TODAS LAS CAMPANAS FROM MARTIN CREED
Beloved Scottish conceptual artist Martin Creed comes to San Juan, Puerto Rico, for a bell-ringing performance called All of the bells in a city or town rung as quickly and loudly as possible for three minutes (or in Spanish, Todas las campanas en una ciudad o pueblo sonando tan rápido y duro como sea posible por tres minutos). Slated for Oct. 20-21, 2006, the piece is a collaboration among the Candela Art & Music Festival, Escuela de Artes Plásticas, Galeríía Comercial, Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, Mima and César Reyes and SunCom. An additional attraction: Creed’s band Otawa -- now known as Martin Creed and his band -- plays on Saturday in the plaza in Old San Juan. For details, see www.candelafest.com and www.galeriacomercialpr.com
POLLOCK IN WISCONSIN?
Beloit Auction Services in Beloit, Wis. is putting on the block a painting that may or may not be a work by Jackson Pollock, to be featured as the centerpiece of the estate auction of architect Lynn Anderson, Oct. 25, 2006. According to info on the Beloit website, the unsigned 7 1/2 x 24 inch work -- a vertical picture with yellow, black and red drips of paint on a brown background -- has words on the back reading, "Bought in NY 1959 or 60," followed by Anderson’s initials and then the name, "Jackson Pollock."
A protégé of Frank Lloyd Wright, Anderson is known to have traveled to New York in the ‘50s and ‘60s, though he is now sick and his family cannot confirm the work’s provenance. The auction house is offering no appraisal nor guarantee of authenticity prior to the sale, though interested parties can view the work Oct. 24-25 at the auctioneer’s Wisconsin headquarters. The painting is currently on display in a glass case, alongside firearms, china, tools and other items from the sale.
ARTISTS COLORING BOOK FOR HOSPITAL KIDS
RxArt, the nonprofit founded by former dealer Diane Brown to bring the arts to hospitals, has published Between the Lines, a new 112-page coloring book featuring drawings by over 50 artists, to be distributed free of charge to children in hospitals. Artists range from John Baldessari and Will Cotton to Laura Owens and Andy Warhol. The coloring book makes its debut during Art Basel Miami Beach at the Polo Ralph Lauren store at 740 Collins Avenue in South Beach, Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2006. A limited number of copies of Between the Lines are expected to be available for purchase for $17 per copy, with proceeds to benefit RxArt, from D.A.P.
NEW BOSTON ICA TO OPEN
The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, unveils its new $62-million, 65,000-square-foot waterfront facility, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, on Dec. 10, 2006. The new building triples the exhibition space of the previous facility and includes a 325-seat theater. Opening exhibitions -- with free admission, from 9 am to 9 pm -- include "Super Vision," Dec. 10, 2006-Apr. 29, 2007, an exploration of "the thrill and the threat of vision without limits," via works by 27 artists, including Anish Kapoor, James Turrell and Julie Mehretu; Argentine artist Sergio Vega’s Tropicalounge installation, Dec. 10, 2006-Mar. 11, 2007; Chiho Aoshima’s The Divine Gas, a monumental mural in the lobby, Dec. 10, 2006-Oct. 28, 2007; and an exhibition of four local artists who are finalists for the 2006 ICA Artist Prize.
KEMPNER CLOTHES AT THE MET
The Metropolitan Museum in New York is throwing its galleries open to "Nan Kempner: American Chic," Dec. 12, 2006-Mar. 4, 2007, an exhibition devoted to outfits worn by the late queen of Manhattan’s socialite a-list, or rather, "the strategies of dress implicit in the creation of the personal and distinctive style of a woman celebrated for her fashion sense," as the museum’s press release puts it. Among the 75 ensembles on view are clothes by Oscar de la Renta, John Galliano for Christian Dior, Jean Paul Gaultier, Karl Lagerfeld for Fendi, Lanvin, Yves Saint Laurent, Emanuel Ungar and Valentino, plus accessories by JAR, Verdura and Kenneth Jay Lane, among others. The exhibition is organized by Harold Koda.
RENAISSANCE SOCIETY ON YOUTUBE
In the 21st century, it’s all about YouTube! Chicago’s Renaissance Society has posted a 10-minute documentary about its current show with Dutch sculptor Avery Preesman, Sept. 17-Oct. 29, 2006, on the web at YouTube. The low-key clip -- a collaboration with Chicago Access Network Television -- features the sculptor chatting with museum director Susanne Ghez, curator Hamza Walker and critic Lawrence Rinder, as a variety of assistants create his artworks in the background.
