on a quest to find every other doctor Sharp, who sketches a basic outline for who has ever appeared in the series (doctors each year’s story and then takes suggestions and nurses always figure prominently in the from company members on how to flesh it Hospital plot.) Scores of alums are expected to out, prefers not to script reprise their old roles. things too far in adAlong with these nods to where it’s vance. “The actors been, Sharp is also considering are sometimes where the show should go. She’s getting script open to forchanges on mat changes, the day of their and she’s often performance,” she says. asked why Axis “The sound operator doesn’t extend might be given a change each episode’s run that afternoon. Everybody or present more than has to be firing on all cylinders one episode per day. all the time, and that brings the Another question is best of the company out.” why the fourth segment Along with on-the-fly writing only gets mounted for a single and design choices, innovations also weekend, and Sharp’s answer arrive in the “premise films” that suggests the spirit of the entire are screened at the start of each Hospital project. “Obviously, episode. These short films orient there are reasons not to do it audience members to what’s the way we’ve been doing happening onstage, but they it, but on this schedule, it also incorporate slight changes creates a kind of carnival every week to reflect the atmosphere,” she says.

Traveler’s state of mind.

“It’s packed and wild They’ve been filmed and a lot of fun.” everywhere from a field in Upstate New York Hospital, through to the historic Atlantic July 25. Axis Avenue Tunnel.

Theater, 1 SheriThis year, the Traveler Between learndan Sq. (at 7th is an astronaut who has ing four plays and Ave.), 212-352an accident in a NASA shooting a film in the 3101; Thurs.-Sat. spacecraft. span of a few weeks, 8 p.m., $6/$12.

FROM THE CREATIVE TEAM OF THE TONY AWARD-WINNING MUSICAL IN THE HEIGHTS NEW YORK CITY CENTER 2009 ENCORES! SUMMER STARS Jack Viertel, Artistic Director PRESENTS

The Traveler was a pilot who got bird flu in Asia, so his hallucinations included Kabuki performers...He’s also frozen to death, burned in a house fire, drowned in a swimming pool, gotten cancer and shot himself.

ASHANTI

ORLANDO JONES IN

THE WIZ BOOK BY

WILLIAM F. BROWN BASED ON THE STORY:

JOSHUA HENRY

MUSIC & LYRICS BY

CHARLIE SMALLS

“THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ”

BY

L. Frank Baum

STARRING

JAMES MONROE IGLEHART CHRISTIAN DANTE WHITE TICHINA ARNOLD DAWNN LEWIS AND

LACHANZE CHOREOGRAPHY BY

ANDY BLANKENBUEHLER MUSIC DIRECTOR

ALEX LACAMOIRE DIRECTED BY

THOMAS KAIL

NOW THROUGH JULY 5 ONLY!

June 2009

5

DANCE

Photo by Costas

Fang-Yi Sheu and Kerville Jack in Martha Graham’s “Clytemnestra”

Could Everyone Stand Still for Just a Moment?

Sometimes lack of motion—whether from an opera diva or a dancer—is the most powerful thing a performer can master

BY JOEL LOBENTHAL I was a child when I saw my first opera, Verdi’s La Forza del Destino, starring Leontyne Price, Franco Corelli, Carlo Bergonzi and Cesare Siepi at the Met. Given the degree of vocal opulence commanded by that lineup, all other aesthetic considerations besides the auditory might be rendered irrelevant.

Nevertheless, then as much as now, I was as interested in the way opera singers move as in how they sound. And I’m hardly alone. If you go to the metopera.org archives and read the many reviews reprinted there, it’s clear that a singer’s appearance, along with his or her physical and vocal interpretation have been the subject of critical appraisal since the Met’s opening in 1883.

Somewhat baffling then are the claims made for today’s opera stars, who are often hyped as having all but invented every theatrical possibility for the opera singer except the production of beautiful sound. Soprano Anna Netrebko, for one, was described in a 2007 New York Times magazine profile as “one of that growing breed of opera singers who can actually act.” Netrebko’s acting is certainly striking; it frequently arises out of an all-but perpetual motion that is impressive except when it seems as though she is in the grip of random restlessness. I feel much the same way about soprano Natalie Dessay, whose recent antics in the Met’s La Fille du

6

City Arts NYC

Regiment and La Sonnambula could have used some pruning. Today’s opera singers are admirably agile; in fact, they are quite infinitely resourceful physically, but sometimes they seem to be moving simply because they or their directors just don’t know what else to have them do.

In a recent New Yorker profile of Dessay, David Gockley, general director of the San Francisco Opera, was quoted comparing her to Maria Callas, whom he contrasted favorably to her contemporary and sort-of rival Renata Tebaldi. Tebaldi, he said, was “regal and stately and uninvolved dramatically.” I was frankly startled to hear a prominent opera administrator make that statement, and surprised to see it go unchallenged in print. For there is now, even for stars like Tebaldi who shone in the 1950s and ’60s, a wealth of video material easily accessible. And although Tebaldi did not possess Callas’ dramatic genius, the old footage (look, for example, at VAI’s Renata Tebaldi: A Portrait) nevertheless shows her—a woman afflicted with polio as a girl—running up staircases and from one side of the stage to the other when required, and doing so with unstinting physical commitment. More edifying, perhaps, is the way that Tebaldi could stand stock still and use her voice to convey emotion, exploiting the impact of that very stillness to convey all that could be extracted from the music and the character.

It takes courage to face the audience without the distraction of movement. And nothing can so damningly indict anything false in the singer’s presentation as the paring away of movement. A core honesty of expression is necessary to survive that type of exposure.

For, while movement connotes strength and resolve, stillness connotes internality and reflection. And this is true even on the dance stage, which is by definition the sole province of kinesis. Non-movement, as well as movement that is other than step execution, is often just as telling as a positive and virtuoso push through space. The physical self-possession in a walk or a gesture becomes an emblem of self-knowledge.

In the air or on the ground, today’s ballet dancers can do multiple this-that-and-theother things with stunning alacrity, but they frequently have great difficulty doing much else to convince us that they are figures of importance. For me, nothing more undermines suspension of disbelief at the ballet than a dancer who looks gauche, abashed, callow or shallow when he or she walks or gestures.

I can accept a prince who’s not a technical virtuoso but not one who looks like a poseur when he strikes a regal pose. When that happens, the underpinnings of ballet’s poetics are gone: The elegance of the balletic hero fails to become a metaphor for nobility of spirit that makes his quest for bride or sleeping beauty

an idealistic one, a spiritual journey.

Modern dance matriarch Martha Graham was someone who plumbed the potentials of stillness throughout her career. Graham’s pauses are often particularly generative, the inevitable prologue to action. I don’t think any choreographer has employed the dialectic of stop-and-go more adroitly than she. This was apparent once again last month, when the Martha Graham Dance Company revived her evening-length Clytemnestra at the Skirball Center at NYU. Graham created it in 1958, and she danced the title role at the premiere.

She was then 63, by which time, you might say, breathing spells were a necessity, and they are here perhaps a bit more protracted than in her earlier work—but not to the detriment of the choreography. As the Ancient Greek queen who’d murdered her husband, Graham’s Clytemnestra has long periods of immobility—a beautifully artful, eloquent and decorative stasis, you may be sure—as she is immersed in her memories, trapped in her terrible guilt, assailed by the implacable arraignments visited in dreams.

In May, I saw the Graham Company’s opening Clytemnestra, when the cast seemed to be working out some kinks, but nevertheless they were terrific. A visit to a Graham performance might be profitable indeed for some of our most aerobically inclined, fencejumping opera divas.

VEILED ATTEMPTS from page 1 sense of, or at least to address, our complicated relationship with the veil. Acknowledging both Muslim and Western responses, as well as combinations of the two, it includes a variety of artworks, including paintings, drawings, collages, sculptures, installations, photographs, videos and pages from a graphic novel. The works deal with the veil through humor, eroticism, feminism, faith, cultural traditions, cultural clashes and cultural stereotypes.

“The veil is one of the most symbolically charged pieces of clothing in contemporary dress,” the curators acknowledge. They go on to write: “The intentions of this exhibition are therefore to shed light on the complex relationship of the veil with contemporary society, to underscore individual questioning by examining diverse current artistic responses, and presenting a trans-cultural exploration of various approaches to the literal and, as importantly, metaphorical meanings of the veil.”

The curators’ intentions are all well and good, as art is generally as worthwhile a place as any to look to in society for deep responses to loaded or complex subjects. And the Austrian Cultural Forum is not afraid of charged topics. Last spring it mounted a show about capital punishment. And some of the issues brought up in The Seen and the Hidden’s catalogue essays, including that of ACF Director Andreas Stadler, who suggests that the show is

“not about the veil, it’s about us,” can be informative, historical and thought-provoking. After reading those essays, however, the exhibit felt like a classic case of bait and switch.

The Seen and the Hidden is one of those well-meaning exhibitions that have bitten off more than its artists can chew. With few exceptions, the show does little to further our understanding, literal or metaphorical, of the veil.

Most of the artists illustrate, comment on, make humorous, ridiculous or titillating references to the veil; or they stress obvious, sophomoric or cultural stereotypes—reactions that tend to narrow, rather than to expand, the discussion.

Contrary to Stadler’s assessment, the exhibition is not really about the veil. It is not even really about us. It is more about contemporary art world tendencies, where art—more lip service than exploration—is reduced to easyto-digest responses to serious topics. Typical of the show are Shadi Ghadirian’s “Domestic Life” series (2002), three C-prints of women, shrouded in headscarves, whose faces have been replaced by a ladle, a rubber glove and a cooking pot, respectively. Or Nilbar Güre’s video self-portrait in which the artist, completely covered by a layer of more than a dozen headscarves, removes each scarf one by one, and announces the name of the person who gave it to her.

Also typical, are works that make clever or ironic puns—reiterations as opposed to transformations—on the veil. Marlene Haring’s

billboard-scale poster depicts a photograph of a seated woman, resembling Star Wars’ Chewbacca, covered head to toe in long blonde hair; another work by Ms. Haring, “False Friend (Long Chair)” (2009), is an installation whose centerpiece is a Le Corbusier chaise lounge, again covered, “veiled,” like a rolling hillside of fun-fur, completely in hair.

In “Persian Dolls” (2009), Negar Ahkami, a New York artist and the daughter of Iranian immigrants, begins with the traditional form of Russian nesting dolls and “‘Iranifies’ them”: beginning with the outermost doll, which is dressed in the typical black chador of the Islamic Republic, she gradually Westernizes the figures, adding cocktail dresses, designer shopping bags, makeup and jewelry, until the last figure is nude and golden.

Many of the artists’ works, though different in medium and approach, merely scratch the surface. There are exceptions. Asma Ahmed Shikoh’s “The Beehive” (2006) is interesting from a cultural perspective. It is a wall-mounted installation, resembling a honeycomb, of 100 hijabs collected from Muslim-American women.

Each headscarf is placed in an individual cell and accompanied by personal information, such as the original owner’s name, occupation and her reflections about the scarf. But “The Beehive” never really moves beyond the collecting and cataloguing of information, which limits the work to a mere sociological exercise.

When artists fail to explore their sub-

ject—when they are more concerned with art world posturing and in-jokes, entertainment, guerrilla tactics, titillation or merely cataloguing information than with deeply engaging with a complicated topic—the curators might as well cull their responses from the man on the street. Art needs to be at least as complex as its theme. Otherwise, what’s the point?

One work, however, is a breath of fresh air. It is a selection of five pages from Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel “Persepolis” (2003), which was made into a motion picture in 2007.

Sidestepping charecteristic contemporary art-world concerns and tactics, Ms. Satrapi’s memoir, which explores her life growing up in Iran and living through the Iranian Revolution and the war with Iraq, is honest and compelling. The show’s selection excerpts areas of the novel that address Ms. Satrapi’s various and conflicted experiences with the veil. In these few pages—which recount schoolyard games and childhood rebellion, fashion sense and common sense, religious faith and insider tips—the veil, if not completely lifted, is made more transparent. It is here, at the beginning of The Seen and the Hidden, that we are offered a viewpoint that opens far wider and deeper than anywhere else in the show.

The Seen and the Hidden: [Dis]Covering the Veil, through August 29. Austrian Cultural Forum, 11 E. 52nd St. (betw. 5th & Madison Aves.) 212-319-5300.

The

MANHATTAN ART & ANTIQUES CENTER

25TH ANNIVERSARY ROSE THEATER FREDERICK P. ROSE HALL HOME OF JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER BROADWAY AT 60TH STREET, NYC

www.the-maac.com

Unique Gifts for Father's Day

TICKETS ON SALE NOW Jazz at Lincoln Center Box Office Broadway at 60th Street Ground Floor Monday-Saturday 10am-6pm Sunday 12pm-6pm CenterCharge 212-721-6500 www.jalc.org

Prince Karl of Prussia and son by C. Freyberg. C. 1880.

French 18k gold and peridot triangular cufflinks.

PALACE GALLERIES • 212.688.8866

BOTIER INC. • 212.371.2424

Athens AR tetradrachm, head for Athena, on reverse, a standing owl. Size 22mm. C. 449 - 430 B.C.

A gilt, silvered, coppered and patinated bronze car clock. C. 1910.

