JUNE 15, 2010 Volume 2, Issue 11
IN THIS ISSUE Courtesy of Estate of Anne Truitt / Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
LANCE ESPLUND on Anne Truitt’s career-spanning minimalism
JAY NORDLINGER on Nikolai Lugansky
Plus: The first part of our Summer Short List, Agnès Jaoui’s ‘Let it Rain’ and Ruben Santiago-Hudson speaks about Central Park’s bears. Installation of Anne Truitt works at Matthew Marks
JOEL LOBENTHAL on Alina Cojocaru & Darci Kistler
AMANDA GORDON rewards cupcakes and couples
InthisIssue 8 THE SUMMER SHORT LIST The first part of our picks of the 100 events and activities you don’t want to miss in New York and beyond.
12 AT THE GALLERIES Reviews: Eva and Franco Mattes at Postmasters Gallery; Pádraig Timoney at Andrew Kreps Gallery; Renato D’Agostin at Randall Scott Gallery; Wayne Thiebaud at Paul Thiebaud Gallery; Jim Nutt at David Nolan Gallery; Will Barnet at Alexandre Gallery; Nicolas Carone at Washburn Gallery.
14 ANNE TRUITT LANCE ESPLUND on the career-spanning minimalism on display at Matthew Marks Gallery.
15 CLASSICAL & OPERA JAY NORDLINGER on Russian pianist Nikolai Lugansky and the New York Philharmonic’s staging of a wacky little opera called Le Grand Macabre.
16 DANCE JOEL LOBENTHAL flags Royal Ballet’s Alina Cojocaru’s arrival and the date of NYCB’s Darci Kistler’s retirement.
18 ARTS AGENDA Symphony, Chamber Music, Opera and Galleries.
22 PAINT THE TOWN BY AMANDA GORDON We give awards for best cupcake, best award design and others on the party circuit.
23 PHOTOS FROM CITYARTS’ FIRSTYEAR CELEBRATION
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InBrief Let It Rain Agnès Jaoui has never sat still long enough to take on just one creative role at a time. Her versatility as an artist stems from her ability to blur the boundaries between fields. She started turning heads as a playwright and a stage actress, working for the Théâtre des Amandiers along with long-time partner, co-writer and co-star Jean-Pierre Bacri on plays like Family Resemblances. In 1996, Bacri and Jaoui adapted it into a film by the same name, in which they also co-starred. In 2000, Jaoui would direct, co-write and act in The Taste of Others, which went on to be the highest grossing comedy in France that year. Plus, she’s a classically trained singer, having released two critically acclaimed albums of bossanova, fado and other Latin-flavored music. Her latest film, Let it Rain, is a witty battle of the sexes and opens at the IFC Center June 18. At 45, she’s already worked with everybody from Patrice Chereau to Alain Resnais, and she cites Resnais as being a big influence on the way she strives to establish a rapport with her actors. “He taught me [that] you can obtain things by showing a lot of passion and respect from your actors by creating a trustful relationship with them,” she explained. “I
Agnès Jaoui in Let It Rain.
do the same [thing]: I meet each actor one by one and I try to reassure them.” While Jaoui forgoes a distinct series of visual cues of her own so as to better draw attention to her actors, she also believes that sound is a more important cinematic component than visuals. “Music, in my
opinion, my tastes, can spoil a movie. For instance, Billy Elliot, a movie that I like, I hated the music. It really spoiled for me the pleasure of the movie… Music is a part of the movie, but not only the music, the silences also. These are really the moments I adore.”
Similarly, Canta, Jaoui’s first album of music with El Quintet Oficial, was inspired by her own love of the music in Spanish director Pedro Almódovar’s films. “I’ve been to Cuba, and I met some musicians there. As you may know, Cuban people want to escape, very often just to earn some money and in that case, to come back for their families. I helped these musicians to come to Paris, and, after a while, we started to sing together… It’s like a calling for me—to be somebody else, to sing in another language.” One of the main thematic leitmotifs in Jaoui’s films is similarly the need to break past the prejudices that come with differences in one’s background, whether it’s the class warfare in The Taste of Others or the hints of racial and sexual tension in Let it Rain. “I’m very passionate about the difficulty to change, not society, but yourself and the power of determinism… and how to escape that, how to make your own way.” Still, Jaoui warns viewers not to read her films as autobiography, even if Let It Rain’s Agatha Villanova, a strident politician and career woman, does seem to struggle against the same prejudices as Jaoui. “I guess some people have that image from me, but I’ve also built it [for myself]. A lot of people confuse my characters and me. An image is an image.” (Simon Abrams)
June 15, 2010 | City Arts
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InBrief The latest charmer from Jason Moran & The Bandwagon should appeal to anybody who’s ever looked back on a decade and longed for a shot at a light edit. With the album Ten (which releases June 22), the master ensemble of Moran, Tarus Mateen (bass) and Nasheet Waits (drums) takes the opportunity of its eponymous anniversary to remap its origins and splash about happily on future prospects. Just please, don’t tell Jason. “Ten is our first record that doesn’t rely on a concept to drive it,” claims Moran. “The only concept is us as a band today.” Here’s the rub: For the most intellectually extroverted pianist of his generation, “today” is always brewed from a whole mess of yesterdays. Four minutes in from a bluesy opening gambit, we get “RFK in the Land of Apartheid,” the title track commissioned for last fall’s documentary about the slain leader’s 1966 visit to South Africa; the set closes with a spry, hidden Bert Williams minstrel tune. Moran has never needed an historical subtext as a pretext to re-text. He spots hiphop rhythms in Thelonius Monk, and tracks throughout Ten link stride with gurgling runs, or set straight, seamless teamwork against the mod intrusion of sampled feedback from mid-’60s Jimi Hendrix. He takes a jigsaw to the building-block perfection of Monk’s “Crepuscule with Nellie,” and in the Bandwagon’s hands, even splinters mightily sound, shimmer and pleasingly re-form, like so many magic Disney brooms. Speaking of generational themes, the voices of Moran’s young children in “Old Babies” bookend shout-outs to his adopted
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musical fathers Andrew Hill and Jaki Byard, with whom Moran co-composed “Play to Live.” Order arises from the tangled bank like a biped from the swamp, and one wonders where the father ends and the son begins. Isn’t continuous regeneration simply the way of the world? After trying all those new positions, Nellie was bound to get knocked up. Sure enough, after the crepuscule comes a new dawn. Here’s to hoping the Bandwagon keeps spawning for decades to come. (Jonathan Funke) Jason Moran (with Mary Halvorson & Ron Miles), June 24 as part of George Wein’s CareFusion Jazz Festival, at the Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th St., 212576-2232. Moran also plays the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival Aug. 28.
Courtesy of Rafael Ferrer
Ten is the Loneliest Number
Bite the Hand That Feeds You
Rafael Ferrer’s “Anti-Illusion: Procedures/Materials,” Whitney Musesum (1969)
You only have to see a couple of paintings by Rafael Ferrer before wondering why he had to wait until this terrific retrospective at El Museo del Barrio to get the full, great artist treatment. With 100 complex and beautiful works, the exhibit spans more than 50 years of the artist’s career and includes collage, sculpture, painting, drawing, photography and mixed media. Although acclaimed by critics and collected by the Metropolitan Museum, MoMA and other major institutions, he somehow never caught the spotlight. Now it’s his. “I believe people didn’t know how to pigeonhole Rafael,” explains Deborah Cullen, the museum’s director of curatorial programs, who curated this traveling retrospective. “It’s as if he were too much
to take in. There is a great, aggressive joy and humanist passion in his prolific image making. All his passions flood into his work. He’s a restless intellectual, who never settles into one artistic mode of expression.” Ferrer, who was born in Puerto Rico in 1933, takes his belated recognition in stride. “I have always gone against the grain,” he says. “I give the advice: ‘Bite the hand that feeds you.’ It’s the only way to be true to yourself.” In his first exhibitions in Puerto Rico beginning in 1961, Ferrer showed collages with sexy pin-ups, mousetraps and abstract painted passages, as well as welded and assembled fictional characters made of scrap metal. After moving to the continental United States in 1966, he began working with raw, natural
materials—such as leaves, hay, peat moss, water, ice and grease—as well as industrial elements, like telephone poles, chain-link fencing, ladders and buckets. Later Ferrer drew exotic locations and strange faces on navigational charts and explored figurative work, with powerful scenes of Caribbean villages that show the result of oppression. A great lover of language, and fluent in two, he has long incorporated words and phrases in his works. “Ferrer’s imagination gently overflows historical, cultural and artistic boundaries or sweeps through them,” wrote the critic Carter Ratcliff in an essay in the exhibition catalog, “allowing itself to be deflected only if deflection will focus its power.”
InBrief A world traveler, Ferrer now works at his home on Long Island, surrounded by water. It fills his island needs and allows him to go out in his kayak every day. “My life and my education are inextricably linked to two diametrically different cultures,” he says, “and this marks in a profound way everything that I have done. This may explain my nonconformist nature. I simply don’t fit in. Never have, never will.” (Valerie Gladstone) Retro/Active: The Work of Rafael Ferrer. Through Aug. 22, El Museo del Barrio, 1230 5th Ave., 212-8317272.
Houses of Mirth A Brooklyn brownstone’s “parlour” may strike some New Yorkers as a curious choice of venue in which to stage a free dance performance— especially one in which eight dancers cavort, leap about and play Blind Man’s Tze Chun Dance Company. Bluff. For 26-year-old choreographer Tze Chun, however, the artistic director of her eponymous dance company, the floor of has been performed in brownstones—both the space is the singular space from which private and on the market—and other venues she drew inspiration for her latest work, in seven neighborhoods across Brooklyn, Parlour Games. and was born out of adventures in real “It was created with Brooklyn in mind estate. Chun’s family was looking to invest as the setting,” explains Chun. The piece in a brownstone property in 2008, and she
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became fascinated with the history of the buildings she encountered. “It’s so interesting that there are thousands of people’s footprints all over Brooklyn, in the same kind of structures that retain the original details of the time in which they were built,” she says. “I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be interesting to choreograph a piece that could fit in that floor-plan and be transported to these different locations?’” The end result is a 45minute, highly theatrical performance that’s by turns playful, sexy, manic and comedic. Chun’s dancers wear 19thcentury outfits, play games like Pass the Orange—seductively rolling an orange down the side of the body—and more contemporary ones like Suck and Blow. Margaret Hofer, curator of Decorative Arts at The New York Historical Society, explains that “the reasons people were playing parlour games in the first place had a lot to do with economic circumstances—rising affluence, shorter workdays and increased leisure time.” The very idea of having a parlour explicitly set aside for casual entertainment was a newer aspect of uppermiddle-class and middle-class society. Monique Greenwood owns the 15year-old Akwaaba Bed and Breakfast in the
Stuyvesant Heights landmark district of BedStuy, where the dance company performed May 2. The 5,000-square-foot Italianate mansion was built by wealthy beer barons who owned a local brewery, and had passed through four generations before Greenwood and her husband purchased it. “The people who live in Stuyvesant Heights take great pride in the fact that they live in over 100year-old homes,” explains Greenwood. “They understand the ownership history, the frieze work, the mouldings and the character of their own homes. Their knowledge of how the people actually lived in the times during which the homes were built, however, is more limited, and so [Parlour Games] is a great opportunity to see that.” Chun is quick to point out that most “Brooklynites know more about the history of their neighborhoods than I could ever hope to know.” That being said, she admits that the brownstones in which the company has performed have certainly taken on a new life through her work. “As we perform in these different spaces, the spaces are kind of becoming a larger and larger part of the piece,” she explains. “They’re another kind of character in the story that we create.” (Shakthi Jothianandan) Parlour Games. June 19 & 20, visit www.chengcheng.pxsoft.net for complete details.
JUNE BOOKS Role Models, by John Waters
The provocative director seemed to clean up his act after Hairspray was adapted into a super-successful Broadway musical. But in this collection of essays he surprises once again, as he explores his greatest influences— everyone from Johnny Mathis and Tennessee Williams to Manson protégé Leslie Van Houten. At times hilarious and touching, it’s a peek into the man who once shocked but now seems like the kooky uncle you want to have at your next Sunday brunch. The Flatiron, by Alice Sparberg Alexiou
ArtsNews Nohra Haime Gallery is celebrating the inauguration of a new exhibition space with Metamorphosis, a group show exploring the theme of change. The exhibition will be on view through July 5… Henry Street Settlement’s Abrons Arts Center has announced its fall 2010 season, and some of this year’s shows include Karole Armitage’s Think Punk, Oct. 17, and Justin Bond’s gender-bending Christmas Spells, Dec. 8 through 18… Sean Mellyn’s Paper Monet installation is on exhibit from June 23 through Aug. 12 at the
Art Production Fund’s APF LAB. The exhibit is inspired by the Impressionist’s home in Giverny, France… The owners of Brooklyn tattoo shop Hand of Glory are celebrating the opening of its sister shop, The End is Near, with a party July 1… Bernice McFadden’s novel Glorious has been selected as the inaugural title of the One Book, One Harlem program. The book, set in the Harlem Renaissance, will be celebrated with an open discussion between McFadden and novelist Terry McMillan… Michael Cetrulo has
reopened his restaurant, Palio Bar, after significant renovations. The bar offers diners a chance to grab a cocktail and listen to the sounds of jazz greats like the Vanessa Trouble Trio and the Harry Allen/Joe Cohn Quartet… Former Deitch Gallery employees Kathy Grayson and Meghan Coleman have launched The Hole, a new art outfit in Downtown Manhattan on Greene Street. The first exhibition is called Not Quite Open for Business, a collection of unfinished art, poems and symphonies.
