Liilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen's performance 'How to Break the Great Chinese Wall' 2009

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.Much of the work was about other art, with Cindy Sherman and Slater Bradley assuming the guise of well-known performers, Yasumasa Morimura, Clifford Owens, Jeffrey Porterfield and Lillbeth Cuenca Rasmussen re-doing earlier artist’s works, and Michael Joo and Alex McQuilkin reenacting characters from films.

Ana Mendieta 'Body Tracks' 1982

The most imposing piece, Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen’s How to Break the Great Chinese Wall consisted of a large set in which she re-enacted a number of performance pieces by an earlier generation of women: Marina Abramovic (and Ulay), Yoko Ono (with John Lennon), Shigeko Kubota, Yayoi Kusama, Ana Mendieta.  For the remainder of the exhibition (when I visited)  the set contained a video of the performances. They struck me as an exorcism of her anxiety of influence rather than anything to do with boundaries of self and other.  At some point in the dialog she connected the words starving artist, consumption, and bulimia; that caught my attention for the contrasting and gendered association of those terms.

Abramovic herself recently re-staged a number of performance pieces of the 1960s and 70s, her own and those of five other artists (Seven Easy Pieces, Guggenheim Museum, 2005).  The possibility that performance art can be re-enacted is certainly a critique of values long-credited to the form: the essential role of the artist’s own presence, the dependence on specific circumstances and the effect on the audience of unforseen actions ( in some cases witnessed without prior knowledge, as in the case of street performances).  Is this appropriation performance, or method acting?

Yasumasa Morimura took on an artist whose influence has been so stiflingly pervasive in An Inner Dialog with Frida Kahlo (2008).  I was never sure who the audience was for Lynn Hershman Leeson’s alternate existence as Roberta Brietmore (1974-78), shown here with two collages; the artist was certainly the only audience for the piece in its entirety.  Tammy Ben-Tor’s video, Baby Eichmann (2008), was a suitably disturbing fairy tale of self deception, given the subject was Holocaust denial; it was played by the artist and several china figures of Bavarians in traditional dress.  The exhibition also included work by Cindy Sherman, Coco Fusco, and others.

Evolution of the Cool

Barkley L. Hendricks 'Icon for My Man Superman (Superman never saved any black people — Bobby Seale)' 1969 oil & acrylic on canvas

The response to the symposium Evolution of the Cool (Nov.  21), held in connection with the Barkley L. Hendricks exhibition, Barkley L.  Hendricks; Birth of the Cool (through Jan. 3, 2010) was so great that the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA) moved it from the usual lecture room to a large gallery on the second floor of the new Samuel M. V. Hamilton Building.  The crowd was certainly an homage to Hendricks but also indicated a hunger in the area for serious discussion of African American art, I’d guess.

Symposia often promise a lot but only deliver exhaustion.  This one kept up the interest because rather than having all the speakers focus closely on Hendricks and his work, practitioners from dance, music and the fashion world spoke about ideas parallel to Hendricks’ with the two academic speakers reserved for the end.  The artist himself went first, saying that he’s often called a realist but would prefer to be called a prestidigitator or trickster.  In describing his working methods he said he always played music in the studio: what he calls American Classical music and others term  jazz.

Randy Weston, Hendricks and Brenda Dixcon Gottschild at PAFA

One of Hendricks’ inspirations, Jazz pianist Randy Weston, spoke of color as visible sound while music is invisible sound; at the piano he thinks in color.  Brenda Dixon Gottschild, dancer and dance scholar, made eloquent use of her hands as she delivered what she called a stream of consciousness dance through Barkley Hendricks’ works.  She showed his paintings beside images of Alvin Ailey, Eleo Pomare, Steve Paxton and others.  Hendricks’ nudes, she said, had her undressing any number of men in her mind.  Emil De John, fashion designer, showed how he and other designers were constantly going to paintings for ideas and inspiration.

Sarah Lewis, a critic and curator who’s working on the next Site Santa Fe, focused on Hendrick’s paintings on white backgrounds.  She spoke of the necessity for African Americans to construct their own identities in relation to the construction of white America, represented by the detailed particularity of Hendricks’ figures against the generalized featureless whitenes. Richard Powell, scholar and major figure in African American art history commented on the humor that was always behind Hendricks’ work which made viewers uncomfortable and the nudes that  were so disturbing in the 1960s and 70s that not a single critic mentioned them.

Who, before Hendricks, had the audacity to paint  a black man, as just that, a man?

