Dana Schutz

Dana Schutz- Painting in an Earthquake

Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava

Dana Schutz, right, at her opening on January 10th.

When I last saw work by Dana Schutz it was in the 2017 Whitney Biennial, where her Painting, Open Casket, was met with controversy, a boycott, and calls that the work a) be taken down, even b) destroyed.

Painting in an Earthquake, 2019, 94 x 88 inches, seen in the Atrium gallery visible from 18th Street. It sets the stage while standing apart from the rest of the show. Though it’s seen 10 days into the New Year, it’s dated 2019. Every other work is dated 2018. (I thought I could detect the smell of drying paint in the galleries.)

Neither happened, and after the show ended, the Artist found refuge from the controversy by returning to Painting.

Installation view of the Sculpture in the first gallery.

On January 10th, 2019, she opened Dana Schutz: Imagine Me and You, at Petzel Gallery, 456 West 18th Street, her first NYC solo show since the ’17 Biennial, and surprised me by including 5 Sculptures for the first time. While I immediately thought of the late, great Jack Whitten and his “second career” as a Sculptor that almost no one knew about during his lifetime, these are all dated 2018, and there was no indication if she had made any before. The Sculptures, which were molded in clay and then cast in bronze (per the press release), are shown in the first gallery, which means they are definitely not an “afterthought.”

Washing Monsters, 2018, All Paintings are Oil on canvas, 94 x 87 inches.

With the 2019 Whitney Biennial scheduled to open on May 17th, the show provides an opportunity  to see what an alumnus has been up to since 2017.

Mountain Group, 2018, Oil on canvas, 120 x 156 inches.

On the one hand, there’s much in her new Paintings that would seem to come right out of late Philip Guston, but overall, it seems to me, in the end, she moves past it to achieve a fresh daring of her own, particularly in Washing Monsters, shown above, Beat Out The Sun and Treadmill, shown further on.

Strangers, 2018, 88×84. Almost everything about this screams “late Philip Guston,” though the longer I looked at it, I moved past it.

Almost nothing feels still. Everything’s in motion.

Treadmill, 2018, 90 x 96 inches One thing I particularly like about these Paintings is her palette.

Even the Sculpture.

Head in the Wind, 2018, Bronze, 22x14x22 inches.

The paint is often applied thickly,

Here, the paint even casts its own shadows on the lower part. Touched, 2018, 30 x 26 inches.

which makes the inclusion of Sculpture in the show even more appropriate.

The Visible World, 2018, 108 x 140 inches.

The Sculpture both compliments and echoes the Paintings and the two combine for a show that is not overly large, in terms of the number of works, but feels unified.

Presenter, 2018, 88 x 88 inches

It’s hard not to look at this work for signs of the effect of the controversy on it, and there are a number of passages that would seem to lend themselves to such an interpretation. But, overall, these works reward extended, and repeat, looking. In the brand new day of 2019, Dana Schutz’ Art is alive and well.

Beat Out the Sun, 2018, 94 x 87 inches

While this show runs through February 23rd, I’ll be curious to hear who has been chosen to be in this year’s Biennial– particularly among Painters and Photographers. Stay tuned.

*- Soundtrack for this Post is “Brand New Day,” by Van Morrison from Moondance, 1970.

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The Whitney Biennial Turns The World Upside Down

There’s more than “one way” to select a Biennial, and therein lies my rub…Click any photo to enlarge.

Ahh…The Whitney Biennial. That semi-annual whipping post, “they don’t make Art like they used to” kind of a show of Contemporary American Art by “young and lesser known Artists” that, frankly, I gave up on and stopped going to, missing the last one at the “old” Whitney (now The Met Breuer) in 2014. This new one, the first in their new building, ends on June 11.

Liberty by Puppies Puppies, 2017. “Give me your tired tourists, yearning for a selfie moment, rife with sociopolitical comment,” with an incomparable background. At various times, it’s a real performer, at others, it’s a mannequin. At no time will the Nighthawk go out on that deck.

Oh! What I do in the name of “Art!” Ummm…You need some gel or something for those spikes. That Torch seems to be slipping. And? Where is that big book? Whatever you do? DON’T look down!

If you have any interest in Contemporary American Art you should see it if you can. Is it a “must see?” My initial impression, which I Posted here on March 31 (which this Post replaces) left me feeling there was much to see and impressed by some of what I’d seen. Having made 10 visits thus far, however, my answer is “No.” Unfortunately, though there are a number of memorable pieces on view, and I think it’s highly likely you’ll discover some new names you’ll put on your list that you’ll want to explore further, overall, it’s not a must see, in my opinion. Let’s face it- there are so many really, really good shows going on here now. If you’d ask me what to see that’s up at the moment? I would say about the Biennial, “See it if you have time,” after seeing the others.

