COSTUME DRAMA AND SCULPURAL VISTAS (c) By Polly Guerin

There’s nothing like fashion to turn a New York’s fashionista heads up on Ivy Style and Costume Drama exhibitions, while cultural venues of quite a historical nature also dominate this week. Here’s the Scoop!!!

ALINA SCAPOCZNIKOW: Sculpture Undone, 1955-1972 Leave it to the MoMA, The Museum of Modern Art to bring the first large-scale survey of Alina’s work to the United States with over 200 works including sculpture, drawings, photography and archival and documentary material. The sculptor who began working during the postwar period in a classical figurative style, Szapocznikow (Polish, 1926-1973) radically reconceptualized sculpture as an imprint not only of memory but also of her own body. The artist left a legacy of provocative subjects that evoke Surrealism, Nouveau Realism, and Pop art. Third Floor Gallery, through January 2013. 11 W. 53rd St. Image: Petit Dessert 1, colored polyester resin and glass. Photo by Thomas Mueller.
BERNINI’S TERRACOTTA MODELS Another sculptor of quite another genre also intrigues with powerful results. To visualize life-size or colossal marbles, the great Baroque sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) began by rapidly modeling small clay sketches. Fired as terracotta, these studies are old, expressive works in their own right and preserve the first traces of Bernini’s fervid imagination and unique creative process that evolved into some of the famous and spectacular statuary in Rome, including the fountains in the Piazza Navona and the angles on the Ponte Sant’ Angelo. Bernini: Sculpting in Clay offers the viewer a more profound insight into the artist’s dazzling creative mind, and his impact on the fabric of Baroque Rome. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue, through January 2013.
SYMPOSIUM ON IVY STYLE, past and present, here and abroad, in conjunction with the exhibition of the same name currently on view at (MFIT) The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology takes place from Thursday, November 8 and Friday November 9th, 9:30 am-5:00pm in the Haft Auditorium. Speakers include Jeffrey Banks and Doria de Lia Chapelle, co-authors of Preppy: Cultivating Ivy Style and Tartan: Romancing the Plaid. For complete schedule, go to fitnyc.edu/museum.
KATHARINE HEPBURN: Dressed for the Stage and Screen. Hepburn’s consummate skill as an actress (including her still record-breaking four Oscars) will forever live on, as will her unparalleled sense of style. This captivating display includes her personal collection of performance clothes, the wardrobe that she wore for publicity, and examples of her ‘rebel chic’ from her casual and rehearsal wear. AT the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Opens Oct. 18.
COSTUME DRAMA London Style puts the spotlight on London’s Victoria and Alert Museum, where 130 costumes, span a century of Hollywood design magic. Hollywood costume explores what an essential tool costume is in cinema storytelling and how intricate the relationship is between designer, actor, and director. Opens this month.
Ta Ta darlings: I’m vicariously off to London to see Costume Drama but may settle for Hepburn instead. Fan mail welcome: pollytalk@verizon. Polly’s blogs are best accessed at pollytalk.com just click in the left hand column for a direct link to visionary men, amazing women, poetry or fashion.

CULTURE CITY and ITS RICH VENUES (c) By Polly Guerin

The treasure trove of cultural venues this fall fills the calendar with not-to-be-missed opportunities to acquire fuller knowledge on a scale from A to Z. Well you can’t help a girl wanting to improve her mind. Here’s the Scoop!!

