Belaboring this, but what the hell. The Albright-Knox Gallery in Buffalo just opened a big show called "Extreme Abstraction," which is short for "Extreme(ly Large) Abstraction (Show)," since the work isn't really extreme but consists mostly of blue chip practitioners both living and dead. What would a real "extreme abstraction" show consist of?
--Work in a visual language that is neither Renaissance perspective nor Modernist allover flatness nor Kraussian "expanded field" conceptualism but something wholly new and unrecognized. Which by definition means it would not be in the show.
--Abstract art outside the range of human perception, requiring special equipment to view or hear it.
--Art that is so volatile or fugitive that it decays by the show's end.
--Abstraction that results from extremes of human behavior, as in paintings made of blood during actual cult rituals, under the influence of hallucinogens, etc. See also John Nash's "paranoia rooms" in A Beautiful Mind.
--Conceptual art practices that recontectualize abstract things from the culture, such as mathematical formulae, circuit diagrams, or botanical microphotography, all of which are completely incomprehensible to the layman.
Any others?
Update, from the comments:
--Abstract art created while doing a righteous goofy-foot 360 counter-rotation backside double-fakey. (mark)
--Thousands and thousands of yards of saffron fabric hanging from orange goal posts... (bill)
I basically agree with all of your points here. I think the title is just a way to try to draw a crowd. They ought to call it, "Extreme Abstraction, with Special Guest Appearance by King Tut.," since he's drawing such big crowds out in LA.
I'm actually commenting to this post because I'm curious to know if you were curating this show who would you include?
My "criteria" were more of a thought experiment than guidelines for an actual show. I wouldn't really want to do "extreme abstraction." My friend Courtenay Smith co-wrote a series of books with Xtreme in the title (Xtreme Houses, Xtreme Interiors, Xtreme Fashion); it was already kind of a pop culture cliche when they started the series, and they tried to work with that, but by the third book she said she was seeing "extreme vanilla wafers" in stores and felt the concept was about played out. My gripe about extreme abstraction is the same as "Greater New York 2005"--it's too big, it's not defining, but in addition it incorporates the concept of "the edge" in art, which should just be a given. Contrast it with that show in Manchester, "Fuzzy Logic"--some fairly tight defining criteria, an attempt to come to terms with new work and a new trend, and a related theory (Sadie Plant's cyberfeminism) to ground it in a larger discourse. Now that's helpful!
extremely good would surfice my ideal show, I don't ask for much.
- work that has no significant visual or auditory element, maybe work done with temperature, odors, or infrasonic sound.
These shows are named by idiots. Here's another one: at the top floor of the new MOMA there was a show called "Contemporary Voices." I shelled the 20 clams admission just to see some contemporary art. I climbed the stairs, browsing the other galleries and thinking, "Man, when I get to that Contemporary Voices show, I'm gonna see the latest of the latest! Life Is Good!"
Finally I get up there and IT'S...
Twombly from '74.
Some old Serra.
And So On.
And So On.
FILTHY BASTARDS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Extreme abstraction -- what's extreme anymore? We've already seen the blood you've spoken of. Thanks to the fundamental Christians, we've seen buckets of dismembered fetus parts. How much more extreme could an image be? It was just a knuckle-dragging, slack-jawed, mouth-breathing choice of names, for a show that probably originated in a board member or high-end trustee's desire to maintain the value of the paintings in his private collection.
abstract art creating while doing a righteous goofy-foot 360 counter-rotation backside double-fakey.
thousands and thousands of yards of saffron fabric hanging from orange goal posts...
They're all good, even the last fews humors...though... 'abstract art as a means to find [commons] [with]in disparate elements' is so much simpler...er, has historic precident....er, is human...tangled...and may or may not need the abstract.
That summer event sure does [one] fun. The show you are in, too, sounds good. (?) Are you shipping the chair--it's a killer add to a great reworked piece.
- extreme abstraction: rubbing your closed eyes with the heels of your hands and then tripping out on the light show.
The lists of possible abstractions are pretty funny; reminds me of the ad Robert Morris put in the art mags in 1970, offering himself for hire at $25.00 an hour + expenses:
THE PERIPATETIC ARTISTS GUILD ANNOUNCES ROBERT MORRIS
Available for Commissions Anywhere in the Word
EXPLOSIONS-EVENTS FOR THE QUARTER HORSE-CHEMICAL SWAMPS-MONUMENTS-SPEECHES-OUTDOOR SOUNDS FOR THE VARYING SEASONS-ALTERNATE POLITICAL SYSTEMS-DELUGES-DESIGN AND ENCOURAGEMENT OF MUTATED FORMS OF LIFE AND OTHER VAGUELY AGRICULTURAL PHENONMENA , SUCH AS DISCIPLINED TREES-EARTHWORKS-DEMONSTRATIONS-PRESTIGIOUS OBJECTS FOR HOME, ESTATE, OR MUSEUM-THEATRICAL PROJECTS FOR THE MASSES-EPIC AND STATIC FILMS-FOUNTAINS IN LIQUID METALS-ENSEMBLES OF CURIOUS OBJECTS TO BE SEEN WHILE TRAVELLING AT HIGH SPEEDS-NATIONAL PARKS AND HANGING GARDENS-ARTISTIC DIVERSIONS OF RIVERS-SCULPTURAL PROJECTS-
Too bad nobody took him up on most of ‘em; it always gets back to those prestigious objects.
