Well well well. I’ve been remiss. Mis disculpas.
It’s the end of summer, a hot one. Heat domes and rain storms. And me, chilly at the office, hoarding money, all this year. I have done so much the past few years and when you do so much, the Rothkos bleed, the crowds annoy, the purse empties. I plan to be much more selective in the future. Wishful thinking, I know.
Yes, the world is ending, and here we are. Friends are tired of this place. They all talk about moving. Rent is too high, there are no boyfriends, etc. I talk sense. You’re going to move? To where? Let me tell you, your skin is going to sag because there’s nothing to do. The pettiness, the lagging, the horrible landscapes. Can you imagine? Yes, you can. It’s why we left those places, and why we stay here, because this is what we do. Because cool guys don’t sit in shop windows playing Bach in Kansas City. You couldn’t even get a fucking endive there until recently. What about L.A.? It will soon convulse and burst into flames, and you will be very thirsty. Upstate? Gardens are work, and you will go blind from a swimming hole amoeba. No, no, no, you belong here. With me. Dodging pit-bulls and shoring up free will in noodle shops. Look, another perfect 10 just walked by. Retinal gold. God, I need to get to the gym! Let’s see a fresh new movie, walk through Washington Square Park, and take cars home. That’s Friday night. Saturday we hit the galleries with lattés (well, not this month, but soon). Sunday is for lunch and shopping in SoHo, cheap seats at Joyce. After, let’s talk about the wide world over drinks, we’re at the center of it, we can see everything from here.
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Art
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Candy Jernigan at Green Naftali
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Gallery summer hours oppress like the heat dome, like stalled subways, like bedtime. Double check before you go, since most galleries are closed on the weekends.
The two most talked-about shows on right now—besides the Whitney Biennial and the Camp show at the Met—are Mrinalini Mukherjee’s fiber sculptures at the Met Breuer (see Uptown), and Heather Dewey-Hagborg’s scientific experiments at Fridman (see Downtown).
As always, it is easiest to plug these into an app. I recommend Artforum or SeeSaw. Both create maps for you.
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Chelsea
Terry Winters at Lehman Maupin
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- Candy Jernigan, “To, From,” at Greene Naftali, 508 W 26th, through Friday, August 9
- “7 Painters,” a group show, at Greene Naftali, 508 W 26th, through Friday, August 9
- “Painters Reply: Experimental Paintings in the 1970s and Now,” a group show, at both Lisson Gallery locations, 504 W 24th, and 138 10th Ave, through Friday, August 9
- André Butzer, at Metro Pictures, 519 W 24, through Friday, August 9
- “Levity/Density,” a group show with the gallery’s best artists, at Kasmin, 509 W 27, through Friday, August 16
- “Richard Forster: Notes on Architecture,” at Flag Art Foundation, 545 W 25, 9th Floor, through Friday, August 16
- “Sam Gilliam: New Works on Paper,” at Flag Art Foundation, 545 W 25, 9th Floor, through Friday, August 16
- “cart, horse, cart,” a group show with Cecily Brown, Terry Winters, et al., at both Lehmann Maupin locations, 536 W 22 and 501 W 24, through Saturday, August 17
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Uptown
Walt Whitman manuscripts and photos at Morgan Library
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- “Studio Photography: 1887 – 2019,” a group show, at Simon Lee, 26 E 64, through August 16
- “Streams and Mountains Without End: Landscape Traditions of China,” at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 5th Ave at 82, through Sunday, August 18
- Leticia Ramos, “Resiliency and Reverberation,” intersting abstract photos and video of light smears, at Mendes Wood DM, 60 E 66, through Saturday, August 24
- Kurt Schwitters, “A Selection of Collages,” at Nahmad Contemporary, 980 Madison at 76, trhough Saturday, August 24
