The New York Times - USA (2020-07-22)

ALEX TREBEKwas a man in search of a vice.

It was Los Angeles, in the late 1970s. The

Canadian quiz show M.C. had been tapped

to host a new trivia program, the short-lived

“Wizard of Odds.” “I had the world by the

tail,” he writes in his new memoir, “The An-

swer Is... ” “I was the talented newcomer

in broadcasting. I was the bright, fair-

haired boy.” He was also saddled with a few

striking disadvantages, as he saw it. “I did-

n’t drink, didn’t smoke, didn’t do drugs,” he

writes. “There were no big negatives asso-

ciated with me.”

He was too chaste to be trusted — “it held

me back from becoming one of the guys.”

He tried cursing. He tried boasting about

his drinking even though he privately pre-

ferred 1 percent milk (sufficiently sinister,

to my mind). In the end, he reconciled him-

self to that unnerving wholesomeness and

reserve, which have become so integral to

his appeal. The “Jeopardy!” champion Ken

Jennings has described Trebek as “a riddle

wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a Perry

Ellis suit.”

It’s little wonder that Trebek has written

a memoir of consummate caginess, one of

WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2020 C1

N

NEWS CRITICISM

2 ART

Rui Sasaki reflects the

weather in glass. BY TED LOOS

3 FILM

A producer sues the Oscars

organization. BY BROOKS BARNES

4ART

Sotheby’s will sell a storied

collection. BY JAMES BARRON

5 DANCE

Ailey II director is let go after

an inquiry. BY JULIA JACOBS

Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, one of the most

consistently provocative contemporary art

galleries in Manhattan, will close after 26

years. Its founder, the British artist-turned-

dealer Gavin Brown, will become a partner

in Gladstone Gallery, which announced the

merger.

Gladstone will also represent 10 artists

who showed with Mr. Brown’s gallery.

The closing of Gavin Brown’s Enterprise,

known as G.B.E., represents the most sig-

nificant upheaval to the New York art mar-

ket since the onset of the coronavirus pan-

demic, which has resulted in shuttered art

spaces, cratered sales and calamitous job

losses.

The gallery, closed to the public since

March, has presented art in online viewing

rooms and at digital fairs, but those meas-

ures could not offset substantial declines in

revenue. By this summer, with no recovery

in sight, Mr. Brown decided to close his

gallery, which forged the careers of artists

like Peter Doig, Rirkrit Tiravanija and Eliz-

abeth Peyton, and which flaunted a certain

rebelliousness even as it became one of the

more established names in the global art

world.

The partnership between Mr. Brown and

Gladstone Gallery, founded by Barbara

Gladstone, was first reported by Artnet

News.

“It’s been a very rapid process,” Mr.

Brown said in an interview. “Barbara is

someone I’ve held in esteem for three dec-

ades. I remember, vividly, seeing the

Matthew Barney show on Greene Street,”

he said, alluding to the New York debut of

that American artist, which Ms. Gladstone

presented in 1991. “She follows artists, is led

by artists; she leads an artist-centered

gallery.”

Mr. Brown, 56, said he and Ms. Gladstone

“have a mutual disillusionment with the art

world as it stands at the moment.”

Top Art Dealer

Joins Forces

With Another

Gavin Brown is closing his

operation to become a partner

in Gladstone Gallery.

By JASON FARAGO

CONTINUED ON PAGE C4

PARUL SEHGAL

BOOKS OF THE TIMES

Always Aloof,

He Still Fills

A Deep Need

A memoir by the avuncular

host of ‘Jeopardy!’ celebrates

facts, humility and poise.

The Answer Is... :

Reflections on My Life

By Alex Trebek

CONTINUED ON PAGE C6

In videos by Ayodele Casel, above, tap dancers talk about how their lives shape their art. Page 5.

Artists From Head to Toe: Tapping a Rich Vein of Emotion

MARIDELIS MORALES ROSADO FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

AN UNLIKELY HODGEPODGEof names gets
dropped in the course of Red Bull Theater’s
Short New Play Festival: Virginia Woolf,
Rachel Dolezal, Troilus, Cressida, Cervan-
tes, Trump. But the name that gets dropped

hardest — dropped in the sense that it all
but disappears — is that of the production’s
touchstone, Noël Coward.
The eight 10-minute sketches that make
up the 10th edition of the festival, which pre-

miered via livestream on Monday evening

and will remain available online through

Friday, were meant to respond to Coward’s

1930 play “Private Lives,” a comedy of man-

ners polished so bright you can see yourself

in it. Beneath the silver plate, its antic story

of a divorced couple who reunite while hon-

eymooning with new spouses is more mel-

ancholy than you may recall. Humans, it

suggests, are cursed to be least compatible

with those they are most drawn to.

Perhaps that’s true of theaters, too.

Though “leadership support provided by

the Noël Coward Foundation” may have

helped to paper the problem over, Coward is

not an intuitive match for Red Bull, which

has generally devoted itself to the sangui-

nary dramas and elevated verse of the Jaco-

bean period. At any rate, the festival’s offer-

ings, which include commissioned works by

JESSE GREEN THEATER REVIEW

Short Plays That Take Their Cue From Coward

A theater festival centers its

sketches around the 1930

comedy ‘Private Lives.’

Short New Play Festival 2020: Private Lives
Red Bull Theater

Charlayne Woodard in “Something in the Ground” on Zoom. CONTINUED ON PAGE C6