Observations on the Art Market 5.15

Sometimes it seems as if the goal of every artist isn't to create art but to own a gallery to hang their still yet to be created art in. Jonathan Grossmalerman has said that artists today ask themselves what good an artist is without a gallery and the answer is always not much. He sarcastically added maybe the fact that no one wants to show your work is a sign.

I can't say the thought of owning a gallery has never crossed my mind but I always leaned towards dreams of curating in a museum of some sort. If I did open a gallery I know just the place to do it. Seoul, as in Korea. There is a total lack of galleries in Korea supporting local artists. Even the vaunted Larry Gagosian doesn't have a gallery In Korea and it seems every time I open an art mag he is opening a gallery in some dark alley somewhere. At a time when Asian markets are exploding (China, Hong Kong) Korea is the most isolated art market in the world. As an example Hwang Dal Seung is one of the largest gallery owners in Korea and the driving force behind the largest Korean art fair yet the Asian Hotel Art Fair is held in Hong Kong.

There are a few reasons for this. The first is the unique philosophy of many Korean artists. They are more interested in the creation of the art and the personal meaning it may have than any public reaction. It's unique in that it's not the prevailing philosophy today but it's something I totally understand because often I think the same way.

The other reasons have more to do with the traditions and legalities of the Korean art market, or maybe I should say lack of legalities. A few years ago it was found Shin Jeong-ah, an art professor and curator, had forged her academic record and embezzled gallery money for which she spent two years in prison. At the same time works by artists such as Kwon Ok-yeon and Do Sang-bok were put up at auction but than exposed as forgeries. The auctions were canceled at the last minute. These are just a few examples but there are many others.

Samsung, LG, and Hyundai and three of the largest corporate sponsors of art in the world but in Korea itself art transactions are very secretive. Until 2011 there were no taxes at all on works of art or art transactions, now any work over 60 million (approx. $50,000) is taxable but not if involves a Korean artist. At the same time the law also allows works of art to be regarded as corporate assets so in most cases individuals aren't responsible for the taxes the very same law levies. Korean art collectors don't release specific price or transaction information so I have no clue how taxes are going to be collected.

Traditionally art is a favorite form of bribe in Korea because there is so little oversight. One of the more prominent cases involved Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee who resigned in 2008 and was convicted of operating a bribery slush fund. He was later pardoned by the South Korean government and returned to his position at Samsung.

More recently art has become the favored way to launder money* in South Korea. This has become a world wide problem, The New York Times ran an article on it just days ago, but South Korea's tradition of secrecy aggravates the problem.

So upon further review maybe my Seoul gallery is a bad idea.

*A non-Korean example happened in New York last month when charges were filed against the New York dealer Helly Nahmad charging that he worked "to launder tens of millions of dollars on behalf of the illegal gambling business." Also there is a book being published this month on this subject, "Money Laundering Through Art: A Criminal Justice Perspective" by Fausto Martin De Sanctis. De Sanctis has a Doctorate in Criminal Law from the University of São Paulo’s School of Law and is currently on a Brazilian court specializing in money laundering.

Observations on Art 3.10

It's the last day of Art Week and the breakfast conversation isn't so much about art as the dearth of coverage this year. I should say lack of sleep, not helped by the changing of the clocks, may have something to do with the topic because I have never seen a sorrier looking group of artists. Massive quantities of coffee will be needed today if anybody is going to function properly at all.

In all honesty something does just seem off about the fairs this year. It wasn't the crowds, they were there, but more about the feeling, the buzz for lack of a better word. The usual art publications covered all the shows but even The New York Times reviewed only the three major ones (see previous post for links). Here are some of the reasons our gloomy brain trust has come up with.

The big galleries seemed to have stayed away the piers this year leaving a show full of galleries that normally are seen at lesser events. Good for the galleries' exposure but not all that good for the coverage of the overall show. Granted Gagosian was there but in the Focus section which normally is reserved for emerging markets and artists, not for the crown prince of the art world.

Another possible reason we discussed was the show's current owner, Merchandise Mart Property Inc. of Chicago, which is a holding company specializing in trade shows. A major art fair isn't exactly the same as a home builders show. On their website MMPI says they have "assured the continued development and enhancement of the Art Show division by bringing together some of the top minds in art fairs under one partnership." Funny thing to be saying as rumor has it their art fair holdings are currently for sale. According to The Art Newspaper the leading candidate to purchase the fairs is Louise Blouin who is the publisher of Art + Auction, Modern Painters, and owner of Louise Blouin Media. We shall see.

