Good morning. It's Tuesday. We'll look at an unusual Picasso — it's an all-glass image of the Notre-Dame cathedral. And with Election Day a week away, we'll look at two races, including one for a House seat the Democrats have long dreamed of flipping. |
 | | via Graham/Guernsey's |
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Not long after the world watched in horror as a fire nearly destroyed the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris in 2019, Arlan Ettinger, the president of Guernsey's auction house in New York, got a call from the widow of a collector who had shown Ettinger some works of art before he died. Now she wanted to show him others. |
Ettinger was stunned to see a layered glass mosaic of Notre-Dame by Pablo Picasso. The late collector had not mentioned that he owned a Picasso, and Ettinger would not have missed that one — by coincidence, Ettinger had done considerable research on the little-known process Picasso had used, "gemmail," a mash-up of "gemme," for gem, and "émail," for enamel. |
Gemmail "does for a stained-glass presentation what CinemaScope does for the two-dimensional screen," a catalog gushed in the late 1950s. |
The catalog for the 1950s exhibition said that gemmail was "difficult to explain," but Time magazine tried, saying an exhibition in Paris "split the gloom of the gallery with a luminosity that never glowed from any canvas that had been brushed with paint." Time went on to predict that if other artists followed Picasso's lead, "the medium may well develop into what Picasso has called it: a new art." |
Ettinger said gemmaux, the plural of gemmail, were made of multicolored pieces of glass that are layered on, bound together with liquid enamel and hardened in an oven. The technique had been developed by the French artist Jean Crotti in the 1930s and was perfected in the 1950s by another Parisian, Roger Malherbe-Navarre, and his son Roger. |
"A number of artists gravitated to the technique — Cocteau, Braque and others," Ettinger said. "Then Picasso stepped in, and in no time, he did for gemmail what he was known for doing, making it better than anybody. Instead of doing it two-dimensionally, he added a third dimension." |
Ettinger called the museum and was told it did not have a Picasso and had never had one. |
Someone from the museum called back a couple of days later, saying that it had the Picasso after all. It had arrived mislabeled as the work of the artist "Gemmaux," not Picasso. |
No one had bothered to look in the shipping crate, which sat in a storage area for more than 40 years. It was opened only after Ettinger called. |
Expect a chance of showers and a gradual transition to a mostly sunny day, with a high in the mid-60s. The evening is mostly clear, with temps around the mid-50s. |
Suspended today (All Saints Day). |
 | | Stefani Reynolds for The New York Times |
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Schumer takes time to debate |
 | | Hans Pennink/Associated Press |
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With Election Day a week away and Republicans riding a wave of anger over inflation and fears of crime, there are competitive congressional races from Long Island to central New York. But one that is not considered competitive is for the Senate. Senator Chuck Schumer is heavily favored to defeat the Republican candidate, Joseph Pinion, a former host and conservative commentator on the Newsmax network. A recent Quinnipiac poll gave Schumer a 12-point lead. |
But my colleague Jesse McKinley writes that it is a measure of where things stand for Democrats that Schumer was willing to take time on Sunday to debate Pinion, which for Schumer meant enduring insult after insult. |
Schumer took it as an extended opportunity to remind voters of Democratic accomplishments in the two years he has been Senate majority leader, including measures to reduce the price of prescription drugs, tighten gun control laws, forgive student loan debt and revive manufacturing. |
In the debate, Pinion called Schumer "an exceptional politician, one of the best that has ever lived" — but "a failed senator." Schumer rarely returned fire, though he said toward the end of the debate that the race was not about how long he had served, but whether he had delivered for New Yorkers. |
"I produce results," he said. "I am productive. I'm not just shooting verbiage and calling names." |
The fight for an open seat |
Somehow, Representative John Katko kept winning his seat from Syracuse, even though he is a Republican. Hillary Clinton won the district over Donald Trump by four percentage points in 2016, and President Biden carried it by a wider margin two years ago — nine percentage points. |
This year, Katko decided not to run for another term. Democrats figured they finally had a good chance to capture a Republican-held seat. |
But recent polls point to a tight race between Francis Conole, the Democratic candidate, and Brandon Williams, the Republican, a supporter of Donald Trump who has called Katko a RINO, or Republican in name only. |
Williams, if he won, would probably not handle the job like Katko, who was recently listed as the third most bipartisan member of Congress. Williams has made clear that working with Democrats would not be a priority if he went to Washington. "I want to translate bipartisan, which really means politics as usual," Williams said during a debate with Conole. "We can't afford politics as usual." |
Conole has attacked Williams's support for tax and spending cuts and his opposition to abortion rights. |
Conole had more than twice as much cash on hand at the end of the last filing period. But Republican interests have spent nearly $6.5 million on television and radio commercials to boost Williams in the last six weeks, according to the advertising firm AdImpact. |
It was the Saturday after Thanksgiving in 2012, and my mother, who was 89 at the time, and I were on our way to the Museum of Modern Art to view Edvard Munch's "The Scream." As it turned out, she was correct in her feeling that this trip to MoMA might be her last of many. |
We took the train in to the city and then rode the subway before walking the last few blocks. It was a struggle for her, but she wouldn't let me hail a cab. |
After arriving at the museum, we bought tickets, checked our coats and proceeded up several escalators to the large gallery where Munch's masterpiece was on display. |
Alas, even as big as the gallery was, it was overflowing with people. There was no way I was going to be able to navigate my frail, fragile mother through the elbow-to-elbow crowd. |
"Mom," I whispered, disappointed, "it looks like it's just not our day." |
We were turning to leave when, without saying a word to us, a museum guard who was standing nearby sprang into action. |
"Pardon me!" he said in a booming voice, gently but firmly parting the crowd. "Pardon me, please!" |
He continued this way until he had created a path and was standing just two feet from the painting. Everyone watched him expectantly. |
He turned, found my mother with his eyes and silently waved her forward. I steadied her until we were right in front of "The Scream." |
We lingered there for over a minute, taking in all the inimitable painting had to offer before thanking the guard and the crowd and making our way out. |
Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B. |
| Melissa Guerrero and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com. |
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