cityArts November 10, 2010 by CityArts NYC

NOV. 10-NOV. 23, 2010 Volume 2, Issue 18

IN THIS ISSUE:

O R C H E S T R A

BARBER, BRITTEN & BEETHOVEN SAT, DEC 4 @ 8 PM CARNEGIE HALL Orpheus-City Arts Cover Ad-Dec 2010 Concert-B.indd 1

WITH

C H A M B E R

Kate Royal soprano

Whitney shows Hopper at the center of 20th-century realism. New music searches for its space. City Opera’s ‘Intermezzo.’

The music in 140 characters or less…

B A R B E R Capricorn Concerto Barber went edgy and dry, à la Bach and Stravinsky, in a piece named for his house, a wartime refuge. B R I T T E N Les Illuminations Setting Rimbaud’s poems of love and travel, Britten wrote this sparkling song cycle mostly in New York. B E E T H O V E N Symphony No. 7 Beethoven’s middle-period unity and focus plus a dash of Classical zest added up to a rhythmic cornucopia.

@orpheusnyc ORPHEUSNYC.ORG

212.247.7800 11/8/10 12:44 PM

Juilliard Joseph W. Polisi, President

Wed, Nov 10 at 8 • Paul Hall at Juilliard

Ensemble ACJW Members of the CANADIAN BRASS MONTEVERDI, CARTER, BEETHOVEN FREE; standby line forms at 7

– – – – – – – – CLIP AND SAVE – – – – – – – –

Wednesdays at One Alice Tully Hall

FREE, hour-long lunchtime concerts NOV 10 Juilliard Pianists Part of Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival NOV 17 Juilliard Organists Performing on the hall’s rededicated Kuhn organ Juilliard Singers DEC 1 DEC 8 Juilliard Percussion JAN 12 Juilliard ChamberFest No tickets needed, doors open 12:30 See www.juilliard.edu/wednesdays

Nicholas McGegan Conducts Sat, Nov 20 at 8 • Alice Tully Hall

Juilliard415

DEANNA BREIWICK and LAUREN SNOUFFER, Sopranos CARLA JABLONSKI, Mezzo-Soprano EMI FERGUSON and CHRISTOPHER MATTHEWS, Flutes GRAUN Overture to Cleopatra e Cesare VIVALDI Concerto for Two Flutes in C Major, RV 533 HANDEL Clori, Tirsi, e Fileno, HWV 96 Juilliard Historical Performance LIMITED FREE tickets at box office

Mon, Nov 22 at 8 • Alice Tully Hall

Juilliard Orchestra MICHAEL HEY, Organ HANDEL Organ Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 4 Works by HAYDN, ELGAR, BRITTEN LIMITED FREE tickets at box office

––––––––––––––––––––––––

Fri, Nov 12 at 8 • Alice Tully Hall

Tues, Nov 30 at 8 • Alice Tully Hall

New Juilliard Ensemble

MONTEVERDI’S

L’incoronazione di Poppea HARRY BICKET, Conductor EDWARD BERKELEY, Director Singers from Juilliard’s Ellen & James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts and Instrumentalists from Juilliard Historical Performance Tickets $30, Juilliard Box Office or CenterCharge (212) 721- 6500 1/2-price, students & seniors, TDF

Thurs, Nov 18 at 8 Alice Tully Hall

Juilliard Orchestra

JAMES DEPREIST, Conductor JULIA DEROSA, Oboe ° Oboe Concerto MARTINU Works by BARBER & BEETHOVEN LIMITED FREE tickets available 11/4

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8 Museums LANCE ESPLUND digs into the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s astounding exhibition, Miró: The Dutch Interiors; JOHN GOODRICH tries to find the common thread of an American spirit at the Whitney’s Edward Hopper exhibit.

12 At the Galleries Reviews: Atta Kwami at Howard Scott Gallery; Erwin Wurm at Lehmann Maupin Gallery; Thomas Nozkowski at Pace Gallery; Wangechi Mutu at Barbara Gladstone Gallery; Andy Graydon at LMAK Projects; Roxy Paine at James Cohan Gallery; Tiffany Chung at Tyler Rollins Fine Art.

15 Jazz HOWARD MANDEL on the influence of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians.

16 Classical Music & Opera JAY NORDLINGER on Strauss’s Intermezzo at City Opera, and a new piece premiered by the American Composers Orchestra.

17 Dance 18 Music Exapno and EMF are two collective spaces for new music composers on the prowl for a space.

Paul Appleby TENOR

SCHUBERT

Die schöne Müllerin BRIAN ZEGER, Piano 2009 Met National Council winner performs Schubert’s beloved song cycle to mark his Alice Tully Hall Recital Debut Tickets, $30, $15 at Tully Box Office or CenterCharge, (212) 721-6500 1/2-price student, senior tickets, TDF accepted at box office PLUS

Tues, Nov 16 at 7:30 • Alice Tully Hall

Paul Jacobs Rededicates the Alice Tully Hall organ

BACH Clavierübung III Pre-Concert discussion at 6:15 Mr. Jacobs & Juilliard Dean Ara Guzelimian Part of the Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival www.lincolncenter.org or CenterCharge (212) 721- 6500

J U I L L I A R D 155 W. 65th St. • Box Office M-F, 11AM-6PM • (212) 769-7406

www.juilliard.edu

ON THE COVER: George Bellows’ “Dempsey and Firpo” (1924), currently on view at the Whitney Museum’s exhibit Modern Life: Edward Hopper and His Time.

JOEL LOBENTHAL is carried away by Sasha Waltz & Guests’s Gezeiten.

JOEL SACHS, Conductor World Premieres by: NICCOLO ATHENS, TED GOLDMAN Western Hemisphere Premieres by: XIAOGANG YE, LUCA LOMBARDI & work by KEERIL MAKAN FREE tickets at box office

Wed & Fri, Nov 17 & 19 at 8 Sun, Nov 21 at 2 Peter Jay Sharp Theater

InthisIssue

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

23 Paint the Town by Amanda Gordon EDITOR Jerry Portwood jportwood@manhattanmedia.com MANAGING EDITOR Adam Rathe arathe@ manhattanmedia.com ASSISTANT EDITOR

Christine Werthman ART DIRECTOR Jessica Balaschak CONTRIBUTING ART DIRECTOR

Wendy Hu

SENIOR ART CRITIC Lance Esplund SENIOR MUSIC CRITIC

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SENIOR DANCE CRITIC

Joel Lobenthal

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS:

Valerie Gladstone, John Goodrich, Amanda Gordon, Howard Mandel, Maureen Mullarkey, Mario Naves

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InBrief Lauten is unsure if there will be more Hear Now concerts in the future. “These days it is so hard to get audiences,” she says. “But it doesn’t stop me from wanting to do something that has some cultural impact, because someone has to think this music has meaning and look at how people relate to solo piano.” No tickets are required, but a $10 donation at the door is suggested. For more information, go to www.lesperformingarts.org. [Corinne Ramey]

Courtesy of Morgan Library

Double the Fair, Double the Fun

Mr. Morgan’s Library (East Room) post restoration.

A Step Into the Past

Late last month, the McKim Building, housing the personal library and office of turn-of-the-century financier Pierpont Morgan, was opened to the public following the first major interior restoration since its completion in 1906. With the iron door guarding its entrance tucked away in the back corner of the vastly modern, monochromatic new entry hall to the Morgan Library & Museum on Madison Avenue, the hulking McKim Building is a portal to the historic New York of a cultural collector. The restoration hasn’t physically altered the vast spaces beyond better lighting and a good scrubbing. The cavernous rotunda still displays the opulence of the era in an orgy of marble and filigree. As part of the effort to exhibit more of the permanent collection, the rotunda hosts several display cases featuring one of the first bibles printed in North America and one of the first 26 copies produced of the Declaration of Independence. The expansive library’s chill competes with the warm invitation from three levels of bookcases filled with leather bookbindings. The new Plexiglas doors are so clear that the old books seem almost touchable. But like an English castle, the room remains drafty, cavernous and tapestry-covered. The librarian’s office is the smallest of the rooms, functioning more as a traditional museum space.

In contrast, Morgan’s personal office is rich with red fabric walls, plush velvet couches and a solid wooden desk. The room offers an untarnished step back in time, for the most part free of glass cases and explanatory placards. The adjacent vault room is directly reminiscent of the steamboat era, with bookshelves flanked by iron walls pervaded by that distinctive smell of aged paper. Conservation efforts cleverly hidden, the McKim building offers a respite, albeit a strange one, from the more traditional viewing galleries of the Morgan complex. [Leslie Stonebraker]

Settling the Score “We try to focus on music that is alive and being made now,” says composer and pianist Elodie Lauten, the curator of Hear Now, a series of two solo piano concerts that presents solo piano music as living, evolving works of art. “It’s an idea of music that is not completely fixed, but open to an endless sort of improvisation.” The concerts, which take place Nov. 12 and Nov. 19 at 8 p.m. at Faust Harrison Pianos on West 58th Street, feature recently composed solo piano music, much of it played by the composers themselves. The first concert includes pianists Anna Shelest and Lauten, and the second “Blue” Gene Tyranny and Joseph Kubera. Performers will play not only their

own compositions, but also each other’s music. For example, Kubera will perform a movement of a piece written by Lauden, called “Variations on the Orange Cycle” Nov. 19. The work, which was listed in Chamber Music America as one of the best 100 works of the 20th century, is based on the idea that the cycles of the earth have a specific frequency and sound. “I was very fascinated that there could be a sound that would tune us to the earth,” Lauten explains. “I thought that this was not only healing but environmental.” The experience of performing someone else’s work is different from a composer’s performance, says Lauten. “I don’t play it off the score because it’s music that is very organic, and the details will be different from the recording,” she says. “But ‘Blue’ Gene will use a score.” The second concert also features Tyranny performing his composition “George Fox Searches,” which describes the experience of Fox, the founder of the Quaker movement. Kubera will also play a piece by Tyranny titled “The Drifter.” The two concerts are presented by Lower East Side Performing Arts, a nonprofit that seeks to bring affordable new music events to lower Manhattan. “Normally L.E.S.P.A. events are downtown, but the problem is there are no good pianos downtown,” Lauten says. “Faust Harrison has very excellent pianos.”

From the lowbrow (funnel cakes and neck massages!) to the highbrow (furniture selling for five figures at the Armory), New York City has never suffered from a lack of fairs. But Richard Rothberg of American Art Marketing still thinks there’s room for one more—and this one will combine the world of artisans with artists. “There is the exclusive world of New York art fairs that provide a multitude of opportunities for art galleries from all over the world to introduce their artist’s work to collectors,” Rothberg says. “There are also numerous shows where artisans exhibit their crafts. But seldom, if ever, is there a venue that combines both art forms.” That one-two punch is precisely what Rothberg, who has produced artisan exhibits for 30 years, aims to accomplish with The Contemporary Art Fair NYC & American Craft Show NYC, taking place Nov. 19-21 at the Javits Center on the West Side. In addition to the usual fair offerings, Rothberg is also including a special section called “Off the Wall,” for independent artists to display their work. Already, Rothberg’s plans have attracted people who have never before been part of shows like these, including Brooklyn artist Michael Sorgatz, who will be exhibiting two paintings of cityscapes that weekend. Sorgatz says he was attracted by Rothberg’s vision. “It seemed like a good opportunity,” says Sorgatz, who usually exhibits his work in local stores or coffeeshops. “The price was reasonable, and it looked like it was put on well.” Ceramic artist Tim Scull, however, knew that the fair would be a great event. “I’ve been in the show circuit about five years on the Eastern seaboard,” Scull says, “and Richard’s a real visionary. I really like that. So many of our promoters are very genteel and subtle, and Richard is a real hustle-bustle businessman. I like that he takes risks.” Scull will not only be selling his art pottery, but will be offering three demonstrations a day, while introducing a new, political body of work he calls “The Collapse of Tradition,” inspired by what Scull describes as the feeling that “everything we stand for is falling apart in front of our eyes.” Politically charged pottery? Only in New York, kids. [Mark Peikert] November 10, 2010 | City Arts

Amanda Gordon

InBrief

Inka Essenhigh’s work in the Between the Lines coloring book.

“ANOTHER TIME, ANOTHER PLACE”

CAROL CRAWFORD MIXED MEDIA CONSTRUCTIONS Visual metaphors for the passage of time and it’s transformations

NOVEMBER 2-27 TUES.- SAT. 12-6 PM; RECEPTION NOV. 13, 5-8 PM

Coloring By Number A new coloring book makes it possible to complete drawings by well-known artists, ranging from the text-obsessed Californian Ed Ruscha to the monster-loving New York babe Aurel Schmidt. One can fill in Ruscha’s hand-drawn letters spelling out “How Bout That?” or choose the colors for a Care Bear with a heart-shaped nose in a trippy scene by Schmidt. Inka Essenhigh leaves a lot to the crayon-holder’s imagination with her image of a blank crystal ball on a pedestal that states, “Draw your wish.” Some of the 51 contributing artists have departed from the look of their own work, while others have stuck to what they know best: There are Takashi Murakami’s graphic flowers, as well as one of Kehinde Wiley’s young men in repose, wearing jeans hung low, sneakers and a baseball cap. Marcel Dzama and Tom Sachs are among those who signed their drawings, but there’s nothing to stop the coloring book’s owner from adding her own name. Between the Lines, Volume 2 ($20) is the second coloring book published by RxArt, a New York-based non-profit that deploys art to improve the quality of life for hospital patients. Sales of the book will support RxArt’s art installations in hospitals. [Amanda Gordon]

In Through the Out Door How do you get to Carnegie Hall? “Through the back door, I guess,” Nick Zammuto answers, without missing a beat. It’s not an entirely serious answer, but upon a moment’s reflection, it’s mostly true. A little over a decade ago, Zammuto, a selftaught guitar player, first bumped into his future bandmate, Paul de Jong, a neighbor in his apartment building. A dinner at de

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Jong’s revealed a mutual appreciation for found sound and musical obscurities. A collaboration was born. It’s been five years since The Books was founded. “We both started families,” Zammuto explains. “A major change in life—one for the better, I would say. And we were both busy setting up homes to raise our kids in and just replenishing creative juices. I worked on a bunch of things in the meantime. I worked on a documentary about the Biosphere 2 project for about a year, which was really fun. Hopefully that’ll see the light of day.” Kids tucked in and creative juices replenished, The Books is now back on the scene. The duo released The Way Out this summer, a welcome continuation of one of the most exciting sounds in contemporary music, a stunning, appealing aural collage of found sound and fits and spurts of electronic folk. The resulting tour, perhaps fittingly, is an odd mixture of rock clubs, museums and colleges. And for the New York stop? Carnegie Hall, naturally. “Are you going to give me a hard time about it?” Zammuto asks, when I mention the venue. It’s just another venue for the band, the guitarist tells me—albeit one with a really, really good sound system. And while de Jong is something along the lines of a classically trained musician, having played the cello since a young age, Zammuto defers to The Books’ new touring member, multi-instrumentalist Gene Back. “He’s an amazing musician,” Zammuto explains. “And if anyone deserves to be in Carnegie Hall, it’s him. He kind of worked his whole life for it. And to see him, to have his whole family come to Carnegie Hall to watch him play, is going to be the highlight of the night for all of us.” For Zammuto and de Jong, it’s an honor, to be sure, but more than anything, it’s an opportunity to expand the band’s ever-

Award at a black-tie dinner at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel Nov. 16… On Nov. 17, the Leslie Lohman Gay Art Foundation will present a Lifetime Achievement Award to the 82-year-old artist The. The. Titolo… Alec Baldwin will be the 26th Honoree when the Museum of the Moving Image presents its Annual Salute Feb. 28, 2011, announced Director Rochelle Slovin. Slovin stated, “The Museum of the Moving Image is proud to be honoring one of our

great friends and supporters, as well as a terrific actor, activist and consummate New Yorker. His work in film, television and theatre is outstanding, and is as diverse and entertaining as the man we have the pleasure of saluting.” Past honorees include Clint Eastwood, Robert DeNiro, Dustin Hoffman, Tom Hanks, Sidney Poitier, Julia Roberts, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and James Stewart.

