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EDITORIAL - March 2003
- Caption
THINK: Shigeru Ban, Frederic Schwartz, Ken Smith, and Rafael Vinoly World Cultural Center, 2003. Soaring above the untouched footprints of the original Twin Towers, the World Cultural Center restores the New York skyline. Photo by Stan Ries. Rendering by THINK, New York
- Word From The Publisher
For readers who, like yourself, take the time to read the "From The Publisher" editorial columns of magazines (as in this space and elsewhere), I would like to call your attention to an intriguing Op-Ed duel among the editors of two highly regarded art publications; Bruce Wolmer, editor of Art & Auction, a venerable art magazine published in New York, and Anna Somers Cocks, editor of The Art Newspaper, a high-brow art tabloid distributed mostly in what some call Old Europe – a new term I'm just getting used to.
Apparently, in the June 2002 issue of The Art Newspaper Ms. Somers Cocks felt that the time was right, in Europe, to let her readers know what she and her colleagues at The Art Newspaper really think of Israel. It isn't pretty. Under the guise of standing up to a perceived pro-Israeli political correctness in a presumably Jewish controlled American press (sound familiar?), the newspaper lurched into a bizarre media campaign against what one French ambassador, Daniel Bernard, ruefully disparages as "that shitty little country." The newspaper's largely European readership was treated to a series of slanderous (and ultimately debunked) articles with such thoughtful headlines as "Palestinian heritage under attack" and "Israeli destruction in Nablus".
According to The Art Newspaper, Israel, or as they say in French, "Ce petit pays merdeux," is guilty of no less than "Crimes against the cultural heritage of mankind"– Jean-François Lasnier, in a report from Paris for The Art Newspaper, (June 2002, page 3). The article lectures that "The deliberate destruction of cultural heritage contravenes the 1954 Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property During Times of War to which Israel is signatory." Gee, pretty awful what those Jews are doing, huh? But don't worry, The Art Newspaper has sent Robert Bevan, "a professional journalist" – Ms. Somers Cocks assures her readers, to the Middle East to see for himself and tell the world about what he declares is the Israeli army's "contravention of international law."
But when a certain Nobel Peace Prize recipient dispatches troubled youths, with nail-packed bombs strapped to their bodies, into peaceful gatherings of Jewish (and international) civilians to commit unimaginable atrocities, The Art Newspaper is not interested. Readers are left to presume, by omission, that these are resistance fighters. But wait; Ms. Somers Cocks assures her readers in her latest "From the Editor" column – (March 2003) "It should not have to be said that The Art Newspaper opposes all forms of terrorism..." Of course.
When I first became aware of this ongoing campaign by The Art Newspaper to provide moral cover in its editorial and "news" pages for lethal opponents of peace with Israel, I was initially taken aback. As Mr. Wolmer points out in his excellent rebuke to Ms. Somers Cocks' June 2002 editorial, in his "Editor's Notebook" – (February 2003 issue of Art & Auction, page 12), "...there was something genuinely ugly about the editorial. Something that partook of the slippery ugliness of a high tone masking base sentiments." I had also considered writing a response to The Art Newspaper at the time; but after my initial revulsion I concluded that Ms. Somers Cocks' words, and the apparent agenda of her newspaper, were beneath the dignity of a response.
I commend Mr. Wolmer and his fine magazine, Art & Auction, for taking the decision, nevertheless, to respond by publishing such an insightful and necessary analysis of Ms. Somers Cocks' "fascisme doux"– her term for Israeli behaver.
Meanwhile, so reads the latest headline in The Art Newspaper, – in response to Mr. Wolmer's editorial: "Israel-Palestine conflict also poisons press relationships". Perhaps on this point, one could say that Ms. Somers Cocks has got it at least half right, in a convoluted sort of way; The Art Newspaper is indeed poisonous to Israel-Palestine relations – she only got it backwards.
- News
On The Move
The gallery, Clamp Art, is moving to a larger space in Chelsea next month (location to be announced).
The gallery, M.Y. Art Prospects is moving to a larger space in Chelsea next month (location to be announced).
Film Festival
Preparations are already underway for the second annual Tribeca Film Festival, to be held in Lower Manhattan, May 6 - 11, 2003. The deadline for media accreditation requests is March 21. (Forms can be downloaded from www.tribecafilmfestival.org) The Festival showcases Premiers of major studio releases, as well as features, documentaries and short films from all over the world. For more information, call tel: 212.843.9359
Fassbinder Retrospective
The films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, the brilliant and extraordinarily prolific postwar German filmmaker who changed the face of European cinema, is the focus of an extensive retrospective this month at the Film Forum, through March 27. For more information, call tel: 212.727.8110 (see Film Review).
