(An Appropriate Distance)
FROM THE MAYOR'S DOORSTEP
by Piri Halasz

 

 

 

NO. 79.5: MARCH/APRIL: PROGRESS REPORT; ADVISORY (AS OF APRIL 10)....This isn’t a real column, as I am still hip-deep in preparing my manuscript for publication. Fact-checking and getting permissions are taking almost all of my time. The good news is that I did get a full refund on the publication package with iUniverse that expired in February, and have signed up for a new one that gives me until March 2009 to get my manuscript turned in – though I have every hope of doing so long before then.

 

Fact-checking & permissions are also draining emotionally. You don’t know how exasperating it can be to wait & wait for an application to be processed, and how much more exasperating (though so far rare) it is to get turned down. So – though I’ve seen some of the shows I advertised in my January 15 issue, I’m saving my reviews of them until a later issue when I can devote my full attention to them. Meanwhile, let me reassure my subscribers that this issue doesn’t count in terms of how many they’re entitled to. Only with Column No. 80 will we start counting again.

 

I shall just say that I much enjoyed Larry Poons at Jacobson Howard, Friedel Dzubas at Leslie Feely, Francine Tint at Tria, and the multi-faceted “Peace” at Sideshow. “Diebenkorn in New Mexico” was a disappointment, and carolana parlato at elizabeth harris was nice, but a bit slick.

 

SHOWS WORTH SEEING

(New York & Elsewhere)

 

I haven’t yet taken in “Courbet” at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, but it will be there until May 18, so I still have time. Another show at the Met that I did see and didn’t mention earlier but can now heartily recommend is “Poussin and Nature: Arcadian Visions.” This stellar survey of 17th century landscapes with figures will be on view until May 11.

 

In Washington, “Color as Field: American Painting, 1950-1975" is on view until May 26 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. To my mingled delight and amazement, Roberta Smith gave it a huge writeup in the New York Times – extremely sympathetic (if you can overlook the customary horse-feathers about historical inevitability and Greenbergian flatness). Little color illustrations, too! Here’s a link.

 

In Canada: Opening March 29 and viewable by appointment for weeks after was “Lambton II: Five Years Later” at Complex 76 in Edmonton ( Russell Bingham, Andrew French, Peter Hide, Terrence Keller, Sheila Luck, Ryan McCourt, Hilary Prince, Mitchel Smith and Rob Willms). Bingham also sent me a copy of the full-color catalogue for the last ECAS exhibition: elegant stuff! At art placement in Saskatoon will be small paintings from the ‘60s to the ‘90s by Dorothy Knowles (April 12-May 1). 

 

Along 57th Street are two shows of vets from the ‘40s that you might enjoy: Washburn has “Anne Ryan, collages” (through April 17). Ryan (1889-1954) worked small, not big, and in collage, not painting, but her work is still imbued with the abstract expressionist esthetic. At Michael Rosenfeld is “Seymour Lipton: Metal” (through May 17). Lipton (1903-1986) was another member of the abstract expressionist generation. He worked in wood initially, then around 1950 switched to Monel metal. This show is called “a survey of heroic metal forms from 1960 to 1980.”

 

On view in London is “‘Pondlife’ and Other Paintings” by Frank Bowling, at Poussin (through April 28). I’m told that it looks handsome; certainly the mini-catalogue is.

 

Arriving at Ameringer Yohe Fine Art is “Hans Hofmann: Poems & Paintings on Paper” (April 10-May 23). The catalogue is delightful, with lively, far-out reproductions, mostly from the ‘40s, and samples of Hofmann’s writings. English was clearly not his native language, but that only makes his poems more poetic.

 

Another show readers won’t want to miss is “Earning His Stripes: Kenneth Noland in the Sixties” at Leslie Feely Fine Art (May 9 through June 16 at least, maybe longer). These are horizontal stripe paintings that Noland made from 1966 through 1970, all from the artist’s personal collection & many never before shown. A blond one entitled “Via Shimmer” (1968) was already on view when I dropped by the gallery recently: ecru, beige, pale mauve, palest blue...delicious!

 

Gossip: In London, Gina Medcalf has won a Pollock-Krasner grant. Congratulations! In the March 31 New York Magazine, Lawrence Salander was profiled by James Panero, who – though obviously most interested in Salander’s financial woes & ignorant of the full extent of his exhibition record – conveyed the dealer’s love of art convincingly.

 

The big summer show that I look forward to – with eagerness & trepidation – is “Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940-1976" at The Jewish Museum (May 4-September 21; the St. Louis Art Museum, October 19-January 11, 2009 and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, February 13 to May 31). Billed as “the first major U.S. exhibition in 20 years to rethink Abstract Expressionism and the movements that followed,” it will have fifty key works by 31 artists–representing the perspectives of Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg. This means that besides the big names of the first generation, the show will include Caro, Frankenthaler, Louis, Noland, Olitski, David Smith and Anne Truitt (also – presumably representing Rosenberg’s taste – Lee Bontecou, Philip Guston, Grace Hartigan, Jasper Johns, Allan Kaprow, Joan Mitchell, Claes Oldenburg, Peter Saul and Saul Steinberg). Too bad Poons, Bannard, Dzubas, Bush and Hughto aren’t included: all had produced excellent work prior to the cutoff date of 1976, but apparently the show’s organizers perceive Frank Stella as representing Greenberg’s taste instead. Well, I did once hear Greenberg speak kindly of Stella’s early bronze paintings, but by the ‘80s he was calling the artist’s color “an authentic scandal” in Vogue.

