New York, New York! at the Hyde Collection

Andreas Feininger - Brooklyn Bridge 1940s  gelatin silver print

The show New York, New York! The 20th Century, on loan to the Hyde Collection from the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Fla., is designed to be a crowd pleaser - and, judging from the reactions I witnessed on a recent weekday visit there, it is - but it is also a worthwhile show for any serious art viewer who may or may not care about the theme but will be thrilled to have a chance to see these 60 or so excellent pieces from the Norton's collection.

When you enter the show, you are struck by a clever (actually, too clever) subway-style design scheme to the exhibition, which starts with an appropriately understated audio track of screeching train sounds and a large wall emblazoned with the tiles and signage typical of mid-century New York City subway stations. The one work of art at the entry is a large and graphic black-and-white photograph taken in 1941 by Andreas Feininger under the elevated train at Division Street; potent in its structure of steel, sun, and shadow, the photograph sets the course for this show: not so much that it will be about New York, but that it will feature a lot of art that describes the atmosphere of the place as much as its physical details.

Though the rest of the exhibition space is painted a conservative dark maroon, the subway theme carries through in the form of text panels with the black background, primary color dots, and Helvetica type you still see all over New York's rail system. While these provide useful information, they look odd and distracting here. The show is organized around several sub-themes: On the Waterfront, Avenues and Streets, Tall Buildings, Parks and Recreation, and On the Town, which help to give it form as it spans a good deal of history - both of the city and of art.

Childe Hassam - Melting Snow 1905  oil on canvas

In addition to a great proportion of photographs (27) and prints (add another 8), the exhibition features a range of paintings from the late 19th century to the late 20th, and five somewhat lonely sculptures, four of them in bronze (or plaster with a bronze patina). Fans of photography will recognize many of the names included here - Paul Strand, Edward Steichen, Weegee, Diane Arbus, and other giants are represented by fine, sometimes famous, examples of their work. Equally, there are first-rate photos by some lesser known practitioners, such as Bill Witt, Jerome Liebling, George Tice, and Feininger, whose five prints in the show are really terrific.

Thinking about Feininger, I wonder just how many of the other artists in this show came as immigrants - after all, New York is the world's destination, a place that perfectly exemplifies the ideal of the melting pot and the fresh start. One fine piece among the excellent graphics on view seems to purposely capture that experience - a sketchy lithograph by the Austrian master Oskar Kokoschka that depicts the Statue of Liberty from the water. Surrounded by an ocean of white space, the black-crayon drawing perfectly embodies possibility. It is worth noting that the artist was already past 80 when he made the piece and, though he was never an American, he changed citizenship more than once in his life, and lived out his last decades in Switzerland, perhaps enjoying his own restful neutrality.

More central to the theme of the show are a number of paintings in it by artists associated with the Ashcan School, including George Luks, Edward Hopper, Everett Shinn, and others in the same vein, such as Reginald Marsh and John Marin. These and others offer elements of social commentary - my companion's pick of the group is an acidic study of upperclass gallerygoers by William Gropper - but most focus on the weather, smoke, snow, fog and the sea of humanity that fills and refills New York every day, rather than depicting specific individuals.

Edward Hopper - August in the City 1945 oil on canvas

The works that best exemplify these different moods of the city are about equally distributed among the photos, paintings, and graphics - almost too numerous to mention, standouts include a marvelous color lithograph in the form of an accordion book by Eugene Feldman; exacting etchings by Armin Landeck from 1934 and John Taylor Arms from 1925 that render light and texture to perfection; Childe Hassam's classic of American Impressionism from 1905 titled Melting Snow; and a sweeping photographic overview of a chunk of the Bronx by Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao.

Other particularly special paintings in the show include a terrific vertical mural piece by Stuart Davis; the Hopper, titled August in the City, where, in the deep summer's absence of any humanity, a statue stands in for his typical figure at the window; several John Marins; and a frenetic bit of expressionism by Mark Tobey. Altogether, for me this experience was not so much about New York as it was a great excuse to see a wonderful show of a century of art.

