Posts tagged as:

Anne Imhof

The Venice Biennale Pavilions: Caged Dogs, Fallen Logs, and the Problem of Time

by Paddy Johnson on June 6, 2017

Pretty much any traveler will end up thinking about time in Venice given the age of the city, but the Biennale amplifies this tendency. Even in thinly attended years, visitors to the Venice Biennale preview quickly get used to standing in long cues to see popular pavilions. As far as VIP events go, the pavilion previews aren’t the least bit exclusive, so wait times come with the territory. As a result art is often considered by whether or not it’s worth the time you budget.

A discussion of Anne Imhof at the German Pavilion, Geoffrey Farmer at the Canadian Pavilion and Mark Bradford at the US Pavilion after the jump.

Read the full article →

Wednesday Links: Gallows Sculpture Deemed too Offensive, Slated for Demo

by Paddy Johnson and Michael Anthony Farley on May 31, 2017

Sam Durant’s “Scaffold” is being disassembled by the Walker Art Center because it offends people. Image credit: ANTHONY SOUFFLE

Are these the world’s best outdoor sculpture parks? I have a hard time lumping the Brooklyn Bridge Park in this list. [CNN]
The Walker Art Center is dismantling a sculpture by Sam Durant after protests. “Scaffold” is a composite of seven different gallows used in executions in the United States between 1859 and 2006 (this article doesn’t make that fact particularly clear) and is intended to spark discussion about the history of capital punishment in this country. Activists from the Dakota community called for its destruction because one of the reference gallows Durant based the piece on was used to execute 38 Dakota Indians in 1862 and say the artwork trivializes genocide. I’m not entirely clear on why this is “trivializing”. If the sculpture was supposed to provoke discussion about the history of executions in America, it seems to be effective. Can we stop knee-jerk calling for the censorship of any artwork we might find any moral grounds to oppose? Otherwise we’re going to be left with nothing in museums/public spaces other than Jeff Koons balloon dogs. [Star Tribune]
The “Fearless Girl”/”Charging Bull” drama never ends. Alex Gardega has added “Pissing Pug” to the menagerie, urinating on the girl’s leg to demonstrate that adding another component to an existing sculpture distorts to original’s meaning. We get it. Let’s move on. [New York Post]
Speaking of dumb ideas, Comedian Kathy Griffin is in hot water because she posed for a video holding Donald Trump’s decapitated head. What passes for conversation in the media really needs to change. [The Internet]
Anne Imhof, whose much lauded four hour long opera “Faust” on view at The Venice Biennale’s German Pavillion is still be discussed, tells a crowd at the Serpentine Gallery that her influences include Michelangelo and Jean-Michel Basquiat. I would have guessed Adidas. (Though in fairness, she does say the health-goth cast plays themselves.) [ARTnews]
We’ve all had some pretty weird homework in art school, but this might take the cake.Katie Martin-Meurer, a University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee art professor, challenged her students to make biodegradable insect motels. The idea is they’ll end up in parks, decomposing, rather than filling a dumpster with foamcore like most student projects. [NPR]
Google Street View is adding a host of new features to its museum interior tours. Soon you’ll be able to read wall text, zoom into high-res images, and more. How long until there’s a selfie-taking function? [Time]
Audible has created a 5 million dollar fund for playwrights. This seems like a very good thing. [The New York Times]
Uh oh, the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento has a failing humidity control system that’s threatening the preservation of numerous objects on view. If the museum and contractors who installed the system can’t get a replacement up and running to specifications, the Crocker could lose accreditation to host certain exhibitions. Tuesday night, city officials approved a plan to fix the system, so hopefully all will be resolved. [CBS Sacramento]

Read the full article →

Monday Links: Don’t Blame Roberta Smith for Donald Trump

by Paddy Johnson and Michael Anthony Farley on May 15, 2017

Jeff Koons’ sculpture “Play-Doh 1994-2014” has paved the way for Donald Trump, according to Alex Melamid. Is it because there’s a melty orange blob in the center and a weird yellow thing hanging off the top?

