In these difficult times

Anish Kapoor, Shooting into the corner

I am walking into the British Council reception for Anish Kapoor, recently returned from his triumphant openings in India.  In order to get to the front door I have to pass under banners with the familiar British council logo waving happily alongside those for jaguar cars.  `I ask Julia Peyton Jones, director of the Serpentine Gallery if she thinks the cars belong to Anish and she says in her most dulcet tones, ‘in these difficult times’,   I repeat this to curator Hans Ulrich Obrist who is walking in beside her.  We decide that it could be the subject of every email being sent out from every arts organization worldwide at the moment. 

Anish Kapoor, To reflect an intimate part of red

Delicious martinis aside, the reception to honor Anish Kapoor, an English treasure went according to plan with speeches by William Hague, talking about the strengthening of relationships between countries through culture,  which would lead to stronger trade as well.  It was only when the marketing director of Jaguar got up to speak that true eye rolling was seen in the small audience.  Is it really appropriate to toll the virtues of a new car in the midst of a group of dignitaries that includes among others the head of the foreign office and foreign secretary.  I would love to see Anish in the context of India, however so I hold my peace. 

George Stubbs, Mare and Foals in a River Landscape

I remember this moment when I hear that there has been a new post created for Judith Nesbit, a Tate Curator.  In future she will be in charge of forging new partnerships, a buzz phrase you frequently hear today alongside the sharing of skill sets.  Usually this means sending people to foreign climes to install shows of European work while frolicking by the pool. 

Sir John Everett Millais, Dew-Drenched Furze

I have nothing against sharing culture with countries too poor to be able to have expensive museums- bravo to the Victoria and Albert and their Blackpool incentive -  but it seems to be that in this day and age it is our national treasures going to countries rich enough to have their own treasures and in a sense we are often imposing our national taste. Do the following works Thomas Gainsborough Sunset: Carthorses Drinking at a Stream circa 1760, George Stubbs Mares and Foals in a River Landscape 1763-8, John Constable The Grove, Hampstead 1821, Joseph Mallord William Turner The Golden Bough 1834 and Sir John Everett Millais Dew-Drenched Furze 1889-90 really sit well in Oman for instance. Tate Britain has lent  them as part of the beginning of a long term relationship.  Let’s clarify what this relationship is and then make some decisions based on whether the country thinks it is a good idea.  These works belong to us  after all. 

Get your house in order, Housego

It is not always that I remember when I first saw an artist’s work but in the case of Thomas  I do remember.  It was in 2006 at LA Artists from the Rubell  Family Collection one of the Rubell Collection openings.  It was Art Basel Miami week when  arted out from the fair I came into a room composed of several large menacing, seemingly primitive figures.  Coarse plaster figures, the faces were roughly drawn smudgy charcoal masks recalling the primitive faces from Picasso’s Demoiselles d”Avignon  their wrenched apart.  My reaction walking among them was of encroaching in someone else’s territory.  It was a place seemingly dangerous to enter but somehow worthy of exploration. 


I was impressed by the work enough to seek Houseago out when I next went to Los Angeles.  Gary Garrell, then at the Hammer, sent me to his studio in East LA and I spent a few hours with the red haired guy  born in 1972 in Leeds who arrived in  LA via studying in Holland .  Lured by his friendship with fellow artist to this part of East LA which the Standard where I was staying warned me from entering.

I liked his red haired palpable high- energy.  He told me he was married to an Italian woman and loved spending time in Florence studying Michelangelo.  How much his work related to the old masters and how much he owed to their influence.  There is also palpably a thread of European modernism in the work from Rodin and Picasso  through to England’s own Jacob Epstein.  He was impressive, fierce and committed.  At the time there was little in the studio as he told me he was between bouts of work.  He worked in two small rooms, building the plaster works on the floor face down so when he broke them loose he really did not always know what they would look like.  There was an element of risk that he liked.    He admitted that there was little work as recently he had sold a group of works to a hedge fund collector, Steven Cohen.  He was cleaning out and thinking about the next group.

After that my only contact with him was seeing his work at art fairs around the world.  His galleries grew in numbers and it was only when I stumbled on a large bronze on a Belguim gallery stand at Basel last year that I began to begin to question the quantity of his  output.  ‘Why bronze?’, I asked pointing at a rather glunky looking seated figure – ‘collectors wanted them for outside so they needed to be in different materials’.   Oops I thought.  Here is an artist who was all about transient materials, often found he had told me in skips in LA that he lugged back to the studio to await their moment .  He had related when a collector returned a work to be repaired as a cigarette pack had fallen out of it.  ‘Yes, I used whatever materials to make the plaster with that was handy.  I just restuffed it into the sculpture’.