The main problem with the exhibition is its title - because now I can't get that damn song out of my head! It's a great song (personally, I prefer Liza's rendition to Frank's) but, well, you know what I mean about ear worms.

New York, New York! The 20th Century continues through Sept. 18. It originated at the Norton Museum of Art in 2009, and continues on tour, stopping next at the Katonah Museum of Art. The Hyde has organized a full slate of activities around the exhibition, including a week of 9/11 tenth-anniversary events - please see the museum's website for details.

Rating: Highly Recommended

Eugene Feldman - New York West Side Skyline 1965  fold-out book

Objects of Wonder & Delight at The Hyde Collection

Walt Kuhn Dancing Pears, 1924, oil on canvas, 12 x 15 in.

The Hyde Collection has broken with tradition by bringing a crowd-pleasing show to Glens Falls in the middle of a harsh winter. Objects of Wonder & Delight: Four Centuries of Still Life from the Norton Museum of Art may not be summer blockbuster material, but it comes darn close, with a galaxy’s worth of major-name artists’ work wrapped around an underwhelming premise in an intriguing way.

Organized by the Norton (which is in West Palm Beach, Fla., and where Hyde director David Setford once worked), this touring show both fulfills expectations and challenges them. Part of the strategy involves subthemes that allow for a free flow of groupings and interactions among the works. For example, in the section titled From the Garden: Fruits and Vegetables, tabletop still lifes mingle with figurative interiors and landscape-ish exteriors.

Here, the staff of the Hyde has excelled in clever arrangements and juxtapositions that make the whole enterprise much more lively than the topic natura morta ought to promise. But, then again, just look at what they had to work with. The selection of 51 pieces (including three-dimensional works and several functional or decorative objects) bristles with creative brilliance.

Making a list of standouts, I ran out of room on my notepad: Matisse, Picasso, Chagall, Courbet, O’Keeffe, Demuth, Lichtenstein, Avery, and Severini number among the 20th-century painters with significant pieces here. Photography is also well represented, most importantly by two Edwards (Steichen and Weston), along with important predecessors, contemporaries, and followers – including Baron Adolph De Meyer, Ralph Steiner, Dorothy Norman, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Lilo Raymond.

The sculptural surprises include an oversized felt suit by Joseph Beuys, a miniature townhouse by the British Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare, and a marvelously wrought wooden skeleton of a grouper fish by Fumio Yoshimura. This is not your Dutch uncle’s still life – but, don’t worry, there are enough Flemish paintings here to satisfy him, too. In fact, these provide some of the show’s nicest moments, such as the Jesuit painter Daniel Seghers’ undated oil on canvas depicting a luminescent garland of flowers (explained on the label as representing painting as a form of religious contemplation), and the nicely conjured trio of William Harnett’s Bachelor’s Table (1880), Christiaen Striep’s classic still life (about 1665), and a Chinese Imperial carved wood panel from the Qing dynasty (1736-1795).

But, ultimately, Objects of Wonder & Delight really earns its stripes through individual masterpieces. Starting with a large Robert Delaunay from 1916, its objects radiating colorfully striped auras, the show grabs you by the eyes and never lets go. The O’Keeffe, a white cow’s pelvis floating in a brilliant blue sky above a low Southwestern landscape, is gorgeous; one of the Matisses is also arguably a landscape - a fabulous seaside one featuring two beached rays; and a 17th-century trompe l’oeil by Jacobus Biltius is a masterful and darkly humorous example of the genre.

Almost mirroring the Matisse is a Surrealist-tinged painting from 1945 that also features rotting fish, by the Japanese-American Yasuo Kuniyoshi – fortunately, though they’re not hung together, it’s possible to view them simultaneously from a certain vantage point. Another treasure, the Courbet, shows that great art can be made while languishing in prison – and by contrasting the temptations of accessible fruits with those of an inaccessible forest.

Among all this glory, my favorite picture in the show is a relatively small and unassuming one by the German Expressionist Max Beckmann – probably not an artist you think of as painting still life at all. But here is his signature black-outline style gracing a two-foot-square canvas with a spray of irises and a few unlit candlesticks. The painting was made just a couple of years before his death, and you feel that he senses it coming, but you also feel in the colors how fiercely he defies it. Still alive!

