Today’s “Fab 4” / Selected NYCity Events – SATURDAY, SEPT 14, 2013.

‘The Woolworth Building @ 100′ (through Sunday)
The exhibition celebrates the 100th anniversary of this Cass Gilbert-designed building — when completed in 1913 it was considered the tallest office building in the world — features blueprints, photographs, contracts and other items.

“Eighty thousand incandescent bulbs illuminated the New York night on April 24, 1913, when the Woolworth Building opened with a ceremony attended by 800 dignitaries. Witnessed by multitudes and wired to press around the world, …

The great Gothic tower-the Cathedral of Commerce-became the preeminent silhouette on the New York skyline and took the title of world’s tallest office building.”
Skyscraper Museum, 39 Battery Place, Lower Manhattan
The exhibition can be viewed Wednesdays through Sundays from noon to 6 p.m.
$5, $2.50 for students and 65+
(212) 968-1961 / skyscraper.org

‘Forever Tango’ (through Sunday)
Luis Bravo’s popular tango sensation is now running on Broadway. In his review for The New York Times, Alastair Macaulay wrote that the music was the highlight of the show: “Some of the most irresistible tangos here are those played with no dancing. You can feel the tango’s sensual march, its percussive footwork, its romantic drive.”(Burke-NYT)
Walter Kerr Theater, 219 West 48th St.
at 8PM / $30 to $199.
(212) 239-6200, forevertango.us, telecharge.com

Matt Mitchell and Ches Smith*
“Matt Mitchell, a hyperacute pianist recently heard to great effect in bands led by Tim Berne and Dave Douglas, is about to release “Fiction” (Pi Recordings), his own proper debut. It’s an unusual outing: a collection of self-invented études, often harrowingly complex, played in coordination with Ches Smith, the drummer in Mr. Berne’s quartet. This concert will feature the same book of music.”(Chinen-NYT)
Greenwich House Music School, 46 Barrow Street, West Village
At 8 p.m./ $15
242-4770, greenwichhouse.org

MELVIN DAVIS
“The legendary Detroit soul musician Melvin Davis makes a rare headlining appearance, under the aegis of the “Dig Deeper” party series, which specializes in finding unheralded greats of twentieth-century soul music and coaxing them back onstage. Davis is a multi-instrumentalist. As a drummer, he was a session player for Motown, and went on to back Smokey Robinson on “Tears of a Clown,” touring with him for two years. He also wrote a slew of songs that were immortalized by such artists as J. J. Barnes (“Chains of Love”), Lonette McKee (“Stop! (Don’t Worry About It)”), and Jackey Beavers (“I Need My Baby”). In the early sixties, he recorded a large amount of his own material, but it was released on obscure labels and is known by only the most devoted of fans. Here, he’ll revisit those songs, backed by the Brooklyn Rhythm Band, which will also perform an opening set.” (NewYorker mag)

Sometimes the event is special and we just have to go to Bklyn.
Fortunately, the #2-3 express will get us there quickly. subway: #2-3 to atlantic ave. then walk 9 short blocks S on 4th ave to degraw – maybe 10 min.
Littlefield, 622 Degraw St., (btw 4th / 3rd ave.), Bklyn.
At 9PM / $15-$20

Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm dates and check times, as schedules are subject to change.
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Special Exhibitions @ 3 Museum Mile / Fifth Ave. Museums:

“Ken Price Sculpture: A Retrospective” (through Sept. 22)
‘The Roof Garden Commission: Imran Qureshi’ (through Nov. 3)
“Legends of the Dead Ball Era” (1900-1919) (through Dec. 1)
“Eighteenth Century Pastels” (through Dec. 29)
“Julia Margaret Cameron” (through Jan. 5, 2014)
Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1000 5th Ave, at 82nd St.
(212) 535-7710 / metmuseum.org

“Monika Grzymala, Volumen” (through Nov. 3)
Morgan Library & Museum: 225 Madison Avenue, at 36th St.
(212) 685-0008 / themorgan.org.

“Aten Reign” (through Sept. 25)
……the centerpiece of James Turrell’s first exhibition in a New York museum since 1980, recasts the Guggenheim rotunda as an enormous volume filled with shifting artificial and natural light. {see review below}
Guggenheim Museum: 1071 Fifth Avenue, at 89th St.
(212) 423-3500 / guggenheim.org.

Light and color wash the Rotunda. 
“Turrell works in a single medium: light. He has sliced into walls, designed seamless rooms with holes in the ceiling, and spent four decades building a giant naked-eye observatory in the Arizona desert—all to provide unexpectedly intimate and mysterious views of the sky, the sun, and the stars. For this segment of a three-part show running concurrently in L.A. and Houston, he’s turned the museum’s atrium into a giant light box. —J.D.” (NYmag)

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Museum Mile is a section of Fifth Avenue which contains one of the densest displays of culture in the world. Ten museums can be found along this section of Fifth Avenue:
• 110th Street – Museum for African Art
• 105th Street – El Museo del Barrio
• 103rd Street – Museum of the City of New York
• 92nd Street – The Jewish Museum
• 91st Street –  Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
• 89th Street – National Academy Museum
• 88th Street – Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
• 86th Street – Neue Galerie New York
• 83rd Street – Goethe-Institut
• 82nd Street – The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Additionally, though technically not part of the Museum Mile, the Frick Collection on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 70th St. and the The Morgan Library & Museum on Madison Ave and 37th St are also located near Fifth Ave. Now plan your own museum crawl.
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Top Photography Exhibitions – NYCity / Manhattan’s WestSide

  Museum of Modern Art

XL: 19NewAcquisitions in Photography (through Dec. 31)
Walker Evans: American Photographs (through Jan. 26, 2014)
11 West 53rd Street / 212-708-9400

  Metropolitan Museum of Art
Julia Margaret Cameron (through Jan. 5, 2014)
Everyday Ephiphanies: Photography and Daily Life Since 1969 
(through Jan. 26, 2014)
1000 Fifth Avenue (at 82nd Street) / 212-535-7710

   ICP
A Different Kind of Order: The ICP Triennial (through Sept. 22)
1133 Avenue of the Americas at 43rd Street / 212-857-0000

  American Museum Natural History 
Picturing Science: Museum Scientists and Imaging Technologies          
(through May 31, 2014)
79th St. And Central Park West / (212) 313-7278 

  Staley-Wise Gallery
It’s An American Thing (last day!)
560 Broadway, Soho / 212-966-6223

One more photo exhibition, this one in a special setting – the lovely, new Bklyn Bridge Park with spectacular views of the Manhattan skyline, and of course, the Brooklyn Bridge.
(easy to get to via subway: #2 or 3 express to Clark St. 1st stop in Bklyn.)

‘The Fence’ in Brooklyn Bridge Park (through Oct. 1)
“When is a fence not a fence? When it is the backdrop for a free display of over 200 jury selected images of people, animals and daily life by 39 photographers from the United States and abroad. Presented for the second year by United Photo Industries, a Brooklyn arts cooperative, as a showcase for young photographers, the display consists of a 1,000-foot-long waterproof mesh banner superimposed with color and black-and-white photos.

The banner stretches through Brooklyn Bridge Park, from Pier 15, at Joralemon Street and the East River in Brooklyn Heights, to Main Street in Dumbo.” (Anne Mancuso-NYT)
Pier 5, Joralemon Street and the East River
From 6am to 1am / FREE
(718) 215-9075 / fence.photovillenyc.org
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For other selected Museum and Gallery Special Exhibitions see Recent Posts in right Sidebar: “NYCity Events: Manhattan’s WestSide” dated 09/12 and 09/10.