Best Art Exhibitions Part 2

Part 2 of the best art exhibitions of 2013.

Beat Memories. The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg The Grey Art Gallery

Saw this show Beat Memories. The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg at the Grey Art Gallery yesterday. I enjoyed it, even though I prefer looking at photographs up close in books than on the walls of museums and galleries. That said I would never not see a photography show because of that preference. The exhibition is made up of many now very familiar snapshots of the famous beats, and I really don't understand Ken Johnson's kvetching about the show in yesterday's New York Times. He complains that they are just snapshots and that they are too tame and don't really capture the "bohemian lifestyles" that they were leading. I don't agree. They are lovely images, and as I said they started out as snapshots and if they have now been elevated to archive and museum status that's not the fault of the snaps. Maybe Ginsberg's notations in his own hand on the photos can be seen as a little too coy and precious by some, but so what. And while you're there be sure to pick up one of the handsome brochures that opens up to reveal the wonderful photo (snapshot) of Neal Cassady with one of his girlfriends in front of a San Francisco movie theatre in 1955 that now adorns the side of my refrigerator. 

Robert Indiana at The Whitney Museum

 

Well I finally made it back to the Whitney for the Indiana show, and I was very surprised by how much I liked this show. I was worried about the "Love" thing, but actually there are only three pieces of "Love" included. Beautifully installed it's really the perfect show for the season, big colorful and full of smiles. I was impressed with his early work from the 60's, the assemblages and sculptures but also the paintings with the words, signs and symbols. A very strong graphic presence. Also liked the references that the curator made to Indiana being gay and how his sexuality was vital to his art along with his attachment to other gay artists ie. Hartley and Demuth who Indiana paid homage to in some of his own paintings. There was a time that this kind of biography would never have been mentioned let alone hinted at. I believe that the curator of the show Barbara Haskell was a pioneer in pointing out the homosexuality of Demuth and Hartley and how it was important in their work in the large shows she curated of their art at the Whitney. Also liked Indiana's use of poetry and his strong political awareness that might come as a surprise to some. His technique of using stencils (how did he get such straight lines) and his marvelous paper cut outs for costumes he designed for the "The Mother of Us All" an opera by Virgil Thomson with a libretto by Gertrude Stein that fill one of the smaller gallieries are also terrific. The works all look fresh and almost new, like he just did them yesterday instead of over 50 years ago. Definitely worth seeing.

  

Ken Price. The Metropolitan Museum

Before falling down a flight of subway steps the other day I had been at the Met viewing the wonderful Ken Price retrospective. The beautifully installed show (designed by Frank Gehry no less) is a loopy and loony tactile beach blanket bingo of Price’s colorful California dreaming abstract ceramic sculptures most of them small but there are some larger pieces also included. But it’s the compact smaller works including his early marvelous cups that drew me in. I’ve always liked his work with their sci-fi creatures from another planet soft looking oozing and foaming yet hard to the touch pieces. I had to keep my hands in my pockets through most of the exhibit because I had such an urge to touch and caress these works, craggy and smooth with mysterious pock marked surfaces and glow in the dark like colors, really as I said very sci-fi. Also some of his smaller works especially his “eggs” have creepy crawling like small things hatching out of them that are lovely and disgusting at the same time. The pieces have a nature like quality to them like something you might find out in the woods on a misty rainy early morning walk or on a beautiful beach sticking out of the sand but they are also very artificial looking , like props for some cheap sci-fi movie with sets made of paper mache and cellophane (see for instance the wonderful1959 film “Journey To The Center Of The Earth” to see what I mean). Also included are a healthy dose of his small brightly colored "architectural" pieces which refer back to the Art Deco and Constructionist movements that he did early in his career. And then of course there is his touch how he used his medium his clay to make these fantastic ceramic objects and sculptures , a touch that is quite amazing and frankly is beyond my comprehension.

