![]() ![]() MDF and polyurethane support containing 3 component objects comprised of some or all of the following: various putties, clay, Krazy Glue, pastel, tempera and spray paint, 1.75 x 5 x 5.5 inches. The press release for this very good show of mostly painting (titled “Early Man”) gets to the nub of things right off the bat, talking about “first artworks made by humans exist in a context-less void where artistic intention is indeterminate.” Among the very impressive work included is a fabulous Day-Glo painting that turns into a face that turns into a magic spell by newcomer Austin Lee (who debuted to such excellent effect at Postmasters last season), some small-scale gaudy beauties by Bjarne Melgaard, a wonder sculpture in the window by Theo Rosenblum, some recent wild-style knockouts by Katherine Bernhardt (who has been killing it every time out of late), and, most intriguing, a wall of Greek ceramic-painting style meets Japanese anime meets something two-dimensional and monstrous by Giovanni Garcia-Fenech, whose work I hadn’t seen but now yen to see more of, soon. Other than the great name and the always-edgy, underground, do-as-we-want attitude of this important gallery on the Bowery - run by former Jeffrey Deitch director Kathy Grayson, who has discovered her fair share of excellent artists and is always good for exhibitions roiling with righteous indignation and great activist politics - the Hole excels when showcasing a kind of gnarly-deviant figurative painting. Giovanni Garcia-Fenech, “Self-Portrait,” 2011. ![]() Zwirner’s current massive exhibition of West’s work from the 1990s - a crucial consolidating period for this wildly all over the place, incredibly influential, and still-fresh-feeling artist - finds Zwirner spreading his megascent all over West, and West looking fantastic for it (especially in the first two galleries of small pedestal works, almost as good in two more galleries devoted to wall works and other sculptures, and then sort of terrible - the way West was wont to do when not reined in a little - in the last gallery, with large standing sculptures of faces). One night in Chicago, a few years ago, late at night, at a table of well-known international museum directors and curators, the art dealer David Zwirner recounted his own genesis story, the massive, dark, negative gravitational event that made him transform his already-big gallery into a megagallery, explaining in passionate terms that after the late, great Austrian artist Franz West left him for Larry Gagosian, Zwirner swore that “this would never happen again” and that he “would grow as big as he had to to keep artists.” Then he challenged anyone at the table to disagree, which I did, saying that while West was a tremendous artist, he was also a serial gallery-leaver, that he had been with many galleries and had he not died first he might have left Gagosian for yet another gallery, and that at this point in their growth cycles there was no longer any real difference, except that of degree, between Gagosian and Zwirner, which caused my old compadre David to almost lose his shit on me. Photo: Adam Reich/courtesy of David Zwirner. The exhibition is organised by Tate Modern and the Centre Pompidou, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris.Franz West, “Element of the Environment – Alpenglühn,” 2001. He has been a vast influence on younger artists – his friend and collaborator Sarah Lucas has contributed to the design of the exhibition. Born and based in Vienna, West collaborated with numerous artists, musicians, writers and photographers. In his final years he produced large, brightly coloured and absurd sculptures both for galleries and public spaces. ![]() He also created playful sculptures incorporating objects from everyday life such as a hat, a broom, or even a whisky bottle. They were a turning point in the relationship between art and its audience. Visitors to this major retrospective will be able to handle replicas of his Passstücke (Adaptives) – papier-mâché pieces made to be picked up and moved. His abstract sculptures, furniture, collages and large-scale works are direct, crude and unpretentious. Franz West (1947–2012) brought a punk aesthetic into the pristine spaces of art galleries. ![]()
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