Installation view, “Donald Judd,” David Zwirner, New York, 2011 (Judd Art © Judd Foundation. Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. Photos by Tim Nighswander / IMAGING4ART)
David Zwirner
525/533 West 19th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Saturday, June 25, free
212-727-2070
www.davidzwirner.com
www.juddfoundation.org
In 1989, Donald Judd presented a major installation at the Staatliche Kunsthalle in Baden-Baden of a dozen large-scale open-box floor works that featured color, a rarity for Judd in pieces that size. David Zwirner has gathered together nine of the works and spread them throughout his connected galleries at 525 and 533 West Nineteenth St., along with several of the minimalist artist’s pencil and ballpoint sketches of the original layout. Each of the nine untitled Menziken boxes are an identical 39.375 x 78.75 x 78.75, composed of anodized aluminum, with different-colored Plexiglas panels inside. The black, blue, and amber sheets, not all placed in the same locations within each box, react with the brightness from the ceiling skylights to project changing reflections against the inner sides of the rectangle boxes, as if they’re alive. Thus, Judd has reshaped the space inside and outside, within each individual box as well as of the gallery space itself, in a quiet yet dynamic presentation. The show concludes June 25 with a pair of special screenings held at 519 West Nineteenth St., where, from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm, Zwirner will show Michael Blackwood’s 2010 documentary The Artist’s Studio: Donald Judd, consisting of footage of Judd (1928-94) from his homes in SoHo in 1972 and in Marfa, Texas, in 1975. That will be followed at 1:00, 3:00, and 5:00 by the 2010 film Marfa Voices, in which director Rainer Judd, the artist’s daughter, speaks with people who knew her father in Marfa. An advance RSVP to mackie@davidzwirner.com or 212-727-2070 ext122 is required for Marfa Voices, which will be introduced by the filmmaker and followed by a Q&A; a reception will follow the 5:00 screening.
The city of Baltimore has not exactly been depicted kindly in film and on television, with such series as Homicide: Life on the Street, The Wire, and The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood focusing on the rash of drugs and violence that have devastated the community, while native son John Waters has shown its wackier side in such films as Polyester and Hairspray. Born and raised in a suburb just inside the Baltimore city line, writer-director Matt Porterfield (Hamilton) has taken a different view in his second feature film, Putty Hill. When financing for his coming-of-age drama Metal Gods fell through, he decided to keep the cast and crew together and instead shoot a cinéma verité story about the after-effects of a young man’s drug overdose on a tight-knit community inspired by the one he grew up in. Not much is revealed about Cory as his funeral nears and life goes on, with his younger brother, Cody (Cody Ray), playing paintball with Cory’s friends; his uncle, Spike (Charles Sauers), tattooing customers in his apartment; and Spike’s daughter, Jenny (Sky Ferreira), returning to her hometown for the first time in several years and hanging out with her old friends like nothing much has changed. Working off a five-page treatment with only one line of scripted dialogue, Porterfield and cinematographer Jeremy Saulnier capture people just going on living, taking Cory’s death in stride; Porterfield interviews much of the cast, who share their thoughts and feelings in relatively unemotional ways. Shot on a minuscule budget in only twelve days, Putty Hill uses natural sound and light, nonprofessional actors, and real locations, enhancing its documentary-like feel, maintaining its understated narrative and avoiding any bombastic or sudden, big revelations. It’s a softly moving film, a tender tale about daily life in a contemporary American working-class neighborhood. Producer Steve Holmgren will participate in a Q&A at IndieScreen following the June 24 screening at 8:00, while editor Marc Vives will be on hand after the 6:00 show on June 25 to talk about the film.
One of the most controversial films ever made, Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange is a sociopolitical masterpiece that skewers everything in its path through the lens of ultraviolence. Malcolm McDowell stars as Alex DeLarge, our humble narrator and leader of the Droogs, a small gang that includes Georgie (James Marcus), Pete (Michael Tarn), and Dim (Warren Clarke), an oddly dressed quartet that rambles about town beating up all in their way. Following a particularly brutal home invasion, Alex finds himself in jail, soon to be part of a medical experiment to instill a Pavlovian fear of violence in criminals. The film consists of a series of marvelous vignettes that explore nothing less than the very nature of humanity itself, with sensational production design by John Barry and art direction by Russell Hagg and Peter Sheilds, each scene featuring bold colors and memorable sets. The intoxicating score ranges from Wendy Carlos’s original, ornate electronic music to Rossini’s “Thieving Magpie” and “William Tell Overture,” from Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance” to Alex’s favorite, Ludwig van’s “Ninth.” And you’ll never think of “Singin’ in the Rain” the same way ever again. Kubrick based A Clockwork Orange, which was banned in England for nearly thirty years, on the first twenty chapters of Anthony Burgess’s 1962 novel; the American publisher refused to include the final chapter, about Alex’s ultimate redemption, in the book, and Kubrick left it out of the film as well. (The last chapter wasn’t published in the United States until 1986.) A Clockwork Orange is a truly grand cinematic experience, a treat for the senses; just as Alex’s eyes are pried open to watch scenes of terrible violence, you’ll be unable to take yours off the screen as he does his damage. A Clockwork Orange is screening tonight at the Rubin Museum, concluding the Proverbial Pictureshow series, being held in conjunction with the Tibet carpet exhibit “Patterns of Life,” and will be introduced by cultural critic Mark Dery. Admission to the museum is free on Friday nights, so be sure to check out the other current exhibits as well, which include “Masterworks: Jewels of the Collection,” “Body Language,” and “Quentin Roosevelt’s China.”
