I was going to put up Louis Greenstein's post about the Barnes and not respond, but it just so happens that my brother came to town from Edmonton, and we decided it would be swell to go to the Barnes. (Shown, a door from Africa, from the collection)
Get in the door and pass go We got lucky. There may have been no reservations available for the next seven years, but when I called yesterday morning, they said they had two for 1 p.m. Yessss. (Not that they offered the info; I got it by persistence and questions.)
I haven't been there for a zillion years (first point against keeping the joint in Merion, where no one can get in the damned place), and once again I was stunned by the collection. How could one person amass so much wonderful art (blowzy Renoirs aside)?
Only the privileged need apply I reread Greenstein's letter and got furious.
So Greenstein wants to keep the paintings all to himself. This is about exclusivity. (Let them take the bus instead, he said, a la Marie Antoinette. I bet he doesn't take the bus. And how about the issue of getting a reservation to get in the joint.) (Shown, "Tavern Scene" by Vincent Van Gogh.)
I don't think that such a wealth of cultural artifacts belongs sequestered away inaccessible to the public except for the privileged few like Greenstein. I utterly disagree with him.
Take the mystery out of the Barnes' education program
Furthermore, the education program is not so special. It's just art education. What's special about the education is the art. The other stuff you learn in any university art history course (shown, cezanne's "Bibemus Quarry").
Furthermore, the displays and some of the points Barnes was making with the displays seemed silly, pretentious and self-aggrandizing. They had less to do with the art and more to do with Barnes' proving his cleverness. I was frankly embarrassed by some of it. Enough with the pairing of violet and yellow already.
A mob of paintings
The precious hanging system that everyone raves about is awful. It does a disservice to each painting. Many of the paintings are hard to see--badly lit or skied so high they require a step ladder to view them (look at these poor visitors craning their necks).
I'm not saying you can't group paintings. But there are groupings and then there are groupings. This was a painting mob scene.
Barnes' wishes
But for all that, the Barnes was fabulous. However, keeping it for the precious elite who are organized enough to make their reservations 60 days in advance or take the classes is not right (shown, Matisse's "Girl in Black on a Balcony").
With things continuing the way they are, the collection may well go down the tubes, broken up to pay for itself. While we're all invoking Dr. Barnes and his wishes, I say he would not be happy with that particular outcome, either. So let's get real, return to the 21st century, and save what we can.
Locals Virgil Marti and Max Lawrence are in show opening today at the d.u.m.b.o. arts center (dac) in Brooklyn.
The show called "Heroes, Villains, and Average Joes" is curated by another local, Alex Baker, who is curator of the Morris Gallery at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
Marti will show his "Bullies" wallpaper (shown) that you may have seen at the Fabric Workshop or the CEC or two zillion other places because everyone loves it, with its black-light fluorescent portraits of bullies appropriated from his high school yearbook.
Lawrence’s villains are criminals pulled from the daily papers, anonymous “bad” people such as counterfeiters, prostitutes, and murderers. In these paintings, which resemble 3D postcards. Lawrence creates an illusionistic field in which narrative imagery is suspended between layers of resin.
Others in the show, which runs from today to July 11, include Kathe Burkhart, Josh Jordan, Leah Tinari and Marc Dennis.
The common assumption -- which is inherent in your post -- is that more people should be able to see this amazing collection [at the Barnes Foundation]. Why? Is it their birthright? (Shown, children learning at the Barnes.) I mean, I’m all for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but is someone who amasses a large private collection obligated to open it to the public? Dr. Barnes didn’t want to. He was quite clear on that point.
When I was a student there I learned how to look at art. I learned how to see. It took 26 weeks and many hundreds of hours. You can’t get an education like that in a museum. You can’t get an education like that by visiting a collection like the Barnes.
It’s as though you’ve built an amazing microscope that enables you to peer into the inner world of the atom – secret universes! You can teach people how to use this delicate instrument, but it takes time.
Art for only the neighbors? Does society have the right to barge in with crowded tour buses from Kansas? “Step right up and see the giant-super-duper microscope! Step right up! Just one thin quarter! Keep it moving, keep it moving people!” No. It’s your tool, your gig.
