* "Crosscurrents: Durer to Picasso" at David Tunick, Inc., 19 East 66th Street.

* "Power and Wisdom: Portraits in a Changing Europe" at Dickinson, 19 East 66th Street.

* "François-Joseph Bélanger: Projects for Ceilings" at Didier Aaron Inc., 32 East 67th Street.

* "Sublime Convergence: Gothic to the Abstract" at Richard L. Feigen & Co., 34 East 69th Street

* "High and Low Life in the Netherlands of the 17th Century" at Lawrence Steigrad Fine Arts, 23 East 69th Street.

* "Conceptual Photography" at Zwirner & Wirth, 32 East 69th Street.

The event is timed to coincide with the week of sales of Impressionist and modern art at Sotheby’s and Christie’s, and in fact overlaps with Christie’s evening sale, which starts at 7 pm.

MARGUERITE ZORACH GOES UPTOWN
New York modernist painter Marguerite Zorach (1887-1968), an early champion for women artists and a participant in the 1913 Armory Show (and the wife of sculptor William Zorach), is currently the subject of two rare exhibitions in galleries off Madison Avenue.

"Marguerite Zorach: A Life in Art," May 3-June 8, 2007, at the Gerald Peters Gallery at 24 East 78th Street, features 25 oil paintings, and is the first solo show of the artist’s work in over 30 years. "Partners in Modernism: The Art of Marguerite and William Zorach," Apr. 11-May 25, 2007, at Bernard Goldberg Fine Arts at 667 Madison Avenue at 61st Street, includes paintings, watercolors, sculptures and drawings that span nearly six decades of artistic production.

DARBY BANNARD AT JACOBSON HOWARD
Uptown Manhattan has its share of Minimalism, too. Jacobson Howard Gallery at 22 East 72nd Street is presenting "Darby Bannard: Minimal Paintings 1959-1965," opening May 10, 2007. One of several artist-writers who made the letters columns of early Artforum magazines a must-read (not to mention the features and reviews sections), Bannard later was associated with the short-lived "Lyrical Abstraction" movement. He taught at SVA in New York during the 1980s and has chaired the art department at the University of Miami since 1989.

"OLD SCHOOL" AT H&WC
They’re mixing and matching Old Masters and the avant-garde in London again. Hauser & Wirth at Colnaghi debuted last year during the Frieze Art Fair with an exhibition of works by Francis Picabia in its new premises within the Colnaghi building on Old Bond Street. Now, the gallery is mounting "Old School," May 11-June 9, 2007, a show that "celebrates a re-engagement with Old Master modes of representation" via almost 30 artists.

Among the Old Masters on hand are Louis-Leopold Boilly, Jan Brueghel, Lucas Cranach, Carlo Dolci, Battista Dossi, Marguerite Gérard, Jacob Van Swanenburgh, Adriaen van Utrecht and the Master of Female Half Lengths. Avant-gardists include Michaël Borremans, Glenn Brown, John Currin, Hilary Harkness, Julie Heffernan, Karen Kilimnik, Wilhelm Sasnal, Elizabeth Peyton, Michael Raedecker, Luc Tuymans and Jeff Wall.

EDGAR HEAP OF BIRDS AT VENICE
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian is presenting an exhibition by conceptual artist Edgar Heap of Birds (a Cheyenne/Arapaho) as part of the 52nd Venice Biennale. Dubbed "Most Serene Republics," June 6-Sept. 30, 2007, the installation uses "multilingual signage in Italian, English and Cheyenne to engender a dialogue about place, history and the creation of nation-states through acts of aggression, displacement or replacement of populations and cultures."

Eight text panels on the subject of Venetian history go on view at the Giardini Reali near Piazza San Marco, and a set of 16 text panels, paying homage to Native actors and warriors who traveled to Europe as part of 1880s Wild West shows, are to be installed along the Viale Garibaldi between the Giardini Napoleonici and Via Garibaldi. Additional posters and billboards are to be sited throughout the city. The show is organized by National Museum of the American Indian curators Truman T. Lowe (Ho-Chunk) and Kathleen Ash-Milby (Navajo).

