Contact Information (press inquiries only) The New York Public Library Public Relations Office 188 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10016 phone: 212.592.7700 fax: 212.592.7729 
|
The New York Public Library Calendar of ExhibitionsHumanities and Social Sciences LibraryArt Deco Design: Rhythm and Verve -- September 12, 2008 - May 22, 2009 Yaddo: Making American Culture -- October 24, 2008 - February 15, 2009 William James Bennett: Master of the Aquatint View -- November 7, 2008 - January 25, 2009 Afghanistan, or The Perils of Freedom: Photographs by Stephen Dupont -- November 7, 2008 - January 25, 2009 Between Collaboration and Resistance: French Literary Life Under Nazi Occupation -- April 3, 2009 - July 25, 2009 The Rose Haggadah -- April 3, 2009 - April 26, 2009 The Declaration of Independence -- June 26, 2009 - August 1, 2009 From New Netherland to New York: Exploring Unknown Shores, 1609–2009 -- September 25, 2009 - February 21, 2010 Jill Kupin Rose Gallery - Ongoing -- January 1, 1998 - Ongoing The New York Public Library for the Performing ArtsCurtain Call: Celebrating a Century of Women Designing for Live Performance -- November 17, 2008 - May 2, 2009 Living Legacy: Portraits of NEA National Heritage Fellows, 1982 - 2008, photographed by Tom Pich -- January 20, 2009 - April 4, 2009 40 Years of Firsts: Dance Theatre of Harlem -- February 11, 2009 - May 9, 2009 Katharine Hepburn: In Her Own Files -- June 1, 2009 - October 31, 2009 Diaghilev's Theater of Marvels: The Ballets Russes and Its Aftermath -- June 26, 2009 - September 12, 2009 Schomburg Center for Research in Black CultureAfrican Americans and American Politics -- August 27, 2008 - April 19, 2009 OBAMA: THE HISTORIC CAMPAIGN & VICTORY IN PHOTOS -- December 11, 2008 - February 28, 2009 Science, Industry and Business LibraryLloyd Goldsmith: Downtown at the End of The Twentieth Century -- January 12, 2009 - February 6, 2009 The Future Beneath Us: 8 Great Projects Under New York -- February 17, 2009 - July 5, 2009 Hours, Tours, The Library Shops, and InformationHumanities and Social Sciences LibraryFifth Avenue and 42nd StreetArt Deco Design: Rhythm and Verve What is the reason for the enduring appeal of Art Deco design? The answer lies in the vitality of the decorative style’s visual elements. Art Deco captured the mood of 1920s and 1930s modernism, an age of jazz and streamlined machinery, with designs that are colorful, geometric, and filled with an intense rhythm. This exhibition seeks to give viewers a more intimate exposure to the style’s incredible energy by focusing on boldly graphic plate books, portfolios, and masterworks of the pochoir stencil print technique from the Library’s Art & Architecture Collection. Art Deco’s international flavor has played particularly well in New York, with many examples of landmark architecture and interiors throughout the city. The exhibition offers a reappraisal of the style’s most notable features and its often-overlooked legacy to modern art. Starting with key Art Nouveau designs that reveal the origins of the Art Deco impulse, the exhibition presents developing traits that move through the 1920s and into the next decade. Aspects of the style’s legacy can be seen in the first volume of the significant art journal Verve(1937-60), a review of art and literature that took root from the fertile soil of mature Art Deco, and in the innovative works of Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979), an avant-garde painter and designer, whose brightly colored and geometrically-shaped creations demonstrate the union of fine art and commercial design aesthetics. Yaddo: Making American Culture This exhibition explores the role of Yaddo, the artists‘ retreat, in fostering 20th-century American arts and letters. Founded in 1900 by financier and philanthropist Spencer Trask and his wife, Katrina Trask, Yaddo began receiving guests in 1926 and was immediately hailed by The New York Times as a “new and unique experiment, which has no exact parallel in the world of fine arts.” Since that inaugural season, Yaddo has navigated the roiled cultural and political life of 20th-century America while hosting thousands of artists and writers, including such luminaries as James Baldwin, Saul Bellow, Flannery O’Connor, Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Truman Capote, Jacob Lawrence, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Philip Guston and Sylvia Plath. William James Bennett: Master of the Aquatint View During the 1830s and early 1840s, William James Bennett (ca. 1784–1844) made a series of topographical prints that not only celebrated the beauty of the American landscape, but also recorded the young nation’s growing urban centers, with a special focus on New York. Bennett documented the bustling waterfront activity of thriving ports, bathing them in luminous light that unified water, ships, and architecture. Capturing the optimism of the new country, Bennett’s magnificent works—rendered in aquatint, a printmaking process that suggests the fluidity and transparency of watercolor—are regarded as the finest folio views of 19th-century American cities. The 40 prints and watercolors in this exhibition are drawn from the Print Collection of The New York Public Library, many from The Phelps Stokes Collection of American Historical Prints, donated to the Library by I. N. Phelps Stokes in 1930. This exhibition has been made possible by the continuing generosity of Miriam and Ira D. Wallach. Afghanistan, or The Perils of Freedom: Photographs by Stephen Dupont  Stephen Dupont is an award-winning photojournalist, documentary filmmaker, and war correspondent who is internationally recognized for his work in some of the world’s most dangerous areas, including Afghanistan, Burma, Cambodia, Iraq, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, Somalia, and Zaire. This exhibition features selected photographs from his work in Afghanistan, where he has covered everything from civil war and the rise of the Taliban in the 1990s to the launch of Operation Enduring Freedom and the ongoing war on terrorism. Also included are photographs from the series Axe Me Biggie, a phonetic rendering of the Dari for “Mister, take my picture.” Dupont made these portraits during the course of one day (March 13, 2006) with a Polaroid camera in a makeshift studio in the streets of Kabul. Together, these photographs tell a story of poverty, warfare, and broken promises, but also of perseverance and hope, as they refocus attention on the state of Afghanistan today. This exhibition, drawn from the Library's Photography Collection, is Dupont’s first solo show in the United States. Between Collaboration and Resistance: French Literary Life Under Nazi Occupation The defeat of France by Germany in May–June 1940 transformed the lives of French writers and publishers. Freedom of expression, almost achieved after centuries of struggle, was now set aside. Writers matter in France, and writers were deeply implicated in the changes of 1940. Some of their colleagues were silenced for racial or political reasons. How should they respond? Should they collaborate? Resist? Wait and see? Or follow some more complicated pathway through the changing course of the war? All of them risked being used by one side or another. Yet they were expected, in a nation that placed a high value on its intellectuals, to offer moral leadership in a time of doubt and uncertainty. The Rose Haggadah  Special Display: The Rose Haggadah is a unique artists' book, bringing together fifty years of Passover-themed artwork, the results of an innovative annual commission from the Rose family—exceptional friends of The New York Public Library. Collected into three riotously eclectic volumes, the Rose Haggadah was presented to the Library's Dorot Jewish Division by the Rose family in 2005. Artists and approaches represented in this half-century collaboration range all the way from New York social realist Jack Levine to New York Review of Books caricaturist David Levine, via some of the most prominent American artists of the twentieth century. This Passover and in future years, the Library will show different openings of the Rose Haggadah; meanwhile, work has begun on volume four. The Declaration of Independence The Library is honored to safeguard a fair copy (clean, full-text version without corrections or alterations) of the Declaration of Independence in Thomas Jefferson’s hand. In the days immediately following ratification on July 4, 1776, Jefferson made several copies of the text that had been submitted to the Continental Congress, underlining the passages to which changes had been made. The Library’s copy is one of two known to survive intact. It is shown together with the first Philadelphia printing and the first New York printing of the final version issued by Congress. These versions are complemented by the earliest newspaper printings; the second official version ordered by Congress, published by a woman printer in Baltimore; and a letter from Franklin to Washington mentioning that the Declaration was being drafted. In addition to the exhibition, the 14-minute film We Hold These Truths …, a dramatic reading of the Declaration of Independence, will be shown continuously in the South Court Visitors’ Center. Admission is free. From New Netherland to New York: Exploring Unknown Shores, 1609–2009 September 2009 marks 400 years since Henry Hudson sailed into New York Harbor and up the Hudson River, almost to what is now Albany, performing detailed reconnaissance of the Hudson Valley region. Other explorers passed by the outwardly hidden harbor, but did not linger long enough to fully realize the commercial, nautical, strategic, or colonial value of the region. Once the explorers returned to Europe, their strategic information was passed on to authorities. Some data was kept secret, but much was handed over to map makers, engraved on copper, printed on handmade paper, distributed to individuals and coffee-houses (the news centers of the day), and pored over by dreamers, investors, and potential settlers in the “new land.” Jill Kupin Rose Gallery - Ongoing  This ongoing exhibition consists of large wall panels with photographs, text, objects, and videos illustrating the history and the vast array of collections, services, and users of The New York Public Library's Branch and Research Libraries. The Jill Kupin Rose Gallery was created in 1998 by former New York Public Library Chairman Marshall Rose in memory of his late wife, Jill Kupin Rose. The New York Public Library for the Performing ArtsDorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center40 Lincoln Center Plaza Curtain Call: Celebrating a Century of Women Designing for Live Performance  A collaboration with the League of Professional Theatre Women, this exhibition features works by 110 distinguished designers of scenery, costumes, lighting, props, and projections from various performing arts disciplines, including dance, theater, and opera, from the 1890s to the present. Including photographs, sketches, drawings, set models, costumes, performance videos, ground plans, and interviews with designers, augmented by public programs and educational workshops, it focuses on women designers as participants in the major artistic movements of the period, from experimental theater through the development of modern and, later, postmodern, dance. The exhibition also illuminates women’s roles in developing new technologies and materials for performance: for example, women took the lead in the new field of lighting design, from turn-of-the-19th-century experiments to the computerization of cues in the 20th century. The exhibition also investigates the connections among women designers and women-run businesses. This exhibition is made possible in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Image: Photograph of lighting designer Jean Rosenthal by her frequent collaborator, choreographer Jerome Robbins. Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Living Legacy: Portraits of NEA National Heritage Fellows, 1982 - 2008, photographed by Tom Pich  The National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowships, initiated in 1982, are the federal government's highest form of recognition of folk and traditional artists for their contributions to our nation's living cultural heritage. NEA heritage fellows are nominated by the public and a panel of experts convened by the agency reviews these nominations using the criteria of artistic excellence, significance within an artistic tradition, and contributions to cultural heritage. On display here are portraits by Tom Pich, who, since 1991, has visited and photographed the Fellows in their living rooms, workshops and community settings. In 2007, the NEA developed an exhibition of photographs to mark the 25th anniversary of the program. Those images have been augmented with photographs selected to represent fellows in the performing arts and in the New York metropolitan area for the display at the New York Public Library for the Perofrming Arts. They include singers, musicians, instrument makers, dancers, puppet artists, basket makers, and weavers from a world of traditions and cultures. Image: Etta Baker, guitarist and 1991 National Heritage Fellow. Photograph by Tom Pich 40 Years of Firsts: Dance Theatre of Harlem In 1969, writing about Dance Theatre of Harlem, Clive Barnes, dance critic for The New York Times, began his article, “Black is beautiful, classic ballet is beautiful, so why are the two so rarely found together?” That changed when Arthur Mitchell, accomplished artistic director, astute educator, talented choreographer and extraordinary dancer, co-founded Dance Theatre of Harlem with his mentor, the renowned ballet teacher, the late Karel Shook. Inspired by the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Arthur Mitchell wanted to make a difference; by doing what he knew best, which was the focus and discipline of dance, he brought the art form of ballet to Harlem. The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and Dance Theatre of Harlem are proud to collaborate on a multi-media exhibition that will bring these 40 years of art and accomplishment to Lincoln Center and then to museums and performance centers across the country. Katharine Hepburn: In Her Own Files Katharine Hepburn’s elevation to the status of “icon” was due undoubtedly to her singular success on the screen. But her acting career began on the stage and it was there that she honed the skills that would later serve her so well in Hollywood. Yet even after her stature as a screen actress was solidified, she returned repeatedly to the stage, where each time she found new challenges, new audiences, new risks, and, more than once, failure. Diaghilev's Theater of Marvels: The Ballets Russes and Its Aftermath Diaghilev's Theater of Marvels: The Ballets Russes and Its Aftermath, curated by dance historian Lynn Garafola, celebrates the legendary company that transformed 20th-century ballet and made it modern. Founded in 1909 by the Russian impresario extraordinaire Serge Diaghilev, the Ballets Russes taught audiences to hear, see, and respond to the art of the moving body in unprecedented ways. For the 20 years of its existence, a new repertory came into being—now-classic works like Michel Fokine's Les Sylphides and Petrouchka, Vaslav Nijinsky's L'Après-midi d'un Faune, and George Balanchine's Apollon Musagète and Prodigal Son—choreographed by artists whose talents Diaghilev was quick to discern and passionate to guide. He carried his quest for new expressive forms to music and design, commissioning scores from Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofiev, Manuel de Falla, Erik Satie, Francis Poulenc, and Darius Milhaud, thus creating a new body of work both for ballet and for the concert hall. The list of his painters, headed by Pablo Picasso, Natalia Goncharova, and Henri Matisse, reads like a who's who of international modernism, underscoring the fact that Diaghilev's stage also served as a gallery of modern art. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture515 Malcolm X BoulevardAfrican Americans and American Politics Before Barack Obama, there was Crispus Attucks, Frederick Douglass, the Massachusetts 54th Regiment, Mary McLeod Bethune, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. and a host of other heroes and sheroes of the African-American struggle for freedom and human dignity, fighting to make America and American Democracy real for all of its citizens. Like Attucks, people of African descent were there at the founding of the nation. And since Attucks, millions have fought, bled and died to help define, defend and protect the ideals of freedom, justice and equality embodied in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. African Americans and American Politics is a brief survey of that quest over the last 200+ years. OBAMA: THE HISTORIC CAMPAIGN & VICTORY IN PHOTOS  The exhibition Obama: The Historic Campaign & Victory in Photos presents 100 photographs documenting the campaign from its start with several thousand supporters gathered in Springfield, Illinois on a very cold day in February 2007 to that unusually warm evening in Chicago on November 4, 2008 when Barack Obama delivered his victory speech as President-elect of the United States of America. The images capture the vitality of the campaign and the passion and commitment of the millions who rallied to Obama’s theme, Yes We Can!, as his movement for Change grew and moved forward. The exhibition is curated by Deborah Willis and Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe. Image: Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill., arrives for an election night rally with his wife Michelle in St. Paul, Minn., Tuesday, June 3, 2008. Photographer: Chris Carlson. AP Photo. Science, Industry and Business Library188 Madison AvenueLloyd Goldsmith: Downtown at the End of The Twentieth Century “In setting out to paint the continuities, to focus on what’s the same day after day rather than on what’s different, Lloyd Goldsmith necessarily, and knowingly, paints an abstract city,” writes Kevin Oderman in the monograph Downtown at the End of the Twentieth Century. This exhibition of Goldsmith’s painting is complemented by illustrations from Oderman’s book, indicating the process and development of the painting over a period of several years. Notes Goldsmith, “My subject is New York—my hometown—the urban landscape. To me, the city is organic growth; layer over layer, always in transition, be it a small change of a storefront or a major destruction and redevelopment.” The Future Beneath Us: 8 Great Projects Under New York This joint exhibition, a project of the New York City Transit Museum and the Science, Industry and Business Library (SIBL), focuses on eight megaprojects planned by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. In a unique effort, exhibitions at two venues—SIBL’s Healy Hall and the Grand Central Gallery of the Transit Museum—combine to provide a single view of future directions. The Library spotlights City Water Tunnel No. 3, the Trans-Hudson Express Tunnel, the Water Filtration project, and the World Trade Center Transportation Hub. The Transit Museum features the East Side Access project, the Second Avenue Subway project, the Fulton Street Transit Center, and the #7 Line West Side Subway Extension. Images and sounds drawn from the resources of the Transit Museum, the Library, and the concerned agencies reveal the unseen and ongoing efforts. Projections from the agencies, reports on the current status of the projects, and design information serve to suggest the impact these projects will have on the future of New York City and its people in terms of quality of service, improved security, and overall economic and social well being. Exhibition HoursHumanities and Social Sciences Library The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Science, Industry and Business Library ToursHumanities and Social Sciences Library: Building Tours 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m on Mondays to Saturdays; 2:00 p.m. on Sundays 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. on Tuesdays to Saturdays; 3:30 p.m on Sundays Unauthorized tours are not permitted. Please see our tours webpage for more information. Science, Industry and Business Library: SIBL Public tours are cancelled during the week of December 22nd and December 29th. Tours will resume on Tuesday, January 6th. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture: Free guided exhibition tours by appointment only. For information, call 212.491.2207. More information here. The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts: There are no tours offered at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at the present time. The Library ShopsThe Library Shop at the Humanities and Social Sciences
Library The Schomburg Shop InformationPublic Relations Office: 212.592.7700, fax:
212.592.7729 ### |