The Little Island off the Big City

I was browsing through my New York Times this morning when I came upon a story that made me smile for the sake of art. It appears that the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council has been selected to run an artist’s studio and exhibition space on Governors Island.

What is Governor’s Island? Situated just 800 yards from Lower Manhattan (and even closer to Brooklyn), for two centuries it was a military base for the Army and Coast Guard. In 1996 it was “mothballed” by the U.S. government and sold to the people of New York for $1.00 in 2003. Today, 150 acres of the island are governed by the Governors Island Preservation & Education Corporation and the remaining 22-acres are considered a National Monument which contains two early 19th century efforts.

The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, responsible for rejuvenating the arts downtown after the 2001 terrorist attacks. It’s also well know for creating and providing studio spaces for artists all over Manhattan, beginning with its World Views Program at the WTC in 1997. Their latest project will include a year-round artist residency on Governor’s Island, and weekend events. The residences will provide space for all walks of creative life from dance to writing to painting and sculpture. The group will organize shows of the residents’ art as well. The artists will keep bankers’ hours on the island: Monday to Friday, 9 to 5. (No overnight stays are permitted.) But during the island’s “public access” season — from the end of May to mid-October — artists will also be in their studios from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.

The building is to have 30 artist and three rehearsal studios, and the council plans to have up to three performing-artists, dance or theater ensembles and up to 20 visual artists’ studios at one time. Residencies will last three weeks in the public-access season, and three months the rest of the year.

All I can say is YEAH! And, that I’ll be taking a little trip to the island the next time I’m in the big city.

Alexander Calder at the Whitney

I don’t remember when or how I was introduced to Alexander Calder’s work. He just seems to have always been in my life. I remember being a Girl Scout (maybe even a wee Brownie) and when we made mobiles during craft time, Calder was an example we worked against.

As a young teenager, if you’d have asked me who was my favorite “modern” artist I would have said Calder. Partially, because I really loved his work, and mostly because he was probably the only “modern” artist I knew other than say Picasso.

This week the Whitney in New York is opening an exhibition of Alexander Calder’s work. Of course, I’d love to go. It wasn’t until my early 20’s when I got to experience his Circus-which is part of the Whitney’s permanent collection. And frankly, it’s my favorite. The show is focused on his years in Paris, from the ages of 27 to 34, when he created his first wire drawings in space, created the Circus, and invented his signature mobiles.

Of course, I’m going to find a way to go. The show runs through the middle of February.

For more info on the show, go to http://www.whitney.org/
While you’re there, make sure to check out the ‘Signs of the Time’ photography exhibition in the Sondra Gilman Gallery. It features pieces from the museums permanent collection, including some awesome work by Sam Durant, Gordon Parks, James Casebere, Zoe Leonard, Katy Grannan, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Sam Samore and Sara VanDerBeek, among others.

The Right Way to Be a Collector

I know I sound like a broken record, but it's true. I wish I had millions of dollars to collect art and literature. If I did I would follow in the footsteps of someone who I never thought I'd look to as a model for modern art collecting.

The New York Times announced today that Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich is selling a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting from his art collection that could set a new auction record for the artist. The painting entitled "(untitled) Boxer" is one of my favorites. Like the majority of Basquiat's paintings it screams of urban folk art and the 80's in New York City. Looking at it makes me think of the pre-Gulianni, rough streets and the raw energy and danger of that time in history.

Starting today Christie’s will be showing the painting in its King Street galleries in London. It will also be the cover image of the sales catalog for the New York auction on Nov. 12. While the economy is shaky right now, Ulrich doesn't expect there to be any trouble selling the work. Brett Gorvy, a co-head of Christie's postwar and contemporary art department agrees. “We’re talking about a very finite amount of material by an artist who died young,” Although Christie’s coyly states that the sales estimate can be obtained “on request,” Mr. Gorvy said it could bring $12 million to $16 million.

Art collectors in general wonder if the painting will fare as well as an untitled Basquiat canvas from 1981 — of a primitive figure with clenched teeth, his oversize hands held high in the air — that brought $14.6 million at auction last year, a record for the artist.

Ulrich has owned the painting for the last 10 years, and feels like its time to put it back out into the market so that other collectors can appreciate it. A lovely thought. This is the last piece of Basquiat's work that Ulrich owns. He has within the last five years auctioned off two other pieces by the late painter.

Hopefully, whomever next acquires the painting will hold the same altruistic mindset as Ulrich. It would be a shame for this amazing piece to dissapear into a private collection, never to be displayed in public again.