Art Fairs
The Armory Show, the international fair of new art takes place this month, March 7 - 10, at the Midtown piers 88 & 90, on the Hudson River, located just a few blocks north of the Chelsea art district. An opening night preview gala to benefit the Museum of Modern Art will be held Thursday, March 6th. For more information, please call tel: 212.645.6440, or visit:
www.TheArmoryShow.com
Art New York, a new international fair for contemporary art which was launched last month, continues through March 3rd at the Javits Center Galleria (located a few blocks north of the Chelsea art district). For more information, please call tel: 212.951.6709
Artform, a new international fair for dimensional fine art, debuts this month, March 6-11, at the International Pavilion of the Palm Beaches in downtown West Palm Beach. For more information, please call Sarah Flynn, at Tel: 772.220.2690
Peace Grant
Yoko Ono has established the LenonOno Grant for Peace, a grant given to artists who live in regions of conflict where healing support is needed. The first grant was given to both an Israeli and a Palestinian artist earlier this year. For more information, please contact Natasha Le Bel at tel: 212.715.1644
- Short List
Soho
LARRY KAGAN, O.K. Harris: Kagan's shadow compositions invite a discussion of dualities, such as light and dark, drawing and sculpture, three dimensional and two dimensional. Created by casting light through the contours of a steel wire sculpture that protrudes from the gallery wall, these shadows do the unimaginable; they give the illusion of a material object that, in fact, does not exist.
more
... Permanent Exhibition.
By LILY FAUST
DEBORAH TURBEVILLE, Staley + Wise Gallery: The total of sixty photographs in this show appear to be vintage prints from another era; but in fact most of them were taken within the last decade by fashion photographer Deborah Turbeville. Her work connects visually to the past through staged narratives that utilize moody personalities, ghostly interiors and misty landscapes. She also employs altered negatives to create the effects of painterly photography, articulating the romantic vision of a world encapsulated in soft focus.
more
... Through 3/15.
By LILY FAUST
Chelsea
DAVID KRIPPENDORF, Massimo Audiello: "There's no place like home� There's no place like home�" Dorothy's lament in the film classic, The Wizard of Oz, informs this first New York solo exhibition of paintings, digital prints and video by David Krippendorf. Krippendorf twists Dorothy's revelation into one that resonates with contemporary issues of displacement and anxiety. His paintings ring with a vague familiarity; both the familiarity from the classic Hollywood film
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... Through 3/15.
By JOYCE KOROTKIN
AL SOUZA, Charles Cowles Gallery: Massive in size, and bewildering in content and composition, Souza's paintings comprised of collaged puzzle pieces resonate with an energy that is both cosmic and at the same time ridiculous. The imagery; swirls, glass balls, geometric patterns is reigned in by a peculiar sense of composition. The fine lattice work of the puzzle pieces, themselves, adds an odd twist. Light-hearted yet densely neurotic, this work echoes a strangely familiar theme.
more
... Through 3/15.
By PETER LASELL
SANDRA BERMUDEZ, Generous Miracles Gallery: This work brings to mind 1970's American pattern painting and Andy Warhol's wallpapers, Pop Art and mass-market packaging. The imagery appears to celebrate the female, in an attitude of narcissistic self-portraiture.Three walls of the exhibition space are wallpapered in glossy paper adorned with self-portraits of the artist, Sandra Bermudez, in patterns created with small, photographic images of her nude body.
more
... Through 3/15.
By LILY FAUST
PAMELA MOORE, Kathryn Markel Fine Arts: Disparate images, such as geographical maps, botanical illustrations and eighteenth century engravings; each with distinct, rectangular boundaries, serve to clarify Moore's collage-like compositions within the dense layering of the pictorial space. Occasionally the artist interferes; altering certain lines, or giving a lighter color to an illustration.
A large mixed-media canvas, titled London Highwater II, (2003) evokes the illusion of subtle depth
more
... Through 3/8.
By LILY FAUST
Uptown
MAX ERNST, Carosso Fine Arts: This collection of works by Ernst, from the 1920's and 1930's, illustrates his enthrallment with nature, while at the same time showcasing his signature style painting technique. For example, La Foret petrifiee (Petrified Forest), an oil painting of broken trees in a dusk setting, seems to allude to modern man's alienation from nature,
more
... Through 3/28.
