Goings On: posted week of December 23, 2019
CONTENTS:
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1. Mark Bloch, FF Alumn, at Whitehotmagazine.com now online
2. Paul Zelevansky, FF Alumn, at greatblankness.com now online
3. Patty Chang, FF Alumn, named Betty Parsons Fellow, Art Matters 2019
4. Taylor Mac, FF Alumn, named first artist in residence for WNET
5. Jenny Holzer, Richard Prince, FF Alumns, at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Manhattan, thru Jan. 12, 2020
6. Laura Hoptman, Harley Spiller, FF Alumns, at Outsider Art Fair, Jan. 14-Feb. 15, 2020
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1. Mark Bloch, FF Alumn, at Whitehotmagazine.com now online
Please visit this link or read text below
https://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/globalism-rise-abstract-expressionism/4458
From Globalism and the Rise of Abstract Expressionism
By MARK BLOCH
on
Globalism Pops BACK Into View: The Rise of Abstract Expressionism at Michael Rosenfeld Gallery until January 25, 2020
Some excerpts:
“…With Modernism there is always a natural tendency to rush through these ism’s, one to the next, never pausing to enjoy the intermediary states. Like the Italian Futurists who fetishized speed, we are always passing something, always on our way to the next ism. In animation, which was also developing at this time, most notably along an assembly line at Disney, the lead artists created the main motion then the underlings created the “in-betweens”-lesser, seemingly unimportant stops along the way that filled out the smooth movement of the main action points. But sometimes the in-betweens are just as beautiful and important as the rest, especially if one stops to study them.
Just as it is unfulfilling to devour a dessert without noticing it, it would be even more preposterous to eat each dessert only once and never return, never enjoy it again, as the artists seem to do who were chasing the Modernist dessert cart. What if we had to devour a pie or a cake on day one, a strawberry shortcake day two, a cheesecake day three and a chocolate mousse the next day and never able to try them again? With Modernism, each dessert had to be better than the next with just the forward motion driving everyone onward. While that scenario created some incredible art in a short period of time, perhaps it is now OK to acknowledge that it was also unnecessary to rush. But we can adjust. As admirers and not participants, we can now return to Modern art movements that weren’t fully appreciated. Even ones that didn’t even have a name; the ones that were between, the many delicious desserts that were there to be enjoyed but that were not properly savored or sufficiently appreciated along the way.
Of course we were always free to do this but in my case I always found it kind of sad that certain “in between” periods passed without more attention. I wanted to scream from the roof tops, “But look at this!” Robert and Sonia Delaunay come to mind.
But I have always loved most the phase between Surrealism and the height of Abstract Expressionism. I could never get enough of the period around a painting called The She-Wolf, for instance, by Jackson Pollock (not in this show) that was part of his first solo exhibit in 1943 at Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of This Century gallery. That work, snatched up by MoMA, was pre-drip Pollock grappling with mythology and the leftovers of Surrealism as he himself was undergoing Jungian psychotherapy. Pollock, on his way somewhere else, offered a rich, overflowing, sumptuous but mysterious world.
“…Mark Rothko also was seeking out art with social impact as part of the WPA. Like Pollock and his she-wolf, he found not moralistic slogans but demons, monsters and gods as the right subject matter to battle Fascism as all the New York artists inherited the mantle being passed by the European avant garde. Rothko immersed himself in Friedrich Nietzsche’s “dramatic themes of myth” with a goal of purging spiritual emptiness.
In the air at that time was an embrace of Carl Jung’s notion of a collective unconscious that penetrated deeper than any era’s specific narrative and customs.
Michael Rosenfeld Gallery has decided to label this period with a name it once had-Globalism. Rosenfeld, himself, who studied this period as a scholar in college, told me at the opening that the Globalism period was one where each painter was looking for his own mature identity. Well, as we know, they each found them. Rothko found his rectangles and Pollock found his drips. But this is our opportunity to go back and look at this Globalism some more. I personally prefer this deeply searching, experimental work to the identities that the seasoned artists eventually landed on, the splatters and boxes, respectively, that Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko followed up with.”
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2. Paul Zelevansky, FF Alumn, at greatblankness.com now online
In New York’s Garment District, a little old man was hit by a car.
While waiting for an ambulance, the policeman tucked a blanket
under the guy’s chin and asked, ”Are you comfortable?”
The man said, ”I make a nice living.”
(Henny Youngman)
It has been several months since I last posted a video.
I know that these are difficult and disturbing times, and while I try to pay careful attention to the world as it is, I also remain focused on questions of how we live, and manage to know what we know. In this sense, like the little old man in the Henny Youngman joke, I still feel comforted by the tangible pleasures of the everyday. I certainly hope that is true for you. This new series, “Make a Right Turn at the Old Man,” explores memory, aging, and mortality (the gentle word for death). While these are pressing concerns and realities that I need to think through, jokes continue to be helpful. So…
Please take a walk upstairs and…
http://greatblankness.com/portfolio-items/1-make-a-right-turn-at-the-old-man
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3. Patty Chang, FF Alumn, named Betty Parsons Fellow, Art Matters 2019
Art Matters announces 2019 grantees
Art Matters is pleased to announce the recipients of its 2019 grants to individual artists. The Foundation awarded 29 fellowships of 7,500 USD each for ongoing work that breaks ground aesthetically and socially.
