Don't Worry, MoMA's Here

Lauder F-1Eleven, originally uploaded by Art or Idiocy?.

Manhattan is Modern Again. Oh thank God, I was worried when I was New York last and MoMA was in Queens. I realized that without MoMA, New York was almost as dismal as a 2nd tier art city.

Is art that boring that this is the main story of the week? I was reading an article at the Art Newspaper and it said that the history of art has now been re-written because the MoMA has a new addition and the collection has been re-arranged. It outlined the history of MoMA and how it controls art history. No one should control art history, but that's the way it is. MoMA put forth a system of progression and we were all taught it, and accepted it.

But now is the Art After Modernism period. People are suspicious of how the utopian promises of Modernism never came to pass. First The Royal We gave up (Post Minimalism, Conceptual Art), then we insulted it, hated it and tried to destroy it (Postmodernism.) Now we don't know what to do. We are making crappy drawings on found paper with crayola markers about the 70s for international art fairs. Maybe belief, or at least optimism is OK. It sure beats ironic nostalgia or fake enjoyment of lame facets of popular culture. But at any rate, Manhattan is Modern... again.

So the world has been tooling around trying to figure out what to do. Is London a good art center? What about somewhere more Bavarian? Even Artforum couldn't hold down the fort of what Now is all about. So thank god that MoMA has returned and we can all rest. Now we have an even more giant graveyard for art. They put contemporary art right in the front, so we can see all the fresh corpses. Like heads on spikes at the tower of London, canonized by caustic control-freak curators.

I don't necessarily believe that museums are where art comes to die. And I don't necessarily believe Peter Schejldahl's analogy that museums are really just endless lobbies, but these crass propositions seem to have a grain of truth. They are a grain of salt to season some food for thought.

As Modernism as a time period moves further into the past, MoMA is going to have to redefine itself. In many ways, it is the artworld equivalent to the Bar Exam. You're not an official artist until you are in the MoMA. That's what famously set Fernando Botero up for life, for instance.

Perhaps working in art museums has led me in this direction, but I think institutional critique is a vital aspect to contemporary art criticism and theory. History will always continue to be written. No matter how deconstructed, postmodernist, or revisionist we want to make it. It is always there. It is always happening. And things will always be in reaction to it: support, objection or ignorance.

Also, I recommend getting a job at an art museum because then you don't have to pay $20 to pass through the gates of ultimate knowledge when flash your ID.

Sh-Sh-Shame

Party, originally uploaded by Art or Idiocy?.

A nice send up of the whole thing by Coagula writer Charlie Finch states, "From the grubbiest atelier in the middle of nowhere, let the word go forth: Shame, shame, shame." It is very good and you should read it on artnet.


And the Independent breaks down the posh gatherings. Wallow in the crapulence by pasting this address into your address bar: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=582723"

Scream Update

Hefty Painting
Originally uploaded by Art or Idiocy?.

Coming Soon

New details on the Scream scandal. Still no arrests, although authorites claim they are getting close. The Munch Museum is expected to remain closed at least until mid June of 2005.

More details and new pictures are to come.

kitten, originally uploaded by Art or Idiocy?.

48% say NO to Theocracy.

I usually try to stay away from political commentary. Usually it is ranting and raving, but it has come to my attention that I rant and rave at times. I am also feeling a number of complex emotions, so complex are these emotions that I feel the need to puke them out in a sardonic style. Naturally, these emotions, these complex, intense and myriad emotions can only be expressed in blog form.

But first let me say that I continue to write, think about, and make art. And yes, rant and rave about strictly art-related topics. The long awaited TOP TEN by Audrey Peiper is nearing completion. Throughout the wait many have questioned whether or not this spectral Ms. Peiper even exists. Well, I assure you she in fact does indeed exist, existentially speaking. And works in the basement of the Art Institute of Chicago alongside me, where she has been tirelessly compiling the most comprehensive TOP TEN list since the nefarious TOP TEN foofaraw of aught twelve.

And now the political stuff:

I have noticed Asscroft, I mean Ashcroft (real mature, I know) is purported to be resigning. That is good, right? Unless someone more evil and not so dumb fills his place. Then we're fucked. Oh wait, we're already fucked. So who the fuck cares?

That leads to a good point, though. This time Bush legitimately won, this time. And legitimately and won. Which means most of America is populated by 4 years olds. And what are old people but withered casings for infantile minds?

Anyway, what the fuck do we care now? The gloves are off. The major flaw of the Kerry campaign is that it played fair and it played nice. No longer, folks! If Bush wants a divided nation, then a divided nation he has. Why bother with pleasantries? Did you notice in all the campaign speeches and news bites, every time Kerry spoke it was positive and the crowd cheered? He would say things like. "America needs change!" and everyone would say "Yeah!" Bush would say something like, "my voted one way, and then he voted another," and then the crowd would boo and say "flip, flop." Now who's being immature? What a disgusting thing. If Bush had any class what so ever he would have tried to hush them or be respectful. Instead he'd smile and snicker, like a smart allec brat on the playground with a bully big brother. So I say it is time to kick sand in his face.

When you get in one of those arguments with a republican/conservative/"christian" and they start deriding you for having an opinion, just yell louder, something real immature, like "Are you a stroke victim?" They will say, "real mature." Then say, "I just wanted to speak to you at your own level." Or swear at them. They hate that, and they can't swear back because their god will punish them. And if they do it anyway, point this out. And then point out simple-minded basic differences between their alleged christianity, and what Christ really stood for. You might want to try researching things in the Bible. Don't feel bad about it, organized religion has been using the teachings of Jesus for centuries as a weapon.

If this fails say you weren't paying attention because you're were busy thinking about how you are planning on handing out abortions at the gay wedding you are going to this weekend.

All right, try to have a good day. And the reassuring words from an unlikely source, "take care of yourselves. And eachother," Jerry Springer.