S

What is to be made of this invented landscape, fundamentally disconnected from the world around it (as in Trisha Baga’s photograph 10.22.11 where the notion of being misplaced is made definitive, rather than exceptional)? Nothing quite fits here. Buildings are disembodied by design, with the reflecting glass of office towers that never show themselves, but only what surrounds them.

Left: Trisha Baga, 10.22.11. (2011). Photo: Courtesy the artist. artes fine arts magazine

Lukas Geronomias, Silhouette from the series Comfortable (Stamford), 2011. Inkjet on textile (rolled). Courtesy of artist.

Lukas Geronimas registers these facades in his Comfortable (Stamford) series with urban wallpapers of splendidly gridded uniformity, as in the image Landmark. Laid down on textile, the patterns evoke madras cottons, simplified into architectural dress. Another of the series, entitled Silhouette, is displayed as a rolled scroll, with its patterns almost entirely invisible. It has the attraction of those secrets we know are being contrived inside of every corporation office that we pass.

One more of Geronimas’ printed plots incorporates what might be a parody of the Papal keys and the miscreant Vatican Bank, but has a more local connection to the icon adopted by the Union Bank of Switzerland with its massive Stamford office, monetary losses, fines, and rogue traders.

There is a 15th century rendering of an ideal city, variously ascribed to the painter Piero della Francesca or the architect Leon Battista Alberti, which possesses more visual splendor than Stamford’s corporate standards would embrace. But what it has in common with urban Connecticut is an absence of visible human presence. As is the nature of bureaucracies, all the activity is indoors, out of sight.

Lukas Geronomias, Rita (2011). African mahogany, brass, fasteners, adhesives, pipe cleaner. Courtesy of artist.

This theme is moderated through another work by Geronimas, Rita, a rustic cellular antenna or astronomical instrument with a star fragment trapped on one of its armatures. Here is the vehicle for unseen conversations, the financial chatter that makes and unmakes the lives of the surrounding community.

This gallery, newly established, is itself a combination of former domestic spaces whose past has become a fantasy. A square of carpet at the base of one brick column is not clearly incorporated into the exhibition, yet gives a note of warning that it should be avoided. It has gone from useful decoration to pure object by virtue of the works which surround it. Its innocence is lost.

This stripping away of obvious purpose is clearly deliberate in the fragments of vaguely dysfunctional office furniture by Geronimas that are scattered around the space. Included are two useless chairs identified as indigenous to the locality. As wall pieces, they suggest small scale piano lids or architectural templates for concrete benches on a distinctly uncomfortable plaza.

Mads Lynnerup, Reflection (the angle of incidence), 2011. Installation: Five mirrors and 5:28 min video. Courtesy of artist and Lora Reynolds Gallery

Mads Lynnerup’s Reflection (the angle of incidence), with its five mirrors (in another echo of corporate invisibility) and video projection, documents and multiplies a solar cooker being put to use. An usual scene for an urban parking lot, there is something ominous in its narrative. But the initial mystery of the liquid being heated – can it be toxic ? flammable? – is resolved in the surprise of a tea bag. The climax is both sentimental and unsettling.

Trisha Baga, Ferñañdo (2011). Video projection with Chinatown ink drawing. Courtesy of artist.

Baga creates a minor planetarium with her video of, the green light at the end of the dock, channeling F. Scott Fitzgerald alongside a scrolling star show catalog of local personages which renders the community as an inclusive, flickering genealogy.

This latter piece serves as a physical conclusion to the show which opens with an entryway work also created by Baga, and eponymously entitled Ferñañdo. Here, texts crawl in parallel above and below a Chinatown ink drawing redolent of adolescent obsessions and mass produced restaurant calendars. Multiple languages suggest diversity and incomprehension in equal measure, the beginning and the end of the world so inventively depicted in this show, all illuminated by the lights of an imaginary city.

By Stephen Kobasa, Contributing Writer

 Fernando

‘On the Town: Seeing as Only Strangers Can’

Franklin Street Works, 41 Franklin Street, Stamford, CT

Visit the Franklin Street Works site at www.franklinstreetworks.org

Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty (Great Salt Lake), 1970. Photo: George Steinmetz (2002)

The Utopian desire of 1970s ‘Land’ artists, who broke away from the stranglehold of the art market by producing earthworks far removed from cities, has given way to new projects that demonstrate a global ecological awareness through cross-disciplinary investigations concerning environmental sustainability. artes fine arts magazine

A move in this direction emerged in the early 1980s when Agnes Denes created, Wheatfield—A Confrontation, 1982 in Battery Park. She planted and harvested two acres of wheat on a landfill close to Manhattan as a discursive act to demonstrate that a wasteland could be made useful once again. (Below right) Agnes Denes, Wheatfield—A Confrontation  © l982. Two acre wheat field on Battery Park landfill, Manhattan. Commissioned, Public Art Fund, NYC. Photo: © John McGrail, Time/Life. [see: End Note 1]  Moreover, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, an artist in residence at the New York Sanitation Department, dealt with the problem of waste as early as 1983 and continues today. Inventively, she transformed a garbage-recycling center of the NYSD into a place where the public could come and observe how rubbish actually is disposed of in New York City. The walkway, bridge and viewing wall are made of recycled materials.

The expanding term of environmental art today encompasses a vast scope of territory and issues. Just as certain earthworks in the deserts of the American West, grew out of ideas of landscape painting, the growth of public art stimulated artists to engage the urban landscape as well as other environments as a platform to present ideas and concepts about the natural world to a diverse audience. According to John Beardsley, “Many environmental artists now desire not merely an audience for their work but a public with whom they can correspond about the meaning and purpose of their art.”[2]

In our day, certain artists persist in moving away from single-issue approaches toward a rising energetic hybridization of art, activism and engineering. The notion of sustainability has spread from the field of environmentalism to many areas of human activity, including art and culture. Some refer to this as sustainable art and this perhaps might be an alternative term to environmental or green art, in recognition of the challenges that sustainability brings to contemporary art as a whole. The co-curators stated “In fact, the closeness to sustainability of much challenging contemporary art practice owes more to the legacy of 1970s conceptualism, and even primarily the non-market East European variety of conceptual art, than for example to Land Art.”[3] Artists now have an impulse to grapple with pressing social issues as a means to enact communal change through new modalities of working that include working outside the usual art community and often collaborating with scientists.

The exhibition Too Shallow for Diving: the 21st Century Is Treading Water, guest curated by artist and educator Carolyn Speranza for the American Jewish Museum of the Jewish Community Center (JCC) of Greater Pittsburgh, was a testimony to this emergent direction that artists are developing and their desire for social engagement. This wide-ranging show is emblematic of an upward thematic trend as evinced in numerous films, writings and exhibitions over the past decade. Once more the Fowkes stress, “There is a rising understanding that radical change is required, if we are to find a way to ‘meet the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”[4]

Still from film, The Day after Tomorrow, Courstesy 20th Century Fox (2004)

The perils of nature and environmental consciousness have become a cultural barometer globally. Our daily engagement with recycling contributes to a sustainable environment, and progressively more households engage in this act. Artists cannot but take into account the crisis facing our planet given the escalating daily news about the dangers threatening our environment as depicted in CNN’s documentary, Planet in Peril and in such films as, The Day After Tomorrow (2004) and I Legend (2007) that address an inevitable doomsday. In recent years, the topic of environmental crisis has been explored in several notable exhibitions. Unframed Landscapes, curated by the Fowkeses in 2004, offered a reassessment of landscape in contemporary art aiming to focus on humankind’s relationship with nature across the full range of media. Other significant exhibitions include Lucy Lippard’s, Weather Report: Art And Climate Change (2007), Mass MoCA’s, Badlands: New Horizons In Landscape (2008), Stephanie Smith’s, Beyond Green (2008), EPA: Environmental Performance Actions (2008) curated by ecoartspace with Exit Art, and Criteria (2009), curated by Jimena Acosta and Emiliano Godoy, at Chicago’s Columbia College Art Gallery.[5]

The exhibition, Too Shallow for Diving: the 21st Century Is Treading Water reveals the increased interest of cross-disciplinary artists whose innovative work evinces the critical situation facing our planet.  Artists, scientists, writers, community leaders and others in the past decade have focused on this topic and are increasingly bringing an important message to a larger global audience. Too Shallow for Diving specifically focuses on problems surrounding water and its impact on our natural world, human health and public welfare. According to its curator, Carolyn Speranza, “…the sixteen artists aim to provide viewers with new insights and perspectives about our existing world and the enormity of the dilemma facing our water supply.” Several fuse aesthetic concepts with scientific findings as a catalyst for viewers to consider the future of water sources. However, in choosing the artists, Speranza was less concerned with aesthetics and more with concepts about acute water issues.

The investigations of the artists range from the macro to the micro and from local water topics to those in Africa. Each artist, in a unique inquiry, explores the implications of the ‘hard realities’ and ‘new materiality’ for political action, artistic theory and practice and sustainable living in the 21st century. They are working with transformative approaches and processes towards a new vision that is ecological and participates with the living cycles of nature. This work covers an array of responsiveness in which the artists tackle different topics including oceans, climate change, water quality, recycling, water purification and plants for restoration. Artists today are finding inventive ways to call attention to the problems facing our environment, as corporate greed and profit impose destruction on our planet. Each artist works very differently and explores viverse territories; yet they share an awareness about the critical loss of natural resources and a desire to save the planet from human destruction. Many of these artists have been aligned with the nonprofit organization, ecoartspace, founded in 1997 by Patricia Watts and New York City curator, Amy Lipton, who joined Watts in 1999. This was one of the first Web sites online dedicated to art and environmental issues. For over a decade they have curated exhibitions and programs, providing a platform for artists who are working with scientists to address our global environmental issues. In 2002, Amy Lipton and Sue Spaid co-curated the exhibition titled, Ecovention, for the Contemporary Art Center (CAC), in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Grant Kester, one of the leading figures in this emerging critical dialogue around “relational”[6] or “dialogical” work, has expressed that “Art takes its form not from a final object but through play forms, process and dialogue.”[7]  Many of the artists in the exhibition Too Shallow for Diving work along similar lines and incorporate sustainable thinking in their art and social change in their message. Additionally, several credit the collaborative team Newton Harrison and Helen Mayer Harrison[8], the leading pioneers of the 1970s eco-art movement, as being especially prominent to their thinking and methods.

This is primarily apparent in the projects of the team of Tim Collins and Reiko Goto, who often work with government and environmental groups on ecological restoration-based projects. Their installation is comprised of in-depth photographic documentation, booklets filled with statistical data and charts from two projects titled, Nine Mile Run Greenway Project (in collaboration with Bob Bingham and John Stephen), (1997-2000) and 3 Rivers 2nd Nature (2000-2005), left.  Through their research, Collins and Goto address the meaning, form and function of public space and nature in Allegheny County of southwestern Pennsylvania. These multi-year projects include extensive research and public educational components as well as brown-fields restoration projects, and their gallery installations highlight images and data about the cultural and ecological history of the region. They raise questions about nature and post-industrial public space; the focus of their work is always to benefit the public realm and to create outreach programs intended to enable creative public advocacy and change.

(above) Tim Collins and Reiko Goto, Documentation of the artists’ projects (detail), Nine Mile Run (with Bob Bingham and John Stephen). 3 Rivers: 2nd nature. All photos that follow, except Vanessa German, Love Song for Water Operetta, credit: Jenny Jean Crawford.

Felix Guattari in The Three Ecologies, published in 1989, anticipated many of the issues facing the globalized world of today and laid the blame squarely at the doors of what he called, “Integrated World Capitalism.” Guattari’s focus in ‘The Three Ecologies’ is his conception of ‘ecosophy’— the three related ecologies of environmental, mental and social worlds and their amalgamation into a methodological practice. His argument, and it is rather simple, is that we have an erroneous conception of ecology, of environmental struggle, and that only by broadening our views to include the three ecologies will we be able to affect any enduring changes in our social/cultural/natural environment. A number of the artists in this exhibition illustrate these concepts.

Carolyn Speranza & Frank Ferraro, with Angelo Gatto, Requiem for the Netmakers (detail), mixed media (2011)

This is especially noticeable in, Requiem for the Netmakers (2011), Carolyn Speranza’s impressive multi-screen, mixed media collaboration with sonic artist Frank Ferraro occupying two large walls (right).  Floating in front of an irregularly shaped parchment-like blue background, a transparent sheet resembling a wall hanging discloses quotes a section of President Richard M. Nixon’s State of the Union address of January 27, 1970, and the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, as amended by the Clean Water Act of 1977. The president states, “With the help of people we can do anything, and without their help, we can do nothing. In this spirit, together, we can reclaim our lands for ours and generations to come.” Contrasting this idealist rhetoric, numerous monitor screens continuously display changing videos and still imagery capturing the actual realism of water today; images of catastrophic affects of oil damage to our oceans and environment, along with scenes of families struggling to make their livelihood from the fishing industry unfold. This assortment of imagery came from the artist’s online archive taken from the Associated Press Archive (media licensed for this exhibition), Library of Congress Archives, National Archives, Environmental Protection Agency’s Documerica project and photographs made available through Creative-Commons licenses. Filling this space is a musical composition produced by Frank Ferraro inspired by conversations with Speranza about environmental calamity. Peculiarly this installation evokes a mode of poetic beauty spiked with an appalling realism about water and the catastrophe facing our environment today.

Prudence Gill, Wishes for Water and Memories of the Deep (detail), 2011. Thanks to Eve Dater, JCC.