THE 24TH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL FINE ART & ANTIQUE DEALERS SHOW The New York Times once described the IFAADS show as “a sprawling cabinet of wonders, an awesome hodgepodge of rare, beautiful and strange objects.” Fair description for the myriad of works or art, craft and design displayed represent a wide array or periods at price points from A to Z. However, the show is known for its high quality standards of quality. The world renowned “International Show,” founded in 1989 as New York’s first vetted fair; it was the first to require that all objects be authenticated by a panel of experts. This year’s show brings together 67 top American and European dealers featuring works of art, antiquities to contemporary including furniture, paintings rare books, jewelry, Faberge, maritime, textiles and ceramics. From October 19th through 25th at New York’s Park Avenue Armory at 67th St. Daily 11am-7:30pm. Last day Sunday 11am-6pm. Admission $20. For information about the preview party phone: 212.642.8572.
IMAGE: Daniel Crouch Rare Books exhibits an outstanding handscroll depicting Commodore Perry’s historic visit to Japan in 1854.
PICASSO BLACK AND WHITE They seek him here they seek him there, Picasso seems everywhere this year and The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum’s presents another lesser-studied aspect of Picasso’s work, his use of black and white and gray. It’s an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see 118 black and white paintings, sculptures, and works on paper by the great Spanish artist, many of which are on public view for the first time, including “Mother and Dead Child II, Postscript to Guernica and Head of a Woman, Right Profile (Marie-Therese) oil and charcoal on canvas. Many of the works are on loan from the Picasso family. By working in black and white Picasso once said color ‘weakens.’ This is a new way to see Picasso and it shows how much he said with little. Through January 2013. Programs include the October 14th and 15th performance of Picasso’s Desire Caught by the Tail. At 1071 Fifth Ave. (at 89th Street) Phone 212.423.350
MASTER DRAWINGS FROM MUNICH The Morgan Library & Museum hosts an extraordinary exhibition of rarely-seen master drawings from the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich, marks the first time that that such an important group of drawings has been lent to an American Museum. The exhibition includes drawings from Italian, French, Dutch and Flemish artists of the Renaissance and baroque periods; German draftsmen of the nineteenth century; and an international contingent of modern and contemporary craftsmen. Among the artists represent are Willem de Kooning, Max Liebermann, Franz Marc, Johann Georg Bergmuller and Leonardo da Vinci. Through January 2013. Madison Ave.@ 36/37th Street.
EDVARD MUNCH’S ‘THE SCREAM’ This is a rare opportunity to see Edvard Munch’s iconic The Scream (1895) among the most celebrated and recognized images in art history, it goes on view at The Museum of Modern Art for a period of six months beginning October 24. Of the four versions of The Scream made by Munch between 1893 and 1910, this pastel-on-board from 1895 is the only one remaining in private hands. The three other versions are in the collections of museums in Norway. “As an iconic image, The Scream has garnered worldwide attention for its start portrayal of the human condition,” said Glenn D. Lowry, director of the museum. This haunting rendition of a hairless figure on a bridge under a yellow-orange sky has captured the popular since the time of its making and now is your chance to see it through April 2013. MoMA at 11 W. 53 St.
Ta Ta darlings: Don’t miss “The Scream,” where you might discover your own meaning in the painting. Fan mail welcome: pollytalk@verizon. Polly’s blogs are best accessed on the Internet just click in the left hand column for a direct link to visionary men, amazing women, poetry or fashion.

AUTUMN AWAKENING, RICH CULTURAL VENUES (c) By Polly Guerin

Rich cultural venues drive the wealth of museum openings to keep New Yorkers and tourists busy in the world’s most fascinating city, fueling inspiration on a broad scale from historical to modern. Here’s the scoop!!! Image: Faking It: Manipulated Photography Before Photoshop.

