TARGET Collaborates with Designer CHRIS MARCH on “BIG FUN” HALLOWEEN WIG COLLECTION

RETAILER IS THE GO-TO DESTINATION FOR HALLOWEEN STYLE, DEALS AND AN EXCEPTIONAL SHOPPING EXPERIENCE

This Halloween, Target Corporation has teamed up with fashion and costume designer and former Project Runway contestant Chris March to create an exclusive line of larger-than-life Halloween wigs. The playful collection, which sets in stores and on Target.com on Sept. 15, will serve as the centerpiece of Target’s Halloween product assortment that includes costumes, accessories, décor and candy.

The limited-time collection features over-the-top foam wigs, each priced at $20 or less, that will help Target guests create the perfect Halloween look.  Inspired by his experience as a costume designer, March designed eight show-stopping styles: Geisha, Greaser, Starlet, Witch, Medusa, Monster Bride, Mohawk and Afro.

MAJOR SURVEY OF EDGAR ALLAN POE’S LITERARY CAREER TO BE HELD AT THE MORGAN LIBRARY & MUSEUM

MORE THAN ONE HUNDRED WORKS EXPLORE POE’S FICTION, POETRY, LITERARY CRITICISM, AND INFLUENCE ON DIVERSE WRITERS

Edgar Allan Poe: Terror of the Soul

October 4, 2013–January 26, 2014

The works of Edgar Allan Poe have frightened and thrilled readers for over one hundred fifty years. Edgar Allan Poe:Terror of the Soul, an exhibition at the Morgan Library & Museum, will bring together more than one hundred items related to Poe’s poetry, fiction, and literary criticism, and explore his profound influence on his contemporaries and later generations of writers. The objects featured in Terror of the Soul—a phrase and concept Poe introduced in his preface to Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque—are drawn primarily from the Morgan’s holdings and The Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature at The New York Public Library, two of the most important Poe collections in the United States. A

Studio of Samuel Masury and S. W. Hartshorn; Edwin Manchester, photographer; “Ultima Thule” daguerreotype portrait (contemporary copy) of Edgar Allan Poe, November 9, 1848; The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, MA 8658; Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1909 (photography: Graham S. Haber)

number of exceptional loans from the collection of Susan Jaffe Tane, the foremost private collector of Poe material in the world, will also be included. The exhibition will be on view October 4, 2013 through January 26, 2014.

Poe’s mastery of multiple writing genres, including his ironic reworking of the Gothic tradition as a vehicle for his psychologically acute and metaphysically ambitious dramatizations of the terrified soul, will be elucidated by manuscripts of several of his famous poems and short stories, early printed editions, letters, and literary criticism published in contemporary newspapers, magazines, and journals. On view will be such works as “Annabel Lee” and “The Bells” in Poe’s own hand; one of the earliest printings of “The Raven;” the first printing of “The Cask of Amontillado;” and an unprecedented three copies of Tamerlane, Poe’s earliest published work and one of the rarest books in American literature. Lesser-known writings, including A Reviewer Reviewed—Poe’s never-before-exhibited critique of his own work, written under a pseudonym—and the author’s annotated copy of his last published book, Eureka, provide a more complete picture of this complex writer.

More importantly, Terror of the Soul is among the first museum exhibitions to explore Poe’s reception by, and wide-ranging influence on, fellow writers as diverse as Charles Dickens, Stéphane Mallarmé, Vladimir Nabokov, and Terry Southern. Manuscripts by other literary masters on view include Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles, Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and T. S. Eliot’s manuscript of The Waste Land, annotated by Eliot and his friend, Ezra Pound. Another highlight of the exhibition is the notebook containing Paul Auster’s previously unpublished lecture on Poe’s significance as an American writer and his influence on French literature.

“The common perception that Edgar Allan Poe was a writer solely concerned with tales of the macabre and grotesque fails to do justice to the full range of his extraordinary talent,” said William M. Griswold, director of the Morgan Library & Museum. “Poe was also a superb literary critic, an early pioneer of detective fiction, and a celebrated poet. The arc of his influence includes not only generations of writers, but visual and performing artists as well.”

