Author Archives: Christina

Bargains Galore at the 25th Annual Westbeth Flea Market

One more incredible shopping day left for fabulous and unique items donated by the artists of Westbeth.

$5 BAG DAY on SATURDAY 19 NOV FROM NOON TO 3PM

Buy a giant black plastic trash bag, and FILL IT WITH EVERYTHING – clothes, books, records, sports equipment, toys, housewares, etc. If you can get it to fit in, its all yours. Jewelry, furniture and artwork are exempt from Bag Sale.

Main Room

Furniture

Book room

Happy Shopper

Happy Shopper

Happy Shopper

PEN Hosts Fall 2011 Literary Tasting at Westbeth

The Fall Literary Tasting –
A Unique Experience

When: Thursday, November 17, 2011
Where: Westbeth Artists Housing 55 Bethune Street, New York City
What time: 7 p.m.

With Henry Chang, Michael Greenberg, Lev Grossman, Sabina Murray, Rahna Reiko Rizzuto, and other special guests

Co-presented by Westbeth Artists Residents Council

Tickets: $10. Purchase at Ovation Tickets

What should you be reading this season? Hear from two of New York City’s hippest and most experienced book sellers about the runaway hits, the beloved secrets, and the must-reads of the 2011 fall season. Then wander the halls of Westbeth to attend live readings by Festival authors in the homes of Westbeth residents. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to explore the oldest and largest artist community located in the heart of bohemian West Village, repurposed by renowned architect Richard Meier into 383 living and working lofts. The evening ends with a reception and cocktails.

For more info on tickets PEN Literary Tasting Tickets

WESTFEST All Over Westbeth: A series of Site Specific Dances. Sunday May 6, 2012

WestFest All Over Westbeth: A Series of Site Specific Dances

May 6th, 2012, FREE TO PUBLIC

Westbeth Artist Housing Courtyard
55 Bethune Street at Washington Street

WestFest Productions will present its second annual site-specific dance festival WestFest All Over Westbeth: A Series of Site-Specific Dances.

The festival will be set throughout the intricate architecture of the famous Westbeth Artists’ Housing Complex in the West Village. Dance will decorate the hallways, stairwells, basement crevices, the laundry room, the courtyards, the engine room and the roof; bringing life to a building dedicated to the arts. Continue reading →

WESTBETH ARTISTS HOUSING declared a NYC Landmark today 25 Oct 2011 by the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission! Read all about it here.

Westbeth Music Festival and Building montage. C Maile

Today, 25 October 2011, the NYC Landmarks Preservation
Commission unanimously designated the famed Westbeth
Artists Housing a New York City Landmark.
This caps a 7 year effort by the Greenwich Village
Society for Historical Preservation.
Read what Andrew Berman. Executive Director of GVSHP,
and Geo Cominskie, President of Westbeth Artists Residents
Councilhave to say about this momentous occasion both for
Westbeth artists and for the city.

Check out the links below:

Westbeth Landmarked by NYC Landmarks Commission

Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation on Westbeth

WESTBETH PLAYWRIGHTS FEMINIST COLLECTIVE featured in Wikipedia. Click here for further info

The Collective was group of feminist playwrights who produced plays at Westbeth. Check out their thrilling history in Wikipedia.

Westbeth Playwrights Feminist Collective (l-r) Sally Ordway, Susan Yankowitz, Christina Maile, Dolores Walker, Gwen Gunn, Patricia Horan , Photo by Lucille Rhodes 1971

WIKIPEDIA Article on Westbeth Playwrights Feminist Collective

Westbeth Gallery: URBAN MYTHOS 22 Oct – 6 Nov 2011

Opening Reception Saturday 22 October 6pm – 9 pm

A group show curated by Greg Kessler “Urban Mythos” featuring the work of 13 artists. forming a collective dreamscape of images. Artists include Jennifer Nuss, Brian Novatny, Daniel Davidson, Erika Keck, Alex Kvares, Bekim Zeqiri, Heimo Wallner, Tricia Keightley, Jon Newman, Andre Lucien, Alexander DeMaria, and Bill Anthony.

Greg Kessler, a contemporary artist based in New York, curates the group show at Westbeth, which has been home to influential artists ranging from Diane Arbus to Vin Diesel. Westbeth Gallery provides a fitting backdrop to showcase the works of the 13 established and up-and-coming artists. Each artist has a diverse approach to image making, yet share an interest in the tactile qualities of their designs, creating a contemplative and engaging experience for the viewer.

