one of my favorite professors at Bard was Marcia Tucker. She was honest and taught us quite a few important lessons. Her biography recounts her successes and failures on equal parts. There's something valuable about the failures as well and avoiding the streamlined trajectory of success. One of her mottos as a curator was "a lifetime of bad reviews." Not doing shows just to get a good review, but finding out where prejudices, established notions of what's right or wrong, challenging orthodoxies and doing what tickles your fancy. Act now, think later. That way you will have something to think about.
The biography is important. Not just to remember Marcia, but also to remember her work as a curator. The show she did with James Monte at the Whitney Museum (as the Whitney's first female curator), Anti-Illusion, was installed while Szeemann and Hultén were working on their approach to contemporary art of the late 60s. After being fired from the Whitney (something Marcia was proud of) she started her own museum, the New Museum. It's evolved and changed into the superstructure it is today, but the 32 year old museum has a unique history.
READ THE BOOK.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Marcia Tucker
Friday, January 30, 2009
Poetry must be made by all! Transform the world!
Exhibition curated by Pontus Hultén at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm in 1969. Initiated by Ronald Hunt and assisted by Katha Waldén. The show consisted mostly of photographs and reconstructions, but also a heavy program of films, meetings, concerts and other initiatives that just utilized the museum as a space, not necessarily an exhibition space.
The intersection of life and art, viewed through the lens of radical politics of '68. The exhibition traveled to the Kunstverein in Münich, where the local art academy took part in scheduling activities and debates. The exhibition was closed down by local politicians after too much criticism of the establishment. wha-wha. The show traveled to Vancouver and to RISD, where the show remained in storage until the 80s. The show was part of an anniversary at the Kunstverein and put on display as an important show that changed the political landscape and how art and politics interacted. Anyway. This was a large institution organizing and touring a radically different type of exhibition. Where did that all go?
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
commes des garçons rip off?
no wonder this shirt is 70%. It's horrendous. And a part of the commes des garçons line at H&M. I saw most of the stuff and thought it was pretty plain and simple. Got the wool scarf and cardigan because the wool was thick and nice. Now that the sale is on I got two shirts as well and I think the simple shoes are nice, but not for the full price. SALE>>>>
Anyway, I thought I was pretty familiar with the whole collection until this one popped up. Wow. The stripes are weird and the diagonal line is not doing anything for me. And I only saw one. I thought it might just be H&M trying to be sneaky and copying Rei Kawakubo, but no. It's official.
criminal hair
Lewis Powell tried to assassinate the secretary of state, while his buddy John Wilkes Booth did the deed with Abraham Lincoln. Powell was caught and hanged alongside three fellow conspirators. I saw a photo of Powell while I was working in a library in London round the Millennium. And thought he looked like a nice guy. His friends called him doc, because he took care of animals and nurtured stray animals back to health. A horse kicked him in the head when he was a teenager, but I don't know if that explains why he later would think assassination would be a good idea. A more probable explanation would be the war. He was wounded and captured at the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg.
And how come he looks like he is in a fashion ad?
