Susan Kuretsky, a friend and colleague in the Art Department, is retiring this year. The Intersection of Art History Classroom and the Museum is a day-long celebration of Susan and her time at Vassar College. The first part of the event started at 2:30 and began with a talk that Susan gave. She then introduced the panel members as they each gave a presentation. Before this event started, I chatted with Karen Robinson. She retired from the Art Department a few years ago, having taught American Art. Emily Warner had been teaching American Art for the last two years. Tom Hill is the director of the Art Library, and Michelle Donnelly is a former student of Susan's and a Curatorial Fellow at the Whitney Museum. See the next three entries.]]> Tom Friedman gave a talk on his work earlier that evening. Afterward, we had a dinner for him across the street at the Alumni House. Main Course catered the dinner. See the previous entry.]]> Tom Friedman gave a talk on his work earlier that evening. Afterward, we had a dinner for him across the street at the Alumni House. Main Course catered the dinner. See the next entry.]]> Judy Linn's opening at the CUE Foundation. Arlene curated this exhibition of Judy's photographs. See the previous two entries.]]> At Judy Linn's opening at the CUE Foundation. See the previous entry and the following entry.]]> I dropped Catherine (Murphy) off in front of the CUE Foundation and went to park the car. When I got back, she was still in front of the building and talking with Suzanne Joelsen and Gary Stephan. They were just leaving Judy Linn's opening. See the following two entries.]]> Keltie Ferris' show opened this evening. We got to the gallery at the beginning of the opening, and so got a chance to visit for a bit with Keltie. We were so glad to get to see the show, which we both loved. While we were talking with Keltie, Souhad Rafey came into the gallery. See the previous entry and the following entry.]]> Keltie Ferris' show opened this evening. We got to the gallery at the beginning of the opening, and so got a chance to visit for a bit with Keltie. We were so glad to get to see the show, which we both loved. See the following entry.]]> Catherine (Murphy) had nominated Nicole Eisenman for membership to the Academy, and she was voted in. We have been very busy lately. So Catherine called the Academy and asked to be notified if Nicole was coming to the dinner and if so, she would like to come and sit at the same table as Nicole. Nicole was coming, so we went. We arrived at a few minutes before 5:00 pm so that Catherine could go to a members' meeting. I went to the office and worked on my computer and also had a conversation with our accountant. At 6:00 PM, the tributes to deceased members took place. Dennis Johnson was eulogized by Deborah Eisenberg and Wallace Shawn, A.R. Guernsey by Terrance McNally and John Ashbury by Paul Muldoon. Following the tributes, there was a cocktail party. The photograph on this page is from the cocktail party. We took a break from standing around and were joined by the others in the photograph. There was lots of talk about the statement the Academy was putting in the NYTimes about Sexual harassment. There were disagreements about the statement at the members' meeting, but the statement was not to be changed. After the cocktail party, dinner was served. We sat at the same table with Nicole Eisenman, who sat next to Catherine. I sat next to Julia C. Speed, the granddaughter of Henry N. Cobb. Julia works at Luhring Augustine. That is the gallery that shows Tom Friedman, who is coming to Vassar College in a little over a week. On my other side was Peter Saul. I had asked for coffee with my dinner because we weren't going to stay for dessert, and coffee keeps me perky for the drive home. See the previous entry.]]> Catherine (Murphy) had nominated Nicole Eisenman for membership to the Academy, and she was voted in. We have been very busy lately. So Catherine called the Academy and asked to be notified if Nicole was coming to the dinner and if so, she would like to come and sit at the same table as Nicole. Nicole was coming, so we went. We arrived at a few minutes before 5:00 pm so that Catherine could go to a members' meeting. I went to the office and worked on my computer and also had a conversation with our accountant. At 6:00 PM, the tributes to deceased members took place. Dennis Johnson was eulogized by Deborah Eisenberg and Wallace Shawn, A.R. Guernsey by Terrance McNally and John Ashbury by Paul Muldoon. Following the tributes, there was a cocktail party. The photograph on this page is from the cocktail party. We took a break from standing around and were joined by the others in the photograph. There was lots of talk about the statement the Academy was putting in the NYTimes about Sexual harassment. There were disagreements about the statement at the members' meeting, but the statement was not to be changed. After the cocktail party, dinner was served. We sat at the same table with Nicole Eisenman, who sat next to Catherine. I sat next to Julia C. Speed, the granddaughter of Henry N. Cobb. Julia works at Luhring Augustine. That is the gallery that shows Tom Friedman, who is coming to Vassar College in a little over a week. On my other side was Peter Saul. I had asked for coffee with my dinner because we weren't going to stay for dessert, and coffee keeps me perky for the drive home. See the following entry.]]