this week in art

DEMONS AND DEVOTION

“Catherine of Cleves Praying to the Virgin and Child,” Hours of Catherine of Cleves, in Latin, Netherlands, Utrecht, Illuminated by the Master of Catherine of Cleves, ca. 1440

THE HOURS OF CATHERINE OF CLEVES
Morgan Library & Museum
225 Madison Ave. at 36th St.
Tuesday – Saturday through May 2, $12 (free Fridays 7:00 – 9:00)
212-685-0008
www.themorgan.org

Betrothed at six, married at thirteen, and the mother of a half dozen children by the time she was twenty-three, Catherine of Cleves dealt with her life by delving into prayer. In 1440 she moved away from her husband, Arnold of Egmond (duke of Guelders and count of Zutphen), later getting involved in a struggle for power that tore the family apart. But she sought solace (and probably magnified her status) around 1440 by commissioning what would become one of the world’s most majestic illuminated manuscripts, “The Hours of Catherine of Cleves.” Gorgeously designed by the Master of Catherine of Cleves, who incorporated Dutch painting techniques into his ornate style, nearly one hundred pages from the Hours are on view, in sequence, at the Morgan Library, including the Hours of the Virgin, Penitential Psalms, the Hours of the Passion, Suffrages, the Office of the Dead, and assorted biblical scenes.

“Mouth of Hell,” Hours of Catherine of Cleves, in Latin, Netherlands, Utrecht, Illuminated by the Master of Catherine of Cleves, ca. 1440

The Master’s creative iconography spreads into the margins of each page, and Catherine herself appears in several works, as well as her reviled husband, shown praying to Jesus. (Perhaps she thought he had better be praying, considering the family division.) Among the most impressive sections is the Hours and Masses for the Seven Days of the Week, particularly Monday, which is devoted to the Dead and features “Deathbed,” “Burial,” and “Souls Released from Purgatory,” three spectacular examples of the Master’s skill. The “Holy Family at Work” shows a unusual and touching domestic scene: the baby Jesus stands in a walker perhaps made by his dad, the carpenter Joseph, hard at work at right, while Mary is busy at a loom, all three cozy in a room whose style would be instantly familiar to a reader. Each page deserves to be pored over carefully as narratives flow and symbolism runs rampant. It’s a thrilling, one-of-a-kind exhibit, as the pages will soon be bound together back into book form, so this is a rare opportunity to see each beautiful pieces spread out. The show is supplemented with illustrations from the Master’s contemporaries, placing it in context; also on display at the Morgan is “Rome After Raphael,” “Palladio and His Legacy: A Transatlantic Journey,” and “Flemish Illumination in the Era of Catherine of Cleves.”

SECOND SUNDAYS: GUIDED TOUR OF THE GARDEN

Horticulturalist George Pisegna will lead a tour of the breathtaking Noguchi Museum garden on April 11 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

The Noguchi Museum
9-01 33rd Road (Vernon Blvd.), Long Island City
Sunday, April 11, free with museum admission of $10, 3:00
718-204-7088
www.noguchi.org

George Pisegna, director of horticulture at the Horticultural Society of New York, will lead a guided tour of the magical Noguchi Museum Sculpture Garden as part of the Long Island City institution’s monthly Second Sundays program on April 11, offering fresh new insight into this peaceful wonder. Take a deep breath as you enter the gorgeous garden, which will revive your body and soul. Look all around “The Well (Variation on a Tsukubai),” following the water as it comes out of the top and glides down the rough and glistening sides (including passing through Noguchi’s initials). Notice how the holes on both sides of “Core” invite in the light. “Indian Dancer” stands amid “Practical Rocks in Placement.” “Behind Inner Seeking Shiva Dancing” is perhaps the best-named sculpture in the garden. In the far corner is a burial marker, signifying where some of Noguchi’s ashes were laid to rest. Other mesmerizing pieces carefully arranged around Japanese and U.S. foliage are “The Big Bang,” “Unmei,” and the naturally formed “Spin-off #1 from the Chase Manhattan Garden.” You’ll find it hard to leave this urban oasis. (Also be sure not to miss the inside exhibit “Noguchi ReINstalled.”)

j-CATION: TASTE JAPAN

Japan Society will host full day of amazing Japanese food and more

Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
Saturday, April 10, suggested donation $5, 1:00 pm – 1:00 am
Some events require free tickets available beginning at 12:30
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org

