I bet most people didn’t know that the New Yorker cartoonist is also a performance artist.

This was at a “friends of ”http://www.dixonplace.org/“>Dixon Place</a>” event.

The latest ArtInfo interview is with Zach Feuer, and he addresses the story we’ve all heard about requiring collectors to donate a work to a museum in order to get a Dana Schutz painting.

What’s the truth of the story that you would only sell Dana Shutz’s paintings to people who said they’d donate them to a museum?

No, that’s not true. We had one show where we gave priority to people who were willing to donate work. The idea was that as soon as they donated the work, we would replace it very quickly, so they could have another one. But when things were really crazy and there were 20 famous collectors pushing for the same work, we said, “OK, who’s going to give it to the museum?” and that was who we sold it to. We’ve done it with a few artists.

We want the work to be in public venues, and we don’t want it to be sold and resold a million times over, so we sell to people who are closer to patrons than to dealers. And there really a lot of those collectors out there, who are patrons.

The market pressures on artists really can be awkward, and the strongest artists ignore it completely, but it really sucks when two people want the same painting. It’s great for me because I can sell the painting, but it’s an awkward thing because one person always feels less important. It’s a big challenge for us to make every collector feel important and still be reasonable about the demands on our artists.</blockquote>

I also found the part about the gallery’s current focus interesting:

Does your artists’ success mean that you’re besieged by young artists wanting you to show their work?
 
It’s less than it was two years ago. It’s easier for young artists to approach an emerging gallery. I don’t think we’re as approachable as some of the galleries who’ve just opened up on 27th Street. And it’s actually less of my focus now. I’m not going to graduate school openings anymore or open studios. I’m really trying to focus on mid-career artists at this point, so it’s not so much of an issue.</blockquote>

Of course, I wouldn’t consider artists as young as his “mid-career” yet.

I’m amused that the photo shown with the interview seems to be from the same series as the ones used for Bill Arning’s interview on Oliver Kamm’s blog. That blog post’s title? “Token Heterosexual Art World Superstar Bear Of The Week — Armory Edition.”

Related:

Jules de Balincourt, Land of Many Uses, 2003

We bought this Jules de Balincourt painting from Zach in 2003.

David Noonan
Untitled, 2006
Silkscreen on linen, framed
38 × 30 in /97 × 76.8 cm
Edition 1/1

Yesterday, after our visit to The Bronx, we went to Rockefeller Center for Art Rock 2006. My favorite works were Noonan’s (Foxy Production), plus Larry Mantello (Kustera Tilton) and Brody Condon (Virgil de Voldere).

Click here for a few of the photos I took.

We also managed to catch the final minutes of the Donald Judd “exhibit” at Christie’s. We thought we had missed it, then ran into Tony Feher who gave us directions and told us to run over there. I’m very glad we did. It was exquisite.

[image above from Foxy Production]

Liza Sabater of CultureKitchen and Daily Gotham, was checking out her stats when she noticed a link from the New York Times. Like a good blogger, she went to check it out, and learned they had a test blog set up, using Word Press, for a new New York politics blog. They left the user registration system, open, so she registered and gave them a post to let them know they should secure their new blog.

Her initial post is here.

Follow-ups:

• Surfette
• Daily Gotham

I’m happy that many people are fans of ArtCal, and the so-called value of “accuracy” is occasionally mentioned. ArtCal may have a mailing list now, but only Douglas Kelley brings writing like this to our inbox.

Here is Douglas on drugs, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Glenn O’Brien:

Glenn O’Brien, I believe, understood that The White Powder School is not
for most people, probably 99.9% of most people, however there are rare
individuals such as Keith Richards and Jean-Michel Basquait for whom
certain Schedule IV prescription pharmaceuticals, as well as the
traditionally universally contracinded in all cases contraband psycho
stimulants and depressants are indispensable essential commodities of
life like food, paint, canvas, or guitar strings. And history often
remembers these individuals by the great periods of their most extended
peak output wherein they so colossally dwarfed the production of anyone
else, certainly in quantity, but more importantly in supreme sublime
quality that all the slightly less talented are left scratching their
heads, wondering what were we doing all that time?

Jean-Michel Basquait: King of The White Powder School


If you ever meet an artist as talented as Jean-Michel Basquait with such
a chemical romance, just put the drugs under the door and leave the art
supplies in the hall, and come back in the morning and collect the art,
no questions asked. It’s highly unlikely that you ever will, so with
that understanding, always stay away from drugs kids and stay in school!

I’m not interested in hearing about how Mayor Michael Bloomberg is a patron of the arts. His response to the Brooklyn MFA fiasco is appalling:

“Nobody’s suggesting that anybody shouldn’t be allowed to exhibit art,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “The issue here is this is not a museum. This is a war memorial.” He added, “There has been an understanding ever since art was put here that the art would be appropriate for families and respectful of and appropriate for a war memorial and this time it was not.”

So every building that has “memorial” in the name can’t have art anymore?

Today Brooklyn College sent trucks and workers, accompanied by plain clothes NYPD officers, to remove the work from the space without informing the artists. Apparently some of the work was damaged. I suspect the “movers” weren’t art handlers.

The images above are from the students’ Plan C(ensored) blog.

It’s funny that the building being proposed for the new location of the exhibition is 70 Washington Street in DUMBO.

Comic on Terror (detail)

Comin on Terror (installation view)

Installation view, including Kong Stones wall drawing

We visited the South Bronx today to see Robin Foottit’s show at Hagan Saint Philip. It’s only one subway stop from Manhattan, just like Williamsburg! We visited by appointment, but you have Friday and Saturday, 11-6 to see it during the regular gallery hours. It’s also next to 33rd & Bird’s new Bronx location (Bernie was there). We didn’t get to meet Nicole Eisenman’s new baby bird.

For anyone interested in comic books, appropriation, or disaster movies, this is one not to miss. The comic book work above is described in the press release:

In the continuing series, Comic on Terror, Footitt has assembled found comic book frames, each taken from a separate source. The original narrative sequence and the interrelationship between one frame and its abutting partner are lost. Each frame highlights a moment before the occurrence of an unknown catastrophe, perhaps nuclear annihilation, global or national invasion, political strife or revolution. While the proximate cause of panic or fear has been severed from the narrative, the characters, through either their thoughts or speech, reveal a sense of dread or suspicion, and the viewer is left with only with their nascent effect.

I was looking at the brochure for Extra City, a new(?) contemporary art space in Antwerp. I had heard of it because of a show called The Galleries Show, which includes some galleries we know such as John Connelly Presents and Peres Projects. One of the works in the show, via Blow de la Barra (London), is this:

Stefan Brüggemann, Looks Conceptual, 1999

I must admit I laughed when I saw it.

I upgraded to the latest version of Movable Type and re-designed. Did you notice? Send e-mail or add a comment if you see anything broken. The search results page is ugly, I know.

James and I took photos of Joe Ovelman’s wall at 23rd and Tenth Avenue this morning. Yes, I said morning. Remember all of the Prada skirt posters on that construction wall? They’re now covered with something much better. Here are a few images from my Flickr set.

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