> The six of us met at the movies. We went to see Isle of Dogs, directed by Wes Anderson. Then to dinner at Market Street. There was lots of discussion about the film and how it's racist and how it is not. Sam and Lisa hardly knew Ralph and Elisabeth and hit it off well. Sam is a pastor, and Mattie (Ralph and Elisabeth's son) is also a pastor.]]> I ran into Michael and Mike and ? (who I met for the first time) at Adams.]]> Billy and Arthur called to see if we could meet for lunch at Giacamos on their way to Pittsfield. The orchid on the table was a present for Arthur's birthday, not something that Giacamos put out for decoration.]]> Tom Ellman emailed me to ask if I would buy a ticket for the Barrett house fundraiser. He was chairman of the Board, so I did. The ticket I bought included an entry fee, food, and participation in a raffle of artwork. See the previous two entries.]]> Tom Ellman emailed me to ask if I would buy a ticket for the Barrett house fundraiser. He was chairman of the Board, so I did. The ticket I bought included an entry fee, food, and participation in a raffle of artwork. See the previous entry and the following entry.]]> Tom Ellman emailed me to ask if I would buy a ticket for the Barrett house fundraiser. He was chairman of the Board, so I did. The ticket I bought included an entry fee, food, and participation in a raffle of artwork. See the following two entries.]]> I drove Catherine (Murphy) down to the American Academy of Arts and Letters for a meeting she was attending. I then drove to the Met Breuer to meet up with Ben Keddy. I got to the museum early, so I bought a book, "Birds of a Feather: Joseph Cornell's Homage to Juan Gris and a notebook to write in, went down to the coffee bar and wrote the first draft for the introduction for "Mother's Clothing, etc.," by Eugene Carroll. A new addition to my chronicle website that I am publishing on the site. I planned to see "Like Life, Sculpture, Color, and the Body (1300-Now)" as well as the other two exhibitions, Anselm Kiefer and Leon Golub. It turned out that the Like Life exhibition was not to open for another week or so — a start to a day that would get more disjointed. Ben and I ate lunch at Flora Bar, a nice but overpriced restaurant in the museum. After lunch, we saw the Kiefer and Golub show and then headed to the Mets Main building. There we saw the Joseph Cornell and William Eggleston exhibitions. I dropped Ben off at 86th and Park, near the subway he was taking back to Jersey City. Instead of heading to the West Side Highway to get to the American Academy, I headed up Park Avenue. Before I dropped Ben off, I used his phone to ask Catherine when she thought her meeting would be over. She guessed at about 3 O'Clock. It was about 2:35 PM at that point. I needed to use Ben's phone because last week, I had left mine at the Starbucks in Yonkers on the way home from the opening at the American Academy. That would have been last Tuesday. My phone was being mailed back to me. But it hadn't yet gotten to our house. I drove up Park Avenue and way uptown. I realized that there was a "mountain" between me and the west side. It was now after 3:00 PM, and I winded up getting trapped on this road and sucked further uptown with no way to call Cathy to let her know I was on my way so that she wouldn't worry. I was getting very tense. Eventually, I got off this "highway" and was on Dyckman Street, I assume, in the Inwood neighborhood. It was almost 3:30, and I am not sure exactly where I was in relationship to the American Academy. I pulled up behind a car that was double-parked on Dyckman Street and knocked on the car window, which cautiously opened partway. There was a young woman in the driver's seat and two older people in the back seat (possibly the young woman's parents or rideshare passengers). I asked to use one of their phones while explaining I needed to call my wife, who would be getting worried about me because I was late to meet her. Of course, they had some trepidation about opening the window all the way and about handing me their phone. At first, the woman in the front seat dialed for me and had me speak through the window. The phone was mounted on the dashboard. She then relaxed and handed me the phone when I