Of everything that’s been written about Trump’s unlikely ascendence and the art world, Alex Melamid’s recent piece in TIME might just be the most specious and bizarre. According to Melamid, artists and critics have created a culture that idolizes avant-garde thinking, infantilism, and publicity above all else—thus legitimizing Trump’s outrageous approach to candidacy and governing. Two of the most laughable moments: Melamid citing Roberta Smith’s praise of Jeff Koons’ “Play Doh” sculptures (because the average Trump voter is an avid NYT Arts reader, I’m sure?) and the wildly out-of-touch statement “plagiarism in the arts has mutated into what’s now called appropriation, a term stripped of any negative judgment.” LOL. [TIME]
For anyone else who ever thought the Harvard campus reminded them of Hogwarts, you’ll enjoy this bit of news that sounds like something out of Harry Potter. The Harvard Art Museums is restaging “The Philosophy Chamber,” a sort of wunderkammer from the university’s early history that became the basis for the museums’ present collections. [The Harvard Crimson]
A lottery has opened for affordable housing units in a new Long Island City high rise, starting at under $1,000/month. Apply now! There are only 34 slots, sadly. [Curbed]
Coming as a shock to no one, Anne Imhof’s “Faust” has snagged a Golden Lion at Venice. The “health goth”-esque performance was by far the most talked-about piece of the Biennale. [ARTnews]
Adiós Utopia: Dreams and Deceptions in Cuban Art Since 1950 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston is being lauded as the biggest and most important exhibition of Cuban art in recent history. Patricia Restrepo, however, feels that the Cisneros-backed show is lacking in nuance. We haven’t seen the show ourselves, but if you’re in Texas, it looks like a must-see. [Terremoto]
AFC friend Jeanette Doyle has launched “CF” at the Research Pavilion in Venice and is looking for artists and curators to participate. The framework: you chose a nation you want to represent and an art work and stage it. CF will present these staged works via a series of projections chosen at random with the help of a computer algorithm. Deadline for submissions is August 11th. Submit here. [Art & Education]
Steven H Silberg has launched an art-making project titled “In Care of the White House”. Artists are invited to create works in response to the Trump administration, which the organization will document and send to the White House, with the idea that all the pieces will end up as a document of dissent in the National Archives for posterity. [In Care of the White House]
Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips are looking to auction off over $1 billion worth of art this week, including a 6-foot Basquiat at Sotheby’s that’s valued at $60 million. These auctions are being watched closely as a litmus test for the art market. Since Russian and Middle Eastern bidders have retreated from the auction scene due to lower oil prices, it’s been a buyer’s-market-boon for American and Asian collectors. But now the market might’ve bounced back, as the auction houses are hoping. [CNBC]
15 Art Deco buildings not to miss. [Curbed]

Read the full article →

The Venice Biennale, Viva Arte Viva: The Pavilions, Part One

by Paddy Johnson on May 11, 2017

Today we spent the majority of our time looking at the Pavilions and we’ll be spending much of tomorrow similarly. Overall, there seem to be fewer people visiting the pavilions and Biennale this year—as evidenced by shortened bathroom cues and the ability to get a cup of coffee in less than hour. It’s hard, though, to discern the reasons for this. It’s not like anyone knows in advance what the shows (or weather) will be like. Still, I wondered if the poor quality of this year’s biennale might have depressed some enough that they took the day off. And perhaps the Americans here are too worried about the President’s recent firing of FBI Chief James Comey to focus on art? I know it’s an issue for me as well as many others I’ve seen over the last two days.

As for the pavilions, it’s a mixed bag—some good, some bad, and some stinky. I mean that literally. At least three pavilions this year need stench warning signs for those with allergies.

I’ll be discussing a lot of the work in greater depth in a separate post. In the meantime, here’s a sampling of what we saw this afternoon.

Read the full article →

On Christian Falsnaes’s “Rea McNamara”

by Rea McNamara on September 15, 2015

How does it feel to be an artist’s material? For me, it felt like crossing a boundary—or at least it did this afternoon when I was emailed a YouTube link documenting my performance in Christian Falsnaes’s “The Title Is Your Name”. The work is part of his contribution to the 2015 National Gallery Prize exhibition at Berlin’s Hamburger Bahnhof, which includes works from the other shortlisted artists Florian Hecker, Anne Imhof and Slavs and Tatars. (The prize winner will be determined by international jury on September 18th.)

When I watched the video “Rea McNamara”, then, I saw myself — the supposedly passive art viewer — as the protagonist of this work of art. I’m alone, in a curtained-off white room, watching at a desk with headphones a video on a iPad. Prior to entering, I was in a cordoned off waiting room; at the request of a docent in German, I turned off my iPhone. A distracted attention span would not be tolerated.

Read the full article →

Anne Imhof

Get Our Newsletter!

Like Us On Facebook!

Follow Art F City

What is Art F City?