Culture

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.

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.

I just got a news alert from Crain’s. Link is here, but I’ll excerpt the parts I find interesting:

Commissioner Julius Spiegel ordered the exhibit — located inside the Brooklyn War Memorial Building in Cadman Plaza — shut down Thursday afternoon after receiving an unknown number of complaints, according Marni Kotak, a participating artist and spokeswoman for the exhibit, called Plan B.

..

Ms. Kotak says that three graduate students who were monitoring the exhibits, which included a watercolor featureing gay male sexuality and a sculpture of penises in a lightbox, were ordered to leave the premises and were locked out of the building on Thursday.

The exhibit had been approved by Brooklyn College faculty and the Wednesday night opening was attended by the president and Brooklyn College Provost Roberta Matthews. “The faculty knew ahead of time what was going to be in the exhibit,” said Ms. Kotak. Still, Brooklyn College has opted to move the exhibit rather than fight the shutdown.

“In keeping with the public nature of the space, as well as its position as an honored war memorial, Brooklyn College has respectfully decided to move the entire student exhibit to our campus,” said Ms. Matthews in a statement.

I think moving an art show because we can’t have sexuality in “public” is bullshit.

See Tom Moody for what other countries manage to show without bringing about societal collapse.

I received an e-mail from Christopher Moss, one of the artists in Plan B, the MFA thesis exhibit for the art school of Brooklyn College. He pointed be to a blog that has been set up for more information. His e-mail stated:

On Thursday May 4th MFA students at Brooklyn College were surprised to find their exhibition shut down the day after a successful and well attended opening. MFA Students were monitoring the exhibition at the Brooklyn War Memorial when around 3:00 p.m. a locksmith arrived to change the locks, later a building supervisor insisted the students leave immediately. Later gallery director Maria Rand contacted Julius Spiegel, Borough Parks Commissioner, who said he had received complaints about 2 or 3 of the works’ content. The show was scheduled to run through May 25th.

I was gallery sitting at the time.

Apparently at the moment the artists don’t even have access to their work. It’s locked up by the Parks Department.

It sounds like this is coming from the Parks Department, and the Borough authorities, not the school. Someone should explain to them that locking up art shows without warning isn’t much of a tribute to Brooklyn or New York City.

As I was looking at the Plan B site, I see that our friend Carl Ferrero is one of the artists. Perhaps this image by him was deemed worthy of shutting down a show:

Carl Ferrero, Pray For Your Pleasure (excerpt), 2005-2006, watercolor on paper, 30”×22”

We all know how well the authorities in NYC react to words like “pray” anywhere near naked bodies or sexuality.

I note the Brooklyn College Art Department’s home page tells us this about its history:

Founded by artists escaping German fascism on the eve of World War II, the art department started as the world’s first comprehensive Bauhaus art program in a liberal arts setting. Over the years it grew to include Abstract Expressionists, Realists, and Abstractionists drawn from the New York art world, as well as art historians with distinguished scholarly reputations.

Shutting down MFA exhibits doesn’t sound like a very good way to honor that history.

Updated: As a commenter pointed out, the Carl Ferrero image is not the one in the show. See this post by James for what we believe are the ones in the show.

The best reason to be in Chelsea on Saturday? James can tell you.

Brooklyn Academy of Music has a great silent auction which ends on May 7. You can bid online via the web site.

We saw the work when we were at BAM for the Brooklyn Philharmonic’s concert with Ute Lemper. There is a lot of great work.

I should have done it sooner, but I’ve added Jersey City as a neighborhood for ArtCal, and added the first show, at The Garage. Unfortunately, it’s ending this weekend, but I’m looking forward to listing more!

For the starving artists out there who want to see the likes of DJ Spooky and The Wau Wau Sisters with us on Monday night, here is a tip: Use “DUCK” as the discount code between May 1 and May 5 to get $10 off. I’m pretty sure this is for the concert-only tickets.

On an unrelated note, my apologies for the lack of posting. I’ve been under the weather for a week, but my antibiotics seem to be kicking in now.

James and I visited White Columns today to see the works in the Momenta benefit which happens Saturday night. There are lots of good pieces, and the format is very democratic. Most of the work goes to people who have bought a $175 ticket. They draw numbers randomly, and that determines when you get to choose from the 110 available. A couple of years ago, we ended up with works by Kiki Smith, Joey Kotting, and Michael Cambre.

Visit the web site for more information or to buy tickets online using PayPal.