Fall 2017 Programs Announced at the Guggenheim Museum
By: A.A. Cristi Aug. 23, 2017
The Sackler Center for Arts Education at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum presents the following public programs and film festival in conjunction with the exhibitions Mystical Symbolism: The Salon de la Rose+Croix in Paris, 1892-1897 and Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World. On the occasion of Archtober, New York's architecture and design month, the museum offers architecture-focused events and tours in addition to evening programming, including a special Halloween iteration of Art After Dark.
Vexations
TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 26, 7 PM-WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1 PM
This durational concert presents Erik Satie's Vexations (1893), featuring a roster of established and emerging pianists from both classical and avant-garde spheres, including Timo Andres, Philip Corner, Sylvie Courvoisier, Karl Larson, Anne Queffélec, Joshua Rifkin, and Margaret Leng Tan. Satie composed this iconic piece on the heels of ending his involvement with the Salon de la Rose+Croix. It is unknown whether Satie intended for the work to be played or if it was simply a sort of jest directed at the esoteric excesses of Joséphin Péladan, the founder of the Salon. But the unlikely piece attracted the attention of John Cage, who first staged it. Cage organized a concert in New York in 1963 featuring contemporary musicians such as John Cale, James Tenney, David Tudor, and Christian Wolff, among others. In observance of one of Satie's instructions, the score was repeated 840 times, lasting for almost 19 hours in an unprecedented serial undertaking that echoed the Minimalist and Conceptual concerns of the 1960s. More than 50 years later, the Guggenheim will once again present Vexations to a New York audience. A full list of performers and schedule will be announced in September.
Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World Programs
"Turn It On: China on Film, 2000-2017"
FRIDAYS AND SATURDAYS, OCTOBER 13-DECEMBER 16, DAYTIME SCREENINGS VARY, EVENING SCREENINGS AT 6:30 PM
Cocurated by Ai Weiwei and Wang Fen, this series presents 20 independent documentaries by China's most daring artists and filmmakers that investigate the political, social, economic, and cultural conditions of contemporary China. This 10-week festival encompasses twice-weekly daytime screenings and three featured evening events, and is presented concurrently with the exhibition Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World, on view October 6, 2017-January 7, 2018.
Daytime screenings take place in the New Media Theater and are free with museum admission. Evening screenings at 6:30 pm include a Q&A session with filmmakers and require a ticket. $20, $15 members, $10 students. For the full schedule, visit guggenheim.org/turniton.Nightingale, Not the Only Voice, 2000
Directed by Tang Danhong ???
Mandarin with English subtitles, 180 min.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13, 6:30 PM
Nightingale, Not the Only Voice follows the lives of three artists, including the film's director, on their shared journey through real and psychological oppression to self-discovery. Tang Danhong examines her past-particularly her relationship with her parents-and looks at the painful, formative moments that inform her current psychological state, her life, and her art.
A Q&A with Tang Danhong, moderated by Chip Rolley, Senior Director of Literary Programs, PEN America, follows the screening.
We the Workers, 2017
Directed by Huang Wenhai ???
Mandarin with English subtitles, 173 min.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 6:30 PM
For over thirty years, China has been swept up in rapid capitalist development. The "China miracle" has been built on the backs of hundreds of millions of migrant laborers. This film features workers from different provinces spanning two generations who have resisted this force through activist struggle and action.
A Q&A with Huang Wenhai, moderated by Suzanne Nossel, Executive Director, PEN America, follows the screening. Fairytale, 2007
Directed by Ai Weiwei ???
Mandarin with English subtitles, 153 min.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 15, 6:30 PM
In 2007 Ai Weiwei took part in Documenta 12 with a participatory event called Fairytale, after The Brothers Grimm who were born in Kassel, the German city that hosts the famed art exhibition. Ai invited 1,001 people from China, many of whom had never been abroad before, to travel to Germany, live in a dormitory of Ai's design, and freely wander the city and the exhibition. Ai's studio recruited the applicants from the Internet. He also sent 1,001 Ming period-style wooden chairs, which were arranged throughout the exhibition hall as gathering spaces. The film opens with the project's inception and takes us through its full enactment, recording the experiences of participants of all backgrounds to create a series of portraits woven together by a single event.
