Art Addict

Boom or Bust, Buy

 

In a boom, it’s cool to love art, see art, buy art. Art is taken seriously. A bust dismisses it as a luxury.

- Alexandra Peers, New York Magazine, March 1, 2009

I'm not so sure that art is taken seriously in a boom. Prices and collectors and dealers seem to be taken seriously. Art tends to be a byproduct - a means to an end in our fascination with the market during a boom. Who bought that? And they paid what?

That being said, the recent boom was good for art, I think. We read about art and artists and the art market in almost every newspaper and magazine in this country - Time, The Economist, and even the glossiest of glossies, Elle Decor, Vogue, Metropolitan Home, etc. The more eyes on "the biggies" (those making news at auction) helped draw eyes to the "up and coming" (artists in mid-career). More people wanted to play in the art sandbox so there were opportunities for more sandboxes to be built. More collectors, more galleries, more art available. 

A bust means that less will be spent on art, for sure. But perhaps it also means that more people will be focused on the art rather than on the market of art? 

We all know it is just plain tough impossible for an artist to support themselves by making art. I know that in a bust it is even harder for artists to be artists. Many say this (fewer artists) is good for the art world. I don't agree. Rather I think a few less collectors would be good for this art world. Smarter dollars being spent to ensure smarter careers (longer shelf life) for artists. But it is all connected, isn't it? With fewer collectors (less $) in the market, fewer artists will be able to live on art. Many will give up making art all together. But some will survive and thrive in a new market creating new art for new reasons and new audiences. Art because it has to be made. Hopefully leading to inspiring collecting. More collecting to support artists (primary market) rather than supporting auction houses and other collectors. 

I post this on the day before the opening of art fair weekend in New York. I am out of town this weekend. Part of our collection is being shown in Dallas. I'm here for the opening. Bad timing on my part because now more than ever I hope to support the market by continuing to collect. Boom or bust, I'm a collector. It's in my blood. I'm hooked. There's no recovery for this addiction. I hope others will join me, whether this weekend or next month, in continuing to be inspired by art and supporting artist by buying their work. 

In a future post I hope to share some great places to continue to collect some great art at great prices. Join me if and when you can...

If I lived in Philadelphia...

Steven and Billy Blaise Dufala, Special Air Mission 28000, Mixed Media, 2008

Relating to the last post, as luck would have it, the grand prize winners of the WEST PRIZE have a show up now in Philadelphia at Fleisher/Ollman Gallery. Titled "Trophy" the show includes the above work. Their show proves to be an amazing confirmation of our grand prize choice. I am looking forward to seeing and collecting more and more from these two talents. 

Fleisher/Ollman Gallery

Trophy - February 27 - March 28

1616 Walnut Street, Suite 100

215.545.7562

Great review here.

Great video interview here.

The 10

Dufala Brothers, Ice Cream Truck Tank, Mixed Media, 8'x6'x13' 2007

As many of you know, last year my family launched our first annual art prize. On December 1, 2008 we announced the 10 winners. Last night we announced the $25,000 Grand Prize Winner - the Dufala Brothers.

The 10

2008 West Prize Winners

Rob Carter

Brian Cooper

Jonas Criscoe

Thomas Doyle

Dufala Brothers

Deborah Hamon

James Johnson

Georg Parthen

Ann Toebbe

Nathan Vincent

There have been some nice reviews of the Prize winners recently (Roberta and Libby's art blog, again here, Philadelphia Inquirer, City Paper, Phawker) and I am looking forward to sending all of the works to be shown at NEXT in Chicago. Before we open the prize for applicants again, I thought I would share some trivia about last year's prize:

Number of artists submitted: 3,496

Number of artworks submitted:  17,997

Countries represented: 77

(Top country count: US - 2546 artists; Israel - 199; UK - 139; Argentina - 86; Canada - 62; Germany 45)

Number of unique visitors to the website from May to December: 14,182 (that averages out to almost 70 unique visitors per day)

Art breakdown (as categorized by artists):

7,109 paintings

3,463 photographs

2,603 mixed media

2,032 sculptures

1,620 drawings

756 installations

414 videos

I am humbled by the response to our first year at this. The database grew through the public launch at NEXT in Chicago last year and then through word of mouth. We contacted schools and public arts programs and let our gallery and artist contacts know what we were up to. I am thankful for the support of the art community and because of them this prize will live on. I truly feel that now more than ever is an important time to be supporting contemporary artists.