WINDSOR ANTIQUES • 212.319.1077

SUNDIAL NYC • 212.593.2323

1050 SECOND AVENUE (AT 55TH STREET), NEW YORK, NY 10022 Tel: 212.355.4400 • Fax: 212.355.4403 • E-mail: info@the-maac.com

June 2009

7

JAZZ

Call It a Fest and Be Done With It So there’s no JVC Jazz Festival-New York to kick around anymore. Did you even notice?

BY HOWARD MANDEL or the past 37 years, producer George Wein has staged multiple concerts by the biggest touring acts in mainstream and popular jazz at major Midtown Manhattan venues during the final two weeks of June as an outgrowth of the Newport Jazz Festival he founded in 1954. Starting in 1984, JVC U.S.A., an arm of the electronics giant Victor Company of Japan, Ltd., served as title sponsor to the events, which in New York typically took place at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Danny and Sylvia Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College and Bryant Park, with associated performances elsewhere and ticket discounts for the second sets of affiliated jazz clubs. The New York JVC Jazz Festival was a big enough tourist attraction to rate a highly anticipated, special-invite picnic the night before it opened at Gracie Mansion—no matter who was mayor.

That’s all a memory now, due to the collapse of Festival Network, a firm that bought Wein’s production company in 2007 and ran JVC fests in NYC, elsewhere across the U.S. and in Europe for one year. According to a New York Times report, 38-year-old Festival Network principal Chris Shields blamed his “robust growth plan” and unforeseen economic realities for the fests’ cancellations.

What’s it matter? There are dozens of jazz performances to attend in the City every week, at least a dozen every night, and the most notable sign there is no JVC-related action this summer is simply that the Times hasn’t run its annual front-page arts section feature on jazz.

Yet there is a hunger for jazz fests—which may be why the Bloom Festival, a series of gigs featuring worthy, but little-known jazz women that is being held on Thursday and Friday nights this June at the scruffy-comfy Tea Lounge in Park Slope, got a major Times

F

WE WANT YOUR

review with the phrase “Kicks Off Festival” in the headline.

The thing is, festivals currently seem to be the healthiest segment of a beleaguered jazz “industry” that has just suffered the demise of a major monthly magazine, Jazz Times, and struggles on despite to-the-bone cutbacks by what used to be significant jazz record labels.

Small jazz clubs persist, but fests are more audience friendly. Their tickets are typically cheaper than those of the big concert halls, they present a range of artists to appeal to broad listenership (if you don’t like an act, another will be on in minutes).

Without the JVC-Wein concert productions this year, NYC may be bypassed by major mainstream jazz acts on the road, though there are few such big names touring now, and most of them have been scheduled at fests within car- and train-reach of the city. For instance, the 2009 Freihofer’s Jazz Festival in Saratoga Springs (three hours by Metro North) runs June 27 and 28 with artists including the Gary Burton Quartet Revisited (with Pat Metheny), Kind of Blue @ 50 (led

by Miles Davis’ drummer Jimmy Cobb), George Benson in tribute to Nat “King” Cole and Dave Brubeck’s Quartet, which will celebrate its breakthrough album, Time Out, released 50 years ago.

The Litchfield Jazz Festival in Kent, Conn., (two hours by Metro North) runs July 31 through August 2, with singer Jane Monheit, Cuban drummer Dafnis Prieto’s quintet, the Brazilian Trio da Paz, New Orleans’ traditional Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Pancho Sanchez Latin Jazz Band among its attractions. Caramoor, with gracious gardens surrounding a mansion in Westchester (take Metro North to Katonah) puts on banjoist Bela Fleck with his engaging Africa Project on July 3, then a jazz fest Aug. 1 and 2 with

singer Dianne Reeves and pianist Randy Weston’s trio among the top billings. Wait for your jazz fix ‘til Labor Day weekend, and Tanglewood in the Berkshires presents reeds specialist Paquito d’Rivera, violinist Regina Carter, singer Nnenna Freelon, trumpeter Jon Faddis, guitarist John Pizzarelli, bassist Dave Holland with their ensembles and the potentially sublime piano duo of Kenny Barron and Mulgrew Miller.

Closer to home, and also outside, are the

River to River festival, SummerStage and Celebrate Brooklyn!, all of which offer jazz and related musics—hot, cool, free.

But you miss sitting in Carnegie Hall?

George Wein himself booked summer 2009’s biggest pop-jazz tour, singer-pianist Diana Krall with an orchestra performing songs from her chart-topping bossa nova release Quiet Nights on June 23 and 24. Catch buskers on the street before or after, and call that a jazz fest. Satisfied?

LIVE MUSIC

Going Places Stephanie J. Block plays the inhibited Judy Bernly in Dolly Parton’s Broadway musical adaptation of 9 to 5—which means she’s often upstaged by the bubbly blond Megan Hilty (who plays the “Dolly part”) and the wry Allison Janney (in the role originated in the film by Lily Tomlin).

She’s also starred as green witch Elphaba in the teen-popular Wicked and as Liza Minelli opposite Hugh Jackman in The Boy From Oz. Needless to say, she’s been fighting for attention for some time.

With the release of her first solo album, This Place I Know, Block’s sizable vocal talents—her big 9 to 5 number “Get Out and Stay Out” is sure to show up in young girls’ audition repertoires—will finally be able to shine on their own. That doesn’t mean, however, that she didn’t enlist plenty of star-power as backup.

“I told Dolly about my album,” explains

SHORT FICTION

Block, still obviously in disbelief that this all happened to her. “And she suggested it; she wanted to sing ‘I Will Always Love You.’” Other than that brand-new arrangement of the 1974 Parton classic, Block asked her favorite composers and lyricists to lend her their music as well as to perform with her. Nine of the 13 tracks are premiere recordings and include composer Stephen Flaherty (Ragtime) with the premiere of his “Something Beautiful,” Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Godspell) on piano for “Making Good” and Marvin Hamlisch accompanying his own “Smart Women.”

This July, on her Monday off-night, Block will take to the stage of Birdland to showcase the album’s songs. No word yet as to whether Dolly will be there for moral support—and a few well-timed melismas.

— Molly Garcia

+ ESSAYS!

July 13, Birdland, 315 W. 44th St. (betw.

8th & 9th Aves.), 212-581-3080; 7, $35/$60.

For full submission rules & guidelines, visit www.manhattanmedia.com/lit_contest.php

summer writing contest 8

City Arts NYC

The winning stories will be published in August issues of New York Press, Our Town and West Side Spirit.

GALLERY BEAT

John Goodrich & Valerie Gladstone take in the local art landscape

Chuck Bowdish’s “Seagulls and Figures”

Chuck Bowdish: Under this enormous sky…

Today’s artwork tends to be demonstrative, making its point immediately with memorable techniques, as if in competition with a thousand other offerings. (It is, of course.) What, then, to make of the small, strange works by Chuck Bowdish, who seems intent mainly on edifying himself?

Organized by Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects, this exhibition of 20 works radiates an atmosphere of intensely private meanderings. Employing a variety of media—pen and ink, oil, painted paper collage, pure watercolor—Bowdish places figures in simplified, stylized landscapes that suggest the luminous muteness of certain outsider artists (James Castle and Henry Darger come to mind). But his images evince a decided knowingness, too: a sophistication about drawing and color, without the compulsion to show it off.

In a three-foot wide collage from 2009, overcoated men stride past palm trees and seagulls under a sky of wrinkly pasted-on tissue. A five-inch-square portrait from 2000, built of countless ink crosshatchings, imparts a tone of wonderful, shadowy proximity.

With a kind of tender bluntness, several small watercolors describe children preoccupied with sticks or standing beneath trees; in one dated 1997, four children cavort in blockedin planes of light and shadow that suggest a supple David Park. A tiny watercolor from 2000 of a purple-brown figure, stretched on a bright green towel, delights with its spare but brilliant hues. Why is the sky black when the figure is illuminated? No matter, since, like the other peculiar images here, it convinces.

Allusions to early Italian Renaissance paintings become at times a little too nostalgic, and when the narratives gel, the wonder begins to dissipate. (Case in point: a girl racing past a dead mobster, a single tower looming on the horizon.) But these moments barely distract from the radiant curiosity elsewhere.

The exhibition also showcases the publication of an artist’s book, American Dream, with text and line drawings by Bowdish. In its pages, images of soldiers, violin players and nude models commingle with quotes by the artist and familiar public figures. (John Goodrich) Chuck Bowdish through July 2 at Gallery Schlesinger, 24 E. 73rd St. (betw. 5th & Madison Aves.), 212-734-3600.

Glam, Shackle and Spice If any one show could demonstrate the impossibility of generalizing women’s art, it would be this tantalizing assemblage of works

by Katherine Bernhard, Annysa Ng, Shannon Plumb, Bettina Sellmann, Anne Spurgeon and Monika Sziladi. Whether painting in deep colors or shooting a B&W film, they all take women as their chief subject, examining their roles—natural and imposed—in a variety of contexts and widening a viewer’s perspective.

Katherine Bernhardt’s lush, assertive portraits of the fashion-forward singer, “I ‘heart’ M.I.A. (heart mouth)” and “Alice Dellal,” both acrylic, capture the most alluring and disheartening aspects of today’s female celebrities: their outlined eyes blank, their mouths almost bleeding with need. With Neo Expressionist verve and cynicism, she inhabits a Warholian world transplanted to 2009, insisting that one look at it head on.

Combining elements of both Eastern and Western cultures, Annysa Ng takes a subtler approach in her depiction of women with the delicate and evocative ink on paper “Tea Silk and Porcelain (Jue ware),” which shows a woman in silhouette with a ruff, embellished with specifically Chinese details. By using the silhouette, she effectively blacks out any individuality in her subjects, commenting on the negation of their personalities.

In her photographs, Monika Sziladi explores the artificiality and awkwardness in the seemingly quotidian, everyday objects and interactions by isolating incongruous details

in the environment, using both snapshots and staged photography. The C-print “Wired” is a perfect example: She pictures a female manequin’s arm with a pearl bracelet, but a wire on the bracelet is attached to a watering can. The incongruity is surprisingly disturbing and intriguingly surrealistic.

Shannon Plumb produces short, Super-8 films, each starring herself dressed as several different characters. Reminiscent of Cindy Sherman’s self portraits, her vignettes “How To” ironically illustrate different women’s responsibilities, such as cooking and caring for infants. The old-fashioned quality of the films only intensifies the melancholy and isolation involved in the tasks. Anne Spurgeon is also concerned with self-image, but she chooses to parody the fitness video craze popularized

by Jane Fonda by presenting herself in rather obvious photos as a woman unable to follow through on the regimen, and who begins drinking beer, smoking cigarettes and laying joylessly on top of an exercise ball.

More traditional than the other artists, Bettina Sellmann creates figures in dreamlike, atmospheric landscapes. Using watercolor on canvas, she conjures up a lyrical and abstract world, especially beautifully in “Your Skin” where lovers float in a gray mist, transported by their affection for one another. One could assume from her work, that sometimes it isn’t so terrible to be a woman. (Valerie Gladstone) Glam Shackle and Spice through July 5 at Gallery Satori, 164 Stanton St. (at Clinton St.), 646-896-1075.

Peter Hoffer: Selva Antica Subtly inviting viewers into a dreamlike realm, well-known Montreal artist Peter Hoffer painted 12 serene landscapes for this luminous show, named, in Latin, “ancient forest.” Harking back to the triptych and diptych tradition, he created scenes in two and three parts on one panel, creating panoramas that heighten their drama. Like 17th-century Dutch landscape painter Jacob Van Ruisdael, Hoffer seems especially interested in the fleeting effects of light—whether they be on the stately tree in “Origin” or on a gently sloping meadow, as is the case with “Incline,” where hardly any foliage disturbs the graceful curve of the horizon.

In the shimmering “Summer Sunrise,” light breaks over an empty field, delicate and pale, turning everything to gold. Each work has its own special poetry, a celebration of nature.

Hoffer obtains the glowing and ageless appearance of his works largely through his unusual process. He begins by cracking, stressing and treating the surface of a wood panel. He then paints quickly and expressionistically over this base, and the previous scrapes and gouges that he worked into the wood show through the over-painting to create an old and weathered effect. Afterward, he stains the foreground with washes of paint, before finishing each work with a thick coating of glass-like resin. Raising the surface to at least a half-inch, it allows for a thicker doming effect. Standing in front of his paintings, you are able to see your reflection in the glimmering surfaces, becoming part of the grass, trees, hills, waterfalls and skies—a most remarkable and effective way to experience them. (VG) Peter Hoffer: Selva Antica through July 17 at Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, 529 W. 20th, suite 6W (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-366-5368.

A Parallel Presence: National Association of Women Artists, 1889-2009 One of the lesser-known Midtown treasures is the UBS Gallery, a surprisingly inviting exhibition space ringing the lobby of the financial firm’s Sixth Avenue building. Currently on view is the illuminating, A Parallel Presence, which commemorates the 120th anniversary of the National Association of Women Artists with nearly 60 paintings, sculptures, prints, photographs and videos dating from 1893 to the present.