Prudence Gill, too, is concerned about the fragile ecology of the Gulf of Mexico and the potentially devastating consequences of the oil industry’s negligence. In Gill’s cerebral minimalist text piece As Heard on NPR April 18, 2011, she paraphrases reporter Scott Tong’s commentary that “The explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil platform killed 11 people. And, enough crude to fill maybe 10,000 or more average-size swimming pools gushed into the deep, dark sea.” An abridged version of this poignant message spans across the three large windows overlooking the JCC’s swimming pool. It states in blue vinyl, framed by a continuous black grid band of squares representing globs of oil, “…10,000 Swimming Pools of Oil Flowed into the Deep Dark Waters….” Incorporated within this streaming text installation is a small sign with alarming information: “1 1/2 cups of crude oil will kill all life in one swimming pool of ocean water.” Across the hall is a seemingly whimsical window box titled Wishes for Water & Memories of the Deep (2011). In this fantastical mixed media installation of suspended, floating, enigmatic star-like shapes and lights, Gill has manufactured an under-the-sea glittering world. Notwithstanding its lyrical elegance, the diffused and murky visibility of this setting devoid of any life forms suggests a haunting mystery about life in the underworld of water.

Jim Denny, Obstacle, o/c (2011)

The art of Jim Denney focuses on the natural and social history of the Pacific Northwest, especially in Oregon around the McKenzie Bridge region of the state. Frequently, the subjects of his dynamic environmentally rooted work include river dams, the distress of fire on the landscape and animals. Denney’s strong views about nature and his sensitivity about man’s destruction of the western environment stem from a deeply rooted personal connection. A native of Oregon–this is where he grew up and continues to live, however work part of the year he resides in New York City.

His large-scale, richly colorful paintings illustrate the ongoing manipulations of nature. He expressively portrays and captures the tensions existing between nature and society in the hope of sounding an alarm about the seriousness of this critical problem. In both works, Obstacle (2011) and Abandoned (2011), Denney points to a bleak future of the western landscape.

Richard Harned, This is the Tasteless Water of Souls...This is the True Sustenance (detail), mixed media (2011)

Richard Harned directs viewers to the importance of water and air on this earth in his conceptual sculptural installation, Laws of the Earth and Air (2011). His four-part construction consists of a map of the USA, a globe, a video and a silver plane resembling a 60s peace sign. The video, produced by his brother Douglas Harned, continually shows beautiful views of Yellowstone National Park; Glacier Park; and Great Falls, Virginia, while the sounds of Mocking Birds and the Ocean, recorded by another brother, Thomas Harned, fill the space. The artist calls our attention to all the available freshwater in the United States by placing red dots denoting FINE their locations throughout the wall map. The globe sits, encased in a transparent dome, and underneath it sits a tray of clear marbles intended for visitors to take away. The gem-like marbles, in scale to the globe, represents the 21-mile diameter sphere of all fresh water on the planet. Visitors are invited to take one with them as a reminder of the urgency of water issues. The blue blown-glass marble attached to the globe is made to scale with all water of any description on earth, comprising an 860-mile diameter sphere. One of the lessons to be had perhaps from this multiple part work is the importance of specificity and place and the reality of limited natural resources we easily take for granted.

Roger Laib, Glutttttttttttt-Hut mixed media (2011)

On the lawn of the JCC sits a bizarre skeletal structure titled Glut Hut (2011) that resembles a small mobile home made of found and discarded objects and equipped with the amenities of a house. Roger Laib is known as a master wood craftsman; however, in this one-of-a-kind, eccentric looking large-scale shack and transparent soft sculptural atlas, refinement is not an issue! Manufactured from diverse recycled objects, this construction is intended to catch rainwater and brim over. With sufficient rain, the water will eventually leak and spill out of the hut and onto the lawn, demonstrating to observers how water is wasted and how it could be saved and put to good alternative use, such as watering lawns. Laib highlights how environmentally friendly choices can make a difference if one bothers to pay attention and make the simple effort to recycle rainwater.

Jamie Gruzska, Notes on Water, 1940-2011 (detail) toned silver gelatin prints (2011)

Notes on Water (1940-2011), a selection of predominantly black and white a selection of photographs by Jamie Gruzska, is reminiscent of cherished snapshots found in a household album. The place, date and reference to a person are written under each of the fourteen images. The importance of water to Gruzska’s personal history is highlighted in this memory record of times shared and past. What we are witness to are uncontaminated scenes—no factories—only trees and water. These are places preserved and held in respect for enjoyment and solitude, yet one cannot assume from these bucolic images whether or not the water is contaminated.

Wendy Osher, Something in the Water, used plastic bags (2011)

Conversely, environmental activist artist Wendy Osher’s communal project, resulting in a floor sculpture titled, Something in the Water (2011), is opposite in meaning from the sublime portrayal of water depicted in Gruzska’s work. This collaborative eco-project connected women from around the globe by using plastic bags to crochet breast-like shapes. Osher joined each component to fabricate a sizable, eye-catching, colorful and organic shape intended to call attention to toxins seeping into international waters. A map of the world hangs on an adjacent wall to this arresting textural form. Framing this atlas are portraits of the women who participated in this worldwide project along with a list of names and locations of the crocheters. Dots placed on the map indicate the origin of each participant. Whereas this is an artwork in an exhibition, it is concurrently a public advocacy project intended to raise social awareness about the importance of rectifying water contamination. Jointly, the women point out how plastic bags are linked to poison that leaks into one’s bloodstream and directly affects women’s breast milk and the future of generations to come.

Ann T. Rosenthal & Steffe Domike, Watermark:Wood,Coal, Oil, Gas (detail), digital print, acrylic paint, water on canvas (2011). Thanks to Hilary Klein, graphic design

Ann T. Rosenthal and Steffi Domike have been collaborating on environmental installations for years. Rosenthal refers to herself as an eco-feminist artist and Domike is an activist artist who is inspired by real world events. Their most recent wall installation, Watermark: Wood, Coal, Oil, Gas (2011) consists of four panels that illustrate an evolutionary timeline of energy resources—wood, coal, oil and natural gas—and a delicate blue linear wall drawing depicts a local watershed. Regardless of being on canvas and hung like ancient Chinese scrolls, these color-field compositions amidst Technicolor blue, green and yellow graded tonal backgrounds, with a photomontage containing the silhouette of a bass (wood), an eagle (coal/mountaintop mining), turtles (oil) and a child (natural gas), in no way should be perceived as decorative pieces. The artists do not endorse beauty for beauty’s sake through conspicuous paintings; rather, their art is about the idea and an environment in decline. The silhouettes are life-size, and within each shape are scenes of the landscape and of water. Even though this salient metaphorical piece is perhaps the most aesthetically gratifying in the exhibition because of its rich color, facade and composition, it commands an edge that peels back the veil on mankind’s abuse of natural resources and the environment’s vulnerability. The message alludes to our culture over time and America’s conflicting use and relationship to water and land for energy.

Vanessa German, Love Poem for Water Operetta (perf. 5/14/11). Photo: Jae Roberto

Vanessa German, the youngest artist in the show, is a nationally recognized performance poet and multidisciplinary artist who, in her spoken autobiographical word poetry, bring into play the transcendent and indefatigable power of the human spirit. In her expressly orchestrated live performance operetta, Love Poem for Water [9], exclusively performed the opening night of the exhibition, she stunningly shared with her audience emotional episodes from her life and the mixed experiences she has had with water, ranging from terror, to love and respect. Her striking words, powerful gospel-like -music and projection of water textures onto a huge skirt, which takes up an entire dramatically lit stage, provides a platform for the contemplation of both destruction and hope. German’s bellowing words and bigger-than-life theatricality command attention, and this work signals its own illusion through a series of overlapping colors that unfurl as the message of her performance evolves. German’s powerfully gestural poetic essay addresses the precariousness of life and the involvement of water with all living things on earth.

Maritza Mosquera, The Conversation and Prayer, 30"x74", digital photo wallpaper prints (2011)

The celebration of water is very much present in numerous cultures manifested in diverse myths and folklore. Working in a highly personal manner, Maritza Mosquera utilizes myth and photographic documentation in the multiple-component piece Body in Water, composed of mythic text and digital prints depicting her treading water. After reading the wall allegory, it is apparent this artist comprehends the allure of water. She demonstrates that there are many connections between water and spirituality in her ritualistic performance, alluding that water is the central source of our being and it is part of every cell and fiber in us; it is our very essence. As I walked away from this piece, I asked myself, “Could water be the common denominator that weaves us all (earth, animal, human and plant) together as one? Is it the ultimate connector?

Lisa Link, Waterways Project, selected image (2011)

Lisa Link, an artist and web designer at the University of Massachusetts for the past thirteen years, has been creating artworks that address critical social issues. The focus of her work is directly political and activist rather than aesthetic. Link aims to give people voice and acts as a catalyst for conversation and connections because she understands solutions can only arise once disaster is recognized. Through her undertakings, she desires to make a positive impact that perhaps can influence public policy for the improvement of Boston Harbor and drinking water. The project, Water Ways (2010-2011) developed out of a series of conversations she had with scientists and residents throughout the Boston area, including Dr. Anamarija Frankic and Dr. Sarah Oktay of Boston’s University of Massachusetts. In this multi-component wall installation, consisting of twelve 21 x 21 inch digital photomontages and detailed text as well as an online map, the viewer becomes informed of the critical situation between water and humans. Pervading throughout the densely layered compositions is an eerie calm, perhaps because of the stylized organization resembling posters or advertisements. Nevertheless, on closer inspection, the juxtaposition of text against the visual image reveals the urgency of its message.

David Stairs,(upper) Powerful:Proposed Hydro Site at Bujagali Falls;(lower) Powerless:Lake Victoria at Source of the Nile, Jinja. large format inkjet (2011)

David Stairs is the executive director of Designers without Borders, a consortium of designers and design educators working to assist institutions in the developing world. He believes everything is connected and that we are all part of the problem and the solution. In his explorations of Africa’s water crisis through maps, photographs and statistics, he illustrates the culpability of global human behaviors. In both large inkjet images, Powerless: Lake Victoria at Source of the Nile, Jinja (2011) [10] and Powerful: Proposed Hydro Site at Bujagali Falls (2011) [11], he presents two water scenes in Uganda that have been exploited. Stairs expresses, “Water and power are inextricably linked in Uganda. Most of the nation’s electricity comes from the facility on the Nile at Jinja, and more dams are planned. Trouble is, 30 million poor people depend on this source (Lake Victoria), and it is unstable and shrinking.” His contrasting photographs, with the titles Powerless and Powerful, are most telling given the history of Uganda and the lack of consideration of both water and the people of this region!

It is overwhelming to think that during the past 85 years, human beings have imposed so much pollution on the earth’s water. As a civilized and informed society, it is now our obligation to become water’s caretaker and to cause it no further harm. On the other hand, this is a difficult task given the intertwined uses of water, issues of benefits and costs and the vested economic interests of numerous individuals and governments. Still, the real connection with our environment can only be found when individuals in unison feel their sense of true belonging. Today, we are in vital need of artists who can provoke this sense of attachment and stir up volition to act out and bring forth social, political and environmental changes. Artists are catalysts for change, and this “change” takes place when we feel deeply for a precious cause. The artists in Too Shallow for Diving: the 21st Century Is Treading Water without a doubt are noticeably reacting to news about the perils distressing our natural water resources. Their intersections between globalization, ecology and contemporary art tackle the shifting ecological and political dimensions of water.

Recalling Milton’s Paradise Lost, and also perhaps regained, the question for our era is: where are we now, and what is the proper balance between nature and civilization? Or, is this after all a divine comedy performed before an audience that is too afraid to laugh? The hope for those of us who see the glass as “half-full,” yet awaiting the fulfillment of the empty portion, is that when destiny closes a doorway of one view upon nature’s garden, she always opens a window of opportunity to further explore “where no one has gone before” in placing the creative machinery of the one at the service of the needs of the many. With the growing privatization of water and impending global warming crisis, it seems more reasonable than ever that artists’ voices not only are heard but also that their work is seen and experienced by diverse audiences. It takes the unusual vision of artists to inform and alert us, and most importantly, to propose innovative ideas as to how we can aesthetically reclaim, restore and co-exist within our natural environment.

By Elaine A. King, Contributing Writer © 2011

Professor, History of Art, Criticism/Theory & Museum Studies

Freelance Critic/Curator

Carnegie Mellon University

End Notes

_____________________________________

[1] After months of preparations, in May 1982, a 2-acre wheat field was planted and harvested on a  Battery Park landfill in lower Manhattan, two blocks from Wall Street and the World Trade Center, facing the Statue of Liberty. Two hundred truckloads of dirt were brought in and 285 furrows were dug by hand, cleared of rocks and garbage. The seeds were sown by hand and the furrows covered with soil. The field was maintained for four months, cleared of wheat smut, weeded, fertilized and sprayed against mildew fungus, and an irrigation system set up. The crop was harvested on August 16 and yielded over 1000 pounds of healthy, golden wheat.
 
Planting and harvesting a field of wheat on land worth $4.5 billion created a powerful paradox. Wheatfield was a symbol, a universal concept.  It represented food, energy, commerce, world trade, economics. It referred to mismanagement, waste, world hunger and ecological concerns. It called attention to our misplaced priorities. The harvested grain travelled to twenty-eight cities around the world in an exhibition called, ‘The International Art Show for the End of World Hunger,’ organized by the Minnesota Museum of Art (l987-90). The seeds were carried away by people who planted them in many parts of the globe.

