Craving art? Gallerist Meredith Rosen recommends amazing art shows in New York City that you don’t want to miss this week:
Superman — one of the most powerful and influential comic superheroes ever — is returning to the big screen this weekend in Man of Steel. As people who have always had a sinking suspicion that newspaper reporters are superheroes in disguise, we are clearly craving this movie and are excited to see Superman turn 75 years old.
To get ready, we’ve gathered up a Superman highlight timeline (with pictures, of course!):
1933: two Cleveland teenagers, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, created the first Superman. He was initially a bald telepathic villain. The teens created a non-professional fanzine about their character.
1938: The company that later became DC Comics bought Superman, and the cape-wearing, city-saving hero we know and love first appeared in print — in Action Comics #1. In 2010, the comic, which originally sold for 10 cents, was sold on the auction website Comic Connect for $1 million, according to BBC. ”The opportunity to buy an un-restored, high-grade Action One comes along once every two decades. It’s certainly a milestone,” the auction house owner was quoted as saying.
1951: Adventures of Superman, a TV series starring George Reeves, premiered. It ran from 1951-58. The first two seasons were filmed in black and white and the final four in color.
1966: It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane…It’s Superman came to Broadway as a musical. (This year, it was reborn in the Encores! series at City Center)
1966: The New Adventures of Superman — a series of six-minute animated shorts — came to TV. It ran through 1970.
1973: Super Friends — a Sunday morning cartoon featuring Superman, as well as Batman, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman, ran on ABC. It continued until 1986.
1978: Superman, the movie with Christopher Reeve, came to movie theaters. It earned more than $300 million worldwide at the box office, according to Box Office Mojo, and spawned three sequels.
1993: Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman came to ABC. It ran through 1997.
1996: Superman: The Animated Series was on the WB through for four (super) years.
2001: Smallville, a TV series about Clark Kent as a teenager, had 10 seasons, running through 2011.
2006: Superman Returns, starring Brandon Routh, came to movie theaters. It earned more than $390 million worldwide at the box office, according to Box Office Mojo.
2013: Man of Steel comes to movie theaters! Here’s a Q&A with filmmaker David S. Goyer from the LA Times and here’s a piece from Wired in which psychiatrists think about Superman’s emotional issues.
THINGNESS OF LIGHT: EXTRAS TO PREPARE YOU FOR JAMES TURRELL AT THE GUGGENHEIM
When we think about the Guggenheim, we tend to imagine the long walk up the continuous spiral ramp — or conjure a mental postcard of the cylindrical museum building from Fifth Avenue.
Starting on June 21, however, James Turrell will give us a whole new way of looking at Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic building. He has re-imagined the museum’s rotunda, recasting it with shifting artificial and natural light in a large-scale, site-specific installation. This is a big moment for the contemporary artist, who is celebrating his 70th birthday and experiencing three simultaneous retrospectives — one at the LA County Museum of Art (May 26, 2013 - April 6, 2014), one at The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston (June 9 - September 22), and this one at the Guggenheim (June 21 - September 25).
The Guggenheim retrospective, which is the artist’s first solo show in New York since 1980, is one of our top craves of the summer. Culture Craver gathered up some context-building extras to help you get ready.
How James Turrell Knocked the Art World Off Its Feet
Wil S. Hylton writes a big profile of the artist for The New York Times Magazine: “It is difficult to say much more about the piece without descending into gibberish. This is one of the first things you notice when you spend time around Turrell. Though he is uncommonly eloquent on a host of subjects, from Riemannian geometry to vortex dynamics, he has developed a dense and impenetrable vocabulary to describe his work. Nearly everyone who speaks and writes about Turrell uses the same infernal jargon. It can be grating to endure a cocktail party filled with people talking about the “thingness of light” and the “alpha state” of mind — at least until you’ve seen enough Turrell to realize that, without those terms, it would be nearly impossible to discuss his work. It is simply too far removed from the language of reality, or for that matter, from reality itself.”
James Turrell Interview with the FT
The Financial Times’ Jonathan Griffin interviews Turrell: “Generally we use light to illuminate other things,” says Turrell. “I like the thingness, the materiality of light itself. So it feels like it’s occupying the space, making a plane, being something that was there, not just passing through. Because light is just passing through. I make these spaces that seem to arrest it for our perception.”
James Turrell in Interview Magazine
Michael Govan, the co-currator of the current LACMA exhibition, interviews the artist: “I feel that I want to use light as this wonderful and magic elixir that we drink as Vitamin D through the skin—and I mean, we are literally light-eaters—to then affect the way that we see. We live within this reality we create, and we’re quite unaware of how we create the reality. So the work is often a general koan into how we go about forming this world in which we live, in particular with seeing.”
James Turrell in PBS’s EGG the arts show
A wide-ranging interview with the artist about his work and inspiration: “Through light, space can be formed without physical material like concrete or steel. We can actually stop vision and the penetration of vision with where light is and where it isn’t. Like the atmosphere, we can’t see through it to the stars that are there during the day. But as soon as that light is dimmed around the self, then this penetration of vision goes out. So I’m very interested in this feeling, using the eyes to penetrate the space.”
Julie L. Belcove profiles the artist for Harper’s Bazaar: “The way some children are obsessed with fire trucks, Turrell was always entranced by light. There was the metaphorical aspect—Quakers strive to “greet the light” when they pray—but the physical properties of light were just as compelling.”
A Trio of James Turrell Exhibitions in the US
A slideshow and blurb in Wallpaper Magazine
Everything You Need to Know About James Turrell’s Light Art Installations Through His Greatest Works
A slideshow and description of 20 of Turrell’s works in Complex
James Turrell at Guggenheim Museum
A description of Aten Reign, the site-specific installation that will be on display at the Guggenheim in Dexigner
WHAT TO DO AND SEE IN NYC: CULTURE CRAVER’S TOP PICKS JUNE 14-21
Friday, June 14
See one of the weekend’s new movies. Twenty Feet of Stardom — about the life of backup singers — is getting lots of “stars” from the critics. If you’re craving a blockbuster, see This is the End, an apocalyptic comedy by Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen, or the new Superman movie, Man of Steel.
Craving dance? See Makeda Thomas’s 10th anniversary season at New York Live Arts Friday or Saturday.
Feeling playful? See Great Small Works: 10th International Toy Theater Festival at St. Ann’s Warehouse. It runs through June 23.
Saturday, June 15
It’s time to see some Spontaneous Shakespeare in Central Park. The players, who use Elizabethan performance techniques, are performing Hamlet. The show is at noon on Saturday or 3 PM on Sunday.
Starting Saturday, see Grand Central Sketchbook: Designers Dream at the New York Transit Museum. The exhibition includes the creations of 20 artists, architects, and designers who reimagine Grand Central Station.
Sunday, June 16
It’s Bloomsday, an annual celebration of the life of James Joyce, during which the events of Ulysses (set on June 16, 1904) are relived. To celebrate, go to Symphony Space at 7 PM for the 32nd annual Bloomsday on Broadway celebration, which features Broadway stars performing selections from the book. Or at 3 PM, head to the Culture Project to hear Eunice Wong read Molly Bloom’s monologue.
Monday, June 17
On Monday evening, learn from the newly announced NJ Senate Candidate, Cory Booker, and others at the 92nd Street Y about How Cities are Leading us Out of the Great Recession.
Craving Tchaikovsky? Monday through Saturday, see ABT perform Swan Lake!
Tuesday, June 18
Starting Tuesday, Ken Price Sculpture: A Retrospective at the Met. The exhibition is fresh to NYC from LA where it was originally organized by LACMA and designed by the artist’s friend, architect Frank Gehry. It traces Price’s work from 1959 to his final year, 2012.
Wednesday, June 19
Starting Wednesday, see an NC-17-rated immersive art installation, Paul McCarthy WS. The artist takes over the Park Avenue Armory to create an immense, fantastical forest and explore myths, fairytales and icons — usually revered for their purity.
Thursday, June 20
Thursday is a good day for art. A few exhibitions you might want to check out are Jew York at Zach Feuer and Untitled, Woods, Lovely, Dark and Deep at DC Moore, or Cameron Gray: Birth of a Legend at Mike Weiss Gallery.
Craving musical comedy? Starting Thursday see Nobody Loves You at Second Stage. It’s about a philosophy graduate student who auditions for — and finds himself cast on — a reality TV dating show. The book and lyrics are by Itamar Moses and the music and lyrics are by Gaby Alter.
Friday, June 21
Starting Friday, visit the Public Library’s exhibition, The ABC of It: Why Children’s Books Matter.
It’s also the first day of the James Turrell exhibition at the Guggenheim. The artist is going to transform the museum with colorful light. Here’s an article from Complex Magazine to help you prepare.
Friday is also the first day of Swing Time: Reginald Marsh and Thirties New York at the New York Historical Society. It includes paintings, prints, watercolors, and photographs depicting New York street life in the 1930s.
By JULIA LEVY
This morning, for the first time in my 11 years as a New Yorker, I (voluntarily) waited in line for four hours.
