Art
Beat
CELEBRITY
PARADOX If you’ve even glanced at the art listings in this
paper’s calendar section lately, you couldn’t help but notice
’tis the season for major exhibitions opening at your favorite
museums and galleries. There is Andrew Wyeth at the Hyde Collection,
Picasso and Juan Muñoz at The Clark, For You at the
Tang, Petah Coyne at MASS MoCA, Photography Now 2010
at the Center for Photography at Woodstock, William Steig
at Norman Rockwell . . . you get the idea. This weekend, the
Albany Institute of History & Art gets into the
act with Ransoming Matthew Brady: Re-Imagining the Civil
War, Recent Paintings by John Ransom Phillips. In
25 watercolors and oils, Phillips “portrays the paradoxes
and complexity of the famed 19th-century photographer.” If
you take a gander at the exhibit notes, Phillips draws an
interesting parallel between Brady and Andy Warhol, both in
terms of technique and effect. The exhibit opens at the AIHA
(125 Washington Ave., Albany) on Saturday (June 19) and runs
through Oct. 3. And don’t forget to check out the companion
show Ransoming Matthew Brady: Searching for Celebrity,
which is on view through July 30 at the Opalka Gallery
(Sage Colleges, 140 New Scotland Ave., Albany). For more info,
visit albany institute.org and sage.edu/opalka.
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY It’s a joyous occasion for perennial Metroland
“Best Of” winner the Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza
this weekend, as they celebrate their 35th anniversary. This
happens to dovetail nicely with another milestone, the 75th
anniversary of Penguin Books. And since Penguin happens to
be William Kennedy’s publisher, someone had the very
bright idea of combining the two celebrations. So, on Saturday
(June 19) from 4-6 PM, there will be a celebration of both
these anniversaries, at which, in a treat of a sneak peek,
Kennedy will be reading from his next book, not due to be
published until 2011. The maestro of the Book House, Susan
Novotny, promises that there will be “good wine and Honest
Weight [Food Co-op] cheese” to celebrate with. Sounds enticing,
eh? For more info, visit bhny.com.
SPEAKING OF SNEAK PREVIEWS Albany’s Palace Theatre
has been using Twitter to stealthily announce titles
in their 2010-11 classic film series. So far, they’ve announced
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The
Graduate, Chinatown, E.T.: The
Extra-Terrestrial and The Rocky Horror Picture
Show. Since a number of these are in the 2.35:1 aspect
ratio—Cinema-Scope, more or less—this is the ideal way to
see these films. (Though, grump that I am, this is where I
am forced to posit that there are no ideal circumstances in
which to watch E.T. Never got the popularity of
that one.) And at $5 a ticket, who can resist? You can
follow the Palace on Twitter @PalaceAlbany. And if
you haven’t heard, Metroland is Tweeting, too—and we
don’t share The New York Times officially expressed,
elitist disdain for the term “Tweet.” Here’s the general rule
on Metroland’s Tweets: If they’re serious and informative,
they’re by the News Editor. If they’re snarky and stupid,
I wrote them.
—Shawn
Stone
|
Site
Search 
