Look, See

Auburn, NY 20050701

 

 

 

Auburn, NY 20050701, 2005, HTML, 425 x 394 pixels

 

 

 

 

Jersey 1-4

 

 

 

Jersey 1-4, 2005, oil on canvas, 20 x 16" each

 

 

 

 

In progress

 

 

In progress, oil on canvas, 18 x 14" each

 

 

 

 

Studio, 20050709

 

 

 

Studio views, 20050709

 

 

 

 

Statler, Cornell

 

 

 

View from my room in the Statler Hotel on the Cornell University campus
July 2, 2005

 

 

 

 

Finger Lakes

 

 

 

Finger Lakes, 2005, HTML, 325 x 340 pixels

(Suggestion: view while standing back six feet or more from your monitor)

 

 

 

 

Cornell

 

 

 

Cornell, 2005, HTML, 400 x 380 pixels

(Suggestion: view while standing back six feet or more from your monitor)

 

 

 

 

Fox at Twilight, Freeville, New York (20050629)

 

 

 

Fox at Twilight, Freeville, New York (20050629), 2005, HTML, 480 x 440 pixels

(Suggestion: view while standing back six feet or more from your monitor)

 

 

 

 

Cayuga

 

 

 

Cayuga, 2005, HTML, 540 x 540 pixels

 

 

 

 

Forman Collection @ Albright Knox Gallery

 

 

Last Friday, July 1, 2005, I drove from Ithaca, where I spent the week at Cornell, to Buffalo, NY to visit the Albright Knox Gallery. I specifically wanted to see the Forman Collection of (mostly) monochrome (mostly) painting, given to the museum a couple of years ago, as well as the Albright's collection of Clyfford Stills. The Albright is only one of two museums with a substantial collection of Stills, a gift from the artist with the condition that a portion always be on display in a dedicated room. The other museum is my hometown modern- SFMoMA. I also wanted to see as much as possible of the museum's permanent collection.

It's a long drive from Ithaca to Buffalo for someone more used to California freeways- about 150 miles. Sure, the bulk of my drive was on the NY Thruway, but I also had to drive about 50 miles of two lane road just to get to the thruway. I left Ithaca about 1:15 p.m., and got back to my hotel at Cornell at almost 11:30 p.m. Grueling.

I arrived at almost 5:00. The Albright is in a grand old building in a park setting beside a small lake, and I had high hopes. But at the front desk-- free on Friday nights until 10:00 p.m.- I was told that except for one small room the permanent collection was closed because the next large show, Extreme Abstraction, is being installed. The one small room held Pollock's Convergence, de Kooning's Gotham News, Rothko's Orange and Yellow 1956, Kline's New York, NY, 1953, and Reinhardt's beautiful, tall and narrow, all blue No. 15, 1952. All excellent, but I didn't drive 150 miles for five paintings. The AK website, which is ugly and really sucks, didn't say a word about this.

First impressions- the Albright needs a makeover. It's drab, feels dirty, there are too many layers of paint on walls, and it's dark. The place feels old, neglected.

I asked the young man at the desk who the artist was of the new, brightly colored metal piece freshly installed outside (below). He didn't know. I asked other people- no one knew. All they could tell me was that it was newly installed and part of Extreme Abstraction.

Unknown, Albright Knox Gallery

I took the elevator down to the newer, attached galleries- newer as in, say, 1961 rather than 1901. It reminded me a bit of the old Walker in Minneapolis, but felt more rundown and without good sightlines.

The Forman Collection comprises over one hundred and sixty (mostly) monochrome (mostly) paintings and sculpture, and about two hundred works on paper, none of which were shown. The collection was built over about ten years or so, from the early 90's to around 2002. There are some beautiful works and big names-- Marioni, Hafif, Sims, for example-- but strong work that struck me was by Ebnother (see my interview with Alan here or here), Meyer, Howell, Tollens, and de Crignis. It was fortunate that these painters were represented by small bodies of work, say four to six paintings, installed together.

Good light is important to see much of this work, which is why it's so unfortunate that most of these galleries are artificially lit with spots. The lighting was terrible- yellowish and often poorly aimed, it interfered with seeing the work. Marioni's five paintings, for example, suffered a great deal because of inadequate, badly aimed, reflective lighting.

No photography was allowed, though I don't see the harm in installation shots. Normally my cheap digital camera would be up to the job, but the light was so bad, combined with the need to shoot quickly and surreptitiously, that the pictures I took are pretty worthless in terms of seeing color and surface.

