Volume 31, No. 3, Dec 2008
Art Reader
“Warhol and Rubens: Picture Them as Peas in a Pod” by Holland Cotter reviews a show called “Dia’s Andy: Through the Lens of Patronage” and the comparison is quite valid. NY Times, 10 June.
“Art Wants to be Free” by Edward Dolnick appeared on the Op-Ed page of the NY Times on 2 August.
“Art that has to Sleep in the Garage” by Edward Lewine in the NYTimes, Arts & Leisure Section, for 2 June speaks about collectors discovering video art, while buying is one thing and living with it quite another.
PW(Publishers Weekly) for 26 September features an article by Susan Bright on Photo + Book = Art, which emphasizes how photographers see the pages of a book as preferableto gallery walls, followed by a long list and description of photobooks coming onto the U.S. market this season.
FiberArts for Summer 2005 features Artist’s Books: Translating a Journey with featured articles about Howard Munson’s Book Arts Workshops in San Francisco, a showcase of artist books, a wonderful article by Gail Rieke about the Artist as Traveler, a brief history of the artist book by Debra Riley Parr as well as a wonderful plug for the Sixth International Edible Book Show and Tea.
Artlink for September 2005 features an exposé of giclée printing, and the uses to which Australian artists have created this digital prints. Included is a juicy article onBiennials of the world with a fold-out chart of “Artlink’s Intergalactic Guide to the Curtors of International Biennials and Triennials” and much much more.
The June 2005 issue was dedicated to Aboriginal Art with remarkable illustrations and new perspectives in the essays. A must!
Art Papers for September/October has two major sections: 1) informal survey of curators on a practice in transition, and 2) a conversation between artist-activist Gregory Sholette and Paris-based theorist Brian Holmes on the relation between art and civil disobedience. There is an homage to the book art of Ruth Laxson by Michael Fallon.
European Photography for Summer 2005 features an article about Concrete Photography by Gottfried Jäger and features work of Noritshi Hirakawa, Jacqueline Salmon, Rafaelo Kazakov, Diana Blok, Segey Chlikov, Arno Roncada and much more. Included are reviews of new publications as well. (P.O. Box 080227, D-10002 Berlin Germany).
New Yorker for 17 October 2005 features Art & Architecture, with a profile on Rirkrit Tiravanija by Calvin Tomkins, the story behind the Sydney Opera House and the return of Utzen, the Kimono Painter in Japan, the art business, graphic novels, John Updike’s essay on judging books’ covers, American Art and the Cold War (the C.I.A.’s implications), and Paul Goldberg’s essay on The Sky Line, or do-it-yourself house kits. Much more, cartoons, ads, etc. all tuned into “gorgeous” or art and architecture. A must!
New Yorker for 5 December 2005 includes a wonderful profile of Matthew Cater’s life in type design by Alec Wilkinson, entitled “Man of Letters”.
Art Journal for Fall 2005 is dedicated to the spoken word in the guise of published interviews, conversations, forums, and round tables that begin with the spoken word. The artist interview is emphasized, such as one with Alfredo Jaar by Patricia C. Phillips, editor of this issue; Ana Finel Honigman’s interview with Ellen Harvey, the third and final installment of a conversation between David Levis Strauss and Daniel Joseph Martinez, and a round-table discussion organized by Chris Gilbert.
Cabinet, Issue 18 is dedicated to Fictional States, from fake degrees to covert operations found in archives, the ephemeral states or new country projects inhabited by thefounders who have endowed themselves with fabulous titles, the creation of money, and usually having dire and hazardous geography, and in case the state is questioned in any way, it usually collapses. One interesting article is by William Bryk about the Ephemera of Fictional States which involves Donald Evans’s stamps for Achterdijk, Nadrop,and Sabot, bearing wooden shoes, fruit, windmills, and landscapes; the Italianate Lo Stato di Mangiare, celebrating food and drink and its giant dirigible Cetriolo, the Cucumber and much more. Some of the self-declared nations are Kymaerica, Hutt River Province Principality, the Empire of Atlantium, the Kingdom of Fusa, State in Time, the New Free State of Caroline and much more.
Another article by Bonnie & Roger Riga discusses Fantasy stamps, or artist stamps, which usually depict satirical Utopias, some are political, others are fanciful hoaxes, but an expansion of this article would have yielded a great movement in artistamps. A great issue for discussion, delectation, and delight. $10.00 on your newsstand orsend a check to Cabinet, 181 Wyckoff St., Brooklyn, NY 11217 or www.cabinetmagazine.org
Shots 89 out of Minneapolis features an interview by Russell Joslin with Rimma Gerlovina and Valeriy Gerlovin, former Russian performance artists, who have lived in the U.S. for over 25 years and have developed new photographic work, which was recently shown in Minneapolis and at the Lisa Sette Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona. They are also featured in the Russia! Show at the Guggenheim Museum. www.lisasettegallery.com
Afterimage for May/June 2005 had a most important article about the “The Strange Case of Steve Kurtz: Critical Art Ensemble and the Price of Freedom” by Robert Hirsch. Thomas McGovern also has an indepth essay about the photographic work of Robbert Flick.
