Art Wank

Turner trouble

Turner Prize bosses made an exhibition of themselves yesterday, by trying to ban any bad publicity.

[…]

The row blew up after members of the Press were asked to sign a form which said journalists could not publish any images or words which would “result in any adverse publicity” for the exhibition.

• Tom Pettifor, ‘Turner Prize in another mess as art bosses try to ban bad publicity’, The Mirror, 5 October 2010, <http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/10/05/prize-idiots-115875-22609674/>

Sewellisms # 14: Self-professed ignorance

‘I knew nothing of the Kingdom of Ife in what is now Western Nigeria, until the British Museum’s catalogue of its new exhibition under that title dropped onto my doormat.’

Brian Sewell, ‘The Kingdom of Ife: Sculptures from West Africa’, 11 March 2010

Read more: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/arts/review-23814446-heads-of-africa-on-show-at-the-kingdom-of-ife.do

AW: What! I though every first year Courtauld undergraduate had a basic knowledge of eleventh-century West African sculpture! Frankly I was rather taken aback to read Brian Sewell admitting ignorance on any subject. At least until he made his defence in the next sentence; simultaneously showing off his classical education while taking a side swipe at a dead celebrity:

‘it is not quite the same as knowing nothing about Michelangelo, Rembrandt  and Velázquez and the whereabouts of Rome, Amsterdam  and Madrid  (though that appalling level of ignorance now seems the not uncommon consequence of an education system that produced Jade Goody and her ilk)’

Quentin Taran-lean-o

“Quentin Tarantino sparked a panic by lea[n]ing on a $1 million painting while chatting to Harvey Weinstein at the Upper East Side townhouse of art dealer/gallery owner Nathan Bernstein.”

‘Quentin Tarantino’s close call’, New York Post, 12 February 2010

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/quentin_close_call_MZ7OaX0G3aJMk5OkJtV94K

Vacuous Offensiveness

‘The title for Ceri Hand Gallery’s inaugural 2010 exhibition is taken from the song “Spasticus Autisticus,” penned by the legendary Ian Dury’.

‘A launching off point for an exhibition that underscores the oddball, frankly abnormal and “special” (as in “Special Olympics” special) qualities of artists’ pursuits, Spasticus Artisticus explores the outsize freedom inherited by those who deliberately select a life devoted to exploring objects and ideas for which there is zero use value. The exhibition-made […] turns its back on the success model recently adopted by rafts of artists around the world.’

Spasticus Artisticus, Curated by Jota Castro & Christian Viveros-Faune, Ceri Hand Gallery, Liverpool, 15 January - 27 February 2010

Press Release: http://www.cerihand.co.uk/index.php?/forthcoming-exhibitions/spasticus-artisticus15-jan-27-feb-/

AW: Curators, Jota Castro and Christian Viveros-Faune, have chosen to express the theme of the exhibition, ‘Spasticus artisticus’ with a title based on Ian Dury’s song, ‘Spasticus Autisticus’, associating the aims of a disparate selection of artists with Dury’s provocative song about disability.

The crucial difference is that Dury, who had suffered from polio as a child, considered himself disabled and was dealing with the subject of disability in the song, while this exhibition is concerned with what it calls ‘the oddball, frankly abnormal and “special” (as in “Special Olympics” special) qualities of artists’ pursuits’. The ‘spasticus’ of the title is therefore used, in this context, as another term for ‘oddball’. The curators are doing exactly what Dury was criticising in his song, using the term ‘spastic’ in a derisory way.

The (poorly-crafted) press release goes further, making strong associations between ‘spasticus’ and the values that the curators attribute to the selected artists, who are deemed ‘especially wild, pointless, counter-productive and generally deranged…’. With unwarranted bravado the curators and the Ceri Hand Gallery celebrate these works of ‘zero use value’; a shallow corruption of, and poor tribute to, the spirit and message of Dury’s lyrics.

Damien Hirst: Another bloody show

Damien Hirst: ‘These paintings are about my mortality, confronting death, maybe trying to mock it, whereas many of my previous works are about my immortality. I definitely believed I was going to live forever for a while back there.’

Damien Hirst: Dark Trees, Galleria Hilario Galguera, opening 16 January 2010
http://www.galeriahilariogalguera.com/newdata/english.html

AW: You better keep churning them out then Damo. Seriously, three shows in the last four months.

After pastiching Frances Bacon he seems to be taking on Gillian Carnegie (http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/turnerprize/2005/gilliancarnegie.htm).

Begging the question, does this mean anything at all?

By subtly evoking questions of perception and legibility, Bend’s work aims to address the complexity inherent to these innocuous yet loaded forms.

Bend compliments these three sculptures with several new paintings that play on viewer’s expectations of how ready-made color and hard-edge abstraction should operate.

‘Hannes Bend: endlich’, Half Gallery (New York), JANUARY 15-FEBRUARY 11, 2010

Read more: http://www.halfgallery.com/

AW: Two classic examples of artwank here.

First, the statement that the work evokes ‘questions of perception and legibility’ is pretty vague - what are the questions?

Second. Its all very well to ‘play with our expectations’, but how do you know that we have any particular expectations, what are they, what does playing with them involve, and what’s the point anyway? I think what this is really saying is that the paintings are different to what we would expect. Abstract geometrical arrangements of bright colours! That’s exactly what I expected.

If Mohammed can’t come to the Met, make a mountain out of a molehill

The New York Post - in an article called ‘“Jihad” jitters at Met - does its darnedest to make a story out of the fact that the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY) has rehung its Islamic Collection without including any of its images of the Prophet Mohammed.

‘Critics say the Met has a history of dodging criticism and likely wants to escape the kind of outcry that Danish cartoons of Mohammed caused in 2006.’

ISABEL VINCENT, ‘“Jihad” jitters at Met’, New York Post, 10 January 2010
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/jihad_jitters_at_met_76yj3VNUy4hcRAnhOcPCHP

Or it could be that… ‘The Met currently has about 60 items from its 60,000-piece Islamic collection on temporary display in a corner of its vast second-floor Great Hall while larger galleries are renovated. But its three ancient renderings of Mohammed are not among them.’ - Yes, that the Met is only able to show 1000th of its collection at one time, and images of Mohammed are not only rare in their collection, but rare in Islamic art.

‘Three years ago, the Met changed its “Primitive Art Galleries” to the “Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas” for the sake of political correctness, said author Michael Gross, author of “Rogues’ Gallery,” a book about the Met.’

That’s hardly ‘political correctness gone mad’, is it? More like a overdue redefinition of three whole continents worth of art. The term primitive is now not only considered racist, (http://www.survivalinternational.org/stampitout), but misleading and highly reductive when applied so broadly. Rather than political correctness, the renaming of the galleries was clearly a decision based on a greater understanding of non-western art.

It is interesting to see that the comments thread beneath this article has been hijacked by racists, and that there has been a woeful lack of moderation; shocking as you need to sign in to leave a comment.

Greater Curator: Shaquille O’Neal

‘throughout his career, O’Neal has capitalized on his size and strength to overpower opponents […] earning him nicknames such as Diesel and Superman. Now Shaq takes the opportunity to reflect on his size with an exhibition boasting works from microscopic to giant pieces […] The exhibition will include works in a variety of media that employ scale as a key component of their composition.’

‘Description’, SIZE DOES MATTER, Curated by Shaquille O’Neal The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, February 19, 2010 - May 27, 2010

Read more: http://www.flagartfoundation.org/upcoming/

AW: Basically, being tall qualifies basketball player Shaquille O’Neal to curate an exhibition about big and small things. Stand by for the new portrait minatures exhibition to be curated by Verne Troyer then.