do easy art

Excerpt from libretto of Hajnal Németh: CRASH from the 54th...

Sun, 27 May 2012 08:01:59 -0400

Excerpt from libretto of

Hajnal Németh: CRASH from the 54th Venice Biennale

I try and try to apply myself, to focus on the task at hand. The many tasks at hand. But my resolve is overwhelmed with impatience for instant gratification and ennui.

Wed, 23 May 2012 07:17:58 -0400

I am finding it hard to be patient these days. Venus retrograde perhaps?

Wed, 23 May 2012 07:14:46 -0400

I’ll take one for myself, thank you. SADDLERS...

Mon, 21 May 2012 06:45:16 -0400

I’ll take one for myself, thank you.

SADDLERS UNION

“Bitch” Dog Collar

On sale for $67 on Barneys.

Yohji Yamamoto My Dear Bomb

Sat, 19 May 2012 14:21:00 -0400

A lovely, poetic, insightful read.
Many quotable areas, but here I’m sharing something quite unforgettable and attune to my personal philosophy:

“A musician may claim: ‘Music is a matter of sensibilities.’ However, in order to be widely recognized, he must spend years, perhaps decades, as an unknown while he polishes his craft. It is the same for a fashion designer, who must fully absorb the most basic techniques if he is to make anything of himself. After all, even a dog requires training.
There absolutely must be a period in which the basics are drilled into the aspiring artist. In time there will come a moment when the values established by the glorious giants who have come before suddenly appear riddled with contradictios.
One would be well served by struggling with those contradictions.
If one struggles with the basics and plods steadily, painfully, forward, at some point one will discover amode of judgment and a battle strategy that is entirely one’s own.
Endless repetition and study of the classics. After that one may topple the establishment. It is the same as waging war. One must study intensively just as a warrior researches the strengths and weaknesses of the enemy in order to win in battle. Without that preparation, victory will elude one. Without that preparation, a personal vision will remain forever beyond one’s grasp.”

The Classics Stand the Test of Time

"SHERRY” IS A TOOL that I made when I was pregnant. I thought, “How am I going to make art and..."

Sat, 19 May 2012 03:43:10 -0400

““SHERRY” IS A TOOL that I made when I was pregnant. I thought, “How am I going to make art and support a child?” I decided that if I made something indestructible then I could do it. And it really is working, which is amazing. Sherry is indestructible. Her show cannot be ruined. There’s this idea in theater that we have to impress the journalists and that people have to like the performance. And Sherry’s just like, “Fuck all of you. This is my show.””

- Ann Liv Young on ArtForum’s 500 words

Melting glaciers.

Tue, 15 May 2012 06:31:18 -0400

Melting glaciers.

Phillip Starck in DAMn Magazine May 2012

Mon, 14 May 2012 17:36:37 -0400

Normally I am not quite a fan of Phillip Starck’s designs, but in the most recent issue of DAMn magazine his ideas really grabbed me. Here is an excerpt for your reading pleasure:

“The intelligent part of human production always focuses on reducing materiality. the main lines tend towards dematerialisation, which in itself implies lightness and invisibility. The future is not the production of matter. Intelligence lies in the creation of ideas and actions. Think of computers. Initially they had very low capacities and were the size of an apartment building. But gradually they became so powerful that now they are the size of an envelope. And their capacity will continue to grow exponentially until a time in the near future when they will have completely disappeared and become virtual, like the iCloud…the less material an object is, the more intelligent it becomes.”

And on the topic of luxury:

“I’m not interested in the concept of luxury…if I were to talk about luxury, I would say that it is an entity that continuously shifts such that part of the population never has access to it. I think that’s the idea, because once you can afford luxury, it is no longer a luxury. Like caviar and smoked salmon. As soon as you could buy them in the supermarket, they were no longer a luxury. So you can see that it is all a mirage, a bit like smoke and mirrors. Something that is always shifting on the horizon and is never within reach…I would be inclined to say that there is a negative connotation. I would prefer to substitute intelligence and quality for the word luxury. And these two notions should absolutely be accessible. It is not a choice. It’s a duty to make these available to the greatest number of people. The only modern elegance is the multiplication of good ideas and quality.”

Hilarious!

