Rainer Judd wearing a black column dress by award-winning fashion designer, Yeohlee Teng aside ‘Untitled,’ 1978 a classic Donald Judd stack piece. 101 Spring Street, New York City, June 3, 2010.The ground floor of the building was transformed into a summer picnic area complete with Judd-designed tables and benches made from unfinished modest pine with a buffet of rare steak, fries, arugula, and prosciutto served by Giorgio Deluca, one of the founders of the pioneering SoHo gourmet food emporium Dean & Deluca.  Rainer Judd took center stage and kicked off the campaign with a tribute to her parents: “101 Spring Street has been called the ‘jewel of SoHo’ because it glows at night with a Dan Flavin sculpture made especially for the 5th floor, and because an artist named Don Judd and his wife Julie took a stand, along with a small renegade community of artists, against Robert Moses’ plans to raze the entire neighborhood to build the Broome Street Expressway – and won!  If there’s any surviving building in SoHo that captures the vision of a single artist, the spirit of loft-living, and the art of a generation, it is 101 Spring Street.”  It would be undeniably worthy if the new guard of SoHo, major brands like Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Chanel, J Crew, etc., stepped up to the plate and contributed to the restoration of this visionary building where one artist had the brilliant idea to merge art, architecture and life and in so doing rescued what is now the world-famous cobbled grid SOuth of Houston, SoHo.  Donate to the Judd Foundation at: http://www.juddfoundation.org/donate.htm

http://www.artnet.com/Magazine/people/barone/barone9-10-04.asp

‘This is the way the fucking world ends! Look at this fucking shit we're in man! Not with a bang, but with a whimper. And with a whimper, I'm fucking splitting…’ the Photojournalist portrayed by Dennis Hopper in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 war film epic Apocalypse Now.

Like so many hardcore lines uttered in Francis Ford Coppola’s legendary Vietnam War film Apocalypse Now (translated in over 30 languages), the purely visual terms of war paintings by Otto Dix (1891-1969), namely his lost epic painting Schützengraben ‘Trench,’ cast forth in honest detail ‘the horror’ from the front line of war where Dix, a youthful budding artist, went in search of meaning.  No artist is as strongly linked to the historical events of twentieth-century World War I Germany as Dix.  Driven out of his position by the Nazis, he was able to live and paint long enough to see his work hailed again for its unique power. http://www.neuegalerie.org/exhibitions/otto-dix

In his 125-page biography Otto Dix, The Art of Life, the German art historian Philipp Gutbrod concisely examines the artist through the lens of this long lost masterpiece Schützengraben ‘Trench,’ and in so doing provides the reader vast insights into Dix’s creative impulse. Beginning with his childhood and youth in Thuringia, on to art school in Dresden and, soon after in 1915 at the French front in the Champagne region fighting as a machine gunner, Gutbrod eloquently recounts the artist’s fearless creative path.  He writes that in1963, while reflecting on World War I, Dix explained his lengthy participation in the war: ‘I had to see it for myself.  I am a realist to such a degree that I had to see it with my own eyes to be able to confirm that it is how it is.’

Philipp Gutbrod at the Andrea Rosen Gallery, Chelsea, NYC, May 12, 2010, with work by George Condo.

Otto Dix, The Art of Life by Philipp Gutbrod published by Hatje Cantz Verlag is available on May 31, 2010 online at http://www.artbook.com/9783775725811.html
and at the Neue Galerie bookstore http://www.neuegalerie.org/shops/Book%20Store

Chef Gutenbrunner test-driving his Nürnberg Bratwurst at a Taste of Tribeca preview, April 28, 2010

On the Eve of the 16th annual Taste of Tribeca a celebration of over 60 restaurants and chefs in lower Manhattan, my mouth watered reviewing some of the dishes to be served up like Nürnberg Bratwurst, a mini bratwurst with sauerkraut, potatoes, horseradish and watercress carefully developed by the wildly talented Kurt Gutenbrunner of Blaue Gans, a Tribeca outpost favored by art world cognoscenti. Other menu highlights include a braised lamb neck and carrot ravioli with koppert cress pea shoots, the invention of chef Marc Forgione of two-year old restaurant Marc Forgione and Nobu chef Ricky Estrellado’s chicken karaage with green mango and jicama slaw.

