After a long, interrupted hiatus....

I plan to this week update the world (all three of you) upon our trip last week to NYC. This is a good start to the catching up on my blog.


I must begin with the fact that last Friday was a full moon- apparently the largest/ closest in a whole long time. Because of the moon, the train from NJ to NYC stopped in Princeton for an hour and a half. Better yet, the whole service was shut down for that time. Fast forward past the stress and such to us at the MoMA where currently on exhibit for which I saw are Picasso: Guitars 1912-1914; Pictures of Women:A History of Modern Photography; Staging Action: Performance in Photography Since 1960; & Abstract Expressionist NY. Here is a taste of some of my favorites:

Matthew Barney: Cremaster 3: Garry Gilmore 2002. Courtesy of the MoMA.
This whole series is really cool, check it out here: http://www.cremaster.net/#

Pablo Picasso. Still life with Guitar. Variant state. Paris, assembled before November 15, 1913. Subsequently preserved by the artist. Paperboard, paper, string, and painted wire installed with cut cardboard box, Overall: 30 x 20 1/2 x 7 3/4". Courtesy of the MoMA

Jackson Pollock. Number 1A, 1948.1948. Oil and enamel paint on canvas, 68" x 8' 8". Courtesy of the MoMA. This exhibit was possibly my favorite. Early Jackson Pollack is great, and Barnett Newman (I will be posting about him soon) were quite interesting)

William Wegman. Foamy Aftershave (L-Foamy; R-Aftershave). 1982. Color instant prints, 28 1/2 x 22" Courtesy of the MoMA. If any of you have seen the puppy book I have in my studio, this is the same guy. This work is a lot more interesting to me that a lot of Wegman's stuff.

So, after the MoMA, we went over to P.S. 1., which generally is a great time. I was a little more disappointed this time with them, especially the works by Laurel Nakadate. Her exhibit was called "Only the Lonely" and the shitty "365 days of crying" works were both incredibly juvenile, incredibly kitsch and entirely absent of anything interesting. She was just crying everyday and taking Myspace like pictures? What is that shit? Though her films were kind of interesting, I couldn't help but feel sorry for the men she seemed to exploit in them. On P.S.1's site they say:
      'The exhibition brings together bodies of work that touch on voyeurism, loneliness, the manipulative power of the camera, and the urge to connect with others, through, within, and apart from technology and the media' 
       (See the rest of the description here: http://ps1.org/exhibitions/view/321 )
To me, her work doesn't glorify, but abuses most of modern art photography's desires to see works which are voyeuristic, and which pinpoint the manipulative power of the camera. They're way too direct in an absurd and underdeveloped manner. I guess, what sells sells. I hope this is an approach P.S. 1 ceases to take in the future.

Installation view courtesy of P.S.1