Charlie Finch on the charmed trio, all now demised, of Robert Rauschenberg, Merce Cunningham and John Cage:
The last of a great triumvirate, Merce Cunningham, died over the
weekend. I’m the least dance-savvy person around, but it’s fair to say
that not a day has passed in my art existence without contemplating
Cage, Rauschenberg and Cunningham. What they possessed like the Three
Graces passing a chalice was an unstinting awareness of the world
around them and its positive possibilities.
When the garbage truck loads up at 4 in the morning, Cage turns
irritation into music. When HBO posters pile up under a construction,
Rauschenberg calls. When a hundred young folks stare down at their
iPods, forgetting how to walk, Cunningham does a stutter step.
More here.
Eva Lake, in reviewing Jami Attenberg’s novel, A Kept Man:
In
just about every novel about artists I have read, dealers are made out
to be vulgar or dumb, but I have found this to rarely be the case in
the real world. It leads me to believe that the writers did not know
any – or just liked easy, cheap shots.
D.K. Row calls Portland’s art economy “frail and nearly bedridden” (here), a description that rings true across the country. These are desperate times, Mrs. Lovett. Bad At Sports offers brief analysis of the recessionary impact on galleries with upbeat news from LA, here.
Doug Britt reports on New York’s Artadia: The Fund for Art and Dialogue. It’s a nonprofit that offers grants to artists who live in five cities – Houston, San Francisco,
Chicago, Boston and Atlanta – in the hopes of providing a national support network
for artists who don’t live in NY or LA.
I
emailed the group to congratulate it on its generosity and ask, Why not
Seattle? Didn’t hear back. Atlanta makes sense. If the program’s going
to be nationwide, it needs a Southern city. Houston and Chicago are
obvious, and I’m fine with San Francisco. That leaves Boston. Boston
instead of Seattle or Philly or Portland, Oregon? Somebody in the grant
office is not paying attention.
Sue the bastards: Rose Art Museum board members take Brandeis University to court. (Story everywhere, especially good at Art Fag City. More on MAN.)
Art for the heat wave – Jeppe Hein’s Appearing Rooms. His ice cube is currently melting at Western Bridge.
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