INSIDE: Raleigh on Film; Bethune on Theatre; Behrens on Music; Profile: Cornelia Seckel; Reviews: Eugene Ludins & Anthony Panzera at Dorsky; Seckel on the Cultural Scene; Trevens on Dance; New Art Books; Short Fiction & Poetry; Extensive Calendar of Events…and more! ART TIMES Vol. 28 No. 5 March/ April 2012 Eugene Ludins: An American Fantasist at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art Collection ART TIMES Collection Courtesy: ART TIMES Untitled Drawing undated ink wash and graphite on paper For those of us who several vitrines displaying memorabilia, Courtesy: Estate of Eugene Ludins Courtesy: couldn’t perform photographs, and sketchbooks. that feat, visiting Lest you think that Eugene Ludins was Untitled Drawing undated ink and wash on paper this exhibition is merely a jokester and producer of comic Family Portrait, 1934, Oil on canvas, 54 x 46 in. the next best thing. caricatures, be assured that he was first By RAYMOND J. STEINER mirror into Wonderland. To casually It was in his drawings that Ludins and foremost a painter. This is perhaps ONE IS TEMPTED to ask if Eugene slough him off as just one more “surre- seemed to really “let himself go” — here most evident in his use of color — for when Ludins’ last name was derived from the alist” or some such glib catchphrase, is we see the Magister Ludi at his best. Al- you make that first step into his land of Latin word ludi — “game”. I kind of doubt simply a too-easy pigeonholing of a talent though they are obviously little vignettes the absurd you cannot but help to be cap- it, but if there was ever a “Magister Ludi” that defies easy categorization. Titles of — a party, a picnic, a gathering of friends, tivated by richly-hued landscapes, skies, — or “master of the games” — it would paintings or drawings do little or nothing a couple of lovers or friends walking mountains and fields. If at times, even surely be the man I’d come to know after to “clear things up.” If Ludins began as together — there would almost always his use of color does not “make sense” it profiling him nearly thirty years ago in an American realist, it did not take long be a ludicrous element included, some always delights the eye. Give yourself a gift his Woodstock studio. A quick wit but a for him to wander off into becoming — as unexpected gesture or facial expression — even a casual stroll through this exhibi- gentle critic, he loved to ‘collect’ his wife’s Leval notes — an American fantasist. that would stop you in your tracks: one tion will reward the viewer with a welcome inadvertent witticisms to share with oth- Bodies, faces, buildings, landscapes, on or both walkers stark naked (“Couple”); recess from a world that can sometimes be ers, for example when he told a group of us closer inspection seem to lose perspective, a man kneeling alongside a dog eyeing overwhelmingly too predictable. about her old cranky old Hoover Vacuum a bone next to a dish (“Bone of Conten- proportion — at times — simple common *“Eugene Ludins: An American Fan- Cleaner: “Well,” she said, “at least it’s tion”); a cockamamie construction with sense. If rooted in some piece of reality tasist” (thru Jul 12): Samuel Dorsky better than nothing.” Gene would give both clothed and naked people working that might have confronted Ludins, he Museum of Art, The State University that impish grin and say, “’Vacuum’ — on it (“Live Sculpture with Sculptor”; a would soon turn a vista, a group of people of New York at New Paltz, One Hawk ‘nothing’. Get it?” in case the slow ones disheveled painter in front of his easel — whatever — into something dreamlike. Drive, New Paltz, NY (875) 257-3844. missed the unintended verbal pun. Susana with three disgruntled women nearby “To Space”, at first glance, appears to in- A fully-illustrated catalog of the same Torruella Leval, curator and author of the clude a space capsule — but includes two (“Untitled Drawing”) — and so on, and so name accompanies the exhibit. www. catalog accompanying the exhibit*, gives hugging couples nearby and a mish-mash on. The exhibition, which covers several newpaltz.edu/museum for more in- a complete account of Ludins’s life and of gadgets attached to the spacecraft that rooms and comprises some 60 paintings formation. career (dubbing him an “American fanta- looks anything but technically feasible. In and 20 drawings, is complemented by ef sist”, an apt name for an artist — a man “Regenerator” we see some kind of out- — who never seemed to allow a whimsy go landish contraption — a “regenerator” I