‘Just a Minute!’ in the exhibition ‘Out of Site’ at Chesterwood

This summer, the grounds of Chesterwood—the summer home of Daniel Chester French (1850-1931), best known as the sculptor of the Lincoln Memorial— in the Berkshires is host to an exhibition of contemporary sculpture called Out of Site, organized by Sharon Bates. Deborah Zlotsky is among the fourteen artists showing work. Though known as a painter and drawer, Zlotsky created a time-based participatory work called “Just a Minute!”

Curator Sharon Bates helps with the installation of Deborah Zlotkys’s “Just a Minute!” at Chesterwood in May 2017.

“Just a Minute” at Chesterwood, 2017, invites viewers to slow down, use their senses, and experience the natural world in a way that draws attention to a small area that could easily be overlooked.

A boy, at left, finds a spot for close observation, while his mother, at right, operates the timer to tell him when to start and stop looking during Chesterwood’s opening of “Out of Site: Contemporary Sculpture at Chesterwood” in June 2017.

A tag at Chesterwood.

 

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Federal Arts Funding Beyond ‘Piss Christ’

The short version: Bullies who favor guns over culture distort facts so they can gut federal arts funding; here are some facts.

The news
“The president’s budget would eliminate the NEA’s $148 million budget, the NEH’s $148 million budget and the CPB’s $445 million budget, as well as $230 million for the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which supports libraries and museums across the country.”

— Washington Post

Here we go again. A GOP budget plan to ax arts funding. Right-wingers cheering it on, saying things like arts are elitist and that people who want arts should pay for it themselves . This all seems to be a reflection of a couple different ways of looking at the world: the libertarian one, in which everyone needs to do everything for themselves (except maybe national defense?); and a kind of anti-intellectualism in reference to culture that can be summed up as “if I don’t understand it, it must be elitist.”

I’m reminded of a story told by a former newspaper colleague who recounted a meeting with an adult person in public. That person, recognizing her from her photo in the newspaper, said something like, “You write those movie reviews, right? You must be a millionaire.”

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NYC Art: Independent Art Fair, Armory Show, Chelsea Galleries

Quote of the week by Silas Farley

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Classical ballet is this elevating form — you ahve to rise to meet it, whether you are the dancer or the audience. The Thing is, the audience possesses the same instrument. The audience members have the same body. It’s like a cello playing for an audience of cellos.”

— Silas Farley, quoted in the Jan. 16, 2017, New Yorker Talk of the Town piece by Rebecca Mead, illustration by Tom Bachtell [link]

 

A secret message from my treadmill?

Here are some shots of the TV screen on the treadmill at my gym.

What does it mean? Is it random? Is it a self-critique about the difficulty of what meaning can be derived from images and sound out of a treadmill screen, when the gym is a noisy place and my concentration should be on things like form, breathing, and effort? Were the screens responding to my workout? Is this a new form of participatory video art? Participatory found art?

Happy New Year!

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Video: Sun Yuan and Peng Yu’s “Can’t Help Myself”

In Sun Yuan and Peng Yu’s “Can’t Help Myself,” an industrial robot works away inside a glass box at the Guggenheim Museum.

What’s it made of? Kuka industrial robot, stainless steel and rubber, cellulose ether in colored water, lighting grid with Cognex visual-recognition sensors, and polycarbonate wall with aluminum frame.

Is it making art? Is it commenting on how art is made? As a robot uses a giant brush to push liquid around, are we watching a creative act or a programmed act? What determines these actions? Where does this leave viewers? In awe of a machine in motion?

Check out one of the Guggenheim’s newest additions to its collection:

 

Paul Klee + Gertrude Stein + Nederlands Dans Theater

On the fifth floor of the Met Breuer, in an exhibition called “Humor and Fantasy — The Berggruen Paul Klee Collection,” is this untitled Paul Klee watercolor painting from 1914:

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A dance program called Shutters Shut was performed among the Paul Klee work by two dancers from the Nederlands Dans Theater who danced in time to Gertrude Stein’s voice reciting her poem “If I Told Him: A Completed Portrait of Picasso.”

The dance looked like this:

Some cool art at galleries in Chelsea, New York City

 

Carol Bove, Polka Dots, at David Zwirner

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Philip Guston, Laughter in the Dark, Drawings from 1971 & 1975, at Hauser Wirth

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Josef Albers, Grey Steps, Grey Scales, Grey Ladders, at David Zwirner

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Arlene Shechet, Turn Up the Bass, at Sikkema Jenkins

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Terry Winters at Matthew Marks

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Valerie Hegarty: American Berserk at Burning into Water

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Paul Pfeiffer at Paula Cooper Gallery

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Joan Mitchell, Drawing into Painting, at Cheim and Read

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Ernesto Neto, “The Serpent’s Energy Gave Birth To Humanity,” at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery