Frank Stella, Riallaro (Imaginary Places I), 1995
Good morning art reads:
1. As Art News explains, Donald Judd and Frank Stella are set to be on our minds this year, peppering the earth with a number of shows where we can size them up. I find that I think a lot about Judd. He rises like a totem in studios and comes into discussions with artists often; when artists think of rigor, they think of Judd, when they think of late modernism, they think of Judd. That said, perhaps it is Stella that will teach us the most lessons this year. I admit my knowledge of him consists of about twenty years of work, followed by decades of blurring colors, spinning shapes, computer interventions, and collisions of metal that is hard to assess. I am not sure what will come of it, but I am eager to see all of Stella.Though I talk about Judd more, I admit I see Stella's later idiosyncrasies more often in contemporary art. Laura Owen's celebrated show at Mission Road two years ago, for instance, had many of the weird optical techniques and jarring colors found in Stella's later work. My guess that the more young painters go digital, the more relevant Stella will become:
http://www.artnews.com/2015/07/10/what-you-see-is-what-you-see-donald-judd-and-frank-stella-on-the-end-of-painting-in-1966/
2. I always forget about the Oxford American. I shouldn't. The writing is fantastic and interesting and often strange. Here is a link to an article about Florida, namely the chain of events that led to its reputation as a place which always attempts yet rarely achieves paradise. If your knowledge of Florida consists of Uber rides to parties at Art Basel and opinions about which satellite fair is slightly better than awful, this article is a proper explanation about why you join a long line of rich misanthropes who should be happier at home:
http://www.oxfordamerican.org/magazine/item/628-the-pleasure-domes-of-florida
3. The Criterion Collection's release of three films featuring the collaboration, partnership, and life-long friendship of Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory is an event. The films are all groundbreaking and all a testament to careers in art that do not exactly take the prescribed path. Howard Hampton gives an introduction to My Dinner with Andre, Vanya on 42nd Street, and A Master Builder in Artforum, an essay that positions Shawn and Gregory nicely but also begs for further contextualization. I, for one, want to seek out an essay on each of these films in addition to what Hampton has already said. Luckily, The Criterion Collection has an essay on all three:
http://artforum.com/film/id=53348
4. In case you missed it, this is great trivia about Agnes Martin:
http://blogs.artinfo.com/lacmonfire/2015/07/09/art-fact-agnes-martin/
Video of the week
5. "I haven't been a human being, I've been a performer."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7BI3bvNKdU
There is enough in that clip to chew on for a lifetime.
Poem for the week:
6. Speaking of never really looking at the picture, I've always heard of James Tate, but I never explored him deeply. It happens all the time. I seem to tell myself that certain artists are properly part of my life, that I am properly involved with the meaning of culture, but there is always someone like Tate who exists in the background, someone who people know about and therefore I pretend to know about. It is a sham. If one hasn't looked hard enough, one should look hard enough. I think I will now, as it happens when someone passes away. Here is a wonderfully dark and serious and funny poem by Tate that I will hope to be the tip of an iceberg to sink my life (the proper role of poetry after all):
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse/185/4#!/20606862
One Click Deeper:
7. Tate's obituary in the Paris Review:
http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/07/09/james-tate-1943-2015/