SCOPE ART FAIR GOES TO BASEL
The Scope art fair is launching Scope Basel Contemporary, June 13-17, 2007, in a 27,000-square-foot, industrial-style warehouse within walking distance of Art 38 Basel -- the E-Halle on Erlenstrasse 15. Along with the 65 gallery exhibitors, Scope is featuring "an underground grassroots film festival" called Urban Nomad Project, as well as an "eco-friendly village" adjacent to the fair where Scope artists can live and work.

Participating galleries include Ambrosino (Miami), Caren Golden (New York), Cr3ma (San Juan), Douz & Mille (Washington, D.C.), Galerie Roemerapotheke (Zurich), Houldsworth (London), Karin Sutter (Basel), Mike Weiss (New York), Sandroni Rey (L.A.), StuArt (Santiago), Ulrich Fiedler (Cologne) and Vane (Newcastle upon Tyne). For details, see www.scope-art.com

NEW WING FOR TEL AVIV MUSEUM
The Tel Aviv Museum of Art breaks ground on May 15, 2007, for its new $45-million, 195,000-square-foot addition, designed by American architect Preston Scott Cohen. The six-level building includes three galleries devoted to Israeli art dating from the 1920s to the present, plus galleries for architecture and design, drawings, prints, photography and an 8,900-square-foot space for contemporary exhibitions. Named after patrons Herta and Paul Amir, the building is slated to open in 2009. 

PEI GRANTS FOR 2007
The Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative has announced grants totaling $651,650 to seven organizations for exhibitions and planning. Designed to boost the arts in the region, the program is underwritten by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the University of the Arts. Grants include $171,650 to the John Bartram museum and garden for a project by artist Mark Dion retracing Bartram’s 18th-century botanical tour of Florida; $150,000 to the Philadelphia Museum of Art for "William Kentridge: Ten Tapestries"; and $200,000 to the University of the Arts for "Beyond the Surface: Women in Pop Art, 1958-1968."

PEI also made four $20,000 planning grants. Recipients are the Design Center at Philadelphia University for "Lace in Translation"; the Phildelphia Art Alliance for "The Sitting Room: Four Studies"; Philagrafika for "Philagrafika 2010: The Graphic Unconscious"; and Tyler Exhibitions for "Invented Cities." For more info, see www.pcah.us

SUSAN SHEEHAN OPENS IN CHELSEA
The Susan Sheehan Gallery has moved from West 57th Street to a new location on the third floor of 535 West 22nd Street. The new space, designed by Fernlund and Logan, debus with "Joan Mitchell: The Last Prints" -- featuring large-scale works, some nearly seven feet in width, many previously unexhibited in the U.S. -- opening on May 4, 2007. The gallery building also includes Friedrich Petzel on the ground floor, plus CRG, EAI, Frederieke Taylor, Leslie Tonkonow, Julie Saul and Yancey Richardson.

NEW CURATOR AT MAD
Hélène Kelmachter, currently a curator at Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris, has been named a curator at the Museum of Arts & Design in New York. In her 13 years at the Fondation Cartier, Kelmachter organized more than 20 exhibitions, including shows devoted to Gérard Garouste, Guillermo Kuitca, Jean-Michel Othoniel, Issey Miyake, Takashi Murakami, Mark Newson and Adriana Varejão. Her appointment is part of the expansion of the MAD curatorial department in anticipation of opening its new facility at Columbus Circle in 2008

NEW FILM CHIEF AT MOMA
Rajendra Roy has been named chief curator of the department of film at the Museum of Modern Art, succeeding Mary Lea Bandy, who retired in 2006. Roy is currently artistic director of the Hamptons International Film Festival, and previously served in the film and media arts program at the Guggenheim Museum.

NEW CURATOR IN HONOLULU
Michael Rooks has been appointed curator of European and American art at the Honolulu Academy of Arts. Rooks had previously been curator at the Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, and at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.

ENDOWED CURATORS AT BOSTON MFA
Two longtime curators at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston have new titles, thanks to the museum’s ongoing $500-million capital campaign, which has endowed their positions  (no word yet on whether the persons in question also get a bump in salary). Carol Troyen, a 27-year veteran of the museum (who helped organize the current "Edward Hopper" exhibition) has been named the Kristin and Roger Servison Curator of Paintings. And Anne Nishimura Morse, who has been at the MFA 22 years, has been named the William and Helen Pounds Curator of Japanese Art. 

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