Interwoven Globe  The Worldwide Textile Trade, 1500–1800 The Metropolitan Museum

Spectacular. Spectacular. I saw this take your breath away show the other day, and its a real beauty of a show, the way only the Met can do when they hit their mark. Its also a bit overwhelming its a big show not only in the amount of work shown but the scale of most of the textiles shown. Beautifully installed, although a bit dark in its lighting for my tastes the works hover over us. I think my favorite ones were the Indian pieces, but every gallery has great works. I also loved the upholstered chairs that were commissioned by Louis XVI and whose imagery was a tribute to his monarchy, Lou never got to put his rump on the chairs as he was gone before the chairs could make their way to Versailles. Hanging over all this beauty are the vast political and cultural history of the times, most of which is not very pretty or inspiring but is part of the show. There are also paintings, prints, a few books, and some beautiful clothes scattered among the amazing textiles

And also these shows.

Jean Michel Basquiat at Gagosian Gallery

Simply put the Basquiat show at the Gagosian Gallery is extraordinary. It's jaw dropping and eye popping and if you've never seen a show of his, I suggest you make sure to take this one in. It's lavish in scale and scope filling that huge space beautifully with over fifty of his paintings. There were maybe two that I didn't care for, but his imagery and sense of color was special. A shame to have lost this wonderful artist so young.

Walt Kuhn at D.C. Moore

Also extraordinary for me was the beautiful Walt Kuhn show at DC Moore. I've always loved his portraits of entertainers and circus people that I've seen here and there, and this is a great and rare opportunity to take in this wonderful painter's life work. These are museum quality exhibitions.

Nancy Spero From Victimage to Liberation. Works From the 1980's & 1990's. Galerie Lelong.

These are large print like works with collage like elements that express moral outrage in general and the treatment of women around world specifically. They're mostly large and scroll like with beautiful representations of stylized figures of women, some are abstract and show movement and some also have text. These are strong works, angry yet very seductive they draw you in, and their messages are powerful yet the works themselves are quite simply very beautiful.

Hugo Gellert: Free Radical. Mary Ryan Gallery. 

At first the exhibit confused me, I thought that the artist was contemporary and his paintings were attractive but too influenced by other artists of the moderne style. And then there were all these great political posters which also confused me, was the artist using these as a decorative element to support his paintings, was this another wise ass installation by some recent art school graduate? Finally with the help of a press release that the receptionist printed out for me I realized that all of the work was done by Hugo Gellert who was born in 1892 and died in 1985. Gellert was was a graphic artist and radical who did strong political works especially posters, The five beautiful paintings small in size haven't been seen in 80 years and are complimented by a knock out portfolio of 19 silkscreens that illustrated a speech by Henry Wallace and was published by the International Workers Orders and they are stunning. His posters are also terrific.

Philip Pearlstein. Betty Cunningham Gallery.  His show of nude models posing and cropped in his usual fashion and set among objects and toys makes for a very beautiful exhibition. They appear somewhat loser but only in his paint application otherwise they are still severe and sharp as ever.

Gayleen Aiken at Luise Ross who is an outsider artist and is dead, you can't get more outsider than that. These are sweet and marvelous color drawings that look like they were done by a talented but untrained teen, you know the guy or gal who would sit in their classes and draw and sketch in and on their notebooks instead of listening to their teachers. You are greeted at the gallery by these large full figure portraits made of cardboard that are quite startling and are a nice introduction to the goodies that await you inside this small and intimate gallery.

Jennifer Wynn Reeves at the bravinlee gallery. These are mainly lonely, moody small surreal like landscapes with touches of mixed media added like wire and molding paste. The edges of her dreams are torn and tattered which only add to the magical effect they have and all of them are enticing they really pull you in.

Robert Arneson's bawdy show of  big bold busts at George Adams, I wouldn't want to be in the way when these heads start to roll. The show covers three decades of his work and includes some nice zany colorful drawings.

Thomas Nozkowski's  at Pace. 21 Small complex and compact paintings. His abstract intimate paintings are the best of the intimate paintings that are showing up in galleries.  I really loved his show.