Founded in 1889 to counter the hurdles faced by women artists, N.A.W.A. is this country’s oldest professional fine arts organization for women. From the start, its greatest challenge was to change public expectations: to demonstrate that woman artists, given the opportunity, were the creative and profesPeter Hoffer’s “Porter” (2009)

see GALLERY BEAT on page 11 June 2009

9

Waterhouse & Dodd

Hirschl & Adler Modern

Tibor de Nagy Gallery

Where New York City’s Art Buying Elite Will Be This Summer

Friday-Sunday, July 10-12, 2009 Fri. & Sat., Noon - 7 pM s 3UN Noon - 6 pm Opening Gala BeneďŹ ting Guild Hall – Thurs., July 9 – 6-9 p.m.

Bridgehampton Historical Society, 2368 Montauk Highway, across from Candy Kitchen

Featuring $200+ million in important modern and contemporary art.

www.arthamptons.com s 631-283-5505 `Â“ÂˆĂƒĂƒÂˆÂœÂ˜ĂŠfÓäÊUĂŠ …ˆÂ?`Ă€iÂ˜ĂŠ1˜`iÀÊ£{ĂŠ Ă€iiĂŠUĂŠ Ă€iiĂŠÂŤ>Ă€ÂŽÂˆÂ˜}ĂŠÂœÂ˜ĂŠL>VÂŽĂŠwiÂ?`ĂŠUĂŠ*iĂŒĂŠ Ă€Âˆi˜`Â?Ăž

Sponsored by:

10

City Arts NYC

2009 Media Sponsor:

GALLERY BEAT continued from page 9

A Parallel Presence through July 31 at the UBS Gallery, 1285 6th Ave. (betw.

W. 51st & W. 52nd Sts.), 212-713-2885.

Tales from Wounded-Land

Tales From Wounded-Land: Eko Nugroho and Wedhar Riyadi The soaring value of contemporary Chinese and Vietnamese art has been one of the art world’s most widely documented recent phenomena. But looking elsewhere in Asia, adventurous art lovers have discovered extraordinary beauty and value in Indonesian art, which, in the last couple of years, has caught fire with Asian collectors, galleries and auction houses. One need only to see the vibrant works of Eko Nugroho and Wedhar

Surroca

Landscape - cut - Fast Forward Ju ne 1 6 t h - Ju l y 3 r d 2 0 0 9 Morven Museum and Garden, Princeton, NJ

sional equals of men. To this end, it organized regular exhibitions of its members and guest artists, a practice it continues to this day.

The UBS installation convincingly presents women’s art as a parallel and equal phenomenon rather than an alternative subculture. The development of American art—as influenced by Impressionism, the Ashcan School, Cubism, Social Realism, Abstract Expressionism and almost every major movement up through photorealism and video art—appears chronologically in very capable and often compelling works.

Many of the earlier works reflect the staid virtuosity of their better-known, maleproduced counterparts, but Cecilia Beaux’s portrait from 1909 of a young girl boasts especially exuberant paint handling. (The artist’s nickname, “the female John Singer Sargent,” neatly summarizes her uphill battle.) Emily Hatch’s Impressionist landscape from 1902 beautifully captures the piquant notes of red chimneys among light-filled greens, and Theresa Bernstein’s 1914 self-portrait resonates as an appealingly rough-hewn version of Ashcan School painting.

Notable later works include Pat Adams’ abstract painting (1969-72) of crisp lines dancing through velvety, earth-toned textures, and Dorothy Dehner’s spry sculpture (1978) of airily counterbalanced wood blocks. The founders of N.A.W.A. would have appreciated the inclusion of works by luminaries Louise Nevelson and Faith Ringgold, by whom others may be measured today. Is there a male Nevelson even out there? (JG)

BOWERY GALLERY 530 WEST 25TH STREET 4TH FLOOR NEW YORK, NY 10001 (TEL) 646.230.6655 WWW.BOWERYGALLERY.ORG HOURS: TUESDAY-SATURDAY 11-6

Self Portrait, 2008, oil on linen, 17 x 23 inches

CC D`ckfe

Virginia Snedeker, 1909-2000 “Self-Portrait” Riyadi, two young artists widely shown in Asia but rarely seen in the United States, to understand why.

In their first American exhibition, Tales From Wounded-Land, Nugroho and Riyadi demonstrate highly developed, rich and varied styles, as much affected by the intricate and soulful traditions of ancient Indonesian arts as pop culture—particularly drawings, comics, cartoons and animation. Both men live and work in the city of Yogyakarta, the vibrant artistic capital of Java. Even in this cultured environment, however, they cannot but be aware of their country’s horrendous violence, poverty and corruption, and both comments in his own way. In a series of three elated canvases, Nugroho satirizes the emptiness of political slogans, as in bright blue and red “Fertile Land #2,” in which a robotic figure wears a fierce-looking helmet shares space with a masked skull, decorated with a dragon head; both appear empty and alone. In “Agama Manusia (Human Religion) #1,” Nugroho painted a masked boy with a backpack riding a human being with a dragon head, illustrating the dominance of animal passions in human nature.

To convey chaos, Riyadi employs cartoon characters, such as a wizened Mickey Mouse, exaggerating their features by outlining them in black and transforming them into elderly and macabre figures, such as with “In Fashion We Trust,” which depicts a bug-eyed character sporting a helmet while holding a cell phone.

Violence also underlies “Under Attack,” which contains a strange, oversized girl—painted in pastel blues and pinks—who has her eye plucked out by a horrific dragonfly. These are complex works to be relished and studied for their nuances and brilliance. The artists may be new to us, but their psychological truths will continue to reverberate. (VG) Tales From Wounded-Land through July 25 at Tyler Rollins Fine Art, 529 W. 20th St., 10W (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212229-9100.

8YjkiXZk I\Xc`kp `e :fcfi Alcp . Æ Alcp ),# )''0

BOWERY GALLERY 530 WEST 25TH STREET 4TH FLOOR NEW YORK, NY 10001 (TEL) 646.230.6655 WWW.BOWERYGALLERY.ORG HOURS: TUESDAY-SATURDAY 11-6

Trucker’s Paradise, 2009, Oil on Canvas, 36 1/2 x 43 inches

Jack Miller, color lithograph poster, circa 1935. Estimate $800 to $1,200.

AT AUCTION

August 5th

Vintage Posters Inquiries: Gwendolyn Rayner, ext. 53 • posters@swanngalleries.com Illustrated Catalogue $35: 212 254 4710, ext 0.

CONSIGNMENTS NOW BEING ACCEPTED FOR AUTUMN AUCTIONS 104 East 25th Street • New York, NY 10010 Catalogues and video previews at www.swanngalleries.com

June 2009

11

MUSEUMS

Meat of the Matter

BY JOHN GOODRICH It’s well documented that, in life, Francis Bacon (1909-1992) drank and gambled to excess, indulged in abusive relationships and worked amidst suffocating clutter. In interviews he dispensed the philosophy of a street-smart nihilist: human flesh was another kind of meat, violence was a clarifying force and art a stimulator of “the nervous system.”

His existentialist credentials, in short, were impeccable.

But does his art live up to his aura?

Bacon’s work is hard to pin down because it falls somewhere between Abstract Expressionism’s angst and Pop’s stylish usurpations. His mordant images tend to inspire either veneration or instant loathing, which means that most visitors to the Metropolitan Museum’s Francis Bacon: A Centenary Retrospective are unlikely to be converted. But then, they needn’t be; the exhibition of nearly 70 paintings reveals a fascinating individual who was equally a prophet and a poseur: a painter of great talents, ambitions and genuinely peculiar impulses who settled increasingly for a mastery of mere effects.

Inhibited by live models, Bacon habitually worked from memory and photographs from such sources as medical and sports publications, morgues and especially Muybridge’s serial images of humans and animals in motion. Attracted by their graphic oddness, he committed them to canvas with a technique as theatrical as the images themselves. He perpetually kept one eye—a rather unempathetic one—on the masters, refashioning traditions of the epic out of contemporary grotesqueries.

Bacon’s earliest paintings in this chronological installation are among his best. The triptych that brought his first acclaim shows almost every device of his maturity already in place. In “Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion” (c. 1944), hideous figures with bulbous bodies and distended appendages are propped within geometric frameworks and textured planes of color. Two have the gaping mouths that would become the artist’s trademark. Without pictorial vigor, these traits would be have been merely shocking devices, but the artist’s considerable gifts as a colorist give visceral weight to the perching, bloating and stretching forms.

Bacon seems to have struggled to produce an encore. The familiar 1946 canvas on loan from MoMA, “Painting,” with sides of beef splayed like a crucifix above a ghoulish darksuited man, is a capable, but rather obvious, recipe of provocations. More compelling are

12

City Arts NYC

several smaller works from the late ’40s that feature snarling circles of teeth erupting from densely modeled heads; these have a cruel, dark intimacy quite unlike anything else in the show. Two medium-sized canvases from the same period—“Figure in a Landscape” (1945) and “Figure Study I” (194546)—combine rather ordinary objects in ways that are pictorially striking, if narratively obscure. It’s unclear what supports a hunching hounds-tooth coat and fedora in “Figure Study I,” but compositional rhythms lend them a spooky urgency.

In interviews, Bacon always distanced his work from illustration, despite (or, perhaps, because of) his increasing reliance on illustrational methods. In the ’50s, his paintings of gaping popes and crouching figures and animals show cursory formal inventions, while relying principally on “touch”—the tactile sensitivity to paint dragged across a surface, rapidly and brashly, or as smooth caresses. Gestures of figures become portentously veiled—literally, with painted curtains, or pictorially, as wisped passages of paint. The combination of elegant surfaces and morbid subject matter becomes, from this point on, the consciously posed tension of Bacon’s work.

And it could be an effective pose, enlivened by color more dynamic than any of the mainstream Pop artists’. Bacon rekindled some of his early vigor in “Three Studies for a Crucifixion” (1962), a huge triptych reputedly painted during a two-weeklong drinking binge. As with most of his triptychs, the outer canvases are weaker but supportive of the central image. Here, pinned onto a flaming orange-red floor by its deep shadow, an off-center bed sets in motion a powerful avalanche of fleshy, drooping curves slipping from the figure’s raised arm. Welters and small blobs of red paint climb across the figure, while a thick swirling pucker on the hip could be either a gory wound or an exquisite flower.

This compositional formula—an arabesque of accumulating ovals within a geometric framework—became Bacon’s modus operandi. The scrawled arcs reflect the artist’s self-proclaimed reliance on chance, though his goal—evocative distortions—sometimes seems too easily obtained. The results can be quite poignant, uncovering, for instance, an unaccustomed vulnerability in a series of portraits from the 1960s. In the large single canvas “Two Studies for a Portrait of George Dyer” (1968), taut colors and contours compellingly fashion the convoluted column of a

© 2009 The Estate of Francis Bacon / ARS, New York / DACS, London

Francis Bacon’s violent images were packaged with panache, but he failed to evolve beyond an earnest pose

‘Two Studies for a Portrait of George Dyer’ (1968) on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. figure within a splash of light. But more often than not, the later paintings are epic mostly in their affectations. Pressures of color dissipate instead of gathering to forge a figure in “Henrietta Moraes” (1966), and a triptych inspired

by T.S. Eliot’s “Sweeney Agonistes” (1967) feels more like a large bauble—a kind of rogue Persian miniature blown up indiscriminately to billboard size.

Indeed, despite the artist’s dissolute lifestyle, his paintings exhibit a numbingly proficient skill-set up to the very end: potent color; effective drawing that ranges from the evocative to the rote; an epic manner employing portentous suggestions, half-revelations and a stockroom of symbols that include spilt ashtrays, bare light bulbs, oozing fluids, flesh-plucking birds and thick, actual-spurts of white paint. No one has ever packaged the condition of in extremis with such efficiency and panache, and herein lies the real tension of Bacon’s work: the continuous, unwitting conflict between earnestness and pose.

Even more so than Picasso, who was his first inspiration as a painter, Bacon felt compelled above all to display his virtuosity. It is a compulsion at odds with vulnerability, and perhaps this is why he seems perpetually to orchestrate rather than intimate. Bacon didn’t have nearly the range of the great modernists such as Picasso and Matisse and, moreover, showed little growth as a painter over his last five decades.

On the museum’s first floor, visitors can see what Matisse made of the masters. His “Laurette in a Green Robe, Black Background” (1916), though reductive in drawing, uses impulses of color and contour to movingly arrive at his motif: the tilting head of his patient model—a wondrous strange moment, which he thought to share.

Francis Bacon: A Centenary Retrospective, through Aug. 16 at the Metropolitan Museum, 1000 5th Ave. (at E. 82nd St.), 212-535-7710.

MUSEUMS

The Wrong Stuff The Guggenheim looks at its building’s creator with a safe, dull retrospective

BY PATRICIO DEL REAL here should have been an explosion.

After all, Frank Lloyd Wright’s famed comment to explain the “coiled spring” design of the Guggenheim museum— “When the first atomic bomb lands on New York, it will not be destroyed. It may be blown a few miles up in the air, but when it comes down, it will bounce!”—should have been put to the test in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the iconic building. Right? Instead, curators reached into the depths of Wright’s archives to display a ho-hum series of mostly unbuilt works that would put even the most dedicated Wright scholar to sleep.

