It’s General Sherman’s Time to Shine, but Not Too Much

General Sherman, still marching through Georgia these many years later, has completely lost his luster.

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times An allegorical Victory leads General Sherman through an allegorical Georgia.

So much gold has eroded from the monumental equestrian statue of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman in Grand Army Plaza on Fifth Avenue that the statue looks more like a work in tarnished brass than in gilded bronze. It is dull, streaked and pock-marked. The deterioration was rendered all the more visible after the Halloween snowstorm of 2011 destroyed all 10 Bradford callery pear trees that had rined the monument and provided a bit of a screen.

That was when the Central Park Conservancy, a private, nonprofit organization that manages the park, knew it had to begin planning a renovation of the two-block plaza in Manhattan. New trees were needed, of course. So was new paving. And the general?

“He’s not quite as victorious as he could be,” said Christopher Nolan, the vice president of the conservancy for planning, design and construction.

Officials knew they couldn’t make Sherman appear too victorious. That mistake was committed before. A 1989 regilding left the statue so blindingly gold that it infuriated the well-heeled, well-connected denizens of Fifth Avenue, who are among the conservancy’s most important supporters. Frances Lear, the publisher of Lear’s magazine, called it a “horror.” Even the benefactor of the renovation recoiled.

“There probably should have been more tonality,” allowed Douglas Blonsky, the current president and chief executive of the conservancy and the administrator of Central Park.

A lightly tinted wax was applied in 1996 to tone down the statue’s brilliance. Since then, the conservancy has cleaned the piece and reapplied a wax coating annually. But the pigeons of Grand Army Plaza â€" among the shrewdest, toughest birds in America â€" have made repeated mockery of the protective layer, degrading it with their acidic droppings and clawing it off while settling n on the sculptural perch.

To set things right, scaffolding will go up in the coming days, enclosing the grouping of Sherman, his steed and the robed figure of Victory. The surface will be cleaned by a micro-abrasion process that permits the recovery of as much gold as possible. The bronze work will be inspected from without and within, through a trap door behind the general’s saddle. Getting inside the statue will give conservators a chance to examine the iron armature.

After that, the bronze can receive its new coating of 23.75-karat gold leaf, under the direction of Michael Kramer of the Gilders’ Studio of Olney, Md. The gold will receive a solvent tinted with the colors burnt umber and lampblack. Test tonings, applied to a cast of the horse’s head, will be previewed by officials, conservators and art experts in the hope of matching as closely as possible the intentions of the sculptor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens.

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times Sherman’s mortal enemy these days is not the Confederacy.

On top of this will come three coats of polyurethane to protect the gilding from ultraviolet rays and pigeons.

Mr. Blonsky said he hoped work on the statue would be finished by the fall, when 20 new London plane trees could be planted, if the renovation plan is approved by the city’s Public Design Commission. The entire renovation project will cost $2 million, he said, of which $1.5 million has been raised, all of it privately. Mr. Blonsky would not identify the donors.

A summer’s worth of visitors will miss seeing the work, one of Saint-Gauden’s masterpieces. Dedicated in 1903, it “ranks mong the most distinguished equestrian groups of Western art,” according to the book “The Art Commision and the Municipal Art Society Guide to Manhattan’s Outdoor Sculpture” (1988).

Not every tourist may be discouraged by that prospect. Sherman’s steed seems to be trampling a branch of long-needled pine, which would have been understood in the early 20th century as a reference to Georgia. We asked Sonji Jacobs, director of communications for Mayor Kasim Reed of Atlanta, how Sherman is regarded by contemporary Atlantans.

“The idea that folks in Atlanta are thinking about the Civil War every day and harboring more than 150 years of anger at General Sherman is, well, not accurate,” Ms. Jacobs wrote in an e-mail. “Indeed, feelings about the Civil War are mixed even among Atlanta’s increasingly rare natives â€" after all, the city has been home to one of the most thriving and affluent African-American communities in t! he nation! for a long time. The city is the birthplace of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and many of his contemporaries â€" Ambassador Andrew Young, Congressman John Lewis, Juanita Abernathy, the Rev. C. T. Vivian â€" are alive and well.

“That said, the legacy of the Civil War and Sherman’s March to the Sea remains a nuanced part of the city’s collective memory. The City of Atlanta seal is of a rising phoenix â€" a symbol of the city’s reemergence after Sherman burned it to the ground.”

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

Christie’s London Auction Brings Modest Art and Modest Sales

Christie’s Images Ltd  Wassily Kandinsky’s “Studie ze Improvisation 3.”

