Whitney Museum – Real/Surreal, Cubes and Anarchy, Calder’s Circus

There are many reasons to skip out of work for lunch at the Whitney. Top on my list is Danny Meyer’s new restaurant, Untitled, on the lower level. They’re serving up “updated coffee shop classics,” which means matzo ball soup and pastrami reubens but also crispy kale salads and aged gouda grilled cheeses. Oh, and need I mention breakfast all day?! 

This is an exciting time to visit the Whitney. In preparation for its move downtown curators are dusting off the deep holdings and presenting exhibitions drawn entirely from the permanent collection. As Ken Johnson said in the NYTimes, “Seeing ‘Real/Surreal’ … is like visiting your grandmother’s attic and finding it loaded with forgotten treasures.” It’s such fun! 

That said, if you only have time for one show, I’d pick David Smith: Cubes and Anarchy. Smith is considered on of the best American sculptors, and this exhibition of sculptures, drawing and paintings, plus rarely seen sketchbook and photographs, gives you a rich understanding of his masterful work. These geometric abstractions will have you seeing things in a whole new way.

On your way out, do not miss Calder’s Circus. Before he got started on his exquisite mobiles, Alexander Calder invited guests to sit on bleachers, eat popcorn and observe as he enacted the circus using wire, wood, metal, cloth, yarn, paper, cardboard, leather, string, rubber tubing, corks, buttons, rhinestones, pipe cleaners, and bottle caps. The video footage is incredible!

With so many great options and so little time, what will you choose to see?

 

Ingredients:

Venue: Whitney Museum of American Art

Artists: David Smith, Alexander Calder, Federico Castellon

Streets: Madison Ave, 74th-75th Sts

Eats: Untitled

Map:

Orchard St - Harnischfeger, Adamo & Shpungin are mixing media

Run down to Orchard Street this weekend before these shows close!  When you get there, stop in 88 Orchard for their peanut butter, banana and honey sandwich. (You’re welcome!) 

Hilary Harnischfeger’s work at Rachel Uffner Gallery is as exciting as hunting for buried treasure. Her practically 3D canvases suggest topographical maps and fragmented portraits in combinations of paper, plaster, clay, ink, rock and even quartz! Her freestanding sculptures are richly layered, vibrant adaptations of classic clay vases and ashtrays. With Father’s Day coming up this Sunday, you’ll wish this gallery had a gift shop!

Next, head down the block to UNTITLED and see new work by David Adamo. Now, I am always conflicted about reading a gallery’s press release before seeing their show. Sometimes it’s helpful to know what you’re looking at. Other times, I would rather feel things on my own and have a raw, uninformed reaction. In this case, I read the release. It has all kinds of info about how Adamo left New York and moved to Berlin and is expressing his feelings of “personal diaspora” through this work. An elaborate Oriental “rug” hangs loosely tacked to the ceiling in the form of a precisely painted canvas. Massive wooden blocks are furiously hacked into revealing delicate spindles. Woodchips abound. I don’t know about a “personal diaspora,” but the show in undeniably unnerving and intriguing. I’m not sure what to make of it, but I’m so glad I saw it!Just across the street at Stephan Stoyanov Gallery is a deeply personal solo show by Diana Shpungin called (Untitled) Portrait of Dad. Through sculpture, animation, drawings and potatoes (I’ll explain), Shpungin grieves the loss of her father in a remarkably genuine way. Warning: bring tissues, this show might make you cry! As you work your way through the gallery, you encounter the portrait, the shadow and the absence of the man. The quietly powerful I Especially Love You When You Are Sleeping is an uprooted, graphite-covered orange tree resting on stacked newspaper obituaries.

Before you leave, Shpungin invites you, through the installation 1664 Sundays, to take a potato and a custom-printed paper bag (signed, numbered edition) with her father’s recipe, which he cooked for her on Sunday. Pick one up and let me know how it turns out!

Ingredients: Venues: Rachel Uffner; UNTITLED; Stephan Stoyanov

Artists: Hilary Harnischfeger; David Adamo; Diana Shpungin

Streets: Orchard Street

Eats: 88 Orchard

Map: