During the period of COVID-19, I devoted myself to trying to get the word out about the fantastic, technically innovative work of an entirely unknown, 88-year-old artist I first encountered in October of 2019. At that time, I was asked by the Jewish Federation and Family Services of Orange County to help organize a one-night-only exhibition of work by Holocaust survivors in our area. I met a number of wonderful individuals with fascinating stories, some of whom made terrific art. However, when I entered Mila Gokhman’s tiny, one bedroom apartment, it literally rocked my world. The apartment held a treasure trove of museum-quality art and design dating back almost fifty years. Golden Rain (or Manna from Heaven to the Suffering Earth), 1973. … [Read more...]
Sublime Poetry: Vija Celmins at SFMOMA
The exhibition Vija Celmins: To Fix the Image in Memory at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is a privilege to behold. It is not only the images, but the retrospective itself that becomes fixed in memory as a lived experience. Celmin's work offers an encounter with nature, the universe, and ultimately the self. It casts the viewer in the role of the figure in Caspar David Friedrich's Monk by the Sea, who is enraptured by the sublime vastness of the cosmos. As my one-time professor, the late, great Robert Rosenblum suggested, Friedrich's painting and evocations of the Sublime were translated into abstract terms by Mark Rothko in large-scale paintings that envelop the viewer in a colored, luminous "nothingness." Celmins returns us … [Read more...]
Ai Weiwei in L.A.
Having had dinner last night with some friends and seeking, but not finding, a single article to send them this morning that succinctly summed up the artist, his career and international stature, his current L.A. exhibitions, and why I am gaga about both the man and his art, I am writing what follows. Ai Weiwei is the son of a famed Chinese poet who was exiled to China's northern provinces during the Cultural Revolution, where he was humiliated and subjected to forced labor. At age 19, after Mao's death, Ai and his family returned to Beijing, where he attended the Beijing Film Academy. He then spent over a decade in the United States, where he studied a bit, took photographs, absorbed the current American art scene, and experienced … [Read more...]
dOGUMENTA LA
If Clover, my 14-year-old Beagle had not eaten a bag of Milano cookies the night before, she and my white Golden Retriever, Breeze, would have come to a curator-led tour of dOGUMENTA, America's first art show for canines, held in Downtown L.A. As it was, Wesley, my Granddog, joined me and a small group from ArtTable in a walk-through led by Mica Scanlin and Jessica Dawson, who also curated its first iteration in New York last year. (Rocky, Dawson's Maltese-Yorkie mix, the third member of the curatorial team, was busy elsewhere). Interactive artwork in a wide range of media by 10 artists, most of them local, were presented. As an art historian, I have long acknowledged that my critical judgement tends to be suspended and is … [Read more...]
Malcolm Morley at MOCA, N. MIAMI, 2006
As a tribute to the British-American painter Malcolm Morley, who died in New York City on June 1, 2018, I have resurrected a review I wrote of Malcolm Morley: The Art of Painting, a retrospective exhibition held at the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, January 20-April 16, 2006. The review, which until now has remained unpublished, was written for The Wall Street Journal. The images reproduced with this post are akin to, but not necessarily the same works featured in the show. Malcolm Morley at MOCA Malcolm Morley emerged in the late 1960s as a prominent member of the group of artists known as Superrealists who made paintings based upon photographic sources. Then, for the better part of the next 30 years, his art veered off in … [Read more...]
A Short Note on Art Basel 2018
Having attended Art Basel Miami Beach on a number of occasions (I covered the fair for many years for Art in America and other publications) and having traveled to Art Basel Hong Kong 2017, I was eager to finally visit the mother-ship in Basel, which I did in early June. I only spent a total of about 6 hours at the fair, which means I saw a bit less than half, but I was left with many strong impressions. Before sharing a few of my thought and highlights, I must note that although I was in attendance on the preview day of Art Basel 2018 with a "First Choice VIP" pass, the size of the crowd went far beyond anything I had experienced on equivalent days at the previous fairs. That the dealers and other gallery staff working the fair had five … [Read more...]
Mary Heilmann: Work of Casual Genius
About 15 years ago, a cousin who collects contemporary abstract painting sent me an image of a work by Mary Heilmann and asked what I thought. At the time, not having seen her work in person and being unaware of the subtleties of her execution (which, in my defense, are often not visible in reproductions), I replied, "It doesn't knock my socks off." Apologies all round!! A fine opportunity to view her work is found at Hauser + Wirth, Los Angeles, in Mary Heilmann: Memory Remix, the artist's first show in this city in over 20 years (it continues through September 23rd). It consists of paintings and ceramics that span her career as well as a table and chairs dating to the last decade. Heilmann, who was born and raised in … [Read more...]
Louis Vuitton Foundation, Paris
Having run late for our set-time appointment at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, we took a taxi and entered through a security checkpoint cubical so that Frank Gehry's spectacular building, made up of 12 huge curving sails of glass, revealed itself to us slowly from the museum's interior, an experience I would expect few people have. As we moved through the space, the building unfolded from the inside to the outside with increasing urgency, yielding to soaring views of its own structure and eventually giving way to a multi-level series of outdoor terraces with views of the surrounding park, the Bois de Boulogne, and Paris beyond. The fabulously complex, intricately designed structure of curving glass panels, wooden breams, and metal … [Read more...]
Birds of a Feather/Beall Center Exhibition
At this time of political turmoil, It Passes Like a Thought comes as a breath of fresh air. Focused on seven artists who employ avian imagery and themes, the title of the exhibition derives from a John James Audubon quotation that states, "When an individual [bird] is seen gliding through the woods and close to the observer, it passes like a thought..." Presented at the Beall Center for Art + Technology at the University of California, Irvine, and curated by Artistic Director, David Familian, the show offers works in a wide range of media that variously investigate avian flight, language (birdsongs, calls, and the ability to mimic human speech), habitats, and diversity, as well as issues of endangerment and extinction. As a center for art … [Read more...]
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