There are a number of artists (23 to be exact) who didn't make the 10 but who I am stealthily following since discovering them through this year's prize. I am encouraging last year's artists to resubmit their work this year for consideration. (It will be extremely easy to resubmit on the website when the prize opens this year.) It was nearly impossible to choose 10 winners last year. Some of the artists I am still following may end up next year's winners. 

We will be launching the 2009 West Prize at NEXT this year. I have been spending the last few months getting to know as much as I can about some of the art communities in the countries with the most submissions last year so that this year I will be better informed about art outside of my comfort zone.  

We will have a catalog of this year's winners available by NEXT. The catalog will include interviews between an artist already in the collection and a winner. (Didier Massard interviews Georg Parthen, Leah Tinari interviews Deborah Hamon, Warren Isensee interviews Ann Toebbe, Jonathan Schipper interviews Dufala Brothers, Tracey Snelling interviews Jonas Criscoe, Peter Garfield interviews Thomas Doyle, Sarah Bridgland interviews Rob Carter, James Hyde interviews James Johnson, Ron van Der Ende interviews Brian Cooper, Don Porcella interviews Nathan Vincent).

I was able to meet all of this year's winners (except Georg Parthen) last night in Philadelphia at the Grand Prize event. Having met them all face to face now I am even more excited about their work and our relationship moving forward. They are all Grand Prize winners in my book. 

Uber Zoom

Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights (uber-detail)

Check out the Prado Museum's masterpieces in ultra high resolution. Now available on Google Earth, you can zoom into a number of paintings from the Prado's collection to see incredible details - cracks and blemishes you might not be able to notice even if you were standing in front of the painting. One new painting added each day. 

Google Earth also has incredible detail of ocean floors. Who knew what was down there? Now we all do...

(Thank you VSL for the heads up!)

Olafur Eliasson at TED

I recently returned from TED. (Those in the know, know. Those that don't, should.) TED always includes artists in their presenter line up. This year included Olafur Eliasson. I'll state right up front that I am a fan of Eliasson's work. I wasn't so sure I'd be a fan of his presentation, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that I did enjoy listening to him and learning from him. 

One of the things I like best about Eliasson's work (as well as Turrell's and Christo's) is that "even a child" can get a lot out of it. I like experiential work that can't be brought home and is meant to be a shared experience. I am lucky to live in New York and was able to see Eliasson's Waterfalls (pictured) through the eyes of my three year old son. Listening to Eliasson speak about his work I realized that my three year old "got it". He may not have been able to tell anyone what he "got", but he was experiencing exactly what Eliasson hoped people "got" from his work.

Eliasson considers his studio a laboratory. He is part artist part scientist. (This is a win-win at TED as science is a main topic of discussion.) He talked about experience as responsibility - when you are having an experience you are taking part in the world. When you are taking part you are taking responsibility. This responsibility can be individual, as in a museum setting - one on one with a work of art, or collectively as a group, as in a public installation. He hoped his Waterfall installations in New York gave the city a sense of dimension...making the city accessible and tangible, not so big and hairy. My three year old definitely got that aspect of them. His relationship with the Brooklyn Bridge changed dynamically when the waterfall was installed. Bridges, and that bridge in particular, took form in his little brain simply because someone had added a waterfall to the structure. What was not noticed before became a beacon of curiosity and learning.

TED will have Eliasson's talk up on the website in the next few weeks. I will post a link when it is live. In the meantime, here are a few of my favorite talks from this year and past years:

Vik Muniz

Ken Robinson (Are Schools Killing Creativity?)

Rives

Ben Zander

Barry Schwartz (The Real Crisis? We Stopped Being Wise)

Nellie McKay

Elizabeth Gilbert (A Different Way to Think About Creative Genius)

There are so many more.... Thank you TED!

Buy

OK, so the world has bigger problems than which galleries are closing. But, it is happening and will continue to happen. And, dare I say, should have happened a long time ago in some cases. But, in times like these some of the good guys will be forced to close and that is a bummer. (example: Roebling) 

That being said, now is an odd time for me to start blogging again. About buying art. Yes, buying art. I'm not buying art right now. I'm strapped, mainly due to supporting the West Prize winners. But, I am pooling funds and hope to be buying again some time soon. Because it is important to buy right now. If you can. 

There are a few galleries showing work that is affordable and good. Here are two examples:

Eric Fertman at Susan Inglett Gallery

Through February 7 

This is a wonderfully quiet and solid show by a talented Cooper Union grad. Drawings are $200 framed. 

Drawing upon the Russian Suprematists and Philip Guston, film noir and the Sunday
comics, the work gallops through time on Olive Oyl's oversized shoes. Seamlessly mixing
high and low culture, the artist assigns equal value to Malevich as to Raymond Chandler.
Working in wood and metal, Fertman inflects these inert materials with humor and
humanity, charming both object and viewer in the process.