My pet theory, which I mentioned a couple days ago, is the effect the Frieze is having on the Armory Show. Last year it was new and unknown in New York and it did an awesome job. This year the Frieze is a known and more people are planning for it. Being in mid-May it has weather on its side, it snowed for three days this week, and its location on Randall"s Island lets you be in the city but yet feel like you aren't in it at the same time. The Frieze may also be the reason the Armory Show has turned so much more American. I don't think it has as much to do with some misplaced idea of patriotism as it does with major international galleries planning to do one fair in New York and that fair is in May.

In the end maybe the whole reason is the interwebs as Art.sy had the whole show online before it even opened. This could be the main issue art fairs have to deal with in the future if they are going to survive as they are now.

Observations on Art 3.9

Tod Seelie / Suckapants

Sometimes you find something that is just so perfect, so dead on, that you just have to borrow it. Sometimes it's just a short sentence or a quote. In this case it's a headline and two paragraphs I saw in Gothamist yesterday, "10 Photos Of Gallery Assistants Looking Bored At The Armory Show."

"The Armory Show isn't all champagne and $9,000 McDonald's cups, for some forlorn souls, it can be a terribly lonely place, an invisible prison where sudden waves of profound isolation threaten to drown the poor gallery assistants in existential dread when there is NO ONE to peruse their wares.

But the painful truth is that wherever art is bought and sold, the Tree of Commerce must be watered with the blood of gallery assistants. Yet what poet sings songs to ensure their bitter tears of boredom have not streamed not in vain? Who (besides the gallery owners trying to cheat on their wives with their assistants) spares a moment's thought on them? Enter Gothamist LLC to fill this shameful void. Here: a humble photographic hymn to the bored and forgotten gallerinas. Let the world never forget their courageous sacrifice for art! Please let them update their Facebook profile in peace!"

In my experience all too true other than maybe the part about gallery owners cheating on their wives. Click the photo caption or here to see all the photos.

update - Here are links to The New York Times reviews of the three major fairs: Art Dealers of America Association at Park Avenue Armory, the Armory Show at Piers 92 and 94, and the Independent Art Fair.

Observations from the Window 1.3

From the archive. The first post in this blog, tune included, from three years ago today. I didn't say quite as much when I started so I could probably write more introducing it than I wrote at the time but I'll try hard not to which means I better stop now ....

Here I Am
Why am I doing this? Honestly I have no clue.

In the past weeks I left a place and a job I love dearly. Penn State University (btw Capital One Bowl final. PSU 19 - LSU 17). A good friend of mine moved to the west coast. And the day after new years I moved in with another good friend in the Village. Soon Ill be starting a job in a gallery there.

Years ago I kept a journal. It always seemed to help me clear my head in the 'dark days'. Recently I had a conversation with a doctor friend who thought it might be a good idea to do it again. To help me adjust to all the recent changes in my life.

Well here I am. Time will tell .....

tuneage

Observations from the Gallery 12.12

Just a quick post because on Sunday I mentioned a Charles Bukowski quote that was popular on my tumblr, "My soul is sadder than all the dead Christmas trees of the world." I thought it suggested people weren't all in a happy holiday mood but it seems a few days can make all the difference. Today they rediscovered a Tolstoy quote I had originally posted months ago ....

"If you want to be happy, be."

At the same time you may have noticed today's date is 12.12.12, Speaker Boehner is doing his best Nero impression, and North Korea has a satellite in orbit. Taken together the three make me wonder if the Mayans may have indeed been right.

And where have you gone NHL?

12/13 update - NBC News reported this morning that the North Korean satellite seems to be "tumbling out of control" and I don't think the were referring to the tumblr blogs. I just wanted to say ... heads up!

Observations from the Gallery 11.26

I love my Kindle even though I'm using it for something I hadn't really planned on using it for, reading. I have a button attached to Google Chrome that with a click will send any article I can read online to my Kindle, "Send To Kindle for Chrome". With the HD no glare screen it's much better to read on than my laptop and oh so much easier on the eyes than phone reading. Totally worth the investment and worth waiting for the HD models to arrive.

The following paragraph is just a minor geek vent. Somebody recently accused me of setting my tumblrs to private. For the record no I haven't made them private and no it's not something I ever really considered. What would be the sense of having them if I didn't want anybody to see them? Also the links to are right there on this blog's sidebar so I ask again, what would be the sense of making them private? Honestly if this blog got as many hits as my tumblrs I would be a rich girl. But enough about that.

Something else I have found so very interesting is how many people have discovered VPN (virtual private network) software since the whole Petraeus email mess. Suddenly everybody wants to be anonymous and they don't think other people realize that their emails aren't originating in Russia. To be fair I should say that I have been using one program or another for years but it's funny seeing the pizza delivery guy using one. I'm thinking maybe I should just give up art and go into the security business or maybe, even better, art security.

This short geek post is actually a bit of history in the making. This is my first blog post written and posted entirely by Kindle. Technology is a wonderful thing, until it's not.

Observations from the Gallery 11.20

Reuters: GAZA TRUCE WILL BE DECLARED AT 1900 GMT AND GO INTO EFFECT AT 2200 GMT - HAMAS OFFICIAL SAYS

A mobile news flash, the funny thing with this is that before I could even get it posted and IDF spokesman said that truce talks were ongoing and they were still hopeful. That as the Israeli air force intensified the bombardment of Gaza.

We shall see but I wont hold my breath.

Observations on Sandy 11.3

And than yesterday it happened, slowly lights began to spread across lower Manhattan. It started in the East Village where the sub-station had exploded during the storm than spread to Chelsea, SoHo, and finally the Village. You would have thought it was New Years Eve the way people were honking their car horns and yelling in the streets. The gallery is in the East Village and was in the first wave so that's where we spent the evening until we heard our building had power sometime around 11, than it was off to a now well lit and warm apartment. One would think a party was called for but after a small celebration at the gallery all I really wanted to do was crash in a warm bed.

It's nice to have our power back but as I write this there are still a million people without power in New York City alone. Some loose ends ...

I still haven't had much first hand news from Stone Harbor but I saw a headline that said Wildwood and Ocean City were the two hardest hit areas in Cape May County, New Jersey. One is to the south of Stone Harbor while the other is to the north. The storm gods must have smiled on Stone Harbor a bit.

Yesterday afternoon we could hear explosions in the city, under the circumstances not exactly what one wanted to hear. Turns out the NYPD was exploding what they called "damaged munitions" out in the harbor. A heads up would have been very nice, very nice indeed.

Some laughed when Goldman Sachs totally sandbagged their building before Sandy hit, the joke being that maybe they wouldn't take away the bags after the storm passed. Nobody laughed afterwards because their building was the only one in the Financial District not flooded and due to their massive generator it was also the only area that never went dark. The dark area immediately bordering Sachs' building became known as the dead zone.

I never thought much about who lived in our neighborhood a century or more ago until Halloween this year. Street after street of darkened apartment buildings and store fronts looking like one huge eerie haunted village. It wasn't hard to picture ghosts peaking out of the windows and zombies running across the wet streets. You don't believe in zombies? Just wait, if Willard wins Tuesday's election the zombie apocalypse will be upon us for sure.

One important lesson I learned during the blackout was that I can survive for a time on bottled water, those little Via Coffee packs by Starbucks, peanut butter, and Ritz crackers. Good to know.

Observations from the Gallery 10.2

Warning, phone generated mini-vent to follow ....

Ash is tired of listening so I'm going to vent hear. I saw something on twitter that just irritated the hell out of me. I didn't bother replying to it because sometimes that's just what people are looking for and besides 140 characters just wouldn't do the job anyway. Also I really don't use twitter to chat, it's more I micro-blog, empty my mind, this is what I'm looking at, reading, or thinking about at any given moment.

October is LGBT History Month and somebody, who shall remain nameless, evidently tired 'history months' tweeted wanting to know when white history month is. Think about that for a minute, when is white history month?

Well let me tell them something. Whites really don't need a month because they wrote history so every month is white history month. For that matter every day is white history day. The history of art, politics, religion, and any other area you care to name. Except for rare instances whites wrote it because the winner writes the history and I can't think of any time in the last millennium where whites weren't the winners. Now that may sound racist at some level but as you can see by the photo I happen to be white so by definition this can't be racist. Hell I don't even like the term white unless we are talking about photography.

Before you ask about Women's History Month read the last paragraph again, insert men wherever I wrote white.

Vent over, Ash thanks you for listening.

