Josef Albers in America: Painting on Paper

Josef Albers (1888-1976) embodied the principles of the Bauhaus, the influential German art school founded in 1919. Though he attended other institutions, Albers’ studies at the Bauhaus and, in particular, with color theorist Johannes Itten, proved decisive. Albers began teaching at the Bauhaus in 1923 and became a full professor at the school’s Dessau outpost two years later. The Bauhaus closed in 1933 under pressure from the Nazi regime—the school’s teachings were not sufficiently Aryan.

Albers and his wife, Anni, subsequently left for the United States, both of them accepting teaching posts at the experimental Black Mountain College in North Carolina. (“Germans to Teach Art Near Here” read a December 1933 article from the Asheville Citizen.) But it was Albers’ appointment as dean of Yale’s design department in 1950 and the publication of his seminal text Interaction of Color that codified his historical standing. Albers’s signature suite of paintings, collectively titled “Homage to the Square,” put into practice the goal of “maximum effect with a minimum of means.”

Truth to tell, a little of “Homage to the Square” goes a long way—-sometimes minimum means result in minimum ends. Seen en masse, Albers’ chromatic and compositional structures-—always effective, invariably inflexible—-lend themselves more to finger tapping and clock-watching than aesthetic contemplation. Still, among the surprises at the Morgan is the first of the series, a rarely exhibited panel rendered in, of all things, black and white. For aficionados of modernism’s more austere outposts, this inclusion has to count as something of an event.

The majority of Josef Albers in America is dedicated to informal studies on paper. Covered with scrawled notations, flurried applications of color and grease stains, they reveal Albers’ rigorous methodology at its most approachable. No Platonic exegeses here, thank you; instead we have the remnants of workaday life in the studio. The Morgan show allows us to experience Albers as a man given to curiosity and play—-and it prompts double-takes.

Did you know that this most stringent of pedagogues relied largely on colors used straight from the tube or that his insistence on “hands-off” surfaces didn’t preclude experiments with varnishes? Contemporary sensibilities will relish the diaristic nature of Albers’ works on paper and, in the case of the lush tangencies of “Variant/Adobe, Study for Four Central Warm Colors Surrounded by Two Blues” (ca. 1948), swoon to them. Elsewhere, Albers daubs to charming effect, toys with perspective and posits Mexico as “the promised land of abstract art”—-all the while exemplifying one man’s “craziness about color.”

Josef Albers in America: Painting on Paper
Through Oct. 14, The Morgan Library & Museum, 225 Madison Ave., 212-685-0008, themorgan.org.

On July 16, I decided to go to an exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York, so I went online to get additional information. One particularly compelling detail emerged: the exhibition had closed July 15.

I missed it.

It’s a familiar feeling and extends way beyond museum exhibits. Last year and the year(s) before, there were the plays (Good People, with Estelle Parsons, among others), movies (Winter’s Bone) and concerts (Barbara Carroll, any night she performs and I’m not there). Yes, living in New York City means being right in the center of it all. Swell. But living here also means missing more than most Americans are ever even offered.

So many of us walk around with a list, sometimes in our minds and sometimes on our schedules, of things we hope to catch before they leave. I stopped my Time Out New York subscription after becoming too good at chronicling, at any given moment, what gallery opening was happening without me. Keeping track of club dates and Restaurant Weeks and music festivals, even when out of town, eventually made me wonder about my own mental health.

Other cities are different. There are places where you catch a touring Broadway show and a few fine other performances, throw in a night at the opera or symphony, see the occasional flick…and you’re done for the calendar year. The local performance center shutters in the summer. You’re keeping up—at least enough to feel equipped for dinner-party chatter.

Our town is different. Right now we’re heading into the dog days of August, right? But not really—not here. There’s that Monet garden recreation at the Bronx Botanical Gardens through Oct. 21. The Jewish Museum, at 92nd and Fifth Avenue, has an unusual exhibit on the artist Edouard Vuillard, one of my favorites. At least I think he’s one of my favorites, but that hypothesis needs to be tested—before time runs out on Sept. 23. Oh, the plays. Don’t I need to see Tribes, that interesting off-Broadway one in the Village? And what about that woman from England on Broadway, the one pretending to be Judy Garland?

There are ways to play this game successfully. The experts advise going right after the opening crowds leave the exhibit/play/whatever. Don’t wait. That’s easier said than done, though, especially when there are jobs to do and lives to live and money worries. Some people even choose buying groceries over theater tickets.

The most precious commodity remains time. It gets eaten up. At summer’s start, I wrote in my Google calendar an exact date for that trip to the Museum of the City of New York. The day came and I didn’t go.