By BWARI JOLIVETTE
CHRISTINA ZUCK, Goethe Institut of New York: In her latest work, German photographer Christina Zuck presents images of sun-drenched bathers at various Mediterranean resorts along the Italian coast. The show, curated by Katrine Elia, runs concurrently with the Met's exhibition of photographs by her mentor, Thomas Struth. These photographs suggest an ethnomethodologist's view
more
... Through 3/7.
By MARY HRBACEK
- Art Review
Fresh, Ethan Cohen Fine Art :
The Taoist principle of yin and yang, the union of opposites, sets the stage for this group show of eleven contemporary Chinese artists: Qin Feng, Shen Ling, Zhang Hongtu, Lin Yilin, Pan Xinglei, Shang Yang, Wu Shan Zhuan, Han Xin, Sui Jianguo and Qi Zhilong. The work spans several media; paintings, photographs, light boxes, sculpture and installation.
Standouts in the show include Wu Shan Zhuan's large-scale light box, Paradise (1993), in which a man and woman pose nude
more
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By MARY HRBACEK
Exploring Landscape: Eight Views from Britain, Andrea Rosen Gallery:
This exhibition, comprised entirely of landscape painting and holding center court in a major Chelsea gallery, offers perhaps the strongest evidence yet of the return of figurative painting as a force to be reckoned with in the fast moving world of contemporary art.
Of particular interest here is the retention of Post-Modernist dialogue that is evident in all these works, despite their seemingly traditional basis. Michael Ashcroft (no relation to that Ashcroft)
more
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By JOYCE KOROTKIN
Hazel Larsen Archer, Jan Van Der Donk Gallery:
In the 1940s, as a summer student at Black Mountain College and, subsequently, as a teacher there, Hazel Larsen Archer took photographs of the students and faculty. This was a remarkable time, with such notable figures as Buckminster Fuller, Annie and Joseph Albers, John Cage, Ray Johnson, Willem de Kooning, Merce Cunningham, Robert Rauschenberg, to name but a few, working at the college as members of the faculty or the student body. The photographs taken by Larsen Archer offer a candid look
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By LILY FAUST
Maurizio Bolognini, Williamsburg Art & Historical Center :
The notion of the "infinite" finite, as puzzling as that may sound, provides a possible clue to the premise of this exhibition by the Italian artist Maurizio Bolognini. The show utilizes computer software, devised by Bolognini, that allows the creation of an ongoing web of random images for a virtually unlimited amount of time. These images are generated within the programmed logic of their creator (the artist), revealing his mind, if not his hand.
more
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By LILY FAUST
World Trade Center Site: Two Visions for Renewal :
In an extraordinary small space of time, less than two years, the one place in Manhattan that most New Yorkers had long assumed would never change; certainly not in our lifetime, is suddenly the center of change. The World Trade Center towers are gone, and most of the some 3000 souls who perished there still have no final resting place. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC), the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and the lease holder for the site,
more
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By MICHAEL MACINNIS
Five Centuries of Trompe l'Oeil Painting, National Gallery, Washington D.C. :
Fooling the eye, trompe l'oeil painting (and occasional sculpture) has long held a fascination for the viewer throughout art history, as well as for art lovers today. Even though more sophisticated means of artistic expression have since evolved, the desire to imitate natural appearances never ceases. Trompe l'oeil paintings represent the very highest form of imitation, depicting objects so convincingly that viewers are aghast in wondrous awe at the artist's magical skill.
more
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By LOLA SHERMAN
- Film Review
Mark Moskowitz's Stone Reader, Film Forum:
Written, directed and produced by Moskowitz, Stone Reader documents the filmmaker's personal search for Dow Mossman, an author who had written a brilliant first novel, The Stones of Summer, in 1972, and then simply disappeared; never to be heard from again. The documentary takes the viewer on a journey through the minds (and book shelves) of well-known authors, contemplating the mystery of literary expression; the compulsive nature of talent and the incalculable power of books.
more
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By LILY FAUST
Ed. Note: Film Forum is located at 209 W Houston Street, New York, NY 10014 Tel: 212-727-8110
Asylum, Anthology Film Archives:
The wallpaper lining the walls along the staircase in house No. 43 has white snowflakes embossed on a buttery yellow; but clashing with this cheerful scene are the words scrawled there, "God is within me; therefore I am my own monster."
Thus begins a journey into the human mind, the focus of this 1971 documentary film, Asylum. Based on British psychiatrist R.D. Laing's experimental work with alternative treatments for the psychologically impaired, the film centers around
more
... Through 3/4.
By LILY FAUST
Ed. Note: Anthology Film Archives is located at 32 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003. T 212.205.5181
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