this week in art

GRAPHIC HEROES, MAGIC MONSTERS

Utagawa Kuniyoshi, “Morozumi Masakiyo Kills Himself in Battle,” color woodblock print, ca. 1848 (photo © Trustees of the British Museum)

JAPANESE PRINTS BY UTAGAWA KUNIYOSHI FROM THE ARTHUR R. MILLER COLLECTION
Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
Through June 13
Admission: $12 (free Friday nights 6:00 – 9:00)
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org

With the continuing success of manga and graphic novels in the United States, the Japan Society looks back on the career of master visual storyteller Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861) in “Graphic Heroes, Magic Monsters.” More than 130 color woodblock prints are on view, depicting samurai warriors, elegant women, lush landscapes, kabuki scenes, and comic images. Among the many exciting action-filled vignettes, based on both history and legend, are “Fight on the Roof of Hōryū Tower,” in which Inuzaka Shino tries to single-handedly evade capture by Inukai Kenpachi and his men, and “Ariō-maru Kills a Giant Octopus,” the valiant warrior determined to escape from the clutches of an enormous mollusk. Water figures prominently in many of Kuniyoshi’s pieces; in “Hatsuhana Prays Under a Waterfall,” Hatsuhana prays to a deity for a cure for her warrior husband’s illness, water cascading onto her head and around her body, while in “Three Women with Umbrellas in a Summer Shower,” a trio of women in blue-and-white kimonos playfully avoid a downpour. Kuniyoshi also created peaceful scenes devoid of bloody battles and gruesome characters, including such serene works as “Rainbow at Surugadai,” “Ships Between Maisaka and Arai,” and “Monk Nichiren in the Snow at Tsukahara.”

Utagawa Kuniyoshi, “Monk Nichiren in the Snow at Tsukahara,” color woodblock print, ca. 1835 (photo © Trustees of the British Museum)

Kuniyoshi shows off his absurdist sense of humor in such prints as “Sparrows Impersonating a Brothel Scene,” “Kabuki Actors as Turtles,” and “Cats Parodying the Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō.” In the deluxe catalog that accompanies the exhibit, Neil McGregor, director of the British Museum, where the show was a huge hit, writes, “Kuniyoshi was an extraordinarily gifted artist of great versatility, capable by turns of evoking pathos at the doomed fate of a samurai hero, humour with the antics of animals impersonating humans, seduction by feisty-spirited beauties from Japan’s epic past, and calm contemplation of byways in his native city of Edo.” Indeed, Kuniyoshi was a unique and inventive storyteller, displaying immense skill at creating colorful, entertaining, action-packed, and meditative tales. In conjunction with the exhibit, Hiroki Otsuka has created Samurai Beam, a comic book based on Kuniyoshi’s work.

FIRST SATURDAYS: BROOKLYN CHIC

Ronald K. Brown and his Evidence company are part of First Saturdays at the Brooklyn Museum on June 5

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

On June 5, the Brooklyn Museum’s monthly First Saturdays program celebrates, well, Brooklyn. And why not? The J. C. Hopkins Biggish Band will be playing at 5:00, Ronald K. Brown’s awesome Evidence a Dance Company will be performing at 5:30 (followed by a Q&A with Brown), chief curator Kevin Stayton will discuss “American High Style: Fashioning a National Collection” at 7:00, Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire will put their dancing shoes on for a screening of Stanley Donen’s FUNNY FACE also at 7:00, Keanan Duffy will give a book club talk on his latest, REBEL, REBEL: ANTI-STYLE, at 9:00, the House of Ninja’s Archie Burnett hosts a vogue dance contest at 9:00, and Friends We Love’s DJ Moni will get everyone’s mojo working at the always hot and sweaty dance party (9:00 – 11:00). All of the exhibitions will be open, including “Kiki Smith: Sojourn,’ “Healing the Wounds of War: The Brooklyn Sanitary Fair of 1864,” and “Body Parts: Ancience Egyptian Fragments and Amulets.” Everything’s free, although some of the events require advance ticketing available an hour ahead of time, and the lines do get long, so be prepared.

BUSHWICK OPEN STUDIOS 2010

Matt Jones, “Outer Space,” oil and galkyd on canvas, 2010 (505 Johnson Ave. #19)

ARTS IN BUSHWICK
Through June 6
Admission: free
www.bos2010.artsinbushwick.org

The all-volunteer Arts in Buschwick organization is hosting the fourth annual Bushwick Open Studios this weekend, with more than three hundred shows, art sales, and live performances June 4-6. As you travel through the happening Bushwick hood, you might encounter free glitter, synchronized cycling, light installations, comedy, printmaking, free beer, a fashion show, interactive participatory events, and much more.

