Man Ray, Observatory Time, The Lovers Peabody Essex Museum’s current show, Man Ray and Lee Miller, Partners in Surrealism, is part art exhibit and part psychological portrait of a relationship between two artists. While they were only together as a couple (in a very loosely defined sense) for a few years—from 1929 to 1932—the ramifications […]
Art
Harrows and Harvests
Cover of Gillian Welch’s last recording, The Harrow and the Harvest Life has rhythms and frequencies. Lots of them. And as I get older I am increasingly sensitized to the need to pay attention to what those are. Time to consider biodynamic agriculture? I’d say we need to consider biodynamic living. Plowing through to a […]
Show Highlights: In and Around Boston
A few personal highlights from shows in and near Boston: Ursula von Rydingsvard, Ocean Floor, 1996, cedar, graphite, and intestines (Photo courtesy of the Artist and Galerie Lelong. Photograph by Andy Ryan) Ursula von Rydingsvard Andy Goldsworthy Kysa Johnson deCordova Museum Lincoln MA From the museum’s intro to Ursula von Rydingsvard: Ursula von Rydingsvard works […]
Standing Alone: More on Solitude
The view of Coolidge Point near Manchester Massachusetts and home to my friend Laurel, a hermit artist extraordinaire. Being a 21st century Thoreauian is a singular stance. More on the theme of isolation, solitude, quiet (see the earlier post Where it Works.) Online artists and friends Walt Pascoe, Luke Storms and Holly Friesen directed me […]
Unvarnished
The pleasures of the minimal. Just the bare thing. Raw, open, essential. Unvarnished. Here are two minimal recent moments. One was indoors, at Carroll and Sons Gallery in Boston, and the other was the outdoors, in Utah. Damien Hoar De Galvan’s show, I Wish I had Something to Say, is like a cool drink in […]
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Unchained
Many of you have undoubtedly heard about the Chain Letter Show. The idea was a robust one—using the existing network of artists, create an international, artist-curated, pop up event at several locations around the world all at the same time. Ten artists were asked, and then they asked ten more, who then asked ten more. […]
Random Redux
Paris, 1970 Photo by Elliott Erwitt Maybe it happens to you like this: unexpected events and encounters often come in multiples. It’s as if random events are actually traveling through our lives in a wad. How many times has someone come to mind who I haven’t seen in years and then they suddenly appear at […]
Assessing the State of Visual Culture
The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art by Don Thompson, published in 2008, is one of the most evenhanded descriptions of the flamboyant, unpredictable, arcane—and at times, utterly exasperating—world of contemporary art. Thompson teaches marketing and economics and, refreshingly, doesn’t write from the point of view of someone who has been […]
Blank is Blank
Jerry Saltz in front of a piece by Takashi Murakami The last few months have been a period of burrowing down deep for me, of incubation and isolation. But now my show is up in Provincetown and a new body of work has emerged, I am back up on the surface again and getting re-acclimatized. […]
Show at Lyman-Eyer Gallery
My show at Lyman-Eyer Gallery opened on Friday. The work was hung beautifully, and the opening was an evening of old and new friends. Now I’m headed out of town for a few days, back on Wednesday. A few installation shots: