ARTISTS
Daniel Birnbaum
1 "André Cadere: Peinture sans fin" (Painting Without End) (Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Germany) For years, artists I admire, like Gabriel
Daniel Birnbaum / ARTFORUM
01 Dec, 2007
1 "Andr茅 Cadere: Peinture sans fin" (Painting Without End) (Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Germany) For years, artists I admire, like Gabriel Orozco and Sa芒dane Afif, have told me about the work of Cadere (1934-1978), and here I finally had the chance to see it. This retrospective made clear that the Romanian-born, Paris-based artist was a huge pain in the neck-he would insert his signature striped "barres de bois rond" (bars of round wood) into any show he felt could use them, often uninvited. But he was nonetheless a great practitioner of a colorful new form of "peinture sans tin," which allowed for countless viewpoints and ways of exhibiting. Indeed, his Minimalist instruments of artistic intervention are the most delicate paintings I`ve seen this year. Two of them are exhibited together as Portrait of Gilbert & George, 1974. They`re pretty similar, but it`s their tiny differences that matter.
2 Blinky Palermo, "Palermo" (Kunsthalle D眉sseldorf/Kunstverein f眉r die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Germany) The mythologies surrounding Palermo (1943-1977), perhaps the true genius of his generation of German painters (and there`s some competition here), made it a bit difficult to really see his work during his time. But by now all of that has faded, leaving a truly remarkable oeuvre, as this comprehensive retrospective, organized by Ulrike Groos, Susanne K眉per, and Vanessa Joan Muller, makes apparent. By placing colors in odd, unique combinations with one another, Palermo allows us to see many of them in ways no one had thought possible.
3 Olle Baertling, "A Modern Classic" (Moderna Museet, Stockholm) and "Helld茅n + B忙rtling" (Arkitekturmuseet, Stockholm) Baertling (1911-1981)-the most extraordinary of the past century`s Utopian artists from Sweden-elaborated his cosmic ambitions in a high-strung manifesto, saying: "The painting becomes a part of the universe, a sun, a power center broadcasting its poetic message.... Open formations of organized light irradiate at extreme velocities in unprecedented dimensions, infinite spaces of light travel with incredible swiftness to create the liberation of infinity." Keep in mind this was spoken not by a member of some ancient, sun-worshipping cult, but by a key artist working in the world`s most developed welfare state. In 1960, B忙rtling`s first monumental commission, the lobby of the first skyscraper in H枚torget square in central Stockholm, designed in close collaboration with architect David Helld茅n, was built-a labyrinth of angular painted fields and mirrors. B忙rtling was also planning a huge sculpture nearby, a project that, like his enormous TV tower for Abu Dhabi, was never realized. To accompany John Peter Nilsson`s major B忙rtling retrospective at the Moderna Museet, Martin R枚rby has assembled a small show at the Arkitekturmuseet focusing on the collaborative efforts of the painter and the architect, the official designers of the "Swedish model," as the Social Democratic system is often known, who made the rest of Europe look north for a decade or so.
4 "Puss 1968-1973" (Nationalgalleriet, Stockholm) Artists Peter Hellsing and Bengt Jahnsson-Wennberg and critic Lars Bang Larsen, the leading expert on anything psychedelic, are responsible for this exhibition focused on a small magazine, Puss. Featuring countercultural overreactions to just about anything official and state-sanctioned, Puss is one of the most hilarious, satirical, and outrageous publications I`ve ever seen. Far from being a product of the Swedish model that the world marveled at, Puss was fun (so fun, in fact, that distributors refused to handle it due to its "tastelessness and vulgarity"). 脰yvind Fahlstr枚m had a column in the magazine in which he featured articles rejected by more "official" publications. Puss ridiculed everyone, not only conservatives but also the bohemian cultural elite, and even the hippies.
5 Atsuko Tanaka, Electric Dress, 1956/1986 What do I remember from the largely forgettable Grand Tour this summer? At least this: Tanaka`s dress made of lightbulbs, shown at Documenta 12. I would have traveled all the way to Kassel to see this radiant beauty even if nothing else in the show had been worth the trip (which is pretty much how it was).
6 Paul Chan (Serpentine Gallery, London) Chan`s whole series "The 7 Lights," 2005-2007, was shown here to be open-ended, even if complete. Each work was a projection-onto the floor, objects, or the wa 11s-except for the most recent installment, 7th Light, which, running counter to expectations, turned out to be a kind of script. Each work may be finished, then, but the cycle does not seem closed off, since the final part, rather than being a piece in itself, is a score promising something to arrive (or not) in the future.