New York Pops Music Director Steven Reineke.

LaPlacaCohen 212-675-4106 Publication: City Arts Insertion date: NOV 10, 2010 7.341 X 8.5, 4C NEWS

When the all-girl punk band The Raincoats covered Ray Davies’ “Lola” on its first album in 1979, the band flipped a relatively straightforward song about a man’s amorous adventures with a transvestite and gave gender roles a whole new meaning. What more fitting way, then, to celebrate the modern woman than with a concert by The Raincoats at MoMA. Coinciding with the museum’s current exhibitions, Pictures by Women: A History of Modern Photography and Counter Space: Design and the Modern Kitchen, PopRally hosts the Nov. 20 event, which kicks off with a DJ set by Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre fame… The Cultural Services of the French Embassy/Maison Française are co-organizing “Focus on French Design,” a series of events that will take place in different locations from Nov. 9-18. At the first event, a Nov. 10 conference at the Museum of Art and Design, Paris-based designer Patrick Jouin—who designed the Vélib bicycle stations and self-cleaning lavatories in Paris—will discuss his work… At Carnegie Hall this December, The New York Pops will be performing a concert adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas! The concert hall will also feature shows by Brian Stokes Mitchell, Martin Sexton and The New York String Orchestra… The award-winning Mint Theater Company will present What The Public Wants, Arnold Bennett’s 1913 satire of tabloid journalism, beginning Jan. 13, 2011… The Metropolitan Opera will celebrate its 80th season of Saturday Afternoon Radio Broadcasts (the longestrunning classical music series in U.S. broadcast history) with a 22-week season, beginning Dec. 18, featuring operatic artists from around the world… ArtBridge’s 2010 installation, “In Plain Site,” opens at London Terrace Gardens Nov 11. The installation is the work of 25 New York City artists… This year’s Red Dot Fair will be held at Cavalier Galleries in Miami from Nov. 30-Dec. 5, before heading over to New York’s 82Mercer event space from Mar. 3-6 featuring George Billis Gallery, Sundari Fine Art, Emmanuel Fremin Gallery and many more… NYU will present Art Law Day, an event for art collectors, dealers and anyone else with an interest in the legal aspects of managing art collections, Nov. 12. The event will take place in D’Agostino Hall at New York University Law School… The New York Philharmonic will receive the Asia Society’s Cultural Ambassador

Steve. J. Sherman

ArtsNews

Through January 17 The exhibition was organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

MET-0050-Miro_CityArts_7.341x8.5(1.16)_Nov10_v2.indd 1

metmuseum.org Above, left: Hendrick Sorgh, The Lute Player, 1661, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Above, right: Joan Miró, Dutch Interior (I), 1928, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Mrs. Simon Guggenheim Fund, 1945. © 2010 Successió Miró / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris. Digital Image © The Museum of Modern Art / Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY.

September 14, 2010 | City 5 11/4/10Arts 9:46 AM

I Am a Camera Considering its far-reaching effects, the films made in Germany during the Weimar Republic are surprisingly little known. Film buffs can name-check Fritz Lang (M, Metropolis) and F.W. Murnau (The Last Laugh), or conjure memories of stills from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari or of Marlene Dietrich in The Blue Angel, but how many people know that Blake Edwards’ 1982 Viktor/Victoria was based on Viktor und Viktoria, a 1933 German film? The Museum of Modern Art’s upcoming exhibition, Weimar Cinema, 1919-1933: Daydreams and Nightmares, will, if nothing else, prove that there was more going on in German films of the time than expressionism. One of the reasons for MoMA holding this particular exhibit, curated in part by Laurence Kardish, is to rectify a mistake earlier perpetrated by the museum. “There is somewhat of a misconception of the

films made in Germany between 1919 and 1933,” Kardish says, “based in part from a book written here, From Caligari to Hitler. Which is an excellent book but argues that, basically, the films of the period are all about madmen, evil geniuses and people taking over other people’s souls. But in fact, there were an equal number of films that were musicals or comedies and much brighter works. And I wanted to be able to give a fuller and more comprehensive image.” Until recently, however, that fuller picture would have been almost impossible to create. After the Russians liberated Berlin at the end of World War II, they took most of the films made pre-Hitler or during Hitler’s rise to power. During the 1950s, some of the films were sent back to Berlin because the USSR had no interest in promoting the work of a capitalist country; it wasn’t until the reunification of Germany that a full view of how many films still existed was possible to achieve. Which means, as Kardish points out, that of the 85 films being show between Nov. 17 and Mar. 7, 2011, about 65 haven’t been seen in decades—if ever in America. “There are some films that have never been seen here,” Kardish says. “For instance, Eugene Schüfftan’s Into the Blue from 1931. It was secured by the national film archives of France from a collector of films from Holland. When the archive opened the can and looked at it, it turned

Courtesy of MoMA

broadening reach from its original fan base. “I think Carnegie Hall is interested in us for a lot of reasons,” Zammuto explains. “I suppose it’s because we can do this crossover thing. We can play clubs some nights and museums other nights. They’re trying to refresh their audience and we have an opportunity to present our music to people who would probably otherwise not see us.” [Brian Heater]

Viktor und Viktoria screens at MoMA. out to be the only film directed by the great cinematographer Eugene Schüfftan, who was cinematographer on Metropolis. It captures the free-spirited essence of Weimar, as opposed to the heavy, grotesque and macabre.” But Into the Blue is as close as Weimar Cinema will come to screening Metropolis, arguably one of the best-known films of

the Weimar Republic. “I have kind of a grudge against it because it was the film that bankrupted UFA [the principal film studio in Germany at the time],” Kardish admits. “UFA was then taken over by Alfred Hugenberg, who was the head of the right wing party that was very supportive of Hitler. On the other hand, I do think Lang is a terrific filmmaker.” [MP]

art books Celebrate People’s History: The Poster Book of Resistance and Revolution, Edited By Josh Macphee

In 1988, Josh Macphee walked through the streets of Chicago posting the first Celebrate People’s History poster, which depicted Malcom X. Since then, CPH has plastered the streets in many other cities with celebratory social justice posters designed to question the stasis of cultural memory and public debate. The academic criticism usually so hefty in art books here occupies a scant 12 pages. Much like the street posters it chronicles, the book gives very little context. The reader must judge the collection alone, encountering the posters chronologically by memorialized subject matter rather than production date. The series of arresting, text-heavy, grungy, inspiring, historical posters chronicles a selection of unknown underdogs and famous figures of resistance. Macphee writes that the CPH posters are “rooted in this do-it-yourself tradition of mass-produced and distributed political propaganda.” Limited resources forced the posters to be creative within an austere aesthetic: cheaper two-tone printing on inexpensive uncoated paper using outdated

City Arts | www.cityartsnyc.com

analog equipment. The book reflects this feeling, itself printed on unpretentious paper and sporting a brown-bag cover. Simply and radically, this book gives voice to the walls witnessing revolution and resistance and so rarely allowed to speak through public political artwork. Mapping America: Exploring the Continent, Edited by Tom Howells and Duncan McCorquodale

Editors Tom Howells and Duncan McCorquodale envisioned more than just a 240-page cartographic exposition for the book Mapping America: Exploring the Continent. The resulting compilation is a topographic narrative of American history, culture, politics and art. Framed by the introductions of Frank Jacobs and Fritz Kessler, the book is separated into four chapters: “Discovering,” “Describing,” “Navigating” and “Imagining” the continent. The atlases vary from informative, historically accurate maps, to more abstract artistic renderings. Appealing to cartographers, historians and art-enthusiasts, Mapping America exposes a unique view of American past, present and future.

Spike Lee: Do The Right Thing, By Spike Lee and Jason Matloff

This 360-page behind-the-scenes look at Spike Lee’s 1989 movie Do The Right Thing is ultimately a novelty for fans of the director. The book is separated into three main sections: an oral history, photographs and the original script. Alongside a commentary from the actors and producers, the book provides a series of glossy movie stills and photographs to pictorially guide you through the movie’s narrative, if you’re too intellectual (or lazy) to watch the film yourself. Though Spike Lee: Do the Right Thing seems specifically designed for a certain brand of cinephile, the artwork is humorous, disparate and poignant enough to grasp the reader’s attention for the majority of the book. Dirty Baby, By Ed Ruscha, Nels Cline and David Breskin

Pop artist Ruscha has teamed up with Wilco guitarist Nels Cline and poet David Breskin to create Dirty Baby, a collection of poetry, images and music that seems almost too much to be contained by one book—even if it’s a Deathstar of a tome, packaged with four CDs, bound in a black box and decorated with an honest-to-God dime.

It’s not an easy book to wrap your head around; there isn’t a simple narrative (and the $125 price tag is surely another obstacle for some) or even page after page of pretty pictures. What you do get, however, is a challenging conversation— billed as a “trialogue”—between three great minds and a fascinating collection of media that is strange, challenging and truly delightful. When Did the Statue of Liberty Turn Green? And 101 Other Questions about New York City, By the staff of the New-York Historical Society Library

For years, New Yorkers and tourists have approached the New-York Historical Society with various questions about the metropolis. The Society compiled each of those queries to create this book, assembled into an easy-to-read compilation of hard-tofind New York facts and tales. The narrative is complete with a few dozen photographs from the mid-19th century to illustrate the city’s biography. With 102 facts about New York history, politics, transportation, food, sports, art and animals, this book will put you in a New York state of mind.

The Global Africa Project is made possible by the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation as part of its International Cultural Engagement initiative, with additional support from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, The Rockefeller Foundation, HSBC Bank USA, N.A., and a group of private donors. Major support for the exhibition catalogue has been provided by Basil Alkazzi, who gave additional funds in memory of Judi Hoffman. Corporate support provided by

Serge Mouangue, Wafrica, 2008 (detail) Courtesy of the artist; Photo: Yuji Zendou

Jerome and Simona Chazen Building 2 Columbus Circle, NYC www.madmuseum.org

what is african? the global africa project november 17, 2010 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; may 15, 2011

Museum

Internalizing Dutch Interiors

As exhibited at The Met, Miró honors 17th-century Dutch realism while exemplifying 20th-century abstraction By Lance Esplund erhaps nearly everything you need to know as an introduction to the link between naturalism, or representation, and Modernist Surrealism and abstraction is available right now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s astounding exhibition Miró: The Dutch Interiors. Originating at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, and organized at The Met by Gary Tinterow, with the assistance of Nykia Omphroy, this small, concentrated gathering of roughly three dozen paintings, drawings and postcards is another in a continuing lineup of exhibits focused on works in The Met’s permanent collection. Centered on a series of three Miró canvases—MoMA’s “Dutch Interior (I),” the Peggy Guggenheim Collection’s “Dutch Interior (II),” Venice, and the Met’s “Dutch Interior (III),” all of which were based on 17th-century Dutch interiors—the show is an extraordinary object lesson in how artists think and how art inspires, furthers and converses with art. In the summer of 1928, the stars aligned for the 35-year-old Catalan painter Joan Miró (1893-1983). In May of that year, he made his first trip to the Netherlands to see paintings by his beloved Dutch Golden Age masters, Jan Steen and Jan Vermeer. “I loved that way the Dutch painters have of bringing out minute details like specks of dust and concentrating attention on a tiny spark in the darkness,” Miró once remarked. “This is where their great power to fascinate lies.” On his way to visit the major museum collections in Holland, Miró stopped briefly in Brussels to see an exhibition of the magical, biomorphic abstract conflations of his good friend Jean Arp. Miró would synthesize Dutch painting, Arp and other influences into an extraordinary series of paintings, now on view at The Met. Miró produced his best work before 1945, especially during the late teens and early 1920s, when he created some of the most inventive pictures of his career. Among those early masterpieces are “Self Portrait” (1919), “Still Life with Rabbit (The Table)” (1920-21), “The Farm” (1921-22), “The Tilled Field” (1923-24) and “Carnival of Harlequin” (1924-25)—enormously detailed, tightly knit, Surrealist- and Cubistderived paintings that can be as dense and meticulous as Breughel wedding scenes. Unfortunately, none of these paintings are on view at The Met, but in The Met’s

Steen’s “Children Teaching a Cat to Dance ‘The Dancing Lesson’” (c. 1665-68)—the primary inspiration for Miró’s “Dutch Interior (II).”

Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection, you can see Miró’s “Vines and Olive Trees, Tarragona” (1919), which will give you a sense of Miró’s earlier precision. During the mid-1920s, Miró’s paintings devolved into dreamy, freefloating atmospheric fields in which geometric shapes, amorphous objects, words and symbols meander. These works verge on being either too cluttered or too emptied out. In a sense, Miró always kept one foot in

Through his improvisational distortions and amplifications, Miró gives new emphasis or meaning to the elements he has created.

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abstraction and one in realism, so one can understand the appeal of Dutch interiors for the artist. Miró’s mature late pictures suggest not so much abstract universes, but natural, atmospheric cosmos or constellations (closer to the tabletop space of Arshile Gorky than the pure abstraction of Kandinsky) in which abstract forms

float, bob and weave and move nearer to or farther from the picture plane. The Brussels’ Arp show was installed so that the artist’s pictures and reliefs were hung at various heights on the gallery walls, like an abstract family of forms set free within the gallery’s intimate, homey interior. With Arp’s biomorphic forms and installation fresh in his mind, Miró ventured into the equally intimate world of Dutch interiors. Complex microcosms of explicit symbols, erotic innuendo, strong narrative and strong composition, the greatest Dutch interiors are fused with believable light, air, space and atmosphere; details are plied upon details—the textures of fur, feathers and velvet; the glint and gleam of crockery, glass, jewels, fruits and metals. Duly inspired, Miró would conjure the power to fascinate in the three Dutch interiors he produced during the summer of 1928. He brought back postcards, including one of Steen’s “Children Teaching a Cat to Dance ‘The Dancing Lesson’” (c. 1665-68)—the primary inspiration for “Dutch Interior (II)”; and one of Hendrick Sorgh’s “The Lute Player” (1661)—the primary source for “Dutch Interior (I).” The original 17th-century Dutch paintings, as well as Miró’s postcard reproductions, are

on view in The Met’s show. Their proximity allows you to see how Miró not merely translated, but transformed his sources. The only pitfall of this exhibition is its “helpful” diagrams, in which forms (a lute, a pitcher, a cat, a dog) are labeled with corresponding numbers in side-by-side reproductions of the Dutch interiors and Miró’s transfigurations. Providing a limited one-to-one account—as if Miró were dutifully “abstracting” or merely simplifying, reducing or riffing on the representational forms in his sources—the diagrams close down Miró’s responses to that of mildly inventive bean-counting. Although some forms (animals, shoes, an open window, vases) in Miró’s 17th-century sources are more clearly recognized, responded to and elaborated on by the artist, ultimately, Miró’s inventive reconfigurations free their sources into entirely new territory. Miró recognizes and honors the brilliance and uniqueness of 17th-century Dutch interiors. In his own interiors, he singles out each Golden Age element and particularity that transfixes him. But he is a 20th-century painter. Miró retains the originals’ intimacy through the act of seemingly putting forms up-close, as if under the microscope; as well as through

Museum

Internalizing Dutch Interiors

Left to right: Hendrick Martensz Sorgh’s “The Lute Player” (1661) and Joan Miró’s “Dutch Interior (I)” (July-December 1928).

Through his improvisational distortions and amplifications, Miró gives new emphasis or meaning to the elements he has created.

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In “Dutch Interior (III),” which is an his creation of what feel like internal amalgamation of sources, two very weird worlds or organisms in which movements acidic yellow ground planes separate the and forms relate to one another as if they top and bottom halves of the picture. The were organs, veins, systems and cells. shocking yellows, suggesting the hues of Through the flattening of space, color urine, bile or vomit, sound like trumpet and forms—a leveling of the playing blasts, especially against the painting’s large, field—Miró neuters hierarchies and breaks erotic, blood-red teardrop-shape—which, down and reunifies the individual symbols the curators argue, may relate to the sexually and details of the original paintings. And suggestive droop of a woman’s red stocking through his improvisational distortions and in a nearby painting by Steen. Miró’s amplifications, Miró gives new emphasis bizarre yellows at first feel as far from the or meaning to the elements he has created. This allows him, though fully immersed in rosy atmosphere of a 17th-century Dutch 17th-century Dutch painting, to start fresh, interior as they could be; yet in the yellows’ unfettered and reborn, to be expressive, subtle shifts in opacity and hue, one realizes rather than literal, to create music and that Miró, like Mondrian, has amplified movement—not “things.” and distilled the world of relationships into In “Dutch Interior (II),” Miró has absolutes. In the Miró, we are made acutely translated a child’s laugh into a disembodied aware that the delicate steps between colors maniacal head, which overtakes the and tones are at the heart of Dutch Golden interior; and he has released shadows, Age pictures. satin shimmer and the sounds of a recorder Miró’s “Dutch Interiors” reminds us into abstract, ribbony flutter. In Sorgh’s that in the world of painting—whether 17th“The Lute Player,” the instrument’s neck century realism or 20th-century abstraction opens like alligator jaws, ready to devour and Surrealism—feelings and relationships the musician’s female companion. Yet in rule, and identification of a picture’s things Miró’s “Dutch Interior (I),” Sorgh’s woman ultimately is beside the point. Miró, like a is hardly visible, but he has created, in the thunderclap, demonstrates that there is more large white abstract balloon shape of the than one way to concentrate attention on a man’s head, perhaps a wide-open serenading tiny spark in the darkness. < mouth that has already swallowed her. The subject of the Sorgh, no less that of Miró’s Through Jan. 17, 2011, The Metropolitan Alexandre CityArts 10-2010 #2 10/12/10 9:12 AM Page 1 interpretation, is not the figures but the Museum of Art, 1000 5th Ave., electricity between male and female. 212-535-7710.

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Trine, 2010, oil on panel, 32 1/4 x 34 1/2 inches

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©Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper, licensed by the Whitney Museum of American Art. Photograph by Sheldan C. Collins

Museum

“Soir Bleu,” 1914, Edward Hopper.

Visions of Ascendant America Edward Hopper, master of quiet alienation, at the center of early 20th-century realism By John Goodrich he Whitney Museum’s Modern Life: Edward Hopper and His Time begins with a glimmering vision of a world mastered jointly by man and machine: Paul Strand and Charles Sheeler’s 10-minute film capturing, in grainy magnificence, New York City’s soaring 1921 skyline. The exhibition ends with some rather overripe paintings of late-night carousers by Thomas Hart Benton and Reginald Marsh. How to draw the common thread of an American spirit through all these works? This task falls on the sturdy shoulders of Edward Hopper, whose paintings, etchings, drawings and watercolors serve as the aesthetic center for some 80 works spanning four decades of American realism. Born and raised in Nyack, N.Y., Edward Hopper (1882-1967) visited Europe several times in his twenties, but by the 1930s he was widely celebrated as the artist who imparted a radiant loneliness to quintessentially American scenes. In Modern Life’s roughly chronological installation, his work paces a series of movements, from the Ashcan school’s painterly impressions of tenement life, to the geometrically stylized factories of Precisionism, and the American Scene painters’ nostalgia-tinged images of rural America. Hopper’s steady, keen eye stands out at every turn. He quickly absorbed the

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spry brushwork and dramatic tones of his teacher Robert Henri, the leader of the Ashcan school, and, indeed, several of his early city scenes achieve more gravity of form than Henri’s large, sugary portrait of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney adorning one wall. Hopper’s palette had lightened in France, where he produced “Le Bistro” (1909), a canvas of poignant and luminous reserve; it beautifully locates the crisply lit details of a bottle and glasses above the muted silver-grays of shadowed pavement. Nearby, the 6-foot-wide “Soir Bleu” (1914) convincingly anchors seven figures amidst scattered cafe tables. Even more remarkable is “New York Interior,” (c. 1921), which depicts the back of a seated woman mending her skirt. Tilting slightly, she wields needle and thread with muscular yet feminine authority, her arm stretching palpably through the warmly lit, self-contained room—and contained it is, because the entire scene is viewed through a dark window frame, lending the scene an untouchable exoticness. We sense the maturation of Hopper’s great gift—a strong, if calculating, sense of design, vividly weighted by densities of color—in the service of unutterable longings. Vigorous paintings by John Sloan and William Glackens hold up well next to the Hoppers, but many other paintings suffer. Installed across from “Early Sunday

Morning” (1930), Hopper’s iconic, frontal view of storefronts, George Bellows’ boxing scene appears just a little pallid, and Guy Pène du Bois’ figures compositionally anticlimactic. Precisionist paintings by Sheeler, Rawlston Crawford and Charles Demuth, though inventive in style, seem decorative next to Hopper’s four watercolors, each of them animated by the plangent darks of buildings or tugboats; the exception is the weighty, vibrant color of Sheeler’s “River Rouge Plant” (1932). In a final gallery devoted to Social Realism, Paul Cadmus’ obsessive modeling and Thomas Hart Benton’s breathless rhythms seem illustrative next to the resolve of Hopper’s “Barber Shop” (1931), in which shadows cast unbridgeable divisions between the shop’s occupants. As a consequence of these wide-ranging attitudes about painting, Modern Times leaves the impression not so much of a cohering American spirit as of the vagaries of personality. Did Hopper eventually feel burdened by his celebrity? His later works sometimes appear labored; paintings like “South Carolina Morning” (1955) and “Gas” (1940) radiate the familiar atmosphere of moody isolation, but their evenly accumulating brushstrokes suggest that the duty to narrate had triumphed over the adventure of painting. For some museum-goers, they may make the case for the inevitable ascension of

Pollock and de Kooning. Curiously, there’s not a hint in this exhibition of the approaching rumble of Abstract Expressionism. The conservative selection, drawn mostly from the Whitney’s own collection, omits almost anything smacking even slightly of abstraction— there’s nary a work by modernists Hartley, Dove, O’Keeffe, Weber, Maurer, Carles or Marin, and only a single small watercolor by Stuart Davis. As it happens, works by most of these artists appeared in earlier incarnations of the show at the Bucerius Kunst Forum, Hamburg, and the Kunsthal Rotterdam. The Whitney’s installation clearly intends to contextualize American realism, rather than illuminate the breadth of artistic investigations. (This contextualizing mission is evident in the inclusion, among the paintings, of some riveting photographs by Paul Strand, Edward Steichen and Lisette Model.) As a result, Modern Times handsomely demonstrates how American realists pictured their country’s ascendance as a world power—while providing surprisingly few insights about how a handful of others, in a few short years, made New York the art center of the globe. < Through April 10, 2011, Whitney Museum of American Art, 945 Madison Ave., 212-570-3600.

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Distillation by Roxy Paine.

Roxy Paine: Distillation

Roxy Paine’s sculptures combine nature’s exigency to reproduce organic forms and man’s desire to control and structure his environment. Much of his work has been public art, like his so-called Dendroid sculptures, where stainless steel is bent and welded into arboreal forms. In 2007, Madison Square Park was the site of Conjoined in which the branches of two trees merged in a cantilevered embrace. Distillation at James Cohan Gallery, takes this project to a logical conclusion wherein artificial and natural forms are suffused in a metaphor of his artistic process. A brewery still cramps the lobby and partially obstructs the reception desk. From there, pipes, faucets and spidery tendrils snake through the gallery space in a cybernetic system of raw stainless steel piping and metals made to resemble organic forms. Like an exposed root system, the branches rise and fall at seemingly random intervals, connecting to valves and metal tanks.

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While much of the piping is highly polished, some is left rough—two kidneyshaped tanks bear scars of welding— underscoring the idea of a natural system created from industrial materials. In the second room, straight pipes bloom in a strict 90-degree-angle grid into the air, while another extension pierces through to the gallery offices. A third room contains studies and a 1:10 scale model of the entire piece. A meditation on what the press release calls “mystical industrialism,” Distillation is a continuation of Paine’s Dendroid series. By filtering accumulated information, artists perform a kind of contemporary alchemy, converting common materials and ideas into something special, or more valuable. That the material manifestation of Distillation is itself a suggestion of that filtering is either a thoughtful visualization of the artistic process or uninspiring, post-modern cynicism. [Nicholas Wells] Through Dec. 11, James Cohan Gallery, 533 W. 26th St., 212-714-9500.

Hunt, Bury, Flee: Drawings By Wangechi Mutu Wangechi Mutu makes some of the most unsettling and potent drawings in recent memory. Her debut New York show at Barbara Gladstone Gallery is both haunting and disturbing—and I mean that as a compliment. The exhibition, titled Hunt, Bury, Flee, is a dazzling series of giant drawings, each portraying the African woman, writ large, in a state of raw conflict. The works are meticulous in composition and craftsmanship. Mutu uses a wildly diverse group of materials including glitter, inks, paint, paper and beads in her work. In addition, she mines a far-ranging array of photographic sources, from fashion magazines to pornography to documentary content, to create richly layered images. The drawings are both subtle and boldly disquieting. Viewed up close, one is able to pick out the meticulously collaged photographic elements. Backing away we see that the entire surface coalesces into one unified image. Difficult to describe, they

simply must be seen to feel the full depth of color, texture and meaning that is so very alive in these pieces. The content of many of the drawings is seductive and terrifying. This is a cool and carefully calculated artist. She portrays both the beautiful and the horrible. Undercurrents of violence and sex are palpable throughout Mutu’s work. Her women are fighting, copulating and fleeing from a variety of creatures. Snakes and birds abound, playing on all of the mythological and psychological aspects of their interactions with women. The levels of image and meaning are mesmerizing. These portraits of the modern African abound in the contradictions of living in several worlds simultaneously. The women are sex objects, enslavers, victims and oppressors all at once. The gallery press release makes a hard case for the political, neo-colonialist and economic discourse of Mutu’s work, but for me, the complexities and psychological content of her vision transcend issues of race and nationality.

“Afuya,” by Atta Kwami.

They dare to address deeper and more intimate questions of the female psyche. This is a daring show that warrants serious attention. [Melissa Stern] Through Dec. 4, Barbara Gladstone Gallery, 515 W. 24th St., 212-206-9300.

Erwin Wurm: Gulp

The Austrian artist Erwin Wurm has been making people laugh for some time. In the 1980s, he inaugurated the series “One Minute Sculptures,” in which he or his models posed in unexpected relationships with everyday objects, hoping viewers would question the very definition of sculpture. For instance, one person did pushups on teacups and another stuck asparagus up his nose. He has also mounted 26 pickles on white pedestals. While such antics might seem to preclude acceptance by the establishment, he is collected by the Guggenheim, the Walker Art Center, Museum Ludwig, Musèe d’Art Contemporain de Lyon and Centre Pompidou, and has exhibited successfully all over the world. It may very well be because one senses the seriousness of his intent. In this amusing exhibit, he uses simple materials and mundane objects to convey his ideas. There’s the “Telekinetischer Masturbator,” a sculpture of a man without arms, wearing a real shirt, looking hopeless, his dilemma clear, and the bright and funny “Me Under LSD,” which consists of one hand supporting a large yellow-

and-white foamy-looking cloud. But as one walks around the gallery smiling at all these lost and strange figures, a theme emerges of frustration and occasionally dangerous incongruity, like the video of a car upended and perched against a wall. And poor “Gulp,” a headless aluminum shape, stretched out on the floor, somehow entrapped by fabric. Everything and everyone are out of their element, overcome or ill-equipped to handle their circumstances. It’s kind of him to provide us with a good time, but we also walk away chilled by the consequences of so much in contemporary life. [Valerie Gladstone] Through Dec. 4, Lehmann Maupin Gallery, 540 W. 26th St., 212-255-2923.

Brushed free hand, his forms show less exactitude of design than a flair for accumulating rhythms. Surfaces range from the brushily opaque to transparent veilings, but it’s Kwami’s jostling hues that animate the depths of his canvases; as tapestries of color, they are full of subtle climaxes and ebbings of rhythm. The 6-foot-tall painting “Tikpo,” for instance, draws one’s eye to its center through a series of concentric zones. At the canvas edges, a rim of transparent yellows— vibrant over darker greens—surrounds two stolid horizontals of nearly opaque white, which turn sandwich a core of deep, washy blue-greens. Across these climb ethereal verticals of transparent ultramarine, while a dense, opaque patch of cerulean blue holds below. Each of these movements, while freely drawn, is weighted by color. The artist has mentioned the influence on his work of jazz and West African weavings, and both are apparent in his paintings’ fanciful designs. A subtle mischief is evident, too. Many paintings here have contrarian moments: a small white square pinched between columns of darker hues; a singularly thin line passing just halfway across a field of white. Most contemporary abstract painters, ranging from the late Agnes Martin to Robert Ryman to Sean Scully, have honed a more sophisticated attack, focusing on a particular conceptual approach or material aspect of paint. Kwami appears to enjoy, innocently and intensely, the sheer personalities of color and shapes—an interest he shares, with appealing lack of ceremony. [John Goodrich] Through Nov. 27, Howard Scott Gallery, 529 W. 20th St., 646-486-7004.

Thomas Nozkowski: Recent Work

In an interview included in the catalog accompanying an exhibition of his recent paintings and drawings at Pace Gallery, Thomas Nozkowski talks about the whys and wherefores of the work, about the mutability of perception, the mysterious dynamic between artist and viewer, and how smoking pot helps in tolerating aesthetic blind-alleys. Mentioning his “systematic, formalistic” canvases from the 1960s and ’70s, Nozkowski describes them as bringing “trouble [to] no one’s eyes.” For those of us who have followed this artist’s droll brand of abstraction over the last 30 years or so, it’s difficult to imagine a Nozkowski painting that isn’t trouble. Trouble is, after all, why we’re drawn to the work. Nozkowski’s images never stop pulling at our eyes, at our capability to pin down the very real sensations embodied within their quizzical arrays of errant geometry and furtive biomorphs. Each painting is based on a tangible thing or event, embodying (as Nozkowski has it) the “great mystery of individuality.” Forget for a moment that, say, the eight mischievous triangles ensconced in “Untitled (8-137)” or the lurching diagrammatic monolith in “Untitled (8122)” are impossible to decipher as literal signifiers of this-or-that object or narrative. What matters is the unprecedented level of specificity in which they’ve been concentrated as pictures. Embedded within their crystalline structures and abraded surfaces is an encompassing and contradictory range of lived experience. A Nozkowski is, in its own deadpan way, as maddeningly enigmatic as a prime Vermeer. Not that Nozkowski is on that level—

Atta Kwami: Fufofo (Coming Together)

Atta Kwami is a painter and a native of Ghana. He also has a doctorate in art history, which begs the question: Are his canvases—which are vibrantly colored, geometric abstractions—spontaneous impressions of the sights and textures of his homeland? Or are they a bit more premeditated, perhaps the conscious updating of cultural indicators? No matter; the 13 paintings in his second show at Howard Scott teem with their own kind of raw, authentic energy. Built up of multiple bars and occasional triangles of exotic color, Kwami’s canvases boast a full palette, with primary colors predominating against milder greens, browns and ochres.

“Untitled (8-122),” by Thomas Nozkowski. November 10, 2010 | City Arts

AttheGALLERIES “DMZ-17th Parallel.” On a mostly white canvas, thin lines like barbed wire confine hundreds of tiny circles, representing people, whereas outside the boundary, wavy brown lines, almost like ribbons, float free. Five red dots, like bloodstains, mark unknown horrors. “Berlin Wall” looks like a red, black, blue and gold explosion on the canvas, with metal grommets outlining the different areas of political control. As in all her works, buttons or beads represent the populous, which is confined by arbitrary boundaries. The combination of beauty and horror is deeply affecting. With her considerable gifts, she forces us to acknowledge them both at the same time. [VG] Through Dec. 31, Tyler Rollins Fine Art, 529 W. 20th St., 212-229-9100.

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come on, who is?—but that the comparison is remotely feasible points to the pictorial and metaphorical density of his art. The current exhibition at Pace underscores the relationship between the drawings and paintings—the former are studies of the latter in transition—and, as such, provides insight into Nozkowski’s working process. But reportage isn’t magic and it’s only with oils that this artist brings to fruition his confounding, funny and evocative vision. [Mario Naves] Through Dec. 4, Pace Gallery, 510 W. 25th St., 212-255-4044.

Tiffany Chung: Scratching the Walls of Memory For her second solo exhibition at Tyler Rollins, Vietnamese artist Tiffany Chung has created a series of works inspired by maps of once war-ravaged or contested regions of the world, including the Berlin Wall, Iraq, Tibet, Cambodia, the Vietnamese DMZ and the atomic bomb blast zones in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. While in her last show she showed a decidedly pop aesthetic in her sculptures, videos, photographs and performance work, she moves into a more dramatic and narrative period now, where history and personal stories figure prominently. On first glance, her works appear to be simply beautiful, delicate and lacey abstractions, painted in subdued blues and reds and golds. But on further examination, they reveal themselves as copies of old maps, embroidered with railways, roads and rivers. These are attached with metal grommets and buttons, with every area mapped with colored dots and eyelets. They are all exceedingly touching and poetic records of pain, suffering and desperation. By punctuating them with sharp metal objects, she adds to their tactile effect, drawing you into the horrendous realities of war. Her titles refer very specifically to historic events, such as the separation of northern and southern Vietnam by the

Andy Graydon: Vostok, Faretheewell The geography of Berlin is marked by layers of its history as kingdoms and governments have shattered the city and rebuilt it in their own design. These fractures are at turns overt and subtle, but their effect is an architectural mélange and haunting beauty. Andy Graydon’s Vostok, Faretheewell is part meditation on external influences on the creative process, part portrait in passing of a city living in its own afterlife. The film follows Yukitomo, a Japanese “touristing” in Berlin as he designs a model spaceship (Vostok) for a Korean science fiction film. Opening in the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, the film builds its structure in haiku-like vignettes as his creative process unfolds and is influenced by the architecture and physical texture of objects. The film is narrated by Yukitomo’s unemotional telephone voice, speaking both to producers of the Korean film and to a personal friend identified as Keiko. Mostly shot in Mitte, a section of the city east of the Wall, the Super 8 footage traces Berlin’s historical divisions as Yukitomo plans the exterior of his design: “Like scales. Not fish scales. Snake scales… An almost invisible black.” He could be describing either the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey or the blocks at the Holocaust Memorial. At times, the spaceship seems like it could be an allegory for the city itself: “After its battles its scars will begin to show.” Berlin is one of the few cities where its history of conquerors has not been completely erased by succeeding groups. As Yukitomo’s design is affected by outside influences and his frustration as the producers vacillate on what they want, cranes and scenes of new construction show a reshaping of the cityscape in an unexplained future of development. “Vostok is dead. Long live Vostok.” [NW] Through Dec. 5, LMAK Projects, 139 Eldridge St., 212-255-9707.

Jazz

Chicago in New York Support our under-appreciated Creative Musicians By Howard Mandel As far as I know, there is only one independent artist-run, artists-benefiting organization in the U.S. that has survived 45 years with scant private or public funding. It has not pushed a common esthetic; rather, it encourages successive generations of cutting-edge members to make a virtuosity of individuality and work collaboratively, too. It’s the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM)—a contingent of composers and improvisers rooted in and revering jazz, but committed to ongoing development of its forms and conventions. Conceptual rigors usually ascribed to the “classical” field, toy instruments bought in discount stores, vigorous if not necessarily high-energy soloists, interactive groups using dynamics from super-loud to ultra-soft and extended techniques are characteristic of the AACM’s collective repertoire, but AACMidentified musicians are free, not required, to work with such elements. The Art Ensemble of Chicago reedists Henry Threadgill and Anthony Braxton and pianist Muhal Richard Abrams are among the association’s better-known adherents. To those who listen closely, they are nothing alike yet complementary. The AACM’s influence has also been affecting unaffiliated protégés to such a degree that “creative music” has become in large part an AACM world, and its stalwarts teach at Columbia University, Wesleyan, CalArts, Bard and Mills College, producing avid students and fans. Trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith’s Silver Orchestra and pianist-singer Amina Claudine Myers in duet with drummer Reggie Nicholson perform at the AACM’s next typically adventurous, ambitious, self-produced, sadly under-appreciated and usually under-reported concerts Nov. 19 at the Community Church of New York (40 E. 35th St.). There’s no telling exactly what the musicians will do, but here’s my rough guess: Smith, who is 69 and originally from Mississippi, has a lustrous, always bluesy tone and pointed phrasing, which he’ll deploy over an improvising chamber orchestra of our city’s most notable strings, reeds and rhythm section players, plus vocalist Thomas Buckner. Myers, 68, raised in Dallas/Fort Worth, is a soul-andgospel steeped vocalist who plays standout piano and organ for the general public infrequently. Nicholson, in his fifties, is a hard-driving and colors-sensitive trapsman. I bet the two will unfold expansive, sometimes lush soundscapes tethered but not bound by loose grooves and underlying, even if unstated, swing. I can speculate because I’ve been attending AACM shows since 1967, when its early joiners were viewed as outcasts in

the post-bebop, pre-fusion land of Chicago jazz. Soon after first exposure I adopted what seemed to be the AACM’s imperatives— creativity, expressivity, individuality, community—as my own. I realized, however, that after the Art Ensemble and Braxton, Leo Smith and violinist Leroy Jenkins returned to the States via New York City in 1970, having been feted on the Continent, they weren’t especially welcomed here, either. I wondered why. In those days if a jazzman didn’t come up through Miles Davis, Art Blakey, Blue Note Records or after-hour joints like Bradley’s, they might find a stage at a Soho loft, but that was the run of possibilities. Maybe the Chicagoans seemed like roughshod provincials or alien invaders to New York sophisticates. They clearly had different ideas. Then as now, audiences were hard to convene around commercially diffident originality. It wasn’t that AACM musicians shunned fame and fortune—the Art Ensemble did well on the ECM label, and earned high fees—but most of the clan suffered from some troublesome reluctance or inability to sell out. The international community highly regards the AACM these days, a credit to its younger stalwarts, including flutist Nicole Mitchell, drummer Mike Reed and alto saxist Matana Roberts. Its New York chapter was established in 1982 by Muhal Richard Abrams, an initial co-founder and the group’s most constant guide. His accomplishments and the AACM’s are known to a growing, but still select, sliver of the jazz audience. That’s the fault of… whom? Self-educated, Abrams has an encyclopedic grasp of past and present American musical traditions. He’s recorded more than two dozen albums, including solos, duos, a current trio with saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell and trombonist/laptop computer innovator George E. Lewis, and written scores for larger ensembles such as “2000 Plus the 12th Step,” premiered at the Jazz at Lincoln Center concert by the NEA’s Jazz Masters—he’d just been named one— last January. His pianism comprises ragtime and stride references and deeply meditative minimalism; his pieces may be atonal, include electronics, flirt with space-bop or be reminiscent of Ellington. Expect all that and more when Abrams celebrates his 80th birthday at Roulette in two contexts—with percussionist Adam Rudolph and synthesizer master Tom Hamilton, and with vocalist Jay Clayton, bass clarinetist Marty Ehrlich and bassist Brad Jones, Dec. 2. AACM music is always challenging, often fine. Its model is contemplating and perhaps emulating. Creative musicians need to support themselves and each other. In Chicago, they learned how.

By Henrik Ibsen American Premiere of a new version adapted by Mike Poulton Directed by Elinor Renfield

5 WEEKS ONLY BEGINNING NOVEMBER 12

Robin Leslie Brown

Bradford Cover

Dominic Cuskern

Dan Daily

Austin Pendleton

Margot White

EMOTIONALLY HAUNTING POLITICALLY PROVOCATIVE

AT NEW YORK CITY CENTER STAGE II

www.pearltheatre.org

November 10, 2010 | City Arts

ClassicalMUSIC

Strife, Snow and Light

Strauss’ Intermezzo at City Opera, and a new piece premiered by the American Composers Orchestra By Jay Nordlinger ot long ago, City Opera was flat on its back, running out of money, facing an uncertain future, if any. Now the company is back on its feet, or at least on its knees—and fighting hard. They are doing just two operas this fall. But that’s better than nothing. Can New York opera lovers live on the Met alone? Sure, but the more the merrier. In addition to the two productions, City Opera has been doing what you might call extracurricular events. For example, they presented Christine Brewer in concert. This soprano is seriously underrated, and it was good to shine a spotlight on her. They also put on a concert called “Lucky To Be Me: The Music of Leonard Bernstein,” complete with Broadway stars. Why Bernstein? In all likelihood, because one of those two fall operas is by Bernstein. That’s A Quiet Place, his only full-length opera. It includes—or “incorporates,” to use the standard language—an early one-acter, Trouble in Tahiti. A Quiet Place had never been staged in New York. “Home at Last,” City Opera said. Bernstein is considered a quintessential New Yorker, despite the fact that he grew up in Boston and environs. Our mayor, Michael Bloomberg, is a quintessential New Yorker too. Yet he’s from Boston. And he has never lost his accent, which I find endearing. City Opera’s other fall production is of Intermezzo, by Richard Strauss: an opera about his occasionally stormy relationship with his wife, Pauline, whom he adored. She was a soprano and could act like one. For orchestra, Strauss composed a Symphonia Domestica. Well, Intermezzo is an opera domestica. And it is what I call a “sprech-y” opera, a talky opera, in German. But City Opera has produced the opera in English. They use a translation by Andrew Porter, the eminent South African-born music critic and scholar. He is a particular expert on opera. I once said to him, “Forgive me for a ridiculous and unforgivable question, but do you have a favorite opera?” Almost before I had gotten the words out of my mouth, he answered, with complete assurance, “The Magic Flute.” Intermezzo is dominated by a soprano. (As Strauss was dominated by a soprano?) City Opera has Mary Dunleavy, who, on the night I attended, did the part proud. Her timbre was hectoring without being ugly. She sang piercingly while retaining beauty. She was also uncannily accurate. I scribbled in my notes, “A miracle of pitch.” This is fairly rare in singing, even in great singing. Also, Dunleavy showed herself to be a real actress—not just a singer acting in an opera, but a bona fide actress. I dare say

Remember when there was no center aisle, and we had to shuffle for miles and miles? No more. City Opera will come back in the spring for three more productions. One will be of a new opera by Stephen Schwartz called Séance on a Wet Afternoon. This debuts in April, when there will surely be some wet afternoons.

