Has Money Ruined Art?
This link
http://nymag.com/arts/art/season2007/38981/
will take you to art critic Jerry Saltz's recent article "Has Money Ruined Art?" in New York Magazine. Jerry is a indefatigable gallery goer with a keen radar when it comes to art patterns that are taking shape in the obvious and alternative zones of the New York scene. He has a good eye and equally important, a good ear. He has described himself as a "vampire," constantly on the hunt for new blood (to stay alive and necessary in the flux of artworld comings and goings. I think the blood he is referring to is new talent, unpredictable efforts, and news from the battleground of opinion making.
If you are an artist, dealer, teacher, or collector, give this text a read. Saltz's notion of "the 30 month or 30 year career" is a great idea to chew on for a while. Whether or not you are feeling the reverberations from unprecedented auction prices, art fair mania, and our society of the spectacle; you have a persistent two-part question to answer for yourself.
"What are you doing and why?"
Jack Whitten
Last week, in preparation for the exhibition of Jack Whitten's Memorial Paintings that we will present at The Contemporary from April 11-June 14, 2008, I met up with the artist (in purple shirt above) while he discussed his work on view at Alexander Gray gallery in Chelsea. With a group of trustees and staff from The Studio Museum in Harlem listening attentively, Whitten talked about his intentions and processes. For years, he has devised elaborate systems to "make" paintings as opposed to painting them in a traditional manner. He has raked fields of acrylic with giant squeegees and notched blades; cast unique skins of paint combined with powdered pigments, natural and commercial dyes; creating works that extend traditions including Minimalism, Geometric Abstraction, and Op Art.
The exhibition I am developing with Jack is a survey of his paintings that pay tribute to close friends and cultural figures (artists, writers, musicians, politicians) who have died, and works commemorating disasters including the attack on 9/11 (Whitten's studio was in Tribeca and he saw the Twin Towers get hit and fall down at close range) and The Challenger Space Shuttle explosion among others. These abstract works attempt to bring together a precise materiality and appropriate image structure, capable of synthesizing the spirit and particularity of their subjects.
Judy Linn
I recently sat down with photographer Judy Linn to make selections for her upcoming mid-career survey at The Contemporary, February 8-March 29, 2008. Working mostly in B&W with occasional images in saturated color, Linn's pictures are marked by surreal juxtapositions and cool humor. She shoots constantly, letting the flow of people and places impress their unique conditions on her camera. We discussed the various merits of 75 of her favorite images, hoping to pick 25 or so for the Left Gallery. Judy and I quickly sorted these computer printouts into piles of "definitely," "maybe," and "what do you think?" I love this process of editing, talking through with artists the trajectory of their work over time, inspirations, practical matters, career, etc. Judy suggests, "I can tell how I aim. I can't say how I land."
Do Hit
Here is Atlanta gallery owner Nancy Solomon wielding the sledgehammer to contribute a blow at our "Do Hit"
event on October 16th. The chair is a work of conceptual design by the Dutch group Droog Design, typically "performed" by a solo owner with a sense of their ideal chair in mind as they swing. Included in our
Finding Form exhibition, this work allowed us to gather approximately 40 patrons to collectively turn the box of steel into a somewhat sit-able armchair. With each deafening blast and cheers from the crowd, we put ideas into action, which connects to my notion of art as a verb rather than a noun. The activity from start to finish was documented by producer Katherine Dorsett and a camera crew from CNN.com; and a few days later, I was at the CNN studios to provide additional commentary in a live interview.
An artist who saw the coverage on line said to me, "If I knew that all the participants would be on CNN, I would have come." My response was, "You never know what will happen at an opening or a lecture, that's why you have to show up! "