7 Sa麓dane Afif The infinitely light touch of Afif`s own art came across in the section of the Biennale de Lyon that he put together with Val茅rie Chartrain-one of the seventeen artist-curated "sequences" of the exhibition and easily the most beautiful part of the entire show. The space, which was connected by a hallway constructed by Michael S. Riedel to a gallery showing films selected by Rirkrit Tiravanija, contained works by numerous artists, including Loris Gr茅aud, St茅phane Calais, and Claude Closky, who were related to either the Zoo Galerie in Nantes, France, or the magazine Z茅ro Deux (both of which fell under the direction of Patrice Joly). Each artist seemed to make perfect sense when considered in light of the melancholic ambience that characterizes Afif`s practice.
8 Keren Cytter Wherever I go-Paris, Antwerp, Zurich, Moscow-I see a great new film by this Israeli artist that sticks the viewer, in the words of Willem de Rooij, "somewhere in between Fassbinder, John Cassavetes, South Park, and The Blair Witch Project." In certain works, Cytter`s protagonists seem to have lost control of their own "stories," as in Dream Talk, 2005, in which a group of friends mistake themselves for characters in a reality TV show. In the dense, rapid, looped video The Victim, 2006, five people gather around a table and one of them-the victim-is driven to the ultimate point of no return: suicide. The story pushes forward with great speed and shows there is no limit to Cytter`s technical skill. Her films are humorous and psychologically riveting. Next time I travel, I`m sure I`ll see another splendid piece. I can`t wait.
9 Simon Dybbroe Moller, Like Origami Gone Wrong (JRP Ringier) Minimalism, formalism, and Conceptualism come alive and surprising new relationships emerge in this perfect catalogue for Dutch artist Dybbroe M酶ller`s exhibition at Arhus Kunstbygning in Denmark. "Retro-avant-garde" explorations can be a bit smart for my taste, but Dybbroe Mailer`s work is simply too good to be boring. Consider, as an indication of his many influences, the interview in which he discusses the first of Sol LeWitt`s "Sentences on Conceptual Art"-"Conceptual artists are mystics rather than rationalists"-in relation to the work of August Strindberg, whose technique of exposing photographic paper directly to the night sky (to make "celestographs") Dybbroe Mailer has employed in his own practice.
10 "Richard Prince: Spiritual America" (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York) It`s getting late in America. And this retrospective, organized by Nancy Spector, showed Prince`s notoriously slippery yet spellbinding paintings and photographs to be the perfect talismans for the final days of Empire.
1. View of "Andre Cadere: Peinture sans fln"(Palntlng Without End), 2007-2008, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Germany, 2007. From left: Barre de bois rond (A 85J (Bar of Round Wood [A 85]), 1975: Barres de bois rond (B 25, B 26J (Portrait Gilbert & George), 1974. 2. Blinky Palermo, Btaue Scfieibe und Stab (Blue Disc and Stick), 1968, wood and blue tape, dimensions variable. 3. Olle Bsertllng and David Hellden, hotorgsclty, Stockholm, ca. 1960. Photo: Hernried. 4. Cover of Puss, no. 2 (January 1968). 5. Atsuko Tanaka, Electric Dress, 1956/1986, mixed media. Installation view. Museum Fridericianum, Kassel, 2007. 6. Paul Chan, Untitled (After Caravagglo) (detail), 2003-2006, video projection. Installation view. Serpentine Gallery, London, 2007. 7. View of Saadane Afif and Val茅rie Chartrain`s "Une promenade au zoo" (A Trip to the Zoo), 2007, Mus茅e d`art contemporain, Lyon. 8. Keren Cytter, The Victim, 2006, still from a color video, 5 minutes. 9. Cover of Simon Dybbroe Mailer`s Like Origami Gone Wrong (JRP Ringler, 2007). 10. Richard Prince, Point Courage, 1989, fiberglass, wood, oil, and enamel, 60 陆 x 56 录 x 4``. PHOTO (BIRNBAUM): WOLFGANG TILLMANS
AUTHOR AFFILIATION
DANIEL BIRNBAUM IS DIRECTOR OF FRANKFURT`S ST?DELSCHULE ART ACADEMY AND OF ITS PORTIKUS GALLERY. HE IS COEDITOR OF TEACHING ART (VERLAG WALTHER K?NIG, 2007) AND IS THE CURATOR OF THE NEXT TURIN TRIENNIAL, "50 MOONS OF SATURN," WHICH WILL OPEN IN NOVEMBER 2008.