On opening day of Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward members of the press were informed that the archives contain so much material—drawings, writings, models and more—that an exhibit of this scale could be mounted every year for 100 years without exhausting it. So then, why not put on one astounding exhibit of thundering madness—and grand architectural proportions—instead of what resulted? This hagiographic exhibition does little to remind us

T

of Wright’s controversial views, statements and personality—so we wait for the explosion.

Part of the problem results from the curatorial decision to display the architectural drawings—paper material that already baffles most everyone not trained as an architect as something magical and learned—in inordinately heavy, clunky tables. The severe, bulky metal frames reminded me of a visit to Picasso’s Guernica when it stood in Madrid’s Buen Retiro Pavilion behind bomb-resistant glass.

The comparison is striking when one sees the large work today at the Reina Sofía—free of all terror-resistant trappings. These specially designed Frank Lloyd Wright sarcophagi populate the famed spiral ramp of the museum to bestow the drawings with a death-like pallor. Perhaps it’s intended as a statement on the American architect’s contemporary influence on American architecture?

The amount of material present for the exhibit is impressive, but somehow the museum appears empty. I wished, instead, that the exhibition could have captured the voluminous amount of work and the frenzy of architectural

production. Perhaps photographs of Wright’s workspace, the architectural offices, could have been displayed alongside the drawings.

The most satisfying moments are the sections on the “American City” and the “American House”—located in the side galleries–which integrate texts, models (built into walls), computer animations and drawings.

The exploded model of “The Jacobs House” (1936-37)—which reminded me of the famed Morphosis exploded axonometric drawing— captures, at last, the complexity and power of architectural representations. It’s a point that is completely lost in the “Unity Temple” sectional model, which doesn’t gain viewers much insight beyond wondering about the complexity of its execution.

The models are, of course, the most alluring aspects of the exhibition. Few are as well integrated as the one for the “Huntington Hartford Sports Club” (1947) project, which is embedded within a pier of the museum and juts out to meet the viewer in an elegant incorporation of the architecture itself. This dynamic integration is absent in most other

Despite being stuffed with Frank Lloyd Wright’s work the Guggenheim rotunda appears bare. pieces, which are located like dead objects in space. Perhaps one of today’s starchitects should have been contracted as a consultant.

With that sort of virtuosity brought to bear on the exhibition, we could have had a glimmer of why Wright continues to fascinate so many in the architectural profession as well as all the passersby who admire his elegant coiled masterwork, now firmly entrenched in the Upper East Side. But maybe this is the way an architect ends: not with a bang—but with a whimper.

ON DISPLAY THROUGH JANUARY 16, 2010

WOMEN of WALL STREET Visit the Museum of American Finance today to view this groundbreaking new exhibit showcasing notable women in the world of finance and Wall Street, both historically and in modern times.

Open Tue. – Sat., 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Mention this ad to receive 25% off Museum admission

48 Wall Street New York, NY 10005 www.MoAF.org June 2009

13

3(/0 4(% %8/4)# /.#% -/2%¨

ARTS AGENDA GALLERIES ACA GALLERY: Ivan Albright’s 1897-1983.

0ARK !VENUE 0LAZA !TRIUM % ND 3T „ WWW DAHESHMUSEUM ORG -ONDAY &RIDAY ¯ 3ATURDAY ¯ 3UBWAYS % 6

AND ! FREE GIFT WITH PURCHASE AND DISCOUNT ON SELECT ITEMS WITH THIS AD

ERIC SLOANE (1905-1985)

Sandy Hook, New Jersey, oil on masonite, 16 x 18.5 in

GREEN RIVER GALLERY SINCE 1975

SPECIALIZING IN WORKS

BY ERIC SLOANE AND AMERICAN ART OF THE 19TH AND 20TH CENTURIES 1578 Boston Corners Road Millerton, NY 12546 518-789-3311 Open Saturday 10-5, Sunday 12-5, or by appointment

14

City Arts NYC

Through July 3. Humanity: A Hundred Years of Figurative Art. Through August.

Grace Hartigan: 1922-2008. Opens July 9, 529 W. 20th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-206-8080, www.acagalleries.com.

A.I.R. GALLERY: Three exhibitions featuring Barbara Siegel, Monica Carrier and Jeanette May. Through June 21, 111 Front St., room #228 (at Washington St.), Brooklyn, 212255-6651, www.airgallery.org.

ALEXANDRE GALLERY: Selected works by gallery artists. Through June 26, 41 E. 57th St. (at Madison Ave.), 212-755-2828, www. alexandregallery.com.

ALLAN STONE GALLERY: Food-themed sculpture and paintings by Peter Anton and Gina Minichino. Through June 19, 113 E. 90th St. (betw. Park & Lexington Aves.), 212987-4997, www.allanstonegallery.com.

ANDREA MEISLIN GALLERY: Photography by Lillian Birnbaum. Opens June 18, 526 W. 26th St., suite 214 (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212627-2552, www.andreameislin.com.

ANDREA ROSEN GALLERY: John Currin. Opens June 19, 525 W. 24th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-627-6000, www.rosengallery.com.

APERTURE GALLERY: The Edge of Vision Abstraction in Contemporary Photography.

Through July 9, 547 W. 27th St. 4th oor (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-505-5555, www.aperture.org.

BETTY CUNINGHAM GALLERY: Judy Glantzman: The White Paintings 1999-2001. Through Aug. 7, 541 W. 25th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-242-2772, www.bettycuninghamgallery.com.

BONNI BENRUBI GALLERY: Hot Fun in the Summertime. Through September, 41 E. 57th St., 13th Fl. (at Madison Ave.), 212-8886007, www.bonnibenrubi.com.

BOWERY GALLERY: Peter Surroca, Through July 3. L.L. Milton. Opens July 7, 530 W. 25th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 646-2306655, www.bowerygallery.org.

BRUCE SILVERSTEIN: Photography from gallery’s private collection. Through August, 535 W. 24th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-6273930, www.brucesilverstein.com.

CHEIM & READ: The Female Gaze: Women Look At Women. Opens June 25, 547 W. 25th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-2427727, www.cheimread.com.

CLAMP ART: ARCADIA: Photography by various artists. Through August, 521-531 W. 25th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 646-2300020, www.clampart.com.

CHELSEA TERMINAL WAREHOUSE: Commune: a group exhibition organized by Dominique Nahas. Through June 27, 636 W. 28th St. (at 11th Ave.), 212-244-3007, www.blackandwhiteartgallery.com.

CH’I CONTEMPORARY FINE ART: Chrysallis Stage by Joe Mangrum. Through July 6. Uprooted: A group show featuring drawings. Opens July 10, 293 Grand St. (betw. Roebling &

Sally Michel’s “Sitter by the Sea� at Katharina Rich Perlow Gallery.

Havermeyer Sts.), Brooklyn, 718-218-8939, www.chicontemporaryďŹ neart.com.

CLIC GALLERY: Jeannie Weisglass New Paintings. Through July 13, 424 Broome St. (betw. Crosby & Lafayette Sts.), 212-2199308, www.clicgallery.com.

CRISTIN TIERNEY FINE ART: Levity, co-sponsored with Hendershot Gallery. Opens June 25, 547 W. 27th St., suite 630, 212-594-0550, www.cristintierney.com.

D’AMELIO TERRAS: Tony Feher’s Wall Show.

Noguchi Rika’s The Sun. Both through June 20. Group show. Opens July 1, 525 W. 22nd St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212352-9460, www.damelioterras.com.

DANEYAL MAHMOOD GALLERY: Bad News. Summer group show. Through August, 511 W. 25th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-6752966, www.daneyalmahmood.com.

DAVID FINDLAY JR. FINE ART: Houghton Cranford Smith. Through June 27. Summerset. Opens July 1, 41 E. 57th St. (at Madison Ave.), 212486-7660, www.davidďŹ ndlayjr.com.

DAVID NOLAN GALLERY: Slough. Through June 27, 527 W. 29th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-925-6190, www.davidnolangallery.com.

DC MOORE GALLERY: Trees. Through July 24, 724 5th Ave, 8th Fl. (betw. E. 56th & E. 57th Sts.), 212-247-2111, www.dcmooregallery. com.

DCKT: Michael Velliquette: Abundant Creatures.

Through June 21. New work by Claire Sherman and Maria E. PiĂąeres. Opens June 26, 195 Bowery (at Spring St.), 212-741-9955, www.dcktcontemporary.com.

DEITCH PROJECTS: The PIG presents works by Jim Drain, Paul Chan, Jeff Koons, Simon Martin and others. Through August, 4-40 44th Dr. (at 5th St.), Queens. Five Large

Paintings by Jonathan Borofsky. Through June 20, 76 Grand St. (betw. Wooster & Greene Sts.). Black Acid Co-op. Opens July 2, 18 Wooster St. (betw. Grand & Canal Sts.), 212-343-7300, www.deitch.com.

ELIZABETH HARRIS GALLERY: Group exhibit. By a Thread. Through July 24, 529 W. 20th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-463-9666, www.eharrisgallery.com.

EXIT ART: NĂŠgritude. Through July 25, 475 10th Ave. (at W. 36th St.), 212-966-7745, www.exitart.org.

FARMANI GALLERY: Px3 Prix De La Photographie Paris. June 18 through 27, 111 Front St., suite 21 (at Washington St.), Brooklyn, 718-578-4478, www.farmanigallery.com.

FIRST STREET GALLERY: Group exhibit. 2009 National Juried Show. Opens June 23, 526 W. 26th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 646336-8053, www.ďŹ rststreetgallery.net.

FLOMENHAFT GALLERY: Group Exhibit. Selections from the Flomenhaft Gallery. Begins July 14, 547 W. 27th St., suite 308 (betw.

10th & 11th Aves.), 212-268-4952, www. omenhaftgallery.com.

FRANKLIN 54: Vacation Venues. Through July 18, 526 W. 26th St., room 403 (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 917-821-0753, franklin54gallery.blogspot.com.

FREDERIEKE TAYLOR GALLERY: Xun Dao: Seeking the Way, Spiritual Themes in Contemporary China. Through June 26, 535 W. 22nd St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 646-2300992, www.frederieketaylorgallery.com.

FREIGHT AND VOLUME: Ion Birch. Opens June 27, 542 W. 24th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-691-7700, www.freightandvolume.com.

FUSE GALLERY: Will Lemon. Am I. Opens July 11, 93 2nd Ave. (betw. E. 5th & E. 6th Sts.), 212-777-7988, www.fusegallerynyc.com.

GOEDHUIS CONTEMPORARY: Irene Kung. Through

July 10. Li Xubai. Opens June 24, 42 E. 76th St. (betw. Madison & Park Aves.), 212-838-4922, www.goedhuiscontemporary.com.

GREENBERG VAN DOREN GALLERY: Katrin Sigurdardottir. Opens June 18, 730 5th Ave., 7th Fl. (at W. 57th St.), 212-445-0444, www. gvdgallery.com.

GREENWICH HOUSE POTTERY: Annual Members Exhibition. Through June 27. Summer Masters Exhibition. Opens July 2, 16 Jones St. (betw. Bleecker & W. 4th Sts.), 212-2424106, www.greenwichhousepottery.org.

GREY ART GALLERY AT NYU: John Wood: On the Edge of Clear Meaning. Through July 18, 100 Washington Sq. East (at Washington Pl.), 212-998-6780, www.nyu.edu/greyart/.

HEIST GALLERY: 1 (212): The City’s Summer Heist, curated by MetroColorCollision.

Opens June 26, 27 Essex St. (betw. Grand & Hester Sts.), 212-253-0451, www.heistgallery.com.

HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK: Plants & Mammals by Carol Bove with Jane Lariviere. Through September 10, 148 W. 37th St. (betw. Broadway & 7th Ave.), 212-7570915, www.hsny.org.

HQ GALLERY: Jonathan VanDyke Gloved Impediment. Through June 28, 236 Grand St. (betw. Driggs Ave. & Roebling St.), Brooklyn, 718-418-7182, www.hqbrooklyn.com.

HUDSON FRANKLIN: Jamisen Ogg. Opens June 19, 508 W. 26th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-741-1189, www.hudsonfranklin.com.

JONATHAN LEVINE GALLERY: WK Interact. Invader. Both open June 27, 529 W. 20th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-243-3822, www.jonathanlevinegallery.com.

JUNE KELLY GALLERY: Su Kwak, Light and Time: Recent Paintings. Through July 7. Group exhibit. Works on Paper. Opens July 9, 591 Broadway #3C (at W. Houston St.), 212226-1660, www.junekellygallery.com.

KATHARINA RICH PERLOW GALLERY: Realism and Almost Realism. Opens June 16, The Fuller Building, 41 E. 57th St. (at Madison Ave.), 212-644-7171.

KATHRYN MARKEL FINE ARTS: Peter Hoffer. Selva

Antica. Through July 18, 529 W. 20th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-366-5368, www.markelfinearts.com.

KIM FOSTER GALLERY: Overlay. Paintings and prints by Antonio Petracca. Through June 20. Group exhibit. VCUArts: “For Lovers.” Opens June 26, 529 W. 20th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-229-0044, www.kimfostergallery.com.

KNOEDLER & COMPANY: American Icons and Early Work by Mimmo Rotella. Through July 31, 19 E. 70th St. (betw. 5th & Madison Aves.), 212-794-0550, www.knoedlergallery.com.

