On View at Kavi and Some Generalized Comments

Currently on view at Kavi Gupta Gallery

Susan Giles Panzoomtilt

Panzoomtilt • 2005 • 6 Monitor DVD installation • Edition of 5

(although on the website, images are of a 2004 installation at the MCA, confusing)

Several monitors display handy cam touristy images interspersed with occasionally charged images, soldiers for instance. The camera is always moving, sometimes subtle pans, sometimes not-so-subtle zooms. It makes sense, then to call it Panzoomtilt, since that is exactly going on. Actually, it would be much much more effective to have just had the tag on the wall, with the title and the medium of DVD installation becauuse that would have said exactly the same thing, except in a direct way. The title tells you exactly what is happening (panning zooming and tilting and the title is mildly clever, just like the imagery. The medium says “cool and techy” just like the suspended flat screens do in real life.

It looks like a mini version of the huge Doug Aiken installation at the MCA's Universal Experience. Except without the techno music. And Panzoomtilt is not captivating in anyway. except maybe for a Sharp ad (the maker of the TVs) Maybe it would be a brand name team-up like they do these days: With iMovie and Sharp you can make your home movies do this! (look contemporary art).

In the main gallery is a perfect example of the fantasy escapism everyone is talking about in these post-postmodern days.

Scott Anderson • Bapto • 2005 • oil on canvas over panel • 60 x 48 inches

Scott Anderson ReKrei

Anderson is no doubt a skilled painter. Playing the Neo Rauch card a little heavily, but technically, quite skilled. The images are directly quoting, not even quoting, cutting and pasting, real fantasy art. The images are the kind you would find in the last chapter of your fifth grade science textbook called “The Future.” Where all the boring test tubes and beakers have been brushed aside for colorful pictures by professional illustrators fantasize about what it might be like to take a Pan Am jumbo jet to Mars. For film references you have Silent Running and Saturn 3.

Unlike Giles, this stuff is fun to look at, and is captivating in some way. But it is the kind of captivation that leaves you feeling fooled. You ask yourself, “do I really I like this, or am I just conditioned to like it by current tastes?” Sadly, it is the latter. The paintings are interesting to look at, full of details, and implied stories of space life. Memories of video games and sci-fi movies you can’t quite place run through your head. Another factor of note is the appearance of macro/micro. Items like knobs and discarded parts of washing machines and other things appear, but as gigantic towers, space stations and power plants. Ultimately, though. There isn’t much there. This isn’t a comment on man and technology, it isn’t a complex narritive. It is just fantasy escapism. There is the urge to escape the crushing smarmy irony of postmodernism, but that is it. “Run!” our guts are telling us. But where? “Anywhere!” So for now it is outerspace, Middle Earth or a vague memory of childhood and heavy metal music.

Scott Anderson • Sendi• 2005 • oil on canvas over panel • 36 x 45 inches

Sure, it’s these space probes are hot now, but they will get ugly fast. In fact, one can’t even imagine a place for paintings like this now. What sophisticated urban condo would look good with this trapper keeper art up in it? Aside from appearing as an understated hilarious backdrop in a Wes Anderson film, Anders paintings don’t seem suited for a domestic situation. Actually most art is like this. Who is buying all the hot hot hot stuff? This kind of art is made for consumption, but not much beyond. In fact, in a commodity driven mindset, it seems rather foolish to produce work that looks good in galleries and art magazines but not elsewhere.

So Hot Artists beware: prepare for careers to be ruined when 5-10 years after your solo show sells out (like this one did, according to the price list) the works are unceremoniously dumped. It happens all the time, and unless you are very lucky, with some significant financial backing, you’re fucked.

It happened to Julian Schnabel, but he had a safety net of New York diamond dealers (source available). It happened to Enzo Cucci, and he didn’t. It happened to Laura Owens, and she had a network of proxy buyers on behalf of her gallery (source available) and it is happening to Damien Hirst, he has Jay Jopling. In short, when a successful mid or early career artist’s work suddenly inundates the market, prices drop, rarity plummets, and you are sunk. If you are big like Hirst or Schanbel, and have a golden parachute, your reputation is doomed. When it was popular to love them, everyone fell in step. Now it is popular to hate them, so everyone is again falling in step. Hirst's painting show is a prime example. It was unilaterally panned in just about every magazine and publication. This is guarenteed to happen with Matthew Barney. Read True Colors by Anthony Haden-Guest.

