NEWSgrist - where spin is art

"L'Affaire Joannou": Art Critics Get Down!

Sharon Butler reports, while offering a thorough linky roundup of what Artnet has branded "L'Affaire Joannou".

 

via Two Coats of Paint, Tuesday, November 17, 2009:

Critic on critic: Jerry Saltz tells DC blogger to get a grip

In a Vulture post about the New Museum's questionable curatorial practices, Saltz assesses the quality of the vociferous debate and courageously suggests that prickly blogger Tyler Green's criticism has crossed the line. "One of the main things that suggested all this indignation had gone too far was the witch-hunt tone of an editorial in the November issue of  Art Newspaper. The language in the piece — written by art blogger Tyler Green and published at the end of last week — was scolding, scornful, condescending, and smug, tinged with a verbal violence that was a little scary. The editorial begins with the false charge that private collector exhibitions are 'fluff shows.' Green sniffs that he’s 'especially disappointed' in the New Museum, and finishes by beseeching all museums to 'cancel' exhibitions of private collections. He demands that the Association of Art Museum Directors “ban” these shows because they are 'an insult' to the art world. When I hear a word like 'ban,' I reach for my dictionary and review the definition of the word democracy.

"This kind of apparatchik rule-making feels off to me. Green has gotten into the habit of demanding that people be fired, reprimanded, or punished, as if only he knows right from wrong. He played a role in getting Grace Glueck fired from the Times for her 'conflict of interest.' After Village Voice art critic Christian Viveros-Faune talked about his dual roles as a critic and an employee of an art fair, Green accused him of indulging 'a textbook case of unethical conflict-of-interest' that struck 'at the very heart of ... integrity' and 'flouted journalistic norms.' Green sneered that he was 'troubled' by this behavior and publicly asked the Voice to 'stop publishing' Viveros-Faune. Guess what? That’s exactly what happened. The Voice and the art world lost a tremendous voice....

"I know it’s dangerous to take on bloggers. They can go after you every day, all day long, and anonymous people can chime in, too. Already this week Green has branded me an 'up-with-art cheerleader,' chortled 'balderdash' at something I wrote, and is now even writing comments on my Facebook page and publishing other of my Facebook comments on his public blog. Still, come what may, I’m tired of the hate fest."

In a conciliatory response, Green writes in the Comments thread (and on Saltz's Facebook wall): "I'm proud of the positions I've taken on a range of issues. It is true that I've taken assertive, principled positions on a range of issues. I'd be happy to engage in a dialogue on any of those positions. ...I don't hate you."

Update: On Jerry's Facebook page, Green says the debate isn't about him, it's about the New Museum. Nice guy Ed Winkleman has called for a public debate between Saltz and Green.

Related Links (via Art Observed):
Controversy over New Museum’s plans to show trustee’s collection [The Art Newspaper]
Turning a museum into a vanity space [Tyler Green for The Art Newspaper]
The New Museum responds [The Art Newspaper]
The NuMu ethics story hits the NYT’s front page [Modern Art Notes]
The Met’s director: We’re closer to NuMu than to MoMA [Modern Art Notes]
Saltz: Money, Insularity, and a Huge Controversy for the New Museum [New York Magazine]
Art Morality [New York Magazine]
Some Object as Museum Shows Its Trustee’s Art [NY Times]
The New Museum’s Web of Connections [NY Times]
Museum Directors on Collectors and Exhibitions [NY Times]
The New Museum’s Position on Its Show From a Trustee’s Collection
The Appendix: New Museum Scandal Edition [Artinfo]
NuMu Boo Boo [Time]
New Museum Brouhaha Goes Supernova [Artnet]
New Museum commits suicide with banality [James Wagner]
The November Brooklyn Rail Cover [William Powhida]
New Museum Controversy Grows with its Announced Plans to Show Trustee’s Art [Art Fag City]
Jeff Koons and The Perils of an Unregulated Art World [Art Fag City]
The New York Museum Director Witch Hunt Begins [Art Fag City]
The Authority of the New Museum [Art Market Monitor]

Appropriation, Decontextualization, History and Public Domain

[Image source]

There's been a discussion raging on several blogs regarding Shepard Fairey, his self-serving entrepreneurship, and his "plagiarism" of anonymous protest images from the Public Domain. The main complaint is here, while perhaps a more thorough and thoughtful discussion is at a blog called Just Seeds, a self described "Visual Resistance Artists' Collective" -- [more info]. These are activists who take it upon themselves to "educate" the rest of us through their art, while perhaps eking out a small income from the sale of posters, prints, etc. Someone like Shepard Fairey who brands himself and who is in essence his own cause, is clearly their natural enemy.

