cityArts July 20, 2009

CityArts www.cityarts.info

New York’s Review of Culture

JULY/AUGUST 2009

MARIO NAVES REVIEWS JAMES ENSOR AT MOMA.

Uptown Girls (and Boys) Major theater institutions offer opportunities in their smaller spaces for emerging playwrights to find their way

BY MARK BLANKENSHIP

Joan Marcus

Lila Rose Kaplan’s Wildflower will be presented as part of Second Stage Theatre Uptown’s series.

econd Stage Theatre Uptown. Atlantic Stage Two. LCT3. No, they’re not sequels to summer blockbusters you never saw: They’re programs from major theater companies—“LCT” stands for Lincoln Center Theater— designed to support emerging playwrights by fully staging their work in small venues.

A direct response to the “development hell” problem, in which promising scripts get workshopped forever and never produced, these initiatives have become so popular that every prominent theater seems to want one. Keep an eye out for Vineyard 2: The Reckoning.

Launched in 2002, Second Stage Theatre Uptown is among the oldest of these programs, and it has given close to a dozen

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writers a long-awaited break. Playwright Lila Rose Kaplan, for instance, has been getting readings and regional productions for years, and her play Wildflower, about a volatile summer in a tiny Colorado town, has had two major workshops. On July 27, it will have its world premiere at Second Stage’s intimate McGinn/Cazale Theatre, located at Broadway and West 76th Street, and Kaplan will finally have a serious New York presence.

But as associate artistic director Chris Burney notes, the series isn’t just about finding good scripts. “Obviously, the entry point is a specific play that makes you so passionate that you want to put it on right away. But ideally, that’s just the beginning of a relationship,” he says. “Ideally, you and the writer are going to

discover that you like each other and want to keep working together. In that way, it’s not just about the show. It’s about the life of an institution.”

Second Stage has certainly reaped fruit from its Uptown experiments. After mounting Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s gothic drama The Mystery Plays uptown in 2004, the theater named him its resident playwright, and last season, it presented his sexually charged drama, Good Boys and True, on its Off-Broadway mainstage. (The company recently purchased Broadway’s Helen Hayes Theater.) Similarly, Judith Ivey directed the comedy, The Butcher of Baraboo, for the Uptown series in 2007, and now she’s helming Vanities, a mainstage musical running through August 2.

So what makes a good artistic relationship here? For Second Stage, the Uptown series is a chance to learn which promising writers are also equipped to handle the pressure of being produced in New York. Though they’re under less scrutiny than Broadway productions, the shows are still open for review, and with only three weeks of rehearsal and a few weeks of previews, they have to come together quickly.

For a writer who’s mostly used to staged readings and grad school courses, the experience can be eye opening. “In that last moment during previews, when the playwrights have to make the hard, soul-searching decisions— that’s when you find out who gets separated as

see UPTOWN GIRLS on page 6

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City Arts NYC

BY HOWARD MANDEL Music is what we want. Music that swings like the breeze, lifts burdens, gladdens steps, transports us past doubts we’re in the right place at the right time. Music that assures us that—despite challenges regarding healthcare reform, global climate change, peace in the Middle East and strife in Albany—things will end up all right because they’re pretty nice here and now.

The music draws us, all summertime long, from our homes to concert halls, plazas, gardens and bandshells, as if we can best quench a civic thirst for sound by being together. So the off-season is rife with cool bookings, and attendant social scenes. Among this year’s concerts promising to wow even jaded listeners, two of the most eagerly anticipated have just occurred: King Sunny AdĂŠ, suave master of groovin’ Nigerian juju, headlined the Celebrate Brooklyn! Africa Festival Saturday, July 18 at Prospect Park, and a retinue of New Orleans natives BĂŠla Fleck performs August 3 at SummerStage. including Dr. John, the Dixie Cups, Jean “Mr. Big Stuffâ€? Knight and Robert “Barefootinâ€? Parker overviewed the career Gary Smulyan will take Mulligan’s cool, comof New Orleans composer-arranger Wardell plicated parts) on July 27; to skip through the Quezergue, second only to Allen Toussaint for songbook of Vince “Charlie Brownâ€? Guaraldi his behind-the-scenes role popularizing Afroon July 28 and to support a summit of American Creole rock ’n’ soul, as part of the saxophonists including revered elders Jimmy Lincoln Center Festival on July 19.

Health and Phil Woods on July 29.

But if you’re just waking up now, Lincoln That may seem like a lot of Charlap? But Center’s Midsummer’s Night Swing series is the man is so devoted to jazz’s nuances so that in its ďŹ nal nights. Take dance lessons at 6:30 he’ll ensure each outing, instead of framing p.m. prior to 7:30 July 24 sets by Cumbia himself, serves its theme. showband La Sonora Dinamita and lionAnd there’s plenty to look forward to in hearted tenor saxophonist Houston Person August. My pick for Central Park Summerfronting the Harlem Renaissance Orchestra, Stage is banjoist BĂŠla Fleck’s August 3 colrecalling jitterbug-era honker-and-screamer laboration with kora player Toumani DiabatĂŠ.

Illinois Jacquet. Or just linger near these At Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, there’s Dave gigs, which take place outdoors and can be Brubeck’s quartet with oud player Simon sampled from any number of spots amid Shaheen (Aug. 5). Bands led by veteran utist Lincoln Center’s plazas. Talk about easy—no and tenor saxist Frank Wess and alto saxist commitment required.

Gary Bartz perform in Marcus Garvey Park in You’re not commitment-phobic, but you Harlem as day one of the annual free Charlie don’t dance? OK then, prepare to sit back for Parker Jazz Festival on August 29, the 89th mainstream melodicism. Pianist Bill Charlap, anniversary of the great Parker’s birth. Cedar artistic director of the 92nd Street Y’s twoWalton and Papo Vazquez’s Pirates Troubaweek Jazz in July series, anchored an all-star dores play on day two, at Tompkins Square combo under crooner Kurt Elling singing Park in the East Village. Then we’ll be ready songs of Stephen Sondheim and Jule Style for the excitement of fall, with memories only on July 21. But he is also scheduled to delve of music in the summer air. into the songbook of late composer-baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan (Jazz Journalists Howard Mandel blogs at www.artsjourAssociation Jazz Award-winning bari player nal.com/jazzbeyondjazz

FILM

Unifying Principle Wagner’s influence on a wide array of filmmakers is explored in Bard series

BY MICHAEL WALSH It is said that the three most written-about men in history are Jesus of Nazareth, Napoleon and Richard Wagner. With the Bible regularly recording worldwide annual sales of 100 million, and with more than a billion adherents of Christianity, Jesus’ place in the pantheon is secure. In an age of trivial, disposable celebrities, Bonaparte looms perhaps less majestically than formerly, but the Little Corporal, who fought his way from Corsica to the French throne to Waterloo, remains the incarnation of the Schopenhauerian Will to Power. Which brings us to Wagner.

No one, it seems, is neutral about Wagner. Revolutionary, lover, political and racial theorist, anti-Semite, conductor, librettist and, above all, composer, the protean Saxon genius remains one of the most influential creative artists, not only of his time, but ours as well. He was the great polarizing—and puzzling—figure of his age, a leftist radical who took enthusiastic part in the anti-monarchial revolutions of 1848 that swept Europe and yet shamelessly sought the patronage of King Ludwig II of Bavaria. His gesamtkunstwerke—not simply operas, but “unified works of art” combining music, poetry, drama and stagecraft—limned the joys of love both sacred and profane, yet he was a restless seducer of other men’s wives, finally settling down with Liszt’s daughter Cosima and fathering his children with her while she was still inconveniently married to the great pianist, Hans von Bülow.

Before Wagner, there was simply music; in his titanic wake, there was Wagnerian music (Bruckner, Richard Strauss) and explicitly anti-Wagnerian music (Debussy), Wagnerian philosophy (Nietzsche) and anti-Wagnerian philosophy (Nietzsche again, who broke with him violently).

So it is not surprising that Wagner’s influence extended well into the 20th century, not only in music and political philosophy—Hitler was a Wagner devotee and a frequent visitor to Wagner’s theater in Bayreuth in northern Bavaria—but into a realm still unimagined at the time of Wagner’s death in Venice in 1883: the cinema. Running through Aug. 20 at Bard College’s SummerScape in Annandale-onHudson is an unusual film festival, Politics, Theater and Wagner (the title is a play on Jacques Barzun’s influential 1941 study, Darwin, Marx and Wagner), which is exploring the Wagnerian influence on filmmakers as disparate as Fritz Lang, Max Ophuls, Ernst Lubitsch and Preston Sturges. The Master, as Wagner’s many acolytes called him, had something to teach everybody.

Preston Sturges’ 1948 classic, Unfaithfully Yours, is screening as part of the Politics, Theater and Wagner film series at Bard.

The festival began last week with the restored version of Ophuls’s Lola Montés (1955), the Irish-born courtesan who parlayed her origins as an illegitimate child in County Sligo and a “Spanish dancer” into affairs with Liszt (who slept with everybody) and Mad King Ludwig (whose repressed homosexual lust for Wagner is latent in his letters), who made her the Countess of Landsfeld before her, and his, fall from grace. It continued with Max Reinhardt’s one surviving completed film, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935), with James Cagney, Mickey Rooney and Dick Powell dancing to the strains of Mendelssohn. Never a direct rival to Wagner—six years younger, he died with a remarkable body of work to his credit in 1847, at a time when Wagner was just getting started—Mendelssohn (a Jew turned Lutheran) came under fire in Wagner’s notorious essay, “Jewishness in Music,” in which he attacked Jewish composers for their alleged triviality and lack of depth. Wagner’s animus against the Jews kept his blood boiling throughout his life (it was one of the things that attracted Hitler to him) although, typically, Wagner never let it get in the way of his artistic goals: the conductor of his last opera, the Christian epic Parsifal, was Hermann Levi.

Indeed, Wagner’s influence is such that it extends into almost every political and

artistic situation. Take, for example, Charlie Chaplin’s iconic The Great Dictator (1940), showing July 23, which took at shot at Hitler even as the fellow travelers in the west were still celebrating the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which pledged Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union to each other’s mutual defense, divvied up Poland, annexed the Baltic states to the Soviet Union—and went down the memory hole when Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa against his erstwhile Soviet allies in 1941. Another wartime classic, and another film to find humor in the darkest moments of human history, is Lubitsch’s To Be or Not to Be, starring Jack Benny and Carole Lombard as the leaders of a Polish theater company caught up in the German invasion of their homeland; tragically, it was Lombard’s last film, as she died in a plane crash shortly after it wrapped. (All films begin at 7 p.m.)

Irving Rapper’s Deception (1946), July 30, and Sturges’s Unfaithfully Yours (1948), Aug. 2, both feature musicians as their central characters. In Deception, which is perhaps the only film noir set against an orchestral background, Claude Rains plays a vain composer whose behavior is positively Wagnerian, while Unfaithfully Yours treats similar material as a screwball comedy and tosses in the Tannhäuser overture for good measure. Meeting Venus,

István Szabo’s 1991 comedy starring Glenn Close (Aug.6) picks up the Tannhäuser theme, centering on an ill-starred production of Wagner’s opera about the song contest atop the Venusberg.

The festival concludes with four explicitly Wagnerian movies: Luchino Visconti’s Ludwig (1972), Aug. 9, about the Mad King himself; Eric Rohmer’s neglected Perceval le Gallois (1978), Aug. 13, a stylish French retelling of the Parsifal legend and Lang’s great silent-movie treatment of Wagner’s Ring cycle, Die Nibelungen (The Nibelungs, 1924). In two films, Siegfrieds Tod (Siegfried’s Death) and Kriemhilds Rache (Kriemhild’s Revenge), Lang returned to the essence of the “Ring” mythos—Queen Kriemhild was edited out of Wagner’s great tetralogy—and created the most perfect staging of Siegfried’s tragedy ever visualized, and in utter silence.

