{"id":1300,"date":"2009-11-20T01:50:25","date_gmt":"2009-11-20T09:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp\/2009\/11\/friday_links_-_slam-dunk_curat\/"},"modified":"2009-11-20T01:50:25","modified_gmt":"2009-11-20T09:50:25","slug":"friday_links_-_slam-dunk_curat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/2009\/11\/friday_links_-_slam-dunk_curat.html","title":{"rendered":"Friday links – slam-dunk curation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Best of 3<\/i><\/b><\/a> has the best take on the news that Shaquille O’Neale will co-curate a show titled, Size Does Matter<\/i>:<\/p>\n

It would be so easy to just poke fun<\/a>, or dismiss this as a publicity stunt<\/a>. But you know what? The sun’s shining, I’m feeling generous, and I’m going to say that maybe Shaquille O’Neale<\/a> has a genuine interest in art and his co-curation of a show for the Flag Art Foundation<\/a> is a mutually enjoyable and beneficial enterprise.<\/p>\n

Titled ‘Size Does Matter’<\/a>,
\nthe show has a line up of artists who I wouldn’t kick out of the
\ngallery for eating crackers, including Maurizio Cattelan, Chuck Close,
\nAndreas Gursky, Jeff Koons and – of course – a big naked guy from Ron
\nMueck (on loan from the Hirshhorn<\/a>). In an icing-on-the-PR-cake move, the catalogue features an essay by (in)famous author James Frey.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It is<\/i> a stretch to think O’Neale would find anything to admire in a man who cowers in a corner. (Image via Hirshhorn<\/a>) Museum publicity stunt? These are desperate times, Mrs. Lovett. <\/p>\n

\"RonMueckbigman.jpg\"Carol Diehl has a roundup<\/b> on her blog, which is suitably titled Art Vent<\/i><\/a>, of critics going sexist-berserk.  I’ve been reading on other blogs various snippets from Blake Gopnik’s Washington Post review<\/a> of Anne Truit<\/strike> Truitt, all making him sound goofy. But when Diehl called his piece “the most scathing and sexist writing I’ve<\/span> ever encountered about an artist,<\/i>” I finally <\/i>clicked over to the Post to read it. <\/p>\n

Sexist? Not even a little bit. It’s jaunty, and jaunty doesn’t work if a few pushing-the-edge sentences are plucked from the whole. I found it insightful, especially this part:<\/p>\n

When Jasper Johns and others had found the abstract in the ordinary, Truitt
\nseems to find the everyday in the abstract — a much stranger thing to
\ndo.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Knocking Blake Gopnik is the art bloggers’ national sport. He has written a few things that made my eyes pop (Exhibit A here<\/a>), but he startles not because he’s a fool but because he’s trying to enliven what his editors might well feel is the stale form of the art review. <\/p>\n

Editors at newspapers rarely appreciate reviews. Gopnik is working to interest them in his, them and presumably other people who do not think of themselves as part of the art world. Anyone pushing a boundary is going to fail on occasion, but he does not fail Truitt. <\/p>\n

As for Charlie Finch, whom Diehl also hangs in her gallery-of-shame for his sexist post<\/a> on Triutt, also no. He’s Truitt’s son-in-law. (We know this because he titled his piece, “Mother-in-Law.”) His point of view is personal and affectionate, ending with: <\/p>\n

The Hirshhorn retrospective should vault her into a special pantheon of
\nher own, one which she occupied in privacy during her own life and in
\npublic now that her work belongs to the world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What a canine. Did Gloria Steinem march in vain? Women artists can’t get a break. His fellow dog, Blake Gopnik, called Truitt a genius. It’s a wonder women don’t riot in the streets. <\/p>\n


<\/b><\/p>\n


\nNo humor allowed<\/b>: Jen Graves posted<\/a> this dazzling piece of (at least brief) nonsense yesterday: <\/p>\n

Remember: American men don’t do art<\/a> unless it involves naked ladies, unless the men have thin shoulders. I hate you, Garrison Keillor.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Jen.
\nHe’s kidding. Kidding. The whole thing is a spoof on sex stereotypes,
\nnot an indulgence of them. Hate Garrison Keillor? Save it for Dick
\nCheney. <\/p>\n

A one-night only, anti-Thomas Kinkade<\/b> show in San Francisco took up a fair amount of space on blogs this week, in reaction to a story<\/a> in the S.F. Chronicle. What got me were comments from Last Gasp<\/i> publisher Ron Turner, who has, as he notes, published a Kinkade book.<\/p>\n

“I’m
\nnot anti-Kinkade,” Turner said. “I think he gets under everyone’s skin
\nbecause he glorifies the fairy tale. Kinkade is a master marketer, and
\nI think the idealizing of the images is Kinkade’s own inside joke.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

No,
\nRon. It’s not because he glorifies fairy tales. What Hunter S. Thompson
\nsaid about Richard Nixon is also true of Kinkade’s work, that it’s a
\n“monument to all the rancid genes and broken chromosomes that corrupt
\nthe possibilities of the American Dream.”<\/p>\n

Jos Sances<\/a> added just the right touch of realism to Kinkade’s creepy delusions years ago. <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Best of 3 has the best take on the news that Shaquille O’Neale will co-curate a show titled, Size Does Matter: It would be so easy to just poke fun, or dismiss this as a publicity stunt. But you know what? The sun’s shining, I’m feeling generous, and I’m going to say that maybe Shaquille […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1300","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1300\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}