City Arts | www.cityartsnyc.com

Carol Rosegg

Mary Dunleavy in New York City Opera’s production of Strauss’ Intermezzo. that Pauline, seeing this performance, would have smiled. (But who knows?) Other members of the cast were adequate, though none held a candle to the soprano. As much as Strauss makes the cast talk and sing, he makes the orchestra do the same. Virtually every thought, word and feeling is expressed by the orchestra. City Opera’s managed OK. It could not summon the lushness or rhapsody that Strauss sometimes wants. But it scraped through honorably. George Manahan, the conductor, kept things on track. It was clear that he knew every measure of the score. The production comes from the 1990s, and Leon Major. The ending is incredibly sexy: sexy without being porny. It would be better to say, sexy because not porny. This

is almost illegal in opera productions today: genuine sexiness. The production also has sledding—and not just the rough sledding of the Strausses’ domestic life. There is a toboggan run, and snow is falling. The snow is not as good as the Met’s in the Zeffirelli Bohème. That was playing across the plaza on the night I attended Intermezzo. Besides top-notch snow, the Met has something that City Opera does not: seatback titles. City Opera has supertitles, way up high, and, if you’re sitting close, you really crane your neck. That’s no way to watch an opera. And, even when a performance is in English, you need the titles (I find). But the company’s refurbished theater, named the Koch, after its amazingly generous benefactor, David Koch, is spiffy.

eorge Manahan is the music director, not only of City Opera, but also of the American Composers Orchestra. As the name tells you, this is an orchestra dedicated to playing the works of American composers. Musicians are a funny lot, at least in this country. They tend to eschew or scorn nationalism—or anything like it—in every sphere. Except music. In this sphere, they get all blood-and-soil. “American performers ought to perform American music!” they insist. Recently in Zankel Hall, the ACO, under Manahan, premiered a work by John Luther Adams, whose bio describes him as an environmentalist as well as a composer. The new piece is The Light Within. We have had many, many pieces about light in the last few decades. Indeed, the pieceabout-light is a full-blown genre. Before beginning the new piece, Manahan donned what looked like headphones. Were they noise-blockers? The piece makes a terrible racket, creates a huge din. This din is sustained and little-changing. Occasionally, there is a subtle variation or an added layer. As the orchestra played, lights in the hall changed color. The piece actually has a lighting designer, Ji-Youn Chang. This is an old concept, the joining of colors with music. But is this cheating a little, compositionally? Composers have always put colors in their music, by strictly aural means. Think of Debussy, or Wagner. I can’t speak for others in the audience, but, after a while, this piece started to hurt my ears. I mean, there was physical discomfort. Also, the piece struck me as pretentious, affected. At the same time— this may appear contradictory—I do not doubt the sincerity of the composer in writing it. In the middle of the concert, an official of the ACO came out to thank and flatter the audience: “Blessings on you for seeking out the unfamiliar.” The Light Within, along with most of the other music on the program, did not seem unfamiliar to me at all. It seemed as familiar as a lava lamp. The next ACO concert, also in Zankel Hall, will be on Dec. 3. One of the featured composers is Douglas J. Cuomo— not to be confused with our new governor, or his dad. <

DANCE

Across the Transom

A jumble of interpretations from Keigwin, Ratmansky and Wheeldon; Sasha Waltz tackles BAM with convulsions of nature By Joel Lobenthal ate last week, Larry Keigwin, Alexei Ratmansky and Christopher Wheeldon each made a piece d’occasion to the same short, fast and propulsive piece of music composed by Daniel Ott to honor the Julliard School’s Pia Gilbert. She collaborates with New York City Ballet on its New York Choreographic Institute, which was throwing itself a 10th anniversary bash on stage in the Miller Theater at Columbia University. All three choreographers are alumna of the Institute, which sponsors work by aspiring choreographers. Each short take was successful. Prankish Keigwin created huddles and tackles and tag teams for two couples. Wheeldon’s solo for NYCB’s Sara Mearns wrapped her in complexities of external circumference as well as internal cross-hatching. Ratmansky, also working with two couples, gave us a jumble of balletic language mashed together almost as gibberish, which then resolved itself into fast-shifting tableau with imprinted clarity in the pictures. The works gestated by the Institute are not given public performances, but this retrospective also included recent samplings from the last decade’s output, which for the most part seemed like reasonable apprentice efforts. The dancers were Mearns’ colleagues from NYCB, as well as some from its School of American Ballet, and they performed wonderfully.

Sebastian Bolesch

arlier in the week at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Sasha Waltz & Guests reminded us that European dance and dance-theater is not shy about attacking big ideas. Based in Berlin, a city leveled and rebuilt in the

Sasha Waltz & Guests performed Gezeiten at BAM. last century, Waltz gave us an equivalent look at apocalypse in her Gezeiten, which is German for “Tides.” Starting the nearly two-hour (no intermission) piece with formally-structured movement instructed us to look for recurring patterns amidst the on-stage catastrophes that followed. The stage design, by Thomas Schenk and Waltz herself, was gripping. Upstage right was an old-world door with transom, while upstage left was a stairhouse like one might see on the roof of a building. Downstage right were old-fashioned drawing-room double doors. It was a very fluid, open plan—an expert evocation through significant reference points and

acute distillation. I wanted to know to where those doors led. To begin with, all wasn’t entirely right in this environment. The back wall was abraded and peeling… but we hadn’t seen nothing yet. Cellist Martin Seemann played Bach on the stage apron. The dancers arranged themselves into obelisques, totems or vectors. They spun or cartwheeled into each other’s arms. Sometimes the movement was attuned to the music, sometimes it was oblivious, and there were stretches of silence that felt luxuriously neutral—yet all-encompassing. One dancer broke off from a cluster, which seemed to supply

a visual equivalency to diminuendo and crescendo. Group psychology—which was to be magnified under the stress to come— here asserted itself kinetically in the sudden paradox of seemingly random unison. It wasn’t long, however, before the external convulsions of nature rushed in to overtake the silence. Deafening noises produced gape-mouthed dancers, who shuddered and contracted before dispersing into a long sequence of expertly stagemanaged fleeing and frenzy. The audience witnessed what appeared to be a cinematic rescue narrative unfolding. Just as it looked as if it were all over, dancers started drifting back on, reassembling themselves and civilization itself in a manner that recalled Act Three of Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth. But now the set proved its mutability once more. Floorboards buckled and banged— an earthquake? Here we were going again. The dancers now went berserk, pulling down the very habitats they had previously struggled to reconstruct. All lights were out and only flashlights peered into the darkness. Fabric-enclosed giants brought us back to the vertical elements of the opening dance prelude. Gezeiten was quite a ride. Waltz interjected some borrowings from Pina Bausch’s sight gags and kinetic oneliners, and at times it had the flavor of improvisatory exercises that went on too long, begging the question: Were the performers having more fun than we in our seats were? But as with Bausch’s own work, one appreciated and was drawn into the Germanic perspective on dance values and dance expression. Their possibilities and scale left one feeling expanded.

NOVEMBER 20, 2010 SATURDAY AT 8 PM

TYLER DUNCAN BARITONE ERIKA SWITZER, PIANO

Schumann, Wolf, Finzi, Debussy and a celebration of Canadian song

MERKIN CONCERT HALL 129 W. 67TH STREET NEW YORK, NY Tickets $30 (Seniors $15) at the Merkin Box Office www.kaufman-center.org Students with ID free of charge www.joyinsinging.org November 10, 2010 | City Arts

Music

Plugging Into a Community New music composers on the prowl for a space in which to create By Kurt Gottschalk

Timothy Anders

New York City provided inspiration to some of the great composers of the last century. John Cage marveled at the sounds of Sixth Avenue, and the publication of Ned Rorem’s New York Diary may have brought him as much notoriety as any of his musical works. But surviving in the city isn’t the same game it used to be, and new music composers from different generations have recently begun looking for ways to carve workspaces and communities into the streetscape. The Electronic Music Foundation— founded in 1994 and responsible for producing and promoting some of the best concerts and recordings of “classical” electronic music in the city—is in the process of renovating a new Chelsea office space to offer classes and recording facilities for composers. And across the river, composer and Princeton doctoral candidate Lainie Fefferman is the driving force behind Exapno, a funky space aimed at giving composers not just a place to work but a community. Both spaces work on a membership model. EMF, which has a strong base of “subscribers” who take advantage of the organization’s promotional capacities, will give discounts to members as well as offer Exapno is a collective space in Brooklyn for new music composers. classes and lectures to the public. Exapno is, at the moment, looking to fill about a music,” she says. “For the price of a gym half-dozen slots in its small collective model, their cramped apartment or in diners in the which buys members the use of a desk in neighborhood. She also noticed that many membership, you can have a community. a downtown Brooklyn building that is also of her friends were in the same situation. I’ve already written one piece here. I’m home to an architecture firm and a television Taking a cue from such collectives as the very excited.” production company—not to mention a Brooklyn Artists Gym and the dancers’ Eventually, she hopes to have room scattered collection of carousel horses and space Chez Bushwick, she used Facebook for recording and performances, as well as restaurant supplies—and plans for a rooftop as an organizing tool in the never-ending more members. chicken coop. In a sense, they represent two quest for space in New York. After “In an ideal world, there’d be enough generations of New York composers: EMF, she found an agreeable landlord at 33 energy behind this that he’d give us a big based in Chelsea, is, if not more formal, at Flatbush who was willing to take whatever chunk of the building,” she says. least more established; and Exapno, a hand- membership dues she could generate while The EMF was already subletting space to-mouth endeavor, is based, like its target getting set up, she borrowed a name from in an audio production firm’s Seventh constituency, in Brooklyn. Avenue office when the company moved “I work best its base to Vermont earlier this year. in a community EMF took over the lease and started “I want this to be ideal for environment,” Fefferman expanding, putting in soundproofing someone who’s just coming says. “I want this to be and computers and preparing to ideal for someone who’s expand its prior business of online CD out of school, doesn’t have a just coming out of school, and music software sales and concert lot of money but still wants to doesn’t have a lot of production and promotion to include a money but still wants service end. be in a community,” says to be in a community. “We’re not in the compact disc Laine Fefferman. Everybody talks about business, we’re in the new music composition being such a business,” says founder and president Joel lonely thing, but it doesn’t have Harpo Marx’s autobiography (Marx writes Chadabe. “One of the things we’re planning to be.” that he’d seen his name transliterated into to do now is to create communities based When Fefferman moved from Princeton Russian as “Exapno”) and created a sort on specific kinds of interests: recording, to New York City, she found herself of college dorm lounge in the midst of the microphone choice, field recording sharing a small studio with composer building’s sculptors and stacks of chairs. and postproduction and also emerging Jascha Narveson (ironically just blocks “The idea is taking the hard, weird composers. We’ll have ongoing creative from EMF’s offices) and trying to work in mystery out of plugging into new groups. People who come to do the

City Arts | www.cityartsnyc.com

workshop will feel connected by being part of the creative group. They’re in a community. They can continue to be in contact and get support.” It’s an ambitious effort at a time when mainstream arts organizations are feeling the recessionary pinch. EMF eliminated two of its paid positions last year and is working with a skeleton staff of three, plus contracted help. But the organization is retooling, hoping to grow its staff again, and to become a center for artists who no longer have university resources at their disposal and have outgrown the initial support of being an “emerging composer.” Chadabe’s ambitions reach beyond the Seventh Avenue office, however, and he hopes to see the creation of a concert hall dedicated to electronic music. “We want to establish a center for creativity in New York that links the expressive arts with science and technology,” he says. “It’s probably unattainable; it’ll probably cost $30 to $40 million. But there are plenty of cities in the world that have places for multimedia presentation in electronic arts. We need research into how to define the nature of art in an increasingly electronic society. I think that’s the most interesting question right now. This space is a launching pad.”<

ArtsAGENDA exhibition Openings APF LAB: Colleen Asper & Ted Mineo: “Touche.”

Opens Nov. 11, 15 Wooster St., 347-882-9175.

Causey Contemporary: Arthur Mednick: “Freshly

Minted Triggers.” Opens Nov. 19. Homer Yost: “Drawings of Maria Gracia y Navit Yolainne.” Opens Nov. 19, 92 Wythe Ave., Brooklyn, 718218-8939. Claire Oliver: Michael Anderson: “The Street Is My Palette.” Opens Nov. 18, 513 W. 26th St., 212-929-5949. Fog Gallery: Joe the Shark: “The Unsung Heroes of Burlesque - Take 2.” Opens Nov. 18, 508 W. 26th St., 5th Fl., no phone. Frederico Seve Gallery: Tony Bechara: “Minima Visibilia.” Opens Nov. 18, 37 W. 57th St., 4th Fl., 212-334-7813. Gallery Henoch: Max Ferguson: “Paintings of Urban Intimacy.” Opens Nov. 11, 555 W. 25th St., 917-305-0003. Gary Snyder Project Space: Sven Lukin: “Paintings, 1960-1971.” Opens Nov. 11, 250 W. 26th St., 212-929-1351. Half Gallery: David Armstrong: “Mad About the Boy.” Opens Nov. 10, 208 Forsyth St., no phone. Heidi Cho Gallery: Rex Lau & Diane Mayo. Opens Nov. 18, 522 W. 23rd St., 212-255-6783. Hirschl & Adler Modern: Frederick Brosen: “Recent Watercolors.” Opens Nov. 18, 21 E. 70th St., 212-535-8810. Horton Gallery, Lower East Side: Saul Becker: “Newfoundland.” Opens Nov. 19, 237 Eldridge St., 212-253-0700. June Kelly Gallery: Philemona Williamson. Opens Nov. 12, 166 Mercer St., 212-226-1660. Lyons Wier Gallery: Jan Huling: “Walking Under Ladders.” Opens Nov. 11, 175 7th Ave., 212-2426220. Magnan Metz Gallery: Raul Cordero: “Make It Plain.” Opens Nov. 12, 521 W. 26th St., 212244-2344. Marvelli Gallery: Anders Petersen: “City Diary.” Opens Nov. 12. Christer Strömholm. Opens Nov. 12, 526 W. 26th St., 2nd Fl., 212-627-3363. NY Studio Gallery: “TRASH.” Opens Nov. 11, 154 Stanton St., 212-627-3276. The Pace Gallery: Lucas Samaras. Opens Nov. 9, 534 W. 25th St., 212-929-7000. The Pace Gallery: Robert Irwin. Opens Nov. 12, 32 E. 57th St., 212-421-3292. Pandemic Gallery: Richie Lasansky & Allison Read Smith: “Sew Draw.” Opens Nov. 12, 37 Broadway, Brooklyn, 917-727-3466. Peter Blum Chelsea: Huma Bhabha: “Drawings.” Opens Nov. 17, 526 W. 29th St., 212-244-6055.

Peter Blum Soho: David Rabinowitch: “Birth of

Romanticism: New Works on Paper.” Opens Nov. 20, 99 Wooster St., 212-343-0441. Salomon Arts Gallery: Claudio Castillo: “It’s About Time.” Opens Nov. 13, 83 Leonard St., 4th Fl., 212-966-1997. Sue Scott Gallery: Pat Steir: “The Nearly Endless Line.” Opens Nov. 10, 1 Rivington St., 212-3588767. SVA Gallery: Ayala Gazit: “Was It a Dream.” Opens Nov. 19, 209 E. 23rd St., no phone. Talwar Gallery: Sheila Makhijani: “Toss.” Opens Nov. 13, 108 E. 16th St., 212-673-3096. Taxter & Spengemann: Max Schumann. Opens Nov. 19, 459 W. 18th St., 212-924-0212. Thomas Erben Gallery: Lu Chunsheng & Song Tao. Opens Nov. 18, 526 W. 26th St., 4th Fl., 212645-8701.

exhibition Closings 41 Cooper Gallery: “The Crude & the Rare.” Ends

Nov. 20, Third Avenue at East Seventh Street, Lower Level 1, 212-353-4200. Amador Gallery: “4 & 20 Photographs by Chris Killip.” Ends Nov. 13, 41 E. 57th St., 6th Fl., 212-759-6740. Aperture Gallery: “Paul Strand in Mexico.” Ends Nov. 13, 547 W. 27th St., 212-505-5555. Armand Bartos Fine Art: Sol LeWitt & Allan McCollum: “Seriality.” Ends Nov. 19, 25 E. 73rd St., 212-288-6705. Black & White Gallery: Alicia Ross: “Hot Mess.” Ends Nov. 21, 483 Driggs Ave., 718-599-8775. Bold Hype Gallery: Jason Limon: “Blood/Nectar.” Ends Nov. 12, 547 W. 27th St., 5th Fl., 212-8682322. Causey Contemporary: Kevin Bourgeois: “SYS™: New Drawings.” Ends Nov. 14, 92 Wythe Ave., Brooklyn, 718-218-8939. Claire Oliver: “6° of Separation.” Ends Nov. 13, 513 W. 26th St., 212-929-5949. Denise Bibro Fine Art: Linda Lippa: “Fleeting Moments.” Ends Nov. 20, 529 W. 20th St., #4W, 212-647-7030. Essie Green Galleries: Nanette Carter: “Vibrant.” Ends Nov. 13, 419A Convent Ave., 212-3689635. Fred Torres Collaborations, Inc: Kristofer Porter & Christopher Davison. Ends Nov. 13, 527 W. 29th St., 212-244-5074. Gallery 151: John Platt: “Downtown 2010.” Ends Nov. 9, 350 Bowery, 646-220-5223. Gallery 307: Jonathan Bauch: “Spirits in Steel.” Ends Nov. 18, 307 7th Ave., Ste. 1401, 646-400-5254. Gana Art Gallery: Kwun Sun-Cheol. Ends Nov. 13, 568 W. 25th St., 212-229-5838.

Horton Gallery, Chelsea: Wallace Whitney: “Dream

Feed.” Ends Nov. 13, 504 W. 22nd St., Parlor Level, 212-243-2663. Hosfelt Gallery: Driss Ouadahi: “Densité.” Ends Nov. 13, 531 W. 36th St., 212-563-5454. International Print Center New York: “New Prints 2010/Autumn.” Ends Nov. 20, 508 W. 26th St., Rm. 5A, 212-989-5090. Jason McCoy Inc.: Annelies Strba. Ends Nov. 19, 41 E. 57th St., 11th Fl., 212-310-1996. June Kelly Gallery: Sandra Lerner: “Parallel Universes.” Ends Nov. 9, 166 Mercer St., 212226-1660. Kathleen Cullen Fine Arts: “Black Mondays.” Ends Nov. 11, 526 W. 26th St., #605, 212-463-8500. Keith de Lellis Gallery: “New York: A Bird’s-Eye View.” Ends Nov. 20, 1045 Madison Ave. #3, 212-327-1482. Kravets/Wehby Gallery: Wendell Gladstone. Ends Nov. 13, 521 W. 21st St., 212-352-2238. Luise Ross Gallery: Gail Gregg: “Albums.” Ends Nov. 13, 511 W. 25th St., #307, 212-343-2161. LZ Project Space: Emmy Mikelson: “Stalemate.” Ends Nov. 13, 164 Suffolk St., no phone. Magen H. Gallery: Alain Douillard: “Le Forgeron du Fer.” Ends Nov. 12, 54 E. 11th St., 212-7778670. McKenzie Fine Art Inc.: Chris Gallagher. Ends Nov. 13, 511 W. 25th St., 212-989-5467. Miyako Yoshinaga Art Prospects: Mayumi Lake: “Æther.” Ends Nov. 13, 547 W. 27th St., 2nd Fl., 212-268-7132. Morgan Lehman: Jeff Perrott: “Random Walks in Endless Fields.” Ends Nov. 13, 535 W. 22nd St., 212-268-6699. The Pace Gallery: Thomas Nozkowski. Ends Nov. 13, 510 W. 25th St., 212-255-4044. Peter Blum Chelsea: Matthew Day Jackson: “In Search of.” Ends Nov. 13, 526 W. 29th St., 212244-6055. Peter Blum Soho: Matthew Day Jackson: “The Tomb.” Ends Nov. 13, 99 Wooster St., 212-3430441. Raandesk Gallery of Art: Jason Bryant: “Trilogy.” Ends Nov. 12, 16 W. 23rd St., 4th Fl., 212-6967432. Reaves Gallery: Joshua Hagler & George Pfau: “Nearly Approaching Never To Pass.” Ends Nov. 13, 526 W. 26th St., Ste. 706, 415-2503201. Rick Wester Fine Art: Jonathan Smith: “Untold Stories.” Ends Nov. 13, 511 W. 25th St., Ste. 205, 212-255-5560. Rooster Gallery: “Geography of Affection: Six Portuguese Artists in New York.” Ends Nov. 21, 190 Orchard St., 212-230-1370. Salon 94 Bowery: Liz Cohen: “Trabantimino.” Ends

“Shoe Repair Shop,” by Max Ferguson. Nov. 11, 243 Bowery, 212-529-7400.

Spazio 522: Pam Connolly: “here+there.” Ends Nov.

13, 526 W. 26th St., Ste. 522, 212-929-1981.

Sous Les Etoiles Gallery: Reiner Riedler: “Fake

Holidays.” Ends Nov. 20, 560 Broadway, Ste. 205, 212-966-0796. SVA Gallery: “Optic Nerve.” Ends Nov. 13, 209 E. 23rd St., no phone. Swiss Institute: Roman Signer: “Four Rooms, One Artist.” Ends Nov. 12, 495 Broadway, 3rd Fl., 212-925-2035. Thomas Erben Gallery: Rose Wylie. Ends Nov. 13, 526 W. 26th St., 4th Fl., 212-645-8701. Tibor de Nagy Gallery: Biala, Nell Blaine & Jane Freilicher: “Selected Works.” Ends Nov. 17, 724 5th Ave., 212-262-5050. Westside Gallery: “Parallel Threads.” Ends Nov. 20, 133/141 W. 21st St., 212-592-2145. Woodward Gallery: Knox Martin: “Women: Black & White Paintings.” Ends Nov. 13, 133 Eldridge St., 212-966-3411.

Museums American Folk Art Museum: “Quilts: Masterworks

from the American Folk Art Museum.” Ends Apr. 24. “Perspectives: Forming the Figure.” Ends Aug. 2011, 45 W. 53rd St., 212-265-1040. American Museum of Natural History: “Race to the End of the Earth.” Ends Jan. 2, Central Park West at West 79th Street, 212-769-5100. Brooklyn Historical Society: “Artist & Artifact: Re|Visioning Brooklyn’s Past.” Nov. 11-Dec. 17. “Home Base: Memories of the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field.” Ends Apr. 24. “It Happened in Brooklyn.” Ongoing, 128 Pierrepont St., Brooklyn, 718-222-4111. Brooklyn Museum: “Norman Rockwell: Behind the

BOBBY SHORT & JEAN BACH by Sigrid Estrada

also featured:

PAT BUCKELY

MARTHA STEWART

SANFORD WEILL

DOMINICK DUNNE

by George Lange

by Sigrid Estrada

by George Lange

by Josh Lehrer

FOR DETAILS & TO PURCHASE: www.AVENUEmagazine.com/iconic-newyorkers November 10, 2010 | City Arts

ArtsAGENDA Camera.” Nov. 19-Apr. 10. “Fred Tomaselli.” Ends Jan. 2. “Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists, 1958-1968.” Ends Jan. 9. Sam TaylorWood: “Ghosts.” Ends Aug. 14, 200 Eastern Pkwy., Brooklyn, 718-638-5000. Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum: “National Design Triennial: Why Design Now?.” Ends Jan. 9, 2 E. 91st St., 212-849-8400. Discovery Times Square Exposition: “King Tut NYC: Return of the King.” Ends Jan. 2, 226 W. 44th St., no phone. The Drawing Center: Gerhard Richter: “Lines Which Do Not Exist.” Ends Nov. 18. Claudia Wieser: “Poems of the Right Angle.” Ends Nov. 18, 35 Wooster St., 212-219-2166. Frick Collection: “The Spanish Manner: Drawings from Ribera to Goya.” Ends Jan. 9. “The King at War: Velazquez’s Portrait of Philip IV.” Ends Jan. 23, 1 E. 70th St., 212-288-0700. International Center of Photography: “The Mexican Suitcase: Cuba in Revolution.” Ends Jan. 9, 1133 6th Ave., 212-857-0000. Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum: “27 Seconds.” Ends Nov. 21, Pier 86, West 46th Street & 12th Avenue, 212-245-0072. Japan Society: “The Sound of One Hand: Paintings & Calligraphy by Zen Master Hakuin.” Ends Jan. 9. Max Gimblett & Lewis Hyde: “oxherding.” Ends Jan. 16, 333 E. 47th St., 212-832-1155. Jewish Museum: “A Hanukkah Project: Daniel Libeskind’s Line of Fire.” Nov. 21-Jan. 30. “Shifting the Gaze: Painting & Feminism.” Ends Jan. 30. “Houdini: Art & Magic.” Ends Mar. 27, 1109 5th Ave., 212-423-3200. Merchant’s House Museum: “Memento Mori: The Birth & Resurrection of Postmortem Photography.” Ends Nov. 29, 29 E. 4th St., 212-777-1089. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: “Stieglitz, Steichen, Strand.” Nov. 10-Apr. 10. “Haremhab, The General Who Became King.” Nov. 16-July 4. “The World of Khubilai Khan: Chinese Art in the Yuan Dynasty.” Ends Jan. 2. “Italy Observed: Views & Souvenirs, 1706-1899.” Ends Jan. 2. “John Baldessari: Pure Beauty.” Ends Jan. 9. “Miró: The Dutch Interiors.” Ends Jan. 17. “Man, Myth & Sensual Pleasures: Jan Gossart’s Renaissance.” Ends Jan. 17. “The Artistic Furniture of Charles Rohlfs.” Ends Jan. 23. “Katrin Sigurdardottir at the Met.” Ends Mar. 6. “The Roman Mosaic from Lod, Israel.” Ends Apr. 3, 1000 5th Ave., 212-535-7710. The Morgan Library & Museum: “Anne Morgan’s War: Rebuilding Devastated France, 1917-1924.” Ends Nov. 21. “Mark Twain: A Skeptic’s Progress.” Ends Jan. 2. “Roy Lichtenstein: The Blackand-White Drawings.” Ends Jan. 2. “Degas: Drawings & Sketchbooks.” Ends Jan. 23, 225 Madison Ave., 212-685-0008. El Museo del Barrio: “Voces y Visiones.” Ends Dec. 12. “Nueva York (1613-1945).” Ends Jan. 9, 1230 5th Ave., 212-831-7272. Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology: “EcoFashion: Going Green.” Ends Nov. 13, Seventh Avenue at West 27th Street, 212-217-4558. Museum of Arts & Design: Patrick Jouin: “Design & Gesture.” Nov. 9-Feb. 6. “The Global Africa Project.” Nov. 17-May 15. “Think Again: New Latin American Jewelry.” Ends Jan. 9. “Eat Drink Art Design.” Ends Mar. 27, 2 Columbus Cir., 212-299-7777. Museum of Jewish Heritage: “The Morgenthaus: A Legacy of Service.” Ends Dec. 2010. “Fire in My Heart: The Story of Hannah Senesh.” Ends Aug. 7, 36 Battery Pl., 646-437-4200. Museum of American Illustration at the Society of Illustrators: “The Original Art.” Ends Nov. 24,