 

None of the art historians or lesser curators associated with the catalogue or accompanying lectures and discussions could, to the best of my knowledge, be called formalist. To the extent that any of their names are familiar, they are nearly all postmodernists, but hey, I figure the idea here was to get fresh perspectives by using new faces (all except for Irving Sandler, who has been badmouthing Greenberg for decades, and gets both a catalogue essay & a seat on one of the panel discussions). I’m a tad afraid that the new faces may do little beyond parrot the usual misinterpretations of Greenberg that have attained such wide currency, but maybe I’m too pessimistic. Anyway, if the paintings are well-chosen, there should be a lot to like in the show itself

 

SO, FOR YOUR LISTENING PLEASURE....

                                                                              

Here are the lectures and discussions that seem to be of most interest to my readers. If you want to order tickets, you can do so at the museum website.

 

1) Tuesday daytime lectures on May 6, 13 and 20 at 11:30 am on “What is Abstract Expressionism?” by Joan Pachner, who did her dissertation on Tony Smith at the Institute of Fine Arts in the ‘80s, and has since published on George Segal, David Smith and Caro. First lecture, ab-ex’s origins; Second, its “diversity;” Third, reactions against it. Tickets: $45 for the series, $20 for a single lecture.

 

2) Panel Discussion, Thursday, May 8, 6:30 pm, “Art and American Culture at Mid-Century” About the social & cultural “context” for ab-ex. Panelists: Ann Douglas, professor of comp. lit. at Columbia who according to google has been working on a book about Cold War culture, esp. the film noir; Gary Giddins, author of a book on jazz, Anne Roiphe, best-selling feminist novelist who has a memoir forthcoming (presumably all about the ‘50s and ‘60s); and Sandler. Moderator: Morris Dickstein, teaches English at CUNY graduate center and author of histories of literary criticism and the ‘60s. I met Dickstein at the media preview for the Jewish Museum’s Freud show some years ago. He impressed me as a card-carrying New York intellectual who might conceivably be able to take this panel on beyond the usual guff about Cold War angst. Tickets: $15 general public, $12 students/over 65; $10 Jewish Museum members.

 

3) Panel Discussion, Thursday May 15, 6:30 pm, “Identity, Engagement, Judgment: Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg Then and Now” Panelists: David Joselit, chair of art history at Yale, author of books on Duchamp, Jenny Holzer and video art; Linda Norden curator of the art gallery at CUNY graduate center; has written on Robert Gober, Eva Hesse & Lucy Lippard, among many others of a similar kidney; Catherine Soussloff, teaches at the U. of Cal., Santa Cruz, books on the history of portraiture and the “myth” of the artist; Kenneth E. Silver, teaches at NYU (Washington Square), has written on the avant-garde in Paris in the ‘20s, and been involved in two fine shows at the Jewish Museum, on Soutine and on the artists of Montparnasse. Moderator is Michael Brenson, onetime New York Times reviewer. Brenson’s essay in the Guggenheim’s recent David Smith catalogue condemned Greenberg for having sold Smith’s sculptures instead of leaving them outdoors on the fields around the artist’s house (Rosalind Krauss, on the other hand, condemned Greenberg for leaving the sculptures outdoors – the man was damned if he did & damned if he didn’t). On the basis of these publications, I can’t see much hope for Greenberg, let alone Greenberg’s taste, but I’d love to be pleasantly surprised, and I do have one ray of hope: in 1981-82, Silver was junior advisor on my dissertation, & it included all the info about Greenberg later incorporated into the article on Greenberg I published in Arts in 1983. Will Silver remember any of this, I wonder? It was an awfully long time ago. Tickets: $15 to the general public; $12 to students/over 65; $10 Jewish Museum members.

 

BRIEFLY, POLITICS

 

In the Democratic race, Hillary and Barack Obama continue to duke it out. I voted for Hill in the New York primary, because I felt (and still feel) she has a better chance of beating John McCain, the Republican candidate presumptive, but if Obama gets the nomination I’ll sure vote for him in November & hope for the best. His big issue was the war in Iraq, but it’s a non-issue for many voters – the Times did a story recently on how the media aren’t giving the war nearly as much coverage anymore because people don’t want to see or hear about it. The economy is another matter. If it tanks really badly, even Obama could beat McCain. So far the economic situation has been serious but not disastrous, a recession not a depression – does one really hope for worse? In some book I read that politics went radical in the ‘30s because the middle class was impoverished by the Great Depression. Do we truly want that to happen again?

 

Meanwhile, here are 10 things you should know about McCain (but probably don’t), brought to my attention by MoveOn.org:

 

1. John McCain voted against establishing a national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now he says his position has “evolved,” yet he’s continued to oppose key civil rights laws.

2. According to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish than Bush on Iraq, Russia and China. Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan says McCain “will make Cheney look like Gandhi.”

3. McCain’s reputation is built on his opposition to torture, but he voted against a bill to ban waterboarding, and then applauded President Bush for vetoing that ban.

4. McCain opposes a woman’s right to choose. He said, “I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned.”

5. The Children’s Defense Fund rated McCain as the worst senator in Congress for children. He voted against the children’s health care bill last year, and then defended Bush’s veto of the bill.

6. He’s one of the richest people in a Senate filled with millionaires. The Associated Press reports he and his wife own at least eight homes! Yet McCain says the solution to the housing crisis is for people facing foreclosure to get a “second job” and skip their vacations.

7. Many of McCain’s fellow Republican senators say he’s too reckless to be commander-in-chief. One Republican senator said: “The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He’s erratic. He’s hothead. He loses his temper and he worries me.”

8. McCain talks a lot about taking on special interests, but his campaign manager and top advisers are actually lobbyists. The government watchdog group Public Citizen says McCain has 59 lobbyists raising money for his campaign, more than any of the other presidential candidates.