Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon passed away yesterday at the age of 74. As the famous artistic duo Christo and Jeanne-Claude, the husband-and-wife team has been creating large-scale temporary installations together since 1961. The two are known for their ambitious creations, which have included wrapping islands, museums and monuments in lengths of cloth, a Running Fence composed of 24.5 miles of white nylon fabric extending from just north of San Francisco to the Pacific Ocean at Bodega Bay, and the brightly colored Gates that graced Central Park in 2005. Jeanne-Claude spent her artistic career and her marriage constantly endeavoring to bring beautiful art to the world, hoping that through beauty she could inspire joy.—Emily Bauman

Click here for the obituary in The New York Times.

Tonight and tomorrow night, take on the politics of art and art’s take on politics by attending one or more of these lectures:

Eleanor Heartney at the SVA Theatre
333 W 23rd St between Eighth and Ninth Aves
How do you understand an art world that embraces animals suspended in formaldehyde and performative surgical experiments as fine art? Eleanor Heartney, critic and contributing editor to Art in America and Artpress, will attempt to reconcile the pluralism in today’s art, exemplified by artists such as Eduardo Kac and Orlan, in her lecture “Art Today: Tales of Plastic Surgery, Genetically Altered Rabbits and Other Acts of Art” at 7pm tonight (November 17).

Murtaza Vali at Cabinet
300 Nevins St at President St, Gowanus, Brooklyn
Vali’s lecture “Segregated Space: On Progress,” November 18 at 7pm, will address the important postcolonial dialogue that has been revising the notion of oceans as lengths of separation into an understanding that they are actually arenas for particular types of cultural encounters and exchanges. Focusing on the project Wharfage (2009) by the Mumbai-based group CAMP, the work exemplifies the ways in which the Indian Ocean has been a site of connection between the Gulf, South Asia and East Africa.

Gutai at the Guggenheim
1071 Fifth Ave between 88th and 89th Sts
Gutai may be having a comeback—at least in relevance. Tomorrow night (November 18) at 6:30pm, Alexandra Munroe, the museum’s senior curator of Asian art, will be hosting a panel of artists and scholars—including Paul Jenkins, Ming Tiampo, Judith Rodenbeck and Reiko Tomii—about the contemporary implications of the Gutai Art Association’s practice of transnationalism. More than 50 years after the group’s founding, “A ‘Concrete’ Discussion of Transnationalism” will look at how a globalized art market has made transnationalism an unavoidable factor rather than a novel or seemingly unattainable goal.—Emily Bauman

There are lots of openings to attend! If you stuff them in this week, you’ll be ready for the opening dry spell that is approaching due to Thanksgiving and the Miami art fairs.

Tuesday, November 17:
Paola Ferrario, “Imprevisti/Unforeseen,” at Sue Scott Gallery, 6–8pm

Wednesday, November 18:
Volker Hueller at Eleven Rivington, 6–8pm (exhibition concurrently showing at Salon 94)
“Looking Back: The White Columns Annual, selected by Primary Information” at White Columns, 6–8pm

Thursday, November 19:
William J. O’Brien at Marianne Boesky Gallery, 6–8pm
Lynda Benglis at Cheim & Read, 6–8pm
Matthias Dornfeld and Virginia Poundstone at Harris Lieberman, 6–8pm
Norbert Schwontkowski, “Angstrœm,” at Mitchell-Innes & Nash Gallery, 6–8pm

Friday, November 20:
Ulrich Lamsfuss, “Birdie,” at Lombard-Freid Projects, 6-8pm
Su-Mei Tse, “Words and Memories,” at Peter Blum Chelsea, 6–8pm

Saturday, November 21:
Hans Haacke, “Weather, or Not”; “Ecstatic Resistance”; and Artur Zmijewski at X-Initiative, 6–9pm
“Go Get Your Shinebox” at Brooklynite Gallery, 7–10pm
Tracey Snelling, “Woman on the Run,” and Michael Paul Britto, “Society’s Children,” at Smack Mellon, 5–8pm
David Brooks, “Naturae Vulgaris,” at Museum 52, 6–8pm

The Whitney Museum of American Art gave itself an online face-lift today. In launching its redesigned and expanded site, the museum now allows visitors to search through full-screen or larger images of works from the museum’s permanent collection and put together their own selected slide show of faves to edit, caption and share. The custom collection feature is just one of the many ways in which the museum is trying to emphasize interactivity on the Web. Others include free streaming and downloadable audio guides for the collection and exhibitions—short videos featuring behind-the-scenes artist and curator commentary and their complete transcripts. The Whitney’s calendar, as well as all pages on the site, can be synched with a variety of personal calendar programs and online community pages including Facebook and Twitter.