Observations on Art 7.7

Due to the astounding number of magazine subscriptions I have I've become the unofficial gallery librarian. I'm always throwing new ones on the table figuring somebody should read them if not me so it wasn't surprising one of our friends picked up an old issue of The New York Times Magazine yesterday. What was surprising is that it was one I never read so when he said "I bet you loved this article" I had no clue what he was talking about.

It was an article about Edward Conrad, one time Bain Capital founder and Willard Romney employee, (The Purpose of Spectacular Wealth, According to a Spectacularly Wealthy Guy), who also happens to be one of the largest donors to Willard's campaign. What follows is the paragraph that got his attention and than mine.

"At a nearby table we saw three young people with plaid shirts and floppy hair. For all we know, they may have been plotting the next generation’s Twitter, but Conard felt sure they were merely lounging on the sidelines. “What are they doing, sitting here, having a coffee at 2:30?” he asked. “I’m sure those guys are college-educated.” Conard, who occasionally flashed a mean streak during our talks, started calling the group “art-history majors,” his derisive term for pretty much anyone who was lucky enough to be born with the talent and opportunity to join the risk-taking, innovation-hunting mechanism but who chose instead a less competitive life."

I get so effing tired of people who equate studying art history with something like basket weaving. As for competitive, it seems the man doesn't know much about the art world. He may have made a fortune with a company that destroyed lives in the name of profit but he has never dealt with Larry Gagosian, unless he has bought something from him. At a certain level I may despise everything Gagosian stands for but he is very, very, good at what he does.

What can you do with an art history degree? Let me see, curate museums and galleries, manage auction houses, value art and other antiques, work for a historic trust, be an administrator, a journalist, picture editor, exhibition organizer, or you can
just teach something you love.

I'm sure a man of Conrad's wealth has an impressive art collection. I'm also quite sure he paid a tidy sum to somebody with an art history degree to tell him what to buy, another to handle the transactions, and yet another to take care of his most awesome collection.

For the record Kate Middleton has an art history degree from St. Andrews University, I know who I would rather do lunch with.

Vent over, for now.

Observations on Art 6.21

One of the ageless questions is one variation or another of what constitutes art. It's something that will be debated till the end of time as it has been since the beginning. I'll not bore you by pretending to know the answer to that but I found something yesterday that I most assuredly know is not art. Thailand may have talent, that in itself is debatable, but this sure as hell is most definitely not it.

"BANGKOK -- An episode of "Thailand's Got Talent" has stirred a morality debate after a contestant painted a canvas using her bare breasts, drawing a rebuke from the culture minister who called it 'very shocking.'"


link

By the look of the comments viewers agreed.
Okay, I have no idea what it says, and he/she/it gave it a thumbs up.
The only explanation for that is the viewer thought it was some sort of porn. But than again,
porn is art ....

เหตุผลพี่นี่สุดยอดไปเลย ว่างๆรบกวนคุณพี่แก้ผ้าเดินไปจ่­ายตลาดทีน่ะครับ คนที่ตลาดเค้าจะได้เห็นศิลปะที่­แท้จริง เหอๆ

Observations from the Roof 6.9

The VQs, Ash and Chloe, have turned up here and on my Flickr a lot over the years. It might be because they seem to be very photogenic. It might also be because they are the VQs in the first place, something I call them because they don't ever seem to sleep. Vampire Queens, VQs for short. There may be other pretenders but there are only two VQs.

Chloe

Honstly the reason they show all the time is because they are two of the best friends I have ever had. They have been together longer than I remember and I would like nothing better than to take my first ever wedding shots at theirs but I didn't say that. Wait, I said it, wrote it, and posted it. Don't tell them I said it. I'm seriously screwed and not in a good way.

Good things are happening to both my girls this summer. Chloe has a four month summer job doing some stage work for The Huntington Theatre Company in Boston. Hopefully that will be just the thing she needs on her resume to get more serious offers in the city.
The Wisp tries harder than anubody I know and deserves everything she gets and more.

Ash

As for Ash, her little art business is doing so well that for the first time she broached the subject of leaving the gallery. Not that I take her totally serious yet, more like throwing the possibility out there. If she were to leave I probably would have to give serious thought to doing so too, it just wouldn't be the same without her.
As always time will tell.

I think Ash will be spending a great deal of time this summer riding the rails between New York and Boston. I may have to join her once or twice. Purely for business purposes of course, the art biz goes mobile.

This summer of change I have been predicting for some time is getting
a lot more personal than I ever dreamed.