In a city of more than 8 million people, where lines are normal parts of most lives, I am generally passionately anti-line. I will leave a Starbucks, a restaurant, or a retail store if there’s a lengthy line. (I have no desire to add to the 37 billion hours a year that Americans are already spending waiting in lines — and with good reason: according to a recent New York Times piece on the psychology of queueing, waiting leads to “stress, boredom, that nagging sensation that one’s life is slipping away.”)
So why did I do it? I waited for free tickets to see Comedy of Errors at Shakespeare in the Park.
My friend and I arrived at the park at 8:30 AM. I know there are people who arrive even before the park opens at 6 AM (which strikes me as some serious Shakespeare desperation). There were already 170 people waiting in front of us in a line that started at the Delacorte Theater and snaked up the walkway into the Park. The Public Theater staff couldn’t guarantee that we’d get tickets (because the theater gives many tickets to corporate sponsors and other special interest groups), but they seemed pretty confident that our wait would be worth it. We set up shop — a scarf to sit on, another scarf to keep warm, coffee, computers, etc. to wait for the 12 PM ticket distribution.
What I noticed while waiting:
- We were a captive audience, and some smart local business people tried to market to us: a guy was renting lawn chairs for the multi-hour wait, an Upper West Sider was trying to convice people to go to her shop for a haircut, and delivery guys were handing out menus (and making deliveries).
- At least one mayoral campaign was also trying to take advantage of the line. A young man and woman came by, asking registered Democrats to sign a petition to help Bill de Blasio get on the ballot.
- It seemed like every other person in line was studying for a standardized test. I noticed people with prep books for the GRE and GMAT. Good luck to them.
- Many people came prepared: I saw multiple people playing cards, and a few with full board games. One pair seemed to be having fun with a game of Catan. (I wish I’d brought my Bananagrams.) People were also reading (both books and tablets) and working/playing on computers and other devices.
In the end, I didn’t mind the wait. It was a beautiful day, I got to hang out with an old friend, there’s a distinct and funny line culture (full of banter with “line neighbors”), I got a bit of work done, and, in the end, I get to go to a performance that I’ve been, well, craving!
I’m not revising my line opposition. I’m still anti. But Shakespeare is offically exempt.
Interested in creating a bit of your own culture this week? You’re in luck! There’s an impromptu talent show going on across the five boroughs.
Sing for Hope has invited visual artists to decorate 88 pianos, which are now open for amateurs and experts to play through June 16. After the public residencies, the pretty pianos will be donated to high needs schools, hospitals, and community organizations.
The pianos are scattered across the City — from Central Park in Manhattan to Coney Island in Brooklyn to the Unisphere in Queens to Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal in Staten Island. A full map of locations and information about the artists who created the beautiful musical instruments is on the organization’s website.
The piano in the video above is in Riverside Park and is created by Xu Zi, a Chinese American artist and opera singer who has performed across China and at Carnegie Hall. The piano is called “Flowers for the Peaceful World.”
Friday, June 7
Starting Friday, experience Manna-Hata, an immersive theatrical experience at the Farley Post Office created by Peculiar Works Project. You’ll rediscover New York City’s 400-year history (including the charismatic players who helped to transform New York into the City we love).
If you’re craving music, head to Randall’s Island Friday through Sunday for the Governors Ball NYC Music Festival. Headliners include Guns N’ Roses, Kings of Leon, and Kanye West. At the time we posted this, tickets were still available.
Often, we don’t even notice the sounds in theater — from chirping birds to street noise to approaching footsteps. Friday through June 29, the Brick (which has a brand new surround sound system) is hosting the sound scape festival to explore sound design. Some of the City’s most talented sound designers will create theatrical experiences that put their art in the foreground. This weekend, experience Dante’s Inferno, Lighthouse Triptych, The Theoretical Physics of Procrastination, and others.
Starting Friday, you can also see two new exhibits about AIDS at the New York Historical Society. One focuses on the First Five Years of AIDS in New York. It draws from the archives of the New York Public Library, NYU, and the National Archive of LGBT History. The other exhibition features black and white photographs that tell the stories of New York children with HIV and AIDS between 1990 and 2000.
Saturday, June 8
Saturday or Sunday, head to Governors Island for FIGMENT NYC 2013, a free annual celebration of participatory art and culture. There’s music, dance, theater, installations, sculptures, art, and more. We’re excited for the artist-designed Minigolf Course. You can see the designs online before hopping on the ferry. It’s rain or shine.
