October 2009 Archive

Letter From Paris: The FIAC – The Hunger, The Hype & The Hysteria

Perhaps the perfect metaphor for the contemporary art fair is the media-fattened story of the Balloon Boy (in the US), which swept across the airwaves on a gust of excitement only to be lanced by the truth.  It was for the money, after all, and the 10 year-old boy (Little Falcon) supposedly trapped in the Warhol-like silver balloon was safe on the ground busy in makeup getting ready for his star turn. It was, of course, a hoax. “They put on a very good show for us, and we bought it,” said local sheriff, Jim Alderden.

At the National Gallery of Art: Selections from the Meyerhoff Collection and ‘Arts of Privacy’

The only thing dull about The Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection at the National Gallery of Art: Selected Works (NGA) through May 2, 2010 is the exhibition title.  I’d rather call it, with apologies to Wallace Stevens, Ten Ways of Looking at a Painting, with further apologies for the handful of drawings, prints and 3-dimensional works;  it is overwhelmingly a paintings exhibition.  The works, some already donated, the remainder promised to the NGA, are superb and the curatorial decisions intelligent, provocative and subtle.  Harry Cooper, curator of modern and contemporary art, arranged ten sections, each labeled with a subject to ... More » »

Urses minor–at the New Museum

Urs Fischer: Marguerite de Ponty at the New Museum, the bearish artist’s first U.S. solo show at a major museum, surprised us for what wasn’t there.

Thursday morning reading

Great Q&A with PMA’s new director, Timothy Rub at Lee Rosenbaum’s Culture Grrl blog.  The questions deal with money, and specifically about re-directing funds from one pot (acquisitions) to another (capital) when Rub was at the Cleveland Museum of Art.  It bears mentioning that the PMA will be undergoing a big capital plan soon, the big dig under the East Plaza directed by architect Frank Gehry that will house the redesign of the Modern and Contemporary galleries. Thanks to Donn Zaretsky for the steer.

Weekly Update – Dances with humor and a camera

This week’s Weekly has my review of the ICA’s Dance with Camera.  Below is the copy with some pictures. “Dance With Camera” at the Institute of Contemporary Art is a visual and audio delight. The sprawling show in the ICA’s first floor gallery features video and photography about dance—but you won’t catch any Nutcrackers or black swans. Rather, there are head bangers, suited up lawyers and ball players. The show, composed of work by 31 artists and artist groups, demonstrates artists’ long-time fascination with bodies in motion.

Philly portraits at Gallery 339 and PAFA

Portraits are everywhere, right now, major portraits. I had a nice conversation with myself after seeing two terrific shows of Philadelphia portraits in the same week–the show Personal Views: Contemporary Photographic Portraiture in Philadelphia, at Gallery 339;  and the paintings in Barkley L. Hendricks’ Birth of the Blues at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

Magicians of the Earth

John Baldessari that bastard, the late Jimmie Byers, the late Nancy Spero, august Louise Bourgeois, Claes the great Oldenburg, and Alighero e (and) Boetti are International School artists sharing space with Third World or “marginal” or “vernacular” or “outsider” artists in Back to the Earth: Revisiting Magiciens de la Terre at Fleisher/Ollman through December 5.

A Love Letter for You

Last time I saw Annette Monnier (at Little Berlin’s BYOTY last weekend), she said she was going to take the West Philly el tour of ex-graffiti artist Steve Powers’ A Love Letter for You series of murals for the Mural Arts Program. I said I was going to do that too, but she got it done, and what a job she did! Here’s what she had to say.

Barkley Hendricks posterized at PAFA

In an emotional opening ceremony at his solo exhibit Birth of the Cool, artist Barkley L. Hendricks lost his cool for a moment.

Ryan Trecartin wins Wolgin Prize

Ryan Trecartin, maker of weirdly wonderful videos that disturb by channeling today’s culture and parodying it back, won the first $150,000 Wolgin Prize for art tonight at a ceremony at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art.