Observations from the Window 4.30.1

The changing seasons, warm breezes carrying the sweet smells of hot asphalt and garbage. Wait, this isn't about the city ....

Unlike nature, or the way nature once was, my mind only acknowledges two seasons, warm and cold. Technically more because there are the grass, ice, and dirt sports seasons but this isn't a sports post and it just gets confusing. Everything suddenly changes, my thinking, my attire, and the tunes I listen to. The later is the surest sign my seasons have changed as I found out over the weekend.  Over the protests of the techno-pop gallery crowd I rediscovered an old friend. No Beach Boys here, my kind of summer tunes.

One other thing about the warm season, Foxy puts her top down
and we play the tunes really really loud.

link

Observations from the Coffee Shop 3.14

With the closing of all the major fairs on Sunday, and our little Salon on Monday, art week came to an end. I have yet to write about anything I saw during the week but I did get some well needed venting out of the way. That's always a plus, from my side anyway. I still have some posts started that I want to finish and hopefully I'll get to them over the next few days.

One thing I was excited about was the number of women artists having prominent places this year shows and not just at the Salon. The number of solo shows by women hopefully is a trend that will lead to women artists finally catching up with the men in the art market. When I first moved here I was amazed at the number of buyers, men and women alike, who would say point blank that they wouldn't buy a work by a women. At that point Ash normally took over the discussion. I'm seeing less of that now and actually more interest in female artists. Gwenolee Zürcher, who thought up and organized the Salon, said she did so because in her opinion there are too many good artists who don't get enough the attention they deserve simply because they are women. This is one of the topics I want to get back to.

This was the third Art Week since I moved to the Village. The first I barely noticed at all but I had just moved and was busy getting myself settled into my new world. Last year I was more into it all and even though I had been at the Armory Show before it still felt a bit new. I felt more like I was a part of something rather than just a visitor. This year's edition at times felt more like work than play, it was hectic, I was busy, but it was still totally fun. It's something that shouldn't be missed if you love art and happen to be in the city.

One thing I have learned over the years is I'm no big fan of neon in art, maybe I should say neon as art. I still have nightmares about last year's glowing neon fence by Ivan Navarro. This year it seemed every gallery at the Armory Show had a neon sign glowing and humming somewhere in their booth like some kind of psychedelic humming birds from a Tim Burton movie gone terribly wrong. I've never been to Vegas so it all just reminded me of a bad night on the Wildwood boardwalk. Maybe that's been my problem with the neon all along.

And one final thing, iPad art. If Rick Santorum isn't enough of a sign of the coming apocalypse iPad art surely is. 

Observations on Art 3.11

Even with all the art in town this week, all the shows and fairs, people still seem enthralled with the few Damien Hirst pieces at the Armory Show. The man is everywhere these days. Three hundred of Hirst's, and his 100 plus assistants', spot paintings are currently being shown in now extended shows at 11 Gagosian Galleries around the world. This summer also brings another Hirst exhibition at the Tate Modern in London and 2014 will bring us Hirst's own gallery also in London. Talk about overexposed, somewhere Andy Warhol is jealous as hell.

For some reason I have always had a problem with installation art. Maybe my background, education, I'm not sure why. On the other hand an artist's art is their own, hopefully showing what they feel inside. In 2007, as the worl'd economy began its long crash, Hirst created a $100 million diamond encrusted skull and called it For The Love Of God. If this is what he was feeling inside, well, for the love of god indeed. 

British painter David Hockney has said when discussing Hirst and his assistants, “It’s a little insulting to craftsmen, skilful craftsmen. I used to point out at art school, you can teach the craft, it’s the poetry you can’t teach. Now they try to teach the poetry and not the craft.”

I suppose if I got myself a paintball gun, stood back fifty feet, and fired randomly at the side of an old Pennsylvania barn I could call it art and than I would understand.

No, even than I don't think I would get it at all.

I honestly do have some thoughts to share on Art Week and some of what I have seen. Something awesome to see was the large number of women artists represented this year, even beyond the Salon doors.

For what it's worth I saw this quote yesterday that is a good addition to my last post on Occupy Museums. Video artist Yvonne Guzman said that there’s a feeling among younger artists that “the mega-rich collectors and artists are all hanging out together on a different universe somewhere. But the vast majority of artists aren’t a part of that, we’re just getting on with our art.”

