Greg Lindquist – You Are Nature

On view at Elizabeth Harris Gallery
February 9 – March 10, 2012

by Jonathan Beer

You are Nature is Brooklyn-based artist Greg Lindquist’s most recent body of work currently on view at Elizabeth Harris Gallery. It is comprised of over 15 paintings completed since 2011, as well as two site specific wall paintings.

Spiderweb (If it's raining, no one can see your tears.) Oil on Linen.16 x 24.5 inches. 2012. (Courtesy of the artist.)

In a departure from Lindquist’s earlier work, this show features pieces more decidedly about painterly exploration than his prior interest in smart picture making. While intellect is surely habitual concern for the artist, the hallmark of this show is his temporary suspension of that theoretical backdrop to find enjoyment and intrigue in the act of painting.
As I viewed Lindquist’s work at the opening I could not help but remember a 1964 interview between Larry Rivers and David Hockney. Rivers asked Hockney which was more important to picture making; making something beautiful or interesting. Hockney replied “‎Perhaps the most beautiful paintings are beautifully interesting.” In the case of Greg Lindquist’s work I believe this principle holds true.

Conversing with the Unnamed: Ali Banisadr

by Jonathan Beer

Ali Banisadr in the studio.

Since Expressionism artists have used painting to confront the interior world, wrestling to create with what German artist Willi Baumeister called “the self-engendered vision.”  Like a prospector, an artist searches through layers of self-made bedrock and sediment, mining for a vein to follow. Many artists are enchanted by this parallel interior place, a zone where the fabric of reality is twisted and altered by the subconscious, intersected by memories and augmented by the imagination. It is a constantly shifting place, populated by things which have no name. There is no guidebook. A thorough investigation of the psychological is found in both abstract and representational work, from the disconcerting worlds of Yves Tanguy and Kay Sage to the imposing paintings of Milton Resnick and Mark Rothko. Somewhere between abstraction and figuration the psychological has re-emerged in the painterly fictions of Ali Banisadr.

Reverence for Sound: Janet Cardiff at PS1

On view at PS1 September 11, 2011 to January 9, 2012
by Jonathan Beer

Forty Part Motet by Janet Cardiff, Installation at MoMA PS1

As an atheist, my list of religious experiences is rather short, comprised of events that had a profound effect and that I never could’ve anticipated. I now happily add Janet Cardiff’s ‘Forty Part Motet’ to the list.

de Kooning: A Retrospective

On view at Museum of Modern Art – September 18, 2011–January 9, 2012
by Jonathan Beer

On a quiet Sunday morning a buzzing anticipation abounds as museum-goers descend en masse towards the cavernous entrance of the year’s most anticipated show. De Kooning: A Retrospective, on view at the Museum of Modern Art through January 9, has transformed MoMA’s 17,000 square foot sixth floor into a mecca for Willem de Kooning enthusiasts. Nearly 200 paintings occupy every wall, and span every period in the artists’ seven decade career, from his highly technical training at Rotterdam Academy of Fine Arts and Technique to the last paintings of the 1980s.
The exhibition proceeds in a roughly chronological fashion, opening with two early paintings, Seated Man (1939) and Seated Woman (1940), which introduce de Kooning’s continuous journey between the tradition of figuration and avant-garde abstraction. The first room also displays two academic drawings completed as a student at the Rotterdam Academy, irrefutable evidence of the impressive facility he relied on throughout his life. From the onset of his career there are signs of an artist with an endlessly flexible imagination; de Kooning flirts with many styles and subjects, always moving between representation, abstraction, and formal play.

Witness & Access: Thoughts on Richard Serra Drawing Retrospective

Metropolitan Museum of Art  | April 13 – August 28, 2011
By Jonathan Beer

Ozier Muhammad / The New York Times -- From left, works from 1989: “The United States Courts Are Partial to the Government,” “No Mandatory Patriotism” (center) and “The United States Government Destroys Art.”

Since 1971 Richard Serra has focused on large-scale drawings as an art form separate yet linked to the large site-specific sculpture he is known for. The Richard Serra Drawing Retrospective cohesively collects these 40 years of drawing into one exhibition for the first time. The works in the show offer a special insight into the artist’s thoughts and conceptual process, including pieces created in a variety of formats and materials. Much like his colleagues Sol Lewitt and Cy Twombly, Richard Serra confidently shows the unprecedented and unique results that arise when drawing, sculpture, and installation overlap. He reminds us that when mastered, elements of space, form, and material together can create a transcendent experience.

Francis Alÿs: A Story of Deception

Museum of Modern Art |May 8–August 1, 2011
By Jonathan Beer

Francis Alÿs. Untitled, from When Faith Moves Mountains. 2002. Color photograph. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of The Speyer Family Foundation, Kathy and Richard S. Fuld, Jr., Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis, Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, Anna Marie and Robert F. Shapiro, The Julia Stoschek Foundation, Düsseldorf, and Committee on Media Funds. © 2011 Francis Alÿs

During the off season of the Chelsea galleries in New York, Art lovers from all parts flock to the lineup of summer exhibitions at the big museums. The program for this summer is nothing to scoff at – the Met boasts a Richard Serra Drawing Retrospective and Alexander McQueen exhibition that have museum-goers queuing up, while MoMA shows off Graphic Impulse, an impressive show of German Expressionism that has been a big hit. The hype from Graphic Impulse may pull attention away from another gem currently on view at MoMA; an exhibition entitled Francis Alÿs: A Story of Deception.

The title of the show couldn’t be more appropriate. Alÿs’s work is indeed deceptive, presenting itself with the aura of being serious and relevant in a deadpan fashion but leaving you with a measure of skepticism about its sincerity. It is a puzzling yet provocative experience of artistic semantics that is not unlike an essay by the Post-modernist philosopher Jean Baudrillard.

Hailing from Belgium originally, Alÿs came to Mexico City in the 80’s as an architect seeking work after 1985 earthquake. His choice to reside in Mexico clearly left an impression on him as a young artist, exposure to ideas of crisis, provocation, satire, and social constructs formed the foundation of his conceptual practice. Known for working in a variety of formats, this survey features a mixture of drawings, small paintings, short films and projection installations done mostly after 1990. Walking into the exhibition the viewer is overloaded with work – there is no easing into Francis Alÿs.