Daily News from New York, New York • 144

ea-ciiiifflPtoaM' 1 i ISAAC MIZRAHI 'Alt for art's sake The guiding passions of collector and dealer Eugene Thaw CONCERTS A ISAAC MIZRAHI The fashion designer and TV personality sings with the accompaniment of pianist Ben Waltzer's quintet tonight. Joe's Pub, 425 Lafayette St (212) 239- -1'- 62oo. 3 CM MUSIC MARATHON 2002 The four-day festival promoting new music includes hundreds of shows, panels and films throughout the city, starting Wednesday. Information at (917) 606- 1908 or wwwxmj.commarathon. i -'4 i anv aa A few years ago, a young Parisian came to New York art dealer Eugene Thaw with a piece of art that had been left to him hm by his grandmother.

He handed Thaw a letter from Vincent van Gogh inviting Paul Gauguin to join him in Aries. The letter included a drawing of his room, an image millions of art lovers know from the oil painting Van Gogh later made, "Bedroom at Aries." A scrupulous scholar, Thaw was aware that the letter had been considered "missing" for more than six decades. In fact, it had been in storage in New York since 1938. Since the young man's grandmother had been a Rothschild, Thaw had reason to believe the work was genuine. "I sat down with him and decided he wouldn't leave the room until I owned it," Thaw said.

The young man had an incentive: he wanted to buy an apartment in New York. Thaw won the day. The letter is now on display at the Pierpont Morgan Library, along with other master drawings from Thaw's collection, which he has bequeathed to the Morgan. This is the fourth time the MISFITS The re-formed version of the great "70s punk combo, which released "The Day the Earth Caught Fire" in June, plays a Halloween i i show, minus co-founder Glenn Danzig. The World, 43rd St.

and Broadway. (212) 398-3439. THEATER WOYZECK Director Robert Wilson's musical-theater version of Georg Buchner's 1837 play about a man dri ven to murder by a ruthless society -features a score and lyrics by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan. Opens Tuesday. BAM Harvey Theater, 651 Fulton St, Brooklyn.

(718) 636-4100. GHOSTS This production of the Henrik Ibsen classic, newly translated by Lanford Wilson, stars Amy Irving and opens Thursday. Classic Stage Company, 136 E. 13th St (212) 677-4210, ext. 13.

THOMAS MONASTER DAILY NEWS Morgan has shown works from Thaw's drawing collection. The first was in 1975. "That was the first 'tumble I had from any museum," the shy, softspoken Thaw says. The gesture created a bond. Although the Morgan is one of his prime beneficiaries, it is not his only From the depth and range of his benefactions it would be easy to assume Thaw began with great wealth, but that's not the case.

He was born in New York 75 years ago to a father who was a salesman for Apex Oil Burners and a mother who taught stenography and typing at Theodore Roosevelt EVENTS one. He nas given ms collection of nomadic art of the Eastern Eurasian steppes to the Metropolitan, where it is now on display. His collection of North American Indian art has its own wing at the Feni-more Art Museum in Cooper-stown, N.Y. In addition to the art they have given to the Morgan, Thaw and his wife, Clare, have endowed the Conservation Center there, a state-of-the-art lab for conserving works of High School in the Bronx. A precocious, learned boy, he entered St.

John's College in Annapolis, where the entire curriculum consists of Great Books, at age 15. "It was during the war," he says with a laugh. "They were taking anyone who could breathe." The young Thaw found himself making frequent trips to nearby Washington, D.C., to spend time at the National Gallerv and the Whitney last summer). Among those who came to see her paintings was Jackson Pollock, with whom Thaw struck up a friendship. (Thaw is now president of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, which assists needy young artists.) Thaw always had a good eye.

One of his earliest purchases was a Rembrandt sketch for $75. The dealer who sold it to him thought the drawing of a beggar leaning on a staff was merely a School of Rembrandt piece. Thaw knew it was the master's, and scholarship supported him. He sold it for $1,200, which paid his rent for three months. Many of the works in his collection, he says, are there because no one would buy them.

"My greatest Fragonard, 'Italian Girl in which has been reproduced in dozens of textbooks, was offered to many major museums. Their response was, 'We don't have the budget right now. It was something I would have mortgaged a building to have." Thaw laments that "almost nobody is making collections now. Now they buy trophies, things that are instantly recognizable a $40 million Van Gogh. Very few are collecting because they must A lot of people are just buying to fill the walls of their townhouses.

When it's decorated, you're done." "The Thaw Collection: Master Drawings and Oil Sketches, Acquisitions Since 1994" is on view through Jan. 19. E-mail: hkisseleditnydaifynews.com SPOOKY SPACE SHOW The American Museum of Natural History -opens four floors Thursday fortrtefcote treating, arts and crafts, roaming cartoon characters and performances by David Grover the Big Bear band, and screens the "Spooky Space Show" every 45 minutes. Central Park West at 79th St (212) 769-5200. 26TH ANNUAL VILLAGE HALLOWEEN COSTUME BALL The Theater for the New she for a night of orchestra, biuegrass and jazz music, holiday delicacies, carnival performers and a costume contest.

Reservations recommended; costume or formatwear required. 155 First Ave. (212) 254-1109. EAST EUROPEAN WOMEN: THE FMS OF JUOIT ELEK AND NANA DJOODJAOZE A two-day retrospective starting Saturday shows the two women's films about Rfe in Hungary and Georgia during trie Soviet and post-Soviet eras. American Museum of the Moving Image 35th Ave.

at 36th Astoria. (718) 784-4520. i 3 3 art. On Wednesday, at a ceremony at the Morgan, he was given the Medal for Distinguished Philanthropy by the American Association of Museums. "Some collectors felt that the greatest moment in their afterlives would be the record-breaking sale at Sotheby's, which they would view down from heaven or up from the other place," Thaw said.

"My intention has been to collect for an institution rather than for an auction." Speaking at the ceremony, Charles E. Pierce, director of the Morgan, called Thaw "the greatest patron of this institution since the death of the founders." Phillips Collection. He began graduate study in art history at Columbia but quit because he wanted to experience "the epiphany of handling works of art" rather than just looking at slides. In 1950, he rented two floors in a small building adjoining the Algonquin Hotel. On one floor he sold (or, more accurately, failed to sell) books on theater; on the other floor he exhibited works of art, often on consignment from major dealers on 57th St.

One of his first shows was on the work of the Abstract Expressionist Joan Mitchell (who had a retrospective at the i 'I i -5 fl 1 1 i.