When I Have Time Off, I Look at Art and Drink.

I recently shook myself free from the shackles of corporate America and enjoyed a week off between my emancipation and the start of an amazing new position. I made some calls, bought some tickets and had an incredible time. Here’s a brief snapshot of what I saw, drank and thought in New York and Dallas.

New York

What I Saw:

John Baldessari: Pure Beauty
Oct. 20, 2010 – Jan. 9, 2011
Metropolitan Museum of Art

The most extensive retrospective to date of Los Angeles-based artist John Baldessari, Pure Beauty is an exceptionally organized show, offering highlights from every decade of the conceptualist artist’s career. His early use of text, photography and film and the underlying theme of “What makes art, art?” has influenced countless contemporary artists, apparent in the works of Cindy Sherman and Jenny Holzer.

Standout Piece:

In 1970, frustrated with the limitations of his previous work, John Baldessari burned pieces he created between 1953 and 1966. “Cremation Project,” as it became to be known, was not only a disavowal of his previous life as a painter and what came of his efforts, but a definitive moment in Baldessari’s transition towards a more hands-off approach in creating art.

Image courtesy of DNAinfo/Jennifer Glickel

Pure Beauty was organized by LACMA in association with Tate Modern. It is on view at the MET until Jan. 9, 2011. For more information go here.

What I Drank:

Vodka. And a lot of it. I spent Friday night at a big gay toys for tots benefit and it was open bar. Enough said.

What I Thought:

“Cremation Project” is a lasting testament to the transition in Baldessari’s career and creative process. Maybe the piece resonated so much because I’m in the process of my own career transition. And who hasn’t wanted to burn it all to the ground before.

Dallas

What I Saw:

The Dallas Museum of Art

My first time to the DMA, I was extremely impressed with the facilities, the diversity of the permanent collection and the breadth of community programming.

For visitor information, go here.

Standout Pieces from Re-Seeing the Contemporary (Oct. 15, 2010 - March 20, 2010):

David Szafranski's “Is it Fear or Desire” and Alan Saret's "Deep Forest Green Dispersion"

Deep Forest Green Dispersion, 1969, Alan Saret, American Galvanized hex netting, painted,Dallas Museum of Art, gift of John Weber

What I Drank:

What didn’t I drink?! Delicious margaritas at an excellent authentic Mexican restaurant, bottle after bottle of assorted red wines (bought in a slightly dream like shopping spree at Costco) and Miller Light. From a bottle and from a keg.

What I Thought:

Texas gets a bad rap.

David Wojnarowicz’s "A Fire in My Belly" On View At The New Museum

Read all about it here.

The House that Malcolm Built

This past Friday, I braved the cold and the after Thanksgiving crowd to sneak a peek of the highly anticipated Art of the Americas Wing at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. After walking into the Shapiro Family Courtyard, the massive cube that connects the new wing to the original building, it would be hard for anyone to argue that this extensive and costly project is anything but a success for the MFA and the entire Boston arts community.

Ruth and Carl J. Shapiro Family Courtyard © Chuck Choi. Image courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

About ten years ago, well known (infamous, to some) MFA Director Malcolm Rogers began to build support for the expansion, eventually raising $504 million for the new wing. Criticized in the past for his staff overhauls and controversial exhibits, you can feel Roger’s fingerprint throughout the new wing, which will undoubtedly serve as a lasting reminder of his tenure at the MFA.

Designed by London based architectural firm Foster + Partners, the 133, 491 square foot addition houses more than 5,000 pieces from North, South and Central America in 53 galleries. As you ascend the four floors, you are also moving forward in time. The lower ground level consists of a relatively small collection of Pre-Colombian, Andean and Native North American art along with pieces from 17th century New England. Level one and two takes visitors through American Colonialism, American Impressionism and beyond. These two levels showcase what the MFA is most well known for; it’s expansive collection of 18th and 19th century American art and artifacts. Iconic works by John Singer Sargent, John Singelton Copley, Thomas Sully, Samuel McIntire, Winslow Homer and Louise Comfort Tiffany are all on view, and not to be missed by any visitor to Boston.