Gutai Splendid Playground at the Guggenheim

I really enjoyed the Gutai exhibition at the Guggenheim especially since it was a complete unknown quantity to me. Briefly put they were a collective of artists working in Japan from 1954 to 1972 who took painting, sculpture and installation art and turned it on its head. They also published journals some of which are displayed throughout the show. No doubt they were influenced by American Abstract art but they brought their own unique culture and sensibility to their work and also I think were reacting to their postwar environment and the horrible war they lived through. Lets not forget that they are the only country ever to have atomic bombs dropped on their heads. The show is beautiful and lavish, and wonderfully installed and compelling with many terrific paintings that are bold and inventive in their techniques. I thought it was a much better show than the one on Japanese Art that the Moma mounted a few months ago "Tokyo 1955-1970: The Birth of the Avant-Garde"

Zarina Paper Like Skin. Guggenheim Museum

I also liked "Zarina (not to be confused with Zorina the dancer) Paper Like Skin" which is a somewhat large but compact retrospective of her works on paper and of paper including many prints. Her way of working is minimal. Simple shapes, lines and marks including a nice series of pin drawings made by her piercing the white paper with needles. They have the look of braille. I also liked a wall installation of lots of 3D abstract like bird shapes made of tin, and there is a large series of small drawings and collages arranged in a large round display case that were hit and miss for me. Born in India in 1937 she brings a subtle political edge to her work that doesn't infringe on the beautiful look of many of her pieces.

Duane Michals. D.C. Moore

Duane Michals show of photographic works at DC Moore and he was there. He graciously signed the nice announcement for me. He's always been an icon for me both as a photographer and as a gay man telling his story through his art. The show is lovely with much of the work consisting of hand painted tintypes hung against brightly colored areas painted directed on the wall. Michals who is now 81 is still going strong.

 

Philip Guston. McKee Gallery

Made it to the Philip Guston show up on 57th street on the last day. I really like his work and the cartoon like images of his later work. There was one big beautiful abstraction included, but the majority of the work make use of big comic images and his famous pink. 57th street is a strange landscape, some galleries still hanging on in this historical area, but its mainly now fashion, tourists and huge buildings so the scale of the street is pretty much gone.

Richard Serra. Zwirner Gallery

The best show on right now is the wonderful show by Richard Serra of his early work also at one one the Zwirner galleries (there are so many of them out there). These are big pieces yet many of them are graceful and delicate. I especially love how he used materials that we think of as hard and static and molded and twisted them into sculptures that breathe. The main big gallery is filled with 18 of his sculptures covering the walls and floors, and the back gallery has his famous lead prop pieces that are beautiful and scary at the same time. They weigh tons.

Anselm Kiefter. Gagosian Gallery

Anselm Kiefer's very big and overwhelming paintings of flowers that the press release says are photographs that he painted on, these are mostly dense and dark, there are also two weak sculptures that he should have left out, they do nothing but distract from the paintings which are after all sculptural in their own right. His work usually gets a lot of flack but I always find his stuff exciting.

  

Le Corbusier at The Museum Of Modern Art

The very good sprawling Le Corbusier show that I saw at a member's preview the other day is nicely installed as only the rich Moma can do, with lots of Models, drawings and many of his bright colorful paintings that he called Purism and will remind everyone of Leger's great work who by the way Le Corbusier was friends with and in fact I first thought were his paintings. They're not as smooth or accomplished as Leger's but they are quite nice and pleasing and came as a surprise to me. Some of his plans for buildings I find downright scary such as his "Contemporary City" for three million inhabitants (Ville Contemporaine) that happily was never built, and his forays with the fascists in Rome and France is also troubling. The show has few photographs of his actual buildings which I found somewhat bothersome, and the few that are included are either too small or hung way up near the ceiling. Go figure. I have trouble judging architecture if I can't see the actual buildings and structures, and I did better with the big catalog for the show that I browsed through which gave me a better idea of what he actually built. There are also several recreations of rooms, including one from a house that he built for his mommy which is sweet and charming and lets not forget his important contribution to furniture. Its also somewhat Ironic or annoying that right now the Moma is boasting two major shows of architecture when they have plans of tearing down the building that once housed the American Folk Art Museum and that many consider a treasure including some of the important architects of the day. The show is complex and complicated like the man himself. Highly recommended.

