bloggy

Happy 5th Birthday to ArtCat Calendar

2009-11-18T18:34:53Z

On this date in 2004, James and I launched the first version of the ArtCat Calendar (then called ArtCal). The first version just listed shows and dates by neighborhood, with the main innovation being the listing of Chelsea shows by street.

Some history:

Images added: September 6, 2005
RSS and iCal feeds added: December 12, 2005
E-mail newsletter launched: March 30, 2006
Newsletter reaches 1000 subscribers: March 13, 2007
Redesigned: August 28, 2007
Merged ArtCal and ArtCat: March 2009

Fritz Lang Quote

2009-11-17T02:11:22Z

All decent people should run away from home. -- Fritz Lang, 1975

I heard this quote in a fascinating interview with Fritz Lang by William Friedkin last night, from the bonus disc to The Criterion Collection's excellent release of "M."

Gentrification, 1921 edition

2009-11-17T02:01:38Z

Gentrification pushing out artists has a long history in New York. Via the New York Times:

A 1921 cartoon, courtesy of Duke University, shows a displaced artist walking past Vincent Pepe, an Italian-born real estate entrepreneur, and two rich clients in search of a Village home.

Nikhil Chopra at the New Museum

2009-11-13T17:55:22Z

James and I visited the New Museum three times during Nikhil Chopra's performance. For more background, and images of the first day, see James's post. We had been told by the curator, Eungie Joo, that we should expect a rather surprising transformation on the last day, and we were not disappointed. Below are few of my photos of the last hours of the performance. When we met him afterward, the artist told us that he had insisted that the museum allow photography of his performance. After all, he said, "it's a visual medium" and that photography is one of the ways people in our contemporary world engage with and process images.

I felt dazed, as if I had just left a moving ritual in a temple in a strange land, as I walked out onto the Bowery that day.

There will be performances and lectures related to the project this weekend, starting tonight (Friday, November 13) at 7pm. James and I will definitely be there.

getting made up

3 images of his final pose, held for about 45 minutes

We missed this Jack the Ripper-esque costume. See it in action here.

Museums, the art market, and public subsidies

2009-11-12T23:15:53Z

A set of scattered thoughts on the New Museum's plans to show works from Dakis Joannou's collection selected by Jeff Koons.

Many people have argued online via blog posts or comments that the collection is so interesting that it doesn't matter what the ethics are in presenting it at the museum where Mr. Jouannou is a trustee.
I for one don't want to see some of the limited resources and spaces available to show art in this city devoted to a huge exhibition mostly composed of previously-market-validated living artists that we have all heard of already.
The New Museum and other museums receive public funding, to say nothing of the subsidies represented by the tax exemption of donations of art and money. The 990 for the New Museum for 2008 shows over $940,000 coming from government grants.
Because public funding is still a relatively small percentage of their operating budgets, museums and other non-profit cultural spaces must raise money from wealthy patrons, foundations, and other sources (which are subsidized through tax deductions or the non-profit status of foundations).
This is a country that has trouble convincing taxpayers that guaranteeing decent education and healthcare for all American children is something government should do. If that is considered a luxury in the USA, the use of tax-exempt art museums to show works (owned by wealthy collectors) by artists who have been successful in the commercial art market is a rather decadent use of public subsidies.
If the market is how we decide what works of art are important, then the market should find a way to cover the costs of presenting these works to the public. The curatorial, educational or scholarly mission of museums is tossed aside, and thus the rationale for providing subsidies, other than the tourism draw of such institutions, disappears.
Abandoning the assistance that non-profit institutions have provided to emerging artists, unknown artists, and artists whose work is not successful in the commercial art market will further undermine public support for any kind of funding for culture, which is already pretty shaky.

Sand Art about World War II Ukraine

2009-11-11T17:57:44Z

Apparently, I'm quite behind for just now hearing about this. I'm impressed that Ukraine's Got Talent would have a performer who does Robin Rhode/William Kentridge-esque animation with sand about the Nazi invasion of her country.

Update: There is a FAQ for the video! Thanks, Marc Shifflett.

Celebrating the Yankees's money and land grab

2009-11-05T16:58:11Z

I'm glad the World Series is over so I can stop hearing about it. Here are some data points:

Estimated total cost of public subsidies to the Yankees for the new stadium: $1.8 billion.
The city turned over a Bronx park to the Yankees to build their new stadium in 2006, kicking out the kids who played there. They're now expecting it to be replaced in 2011. The high school that lost its playing field has been offered $37,500 by the Yankees to buy a bus so they can play their games in convenient locales such as Staten Island.
In May, New York City's Education Department announced a $405 million cut, an average of 4.9% per school.
School budget cuts are wiping out entire departments, with art classes and programs for at-risk students disappearing fastest, according to the Daily News.

