Bill Powers, the owner of the Half Gallery, led a rapt tour of theatregoers through the Genieve Figgis show at Lincoln Center’s Gallery Met on 17 January, just before a performance of the theatre’s current opera, Romeo and Juliet. All of Figgis’s grim oil and acrylic paintings in the show are inspired by Shakespeare’s play, and Powers regaled the crowd with stories of the artist’s trip to Verona, to research the paintings. “Anything with kissing, making out—that sold out before the show opened,” he said. Powers came upon the painting Romeo and Juliet on a Horse. “I asked Genieve, ‘Hey, why does the horse look so sad?’” He said. “She responded: ‘Because he’s the only one in the show who knows what happens.”