The Barnes collection was Dr. Barnes’ tool. It was his gig. He left explicit instructions about how it should operate. It’s a school that allows a limited number of gawkers and tourists in each week. (And, incidentally, hopping on the 44 bus anywhere along Market St. and hopping off 30 minutes later a block from the Barnes is pretty darned easy to do.)
Glanton's race card All that being said, Glanton made it about race. It was never ever an issue of the neighbors resenting that African-Americans run the Barnes (shown, Horace Pippin's "Giving Thanks" from the Barnes Collection).
Many neighbors are hurt and bitter because the Barnes administration played the race card and continues to tell lies about the neighbors, e.g. that the foundation incurred legal fees defending itself in a lawsuit initiated by its neighbors.
There never was such a lawsuit. Honest. Look it up.
The Barnes, however, did sue its neighbors under the KKK act.
[Note from Roberta -- Just to clarify, while he's right, the neighbors did not initiate the lawsuit, there was nonetheless a lawsuit. Incredible costs were incurred by all parties and it can be argued the suit was an act of desperation, and stupid to boot. But let's not overlook this item, which I posted about previously, that says the neighbors are still fighting about how much money the Barnes owes them for their court costs, ($300,000) something that smacks of punishment not fitting the crime at this point (eight years after the case was dismissed).]
I read the brief they filed. It opened with several pages of photographs of black men being lynched in 1911 Mississippi. That hurt like hell. The neighbors complained about traffic problems. There was too much traffic BECAUSE Richard Glanton defied Barnes’ wishes. It’s not a tourist destination. It’s for a limited number of visitors. It’s quirky and goofy – like the man himself.
Here's a great opportunity for aspiring photographers interested in showing in New York in an exhibit that benefits a worthwhile cause. It's the ACRIA art benefit, Unframed First Look Photo, at Sean Kelly Gallery. (ACRIA is the Aids Community Research Initiative of America.). The show's a high profile event and if you need more coaxing, this year's jurors are Cindy Sherman, Adam Fuss and Jack Pierson. (shown is Pierson's "Self Portrait #4")
This is the second year for the ACRIA competition. Last year's competition was paintings, and 350 works were submitted from around the world. Jurors were Ross Bleckner, Peter Halley and Sue Williams. And I'm told by a Philly artist who was in that show that it was a good place to make some contacts.
The photo show this year will be juried from real work and not slides and the criteria for entry (apart from the $20 fee) is that you've never had a solo show in New York and don't have a New York gallery representing you. Deadline's June 28 and you can get all the submission info at ACRIA's website. The show runs July 28-Aug 6 with the opening on July 28. permanent link roberta 8:10 AM Comments? Let us know.
Friday, May 21, 2004
How drawings make it into museum collections
Artnet, my favorite source for art news tells us that fabled drawings collector Werner H. Kramarsky has given the Museum of Modern Art 81 drawings by a wide range of established and young artists. This donation is in addition to the other 95 drawings he's given the museum since 1999. (top image is detail of a drawing by Christine Hiebert one of the artists whose works will enter MOMA for the first time courtesy of Kramarsky)
Kramarsky is a trustee of the museum. His generous gifting of drawings to this or any other museum always includes big name artists as well as work by artists the collector calls "newbies," those under the museum's radar -- but maybe not for long after they see the work come in via Kramarsky's gift. Read this interesting article on the collector.
Artnet says that 24 of the artists are first-time MOMA entrants. And here's the news, we've seen a bunch of these "newbie" artists at Gallery Joe -- like Christine Hiebert, Teo Gonzalez, Laurie Reid and Joan Waltemath.(shown right is detail of Waltemath's drawing installation, seen at Gallery Joe.) Reid and Gonzalez were in a recent group show at Joe. Read my post for more.
Other newbies entering MOMA in this batch are Eve Aschheim, Brad Brown, Kenneth Capps, Anne Chu, Max Cole, Elena Del Rivero, Lee Etheredge IV, Kendra Ferguson, Cheryl Goldsleger, Nancy Holt, Ann Ledy, Lee Lozano, Julia Mangold, Stefana McClure, Stephen Metts, Tatsuo Miyajima, Deborah Gottheil Nehmad, Gloria Ortiz Hernandez, Winston Roeth, Eric Saxon.