Barkley L. Hendricks, Misc. Tyrone (Tyrone Smith), 1976. Oil and magna on linen canvas, 72 x 50 ¼ inches. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, NY.Barkley L. Hendricks, Tequila, 1978. Oil and acrylic on linen canvas, 60 ¾ x 50 ¼ inches. Collection of the Butler Institute for American Art, Youngstown, OH.

I was struck by, how in a funny reversal of expectation, Hendricks’ paintings, with their blank backgrounds and fashion focus, come out of a recent photographic tradition, while so many of the photographs in Personal Views come more directly out of the painting tradition, in which sitters pose with symbols of their worth.

Hendricks’ portraits also reference religious icons, an association that elevates his subjects to sainthood. Some of the paintings glow with an ethereal light; and some of them have iconic gilt backgrounds. Surrounded by nothing but ether, with no details of the urban environment from where they come, these subjects are well-positioned to communicate their self-worth with sartorial splendor. They come without pedigree and create their own individuality. It’s costume as self-invention. And Hendricks loves and admires them for being exactly who they are.

Barkley L. Hendricks, Icon for My Man Superman (Superman never saved any black people – Bobby Seale), 1969, Oil, acrylic, and aluminum leaf on linen canvas, 59 ½ x 48 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, NY.

This is not art as fashion design; this is art with a political subtext. The scale is confrontational, grand and powerful at the same time that the figures are non-threatening. The iconoclasm in Icon for My Man Superman, a portrait of Bobby Seale, takes both Superman and Seale off pedestals, humanizing the cartoon, humorizing the man. Barkley Hendricks loves his subjects and loves people. It comes through loud and clear. He is legitimizing, embodying, making visible. It’s a gentle approach to a social revolution.

Sarah Stolfa, Benton, MS, 2007, Archival Pigment Print, 24 x 30 inches, Edition of 10

Sarah Stolfa’s, Zoe Strauss’ and Justyna Badach’s portraits at Gallery 339 may provide environment in the tradition of Rembrandtian burghers, but their subjects are not exactly burghers. not the usual powerful or moneyed class who can afford to commission Annie Leibovitz.

Justyna Badach, Rourke, 2009, Archival Pigment Print, 23" x 30"; Edition of 3; 31" x 40"; Edition of 3

Badach’s photos of bachelors are sad, the men isolated in forlorn environments of their own choosing and creation. These photos have no lushness to them, but the question of who we are looking at and why is plenty of a draw, with or without the statements Badach displays with the photos.

Sarah Stolfa, Memphis, TN, 2007, Archival Pigment Print, 24 x 30 inches, Edition of 10

In Stolfa’s current series on view, which references Robert Frank and Alec Soth, there’s a question of intention. She lets the subjects project who they are. But she cannot cross the social divide in the same way that she did in her portraits across the bar at McGlinchey’s.  Stolfa means to disconcert her viewer. And I suspect she herself is disconcerted by the kitchen worker with the gun at her waist. In this sense, Stolfa’s portraits are less about the individuals, and more about a cultural divide between northern and southern values.

Zoe Strauss, Bunny, 2001, Archival Pigment Print, 20 x 30 inches

Not so in Strauss’s work, where the people’s faces become a roadmap away from Britney and Joan Rivers, a different vision from the media circus of what it means to be human. Strauss is the Walt Whitman of Philadelphia photographers, singing her love for an entire side of the culture otherwise ignored. But unlike the romanticizer Hendricks, Strauss keeps the hard-scrabble environment and the hard-nosed realism, be it no makeup or too much makeup.

Andrea Modica, Sicily 7, 1990, Platinum/Palladium Contact Print, 8 x 10 inches, Edition of 20

Also in the show at 339 are Andrea Modica’s sociological photographs of Italians who have been largely untouched by glamor shots and the notion of performing for the camera; Rita Bernstein’s painterly photographs that are less about portraiture than mood and light and material; Jessica Todd Harper’s portraits of middle-class comfort, which seem closest to the burgher portraits of the Dutch golden age of painting; and Nadine Rovner’s setups, which are less about the individual people and more about cinematic mise-en-scenes.

a portrait by Josh Rickards

PS: I saw Josh Rickards at BYOTY at Little Berlin while I was thinking about the photos and Hendricks, so then I gave some thought to what Rickards is doing. He, like Hendricks, takes the subject out of a real environment. Sometimes the background is a blank color, but sometimes he creates a flat, abstracted environment that represents a milieu, a time and a place. And his stylized faces, which draw from craft veneer drawing, emphasizes the deadpan ordinariness of his subject. These are not so much personal portraits; they are pictures of a lifestyle and subculture.