This is the first weekend of In Scena! — an Italian theater festival in New York City that runs through June 20 and features performances across the five boroughs. The opening weekend features Voices in the Desert (Voci Nel Deserto) from noon to 4 PM on both days on Governors Island. It’s a project that aims to collect fragments of thinking from the past (from literature, theater, and public speeches) to recycle memory. See the full calendar online.
Starting Saturday, MoMA members can visit Le Corbusier: An Atlas of Modern Landscapes, a major exhibit about his work as an architect, interior designer, city planner, writer, and photographer. The exhibition opens to the public on June 15. If you want to dive in even deeper, AIA New York is hosting a conference called Le Corbusier/New York on Saturday at the Center for Architecture near Washington Square Park. Find all the details here.
Sunday, June 9
See one of this weekend’s new movies. We’re pretty excited about the new Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson movie, The Internship. When they lose their sales job, they land an internship at Google and have to keep up with the kids. We’re also craving Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing, a modern retelling of the Shakespeare classic.
Monday, June 10
Craving romantic tragedy? See the American Ballet Theatre’s Romeo and Juliet at Lincoln Center from Monday through Saturday.
Tuesday, June 11
On Tuesday, see a preview screening of Twenty Feet From Stardom, which opens on June 14, and hear a conversation with the New York Times pop music critic Jon Pareles, as well as the film’s director and three of its stars.
Wednesday, June 12
On Wednesday or Thursday, see Oceania at La MaMa. It’s an interactive, multi-sensory dance performance that’s part of the La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival, which features emerging and seasoned choreographers. The festival runs from June 7 through July 7.
Also starting Wednesday is El Museo’s seventh “La Bienal,” Here Is Where We Jump. It features work by 37 emerging Latino and Latin American artists who live in and around New York City.
Thursday, June 13
Starting Thursday, see a puppet show, Geppetto, at HERE. It meshes together Pinocchio and The Old Man And The Sea.
Friday, June 14
Craving another cinematic apocalypse? See This is the End, an apocalyptic comedy by Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen.
Craving dance? See Makeda Thomas’s 10th anniversary season at New York Live Arts Friday or Saturday.
CAN TRADITIONAL MEDIA LEARN FROM YOUTUBE?
By JENNA BOND
Special to Culture Craver
Do you watch your content exclusively online by now?
If you answered “no,” you must be over 25 years old.
Today, online programming — largely created by independent producers, who are not tied down by the costs of network and cable — are reaching large audiences (thanks largely to YouTube).
A few examples: Videos of Grumpy Cat, a mixed-breed Arizona-based feline with a perma-scowl, have been viewed and shared millions of times on the Web (resulting in book and movie deals). One of Grumpy Cat’s human counterparts, Jenna Marbles, makes low-budget videos of herself that have been viewed more than 1 billion times. Bob Johnson, who created BET in 1980, is creating subscription-based YouTube channels that he thinks will replicate his success on cable 30 years ago on the Internet.
“This is the first time there’s ever been a minority-owned channel that doesn’t have to please cable operators, cable networks, movie studios or advertisers,” Johnson told Variety. “This will be liberating.”
Web content is speaking to a new generation; it’s also speaking to sizable minority audiences who are not being well served by the mainstream video storytelling structure that has experienced little innovation since Desilu was the most powerful name in television. Online content is edgier, more ethnically diverse, and post-partisan.
Personally, as someone who has felt deserted by networks since the advent of cable, I have been watching trends in online video with the hope that it changes the realm of content and the possibilities of viewing — both in the online world and on broadcast and cable television.
It seems like this is starting to happen as online successes are beginning to cross over to television.
Each episode of Drunk History is viewed an average of 1.5 million times — and it’s moving from a website (Funny or Die) to mainstream cable (Comedy Central). The plot? A drunken storyteller narrates great moments in American History, reenacted by famous actors.
Issa Rae, the creator and star of the Internet phenomenon, The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, is reportedly joining up with ABC mega-producer Shonda Rhimes to create a new TV comedy series.
New content by Vice (which The New Yorker recently deemed “The Bad Boy Brand”), gets anywhere from 300,000 to 8 million YouTube views. It is now running its documentary news program on cable powerhouse HBO.
The most successful online content isn’t just making the jump to cable and network TV. It’s hard to quantify, but it seems like it’s also having an impact on traditional media’s original programming.
For example, there was something that felt Web-inspired about Netflix’s resurrection of cult classic Arrested Development, and House of Cards felt so good I watched it non-stop, all 13 episodes, twice in a row. This past Sunday, I had my mind blown away watching Behind the Candelabra on HBO GO.