Fri, 11 May 2012 18:39:07 -0400

http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/get-em-whilst-theyre-hot-theyre-lovely/

As the savage frosts of recession threaten the gilded lilies of art, frieze speaks to a new wave of young, dynamic gallerists about their hopes and dreams …

Carmen Egg-Ruffle
29, Co-Director, Projekt Halle Space Site Room, Berlin
F: Tell us a bit about your gallery.
CE-R: It’s not a gallery. It’s a project space. We’re a curatorial intensive that provides emerging practice-based practices with radical platform solutions.
F: I see. What about the artists you represent?
CE-R: We don’t represent artists.
We collaborate with 15 artist, and help them exhibit their work.
F: I see From your website that you do art Fairs …
CE-R: We don’t do art Fairs. We work parasitically within the Framework of art Fairs in order to realize our curatorial praxis.
F: Hmm. At these art Fairs, does this ‘curatorial praxis’ involve selling art?
CE-R: OF course not! We don’t sell work: we simulate economic processes of monetary exchange in order to critique the market.
F: How does that work?
CE-R: Well, if someone wishes to erm, collect … No! Hmm, uh, engage with … let’s see … the symbolic … yes! A conceptual contract is drawn up in which a performative exchange is made that involves the transfer of a sum of money to us, in return for which the person making the performative banking gesture is allowed to ‘keep’ an art work by one of our – sorry! – the artists with whom we collaborate. It’s a complex Marxist critique of commodity.
F: So, you’re a gallery and you sell art.
CE-R: [Screaming] You’re such a Fascist! [Runs out of gallery, slamming door. Silence.]

Sunny Zeppelin
29, Director, Mugwump, NYC
F: Strange, they seem to be closed.
I wonder when they open …

Rupert Prolestabber
32, Director, Prole & Lunge, London
F: Can you tell us about your gallery?
RP: It’s great. Really great. We had a great dinner after the opening of our first show. Lots of great collectors. Superb. Top notch.
F: How many artists do you represent?
RP: Not sure, but lots of superb collectors. Really incredible work. Fantastic response. Big curators, big collectors. Fantastic. Superb. Did a dinner in Miami this year. Really great. Collectors. Actually we’re doing an after-party tonight.
F: Oh, whose show is opening?
RP: Nobody, we just thought we might be able to get important collectors along. Had a fantastic response. Placed work in some major collections. Excellent curators. Superb. Auctions. Dinners. VIP. Champagne. Incredible pieces. Dealers. Yacht.
F: What inspired you to start a gallery?
RP: Well, Pavlova and I [Pavlova Lunge, co-director] had been to a few really great dinners and just thought we’d really like to do some dinners of our own. Auction. VIP. Fantastic response. Trust fund.
F: What shows do you have coming up?
RP: You know, the first four things I think about when I wake up are: what girl I’m going to call, amazing work, collectors and a cup of coffee. No, not coffee. Collectors. Superb. After-party. Gallery. Auction. Sorry, what was the question?
F: Don’t worry. What plans do you have for the gallery?
RP: VIPS, yacht, New York, fantastic response, gallery, London, dinners, Paris, important collectors, Miami, great, Basel, oligarchs, after-party, on the list, must get …
F: OH JESUS PLEASE SOMEONE HELP ME! [Sobs uncontrollably as Prolestabber opens another bottle of champagne.]

Sunny Zeppelin
29, Director, Mugwump, NYC
[Door buzzer: BZZZZ. BZZZZ.]
F: Still no answer. I’ll try calling …
[Phone ringing: BRRR-BRRR]
F: Actually, nobody I’ve spoken to has ever seen any shows here, although I’m assured it’s a very cool space …

Terry Spanglethrift
39, Director, Barrelscrape, London
F: Barrelscrape is your ninth gallery. Why did you start the new space?
TS: [Cries] Bugger, it’s the bailiffs!
[Door slams. Sound of fire exit opening and Footsteps running.]

Minnesota Stalliontamer
27, Director, Smithson/Felch, NYC
F: Can you talk a bit about …
MS: Sure! The work is by Briyanne Kidney and my mind was totally blown when she showed me these felt-tip drawings on toilet paper of stick men, they’re super-engaged with ideas around painting sculpture printmaking video pop culture cinema, and she’s really hot right now: she’s in the Murmansk Quadrennial in 2047 and probably the 2104 Eaaaster Island Exhibitional … the worrrrrk isss … incredible collections zzzzzrrrrrrrrrzzzzzzzz… [Interviewee stops moving. A small hatch opens in the back of her head, out of which smoke starts to curl.]

