Art Fag City at The L Magazine: Color Chart at MoMA

by Art Fag City on April 16, 2008 · 8 comments The L Magazine

byron-kym.jpg
Byron Kim, Synecdoche, dimensions variable, 1991-present. Image courtesy of MoMA.

My latest piece at the L magazine is up. The teaser below.

Who doesn't enjoy a pie chart, a pretty colored graph, or any of the array of data visualizations available on the web? I suppose at some point I'll grow tired of the endless endeavors in information aesthetics we see today, but I haven't hit my threshold yet, which makes MoMA's Color Chart particularly topical. Curated by Ann Tempkin, the exhibition showcases art work which assigns color through arbitrary systems, chance, and readymade source — all the stuff we see on the internet now, but largely in old-school, fine-art form. Which is to say, count on seeing a number of familiar works from canonical artists: Dan Flavin's Untitled 1-5 (to Donald Judd, colorist), a series to incandescent colored bulbs in T formation, Ellsworth Kelly's painted grid of colors on a large wall, and an excellent series of paint by numbers by Andy Warhol. There are, however, a few disappointing contemporary choices: two nondescript works from Damien Hirst's limitless pit of dot paintings for example, and Byron Kim's frequently acclaimed Synecdoche, a grid of paintings based on the skin tones of models, which to my tastes are far too heavily indebted to process-based conceptual painters like Garry Neill Kennedy.

While the exhibition's contemporary content might be disappointing, the curatorial expertise demonstrated for the 60s and 70s yields fantastic results. Basically, the older the work in Color Chart, the greater likelihood the piece will present a surprise. For example, John Chamberlain, an artist well known for his gaudy crushed automobile sculptures, has an underappreciated series on display from the brief period in which he was a painter. Deriving minimal images from the scrap he found in the junkyard, Chamberlain would build up the shapes and color with translucent paint, creating elegant simplicity and a stunning light. Probably the most impressive work in the show comes from Robert Rauchenberg's Rebus, a giant collaged painting in his signature loose style, incorporating color chips in the center of the piece. Among a crowd of calculated and predictably cool work, this moving painting provides an unexpected take on the many approaches artists have taken to charting color.

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{ 8 comments }

L.M. April 16, 2008 at 6:52 pm

Ha! I’ve never seen that GG award page for the Garry Neill Kennedy link. We can sure bet that bête noire wild-man artist Istvan Kantor always knows the proper fork to use at any awards dinner with such a nice cash prize.

L.M. April 16, 2008 at 1:52 pm

Ha! I’ve never seen that GG award page for the Garry Neill Kennedy link. We can sure bet that bête noire wild-man artist Istvan Kantor always knows the proper fork to use at any awards dinner with such a nice cash prize.

Art Fag City April 17, 2008 at 5:15 am

LOL! I have to say I’m very happy to have a Canadian commenter on this site:)

Art Fag City April 17, 2008 at 12:15 am

LOL! I have to say I’m very happy to have a Canadian commenter on this site:)

aron namenwirth April 17, 2008 at 10:28 am

This looks like a really cool show. I thought the same about the Byron Kim pieces but, when he was making the work and going around matching different peoples skin-tones it took a form “the grid” and brought a really human element to it. The tension between something so cold and skin color something forever hot is kinda of brillant. Did Garry Neill Kennedy do that too.
Kelly early grid works i found formally interesting he made not so many- transitional work
they are some of my favs of his.

aron namenwirth April 17, 2008 at 5:28 am

This looks like a really cool show. I thought the same about the Byron Kim pieces but, when he was making the work and going around matching different peoples skin-tones it took a form “the grid” and brought a really human element to it. The tension between something so cold and skin color something forever hot is kinda of brillant. Did Garry Neill Kennedy do that too.
Kelly early grid works i found formally interesting he made not so many- transitional work
they are some of my favs of his.

Art Fag City April 17, 2008 at 2:04 pm

Gary Neill Kennedy’s work is colder than this – it took the same format, the grid, but he would collect different brands of “skintone” paint, and created a series out of that.

Art Fag City April 17, 2008 at 9:04 am

Gary Neill Kennedy’s work is colder than this – it took the same format, the grid, but he would collect different brands of “skintone” paint, and created a series out of that.

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