The building still manages to hold tourists’ imaginations despite being in the shadow of the Empire State building nearby, and over the years has come to reside as a landmark for millions. Alexiou offers a personal (her immigrant grandfather once owned a portion of the Fuller Building, its official name) as well as historical approach in this engaging tale of architecture and prominent characters in turn-of-the-century New York City. Swoon, by Swoon and Jeffrey Deitch
The street art canon would be incomplete without mention of Caledonia Curry, better known as Swoon. A 192-page eponymous hardcover has just been released, chronicling the 33-year-old’s massive and ephemeral work. She’s made art in New York City and around the world since 1999, garnering a following for her take on what has rarely been called graffiti: throwing parties in the street, building whimsical flotillas and wheat-pasting intricate street portraits. The latter caught the eye of Jeffrey Deitch, who contributed an introductory essay to the book. There are also essays from a quartet of Curry contemporaries, but she wrote the captions for the 200 vibrant illustrations, with the kind of underhanded wit you’d expect from this poster child of clandestine crafts. Waiting for Godot in New Orleans: A Field Guide, edited by Paul Chan
In March 2007, Paul Chan moved from New York City to New Orleans for a massive undertaking: He was to stage Waiting for Godot in the Lower Ninth Ward of NOLA. The hurricane-ravaged landscape of the city reminded Chan of every production of the Beckett play he’d ever seen. With the help of Creative Time, this 338-page hardcover collects the research materials, photographs, writings, drawings and documents used to stage what became a huge production of artistic community support. June 15, 2010 | City Arts
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The Summer Short List: Part 1
Bang on a Can Marathon It may sound like just another headache, but it’s an experience that you won’t soon forget. The marathon begins at noon and continues through midnight. The free event has become an annual summer event that brings together more than 150 astounding performers and composers from throughout the world, performing in numerous genres and experimental styles for 12 hours of uninterrupted live, ear-bending, border-crossing music. June 27, 220 Vesey St.; www.bangonacan.org. New York Philharmonic & Shanghai Symphony Orchestra in Central Park Take advantage of this collaboration between the NY Phil, conducted by Andrey Boreyko, and Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, music director Long Yu, with pianist Lang Lang as a featured soloist. July 13, The Great Lawn, Central Park, www. nyphil.org; 8, free. Opening of Andy Warhol: The Last Decade Don’t miss out on opening day of The Brooklyn Museum’s Andy Warhol: The Last Decade. The nearly 50 works on display show the techniques Warhol experimented with during the late part of his career, on loan from the Pittsburghbased Warhol Foundation. June 18, The Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, www. brooklynmuseum.org; 10 a.m.- 5, $10. Take a tour of Big Bambú Although it’s one of the best summer drink destinations in the city, we can’t recommend that you should get that cocktail before you take a guided tour of Doug + Mike Starn’s creation on the roof of the Met. No need for anxiety, however, since there are plenty of rules and guidelines to follow. Just make sure to leave the heels at home and come attired in proper footwear. Through Oct. 31, The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden at the Met Museum, www.metmuseum.org; tickets available in the Uris Center for Education, E. 81st St. ground-level entrance. Final Performance of Hair on Broadway Attention musical buffs (or ’60s nostalgists)! Catch the final performance of Hair at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre June 27 before it packs up for a coast-to-coast tour in October. June 27, Al Hirschfeld Theatre, 302 W. 45th St., www.hairbroadway.com; ticket prices and times vary. Willie Nelson’s 4th of July Celebration Find your country roots at Anthology Film
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Archives’ Willie Nelson’s 4th of July Celebration. Nelson fans can view a documentary of his ’79 July 4th concert. July 3, 8 p.m., & July 4, 5:30 p.m., Anthology Film Archives, 32 2nd Ave.; $9. Celebrate Independence Day with Contraband Cinema at BAMcinématek The nine-day series includes 33 defiant (and almost unwatchable) films. But it really must have been interesting for the programmers to figure out that July 4 would conclude with Pasolini’s Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom. 30 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, 718-636-4100, www.bam.org. Tosca at Glimmerglass Opera Take in Puccini’s classic at Glimmerglass Opera’s Festival Weekend, where attendees can also go to a private reception and lecture. Sports fans looking for a break from the opera scene can head down the street to the Baseball Hall of Fame. July 29 through Aug. 1, Cooperstown, N.Y., www. glimmerglass.org; $26-$126. Nuyorican Poets Cafe Poetry Slam The Downtown space heads uptown with performances by legendary poets Miguel Algarin, Sandra Maria Estevez, Lois Griffith and Edwin Torres, as well as music by Annette Aguilar and Carlos Cuestas. Grammy nominee Wilson “Chembo” Corniel, Jr., will close out the evening with his special brand of Latin jazz. June 30, SummerStage, Central Park, Rumsey Playfield, www. summerstage.org; 7, free. Caramoor Festival Jazz up your weekend at the Caramoor Jazz Festival, where performances by Cuban piano player Chuchito Valdés and the more contemporary Stefon Harris are sure to get you in the right groove. Aug. 6 through 8, 149 Girdle Ridge Road, Katonah, N.Y., www.carmoor.org; $25-$55. Greater New York Take a trip to Long Island City to see Greater New York, the third quintennial exhibition by the Museum of Modern Art and P.S.1, featuring artists and collectives living and working in New York. Tape installation artist Franklin Evans, video artist Kalup Linzy, and visual artist Hank Willis Thomas are just a few to see. All summer, Thur.–Mon., P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, 22 Jackson Ave., Queens, www.ps1.org; 12-6, $5-$10. Norfolk Chamber Music Festival and Music Mountain Make it a weekend of music: Listen to works by the classical masters Haydn, Beethoven and Tull at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival on Saturday, then head to nearby Music Mountain on Sunday to dance to some Big Easy Rhythm. July 16, Music Shed in Norfolk, Conn.; 8, $15-$45, www.norfolkmusic.org. July 17, Music Mountain, Falls Village, Conn., www. musicmountain.org; 6:30, $30.
Stephanie Berger
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ach year so many of us start the summer out with grand plans to go see that special exhibit or to experience that concert or the must-see film. But then we get busy, and it never quite happens. Over the next two issues we will give you a guide to nearly 100 of the events and activities that you shouldn’t miss. Mark your calendars.
Bang on a Can Marathon at World Financial Center The Best of G.W. Pabst at Bard SummerScape There’s always plenty of activities during the annual Bard festival. But if you aren’t in the mood for an orchestral concert, grab the popcorn and head to watch Louise Brooks’ performance in Pandora’s Box (July 22) or Diary of a Lost Girl (July 25) among others by the director. The films are presented in 35mm (when possible) and silent films will also be accompanied by live piano. The Jim Ottaway Jr. Film Center at Bard College, Annandaleon-Hudson, N.Y., www.fishercenter.bard.edu; 7, $8. Make Music New York What better way to celebrate the longest day of the year than with a sweet cacophony of music throughout all five boroughs? Be on the lookout for over 1,000 impromptu concerts throughout the city’s public spaces as musicians serenade New York for 11 hours—all for free. June 21. For information, visit www.makemusicny.com. Encuentro de Músicos Colombianos en New York Check out Latin sounds—both new and old—during this two-day festival featuring 15 acts, some based in the New York City area, some from as far away as Dallas, Texas, and Colombia. Festival founder Pablo Mayor, composer-pianist and leader of Folklore Urbano, will host, and the eclectic lineup includes Folklore Urbano and Marta Gomez. June 18 & 19, El Museo del Barrio, 1230 5th Ave., 212-831-7272, www.elmuseo.org; $15-$30. The Goodbye Girl at Bryant Park Take someone you’re sweet on for a nighttime showing of The Goodbye Girl, Marsha Mason and Richard Dreyfuss’ 1978 romantic comedy. You don’t have to tell your date it’s free. Aug. 9, Bryant Park, W. 40th St. and 6th Ave.; lawn opens at 5, film starts at dusk, free.
Chautauqua Institute’s Picture This: Photography Theme Week Celebrate the history of photography at the Chautauqua Institute’s Picture This: Photography week. You’ll hear Steve McCurry’s career-long experience behind the lens. Then head to a Finger Lakes winery to enjoy a glass of Riesling and maybe take a picture or two of your own. July 25 through 31, Chautauqua, N.Y., www.ciweb.org; $16 per morning session. Midsummer Night Swing Put on your dancing shoes and come out to the Lincoln Center’s 22nd season of Midsummer Night Swing, which features 15 fantastic nights of dancing to some of the world’s best dance bands. Bring the kiddies along July 17, because dance instructor Pierre Dulaine will be teaching kids all the best dance moves for free. June 29 through July 17, Damrosch Park on W. 62nd St., www.lincolncenter. org; 7:30–10, $17. We Are Here & Pirate at Powerhouse Theater Actor and playwright Tracy Thorne’s play We Are Here (June 29-July 11), directed by Tony nominee Sheryl Kaller, starts the 25th season. That’s followed by Pirated, written and directed by the Tony, Oscar and Pulitzer Prize-winner, John Patrick Shanley (July 21-Aug. 1). Powerhouse Theater, 124 Raymond Ave., Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., 845-437-7235, powerhouse.vassar.edu; times vary. International Keyboard Institute and Festival Listen to the pros tickle the ivories at the 2010 International Keyboard Institute and Festival. Jerome Rose opens the Masters Series festivities. July 18 through Aug. 1, Maness College, The New School for Music, 150 W. 85th St., www.ikif.org/startpage.aspx; 8:30, $20.
BARDSUMMERSCAPE july 8 – august 22, 2010
Bard SummerScape presents seven weeks of opera, dance, music, drama, film, cabaret, and the 21st annual Bard Music Festival, this year exploring the works and world of composer Alban Berg. SummerScape takes place in the extraordinary Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts and other venues on Bard College’s stunning Mid-Hudson River Valley campus.
Opera
THE DISTANT SOUND (Der ferne Klang) July 30, August 1, 4, 6 Music and Libretto by Franz Schreker American Symphony Orchestra Conducted by Leon Botstein Directed by Thaddeus Strassberger
Schreker’s masterful melding of dramatic devices and cultural forces, along with his remarkable musical creativity, combine to make The Distant Sound one of the seminal works of 20th-century opera.
Theater JUDGMENT DAY July 14 – 25 By Ödön von Horváth Directed by Caitriona McLaughlin Set in a small town in 1930s Nazi Germany, Judgment Day is a riveting drama whose characters are divided by deceit, lust, bloodshed, and injustice. Horváth’s thrilling 1937 play was the runaway hit of London’s fall 2009 season.
Dance
For tickets: 845-758-7900 or fishercenter.bard.edu
Bard Music Festival Twenty-First Season
BERG AND HIS WORLD
August 13–15, 20–22 Two weekends of concerts, panels, and other events bring the musical world of Alban Berg vividly to life.
Operetta THE CHOCOLATE SOLDIER
Annandale-on-Hudson, New York
August 5–15 Music by Oscar Straus Conducted by James Bagwell Directed by Will Pomerantz
Film Festival PABST AND AMERICAN NOIR Thursdays and Sundays July 15 – August 19
Spiegeltent CABARET and FAMILY FARE July 8 – August 22
TRISHA BROWN DANCE COMPANY July 8, 9, 10, 11 Twelve Ton Rose (excerpt), Foray Forêt, You can see us, L’Amour au théâtre Choreography by Trisha Brown
Image © Peter Aaron/Esto
Berg and Vienna
weekend one Friday, August 13
program one
Saturday, August 14
program two program three
Sunday, August 15
program four program five program six
the bard music festival
Berg the European
weekend two Friday, August 20
program seven
Saturday, August 21
program eight program nine program ten
Sunday, August 22
Berg: The Path of Expressive Intensity Chamber works by Berg The Vienna of Berg’s Youth Chamber works by Zemlinsky, Webern, and others Mahler and Beyond American Symphony Orchestra, Leon Botstein, conductor Orchestral works by Berg, Mahler, Korngold, and others Eros and Thanatos Chamber works by Berg, Schreker, Mahler, and others Teachers and Apostles Chamber works by Berg, Schoenberg, Wellesz, and others The Orchestra Reimagined Members of the American Symphony Orchestra Leon Botstein, conductor Orchestral works by Berg, Busoni, Hindemith, and others
twenty-first season
program eleven program twelve
“No Critics Allowed”: The Society for Private Performances Chamber works by Berg, Debussy, Reger, and others You Can’t Be Serious! Viennese Operetta and Popular Music Works by Berg, Sullivan, Lehár, Kálmán, and others Composers Select: New Music in the 1920s Chamber works by Berg, Gershwin, Toch, and others Modernism and Its Discontent American Symphony Orchestra, Leon Botstein, conductor Orchestral works by Berg and Schmidt Between Accommodation and Inner Emigration: The Composer’s Predicament Works by Berg, Hartmann, Schoeck, and others Crimes and Passions American Symphony Orchestra, Leon Botstein, conductor Orchestral works by Berg, Hindemith, and Weill
Alban Berg in the Atelier Madame D’Ora, Wien, 1909. © ÖNB/Wien, 203481-D
BERG
and His World
The Bard Music Festival presents two extraordinary weeks of concerts, panels, and other special events that will explore the musical world of Alban Berg.