Observations on Art 3.9

With all the art fairs going on it's been a hectic, crazy, fun week in the Village. I think I have started five art posts so far but have yet to finish one of them so I guess I'll be spending the next week catching up. This post is more a vent than anything else so I think I'll get it out of the way first.

Over the winter the Occupy movement seems to have gone quiet at times as the non-existent leaders spend their time discussing relevancy or the lack of it. The thing they don't seem to have learned is you can't plan relevancy, you have to go out and make it. Much of what happened in the fall was spontaneous with some help from the NYPD. The return of warm temperatures and the NYPD's continuing problems with hubris should cure all that so it should be an interesting summer leading into the fall election. My vent isn't directed at the movement as a whole but once again at that fringe element of occupy, Occupy Art or Occupy Museums.

Now I don't pretend to understand all the ins and outs of the mainly sociopolitical Occupy so it doesn't thrill me when some of them pretend to understand the art world. Occupy Museums founder Noah Fischer is a graduate of the Columbia School of Art and should know better but also has a well known chip on his shoulder. The money being thrown around this week does tend to confirm some of Occupy Museum's arguments as there is too much money in art and it does put the ability to own works by known artists out of the reach most people. But, as I wrote before, Occupy's campaign is directed in the totally wrong direction. To call for an end to the "elitist" Whitney Biennial and never once mention the Gagosian Galleries is just ignorant because the museums simply show art, they don't sell it, they don't set the price. Occupy could better spend its time protesting at Sotheby's or Gagosian instead of the Whitney and Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). Than again Gagosian has some security guards that would make NYPD cry with envy, that might explain a lot.

Granted MOMA has always been a very special place for me, you can call me biased if you want, but sports is also special so here is a little comparison. A 12 game ticket plan for the New York Yankees will cost you anywhere from $90 to $1350 and the games are all weekdays. A single game in the nose bleed level will run you at least $20 and in the 'champagne' section $525. A one day ticket into MOMA is $22.50, $16 for seniors, $12 for students, and children under 16 are free. Try getting your kids into Yankee Stadium for free. There are ten different ways to join MOMA or I guess you could say get a season ticket. For $85 you get admission for a year, weekends included, and your guests can purchase tickets for $5. Skip up to $360 and you can even pull four people of your choice off the street to accompany you every time you visit, for free of course.

All I'm trying to say is this. Sure in a perfect world museums would be publicly supported and admission would be free. But we live in a far from perfect world today so don't fault the museums their admission fees, they don't come close to covering operating costs, and don't expect the government to turn more tax dollars over to the museums anytime soon. Your representatives are too busy spending those dollars building stadiums. It is estimated that the deals to build Yankee stadium cost New York City a combined $362 million to start and, including waived tax revenue, could top over $4 billion during the 40 year run of the deals.

Occupy sports instead of museums.

Observations from the Salon 3.7

Ash and I long ago came to an agreement on music in the gallery, first one in picks the tunes. Obviously when only one of is she is the one who picks. Ash leans towards dance and pop while I take the rock and metal, somehow the middle ground is Lady Gaga which I'll never understand. It always has worked perfectly and people have commented they know who is there before they even see anybody.

Now and than Nicole decides that in her official capacity as assistant she should make important decisions and Monday was such a day. Nicole decided she would pick the soundtrack for the opening of Salon Zürcher and what was it she picked? Yes that would be Carrie Underwood. The geek in me came up with a solution which I borrowed from a radio station back in State College. I linked Ash and Nicole's iPods with my netbook and created one huge shuffle. Metallica faded into Keisha into something called country and all was right in the world.

At this point Bernard Z asked for Jazz.

The best laid plans.

Observations on Art 3.5

(Originally posted on March 3, 2011 during last year's Armory Show.)

The Modern Art era is said to have begun during the American Civil War period, the 1860s, even more precisely in 1863 with the work of Manet. Modern art is characterized by the attempt to capture the essence of a subject rather than the resemblance of it. For just this reason it moved more and more towards abstract as time went by.

The major painters of the early modern period include Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, and Claude Monet, or the Impressionists and Post-impressionists. The early 20th century was dominated by the rivalry between the Cubism of Pablo Picasso and the Fauvism of Henri Matisse. The interwar period saw the rise of Salvador Dali, Marc Chagall, and the Bauhaus of Wassily Kandinsky.

Finally the post war years saw the birth of Abstract Expressionism which the first American movement to dominate art worldwide. For the first time New York City, and not Paris, was the center of the art world. Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, James Brooks, and many others define this period.

