artnet Magazine

Morning in the Giardini for the Venice Biennale 2009

Beyond the Art World
by Ben Davis

Nov. 19, 2010

I do not like the term "art world." It’s a useful term, of course, a kind of shorthand for something like "the professional sphere of the visual arts." "The art world thinks. . ." "Art-world concerns. . ." Etcetera. But the truth is, art is not a world unto itself. Art is part of the world. And that fact has to be a fundamental starting point for everything.

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Ben Davis Archives for 2010

Oct. 28, 2010	TRANSCENDENT TRASH by Ben Davis Fishing in the gutter with Ester Partegàs at Foxy Production.

Oct. 8, 2010	ART IN THE TIME OF AUSTERITY by Ben Davis A Tale of Two Art Worlds.

Sept. 28, 2010	ROLL TAPE by Ben Davis Zilvinas Kempinas’ "post-minimalist disco dungeon," Ballroom.

Sept. 19, 2010	GWANGJU RULES by Ben Davis Massimiliano Gioni’s "10,000 Lives" in Gwangju redeems the biennial.

Aug. 30, 2010	THE "EMERGING" CONSENSUS by Ben Davis “Greater New York” through the lens of "emerging adulthood."

Aug. 19, 2010	KURT LIVES by Ben Davis Letter from Seattle: Failing to attain Nirvana at the Seattle Art Museum.

Aug. 4, 2010	"SOCIAL MEDIA ART" IN THE EXPANDED FIELD by Ben Davis Squaring the circle of "art and social media."

July 16, 2010	MACHINE TOOL by Ben Davis Brion Gysin, pursuing the Other, on a cloud of smoke, into his own mind.

June 17, 2010	DESIGNER DREAMS by Ben Davis Alex Dodge’s anxiety of influence, towards the Apple Corp.

May 18, 2010	THE AGE OF SEMI- POST- POSTMODERNISM by Ben Davis An assessment of the state of an unfortunately still-relevant concept.

Apr. 9, 2010	CHILDISH AS HE WANTS TO BE by Ben Davis Billy Childish’s nihilistically amateurish flower painting.

Apr. 7, 2010	DIGITAL DESACRALIZATION by Ben Davis The Vatican puts the Sistine Chapel online, raising some questions.

Mar. 26, 2010	MINOR MIRACLES by Ben Davis Jessica Jackson Hutchins looks for a way out.

Mar. 10, 2010	IT’S NOT THE SIZE. . . by Ben Davis Scoring Jeff Koons’ "Skin Fruit" vs. Shaq’s "Size Does Matter."

Feb. 19, 2009	X OUT by Ben Davis The lesson’s of X-Initiative’s final show, "Bring Your Own Art."

Feb. 3, 2010	WHITNEY WATCH by Ben Davis A defensive self-abasement marks the spirit of the 2010 Whitney Biennial.

Jan. 28, 2010	THE BAUHAUS IN HISTORY by Ben Davis The Bauhaus and the contradictions of artistic utopia.

Jan. 7, 2010	PHOTOS FOR TINO by Ben Davis The erotics of Tino Sehgal’s photo ban.

Ben Davis Archives for 2009

Dec. 11, 2009	LOST IN MIAMI by Ben Davis Wandering through Art Basel Miami Beach 2009.

Nov. 24, 2009	IN DEFENSE OF CONCEPTS by Ben Davis A new battle between "conceptual" and "traditional" art.

Nov. 5, 2009	LOST IN TIME by Ben Davis Josh Gosfield imagines the life of completely made-up French pop star "Gigi Gaston."

Oct. 23, 2009	LIGHT TOUCH by Ben Davis Rafael Lozano-Hemmer represents the future of art -- but what kind of future is it?

Oct. 9, 2009	MORE QUESTIONS ABOUT THE ANTI-NEA CAMPAIGN by Ben Davis Some questions for Patrick Courrielche, the man behind the "NEA propaganda story."

Sept. 28, 2009	THE NEW CULTURE WARS by Ben Davis A defense of the NEA conference call.

Sept. 18, 2009	SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED by Ben Davis Caragh Thuring’s end-of-painting paintings at Simon Preston.

Sept. 11, 2009	COMMUNISTS! IN THE ART WORLD! by Ben Davis Four art institutions that Glenn Beck should look into.

