this week in art

JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT: THE RADIANT CHILD

Tamra Davis examines the life of her friend Jean-Michel Basquiat in revealing documentary (photo courtesy of Lee Jaffe)

JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT: THE RADIANT CHILD (Tamra Davis, 2010)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
July 21 – August 3
212-727-8110
www.filmforum.org
www.jean-michelbasquiattheradiantchild.com

Director Tamra Davis (GUNCRAZY) transports viewers back to the 1980s New York art scene in the intimate documentary JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT: THE RADIANT CHILD. In 1986, just as the career of street artist Jean-Michel Basquiat was exploding, Davis filmed him being interviewed by designer Becky Johnson, a revealing portrait that she put away in a drawer for more than twenty years. Davis finally brings out that footage, making it the centerpiece of this new examination of the ambitious, influential artist and musician who experienced massive success before falling hard and fast and dying of a drug overdose at the age of twenty-seven in 1988. Davis, a friend of Basquiat’s, conducts new interviews with many of the people from his inner circle, including art dealers Jeffrey Deitch, Larry Gagosian, Annina Nosei, Tony Shafrazi, and Bruno Bischofberger; Basquiat’s girlfriends Suzanne Mallouk and Kelle Inman; close Basquiat friends Diego Cortez and Fab 5 Freddy; NEW YORK BEAT cable TV host Glenn O’Brien; and fellow artist Julian Schnabel, who directed Basquiat in DOWNTOWN 81. Davis has also dug up amazing footage from the 1980s of Basquiat that shows him to be a unique, driven figure who used whatever he could — from broken windowframes and doors he’d find on the street to immense canvases — to spread his art and world view, which began with drawings in which he identified himself as Samo, criticizing contemporary art as “the same old shit.” Ultimately, though, it was his relationship with Andy Warhol that was the beginning of the end. JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT: THE RADIANT CHILD is a dazzling document of a fascinating time and a cautionary tale of success that comes too fast, too soon. Davis will be at Film Forum for the 8:00 shows on July 21-22, with Fab 5 Freddy appearing at the 8:00 screening on July 23.

NOT A PLACE, AN OUTLOOK

Andrea Mastrovito’s cutout installation brings paper creatures to life in “The Sixth Borough” exhibit on Governors Island (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

THE SIXTH BOROUGH
Governors Island, Colonels’ Row
Film series: July 16-18, 12 noon – 5:00 pm
Exhibit continues Friday – Sunday through September 25
Admission: free
www.nolongerempty.com
www.govisland.com
sixth borough slideshow

While the city, state, and federal governments debate over what to do with Governors Island, we continue to be the beneficiaries, as the island has become a home away from home for lovers of art, music, history, nature, and just about everything else under the sun. This weekend, July 16-18, from 12 noon to 5:00 each afternoon, No Longer Empty, which has organized the excellent site-specific installation “The Sixth Borough” in the rooms along Colonels’ Row, will be presenting “Not a Place, an Outlook,” short films that examine the relationship between place and the mind, with works by Julieta Aranda, Javier Tellez, Erin Shirreff, Steve Roden, Luke Fowler, and others. (The series repeats August 13-15 and September 10-12 and 17-19.) Also as part of the “The Sixth Borough,” Mary Walling Blackburn continues to offer tutorials on the second floor of Building 408 dealing with “Radical Citizenship,” one-on-one discussions between a visitor and such tutors as Regine Basha and Amir El Saffar (“Tuning Baghdad,” July 17), TV on the Radio’s Kyp Malone and Blackburn (“Our Bad Relationship: The Revolutionary + the Policeman,” September 4), and A. B. Huber (“Due Vigilance: One Nation, Under God, Indivisible, on Alert,” September 17). Among the other highlights of the exhibit are Adam Cvijanovic’s trompe l’oeil paintings that imagine worlds beyond the walls; Andrea Mastovito’s massive “The Island of Dr. Mastrovito,” consisting of thousands of animals cut out of some seven hundred books, lining the walls and floor of one room, while a video of playfully re-created famous horror scenes screens in another; Teresa Diehl’s haunting projected video “Return of Pleasure,” which casts shadows of memories across scrims in the middle of a room; and Trong G. Nguyen’s “Marcel Duchamp Versus Bobby Fischer,” a three-channel video installation depicting a chess match as seen from above. And as long as you’re on the island already, you might also want to check out Ivy Baldwin Dance on Friday at 2:00, the free Gone to Governors concert with Caribou and Phantogram on Water Taxi Beach on Friday at 7:00, Let’s Fly a Kite! at noon on Saturday, the Big Apple Circus Family Fun Fest and the Jazz Age Dance Party with Michael Arenella and the Dreamland Orchestra on Saturday and Sunday, the Figment Sculpture Garden (complete with mini-golf course), and other special events and activities, most of which are free.

THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD BOOK CLUB

“Bardo: Tibetan Art of the Afterlife” looks at death at the Rubin Museum

Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th St. at Seventh Ave.
Wednesdays through August 25, $20 per session, 7:00
212-620-5000
www.rmanyc.org/bookofthedead

Last Wednesday the Rubin Museum of Art began its seven-part series on the THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD, led by Dr. Ramon Prats, by examining “Addiction and Attachments” with Dr. Gabor Maté. This week, the discussion of the eighth-century funerary text also known as PROFOUND DHARMA OF SELF-LIBERATION THROUGH THE INTENTION OF THE PEACEFUL AND WRATHFUL ONES turns to “The Near-Death Experience” with Prof. Lee W. Bailey and continues with future talks on “The Analysis of Dreams” with psychoanalyst Morgan Stebbins (July 21), “The Death of Death” with Rabbi Neil Gillman (July 28), “The Egyptian Book of the Dead” with Brooklyn Museum curator Edward Bleiberg (August 11), “Channeling the Dead” with medium Jesse Bravo (August 18), and “How to Die” with Roshi Enkyo O’Hara (August 25). Actually, just about everything at the Rubin right now is about death. “Memento Mori,” the Cabaret Cinema series of Friday night films (free with $7 bar minimum), begins this week with Jean-Luc Godard’s 1965 noir PIERROT LE FOU and also features Robin Hardy’s awesome 1973 horror classic, THE WICKER MAN (July 23), Ingmar Bergman’s very funny THE SEVENTH SEAL (July 30), Pier Paolo Pasolini’s IL DECAMERON (August 6) and IL FIORE DELLE MILLE E UNA NOTTE (August 20), Frank Capra’s LOST HORIZON (August 27), and Philip Kaufman’s excellent 1978 remake, INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (September 3).

Several of the current exhibitions at the museum also take a fascinating look at the end of physical being. “Bardo: Tibetan Art of the Afterlife,” which runs through September 6, delves into the BARDO THODROL, aka THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD, with original illuminated manuscripts, ritual cards, and other items than take visitors into different worlds of existence. Through August 9, “Remember That You Will Die: Death Across Cultures” explores the art of death as seen in European Christianity and Tibetan Buddhism, including a topography of the afterlife, an intriguing video installation by Bill Viola, and paintings, sculpture, and ritual objects. (Also on view is the excellent “In the Shadow of Everest,” Tom Wool’s photographs taken in May 2001; the terrific “From the Land of the Gods: Art of the Kathmandu Valley”; and “Tradition Transformed: Tibetan Artists Respond,” featuring works by contemporary Tibetan artists.)

ANTONY GORMLEY: EVENT HORIZON

Antony Gormley has filled the Flatiron District with nude sculptures of himself, both in Madison Square Park and atop neighboring buildings (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Madison Square Park & surrounding area
23rd to 25th Sts. between Madison & Fifth Aves.
Through August 15
Admission: free
www.eventhorizonnewyork.org
event horizon slideshow

