The Collector
Ran across this somewhere online and thought it aptly described my reason for starting Musee Magazine.
“By and large talent is in such short supply, mediocrity can be taken for brilliance rather more than genius can go undiscovered. The great majority of artists around the world don’t have dealers to represent or show their work. It makes it pretty well impossible to get your efforts seen, with most dealers too busy or too lazy to visit studios- and who can blame them. They have probably become a bit disenchanted from seeing acres of slides and transparencies of tragic work foist upon them by desperate artist. In reality, most dealers find new artists to show through recommendations from their existing stable- artists often urge their dealers to look favorably upon the work of their friends; furthermore, dealers usually believe artists are good judges of other artist’s work. All in all then, if you’re not in the right artistic social circles, didn’t go to a hip art school, don’t quite fit in, it can be hell to extract much interest from dealers and collectors”, which is the reason for Musee.
I had the good fortune to interview an art collector with an encyclopedia of contemporary art starting in the early 80′s with minimalists like Carl Andrea, Kiki Smith, Hiroshi Sugimoto, stretching through, Andreas Gursky, Cindy Sherman, Bill Viola, Tony Oursler, through the art stars of now like Kehndi Wiley, John Currin, and Vik Muniz, etc. The way in which the art is hung is equally impressive, salon style. Every room has a different theme; fantasy, aggression, heads, etc. There is art everywhere; the floor, ceiling, walls, outside, inside, on the couch, a Cindy Sherman above the bed in the master bedroom.
Living with all of that art is an overwhelming experience for the senses almost an assault, one which I would love to have.
Then onto the galleries in Chelsea to see some work.
Impressive was Daniel Gordon at Wallspace which is the next show.
Lisa Yuskavage at David Zwirner
Lisa’s paintings are often considered soft porn. Her new works remind me of some of my photographs which many people also thought of as soft porn. I love this new exhibition.
“Yuskavage has developed her own genre of the female nude. They appear to occupy their own realm while narcissistically contemplating themselves and their bodies. Rich, atmospheric skies frequently augment the psychologically – charged mood, adding to the impression of theatricality and creative possibility. For this exhibition, Yuskavage takes her complex narrative to a larger scale, whose sheer vastness adds a cinematic component to the works. This new body of wok appears to merge the genres of landscape, still life and portrait painting.”
“The exhibition includes the three- part Triptych, the first time the artist has worked in this format. The triptych format adds an additional, unknown dimension to the narrative and the individual.”
Triptych Lisa Yuskavage
Boundaries Obscured at Haunch of Venison
“The inaugural exhibition is a group show of artists we work with.” – Emilio Steinberger (International Director)
“Boundaries Obscured respond to the growing trend of globalization and the blurring of cultural and geographical boundaries as use of technology becomes more prevalent. These works highlight the overwhelming difficulties and/ or advantages of being an individual in a relentlessly encroaching mass of information and external pressure. The Balcony,(a video) by Eve Sussman and Simon Lee, takes as its point of departure the prefabricated ‘Khrushchyovka’ built in the 1960′s and common in ex-soviet cities. The geometric purity of the Brutalist buildings has been disrupted as residences blocked in the open spaces that were once balconies, creating an extra room with vernacular architecture that marks the prefabrication with personal expression.”
“Patricia Piccinini, examines humans’ complex relationships with technology and animals in this featured work specifically comments on human impact on other life forms. Artist Joana Vasconcelos, is best known for her readymade sculptures inspired by Nouveau- realism and focuses on identity politics pertaining to gender and nationality.”
Boundaries Obscured
Elger Esser at Sonnabend
“These photographs and heliogravures were made in Giverny, France at the gardens of the Fondation Claude Monet. Esser took the images at night- creating prints in color as well as in shades of gray that make use of the diffuse light to suggest a disordered and abandoned world that is devoid of human presence.”
He writes: “I work quite deliberately with blurred images using long exposure times. The mobile in the picture- the water, the trees, the clouds- do things with the film which i can only influence in part. For me, this use of technology is only a background aspect. I concentrate more strongly on the contents of the images. What does it mean to stand at the water’s edge? What happens if the elements in the picture- trees, sky, or water- interact with symmetreies and surfaces, with harmony and disharmony?”
“I am interested in capturing and preserving subjective memories, time and tranquility.”
Elger Esser
Matthew Barney at Gladstone
“An exhibition of new sculpture. “Ancient Evenings” is a multi- part project structured as a site- specific opera in collaboration with Jonathan Bepler, loosely based in Norman Mailer’s 1983 novelof the same title. Barney enacts recurring cycles of reincarnation through the use of an automobile, creating a temporary allegory of death and rebirth with in the Americn industrial landscape. The sculptures on veiw are both formally and conceptually related to the 1967 Chrysler Crown Imperial from Cremaster 3.”
“Ancient Evenings” continues Barney’s program of the last twenty years, in which narrative sculpture is generated through a complex system of storytelling that intertwines personal, historical, and modern mythologies.
Matthew Barney
Barbara Probst at Murray Guy
Interesting conceptually, quiet and meditative.
Barbara Probst
And then I was invited for a night of wine and tango by my friend Alexandra Cicognani of A Cicognani Communications; promoting Argentina’s Malbec wine and tango. It was an unexpected evening of elegance romance and wine, which made me want to get on the next plane to Argentina.
Tango Dancers
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