Fall arts Preview

By Gabrielle Alfiero

With season premieres, festivals and marquee exhibitions slated for the upcoming season, there’s little excuse for boredom this fall. Here’s our short list of upcoming arts events to keep the weekends packed, all before the last leaf falls.

MUSEUMS

Picasso Sculpture

Picasso’s sculptures haven’t quite received equal attention to his works on canvas. The trained painter explored the three-dimensional form with an experimental bent and treasured much of his sculptures, keeping them in his private home collections. They were shown en masse in a 1966 exhibition in Paris, and a subsequent show at the Museum of Modern Art in 1967 brought them stateside, but they haven’t again been surveyed in this country. Now, MoMA presents 150 of Picasso’s sculptures from throughout his career, many on loan from the Musée National Picasso-Paris, along with the 1914 metal Guitar and 1950 bronze sculpture She-Goat from MoMA’s holdings.

Picasso Sculpture

Sept. 14-Feb. 7

Museum of Modern Art

11 W. 53 St., between Fifth and Sixth Avenues

Museum hours: Sunday-Thursday and Saturday, 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.; Friday 10:30 a.m.-8 p.m.

Admission $25

For more information, visit moma.org or call 212-708-9400

Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist

After the Whitney takes down its inaugural exhibition that encompassed the entirety of its new Meatpacking District building, the museum celebrates Harlem Renaissance painter Archibald Motley in the museum’s sky-lit gallery on its eighth floor. The 45 paintings offer views of Motley’s vibrant, colorful depictions of urban living, which include scenes from his native Chicago, as well as 1920s Paris and Mexico.

Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist

Oct. 2-Jan. 17

Whitney Museum of American Art

99 Gansevoort St., between Washington Street and Tenth Avenue

Museum hours: Monday, Wednesday, Sunday, 10:30 a.m.-6 p.m.; Thursday-Saturday, 10:30 a.m.-10 p.m.; Closed Tuesday

Admission $22

For more information, visit whitney.org or call 212-570-3600

Silicon City: Computer History Made in New York

The Facebook generation may think of Northern California as the country’s technological pillar, but the 1964 New York World’s Fair debuted cutting-edge technology with the immersive “egg” theater at the fair’s IBM Pavilion. This exhibition recreates the World’s Fair theater and charts New York’s role in the advancements of computing, including early contributions such as the electric telegraph and Thomas Edison’s light bulbs, along with leaps in telecommunications from New York-based AT&T and Bell Laboratories, and the development of 1970s arcade games.

Silicon City: Computer History Made in New York

Nov. 13-April 17

New-York Historical Society

170 Central Park West, at 77th Street

Museum hours: Tuesday-Thursday and Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Friday 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; Sunday 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; closed Monday

Admission $20

For more information, visit nyhistory.org or call 212-873-3400

THEATER

Out of the Past: Celebrating 40 Years of the Mettawee Journey

Ralph Lee’s theatrical masks and puppets have long graced stages and television sets—he created Saturday Night Live’s famous ‘land shark’—and since 1975, the artist and Vermont native has developed original theater with his constructions as part of his Mettawee Theatre Company. He brings his puppets—including a tarantula in cowboy boots and a smiling cockroach—to the garden at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, for excerpts of his original productions, accompanied by original compositions by longtime collaborator Neal Kirkwood.

Out of the Past: Celebrating 40 Years of the Mettawee Journey

Sept. 11-13

Cathedral of St. John the Divine

111th Street at Amsterdam Avenue

7:30 p.m.

Admission $15

To purchase tickets, call 212-929-4777

DANCE

New Chamber Ballet

New Chamber Ballet opens its upcoming season with a presentation of new and repertory works from its founder and artistic director Miro Magliore and choreographer-in-residence Constantine Baecher. The season openers at City Center include La Mandragore, a duet that premiered in June, as well as In the Parlour, set to a violin sonata by Mozart. The company, known for its founder’s collaborations with musicians (Magliore began his ballet career as a composer) welcomes live violin and piano accompaniment featuring both contemporary and traditional compositions.

