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# A Variety Show Takes Inspiration from a Forgotten Book on a French Painter
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/jules-bastien-lepage-necromancers-of-the-public-domain-the-tank/
- Published: 2018-02-06T22:06:49.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:11:00.000Z
- Description: Each month, the Necromancers of the Public Domain stages performances based on a little-known book from the New York Society Library.
- Author: Elisa Wouk Almino
- Tags: Art, Events, The Tank, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-18 14:37 (2018)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2018/02/jules_bastien-lepage_-_hay_making_-_google_art_project.jpg)

Jules Bastien-Lepage, “Haymaking” (“Les Foins,” 1877), Musée d’Orsay (via Wikimedia)

Over the past 260 years, the New York Society Library has accrued [more than 300,000 books](https://www.nysoclib.org/collection?ref=hyperallergic.com) in its collection. Inevitably, a number of them have gone forgotten. Each month, Ayun Halliday rescues a different library book from oblivion and uses it as inspiration for a variety show known as the [Necromancers of the Public Domain](http://www.theater-of-the-apes.com/current-productions/necromancers-public-domain/?ref=hyperallergic.com). Produced by the Theater of the Apes,[ the next edition of this monthly affair](http://www.thetanknyc.org/theater/957-necromancers-of-the-public-domain/?ref=hyperallergic.com) takes place this Thursday at Manhattan’s performance space the Tank.

For this week, Halliday chose [*Masterpieces in Colour: Bastien Lepage*](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36533?ref=hyperallergic.com)by François Crastre, a compact illustrated book from 1911 on the life and art of the late-19th century painter Jules Bastien-Lepage. “\[It\] really called out to me as a physical object,” said Halliday of the book. “I love the dramatic, antique language used to describe his work, and his horrible-sounding death.” Bastien-Lepage died at the age of 36 in his studio, after struggling with an illness that led his kidneys and intestines to fail.

Among the nine performances planned for Thursday, [Raquel Cion](https://www.meandmrjonesshow.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com) will deliver a monologue about Bastien-Lepage’s battle with illness. But rest assured there will also be less bleak interpretations of the book, including a comic slideshow by Hyperallergic contributor [Katie Fricas](https://hyperallergic.com/author/katie-fricas/) “in which she questions *Masterpieces of Colour* author, François Crastre’s true opinion of his subject Bastien-Lepage.” Other highlights include a “risqué song about ‘Hay Making'” by [Nick Balaban](https://soundcloud.com/nickbalaban?ref=hyperallergic.com) and a rebuttal by [Greg Kotis](http://gregkotis.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com) from the perspective of a chimney sweeper in a Bastien-Lepage painting. There will also be the opportunity to stencil on shirts, pillowcases, and bags, but please bring your own.

**When:** Thursday, February 8, 8pm  
**Where:** The Tank (312 West 36th St, Midtown West, Manhattan)

*More info at* [*the Tank*](http://www.thetanknyc.org/theater/957-necromancers-of-the-public-domain/?ref=hyperallergic.com)*.*