FICTION

Poe’s fiction teems with the themes closely associated with his work in the popular imagination: premature burial, madness, and revenge. Among the numerous stories on view will be first printings of “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Cask of Amontillado,” two of Poe’s most popular tales. William Wilson, an allegorical tale of the soul’s encounter with its own conscience, reflects Poe’s fascination with the theme of the double, and its implications for the idea of human identity. The first printing to be displayed bears the signature of its one-time owner, Franklin D. Roosevelt.

A first edition copy of The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, Poe’s only novel, will be shown. Although Poe described his seafaring tale as a “very silly book,” its influence can be detected in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, Henry James’s The Golden Bowl, and works by Jules Verne, among others. Also on display will be one of only three existing manuscript sheets of The Lighthouse, another terror tale of the sea, which remained incomplete at the time of Poe’s death.

History Of England’s Prestigious Man Booker Prize Is The Subject Of New Exhibition At The MORGAN MUSEUM & LIBRARY This Fall

Bookermania: 45 Years of the Man Booker Prize, September 13, 2013—January 5, 2014

England’s Man Booker Prize turned Possession into an instant best seller, propelled The English Patient and Life of Pi onto the screen, and made a star out of an advertising copywriter named Salman Rushdie. Throughout its history, it has been a dynamic force in marketing literary fiction, while drawing attention to questions about the critical, popular, and economic influences that shape cultural value and confer prestige. Given annually since 1969 to the “best novel in English” written by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations, Republic of Ireland, or Zimbabwe, the prize is now the prototype for literary awards around the world. Never without controversy or a chorus of detractors, the Booker has uniquely captured the British imagination and has helped shape a contemporary canon that reflects the expanded borders of the English-

Bookermania: 45 Years of the Man Booker Prize, September 13, 2013—January 5, 2014

language novel today. Bookermania: 45 Years of the Man Booker Prize, on view September 13, 2013–January 5, 2014, is the first American exhibition to explore the world of this award and how it came to take its place in England’s colorful history of promoting the novel.

The mania in the exhibition’s title refers not only to the British enthusiasm for its highest literary award but also to the bibliomania reflected in the archive that is the foundation of the Morgan’s Man Booker Prize collection. Acquired by the museum in 2010 as a joint acquisition between the departments of Printed Books and Bindings and Literary and Historical Manuscripts, it comprises more than four thousand items including manuscripts, proofs, first editions, reprints, letters, association copies, judges’ annotations, artworks, translations, bespoke bindings, and ephemeral materials related to the finest works of literary fiction published in England. The collection was assembled over several decades by Peter Straus—a British literary agent, publisher, and bibliophile, who has served on the prize’s management committee and has been called its unofficial bibliographer. Straus’s energetic collecting and his attention to the minutiae of “all things Booker” have earned the archive Iain Sinclair’s description as “a museum of madness.”

Each year, the management committee selects a panel of five jurors—critics, academics, novelists and a “general reader”—to consider the more than 120 novels vying for the prize. Extensive deliberations result in a longlist, announced in July, which is further narrowed down to a shortlist of five or six finalists in September. The winner is announced at a nationally televised ceremony in mid-October. The first winning novel in 1969 was P. H. Newby’s Something to Answer For. In 2012, Hilary Mantel won the award for Bring Up the Bodies.

Works on view in Bookermania are drawn entirely from the Morgan’s Man Booker Prize collection—a singular archive of more than four thousand items that preserves the convergence of collaborative forces at play in the world of authors, publishing, the book trade, and critical establishment that have made the Booker one of the world’s premiere literary awards. On bookshelves around the gallery, a chronological display of every Booker-winning novel and noted contenders narrates important developments in the prize from 1969 to 2012. Transformations in typography, illustration, and book design over more than four decades of contemporary fiction are documented through an array of dust jackets and related artwork. Also on view are some of the unique artifacts in the collection in the form of proofs, manuscripts, annotated judges’ copies, authors’ correspondence, and publishers’ promotional material that explore key figures and important issues surrounding the prize.