The museum is also commissioning a series of Internet art projects that will be changing every three to four months. Kicking off the series is Untitled Landscape #5, by EcoArtTech. The digital environmental-art collaborative has built a program into the site that follows the change of day to night in New York City. At sunrise and sunset every day the website will be overlaid with glowing orbs, whose size and speed will be proportionate to the number of visitors to the site in the preceding hours. These balls of light will herald the transition of the webpage’s background from white (day) to black (night) and vice versa. Check out this exciting new interface here.—Emily Bauman

Food and art?!? What could be bad (other than your own cooking, perhaps)?

Whip up a dish and head to Aperture Gallery in Chelsea on Friday night to enjoy a shared dinner (7–9pm) and then a slide show by Chuck Close of his daguerreotype portraits (9–11pm), accompanied by lyrical praise poems by Bob Holman. On the off chance that everyone who attends is a worse cook than you, there will be a number of featured culinary guests, such as Annie Novak of Rooftop Farms in Brooklyn and Umami: People + Food Supper Club. Also on view in the gallery will be artworks by photojournalists, painters, sculptors, designers, and fashion and fine art photographers, including a movie about young farmers called The Greenhorns. So, mix, mingle and stuff your face while exposing yourself to new art and new ideas.—Emily Bauman

For more  information go to Slideluck Potshow’s site

Don your pj’s and get ready for a night out! Creative Time is hosting its first annual fall gala event in the lobby of the fashionable Ace Hotel on Wednesday, November 18, from 8 until 11:30pm. Join three hundred of your closest…um…strangers for a night of dancing, drinking and possibly pillow fights, all with a sleepover theme. Serving midnight snacks catered by The Breslin, with many beverage options, the event will flow along to the music and performances of Fischerspooner, Matt Creed and Patrick Cleandenim.

Don’t have your own jammies (at least not ones you are comfortable wearing in public)? Creative Time has commissioned artist Will Cotton to create a unisex pair of classic white pajamas featuring his original design of tiered sweets: ice-cream cones, pies and tarts. You can purchase a pair of this limited-edition sleepwear for $195 (signed by the artist $350). However, the dress code—“Boudoirs and Bachelor Pads”—leaves partygoers with plenty of other options!

With the way the weather has been, this might just turn out to be one of the most pleasant weekends for gallery openings this season! So ride your bike, stroll along the High Line, or find some other outdoor-friendly way to get to these openings:

Thursday, November 12:
“Moment as Monument in New Delhi” at Thomas Erben Gallery, 6–8:30pm
Walton Ford at Paul Kasmin Gallery, 6–8pm
Slater Bradley, “if we were immortal,” at Team Gallery, 6–8pm
Michael Wolf, “The Transparent City,” and Barbara Crane, “Private Views,” at Aperture Gallery, 6–8pm

Friday, November 13:
“Besides, With, Against, And Yet: Abstraction and the Ready-Made Gesture” at The Kitchen, 5–8pm
Mustafa Maluka, “A Place So Foreign,” at Tilton Gallery, 6–8pm

Saturday, November 14:
Kuba Bakowski, “Studies in Natural History” at Scaramouche c/o fruit and flower deli, 6–8pm

If you can find the time between your mad dash from Performa event to Performa event, here are some gallery openings to check out this weekend:

Thursday, November 5:
Sean Scully, “Recent Paintings” at Galerie Lelong, 6–8pm
Dan Flavin, “Series and Progressions” at David Zwirner, 6–8pm
Kristin Baker, “Splitting Twilight” at Deitch Projects, 6–9pm
Roger Ballen, “Boarding HouseÆ at Gagosian Gallery (980 Madison Avenue), 6–8pm
“Just what is it that makes today’s painting so different, so appealing?” at Gering & López Gallery, 6–8pm
Tracey Emin, “Only God Knows I’m Good” at Lehmann Maupin, 6–8pm
Kaari Upson at Maccarone, 6–8pm
Robert Bergman, “A Kind of Rapture” at Yossi Milo Gallery, 6–8pm
“The Map as Art” at Christopher Henry Gallery, 6–9pm

Friday, November 6:
Alyssa Phoebus, “To Have, to Hold” at Tracy Williams, Ltd., 6–8pm
Wallace Berman at Nicole Klagsbrun, 6-8pm, with a performance by John Zorn at 8pm
Tom Wesselmann Draws at Haunch of Venison, 6–8pm

Saturday, November 7:
Tomory Dodge, “Works on Paper” at CRG, 6–8pm
Tony Feher, “Blossom,” and Yoshihiro Suda at D’Amelio Terras, 6–8pm
Mike Kelley, “Horizontal Tracking Lines” at Gagosian Gallery (555 W 24th St), 6–8pm
“Cave Painting” at Gresham’s Ghost, 6–9pm
Moyra Davey, “My Necropolis” at Murray Guy, 6–8pm
“One Every Day: A Printeresting Curatorial Project” at Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, 6–9pm
Liu Ye, “Leave Me in the Dark” at Sperone Westwater, 5:30–7:30pm

Get your bookworm butt off the couch next week and check out all these great art-book opportunities!

