Another 10 Most Unloved

Of the 1500 or so exhibition overviews on www.arttattler.com, here is another of grouping of 10 least visited in the last week or so.

Why are they so lonely? Because thay have been relegated to the archives? I don't think so. Art Tattler has a Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition overview that is consistently one of the most visited pages at Art Tattler, but that could be because of the photograph of the large flaccid penis.

I don't really know, but all 10 are handsome and beautiful exhibitions on the inside.

Following are the exhibition links and a brief of the respective exhibition:

Yang Fudong

http://www.arttattler.com/archiveyangfudong.html

In Yang Fudong's spectacular video and photo works we learn about China in transition — seen from the inside. His works reveal breathtaking stories about the younger Chinese generation’s experience of history, extreme urbanization and new market economy.

Geometry of Motion

http://www.arttattler.com/archivegeometryofmotion.html

Geometry of Motion 1920s/1970s, takes cinematic experience as its point of departure, and using 14 works that trace the transformation of the art object from static image to fluid light projection within two artistic lineages: the unconventional optical techniques of the 1920s Neue Optik, or “New Vision,” generation of artists, among them El Lissitzky, László Moholy-Nagy, Hans Richter, and Marcel Duchamp; and the situational aesthetics advanced by Robert Irwin, Gordon Matta-Clark, Robert Smithson, and Anthony McCall in the 1970s. All of these artists have explored new perceptual propositions for the geometry of motion, conveying indelible filmic events. The phrase “geometry of motion” in the exhibition’s title derives from the literal meaning of the French word cinématique. The exhibition is organized by Klaus Biesenbach, Chief Curator.

Multiplex

http://www.arttattler.com/archivemultiplex.html

During the 1970s, there was a shift in critical thinking about art when a range of divergent approaches and multiple mediums became the subject of attention, rather than one dominant trend or movement. This was the moment when a restrictive view of modernism gave way to broader interpretive models and the idea of one “ism” following another was replaced by the concept of “pluralism,” a term that took firm hold at that time. Such an open view remains relevant to the contemporary scene today as we witness the lively interchange of a wide variety of artistic practices

Ballpoint

http://www.arttattler.com/archiveballpoint.html

Using disposable ballpoint pens, Il Lee creates dramatic ink fields on surfaces of canvas and paper. For this exhibition, he will present a selection of large format blue and black ink drawings, including early experimental studies and an impressive 50-foot installation — his largest work to date. Among other recent and historical artistic influences, Lee (b. 1952) is largely inspired by Minimalism and the Asian practice of Sumukhwa (ink and wash painting). By combining an inclination toward austerely controlled forms with the distinctive fluidity of ink, he melds Eastern and Western cultural aesthetics into abstractions that are contemporary, yet firmly rooted in tradition. His expressive strokes — characterized by rhythmic, physically demanding arm gestures — leave behind a record of intersecting orbits, undulating lines, and frenetic swirls. When viewed en masse, these discrete movements amount to objects with monumental presence; like wide-open landscapes or perfectly preserved fossils, their auras are imposing and serene, provoking awe and inviting meditation.

On the Beach

http://www.arttattler.com/archiveonthebeach.html

Monumental color photographs explore the sublime beauty and inherent danger of the sea and its surroundings in the days following September 11, 2001 in the exhibition Richard Misrach: On the Beach. Drawn from one of Misrach's most recent series On the Beach, are 19 dramatic photographs — some as large as six feet high by ten feet wide. Major American photographer Misrach (b. 1949) is known for provocative work that addresses contemporary society's troubled relationship to nature, especially in the American West.

An International History of Urban Photography

http://www.arttattler.com/archiveurbanphotohistory.html

Comprising over 300 works by 19th- and 20th-century photographers,Street & Studio: An Urban History of Photographypresents a fascinating history of photographic portraiture taken in cities around the world. Including work by Diane Arbus, Cecil Beaton, Brassaï, Walker Evans, Helen Levitt, Robert Mapplethorpe, Irving Penn, Cindy Sherman, Malick Sidibé, Wolfgang Tillmans and Weegee, among others, the exhibition will examine two contrasting sites of photographic practice: the street and the studio, bringing to light the dynamic interplay between these two very different forms of portraiture.

