More on Max's Kansas City

ARTINFO: 11 Hopped-Up Art World Anecdotes from the "Max's Kansas City" Book: "Steven Watson writes in one essay that 'deciding who came in was owner Mickey Ruskin's way of 'curating' people.' The pieces of photographic ephemera and scribbled memories, only some of which are collected in this book, amount to the late Ruskin's grand exhibition. In honor of this achievement, ARTINFO perused Kasher's book to cull 11 things you didn't know about Max's. And boy, are they Grade-A juicy."

Brandeis to hire new Rose Museum director - The Boston Globe

Brandeis to hire new Rose Museum director - The Boston Globe: "“If their intent is to have a real museum as opposed to a college art center, why did they get rid of all the people who worked there in the first place, and why did they let this museum run into the ground for a year and a half?’’ said Meryl Rose, a museum donor and longtime member of the museum board of overseers."

Video From the Art Fag City Blog

Failing By Faction: How Diverse Are Internet Communities?: "For those who have about an hour to kill, the Dave Hickey lecture is worth a gander both for his ideas on the development of art viewing, and his thoughts on the Internet."

Exhibition websites three ways: Bradford, Miro, LACMA | Tyler Green: Modern Art Notes | ARTINFO.com

Exhibition websites three ways: Bradford, Miro, LACMA | Tyler Green: Modern Art Notes | ARTINFO.com: "We’re 20 years into the mainstreaming of the world wide web and there’s still no museum-wide consensus on what an exhibition website should look like."

Museum funding cuts: a danger to democracy | Art and design | guardian.co.uk

Museum funding cuts: a danger to democracy | Art and design | guardian.co.uk: "What will disappear is the generous theatre of public life that museums are so brilliant at creating. That would not only be a loss to the arts and sciences but to the very quality of our society."

Jerry Saltz on Dan Colen's Misguided 'Poetry' -- New York Magazine

Jerry Saltz on Dan Colen's Misguided 'Poetry' -- New York Magazine: "The problem is not so much with Colen himself, who is just a willing pawn in a dead-end game. It’s his kind of faulty thinking, and the brassy, vacuous spectacles staged at Gagosian and elsewhere, that are poisonous. Once upon a time in the nineties, art that wanted to be complicit with the system, that tried to lure collectors as it criticized the artist-dealer-buyer complex, had an edgy Trojan-horse coerciveness. A lot of people got rich creating a gigantic industry of artists, dealers, and curators who’d do almost anything for the limelight. By now, Colen’s high/low art—paintings made of cheesy materials; kicked-over tricked-out motorcycles; those skateboard ramps—is not only lazy thinking. It is old-fashioned art about old-fashioned ideas about commodity-art-about-art that no one cares about anymore. At this point, continuing to follow in the footsteps of Warhol, Richard Prince, Takashi Murakami, and Jeff Koons appears derivative, completely mechanical, and possibly corrupt. Colen fetishizes a moment that no longer exists, and behaves like nothing’s changed. People seem scared to say a lot of this art is bad; it’s as if they fear being uninvited, cast out from the circle of social light."

Chelsea Gallery Roundup

SW Corner of 21st @ 10th Ave - Text by David Byrne

Thursday night was beautiful and hundreds of galleries opened shows for the new season. The streets were packed. I went to Chelsea Friday, during the day, and it was still bustling. There are a lot of good shows:

LA artists from the sixties and seventies are showing up again. George Herms has a mini retrospective (he's over-due for a major one) at Nyehaus, a gallery that's been exhibiting many of these artists. Herms is in his seventies and seems to be experiencing a great late phase. His new work is very different, and delightful. Here's an example:

GEORGE HERMS, Collagio #01, 2010, Collage, 14 x 11 in, , LOVE pressed
Courtesy, Nyehaus Gallery, New York

On the other hand, two other LA artists from that era have not made much progress. Late works by the late Craig Kauffman at Danese are as beautiful and etherial as ever, and not much different. 

Craig Kauffman, Saging, 2008, acrylic lacquer on vacuum formed plastic, 23.75 x 25.75 x 9.5 inches

John McCracken at Zwirner has made even less progress. I don't know how he can keep doing the same damn thing for fifty years, or why he seems to be so popular, but so it is. 

"50 Years at PACE" is spread out over FOUR venues in Chelsea and one on 57th Street, and that's not enough space for all the great art they have shown over the years. Take that Larry Gagosian! Just to name some of the artists: De Kooning, Rothko, Pollock, Still (what's he doing there? They never showed Still.), Johns, Warhol, Lichtenstein, Elizabeth Murray, Chuck Close, Richard Tuttle, Tom Nozkowski, Tim Hawkinson......

Anton Perich, Andrea Feldman, Max's Kansas City, 1972, printed ca. 1995, 20 x 24 inches (Steven Kasher Gallery).

Two shows about the artists's bar, Max's Kansas City, at Steven Kasher and Loretta Howard, pretty much capture the mixed feelings I have about that era: attracted and repelled. 1965-75 was an intense and exciting time with new ideas tossed around all the time. On the other hand, the drug scene and attitude toward women (well-captured in the videos shown at Kasher) were pretty disgusting. 

JUDY PFAFF, Untitled, 2010, Paper, wood, wire & rod, artificial flowers, 128 x 162 x 48 inches

Another mini-retrospective, and another artist long over-due for a major retrospective, is Judy Pfaff. Her show "Five Decades" can be seen at the Ameringer Gallery. Like Herms, Pfaff's new work is different -- more luxuriously lush and sensual than her past work. Sarah Sze, one of the best of many artists heavily influenced by Pfaff, can be seen at Tanya Bonakdar.

