power slice

Interview link

luke.fidler@gmail.com (Luke Fidler) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 08:37:00 +0000

David Lynch speaks with Reed curator Stephanie Snyder.

Stumbled photo (will fill your eyes with joy)

luke.fidler@gmail.com (Luke Fidler) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:56:00 +0000

More on Fairey

luke.fidler@gmail.com (Luke Fidler) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:57:00 +0000

From the Wall Street Journal.

This Piece of Art Sucks 5

luke.fidler@gmail.com (Luke Fidler) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:55:00 +0000

You’ve seen it peeling off walls and marring the lawns of armchair liberals. Shephard Fairey’s iconic ‘Hope’ poster was the face of the Obama campaign, painting the president in day-glo red, white and blue (devaluing his blackness perhaps?) and characterizing him as the purveyor of Hope, Change, and Progress.

Mr. Fairey epitomizes the post-modern bottom-feeder who draws on legitimate tactics of appropriation for less than honorable reasons – to make a quick buck and ride the wave that someone, somewhere, with much more talent has started. While artists like Richard Prince and Sherrie Levine steal images to ask Deep and Important questions, Fairey plagiarizes relentlessly and without credit. After a great deal of waffling and misdirection, he admitted that his Obama poster reproduces, without permission, a photograph by another artist.

And yet he famously sued an Austin-based artist for doing something similar to his own imagery. His art, which now adorns the t-shirts of upscale clothing stores, appropriates the aesthetic of graffiti art to politicize his commercial efforts. As a cog in the political machine, his poster looks uncompromising. As a work of art, it’s unquestioning. Let us stand up for art and intellectual honesty; it’s high time to consign this piece of generic graphic design to the annals of Art That Sucks.

This Piece of Art Sucks 4

luke.fidler@gmail.com (Luke Fidler) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 03:24:00 +0000

The aim of this column is to skewer pretentiousness and honor the creative genius of artists who genuinely work to think outside the box, provoke critical thought, and attempt to create objects of beauty. Thomas Demand is sometimes one of them, but his photograph from 2008, Presidency II, lacks almost all of these qualities.

Demand painstakingly recreated the interior of the Oval Office out of paper and photographed it. Inventive yes, difficult surely, but more than an impressive display of labor and obsessive attention to detail? I think not. The latest artist to latch onto Obama’s tailcoats, Demand shows but doesn’t tell; if he stimulates critical inquiry, it’s more to do with our own notions of Obama and the relationship between the president and the press.

True, the piece is undoubtedly self-aware, calling attention to the limitations of perception, construction, and our own obsessive need to picture the intimate spaces of celebrities. But as I’ve tried to argue in previous columns, art should do work rather sit back smugly and point out our own shortcomings. Demand’s photograph represents the work of an artist who has found a formula and stuck with it to the point of absurdity. Really, who needs a picture of a model that apes real life? An army of French philosophers made the same points forty years ago. Memo to art; let’s move on.

Poster art.

luke.fidler@gmail.com (Luke Fidler) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:33:00 +0000

Alphonse Mucha designed art nouveau posters, which remain compelling examples of graphic design. An online repository can be found here.

This Piece of Art Sucks pt. 3 [Published in The Quest]

luke.fidler@gmail.com (Luke Fidler) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:57:00 +0000

This week starts with a thanks and an apology. An apology that I missed a column last week, and a thanks to everyone who emailed me with hideous pieces of art. You all have great taste for awful pictures.

This week’s piece is by Kenneth Noland, the poster child for High Modernism. In ‘Sarah’s Reach’ he paints three lines in slightly different colors on a blank background. Perhaps compensating for something, Noland made the painting nearly eight feet tall. There’s very little to separate ‘Sarah’s Reach’ from a typical wallpaper design, except wallpaper usually has more pizzazz.

It may be big, it may be boring, but never fear! Noland backed up his art with a mountainous heap of theory. It’s a wonder his canvases could still stand under the weight of the multisyllabic words critics heaped on them. According to the tenets of High Modernism, Noland’s piece is Good because it acknowledges it’s status as a picture (flat), as painted (colorful), and as a piece destined for a gallery (hence the white background).