couldn't get through to Catherine. While I was fumbling with the phone, I drop my car keys under their car. At this point, I felt like a total clown. I left Catherine a message, and the woman asked me where I was going. I told her, and pointed ahead and said, "I think it is that way," But actually, it was the opposite way. She offered to lead me there. I pointed out that I couldn't follow them without retrieving my keys from under her car. With that accomplished, she made a u-turn, and I followed. It turned out that it was fairly simple and fast to get to the Academy from there. We said goodbye. I offered them some $, but she refused. I told them how swell they all were and went to the Academy. Catherine was not yet downstairs. I knew they usually had a nice lunch for the committee members. While I was waiting, I was asked if I needed anything. I said, "how about a snack?". Anita Flanagan, who does the cooking for the meetings, presented me with corn beef and cabbage and some salads. Catherine came into the kitchen just as my food arrived. While I ate, various people from the meeting came down into the kitchen. Souhad sent cookies she had made home with us. I ate most of them on the ride home.]]> Some of the people who I knew and took pictures of at the opening. See the previous seven entries.]]> Some of the people who I knew and took pictures of at the opening. See the previous six entries and the following entry.]]> Some of the people who I knew and took pictures of at the opening. See the previous five entries and the following two entries.]]> Some of the people who I knew and took pictures of at the opening. See the previous four entries and the following three entries.]]> Some of the people who I knew and took pictures of at the opening. See the previous three entries and the following four entries.]]> Some of the people who I knew and took pictures of at the opening. We met Annabeth when we went to UC Davis last year. See the previous two entries and the following five entries.]]> Some of the people who I knew and took pictures of at the opening. They are looking up at Joan's gigantic painting. See the previous entry and the following five entries.]]> Catherine (Murphy) had a bad cold, so I went to the opening by myself. The plan was to meet up with Judy Lin so I could drive her back to Poughkeepsie to the train station where she had parked her car. See the following seven entries.]]> We saw Barbara Paige and Judy Dollenmeyer on January 11th at Catherine's (Murphy) opening in NYC. We haven't gotten together for dinner for quite some time. We run into Barbara and Judy regularly in Adam's Fairacre Farms. We always talk about going out but don't seem to get around to it. So finally we did. Before dinner, we went to Upstate films to see "Faces Places," a new film by Agnes Varda. Then we headed to Market Street for dinner. The food has generally been good at Market Place, but Barbara, Judy, and I had gnocchi with veal ragu. The gnocchi was pretty good, but the meat was inedibly salty. See the previous entry.]]> Barbara Paige, Judy Dollenmeyer, Catherine Murphy, and I met at Upstate Films to see Agnes Varda's "Faces Places" before going to Market Place for dinner. See the next entry.]]> Catherine (Murphy) and I went to see Catherine's show before it comes down on Saturday. While there, we saw some people we knew. See the previous two entries.]]> Peter brought Bob and Vincent into the office, where Catherine and I were when they arrived. See the previous entry and the following entry.]]> Catherine (Murphy) and I were in the office of the gallery. Peter brought Jeffrey Weiss back to meet Catherine. See the next two entries.]]> Portia arranged for us all to meet for dinner.]]> We had been trying to get together with Alexis and Shirley for some time. We finally arranged to meet for dinner at the Brasserie 292 in downtown Poughkeepsie. We had been there a number of times before. Sometimes it had been good and sometimes less good. The meal was the best we have ever had there. I had a pork chop, which was spectacularly good. Catherine (Murphy), and Alexis had the skate, and Shirley had the bouillabaisse, all of which were delicious. Alexis is just finishing up her term of being chair of the art department at UMass Amherst. It was good to see Alexis and Shirley after all this time.]]> Rochelle Feinstein was a visiting Claflin Artist speaker at Vassar. She gave a talk, after which we all went to the Alumni House for dinner. Main Course of New Paltz catered the dinner. It was quite good. The next day, Rochelle gave individual student critiques. She is in Rome this year at the American Academy and came back to New York for a couple of weeks. And a few days after the talk, she heads back to Rome. See the previous two entries.]]