Passionate Gathering: Herb & Dorothy screening @ Dia:Beacon 3.12.11

Angelika Rinnhofer's reworking of the Herb & Dorothy poster for the 2009 kork advent project.

There are collectors, and there are COLLECTORS.
The first is the type of collectors are essentially consumers.  Their looking for a product.  Sure that product may well be unique and handcrafted, it may touch them a some level, but it essentially fills an external need ( decoration, meaningful gift, etc.) but it's purchase is not primarily motivated by an internal drive. Artists and galleries may bestow upon these folks the moniker of collector, perhaps hoping that calling him/her so will make him/her so.  The tendency for an artist to refer to one as a collector is de riguer in the artworld, but it might also placate some deep seeded need to make something more of the transaction than there is. 

The second type, the COLLECTOR is the kind that artists and galleries dream of.  This person is driven by a passion for the intangibles that accompany the equally passion inducing tangibles of a work of art. This type of individual is committed (or challenged by) to the ideas and the philosophy - the program - of a given artist or gallery, believing that the experience of the exchange entails far more than the exchange of an object - or multiple objects over time.

Herb and Dorothy Vogel are a couple that exemplify the endeavor of COLLECTING.  The Vogels represent a collector that artists adore and value, and gallerists are tend to be uneasy with....given their manner of circumventing the galleries, acquiring works directly from artists.
The Vogels' passion for art and ideas affirms the pursuits of someone like me (as an artist) and further motivates me to do what I do.  (Not for the hope of having work purchased, but because their passion affirms the passion I feel in exploring what I do; it gives proof of concept that these things that are pushed and pulled - the whole activity that throbs in the studio is vital - to someone else (regardless of the particulars of taste and selection.)
The Vogels are the subject of an fascinating documentary from 2008 entitled Herb & Dorothy.  I recommend it highly.  I could go on, but I won't.  Here's the trailer:



The film Herb & Dorothy will be screened at Dia:Beacon on Saturday at noon as part of a weekend long program to raise funds for the refurbishment of The Beacon Theatre on Main St.  Admission for the screening at Dia is $20.  A Q&A panel with the Vogels, the filmmakers, artist Charles Clough and Roy Lichtenstein Foundation Executive Director Jack Cowart will follow the film at 2pm and a reception at 3:15  (cost for the panel talk is $10 and $20 for the reception.)
The Beacon Freeze Frame Fundraiser continues on Sunday with a 12 pm Screening of the film Fresh at the Howland Cultural Center followed by a Q&A panel and then a treat of fresh, locally grown food at the Beacon Theatre ($20, $20.)

The Vogels are not alone.  They are extraordinary, given the details of their lives, and the generosity of their gift, not to just one institution, or even a handful, but to the country.  The Vogel 50x50 is a program in which the Vogels donated 50 works of art from their collection to museums and art centers in each of the fifty states.  Seriously, if you haven't seen the film, and you are near Beacon this weekend, check it out.  As one who is on one side of the experience of an artwork, (the maykr side) it's to see the result of the devotion of those that don't create the stuff, but fill their lives and homes with what is essentially an vital document of a slice of human creative thought, ingenuity and aspiration.

I've mentioned here before that I work, from time to time, at the CCS Bard| Hessel Museums, installing shows.  Last Summer, the Hessel held an exhibit of works selected by Matthew Higgs from the collection of Marty and Rebecca Eisenberg.  The title of the exhibit,  At Home/Not At Home addressed the very notion of collecting and living with art.  The Eisenberg's domestic situation is very different from the Vogels' but the close proximity in which both families live with the work is very much in keeping.  As can be seen in the film, the Vogels' tiny apartment was and is crazily packed to the ceiling with artwork.  The Eisenberg home, though not crazily stacked to the ceiling with artwork as is the Vogels' apartment, is still filled, cheek by jowl, with artwork filling every possible niche, nook, cranny....and where there are no walls, certain conducive works are installed in front of windows. 