In fall 2007, British installation artist Antony Gormley made visitors seemingly disappear in his Chelsea exhibit “Blind Light” at the Sean Kelly Gallery. Now he has made himself appear all around the Flatiron District in his exciting, controversial “Event Horizon.” In a city where art can be found nearly everywhere one looks, now life-size sculptures of a nude Gormley can be seen nearly everywhere one looks in and around Madison Square Park. The Turner Prize winner has cast thirty-one “indexical copies” of himself, placing four (cast in iron and weighing fourteen hundred pounds each) at ground level and the other twenty-seven (cast in fiberglass and weighing a mere seventy pounds apiece) on buildings overlooking Madison Square Park, the farthest away standing on a lower level of the Empire State Building. Gormley refers to viewers as “silent witnesses” as they observe and seek out the sculptures, many walking around the park counting to see if they can spot each one. Although the project has resulted in some emergency 911 calls regarding potential suicide jumpers, it is primarily an engaging installation that encourages people to actually lift their heads out of their iPhones and BlackBerries and instead pay attention to the world they live in, noticing things that they usually just walk past without a second thought.

OUTDOOR CINEMA 2010

Free live music and film screenings will run in Socrates Sculpture Park Wednesday nights in July and August

Socrates Sculpture Park
Vernon Blvd. & Broadway, Long Island City
Wednesdays July 7 through August 25
Live performances at 7:00, film screenings at sunset
Admission: free
718-956-1819
www.socratessculpturepark.org

For its twelfth annual summer season of free movie screenings, Socrates Sculpture Park has teamed up with the Museum of the Moving Image and Rooftop Films to “celebrate the cultural diversity of Queens” on Wednesday nights in July and August. Each evening begins with a live performance, followed by a film at sunset. The series gets under way July 7 with Todd Chandler’s road movie FLOOD TIDE, with a live score played by Dark Dark Dark. Outdoor Cinema goes to Ireland on July 14 with Tom Moore and Nora Twomey’s THE SECRET OF KELLS, with Swedish short films on July 21 and Vera Chytilová’s Czech drama DAISIES on July 28. Each night will also feature local vendors selling food from the “host” country. The August schedule has not been announced yet. Be sure to get there early, not only to get a good spot but to check out the art installation “Cityscape: Surveying the Urban Biotope,” which continues through August 1. (For a complete, day-by-day list of free summer movies in New York City, click here.)

WARM UP

Prepare for some massive crowds at weekly PS1 Warm Up (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

MoMAPS1
22-25 Jackson Ave. at 46th Ave.
Saturdays from 2:00 to 9:00, July 3 – September 4
Tickets: $15 (free for Long Island City residents)
718-784-2084
www.ps1.org/warmup

One of the hottest, sweatiest weekly dance parties of every summer will get people moving and grooving beginning on July 3 when Warm Up returns to PS1 in Queens. The series features live bands and DJs from all over the world, including Spain, Sierra Leone, France, Sweden, Canada, and Brooklyn, playing in the shadow of Solid Obectives — Idenburg Liu’s “Pole Dance,” winner of the annual Young Architects Program and displayed in the courtyard. The opening-day lineup is a mere taste of things to come, with live sets from Delorean, Janka Nabay and the Bubu Gang, and Glasser, with John Talabot and Korallreven manning the turntables. On the horizon are Kalup Linzy and JD Samson on July 24, Animal Collective DJ’ing on July 31, a DFA showcase with James Murphy and Pat Mahoney on August 7, DJ ?uestlove and These Are Powers on August 14, and Holy Ghost!, House of House, and DJ Mehdi on closing night, September 4. And don’t forget to check out the expansive “Greater New York” exhibition. PS1 is one of the treasures of New York City, with something to see and do in every little nook and cranny, so be prepared for anything and everything.

FIRST SATURDAYS: AMERICAN ICONS

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway
Saturday, July 3, free, 5:00 – 11:00 (some events require free tickets distributed at the Visitor Center)
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The Brooklyn Museum’s monthly late-night party goes silver instead of red, white, and blue on July 3, paying tribute to the late Andy Warhol with a screening of Mary Harron’s 1996 flick I SHOT ANDY WARHOL, gallery talks on the new exhibit “Andy Warhol: The Last Decade,” Society HAE’s dance party “The Factory 2010,” a workshop in which participants can make a Warhol-like print, and “15 Minutes of Fame,” an art battle between Antony Zito, Lexi Bella, Concep, and Marthalicia Matarrita. In addition, the museum will be showing Alan Parker’s 1980 film FAME, and Brooklyn bands Analogue Transit and Dynasty Electric will perform live.