The Passage of the Delaware, Thomas Sully. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Gift of the Owners of the old Boston Museum. Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

In sharp contrast to the breadth of work exhibited on floors two and three, the fourth floor consists of a poor collection of modern American art. Although it houses several pieces by Goergia O’Keefe and Arthur Dove, the MFA’s holdings in this category are rather dismal. In a review of the wing, Boston Globe Art Critic Sebastian Smee described the offerings on the fourth floor as “blowsy and third-rate,” a fair assessment in my eyes.

Despite the disappointment the fourth floor provided, the new wing is highly impressive. It transforms the entire visitor experience at the MFA, highlights collection strengthens and embraces where Mr. Rogers and the rest of the MFA staff need to focus acquisition efforts.

For visitor information go here.

Editorial Disclaimer: The author of this post received discounted or complementary admission to the above mentioned exhibition, courtesy of the host institution, organization or gallery.

"The Whitney Announces Curators for 2012 Biennial"

The 2012 Whitney Biennial will be co-curated by the Whitney’s Elisabeth Sussman and independent curator Jay Sanders. This will be the 76th in the Museum’s series of Annual and Biennial exhibitions inaugurated in 1932, which will go on view in March 2010.

Read all about it here.

"Isa Genzken's 28-foot Rose II Arrives on the Bowery"

Read all about it here.

I knew it!

"New Museum to Rotate Façade Sculpture from Ugo Rondinone's Hell, Yes! to Isa Genzken's Rose II"

Read all about it here.

And why I had my suspicions here.

"The Best and the Rest"

A great review by David Littlejohn in today's Wall Street Journal of Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne and Beyond up at the de Young Fine Arts Museum, San Francisco until Jan. 18.

The article also includes a very concise and informative art history lesson right up front.

Read the whole article here.

Check out...

Cig Harvey at Robert Klein Gallery, Boston. Up until Nov. 7

Image courtesy of Robert Klein Gallery

workworkworkworkwork Works For Me

As the world’s most well known designers begin to unveil their latest creations in New York this Fashion Week, Bostonians can see some extraordinary designs on a much smaller scale thanks to an exhibition dedicated to artist Charles LeDray at the Institute of Contemporary Art.

Again, it’s on a much smaller scale.

No…much smaller.

Smaller than that.

Charles LeDray, MENS SUITS. Photo Courtesy of the ICA, Boston

The small scale sculptures included in workworkworkworkwork bucks “the bigger, the better” trend so popular in today’s contemporary art scene and goes far beyond small scale haute couture. Miniature bound books, beautifully glazed thumb-sized urns and small scale replicas of antique furniture carved from human bone are all on view.

LeDray, a native of Seattle, learned to sew from his mother at age four, and could knit and macramé by 10. He received no formal fine arts training and briefly worked as a security guard at the Seattle Art Museum. "Many nights I would leave the museum with a burning desire to make something -- anything -- inspired by spending the day with great works of art," LeDray told the Seattle Post Intelligencer in a 2003 interview.


One of the installations, Throwing Shadows, features more than 3,000 black porcelain pots. Displayed in a row of three jewelry cases, the harsh museum lighting creates thousands of shadows from these tiny ebony figures, doubling the already vast number of handmade creations.

Charles LeDray, Throwing Shadows. Photo Courtesy of the ICA, Boston

In a world of mass market disposable fashion, where knockoffs of $4,000 Hermès Birkin bags can be bought from the trunk of a Chrysler in Long Island City (one in black and one in red, Bitches!), Ledray’s one of a kind handmade pieces are almost too good to be true. In this month’s ARTNews, artist Nari Ward writes “The aspect most relevant for contemporary art is figuring out how to take a formal language and push it as much as possible.” By taking a men’s blazer and recreating it on such a small scale - the almost microscopic buttons, epilates and patches all created from hand - Ledray forces us to reexamine the countless items we surround ourselves with on a daily basis.

workworkworkworkwork is on view at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston until Oct. 17. After its debut at the ICA, the exhibition travels to the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (Nov. 18, 2010—Feb. 13, 2011) and to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (May 8—Sept. 11, 2011).

For more information, visit the ICA’s Web site here.

Editorial Disclaimer: The author of this post received discounted or complementary admission to the above mentioned exhibition, courtesy of the host institution, organization or gallery.