Alfonso Ossorio at Michael Rosenfeld. Glad to see this show of his beautiful but generally unknown work mostly from the early 50's. I've been seeing his work here and there of late, and I really like what I see. He was well placed and had money and close friendships with many of the abstract expressionists especially Pollock and you can see his influence on Ossorio's   work, he was also close with Dubuffet who also provided major influence on his art. A Terrific show.

Sol LeWitt at Paula Cooper. This is a monumental wall drawing that has been reproduced for the first time since it was shown at the 1988 Venice Biennale. This is one breathtaking installation, minimal but rich in color and spectacle.

John McCracken ato one  of the Zwirner spaces is a large show of the late minimal California sculptor John McCracken. The shinning surfaces and bright colors are clear, clean and refreshing, I especially like the leaning planks, these are luscious works maybe a little too pretty. But man the gallery itself is horrible. It's like a badly designed chic hotel, with lots of Zwirnerettes running about here and there. What time is checkout?

Charmion Von Wiegand & American Abstraction 1930-1945 shows at the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery. I really like this gallery because of the fine historical shows they put on, even though the space is somewhat awkward. I didn't really know Wiegand's work so her show came as a very pleasant surprise for me. Going back to 1945 with her marvelous small (most of the work is intimate) biomorphic paintings through the 50's and 60's when her paintings became more geometric with vividly colored hard edge shapes this is an excellent show of a little known artist. Also terrific was the American Abstraction show in the back galleries which had 21 works by some familiar names to me, like Burgoyne Diller, Charles Shaw, Theodore Roszak, Albert E. Gallatin and the great Irene Rice Pereira whose work I have always loved, and is the kind of artist that the Whitney, The Guggenheim or the Moma should be celebrating instead of the flavors of the month that they favor. There are also artists in the show who I'm not familiar with such as Rolph Scarlett, Frederick Kann, Louis Stone, Stuart Walker and others who have beautiful works exhibited. The works shown are all by Charmion Von Wiegand

Stephanie Brody-Lederman's lovely pipe dream of an exhibition now on at O.K. Harris until Dec. 7th. The paintings and the artist's intention are memories and like most memories these are very insular and personal, the canvases are like rebus puzzles, a lamp + a bird equals? They are also beautifully painted and really are enticing, like children's book drawings. Most of the works are landscapes with some words floating about on them along with objects and trees, she really likes trees, as I do. She has a great sense of color and mixes up her images with washes of color and elements of design.

Also

Drawing Surrealism. The Morgan Library and Museum. A rich and rewarding show of over 150 beautiful works on paper by many of the leading lights of the movement.

Raymond Pettibon show of his drawings that fill the big David Zwirner space. I've always liked his comic like loose free flowing imagery that uses all sorts of pop images and cultural leftovers. He also uses text and all kinds of

And

Ellsworth Kelly. Mathew Marks Gallery

Beauford Delaney. Levis Fine Gallery

Ugo Rondinone. Gladstone Gallery

William Hawkins. Ricco/Maresca Gallery

Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works by El Anatsui. The Brooklyn Museum          

Milton Avery. DC Moore

Thornton Willis: Steps. Elizabeth Harris Gallery

Gene Davis. Ameringer McEnery Yohe

Carol Heft. Blue Mountain Gallery

George Sugarman. Gary Snyder Gallery

Elisa d’Arrigo. Elizabeth Harris Gallery

 
Walker Evans. American Photographs. The Museum Of Modern Art
 
Larry Poons. Geometry and Dots. 1957-1965. Loretta Howard

Sean Scully at Cheim & Read