Laurie Simmons: In and Around the House

It has been a year since my last entry, and I thought that writing about Laurie Simmons would be the perfect place to begin. Simmons was one of the first women photographers in the 1970s, creating work during a decade in which photography was still becoming accepted as a viable medium for art making. "In and Around the House", her seminal work from 1976-1978, is a series of photographs that depict scenes from the interior spaces of a dollhouse. These scenes are nostalgic and traditional, and what you might expect to find within its walls. However, on closer look, some of these scenes and in particular, the placement of the miniaturized dolls, are unexpected. One critic describes them to be "about the time of memory, and about those emotions which are fundamentally temporal: longing, nostalgia, presentiment, anxiety, expectation, dread." Simmons describes her pictures of the doll (which she named Jane, after her friend, the painter Jane Kaplowitz) as looking "empty and desolate. I felt that their mood counterbalanced the cuteness of the doll, and I surprised myself by finding them acceptable."

These two images are among my favorite from the series. In the first, Jane is seated on the floor, in between the chair in which she ought to be comfortably reclined, and the television opposite it. Instead, she has been displaced from her chair and positioned to face the viewer. It is a confrontational image, and one that calls into question the entire arrangement and its underlying meaning.

The same kind of displacement can apply to the second image, which depicts a messy kitchen either before or after a meal has been prepared. The clock reads a few minutes after 6:00, so most likely it is dinner time. It is filled with suggestions of a meal, and the hint of family, but there is none. Instead, it is empty and uncomfortable to view with every detail, including the arrangement of the chairs, in which a third (positioned between the table and the kitchen counter) has either fallen down or been knocked over. It is eerie, and the events either before or after this moment is left to the imagination of the viewer.

This series of photographs was most recently exhibited at Carolina Nitsch Project Room in New York in June 2008. Simmons lives and works in New York City and is represented by Sperone Westwater.

Woman/Interior IV, 1976
Black and white photograph
5 1/4 x 8 inches
Edition of 10

Empty Kitchen, 1976
Black and white photograph
5 1/4 x 8 inches
Edition of 10

Sotheby's Contemporary Art Evening Sale, May 12, New York

The Spring auctions are around the corner, and after looking at Sotheby's beautiful new e-catalogue online tonight (check out the "relative scale" feature which completely blew me away), I am thrilled to report that it looks absolutely amazing, especially compared to the tentative and uneasy Fall offerings. What a selection, including a large-scale Jean Michel Basquiat (Lot #23: Red Man One, $3,000,000 - 5,000,000), a wonderful witty Richard Price joke painting (Lot #35: Can You Imagine, $600,000 - 800,000), and a 1986 Warhol camouflage painting (Lot #39: Camouflage, $1,800,000 - 2,500,000) that we rarely see in an evening sale. These late paintings are among my favorite of Warhol's work, because the series also included images of Leonardo Da Vinci's famous painting of the Last Supper, thereby taking a turn into the realm of religious art. They were joyfully documented by one of my thesis advisers and author, Jane Dillenberger, during the time I was studying with her. What an amazing way to discover and learn to appreciate this late period of Warhol's work.

The artworks shown pictured above are spectacular. Jeff Koons' sculpture (Lot #9: Baroque Egg with Bow, $600,000,000 - 800,000,000) is from his Celebration series, which (like Warhol's entire oeuvre) took images from our every-day life and exhalted them to high art. Here, the familiar and nostalgic Easter egg becomes a hyper-realistic, perfectly crafted, intellectually satisfying sculpture. The monumental scale and artistic precision (thanks to a factory of workers, again, like Warhol) make it even more enticing - and best seen in person. Martin Kippenberger's painting (Lot #7: Untitled, $3,500,000 - 4,500,000) is new to me, but I like him immediately. This self-portrait brings to mind the harsh, unforgiving paintings of Lucian Freud. According to the catalogue notes, Kippenberger was a master of self-portraiture, in which nothing was left sacred. In his later paintings, of which this is the best example, his self-mocking depiction of his aging body was offered up to the viewers as a stark contrast to his hero, Picasso, the ultimate master of the self-portrait.

The price points for the Koons and Kippenberger, as well as the inclusion of several Twombly drawings, a Bill Viola video and a Jeff Wall lightbox, make this particular auction pretty exciting and diverse.

Philip Guston at NGA

I read an article in the Washington Post this morning about the newly installed Guston paintings at the National Gallery of Art (from their permanent collection), and was happy to see that it was written from the art experience/art viewing perspective. In particular, the observation was made that by opening up the skylight in the tower of the National Gallery of Art, where the Gustons are now placed, the paintings could be viewed in an entirely new way - a way in which the paint becomes not just "tones", but colors that change and communicate with the viewer as the sunlight changes position above.

