a cursory recap, because that's the only kind i have the discipline to do:
Jenny Holzer, "For Chicago," 2008, at the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY
Jenny Holzer: i really didn't/don't know anything about her, except that apparently she likes to do politically engaged/charged work. she incorporates text into many of her pieces, which i enjoy, and in this latest installment (and perhaps in others, i don't know; like i said, i'm not familiar with her œuvre), she'd appropriated previously classified documents from US military intelligence and chopped them up and reconfigured them. alternating between scrolling blinking LED marquees (so mesmerizing and really cool!) and mounted blowups-cum-'canvases', she displays bits and pieces of these documents to reveal...well, you get the point. stuff we civilians~ don't normally get to see or think about. i stood at the scrolling tunnel for quite awhile, reading its narrative and just...feeling at once entranced and appalled by what i saw, what i was reading:
Installation view of Jenny Holzer: PROTECT PROTECT (March 12, 2008 – May 31, 2009) at the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY, ©2009 Jenny Holzer
[photos from here and here]
the NY Times tells a better story than i, obvi: Sounding the Alarm, in Words and Light
Claes Oldenburg: -deflates-
Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, "Soft Viola," 2002
ok ok, all jokes aside, i was a little disappointed. i don't know what i was expecting, but apparently something...with grandeur. with stated sophistication, and...elegance? i don't know why. again, i am wholly unfamiliar with Oldenburg's work, save for that slide of the plaster burger or what have you that was subsequently photographed and ~made an art all its own~...hahaha. *eyeroll* but i'll just chalk it up to my own lack of knowledge regarding this particular artist's work, his legacy and influence etc etc. i did enjoy his drawings and sketches that were on display -- a sampling of which can be found here: Jill Krementz Photo Journal - Oldenburg & van Bruggen
Claes Oldenburg, "Giant BLT (Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato Sandwich)," 1963
"Photoconceptualism 1966-1973": i was really pleased! :D
Bruce Naumann, "Waxing Hot," 1966
saw a lovely sampling of Bruce Naumann's photos, a playful selection in which he explored puns and dallied in muted, whimsical colours. very much my thing on some days. i don't know, photography's a tricky area for me to navigate, but i guess that's just cuz i'm a fickle pickle.
Mel Bochner, "Photographs 1966-1969," 1966-69
also spied an interesting series by Mel Bochner, who took a piece of glass and alternately smeared Vaseline and shaving creme on it and hired a photographer out of the phone book to photograph them in "a way that makes it beautiful" -- i was very tickled by this, as there's something decidedly Duchampian about having someone else do the actual photographing and then signing your name to a work. they turned out well.
and surprise of surprises, what did i spy sandwiched between a Dan Graham (ugh) and a Wegman (??) but a couple of Gordon Matta-Clark's Thresholes! *eyes glaze over* awww, truly a lovely little treat, brought memories of Rosalyn Deutsche's class flooding back. and then i thought about what a tragedy it is that he died so young, and that of course brought Ana Mendieta to mind, and i grew rather somber and downcast. but no matter; i drafted a note to Professor Deutsche in my little red notebook, and i also drew up a list of artists to Wikipedia. yes, i do use that as a verb. and you can too!
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browsing Picture Postcard, saw this:
Marilyn Minter, "Little Egypt" (detail), 2002
took my breath away.
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