The Best Way to See "Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913–1917"

Weegee (Arthur Fellig), American, born Austria. 1899–1968, Coney Island. c. 1939, Gelatin silver print, 10 5/16 x 13 11/16″  The Museum of Modern Art.

Wednesdays–Mondays, until October 11, from 9:30–10:30 a.m., MoMA members and guests of members (with $5 guest-admission tickets) can see the show before the Museum opens to the public.

If you're as compulsive as I am, get there just before 9:30, wait at the eastern-most door on the 54th Street entrance (it's the first to open) and make a beeline to the elevator to the sixth floor. You'll have the exhibition pretty much to yourself for about 20 minutes, and if you stay a gallery ahead of the crowd, you can have it pretty much to yourself for the whole hour.

If you're not a member, or don't know a member to go with, your choices are pretty limited. Your best bet is to purchase timed tickets ($20!) online here. Admission is free Friday nights from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m., and a limited number of timed tickets to the Matisse exhibition are available on a first-come, first-served basis. But whether you paid $20 online or are lucky enough to score a free ticket on a Friday night, the show will be very crowded.

Curatorial Flashbacks: Old Pros Playoff Roster (Call it a Guy Thing)

Norman Rockwell, Game Called Because of Rain, Post Cover 4/23/49

By Carl Belz

September’s nearly here, and that means preparing for the stretch run, the playoffs, and, hopefully, a shot at another World Series championship ring for the Old Pros. You think putting together an exhibition is challenging? Well, try putting together a winning baseball team, year-in and year-out, in this day and age. It used to be the Old Pros were, like, the only game in town, a sure bet for October glory, but not anymore. Not with expansion and free agency, mixed media, globalism, a luxury tax, installations, photography, you name it. And not with the Sculptors Guild, Women Only, the Asian Bloc, and Contemporary Whiz Kids, to name just a few of the new contenders, breathing down the Old Pros’ necks and siphoning off emerging and/or previously overlooked talent.

But we’re not here to wax nostalgic about the old days or sing the blues about gentler, simpler times now lost to us, we’re here to present a starting lineup that we believe can compete with any current pretenders to the ancient and still-revered throne of baseball supremacy. To wit:

Catcher: Rembrandt. No question about it. There he is, front and center, looking right at us, his weathered gaze determined and stoical, his expansive barrel chest signaling nothing gets by him, reminding us he’s the physical and spiritual place where the buck stops. He’s got leadership written all over him, he’s our anchor.

1st Base: Roger van der Weyden. Lean, poised, and self-contained, but bristling with competitive energy, what we call wired. Currently a league leader in triples, suggesting what it means to take it to the limit, to squeeze an extra base from a rope to the gap in right-center that puts renewed pressure on the opposition when they least expected it.

2nd Base: Goya. Feisty, testy Goya, always on the alert for a chance to get an edge, always ready to go toe-to-toe with an opponent on behalf of a teammate; he’s a sparkplug, his uniform’s always dirty, he’s an inspirational kind of guy.

Shortstop: Velasquez. Tell me, who could be better? No one! Velasquez was born to this position. Stylish and elegant beyond words, he makes the phenomenal look natural, as though there’s nothing to it, but don’t be deceived by that, not for a minute. And don’t forget, he’s no slouch when it comes to the stick either—he can go deep with the best of them.

3rd Base: Caravaggio. Swarthy, defiant, a guy with an attitude—“Wanna hit one past the hot corner? Give it a try. Wanna throw one up and in? You’ll pay the price.” The kind of player you want on your side, not your opponent’s.

Left Field: Rubens. Who could argue with Rubens? Painter supreme, diplomat, entrepreneur, darling of royalty, plus a trophy wife on his arm. A bit of a showman at times, but he goes out and puts up big power numbers year after year. Always on the short list for MVP, he’s baseball’s reigning good will ambassador to the world at large.

Center Field: Michelangelo. I know, I know, the Big M occasionally gets distracted by his hassles with the owners, but he’s always there when it counts. Besides, we really, really want a big-time guy who goes both ways, who’s got the painting thing going and also the sculpture thing, a guy with the kind of presence at the plate that makes opposing hurlers want to pitch around him—in a word, a force, and M’s nothing if not that.

Right Field: Breughel, the Elder. The people’s choice, and rightly so. You feel he’s one of the guys you hang around with, have a few pops with, share stories about life’s ups and downs with—and he can sure tell those stories like nobody else! He affects the clubhouse chemistry in the same way, he’s as valuable off the field as he is on it.

Pitchers: I’m going with two, Matisse and Picasso, both relative newcomers to the roster, but both ready, in my mind, to accept the challenges linked to the Old Pros’ long and distinguished tradition. Picasso’s the power guy, going after every hitter, mano a mano, always ready to pit his best against the best the batter brings to the plate. And Matisse? Matisse embodies the old saying about how 90% of pitching takes place from the neck up. He throws up a mixture of what appear to be sweet softies, but the helpless batters can only guess what the next one will actually be—how much pace it’ll have, how much spin, which way it’ll go at the last moment, and then score another out for the guy known around the league as Bad Henry.

