Can artworks survive once they have fallen out of fashion? Or no longer inspire further art? Are off the grid? Are not part of the ongoing dialogue, but come across, if at all, as dead ends? As orphans, bachelors, old maids? Roberto Matta (1911-2002) at Pace to Jan. 28, Diego Rivera (1886-1957) at MoMA to May 14, and Francis Picabia (1897-1953) at Michael Werner to Jan. 14 were each at one point vital to the art life, so probably deserve a new … [Read more...]
Archives for 2011
ART COPS OCCUPY MOMA!
In the world's first and only art criticism cartoon, John Perreault's art cops instigate, investigate, insinuate, cogitate, agitate. Who provided bail? Who were they working for? Whose side are they on? To sample John Perreault’s sand paintings you may preview online the Kauai Museum catalog for Mark Van Wagner and John Perreault: Drawing from Sand, with a short essay by art critic Peter Frank. Click Here. The exhibition runs from Nov. 12 to Jan. 20 in Lihue, HI. … [Read more...]
Why Artists Fail: Sherrie Levine and Maurizio Cattelan
Surely we all agree that artists are the center of art, if not the art world. In order to get more artworks out of them, we try to be kind and as far as possible let them call the shots. High hopes are endemic. Nevertheless, sometimes gallerists, curators, and critics are more talented than the artists they serve. When an artist verges on megalomania, failure is likely. Even Picasso listened to gallerists, curators, and critics. Maybe not enough, but … [Read more...]
VAN GOGH MURDERED! WHY ARE AUTHORITIES IN DENIAL?
A new biography, Van Gogh: The Life, by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith, suggests Vincent did not commit suicide, but was shot by a perky local of 16 named René Secrétan, who was wearing a cowboy costume. The bullet's trajectory showed the shot could not have been self-inflicted and had to have been fired from afar. But if this is true, why did Vincent protect his assassin? The bully had been tormenting him for months by putting salt in his coffee and setting up fake … [Read more...]
De Kooning Revived: Anger, Amour, Anxiety
Willem de Kooning’s difficult masterpieces, recently so unfashionable, can now be seen with new eyes. De Kooning’s work for decades was virtually blacklisted by Greenbergian formalists, but MoMA makes amends with a well-chosen and complex survey. “Willem de Kooning, A Retrospective” at MoMA to January 9 is the must-see of the fall season. Jackson Pollock was great, but so was de Kooning, and we are here reminded why. Of course, the single minded cannot allow anything but a single line. … [Read more...]
GAGOSIAN MAD AVE CLOSES. AND OTHER SHUTDOWNS…DALLAS, SPAIN
ARTOPIAnews GAG SHOP MAD AVE VENUE SHUTTERED NOT the gallery, for all you fans of schadenfreude; only the books, trinkets, and art souvenir outlet. Can the landlords now command a higher rent? LINK. Story and image, thanks to artnet.com NIEMEYER MUSEUM CURTAINS AFTER 62 DAYS! 103-year old master-architect Oscar Niemeyer, who designed Brasilia, must be in shock; his new museum in Spain just opened..... and then, after 62 days, closed. … [Read more...]
PUBLIC ART COVER-UP! MOCK ART TREND?
ARTOPIAnews LENIN DESECRATED IN BULGARIA. AND IN NYC GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THE ASTOR PLACE CUBE. WHO’S TO BLAME? Is the public so disgusted by outdoor sculpture that even temporary defacement is cheered? Who’s to blame? Soon not even works by Calder or Oldenburg will be safe from mockery. Olek, the Polish-born crochet artist, made a cheerful one-day coverlet for Tony Rosenthal’s Alamo, that point-balanced black cube at Astor Place that each new generation of Cooper Union art … [Read more...]
Fluxness: Mischief Is My Mistress
Fluxus is in flux. The interpretations are coming fast and furious. The latest entry is the imaginatively titled exhibition “Fluxus and the Essential Questions of Life,” with works mainly selected from the George Maciunas Memorial Collection at the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, but with significant additions from MoMA and other sources. It is now at NYU’s Grey Art Gallery until December 3. In her essay, curator Jacquelynn Bass writes: The point is to experience Fluxus artworks for … [Read more...]
NOT ONE ARTIST GETS GENIUS AWARD THIS YEAR!
ARTOPIAnews Not One Artist Awarded MacArthur This Year. Shame, shame. This is not to say the recipients are unworthy. But why nominate or evaluate artist candidates if the results are so insulting? For the record, you can’t apply and all nominators, evaluators, and juries are top secret and, therefore, unaccountable. Salvation Army Buys Museum Will … [Read more...]
Just Say No: New Indigenous Australian Art
Would You Believe This If It Were Science Fiction? Over the course of a century, Aussie cops and “Aboriginal Protection Officers” kidnapped some 100,000 “half-caste” indigenous Australian children from their mothers. Many of the youngsters had been sired by white, ex-convict, railroad workers and other Anglo-Australians who also built and maintained the coast-to-coast rabbit … [Read more...]