Ashley Gallery artists, including a slew of Philadelphians will be exhibiting at New York's 2/20 Gallery May 2- to June 3. 2/20's located at 220 W. 16th St. between 7th and 8th Avenues.
The work's primarily figurative, with some mystical, magical undertones.
Recent PAFA grad, Anthony Palumbo, who had a solo show at Ashley last December (I wrote about his work here and for the Weekly) will be in the NY show. As will his brother David, a 2004 PAFA grad (you can see David's work now in the PAFA student show).
Also in the show are Bill Miller, Phil Blank, Philip Corey, John David, Ed Raffel, Ryan Hopkins, Lisa O'Brian and Matakia Dianne Kaufman. The show's called Summer Phantasm and check it out when you're up there.
I don't have time to do much web surfing. But every so often I do some web stumbling that isn't procrastination after all and I'm happy. This morning I was at inliquid's site to sign up again for their newsletter. (For some reason, me and my mac have trouble with this. I've signed up repeatedly and still never get the thing.)
Anyway, while there I clicked on AVOID, Gerard Brown's Big Nothing web project and stumbled upon four short, companionable animateds by Ellen Driscoll and Jane D. Marsching which kept me occupied for about fifteen minutes total. (image at the top is from one of the four shorts, the Boudoir segment. That's Clementine sleeping in the bed.)
I hardly ever looked at my watch, and for a web project, that's good.
The duo's marionette heroine, Clementine, floats through four environments, from a mine shaft to the moon and beyond. The animation, done layers, is sophisticated and beautiful and includes everything from drawing to cinematic montages of imagery to cut paper silhouettes. The classy production values and the use of a puppet type hero reminded me of Josh Mosley's work, seen not too long ago at the PMA.
The scenario is something about dating and lost love. Clementine and her miner, forty-niner kept trying to hook up but missed each other other repeatedly and the story-telling words, a kind of rambling, poetic inner monologue of sorts, implied they'd never meet. Before leaving AVOID, I browsed Susan Arthur's photo show which was too slow for me. At around 5 seconds per not-great but not-bad image, I cut out after the first 10. Something about the small scale and the length of the slide show was wrong.
Jennifer McTague's daily "Adventure drawings," on the other hand, were just right. Little hand-drawn maps that come at you in animation in pretty colors (blue, green, purple) chart the artist's footsteps around the house and other architectural space (one, (shown) includes a parking lot). They were short and sweet and reminded me of Stephen Cartwright's global positioning system drawings shown at Gallery Joe and elsewhere. Cartwright, a bicycler, charted his positions riding around town then printed out the routes.
I find the whole trace your steps phenomenon loaded with yearning for the meaning of life.
While the impulse reminds me slightly of Hanne Darboven's chronicling her days projects (seen at DIA a while back and now housed at DIA Beacon), the steps tracers seem to connect with the outer world more directly and I find the metaphorical links more reverberant.
Anyway, if you're looking to surf, check out AVOID. There's a big button to click on inliquid's front page in the right side bar.
Libby and I drove up to Grounds for Sculpture last Saturday for the opening of our friend Ava Blitz's new piece "Moby Dick." (shown above and below)
Blitz's work was the first we spotted inside the Grounds. It dominates a grassy knoll outside the entrance to one of the galleries.
Made during an artist's residency in Minnesota, the cast concrete and mortar work, was moved piece by piece from the Midwest and reassembled on site in New Jersey where it will have a good long rest, we hope, before having to pack up and go on the road again.
Beached and bleached, "Moby," like all things white in nature, seems delicate in spite of its materials. I liked its slumpy resiliance, which is kind of how I feel most of the time, slumpy and resiliant.
Meanwhile, if you've never been to Seward Johnson's now-closed foundry and still open landscape and outdoor art joint, you need to know that the art competes with nature and doesn't always win.
How can anything compete with a band of roving, honking, tail-displaying peacocks? And then there's the lush landscaping that makes you want to run home to Garden.com and order some tall grasses.
