{"id":411,"date":"2009-04-09T23:03:57","date_gmt":"2009-04-10T06:03:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp\/2009\/04\/the_medium_is_a_mess\/"},"modified":"2009-04-09T23:03:57","modified_gmt":"2009-04-10T06:03:57","slug":"the_medium_is_a_mess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/2009\/04\/the_medium_is_a_mess.html","title":{"rendered":"Vik Muniz’s medium is a mess"},"content":{"rendered":"

Invited to participate in Andre Breton’s exhibit titled First Papers of Surrealism<\/i> in 1942, Marcel Duchamp<\/a> waited till others installed their work and then draped it with his. His Mile of String<\/i><\/a> reduced all other art to background. <\/p>\n

Checkmate<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Art is full of bitchy moments, but rarely do they become historical. Hats off to the man whose disdain made him a beloved and influential figure to this day. <\/p>\n

He’s the art world’s Bartley the Scrivener<\/a>. Just like Bartley, who’d prefer not to, Duchamp indicted the system in which he refused to participate. His reason was solid, and it was about reason: If art were no more than the <\/em>metronomic production of visual niceties, <\/em>it was nothing at all.<\/p>\n

More than 60 years later, Vik Muniz<\/a> followed Duchamp’s lead with an unintended, boomerang effect. In obscuring the work of others, Muniz is the one whose product is a thoughtless pleasantry, a parlor trick. <\/p>\n

Three examples from his Pictures of Pigment<\/i><\/a> series were recently at the James Harris Gallery<\/a>. He piled up layers of colored pigment and photographed the results for a final product, attaching his dead weight to the memory of other artists. <\/p>\n

Thanks to him, Gustave Courbet<\/a>, Frederic E. Church<\/a> and Grandma
\nMoses<\/a> all come out the same. What’s really the same is him, not them. <\/p>\n

(Click to enlarge)
1. The Oak at Flagey, after Gustave Courbet<\/i>, 2007
2. Evening in the Woods, after Grandma Moses<\/i>, 2006
3. The Icebergs, after Frederic E. Church<\/i>, 2007  <\/em><\/span><\/a><\/em><\/font><\/p>\n

\"Muniz_The<\/a><\/span>\"Muniz_Evening<\/a><\/span>\"Muniz_The<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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

Invited to participate in Andre Breton’s exhibit titled First Papers of Surrealism in 1942, Marcel Duchamp waited till others installed their work and then draped it with his. His Mile of String reduced all other art to background. Checkmate. Art is full of bitchy moments, but rarely do they become historical. Hats off to the […]<\/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-411","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\/411","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=411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}