Beacon show will include art, music and talks, but no slogans
Just before the pandemic, Madeleine DeNitto was thinking about how much she loves avant-garde music and art and wished she could put both in a show. Earlier this year, post-pandemic, the Garrison resident approached the Howland Cultural Center in Beacon with a proposal.
The result, No Name | No Slogan: The Brasiles Arts Collective Avant-Garde Exhibition 2023, covers a swath of newness. It opens Oct. 7. Along with a free art exhibition, there will be talks, music, a film screening and performances.
The exhibit title is derived from a song DeNitto danced to frequently during her younger days, when she was living in the East Village in Manhattan.
“It’s actually two bands, Ministry and Cabaret Voltaire, that got together for a side project called Acid Horse and cut this track, ‘No Name, No Slogan,’” she explains. “It was a great techno dance song for the clubs. Cabaret Voltaire took its name from the nightclub where the Dada art movement was founded. I wanted this show to feel brandless — we don’t need a theme outside of being different.”
DeNitto says her fascination with avant-garde dates to early childhood, when she looked through “the large, amazing, art and music books my parents kept in the living room. I learned the names of the artists I preferred, such as Salvador Dali. My professor father also had a print of Dali’s 1954 “Crucifixion” on the wall of his office. I was far more drawn to images that would catch me by surprise.
“I spun in my father’s Eames chair staring at that Dali print every single afternoon of my childhood and teen years,” she recalls. “I was always drawn to art, music and fashion that was peculiar or a little wild. These were people who had a lot of drive and confidence, being bold with their work.”
DeNitto, who has run a concierge business for 24 years and recently began working at Magazzino Italian Art Museum in Philipstown, curated the show with her husband, Clayton Scales. The exhibit includes works by 25 visual artists, including 11 from the Hudson Valley. The couple also curated a playlist of music from 1967 to the present and will release a 42-page digital catalog this weekend.
The opening reception on Sept. 30 will include a free overview of the avant-garde movement by Buzz Spector, a professor, writer and artist. On Oct. 14, in the first of three ticketed events, Greg Miller will speak about Hugo Ball and Dada, followed by poetry from André Herzegovitch and a performance of the Talking Heads album I Zimbra by local musicians.
On Oct. 20, Dan Frome will lecture on film auteur David Lynch, followed by a screening of Lynch’s Eraserhead (1977). On Nov. 11, to celebrate Arvo Pärt, Jaanika Peerna will present a visual art performance accompanied by The Brasiles Ensemble — of which DeNitto is a founding member — singing Pärt’s music, followed by an interview with Peerna.
“It’s been hard work,” says DeNitto. “It’s coming together, but I’m glad I started a year in advance.”
The Howland Cultural Center is located at 477 Main St. The art exhibit, which continues through Nov. 11, is open Saturdays and Sundays from 1 to 5 p.m. An opening reception is scheduled for 2 to 4 p.m. on Oct. 7. For tickets to the events, which cost $15 to $20 each, see bit.ly/HCC-avant-garde. For more information, see the No Name site.
