February 3, 2001
Issue No.13
archive

Table of Contents
Turnscope at Green Street
ABCD Arts Boston Contemporary Dialogues
Color Field at MFA
Mailbag

Turnscope

An Installation by Ellen Driscoll and Nick Tobier

The Gallery @ Green Street, Jamaica Plain, Boston

Through February

Reaching Boston’s non profit, alternative exhibition space, The Gallery @Green Street is a piece of cake. Just take the Orange Line on the MBTA system to Green Street, hop on the escalator and at the upper level, pass through the fare collecting turnstiles and immediately confronting you is the gallery.

Originally this street level space of this T stop in a traditionally working class but increasingly upscale, yuppified neighborhood, home to many artists, was intended for some retail venture. But that never quite happened and the space was vacant for quite some time. A group of artists approached the management of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) and came to an agreement to allow the use of the space as a non profit gallery.

In the past few years the gallery has gained a reputation for presenting lively alternative exhibitions of primarily emerging artists. From time to time there have been guest curators. One of the more memorable examples was a show curated by Christoph Grunenberg, then a curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art under former director Milena Kalenovska, who had known the curator from her London days. The incoming ICA director, Jill Medvedow, quickly and summarily fired him, and scoffed up a young British born curator, Jessica Morgan, who had been on the job just a matter of months at the Worcester Art Museum. Morgan has been viewed as a good hire for Medvedow whose strength seems to lie in administration. But Grunenberg also landed on his feet as a curator for the new Tate Modern in London. Recently he has been appointed director of the Tate Liverpool.

So, as you will infer, Green Street has its finger in the pie as a cutting edge venue. At the opening last night, of Turnscope, by Ellen Driscoll anf Nick Tobier, in their first collaboration, a small and cozy but ultra hip group gathered to carrot sticks and a choice of designer beers. Not bad for a trip on the T. Among opening nighters was Bill Arning, enjoying his first night out since New Years Eve. His first show at the List Center for the Visual Arts at MIT opens this week and it has been six weeks of round the clock labor with an ultra complex installation. He promises that the catalogue, with installation shots of the MIT show, will be out by opening night this Thursday. Good luck Bill. After that he wants to take some time off. Really.

The exhibition by Driscoll is something of a homecoming. She was actually brought up in Jamaica Plain. Her uncle, Edgar Driscoll, was for many years the art critic for the Boston Globe. Now she teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design, in nearby Providence. And, ironically, she has just completed a public art project in New York’s Grand Central Station, "As Above So Below." Given her Irish Catholic roots perhaps Driscoll is reconfiguring post modern conceptions of Stations of the Cross. Whatever.

Another way of looking at the New Work, with Tobier, who teaches at Alfred University, in New York, is a variant of, "As the World Turns."

In a clever and comical interaction with the T’s turnstiles, just a few steps away, the artists have created an enormous turnstile like contraption that dominates the gallery space.

There is a raised platform, wheelchair accessible by the way, that brings one to a turnstile. There are four spokes that seems to be fashioned from oars. By pushing against one in a slow circle this in turn rotates a spoked wheel on the ceiling which in turn meshes with the spokes of another wheel attached to a wall. The two wheels interface at a 90 degree angle so the turning of one rotates the other.

The net result of this mechanical device, however, may only be perceived on the other side of the wall, invisible to the person performing the work of turning the. On the other side is a wind mill like wheel with 8 by 10 translucent photographs attached to the spokes. These, are, one by one, passed by a light box that briefly illuminates them, depending upon the speed of the rotating wheel. This is also visible to passersby through the gallery’s plate glass windows. Green Street often exploits this device of enticing the interest of casual neighbors with relatively little interest in the arts. These strategies have appeared to work.

The images on the wind mill also further reflect local interest. The images were taken within a half mile radius of the gallery. They are rather non descript details of houses, sineage and urban elements. Through photoshop and other means the images also have orange circles which picks up the theme that the Green Street stop is on the Orange Line. All politics, or in this case art, is local.

The artist, of course, wore orange. She with stretch pants, and he a colorful shirt. Cool.

