Seen & Heard: A Peek Inside the Foundrae Boutique

••• The windows at Foundrae, the women’s fashion line opening a boutique at 52 Lispenard, were unpapered yesterday. UPDATE 2/20: The windows have been covered with signage saying the shop is opening this spring.

Foundrae••• From the 1st Precinct Community Council: The February “meeting location and time have changed to: Thursday, February 25, at 6 p.m. at Tribeca Kitchen (200 Church). We will be honoring our Cops of the Month and the Downtown Alliance for their support.”

••• The sign at Tokyo Bay now says the restaurant is reopening on Monday.

••• Dona Bella Pizzeria at Church nd Chambers is closed for repairs, reopening Monday.

••• Ellen commented about Fowler and Wells, the name of Tom Colicchio’s forthcoming restaurant at the Beekman Hotel: “Fowler & Wells’s greatest claim to fame: they were the original publishers of Whitman’s Leaves of Grass.” From the Walt Whitman Archive:

In 1855 Fowlers and Wells advertised Leaves of Grass as for sale at their new Phrenological Depot at 308 Broadway. With the departure from the firm of Orson S. Fowler, occupied now with the octagonal house he had built in Fishkill, New York, and with his writings on phrenological subjects, the firm became Fowler and Wells. Its London agent, William Horsell, would play a part in establishing Whitman’s English reputation. In October 1855 the American Phrenological Journal, published by Fowler and Wells, carried Whitman’s unsigned review of Leaves of Grass. By November, Whitman became a staff writer for another Fowler and Wells periodical, Life Illustrated, his contributions including the series “New York Dissected.” The expanded second edition of Leaves of Grass was published anonymously by Fowler and Wells in August 1856. Stamped in gold on the spine of each volume appeared, without authorization, Emerson’s words, “I Greet You at the Beginning of a Great Career.”

••• I enjoyed the Peter Hujar show at Paul Kasmin, although it felt somewhat neutered, possibly because his more erotic work has been top of mind lately. It did remind me of the terrific shot Hujar took of IPN in 1976, which led me to the Peter Hujar Archive, where I came across two photos of local interest: “City Hall at Night” and “Woolworth Building,” both also from 1976.

••• Opening March 1 at R & Company: “The Act of Artwork, the gallery’s second solo exhibition of exceptional works in ceramic by contemporary Korean artist Hun Chung Lee.”

Photograph by Myung-Rae Park, courtesy of Seomi International

 

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