this week in art

SUNDAY SESSIONS: TARYN SIMON

Taryn Simon examines her new photography installation at MoMA and will discuss it on May 13 at MoMA PS1 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

A LIVING MAN DEAD AND OTHER CHAPTERS I-XVIII
MoMA PS1
22-25 Jackson Ave. at 46th Ave.
Sunday, May 14, $10, 12 noon – 6:00
718-784-2084
www.ps1.org

As it prepares for its summer Warm Up series, MoMA PS1’s final Sunday Sessions program will be held on May 13. In addition to your last chance to see the exhibitions “Darren Bader: Images” and “Kraftwerk ― Retrospective 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8,” both of which close on Monday, legendary DJ Afrika Bambaataa will pay tribute to the German electronic music pioneers from 3:00 to 6:00 in the Performance Dome. Also at 3:00, artbook @ moma ps1 will host the book discussion group “A Short Course on Resistance.” Food will be available from Long Island City favorites M. Wells, and the exhibitions “Lara Favaretto: Just Knocked Out,” “Max Brand: no solid footing ― (trained) duck fighting a crow,” “Rania Stephan,” and “Frances Stark: My Best Thing” will also be open. We’re most looking forward to the 2:00 conversation between native New York artist Taryn Simon and MoMA PS1 associate curator Jenny Schlenzka on the occasion of the publication of Simon’s A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters, I-XVIII, the catalog to the exhibition currently on view in MoMA’s photography wing. Native New Yorker Simon, whose “Contraband” filled the Lever House lobby in late 2010 with thousands of photos of items that were confiscated at JFK International Airport, has now turned her attention on bloodlines, cataloging families from around the world, organizing them in very specific order, accompanied by photos of documents and other paraphernalia relating to their story. Nine of the chapters can be seen at MoMA, including the Indian Yadav clan, which is fighting to regain land they lost when Shivdutt Yadav was wrongly listed as being deceased; the Ondijos of Kenya, where HIV/AIDS doctor Joseph Nyamwanda Jura Ondijo has nine wives, thirty-two children, and sixty-three grandchildren; the sadly small Mehićs and Nukićs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, victims of genocide; the Chinese family of Su Qijian, declared by China’s State Council Information Office as the best representative of multigenerational Chinese bloodlines; and a large group of children living in a Ukrainian orphanage. Simon also spends one chapter depicting dozens of Australian rabbits used for experimentation that ultimately died during the tests or were later euthanized. A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters, which continues at MoMA through September 3, is a fascinating, involving collection of photographs of life and death, of science and politics, of the known and the unknown, intricately organized and arranged to create a complex, compelling visual narrative.

PORTRAIT OF WALLY

Egon Schiele masterpiece is at the heart of new documentary

PORTRAIT OF WALLY (Andrew Shea, 2012)
Quad Cinema
34 West 13th St.
Opens Friday, May 11
212-255-2243
www.quadcinema.com
portraitofwally.com

An exciting, fast-paced documentary set in the high-stakes art world, Andrew Shea’s Portrait of Wally is a gripping real-life legal thriller, complete with international intrigue, love and death, class warfare, lies and deception, and Nazis. In 1912, Austrian artist Egon Schiele painted a small portrait of his mistress, Walburga (“Wally”) Neuzil, in addition to a companion self-portrait. In 1939, the painting of Wally was stolen from art dealer Lea Bondi’s personal collection by Friedrich Welz, a Nazi who had also taken over Bondi’s gallery because she was Jewish. When the painting suddenly showed up in New York City in 1997 as part of the Museum of Modern Art’s “Egon Schiele: The Leopold Collection” exhibition, a furious, angry thirteen-year battle ensued over ownership of the work, involving Manhattan district attorney Robert Morgenthau; MoMA director Glenn D. Lowry; Sharon Cohen Levin, chief of the Asset Forfeiture Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office; investigator Willi Korte of the Holocaust Art Restitution Project; Schiele-obsessed art collector Rudolf Leopold; and the Bondi family. Other major museums sided with MoMA in a concerted effort to prevent the government from returning the painting to the Bondis, claiming that it would seriously damage the ability of art institutions to bring works on loan for exhibition in the United States; interestingly, Lowry and MoMA chairman Ronald S. Lauder, who is also the head of the Commission for Art Recovery and displays many of Schiele’s paintings and drawings at his Neue Galerie in New York City, opted not to speak with Shea, but the filmmaker did meet with Morgenthau, Levin, André Bondi, New York Times reporter Judith Dobrzynski, 60 Minutes journalist Morley Safer, Galerie St. Etienne owner and Schiele expert Jane Kallir, and others who share fascinating details about the personal and professional history of Schiele and the painting as well as the inner workings of the art world. Mixing archival footage with new interviews, Shea and his wife, editor Melissa Shea, tell a compelling tale of global importance filled with powerful emotion that, in many ways, evokes the feeling one gets when looking closely at a master work of art. But Portrait of Wally is about a lot more than just art; it is also about memory, about family, about responsibility, and about justice.