[2] Beardsley, J. (1998). Earthworks and Beyond: Contemporary Art in the Landscape. New York, NY: Abbeville Press.

[3] Fowkes, Maja and Reuben. The Implications of Sustainability for Contemporary Art: 27 February 2007, Lecture Theatre, Chelsea College of Art & Design.

[4] Fowkes, Maja and Reuben. The Implications of Sustainability for Contemporary Art: 27 February 2007, Lecture Theatre, Chelsea College of Art & Design. As translocal independent curators and art historians, Maja Fowkes and Dr. Reuben Fowkes organize exhibitions dealing with memory (Revolution is Not a Garden Party, 2006-7), ecology (Unframed Landscapes, 2004) and Translocal exchanges between the UK, Hungary and Croatia.

[5] Collectively, these exhibitions are about sustainability, ecology or environmentalism. The artists are concerned about our humanity and its incapability to sustain its habits and culture for future generations as well as the creatures living on this earth.

[6] Bourriaud, N. (2002). Relational Aesthetics. Paris, France: Les Presses Du Reel. Nicolas Bourriaud coined the term relational art to describe arts that gain meaning through participatory engagement among the players: creators and audience. Bourriaud defined the approach simply as, “a set of artistic practices which take as their theoretical and practical point of departure the whole of human relations and their social context, rather than an independent and private space.”

 [7] Kester, G. H. Dialogical Aesthetics: A Critical Framework for Littoral Art. Variant, 9, www.variant.org.uk. Kester, G. H. (2004). Conversation Pieces Community and Communication in Modern Art. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. In Conversation Pieces, Kester discusses a disparate network of artists and collectives—including The Art of Change, Helen and Newton Harrison, Littoral, Suzanne Lacy, Stephen Willats, and WochenKlausur—united by a desire to create new forms of understanding through creative dialogue that crosses boundaries of race, religion, and culture. Kester traces the origins of these works in the conceptual art and feminist performance art of the 1960s and 1970s and draws from the writings of Mikhail Bakhtin, Jürgen Habermas and others as he explores the ways in which these artists corroborate and challenge many of the key principles of avant-garde art and art theory.

[8] Newton and Helen Mayer Harrison (often referred to simply as “the Harrisons”) have worked for almost forty years with biologists, ecologists, architects, urban planners and other artists to initiate collaborative dialogues to uncover ideas and solutions that support biodiversity and community development. http://theharrisonstudio.net/. A key early endeavour was Portable Farm: The Flat Pastures (1971-1972).

[9] Pierre-Félix Guattari’s concept of interrelatedness of ecological and social issues and the three interacting and interdependent ecologies of mind, society, and environment stems perhaps from the outline of the three ecologies presented in Gregory Bateson’s Steps in an Ecology of Mind: Collected Essays in Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution, and Epistemology, University of Chicago Press. 1972.

 [10] Scott tong, “Era of ‘tough oil’ won’t deter drillers” Marketplace, Monday, April 18, 2011.  http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/04/18/pm-era-of-tough-oil-wont-stop-drillers/

[11] Vanessa German performed A Love Poem for Water at the opening reception of Too Shallow for Diving: the 21st Century Is Treading Water on May 14, 2011, at the American Jewish Museum at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lO9ogS_iueE

Pablo Picasso, Girl before a Mirror (1932). Collection MOMA

In late summer of 1948, a strange gathering took place on the top floor of New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Distinguished men (all men) from the fields of arts, letters, academia and the publishing world were invited by LIFE Magazine to discuss and debate the then-current state of the “modern painting” movement. The Round Table—part of a magazine-sponsored series on the post-war American lifestyle—consisted of such notables as Brave New World author, Aldous Huxley; Clement Greenberg, avant-garde critic; Francis Henry Taylor, director of the Met; Sir Leigh Ashton, director of London’s Victoria & Albert; Meyer Shapiro, professor of fine arts at Columbia University; Alfred Frankfurter, editor and publisher of Art News; Charles Sawyer, of Yale’s art department and James Thrall Soby, chairman MOMA’s painting and sculpture department, among others.

LIFE’s objective was to allow free reign for this group of critics and connoisseurs to examine what the editors of the magazine called, “the strange art of today.” And, perhaps too, to begin to arbitrate on behalf of public taste and understanding, as the world’s attention shifted from war-torn Europe and the dominant cultural high-ground that Paris had occupied for decades, to the United States (and New York, in particular)with its loose-knit, and as yet, ill-defined, movement of experimental painters, sculptor and writers.

The magazine’s moderator, Russell Davenport, an avowed conservative, set the agenda:

“For about 40 years the art of painting has exhibited a variety of manifestations loosely identified in the public mind with the phrase ‘modern art.’ Originating in the works by such acknowledged masters as Cezanne, van Gogh, Seurat and Gauguin, these manifestations made their appearance in the studios of Paris in the first decade of this century, multiplied into a kaleidoscope of new artistic styles, found a kinship with a wide variety of intellectual currents and spread throughout the world wherever artist paint. Today they confront the visitor to almost any gallery as strange distortions of reality, private nightmares, depictions of ‘ugly’ things, human figures and objects that ‘look wrong,’ cubes and geometrical patterns that accord with nothing recognizable in nature. These ‘modern’ works do not, of course, constitute the whole of 20th century art. Many artists have remained quite unaffected by them, others have been influenced only during certain periods of their careers. Nevertheless, it is fair to say that the ‘modern’ movement has constituted the dominant trend in the art of our time. It has been encouraged by important institutions. It has been promoted by art dealers. And it has left behind it so much controversy and confusion that a great part of the public has become antagonistic to contemporary painting.”

Jean Miro, Person Throwing a Stone at a Bird (1926). Collection MOMA

Reflecting on the ‘public mood’ Davenport goes on to say, “When the layman uses the phrase [modern art] he has in mind two particular characteristics which, for him, set this art off from more conventional painting. First of all, he finds it difficult to understand; secondly, he often finds that it does not concern itself with the ‘beautiful’ but with the ‘ugly or the strange.’ The layman is reassured to find that this kind of painting has drawn the fire of distinguished thinker. Arnold Toynbee, for example, has declared that modern art is symptomatic of a decay in moral values of our age; and in a well-know essay, Art and the Obvious, Aldous Huxley deplored the failure of much modern art to come to grips with what he called the ‘great obvious truths’ of human life.”

The complete story of Life’s Round Table discussion can be found on line, in the October 11, 1948 issue of the magazine. See: http://books.google.com/books?id=dEoEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA56&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=2#v=onepage&q&f=true

While the debate is inconclusive, the struggle to come to terms with changing times—and America’s nascent role as an arbiter in the rapidly-shifting world of art—is fascinating to track in the varied opinions expressed by participants. It is truly a case of 19th century aesthetic values confronting mid-20th century sensibilities. Classical views meet modern values, with long-held traditional perspectives the most apparent victim.

As fascinating as the debate by the experts was, a check on the October, 1948, ‘Letters to the Editor” section of LIFE, weeks later, yields more in the way of a window on public attitude and the great divide that characterized the debate then (and perhaps, still does today). I have excluded the more banal supportive letters from readers and chose instead to include three critical correspondences, including that of a well-known, surprisingly vociferous and cantankerous voice from the Midwest:

Letters to the Editor

MODERN ART

Sirs:

As a psychiatrist of more than 40 years experience, I cannot refrain from commenting upon these examples of modern art and the discussion of such in the Life Round Table on Modern Art.

One of the most prevalent and malignant types of mental illness with which we, as psychiatrists, have been trying to cope with for years is the insidious disorder of the mind in which the main feature is a departure from the world of reality to one of fantasy.

Frequently patients who have withdrawn from the world of reality express their fantasies in drawings or paintings which are quite without meaning to a normal individual but which help diagnosis of the underlying conflict…

The so-called modernist representations illustrated in LIFE would seem to me to be in the same category and cannot be felt by anyone except the individual producing them, unless the person viewing them has the same subconscious, which is almost an impossibility.

It is generally conceded that no two individuals have the same store of subconscious memories. Consequently the individual fantasy of one particular artist means very little to another person. Reality is common to all, or at least can be appreciated by everyone, but fantasy is essentially individualistic.

It is quite normal for a young child to live in a world of make-believe. But to carry such fantasy into adult life is most assuredly not conducive to good mental health…

Chester Waterman, M.D.

Middletown, Conn.

_____________________________

Sirs:

…Mr. Sawyer [a member of the Round Table] has looked at Picasso’s, Girl before a Mirror for 15 years and he likes it. I am forcibly reminded of the picture which you published some time ago showing a boy walking past stacks of corpses near a concentration camp. He is so used to corruption that he didn’t even notice it…

Many of us accept the right of the artist to purge his emotions, but reserve the right to turn the other way when passing the pathological excrement. We can pass corpses and retain our sanity but we are confident that the Creator of the mind and soul of man did not intend, and will not allow, us to pass them unseeing. If the determination that nothing will make us enjoy either the sight or the odor constitutes intellectual stagnation and Victorianism—make the most of it.

Mary T. Abny

Upper Montclair, N.J.

Thomas Hart Benton, Self Portrait (1972). Private Collection

______________________________

Sirs:

LIFE’s Round Table certainly bolsters the Russian view that our contemporary Western art is illusory, decadent and given to an empty formulism utterly incapable of coming to grips with solid cultural meaning…

If that is the case no small part of the cause must be referred to the peculiar language habits of the esthetes who interpret art and who make our intelligent people so sick of it that they will give any opportunity to become culturally consequential. All of your participants seem to feel that the meaning or art should be as far from good sense as possible.

I find onl one sentence in the Round Table report which stands close scrutiny. My Taylor’s “fifty thousand people is a lot of people,” while it has a relative character, is a sentence which men and women who are not esthetes can take seriously…

Thomas Hart Benton

Kansas City, Mo.

Shahram Karimi, Suitcase (2007). Photo: Courtesy LTMH Gallery, NY.

 Speaking at the 2011 International Association of Art Critics (AICA) Awards, Iranian artist Shirin Neshat addressed the dilemma of Iranian artists today: imprisonment if they remain at home and permanent exile if they leave.

If there is a persistent lament uniting the multimedia works of Iranian artist Shahram Karimi, it is the dislocation from his roots. The artist was jailed for two years in his native country before his 1987 emigration to India and Nepal, and finally to Germany. He taught at the University of Cologne where the government gave him the studio that became his base to establish his international reputation. fine arts magazine

S. Karimi, Forough (2010), mixed media on fabric. Photo: Courtesy LTMH Gallery, NY

Karimi is a longtime Neshat collaborator, creating the highly evocative set design for her award winning videos and recent film, Women Without Men. He was also set designer for White Meadows, a 2009 Iranian film in the global spotlight due to the international outcry over the imprisonment of director Mohammad Rasoulof and editor Jafar Panahi.

Yet, coming at a time of his permanent relocation to New York City, Shahram Karimi: The Garden of Remembrance at LTMH Gallery marks a crucial turning point. This exquisite premiere solo exhibition of mixed media paintings serves to place the artist on the world stage when all eyes are on the Arab Spring, thereby delivering contemporary Persian painting into a universal dialectic surrounding the re-enchantment of art.

Younger artists in particular are seeking mythical narrative and Karimi delivers it by way of a highly developed sensibility that – in the Persian tradition – fuses poetry and image directly through calligraphy. The verve to modernize finely interwoven Persian tapestry and Persian miniature painting is transmitted through the use of fabric as a base material. These ‘found objects’–while evoking the artist’s origin in the garden city of Shiraz — also serve to highlight the timeless symbol as crucial to time travel. The rose, both in form and meaning – Eros – is at the literal foundation of these timeless timepieces, simultaneously hidden in the fabric as well as exploding on the surface; here and there, the opposites connect through the lovingly rendered brushstroke.

Stepping into Rose Garden of Remembrance with its interconnections that bind these fabrics into a holistic cloth, we are drawn to participate an enigma. Karimi paints his exotic origin through a filter of emotional realism while holding the tension of the opposites: Persian tradition painting infused with a personal narrative of life/death/rebirth self-discovery in which inner and outer are reconciled as one.

S. Karimi, Dream (2011), mixed media on fabric. Photo: LTMH Gallery, NY.

There is no easy clue in the work or the titles, to determine who these haunting figures may be, yet the enigma of soul exposed on their faces is precisely what draws us into the artist’s deft strategy of creating idiosyncratic artifacts reflecting an emotional journey where past, present and future converge.

This subversive tactic, arising from the matured rendering of a rebellious impulse heightens the cinematic narrative that is all his own. By infusing his passion into a personal and tribal narrative of liberation through memory, Karimi highlights a universal past.

Iran, by geography and pre-Islamic cultural tradition, is a direct passage to ancient Sumer, the ever-present origin of a newly emerging 21st century archetype: the hieros gamos (sacred marriage). Penetrating deep to establish this connection, Karimi delivers the Zoroastrianism dynamism of opposites as a gateway to the future.

Karimi Exhibition Space, LTMH Gallery, New York City. Photo: LTMH Gallery, NY.

Referencing Mithra, the Persian precursor to Christ, and intertwining Christian and Hindu influences with his own personal mythmaking in his installation collages and painting on photographs, the prophet delivers the infans solaris (sun child) of his long time collaboration with Neshat and her enigmatic veiled women. Women and Allah, the final work of the series, encapsulates the narrative of Karimi’s marriage of tradition and innovation while fusing the universal mythological hero’s journey narrative into the collective consciousness (symbolized by the drawn faces surrounding the central painted image). Not surprising, this boy covered in roses has the face of the artist!

