artblog

Friday, August 01, 2003

Whither sculpture?

 


Ever since the commotion about Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Bilbao [see image] I’ve been thinking about the funny state of sculpture. It seems to me that architecture like Gehry’s big box has always represented some of the best sculpture around (Parthenon, Coliseum, Notre Dame, etc.) so I don’t really get why people attack Gehry for doing what architects seem to want to do naturally. (Of course there is that money thing, but let's hold that discussion for another day.)

So I accept that Gehry’s way, art done by architects, is one car on the sculpture highway. An SUV perhaps but so what. What about everybody else?

Looking around, it seems that the impulse to make sculpture has gotten sidetracked by the impulse to mess around with materials and by an academic mindset that has everybody making work about “boundaries” or the second law of thermodynamics.

What happened to just plain old let’s make an object (just one) that a human viewer can relate to and put it in a space and let the viewer relate. Let’s bring back statues for crying out loud. Let’s turn the whole enterprise over to artists like Diana Moore or Jeanne Jaffe, two object makers who seem to keep the viewer in mind. [see figure by Diana Moore]

Anything wrong with that?

I used to hate installation art. I thought it would be the death of sculpture. Most of it (Pepon Osorio’s “No Crying in the Barber Shop” is an exception) was self-indulgent, bloated and self-satisfied. And the installation enterprise took sculpture out of the realm of object-making and into the land of high concept room decoration. (Jason Rhoades for example. [see "Garage Renovation New York," 1993 below).

Time passes and things change. New installation art by Sarah Sze, our own Astrid Bowlby and others turn installation into something more hand-made and somehow in keeping with sculptural object-making. It’s viewer-friendly installation. It’s great. Is this a way forward for sculpture? Many, tiny, hand-made things that crawl up walls and around pillars; accruals and assemblages that have a micro-approach instead of a macro?


Another nail in sculpture's coffin, it seems to me, is the public art initiatives, most of which turn 3-D objects into million-dollar benches (Vito Acconci at the Philadelphia International ) or landscaping (Robert Irwin's gardens at Getty Museum [see image]). I'd rather not sit on my sculpture, thanks anyway. How about it sculptors, how and where's it going?

permanent link  roberta 7:55 AM
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Wednesday, July 30, 2003

Barnes musings

 

I read last week that Pennsylvania Attorney General Mike Fisher finally weighed in on the Barnes Foundation controversy. Fisher, who represents the interests of the public in the matter, sided strongly with the Barnes, saying the institution should be allowed to move the collection and to change the size and composition of its board. (For more, see Patricia Horn's story in the Philadelphia Inquirer, July 24, 2003)

I toured the Barnes last year with Kimberly Camp, the current director. Camp, admittedly, is not an impartial observer. But she paints a convincing case that Albert Barnes’s mission is being thwarted under current conditions that severely restrict the number of visitors -- and thus revenue -- to run the place.

Barnes [image above is portrait of Barnes by Giorgio deChirico] was an art education missionary who believed in using his institution to educate and to foster dialog about art. He and John Dewey [see photo, below] thought art education would create a better democracy.

You have to assume that Camp and the others advocating the move had Barnes’s original mission in mind when they made their petition to the Orphans Court. I can’t believe that they want to turn the whole thing into a museum, an art cash cow on the Parkway.

Wouldn't it be better if the collection moves, lock, stock and education program, to a location where the neighbors want it and where a broader group of people has a chance to come in and participate?

We could sure use a better democracy these days. I’m rooting for the Barnes to win this one. The judge will rule on the matter in December. Meanwhile, if you’ve never been to the Barnes, and chances are you haven’t, try to go -- set eyes on the place. But be forewarned, you need to call, fax or email the Barnes to reserve a ticket in advance for their limited open hours on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays between 9:30 am-5:00 pm. (But August is the month to go. There's only a one-week booking delay. Other months you may wait 30 days or longer to get a reservation.) [image above, from the Barnes collection, is Horace Pippin's "Giving Thanks" 1942]

permanent link  roberta 8:14 AM
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Tuesday, July 29, 2003

Fall-de-rol

 

So the fall lineups are trickling in and it looks like it’s going to be a girl power season, people.
Time to show R E S P E C T.

Here’s my list of must-sees, in random order, all worthy.

1. British “Sensation” Gillian Wearing, singer and poet Patti Smith and wallpaper guru Virgil Marti at the ICA. [see post 5/30/03 for more] This three-part pairing will feed the eyes, ears and soul. [image is detail of Smith's mixed media "South Tower: The Kingdom of God is Within You," 2002] Smith and her band will perform an evening of music and poetry at the Zellerbach theater Oct. 16. Tickets $15. Call Penn Presents, 215-898-3900. (show opens Sept 4 and runs to Dec. 14)

2. “Fiber Friends” at Spector. Four artists, two women, two men, ply their needles and threads in rugs, weavings, quilts and dolls. Whitney Lee’s hook rugs of porn stars in flagrante, including one reclining nude that measures 6 ft. by 4 ft. are required viewing for all who followed last week’s thread about old and new porn [posts 7/19/03, 7/21/03]. Lauren Ashley’s “red work” quilts, Eric Steinberg’s weavings and self-taught doll maker and painter Brian Bazemore, making his gallery debut, round out the crew. (show opens Sept. 12 and runs to Oct. 3)

3. “Gilding the Lily: Ceramic Wallpaper by Rain Harris,” at Temple’s Tyler Gallery in Elkins Park. Harris, 1999 Leeway award-winning local ceramist known for her sensual, biomorphic vessels encrusted with faux gems and often covered with flocking will install the space with Victorian-affect floral patterning, both 2-D and 3-D. (show runs Sept. 9 to Oct. 11)

4. “Surface Tension” and “LURE” at the Fabric Workshop and Museum. Hello videophiles, this is your show. A compendium of video projections onto non-standard surfaces by local artists, Nadia Hironaka and Peter Rose and by Nicole Cohen, Camille Utterback, and Tony Oursler. [image is Hironaka's "Aquarium" 2000]The night of the opening, local artist Aaron Igler’s LURE group (known for nocturnal, exterior projections) will screen new work -- artist-designed screensavers -- outside the FWM. (show opens Sept. 5 and runs to Nov. 14)

5. “drawings and installation by Astrid Bowlby” at Gallery Joe. Bowlby, 2002 Leeway award winner whose work moves between big, labor intensive ink on paper installations (like last year’s “Leaves of Grass” at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts) and small, labor-intensive ink drawings will cover it all here, filling the front gallery and the vault space with her black-and-white visions [image above is Bowlby's "Bobbers" 2003]. Bowlby is an artblog contributor. (show opens Sept. 5 and runs through Oct. 25)

6. “Brighter Death Now” at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Video Gallery. Local artist Jennifer Macdonald’s hand-drawn animation (283 drawings) tells a metaphorical story about love and obsession seen through the games played by a boy and a bunny. Featured in last year’s “A Closer Look” exhibit at Arcadia the one minute, 15 second video is a stunner for its flat affect -- and surprising emotional range. (Aug. 26 to Sept. 14)

All this and more will be yours if you make it through the month of August.
permanent link  roberta 8:48 AM
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Monday, July 28, 2003

Segue time

 
Letting go of the past is hard but it’s time to move on. Thanks, guys, for your free-ranging thoughts and don’t be shy about piping up again. In blogland, threads are the spice of life. Meanwhile, coming soon, a little news about the future.
permanent link  roberta 6:56 AM
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