The author also asserts that Guston might have actually been a colorist - and that the deep pinks, reds, and oranges of his later cartoon work are good examples of his color method. I believe that although the subject matter and figuration are remarkably different from his earlier abstract paintings, his use of color remained the same and thereby functions as a common thread. Because if you look closely at the earlier works, you will generally see the same color palette and can determine, from knowing the cartoon paintings, that the artist is the same. Both periods of his career are important and provocative - and I would imagine that seeing these later paintings under natural light would definitely change our understanding of his technique. I'll have to go check this out in person soon...

Louise Bourgeois opens at the Hirshhorn

For the past several weeks, since the Louise Bourgeois survey opened at the Hirshhorn, I have been anxious to see her work again in person. This is one artist with whose work I have a real connection because of my visit to the attic of Dia:Beacon many years ago, where some of her most important pieces are permanently installed. During that visit, I had spent quite a long time on the main level, enjoying the beautiful open, airy, naturally lit spaces and the large open format of the galleries. Paintings and sculpture by Andy Warhol, Richard Serra, Agnes Martin, Sol LeWitt - these were pieces that we took in quite easily and with much joy.

But then, I climbed up the staircase to the small, cramped rooms of the attic, without knowing what awaited me (I must have neglected to read our guidebook). And I'll never forget the sight that I came face to face with -- Bourgeois' Spider. I had seen other versions of this bronzed sculpture at SFMOMA, but this one was different -- she was crouching over a cage (which is referred to as a "cell"), inside of which stood a single empty chair. It was an immediate reaction of both sheer terror and shock. In that dark attic, standing in front of what looked like a manifestation of someone's worst nightmare, I felt completely displaced and uneasy.

But at the same time, and as has been widely written about with regard to Bourgeois' Spiders, there was another sensibility that came over me as I continued to stand there. A sense that perhaps - somehow - this creature was carefully guarding and protecting whatever lied beneath her in that cage. Perhaps she was not a predator, but in fact a protector. But a protector of what? And who (or what) resided in that chair? Was this truly a cell - a prison - or a safe haven? Or was it a repository of the unknown, the subconscious, our fears and nightmares? These possibilities are totally ambivalent, and there is no easy answer. And I believe that within this dilemma rests the mind and soul of the viewer, left to determine which one makes the most sense.

The experience of viewing this particular work was definitely a journey of the mind and soul, and drives at the very heart of my perspective about art -- that the experience of art is found in the place (or displacement) where the viewer resides - when confronted by something disturbing, shocking, or intensely beautiful, the viewer is first stunned into stillness and contemplation, and then into intellectual movement, as the viewer tries to figure out their relationship with and response to that particular work. Much of these ideas are grounded in what I studied, read, and wrote about in graduate school and I'm dying to get out my old term papers and start writing again. There is so much to say. But in the meantime, a trip to the Hirshhorn is long overdue, and I can't wait to see if a Spider awaits me there.

Looking at Art - The Phillips Collection

Over the weekend at the Phillips - I liked the symmetry between the number of viewers and the number of figures in each painting being viewed.

Edgar Degas, Dancers at the Barre

William Merritt Chase, Hide and Seek

Auguste Renoir, The Luncheon of the Boating Party

Behind the Scenes at Sotheby's

These "private viewings" from Sotheby's are wonderful - I absolutely love hearing about the artworks from the specialists' point of view. And how delightful to see Koons' Banality sculpture up close, and what a thrill to get a glimpse of Richter's remarkable brushstrokes in Troisdorf. I also loved the description of the Fontana, learning how powerfully his materials (gold leaf, thick swirls of paint) communicate and convey the sensibilities of the world at that time - as well as the geography of Venice - and the rich history of religious painting and architecture of its beautiful churches. Love it all.

Auction Results: Sotheby's Contemporary Art, Evening Sale, February 5, London

The art market is alive and well! The contemporary sale at Sotheby's in London last night was successful, all lots sold just within, or above, their estimate, with the exception of two. Here were my favorites (in GBP):

Zeng Fanzhi
Untitled (Mask Series)
Estimate: 300,000 - 400,000
Sold: 601,250


Gerhard Richter
Abstraktes Bild
Estimate: 500,000 - 700,000
Sold: 541,250


Anish Kapoor
Untitled
Estimate: 500,000 - 700,000
Sold: 982,050


Gerhard Richter
Troisdorf
Estimate: 1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold: 2,113,250