Gonzo Art

It may be thought of as a gimmick, but I like it: creating art under extreme situations--and elements. As part of his ongoing "Drawing Restraint" project, Matthew Barney sailed from Gibraltar to New York last December. As the boat rocked to and fro, Barney drew and painted with what he had available. The final art images are now on view at the Serpentine Gallery in London, and some were printed in W magazine. (Unfortunately, they are not available online, but thanks to my scanner, here are a select few.)

When the weather was cooperative, Barney went out of his way to make his circumstances uncooperative, such as strapping himself to the boat's side and using the hull as an easel.

Dracula's version of a Jackson Pollock drip painting. Who knows? Maybe that fish is a pollack.

Fish lips lend a hand.
(Images via W magazine)

Chicks with Matchsticks

The Saatchi Gallery's featured photograph for its current survey of post 9/11 American artists reminded me of another similar striking image. In Josephine Meckseper's 2003 "Pyromaniac 2," a model holds a lighted match in her mouth as though it were a cigarette and delivers us a "dare me" look. Meckseper's work combines anti-capitalism with humor, and the gallery describes this photo as "an emblem of commodified desire transformed to an impending powder keg explosion." That description could partially describe Fiona Apple in her 1999 video "Fast As You Can." Apple also plays with fire, but she goes one step further and extinguishes the flame inside her mouth. While Meckseper makes art about the forces outside, Apple's focus is doggedly about the fires inside. (Image via Saatchi Gallery and Amazon.com)

Trampling on Camelot

Do we spot a trend here? It's time to publicize art works that deface Jack and Jackie. The Foundation for Italian artist Mimmo Rotella is hawking the artist's 1963 "L'ultimo Kennedy," in which JFK is given the treatment. More recently, Douglas Gordon does a little slash and burn on the missus. Ripping the Kennedys feels somewhat passe to me, more circa early 1980s. And I think that Jello Biafra did it best by naming his L.A. punk band, Dead Kennedys. Interestingly, Kaz Oshiro has an artwork called just that. Currently making the rounds, the art piece "Microwave Oven #3, (Dead Kennedys)" is an exact replica of a microwave made from canvas and wood. On the microwave's stain-splattered side is a bumper stick for the seminal punk band. So I guess we can zap those Kennedys as well.

Homage or Rip-off

Remember that pictorial spread in W magazine a few years back featuring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie portraying a bored 1960s couple? The 60-paged catalogue, which was photographed by Steve Klein, oozed with smart mise-en-scene and tons of back story. Well, at least one image wasn't as original as I thought. Julius Shulman took a very similar photograph almost 50 years ago. (The image is currently on view at the Orange County Museum of Art's "Birth of the Cool" show, as I read on Modern Art Notes.) Entitled "Case Study #21," Shulman's photo highlights a very cool couple relaxing in their Pierre Koenig-designed living room. So, was Klein's image an homage or just a blatant rip-off?

Jackie Takes a Beating--Again

Poor Jackie. What did she ever do to deserve the pummeling that artists like to give her? Was it Warhol who started this never-ending spanking machine? It seems that Ms. O's image as the bouffant, helmet-headed Jackie Kennedy usually takes the worst beating on the canvas. Douglas Gordon is the latest artist to deface Jackie in an upcoming show at Gagosian gallery uptown. And, last year, Jack Pierson portrayed Jackie as slowly going insane in his show Melancholia Passing into Madness at Cheim & Read. Can't we give the girl a rest?

The Designer and the Artist

Is Marc Jacobs spring 2008 collection really front page news? The New York Times thinks so. Cathy Horyn proclaims that Jacobs offers "an antidote to the cartoonish Jessica Rabbit sexuality that has dominated women’s fashion for more than 20 years." However, what caught my interest in the article was a quote from artist John Currin, who is known for his hardcore graphic sex paintings. “So often when sex is done in fashion, it’s what is hard, interchangeable and jaded. This seemed very romantic.” How I hope that Currin takes a bit of his own advice, and that his next batch of paintings don't focus on the "hard, interchangeable, and jaded." Despite both Horyn's and Currin's assessment, Jacobs collection showed a lot of skin and hints at underwear as outerwear.