Such a contradiction would have amused Wagner, who spent decades raising the funds for Bayreuth in order to stage the first Ring cycle in 1876, only to lose most of his firebreathing dragon in transit from England. But, then, contradictions are the essence of the man and his art. Just ask Hitler, who thought he was staging Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg using all of Germany as a canvas, and wound up producing Götterdämmerung instead.

July 2009

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MUSEUMS

The Scenes Behind the Scenes

BY LANCE ESPLUND The theater has long been in dialogue with the visual arts. In ancient Egypt, performances and rituals were held in the forecourts of temples and tombs; and the ancient Romans employed painted panels as theatrical backdrops.

By the late 15th century, when theater was portable, Leonardo was designing costumes and wagon-stages, as well as—ingeniously Leonardoesque—the world’s fist revolving stage. More recently, however, Modern artists such as Picasso, Matisse, Dufy, Noguchi and Robert and Sonia Delaunay designed props, costumes and sets for theater and dance, and their innovations shone as brightly onstage as in their studios.

Whether working on canvas or designing for the theater, visual artists never lose sight of the fact that they are making pictures, that they are creating works of art. Three current New York exhibitions—at MoMA, the Morgan Library & Museum and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center—acknowledge the importance of what goes on behind the scenes with an exploration of the relationship among Modern art, dance, music and theater.

The exhibits focus on costume, lighting, stage and set designs. But, at the Morgan and, especially at the NYPL for the Performing Arts—where you will find artifacts such as Léon Bakst’s sketchbooks, Vaslav Nijinsky’s diaries, Sergei Diaghilev’s notebook, annotated musical scores by Igor Stravinsky and letters by Cole Porter, George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein—the exhibits branch out to chronicle the actions and importance of players both on and off stage.

Diaghilev’s Theater of Marvels: The Ballets Russes and Its Aftermath at the NYPL for the Performing Arts, a centenary exhibit organized by Lynn Garafola, is the most wide-ranging and enthralling of the three shows. Drawn from the diverse materials of the Library’s collection, the exhibition explores the wellspring of the Diaghilev revolution—or Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes—from its beginnings in Russia to its immense and infamous success in Paris (from 1909-29), to its far-reaching and continuing influence as the most significant dance company of the 20th century.

Russian-born Sergei Diaghilev (18721929), a Renaissance man who pursued careers in law, music, dance, theater production, art criticism, publishing and art curatorship, introduced experimental Modernism to the stage. Diaghilev brought

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City Arts NYC

Schecter Lee, 2009.

Three distinct exhibits explore the ways in which theater, dance and the visual arts were shaped in the 20th century

Juozas Jankus Russian (now Lithuanian) Sereikoniai 1912–1999 Vilnius Catfish Row for Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, 1967, at the Morgan Library.

Russian ballet, as well as the first troupe of Russian dancers, to the West, where he turned traditional Russian ballet inside out.

He employed the talents of Anna Pavlova, Bronislava Nijinska, Michel Fokine, Léonide Massine, Vaslav Nijinsky, Maurice Ravel, Georges Braque, Georges Rouault and George Balanchine, among many others. Balanchine, encouraged by Chick Austin and Lincoln Kirstein, immigrated to the United States in 1933 and formed the School of American Ballet. It was largely because of Kirstein and Austin, the director of what is considered to be the first American museum of Modern art—Hartford Connecticut’s Wadsworth Atheneum—that European Modernism, as well as Russian ballet, was rooted in American soil.

Diaghilev’s Theater of Marvels at times verges on the hodge-podge array of a garage sale, and may be the least professional of the three (soon after the opening, lights were

already out and wall text had fallen to the floor). Nevertheless, it also has the engaging, backstage disarray of a performance. Comprising costumes, programs, photographs, drawings, posters and video screens accompanied by headphones, where viewers can watch excerpts from performances, the exhibit has just enough variety of visual, musical and intellectual stimuli to rank as a performance in and of itself.

Among the highlights of the show are designs by Bakst, Mikhail Larionov, Pavel Tchelitchev, André Derain, Fernand Léger, Juan Gris and Matisse. But the crowning works in the exhibit are seven costumes designed by Picasso for the 1919 ballet “Le Tricorne” and three for the 1917 ballet “Parade.” Written by Jean Cocteau, with music

by Erik Satie and choreography by Massine, “Parade” inspired the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, in his program note, to coin the term “surrealism” three years before the move-

ment debuted in Paris.

Picasso’s costumes are Cubist conflations that combine regalia, vestments, insignia and even architecture. The costume for “The Chinese Conjuror,” in black and white and bright scarlet and yellow, is an abstract, East-meetsWest tour-de-force of zigzags, starbursts and Hokusai-like waves. The “French Manager” and “New York Manager” costumes, also for “Parade,” are nearly 10-foot-high cardboard sculptures sprouting hats, mustaches, a bullhorn, a pipe and skylines, that serve as figurative, architectural portraits of their respective cities.

Packed with fascinating information regarding technical and artistic innovations in 20th-century European and American stage design—yet the least visually satisfying of the three exhibitions—is the Morgan Library & Museum’s Creating the Modern Stage: Set Designs for Theater and Opera. Organized

by Jennifer Tonkovich, with assistance from

Elizabeth Nogrady, the exhibit comprises more than 50 works on paper and was drawn from the Morgan’s holdings of some 1,600 drawings, prints and books on set design.

The artifacts, which originally belonged to Donald Oenslager (1902-75), a collector, stage designer and Yale professor of drama, were donated to the Morgan by Oenslager’s widow in 1982.

“Creating the Modern Stage,” augmented by photographs, musical scores, autograph manuscripts, playbills and kiosks where visitors can listen to excerpts from the show’s featured productions, will appeal especially to theatergoers. Divided into four thematic sections—“Origins of Modern Scenic Design,” “Destroying Traditions,” “The Russian Avant-Garde” and “The American Stage”—it is a comprehensive yet compact show that includes works

by Bakst, Eugene Berman, Natalia Goncharova, Erté, Alexandra Exter and John Steinbeck.

The exhibit builds on the radical and revolutionizing theories of the Swiss stage designer Adolphe Appia (1862-1928), which he put forth in his influential 1899 book, Music and Set Design.

Appia, who advocated a holistic and experimental approach to the theater, reacted against the illustrative literalism of the 19th-

century stage. Designs by German Expressionists are included here, as well as those for the Moscow Art Theater (where Diaghilev got his start), through which Cubism and Constructivism, mixed with Russian folk traditions, were introduced to the stage. The show also acknowledges the rise of the musical theater in America, as well as the reaction—most obvious in the designs of Eugene Berman—against the abstract vocabulary of Modernism.

collection. MoMA’s commitment to stage pictures, which continues to this day, began in 1939, when Lincoln Kirstein donated his personal collection of performance-related work to the museum. Organized by Jodi Hauptman, with assistance from Samantha Friedman, the show—which covers most of the 20th century—strikes the best balance of the three among innovation, information, variety and sheer visual pleasure. It is here that I felt most prominently how much the stage encourages artists to experiment, collaborate and push the boundaries of their mediums and studios.

Included are Picasso’s drawings for “Parade,” as well as costume and set designs by Chagall, Léger, El Lissitzky, Oskar Schlemmer, William Kentridge, Florine Stettheimer and Robert and Sonia Delaunay. Highlights, though, are in the form of film excerpts. A 1970 version of Schlemmer’s 1922 “The Triadic Ballet: A Film in Three Parts after the Dance by Oskar Schlemmer” is mesmerizing—appealing to adults and children alike. Robotic, militaristic and architectonic, “The Triadic Ballet” is an abstract game, pageant or nightmare in which geometry, man, toy and machine—classicism and Futurism— are reborn in a humorous Modernist utopia.

Every artifact on view— be it ballet slippers, set designs, costumes or ticket stubs—tells us something about the genesis and life of its respective theatrical production.

Modernism’s abstract vocabulary, as it applies to the stage, is most evident in MoMA’s Stage Pictures: Drawing for Performance, an exhibition comprising approximately 150 drawings, as well as film clips and ephemera, all from the Modern’s

Each of these three exhibitions stands alone and offers something distinctive; and every artifact on view—be it ballet slippers, set designs, costumes or ticket stubs—tells us something about the genesis and life of its respective theatrical production. But in terms of visual life, the most captivating works are those not by theatrical designers or theorists, but those crafted by visual artists. This separates the three shows’ works roughly into two categories: objects of historical interest and objets d’art. Together, the exhibitions offer viewers a backstage pass to some of the most significant performances—on stage and in the studio—of the last century.

Diaghilev’s Theater of Marvels: The Ballets Russes and Its Aftermath, through Sept. 12. New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, 212-870-1630.

Creating the Modern Stage: Designs for Theater and Opera, through Aug. 16.

Morgan Library & Museum, 225 Madison Ave. (betw. E. 36th & E. 37th Sts.), 212685-0008.

Stage Pictures: Drawing for Performance, through Aug. 25. Museum of Modern Art, 11 W. 53rd St. (betw. 5th & 6th Aves.), 212-708-9400.

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CLASSICAL MUSIC

Maazel at the End And a dose of “summertime” Gershwin

BY JAY NORDLINGER n his final weeks as music director of the New York Philharmonic, Lorin Maazel conducted a couple of big choral works— and you will excuse my calling Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 a big choral work. It is at least as much choral as it is orchestral. Maazel spent seven seasons here in New York. When he began in the fall of 2002, he was 72 years old. He had made his Philharmonic debut 60 years before. No, he was not a normal 12-year-old. And he is not a normal almostoctogenarian.

In those final weeks, Maazel conducted Britten’s War Requiem, a secular concoction, and shrewdly conceived. For many people, this is a holy work—and they treat it with great reverence. Maazel conducted the piece rather unusually: He was straightforward, transparent, restrained. He always kept dignity and respect, and he ruled out heart-on-sleeve emotion. You may well have heard more impassioned accounts of the War Requiem; but that restraint was to be appreciated. Frankly, Maazel reminded me that the work is, after all, British.

Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 is something else. Nicknamed the “Symphony of a Thousand,” it makes a lot of noise—glorious, Mahlerian noise. Not that it lacks more reflective moments. Maazel did not have a thousand musicians before him, but he had a sizable army. And he used a score, which was a rare concession from him. He has one of the most formidable memories in music. All told, he conducted this symphony creditably.

In the great hymn that opens the work, Maazel was fairly measured. This is a long journey, the Symphony No. 8, and pacing is key: You don’t want to give too much, too soon. Maazel was often thoughtful in this hymn, but he was also ponderous at times—

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UPTOWN GIRLS from cover an artist who can really do this,” Burney says.

Not every playwright has been up to the challenge, however. “You learn who you like working with and who you like spending time with, and you realize that some writers just aren’t ready to be produced in New York,” says Carole Rothman, Second Stage’s artistic director. “Some people say, ‘That’s it. I’m never going to have a play in New York again.’”

Rothman says that she’s looking for writers who are willing to collaborate and who have the capacity to hear both positive and negative feedback without getting derailed. “Sometimes, I’ll sit down with a writer and say,

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City Arts NYC

slowish, too. There was an odd feeling of mellowness. I should note that I heard Maazel’s very last performance, on a Saturday night.

Who knows how he conducted the symphony on his previous nights? As he remarked in an interview I had with him, shortly before he left, “I don’t think I ever conduct the same two bars the same way.” I can confirm this.

