I’m happy that many people are fans of ArtCal, and the so-called value of “accuracy” is occasionally mentioned. ArtCal may have a mailing list now, but only Douglas Kelley brings writing like this to our inbox.

Here is Douglas on drugs, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Glenn O’Brien:

Glenn O’Brien, I believe, understood that The White Powder School is not
for most people, probably 99.9% of most people, however there are rare
individuals such as Keith Richards and Jean-Michel Basquait for whom
certain Schedule IV prescription pharmaceuticals, as well as the
traditionally universally contracinded in all cases contraband psycho
stimulants and depressants are indispensable essential commodities of
life like food, paint, canvas, or guitar strings. And history often
remembers these individuals by the great periods of their most extended
peak output wherein they so colossally dwarfed the production of anyone
else, certainly in quantity, but more importantly in supreme sublime
quality that all the slightly less talented are left scratching their
heads, wondering what were we doing all that time?

Jean-Michel Basquait: King of The White Powder School

If you ever meet an artist as talented as Jean-Michel Basquait with such
a chemical romance, just put the drugs under the door and leave the art
supplies in the hall, and come back in the morning and collect the art,
no questions asked. It’s highly unlikely that you ever will, so with
that understanding, always stay away from drugs kids and stay in school!

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.