Even though flights from New York to Tokyo have recently come down, it will still be a lot cheaper to get a taste of the Land of the Rising Sun on Saturday at the Japan Society, which is hosting the extremely exciting j-CATION from 1:00 pm to 1:00 am. The twelve-hour extravaganza, organized into Starters, Main Dishes, Sides, and Dessert, includes calligraphy and language classes, furoshiki and tea workshops, demonstrations from manga artist in residence Hiroki Otsuka, a foodie game show, a lecture by hot-dog-eating champion Takeru Kobayashi, a screening of Mitsuhiro Mihara’s food-related 2008 film FLAVOR OF HAPPINESS, live music by Me & Mars and Asobi Seksu, a cash bar, a virtual bento box battle, food vendors, and a late-night after-party with DJ Aki. If that isn’t enough, the outstanding exhibition “Graphic Heroes, Magic Monsters,” a collection of gorgeous prints by nineteenth-century artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi, will be open until 9:00. For a suggested donation of a mere five bucks, you can feel like you’re in Japan, at least for one day.

THE ANNUAL THROUGH THE AGES

Cildo Meireles, “Atlas,” transparency in light box, 2007 (courtesy of the artist and Galerie Lelong)

185th ANNUAL EXHIBITION OF CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN ART
National Academy Museum
1083 Fifth Ave. at 89th St.
Friday, April 9, free with museum admission of $10, 6:45
Exhibition continues through June 8
212-369-4880
www.nationalacademy.org

Founded in 1825, the National Academy is in the midst of its 185th Annual, featuring painting, sculpture, and installations by sixty-five American artists who are not members of the academy, selected by a panel of National Academicians. The exhibit includes work by such artists as Ghada Amer, Petah Coyne, Barkley L. Hendricks, Valerie Jaudon, and Dana Schutz, with all but one piece dating from 2006 or later. (Delfina Nahrgang’s “Woman in the Mosque I” is from 1994.) The show, which has several empty rooms because of budget constraints (keep on moving even if you think it’s over, as that last room past a narrow hallway is often overlooked by visitors), contains some fine painting; among the award winners are Richard McLean’s “Toward Delano,” Elisa Jensen’s “Trapped Sky,” and Charles Parness’s “Sometimes the Yoni Gets Angry with the Lingham.” Richard Van Buren’s “Green Movement” captured the sculpture prize, while Chuck Holtzman’s “Untitled (#798)” won for best graphics. Be sure to sit in the chair that is part of Sam Hernandez’s “I’m Listening,” which offers a unique perspective. Alison Elizabeth Taylor’s unusual wood inlay and shellac piece, “Bombay Beach,” gets a position of prominence, standing boldly by itself. Cildo Meireles slyly comments on Piero Manzoni in the playful light-box transparency “Atlas.” Perhaps the academy’s boldest selection, for a somewhat traditional organization, is Nina Yankowitz’s multimedia installation “Buried Treasures,” which comments on great and overlooked scientific discoveries made by women.

Nina Yankowitz, “Buried Treasures,” installation with video, 2008 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

On April 9 at 6:45, chief curator David Dearinger will lecture on the history of the National Academy’s annual exhibition. In addition, there will be a guided tour of the annual on May 7 at 6:45; artists Julia Randall, Ghada Amer, and Judith Bernstein will participate in “Let’s Talk About Sex: Gender Issues in a Post-Feminist World” on April 16 at 6:45; and curator Marshall Price will host a tour and lecture of the exhibit with artist Sarah Walker on June 4 at 6:30.

TWI-NY TALK: DEAN HASPIEL

Dean Haspiel is a fixture on the comic book scene and at MoCCA, seen here pointing at Neil Swaab at 2009 art festival (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Dean Haspiel is a fixture on the comic book scene and at MoCCA, seen here telling Mr. Wiggles creator Neil Swaab who’s the man at the 2009 festival (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

MoCCA ART FESTIVAL 2010
69th Regiment Armory
68 Lexington Ave. between 25th & 26th Sts.
April 10-11, $10/day, $15-$20/both days
212-254-3511
www.moccany.com
www.deanhaspiel.com