Here's another thing, to rephrase the old saw about golf, some of the art makes a good walk spoiled.
I'm not talking about pieces like Blitz's "Moby," you understand, or about a nice Red Grooms painted bronze "Henry Moore in the Sheep Meadow" (shown above and below) that was as friendly as a Wallace and Gromit cartoon or even about Johnson's kitsch 3-D recreation of "Dejeuner Sul Herbe" which, after all, de-institutionalizes the high and mighty which is not a bad thing. Click here for pictures of Johnson's outdoor works on the Grounds.
I'm talking about the other works, many of which are like the uninspired "turds in the plaza" Tom Wolf talked about in "From Bauhaus to Our House."
Well, here they all are, not in plazas, but on berms, in groves of trees, beside fish ponds. You kind of want to look away. permanent link roberta 8:18 AM Comments? Let us know.
Wednesday, May 19, 2004
I brake for Spector
I talked with gallerist and artblog fave Shelley Spector the other day and she told me about the new show opening in the gallery Friday. It's a double bill of paintings, drawings and a sand castle (yes, built on site) by Brooklyn artist Oliver Vernon in the front space and new work in ceramics and on paper by C. W. Wells in the back.
The opening's on Friday, from 6 pm-9 pm. with music and dancing in the alley outside the gallery. Vernon's girlfriend is a break dancer, and we're hoping she'll perform.
Vernon work, like mandalas made by someone steeped in street culture or Hollywood-influenced graphic design, have something of Phil Frost about them.
And CW Wells's darkling creatures (naughty and nice) will smolder and pose in their usual bad child way looking for attention.
If you're going to be in New York, you might want to check out Bill Scott's show of landscapes--ebullient colors with intimations of a dark side--at Hollis Taggart Galleries from May 18 to July 9. Scott sometimes reviews Philly artists in Art in America. (Shown, "Courtyard,"* oil on linen, 39" x 33")
Thoughts about what's here, what's been and what's to come permeate the photographs at the Open Lens Gallery--(which is the entry way into the Borowsky Gallery, not to mention, the Gershman Y).
"Facades: Architectural Landscapes," up until Aug. 15, includes images of facades of old commercial strips around the country by local photographer Sandy Sorlien, the gates restricting access to homes in Las Vegas by Jerry Russo (from Boston), and the architecture in a Parisian cemetery, by Philadelphian David Lightner.
As a grouping, I found the Russo and Lightner work a nice pair.
Sorlien's work (at top, "Main Street, Smithville, TX (Antiques)" 26" x 38" color coupler print), seems to be about something else entirely, and not just because it's in color while the other two shoot in black in white.
Russo and Lightner are looking at entrances into a mysterious what, gates into the unknown.
Jerry Russo's gates to the desert The land behind Russo's Las Vegas gates looks very much like the land in front, making the need for the gates seem like folly. The harsh contrasts of the desert light and the size of the images (right, "Gate (Untitled)" 35"x46", iris print) and their modern method of manufacture give the work a modern look to comment on today's world, full of people looking for their little piece of real estate heaven.
David Lightner's gates to heaven The shots of the cemetery are also about people looking for their place in heaven, or some guarantee for their entrance into a mysterious what. The prints have the subtle gradations of light and the smaller scale of old-fashioned photos (left, Tomb of Pissaro-May, 37"x22"). Oh, and I should add they are old fashioned photos--silver gelatin prints.
But the tales from the crypt are also about self-important folly. And the gaping black portals into the mausoleums bespeak decay and belie the Pearly Gates, just as Russo's barren landscapes belie the wrought iron gates. To put it another way, beware, all ye who enter.
Sandy Sorlien's lost Main Streets Sorlien's work, on the other hand, seems to have a romance to it about times and places gone by. She uses modern methods to create a view from today of yesterday's places. Their cinematic color sense mixes Hollywood westerns and an early 20th century ideal of American Main Street life--without the people. The buildings are facades or shells of human activity now lost.
The work also brings to mind Ed Ruscha's silkscreened gas station (right above, Ruscha's "Standard") and Edward Hopper's views of empty city streets (left, Hopper's "Early Sunday Morning")--ambivalent salutes to American commerce.