It's easy to tell when paintings, sculpture et al are displayed for tasteful effect.  It's equally easy and damn thrilling to see art deployed in such a way as to demonstrate just how essential it is to the sustenance of the inhabitants of that space.

Link updates, Artist Talks at the Hessel Museum

I've made a couple additions/updates to the artist links in the right sidebar:  Greg Slick has a new website catelogueing his various works.  Robert Brush's new website is listed in the sidebar.

I've also added a link to Ron English's website.  Juxtapoz.com recently did a two part profile on the artist who moved to Beacon a little over a year ago.

Blogger now has the option of creating pages.  You can see above that I've created two pages for area art venue/resource links, and for web resources.  If you have a link to suggest, shoot me an email or make a comment here,and I'll work on getting it added.

Finally, artist Nicole Eisenman will be giving a talk tomorrow, March 18 at the Hessel Museum as part of the current exhibition project Living Under the Same Roof, curated by the CCS Bard curator in residence Ana Paula Cohen.  The series of talks of which the Eisenman talk is a part is co organized by Judy Pfaff for her course "Art in conversation."  Martha Rosler kicked off the series on March 11.

Here are the upcoming talks:
April 8 - Stephen Shore
April 15 - Matt Mullican
April 22 - Robert Longo
April 29 - Judy Pfaff

All talks are scheduled at 2pm.

Cultural omnivores dilemma: Saturday June 27

There's there will be a lot of offerings vying  for your attention on Saturday.  Here's a sampling:

In addition to the first installment of it's series of professional development workshops held in collaboration with the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, Dia:Beacon will also be holding a Gallery talk at 1pm.  Robert Lubar will be discussing the work of Antoni Tapies.

Jaanika Peerna will be on hand from 3-6pm to discuss her current exhibit, Traces of a Sweet Connect at Go North.

Van Brunt Gallery is having an opening for part duex of its Quad show which will be on view in the gallery proper and in the second floor gallery at Hudson Beach glass and at Moxie.   This group exhibit  features the work of Colin Barclay, Richard Bruce, Richard Butler, Bo Gehring, Tadashi Hashimoto, David Loeb and Stephen Niccolls.  The reception starts at 6pm.  The exhibition runs through July 27.

One of the Hessel Museum's Franz West sculptures (Blue Couch) has been relocated on the

roof of the museum by Rachel Harrison.

The Hessel Museum at Bard College will be holding an opening reception for Consider The Lobster and Other Essays, a duo exhibitions, the first is a survey of the work of Rachel Harrison and the second is a curatorial collaboration between Harrison and Nayland Blake, Alan Ruppersburg, Harry Dodge, Tom Burr and Andrea Zittel in which works of the artists are installed amongst selections from the museum's permanent collection.  The opening reception is happening from 1 to 5pm.  As usual, a chartered bus will be bringing visitors up from NYC and returning them after the opening.  For more email ccs@bard.edu.  The exhibits will remain on view through December 20, 2009.

The Center for Photography in Woodstock is hosting a talk by Elinor Carucci starting at 8pm.  This talk looks very interesting I'm not certain if the maykr team will be able to attend, but we're currently in discussion about our plans for that day.  Carruci's work is jarring, dramatic and I'd like to hear her speak about it. Tickets for the talk are $7, $5 for students and members.  Contact CPW to make reservations and to check for availability. 

Dar Williams will be performing a benefit concert for ecoartspace and Habitat for Artists in at the McKenna Theater at SUNY New Paltz.  The show starts at 7:30 Tix are $25 ($30 at the door) call 845.257.3844 for info.

Staying within the lines

Two items in the NY Times today exhibit a form of restrained geography......(I don't know how else to phrase it).
First in the travel section, an item by Jane Margolies chronicles her recent visit to Dia:Beacon. At the end of the article she lists places to eat in Beacon. The featured eateries, Marlena's Kitchen, Jamaican Spice, Cup and Saucer Tea Room and Homespun, all on the West End clearly define that invisible borderline that marks the outer limit of many a Main St. visitor's trek into town. It's fascinating to see that delineation plotted out in words, leaving foresaken and undiscovered, any possible treasures to be found at the foot of that yonder mountain (or foothill as it would be considered in my present locale out West).