It is not standard practice, historically, for galleries to have contracts and clauses for buyers. But this is changing. As you’d expect in our market money driven bubble. And so, in preparation for the inevitable pop, galleries are introduction legally binding contracts for buyers. The Art Newspaper among other sources have reported on this. One such feature of gallery/buyer contracts is the buy back clause. This requires a buyer to inform the gallery a work was purchased from when they intend to sell and gives the gallery first shot at reacquiring it before the piece ends up at auction or elsewhere. At a panel discussion I participated in two years ago, a collector commented on the fact that it is not possible to acquire works from certain artists, even if you have the means to do so. Galleries simply won’t make work available to you if they don’t see your patronage as being advantageous either for themselves or their artist in question. Buyers are carefully allowed into the fold for networking and political purposes. It seems unlikely this is pervasive in a small market in Chicago, but it is bound to be going at some level.

These comments are not directly linked to either of the artists reviewed or to Kavi Gupta Gallery. Rather, reviewing these exhibitions led to a more broad discussion of the current market and climate of the artworld, both locally and in general.

Haute Tute Tote Couture

Please enjoy this little nugget found in the far reaching vastness of the internet.

It is from this site. And another AIC tote bag modififaction is here.

Talkn’ ‘Bout Art Criticism with Jim Elkins

(Not to be confused with Talkin’ ‘Bout Art.)

James Elkins has a Blog!

Art Criticism: Art Criticism Discussion with Jim Elkins has been started in preparation for STATES OF ART CRITICISM: VAP Symposium. I know, I know. I was hoping it would be about riding on the train and having to sit next to some smelly kid carrying a bag of art supplies from Utrecht, and other personal anecdotes.

There is a big program of art criticism events on the horizon at SAIC. You can see a full list here. Art or Idiocy? is most excited about Dave Hickey coming since we’ve actually heard of him before. That is actually a good thing because VAP frequently brings in all sorts of new names with fresh perspectives.

The symposium brings up such questions as “when you read a review of art, do you actually finish it?” “How come art historians hate art so much?” “Who put Artforum in charge?” and “Will there be a contest to see which critic can write the most thorough description?”

This should be a good group of events.


Also, MANthoughts on criticism's critical catastrophe

It’s not a Friday unless you are up til 4am

• Hurricane Katrina & Art More • Brian Ulrich's Incentive
• Times-Pic on NOMA • In depth info on Kenneth Snelson
• Rebecca Morris

contact electronically? • artoridiocy@yahoo.com

So first of all, "openings night," which makes it sound like a local production of Briggadoon, is not about the art. It is has something to do with art, but it isn’t about it. Art is the excuse to come out and be sophisticated, run into people you know, and maybe, if you’re lucky, catch a glimpse of a local curator. But mainly it is to drink, and then go out for better drinks afterward. It can be very nerve-racking, and full of social anxiety, especially for young artists. There is a lot of power and ego being thrown around from everyone involved. There is mad sexual tension, and fear of failure. Failure to get laid, failure to sell some art, failure to network and so on.

Going around town to the openings last week, I contemplated the idea of not having art at the opening for a show at all, and just putting it up on Saturday for regular gallery hours. Not even as a smarmy conceptual “gesture” just as being blatantly pragmatic. You don’t want the work damaged, people have trouble seeing it, it’s all a big mess. But I think most people wouldn’t stand for it. Maybe graduate students who are just learning about the idea of nothing being more brilliant than something, but that is about it. And besides, you want money, and you have to have something to sell. Even if it is an arrangement of broken 2x4s and cinderblocks.

It sounds like I made that last bit up. But I didn’t, it’s a piece by Rashid Johnson in his solo show, Stay Black & Die. Which is a bad season opener for mmg because there was nothing there to really buy.