We at artblog couldn't believe that the Inky ran yet another Sozanski screed against moving the Barnes. The arguments seemed weaker than ever.
Here's the graph we hated most because it got all three points wrong (bold emphases ours):
The future of the Barnes is not really about money (the foundations supporting the move have plenty of that), or parking (a truly irrelevent issue) or racism (Barnes' neighbors were calumnized for insisting that the foundatio0n obey township zoning laws).
We believe it is precisely money, parking and racism that are at issue here.
Furthermore Sozanski created a false dichotomy between museum and school, as if museums don't teach.
The whole argument felt like typical Philadelphia kneejerk fear of change. But that so few people serious about art have made it to the Barnes is a real probelem that only a move can rectify. (shown photo of Barnes, his dog and a small part of his collection) permanent link libby and roberta 9:57 AM Comments? Let us know.
Grubstake gossip
We always want to know what people look like and we figure you do too.
Here's a few pictures we took Saturday night at the opening of "Grubstake," the 4,000-person (really 18-person) collaborative installation at basekamp.
We're very shy but people posed with enthusiasm for our digicams. Contributors Tristin Lowe, Paul Swenbeck (who organized the whole thing) and Clint Takeda gave willing smiles (at least two of them did). The glare is from one of the audio-visual aids, an overhead projector on the floor. (top image)
Above right is contributor John Gibbons and his friend Carrie Cook.
Contributor Richard Harrod took a moment to pose with Candy Depew in the kitchen when we were looking for Sarah McEneaney's frozen blood-red money (don't ask). (left)
Former basekamp boy Justin Matherly posed with girlfriend Jennifer Macdonald who's got a show up at Vox right now.
The two are leaving for graduate school at Hunter in New York in August. (right)
McEneaney was sitting in the open window looking for fresh air with Joy Feasley, Nancy Stroud and contributor Isobel Sollenberger. (left)
And last is Takatomo Tomita (bottom) showing off the home-made currency the artists all contributed. Tomo's pieces were cast out of solder.
Kate Abercrombie's little coins were tiny paintings on button-sized disks.
Bardo Pond created aural atmosphere.
We saw Matthew Suib (who has a show opening at the Art Alliance tuesday night) and his pal Nadia Hironaka, Kate Abercrombie, Shannon Bowser and Aaron Igler. permanent link libby and roberta 9:56 AM Comments? Let us know.
Grub
We crashed a party the other night. "Grubstake," an installation by 18 artists at play at basekamp, is brought to you by the same group that installed a giant cupcake at Space 1026 last summer. Unlike the cupcake installation this year's effort felt more collaborative with fewer set pieces by individual artists.
Here the installation reminded us of Assume Vivid Astro Focus's Whitney room except without the slickness. We had music, flashing lights, video, audio, drawings on the walls, ceiling floor, etc.
All commercial sense was lost except for the grubstake, original coins made by the artists. Here's the crew: Kate Abercrombie, Shannon Bowser, Scott Marvel Cassidy, Robert Chaney, John Gibbons, Mike Gibbons, Richard Harrod, Christopher Hensel, Aaron Igler, Tristin Lowe, Eric McDade, Sarah McEneaney, Olivia Schreiner, Isobel Sollenberger, Paul Swenbeck, Clint Takeda, Takatomo Tomita and Justin Witte.
The group meets periodically for drawing parties a la Duchampian exquisite corpse sessions. McEneaney said Swenbeck was the instigator.
Like the simple folks we are, we especially liked the drawings, flashing lights and the spinning rock.
Another fave was a wooden doghouse with pup-tent ambiance (shown) and a dog video inside. You had to crawl in puppy style on all fours to see it. We also liked the group drawings on the walls. permanent link libby and roberta 9:54 AM Comments? Let us know.
Sunday, May 16, 2004
Ground zero for Big Nothing
I want to say right off the bat that this is going to be one in a series of mini-posts on the Big Nothing at the ICA, sort of follow-ups to Roberta's post on opening night.
