this week in art

A CERTAIN SLANT OF LIGHT: SPENCER FINCH AT THE MORGAN

Spencer Finch installation sheds colorful new light on Morgan interior (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Morgan Library
225 Madison Ave. at 36th St.
Tuesday – Sunday through August 23, $12-$18 (free Friday nights from 7:00 to 9:00)
212-685-0008
www.themorgan.org
a certain slant of light slideshow

“There’s a certain Slant of Light, / Winter Afternoons — / That oppresses, like the Heft / Of Cathedral Tunes —,” Emily Dickinson wrote in one of her most famous poems, touching on depression, religion, and humanity’s sense of being overwhelmed by the vastness of the universe. New Haven-born, Brooklyn-based artist Spencer Finch, who uses color in his environmental, site-specific pieces, references Dickinson’s poem in “A Certain Slant of Light: Spencer Finch at the Morgan,” an intoxicating installation that breathes new life into the institution’s Gilbert Court, where visitors can take a break with some food or drink and listen to live music on Friday evenings. Inspired by the Morgan’s renowned collection of medieval, illuminated Books of Hours, Finch has placed colored gels over the windows (including in the elevator) and hung glass panes from the ceiling, which pick up and reflect sunlight to cast rainbow glows across the space. But it’s more than just beautiful reds, blues, greens, yellows, purples, etc., dangling overhead and lighting up the wood-paneled floor; it is also a calendar, like the Book of Hours, referencing the fall harvest, spring planting, religious feasts, and even Isaac Newton’s birthday. Unique use of color with a scientific/technological edge is a key part of Finch’s oeuvre; his “The River That Flows Both Ways” on the High Line consists of colored glass panes based on individual pixels from photographs he took of the Hudson River, and for the recent Creative Time “Drifting in Daylight” group show in Central Park he contributed “Sunset (Central Park),” a truck that served ice cream whose color changed based on the heat of the sun. “A Certain Slant of Light” opened in June 2014, and it has been fascinating watching it morph with the turn of the seasons, but there’s nothing quite like seeing it on a bright and sunny summer day, casting its charming glow for all to see.

SEWARD JOHNSON IN NEW YORK: SELECTIONS FROM THE RETROSPECTIVE

Seward Johnson reimagines the characters from Grant Wood’s “American Gothic” as tourists in “God Bless America” (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

SUMMER ARTS ON THE PLAZAS
Garment District Plazas
Broadway, Between 41st & 36th Sts.
Through September 15, free
garmentdistrictnyc.com
online slideshow

For many years, my wife and I have argued over an outdoor sculpture on East Thirty-Fourth St., J. Seward Johnson’s “The Right Light,” a bronze statue of a bearded man standing determinedly in front of an easel, palette in hand, painting an outdoor scene inspired by a mural in a small plaza next to the Affinia Dumont Hotel. While I find the piece, part of the octogenarian’s “Man on the Street” series, sort of fun, my wife considers it horrifyingly insipid. However, we completely agree on “Seward Johnson in New York: Selections from the Retrospective,” a garish collection of brightly colored lifelike tableaux that will be on view along the Garment District Plazas on Broadway through September 15, part of the Summer Arts on the Plazas program. A condensed version of his much larger, record-breaking show at the Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, New Jersey (which was founded by Johnson in 1992), the Manhattan version features eighteen almost hyperrealistic sculptures from three of Johnson’s series: “Celebrating the Familiar” (1987), “Beyond the Frame” (2003), and “Icons Revisited” (2011). In “Holding Out,” a woman looks out blankly, carrying a bag of groceries. “A Turn of the Century” brings to three-dimensional life the man and woman from Renoir’s “Dance at Bougival,” while “Eye of the Beholder,” in which a couple sits at a table sharing a moment, a waiter close by, is based on Manet’s “Chez le Père Lathuillle.” In “Things to Do,” a woman on a bench is making out her “to do” list. “God Bless America” adds a suitcase to Grant Wood’s “American Gothic,” and, for some unknown reason, in “Return Visit,” Abraham Lincoln is lifting his hat to a sweatered nerd reading the Gettysburg Address. “Forever Marilyn” re-creates the famous scene of Marilyn Monroe’s dress being blown up her body on a grate in The Seven Year Itch; in 2011, a virtualtourist.com poll named a twenty-six-foot-tall version of the sculpture the worst public art in the world. Perhaps the most realistic thematic sculpture is “Photo Shoot,” in which a man kneels down to take a picture of his wife, son, and dog; many people — primarily tourists — will be taking pictures of their family members (and dogs) within this installation (in addition to the others), a kind of wry self-comment on the exhibition itself. For more than fifty years, Johnson, a philanthropist whose grandfather was one of the founders of Johnson & Johnson and who is first cousins with Michael Douglas — the Oscar-winning actor posted many photos on Facebook of himself at the Grounds for Sculpture retrospective — has been attempting to capture a heartwarming aspect of America, evoking the one so beautifully rendered by Norman Rockwell in paintings and on magazine covers, but these works feel more tacky and simplistic than Rockwell’s; the precise realism of the 1987 series in particular extends to the hair and clothing styles, making them overtly dated and charmless. Perhaps they would have fit in better in Times Square. But who are we to complain? People seem to love them, so go ahead and snap away.

