Puck Building

Last weekend, 34 galleries from around the world set up booths in the Puck Building for Sanford Smith's 16th Annual Outsider Art Fair.

Most of the art shown was not very good, but it is instructive to see so much of it together. The viewer learns that naivete and obsession are not magic bullets: for every Bill Traylor, whose simple drawings of animals are as elegant and beautiful as the greatest cave paintings, there are dozens of artists whose work is not apparently but actually naive.  read more »

Freddy gave a strong speech last night, more coherent and more passionate than Anthony's. He did sound like he'd won something.

But the real result at the Puck Building -- 39.9% makes Freddy something like the Job of city politics; perhaps boils are next -- was visible on the faces of Ferrer's close aides.  read more »

As the speech would up, advisor Roberto Ramirez and Ferrer's campaign lawyer, Stanley Schlein, stood by a curtain on the East Side of the room. As Freddy concluded with the words "God bless New York," Schlein exhaled glumly and Ramirez, in a gesture of pure frustration, smacked his palm into his forehead.

The friend who drove me to Brasserie for dinner was not in great shape.  read more »