On the New York Times Year in Review page for Art, Holland Cotter takes a tour d’horizon of the artworld, “When Art Stayed Too Long At the Fair,” and laments.

Once, we might have turned to contemporary art for alternative energy. But in 2006, it just complacently provided blasts of commercial triumphalism. The art fair matured into a kind of joke, a revenge on everything 1990s, with parties replacing politics and skill valued over ideas… But what’s the point of kvetching? Art has always been attracted to money, and vice versa. And it has almost always been a servant to the elite, an advertisement for the status quo. Every so often art forcefully and collectively proposes alternative models — but 2006, at least as played out in New York, was not such a time… So maybe we should stop pestering art to be some Utopian undertaking, some zone for alternative thoughts and forms, and just enjoy it for the high-energy, no-impact game of trivial pursuit it has become.

Following that logic, everyone who chose the arts over more lucrative (or, certainly, more predictably lucrative) professions is essentially wasting their time entertaining fashionistas and churning out tchotchkes until the next crash. I’m hoping Cotter’s playing devil’s advocate and trying to provoke a debate. Because if he’s a) serious and b) correct in his analysis then the artworld’s fucked. At least for now. Thoughts?

Tyler Green’s 2006 Top 10 list at Modern Art Notes had me wishing I made it to Los Angeles and Washington this year, but his take on Amy Sillman’s exhibiton at Sikkema Jenkins left me quizzical. He writes:

“The best contemporary painting show of the year. If Sillman were a younger male, then museums would be falling over themselves to show her work. (Similarly: Marilyn Minter.) Sillman should have already had a Hirshhorn Directions-level show somewhere.”

At first I thought to myself that young (and youngish) women painters are not exactly invisible. To wit, and in no particular order Julie Mehretu, Elizabeth Peyton, Dana Schutz, Inka Essenhigh, Laura Owens, Jenny Saville and recent Turner Prize winner Tomma Abts all have strong markets and media attention. But then I realized that as far as I can recall these seven have had relatively little museum attention. That’s an offhand memory sweep without doing any actual research (hey, it’s still the holidays), but if if Tyler says women painters are under-represented in museums, I’ll assume it’s right, given his mania for all things musea.

But, wait, does this mean that museums are less receptive to women than either the market or the arts media?

Appropriately enough for Boxing Day, the NY Times today featured a review from its cultural Man in Europe, Alan Riding, on former French cultural attache Frédéric Martel’s combative new book “Culture in America.” Riding quotes Martel saying:

“What really annoys me is the way [the French] cultural elite uses ideology to protect its privileges. It says that our culture defines a certain idea of France, that the alternative is Americanization. But it’s really only defending itself against the popular classes. We cannot have 10 percent of our population stemming from immigration and deny them their culture….we don’t need a minister defining culture. We need thousands of people defining culture. Power should flow bottom-up, not top-down. That’s the debate I want to provoke in the new year.”

I agree with Martel that France’s contemporary scene has suffered radically from the sclerotic effects of its centralized museum system and the dominance of the Frac. And the people hurt most are probably French artists. If you stack up France vs Germany (or even Switzerland) on the international scene, it’s sad how Read More »

In case you’re not an E-Flux subscriber, this morning’s announcement was “ArtReview:Digital goes video,” another step in the London-based magazine’s campaign to distinguish itself from other printed art mags by embracing all things digital.

Having previously set up the possibility for a fully digital subscription, the magazine now announces that “each new ArtReview:Digital will come with videos, including gallery and studio visits, interviews with artists and multimedia art projects specially made for the magazine.”

Clearly in the YouTube era, and following the wildfire viral spread in the artworld of the Sotheby’s preview video starring Tobias Meyer, it’s a logical step. What comes next? Maybe an artworld-only social networking side, in the spirit of MySpace and Small World. Although when it comes to artists per se, the Saatchi Gallery has first-mover advantage on that front. (In an interesting media-insider sidenote, the man spearheading Art Review’s drive toward digital is editorial director John Weich. On the Saatchi side, former Art Review editrix-in-chief Rebecca Wilson has played an active role in developing and promoting the website after being sacked by Weich last spring.)

Given the fact that most art-magazine economics trend scarily into the red, I’m curious to see whether the added cost of producing digital content will be borne by the publishers or whether it will instead become part of the extra work journalists are expected to do as part of producing their print pieces.

New York, NY - From the Los Angeles Times (via artsjournal.com) comes this week’s ludicrous Putting the ‘art’ in party, which I skimmed twice looking for elements of the super-vibrant LA arts scene. The closest I got was this pablum:

At Marvimon House, a cavernous former car showroom turned chic event space located in the shadow of Chavez Ravine, guests entering “Baby’s All Grown Up” were confronted first by a paparazzi-style photographer snapping pictures of everyone who entered the event, then by a boom-mounted digital video camera inside that swooped through the crowd in an effort to record the action — but also to “challenge the conventional definition of an art exhibition,” according to curator/co-organizer Veronica Fernandez, a freelance curator and art advisor. “It’s a celebration of art but at the same time, it’s poking fun at the entire thing,” said Fernandez, who marked her 28th birthday that night. “It’s cynical.”

Art world grandees, a smattering of art school students and some big-ticket collectors — 150 people in all, most of whom paid $99 to attend — supped on a roundelay of gourmet hors d’oeuvres created from recipes by famous artists (post-Impressionist Paul Cézanne’s seared albacore crudo with citrus marinated jicama salad was one of the highlights, as was the fifth course: meatloaf sandwich à la Abstract Expressionist Robert Motherwell). Music came courtesy of the alt-country band Pillbilly Nights and DJ Eddie Ruscha (whose namesake father, Ed, is a certified pop art superstar).

I’m wondering if anyone from LA has a picture of the meatloaf a la Motherwell?

Seriously, though, this sounds like everything I least liked Read More »

There has been tsunami of blogging on Art Basel Miami Beach. New York magazine team-blogged it; Culturegrll blogged it without even coming; and bloggers from all over the artworld took their swings, too (links roundup from dean-of-the-art-blogs Modern Art Notes). Thus, I see no need to add anything more on the specifics of the fair. Especially given how much I wrote for the Art Newspaper’s daily edition.

There has been tsunami of blogging on Art Basel Miami Beach. New York magazine team-blogged it; Culturegrll blogged it without even coming; and bloggers from all over the artworld took their swings, too (links roundup from dean-of-the-art-blogs Modern Art Notes). Thus, I see no need to add anything more on the specifics of the fair. Especially given how much I wrote for the Art Newspaper’s daily edition.

Pulling back the camera a little, I think the central weirdness for the everyday artworld types during ABMB was the sense of having been pushed aside at our own party. I’m still struggling for the right metaphor to capture what’s happened. Some people suggested that ABMB is becoming the artworld’s Cannes Film Festival, which mutated from a cinema connoisseur’s event into a yacht-jammed socialite clusterfuck that happens to have lots of film stars in the mix.

Others suggest a process akin to urban gentrification, in which the popularity of the art world (see VF/W’s December issues) and Read More »

Found myself idly channel flipping at 1am last night here in Beijing (sad I know) and came across “The Art Auction” a regular TV series covering (last night at least) a chinese contemporary art sale held recently at Poly Art Auction. The entire auction seemed to be covered (I didn’t stay to watch the whole thing) with a post-buy discussion (for each piece sold!) by a two man expert panel back in the studio. As far as I could work out with my nascent Mandarin they were discussing bid prices, people in the room and reasons for interest or lack thereof. I think this was the recent record breaking sale by Poly Art Auction. The commentators certainly seemed excited.

I mention this because it is an interesting example of the government here indirectly supporting the promotion of contemporary Chinese Art and Culture as a means of boosting pride in the country, and supporting social cohesion (through pride and nationalistic fervour) in general. Poly Art Auctions is owned by the same Chinese State Owned Enterprise that owns the Poly Art Museum (reputedly better than some of the directly state owned museums) here in Beijing. The programme, and other Chinese state owned media, cover each new record price set for a Chinese artist as an indication of the rise in stature of Chinese Art in general, paralleling the rise of China in other domains in the world. Buyers at these local auctions come from all over the Asian world (a recent record Chinese work was bought by an Indonesian Chinese businessman) but many are young succesful businessmen with new money. The heat of the contemporary market, and the source of the new money, parallels current (Art) affairs in the West. The government (indirect) support of rising prices does not. Another interesting factor in todays market bubble.