Progress on the Powerhouse - HA!

Photo from the Jersey City Reporter

The Jersey City Reporter has an article on the completion of "Phase One" of the "stabilization" of the Powerhouse:

“After 50 years of neglect, it’s unrealistic that you can turn a building of this size around inexpensively or quickly,” Antonicello said. “That being said, I’m thrilled people are taking notice of the efforts made to restore this magnificent structure.”

The stabilization started in earnest in June of last year when Mayor Jerramiah Healy, Antonicello, officials from the Port Authority, and other city officials were on hand for the kick-off of the stabilization of the historic Hudson and Manhattan Powerhouse, the first step towards reinventing the building as a commercial and entertainment complex. The actual work started in December.

When stabilization is complete, the Powerhouse will become an 180,000 square-foot space across five floors, filled with galleries, restaurants, and offices. The Cordish Companies, a Baltimore-based retail and entertainment developer, is the designated developer for renovating the site.

Some points:

1. Sealing the windows "with brightly colored boards using colors from the Redevelopment Agency’s logo" isn't much to brag about. Phase two includes the real work: relocating the electrical transformers located in the Powerhouse that power the PATH, installing a temporary roof, structural work, masonry repairs and the removal of 340 tons of polluted soil and 50 tons of non-toxic soil. So please, cut the bull.
2. Even if the Powerhouse is completely restored (as we all hope), it will never be the "centerpiece for the long-discussed Powerhouse Arts District" because THERE IS NO POWERHOUSE ARTS DISTRICT, and there never will be because Healy is allowing the owners of the historic warehouses to demolish them.  He actually ENCOURAGED the demolition of 111 First Street by changing the zoning to allow a 60-story building -- and we can expect further demolition when the economy improves. 
3. The Powerhouse cannot be the center of anything because, even if it's beautifully restored and all the hopes for 180,000 SF of galleries, restaurants, entertainment venues, etc. are fulfilled, IT WILL BE SURROUNDED - BURIED - BY HIGH-RISE BUILDINGS.
4. Cities would do anything to have a large, vital art and entertainment district in an historic warehouse district. Jersey City could have had it -- the Powerhouse Arts District Redevelopment Plan was working. Several historic building were restored and other, infill buildings, were built. But Healy gave it all away. 

Greetings from the contemporary No-Man's-Land

*Note: This post is terribly late, but lack of a keyboard and "quiet time" have led to a travel backlog.  I'll do my best to play catch up in the next few days.... but right now I've got to hop the night train to Budapest. 

I'm in Krakow on week three of my Eastern European art quest and, a Polish beer and a keyboard (finally) later I'm sitting down to give you an out-of-date-update.  Surprised?  In New York it's so easy to be surrounded by contemporary art, collectives, galleries, and, as an arts consumer, it's easy to get caught up in the idea that New York really is the center of the art universe--and that there's nothing happening between Berlin and Istanbul.  But there's a whole 'nother world out there (who must be making art, right?) so several un-answered emails, unsatisfactory responses, and a cheap flight later I had decided to try and find (at least some) of it.  Armed with artist contacts and a backpack, I set off.

The dilemma: Why don't we hear much about Eastern-European Art in the international press?  Ah-hem. Communism. "Contemporary art" has been put on hold for a dew decades. You'll most likely see exhibitions of work from the 60's, 70's, 80's, and even 90's in major museums/art centers- if only because the huge backlog of art censored by the state is just being made available.  This explains in part why the art press has been so slow to feature new work from these areas; the insitutional vetting process just isn't there.  That being said, there are artists living and producing now in Eastern Europe, and if you look a little deeper, you'll find a host of independent galleries and artists engaging in really facinating work.

Prague: Contemporary art in a historic Disney World?  Yes!  Like most places, you have to head slightly outsided the city to see where artists are working; the city center does play host to several contemporary venues, but they're intermingled with schmotzy traps.  Prague has several cutting-edge collectives and contemporary art centers providing much-needed venues for art now, though they're unfortunately not on the interntational radar.  I started with Futura, a center that hosts international exchanges, local work, performance and video screenings in its space west of the city center and downriver from the tourist-ridden New Town.  Their gallery space, located inside a rennovated factory masquerading as a townhouse, was hosting the work of... *first snag* artists from New York, but their gallery sitter assured me this wasn't the norm.

Really....?  Will Prague prove to be disasterous?  Will Irene survive another night train?  Should Irene go and have another beer before continuing this retrospective?  More to come.

More on the Jersey City Museum

Liberace Museum Addition and Renovation, Leo Daly Architects

Liberace Museum Addition and Renovation, Leo Daly Architects

The Jersey City Independent has an excellent detailed report here, and the Jersey Journal's report, here, has a rare interview with a Museum trustee.

What happened to the Jersey City Museum is typical for non-profits in general. It's a lot easier to raise money for showy, more permanent things like new buildings than it is for on-going, relatively transient things like actual operations. Here's yet another example in today's Times:

Liberace Museum Is Closing Its Doors - NYTimes.com: "The museum’s founding endowment has shrunk from $10 million five years ago to $1 million, a result of money-losing investments and a decision to take out an expensive mortgage to finance a renovation of the building that in hindsight, Mr. Koep said, does not seem like a wise decision."