L&M ARTS: John Chamberlain: Early Years.

Through June 27, 45 E. 78th St. (betw.

Madison & Park Aves.), 212-861-0020, www.lmgallery.com.

LANA SANTORELLI GALLERY: Entropy. Opens June 18, 110 W. 26th St. (betw. 6th & 7th Aves.), 212-229-2111, www.lanasantorelligallery.com.

LAURENCE MILLER GALLERY: A memorial tribute to Helen Levitt. Through June 26. Burk Uzzle: Woodstock 40th Anniversary.

Through Aug. 20, 20 W. 57th St. (betw.

5th & 6th Aves.), 212-397-3930, www. laurencemillergallery.com.

LEHMANN MAUPIN: The Dance of the Machine Gun & other forms of unpopular expression, by Hernan Bas. Oil, acrylic, and mixed media paintings on linen. Adriana Varejão. Both through July 10, 201 Chrystie St. (at Stanton St.), 212-254-0054, www. lehmannmaupin.com.

LEHMANN MAUPIN CHELSEA: Large-scale painting and works on paper by Adriana Varejão.

Through July 10, 540 W. 26th St. (betw.

10th & 11th Aves.), 212-255-2923, www. lehmannmaupain.com.

LEICA GALLERY: John Flattau. The Similarity of Matter. Through Aug. 8, 670 Broadway (betw. W. 3rd & Bleeker Sts.), 212-7773051, www.leica-camera.com.

LESLEY HELLER GALLERY: Sculptors Draw, Chicken Cam: Poultry in Motion, Sharon Lawless. Through Aug. 21, 16 E. 77th St. (betw. 5th & Madison Aves.), 212-4106120, www.lesleyheller.com.

Simon Gaon and

Kathy Buist

LOHIN GEDULD: Group exhibit. Artist’s choice.

Through July 18, 531 W. 25th St. (betw.

10th & 11th Aves.), 212-675-2656, www. lohingeduld.com.

LUHRING AUGUSTINE GALLERY: Zarina. The Ten Thousand Things. Opens June 20, 531 W. 24th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-2069055, www.luhringaugustine.com.

LYONS WIER GALLERY: Another Damn Good Painting Show. Through June 28, 175 7th Ave. (at W. 20th St.), 212-242-6220, wwwlyonswiergallery.com.

MARIANNE BOESKY GALLERY: Project Space & Rooftop. Your Gold Teeth. Curated by Todd Levin. Both open June 19, 509 W. 24th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-6809889. www.marianneboeskygallery.com.

MARLBOROUGH GALLERY CHELSEA: Francis Bacon.

Selected Prints. Through June 27, 545 W. 25th St. (betw 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-4638634, www.marlboroughgallery.com.

MARTOS GALLERY: Group exhibit. Opens June 20, 540 W. 29th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-560-0670, www.martosgallery. com.

MICHAEL ROSENFELD GALLERY: Group exhibit.

Abstract Expressionism: Further Evidence (Part One: Painting). Through July 31, 24 W. 57th St. (betw. 5th & 6th Aves.), 212247-0402, www.michaelrosenfeldart.com.

MICHAEL STEINBERG FINE ART: Barbara Friedman.

Overlook Paintings. Through July 2, 526 W. 26th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-5249770, www.michaelsteinbergfineart.com.

MICHAEL WERNER GALLERY: Sigmar Polke’s Lens Paintings. Through June 19, 4 E. 77th St. (betw. 5th & Madison Aves.), 212-9881623, www.michaelwerner.com.

MITCHELL INNES & NASH: Jessica Stockholder: Sail Cloth Tears. Through June 20, 534 W. 26th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-7447400, www.miandn.com.

NABI GALLERY: AHL Foundation Award Winners’ Guest Exhibit. Through June 27.

Simon Gaon and Kathy Buist’s Darkness and Light. Opens July 1, 137 W. 25th St. (betw. 6th & 7th Aves.), 212-929-6063, www.nabigallery.com.

NATIONAL ARTS CLUB: 110 Watercolorists.

Through June 19. Photography of Layla Love. June 21 to 28. Gloria Ruz. June 17 to 27. Russian American Foundation.

Through June 28, Gramercy Park South (at E. 20th St.), 212-674-8824, www.nationalartsclub.org.

NOHO GALLERY: Shizuko Kimura. Through June 27. Dino Pazzanese’s Transumuted Paintings. Opens June 30, 530 W. 25th St., 4th Fl. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-3677063, www.nohogallery.com.

THE OLD PRINT SHOP: Behnken and Petrulis: Two Contemporary Printmakers. Through June 30, 150 Lexington Ave. (betw. E. 29 & E. 30th Sts.), 212-683-3950, www.oldprintshop.com.

PACE MACGILL GALLERY: Tod Papageorge: American Sports, 1970. Through Aug. 28, 32 E. 57th St., 9th Fl. (betw. Park & Madison Aves.), 212-759-7999, www.pacemacgill.com.

PAUL KASMIN GALLERY: Shelia Berger’s new paintings. Through July 1. Les Lalanne. Through July 3. Nudes! featuring sundry flesh. Opens July 9, 511 W. 27th St. (at 10th Ave.), 212563- 4474, www.paulkasmingallery.com.

PAULA COOPER GALLERY: Sol Lewitt. Through June 20, 465 W. 23rd St. (at 9th Ave.), 212255-1105, www.paulacoopergallery.com.

PLATFORM: Atomic Dreams: Daniel Borlandelli, Carter Hodgkin and Terry Rose. Through June 20, 529 W. 20th St., suite 4W (betw.

10th & 11th Aves.), 212-647-7030, www. platform.denisebibrofineart.com.

PRINCE STREET GALLERY: Juried Show. Through July 3. Guest: Martha MacLeish. Opens July 7, 530 W. 25th St., 4th Fl. (betw.

10th & 11th Aves.), 646-230-0246. www. princestreetgallery.com.

RIVAA: Connecting Islands and Generations.

The Queensboro Bridge at 100. Through June 28, 527 Main St., Roosevelt Island, 212-308-6630, www.rivaa.com.

RONALD FELDMAN FINE ARTS:

Black&WhiteWorks. A group exhibition including sculpture, painting, drawings, prints, and photography. Through July 31, 31 Mercer St. (at Grand St.), 212-226-3232, www.feldmangallery.com.

SALON 94 FREEMAN’S: Gerald Davis, The

ANTIQUARIAN & RARE BOOKS

Darkness and Light July 1-31

Simon Gaon, Fire at Sea, oil on canvas, 24x36, 2008

NABI GALLERY 137 West 25th Street, New York, NY 10001 | 212 929 6063 | www.nabigallery.com

CityArts NYC

New York’s Review of Culture

www.cityartsny.info Send all press releases, notices and announcements to cityarts@manhattanmedia.com For advertising information, call 212.268.0384 or email advertising@manhattanmedia.com

JAMES CUMMINS BOOKSELLER 699 Madison Ave., 7th Floor (62nd & 63rd) NYC 10065 Monday-Friday, 10-6 jamescumminsbookseller.com 212-688-6441 June 2009

15

Damned. June 18 to July 17, 1 Freeman Alley (at Rivington St.), 212-529-7400, www. salon94.com.

SARAH MELTZER GALLERY: Moyna Flannigan: Trouble Loves Me. Paintings in oil, pastel and watercolor. Penthouse: Joseph Grigely, Songs Without Words. Through June 27, 525-531 W. 26th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212727-9330. www.sarameltzergallery.com.

SHEPHERD & DEROM GALLERIES: Works on Paper by Jules Pascin. Man Ray: Works From a Private Collection. Through June 27. The Pipes of Pan and the Kneeling Youth. A painting by by Bertold Löffler and a sculpture by George Minne. Through June 28, 58 E. 79th St. (betw. Park & Madison Aves.), 212862-4050, www.shepherdgallery.com.

SWISS INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART: Manon.

A retrospective by the internationally recognized body and performance artist includes works from shows as early as 1974 to her most recent in 2007. Through June 30.

Flag by Peter Regli. Through Aug. 31, 496 Broadway (betw. Broome & Spring Sts.), 212-925-2035, www.swissinstitute.net.

TIBOR DE NAGY GALLERY: Larry Rivers: 1950s/1960s. Through July 31, 724 5th Ave. (betw. W. 56th & W. 57th Sts.), 212-2625050, www.tibordenagy.com.

WHITE BOX: Heinrich Nicolaus: The Theater of More. Opens June 17, 329 Broome St. (betw. Bowery & Chrystie Sts.), 212-7142347, www.whiteboxny.org.

W.M. BRADY: Still Life Pastels by Cristina Grassi. Through Aug, 22 E. 80th St. (betw.

Lexington & Park Aves.), 212-249-7212, www.artincontext.org.

WOODWARD GALLERY: Signs of Life. Mixed media paintings by Mark Mastroianni and Rick Begneaud. Through July 10,133 Eldridge St. (betw. Delancey & Broome Sts.), 212-966-3411, www.woodwardgallery.net.

YANCEY RICHARDSON GALLERY: PERSONA, a presentation of works by Hiroh Kikai.

Through July 2. Glitz & Grime: Photographs of Times Square. Opens July 9, 535 W. 22nd St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 646230-9610, www.yanceyrichardson.com.

AUCTION HOUSES CHRISTIE’S: Pop Culture. June 23, 10 a.m. Fine

Books and Manuscripts. June 24, 2. 20 Rockefeller Plz. (betw. 5th & 6th Aves.), 212-636-2000, www.christies.com.

DOYLE NEW YORK: Doyle at Home. June 17, 10 a.m. Fine Jewelry. June 18, 10 a.m. 175 E. 87th St. (betw. Lexington & 3rd Aves.), 212-427-2730, www.doylenewyork.com.

SWANN AUCTION GALLERIES: The Discovery Sale.

June 18, 1:30 p.m. 104 E. 25th St. (betw.

Park & Lexington Aves.), 212-254-4710, www.swanngalleries.com.

EVENTS

ARTS BRIEFS

Art on the Beach Just like plenty of other New Yorkers, dozens of the city’s galleries are packing up and heading to the Hamptons for the weekend. The second annual ArtHamptons event, running from July 9 through July 21, will feature more than $250 million in art from 64 galleries from the city as well as Palm Beach, Barcelona and Paris. Art dealers from around the world are selling photography, sculpture and painted works including pieces by Warhol, Picasso and Larry Rivers.

“It’s the most important art event in Long Island,” says ArtHamptons Executive Director Rick Friedman. “Big art collectors are in the Hamptons so it gives them a chance to have access to art in a more relaxed environment.”

The exhibition will be held at the Bridgehampton Historical Society Grounds, located at 2368 Montauk Highway in Bridgehampton, where four temperature-controlled modular buildings have been, true to haute barnyard local custom, constructed in a field for this particular affair.

“It’s the only place that you can see Warhol in a potato “The Beginning of Summer” field,” Friedman says with a laugh.

Renowned Chelsea gallery Dorfman Projects is bringing at 1940s and the ’50s. Elliott Erwitt will also take home the award for least 20 pieces, including works by Mike Bidlo and Ray Smith, for his black and white photography, ranging from shots of Marilyn its exhibition about Picasso and his appropriators.

Monroe and Che Guevara to images exemplifying the absurdity of “It’s going to be a fun show with a contemporary twist on modthe human condition. ern art,” says gallery owner Fred Dorfman. Not to mention a good Go out for a day at the beach, and if you don’t come home with excuse to leave town for the weekend.

Over the four-day period, organizers are expecting 5,000 people a tan, you still might come home with a masterpiece.

— Sarah Stern to attend the show, where prices will range from $2,000 to $2 million.

ArtHamptons And it wouldn’t be the Hamptons without a social element. On July 9 through July 12; 2368 Montauk Hwy. (at Corwith opening night, ArtHamptons will honor three prolific artists with Ave.), Bridgehampton, 631-283-5505; Friday through Sunthe Hamptons Medal of the Arts for Lifetime Achievement. Jane day, noon to 6, $20. Benefit Opening/Collector’s Preview, Wilson will be recognized for her watercolor landscape paintings, Thursday, 6 to 9; $125. as will Lillian Bassman for her iconic fashion photography from the

VINTAGE SUMMER BALL: Join the Vintage Dance

Society for a spring celebration of the music and dances of the Ragtime Era. June 20, 92nd Street Y, Lexington Avenue at E. 92nd Street, 212-415-5500; 7, $20.

ISTANBULIVE: The sounds and colors of Turkey.

June 27, Central Park (enter park at E. 69th Street & 5th Avenue); 2, FREE. SUMMERNIGHTS CONCERT SERIES: A month-long festival featuring bluegrass, klezmer, brass band and more. Beginning July 2, Jewish Museum, 1109 5th Ave. (at E. 92nd St.), 212-423-3200; 7:30, FREE. LINCOLN CENTER FESTIVAL: Lincoln Center celebrates its 50th anniversary with hundreds of performances. July 7 through Aug. 23, various locations. For a complete schedule, visit www.lincolncenter.org.

THE BIG DRAW: A free, daylong drawing event sponsored by The Drawing Center. July 18, various locations in Lower Manhattan. For a complete schedule, visit www.drawingcenter.org.