Stack them high at Phaidon
Phaidon—the publisher that regularly comes out with art books large enough to break your coffee table—is opening up their first stand-alone bookstore in the U.S. at 100 Wooster Street in Soho. Starting Monday, November 2, get your Vitamins P, D, Ph and 3-D (Painting, Drawing, Photography and Sculpture, that is), to complement your Ice Cream: Contemporary Art in Culture. With more than 100 artists per book, you are bound to leave satisfied!

A sweet and sour book signing with Peter Schjeldahl
Ever been curious to see what the enigmatic and wry New Yorker art critic Peter Schjeldahl is like in person? Join Spoonbill & Sugartown Booksellers for a reading and book signing on Tuesday, November 3 at 8pm (218 Bedford Ave at North 5th St, Williamsburg, Brooklyn). Enjoy refreshments while Mr. Schjeldahl reads from his recent book, Let’s See: Writings on Art from The New Yorker.

Get out on the town, 1970s style, at Gagosian Shop
For those of you who have gazed longingly at the sleek art in Gagosian’s various galleries, wishing you could afford a piece of the action, your time has finally arrived! Gagosian has opened retail store at 988 Madison Avenue. On Wednesday, November 4 5–7pm, the store will host a launch party and signing by Bob Colacello for his new book, Out. This collection of photographs, taken in the ’70s and ’80s while Colacello was writing for Interview magazine and editing Warhol’s biography, chronicles the extravagant openings, parties and balls that were frequented by everyone from Robert Rauschenberg to Jack Nicholson to Henry Kissenger.—Emily Bauman

Stressed about figuring out your costume for the weekend? Well, go where the walls are dressed up instead of the people (though there aren’t cobwebs and skeletons). Here are some of the many art openings happening this week:

Thursday, October 29:
R.M. Fischer at KS Art, 6–8pm
Peter Fischli & David Weiss at Matthew Marks Gallery (all three locations), 6–8pm
Olaf Breuning at Metro Pictures, 6–8pm

Friday, October 30:
“Untreated Strangeness: George Porcari, Jorge Pardo, Naomi Fisher” organized by Chris Kraus at Momenta Art, 7–9pm
“Barb Choit, Nagel Fades” at Rachel Uffner Gallery, 6–8pm
Dan Fischer at Derek Eller Gallery, 6–8pm
Nicole Eisenman at Leo Koenig Inc., 6–8pm
Carroll Dunham at Gladstone Gallery, 6–8pm
Daniel Buren, “To Cut Out: Situated Words 1969–2009″ at Bortolami Gallery, 6-8pm
Ivin Ballen, “Sleepless in Seattle at Winkleman Concert Hall” at Winkleman Gallery, 6–8pm

Saturday, October 31:
Eric Baudelaire, “Anabases” at Elizabeth Dee Gallery, 6–8pm

Sunday, November 1:
Tommy Hartung, “The Ascent of Man” at On Stellar Rays, 4–6pm

Are you spending all of your time posing in front of a webcam trying to get the perfect headshot in Photo Booth? Step out from behind the computer and get your butt down to 300 Nevins Street, in Gowanus, Brooklyn, because Studio Jourdes will take a professional headshot of you for only $5. This Saturday afternoon (3–6pm), come get a picture taken that actually makes you feel photogenic, and then stay for some short talks about the history of portraiture (6–7pm). These events, hosted by the art and culture magazine Cabinet, accompany David Levine’s exhibition “Hopeful,” which looks at the headshot as an artwork and artifact that exemplifies a genre of portraiture that breaks all the norms. These images represent people’s aspirations for their futures—for stardom, fame and glamour—but without the certainty they will come true. Join in this history by creating your own hopeful shot.—Emily Bauman

“Relics from [the] Other Realms”
This Friday from 6 to 9pm, the Barat Foundation in Newark opens up a porthole into Trenton Doyle Hancock’s world of creatures whose stories emanate from his mythic “mound”; while Taylor McKimens’s life forms of mush create a land that’s half cartoon and half slime; and Ryan Trecartin razzle-dazzles with makeup, sequins and in-your-face amorphous sexuality. These artists and more come together to offer glimpses into alternate planes that exist in their wild imaginations. New Yorkers who consider Jersey in itself to be another realm will  find the trek across the Hudson worthwhile for the opening reception.