Tickets: $20 to $55 845-758-7900 fishercenter.bard.edu Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y.
Summer Short List Jazz in the Garden Festival at the Newark Museum Take your pick of any Thursday in July and head out to the Newark Museum’s 45th annual lunchtime Jazz in the Garden festival. The Louis Hayes Quintet kicks off the summer celebration July 1 in the Alice Ransom Dreyfuss Garden, rain or shine. July 1 through 29, The Newark Museum, 49 Washington St., Newark, N.J., www.newarkmuseum. org; 12:15-1:45, $3, free for children. Williamstown Theatre Festival Check out He’s Just Not That Into You’s Justin Long in the Williamstown Theatre Festival rendition of Samuel J. and K. The festival’s 56th season features several other don’t-miss standouts, like Lanford Wilson’s Fifth of July. July 7 through 18, Nikos Stage at Williams College, Williamstown, Mass., www.wtfestival.org; times vary, $35. Centrifugal Force: Hip Hop Generations at Lincoln Center Out of Doors Pick up some new moves at this event, part of the Lincoln Center Out of Doors. The performance, which is on the final day of the series, combines street dancing with the grandeur of Lincoln Center. Aug. 15, Josie Robertson Plaza, Columbus Avenue and West 63rd Street, lincolncenter.org; 5, free. 1001 Nights Every month at The Creek, host Eugene Ashton-Gonzalez brings together the wittiest writers, comedians and actors from around New York to tell shocking, hilarious and intimate tales of their lives. June 18, July 23 & Aug. 20. The Creek Lounge, 1093 Jackson Ave., Queens; 7, free. Clearwater’s Great Hudson River Revival Go greener at Clearwater’s Great Hudson River Revival, which supports several educational programs. More than 250 artists will perform over the weekend, and environmentally friendly visitors can check out the Green Living Expo Tent for eco-friendly tips. June 19 through 20, Croton Point Park, Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y., clearwaterfestival.org; $40 (for advance tickets), $80 at gate, $60-115 for entire weekend. Christian Marclay: Festival at the Whitney Treat your senses to Christian Marclay: Festival at the Whitney Museum of American Art. The show, which features Marclay’s trademark fusion of images and sounds, consists of performance, collage, sculpture, large-scale installations, photography and video. July 1 through Sept. 26, Whitney Museum of American Art, 945 Madison Ave. (at E. 75th St.), 212-570-3600, www.whitney.org; $12-$18. Kylie Minogue & Rufus Wainwright at the Watermill Summer Concert Get your pop fix watching Kylie Minogue and Rufus Wainwright perform at the Watermill Summer Concert 2010: The Last Song of Summer. The show benefits Watermill’s program that pro-
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vides emerging artists to further hone their skills. Aug. 28, 4:30, The Watermill Center, Watermill, N.Y., watermillcenter.org; $150-$1,000. Industriance Screens during Rooftop Films Give your attention span a break by heading to Industriance, a series of short films in which Werner Herzog, acting as a plastic bag, searches for the meaning of existence. July 2, The roof of The Old American Can Factory, 232 3rd St., Brooklyn, www.rooftopfilms.com; doors at 8, film starts at 9, $10. Jazz Age Dance Party Governors Island is asking you to join Michael Arnella and His Dreamland Orchestra for two weekends of jazzy music and dancing. It’s fun for the whole family, with instruction in period dance, picnicking and games in the island’s open air. July 17 through 18 & Aug. 28 through 29, Governors Island, www.govisland.com; 11 a.m.-5, $10. Last performance of The Etymology of Bird Catch SummerStage Theater’s last performance of The Etymology of Bird. The play explores race relations, stereotypes and other social issues in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. June 19, Betsy Head Park, Strauss & DuMont Aves., Brooklyn, www.summerstage.org; 8, free. The 2010 BAM Rhythm and Blues Festival Groove your way to the 2010 BAM Rhythm and Blues Festival, where Jennifer Holliday, Tony Allen and more will be serenading the crowd. Thursdays, June 3 through Aug. 5, MetroTech Commons (at Jay & Willoughby Sts.), Brooklyn, www.bam. org; noon-2, free. The Autobiography and Sex Life of Andy Warhol Author Joe Wilcock sits down for an open conversation with Warhol Superstars Gretchen Berg, Brigid Berlin, Gerard Malanga and Taylor Mead to celebrate the new edition of Autobiography. Seating is limited and is on a first come, first served basis, so head to the New York Public Library’s South Court Auditorium to snag a spot. June 23. New York Public Library, 476 5th Ave., www.nypl.org; 6-7:30, free. Blues Summit: James Cotton & Friends Join blues harmonica master James Cotton along with Pinetop Perkins and Taj Mahal, among others. Cotton will give two distinct sets, one electric and one unplugged, so come and sing along. June 24, Rose Theater, Time Warner Center, Broadway & W. 60th Street; 8, $35-$85. The Royal Shakespeare Company at Park Avenue Armory Presented as part of the Lincoln Center Festival, the Royal Shakespeare Company (in association with the Ohio State University) is taking over the gorgeous Upper East Side space with a “specially-constructed thrust stage that imaginatively recreates the RSC’s home in
Stratford-upon-Avon.” Everyone will be talking about it, so don’t miss your chance. July 6 through Aug. 14, Park Avenue Armory, 643 Park Ave., www.lincolncenter.org. New York City International Fringe Festival Don’t miss out on the largest multi-arts festival in North America. The Fringe Fest features 1,200 performances and is spread across several Manhattan neighborhoods (although we can’t recommend all of them). Aug. 13 through 29. For show locations and ticket prices, visit www.fringenyc.org. Opening Night of Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra Be the first to Opening Night at Tanglewood, where the Boston Symphony Orchestra will perform Mahler Symphony No. 2. July 9, Koussevitzky Music Shed in Lenox, Mass., www.bso.org; 8:30, $19-$99. Jazzmobile Keep your ears open for sounds of sax and soul, because Jazzmobile is back in New York for the summer. Jazzmobile is the longest-running major jazz festival in New York City and events will be taking place all over town during July and Aug. For times and locations, visit jazzmobile.org. Marlboro Music Festival Attend the culminating performance of the Marlboro Music Festival’s 60th season. The festival helps musical leaders master their crafts. Aug. 15, Persons Auditorium at Marlboro College, Marlboro, V.T., www.marlboromusic.org; 2:30, $15-$35. Iron Chef Marimoto’s Sushi and Sake Sail For an unforgettable experience, join Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto on his two-hour Sushi and Sake Sail around Lower Manhattan. Take in views of the New York City Skyline and Battery Park, as well as Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty at sunset. For information, visit www.zerve. com/sailnyc/sushi. Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival Grab your tent and get yourself to the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, where you can camp and hear the pros pick at banjos. July 15 through 18, The
Walsh Farm, Oak Hill, N.Y., www.greyfoxbluegrass. com; $155. Blues BBQ Festival Fill up your stomach and soul at the 11th annual Blues BBQ Festival at the Hudson River Park, where the best blues bands team up with the best BBQ restaurants in New York. This year’s lineup includes Cyril Neville, Janiva Magness and more. Aug. 22, Pier 54, West 14th Street and the Hudson River; 2-9, free. Blackstone Valley Culinaria Secret Ingredient Food Tour Attention foodies: Enjoy clam chowder and other seaside goodies on the Blackstone Valley Culinaria Secret Ingredient Food Tour. The eats are followed by a twilight cruise on the Blackstone River. June 30, Central Falls Landing, 30 Madeira Avenue, Central Falls, R.I., www.quahog.org; 5, $19.50. Play Me, I’m Yours If you’re walking around town between June 21 and July 5 and you spot a piano outside, feel free to sit down and start playing. Artist Luke Jerram is teaming up with Sing for Hope and Make Music New York to install 60 pianos in the city’s parks and public spaces throughout all five boroughs. For information, visit www.nycstreetpianos. com. Key to the City Unlock your inner child with Key to the City, a citywide scavenger hunt. Pick up your key at the Times Square kiosk and head to over 20 New York locations to see what your key opens. Through June 27, Times Square kiosk, Broadway betw. West 33rd & West 44th Streets, www. creativetime.org; free. Charles Mingus Orchestra at Washington Square Music Festival In case your summer isn’t musical enough, be sure to stop by the Holley Statue in Washington Square each Tuesday in July for the sounds of chamber music and jazz. For information, visit www. washingtonsquaremusicfestival.org.
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AttheGALLERIES raises important questions about the idolization of over-valued art and its progeny, as well as the effectiveness of museum security. (NW) Through June 19, Postmasters Gallery, 459 W. 19th St., 212-727-3323.
Renato D’Agostin: Tokyo Untitled
“Medication Valse,” by Evan and Franco Mattes.
Pádraig Timoney: Instead of Being Lucky
Eva and Franco Mattes: Reality Is Overrated
In Pádraig Timoney’s diverse new works at Andrew Kreps Gallery, a common visual thread is hard to discern. In its looseness, the exhibition is more like a group show than many group shows. A visual version of the literary cut-up technique, elements of Minimalism, Expressionism and Soviet design act as blind men stroking an elephant in Timoney’s exploration of reality and temporality. The works were produced during a time when Timoney could instead have been preparing for the role of Lucky in a friend’s production of Waiting for Godot. Lucky’s single monologue in the play, which is a winding and parodic rant that touches such subjects as death, literature and sports, is a fitting framework for the sundry and referential Instead of Being Lucky. In “Guts Bog Hermes Star Factor,” a photo collage of television shows, slaughterhouses and a cathedral floor are covered with layers of acrylic and oil paints. A photo developer was applied, wiping away the oil paint, revealing the acrylic beneath. This multi-layered, decaying painting allows for a certain chaos to show through in unintended juxtapositions and fresh interpretation when contrasted with the miserly use of space in other pieces like “Day By Day (Circe’s Palace),” a painting of simple shapes in stark red and black. “Shellfish for Seagulls” is a reference to the Greek story of Zeuxis, in which birds peck at fruit in a still life, tantalized by the lushness of the realism. In Timoney’s version, seagulls have mistaken a tube of Titanium White paint for a mollusk, and it sits, pecked open, atop a lone pedestal in the middle of the gallery. No art is free from misinterpretation, and we are all seagulls digging at an artificial edifice, hoping to find some kind of sustenance. (Nicholas Wells)
By using virtual worlds as their subjects, Eva and Franco Mattes (AKA 0100101110101101. org) attempt to explore the disintegration of humanity that accompanies media-filtered communication. At Postmasters Gallery, their four new videos and an installation combine performance and provocation. One such virtual world is the gaming platform of the first-person shooter “Counter Strike.” In “Freedom,” Eva records a game in which she refuses to complete the assigned mission (kill opponents’ avatars) and instead pleads with them to help her survive because she is “trying to make an artwork.” The result, predictably, is that her avatar is slaughtered and mutilated again and again. “No Fun” uses Chatroulette to explore the public’s reaction to an anonymous crisis. After faking suicide, Franco swings from a rope for hours in front of his computer’s camera while the site’s randomized viewers react in the left half of the screen. The number of people who, after the initial surprise of seeing a hanging, simply start laughing is disturbing. Reportedly, out of several thousand viewers, only one called the police. Extrapolating their experiences while provoking these online communities to a statement about “real” society is a fallacy; this is not Baudrillard’s hyperreality. Instead, it questions the morally vacant virtual worlds we have created parallel to our own. It is important to note that we are the observers here. The people the Mattes are (virtually) interacting with are simply subjects for us to read morally and ethically. The “performance” occurs to be documented and placed in a gallery, complete with its inherent distance. Reality is Overrated also features the Mattes’ first project together, in which, between 1995 and ’97, they went on a crime spree, stealing small bits from famous 20th-century artworks. “Stolen Pieces” is displayed here along with a clandestinely shot video of their last heist from one of Alberto Burri’s “combustion” paintings. “Stolen Pieces”
Through June 26, Andrew Kreps Gallery, 525 W. 22nd St., 212-741-8849.