ANTIQUE JEWELRY AND WATCH SHOW: July 24 through July 27, The Metropolitan Pavillion, 125 W. 18th St. (betw. 6th & 7th Aves.), 212732-6642; times vary, $10 and up.

TUESDAYS ON THE TERRACE: Dia Art Founda-

tion presents a series of outdoor events beginning June 16, the Hispanic Society of America’s Audubon Terrace, Broadway btw.

W. 155th and W. 156th streets, 212-2935582; times vary, FREE.

16

City Arts NYC

MUSEUMS AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND LETTERS: Exhibi-

tion of Works by Newly Elected Members

and Recipients of Honors and Awards.

Through June 14, 633 W. 155th St. (betw.

Broadway & Riverside Dr.), 212-368-5900, www.artsandletters.org.

AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM AT LINCOLN SQUARE:

The Treasure of Ulysses Davis features sculpture from the Savannah, Georgia Barber. Through Sept. 6. Kaleidoscope Quilts: The Art of Paula Nadelstern. Through Sept.

13, 2 Lincoln Sq. (at W. 66th St.), 212-9777170, www.folkartmuseum.org.

BROOKLYN HISTORICAL SOCIETY: Living and Learning: Chinese Immigration, Restriction and Community in Brooklyn, 1850 to Present. Through Aug. 30, Brooklyn Historical Society, 128 Pierrepont St. (at Clinton St.), Brooklyn, 718-222-4111, www.brooklynhistory.org.

BRONX MUSEUM: Living and Dreaming. Opens June 21. 1040 Grand Concourse (at 165th St.), Bronx, 718-681-1000, www.bronxmuseum.org.

BROOKLYN MUSEUM: Gustave Caillebotte: Impressionist Paintings from Paris to the Sea. The first major exhibition of Caillebotte’s work in New York for more than 30 years.

Through July 5. Sun K. Kwak: Enfolding 280 Hours. Through July 5. Exhibition of a New Generation of Feminist Video Artists. Through 2010, 200 Eastern Pkwy. (at Washington Ave.), Brooklyn, 718-6385000, www.brooklynmuseum.org.

CHELSEA ART MUSEUM: modern modern: a group

exhibition curated by Pati Hertling featuring works by 34 contemporary artists.. Through June 13, 556 W. 22nd St. (at 11th Ave.), 212255-0719, www.chelseaartmuseum.org.

COOPER-HEWITT NATIONAL DESIGN MUSEUM: Fashioning Felt explores the varied uses, designs and innovations in this ancient fabric.

Shahzia Sikander Selects: Works from the Permanent Collection. Through Sept. 7, 2 E. 91st St. (at 5th Ave.), 212-849-8400, www.cooperhewitt.org.

DRAWING CENTER: Unica Zurn: Dark Spring.

FAX. Both through July 23, 35 Wooster St. (betw. Broome & Grand Sts.), 212-2192166, www.drawingcenter.org.

THE FRICK COLLECTION: Portraits, Pastels, Prints: Whistler in The Frick Collection. A collection of paintings by James Abbott McNeill Whistler. Through Aug. 23, 1 E. 70th St. (betw. 5th & Madison Aves.), 212-2880700, www.frick.org.

JEWISH MUSEUM: The Danube Exodus: The Rippling Currents of the River by Peter Forgacs and The Labyrinth Projects, a multimedia exhibition about the displacement of ethnic minorities. Through Aug 2. Mary Koszmary (Nightmares): A Film by Yael Bartanal. Through Aug. 27, 1109 5th Ave. (betw. E. 92nd & E. 93rd Sts.), 212-4233200, www.thejewishmuseum.org.

THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART: The Pictures

Generation, 1974-1984. 160 works in all media by 30 artists. Through Aug. 2. Art of the Korean Renaissance, 1400-1600.

Fifty works of art demonstrating the art and patronage of the early Choson dynasty are presented. Through June 21, 1000 5th Ave. (at E. 82nd St.), 212-535-7710, www. metmuseum.org.

The Morgan Library & Museum: Oil Sketches from the Thaw Collection. Through August. Creating the Modern Stage: Designs for Theater and Opera. Through August, 225 Madison Ave. (at E. 36th St.), 212685-0008, www.themorgan.org.

Museum of American Finance: Woman of Wall Street. Through Jan. 2010, 48 Wall St. (at William St.), 212-908-4110, www.moaf.org.

Museum of Art and Design: Gord Peteran: Furniture Meets Its Maker. Furniture to an unprecedented range of psychological and conceptual content. Through Aug. 16. Object Factory: The Art of Industrial Ceramics. Through Sept. 13, 2 Columbus Cir. (at Broadway), 212-299-7777, www. madmuseum.org.

Museum of Modern Art: Into the Sunset: Photography’s Image of the American West.

Through June 8, 11 W. 53rd St. (betw. 5th & 6th Aves.), 212-708-9400, www.moma.org.

National Academy Museum: 11th Annual YearEnd Juried Student Exhibition. Through June 28. Reconfiguring the Body in American Art, 1820-2009. Opens July 8, 5 E. 89th St. (at 5th Ave.), 212-996-1908, www. nationalacademy.org.

Neue Galerie: Brucke: The Birth of Expressionism in Dresden and Berlin, 1905-1913.

Through June 29, 1048 5th Ave. (at E. 86th St.), 212-628-6200, www.neuegalerie.org.

New Museum: The Generational: Younger Than Jesus. The work of 50 artists from 25 countries, all under the age of 33, will be on display. Through July 5, 235 Bowery (at Prince St.), 212-219-1222, www.newmuseum.org.

Noguchi Museum: Noguice ReINstalled. Opens June 17, 33rd Road at Vernon Boulevard, Queens, 718-721-2308, www.noguchi.org.

Queens Museum of Art: Tarjama/Translation.

This unprecedented exhibition features artists from the Middle East, Central Asia and its diasporas. Through Sept. 27, New York City Build, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens, 718-592-9700, www. queensmuseum.org.

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum: Intervals: Through July 19. Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward. Through Aug. 23, 1071 5th Ave. (at E. 89th Street), 212-423-3500, www.guggenheim.org.

Studio Museum of Harlem: Collected. Kulup Linzy: If It Don’t Fit. Through June 28, 144 W. 125th St. (betw. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. & Malcolm X Blvds.), 212-8644500, www.studiomuseum.org.

Whitney Museum of American Art: Sadie Benning: Play Pause. Through Sept. 20, 945 Madison Ave. (at E. 75th Street), 212-5703600, www.whitney.org.

Classical Music and Opera New York Philharmonic: Celebrates the seven-

year tenure of Music Director Lorin Maazel with Lorin Maazel—A Grand Finale: The Final Weeks, including a multimedia archival exhibition as well as works by Bach, Britten, Mahler, two of Maazel’s own works and a world premiere New York Philharmonic co-commission. Through June 28, various locations, www.nyphil.org.

Soo Bae: The award-winning Canadian cellist performs. June 22, Schimmel Center for the Arts at Pace University, 3 Spruce St. (at Park Row), 877-727-7279; 7:30, FREE. New York City Opera: Performs a one-hour version of Mozart’s The Magic Flute in English. June 25, Rockefeller Park (River Terrace & Warren Street), 877-727-7279; 7, FREE. The rarely performed Massenet opera La Navarraise. June 26, World Financial Center Winter Garden, 200 Vesey St. (betw. West St. & North End Ave.), 877-727-7279; 7, FREE. Movado Hour Concert: The sixth Movado Hour concert of the season features a performance of O. Messiaen’s Visions de l’Amen featuring pianists Marilyn Nonken and Sarah Rothenberg. June 24, Baryshnikov Arts Center, 450 W. 37th St. (betw. Dyer & 10th Aves.), 646-731-3200; 7, FREE. Diana Krall: Playing bossa nova-infused songs from her new album and favorites from her catalog, Krall will make two special performances playing with a world-class orchestra, drummer Jeff Hamilton, guitarist Anthony Wilson and bassist Robert Hurst with Alan Broadbent conducting. June 23 & 24, Carnegie Hall, 881 7th Ave. (at W. 57th St.), 212-632-0540; 8, $55 and up.

New Juilliard Ensemble: Young members of the ensemble will perform new chamber music never before heard in New York. In the opening concert, musicians will perform New York and Western Hemisphere premieres for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and percussion by American and European composers, including Andy Vores, Atli Heimir Sveinsson and others. July 5, Sculpture Garden at the Museum of Modern Art, 11 W. 53rd St. (betw. 5th & 6th Aves.), 212708-9400; 8, FREE.

Jazz

Humanity: 100 Years of Figurative Art Grace Hartigan (1922-2008): Selected Works This exhibition celebrates the opening of Grace Hartigan: A Survey at Guild Hall in East Hampton.

529 W 20th St. 212 206 8080 acagalleries.com

Cristina Grassi Still-Life Pastels June 10th-26th, 2009

Monday-Friday, 10 to 6, Saturday by appointment Catalogue available upon request

Peter Hoffer Selva Antica Through July 17

Portrait, 2009, Oil, acrylic and resin on panel, 10 x 24 inches (detail)

KATHRYN MARKEL FINE ARTS

212 366 5368 | markelfinearts.com 529 West 20th Street | Mon-Fri 11-5

LWYWj_ed L[dk[i0 7 =hekf ;n^_X_j_ed j^hek]^ @kbo '.j^ JhWl[b[h" ;b_iW Fh_jpa[h" c_n[Z j[Y^d_gk[i" '&n'& _dY^[i

<hWdab_d +* =Wbb[ho ! Fhe`[Yji +(, M[ij (,j^ Ijh[[j" Ik_j[ *&) /'-#.('#&-+)

Juneteenth Musical Celebration: The Geri

Allen group performs featuring Allen, Ravi Coltrane, Jeff “Tain” Watts and Joe Sanders.

June 18 through June 21, Iridium Jazz Club, 1650 Broadway (at W. 51st St.), 212-5822121; 8:30 & 10:30, $30-$35.

Brooklyn Jazz Underground Festival: A variety of Brooklyn-based jazz musicians perform for the release of the second wave of new recordings. June 18-20 & June 25-27, The Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson St. (betw. Dominick & Spring Sts.), 212-242-1063; times vary, prices vary.

Larry Willis Trio: Three-time Grammy Award nominee Willis plays with his trio featuring special guest Billy Hart. June 19 & 20, Smoke, 2751 Broadway (at W. 106th St.), 212-864-6662; 8, 10 & 11:30, $30.

Steel Pan Jazz: World renowned musicians from the West Indies fuse jazz, funk and soul. June 20, Rose Theater, Jazz at Lincoln

Ef[d 7$?$H$ Å YWbb \eh [n^_X_j_ed fhefeiWbi

7d ef[d YWbb \eh YkhWjeh_Wb fhefeiWbi \hec mec[d Whj_iji" YkhWjehi WdZ Whj fhe\[ii_edWbi \eh W ed[ cedj^ [n^_X_j je X[ ^[bZ _d (&'&$ :[WZb_d[0 @kbo '&" (&&/ <eh ceh[ _d\ehcWj_ed" je Wffbo edb_d[ eh je ZemdbeWZ j^[ Wffb_YWj_edi l_i_j mmm$W_h]Wbb[ho$eh]

ÇCej^[h% cej^[hÈ Å YWbb \eh [djh_[i

7d ef[d YWbb \eh Whjmeha Xo c[d WdZ mec[d cWZ[ Zkh_d] W fh[]dWdYo eh m_j^_d + o[Whi e\ j^[ X_hj^ e\ j^[ Whj_ijÊi Y^_bZ$ J^[ meha ikXc_jj[Z Ze[i DEJ d[[Z je f[hjW_d je fWh[dj_d] Z_h[Yjbo$ J^[ YkhWjeh _i _dj[h[ij[Z _d meha j^Wj mWi cWZ[ m^[d j^[ Whj_ij mWi [d]W][Z m_j^ j^[ j^h_bbi WdZ fheXb[ci e\ fWh[dj_d]$ :[WZb_d[0 @kbo '&" (&&/

June 2009

17

Generation, 1974-1984. 160 works in all media by 30 artists. Through Aug. 2. Art of the Korean Renaissance, 1400-1600.

Fifty works of art demonstrating the art and patronage of the early Choson dynasty are presented. Through June 21, 1000 5th Ave. (at E. 82nd St.), 212-535-7710, www. metmuseum.org.

THE MORGAN LIBRARY & MUSEUM: Oil Sketches from the Thaw Collection. Through August. Creating the Modern Stage: Designs for Theater and Opera. Through August, 225 Madison Ave. (at E. 36th St.), 212685-0008, www.themorgan.org.

MUSEUM OF AMERICAN FINANCE: Woman of Wall Street. Through Jan. 2010, 48 Wall St. (at William St.), 212-908-4110, www.moaf.org.

MUSEUM OF ART AND DESIGN: Gord Peteran: Furniture Meets Its Maker. Furniture to an unprecedented range of psychological and conceptual content. Through Aug. 16. Object Factory: The Art of Industrial Ceramics. Through Sept. 13, 2 Columbus Cir. (at Broadway), 212-299-7777, www. madmuseum.org.

MUSEUM OF MODERN ART: Into the Sunset: Photography’s Image of the American West.