In the “Faust” section of the symphony, Maazel did some really good work. The opening of this section was superbly judged, suspenseful, on tiptoe. As the music moved on, it was driving, but not driven. The music unfolded “organically”—an overused word, but useful in some instances. Maazel did a little milking, sure. But Mahler wants milking— did it himself, when he conducted his scores.

The penultimate line of the text is, “The ineffable here is accomplished.”

Was that true of this performance?

Not really—but it pointed toward ineffability.

Maazel did not go out on his highest note, but it was high enough, and he warmly acknowledged his applause, then left, for good.

Although a little guest-conducting back in New York is to be expected.

He is a strange conductor, Lorin Maazel—and “strange” can be far from a putdown.

Very few musicians achieve his extremes. He can be a dog—utterly indifferent—one

night, and a world-beating champion the next. On many occasions, he exasperated me, or bored me. On others, I thought I had glimpsed some kind of summit. Let me just jot a little list of what I valued in Maazel.

Even in his eighth decade of music-making he was enthusiastic about the art. And he could inject his enthusiasm even into the most familiar works: say, Dvorak’s “New World” Symphony. Furthermore, he would often show you something new, even in a score you thought you knew well. What’s more, he almost always conducted with great care, whether the piece in question was high or low. Some months ago, I heard him accompany a singer in the “Vilja” from The Merry Widow. He evinced no sense of slumming whatsoever.

Rarely do you see such a dancer on the podium, and this was not showing off.

Maazel’s dancing was a natural part of his conducting. Relatedly, he has rhythm, lots of rhythm. And jazz. His jazziness could come out in the unlikeliest places—e.g., the Verdi Requiem (I kid you not).

In my job as a critic, I heard Maazel on innumerable nights, but I would like to cite just one in particular, as I sing him out. This was in 2006, which was Mozart’s big birthday year: his 250th.

Maazel had programmed the last three symphonies. And I went to the concert hall very grudgingly—having had enough Mozart, thinking that this program was overload. No. Every page of each symphony was splendid, shrewd, alive.

Maazel could have conducted

‘Look, we’ll do your play, but if you get bad reviews, you have to promise me you won’t stop writing.’”

Of course, Second Stage Uptown isn’t just a funnel for the theater’s mainstage. The company also has to nurture writers and their work. “They want to know that you’re there for them,” says Burney. “And you have to let them know you’re not there to ‘help them’ in that reductive way. You’re there to serve them.”

The key to Burney’s job is developing a real relationship with writers. He first saw Wildflower two years ago, for instance, when Kaplan was still a student at the University of California, San Diego, and since then, he’s

had ample time to get to know her. “When you’re working with a writer who’s developing a new play—and who’s going through the brave process of putting it on stage to be seen—it’s really about having the right relationship at the right time,” he says. “It’s knowing when to offer an opinion in rehearsal, or when to just ask a question. You want to elicit responses without being didactic.”

The theater also wants to expose its writers to New York audiences, who tend to see more theater and can be tougher than most crowds. To that end, preview periods are often followed by “Talk ‘n Tastes,” which start as structured audience talkbacks and then evolve into relaxed cocktails hours with the play-

six Mozart symphonies that night, as far as I was concerned. hen the regular season ends, the Philharmonic keeps going, with concerts dubbed “Summertime Classics.” These are pops concerts, by and large, though that term is avoided. I don’t know why—it is an honorable term, describing honorable events. The Philharmonic concerts are conducted by Bramwell Tovey, a Brit, whom I always call “your genial host.”

He gives extensive remarks from the stage, and those remarks are…well, genial (as a rule).

For the Fourth of July, he busted out with Gershwin, Copland and Sousa, our national music men. Let’s concentrate on the Gershwin. The concert opened with a mélange from his Strike Up the Band. Tovey conducted with crispness and flair, and the orchestra’s sound was very New York—just right for this music. Then came two piano works: Rhapsody in Blue, sure, but also the “I Got Rhythm” Variations.

The soloist was Marc-André Hamelin, the Canadian pianist with the monster technique.

Does he have rhythm? Yes, but he played these works rather stiffly and unidiomatically.

He committed some bizarre rushing—rushing of figures—and he missed a lot of notes.

This was almost shocking, from such a technician. Worse, he did some jabbing at the keyboard—not at all musical. Hamelin is an excellent pianist who had a funny night.

It was nice to hear Gershwin on the concert stage, regardless. In the interview I mentioned earlier, I said to Maazel, “He is unquestionably great, isn’t he?” The conductor replied, “No doubt about it.” If you want to bathe in Gershwin at his best, try Maazel’s recording of the complete Porgy and Bess, with the Cleveland Orchestra.

W

wright, director and audience members.

That’s not to say that Second Stage invented the talkback or the development process. In fact, theatergoers could be forgiven for getting the various new writer programs confused, since they all tend to take the same basic shape. Rothman, however, isn’t worried about the similarities. “I don’t think of any of them as competition,” she says. “It’s good to have as many so-called arbiters of taste as you possibly can.”

Wildflower, July 27-Aug. 8 at Second Stage Theatre Uptown’s McGinn/Cazale Theatre, Broadway at W. 76th St.; 212246-4422, $20-$50

DANCE

extensive landscaping to watch dance pieces successively performed. Overlooking the Hudson, half-obscured hollows and thickets, the multiple vistas were all charged with theatricality and theatrical presence.

Founded during World War II, Jacob’s Pillow Festival in the Berkshires is the most renowned and venerable outdoor dance event in the United States. Performances in the Inside/Out series focus the spectator’s attention on what’s on stage as well as the vista of woodland that lies beyond. The wood frame setting of the Ted Shawn Theatre brings the spectator indoors, but maintains a rustic flavor.

As always, Jacob’s Pillow’s programming is highly eclectic. This year, a season-long tribute to Merce Cunningham includes performances by his troupe, through July 26.

Outdoor dance events in New York City itself make the city’s hum and thrum part of the event, and admission is free. The fact that

our municipality is footing the bill for some new pieces is, well, let’s call it a small step in the right direction.

At Central Park’s SummersStage, Christopher Wheeldon’s Morphoses company presents a world premiere August 14 and 15, commissioned by the City Parks Foundation.

Finally, courtesy of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the River to River Festival also features world premiere, site-specific movement pieces in and around Lower Manhattan landmarks. Upcoming at the South Street Seaport is “A Space Funk Invasion,” by Nicholas Leichter Dance, through July 30.

Gabrielle Lasner & Company perform “Turning Heads, Frocks in Flight” in the South Cove of Battery Park City August 3 through 13. Both pieces are performed alternately at midday and evening, thus allowing us to see how day and night gives these settings a different theatrical potency.

Fabio Esposito

Trilogia della villeggiatura, a co-production of Piccolo Teatro di Milano and Teatri Uniti di Napoli, is presented July 22-26 at the Rose Theater as part of the Lincoln Center Festival.

Summer Steps A chance for audiences to experience movement both indoors and out

BY JOEL LOBENTHAL With the big ballet companies closing their long spring seasons, New York’s official dance season has ended, which really only means that the summer dance season has just begun. Indeed, American Ballet Theatre’s crowded houses for its final week of Romeo and Juliet suggest that the official season itself might well go profitably later into the summer, as it did back in the 1970s, thus cashing in on the tourist influx.

I can’t be certain if there will be any dances per se, but there is likely to be a significant and delectable quotient of mischief-making hustle and bustle this week at the Rose Theater. Lincoln Center Festival is presenting Carlo Goldoni’s Trilogia della villeggiatura, a joint production of Milan’s Piccolo Teatro (which was seen here in another Goldoni play at the 2005 Festival) and Naples’s Teatri Uniti.

Writing in 18th-century Venice, Goldoni subsumed the improvised knockabout buffoonery of the itinerant commedia dell’arte comedians into the cosmopolitan comedy of manners. As in 2005, we’ll be able to see the way that the

caustically verbal and the pratfall-prone blend and co-exist, running through July 26.

At Bard College’s Fisher Theater in Annandale-on-Hudson, Aeschylus’s Oresteia trilogy will be performed through August 2. Greek tragedy of the 5th century B.C. required choral movement as well as gestural vocabulary that would be legible throughout the enormous Theater of Dionysus, cut into the Athenian hillside. I’m curious as to how director Gregory Thompson will translate these paradigms in his new staging.

Outdoor performances are a summer bonus for the dance lover, and outdoor theaters are sometimes Theater of Dionysus-style, constructed to be echo and outgrowth of a particular landscape. On the other hand, some venues use the landscape itself as a kind of theatrical setting. In recent years, the Wave Hill estate in Riverdale hasn’t maintained its dance programming. I’ll never forgot, however, a night almost a decade ago, when Wave Hill provided sensory sustenance with a mixed bill in which the audience traipsed to different parts of the estate’s sloping topography and July 2009

7

MUSEUMS

Luxuries of the Headless Class

BY BRICE BROWN Yinka Shonibare MBE’s first major survey, counting over 20 works dating back to 1996, is testament to the all-but-forgotten notion that if executed with a deft and intelligent hand, art and politics can not only co-exist, but their successful marriage can potentially produce exponential results with far longer staying power. Shonibare’s often stunningly beautiful work also thankfully buries the misconception that political art has to be didactic, ham-fisted or rely on shock tactics in order to be successful. As much as Shonibare’s work succeeds, however, at times it treads treacherously close to the pretentious realm of the academic one-liner.

A British-born Nigerian, Shonibare is obsessed with Victorian-era colonialism and the frivolity of the 18th-century ruling class. His work sets the power dynamics of extravagance and the class exploitation required to achieve that ultimate of luxuries, leisure time, against his identity as a 21st-century African. Working in the vein of Hogarth or Daumier—though devoid of their frequent moralizing—Shonibare plays the role of critical outsider with insider knowledge in order to satirize the idea that patronage is a benign transaction, instead reframing it as a form of cultural dominance.

Anyone with a soft spot for period costume-drama will find resonance with Shonibare’s grand narrative tableaux. The work spreads across the mediums of painting, sculpture, photography and video. And while the paintings and photographs—and

the videos, to a lesser degree—feel too much like illustrated conceptualism, the sculptures’ approximation of grand period room installations are an unexpected strategy, simultaneously disarming and engaging the viewer. In these sculptural works, life-size, headless (a reference to the guillotine), dark-skinned mannequins are posed in vignettes relating to historical events or other works of art. All figures are outfitted in period costumes made from the richly patterned and distinctly colored Dutch wax-print fabric, commonly referred to as “African-print.” This fabric is ever-present in Shonibare’s work, and is intended to represent a false signifier of African-ness, raising questions of authenticity and origin.

These odd installations—though always vibrant, peculiar and satisfyingly complex—are, at their core, very unsettling experiences in almost intangible ways. In “Leisure Lady (with ocelots)” (2001), the figure of a woman, dressed in Shonibare’s signature Dutch wax-print fabrics, is captured mid-stroll with her three leashed wild cats of prey. An uncomfortable tension seethes from this seemingly innocent narrative snippet, derived partly from the coiled and alert ocelots, but also from the figure’s palpably haughty carriage. We are made aware of our interruption, and the sheer ridiculousness of this splashy scene highlights the vulgarity and dumb power of the leisure class, a sentiment that resonates as particularly poignant considering the current economic climate.