> Rochelle Feinstein was a visiting Claflin Artist speaker at Vassar. She gave a talk, after which we all went to the Alumni House for dinner. Main Course of New Paltz catered the dinner. It was quite good. The next day, Rochelle gave individual student critiques. She is in Rome this year at the American Academy and came back to New York for a couple of weeks. And a few days after the talk, she heads back to Rome. See the previous entry and the following entry.]]> Rochelle Feinstein was a visiting Claflin Artist speaker at Vassar. She gave a talk, after which we all went to the Alumni House for dinner. Main Course of New Paltz catered the dinner. It was quite good. The next day, Rochelle gave individual student critiques. She is in Rome this year at the American Academy and came back to New York for a couple of weeks. And a few days after the talk, she heads back to Rome. See the following two entries.]]> We arranged to meet Ralph (Arlyck) and Elisabeth (Cardonne-Arlyck) at Upstate Films to see "A Phantom Thread". After the movies, we went to Le Petit Bistro for dinner.]]> We went to NYC for Catherine (Murphy) to have a checkup at her eye doctor. After the doctor's appointment, we stopped by the Peter Freeman Gallery to take a quick peek at Catherine's show there. We ran into a couple of people we knew, including Andy Watsky. See the previous entry.]]> We went to NYC for Catherine (Murphy) to have a checkup at her eye doctor. After the doctor's appointment, we stopped by the Peter Freeman Gallery to take a quick peek at Catherine's show there. Cece and Mack were in the gallery when we got there. They own the Catherine (Murphy) painting, Trash Bags. When Catherine had one of her shows at a Texas Gallery in Houston, Cece and Mack had a dinner party for Catherine and a bunch of other people at their house. See the following entry.]]> Billy and Arthur called to see if we could meet for lunch. We decided to go to Palace Dumpling in Wappingers Falls. When we got there we found out it was closed on Tuesdays, so we went next door to Gino's Pizza Restaurant. Billy told us that on Friday they were doing some casting in NYC for The Royal Family of Broadway to be presented at the Main Stage of Barrington Stage Company this summer in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He had planned to watch the Superbowl game on Sunday in Pittsfield. Because of that, Billy wasn't sure if he was going to go to the casting (it was for some smaller parts.) Cathy (Murphy), Arthur (Salvadore), and I told him he had to go. So he did. Doing so, he could still watch the Superbowl in NYC.]]> Last night we went to an opening for an exhibition of Thomas Nozkowski (see last -number- of entries. Last night Cathy (Catherine Murphy) and I stayed at the Hampton Inn, on 24th Street. It was reasonably priced and a nice hotel, though the mattress was too hard but not as truly uncomfortably hard as the Savoy Chelsea, which we stayed in after Cathy's show last week. We had breakfast in our room — an egg sandwich from the deli on the corner and coffee and tea from Starbucks. We left the hotel at about 11:00 am and went first to Tom's (Thomas Nozkowski) show so we could see it in a less noisy and crowded manner than the opening last night - which was fun and good to see people not seen for a long time. We went to have lunch at the Sullivan Bakery on 9th and 25th Street. There was a spot right out front. Getting good parking spots always puts me in a better mood. The restaurant was crowded and we probably would have gotten sandwiches to eat in the car. But a woman (Donya Dickenson) called over to Cathy and told her they were going to leave soon, and she should take a seat. So Cathy sat with Donya, her son Everett Adkins and Daughter Diora Adkins while I got change and went back out to put money in the Muni Meter. I ordered our lunch and we chatted with Donya and her two wonderful children. They were sweet and open and talkative and affectionate. The couple at the next table, especially the young woman were swept into our conversation by the children. It was all very relaxed and, in some ways, tender. They all left, and we finished our lunch and then headed out to see other shows. Byron Kim at the James Cohan Gallery. An exhibition of small paintings of the sky with diary notes written on the paintings. Not surprising that I would feel connected to these works. After seeing a few more shows in Chelsea, we headed to the lower East side to see the Biala show and the Jamian Juliana-Villain. At the very end of the day, we had just enough time to stop off at the Peter Freeman Gallery so Cathy could get a quick peek at her show. It turns out that the Adkins/Dickerson family, from the Sullivan Street Bakery had gone to the show and when they came in Everett walked behind the desk and asked Matthew if Catherine Murphy was in the gallery. See the following entry. See the previous entry.]]>