Installation view of Rashid John Stay Black and Die at Monique Meloche

Dematerialized art is on the way out... for now. People want stuff to hold on to. Not as easy to hold on to as drawings, whose popularity is also waning, but something more substantive than a 30 second DVD you have to manually replay every time you want to see it. Davis/Langlois who had the season opener at mmg last year were much more pleasing. They were bullshit stoners, but it was about that, and the work was great. It looked great, it had skill, you didn’t have to think about it too much, unless you wanted to. Then it was kind of iffy. But today I still find myself thinking about that show with fondness, so there must be something going on there, right? I Against I was an odd arrangement of photobased paintings that were threaded together by loose ideas of Rastafarianism, the cosmos, religion and other dreamy things. In effect, it was a conceptual, no linear narrative installation. But it was all in your head, man. And it is something I have grown to like.

Carolyn Swiszcz Hi Fi Video at Wendy Cooper

Wendy Cooper Gallery was very blah and standard, which it seems to fall into more often than not. Wendy Cooper does have its moments, however this show was not one of them. The headliner, Carolyn Swiszcz, did nothing for me other than getting excited about noticing the Hi-Fi Video store I occasionally drive past. Across the street Bill Woolf at Aron Packer was doing so much more with flattened out geometric cityscapes. His work was rich and beautiful. Precise. There were windows with all sorts of tiny art references and vignettes. There was complex Dubuffet or Max Ernst decalcomania going on. Gigantomachy figures in the rustic pines encircled by the interconnecting LSD.

Bill Woolf at Aron Packer

In Cooper’s project space was Wendy White, much better. Wait no, it was more of that brightly colored trash assemblage everyone is doing today.

That was the main problem. Everything was very contemporary, no one was taking risks. It was all “of the moment,” it was all saying, “photograph me, I’d look great in Artforum!” This is a little odd, if you think of Rashid Johnson’s photo of himself, johnson and all, is “more of same” but it is. Also odd is how well Paul Klein scathingly put Johnson’s work:

“Some pieces are great enough to be mightily impressive and some seemingly so shallow I wince. Sometimes I see Rashid as the pithy, perceptive commentator (a la Chris Rock) on what it means to grow up black. Sometimes I see him as an opportunist calculating what he can get away with without having to put in real substance. (It is unfortunate that in our society any artist of color must make a decision about playing the race card. Race is an issue in America and even if an African-American artist avoids the issue - by so-doing, he or she is still addressing it.) So, where would Rashid’s work be without race? Why do white people buy a jersey inscribed “White people like me?” If white people are going to fall all over themselves to show how tolerant and accepting they are, we have to expect black artists to play into that. Rashid Johnson is talented. He certainly is affable. Unfortunately I see him playing in the shallow end of the pool of issues about race in America, jumping up and down, yelling “look at me – look at me. Throw money at me and you’ll feel better about yourself.” Well, it’s working, and that’s too bad. It’s time we grow up. I’m eager to see what Rashid will do when he tires of this successful game of white people liking him.” (sorry to quote at such length)

Siebren Versteeg When Right is Left from Determinationat Rhona Hoffman

Siebren Versteeg at Rhona Hoffman was very disappointing. This is because I have really grown to like his work. The cement cube with tiny graffiti around the bottom of it (Vietnam Memorial) from the summer group show does much more than this whole solo show of new work. This show seems catchy and gimmicky. The tiny photo of himself reversed (When Right is Left) is nice because it is tiny and on a wall by itself. At first it seems like a pathetic snapshot, but then it confuses you. It is odd and well put together, and a nice play on a standard Photoshop idea, but not much else. Oh, it could also be a political refernece. There was also a limp attempt at “the red states” vs “the blue states,” but that was almost a year ago. Isn’t the point of tech art that it is immediate? Like the news ticker in Coca-Cola font piece he made. Opening night is urban excess in the wake of Katrina, why not comment on that? What do I get from this show? This guy loOoOOOves his Mac.

Mike Peter Smith ...and other stories at Bodybuilder & Sportsman

Mike Peter Smith’s work at Bodybuilder & Sportsman is good, but there is too much of it. It became tons of models and toys, like a display of someone really good at making dioramas, but not curating. About half as much as what is up, should be up. Then you could focus more on each individual object instead of feeling crowded in. Each individual object, by the way, is skillfully rendered perfection. Humans like in tiny space homes carved out of asteroids, with every detail of such a life lovingly accounted for. In another sculpture we see from one side all the seams, glue and Styrofoam, from the other, the ravine and the pickup truck that’s careened down it.

