Val Castronovo
Celebrating Dickens' Bicentennial at the Morgan Library
In collaboration with British heiress Angela Boudrett-Coudetts, Dickens founded Urania Cottage, a shelter for "fallen women" — that is, prostitutes and low-level criminals. Letters to Boudrett-Coudetts reveal a compassionate, hands-on manager intent on offering a safe haven to, and rehabilitating, the residents of the "Asylum," beginning with the clothes on their backs more »
She Was Just 17; The Gagosian Gallery Presents Picasso and Marie-Therese: L’amour fou
References to Marie-Thérèse, a full-figured, blonde beauty with a prominent "Greek" nose, were often camouflaged, or appeared in code, in Picasso’s art, and her identity was a closely hidden secret, as was the birth of their daughter Maya in 1935. more »
Van Cleef & Arpels Haute Jewelry Show at the Cooper-Hewitt Extended
There are highly stylized necklaces, bracelets, rings, earrings, brooches and watches, in addition to finely crafted accessories like clutches, cigarette cases and tobacco lighters. Objets d’art, such as a 1908 butler’s bell push comprised of a model yacht riding a wave fashioned from jasper, drew audible gasps. more »
Ladies and Gentlemen, The Starn Brothers Present Big Bambú: You Can’t, You Won’t, and You Don’t Stop (April 27 — October 31, 2010)
A work in progress, Big Bambú will continue to grow over the next several months until it resembles a 50-foot-tall cresting wave. Hand-assembled by the artists themselves and a team of 20-odd rock climbers from New Paltz, New York, using fresh-cut bamboo poles from Georgia and South Carolina, this urban grove is supposed to be "a microcosm of life itself in which everything is interdependent and changing." more »
