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...]
Archives for October 2011
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...]