Geoffry Smalley installation of Future Flat World at Gescheidle

Geoffery Smally at Gescheidle was also quite good. Especialy considering how his work has evolved tremendously, and in this body has gained substance and content. Before his work seemed mainly about hiways and cutout shapes. From that comes the installation at Gescheidle; huge cutouts of amalgamated icons for tanks, aircraft, etc. painted in hi gloss autobody paints. And the colors aren’t bad either, dark, muted maroons, navy blue and so on. Like giant game pieces from Risk, scattered over the floor, with a controlling figure presiding over it all. Smally achieves something very difficult with political work, it is directly about war, power and nepotism, but it is pulled off in a which smartly ties in history. The large mural of a suited figure with combat boots in the seat of power brings in history painting, portraits of monarchs and rulers and the adage about the victor writing history. The mural also brings up last fall’s opening show about Halie Selassie (Davis/Langois) at mmg talked about earlier. In an almost identical scene, the deified royal sits regally in power.

In a completely different mode, are the tiny little pencil drawings of Bush et al. These beautiful, timely and well executed drawings artfully capture the arrogance, pigheadedness and tomfoolery of the government.

At Bucket Rider was a load of Surrealist rubbish, but in the project room was a single large photo by Jason Lazarus ...And Then Finally, I Remembered. It was a blandish landscape of a cemetery. Some plywood boards added a nice beige to the pale green of the grass and the pale blue of the sky. These colors made the sunny day seem real, and to take you right there. Later I learned it was Emmett Till’s grave. That added a whole new twist to things. It was not heavy handed at all because I didn’t even realize it until later. There was also the tie in with Jeff Wall’s flooded grave piece. The two are so similar. So here we have Lazarus’ (apropos) “fake” Jeff Wall being a real grave. That is how art gets made. I can enjoy this piece on so many levels!

Down in Pilsen at Polvo the vibe was completely different. The show was well attended, but didn’t feel as though it were overrun by too many hipsters or yuppies. There wasn’t the feel of trying to act cool or important or impressive. And it was actually about the art. You could view it and there were interesting discussions happening. Unfortunately, it is the hipsters which make a scene and yuppies which pay the bills. It is a great thing that Chicago has at least three major neighborhoods of art. And a fourth with Westown.

- - E. Wenzel

Katrina Art Updates:

These are the art-related updates from the American Association of Museums site. The full list is here.

New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA (as of 9-10). Steven Maklansky, assistant director, reported that the museum effectively weathered the storm, being built on high ground. The building received only minor damage and the flood waters never reached its walls. Some of NOMA’s staff rode out the hurricane in the museum. Days later when FEMA officials asked them to vacate the premises they refused. In their relief the museum has secured the services of a private security force to protect the site. A larger, additional emergency generator and a steady supply of fuel have been procured to power up the building to stabilize the conditions therein. The art inside the museum is safe. The art outside the museum is also in good shape; the initial survey revealed that only one sculpture (by Kenneth Snelson) sustained significant damage. The museum will reopen its doors as soon as it is feasible.
[NOMA website also still down -ed]

Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA (as of 8-30). Melissa Weber, director of marketing & public relations, reported that the CAC apparently only suffered minor to moderate structural damage, mainly blown out windows on the first and fourth floors. However, conditions may have worsened after the levee broke. The CAC is closed until further notice.

Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL (as of 8-31). Gail Treschel, director, reported downed trees but nothing serious.

Lauren Rogers Museum of Art, Laurel, MS (as of 9-5). Dawn Glinsmann reported that the staff are all okay. The building suffered minor damage but nothing catastrophic.

Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS (as of 8-31). The Clarion-Ledger reported that the covering over a skylight that was to be repaired blew off. Director Betsy Bradley said that as a result leaks are recurring and ceiling tiles are down in the atrium area. The art was removed prior to the storm and was not damaged. Bradley said the museum will re-open very soon.

Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL (as of 9-7). Tommy Arthur McPherson, executive director, reported that the museum sustained no major damage. Some outdoor sculptures were blown over and trees are down. The museum reopened offices on 9-6.

Newcomb Art Gallery of Tulane University, New Orleans, LA (as of 9-12). Erik Neil, director, reported that sources indicate the main structure is sound. There are roof leaks and offices may have had some flooding. The primary concern right now is the removal of the most vulnerable works on paper and textiles. The off-site storage facility is located in an area of extensive flooding, and all indications now are that works of art housed there were damaged by water.

Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA (as of 9-12). David Houston, curator, reported on 9-6 that all staff are fine. The museum came through the storm just fine. The Biloxi Sun Herald reported on 9-12 that Houston said the art was secured during the storm in the upstairs vault and guards placed at the door until the National Guard arrived after the storm. He said there was no water in the building.

Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art, Biloxi, MS (as of 9-8). The Wall Street Journal reported on 9-2: "Photographs of the Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art in Biloxi, Miss., showed that a dislodged casino barge crushed part of an addition designed by Frank Gehry that had been a year from completion." The Clarion-Ledger reported on 9-5 that the Grand Casino barge landed on the property, killing some of the oaks that were incorporated in the design. The New York Times reported on 9-8 that the Pleasant Reed House, which housed a museum of African-American history, was destroyed except for a chimney. It was on the site of the Ohr-O'Keefe Museum. Marjorie Gowdy, executive director, reported on 9-8 that the Ohr pots survived the storm and have been moved to the Mobile Museum of Art. All other work, including an extensive contemporary ceramics collection, is also safe, sound, and secure. The museum's current small studio was destroyed. The Center for Ceramics structure at new museum appears okay and is being assessed. She confirmed that the new Ohr gallery and the new African American gallery were crushed by a barge.

FRIDAY!

There are billions. Billions. Literally, of art openings tomorrow, or tonight if you are reading this Friday. So how are you to know which ones to go to? You aren’t going to listen to all those other paper publications, are you? No, of course not! You’re going to listen to Art or Idiocy? because we are NEVER biased by anything, except pure art theory.



So, in alphabetical by venue order, here are some exhibitionsArt or Idiocy? would like to draw your attention to:

40000 • 1001 N Winchester
Holes and Planes, Built and Spilt Nevin Tomlinson • Oskar Fischinger (Project Room)
Opening Friday 9 (7-10p) continues through October 8

Gescheidle • 118 n peoria, 4th floor
Burtonwood & Holmes • Geoffry Smalley
Opening Friday (6-9p) continues through October 22

Polvo • 1458 W 18th st 1R
Behind the Image Between the Lines curated by Kimberly Aubuchon & John Mata
Chuck Ramirez • Jesse Amado • Dominick Talvacchio • Jeremy Hiah
mini exhibit:"To the Positive Youth" by Terence Hannum
Opening Friday (6-10p) continues through October 1



ALSO
Butcher Shop/Dogmatic • 1319 W Lake st 3rd Floor
Philip von Zweck & Alex V. Cook
Due to nature of this work there will be a closing reception October 8
This program will run September10 until October 8 (Saturdays 12 - 6) contact: dogmaticchicago@comcast.net


Columbia College's A+D Gallery • New Location, 619 S. Wabash
The Cartoonist's Eye curated by Ivan Brunetti
Through October 22
For a medium that repeatedly denounces the art world, elitism, and academism, comics sure are getting lots of play in that world and benifiting from it. Expect every single godam usual supect from non-superhero comicdom. It should a good show, though. It is always interesting to look at work like this in its naked form. The "originals" of each page is like a behind-the-scenes look, for better or worse. But seriously, comic people, stop bitching so much about everything. You are having your cake and eating it too!

Related:
One the way to work a funny man was spoted sitting at a street cafe...sporting a fidora, a three piece suit and round glasses. What an oddball! Oh, wait, it is the world famous Candian comic artist Seth! Creator of Palookaville and other favorites. He carefully smoke his cigarette and had a well worn leather attache' case. Just like in the comics! Art or Idiocy? is star-struck!