The objects on view offer insights into the writers, judges, and the memorable controversies associated with the prize. Judging notebooks belonging to critics John Sutherland and Ruth Scurr and books annotated by Rick Gekoski, David Daiches, Hermione Lee, and Robert Macfarlane record their idiosyncratic reactions to some of the most important works of postwar fiction. Letters from noted authors such as Kingsley Amis, Iris Murdoch, John Berger, A. S. Byatt, John Banville, and Hilary Mantel’s annotated copy of Wolf Hall provide humorous, thoughtful, and provocative responses to the prize and to their own works, while manuscripts, corrected galleys, and publisher’s promotional materials document the life of a Booker book and how it has been created, distributed, and promoted at particular moments in time.

threeASFOUR: MER KA BA OPENS AT THE JEWISH MUSEUM

MULTIMEDIA EXHIBITION BY THE INNOVATIVE FASHION COLLECTIVE FUSES AVANT-GARDE COUTURE, ARCHITECTURE AND VIDEO PROJECTIONS

The adventurous fashion collective threeASFOUR present its latest project,MER KA BA, a multimedia installation fusing avant-garde couture, architecture, and video projections, at The Jewish Museum. Blending ancient symbols with new technologies to evoke a timeless desire for cross-cultural unity, the exhibition includes examples from threeASFOUR’s new spring-summer 2014 collection, featuring 3D-printed textiles made in collaboration with the architect Bradley Rothenberg. The clothing line and its environment are inspired by sacred geometry and tile patterns found in synagogues, churches, and mosques around the world. The exhibition will remain on view through February 2, 2014. threeASFOUR: MER KA BA is presented by The Jewish Museum and Art Production Fund.

threeASFOUR, in collaboration with Bradley Rothenberg; rendering of 3D-printed weave for MER KA BA, 2013
© threeASFOUR

Immersing visitors in an ethereal and meditative environment, the installation features a “temple” in the shape of half a three-dimensional six-pointed star designed in collaboration with Studio Christian Wassmann. A patterned floor of mirrors creates the illusion of a complete six-pointed star, while selections from threeASFOUR’s newest collection are positioned throughout the gallery. Visitors are invited to enter the mirror-lined interior of the “temple” structure. Video projections of the five Platonic solids, created with the 3D animation designer Alex Czetwertynski, and specially commissioned sound by composer Raz Mesinai further enliven the space.

Installation views of threeASFOUR: MER KA BA. Exhibition designed by Studio Christian Wassmann. Clothing © 2013 threeASFOUR. Photograph by David Heald © 2013 The Jewish Museum and Art Production Fund.

The enigmatic title embraces many spiritual concepts: Merkaba is a mystical form of Judaism; ka ba alludes to the Kaaba, one of the holiest sites in Islam and the focal point of the Mecca pilgrimage; Muraqaba is a Sufi meditation practice. But the phrase has even older roots. In ancient Egypt the hieroglyphs mer (rotating light), ka (spirit), and ba (body), placed

NEW YORK – OCTOBER 29: (L-R) Designers of Three As Four Angela Donhauser, Adi Gil and Gabriel Asfour attends Paper Magazine’s third annual nightlife awards held at Spotlight Live on October 29, 2007 in New York City. (Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images)

together, describe the energy field through which the soul enters the body and ascends to higher planes. In contemporary New Age belief merkaba is a vehicle of transcendence; this idea is represented as two pyramids, interlaced to form a three-dimensional six-pointed star. In the gallery merkaba is ever-present, from the custom fabric prints and the shape of the “temple” to the glowing animations that light the room. The exhibition space will transform into a sanctuary, inviting contemplation.

In sacred geometry, symbolic and sacred meanings are ascribed to certain geometric shapes and proportions. In classical geometry, the five Platonic solids are three-dimensional shapes with the same face on all sides. These include: pyramid (four triangle faces), cube (six square faces), octahedron (eight triangle faces), dodecahedron (twelve pentagon faces), and icosahedron (twenty triangle faces).

 

