Once Labor Day weekend rolls by, the Hamptons crowds flock to their Manhattan roosts and NYU students flood the registar’s office; soon, culture mavens and art history majors alike will be swarming the galleries and museums to seek some post-summer inspiration. So what’s going to spur cocktail party debates on this fall? Clubplanet puts on its smock and gets paint-splattered with this extensive breakdown on what you need to see.
Over at the Metropolitan Museum of Art the big story is already underway--Provocative Visions: Race and Identity runs until March 8, 2009. This exhibit features acquisitions made from 1992–2007, and clearly hopes to assume Kara Walker’s wildly popular, racially-charged exhibit at the Whitney that ended earlier this winter. With 13 sculptures, prints, and drawings by seven contemporary African-American artists, Provocations is sure to strike up heated discussions over racial heritage and identity.
Meanwhile, the The Museum of Modern Art offers German Expressionist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's famous Street Scenes series in the exhibition Kirchner and the Berlin Street until November 9th, but also has a snazzy film piece on the ready entitled Looking at Music (runs until December 31st). The flick takes a close look at the role of music in the early days of media art, and features both documentary and experimental films, as well as music videos in making the case.
MoMa’s Queens Satellite will have a dynamic film bit going too, as the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center will present the first American look at avant-garde filmmaker Kenneth Anger in almost 30 years. It doesn’t start until October (October 19 -- January 26) but mark it on your calendar; Anger has a thing for celebrity, sex, rock and the supernatural, and he unfolds these obsessions in short films that encompass his vision.
The Brooklyn Museum steps up next with a long-term exhibit (starting September 19th) on the 4th floor, expanding its collection of contemporary art. The roster starts with a Warhol piece, but delves deeper with items from less-famous but so-fabulous names like Hew Locke, Jules de Balincourt, Simon Norfolk and Brooklyn’s own Valerie Hegarty, plus some photogravure work from the king of the East River waterfalls, Olafur Eliasson.
The Rubin Museum of Art always goes the extra mile for some cerebral and spiritual moments, and from September 19th-January 15th you can absorb The Dragon’s Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan. 87 different pieces organized by the Honolulu Academy of Arts and Bhutan’s national Department of Culture will demonstrate rare Buddhist art and include a firm focus on ancient ritual dances. An extra-special fact: this is the only showing scheduled for the entire east coast.
The funky New Museum is already closing in on its first anniversary, so be sure to tip your hat in celebration by attending Live Forever: Elizabeth Peyton (October 8th- January 11th) before it embarks on its world tour. This Peyton love-fest includes over 100 of the stylized portraiteur’s lush works from the past 15 years, swelling with colors and familiar faces; it marks her first survey in an American museum.
On a more serious tip, the Exit Art Gallery will feature The House is Small But the Welcome is Big, a collection of photographs by African women and children who have been affected by HIV and AIDS. Spanning two years of documentation, House follows the lives of 18 children who were orphaned as their parents lost their lives to the disease. The second half of the exhibit present an open look at images from the daily experience of 15 HIV-positive women in Cape Town, South Africa.
And for all the fans of the hipster Deitch Gallery, you know what’s coming: The 2008 Art Parade rolls out on September 6th at 4pm, running down West Broadway from Houston to Grand. It’s the 4th annual march, and there will be over 90 projects on the move with over 900 participants. Be on alert for artists like Barry McGee, Yoko Ono and the long-time city favorites The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black.