As always, it wouldn’t be the Biennial without some hair-pulling, teeth-gnashing, and “Wtf moments.” In this edition’s case they are there, and fairly serious negatives, in my opinion, mostly regarding the choices of what is included and what has been omitted.

True, but I’d at least like to survive this show. In the Wake, 2017, 2 of 16 Banners by Cauleen Smith.

As for my lists, after two visits, the name Samara Golden made mine of Modern & Contemporary Artists- of any age, to keep an eye on. After 10 visits? She’s still there. During each one, my wonder never ceased every time I experienced her work…ummm…installation….ummm….ok…creation, The Meat Grinder’s Iron Clothes, 2017. It is, literally, one of the most astonishing Art works I have seen since…? I honestly don’t know. Maybe, ever.

Check your expectations at whichever side door you choose to go in to enter Samara Golden’s work.

It’s so big with so much to see it may well be un-photographable. Hmmm…where have I heard that before?

“Your looks are laughable
Unphotographable
yet your my favorite work of Art”*

It, literally, turns your world upside down it’s so disorienting. Like I said about the unforgettable Bruce Conner Retrospective when it was at MoMA, “Htf?,” substituting “How” for “What,” this work takes that “How” to the “nth” degree. Unfortunately for me, it’s a work that uses height as a key element, (as does “Liberty,” above). Being deathly afraid of heights I was unable during either visit to get close enough to the preferred viewing areas to really even see most of it and get the full effect. This is as close as I’ve managed to get (thanks to the Whitney staff for nailing me to the floor)-

One little bit of Samara Golden working her magic. Ok. I’m looking down at the sky, and up at the street. Whatever is going on? I’m not sitting in that chair.

During one visit, a viewer turned away and said, “It’s an optical illusion.” I didn’t reply, but thought to myself- “Yeah? So is the Mona Lisa. There’s no real woman up there on that canvas. There’s only oil paint, and whatever Leonardo Da Vinci put under it, and what’s been put over it up there. It’s what the Artist does with his or her materials that makes the miraculous thing called “Art.” I don’t understand exactly how that translation occurs, but I’m always glad when I it does, as with Samara Golden’s “The Meat Grinder’s Iron Clothes.”

Taken as a whole, I heartily applaud the up to the minute, very politically and socially aware bend to the show, which leaves plenty to think about, which both honors, and continues, the Whitney’s long-standing tradition of being involved.

Occupy Museum’s piece, Debtfair, recounts the historic rise of the mounting debt Artist face, as shown in this graph, trying to survive & create.

Samara Golden’s work does this, too, except she gives you very different things to think about. The feeling that came to my mind was the so-called “trip” section of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, forever my favorite film. I don’t want to say more about it to give readers a chance to experience it for themselves without anyone else’s words in their head (and that’s also why I’m including only one of the photos I attempted at this time). Ok, and also because I still don’t know what to make of it myself. To help me, I bought the brand new MoMA PS1 book for her The Flat Side Of The Knife, 2014 show there (of the same title) for background. After 10 visits, I’m not sure the book, interviews with the Artist, or ANYthing will help me better understand this work. (Note to self- You haven’t even read the information card for this piece. In fact? You don’t even know where it is!) You’re on your own to make of it as you will, and frankly? I prefer it that way. I wish more Contemporary Art “needed” less explaining.

Elsewhere, the other highlights, for me, are- the brilliant choice of having Henry Taylor and Photographer Deana Lawson (who share a real life working dialogue) share a gallery (Mr. Taylor’s biggest work is in the lobby area just off the elevator on the 6th floor, as I wrote about, and pictured, in my Post on Henry Taylor). Deana Lawson is, undoubtedly, one of the stars of this Biennial. For weeks after the show opened,  I heard her name on people’s lips just about every where I went. Amazingly, you can still buy an original work of hers, in a signed and numbered limited edition of 50 on Light Work’s excellent site, here, for $300.00! They also have an excellent edition of Contact Sheet dedicated to her, which was available there for $12.00. Neither will last long.

Installation view of the Deana Lawson-Henry Taylor gallery.

Deana Lawson, Sons of Kush, 2016. Apologies for the glare.

The Artists, KAYA (Painter Kerstin Bratsch and Sculptor Debo Eilers), impressed me with their unique works, as Artists striving to bend boundaries between mediums, possibly following the path of Frank Stella, and they succeed to memorable effect in the works shown here.