Of course, much of the gut sentiment expressed here, both in the main post and by commentators, rubs me the wrong way, as it privileges certain viewpoints (not to mention certain specific forms of expression) over others; one of the ideas I find particularly noxious is the insistence that art must "benefit society" through spreading the anti-capitalist, anti-culture industry message etc. etc. In the case with Fairey, as activists they are mostly concerned with the dilution or loss of the "original" historical readings of protest images, powerful symbols that reverberate with their own political positions and causes and concerns. Only the author of the main post pauses to consider what it means to try to circumscribe or contain the meanings of images in this way. In other words, there is no sense here of the problems inherent to being didactic, and agitprop trumps other forms of visual expression without ever being identified as propaganda.

In any case, the main concerns on the Just Seeds post are worth thinking about, regardless of what side of the copyfight or political fence you're on: the "loss of history" via Fairey's decontextualization and re-use of these images, and his supposed closing off of public domain works via their newly minted status through incorporation as central images in his own, copyrighted works is an interesting discussion unto itself. And since my name and my "molotov" affair with Susan Meiselas was cited by two commentators, presumably as an example of why appropriation and decontextualization is a bad thing, I decided it might be time for me to chime in, if briefly. Here's an excerpt the post (long, worth reading in full) and my comment:

[Image source]

A Response to OBEY Plagiarist
Posted December 14, 2007 by jmacphee

It's taken me a long time to get this together, but I wanted to throw my ideas into the discussion around the artwork/plagiarism of Shepard Fairey that has been spinning around the web. For those that might not know, Shepard Fairey is the creator of the "Andre the Giant has a Posse" sticker campaign, which became a long running series of "Obey Giant" posters. Mark Vallen, a Los Angeles-based artist (who created some of my favorite street posters from the early LA punk scene), recently published a long critique of Fairey on his blog, Art For A Change. What I'm writing here directly relates to Mark's piece, so if you haven't read it, give it a look here.

Mark's write-up came out of a long discussion that has been going on between a number of politically-motivated artists and archivists about Fairey's work. Throughout the whole process of discussion it has seemed clear that we have been coming from parallel but divergent positions, with different parts of the larger issues at hand being more or less important to each of us. Mark is clearly concerned with social and political potentials of ART, and believes Fairey's wholesale "theft" of historical images cheapens the potential for art to make change in the world. Lincoln Cushing, an artist, archivist and author who has been involved in the discussions, is very concerned with how plagiarism hurts efforts to empower our communities with their own revolutionary art history. However, he also supports strategic use of existing copyright law, and recently got Fairey to pay retroactive royalties on a t-shirt with Cuban artwork appropriated without credit. Favianna Rodriguez, also involved, has been particularly frustrated with Fairey's use of and profiting off of the art of people of color, and the images of the struggles of people of color, while he has had to pay none of the costs for having to live as a person of color in this society or world. People are already rallying to Fairey's defense, claiming his appropriations are legitimate ways to create art, or simply attacking his critics, namely Mark Vallen. I'm not really interested in attacking Fairey, I simply want to make transparent the politics and economics his work uses and depends on. [read full post + comments]

Here's my brief comment that doesn't nearly address all of these concerns (so far no responses...):

this is a great, thought-provoking post that brings all the difficult issues to the fore, and then some. For me the following is the "money quote" if you'll excuse the expression:

One thing Mark, Lincoln, Favianna and others are deeply concerned about with Fairey's work is the using of social movement imagery, as I understand it because he has no "right" to it. But this confuses me. I want to know who DOES have the right to it? Are some people more authentic leftists, so they have more of a right to authentic leftist graphics? For example, the Russian Revolution was real, it happened, it changed peoples lives, there is no question about that, but the public construction of the revolution, i.e. how all the posters, photos, books, etc. build up to a coherent whole in the social imagination, is that "real"? Authentic? Does any one group have the right to claim it? To claim authenticity? Does Fairey have less right to the social imaginary of revolution than the rest of us? Have we made a revolution and he hasn't?

This, imho, is more at the crux of this issue than some of the concerns voiced here about the "loss of history". If you think it through again, you may find yourself to be on the wrong side of a Free Speech issue (ironically), just as Meiselas did re: the molotov cerfuffle, which was why it behooved her to quickly articulate a rationale to her own otherwise censorious actions -- a rationale that would speak to her posse on the Left. I believe that while Fairey obviously has his own interests in mind, there are many subtle and important uses for decontextualization in art. Also: there is a difference between agitprop and other kinds of visual discourse; it's absurd to assume that these various forms of expression can't co-exist, that one would -- should -- cancel the other out.

cheers,
joy

Posted by: joy     at     January 14, 2008 11:30 AM

Consider this an invitation to an open thread. Discussion in the comments section only please (long email rants will be deleted). please try not to hurl invective.