Art Papers for May/June had the first part of a two-part article by Terry Smith on “Primacy, Convergence, Currency: Marketing Contemporary Art in the Conditions of Contemporaneity” which was continued in the July/August of the same journal.
Art & Antiques for September 2005 features an article, “Mixing It Up,” by Edward M. Gomez, which explores the subject of mixed media art. A reproduction of the artwork, “Bill and Coo,” by Stephanie Brody-Ledermanand a discussion of her concerns regarding her multi media artwork is included in the article. The feature defines and offers advice on how to collect, display and care for mixed media art. It also helps educate the public on the opportunities and challenges inherent in collecting this less conventional art form. One-of-a-kind and limited edition books are included within this genre.
New York Times for 6 November carried a notable article on Marina Abramovic, entitled “Self-Mutilation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery.” This was prior to her series ofseven performances at the Guggenheim, with 6 being re-enactments of other performance artists’ works, and the last, her new work.
New York Times for 27 November featuring an article about West Coast digital-media artist, Lynn Hershman Leeson, whose day has finally arrived with an anthology published by Univ. Of California Press, 10 years in the making, that documents her various projects in critical essays and samples them on a DVD; her first American museum retrospective, Hershmanlandia, which opened at the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle, covering work from the 1970s to today; and a survey of recent photographs which opened at her longtime San Francisco gallery, Paule Anglim. In addition, “Selected Works: 1976-2005” opened in New York City at Bitforms on 10 December, with an appearance by her flat-head monitor, equipped with voice-recognition software, the artificial intelligence computer known as DiNA, designed to chat with visitors about current affairs.
New York Times for 10 November featured an article on “Ephemeral Art, Eternal Maintenance” by Christopher Mason, citing the inevitable constant care that ephemeral art, including 20th century art involves. Some artists make weekly visits to their works collected by private people in order to be sure that the works remain stable, because of unconventional materials.
The Los Angeles Times for 27 December had an important article on storage of works of art in museums due to lack of space. It’s an important article due to the fact that most of museums’ collections are not seen by any audience except the registrar or conservationist.
Artnews for November has a run-down on the damage and disruption of museums, galleries, artists’ studios, an historic houses in New Orleans because of Hurricane Katrina.
Reconfigurations of both MOMA and the Tate’s exhibition of their permanent collections are reported as well. In addition, “Why Have There Been No Great Women Comic-Art Artists?” by Carly Berwick is a feature article about the comics show at the Hammer Museum and MOCA in Los Angeles.
New Yorker for 7 November features Artist’s Model by Rachel Cohen about Zola and Cezanne’s friendship which came apart when Zola wrote a novel about Cezanne.
Afterimage for September-October includes reviews by Johanna Drucker of books entitled, “Book Spaces City Spaces” about John Gossage’s Berlin in the Time of the Wall and Emily McVarish’s Flicker.
New York Times for 12 November with an interesting article by Roberta Smith about gallery announcements.
On 24 December the term “gallerist” is explored by Grace Glueck.
Smithsonian for December 2005 has an article on Airborne Archaeology including the White Horse at Uffington, the China Wall, El Tajin in Veracruz and the Great Mosque at Samarra, Iraq and more.
The January 2006 issue has an article about “Cézanne: The Man Who Changed the Landscape of Art” by Paul Trachtman.
Artlink from South Australia features in its vol. 25, no.4 “ecology: everyone’s business” which involves artists as eco-warriors, eco-architecture, how green is ‘green’?, remaking waste, social ecology, artworld footprints and climate change. Even the printing is “green” with carbon neutral process using vegetable based inks on FSC certified paper Spicers 9-Lives Silk.There is an article even on Finbury Green Printing, the story of the first carbon neutral printer in Australia! But there are gorgeous works of art made out of the detritis of our throwaway society, i.e. Australian (and we’re included too).
Noted is the fact that USA banned from sale March 2003 issue titled Fallout: War, Terror, Refugees due to the “appalling nudity of the young sleeping adolescent on the cover.”
art on paper for July/August 2005 was a collection of letters from established artists to a fictional “young artist” who is challenged by both the logistical and moral implications of being an artist. Significant is a long letter from Sol LeWitt to Eva Hesse from 1965, one that has been quoted widely but never published in toto. Includedare letters form John Baldessari, Jimmie Durham, Adrian Piper, Gregory Amenoff, William Pope.L, Cai Guo-Qiang, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Jo Baer, alwrence Weiner, Howardena Pindell, Joan Jonas, Richard Tuttle.
Rubberstampmadness has an article on Artist Trading Cards, the new rage among artists and mail artists alike.It’s in the November/December 2005 issue.