Rating: Must See

2010 Artists of the Mohawk Hudson Region at The Hyde Collection

There’s no way I could write an objective review of the 2010 edition of Artists of the Mohawk Hudson Region, held this year for the first time at The Hyde Collection in Glens Falls. I didn’t enter the show – which would immediately disqualify me from writing about it at all – but the 72 accepted artists include my studio mate, several people I represent in a corporate rental service, at least a dozen personal friends and acquaintances, a couple of professors at the college I attend, and even an ex-girlfriend.

So, please don’t expect me to offer a full critical assessment of this year’s art and artists. But – no worries – there’s still plenty to say about the show.

First, the new venue. No doubt there are people who were not pleased when this longstanding staple of the annual Capital Region exhibition circuit added a spot in its three-year rotation at the feet of the Adirondacks. That would mean a lot more travel for many of the people involved (49 hail from Albany, Rensselaer, and Schenectady counties or points south), and possibly smaller audiences than the show would draw at its Albany locations (the University Art Museum and the Albany Institute of History & Art). But I was thrilled, for a number of reasons, when I heard that the Hyde had been named as the new third wheel (replacing the Schenectady Museum, which changed its mission several years ago to showing only scientific exhibits).

The Hyde has a venerable collection, features plenty of lovely exhibition space, and is run by a team of consummate professionals – making it an ideal setting for the Regional. Bringing the show north seemed likely to attract new artists, and apparently it did, as this year set a record with almost 1,500 entries by 340 artists (though, curiously, only one of those accepted is actually from Glens Falls); it also revives the memory of the Adirondack Regional, a Hyde tradition that was dropped around 20 years ago. And it’s a great decision for the Hyde itself to take this opportunity to reopen its doors to the legion of local fine artists who will now refer to it as “their” museum.

So, how has it worked out this time? While there are a number of North Country artists in the show (some of whom have been in it before), the majority of included names are still rather familiar. This year’s juror, Charles Desmarais of the Brooklyn Museum, shows no particularly bizarre taste; the eclecticism of his choices appropriately represents both the region and the art world as a whole. Desmarais did choose to include more artists than usual, and in most cases just one work by each (somewhat like Ivan Karp, who selected 72 works by 71 artists for the 2005 show at the Albany Institute). This makes for a very broad but not very deep viewing experience.

Prize-wise, the Hyde has done reasonably well. In contrast to the 2008 Regional, which gave just six cash awards totaling $1,550, this year nine artists received a total of $2,450 in cash prizes (though the University Art Museum did better last year, distributing just under $4,000 in cash prizes to 12 artists). That's in addition to purchase prizes from the three sponsoring institutions and five gift certificates that were also awarded. As always, a nicely printed color catalog accompanies the show; it contains an informative introduction by Hyde Executive Director David Setford and an essay by the juror.


Desmarais begins his essay by saying "Modern Life is a negotiation between what things are and what they first appear to be." He then goes on to invoke the confusing and contradictory TV images of our current era, and then to either flatter or insult us (you decide) by pointing out that "artists, practiced liars that they are, tend to be great at sorting this stuff out." A purposely provocative introduction to a show that is, essentially, a snapshot of the concerns and sensibilities that our best local artists – and our culture as a whole – hold dear.

I do have a complaint or two about the show. One is its breadth – a strength to some, I think so much inclusion tends to place too sharp a focus on the curator's choices and not enough on the artists'. As a viewer, I would always rather see larger bodies of work by each artist in a group show so that I can better understand the whole of what that artist may be trying to say. Instead, when a curator (or juror) creates sweeping cross sections of scores of artists' individual works, it becomes too general a statement.

On the plus side, that general statement is precisely what many people expect the Regional to provide. Also a plus in this specific case is the arrangement of the installation, where chromatic and thematic groupings form a coherency that would otherwise be lacking in such a survey. It does make for a handsome appearance and some fun associations.

