this week in art

ALINA SZAPOCZNIKOW: SCULPTURE UNDONE, 1955–1972

Alina Szapocznikow, “Petit Dessert I (Small Dessert I),” colored polyester resin and glass, 1970–71(© The Estate of Alina Szapocznikow/Piotr Stanisławski/ADAGP, Paris. Photo by Thomas Mueller, courtesy Broadway 1602, New York, and Galerie Gisela Capitain GmbH, Cologne)

Museum of Modern Art, Special Exhibitions Gallery, third floor
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Through January 28
Museum admission: $25 ($12 can be applied to the purchase of a film ticket within thirty days)
212-708-9400
www.moma.org

It would be a mistake to categorize the work of Alina Szapocznikow as a morbid depiction of suffering and death because the Polish sculptor spent time in three Nazi concentration camps and ultimately died of cancer at the age of forty-seven. Instead, “Alina Szapocznikow: Sculpture Undone, 1955–1972,” continuing at MoMA through January 28, calls for a reexamination of this forward-thinking experimental artist. Comprising more than one hundred sculptures, drawings, and photographs, the exhibition reveals Szapocznikow to be well ahead of her time, belonging in the same canon as such influential artists as Hannah Arendt, Lynda Benglis, and Eva Hesse. “Spanning one of the most rich and complex periods of the twentieth century, Szapocznikow’s oeuvre responded to many of the ideological and artistic developments of her time,” write Elena Filipovic and Joanna Mytkowska in the introduction to the exhibition catalog. “Still, as a sculptor who emerged during the postwar period working in a classical figurative manner, Szapocznikow’s later conception of sculpture shifted considerably, leaving behind a legacy of provocative objects — at once sexualized, fragmented, vulnerable, humorous, and political — that sit uneasily between Surrealism, Nouveau Réalisme, and Pop art.”

Alina Szapocznikow, “Souvenirs,” polyester resin and photographs, 1967 (the Estate of Alina Szapocznikow/Piotr Stanisławski)

Primarily using polyester resin — along with polyurethane foam, photographs, nylon stockings, bronze, newspaper, wood, metal, and even cigarettes — Szapocznikow, who spent much of her professional life in Paris, cast works based on her own body as well as those of models and her adopted son, resulting in a compelling collection of breasts, hands, legs, torsos, heads, and mouths that stand on pedestals or hang on the wall. In “Petit Dessert I (Small Dessert I),” the lower half of a woman’s face, lips slightly apart, sits in a glass dish, a yellow blob oozing over the side. “Goldfinger,” a direct riff on the James Bond villain, is an upside-down figure, the head and lower body connected by a car part, all bathed in gold. “Femme illuminée (Illuminated Woman)” is a five-foot-high plaster woman with extremely long legs, her breasts cupped in red resin, her neck leading to a large, amorphous mass of other colored resin. “Lampe-bouche (Illuminated Lips)” is just that, a collection of lip lamps that actually light up. And “Dłoń. Projekt Pomnika Bohaterów Warszawy II (Hand. Monument to the Heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto)” is a deformed hand made of patinated plaster and iron filings, its fingers reaching out, trying desperately to grasp something. Szapocznikow’s works range from charming, funny, and playful to dark, scary, and mysterious, often in the same piece. “Sculpture Undone” is a compelling journey through the life and career of an intriguing artist deserving of more attention. The show is supplemented by short video documentaries on the artist by Krzystof TchóRzewski, Jean-Marie Drot, and Helena Wlodarczyk, and MoMA has posted on the exhibition website the three-hour symposium that was held on Szapocznikow back in October.

VISUAL AIDS: POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE

Postcards from the Edge benefit raises money for Visual AIDS by selling artworks for only $85

Sikkema Jenkins
530 West 22nd St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
January 25 preview party: $85 (includes two raffle tickets), 5:00 – 8:00
January 26-27, suggested admission $5
www.visualaids.or