Continue reading →

EDWARD EICHEL recently attended exhibition of his drawings at the trial of Nazi Adolf Eichmann. The event at the Dallas Holocaust Museum commemorates the 50th anniversary of the trial.Click here for further info

Friday, September 9, 2011
Art review: Sketches of Nazi officer Adolf Eichmann stir emotions about Holocaust
by Meg Furey of The Assignment Desk, DFW

Profile of Eichmann

DALLAS — Temple Emanu-El hosted artist Edward Eichel and writer Deborah Lipstadt Thursday night to commemorate the 50th anniversary of The Eichmann Trial. The night’s exhibition and lecture served as a reminder to all in attendance of the post-war effect of the Holocaust, the importance of our continued recognition, and a recollection of the trial.
In 1961, Edward Eichel was a young expressionist artist living in Paris. Commissioned by French magazine L’Arche, he was sent to Israel to cover the trial of former Nazi officer Adolf Eichmann, a man once in charge of the deportation millions of Jews to extermination camps. As the lone courtroom artist, Eichel was compelled by the gravity of the verdict at hand; Eichmann was being charged with crimes against humanity among 15 other war-related and human rights offenses. The artist felt the intrinsic need to expose Eichmann for the world to see, just as the voices of 100 Holocaust survivors who offered their first-hand accounts of the unspeakable crimes against humanity that took place behind the concentration camp fences. The accounts were staid reflections of the horrific rise of evil and abuse of power against an entire race. Taking place after the Nuremberg Trial, this was significant in that the world was hearing the victims’ own stories. And as the world listened, Eichel sat and drew.

“You have to see Eichmann to see what he really is … The way that I draw captured the character of this man,” Eichel said. “I felt I could do something different, something powerful.” And he did. Over the course of the two weeks he spent inside the courtroom, he produced 10 small ink-on-paper gesture blot sketches in order to capture the reaction of the gallery of onlookers, the judges, and Eichmann himself. His quick-handed technique breaks the tension of the courtroom while revealing an almost scattered intensity. The images move as thoughts do, like rapid-fire vibrations, emotions, and judgments together in each mark, moving from blame to forgiveness and every feeling in between.
Eichel’s profile sketches of Eichmann reveal a man who has no other defense than carrying out orders and doing as he was told. A viewer of these sketches should perhaps like to believe that the officer was under the spell of evil, that his freedom of choice had been encumbered by an especially sinister force, and he, as all men are capable though not all do, succumbed to the darker potential. Especially stirring is Eichel’s sketch named “The Cage.” Eichmann, seated behind glass accompanied by guards on either side, reveals the intensity of the trial, as many worried the former Nazi might be assassinated before a verdict was reached.

Eichmann was later found guilty and hanged in 1962.
Lipstadt, author of The Eichmann Trial, offered a lecture about the 1961 trial. It was a time for Israel itself to take up the responsibility to speak and act out on its own behalf. Lipstadt worries that as the years go by and the survivors pass on, the legacy of their will to endure and overcome will begin to fade. Fortunately, Eichel’s sketches provide us with a living document and the undeniable proof of the events, thus preserving a resounding voice against injustice and a continued call for hope.
The Eichel drawings have been on long-term loan to the Dallas Holocaust Museum by the artist since 1994. They will be on view again at the Dallas Holocaust Museum in early October.

WESTBETH GALLERY: Anita Steckel and Friends July 14 – 29, 2012

REVISIONS ON A PHOTO ALBUM

The exhibit comprises twenty-one of Anita Steckel’s intensely personal last works on paper before her passing on March 16, 2012.

We believe sexual subject matter includes many things: political statements, humor, erotica, sociological and psychological statements, as well as purely sensual or esthetic ‘art’ concerns, and of course, the primitive – mysterious reasons none of us know. – Anita Steckel.

Exhibit also includes works of her students at the Art Students League where Ms Steckel taught for over 20 years.

Exhibit Curator: Jessica Maffia.

Opening Reception Sunday July 15, 2012 at 6pm

Anita Steckel’s often witty and irreverent style has produced some of the most interesting and ground-breaking work of the last four decades. Her self portraits as a giant woman hanging from the Empire State Building may be tongue-and-cheek, yet they also speak to some of the main tenants of Steckel’s work where the phallic urban skyline is controlled, claimed, and made personal. She fearlessly investigates ideas of feminism, urbanism, sexism, racism and history. Her work has met with acclaim both internationally and nationally, and she has exhibited in over twenty museums and participated in countless gallery and university shows since the 1960s.

– BROOKLYN MUSEUM Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art: Feminist Art Base: Anita Steckel

Her art shocked and surprised. Save within the feminist artistic world, her teasing and sometimes disturbing erotic works were not very widespread until the turn of the century when her creations were described as brilliant and avant-gardist. Among her best known works, is Giant Woman, a series of paintings (1969-1972) depicting a gigantic naked woman lazing around the skyscrapers of New York.

The New York Times writes that Anital Steckel founded an association of female artists ─ the Fight Censorship Group. The artist declared, during a lecture at the University of Pennsylvania, that by definition, being an artist is about breaking social norms. – ART MEDIA ASSOCIATION

Click on the link below for an essay about Anita Steckel’s work by Donald Goddard

http://www.newyorkartworld.com/reviews/steckel.html