SERENE, Processione (ALIMA), Processione (JAKE), Processione (TIN), all 2017, by KAYA (Painter Kerstin Bratsch and Sculptor Debo Eilers)

Painters Jo Baer, Aliza Nisenbaum, Celeste Dupuy-Spencer, and Dana Schulz stood out, for different reasons, but perhaps most importantly as far as I’m concerned, they show the ongoing vitality of Painting in 2017.

Veteran’s Day, 2016, Celeste Dupuy-Spencer, “looks at figures who engaged in meaningful resistance. These include the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, the international volunteers who fought against Franco in the Spanish Civil War, Muhammad Ali, and Karl Marx and Engels,” per the info card.

Paintings outdoors? At night? One of an interesting series of work by Ulrike Muller, yes, seen outside on the 5th Floor, at night.

 

Jo Baer, Dusk (Bands and End-Points), 2012

The Whitney & the Biennial’s curators have taken a fair amount of heat for the inclusion of Dana Schulz’ Open Casket. Further on the controversy front, an entire gallery was devoted to Frances Stark’s series Censorship NOW, which consisted of a series of huge, painted, double page reproductions (with underscores in blood red paint) from the 2015 book of the same name by musician, writer, D.J., etc. Ian F. Svenonius. While her/their point is fascinating, I was left wondering if she/they chose the right targets. As with the other works I’ve shown thus far, it’s worth seeing for yourself and making your own mind up.

Frances Stark, Censorship NOW, 2017, large, painted reproductions, with notations, of the book of the same name by musician Ian F. Svenonius.

I will say that a good deal of the Biennial I most likely won’t see because I’m not particularly drawn to film & video. As for the negative aspects of this Biennial. I’m quite puzzled by a good deal of what’s installed on the 5th floor. This wouldn’t be so frustrating for me except for the fact that I can’t understand why so many deserving Artists, who I feel should be here, are not.

Yes, there was snow on the ground as the Biennial opened as seen on the 5th floor roof deck. I have nothing to say about anything else in this photo.

In line with my ongoing policy against being negative about Art or Artists, I’m not going to get specific about the latter. With regards to the former, there is a long list of Painters and Photographers, especially, who I feel are serious omissions. Here’s a short list-

Painters (in no particular order)- Where is Andy Piedilato? Jeff Elrod? Fahamu Pecou? Hope Gangloff? (Heck, Rod Penner is only 2-3 years older than Henry Taylor.)

Drawings-Ethan Murrow? Emil Ferris?

Photographers (By my count, there are only SIX in the show! Not counting, Artists, like Oto Gillen, who display stills from video. I don’t consider that Photography.)- Where is Gregory Halpern? Mike Brodie? (He’s 32, and though he says he’s “retired,” he deserves to be here.) Matt Black? Ahndraya Parlato?

In closing there is one thing I will say about Samara Golden’s “Meat Grinder’s Iron Clothes.” Already, it’s apparent that no matter how many times in the years to come I visit the western end of the Whitney’s 5th floor I will think back to this work having been there, and marvel at how she did it…

“Hey,” I’ll say to no one in particular nearby in the future. “Did you see THAT?”

“Yeah,” someone I haven’t yet met will say. “They don’t make Biennials like they used to.”

“On The Fence,” #4- Samara Golden Edition.

*- Soundtrack for this Post is “My Funny Valentine,” written by Rogers & Hart and published by Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded & ad-free for over 7 years, during which over 275 full length pieces have been published! If you’ve found it worthwhile, PLEASE donate to allow me to continue below. Thank you, Kenn.

You can also support it by buying Art, Art & Photography books, and Music from my collection! Books may be found here. Music here and here.

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited. To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here. Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them. Subscribe to be notified of new Posts below. Your information will be used for no other purpose.

Henry Taylor Is Having A New York Moment

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Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava (*- unless otherwise credited)

Either the Artist has a great representative, the Force is strong with him, or the powers that be in the Art World have magically combined as they rarely seem to, and at the same moment, to give us something unusual here- Multiple high-profile venues simultaneously featuring the work of the same (deserving) Artist. Or? Maybe it’s a coincidence. Or? Maybe they just agree- his time is now.

Wish you were here. Henry Taylor, wearing shades underwater, in his The Floaters, 2017 the  latest High Line Mural Commission just after it’s completion in mid-March. Click to enlarge.

Whichever one it is, “his time” came on March 17, when on the same day, Henry Taylor’sThe Floaters, was unveiled as the latest High Line Mural Commission, at West 22nd Street, AND multiple paintings by Mr. Taylor were debuting as the Whitney Biennial opened, the largest, right out in front of the 6th Floor elevator, where it leads to an entire gallery of his work, in dialogue with the wonderful photographer, Deana Lawson, both of whom shine in this Biennial, to my eyes.

