This weekend marks the conclusion of the magnificent David Hockney retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum, and also the journey of that show, both geographically and conceptually, through markedly distinct iterations in its originating venue, Tate Britain, and the Pompidou Center. But while its various outings placed greater or lesser emphasis on photography, drawing, multimedia works, stage works, portraiture, Etc., the overall characterization of Hockney as a tireless explorer was consistent. Less space was made available to the show in New York than in London or Paris, but that made no dent in the power of this presentation: it was, indeed, a small price to pay (for him and for us) for the honor of his sharing a roof with Rodin and Michelangelo, and by extension, Munch. In fact, the pleasure of seeing his stunning double portraits hang almost cheek by jowl in an almost domestic-feeling gallery accentuated appreciation of a series that occupied the intellectual heart of the Met exhibition. These and the legendary swimming pools and the sumptuous late explorations of Hollywood and Yorkshire landscapes were stepping stones on a journey through a multifaceted oeuvre that flowed more effortlessly, it might be argued, than Hockney’s peripatetic career itself. And yet it is telling to the notion of journey that the most memorable and (in my experience) remarked upon moments in this show were at its outset and conclusion: The charismatic exuberance of his “primitive,” graffiti-like student works (so much larger than one had ever imagined from reproductions) and the mesmerizing animated iPad paintings that ensured a crowded and lingering exit. Equally daring, in their varyingly experimental, critical, personal ways, these works revel in curiosity about living in the world and seeing it.

David Hockney, Metropolitan Museum of Art, November 27, 2018 to February 25, 2018

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A book published on the occasion of this exhibition includes essays by Eleanor Heartney, Stephen Westfall, Raphael Rubinstein and David Cohen, from the latter of whom the following paragraph is extracted:

His strategy entails means of generating isolated pockets of chance within a meticulously balanced, evolving order. Norton is able to draw on years of experience as a commercial house painter, as well of course as a fine artist. He starts a painting with a layer of transparent medium applied allover. The first intimation of a compositional structure is the chance pattern of brushstroke visible in the primed ground. Her refers to what commercial painters call “holidays,” the lesions or overlaps that prevent a brushless smooth surface. (In view of the noisy brood that a Norton composition will spawn it is worth recalling the words of Toru Takemitsu, that silence is the mother – or perhaps grandmother – of music.) As a non-volitional means of generating marks, canvases are often then laid on the floor where they accept studio droppings and stray flings of paint from other works in process. When he finds himself responding consciously to the emerging composition the canvas graduates to the wall. It is presumably at this stage that he becomes more acutely aware, and protective, of remaining clear ground. This ontology is significant as it reverses, or at least complicates, a causal notion of raw ground supporting cultivated or tolerated accumulations. The complexity brings to mind random pockets on an ethnographic or linguistic map where it looks like a stray group has settled whereas they are the remnant of the group that was already there.

Pictured: Sampling Time, 2016-17

C. Michael Norton: Infinity’s Sprawl at UNIX Gallery, 532 West 24th Street, New York City, October 26 to December 09; reception: Thursday, October 26, 6-8PM

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Megan Liu Kincheloe’s ‘Hodler Unfriendly Edit’ (2012) is on view in Kaegan Sparks’ eponymously sparky group show at the Brooklyn non-profit through Sunday, November 11. Also on view, works by Beyza Boyacioglu, Lizzy De Vita, Lanny Jordan Jackson, Daniel J. Wilson, Jonathan Rajewski, Ilene Godofsky, Elizabeth Duffy, Nicholas Warndorf, Ellen Grossman, Francisco Westendarp, Murphy Chang, Jess Levey, JaeWook Lee, Laura Arena, Cheryl Yun, Luke Munn, Ian Addison Hall, Robert Brush, Cassandra Guan and Eddie Hopely.

Prolonged Exposure: A Recession Art Exhibition, November 3 – 11, 2012 at Invisible Dog, 51 Bergen Street, 718 260 8688

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Born in The Netherlands and now resident in Brooklyn, Van Erve will show a monumental golden staircase, made from luxury materials, that visitors are invited to climb in his show at Accola Griefen, as well as sculpture that in one case bisects the gallery wall, and collages on paper. The Latin in the show’s title, Operae Pretium Est, translates loosely, “It is Worthwhile,” and refers both to the painstaking hand work required to realize the artist’s vision, and the relationship he perceives between the staircase in the gallery and stage settings for operas.

Rob Van Erve: Operae Pretium Est, September 6 to October 13, 2012 at Accola Griefen Gallery, 547 West 27th Street, 646 532 3488

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This event was featured in our October 2012 Listings

Artcritical editor David Cohen moderates a discussion between emerging painters Nathlie Provosty and Nicole Wittenberg as part of the Studio School’s legendary Evening Lecture series on Tuesday, October 9 at 6:30 PM. Provosty will stage her debut New York solo show at 1:1 Gallery, opening November 4; Wittenberg’s was held at Freight & Volume in the spring.

In Conversation: Nathlie Provosty and Nicole Wittenberg with David Cohen, Tuesday October 9, 2012, at The New York Studio School, 8 West 8th Street, 212 673 6466

 

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Russian-born Yuliya Lanina has been an artist-in-residence at the NY Studio Gallery since the beginning of this year.  The closing event of her solo exhibition of animations and their supporting sculptures and drawings, coincides with the Festival of the New City and features a performance of “Gentleman from Cracow,” a collaboration with husband-composer Yevgeniy Sharlat. The piece takes its cue from a short story of the same title by Isaac Bashevis Singer, and adds a distinctly old-world note to the utopian new world optimism of the festival.  On the other hand, Singer worked at the Daily Forward, whose offices are in the ‘hood.

Saturday May 7 at 7.30 pm

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