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Viewing the photographs of Renato D’Agostin is like stepping backwards in photographic history. In fact, I was convinced that it was a show of vintage prints, until the gallery told me that is a completely contemporary show. It is a show of works about Tokyo, capturing those fleeting moments of observation and composition that were a benchmark of photography in the 1970s. Partial views of the body, architecture and the all-defining role of light combine to make these prints exquisite jewels. The silver prints glow like photographs used to glow. The photographs are composed and printed with a care and craft that we see all too rarely these days. Each one, hand printed, helps you remember the luscious tones that “old school” photography conveys. It was not a surprise to discover that D’Agostin is a protégé of Ralph Gibson, whose influence is obvious in the younger man’s work. The presence of the mentor, however, is in no way a bad thing. It used to be that young photographers would work for a master, absorb their influence and then set off on their own. D’Agostin has done this, and while there is homage to the master, he has forged ahead with an entirely personal vision. Describing these photos is challenging because they are at once deceptively simple and complex. “Number 8,” for example is a fuzzy partial view of a man’s head in profile, a stretch of empty white and then a bird flying out of the picture frame. The image captures a simultaneous sense of motion and stillness. The man and the bird are each dynamic, moving in opposite directions out of the picture frame, and yet each is caught in a moment of elegant, eloquent stillness. This is a very special exhibition for anyone interested in photography. Contemporary, yet reminiscent of the past. Perhaps the proper word is timeless. (Melissa Stern) Through July 3, Randall Scott Gallery, 111 Front St., Ste. 204, Brooklyn, 212-796-2190.
Christopher Blyth: The Build Up Cheryl Pelavin Fine Arts, established nearly three decades ago, has changed its name. It is now simply Pelavin Gallery, under the directorship of Todd Masters, newly aboard as co-owner. Masters, an experienced gallerist, is the founder and CEO of Black Umbrellas, his own fine art consultancy. In its three decades under Pelavin, gallery inventory leaned toward floral motifs or diaphanous abstractions. Work was dominated by the kind of gossamer sensibility we think of, like it or not, as feminine. It is a bit soon to know for sure, but judging from the choice of Christopher Blyth for the inaugural show, Masters brings with him a more robust—can I say masculine?—aesthetic. There is real heft to Blyth’s images. The show’s title, The Build Up, refers to his working methods, building up his images by a process
of accretion, like a coral reef. One layer of color follows another, surface texture deepening on motifs that extend horizontally across the support. Like the muscular collages of John Walker, Blyth’s encaustic and mixed media pieces read as landscapes, but ones freed from all scenic clichés. Topography gives way to suggestions of geological strata. The viewer greets what seems a dappled, translucent crosscut of sedimentary rock, deep-laid and formed from the accumulation of layered deposits. Blyth’s procedures are perfectly pitched to his motifs and the sense of time that they evoke. And his surfaces are beautiful. Each one of these paintings has the flavor of one of those old handcolored geological maps made in the early decades of the 19th century. They create the illusion of layers of sediment formed by weathering, the breakdown of rocks, organic decay or chemical reactions in underground water. A rugged beauty asserts itself at close range. Viewed at a bit more distance, textural irregularities subside, and Blyth’s delicacy of coloration asserts itself. “Elements,” “New York” and “Luminous Region” are incontestably lovely. His titles are saturated with signals of mutability: “Ancestors,” “Recollection,” “It was the 80s,” “Passing Time.” The words state plainly a sensitivity to the temporal that is implicit in his motifs. This is Blyth’s first solo show in the city. He makes the rookie mistake of exhibiting too much. The accompanying handful of monochrome blot-and-shmear pieces on vellum look like art school boilerplate. An artist’s “process” is small beer outside the studio. What matters is Blyth’s achievement. His striated simulacra of landscape make a compelling debut. That is quite enough. (Maureen Mullarkey) Through June 19. Pelavin Gallery, 13 Jay St., 212-925-9424.
Wayne Thiebaud The reopening of Paul Thiebaud’s uptown gallery is a welcome event. Established on the West Coast, the gallery launched a New York branch in 2005. Four years later, the gallery closed its shutters and hung up a “by appointment only” shingle. Hearts dropped among those who loved the quality of its exhibitions and the pleasure of viewing them in the intimacy of a brownstone setting. Happily, it has opened its doors again with a splendid show of recent paintings by Wayne Thiebaud, father of Paul.
“Candy Trays,” by Wayne Thiebaud.
At a certain point in the career of an artist as gifted and esteemed as Thiebaud, there seems little left to say. All that matters has been stated. His reputation has been made; his place in American art history securely carved. A critic’s urge to stay mum and silently genuflect is very strong, if only to avoid repeating the rightful encomiums of Thiebaud’s lifetime. Still, there are subtle surprises among these recent paintings, all completed in 2009-10. The accompanying catalog includes David Anfam’s essay titled “Plato at the Dairy Queen.” Just so. In all of Thiebaud’s paintings, unspoken truths are at play under the surface of unexceptional objects. Creative generosity toward the commonplace takes us on an engaging romp through the whatnots of ordinary life: two and a half cakes, a slice of peanut-buttered bread, a case of candy trays. Yet something more, not quite definable, prompts Anfam to say: “The knack is to grasp that Thiebaud’s cheap, familiar and transient motifs are wedded indissolubly to a larger whole.” (I would not call them cheap. Simply overlooked.) In the still lifes, that larger something hints at an ultimate goodness at the heart of things. Thiebaud’s homily on the Good begins with a luminous Panama hat, its crown shaded by piping hot glazes. Who knew what glory there could be in shadow? Nearby, the disarming image of a child’s shoe bears the charm of an unspoken drama. Shoes are not the only things intended to go two by two. “Candy Trays” is classic Thiebaud. An austere, lateral composition with each detail exquisitely poised, the candy display rises to the dignity—touched with frolic—of those longitudinal arrangements that mark 17th-century Spanish still life. “Winter Ridge” takes a familiar motif—the vertiginous diagonal of a hillside—only to set great shards of ice tumbling down it. Gone is the whimsy of earlier ridge paintings with their lines of cows, trees or beachgoers in giddy descent. These sharp, angled ice fragments suggest splintering glass. On second glance, the image induces a certain chill, as if Hans Christian Anderson’s distorting mirror had shattered over the Golden State. A similar sense of conflicted significance emerges from “Mountain Roads.” A winding road circles upward around an impossible piece of California terrain that mimics the tiered contours of Bruegel’s “Tower of Babel,” a 16th-century response to the overbuilding and overconfidence of Antwerp, the boom town of its day. “Intersecting Streets” depicts the same extreme plunge of earlier cityscapes. This time, though, the once-daring, even brash, sovereignty of San Francisco has taken on a hint of sugarplum sweetness in coloration. And the Napa hills, soft as blancmange, look ready to slip into a Lollipop Sea. Thiebaud is as always. Only California has changed. (MM) Through June 26, Paul Thiebaud Gallery, 42 E. 76th St., 212-737-9759.
Jim Nutt: “Trim” and Other Works: 1967-2010 Jim Nutt’s paintings and drawings, subject of an adumbrated overview at David Nolan Gallery, are testimony, underplayed and undeniable to the
W. 29th St., 212-925-6190.
Will Barnet: Recent Abstract Paintings
“Trim,” by Jim Nutt.
vital role craft plays in generating aesthetic vitality. For the past 20 years or so, Nutt has dedicated himself to portraiture—of a sort, anyway. His paintings of imaginary women isolated within dense fields of color combine Renaissance clarity, Surrealist scatology, Cubist abstraction, Persian concision, vernacular ornamentation, cartoonish elasticity and Vermeer-esque quietude. They are, in other words, a dizzying and unlikely amalgam of precedent; to Nutt’s credit, the amalgam is wholly organic. Works like “Trim,” “Pin” and “Plumb” signal an artist operating at the top of his game. These recent paintings are exemplars of how eccentricity can be tempered and made resilient (or profound) by nuance. Certainly, there’s little that’s subtle about the work Nutt created during his 1960s tenure with the Hairy Who, an informal group of like minds centered on the Chicago Art Institute. Mining Freudian excess, comic strip brashness and the obsessive byways of Outsider Art, painters like Nutt, Gladys Nilsson, Roger Brown and Ed Paschke created a mid-Western version of Pop Art—less epochal than the East Coast variant, perhaps, but what the art lacked in formalist detachment it made up for in idiosyncrasy, humor and, almost in spite of itself, humanity. Warhol is the icon, but Nutt is the artist. Who’s to say which history will favor? Early pieces like “Miss Sue Port” and “Coursing” are slick, bright and brainy riffs on Miró, cut-rate advertising and the body as both a source of comedy and a site of confusion; these contrivances radiate with gleeful insolence. Colored pencil drawings from the early 1980s depict male-female relations with relatively predictable staginess, but they do evince an increasing technical facility—a characteristic that would gain in intensity with the portraits. Viewers should bring a magnifying glass in order to fully appreciate Nutt’s astonishing dexterity as a paint-handler. His women are realized through infinitesimal hatchings of acrylic paint, deliberate and tender marks that accumulate into pearlescent fields of transitory color, shapes of sloping plasticity and, in the end, visages of uncanny restraint. An accompanying suite of pencil drawings pale when compared to a painting like “Pin,” a woman whose morphing features are a form of transmuted landscape or sexual congress. And that’s only the beginning of a web of allusions Nutt puts masterfully into place. (Mario Naves) Through June 26, David Nolan Gallery, 527
Longtime observers of the New York art world can’t help but hold Will Barnet in amazement. Forget for a moment that this near-centurion—Barnet will be a 100 years old roundabout this time next year—continues to work in the studio and, as his new paintings at Alexandre Gallery attest, with impressive command. But think about it: Here’s a man whose career began, well, pre-Chelsea. Way pre-Chelsea: He studied with Stuart Davis at the Art Students League some 80 years ago. For the bright young things featured in P.S. 1’s Greater New York, that may as well be a million years ago. It says something about the scene’s overweening emphasis on undigested talent that even those of us who won’t again see 40—or, for that matter, 30—harbor something of the same feelings. Barnet is best known for exquisitely calibrated paeans to family, domesticity and the mysteries of light—tableaux whose linearity looks to Egyptian hieroglyphs as a model and whose precision recalls early Renaissance masters like Cimabue. This body of work has much to recommend it, not least an exacting attention to gesture and contour. But the so-called Indian Space Paintings Barnet created during the 1950s trump them in terms of pictorial invention, metaphoric complexity and generosity of spirit. Many mid-century artists sought inspiration in the stylistic motifs of Northwest Coast Indian art, but few absorbed its lessons as thoroughly or as bracingly as Barnet. Tibor de Nagy Gallery mounted a canon-shifting exhibition of the work in 1998, and the pictures formed the core of a splendid Barnet retrospective Gail Stavitsky organized for The Montclair Art Museum two years later. Barnet began revisiting the stylistic vocabulary of the Indian-inspired abstractions seven years ago. If the results are less than world-historical, that says more about history than it does about Barnet’s roughhewn sophistication and sober, but good-humored, élan. Figurative associations are abundant and most engaging when concentrated within pictographic emblems. In “Ahab II,” “Confluence,” “Joyous” and especially “Call It Winter,” Barnett choreographs bumptious and sometimes cranky shapes to magisterial effect. The images perform the neat trick of being simultaneously old as the hills and a brand new thing—an irony certainly not lost on Barnet and to be enjoyed by the rest of us. (MN)
attachment to the classical. A notion of idealized form—albeit rendered with raw intensity—has animated every recent installation of his work: the drawings and sculpted heads shown at Lohin Geduld; his large, near-monochromatic abstractions exhibited at Washburn. The current installation at Washburn reveals yet another side of the artist: his paintings from the ’50s, when he made his boldest forays into color. These 10 paintings show Carone imprinting his own elastic, lyrical control over Abstract Expressionism’s elemental sensations and candid gestures. Pervading them are hints of the figure—fragments of human gestures— which appear to inspire his process without monopolizing it. The particularly impressive “The Spectre’s Mourning Sleep” greets visitors to the gallery. In this 7-foot-wide canvas, masses of black and streaked whites range across a juicily brushed surface, punctuated by detonations of intense blue. Several other works, all from the early ’50s, circulate through notes of black and white with the barest suggestions of yellow, red or purple. But several slightly later paintings turn up the color, humming with vibrant orange, turquoise-blue and rust-reds. The urgent gestures of “Spectre” give way to somewhat more methodical designs of repeating vertical and diagonal lines around cores of contrasting forms. In “Ear of Earth,” notes of deep green and subdued green-blue echo about the center, each trailing a cord of color towards the canvas’ upper edge. The long shadow of de Kooning hangs over the inward-folding rhythms of “Desert Lights”—though here Carone places these elements in isolation against a blazing field of orange, imparting a totally different air of spare elegance. And in all these paintings one catches abstracted glimpses of the figure: a kneeling shape in “Desert Lights,” a seated human form in “Escape Plan,” a tumble of bodies— suggestive of a night-time Tiepolo—in a large, untitled black-and-white canvas from c. 1952. These paintings vividly illuminate the trials and delights of a modern classicist, with lucid forms searching out elusive narratives. (John Goodrich)
Through June 18, Alexandre Gallery, 41 E. 57th St., 212-755-2828.