WORLD SCIENCE FESTIVAL

Art and physics combine in unique and unusual ways at World Science Festival

Multiple venues
Admission: free – $30
June 2-6
www.worldsciencefestival.com

The World Science Festival is back, seeking to show people the many wonders of science through lectures, dance, art, music, literature, and other disciplines. High school chemistry and biology might not have been fun, but there are plenty of great things to check out at this annual event. The celebration gets under way June 2 with a gala at Alice Tully Hall featuring Alan Alda, John Lithgow, Rebecca Luker, Yo Yo Ma, and many others honoring genius Stephen W. Hawking and witnessing the world premiere of ICARUS AT THE EDGE OF TIME by Brian Greene, David Henry Hwang, and Philip Glass ($250-$10,000). Through Sunday, a full-scale model of the James Webb Space Telescope will be on view in Battery Park, along with interactive exhibits and a party scheduled for June 4 (free). The Broad Street Ballroom will be home to “Astronomy’s New Messengers: The Exhibit Listening to the Universe with Gravitational Waves,” where visitors can check out a model LIGO, or Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory; it’s also free, as is the panel discussion on June 3 at 6:30. At the Museum of Arts and Design, New York City students will be creating designs using pigmented E. coli (free, 3:00), Margaret S. Livingstone, Patrick Cavanagh, and Jules Feiffer will discuss “Eye Candy: Science, Sight, Art” at NYU’s Kimmel Center ($30, 7:00), the Moth gathers writers, scientists, and artists to tell stories in “Grey Matter” ($25, 7:30), and Alda, Kip Thorne, and Robbert Dijkgraaf talk about “Black Holes and Holographic Worlds” at the Skirball Center ($30, 8:00). Thursday through Sunday at Cedar Lake, the innovative Armitage Done! Dance troupe will stage the New York premiere of THREE THEORIES, a series of high-speed duets that uses the principles of physics in their movements; several performances will be followed by a special talk-back with a physicist ($30).

On Friday, “Food 2.0: Feeding a Hungry World” is at the Baruch Performing Arts Center ($30, 7:00), “The Science of Star Trek” is evaluated at Galapagos ($30, 7:00), and Oliver Sacks and Chuck Close team up for “Strangers in the Mirror” at the Kaye Playhouse ($30, 8:00). On Saturday, mathemagician Arthur Benjamin will dazzle the mind at the New School ($15, 11:00 am), John Hockenberry leads a panel discussion at the New School that goes inside the Large Hadron Collider ($30, 3:00), and Hockenberry will then head for the Skirball Center for “Hidden Dimensions: Exploring Hyperspace” ($30, 8:00). On Sunday, the World Science Festival Street Fair takes place in Washington Square Park, several astronauts land at the Kimmel Center for “Astronaut Diary: Life in Space” (free, 11:30 am), and ICARUS AT THE EDGE OF TIME will be staged at the Skirball, with live narration by Liev Schreiber and live music by the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. ($30, 7:00). And believe it or not, those are only some of the forty events going on during the festival, which bills itself as “an unprecedented annual tribute to imagination, ingenuity, and inventiveness [that] takes science out of the laboratory and into the streets, theaters, museums, and public halls of New York City, making the esoteric understandable and the familiar fascinating.”

CHRISTIAN BOLTANSKI: NO MAN’S LAND

Christian Boltanski’s “No Man’s Land” will be open on Memorial Day (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Park Avenue Armory
643 Park Ave. at 67th St.
Tuesday – Sunday through June 13, 12 noon – 7:30 (Thursday 2:00 – 9:30) (open Memorial Day)
DAWN: June 2 at 6:00, June 3 at 7:30 (advance registration required)
Admission: $12 (children under twelve free)
347-463-5143
www.armoryonpark.org
www.mariangoodman.com
installation slideshow

French conceptual artist Christian Boltanski has filled the Park Ave. Armory’s Wade Thompson Drill Hall with thirty tons of clothing, laying them out in rectangular piles that evoke such tragedies as the Holocaust, the earthquake in Haiti, and the Katrina disaster, each shirt, jacket, dress, and pair of pants representing an anonymous person who might or might not be alive. The hooded sweatshirts are particularly eerie, especially when turned upside down. The rows and rows of clothing recall scenes from Alain Resnais’s Auschwitz-set NIGHT AND FOG documentary as well as news shots of people seeking refuge in the Superdome after the devastation of hurricane Katrina. In the center of the fifty-five-thousand-square-foot space, a sixty-foot-high crane scoops up and then drops individual items on top of a large mountain of clothing, like the children’s carnival game in which kids use a claw to pick up a toy, except in this case the crane is like the hand of God, deciding who will live and who will die. That feeling is amplified because of the location of the installation itself, in a military armory with walls containing plaques dedicated to men and women who died in the service of their country. Visitors can both wander through the rows to get a more personal view and also climb the stairs to see the massive piece as a whole, offering a different perspective.