Nobuyoshi Araki and the Aesthetics of Bondage

http://www.arttattler.com/archivenobuyoshiaraki.html

Araki’s Hana Kinbaku works are photographic diptych studies of flowers (hana) and bondage (kinbaku- the ancient and highly skilled art of Japanese erotic restraint). In this body of work, Araki physically, and imperfectly, tapes the images into diptychs, accentuating the join between subject matter and adding an extra layer of texture to each individual piece.

Matthew Buckingham: Play the Story

http://www.arttattler.com/archivebuckingham.html

Iowan and internationally acclaimed film and video artist Matthew Buckingham returns to Iowa for his first major solo exhibition in the United States. Currently a professor of art at the Malmö Art Academy in Sweden, Buckingham will exhibit three new installations, along with a site-specific project. Through his use of space, settings, and narration Buckingham’s films typically focus on the connections among the past, present, and future by creating works that place the viewer, intellectually and physically, in all three time periods at once. His use of space plays a key role in the viewing experience. Working mainly with film, but also with photography, slide projection, text, and audio, Buckingham investigates history and representation, scrutinizing different forms of narrative.

Television Delivers People

http://www.arttattler.com/archivetelevision.html

Television Delivers People gathers together video works from the 1970s and 80s as well as more recent examples, which examine the relationship between television and the viewer. The exhibition is organized by curatorial assistant Gary Carrion-Murayari. The eight artists whose works are included are Alex Bag, Dara Birnbaum, Joan Braderman, Keren Cytter, Kalup Linzy, Richard Serra, Michael Smith, and Ryan Trecartin. Works by Birnbaum, Serra, and Smith will be shown continuously on monitors, while the other works are projected, also continuously, on screen.

How am I to sign myself

http://www.arttattler.com/archivebeck.html

How am I to sign myself, an excerpt from the close of a letter written to Nora Barnacle by James Joyce, August 15, 1904, is the title of Robert Beck’s exhibition of new drawings. What are often referred to as “Diagnostic Drawings”; a variety of psychological tests used to understand the functioning of a subject’s personality, have also been the form in which Beck has made a vast body of work on paper over more than a decade. This exhibition marks the end and culmination of that body of work. (From an exhibition a year later) Having shown previously under the name Robert Beck, this exhibition of the work of Robert Buck, is a departure. evidenced in work consisting of sculptural and print-based works. Founding concerns include language, psychoanalysis, sexuation, filmmaking, and the American West.

Art Tattler's 10 Most Unloved Exhibitions

Of the 1500 or so exhibition overviews on www.arttattler.com, the following are the 10 least visited in the last week or so.

Why?

I don't really know, but all 10 are worthwhile exhibitions that deserve a look.

Following are the exhibition links and a brief of the respective exhibition:

http://www.arttattler.com/archivefreudetchings.html

One of the foremost artists working today, Lucian Freud (British, b. Germany, 1922) has redefined portraiture and the nude through his frank scrutiny of the human form. Although best known as a painter, etching is integral to Freud's practice. In a cross-media installation, this exhibition explores the crucial relationship between Freud’s etchings and his works on canvas. About 100 works are featured, including 70 etchings juxtaposed with 22 paintings and seven drawings, revealing a dialogue among mediums in his oeuvre. The scope and significance of his achievements in etching are represented, from rare, early experiments of the 1940s to increasingly large and complex compositions made since he rediscovered the medium in the early 1980s.

http://www.arttattler.com/archivepursuitofthespirit.html

Drawing primarily on the Museum of Contemporary Religious Art (MOCRA) collection, Pursuit of the Spirit places works in dialogue in order to examine major themes that have emerged in MOCRA’s first 35 exhibitions.