CROSSING BORDERS: Manuscripts from the Bodleian Libraries. For a rare glimpse into antiquity when books were unique works of art as well as repositories of knowledge, head uptown to The Jewish Museum for Crossing Borders, the meeting place of medieval cultures, where illuminated manuscripts from England’s Bodleian Library, established by Thomas Bodley in 1602 are on display. Renowned for its great treasures, this exhibition features over 60 works, Hebrew, Arabic and Latin manuscripts, the majority of which have never been seen in the United States including the splendid Kennicott Bible, the most lavishly illuminated Hebrew Bible to survive from medieval Spain. In addition to viewing the actual illuminated manuscript, visitors will be able to look at digital images of every page in several of the bibles and examine details on touch screens. At The Jewish Museum, 1109 Fifth Avenue at 92nd St., through February 3, 2013, T-212.423.3200.
DURER TO de KOONING: 100 Master Drawings from Munich marks the first time such a comprehensive and prestigious selection of works has been lent to a single exhibition. The Morgan Library & Museum hosts an extraordinary exhibition of rarely-seen master drawings from the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich, one of Europe’s most distinguished drawings collections. Durer to de Kooning occupies the Morgan’s principal galleries containing more than 60 Italian, German, Dutch, French drawings of the 15th through the 19th centuries with celebrated artists Rubens, Michelangelo, Rembrandt and Titian while the second gallery features late-nineteenth-century and modern contemporary works. Through January 2013. 225 Madison Ave.
FAKING IT: Manipulated Photography Before Photoshop While digital photography and image editing software have brought about an increased awareness of the degree to which camera images can be manipulated, the practice of doctoring photographs has existed since the medium was invent. Featuring some 200 visually captivating photographs created between the 1840s and 1990s in the service of art, politics news, entertainment and commerce, this exhibition offers a provocative new perspective on the history of photography. The photographs in the exhibition were altered using a variety of techniques including multiple exposure, photomontage, over painting and retouching on the negative or print. The Metropolitan Museum of Art through May 2013. 1000 Fifth Avenue.
SAGA SITES, Landscapes of the Icelandic Sagas. The American-Scandinavian Foundation (ASF) presents a unique exhibition tracking the great, medieval narratives of Iceland, known collectively as the Sagas of Islanders, through the 19th century watercolors of British artist W. G. Collingwood and the contemporary photographs of renowned Iceland artist Einar Falur Ingolfsson. The first of its kind in the U.S., the exhibition explores the inimitable visual dialog forged between Collingwood and Ingolfsson and highlights the significance of the sagas within Ireland’s literary heritage and their enduring cultural inspiration. Free Admission. ASF, 58 Park Ave., @38th St., through January 2012.
Ta Ta darlings: Don’t miss an opportunity to see breathtaking treasures in the Jewish Museum’s rare illuminated manuscripts. Fan mail welcome. Polly’s blogs are best accessed at pollytalk.com just click in the left hand column for a direct link to visionary men, womendeterminedtosucceed, poetry or fashion.

CRISP WEATHER BRINGS HALLMARK CELEBRATIONS (c) By Polly Guerin

Such glorious days set us on a social whirl of events that make living in New York City the best place to be for entertainment and some Hallmark Celebrations. Only in New York my friends, so cherish the privilege and enjoy the show. Here’s the scoop!!!

THE ZIEGFELD FOLLIES Before all seats are gone reserve for the Tribute to Florenz Ziegfeld’s inspiration for The Ziegfeld Follies at the famous Birdland. With Sarah as Rice Anna Held and Frank Basile and a cast of 11 and Mark York at the piano, John DeMan on percussion and Eva Weiss on guitar, it’s going to be a spectacular costumed show. This production will have plenty of feathers and glitz, as well as, a cast of talented singers and dancers taking you back to the glory days of the Ziegfeld Follies and the Folies Bergere. Saturday, Sept. 29th at 5pm (doors open at 4:30pm) Cover Charge $5 members, $12 non-members, plus $10 food/drink min. Reserve: 917.37l.5509, ziegfeldsociety@aol.
TIFFANY & CO. LEGENDARY FOR 175 YEARS Celebrates a Brilliant Heritage while Tiffany’s blue box continues to make hearts beat faster for 175 years. Tiffany’s roots run deep in our nation’s history. Founder Charles Lewis Tiffany had an abiding passion for the most beautiful diamonds in the world and acquired a large cache of important jewels and New York dubbed him “The King of Diamonds.” He also acquired other sensational diamonds like the 128.54-carat diamond and the French Crown Jewels that confirmed his status as the authority on magnificent diamonds. In 1886 Tiffany introduced the Tiffany setting diamond engagement ring and it has played a part in the world’s greatest love stories. At the Tiffany flagship store Fifth Avenue and 57th St.
EDITH WHARTON’S NEW YORK CITY, This Backward Glance exhibition celebrates the 150th anniversary of the birth of one of America’s most acclaimed authors, Edith Wharton at the New York Society Library, 53 E.79th Street, through December 31, 2012. The exhibition reveals exciting new information about Wharton’s world and the Library then located at 67 Livingston Place. On display are rare family portraits, Wharton letters to family members, and first editions of novels and short stories, including Wharton’s autobiography A Backward Glance. T-212.288.6900.

