this week in art

BROOKLYN COMICS AND GRAPHICS FESTIVAL

brooklyncomics

Our Lady of Conservation Church, 194 Metropolitan Ave. between Berry St. & Bedford Ave., 11:00 am – 7:00 pm
Secret Project Robot, 128 River St. at Metropolitan Ave., 1:00 – 6:00 pm
Death by Audio, 49 South Second St. between Kent & Wythe, 9:00 – ?
Saturday, December 5, free
www.comicsandgraphicsfest.com

Many of the finest practitioners of the graphic novel will be on hand for what looks to be quite the excellent free three-part festival in Williamsburg today. The stellar lineup of guest artists includes Charles Burns, Dash Shaw, R. Sikoryak, Kim Deitch, Gary Panter, Adrian Tomine, and more than a dozen others, along with such exhibitors as Drawn & Quarterly, Le Dernier Cri, Nieves, House of Twelve, the collective Uninhabitable Mansions, and many more. Exhibitors and signings will take place at Our Lady of Conservation Church, with the exact schedule available at the above Web Site. Five panel discussions will be held down the street at Secret Project Robot every hour beginning at 1:00, including the great Ben Katchor talking about the great JULIUS KNIPL, REAL ESTATE PHOTOGRAPHER and THE JEW OF NEW YORK, as well as his other works that chronicle old-time city life, at 3:00, followed by Bill Kartolopoulus moderating “Flatlands: Comics on the Picture Plane” with Lisa Hanawalt, Mark Newgarden, Ron Regé Jr., and David Sandlin. The fest concludes at Death by Audio, with live performances by such artists and bands as Kites, Ambergris, Sam Gas Can, Boogie Boarder, Nick Gazin, Graffiti Monsters, and Dubbknowdubb.

FIRST SATURDAYS: LIGHT UP THE SEASON

James Tissot, detail, “Jesus Goes Up Alone onto a Mountain to Pray,” opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper, 1886−94

Brooklyn Museum of Art
200 Eastern Parkway
Saturday, December 5, free after 5:00 (some events require advance free tickets available an hour or two before showtime)
718-638-5000
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The Brooklyn Museum’s monthly First Saturdays program welcomes in the holiday season with a flurry of free activity tonight, much of which surrounds the James Tissot exhibition “The Life of Christ,” including a rare screening of LA VIE DU CHRIST (THE LIFE OF CHRIST) (Alice Guy Blaché, 1906), a concert of liturgic music by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, and a Young Voices gallery talk about the Tissot show. In addition, Pete Fornatale will discuss his new book, BACK TO THE GARDEN: THE STORY OF WOODSTOCK, in conjunction with the “Who Shot Rock & Roll” photography exhibit; there will be live performances by a trio of Dutch groups, Michael Varekamp’s Caribbean jazz ensemble, EveNi, and Lee-Ursus Alexander, in honor of the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s travels to New York; the Hands-On Art workshop will teach participants how to make a stained-glass window; Beatlemania continues with a screening of Richard Lester’s 1964 classic comedy A HARD DAY’S NIGHT; and Soul Summit hosts the hot and sweaty dance party. There really is nothing quite like First Saturdays, an energizing mix of art, music, film, literature, dance, and more, held the first Saturday of every month to an ever-growing crowd.

ROBERT FRANK

Robert Frank, “Contact Sheet from The Americans,” gelatin silver print, 1955-56 (© Robert Frank)

Pace/MacGill Gallery
32 East 57th St.
Through December 5
Admission: free
212-759-7999
www.pacemcgill.com
www.metmuseum.org

In 1955-56, Robert Frank traveled across the country, documenting the state of the nation. He compiled eighty-three of his photographs in the controversial book THE AMERICANS, which was published to acclaim and outrage in 1959. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the seminal work with a gorgeous exhibition that features a black-and-white gelatin print of each of the photographs, shown in order along the walls of several galleries, capturing the spirit and triumph of the photo series (and supplemented with original contact sheets and a sample of Frank’s working process). Never seen before in this way in New York City, the photo suite is a stunning depiction of a country experiencing dramatic change. The must-see show continues through January 3, but there are only two days left to visit a companion exhibit at Midtown’s Pace/McGill Gallery. Pace/McGill is displaying a series of enlarged contact sheets from THE AMERICANS that are telling in their own right, especially when seen alongside such individual photos as “Parade – Hoboken, New Jersey” and “Trolley – New Orleans,” both of which have frames within frames, echoing the contact-sheet grids. Pace/McGill also has a wonderful series of photos Frank took in 1957-58 from the window of a moving New York City bus in addition to color and black-and-white photos from the 1980s.

