&nb … [Read more...]
Yves Klein Online…..plus The MoMA Syndrome
Sleepers Awake Not all museums are asleep. Some are trying to rope in customers by stealth or educational and internet outreach. Certainly the most innovative ploy is the Hirshhorn Museum's new effort, led by a Facebook experiment. A daily Facebook entry offers Yves Klein … [Read more...]
Lil Picard: Mother Dada
A Life That's Picardesque If you wrote a novel or a play or a jazz opera about Lil Picard (1899-1994), who would believe it? She would pop up in various places in the 20th century, wearing different wigs. Very Brechtian, with music by Kurt Weill. If there were a movie, who would star? She herself had a brief appearance in E.A. … [Read more...]
Star of Doom: Eastern State Penitentiary…plus J.J. McCracken
Jailbreak I was recently in Philadelphia to check out some site-specific artworks curated by yours truly. They were part of that city's Clay Studio "Interactions" project, tied to this year's NCECA, the National Conference for Education on the Ceramic Arts. Checked in at my Market Street hotel and immediately took a taxi to … [Read more...]
Marina Abramović: Prisoner of Charisma
Marina Abramović as Joseph Beuys (Guggenheim Museum, 2005) MoMA Redeemed? Marina Abramović (MoMA, to May 31) did not set up the parameters of Performance Art. Though there are only a few years between the seminal (sic) works of Vito Acconci and those of Abramović and her … [Read more...]
Not Just the Whitney Biennial
Theaster Gates: Cosmology of Yard, 2010 Beyond the Moat No fancy title. Only 55 artists, all American. A few midcareer artists. More than half of them female. You win some, you lose some. Reading the reviews, you would think "2010," the Whitney Biennial, was a revolution of some kind. Please. Except for the long-demanded (but apparently unplanned) increase in the number of women, it is back to square one, save a single exception. With more and more … [Read more...]
Tino Sehgal: Thunder Under the Rotunda
A Whole Lot of Nothing Tino Sehgal has managed to fill the Guggenheim without giving us much to see. But there is plenty to like, not the least of which is the interior of the Frank Lloyd Wright monument to Frank Lloyd Wright. The Guggenheim, all spiffed up at last, has never looked better. It's the 50th … [Read more...]
Who’s Afraid of Eli Broad?
Historic button produced by employees of the Corcoran Museum in D.C. when the "elusive" Walter Hopps, once an art dealer, was director; now reproduced to celebrate the publication of Hans Ulrich Obrist's History of Curating. Moving From the Dark Side New York art … [Read more...]
How the West Was Won: Finish Fetish
Craig Kauffman: Three Untitled Wall Reliefs, 1968. Vacuum formed Plexiglas Larry Bell: Untitled, 1969. Mineral coated glass De Wain Valentine: Triple Disk Red Metal Flake - Black Edge, 1966. Fiberglass reinforced polyester Primarily Atmospheric Mr. McGuire: I want to say one word to you. Just one word. Benjamin: Yes, sir. Mr. McGuire: … [Read more...]
Fakes: Have Replicas Replaced Art?
Antoine Pevsner,Portrait of Marcel Duchamp, 1926. Cellulose nitrate on copper with iron, 65.4 x 94.0 cm (25 3/4 x 37 in.) Yale University Art Gallery. Gift of Collection Société Anonyme. The works originally clear plastic components now show extreme signs of degradation, including warping, cracking, and discoloration, which exacerbated corrosion … [Read more...]