[image via University of Nebraska Press]

Performa Parade "Somewhere I Read" designed by Arto Lindsay

2009-11-04T02:04:06Z

This is a short excerpt, at a time when one can actually hear the sound coming from the cell phones. Visit the Performa site for more information.

Friedrich Schenker's "Guide for bootlickers-in-training"

2009-11-01T03:57:05Z

Two portraits of Vladimir Mayakovsky by Alexander Rodchenko, via paris.blog.lemonde.fr

James and I have been listening to this excellent box set of vocal music from the former East Germany.

The widget above plays a sample of Friedrich Schenker's "Leitfaden fur angehende Speichellecker" (Guide for bootlickers-in-training) composed in 1974. The text is based on a 1927 poem by Vladimir Mayakovsky, in which the poet provides a satirical "guide for toadies" and at the end rips off the mask and says tells the audience to do just the opposite. In the Schenker piece, the singer tears up her music and throws it away at the end, and the pianist slams down the piano lid and stomps away. My description is adapted from the booklet of the box set mentioned above.

Marcia Tucker on Museums

2009-10-17T21:19:58Z

I just finished reading Marcia Tucker's memoir, A Short Life of Trouble, Forty Years in the New York Art World. Here is a quote from the letter she wrote to the museum's trustees after her firing from the Whitney Museum.

As a scholar, it has always been my conviction that it is the museum's responsibility not only to reflect the consensus of educated opinion by which art history is made, but also to seek out the best work at its source, rather than only after it has achieved commercial exposure.

Thoughts on Vollmann's "Europe Central"

2009-10-16T20:30:25Z

Shostakovich on the cover of Time, 1942, via Zeitschichten

William T. Vollmann's historical novel Europe Central is at times a long, dark slog, but definitely worth the effort. His research into Nazi and Soviet history is impressive, particularly on musical topics -- don't miss the notes at the end. What other contemporary novel is likely to spend so much time with not only Dmitri Shostakovich, but less-famous composers such as Moisey Vainberg and Galina Ustvolskaya?

The only thing I disliked about the book was when the chapters about Shostakovich imitated the verbal tics he developed as he got older, due to the extreme mental stress he suffered under the Soviets. One example, from the "Opus 110" section of the book, when he is talking with NKVD men about his work, is below:

Because my hands get tired, comrades, even when I ... It, so to speak, subverts me. But I'm only a worm, and my symphonies are mere, uh, so it's no loss to, to ... I do apologize.

I understand the importance of conveying how he communicated later in his life, and a letter by Isaiah Berlin about his sad visit to Oxford in 1958 certainly documents that, but it's painful to read one hundred consecutive pages written in that style.

The long passages about the harrowing conditions for Soviet and Nazi soldiers on the Eastern Front, civilians in Leningrad, Dresden, and 1944-45 Berlin, as well as chapters set in East Germany after the war, serve as a strong antidote to the ridiculous idea that the USA saved Europe single-handedly in World War II. The Soviets and the countries of Eastern Europe lost millions of people -- soldiers and civilians -- as the West allowed them to grind down much of the strength of Nazi Germany. The people of central Europe were then abandoned to the sinister realities of Stalinism once victory was declared.

The novel is overlong, and could have used some more editing, but its empathy for the people of Europe Central is a worthy accompaniment to the works of Anna Akhmatova and Shostakovich regarding this dark period of our "civilized" 20th century.

Video at my local subway station

2009-10-09T05:26:35Z

No, I didn't film it. It's a YouTube find.

Linkage for 10/07/2009

2009-10-08T03:55:00Z

Dear Artists & Art Publicists: Let me help you do your job. | C-MONSTER.net
I'm going to start sending this link to PR people when they behave badly
tags: marketing publicity pr art culture

Announcing Idiom

2009-09-29T21:56:05Z

James says it better than I can, as usual. Today marks the launch of our new publishing venture, Idiom.

Its mission statement:

Idiom is an online publication of urban artistic practice. By allowing emerging artists, writers and arts professionals to report on, review, and otherwise cover overlooked or under-thought aspects of the larger creative community, Idiom offers a local, engaged counterpoint to the prevailing discourse of contemporary art.

Linkage for 09/22/2009

2009-09-23T03:55:00Z

Tracey Baran Memorial Auction + Exhibition
The auction is ongoing through September 30th on iGavel.com and will provide proceeds for the grant, which is open to emerging female photographers from the United States. Via Hey Hot Shot.
tags: traceybaran ourcollection photography grants
women in photography | tracey baran
online exhibition of Tracey's photography with a bit of text about her
tags: traceybaran ourcollection photography