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05.16.08
links for 2008-05-16
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More destroyed artwork stories include: “a £100,000 drawing, by Lucian Freud, still in its packing case, was accidentally put through a crusher at Sotheby’s in 2,000.”
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An interesting exhibition at a NY Gallery: “‘Who’s Afraid of Jasper Johns?,’ a group show at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery in Chelsea, is the latest proof that you don’t have to be a museum to shake things up.”
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“The San Francisco MoMA has appointed Gary Garrels senior curator of painting and sculpture. As of Sept. 1 he will replace Madeleine Grynsztejn, who left SFMOMA earlier this year to become director of the MCA in Chicago.”
Lawrence Weiner: a Video Portrait
Many galleries and museums use their blogs strictly as marketing tools to push their shows and events. As you can probably tell, we don’t. I like to use the blog to expose the Colorado Springs community and whoever else may come along to more of the contemporary art world than we can fit into the Gallery’s tight exhibition schedule and limited physical space.
hillmancurtis, inc. is a design firm that has been creating quiet, well shot video portraits of artists and designers in their Artist Series. This series has typically covered designer/artists such as Stefan Sagmeister, David Carson and Mark Romanek. Below is their feature on Lawrence Weiner, the conceptual text artist. I particularly like Weiner’s dogmatic comments on Helvetica vs. Franklin Gothic Condensed - it really helps to contextualize his art.
05.13.08
links for 2008-05-13
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“Robert Rauschenberg, the irrepressibly prolific American artist who time and again reshaped art in the 20th century, died Monday night. He was 82.” We’ll miss you, Bob.
05.08.08
links for 2008-05-08
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“The artist Brian O’Doherty will mark the restoration of peace in Northern Ireland by laying to rest his alter ego at a ceremony at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (Imma) in Dublin on 20 May.”
05.01.08
links for 2008-05-01
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“I had to make the decision to kill it. And you know what? I felt I could not make that decision. I’ve always been pro-choice and all of a sudden I’m here not sleeping at night about killing a coat…That thing was never alive before it was grown.”
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Taste being what it is, and young people being what they are, freshmen usually arrive with either no taste or very bad taste […] but in either case, they’re very comfortable with their tastes. They don’t expect or want to change them.”
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“A Rhizome panel of J. Meejin Yoon, and Christian Nold but also Eric Rodenbeck, founder and creative director of Stamen Design. […] I’m sure you’ll be delighted to listen to the Frank Sinatra of data visualization.”
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“But it’s also a bet that fertilizing the creative class is good economic-development policy […] Which is why a local developer and collector, Craig Robins, is starting a free postgraduate art program in Miami.”
04.30.08
Why Art Happens Outside of the Classroom
“Out of a thousand art students, maybe five well make a living off their art, and perhaps one will be known outside her city. That’s not a condemnation. It’s the nature of fame, real quality, and genuine influence to be rare. [… ]
“[I]t is still true that most artists do not make interesting art. And it follows that most art students do not make the kind of art that they study and admire. Some people would say they make art that imitates “better” art, so that art schools at any given time art filled with people making art that is roughly emulating more successful art being made elsewhere. [… ]
“Average people — average art students — are not innovative, challenging, aggressive, adventurous, or strong. Most art students do not spend their lives in intense dialogue with their work, and few are reliably challenging or provocative. Whether or not you care about the criteria that museums like the National Gallery promote, the fact is that most work produced in most studio art classes is bound to be utterly normal and low-energy. Few of us master the cutting edge or come to terms with the most radical work in our field.”
Why Art Cannot Be Taught
by James Elkins
The above quote indicates that average students create average work that will never be celebrated outside of the safe circle of friends and family. It is a sad truth, but one of which we are all aware. It would be fantastic if each graduating class was teeming with “genius” and “unfathomable energy,” but it is not so.
Aside from hobbyists who are just taking a class to learn a bit more about art (which is entirely valid), I partially blame lukewarm art on the emphasis on “classroom learning.” Honestly, how much learning and energy can take place in a classroom? Classrooms are all about average. The walls are institutional beige so as not to disturb (how can you learn about art in beige?); the floors are bland vinyl tile designed not to inspire, but to hide stains; or a hearty but unimaginative berber carpet to stand wear and tear; the chairs were purchased more for economy than function or comfort; lighting is fluorescent (with one light spasmodically blinking to induce epileptic fits); windows are scarce; and PowerPoint is for squares. If graded, most university classrooms would get a C at best. The best classes I had were off campus - in artists’ studios, restaurants, museums or galleries or just outside in the fresh air. Lackluster surroundings breed lackluster thinking and thus lackluster work.
A few months ago, I was reading an exchange between John Baldessari and Michael Craig-Martin where they spoke of the glory days of their academic institutions (UCLA and Goldsmiths, respectively):
Craig-Martin: “We didn’t have classes, and students weren’t attached to anybody in particular. Everyone who taught there was available for every student.”
Baldessari: “Yeah, comparable to that, we had one guy teaching the equivalent of critical studies, and class was in session whenever you met him on campus, which I thought was really good.”