Now Thomas has a show at Oxford MOMA.  I went to see it on a cold winter’s day.  The day before I had lunch with a young artist who said dismissively , ‘oh Houseago! You see them all over art fairs in the way you used to see Oursler’s everywhere or Reyles. 

The  first omens were not good.  The main large  room has one early work, the only early work in the show.  Crouching Figure from 1998.  There is something deeply wrong about this work but it is this wrongness that is right.  Ominous, awkward, hands cut off at  the wrists, getting close to it one feels that you are crowding a primeval form, pulsating with raw energy.

Nearby there is a pile of clay,  transformed into gilded bronze, looking strange and not very interesting.  Standing with Michael Stanley, the director points to the Clay Mountain 1 (Sun)  nearby, signs of an artist imprinted clearly.  This is like a work I had seen in LA.  Mounded on the floor, full of marks and incident and experimentation and alive.  Nearby a work, Biggest Spoon-outdoors (2010)  lies on the floor, inert and boring.  So it is a big spoon, so what?  This work is worlds apart from Crouching Figure nearby.  An artist intent on making works that can adorn collectors gardens.

It is not all bad here.  An impressive recent work, Baby stands alone in a nearby gallery.  Split apart showing the different methods of work that Hoseago has mastered.  Twirls of clay around the arms, braced with raw metal, split apart.  Drawn on.  Worked on.  Exciting. 

We go to lunch at the Ashmoleon, guarding  the stairs a Houseago sentinel, white bronze masquerading aa plaster its feet on the base awful awkward snowshoes to balance the stonking  bronze weight. Ugh. The jury is out - Thomas.

Artissima

Writing about another art fair could be boring- but this is Turin’s Artissima (17)  so there is a difference.   The difference is that this is a fair that is financially supported by the city of Turin,  a concept that would be foreign for London and Frieze or Paris and the FIAC. The depth of support is reflected in the subsidized purchase of works from the fair for a value up to 350,000 euros, the works chosen  destined  for the collections of the two major museums in Turin, Castello di Rivoli and GAM.

Francesco Manacorda

Francesco Manacorda is the new director for Artissima having taken over the role from Andrea Bellini,  now the co-director with Beatrice Merz of the Castello di Rivoli. Francesco was born in Turin and studied both in Turin and London where he later settled as a freelance curator before becoming the curator for the Barbican. While there he was responsible for the  "Martian Museum of Terrestrial Art" (co-curated with Lydia Yee, 2008) a highly regarded show that reflects his intelligent and innovative thought processes. Why Artissima? He says that he wanted ‘freedom from institutions.’

Francesco, like many other leading contemporary curators has been studying the ‘crossover of the arts,’ in particular literature, philosophy, science and dance. In order to house the now de rigeur cultural programme he commissioned the German cooperative RAUMLABOR to design a section of the fair which he hoped would provoke and entice a new audience to the fair. Words like Dance, Literature and Poetry now figure in all visual arts cultural programmes, and this one is no different.

Raumlabor's temporary sculptures

I like Francesco enormously and would like to report that this was an enormous success but feel that the programme is a ‘work in progress’ with many good lessons learnt.  Artissima has moved into a new hall this year with its new director.  It was formerly an ice skating hall for the winter Olympics and has that strangely slick, slightly corporate look, very different from the slightly shabby hall that was used the year before.  It is noticeably more spacious with more room between the aisles to meander in but which also has the down side of seeming more anonymous and less intimate.  

To this slightly antiseptic environment the German collaborative RAUMLABOR  have introduced recycled seediness into the aptly named, House of Contamination taking here  the form of a large temporary structure. Iron scaffolding which creaks and strains surrounds bails of recycled paper and cloth heaps of old clothes, emitting a slightly sour smell.  Here on old washing machines and fridges the literary programme is unrolled, while in a temporary theatre a series of dance troops recreate performances. 

Manacorda had a hard act to follow.  Last year, Andrea Bellini rolled out a performance marathon which I partook of fully. So fully, in fact, that by the end I was dazed and confused, but also exhilarated and turned on by the variety and intensity of the events performed in the various unique theatres of Turin.  I will never forget the GELITIN performance in the stunning Teatro Regio designed by Turinese designer extraordinaire  Carlo Mollino, culminating in not one not two but eleven golden showers followed in the same location the next evening by Michelangelo Pistoletto’s recreation of his famous 1960s work, Anno Uno—Terzo Paradiso. Incorporating many of the same performers or in some cases their children or even their grandchildren, the carefully choreographed event was a complete contrast to the anarchic  antics of the evening before.  Add to this, Jim Shaw’s, band, ‘A Tone, Meant for Your Sins, a homage to proto-punk group Destroy All Monsters that Shaw had formed  along with fellow artists Mike Kelley and  Niagara, and filmmaker Cary Loren, Matt Mullican, self hypnotic state and Cao Fei’s avatar live masturbating performers and you get some idea of what I saw.