“The Swing (after Fragonard)” (2001), is a

Stephen White

Yinka Shonibare’s work skewers the leisure class with a postcolonial critique

“How to Blow Up Two Heads at Once (Ladies),” 2006

life-size recreation of Fragonard’s eponymous 1767 painting depicting a young woman in the throes of leisure-induced abandon, kicking her shoe off into the air toward her lover. In Shonibare’s reworking, this fleeting moment of gleeful shoe flinging is forever crystallized, her bright Dutch wax-print fabric-covered shoe suspended in mid-air like a kinky exclamation point. Somehow, the inescapability of this

frozen moment transforms a simple pleasure into something more nefarious, exposing the leisure class’ culture of guiltless excess as a vacuous dead end.

and friends took a hallucinatory turn with “The Scandalized Masks” (1883). By the time Ensor added a ridiculously ornate hat to an early and earnest self-portrait five years later, his taste for otherworldly excess, the sly and the monstrous, had come to the fore. The monumental pencil drawings pre-figuring “Christ’s Entry into Brussels” (1889) (Ensor’s signature canvas, not included at MoMA) are densely rendered spectacles of swirling lines, scruffy surfaces and diaphanous light. As essays in the profane, they’re oddly removed, but Ensor’s delicate traceries are a wonder to behold.

Ensor lived well into the 20th century (he died in 1949) and came to be recognized as a Belgian national treasure—testament both to the benefits of longevity, but also, one feels, to the work’s overriding toothlessness. A selfmade provincial, Ensor couldn’t maintain the

scope or scarifying intensity of his best work dating around 1890.

It’s probably just as well. As the 19th century closed, Ensor’s art increasingly became a forum for easy narcissism, mordant in-jokes and settling petty squabbles. In the last painting we see before exiting the exhibition, Ensor, surrounded by a deluge of masks, stares at us with something approaching noblesse oblige. This thin strain of condescension points to a man who preferred, in the end, to contain, rather than unleash, the fantastic.

The loss of integrity is palpable: Why give credence to nightmares the dreamer doesn’t believe in?

Yinka Shonibare MBE, through Sept. 20, Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, 718-638-5000, $6-$10 (suggested contribution).

The Phony James Ensor’s macabre tastes don’t mask his lack of integrity

BY MARIO NAVES Visiting James Ensor, MoMA’s retrospective of paintings, drawings and prints by the 19th-century Belgian artist, is a discomfiting experience, not least because of the grotesque imagery favored by the long-heralded, if hardly renowned, “painter of masks.”

The grim reaper, scythe in hand, soars above the rabble, ecstatic and victorious. Skeletons warm themselves by the fire, play music and tussle over a gnarled piece of herring.

Doctors tug an absurd length of intestine from a patient’s distended belly. Mummers huddle conspiratorially. Snot, vomit, spit and shit figure prominently in several pictures.

But the MoMA exhibition nags, really, for a different reason. Notwithstanding the work’s overtly bilious nature, the artist himself turns out to be a curiously tepid character.

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City Arts NYC

A painter and printmaker of remarkable, if often purposefully variable, gifts, Ensor’s art is rarely profound and only mildly acerbic. He’s something of a phony.

Possessed of steely cunning and a sardonic temper, Ensor was too willful an eccentric to yield completely to visionary excess and too contrary a moralist to make indictments of clergy, king and noblemen sting. Compare Ensor to contemporaries like Redon and Munch, and he can’t help but seem fussy and narrow, peevish and arch. What we’re left with is a sophisticated crank capable, but only intermittently, of haunting brilliance.

Early Ensor is a murky, rather hide-bound affair—just the thing you’d expect from a painter who abhorred Impressionism and revered the “defunct schools” of Rembrandt, Bosch and Brueghel. Soupy interiors featuring family

James Ensor, through Sept. 21 at the Museum of Modern Art, 11 W. 53rd St. (betw. 5th & 6th Aves.), 212-708-9400

GALLERY BEAT

John Goodrich & Mario Naves take in the local art landscape Larry Poons’ tall, untitled canvas from 1969 resembles a lunar surface with its thick, beige layer of swirling, crackled paint. Occupying the front window, John Ferren’s “SKI” (1952) reveals an agile circulation of rough circles and small vertical bars—each a slightly different conglomeration of reds, ochres or blues—around a vibrant field of off-whites. It encapsulates the faith in pictorial possibilities that animates the best work of the exhibition.

(John Goodrich) Selections through Aug. 1 at Spanierman Modern, 53 E. 58th St. (betw. Madison & Park Aves.), 212-832-1400.

Sculptors Draw SKI by John Ferren at Spanierman Modern’s Gallery Selections.

Spanierman Modern: Gallery Selections Summer shows often have the aspect of samplers: worthy assortments of the familiar.

The selection of modernist abstractions at Spanierman Modern, however, is particularly appealing on account of the earnestness and directness of the work by 20 American painters, both celebrated and lesser-known.

Exploring styles ranging from Neo-Plasticism to Abstract Expressionism, the paintings will be rotated periodically during the course of the exhibition.

Among the several Mondrian-influenced works is Burgoyne Diller’s large “Second Theme” (ca. 1960), which asserts its heroic intentions with bold red, yellow and white verticals on a black ground. Using the same basic palette to more subtle (and more rewarding) ends is Ilya Bolotowsky’s smallish canvas from 1975. Here, slight shifts in the tone of the whites amplify the rhythmic movement from one broad yellow rectangle to a smaller one at the canvas’ corner. Among the most recent works, Pat Lipsky’s “Mandible” (2005-09), a large canvas of pulsing vertical bands of gray and gray-blue, creates an impression at once elegant and grave. My own favorite among the geometric abstractions is a work confined to whites and blacks: Gertrude Greene’s wood relief from ca. 1942, in which a central black polygon stretches to encompass a perimeterbusting white quadrangle at one end and a shiver of black fragments at the other. By comparison, the anthropomorphic Cubism of “Orient” (undated) by her husband Balcomb Greene seems a colorful but somewhat conventional stab at epic lyricism.

Among the expressionistic approaches, Dan Christensen’s “Red Liner” (1970) stands out for its intrepid divisions between textured areas of purple, yellow and pale blue-green.

Time was, drawing served mainly as the first draft of more elaborate works in paint or marble. Nowadays, it’s more a means of thinking aloud, in the form of text, storyboards or documentation. It serves video, performance and installation artists—and sometimes even sculptors, as Lesley Heller’s current show reminds us.

Sculptors Draw brings together more than 20 drawings by six contemporary artists with very divergent approaches. A 1968 piece by Forrest Myers—best known for his grid of I-beams adorning a building at Houston and Broadway—comprises a sketch and business letters documenting his proposal to bounce a laser beam across the city. James Clark’s loosely scribbled abstractions (2008) show little connection to his idiosyncratic constructions of electric lights and found objects—until one turns down the gallery lights, that is, and their phosphorescent pigments glow. A series of six drawings from 1975 by the late conceptual/minimalist artist Sol Lewitt defines

Untitled #3 (2008) by James O. Clark, at Lesley Heller Gallery’s Sculptors Draw.

For Going Up (1975) by Stella Snead, at Pavel Zoubok Gallery’s Daughters of the Revolution: Women & Collage

and fulfills its own processes: each sheet has been folded and cut according to the instructions inscribed on it.

Tom Doyle, the most traditional and romantic sculptor here, is represented by three preparatory sketches (2009) for dynamic, three-legged sculptures. The subtly graded tones of Ruth Hardinger’s abstract charcoal drawings (2009) suggest the heavy masses of her concrete sculptures—an effect enhanced by the three-dimensional creases in their paper surfaces. And especially intriguing is Judy Pfaff’s four-foot-square collage (2009), which envelopes the viewer every bit as much her huge, elegantly rambunctious installations.

Protruding two inches, her yellow, brown and silver blossoms and seaweed-like forms become a delicious mix of the delicate and the obtuse, the fresh and the withered.

Also on view are several of Sharon Lawless’ woodcuts and surrealistic collages of organic and mechanistic forms. In the gallery’s garden, Mr. Clark’s humorous installation of

found industrial objects emits bubbles, mist, and doo-wop songs; during the reception, several live, hand-dyed chickens pranced about, armed with miniature video-cams. (JG) Sculptors Draw at Lesley Heller, through Aug. 21. 16 E. 77th St. (betw. 5th & Madison Aves.), 212-410-6120.

Daughters of the Revolution: Women & Collage Are some art forms more gender friendly than others? Daughters of the Revolution: Women & Collage, an exhibition of 34 modern and contemporary artists, seeks to raise “important questions about the unique connection between collage and women’s experiences.” Taking his cue from “Femmage,” a 1978 essay written by artists Miriam Schapiro and Melissa Meyer, curator and dealer Pavel Zoubok cites material similarities between collage and craft traditions typically July 2009

9

associated with women—among them, necessarily its heyday, but the best finds quilt-making and scrap-booking. Sughere—Ginnie Gardiner and Maritta gesting that the medium’s intimate scale Tapanaine—glance respectively upon inherently lent itself to artists historicalFreudian portent and microcellular ly “excluded from a conventional studio absurdism. With “Gatekeeper” (2008), practice”—you can, after all, make the Gardiner makes something tender and things on the kitchen table—Daughters silky from Surrealism’s dreamlike amof the Revolution elaborates upon a plitude and does it without capitulating facet of Feminist theory with low-key to icky eroticism. It’s a fleet bit of magic insistence. and of a piece with a lovingly paced and Which is to say, the exhibition engaging exhibition. (Mario Naves) doesn’t grind an axe so much as offer a sampler. A venue dedicated excluDaughters of the Revolution: sively to collage, Zoubok is attuned to Women & Collage, through Aug. 14 the medium’s aesthetic qualities—the at Pavel Zoubok Gallery, 533 W. “revolutionary” title points not only to 23rd St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), Feminism, but to Clement Greenberg’s 212-675-7490.

1958 essay “Pasted Paper Revolution.”

Thaddeus Radell New Yorkers with little taste for Located on the 12th floor of an office agitprop will welcome the exhibition’s building near Canal Street, the Metrorambling, relatively hands-off approach politan College will be off the beatento art-as-politics: For every pronunciatrack for most gallery-goers. An intrigumento on “woman’s work”—the diffuse ing exhibition of work by painter and apron dialectic of Schapiro’s “My Blue Ball by Thaddeus Radell, at Next Gallery’s Gesture to Suggestion. printmaker Thaddeus Radell, Gesture to Nosegays Are For Captives” (1976) or Suggestion, makes the detour well worth Martha Rosler’s in-your-face commenthe effort. tary on consumerism and sex “Hot Meat Body Admittedly, collage is peculiarly suited for A glimpse at the 26 drawings, etchings, Beautiful” (1966-72)—there is Anne Ryan’s political service—Dadaism and, less overtly, and paintings shows that the 53-year-old “Collage #640” (1953), a gently stated run Surrealism exploited the medium’s innate artist has found both his subject and his style. of muffled textures and jewel-like tonalities, material and imagistic disjuncture to oftenAll depict the human figure, mostly in single and Charmion von Weigand’s “#154” (1965), masterful polemical effect. The inclusion portraits but sometimes as interacting groups, a funky pseudo-Pop homage to the art of of Hannah Hoch’s cinematic “Traumfahrt” and all feature a linear attack of rapid, coiling ancient Egypt.

(1947) nods to Dada’s Berlin-axis, if not

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City Arts NYC

lines integrating figure and atmosphere. The artist’s method appears to be one of constant accruing and refining, and in the best works here his loose marks coalesce as tight and complex presences.

The figures in his oil paintings emerge from dark, brushy backgrounds of blues, greens and grays. “As I Look” (2008) conveys not just a self-portrait but an attitude, communicating—even without facial features—the fixed gaze of the artist and his intense absorption with his drawing pad. “The Blue Ball” (2008) captures the rush of a group of running children, as well as their focus on a ball at the canvas’ lower edge.

