November 2009 Archive

December Picks on Maps

Artblog’s picks for December are now up on maps & listings. See for yourself and pick for yourself. If you haven’t submitted yet, submit!

Books to consider for holiday giving

Threads and Voices; Behind the Indian Textile Tradition, Laila Tyabji, ed. (Marg Publications, Mumbai: 2007), ISBN 8185026793 India has an extraordinarily rich textile tradition but this is not a book about beautiful fabrics. Rather it tells stories of the village craftsmen (spinners, weavers, printers, dyers and embroiderers) who produce hand-worked textiles today. Eleven studies from eight states across India examine the conflict they face between individual creativity and market forces, traditional designs and international taste and emphasize the economic motivation behind their craft.

Monnier on Rachel Harrison at One Review a Month

If you are in the throes of questioning why you are making art and are looking for support for this decision,  this month’s post by Annette Monnier on her blog One Review a Month is not to be missed. Monnier’s doubts about the value of all art production were inspired by Rachel Harrison’s exhibit Consider the Lobster, at Bard College.

(Picture) Postcard From Paris

After the crowds at the FIAC in Paris subside, the gathering at Paris Photo, held in the Carrousel du Louvre, creates a different kind of picture show.  Intimate and targeted to serious collectors of photography, only 89 galleries, and 13 publishers including book dealers and other image merchants appear fresh and pressed in the well-appointed marble basement of the world’s largest museum.

“Incarnational Aesthetics” in New York and Cool Conversations around Barkley Hendricks at PAFA

Jenny Jasky is Philadelphia’s loss and New York’s gain; she recently moved and already found an outlet, curating an exhibition at NYCAMS (New York Center for Art and Media Studies) with Stamatina Gregory.  Incarnational Aesthetics (Oct.  24-November 25, 2009) is one of those idea-driven exhibitions where I found the work provocative but couldn’t entirely reconcile it with the curators’ statement: to showcase artists who use embodiment or ‘role play’ in their work as a means of interrogating and deconstructing the public and private boundaries between self and other.

Shelter at the Painted Bride

A mix of some great art and lots of good will make up the exhibit Shelter at the Painted Bride. The exhibit asks the question, What really matters to sustain us as human beings? While not literally answering that question, a number of answers are on display here, and it is those compelling, individual answers that make this show tick.

Whatever you’re cooking – Happy Thanksgiving!

From today’s NY Times, a story with a great graphic showing who’s cooking what in various parts of the country.  The maps are based on inquiries yesterday to allrecipies.com, the top US cooking site, on how to make what.  Sweet potato casserole was the top search followed by pumpkin pie.  Happy dinner wherever you are!

Weekly Update – Talking with Barkley Hendricks

This week’s Weekly has my article on Barkley Hendricks’ Birth of the Cool at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Below is an expanded version with more of the interview I did with the artist. Bashir, Jules, Tuff Tony and Angie wouldn’t stand out in a crowd. But in Barkley Hendricks’ “Birth of the Cool” at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, these seemingly ordinary people, depicted in nearly life-size paintings, become new icons for a secular age. The works have such a sense of stillness that they feel almost like religious images.

Movie review: (untitled)

The movie (untitled) mocks everything you love to hate about contemporary art and how it’s marketed. The movie also pokes fun at the pretensions in the atonal music scene (one of my fave lines–melody “is a capitalist plot to sell pianos.”

Post your listings for Dec. and Jan.

The maps & listings page is eager to accept your December and January shows and events. If you put in your December listings last month, they are still in there. We are still not automated, so please have patience. The new December listings will be going up early next week, but that automation is coming early next year. We can’t wait!!!!