Aug. 7, 2009	THE MUSEUM BUBBLE by Ben Davis Who’s to blame for the pain of the non-profit art world?

July 28, 2009	BACON, HALF-BAKED by Ben Davis Why philosopher Gilles Deleuze’s book on Francis Bacon is so much tamer than Francis Bacon’s work itself.

July 20, 2009	IRANIAN ART NOW by Ben Davis "Iran Inside Out" at the Chelsea Art Museum.

June 18, 2009	BITTERSWEET CACOPHONY by Ben Davis Bruce Nauman’s vile, refreshing art.

June 10, 2009	BIENNALE DEGREE ZERO by Ben Davis Daniel Birnbaum’s "Making Worlds" is a Type 0 Biennale.

May 22, 2009	FAIREY TALES by Ben Davis The myth and reality of Shepard Fairey’s preppy Pop anti-authoritarianism.

Apr. 30, 2009	ANIMAL SPIRITS by Ben Davis The strengths and limits of Adel Abdessemed’s nihilistic guerrilla art.

Apr. 17, 2009	JESUS COMPLEX by Ben Davis The New Museum Triennial fails as a portrait of a generation -- but succeeds as an essay on the "naughty oughties."

Mar. 24, 2009	HE’S THE SHIT by Ben Davis Italian conceptualist Piero Manzoni was more of a professional than he seems.

Mar. 13, 2009	THE TWITTER ESTHETIC by Ben Davis The art fair experience finds the form of writing proper to it.

Feb. 23, 2009	PSYCO-SOCIAL STILL-LIFE by Ben Davis Ruud van Empel’s "Souvenir" series shows how history troubles our fantasies.

Jan. 29, 2009	CRISIS AND CRITICISM by Ben Davis The "crisis in criticism" meets the economic crisis.

Ben Davis Archives for 2008

Dec. 30, 2008	THE 2008 REVUE by Walter Robinson and Ben Davis "Fly high, fall hard," a motto for the times.

Dec. 11, 2008	PAWN SHOP CONCEPTUALISM by Ben Davis Jeff Sonhouse’s "composites" reach for a neither/nor esthetic.

Nov. 20, 2008	OH YES THEY DID! by Ben Davis The Yes Men and Friends take on the New York Times.

Nov. 11, 2008	DEAD HEAT by Ben Davis Berlinde de Bruyckere riffs on the wretchedness of life.

Oct. 15, 2008	SCENES FROM SHANGHAI by Ben Davis Searching for the soul of the Chinese art world.

Sept. 19, 2008	THE CHINA PRICE by Ben Davis Stalking the elusive Chinese collector at ShContemporary.

Sept. 5, 2008	ESTHETIC POLITICS? by Ben Davis The idea that art is a model for politics is the biggest art-critical boondoggle around.

Aug. 28, 2008	TWO FRIDAS by Ben Davis Frida Kahlo’s surreal Socialist Realism.

July 31, 2008	UP PERISCOPE by Ben Davis The unlikely tale of Scope Hamptons ‘08.

July 25, 2008	NATURAL FACTS by Ben Davis "After Nature" shows it’s easier to turn apocalypse into a motif than it is to imagine it sincerely.

July 16, 2008	THE RISE OF THE SUPERARTISTS by Ben Davis Takashi Murakami, Olafur Eliasson and today’s avant-garde.

July 14, 2008	THE IRAQI CENTURY OF ART by Ben Davis Mohammed al Hamadany’s Night of Fire and 100 years of struggle by Iraqi artists.

June 18, 2008	BUILDING BLOCKS by Ben Davis David Byrne’s Playing the Building: Once in a lifetime experience, or road to nowhere?

May 23, 2008	FIRE AND ICE by Ben Davis Sexual dysfunction and environmental consciousness at the Reykjavik Arts Festival in Iceland.

May 9, 2008	THE BILLY PAPPAS PROBLEM by Ben Davis Julie Checkoway’s documentary Waiting for Hockney raises questions about the sociology of art.

Apr. 28, 2008	THE INSIDER’S OUTSIDER by Ben Davis Henry Darger’s "unrealism" and the anxiety of influence.

Apr. 11, 2008	ART IN FLUX by Ben Davis Flux Factory’s final show marks the end of an era.

Mar. 13, 2008	CAI GUO-KILLER by Ben Davis In the basement with Chinese art star Cai Guo-Qiang.