So there you have it, a lineup that’s got everything: speed, quickness, defense, power. I like our chances, and I look forward to October, but we’ll just have to see how it all plays out on the field. For now, here’s one you can take to the bank: the Old Pros won’t be put away easily.

The Ten Most UNDERRATED Los Angeles Art World Stars

    Mat Gleason, for the Huffinton Post's new Art section, wrote a funny piece (that I wrote about recently) on the Ten Most OVERRATED Los Angeles Art World Stars.
    To his credit, he's now taken on the much tougher job of saying nice things and really putting himself on the line with his latest post: The Ten Most UNDERRATED Los Angeles Art World Stars.
    I've been away from Los Angeles for almost thirty years now, so it's more difficult for me to assess his choices. But once again I agree with almost all of them -- at least the ones I know. George Herms is an excellent choice, as are Llyn Foulkes (who's work I've been seeing more often lately, so I'm not sure how underrated he still is) and Michael McMillen. I'm not familiar with Eloy Torres, Kim Dingle and Daniel Martinez -- at least I don't remember seeing their work. As to the others, one can certainly make a case for them being under-appreciated.

Charles Garabedian, The Meeting of Greece and China, 1970, wood, acrylic, and polyester resin, 97 x 59 1/2 inches, Collection of the Artist.

    My main objection -- and it's a big one -- is leaving out Charles Garabedian, whom I consider to be among the most vital living artists.
    Maybe Garabedian is highly rated in Los Angeles -- he is having a major retrospective in the Santa Barbara Museum in January, and he shows with L.A. Louver, one of the best galleries in Los Angeles, and Betty Cunningham, one of the best galleries in New York -- but I doubt that's it. The major LA Museums have all but ignored him.
    And he is a great artist. Take The Meeting of Greece and China (see photo above). It's hard to capture the raw muscular energy of this work in reproduction. The only thing comparable for me, in terms of the shock of seeing it, is Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. The painting (if it can be called that) is more than eight feet tall and is made up of slats of wood laminated together like butcher block that's been cut into and inlaid with resin. There is nothing pretty or elegant here -- it's one tough painting -- and it was made in 1970 when Minimalism and Conceptualism were at their peak.
    Over his 50-year plus career, Garabedian's work has mostly been narrative in some form or another, but he's worked in a wide range of materials and methods, and his invention is staggering. A good place to see a sampling of his work is the L.A.Louver Gallery website. Check it out and see if you agree.

Some Jersey City Art News

The arts in Jersey City have been in the news lately:

Jon Whiten and the energetic Irene Borngraeber, a sometimes contributor to this blog, reported in the Jersey City Independent that the Jersey City Museum received a $77,211 New Jersey State grant. Good -- but it won't go far toward a budget that's more than ten times that. The bad news is the city of Jersey City slashed the yearly funding for the museum by 25 percent, to $500,000!

The New York Times reported Robin Parness Lipson is trying to raise money for a New Jersey Museum of Contemporary Art. According to the Times:

Two years ago the [collectors Michael and Susan] Hort suggested that they might lend their collection, which includes pieces by John Currin, Chris Ofili, Elizabeth Peyton and others, to the Jersey City Museum, where Ms. Lipson was on the board, if the museum would change its mission to focus exclusively on contemporary art. Ms. Lipson loved the idea, but when the other trustees rejected her proposal, she resigned from the board and decided to go out on her own.

Finally, Al Sullivan of The Hudson Reporter reported that the Port Authority wants to move Zurab Tsereteli's "Tear Drop" sculpture (now known by the fittingly pretentious title: “The Struggle Against World Terrorism" - see photo above). Several years ago Jersey City residents successfully fought to keep it out of Jersey City; now I think we should re-mobilize to help keep it in Bayonne.

Clyfford Still Museum Final Design

Thanks to Tyler Green, Modern Art Notes, for spotting this two-minute animated walkthrough of the new Clyfford Still Museum under construction in Denver. 


If you can’t wait until the Clyfford Still Museum is completed in the Fall of 2011, you can see 29 great Still paintings at the Albright-Knox until the end of this month.

Piling On

John Baldessari

John Baldessari: Pure Beauty, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art - WSJ.com: "Why do conceptual artists continue to employ finite resources and materials, not to mention occupy valuable space in museums, when, unlike other artists, the conceptual artist has an infinite amount of perfectly adequate space available to make and exhibit art in his or her head? Of course the answer is that Mr. Baldessari's antiart stance, through which he spurns the art establishment, is just that—a pose, a ruse. He craves the recognition of the very institutions he so self- consciously rejects."