Nicolas Carone: Paintings from the 1950s Nicolas Carone, a friend and colleague of Jackson Pollock, forged his own style of forthright, gestural abstraction during the artistic ferment of the 1940s and ’50s. At one point, however, he claimed not to be a mainstream Abstract Expressionist. Stylistic similarities aside, this makes sense: The 93-year-old artist has never strayed completely from his early
“Untitled,” by Nicolas Carone.
June 15, 2010 | City Arts
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MUSEUMS
Let Color and Form Breathe BY LANCE ESPLUND allow your eyes to bathe and caress sculptures Anne Truitt’s gorgeous columnar and to bounce from narrow, colorful vertical sculptures need to be seen in groups. A plane to plane. single Truitt sculpture can feel slight, brisk Truitt’s sculptures are human in scale— or fleeting; it can tend to slice through one’s somewhere among totem, sapling, personage peripheral vision or merely to tint, warm or and art object. They work best in chorus, cool (vibrate) space and air like an echo or where you can compare high and low keys. a floral breeze. Some of Truitt’s sculptures Some are striped vertically or horizontally, announce themselves like long whistles, hot as if tied with ribbons or bows. And each flashes or tingling shivers. And each is lifted has a unique disposition. The slim, buttery slightly on a recessed foot, which gives the “Threshold” (1997) greets you at the entrance works the feeling that they are hovering just of the show. Like a sill or a veil, it is a step above the floor, that they are on tiptoe. toward form and color. Gently floating, hardly The Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum registering, it is a perfect salutation. In and Sculpture Garden presented a Truitt contrast, “The Sea, The Sea” (2003) is a deep retrospective last fall. If you missed it, then cobalt blue with a narrow white stripe—a Matthew Marks Gallery’s 22nd Street space suggestion of cloud, jet stream, wake or is the place to see a nearly pitch-perfect minihorizon—wrapped around its cap. survey of Truitt. Having seen a number of The creamy, off-white “Amaranth” the artist’s abstract sculptures over the years, (2004), when seen from across the room, including the groupings at the Hirshhorn, feels like a yellowish (or perhaps rose-hued?) I am beginning to wonder if it is inevitable mirage and nearly disappears into the white that when you bring together a well-chosen walls of the gallery. Yet Matthew Marks has selection of Truitt’s sculptures in a pristine arranged the sculptures like a choir, fairytalewhite cube, that they—as if alive, familial— woodland or mixed bouquet. “Amaranth” will converse and interrelate in exponentially is stationed in a diagonal line with its surprising ways. neighboring light-yellow “Harvest Shade” Two of the works at Matthew Marks, (1996), and the stouter, deeper lemon-yellow the crimson-colored “Return” (2004) and “Sun Flower” (1971). “Sun Flower” stands at the glossy, grainy black “Twining Court II” (2002), were also Truitt’s sculptures are human in in the Hirshhorn’s scale—somewhere among totem, exhibition, which, sadly, didn’t travel. The D.C. sapling, personage and art retrospective of 85 pieces object. They work best in chorus, included many more of the artist’s masterworks, where you can compare high and as well as a selection of low keys. her less well-known, less convincing and more ethereal drawings and paintings. It allowed the center of the room. Like a sun, it anchors for more interaction between sculptures, and the gallery and its nine orbiting sculptures. it presented a richer and more comprehensive The sculpture’s saturation and expansion view of Truitt, who died in 2004 at age of brilliant sunflower yellow—held like a 83. But the Hirshhorn show was also more clenched fist—is equal not in look but in feel linear, scattered and uneven; less elegant and to the flower. And yellow, moving through pure; ultimately less harmonic than the show the other sculptures, fades gradually outward in New York. in succession from sunflower to cream to Matthew Marks has cut the fat to a career- white, skipping from sculpture to sculpture spanning baker’s dozen. Anne Truitt: Sculpture like a stone across the surface of a pond. 1962-2004 is evenly lit by skylights and Also at Matthew Marks, secluded each filtered windows and allows color and form in a separate alcove, one in the front and to breathe. In the main gallery is a superb two in the rear of the gallery, are three early installation of 10 of Truitt’s slender, painted formative sculptures from the 1960s. (To and mostly squared wood columns (her see them, fittingly, you must make three signature works) from 1971 to 2004. This is mini-pilgrimages.) At the back of the gallery an installation that you have to walk around— are “White: Four” (1962) and “Gloucester” among—to get the full effect. You must (1963). “White: Four”—immaculate change sightlines; get up close and far away; Minimalism—suggests classical column,
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City Arts | www.cityarts.info
Courtesy of Estate of Anne Truitt / Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
Matthew Marks has edited down Anne Truitt’s career of sculptures to a thrilling 13 works
“Return” (2004), by Anne Truitt.
communicant and white picket fence. “Gloucester,” both barrier and monument, is a dark, thick, split-level wall in black and violet, colors whose vertical brushstrokes fall like water over stone. “Pith” (1969) is stationed in its own room at the front of the gallery. A solid pea-green column 18-inches square and just over 7 feet tall, “Pith” feels muscular and massive, suggestive of an obelisk. Lifted by its recessed foot, the effect is of looming and hovering; and its shadow pools a complementary reddish-silver from beneath its base onto the gray cement floor. Difficult to place, “Pith” is strong yet sickly;
young yet mature. It suggests the vibration of grass and the weight of stone. The show, fresh, balletic and spry, at times forebodingly moody, conveys the essences and interactions of seasons, human temperaments and natural elements. It is not an exhibition of individual artworks per se, or, ostensibly, a survey of Truitt. It is, rather (like the best shows of the artist’s sculptures), an immersion in Truitt’s meditation on the marriage of form and color. Anne Truitt: Sculpture 1962-2004. Through June 26, Matthew Marks Gallery, 522 W. 22nd St. (between 10th and 11th Aves.), 212-243-0200.
ClassicalMUSIC
Lugansky & Ligeti On a Russian pianist and a modernist opera BY JAY NORDLINGER of Rachmaninoff études-tableaux—eight of Nikolai Lugansky is a pianist worth our them, from Op. 33. He was again masterly. time. A Russian in his late thirties, he is the I could make complaints, including this: son of two scientists, and I have often said The Etude-Tableau in E flat was without its that he plays like it: He is brainy and precise. clarion character and its sheer exhilaration. But he has plenty of musicality as well. His It’s a shame to botch that one. But, overall, album of Beethoven sonatas is particularly Lugansky gave satisfaction. impressive. Often, we have heard him in He also gave three encores—the first partnership with Vadim Repin, a Russian of which, to me, was a surprise: the Triana violinist who is perhaps better known than from Albéniz’s Iberia. The Spanish repertoire Lugansky. But at the Metropolitan Museum is underplayed, and it was good to see recently, we got to hear him all by himself, Lugansky exploit it. He was a little clumsy playing a recital. and unidiomatic—all too white-bread. But The first half of his program was allyou can’t always have Alicia de Larrocha Chopin, beginning with the Nocturne in F. (or Arthur Rubinstein, come to think of it). This was an arresting and effective way to Lugansky then played a Liszt transcendental begin: with Romantic quiet and gentleness. etude, “Chasse-Neige,” in wizardly fashion. Not all recitals need to begin with Bach And he bade farewell with additional Chopin: or other Baroque music (although you can the famous Waltz in C-sharp minor, which, lo, hardly go wrong with that). Lugansky waited was neat, graceful and expressive. Better late for the hall to get absolutely quiet. And then than never. he started to play—and not well. The nocturne was The New York Philharmonic did unnatural and unflowing, a staged version of a wacky and so was the ensuing Chopin. Phrases were little opera called Le Grand strangely calculated; notes Macabre... To the orchestra’s were awkwardly placed. Lugansky was tentative credit, the performances sold out. and sort of dull—out Sometimes, if you hype it, they of it. His playing was more mechanical than will come. limpid. And he made silly mistakes—that is, he missed notes that he probably didn’t miss when he was six. Frankly, he seemed The New York Philharmonic did a nervous, which performers can be, even very staged version of a wacky little opera called experienced ones. Le Grand Macabre, composed by György In the F-minor Fantasy, he was severe Ligeti in the mid-1970s (and revised 20 and Pollini-esque, which was fine: That can years later). The Philharmonic billed these be a winning approach. Icy Chopin can be performances as a major cultural event, and thrilling. But Lugansky offered no conviction the press cooperated. To the orchestra’s credit, or potency. And the E-major Scherzo, which the performances sold out. Sometimes, if you ended the first half of the recital, was heavy hype it, they will come. and thumping. Therefore, it was not much of In a program note, music director Alan a scherzo. The trio of this piece is beautiful Gilbert wrote, “As a work of theater, I’m and inspired—but, from Lugansky, it was hoping that the production will be absolutely completely without mystery or transport. Yet a compelling and really feel like the kind of funny thing happened in the final pages of the downtown, happening art event that I think scherzo: Lugansky played really, really well. New Yorkers love and are used to seeing Which boded well for the second half. in places other than in the symphony hall.” Indeed, a new pianist arrived at the Certain classical musicians, and those who bench to play a Prokofiev sonata: No. 4 work in the business, have a great longing to in C minor, Op. 29. Lugansky was fully be cool. Usually, that longing is unfulfilled. engaged, the master of his music. The second Ligeti was a fine composer, probably movement, Andante assai, had its spooky pulse—and then its sweet, simple melancholy. a genius, but Le Grand Macabre is not an immortal composition. It is not to be confused The final movement was spiky, percussive with the B-minor Mass, no matter how much and sweeping. Then, to close the printed it’s ballyhooed. program, Lugansky played a whole mess
The story is about the end of the world and is set in a place called “Breughelland”—as in the painter Breughel, a cousin of Bosch. Ligeti said that he was looking for something like a comic strip, and he found it. This is a druggy, bawdy, absurdist affair: the sort of thing that grad students of all ages find super-cool. The score consists of outbursts and doodlings. We hear a lot of churning and slapstick, signifying what? Ligeti does some interesting things with rhythm, as in his better works. Viewed most generously, Macabre is modernist Offenbach (as in Hoffmann). The Philharmonic’s production, put together by Doug Fitch, was suitably grotesque. Boobs protruded, a woman walked by on stilts (I think)—that sort of thing. What can be said is that the production matched the score and story, which is the high criterion. The Philharmonic offered no surtitles. A note in the program advised the audience not to worry about the words, but rather to become absorbed in the overall experience. Good advice—but also typical of a nannying tendency. Can’t audience members decide for themselves?
On the evening I attended, Gilbert led a solid performance, alert to Ligeti’s rhythm and other tricky details. He and his forces were committed, and commitment is half the battle in something like this. All concerned seemed to believe strongly in what they were doing. Mark Schowalter, singing a drunkard, put on a good Foster Brooks act. Melissa Parks was enjoyable as a demented queen (or something). The actor Rob Besserer—who positively kills in Bartlett Sher’s production of The Barber of Seville at the Metropolitan Opera—contributed his bit. New Yorkers fancy themselves an individualistic, independent bunch, and they are constantly being flattered as that. But they can be a herd of independent minds, running to what they’re told is the Latest Cool Thing. There was a lot of that in the Grand Macabre phenomenon—a sense of attitudinal solidarity. And it was a good show, for what it was. But the New York Philharmonic would provide a better service by performing a Mozart symphony capably. You could even call such a performance a “happening art event,” downtown or uptown. <
Le Grand Hype
June 15, 2010 | City Arts
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Dance
Hail And Farewell BY JOEL LOBENTHAL Two dates to flag: June 19, when the Royal Ballet’s Alina Cojocaru dances The Sleeping Beauty as a guest with American Ballet Theatre, and June 27, when New York City Ballet’s Darci Kistler retires after a 30-year career with the company, one of the longest in its history. Both women’s stories describe exceptional achievement, with a bit of cautionary tale thrown in as well. They remind us that in ballet a position of extreme privilege is also one of unique vulnerability. Cojocaru is a little slip of a thing, somewhat reminiscent of ABT’s former stars Gelsey Kirkland and Natalia Makarova, whose comparably short height was proportioned with long limbs that enabled them to achieve epic breadth. Cojocaru’s movement scale may be somewhat smaller than theirs, and that may be part of her charm. I can’t say this definitively, however, since I haven’t seen enough of her work live—all the more reason that I’m looking forward to her Aurora. Cojocaru first guested with ABT in 2003, when she danced two Nikiyas in La Bayadère. At that time she struck me as a lovely, appealing young ballerina gifted with every potential. But I had the uneasy feeling that she was being exploited, albeit with her own cooperation. Her rise at the Royal at the beginning of the last
decade occurred when the company was suffering identity crises and upheavals in direction. The company seemed to be using her as one strategy employed to surmount its doldrums. In addition, she was accepting guest engagements all over the place. Indeed, last year she told Ismene Brown of London’s Evening Standard that “Many times I’ve done things I know I shouldn’t have: pushing, pushing, pushing.” Her Nikiyas at ABT had many individual moments of beauty, but she couldn’t then do justice to the full technical, stylistic, interpretive spectrum of the role. A year later, she returned to New York, this time with the Royal, which was participating in a festival of work by Frederick Ashton, the choreographer who did so much to give the Royal its stylistic signature. In his full-length Cinderella, her size fit the heroine to glass-slipper perfection, and when she strove for grandeur, she achieved it, with the help of frequent partner John Kobborg, to an impressive degree. Cojocaru has had more serious injuries than she should, among them a neck injury that sidelined her for a year in 2008. Artistic fulfillment happens more easily when a dancer takes a deep breath and gets off the rollercoaster. Hopefully, Cojocaru’s ABT Aurora will show us that, at age 29, she is settling into her prime.