John Meyer (left) and Peter Tollens (right) in the Forman Collection, Albright Knox Gallery, 20050701

I have nothing too brilliant in general to say about the Forman Collection that hasn't been said elsewhere (for example, see Marcia Hafif's texts). Stuff I've said before: Monochrome paintings aren't monochrome. Each artist's approach is different. These differences are part of each painting's subject. Craft is important. Size isn't everything. But also, if you spend time with the work, just like with any other art, there are personal politics and attitudes at play in each artist's work. How is that possible? See what I wrote about George Lawson's San Cai paintings last fall.

James Howell's gray paintings were surprisingly engaging. John Meyer's heavily braced wood panels are very object-like; he veered close to furniture making. I was very drawn to John Beech's quirky sculpture. Each of the surfaces of Alan Ebnother's three paintings had varied brushwork made with different brushes and different-sized strokes. Marcia Hafif's work is very conceptual in that it refers to painting in history. Phil Sims was represented by smaller paintings scattered throughout the exhibit rather than hung together like the other artists's work, and was far better than the work in his show I wrote about last fall. The sides of Rudolf de Crignis's canvases are made smooth and seamless with plaster and gesso, which combined with his front surfaces makes the work smooth, fast, tight. (Read a very positive review at Artcritical.)

Marcia Hafif (front) and Joseph Marioni (rear) in the Forman Collection, Albright Knox Gallery, 20050701

When I was ready to see the Stills I asked someone at the desk where his paintings are.

"Oh, yeah, we showed him a few months ago."

"You mean there are none on display right now?"

"No, we just showed them."

"Doesn't that violate the conditions of his gift, that a portion be displayed in a dedicated room at all times?"

(Shrug) "I don't know anything about that."

Huh? On the same page linked to above regarding the Albright's Stills it says, "According to the terms of the gift, the paintings must be shown in their own room, all of the time, and never loaned to other museums." OK!

I have a love-hate relationship with Still, know the SF paintings pretty well, and wanted to study whatever the Albright Knox might be showing. My loss. But what a ripoff, and what a long drive back to Ithaca.

See Donald Kuspit's excellent 2001 essay on Still: "Frontier Abstraction."

 

 

 

 

Richard Tuttle @ SFMoMA

 

 

The Art of Richard Tuttle at SFMoMA is a wonderfully fascinating and engrossing exhibit. There is a lot of work, much of it small with lots of details to take in, and his continual invention, renewal, and joy in making and the visual is present at every turn. The work is all closely connected to attuned seeing, and especially pushes the moment of insight that transforms everyday survival vision into the something new, alive, sparkly, and transcendent.

I intend to see the show, which just opened last week, two or three times, and so my visit Sunday was supposed to be no more than an hour to get an overall feel. Instead I spent nearly three hours; first, I walked through all the galleries from beginning to end, then started at the beginning slowly making my way from one room to another, then walked backwards through the whole thing again.

Tuttle's work has the feeling of being made with scavenged pieces and materials from a hardware store. There is a feeling not only of reusing found material, but also reusing his own work- some works feel that they're made with pieces that have been laying around and suddenly found and joined. Much of his work, though constructed, is really collage, yet so far in what I've read in the literature accompanying this show the use of the word or the idea of collage isn't really present.

Nowhere does the museum use the word "retrospective," yet this is clearly a career overview. But still, I have the sense that I haven't seen a full representation of his work, that there are more areas that could be shown. And it is very useful to have full series of works together, so I wish that there were more examples of a complete series. I highly encourage setting aside a good chunk of time to spend with this show, which eventually travels to NY, Des Moines, Dallas, Chicago, and LA.

Images from Sperone Westwater used without permission

 

 

 

 

Raoul De Keyser @ Kunstmuseum St. Gallen

 

 

Raoul De Keyser installation currently at Das Kunstmuseum St.Gallen, CH.

• Exhibit press release (this link is not permament)

An unusually generous collection of resources:

• Paintings in exhibit (18 images)
• Installation views (25 images)

   

   

   

   

  Posted by chrisashley at 12:15 AM

Tubman House, Auburn, New York (20050701)

 

 

 

Tubman House, Auburn, New York (20050701), 2005, HTML, 480 x 420 pixels

 

 

 

 

Ithaca to Groton (20050628)

 

 

Ithaca to Groton (20050628), 2005, HTML, 440 x 520 pixels