Newspapers as art at the New Museum, New York's alternative histories in Chelsea, and some incredibly dirty pictures from Jeff Koons. Here's WNYC's very saucy guide to what's happening now.

In the winter of 1969, Peggy Guggenheim, 70, took leave of her beloved Italian villa to come to New York City to see her personal art collection displayed, for the first time, on the spiraling ramps of the Guggenheim Museum. During this visit, she sat down for a long-format Q&A with WNYC's Ruth Bowman for the 1960s-era arts program, "Views on Art."

There are galleries – and there are galleries. Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of This Century wasn’t your average display space. It had curving gumwood walls, turquoise floors, amoeboid furniture and bizarre mechanical contraptions. It was the product of one of New York’s more notorious socialites (Peggy was renowned for her free-love ways) and a rotating cast of architects, surrealists, poets, artists, oddball curators and thinkers. Get this audio download here.

The literature on Abstract Expressionism and its New York environs is vast and deep — and incredibly heavy. (We have the multiple hernias to prove it.) If you’re interested in learning a little more about the period, the movement, its artists and their legacies, check out WNYC's list of some of the most informative reads.

For the Abstract Expressionists – many of whom lived downtown and worked downtown – there was one place (and one place only) to go talk shop and raise hell. That place was the Cedar Tavern, a nondescript bar on University Place and 8th Street that became so legendary, it has since appeared in the obituaries of just about every artist who hung out there. This was where Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline and a host of other figures came together over glasses of 15-cent beer. Get this audio download here.

What was happening and when — here's WNYC's timeline of some of the most significant events in the 1940s and '50s.

Perfect City is a two-part documentary which focuses on the physical spaces in New York that helped fuel the Abstract Expressionist movement — The Cedar Tavern and Peggy Guggenheim's Art of This Century gallery — in advance of the exhibit "Abstract Expressionist New York" at the Museum of Modern Art. It is narrated by Carolina A. Miranda, who blogs on the arts as Gallerina for WNYC, and produced by Ave Carrillo.

Intimate photos of a well-known artist's hang-out, 800-year-old Chinese treasures, paintings that blur the boundary between the historical and the contemporary, and art all along 14th street. Here's WNYC's guide to what's going down now:

Moving galleries, ancient Roman mosaics, arts motivational speakers and the recently-discovered negatives of a renowned war photographer. There's lots to do in New York City (and a train ride away) in the coming week. Here's WNYC's guide to the artsy goodness going down now:

For years, some of New York's most prestigious art museums have gotten heat for not featuring enough female artists. A searing 2007 report by Jerry Saltz in New York Magazine revealed that women often made up less than 15 percent of a museum's permanent collection on display. Since then, there has been a move to make up for this imbalance. In fact, this week, a number of local arts institutions have female-heavy rosters.

New York's Latino connection at El Museo del Barrio, the anatomy of kitchens at the Museum of Modern Art, circles deconstructed at David Zwirner, and a golden anniversary at The Pace Gallery. The arts season is rocking and rolling. Here's our guide to what's going on now.

The arts season got off to a rip-roaring start this past week as the city's roughly 600 galleries opened their doors to a stampede of eager viewers. It was cheek-to-jowl in many galleries, especially on Friday at Gagosian, where it was stiletto-to-stiletto for Dan Colen's sprawling show of tipped-over-motorcycles and bubble-gum paintings.

Feminist painting at the Jewish Museum, J-pop at the Asia Society and a bajillion gallery shows in Chelsea. The arts season is officially in full swing. Here's your guide to what's happening now.

“What is the oldest known color photo?”

“What have been the biggest changes been for curators in the last few years?”

“How much nookie do you get due to the sexiness of being a curator?”

Road trip pictures at the Whitney, propaganda at MoMA, and a monochrome wall of commissioned graffiti in downtown Manhattan. This week's Datebook is a guide to Labor Day weekend artsiness.

For almost four years, Chris Henderson, and the folks at Moviehouse, have been staging interactive video events around New York City—giving little-seen and emerging artists a platform to display their work. In addition to hosting regular viewing parties at the artsy Brooklyn center of 3rd Ward, Henderson also helps organize screenings at parks, handball courts and other public venues. In fact, this coming Monday at 8 p.m., he and Moviehouse will be at Sternberg Park in Williamsburg, screening a crowdsourced film put together by choreographer Zena Bibler. The movie pays tribute to movement and dance.

An Academy Award-nominated Peruvian film, exhibits about threads, and an outsider artist's private stash. It may be the end of summer, but there's plenty happening in New York City in the next week. Here is a guide:

Photographers depict states of transition at the Met Museum, another dose of reality TV art (this time in Manhattan) and a birthday party (with cake!) for abstract art in Brooklyn — not to mention a full menu of regular events on Governors Island. Get it while it's hot, because with summer coming to a close, some of these happenings won't be around for long.

If Gilligan and the Professor ever decided to build a roller coaster, it would probably look something like the chaotic, bamboo structure that is currently sprouting on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Begun in March, this ever-evolving assemblage of more than 5,000 interlocking bamboo poles, held together by more than 50 miles of nylon rope, has been continuously gaining height over the last five months. This week, it gains a new foot path along its eastern edge, climbing a staggering 40 feet over the museum's roof.