Lessons in Art History You knew it was coming: more about Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988). My June 21 entry (you can find it under Archives, June in the column to the left) covered the reopening of the Noguchi Museum in Queens and included a lot of his biography that I really don't need to repeat. Although the Noguchi Museum has its charms, I wanted to see a more traditionally curatorial view of his sculpture in a white-walled venue, removed from the artist's personal aura. This indeed is what we have … [Read more...]
ROTHKO’S GHOST, AN INTERVIEW
Lars von Trier Von Trier and Rothko When we hit a writer's block, we know what to do. We fall back on techniques learned from master poetry teacher Kenneth Koch: create an obstruction or a rule to bat your head against. Choose an insane and rigid form like the sestina; exclude the letter E as Georges Perec did for his novel A Void; pretend you are someone else. We are having a hard time writing about the newly issued, long-lost book by Mark Rothko (1903-1979). … [Read more...]
RUBIN MUSEUM OF (HIMALAYAN) ART
Tibet Invades Chelsea's Eastern Border So far, the most significant art event this fall is the opening of the Rubin Museum of Art (150 W. 17th St.)in the huge building that once housed Barneys. Ages ago, Barneys featured boy's and men's clothes off-the-rack then went upscale and then uptown, leaving a vacant building behind on Seventh Avenue between 17th and 18th. Of course, MoMA is set to reopen this November in expanded quarters. And it will be great to see some of our … [Read more...]
DISABILITY ART
Judith Scott, Untitled, n.d. WHAT'S IN A NAME? [Presented Oct. 8 in Oakland, Ca.at "Margins and Mainstreams: Disability Art Today," American Folk Art Society Conference, hosted by The Creative Growth Art Center.] Disability Art, as in the title of this symposium, is a new term for me. I think I know what it means: art by those with disabilities, art by the physically, mentally, and emotionally disabled. But do we need yet another art term? … [Read more...]
GUY MADDIN, ARTIST
Guy Maddin, The Saddest Music in the World, 2003 (Isabella Rossellini as Canadian beer tycoon) ArtOutside the Art Galleries At a time when it is hard to avoid movies or digital projections in art galleries, why not go back to origins? Musician/artist Brian Eno once prophesized that although it might seem that art has disappeared, we would find it again in an unlikely place. Could that be in movie theaters and thenon DVDs? Not only is the … [Read more...]
CHELSEA ART WALK
Eugene Von Bruenchenhein, Untitled The Art District That Ate Manhattan Checking out the Chelsea Art Guide (a freebie at most galleries), I see that 220 galleries are now listed and black-dotted on the map that tracks them from 12th Avenue to 7th Avenue and from 29th St. to 13th. The densest cluster of numbered dots, however, is still from 26th Street to 20th between 11th and 10th Avenues. Where will it all end? Chelsea: the art … [Read more...]
ANDY GOLDSWORTHY AT THE METROPOLITAN
Andy Goldsworthy: Stone Houses, 2004 What Was Earth Art? At times Earth Art was dirt or stones dumped in a gallery, but mostly we visualize artworks made outside the gallery, outside cities, on and of the land or the earth. Key works, such as Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty (1970), were created in the wilderness. Richard Long took walks in Great Britain. His first walk in 1967 was described as "a straight … [Read more...]
BONTECOU AT MOMA
Bontecou, Untitled, 1962 The Lee Bontecou Problematic Every time we go to the New York City Opera we look forward to seeing Lee Bontecou's fine wall piece. There's no mistaking it: dingy canvas stitched to metal "ribs," a gaping hole. The center juts from the wall as if (excuse me, Herr Freud) it might eat you. Or is it the fuselage from hell? The artist herself apparently associates her imagery with the Second World War. Titled "Untitled," as was and is always her … [Read more...]
MENDIETA
Ana Mendieta: Untitled (Body Tracks), 1974 Ana Mendieta: The Whole Story You can tell that Ana Mendieta (1948-1985) is about to make it into art history: her last name only is on the cover of the dramatic, blood-red catalogue that accompanies the new survey of her art now at the Whitney. When I saw that, it gave me shivers. All is forgiven, Art World. She broke a lot of boundaries; she broke a lot of rules.Her shocking death for a time divided the art world, but now we can be … [Read more...]
BRANCUSI’S PLACE
Brancusi: Torso of a Young Girl, 1922 Brandcusi How much is enough? How much too little? By all accounts, Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957), soon to be repackaged as a protominimalist, did not produce much art compared to, let's say, Picasso. Thirty-five Brancusi sculptures are now at the Guggenheim under the title "Constantin Brancusi: The Essence of Things" (1071 Fifth Ave. at 89th St., through Sept. 19). On the grounds that an artist is the sum of everything that has been written about him or … [Read more...]