Close Examination: Fakes, Mistakes, Discoveries at the National Gallery, London
By andrea kirsh | August 31, 2010 | 1 Comment
The most sensational aspect of the attribution of paintings as far as the general public is concerned is the subject of fakes, despite the fact that few art historians ever encounter them. What, exactly, is a fake? A painting that appears to be something other than what it is? Not always. Traditional academic training involved [...]
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Carolee Schneemann in New Paltz
By andrea kirsh | August 1, 2010 | 2 Comments
Carolee Schneemann is one of the most important artists of the past forty years, so why did I find myself on a bus headed to a rural university an hour and a half north of New York City to see the most complete American overview of her work since an exhibition at the New Museum [...]
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“Matisse; Radical Invention 1913-17″ at MoMA
By andrea kirsh | July 29, 2010 | 0 Comments
Matisse; Radical Invention 1913-17 at the Museum of Modern Art through Oct. 11 is not for those take the artist at his word that a painting should be like a good armchair: familiar and comfortable, presumably. Rather it’s for those who like a challenge and find that almost a century later some of his work [...]
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Book Reviews: ‘Vox Populi; We’re working on it’ and ‘Communities of Sense; Rethinking aesthetics and politics’
By andrea kirsh | July 25, 2010 | 0 Comments
Vox Populi; We’re working on it, Andrew Suggs, ed. (Vox Populi Gallery, Philadelphia) ISBN 978-0-615-31338-2 The art scene in Philadelphia is marked by an expanding community of artists, artists’ collectives and artist-run organizations, galleries, publications and events. Word gets out, but proper documentation is important for an accurate picture and for the future. In a [...]
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Traffic Jam: Pascale Marthine Tayou at Gare Saint Sauveur, Lille
By andrea kirsh | June 27, 2010 | 0 Comments
My travels this summer were plagued by museums undergoing restoration (the Stedelijk and Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam and the Museum of Modern Art at Villeneuve d’Ascq, just outside Lille, with its great but little-known modernist collection) but a surprise was the new art facility created by the city of Lille last year at the 1861 cargo rail [...]
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Contemporary Art, Who Cares? A conference in Amsterdam
By andrea kirsh | June 25, 2010 | 6 Comments
Those who care for modern art and particularly for art produced since World War II face challenges unknown from their experience with earlier artwork; not only materials known to be impermanent (newspaper, latex, chocolate) or of unknown permanence (plastics, color photographs, felt-tip pen inks) but also working parts, intentionally ephemeral work, and pieces involving hardware, [...]
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Late Monet at Gagosian Gallery and Painting Light; The Hidden Techniques of the Impressionists
By andrea kirsh | May 27, 2010 | 0 Comments
Unless you’ve visited the Musée Marmottan, Paris, or are old enough and fortunate to have seen the exhibition drawn from its collections many decades ago at the Met, get yourself to Gagosian Gallery by June 26 to see Claude Monet Late work. That is, go if you love painting. For you’ll see that rare thing [...]
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Roxana Pérez-Méndez: Your Fantasy is My Home
By andrea kirsh | May 26, 2010 | 1 Comment
The image of Latin America functioned for nineteenth-century North Americans much as that of the Middle East did for certain Europeans: as a screen on which to project their fantasies. In the case of the Western hemisphere, these were largely of a pre-lapsarian past. Roxana Pérez-Méndez has consistently explored the place of Puerto Rico within [...]
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Caution: Art in Here; Group Exhibition by PMA Art Handlers at Cerulean Arts
By andrea kirsh | May 21, 2010 | 1 Comment
It’s no surprise that good artists know other good artists; curators and gallerists always turn to artists for recommendations. Nor is it surprising that artists fill the ranks of museum art handlers. Art handlers are almost exclusively artists, as are many behind the scenes museum workers; all but curators, for some reason. What is a [...]
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Small World
By andrea kirsh | May 17, 2010 | 0 Comments
Discussion of globalization in the art world most often addresses the situation of artists, the art market, and large international exhibitions, many of them held periodically such as Documenta or biennial exhibitions in Sao Paolo, Istanbul, Sharjah and elsewhere. There has been less general discussion about what globalization means for other art institutions, so I [...]
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