Interestingly enough, my favorite pieces were word-driven. I find this interesting because in terms of nothingness in art, nothing is no image, and these are (sort of) no image pieces.
For good readers only
First my fave, which is upstairs separated from the video corral by its own little, black-curtained room.
"Dakota"(shown), is a film noir digital animation by YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES. It's a CD-ROM of words flashing in a variety of sizes and shapes at a variety of rhythms, set to a fabulous Art Blakey drum solo. In true film noir fashion, it's all in black and white, and tells three noir stories, one of kids on the road, one an homage to Blakey, and one set in the seedy, fast-food-noodle-stand world of late-night Seoul, Korea. You can actually view it on line at the link above. Be sure to pump up the volume.
Unlike a lot of art video, this was compelling, its pace a wild pony ride from beginning to end, its stories rich with atmosphere and hip-hop poetry.
For Conceptual Art naysayers
My other fave was by Pope.L, "Truth Painting (Unauthorized Version)." I've been listening to complaints about Conceptual Art from a number of people who shall remain nameless (they can always send an email of complaint), but, as in all generalizations, the specific trumps the theory.
The words "I sell the shadow to support the substance" are a quote from Sojourner Truth, barely visible on a white vinyl surface.
The quote gathers spin as filtered through the materials that delivered it--a barely visible white-on-white "painting" of vinyl on PVC plastic and pushpins, 36" x 36"--very slick looking signage, its truth barely visible, its whiteness a symbol. Besides, "shadow" is such a loaded word, given the way it floats in Pope.L's new context.
I love the irony of an art show on nothing with highlights of seeming non-imagery (although the imagery is really there, in the presentation of the words and materials of both of these pieces).
I am now going to whine and growl about the fact that I don't have an image. The ICA-CD contained just a fraction of what was up. permanent link libby 11:56 AM Comments? Let us know.
Freeform afterhours partay
It's been happening for a while now that young artists throw exhibits that are like parties and if you don't catch them at the opening you have trouble getting in to see the goods. These exhibits are best viewed at the opening party anyway when bodies in motion seem to complete the works on the walls and floors.
Last First Friday I checked out a new party-exhibit space in Northern Liberties, Freeform Philadelphia at MBN, accompanied by Ditta and Frank and Bay. The second-floor loft space was great and well appointed with salon-style furniture in alcoves and free-floating seating arrangements. There was a dj and somebody breakdancing. The art was there but not there, kind of sly and unimposing in the clubhouse atmosphere.
Some nine artists had their works around, with painting, photos, video and sculpture all included. Best to my eye were Jarred Cohen's found object works "Meat and Fish" (top image is detail) and Martin Bromirski's series of photographs clothespinned together (image left is detail). Cohen, an earnest young artist who just graduated from Temple, made the best, most creamy pink, Wayne Thibaud-esque stack of grocery store styrofoam packing material. Not only did the piece have Donald Judd minimalism chops but it had self-taught artist obsessive collecting to boot. Cohen told me he made the boxes that the two stacks were in (the other stack, not shown, was made of blue and black styrofoam.) They had a nice milk-paint, distressed quality.
Bromirski's photos, which show the face of his girlfriend in stages of adornment with glitter and stickers and other bright stuff had a nice contact sheet ambiance about them. They looked great hanging there in long strips clipped together and swaying a little as people walked by. Haunting and ambiguous, the work played with ideas of voyeurism and archiving and had a bit of the Victorian cabinet of wonders thing going on. It had big aspirations in spite of its low tech clothespins.
There was no wall attribution but I think the photos from Cuba (people, cars and telephones) in small gilt frames were by Banjamin Barnett. They had a Buena Vista Social Club nostalgia to them that made them loveable.
All in all, a pretty good show with serious intent. The space is a little remote from Old City but there was lots of on street parking when we pulled in.
Tadashi Moriyama, a Tyler grad who's in charge of the space, is soliciting submissions for the month-long shows. This show's up until May 26 and the press info says the hours are 12 pm- 4 pm but I'd call first or email before heading up there. 215-592-1242. tadashi_moriyama@hotmail.com permanent link roberta 8:37 AM Comments? Let us know.