Boltanski’s multifaceted, multimedia installation will feature special performances June 2-3 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

When people first walk into the drill hall, they are met by a long, rusted, monolithic file cabinet with numbers on small drawers, a card catalog of the dead similar to Boltanski’s “The Reserve of Dead Swiss,” except in the latter he collected photographs of the dead instead of the random, out-of-sequence numbers displayed here. As Boltanski, who was born at the end of the Nazi occupation of France, notes in one of the display’s accompanying hand-outs, “The question is about destiny — why one person and not another?” But it’s not all about death; “No Man’s Land” also includes the sound of an enormous heartbeat echoing through the cavernous space, demonstrating that life goes on. Boltanski has been collecting heartbeats for years, creating Les Archives du Coeur, which he plans to maintain on Japan’s isolated Teshima Island; visitors to “No Man’s Land” can add the sound of their own heartbeat in a temporary “doctor’s office” in the outer hallway. It takes only a few minutes, and for $3 you can bring home a CD of your heartbeat. In another room, Heinz Peter Schwerfel’s documentary LES VIES POSSIBLES DE CHRISTIAN BOLTANSKI gives great insight into the life and career of the enigmatic artist. And the gift shop is called “The Book as Witness,” offering rare copies of Boltanski’s artist books, going back to the early 1970s. Although the installation is usually closed on Mondays, it will be open on Memorial Day, a fitting way to honor the holiday. In addition, composer Franck Krawczyk’s DAWN will take place June 2-3 within “No Man’s Land,” performed by the Argento Chamber Ensemble conducted by Michel Galante; there will be a public rehearsal on June 2 at 6:00, followed by the premiere on June 3 at 7:30. Although the special musical event is free with general admission, advance registration is required.

MAKE YOURSELF AT HOME

Visitors are encouraged to make themselves at home at Chelsea exhibit (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

7Eleven Gallery
169 Tenth Ave. at 20th St.
Through Sunday, June 6 (closed Monday)
Admission: free
www.7elevengallery.com
exhibition slideshow

Back in 2008, Friends Seminary graduates Sabrina Blaichman, Caroline Copley, and Genevieve Hudson-Price opened 7Eleven Gallery, so named not only because it was located at 711 Washington St. but because of the low-rent convenience store its name evokes. The three friends have since curated several shows at other temporary spaces, the latest being “Make Yourself at Home,” a charming and fun exhibit that has taken over a Chelsea garage on Tenth Ave. While much of New York has left town this Memorial Day weekend, art lovers can have a field day at the show, walking from room to room, taking seats in specially designed chairs and couches, turning on unusual radios and tape players, and relaxing in a small garden. In the bedroom, David Deutsch has installed a different kind of water bed, alongside a Scott Burton table, a Scott Healy mirror, and a Tom Sachs turtle lamp. In the bathroom, someone appears to be using Steven Spretnjak’s shower installation. The office is decorated with five mixed-media pieces by Joe Gaffney, a desk by Dustin Yellin, an unusual pair of shelves by Casey Neistat, and a light-projection drawing by Zilla Leutenegger that shows a woman hard at work. In the living room, visitors can lie down on Kwangho Lee’s knit rubber cord couch while watching Michael Smith’s short video or listening to Thomas Beale’s rather unique stereo cabinet. Other highlights include the maids quarters, a pantry with Johanna Landsheidt’s lovely “Hausfrau” C-print, a kids room designed by Carlton DeWoody, a music room featuring strange instruments by Shelby Gaines, a garden where Alex Rickard’s “Four Header Picknicker” keeps muttering to himself, dining room tables by Mary Heilmann and Richard Tuttle, fly and helicopter wallpaper by Francesco Simeti and Rob Wynne, respectively, a light sphere by Leo Villareal, glassed-in fairy-tale fantasies by Meghan Boody (who also made the awesome table of photographs behind tiny doors), and Max Lamb’s tall, black “Shelter,” which you can climb up inside for a different kind of view of the exhibition. (Be sure to lean against the back as you negotiate the somewhat treacherous footholds.) There is also home work by Chris Beeston, Nick Doyle, William Stone, R. M. Fischer, Steve Keister, and many other artists. For those New Yorkers who find themselves at home this week, checking out “Make Yourself at Home” is a great way to take a break, at least for a few hours. The exhibit ends Sunday, June 6, with an all-day party featuring live music by Gaines; visitors are strongly encouraged to bring some beer and have a blast at this home away from home.