Gloriously present are the relics – the emotional baggage symbolized by a painted suitcase in the center of the gallery – cast off from this modern grail journey. Exquisitely realized from a deep well of emotional memory, Shahram Karimi: The Garden of Remembrance reveals what is crucial about Iranian art in exile today: the fusing symbol and mythological narrative as a link between the icon at the origin of human civilization and a newly emerged 21st century archetype liberating humanity from the patriarchy of monotheistic religion.

Shahram Karimi: The Rose Garden of Remembrance is on view at the Leila Taghinia-Milani Heller Gallery in Manhattan until June 18, 2011

By Lisa Paul Streitfeld, Contributing Writer

Lisa Paul Streitfeld is a New York-based critic and blogger for the Huffington Post.

Learn more about the Leila Taghinia-Milani Heller (LTMH) Gallery at www.ltmhgallery.com

A brisk mid-winter walk through the streets of lower Manhattan eventually led me under the iconic Romanesque arch that stands at the center of Washington Square. To my left, a uniformly-pristine row of Federalist-era, brick-and-columned town houses, standing like monuments to another, more gentile time. Over the years, NYU’s bustling urban academic community has emerged nearby. I first met Professor Moses in a small office, stacked high with art auction catalogues, at the University’s Stern School of Business, close to the epicenter of campus.    

 Opening Image (left):  All works pictured subject to Mei-Moses ® index analysis: J.M.W. Turner, Giudecca la Donna Della Salute and San Giorgio (1830-41). Category: Old Masters/19^th Century; Sales History (1897) $35,000; (2006) $35.8M. Annual Return on Investment (ROI) for 109 yrs, +6%.    

Overview    

My journey began with an invitation to travel to the city to learn more about the Mei-Moses® index, a cumulative, 13-year data set that has emerged as a reliable predictor for art portfolio development and investment planning strategies. Their objective in this project is to help prospective art buyers to move out of the purely emotional realm of ‘buy what you love’ into more objective criteria. Moses explains to me that, “the emotions that guide a purchase should not be discounted or dismissed, but to be aware that there is additional data available, before making a purchase at auction, that the potential buyer may want to factor in.” He point out that his Index is aimed at the following: fine arts magazine   

–Comparing art to other asset classes (stocks, bonds, real estate, other collectable);    

–Providing insights on financial performance of the art market, updated annually, while acquiring art for a portfolio;    

–Offering a tool to evaluate the role of art in overall wealth management and asset allocation;    

–Providing instant “mark to market” art valuations, with interim quarterly updates;    

–Evaluating market adjusted rates-of-return for individual, established artists.    

Titian, A Sacred Conversation-The Madonna and Child with St. Luke & Catherine of Alexandria. Category: Old Masters/19th Century; Sales History (1954) $1,632; Resale (2011) $16.9M. Annual ROI for 57 yrs, +17.6%.

 Since 1999, Moses and his colleague at New York University’s Stern School of Business, Jianping Mei, now Professor of Finance at Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, in Beijing, have been compiling data that allows them to track the long-term performance of fine art. Their goal: to correctly analyze financial returns available on the art market. “It is important to remember,” says Professor Moses, “that art prices are ‘wealth bound’—the viability of a deal hinges on the size of the offer. Our model tracks those offers over time for ‘repeat pairs’; that is, the same item coming to market again, even years or decades later.”    

The Mei-Moses® indexes focus on mature artists whose works command prices from tens-of-thousands to millions of dollars at auction. They take the original purchase price at auction any place in the world and then the most recent sales price at Christie’s or Sotheby’s in New York and calculate an annual return for a single painting. This ‘repeat-pair’ method is key to their approach; i.e.- how an identifiable art work performs when it is brought to auction twice, with a minimum of one year lapse between sales. So, for example, a J.M.W. Turner view of Venice sold at auction at Christie’s in London on May 29, 1897, for $35,000 and then sold at Christies in New York in 2006 for $35.8 million—which yields about a 6 percent annual return for 109 years—an impressive return, in addition to the joy of ownership, for the generations who may have owned it during that period.    

Jacob Toorenvliet, Rabbinical Discussion. Category: Old Masters/19th Century; Sales History (1996) $18,400; Resale (2011) $104,500. Annual ROI for 15 yrs, +12.3%.

 To date, Mei-Moses® (with recent help from the ‘European Fine Art Database’) has compiled 26,000 such repeat-sale pairs, adding approximately 2000 incremental pairs annually, from recent auction transaction, for their ever-expanding indexes. Professor Moses explains that their data is based exclusively on Sotheby’s and Christie’s auction results, given that they represent established, recognized artists. They have broken out the historical periods of art being bought and sold into five over-arching collecting categories: beginning with Old Masters/19th century; Impressionist/Modern, American before 1950. They later added Post-War/Contemporary and Latin American works, the result of more adequate data in these last two categories becoming available for the period, 1988-2009.    

Where the rubber meets the road for the Mei-Moses Indexes is putting them to work in the competitive field of investment advisory and planning, exploring ways in which their indexes can influence buy-hold decisions, maximizing rate-of-return, while limiting down-side risk. Moses tells me that the auction market is the best setting to consider the investment potential for art, because of its ‘transparency’. “In an auction environment, buyer demand sets the value of a piece. The house or the seller may set a reserve, but, if it doesn’t sell, then it’s considered a non-revenue event, or marketplace failure. We only count successful transactions and, unlike a gallery, collection owner, or artist, setting a retail price that they believe the market will bear (‘non-transparency’), a successful auction sale is a true measure of value—a market-tested exercise in supply and demand. There are strong parallels to the stock market, here. If a stock is placed on the block for sale, with a limit order price, and it doesn’t sell, then it’s a non-event. Only when that stock sells at a price that reflects demand, does it become a financial event we can evaluate. For this reason (and others), the correlation between stocks, bonds and commodities becomes a powerful comparative tool for modeling the auction art market,” Moses says.    

But, unlike stocks and bonds, works of art are one-of-a-kind and need to be looked at on that basis. The closest existing model that accounts for the heterogeneity, or unique features of a sale item, is real estate. Moses explains that, “a new apartment building may offer a hundred units for sale, but some are higher up, some low, some face the city skyline, others the parking lot, and so forth. In other words—not all units in the building are comparable. The other factor to consider is supply and demand; that is, how many buyers and sellers are in the market at any one time. We all know that markets, and therefore pricing, are influenced by ‘bust and boom’ periods. These features affect asking price and ultimately, sale and resale price. We believe that the only relevant way to track the viability of money spent in a situation like that is to develop an Index that accounts for the individuality of unique objects, like residential real estate and art. The commonality between the two is due to the infrequency of trading and differences in the characteristics of the objects that come to market, from period-to-period.”    

Right: Clara Peeters, Still Life with Fish […] and Cat on Ledge. Category: Old Masters/19^th Century; Sales History (2008) $162,205; Resale (2011) $68,500. Annual ROI for 3 yrs, -25%.   

Thus for art and real estate, an index based on average prices over a period of time may be more dependent on the mix of objects that come to market rather than changes in the underlying market itself. A database of repeat sales of the same object resolves this issue. Thus, the statistical methodology used to create the Mei-Moses® indexes is similar to that developed by Professors Case and Shiller for their residential real estate index, published by Standard and Poor’s.    

As noted, to insure transparency (free-market pricing) for the Mei-Moses® indexes, only data from public auction results are collected. “We have looked at the New York art market, from Sotheby’s and Christie’s auction houses, starting our analysis with data from 1925, since that is the start date for the S&P 500 total return index, which we use for comparison purposes. For the five major art-collecting categories: Old Masters/19th century; Impressionist/Modern; American before 1950; Post-War/Contemporary and Latin American, we search the current sale catalogues for items that have sold. For those items which also have a listed prior-auction sale, we use our best research efforts to obtain the consummated prior sale price at any auction house, any place in the world and at any date. If the object has been held for at least a year and we have successfully found both the sale and purchase prices, including the relevant buyer’s premium, we include it in our database. Thus, we introduce no subjective sample selection bias.” Moses explains. “We start our current annual All Art index with data available from 1925. This index explains approximately 70% of the variability of a measure of the underlying returns of the objects on which it is based.”    

Pablo Picasso, Nature morte a la guitar, bouteille, verre de vin et journal. Category: Impressionist/Modern; Sales History (2007) $816,172; Resale (2011) $387,500. Annual ROI for 4 yrs, -17%.

 The compiled information allows for the creation of annual indexes for each of these period-specific collecting categories, as well as the All Art index. The data also allows Mei-Moses to develop insights into the factors that drive returns for individual or groups of objects. They also use the indices to undertake asset allocation studies, including art, as well as making available a ‘mark to market’ art valuation service. In 2009 they introduced a new feature allowing for the comparison of returns across important and highly traded artists.    

Modeling for Success    

Joan Miro, Tete bleue et oiseau fleche. Category: Impressionist/Modern; Sales History (2004) $621,758; (2011) $2.76M. Annual ROI for 7 yrs, +23.8%.

 The average investor maintains a diversified portfolio of equities (stocks), bonds of various types, commodities such as gold and cash in ratios that reflect desired return in exchange for exposure to risk. These investment instruments are considered ‘liquid’, because they can readily be converted into currency. Real estate, art and other collectables are ‘illiquid’ because the conversion cycle to currency is slower and product performance (average price) tends to be dependent on the mix of objects (supply) that come to market at any given time, as well as demand at the time (examples: the downward pressure on existing housing prices, given the number of foreclosures on the market today; the upward pressure on selected artists’ auction prices during periods when their work is in demand). “We were curious to see what would happen if we included relatively illiquid assets in a comprehensive portfolio management strategy. Our modeling assumed that, along with stocks, etc., most sophisticated investors would also own real estate as part of a long-term asset acquisition program. With the inclusion of the S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. Residential Real Estate Index and the Mei-Moses® art indexes, we could now foresee a means to incorporate art, along with other asset classes into a typical portfolio. We regularly evaluate rate-of- return, risk and correlation among other assets, over many time periods and holding periods. This detailed analysis allows investment advisors to have the analytical tools to guide their clients with a reasoned strategy for buying art or expanding an existing collection,” Moses says.    

The beauty and uniqueness of art as an asset class is that it offers the individual three distinct ways to reap the pleasure and excitement from ownership. The incomparable beauty and emotional appeal of art ownership is the first and most obvious one, especially when those works become part of one’s home or office setting. The second factor is the enjoyment most individuals derive from the process of seeking out and acquiring art. This includes, but is not limited to, knowledge acquisition, socialization with like-minded collectors and experts, the excitement of the chase, meeting artists and visiting studios, etc.    

The third beauty of art is its longevity and financial performance. For more than three millennia art has always been an important part of our cultural heritage. The passage of time is a key component to the analysis performed by the Mei-Moses® index. For each index, art’s relative performance is based on the historical time period under consideration. For example over the last fifty years the Mei Moses® All Art Index (a summary of the five categories under examination) and the S&P 500 Total Return Stock Index have had approximately-equal compound annual returns. The art index has underperformed the equity index for the last 25 years. Over the last five and ten year periods, art has significantly outperformed equities. “However,” Professor Moses explains, “for almost all these time periods, art has higher volatility and lower liquidity than most other financial assets. Conversely, art has low correlation with other asset classes and thus may play a role in portfolio diversification.”    

Joan Miro, Westvaco. Category: Impressionism/Modern; Sales History (2001) $32,950; (2011) $194,700. Annual ROI for 10 yrs, +19.4%.

 The paintings in the index aren’t all blockbusters. Moses estimates that the median size of recent transactions charted is about $200,000 or $300,000. As their most recent update shows, over the last 50 years, stocks (as represented by the S&P 500) returned 10.9 percent annually, while the art index returned 10.5 percent per annum. And in the five-to-ten years, art outperformed stocks. But not all art performs equally. In recent years, Old Masters haven’t done so well, while Post-War/Contemporary art before 1950 has been soaring—up 25.2 percent in the last year alone. And across categories, masterpieces tend to underperform lower-priced paintings by a substantial margin. Why? Like blue-chip stocks, well-known paintings by blue-chip artists are known quantities and offer safety and stability and their importance was well-known when they were previously purchased at auction. As with stocks, the greatest opportunity for growth in art values comes when investors suddenly focus their attention on a hot new sector or name. But Moses points out that it is not necessary to seek out the latest ‘hot artists’ in order to do well; the broader Mei-Moses® art indexes have historically generated returns that make them of interest in asset allocation.    

As noted above, there are some obvious differences between Van Gogh canvases and Verizon shares, having to do with liquidity. Art is far less liquid than stocks: You can’t simply push a button and sell a Picasso tomorrow. And while you might assume that the fortunes of the art market are closely tied to the fortunes of the stock market, Moses found that fine art actually has a very low correlation with stocks and a negative correlation with bonds. “In some sense, it’s a good portfolio diversifier,” says Moses.    

Like stocks, art is susceptible to fits of irrational exuberance. In 1990, Japanese executive Ryoei Saito capped off the Impressionist art bubble by paying an impressive $82.5 million for Vincent Van Gogh’s Portrait of Dr. Gachet. Between 1985 and 1990, the Mei-Moses® art index returned about 30 percent/ year—the same unsustainable rate at which the Nikkei grew in that period and at which the S&P 500 grew in the second half of the 1990s. Despite today’s huge prices, Moses notes, the mood surrounding the art market is nowhere near as exuberant as it was when Western Europe’s economic largess was flooding into Japanese corporate board rooms in the late ’80s.    