Michael Craig-Martin went on to make the following comment:
“Yes, it’s very important to have people whose central world is not the world of education. The great thing about having artists teaching in an art school is that they bring their experience of what it is to be an artist in the world into the school. And so this thing you can’t teach, you’re teaching by example. You’re teaching by your presence. You’re teaching because you’re sitting at lunch with kids and they’re learning as much at lunch, if not more, than they are when you’re talking to them in the studio.”
Most art programs suffer from an administrative plague contracted from liberal arts universities. In an effort to level academic fields, all programs were treated the same from chemistry to engineering to business to art. A certain amount of credit hours are required in certain types of classes in order for a department to receive accreditation from a “higher” power. Quantification is forced over a field that is almost impossible to quantify. Assignments run roughshod over ideas, students worry about silly things like grades rather than learning, and faculty are managers rather than mentors.
There can be a place for assignments. Practices and exercises teach skill - canonized skill, but skill nonetheless. What is often not taught is that those skills are at the service of concept. Skill without concept gives us light studies, color charts, still life paintings and photos, maquettes, and figure studies. Students will spend four years in an undergraduate institution to walk away with a backpack full of skills (exemplified in a tepid portfolio of assignments) and no idea how to use them.
Students need to get out and make things that aren’t assignments or expected. Most importantly, this needs to happen outside of school, away from the watchful eye of the accredited program. Of course, this brings us back to the need for “innovative, challenging, aggressive, adventurous, or strong” students and equally challenging mentors who will chase their students into unfamiliar areas in an effort to help them find their voice in a new era. Art will occur best out in the world and not under the flickering fluorescents of the institution.
04.22.08
links for 2008-04-22
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“U.S. District Judge Richard Arcara ruled that the 2004 mail and wire fraud indictment against Steven Kurtz, a University at Buffalo professor, was ‘insufficient on its face.’ Kurtz is a founding member of the Critical Art Ensemble […]”
04.18.08
links for 2008-04-18
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“Eric Paddock, the Colorado Historical Society’s longtime curator of photography and film, is switching jobs and moving across the street.”
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“Until Duchamp, criticism was aesthetically based. The critic talked about a painting’s subject, the way the artist handled color, drawing, composition and the like. With Readymades, the object’s appearance and beauty were no longer the issue — indeed, t
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“Producer Craig Richardson speaks with Daniel Johnston about his life, music, and art. This segment also features a three-song performance by the legendary singer-songwriter.” This is why Colorado NEEDS Springs Culture Cast.
04.16.08
Money and the Museum
Cha-Ching!
Within the arts it has typically been gauche to talk about money and price tags, at least for those who aren’t purchasing. As the popularity of art fairs increases and the art market has ballooned, money is a much freer topic of conversation. For example, a recent release from the Pulse Art Fair in New York touted the $50-60K (USD) prices fetched for certain photographs.
Outside of the commercial realm, the most transparent non-profits generally get is the cost of admission. We never know how much an exhibition costs or how much an artist asks as a lecture fee. So, many people balk at a hefty admission price — it can cost as much as an amusement park ticket to attend an exhibition in New York (which is probably why more and more exhibitions focus on spectacle). The folks over at Good Magazine have published a “transparency” to allow you to see how much of your admission fee actually covers exhibition and operating costs. The results are a little staggering.
Note: “How much do I cost the Gallery of Contemporary Art?” you may wonder. On average, using a very rough estimation, each visitor to the Gallery costs us about $10/exhibition.
04.14.08
links for 2008-04-14
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“It is easy to wonder if a biennial really is the best thing for Denver. That said, if the city is going to move ahead with its plans to host one, it must assure that the presentation is as daring and sophisticated as possible.”
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You may remember Kehinde Wiley’s work from our “Manifest” exhibition last year. New Art TV takes us into his studio and talks with the artist.
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The Pulitzer Foundation in St. Louis just launched a great new site for its Dan Flavin exhibition including a previously unreleased audio interview with the artist.
Upcoming Exhibits
Matt Barton and Corey Drieth
June 27 - August 7, 2008
Opening Reception: Friday, June 27, 2008
Public Reception: 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Supporter Reception with Artists' Talk: 5:30-7:00 p.m.
Opening Reception: Friday, June 27, 2008
Public Reception: 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Supporter Reception with Artists' Talk: 5:30-7:00 p.m.
In the fall of 2007, the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs’ Visual and Performing Arts Department hired two new faculty: Matt Barton and Corey Drieth. Each were selected because of their exciting artistic practices, rapport with students, and exhibition records. The Gallery of Contemporary Art is please to announce an exhibition designed to welcome these two talents to the Colorado Springs community.
Links
UCCS Arts
- Heller Center for the Arts and Humanities
- Theatreworks
- Department of Visual and Performing Arts (VaPA)
Colorado Non-Profit Art Spaces
Colorado Springs
Denver/Boulder
Elsewhere
Local Art Sites
- AtomicElroy's Trinity Project
- Colorado Springs Arts Blog by Mark Arnest
- Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center Blog
- DIY University
- Peak Radar
Local Media
- Colorado Springs Independent
- The Gazette
- KRCC
- NEWSPEAK
- Springs Culture Cast
- Springs Magazine
t: 719.262.3567 /