Gabriel Asfour, Adi Gil, and Angela Donhauser, the designers of threeASFOUR, were born in Lebanon, Israel, and Tajikistan, respectively, and their diverse backgrounds have influenced their poetic and socially-conscious approach to fashion. For them, haute couture is about more than beautiful clothes; it is both wearable art and a platform for their free-spirited philosophy. Gabriel Asfour (b. Beirut, 1966), Angela Donhauser (b. Dushanbe, 1971), and Adi Gil (b. Tel Aviv, 1974), first worked together under the clothing label AsFOUR in 1998. Since 2005 the trio has been known as threeASFOUR. Their experimental designs have been exhibited at the Musée Galliera – Musée de la Ville, Paris (2002), Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum (2003), the Museum at FIT (2005), and the Mode Biёnnale Arnheim (2007, 2011). Their clothing designs are in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and Victoria and Albert Museum, London. In 2007 threeASFOUR collaborated with artist Matthew Barney on the performance piece The Guardian of the Veil, staged at the Manchester Opera House. The designers also worked with artist Matthew Ritchie on the live performance of Hypermusic: Ascension at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, in 2010. They have collaborated on ready-to-wear collections with Kate Spade (2005), and Gap (2007). Paper Magazine has called threeASFOUR “true artists [who] insist on following their vision rather than the trend of the moment” while Vogue praised them as “avant-garde designers who will try anything, who will cause a person to reimagine, for instance, what a dress is.” Among the label’s supporters are Björk and Yoko Ono.

On November 10 at 6pm, The Jewish Museum will present an interactive performance combining avant-garde fashion and ancient bread-breaking rituals, conceived by threeASFOUR in relation to the exhibition threeASFOUR: MER KA BA. Part of Performa 13, the only biennial dedicated to new visual art performance across disciplines, Fest is designed in collaboration with culinary curator Naama Shefi, Studio Christian Wassmann, Oliver Halsman Rosenberg, Bradley Rothenberg, and Breads Bakery.

threeASFOUR: MER KA BA is coordinated by Rebecca Shaykin, Leon Levy Assistant Curator. The exhibition is made possible by the Irma L. and Abram S. Croll Charitable Trust. Generous support is provided by Yoko Ono, the Leon Levy Foundation, Shelley Fox Aarons and Philip E. Aarons, and Dr. and Mrs. Steven Rothenberg. In-kind support is provided by Materialise and Bruce Gitlin and Milgo/Bufkin.

The Jewish Museum is located at 1109 Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street, New York City. Museum hours are Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, 11am to 5:45pm; Thursday, 11am to 8pm; and Friday, 11am to 4pm. As of September 15, Jewish Museum admission is $15.00 for adults, $12.00 for senior citizens, $7.50 for students, free for visitors 18 and under and Jewish Museum members. Admission is Pay What You Wish on Thursdays from 5pm to 8pm and free on Saturdays. For information on The Jewish Museum, the public may call 212.423.3200 or visit the website at www.TheJewishMuseum.org.

Travel America: Greater New Smyrna Beach Area (Florida) Announces Fall “Beach Weeks”

Ten Week Festival Begins September 27th, 2013 with Jazz Fest

Following a successful and ridiculously awesome summer, New Smyrna Beach Area Beach Weeks are back by popular demand. Come and celebrate our area’s unique coastal style during our first annual, fall “Beach Weeks”. There will be ten weeks of fun for all ages, including sun, surfing, fishing, kiting, films on the beach, music, books, art and so much more! Visit http://www.beachweeks.com or call 800.541.9621 for details and start planning your stay today! (PRNewsFoto/Southeast Volusia Advertising Authority)

Following a successful summer season of events, the Greater New Smyrna Beach Area is excited to announce a Fall “Beach Weeks” Campaign, again taking place in Southeast Volusia County. The 10 week event festival will run from September 27th, 2013 through November 30th, 2013.  The kick-off event for fall is the 13th Annual New Smyrna Beach Jazz Festival, featuring a variety of Jazz Musicians performing throughout New Smyrna Beach.

EMPIRE, DIRECTED BY ELINE JONGSMA AND KEL O’NEILL, IS MAKING ITS WORLD PREMIERE IN THE CONVERGENCE SECTIONSEPTEMBER 28TH, AT THE 2013 NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL

Empire project – India

Empire project – Australia

ALL IMAGES PROVIDED BY THE FILMMAKERS

A hidden synagogue in the mountains of Indonesia. A Dutch-style village in the Sri Lankan rainforest. A white separatist enclave in the South African desert. These are just a few of the communities brought to light in Empire, an immersive documentary project that examines the still-unfolding legacy of Dutch colonialism. By turns epic and intimate in its approach, Empire explores the ways in which the conditions of past continue to define our lives in the present. Shot in ten countries over four years, Empire employs a broad range of storytelling techniques—including nonfiction filmmaking, multi-channel video projection, and experience design—to unearth the contemporary aftershocks of the world’s first brush with global capitalism.

