Art Must-Sees this Summer: New York Photographs

image of John Lennon by Bob Gruen, on view at Bonnie Benrubi


As you may well know, I get many of my topics from NYTimes, so of course today I have to tell everyone about another summer must-see. This summer on exhibition throughout 13 galleries in Chelsea, are photographs of New York. From Nan Goldin to Helen Levitt, one can view almost every perspective of the city through the last century.

This is sure to take up a day or two when visiting the city, so plan ahead to hit all of the venues. This loosely titled exhibit, called New York Photographs, is organized by galleries that specifically represent photography, so even if the New York Photographs show is over, this is an excellent gallery list to start with if you want a down and dirty education on the broad representation of photography in New York City. For instance, Yancey Richardson is a highly respected contemporary gallery with some of the hottest photographers on the scene, while something like Howard Greenburg Gallery seems to show more conservative black and white work. Overall, the beauty about photography and this city, is that both have come of age together; as photography was developed during the same period as the birth of the steam engine and the iron industry, so the city literally grew up around the photograph. I think that's what will be beautiful about these exhibits, viewing the increasingly complex relationship the photographic medium, which has recorded and re-presented the life of the city time and time again, has with New York. Reviewing in these galleries, how both the visual structures and the concrete structures have altered in context over the last century. I am certainly going to try to make it to see many of these galleries before the end of the month.

I have made a list of the participating galleries below, some have references to the New York Photographs show, while some mention nothing of it. Alas *shrug* I never fail to be disappointed in at least a few NY gallery websites.

Bonni Benrubi, thru Sept. 5
Danziger Project
Yossi Milo, thru Aug. 28
Deborah Bell, by appt. thru August
Edwynn Houk
Howard Greenberg
Hasted Hunt, thru Aug. 28
Janet Borden, worst website yet...*sigh*
Laurence Miller0, Helen Levitt thru Aug. 2
Pace/MacGill
Robert Mann
Julie Saul, thru Sept. 12
Yancey Richardson

Art Must-Sees this Summer: William Kentridge, Five Themes

William Kentridge: Five Themes, a traveling exhibition stopping into the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth showcases the artist's work for the past 2+ decades. The show includes multiple small screens of his famous films, with accompanying pieces ranging from drawings and prints, to sculptures and books. It is an art show exploring the essential development and dominant themes of Kentridge’s oeuvre.

Kentridge's work draws on his interest in theater, utilizing its archetypes as a way of presenting the conflicting issues he himself has had as a South African Jewish man who witnessed the realities of the apartheid. His films are pieces that explore the two faces of oppression. Kentridge’s working method, in which he draws in charcoal each image on a single piece of paper, then photographs each image frame by frame, reflects on the issues of oppression and conflict present in all societies. Wherein even though the oppression may be legally absent, the scars of history remain; a metaphor inherently present in his process as each image that is erased to make room for a new image leaves a visual ghost behind. One cannot ignore that as a Jewish man he is also sensitive to his own history of oppression, and the questions that arise from the paradox of economically successful Jews thriving on the oppression of others, as in Apartheid.

I myself am particularly interested in this issue as part of my family is of Lithuanian Jewish decent and retreated to South Africa before the war, when the Russian military did eventually enter their former town, all of the Jews were rounded up and slaughtered. This genocide scenario may be different from the issues in Africa, but it is not so far from the issues of oppression, ownership and prosperity, so prevalent in the mining industry and corporate powers reliant on the natural resources of the African continent. These issues are universal, and simply living in an ‘enlightened’ country such as the United States does not make one any less participatory in ethical dilemmas of conscience. Kentridge’s perspective is one of the complex nature regarding the burden of action and inaction.

The review for this work from the Dallas News by Gaile Robinson was not flattering. Unfortunately, the writer did not have the insight to comprehend the strength of Kentridge’s aesthetic. His view is that the ‘best part of a Kentridge film: [is] watching the artist's hands at work’ a typical suggestion from someone conveniently ignoring the issue. In a city who’s own segregation and conflict of race and economic segregation is very much alive, it was disappointing to see such a perspective with Robinson expressing irritation at the lack of convenience offered, due to the length each film, and the museum bench being ‘uncomfortable.’ Seems somewhat appropriate when the theme is the conflict of ignoring the status quo of oppression, a subject anything but comfortable for the majority of us ‘white folk.’

This travelling exhibition was curated by Mark Rosenthal of the SF MoMA and will be travelling to the MoMA in February 2010, William Kentridge: Five Themes will be on view at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth until Sept. 27, 2009.

This is the second installment of the five Must-Sees for the Summer 2009, as the season approaches an end.

Art Must-Sees this Summer: Maya Lin's "Wavefield"

Storm King Art Center has added a new Maya Lin sculpture “Wavefield” to its collection. If you are not familiar with Maya Lin, her artistic career took off when, in 1982 as a young architectural student at Yale, her model of a wall embedded into the landscape was chosen for the design of the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial Wall. Her work is consistently concerned with structural reflections on the environment and “Wavefield” is no different; a waveform sculpture built from top soil, gravel, and low-impact grasses covers what was once a gravel pit on the Storm King campus. Maya Lin’s sculpture suggests the landscape as waves changing and forming over time, the piece forces a contemplation on our own ability to ‘move mountains’ for better or for worse. Her approach bridges a concern with sculptural installation and an environmental awareness, Maya carefully considers her carbon footprint and is in the process of planting trees on the periphery of "Wavefield" to counter the energy used during the process of producing the sculpture. Like such Earthworks artists as Andy Goldsworthy (whose work is also on view), Lin's obvious passion for natural forms has made her a staple in the international art scene and her work, considered both installation and land art, is in my opinion a contemporary mode on the sublime.

Storm King sits on 500 acres of manicured land and has developed a permanent collection of outdoor sculptures that are dependent on the changing landscape. In conjunction with the unveiling of Lin’s “Wavefield”, Storm King Art Center is exhibiting Maya Lin: Bodies of Water, on display are sketches, models and smaller sculptures by the artist in its museum building.

Maya Lin: Bodies of Water is on view until November 15, 2009

Storm King Art Center is located in the Hudson River Valley, one hour north of New York City.

This is the first installment of what I hope to be a 5 piece seasonal posting of Art Must-Sees across the US.