The anxiously reworked contours of Radell’s pencil drawings are lightened by erasures that airily connect the figures with the paper-white surface. But his etchings tend towards the other tonal extreme, their backgrounds all but engulfing the subjects within dark, curling textures. In “Head Study II” (2009), a lightening of the air about the dark figure produces an especially vivid effect: a brooding luminosity, as thickly atmospheric as in his paintings, but as thin as paper itself.

(JG) Thaddeus Radell, through Aug. 3 at Next Gallery, Metropolitan College of NY, 75 Varick St., 12th floor, (betw.

Canal & Grand Sts.), 212-343-1234, ext. 2209.

ARTS AGENDA GALLERIES ACA GALLERY: Humanity: A Hundred Years

of Figurative Art. Through Aug. 7. Grace Hartigan: 1922-2008. Through Aug. 11, 529 W. 20th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212206-8080, www.acagalleries.com.

A.I.R. GALLERY: Joan Snitzer and Nivi Alroy.

A.I.R. Gallery’s annual Postcard Show.

Through July 19, 111 Front St. #228 (at Washington St.), Brooklyn, 212-255-6651, www.airgallery.org.

ALEXANDRE GALLERY: Selected works by gallery artists and first generation American modernists. Through Aug. 31, 41 E. 57th St. (at Madison Ave.), 212-755-2828, www. alexandregallery.com.

ANDREA MEISLIN GALLERY: Transition by Lillian Birnbaum. Through Aug. 14, 526 W. 26th St., suite 214 (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212627-2552, www.andreameislin.com.

ANDREA ROSEN GALLERY: John Currin. Through Aug. 21, 525 W. 24th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-627-6000, www.rosengallery.com.

ART PRODUCTION FUND: Scribble, a public wall painting by Karl Haendel. Through August 30, 441 Broadway (betw. Howard & Grand Sts.), 212-966-0193, www.artproductionfund.org.

BABCOCK GALLERIES: Marylyn Dintenfass.

Through July 31, 724 5th Ave. (betw. W. 56th & W. 57th Sts.), 646-556-5876, www.babcockgalleries.com.

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 Sept. 5, 41 E. 57th St., 13th Fl. (at Madison Ave.), 212-888-6007, www.bonnibenrubi.com.

BLUE MOUNTAIN GALLERY: Artifex Studio from Mexico. Through July 25. Read Baldwin: An Exhibition of Landscape Paintings.

Through Aug. 15, 530 W. 25th St., 4th Fl. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 646-486-4730, www.bluemountaingallery.org.

BOWERY GALLERY: L.L. Milton. Through July 25. Juried Show. Opens July 28, 530 W. 25th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 646230-6655, www.bowerygallery.org.

BROOKLYN WATERFRONT ARTISTS COALITION: Art in Changing Perspectives 2009. Through Aug. 16, 141 Beard St. (at Reed St.), Brooklyn, 718-596-2507, www.bwac.org.

BRUCE SILVERSTEIN: Photography from the gallery’s private collection. Through Aug. 8, 535 W. 24th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-627-3930, www.brucesilverstein.com.

CHEIM & READ: The Female Gaze: Women Look At Women. Through Sept. 19, 547 W. 25th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-2427727, www.cheimread.com.

CLAMP ART: Arcadia: Photography by various artists. Through Aug. 14, 521-531 W. 25th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 646-2300020, www.clampart.com.

CHELSEA TERMINAL WAREHOUSE: A Black and White World. Opens July 16, 636 W. 28th

St. (at 11th Ave.), 212-244-3007, www. blackandwhiteartgallery.com.

CH’I CONTEMPORARY FINE ART: Uprooted: A group show featuring drawings. Opens July 10, 293 Grand St. (betw. Roebling & Havermeyer Sts.), Brooklyn, 718-218-8939, www. chicontemporaryfineart.com.

D’AMELIO TERRAS: Tables and Chairs: A group show. Through Aug. 7, 525 W. 22nd St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-352-9460, www.damelioterras.com.

DANEYAL MAHMOOD GALLERY: Bad News: Summer group show. Through Aug. 8, 511 W. 25th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-6752966, www.daneyalmahmood.com.

DAVID FINDLAY JR. FINE ART: Summerset: A revolving group exhibition. Through Aug. 31, 41 E. 57th St. (at Madison Ave.), 212-4867660, www.davidfindlayjr.com.

DAVID NOLAN GALLERY: Slough, curated by Steve DiBenedetto. Through July 24, 527 W. 29th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-9256190, www.davidnolangallery.com.

DAVID ZWIRNER: 6 Works, 6 Rooms: A group exhibition of six individual works. Though Aug. 1, 525 W. 19th St., 212-727-2070, www.davidzwirner.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: New works by Claire Sherman and Maria E. Piñeres. Through Aug. 22, 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 Aug. 9, 4-40 44th Dr. (at 5th St.), Queens. Black Acid Co-op. Through Aug. 15, 18 Wooster St. (betw. Grand & Canal Sts.), 212-343-7300, www.deitch.com.

ELIZABETH HARRIS GALLERY: By a Thread: A group exhibition. Through July 24, 529 W. 20th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-4639666, www.eharrisgallery.com.

EXIT ART: Négritude. Through July 25. The End of Oil. Through July 31, 475 10th Ave. (at W. 36th St.), 212-966-7745, www. exitart.org.

FARMANI GALLERY: XTO Nude Image Awards: 2009 Winners Showcase. Through July 18.

Dan Wynn. Opens July 23. AMSP New York Image 09: Winners Showcase. Opens Aug. 21, 111 Front St., #212 (at Washington St.), Brooklyn, 718-578-4478, www. farmanigallery.com.

FIRST STREET GALLERY: Group exhibit. 2009 National Juried Show. Through July 18, 526 W. 26th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 646-336-8053, www.firststreetgallery.net.

FLOMENHAFT GALLERY: Selections from the Flomenhaft Gallery. Opens July 14, 547 W. 27th St., suite 308 (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-268-4952, www.flomenhaftgallery.com.

FREDERIEKE TAYLOR GALLERY: Three exhibitions: Almost Home, The Error Chain and Support, featuring works by various artists.

Through Aug. 14, 535 W. 22nd St. (betw.

10th & 11th Aves.), 646-230-0992, www. frederieketaylorgallery.com.

One of the drawings featured in Play Pause, Sadie Benning’s two-channel video projection currently on display at the Whitney.

FREIGHT AND VOLUME: Heartbreak Hotel. Opens

GREENWICH HOUSE POTTERY: Summer Masters

July 16, 542 W. 24th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-691-7700, www.freightandvolume.com.

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

GALLERY CANTELMO: Katsutoshi Misuda: Heartfelt Images of Europe. Through Aug. 12, 55 W. 39th St. #204 (betw. 5th & 6th Aves.), 212-244-4600, www.gallerycantelmo.com.

GOEDHUIS CONTEMPORARY: Li Xubai. Through July 31, 42 E. 76th St. (betw. Madison & Park Aves.), 212-838-4922, www.goedhuiscontemporary.com.

Exhibition. Through Aug. 1, 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.

HAL BROMM GALLERY: Night Paintings by Tom Keough. Through July 31, 90 West Broadway (at Chambers St.), 212-732-6196.

HEIST GALLERY: 1 (212): The City’s Summer Heist. Through Aug. 30, 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 Sept. 10, 148 W. 37th St. (betw. Broadway & 7th Ave.), 212-7570915, www.hsny.org.

HOWARD SCOTT GALLERY: Works on Paper featuring Lance Letscher, Vincent Hamel, Werner Schmitt, Henri Platt, Francisco Castro Leñero and Rebecca Salter. Through July 25, 529 W. 20th St. #7E (betw. 10th &

THE GRADY ALEXIS GALLERY AT EL TALLER LATINO AMERICANO: Images of Cuba by Paul Stetzz-

er, Jay Potter and Paul Typaldos. Through Sept. 4, 2710 Broadway (at W. 104th St.), 212-665-9460, www.tallerlatino.org.

GREENBERG VAN DOREN GALLERY: Katrin Sigurdardottir. Through Aug. 21, 730 5th Ave., 7th Fl. (at W. 57th St.), 212-445-0444, www. gvdgallery.com.

Read Baldwin new work an exhibition of landscape painting July 29-August 19, 2009

Opening Reception: Thursday, July 30, 6-8 pm Blue Mountain Gallery 530 West 25th Street, fifth floor New York, New York 10001 646 486 4730

www.bluemountaingallery.org July 2009

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lery.com.

MARLBOROUGH GALLERY CHELSEA: Summer

Jean Seberg and Jean-Paul Belmondo in Jean-Luc Godard’s ”Breathless,” showing at the Museum of Art and Design as part of the French New Wave Essentials program.

11th Aves.), 212-486-7004, www.howardscottgallery.com.

HUDSON FRANKLIN: Embedded by Alice Könitz, Fawn Krieger and Jamisen Ogg. Through July 24, 508 W. 26th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-741-1189, www.hudsonfranklin. com.

JAMES GRAHAM & SONS: Blue: A group show curated by John Zinsser. Through Aug. 28, 32 E. 67th St. (betw. Madison & Park Aves.), 212-535-5767, jamesgrahamandsons.com.

JEFF BAILEY GALLERY: Give Them What They Never Knew They Wanted. Through Aug. 7, 511 W. 35th St. #207 (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-989-0156, www.baileygallery. com.

JONATHAN LEVINE GALLERY: WK Interact. Invader. Both through July 25. Beach Blanket Bingo—A Summer Mixer. Opens Aug. 5, 529 W. 20th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-243-3822, www.jonathanlevinegallery. com.

JUNE KELLY GALLERY: Hidden Jems: A group show of works on paper. Through July 31, 591 Broadway #3C (at W. Houston St.), 212-226-1660, www.junekellygallery.com.

KATHARINA RICH PERLOW GALLERY: Microcosmic Views of China: A photography exhibition

by Gilles Lorin. Through July 31. Realism and Almost Realism. Through Sept.

30, The Fuller Building, 41 E. 57th St. (at Madison Ave.), 212-644-7171.

KATHRYN MARKEL FINE ARTS: Peter Hoffer.

Through July 18, 529 W. 20th St. (betw.

10th & 11th Aves.), 212-366-5368, www. markelfinearts.com.

KIM FOSTER GALLERY: VCUArts: For Lovers.

Through July 25, 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.

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City Arts NYC

L&M ARTS: John Chamberlain: Early Years.

Through July 10, 45 E. 78th St. (betw.

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

LANA SANTORELLI GALLERY: Entropy. Through Sept. 12, 110 W. 26th St. (betw. 6th & 7th Aves.), 212-229-2111, www.lanasantorelligallery.com.

LAURENCE MILLER GALLERY: Helen Levitt: First Proofs. Burk Uzzle: Woodstock 40th Anniversary. Both through Aug. 20, 20 W. 57th St. (betw. 5th & 6th Aves.), 212-397-3930, www.laurencemillergallery.com.

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

LENNON, WEINBERG, INC.: Cindy Workman: The Women. Through Aug. 14, 524 W. 25th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-941-0012, www.lennonweinberg.com.

LESLEY HELLER GALLERY: Sculptors Draw.

Through Aug. 21, 16 E. 77th St. (betw. 5th & Madison Aves.), 212-410-6120, www. lesleyheller.com.

LOCATION ONE: Conrad Shawcross: Control.

Through Aug. 1, 26 Greene St. (betw.

Grand & Canal Sts.), 212-334-3347, www. location1.org.

LOHIN GEDULD: Group exhibit. 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. Through July 31, 531 W. 24th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-2069055, www.luhringaugustine.com.