One of the most exciting art fundraisers of the year is also among the most affordable. The fifteenth annual Visual AIDS Postcards from the Edge benefit sale takes place January 26-27 at Sikkema Jenkins in Chelsea, where more than 1,300 postcard-size works of art will be available for a mere $85 each. They are by emerging and established artists, including some of the most famous in the world, but the works are displayed anonymously; you find out who made a specific piece only after you pay for it. So you have two main choices: Select the work you like best, or join in the guessing game and try to grab one that you think might be by a major artist and be worth far more than you paid for it. The sale begins Friday night with a preview party, with the $85 admission fee getting you an exclusive advance look at the entire exhibition (so you know just where to go the next day), along with a silent auction and two raffle tickets. (The grand prize is first pick of the postcards Saturday morning.) In order to get in, you might have to step over people who are camping out overnight for Saturday’s sale, where admission is a suggested donation of five bucks and you get a free fifth postcard when you buy four. There should still be some left over for Sunday as well, when the purchase of two earns you a complimentary third. The impressive list of participating artists includes Ed Ruscha, Kara Walker, John Baldessari, Ann Hamilton, Bill Viola, Marilyn Minter, Arturo Herrera, Catherine Opie, Lawrence Weiner, Kiki Smith, Christian Marclay, Moyra Davey, Donald Baechler, John Waters, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Julie Mehrehtu, Joel Shapiro, Patty Chang, Ross Bleckner, Nancy Burson, William Pope.L, Kim Beck, Jack Pierson, Vito Acconci, William Wegman, Fred Wilson, and Will Barnet. All proceeds go to Visual AIDS, whose mission for twenty-five years has been to “utilize art to fight AIDS by provoking dialogue, supporting HIV+ artists, and preserving a legacy, because AIDS is not over.”

MLK DAY 2013

MLK Day features a host of special events and community-based service projects throughout the city (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Multiple venues
Monday, January 21
www.mlkday.gov

In 1983, the third Monday in January was officially recognized as Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, honoring the birthday of the civil rights leader who was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968. Dr. King would have turned eighty-four this month, and you can celebrate his legacy tomorrow by participating in a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service project or attending one of several special events taking place around the city. BAM’s twenty-seventh annual free Brooklyn Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. includes a keynote speech by Harry Belafonte, a live simulcast of the presidential inauguration activities, and musical performances by the Brooklyn Interdenominational Choir and Kindred the Family Soul. The JCC in Manhattan again teams up with Symphony Space for Artists Celebrate: Martin Luther King, Jr., a free evening consisting of Catherine Russell & Her Band performing “Civil Rights in Song and Spirit,” Anthony Russell, Anthony Coleman, and Michael Winograd coming together for “Convergence: Hebrew, Yiddish, Yemenite, and African-American Songs in a Contemporary Jazz Setting,” and April Yvette Thompson starring in excerpts from Liberty City, her play written with Jessica Blank, all taking place at Symphony Space beginning at 6:30. The Museum of the Moving Image will be open on MLK Day, screening Martha Burr and Mei-Juin Chen’s new documentary, The Black Kungfu Experience, as part of their “Fist and Sword” series, with martial artists Ron Van Clief, Tayari Casel, and Dennis Brown on hand to talk about the film, followed by the special presentation “Tongues Untied, True Tales Told: African-American Women Changing the Picture in Film and Television,” with Ruby Dee, S. Epatha Merkerson, and Barbara Montgomery, featuring discussion along with clips from Montgomery’s upcoming Mitote as part of the museum’s “Changing the Picture” series. The Children’s Museum of Manhattan will teach kids about King’s legacy with its “Make a Difference Pledge,” “I Have a Dream Mural,” and performances by the Harlem Gospel Choir, while the Brooklyn Children’s Museum has “Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Message of Peace” craft activity and an educational discussion of “Justice Everywhere.” And the Museum at Eldridge Street will be hosting a free Family Story Hour & Crafts highlighted by a reading of Eloise Greenfield and Jan Spivey Gilchrist’s picture book The Great Migration: Journey to the North.

HENRY MOORE: LATE LARGE FORMS

Henry Moore exhibit offers unique viewing opportunities of the master’s large-scale works (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Gagosian Gallery
522 West 21st St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Through Saturday, January 19, free, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
212-741-1717
www.gagosian.com
www.henry-moore.org
late large forms installation slideshow

When we visited the massive, impressive “Late Large Forms” Henry Moore exhibit at Gagosian’s Twenty-First-Street space in Chelsea, we were fortunate to be accompanied by a British ex-pat photographer friend who had been invited to photograph Moore and his sculptures on his Hertfordshire estate back in the 1970s. “On-REE,” he corrected us each time we said “HEN-ry” as we marveled at such beautiful, enormous works as the green “Large Two Forms,” the gold “Reclining Figure: Hand” and “Three Piece Sculpture: Vertebrae,” and the black “Large Spindle Piece.” The Gagosian has been turned into a kind of indoor sculpture garden where the works come together in fascinating imagined conversations as the viewer wanders around the space; make sure to take peeks through the holes in some of the pieces, and yes, you’re allowed to walk right through the middle of “Large Two Forms.” There is also a vitrine filled with maquettes and some of On-REE’s tools; our friend pointed out several miniatures that he remembered seeing in their full glory in Hertfordshire. “Everything I do, I intend to make on a large scale,” Moore once said. “Size itself has its own impact, and physically we can relate more strongly to a big sculpture than to a small one.” There is much to relate to at this splendid little show.

