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...]

Kiki Smith: Lilith, 1994. Siliconbronze and glass. Most art critics and art journalists avoid art issues. The products are described, sometimes adequately, sometimes not. Meanings are avoided, possibly because in most cases there are none. This might have been understandable in a time like the '80s, when art issues almost sank the ship, but nowadays, when the only issue is whether or not the art fairs will kill off Chelsea, we could use a few issues again. "Kiki Smith: A Gathering, 1980--2005," … [Read more...]

Brice Marden Return I 1964-1965Oil on canvas50 1/4 x 68 1/4" (127.6 x 173.4 cm) The Museum of Modern Art, Fractional and promised gift of Kathy and Richard S. Fuld, Jr.? 2006 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York FULL CAPTIONS REQUIRED BY THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART Pulling Down the Shade The word is out. Brice Marden is the one. I am not sure that his elegant retrospective at MoMA -- now we know what those sixth-floor rooms were for -- proves conclusively that he has saved abstract … [Read more...]

John Perreault: View from Hilton Hotel Window, Houston, Texas, 2006 Against Nostalgia At the American Craft Council's "Leadership Conference" in Houston, the issues were the same, the people friendly. On a side trip, my travel buddy was cured of his nostalgia for San Antonio. We were attending the ACC Conference for different reasons. My friend was on a panel; I was on a mission. Perhaps I could find a few more writing or curatorial gigs. Hey, just when you thought it was safe to go to a craft … [Read more...]

      Things You Wish You Had Never Found Out   Is a masterpiece still a masterpiece once you have discovered that the architect of record was notoriously,  dangerously lacking in engineering skills?  That the architect wore elevator shoes?  That he was a hypocrite about homosexuality? Frank Lloyd Wright was antigay when it came to what he called that "Pansy Patch of the Museum of Foreign Art,"  as exemplified by Philip Johnson and Henry-Russell Hitchcock at … [Read more...]

Stalking Chelsea Last week I jumped right in, taking the crosstown bus to Chelsea. I was armed with my concealed must-see list, which is the only way to go. Why haven't I kept all of these the way art criticKim Levindid, as proven by her show at Ronald Feldman a while back? People will collect anything. Aside from a major collection of American modern dinnerware and some outsider art, I collect face jugs, lightning rods, and gear-shift knobs; I am accumulating those little plastic bag-closers … [Read more...]

My Opera Accident To explain the Artopia hiatus, I should first tell you about my Opera Accident. I was trying out my new iPod on St. Marks Place on my way to Kim's Video, listening to the scary Polish contralto Ewa Podles having a go at an aria from Handel's Renaldo ("Tale stupor m' occupa../Such stupefaction possesses my senses") when I hit a sidewalk crack and went sailing. To land on my thumb. Thumb dislocated, tendon snapped. At the E.R., the kind doctor said: Writer and artist? We'll … [Read more...]