Critical Issues: Professor Moses Responds    

The Mei-Moses index methodology is not without potential shortcomings. Observers in the ‘art-as-asset’ world are quick to point out that the Mei-Moses indexes:    

Heinz Mack, Lichtpyramide. Category: Post War/Contemporary; Sales History (2005) $6596; (2011) $108,945. Annual ROI for 6 yrs, +59.6%.

1) Do not account for private treaty sales, a small, but important part of the secondary sales art market. Response: “True, but since there is no sale or purchase price transparency who is to judge whether the information being provided is factual and not subject to selection bias (stressing winners over losers) by the reporting firm.”    

2) Do not account for buyer and seller transaction costs in an auction house setting. Response: “True, but we started with the premise that we wanted to determine the return based on what willing buyers over time had paid for an object. Thus our return values are the upper estimate on net returns. In addition we should point out that we compare our results to those of the total return index for the S&P 500 where dividends are reinvested tax free and does not account for transaction cost which are diminemus now but were much more substantial years ago. Research has show that over long periods of time from 1/3 to ½ of the total return of the S&P 500 is provided by the reinvested dividends. However the round trip transaction cost of some 20-30% will substantially reduce short term holding period returns, making day trading all but impossible, but since the average holding period in our database is over twenty years our research shows that the average reduction caused by transaction cost reduces annual returns by less than one percent.”    

3) The indexes don’t consider art that comes to market, but doesn’t sell. Response. “True, but no one knows if this causes negative returns or positive returns that were just not sufficient to induce the owner to part with the work. We also fail to capture the returns of works the currently sell but had not sold the previous time it was offered. These would tend to offset some of the supposed negative bias of the works that did not sell. We also cannot study works of art that are not subject to public transparency.”    

Lucio Fontana, Untitled. Category: Post War/Contemporary; Sales History (2007) $50,173; (2011) $99,225. Annual ROI for 4 yrs, +18.6%.

4) That the implied returns of art ownership don’t adequately account for costs related to art ownership: insurance, storage, transport, conservation, and the like. Response: “True, but these costs for most collectors are deminimus. Insurance is less than ¼ of a percent in most residential settings. Most collectors store what they own on the walls of their own dwellings. These costs are also small compared to the management fee charged in many equity accounts.”    

5) That the database doesn’t account for the pieces that fail to sell on the auction block and are quietly unloaded for a loss in private sales, similar to those works previously addressed in issue #3!  Response:  “Additionlly however, we also do not study works that were bought at auction many years ago and are then given to museums.  These would tend to have high returns and tend to mitigate any of the downside of works that are dumped in private sales.  Once again however we cannot study what is not knowable and where there is no price transparency and potential selection bias.”     

6) That art is purely aesthetic and has no underlying value (like a stock’s corporate earnings) to insure performance over time and that art is subject to the whim of society’s taste-makers and therefore, is difficult to reliably evaluate, using standard metrics. Response: “Art is like gold which has very little underlying value and pays no dividend. Most of gold’s price is based on its supposed hedge against inflation or based on speculation. Our database of over 26,000 pairs over 150 years incorporates changes in style and whims over time since we have pairs that were part of every changing environment. Also for the last 3000 years there has always been, somewhere in the world, rich individuals who were exhibiting their wealth through the size of the domiciles and the art and furnishings that adorned it.”    

Lucio Fontana, Concetto Spaziale. Category: Post War/Contemporary; Sales History (2006) $2.7M; (2011) $4.4 M. Annual ROI for 5 yrs, +10%.

In addition, Moses responds to all of these objections by pointing to his enormous data base. “26,000 repeat sale pairs cannot be considered an unrepresentative sample of what has gone on in the knowable part of the art market over the last 200 years. Not every stock that has a limit order on it, sells. In that case, my expectation as the seller is not satisfied. Why do we expect something different from the art market? We do not make the financial markets clear these limit orders at the end of the day; why should we force that on the art market? We eliminate selection bias by not just focusing on the high-priced ‘winners’ in the auction market, or the artistic superstars. By focusing on the ‘S & P’ of the art market, we capture performance data for 90% of the mature artists, whose work comes into the two major auction houses in the world and track their performance on a matched pair basis only. Not only are we comparing apples-to-apples, we are looking at the same apple, with a prior auction record, as it returns to the auction block after a minimum of one year in ownership hands. We eliminate quick turn-around, ‘day-traders’, where the owner is going for quick profit in an overheated market,” Moses emphasizes. “Our goal was to demonstrate that the broad auction market had sufficient financial performance as a whole, and did not require the collector’s ability to choose the outperformers to gain sufficient returns, to make art pay in a well-balanced, optimally-designed wealth portfolio.”    

As a result, Mei-Moses® can look at long-term performance for art as a legitimate part of a diversified portfolio that are realistic and achievable in the market. “Over the years, with the usual ups and downs, art performs at an average 9% rate-of-return. Some indexes claim 12, 15 or even 18% rates of return, but we have found those models to be flawed,” he tells me. “We believe that the only place to achieve this kind of return is in an auction environment, where the informed buyer observes one simple rule: the best returns, on average, are achieved when you never buy a work of art for more than the index-inflated price from the last sale—never buy a work of art for more than the index inflated price from the last sale. Knowing your facts, keeping emotions in check and flying by this rule will maximize (knowing there is no guarantee of future performance) your chances of doing well in a leveled playing field.”    

Lucian Freud, Self-Portrait. Category: Post war/Contemporary; Sales History (1992) $151,536; (2011) $5.26M. Annual ROI for 17 yrs, +20.5%.

Over the last ten years, the risk—or down-side exposure—associated with the Mei Moses® All Art index is less than that of the S&P 500 total return index, 14.4% vs. 20.4% respectively, and 17.6% vs. 18.3% respectively, over the last 25 years. We think this was caused by art’s methodical rise since the late 1990s, after a pronounced downturn in the early 1990s and then another pronounced drop and recovery over the last three years. Contrast this with stocks meteoric rise of the late 1990s and a slow recovery after the 2000-2002 down-turn, followed by substantial increases for a brief period, until the dramatic decline of 2008, returned it to 1997 levels, followed by last year’s recovery and a continuation of solid gains in 2011.    

However the downside risk for the equity index over the last 50 years, 17.2%, is slightly better than the art index, 17.8%. Over the past three years our results show that there has been a substantial reduction in the 50 year historic lower risk of equities over art (from a difference of 3-5% to the current 0.6%). The very low correlation factor between the art and stock/bond indexes for the last 50 and 25 years respectively indicated that art may play a positive role in investment portfolio diversification.    

“We are confident about the strength of our model after so many years and with so many repeat-sales pairs (26,000, to date with 2000 more added/year),” Moses explains. “Buying art for love is a perfectly understandable motivation, but the question has to be asked, ‘How much is love costing you?’ Approaching the purchase experience objectively doesn’t have to diminish the emotional charge that comes from acquiring art. Understand the metrics and variables that will increase the likelihood that your investment will hold its own over time. Know that masterpieces are exciting to consider, but are likely to underperform for the vast majority of buyers, over time. Focus on the mid-range, mature artistic community; buy at auction; which is the only truly democratic way to evaluate pricing dynamics; know the limit of value for each piece you bid—don’t bid beyond the index-adjusted purchase price from the last sale of that work of art; recognize that there is a painting for every purse and just because you didn’t pay too much for a painting doesn’t mean it won’t yield either joy or return-on-investment in the long run.”    

www.artasanasset.com -The Mei-Moses® Art Indexes© Web Site Summary    

Ross Bleckner, Untitled. Category: Post War/Contemporary; Sales History (2008) $49,900; Resale (2011) $16,200. Annual ROI for 2 yrs, -36.2%.

The Home page allows access to a selection of articles and interviews involving the Mei Moses® indexes and research results of Beautiful Asset Advisors®. Several thousand articles have appeared, using Mei-Moses® data since it first became available in 2001. A complete list can be found (enter “mei moses” as the preferred search object).    

The Home page also allows access to reactions to Mei-Moses® index research and to the website from art, insurance and financial market participants. Also, frequently asked questions (FAQ’s), such as: Why only use auction information? Why use a repeat sale methodology? Dealing with works that do not sell at auction; developing the optimal collecting category; lists of representative artists from each collecting category are also provides, as well as contact information and bios for the principals.    

Once on the useful Home Page of Mei-Moses®, Beautiful Asset Advisory, LLC, the website is organized into five additional sections:    

The Market Insights section contains the annual updates of our analysis of the New York auction market covering returns, risk, and correlation performance for art, as compared to other assets. It will also contain tracking reports issued in early April, July and November of each year, describing the progress of the market within that current calendar year. Any special research reports that might be of interest to subscribers, such as the analysis of financial performance of Matisse and Picasso created some years ago, during their combined show in New York, or the current relationship among art, equities and real estate, can be found there.    

Francis Picabia, Tete de Chat. Category: Post War/Contemporary; Sales History (1998) $3,612; Resale (2011) $19,000. Annual ROI for 12.5 yrs, +14.2%.

The Index Data section contains graphs for the All Art Index since 1875. Graphs for the All Art Index, as well as most of the collecting category indexes for the last fifty years are also available (Old Masters/ 19th century; Impressionist/Modern; American before 1950; Post-War/ Contemporary and Latin American [most recently, data on the traditional Chinese art market has been added]). Graphs for indexes based on special studies will also be available such as the one we created based on our analysis of purchase price and performance.    

The Asset Allocation Studies section analyzes the benefits of a diversified portfolio, including art. The risk-return tradeoffs of including art in a varied portfolio of stocks, bonds, cash and gold are illustrated. The section also visually demonstrates the optimal allocation percentages to these asset classes, at various return levels. Also demonstrated are optimal portfolio results for individuals with a fixed pre-existing art collection. The user gets to choose which art assets to include and which historical time period to use for historical performance.    

The Art Valuation section allows the user to employ an applicable Mei Moses® art index and a user-designated prior-purchase price or appraisal value to create a personalized current “mark to market” valuation level, based on art market changes over the intervening time period. This methodology may be useful in creating art valuations for potential object sales or insurance valuations of existing works in a collection, or price estimates for proposed current purchases at auction or from a dealer. Individual subscribers will be entitled to an unlimited number of valuations, per year, for their own non-commercial, personal use. Daily restrictions may apply however based on total volume of traffic.    

Andy Warhol, Mick Jagger. Category: Post War/Contemporary; Sales History (2006) $1.46M; (2011) $1.41M. Annual ROI for 5 yrs, -0.7%.

The Artist Returns section, new in 2009, provides information on the returns achieved at auction for the works of each of the 150 artist with the largest number of repeat auction sales represented in ‘repeat sale’ database. This is in the process of becoming the most comprehensive analysis of individual artist returns available anywhere. For each artist graphed, the compound annual return (CAR) of each repeat-sale pair, as a function of the year the work was purchased, is presented. Also provided are summary statistics on the mean and standard deviation of the CAR for all repeat-sale pairs, for works by these artists.    

The CARs for individual artists are not comparable because the repeat sale pairs have different ownership dates and holding periods. To enable an appropriate comparison between and among artists, we normalize the returns for each artist’s works relative to the broader market. We calculate the excess return for each repeat sale pair as the difference between the CAR of that pair and the CAR for our all art index over the same holding period, and calculate the summary statistics (mean, standard deviation) of the excess returns for all the repeat sale pairs of each of the artists analyzed.    

Recommendations to Portfolio Managers and Investors    

Investment advisors, typically unacquainted with the complex forces at play in the art world tend to shy away from discussions with their clients on the topic of their present art holdings or the reality of factoring in art acquisition as an integral part of their portfolio and wealth-building strategy for the future. Approaching the topic of art as an integral part of a diversified portfolio means having the confidence to engage in a meaningful discussion of the financial ramifications of the art he/she currently holds or is thinking of buying, knowing that there are tools available to help guide the process.    

Most high net worth clients will have some form of art as part of their holdings, along with other illiquid categories like real estate and other collectables (watches, cars, fine wines, etc.). Assisting the client to consider art as an important diversification strategy, by accounting for works of art currently owned, along with a proposed strategy for acquiring more art, while mitigating risk and building a realistic ROI, is an important way to strengthen the manager-client relationship. Mei-Moses® indexes provide a reliable and practical means to that end.    

By Richard Friswell, Executive Editor    

Jianping Mei, Ph.D. is a professor at the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business in Beijing, China, and co-founder of Beautiful Asset Advisors®, LLC; previously he was an associate professor of finance at New York University’s Stern School of Business.    

Click on chart to enlarge

 Michael Moses, Ph.D. is a co-founder of Beautiful Asset Advisors®, LLC; previously he was an associate professor of management and operations management at Stern School of Business.    

Editor’s note: This recent update appears on the Mei-Moses® Web site. Go to their helpful site for additional timely information: www.artasanasset.com. Readers may also want to request a free re-print of an article recently published in The Journal of Investment Consulting, entitled, “Wealth Management for Collectors” (2010). Contact Mei-Moses at support@artasanasset.com.     

