Quick Compare| New York's Armory Show and Outsider Art Fair

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Both art events take place within weeks of each other
annually in New York City
Over this past weekend, artists, critics, galleries, collectors, and curators from around the world descended on New York to take part in America’s preeminent art fair, The Armory Show. Advertised as the leading fair devoted to the most important art of the 20th and 21st century, the event has become an annual fixture predicting many of the trends and interests of the art market and its network of dealers. Split into two main exhibitions (the Armory Show Modern and the Armory Show Contemporary) and a series of satellite shows around other parts of the city, the fair is open to the public and allows individuals a chance to peruse and purchase artworks ranging in value from hundreds to millions of dollars. In this sense, there is often a palpable love/hate relationship between contemporary artists and the fair since the primary interest of many attendees relates to the commercial aspects of the international institution. Paddy Johnson, art writer and founder of the popular Art Fag City blog, produced a wonderful summary of the event that captures the spirit of this tension-- she includes a Trendwatch report that includes an Armory Show Bingo Card featuring the common motifs of this year’s fair (apparently lots of neon, cubes, and the colour yellow).

The original poster for the first Armory Show in 1913.
A virtual tour of the first show can be found here
The spectacle and many conversations created around an art fair is of course part of the draw. The original Armory Show of 1913, from which today’s fair takes inspiration, was a pivotal moment in the history of American art when the public was first introduced to the art of modernism on a grand scale. With the many radical works exhibited, famously including Marcel Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase (1912), the goal was to challenge audiences accustomed to more figurative or realist approaches to painting and allow a new generation of artists articulate a modern vision in keeping with new European art movements such as Cubism, Fauvism, and Expressionism. Then, like today, the question of what constitutes “acceptable” and “good” art was largely decided within the complex network of artists, critics, curators, dealers, and galleries that held stakes in the outcome of how particular art was perceived. And then, like today, the issue of artistic transgression and pushing art beyond acceptable limits was also up for debate.

Still, what separates the original spirit of the Armory Show from its contemporary counter-part is its mainstream appeal. As a result, other kinds of art fairs have emerged in recent years to challenge the huge influence and residual impact of the Armory Show on the world of contemporary art.  Of these, the Outsider Art Fair (now in its 19th year) takes place in New York several weeks ahead of the Armory Show, creating a welcome contrast and new source of inspiration for many contemporary artists. Outsider art was a term originally coined to categorize a range of self-taught and “naïve” artists operating outside the institutionalized world of art schools and gallery systems. Today, the term has also come to connote a range of art practices that do not fit comfortably within the contemporary art parameters determined by an art fair like the Armory. Indeed, comparing the events (see the videos below) it is interesting to note the different kind of vitality and community engendered with the exhibition. As one New York Times art critic noted while covering the Outsider Art Fair, “For those of us caught up in the art world, it offers a corrective, or at least a temporary window into another world.”

You can compare these two video overviews of the recent 2011 Armory Show (Vernissage TV) and Outsider Art Fair (James Kalm Report):



Weekly Twitter Round Up

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March is traditionally the craziest month in my academic schedule, and this year proves no different. It seems that every weekend is filled with a new opening, student event, or must-see exhibition. Even so, it is wonderful to see the vitality of springtime take hold and the hard work of students take shape. I have been so impressed with the range of creativity coming out my classes and seminars—this truly is my favourite time of the term. Secretly however,  I am already looking forward to the summertime—final bookings for our trip to Europe had much of my past few weekends preoccupied—and it has certainly paid to get all of arrangements scheduled early. 

In terms of the Twitterverse, this past week proved that Twitter is as prone to the whims of celebrity as it is to the aims of protesters. Charlie Sheen somehow managed to attract just under two million followers after joining Twitter early in the week—this has to be some kind of a record and I am sure will keep the cultural studies people talking. And while his tweets are somewhat entertaining (in a sad and train-wreck kind of way), here are some of my (Sheen-free) favourites from the past week:

Van Gogh paintings as pie charts




"Sound Sculpture" A collection of essays by artists surveying the directions of sound sculpture. (1975)



Has Banksy Finally Been Photographed? - Moviefone UK




The architect's life: Frank Lloyd Wright's 10-point manifesto for his apprentices ("Fertility of Imagination")



Internet Sleuths Prove Qaddafi's Son Plagiarized His PhD Thesis




The recurring "exam nightmare.




The Bermuda Triangle of Productivity...is this what your typical day looks like?

Essential Reading| The Art of Art History

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The new 2009 edition of the book with an aptly chosen
picture of the Louvre Pyramid on the cover 
Art History is arguably one of the most disciplined of all the academic disciplines. This is an idea that was introduced to me very early in my graduate training and one that reflects the self-conscious nature and high stakes involved with how histories of art have evolved and become institutionalized within academia. To be sure, it is difficult to ignore the great degree of order and progression built into the “story” of art that unfolds within a typical undergraduate art history program. Students are still routinely faced with survey courses that attempt to seamlessly connect decades of historical development through engagements with significant art movements and, by extension, a limited range of art producers. And even while there are survey textbooks that have attempted to disrupt the progressive and modernist approach to the history of art and its many consequences (see my discussion on the Art Since 1900 series), art historians are often left with the job of intervening in their own teaching of art’s history to bring awareness to its highly constructed nature and the many embedded discourses within the written histories of art that can be sidelined.