BEAUTY ENDURES An exhibition of elegance; contemporary photographs by Cathleen Naundorf and drawings by Paul Cesar Helleu are presented at Trinity House 24 East 64th Street, 11 to 5pm.Daily. T-212.813.0700. A rare opportunity to capture the essence of fashion and beauty on a scale of heightened beauty.
PRESENT LAUGHTER A company called Gotham Radio Theatre, whose intention is to revive the experience of radio broadcasts before a live audience puts on Noel Coward’s Present Laughter this evening at 7pm at the Arclight Theatre, 152 W. 71st Street. Call 886.992.9263 for ticket $20.
Ta Ta darlings: Don’t miss Edith Wharton, it’s worth A Backward Glance. Fan mail welcome: pollytalk@verizon. Polly’s blogs are best accessed at pollytalk.com just click in the left hand column for a direct link to visionary men, amazing women, poetry or fashion.

NEW YORK, CULTURE CITY A MYRIAD VENUES (c) By Polly Guerin

Arts and entertainment in the center of the cultural universe crowns New York with the title “Culture City,” for its diverse and myriad venues from pop to historical illuminations, there’s more than meets the eye for the inquiring public. Only in New York my friends, the best of New York, Here’s the scoop!!!

REGARDING WARHOL: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years. Give yourself ‘15 minutes of fame’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art celebrating the Pop master’s influence on contemporary art by pairing his works with dozens of artists in a 145 work venue that casts new light on the icon artists innovations. Case in point; Warhol’s Popsicle-colored self portraits of celebrities like Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and Jackie Kennedy Onassis are mounted alongside photographer Cindy Sherman’s glossy self-portraits and Karen Kilimnik’s portrait of real-estate heiress Paris Hilton. Not to be missed are the Warhol’s penchant for papering gallery walls with repeated images which helped to usher in the wall-to-wall installations so popular today. The event also celebrates the 50th anniversary of Warhol’s famed soup can art and the unique connection between Warhol and the iconic red and white label. Through December 31. 2012. At 1000 Fifth Avenue at 82nd St. For more information 212.570.3951.
CAMPBELL CELEBRATES To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Any Warhol’s 1962 famed work, 32 Campbell Soup Cans, Campbell Soup Company, is introducing limited-edition cans of Campbell’s Condensed Tomato soup with labels derived from Warhol artwork. The four specially—designed labels reflect Warhol’s pop-art style and use vibrant, eye-catching color combinations like orange and blue, and pink and teal. When asked why he painted Campbell’s soup cans, Warhol famously quipped, I used to have the same (Campbell’s soup) lunch every day for twenty years. In 1962 in Los Angeles, Warhol exhibited his famous paintings of 32 Campbell’s Condensed soup cans and each of the 32 canvases depicted one variety of soup, side-by-side like cans of soup on a grocery shelf. The painting helped to launch Warhol’s career and ushered in Pop Art as a major art movement in the United States. The limited edition cans were produced under the Andy Warhol Foundation, a not for profit corporation that promotes the visual arts. These soup cans could become famous collectibles themselves and are exclusively available at most Target locations nationwide for $.75.
CROSSING BORDERS; MANUSCRIPTS FROM THE BODLEIAN LIBRARIES On a more serious note over 60 works---Hebrew, Arabic, and Latin manuscripts—the majority of which have never been seen in the United States illuminate the dark interiors of The Jewish Museum’s galleries. England’s Bodleian Library at Oxford University, established by Sir Thomas Bodleian in 1602 and now the largest of the University’s group of ‘Bodleian Libraries,’ is renowned for its great treasures and among them is one of the most important collections of medieval Hebrew illuminated manuscripts in the world. A rare opportunity, this exhibition includes the Kennicott Bible; the most lavishly illuminated Hebrew Bible to survive from medieval Spain. In addition to viewing the actual illuminated manuscripts, visitors will be able to look at digital images of every page of the Kennicott Bible and examine details on touch screens in the gallery. Through February 3, 2013. At 1109 Fifth Avenue at 92nd St. More info, 212.423.3200.
ILLUMINATING PHILOSOPHY, The Illuminations of Girolamo Da Cremona, in Peter Ugelheimer’s works of Aristotle (1483) Why not make a day of it and visit the Morgan Library & Museum’s illuminated printed books. The works include spectacular decorative elements including gemstones set in gold, antique cameos, landscapes, seated animals, darling putti and some really eye-popping trompe-l’oeil effects. Of special note is the depiction of Aristotle and Averroes in animated conversation with architecture, jewelry and flora on a page with textural passages. At the Morgan Library and Museum, Madison Avenue at 36th-37th Streets. Through Sept. 23.
Ta Ta Darlings!!! I’m off to Target to get Warhol’s ‘fifteen minutes of fame,’ featured on the Campbell soup cans. Fan mail welcome: pollytalk@verizon. Polly’s blogs are best accessed at pollytalk.com just click in the left hand column for a direct link to visionary men, amazing women, poetry or fashion.