Almost ready for his close-up. The Floaters seen with rigging used to paint it as it nears completion last month.

Mr. Taylor’s piece strikes me as, possibly, “one upping” the High Line by showing himself doing something none of the the High Line’s 5 million visitors can do- submerging themselves in a swimming pool. Very L.A. Well? L.A. is where he lives. Touche. His summery The Floaters, the first sign of the coming of spring in Manhattan, couldn’t be more in contrast to Barbara Kruger’s Untitled (Blind Idealism…), 2016, which occupied the same wall for the past year.

Barbara Kruger’sUntitled (Blind Idealism…), 2016,” seen in March, where it followed no less than Kerry James Marshall’s Mural (which you can watch actually being painted, here).

If you walk down the High Line to it’s southern terminus, you’ve arrived at the Whitney Museum, where Mr. Taylor’s Ancestors of Ghenghis Khan with Black Man on Horse, 2015-17, greets you as you step off the elevator on 6.

The elevator doors open on the 6th Floor at the Whitney Biennial. Seen in full below.

“Welcome to the 2017 Whitney Biennial,” indeed.

Ancestors of Ghenghis Khan with Black Man on Horse, 2015-17, at the 2017 Whitney Biennial.

Originally, the Whitney Biennial was a painting show, so I’m glad to see exciting, recent work by Henry Taylor, Dana Schutz, Kaya, Aliza Nisenbaum,  Celeste Dupuy-Spencer, Frances Stark, and Jo Baer included among a plethora of video and only a handful of Photographers. Painting has a long history of expressing the inexpressible, as well as capturing the moment, and there’s been a lot going on in these recent moments, to be sure. Following in the footsteps of Goya’s The Third of May 1808, on down, Mr. Taylor’s THE TIMES THEY AIN’T A CHANGING, FAST ENOUGH!, 2017 is one of the most powerful paintings (seen here with it’s accompanying card) I’ve seen at this Biennial, along with Open Casket, by Ms. Schutz and Censorship Now, by Ms. Stark.

 

 

THE TIMES THEY AIN’T is based on a video, and is an image we are, perhaps, more used to seeing from PhotoJournalists, than in a painting, yet, it’s precedent is right there in Art History, in Goya, and countless others. Though there are similarities between the two Paintings, Mr. Taylor’s work is uniquely his own, especially as he depicts an inner space (a recurring theme, in this case, the back seat of a car), being intruded upon and violated, fatally. Portraiture is what he seems to be most known for, and he brings this extensive knowledge of Art History (as Kerry James Marshall does) to his portraits as well, sometimes playfully, sometimes as a jumping off point, as in his 2007 portrait of Eldridge Clever, which takes Whistler’s Mother, of all things, as it’s basis.

Mr. Taylor is an Artist who’s work has a range (from the humor of The Floaters, to the life & death of THE TIMES THEY AIN’T, to scenes from home life, below), which prevent him from being slotted as being any one thing beyond “Artist.” His work, even his portraits, often seems to have a landscape feel to it- there’s an element of space- inside, outside (or both, in The Floaters,), or personal space, in many of his works, and, of course, race is an overriding theme. His is, also, a shining example of the relevance of Painting in Contemporary Art (as is the work of the Painters I mentioned above, among others), a medium that some question the value of every so often. As Kerry James Marshall has, Henry Taylor is another Artist who is putting black faces onto Museum walls, and possibly, bringing new audiences to them to see their work.

The 4th, 2012-17, by Henry Taylor. It’s interesting to compare this with Kerry James Marshall’s painting of the same subject seen a few months ago.

While his “15 Minutes of Fame,” will come to an end when the Biennial closes on June 11 and The Floaters gives way to the next High Line Commission in March, 2018, his work isn’t going anywhere. As in- anywhere away from public view, any time soon. Even here, in “tar beach.”

*- Soundtrack for this Post is “I Love L.A.,” by Randy Newman.

NighthawkNYC.com has been entirely self-funded & ad-free for over 8 years, during which 300 full length pieces have been published! If you’ve found it worthwhile, PLEASE donate to allow me to continue below. Thank you, Kenn.

You can also support it by buying Art, Art & Photography books, and Music from my collection! Art & Books may be found here. Music here and here. 

Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited. To send comments, thoughts, feedback or propositions click here. Click the white box on the upper right for the archives or to search them. Subscribe to be notified of new Posts below. Your information will be used for no other purpose.