John Perreault's art diary
Love in the Afternoon To understand contemporary art you must mis-understand Marcel Duchamp. The readymade is the template for all things postmodern. But how do you choose which store-bought object to sign? The broken and mended Bride Stripped Bare by Bachelors, Even is the clue to the real meaning of the readymades. The readymades, including most famously the signed urinal, the bicycle … [Read more...]
Surely we all agree that artists are the center of art, if not the art world. In order to get more artworks out of them, we try to be kind and as far as possible let them call the shots. High hopes are endemic. Nevertheless, sometimes gallerists, curators, and critics are more talented than the artists they serve. When an artist verges on megalomania, failure is likely. Even Picasso listened to gallerists, curators, and critics. Maybe not enough, but they had his ear. As did some poets. Artists … [Read more...]
Willem de Kooning’s difficult masterpieces, recently so unfashionable, can now be seen with new eyes. De Kooning’s work for decades was virtually blacklisted by Greenbergian formalists, but MoMA makes amends with a well-chosen and complex survey. “Willem de Kooning, A Retrospective” at MoMA to January 9 is the must-see of the fall season. Jackson Pollock was great, but so was de Kooning, and we are here reminded why. Of course, the single minded cannot allow anything but a single line. Art-historical descent does not allow dissent, … [Read more...]
ARTOPIAnews GAG SHOP MAD AVE VENUE SHUTTERED NOT the gallery, for all you fans of schadenfreude; only the books, trinkets, and art souvenir outlet. Can the landlords now command a higher rent? LINK. Story and image, thanks to artnet.com NIEMEYER MUSEUM CURTAINS AFTER 62 DAYS! 103-year old master-architect Oscar Niemeyer, who designed Brasilia, must be in shock; his new museum in Spain just opened..... and then, after 62 days, closed. To expensive to run! What will happen to it? … [Read more...]
ARTOPIAnews Not One Artist Awarded MacArthur This Year. Shame, shame. This is not to say the recipients are unworthy. But why nominate or evaluate artist candidates if the results are so insulting? For the record, you can’t apply and all nominators, evaluators, and juries are top secret and, therefore, unaccountable. Salvation Army Buys Museum Will … [Read more...]
Refluxions A recent exhibition at the Stendhal Gallery in Chelsea gave pause for thought. And another chance to play catch-up with Fluxus, during what might be a Neo-Fluxus period. Solidified just before Conceptual Art per se, Fluxus was truly international. To the accusation that Fluxus is just Dada in sheep's clothing, Fluxians would reply that unlike Dada, their religion accentuates the positive rather than the negative. Fluxus is often humorous, but humor in art is no laughing matter. Fluxus humor is not what the Surrealists … [Read more...]
The Plot Site-specific art has subjects. Content needs to be parsed. In the best examples, the artworks initiate a kind of dialogue between place and viewers, illuminating where we are. Dreary forms of personal expression are at least once removed. Furthermore, it gets art out of galleries, museums and penthouses. What I have never said before is that site-specific art harkens back to a time before easel paintings and the tchotchkas and mementos that now pretend to be sculpture. Unlike … [Read more...]
Kawara Has Not Dated Who would have thought that On Kawara would now look like a major artist? His work has a certain Dada purity. One of the things Kawara does, has done, and continues to do - since Jan. 4, 1966 -- is paint the date wherever he is, in white on a monochromatic ground. Of course, it gets more complicated. The date is not painted every single day. Furthermore, some days he paints the date two or three times. I assume that whoever buys a date painting is informed if his or her proud possession is singular or … [Read more...]
John Perreault: Critical Mass Redux (1971-2008) How History Is Rewritten Yours truly has finally managed to get a few things off his chest. Or, more correctly, off his back. As keeper of the Street Works and Performance flame, I have carted around a burden these many years since the late '60s, waiting for someone, anyone, to delve into these phenomena. Two-hundred-and-forty-two sheets of paper and various souvenirs are now on display in an experimental, au courant, witty art space … [Read more...]
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