Blogging Can be an Art

• Hurricane Katrina & Art • Brian Ulrich's Incentive
• Times-Pic on NOMA • In depth info on Kenneth Snelson
• Rebecca Morris

contact electronically? • artoridiocy@yahoo.com

Erik Wenzel (director, head bloggist and obsessive internal monologist for Art or Idiocy?) has written a comparative review of the Keith Sonnier and Dan Flavin exhibitions. It is the inaugural installment of his new column, The Harsh Crit, at fnewsmagazine.com. The School of the Art Institute Alumnus began the Art or Idiocy? franchise as a monthly column in Fnews’ printed incarnation in February of 2002. This September marks the one year anniversary of Art or Idiocy? as a blog.

“At first we tried to sidestep the blog label, calling it a ‘blog site,’ or ‘my website, which is a blog...about art...it’s not like a typical blog that’s really boring and just about my personal life and how trifling Wicker Park is,’” chuckled Wenzel. As we discussed his accomplishments and plans for the future at his spacious and elegant Bucktown headquarters. No, “urban and sophisticated Bucktown villa.”

Taking a break from his hectic schedule, I sat down with Wenzel in his aptly named “Erik Wenzel Workshop” to hear his thoughts on Art or Idiocy? The grand experiment in art writing is coming up on its first birthday.

Taking a drag from a clove cigarette and sipping a chocolate martini (prepared by studio assistant Woody, one of the cat’s integral tasks) Erik leaned back in his Frank Gehry-designed cardboard box. “I really take this whole thing very seriously. It is a lot of fun, and it is also, at times, a joke. Right now for instance, this, what you are reading is a joke. It is supposed to be funny and fun. But it is also very serious. This blog is indeed one year old, and hopefully will continue on for many more years. And I also have begun writing a column for Fnews magazine that I want to promote.”

Keith Sonnier • Depose I • 1996
• Mixed media with argon and electric light • h: 55.9 x w: 29.9 x d: 17.7 in
Galerie Proarta
Read Wenzel's piece at Fnewsmagazine

"Aren’t you going crazy, though? At least a little bit? Referring to yourself in the third person? Writing about yourself as though you were a character?" I asked.

“Well, yes, and no. I always have a firm grasp on reality, and the reality I want to create. Writing about art, art that can be mainly a facade. You have to appear one way or another to be taken seriously. It is also fun to play games with this notion. It is also sad because it is much more fulfilling to be an audience for the illusion, than to know the inner workings. It is like this with anything. TV, movies, music. Even religion. Science. The world seems so mystical, but once you start learning it’s inner workings it becomes less fantastic. So playing with identity, playing art critic, pretending to be a huge art publication, is a way to be on both sides of the art world illusion.”

“It is also very hard, because I don’t want to be just some one-guy writing about art. I don’t want Art or Idiocy? to just be another blog of one blowhard’s opinions. That is why I do the TOP TEN. I want some fresh perspective. I want more of that. That’s something to work on for the future year. More involvement of others. Blogs are so individualized and websites are so impersonal. I want a middle ground. One person, some guest contributors and maybe an ad for Bruno Bischofberger or Larry Gagosian on the back cover.”

So Art or Idiocy? is a lot of things. It is a blog full of writing on art, reviews, news, essays, discussions and occassional guest contributions. It is an art project. It is a farce, a satire, not a joke, but filled with jokes. And it is a zine, a magazine, and an online publication bent on artworld domination.

Wenzel currently struggles with navigating the divide between making art and writing about art, where to draw the line on referring to oneself in the third person, and who to next invite for the TOP TEN.

-Submitted by staff reporter E. Wenzel

Hurricane Katrina & Art

First Art or Idiocy? would like to encourage you to give in any way you can to relief efforts. Over at NOTIFBUTWHEN #2, artist Brian Ulrich is making the prospect to good to refuse with the offer of an original artwork given to you, for giving to those in need.

• Times-Pic on NOMA • In depth info on Kenneth Snelson
• Rebecca Morris

contact electronically? • artoridiocy@yahoo.com

• • • • •

ALSO (and this is just disgusting) How about this comment left by a spam program?