Includes a Q&A (speakers to be announced). "Turn It On: China on Film, 2000-2017" is organized by the Guggenheim Museum in conjunction with Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World. Presented in collaboration with PEN America. Support is provided by The Hayden Family Foundation.The Chinese Lives of Uli Sigg, 2016
Directed by Michael Schindhelm
93 mins., Courtesy Icarus Films
FRIDAY, JANUARY 5, 6:30 PM
Ai Weiwei credits him with launching his international career. Renowned pianist Lang Lang describes him as a mentor to Chinese artists. Chinese art curator Victoria Lu says his influence has been felt around the world. When Swiss businessman Uli Sigg first went to China, art was far from his mind. But once he began to seek out contemporary artists, it changed his life, theirs, and the international art scene for generations to come. The Chinese Lives of Uli Sigg, directed by art historian Michael Schindhelm and produced by Marcel Hoehn, is a history of China's opening to the West through the eyes of Sigg and the dazzling array of contemporary Chinese artists he championed. Luminaries including Ai, Cao Chong'en, Cao Fei, Feng Mengbo, Gang Lijun, Shao Fan, Wang Guangyi, and Zeng Fanzhi are interviewed along with curators, diplomats, architects, and business colleagues in this colorful documentary of contemporary Chinese art. The screening is followed by a reception and exhibition viewing.
$15, $10 members, $5 students. For more information, visit guggenheim.org/calendar.
Archtober
In conjunction with Archtober-New York City's monthlong celebration of architecture and design-and the 20th anniversary of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, the Guggenheim Museum presents a suite of workshops, tours, and public programs that provide an up-close look at Frank Lloyd Wright's iconic design. For more information, visit guggenheim.org/archtober.
Saturday Sketching
SATURDAYS, OCTOBER 7-28, 10 AM-4 PM
Drawing materials and prompts are available in the rotunda on a drop-in basis for visitors. Study Frank Lloyd Wright's design and develop a deeper understanding of the Guggenheim Museum's architecture.
Free with museum admission. For more information, visit guggenheim.org/archtober.Art in the Round Public Tours
SATURDAYS, OCTOBER 7-28, 2 PM
Free tours with a special focus on the Guggenheim's Frank Lloyd Wright-designed building. Specialists in art history and gallery teaching lead these informative and engaging experiences for visitors of all ages and abilities.
Free with museum admission (meet in rotunda, no registration is required). For more information, visit guggenheim.org/archtober.After-Hours Architecture Tour
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 6 PM
A unique chance to join a small-group tour of the museum after it closes to the public. Ashley Mendelsohn, Curatorial Assistant of Architecture and Digital Initiatives, gives an in-depth look at the iconic Wright-designed building and its history.
$45 general, $40 members. Registration required. For more information, visit guggenheim.org/archtober.
Drawing the Guggenheim: New York, Venice, Bilbao
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15, 10 AM-4 PM
In a collaboration among sister museums Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, visitors to all museums on Sunday, October 15, have the opportunity to explore and sketch the buildings' iconic architecture through a variety of public programs, tours, and workshops. Online, museum visitors can share their work and view drawings from around the world using #DrawingtheGugg.
New York events include:
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Drawing the Guggenheim (10 am-1 pm): A workshop that uses drawing to study Frank Lloyd Wright's design for the Guggenheim. After a short classroom presentation and guided tour, participants draw from various perspectives in the museum and then reflect on their discoveries together. No prior drawing experience is required. $25 per person (includes materials). Registration required.
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Family Architecture Tour (10:30 am-12 pm): A family-friendly exploration of the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed building. For families with children ages 8 and up. $30 per family, $15 members (includes admission). Registration required.
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Open Studio (1-4 pm): Drop-in architecture-focused projects in the Studio Art Lab. For families with children ages 3 and up. Free with museum admission, no registration required.
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Art in the Round (2 pm): An architecture-focused public tour for visitors of all ages. Free with museum admission, no registration required.
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Drop-in Sketching (10 am-4 pm): Drawing prompts and materials for all visitors will be available throughout the museum for self-directed exploration. Free with admission, no registration required.
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Film Screenings (11 am and 3:30 pm): In Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum (2010), 85 min., architectural historian Neil Levine leads viewers through an engaging and personal tour of the building and its history. Screenings are free with museum admission and take place in the New Media Theater.
For more information, visit guggenheim.org/archtober.