I kind of miss the 1998 edition with a
section of Hans Holbein's Renaissance painting
The Ambassadors (1553) on the cover
As the next installment of my Essential Readings series, Donald Preziosi’s The Art of Art History attempts to bridge many of these concerns with an anthology of key texts that positions art history as firmly part of a broader intellectual historiography.  Beginning from the premise that art history has been written and rewritten since classical antiquity, Preziosi contextualizes the anthology with an important discussion about how the foundation of modern art history was part of a larger project to reposition and establish a particular understanding of art’s function in the late eighteenth century. Critically, Preziosi opens the anthology’s introduction “Art History: Making the Visible Legible” with a key assertion: “Art history is one of a network of interrelated institutions and professions whose overall function has been to fabricate a historical past that could be placed under systematic observation for use in the present.” Preziosi (an important and influential art historian in his own right) establishes and broadens this thesis through the 35+ key texts assembled for the book which read like an unfolding examination of the mechanisms of art history’s various networks and the kinds of themes and subjects that have most captivated and interested the discipline as a whole. Authors range from Immanuel Kant, Alois Riegl, and Michel Foucault to Mieke Bal, Rosalind Krauss, and Jacques Derrida.

I was first introduced to this text as part of a third year undergraduate methods and art theory seminar-- and yes, it is challenging. The thematically based chapters and readings could easily constitute their own separate courses. Still, I find myself returning to the book again and again as both a reference tool and as a point of departure to other key texts cited in the anthology’s extensive notes.  The first edition of this anthology appeared in 1998 and I still recommend checking it out for its comprehensive scope and cornerstone texts, but you can also purchase the most recent 2009 edition which has updated themes and includes an entirely new section on Globalization and a new concluding essay by Preziosi. While challenging-- the history of any history tends to be--I still believe the book essential to anyone interested in probing how art’s history has been (and continues to be) shaped. 

James Franco, Performance Art, and the Question of Pretentiousness.

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James Franco behind the scenes at the Oscars-- a Twitpic posted on his new blog
What happens when a graduate student becomes a celebrity performance artist and then agrees to host the Oscars? This and this and this is what happens-- and it is all happening to James Franco right now. Last year I pondered the cultural zeitgeist that had gathered around this seemingly midrange Hollywood actor who had catapulted himself to the center of attention in the New York art world. At that time, I posted about Franco’s uncanny ability to initiate dialogue about significant art theory discourse in unexpected ways and his apparent goal of subverting and exposing the mechanisms of celebrity culture. One of my students who is now working on an essay concerning the enigma of Franco’s approach to avant-garde gesture found a great YouTube clip where the actor’s appearance on General Hospital even includes the word and concept of “dialectic” in the script (see below). Franco, who plays the reoccurring role of the fictional "Franco" a multimedia artist like himself, has cleverly utilized the declining soap opera format as a stage upon which to enact his performative and possibly even Situationist inspired detournements. As Franco himself explains in a statement about his approach to art-making, “Performance art can seem pretentious, but it can also be quite mischievous and playful.”

Anne Hathaway and James Franco co-hosting the awards
was all about appealing to a "young and hip" demographic.
Franco tweeted and streamed live images from the event
(image courtesy of PopEater) 
But this approach clearly backfired Sunday night. Franco’s appearance as co-host at the Academy Awards (fitting with the “young and hip” demographic that the Academy is now targeting) resulted in some of the most scathing and personal attacks on any individual agreeing to the position, eclipsing even Ricky Gervais’s controversial performance at the Golden Globes last month. Part of the problem stemmed from Franco’s apparent disinterest and apathy with his duties, along with claims that he was unprepared, or worse yet, stoned. Clearly, for anyone who is familiar with Franco’s personal style and way of speaking on camera as himself, he was simply being himself. In that sense, it is unfair to think he would have magically transformed for the event, especially if asked to appear as a host.

Yet at another level, there was a way in which Franco appeared to deliberately thumb his nose at the traditions of the Oscars, and this was what sent most observers over the edge. But would anyone expect anything less of a self-declared performance artist working in the tradition of the avant-garde? His low-key and banal approach, his ironic tweets and live pics posted between commercial breaks, and his departure from Los Angeles immediately following the awards to get back to his PhD studies were not surprising moves. Still, his actions were mostly interpreted as signs of an overinflated ego and yes, indications of pretentiousness. Should he have pulled a Jean-Luc Godard and refused to participate? Perhaps. In any case,  it is clear that he may have underestimated how difficult it would be to navigate the clear contradiction of his chosen roles as Hollywood actor and contemporary artist in front of a billion people on live television.

Franco's colourful (and graffiti inspired) response to the Yale Daily News and a student critic
(image courtesy of IvyGate)

Not surprisingly, the most bitter commentary the past few days has come from within academia itself prompting questions concerning Franco’s integrity and aims as a visual/performance artist. The Yale Daily News (the college newspaper of Franco’s current university home) published a blog post critical of Franco and his intended use or overuse of social media, prompting Franco to post his own reply with a NSFW graffitied Twitpic (see above). Cokey Cohen, the student columnist who originally wrote the blog, responded by stating that “combined with his Oscars hosting performance and in accordance with the opinion of commenters on my last blog, I'm becoming convinced that James Franco's whole life is a form of postmodern performance art. In that context, his Twitter fits right in.” The Chronicle of Higher Education also joined the charge by publishing a series of sarcastic tweets about Franco created under the ironically titled #JamesFrancoFacts. Most telling however have been the comments appearing under all of these collective posts debating the merits of Franco as artist and cultural provocateur.

Once again, I am left to conclude as I did with my first post on Franco last year that I have taken the time to blog about all of this, so his strategies are still clearly paying off. And even if Franco damages his Hollywood career and academic reputation with what he pulled at the Oscars, only time will tell if he is in fact contributing to a successful practice as a performance artist. The conversations concerning art and subversion continue, and as long as they do, he succeeds.

James Franco as Franco on General Hospital followed by an assessment of James Franco as himself on Sunday night's Oscar telecast.