Viewpoints @ 29th Street

In conversation with Christophe de Menil, Helen Harrison, and Laura Morris

The Byrd Hoffman Water Mill Foundation
115 W. 29th Street, 10th floor
New York, NY 10001

Housed in the 29th street New York City loft of Robert Wilson, Viewpoints @ 29th Street is a new conversation series aimed to create intimate opportunities for artists and art enthusiasts to gather and discuss creative themes vital to the historical record of the contemporary moment. Bringing a more upbeat and casual approach to the realm of art history and criticism, this 2015 winter conversation will bring experts on Abstract Expressionism into one room to discuss the works of three pioneering artists: Joan Mitchell, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko. *Advanced reservations are encouraged due to limited seating capacity.

Moderator: Christopher Stackhouse

Christopher Stackhouse’s books include Seismosis (1913 press) featuring his drawings in dialogue with text by writer/translator John Keene; and poems, Plural (Counterpath press.) His writing has been published in journals and periodicals including Der Pfeil (Hamburg, Germany), American Poets, Modern Painters, Art in America, BOMB Magazine, and The Brooklyn Rail. His essay contributions to artist monographs include Kara Walker’s Dust Jackets for The Niggerati(Gregory R. Miller & Co.); Basquiat – The Unknown Notebooks (Brooklyn Museum/ Skira Rizzoli); and on the paintings of Suzanne McClelland, 36-24-36 (Team Gallery/D.A.P.) forthcoming January 2016. He frequently lectures on art, literature, American culture, and has taught at several colleges and universities. A frequent visiting critic at the Leroy E. Hoffberger School of Painting, he is currently an adjunct professor in the Curatorial Practice MFA program at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Panelists:
Christophe de Menil | Designer, Artist, Art Collector discussing the work of Mark Rothko

Designer Christophe de Menil was born in France, and raised in Houston amidst the legendary collection of her parents, John and Dominique de Menil. Miss de Menil has also been a steady friend and patron of contemporary artists, architects and designers, including Matisse, Le Corbusier, Barnett Newman, de Kooning, Rauschenberg, Mark Rothko, Mark di Suvero, Philip Johnson, Louis Kahn, Luis Barragán, Tadao Ando, among many, many others. Inspired by these outstanding people, Miss de Menil established herself as a notable costume designer, producing work for Trisha Brown, Lucinda Childs, and Robert Wilson. While collaborating with Wilson she also created jewelry with the extraordinary Claude Lalanne.

Miss de Menil’s designs are a distillation of these remarkable collaborations and friendships, and her jewelry and clothing design hold the echoes of an immersion in the great theater costume departments of Europe: Munich’s Kammerspiele, Rotterdam’s National Theater, the Chatelet in Paris, Amsterdam’s Opera House, Rome’s Teatro dell’ Opera, Sicily’s Summer Festival in Gibellina.

Helen Harrison | Director of the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center discussing Jackson Pollock

Helen A. Harrison, the Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Director of the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in East Hampton, New York, received her undergraduate degree in studio art from Adelphi University, and also studied at the Brooklyn Museum School of Art and Hornsey College of Art in London. After earning a Master’s degree in art history from Case Western Reserve University, she began her career in museum work as the curator of the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton. She has also been the curator of Guild Hall Museum in East Hampton, and a guest curator at the Queens Museum in Flushing.

Helen is a former art reviewer and feature writer for the Long Island section of The New York Times, and visual arts commentator for the NPR affiliate WLIU 88.3FM. In addition to numerous exhibition catalogs, essays, and chapters in multi-author books, her publications include a monograph on Larry Rivers (Harper & Row, 1984); Hamptons Bohemia: Two Centuries of Artists and Writers on the Beach, co-authored with Constance Ayers Denne (Chronicle Books, 2002); and The Jackson Pollock Box, an art kit for young people (Cider Mill Press, 2010). Her monograph on Jackson Pollock was published by Phaidon in 2014.

Laura Morris | Archivist for the Joan Mitchell Foundation

As Archivist for the Joan Mitchell Foundation, Laura Morris manages the Foundation’s archival collections and facilitates access to these research materials for scholars, curators, students, and others with an interest in Mitchell’s life and work. She provides information about individual artworks’ exhibition and publication histories; oversees copyright permissions for Mitchell’s artwork; and provides research and logistical support to exhibitions, publications, and educational projects internationally. A Tennessee native, Laura earned a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Virginia. She spent a year in France as an undergraduate, and later returned to Aix-en-Provence to live and paint. Laura holds an M.S. in Library Science and an M.A. in History from Simmons College. Prior to joining the Foundation in 2012, Laura worked as an Archivist for the Harvard Art Museums, the Harvard Business School Historical Collections, the Harvard University Archives, and the New York Public Library / Manuscripts Division. In her creative life, Laura paints, binds books, marbles paper, knits, and bakes.

Image Credits: (from left to right) Christopher Stackhouse, Christophe de Menil, Helen Harrison, Laura Morris