Secondly, in the "Connecticut" section of the Times, Ben Gennochio writes up an exhibit called Framing and Being Framed:The Uses of Documentary Photography at the Center for the Arts at Weslyan University. Given the item is in the "Connecticut" section and solely pertaining to one exhibit, I imagine that art venues in CT might relish the opportunity to step out of the shadow of their noisy neighbors, and enjoy a such a feature all to themselves. Gennochio's write up offers a straight forward plan in text form of the work in this singular exhibit, but the contour map of conceptual terrain, is quite different from its physical cousin. I think an opportunity was lost here in not alluding to a broader gestalt that can amplify the context for the Wesleyan exhibit and its focus as the current exhibit at The Hessel Museum at Bard - The Greenroom, also examines the use of the documentary motif and includes the work of two of the same artists: Matthew Buckingham and An-My Le. Context, after all, is an essential element in the purpose of the Documentary, both fictional and actual.
In the interest of full disclosure, I work on the exhibition crew at CCS/Hessel. I'm not shilling for the museum, just referencing the affinity between the two exhibits.

Framing and Being Framed:The Uses of Documentary Photography remains on view through December 7. A panel discussion related to the exhibit, Eye of History: The Camera as Witness will take place at the CFA on November 7 from 4:30-6:30 with a reception to follow. Panelists include: Wendy Ewald, Eric Gottesman, Susan Meiselas, David Levi Strauss. Admission is free.

The Greenroom: Reconsidering the Documentary and Contemporary Art at the Hessel Museum will be on view through Feb 1 and is part of a longer term project examining the documentary form in contemporary art. There is a full slate of exhibition related talks and performances through the run of the exhibit. The link above lists other curatorial and art related events in addition to the Greenroom events. Curatorial Scrutiny is a series of talks instituted by new CCS Graduate Program Director, Maria Lind, are open to the public and examine aspects of the curatorial process.
The next Curatorial Scrutiny talk takes place on Oct. 20, 1-3pm in the CCS Bard Seminar Room, and the topic is the role of documentation in the artworld with guest speaker, Berlin-based artist Natascha Sadr Haghighian and respondent, Marcia Acita, Assistant Director of the Hessel Museum. Each of these talks follows this speaker and respondent format. I'm not sure how that plays out. I just pray these talks will be available in podcast form (sooner than later) because they sound interesting, and the mid afternoon scheduling pretty much prohibits my attending.

Eye Candy Friday: Uh Omer

This weekend's selection is CNN Concatenated, 2002, a work by Omer Fast. The pause/inhalations make this work for me.

Fast is among the artists whose work is included in A/V heavy exhibit "The Greenroom: Reconsidering the Documentary and Contemporary Art", opening at the Hessel Museum at Bard College on Sept 27, 2008. There's an opening reception for the exhibit on the 27th from 1-4pm.
Hito Steyerl will be giving a lecture titled "Documentary Uncertainty" at 2pm on the day of the opening.
The following day, Sept 28, from 1:30-2:30, a panel discussion, "Problems of Realism" will be held featuring TJ Demos, Carles Guerra and Hito Steyerl.
On Oct 4, at 1pm, Andrea Geyer will be giving a performative slide lecture in Weis Cinema, located at the Bard Campus Center.

The Greenroom will be on exhibit through Feb 1 2009.

Eye Candy Friday: Pinocchio Wrangler

There's nary a disturbance to the mid-Summer tranquility of Bard College.....except for the presence of the MFA students:

David Horvitz is one of the renegade Pinocchios who "extended..... to the outside world", Paul McCarthy's piece "Pinocchio Pipenose Household Dilemma (Party Pack)." The McCarthy piece, which is currently on view in the "I've Got Something In My Eye" exhibit curated by Bik Van der Pol, at Bard's Hessel Museum. The video installation consists of an isolated video viewing gallery and a separate changing area outfitted with full Pinocchio costumes which must be worn in order to view the video.
Taking a cue on what to do when you get caught from one of the "fringe" volumes published by Loompanics in the Bik Van der Pol installation "Loompanics", the students momentarily created and freed the shortlived lovechild of two subversive artworks. Here's a bit of documentation from Horvitz's website.