ABCD: Arts Boston Contemporary Dialogues

The third and final panel of the first season of ABCD, Arts Boston Contemporary Dialogues, was presented recently at the C. Walsh Theater, at Suffolk University. The theme of the evening, which I chaired, was Critical Conditions. There was a strong and enthusiastic turnout of some 100 plus artists, curators, gallerists and collectors. That’s good for a Thursday night in January. And the dialogue among the panelists, with the audience invited to interact from the beginning of the program, proved to be a lively format.

This first season of ABCD the participants included, in addition to Suffolk University, The Rose Art Museum, at Brandeis University, which presented the topic of Globalism, and MIT"s List Center for the Visual Arts, which invited a panel of alternative galleries of which it appears there are some 20 in the Boston Area.

Already plans are forming for next year. The three founding institutions will return next Fall and they will be joined by the De Cordova Museum and Sculpture Park, as well as the Metropolitan College, Arts Administration program, of Boston University. Other institutions are being approached about potentially joining the ABCD series of panels and programs related to issues of the Boston visual arts community. This is an opportunity not only to address common concerns but also to help toward building a stronger community in the arts.

Color-Field Painting Reconsidered

Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts Shows Collection Highlight

Of America’s handful of world class, encyclopedic museums Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts (founded in 1871 a year before New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art) houses the least impressive collection of 20^th century art. Its policy has been that the only good artists are dead ones. Further, Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art, while just slightly younger than the Museum of Modern Art, was founded as a non collecting Kunsthalle.

Back in 1971, the MFA updated its Neanderthal policy toward modern art by appointing its first contemporary curator, Kenworth Moffett, who left the museum in 1984, and later served as director of the Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art. And, in a dramatic turn of events, the ICA, which is planning to build a 60,000 square foot facility, recently announced that it will start a permanent collection.

Experts argue that this is too little and absurdly too late -- considering Boston’s status as a cultural and educational center, while encouraging,

With very limited resources, Moffett boldly and bravely launched a collection of contemporary art in a museum and city that was historically indifferent to this activity. The down side is that he collected with narrowly defined interest and taste. Moffett was a disciple of Clement Greenberg and Formalism. Accordingly, he filled the storage racks of the MFA with endless acres of Color-Field painting. This included a number of works from the estate of Morris Louis.

At the height of this activity, in the mid 1970s, Formalism and the dominance of Greenberg’s influence were at their peak. What followed was a revolution against Greenberg and the artists that he championed. This helped to topple Moffett who had distanced himself from Greenberg, a very difficult man in his last years, but remained loyal to his critical positions. Moffett as keeper of the Greenberg flame went on to promote a movement of, New New Painters.

Now that those epic art wars of years past have subsided the MFA has mounted an exhibition showcasing Moffett’s acquisitions. Perhaps, enough time has gone by that we may look at this decorative, abstract work of epic proportions, vibrant expanses of thin paint and bright color, with a fresh eye. And, to be fair to Ken, for whom I have enormous respect as a scholar and colleague, how different this collection would look with its intended centerpiece, Jackson Pollock’s, "Lavender Mist," which the stupid MFA trustees and their then ignorant director, Merrill Reuppel, rejected for acquisition. This Pollock masterpiece was acquired by the National Gallery just weeks after being vetoed by the MFA. File under spilled milk.

Today, the selection of works by Morris Louis more than hold their own. Clearly, he was one of the great painters of his generation. In terms of vision and originality he towers over his peers. Except, perhaps, Kenneth Noland, who is here poorly represented with none of his signature targets or chevrons. Today, ironically, Cady Noland is better know than her father, but that may change.

As to Friedl Dzubas and Jules Olitski? Thanks, but no thanks. Time has not served them well. Their painting looks thin in content and labored in execution. And Olitski’s sculpture? Dreadful. The pits. Ugh.

Jack Bush died relatively young so one may only speculate how this widely respected artist might have developed. In the case of Helen Frankenthaler, however, it is all to clear. A career that started brilliantly with, Mountains and Sea (collection National Gallery), devolved into interior decoration. The earlier work shows some grit and struggle that apparently just fizzled. As John Yau famously remarked her work just went on, " Cruise control."

The great and wonderful rediscovery of this show is the work of Larry Poons. During the MFA’s Monet in the 20^th century exhibition, several years ago, there was a sidebar show connecting the epic, gutsy, richly textured Poons paintings to the late Water Lillies. Now, seeing Poons in the context of Color-Field Painting, the experience is riveting. His surfaces with their richly textured color and paint are tremendously fluid and inventive.

This timely survey reveals that, while Color-Field painting will never again dominate contemporary art, its stock, having plunged to zilch, is back on the rise. And, while we continue to debate the influence of Formalism, clearly, Greenberg and Moffett truly believed in the integrity of the work. Today, that’s saying a lot.

Mailbag

Hamza Walker, a curator at the Renaissance Society in Chicago, wrote to correct an error in the headline for issue 12 of Maverick. "The ICA Boston’s exhibition of Olafur Elliason is not his museum debut (first museum survey perhaps). Oalfur did a site specific project at the Art Institute of Chicago (organized by James Rondeau) and he was in the most recent Carnegie International."

When I wrote back to thank him for the information I stated that I had only quoted from the ICA press release. I noticed that some of colleagues had made the same mistake in their pieces. He replied that this is not the first such instance for the ICA which, for example, continues to claim to be the oldest non collecting Kunsthalle for contemporary art in America. Although recently they ended this streak by stating that henceforth they will collect. He stated that (the Renaissance Society), "We’ve got them beat by at least 15 years."

I forwarded to him the documenta coverage (Maverick issues 9-11) and he responded that, "Actually I did see the, ‘epic documenta’coverage and found it one of the few substantive (genuine non-commercial information) things to come through the ether."

In rejecting a 1000 word version of the Okqui Enwzer interview, Walter Robinson, editor of Art Net, expressed a different opinion. "…The stuff you actually got out of the guy doesn’t impress me that much- though his plans for a series of shows leading up to Documenta (actually documenta is lower case walter) is interesting. Wish I could figure out what they are exactly- it’s not that clear." Not shows actually, but what appear to be colloquia including presentations of film and video that will not necessarily be included in Kassel.

Responding to my claim of having a "scoop" with the documenta coverage Jason Kaufman, a colleague doing a fellowship some where deep in America, and a writer for the Art Newspaper, informed me that he had gotten a detailed press release about plans for documenta prior to reading the material in Maverick. An artist told me at an opening that he had enjoyed the coverage but had heard it all from Enwezer last summer when he spoke at Skowhegan School of Art in Maine. Among other things my friend David Bonetti, a critic from San Francisco, just found it all boring. But he never gives me much credit which is why I like him.

In other news from the Left Coast, gallerist Robert Berman, replied to an e mail by saying that the lights are still on and he is off to Stockholm. A good place to wait out the imminent demise of California. Los Angeles-based artist, Delia Brown, who had a successful and controversial show last fall at DAmelio Terras, in Chelsea, sold out, slammed by that prig Michael Kimmelman, in the New York Times, tracked me down. "Someone found that great little write-up you did on my show in November and e mailed it to me on the Nyartsmagazine website, I really enjoyed it, as well as the good thrashing you gave to various shows. I never thought I might be seen as the Danielle Steele of the artworld, but I think I can hack that." She has been identified as one of the new hot artists in the latest issue of the ultra-obtuse, Art Forum.

One of those shows I gave a "good trashing to" was that boring Sol Lewitt exercise at the Whitney. That miffed Boston gallerist, Barbara Krakow, a buddy of Lewitt, who has one of his murals painted in her home. How suburban chic. We had a bit of a back and forth from which I don’t budge an inch. She referenced some of the kind things that had been said about Sol by my betters. But hey, a cube is just a square in 3-D. My cutting remarks pale in comparison to the full monty treatment of Lewitt by Robert Hughes in Time. True, I didn’t build my argument regarding Lewitt’s work. But I remember years ago, when I was living in NY, reading a John Canaday review in the Times that consisted of a single word, "No." I rushed to see the show, but have now forgotten what it was about.

-30-

Y’All Come Back