My other complaint must fall on the shoulders of the artists – and that is that a fairly thick slice of the work in this show is getting pretty stale. Too many pieces in this selection are dated 2008 or before and, as is no surprise with that being the case, I've already seen much of it (and so, presumably, have a lot of other art fans). C'mon people! It'll be 2011 by the time this show comes down – if you haven't got something good from the last two years, then maybe you shouldn't submit.

Freshness aside, the quality of the work in this Regional is almost universally high – the juror seems to have hit only a few wrong notes, and those he selected for prizes do seem to stand out (including the work reproduced with this post).

In addition, I would like to name a couple of pieces that were not singled out by the juror, but that might have been: Anne Diggory's luminous hybrid media piece titled let there be white and Joel Griffith's chilly, dusky acrylic painting titled House on West Kerley's Corners are both wonderful examples of the continuing power of traditional subjects (landscape and still life) to resonate. Another fine piece, titled Reading Room, by Regional stalwart Allen Bryan, shows what digital photography can do without losing the qualities of film photography.

And, speaking of photography, it is a pleasure to note that, 20 years after this competition ceased to bar photography from its submissions, film- and digitally-based media again make up a substantial portion of the work chosen (33 out of 93), including several prize winners.

Rating: Recommended

The 2010 Artists of the Mohawk Hudson Region exhibition continues through Jan. 2, 2011. An annex show of 14 additional works selected by the juror (and including nine artists not in the Hyde show) was on view at the nearby Tom Myott Gallery in the Shirt Factory but it closed shortly before my visit. Instead, I found a beautiful solo show by Saratoga Springs artist Regis Brodie that just opened there; it is well worth a visit.

Works of art, in order from top of post:

Jane Bloodgood-Abrams Presence, 2010 Oil on panel 24 x 24 in. The Hyde Collection Purchase Award

Deborah Zlotsky Piquance, 2009 Powdered graphite on vellum 40 x 25 in. Spiral Design Studio, LLC $250 Juror’s Award

Peter Crabtree Carter Campbell, 2008 Photograph 17 x 22 in. Grindle Custom Framing $100 gift certificate

John Hampshire Labyrinth 229, 2009 Permanent marker on panel 24 x 48 in. University at Albany Purchase Award

Gina Occhiogrosso Homework (Phase 1), 2008 Dollhouse with furniture, DVD player, lights 36 x 48 x 36 in. Maryann Bell $500 Juror’s Award

William Jaeger Along Bernard’s Wharf and Railroad, 2007 Photograph, inkjet print 22 x 29 in. NBT Bank $250 Juror’s Award

Andrew Wyeth: An American Legend at The Hyde Collection

It is, once again, a summer of blockbuster exhibitions in our region; not to be missed among the wealth of fine choices is Andrew Wyeth: An American Legend at The Hyde Collection in Glens Falls through Sept. 5.

Built upon the seemingly slight foundation of a single early Wyeth watercolor from the Hyde's collection, the show brings in a trove of major and minor works, making 46 in all, from various sources, including a commercial gallery, several museums, and two private collections. Curated by the Hyde's new director, David F. Setford, and deputy director Erin B. Coe, the exhibition was produced in conjunction with Maine's Farnsworth Art Museum, which provided the great bulk of the loaned works.

The result is a stunning display of masterful and at times provocative work by an artist as controversial as he was popular in his long lifetime (he died last year at the age of 91). Many warm easily to Wyeth because his work has a realist look to it - his ability to create the illusion of verisimilitude with a few strokes of a watercolor brush was unparalleled - but the show makes a convincing argument that far deeper and darker impulses guided this seemingly representational artist.

Grouped into four broad themes (Regionalism, Architecture and Interiors, Magic Realism, and Wyeth's Models) the Hyde exhibition provides plenty of useful notes (written by Setford, and available in a very reasonably priced and nicely produced color catalog) to guide the viewer without imposing too much on one's direct appreciation of the work. This is good, as the great majority of the pieces are watercolors on paper, a medium in which directness is paramount.