LYONS WIER GALLERY: Consumption: A show

by Mike Lash. Through July 10, 175 7th Ave. (at W. 20th St.), 212-242-6220, www. lyonswiergallery.com.

MARIANNE BOESKY GALLERY: Paula Hayes. Project Space & Rooftop. Your Gold Teeth. Curated by Todd Levin. Both through Aug. 15, 509 W. 24th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-680-9889. www.marianneboeskygal-

Exhibition. Through Sept. 4, 545 W. 25th St. (betw 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-463-8634, www.marlboroughgallery.com.

MARTOS GALLERY: Group exhibit. Through Aug. 1, 540 W. 29th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-560-0670, www.martosgallery. com.

MICHAEL ROSENFELD GALLERY: Abstract Expressionism: Further Evidence (Part One: Painting). Through July 31, 24 W. 57th St. (betw. 5th & 6th Aves.), 212-247-0402, www.michaelrosenfeldart.com.

MICHAEL STEINBERG FINE ART: Barbara Friedman. The Young and The Restless Part II. Through July 19, 526 W. 26th St. (betw.

10th & 11th Aves.), 212-524-9770, www. michaelsteinbergfineart.com.

MICHAEL WERNER GALLERY: Golddust is My ExLibris by James Lee Byars. Through Sept 4, 4 E. 77th St. (betw. 5th & Madison Aves.), 212-988-1623, www.michaelwerner.com.

MITCHELL INNES & NASH: Exhibition of gallery artists. Through July 31, 1018 Madison Ave. (betw. E. 78th & E. 79th Sts.). Modern and Contemporary Masters. Through July 31, 534 W. 26th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-744-7400, www.miandn.com.

NABI GALLERY: Simon Gaon and Kathy Buist’s Darkness and Light. Through July 31, 137 W. 25th St. (betw. 6th & 7th Aves.), 212929-6063, www.nabigallery.com.

NOHO GALLERY: Dino Pazzanese’s Transumuted Paintings. Through July 25. Visions: Collected Works by 4 Noho Artists. Opens July 28, 530 W. 25th St., 4th Fl. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-367-7063, www.nohogallery.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.

PACEWILDENSTEIN: Tim Hawkinson. Through July 24, 32 E. 57th St. (betw. Madison & Park Aves.). Corbin Walker. Through July 31, 534 W. 25th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.). A Walk in the Park, featuring largescale sculpture by gallery artists. Through July 24, 545 W. 22nd St. (at 11th Ave.), 212-421-3292, www.pacewildenstein.com.

PAUL KASMIN GALLERY: Naked! Through Sept.

19, 511 W. 27th St. (at 10th Ave.), 212-5634474, www.paulkasmingallery.com.

PAULA COOPER GALLERY: Sol Lewitt. By appointment only, 465 W. 23rd St. (at 9th Ave.), 212-255-1105, www.paulacoopergallery. com.

PLATFORM: “For Lovers,” featuring the work of 13 M.F.A. graduates of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of Painting and Printmaking. Through July 25, 529 W. 20th St., suite 4W (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-647-7030, www.platform. denisebibrofineart.com.

POSTMASTERS GALLERY: Contemporary Art From Palestine. Through Aug. 8, 459 W. 19th St. (Betw. 9th & 10th Aves.), 212-727-3323, www.postmastersart.com.

PRINCE STREET GALLERY: Martha MacLeish.

Through July 25. John Lee, Aaron Lubrick and Margaret Noel. Through Aug. 15, 530 W. 25t St., 4th Fl. (betw. 10th & 11th

Aves.), 646-230-0246. www.princestreetgallery.com.

RIVAA: A Holocaust Memorial Exhibition of Hammered Lead Sculptures by Dana Baldwin Naumann. Opens July 11, 527 Main St., Roosevelt Island, 212-308-6630, www. rivaa.com.

RONALD FELDMAN FINE ARTS: Black&White Works: A group exhibition of sculpture, painting, drawings and prints. Through July 31, 31 Mercer St. (at Grand St.), 212-2263232, www.feldmangallery.com.

SALON 94 FREEMAN’S: Gerald Davis: The Damned. Through July 17, 1 Freeman Alley (at Rivington St.), 212-529-7400, www. salon94.com.

SWISS INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART: 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.

VON LINTEL GALLERY: Tim Macguire. Through July 31, 520 W. 23rd St. ground floor (betw.

10th & 11th Aves.), 212-242-0599, www. vonlinetel.com.

WHITE BOX: Heinrich Nicolaus: The Theater of More. Through Sept. 13, 329 Broome St. (betw. Bowery & Chrystie St.), 212-7142347, www.whiteboxny.org.

YANCEY RICHARDSON GALLERY: Glitz & Grime: Photographs of Times Square. Through Aug. 28, 535 W. 22nd St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 646-230-9610, www.yanceyrichardson.com.

ZURCHER STUDIO: Wild Reature, group show curated by Brian Belott. Through July 26, 33 Bleecker St. (at Mott St.), 212-777-0790, www.galeriezurcher.com.

AUCTION HOUSES DOYLE NEW YORK: Jewelry, Watches, Silverware

and Coins. July 28 and 29, 10 a.m. Annual End of Summer Sale. Aug. 19, 10 a.m. 175 E. 87th St. (betw. Lexington & 3rd Aves.), 212-427-2730, www.doylenewyork.com.

SWANN AUCTION GALLERIES: Vintage Posters.

Aug 5, 10:30 a.m. and 2. 104 E. 25th St. (betw. Park & Lexington Aves.), 212-2544710, www.swanngalleries.com.

EVENTS NEW YORK ANTIQUE JEWELRY AND WATCH SHOW:

Over 100 prominent jewelry dealers from all over the world will be offering their wares.

July 24 through 27, Metropolitan Pavillion, 125 W. 18th St. (betw. 6th & 7th Aves.), www.dmgantiqueshows.com; times vary, $15 per day.

MUSEUMS 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.

Through Sept. 13, 1040 Grand Concourse (at 165th St.), Bronx, 718-681-1000, www. bronxmuseum.org.

BROOKLYN MUSEUM: Yinka Shonibare MBE: Painting, sculpture, moving images and installations explore the contemporary African identity and its connection to European colonialism. Through Sept. 20. Light of the Sufis: The Mystical Arts of Islam. Through Sept. 6. Exhibition of a New Generation of Feminist Video Artists. Through 2010, 200 Eastern Pkwy. (at Washington Ave.), Brooklyn, 718-638-5000, www.brooklynmuseum.org.

CHELSEA ART MUSEUM: Iran Inside Out: Artists living in Iran alongside those living in the Diaspora challenge the modern views of Iran and Iranian art. Through Sept. 5, 556 W. 22nd St. (at 11th Ave.), 212-255-0719, 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.

THE FRICK COLLECTION: Portraits, Pastels, Prints:

Whistler in The Frick Collection. Through Aug. 23, 1 E. 70th St. (betw. 5th & Madison Aves.), 212-288-0700, 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. Francis Bacon: A Centenary Retrospective: 100 years after his birth, this exhibits provides a comprehensive look into Bacon’s career.

Through Aug. 16, 1000 5th Ave. (at E. 82nd St.), 212-535-7710, www.metmuseum.org.

THE MORGAN LIBRARY & MUSEUM: Oil Sketches from the Thaw Collection. Through Aug. 30. Creating the Modern Stage: Designs for Theater and Opera. Through Aug. 16.

Recent Acquisitions. Through Oct. 18, 225 Madison Ave. (at E. 36th St.), 212-6850008, 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 JEWISH HERITAGE: Beyond Swastika and Jim Crow: Jewish Refugee Scholars at Black Colleges. Through Jan 4. Woman of Letters: Irènè Nemirozsky & Suite Française. Through Aug. 30, 36 Battery Pl. (at 1st Pl.), 646-437-4200, www.mjhnyc.org.

MUSEUM OF MODERN ART: James Ensor: An exploration of Ensor’s use of light, satire and his interest in carnival and performance imagery through roughly 120 paintings, prints and drawings. Through Sept. 21, 11 W. 53rd St. (betw. 5th & 6th Aves.), 212708-9400, www.moma.org.

MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK: Amsterdam/ New Amsterdam: The Worlds of Henry Hudson. Through Sept. 27, 1220 5th Ave. (at E. 103rd St.), 212-534-1672, www. mcny.org.

NATIONAL ACADEMY MUSEUM: Reconfiguring the Body in American Art, 1820-2009. Through Nov. 15, 5 E. 89th St. (at 5th Ave.), 212996-1908, www.nationalacademy.org.

NEUE GALERIE: Focus: Oskar Kokoschka: Through oil portraits, drawings and graphic works that were created for the Wiener Werkstätte show Kokoschka’s movement from Jugendstil to Expressionism. Through Oct. 5, 1048 5th Ave. (at E. 86th St.), 212628-6200, www.neuegalerie.org.

NEW MUSEUM: Intersections Intersected: The Photography of David Goldblatt. Through

Oct. 11. Emory Douglas: Black Panther.

Operns July 22. Dorothy Ionnone: Lioness.

Opens July 22, 235 Bowery (at Prince St.), 212-219-1222, www.newmuseum.org.

NOGUCHI MUSEUM: Noguchi ReINstalled.

Through Oct. 24, 33rd Road at Vernon Boulevard, Queens, 718-721-2308, www. noguchi.org.

QUEENS MUSEUM OF ART: Tarjama/Translation.

This exhibition features artists from the Middle East, Central Asia and its diasporas.

Through Sept. 27, New York City Building, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens, 718-592-9700, www.queensmuseum.org.

RUBIN MUSEUM OF ART: Stable as a Mountain: Gurus in Himalayan Art. Through July 13. Nagas: Hidden Hill People of India.

Through Sept. 21, 150 W. 17th St. (betw.

6th & 7th Aves.), 212-620-5000, www. rmanyc.org.

SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM: Intervals: A new contemporary art series designed to reflect the spirit of today’s most innovative practices. Through July 19. Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward. Sixtyfour projects designed by one of the most influential architects of the 20th century.

Through Aug. 23, 1071 5th Ave. (at E. 89th Street), 212-423-3500, www.guggenheim. org.

STUDIO MUSEUM OF HARLEM: Collected. Hurvin Anderson: explores the places that Caribbean immigrants inhabited in London in the 1950s and ‘60s through rich paintings. Through Oct. 25, 144 W. 125th St. (betw. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. & Malcolm X Blvds.),

AVENUE Shows at the Armory December 3-6, 2009 Park Avenue Armory New York City avenueshows.com

Leading dealers recognize that the AVENUE Shows deliver the area’s most affluent antique and art buying audience.

“Our booth saw sales every day. This was one of the best shows we did in 2008”—Bill Rau, President, M.S. Rau Antiques

Defined by

Quality & Design

Don’t miss an opportunity to exhibit at this year ’s show. Perfectly timed for the pre-holiday season.

Contact Barbara Goodwin at 212.284.9728 or bgoodwin@ manhattanmedia.com

July 2009

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212-864-4500, www.studiomuseum.org.

WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART: Sadie Ben-

ning: Play Pause uses two-channel video to cut together hundreds of the artist’s gouache drawings of urban landscapes figures, and abstractions. Through Sept. 20. Dan Graham: Beyond. Through Oct. 11, 945 Madison Ave. (at E. 75th Street), 212-5703600, www.whitney.org.

CLASSICAL MUSIC & OPERA DENNIS RUSSELL DAVIES AND MAKI NAMEKAWA:

Two By Four With The Ruhr. An evening of intimate works for four hands and two pianos, July 25, Alice Tully Hall, Starr Theater, 1941 Broadway (at W. 65th St.), 212-721-6500; 8, $25 and up.