Eyebeam Open Studios Fall 2009
If Chelsea is more your ‘hood, go there on Friday and Saturday between 3 and 6pm and check out the work of the fellows and residents at Eyebeam Art + Technology Center. Their state-of-the-art design, research and fabrication studio is home to more than 20 artists who work in video performance, wearable technologies, code and humor, party technology and sustainable design. Don’t worry if technology is a mystery to you; guided tours will be offered every hour.

“System:System”
This three-day event, featuring work by Abby Manock, eteam, Francesca DiMattio, Johannes VanDerBeek, Meridith Pingree, Mike Hein, Skyler Brickley, SOFTlab and many others, is hosted in the three-story building that formerly housed the nuns of St. Cecilia’s parish in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Reflecting the contingencies in the economy that have led the convent to be repurposed as a rotating performance, film and gallery space, this show explores how the parts of a whole tend toward unpredictability due to the dynamics of complex systems. The opening is Friday, 7–10pm at 21 Monitor Street (21 Monitor St between Herbert and Richardson Sts).

P.S.1 Fall Exhibitions Opening
Anyone who has been to one of its Warm Up bashes is aware that P.S.1 knows how to party. So join the museum in celebrating the beginning of its fall exhibition season and the end of its summer courtyard installation on Sunday between noon and 6pm. Get a last look at the Young Architects Program 2009: Afterparty by MOS, and an early look at the exhibitions “1969,” “100 Years (version #2, ps1,  nov 2009),” “Between Spaces” and “Robert Bergman: Selected Portraits.“—Emily Bauman

Tonight:
Rashaad Newsome: Standards, at Ramis Barquet, 6–8pm
Michael Joo at Anton Kern Gallery, 6–8pm
Teresita Fernandez at Lehmann Maupin, 6–8pm
Paul Chan: Sade for Sade’s Sake at Greene Naftali, 6–8pm
Joshua Smith at Art Production Fund, 7–9

Friday, October 23:
Nick Mauss at 303 Gallery, 6–8pm
Bill Viola: Bodies of Light at James Cohan Gallery, 6–8pm
Stephen Irwin at Invisible Exports, 6–8pm
Laura Owens at GBE (Gavin Brown’s Enterprise), 6–8pm
Matthew Ritchie: Line Shot at Andrea Rosen Gallery, 6–9pm

Saturday, October 24:
William Cordova at Sikkema Jenkins & Co., 6–8pm
Spencer Finch: The Brain Is Wider than the Sky at Postmasters, 6–8pm

Tuesday, October 27:
Richard Serra: Blind Spot & Open Ended at Gagosian, 6–8pm

The Obamas get to live my dream: handpicking an art collection from some of the most important museums in the country. But, as with everything they do, nothing is ever perfect (at least according to the press). A slight media obsession with the meaning of Ed Ruscha’s I Think I’ll… dominates the commentary.

The only conclusion that everyone seems to agree on is that this selection of 47 artworks is radically different from what was previously hanging in the White House. Josef Albers, Glenn Ligon, Richard Diebenkorn, Mark Rothko and Louise Nevelson are all represented, alongside works by artists who are relatively unknown, such as William H. Johnson, Alma Thomas, George Catlin and Jeri Redcorn. Heavy on modernist abstraction, the selection of works offers great fodder for the hungry media’s open interpretation. Whether it is that the works plot a course through American history highlighting minorities, or that the selection is disingenuously egalitarian in terms of representing minorities, these popular interpretations tend to reflect the views of the individual writers rather than offer any genuine insights into the administration (which is not surprising). For a full list of the 47 works, click here. To read an overview of the great White House art debate, see The Atlantic Wire’s recap.—Emily Bauman

Learn everything from kombucha brewing, Henna body art and screenprinting to DIY electronic audio, cooking with raw food and burlesque dancing at this daylong community-based learning workshop. Broken up into half-hour classes led by volunteers, the first Brooklyn Skillshare is a community-building event that takes advantage of the overwhelming amount of talented Brooklyn residents. After all, having more Brooklynites who can give a good massage or fix a bike is sure make the borough a friendlier (and happier) place!—Emily Bauman

Brooklyn Skillshare, Gowanus Studio Space, 119 8th St between 2nd & 3rd Aves, Gowanus, Brooklyn. Oct 10, 10am–6pm.

