this week in art

JEFF KOONS IN CONVERSATION WITH GLENN FUHRMAN

installation view of Jeff Koons's Cat on a Clothesline (Red), 1994-2001, in Cecily Brown, Jeff Koons, Charles Ray at The FLAG Art Foundation, 2016. ©Jeff Koons. Photography by Genevieve Hanson, ArtEcho LLC

Jeff Koons, “Cat on a Clothesline (Red),” 1994-2001, in “Cecily Brown, Jeff Koons, Charles Ray,” at FLAG Art Foundation, 2016 (©Jeff Koons / photography by Genevieve Hanson, ArtEcho LLC)

Who: Jeff Koons and Glenn Fuhrman
What: Artist talk
Where: The FLAG Art Foundation, 545 West 25th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves., ninth floor, 212-206-0220
When: Wednesday, April 20, free with RSVP, 6:00
Why: Love him or hate him — or love or hate his art — controversial artist Jeff Koons continues to be a seminal figure in the contemporary art world. On April 20, the Pennsylvania-born, New York-based painter and sculptor will be at the FLAG Art Foundation for a free talk with FLAG founder Glenn Fuhrman, who has also recently sat down with Sean Scully and Awol Erizku. Koons is part of one of the current shows at FLAG, “Cecily Brown, Jeff Koons, Charles Ray,” which is on view through May 14. The show consists of three works from each of the artists, “address[ing] themes of youth, nostalgia, and intimacy. The exhibition casts a sense of physical wonder and a jarring disconnect between innocence and subversion.” The three works by Koons in the show are “Sling Hook,” “Winter Bears,” and “Cat on a Clothesline (Red)”; the latter two were part of the extensive retrospective that closed the uptown Whitney in 2014.

OPEN PLAN: CECIL TAYLOR

Jazz great Cecil Taylor rehearses at the Whitney in November 2015

Whitney Museum of American Art
Neil Bluhm Family Galleries, fifth floor
99 Gansevoort St.
April 14-24, free with museum admission unless otherwise noted
212-570-3600
whitney.org

The fourth stage of the Whitney’s “Open Plan” series, which previously saw Andrea Fraser, Lucy Dodd, and Michael Heizer take over the large fifth-floor space in the new downtown building, hands the reins over to free jazz legend, poet, and New York City native Cecil Taylor. The eighty-seven-year-old pianist will be celebrated in a series of programs beginning April 14 at 8:00 ($50), when Taylor will make a rare public appearance, collaborating with British drummer Tony Oxley and Japanese dancer and choreographer Min Tanaka. On April 15 at 7:00, cellist Tristan Honsinger will perform a solo set, while writer Thulani Davis, dancer and professor Cheryl Banks-Smith, and bassist Henry Grimes join forces for a unique presentation. On April 16 at 2:00, Banks-Smith will moderate “Cecil Taylor and Dance,” a panel discussion with Dianne McIntyre, Heather Watts, and Tanaka. That evening at 7:00, trumpter Enrico Rava, double bassist William Parker, and drummer Andrew Cyrille will perform as a trio, in addition to a solo set by Cyrille. On April 20 at 3:00, a Poetry and Music gathering brings together poets A. B. Spellman and Anne Waldman and saxophonist Devin Brahja Waldman, Anne’s nephew. On April 21 at 3:00, Poetry and Music features Steve Dalachinsky, Clark Coolidge with Michael Bisio, and Nathaniel Mackey with Grimes. That night at 9:00 ($10), Hilton Als directs a restaging of Adrienne Kennedy’s one-act play A Rat’s Mass, starring Helga Davis; Taylor wrote and directed the music for the show. And on April 22 at 6:00, Chris Funkhouser, Tracie Morris and Susie Ibarra, Fred Moten and William Parker, and Jemeel Moondoc/Ensemble Muntu (featuring Parker, Mark Hennen, and Charles Downs) will present an evening of poetry and music. Throughout this part of “Open Plan,” there will also be listening sessions hosted by Davis, Archie Rand, André Martinez, Gary Giddins, Moten and Funkhouser, Ben Young, and Nahum Chandler in addition to screenings in the Kaufman Gallery of such films as Sheldon Rochlin’s Cecil Taylor: Burning Poles, Chris Felver’s Cecil Taylor: All the Notes, Billy Woodberry’s And When I Die, I Won’t Stay Dead, and the world premiere of Amiel Courtin-Wilson’s The Silent Eye about Taylor and Tanaka (and followed by Q&As with the director, who sat on Taylor’s stoop until the pianist would finally talk to him). There will also be documents, videos, audio, scores, photographs, poetry, and ephemera from throughout Taylor’s life and career on view.

