Innovative Vernissages For October's End (c) By Polly Guerin

Andy Warhol's Pop Art
Sculptural installations, impressionist and modern art, innovative furniture…all this and a square meal makes October’s last week a treasure trove for museum hopping and auction previews. Here’s the Scoop!!!

KATRIN SIGURDARDOTTIR AT THE MET This Icelandic artist, known for her detailed renditions of places, both real and fictional often incorporates an element of surprise, draws the viewer into a fantasy experience. Entitled Boiseries, the installations are full-scale renditions of 18th-Century French rooms preserved at the Met. Visitors are invited to walk among panels based on the Hotel de Cabris period room and looking through surveillance mirrors, they will be able to see inside the rooms Katrin has created with replica furniture based on the Hotel de Crillon period room in the Met’s Wrightsman Galleries. Simultaneously on exhibit is Innovative Furniture by American designer Charles Rohlfs, which combines elements of Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau. Recently opened. www.metmuseum.org.
SOTHEBY’S IMPRESSIONIST AND MODERN ART
Auction previews offer a superb opportunity to see first hand art works, not in museums, from an early painting by Eugene Boudin from 1868 to a Pablo Picasso canvas from 1970s. The preview prior to the autumn evening sale Nov. 2, also includes important works; Amedeo Modigliani’s nude, Nu assis sur un divan (La Belle Romain), estimated in excess of $40 million and Le Bassin aux Nympheas, a spectacular canvas from Claude Monet’s iconic water lilies series, estimated $20/30 million and Andy Warhol’s Coco-Cola, an icon of the Pop Art movement, estimated at $20/25 million, among others. On view starting Oct. 19th. York Avenue at 72nd, www.sothebys.com.
SQUARE MEAL
I don’t often recommend restaurants, but finding a nice place to have lunch without breaking your budget is of prime concern when one is uptown museum and gallery hopping. One such place is SQUARE MEAL, at 30 E. 92nd St. just off Madison Ave. This restaurant’s weekly lunch Tuesday through Friday from 11 to 2:30 pm has reasonable price points on its rather substantial and original menu. I ordered $10 omelet with twice-baked potato and toasted cornbread and my companion took the Square Meal burger (5 oz.) with oven fries and homemade ketchup $14. Check out the menu at www.squaremealnyc.com.
THE GREAT CRASH OF 1929
This unique annual guided walking tour of Lower Manhattan commemorates the Great Crash of 1929, the Panic of 1907 stock market collapse, and delves into the political, financial, real estate and architectural history of Wall street and New York City. The tour shows that despite such adversities as the Great Fires of 1776 and 1835, and the financial panics and the 9/11/01 terrorist attach and the financial crisis of 2008, New York and Wall Street have always recovered their position as the world’s financial capital. Tour meets at the Museum of American Finance, 48 Wall St., Oct. 30th, 1 to 4 pm. Cost: $15. Email lseeger@moaf.org or call 212-908-4110.

Ta Ta Darlings!!! I think I’ll check out the preview art works at Sotheby’s. Fan mail always welcome at: pollytalk@verizon.net. Do look at Polly’s Blogs. Go to www.pollytalk.com and click on the Blog of your choice in the right hand column.