LONDON - A colorful canvas painted by Wassily Kandinsky in 1909 brought $21.1 million at Christie’s here on Tuesday night. In 2008 the same painting brought $16.8 million at a New York auction.

For the start of the summer auction season here, Christie’s had cobbled together a modest sale of Impressionist and modern art. Still the auction house managed to sell $100.4 million worth of art, above its low estimate of $82.8 million, but not reaching its high of $118.8 million. Of the 44 works on offer, seven failed to find buyers.

After the sale ended, Jussi Pylkkänen, president of Christie’s Europe and the evening’s auctoneer said there were buyers from emerging markets like Asia, Russia and India, “corners of the world we weren’t touching five years ago.’’

Acquiring top quality paintings and sculptures has been difficult for both Chritstie’s and Sotheby’s, which will hold its Impressionist and modern art on Wednesday. The best works are either in museums and not available for sale or secreted away in private homes where collectors, uncertain of the financial markets, are holding onto them. As a result this month both auction houses have relied on the considerable inventory amassed by the Nahmads â€" the dynasty of dealers with spaces in New York and London â€" to supply them with many of their priciest works.

The family has been in the hot seat recently. In April, Hillel Nahmad, 34, known as Helly, was charged by federal prosecutors with playing! a leading role in a gambling and money-laundering operation that stretched from Kiev and Moscow to Los Angeles and New York, where he is based. Mr. Nahmad has denied these charges and was absent on Tuesday evening, because he had to surrender his passport as part of his bail agreement. But plenty of other family members were there and bidding, including Mr. Nahmad’s father, David, his cousin from London, who is also called Helly, his brother David and his uncle, Ezra. It was the Nahmad’s who owned the Kandinsky, purchased nearly five years ago at a Christie’s sale in New York.

(Final prices include the buyer’s premium: 25 percent for the first $75,000; 20 percent on the next $75,001 to $1.5 million and 12 percent on the rest. Estimates do not reflect commissions.)

Christie’s Images Ltd Modgiliani’s 1916 portrait of the art dealer Paul Guillaume.

Besides selling the Kandinsky â€" “Studie ze Improvisation 3’’ which was snapped up by Beda Jedlicka, a Zurich dealer who said he was bidding on behalf of a client, the Nahmad’s were also the owners of another top work â€" Modgiliani’s 1916 portrait of the art dealer Paul Guillaume. A familiar image to seasoned auction goers, the painting had been at auction three times in 17 years, first at Christie’s in 1996, when the Las Vegas casino owner Stephen A. Wynn bought it for $3.4 million, and then at Sotheby’s in New York in 2000 for $4.6 million. In 2006 the Nahmads bought it for $4.8 million, just below its $5 million low estimate. This time around Christie’s had expected it to bring $7.6 million to $11 million. Representatives from the Hammer Galleries in New York bought it for $10.6 million.

The sale also featured! a number! of late-era Picassos. “Femme Assise dans un Fauteuil,’’ a 1960 portrait of the artist’s wife Jacqueline Roque was expected to fetch $6.1 million to $9 million. It had last been on the market at Sotheby’s in New York in 2006 where it sold for $6.7 million. John Lumley, vice-chairman of Christie’s in Europe, could be seen bidding on behalf of the New York dealer William Acquavella who ended up paying $9.5 million for the painting.

Like many of the dealers in the audience Daniella Luxembourg, who divides her time between London and New York, was talking after the sale about the endless appetite for art, no matter what is on offer. “There’s money for art,’’ she said. “There’s no doubt about it.’’

18 Orchestras Receive ASCAP Awards for New Music

ASCAP, the performing rights organization that collects royalties for nearly half a million composers, songwriters and publishers, will present its annual Adventurous Programming awards to 18 American orchestras and one new-music festival on Tuesday. The prizes, which ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) established in 1947, are meant to encourage the programming of contemporary works. They will be awarded during the League of American Orchestras 68th National Conference, in St. Louis.

Four of the orchestral awards are specifically focused. The New York Philharmonic will receive the Leonard Bernstein Award for Educational Programming; the Albany Symphony won the John S. Edwards Award for Strongest Commitment to New American Music; the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra will pick up the Morton Gould Award forInnovative Programming, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra will take the award for American Programming on Foreign Tours.

The awards range from $400 to $3,000, depending on the orchestra’s budget and size, and whether it placed first, second or third in its category. The winners include the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, the Nashville Symphony, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Santa Rosa Symphony, the Berkeley Symphony, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the San José Chamber Orchestra, the Lexington Symphony, the Michigan Philharmonic and the New England Philharmonic. Two student orchestras - the Ithaca College Symphony Orchestra and the Youth Orchestras of San Antonio - also won prizes, as did the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music.