ROGER CORMAN DOES EDGAR ALLAN POE
Legendary B-movie director Roger Corman has made eight movies based on stories by the great fabulist Edgar Allan Poe, seven of them starring the late actor Vincent Price. Now, the Drkrm Gallery in Los Angeles is presenting "Nevermore: A Photographic Exhibition of the Edgar Allen Poe Films of Roger Corman," Oct. 21-Nov. 18, 2006, a selection of photos from the David De Valle Archive of House of Usher (1960), Pit and the Pendulum (1961), Premature Burial (1962), Tales of Terror (1962), The Raven (1963), The Haunted Palace (1963), The Masque of the Red Death (1964) and the Tomb of Ligeia (1964). Prices range from $50 to $500. For more info, see www.drkrm.com
NEW YORK TIMES ART CRITIC WATCH
The recent departure of New York Times critic Ken Johnson for the Boston Globe has resulted in a rare opening in the insular world of art criticism, and several new (and not so new) bylines have recently appeared over reviews on the art pages of the paper of record. Word is that chief art critic Michael Kimmelman wants not one but several successors to the estimable Johnson, all of whom are working freelance at a rate insiders say is 30 cents a word (or is that $1 per word? Sources disagree).
So far, Artforum magazine critic (and Echostar indie musician) Martha Schwendener has reviewed Jessica Stockholder (a "renegade formalist") and Albert Oehlen (whose forms seem to her to be "simultaneously drawn and erased"), and Time Out NY art editor Andrea Scott has reviewed Donald Baechler (a "gee-whiz approach"). Jeffrey Kastner, a longtime contributor to the paper, has also popped up in the reviews section lately, covering Barnaby Furnas ("dark violence" and "moments of surprising delicacy") and Jesper Just ("coolly gorgeous and self-consciously cryptic").
And Benjamin Genocchio, who has written about art for the Times regional editions for several years, turned up in the arts pages this week as well with a long review of the "Eye on Europe" print and multiples exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art.
LUCIE AWARDS ANNOUNCED
The Lucie Awards for excellence in photography will be given out Oct. 30, 2006, in a ceremony at the American Airlines Theater in New York, hosted by comedienne Caroline Rhea of TV’s The Biggest Loser. This year, the awards -- which don’t offer a cash purse, but have in the past featured a hodgepodge of celebrity presenters like Dan Rather, Brendan Fraser, Debbie Harry and Andie McDowell -- are produced by the beer company Pilsner Urquell, which also sponsors the International Photography Awards. This year, honors go to French-born artist Sarah Moon for "Achievement in Fine Art," and flamboyant chronicler of the Swinging ‘60s David Bailey for "Achievement in Fashion." Other winners are Japanese photographer Eikoh Hosoe, who gets the "Visionary Award" for his images of architecture, Willy Ronnis for "Lifetime Achievement," Neil Leifer for "Achievement in Sports," Roger Mayne for documentary, Duane Michaels for portraiture, Marc Riboud for photojournalism and Albert Watson for advertising. More info about the ceremony is available at the Lucie website.
RHOADES DEATH RULED ACCIDENTAL
The death of Los Angeles artist Jason Rhoades, who died at age 41 on Aug. 1, 2006, was caused by accidental drug intoxication and heart disease, according to the Los Angeles County coroner’s office. The determination was made by an autopsy conducted on Sept. 8, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times. A spokesperson for the coroner’s office said that it had not yet received a list of medications that contributed to the artist’s death, and also said that Rhoades was suffering from atherosclerotic coronary heart disease.
MARCIA TUCKER, 1940-2006
Marcia Tucker, 66, founder of the New Museum of Contemporary Art, died of cancer at her home in Santa Barbara, Ca., on Oct. 17. Born in Brooklyn, Tucker was a curator at the Whitney Museum (1969-77), where she co-organized "Anti-Illusion: Procedures/ Materials" (1969), a major show of process and materials art, and later put together exhibitions of works by Lee Krasner, Joan Mitchell, Bruce Nauman and Richard Tuttle, among others. At the New Museum -- one of the biggest and best results of the "alternative space" movement of the 1970s, which has also given us P.S.1 and the Kitchen -- she oversaw the notorious "Bad Painting" exhibition. In more recent years, she had performed as a stand-up comic under the name Mabel McNeil, or "Miss Mannerist," and worked on a memoir, titled A Short Life of Trouble.
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