Artist's Perspective

One of my favorite contemporary artists, Mel Leipzig, has been elected into the National Academy of Design. Along with Sol LeWitt, Kiki Smith, Cy Twombly and Richard Serra, Leipzig is one of 19 artists to be awarded membership to the academy this past year. Leipzig has a few exhibits coming up this month. On Sept. 25, Tomasulo Gallery will showcase Leipzig's paintings that focus on artists in their studios. Plus, at Artworks, the artist will be present for an unveiling of his painting of Artworks itself.

Art=Commerce

Did you know that going to art galleries is very hip, very sexy, and so very Banana Republic (according to the clothing retailer's latest ad campaign)? The ads published in Vogue and the New York Times spotlight models hanging out in front of abstract paintings with gallery invitations either tucked in oversized bags or used as shields for whispers or kisses. Apparently, these ads is B.R.'s way to highlight artists' works, but I challenge you to find who painted the canvases. Neither of these ads credit an artist.

High Fashion, High Art

The relationship has always been tight, but when I see it in black and white, I always think "sell out." At some point, gallery-quality photographers usually take up a fashion shoot for that bread and butter money. As New York gears up for Fashion Week, I've recognized a few names attached to photo spreads in local publications. Tierney Gearon, whose Mother Project I really liked, got tapped for a whole spread in New York Magazine, featuring super pricey threads, while Tina Barney, whose travelogue photos didn't really grab me by the lapels, snapped some pix for Theory's ad campaign. Are these photos any more arty than your average fashion images? Nope, but at least the fashion industry is trying to make things a little bit more interesting. (Related: New York Sun on the overlap between fashion and art.)

Who's Zoomin' Who?

Last April, Tyler Green requested bloggers to post on works of art that "rhyme," meaning, two pieces that share visual cues. Only recently has one image triggered another for me. The latest Chanel lipstick ad seems to be a blatant ripoff of Marilyn Minter's 2004 "Jawbreaker." (Madison Avenue admen aren't exactly artists--but on second thought, perhaps they are....) In the Chanel ad, a woman's perfectly lipsticked mouth nibbles on a single pearl necklace, while in Minter's image, a woman's perfectly lipsticked mouth clamps down on a strand of pearls. Only the beads of sweat on the Minter's woman's lips indicate that something a little subversive is going on. Otherwise, is there really any difference? (Image via Sfstation.com and Chanel)

Subversive Sell

The photo of artist Josephine Meckseper modeling in the New York Times Magazine may be the artist's cleverest creation yet. The magazine's Mother Day spread featured women wearing something that belonged to their mother along with top designers' clothing. In her installations, Meckseper likes to mix images of consumerism and political protest. Although the image of Meckseper is subtler than her art, it still hits the same plot points. Meckseper wears two necklaces: her mom's star pendant and her own creation, which she created by "[converting] the gold chain that the pendant was hanging on into an artwork called 'CDU-CSU,' mocking German right-wing politics by turning the two parties' logos into pendants," she says. Completing the high concept image, Meckseper wears a $2,290 Stella McCartney suit.

Yen for Yue

The New York Times can smell a winner. A few months ago, I questioned the Gray Lady's obsession with Chinese artist Yue Minjun. Within a week and a half, the Times published three articles or items on the artist. Well, yesterday Yue Minjun's "Goldfish" was sold at Sotheby's for $1.4 million, a record for the artist. Yue Minjun's paintings feature multiple self-portraits with a big smile and laughing. Not really my cup of tea. (Image via Chinadigitaltimes.net)

Superlative Superlatives

The critics' superlatives to describe Martín Ramírez are superlative. The New York Times' Roberta Smith proclaims that the Mexican artist is "simply one of the greatest artists of the 20th century," while The New Yorker's Peter Schjeldahl writes, "He’s one of my favorite artists, period." Some of you may be thinking, "Ramírez? Who dat?" He's a Mexican "outsider artist," i.e., no formal training and spent most of his life in mental institutions. The American Folk Art Museum is showcasing Ramírez's work, and the critics are in rapture. I'll have to see it to believe it. I have a slight problem with artists who wear their "self-taught" status like a mortar board. I look at the work and say, "Yup. He's self-taught all right." (Images via American Folk Art Museum)