CSS Publications, Inc. Support the Arts; to waste) so I will concentrate my remarks suppose — composed of pulleys, columns, PO Box 730 on the exhibition. Enrich your Life stove pipes, vases and unknown objects Mt. Marion, NY 12456-0730 It does not take very many steps into with a scantily-clad woman alongside and, the gallery before you begin to feel that a little distance away, a group of naked and www.arttimesjournal.com 845-246-6944 you’ve stepped into another land, another dressed people along a river- or lake-bank. dimension where distortion reigns and His wife Hannah, once said to me, “Don’t disorientation begins — sort of like a leap you wish you could look into his head?” Subscribe to ART TIMES through Alice’s (in this case, Ludins’s) ART-LITERATURE-DANCE-MUSIC-EXHIBITIONS-THEATRE-FILM-ART-LITERATURE-DANCE-MUSIC March/ April 2012 ART TIMES page 2 and skillfully playing a piece at some merry-making and asked him, “Are Peeks and Piques! you not ashamed, son, to play so well?” ART TIMES IN MY LAST “Peeks & Piques!” feeling a bit shame-faced about your So much for the musician — pop star Commentary and Resource for the Fine & Performing Arts (November Online Issue) I wrote behavior yesterday. This meant that or not. Alexander apparently saw the ART TIMES (ISSN 0891-9070) is published bi- light, since it was not long before he monthly by CSS Publications, Inc. with copies about artists and the stances of some we ought to choose what we do, what distributed along the Northeast Corridor primarily religious belief systems — or at least we admire, what we want in life care- went out to conquer the world instead throughout the Metropolitan and Hudson Valley the “spokespersons” of such systems fully. A king, for example (according of plunking away at his instrument. Regions, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New As Plutarch explains, it does not nec- Jersey each month. Copies are also available by — toward art and its creators. I took it to Plutarch) was amazed to see some mail to subscribers and arts organizations through- a step further (surprise!) and turned wealthy strangers carrying puppies essarily follow that because a piece of out the US and abroad. Copyright © 2012, CSS my reading toward earlier times, and monkeys in their arms, embrac- work — a song, a poem, a painting — Publications, Inc. pleases you for its gracefulness, that Publisher: Cornelia Seckel times when gods and goddesses ing them and making much of them. Editor: Raymond J. Steiner were less definitive in their wants He wondered whether or not women he or she who wrought it deserves Contributing Writers: and desires, less demanding in their in their country bore children? Why our admiration. Practicing virtu — Henry P. Raleigh Robert W. Bethune expectations from mere mortals. lavish all that affection and kindness by merely its own bare statement of Ina Cole Dawn Lille action — can and ought affect men’s Frank Behrens Francine L. Trevens Oh, they might have been consulted on brute beasts? Plutarch (in his life minds to follow suit. It’s one thing to Subscription Rates: when a battle was being considered of Pericles) goes on to warn about USA: $18 /1 year $34 /2years or whether it was propitious or not to “entertaining and taking notice of ev- take note of a good song, poem or paint- Foreign: $35 /1 year $45 /2 years pursue some course such as choosing erything and anything that addresses ing, but it is quite another to emu- Contact for Print and Online Advertising Rates: this or that one for a wife or a king; our senses.” Just because a colorful late the moral purpose of those who CSS Publications, Inc., PO Box 730, Mt. Marion, practice virtu. So…in other words, it NY, 12456. Phone or Fax (845) 246-6944; but, generally, they were not much image, for example, impresses us email: [email protected] expected to get into the mundane favorably, we ought not pursue it at takes a no-frills, full-time life to pos- Web site: www.arttimesjournal.com business of day-to-day activities. expense of neglecting what is best sess virtu — to be a fully-realized man Advertising reservations are due: June 15 for Jul/ Take the ancient Greeks, for instance. and choicest for our contemplation. ala the ancient Greek. Hoo boy! And Aug; Aug 15 for Sep/Oct; Oct 15 for Nov/Dec; Dec here I am, not only wasting my time 15 for Jan/Feb; Feb 15 for Mar/Apr; Apr 15 for May/ For them, the ideal was for humans to So much for the painter/colorist. Jun. 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