GALLERY NIGHT ON 57th ST.

Josef Hoflehner, “Door Open Wide – Japan,” selenium toned silver print, 2012 (courtesy Bonni Benrubi Gallery)

Some three dozen galleries along 57th St. between Third & Eighth Aves. will remain open until 8:00 on Thursday night, many holding opening or closing receptions or other special programming as part of the semiannual Gallery Night on 57th St. Among the participants and their current shows, recommended in a westerly direction, are Nailya Alexander (“Evgeny Mokhorev: Photographs 1991-20120”), Bonni Benrubi (“Joseph Hoflehner: Into the Calm”), Edwynn Houk (“August Sander: Citizens of the Twentieth Century”), Frederico Sève (“Fanny Sanín: Drawings and Studies 1960 to Now”), Pace/MacGill (“A Tribute to Robert Delpire”), the Pace Gallery (“Robert Irwin: Dotting the i’s & Crossing the t’s: Part I”), Tibor de Nagy (“Larry Rivers: Later Works”), Nohra Haime (“Natalia Arias: No Permanent, No Perpetual”), Gering & López (“Ryan McGinness: Women: Sketches & Solutions”), Galerie St. Etienne (“‘Mad as Hell!’ New Work [and Some Classics] by Sue Coe”), Marian Goodman (“Giuseppe Penone”), and Francis M. Naumann (“Sophie Matisse: It’s Time”).

CAGE TRANSMITTED

John Cage centennial celebration continues at Triple Canopy on May 10

Triple Canopy
155 Freeman St.
Thursday, May 10, $5 suggested donation, 7:30
canopycanopycanopy.com

John Cage, who died in 1992 just short of his eightieth birthday, would have turned one hundred this September. Brooklyn’s Triple Canopy continues its centenary salute to the highly influential musician, composer, artist, and theoretician on May 10 with the fourth part of Cage Transmitted: Celebrating + Playing John Cage, examining Cage within the context of his relationship with Marcel Duchamp, a friend and collaborator as well as a major inspiration. On Thursday night, Robert Whitman, whose work was recently featured at the Pace Gallery’s fine “Happenings” exhibition, will present “Inside Out,” a multimedia performance first staged at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1987 and based on Ulf Linde’s lectures on Duchamp. That will be followed by the first-ever public screening of Cage at the Dwan Gallery in 1982 reading his radio play, Marcel Duchamp, James Joyce, Erik Satie: An Alphabet, in which Cage meets the ghosts of Duchamp, Joyce, and Satie as well as thirteen other characters, from Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol to Brigham Young and Mao Zedong. It should be a fascinating evening.

FRIEZE ART FAIR NEW YORK

Olaf Nicolai’s “Why women like to buy textiles that feel nice” is part of Frieze’s New York unveiling (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Randall’s Island Park
May 4-7, $40, 12 noon – 6:00 pm
646-346-2845
friezenewyork.com
frieze art fair new york slideshow

The highly touted Frieze Art Fair made its debut in London in 2003, and for the first time it has moved across the Atlantic for a New York edition, which continues through Monday. Taking place on Randall’s Island, Frieze New York is set inside a long white tent, with a handful of specially commissioned projects on the surrounding grass. It’s more or less a standard art fair, with familiar American and British galleries alongside a smattering from other countries, showing contemporary sculpture, painting, drawing, video, photography, and installation. You never know whom you might bump into at these oh-so-chic events; we found ourselves greeting master chef Daniel Boulud and controversial artist Andres Serrano while wandering around on Sunday afternoon. Although there’s a lot to like about Frieze — especially that it’s spread out just enough to not get ridiculously overcrowded — we’re still trying to figure out what all of the excess hubbub is about. At $40 a ticket and an additional $40 if you want the catalog, it is certainly not cheap. Getting there does require either ferry service from Midtown East or special bus service, but it is not nearly as treacherous as one might expect. As for the art itself, you can view our online slideshow here to see some of our favorites. If you do go on Monday, be sure to check out Taryn Simon’s talk at 1:00 about her new MoMA exhibit, “A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I–XVIII,” while map lovers should enjoy the 3:00 panel discussion “Collection Cartographies.”