The watercolors are augmented by several well-chosen pencil sketches and a significant handful of temperas on panel, Wyeth's other signature medium. For my money, it would do to spend the most time with those more finished paintings, plus a few of the best watercolors, and go away sufficiently dazzled. After all, if you're really looking, a few choice masterpieces will wear you out - and this show has the masterpieces.

Begin with the almost painfully understated, nearly abstract composition titled Cooling Shed, and you will see much of what makes Wyeth a pleasurably persistent problem in American modernism. The painting (a tempera) is a narrow vertical, only about a foot by two feet, with a wide, flat, deep, dark frame that could be barn wood. Within that slice, Wyeth has engaged his love of mystery - light and dark collide there - and his confounding realism made almost minimalist by severe cropping.

An abstracted scene of fragile Americana, the 1953 Cooling Shed is anything but simple or simplistic. The Hyde has intelligently presented nearby a reproduction of a 1938 painting by Charles Sheeler (famous for early abstract photographs and paintings of American subjects) that resembles both Wyeth's painting and Marcel Duchamp's notorious Nude Descending a Staircase; this juxtaposition makes the point visually that Wyeth is also not an artist to be trifled with.

Wyeth's own words on Cooling Shed ("I was thrilled to find such abstraction in the everyday.") belie the degree of difficulty he would have encountered in creating a work of such potent subtlety and transcendence with the merest of materials.

Equally transcendent, the largest painting in the show is also a tempera on panel, one that nearby notes explain did duty as an electric train table for Wyeth's kids before he revived the nearly 8-foot piece in 1950 (it was begun in 1942). Soaring depicts a bleak, coastal farmscape from the point of view of a group of turkey vultures that wheel high above it at a dizzying angle.

Here, as in many other works in the show, "the imminence of death" is a theme that Wyeth explores unblinkingly, while tying it to a quiet but palpable joy. It is this distinct brand of New England stoicism that is most characteristic of Wyeth's work and that I think is the key to its popularity. Even Wyeth's most colorful works (notably among the earliest) are subdued; and most of his work borders on the colorless. Where he does go bright, it is almost always in the direction of a deep blue. The rest of the time, brown dominates.

Aptly, the Hyde's galleries are painted brown and blue for this installation, a design that works well to set the tone for contemplation that this work so clearly demands and deserves. Is it a pleasure to contemplate death? Well, yes, Wyeth seems to be saying, so long as you are eluding it, and not making too great a show of yourself as you do.

This active avoidance of decay is an essential ingredient in the artistic life, and it is exemplified by the secretive production of Wyeth's Helga series, represented in this show by three watercolors (two from 1973, both of which are titled In the Orchard, are reproduced at the top and bottom of this post). Though these are not among the best Helga paintings, it is important that they are included as a representation of Wyeth's daily practice.

Far better are the pencil studies of his other most famous model, Christina Olson; superb as they are, though, they can't quite make up for the absence of Christina's World, the 1948 painting that made Wyeth's name unforgettable. I suppose the Museum of Modern Art in New York City refused to lend it.

Instead, a piece that clearly paved the way for Christina's World is on view, and it is a fine substitute. Titled Turkey Pond, the 1944 tempera depicts a dark figure in hunting garb, but with neither gun nor dog along for the trip, his purpose in walking across the vacant meadow is lost. It is as good an image of existentialism as you will find anywhere.

NOTE: The estate of Andrew Wyeth strictly prohibits the reproduction of his images on the Web; the two images reproduced here are courtesy of Adelson Galleries, New York.

American Impressionist Landscapes at The Hyde Collection

Ernest Bruce Nelson April in Central Park, ca. 1935-43, oil on canvas

The title of the current show at The Hyde Collection may be a bit of a mouthful, but that doesn't mean An Enduring Legacy: American Impressionist Landscape Paintings from the Thomas Clark Collection isn't also an eyeful. Drawn from a private collection numbering over 100 works that will eventually be donated to the Hyde, this selection of 64 paintings by 47 artists nicely fills the museum's ample central gallery and is sure to please lovers of traditional painting genres.

