THENEWYORKER,FEBRUARY10, 2020 7
ILLUSTRATION BY GAIA STELLA
The oldest known still-lifes are ancient Egyptian—frescoes of figs
for the afterlife. The Assyrians carved pomegranates from ivory. And
so it continues, from Caravaggio’s grapes to Cézanne’s apples. In the
mid-twentieth century, produce became a material, not just a subject.
In 1962, the Fluxus artist Alison Knowles wrote a simple score for a
performance: “Make a Salad.” The greens can serve dozens or hundreds.
On the eighth floor of the Whitney (through Feb. 17), you can see your
art and eat it, too, in “Fruits, Vegetables: Fruit and Vegetable Salad,”
a variable installation by the sharp-witted New York Conceptualist
Darren Bader. (The museum acquired the undated piece in 2015.)
Forty pedestals are topped with a visually striking variety of edible
readymades, which on a recent visit included a kumquat, an artichoke,
rainbow chard, an aloe leaf, and a pineapple. Every two days (before
they spoil), the sculptures transubstantiate into ingredients when
Tyler Montana and his team from the nearby restaurant Untitled chop
them into a superbly weird salad. Food for thought.—Andrea K. Scott
INTHEMUSEUMS
1
A RT
Noah Davis
Zwirner
CHELSEA Davis, who died of cancer, in 2015,
at the age of thirty-two, was both a gifted
painter and a co-founder (with his wife, Karon
Davis) of the Underground Museum, a unique
institution situated in a diverse, working-class
neighborhood in L.A. The canvases in this
retrospective-size show, thoughtfully curated
by Helen Molesworth, share affinities with
the supersaturated works of Kerry James
Marshall, both in their depictions of Afri-
can-American life (a swimming-pool scene
is especially winning) and in their surreal,
sometimes desolate compositions (ballerinas
form two lines outside an apartment com-
plex at night; a hunter pursues his extrater-
restrial prey). In its lush abbreviations of
form, Davis’s work can also evoke Fairfield
Porter. One room of the show—moodily
lit, with burning incense—features the lyr-
ical mixed-media sculptures of the artist’s
widow; the acerbic photo-based works of his
brother, Kahlil Joseph; and models of the
Underground Museum’s exhibitions. This
contemplative space, in combination with Da-
vis’s extravagantly beautiful paintings, skill-
fully conveys the uncommon breadth of his
vision.—Johanna Fateman (Through Feb. 22.)
Whitney Hubbs
Situations
DOWNTOWN In this riddlelike show, “Animal,
Hole, Selfie,” three big black-and-white pho-
tographs each represent a category named in
the title. There is a gentle-looking horse (cap-
tured from above), the seductively mysterious
mouth of an underwater cave, and a cropped,
nude self-portrait of the artist reflected in the
triangular shard of a full-length mirror. The
neat, if facetious, semiotic system that Hubbs
proposes in this trio of works collapses in her
small color contact prints. Taped helter-skelter
to a mirror hanging on one of the gallery’s walls,
these improvised vignettes feature the artist
in an array of low-budget, festishy getups and
erotic predicaments, with props as diverse as
duct tape, peacock feathers, cinder blocks, and
a watermelon.—J.F. (Through Feb. 16.)
Sandy Skoglund
Ryan Lee
CHELSEA This veteran American artist’s new in-
stallation “Winter” transforms the gallery into
a surreal periwinkle tableau: statues of owls, the
figure of an icy nymph, snowdrifts made from
crumpled paper, and giant snowflakes. The
installation continues Skoglund’s long-standing
tradition of staging elaborate environments
of high artifice, which she then photographs.
Her latest monochrome fantasyland fulfills its
dramatic potential in a single picture on the
wall: a vigilant little girl stands in a far corner
of the installation with a distracted man and
woman, her red hair a striking contrast to the
blue environment. Another section of the show
is devoted to delightful examples of Skoglund’s
earlier work, including two images, from 1979,
set in eerily white rooms. One is dotted with
blue and red plastic spoons; the other is punc-
tuated by colorfully striped paper plates. Both
images are as playful as they are exacting.— J. F.
(Through March 7.)
matic aural phenomena that result from play-
ing long-form drones with tiny variances of
inflection. However austere his approach may
seem, the results teem with the sonic equivalent
of microscopic life viewed on a slide. In the
first concert of his Issue Project Room artist
residency, he concentrates exclusively on the
Stygian rumble of the contrabass clarinet, a
beast seldom encountered outside of high-
school band halls.—S.S. (Feb. 8 at 8.)
Maxim Vengerov
Carnegie Hall
Maxim Vengerov, a violinist of heightened yet
subtle emotionalism, accompanied by the pianist
Polina Osetinskaya, begins this concert with
the contented declarations of Mozart’s Violin
Sonata in B-Flat Major. The program plumbs
the expressive depths of Schubert’s Fantasy in
C Major, Ravel’s “Tzigane,” and Richard
Strauss’s Violin Sonata in E-Flat Major, which,
much like his operas, bursts with lyrical flights.
Also playing: Bernard Labadie guides the Or-
chestra of St. Luke’s through vibrant thickets of
sound in pieces for double orchestra by Handel
and Vivaldi (Feb. 6 at 8).—O.Z. (Feb. 11 at 8.)
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DANCE
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch
“Haieff Divertimento,” from 1947, is one of
George Balanchine’s high-spirited ballets,
driven by a frisky score and brimming with
suggestions of social dance. It is also a rarity,
last seen here in a 1994 revival led by Wendy