The sound of giant plastic shoes scuffing along the concrete. That's Summer!

Second Saturday, Jun 14 revisited

We were at Bard for the opening of the new exhibits at The Hessel Museum, and a bbq afterwards. We returned to Beacon late with just enough time to check in at Go North, Open Space and Van Brunt, after which, we headed over to Will Walker's and Jesse Lebwohl-Steiner's apartment for grilled watermelon and pineapple at the after opening party the pair hosted for Go North's current exhbiting artist, Ketta Ioannidou.

Ladies Ladies Ladies at Go North.

"I love you man. Give Me a hug."
"You're not getting my Bud Light."

Peter Iannarelli's beautiful mess at Van Brunt Gallery.

Dan Weise at Open Space.

cloud . [ the exclusive ] at Open Space.

Portraits by Temre Stanchfield in the window of Fire Lotus.

Goings on outside the City Folk opening at Zahra's.

On the walk home.

This Weekend Last Weeken

Second Saturday is coming up, and I'll be posting info bit by bit on the shows that will be opening this weekend.

We missed Thomas Doyle's opening at Go North last weekend we were at the Martin Creed opening at Bard's Hessel Museum.

Later that evening, we watched Martin rock the Speigel Tent to a house made up largely of Super Seniors. There was an amusing trio of Golden Girls sitting together that seemed particularly incredulous about the performance. We were laughing as we watched them laugh in disbelief at what they were listening to. The scene reminded me of my favorite Citibank commercial with two older women on a couch channeling hillbilly male voices talking about motorbikes. "Sheeoot, them bikes sound good coz they free!"
Toward the end, one poor woman of the three seemed to be suffering badly from a headache, but the other two continued laughing, with the one in the center even singing along to the final song of the set in which Martin counts from 1 to 100 (I don't know the title of the piece.)

Martin and his two band mates kicked off the encore with a piece in which he counts from 101 to 200. I find that Martin's music crystallizes many of the elements in his work in a way that doesn't happen so readily for me in the "things" he makes.

The performance was loud and fun. I wish I had taken photos.

The July 12 edition of the NYTimes includes a review of the Creed show by Roberta Smith. There is a slide show of images from the exhibit on the Times website.

Martin Creed's Feelings opens at Bard Hessel Museum, 7.7.07

Martin Creed has taken over the two spaces that make up the CCS Bard/ Hessel Museum building up at Bard College in Annandale on Hudson.

"Feelings", the second exhibit to be installed in the new Hessel Museum consists of essentially two exhibits. The first half, situated in the galleries of Hessel is essentially a Creed-intervention of selections from the Hessel collection which have been installed along with a few Creed pieces. The second part of the exhibit focuses on Creed's work which is arrayed in the CCS galleries, the CCS Library, the front lawn, hallways and cloak room.

The exhibit opens Saturday July 7 with a reception from 5 to 7pm. Martin Creed's band is performing at Bard's SummerScape Speigeltent after the opening at 8:30. Tickets for the performance are $25.

Creed's exhibit extends to Chelsea with "Small Things", an exhibit of two large scale pieces at 508 W 25 St.
Information on the exhibits can be found at the CCS Bard/Hessel website.

Creed's own website, martincreed.com has extensive images of work and samples of his sound pieces and music. I was clued in by Peter Acheson to an interesting interview Martin gave to a New Zealand radio program which is also available on the website.

Itunes has one of Martin Creed's songs in its catalogue. If you search for Martin Creed, you'll also hear a song called "Martin Creed" listed under two different performers; Jonathan Ian and Negative Sock Boy. In the song, the singer claims that Creed is "part of the problem" and he is "as empty as your room with the flickering light."