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Belaboring this, but what the hell. The Albright-Knox Gallery in Buffalo just opened a big show called "Extreme Abstraction," which is short for "Extreme(ly Large) Abstraction (Show)," since the work isn't really extreme but consists mostly of blue chip practitioners both living and dead. What would a real "extreme abstraction" show consist of?
--Work in a visual language that is neither Renaissance perspective nor Modernist allover flatness nor Kraussian "expanded field" conceptualism but something wholly new and unrecognized. Which by definition means it would not be in the show.
--Abstract art outside the range of human perception, requiring special equipment to view or hear it.
--Art that is so volatile or fugitive that it decays by the show's end.
--Abstraction that results from extremes of human behavior, as in paintings made of blood during actual cult rituals, under the influence of hallucinogens, etc. See also John Nash's "paranoia rooms" in A Beautiful Mind.
--Conceptual art practices that recontectualize abstract things from the culture, such as mathematical formulae, circuit diagrams, or botanical microphotography, all of which are completely incomprehensible to the layman.
Any others?
Update, from the comments:
--Abstract art created while doing a righteous goofy-foot 360 counter-rotation backside double-fakey. (mark)
--Thousands and thousands of yards of saffron fabric hanging from orange goal posts... (bill)
- tom moody 7-18-2005 1:32 am
I basically agree with all of your points here. I think the title is just a way to try to draw a crowd. They ought to call it, "Extreme Abstraction, with Special Guest Appearance by King Tut.," since he's drawing such big crowds out in LA.
I'm actually commenting to this post because I'm curious to know if you were curating this show who would you include?
- Aaron (guest) 7-18-2005 2:04 am
My "criteria" were more of a thought experiment than guidelines for an actual show. I wouldn't really want to do "extreme abstraction." My friend Courtenay Smith co-wrote a series of books with Xtreme in the title (Xtreme Houses, Xtreme Interiors, Xtreme Fashion); it was already kind of a pop culture cliche when they started the series, and they tried to work with that, but by the third book she said she was seeing "extreme vanilla wafers" in stores and felt the concept was about played out. My gripe about extreme abstraction is the same as "Greater New York 2005"--it's too big, it's not defining, but in addition it incorporates the concept of "the edge" in art, which should just be a given. Contrast it with that show in Manchester, "Fuzzy Logic"--some fairly tight defining criteria, an attempt to come to terms with new work and a new trend, and a related theory (Sadie Plant's cyberfeminism) to ground it in a larger discourse. Now that's helpful!
- tom moody 7-18-2005 3:15 am
extremely good would surfice my ideal show, I don't ask for much.
- brent (guest) 7-18-2005 3:26 am
- work that has no significant visual or auditory element, maybe work done with temperature, odors, or infrasonic sound.
- paul (guest) 7-18-2005 3:26 am
These shows are named by idiots. Here's another one: at the top floor of the new MOMA there was a show called "Contemporary Voices." I shelled the 20 clams admission just to see some contemporary art. I climbed the stairs, browsing the other galleries and thinking, "Man, when I get to that Contemporary Voices show, I'm gonna see the latest of the latest! Life Is Good!"
Finally I get up there and IT'S...
Twombly from '74.
Some old Serra.
And So On.
And So On.
FILTHY BASTARDS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Extreme abstraction -- what's extreme anymore? We've already seen the blood you've spoken of. Thanks to the fundamental Christians, we've seen buckets of dismembered fetus parts. How much more extreme could an image be? It was just a knuckle-dragging, slack-jawed, mouth-breathing choice of names, for a show that probably originated in a board member or high-end trustee's desire to maintain the value of the paintings in his private collection.
- Bill Gusky (guest) 7-18-2005 6:12 am
abstract art creating while doing a righteous goofy-foot 360 counter-rotation backside double-fakey.
- mark 7-18-2005 7:51 pm
thousands and thousands of yards of saffron fabric hanging from orange goal posts...
- bill 7-18-2005 8:08 pm
They're all good, even the last fews humors...though... 'abstract art as a means to find [commons] [with]in disparate elements' is so much simpler...er, has historic precident....er, is human...tangled...and may or may not need the abstract.
That summer event sure does [one] fun. The show you are in, too, sounds good. (?) Are you shipping the chair--it's a killer add to a great reworked piece.
- brent (guest) 7-19-2005 5:14 pm
- extreme abstraction: rubbing your closed eyes with the heels of your hands and then tripping out on the light show.
- sally mckay 7-19-2005 6:10 pm
The lists of possible abstractions are pretty funny; reminds me of the ad Robert Morris put in the art mags in 1970, offering himself for hire at $25.00 an hour + expenses:
Too bad nobody took him up on most of ‘em; it always gets back to those prestigious objects.
- alex 8-17-2005 3:57 am