http://www.arttattler.com/archivemuerte.html

¡Viva la Muerte! explores this association of Eros and Thanatos and their reflections in contemporary art. The exhibition presents itself as a theater of cruelty unfolding the various facets of violence in an aesthetically condensed and conceptually stringent manner: the Mexican Ivan Edeza shows an almost unedited snuff video featuring men gunning down Indians in the Brazilian jungle; marking the way to the president’s palace in Guatemala City with bloody footprints, Regina José Galindo focuses on a specific kind of machismo partly informed by the Spanish colonial rule; and the Brazilian artist Cildo Meireles highlights the history of reckless missionary endeavors, linking the trinity of money, power, and spirituality in a monumental installation of bewitching beauty.

http://www.arttattler.com/archivebennicholson.html

Ben Nicholson (1894-1982) was one of the most radical British artists of the 20th century. This will be the first major presentation of the work of Nicholson in the UK for over 14 years. The exhibition reconsiders his position in British art history offering a new understanding of the modern in art, particularly in relation to national and local identities. Focusing on Nicholson's English years, the three principal sections: Landscapes of the late 1920s; Abstract and landscape works made in St. Ives during World War II and the Cubist still-lifes made between 1945-58, draw on a selection of key works to demonstrate his continuity of vision and approach.

http://www.arttattler.com/archivemakinggods.html

Making Gods – Gade is comprised of a group of ten new works, a personal synthesis of traditional Tibetan painting with modern consumerism and pop culture, Gade was born in 1971 in Lhasa to a Chinese father and Tibetan mother and graduated from the School of Fine Arts, Tibet University in Lhasa, where he is now a lecturer, with a degree in Traditional Chinese Realistic Painting.

http://www.arttattler.com/archiverauschenbergtravels.html

The exhibition unites a selection of works from the series "Cardboards," "Venetians," "Early Egyptians," "Hoarfrosts," and "Jammers." Rauschenberg's preoccupation with other cultures, as well as experiences from the various journeys he took are reflected in these pieces, which were created between 1970 and 1976. For the first time, these work groups in Rauschenberg's oeuvre, which have been largely ignored up to now, are receiving the acknowledgement they deserve.

http://www.arttattler.com/archiveluiscamnitzer.html

Since the late 1960s, Luis Camnitzer has created works in a variety of media — including installation, printmaking, drawing, and photography — that expose our collective indifference to the violence governments inflict on individuals. A pioneer of conceptual art, Camnitzer critiques current political realities with a perspective informed by his first-hand experience of dictatorships in Latin America. This exhibition is particularly timely because it comes on the heels of New Jersey’s historic decision to abolish the death penalty, and as the Supreme Court continues to consider the constitutionality of lethal injections. This exhibition is comprised of two text-based works by Luis Camnitzer: Last Words (2008) and Sifter (The Mechanism for Killing a Spectator) (1978).

http://www.arttattler.com/designsupremes.html

The performance costumes of The Supremes, one of the most successful groups of all time, will be on display at the V&A this summer. On show will be over 50 outfits that chart the changing image of the group from their dresses in the early days when they were known as The Primettes to the glamorous Hollywood designs they wore at the height of their fame. Set against the backdrop of the meteoric rise of Motown Records, and the turbulence of the American civil rights movement, the display will explore the inspirational role The Supremes played in changing racial perceptions and their influence on today’s performers.

http://www.arttattler.com/archivestrangeevents.html

The exhibition takes its title from a quote by fictional 1930s detective Charlie Chan and contains a peculiar British Modernism. It includes sculpture from the start of the 20th-century by Jacob Epstein and Alberto Giacometti and 1940s paintings by Francis Picabia to films by contemporary London-based artists Bonnie Camplin, Mark Lecky and Simon Martin.

http://www.arttattler.com/archivemastersonpaper.html

Thanks to the exceptional quality of its 25,000 drawings and 75,000 graphic works from the late Middle Ages to the present, the Städel Museum’s Department of Prints and Drawings numbers among the most important collections of its kind in Germany. It was founded by Johann Friedrich Städel (1728-1816) in the 18th century and extended and developed by personalities like Johann David Passavant (1787-1861), Georg Swarzenski (1876-1957), and others in the 19th and 20th centuries.