Things Fall Apart

curated by Joy Garnett

Winkleman Gallery

Through February 21

This group show has some really strong works on paper pinned to a wall salon style that are between $100 and $500.

...the international group of artists presented in Things Fall Apart mark precipitous global power shifts in their work while positing the darkest moments—when things fall apart—as salient points of departure for change.

No Service

Compound Editions, Jennifer Dalton and William Powhida, Our Condolences, Vol. 1, 2008

I recently spent another day wandering the galleries of Chelsea and came across one gallery whose behavior was remarkable. Actually, I can't blame the gallery, just the person who hired the person sitting behind the desk at the gallery. I popped into this gallery to see a show by an artist whom I have collected pretty heavily. When we approached the desk to inquire about prices and whatnot we told the young lady seated there that we were big fans and collectors of the artist's work. She replied with silence. So we picked up a catalog sitting on the desk and pointed out to her works in the catalog we own. She nodded and said, "Yeah, he's a great artist." That was the end of the conversation. She went back to doing whatever she was doing before we interrupted her. 

In these times it is truly hard to believe that a retail business can survive with this "only if I have to" attitude. Time will tell, I suppose.

NB: The above image has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the gallery I am referring to in this post. Jennifer and William's edition can be found between Winkleman Gallery and Schroeder Romero Gallery - two of my favorites and the very best behaved galleries out there.

Brooklyn in LA

James Siena, Non-Slice, 2005, enamel on aluminum, 19" x 15"

I have been recommending Pierogi as a "must see, must buy" recommendation since I began collecting art seriously over 10 years ago. Those of you living in LA have a great opportunity to see the highlights from Pierogi at the Daniel Weinberg Gallery. Opening this weekend, Pierogi et al, a group show of Pierogi greats, runs from July 12 - August 23. Artists in the exhibition: Nadja Bournoville, Hugo Crostwaite, Dawn Clements, Kirsten Deirup, Steve Dibenetto, Lori Ellison, J. Fiber, Tony Fitzpatrick, Jonathan Herder, Patrick Jacobs, Darina Karpov, Yoon Lee, Chris martin, Ati Maier, Ryan Mrozowski, Tom Nozkowski, John O'Connor, Bruce Pearson, David Scher, Ward Shelley, Daniel Zeller

Daniel Weinberg Gallery
6148 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90048
323.954.8425

1,000,000

Mary Temple, 441,500-443,500 (detail), 2003, 30"x36", pigmented ink on mylar

What does 1,000,000 look like? A favorite artist and good friend, Mary Temple, sought to answer that question with her 1,000,000 Ellipsoids body of work. From her website:

1,000,000 Ellipsoids 2001-2003

The drawing series 1,000,000 Ellipsoids is comprised of a single ellipse-like shape that I drew and counted one million times. The series includes over 400 drawings; each contains thousands of ellipsoids rendered in monochrome ink on vellum, using forms based on simple systems and consecution. The drawings are sequential: each day's work adds to the previous number of ellipsoids in the continuum toward 1,000,000.

This two-year project allowed me to build a structure by drawing the ubiquitous number as if it were an object that could be experienced empirically.

I was reminded of this body of work after discovering Sighn's ITS OK project.

From his website:

NOV2007>>ITSOK. Edition of 1 million.

Every single one is solid wood (no plywood or particle board) and is hand cut by me.
It should take me about 60 years to finish this 'limited' edition.

$20.00 each (currently) and a tree is planted for each one sold. Cool. Get a few. For those times when you really need a reminder that all is OK.

Got Snow?

It is 99 degrees in NY right now. With humidity they say it feels like 106. I say it feels like 126. Sunday's New York Times had an article on one of my favorite artists, Adam Cvijanovic, and it mentioned a great "wallpaper" piece titled Disko Bay. I want to be in Disko Bay today. While out and about I kept mentally cool by picturing some of my favorite works of "COOL" art. For those that need a visual cool down, take a gander at these beauties, including the inspiration for this post...

Adam Cvijanovic, Disko Bay, 2000, latex and flasche on Tyvek, 10' x 55'

Didier Massard, Underwater Landscape, 2004, cibachrome, 64" x 86"

Anthony Goicolea, Poolpushers I, 2001, c-print, 50" x 70"

Thomas Wrede, Settlement with a Road, 2005, digital c-print, 19 x 39”

Lamar Peterson, The Green Monster, 2003, acrylic and gouache on paper, 28 x 21”