Taste of Tribeca invites food lovers to the annual school fundraiser on Saturday, May 15 from 11:30 am to 3pm on Duane Street (between Greenwich and Hudson). The fabulous outdoor event, centered along Greenwich Street, completely supports arts programs like music and dancing as well as science classes at Tribeca’s PS 234 and 150 public schools. Tickets are $40 in advance and $45 on the day of which buys six generously portioned tastes. It’s a recession special like no other and with a forecast for sunny skies and temperatures in the 70s it’s bound to be the toast of downtown. Tickets can be purchased at www.tasteoftribeca.org

Molissa Fenley performs ‘Variation II’ from “Dreaming Awake,” 2006 a work she choreographed with music by Philip Glass performed by Pedja Muzijevic, at Danspace Project 2010 Gala honoring Philip Glass, NYC, April 27, 2010.

On an unseasonable chilly spring evening, the dance world came out in full force to celebrate Philip Glass, one of the greatest American composers of the late 20^th century. On April 27, Glass received the highest honors given by Danspace Project for his significant contributions to American dance and his major impact on international art and culture.   Born in 1937 in Baltimore, Maryland he studied at the University of Chicago, the Julliard School and in Aspen with Darius Milhaud but gained his musical footing in Europe under the tutelage of the legendary pedagogue, Nadia Boulanger  (who also taught Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson and Quincy Jones) and from his work with sitar virtuoso and composer Ravi Shankar.  In 1967 Glass returned to New York and formed the Philip Glass Ensemble and the rest is (art) history.

Fellow music pioneer Laurie Anderson and the painter Chuck Close each gave personal accounts of their respective creative collaborations with Glass.  Chuck Close reminisced the early years of his friendship with the composer at the moment in the late 60s ‘before Soho was Soho, when it was just industrial New York [and] so much was shared then, so much was in the air.’  He made the point that ‘it wasn’t direct influence but a kind of back and forth.  There were painters and composers – not just Phil but Steve Reich – and dancers like Trisha Brown.  And we all showed up for each other.  All Phil’s early performances were in museums and art galleries, for example.  The music world was way not understanding.'

Now in it’s 35^th season, Danspace Project continues to support a diverse range of choreographers in developing their work.  Danspace Project’s Commissioning Initiative has commissioned over 360 new works since its inception in 1994.  Support Danspance Project at:  http://www.danspaceproject.org/support/gala.html

Martin Creed, London, 1998. Photograph by Mary BaroneReturning to New York this weekend for his third solo exhibition at Gavin Brown’s enterprise (GBE), Creed will continue to wow the masses creating a spectacular site-specific installation remaking the entire gallery floor at GBE’s 620 Greenwich Street space with a horizontal arrangement of more than 100 types of marble from around the world all sourced through a foundry in Carrera, Italy.  Creed said he likes to think of the piece as the whole world, a line that forms a linear equation of a permanent installation he created in 2003 to inaugurate the GBE space when it relocated from 15th Street to 620 Greenwich Street. Work No 300: the whole world + the work = the whole world, a black painted text wrapping around the corner of the GBE building’s white brick façade is a mission statement, a manifesto declaring the continuity between artistic gesture and everyday life.