 

Francesco’s programme included a recreation of Oskar Schlemmer-4 Reconstructions by Debra MacCall. It was nice but taking place next to the bazaar atmosphere of an artfair, no matter how polite a fair it is, it was hard to get into the  mood.

Jonathan Safran Foer's Tree of Codes

Later-perched on an old washing machine made it difficult to fully appreciate the beauty of New York writer, Jonathan Safran Foer’s newest work, Tree of Codes.  This slim tome illustrates Francesco’s desire for cross over, here Safran Foer transforms his favorite work of fiction, Bruno Schulz’s “Street of Crocodiles, into something more sculptural than literary.   Jonathan confirms that his  is not a new idea,’I took my favorite book, and by removing words carved out a new story. It was hardly an original idea: it’s a technique that has, in different ways, been practiced for as long as there has been writing — perhaps most brilliantly by Tom Phillips in his magnum opus, “A Humument.” But I was more interested in subtracting than adding, and also in creating a book with a three-dimensional life’.

John Stezaker

Wandering back into the gracious wide aisles of the fair there was lots however to cheer about. Back to the Future, produced mini one-man shows that included some real winners, some living, some dead.  I particularly liked the Lisson stand of John Stezaker  displaying his sculptural books - great or at least important imposing books – including Collected British Law,  enveloped by thick tarry gloop, books as you have never seen them before.

Franco Guerzoni

Franco Guerzoni an artist from Modena who I had never come across before.  I am transfixed by the work, decorative, in the same way as Christo yet none the worse for it.  Here are the insides of buildings, revealed by demolition, their archaeology picked out in geometric squares of paint.  Books appear too, in groups of photographs with collaged elements embedded into the surface.  In one a series of razor blades, in another the surface is filled with folded sheets of decorative paper.

There are discoveries to be made in the main fair as well.  Strong showings by Italian galleries is to be expected, and I like the stand by Gonzalez y  Gonzalez, from Santiago,  Chile, spearheaded by Jota Castro whose sculpture work here, Go Kids Go, consists of festive helium  balloons as seen at  children’s parties and shops around Latin America,  attached to bullets, both catch the eye and exercise the mind.  Castro comes originally from Chile but is currently based in Brussels.  He runs the gallery as almost an artists cooperative, reflecting the need for an outlet for contemporary art in Chile.  He says many of the artists on the stand have international representation but nowhere to show in their home. 

Balloons aplenty in the Castello di Rivoli with their Philippe Parreno installation, Snow Dancing-Speech Bubbles.  The top floor of the castello is filled with shimmering silver balloons in the shape of sound bubbles.  I talk to Philippe who tells me that he does not know how long the work will last.  Helium is unpredictable and  does funny things in different locations.  The speech bubble shape is not a new one for him, but silver is, and when I point out the Warhol connection he shoots back that it only came to him once the balloons were in place.  The balloons come out of the idea of procession and events, something that Parreno has been thinking about recently.  As a multi practitioner, Parreno makes films, drawings and performances, the vestigial balloons of an event, now past makes sense.  And they are pretty as they nestle in the rafters. 

Phillipe Parreno

The lower floors of the castle have been reinstalled, highlighting the depth and strength of the Castello’s permanent collection. Here is displayed the work of Massimo Grimaldi who presents his 10.000 euros.  winning piece  for the 2009 Fellowship for Young Italian Artists. The work, Emergency’s Paediatric Centre in Goderich  is explained to me by curator Marcella Beccaria of the Castello di Rivoli.   It is not the images of the hospital displayed here that is the work but the act of applying for the prize.  The cash award does not go in this case to Massimo Grimaldi the winner, but as per his instructions directly to the NGO, Emergency which uses the proceeds to build much needed hospitals in Africa.  Massimo has in the past raised some 750,000 euros this way and Emergency has build a hospital with the money in the Sudan.    I meet the artist and ask him where he has studied, and then answer the question before he can answer, Alberto Gerruti, the visionary teacher from Breara in Milan.  He looks startled at my prophecy but then I explain my reasoning.  Gerruti is an enabler, not an enforcing teacher and it is reflected in the work of his illustrious pupils, some now in the permanent collection including Paola Pivi and Lara Favoretta.  Massimo is an interesting artist, bucking the market strangle hold on much contemporary art.

I love this museum, it has both a wonderful building, view and permanent collection, and even when I don’t buy into their temporary shows totally, the current  show, the first under the leadership of Bellini and Merz,  by young British Curator, Adam Carr  Exhibition, Exhibition is not my favorite, there are some  great works  in it, including perhaps not surprisingly a strong show of Arte Povera verterans, Turinese artist, Giulio Paolini, Michelangelo Pistoletto and Giuseppe Penone.  Paolini’s work,  incorporates his first painting, ‘geometric drawing’ (1960) and one he made exactly 50 years later installed at either end of the super-size long room. 