CONTINUED FOURTH QUARTER INCREASES FOR MOST COLLECTING CATEGORIES ALLOWS THE MEI MOSES® ALL ART INDEX TO ACHIEVE AN ANNUAL RETURN OF 16.6% REVERSING THE ART MARKET SWOON OF LAST YEAR AND SURPASSING THE 15.06% INCREASE IN S&P 500 TOTAL RETURN INDEX FOR 2010©    

The 2009 decrease in the return of the Mei Moses® All Art index of approximately 23.5 percent was the largest decline in the all art index since the 1991 decline of 38.7 percent. The latter decline occurred after the bursting of the art bubble of 1985-1990. The 23.5% was the second largest decline since the great depression. The declines of 2008 and 2009 occurred after five years of positive annual growth averaging almost 20 percent. The 2010 results, an increase of 16.6%, has stopped this slide and may be the start of a new base building period for the auction art market. These results have allowed the all art index to slightly outperform the results for the of the S&P 500 total return index (where dividends are reinvested tax free) of 15.06%. In addition the most recent ten and five year compound annual returns (CAR) for art, 4.86% and 3.59%, exceed the S&P returns of, 1.35% and 2.28% respectively. Stocks outperformed art over the last twenty five years with a CAR of 9.91 percent compared to 6.43 percent for art. However, for the last fifty years the returns were very close with art achieving a CAR of 9.23% compared to the 9.73% for equities.   

Click on chart to enlarge

___________________________________________    

Additional Reading Material:    

Mei, Jianping & Moses, Michael. Art as an Investment and the Underperformance of Masterpieces. The American Economic Review, pgs 1656-1668, 2002.    

Mei, Jianping & Moses, Michael. Vested Interest and Biased Price Estimates: Evidence from the Auction Market, The Journal of Finance, V. IX, No. 5, pgs 2409-2435, October 2006    

Mei, Jianping & Moses, Michael. Wealth Management for Collectors. The Journal of Investment Consulting, pgs 50-59, 2010.    

Mei, Jianping & Moses, Michael. 2010 Year-End Market Insights Based on Mei-Moses Art Indexes. New York: ©Beautiful Asset Advisors, 2011.

AK Airways, Cuddlefish (2009), vinyl, lights

Jasper Johns said, “Take an object. Do something to it. Do something else to it. Do something else to it.” He encourages each artist to embrace the act of creating something that enthralls, the moment it is perceived. Enhance the work by pushing its boundaries to a new level, he seems to be saying. Expand awareness by defining where exactly that sphere lies. The art on display at Outsight Inn in Rupert Ravens Contemporary embraces Johns’ concept, flexing our preconceived assumptions. In this high-tech world, there are many ways we can rely on technology to take us to these stratospheric heights; but art, effectively executed, can achieve similar goals, enhancing our comprehension of the world around us. fine arts magazine

Jared Whitham, fore: 9/11 Keyboard Relic (2010), mixed media; back: Florida House w/ Garage Sale (2010), mixed media

Upon entering, the work of Jared Whitham and Stefanie Nagorka offers a reflection on Americana. Whitham has constructed a full-scale Florida home with pink shingles and white picket fence. Aptly titled Garage Sale, complete with carport, housing this on-going investigation he has carried on for years. The plethora of items available for sale sparks a conversation on modern society and the objects it produces. Nagorka’s My America, 49 porcelain representations of the American states, communicates eloquently. It is the visual reminder of our terrestrial permanence and our governments self imposed legal boundaries. The face of her work carries the four-color palette of mapmakers, yet the back is painted black, representing the underbelly or dark side of this country.

Stefanie Nagorka, My America (2010), porcelain, acrylic, hay

The work of Matt Stone comprises various sculptures of cardboard, wood, wax, burnt plastic, feathers and colored foam. Taking up residence in a corner of the second floor, Stone invites you into a world of his own making. He favors banal objects, but the transformation is a sight to behold, speeding past your retina, straight to your neocortex. You are no longer in a former furniture store in downtown Newark. You are surrounded instead by shapes, colors, textures and forms which take hold (birds, trees, prehistoric predators, etc). Look! Jutting drawers and tilted glass, tree rings, is that…? The artist provokes open-ended questions, swirling emotions—a new realization permeates—only to be undone. A momentary reprieve comes with a fresh perspective. Attention to detail is paramount to Johns’ “do something” idea, experimentation being an essential factor in the equation. Certain components are vital to the narrative for Stone—the protagonist, antagonist and supporting roles—all coalescing through the dynamic of his work.

Matthew Stone, Body Electric (2009), mixed media

Conversely, the iPad creations of Olu Oguibe do not espouse the same sentiment. These canvases do not engross the viewer as effectively. They appear not to disengage from the here-and-now. A diverse palette of pulsating brushstrokes conceived on an iPad, printed on canvas— digital-to-physical—offers an intriguing glimpse, more than a fully-realized, artistic vision. The artist takes several steps to achieve a distinctive perspective; these pieces are unique more for their printing ingenuity than their subject matter. In doing so, he appears to miss the mark with his exhibit. It is a familiar scene—the viewer stands and admires rather than becoming engaged. The more he attempts to move against the grain, the closer he comes to common elaboration.

Olu Oguibe, Untitled VI (2010), Apple Ipad, archival pigment on canvas, uv coating

What if you take a system of energetic brush strokes—constricting the palette—resulting in a neo-algorithm, a new language? To risk the creation of a cohesive narrative, relying on paint alone, where presentation and context are crucial to understanding, may not always yield an effective result. In a series of paintings, John Mendelsohn successfully achieves this result. Tact, when applying pigment—direction and arrangement—is of utmost importance; for if the effects don’t cohere, there is no moment of release, no flash of sublimity. Mendhelson’s work distinguishes itself by unifying these elements. The colors capture what the lines do not, and vice-versa. His work may be random movements of brush and body; they are certainly not arbitrary in relation to one another. The works functional well separately—and as a unified whole—the eye finding new reasons to return to the work, time and again, in pursuit of his procession of color.

Christopher Tanner, Pink Narcissus/Cake Walk (2007), mixed media

Having been inundated with detail to this point in the exhibit, Christopher Tanner’s work offers little reprieve. His decadent sculptures assault your senses. Gaudy? Perhaps. However, those quick to dismiss do so at their own peril. Tanner’s work is pure burlesque, pomp and circumstance shot from a cannon. Not lacking in innuendo, his work is a fitting alternative to bland nudity. It is an amalgam of elements that asks for your attention and indulgence. Of the work discussed thus far, his work delves deepest into Jasper Johns’ directive. Here, careful examination pays off, with each and every jewel, sequin, and fabric swatch, every minute element, vital to his Gestalt. Two pieces laid out on black fabric succeed in transporting the viewer to a different level of perception. Comprised of leather and jewel-bedecked, the work offers a surprising re-interpretation of the expected. They transmogrify into representations of elegant women, lying on their sides, hair flowing, curves seducing—temptresses with nary a human detail. Where others incorporate simplicity, Tanner engages in decadence and over-saturation, not limited by scale. If Tanner had lived in the 17th century and worked as court artiste for the Sun King, one could imagine that Versailles would have looked like this.

Rich Wislocky, Lord Evil Falcon & Tribal Perch (2010), mirrors & mixed media

AK Airways’, Cuddlefish, still laden with playa dust from the Nevada desert soars above, below and beyond your peripheral vision. Comprised of five gargantuan, inflatable, glowing, orange ‘worms’, it raises the stakes of the other works on display. Don’t paint the monster, MAKE IT. Don’t just sketch a flower, construct one. Markus Baenziger does so through Forever Never, a metal base festooned with dozens of delicate resin leaves. There is also Turn Around, faux-weeds affixed to a concrete moored fence, appearing to be ripped from the street and brought to the Outsight Inn gallery wall.

Markus Baenziger, Forever Never (2005), metal, resin, wood

Of the many artistic works on display at Outsight Inn, two artists are exemplars to understanding what Johns meant by saying “do something else to it.” Rich Wislocky and Ryan C. Doyle succeed by expanding beyond the limits of gravity-bound thinking, taking us to the otherworldliness of their fertile imaginations. Wislocky’s work occupies an entire corner of the gallery—but the space does not simply serve as a repository of ideas. It is a dream world. Turn a corner to discover an entirely surreal atmosphere of mirrors, lights, masks, found objects, totems and images. His is an invitation to another planet—it’s a journey far away, seen through the eyes of his masks, evoking Stravinsky’s early 20th century modern ballets, such as The Firebird. Do not fear! The only thing you are overdosing on is intimate panoply of resourceful and brilliant imagination. Ideas become reflected realities, as a maze of mirrors and spotlights scatter light in every direction. Repetitious imagery (Gandhi, Jesus, Manhattan, etc.) coexists with found-objects; all conceived and presented as demented orgies of plastic toys.

Ryan C. Doyle creates another distinct environment. On the gallery’s third floor, you are greeted by an illustrated skull, encircled by a heart with the words “Idle hand is the devils play tool.” His hands are surely not idle; Doyle’s ride-on installations are certainly devilish toys. Flames spit from the Regurgitator as its patron sits helplessly, waiting to be whipped into a mind-numbing vortex of mechanically-inspired vertigo. Inside, a collaborative mural between Doyle and Mikey 907, Detroit: Half-Dead and Dynamite, provides a backdrop to a dwelling of cracked floors, chipped paint, graffiti throw-ups, empty beer cans and another imposing ride-able sculpture, Hella-Copter.

Ryan Doyle, fore: Hella-Copter (2009); Mikey 907, back: Detroit, Half-Dead and Dynamite (2010), florescent spray paint

As previously stated, the success of adhering to Johns’ “do something” revelation is founded in a creators’ ability to wholly remove the viewer from reality. Stability is unwelcome, no foundation, no shelter—the exhibit demands that you must confront this work and digest it. Never boring, these artists work outside the bounds of the expected, while pushing the limits of creative expression. Whether successful or not, in this writer’s eyes, each artist disengages from the predictable to stride assertively, taking that compelling step into the arena of contemporary art…asking, What’s next?!

By Lawrence Ciarallo, Guest Contributor

Rupert Ravens Contemporary, Newark, NJ.

www.rupertravens.net

Mary Hrbacek, Entwined (2007), 40x44"

“We all travel the Milky Way together, trees and men… trees are travelers, in the ordinary sense. They make journeys, not very extensive ones, it is true: but our own little comes and goes are only little more than tree-wavings – many of them not so much.” -John Muir, Scribner’s Monthly, November, 1878. 

“I frequently tramped eight or ten miles through the deepest snow to keep an appointment with a beech-tree, or a yellow birch, or an old acquaintance among the pines.” -Henry David Thoreau  

For the past decade or so, perhaps triggered by the tripling of anxiety-producing catastrophes around the world, trees of all kinds, sometimes even small forests, both realistic and obviously faux, have been making their appearance in the work of sculptors, painters, and video and installation artists. It seems more and more artists, in what appears to be an increasing back-to-nature ‘trendette’, are using trees in their work as a metaphor for examining the nature of mankind, as well as the fate of the world. fine arts magazine 

Woman Astride (2008) 42x48"

 Working in this naturalist mode is artist Mary Hrbacek whose anthropomorphic tree portraits are currently on exhibit at the Creon Gallery in New York City through April 30. Curated by Richard Pasquarelli, Hrbacek’s trees, practicing their magic under the title Entwined, are not only transcendent but speak directly to the heart, reminding us, a bit surreptitiously at that, that we are all walking trees. Our spines are trunks, our legs and arms are branches, and sooner or later, with twisted limbs and weathered bones, we too shall be planted.  

The Creon Gallery, founded in 2009 by Norm Hinsey is the perfect venue, spatially speaking, in which to closely contemplate the philosophical approach of Hrbacek’s boldly rendered paintings. In two smallish, white-walled rooms, and a backyard garden to exhibit work outdoors, the tiny gallery, housed, one could almost say, quietly hidden, in the back of a residential apartment complex, visitors are all but guaranteed, a pleasuring, one-on-one intimacy with the art.  

Light Search (2010), 42x46"

Though Entwined covers a scant 4 years, Hrbacek, has been traveling the world taking photographs, and making charcoal drawings and painting of trees that have shed their leaves and exposed their so-called bones, in Asia and Europe, as well as Brooklyn, and New York’s Central Park, for over ten years. Her repertoire also includes assemblages which use natural materials such as sticks, stones, pinecones and leaves, as well as drawings from live models, traces of which can be divined in the artist’s sculptural brushwork — finely executed lines that give form to her tree portraits.  

Last Dance (2007), 40x44"

In Entwined (2007), above, the tree’s two main branches, each one circling the other like boxers looking for an in, are vividly framed by a blue sun-drenched sky. Thinking of human relations, Hrbacek, explaining her ideas behind each work on a listed works sheet given out at the gallery, writes “They (the branches) are interdependent; just as so many other living things are connected and dependent on each other.” In Woman Astride (2008), a feminine looking figure, with arms akimbo, seems to be in the throes of ecstasy. Here the painter, perhaps waxing autobiographical, sees a woman expressing “a feeling of freedom, combined with a sense of risk-taking. There is an evocation of euphoria to the female-like form as it achieves a level of freedom and independence, while remaining anchored to its natural habitation.”  

In Light Search (2010),  under a pale blue sky that could be morning or dusk – two branches resembling hands, reach for the sky. They could be praying, shouting Halleluiah, or chucking it all by throwing their hands up in surrender, or like the artist suggests “searching for answers” — anything to lessen the “anxiety and the tension that arises from life itself.” In Last Dance (2007) Hrbacek captures two trees in the backwoods of Vermont. With one tree’s swaying branches encircling the other, the trees seem to be enacting a ritual dance. 

In Hanging Suspended (2008), left, a five hundred year old Sycamore that the painter discovered in Viareggio, Italy, we see what appears to be the torso of a male with his thighs still attached dangling upside down like a tortured body from one of Jake and Dinos Chapman installations. Like all of Hrbacek’s trees, this so-called torso, separated from its leafy origin, marks it especially, as the artist writes, “as a symbol of isolation in a topsy-turvey world.” Clearly all of Hrbacek’s eleven trees on view face the same trials and tribulations – civilization gone amuck – as we all are. No doubt, this is one of the messages that the artist wants us to walk away with.  