Walking in the Park with a Hollow Leg

I was in New York this past weekend and desperately wanted to see Miranda July’s “Eleven Heavy Things” which has been installed in Union Square Park. So, on Saturday morning, after a long night of red wine, good food, wonderful friends, laughing, laughing, laughing some more, disco dancing, half of a roast beef sandwich at some diner in Chelsea and a “nap” in the back of a taxi, I peeled my wide-eyed and legless body from my friend’s air mattress and made my way downtown.

July’s “Eleven Heavy Things” was originally created for the Venice Biennale in 2009 and is comprised of eleven cast fiber-glass, steel-lined sculptures designed to serve as picture props: pedestals to stand on, tablets with holes for body parts, and free-standing abstract headdresses.

Sponsored by Deitch Projects, the Union Square Partnership and NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, artist, author and filmmaker July says, “Though the work begins as sculpture, it becomes a performance;” a far cry from that gargantuan vandalized statue of that American revolutionary (what’s his name again?) that sits in the park across from your office huh?

So many of us are guilty of failing to appreciate and notice pieces of public art. The countless bronze statutes that dot our squares and the attempts made by cities to integrate large scale works on our streets often become just blips on the landscape of our commutes and/or meeting points for the derelicts that exist in my nightmares. But July’s approach encourages us to interact with the work that truly exists between sculpture and performance art. It also serves as a reminder to take a second glance at the pieces we live with everyday.

Below are some more photos from the day. I’ve looked better, that is FO SHO.

Send photos of the public art you encounter this week to: ClarkCrowley@gmail.com

Miranda July’s "Eleven Heavy Things" is on view in the center lawn of New York City’s Union Square Park until October 30, 2010. For more information on the installation and to read the artist's bio, go here.

She really is.

It sure isn't and it sure won't be.

It's what I always look like. That's why I'm so good at it!

Sober and slender and sincere.

So I asked this man to pose with me. He had to think long and hard. I shook his hand and introduced myself. His name was Andrew. We hugged. We did not touch pelvises which I HATE. And then he quickly walked away. Just like the piece instructed him to do.

"Her career as an example of perseverance in the face of neglect"

Sculptor Louise Bourgeois died yesterday in New York. She was 98. You can read Holland Cotter's obituary for The New York Times here.

"Young artists have moved on, but the Turner Prize jurors are looking in the same places."

The BBC's Will Gompertz examines a few theories as to why only artists in their 40's were included in this year's Turner Prize shortlist.

"One of the glories and terrors of working in public is that you do see if your output means anything to anyone"

Jenny Holzer talks with Jori Finkel of the Los Angeles Times about receiving a distiguished women in the arts award from the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.

"We are in some ways lucky to be living in the era of art museums as big-box stores."

Kyle Chayka examines the recent flurry of museum expansion plans in an article for The Atlantic online here.

I have a birthday coming up...

Just saying.

Anish Kapoor for Bulgari via The Moment.

"Do you really think Charles Saatchi is going to have Jeff Koons over for margaritas to watch this show?"

Brian Moylan of Defamer voices his opinion on Bravo's new art world reality show, Work of Art: The Next Great Artist, here.

“He is the man who has everything. He’s come to define the market.”

BusinessWeek’s William Green talks to Nasser David Khalili, the “world’s leading private collector of Islamic art.”

"A Virtual Tour of the Biennial, Twitter (and Cameras) Allowed"

Read all about it here, from Dave Itzkoff at The New York Times

"In order for museums to be sustainable in the future, they really have to listen to their visitors"

Hilarie Sheets from The New York Times talks to Bonnie Pitman, director of the Dallas Museum of Art, about the interesting work the institution is doing to improve visitor experiences

Ain't that the truth

"The feeling on the streets now is the same as it is in most of the galleries: the sheer amount of work, and the mediocrity of most of it, can make the effort of sorting out the good from the bad too painful to contemplate."

Nocolai Ouroussoff in his review of a newly constructed Jean Nouvel building in Chelsea.

Review: Whitney Biennial 2010

This year’s Whitney Biennial marks the seventy-fifth edition of the museum’s well known series, but the milestone wasn’t commemorated in any overdone way. In fact, the show that is meant to encapsulate American art at this moment in time felt austere in certain respects. Simply titled 2010, the show lacked an overarching formal theme as in years past, but the general uneasiness most Americans have felt due to the global recession and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan can be seen in several of the pieces included in the show.