Three Yues and Yue're In

The New York Times is in love! As I mentioned yesterday, the Times simply can't get enough of Chinese artist Yue Minjun. And today--for the third time in a week and a half--Yue is featured in yet again another article. What's going on here? I'm tempted to bite and go to the Chinese Institute and see what all the fuss is about. (Image via New York Times)

Deja Yue

Remember this name: Yue Minjun. He's a hot Chinese artist. If you read the New York Times, you're likely not to forget his name. Within the last week and a half, the Times has published two articles about the artist. Both stories were about the sizzling Chinese art market, and both featured photos of Yue laughing in front of his artwork. When I saw today's article, I felt that I had read about Yue before, so I spent an hour rifling through every magazine I own. After I searched the web, I discovered that the Times was the source of the earlier promotion. Why is the Times such a big cheerleader of Yue? Or are the Times arts editors unaware of what the others are publishing? (Images via New York Times)

Through a Glass, Nakedly

Photographer Tierney Gearon's recent gig for W magazine produced these images of Tobey Maguire. I caught Gearon's recent exhibit, "The Mother Project," last month, which I liked a lot. For the Maguire shoot, Gearon took off her clothes--for the sake of art, of course. "There was a big glass window in front of Tobey, and you could see my reflection when I was taking the picture," W quotes the photographer as saying. "So I decided to get naked to make the image more interesting." (Images via W magazine)

The Yawn of the New

I'm getting very bored with porn. Pornography--old and new--is now the be-all, end-all source material for top contemporary artists. In a recent New York Magazine profile, ultra-hot John Currin cites hardcore "old Danish porn" as a chief influence in his paintings now on view at the Gagosian Madison Ave. location. Yes, I know that American media is saturated with naked genitalia, but these works do not tell me anything new about our society or Currin's interpretation of it. I'd hate to give these artists (Lisa Yuskavage is another porn-mag copyist) the bad news, but these paintings don't shock me anymore; they merely make me yawn. (Image via New York Magazine, Erik T. Kaiser/Patrick Mcmullan)

Forget-Me-Not

These self-portraits by artist William Utermohlen as he descended into Alzheimer's Disease are amazing. Published into today's New York Times Science section, the works began in 1996 and ended in 2000. The accompanying article explains that Utermohlen started losing his spatial sense and the artwork became more abstract as his dementia increased. Utermohlen, who's 73, no longer paints and is in a nursing home. Sadly, Utermohlen will probably be remembered more for his "Alzheimer's Stage" than any of his previous work. (Image via Alecsoth.com)

The Rothko Reality Show

Mark Rothko's essays on art, "The Artist's Reality," has been published in paperback and received a rave review from the NY Sun. Here's some of that review:

Though I find myself seduced by the gorgeous, vibrating edges, I often feel that the larger color forms are staring out at me like wide-open mouths with not much to say. I have the complete opposite experience while reading the artist's writings - in which there may be some contradictory fuzziness around the edges but the center is always sound.

The reporter adds that "this is one of the most important documents written by an Abstract Expressionist--or by an American painter." With that statement, I'll have to add it to my evergrowing reading list.

Sold to You by Your Favorite Communist

Somewhere artist Frida Kahlo is weeping. Kahlo--a devout Communist and later Stalinist--is hawking Tequila to sucker hipsters and latinos who have a "Pasion por La Vida." This ad popped up in a recent New York Observer supplement, and, for Frida followers, it borders on blasphemy. According to Art for a Change, Frida's niece is the Dick Cheney at the controls of "The Frida Kahlo Corporation." That blog is urging for a boycott of the liquor.

I thought it might be more appropriate if the marketers used one of the following images in their next ad campaign:


Frida and Trotsky, who lived with her and Diego Rivera after Mexico granted him political asylum.


Frida protesting the ouster of Guatemalan president by the CIA.