Back on April 18 I posted about fake, ill fitting shutters. Recently I was visiting my brother-in-law in Norwalk, Connecticut and this house down the street gets the prize (so far) for the most desperate attempt to get shutters onto a facade:
Monthly Archives: July 2013
Even THE MET screws up
Last January I posted
VANDALISM at The Portland Art Museum
about how the careless installation of a Robert Irwin work at PAM effectively destroyed the work and lied about its meaning.
Last week I was at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and saw this installation of Robert Rauschenberg’s Winter Pool, 1959:
Note the goofy extension of the baseboard/floor—a plinth. I cannot find any rationale for this plinth other than the idea that because this is a “painting” it needs to be hung at a similar height to other “paintings” on the wall. And then the ladder needs something to sit on.
But there is a difference between a ladder extending to the floor and a ladder being supported by a plinth. And The Met knows it is supposed to be a floor. From their own website:
The work, in exceptionally fresh condition, consists of two separate canvases, each about the height of a man. A wooden ladder bridges the gap between them, and its legs extend to the floor, inviting the viewer to climb into the picture.
You might be “invited to climb” from your place on the floor, but less likely from a reserved space on a plinth. BTW, here’s The Met’s own pic of the work from their website:
You can see that someone there thinks it is correct to have it be on the floor.
This isn’t as bad as the PAM/Irwin fiasco, but it does distort the meaning of the work. It’s just dumb.
Meeting a New York artist
I had a great time in New York last week at the Fruits of Captiva opening and I met several artists from other residency groups. But perhaps the best meeting was with an artist I’d wondered about since I was at the residency. Back on December 6 I noted that
While we believe that we are the first lucky group to be “residents” here, I found something lurking beneath a work table that indicates that some other artist had been working here recently:
And I finally got to meet the mystery artist who made it:
Sam!
I expect more great things from him in the future…
Fruits of Captiva
Tonight I’m off to NYC for the opening of the Fruits of Captiva exhibition. Last fall I was part of the first group of artists at the Rauschenberg Residency in Captiva, Florida. (Info about that in the Nov-Dec, 2012 part of this blog.)
July 12-August 18 – Rauschenberg Residency: Fruits of Captiva works from the pilot year of artists at Rauschenberg’s home and studio.
Rauschenberg Project Space
455 West 19th Street
New York, NY 10011
New York, NY – May 15, 2013 – The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation (RRF) is pleased to announce an ongoing schedule for the Rauschenberg Project Space located in Manhattan’s Chelsea art district. The Rauschenberg Project Space is owned and used by the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation to showcase unique aspects of Robert Rauschenberg’s legacy; to provide a platform for RRF grantees; or to create a link to its Captiva, Florida–based Rauschenberg Residency.
Six of the paintings on the back wall in the photo (Captiva studio shot, last December) will be in the show. (I did exhibit all the works on the wall at Nine Gallery in April. The monochromes on the table will be at Nine in October.)
Paul Sutinen 