JOHN CHAMBERLAIN: CHOICES

John Chamberlain, “SPHINXGRIN TWO,” aluminum, 2010 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
1071 Fifth Ave. at 89th St.
Friday – Wednesday through May 13, $18 (pay-what-you-wish Saturday 5:45-7:45)
212-423-3587
www.guggenheim.org

It is a shame that Indiana-born, Chicago-raised sculptor John Chamberlain didn’t live long enough to see the revelatory career retrospective at the Guggenheim, on view through May 13. While working with the museum on the exhibition, Chamberlain passed away in December at the age of eighty-four, but he left behind a legacy that flourishes at this outstanding show. Chamberlain’s most familiar oeuvre, twisted metal sculptures made from car parts, along with splendid works made from other materials, are laid out chronologically through Frank Lloyd Wright’s twisting passageway, with the first thing that jumps out at visitors being the color. Chamberlain’s automobile sculptures are like three-dimensional Abstract Expressionist and Pop paintings that have jumped off the canvas, breathing with an inner life that is intoxicating. The works, lush with blues, greens, yellows, and reds, are not mere mash-ups of fenders and front quarter panels but are carefully constructed and painted steel sculptures with such playful names as “Lord Suckfist,” “Miss Lucy Pink,” “Hatband,” “Sugar Tit,” and “Rooster Starfoot.” Chamberlain said, “It’s all in the fit,” and the works at the Guggenheim fit together extremely well. “The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” resembles a quartet of Balzac-like figures. A series of untitled square collages from the early 1960s hang on the walls like oil canvases, except their various elements jut out into space.

John Chamberlain takes a seat in his studio (photo by Robert McKeever, courtesy Gagosian Gallery)

In the mid-1960s, Chamberlain began experimenting with lacquer, Formica, and foam, resulting in such works as “Untitled #7,” a sculpture of fruit made from urethane foam, cord, cloth, paint, and wooden beads, and “Couch,” a foam installation on which visitors can take a seat or lie down. Chamberlain continued working through to the very end, using materials from vintage cars to create such pieces as “HAWKFLIESAGAIN” and “PEAUDESOIEMUSIC” over the last two years, in addition to the twisted aluminum “SPHINXGRIN TWO,” which stands in the museum’s rotunda, and the steel “C’ESTZESTY” that rises outside on Fifth Ave. In some ways Chamberlain can also be seen as an early recycler, his works reusing materials that were not merely found objects but specifically chosen, now gathered at the Guggenheim in a dazzling display that justly celebrates this great American artist. In conjunction with “John Chamberlain: Choices,” on May 8 artist Amy Sillman will lead an Eye to Eye private gallery tour of the show, on May 10 the Divine Ricochet Music Series concludes with a performance in the rotunda by Zola Jesus with JG Thirlwell, and on May 12 artist and conservator Corey D’Augustine will teach the all-day workshop “AbEx3D: Abstract Expressionism in Sculpture.”

RENOIR, IMPRESSIONISM, AND FULL-LENGTH PAINTING

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, “The Umbrellas (Les Parapluies),” oil on canvas, ca. 1881-85 (courtesy the National Gallery, London)

The Frick Collection
1 East 70th St. at Fifth Ave.
Tuesday – Sunday through May 13, $18 (pay-what-you-wish Sunday 11:00 am – 1:00 pm)
212-288-0700
www.frick.org

The Frick takes a unique approach to the work of French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir in the small but delightful exhibition “Renoir, Impressionism, and Full-Length Painting.” For the first time ever, nine large-scale figurative Renoir paintings have been brought together from around the world and displayed in the Frick’s East Gallery, which has never before been dedicated to a single show; in addition, it is a one-time-only event, as the Frick will be its only home. Inspired by the Paris Salons of the 1870s and 1880s, Renoir created several long, rectangular canvases that celebrated French fashion and style. Renoir favors solitary figures in “The Dancer,” “La Parisienne,” and “Madame Henriot ‘en travesti’ (The Page),” concentrating on the subjects’ dress, the first two set against an Impressionistic background. In the Frick’s own “La Promenade,” a mother guides her two young daughters through the park, all three elegantly attired amid lush blues and greens. On one wall, an 1883 trilogy of works that focus on dancing couples hang side by side. In “Dance in the City,” a formally dressed man and woman dance demurely, his right hand gently grasping the middle of her back, her gloved left hand placed delicately on his right shoulder. In “Dance in the Country,” a more casually dressed couple seems to be having more fun, the man gazing lovingly at the woman, the woman smiling at the viewer; a straw hat lying in the lower right corner adds to the simplicity and genuineness of the moment. And in “Dance at Bougival,” the most intimate and sensual of the three, the man and woman hold on to each other with bare hands as people in the background chatter on, with glasses of beer on a table and cigarette butts littering the ground. Seen together, the works form a dramatic triptych of love, romance, and class structure in late-nineteenth-century Paris. The most surprising piece in the exhibition is “The Umbrellas (Les Parapluies),” a complex canvas dominated by a woman carrying a picnic basket in the left foreground and facing the viewer, a group of open umbrellas at the top extending deep into the background. A man gazes upon the woman, perhaps about to offer her some cover, while a little girl holding a hoop looks at the viewer from the lower right. The subjects’ faces and the geometric patterns of the umbrellas, the basket, the hoop, and various hats battle for attention in this sharply painted scene. The show also delves into Renoir’s use of models as well as how some of the works changed over time, as revealed by close inspection and x-ray technology. Organized by Frick deputy director Colin B. Bailey, “Renoir, Impressionism, and Full-Length Painting” is a lovely examination of Renoir’s own artistic dance with size.