...more recent posts
"Afghanistan's ancient and imposing Buddhist relics are seen as 'idols.' "
.....now out of favor with the Taliban rulers, their destruction has been ordered.
My friend has really been talking up this show at P.S. 1 featuring the illustrated manuscript of Henry Darger. There's quite a few references to Darger on the web. This one is quite informative. He died in 1972 at the age of 80 (or so.) But it wasn't until some time later that his "secret" manuscript was found by his landlord.
"His landlord was cleaning out his room after his death and came across a startling discovery: alone in his room, Darger had created a beautiful and violent fantasy world, primarily embodied in a 15,000 page epic narrative, 'The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion.' Illustrated by several hundred large watercolors paintings as well as smaller drawings and collages, the Vivian Girls are seven preadolescent sisters, princesses, sometimes depicted as hermaphrodites, who fight against and ultimately prevail over evil deeds prepetrated by sadistic adults. They are aided in their battles by various Christian armies and also by Blengins, dragon-like animals, both fearsome and gentle, that are absolute protectors of children. The illustrations range from calm and pastoral to brutally violent."Looks interesting. I love the idea that someone would create a 15,000 page illustrated manuscript and then never show anyone. That's some dedication to your craft. Any of you art folks ever hear of this guy? Do you think it might be worth the trip?
jesus says --
Can You Say ? (You Can See) :
'Poetry Plastique'
Marianne Boesky
535 West 22nd Street, Chelsea
Through March 10
"Art and poetry: made for each other. So it has always been. Poets write about art; artists turn
to poetry for ideas. Sometimes the two disciplines meet in collaboration; occasionally that
collaboration is forged in the work of a single person. All these variables are aired in "Poetry
Plastique," in which image and word are flexibly intertwined.
Organized by Jay Sanders, who is on the staff at Boesky, and the poet Charles Bernstein, the
selection covers a stretch of recent historical ground. At the early end are scribbly,
word-peppered Blakean pages by Robert Smithson from 1962 and a labyrinthine written
piece by the arch-Fluxian Jackson Mac Low from 1975. The 1970's are well represented
here, with work by Carl Andre, Wallace Berman and text- and-image collaborations by
Arakawa and Madeline Gins.
Other work is new. Mr. Bernstein collaborates with Richard Tuttle on a witty sculpture made
of plump, strung together 3-D letters, and with Susan Bee on a noirish painting in which
Emily Dickinson and Mickey Spillane face off. Dickinson's attenuated handwriting finds an
echo in Mira Schor's word paintings. The show enters the digital realm in a rich
text-and-image work by Johanna Drucker and Brad Freeman, and in Tan Lin's
computer-generated poetry pulsing away on three monitors.
The day after the show opened, the gallery was host to a series of related panel discussions
and readings. Poets and artists participated. A big audience turned up. It was great. The buzz
of voices and ideas made the art in the room — and Chelsea itself, for that matter — feel alive
and interactive. Some of the pieces really need that charge; they look staid and hermetic
without it. But others do fine on their own, and the cross-disciplinary concept behind the
show is ripe for further exploration.
Perhaps Mr. Sanders and Mr. Bernstein already have further plans along these lines.
Meanwhile, art and texts mutually ignite elsewhere in the city these days: in Cy Twombly's
not-to-be-missed "Coronation of Sesostris" paintings, based on a poem by Patricia Waters, at
Gagosian Gallery (980 Madison Avenue, at 76th Street, through tomorrow); in a
collaboration between the painter Max Gimblett and the poet John Yau at Ethan Cohen Fine
Art (37 Walker Street, SoHo, through March 10); in a series of collaborative prints by
contemporary Puerto Rican artists and poets at El Taller Boricua (Lexington Avenue at 106th
Street, through tomorrow); in an exhibition of contemporary text-based works, "A Way with
Words," at the Whitney at Philip Morris (120 Park Avenue, at 42nd Street, through March
30); and in a jewel of an exhibition of artists' diaries, with bold little drawings and
sonnet-size personal jottings, at the Archives of American Art (1285 Avenue of the Americas,
at 51st Street, through May 31)."
- HOLLAND COTTER for NYT
Art expert Rudolph Giuliani clamping down on free speach, again !
'Avante-Garde', 'Schmavant-Garde'
`Avant-Garde' Artists Come in From the Cold (War) By STEPHEN KINZER ELLESLEY, Mass. (For NYT) —
"Although the 1950's are
often described as somnolent years in the United
States, they were also a time of artistic ferment,
when dissonant music and abstract painting burst into the
public consciousness.
But in recent years some scholars and curators have come
to believe that this ferment was not really so radical, and
that although these artists considered themselves consummate outsiders, their work often
served to promote rather than subvert mainstream values.
The case is made at the Davis Museum and Cultural Center at Wellesley College here in an
exhibition called "Cold War Modern: The Domesticated Avant-Garde." The show, which
runs through June 17, links artistic innovators not to a tiny adventurous audience but to the
mass culture of the times."