DAVE BRUBECK QUARTET: Time Out @50 will kick off Lincoln Center Out of Doors’ opening night, with special guest soloist Simon Shaheen. Aug. 5, Damrosch Park, Amsterdam Avenue near W. 62nd St.; 7:30, FREE. AMIR ELSAFFAR TWO RIVERS LARGE ENSEMBLE: performs at opening night of Lincoln Center Out of Doors. Aug. 5, Damrosch Park, Amsterdam Avenue near W. 62nd St.; 7:30, FREE. CAROL WINCENC: The famed flutist celebrates her 40th year on the concert stage with a four concert series. Aug. 13, Marriot Marquis Hotel, 1535 Broadway (at W. 46th St.), 212-398-1900; 2:30, $TBA. JOHN ADAMS: A Flowering Tree. Adams’ newest opera, adapted from a South Indian folktale, directed by Peter Sellars. Part of Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart festival. Aug. 13, 14, 16, Rose Theater, 33 W. 60th St. (betw.

Broadway & Columbus Ave.), 212-7216500; times vary, $40 and up.

EMERSON STRING QUARTET: Performing pieces

by Haydn and Mendelssohn with Eugene Drucker, Philip Setzer, Lawrence Dutton and David Finckel. Aug. 20, Avery Fischer Hall, 10 Lincoln Center Plz., 212-721-6500; 7:30, $45 and up.

JAZZ IN THE KEY OF COMEDY: Singer Joan Crowe com-

bines jazz music and comedy. July 23 & 30, The Metropolitan Room, 34 W. 22nd St. (betw. 5th & 6th Aves.), 212-206-0440; 9:45, $15.

WORLD ON A STRING TRIO: Jazz guitarist Paul Meyers leads new up and coming mu-

sicians. July 24, Bar Next Door, 129 MacDougal St. (betw. W. 3rd & 4th Sts.), 212-529-5945; 7 & 9, $10 per set.

IT’S JAZZ, CHARLIE BROWN: The Music of Vince Guaraldi. July 28, 92nd Street Y, Kaufmann Concert Hall, 1395 Lexington Ave. (at E. 92nd St.), 212-415-5500; 8, $25 and up.

JALEEL SHAW TRIO: Renowned alto saxophonist performs. July 30, Bar Next Door, 129 MacDougal St. (betw. W. 3rd & 4th Sts.), 212-529-5945; 8, $10.

SAXOPHONE SUMMIT: Masters of saxophone descend on the 92Y for a one-night jam.

July 30, 92nd Street Y, Kaufmann Concert Hall, 1395 Lexington Ave. (at E. 92nd St.), 212-415-5500; 8, $25 and up.

NICOLE HENRY: Top-selling jazz vocalist performs the Great American Songbook, love songs and originals. July 31, The Metropolitan Room, 34 W. 22nd St. (betw. 5th & 6th Aves.), 212-206-0440; 7:30, $25.

SMALLS MASTERS SERIES: Harry Whitaker Group. Aug. 1, Smalls, 183 W. 10th St. (at 7th Ave.), 212-252-5091; 7:30 & 9, $20.

CEDAR WALTON TRIO & QUARTET: Jazz great pianist fronts his own trio with David Williams & Joe Farnsworth, adding Vincent Herring for second run. July 28 through Aug. 2 & Aug. 4 through 9, Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Time Warner Center, Broadway at W. 60th St., 212-721-6500; times vary, $30-35.

JOHN PATITUCCI, JOE LOVANO AND BRIAN BLADE:

Grammy Award-winning musicians perform with drummer Brian Blade. Aug. 11 through 16, Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Time Warner Center, Broadway at W. 60th St., 212-721-6500; times vary, $30-35.

LITCHFIELD JAZZ FESTIVAL: Now in its 13th year, the three-day festival will feature performances from the Bill Henderson Quartet, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Poncho Sanchez Latin Jazz Band and more. July 31 through Aug. 2, Kent School, 1 Macedonia Rd., Kent, Conn., 860-567-4162; times vary, $39 per day and up.

STEVE KUHN TRIO: Pianist performs John Coltrane-associated tunes with drummer Al Foster and bassist Steve Swallow. Aug. 13 through 16, Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th St. (betw. Park & Lexington Aves.), 212-5762232; times vary, $25-$30.

TRUMPET AUGUST WITH THE JOHN MARSHALL QUINTET: Well-known jazz quintet performs. Aug.

14, Smalls, 183 W. 10th St. (at 7th Ave.), 212-252-5091; 10:30 & 12, $20.

JOANNE BRACKEEN QUARTET: Famed jazz pianist performs with tenor saxophonist Ravi

CityArts www.cityarts.info Send all press releases to cityarts@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. © 2009 Manhattan Media, LLC 79 Madison Avenue, 16th Floor, New York, NY 10016 t: 212.268.8600, f: 212.268.0577, www.manhattanmedia.com

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City Arts NYC

Coltrane and veteran bassist Eddie Gomez.

Aug. 20 through 23, Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th St. (betw. Park & Lexington Aves.), 212-576-2232; times vary, $25-$30.

WALTER BLANDING QUINTET: Tenor performs in quintet with presentation of standards, jazz pieces and originals. Aug. 31, Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Time Warner Center, Broadway at W. 60th St., 212-721-6500; 7:30 & 9:30, $20.

FILM THE BARD GOES GLOBAL: This series takes a peri-

patetic look at Shakespeare on film. Lawrence Olivier’s Henry V will play, as well as Danish, Japanese and Indian renderings of English’s greatest playwright. Through July 26, Walter Reade Theater, 70 Lincoln Center Plz., 212-875-5601; times vary, $11.

PREMIERE BRAZIL 2009: MoMA hosts its seventh festival of Brazilian film, with directors on hand for many of the premier screenings.

The festival will also include live Brazilian music on Thursday nights. Through Aug. 3, Museum of Modern Art, 11 W. 53rd St. (betw. 5th & 6th Aves.), 212-708-9400; times vary, $10/$6.

FRENCH NEW WAVE ESSENTIALS: The French New Wave collaborative exhibition between the Museum of the Moving Image and the Museum of Art and Design continues, with screenings on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Through Aug. 30, The Museum of Arts and Design, 2 Columbus Cir. (at Broadway), 212-299-7717; times vary, $11/$8.

NICK RAY TRIBUTE: 14 films from the American filmmaker will be playing at Film Forum, including his seminal classic Rebel Without A Cause. July 24 through Aug. 6, 209 W. Houston St. (betw. 6th Ave. & Varick St.), 212-727-8110; times vary, $12.

IGMAR BERGMAN DOUBLE FEATURE: Symphony Space will show Wild Strawberries and The Seventh Seal back-to-back for two nights.

July 25 and Aug. 16, 2537 Broadway at W. 95th St., 212.864.5400; 7, $11.

MOVIE NIGHTS ON THE ELEVATED ACRE: As part of the River to River Festival, there will be one-off screenings of American cinema classics including The Sweet Smell of Success.

July 27, 55 Water St. (near Old Slip); 8, FREE. ANDY WARHOL FILM WEEKEND: Anthology Film Archives will show two notorious Warhol films, Naked Lunch and The Chelsea Girls, as well as a modern adaptation of Warhol’s filmmaking. July 31 through Aug.

2, Anthology Film Archives, 32 2nd Ave., 212-505-5181; times vary, $9.

THE FILMS OF ANG LEE: The acclaimed director of Brokeback Mountain gets a retrospective from the Lincoln Center Film Society.

Early favorites like Eat Drink Man Woman and The Ice Storm will play as well. Aug. 1 through 11, Walter Reade Theater, 70 Lincoln Center Plz., 212-875-5601; times vary, $11.

REDISCOVERING JOHN CAZALE: The underappreciated American actor gets his due, with screenings of Deer Hunter, The Conversation and The Godfather at BAM. July 29 through Aug. 2, BAM Rose Cinemas, 30 Lafayette Ave. (at Ashland Pl.), Brooklyn, 718-636-4100; times vary, $11/$8.

DANCE DANIEL GWIRTZMAN DANCE COMPANY: In The

Studio. Intimate performances and narrated programs followed by question and answer sessions. Aug. 5, 12, 19 and 26, New York City Center Studios, 130 W. 56th St., Studio #5 (betw. 6th & 7th Aves.), 212-5431367; 7, FREE. EMANUEL GAT DANCE: The North American premiere of Silent Ballet and the New York premiere of Winter Variations, July 14, 16 & 17, Rose Theater, 33 W. 60th St. (betw.

Broadway & Columbus Ave.), 212-7216500; 8, $20 and up.

MERCE CUNNINGHAM DANCE COMPANY: Performs new material at a site-specific location. Aug. 1 and 2, Rockefeller Park, enter park at River Terr. and Warren St., 212 242 0800; 7, FREE. MARK MORRIS DANCE GROUP: Two newly commissioned works for the Mostly Mozart Festival, with Yo-Yo- Ma and Emanuel Ax performing Beethoven’s Cello Sonata in C major, Charles Ives’ Trio and Schumann’s Piano Quintet in E- flat major. August 19 through 22, Rose Theater, 33 W. 60th St. (betw. Broadway & Columbus Ave.), 212721-6500; times vary, $40 and up.

NICHOLAS LEICHTER DANCE: A Space Funk Invasion. Leichter and Monstah Black present funk music, culture, fashion and dance. July 20 through 30, South Street Seaport, Fulton and Front Sts., 212 219 9401 x 118; times vary, FREE.

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

the movie, with new lyrics and music by

EDITOR Jerry Portwood jportwood@manhattanmedia.com

GROUP ASSOC. PUBLISHER Gerry Gavin ggavin@manhattanmedia.com

PRESIDENT/CEO Tom Allon tallon@manhattanmedia.com

MANAGING EDITOR Adam Rathe arathe@ manhattanmedia.com

PUBLISHER Kate Walsh kwalsh@manhattanmedia.com

CFO/COO Joanne Harras jharras@manhattanmedia.com

ART DIRECTOR Jessica Balaschak

PRODUCTION MANAGER Mark Stinson

SENIOR ART CRITIC Lance Esplund SENIOR MUSIC CRITIC Jay Nordlinger SENIOR DANCE CRITIC Joel Lobenthal

ADVERTISING DESIGN Heather Mulcahey

GROUP PUBLISHER Alex Schweitzer aschweitzer@manhattanmedia.com

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Mark Blankenship, Brice Brown, Adam Kirsch, John Goodrich, Howard Mandel, Marion Maneker, Mario Naves, Ryan Tracy

EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS William Alden, David Berke, Rebecca Wallace

MARKETING DIRECTOR Tom Kelly tkelly@manhattanmedia.com

MIDTOWN INTERNATIONAL THEATRE FESTIVAL:

With a selection of plays that it describes as “eclectic,” this festival aims to promote emerging talent and offers publishing contracts to participating playwrights. Through

Aug. 2, 312 W. 36th St. (betw. 8th & 9th Aves.), 866-811-4111.

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 Aug. 2, The June Havoc Theatre, 312 W. 36th St. (betw. 8th & 9th Aves.), 866-811-4111.

OTHELLO: Peter Sellars directs this Shakespeare tragedy about jealousy. Starring John Ortiz and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Through Oct. 4, NYU Skirball Center, 566 LaGuardia Pl. (at W. 4th St.).

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 POTOMAC THEATRE PROJECT: The plays in this season’s run include Howard Barker’s The Europeans, a brutal love story set in 17th-century Turkey, 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.), 212-279-4200.