By Edward Rubin, Contributing Writer  

 CREON Gallery 238 E 24 St, NY, NY 10010  646.265.5508 www.creongallery.com

I

A recent visitor to the gallery commented, “A part of Harry Wishard lived several hundred years ago.” Her observation was insightful. Wishard’s representational paintings don’t simply give us a historical glimpse of old Hawaii. They transport us into that world. There is a keen intimacy between the painter and his subject that is startlingly apparent. As viewers we are ushered into this almost sacred realm where Hawaiian heritage connects with the land or aina.  

(Above) Harry Wishard, Pohaku Opio (Hanalei), 2010, 20×30″ available as Giclee on canvas fine arts magazine  

Harry Wishard, Stream Above Honokane (2010), 20x30"

Unlike viewers of Edouard Manet’s Luncheon on the Grass, we are neither caught off-guard nor embarrassed by Wishard’s scenes. Awe, reverence, and respect are our responses. If great art is autobiographical, Wishard’s paintings tell his story. Growing up on a plantation in Hawaii, Wishard lived a Huckleberry Finn existence—hunting, fishing, hiking, surfing and painting. It is this natural landscape of his childhood innocence where he is most comfortable. His paintings beckon us to follow him deep into the forest, to crouch on a stream rock overlooking a vast canyon, to fly like a seagull into lush waterfalls, and to feel the surf tumble at our feet.  

What keeps his paintings from being sentimental or simply nostalgic? His realistic style is meticulously accurate in foliage, geography, atmosphere, color and light. Using the centuries old glazing process of the masters, which he learned as a boy by watching his uncle, renowned artist Lloyd Sexton, he recreates forest terrains, stream beds, and ocean scenes he has explored all his life. Although related to Sexton by marriage, Wishard is self-taught.  

Harry Wishard, Kawai Nui (2010) 26 x 42”, frame: koa, green suede liner, gold fillet

His limited formal training may also be what keeps his art fresh. He continually experiments with painting techniques and insists on having fun with his subjects. Recently he began using an abbreviated form of pointillism and the vivid colors of the California Impressionists. Clearly his images have become lighter and brighter over the years.  

Although Wishard depicts idealized scenes of long ago, his personal love of the islands and the vantage point he selects for his paintings immerse us directly into his scenes. As observers we are always clear where we are in the painting—waist deep in the waves, walking along a forest trail, or at the top of a lava formed hillside (pu’u). This double connection: first between the painter and his scene, and secondly between the viewer and the painting is present in the best Wishard works.  

As viewers we are transported inside the painting until we feel our spirits join hands with Wishard and journey back to our true island home. His framed paintings literally function as windows of a world of long ago where panoramic vistas of snow capped mountains fall into lush canyon walls and blush colored Ohia trees.  

Elmer Adams, various Mediterranean-style vases, Mango, Milo and Cook Pine, 40" to 70" tall.

Wishard’s art translates into a desire to conserve and preserve all that is unique to the islands. The best of his paintings literally take our breath away so that for a moment we can feel the wind against our cheek and the water lapping at our feet.  

Wishard Gallery is host to other ground-breaking artists as well; notable among them are wood workers Elmer Adams and Tai Lake, sculptor Holly Young, photographers Michael Cromwell and Julie Eliason, and fellow painters Lynn Capell and Edwin Kayton.  

Recently deceased wood turner Elmer Adams has several pieces in the gallery. Using massive logs of Mango, Milo, and Cook Pine, Adams created gigantic Mediterranean style vases measuring over 40” tall, 70” in circumference, and weighing less than 10 pounds!  To do this he custom built a lathe made to handle the weight and large logs. He devised a series of 2” X 3” steel beams with a hollowing tool the size of a pencil attached to the end. These allowed him to hollow out wood length weighing up to 170 pounds from a distance of eleven feet. The results are stunningly light, graceful, yet massive wooden vessels.  

Tai Lake, Trestle Table, Kao wood, ebony inlay, 90" x 40"

Preeminent Koa craftsman Tai Lake is also represented in the gallery. Tai’s work tours with the SOFA shows. You only have to look at his Koa table to understand why he was chosen President of the Hawaii Wood Guild and the Hawaii Forest Industry Association. Tai designs and builds fine furniture from island hardwoods and from the Koa forest project he manages in Kailua-Kona. His work has received numerous awards, and images of his work have been published nationally.  

The Koa dining table in the gallery is over 90” inches long and 40” wide. Aside from the Ebony inlay, there is not a ninety degree angle anywhere. Every edge of this red Koa table is slightly curved. The legs are fashioned after a Kyoto temple and allow for people seated at the corners to have ample leg room. Although large in dimension, this classic table is both elegant and unassuming. His dining table chair legs and back duplicate the arc of the table leg creating an overall unity to the set.  

Sculptress Holly Young uses bronze and marble to build life size monuments, as well as portraits, reliefs and abstracts. A former biochemist, Young’s work has gone from the chemical to the realms of the alchemist. Her sculptures capture the harmony, gratitude and peace she feels when sculpting.  

Photographer Michael Cromwell’s work is reminiscent of Georgia O’Keefe canvases in size and focus, but his subject is Hawaiian flora. Julie Eliason uses her marine biologist background to strengthen her sea images and to create unique borders for her photographic paintings. (Photos on right, left-to-right: Julie Eliason, Dancing Light; Michael Cromwell, Amber Night Bloom)  

Lynn Capell, Young Girl in Hammock (2008) 30 x 50”, oil on masonite

Lynn Capell loads her oil brush and palette knife for her mason board paintings. Gauguin and Hawaiian artist Madge Tennet appear to have influenced Capell. Her paintings depict modern scenes with a relaxed but haunting loneliness. Loosely painted couples cling together in a dance hall amid dim lights. A girl lounges in bed with a TV in the foreground. Seascapes are un-peopled.  

Prize winning Edwin Kayton uses muted tones to capture the Hawaiian cowboy “paniolo” life. Pau Hana (“finished work”) shows the back of the cowboy as he and his horse gallop toward home. Comin’ in Outta the Rain, one of his most popular paintings, unites horse and cowboy as they struggle against pouring rain.  

By Nancy Slain, Guest Contributor  

Wishard Gallery, Parker Ranch Center, Waimea, Hawaii  

Representing over 30 different artists, Wishard Gallery is definitely the place to visit, when you come to the Big Island of Hawaii, or at our website www.wishardgallery.com. For further information or to view more artists and their work, contact Nancy Slain at art@wishardgallery.com, or by phone at (808) 887-2278. [Right: Wishard's, The Front Yard (2010), 30 x 40”]

Traditional & Contemporary side-by-side at recent fashion event, with student-designer,Varshaben Uttambhai (left)

Editor’s Note: The western-most district of Kutch, in the state of Gujarat is one of the most ecologically and ethnically diverse districts in India.  Close to the Pakistan border and subject to a massive earthquake in 2001, the people have a reputation for strength and resilience. Kutch is a celebrated for its art, crafts, music, dance, people and nature. A plethora of brilliant hues, profusion of design, superfluity of culture, a cornucopia of music and dance— together in the arid lands of Kutch—creates a mosaic of culture and design tradition which reflects the identity and spirit of the region.   

At the forefront of present-day Indian culture is the convergence of the traditional and the modern. This phenomenon affects issues from politics to religion to the arts as people strive to move forward economically and professionally while maintaining their heritage, identity, and individuality. A pursuit exists for a balance between what was and what is, especially for those with a direct link to tradition. In Kutch, where the legacy of intricate embroidery stretches back centuries and is still visible in the everyday dress of its residents, the past stands arm in arm with the present. fine arts magazine

The survival of Kutchi art depends on the combination of the two, and the successful artist is the one who is able to work with a connection to both worlds. For the traditional artisans of Kala Raksha (literally “Art Preservation”) located near the regional capital of Bhuj, the idea of Artisan Design combines the old and the new in a way that allows them to sustain the essence of their craft while competing in the international market and ever-evolving world of fashion design. 

A Kala Raksha coordinatior, Pabiben Lakhman, displays examples of colorful 'Rabari' embroidery

Historically, Indian art made no distinction between craft and design. The traditional artisan would create, from beginning to end, a product reflecting the lifestyle and environment of that individual. Artisan Design is a trademark that celebrates the traditional artisan’s autonomy over his/her artistic expression. It ensures that every product bearing its symbol is conceived, constructed, and priced by the artisan, and in doing so provides rural artisans the opportunity to succeed in a market where designers, laborers, and merchants work separately for disproportionate compensation. Artisan Design is the driving force behind the Kala Raksha Vidhyalaya (the nation’s first design school for artisans, located near the Gulf of Kutch), now beginning its sixth year of classes. At the school, students from the region learn to incorporate each aspect of the trade so that they may not only continue to grow within their medium, but may also receive appropriate compensation and gain respect and social status within their communities.   

Kala Raksha's universally popular, Pabi-bags

Lachuben Raja, a Rabari embroiderer with no formal education, graduated from the Vidhyalaya in 2006 (and has been a coordinator with Kala Raksha since 1994). She has taught embroidery at the US Embassy School in Delhi and has traveled to Australia and the United States for exhibitions, workshops, and seminars. This level of artisan involvement is unique to Kala Raksha and is a revolutionary step in modern business, where the division of labor often comes at the expense of traditional artists; it helps the artisan avoid marginalization as well as promotes their creative expression, which in turn introduces innovative products to the public.   

Graduating student, Salmabai Ismailbhai, makes a presentation

While mass production tends to flood the market with impersonal merchandise, Artisan Design ensures a close relationship between producer and consumer. The artist studies the trends of the market, develops and enhances those trends, while applying his/her creative perspectives, and ultimately delivers fairly-priced products to buyers who may be assured of each item’s authenticity. This model is best exemplified by the success of another Kala Raksha coordinator, Pabiben Lakhman (above), whose use of the art form Hari Jari led her to create the now world-renowned Pabi-Bag. The rampant success of this bag has landed it in Hollywood and Bollywood films alike, and the public’s constant and seemingly ceaseless demand for it has made it a staple at every Kala Raksha exhibition.   

Artisan Design benefits traditional artisans from a variety of backgrounds. Salmabai Ismailbhai, a Jat embroiderer, also grew up without a formal education. She learned the basic skills of embroidery by watching her mother and grandfather (Kala Raksha contributors themselves), and when she enrolled at the Vidhyalaya, she blossomed as both artist and individual. Shedding her initial timidity, she graduated in 2009, winning the award for Most Promising Artisan for her fresh garment collection. She learned to read and write through Kala Raksha’s basic education classes, and she now claims, “My art is my livelihood, my capability, and a means to independence.”   

A Vashaben Uttambhai design on the runway

The Vidhyalaya has provided similar opportunities to Suf embroiderer Varshaben Uttambhai. A resident of Sumraser-Sheikh (home of the Kala Raksha Trust), Varshaben completed her formal education through the seventh grade, yet turned to embroidery when she was unable to continue her schooling in the nearby city of Bhuj. Since graduating from the Vidhyalaya in 2008, she has participated in exhibitions in Delhi, Mumbai, and Ahmedabad, and she believes that an increase in the creativity of her designs will result in a higher demand for Suf products in the future. The Artisan Design philosophy supports these women to flourish artistically and economically as they surpass the limitations of those from similar backgrounds to realize a new level of personal creativity, self-worth, and social standing.   

Designer Suleman (R) takes a bow at recent Kala Raksha Design School event

Suleman Umarfaruqbhai Khatri, on the other hand, came to Kala Raksha from a somewhat different angle. Having become disenchanted with the troubling ethics of a career in law, he chose to return to the family art of Bandhani and partnered his valuable business experience with his brother’s skill for craft. He realized that art must change with the times, and now, after studying the art himself, he and his brother work to bring the traditional into the modern. He exemplifies the evolved artisan whose success depends as much on the knowledge of the market’s fluctuations as on the intricacies of the craft.   

In the arena of traditional arts, any form of stagnation will soon render a medium antique. The market is worldwide, and in order to compete and thrive in such an environment, the artist must become worldwide as well. The challenge put forth to traditional artisans is to adapt to the requisite changes while maintaining the cultural and individual identities that continue to serve as the foundation of their art. Artisan Design guarantees artisans the opportunity to benefit from their own creative exploration, the result of which is to provide the market with Fair-Trade products that fuse together the most desirable traits of tradition and innovation.   

By Ben Bellizzi, Guest Contributor 

To learn more about Kala Raksha and see ‘global village’ products for sale, go to: www.equalcraft.com  

_______________________________________________   

FYI:  Kutch district (also spelled, Kachchh) is district of Gujarat state in western India. Covering an area of 45,612 km², it is the largest district of India.   

Kutch district embroiderers (including Lachuben Raja, right) plying their craft

The district is also famous for ecologically important Banni grasslands with their seasonal marshy wetlands which form the outer belt of the Rann of Kutch.  

Kachchh literally means something which intermittently becomes wet and dry; a large part of this district is known as Rann of Kachchh which is shallow wetland which submerges in water during the rainy season and becomes dry during other seasons. The same word is also used in the languages of Sanskrit origin for a tortoise and garments to be worn while having a bath. The Rann is famous for its marshy salt flats which become snow white after the shallow water dries up each season before the monsoon rains. 