Mar. 7, 2008	RAVE ON by Ben Davis A "rave review" for the Whitney’s 2008 biennial.

Feb. 15, 2008	THE BLING GAME by Ben Davis Say hello to Luis Gispert’s little friend.

Jan. 24, 2008	GATEWAY TO NOWHERE by Ben Davis Do-Ho Suh’s Reflection and art’s power to forget.

Jan. 11, 2008	COMMERCE AND CONSCIOUSNESS by Ben Davis The year in "complicit esthetics."

Ben Davis Archives for 2007

Dec. 24, 2007	MIAMI POST MORTEM by Ben Davis The "social unconscious" in Art Basel Miami Beach and beyond.

Dec. 4, 2007	WESTERN PROMISES by Ben Davis Piotr Uklanski’s ""Western"" Summer Love.

Nov. 19, 2007	DISASTER TEAM by Ben Davis The beauty of drowning Africans in Isaac Julien and Russell Maliphant’s "Cast No Shadow."

Nov. 12, 2007	GUY SMILEY by Ben Davis Yue Minjun, human logo.

Oct. 26, 2007	THE CONTRA IRAN AFFAIR by Ben Davis Shirana Shahbazi’s new work reacts against images of Iran, in a veiled way.

Oct. 11, 2007	ALL THIS USELESS BOOTY by Ben Davis Julie Heffernan’s anti-history painting.

Sept. 27, 2007	MAN AND SUPERMAN by Ben Davis Shaun El C. Leonardo, budding superartist.

Aug. 24, 2007	ART CLASS by Ben Davis Marx, "a new theory of the market," art and politics.

Aug. 1, 2007	FAIR FLIP-FLOPS by Ben Davis Commerce and/or personality at the third Scope Hamptons.

July 20, 2007	GLOBALIZED FEMINISM by Ben Davis Can Miwa Yanagi dismantle the master’s house with the master’s tools?

July 17, 2007	REPLY TO STORR by Ben Davis The Venice Biennale, Africa and the "borrowed kettle."

June 13, 2007	POWER PLAY by Ben Davis Tom Friedman’s aluminum foil sculptures are portraits of Aby Rosen as a "fun" guy.

May 16, 2007	HOLLOW LAUGHER by Ben Davis David Godbold answers the question: Why isn’t postmodern art funnier?

May 11, 2007	PINAULT AND CO. by Ben Davis A glorious romance with power in "Sequence 1" at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice.

Apr. 17, 2007	IRANIAN EVOLUTION by Ben Davis A secret politics in Abbas Kiarostami’s photos and videos.

Mar. 12, 2007	WHITE WALLS, GLASS CEILING by Ben Davis Why are there so many great women artists -- who can’t get a show?

Feb. 26, 2007	LA LA LAND by Ben Davis L.A. Art challenges New York on its own turf.

Feb. 23, 2007	ARTNET NEWS Questions surround the patron behind the Venice Biennale’s African exhibition.

Feb. 14, 2007	NET WORTH by Ben Davis The dilemmas of science-as-art in curator Marisa Olson’s "Networked Nature."

Jan. 4, 2006	STEINBERG’S SIGNATURES by Ben Davis Saul Steinberg takes on Adorno and Benjamin.

Ben Davis Archives for 2006

Dec. 18, 2006	MORE ON MIAMI by Ben Davis A report on the Ink, Flow, Bridge, Aqua, DiVA, Pulse, NADA, Photo Miami and Scope art fairs.

Dec. 7, 2006	BLACK SITE SPECIFIC by Ben Davis CIA torture in Chelsea.

Nov. 8, 2006	A MODEST PROPOSAL FOR THE ART WORLD by Ben Davis The solution to everything.

Nov. 8, 2006	MINNESOTA VICE by Ben Davis Angela Strassheim’s tortured photos of suburbia.

Oct. 25, 2006	CULTURAL KARAOKE by Ben Davis Nikki S. Lee’s "conceptual documentary" A.K.A. Nikki S. Lee.

Oct. 13, 2006	CRAZY QUILTS by Ben Davis Ai Kijima’s fabric collages bring Pop extravagance to a traditional form.

Sept. 20, 2006	DREAM FACTORY by Ben Davis Art and ads from director Michel Gondry.