EIKO & KOMA: THE CARAVAN PROJECT

Eiko and Koma will be performing THE CARAVAN PROJECT through January 21 at MoMA (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

PERFORMING HISTORIES: LIVE ARTWORKS EXAMINING THE PAST
Museum of Modern Art, Agnes Gund Garden Lobby
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Through January 21
Museum admission: $25 ($12 can be applied to the purchase of a film ticket within thirty days)
212-708-9400
www.moma.org
www.eikoandkoma.org

Although Eiko & Koma refer to their 1999 work, The Caravan Project, as “a vehicle for art activism,” it does not seek to make any comments on political or social issues. Instead, it was created to help promote art, particularly bringing it to those who either don’t have access to it or don’t know much about it. Reconfigured as part of their ongoing Retrospective Project, the 2012 version of Caravan has pulled into the MoMA lobby in front of Rodin’s “Monument to Balzac,” where the New York-based Japanese couple are performing during all hours the museum is open, through January 21. Placed right by the entrance, it forces people to see it on their way into MoMA as well as on their way out, so even if visitors intend to make a beeline straight for a specific exhibit, it is hard to miss an unhooked trailer that opens on all four sides, with a man and a woman either inside it or walking around outside, wearing decrepit white material that seems to be molting off their bodies as they move ever so slowly. It also can be seen without having to pay the $25 admission charge, furthering the dancers’ desire to bring the project to people who might not be able to afford hefty museum fees.

Koma emerges from the trailer and takes a slow walk in MoMA lobby (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Koma emerges from trailer and takes slow walk in MoMA lobby (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Held in conjunction with the “Tokyo 1955-1970: A New Avant-Garde” show, the “Art Theater Guild and Japanese Underground Cinema, 1960–1986” film series, and the “Performing Histories: Live Artworks Examining the Past” exhibition, The Caravan Project is for the first time being presented indoors without the Jeep that drives them to the site at the beginning and takes them away at the end. Instead, Eiko and Koma have become one with the museum, much as their work throughout the years has seen them merge with the natural environment, either real or constructed, in works such as Naked and Water. With The Caravan Project, at times they’ll be playing to a large crowd surrounding the trailer, where visitors are allowed to get within three feet of them, while at other moments there might be no one watching, just museumgoers passing by without even glancing their way, but that is all part of this compelling living installation. The trailer itself is filled with bare tree branches and beehive-like detritus above and below, with Eiko and Koma, in all white, emerging in between as if coming out of cocoons following an apocalyptic nightmare. Spiderwebs are wrapped around their faces, making it appear that they’ve been dormant for a long time before rising again. Their Butoh-like movements are painstakingly slow; it is electrifying when they actually touch each other, appearing to be so desperately in need of human contact in this barren, desolate scene, the only sound coming from the crowd itself. “Performing Histories” continues through May 25 with such upcoming programs as Kelly Nipper’s Tessa Pattern Takes a Picture, Fabian Barba’s A Mary Wigman Dance Evening, and El Arakawa’s Paris & Wizard: The Musical.

PICASSO BLACK AND WHITE

Pablo Picasso, “The Milliner’s Workshop (Atelier de la modiste),” oil on canvas, January 1926 (© 2012 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society, New York. Photo: © CNAC/MNAM/Dist. Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource, NY)

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
1071 Fifth Ave. at 89th St.
Friday – Wednesday through January 23, $18 (pay-what-you-wish Saturday 5:45-7:45)
212-423-3587
www.guggenheim.org

“You capture more of the reality of a picture in black and white,” says Maya Widmaier-Picasso on the audioguide to the illuminating exhibition “Picasso Black and White,” which continues at the Guggenheim through January 23. The excellent audio tour, featuring contributions from Picasso’s daughter with muse and mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter as well as curator Carmen Giménez and longtime Picasso friend and art critic Carlos Casagemas, is a splendid accompaniment to the gorgeous visuals, more than one hundred sculptures, paintings, and drawings that focus on Picasso’s rich, passionate use of black, white, and gray. Arranged chronologically, the show also reveals how Picasso’s personal life, from his relationships with women to his strong antiwar, anti-Franco stance, informed his work. The monochromatic canvases allow viewers to rejoice in Picasso’s revolutionary use of line, form, and composition, from the stark simplicity of “The Lovers” and “Sleeping Woman” to such more dense and complex pieces as “The Milliner’s Workshop” and “The Charnel House.” While “Composition and Volume” and “Head Seen Three-Quarters from the Left (Figure)” are oil paintings of sculptures that attain a compelling three-dimensionality, “Head” and two versions of “Sylvette” are like three-dimensional paintings, the ponytail on the latter two said to have influenced Brigitte Bardot. The exhibition also examines how Picasso went through a long period of creating works based on those of other artists, reclaiming them for himself, from Eugène Delacroix (“The Rape of the Sabines”) to Diego Velázquez (“The Maids of Honor [Las Meninas]”).