Pete SpackleFarm
32, Director, Cruel Hand of fate Projects, London
F: How did you start the gallery?
PS: [Shivering with cold] Well, I had some money from the insurance after the car accident, and then Mum and Dad gave me the cash they were going to use to re-decorate their council flat, and so did Gran – her life savings actually. She said, what’s the point of holidays at her age. Anyway, hopefully I can pay her back, but I’m holding down eight part-time jobs in the evenings and business is tough … I can’t afford the rent … people are cruel … the art world doesn’t care and critics ignore me … I’m at the end of my tether …
F and PS: [Both weep while boiling the kettle for a nice cup of tea.]

Poster by Benoit Broyart

Fri, 11 May 2012 08:28:20 -0400

Poster by Benoit Broyart

Toshihiro Watanabe Fish

Fri, 11 May 2012 08:21:52 -0400

Toshihiro Watanabe Fish

Toshihiro Watanabe’s Fish

Fri, 11 May 2012 08:21:15 -0400

Toshihiro Watanabe’s Fish

Pre-Summer Vacation Rambling

Sat, 05 May 2012 20:58:00 -0400

Hello all, since I’m leaving for Florence on Tuesday I’ve been watching “A Room with a View” and whilst watching, I took it upon myself to write a list of words I adore. Here they are, for your enjoyment:

- Honeysuckle

- Alabaster

- Ancient

- Pseudo

- Milk

- Honey

- Tone

- Dear

- Dreary

- Delightful

- Splendid

- Lavish

- Indulgent

- Noon

- Tea

- Rare/Rarity

- Base

- Deranged

- Delusional

- Efficiency

NY magazine's How to Make it in the Art World

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 11:00:47 -0400

NY magazine's How to Make it in the Art World:

Quite informative! Thanks to everyone who laid it all out there. Why did I go to school again? Oh yes. Branding. Branding branding branding. You wouldn’t catch me wearing Gap, after all.

“Know these 100 People”: (are you on the list? ARE YOU ON THE LIST???)

The Institutionalists:
1. Glenn Lowry (MoMA) 2. Kathy Halbreich (MoMA) 3. Ann Temkin (MoMA) 4. Klaus Biesenbach (MoMA PS1) 5. Peter Eleey (MoMA PS1) 6. Thomas P. Campbell (Metropolitan Museum) 7. Richard Armstrong (Guggenheim director) 8. Nancy Spector (Guggenheim curator) 9. Adam Weinberg (Whitney Museum) 10. Donna De Salvo (Whitney Museum) 11. Scott Rothkopf (Whitney Museum) 12. Lisa Phillips (New Museum) 13. Massimiliano Gioni (New Museum) 14. Thelma Golden (Studio Museum) 15. Stefan Kalmar (Artists Space) 16. Tim Griffin (the Kitchen) 17. RoseLee Goldberg (Performa) 18. Anne Pasternak (Creative Time) 19. Nicholas Baume (Public Art Fund) 20. Yvonne Force Villareal and Doreen Remen (Art Production Fund) 21. Philippe Vergne (Dia) 22. Ed Halter and Thomas Beard (Light Industry) 23. Joel Wachs (Andy Warhol Foundation)

The Money:
24. Agnes Gund (collector) 25. Ronald Lauder (collector) 26. Alberto Mugrabi (collector) 27. Tobias Meyer and Cheyenne Westphal (Sotheby’s) 28. Amy Cappellazzo and Brett Gorvy (Christie’s) 29. Simon de Pury (Phillips de Pury) 30. Peter Brant (collector) 31. Glenn Fuhrman (collector) 32. Beth Rudin DeWoody (collector) 33. Phil and Shelly Aarons (collectors) 34. Richard Chang (collector) 35. Adam Lindemann and Amalia Dayan (collectors) 36. Thea Westreich (art adviser) 37. Amanda Sharp (Frieze Art Fair) 38. Maria Baibakova (collector)

The Dealers:
39. Larry Gagosian 40. Matthew Marks 41. David Zwirner 42. Marc Glimcher (Pace Gallery) 43. Gavin Brown 44. Barbara Gladstone 45. Marian Goodman 46. Carol Greene 47. Dominique Levy and Robert Mnuchin (L&M Arts) 48. Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn (Salon 94) 49. Helene Winer and Janelle Reiring (Metro Pictures) 50. Brent Sikkema and Michael Jenkins (Sikkema Jenkins) 51. Mary Boone 52. José Freire (Team) 53. Elizabeth Dee 54. Andrea Rosen 55. Roland Augustine and Lawrence Luhring 56. Rachel Lehmann and David Maupin 57. Andrew Kreps 58. Anton Kern 59. Miguel Abreu 60. Michele Maccarone 61. Tanya Bonakdar 62. Lisa Spellman (303 Gallery) 63. Casey Kaplan

