26 June 2010

Dürer review

Grab the PDF of my review of the MFA's Dürer show that's up right now.

24 June 2010

That Nuevo York place.

Ran down there this week. Had to see the Bespoke show as I know all but one of the bike builders in the show. It's complicated and interesting. I'll be writing up a review and as long as it makes sense on paper/screen/smarty-pants-phone it'll be published in the following weeks.

I also saw the Dead/Alive show. Has numerous good works and icky ones too. I like icky works. The birds turned into synthetic diamonds were awesome, but I wouldn't spend 30 hours trying to explain how the show functions-- as it's pretty straightforward. Ick, death, and odd smells.

The baskets from the Sara and David Lieberman collection is a perfect example of how design often works in museums. It sometimes reduces what probably should be considered a sculpture to design.

I hit up that Frick collection I keep hearing about. Dude had deep pockets. 3 Vermeers is not natural. Having two essential Rembrandts also on the scale of hedonistic. The perfect early power portrait and probably the best self-portrait. And the Holbeins! good lord. I believe fortune smiled down on Mr. Frick in order to have those two portraits facing each other in such a well funded public collection. Everything else he did and collected (including the Franz Hals portraits) were just padding around those two Holbeins.

Around the corner at the Asia Society is Mariko Mori. I won't belabor this either, as Kumano is from 1998, but it's the work from Mori that is who she is to me. If you have the time, go, but read up on the signs and signifiers of Japaneseness. That work is jammed full with how the Japanese understand themselves. From the calligraphic style to the moon, to the temple, to the fox spirit. It's her best work to me as it's solid packed with complicated images.

Throw in a drunken evening in Brooklyn, and it ended up being a good distraction.

Speaking of distractions, I hope people know that the work of art thing on the TV shouldn't be taken seriously or talked anywhere near as much as it has. It's a tv show kids. Like Futurama, the return of which I'm more excited about. It's worse than tv, it's reality tv. Like the housewives, but with corporate art whoring instead of die job ladies selling their bodies and souls for fame.