COPYRIGHT: Copyright Artforum Inc. Dec 2007. Provided by Proquest- CSA, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Only fair use as provided by the United States copyright law is permitted.
PROQUEST-CSA, LLC- MAKES NO WARRANTY REGARDING THE ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, OR TIMELINESS OF THE LICENSED MATERIALS OR ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED.
2 Blinky Palermo, "Palermo" (Kunsthalle D眉sseldorf/Kunstverein f眉r die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Germany) The mythologies surrounding Palermo (1943-1977), perhaps the true genius of his generation of German painters (and there`s some competition here), made it a bit difficult to really see his work during his time. But by now all of that has faded, leaving a truly remarkable oeuvre, as this comprehensive retrospective, organized by Ulrike Groos, Susanne K眉per, and Vanessa Joan Muller, makes apparent. By placing colors in odd, unique combinations with one another, Palermo allows us to see many of them in ways no one had thought possible.
3 Olle Baertling, "A Modern Classic" (Moderna Museet, Stockholm) and "Helld茅n + B忙rtling" (Arkitekturmuseet, Stockholm) Baertling (1911-1981)-the most extraordinary of the past century`s Utopian artists from Sweden-elaborated his cosmic ambitions in a high-strung manifesto, saying: "The painting becomes a part of the universe, a sun, a power center broadcasting its poetic message.... Open formations of organized light irradiate at extreme velocities in unprecedented dimensions, infinite spaces of light travel with incredible swiftness to create the liberation of infinity." Keep in mind this was spoken not by a member of some ancient, sun-worshipping cult, but by a key artist working in the world`s most developed welfare state. In 1960, B忙rtling`s first monumental commission, the lobby of the first skyscraper in H枚torget square in central Stockholm, designed in close collaboration with architect David Helld茅n, was built-a labyrinth of angular painted fields and mirrors. B忙rtling was also planning a huge sculpture nearby, a project that, like his enormous TV tower for Abu Dhabi, was never realized. To accompany John Peter Nilsson`s major B忙rtling retrospective at the Moderna Museet, Martin R枚rby has assembled a small show at the Arkitekturmuseet focusing on the collaborative efforts of the painter and the architect, the official designers of the "Swedish model," as the Social Democratic system is often known, who made the rest of Europe look north for a decade or so.
4 "Puss 1968-1973" (Nationalgalleriet, Stockholm) Artists Peter Hellsing and Bengt Jahnsson-Wennberg and critic Lars Bang Larsen, the leading expert on anything psychedelic, are responsible for this exhibition focused on a small magazine, Puss. Featuring countercultural overreactions to just about anything official and state-sanctioned, Puss is one of the most hilarious, satirical, and outrageous publications I`ve ever seen. Far from being a product of the Swedish model that the world marveled at, Puss was fun (so fun, in fact, that distributors refused to handle it due to its "tastelessness and vulgarity"). 脰yvind Fahlstr枚m had a column in the magazine in which he featured articles rejected by more "official" publications. Puss ridiculed everyone, not only conservatives but also the bohemian cultural elite, and even the hippies.
5 Atsuko Tanaka, Electric Dress, 1956/1986 What do I remember from the largely forgettable Grand Tour this summer? At least this: Tanaka`s dress made of lightbulbs, shown at Documenta 12. I would have traveled all the way to Kassel to see this radiant beauty even if nothing else in the show had been worth the trip (which is pretty much how it was).
6 Paul Chan (Serpentine Gallery, London) Chan`s whole series "The 7 Lights," 2005-2007, was shown here to be open-ended, even if complete. Each work was a projection-onto the floor, objects, or the wa 11s-except for the most recent installment, 7th Light, which, running counter to expectations, turned out to be a kind of script. Each work may be finished, then, but the cycle does not seem closed off, since the final part, rather than being a piece in itself, is a score promising something to arrive (or not) in the future.
7 Sa麓dane Afif The infinitely light touch of Afif`s own art came across in the section of the Biennale de Lyon that he put together with Val茅rie Chartrain-one of the seventeen artist-curated "sequences" of the exhibition and easily the most beautiful part of the entire show. The space, which was connected by a hallway constructed by Michael S. Riedel to a gallery showing films selected by Rirkrit Tiravanija, contained works by numerous artists, including Loris Gr茅aud, St茅phane Calais, and Claude Closky, who were related to either the Zoo Galerie in Nantes, France, or the magazine Z茅ro Deux (both of which fell under the direction of Patrice Joly). Each artist seemed to make perfect sense when considered in light of the melancholic ambience that characterizes Afif`s practice.