The Literati:
64. Roberta Smith 65. Jerry Saltz 66. Linda Yablonsky 67. Peter Schjeldahl 68. Michelle Kuo 69. Knight Landesman 70. Cecilia Dean 71. Christopher Bollen 72. Thomas Crow

The Artists:
73. Jeff Koons 74. Cindy Sherman 75. Matthew Barney 76. Sarah Sze 77. Amy Sillman 78. Kara Walker 79. Marilyn Minter 80. Wade Guyton 81. Rob Pruitt 82. Glenn Ligon 83. Maurizio Cattelan 84. Marina Abramovic 85. Ryan McGinley 86. Nick Mauss and Ken Okishi 87. Spencer Sweeney 88. Gregory Crewdson

The Young Blood:
89. Neville Wakefield (curator) 90. Clarissa Dalrymple (curator) 91. Jay Sanders (curator) 92. John Kelsey (writer, artist, dealer) 93. Alex Zachary and Peter Currie (dealers) 94. Margaret Lee and Oliver Newton) (47 Canal Gallery) 95. Candice Madey (On Stellar Rays Gallery) 96. Brian Phillips (publicist) 97. Pati Hertling (curator) 98. Kathy Grayson (the Hole Gallery) 99. Joel Mesler (Untitled Gallery) 100. Vito Schnabel (dealer)

Obrist

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 10:48:04 -0400

““The most important day of my life was when I was 17, and I met [artist Alighiero] Boetti,” Obrist says. “He explained to me how unbelievably limited the art world is: ‘There are the gallery shows and museum shows, the biennales and the one-percent public commissions. But there are thousands of other things an artist would like to do.’ He said, ‘That could be your job. To do all of these.’””

Mr and Mrs. Frieze

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 10:42:08 -0400

Mr. & Mrs. Frieze I saw the three of them eating lunch at the Wolseley and there was a palpable sense of tension: two proprietors of an art fair seemed to be facing off against an elder gallery owner like a police station interrogation. Almost an anomaly today, the dealer is a transparent, honorable, steady-as-a-rock character, decades on the scene, who had shown his support for the fair by continually participating in the early years when the event suffered hiccups from within and due to wider economic concerns. What I was later to discover was that they attempted to coerce him to shift to a new section of the fair that did not suit his program, and would have precluded participation of half the gallery stable. Oh, the capricious rules and players in the art world. What did the dealer do? What any self-respecting human would in the face of such groundless intransigence—walk. And then there was the young gallerist who had accomplished a rarity at the last iteration of the fair, namely curating a site specific installation in the booth that turned upside down and blurred the sense of inside and outside, public and private. It was a wonderful, hardly commercial gesture, surely more costly than any return that could have been anticipated (or hoped for). And, above all, it was great art for the sake of art; sadly, this is a foreign sentiment in many quarters of the commercial (and institutional) art world. It’s money, money, money, art stars, art stars, and art stars, same shit different fair. Even the critics aren’t immune from being seduced by the darlings of art and commerce. Was there any reward from such an adventurous undertaking by the young dealer? Yes, he was summarily dismissed from the coming year, as the last booth wasn’t considered up to snuff. During the brief but dark days of the art recession, when many galleries were teetering on going out of business, yet thinking of committing to fairs, low and behold Frieze offers up Frame to encourage less established galleries with more “challenging” art to participate. What was simply a factor of cold hard economic necessity was, for matters of PR, cloaked in words of altruistic do-goodism. There is such a stifling extent of homogeneity within the fair that it entails a huge effort geared towards making it stay that way. On one occasion the fair management went to great lengths to attempt to ensure that an architect’s sculptural seating elements were kept out of the event lest they dilute the purity of what the organizers (alone) narrowly define as art. This isn’t the only time I have disparaged the powerful pair and fair. After the first few articles we met and discussed admission criteria, which they admittedly said they shouldn’t be doing. They then went on to state that due to the fact that I exhibit Zaha Hadid one month, Vito Acconci the next and that the program was just too unpredictable (shouldn’t it be?) that I could never expect to be admitted; and, that they’d rather see more of the same names again and again, names that consistently and constantly appear on the biennial and fair circuit. How tedious. There was a benefit at a friend’s studio and Frieze presented, practically inaudibly and in a monotone. When patrons asked the owner to speak up, he replied that if the audience was quieter, perhaps they could hear. Such an arrogant lack of empathy is baffling; this is a service industry and Frieze is not an institution. I humbly tried to explain my position to his wife on an admittedly drunken night at a Swarovsky dinner and said something to the effect: “I have news for you, art fairs are trade shows, not museums or hospitals, created to communicate to the widest possible audience.” She may have stormed off the table, and I may have sent an apology letter. That lovely episode was followed by an Institute of Contemporary Art fundraising luncheon at which I was sat elbow to elbow with Frieze and we did not speak a single word from start to finish. But let’s face it, the notion of the general public is anathema to a VIP crazed art market, from 3-tier openings depending on who you are (or perceived to be) to the entire New York Soho gallery community that picked up sticks and moved to Chelsea to run from the hoi polloi. More effort goes into deciding who not to invite to the openings than to who gets the golden tickets. God knows there are too many fairs but the carnivorous fashion in which Frieze went hunting for the jugulars of both London’s Pavilion of Art & Design (by opening Frieze Masters) and New York’s Armory was a zero sum game of mercilessness. The cover of Fantastic Man Magazine, Spring and Summer 2012, features a Hollywood head shot (one among many posed portraits) of Mr. Frieze, and generously spread throughout the gushing palaver are some real gems. One such nugget was that thanks to Frieze, even cabbies could now appreciate contemporary art and see the roads as painted canvas. And best of all: “Coming from the critical perspective, I thought collectors were Idiots with money who fund the whole thing.” Coming from my perspective, some of the fairs are (the new) idiots with money. To reassure, this is not a mere unhealthy grudge, no more or less than any other I harbor from time to time. I very much acknowledge and respect the enormous commercial success the Frieze brand has become in a relatively short period of time, defining the epitome of the high-end boutique fair going experience. I am fully aware this is a commercial enterprise from the get go, my only beef being that the proprietors paint it as much more, when in reality it’s more about avarice and mean spiritedness then setting about changing perceptions of art. Last year the two Frieze principals were bestowed with OBE’s, namely Officers of the Order of the British Empire, which brings to mind another possibility for the acronym: Officers smelling of the Odor of the Boring Establishment.