SUMMER STREETS 2015

Slide the City will be coming to Park Ave. as part of Summer Streets celebration

Park Ave. & 72nd St. to Foley Square
Saturday, August 1, 8, 15, free, 7:00 am – 1:00 pm
www.nyc.gov

Now in its sixth year, Summer Streets takes place the next three Saturday mornings, as Park Ave. will be closed to vehicular traffic from 72nd St. to Foley Square and the Brooklyn Bridge from 7:00 am to 1:00 pm, encouraging people to walk, run, jog, blade, skate, slide, and bike down the famous thoroughfare, getting exercise and enjoying the great outdoors without car exhaust, speeding taxis, and slow-moving buses. There are five rest stops along the route (Uptown at 52nd St., Midtown at 25th, Astor Pl. at Lafayette St., SoHo at Spring & Lafayette, and Foley Square at Duane & Centre), where people can stop for some food and drink, live performances, fitness classes, site-specific art installations, dog walks, bicycle workshops, and other activities, all of which are free. Below are some of the highlights.

Foley Square Rest Stop
Slide the City (advance preregistration required,) “ICY SIGNS” by Steve ESPO Powers, Free Style Soccer with NYC Flo, Historical Reenactors with Ben Franklin, and The Mantises Are Flipping W.3 by Bodystories: Teresa Fellion Dance + John Yannelli with members of the SLC Experimental Music Ensemble, 10:00 – 10:35, 10:55 – 11:35, 12 noon – 1:00 (August 15 only, 26 Federal Plaza)

SoHo Rest Stop
Fitness Classes, Free Bike Repair by Bicycle Habitat, Bike & Roll Bike Rental, Honest Tea, Waterfront Alliance Table

Astor Place Rest Stop
American Kennel Club Dog Park, Department of Design and Construction Arts & Crafts Workshop, Therapeutic Arts by Wheeling Forward, Guided and Self-Guided Walking Tours

Midtown Rest Stop
Whole Foods Market Summer Camp, CitiBike Information & Education, live music and dance performances, juggling, and tai chi demonstrations

Uptown Rest Stop
DOT Safety Zone, “The Postcard Project” by Connie Perry, Parkour Fitness Demonstrations, Serious Fun Children’s Network Workshop, Central Park Sightseeing Bike Rental, Bronx Museum of the Arts: Arts & Crafts with Artist Educators, live music, dance, and comedy performances

GROVE ALLEY SILENT DISCO PARTY

Grove Alley
Grove Pl. & Hanover Pl., parallel to Fulton & Livingston Sts.
Friday, July 31, free with advance RSVP ($5 for headphones), 5:00 – 11:00
downtownbrooklyn.com

Following in the tradition of Grove Alley Makers Nite, Grove Alley Paint Nite, and Grove Alley Game Nite, Grove Alley Silent Disco promises one wild and crazy evening in downtown Brooklyn. Admission is free with advance RSVP; once you’re in, you lay down five bucks for a pair of headphones and get to choose among three channels with which to get your groove on, with live spinning by Talib Kweli, DJ Beto, DJ Chela, and DJ Joro Boro. The four interactive DJ booths will feature multimedia installations by Taezoo Park and animation from Sticky Monger. Brooklyn Brewery will be supplying some tasty beverages, while such food trucks as Kimchi Taco, Sweet Chili, Morris Grilled Cheese, and Coolhaus will be on hand as well.

FIRST SATURDAY: CARIBBEAN HERITAGE

The Braata Folk Singers will help celebrate Caribbean Heritage at Brooklyn Museum on August 1 (photo © copyright Braata Productions)

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

After taking last month off because of the July 4 holiday, the Brooklyn Museum’s free First Saturday program is back August 1 with a celebration of Caribbean Heritage in preparation for the annual New York Caribbean Carnival Parade on Labor Day. There will be live performances by BombaYo, the Braata Folk Singers, Cuban jazz pianist Elio Villafranca, and Klash City Sound System and Supa Frendz; a printmaking workshop; a pop-up carnival with poet Arielle John; a book club talk with Naomi Jackson about her new novel, The Star Side of Bird Hill; and screenings of Black Radical Imagination shorts, clips from Taboo Yardies hosted by director Selena Blake, Jonathan David Kane’s Papa Machete, followed by a Q&A with Kane, and Cecile Emeke’s webseries Ackee & Saltfish, followed by a talkback with Emeke. In addition, you can check out such exhibitions as “Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks,” “The Rise of Sneaker Culture,” “Kara Walker: ‘African Boy Attendant Curio (Bananas),’” “KAWS: ALONG THE WAY,” “Zanele Muholi: Isibonelo/Evidence,” and “FAILE: Savage/Sacred Young Minds.”

LINCOLN CENTER OUT OF DOORS: A CELEBRATION OF THE LIFE OF GEOFFREY HOLDER

The life of Geoffrey Holder will be celebrated at special free program at Lincoln Center

CARMEN & GEOFFREY (Linda Atkinson & Nick Doob, 2006)
Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center
144 West 65th St. between Amsterdam & Columbus Aves.
Saturday, August 1, free, 1:00
firstrunfeatures.com
lcoutofdoors.org

Carmen & Geoffrey is an endearing look at Carmen de Lavallade and Geoffrey Holder’s lifelong love affair with dance — and each other. The New Orleans-born de Lavallade studied with Lester Horton and went to high school with Alvin Ailey, whom she brought to his first dance class. Best known as a pitchman for 7UP (the “uncola”) and playing the intriguing Baron Samedi in Live and Let Die, Trinidadian Holder was a larger-than-life gentle giant who was a dancer, choreographer, composer, costume designer, actor, stage director, writer, photographer, painter, and just about anything else he wanted to be. The two met when they both were cast in Truman Capote and Harold Arlen’s Broadway show House of Flowers in 1954, with Holder instantly falling in love with de Lavallade; they remained together until Holder’s death this past October at the age of eighty-four. Directors Linda Atkinson and Nick Doob combine amazing archival footage — of Eartha Kitt, Josephine Baker, Ulysses Dove, de Lavallade dancing with Ailey, and other splendid moments — with contemporary rehearsal scenes, dance performances, and interviews with such stalwarts as dance critic Jennifer Dunning, former Alvin Ailey artistic director Judith Jamison, and choreographer Joe Layton (watch out for his eyebrows), along with family members and Gus Solomons jr, who still works with de Lavallade, and Dudley Williams, who just died last month. The film was made on an extremely low budget, and it shows, but it is filled with such glorious footage that you’ll get over that quickly. Carmen & Geoffrey, along with additional rare archival footage, is screening August 1 as part of the free Lincoln Center Out of Doors program “A Celebration of the Life of Geoffrey Holder” and will be preceded by the panel discussion “The Life and Work of Geoffrey Holder” with Doob and Atkinson, moderated by Leo Holder, Geoffrey and de Lavallade’s son. Fans should also check out the new exhibition “The Genius of Geoffrey Holder,” on view through August 29 at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