For more than two decades, Dean Haspiel has been a comic book force all his own. A wildly talented and gregarious writer, illustrator, promoter, creator, and organizer, Dino works nonstop to build up his own expansive resume as well as the industry itself. In February 2006, he started ACT-I-VATE, a web-based comics collective that features such series as Josh Neufeld’s “Lionel,” Kevin Colden’s “Fishtown,” Nick Bertozzi’s “Iraq War Stories,” and his own “Billy Dogma” and “Street Code,” the latter a terrific semiautobiographical tale set in New York City, where Dino was born and raised. Along the way, he has collaborated on prestigious projects with Harvey Pekar (AMERICAN SPLENDOR, THE QUITTER), Jonathan Lethem (the upcoming BACK ON NERVOUS ST.), Michael Chabon (THE ESCAPIST), and Jonathan Ames (THE ALCOHOLIC), and he contributes drawings and illustrations to Ames’s HBO cable series BORED TO DEATH, which features Zach Galifianakis playing a character inspired by Haspiel’s real life.

We caught up with Dino in one of his very few spare moments as he was preparing to spread the word about the ninth annual MoCCA Art Festival, a celebration of comics and graphic novels that will be held April 10-11 at the 69th Regiment Armory. In addition to being all over the fair, including participating in the panel discussion “The Art of the Superhero: When Singular Vision Meets Popular Mythology” on April 10 at 2:00, Haspiel will turn into alter ego DJ Man-Size at the official festival after-party later that night at the Village Pourhouse. “I’ll mostly be spinning old school hip-hop and electronica from the 1980s with a slant on future funk,” he explained. “Think black Kraftwerk . . . think Boba Fett with tassels instead of scalps.”

twi-ny: You’ve collaborated with such talented writers as Harvey Pekar, Jonathan Lethem, Michael Chabon, and Jonathan Ames; who is your next dream collaborator?

Dean Haspiel: I’ve been itching to collaborate with author Tim Hall on an original graphic novel and we have something planned. I’d also like to collaborate with mystery writer Joe R. Lansdale on adapting his brilliant Hap and Leonard characters into comics form. Plus, I don’t think my career would feel satisfactory if I hadn’t collaborated with some of my favorite comic book writers, the likes of Mark Waid, J. M. DeMatteis, and a handful of others.

twi-ny: Who is your favorite character to draw, whether created by you or another artist?

DH: My favorite characters to draw are my creator-owned Billy Dogma & Jane Legit. But I love drawing Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s the Thing from the Fantastic Four, and I was recently afforded the opportunity to write and draw a short Thing story in an upcoming issue of Marvel Comics’ Strange Tales sequel.

Jane Legit shows her love for Billy Dogma in Dean Haspiel’s “Bring Me the Heart of Billy Dogma,” from THE ACT-I-VATE PRIMER

twi-ny: On BORED TO DEATH, Zach Galifianakis’s Ray Hueston character is based on you. Is it easy to watch him, or does it hit a little too close to home?

DH: The Ray Hueston character on BORED TO DEATH is loosely based on some events that happened to me, but I don’t think Zach Galifianakis was subjected to a parallax view of my life and my behavioral traits by any stretch of the imagination. So, I can safely declare that Zach and Jonathan Ames have wholly created Ray from spirited, albeit inspired, cloth. However, I was recently privy to the filmmaking of a certain scene in the upcoming season and I remarked how bizarre it was to watch my proposed doppelganger play out an important event, something I never got the opportunity to do in my own life, and how frustrating yet weirdly cathartic that was for me.

twi-ny How do you find the time to do all the things you do, including serving as a relentless promoter of the comics industry?

DH: Don’t even get me started. If everyone on their chosen social networking sites would just share what they liked with the simple click of a button rather than whine about this and that and publish what they had for lunch, I might be able to shrug off my self-imposed burden to cheer what is good and, instead, produce more stories and eat dinner before 10 pm with the people I love to spend time with. Alas, the internet accesses a dark gene in humanity that encourages some folks to constantly complain and act like jerks and do things they wouldn’t dare do in front of real people. I don’t do anything that we all couldn’t do together if we just took a minute to think straight and understand our information and entertainment values.

This year’s MoCCA Art Festival runs April 10-11 at the 69th Regiment Armory, featuring such participants as Kim Deitch, Emily Flake, Jaime Hernandez. Neil Kleid, Peter Kuper, Hope Larson, Frank Miller, Paul Pope, Dash Shaw, Gahan Wilson, and Klein Award recipient David Mazzucchelli. Single tickets are $10 in advance, $12 day of show, with weekend tickets available for $15 in advance and $20 at the door. The official after-party will take place April 10 at the Village Pourhouse, with drink specials and free snacks beginning at 8:00; admission is $5.

