Contemporary Art Daily

Welcome to Week in Review, our Sunday round-up of the last 7 days of activity here at Contemporary Art Daily. It’s been an interesting week in the art world as the economic crisis continues to affect contemporary art. The new financial reality was demonstrated dramatically Wednesday with the revelation that the Museum of Contemporary Art probably lacks the funding to make it through the year. We’ve been following the events at Tyler Green’s Modern Art Notes, which has provided excellent coverage of this story since it broke. This weekend, L.A.’s chief art patron Eli Broad announced he would offer the troubled museum $30 million providing the rest of its board would contribute aggressively. I’m sure everyone is hoping for a quick and positive resolution for one of the world’s most important contemporary art institutions. We recommend Modern Art Notes for news about L.A. MOCA and the art world in general.

Keep in mind that when we post a show here, we’re effectively endorsing the show as worth looking at, although not every exhibition posted here is one we love. One of our goals is to offer a diverse mix of exhibitions, varying in medium, mode, region and visibility. We try to post painting shows and video shows, conceptual shows and emotive shows, shows from Los Angeles and shows from Belgium, shows from the Guggenheim and shows from relatively unknown galleries. That said, we do take a position each time we choose to highlight (or not to highlight) a particular exhibition. If you disagree with us (or, for that matter, strongly agree), please leave us a comment. Think Eileen Quinlan is a lightweight? Think Tetsumi Kudo is a freak? Strike up a conversation! We’ll be glad to answer questions or elaborate on a subject if the interest is there.

Editorial Comment:

One subject that comes to mind with this week’s shows is the lasting impact of Minimalism on contemporary art. Despite the dominance that conversations about relational aesthetics or the future of painting hold over the art world’s tongues these days, many artists are quietly adopting paired-down, serial approaches to the production of art.

Jonathan Monk applied serialism to a conceptual project about Martin Kippenberger, comissioning a group of Chinese artisans to produce copies of one of Kippenberger’s “Dear Painter, Paint Me” works. In doing so, Monk drew an anology between the systematized variation of an artist like Sol Lewitt and the subtle differentiation between the artisan’s renditions. Heimo Zobernig, in his second exhibition posted in the last two weeks, offered a subtle rejoinder to the prospect of the neutral grid on which much of Minimalism was based in a group of paintings that nevertheless took on the crisp affect of that movement. Eileen Quinlan has been working in repetitive series for some time, and installed her abstracted photographs in a clean, Minimalist row at Sutton Lane Paris. Contrary to her predecessors, however, Quinlan opted to include “Stone Roses,” a photograph whose subject is clearly visible, as a break from the focused scope of the other pictures. Michaela Meise, our first pick this week, is perhaps the clearest descendent, applying different colors to a repeated form of wood slats. With colors that feel chosen by Meise’s left brain, she furthers the sense that Judd is in the air; resisting the too-heavy traditions of sculpture or paintings, she fulfills his objectives with a fitting contemporary ambivalence.

In spite of its ideological origins, it may turn out that Minimalism’s key developments were strategic rather than philisophical. Simplicity and repitition have worn better than behaviorism.

This week’s featured exhibitions:

Michaela Meise at Richard Telles

“Review” at Galerie Neu

Heimo Zobernig at Christine Mayer

Jonathan Monk at Meyer Riegger

Moriceau & Mrzyk at Air de Paris

Kelley Walker at Paula Cooper

Gilbert & George at the Brooklyn Museum

“After October” at Elizabeth Dee

Eileen Quinlan at Sutton Lane

Lari Pittman at Barbara Gladstone

Rirkrit Tiravanija at Gavin Brown

Be sure to e-mail us with any tips, observations or complaints and comment on the shows you feel strongly about. Have an excellent week. If you like the service Contemporary Art Daily provides, consider supporting us by visiting our sponsors.