New Nassau County Museum of Art exhibit features artists at play

"The play's the thing," Shakespeare told us, but how do you define play? You can play baseball, play a piano, or be in or go to a play. Artists have long focused on leisure activities, and many are included in "At Play: Artists & Entertainment" on view at Nassau County Museum of Art in Roslyn Harbor, through Nov. 9.

The show, organized by chief curator Franklin Hill Perrell and associate curator Alex Maccaro, along with executive director Beth Horn, takes a broad view, presenting works ranging from Andy Warhol's portrait of Marilyn Monroe to an antique gilded clock sporting people playing checkers. Throughout the museum, musicians riff, children romp and playgrounds call. It's enough to make you want to get in the game.

Picasso, Chagall and more masters

The show opens with iconic modern masters whose names you'll recognize. "The first thing that hits you is a 1947 Picasso of a girl and her doll," said Perrell, adding that the Pablo Picasso alone is worth the trip to the museum. "It's got tremendous scale. It's got beautiful color. It's a summation of Picasso's work in terms of biography, in terms of humanity, in terms of style."

Along with Picasso's "Fillette à la poupée (Little Girl With Doll)" there's a large, rare Marc Chagall watercolor, a trio of major pieces by Fernand Léger, poker players from Thomas Hart Benton and a stunning 1896 painting by Thomas Eakins, "Study for The Cello Player." With little more than a few daubs of gray, brown and black, Eakins creates a moment in which one can almost hear mellow tones filling the imaginary space.

For a fascinating juxtaposition of the varied visions of artists, head upstairs. A tangle of steel by contemporary sculptor Larry Kagan seems cacophonous, until the light hits it just right and its shadow forms the outline of another cellist, this time, conjured from nothing more than light and space.

The Beatles, baseball and 'Bibi on the Ball'

Sports, amusement parks, concerts and circuses are all represented. Perrell admitted with a chuckle, "I don't shy away from fun." Tucked among images of rock stars like Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix and jazz musicians by Romare Bearden and Faith Ringgold is what Perrell called "a show within a show." Ten large-scale photographs by Harry Benson from The Beatles' 1964 tour capture the buzz of stepping on stage, some quiet moments, and even a pillow fight between John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

There are horse racing pictures, a high-speed blur of basketball players from Elaine de Kooning, and George Bellows' "Business-Men's Class, Y.M.C.A." from 1916, where a comically unfit bunch pretends to follow a svelte instructor. Fun fact: the scene takes place at New York's West Side YMCA, where Bellows first lived when he moved to the city to make it as an artist. "Baseball Catcher, Brown Cap" describes the tension and skill of the game, not surprisingly, since artist Ernie Barnes was a professional athlete before becoming a painter. (Barnes' most famous work, "Sugar Shack" appeared when the credits rolled on the television show "Good Times." Once virtually unknown, now his paintings command prices up to eight figures.)

Look for iconic places to play, like Jane Dickson's "Wonder Wheel" and Chris "Daze"  Ellis' "Cyclone Drop" from Coney Island. In Raphaella Spence's Las Vegas landscape, "Flamingo," the rosy sunset outshines all the neon below, reminding viewers of the permanence and immensity of the natural world.

Long Islanders don't need much prompting to think about the beach, especially in summer. With Carole A. Feuerman's "Bibi on the Ball," a life-sized sculpture of a girl in a bathing suit balanced on a huge beach ball, and Joseph Szabo's photographs of Jones Beach, you can almost smell the salt air and coconut oil. "Joe Szabo is an amazing artist. He taught at Malverne High School," Perrell said. "He's world renowned, and he lives right among us." Highlighting local artists and Long Island life while also bringing world-class international art to audiences are key to the museum's work, but so are delight and pleasure.

Overall, "At Play" is a fun show about having fun. "In terms of something that's appealing, that's uplifting, this is the ticket," Perrell said. "It's a way to spend time of just pure enjoyment."