Editors’ Picks: 7 Great Art and Design Events This Week

This week, The Metropolitan Museum of Art launches the first comprehensive retrospective of Eugène Delacroix in North America, Peter Halley unveils his captivating environments devised for the interior of the modernist landmark Lever House in a project curated by Roya Sachs, and Printed Matter’s beloved New York Art Book Fair returns to MoMA P.S.1. with buzzy pop-ups and hot-off-the-press publications by leading artists, institutions, and art-world publishers. Read on for Galerie‘s picks of shows not to miss this week.

Works by Eugène Delacroix at the Met. Photo: Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York

1. ‘Delacroix’
The Metropolitan Museum of Art 

This exhibition of more than 150 works by 19th-century French painter Eugène Delacroix marks the first comprehensive North American retrospective devoted to the artist. The show, which opens September 17, spans 12 galleries and celebrates four decades of the artist’s career with work definitive of the Romantic era for its narrative quality, remarkable color work, and emotional force.

Where: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue

When: September 17, 2018–January 6, 2019

Shigeko Kubota, River, 1971-81. Three-channel color video installation with steel trough, mirrors, motor, and water. Photo: Courtesy of the artist

2. ‘Before Projection: Video Sculpture 1974-1995’
SculptureCenter

Dara Birnbaum, Diana Thater, and Nam June Paik are just some of the artists whose work is in this group show, which explores early cinematic and multimedia works by visual artists between the years 1974 and 1995. According to a statement by Mary Ceruti, executive director and chief curator of SculptureCenter, the show “charts a history of video art that is coextensive with some of the most important developments in sculpture in the late 20th century.”

Where: SculptureCenter, 44-19 Purves Street, Long Island City

When: September 17–December 17. Hours: Thursday–Monday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.

Marcel Duchamp, Nu aux bas noirs (Nude with Black Stockings), 1910. Photo: Photo by Francisco Cohen

3. ‘Brancusi & Duchamp: The Art of Dialogue’
Paul Kasmin Gallery

Art historian Paul B. Franklin curates what in America is a first-of-its-kind exhibition, comprising over 80 sculptures, objects, photographs, films, and drawings by Constantin Brancusi and Marcel Duchamp. In spite of their starkly different genres, the two artists became friends in the 1910s and remained so for decades. The creative dialogue that followed is at the heart of the exhibition.

Where: Paul Kasmin Gallery, 515 West 27th Street

When: September 20–December 22.

4. World Premier: Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 9
Metrograph

Art21 hosts an exclusive screening of the new season of Art in the Twenty-First Century at Metrograph, featuring top international artists Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg, Olafur Eliasson, David Goldblatt, Katy Grannan, Nicholas Hlobo, Hiwa K, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Zanele Muholi, Susan Philipsz, Robin Rhode, and Stephanie Syjuco. The screening will be followed by a cocktail reception, and proceeds benefit Art21’s education and outreach programs. Buy your tickets here.

Where: Metrograph, 7 Ludlow Street

When: Thursday, September 20, 6:30–9:30 p.m.

David Hammons, Untitled, 2017. Sood, acrylic, wicker, straw, and metal. Photo: Courtesy of the artist

5. Art for One Drop Charity Auction
Phillips Auction House

Under the direction of curator and critic Philipp Kaiser, an auction featuring works by a range of celebrated contemporary artists will benefit One Drop, an organization that provides access to safe water and sanitation for more than 200,000 people in Latin America. Some works, such as this striking mask by David Hammons, could sell for as high as $1 million. For a ticket to the sale, email Phillips here.

Where: Phillips, 450 Park Avenue

When: Friday, September 21 at 7 p.m.

Rendering of Peter Halley’s ‘New York, New York’ at Lever House. Photo: Courtesy of the artist and Greene Naftali, New York

6. Peter Halley, ‘New York, New York’
Lever House Art Collection

Curated by Roya Sachs, this immersive, multistory exhibition devised by Peter Halley for Lever House invites viewers “to feel as if they are walking through the space created by one of his paintings.” Thanks to a band of bright yellow film lining the second-story windows of the modernist building, which Halley, a native New Yorker, calls “part of the landscape of my childhood,” the exhibition will be impossible to miss—even from blocks away. This is the largest exhibition of Halley’s work in New York.

Where: Lever House, 390 Park Avenue

When: Opening reception: Thursday, September 20, 6–8 p.m. On view through December. Hours: Monday–Friday, 11 a.m.–7 p.m., or by appointment.

Nicolas Party’s Landscape with the Moon, 2017. Photo: Courtesy of Karma

7. New York Art Book Fair
MoMA PS1

Hosted by Printed Matter, this hip festival, which attracts more than 35,000 attendees to MoMA PS1 every year, is the foremost international gathering for the distribution of artists’ books. A few highly anticipated installations this year include Gagosian’s collaboration with celebrated choreographer William Forsyth and Karma’s unveiling of new screen print portfolios by Shio Kusaka and Nicolas Party.

Where: MoMA PS1, 22–25 Jackson Avenue on 46th Avenue, Long Island City

When: Thursday, September 20–Sunday, September 23. Hours: Thursday, 6–9 p.m. (ticketed preview); Friday, 1–7 p.m.;  Saturday, 11  a.m.–9 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m.–7 p.m.