JG

Poverty + Climate Change (a discussion)

via NYTimes Dot Earth blog:
Editor's note: Andy Revkin is the environmental columnist for the Times, and he kindly penned one of the short essays for my Strange Weather catalog...

November 27, 2007,  9:44 pm

Varied Views on Poverty and Climate

By Andrew C. Revkin

Villagers in Bihar State, India, received relief packages dropped by helicopter in August. The flooding in Bihar washed away homes, crops and cattle. (Credit: Prashant Ravi, Associated Press)

The new United Nations Human Development Report is the first of these annual surveys to focus on the intersection of climate change and efforts to improve the human condition.

Its conclusions, as I wrote today, largely follow those of other United Nations assessments of the challenges posed by human-caused climate change — particularly the call for prompt aggressive reductions in greenhouse gases by developed countries, along with a lot more aid for poor countries most in harm’s way.

The report also echoes themes laid out in a package of stories in The Times earlier this year showing the deep “climate divide” that splits the world into sharply delineated camps — most notably wealthy countries with huge emissions of greenhouse gases and vulnerable poor countries with scant emissions.

Reactions of all kinds are pouring in. I’m posting a few of the first responses below. They should not be seen as reflecting some ratio of critics and supporters of the document.

The report itself is worth a deeper look, particularly the excellent online resources, including maps showing per-capita and total emissions of greenhouse gases, and creative animated graphics showing how the hugely variegated development tracks of a host of nations complicate the search for agreement on next steps under the 1992 Framework Convention on Climate Change after the Kyoto Protocol’s terms expire in 2012.

There is a also a selection of videotaped interviews with report contributors and the lead author, Kevin Watkins of the United Nations Development Program.

Comments begin below. Add yours. I hope a discussion here can help reveal which policy choices really could work and which are well-intended wishful thinking.

The Blogger Show opening in NYC + elsewhere...

via Digging Pitt Gallery:

The Blogger Show

November 10, 2007 - January 12, 2008

Agni Gallery
170 East 2nd Street,
Storefront #3
New York, NY 10009
412-389-0288

Opening reception Saturday, November 3, 6-9PM

participating artists and their blogs

also:
@Digging Pitt Gallery - Reception: December 8, 6-9PM
@Digging Pitt Too - Reception: December 8, 6-9PM
@Panza Gallery - Reception: December 15, 6-9PM

In November, Digging Pitt (Pittsburgh PA) will begin a joint effort with Agni Gallery (New York, NY) and Panza Gallery (Millvale, PA) to present The Blogger Show. The exhibits showcase the work of over thirty artists whose common interest is in clarifying artistic discourse through their blogs. All of the exhibits will take place between November 3, 2007 and January 12, 2008. Preview the exhibits online at Fiji Island Mermaid Press, courtesy of Marc Snyder. Announcements about receptions and other special events are forthcoming, so watch your e-box. Stay current with The Blogger Show artists on the blog or join us at MySpace.

Tim O’Reilly defines…
Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform. Chief among those rules is this: Build applications that harness network effects to get better the more people use them. (This is what I've elsewhere called "harnessing collective intelligence.")

Excerpt from Bill Gusky's article (Artblog Comments) Read more 
A number of artists have entered the blog arena, writing about art and the art world as they participate in it through their visual work. There have always been artists who write about art, and at times their writing has been highly influential; Donald Judd is one name that leaps to mind. As a new art narrative emerges, writers of all stripes – critics, historians, curators and even art bloggers -- will play a large part in shaping, interpreting and defining it.

This exhibition focuses on the work of artists who are active art blog writers. The work you see here emerged in the studio in near-simultaneity with the artist’s written expressions. These twin efforts – art making and blog writing -- sometimes appear to flow together and intertwine beautifully, and at other times almost seem to be in diametric opposition.                

The relationship between written word and the created artwork suggests the erratic flow of a culture in which propaganda freely mingles with news journalism and science is polluted with articles of faith. It seems at times that the only appropriate response to the apparent untrustworthiness of all our societal and cultural expressions is a schizophrenic call-and-response [...]

For more about the current state of the art blogger phenomenon, see Peter Plagens' article and round table in the November 07 issue of Art in America, with bloggers Regina Hackett (Art To Go), Tyler Green (Moder Art Notes), Jeff Jahn (PORT), Roberta Fallon & Libby Rosof (artblog), and Edward Winkleman (edward_winkleman): "Report From the Blogoshere" The New Grass Roots." Ironically, the article is not available online, since the AiA website does not offer access to any of its content. However, there is a discussion on Kriston Capps' Grammar.police.