Seven years later, GBE will inaugurate another space, a gallery expansion into the old LaFrieda Meat Purveyors building next door at 601 Washington where Creed will premiere a new work: a film of an erection, a 35mm black and white film of the torso of a naked man in profile achieving an erection. Like a time-lapsed photographic study of manhood, a film of an erection is accompanied by a new chromatic composition by Creed played by a live violinist from the Manhattan School of Music during the run of the exhibition. He will also show Work No.909, a black stage curtain calibrated to open and close at regular intervals.  The three separate rigorously time-based artworks have not been sequenced and will take on natural rhythms.  While the violinist moves up and down a 12-note scale, the curtains will flowingly open and close all the while the film of a man’s penis slowly rises up and down.  States of flux never felt so tranquil.

Martin Creed in rehearsal with violinist Akiko Kobayashi at the newly expanded Gavin Brown enterprises (GBE), 601 Washington, New York City, May 7, 2010 (photograph by Mary Barone)Martin Creed at Gavin Brown’s enterpise (GBE) opens May 9, 2010 with a reception for the artist from 4-6pm.  The exhibition will be on view through June 19, 2010. http://www.gavinbrown.biz/

 Author and journalist, Arianna Huffington, co-founder of the “Huffington Post” at the Pierre Hotel, April 8, 2010

In the past decade, women-owned businesses have nearly doubled and surveys report 80% of consumer goods purchasing decisions are made by women, so it came as no surprise on April 8th to find the ballroom of New York’s Pierre Hotel jam-packed with women from the worlds of music, fashion, business and media decked out in their finest in support of the Coalition for the Homeless 16th Annual Women Mean Business luncheon raising $165,000 for the Coalition’s FIRST STEP JOB TRAINING PROGRAM. The event, emceed by Hollywood actress Caroline Rhea, proudly introduced the keynote speaker, Arianna Huffington.  The ever-amazing Greek-American author and syndicated columnist astounded the audience with a passionate sermon on unemployment, homelessness and ‘this unprecedented moment in American history, when instead of upward mobility, the essence of the American dream, we have downward mobility.’ Huffington concluded ‘…but a crisis can be used as an opportunity for us to step up to the plate…and create a critical mass for us to give back that will transform not only the lives of people in trouble…but our own lives, and the life of our country.’ https://secure.coalitionforthehomeless.org/page/contribute/donate

Mrs. Evelyn Lauder at Marlborough Gallery, West 57th Street, New York City, April 12, 2010

The following Monday the Directors of the Marlborough Gallery and Evelyn and Leonard Lauder hosted a special viewing of Celebrating the Muse: Women in Picasso’s Prints 1905-1968, to benefit The Breast Cancer Research Foundation.  Over 200 people in attendance marveled at the exhibition curated by Marlborough Vice President, Tara Reddi, who appeared to be on cloud nine from the shining review of the show by “New York Times” art critic, Roberta Smith.  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/09/arts/design/09picasso.html

While guests sipped pink-hued pomegranate martinis I overheard Mrs. Lauder comment that people had to pay up before they could walk through the door.  Guests included fashion designer Maggie Norris, Fern Tessler, Diana Picasso, artist Tom Otterness and Olivier Picasso who flew in especially from France.  The event raised close to $10,000. https://support.bcrfcure.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?id=14&reset=1

Emmy award-winning actress Patricia Clarkson with the Poet and Playwright Howard Altmann at a cocktail reception hosted by Tom Healy to celebrate "In This House", Altmann’s second book of poetry published by Turtle Point Press. March 24, 2010, New York City

Last Wednesday night in one of the most stylish apartments on New York’s lower Fifth Avenue, the poet and playwright Howard Altmann’s second book of poems “In This House” was celebrated with a cocktail party hosted by Tom Healy. A few nights earlier the Emmy award-winning actress Patricia Clarkson read a selection of Altmann’s poems at Barnes & Noble and one guest at Healy’s soiree gushed that her reading was ‘warm from the soul and faithful to its fires,’ a line he later told me was quoted from the 18th century English poet, Alexander Pope. Prodded by guests to read from his new work, Altmann relented and after a witty account of how the book came to be published he opened it and read ‘Stones’

I would like to be a stone.
By the side of a road.
On a roadless island.
Of no interest to man.
Of no curiosity to animals.
Invisible to birds.
I would like to step out of my stone.
And be another stone.
On the other side of the road.
Prized by man.
Of solace to animals.
A spot for birds.
And on my stone
both stones, please.