MET MUSEUM PRESENTS: THE RETURN

Avatar Adam offers insight into the reconstruction of Tullio Lombardo’s Renaissance Adam in interactive performance installation at the Met (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Metropolitan Museum of Art
Venetian Sculpture of the Renaissance (Gallery 504)
Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
1000 Fifth Ave. at 82nd St.
Daily through August 2, free with recommended admission $12-$25
212-535-7710
www.metmuseum.org
the return slideshow

A museum disaster, a literal “fall of Adam,” has led to one of the Met’s most intriguing new pieces and a surprising venture into both digital and performance art. In October 2002, Tullio Lombardo’s late-fifteenth-century marble statue of Adam collapsed to the ground and shattered into more than two hundred fragments, its pedestal giving way to its half-ton weight. In reconstructing what Met assistant curator calls “the most important sculpture from Renaissance Venice to be found outside that city today,” the museum employed digital technology that new media artist Reid Farrington has transformed into an educational and very entertaining interactive two-part installation. Farrington has previously used multiple screens and live performers in such presentations as Tyson vs. Ali (a fictional bout between the two champions), The Passion Project (reimagining Carl Theodor Dreyer’s 1928 film, The Passion of Joan of Arc), and Gin & “It” (a complex behind-the-scenes staging of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope). Now he brings the restoration of “Adam” back to life with the interactive performance installation “The Return.” In the specially designed Gallery 504, “Adam,” which was commissioned for the tomb of Venice doge Andrea Vendramin, stands atop a new base, an apple in his left hand, his right hand clutching a bare branch of the Tree of Knowledge. Also in the room is a large-scale two-sided monitor that is like a supersized iPhone in which an animated Biblical Adam and a digital avatar of the sculpture discuss free will, determinism, God, compression and shearing, and other lofty subjects with an actor-docent (Cara Francis, Catherine Gowl, or Stephanie Regina), who navigates the performance by focusing on the museum’s groundbreaking reconstruction of the sculpture in brief, ever-changing explanations of specific parts of the sculpture, including the elbow, the torso, and the upper tree trunk. Visitors are encouraged to interact with the digital performer and the docent, so every performance is slightly different.

Biblical Adam examines his marble representation in Reid Farrington’s innovative “The Return” (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

The Adams are sometimes wandering a van Gogh-like field and at other times immersed in a digital realm inhabited by falling 0s and 1s. The movement of the Adams is performed by an actor (Roger Casey, Jack Frederick, or Gavin Price) in a motion-capture suit in the nearby Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium, where everyone is invited to watch him in action, surrounded by numerous monitors, including one showing what is being seen on the screen in the gallery, controlled by a pair of technicians. The Adams and the docent also delve into the nature of sin and the meaning behind the fig leaf while relating Adam’s physical fall from its podium to his metaphorical fall from grace in the Bible and comparing God’s creation to that of the artist. (The script was written by Farrington’s wife, playwright Sara Farrington.) Make sure to check out both sides of the monitor, which reveal the two Adams’ front and back. “The Return” is a fascinating way to explore a work of art; in this case, it came about because of an accident, but it could very well be the next wave of how we look at and think about art. An appendage to the recent exhibit “Tullio Lombardo’s Adam: A Masterpiece Restored,” which closed on June 14, the performance, which playfully evokes the 1982 sci-fi classic Tron, takes place daily from 12:45 to 2:15, as well as from 4:30 to 6:00 on Fridays and Saturdays. Admission is free; you can also follow all the fascinating action online via the Met’s live stream.