...

.

Friday, August 31, 2007

articles to read, shows to see

articles to read -

So weird the Randy Kennedy NYTimes article on Mike Nelson .... because so much of what he describes sounds like he could be describing the installation work of Christoph Buchel -

"His artworks are not exactly objects but, in the tradition of Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, whole environments, warrens of rooms and corridors, fake taxi offices and crack dens, constructed from and furnished with the things he scavenges in the cities where he creates exhibitions."

Nato Thompson is the curator of both this Mike Nelson piece and the Buchel show, and Randy Kennedy is the one who wrote that big NYTimes article on Buchel/MassMoca. Just seems strange not to mention Buchel.

Nelson appears to be much more of a hands-on installer (than Buchel)... more like Richard Serra, as observed in yet another(!) Randy Kennedy article.

Richard Prince in Modern Painters - says that the only artwork in the ruined house was the Sid Vicious painting, but this mark must have come from a burned hood, right? Plus, he refers to the Sid Vicious piece as a work from 1992, yet I'm POSITIVE that the painting ruined in the fire was signed and dated 1998. Maybe he forgot the correct date, or is just doing his screwing around with the dates thing.

Richard Prince... omiyage
bag of house.

Only glanced through Art in America but saw that there are articles on both High Times, Hard Times and Artificial Light. I've made labels for both those shows... including Ceal Floyer Secrets Revealed!

Artificial Light at Anderson Gallery
The Artificial Light reviewer also noticed the Nathaniel Rackowe noose... she's got a great description of his piece.


Erik van Lieshout (at Mass Moca) in today's NYTimes - oh man, he is really good... this is another one of those shows I've seen more than once and regretfully have yet to mention. Grace Glueck does a good job of getting it across....

It's nice to see the freaky artist-son/mother relationship on film.. and see the same thing in Jonathan Meese's movie and painting downstairs in The Believers. That's partly the "waaay waay too much" we all have in common I was hinting at back in April.

shows to see -

Edwin Dickinson in Provincetown - this show has already opened, but I've only just heard about it. Charles Giuliano saw the show, has lots of info.

Edwin Dickinson
Andree's Ballon, 1928, at the PAFA. Really thought about this painting for long time after that visit.. or rather, STILL am.

CLOSES September 23rd!! Shit! I want to see this.

Alan Shields at Parrish Art Museum - opening October 21st.

Richard Prince at Guggenheim - opening September 28th.

Thursday, August 30, 2007

dawnings

Some dawnings -

#1. I've just finally realized that this art-Youtuber I started sometimes looking at back in December - because of the fairs, he was kind of a pre-James Kalm - is Dennis Hollingsworth.

Confession: I'm not much of a Dennis Hollingsworth fan... but I know that a lot of people are, so ... enjoy.

There are some interesting ones in which he is visiting Hiroshi Sugito's studio, in Nagoya, and they are both working on paintings... or maybe they are two collaborative paintings? Hiroshi has a super suteki studio, but bikkuri is it clean. WARNING: Chris Isaak music.

#2. This other Youtube site, which is all political clips and that I've been watching for a while, is run by someone who is a friend of Barnaby and Heather's??? Weird! I had no idea of any art connection, let alone to people that I've met.

This is good for me, 'cause I don't have cable.

I have to share that it is HILARIOUS when Sen. Craig walks out to the podium and the very first thing he says is "thank you all very much for, uh, coming out today".

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

dates please

WHEN exactly:

- is the Hoosick Rocks auction? (no info on the website).
- is the Buchel vs. Mass Moca trial? - and where, i have to know where. I am going to bring some colored pencils to sketch the proceedings. Is this really a jury trial? Wow.

I need to clear my calendar.

Friday, August 24, 2007

poorstarvingartdealer

UPDATED! 8/27/07!

I think this blogger, poorstarvingartdealer, is Angus Whyte.... (UPDATE! an informed source e-mails that the gallerist is most likely Kathryn Markel, not Angus Whyte) the person that gave Richard Prince one of his first shows. S/he's venting because Richard Prince has disavowed all of the work he made at that time, including the stuff Markel/Whyte exhibited and sold, made when Prince was in his mid-twenties.

The Neuberger Museum had a show of this early stuff, curated by Michael Lobel, reviewed here by Roberta Smith. Prince refused permission to reproduce any of the work for the catalogue, which is hilarious.... considering.

Anyways, this is all old news, it's just that I found the dealer's blog post today....

I missed the show, STUPIDLY, because I was excited to go down and see that and a bunch of Eilshemius (they have a big collection)... but when I called first they said none of the Eilshemius was up. Then I was too bummed to go and then it was too late.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

David Diao

David Diao
David Diao has some work in Stripes, a small show at the Tang. Six of his Little Suprematist Prisons, from a series of thirty made in 1986.

They're inspired partly by Robert Motherwell's Little Spanish Prison, of 1941... plus of course Malevich. I think next time I go to MoMA I'll look for that Motherwell.

with Daniel Buren!
i like stripes.

David Diao is another artist from High Times, Hard Times. They're everywhere! I should make a new label... "artists who were in High Times, Hard Times". Speaking of which, it would be really nice to take a trip out to the Parrish Art Museum to see the Alan Shields show when it opens. If someone plans to make that trip please take me.

RELATED:
- Joe Fyfe's artcritical feature on stripes, with some thoughts on David Diao at the end.
- Chris Ashley's post on stripes and Motherwell's Little Spanish Prison.

Monday, August 20, 2007

This edition is unlimited, temporary, site-specific, and unownable

Here is a google image search sculpture. Act Fast. This edition is unlimited, temporary, site-specific, and unownable.

(It's a mock Buchel)

Hoosick Rocks... PLUS

Hoosick Rocks now has a website... Meet the Rockers!

Susan Coons
Susan Coons' Liberace rocker.

Thomas Moses
Thomas Moses' rocker.

They're still working on the site, not all of the rockers are pictured yet, and I'm not sure exactly when the auction is. I want the Jenny Holzer... the sky is the limit.

PLUS:

Liberace Loved Me, 1978
Liberace Loved Me, 1978. I was only ten.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Richard Prince


Richard Prince

This is the Sid Vicious painting that Nick Stillman got the 3rd Place pin from....

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Richard Prince


I made a pilgrimmage, to Richard Prince's Second House, not knowing what I might find.

I'd read on Artnet last month that it had been struck by lightning and destroyed, and wanted to go and see what, if anything, was left. I was surprised to find anything still standing...


tire





Richard Prince, display case?






Car from window. It's a '73 Barracuda! Matte!!!

Richard Prince, wasps on barracuda
Crawling with wasps! Wasps everywhere, including the hood, all entries BLOCKED.

Why is it is so perfect???


It was too good to be true.

RELATED: an NYFA feature was published less than 24 hours after I posted that first image. Wow. I went on Tuesday, they must have visited sometime before that.... but, I like my pictures better, even though they are just cell phone pictures.

space on battenkill

Martin Bromirski (that's me)
The one on the left was in Art Basel: Stuffy's, the one on the right was in the DUMBO show.

me
Only two are done, the rest are "in progress". The silver square one (top right) was in a show at The Painting Center last month. The third one down, on the right side, was on PaintersNYC last year.

me
The one on the left might be done, the one in the middle is almost certainly done (it was in the Painting Center show), and the one you can glimpse on the right is done and was in my show at the Markel Building last year.

The one on the bottom is something unfinished from at least a year ago that I've taken out again.

studio
View outside door. There is a steep bank down to the river, right where it goes over an old dam... so there is the sound of water all the time. It's nice.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

went for a drive


I made a pilgrimmage today, not knowing what I might find.

Sarah Peters

Barnaby has made a post reminding me that I never said anything about the Sarah Peters show at Winkleman that I saw like THREE times (on two different NYC trips). I'm seriously way way behind in posting things that I'd have liked to post... I get overwhelmed with content.

I loved all the SP's and Sarah Peters signatures everywere, all the little hiding places, the started and abandoned bits, the tiny grouping of hands reaching down, the erasures and follies, the swooshy swept rythm of the whole thing. ARCADIA. - (this is basically my comment on Barnaby's blog).

It's impossible to take good pictures of faint pencil/pen lines with a 1.3 megapixel cell-phone camera, but... anyways...

06-21-07_1554.jpg
These photos are just tiny details of a drawing that spanned the entire wall. I was EnTrAnCeD.

06-21-07_1552.jpg
An S.P., and above that an almost completely invisible Sarah Peters, and above that there is probably a faint profile sketched into that cameo.

These little things are everywhere... hidden amongst the rythym of this big scroll drawing. It's kind of like a Turner, or a sea storm, or pulled taffy, or a landscape on a blanket propped up by chairs and suspended by strings.

06-21-07_1556.jpg
This was one of my favorite charm points... an almost completely erased figure sitting on the edge of a barely delineated table....

I liked that part a lot because it reminded me of the little guy, barely visible, sitting atop the staff in this Paris drawing -
Paris
You need to CliCK hERe to maybe see it.

More than anyone I am reminded of Eilshemius.... his floaty alabaster ladies, landscapes of charm and awkwardness. This one is especially Eilshemius.

RELATED: Sarah got a good review in the NYTimes from Roberta Smith, and amazingly I ran into her on the street that very day.

Monday, August 13, 2007

Friday, August 10, 2007

fine tuning


Erkki Kurenniemi, in The Believers, at Mass Moca.