So I never saw The Greatest Grid: The Master Plan of Manhattan, 1811-2011, which was a smart look at longterm planning in the city. At least that’s what the New York Times said on its front page. And what my mom said after she went and issued a report. Mom won this round.

Sometimes, though, I score. My pal Liz and I went two weeks ago to the Morgan Library, which leaves me a bit cold when I see the books locked up there like they’ve done something wrong. But the Winston Churchill exhibit, especially the audio of his fantastic speeches, made it all worthwhile. What an election-year treat, seeing a political leader who rallied people in common cause instead of talking down to them and dividing them up into special interests.

So much to see and do. That’s one of the things that drew me to the city. Then, amidst all the rushing from the reading at Barnes & Noble to the Film Forum retrospective, I realized the ultimate irony: My favorite thing to do here is simply to walk down a street.
There’s a lesson there. But I might miss it, hurrying to get to the next big thing.

Christopher Moore is a writer living in Manhattan. His email address is ccmnj@aol.com and he’s on Twitter @cmoorenyc.

Music:

Catalpa Festival

Kicking off its first year, the Catalpa Festival offers yet another chance to see top-tier musical acts playing outdoors within city limits. The fest will feature more than 40 performers, including blues rock superstars The Black Keys and Snoop Dogg rocking his seminal album Doggystyle in its entirety. Other highlights include NYC faves TV on the Radio, Girl Talk and hip-hop instrumental wizard AraabMUZIK. There will also be a reggae stage sponsored by High Times magazine, a “sculpture” that belches fireballs in the air and various other novelties (inflatable “sham marriage” church?) included to distract from the fact that music lineup is mostly weak, aside from the headliners.

July 28-29; $140–$180 for the weekend. Randall’s Island Park, www.catalpanyc.com.

Electric Zoo

This is for those who dance. A lot. It’s three days; an all-night(s) blitz of modern dance music from the likes of David Guetta, A-Trak and more. If you appreciate the contemporary offshoots of what we used to call techno, this fest will be something of great joy. A zoo—of dancing people. 

Aug. 31-Sept. 2; $299 for all three days. Randall’s Island Park, electriczoofestival.com.

Washington Square Music Festival

Consisting of four Friday night concerts in July, the Washington Square Music Festival is now in its 54th year of entertaining New Yorkers in one of our most beautiful parks. This year, the festival will include a night of music and poetry, a night of Viennese chamber music, a night of music for strings and wings and one of the West African sounds of the Deep Sahara Band. Seating is first-come, first-served, so get there early to enjoy a night of music beneath the stars—and the park’s famous arch—or at St. Joseph’s Church, where the first two concerts will take place.

July 10, 17, 24 & 31, 8 p.m.; free. St. Joseph’s Church, 371 6th Ave. at Waverly Place and Washington Square Park, 5th Ave at Waverly Place, washingtonsquaremusicfestival.org.

Theatre:

Shakespeare in the Parking Lot

Tired of waiting in the stifling heat for Shakespeare in the Park to no avail? Fear not; there’s another free outdoor option to view the Bard’s work. The Drilling Company’s LES staple, taking place in the municipal parking lot at the corner of Broome and Ludlow streets, will present The Merry Wives of Windsor in July, followed by Coriolanus in August. Keep in mind that these productions are prone to interruption; the action occurs around parked cars whose drivers sometimes return and drive away mid-performance. Now that’s something performers never needed to concern themselves with during the Elizabethan era!

Thursdays-Saturdays, July 12-28 & Aug. 2-18, 8 p.m.; free. Broome St. at Ludlow St., shakespeareintheparkinglot.com.

Fringe Fest

Even at 16 years old, this annual marathon of offbeat, cutting-edge theater—which birthed Rent, among other memorable shows—is devoted to the new and the strange. This year’s performances will include From Busk Till Dawn: The Life of an NYC Street Performer, Love Death Brains (A Zombie Musical), Occupy the Constellations: A Collaborative Revolutionary Puppet Tale and, all the way from California, a show called What I Learned From Porn. Not everything you’ll see at the Fringe is great, but it’s always done with humor and spirit, making it more interesting—if not quite as professional—than most other festivals.

Aug. 10-26. fringenyc.org.

New York Musical Theatre Festival

Featuring live music, workshops and full productions of brand-new musicals, the NYMTF has been giving New York audiences a chance to experience exciting musical theater without Broadway price tags (or tourists) since 1994. This year’s lineup is particularly strong, with 30 musicals including A Letter To Harvey Milk, about a butcher sending a letter to Milk; Baby Case, Michael Ogborn’s take on the Lindbergh baby’s disappearance; and Prison Dancer, a show based on the Filipino prisoners who became a worldwide sensation thanks to their YouTube performances.

July 9-29. Various locations, nymf.org.