Comments on: Art Fag City at the L Magazine: Ryan McGinley at Team Gallery

By: Linsmith3

Linsmith3 — Thu, 08 May 2008 16:54:06 +0000

I looked at the work online. It’s cliche and repressed. The light and the color is indeed pretty. Not beautiful, but pretty. He should move/stay in commercial fashion photography with this kind of work.

By: Art Fag City

Art Fag City — Thu, 08 May 2008 17:10:03 +0000

I completely agree.

By: KitFontaine

KitFontaine — Fri, 09 May 2008 02:35:27 +0000

Two grimy hipster thumbs up for that review.

Justine Kurland, Sally Mann, Anthony Goicolea and Anna Gaskell (to some extent) shoot great figurative work that doesn’t rely so heavily on “slacker chic” to be successful.

70s B-porn already did this and did this better.

By: KitFontaine

KitFontaine — Fri, 09 May 2008 08:39:51 +0000

Oh wait, duh. I knew it looked familiar.

It’s Abercrombie and Fitch for hipsters.

By: reportage

reportage — Fri, 09 May 2008 16:17:41 +0000

great review. I can’t dismiss his work enough although maybe i would enjoy it more if there were a greater number of pictures featuring Dakota.

By: Art Fag City

Art Fag City — Fri, 09 May 2008 16:23:53 +0000

Yea, I too feel like those are the strongest shots.

By: reportage

reportage — Fri, 09 May 2008 16:26:41 +0000

i wonder if she’d be too dificult for him to work with on an extended project, or even if they’re still friends.

Are any of these people still friendly with him after these long exploititive journey’s?

By: Art Fag City

Art Fag City — Fri, 09 May 2008 16:31:50 +0000

Well, they get paid now, so I suspect they are still friends. He told the Times a 3 month shoot costs him $100,000.

By: tom moody

tom moody — Sun, 11 May 2008 14:09:29 +0000

It’s interesting to compare a body of work like this to Richard Kern’s. Kern makes no bones about having a jones (hey a rhyme) for the beauty of women of a certain age (20s). And his models seem to enjoy being themselves and being “hot.” In a way his work is more pornographic for being so fixated on that kind of obvious beauty, but ultimately more honest for not having this traveling roadshow of paid friends creating a vision of a Nan Goldinesque unrepressed lifestyle-cum-Garden of Eden-cum-nudist camp that has “good photographic values” and just coincidentally happens to appeal to the prurient desires of art world collectors, advertising consumers, and their assorted respective procurers. The Team press release describes McGinley’s process of sitting around with his models studying old nudist camp photos as a way of planning the day’s shoot–this suggests the worst kind of poMo calculation as opposed to just enjoying a hard-on. (Now that I think of it, the hard-ons of McGinley’s earlier work are notably lacking here–maybe it’s the drugs.)

And hmmm, your last post on McGinley brought his defenders out in force. Where are they?

By: Art Fag City

Art Fag City — Sun, 11 May 2008 15:19:33 +0000

Kern is a really good counter point to this I think because his work is completely unapologetic for his interest in sex and young girls and thus, as you say a little more honest for doing so. I just don’t see any reason to be spending 100,000 for a three month shoot, when McGinley did it before for free and with better results. The work feels like it’s made for collectors.

I don’t know where the McGinley defenders went for this post either. It seems pretty unlikely that any of this conversation would disrupt the, “they’re the most beautiful photographs I’ve ever seen” arguments that tend to be made in the comments of this blog.

By: Tema Stauffer

Tema Stauffer — Mon, 12 May 2008 13:15:32 +0000

I think you summed it up well and I was glad to hear some of my own thoughts and irritation about this work put to words. I find his celebrity and success an embarrassment to art world, especially since there are gay artists making work of real substance and this is what gets celebrated.

By: libhomo

libhomo — Sun, 18 May 2008 20:32:40 +0000

I’ve been fascinated by McGinley’s ability to convey a sense of mischief in his photographs that I’ve rarely seen from anyone else.

By: Paul Pincus

Paul Pincus — Mon, 19 May 2008 22:06:38 +0000

I don’t think anyone needs to defend Ryan.

I believe if you think a photograph such as “Falling Cornfield” is one of the most beautiful photographs you have ever seen…why not say so?…as I did : )

I find it hysterical that the comments about Ryan AND Ryan’s work are always so mean-spirited…I hope he’s not losing any sleep!