Unite and make something! The irrepressible David Shrigley‘s video for Pringle jumpers on Pacific Standard Time.
Spiders decorate their webs.
Guidelines for dealing with book (or gallery/museum) assistants, via Paul Constant.
Art criticism for the stupid: From the London Times Online – Behind the smile Mona Lisa may have suffered from high cholesterol. It’s a painting, people. Plus, everybody knows Mona is made of coffee.
From Amy Goodwin
The nicest-possible-way-of-writing-a-negative-review award goes to Roberta Smith for her non-appreciation of Lynda Benglis’ recent efforts.
But all innovative, driven artists — of which Ms. Benglis is definitely one — have comfortable ruts they periodically fall into, or pitfalls they need to avoid. This show emphasizes hers, while giving notice that in all probability she will soon be working her way out of them.
Related: From NewsGrist – Ten most scathing reviews of last year. (Howard Halle, whoever that is, is dead wrong about Emily Jacir.)
The under-appreciated art blog award goes to John Perreault, whose Artopia is on ArtsJournal. Perreault’s last two entries, How the West Was Won: Fetish Finish and Fakes: Have Replicas Replaced Art? are among the best things I’ve read anywhere about anything in the new year. Perreault refuses to rush his posts. Once a week or less is all we get from him, but he makes every word count. His complexities are polished to a rare clarity.
Most-patronizing-post-from-an-art-blogger award goes to Tyler Green for his ruminations on Byron Kim. First Green says that Kim’s Synecdoche is not a great work of art. Green follows with the incredible opinion that the National Gallery of Art was right to acquire it anyway, in the interests of diversity.
Synecdoche, the Byron Kim installation acquired by the National Gallery of Art late last year, is
not a great work of art. It is closer to the end of every art
historical precedent it engages than it is to the beginning: abstract
painting, the use of the grid, monochrome painting,
abstraction-as-portraiture, minimalism, even its use of art world
insiders as models to help the work ‘get over,’ WWE-style….Still, it is a worthwhile acquisition for the National Gallery of Art,
a mostly federally-funded institution that should be collecting works
of art that engage the most prominent American philosophical
conversations. Synecdoche, which Kim began in 1991 and to which
he has added ever since, is one of the better examples of American
artists engaging with with the 1980s and 1990s debate about
multiculturalism in America.
I don’t agree about the piece, but if I did, I wouldn’t praise the National Gallery for buying it. Green seems to be supporting affirmative action for unqualified art works. Few things could be more insulting to artists of color.
More Green: I admire Green and read his blog daily. Learn a lot. Appreciate his hustle and intelligence. But his arch attacks on Jerry Saltz are getting old. As Green reports, linking to an ARTINFO blurb, Saltz used what Green calls “a four-letter epithet” in a facebook post. It’s fuck, by the way. Saltz typed the word fuck. Big fucking deal.
Stefano Catalani is now director of curatorial affairs/artistic director of the Bellevue Arts Museum, a promotion he earned. Working in an impossible building in a crafts niche, he has made his shows matter.
If Mona is made of coffee, then Laura is made of lint-
GONE
84 x 50 in.
dryer lint and glue on scrim
2009
(artwork by Nelson Bradley from a group show at Hallwalls, Buffalo, NY)
Green – “epithet to describe PS1 director”
artinfo – “Saltz weighs in: ‘Klaus: You dick!'”
dick is the epithet.
meh, same difference
To salvocheque – both words, both 4-letters, same paragraph.
Green is always patronizing. You’re just getting that now?
Regina:
I explicitly did not say that the NGA acquired the Kim “in the interests of diversity.” Fortunately the ensuing quote from my write-up makes that clear.
Next, I agree with Artinfo and the New York Press that when a major New York critic refers to a New York museum director with a four-letter epithet (which you have misidentified), it’s news. I did not attack Saltz, I merely linked to Artinfo reporting what he said.
I saw Synecdoche a few weeks ago when I was in DC, and I thought it was terrific–both visually and conceptually. I reacted the same way you did when I read Green’s post.
(Sorry if this is a repeat–I think I hit the wrong button first time I submitted a comment.)
2 things… one you can never be too hard on Jerry Saltz. Regardless of what you may think he is the status quo. Case in point all the Saltzy butt licking that’s going on on his Facebook page. Those are mere plebeians,sycophants attempting to gain access to the critical castle.
two… I agree on John Perrault he is getting better AND more structurally relevant with each new post. I especially agree that west coast Art has gotten a raw deal from NY since the late 60’s and early 70’s when the best Art anywhere was being produced in L.A. With the sole possible exception being the irrepressible humanism of Josef Beuys.
Hi Jim. I don’t care if Jerry Saltz is the establishment. I like how he swings wide to the bleachers, with heart, every time he’s up. If that’s the establishment, then good for the establishment.
Tell Tailgunner Tyler that adverbs ending with “ly” do not need a hyphen. Sheesh.
There is a lot to like in Jerry Regina. That doesn’t change the fact that he’s frequently wrong in his interpretations about Art and takes a bizarre pride in his lack of qualifying credentials. And there is no-one to correct him.
JVK
Its impossible to be “wrong” in your interpretations about Art.
Since they are yours, you get to agree with yourself every time.
It is possible, of course to have too many credentials…
Isn’t Tyler Green the first art blogger to win a real audience for the concept of art blogging? Considering that you are an art blogger, it’s not very appreciative of you to attack him the first chance you get.
Who’s Regina Hackett? Oh right, she’s an unemployed art critic from the art-world hotbed, Seattle WA. And by the way that Jacir piece was despicable and morally bankrupt, as are you for your cheap shot at me.