In announcing the grants, Art Matters Director Abbey Williams said, “The breadth of creative possibilities that these artists, from across the country, bring to their practice is thrilling. They are experimenting with form and addressing issues of justice and liberation in ways that we believe have the potential to catalyze change. We hope our no-strings-attached funding offers holistic support and can help amplify their important voices.”
2019 is the inaugural year of the Betty Parsons Foundation supporting two of these Art Matters grants. These named fellowships will specifically support women/female-identified artists to honor the influential legacy of artist and gallerist Betty Parsons.
2019 Grantees:
Amara Abdal Figueroa (Ponce, PR)
Adelina Anthony (Altadena, CA)
Mx Justin Vivian Bond (New York, NY)
Patty Chang (Betty Parsons Fellow) (Altadena, CA)
Melissa Cody (Betty Parsons Fellow) (Flagstaff, AZ)
Tony Cruz Pabón (San Juan, PR)
Patrisse Cullors (Hawthorne, CA)
Myles de Bastion (Portland, OR)
bree gant (Detroit, MI)
Jonathan González (Brooklyn, NY)
Nicki Green (San Francisco, CA)
Szu-Han Ho / 何思涵 (Albuquerque, NM)
Sky Hopinka (Ferndale, WA)
Tish Jones (Saint Paul, MN)
Kite (Laguna Niguel, CA)
Jennie Jieun Lee (Brooklyn, NY)
Tiona Nekkia McClodden (Philadelphia, PA)
Tabitha Nikolai (Portland, OR)
Natani Notah (Mountainview, CA)
Juan Obando (Boston, MA)
Maia Cruz Palileo (Brooklyn, NY)
Zeke Peña (El Paso, TX)
Gala Porras-Kim (Los Angeles, CA)
Eric-Paul Riege (Gallup, NM)
Stacey Karen Robinson (Bronx, NY)
Gary Tyler (Pasadena, CA)
Frank Waln (Chicago, IL)
Cosmo Whyte (Atlanta, GA)
Sacha Yanow (Brooklyn, NY)
In addition to grants to individuals, Art Matters made a special grant to Lower Manhattan Cultural Council in support of projects by grantees Ernesto Pujol, as a part of the River To River Festival-and Yto Barrada as the inaugural exhibition at LMCC’s new Arts Center at Governors Island.
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4. Taylor Mac, FF Alumn, named first artist in residence for WNET
Please read this link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/17/arts/television/taylor-mac-all-arts.html
thank you.
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5. Jenny Holzer, Richard Prince, FF Alumns, at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Manhattan, thru Jan. 12, 2020
Please visit this link:
https://www.guggenheim.org/exhibition/artistic-license-six-takes-on-the-guggenheim-collection
thank you.
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6. Laura Hoptman, Harley Spiller, FF Alumns, at Outsider Art Fair, January 14-February 15, 2020
On Point: Pencils from the Harley J. Spiller Collection will be part of the Outsider Art Fair at the Ace Hotel, Manhattan, from January 15-February 15, 2020. The opening on the evening of January 15th will include a guided tour of the exhibition of these deceptively simple tools. Since he first held one properly, in kindergarten, Harley has come to realize the pencil is an example of hi-tech that was at its origin the equivalent of today’s smart phones. Come see highlights from his collection of vintage, unique, lovely, strange, funny and bizarre pencils.
and
OAF Talk: Just Don’t Call it Practice!
with Lonnie Holley, Laura Hoptman, and Marilyn Minter
Moderated by Bill Arning
New Museum of Contemporary Art, January 14, 2020 6:30 – 8 PM
The Outsider Art Fair will host its OAF TALK at the New Museum on Tuesday, January 14th. Just Don’t Call it Practice! will be moderated by Bill Arning, with panelists Lonnie Holley (artist/musician), Laura Hoptman (Executive Director, Drawing Center, New York), and Marilyn Minter (artist).
This year’s panel will consider a 2007 article written by Roberta Smith for the New York Times, What We Talk About When We Talk About Art, that critiqued the distancing and taming language of professionalization, specifically terms such as “practice” and “product.” Market realities, language, and criticism often make artists more professional and less adventurous. Conversely, outsider artists are, for the most part, untethered to art world conventions, not concerned with pleasing the three C’s (Critics, Curators and Collectors). When an artist refers to their own “practice” it indicates they are safe to be around. Smith took issue with the term, which is still commonly used today, noting its connotations:
a. The implication that artists, like lawyers, doctors and dentists, need a license to practice.
b. The implication that an artist, like a doctor, lawyer or dentist, is trained to fix some external problem.
c. “Practice” sanitizes a very messy process. It suggest that art making is a kind of white-collar activity whose practitioners don’t get their hands dirty, physically or emotionally.
d. It converts art into a hygienic desk job and signals a basic discomfort with the physical mess as well as the unknowable, irrational side of art making.
How have the rules changed in 2020 and where do we see the professionalization of art careers helping or hurting culture in the future? How do artists who have achieved museum sanctioned careers keep the edge that made them want to be artists in the first place? What differences (or similarities) are there between self-taught and academically trained artists with regard to how they think about and create their work? What do we find appealing or unappealing about those differences?
This event is free and open to the public and is part of the programming for the 28th New York edition of the Outsider Art Fair.
Click here to register: https://www.universe.com/events/oaf-talk-just-dont-call-it-practice-tickets-3PWYNM
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Goings On is compiled weekly by Harley Spiller
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