Art Talks and Events

Several years ago my wife and I took a short getaway trip to Princeton NJ, and I was blown away by the public talks I went to at the University. It occurred to me that hell, New York is the culture capital of the world, there must be plenty of great talks here. So with a little research, and an occasional addition over the years, I came up with about 15-20 sites that I check regularly. You can quickly check them all by putting them in a bookmarks folder and opening them in tabs. Many of these sites change where they list their events, and others you can only get to from their home page, so, from time to time, you might have to track down the calendar or events page. Also several calendar sites take a long time to load. With that in mind, here they are:

General listings:

Time Out New York has the best general listings.
The Village Voice is a near second. The Village Voice Art listings and events are: here.
flavorpill has more off-beat listings.
ARTCAT: is good for listings of lesser known galleries and alternative spaces.


Colleges and universities:
Columbia University
Cooper Union 
New School
New York University (including the Grey Art Gallery)
School of Visual Arts

Museums:
Brooklyn Museum
Guggenheim
Metropolitan
MoMA
New Museum
PS 1
Whitney

Brooklyn gallery listings and events:
wagmag
WBURG
Free Williamsburg

Miscellaneous other sites:
Electronic Art Intermix, 535 W 22nd St # 5, New York - (212) 337-0680. They have events as well as a great collection of art videos which you can see by appointment.
Artists Talk On Art, ATOA is a non-profit run by volunteers that's been around for thirty-five years so they must be doing something right.
Municipal Art Society, MAS is even older that ATOA, it was founded in 1893! To quote from its mission statement, it is a: non-profit 501(c)(3) membership organization that fights for intelligent urban planning, design and preservation through education, dialogue and advocacy.
92nd Street Y
92YTribecca

Any additions will be greatly appreciated.

Ten Most Overrated Los Angeles Art World Stars

OVERRATED

Mat Gleason, one of the main contributors to the Coagula Art Journal, just wrote a very funny piece for the Huffington Post's new art section. And this post, like most things in Coagula, is shocking, snarky, appalling, and a lot of fun -- and right on. 
I agree with almost everything Mat Gleason says, with these provisos:

• To be "the most overrated" is I guess a balance between how popular and how bad an artist you are; so Ed Rucha, for example, might be a much better artist than, say, Catherine Opie, but he's so much more popular than she is that his fame, relative to the quality of his work, makes him more overrated. 
• I like Ruscha's early books like Twentysix Gasoline Stations, 1962 and Every Building on the Sunset Strip, 1966, but I agree that his paintings are boring, and the work he showed in 2005 at the Whitney was boring and pretentious.
• I haven't seen enough of Lauren Bon, Christopher Williams or Frank Romero to judge. At least I don't recall seeing their work -- which I guess says something. 
• I'd rate Paul McCarthy a much more overrated artist, perhaps second only to Baldessari.  
• And finally, I liked Jorge Pardo's show in June at Friedrich Petzel.   

So with these provisos, here it is: Ten Most Overrated Los Angeles Art World Stars

The Moroccans Redux

Detail, Henri Matisse,  Les Marocains (The Moroccans), 1912-16, the Museum of Modern Art.

The new MoMA iPhone App has an audio guide to the Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913-17 exhibition that discusses The Moroccans. Go to the Tours tab > Special Exhibitions > Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913-17 > The Moroccans (South Gallery). I was surprised to learn that what I see as Moroccans praying (see photo above), Matisse himself insisted is melons and leaves. From the audio tour, an unidentified voice that sounds like John Elderfield, the co-curator, says: I know some people have thought that what Matisse says are melons and leaves are in fact the Moroccans, but Matisse is insistent that they are not.

I should have known that an Art Historian of the caliber of John Elderfield would not have missed what I thought was such an obvious image. Nevertheless, this is the first time in any of the literature that I researched on the painting (including this exhibition catalog) that any mention is made that Matisse himself was insistent it’s melons and leaves and not Moroccans praying. I still don’t buy it!

It’s a useful (and free) app, btw. Here a description from the App Store:

Use the MoMA App to find out about current exhibitions, plan a visit, browse or search tens of thousands of works in the collection, take multimedia tours, or learn about artists and art terms. Take a photo through MoMA Snaps and send it to a friend, or choose your playlist to create a soundtrack for your MoMA visit. 

SURPRISE!!!

George Maciunian, New Flux Year, MoMA

The MoMA staff have been blogging about the experience of unpacking the recently acquired Silverman Fluxus collection. Here's an excerpt from a recent post:

AUGUST 9, 2010 

Unpacking Fluxus: The Joke’s On Us
Posted by Lily Goldberg, 12-Month Fluxus Intern, Department of Prints and Illustrated Books

...Upon opening an orange faux-reptile-skin box marked only with the typed words “top” and “pull,” we received quite a surprise: out jumped a coiled toy snake and a shower of confetti printed with the words “New Flux Year.” Rattled, we soon found that the joke was on us, as we were left returning every last scrap of paper, along with the spring-loaded snake, back into the box before shutting it carefully.