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao 20th Anniversary
This October, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao celebrates its milestone 20th anniversary as a catalyst for art and culture in Spain's Basque Country. In the two decades since its opening, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao has staged over 160 exhibitions of modern and contemporary art, and welcomes more than 1 million visitors annually. Special events around the anniversary include "Reflections," a large-scale video projection on the iconic building's façade, hosted on the evenings of October 11-14. The Guggenheim Museum in New York joins the celebration with new blog and video content on guggenheim.org and photos from anniversary celebrations shared on social media channels.
For more information and details on events and exhibitions in Bilbao, visit xx.guggenheim-bilbao.eus/en/.
Middle Eastern Circle Presents
An Evening with Slavs and Tatars
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 6:30 PM
Artist collective Slavs and Tatars presents The New York premiere of I Utter Other (2014-present), a lecture-performance addressing the legacy of Orientalism in the Russian and Soviet context. Weaving together scholarship, satire, and comedy, I Utter Other looks to Edward Said's seminal masterpiece Orientalism (1978) and asks what it means when one East looks to another East. Slavs and Tatars make visible the myriad assumptions that accompany public communication, translation, and historical remembering, especially as pertains to their ongoing research into the fluid geographies that lie between the former Berlin Wall and the Great Wall of China.
$15, $10 members, free for students with RSVP. For more information, visit guggenheim.org/calendar.
Academy of American Poets' Annual Blaney Lecture
An Evening with Claudia Rankine
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 6:30 PM
MacArthur "Genuis," Academy of American Poets Chancellor, and best-selling poet Claudia Rankine delivers a talk on contemporary poetry and poetics, followed by a reception and book sale and signing in the Guggenheim's famed Frank Lloyd Wright-designed rotunda. Rankine is the author of five collections of poetry, including Citizen: An American Lyric (2014), winner of the 2014 National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry and the 2016 Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt Book Prize for Poetry, among other distinctions, and Don't Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric (2004). She has written two plays and edited several anthologies including The Racial Imaginary: Writers on Race in the Life of the Mind (2015). Rankine is currently the Frederick Iseman Professor of Poetry at Yale University in the departments of African American Studies and English. The Blaney Lecture, offered annually by a prominent poet, was created in memory of former Academy of American Poets board member Dr. Dorothy Gulbenkian Blaney by a gift from her estate. This event is copresented by the Academy of American Poets and the Guggenheim Museum.
$30, $25 Guggenheim and Academy of American Poets members, $15 students. Members' presale ticketing begins August 30. General admission tickets go on sale September 1. For more information, visit guggenheim.org/calendar.
Art After Dark
Art After Dark: Halloween
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 9 PM-MIDNIGHT; EXCLUSIVE MEMBERS' HOUR: 8-9 PM
A special Halloween-themed iteration of the Guggenheim's popular after-hours series Art After Dark. The event will feature a private viewing of the exhibition Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World, a cash bar, and live DJ performance.
$65, $40 members. Limited tickets will go on sale in September. Cash bar serves wine and beer. Guests will be asked for a photo ID. No tickets are sold at the door.
Art After Dark
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1, 9 PM-MIDNIGHT; EXCLUSIVE MEMBERS' HOUR: 8-9 PM
An after-hours private viewing of current exhibitions including Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World and Josef Albers in Mexico, featuring a cash bar and live musical entertainment.
$25, members free. Purchase tickets online in advance or become a member. Cash bar serves wine and beer. Guests will be asked for a photo ID. Limited general admission tickets will go on sale closer to the event date. No tickets are sold at the door.Tours
Mind's Eye Tours
SELECT MONDAYS, 6:30 PM, AND WEDNESDAYS, 2 PM
For visitors who are blind or have low vision, tours and workshops focused on the Guggenheim's exhibitions are presented through verbal description, conversation, and sensory methods.
September 13, 2-4 pm: Mystical Symbolism: The Salon de la Rose+Croix in Paris, 1892-1897
November 1, 2-4 pm: Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World
Free, RSVP required. For more information, visit guggenheim.org/mindseye.
Curator's Eye Tours
WEDNESDAYS, 12 PM
Public gallery tours led by exhibition curators.
August 23: Mystical Symbolism: The Salon de la Rose+Croix in Paris, 1892-1897Vivien Greene, Senior Curator, 19th- and Early 20th-Century Art October 11: Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World
Philip Tinari, Director, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art and Exhibition Co-curator
November 15: Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World
Alexandra Munroe, Samsung Senior Curator, Asian Art, and Senior Advisor, Global Arts
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