This is the second batch of adventurous programming awards that ASCAP has presented this year: in January, the organization presented prizes for chamber music programming to eight organizatio! ns.

Variations On an Article: Jeremy Denk Gets a Book Contract

Soon after The New Yorker published the pianist Jeremy Denk’s “Every Good Boy Does Fine” in its April 8 issue, Mr. Denk took to his blog Think Denk, and offered a bit of editorial second-guessing about his illuminating memoir of his studies.

“In the essay, many sins of omission,” he wrote, noting that in the interest of focusing on the particular influence of the Hungarian pianist Gyorgy Sebok, and what he called “this moment when Old Europe landed on top of me,” he had neglected many teachers who were also important to him, including Joseph Schwartz at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Herbert Stessin at the Juilliard School.

Now Mr. Denk, who at 43 is regarded as one of his generation’s most eloquent and thoughtful interpreters, will have a chance to offer a fuller picture of his student years, as well as some of his broader reflections on the piano repertory. Random House has signed him to transform the New Yorker piece into a book, also called “Every Good Boy Does Fine” - a phrase that anyone who has taken piano lessons will recognize as a mnemonic children use to memorize the notes on the musical staff when it bears a treble clef. (One popular variation, Every Good Boy Deserves Favor, was used by the Moody Blues as an album title, and by Tom Stoppard and André Previn as the title of a musical.)

“I hope it doesn’t sound silly to say that for me there is a connection between the task of piano playing, trying to find the elusive combination of nuances that bring the phrase alive, and the search for the ‘perfect’ combination of words to express something,” Mr. Denk wrote in an e-mail. “I guess the common thread is communication and hopefully that “shiver of delight” when something is expressed in an imaginative, unexpected way.”

Andy Ward, Mr. Denk’s editor at Random House, said that Mr. Denk had two years to write the book, which is due to be published in 2015 or 2016.

“The trick is to find time to write this book over the next year or two, while practicing and performing,” Mr. Denk said. He added that the book would probably include material that he had explored in his blog, but that “the idea at the moment is to attempt something a bit bigger, more continuous - a weaving of wry autobiography and accessible, even bizarre, musical analysisâ€"which I have never done, and we’ll see if I can do!  (I’m excited to try).”

Provocative Show Runner, Rehired at ‘Community,’ Apologizes for New Provocative Remarks

Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images Dan Harmon, the creator and show runner of “Community.”

Hardly a week after he was reinstated as the show runner of “Community,” Dan Harmon, the beloved but unpredictable creator of that NBC comedy, offered his employers an unpleasant reminder of the loose-cannon qualities that got him fired in the first place by making remarks on a podcast that drew outrage and for which he apologized.

Last week Sony Pictures Television, the studio that produces “Community,” said that Mr. Harmon was returning to the series for its coming fifth season. The surprise move followed his acrimonious exit from the show in 2012 after it was narrowly renewed for a fourth season, and which Mr. Harmon confirmed in a blog post that took a few parting shots at Sony and NBC.

But in an episode of his “Harmontown” podcast that was posted on Monday, Mr. Harmon was not exactly ready to let bygones be bygones. He said that while the producers who replaced him on Season 4, David Guarascio and Moses Port, had “tried their best,” the overall result was “obviously not somebody doing what they do and trying really hard to make people happy.”

“It is very much like an impression,” Mr. Harmon continued. “An unflattering one.”

“Writers fighting other writers” is the “American dream in the eyes of Sony,” Mr. Harmon said, using an expletive. “That is what they want. They want creative people rewriting each other. They want creative people replacing each other. They want us interchangeable.”

Referring to plot developments that occurred on Season 4 of “Community” over which he had no control, Mr. Harmon said sarcastically: “There’s something awesome about having all of those preconceived notions kind of ripped away from you. It’s exciting. There’s something awesome about being held down and watching your family get raped on a beach.”

As transcripts of his podcast remarks began to circulate, Mr. Harmon offered a brief message of penitence on his Twitter account, writing: “I feel bad if I made anyone feel bad with my comments in harmontown. It’s a dirty, personal comedy podcast, not charismatic for quoting.”

In a later post on his personal blog Mr. Harmon gave a fuller apology to fans of “Community” and the show’s cast, crew and writers. “What I said was disrespectful to your love for this show, love that I sometimes erroneously equate with validation of me as a person,” Mr. Harmon wrote to its viewers. “I am unwittingly and unfortunately infamous for the amount I care about your opinion.”