ALICIA GRULLÓN: FILIBUSTER

Alicia Grullón will reenact Wendy Davis’s eleven-hour filibuster of Texas Senate Bill 5 in its entirety on April 13 at BRIC House

Who: Alicia Grullón
What: Special performance as part of “Whisper or Shout: Artists in the Social Sphere”
Where: BRIC Arts | Media House, stoop, 647 Fulton St., 718-683-5600
When: Wednesday, April 13, free, 10:00 am – 9:00 pm
Why: On June 25, 2013, Texas state senator Wendy Davis, in pink sneakers, held the floor for eleven hours, filibustering against Senate Bill 5, which “[related] to the regulation of abortion procedures, providers, and facilities; providing penalties.” Davis became an instant media superstar; however, the bill pass passed in a special session held in July. On April 13, performance artist Alicia Grullón, with Davis’s blessing, will reenact the eleven-hour filibuster at the BRIC House Stoop in Fort Greene. Yes, she will be wearing pink sneakers. Admission is free, and people can come and go as they please. “Senator Davis’s filibuster fell along the lines of these other events where moments of protest or tragedy highlight the impact of imbalanced history and policies on the social sphere and on the body of other[s],” Grullón said in a statement. “Her filibuster on women’s healthcare highlighted and reignited the necessity for an equitable feminist history and a call for younger women of color to take the lead since many of the women affected by the closing of clinics are poor and/or of color.” Previously, Grullón has covered her face in newsprint while trying to sell such staples as rice, flour, and beans for between $1000 and $5000 per pound to bring attention to food riots in Haiti (“Revealing New York: The Disappearance of Other”); spent four hours standing in the snow in Van Cortlandt Park to let people know about an undocumented worker who froze to death in a Long Island forest, his body found days later (“Illegal Death”); and led a one-person boycott of the closed Stella D’Oro factory in the Bronx (“No Cookies”). “Filibuster,” which is being held in conjunction with the BRIC House exhibition “Whisper or Shout: Artists in the Social Sphere,” will be streamed live here; you can also tweet questions to Grullón (#BRICfilibuster) and follow the event on Periscope.

WORDPLAY: MATTHIAS BUCHINGER’S DRAWINGS FROM THE COLLECTION OF RICKY JAY

Matthias Buchinger, “Ten Commandments, personalized to John Thomson and family, merchant of Edinburgh,” ink on vellum, 1723 (collection of Ricky Jay)

The Met Fifth Avenue
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Robert Wood Johnson Jr. Gallery, Gallery 690, second floor
1000 Fifth Ave. at 82nd St.
Daily through April 11, recommended admission $12-$25
212-535-7710
www.metmuseum.org
www.rickyjay.com

Amid all the excitement over the opening of the Met Breuer in the old Whitney space, it was possible to overlook what was going on at the museum’s longtime home base, now known as the Met Fifth Avenue. But it would be a shame if you missed “Wordplay: Matthias Buchinger’s Drawings from the Collection of Ricky Jay,” on view through April 11. In fact, you might have missed it even if you’ve been to the Met since January 8, when it opened in the long hallway gallery on the second floor. Magician, actor, curator, writer, consultant, television host, and conjurer Ricky Jay has been collecting works by the extraordinary German artist and performer Matthias Buchinger (1674–1739) for decades; nineteen pieces by Buchinger are included in the exhibition, alongside drawings, engravings, lithographs, etchings, books, and prints by Jasper Johns, Louise Bourgeois, Glenn Ligon, Cy Twombly, and various seventeenth- and eighteenth-century artists, placing Buchinger’s oeuvre in historical, artistic, and thematic context. Known as the Greatest German Living and the Little Man of Nuremberg, Buchinger was born in 1674 without hands, feet, or thighs, as he often noted on his works along with his signature. He reached only twenty-nine inches tall but led quite a life, marrying four times and having at least fourteen children by eight women before his death in 1739. Using the stumps of his arms, he created amazingly intricate drawings, from coats of arms to family trees to depictions of the Ten Commandments to portraits, incorporating calligraphy and micography, the latter an exquisitely detailed writing form in which tiny lines are actually made up of words. The Met provides magnifying glasses so you can fully experience such intricate works as “Ten Commandments, personalized to John Thomson and family, merchant of Edinburgh,” “Buchinger Family Tree,” “Coat of Arms, Norwich,” and the breathtaking pen and ink on vellum “Portrait of Queen Anne,” containing text from the Book of Kings, written even in the curls of her hair.

Anonymous, “Portrait of Matthias Buchinger,” engraving, 1707 (collection of Ricky Jay)

A relentless self-promoter, Buchinger described himself thusly: “This Little Man performs such wonders as have never been done by any but himself. He plays on various sorts of music to admiration, [such] as the hautboy, [a] strange flute in consort with the bagpipe, dulcimer and trumpet; and designs to make machines to play on almost all sorts of music. He is no less eminent for writing, drawing of coats of arms, and pictures to the life, with a pen; he also plays at cards and dice, performs tricks with cups and balls, corn and live birds; and plays at skittles or nine-pins to a great nicety, with several other performances, to the general satisfaction of all spectators.” The exhibition’s centerpiece is a gorgeous 1705 portrait of Buchinger, dressed in regal clothing, standing next to a writing desk and a rifle, a window behind him looking into the vast world beyond. Another highlight is Elias Baeck’s 1710 “Portrait of Matthias Buchinger Surrounded by Thirteen Vignettes,” celebrating all the different entertainments he performed. The show reveals that he was not alone; there are also portraits of several other artists from around the same time period who did not have arms or legs, including Thomas Inglefield, Johanna Sophia Liebschern, and Johannes Wynistorff, in addition to printed announcements of the skills of Miss Beffin and Martha Anne Honeywell. Even the title of the catalog, by Jay, is a treat: Matthias Buchinger: “The Greatest German Living”: By Ricky Jay, Whose Peregrinations in Search of the “Little Man of Nuremberg” are herein Revealed. A far-too-early 1722 elegy written for Buchinger states: “Buckinger’s gone, and quit this earthly Stage, / Who was the only Wonder of this Age; / This little Worthy, inwardly compleat, / His Soul inspired with celestial Heat, / Perform’d his Wonders with such artful Grace, / You’d judge him one of more than humane Race.” This exhibition displays his wonder and grace, as well as his fascinating humanity.

