POST BY PADDY JOHNSON
Image via: The L Magazine
This week at The L Magazine I follow up on the story of Jeffrey Deitch and his new appointment as the Director of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA). The teaser below.
This week in The Wall Street Journal, Berkley economics professor Brad Delong described the current economic downturn as “a depression.” We’re not reliving the 1930s, but let’s face it—those aren’t comforting words. In fact, they’re the kind of statements fueling speculation that Soho dealer Jeffrey Deitch closed up shop because the gallery was suffering financial losses, rather than a simple desire to pursue a new career direction as the Director of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA). Last Monday, the museum announced Deitch would take the position and cease all his commercial activity as a dealer. His new job will consist primarily of pulling the financially troubled museum out of the deep water, supporting curators and developing new programming.
This has a number of effects worth discussing, not the least of which is its impact on the Soho art scene. Guild & Greyshkul—an artist-run gallery known for its strong programming—closed last year, leaving only a few non-profits like Location One, the Drawing Center, and Team Gallery and a sparse number of commercial spaces, with Team, Spencer Brownstone and Harris Lieberman Gallery among them. Deitch maintained two locations in Soho, each turning over new shows monthly. Likely a result of this volume of activity, most New York-based artists I know have at least one or two friends who have shown at the venue and many more acquaintances. Whether or not the programming was consistent, it’s hard to deny the mark Deitch left on the scene.
To read the full piece click here.
{ 2 comments }
The language of contemporary art is going through a state of fatigue which coincides with a flattening of contents. In a phase of extreme postproduction, during the first decade of the 21st century, the problem is not “to do†but “what to doâ€. In every phase of the 20th century, from WWII to the end of the Cold War, it has always been clear “what to do†in art as well as in the industrial production. On the other hand, we are currently going through a phase of saturation and overproduction of works and artists; this language is wiggling inside the cage of artisanal work and interior design. Art seems to have become an excuse and an accessory to legitimate a group of places and relations. The only thing that escapes this dynamic is the development of the best things of the 20th century. Art should be the thing that makes life more interesting than art.
The language of contemporary art is going through a state of fatigue which coincides with a flattening of contents. In a phase of extreme postproduction, during the first decade of the 21st century, the problem is not “to do†but “what to doâ€. In every phase of the 20th century, from WWII to the end of the Cold War, it has always been clear “what to do†in art as well as in the industrial production. On the other hand, we are currently going through a phase of saturation and overproduction of works and artists; this language is wiggling inside the cage of artisanal work and interior design. Art seems to have become an excuse and an accessory to legitimate a group of places and relations. The only thing that escapes this dynamic is the development of the best things of the 20th century. Art should be the thing that makes life more interesting than art.
Comments on this entry are closed.