February WAG – always our fun love, sex and romance issue – is also traditionally about the body. And the body takes center stage in a marvelous new exhibit at The Morgan Library & Museum, “Power and Grace: Drawings by Rubens, Van Dyck and Jordaens” (through April 29).
It’s a small but choice show, 22 works in all, that nonetheless had us taking a busman’s holiday at The Morgan recently after another assignment in Manhattan on an unseasonably warm winter day. Why? The Morgan is just that kind of place. The former home of financier/collector J. Pierpont Morgan, which has been brilliantly extended by architect Renzo Piano, The Morgan is strong in all media but particularly the kind of rare drawings in which exquisite line meets equally ravishing materials and papers.
Portraits, landscapes and mythological and biblical scenes make up the bulk of the exhibit, but we were particularly drawn to the male nude studies. One that seemed to capture the viewers while we were in attendance was Anthony van Dyck’s “Study for the Dead Christ,” as finely molded a form as you will ever see. It alone is worth the trip.
But there’s so much more to enjoy, plus a restaurant, a café and a fine gift shop.
For more, visit themorgan.org. And for more on “Power and Grace,” look for WAG’s February “Inspiring Romance” issue, out Friday, Feb. 2.