FREE TICKET ALERT — DUKE RILEY: FLY BY NIGHT

Duke Riley brings his pigeons to the Brooklyn Navy Yard for special weekend performances from May 7 to June 12 (photo by Will Star)

Who: Creative Time and Duke Riley
What: “Fly by Night”
Where: Brooklyn Navy Yard, Sands St. at Navy St.
When: Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, May 7 – June 12, free but advance tickets required, 7:00 or 7:30
Why: In his winter 2013–14 exhibition at Magnan Metz in Chelsea, “See You at the Finish Line,” the Boston-born, Brooklyn-based artist Duke Riley documented in astounding detail his use of camera-carrying homing pigeons he sent between Cuba and Key West. Riley has now teamed up with nonprofit arts organization Creative Time, whose previous projects include Kara Walker’s “A Subtlety or the Marvelous Sugar Baby” at the Domino Sugar Factory in Williamsburg and “Drifting in Daylight” in Central Park, for “Fly by Night,” in which thousands of pigeons will emerge from a former naval aircraft carrier docked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on weekend nights at dusk in May and June and put on a performance in the sky involving LED lights with special messages. “With the keen timing of a conductor, this winged symphony weaves together the narrative threads of overlapping histories — a forgotten waterfront island, a creature we see daily in our landscape but rarely look at, and an artist who stands on a rooftop linking his past to his present in a swirling crescendo,” curator Meredith Johnson explains in a statement. “Like the birds themselves, no two performances are the same. Lacing together old New York and new, ‘Fly by Night’ asks us to stop, watch, listen, and revere this extraordinary creature that has shared the triumphs and tragedies of the human experience — uniting individuals, cultures, and generations of fanciers in a tale of both the ancient and modern city.” Admission to the performances are free but must be reserved in advance here. In addition, the project is seeking volunteers to help engage the public, ensure safety, and assist with tech issues; you can find out more about those opportunities and benefits here.

MODERN MONDAYS: AN EVENING WITH CAO FEI

Cao Fei’s HAZE AND FOG is part of Modern Mondays presentation at MoMA on April 4

Who: Cao Fei, Klaus Biesenbach
What: Modern Mondays presentation of films and conversation
Where: MoMA Film, Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves., 212-708-9400
When: Monday, April 4, $8-$12, 7:00
Why: As an appetizer to her first U.S. solo museum show, opening April 20 at MoMA PS1, Beijing-based Chinese artist Cao Fei will be at MoMA in Midtown on April 4 for the Modern Mondays presentation “An Evening with Cao Fei.” The program features excerpts from several of her films, including 2004’s Cosplayers, 2006’s Whose Utopia?, 2007-11’s RMB City, 2013’s Haze and Fog, and 2014’s La Town. In addition, Fei will sit down with MoMA PS1 director Klaus Biesenbach, who organized the exhibition, for a conversation about her work, which is part of a young generation of Chinese artists concerned with contemporary sociocultural and economic challenges in a rapidly changing China. “I try to find different ways to connect and interact with society,” the thirty-seven-year-old multimedia artist has said. “At the same time, I am trying to construct a new model of society.” The Modern Mondays series continues April 11 with Rosa Barba, April 18 with Tony Conrad, and April 25 with Lynette Wallworth.

FIRST SATURDAY: A BREATH OF FRESH AIR

Maya Azucena will perform for free at Brooklyn Museum First Saturday program on April 1

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, April 1, free, 5:00 – 11:00
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The Brooklyn Museum celebrates spring with the April edition of its free First Saturday multidisciplinary program. There will be live music by Falu, the Brown Rice Family, and Maya Azucena; a dance performance and workshop by Earl Mosley’s Diversity of Dance; poetry readings by Desiree Bailey and Laura Lamb Brown; screenings of Guy Reid’s Planetary, followed by a talkback, and Barbara Attie, Janet Goldwater, and Sabrina Schmidt Gordon’s BaddDDD Sonia Sanchez, followed by a talkback with Gordon and Imani Uzuri; an art workshop led by Steven and William Ladd for a community mural project in City Point; a dance break hosted by WNYC’s Death, Sex & Money podcast; and pop-up gallery talks. In addition, the galleries are open late so you can check out such exhibitions as “Stephen Powers: Coney Island Is Still Dreamland (to a Seagull),’” “This Place,” and “Agitprop!”