Anonymous said...
Report from Steve Domas
I just couldn't take it and went down to N.O. today. And I'm very heartened. Uptown, Warehouse District, and CBD are dry..... There's lots of fallen limbs and power lines.
##phonesex## (the phonesex link directs you to "filthmegastore.com")

There's also an email going around from a fictitious woman claiming to be working with the real charities of Nourish the Children and Feed the Children. But the website her email address is hosted by doesn't exist. The message urging you to give to the starving children left in Katrina's wake conveniently asks for all your credit card information. Horrible.

So now you can still leave comments on Art or Idiocy? without being a blogger member, but you will have to verify your human nature with typing in one of those text confirmations.

• • • • •

Now let us focus on the arts in regards to the disaster. Miraculously art has survived all sorts of tragedy through the ages, from disasters of war to disasters of nature. I am always amazed at how very little was damaged or lost in wars like WWII, or how objects of antiquity have survived the ages. The recent looting at the Iraq Museum, Baghdad speaks then of America’s abysmal management of the invasion. For Christ’s sake, think of all the treasures of Europe which survived centuries of wars and compare with that with the one invasion of Iraq. These are the things members of the art community think of in times of tragedy.

So when the horrible news of Katrina came in, my thoughts were first of the safety of those caught in it. Of my family and friends and their homes. Then the less crucial, but still important, things. What is to become of the family tomb which dates back through centuries of ancestral history in the Crescent City? And what of the city’s art museum, an institution I have fond memories of visiting? Others in the family wondered the fate of places like the church where my great grandfather preached the last sermon in German (incidentally, this was in the Industrial Canal District, the location one of the levees failed). Everyone has personal questions about the disaster that go beyond what is being covered on the news.

For the art community, this is the art institutions. And there has been little or no mention. Finally, an email came out from the Director’s Office at the Art Institute of Chicago, forwarding the Times-Picayune entry to staff. This was the first, and only, piece of news, which has come out. (it is posted in it’s entirety below) shortly thereafter blogger Tyler Green picked up the story along with others on his site (you can see the post here). But no word at any major art publications. It wasn’t until the 2nd of September that Artnet News mentioned something based on the Times-Pic. Artforum, which always aggregates breaking art-related stories has nothing on the hurricane.

In any case, the NOMA website is down, most likely it’s server is local and has been knocked out. Using the yellow pages, Art or Idiocy? attempted to call the museum’s information numbers, on the off chance some sort of message had been left as to the state of affairs. Unfortunately, the phone lines aren’t working, as expected.

Unlike NOMA, The Contemporary Arts Center’s website is up and running. There is has been no information about what sort of state it is in, nor the gallery district it is located near. The CAC’s info telephone line produces the same sort of error message everyone dialing into the city is getting. The artnet piece offers some speculation.

Times-Pic on the state of the NOMA

view of NOMA prior to Katrina

Floodwater stops short of City Park museum
By Dante Ramos and Doug MacCash
Staff Writers
The New Orleans Museum of Art survived Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath without significant damage.

But when Federal Emergency Management Agency representatives arrived in the area Wednesday, NOMA employees holed up inside the museum were left in a quandary:

FEMA wanted those evacuees to move to a safer location, but there was no way to secure the artwork inside. Six security and maintenance employees remained on duty during the hurricane and were joined by 30 evacuees, including the families of some employees.

Harold Lyons, a security console operator who stayed on at the museum, said FEMA representatives were the first outsiders to show up at the museum in days.

They immediately tried to persuade staffers to leave the building. That would have left no one to protect the museum's contents, and no one inside the museum had the authority to give that order, Lyons said as he inspected the grounds.

Museum Director John Bullard was on vacation and assistant Director Jacquie Sullivan had taken a disabled brother to Gonzales.

“We can't just leave and turn out the lights on the say-so of someone we don’t know,” Lyons said.

The phones inside the museum had failed. Lyons asked a reporter to pass a message to Sullivan as soon as possible.

Interviewed by telephone, Sullivan said she had been in close contact with emergency management officials all day Wednesday. State Police had promised to take her back to the museum at 7 a.m. Thursday, she said.

City Park was littered with fallen trees, but evacuees’ cars, clustered around the museum’s walls, were mostly unscathed. The museum itself was spared any wind damage, and floodwater had not reached the building.

