Archives for 2009

They do the same thing in different media.

Photographer Thorsten Brinkmann

Painter Christian van Minnen

Photographer Magdalena Bors

Painter Michael Brophy

Duffy opens at Vermillion  Sept 1, 6-10 p.m.

The Seattle Art Museum cut 17 staff members earlier this year,
from a staff of 240. Every department is affected, although no curators
were eliminated. SAM has also cut its hours. Beginning in September, it
will be closed Tuesdays as well as Mondays. Exhibitions have been
extended, which means fewer new shows on the schedule.

Maybe that’s a good thing. The installation crew is now down to the size it was before the 2007 expansion, which tripled exhibition space. That’s not counting installation at the Olympic Sculpture Park, which also opened in 2007.

Attendance remains strong, over projections in 2009.

The
museum’s fiscal year 2009 budget is $27 million. The 2010 budget is projected to be
$23,000 $23 million. SAM does not foresee a deficit this year. Given the economy,
SAM would be in fine shape were it not for the Washington Mutual
debacle.

Update: SAM corrected one of the figures it originally gave me. The museum ultimately cut its 2009 budget to $25 million.

[Read more…] about Seattle Art Museum cuts back

It’s your genes. Case closed.

Catherine Chalmers, from Genetically Engineered Mice series:

Opening at Francine Seders Gallery on August 28, reception for artists August 30, 2-4 p.m.: Alison Keogh, Michael Howard, Sam Wildman and Gail Grinnell, collaborating with her son, Sam Wildman. (Images in name order.)

Seattle: Time to show up. Seders has been in business for 40 years. That’s a long time to be as good as she is. Painters are her core, and they include Jacob Lawrence, Guy Anderson, Michael Spafford, Elizabeth Sandvig, Robert C. Jones, Michael Dailey, Lauri Chambers, Pat DeCaro, Norman Lundin, Denzil Hurley and Juan Alonzo. Although she no longer represents Lawrence and Anderson, they chose her as their Seattle dealer for their entire careers.

Dance critic Apollinaire Scherr responds to my criticism (here) of dance criticism:

In defense of Macaulay and me, a couple of thoughts: I do think there’s
a difference between Croce’s not going at all (though if it were the
time and I had the time, I would defend that action, given her reasons)
and Macaulay not watching the bulk of these two dance competition
shows.

Don’t TV critics, even, review a show after having watched only
the pilot and a few shows in? I don’t think a critic is obliged to
watch every show to weigh in on the gist of it. Of course there are
going to be exceptions to the general rule of terrible choreography
that makes even good dancers dreadful, but that’s not his or my point.
And haven’t you walked into a gallery, given a good look at a few
paintings/installations/videos and then scanned the rest? I mean, do
you study every single inch of canvass to give it the benefit of the
doubt?

I think Macaulay is very careful, in all of his reviews, to
report exactly how much he has seen and not seen. Probably other
critics wouldn’t even mention it if they hadn’t seen every single show.

As for the whole high/low distinction, I agree that dance critics–or
rather, ballet critics–can be snobs. On the other hand, we’ve reached
a point in the culture where to condemn a popular and populist art is
suspect from the get-go. I think it’s refreshing, not tiresome, that he
would dare do it in the Times.

Also, how often do art critics even
bother with this kind of commercial work: say, Thomas Kinkade? Let me
know what you think when they do. Sure, Dave Hickey has done Rockwell,
but that’s so far after the fact, it hardly counts.

Finally, this video
above: I agree he’s a fine dancer–particularly his hips and
footwork–but the choreography and the way it works with its music
doesn’t allow him to be musical. Every one of his phrases ends with the
same sort of ta-da, and the feel of the music runs exactly counter to
the spirit of the dancing. It’s a ludicrous piece, and that’s the
problem with So You Think You Can Dance –the show reduces even the
best dancers to dreck. ~Apollinaire

Kenneth Koch

Something there is that doesn’t hump a stump.

Brian Tolle, on the campus of the University of Washington:

David Ellis

Steven Heino

Linda Beaumont, installation, Sea-Tac International Airport

Jeffry Mitchell

At Greg Kucera Gallery, 6-8 p.m. Opening today, but reception for artists will be Sept. 3., 6-8.

Mark Calderon:

Anne Appleby

Mapplethorpe once called photography a “perfect way to make a sculpture.”

(Apollo, 1988)

He was always about perfection. The thing about Polaroids: Mapplethorpe, opening Oct. 24 at the Henry, is that he found it early and on the fly. Curated by Henry director Sylvia Wolf, it opened last year at the Whitney.

Gottfried Helnwein: order overwhelmed inside a chaos…