FASHIONISTAS' HOLIDAY IN NEW YORK (c) By Polly Guerin

Fashionable New York opens the season with stylish reasons to view the Fashion Week collections and revisit “Ivy Style” or tap into new documentaries or magazines that make the art of fashion the reason New York is the Fashion Capital of the World. Only the Best of New York my friends. Here’s the Scoop!!!

FASHION ILLUSTRATION gets its due venue at the Brooklyn Public Library where the never-before-seen illustrations of ANTONIO LOPEZ and works by Richard Haines and Samantha Hahn are among the rare collections on view Monday through Thursdays, 9am-9pm, Friday and Saturday, 10am- 6pm. and Sunday 1-5 pm. The exhibit also includes a fashion film series, panel discussions and author talks throughout the fall. For aspiring illustrators there will be fashion illustrations classes. Check it out a brooklypubliclibary.org, Central Library, 10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn. 718.230.2100.
IVY STYLE celebrates one of the most enduring clothing styles of the 20th century at The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology. From its origins in the prestigious college campuses of America in the late 1910s to the many reinterpretations seen in contemporary fashion, the “Ivy” League Look” or “Ivy Style” has come to be viewed as a classic form of dressing. More than 60 ensembles, both historic and contemporary, will be on display. A more in-depth study of Ivy Style will be featured in the accompanying book also titled, Ivy Style. Opens September 14 to January 5, 2013. FREE and open to the public. Museum Hours Tuesday-Friday-noon-8pm, Saturday 10am-5pm. fitnyc.edu/museum. The museum’s annual fashion symposium takes place November 8 and 9, 2012, in conjunction with the exhibition.
DIANA VREELAND: THE EYE HAS TO TRAVEL an entertaining new documentary is in preview right now about the legendary fashion editor, Diana Vreeland whose amazing eye on fashion fascinates us even today. Vreeland’s voice seemingly pervades the film (an actress actually narrates) with her early years in Paris, London and New York and of course, we see her pages from Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue, which she transformed into a pop-culture venue. The film opens in limited release on Sept. 21 and will be shown at the Paris Theater on 58th Street, opposite the Plaza. Two other new documentaries came out during Fashion Week, Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf’s and Versailles 73, which will be shown for one week only at the IFC Center, beginning Sept. 7th.
CHRISTIAN DIOR’S famous name launches its own print magazine, DIOR, to be published twice a year, September and March in nine languages and a controlled circulation to its best customers and prospects. French and English versions will be released first, around September 10th. The print issue follows the February introduction of online editorial at Diormag.com. Meanwhile if you are in Paris during the holidays Printemps’ public façade, starting in November, features mechanical windows with dolls dressed in exact replicas of iconic Dior outfits, created by its couture ateliers.