Photographer Nina Berman captures the ugliness of war and the human condition in a series of photos of Marine Sgt. Ty Ziegel, an Iraqi war veteran who was severely disfigured by a suicide bomber while serving. The photos capture Ty at his home, at his local watering hole, with his fiancé and on his wedding day. One photo catches Ty smiling, gazing at his soon to be wife, as she stares off into the distance, invoking feelings associated with lost girlhood dreams. The subject of the photos and the emotions they convey make up for the general simplicity of the photographs.

In Landscape with Houses (Dutchess County, NY) #1 James Casebere constructed a large, detailed tabletop model of a cul-de-sac so similar to the countless effected by foreclosures and the global recession. The artist’s photographs of the model cause the viewer to second guess the medium of the piece and the actual existence of the tiny, perfect neighborhood. Other standouts included works by Pae White and Storm Tharp.

Despite the fact that this year’s show is considered small (It includes only 55 artists – half of the 2006 show) I found it to be a balanced blend of emerging artists and more well known ones such as George Condo and Ellen Gallagher. The show does not cater to any particular medium, but the general disappointment I felt while viewing the majority of the video pieces causes me to conclude that there are more present than necessary. The real challenge of the Biennial is to sift through all the pieces, artists and ideas, and to view each with a fresh eye as its own entity.

The Whitney Biennial, 2010 is on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art until May 30. Click here for more information.

Editorial Disclaimer: The author of this post received discounted or complementary admission to the above mentioned exhibition, courtesy of the host institution, organization or gallery.

A Trip to the Smith College Museum of Art

When a friend suggested a trip to the Smith College Museum of Art in Northampton, Mass. I happily agreed, but wasn’t expecting much of a return on my time. Ignorant to the Museum’s position and reputation, I envisioned a dark, dank little gallery on the college campus with a collection consisting of old Dutch paintings and Revolutionary War tchotchke’s so typical of New England museums.

What I found was an impressive collection of contemporary American and European art of the 19th and 20th centuries, in a $35 million dollar art center on the campus of this historic women’s college.

Works by Cézanne, Kirchner and Picasso can be found on the third floor of the building: gifts to the Museum from distinguished Smith alumnae. Museum acquired contemporary pieces from Jenny Holzer and Alison Saar are also on view, serving as a testament to the Museum’s forward thinking aesthetic and dedication to supporting women in the visual arts.

Click here for more information.

"Museum attendance up, income down, survey says"

Read the whole story via the Los Angeles Times here.

The Detroit Institute of Art Opens New Islamic Art Gallery

Mary Stryker from the Detroit Free Press talks to Heather Ecker, curator of Islamic art at the Detroit Institute of Art about the project.

Fountain NY 2010 Announces Exhibitors and Guest Performers

Read all about it here.

Review: Roni Horn aka Roni Horn

In a.k.a, Roni Horn pairs portraits of herself from over the years producing feelings of intrigued surprise. A photograph of the artist as a young girl in a yellow dress with her red hair carefully placed is displayed next to a portrait of the artist as an androgynous adult in a man’s button down work shirt with her salt and pepper hair clipped close to her head. The often startling effect that is the passage of time is a theme that can be felt throughout Roni Horn aka Roni Horn on view at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston until June 13.

Originally organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art in association with Tate Modern, aka is the most comprehensive survey of the artist’s work to date. Educated at the Rhode Island Institute of Art and Yale, Horn moves effortlessly through disciplines, using photography, sculpture and painting as mediums. She lives and works in New York and Reykjavik – the landscape and eco-diversity of Iceland is an inspiration felt in many of her works. “Iceland is always becoming what it will be, and what it will be is not a fixed thing either,” writes Horn. In Still Water (The River Thames, for Example) Horn is able to capture the elusive nature of water in a series of photographs. She then dots the photos with footnotes that examine the complexity of fluid emotions and thoughts both associated and unrelated to the water’s surface.

100 photographs of the same woman’s face are hung around a gallery like a horizon line in You are the Weather documenting the fleeting existence and uniqueness of expressions. In sharp contrast to the small amount of time examined in You are the Weather Horns five-ton pink glass cube Pink Ton’s is a testament to how long things take to come to fruition. I can’t even begin to fathom how long it took for the cube to come into existence: from Horn’s first notion of the cube to its installation.



