arts & entertainment
Page 80 August 10, 2012
danshamptons.com
Roy Nicholson at the Four Seasons By Marion Wolberg Weiss
Public art, especially in New York, can encompass diverse styles, shapes and sizes: a trip to the Seagram Building on Park Avenue and 52nd Street proved a good example. Our primary goal was to see paintings by East Hampton’s Roy Nicholson at the prestigious Four Seasons Restaurant. Before we got there, however, we couldn’t help but be mesmerized by the immediate surroundings, where different pieces of public art drew our attention. First, there was the Seagram Building’s plaza itself with its two fountains, the water spewing abstract designs into the air. Across the street (on 51st Street) were structures manifesting designs of another sort: architectural styles, ranging from a modern glass skyscraper to a Baroque church. It was as if we were sitting on a cliff (albeit the plaza steps) overlooking some canyons in New Mexico;
Work by Roy Nicholson.
the buildings were the canyons, with their irregularity and height. (Both locations in New York and New Mexico could even be perceived as installations. Or natural landscapes, even if the Manhattan buildings were made of glass and steel.) In the middle of Park Avenue stood a brightly colored Pop Art sculpture with a figure riding a dolphin. Public art again. Well-known artists and architects contributed to the Seagram Building, including Mies van der Rohe (exterior) and Philip Johnson (interior) who both designed the structure. Once inside the building’s lower lobby, enamel on canvas by Francesco Tumbiolo graced the walls. Closer Work by Roy Nicholson. bold, but make their point about the subtle surprises to the Four Seasons Restaurant was a huge painting by Picasso with three women, a male that nature evokes. Nicholson may only show us a and female couple and horses in the background. flower or twig, but we know these subjects are not Continuing to the restaurant on a higher level, we alone in the universe. Yet there are variances. One symmetrical piece passed through the eloquent main dining room, is a group of real flowers in purple shades that look entering another space for special occasions. There was Nicholson’s art at last: a series of 52 pasted to the background. Not as subtle, but equally small paintings, each representing a different week arresting. The room itself is also connected to nature with of the year. Nicholson’s work does not obviously replicate the four seasons even though it conveys its hanging potted plants. Even so, outside the images from nature. Rather, there are graceful windows we see a skyscraper across the street. Here, configurations where Minimalism reigns. Gentle in reality, is one secret that Nicholson is perhaps colors and subtle brush strokes suggest a mood or suggesting through his work: nature does not exist season; one form flows into another. In a nutshell, alone. Somewhere, somehow, there are man - made elements that are both pervasive and eternal. design is an important aesthetic element here. Roy Nicholson’s work will be on view at New York’s Consider the flowers, including muted yellow daffodils. Or a bird’s-eye-view of black twigs set Four Seasons Restaurant (99 E. 52nd Street) until the against the snow below. These images are not big or end of December. 212-754-9494.
COMING SOON ON
2012
BEST OF THE BEST Nominations
Don’t be left out of this year’s Best of the Best list! Go to danshamptons.com on or after August 17, 2012 for details on how to nominate your favorite East End business in: Arts & Entertainment · Food & Drink · Health, Wellness & Beauty · Home & Professional Services Pets · Recreation, Travel & Tourism · Restaurants & Nightlife · Shopping · Wines
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