Thomas Clark is a Saratoga County-based private management consultant (who, incidentally, is not related to the family that founded the Clark Art Institute and other major museum collections), who began to form his collection about 25 years ago. Even at that time it would have taken almost untold wealth to pick up quality works by significant artists from the first third of the 20th century, so the group represented here consists mainly of second-tier painters who were well-known and successful in their day but are now largely forgotten. This review will consider the question of whether it should have remained that way, or whether these footnotes to American art history are worthy of recognition today.

This is a tough bill to fill - as it is, even American Impressionists of the highest order (such as Childe Hassam, Robert Henri, and William Merritt Chase) remain far less esteemed than their European elders (Monet, et al). The painters in this show were primarily students and lesser colleagues of these and other top-drawer Americans; for the most part, they could paint quite well, and the examples shown include some of their best work. However, I believe few people would make a strong argument that this work broke important new ground or carried lasting influence.

Looking at the show, I tried to ask myself a certain question regarding each painting: If someone brought this to me as a contemporary work of art by a budding painter, would I be impressed? Or would I be inclined to think the artist would never amount to much? While it isn't necessarily fair to judge historic art through a contemporary lens, it is still very instructive. I don't doubt that any first-rate work, from any era at all, in any style, would pass such a smell test.

So, how did the Clark Collection paintings fare? As a whole, I'm sorry to say, not that well. Most of the works, while competent, felt either amateurish, commercial, or touristy. Still, I'm glad to report that the best works in the show transcend these categories to deliver the kind of vital experience that one desires from the best art, whether visually, emotionally or symbolically.

Among these outstanding examples are some that fall neatly under the Impressionist label, including the show's signature piece by George Loftus Noyes (reproduced above left), Maurice Braun's almost-too-sugary but gorgeous Meadow in Spring and John Joseph Enneking's energetic small sketch titled Distant Sail.

Others have a distinctly Modernist edge, including a fine piece made under the auspices of the Federal Art Project by Ernest Bruce Nelson that may have been a study for a mural (reproduced at the top of this post); and Louise Upton Brumback's Grey Day, Gloucester, which presents a view of a harbor in winter that could almost have been painted by Edvard Munch. This piece is smartly juxtaposed with a lovely but more pedestrian view of the same harbor under summer sun by Alice Judson (reproduced at right). These two women, incidentally, are among seven included in the show - not an equal representation compared to the 4o men, but a pretty fair one considering the time frame.

Two of my favorite pieces in this exhibition fit between the Impressionist and Modernist parameters. One, titled Winter Landscape with Purple Hills, by Walter Koeniger, is among a large number of paintings here that depict snowy scenes, and is easily the most muscular of them in terms of both color and composition. It also has a lot of atmosphere - but not nearly so much as Arthur Clifton Goodwin's masterful depiction of a blizzardy squall in Boston, circa 1915 (reproduced below). That painting alone is well worth paying the Hyde's modest $5 suggested donation to see.

A catalog has been published to accompany An Enduring Legacy, with text by Hyde curator Erin Budis Coe, who will give a lecture about the exhibition at 3 p.m. on Sunday (Jan. 17). Coe, along with Thomas Clark, will be on hand after the talk to sign copies of the book.

Arthur Clifton Goodwin The Wharf and Custom House Tower, ca. 1915, oil on canvas

Fall exhibition preview

The season is upon us and we will never, ever catch up with it. But it’s worth trying, no? Here, in chronological order based on their opening dates, are some of the exhibitions that are happening in the region this fall that are on my radar. I will try (and fail) to see all of them, but I promise to review most of them as the weeks and months roll by. Meanwhile, you may want to mark these on your calendars.

Through the Eyes of Others: African Americans and Identity in American Art, which opened today (Sept. 8) and runs through Jan. 6 at the New York State Museum, explores the complicated issues surrounding race in American culture as seen in paintings and sculptures from the 19th and 20th centuries. Many of the art works and artifacts (including Black Child, the oil on canvas by Phillip Thomas Cole Tilyard shown above) were amassed by 19th-century collector Stephen C. Clark and the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, New York. Additional selections were culled from various public and private collections, including the New York State Museum. I expect it to be one of the top shows of the year.