Kachchh District is surrounded by the Gulf of Kachchh and the Arabian Sea in south and west, while northern and eastern parts are surrounded by the Great and Small Rann (seasonal wetlands) of Kachchh. When there were not many dams built on its rivers, the Rann of Kachchh remained wetlands for a large part of the year. Even today, the region remains wet for a significant part of year.   

Jessica Lagunas. Para besarte mejor (The Better to Kiss You With), 2003. From video, stills by Roni Mocán

 It was only a few years ago—2007 to be exact—that ‘The Pinta People’, took a big gamble and surprised the art world, by mounting the world’s first international Latin American Modern & Contemporary Art Show at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City. With 35 international galleries and countless Hispanic artists from the United States, Spain, Mexico, Central and South America, showing their works, the fair was an immediate hit. So much so, as a matter of fact, that Pinta felt secure enough to not only turn it into a yearly event, but also to eventually establish yet another annual Latin American art fair, during the month of June, in the city of London. fine arts magazine   

Opening Night at Pinta Latin American Art Show. Photo: Pablo Coradis

This past November, ‘the little fair that could’ took another gamble and moved its 4-day, New York City celebration of Latin American art from its Chelsea habitat to Pier 92 on the Hudson River, the same location made famous by The Armory Show. With daylight streaming in from the pier’s surrounding windows, the new and improved Pinta with larger and brighter aisles, more galleries and art installations, a bar and café for the public, and a private, upper level VIP section – with roughly four times more space than the old Pinta – generously gifted its visitors and exhibitors alike with more breathing and thinking room, as well as strolling, eating (and oh, my tired feet!), resting options.   

Museum of Modern Art Director Glenn Lowry. Photo: Edward Rubin

Again, the golden glow of success reared its lovely head and nearly 12,000 art-loving people visited the fair’s 57 participating galleries, the majority being from New York City and Sao Paulo, Brazil. More importantly, though, sales to private and institutional collectors, according to Pinta’s favorable wrap-up report, were “significant.” Among those institutions buying art was the Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York’s El Museo del Barrio, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Harvard museums. Also seen looking for bargains at Pinta’s new space were several museum bigwigs—chief among them and wearing a snazzy pink scarf—MoMA’s director, Glen Lowry.   

Although the art of legendary artists Fernando Botero, Wilfredo Lam, Lygia Clark, and Ana Mendieta, as they did in the first three editions of Pinta, took their customary bows, for the most part, it was the work of the young contemporary Latin American artists whose fresh, unique ways of looking at life that supplied the majority of the fair’s visual excitement. Though many paintings, sculptures, and a few videos, were on view, it was the quietly inventive work of the photographers—digital and otherwise—that depicted life, in its myriad postures, most interestingly.   

Lluis Barba, Project of the Adequacy of the Great Gallery of Louvre (2010), after Hubert Robert (1796) Travelers in Time series 44x50” C-print, diasec Courtesy: Dean Project

 The work of Brazilian artist Rochelle Costi at the Celma Albuquerque Galeria De Arte (Rio de Janeiro) is about the scale and perception of space. In one photograph, two stacks of hand-cut paper, lined up side by side, inhabit a one-window, dollhouse-sized room. Another, titled Disproportionally, reveals the floor of a room, covered with a few dozen small metal containers, the type that holds rolls of film. Both objects, deliberately placed in miniaturized settings by the artist, add a disorienting effect to the photos. Our eyes dart back and forth, from the window to the ceiling to the floor, to the object and back, trying to make visual sense of what we are looking at. Are the objects large or small, and what size is the room? As Costi wrote, “The series was made using a model of a house where odd objects were introduced to stress the difficulty that we have in realizing the amount of space we really need to live. Have we grown up with too much,” Costi asks. Has the environment swallowed us? Is growing up not fitting anymore?”   

In his digitally-composed photographic series Travelers in Time at Dean Project (New York), Barcelona-based artist Lluis Barba, startles the brain by adding unexpected contemporary images, somewhat humorously, into the scenario of classical paintings. In Brueghel’s Peasant Wedding (1568) modern day tourists pose and party among Brueghel’s 16th century wedding guests. In Project of the Adequacy of the Great Gallery of the Louvre, Barba re-envisions Hurbert Robert’s 1796 painting of the Louvre, by re-hanging the museum’s walls with the work of twentieth century masters, like Picasso, Magritte, Rothko, then adding present-day museum goers into the mix. Even more topical—both images are slipped into the scenario—is a portrait of Michael Jackson and what seems to be the figure of designer Karl Lagerfeld, wearing his trademark sunglasses. The artist seems to be saying that art and fashion continually change while human behavior remains the same.   

Stills from video performance, Jessica Lagunas. Para acariciarte mejor (The Better to Caress You With), 2003. Image courtesy the artist and ROLLO Contemporary Art. Stills:Roni Mocán

None of videos on view were as visually exciting, lushly colored, or intellectually stimulating as those of Nicaragua-born, New York City-based artist Jessica Lagunas, at the Rollo Contemporary Art (London, England). In this series, the artist herself—in three separate wall-mounted screens—is seen applying lipstick, mascara and painting her nails, all in an overly exaggerated manner. Frantically transforming her lips, eyelashes and fingernails, until they become almost clown-like, Lagunas’s videos use the titles, Little Red Riding Hood, The Better To Caress You, The Better To See You With, and The Better To Kiss You With, to parody the various ‘must do’ female beauty routines that Madison Avenue and Hollywood have hawked for decades. In doing so, she attempts to undermine the authority of contemporary visual culture’s representation of the female body, by re-presenting it in terms of insecurity and obsession. A few months later, much to my surprise, these same Lagunas videos, apparently making the rounds, were entertaining crowds at the opening of curator Sasha Okshteyn’s exhibition, Basic Instinct, at the Black and White Gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I have a sneaking suspicion that Okshteyn, known for having a keen eye and finger on the pulse, must have been doing some pre-exhibition shopping at Pinta.   

Luna Paiva, Untitled (2009), photograph of woman plucking a chicken 24.4x33.1”. Courtesy Galeria Teresa Anchorena, Argentina

The narrative work of Paris born, Argentina based photographer Luna Paiva, at the Galeria Teresa Anchorena (Buenos Aires, Argentina), is all about drama. Whether it’s her edgy series of scantily clothed show-girls, known as vedettes, posing inside their homes, or her telling portraits of everyday people at home and work, behind every photograph lurks a fascinating story. One eye-popping, surreal Paiva photograph of a woman manically plucking a chicken pulled me right into the gallery. With one arm in the air, and feathers magically flying everywhere, the lady stands behind a long fruit, fowl, and vegetable-laden table that would do any still life painting proud. As the story goes, Paiva, at the bequest of singer Candelaria Saenz Valiente, composed this sumptuous scenario – reminiscent of Peter Greenaway’s 1989 movie, The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover, at a friend’s antique shop, to illustrate the Argentine chanteuse’s song, Electrodomestics.   

Felipe Morozini A Noiva do Vento (Bride of The Wind) (2007) 16 photos mounted on Diasec. Above: Untitled, 2007, photograph of woman sunning herself, 40x60” courtesy: Zipper Gallery, San Paulo, Brazil

Equally strong, but opposite in their ability to excite, are the photographs of Brazilian, Felipe Morozini, at the Zipper Galeria (São Paulo, Brazil). Using a zoom lens, Morozini – exercising his voyeuristic rights – secretly documents the lives of his neighbors from the window of his apartment. In one photograph, a woman soaking up the sun in a two-piece bathing suit lies precariously on the ledge, just outside her apartment window. In another, a naked woman stands on her balcony examining herself in a mirror. As luck would have it—and luck plays a large part in Morozini’s work—the very instant he took a snapshot, the mirror was reflecting his neighbor’s nipple. In Bride of the Wind (2007), the artist turns his gaze on the temporal qualities of nature and depicts—in 16 sequenced frames—various effects of the wind on a set of curtains hanging out of an apartment window. Following the twisting and turning movements of each curtain, frame-by-frame, I found the windmill of my mind making its own little movie.   

Rafael Gómez Barros, Casa Tomada: Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino Altar de la Patria (2008) Courtesy of Galería Christopher Paschall S.XXI, Bogotá, Columbia

Galería Christopher Paschall S.XXI (Bogatå, Columbia), one of a handful of galleries that did so, dedicated their entire exhibition space to Casa Tomada (Seized Home), Columbian conceptual artist Rafael Gómez Barros’s traveling installation. Using nature’s small, but hard-working creatures, for political purposes—his intent to symbolize the people displaced by continuing armed conflict and its resulting forced migration in Columbia—Barros attaches hundreds, sometimes thousands of fiberglass ants, enlarged to the size of scary, to the facades of government buildings and revered historical monuments, such the National Congress of Columbia and Quinta de San Pedro San Pedro in Santa Marta, one the nation’s many shrines dedicated to Simón Bolívar. One gallery wall, covered with a trail of giant black ants, was literally stopping people in their tracks. Another wall featuring photographs of Barros’s ants invading various buildings, brought to mind the countless science fiction movies popular in the 50s and 60s, such as Them (1954), in which ants, greatly enlarged by atomic radiation, threaten to take over the world.   

Gerard Ellis, Birthday Pinata (2010) 78x118” Courtesy: Lyle O. Reitzel Gallery, Santo Domingo

Even before I entered the Lyle O. Reitzel Gallery (Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic), Brooklyn-based, Dominican-born, Gerald Ellis’s stunningly composed painting, Birthday Piñata (2010), with its knockout vibrant blue sky, took me prisoner. The artist’s beautifully drawn images of dinosaurs, and cartoon-like white clouds, under which a birthday boy with toy sword in his hand stands, capture all of the innocence of childhood. Autobiographical by nature, the painting channels negative feelings that Ellis experienced as a child when called upon to smash open the piñata. “I hated going to birthday parties and always tried to stay away from clowns and the piñatas,” Ellis wrote to me. “I think this funny looking object (the piñata) can detonate a very strong and violent behavior on the child, who is, after destroying the object, fighting his way through into getting as much as he can from what was inside it. I view this as an early example of what really moves us as humans, from a selfish point of view.”   

No fair is complete without a touch of eroticism and Brazilian artist Vincent Gill more than made up for it in his series Read the Book, Watch the Movie (2004) at Galeria Nara Roesler (São Paulo, Brazil). Each drawing, executed in India ink on pages taken from psychology books—like a modern day Kama Sutra—lustily depicts various sexual positions. Few of the book’s words—those not blotted out by the black ink which covers most of the page—serve to illuminate each image, while white, topsy-turvy line drawings illustrate the love-making figures. The words on one drawing of a penis penetrating a vagina read, Another was the one who introduced the concept for the first time. The text accompanying the image of a man and woman in head-to-toe position announces that, All kinds of things come together (right). A third and somewhat ambiguous drawing of a naked woman leaning over a bed—it is left up to the viewer’s imagination as to what is going to take place—reads anxiety by chastisement.   

At first glance, the simple paintings of Mexican artist Hugo Lugo, at the Ginocchio Gallery (Mexico City, Mexico), executed on pages torn from a spiral notebook, the type we took with us to college, appear to be a simple mix of drawing and collage. On closer inspection – talking about trompe l’oeil – each work, down to the page’s torn holes and solitary men occupying each page, is a fully realized oil and acrylic painting on board. Equally deceiving is the subject matter. For here, the artist waxes existential in his presentation of solitary-thinking characters in simple situations, forcing us to consider our own existence. In one painting, the artist turns the page’s straight lines into a wavering whirlpool, placing a barefoot man, shoes in hand, head bent down at its very center. The painting, aptly titled Cuadernode de Reflexiones (Book of Reflections), seems to say that we are at the center of everything going on around us. Another less felicitous reading could be that it is only a matter of time before we are sucked into this circle of nothingness.   

Hugo Lugo, Cuaderno de reflexiones (Book of Reflections), 2010, oil, acrylic on canvas – 41x 31”, Courtesy: Ginoccho Gallery, Mexico

The most unusual installation at Pinta belonged to Venezuelan-born, Miami-based, fashion designer, Nicolás Felizola, who dedicated exhibition space in memory of Mexican actress, María Félix (1914-2002), Latin America’s revered movie goddess. Known as La Doña to her loving fans (myself included), Felíx was a huge star throughout Central and South America and Europe in the 40s, 50s and 60s. Cast in films by Renior, Buñuel, Emilio Fernández and Juan Antonio Bardem, with such greats as Rossano Brazzi, Vittorio Gassman, Jean Gabin, and Yves Montand, Felíx refused to work in Hollywood unless she made her grand entrance from the “big door” and not the small roles offered by Cecil B. de Mille. “I was not born to carry a basket,” Félix is reputed to have said.   

The back story here is that in 2007 Felizola, attending Maria Felíx’s posthumous auction at Christie’s, left the premises owning the most comprehensive collection of the movie star’s couture-designed wardrobe, some of which—Dior, Balenciaga, Hermes, Chanel, Halston, Cardin, and some of Felizola’s own Felíx-inspired creations—are displayed here on mannequins (see below) . Running alongside what is essentially a visual timeline of Felíx’s devotion to fashion and film, through her costumes, garments, hats, and accessories, is Carmen Castilla’s 2001 documentary film, Maria Felíx, The Making of a Myth. Structured around an exclusive interview, in which the still-radiant 87-year old, Maria Felix responds to an off-camera narrator, she recalls her films, men, clothes and jewels. Thus, little by little, the legend unfurls.   

Fully saturated, having spent a wonder-filled, half-day at Pinta, I make for the door.   

By Edward Rubin, Contributing Writer   

Edward Rubin is a critic who writes about art, culture and entertainment. Although based in New York City, he travels frequently to cover international events.