- “Plein Air Sketching in the North,” a group show of eighteenth century German, Danish, and Norwegian landscapes, Morgan Library & Museum, 225 Madison Ave at 36, through Sunday, August 25
- James Whistler, “Whistler as Printmaker,” Frick Collection, 1 E 70, through Thursday, September 1
- George Grosz, “Eclipse of the Sun: Art of the Weimar Republic,” at Neue Galerie New York, 1048 5th Ave at 86, through Monday, September 2
- “Camp: Notes on Fashion,” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 5th Ave at 82, through Sunday, September 8
- Walt Whitman, “Bard of Democracy,” Morgan Library & Museum, 225 Madison Ave at 36, through Sunday, September 15
- Mrinalini Mukherjee, “Phenomenal Nature,” with the artists fiber sculptures, rave reviews, at Met Breuer, 945 Madison at 75, through Sunday, September 29
- Robert Mapplethorpe, “Implicit Tensions: Mapplethorpe Now,” at Guggenheim, 1071 5th Ave at 89, through Sunday, January 5, 2020
- “Artistic License: Six Takes on the Guggenheim Collection,” a group show curated by six artists, at Guggenhiem,1071 5th Ave at 89, through Sunday, January 12
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Downtown
Ryan Martin at Elizabeth Houston
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- Heather Dewey-Hagborg, “At the Temperature of My Body,” at Fridman Gallery, 169 Bowery, LES, through Friday, August 9. Lots of press for this conceptual show involving DNA, surveillance, and other scientific phenomena
- Ryan Martin, “Moxie,” at Elizabeth Houston Gallery, 190 Orchard, LES, through Thursday, August 15
- Andy Mattern, “Normal Pictures,” conceptual photographs of conceptual cardboard diagrams, at Elizabeth Houston Gallery, 190 Orchard, LES, through Thursday, August 15
- “COFFEE,” a group show somehow involving a Japanese coffee shop, at Situations, 127 Henry, LES, through Thursday, August 15
- “Future Starts Slow,” a small, well curated group show, at LAUNCH F18, 373 Broadway, just below Canal, through Sunday, August 17
- Amanda C. Mathis, “Collage Dwellings,” photographic collages of houses, at Lesley Heller Gallery, 54 Orchard, LES, through Sunday August 17
- “You Can’t Win: Jack Black’s America,” a group show named for Mr. Black’s book, curated by Randy Kennedy, and featuring a fantastic Martin Wong painting, at Fortnight Institute, 60 E 4, through Sunday, August 18 (the Press Release is interesting)
- Harald Szeemann, “Grandfather: A Pioneer Like Us,” at Swiss Institute, 38 St. Mark’s Place, East Village, through Sunday, August 18
- “MELT,” a group show of abstracted figurative paintings at new gallery CHART, 74 Franklin, TriBeCa, through Friday, August 23
- Group exhibition of subdued abstract paintings by female artists at Anita Rogers Gallery, 15 Greene St, SoHo, through Friday, August 30
- Group show with Henni Alftan, Matt Hilvers, Ruth Ige, and Andrew Sim at Karma, 188 E 2, East Village, Thursday, August 8 – Sunday, September 15
- “Whitney Biennial,” Whitney Museum of American Art, Meatpacking, through September 22
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Outside Manhattan
Pierre Cardin at Brooklyn Museum
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- Simone Fattal, “Works and Days,” PS1, 22-25 Jackson Ave, Long Island City, through Monday, September 2
- Gina Beavers, “The Life I Deserve,” PS1, 22-25 Jackson Ave, Long Island City, through Monday, September 2
- “Pierre Cardin: Future Fashion,” at Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, through Sunday, January 5, 2020
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Film
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Double Blind (aka No Sex Last Night) (1996), dir Sophie Calle
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New Releases
- Luce, starring Naomi Watts, Octavia Spencer, and Tim Roth, dir. Julius Onah (Cloverfield Paradox), opens August 2
- The Nightingale, with Aisling Franciosi and Sam Flaflin, dir. Jennifer Kent (The Babadook), opens August 2
- The Kitchen, with Melissa McCarthy and Elizabeth Moss, dir. Andrea Berloff (writer of Straight Outta Compton), opens August 9
- After the Wedding, with Michelle Williams, Julianne Moore, and Billy Crudup, dir. Bart Freundlich, opens August 9
- Where’d You Go, Bernadette, with Cate Blanchett, Billy Crudup, Kristen Wiig, dir. Richard Linklater, opens August 16