It certainly might be said that the Balanchine ballerinas who held the stage longest were not the object of his most single-minded attention. Kistler, who was anointed by the master at age 16, is both an exception to that theory and a confirmation of it. Frequently obsessive with dancers who inspired him, Balanchine made Kistler the final recipient of this kind of attention. I remember her first appearances with the company in 1980, when Kistler was presented as the chosen one, whose supremacy and greatness could not for a moment be debated. For me, however, the sunny and lanky teenager seemed in over her head. She lacked depth in the mysterious adagio of Symphony in C, one of the most hallowed roles in NYCB repertory. Balanchine was already showing symptoms of the slow virus that would prove fatal in 1983. He may well have realized that this would be his last muse. It was whispered at the time that he had even tried to close the circle by attempting to fit Kistler into the tutu worn by Tanaquil Le Clercq, who had danced the American premiere of this role in 1948. A couple years later, having already been promoted to principal dancer, Kistler sustained an ankle injury that curtailed her appearances for years afterwards. It may have dictated the future course of her career. With her athletic prowess not
Kiyonori Hasegawa
The Royal Ballet’s Alina Cojocaru arrives; New York City Ballet’s Darci Kistler retires
Alina Cojocaru performing in a version of The Sleeping Beauty. invariably reliable, she quickly worked at acquiring the chiaroscuro that was not there originally. She has given some magical performances. Kistler has had a remarkable number of second winds. In recent years there have been times when I thought she would do better to pack it in, but just as frequently she has taken the stage as if revitalized. Of late she has acquitted herself honorably in a small and well-chosen repertory. She certainly has shown her right to close out the long list of extraordinary ballerinas fostered by Balanchine, and yes, her farewell will be the end of an era.
Theater
Summer of Jealousy (and Bears) With his summer role in The Winter’s Tale, Ruben Santiago-Hudson learns to like the unlikable BY JESSICA BRANCH Although he got his start on the stage, most people recognize Ruben Santiago-Hudson these days from his role on ABC’s Castle. But this year, he’s holed up at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park as he stars in The Winter’s Tale in this season’s Shakespeare in the Park. Santiago-Hudson plays King Leontes of Sicilia, who becomes convinced that his beloved wife is betraying him with his childhood friend, the king of Bohemia. To avenge himself, Leontes orders a courtier to poison the king, forces his wife to stand trial on charges of treason and adultery and commands his newborn daughter to be left to die in the wilderness because he doesn’t believe she’s his child. We spoke with SantiagoHudson about the reasons he’s drawn to Leontes and to Shakespeare—and how he’s making sure that his audiences will be, too.
CityArts: I’ve heard there’s a real sense of camaraderie that develops during rehearsals at the Delacorte. Any idea why? Ruben Santiago-Hudson: I think it’s a little more grueling: the 100-degree heat,
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the tech, the sun, close accommodations offstage. But it’s true that in every theater production you develop lifelong friends you value throughout your career. In the theater, everyone’s on the same level, beginning to end. Me, Hamish Linklater, Pacino–we’re in the same dressing room, the same bathroom. There are no separate trailers; we have parity. And there’s no greater joy than when you see 900 people sitting out there who worked hard to get those tickets—standing in that line half their day. I just want to say, thank you, we appreciate you, we love you.
Does this production do anything special to makes Shakespeare more accessible to a contemporary audience? It’s just the clarity of the language: It’s all in how you handle the intentions and relationships. I don’t try to dazzle with the beauty of the language. I want to take advantage of the power of these wonderful, colorful words to make you understand the relationships… Don’t dumb it down to reach the audience. Even if they don’t understand each
word, they get the intentions and can match them back to the words.
What drew you to the role of Leontes? The actor in me: It’s a tremendous challenge. Every emotion a human can have is on display in this role: joy, power, deception, love, weakness, jealousy. What’s not to want to play? Unless you just want to be liked. And by the end of the play, you do like me—because I am redeemable.
But he’s not that likeable for most of the play. Then own it. Backstage, someone said to me, “I hate you so bad!” But I am doing it all because I love [my wife Hermione] so much. I don’t wake up and say “How cruel can I be?” My heart is damaged and I need to strike back. How do I regain my honor, my integrity? The audience must perceive that this is happening to me because I think I’m losing the most precious person in the world to me. Do I stand by idly? It’s easy to say, “Don’t rush to judgment,” but I have every indication to think I’m being wronged.
In your stage work, you’ve played and created some major roles in August Wilson’s plays, and I was wondering whether you see connections between the two playwrights? Absolutely. There are many powerful wordsmiths, but these two, for me personally, are the strongest—followed closely by Chekhov. In the more than 100 plays I’ve done, these two paint with words so eloquently, so prolifically, so profoundly. Both write about nobility, deception, love, family, authority, respect—the same things push the play. Their themes are universal, there are points we can all relate to: being jealous, being in love, being deceived. Whether it’s King Leontes or a guy selling watermelons on the street in Pittsburgh, it’s about responsibility, respect, nobility.
What’s next after The Winter’s Tale? As soon as we’re done here, I’ll head back to Castle world and hang out with my Castle family. And tell them lies about the park—like the bears in the wood!
ArtsAGENDA GALLERY OPENINGS
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Talents 2010, French Impressions: New Photographic Perspectives.” Opens June 17, 972 5th Ave., no phone. EASY STREET GALLERY: “Smoked Volume 2.” Opens June 19, 155 Grand St., Brooklyn, 718-388-8257. THE GALLERY AT (LE) POISSON ROUGE: Alexander Kaletski: “Life of the Party.” Opens June 22, 158 Bleecker St., 212-505-3474. JUNE KELLY GALLERY: “Ming Smith Photographs: 1978-2010.” Opens June 18, 591 Broadway, 212226-1660. KATHARINA RICH PERLOW GALLERY: “Changing Summer Group Exhibition.” Opens June 2010, The Fuller Building, 41 E. 57th St., 13th Fl., 212-644-7171. LEHMANN MAUPIN: “Touched.” Opens June 24, 540 W. 26th St., 212-255-2923. LESLEY HELLER WORKSPACE: “The Young Israelis.” Opens June 16, 54 Orchard St., 212-410-6120. LOMBARD-FREID PROJECTS: “Heat Wave.” Opens June 17, 531 W. 26th St., 212-967-8040. MORGAN LEHMAN: “the default state network.” Opens June 17, 535 W. 22nd St., 6th Fl., 212-2686699. NICOLE KLAGSBRUN GALLERY: “Shape Language.” Opens June 22, 526 W. 26th St., No. 213, 212243-3335. NOHO GALLERY IN CHELSEA: Allison CS Lewis: “CutThroat Escape.” Opens June 22, 530 W. 25th St., 4th Fl., 212-367-7063. SLOAN FINE ART: “Nice to Meet You.” Opens June 16. “Amuse Bouche.” Opens June 16, 128 Rivington St., 212-477-1140. SOHO PHOTO GALLERY: “Winners of Soho Photo’s 15th Annual National Photography Competition.” Opens July 6, 15 White St., 212-226-8571. TIBOR DE NAGY GALLERY: “Town & Country.” Opens June 17, 724 5th Ave., 212-262-5050. WESTSIDE GALLERY: “Keep Your Eye on the Ball.” Opens June 26, 133/141 W. 21st St., 212-5922145.
GALLERY CLOSINGS 440 GALLERY: Shanee Epstein: “Ezra: May His
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Memory Be a Blessing.” Ends June 27, 440 6th Ave., Brooklyn, 718-499-3844. A.I.R. GALLERY: Damali Abrams: “Autobiography Of A Year.” Ends June 20, 111 Front St. #228, Brooklyn, 212-255-6651. ACA GALLERIES: Irene Hardwicke Olivieri: “Some Kind of Wilderness.” Ends June 26, 529 W. 20th St., 5th Fl., 212-206-8080. ALEXANDRE GALLERY: Will Barnet: “Recent Abstract
Paintings.” Ends June 18, 41 E. 57th St., 212755-2828. ALLAN STONE GALLERY: Daniel Ludwig: “Paradigms Lost.” Ends June 25, 113 E. 90th St., 212-9874997. AMADOR GALLERY: Bruce Gilden: “Coney Island.” Ends July 9, 41 E. 57th St., 6th Fl., 212-7596740. ANDREA ROSEN GALLERY: “She Awoke With a Jerk.” Ends June 19. Karla Black & Nate Lowman. Ends June 19, 525 W. 24th St., 212-627-6000. BENRIMON CONTEMPORARY: Yoram Wolberger: “Cowboys & Indians.” Ends July 3, 514 W. 24th St., 2nd Fl., 212-924-2400. BETTY CUNINGHAM GALLERY: Rackstraw Downes: “A Selection of Drawings: 1980-2010.” Ends July 9, 541 W. 25th St., 212-242-2772. BOOKLYN EXHIBITIONS: Jarrett Mitchell: “Cigarettes & Yoga.” Ends July 5, 37 Greenpoint Ave., Brooklyn, 718-383-9621. CERES GALLERY: “Ninth National Juried Exhibition.” Ends June 19, 547 W. 27th St., Ste. 201, 212947-6100. CHASHAMA 112 GALLERY: Halley Zien: “The Little People.” Ends June 23, 112 W. 44th St., 212-3918151. CHERYL HAZAN GALLERY: Perry Burns: “Equinox.” Ends June 21, 35 N. Moore St., 212-343-8964. CLAMP ART: Jesse Burke: “Intertidal.” Ends July 9, 521-531 W. 25th St., Ground Fl., 646-230-0020. CYNTHIA-REEVES: John Grade. Ends June 19, 535 W. 24th St., 2nd Fl., 212-714-0044. DANIEL REICH GALLERY: Amy Gartrell: “Whatever & Ever.” Ends June 26, 537A W. 23rd St., 212924-4949. DAVID NOLAN: Jim Nutt: ““Trim’ & Other Works: 1967-2010.” Ends June 26, 527 W. 29th St., 212-925-6190. DAVID ZWIRNER: Edward Kienholz: “Roxys.” Ends June 19, 519 W. 19th St., 212-517-8677. DCKT: Ryan Humphrey: “Early American.” Ends June 20, 195 Bowery, 212-741-9955. DIA ART FOUNDATION: Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster: “Chronotopes & Dioramas.” Ends June 27, 535 W. 22nd St., 212-989-5566. FARMANI GALLERY: Rose-Lynn Fisher: “Bee.” Ends June 26, 111 Front St., Gallery 212, Brooklyn, 718-578-4478. FIRST STREET GALLERY: Phyllis Floyd: “Anne, Zoe, Emil & Other Subjects.” Ends June 19, 526 W. 26th St., Ste. 915, 646-336-8053. FRANKLIN 54 GALLERY + PROJECTS: Elaine Defibaugh. “Nite Lite, City Brite.” Ends June 19, 526 W. 26th St., Rm. 403, 917-821-0753. GAGOSIAN GALLERY: Tatiana Trouvé. Ends June 26, 980 Madison Ave., 212-744-2313. GAGOSIAN GALLERY: Richard Prince: “Tiffany Paint-
The Young Israelis Curated by Lilly Wei June 16-August 13, 2010
Portion of proceeds goes to PS 63’s PTA and SLT!
