The Skinny on Art Events in New York:
With the first real blushes of autumn settling in this week, a certain wistfulness flushes a raft of shows and events focused on the backward glance. The Guggenheim, Whitney, and MoMA are all opening long-awaited survey shows of work by Picasso, Wade Guyton, and Alina Szapocznikow, respectively, and the Park Avenue Armory celebrates its birthday with a blowout bash fêting its transformation over the course of the last five years. But other institutions are looking forward as well, with new stars on the rise, as you'll see in this week's Skinny.
- WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3RD -
Failed States: a reading and talk at Art in General, 79 Walker Street, sixth floor, doors 6 p.m., reading at 6:30 p.m.
Artist Jill Magid reads from Failed States, her new nonfiction novel that engages the war on terror and its media presence, followed by a conversation with Daniel Kunitz, editor of Modern Painters.
Opening celebration for "Wade Guyton OS," Whitney Museum of American Art, 7 p.m. - 9 p.m. (through January 13th)
Museum initiates are invited to celebrate the opening of the highly anticipated midcareer survey of the New York-based artist's groundbreaking work, which explores our experiences of art in the wake of now common digital technologies. ("OS," of course, stands for "operating system.") The exhibition opens to the public on Thursday.
- THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4TH -
"Hue + Cry" curated by Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld at Sotheby's S2 Gallery, 1334 York avenue at 71st street, 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. (through October 21st)
The 27-year-old fashion-world scion and contemporary art dealer curates a selling exhibition at the eminent auction house, featuring works that expand on the vocabulary of Abstract Expressionism to impart a quality of hyperkinetic agitation. RSVP at hueandcry@nadinejohnson.com.
One-night-exhibition, book release and signing event at Karma, 21 Downing Street, 6 p.m. - 8 p.m.
Did you know that Gavin Brown's Enterprise has a bookstore called Karma? Well, it's host to a one-night exhibition of Laura Owens's "clock compositions" in conjunction with the launch of Clocks and Clock Paintings, a new publication reproducing the artist's paintings in book form. Alimentary refreshments will be on hand, as will the artist, who will sign copies of her new book.
5th Birthday Blowout After Party, Park Avenue Armory, 10 pm, $150 per person in advance, $175 at the door
For big spenders and even bigger partiers, the Park Avenue Armory is fêting its fifth birthday with a party following its gala fundraiser, featuring music by DJ Mick Boogie, an open bar, gift bags by Baggu (who sounds right for the job), and all-day breakfast fare from Wafels and Dinges, among other fun stuff.
- FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5TH -
Alternatives in Retrospect: Artist-Run Spaces in the 1970s and 1980s, New Museum, 7 p.m., free
In the 1970s and 1980s New York saw the emergence of many alternative art spaces, which proved critical for the cultivation of young artists. Art critic and former Artnet editor-in-chief Walter Robinson moderates a panel discussion at the museum featuring a cluster of artists who created such spaces.
"Picasso Black and White" opens at the Guggenheim (through January 23)
Covering the years 1904 to 1971, this highly anticipated new exhibition considers the artist's infatuation with a monochrome palette that evidences itself over 118 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper-and never drearily.
"Alina Szapocznikow: A Symposium" at MoMA, Theater 3 (The Celeste Bartos Theater), mezzanine, the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building, 12 p.m. - 5 p.m., $12; $10 members and corporate members; $5 students, seniors and staff of other museums
In conjunction with the museum's new "Alina Szapocznikow: Sculpture Undone, 1955-1972" exhibition, international scholars, curators and artists consider postwar Eastern European art and reexamine Szapocznikow's position within it and elsewhere.
Opening reception for Jonas Mekas "Images Out of Darkness" at James Fuentes gallery, 55 Delancey street, 6 p.m. - 8 p.m. (through October 28th)
This new exhibition of photographs recounts a slice of the pioneer of diaristic cinema's interval spent in postwar Germany at a displaced persons camp.
Opening reception for Katrín Sigurdardóttir's "Ellefu" at Eleven Rivington, (through November 4th)
The Icelandic artist, who will represent her country in the upcoming 2013 Venice Biennale, presents a show of intimate works, including three small-scale hydrocal and basswood sculptural renderings of interior segments of her childhood home in Reykjavik.
- SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6TH -
"Beyonsense: An Evening With Dr. John Perry and Slavs and Tatars," MoMA, 8 p.m. - 11 p.m., $14 in advance, $18 at the door
The ever popular PopRally hosts an evening introducing "Beyonsense," a wonderfully titled installation created in conjunction with the exhibition "Projects 98: Slavs and Tatars." The artist collective will join John Perry, a renowned scholar of Persian linguistics and the cultural history of Iran and the Middle East, to contextualize the project before live music by Tiffany Malakooti and a reception commences in the museum's contemporary galleries.
- SUNDAY, OCTOBER 7TH -
Guido van der Werve, Sara Jordenö, and Twiggy Pucci Garçon at MoMA PS1, 4 p.m. - 9 p.m.
The remarkable Guido van der Werve presents his requiem for Nummer veertien, home, with the American Symphony Orchestra at 4 p.m. followed by Sara Jordenö and Twiggy Pucci Garçon's "The Movement Ball" in collaboration with members of the Kiki Scene alongside a preview of their documentary, Gesture from 7 p.m. on.
Megan Kimball "The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook" at Marianne Boesky Gallery, 118 E 64 street, 4 p.m. - 6 p.m.
One lump or two? Chef Megan Kimball whips up a special afternoon tea in the gallery inspired by the 1954 Alice B. Toklas Cookbook, one the bestselling cookbooks of all time as well as a document of life with the arch-Modernist doyenne, Gertrude Stein. RSVP at employee@luciefontaine.com.
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- WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3RD -
Small Talk at the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, Kent and Vicki Logan Galleries, 1111 Eighth Street (at 16th and Wisconsin), San Francisco, 7 p.m. - 8 p.m., free
Constance M. Lewallen, adjunct curator at the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum, gives a mini talk in conjunction with the institute's Szeemann-riffing current exhibition "When Attitudes Became Form Become Attitudes."
Spartacus Chetwynd at Tate Britain, Auditorium, 6:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m., £9, discounts available, reservations highly recommended
The recently announced Turner Prize nominee discusses her widely acclaimed practice, which incorporates cultural histories in sculptural installations and carnivalesque performances.
- THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4TH -
"Unidentified Influences: Artists on Cindy Sherman," SFMOMA, Phyllis Wattis Theater, 7 p.m., $10 general; $7 SFMOMA members, students, and seniors
To mark the closing of the museum's display of the touring Cindy Sherman exhibition, MoMA curator Eva Respini and artists Lynn Hershman Leeson, Katy Grannan, and Desirée Holman consider the range of influence that the artist's work has exerted on their own practices.
Opening reception for "Marianne Kolb" at Hespe Gallery, 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. (through October 27th)
The gallery presents a new body of work by the artist with a penchant for isolated narratives.
- FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5TH -
Grand opening reception of David Zwirner's new London gallery with Luc Tuymans's "Allo!", at 24 Grafton Street, 6 p.m. - 8 p.m. (through November 17th)
The highly regarded blue-chip gallery is opening its first European outpost—in a five-floor, 10,000-square-foot former bank that was overhauled by the go-to Selldorf Architects—with a show of new paintings by Zwirner star Luc Tuymans.
Good Fridays at the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, 5 p.m. - 10 p.m.
Score half-price admission and a cash bar while roaming the museum's galleries after hours, just like Andy would have done.