Empire project – Brazil

Empire Project – Ghana

Eline Jongsma & Kel O’Neill are a married Dutch-American filmmaking team focused on cross-platform storytelling. They work as a two-person crew, and film, edit, research and produce all of their work by themselves. They spent 2010-2013 travelling more than 140,000 kilometers by car, boat and airplane through Asia, Africa, Oceania and the Americas while filming Empire. Before creating Empire, Eline and Kel were the US Correspondents for VPRO Television’s Prix Europa-winning documentary series “Metropolis.”

The Jewish Museum in New York Present Chagall: Love, War, and Exile

First U.S. Exhibition Exploring Darker Works by Marc Chagall Created During World War II, September 15, 2013 – February 2, 2014

From September 15, 2013 through February 2, 2014, THE JEWISH MUSEUM (1109 Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street, New York City) in New York will present CHAGALL: LOVE, WAR, AND EXILE which, for the first time in the U.S., explores a significant but neglected period in the artist’s career, from the rise of fascism in the 1930s through 1948, years spent in Paris and then in exile in New York.

Marc Chagall, “Self-Portrait with Clock”, 1947, oil on canvas, private collection. ©2013 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

MARC CHAGALL (1887-1985), one of the foremost modernists of the 20th century, created his unique style by drawing on elements from richly colored folk art motifs, the Russian Christian icon tradition, Cubism, and Surrealism. Beginning with the evocative paintings from his years in France, CHAGALL: LOVE, WAR, AND EXILE illuminate an artist deeply responsive to the suffering inflicted by war and to his own personal losses and concerns. Although he never abandoned a poetic sensibility, his art of the 1930s and 1940s reflects the political reality of the time. Most unexpected is the recurring appearance of the figure of the crucified Jesus as a metaphor for war and persecution. By the mid-1940s, Chagall returns to joyful, colorful compositions expressing the power of love. The exhibition includes 30 paintings and 24 works on paper, as well as selected letters, poems, photos, and ephemera.

MoMA PS1 PRESENTS MAJOR COMPREHENSIVE RETROSPECTIVE OF MIKE KELLEY THIS FALL

LARGEST EXHIBITION OF ARTIST’S WORK TO-DATE WILL OCCUPY ALL OF MOMA PS1

Mike Kelley

October 13, 2013–February 2, 2014

MoMA PS1 (Entire Building)

MoMA PS1 presents Mike Kelley, the largest exhibition of the artist’s work to-date and the first comprehensive survey since 1993. Regarded as one of the most influential artists of our time, Mike Kelley (1954-2012) produced a body of deeply innovative work mining American popular culture and both modernist and alternative traditions—which he set in relation to relentless self- and social examinations, both dark and delirious. Bringing together over 200 works, from early pieces made during the 1970s through 2012, the exhibition occupies the entire museum. This exhibition marks the first time the entire building of MoMA PS1 has been dedicated to a single artist. Mike Kelley is on view from October 13, 2013 through February 2, 2014.

Mike Kelley. Deodorized Central Mass with Satellites. 1991/1999. Plush toys sewn over wood and wire frames with styrofoam packing material, nylon rope, pulleys, steel hardware and hanging plates, fiberglass, car paint, and disinfectant. Overall dimensions variable. (c) Estate of Mike Kelley. Images courtesy of Perry Rubenstein Gallery, Los Angeles. Photography: Joshua White/JWPictures.com.

Born in Detroit, Kelley lived and worked in Los Angeles from the mid-1970s until his tragic death last year at the age of 57. Over his thirty-five year career, he worked in every conceivable medium—drawings on paper, sculpture, performances, music, video, photography, and painting. Speaking of his early work and artistic concerns at large, Kelley had said, ―My entrance into the art world was through the counter-culture, where it was common practice to lift material from mass culture and ‗pervert‘ it to reverse or alter its meaning… Mass culture is scrutinized to discover what is hidden, repressed, within it.‖ Through his art, Kelley explored themes as diverse as American class relations, sexuality, repressed memory, systems of religion and transcendence, and post-punk politics. He brought to these subjects both incisive critique and abundant, self-deprecating humor.

Mike Kelley. Deodorized Central Mass with Satellites. 1991/1999. Plush toys sewn over wood and wire frames with styrofoam packing material, nylon rope, pulleys, steel hardware and hanging plates, fiberglass, car paint, and disinfectant. Overall dimensions variable. (c) Estate of Mike Kelley. Images courtesy of Perry Rubenstein Gallery, Los Angeles. Photography: Joshua White/JWPictures.com.