Roni Horn, "You are the Weather" (detail), 1995. Image via the ICA Web site, courtesy of Hauser and Wirth, Zurich and London.

Although The Boston Globe panned the ICA for its decision to host the show, I believe that the exhibition was a positive strategic move by the museum. Boston is not a town known for its contemporary art scene and this show is both approachable and thought provoking. As an institution, the ICA has to exhibit ground breaking pieces from the contemporary art world, but at the same time it needs to develop shows that appeal to the general public. The ICA is creating a market for itself by cultivating a community of patrons interested in contemporary art by slowly introducing the work of today’s more provocative artists.

The works included in aka details Horn’s diverse talents as an artist and shows how an aesthetic can both change and stay the same over time. After seeing Roni Horn aka Roni Horn you will examine moments both big and small in your world with a renewed sense of interest and appreciation.

Roni Horn aka Roni Horn is on view at the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston until June 13. For more information visit the ICA’s Web site.

Editorial Disclaimer: The author of this post received discounted or complementary admission to the above mentioned exhibition, courtesy of the host institution, organization or gallery.

Marc Jacobs: RTW Fall 2010

Women's Wear Daily reviews Marc Jacobs Fall 2010 ready to wear line which was shown Monday night as part of NY fashion week.

"I feel that I am on the cusp of something new in my life. I just don’t know what it is right now."

Christiane Amanpour talks to the New York Times Magazine about here home and her work.

Whitney “Pop-Up” Cafe to Open Feb 25

Read the press release here.

Alexander McQueen Commits Suicide

The Daily Mail is reporting that fashion designer Alexander McQueen has committed suicide.

A $150 Cynthia Rowley Label: Sew It Anywhere

As fashion week commences in New York, Eric Wilson from the New York Times talks to Cynthia Rowley and investigates how the designer is hoping to satisfy the ever growing “now now now” needs of consumers.

"It's as if you are carrying the suffering of the people you have photographed."

A retrospective of British photojournalist Don McCullin's work opens at the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester.


Watch a video slideshow with commentary from Don McCullin at Economist.com

News From The New Museum: $100,000 Ordway Prize Winners Announced

Read the press release here.

"The album is very close to me"

An interview with Charlotte Gainsbourg on her latest album, "IRM" (which I've had on repeat for the past week) and her interesting past in Time Magazine.

"All about personality, because the tasks the leads perform...are so mundane."

"Kell On Earth" premieres tonight on Bravo. Read a review from the New York Times here.

"So secretive that perhaps you could call them 'commercial terrorists.'"

Over the course of 20 years, a highly brazen group of Serbians have stolen $350 million dollars worth of jewelry from some of the most exclusive stores in the world. Tonight, "Dateline" investigates the rise, fall and resurrection of the group know as the "Pink Panthers."

On the Trail of the Pink Panthers - Crime reports- msnbc.com

"People are the same everywhere; it's the places that define them that are different."

A quote from Radhika Jones' review of Best European Fiction 2010 (Dalkey Archive Press) in Time.

"We expect ourselves to be available"

An interesting perspective from a baby boomer on how "working" has evolved from yesterday's New York Times.

"Liberated from the dictates of mainstream fashion"

Today I had the pleasure of visiting the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA to see the exhibition, Rare Bird of Fashion: The Irreverent Iris Apfel up until February 7.

Over her 88 years, the fashion icon has amassed a wardrobe that exists as a true collection of fine art. All of the ensembles were handpicked by Mrs. Apfel herself, for the show that was originally organized by the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Pieces of haute couture from the fashion houses of Chanel and Dior are paired with goat fur boots, antique belts from Middle Eastern bazaars and Bakelite bangles. The show allows visitors to have first hand encounters with pieces of fashion that are rarely seen outside of Paris fashion shows or Afghan souks.

Rare Bird of Fashion: The Irreverent Iris Apfel, is a truly inspirational show that encourages its audience to take chances with fashion and to spend an afternoon at the local thrift store.

Learn more about the Peabody Essex Museum.

Watch an interview with Mrs. Apfel here.

Take the money and run

"Teen girls sought in bank robbery"

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-01-07-robbers_N.htm


Via USA Today

I wish my office had one of these....

http://www.psfk.com/2009/12/pic-vending-machine-gives-people-a-break-literally.html

Via Urban Outfitters