JEREMY WADE: THERE IS NO END TO MORE

Jeremy Wade presents multimedia production at Japan Society this weekend (illustration © Hiroki Otsuka)

Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
December 3-5, $20, 7:30
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org

Continuing its “Japan Transatlantic: Tokio-Berlin” performing arts series, the Japan Society will present the world premiere of the specially commissioned THERE IS NO END TO MORE by American choreographer Jeremy Wade this weekend. Wade, who won a Bessie Award for his 2006 DTW show, GLORY, combines text, animation, and manga video in this new multimedia production that cynically examines Japanese kawaii culture. Wade, who is currently based in Berlin, is the director and cowriter, with Marcos Rosales, of THERE IS NO END TO MORE, which will be performed by Jared Gradinger and features music by Brendan Dougherty, sets by architects Katja Mitte and Henning Ströh, and animation and video by Hiroki Otsuka.

TED RALL

yearofloving

THE YEAR OF LOVING DANGEROUSLY (NBM, October 15, 2009, $18.95)
MoCCA Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art
594 Broadway, suite 401
Thursday, December 3, $5, 7:00 pm
212-254-3511
www.moccany.org
www.nbmpub.com

In the summer of 1984, Columbia student Ted Rall suddenly found himself with no money and no place to live. To survive, he went on an unending quest using the only thing he apparently had left – his sex appeal. Going to bars, protest events, parties, the dorms, and anywhere else women might be, he hooked up primarily to have a place to sleep. Rall, who has published such successful politically driven works as THE SILK ROAD TO RUIN and TO AFGHANISTAN AND BACK, tells his compelling personal story in the excellent graphic novel THE YEAR OF LOVING DANGEROUSLY, which features fab full-color illustrations by Pablo G. Callejo (BLUESMAN). Throughout the story, Rall does not portray himself as some hot stud muffin hopping from bed to bed with reckless abandon, a master conqueror of women; instead, he merely goes with the flow, doing his best to be at least a little considerate until things start getting a bit out of hand. In his foreword, Rall writes that the book “is a chronicle of desperation, of how easy it is for anyone – even a white male attending an Ivy League school – to fall off the merry-go-round of U.S.-style laissez faire capitalism.” And to put it all in proper perspective, the Happy Hooker herself, Xaviera Hollander, contributes an introduction. Rall will be discussing his “annus horribilis” and signing copies of the book at MoCCA on December 3 at 7:00.

THE RED BOOK DIALOGUES

C.G. Jung (1875-1961); Page 105 from the Red Book; 1914-1930; Pigments on paper; Courtesy of the Foundation of the Works of C.G. Jung

C. G. Jung, page 105 from THE RED BOOK, pigments on paper, 1914-30 (courtesy of the Foundation of the Works of C. G. Jung)

Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th St. at Seventh Ave.
Tickets: $15-$25 ($7 student rate for some programs)
Through January 24
212-620-5000
www.rmanyc.org/redbook

In conjunction with the intriguing exhibit “The Red Book of C. G. Jung,” the Rubin Museum is continuing its special Red Book Dialogues series, as artists of all kinds sit down with psychoanalysts and discuss a specific folio from Jung’s unpublished tome, which is on view in the gallery right outside the auditorium. The series has already featured programs with Gloria Vanderbilt, Albert Maysles, Alice Walker, and David Byrne; up next are such figures as performance artist Marina Abramovic on December 3, New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik on December 7, theater director Andre Gregory on December 9, filmmaker Jonathan Demme on January 11, composer John Adams on January 13, and poet Tracy K. Smith on January 24.

JOHANNES VERMEER: THE MILKMAID

Johannes Vermeer, "The Milkmaid," oil on canvas, about 1657–58

Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Ave. at 82nd St.
Sunday, Tuesday – Thursday 9:30 am – 5:30 pm, Friday – Saturday 9:30 am – 9:00 pm
Through Sunday, November 29
Recommended admission: $20
212-535-7710
www.metmuseum.org

When we were kids, we loved this picture our grandparents had on their wall, first in their Brooklyn apartment and later in their one-story Fort Lauderdale home. It showed this zaftig woman pouring milk into a bowl. We were little, so we didn’t really know much about it, only that it kept calling out to us, continually capturing our attention. It was many years before we came to learn that it was of an early masterpiece by a Dutch painter named Johannes Vermeer (1632-75), so it was with much trepidation and excitement that we recently approached the real deal. In honor of the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s voyage from Amsterdam to New York, the Rijksmuseum has lent the painting to the Met; the work has not been on view in the city for more than sixty years. And we’re happy to report that it lives up to all our expectations and childhood wonderment. Painted around 1657-58, “The Milkmaid” is a triumph of light and shadow, of color and composition, photographic in quality. Blues, greens, and reds dominate the lower half of the frame, with earth-toned colors balancing out the upper sections. In the center, a young woman gently pours a trickle of milk, as if considering her sexuality. The Met has supplemented the exhibit with all five of its Vermeer holdings – “A Maid Asleep,” “Young Woman with a Water Pitcher,” “Woman with a Lute,” “Allegory of the Catholic Faith,” and “Study of a Young Woman” – along with works by such Vermeer contemporaries as Pieter de Hooch, Nicolaes Maes, and Gerard ter Borch, placing it in historical context. Seeing “The Milkmaid” up close and personal is an absolute thrill.