Through June 8, 11 W. 53rd St. (betw. 5th & 6th Aves.), 212-708-9400, www.moma.org.

NATIONAL ACADEMY MUSEUM: 11th Annual YearEnd Juried Student Exhibition. Through June 28. Reconfiguring the Body in American Art, 1820-2009. Opens July 8, 5 E. 89th St. (at 5th Ave.), 212-996-1908, www. nationalacademy.org.

NEUE GALERIE: Brucke: The Birth of Expressionism in Dresden and Berlin, 1905-1913.

Through June 29, 1048 5th Ave. (at E. 86th St.), 212-628-6200, www.neuegalerie.org.

NEW MUSEUM: The Generational: Younger Than Jesus. The work of 50 artists from 25 countries, all under the age of 33, will be on display. Through July 5, 235 Bowery (at Prince St.), 212-219-1222, www.newmuseum.org.

NOGUCHI MUSEUM: Noguice ReINstalled. Opens June 17, 33rd Road at Vernon Boulevard, Queens, 718-721-2308, www.noguchi.org.

QUEENS MUSEUM OF ART: Tarjama/Translation.

This unprecedented exhibition features artists from the Middle East, Central Asia and its diasporas. Through Sept. 27, New York City Build, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens, 718-592-9700, www. queensmuseum.org.

SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM: Intervals: Through July 19. Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward. Through Aug. 23, 1071 5th Ave. (at E. 89th Street), 212-423-3500, www.guggenheim.org.

STUDIO MUSEUM OF HARLEM: Collected. Kulup Linzy: If It Don’t Fit. Through June 28, 144 W. 125th St. (betw. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. & Malcolm X Blvds.), 212-8644500, www.studiomuseum.org.

WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART: Sadie Benning: Play Pause. Through Sept. 20, 945 Madison Ave. (at E. 75th Street), 212-5703600, www.whitney.org.

CLASSICAL MUSIC AND OPERA NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC: Celebrates the seven-

year tenure of Music Director Lorin Maazel with Lorin Maazel—A Grand Finale: The Final Weeks, including a multimedia archival exhibition as well as works by Bach, Britten, Mahler, two of Maazel’s own works and a world premiere New York Philharmonic co-commission. Through June 28, various locations, www.nyphil.org.

SOO BAE: The award-winning Canadian cellist performs. June 22, Schimmel Center for the Arts at Pace University, 3 Spruce St. (at Park Row), 877-727-7279; 7:30, FREE. NEW YORK CITY OPERA: Performs a one-hour version of Mozart’s The Magic Flute in English. June 25, Rockefeller Park (River Terrace & Warren Street), 877-727-7279; 7, FREE. The rarely performed Massenet opera La Navarraise. June 26, World Financial Center Winter Garden, 200 Vesey St. (betw. West St. & North End Ave.), 877-727-7279; 7, FREE. MOVADO HOUR CONCERT: The sixth Movado Hour concert of the season features a performance of O. Messiaen’s Visions de l’Amen featuring pianists Marilyn Nonken and Sarah Rothenberg. June 24, Baryshnikov Arts Center, 450 W. 37th St. (betw. Dyer & 10th Aves.), 646-731-3200; 7, FREE. DIANA KRALL: Playing bossa nova-infused songs from her new album and favorites from her catalog, Krall will make two special performances playing with a world-class orchestra, drummer Jeff Hamilton, guitarist Anthony Wilson and bassist Robert Hurst with Alan Broadbent conducting. June 23 & 24, Carnegie Hall, 881 7th Ave. (at W. 57th St.), 212-632-0540; 8, $55 and up.

NEW JUILLIARD ENSEMBLE: Young members of the ensemble will perform new chamber music never before heard in New York. In the opening concert, musicians will perform New York and Western Hemisphere premieres for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and percussion by American and European composers, including Andy Vores, Atli Heimir Sveinsson and others. July 5, Sculpture Garden at the Museum of Modern Art, 11 W. 53rd St. (betw. 5th & 6th Aves.), 212708-9400; 8, FREE.

JAZZ

Humanity: 100 Years of Figurative Art Grace Hartigan (1922-2008): Selected Works This exhibition celebrates the opening of Grace Hartigan: A Survey at Guild Hall in East Hampton.

529 W 20th St. 212 206 8080 acagalleries.com

Cristina Grassi Still-Life Pastels June 10th-26th, 2009

Monday-Friday, 10 to 6, Saturday by appointment Catalogue available upon request

Peter Hoffer Selva Antica Through July 17 Portrait, 2009, Oil, acrylic and resin on panel, 10 x 24 inches (detail)

KATHRYN MARKEL FINE ARTS

212 366 5368 | markelfinearts.com 529 West 20th Street | Tues-Sat 11-6

LWYWj_ed L[dk[i0 7 =hekf ;n^_X_j_ed j^hek]^ @kbo '.j^ JhWl[b[h" ;b_iW Fh_jpa[h" c_n[Z j[Y^d_gk[i" '&n'& _dY^[i

<hWdab_d +* =Wbb[ho ! Fhe`[Yji +(, M[ij (,j^ Ijh[[j" Ik_j[ *&) /'-#.('#&-+)

JUNETEENTH MUSICAL CELEBRATION: The Geri

Allen group performs featuring Allen, Ravi Coltrane, Jeff “Tain” Watts and Joe Sanders.

June 18 through June 21, Iridium Jazz Club, 1650 Broadway (at W. 51st St.), 212-5822121; 8:30 & 10:30, $30-$35.

BROOKLYN JAZZ UNDERGROUND FESTIVAL: A variety of Brooklyn-based jazz musicians perform for the release of the second wave of new recordings. June 18-20 & June 25-27, The Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson St. (betw. Dominick & Spring Sts.), 212-242-1063; times vary, prices vary.

LARRY WILLIS TRIO: Three-time Grammy Award nominee Willis plays with his trio featuring special guest Billy Hart. June 19 & 20, Smoke, 2751 Broadway (at W. 106th St.), 212-864-6662; 8, 10 & 11:30, $30.

STEEL PAN JAZZ: World renowned musicians from the West Indies fuse jazz, funk and soul. June 20, Rose Theater, Jazz at Lincoln

Ef[d 7$?$H$ Å YWbb \eh [n^_X_j_ed fhefeiWbi

ÇCej^[h% cej^[hÈ Å YWbb \eh [djh_[i

7d ef[d YWbb \eh YkhWjeh_Wb fhefeiWbi \hec mec[d Whj_iji" YkhWjehi WdZ Whj fhe\[ii_edWbi \eh W ed[ cedj^ [n^_X_j je X[ ^[bZ _d (&'&$ :[WZb_d[0 @kbo '&" (&&/

7d ef[d YWbb \eh Whjmeha Xo c[d WdZ mec[d cWZ[ Zkh_d] W fh[]dWdYo eh m_j^_d + o[Whi e\ j^[ X_hj^ e\ j^[ Whj_ijÊi Y^_bZ$ J^[ meha ikXc_jj[Z Ze[i DEJ d[[Z je f[hjW_d je fWh[dj_d] Z_h[Yjbo$ J^[ YkhWjeh _i _dj[h[ij[Z _d meha j^Wj mWi cWZ[ m^[d j^[ Whj_ij mWi [d]W][Z m_j^ j^[ j^h_bbi WdZ fheXb[ci e\ fWh[dj_d]$ :[WZb_d[0 @kbo '&" (&&/

<eh ceh[ _d\ehcWj_ed" je Wffbo edb_d[ eh je ZemdbeWZ j^[ Wffb_YWj_edi l_i_j mmm$W_h]Wbb[ho$eh]

June 2009

17

Center, Time Warner Center, Broadway (at W. 60th St.), 212-721-6500; 7, $50-$80.

JAZZ FORUM AT 30, A CELEBRATION: Features 20 all-stars from Jon Hendricks to George Coleman. June 22, Rose Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Time Warner Center, Broadway (at W. 60th St.), 212-721-6500; 8:00, $30-$120.

BLEECKER THINGZ: A new performance jazz series presenting legendary voices, hooferz, jazz musicians and word performers with host Savion Glover and solo performer Marcella Goheen. June 23, 45 Bleecker Street Theaters, 45 Bleecker St. (betw. Mulberry & Mott Sts.), 212-252-5224; 8 and 10, $30.

JOEY DEFRANCESCO TRIO: Powerhouse jazz organist performs. June 25-28, Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th St. (betw. Park & Lexington Aves.), 212-576-2232; 7:30 & 9:30, $25-$30.

HAROLD MABERN TRIO: Hard bop and soul jazz pianist performs. June 26 & 27, Smoke, 2751 Broadway (at W. 106th St.), 212-8646662; 8, 10 & 11:30, $30.

MINGUS DYNASTY: Influential jazz septet performs. June 29, Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street (betw. Park & Lexington Aves.), 212-576-2232; 7:30 & 9:30, $25.

JEFF “TAIN” WATTS 4 + 1: Multi Grammy Award winning drummer performs with quintet that includes special guest Nicholas Payton.

June 30 through July 3, Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th St. (betw. Park & Lexington Aves.), 212-576-2232; 7:30 & 9:30, $25-$30.

HIROMI: Japanese pianist and award-winning jazz musician performs. June 30 through July 5, The Blue Note, 131 W. 3rd St. (betw. 6th Ave. & MacDougal St.), 212475-8592; 8:00 & 10:30, $20-$30.

EDDIE PALMIERI AFRO CARIBBEAN JAZZ SEXTET:

Nine-time Grammy Award winner performs with congas and timbales. July 1-5, Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Time Warner Center, Broadway (at W. 60th St.), 212-721-6500; 7:30 & 9:30, $30-$35.

DR. LONNIE SMITH TRIO: Renowned organist and pianist performs in celebration of Dr. Lonnie Smith’s birthday, featuring special guest Peter Bernstein. July 3-5, Smoke, 2751 Broadway (at W. 106th St.), 212-864-6662; 8, 10 &11:30, $32.

RON CARTER NONET: Grammy Award winning bassist with more than 2,000 albums to his credit performs. July 7-12, The Blue Note, 131 W. 3rd St. (betw. 6th Ave. & MacDougal St.), 212-475-8592; 8:00 & 10:30, $20-$30.

DR. K’S MOTOWN REVUE: Celebrating 50 years of Motown with a return to the music of the

era. July 10, B.B. King Blues Club, 237 W. 42nd St. (betw. 7th and 8th Aves.), 212997-4144; 8:00, $25.

MELBA JOYCE & HER BIG BAND: Debut performance of jazz singer leading a big band. July 14, Damrosch Park , W. 62nd St. (betw.

Columbus & Amsterdam Aves.), 212-8755593; dance lesson at 6:30 & performance at 7:30, $15.

JAZZ IN JULY FESTIVAL: Various jazz musicians perform directed by pianist Bill Charlap.

July 21-30, 92nd Street Y, Lexington Ave. at E. 92nd St., 212-415-5500; 8:00, $25-$60.

BAM RHYTHM & BLUES FESTIVAL: Annual outdoor Brooklyn concert series features world music, R&B, blues, roots reggae and jazz artists. Thursdays through August 6, MetroTech Commons at MetroTech Center, 4 Metrotech Center, Brooklyn, 718-4888200; 12:00, FREE.

FILM BAMCINEMAFEST: A 16-day festival of indepen-

dent films, including 18 New York premiers.

Highlights include Don’t Let Me Drown on opening night, Fritz Lang’s Metropolis with live orchestration, an all-night movie marathon on June 27 and the promising doc Prom Night in Mississippi. June 17 through July 2, BAM Rose Cinemas, 30 Lafayette Ave. (at Ashland Pl.), 718-636-4100, www. bam.org; $11/$7.

A YEAR WITH TAKE DANCE: An exclusive screening of the lauded dance documentary. Follows the rise of up-and-coming contemporary dance troupe TAKE. Follwed by Q&A with Filmmaker Damian Eckstein and Choreographer Takehiro Ueyama. June 18, Hebrew Union College, 1 W. 4 St., 646-334-6827, www.ayearwithtakedance.com; FREE. BICYCLE FILM FESTIVAL: Anthology Film Archives hosts these series of shorts and feature length films about bikes. Highlights include longer films Where Are You Go and Keirin Queen.

June 19-21, Anthology Film Archives, 32 2nd Ave. (at E. 2nd St.), 212-505-5181, www.anthologyfilmarchives.org; $10.

ABDERRAHMANE SISSAKO MID-CAREER RETRO: A showing of nonfiction films from the acclaimed African filmmaker. Sissako will be present the first two nights of the festival.

June 26 through July 2, The Museum of Modern Art, 11 W. 53rd St. (betw. 5th & 6th Aves.), 212-708-9400, www.moma.org; $10/$6.

QUIET CHAOS: This wildly popular Italian film has a long run at the IFC center, and it

CityArts NYC

www.cityartsny.info Published monthly and distributed in New York Press, West Side Spirit, Our Town. Send all press releases, notices and announcements to cityarts@manhattanmedia.com © 2009 Manhattan Media, LLC 79 Madison Avenue, 16th Floor, New York, NY 10016 t: 212.268.8600, f: 212.268.0577, www.manhattanmedia.com

18

City Arts NYC

includes a juicy surprise cameo. June 26 through July 9, 323 6th Ave. (at W. 3rd St.), 212-924-7771, ifccenter.com; $10.75 THE BEACHES OF AGNÈS: A documentary about the renowned French New Wave filmmaker Angès Varda. The well-received film recounts the incredible life of the seminal auteur. July 1-14, Film Forum, 209 W. Houston St., 212-727-8110, www.filmforum.org; $11.

