Filed under Man About Town
Tom’s Picks
Portrait of Ivan Karp, Portrait of Allan Kaprow, 1961
Lots of great shows in NYC now, including a chance to get a great dose of one of the masters of Pop, Roy Lichtenstein, who currently is featured in three choice exhibitions. If you only can only see one of them, pick The Black and White Drawings at the Morgan Library (225 Madison Ave. at 36th St.), which also has the virtue of being on view until January 2. But Mostly Men at Leo Castelli (18 East 77th) and Reflected at Mitchell Innes & Nash (534 West 26th) both through October 30, are well worth seeing. Both include rare early works, as well as stunning recent pieces.
Also on view are two exhibitions of works by masters of abstract art: Gerhard Richter: “Lines which do not exist,” at the Drawing Center (35 Wooster Street) through November 18. The 50 drawings in the show reveal a lesser-known side of Richter, most famous for his paintings. They are mostly abstract, mostly small, mostly black and white, with a wide range of marking techniques, from thin lines to broad tones, from erased strokes to flurries of graphite spots. They amount to grisaille versions of his abstract paintings, which are supplemented by a few representational images, a wall of large-scale drawings, and several watercolors where the paper is flooded with blazing color, sometimes played against barely visible passages of line.
Last month the Pace Gallery flexed its considerable muscles with a four-gallery show honoring its fiftieth anniversary, featuring great works by artists such as Calder, Pollock, Johns and on. This month it opens a new space, 510 West 25th, with a show of abstract paintings by Thomas Nozkowski, who fills the big spaces with dozens of drawings and paintings that show a range of wit and inventiveness that make Richter’s drawings look austere—through December 4.
