"Collecting Biennials" reviewed in the NY TIMES
AT THE WHITNEY
The Whitney Biennial is an affair of short-term memory and long-term amnesia. How many artists can you name who were in it, say, in 2006? With this year’s model slated to open in February, however, the museum will offer a refresher course in the form of “Collecting Biennials,” an exhibition of works by artists who have participated in the Whitney Museum’s periodic surveys of the art of the moment over the last eight decades.
Judging by the preliminary list, the museum’s curators have done a pretty good job of picking winners. From Edward Hopper to Ed Ruscha, it is an all-star roster. It also has the potential to serve as a fascinating lesson in the evolution of 20th-century art and the vagaries of taste and fashion.
A quick read of the list suggests this narrative: Early on there was the Magic Realism of Peter Blume. Then came the Abstract Expressionism of Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, followed by the proto-Pop Art of Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns and the Pop Art proper of Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg. Vija Celmins and Sylvia Plimack Mangold were among those who reintroduced realism as Minimalism fell from favor and the art world went pluralistic.
Inspired by new ideas about art and the mass media, Cindy Sherman, Sherrie Levine and Richard Prince led the so-called Pictures Generation, while Julian Schnabel and Sue Williams reanimated expressionist painting. Cady Noland, Robert Gober and Charles Ray reinvigorated sculpture in different ways, and Matthew Barney produced some of the most ambitious art films ever.
Who will be remembered from 2010? Maybe it will be George Condo, the humorous painter of Modernist clichés and the only artist who will appear in both exhibitions. KEN JOHNSON
“Collecting Biennials” will be on view from Jan. 16 to Nov. 28 at the Whitney Museum of American Art, 945 Madison Avenue, at 75th Street; (212) 570-3600, whitney.org.
Source http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/01/arts/design/01lookahead2.html?pagewanted=2
The Whitney Biennial is an affair of short-term memory and long-term amnesia. How many artists can you name who were in it, say, in 2006? With this year’s model slated to open in February, however, the museum will offer a refresher course in the form of “Collecting Biennials,” an exhibition of works by artists who have participated in the Whitney Museum’s periodic surveys of the art of the moment over the last eight decades.
Judging by the preliminary list, the museum’s curators have done a pretty good job of picking winners. From Edward Hopper to Ed Ruscha, it is an all-star roster. It also has the potential to serve as a fascinating lesson in the evolution of 20th-century art and the vagaries of taste and fashion.
A quick read of the list suggests this narrative: Early on there was the Magic Realism of Peter Blume. Then came the Abstract Expressionism of Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, followed by the proto-Pop Art of Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns and the Pop Art proper of Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg. Vija Celmins and Sylvia Plimack Mangold were among those who reintroduced realism as Minimalism fell from favor and the art world went pluralistic.
Inspired by new ideas about art and the mass media, Cindy Sherman, Sherrie Levine and Richard Prince led the so-called Pictures Generation, while Julian Schnabel and Sue Williams reanimated expressionist painting. Cady Noland, Robert Gober and Charles Ray reinvigorated sculpture in different ways, and Matthew Barney produced some of the most ambitious art films ever.
Who will be remembered from 2010? Maybe it will be George Condo, the humorous painter of Modernist clichés and the only artist who will appear in both exhibitions. KEN JOHNSON
“Collecting Biennials” will be on view from Jan. 16 to Nov. 28 at the Whitney Museum of American Art, 945 Madison Avenue, at 75th Street; (212) 570-3600, whitney.org.
Source http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/01/arts/design/01lookahead2.html?pagewanted=2
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