The Critic’s Notebook

Art:

“Picasso and The Spanish Classics” & “Anatomy of a Fresco: Drawings of José Clemente Orozco from the Wornick Collection,” at the Hispanic Society of America, New York. Not all treasures of the Hispanic Society of America were acquired by its hispanophile founder, Archer Huntington. The institution at 155th Street and Broadway continues to collect art and artifacts from the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking world. Now on view in the Project Room off the Main Court, “Picasso and the Spanish Classics” pairs a suite of newly acquired prints by Pablo Picasso with editions of the works that inspired them by Luis de Góngora and Miguel de Cervantes. Next door, in the East Building Gallery for one more week, “Anatomy of a Fresco” presents a major recent donation of studies by the Mexican muralist José Clemente Orozco from the collection of Salma and Michael Wornick. —JP

Art:

“Frank Stella: Indian Birds,” at Mnuchin Gallery, with a catalogue essay by Karen Wilkin (through December 9): The foam-core maquettes for Frank Stella’s Indian Birds series, hodgepodges of interlocking shapes derived from drafting templates, read like a daydreaming architect’s balsa-wood bagatelles; the scrap-metal versions, mounted on wire mesh, land somewhere between assemblage and machine. Only at their full, ten-foot size do these confected birds take flight: painted in eye-popping colors, each piece of corrugated metal commands its own space in three dimensions, and yet the kaleidoscopic whole coheres in the picture plane, frenetic yet serene. Up through December 9 at Mnuchin Gallery on the Upper East Side, “Frank Stella: Indian Birds” provides a rare chance to see six of these trophy specimens from the late 1970s at once, along with sketches and maquettes that show us how the pioneering artist went about reconciling the demands of sculpture and painting. An insightful essay by Karen Wilkin introduces the sumptuous catalogue. —RE

Music:

Sir András Schiff performs at Carnegie Hall, New York (November 16): The pianist András Schiff has in recent years taken to announcing his concert programs from the stage. “I feel much freer this way,” he has offered in explanation. “Do you know today what you are going to have for dinner in two years’ time?” Thus, it is anyone’s guess what we will hear on Thursday night on the main stage of Carnegie Hall from this scion of the Hungarian piano tradition. Perhaps he will draw from his strengths in Bach, Brahms, or Mendelssohn—or surprise with composers further afield. Certainly he will be informed by his convictions to strike a balance between historically informed performance and the poetic license of the interpreter. —IS

Lecture: 

“The Gerald Russello Memorial Lecture,” presented by the Russell Kirk Center & The University Bookman, at Fordham University’s Lincoln Center campus, New York (November 15): In human nature, Hobbes saw nothing more than an aptitude “to invade and destroy one another.” Compare these dingy words to those of Orestes Brownson, who “saw in man clearly and vividly . . . something worth living for, something one could love, and, if need be, die for.” With no apologies to Hobbes, the life and work of the late Gerald Russello (1971–2021) affirm Brownson’s judgment. Russello was a frequent contributor to The New Criterion, the longtime editor of The University Bookman, and a vital interpreter of Brownson, G. K. Chesterton, and Russell Kirk, among many others. This Wednesday, the Russell Kirk Center will host “The Gerald Russello Memorial Lecture” at Fordham University’s Lincoln Center campus, with remarks delivered by Dermot Quinn on Russello’s legacy and expansive mind. —LL

Video:

“The burden of the humanities,” featuring Wilfred M. McClay. For a limited time, watch a recording of the fifth annual Circle Lecture of The New Criterion.

Dispatch:

“How artists resist,” by Julia Friedman. On the art world’s response to war & the Artforum open letter controversy.

From the Archives:

“The critic as storyteller,” by William H. Pritchard (November 1987). A review of Four Dubliners: Wilde, Yeats, Joyce, and Beckett by Richard Ellmann.