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Still from the video “Rough Cut” by Lior Shvil
ings.” Ends June 19, 980 Madison Ave., 212-744-2313. GALLERY 307: Sally Weiss: “Sculpture & Assemblage.” Ends June 26, 307 7th Ave., Ste. 1401, 646-400-5254. GASSER GRUNERT: “Rodney Dickson: Paintings.” Ends July 2, 524 W. 19th St., 646-944-6197. HALF GALLERY: “A Ways A Way.” Ends July 8, 208 Forsyth St., no phone. HEIDI CHO GALLERY: “As You Like It.” Ends June 26, 522 W. 23rd St., 212-2556783. HENRY GREGG GALLERY: “In the Zone.” Ends June 27, 111 Front St., Ste. 226, Brooklyn, 718-408-1090. HOLLIS TAGGART GALLERIES: Theodoros Stamos: “A Communion With Nature.” Ends June 19, 958 Madison Ave., 212-628-4000. HORTON GALLERY: “Berlin: Daniel Rich & Wieland Speck.” Ends June 26, 504 W. 22nd St., Parlor Level, 212-2432663. ICO GALLERY: “Disintegration.” Ends July “Pretend A Sky,” by Zachary Wollard at Sloan Fine Art. 2, 606 W. 26th St., 212-966-3897. INVISIBLE-EXPORTS: Group Show: “A Vernacular of LYONS WIER GALLERY: Amanda Besl: “Riding LesViolence.” Ends June 20, 14A Orchard St., 212sons.” Ends June 20. Jazz-minh Moore: “Slip226-5447. ping Sideways.” Ends June 20, 175 7th Ave., J CACCIOLA GALLERY: “Go Figure.” Ends July 3, 617 212-242-6220. MCKEE GALLERY: Vija Celmins: “New Paintings, W. 27th St., 212-462-4646. JADITE GALLERIES: Stephen Cimini: “Secrets In Objects & Prints.” Ends June 25, 745 5th Ave., Nature.” Ends June 19, 528 W. 47th St., 2124th Fl., 212-688-5951. MF GALLERY: “I Need Your Skull.” Ends June 20, 213 977-6190. JAMES COHAN GALLERY: Alison Elizabeth Taylor: Bond St., Brooklyn, 917-446-8681. MIKE WEISS GALLERY: Piet van den Boog: “I wanted “Foreclosed.” Ends June 19, 533 W. 26th St., each & every one of them, but choosing one 212-714-9500. JAMES GRAHAM & SONS: Reeve Schley: “Outdoor meant losing all the rest.” Ends June 19, 520 W. Light.” Ends June 18, 32 E. 67th St., 212-53524th St., 212-691-6899. MITCHELL-INNES & NASH: William Pope.L: “landscape 5767. JAN KRUGIER GALLERY: “A Century of Picasso.” Ends + object + animal.” Ends June 19, 534 W. 26th July 6, 980 Madison Ave., 212-755-7288. St., 212-744-7400. JEFF BAILEY GALLERY: “All This & Not Ordinary.” MITCHELL-INNES & NASH: Alberto Giacometti: “Painted Ends June 19, 511 W. 25th St., No. 207, 212Portraits.” Ends June 25, 1018 Madison Ave., 989-0156. 212-744-7400. JIM KEMPNER FINE ART: Wayne Thiebaud. Ends June MIYAKO YOSHINAGA: Hans Benda: “Lodger.” Ends 19, 501 W. 23rd St., 212-206-6872. July 10, 547 W. 27th St., 2nd Fl., 212-268-7132. THE LAB: Fred Forest: “The Trader’s Ball.” Ends July NEW CENTURY ARTISTS: Chana Benjamin: “Gay in 2, 501 Lexington Ave., 212-339-2092. America 2009: Commemorating the 40th AnLAUREL GITLEN: Joseph Montgomery: “Lie lay lain; niversary of Stonewall.” Ends June 26, 530 W. Lay laid laid.” Ends July 1, 261 Broome St., 21225th St., Ste. 406, 212-367-7072. NOHO GALLERY IN CHELSEA: Stephanie Rauschenbusch: 274-0761. LESLIE FEELY FINE ART: “A Moment in Time: Richard “Blue Studio.” Ends June 19, 530 W. 25th St., Diebenkorn in Context: 1949-1952.” Ends June 4th Fl., 212-367-7063. NY STUDIO GALLERY: “MISC Video & Performance.” 18, 33 E. 68th St., 212-988-0040. LISA COOLEY: Andy Coolquitt: “We Care About You.” Ends July 3, 154 Stanton St., 212-627-3276. THE PACE GALLERY: Carsten Nicolai: “moiré.” Ends Ends June 27, 34 Orchard St., 212-680-0564.
June 25, 534 W. 25th St., 212-929-7000. THE PACE GALLERY: Kiki Smith: “Lodestar.”
Ends June 19, 545 W. 22nd St., 212-9894263. THE PAINTING CENTER: Kimberly Trowbridge: “Open-In.” Ends July 3. Ryan Cobourn: “Personal Territories.” Ends July 3, 547 W. 27th St., Ste. 500, 212-343-1060. PELAVIN GALLERY: Christopher Blyth: “The Build Up.” Ends June 19, 13 Jay St., 212925-9424. PERRY RUBENSTEIN GALLERY: Amir Zaki: “Relics.” Ends June 25, 527 W. 23rd St., 212-627-8000. PHOENIX GALLERY: Patricia Ingersoll: “Meridian.” Ends June 19. Gary Paul Stutler: “Viscera Botanica.” Ends June 19, 210 11th Ave., 212-226-8711. P.J.S. EXHIBITIONS: Santillo: “Risque: Exploring the Hidden Face.” Ends July 4, 238 W. 14th St., 212-242-2427. PRISKA C. JUSCHKA FINE ART: Romain Bernini: “Despite Walls & Landscapes.” Ends July 3. Samuel T. Adams: “Delphic Affairs.” Ends July 3, 547 W. 27th St., 212-244-4320. RACHEL UFFNER GALLERY: Allison Katz: “Le Tit.” Ends July 2, 47 Orchard St., 212-274-0064. RANDALL SCOTT GALLERY: Renato D’Agostin: “Tokyo Unlimited.” Ends July 3, 111 Front St., Brooklyn, 212-796-2190. REAL FINE ARTS: Alisha Kerlin: “Cat & Mouse.” Ends June 27, 673 Meeker Ave., Brooklyn, no phone. SACRED GALLERY: “artless.” Ends June 27, 424 Broadway, no phone. SCHOLTEN JAPANESE ART: “Side by Side by Side: Ukiyo-e Triptychs.” Ends June 30, 145 W. 58th St., Ste. 6D, 212-585-0474. SHEPHERD & DEROM GALLERIES: “Hungarian Modernism.” Ends July 2, 58 E. 79th St., 212-861-4050. SKOTO GALLERY: Mary Frank: “As Time Goes By.” Ends June 19, 529 W. 20th St., 5th Fl., 212-3528058. SLAG GALLERY: “Out Of Line.” Ends June 19, 531 W. 25th St., Ground 10, 212-967-9818. SLATE GALLERY: Erika Ranee: “Sweet Talk.” Ends June 27, 136 Wythe Ave., Brooklyn, 718-3873921. SOHO PHOTO GALLERY: Sarah Kaufman: “Recent Work.” Ends July 3, 15 White St., 212-226-8571. SOHO20 CHELSEA: “Future Shock.” Ends June 19. Kathy Stark: “Interior Landscapes.” Ends June 19, 547 W. 27th St., Ste. 301, 212-367-8994. SONNABEND GALLERY: Robert Morris: “Felt Pieces, Blind Time Drawing & Two Films.” Ends July 2010, 536 W. 22nd St., 212-627-1018. SOUS LES ETOILES GALLERY: Max Ruiz: “Cimarron.”
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Saundra McPherson, Sanctus Ulmus/Glow, oil on canvas, 48x48, 2010
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THE TONY AWARD®-WINNING COMEDY THRILLER!
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340 W. 50th St. • 39StepsNY.com *$39 tickets are available for all seats on Sunday nights through 6/20 and Wednesday matinees 6/23-9/1; regular price $69.50-$89.50. $39 offer not valid for the 5/30/10 evening performance. Tickets with this offer also available for $55 for select rear mezzanine seats at all performances through 9/5; regular price $69.50, and $65 for select orchestra/ front mezzanine seats at all performances through 9/5; regular price $89.50. Limit 10 tickets per order. All prices include a $1.50 facility fee. All sales are final - no refunds or exchanges. Blackout dates may apply. Offer is subject to availability and prior sale. Not valid in combination with any other offers. Offer may be revoked or modified at any time without notice.
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ArtsAGENDA Ends June 26, 560 Broadway, Ste. 205, 212966-0796. SPANIERMAN MODERN: Katherine Parker: “Watermark.” Ends July 2, 53 E. 58th St., 212-8321400. SPAZIO 522: Paolo Staccioli. Ends June 15, 526 W. 26th St., 914-844-6296. STEPHEN HALLER GALLERY: Ron Ehrlich. Ends June 26, 542 W. 26th St., 212-741-7777. STEVEN KASHER GALLERY: “Autochromes: Early Color Masterpieces from National Geographic.” Ends July 10. “1.3: New Color Images by Joel Grey.” Ends July 10, 521 W. 23rd St., 212-966-3978. SUSAN-BERKO CONDE GALLERY: Michelle Jaffé: “New Work.” Ends June 26, 521 W. 23rd St., 2nd Fl., 212-367-9799. SUSAN TELLER GALLERY: Abe Blashko: “A Ninetieth Birthday Celebration.” Ends June 26, 568 Broadway, Rm. 502A, 212-941-7335. SVA GALLERY: “Social.” Ends June 26, 209 E. 23rd St., no phone. SWISS INSTITUTE/CONTEMPORARY ART: Richard Phillips & Adolf Dietrich: “Painting & Misappropriation.” Ends June 26, 495 Broadway, 3rd Fl., 212-925-2035. TALLER BORICUA: Michael Paul Britto: “The Cost of Forgetting.” J. Carpenter: “Live Wires.” Jessica Lagunas: “Tracing Memories.” Christina Massey: “Meat Market.” All end July 10, 1680 Lexington Ave., 212-831-4333. TEAM GALLERY: “Kratos: About Il(legitimate)d Power.” Ends June 26, 83 Grand St., 212-2799219. THOMAS ERBEN GALLERY: Haeri Yoo: “Body Hoarding.” Ends July 2, 526 W. 26th St., 4th Fl., 212-645-8701. TRACY WILLIAMS, LTD.: Barbara Bloom: “Present.” Ends June 30, 521 W. 23rd St., 212-229-2757. TRIA GALLERY: Sandra Burns, Tricia Wright & Lynne Allen: “Interior Perspectives.” Ends July 2, 531 W. 25th St., Ground Fl. #5, 212-695-0021. UBU GALLERY: Helmar Lerski: “Transformations Through Light.” Ends June 25, 416 E. 59th St., 212-753-4444. VISUAL ARTS GALLERY: “Thesis 2010: MFA Photography, Video & Related Media Department.” Ends June 26, 601 W. 26th St., 15th Fl., 212-592-2145. VON LINTEL GALLERY: Medrie MacPhee. Ends July 2, 520 W. 23rd St., 212-242-0599. WESTBETH GALLERY: Beverly Brodsky: “Painted Through.” Ends June 27, 57 Bethune St., 212989-4650. WESTSIDE GALLERY: “Between.” Ends June 19, 133/141 W. 21st St., 212-592-2145. YANCEY RICHARDSON GALLERY: Lynn Geesaman. Ends July 9, 535 W. 22nd St., 646-230-9610. ZURCHER STUDIO: David Lefebvre. Ends June 20. Colt Hausman. Ends June 20, 33 Bleecker St., 212-777-0790.