All I could say was eat your heart out Alexander Pope. Altmann remained completely at ease among friends, fellow poets and a few newcomers to his work like the art world insider, Bettina Prentice, who was excited to discover that Altmann taught poetry at Bayview Women’s Prison in Manhattan. She discussed her own mission to empower women through Coalition for the Homeless’ First Step, a job training program for homeless and low income women that boasts a 75% success rate. Prentice is slated to co-host the 16th Annual Women Mean Business Luncheon on April 8th at the Pierre Hotel, a First Step fundraising event. Acclaimed author and nationally syndicated-columnist Arianna Huffington is this year’s keynote speaker. For further information and tickets visit: www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/events/entry/wmbl Howard Altmann’s “In This House” is published by Turtle Point Press and available at Barnes & Noble and online at: http://www.turtlepointpress.com.

Bettina Prentice with the celebrated New York painter, Duncan Hannah

Justine and the Victorian Punks. A Visual Art Band by Colette ©1978 from “Colette is Dead: Justine and the Victorian Punks Prevail. It’s all over Now Baby Blue” series

Colettesizing the window at Destination, New York Meatpacking District, February 8, 2010

Four-time World Champion Alpine Ski Racer, Bode Miller at the upper eastside apartment of Tracy Stern sporting the “Bode Bang” a partnership between Miller and the Swiss watchmaker, Hublot, December 2009

Tamsin Lonsdale, Founder of the Supper Club, Inc introducing the “Bode Bang” and other limited edition timepieces by legendary watchmaker, Hublot, Geneve, December 2009British Artist, Richard Woods, at the opening of “Port Sunlight” at Lever House, December, 2009 Park Avenue, New York.Park Avenue came to holiday life with “Port Sunlight” an installation by British artist Richard Woods. The work was commissioned by the Lever House Art Collection in collaboration with Perry Rubinstein Gallery and opened in early December at the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill-designed high-rise.   The artist decorated the outdoor benches and planters and wrapped 40 structural columns and two printed aluminum floor pieces in the lobby in colorful block-printed fiberboard designs reminiscent of late 19th century William Morris patterns and mock Tudor designs.  The artist said the commission held emotional resonance for him.  Port Sunlight was the name of a model village designed by Lever Brothers in the late 19th century who commissioned Lever House in the mid-20th century.  Port Sunlight’s mock-Tudor houses, art gallery and its collection of William Morris textile designs were early influences on Woods who grew up in nearby Cheshire, England.   www.leverhousecollection.com

Alberto ‘Tico’ Mugrabi and Perry Rubinstein at the opening of “Port Sunlight” at Lever House, Park Avenue, New York, December 2009Lever House Publicist, Sara Fitzmaurice at the opening of “Port Sunlight,” New York, December 2009Geoffrey Biddle with his Aunt Flora Biddle at her Upper Eastside Apartment, New York, 2009Celebrating the joy of married life, “Sydney and Flora,” is a photographic portrait survey by Geoffrey Biddle commissioned by his Aunt Flora in 1998 to mark the 80th birthday of her husband, Sydney Biddle.  Published in 2009 by Turtle Point Press, the book is made up of combined portraits of the couple that Geoffrey describes as “outer attachments and inner dialogues.”  “Sydney and Flora” is published by Turtle Point Press with a foreword by Susanna Moore and text by Geoffrey Biddle and is available at www.amazon.com  

Turtle Point Press Publisher, Jonathan Rabinowitz with New York Times Correspondent, Diane Cardwell at the book party for “Flora and Sydney,” New York City, 2009 (“Sydney and Flora” stacked in the foreground)