As every New Yorker knows, strange sights are a dime a dozen on 14th Street. So, on a block where only a man with aquamarine dreadlocks may stand out, it is easy to miss some of the gems that Art in Odd Places (AiOP) has to offer.

Michele Brody’s Tea House Productions, on the corner of 14th Street at Irving Place, is one of the many unobtrusive works in AiOP, an art exhibition of performances and interventions (running October 1 through 26) all along 14th Street. Housed inside a metal and Plexiglas coffee cart—the kind seen on almost every corner in Manhattan—the display in the windows comprises used teabags, instead of the regular fare of doughnuts and other assorted pastries. Brody invites pedestrians to join her inside, offering a cup of tea to anyone willing to stop and join her for a chat. In our conversation, I learned that Brody didn’t begin the project as a performance, but that it stemmed from her background in fiber studies, a fascination with tea stains and an interest in daily rituals. The works that inspired Tea House Productions—and the ones that come out of it—are the transcriptions of her conversations over tea, scrawled onto the dried teabags that were used.

AiOP offers many other ways to become part of the art, along with several subtle surprises demonstrating that art can be found in the details of a busy street. Go for a walk this month from the Hudson to the East River, or check out our slide show for a quick preview.—Emily Bauman

Tea House Productions will be repeated Oct 16–18 2–6pm, and Brody’s Tea Cart Stories will be on display at The Tenement Museum through December.

Starting today, catch three films by Shigeko Kubota that will indulge your love of Marcel Duchamp, your wanderlust and the anthropologist in your heart. These early videos—Marcel Duchamp and John Cage (1972), Europe on 1/2 Inch a Day (1972), and Video Girls and Video Songs for Navajo Sky (1973)—are being presented by Electronic Arts Intermix at X Initiative through October 17. They run the gamut from a documentary elegy of an infamous chess match between famous artists, to a self-guided tour of the arts undergrounds of Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris, to a diarylike record of Kubota’s time living on a Navajo reservation. Each running approximately 30 minutes, the films are presented in a loop during X Initiative’s open hours: Wed–Sun 11am–6pm.—Emily Bauman

Have you ever walked through Times Square, looked at all the honking-big video screens and thought to yourself, You know what would look cool? My artwork displayed up there! Well, guess what: Now is your chance to get your art vid shown amid the glamour and glitz of the fabled Crossroads of the World—and win a nice chunk of change to boot! The folks at Babelgum Metropolis, in association with Time Out New York, Scope International Contemporary Art Show and Perpetual Art Machine.com, are mounting the Metropolis Art Prize 2009, an open-call competition with a top prize of $20,000 and an opportunity to have your video included in “the world’s biggest art show.” The deadline for entries has been extended to October 25, so hurry here for contest details and a place to upload your video. Who says size doesn’t matter?

Want to enjoy the beautiful fall weather, see some art and get discounts on your drinks tonight? You know you do. This month’s First Thursdays Dumbo Gallery Walk, a self-guided tour of the neighborhood’s art scene, runs from 5:30 to 8:30pm, and there are maps posted to help you out at each participating location. Local bars and pubs sponsoring the event, such as Galapagos Art Space, reBar and Speak Low Cocktail Lounge, will be offering drink specials throughout the event.

The Dumbo arts community has been busy; last weekend was the Dumbo Arts Center’s 13th annual Dumbo Art Under the Bridge Festival. We had the chance to walk around and catch some of the action. We were particularly struck by Chin Chih Yang, who, standing stock-still and wearing a creepy grin, encouraged passersby to pile garbage onto him to create his Human Sculpture. Alexandra Halky tied herself up and lay on Plymouth Street’s train tracks, wriggling and writhing to escape the onslaught of a toy train, while Olek’s 100% Acrylic Art Guards, people dressed in full-body knit camouflage suits, were strategically posted throughout the street and the park. Interactivity seemed like the unofficial theme of the event, with the pathways between gallery spaces, restaurants, open studios and home decor stores lined with outdoor sculptures, garage sales and makeshift booths. See our pictures to get some visual snippets.—Emily Bauman

The next Dumbo Gallery Walk will be Thursday, November 5, 5:30–8:30pm.

The New Museum of Contemporary Art and the Studio Museum in Harlem encourage you to see both the uptown exhibition of painter Hurvin Anderson and the downtown retrospective of Black Panther Emory Douglas. When you purchase a full-price ticket at one of the museums, simply bring either your New Museum admission ticket or Studio Museum admission button to the other institution and you’ll receive half-price admission. This offer is good during the entire month of September.