Personal Views: Contemporary Photographic Portraiture in Philadelphia is up through November 14, 2009 and Barkley L. Hendricks: Birth of the Cool is up to January 3, 2010.

Barkley Hendricks speaking at PAFA opening of his exhibit Birth of the Cool; photo by Linda Johnson

The exhibit at the artist’s alma mater, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,  is a double homecoming. He grew up in Philadelphia and went to the public schools here. He spoke shortly after being presented a framed poster picturing a number of successful people–Hendricks is one of them–who came from Philadelphia’s public schools.

Former teacher and mentor Freddie Bacon, the artist's mother, and the artist; photo by Linda Johnson

Hendricks was clearly moved, and seemed for a moment struck with disbelief. He thanked his teachers, especially a Mrs. Bridges and a Mr. Freddie Bacon–Bacon was there and stood up when his name was called. “If it weren’t for [Bacon's] leadership…I’ll just leave it at that,” Hendricks said.

Then he switched to a more humorous note: “I describe myself as being pre-aerosol,” referring to graffiti and his youth.

The poster includes Hendricks (third face in second row) along with Will Smith, Dawn Staley, and Kevin Eubanks, to name just a few of the 33 pictured; photo by Linda Johnson

And then he began tearing up. “My feelings are beyond words [long pause as he tried to gather himself] because I could have been dead.”

After that, he spoke briefly about art–the substance of his triumphant return. It isn’t often that an artist gets two rounds of success, but that is what happened to Hendricks. He was hot, then not, and now we have “Birth of the Cool.” I just want to say the life-size portraits are spectacular, smart, and best viewed in person, where they are positively luminous. I could say there’s no Kehinde Wiley without Barkley Hendricks, but that makes Hendricks sound like merely a stepping stone, a means to an end. Hendricks is an end in and of himself.

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Curator of Contemporary Arts Julien Robson snagged a whopping $440,000 grant from the William Penn Foundation for contemporary art programing over the next three years, including support for the Philagrafika exhibit opening January 2009, five solo exhibits of young and emerging artists starting in May in the Morris Gallery, and the exhibit We’re All Still Here, scheduled to open October 2011.

Julien Robson, from the philagrafika site, www.philagrafika.com

We especially wanted to know who he would be giving those solo and two person shows to so we phoned the curator and grilled him a little bit.

“In April we dismantle the black box [in the Morris Gallery] and start a series of solo and 2 person shows…regional and elsewhere.  I don’t want it to be the ghetto where we throw a bone to the local artists,” he said. But he wasn’t naming names yet. “I feel very strongly about creating a context in which regional artists can be seen.  I’m not a fan of one show after another after another of artists in the region.”

Unlike the party line art coming out of what he calls “the economic centers” of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Robson said there is wonderful art out there in places where artists make unique things.  He’d like to give those regional artists the chance to shine.

Greta Pratt. Nineteen Lincolns, 2005. 18 archival inkjet prints. 28 x 24 inches. Courtesy artist on nashermuseumblogs.org/2009/06/25/my-weird-america/

For We’re All Still Here Robson will also be searching for artists outside the big three art cities. He’ll be working with a team of six curators from other regions (also not all selected and also no naming of names) to select a mix of local and national artists whose work exhibits a sense of place. His models are The Old Weird America Show (at the Houston Contemporary Arts Museum and the DeCordova) and Nowhere, a show he himself curated for the Speed Museum in Louisville, Ky., his former gig. That show also traveled to Gratz, Austria. Both shows surveyed what is happening in art all across the country. “We need to recognize that sense of place. …artists working from some sense of where they are, conscious of where they are…that comes out of the Nowhere idea.”

q.  Are you anti New York?
a. “No, we’ll be showing some artists from New York.  It’s not an anti-New York bias.  I’m deliberately trying to complement what’s here already.

“When I say I worked in Louisville most people say it [move to PAFA] must be a step up.  I say, What do you mean?  It’s not a step up. [Louisville] was a very important scene, a vital art scene. We need to recognize that sense of place.”

