Don't Miss Mark Rothko at Christie's NY in May, 2012

I stopped by Christie's at Rockefeller Plaza on Friday to view the highlights of the upcoming Post-War and Contemporary Art Sale on May 8, 2012.
Mark Rothko's Orange, Red, Yellow, which he painted in 1961, was truly sensational. The piece dominated the gallery with works by Richter, Hofmann, Marden, de Kooning, Calder.
The estimate is $35,000,000-45,000,000 but it won't cost you a dime to see it.
It will be on view again prior to the auction from May 4-8 and it is a must-see.

Christie's
20 Rockefeller Plaza
New York
http://www.christies.com

Architecture Getaway to Boston: Renzo Piano Links Past and Present at Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Renzo Piano's addition includes a contemporary art exhibition space on the left and Calderwood Hall on the right at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

This getaway can be done in a day from Manhattan, but if you have time, I would recommend that you spend the night in Boston. Due to time constraints, I decided to jump on BoltBus to Boston last Saturday morning for a day excursion. I normally take the train to South Station, but I wanted to try Bolt this time. The bus was 20 minutes late for the 7:30am departure in front of the Tick Tock Diner on W. 34th St. at the corner of 8th Avenue. I was assigned boarding group C and the passengers crowded around the bus driver while he called out each group. We stopped for a break somewhere near Hartford and still managed to arrive at South Station in Boston on time four hours later.

Passageway from Piano's addition to "the palace," the original 1903 structure.

I took the T (subway) to the MFA stop and walked a couple of blocks to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The purpose of this brief trip was to experience the new addition to the Gardner's palace which opened in January, 2012 and was designed by Pritzer Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano. I had visited other Piano-designed museums, but was intrigued with how he was going to integrate a contemporary wing into the 1903 structure. Unfortunately the carriage house had to be demolished in order to create space for the addition, but I was impressed by the way that Piano kept his wing separate yet connected by a glass walkway to the original building. The passageway formed an umbilical cord from the present to the past or the past to the present, depending on your direction. The entrance to the museum is now through the Piano addition and so you enter the palace by passing through the enclosed path with the garden on either side of you. This feeling of being transported to another era was one of the most successful aspects of Piano's project at the Gardner. Piano created two striking and contrasting spaces within his addition. Calderwood Hall was built to continue the musical legacy of the Gardner. It replaced the Tapestry Room in the palace where concerts were formerly held. The other dramatic space in the new building was created for exhibitions of contemporary art. The wall of floor-to-ceiling windows in the main gallery was oriented to face the back side of the palace. Piano not only played off the contrast between past and present, but also between the concepts of enclosure and openness. The central space within the Venetian-inspired palace is the courtyard, which featured twenty-foot long nasturtium vines, a Spring tradition at the Gardner, at the time of my visit. Even though the skylight flooded the courtyard with light, the space exuded the feeling of a private world, an interior environment only visible from within the museum. In the Piano addition, Calderwood's enclosure echoed this concept in its design. Piano also contrasted Calderwood with the light-filled, open contemporary gallery, which was created to display the work of artists-in-residence. Two apartments for the artists are located in the front section of Piano's addition.

Side view of new entrance building with the greenhouse on the ground floor and apartments for artists-in-residence above.

If you need a bite to eat, then book a table at Cafe G on the ground floor of the Piano building. The Living Room on the same level was an attempt to create a space to rest, read and interact with a guest curator. There were only three other people in the area when I visited and I felt that it missed the mark in its purpose.
The one disaster in the building was the use of hideous green tiles in the bathrooms on the basement level. Do not go there.

Circulation in the Piano addition with glass passageway in the distance.

Before you leave the addition, walk up the broad stairway to a landing which will give you an elevated view directly above the glass passageway to the palace.
When I finished my visit to the Gardner, I walked around the perimeter of the museum. The dramatic slanted glass wall to the left of the new entrance was Piano's severe declaration of the new. While his creation updated the institution, it will never come close to the ineffable delight that I felt while viewing John Singer Sargent's El Jaleo, Whistler's Nocturne, Blue and Silver: Battersea Reach, Rembrandt's Self-Portrait, Aged 23 or Titian's Europa.


http://www.gardnermuseum.org

Must-see New York Contemporary Art Shows: Spring, 2012

Afro Burri Fontana

Haunch of Venison

550 W. 21^st St.

http://www.haunchofvenison.com/

on view through May 12, 2012

John Chamberlain: Choices

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

1071 Fifth Avenue

http://www.guggenheim.org/

on view through May 13, 2012

2012 Whitney Biennial

Whitney Museum of American Art

945 Madison Ave.

http://www.whitney.org/

on view through May 27, 2012

Frank Stella: Black, Aluminum, Copper Paintings

L&M Arts
45 E. 78^th St.
http://www.lmgallery.com
on view through June 2, 2012

Loris Greaud: The Unplayed Notes
The Pace Gallery
534 W. 25th St.
http://www.thepacegallery.com
on view through June 9, 2012

Jill Moser
Lennon, Weinberg, Inc.
514 W. 25th St.
http://www.lennonweinberg.com
on view through June 9, 2012

Atsuya Tominaga: Sphere
Ippodo Gallery
521 W. 26th St.
http://www.ippodogallery.com
on view through June 9, 2012

Cindy Sherman

MOMA

11 W. 53^rd St.

http://www.moma.org/

on view through June 11, 2012

Origins: Cui Fei & Taca Sui
Chambers Fine Art
522 W. 19th St.
http://www.chambersfineart.com
on view through June 15, 2012

Brice Marden: New Paintings
Matthew Marks Gallery
523 W. 24th St.
http://www.matthewmarks.com
on view through June 23, 2012

Lucio Fontana: Ambienti Spaziali
Gagosian Gallery
555 W. 24th St.
http://www.gagosiangallery.com
on view through June 30, 2012

Dan Flavin Drawing
The Morgan Library & Museum
225 Madison Ave.
http://www.themorgan.org
on view through July 1, 2012

Richard Avedon: Murals & Portraits
Gagosian Gallery
522 W. 21st St.
http://www.gagosiangallery.com
on view through July 6, 2012

NYC Dining Challenge Update: Maialino at Gramercy Park Hotel

A great way to start off your day is to have breakfast at Danny Meyer’s Maialino at the Gramercy Park Hotel. Order an olive oil muffin, the ricotta pancakes ($12) with cranberry compote and maple syrup, enjoy the view of the park from your table and you’ll be ready to tackle the day. Bar Maialino at the front of the restaurant is a coffee bar in the morning and serves the complete menu throughout the day. The trattoria at the back of restaurant, which is where I was seated, has blue-and-white-checked tablecloths and views of Gramercy Park. It is the preferable area for a business meal or quiet conversation with a friend.

Maialino means “little pig” and if you dine there for lunch or dinner, order the Malfatti al Maialino, which is malfatti pasta, braised suckling pig and arugula. Executive Chef Nick Anderer was formerly at Babbo and Gramercy Tavern.

The restaurant was designed by the New York-based Rockwell Group, which was the team behind the newly renovated Hotel Bel-Air, Trump SoHo, Nobu, The Cosmopolitan hotel in Las Vegas, two recent Academy Awards shows and Catch Me if You Can on Broadway. At Maialino, Rockwell successfully created a warm and comfortable Roman-style trattoria environment with contemporary flair by using wood flooring, reclaimed ceiling beams and modern pendant fixtures.

When you finish your meal, be sure to stroll into the lobby of GPH and enjoy a libation in the lounge. Ian Schrager brought the artist Julian Schnabel on board to design the interior of the hotel. Prior to the opening of GPH in 2006, Schnabel said, “I built a place that I’d like to be in.” In fact, it reminded me of his home which I visited with a group of young art collectors in the early '90s. Works by Damien Hirst, Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Cy Twombly and, of course, Schnabel have been featured at GPH. The hotel rotates the pieces and most of them are on loan.

Maialino

Gramercy Park Hotel

2 Lexington Avenue

New York, NY 10010

1.212.777.2410

http://www.maialinonyc.com/
http://www.gramercyparkhotel.com/

Rockwell Group: http://www.rockwellgroup.com/

NYC Dining Challenge Update: Lincoln Ristorante

If you have a passion for contemporary architecture and fine dining, I have a perfect recommendation for you. Make a reservation at Lincoln Ristorante at Lincoln Center on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Chef Jonathan Benno, who was the chef de cuisine at Per Se for six years, opened his modern Italian restaurant in September, 2010. Lincoln is located underneath the dramatically sloping Illumination Lawn, which was designed by Diller Scofidio + Refro and FXFOWLE Architects, and is situated between the reflecting pool on one side and West 65^th Street on the other. Diller Scofidio’s pavilion is steps away from the symphony, theater, opera, ballet and Fashion Week shows. The Lincoln Center Film Center is located downstairs from the restaurant. But, it is not imperative that you combine a dining experience at Lincoln with a cultural excursion. The restaurant is its own destination.

Dining at Lincoln during the day is a different aesthetic experience than at night. For lunch, the transparency of the floor to ceiling windows allows daylight to flood the interior and enhances the striking contrast between the serenity of the reflecting pool and monumental Henry Moore sculpture on one side and the cacophony of the kitchen on the other. I arrived early and the host offered to seat me right away. If you are an architecture buff, I highly recommend requesting a table in the middle of the restaurant between the reflecting pool and kitchen. This part of the restaurant allows you to truly appreciate the dynamism of the sloping roof. Seating areas on either end of the restaurant are still dramatic but in the middle area, you feel that you are completely subsumed in the space.  In the evening, Lincoln is cool and sleek. Neither visit will disappoint. 

The cuisine will not blow you away as much as the design, but Chef Benno’s interpretation of modern Italian cuisine is impressive. The Restaurant Week 3-course menu was very good and the portions and presentation were perfect. The staff was professional, attentive and friendly.  I started with the grilled calamari, braised potatoes, castelvetrano olives and caperberries. It was spicy but I enjoyed the different textures and flavors. My main course was the rigatoni with heritage pork, sage, cremini mushrooms and pecorino romano. This course hit the mark. The bosc pear and cranberry crisp with almond cream was good but not memorable.

I recommend Lincoln because of its synthesis of striking architecture and fine dining. The severely modern design makes Lincoln a unique dining destination.

Next up in the Dining Challenge: Maialino.

Diller Scofidio + Renfro: http://www.dsrny.com/

FXFOWLE Architects: http://www.fxfowle.com/

Lincoln Ristorante

142 W. 65^th St.

New York, NY 10023

212.359.6500

http://www.lincolnristorante.com/

NYC Dining Challenge Update: Junoon

I selected the modern Indian restaurant, Junoon, as my next dining destination for the 2012 Dining Challenge since it was featured in NY Magazine’s top 101 restaurants in NYC and I love Indian food. It opened in December, 2010 in the Flatiron District. The combination of the refined cuisine, elegant décor and professional staff resulted in a memorable experience for me.

I ordered the $24 three-course prix fixe lunch, which Junoon offers year-round, not just during Restaurant Week. I started with the Piri-Piri shrimp in a Goan chili sauce with an avocado and jicama salad. The Nadru Kofte main course of Kashmir lotus root and homemade fresh Indian cheese dumplings in an onion gravy with fennel powder and fenugreek leaves was superb. It was served with pulao rice and naan. The Cardamom Kulfi dessert was exquisite. I was impressed with the presentations of each course as well. It was fine dining at a very affordable price point.

I had read about the spice room downstairs where the spice blends are made daily. When I inquired if I could see it, my server, Erik, said that he would show it to me. He explained the different spices in the jars and how the Executive Chef, Vikas Khanna, blends them.

When I return next time, I will go for dinner. Scott Carney, the beverage director, created a wine list to synchronize with the Indian spices and sauces. I look forward to pairing his wines with Junoon’s sophisticated cuisine.

Next up in my Dining Challenge will be Lincoln Ristorante.

Junoon

27 W. 24^th St.

New York, NY 10010

(212) 490-2100

http://www.junoonnyc.com/

Atos Trio, Noon Recital, Rockefeller University

The Atos Trio from Berlin performed at the January 27, 2012 Noon Recital at Rockefeller University in Manhattan. The Trio was founded in 2003 by violinist Annette von Hehn, cellist Stefan Heinemeyer and pianist Thomas Hoppe. I attended with a Juilliard grad, who thought that the trio needed more coaching. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the program, which featured Schumann’s Trio Nr. 2 in F-Major, Op.80 and Beethoven’s Trio in B-flat Major, Op. 97 (“Archduke”). The Beethoven piece was wonderful.

Atos Trio’s website: http://www.atostrio.de/

The free Noon Recitals are every Friday in the Caspary Auditorium at Rockefeller. Donations are always appreciated. Call the recital hotline a couple of days in advance for program information: (212) 327-7007.

Rockefeller University

1230 York Ave. at 66^th St.

New York, NY 10065

http://www.rockefeller.edu/