I'm fine-tuning some blog stuff.... added some new artblogs, updated the blogger template and am fooling around with color, and added LABELS! There are tons of labels at the bottom of the right-hand column, to all sorts of topics/people/locations. Still more to come, like a "fast track to the blacklist" label, or something like that, for all the good stuff.

Here's a listing of all the artists curently with labels... artists who have been posted here a few times. These are (almost all) artists whose work I've really liked, many of whom are probably not very well-known, yet.

Jo Baer
Christoph Buchel
Hans Heiner Buhr
Daniel Buren
Jason Coates

Vittorio Colaizzi
Travis Conner
Paul DiPasquale
Marlene Dumas
Timothy Sean Johnston
Mildred Elfman Greenberg
Rachel Hayes
Haigh Jamgochian
Ron Johnson

Jack Kirby
Michael Lease

Lauren Luloff
Grandma Moses
Paris
Eric Sall
Jered Sprecher
Bruce Wilhelm
Roberta Fallon and Libby Rosof

Almost all of these artists have been mentioned in more posts than are found within the label... but the labeled ones are the more inclusive posts.

Of course, there a lots and lots of EXCELLENT artists who have been posted on this blog but don't have a label; the label doesn't mean "the greatest", just that there have been at least a few posts, and it's easier to keep track of them by giving them a label.

ps - Erkki Kurenniemi was one of my favorites in The Believers... I'll post more later.

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Andre Masson


Andre Masson, Battle of Fishes, 1926 - saw these two Andre Masson paintings last month at MoMA...


He made this one by throwing sand at white gesso, then wiping away the excess and finding a sea battle.

I saw these after seeing Aaron Johnson at Priska Juschka in the afternoon.... that show was overwhelming... so much going on, with the process and the content. I made a huge post about that show but the computer ate it and I can't do it again.

These Andre Massons helped me process the Aaron Johnsons though. I'm not sure exactly how much of Aaron's content is decided before he starts a piece, but it looked like a lot of the stuff is found after the shapes and splooges are made.

Aaron Johnson, Holy Trinity, 2007 - definitely a battle, and that white thing looks kind of like an octopus.

Ugh... I am trying to think of what I said in that lost post, and getting frustrated. The gist is that I was completely engrossed by the Johnsons, but... not completely satisfied, and liked the Massons more.


Andre Masson, Figure, 1926-27... oil and sand on canvas.


The next day I saw the Marlene Moquet show at Freight + Volume... that related also.

moratorium

Okay, I haven't seen a Jerry Saltz write-up in a couple weeks, this might be a good time to make a request.

A few years ago Jerry called for a four-year moratorium on photography-based painting. I would like to call for a six-month moratorium on Jerry Saltz writing about the art market, including even writing the word "market". Also, any use of the words "biennial" and "fair" (unless he is writing specifically about work seen at a biennial or fair). Oh, and a moratorium on use of the word "sexy". I'm tired of it.

Can we make a petition? Will you sign it?

UPDATE 10/10/07 - ugh, he really blew it.

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Hoosick Rocks!!!


Hoosick Falls is doing a chair-ity auction of artist-painted rocking chairs... they are in all the windows, and inside shops.

07-28-07_1449.jpg

07-28-07_1459.jpg
Key Bank.


The blue one is by Roy Egg. He does everything eggs.

07-28-07_1447.jpg



08-04-07_1324.jpg
The seat says Protect Me From What I Want.

for grandma moses
The back says For Grandma Moses.

It says Action Causes More Trouble Than Thought across the top of the front.




For Rent Fo Rent...

I'm excited about this auction... it's in October. All the money goes to cystic fibrosis and to help maintain an old house. There is a massive beech tree in front of that house, it's gorgeous.

Here is my Hoosick Rocks flickr set. Thomas Moses has one, but I haven't seen it yet.

Sunday, August 05, 2007

mildred!

Mildred Elfman Greenberg has been doubly posted on Fallon and Rosof's artblog... two days in a row. GOOD!!! Here is the first one, here is the second one.

LABELS - I need to start making labels for artists that I make more than a couple posts on.... here is a label for Mildred.

Saturday, August 04, 2007

Ron Johnson


Ron Johnson has a website now.... I really like Ron's work... there are so many good artists in Richmond.

I wanted Ron to be in Art Basel: Stuffy's, but he didn't want to do it because he had another show happening - at Reynolds Gallery - around the same time. Ron and Kirsten were two that got away. They would have been so good together, and I think would have worked especially well with the Travis Conner, Don Crow, and my own stuff. Oh well... it was still a GREAT SHOW.






Here is my post on Ron's show from last September, featuring TWO special *guest-star* art critics (one in the post, one in the comments). Okay, Ron is getting his own label now.
PLUS: Judy has a Ron?!? HOW??? I want one too.