Robert Rauschenberg quote

Because life doesn’t have any other possibility, everyone can be measured by his adaptability to change.

On Clementine Gallery's closing

Neil Farber, Untitled, 2004
22.5 × 30 inches

Leave it to Chelsea Now to write the best article I've read on the closing of the beloved Clementine Gallery. Maybe the art press is too afraid to dwell on such stories. My favorite statistic in the article: the gallery needed to sell $80,000 worth of work each month to break even.

I chose the image above, from Farber's 2004 show at the gallery, in honor of our buying several of his works from the gallery in the 90s. I always loved sending people who were just starting out as art collectors to Clementine, as I knew Abby and Liz would treat them well.

Noah Lyon: Retard Riot buttons

Now available on the web.

Saving people from art that might require thinking

James and I were very proud to have Susan C. Dessel's work in the show we curated in 2006 at Dam, Stuhltrager. Now that work has had a second chance to be seen, at the Long Beach Island Foundation for Arts & Sciences, but the people that run it have chosen to put walls around it and warn people that it may "offend." See James's post for more information.

People don't seem to be too outraged that torture is committed in our name by our elected government, but they can certainly be upset by an artwork that might remind them of a world that's not as perfect as they would like to pretend.

rollerblades

Go to some fundraisers!

Two recommended benefits are coming up:

• This Monday May 12 you should join us for The Civilians' benefit titled "Paris Commune II Communards in the South Pacific."
• One of the best visual arts benefits in NYC is the annual raffle from Momenta Art, which happens this year at White Columns on May 21st. If you don't believe me, check out Edward Winkleman's post.

Event recommendations

Elevator Repair Service in "The Sound And The Fury"

James and I have been busy attending music and theater performances. Here are some recommendations:

• The New Georges (see earlier posts) present "Stretch", described as a fantasia about the final days of Rose Mary Woods, Richard Nixon's loyal secretary. You even get a live score for violin, trumpet, bass and IBM Selectric typewriter. Use code BLAST here for $16 tickets through May 14.
• The Elevator Repair Service, one of the greatest theater companies I know, are presenting "The Sound And The Fury" at New York Theater Workshop. Brave the evil Telecharge's "Broadway Offers" site here to get $20 tickets for Memorial Day Weekend. Anything starring Susie Sokol cannot be missed.
• There are still tickets left for Gotham Chamber Opera's "Ariadne Unhinged" this weekend, with music of Monteverdi, Haydn, and Schoenberg, production and choreography by Karole Armitage, and design by the artist Vera Lutter. We're going tonight.

On the subject of Off and Off-Off Broadway, check out The Playgoer on Christopher Isherwood's stupid attack on Off-Off, as if it's some kind of community theater. See, my visual arts readers? It's not only the visual arts that get this kind of random stupid articles from The New York Times. Do not miss the comments, especially that from sbs about the difficult relationship between Equity creative theater companies doing the best work in NYC including Elevator Repair Service and Target Margin.

[photo from the Elevator Repair Service website]

Beckett and Joyce

via

Race baiting

Lovely words from Hillary Clinton, via AMERICAblog. That sequence of "hard-working Americans, white Americans" is a gem.

This from today's USA Today:

"I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on," she said in an interview with USA TODAY. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article "that found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me."

"There's a pattern emerging here," she said.

303 Gallery - protecting its artists from the internet

Maureen Gallace at 303 Gallery (The Armory Show 2006)

Maureen Gallace at 303 Gallery (The Armory Show 2006)

Due to our previous coverage of "photography not allowed" policies, blogger and artist Mark Barry forwarded an email he just received from 303 Gallery regarding 2 images on Flickr from his set from the 2006 Armory Show. The photos were taken during the press preview.

From: Simon Greenberg
Date: May 7, 2008 10:06:33 AM EDT
To: mark@markbarryportfolio.com
Subject: Maureen Gallace image - flickr

hello mark -

this is simon at 303 gallery. i noticed you had an image of Maureen
Gallace's work up on your flickr page - please be aware that 303 Gallery
owns the copyright to the work and all public display of images, including
web content. if you could kindly remove this image from your page, it would
be most appreciated.

best
simon

This is one of the more infuriating things I have seen from an art gallery lately. Do the gallery's artists know that they're spending this kind of time trolling the web and harassing bloggers? It hardly seems like a good use of resources.

Related:

• A quote from Lisa Spellman, the owner of 303, on her apprecation of appropriationist art
• Mark's blog post on the 2006 Armory (but the images are only on flickr)
• Edward Winkleman post on galleries and photography -- don't miss the comments

[The two photos above are the ones referred to in the email.]

--

Updated: more blogs on the subject

• C-Monster
• Libby and Roberta's artblog
• Heart As Arena is brilliantly subtle
• Chris Ashley provides (admittedly needed) color correction for the images above