THE SMOKING DIARY: After meeting the man of her dreams through an online dating service, single mom Renee is forced to quite some of her most stubborn habits in this new play by Loretta Dillon. Through Aug. 10, Chernuchin Theater, 314 W. 54th St., (betw. 8th and 9th Aves.), 800-838-3006.

SUMMER PLAY FESTIVAL: This festival of plays and musicals by emerging playwrights includes Ken Urban’s “The Happy Sad,” Nicki Bloom’s “Tender,” Tim J. Lord’s “We Declare You a Terrorist” and more. Through Aug. 2, The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St. (betw. 4th St. & Astor Pl.), 212-9677555.

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

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 West 43rd St. (at 8th Ave.), 212-246-4422.

Music, Galleries, Film, Theater, Dance, Museums, Lifestyle, Books, Culture, Previews, Reviews, Criticism, Calendar

New York’s Review of Culture To our readers, It takes great confidence to announce that we are New York’s Review of Culture, but what greater goal can we have?

CityArts arrived on the scene earlier this year in March, prepared to close the arts gap and to ignite the conversation between the visual and the performing arts. While other publishers were slashing arts coverage, Manhattan Media marched proudly to the fore, and created this brand-new publication – a setting for audiences, patrons, artists and performers to celebrate all that makes NYC such an exciting place .

CityArts debuted as a supplement to the popular weeklies New York Press, Our Town and West Side Spirit but come September 15, CityArts proudly steps out as a separate and independent publication.

CityArts will be published twice monthly (20 times a year) and 50,000 individual copies will be distributed to doorman buildings and news boxes in Manhattan, as well as to galleries, schools, arts centers, hotels and businesses throughout New York City.

CityArts is also available by mail subscription, and in the fall, please watch for the launch of our dedicated website www.cityarts.info.

CityArts offers an eclectic mix of news and insights from distinguished authors and critics. We are affordable and flexible and strive to be a destination read for the non-profit and the corporate worlds of art and artists — both visual and performing.

We appreciate the great support that you have already shown, and look forward to hearing from you, covering your events and being a partner in your advertising and marketing efforts.

Sincerely, Kate Walsh Publisher kwalsh@manhattanmedia.com 646-442-1629

LITERARY EVENTS Fall Arts Preview

NICK LAIRD: The Utterly Monkey author and

Tuesday, September 15 (Deadlines: space September 9, materials September 10) NYC

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

Dance

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BY LANCE ESPLUND

Not What It’s Cracked Up To Be TK

Contemporary artists have liberated ceramics from their utility into objects of contemplation

BY BRICE BROWN

Galleries

he long-esteemed history of porcelain— brimming with power, wealth, corruption and even murder—is almost operatic in scope and makes for a fascinating tale. Equally fascinating, though not usually considered, is how the industry of porcelain has maintained a progressive and relevant influence on artistic practices. The medium’s aesthetic evolution since its introduction to the West in the early 18th century is intrinsically tied to the means by which it was manufactured. Patronage afforded by a relationship with a major, well-funded factory meant artists were able to fully investigate their creative impulses. The result was cutting-edge ceramic objects manufactured in shapes and decoration then unthinkable.

Today, working with industrial ceramic companies affords an artist access to new tools, enabling increased speed in prototyping and production, and an ability to fund and execute conceptually complex ideas. Now being filed under the somewhat generic label of

T

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

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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

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FRANCIS BACON AT THE MET, FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT AT GUGG

Arts Agenda

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GALLERIES, MUSEUMS, DANCE, THEATER AND MORE.

A Manhattan Media publication

New York’s Review of Culture

JOHN GOODRICH AND MARIO NAVES REVIEW.

Classical

Jazz

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Shadi Ghadirian, “Domestic Life #61”

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JAY NORDLINGER BIDS FAREWELL TO SCHENK’S RING.

JOEL LOBENTHAL LOOKS TO MARTHA GRAHAM TO FIX OPERA

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Edyta Cieloch’s “Spanish Lace”

Applied Arts, the work born of art’s marriage to industry combine whip-smart approaches to the most commonplace objects. And now that contemporary studio practice is decidedly post-material—where no one medium takes preference over another—a slew of artists from outside the world of clay are entering the fray of industrial ceramics, bringing fresh ideas and perspectives. For example, working with the Sévres factory in France, photographer Cindy Sherman took pieces from existing services and applied customized decoration–– namely, images of herself dressed as Madame du Pompadour––to create a set of witty and mischievous dishes out of traditional forms.

With Object Factory: The Art of Industrial Ceramics (a version of the exhibit was on view last year at the Gardiner Museum in Toronto), the Museum of Art and Design presents a survey of over 200 examples of these contemporary ceramic works, highlighting Applied Art’s new trends and possible paths toward future developments. The roster

of artists is refreshingly international, indicating porcelain’s global appeal, and the quality of works run the gamut from underwhelming and predictable to knock-your-socks-off gorgeous. There are no outright duds, however, owing to the superb job of guest curator Marek Cecula, himself an extremely accomplished ceramic artist.

Divided into the three broadly drawn categories of “Altered States,” “Collaborations” and “New Territory,” the objects on view are initially known to us: teapots, cups, saucers, plates and bowls. These vessels comprise the basic building blocks of the domestic life. Yet closer inspection reveals each piece to be corrupted, transformed and hybridized in some large or small way, making the familiar instantly strange (a snail crawling across a bowl, for example, as in Hella Jongerius’ quirky piece), and forcing us to rethink the ways we experience the objects we take for granted.

Dwelling in the interstices between craft,

CityArts NYC

MAY 2009

Gallery Beat

www.cityartsny.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

CityArts NYC

JUNE 2009

Theater

www.cityarts.info

New York’s Review of Culture

HOWARD MANDEL RECOMMENDS ROULETTE’S EXPERIMENTAL SUMMER ROSTER.

Theater

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PLAYWRIGHT LLOYD SUH GETS FOUR PRODUCTIONS AT ONCE

Arts Agenda

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GALLERIES, MUSEUMS, DANCE, THEATER AND MORE.

see CRACKED UP on page 10 A Manhattan Media publication

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MARCH 2009

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www.cityartsny.info

Drawing Matters Two New York exhibitions demonstrate the essential power of drawing

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BY LANCE ESPLUND In an age when artists such as Elizabeth Peyton and Marlene Dumas, painters with virtually no drawing skills, are headlining our major museums, it may seem that drawing has devolved into whatever an artist wants it to be. For many contemporary painters, the act of drawing is no longer an arena in which mind and hand—through improvisation, imagination and invention—lead to the discovery of formal values. In fact, a major part of the problem now is that formal values are often maligned as academic and outmoded, or they are seen as just another among so many equally valid positions an artist can take. During a recent studio visit, a successful European painter actually told me (and I think he believed this) he could draw well if he wanted to, but drawing badly was part of his chosen style.

To walk through Peyton’s recent midcareer retrospective of slapdash and impersonal portraits of friends, celebrities and historical figures at the New Museum, or that of Dumas’ painterly, hyperbolic, photo-based monstrosities at MoMA, is to be told in no uncertain terms that drawing well—composing form and interrelating parts into a uniquely coherent and expressive whole—is not important any longer to the act of picture-making. For Peyton and Dumas, drawing, not to mention painting, has very little to do with marshaling the twin forces of conception and form, and nurturing them to fruition as a work of art.

Instead, drawing is merely the dead means to dead ends—a way of alluding to, as opposed to unearthing and reinventing (drawing forth from), the world.

Two exhibitions in the city right now remind us of just how rich and fruitful the act of drawing can be. Raphael to Renoir: Drawings From the Collection of Jean Bonna is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Thaw Collection of Master Drawings: Acquisitions Since 2002 is at the Morgan Library & Museum. Together they comprise approximately 200 works on paper, dating from the 15th

A ONE-MAN SHOW AT SOHO REP THAT PACKS A PUNCH.

Classical Music

6

CELEBRATING LORIN MAAZEL AND ANDRÉ PREVIN.

Visual Art

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JAPAN SOCIETY GOES KRAZY! FOR MANGA.

Opera

Schecter Lee

CityArts

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acclaimed Irish poet reads from his new book. July 20, McNally Jackson, 52 Prince St. (betw. Lafayette & Mulberry Sts.), 212274-1160; 7, FREE. CHEEVER: A LIFE: An examination of the life and work of John Cheever, with Cheever’s biographer Blake Bailey, Library of America publisher Max Rudin, Cheever’s daughter, Susan and fiction writer Bret Anthony Johnston. July 30, Madison Square Park, enter park at E. 25th St. and Madison Ave. 6:30, FREE. LOVE IS A FOUR-LETTER WORD: Jami Attenberg, Michelle Green and Said Sayrafiezadeh will read from a new collection of relationship stories. Aug. 6, Word Bookstore, 126 Franklin St. (at Milton St.), Brooklyn, 718-3830096; 7:30, FREE.

Sebastian Zimmer

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.

ARS NOVA COMEDY FESTIVAL: This series of onenight-only comedy performances features “Assume the Position” with Robert Wuhl, “Hat Trick” with Kimmy Gatewood and “So Fresh So Clean” with Joe HernandezKolski and Joshua Silverstein. September, Ars Nova, 511 W. 54th St. (at 10th Ave.), 212-352-3101.

THE BACCHAE: Director JoAnne Akalaitis presents this Euripides classic with music by Philip Glass. Through Aug. 30, Delacorte Theater, Central Park, enter park at Central Park West and W. 80th St., times vary, FREE. EVERYTHING THE TRAFFIC WILL ALLOW: Klea Blackhurst reinterprets the songs of Ethel Merman in this witty tribute to one of the last century’s most beloved performers.

Saturdays through Sept. 5, Snapple Theater Center, 210 W. 50th St. (at Broadway), 212-921-7862.

FRESH FRUIT FESTIVAL: Brought to you by All Out Arts and New Village Productions, this Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender festival is in its seventh year. Through July 27, Hudson Guild Theater, 441 W. 26th St. (at 10th Ave.), 212-352-3101.

FRINGE FESTIVAL NYC: This diverse festival runs for 16 days and features over 200 companies, hailing from around the globe.

Through Aug. 30, various venues in downtown Manhattan, headquarters at Fringe Central, 54 Crosby St. (betw. Spring & Broome Sts.), 866-468-7619.

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.

HOT! FESTIVAL: The longest-running queer performance and culture festival in the world, HOT! boasts a strong line-up of artists this year, including Carmelita Tropicana, Penny Arcade, Split Britches and many more.

Through Aug. 8, Dixon Place, 161 Chrystie St. (betw. Delancey & Rivington Sts.), 866-811-4111.

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 Sept. 6, Walter Kerr Theater, 219 W. 48th St. (betw. Broadway & 8th Ave.), 212-582-4536.

LYRIC IS WAITING: In this dark comedy by Michael Puzzo, Bigfoot and a sexy librarian are in love. Through Aug. 22, Irish Repertory Theatre, 132 W. 22nd St. (betw. 6th & 7th Aves.), 212-727-2737.

Matisse’s portrait of his assistant Lydia, “Grand Fisase (Lydia)” century to the present.

Not every work in these shows is a masterpiece. They reflect the uneven, catholic tastes of two very different but deep-pocketed collectors, Jean Bonna and Eugene Thaw, respectively. At times there is a sense that

these two men are out trophy hunting. But the great drawings in these shows far outnumber the dogs.

Both drawing exhibitions are top-shelf

see DRAWING on page 10

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THE WOOSTER GROUP INTERPRETS LA DIDONE.

Arts Agenda

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GALLERIES, MUSEUMS, DANCE, THEATER AND MORE.

www.cityarts.info July 2009

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