TWI-NY TALK: BARBARA POLLACK

Barbara Pollack will be discussing her new book about the Chinese art market at Pace Gallery in Chelsea on June 1 (photo by Joe Gaffney)

THE WILD, WILD EAST: AN AMERICAN ART CRITIC’S ADVENTURES IN CHINA (Timezone 8, May 2010, $24.95)
Tuesday, June 1, the Pace Gallery, 545 West 22nd St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves., free, 6:00
Thursday, June 10, China Institute, 125 East 65th St., $15, 6:30
www.barbarapollack.com

Barbara Pollack is not your average art critic. The brash, funny, opinionated New Yorker has a law degree from Northeastern University, has been a professor at SVA for more than ten years, has worked in public relations, is a contributing editor for ARTnews, has written for such publications as Vanity Fair, the New York Times, and the Washington Post, and knows how to throw a New Year’s Eve party. In addition, she is a visual artist with photography and video work in the collections of such institutions as the Brooklyn Museum, the Guggenheim, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and the New York Public Library.

Pollack is also one of the world’s leading authorities on Chinese art, covering the burgeoning scene since 1997. She’s traveled to the mainland numerous times over the years, meeting with artists, collectors, dealers, and others involved in the exploding Asian art market as research for her just-published book, THE WILD, WILD EAST: AN AMERICAN ART CRITIC’S ADVENTURES IN CHINA. We recently accompanied Pollack on a walk through Chelsea, where gallery owners rushed out of their offices to hug her and share stories about art and life. She’ll be back in Chelsea on June 1 for the official New York City launch of her book, taking place at the Pace Gallery at 6:00. The event is free and open to the public. And on June 10 she’ll be giving a lecture at the China Institute. In between various other speaking engagements, Pollack took the time to answer a few of our questions via e-mail for our latest twi-ny talk.

twi-ny: You’ve traveled to China many times in researching this book and over the course of your career. How does the Chinese art world respond to you specifically, both in person and to the book itself, now that it’s published?

Barbara Pollack: In New York, I am just another person trying to make a living by writing about art. But in China, I get treated like a star critic with a certain degree of power. This is because for a long time there were very few people really writing about the art. That is changing now. Generally, my book was met with excitement but a certain degree of surprise. The Chinese artists — always size queens — expected a bigger book. They are used to publishing these mammoth catalogues, too large to lift, and are not accustomed to this Calvin Tomkins style of reportage. Others, particularly some of the westerners portrayed in the book, thought I did not make them out to be important enough.

twi-ny: In the last twenty years, the Sixth Generation of Chinese filmmakers — Jia Zhangke, Wang Xiaoshuai, Zhang Yuan, and others — have gained international renown for their work, including making films that are at times critical of mainland China. Is there a similar type of group when it comes to the art world in China? Are they heavily censored, or do they have an evolving freedom of expression as compared with past decades?

BP: As opposed to Chinese filmmakers, Chinese artists are able to produce without the interference of the Ministry of Culture. Not all of their work gets shown in China, though most of it does, but they also are now international art stars producing for galleries and museums all around the world, so restrictions rarely impede their output. The youngest generation, those born after the Open Door Policy and new market economy were in effect, are not taking advantage of their freedom to make political work. Mostly, they reflect a global outlook, heavily influenced by Japanese animation and American pop culture, in what is often called the Me Generation or Spoiled Brat art.

twi-ny: Is the art market’s current obsession with Asian art a fad, or do you think the work warrants it and is here to stay?

BP: Many Chinese artists, such as MacArthur award winner Xu Bing, Guggenheim star Cai Guo-Qiang, and outspoken renegade Ai Weiwei, have proven that they are worthy of international attention, even if there are Chinese artists who have been overhyped. Until the late 1990s, the art world was extremely narrow-minded and unwilling to think that a major talent could come from somewhere other than Europe or North America. That has changed forever, good riddance. So Asian art is not just a fad but the result of a growing awareness of art production throughout the world. Another reason Asian art, especially Chinese art, is not going to go away is that influx of Asian collectors into the international art market. They wield a lot of power and are willing to back artists from their home countries. In the end, they will boost careers of many artists even if we in the West disagree with their taste.

twi-ny: What is America’s greatest misconception about China, especially following the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

BP: I can’t even begin to answer this question. Sometimes, I don’t recognize the China I know from news coverage of the country. Of course, the China that I have come to know is the one packed with new millionaires — both collectors and artists — who have definitely benefited from China’s booming economy. I would have an entirely different understanding if I spent time away from Beijing and Shanghai, looking at the China that exists beyond its art world.

Barbara Pollack will be signing books on June 1 at the Pace Gallery in Chelsea, followed by a lecture at the China Institute on June 10.