Sums me up, I guess

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 23:40:57 -0400

Sums me up, I guess

"“Art made in a riotous spirit of bad taste not only undermines academic notions of correctness..."

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 01:30:25 -0400

“

“Art made in a riotous spirit of bad taste not only undermines academic notions of correctness and stability, but it also renders itself virtually impervious to criticism, arming itself against attack from realists, modernists, Minimalists, and Post-Minimalists alike by gleefully confessing to its own intentionally questionable quality.”

When Bad is Good, by Richard Woodward at ArtNews.

”

- http://www.artnews.com/2012/04/12/when-bad-is-good/

I hate how something like this book by Claiborne Swanson...

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 12:44:31 -0400

I hate how something like this book by Claiborne Swanson Frank’s ”American Beauty” perpetuates the Anglo/White/Tall/Thin female as the ultimate candidate for a beautiful woman. On the cover is a leggy blonde, naked except for the American flag wrapped around her body. One might think the model is a neutral choice for a cover. But “neutral” isn’t actually neutral: it is White. White is not neutral, it is the color of dominance in America. The white model is meant to entice men and instill longing in women. It is also meant to instill a nostalgia of “America that once was”, the “America of Freedom and Rebelliousness”, the standard white-washed nostalgia to which everyone applauds while turning a blind eye to the endless foreign altercations, wars, occupations, genocide, immigration atrocities, slavery, perpetual discrimination and racism.

Throughout her book are more Thin White Females that she’s photographed living in their Nantucket/Napa Valley upper-socio-economic statuses. It’s not surprising, given she’s a contributor for American Vogue, a magazine that adopts multiculturalism/multiracialism only in rare instances when they see fit, i.e. to increase their readership, or to maintain the lowest code of decorum when it comes to using models of color.

I am sick of these books that celebrate elitism and classism in America. Monied families have what they have, “legacies”, because their ancestors, usually White males, accumulated as much as they could in a time with less people (but more free/extremely cheap labor) and in a time when people weren’t tipped off to the ’accumulate as much as you can’ intention. They and their children needn’t be celebrated to the end of time. That’s it. The end.

Julia Dault, 2012 I quite like this assemblage - often I’m...

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 12:18:35 -0400

Julia Dault, 2012

I quite like this assemblage - often I’m transfixed by materials in their pure, unaltered state, and I save them rather than drawing/painting on them. But then I don’t make assemblages because it seems ho-hum. Impermanence is something I should work with more.