Aleister Crowley, 1875-1947 Once Was Wicked By the time you read this, the exhibition of elegant, out-there drawings by the infamous Cameron may be closed (Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery, 526 West 26th Street, No. 213, through February 10). I usually post my essays inspired by current exhibitions while said offerings are still available. But this time around I made an exception. I wanted to beat the New York Times and the Village Voice on the David Hammons show, and I needed time to read through … [Read more...]

David Hammons, Bliz-aard Ball Sale, 1983 Paint It Black The reclusive "genius" David Hammons is showing terrific new work. It's right up there with his snowball piece, his rock haircut, his African-American flag, his dark and empty gallery. His current provocation is at L & M Arts, 45 East 78th St., through February 28. I hesitate to tell you what's in the show since it was the surprise of it that initially turned my head. But you might as well know. Six fur coats. Six luxurious fur coats … [Read more...]

An Embarrassment of Riches Another thing about Semina is it's un-American. In the fifties, when the magazine first began, it was against what in those days we called 'The American Way.' Semina was a long way from the American Way. The American Way was the Korean War, the grey flannel suits, the military preparedness to wage war behind the Iron Curtain or the Bamboo Curtain. Michael McClure, "On Semina," Support the Revolution: Wallace Berman, ICA/Amsterdam, 1992, How do you fill in the … [Read more...]

And the Winners Are..... As much as I dislike end-of-the-year, best-of lists or awards of any kind (unless I am on the receiving end), the temptations are hard to resist: praising, hackle-raising, poisoning, and positioning. So for the first time ever, here we have the Artopia Awards for 2006. Best Solo in a Museum: Douglas Gordon at MoMA Too old to be emerging and too young for a retrospective, Gordon was just perfect for MoMA, badly in need of at least some inkling of the avant-garde. … [Read more...]

Holiday shopping in P-town How Provincetown Became P-Town Because I was writing this in the middle of the holidays, I thought at first it would be a simple piece about my little trip to Provincetown, Massachusetts, where indeed I did see some art. In Artopia, every holiday is a busman's holiday. You cannot escape from art. And when it comes to art, nothing is ever simple. P-town, as it has been called from Charles Hawthorne to John Waters, was once an active and important art colony. Hawthorne, … [Read more...]

John Latham: Cluster No. 11, 1992 Chewing Time John Latham is an art hero because in 1966 he instigated an event called Still and Chew that required several participants to bite off, masticate, and then spit out pages from Clement Greenberg's Art and Culture. The results were put in a flask and returned to the library from which the artist had borrowed that influential, devilish collection of essays. Because of this, Latham was fired from his teaching job at the prestigious St. Martin's School … [Read more...]