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.