THE MAGIC FLUTE/TROLLFLOJTEN: Igmar Bergman stars in a film version of Mozart’s opera.

July 2, Rubin Museum of Art, 150 W. 17th St., 212-620-5000, www.rmanyc.org; FREE with a $7 minimum.

NOLLYWOOD BABYLON: A documentary about the burgeoning film industry in Nigeria, which makes 2,500 films per year. July 3 through July 8, The Museum of Modern Art, 11 W. 53rd St. (betw. 5th & 6th Aves.), 212-7089400, www.moma.org; $10/$6.

A POET OF CINEMA: Revisiting Tarkovsky: The Lincoln Center Film Society shows seven films from the Soviet film master. The retrospective also includes Meeting Andrei Tarkovsky, a documentary on the filmmaker’s impact. July 7 through 14, Walter Reade Theater, 70 W. 63rd St. (betw. Broadway & Columbus), 212-875-5601, www.filmlinc.com; $11.

TRUFFAUT’S MISSISSIPPI MERMAID: Truffaut’s tale of mail-order love plays for a week at BAM cinématek. July 10 through 16, BAM Rose Cinemas, 30 Lafayette Ave. (at Ashland Pl.), 718-636-4100, www.bam.org; $11/$8.

DANCE GLAMOURTANGO: Led by Uruguayan pianist Pol-

ly Ferman, the all-female dance troupe will perform tango music from South America’s Rio de la Plata region. June 19, Joe’s Pub, 427 Lafayette St. (betw. Astor Pl. & E. 4th St.), 212-595-6473; 7:30, $20/$25.

NEW CHAMBER BALLET: Closes its season with with performances of ballets by Miro Magloire, including two premieres, both set to music by Salvatore Sciarrino. June 19 & 20, City Center Studio 5, 130 W. 56th St., 5th floor (betw. 6th & 7th Aves.), 212-8684444; 8, $20.

AMERICAN DANCE GUILD: Presents Bare Bones Performances, new works by 12 choreographers in two programs. June 20, The Construction Company, 10 E. 18th St. (betw.

Broadway & 5th Ave.), 212-627-9407, 7 and 9, $10.

SASHA SOREFF DANCE THEATER: The Other Shoe

is performed by a cast of 16 dancers, each of whom suffers the loss of a shoe, including stilettos, Doc Martens, sandals, pointe shoes, sneakers, jazz and tap shoes. June 25 through June 27, Ailey Citigroup Theater, 405 W. 55th St. (at 9th Ave.), 212-2012425; times vary, $25.

PERFORMANCE LAB 115: Directed by Alice Reagan, this new production of Caucasian Chalk Circle (in the Eric Bentley translation) re-imagines Bertolt Brecht’s master work as a distinctly American fable. June 25 through July 11, The Chocolate Factory, 5-49 49th Ave. (at Vernon Blvd.), Queens, 718-482-7069; times vary, $15.

JOHARI MAYFIELD: The choreographer culminates her 100-hour residency as a part of Dance Theater Workshop’s Studio Series with a showing of The Sea Inside, her new work in development. June 26 & 27, Dance Theater Workshop, 219 W. 19th St. (betw.

7th & 8th Aves.), 212-691-6500; 7:30, $5 suggested donation.

DANIEL ARSHAM, JONAH BOKAER AND JUDITH SANCHEZ RUIZ: A site-specific collaboration,

Untitled Corner, will incorporate sculptural objects, lighting and media. July 6, One Chase Manhattan Plaza (Pine & William Streets), 212-219-9401; 12:30, FREE. AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE: Performs Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s interpretation of Shakespeare’s romantic tragedy. July 6 through July 11, Metropolitan Opera House, 70 W. 63rd St. (betw. Broadway & Columbus Ave.), 212362-6000; times vary, $26 and up.

SHEN WEI DANCE ARTS: As part of the Lincoln Center Festival, Shen Wei will perform Re(I, II, III) in its entirety for the first time in New York. July 9 through July 11, Alley Tully Hall’s Starr Theater, 1941 Broadway (at W. 65th St.), 212-721-6500; 8, $35.

THEATER 9 TO 5: THE MUSICAL: Staged for Broadway from

the movie, with new lyrics and music by Dolly Parton, this 1980s comedy about getting back at the boss stars Allison Janney and Marc Kudisch. Open run, Marriott Marquis theater, 1535 Broadway (at W. 45th St.), 212-382-0100.

ACCENT ON YOUTH: A revival of the 1934 Samson Raphaelson comedy about a love triangle between a playwright, his secretary and the leading man. Directed by Daniel Sullivan, the cast includes David Hyde Pierce, Charles Kimbrough and Lisa Banes.

Through June 28, Samuel J. Friedman

EDITOR Jerry Portwood jportwood@manhattanmedia.com

EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS William Alden, Henry Melcher, Rebecca Wallace

PRESIDENT/CEO Tom Allon tallon@manhattanmedia.com

MANAGING EDITOR Adam Rathe arathe@ manhattanmedia.com

PRODUCTION MANAGER Mark Stinson

CFO/COO Joanne Harras jharras@manhattanmedia.com

ART DIRECTOR Jessica Balaschak SENIOR ART CRITIC Lance Esplund SENIOR MUSIC CRITIC Jay Nordlinger SENIOR DANCE CRITIC Joel Lobenthal CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Mark Blankenship, Brice Brown, Adam Kirsch, John Good, Howard Mandel, Marion Maneker, Mario Naves, Ryan Tracy

ADVERTISING DESIGN Heather Mulcahey GROUP PUBLISHER Alex Schweitzer aschweitzer@manhattanmedia.com PUBLISHER Gerry Gavin ggavin@manhattanmedia.com SENIOR ADVERTISING CONSULTANT Kate Walsh kwalsh@manhattanmedia.com

MARKETING DIRECTOR Tom Kelly tkelly@manhattanmedia.com City Arts NYC 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.

Theater, 261 W. 47th St. (betw. Broadway & 8th Ave.), 212-239-6222.

CORALINE: The feature film based on Neil Gaiman’s novel is reincarnated as a musical, composed by Stephin Merritt, adapted

by David Greenspan (who also plays the Other Mother) and with Jayne Houdyshell as Coraline. Through July 5, Lucille Lortel Theater, 121 Christopher St. (at Bedford St.), 212-279-4200.

HAIR: The American Tribal Love Rock Musical: Those who danced along with the cast at Summerstage can relive the experience with Gavin Creel as the new face of Claude, and Will Swenson reprising his role as Berger. Open run, Al Hirschfeld Theater, 302 W. 45th St. (betw. 8th & 9th Aves.)

212-239-6200.

IRENA’S VOW: Moving uptown from an offBroadway run is Dan Gordon’s play based on a true story. Tovah Fledshuh portrays Irena Gut Opdyke, a Polish Catholic housekeeper of a Nazi officer who hid 12 Jews from the camps in her employer’s coal cellar. Through September 6, Walter Kerr Theater, 219 W. 48th St. (betw. Broadway & 8th Ave.), 212-582-4536.

A NIGHT IN THE KREMLIN: Show tunes meet show trials and gags meet gulags in this new show that places Harpo Marx in the heart of Soviet Russia. Through August 2, The June Havoc Theatre, 312 W. 36th St. (betw.

8th & 9th Aves.), 866-811-4111.

THE NORMAN CONQUESTS: Originally debuting in 1975 on Broadway, these three comic plays

by Alan Ayckbourn portray a frenzied family

weekend while Norman, played by Stephen Mangan, tries to seduce three different women. Through July 25, Circle in the Square Theater, 235 W. 50th St., 212-239-6200.

OUR HOUSE: Theresa Rebeck’s new dark comedy puts reality television on trial and explores the sinister side of our collective hunger for real-life entertainment. Featuring Obie Award winner Christopher Evan Welch. Through June 21, Playwrights Horizons, 416 W. 42nd St. (betw. 8th & 9th Aves.), 212-279-4200.

OUR TOWN: Director David Cromer takes on Thornton Wilder’s famed show. Open Run, Barrow Street Theatre, 27 Barrow St. (at 7th Ave. S.), 212-868-4444.

THE PHILANTHROPIST: Christopher Hampton’s 1970 comedy about a professor who is much too nice stars Matthew Broderick. Directed

by David Grindley. Through June 28, American Airlines Theater, 227 W. 42nd St. (betw. 7th & 8th Aves.), 212-718-1300.

THE POTOMAC THEATRE PROJECT: The plays in this season’s run include Howard Barker’s “The Europeans,” and Neal Bell’s “Therese Raquin,” based on the Emile Zola novel that chronicles a doomed love affair. Both through July 26, The Atlantic Stage 2, 330 W. 16th St. (betw. 8th & 9th Aves.), 212279-4200.

SAMUEL FRENCH OFF-OFF BROADWAY SHORT PLAY FESTIVAL: The forty short plays in this week-

long festival will be judged by playwrights Charles Busch, Jordan Harrison, Arthur Kopit, Leslie Lee and Billy Van Zandt.

Winners will have their work published by

Samuel French. Through July 19, Peter Jay Sharp Theatre, 416 W. 42nd St. (betw. 9th & Dyer Aves.), 212-279-4200.

STUNNING: A sheltered Jewish teenager discovers startling realities in David Adjmi’s new drama. Through June 27, The Duke on 42nd Street, 229 West 42nd St. (betw. 7th & 8th Aves.), 646-223-3010.

TIN PAN ALLEY RAG: Scott Joplin and Irving Berlin discuss heartbreak, injustice, and the implications of commercial success. Featuring music by the composers. Through September 6, Laura Pels Theatre, 111 W. 46th St. (betw. 6th & 7th Aves.), 212-719-1300.

TWELFTH NIGHT: This much-loved comedy is the first show in the summer’s Shakespeare in the Park series. Featuring Audra McDonald and Anne Hathaway as Viola, directed by Daniel Sullivan. Through July 12, Delacorte Theater, Central Park, 212-539-8750 THE VAMPIRE LESBIANS OF SODOM: Charles Busch’s 1980s cult classic, which spans two millennia and countless toothsome encounters, takes on new significance in our post“Twilight” era. Through June 26, Engelman Recital Hall at the Baruch Performing Arts Center, 55 Lexington Ave. (at 25th St.), 646-312-4085.

VANITIES: Jack Heifner has adapted his longrunning play into a new musical, still following the changing lives of three Texas cheerleaders. Through Aug.9, Second Stage Theatre, 307 W. 43rd St. (at 8th Ave.), 212-246-4422.

WAITING FOR GODOT: Nathan Lane heads the all-star cast as Estragon in this Samuel

Beckett play that has searched for meaning since 1953—Bill Irwin plays Vladimir, John Goodman plays Pozzo and John Glover is Lucky. Through July 12, Studio 54, 254 W. 54th St. (betw. Broadway and 8th Ave.), 212-719-1300.

THE WIZ: Director Thomas Kail and choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler revive the decidedly funky 1974 adaptation of the L. Frank Baum classic. Starring Grammy Award winner Ashanti. Through July 15, NY City Center, 130 W. 55th St., (betw.

6th and 7th Aves.), 212-581-1212.

LITERARY EVENTS BLOOMSDAY BOOK CLUB: Robert Seidman leads

a reading and discussion of James Joyce’s Ulysses. June 14, McNally Jackson Books, 52 Prince St. (betw. Lafayette & Mulberry Sts.), 212-274-1160; 4, FREE. BLOOMSDAY ON BROADWAY: Symphony Space’s 28th annual celebration of James Joyce’s Ulysses will be a literary feast focusing on food featuring performances from Aidan Connolly, Colum McCann, Malachy McCourt, Bernadette Quigley, Barbara Rosenblat, Marian Seldes and John Spinks.

June 16, Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway (at W. 95th St.), 212-864-5400; 6, $25.

CHANDLER BURR: The author and scent critic (no, really) reads from his novel You Or Someone Like You. June 30, Barnes & Noble, 2289 Broadway (at W. 82nd St.), 212-362-8835; 7, FREE.

".." “...Her hug is meant to impart divine inspiration.”

—New York Times

/FX :PSL 'ăöö 1Ćóýúô 1ăĀøăòþĄ

Tuesday, July 7 Wednesday, July 98 Thursday, July 9 Mornings: 10:00 am Evenings: 7:30 pm

%öćú #ùòćò 'ăöö 1ăĀøăòþ Thursday, July 10 9 Program begins at 7:00 pm

-PDBUJPO

Manhattan Center 311 W. 34th Street @ 8th Avenue New York, NY - 10001 Visit www.ammany.org for more information or call (212) 714-5445 Email: satsang@ammany.org

5PVS 4DIFEVMF D.C. Area: July 12-13 Boston: July 15-18*

*Retreats are held in these cities. Schedule is subject to change.

Please check www.amma.org for up to date information, and program details.

“Compassion is the language that the blind can see and the deaf can hear.”

- Amma

June 2009

19