My personal opinion is that the Modern Art period began to end with the death of Jackson Pollock who pioneered the 'drip painting' method in which he laid a canvas on the floor and threw paint on it. But technically the period was extended into the 1960s and even the 70s by the rise of Lyrical Abstraction which was a movement once again dominated by Europeans as the United States struggled with the Vietnam War and it's aftermath.

Either way the era had ended before I ever set eyes on my first brush.

The idea here was to explain the difference between the Modern and Contemporary eras but I seem to have gotten a little carried away so I think I'll make two posts out of this. Hope this was easy enough to understand.

Observations from the Gallery 3.3

A rather unusual late night at the gallery or I guess what I should call the Salon for now. Some random thoughts from the beginning of my personal Art Week.

During the recently ended Fashion Week the Village seemed just slightly more vivid than normal. The cafes, coffee shops and bars were filled with colorful fashionistas in town for the shows. As Art Week begins everything has turned just a bit darker because black, as always, is the color of choice of artists and all their associates.

A little known fact, or a well kept secret, I just discovered is that the Air France lounge at JFK has one hell of a wine selection. In all my years of bartending I don't remember ever having made a french 75 but if you are at the Air France Lounge and not French it's the drink to order. I have no idea why cause they taste like crap.

Here is a bit of conversation in the car back from JFK today. Bernard Z, "So is everybody excited?" Nicole, "Kate forgot all about it." Ash, *rolls eyes. Me, "well". Gwen Z, "Katelyn is a reveur, they forget everything. It is allowed." So from this day forward my excuse for my pathetic short term memory is I am a reveur. It may be true, it may be not be true, but it does have a certain cultured ring to it.

There is nothing quite like listening to French, Dutch, and Swiss individuals arguing over what Chinese food to order from the Szechuan restaurant down the street. One thing you learn quick about Euros is that gestures are as important as words in a conversation and omg they have plenty of them and use them with abandon.

I know a little German to go with my French but I'm keeping that fact to myself. It seems the gallerists from Amsterdam don't especially like the Parisian variety and vice versa and I prefer they didn't know I understood what they were saying. I'm just evil to the end.

This should be a very interesting week at the Salon. 

Observations on Art 3.3

A change of topic here as, Rush Limbaugh be damned, politics takes a much overdue back seat to art. I was chatting with a friend a couple nights ago when a 'holy shit' alarm went off in my head as she mentioned it was March. Suddenly I realized Art Week and all that goes with it had snuck up on me. Honestly you would think the stack of show catalogs somebody had conveniently left on my window seat would have given it away but you would be wrong. Sometimes I just get so wrapped up in politics I forget everything else but how I forgot this is beyond me. Highlights of the week ahead.

Brucennial 2012, Circle in the Square Theater, 159 Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village. March 1 - April 20.

Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of Modern Art, 945 Madison Avenue. March 1 - May 27.

Salon Zurcher, 33 Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village. The ultimate in missed clues. Really the owners flying in later today should have given this one away but sometimes my head is just is off in another world. Galleries from Amsterdam and Paris are setting up this weekend so it should be fascinating.
March 5 - March 12.

ADAA (Art Dealers Association of America) Art Show, Park Avenue Armory. This is the 50^th edition of the longest running art fair in America. A must see here will be an all-women booth at Galerie LeLong, featuring works by Louise Bourgeois, Petah Coyne, Jane Hammond, Ana Mendieta, Yoko Ono, Nancy Spero, Ursula von Rydingsvard and others.
March 7 - March 11.

Scope New York, the so called Scope Pavilion, 57^th Street and 12^th Avenue. Scope benefits the Chashama Foundation which converts vacant properties into art spaces.
March 7 - March 11.

Volta New York, 7 West 34^th Street. The New York edition of the Basel art fair calls itself a platform for challenging, often complementary, sometimes competing ideas about contemporary art.
March 8 - March 11.

The Armory Show, Piers 92 & 94, Manhattan. This year the huge contemporary and modern art fair has fewer dealers with larger areas, hopefully no neon fences, and an opening night party at the Museum of Modern Art.
March 8 - March 11.

You can add to these the Independent, Moving Image Video Art Fair, Korean Art Show, Fountain Art Fair, PooL Art Fair, New City Art Fair, the Cindy Sherman exhibit at MOMA, and the John Chamberlain exhibit at the Guggenheim Museum.

That should give you a pretty good idea of Art Week 2012.