TA TA Darlings!!! I’ll vicariously be off to Paris to catch the fashion buzz and enjoy the sights!!! Fan mail welcome at pollytalk.com. Polly’s blogs are best accessed at pollytalk.com website, just click in the left hand column for a direct link to visionary men, amazing women, poetry or fashion.

SEPTEMBER OPENS A MYRIAD OF CULTURAL VENUES (c) By Polly Guerin

It’s the last rose of summer and the cultural calendar is brimming with venues to enlighten, entertain and engross every minute with museum, gallery and restaurant hopping. Only in New York, my friends, it’s the Best of New York. Here’s the Scoop!!!

DORIS DUKE’S SHANGRI LA Take a vicarious trip to Honolulu, Hawaii. The tobacco heiress, world adventurer and philanthropist was ahead of her time when it came to collecting Islamic treasures and the Museum of Arts and Design stages a remarkable tribute to the iconic collector. Amassing 3,500 objects spanning the Muslim world from Spain through the Middle East and into Asia she was a nonstop collector from the time she was just 23 to the time she died in 1993. Her acquisitions include objects dating from the early first millennium B. C. to the early 20th Century. One fascinating object the l8th century Indian rosewater sprinkler was once housed in her Honolulu estate, Shangri La. At MAD MUSEUM, 2 Columbus Circle, September 7 through January 6, 2013.
WE ARE HERE! Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship. This remarkable exhibition features the rich history and cultural traditions of the ancestors and the artists’ modern artistic approach to contemporary and modern life. The National Museum of the American Indian features five focus shows devoted to the artists who recently received contemporary art fellowships from the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in Indianapolis. Alan Michelson works with moving elegies for the lost environs and traditions of dislocated Indians with channeling them in light boxes showing photographs of his great-grandfather’s farmland, models of log cabins and a video of the Hudson River shoreline. Bonnie Devine offers objects of sheer beauty that express the circumstances of her people. Downtown at 1 Bowling Green at Broadway. Through September 23rd, 2012. 212.514.3700.
THE BEARDEN PROJECT Day trip it up to Harlem and visit the Studio Museum where a year-long tribute to Romare Bearden features work by 100 contemporary artists, inspired by or made in response to Bearden’s genre including works resonating with the artist’s themes in mind such as Emma Amos, a contemporary of Bearden and a member of his collective, Spiral, as well as young emerging artists like Lorna Williams and Noah Davis. For the Bearden Project the Studio Museum sent each artist sheets of 22x30 inch paper and asked them to make collages. Bearden’s work is a kind of visual African-American history and this exhibit broadens Bearden’s legacy. At 144 W. 125th St., at Malcolm X Blvd. Tel: 212.864.4500. Image above by Emma Amos 708 yo man ray yo.
RED ROOSTER HARLEM, Polly’s restaurant pick of the week. Gospel Sunday at Red Rooster Harlem is a ‘must’ for Sunday, or go for lunch or dinner anytime you’re up that way in Harlem. Start off with a spicy Bloody Mary and you’ll be clapping and dancing in your seats at brunch on Sunday. The menu, courtesy of Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson, is served from 11:30 to 3:30 pm, but the no reservation policy means you need to arrive at least a half hour in advance as it fills up early. Otherwise arrive on any weekday when there’s an impressive mix of artsy and professional types dishing the news and dining on the Yard Bird, fried chicken served on a bed of braised greens and mashed potatoes slithered with gravy and house-made hot sauce. At 310 Lenox Ave, between 125th and 126th Streets. 212.792.9001.
Ta Ta Darlings!!! PollyTalk is taking off for Harlem where its happenings are all the rage. Fan mail welcome www.pollytalk.com. Visit Polly’s Blogs at www.pollytalk.com and in the left-hand column click on the Blog that interests you from fashion to poetry and visionary men.