Artistic director of Art Basel resigns - The Art Newspaper

Cay Sophie Rabinowitz, who was appointed artistic director of Art Basel and Art Basel Miami Beach less than a year ago, has resigned from the fair with less than five weeks to go to her inaugural edition. Via: Bloggy

Exegesis

Richard Kern is a great photographer

Eyeteeth: A journal of incisive ideas.: I’m Banksy.

This is pretty funny.

ArtCal - Upper East Side - Goethe-Institut - Hommage a Walter Benjamin

Generally speaking the involvement of Nathalie Angles bodes well for any project. The exhibition looks promising.

Executive Director Brian Newman and some of this year’s Media Arts Fellowship recipients 

The Tribeca Film Institute announced the recipients of its 2008 Media Arts Fellowships yesterday at their cocktail gala.  Supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, many artists may better recognize the granting organization name Renew Media, which no longer reads in the announcements because it joined the Film Institute earlier in the year.

I attended the reception yesterday, not only because the program awarded $715,000 to film makers and media artists, but because this year I had the pleasure of being a panelist.  This year’s new media grantees include Sharon Daniel, Joe Davis, Josh On, C.E.B. Reas, Michael Rees, and Paul Vanouse. Film and video fellows are Julianna Brannum, Andrew Bujalski, Daniel Carrera, Cherien Dabis, Jacqueline Goss, Judith Helfand, Braden King, Billy Luther, Shirin Neshat, Hugo Perez, Laura Poitras, Dee Rees, Jennifer Reeves, Naomi Uman, Lauren Woods, and Jessica Yu.

On a more personal note, I’d like to thank the Tribeca Film Institute for providing such good lunches while we deliberated over the grantees.  As someone who undoubtedly does think better with a pastry in hand, i’m happy to report that the review process was never hindered by a lack of sugar intake.

Artworld Salon - Of stocks & markets

“To me the key question that will determine whether the Art market suffers a major correction, as in 1990, or a gentle slowing of the current manic rise is the degree to which there is speculation amongst the current buying community.”

Admittedly this has little to do with art, but who could resist republishing that headline?  The Toronto Star reports a Canadian study commissioned by the conservative party finds widespread support for Ottawa using  Web 2.0 programs and strategies to more effectively reach the population.

“Adoption of Web 2.0 applications represents an opportunity to transform the `face’ of the government of Canada, to make it appear more approachable and more responsive to Canadians,” says the report’s summary.”

Speaking to popular applications explored for use,

“The survey warns that Facebook and YouTube users log on primarily for entertainment and recreation purposes and would not expect, or necessarily want, to meet official government missives in this “private” space.”

I guess there’s some resistance on the part of Canadians in investing tax payer dollars to create a Canadian Public Service Agency fan page, or a policy status widget.

Tema Stauffer, Ward Bond, “Wagon Train”, Hollywood, CA, April 2007

It was only a matter of time before Ward Bond was featured in our masthead, even if he ultimately comes in the form of wax figure documentation. Not that I have any specific connection to cowboys, it’s just once presented with the option of being personified by one, I couldn’t let the opportunity pass. Art Fag City’s new noble face comes courtesy of photographer Tema Stauffer, who notably has taken more than one pony related picture. Aside from her recent cowboy series, White Horse 2007 [below], is a favorite, as is the dog art she shot in 1999 (not a pony but I mention it on account of the fact that it’s hilarious!)

Shooting animals, landscapes, and people across the country, it’s hard not to describe the work as American in style, though I do so reluctantly given the imprecise nature of the term. In this case, I mean to describe the plain spoken nature of the photographs; what you see is what you get, in all its glory, grit, and whatever else Stauffer decides to throw in. For the next two weeks at AFC it happens to be Ward Bond, but visit her website and you’ll see a lot more.

Artist Biography

Tema Stauffer is a photographer based in Brooklyn. She graduated from Oberlin College in 1995 and received a MFA in Photography from The University of Illinois at Chicago in 1998. Her work has been shown in galleries and art institutions in Chicago, Minneapolis, San Diego, Philadelphia, New York City and Rouchechoart, France. Her solo exhibition “American Stills” was shown at Jen Bekman Gallery in 2004, where she has also participated in seven group shows. The Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College selected fifteen images from this body of work for their Midwest Photographers Project. Tema has been featured twice on 20×200, (here and here), and she teaches at The School of the International Center of Photography.

Stauffer’s Blog: Palmaire

John Constable

Constable’s Skies, an exhibition at Salander O’Reilly Galleries in 2004 evoked idle questions amongst dealers I knew at the time wondering how the gallery could afford to mount a show in which nothing was for sale. I didn’t care then. The collection of paintings was undoubtedly one of the best I’d seen — causing that kind of flip flop you get in your chest when you see works of such astounding beauty and grace — and remains so to this day. Coincidently, I’m not the only one who recalls the show in light of the gallery closure, forced bankruptcy and leins; Men’s vogue just published an article which cites Roger Kimball, a writer for the Wall Street Journal asking the same question.

Speaking of which, not since Vanity Fair’s expose on Michael Jackson’s estate in 2003, have I read such a thorough report on the business and personality details leading to Lawrence Salander’s financial troubles. Kelly Devine Thomas runs through it all in this piece; Salander’s deep personal investment in art, and his strategies in building a stronger market for 12th to 18th century art works, but also what seems near irrational shock that those who lost money or art works would feel so betrayed, and a lavish life style contradicting his claims that his practice was never about money.

The article goes on to detail a variety of financial problems ranging from the nearly 80 million owed in debts, and the unopened show Masterpieces of Art Salander had gambled making close to half a billion on, to a laundry list of disputes the dealer had with his business partners and clients. Amongst the more egregious wrong doings was the unauthorized sale of art works owned by others. And of course, given the number of ownership claims now coming in, as anyone who’s worked in the secondary market for any length of time knows, sorting them out in gallery of that size is exactly the nightmare Thomas describes. To cite just one example, seemingly countless permutations of Bonnard’s nudes exist all titled similarly. Given the variation that occurs when recording size and title, even the most fastidious of us would have problems figuring out who owns what.

Oddly, I still found it hard not to feel sympathy for the dealer. Even in the face of impossibility the man genuinely seemed to believe he would pay off his debts. Thomas closes on a rather down note quoting Salander himself, “My intent was always to pay,” he [says]. “No one is starving here. The injured parties are owed what they are owed, but they made a lot of money with me over the years.” He points to Myron Kunin. “I sold him most of his pictures,” Salander says. “I sold them to him and then sold them for him. I made him a fortune.”

To read the full article click here.

Visual Arts at The Banff Centre

The Banff Centre Fall 2008 Visual Arts Residencies Call for Applications. Via: Art and Education

globeandmail.com: France seeks to jail promoters of ‘excessive thinness’

"The French government has decided those shocks were not enough to dissuade more young women from starving themselves in pursuit of an unhealthy idealized beauty. It wants to put those who promote anorexia in jail."

ArtCal - Chelsea - Casey Kaplan Gallery - Liam Gillick, The State Itself Becomes A Super Whatnot

Hate the press release not the art

ArtCal - Midtown - Gering & Lopez Gallery - Dan Flavin and Josef Albers

This looks great!

YouTube - Stand Up Tragedy X

For Canadian readers, or those Americans wishing to learn a little bit more about the various political disfunctions up north. "2008 TTC Strike Extravaganza! Learn more about Toronto, Canada, and our brutal public transit situation"

ArtCal - Chelsea - Kravets/Wehby - Robert Colescott, Dulacrow’s Masterwork: A Mockumentary Film from 1976

Looks subtle and nuanced.