- Adam, with Nicholas Alexander and Margaret Qualley, dir. Rhys Ernst
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Series
- “50th Mixtape,” A good lineup of free double features at Film at Lincoln Center, every Thursday through September 11
- “Scary Movies“—as described—at Film at Lincoln Center, August 16 – 21
- “Make My Day,” iconic 80s films, at Film at Lincoln Center, August 23 – September 2
- “Burt Lancaster,” at Film Forum, through August 15
- Get your fix of corny films like Valley of the Dolls and The Deep at “Beach Reads: From Sands to Screen,” at Quad, August 7 – 15
- Machiko Kyō, who starred in Rashomon, and who died this past May, inspired the eponymous film series at Metrograph, showing through August 11
- “Minnelli Widescreen,” with 12 Vincente Minelli films in 35mm, including Some Came Running, at Metrograph, August 16 – 22
- “Abbas Kiarostami: A Retrospective,” has almost all of the director’s amazing films, at IFC through August 15
Short Runs and Engagements
- Joan the Maid (1994), parts 1 and 2, dir. Jacques Rivette, at Quad, through August 8
- A Faithful Man (2019), dir. Louis Garrell, at Quad, through August 8
Film Calendar
Friday, August 9
24 Frames (2017), dir. Abbas Kiarostami
7:25 p.m., IFC Center
Saturday, August 10
They Live By Night (1948), dir. Nicholas Ray, in 35mm
3:00 p.m., Metrograph
Class Relations (1984), dir. Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub
3:30 p.m., Film at Lincoln Center
Sunday, August 11
Double Blind (aka No Sex Last Night) (1996), dir. Sophie Calle, and Video Girls and Video Songs for Navajo Sky (1973), dir. Shigeko Kubota
2:00 p.m., Film at Lincoln Center
Class Relations (1984), dir. Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub
4:15 p.m., Film at Lincoln Center
Showgirls (1995), dir. Paul Verhoeven
6:45 p.m., Film at Lincoln Center
Monday, August 12
Prison Images (2000), dir. Harun Farocki
7:00 p.m., Film at Lincoln Center
Tuesday, August 13
24 Frames (2017), dir. Abbas Kiarostami
4:55 p.m., IFC Center
Saturday, August 17
Pather Panchali (1955), dir. Satyajit Ray
11:00 a.m., IFC Center
Tea and Sympathy (1956), dir. Vincente Minnelli, in 35mm
1:30 p.m., Metrograph
Orpheus (1950), dir. Jean Cocteau
6:15 p.m., Anthology Film Archives
Midsommar (Director’s Cut) (2019), dir. Ari Aster
6:45 p.m., Film at Lincoln Center
Sunday, August 18
Pather Panchali (1955), dir. Satyajit Ray
11:00 a.m., IFC Center
Some Came Running (1958), dir. Vincente Minnelli, in 35mm
6:15 p.m., Metrograph
Tuesday, August 20
The Abyss (1989), dir. James Cameron, hosted by critic Matt Zoller Seitz
7:00 p.m., IFC Center
Monday, August 26
9 to 5 (1980), dir. Colin Higgins
8:00 p.m., IFC Center
Friday, August 30
Le Rayon Vert (1986), dir. Eric Rohmer, in 35mm
7:00 p.m., Metrograph
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Dance
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There is almost nothing happening this month in dance, so I can offer only one link: Ballet Festival at Joyce, August 6 – 18, with four programs, and tickets starting at $10
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Music
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Cool guy Marino Formenti plays Bach, et al., ad infinitum at Goethe-Institut New York Library
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Mostly Mozart Festival continues through August 10.
TIME:SPANS, a wild new music festival at The DiMenna Center, runs August 10 – 21, with nightly performaces at 8:00 p.m., all priced at $20, with a series pass for $70. Highlights (for me) are JACK Quartet performing with IRCAM engineers, and Enno Poppe’s Fleisch.
If you did not get to see last month’s performances at The Bach Store, take heart! The spirit of Marina Abramowić lives on! As part of TIME:SPANS, pianist Marino Formenti will perform 12 hours a day, from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. at the Goethe-Institut (near Union Square), from August 14 – August 28. Formenti will play music by, yes, Bach, but also Morton Feldman (good choice, rest those fingers) and…Nirvana? The performance will be live-streamed, for all those sorry folks who live elsewhere.
Music Calendar
Tovey's List 