NEWSgrist - where spin is art
An e-zine covering the arts since 2000
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Vol.5, no.31
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read it on the blog:
http://newsgrist.typepad.com
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Saturday, December 18, 2004
Gingerbread Laptop
Gingerbreadlaptop
{Image source; via BoingBoing}
NEWSgrist wishes everyone a happy holiday – see you in 2005!
Saturday, December 18, 2004 at 05:23 PM in Misc. | Permalink:
http://newsgrist.typepad.com/underbelly/2004/12/gingerbread_lap.html
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Agnes Martin, RIP
[image: Trumpet 1967
Acrylic and graphite on canvas
72 x 72 inches (182.9 x 182.9 cm)]
via Artnet:
AGNES MARTIN, 1912-2004
Agnes Martin, 92, leading Minimalist painter whose simple gridded
canvases have a Zen intensity, died at her home at the Plaza de Retiro in
Taos, N.M., on Dec. 16. Born in Canada, Martin became a U.S. citizen in
1950 and had her first solo exhibition at Betty Parsons Gallery in New
York in 1958. In 1967 she settled in New Mexico. She had retrospective
exhibitions organized by the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (1991) and the
Whitney Museum of American Art (1992). She has been represented by
PaceWildenstein since 1975.
Here is an excerpt from the NYTimes obit by Holland Cotter:
Agnes Martin, an American painter whose luminous fields of pale color
traversed by hand-drawn pencil lines preserved the Romantic spirit of
Abstract Expressionism and prefigured the austerities of Minimalism, died
yesterday in a retirement community in Taos, N.M.
She was 92 and had lived in New Mexico for many years. Her death was
announced by the chairman of the PaceWildenstein gallery, Arne Glimcher,
her friend and longtime dealer.
In New York in the 1950's and 60's, Ms. Martin was an integral part of a
small, brilliant, diverse community of artists - Jasper Johns, Ellsworth
Kelly and Robert Rauschenberg among them - who lived in derelict
19th-century shipping lofts in Lower Manhattan and created a new postwar
American art.
Yet Ms. Martin was fundamentally a loner. In 1967, when her New York
career was taking off, she abruptly left the city, wandered the country
for months in a pickup and camper, and stopped making art for seven years.
She finally settled in New Mexico, building an adobe house with her own
hands on a remote mesa where in winter she was snowed in for weeks at a
time. After she resumed painting in 1974 her reputation grew and took on
the aura of a legend, and her work was widely collected. She became an
inspiration to younger artists, from Eva Hesse to Ellen Gallagher,
attracted to her undemonstrative but intensely personal art. […]
via Modern Art Notes:
The show up now at Dia:Beacon, The Agnes Martin Gallery (complete with
video) at the Harwood Museum of Art in Taos, NM.
Read Tyler Green's appreciation piece.
MAN also points us to more links at greg.org:
"Agnes Martin: Five Decades," Zwirner and Wirth
On the artist in Taos: Lillian Ross meets with Agnes Martin
Art worth crossing the street for
Agnes Martin: Homage to Life, what turned out to be her final show at Pace
Wildenstein, where she broke with her traditional grid and painted
geometric shapes that recalled her earliest work.
Saturday, December 18, 2004 at 10:30 AM in Current Affairs | Permalink:
http://newsgrist.typepad.com/underbelly/2004/12/agnes_martin_ri.html
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Friday, December 17, 2004
Eyewash DVD Release
via PalladioMovie.com:
The Forward Motion Theatre presents:
another mixed cocktail of Visuals and Music from
EYEWASH in New York City
11 new tracks! Over 1 hour of original IDM, house, ambient music
DVD NTSC Region-Free $20.00 US pre-order: shipping Dec 30, 2004
featured artists: BILL JONES and BEN NEILL
Bill Jones is the founder of Artbyte Magazine, and created NiteNite a
midi-controlled video installation at Sandra Gering Gallery. His long-time
composer/collaborator Ben Neill (six degrees records, astralwerks) is no
less a designer and artist and re-engineered his 3-belled mutantrumpet to
crontol 4 laptops triggering Jones' video.
Although a commercial artist, Neill refuses to allow his creativity to
flow one-way out of the underground scene and released Automotive, a
full-length album based on jingles originally written for Volkswagen
commercials . Jones and Neill have completely erased the line between
admen and hopeful artists by presenting their collaborative VW remixes at
the Sundance Film Festival. Their new theater-media project Palladio
premieres in Glasgow in February before coming to NYC's Symphony Space.
Based on the novel of the same name, it remixes a complex love triangle
caught between DJ/VJ electroarts-culture and the sell-all world of
advertising, a subject they no doubt know intimately.