128 E. 63rd St., 212-838-2560.

Museum of Modern Art: “On Line: Drawing Through

City Arts | www.cityartsnyc.com

the Twentieth Century.” Nov. 21-Feb. 7. “Small Scale, Big Change: New Architectures of Social Engagement.” Ends Jan. 3. “New Photography 2010.” Ends Jan. 10. “Underground Gallery: London Transport Posters, 1920s-1940s.” Ends Feb. 28, 11 W. 53rd St., 212-708-9400. New Museum: “The Last Newspaper.” Ends Jan. 9. “Voice & Wind: Haegue Yang.” Ends Jan. 23. “Free.” Ends Jan. 23, 235 Bowery, 212-219-1222. New York Public Library: “Recollection: Thirty Years of Photography at the New York Public Library.” Ends Jan. 2, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Print Gallery & Stokes Gallery, East 42nd Street & Fifth Avenue, 917-275-6975. New York Public Library for the Performing Arts: “Talking Pictures.” Ends Nov. 27. “Alwin Nikolais’ Total Theater of Motion.” Ends Jan. 15. “On Stage in Fashion: Design for Theater, Opera & Dance.” Ends Jan. 22, 40 Lincoln Center Plz., 212-870-1630. Noguchi Museum: “On Becoming An Artist: Isamu Noguchi & His Contemporaries, 19221960.” Nov. 17-Apr. 24, 33rd Road at Vernon Boulevard, Queens, 718-721-2308. Rubin Museum of Art: “Embodying the Holy: Icons in Eastern Orthodox Christianity & Tibetan Buddhism.” Ends Mar. 7. “Grain of Emptiness: Buddhism-Inspired Contemporary Art.” Ends Apr. 11. “The Nepalese Legacy in Tibetan Painting.” Ends May 23. “Tibetan Shrine Room.” Ongoing. 150 W. 17th St., 212-6205000. Skyscraper Museum: “The Rise of Wall Street.” Ends Nov. 28, 39 Battery Pl., 212-968-1961. Society of Illustrators: “2010 Original Art: Celebrating the Fine Art of Children’s Book Illustration.” Ends Nov. 24, 128 E. 63rd St., 212-838-2560. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum: “Broken Forms: European Modernism from the Guggenheim Collection.” Ends Jan. 5. “Vox Populi: Posters of the Interwar Years.” Ends Jan. 9. “Kandinsky at the Bauhaus, 1922-1933.” Ongoing. “Thannhauser Collection.” Ongoing, 1071 5th Ave., 212-423-3500. South Street Seaport: “Tigers the Exhibition.” Ends Jan. 15, Pier 17 at South Street Seaport, 800-7453000. Studio Museum: “VideoStudio: Changing Same.” Nov. 11-Mar.13. “The Production of Space.” Nov. 11-Mar. 13. “StudioSound: Matana Roberts.” Nov. 11-Mar. 13. “Harlem Postcards: Fall/Winter 2010-11.” Nov. 11-Mar. 13. Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: “Any Number of Preoccupations.” Nov. 11-Mar. 13. Mark Bradford: “Alphabet.” Nov. 11-Mar. 13, 144 W. 125th St., 212-864-4500. Whitney Museum of American Art: “Charles LeDray: workworkworkworkwork.” Nov. 18-Feb. 13. “Lee Friedlander: America by Car.” Ends Nov. 28. “Sara VanDerBeek.” Ends Dec. 5. “Paul Thek: Diver, A Retrospective.” Ends Jan. 9. Slater Bradley & Ed Lachman: “Shadow.” Ends Jan. 23. “Modern Life: Edward Hopper & His Time.” Ends Apr. 2011, 945 Madison Ave., 212-570-3600.

Art Events American Craft Show NYC & Contemporary Art Fair NYC: These simultaneous events bring 200

juried American Craft Artists to show & sell ceramic, fiber, glass, furniture, wearable art & jewelry works, as well as presentations by 100 independent contemporary artists specializing in painting, photography, sculpture & mixed media. Nov. 19-21, Jacob K. Javits Convention Center of New York, 655 W. 34th St., 212-216-2000, www.javitscenter.com. Art20: Galleries showcase their finest 20th-century

Out of Town EVENTS & ATTRACTIONS Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art:

MASS MoCA presents Paul Browde & Murray Nossel’s Two Men Talking, a phenomenal production depicting the life stories of two men from 1974 until the present. The show takes place in New York City & Johannesburg, & addresses matters of identity, HIV/ AIDS, being Jewish in South Africa & lifelong friendships. Nov. 20. Fourth-generation musicians The Abrams Brothers perform vibrant & exciting bluegrass. Still only teenagers, Arlo Guthrie calls them “way too young to be that good.” Nov. 13. Material World: Sculpture to Environment features works crafted from industrially produced materials in former factory spaces to create an extraordinary atmosphere from ordinary objects. Ends Feb. 2011, Club B-10, 1040 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams, Mass., 413-662-2111, www.massmoca.org. Berkshire Museum: Henry Klimowicz: Paper & Light is a site-specific installation utilizing natural light & used cardboard to resemble the ephemeral & delicate work of insects. Ongoing, 39 South Street, Pittsfield, Mass., 413-443-7171, www.berkshiremuseum.org. Warner Theatre: The Warner Theatre presents the 1960s classic Bye Bye Birdie. A satire on American society, Birdie tells the story of Conrad Birdie, loosely based on Elvis Presley & his army draft notice. Ends Nov. 14. Renowned pianist George Winston, best known for his jazzy & introspective pieces, performs on his favorite 9-foot Steinway. Nov. 13, 68 Main St., Torrington, Conn., 860-489-7180, www.warnertheatre.org. The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, SUNY New Paltz:

The Hudson Valley Artists: Contemporary Art and Praxis exhibition presents the work

& contemporary paintings, sculpture, drawings & photography. Nov. 12-15, Park Avenue Armory, 643 Park Ave., 212-777-5218, www. sanfordsmith.com; times vary, $20+. BAM 2010 Next Wave Festival: The Brooklyn Academy of Music hosts its annual festival. Now in its 28th year, Next Wave comprises 16 music, dance, theater & opera performances, in addition to artist talks, art exhibitions & more. Ends Dec. 19, BAM, 30 Lafayette Ave., Brooklyn, 718-6364129, www.bam.org. Latin American Cultural Week: Pan American Musical Art Research presents the fifth annual LACW, celebrating Latin American culture through performing arts concerts, films, visual arts & auctions. Nov. 10-17, locations vary, www.lacw. net. Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival: The longestrunning documentary festival returns for its 34th year. Nov. 11-14, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at West 79th Street, 212-769-5100, www.amnh.org. The Pier Show: The show brings 500 art & antiques exhibitors, as well as the Steampunk House, filled with all of the elements necessary to complete your own Steampunk project. Nov. 13 & 14, Passenger Ship Terminal, Pier 94, Twelfth Avenue at West 55th Street, 973-808-5015; 10 a.m.-6, $15. PINTA: The modern & contemporary Latin American art fair hits New York. Nov. 11-14, Pier 92, Twelfth Avenue at West 52nd Street, www. pintaart.com. Upper East Side Gallery Tour: Join in a guided tour of the week’s top seven art exhibits in the Upper East Side galleries. Nov. 20, 1018 Madison Ave., 212-946-1548; 1, $20.

Abrams Brothers perform at MASS MoCA. of artists living & working in the Hudson River Valley who show how creative practice can result in real-world changes. Ends Nov. 14, 1 Hawk Dr., New Paltz, N.Y., 845-2573844, www.newpaltz.edu/museum. Hudson River Museum: Paintbox Leaves: Autumnal Inspiration from Cole to Wyeth exhibits more than 100 works from collections all over the United States, displaying the American artist’s enthrallment with autumn & many examples of reinvigorated landscape painting. Ends Jan. 16, 2011. The 2010 Gala ArtsWestchester Makes GREEN a Primary Color is celebrating the sustainability of the arts & the environment, marking the 45th anniversary of ArtsWestchester. Reception, silent auction, dinner & dancing to take place at JP Morgan Chase Hangar. Black-tie attire. Nov. 20, Westchester County Airport, 73 Tower Rd., White Plains, N.Y., 914-963-4550, www.artswestchester.org. Wave Hill: Meet with mixed-media artist Jeff Slomba. His art involves sculptural installation that explores the impact of invasive species on the environment & their links to cultural migration. Nov. 14, Glyndor Gallery, W. 249th St. & Independence Ave., Bronx, N.Y., 718549-3200, www.wavehill.org.

Auctions Christie’s: Post-War & Contemporary Evening

Sale. Nov. 10, 7. Post-War & Contemporary Morning Session. Nov. 11, 9:30 a.m. Post-War & Contemporary Afternoon Session. Nov. 11, 2:30. Fine & Rare Wines. Nov. 12, 6, & Nov. 13, 10 a.m. Latin American Sale. Nov. 17, 6:30, & Nov. 18, 10 a.m., 20 Rockefeller Plz., 212-636-2000. Doyle New York: American Art. Nov. 10, 11 a.m. European Art. Nov. 10, 11 a.m. Modern & Contemporary Art. Nov. 10, 11 a.m. Provident Loan Society: Jewelry, Watches, Silverware & Coins. Nov. 16, 10 a.m. American Furniture & Decorative Arts. Nov. 18, 10 a.m., 175 E. 87th St., 212-427-2730. ROGALLERY.com: Fine art buyers & sellers in online live art auctions. 800-888-1063, www.rogallery. com. Swann Auction Galleries: Early Printed Medical, Scientific & Occult Books. Nov. 9, 1:30. Rare & Important Travel Posters. Nov. 15, 1:30. American Art/Contemporary Art. Nov. 18, 10:30 a.m. & 1:30, 104 E. 25th St., 212-254-4710.

Music & Opera 92nd Street Y: Pianist Charles Rosen & cellist Fred

Sherry give an all-Chopin recital. Nov. 20, 212415-5500; 8, $25+. 92YTribeca: Kristin Hersh, solo artist & the lead singer & guitarist for the bands Throwing Muses & 50 Foot Wave, performs & reads from her memoir, Rat Girl. Nov. 12, 92nd Street Y, 200 Hudson St., 212-601-1000; 9, $22+. Alice Tully Hall: Organist Paul Jacobs performs

Johann Sebastian Bach’s organ masterwork Clavierübung III in its entirety. Nov. 16, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, 10 Lincoln Center Plz., 212-721-6500; 7:30, $45+. Austrian Cultural Forum NY: Pianist Taka Kigawa gives a solo performance of music from Alban Berg, Arnold Schoenberg & Anton Webern. Nov. 10, 11 E. 52nd St., 212-319-5300; 7:30, free. Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts: Nine-time Tony Award winner Tommy Tune teams with longtime collaborators the Manhattan Rhythm Kinds for a look back at his career. Nov. 14, Walt Whitman Theatre at Brooklyn College, 2900 Campus Rd., Brooklyn, 718-951-4500; 3, $32+. Church of St. Ignatius Loyola: The professional choir & orchestra of St. Ignatius Loyola perform works of Liszt, Viktor Kalabis & Juraj Filas as part of the Sacred Music in a Sacred Space series. Nov. 17, 980 Park Ave., 212-288-2520; 8, $30+. Howard Gilman Performance Space: Singersongwriter Gabriel Kahane curates a program of new vocal music. Nov. 16, Baryshnikov Arts Center, 450 W. 37th St., 212-868-4444; 7, free. Merkin Concert Hall: Performers celebrate the works of composer Jerome Kern as part of the Broadway Close Up series. Nov. 15, Kaufman Center, 129 W. 67th St., 212-501-3300; 8, $40. Merkin Concert Hall: Joy in Singing presents the 2010 award recital artist Tyler Duncan, baritone, with pianist Erika Switzer, performing an evening of Schumann, Wolf, Finzi, Debussy & a celebration of Canadian song. Nov. 20, Kaufman Center, 129 W. 67th St., 212-501-3300; 8, $15+. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano returns with a program commemorating the group’s 50th anniversary & the bicentennial of Mexico. Nov. 12. Pianist Gabriela Montero & cellist Gautier Capucon perform a program that includes Rachmaninoff & Prokofiev. Nov. 13. Alan Gilbert conducts members of the New York Philharmonic as part of the CONTACT! series. Nov. 20, 1000 5th Ave., 212-535-7710; 7, $20+. Metropolitan Opera: Così fan tutte. Nov. 9-Dec. 2. Don Carlo. Nov. 22-Dec. 18. Carmen. Ends Jan. 13. Don Pasquale. Ends Feb. 19. La Bohème. Ends Feb. 25. Il Trovatore. Ends Apr. 30, West 62nd Street, betw. Columbus & Amsterdam Aves., 212-362-6000; times vary, $25+. Miller Theatre: The Composer Portraits series presents Fred Lerdahl, with a special performance by cellist Anssi Karttunen. Nov. 19, 2960 Broadway, 212-854-7799; 8, $25. Miller Theatre: New York Polyphony, a Manhattanbased quartet, performs Flemish & Tudor music for men’s voices. Nov. 20, 2960 Broadway, 212854-7799; 8, $35. St. Peter’s Church: Chelsea opera presents Glory Denied by Tom Cipullo. Nov. 11-14, 346 W. 20th St., 866-844-4111; times vary, $20+. Stern Auditorium: Afro-pop star Angelique Kidjo tells the journey of the drum through rhythms, songs & dances from Africa to the Caribbean on to America. Nov. 11, Carnegie Hall, 881 7th Ave., 212-247-7800; 8, $13.50+. Tenri Cultural Institute: The San Francisco-based Cypress String Quartet performs for the first time in New York. Nov. 11, 13 & 14, 43A W. 13th St., 415-585-9045; times vary, $48+. Weill Recital Hall: Yale in New York opens its Carnegie Hall series with “Yale Guitar Music Today,” an evening of acoustic & electric guitar premieres. Nov. 9, Carnegie Hall, 881 7th Ave., 212-247-7800; 8, $10+. WMP Concert Hall: Violinist Gil Morgenstern’s Reflections Series takes listeners inside of the celebrated Parisian salon of Winnaretta Singer. The concert includes music from Ravel,

Stravinsky, Debussy, de Falla, Schubert & Fauré. Nov. 18, 31 E. 28th St., 212-582-7536; 7:30, $15+. Zankel Hall: Zankel Hall presents the experimental pop duo The Books. Nov. 13, Carnegie Hall, 881 7th Ave., 212-247-7800; 10, $20+.

Jazz 55 Bar: The Sean Smith Quartet. Nov. 9, 55

Christopher St., 212-929-9883; 7, two-drink minimum. BMCC Tribeca: Jazz pianist & composer Randy Weston performs. Nov. 13, 199 Chambers St., 212-220-1460; 8, $15+. Cornelia Street Cafe: Michael Bates’ Outside Sources. Nov. 11. The Jamie Saft Special Quintet. Nov. 12 & 13. Spoke. Nov. 14. Peter Eldridge. Nov. 16. The Kirk Knuffke Quartet. Nov. 18. Adam Kolker Trio featuring Billy Hart & John Hebert. Nov. 19. Ellery Eskelin Trio. Nov. 20. Bobby Avey Quartet featuring Dave Liebman. Nov. 21, 29 Cornelia St., 212-989-9319; times vary, $10+. David Rubenstein Atrium: As part of Target Free Thursdays, vocalist Susan Pereira performs with ensemble Sabor Brasil. Nov. 11, Lincoln Center, Broadway betw. West 62nd & 63rd Streets, 212875-5000; 8:30, free. David Rubenstein Atrium: Hot Club San Francisco, borrowing from the original Hot Club, uses an all-string instrumentation to play its gypsy jazz. Nov. 18, Lincoln Center, Broadway betw. West 62nd & 63rd Streets, 212-875-5000; 8:30, free. Dizzy Gillespie Auditorium: Eugene Marlow’s The Heritage Ensemble performs two sets. Nov. 9, Baha’i Center, 53 E. 11th St., 212-222-5159; times vary, $10+. Jazz Standard: Julian Lage Group. Nov. 9 & 10. Sheila Jordan’s 82nd birthday celebration with Steve Kuhn. Nov. 16 & 17. Danilo Perez Trio. Nov. Nov. 18-21, 116 E. 27th St., 212-576-2232; times vary, $20+. The Kitano: Jazz vocalist Libby York performs. Nov. 17, 66 Park Ave., 212-885-7119; times vary, $15. Peter Norton Symphony Space: Jazz Forum Arts presents David Amram: The First 80 Years of Jazz. Nov. 11, 2537 Broadway, 212-864-5400; 7:30, $25+. Rose Theater: Bobby McFerrin debuts at Rose Theater with music from the 2010 album VOCAbuLarieS. Nov. 12 & 13, Frederick P. Rose Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Broadway at West 60th Street, 212-721-6500; 8, $10+.

Dance Bayanihan Philippine National Dance Company: The

company celebrates Filipino culture through traditional music & dance. Nov. 19, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 5th Ave., 212-535-7710; 7, $45. Complexions Contemporary Ballet: The company’s intense physical movements take center stage in three different programs. Nov. 16-28, The Joyce Theater, 175 8th Ave., 212-242-0800; times vary, $10+. Flamenco Gitano: Pepe Torres premieres Homenaje, & Angelita Vargas along with Jairo Barrul perform Gitanerias in this program of music & dance. Nov. 13 & 14, Skirball Center, New York University, 566 LaGuardia Pl., 212-352-3101; times vary, $55+. Garth Fagan Dance: The troupe celebrates its 40th anniversary season. Nov. 9-14, The Joyce Theater, 175 8th Ave., 212-242-0800; times vary, $10+. Ilya Kabakov: Kabakov & his wife, Emilia, discuss & present Vertical Opera, one of their unrealized “Utopian Projects.” Nov. 14 &

15, The Peter B. Lewis Theater, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1071 5th Ave., 212-4233587; 7:30, $10+. Jonah Bokaer: The choreographer teams with the design firm Harrison Atelier to present Anchises, inspired by Virgil’s The Aeneid. Nov. 17-21, Abrons Arts Center, Henry Street Settlement, 466 Grand St., 212-598-0400; 7:30, $15+. Julian Barnett: Dance New Amsterdam hosts choreographer Barnett’s Super Natural. Nov. 1821, Dance New Amsterdam, 280 Broadway, 2nd Fl., 212-227-9856; times vary, $12+. Lar Lubovitch Dance Company: The company presents three dances, including the world premiere of Legend. Nov. 18-21, Howard Gilman Performance Space, Baryshnikov Arts Center, 450 W. 37th St., 212-868-4444; times vary, $15+. Neil Greenberg: Greenberg’s (like a vase) uses extravagant & full-bodied dancing to explore the tensions created by the human desire to make meaning. Music by Zeena Parkins. Nov. 9-13, Dance Theater Workshop, 219 W. 19th St., 212924-0077; 7:30, $20. New Chamber Ballet: Miro Magloire’s company continues its season with a program of new & repertory ballets by Magloire & Emery LeCrone. Nov. 19 & 20, City Center Studio 4, 130 W. 56th St., 4th Fl., 212-868-4444; 8, $12+. New York City Ballet: The company performs The Magic Flute, the comedic tale for all ages, set to a score by Riccardo Drigo. Feb. 2, 4, 6 & 8, David H. Koch Theater, 20 Lincoln Center, 212-7216500; times vary, $20+. New York Jazz Choreography Project: The company’s semi-annual dance concert is devoted exclusively to jazz and presented by Jazz Choreography Enterprises, Inc. Nov. 13 & 14, Ailey Citigroup Theater, Joan Weill Center for Dance, 405 W. 55th St., 212-369-8775; times vary, $15+. Philadanco: The group blends African-American dance traditions with ballet, jazz & modern styles. Nov. 20, Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts, Walt Whitman Theatre at Brooklyn College, 2900 Campus Rd., Brooklyn, 718-951-4500; 8, $30. WalkingTalking: Catherine Miller’s new company presents three world premieres. Nov. 14, 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Ave., 212-415-5500; 3, $10.

Theater A Quiet Place: Leonard Bernstein’s final stage work

receives its New York premiere. Ends Nov. 21, David H. Koch Theater, 20 Lincoln Center, 212-721-6500. Bells Are Ringing: A lonely girl who runs an answering service falls for a client she has met only by voice in the reprise of this 1950s musical, with music by Jule Styne & book & lyrics by Betty Comden & Adolph Green. Nov. 18-21, New York City Center, 131 W. 55th St., 212-581-1212. Billy Elliot: This Tony-winning adaptation of the 2000 film chronicles a young British boy’s desire to dance ballet in a poverty-choked coal-mining town. Open run, Imperial Theatre, 249 W. 45th St., 212-239-6200. Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson: Benjamin Walker reprises his role as America’s first political maverick. Open run, Jacobs Theatre, 242 W. 45th St., 212-239-6200. Brief Encounter: Roundabout Theatre Company presents Noel Coward’s screenplay, adapted and directed by Emma Rice. Ends Jan. 2, Studio 54, 254 W. 54th St., 212-719-1300. La Casa de Bernarda Alba: Tyrannical mother

Bernarda Alba attempts to dominate her five unmarried daughters, all of whom harbor a secret passion for the same man. Ends May 27, 138 E. 27th St., 212-225-9999. Chicago: The long-running revival of Kander & Ebb’s musical about sex, murder & celebrity continues to razzle-dazzle. Open run, Ambassador Theatre, 219 W. 49th St., 212-2396200. Danny & Sylvia - The Danny Kaye Musical: This musical love story depicts the relationship between Danny Kaye & his wife & creative partner, Sylvia Fine, who wrote many of Kaye’s most famous songs. Open run, St. Luke’s Theatre, 308 W. 46th St., 212-239-6200. Dietrich & Chevalier: Marlene Dietrich & Maurice Chevalier were the top film stars at Paramount Pictures in the 1930s. Married to others, they fell in love & remained friends for life. Jerry Mayer’s musical stars Robert Cuccioli, Jodi Stevens & Donald Corren. Open run, St. Luke’s Theatre, 308 W. 46th St., 212-239-6200. Driving Miss Daisy: James Earl Jones & Vanessa Redgrave star in Alfred Uhry’s play. Ends Jan. 30, Golden Theatre, 252 W. 45th St., 212-2396200. FELA!: The story of legendary Nigerian musican Fela Kuti, whose soulful Afrobeat rhythms ignited a generation, is told through music & dance. Featuring Patti LaBelle. Ends Jan. 2, The Eugene O’Neil Theatre, 230 W. 49th St., 212-239-6200. Five ’Til: Edwin Lee Gibson performs in the play loosely inspired by the story of Gary Graham. Nov. 11-13 & Nov. 18-20, Dixon Place, 161A Chrystie St., 212-219-0736. Fuerza Bruta - Look Up: A visual dance-rave, technoride, Latino walking-on-the-ceiling fiesta from Buenos Aires. Open run, Daryl Roth Theatre, 101 E. 15th St., 212-239-2600. In the Heights: This heartfelt & high-spirited love letter to Washington Heights features a salsa & hip-hop flavored score by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Ends Jan. 9, Richard Rodgers Theatre, 226 W. 46th St., 212-221-1211. Landscape with the Fall of Icarus: Six fictionalized characters explore the symbolic & poetic ties between the Greek myth of Daedalus & Icarus & the legacy of the mythological empire of New York City. Nov. 11-20, Abrons Arts Center, Henry Street Settlement, 466 Grand St., 212598-0400. Little Shop of Horrors: Blue Hill Troupe presents the story of Seymour, a down-and-out floral assistant who discovers a man-eating plant that may be the solution to his problems. Nov. 12-20, Theatre at St. Clement’s, 423 W. 46th St., 866811-4111. Memphis - A New Musical: Set in the titular city during the segregated 1950s, this musical charts the romance between a white DJ & a black singer as rock-and-roll begins to emerge. Open run, Shubert Theatre, 225 W. 44th St., 212239-6200. Next to Normal: A woman & her family struggle to cope with her bipolar disorder in this emotional, Tony-winning musical. Open run, Booth Theatre, 222 W. 45th St., 212-2396200. Notes From Underground: Theatre for a New Audience presents Yale Repertory Theatre’s production of the revolutionary novella by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Ends Nov. 20, Jerome Robbins Theater, Baryshnikov Arts Center, 450 W. 37th St., 212-868-4444. That Hopey Changey Thing: A family gathers to talk politics & examine the state of the nation on election day, Nov. 2, 2010. Ends Nov. 14, Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St., 212-967-7555.

November 10, 2010 | City Arts

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PainttheTOWN

By Amanda Gordon

VIVA LE NOSH!

Clockwise, from left: Artists Aurel Schmidt and Rita Ackermann; artists Coley Brown and John Houck; Shayna McClelland and Stacy Engman, contemporary art curator at the National Arts Club; Kevin Tekinel with the new designer at Theory, Olivier Theyskens; Tracey Ryans,Kyle DeWoody and Jonah Fay-Hurvitz.

BOARDWALK EMPIRE It’s not easy to wow New Yorkers with a venue, but the New Jersey Museum of Contemporary Art did just that at the opening of its inaugural exhibition at the Convention Center in Asbury Park. Guests arrived on the boardwalk, their heels clapping on the sand-dusted wood planks, then strolled through a European-style arcade and climbed some steps to a U-shaped mezzanine vaulting over the ocean. There, cocktails in hand, they strolled past a row of denim jeans lying on the floor with concrete-filled legs kicking in the air, an installation by Rob Pruitt. And they found the balconies looking out on a restaurant advertising an appearance by the comic Joe Piscopo and the carnival-like sign for The Wonder Bar. It was closer to the feel of a night at Art Basel Miami Beach than most had thought possible, here on the Jersey Shore, about two hours south of Manhattan. The night wasn’t just about New Yorkers getting over themselves, but about something good for Asbury Park: the right people and the right art had come to this boulevard of ups and downs, which for a long time has craved attention for something other than giving Bruce Springsteen his start. Bringing New Yorkers to this Convention Center—designed by Warren Wetmore, who also did Grand Central Terminal—seemed a good place to start.

Babka made with olive tapanade instead of chocolate, buckwheat (not potato) latkes and a bread not unlike a bagel called brassados: These are some of the treats Joan Nathan writes about in her new cookbook, Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous: My Search for Jewish Cooking in France. Calvin Trillin, New York Times food editor Nick Fox, Tablet magazine editor Alana Newhouse and Forward’s web editor Gabrielle Birkner were among those who got to sample some of the book’s recipes at a recent party. A gracious brownstone in Brooklyn was the setting. There, Nathan’s editor, Judith Jones—perhaps most famous for being Julia Child’s editor—told of one adventure working on the book. “I went on a research trip to Alsace with Joan,” said Jones. “We were walking down the street and some chefs were outside for an early morning smoke, and Joan just marches up to them. It was only 11 in the morning and the chefs Joan Nathan and Danny scowled, but Joan warmed Meyer. them up and they invited us in for lunch. We ate at two three-star restaurants in one day. That’s six stars!” On Thursday, Nov. 11, Nathan will be cooking at Macy’s in Herald Square, then talking to a culinary history group at Rodeph Sholom on the Upper West Side.

SCAN MAN

Leslie Koch, president of The Trust for Governors Island, and Anat Gilead, Israel’s Consul for Cultural Affairs in America; Tel Aviv singer-songwriter Tamar Eisenman rocking out.

WINE & DINE Chick peas, wine from Galilee and one striking beauty on stage: The Consulate General of Israel organized an evening at City Winery that offered “Three Ways to Israel,” through food, wine and music. Mika Sharon, a Tel Aviv-based chef who trained in New York at the French Culinary Institute, prepared the meal. Her larger mission: to raise Israel’s culinary profile (those chick peas, for example, came in a fragrant salad, not a bowl of hummus). Meanwhile, we caught up with the woman in charge of Governors Island and learned that the island had 443,000 visitors this season, a 60 percent increase over last year. Where does that rank it? On peak days, it drew the same number of visitors as the High Line and the Statue of Liberty.

Olafur Eliasson, the Danish artist who brought us the New York City Waterfalls, had a tough time when he first arrived in New York. “I lost $100” playing the shell game in Times Square, which was “a quarter of the money I had,” he said at the Plaza Hotel’s podium. He was accepting an award from the American-Scandinavian Foundation, which operates Scandinavia House. But then he found a gallery in Soho that was willing to show one of his works: “It was sort of water, splashing all over the third floor, keeping the assistant mopping,” he said. It sold, and he was on his way. He has a studio in New York, and he thrives off its energy. However, he said, he also owes a lot to his native land. “Scandinavia gave me a sense of worth,” he said. And also an obsession with light. “Scandinavian light has a lot of nuances—it’s sophisticated and grayscale.” It’s his play with light that attracted collector Agnes Gund. The Crown Prince and Princess “The reason I love his preoccupation with light, of Norway; Olafur Eliasson, it’s not just artistic, it’s physiological,” she said, Barbro Osher, Agnes Gund and noting that she has Seasonal Affective Disorder. Ed Gallagher. For more party coverage, visit www.cityarts.info. To contact the author or purchase photos, email Amanda.Gordon@rocketmail.com; bit.ly/agphotos. November 10, 2010 | City Arts

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