Fall Collection

  Central Park never looks more beautiful than it does in autumn.

I have yet to attend a concert at the newly renovated (and renamed) David Geffen Hall, but a colorful mural on one side of the building nods to the mostly Puerto Rican neighborhood that Lincoln Center displaced (Robert Moses, again!) in the mid-60s.

Es Devlin created an installation for Lincoln Center plaza called "Your Voices."  I first became aware of her work at Superblue in Miami.  She also designed the terrific set for The Lehmann Trilogy.

The Library of Performing Arts at Lincoln Center has an excellent Lou Reed exhibit.  "Walk on the Wild Side" celebrated its 50th anniversary in November.

I took this picture in the stairwell of the Museum of Art and Design at Columbus Circle after being blown away by the Machine Dazzle extravaganza.

The Morris Hirshfield retrospective at the American Museum of Folk Art is highly recommended, too.  A successful slipper designer and manufacturer, the Polish emigre became an artist late in life.

The Museum of Modern Art rewarded him with a one-man show in 1943 at the age of 71.

"Birds On Grass" (1942)

Some of the exhibits I see don't display enough material for a blog entry.  Like the Grolier Club's modest celebration of the 150th anniversary of Aubrey Beardsley, one of my favorite artists as anyone who has visited 47 Pianos can attest.  

I didn't realize that he died at age 25!  Beardsley definitely deserves more critical attention.

Self Portrait

Mr. Aubrey Beardsley by Max Beerbohm (1896)

Before flying to London, Thom and I hit the Brooklyn Museum and took in a very bloody production of A Little Life at the Brooklyn Academy of Music for his birthday. 

JFK American Airlines Terminal

I celebrated Thanksgiving in North Andover where it looks like Dagny got the home ownership gene, too.

Photographing holiday windows takes me all over New York in December, including the Lower East Side where the street art can't be beat.

It also affords the opportunity to take some dazzling cityscape shots at night.

General Motors Building Plaza/Apple Store Entrance

High Line View of Hudson Yards

The Oculus

9/11 Memorial & Museum

"XO World" @ One World Trade

Central Park South Skyline

So many shows, so little time before this snowbird departs for his winter hibernation at museum-deprived Lake Worth.  Three more must-sees rounded out my final weeks in New York: 

Wolfgang Tillmans:  to look without fear and Meret Oppenheim:  An Exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art:

"Anders pulling splinter from his foot" by Wolfgang Tillmans (2004)

"Beginning of Spring" by Meret Oppenheim (1961)

Edward Hopper's New York at the Whitney:

"New York Office" (1962)

Alex Katz and Nick Cave at the Guggenheim:

Mr. and Mrs. R. Padgett, Mr. and Mrs. D. Gallup by Alex Katz (1971)

"Soundsuits" by Nick Cave

Two Left Feet

I first delighted in Morris Hirshfield when I visited the "new" MoMA which exhibited several of his works in 2020.  At the time, he didn't even rate a Wikipedia page.

"Angora Cat" (1937-1939)

Before fading into obscurity, the Polish emigre had a moment almost as interesting as Lana Turner's discovery in Schwab's Pharmacy except it actually happened.  Shortly after Hirshfield began painting at the age of 65 an art dealer, who was curating an "painters-you've-never-heard-of" exhibit, spotted his work and included it.  The Surrealism crowd, very much in vogue at the time, embraced the former tailor and slipper designer as a kindred spirt and MoMA gave him a one-man show!    

"Beach Girl" (1937-39)

"Tailor-Made Girl" (1939)

Predictably, contemporary art critics were appalled that MoMA had recognized a self-taught Brooklyn artist who had picked up his paint brush only six years earlier. Hirsfield's funky depiction of female anatomy got under their skin; it looked as if most of his women had two left feet.  A retrospective of Hirshfield's work at the American Folk Art Museum curated by Richard Meyer, along with a gorgeous catalog, hopefully will re-introduce the man to a less snooty audience.

American Beauty (1945)

Hirshfield often painted animals as well as women.

"Baby Elephant With Boy" (1943)

"Dogs and Pups" (1944)

"Stage Girls With Angels" (1945)

Label text indicates the happily married Hirshfield drew from his imagination because it would be improper to be in a room with nude models.  No Picasso, he!

"Nude With Flowers" (1945)

"Harp Girl II" (Girl With Harp, 1945)

"Wintersled I" (1946)

He painted his final work from a postcard of Sacré-Cœur sent to him from Paris by a friend. The title mystifies.

"Parliamentary Buildings" (1946)

A display of boudoir slippers, patented and designed by Hirshfield during the Roaring Twenties, and custom-made by artist Liz Blahd especially for this retrospective nearly a century later, anticipates the decorative motifs in his paintings.  I believe it slyly spoofs his early critical reputation, too:  they all seem to be for left feet!

It's easy to see how the E-Z Walk Manufacturing Company, owned by Hirshfield and his wife, made a mint selling these gorgeous "Foot Pals."  This one's made from cashmere.