Pablo Picasso, “Marie-Thérèse, Face and Profile (Marie-Thérèse, face et profil), oil and charcoal on canvas, 1931 (© 2012 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society, New York. Photo: Béatrice Hatala)

Featuring still-lifes, portraits, and vibrant depictions of horrific actions (“Mother with Dead Child II, Postscript to Guernica”), the show explores the strong emotions that Picasso put into his work — and those that are taken away by the viewer. Along the way, Widmaier-Picasso shares charming stories about her father, calling him “a blockhead,” describing how he’d walk on tiptoe away from a painting he was working on in order to see it better, and recalling his fondness for making late-night fried eggs. “I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them,” Picasso once famously said. “Picasso Black and White” delves into the deep thought processes that went into this impressive body of work. “Picasso Black and White” comes to a close with an afternoon/evening symposium on January 23, “Monographic Motifs: One Artist, One Theme, 1900-1970,” with presentations from Richard Schiff (“De Kooning: The Kick, the Twist, the Woman, the Rowboat”), Genevieve Hendricks (“Le Corbusier’s Fantastic Femmes”), Anna Ferrari (“From Mosaics to ‘Magic’: Henri Laurens’s Red-Ochre Drawings,” with a response by Kenneth Silver), Fernando Herrero-Matoses (“Antonio Saura and the Crucifixion: Facing Picasso in Black-and-White”), Catherine Spencer (“Prunella Clough’s Cold War Cartographies,” response by Anne Umland), and Giménez, Diana Widmaier Picasso (Maya’s daughter), and Gary Tinterow (“Picasso: A Conversation”), followed by a reception and a final viewing of the exhibition.

EL ANATSUI: POT OF WISDOM / BROKEN BRIDGE II

El Anatsui’s “Pot of Wisdom” at Jack Shainman in Chelsea (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

El Anatsui’s “Pot of Wisdom” is dazzling visitors at Jack Shainman Gallery in Chelsea (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Jack Shainman Gallery
513 West 20th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Tuesday – Saturday through January 19, free, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
212-645-1701
www.jackshainman.com
www.thehighline.org

On February 8, “Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works by El Anatsui” opens at the Brooklyn Museum. To prepare for that exhibit, the West African artist’s first New York City solo museum show, visits to the Jack Shainman Gallery and the nearby High Line are in order. Through January 19, “El Anatsui: Pot of Wisdom” is up at Jack Shainman, a collection of eleven stunning works made out of found aluminum and copper wire, woven into stunning wall hangings (and one floor piece) that evoke fishing nets, maps, and communal tapestries. As one walks around the various rooms, the works offer different perspectives as seen from different angles and varying distances as El Anatsui explores line, color, and chance. The aluminum comes primarily from flattened caps from liquor bottles, relating to cultural and social situations in the artist’s native Ghana as well as his second home in Nigeria while also raising questions of consumerism and, of course, recycling. “They Finally Broke the Pot of Wisdom” glitters like gold. “Uwa” is a round ball held slightly aloft, a tail trailing behind hit. “Awakened” spills over onto the floor. Other titles range from the direct to the philosophical, from “Basin,” “Seed,” and “Ink Stain” to “Enlightened” and “Visionary.”

El Anatsui’s “Broken Bridge II” on the High Line (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

El Anatsui’s “Broken Bridge II” plays with reality and perception on the High Line (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

A few blocks away, El Anatsui has installed his largest public sculpture to date, along the High Line between Twenty-First and Twenty-Second Sts. “Broken Bridge II” is composed of recycled press tin and mirrors, 37 feet high and 157 feet long across the back side of a building. The rusted sheets of steel echo the wintry trees and plants in front of it, while the mirrors morph into the sky, sometimes appearing to be holes in the work; it will remain up through the summer, so it will change along with the seasons. The piece harkens back to man’s primal nature. “I believe that walls do two things,” El Anatsui told artdesigncafé in 2009. “They block views and hide things on one hand; and on the other, they provoke or activate the imagination and reveal things. . . . They hide and reveal.” It should be fascinating to see what El Anatsui hides and reveals in the upcoming show at the Brooklyn Museum.