He added: “Obviously the solution is to stop talking about my job in my podcast until production is safely complete. That will protect the show you love, and your love of it, from the creator with the Mouth from PR Hell. I will do this. But more importantly, I am sorry.”

Mr. Harmon also apologized “to anyone I hurt by using the word ‘rape’ in a comedic context” and “to anyone I hurt by conjuring the concept of rape in a metaphor about my stupid hurt feelings.”

“I was not thinking about the impact of my words on the people that love ‘Community’ and work on it,” Mr. Harmon wrote. “So I hope you can believe me when I tell you I was definitely not thinking about the impact of that word on people that are currently seeking to get it out of comedic contexts. I’m very sorry to have hurt and frustrated you and I will definitely be swayed from the use of that word in comedic contexts because I don’t like hurting people and as an added bonus, I don’t like getting yelled at on Twitter. Especially when the people yelling have phrases like ‘rape joke’ on their side. It’s kind of hard to think of oneself as being ‘pro rape joke.’ Don’t want to be that guy. Done and done.”

Maggie Gyllenhaal to Star in ‘The Village Bike’ for MCC Theater

After featured roles in recent Off Broadway productions of Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya” and “Three Sisters,” Maggie Gyllenhaal will switch things up and star in a new play, the sexually charged British drama “The Village Bike,” at MCC Theater next year, the downtown company announced on Tuesday. Its 2013-14 season will also include “Hand to God,” a black comedy about a teenager battling his demonic sock puppet, which was a critical and audience favorite during an Off Off Broadway run in 2011.

MCC Theater executives had hoped to mount the 2013-14 season in a new home at West 52nd Street and 10th Avenue, a 25,000-square-foot complex that is roughly five times the size of the Lortel.

But a spokesman said that the move had been delayed considerably, first by complications in the sale of the building that the company will move into with a long-term lease, and then by construction delays. The spokesman said MCC Theater would not be in its new home until the 2015-16 season. He said that financing was not a problem, noting that New York City has already committed the bulk of the money for the $25-million complex and that additional private fund-raising is on track.

In “The Village Bike” Ms. Gyllenhaal - whose breakout role was in the acclaimed 2002 indie film “Secretary” and who was an Oscar nominee for “Crazy Heart” - plays a pregnant young wife whose libido takes her in surprising directions. The play earned good reviews during its premiere production at the Royal Court Theater in London in 2011, and the author, Penelope Skinner, won a top London theater prize, The Evening Standard’s award for most promising playwright. The Obie winner Sam Gold (“The Flick”) will direct the production, which is to begin performances May 21 at the Lucille Lortel Theater and open June 9.

“Hand to God,” by Robert Askins, will again be directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel and star Steven Boyer, who drew strong reviews in the original Ensemble Studio Theater production for playing the naïve Texas churchgoer Jason and his satanic puppet Tyrone. The play is set to start Feb. 20 at the Lortel and open on March 11.

MCC Theater’s 2013-14 season will also include two previously announced productions for the fall: John Pollono’s play “Small Engine Repair” at the Lortel, and a co-production on Broadway with Manhattan Theater Club of “The Snow Geese,” a new play by Sharr White (“The Other Place”) and starring Mary-Louise Parker.

Political Action From the Bike Lobby

Cycling opponents have long accused Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of answering to a power-hungry bike lobby whispering in his ear about bike lanes, bike sharing and any other policy objective on two wheels.

But this week, advocates for cycling and pedestrian safety will begin perhaps the most decisive test yet of their influence: issuing endorsements of candidates on the criteria of streetscape policy positions.

The group behind the endorsements, a political action committee called StreetsPAC, has already thrown its support behind five candidates in City Council races, with plans to wade into the mayoral election and borough presidents’ races, among other contests this year.

“We think that in some races we can be a critical part of the coalition that can make a difference,” said Glenn McAnanama, a founder of the group and a member of its endorsement committee, noting the relatively low voting totals in some Council elections.

The group, which was introduced in April, said it had received about $25,000 in donations, with $5,000 pledged. Members said a fund-raising event aimed at larger donors was expected in July. Eric McClure, a founder and treasurer of StreetsPAC, said the group plans to donate money to candidates and dispatch volunteers for petitioning and other on-the-ground work. More than 60 candidates for public office have responded to the group’s questionnaire.

So far, StreetsPAC has targeted two incumbents â€" Sara M. Gonzalez of Brooklyn and Inez E. Dickens of Manhattan â€" by supporting the challengers Carlos Menchaca and Vince Morgan. The group cited Mr. Menchaca’s commitment to extending the Brooklyn Greenway and Mr. Morgan’s criticism of “foot-dragging” by Ms. Dickens on proposed upgrades to Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard.

One incumbent, Melissa Mark-Viverito, who represents East Harlem and the South Bronx, and two candidates for open seats, Costa Constantinides of Queens and Antonio Reynoso of Brooklyn, also secured the group’s backing.

In the mayoral field, Mr. McAnanama said, Sal Albanese, a Democratic candidate and former councilman, “is probably the strongest on our issues,” though the group remains a long way from a formal endorsement.

The issue of cycling advocacy has received widespread attention in recent weeks, since the introduction of the city’s bike-sharing program. In a video on the Wall Street Journal’s Web site, Dorothy Rabinowitz, a member of the paper’s editorial board, called the bike lobby “an all-powerful enterprise” with a direct line to the “totalitarians running the government of this city.”

But StreetsPAC does not much resemble a hardened political machine. Mr. McAnanama said that before the group’s inception, some wondered if its formation was even worth the trouble.

“Earlier on, there was a discussion: Is this necessary? Is this something that’s pretty obvious?” he recalled. “But we just didn’t see the debate happening over the right issues. It seemed to be happening over side issues.”

And so a lobby formed where many assumed one had already existed.

“It’s the all-powerful bike, pedestrian safety, anyone-who-wants-to-enjoy-a-public-plaza-or-street lobby,” Mr. McAnanama said.

A Fruit Vendor for 20 Minutes

Dear Diary:

Walking to dinner in Chelsea, I passed a large fruit stand. The owner stopped me: “Could you watch my cart? I really need to go to the bathroom.”

I’d often daydreamed about running a friendly roadside business, like a coffee cart, where I was known to locals, and perfectly positioned to serve as a police informant. “O.K.,” I said. He limped off toward a restaurant.

I now ran a fruit stand. Passers-by viewed me skeptically: in skinny pants, a pink top and once-jazzy yellow trainers, I didn’t quite fit the profile. But suddenly, my first customer: an Irish lady wanting bananas. She noted I had “an accent.” Three for a dollar, but she only wanted one, and I didn’t have change! I explained my circumstances, and she took three.

“What do you do normally?” she asked.

“I work for a think tank.”

Five minutes later, business was booming. I sold bananas, mangoes, oranges, even some decaying bananas, reduced and primed for banana bread. It was exhilarating. But as 15 minutes passed, I began to wonder: am I on “Candid Camera”? Another customer arrived and the thought was shelved.

Twenty minutes passed. Finally, I saw my boss limping back. He’d gone to get pizza. I told him triumphantly about my sales, my showmanship, how I’d shifted the bananas. I counted my takings for him. Nine dollars! He checked to make sure I’d sold the mangoes for the right price.

We shook hands, exchanged names and origins â€" England and Bangladesh â€" and he gave me an apple. I offered to sub for him again if I was ever passing by. “O.K.,” he said. “But business very slow.”

Not for me, buddy. Those elderly bananas sell themselves.

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Morning Commute on L.I.R.R. Is a Mess

Monday evening’s derailment of a Long Island Rail Road train near Pennsylvania Station threw a very large wrench into today’s commute.

Thirty-four morning-rush trains bound for Manhattan have been either canceled or diverted to terminals in Brooklyn and Queens, and trains that are running are having serious delays. Express trains are adding local stops to pick up overflow passengers. Click for latest status.

At the terminals outside Manhattan - Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn and Jamaica and Hunterspoint Avenue in Queens - commuters have to change to the subway, which is cross-honoring Long Island Rail Road tickets.

Just after 6 p.m. Monday, a 10-car train derailed as it was pulling out of Penn Station. No one was injured, but the accident blocked one of the four rail tunnels under the East River.

Amtrak trains are also delayed into and out of Penn Station, but the railroad is running a full schedule.

In Performance: Kate Mulgrew and Kathleen Chalfant of ‘Somewhere Fun’

In this week’s In Performance, Kate Mulgrew and Kathleen Chalfant play two old friends who run into each other on a Manhattan street in “Somewhere Fun,” the surreal new play by Jenny Schwartz (“God’s Ear”). The show continues through Sunday at the Vineyard Theater.

Recent videos in this series include the actress Elizabeth A. Davis and the composer Duncan Sheik performing “Shoes of Gold,” an original song written by Mr. Sheik for the Classic Stage Company’s new production of Bertolt Brecht’s “Caucasian Chalk Circle,” and a special series with Tony Award nominees performing on location in New York City.

Coming soon: Steven Pasquale sings a number from the musical “Far From Heaven.”