Would it be too crazy too see the Entourage reunion directly on my computer (rather than to have to go to a movie theater)? It seems unlikely that HBO would let that happen — right now — but I wonder if it might have a higher probability of success on the Web than at the cinemas.
In my opinion, this trend is only going to accelerate. It seems clear that cable, broadcast, and network TV can learn a lot from 500,000 views on YouTube.
Jenna Bond is a New York City-based writer and lifestyle guru. Last week, she curated a conversation for Internet Week New York on the emergence of Web series as the new mainstream of video storytelling, which brought together thought leaders from Fast Company, VICE, @radical.media, iamOTHER, and YouTube with the question: what is broadcast and cable learning from online?
It’s another week of craveable art in New York City. Gallerist Meredith Rosen is joining us once again to recommend five must-see art events this week.
Paul McCarthy: Sculptures at Hauser & Wirth in Chelsea
Orly Genger: Iron Maiden at Larissa Goldston Gallery in Chelsea
Orly Genger: Red, Yellow and Blue at Madison Square Park
Sarah Braman Wallace Whitney at American Contemporary in the East Village
Michael Wang: Global Tone at Foxy Production in Chelsea
A CRAVEABLE SUMMER: WHY YOU’LL LOVE THIS SEASON’S BLOCKBUSTERS
It’s nearly Memorial Day Weekend. You know what that means: it’s time to head to your local cinema, buy an extra large pail of popcorn, and sit back in a super-chilled theater to take in some crash-bang-boom blockbuster summer flicks. We’ve rounded up the biggest, loudest, funniest, and starriest coming attractions of the summer. And we’ve given you our take on why you should consider going to each.
May 3, 2013
Go because: You didn’t get enough of Robert Downey, Jr. (as a brash billionaire playboy, saving the world) or Gwyneth Paltrow (his girlfriend and associate) in the first two movies about the Marvel comic hero Iron Man.
May 10, 2013
Go because: The costumes (Prada and Brooks Brothers) and the jewels (Tiffany) seem like reason enough.
May 16, 2013
Go because: You’re a Trekkie. You wouldn’t miss the 12th installment of your favorite sci-fi franchise.
May 23, 2013
Go because: You didn’t get your fill of guys doing stupid, embarrassing, possibly life threatening things in Parts I and II.
May 24, 2013
Go because: It’s the newest 3D computer animated movie by Chris Wedge, who directed Ice Age. Plus, the hero is a young girl engaged in an epic battle of good vs. evil.
May 31, 2013
Go because: (1) You’ve loved M. Night Shyamalan since his character uttered the phrase “I see dead people.” (2) It stars real-life father and son Will and Jaden Smith. (3) Post-apocalyptic sci-fi is your favorite.
May 31, 2013
Go because: It’s part Robin Hood, part magic, part caper, and stars some of your favorite actors — Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, and Isla Fisher.
June 7, 2013
Go because: The Wedding Crashers duo is a little older, a little funnier, and engaged in one of our worst nightmares — when the digital age makes their jobs irrelevant, the men land Google internships and must compete against young tech-savvy digerati.
June 12, 2013
Go because: You knew LA would be the first city to go in the apocalypse. Plus, you want to see how James Franco, Jonah Hill, and Seth Rogen cope with the end of the world.
June 14, 2013
Go because: It’s Superman! Plus, Henry Cavill is Superman and Amy Adams is the intrepid Lois Lane.
June 21, 2013
Go because: You didn’t get enough apocalypse yet this summer (between This is the End and After Earth). Here, you can see the heroic Brad Pitt as a UN worker searching the globe for a way to stop a zombie apocalypse.
June 28, 2013
Go because: You can finally answer the question, “What guns does Hollywood think the Secret Service would use to defend the president from an assault on the White House?”
July 3, 2013
Go because: You can reunite with Gru and the crew in the sequel to the beloved 2010 animated comedy Despicable Me.
July 3, 2013
Go because: It isn’t every summer day when you get to see a western, starring Johnny Depp and based on a classic from the 1930s.
July 31, 2013
Go because: You love those little blue guys. And it’s a sequel: who doesn’t love a sequel in the summer?
Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters
August 7, 2013
Go because: You loved the Rick Riordan book on which this series of fantasy adventure movies is based and/or you’ve always fantasized that you’re the child of a Greek God.
August 9, 2013
Go because: You want to see Matt Damon and Jodie Foster (after that crazy speech at the Oscars, who doesn’t?). You are also interested in what the ravaged earth looks like in 2154.
August 16, 2013
Go because: Masked heroes and sequels make you happy.