Colorbar remix is the first track on the EyeWash2 DVD, and Jones makes a
playful (almost Warhol-esque) meditation on the most mundane of editor's
preroll, while Neill expands the standard test tone into a soulful yet
somehow breezy soundscape of unfinished guitar chords and intelligent
beats.
full track listings: video + audio
Bill Jones + Ben Neill
VJ Moto + Tampopo
Chris Jordan + PH-10 Helmut Vision
Miixxy + Glomag
Daniel Vatsky + Mike Berk
Peter Kirn with Kamala Sankaram
Feedbuck Galore
Joshua Goldberg + Habitrail
Holly Daggers + Krou
VJ Sputnik + Peter Lasell
Hellbender Film Project
Find out more about upcoming events:
EYEWASH at MoMA
Saturday, December 18, 6pm to 9pm
The Sixth Annual MoMA Family Festival
The Museum of Modern Art
11 W. 53rd Street, NYC
Friday, December 17, 2004 at 10:58 AM in Performances | Permalink:
http://newsgrist.typepad.com/underbelly/2004/12/eyewash_dvd_rel.html
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Thursday, December 16, 2004
Art Intolerance, Part 3: Jacir Exhibition Moves Forward
[Image source: a work from Emily Jacir's "Where We Come From"; more works]
Todd Gibson of From The Floor breaks this story:
Emily Jacir Exhibition to Proceed without Conditions
Wichita State University has announced that the Emily Jacir exhibition
scheduled to run January 20 - March 6, 2005, at the Ulrich Museum of Art
will do so without any conditions.
Elizabeth King, Vice President for University Advancement, released the
following statement late this afternoon:
Wichita State University is aware of the discussion generated by the
scheduled exhibition of work by artist Emily Jacir at the Ulrich Museum of
Art. The University is committed to going forward with the exhibition
without conditions or limitations that could be considered to compromise
the integrity of Ms. Jacir's work as an artist. The University appreciates
the widespread interest in the artist and the exhibition.
Read more detailed information at From The Floor.
Thursday, December 16, 2004 at 05:42 PM in Art Exhibitions | Permalink:
http://newsgrist.typepad.com/underbelly/2004/12/art_intolerance.html
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Art Intolerance, Part 2: Emily Jacir/Ulrich
UPDATE: 12/16/04 5pm
Emily Jacir Exhibition to Proceed without Conditions [see above]
UPDATE:
Regarding our previous post about Emily Jacir's problems in Wichita, here
is some inside info from a faculty member there, including an interesting
take on what kind of response to the situation might be worthwhile and
productive:
ADDENDUM: 11:45am EST: Please scroll down and read an anonymous Israeli
art professional's response.
ADDENDUM#2: A detailed response from Debbie Gordon was posted in the
Comments section of the previous post.
— Forwarded message —
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 23:05:48 -0800
From: Deborah Gordon
Subject: Re: Arts Intolerance: Emily Jacir/Ulrich Museum
I have been reading this conversation about Emily Jacir's exhibit at
the Ulrich Museum, because I am here at the university but am not an
artist. The person who said this has been handled in a very underhanded
way is correct, but this is largely a result of the university
"foundation," another term for the fund-raising body that oversees the art
museum. The museum runs on private donations, rather than gets state
funds. It is not housed under "Academic Affairs," which is where the
faculty are located. What has happened here is that a major donor to the
university threatened to withdraw a donation she pledged. She is the lead
donor in a major building project, having pledged $1.5 million to the
university. Keeping this donor from withdrawing funds, not any
educational interests in representing multiple viewpoints is where all of
the "pressure" from the Mid-Kansas Jewish Federation came from. I think
the university "consulted" with them as a way of placating the donor.
What has happened is that the head of the university fund-raising body has
imposed this on the Museum Director and curator. They are furious, but
the foundation controls the purse strings of the Museum and the idiot who
runs it has made this decision.
Emily is understandably concerned; those of us who know about it are as
well. I can see why she would not want to show when outside the gallery
will be "literature," that does interfere with the exhibit.
On the other hand, there is nothing to stop those of us who go to the
Museum from writing across any "sign" or "poster" this group wants to put
up.
I see this very much from an educator's point of view in that I think if
one group gets to put out some materials, other groups should be able to
do the same. I tend to have subversive ideas about space, so I would want
to fill the space outside the gallery with all kinds of speech, including
speech that talks about attacks on art museums, censorship, etc. and not
just different views on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
I know this places a special burden on her exhibit that does not happen to
other artists, and it is discriminatory. I just want the exhibit to be
here so others can see it. These people in the Mid-Kansas Jewish
Federation have acted like assholes from start to finish.
Emily sees it differently, which no doubt reflects notions of artistic
expression and exhibit conventions that do not touch me, since I'm not an
artist. The exhibit space for her, including outside the gallery where
her exhibit will be shown, should be kept pure. She told me she didn't
want it to turn into a "Middle East info. center," and I don't blame her.
I just hope the exhibit comes and that she comes and talks about her work.
It will be a great opportunity for many people to see her work who would
not have the opportunity otherwise.
———end———-
ADDENDUM (an anonymous Israeli art professional's response):
a few thoughts off the top of my head:
- how is the donor affiliated with the Mid-Kansas Jewish Federation?
- when and where did the transition occur from Emily Jacir and the
Mid-Kansas Jewish Federation to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? As far
as I can tell there is not one Israeli involved in this situation. The
MKJF certainly DOES NOT represent Israel or Israelis or any point of view
that is affiliated with Israel, and that assumption is offensive and
outright WRONG.
- again, the fact that the donor can have such influence over an
organization is a particularly AMERICAN phenomenon - this situation would
not occur anywhere else - not in Israel, where Palestinian artists are
shown regularly, and not in Europe. I think this is a particularly
American problem, that has to do with the country allowing people with
money to have power over everything.
Read a detailed response from Debbie Gordon to the above, posted in
Comments of the previous post.
Thursday, December 16, 2004 at 10:51 AM in Art Exhibitions | Permalink:
http://newsgrist.typepad.com/underbelly/2004/12/_forwarded_mess.html
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