Aug. 30, 2006	GLASS HOUSES by Ben Davis The art world lessons of Toledo, Ohio.

Aug. 18, 2006	RANCIÈRE, FOR DUMMIES by Ben Davis The Politics of Aesthetics by Jacques Rancière.

Aug. 3, 2006	DOWN TEMPO by Ben Davis The hidden history of the Bauhaus in Marianne Brandt’s photomontages.

July 20, 2006	SCOPE HAMPERED? by Ben Davis The second go-round for the Scope franchise in the Hamptons.

June 15, 2006	REFLECTED GLORY by Ben Davis The tortured journey of James Lee Byars fills six galleries in New York.

June 7, 2006	MOMENT IN THE SUN by Ben Davis Circa ’06 in San Juan, the first commercial art fair in the Caribbean.

May 31, 2006	RETRO ACTIVITIES by Ben Davis Marco Boggio Sella, Vadis Turner and Michael Bell-Smith take on the past.

May 4, 2006	INANE ASYLUM by Ben Davis Wooloo Productions offers up an immigrant "Survivor" as art in "AsylumNYC."

Apr. 21, 2006	THIRTEEN UNEASY PIECES by Ben Davis Chinese video art at P.S.1’s "The Thirteen: Chinese Video Now."

Apr. 11, 2006	THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BARNEY by Ben Davis Drawing Restraint 9 is a hoot.

Mar. 20, 2006	TWILIGHT OF THE TEEN IDOLS by Ben Davis Masturbating jocks and cheerleaders, courtesy Brock Enright and Ivan Hürzeler.

Mar. 10, 2006	THE ARMORY BOWL by Ben Davis Reading the semiotics of the Armory Show 2006, Mar. 9-13, 2006.

Mar. 2, 2006	LABELING THE WHITNEY by Ben Davis The art of text at the Whitney Biennial 2006.

Feb. 24, 2006	LOOK AGAIN by Ben Davis Photography in New York -- the AIPAD photo show, Tracey Moffatt, Jacques-Henri Lartigue, Christopher Williams and Florian Maier-Aichen.

Feb. 10, 2006	RETURN FIRE by Ben Davis New images of art from Iraq in New York.

Jan. 25, 2006	WHITNEY WATCH by Ben Davis Whitney Biennial curators past and present talk around the 2006 installment.

Jan. 24, 2006	TECHNICAL KNOCK-OUTS by Ben Davis Dorkbot, "Breaking and Entering" at PaceWildenstein, "Superlowrez" at vertexList, "Dewanatron" at Pierogi.

Ben Davis Archives for 2005

Dec. 16, 2005	Pop Life by Ben Davis 0100101110101101.ORG proves Europe kicks butt.

Nov. 23, 2005	Raging within the Machine by Ben Davis Gelitin's "Tantamounter" -- a good time is had by all.

Nov. 16, 2005	I Want My Mike Kelley by Ben Davis Mike Kelley at Gagosian Gallery.

Nov. 2, 2005	We Are Duchampians by Ben Davis "The Imagery of Chess Revisited" at the Noguchi Museum.

Oct. 12, 2005	Photo New York by Ben Davis A report from the 2nd annual photo fair in Manhattan.

Sept. 27, 2005	Knock Out by Ben Davis The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s "A Knock at the Door"

Sept. 12, 2005	The Baby-Satyr’s Club by Ben Davis Ohad Meromi at Harris Lieberman.

Aug. 26, 2005	August Company by Ben Davis The end of the summer at three shows in Williamsburg.

Aug. 17, 2005	Signs of the Times by Ben Davis Steve Powers and the Dreamland Artist Club at Coney Island.

Aug. 3, 2005	Ultra-Violette by Ben Davis Banks Violette rocks the Whitney.

July 19, 2005	Un-Hampered by Ben Davis The Scope Hamptons contemporary art fair in Southampton.

July 12, 2005	Letter Love by Ben Davis O.K. Harris documents the career of Don Celender.

June 21, 2005	Visible Flaws by Ben Davis Art theorist W.J.T. Mitchell's What Do Pictures Want?

June 7, 2005	A FUTURE PRESENT by Ben Davis D. Dominick Lombardi puts his mark on the apocalypse.

May 23, 2005	THE WILDER BUNCH by Ben Davis The artists associated with legendary L.A. dealer Nicholas Wilder.