A Brief, Illustrated Survey of 'Democratic Design' from Sweden

http://www.arttattler.com/designIKEA.html

Also, in case you wanted to know, the 10 most visited Art Tattler pages in March:

www.arttattler.com

/favorites2007.html

/commentarymapplethorpe.html

/designsurrealthings.html

/austriavienna.html

/chcagoartinstitute.html

/manhattanmetropolitanmuseum.html

/archivevangogh.html

/manhattanmoma.html

/index2.html

Jack Rees
Inspiring the Surface: The Bloch and its Architectural Futures
Friday, April 25 / Spencer Museum of Art 3:30 PM Lecture / 4:30 PM Booksigning

Jack Rees is editor of The Sixth Surface: Steven Holl Lights the Nelson-Atkins Museum, a book about the Nelson-Atkins' new Bloch addition that pulls together creative contributions of work by 33 Kansas City artists and writers.

In The Sixth Surface essayists, poets, and artists with ties to the Kansas City community offer their interpretive responses to the structure with the aim of creating local dialogue on architecture at the juncture of art and building.The Bloch addition spills onto the east lawn of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in a series of what architect Steven Holl calls "lenses." The addition melts into its natural surroundings while preserving the original Nelson-Atkins building. The book strives to place this modern architectural wonder in context for those who walk its spaces and reflect on its exterior.

The Sixth Surface is named for the innermost face of the innermost pane of glass that comprises the wall assembly for the Bloch addition (the sixth glass surface counting from the outside in). Rees says the overarching goal of the book, beyond supporting the risk taken in erecting such a contemporary and unfamiliar structure, is to encourage and ultimately affect greater understanding of the built environment.

"Since architecture depends on many modes of apprehension for its appreciation, I decided to make a book that would present a variety of paths to an appreciation of the new building," Rees says. "I know from years of experience as a residential architect that few people have the ability to appreciate the qualities of a building using only the building as a guide. Therefore; the idea that other artistic expressions might help contextualize the architectural experience, grabbed a hold of me and would not let go.

"To that end The Sixth Surface is a collection of essays, poetry and visual art; all about the museum and its new addition. Presenting multiple interpretations of the Bloch is an act intended to transform the building so that audiences might discover something previously unappreciated in parallel artistic and poetic visions."

Museum of Contemporary Religious Art, St. Louis, Missouri


Miao Xiaochun, The Last Judgment in Cyberspace, Front view.

Art Lecture, Wu Hung, Art Historian and Curator
What is Contemporary Chinese Art?
Tuesday, April 15, 2008, 7 p.m.
Saint Louis Art Museum Auditorium
One Fine Arts Drive, Forest Park
Free to the Public

Curator of The Last Judgement in Cyberspace discusses the concept of contemporary Chinese art in relation to the medium, content, and style of the art, as well as the aim of the art and its relationship to Chinese society. The lecture is co-sponsored by MOCRA and St. Louis Art Museum.

Art historian and curator Wu Hung is one of the world’s leading authorities on contemporary Chinese art. He is the founder and director of the Center for the Art of East Asia at the University of Chicago, the Consulting Curator at the Smart Museum, and the Harrie A. Vanderstappen Distinguished Service Professor in Chinese Art History at the Department of Art History and the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago.

Wu Hung has curated over 30 exhibitions internationally. In 2006, he was Chief Curator of the 6th Gwangju Biennale (First Chapter: Trace Root—Unfolding Asian Storie). His current exhibition projects include Re-Imagining Asia (recently opened in Berlin), and Displacement: the Three Gorges Dam and Contemporary Chinese Art (to open at the Smart Museum next October). His publications include Transience: Chinese Experimental Art at the End of the Twentieth Century (University Of Chicago Press, 1999), Monumentality in Early Chinese Art (Stanford University Press, 1995), Three Thousand Years of Chinese Painting (Yale University Press, 1997), and Remaking Beijing: Tiananmen Square and the Creation of a Political Space (2005).

Wu Hung has introduced American audiences to numerous important contemporary Chinese artists, including Miao Xiaochun, whose exhibition The Last Judgment in Cyperspace, is on display at Saint Louis University’s Museum of Contemporary Religious Art (MOCRA) through May 18.