DAPHANE PARK: SUPERCONDUCTOR

Dapahane Park prepares her “Superconductor” healing installation by circling it with a feather and burning incense (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Daphane Park prepares her “Superconductor” healing installation by circling it with a feather and smudging with burning incense (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Honeyspace
148 Eleventh Ave. between 21st & 22nd Sts.
Through Saturday, April 10, free, 11:00 am – 6:00 pm (9:00 on April 10)
www.honey-space.com
twi-ny slide show

New York-based artist Daphane Park has reimagined Wilhelm Reich’s controversial orgone accumulator in Chelsea’s Honeyspace gallery, creating an organic “Superconductor” where visitors can gather with friends or meditate on their own while experiencing its many mysteries. Primarily composed of raw silk and cotton held together by steel wire, the welcoming tentlike space, a striking combination of deep red, pink, gold, and silver, feels as if it has an energy, a life-force, all its own, enhanced by a subtle but powerful electronic noise soundtrack by David Marshall, Rachael Bell, and Derrick Barnicoat. Incorporating holistic healing methods with shamanistic ritual, Park gives a performance every day from 3:00 to 6:00, using the architectural structure in addition to a pair of symbolic hammocks, a piano with lighted candles and a black skull on it, and a platform of old, broken musical instruments. The exhibit, curated by Karen Dorothee Peters, ends on April 10 at 7:00 with Lance White Magpie, a direct descendant of Crazy Horse, performing a special Lakota shamanic ritual set to live music. To fully experience “Superconductor,” which Park also envisions as a type of renewal, be sure to take off your shoes and go inside the installation, where you will feel like you’re experiencing another level of emotional and psychological consciousness.

TIM BURTON

Creepy exhibition entrance leads to a treasure trove of Burtonalia (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Museum of Modern Art
West 54th St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Through April 26 (closed Tuesdays; Fridays free from 4:00 to 8:00)
Admission: $20 (includes same-day film screening), advance timed tickets recommended
212-708-9400
www.moma.org
www.timburton.com
twi-ny slideshow

There are only three weeks left in MoMA’s wildly popular Tim Burton retrospective, so you better hurry over if you want to see this vastly entertaining show. (The museum is even extending its hours over the last three days, staying open until 8:45.) More than seven hundred objects are on view, from early sketchbooks and movie models to watercolors and sculpture, from robots and wild short films (Stainboy gets a corridor all to himself!) to costumes and storyboards. It’s a carnival of excess, a virtual wonderland for fans of Burton’s eclecticism. While Burton’s movies are often hit (SWEENEY TODD, EDWARD SCISSORHANDS, SLEEPY HOLLOW, ED WOOD) or miss (BIG FISH, PLANET OF THE APES, BATMAN RETURNS), he has developed an often dazzling visual style that is evident throughout the exhibit. Raised in Burbank and currently based in London, Burton seems to have saved everything he has ever done, every idea that came his way, and has included it in the survey, from his early fascination with horror and Vincent Price to his foray into his own fractured fairy tales (just wait till you see the Hansel and Gretel show he made for Disney) and his creative reinvention of stop-motion animation. It’s all here, bringing to life the ecstatic imagination of a crazed genius who’s yet to fully grow up. (which is not necessarily a bad thing).

Mackinnon & Saunders, "General Bonesapart puppet," metal, cloth, resin, foam latex, and silicone, 2005 (photo by twi-ny/mdr; courtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc.)

Mackinnon & Saunders, "General Bonesapart puppet," metal, cloth, resin, foam latex, and silicone, 2005 (photo by twi-ny/mdr, figure courtesy Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc.)

Fans of Burton’s movies will have a field day with original drawings, vitrines filled with favorite characters, and a reel of the auteur’s earliest shorts, dating from when he was a teenager. In addition to the exhibit, the film series “Tim Burton and the Lurid Beauty of Monsters” still has several screenings left, including THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN’T DIE (Joseph Green, 1962) on April 8, Tex Avery cartoons on April 9, INVADERS FROM MARS (William Cameron, 1953) on April 16, and 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH (Nathan Juran, 1957) on April 25.