8 Keren Cytter Wherever I go-Paris, Antwerp, Zurich, Moscow-I see a great new film by this Israeli artist that sticks the viewer, in the words of Willem de Rooij, "somewhere in between Fassbinder, John Cassavetes, South Park, and The Blair Witch Project." In certain works, Cytter`s protagonists seem to have lost control of their own "stories," as in Dream Talk, 2005, in which a group of friends mistake themselves for characters in a reality TV show. In the dense, rapid, looped video The Victim, 2006, five people gather around a table and one of them-the victim-is driven to the ultimate point of no return: suicide. The story pushes forward with great speed and shows there is no limit to Cytter`s technical skill. Her films are humorous and psychologically riveting. Next time I travel, I`m sure I`ll see another splendid piece. I can`t wait.
9 Simon Dybbroe Moller, Like Origami Gone Wrong (JRP Ringier) Minimalism, formalism, and Conceptualism come alive and surprising new relationships emerge in this perfect catalogue for Dutch artist Dybbroe M酶ller`s exhibition at Arhus Kunstbygning in Denmark. "Retro-avant-garde" explorations can be a bit smart for my taste, but Dybbroe Mailer`s work is simply too good to be boring. Consider, as an indication of his many influences, the interview in which he discusses the first of Sol LeWitt`s "Sentences on Conceptual Art"-"Conceptual artists are mystics rather than rationalists"-in relation to the work of August Strindberg, whose technique of exposing photographic paper directly to the night sky (to make "celestographs") Dybbroe Mailer has employed in his own practice.
10 "Richard Prince: Spiritual America" (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York) It`s getting late in America. And this retrospective, organized by Nancy Spector, showed Prince`s notoriously slippery yet spellbinding paintings and photographs to be the perfect talismans for the final days of Empire.
1. View of "Andre Cadere: Peinture sans fln"(Palntlng Without End), 2007-2008, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Germany, 2007. From left: Barre de bois rond (A 85J (Bar of Round Wood [A 85]), 1975: Barres de bois rond (B 25, B 26J (Portrait Gilbert & George), 1974. 2. Blinky Palermo, Btaue Scfieibe und Stab (Blue Disc and Stick), 1968, wood and blue tape, dimensions variable. 3. Olle Bsertllng and David Hellden, hotorgsclty, Stockholm, ca. 1960. Photo: Hernried. 4. Cover of Puss, no. 2 (January 1968). 5. Atsuko Tanaka, Electric Dress, 1956/1986, mixed media. Installation view. Museum Fridericianum, Kassel, 2007. 6. Paul Chan, Untitled (After Caravagglo) (detail), 2003-2006, video projection. Installation view. Serpentine Gallery, London, 2007. 7. View of Saadane Afif and Val茅rie Chartrain`s "Une promenade au zoo" (A Trip to the Zoo), 2007, Mus茅e d`art contemporain, Lyon. 8. Keren Cytter, The Victim, 2006, still from a color video, 5 minutes. 9. Cover of Simon Dybbroe Mailer`s Like Origami Gone Wrong (JRP Ringler, 2007). 10. Richard Prince, Point Courage, 1989, fiberglass, wood, oil, and enamel, 60 陆 x 56 录 x 4``. PHOTO (BIRNBAUM): WOLFGANG TILLMANS
AUTHOR AFFILIATION
DANIEL BIRNBAUM IS DIRECTOR OF FRANKFURT`S ST?DELSCHULE ART ACADEMY AND OF ITS PORTIKUS GALLERY. HE IS COEDITOR OF TEACHING ART (VERLAG WALTHER K?NIG, 2007) AND IS THE CURATOR OF THE NEXT TURIN TRIENNIAL, "50 MOONS OF SATURN," WHICH WILL OPEN IN NOVEMBER 2008.
COPYRIGHT: Copyright Artforum Inc. Dec 2007. Provided by Proquest- CSA, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Only fair use as provided by the United States copyright law is permitted.
PROQUEST-CSA, LLC- MAKES NO WARRANTY REGARDING THE ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, OR TIMELINESS OF THE LICENSED MATERIALS OR ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED.
