To finish off the month, I'll expand a bit on some of what we saw during our museum tour of NYC. Met, MoMA (Bauhaus rocks!), Guggenheim: we hit the big three (at least in my mind) art museums in the city. The main feature at the Guggen was an exhibition of Wassily Kandinsky's paintings and drawings, arranged chronologically from bottom to top along the spiral to illustrate the progression of the artist's expression. That exhibition (which we viewed from top to bottom) was magnificent -- c'est l'art!
Set off to the side of the Guggenheim's main spiral, about every other revolution, are smaller, conventionally rectilinear, nook-like galleries; these held non-Kandinsky works, two of which deserve special mention. The first, by Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Roni Horn, was a curtain of gold plastic beads hiding a sheet of gold foil on the floor, reminiscent of the cheesy countercultural interior design sensibilities of the late Sixties and early Seventies. I could see how it took the combined genius of two artistes to come up with that one.
Even more stunning was the Intervals installation by Heidelberg's favorite daughter Kitty Kraus.
Rather than doing her work injustice by attempting my own description, here are what must surely be her own words, since they appear accompany nearly every one of her exhibitions:
"Kraus works in a spare, elegiac vocabulary of monochrome forms and humble materials such as light bulbs, mirrors, ice, and cloth. While her sculptural installations at first recall the cool, geometric precision of Minimalist art, they possess an internal volatility that can prompt their gradual fragmentation or sudden collapse. The spirit of her practice is thus more aligned with the focus on process and alchemic transformation associated with Post-Minimalism ....
The trajectory of dissolution at the heart of Kraus’s work is encapsulated in her series of bulbs or microphones encased in blocks of frozen ink, in which the heat from the embedded electronic device gradually melts the ice, leaving only a residue of murky liquid pooled on the floor or trailing the gallery walls.
Likewise, her sculptures constructed from bulbs enclosed in mirrored glass boxes ... are sometimes calibrated so that the heat from the light source eventually shatters the casing.
As a young artist defining her career at the beginning of the 21st century-—a time of profound questioning and global crises-—Kraus rehearses the trend towards degradation and chaos known as entropy, finding a mournful beauty in the literal and symbolic failure of form."
I think that should read "the literal and symbolic failure of artistry." The retching sound you hear is me choking on the stench of bullshit. Intervals, more aptly titled "Stain on Floor with Broken Lightbulb" is just some unorganized trash in an otherwise empty room. Even the poor security guard posted in the gallery was embarrassed to be guarding that junk; he rolled his eyes knowingly when saw me look askance at the display. Without a doubt, Kitty Kraus is crap.
Apropos, I quote the wisdom of the shitmydadsays guy (albeit regarding science, not art):
"The whole world is fueled by bullshit… What? The kid asked me for advice on his science fair project so I’m giving it to him."
Amen, brother!
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