FOR JANUARY 28 –

FIRST THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, AT THE WADSWORTH ATHENEUM – W/CUT –

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HARTFORD, CONN. — A blues-filled First Thursday, February 3, at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art will feature a tropical Blue Hawaiian cocktail and “Blues and Things” by XY Eli and his band.

A frequent subject of the blues is “being done wrong,” and artist Robert Lazzarini offers a variation on this theme. He makes sculptures that resemble familiar utilitarian objects but are distorted into something unexpected. For example, his piece “phone,” 2000, shown in the current exhibition “Contemporary Art: Floor to Ceiling, Wall to Wall,” is a full-scale recreation of a rotary-dial telephone, but it has been stretched at an extreme oblique angle. Lazzarini will talk about his work and the current art scene at 6 pm.

The biopic Ray, 2004 vividly recounts how Ray Charles (1930–2004) surmounted obstacles of racism and blindness to become a great musician, even an American institution. Directed by Taylor Hackford, the narrative of the film is generously interspersed with Charles’s music, from gospel to rhythm and blues to country and western to orchestral pop. Screening time is 7:30 pm.

The Museum Café is serving dinner from 5 to 8 pm.

First Thursday admission is $5, free for Wadsworth Atheneum members. Movie tickets are $8, $6 for Atheneum members, seniors and students with ID, $3 for Atheneum Film Buffs.

The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art is at 600 Main Street. For information, www.wadsworthatheneum.org or 860-278-2670.