Kelley‘s work did not develop along a purely linear trajectory. Instead, he returned time and again to certain underlying themes—the shapes lurking underneath the carpet, as it were—including repressed memories, disjunctions between selfhood and social structures as well as fault lines between the sacred and the profane. The work Kelley produced throughout his life was marked by his extraordinary powers of critical reflection, relentless self-examination, and a creative—and surprising—repurposing of ideas and materials.

Rarest Stamp Error in U.S. History, 24-CENT 1918 CURTISS JENNY INVERTED, Flies Again

$2 UPSIDE-DOWN JENNY REPRINT CELEBRATES OPENING OF WORLD’S LARGEST STAMP GALLERY, NATIONAL STAMP COLLECTING MONTH

In a move to celebrate the grand opening of the WILLIAM H. GROSS GALLERY AT THE SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL POSTAL MUSEUM and promote October as NATIONAL STAMP COLLECTING MONTH, the UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE dedicated a new $2 version of the most publicized stamp error in U.S. history today — the 24-CENT 1918 CURTISS JENNY INVERTED airmail stamp.

The $12 Stamp Collecting: Inverted Jenny souvenir sheet is available nationwide today by visiting http://www.usps.com/stamps, calling 800-STAMP-24 (800-782-6724) or by visiting Post Offices.

In 1918, in a rush to celebrate the first airmail flight, the Post Office department issued the 24-cent Curtiss Jenny stamp. Because the design required two colors, sheets were placed on the printing press twice — first to apply red ink and a second time to apply blue ink. This process was given to human error — as stamp collectors at the time well knew. A Washington, DC, Post Office clerk — who had never seen an airplane — sold a sheet of 100 stamps mistakenly showing the biplane upside down. And for nearly a century now, stamp collectors have chased after the Inverted Jennys and have accounted for nearly all 100 of them.

Two eerie occurrences took place surrounding the nation’s first airmail flight. The pilot got lost, flew in the wrong direction

The original 24-CENT 1918 CURTISS JENNY INVERTED

and crashed. And due to a printing error of the stamp created to commemorate this historic event, the biplane depicted on the 24-cent Curtiss Jenny airmail stamp was upside down. A sheet of 100 stamps bearing this error was sold to the public. One stamp sold at auction in 2007 for $977,500.

“The stamp is much more than a misprint,” said POSTMASTER GENERAL PATRICK DONAHOE in dedicating the stamp. “It also symbolizes the Postal Service’s pioneering role in American history. Air mail turned out to be one of our most successful innovations. By showing that air travel could be safe and useful, we helped create the entire American aviation industry, which went on to reshape the world.”

Pan Am, TWA, American, United, Northwest and other airlines originated as air mail contractors before passenger service began. Additionally to help commercial aviation get off the ground and to speed the mail, the Post Office Department helped develop navigational aids such as beacons and air-to-ground radio. Today the Postal Service continues as the commercial aviation industry’s largest freight customer. Mail also flies on FedEx and UPS cargo aircraft. Visit this link at the National Postal Museum to see examples of Postal Service innovations.

Joining Donahoe in dedicating the souvenir sheet were NASA Mission Operations and Data Analysis Program Executive DR. JEFFREY HAYES; Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum Director ALLEN KANE; National Postal Museum William H.

The 2013 $2 version of the most publicized stamp error in U.S. history today — the 24-CENT 1918 CURTISS JENNY INVERTED airmail stamp.

Gross Gallery Lead Curator DR. CHERYL GANZ; and William H. Gross Gallery Curator DANIEL PIAZZA.

Customers may view the Stamp Collecting: Inverted Jenny stamps, as well as many of this year’s other stamps, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/USPSStamps, on Twitter@USPSstamps or on the website Beyond the Perf at www.beyondtheperf.com/2013-preview. Beyond the Perf is the Postal Service’s online site for information on upcoming stamp subjects, first-day-of-issue events and other philatelic news.

