Unfollow (Curated by Robert Storr, Paololuca Barbieri Marchi, and Maco Boggio Sella) at FALCONNYC / 111 Broadway

Dennis Kardon summarizes Unfollow on IG: "Last chance to see “Unfollow“ an exhibition organized by @falconart_nyc a group of artists determined to offer resistance to the real estate hegemony of the ruling class interests in the art world. They approach NYC landlords to let them use an unoccupied space in one of their buildings for a month rent free and then organize a big freewheeling group show with both famous and under exhibited artist with results that make the past week of art fairs look lame. Don’t let the fact that you aren’t in it slow you down, there’s much to discover and delight in here. My stellar former student, @kt_420 is paired with a Dana Schutz painting and I discovered the wild work of @michael_wetzel__ . There are Maurizio Cattelan pigeons, @joshiejosho grim reapers, a painting by Morteza Khakshoor, blue sculptures by Austin Lee, a major work by Carroll Dunham, not so great work by famous artists (I was amazed to see that a Cecily Brown painting out of the rarefied gallery context looked like a bunch of rando brushstrokes) and a little Buddha/Siva sculpture by Rudolph Stingel, lots to discover lots to thumb your nose at but full of much needed artist curated vigor and energy in these depressing times. And the space, owned by Trinity Church, is beautiful and strange. Last day is Saturday. There’s a party! 111 BROADWAY, NY, (WallStreet)"

Robert Storr summarizes it differently:

"According to most accounts, Limbo is a region between Life and Death, Heaven and Hell. Humans temporarily occupy it while the final verdict of the celestial jury that decides their eternal fate based on their earthly conduct, a harrowing condition so long as that jury remains out. It is a Western concept, and, unsurprisingly, a harrowing one. Its Eastern equivalent is the Buddhist idea of a similarly ambiguous spiritual waiting room known as the Bardo, which may be familiar to American readers since it appears in the title of George Saunders' best-selling novel, Lincoln in the Bardo. Potentially less bleak than Limbo, the Bardo is a place where flashes of supernatural insight and visions of an exalted afterlife can break through the pervading gloom of the end of our existence in this world. A place where the sound of a great door closing is echoed by that of others opening. Such an existential hiatus may also be detected in the zone separating Modernism and Postmodernism--which in practice has since the advent of the former (inasmuch as Picabia shadowed Picasso (that is to say formally affirmative Cubist Abstraction) as well as Duchamp (abssurdist collaging of words and forms, not to say mocking contrariness and negation) and their spawn. We are once more adrift in a nether region right now. Accordingly, the overriding criteria for the works in the exhibition is a healthy skepticism about or indifference to the normative 'isms' of the last century's revolutions in methodologies and taste, production and reception."

Diego Perrone cast glass discs: head fulls

A powder-coated surveyor establishes the sprawling show, which spans the length of an unused office building. Josh Smith spread fliers for the show on the floor, which, with the LED light bars, created a precarious terrain to step on (or over) with irreverent punk spirit.

Jules de Balnicourt (r) channeling rhythms a la Matthew Wong and Mary Shah, beautiful painting.

Dana Schutz

Jason Fox, one of several paintings and a sculpture in the show on the devil/angel theme. I have always had a soft spot for his high school aesthetic and light touch.

Ljiljana Blazevska, Macedonian/Serbian painter, wonderful discovery, represented by Alison Jacques.. Soft versions of 1930s Miro; interpenetrating color and touch.

For more of this work visit https://alisonjacques.com/artists/ljiljana-blazevska

David Brody, whose work I've known decades. His multi-hyphenate work embraces animations and incisive reviews in addition to seriously great paintings. His remark that "your relationship to painting is the only thing that matters," sustains me. For more, see https://david-brody.com/portfolio/painting

David Brody.

Michael Wetzel caught my eye on Dennis Kardon's IG post.

Susu, who in addition to this 14 x 11 inch self-portrait extrudes paint through jute in heavier, equally layered images. See more here: https://www.artbysusu.com

In the office: crying bronze birds, part of a large collection of small bronzes.

Marcus Jamahl, new to me animal painter. Raw and exciting depictions that function equally as paintings and portraits.

Love this painting, the grumpy traveling family, an outtake of Picasso's harlequins.

Robert Storr, above- fabulous install

Cecily Brown

Rudolf Stingel

Maurizio Catttalan

Diego Perrone

To know more, visit https://falconnyc.com

 

Si Newhouse Collection at Christies: Jackson Pollock's Number 7A, 1948, 36 x 110 inches

The painting is 3 x 10 feet. It's strangely mounted on wood (see edge above) as if it were paper--but it's cheap canvas. Still, it's gorgeous. Also great to see as Frankenthaler's precursor, one she felt pointed to a new direction.

Poured together, edges fuse then disentangle.

JACKSON POLLOCK (1912-1956) Number 7A, 1948, oil and enamel on canvas, 35 x 131½ in. (88.9 x 334 cm.) Painted in 1948, Estimate on Request, in the region of $100 million. 

"Among the two top lots in the sale is Number 7A, 1948 by Jackson Pollock, a monumental and breathtaking canvas that measures 131 ½ inches (334 cm.) wide, making it the largest example of his monumental drip paintings remaining in private hands. The work represents a critical moment both in the artist's career as well as in the history of painting in its entirety; it was conceived during a pivotal three-year period for the artist that began in 1947, when he first fully embarked on the creation of purely abstract paintings, with his drip paintings standing as his most celebrated canonical contribution—now icons of post-war American painting. The cultural and historical significance of Number 7A, 1948 cannot be overstated. It has a rich history of provenance, beginning with the photographer Herber Matter, to whom Pollock gifted the work, followed by renowned collectors Kimiko and John Powers. For nearly half a century, the work has been unseen by the public, exhibited most recently at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1977. This will be the first and only large-scale drip painting to ever appear at auction, presenting collectors with a truly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

 

Similitudes: Frankenthaler and Caro at Yares

Welcome to Similitudes at Yares, featuring prime Anthony Caro and Helen Frankenthaler works. Caro and Frankenthaler were fast friends, visiting and even working in each others' studios. The linked exhibition title shows fantastic install shots with proper color. 

 I relate to Frankenthaler's attempt for effortlessness. The quote gives courage.

Straight ahead from entry to right; desk in first image on left. These paintings are shockingly contemporary. They look great with the sculpture, like natural landscapes filtered through industrial parks.

Into the first room. Sculptures cohabiting with paintings, informing each other, establishing moods. Wonderful to see in tandem with the Gagosian show, which follows a similar trajectory with the large oil soak stain paintings moving into acrylic veils and raised texture.

A detour down the hall in the old Mary Boone space for a tour de force painting in the back room akin to Borrowed Dream, 1992, in the Gagosian show. The painting combines multitudinous methods and perspectives while evincing a landscape out the window as if the wall were invisible. Geometry and grit undermine the color.

The application of heavy, combed paint emerges in the late 1980s as both shows make clear.

Tableaux ~ here, in the old Boone space.

This painting pours a heavy line to demarcate almost narrative space. But she holds back, ensuring the pours do heavy lifting--or rather our taking the time to decode and accept the full image despite the toggle between applications. As if the soak stain saturation is a space deconstructed by foreground and background. This work recalls Matisse's 1905 Joy of Life (Le Bonheur de Vivre) in the Barnes Collection.

A related painting, a real beauty, bringing the light and heavy applications together.

Caro summons early Brancusi's Woman With Her Throat Cut in several of his works. He is a worthy partner to Frankenthaler. These are major artists, and this show is deeply inspiring.