New Chamber Ballet

Sept. 11-12

City Center Studio 5

130 W. 56 St., between Sixth and Seventh Avenues

8 p.m.

Tickets $29

To purchase tickets, visit smarttix.com or call 212-868-4444

FILM

Medea

As part of Print Screen, a program that pairs film with literature and invites authors to show work that inspired their own creative outputs, author and front man of indie band the Mountain Goats John Darnielle presents Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1969 film Medea, a depiction of Euripides’ tragedy. Darnielle’s debut novel “Wolf in White Van” about a heavy metal fan who sustained a life-altering injury as a teenager, was nominated for last year’s National Book Award. The author’s encounters with Greek and Roman tragedies as a college English student still have a hold on him. The film screens from an original, restored 35mm print.

Medea

Monday, Aug. 31

Film Society of Lincoln Center

Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center

144 W. 65th St., between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues

7 p.m.

Tickets $18

To purchase tickets, visit filmlinc.org or call 212-875-5601

Sinatra at Symphony Space

Frank Sinatra would turn 100 this coming December and Symphony Space honors the celebrated crooner. On Oct. 17, singers perform 100 of Sinatra’s songs throughout the afternoon. Later in the month, the venue pays tribute to Sinatra as film star, screening four of his films, including the 1962 drama The Manchurian Candidate and the 1955 film adaptation of the musical Guys and Dolls, which also stars Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons and Vivian Blaine.

Sinatra at Symphony Space

Oct 17, 18 and 25

Symphony Space

2537 Broadway, at 95th Street

Assorted times

Tickets: Oct. 17, $35-$45; Oct. 18 and 25, $14

To purchase tickets, visit symphonyspace.org or call 212-864-5400

MUSIC

Israeli Chamber Project

Ahead of its first tour of China, the Israeli Chamber Project begins its new season in Manhattan. The ensemble, with roots both in Israel and New York, champions contemporary composers, including Gilad Hochman, one of Israel’s young rising stars, while also performing classic works. The upcoming program includes music by 19th-century German composer Robert Schumann, as well as Hochman’s Slightly Disturbed.

Israeli Chamber Project

Wednesday, Sept. 9 at Goddard Riverside Community Center (includes a panel discussion)

647 Columbus Ave., between W. 91st and W. 92nd Streets

7 p.m.

Thursday, Sept. 10 at Kaufman Music Center’s Merkin Hall

129 W. 67th St., near Amsterdam Avenue

7:30 p.m.

Tickets $20-$30

To purchase tickets, visit kaufmanmusiccenter.org or call 212-501-3330

Heretical Angels

As part of Lincoln Center’s annual music and performance event White Light Festival, medieval vocal ensemble Dialogos joins with traditional singers for their U.S. debut of Heretical Angels, a program inspired by ancient inscriptions on Bosnian tombstones. The work reimagines medieval Bosnian chants and invokes ancient Balkan pagan and Christian rituals.

Heretical Angels

Oct. 20-21

James Memorial Chapel, Union Theological Seminary

3041 Broadway, at 121st Street

7:30 p.m.

Tickets $30-$43

To purchase tickets, visit whitelightfestival.org/events/heretical-angels or call 212-721-6500

GALLERIES

The Avant-Garde Won’t Give Up: Cobra and Its Legacy

The post-World War II European art movement Cobra, named for its origin cities of Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam, collectively, took root before the group officially formed in 1948, and a bi-coastal exhibition in New York and Los Angeles examines the beginnings of the movement and its influence on later work and ideas. The New York leg of the exhibition pays special attention to Cobra’s founder Asger Jorn, who started artist group Helhesten in 1941, during the Nazi occupation of his native Denmark before going on to found Cobra, a group inspired by Marxist ideals, children’s art and collaboration.

The Avant-Garde Won’t Give Up: Cobra and Its Legacy

Sept. 9-Oct. 17

Blum & Poe

19 E. 66th St., between Madison and Fifth Avenues

Opening reception: Wednesday, Sept. 9, 6-8 p.m.

Gallery hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

For more information, visit blumandpoe.com or call 212-249-2249