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York Philharmonic concludes his inaugural season with the world premiere of “Al Largo” by Magnus Lindberg. June 23, 24 & 26, Lincoln Center, 132 W. 65th St., 212-333-5333; times vary, $31+. BAM: BAM presents the 2010 Rhythm & Blues Festival, featuring Jennifer Holliday, Bernie Worrell’s SociaLybrium, Tony Allen, Victor Wooten, Tabou Combo, Mighty Sparrow, Naomi Shelton & the Gospel Queens, Bilal, Vieux Farka Toure & Mykal Rose of Black Uhuru. Thursdays, ends Aug. 5, MetroTech Commons, Brooklyn, 718636-4129; 12pm, free. CARNEGIE HALL: Composer John Rutter conducts his Requiem & two concertos by Mozart. June 27,
Carnegie Hall, 881 7th Ave., 212-247-7800; 2, $35+. CENTRAL PARK: The John Butler Trio & State Radio perform a benefit show as part of this year’s SummerStage. June 15, Rumsey Playfield, East 69th Street at Fifth Avenue, 212-360-2777; 6:30, $30. CENTRAL PARK: This year’s NYCPride Rally features music & comedy performances by Me’shell Ndegeocello, Martha Wash, Vickie Shaw, NY Gay Men’s Chorus, Billie Myers & Bruce Vilanch. June 19, Rumsey Playfield, East 69th Street at Fifth Avenue, 212-360-2777; 4, free. CENTRAL PARK: Hip-hop artist Gil Scott-Heron performs. June 27, Rumsey Playfield, East 69th Street at Fifth Avenue, 212-360-2777; 3, free. CENTRAL PARK: The Metropolitan Opera presents a series of six free operatic recitals, taking place in all five boroughs. The opening concert features baritone Nathan Gunn, Susanna Phillips & Michael Fabiano. July 12-29, Rumsey Playfield, East 69th Street at Fifth Avenue, 212-360-7777; 8, free. LE PETIT VERSAILLES: Vocalist Carol Lipnik & keyboardist Dred Scott play their Coney Island parlor punk music. June 21, 346 E. Houston St., 212-529-8815; 8, $10. MERKIN CONCERT HALL: The New York Youth Musicians present their annual concert featuring performances on piano, marimba & violin as well as percussion ensembles. June 27, Kaufman Center, 129 W. 67th St., 212-501-3330; 12, $20. MERKIN CONCERT HALL: In the Summer Solstice Concert, the New York Chamber Virtuosi is conducted by the finalists of Maestro Piero Bellugi’s International Masterclass & features guest pianist Giacomo Battarino. June 21, Kaufman Center, 129 W. 67th St., 212-501-3330; 8, $25+. MUSEUM OF MODERN ART: Music returns to the MoMA Sculpture Garden with Summergarden 2010. Juilliard Concert I: New Music for Mixed Ensembles. July 11. Jazz Concert I: TRIO 3. July 18. Juilliard Concert II: New Music for Strings & Piano. July 25. Jazz Concert II: Don Byron Ivey-Divey Trio. Aug. 1, 11 W. 53rd St., 212-7089400; 7, free. NABI GALLERY: The New York Chamber Virtuosi performs the chamber music of Mozart, Faure & seduction scenes from opera- & Broadway in its “Music of Seduction” concert. June 17, 137 W. 25th St., 212-929-6063; 7, $7+. NEW YORK NEW CHURCH: Martin Halpern presents “Triptych,” a triple bill of one-act operas. June 2426, 114 E. 35th St., 212-352-3101; 8, $20. OLIN HALL: The Hudson Valley Chamber Music Circle series at Bard College presents two concerts by world-renowned musicians. The Dolce Suono Trio performs works on flute, cello & piano. June 19. The series concludes with the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio performing with the Miami String Quartet. June 26, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, 845-339-7907; 8, $5+. SYMPHONY SPACE: Center for Contemporary Opera closes its 27th season with the world premiere of John Eaton’s opera “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” June 15, Sharp Theatre at Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, 212-8645400; 8, $20+. WMP: The final Strad for Lunch concert of the season features violinist Yeo-Lim Nam, violist Kristin Nikaj, cellist Sokol Nikaj, clarinetist Akari Yamamoto & pianist Jeong-Hwa Park. June 21, 31 E. 28th St., 212-582-7536; 12:30, free. ZANKEL HALL: Music director Dino Anagnost & The Little Orchestra Society present “Evviva Vivaldi II,” concluding the 20th anniversary of the Vivaldi’s Venice concert series. June 16, Carnegie Hall, 881 7th Ave., 212-247-7800; 7, $25+.
Please complete our Reader Survey and be entered to win some fabulous prizes. 1. Two tickets to an intimate performance by Laurie Anderson at Le Poisson Rouge on July 13, performing from HOMELAND, Nonesuch Records 2. Admission for two to Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola, Jazz at Lincoln Center 3. Four tickets to Million Dollar Quartet. 4. Admission for two to the Guggenheim Museum 1. What types of performing arts events do you attend? Please check all that apply. ❒ Theater ❒ Orchestral or Chamber music ❒ Opera ❒ Film ❒ Ballet or Modern Dance ❒ Film ❒ Jazz ❒ Other 2. Do you go to any of the venues listed below? Please check all that apply. ❒ Art Fairs ❒ Art Galleries ❒ Antique Shops ❒ Museums ❒ Auctions ❒ Bookstores
11. How many people in your household read each issue of CityArts? ____________________ 12. In what format do you read CityArts? ❒ In print ❒ Online
13. Where do you live? ________________________ (zip code) 14. What is your gender?
3. How frequently do you attend ? ❒ Once a week or more ❒ Once a month ❒ Three times a year ❒ Six+ times a year 4. Are you member of a museum? ❒ Yes
❒ Male ❒ Female
15. What is your age? ❒ 18 to 29 ❒ 30 to 39 ❒ 40 to 49 ❒ 50 to 59 ❒ 60 to 69 ❒ 70 to 79 ❒ 80+
❒ No If yes, how many? ____________
5. Do you hold subscriptions to any of the following? Please check all that apply. ❒ Theater ❒ Opera ❒ Chamber music ❒ Film Series ❒ Dance ❒ Symphony ❒ Jazz ❒ Live HD Broadcasts 6. Do you attend performing arts events in the summer and/or on weekends when you are out of New York City or away from your primary residence? ❒ Yes ❒ No 7. Do you purchase tickets for performing arts or other events on-line?
❒ Yes ❒ No
8. Do you collect any of the following? Please check all that apply. ❒ Antiques ❒ Art ❒ Jewelry ❒ Furniture ❒ Other _____________________________________________________________ 9. Where do you get information about the events you attend? Please check all that apply. ❒ CityArts ❒ New York Times ❒ Wall Street Journal ❒ New York Post ❒ The New York Observer ❒ The New Yorker ❒ New York Magazine ❒ Time Out ❒ Other _____________________________________________________________ 10. How often do you read CityArts? ❒ Every issue ❒ Once a month
❒ Both print and online
❒ Now and then
❒ Never
16. What is the highest level of education you have completed? ❒ High school ❒ Some college ❒ Undergraduate degree ❒ Graduate degree 17. What is your job title/position. Please check all that apply. ❒ Professional/Managerial ❒ Self-employed ❒ Business Owner ❒ C Level or President ❒ Other __________________________________________ 18. Which category best describes your total yearly household income before taxes? ❒ 0 to $59,999 ❒ $150,000 to $249,999 ❒ Over $500,000 ❒ $60,000 to $99,999 ❒ $250,000 to $349,999 ❒ Prefer not to answer ❒ $100,000 to $149,999 ❒ $350,000 to $499,999 19. How frequently do you dine out? ❒ Once a week ❒ 2 times a week ❒ 3 times a week or more ❒ Once a month ❒ 2 times a month ❒ More than 3 times a month 20. What are your travel plans in the next 12 months? Please check all that apply. ❒ Domestic business ❒ International business ❒ Domestic vacation ❒ International vacation 21. Please provide additional comments or suggestions about CityArts (optional).
Thank you for your assistance. This can be mailed to CITYARTS SURVEY, Manhattan Media, 79 Madison Avenue, 16th Floor, NYC, NY 10016 or faxed to 212 268 0502. Provide us with an email address or a phone number and we will select the prize winners by the end of June. Go to www.cityarts.info to take the survey online. Everyone who takes the survey online will automatically be enrolled in the prize drawing.
PainttheTOWN
By Amanda Gordon
TAKE A BOW
Photos by Amanda Gordon
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Robin Epstein and Joel Bragen.
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Tico Torres with a toy action figure of himself by Elliot Arkin.
Broadway has the Tonys, Hollywood the Oscars, and now the New York party circuit has the unscientific, somewhat random City Arts Paint the Town Awards. BEST AWARD DESIGN: At the Compleat Sculptor store in Hudson Square, sculptor Tico Torres received a toy action figure of himself made by artist Elliott Arkin. The occasion was a benefit for Mister Artsee, which is converting an ice cream truck into a cool-looking vehicle (think retractable wings) that will bring art into city parks and beyond. BEST CUPCAKE: To fete her new young adult novel God Is In the Pancakes at the East Village bar Hi Fi, author Robin Epstein ordered up cupcakes with icing “pads of Mark Jan Krayenhoff van de Leur. Elizabeth Harris. butter” and maple syrup from the Sugar Sweet Sunshine Bakery on Rivington Street. She’d wanted to serve pancakes, but if she couldn’t make them fresh during the party, she knew she’d be serving her guests (among them the Tony Award-winning writer of Hairspray, Mark O’Donnell, and the executive director of Scientists Without Borders, Shaifali Puri) “wet cement Frisbees.” Hence, the pan-cupcake. Are you reading, IHOP? BEST MALE POSE IN A PHOTO: Cristian Rosa, Alec E. Martin and Ashiq Khonder at MoMA’s Party in the Garden. A professional boy band stylist couldn’t have done better for these three, who were perhaps a tad underdressed for the party, which gathered 1,200 guests for an acoustic performance by Karen O and Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. BEST FEMALE POSE IN A PHOTO: True, we can’t really see what you’re wearing, Mary-Kate Olsen, but we like to see you not on a red carpet, just hanging out with friends and enjoying the performance by Chief at The Kitchen’s benefit at Capitale. Tecla Esposito, Christopher Myers, Latasha N. Nevada Diggs BEST LONG NAME (AND BEARD): Mark Jan Krayenhoff van de Leur and Gordon Voidwell. is an architect who has worked on Jasper Johns’ and Lou Reed’s homes. We spotted him at Creative Time’s benefit at Jing Fong in Chinatown. As for how he spends his free time creatively, he said he does watercolors of street scenes. BEST PROMOTION OF A SPOUSE’S WORK: At Creative Time’s benefit, Elizabeth Harris wore a sculptural headpiece by her husband, artist Mark Fox. The paper antlers come straight from his show at Larissa Goldston Gallery, up through June 26. “Wait til you see the installation—they look a lot better when they’re not on my head!” Harris said. Meanwhile, Rose Dergan wore a cupcake tiara by Will Cotton, just like the ones in paintings that are currently on view in his Paris gallery. BEST GALA GLASSES: At The Kitchen benefit, Latasha N. Nevada Diggs was clearly missing something when she posed with her eyewear-sporting friends Tecla Esposito, Christopher Myers and Gordon Voidwell. Manolo Valdés and daughter BEST FATHER-DAUGHTER PAIR: At the Broadway Mall Association benefit, attorney Regina Valdés Regina Valdés. kindly translated so a reporter could speak with her father, artist Manolo Valdés, whose bronze sculptures are currently on the Broadway malls from Columbus Circle to West 166th Street. On the installation: “The montage is great. Initially I thought separating the sculptures would break continuity but I love the surprise of it,” he said. On why he loves New York: “On a very basic level, New York is inspiring because of the people and the texture of the buildings. It’s cut by two rivers, so it has an actual profile. Sometimes cities just drop off. I love the light and the contrasts, the interesting shapes and colors. It’s wilder and weirder than anything I can imagine.” Cristian Rosa, Alec E. Martin and Ashiq Khonder.
Mary-Kate Olsen and friend.
HOLLYWOOD IN FORT GREENE The BAMCinemaFEST program promises “no headsets, V.I.P. badges or red carpets.” That was mostly true on opening night for the New York premiere of Cyrus; this wasn’t Cannes, it was Brooklyn, so everyone got into the after-party. And the film’s female star, Marisa Tomei, wasn’t just making publicity rounds, she was doing her part as chairman of the BAM Cinema Club. “It means a lot to me to be able to support such an important cultural institution in my hometown!” she said on the stage of BAM’s Howard Gilman Opera House, noting that her parents were in the audience. On the press line, co-star John C. Reilly shared some advice about what to do if you find yourself in the awkward position of third wheel, as happens in the film. “Just get out when the getting is good, don’t stick around too long, don’t force yourself on anybody, and be polite. Pick up the tab if you can.” Directors Mark and Jay Duplass, who live in Los Angeles, said they had made a lot of bad films in their Brooklyn apartments. (Mark lived in Williamsburg, Jay in Fort Greene.) They’ve found their metier outside the city, having just finished filming a movie outside Baton Rouge. “We grew up there, and we kind of know that suburban landscape really well. It’s pretty much the most banal, boring place to look at, and for us that’s where all the exciting stuff happens.” However, New York does still tug at their hearts. “We always have this strange feeling of nostalgia when we come back,” said Jay. BAM gave the Duplass brothers a New York party, with street carts serving hot dogs, pretzels and Sno Cones, and at the bar, a selection of Brooklyn Brewery beers.
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City Arts | www.cityarts.info
Jay Duplass, Marisa Tomei and Mark Duplass. For more party coverage, visit www.cityarts.info. To contact the author or purchase photos, email Amanda.Gordon@rocketmail.com; bit.ly/agphotos.
Lance Esplund, Nancy Balbirer and Jerry Portwood.
Armond White, Matthew Modine and Tom Allon.
CITY ARTS CELEBRATES FIRST YEAR AT THE CHELSEA ART MUSEUM On Wednesday, May 19, CityArts celebrated its first year with a party at The Chelsea Art Museum. Packed with contributors, friends and fans, the exciting event was a fun-filled commemoration of our first year in print. We can’t run photos of every fabulous guest in the room, but here are a few of our very favorites. Hope you can make it next year!
Kiyomi Yamamoto (at right) with friend.
Janet Doyle, Jessica Weber and Alan Peckolick.
Von Schmidt and Laura Selub von Schmidt.
Member of Audubon Ensembles.
Ro Lohin and George Billis.
Laura Rubin, Andrea Tese and Adam Rathe.
David Manning.
David Harper, at right, with Anna Pinkas and friend.
Michael and Maureen Mullarkey and Cathy Price.
David Watson and Vivian Chiu. June 15, 2010 | City Arts
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