Also already open, but with a reception on Saturday (Sept. 12) from 5 to 8 is Alchemie, a new show by the painter Laura Colomb. Recently named “Best Emerging Regional Curator” by Metroland for her work at the Saratoga Arts Center Gallery, Colomb’s newest body of work contains large diptychs with elements of Adirondack landscape and nature (image at right). This also marks the last solo show at UpstArt, which will close after a final group show in October, and the departure of Colomb from the area.

Opening Sunday (Sept. 13) is The Play of Light, a solo show at the First Unitarian Society by Oakroom Artist Gary Shankman. A fine painter in the Impressionist style, Shankman will show new work that includes studies of toys verging on the creepy. Reception is the following Sunday (Sept. 20) from 12:30 to 3.

The University (at Albany) Art Museum kicks of its season with Uncharted, a show with thematic ties to the exploration of the Hudson River that includes the work of 10 artists. Co-curated by director Janet Riker and staff curator Corinna Schaming Ripps, it opens with a reception from 5 to 7 on Tuesday, Sept. 15, and promises to be fascinating in a Po-Mo way.

Hudson Valley Community College's Teaching Gallery will host Is It Just Me?, which surveys the last 10 years of New York artist Jennifer Dalton's sculptures and installations that were based on exhaustive “excavations” of herself and her art world surroundings. The show opens with a reception on Thursday, Sept. 17, from 4 to 6, preceded by an artist talk at 3 in the Bulmer auditorium.

Off the beaten track, but truly intriguing, will be a reception and show from 4-7 on Saturday, Sept. 26 at the newly minted Malden Bridge Community Center. Titled Levity and Not So Much, the show features four women artists who will present drawings, paintings, sculptures and installations. Some of you might already know the work of their ringleader, Monica Miller. I do, and it is always terrific - as are her parties. Don't miss it. (The map at right will help you find the site - you can click on it for a bigger, printable version.)

Back to academia, on Sept. 27 a large collection of renowned photography by Texan Keith Carter will be on view at The College of Saint Rose's Massry Gallery. It's a beautiful, new space and Carter's sensual, unassuming work is sure to be a hit with area viewers.

Looking further ahead, another solo photography show will begin on Nov. 1 at Sage College of Albany's Opalka Gallery. Dona Ann McAdams' exhibition is titled Some Women - it features selected works by this street photographer-documentarian from 1974-2009. Expect classic black-and-white treatment of avant garde subject matter.

Still further ahead, Canajoharie's Arkell Museum plans to open Walter Wicks: Games, Gizmos and Toys in the Attic on Nov.15. The traveling exhibition showcases enlarged photographs and models by the children's book illustrator famous for the I Spy and Can You See What I See? series.

Other shows of interest include gallery exhibitions in Hudson through Oct. 11 at Carrie Haddad Gallery (Great Pretenders: An Exhibit of Art Fakery - image above right), Carrie Haddad Photographs (Melinda McDaniel, Joseph Putrock and Arnold Kastenbaum), BCB Art (Arlene Becker, Cynthia Coulter and Carla Shapiro), and the always superb John Davis Gallery (Fran Shalom paintings, plus Douglas Culhane, Erin Walrath, Grace Bakst Wapner, Jeremy Hoffeld and Barry Bartlett).

UpstArt

Not a review, this is just a plug for a cool alternative art space in Glens Falls.

What is UpstArt? It's a gallery, it's a collective, it's a scene-setter. Located in the Shirt Factory, a big ol' brick building that used to be a - right, you got it - UpstArt is currently featuring a solo show by the mysterious artist collective TODT (and it's super-creepily great), but their usual fare is more local and broad-based.

A page on their website/blog says they are dedicated to turning the spotlight onto the new, the now, the young up-and-coming visual artists, writers, musicians, and performers who don’t fit into the “Adirondack-horse racing-run of the mill” scene.

Might be just what you need to balance the ethereality of the Hyde Collection's Degas & Music (reviewed below). Check it out and tell 'em I sent you!

