When newly minted Oscar winner Leonardo DiCaprio had a private audience with Pope Francis in January, he presented him with a check for the charity of his choice and something else – a book, the complete works of the fantastical Early Netherlandish painter Hieronymus Bosch, published by Taschen. It’s good to know that art and books are still preferred gifts.
Equally heartening are any number of thought-provoking exhibits right in our backyard. Opening Sunday, March 13 and continuing through June 25 is “SHE: Deconstructing Female Identity” at ArtsWestchester in White Plains. Bloomingdale’s White Plains celebrates the show, timed for Women’s History Month, with a “SHE is Beauty” fundraiser Thursday, March 10 from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at the store. Meet artists from the exhibit, preview their work, take home a special sample-filled gift bag and shop for the latest trends in beauty and cosmetics. Ten percent of all sales made in the cosmetic department will be donated to ArtsWestchester. To RSVP, call 914-684-6256, make an appointment at your favorite counter or email Lorna.Simpson@bloomingdales.com. And for more on the show, visit artswestchester.org.
In “Thomas Doyle: If the creek don’t rise,” through May 8 at the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, the Katonah resident locates the fragility and anxiety in the landscape in works like “The Culminating Point,” which cycles through the life and death of the suburban home much the way Hudson River School founder Thomas Cole’s “The Course of Empire” cycles through the rise and fall of civilization. For more, visit hrm.org.
The Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College goes West with “Pursuit of Clarity: Ansel Adams, Willard Van Dyke, Edward Weston & the Straight Photography Movement,” featuring epic images of the American West created with large format cameras. Meanwhile, “The Instant as Image” considers how the camera can transform a second into timelessness, in works by Barbara Morgan, Andy Warhol and a dozen other artists. Both exhibits run through June 5. For more, visit neuberger.org.
“The Nest: An Exhibition of Art in Nature” at the Katonah Museum of Art through June 19 – the subject of an article in WAG’s March “Celebrating Design” issue – considers the bird’s nest as a metaphor for loss, creativity and design itself in some 30 contemporary works in various media. For more, visit katonahmuseum.org.
