Advertise With Us!
09.28.05
1. Strolling through Chelsea art galleries
2. New York City architectural landmarks open their doors
3. Jean Hélion turns one hundred at the National Academy
4. Greta Garbo turns one hundred at Scandinavia House
Volume 5, Number 17
September 28 October 12, 2005
Send all comments, suggestions, reviews, and questions to Mark Rifkin
at admin@twi-ny.com.
If you forward any part of this guide to someone who has not subscribed, please be sure to attach the following line: To subscribe to this list,
which includes e-mail-only bonuses twice a month, please e-mail the administrator at admin@twi-ny.com with the word Subscribe in the Subject line. We at twi-ny thank you.
Site Design/Subway Photo:
Fred Gates Design, New York.
twi-ny/mdr
Roy Lichtensteins "House II" creates optical illusion
Gagosian Gallery
555 West 24th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 am 6:00 pm
Through October 22
Admission: free
212-741-1111
http://www.gagosian.com/current/exhibitions/?gid=2
http://www.lichtensteinfoundation.org/lonindex.htm
The colorful, playful, and influential sculptures of Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein turn the four galleries in the Gagosian into a carnival of fun, exciting, involving imagery. In the first gallery, "Brushstroke Nude" twists in the wind. Make sure to walk past the fabulous "House II" staring at the center; youll feel as if it is alive, moving inside and outside of itself. Gallery II features several of his line sculptures as well as the extraordinary "Woman Contemplating a Yellow Cup" and "Woman with Mirror," which you can look into from either side. In the third gallery is one of our favorites, "Goldfish Bowl," resting on a book on an easel, as well as the bright yellow, diagonal "Maquette for the Gilman Paper Company Lamp." In the small fourth gallery, notice the optical tricks perpetrated by "Pyramid." And dont forget about the back office gallery, where youll find the Victorianesque "Surrealist Head."
Courtesy ClampArt
"Apparition #907" by Bill Armstrong
ClampArt
531 West 25th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 am 6:00 pm
Through October 22
Admission: free
646-230-0020
Setting his lens at infinity, Bill Armstrong takes pictures of reworked photographs of Roman sculpture heads, resulting in haunting images that are purposely severely out of focus. Against a black background, faces can barely be made out, in green, red, purple, blue, white, yellow, and other hazy colors. The pictures are filled with the mystery of spirituality and death; interestingly, Armstrong took these photos shortly after the passing of his father, and he writes in the catalog that it is "uncanny" that "some of the ghostly images actually resemble my father It was only later that I understood that I had been trying to communicate with him through the medium of light-sensitive materials." Conversely, if you stare at these pictures long enough, youll think the subjects in them are trying to communicate with you (perhaps reminding us that all great empires eventually fall).
Luhring Augustine
531 West 24th St.
Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 am 6:00 pm
Through October 22
Admission: free
212-206-9100
http://www.luhringaugustine.com
Joel Sternfeld continues his photographic exploration of America with this extraordinary series that hes been working on for twelve years. He has traveled the nation to find current and past sites of social experimentation, where people formed unique communities of environmental sustainability. His subjects range from the endangered Liz Christy Garden on the Bowery to Leonard Knights remarkable Salvation Mountain in Slab City, California, from the ruins of Drop City in Trinidad, Colorado, to the remains of Zzyzx Springs on Lake Tuendae in California, from Patch Adamss stunning Dacha/Staff Building at the Gesundheit! Institute in Hillsboro, West Virginia, to the tree-laden Lost Valley Education Center in Dexter, Oregon. Each photo is accompanied by text detailing the sites history as a place of communal gathering, green living, and peace and love. When we stopped by, Sternfeld just happened to be there, speaking passionately about his work. "I am so sorry this one is over," he said. You have until October 22 to check these out, or else you can buy the book, which includes many more destinations.
Kim Foster Gallery
529 West 20th St., ground floor
Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 am 6:00 pm
Through October 22
Admission: free
212-229-0044
http://www.artnet.com/kfoster.html
http://www.artnet.com/event/79360/kaaterskill-photographs-by-susan-wides.html
Evoking the work of such Hudson River School painters as Thomas Cole, John Frederick Kensett, and George Inness, Susan Wides has taken a series of stunning photographs around Kaaterskill Falls in upstate New York. In one photo, the leaves are changing, providing a gorgeous backdrop for a car dump, which just happens to be across the street from where Cole lived. Notice how the image goes in and out of focus the deeper you look, questioning the reality of the view. Several shots of the falls themselves go beyond pretty landscape pictures, mixing in abstract concepts that challenge the viewer. Weve been to Kaaterskill Falls numerous times, and weve taken lots of photos there, but weve never seen anything quite like this there.
twi-ny/mdr
Literary pub caters to Chelsea gallerygoers
505 West 23rd St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Admission: free
212-462-4300
Named after an eighteenth-century leader of the Seneca and the Delaware Indians, this very pleasant pub serves a good brunch, decent burgers, and very good Guinness in an outdoor patio, a bar area with wooden booths (all the wood came from a two-hundred-year-old Pennsylvania barn), and a dining room with long couches, fast-moving fans, and an art show along the walls. "One in a Billion: Coming of Age in the New China," which was supposed to end in early September but is still up, features excellent photographs by New York City-born photojournalist David Butow, documenting what he calls the "transitional, only-child generation" in China, "the worlds greatest Work in Progress." Owned by Scott Anderson, Nanette Burstein, and Sebastian Junger, the Half King also hosts reading and music series.
Monday, October 3 Nick Flynn, ANOTHER BULLST NIGHT IN SUCK CITY, 7:00
Monday, October 10 Michael Segell, THE DEVILS HORN, 7:00
Monday, October 17 Rosa Lowinger, TROPICANA NIGHTS: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE LEGENDARY CUBAN NIGHTCLUB, 7:00
twi-ny/mdr
New York Marble Cemetery opens its doors
Various venues in all five boroughs
October 8-9
Admission: free
Reservations required for some visits
917-583-2398
Some of New Yorks most exciting and impossible-to-get-into locations are opening their doors to celebrate architecture at this third annual free event but you better reserve early for some of the hottest spots. From the Old Croton Aqueduct and Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx to the Fifty-ninth St. Marine Transfer Station and the Little Red Lighthouse in Manhattan, from the Hindu Temple Society of America and Fort Tilden in Queens to the Brooklyn Army Terminal and the Pieter Claesen Wyckoff House in Brooklyn, from the St. George Theater and Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island to Ellis Islands South Side, visitors will be given special tours and learn about the architectural history of New York City landmarks.
Among the dozens of other participants are the Arsenal, the Seguine Mansion, the Eldridge Street Synagogue, the Church of the Transfiguration, Governors Island, the General Grant National Memorial, the Old Quaker Meeting House, the John J. Harvey Fireboat, Chelsea Market, the Green-Wood Cemetery, Floyd Bennett Field, Scandinavia House, the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, the Merchants House Museum, an MTA Substation, the Edgar Allan Poe Cottage, the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace, Teardrop Park, Wave Hill, the Morris-Jumel Mansion, MoMAs Conservation Department, the Mount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden, the Jacob Riis Park Bathhouse, and such old standbys as the Chrysler Building, Grand Central Terminal, and the Waldorf=Astoria. There are also canoe tours of Red Hook Harbor and the Gowanus Canal. In the first two years we visited the Grand Lodge of Masons on West 23rd St. and both downtown marble cemeteries, which were all revelations. Prepare for very long lines at some of the more popular spots, so always have a backup plan in the neighborhood.