{"id":503,"date":"2009-05-01T13:42:04","date_gmt":"2009-05-01T20:42:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp\/2009\/05\/philip_smith_-_all_the_insults\/"},"modified":"2009-05-01T13:42:04","modified_gmt":"2009-05-01T20:42:04","slug":"philip_smith_-_all_the_insults","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/2009\/05\/philip_smith_-_all_the_insults.html","title":{"rendered":"Philip Smith – all the insults artists are heir to"},"content":{"rendered":"

Culture Grrl was alert enough at a press preview for Pictures Generation<\/i><\/a> at the Met to realize that one person worth talking to (Douglas Crimp<\/a>) was there but not talking. (Her interview here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Pictures Generation<\/i> builds on the base of Crimp’s Pictures<\/i> exhibition at Artists Space in 1977. Crimp is good at theory, not necessarily on how it plays out in the work of individual artists. Also, with 30 years of hindsight, Met curator Douglas Ecklund is in a better position to judge who belongs in this media-saturated group.<\/p>\n

My problem isn’t who’s in and out, it’s how they’re out. Philip Smith<\/a> is the only artist in Crimp’s show who isn’t in the Met’s. (In Crimp’s own reevaluation of his exhibit in a 1979 issue of October<\/i>, he played down Smith and added Cindy Sherman.)<\/p>\n

Fair enough. Smith doesn’t fit. The glue of their ideas does not adhere to him. <\/p>\n

\"philipsmithblue.jpg\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

But curator Ecklund goes out of his way to tell both Culture Grrl and Jess Wilcox (excellent Art in America interview here<\/a>), that Smith’s work just doesn’t cut it aesthetically. <\/p>\n

Crimp speculated to CG that Smith’s omission might be because he’s gay.<\/p>\n

Culture Grrl: What do you make of Philip Smith’s absence from the Met’s show?<\/p>\n

Crimp:
\nHe was not so much of the group, of the social world, of the people who
\nformulated this. He’s gay and this [the Met’s show] is a very straight
\nconfiguration of artists. I don’t know what’s happened to him,
\ncareer-wise. It’s a slightly touchy subject: I think Philip is upset,
\nreasonably.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Well played, Mr. Crimp. You stuck it to the establishment without defending Smith at all. It’s the perfect expression of your porcupine position.<\/p>\n

I haven’t seen Smith’s work in a number of years, but I remember it well. I’ll take him over at least half of the artists in this show. Within the arena in which he chooses to act, his dense yet fluid congestion of signs and symbols continues to ripple out, influencing others.<\/p>\n

A 1996 review<\/a> in Art in America by Lily Wei zeroed in on their specific qualities:<\/p>\n

The seeming spontaneity of the drawing is balanced by the deliberate
\nrichness of the meticulously worked grounds. These elegant surfaces,
\nmarked out in broad bands or grids of mustard yellows, lucid
\ngray-greens, sea and sky blues, along with black and white, are toned
\ndown from Smith’s works of a few years ago, when figure and ground
\ncompeted fiercely for attention. The appeal of these paintings is a
\nperverse one. They can stymie or enchant, according to the viewer’s
\nsympathies.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"philipsmithred.jpg\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So did Michael Kimmelman in a 1992 NYT review<\/a>:<\/p>\n

It is understandable that Philip Smith’s paintings did not stand out at
\nlast year’s Whitney Biennial. They’re quiet works that do not try to
\ncompete for attention. The considerable pleasure of them comes from the
\npainstakingly constructed oil and wax surfaces into which are incised
\nmyriad images, like hieroglyphs. Mr. Smith builds layer upon layer,
\nfirst painting abstractions on linen and then covering them up, often
\nwith subtle stripes of color, and on top of these laying down the final
\nsoft surface. The incisions reveal the painting underneath, so that the
\nresult is a multiple image of swirls of color beneath geometric designs
\nbeneath loopy drawn pictographs of matchbooks, corncobs, skyscrapers,
\ngrapefruits, clocks, fingerprints, African carvings and much else. Mr.
\nSmith’s inspiration seems to have come from many directions, from Brice
\nMarden and Mark Tobey and Jackson Pollock and also from Egyptian art
\nand even from the graffiti carved in antique monuments. But there’s a
\ncombination of slowness in his surfaces and patterns, and speed in the
\nrush of cacophonous imagery, that is distinctive to him.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I hope Ecklund’s haughty attitude comes back to bite him. Below are a few of artists in Smith’s debt.<\/p>\n

Sue Williams<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"Picture<\/a><\/span>
Ellen Gallagher<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"ellengallagher.jpg\"<\/span>
Brad Kahlhmer<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"bradKahlhamer.jpg\"<\/a><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ben Beres<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"beres-body.jpg\"<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n

I could also say that all these artists, including Smith, owe William Wiley<\/a>. My point is not who’s first but who belongs with whom, and also, stray insults do not constitute criticism. Nobody criticizes a fish because it can’t ride a bicycle.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

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

Culture Grrl was alert enough at a press preview for Pictures Generation at the Met to realize that one person worth talking to (Douglas Crimp) was there but not talking. (Her interview here.) Pictures Generation builds on the base of Crimp’s Pictures exhibition at Artists Space in 1977. Crimp is good at theory, not necessarily […]<\/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-503","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\/503","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=503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}