Get a look at the painter Cecily Brown’s process in her first solo museum exhibition in New York. The show at the Drawing Center, titled Cecily Brown: Rehearsal (until 18 December), is also the first to focus on her drawings, with around 80 works presented on soft pink walls. Subject matter ranges from animals to close-ups of sexual acts, done in a variety of styles, colour palettes and materials, including watercolour, ink and ballpoint pen. The show is also a romp through art history, with drawings that reflect the influence of Pompeiian murals and artists like Goya, Bosch and William Hogarth.
Brace yourself for an overwhelming experience at Dia: Chelsea with Kulturgeschichte 1880-1983 (Cultural History 1880–1983, until 29 July), an installation by the late German artist Hanne Darboven. The massive work—made of a whopping 1,590 collaged works on paper in identically-sized frames along with 19 sculptural objects—presents a selective history lesson. Collage items have been culled from sources like the German newspaper Der Spiegel and include photographs of celebrities, calendar pages, postcards and clips from a book on post-war art.
If you’re in search of a lighter (and smaller-scale) exhibition, head to Westwood Gallery for Andy Warhol: Drawn to Dance (until 29 December), a show of 49 ink drawings by the artist from 1955-67, all of which were given as gifts to the dancer Lydia Joel, who was the editor-in-chief of Dance magazine. Many of the works, naturally, depict dancers: a ballerina en pointe; jolly groups, holding hands in a circle; a simplified but expressive series of a girl with a ponytai at the barre. The works are arranged in small groups, each with its own quote from the artist, including this bit of wisdom: “It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.”