To be fair, ‘Sarah’s Reach’ is like the airplane food of Noland’s oeuvre. It’s light on substance and heavy on convention, and over the years he’s painted far more interesting, moving, and aesthetically pleasing works that don’t rely on convoluted theories. Nevertheless, it deserves to be singled out as an example of Bad Art that gives Good Art a Bad Name. Art should be more than an illustrated intellectual argument; that, my friends, is a diagram.

In that spirit, go forth and submit RAW applications. Don’t let art that sucks overwhelm art that doesn’t.

This Piece of Art Sucks pt. 2 [Published in The Quest]

luke.fidler@gmail.com (Luke Fidler) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:55:00 +0000

This column, here to help you navigate around the hype and hypocrisy of the art world, would simply be incomplete without an informed condemnation of Damien Hirst’s spot and spin paintings. These paintings look suspiciously like the artist invited a group of unsuspecting grade-schoolers to his studio, fed them all skittle-molly cocktails, and had them do their worst with paint and paper. And then did it again. And again. And several thousand identical paintings later he still sells them in droves to avid collectors.

He is the world’s second-most expensive living artist, who sued British Airways for painting spots on their adverts. The man apparently believes that he owns the artistic and commercial rights to round blobs of color, and makes no bones about the financial motive behind his artwork. Largely devoid of talent, Hirst has made a career out of actively demonstrating the power of money to determine art’s validity in the contemporary marketplace.

Paying other artists to paint spots, then re-selling them for a profit, is indeed an interesting concept. But Hirst has made a career out of it, reducing artistic practice to a business transaction. He is an investor, and a good one, but the lack of aesthetic complexity in his spot and spin paintings sets them apart from far more interesting conceptual artists like Sol LeWitt. They aren’t much more visually engaging than the faux-art digital canvases perpetually on sale (for reduced price) at Target and Urban Outfitters.

Put simply, Hirst’s spot and spin paintings are little more than business ventures that self-consciously defraud the art world. It is time to tell Damien Hirst that these travesties against vision do, indeed, suck.

This Piece of Art Sucks pt. 1 [Published in The Quest]

luke.fidler@gmail.com (Luke Fidler) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:49:00 +0000

Here’s the premise: I have been expiring from heat, starvation, and general intellectual fatigue on a desert island for the last twenty years and am on the point of kicking the proverbial bucket when lo and behold! As the Good Lord comes to claim my soul, my last earthly vision is a piece of art that is so bad it actually devalues the canvas it’s painted on.

Some art is good. Some art is great. Banksy’s Luxury Loft sucks. Telling dead horses and camels that a ‘Luxury Loft Complex is Coming Soon’ is neither subtle nor witty, and probably clichéd enough that Metallica would consider it for an album cover. Sue Coe has already called attention to the hypocrisy of nationalist sloganeering, and Guernica is a far more visceral reminder of the raw tragedy of war. Banksy, your slickly ‘ironic’ art is part of the same culture of consumption and manipulation that you purport to criticize. If I Luxury Loft was my living sight I would probably stab out my eyes post-mortem.

Link

luke.fidler@gmail.com (Luke Fidler) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:31:00 +0000

Interview with Nan Goldin.

Cool website...

luke.fidler@gmail.com (Luke Fidler) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 09:28:00 +0000

I am in love with this oddly charming website. It collects polaroids from around the world of people with the one thing they want to do before they die.

Reclaiming the streets of New York.

luke.fidler@gmail.com (Luke Fidler) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 09:36:00 +0000

Must-see

luke.fidler@gmail.com (Luke Fidler) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 09:25:00 +0000

Joseph Beuys as a political pop star. Yes please.

Thomas Demand

luke.fidler@gmail.com (Luke Fidler) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 09:16:00 +0000

Loving Thomas Demand right now. For those who don't know, Demand builds incredibly detailed sets from paper, photographs them, then destroys them.

John Brodie

luke.fidler@gmail.com (Luke Fidler) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 02:40:00 +0000

Powerslice favorite John Brodie posts images from his new book on his website.

Art column

luke.fidler@gmail.com (Luke Fidler) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 02:38:00 +0000

I am now writing a weekly column as art correspondent for The Quest. Which I will reproduce here.

Looking at pictures

luke.fidler@gmail.com (Luke Fidler) — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 15:50:00 +0000

After spending the last two and half months as a tour guide at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, I've developed a real appreciation for visitors who know next to nothing about art. As an art major, surrounded by intellectuals, it can be strange to find yourself discussing paintings with people who have never read Baudrillard. It's been a wake-up call to find that so many people visit our institution out of love for Cole's painting, rather than from any academic program or agenda; guiding people through his artwork has been a lesson in appreciating the beauty of art. In a sense it's been a reminder of why I chose to study art in the first place. One of my professors told me that art historians often neglect to simply look at pictures, tending to forget what makes those images appealing and capable of carrying meaning and commentary.

So here's to just looking at art.

A bit of comic relief

luke.fidler@gmail.com (Luke Fidler) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 04:48:00 +0000

Justin Reed re-imagines movies on canvas. This is his take on 80's action heroes.

Shows outside NYC that deserve a visit

luke.fidler@gmail.com (Luke Fidler) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:28:00 +0000

Tributes to Ed Ruscha at Albright-Knox, including an interesting anecdote about Ruscha and James Frey.
Frederic Church's oil sketches from his country seat of Olana are still on display, offering a window into the very personal working process of one of the giants of 19th century American painting.

Thoughts on Jean Shin

luke.fidler@gmail.com (Luke Fidler) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 04:34:00 +0000

The more I see her work, the more I'm convinced that Jean Shin doesn't want us safe. By transforming the detritus of everyday living, the threads that make up comfortable home existence, into almost-ironic parodies of cultural archetypes she disturbs just a little - but enough to rock the boat.

Sound Wave (top), a 2007 installation at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, takes the implicit uncertainty of the sea and thrusts it into the living room. A subject rich with symbolic potential for artists like Ryder and Homer, the sea variously stood for the unconscious, the unknown, and the a landscape free of nationalist overtones for American artists at the close of a 19th century shaken by Freud, Darwin, and Civil War. In Winslow Homer's Early Morning After the Storm (detail below) waves become a lyrical expression of fresh calm. With warped records and brushstrokes, Shin disengages the wave from the naturalistic overtones of the sea, co-opting Homer's calm and making us painfully aware of just how easily we have subjugated the environment in our cultural food chain.

Links round-up

luke.fidler@gmail.com (Luke Fidler) — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 21:06:00 +0000

Jonathon Jones' confessions.
An artist with multiple personalities...imagine Monet and Banksy living in your head. With Tracey Emin hanging about for comic relief.
I'm upset I'm missing this. If you're in Portland from the 14th to the 23rd, make room in your schedule for The Manor of Art.
There's a childish charm to the art of Raquel Aparicio (top).

Postcards from New York: Pen and Parchment at the Met

luke.fidler@gmail.com (Luke Fidler) — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 15:29:00 +0000

Pen and Parchment: Drawing in the Middle Ages is a welcome foray into the intricacies of Medieval drawing, where cloistered monks explored the world of the spiritual through lenses at once sacred and profane. Literally diagramming creation, these books and sheets boldly dissect genealogies of time and space before Newton. From the illuminated inks of psalters to architectural sketches, the exhibition presents an impressive selection of the various types of Medieval drawing and definitely lured me to the Cloisters to see more...

Taking a break...

luke.fidler@gmail.com (Luke Fidler) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 22:27:00 +0000

There will be no posts as I explore all the art that New York City has to offer over the week.

Have a great Monday!

More in remembrance of Dash Snow

luke.fidler@gmail.com (Luke Fidler) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 13:24:00 +0000

Photos via the Dash Snow Community Memorial Show at Deitch Projects.