Gallery Director's Dubious Dismissal Ignites Syracuse Protest

From the Syracuse Post-Standard, Sunday, September 23, 2007

via NYTimes, Arts, Briefly (9/21/07):

Gallery Director's Dismissal Ignites Syracuse Protest
By NADJA SAYEJ
The ouster of the founding director of an art gallery overseen by Syracuse University has drawn protest from academics and art professionals there. The director, Astria Suparak, below, of the Warehouse Gallery, said that Jeffrey Hoone, who oversees the university's art centers, had told her on Sept. 7 that she would be dismissed effective Sept. 30. She said he did not give a reason beyond saying that the gallery was being restructured. (In a telephone interview, Mr. Hoone said he could not discuss Ms. Suparak but that he was revamping the gallery's leadership.) Carole Brzozowski, the dean of Syracuse University, said the content of gallery shows organized by Ms. Suparak had nothing to do with her dismissal. But people in the arts at Syracuse, including university art teachers, asserted that the ouster was related to risk-taking or innovative exhibitions she organized since becoming the director last year. (Many have posted protests of her dismissal at syracuse-warehouse.blogspot.com.) Ms. Suparak said of Mr. Hoone: "My aesthetic is very different from his. I'm interested in street art, riot grrl and D.I.Y. aesthetics." A sign at the entrance to the gallery's current show, "Come On: Desire Under the Female Gaze," reads, "This exhibition contains work generally intended for mature audiences." Ms. Suparak said it was posted at Mr. Hoone’s behest.

Above: Astria Suparak in curated exhibition, Faux Naturel at The Warehouse Gallery (with Thieves by Alex Da Corte).Photo by Amber Goodwyn for Worn Journal.

via syracuse-warehouse.blogspot:

Syracuse Loses Again
Syracuse is losing one of its greatest assets. Astria Suparak (and partner Brett Kashmere) will be removed from her position as Director of the Warehouse Gallery on September 30. The Yes Men exhibition scheduled to open in November has also been cancelled by the decree of one man, Jeffrey Hoone Executive Director of CMAC (The Coalition of Museums and Art Centers).

If you want to support them write a letter of support.

letter from Nancy Keefe Rhodes, 9/22/07:
[...] I'm writing here in response to your coverage of the arts community's response to the firing of Astria Suparak. I wanted to address something else briefly about the current show at the Warehouse. Besides bringing together artists from the northeast US centers and Canada so that Syracuse is an exciting artistic cross-roads, this show in particular is an exciting reflection of national trends in women's art.

Beginning last year, the Feminist Art Project (now based at Rutgers) began a series of events, symposiums, landmark exhibitions and traveling shows to commemorate the growth and current status of Feminist Art from the 1970's onward. While the uninformed (and the hostile) might think that "feminist art" is passe, out of date, a decades-old ancient history, these events suggest something else entirely.

Last winter, the Museum of Modern Art's week-long symposium on the future of feminist art was packed. Then the opening of the Sackler Center of Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum, which unveiled the new permanent home of Judy Chicago's "Dinner Party" and opened with the show "Global Feminisms," featuring younger women artists from around the world. There's been the WACK! exhibition on the West Coast, and the year-long celebrations in Washington DC of the 40th anniversary of the National Women's Art Museum. These events have revealed a lively and crowded field of women artists, and a mainstream museum and gallery structure that still under-represents them.

As a project of Women's Voices Radio/WAER 88.3 FM, Joan Burstyn and I undertook a project last winter to produce a series of shows that would link this national activity with CNY artists' work and concerns. Joan and I attended part of the MoMA symposium. Following up that trip, I returned to the Brooklyn Museum for the opening of the Sackler Center and the Global Feminisms show of younger artists. We produced four hour-long installments of "Visual Arts Near and Far" that aired on Women's Voices, boiled down from many hours of interviews with women artists, art educators, curators, collectors, & critics.

My point is that "Come On: Desire Under the Female Gaze" is right in tune with this surge of national activity. We know this because we went out of Syracuse to find that activity, interview people and look at work. And Astria Suparak brought a piece of that to the heart of downtown. "Come On" is a terrifically important and contemporary show to have in Syracuse and, far from being a fringe production, it's right in the flow of traffic of current larger art thinking and practice.

Thanks,
Nancy Keefe Rhodes

see also:

Keep Astria! Syracuse Needs Her!