Ordering First-Day-of-Issue Postmarks

Customers have 60 days to obtain the first-day-of-issue postmark by mail. They may purchase new stamps at local Post Offices, at http://www.usps.com/stampsor by calling 800-STAMP-24. They should affix the stamps to envelopes of their choice, address the envelopes to themselves or others and place them in larger envelopes addressed to:

Stamp Collecting: Inverted Jenny Stamp

Special Cancellations

PO Box 92282

Washington, DC 20090-2282

After applying the first-day-of-issue postmark, the Postal Service will return the envelopes through the mail. There is no charge for the postmark up to a quantity of 50. For more than 50, there is a 5-cent charge per postmark. All orders must be postmarked by Nov. 22, 2013.

ASIA SOCIETY MUSEUM OPENS IRAN MODERN, FIRST MAJOR EXHIBITION OF MODERN ART FROM IRAN

EXHIBITION ON VIEW IN NEW YORK NOW, 2013 TO JANUARY 5, 2014

The ASIA SOCIETY MUSEUM ( 725 Park Avenue (at 70th Street), New York City) presents IRAN MODERN, the first major international loan exhibition of Iranian modern art created from the 1950s to 1970s. The exhibit opened in New York on September 6, 2013 and will be on voew through January 5, 2014.

Showcasing more than 100 works by 26 artists, the exhibition illuminates Iran’s little known pre-Islamic Revolution era when Tehran was a cosmopolitan art center, artists were engaged with the world through their participation in the Venice Biennale and other international art festivals, and their work was collected by institutions inside and outside of Iran. The paintings, sculpture, works on paper and photography included in the exhibition are organized thematically to map the genesis of Iranian modernism and argues that the development of modernist art is inherently more globally interconnected than has been previously acknowledged.Given the past 30 years and the world’s policial dealings with Iran and the various Iranian government bodies, this exhibit is as timely in that it reminds us that Iran was–and never was–just about politcis nuclear weapons and dogma.

The exhibition comprises loans from public and private collections from the United States and eight countries in Europe and the Middle East. These rich holdings illustrate the extent to which collectors outside of Iran were engaged with the work of Iranian artists during this period. Lending institutions include The GREY ART GALLERY, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY ART COLLECTION, JPMORGAN CHASE ART COLLECTION, THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NEW YORK, and TATE, LONDON.

“To understand contemporary Iranian art, one must understand this period when artists laid the foundations for modernism,” says Asia Society Museum Director, Melissa Chiu. “Against the backdrop of the current global political climate, exhibitions like Iran Modern are essential to fostering a better understanding of Iran’s history.”

The exhibition comprises works by the following artists: Ahmad Aali, Abbas, Massoud Arabshahi, Siah Armajani, Mohammad Ehsai, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Mansour Ghandriz, Marcos Grigorian, Ghasem Hajizadeh, Nahid Hagigat, Bahman Jalali, Rana Javadi, Reza Mafi, Leyly Matine-Daftary, Ardeshir Mohassess, Bahman Mohassess, Nicky Nodjoumi, Houshang Pezeshknia, Faramarz Pilaram, Behjat Sadr, Abolghassem Saidi, Sohrab Sepehri, Parviz Tanavoli, Mohsen Vaziri-Moqaddam, Manoucher Yektai, and Charles Hossein Zenderoudi.

The exhibition is organized thematically into the following sections: Saqqakhaneh—looking at the neotraditional style inspired by Iranian folk art and culture—Abstraction, and Calligraphy, with a monographic focus on selected artists within each section. An archive room will provide background on the history, politics and culture of the period, including primary source documents, posters, ephemera and a timeline of key political and cultural events.

A richly illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition with essays by leading scholars of Iranian art, modern art and cultural criticism. The 256-page book is published by Asia Society Museum and distributed by Yale University Press, New Haven and London.

SAQQAKHANEH

Among the pluralist veins that define Iranian modernism SAQQAKHANEH was one of its earliest manifestations. The term for this culturally specific art movement was coined in 1963 by the art critic Karim Emami. The motifs reminded him of Shi’ite iconography and objects adorning public water fountain structures, known as saqqakhanehs, found mostly in bazaars. Constructed in memory of the seventh-century Shi’ite martyrs who were denied access to water in the heat of the battle in Karbala, their decoration may range from a simple brass hand and drinking bowl to calligraphic texts, and objects such as padlocks or pieces of cloth knotted around the grillwork indicative of private devotion and prayers.