Penone displays ‘Being River 6’d (1998) which at first seems to be merely two similar stones.  In fact, Penone found them in two different locations and carved the second to appear to be identical to the first.  A conceptual and rigorous idea which leads to a case of spot the difference.

 Pistoletto shows two photographic works, the conference, (1975) in which the viewer becomes the viewed and a floor work, Five Wells and interactive work in which the viewer is mirrored  in the work. Creating a situation where it is impossible to not see oneself while viewing the work. 

Not to be outdone there is work by a younger generation which captures the imagination including a double incarnation of Tino Sehgal a work from 2000 and like Paolini his first work provocatively entitled, Instead of allowing some things to rise up to your face dancing bruce and dan and other things.  And although a singular work,  Seghal uniquely allowed it here to be presented by two interpreters performing as per Seghal’s instructions the movements of Bruce Nauman’s ‘Wall Positions’ (1968)  and  Dan Graham’s  ‘Roll’, (1970).  It is powerful stuff, the integration of live performance into the gallery space.

Not to be intimidated by the Castello di Rivoli, local international art world player Patrizia Sandretto re Rebaudengo has established her foundation in a beautiful building designed by Calude Silvestrin Patrizia hosts shows bolstered by her impressive international collection  but  also embraces  other foundations working with contemporary art.  This time the focus is on young Russian artists, brought together by Francesco Bonami and ??? working with a new Russian foundation, the

The other fantastic thing about Artissima is that it is in Turin, a city so full of beautiful architecture, food and drink that it is not a penance to be there.  For the contemporary art  cultural tourist there is not only  the Castello di Rivoli and GAM but also Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo run by the perpetually glamerous Patrizia Re Rebedaungo. 

 I get stuck into Piedmoentese wines the moment I get there, one of my favorites is nebbiolo but there is also a case for Barbera d’asti, and the more revered barberesco.  My personal favorite a slightly sparkling red, Bonado.  Yum yum yum

Bruce Nauman for Beginners

Bruce Nauman, For Beginners

Angela Westwater and Gian Enzo Sperone’s new space may not be to everyone’s taste but there is no questioning the ambition that fuels it.  Now the question is whether artists will be able to impose themselves on what could be an overpowering space?   In the current exhibition by Bruce Nauman , ‘For Children/For Beginners’ Nauman has chosen to deal with the double height space with one deceptively simple video, of hands- his of course- every hang nail clearly visible from the mezzanine viewing space. The sound track is Nauman reciting the combinations of possible finger movements , providing the conceptual rules for the piece. 



Over the years of Nauman viewing we have been almost Pavlov trained to recognize the artist’s body.  Whether pressed up against a wall, muttering, pacing or rolling we  have become acclimatized but the scale here is awesome and the king sized hands compulsively moving capture our gaze.  

Bruce Nauman, For Beginners (Instructed Piano)

This is my first time in the finished space- I had seen it during construction- and I am  keen to sample the moving room, the very expensive Norman Foster solution to adding space to a narrow  problematic site.   Health and safety dictates an operator travels with you and Nauman has made the experience as uncomfortable as possible for repetitive viewing – or I should say listening- as the piece, ‘For Beginners-(Instructed Piano); is a sound piece of ear aching jangliness.  There are also some bouncy and twirling stools to sit on as we ascend and descend at agonizing slowness.  The sounds are  performed by a pianist following the same spoken instructions as the video work by moving the appropriate finger to play a note, but we, the viewer. do not get the sound of Nauman’s voice but only the jangling and discordant notes.  To add to our discomfort the speakers are hidden in the walls creating a room with sound that appears to be coming from nowhere -but these are not the sounds of skill but of torture.

Upstairs, another sound work,  of Nauman's voice recorded  repeatedly saying the words 'for children'.  Again   here are the sounds of nightmares not sweetness.

Bruce Nauman For Beginners

Bruce Nauman on his ranch, photograph Bart Eberly

After the opening comes the dinner, in this case conveniently round the corner and down a hidden alley way to a restaurant that is fearfully trendy and like so many other trendy places is serving retro comfort food.  All I can think of is bring back the ladies and the popovers.  After copious glasses of wine I ask Angela Westwater about  Nauman’s relationship to Cage.  ‘Everything comes from John Cage’.  Angela says   ‘Bruce would acknowledge the legacy of John Cage and then Bruce Nauman  influences everything after him’....  And the rest is history.  I fill in the dots.  Cage is everywhere and nowhere, and Nauman is very here tonight.