Degas & Music at The Hyde Collection

The blockbuster has been a staple of Hollywood's summer movie business for generations and, for decades now, major museums have followed suit (led by 1978's The Treasures of King Tut at the Metropolitan Museum of Art). It makes sense to capitalize on the season's greater leisure time by pulling in those tourist dollars with something spectacular, and turnstile-spinners help keep the museums afloat during leaner times.

We're certainly in lean times for museums these days. And so, with Degas & Music, The Hyde Collection enters the Blockbuster Zone. The Hyde, in Glens Falls, has a strong claim on Edgar Degas, as it owns several of his works. But this show goes way beyond, reaching far and wide to bring together an impressive collection of the Impressionist's works that otherwise could never be seen together.

The show's thesis is simple enough: Degas grew up in a musical family during a time when music was increasingly playing a role in everyday life. Hence, his work is strongly influenced by the presence of music and expresses that in deeply personal terms.

This theme is borne out by the selection of works, which range from pencil studies to large oils on linen, and is supported by the research and other artifacts on view. The wall-panel text states that "over 2/3 of his oeuvre was devoted to ... ballet," which of course would be accompanied by music. But the real point is that so much of the rest of the work was about music - clearly, this was Degas' most enduring passion.

Beginning with a soul-searching self-portrait from 1854, made when the artist was barely 20 years old, the exhibition offers fine examples of the master's technique in drawing and printmaking, both of which underscore his graphic style of painting.

Though a rather large, green-hued painting of a dancer onstage is visually the show's centerpiece, the beating heart of the exhibition is a trio of works presented in a side gallery. These three pieces - brought together from homes in San Francisco, Boston, and Detroit - demonstrate and contrast the different ways Degas worked with texture, color, composition, and chiaroscuro to try to transmit his experience to the viewer.

The smallest of the three, which were all painted within a few years of each other, depicts a young woman and a male violinist as though they have just been interrupted mid-music lesson, or perhaps while preparing to perform a duet (it can be seen at the top of this post). The spontaneity of the moment is enhanced by a slightly shifting focus - the woman's face is sharply delineated and detailed, while the man's falls slightly into blur. Varying degrees of paint on the surface create points of varying interest (difficult to appreciate in a reproduction), which move the eye around but ultimately reinforce the connection between the two musicians, and emphasize the intimacy of the scene.

To this painting's left is a larger one, a vertical (shown at right), which also depicts a pair at a private musical soiree. Here, one musician plays a guitar and another has turned his back to the piano keys to listen. The composition again directs the eye, quite powerfully, this time toward the listener's ear. Degas is showing the action (which involves a famous guitarist and the painter's father, an amateur pianist), but he is trying to do much more - he is making us aware of the act of listening to the music by describing that idea visually and planting it in our brains.

Further to the left is another painting that goes beyond this concept. It presents a closeup of two players in an orchestra, using very little color, and reducing one of those players, a bassist, into a hulking foreground element (the painting is shown at left). Here, Degas has achieved his goal of making us hear the music - because, not only is the bassoon player puffing mightily away, he is surrounded by marks that, while ostensibly representing the shadowy figures of the other players and their instruments, also describe great sonic waves radiating out from the bassoonist. At last, Degas has depicted frequencies.

There are many other works to be appreciated in this exhibition, including Japanese-inspired fan paintings from the collection of the Musee D'Orsay, a series of 20 state-of-the-art reproductions from 1897, and one of the Hyde's own jewels, a fetching pastel of two dancers that displays all of Degas' graphic mastery in one little pair of red tights (seen below).

There are also innovations that speak to the Hyde's serious efforts at survival - labels naming sponsors of individual works (a fresh concept to me, and one that obviously succeeded, as most of the pieces have one); a new glass exit door that leads visitors right from the gallery into the gift shop; musical programming tie-ins at various venues; and, lest I forget to mention it, the museum's first-ever admission fee (a fair $10).

It all bodes well for the little upstate house museum that could - the place was crowded for a Tuesday, just days after the show opened with a Friday preview, and the excitement was palpable in the air. Congratulations to curator Erin Budis Coe and all the museum's staffers for a years-long job exceedingly well done.