Orit Hofshi will be in The Graphic Unconscious. Witnessing Woodblock, drawing, carving 67" x 69", from www.orithofshi.com/woodblocks.htm#

When we asked about how the William Penn Grant will help PAFA commission some new work, he said the money was more on the honorarium level than the full-blown commission level, just seed money. Some will go to artists who are creating new work for the Philagrafika: The Graphic Unconscious exhibit, a seven-artist show that includes Kiki Smith, Pepon Osorio and Mark Bradford. “Things always cost more than you think. But it helps us think how to create even more projects. Money always attracts money.”

q. What about the fall lineup at PAFA?

a. “There will be two kinds of hip–Malcolm [McLaren] and Barkley [Hendricks]. [McLaren's "Shallow 1-21" will be in the Morris Gallery; Hendricks' Birth of Cool will be in the Hamilton building.]

“[Barkley's] work is immensely popular.”  He will give a talk in October. And the Academy will be offering many programs, especially for underserved communities. Every Sunday during the exhibit’s run will be free, and the first free Sunday, Hendricks will attend, to mingle and talk to people. Each Sunday will also include special events, with some help from Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative.

Barkley L. Hendricks, Sweet Thang (Lynn Jenkins), 1975-1976. Oil on linen canvas, 52 1/8 x 52 ¾ inches. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, NY.

Barkley will take part in a  symposium “Evolution of the Cool” on Saturday, Nov. 21.  The symposium will include speakers from Duke, Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania, and show curator Trevor Schoonmaker will give a talk in the auditorium on Thursday, Nov. 19.

A number of pieces of work from local collectors will supplement the Hendricks show here (it’s traveling and this is its fourth stop of five). Hendricks, who is PAFA trained, has a big local following. “There were a couple pieces Hendricks was happy about because he lost touch.”

q. And McLaren, the other ultra hip show?

a. “At the end of October McLaren will give a talk [date TBD], and then a week later, he will dj at an event in another venue, with a video element. Malcolm was one of the first to do mixes and scratch music, and had hits in the ’80s and ’90s. [Be sure to check the PAFA website for dates and times since the schedule has changed since we wrote this post.]

Malcolm McLaren, Double Dutch, video, 4:31 from YouTube

McLaren’s video Shallow 1-21 has never been shown in the U.S. in its entirety, and it will be followed by an Indonesian rock video, Tomarama, made with woodcuts. (Tomarama prints are also in the Philagrafika exhibit.) Then down will come the black box to make way for the solo and two-man series of shows.

Meanwhile, Robson says he is trying to differentiate what he shows from what the ICA s the PMA shows. “I have to put restrictions. ICA can do international. We’re an American art museum. That’s what we do, and it will differentiate us.”

Andrew Brehm, Venezuela, video in Summer Shorts, photo courtesy the artist

q.  Before we let you go, tell us how the PAFA/Fleisher-Ollman collaboration came about for The Summer Shorts video art program, now in the Morris Gallery to Oct. 13. ICA has unjuried local video calls but this is a curated show of local video artists in the museum.

a. “I’d been discussing with Amy … local artists. Amy was able to find these artists…she helped me co-curate that.

“I hope to one day have resources to have a permanent video space.  Obviously video is an important medium.  it’s important to acknowledge it and it fits the boundaries of PAFA — it extends the figurative tradition. The Philagrafika exhibit is also figurative, and we included alumna Orit Hofshi, so it gives us a sense of looking at our traditions.

“There have been moments when PAFA was revolutionary.  We hope to get back to that.  I’ve Been talking with [fellow curators] Bob [Cozzolino], Anna Marley, and [Museum Director] David [Brigham]. We are all people who haven’t been here long.  We’re all excited.”

Thanks to Zoe Strauss for the heads up on this year’s new USA Fellows, bringing to 5 the number of Philadelphia artists who have received the $50,000 award now in its second year.

The 2008 winners who we claim for Philadelphia are Terry Adkins, Judith Schaechter and we’re going to claim Philly native and PAFA alum Barkley L. Hendricks as ours too even though he doesn’t live here now.

Adkins, sculptor and UPenn professor shows locally at Pageant Gallery and has shown at ICA. Schaechter, stained artist and teacher, shows at Claire Oliver in New York and just had a piece permanently installed at the new Museum of Arts and Design in New York. Hendricks has a show upcoming about a year from now at PAFA.

Strauss herself — who’s got a show at New York’s Silverstein opening Nov. 22 –got the $50,000 award last year, as did local dance phenom Rennie Harris. Each year, 50 artists get named through an anonymous nomination process. By the way, Strauss’s book, America, is now available at Amazon, etc.