Armory Arts Week began for me late yesterday afternoon, after a series of server crashes nearly obliterated this week’s DART List, which details Armory Arts Week! Whatever. All worries vaporized when I merged into the stream of visitors to The Art Show, at the Park Avenue Armory – and it quickly became evident that The Art Dealers Association of America must feel that the recession has ended. Why, you might ask, would I think that? Because gorgeous cut flowers are back again! instead the double- or triple-duty orchids that stood in last year.

Ten: Redefining Collage, at Pavel Zoubok Gallery. Photos by Bill Orcutt, courtesy the gallery.

This year, a number of solo shows as carefully curated as museum exhibitions were sprinkled among thematic groupings equally well selected. In the first category, a multi-media show of the legendary photographer, filmmaker and painter William Klein, mainly known for his fashion photography, expands the view of his long career, at Howard Greenberg Gallery. San Francisco’s Fraenkel Gallery presents a dual view of Western views, with works by Carleton E. Watkins (1829-1916) and Robert Adams (b. 1937) which together show how our perception of nature has changed since the introduction of photography to the American West.

At Zabriskie Gallery, 20 vintage prints from the Orgeval series by Paul Strand, including "First Snow," offer a place for quiet contemplation, while at Pace/Macgill, Irving Penn’s Portraits in a Corner, made between 1947-1948, enlarge the perception of this photographer’s inventive ways of capturing the essence of his subjects.

Among the many thematic installations, one of the standouts is Ten: Redefining Collage, at Pavel Zoubok Gallery. Together with collages and early constructions by Joseph Cornell (above right), a collage by Judy Pfaff made with chart tape (the stick-on graphic stuff that predates graphics software such as Adobe Illustrator), and daily collages from John Evans’ forthcoming book 1984 is the eye-popping Infant of Prague group by the always fascinating Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt (above left). The inviting setting is turned out with furnishings from Maison Gerard.

Also not to be missed is Object as Subject, at Hans P. Kraus, Jr., with works by Eugene Atget, Anna Atkins, and William Henry Fox Talbot, among others.

ADAA The Art Show continues through Sunday, March 6 at The Park Avenue Armory, Park Avenue at 67^th Street, NY, NY, from noon to 8:00 pm daily. Tickets: $20. All proceeds benefit Henry Street Settlement House. On Saturday at 11:00 am, the ADAA presents the keynote lecture by curator Gary Tinterow: Picasso at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Stories Behind the Pictures.

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