Inside, the museum’s generators whirred away, providing air conditioning to preserve the priceless artworks.

Sullivan said museum workers had taken down some pieces in the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden before the storm.

But a towering modernist sculpture by Kenneth Snelson was reduced to a twisted mess in the lagoon.

The American Association of Museums has info on historical sites, museums, zoos, planetariums, oceanariums and more here.

General information on NOMA sculpture garden from viatraveldesign.com

New Orleans Museum of Art Sydney and Walda Bestoff Sculpture Garden

50 sculptures by such artists as Henry Moore, Fernando Botero, Antoine Bourdelle, Gaston Lachaise, William Zorach, Jacques Lipchitz, Barbara Hepworth, Seymour Lipton, Arnaldo Pomodoro, Kenneth Snelson, George Rickey, Elisabeth Frink, Masayuki Nagare, Lynn Chadwick, Louis Bourgeois, Jesus Bautista Moroles, George Segal, Deborah Butterfield, Alison Saar and Joel Shapiro.

One website visited indicated their may actually have been two Snelson sculptures in the garden at one time. it is not clear if the two were on view at the time of the storm.

Kenneth Snelson

Along with mentioning nothing, or until late yesterday in the case of Artnet, no one has said much of the piece of art destroyed. Art or Idiocy? with its brilliant powers of internet deduction to the rescue!

This is an image of the Snelson sculpture in question:

Kenneth Snelson • Virlane Tower • 1981

The “discontinuous tension” nature of Snelson’s work may explain why it collapsed. Being a tall tower held together by such physics courts disaster when gail force winds roll in.

The work of Kenneth Snelson is really quite fascinating. On Grunch.net we learn about Kenneth Snelson’s work and relationship to R. Buckminster Fuller. Snelson’s work is primarily based on the principles of tensegrity. “His large scale constructs show how compression members can provide rigidity while remaining separate, not touching one another, held in stasis only by means of tensed wires.”

Snelson met Fuller at the Black Mountain College in 1948. Inspired by Fuller, he made his own experiments and discoveries of “discontinuous compression.” Returning to Black Mountain College he excitedly showed Fuller, only to pretty much have his innovations stolen. This appears the general case of those who shared ideas with R. Buckminster Fuller.

In addition to studying at Black Mountain, Snelson studied at the Chicago Institute of Design, and with Fernand Leger in Paris.

Kenneth Snelson's artist's statement is “My art is concerned with nature in its primary aspect, the patterns of physical forces in three dimensional space.” This calls to mind the late Al Held.

Another view of the illfated Snelson. Both images found on forums at Sculpture.net

Unlike contemporary artists who uselessly aestheticize science, such Matthew Ritchie, Keith Tyson, Mark Dion or Damien Hirst, Snelson has made contributions to both the arts AND the sciences. In addition to the engineering he uses in creating his sculptures, he has built up quite an impressive resume of contributions, such as his work with the atom:

"A Design for the Atom," Industrial Design, Feb., 1963
Model for Atomic Forms, October, 1966, U.S. Patent #3,276,148
Model for Atomic Forms, July, 1978, U.S. Pat.#4,099,339
"Toward a Computer Generated Atom", pp 835-844, Conference Proceedings, National Computer Graphics Conference, '91

As an artist, he has shown with Marlborough and Laurence Miller in NYC, and Yoh Art Gallery in Osaka Japan. Some of the Public collections his work is in are:

Albright-Knox Art Gallery
The Art Institute of Chicago
Australian National Gallery
Cleveland Museum of Art
Dallas Museum of Fine Arts
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Walker Art Center
The Met, MoMA, The Whitney
As well as in Australia, Germany and Japan

The artist’s website is a wealth of information on his artistic and scientific endeavors.

The Phrase "Philistine" Comes To Mind

ARTnews, that upstanding paragon of virtue has unveiled it's September issue. The issue features such stunning and hard hitting pieces as "SPECIAL SECTION: HOW TO LOOK AT ART" and "Installation Art Explained." For over a century this publication has held steadfast...as what? Well, whatever, it's a hilarious tabloid now!