In "Art and Objecthood" (1967), Michael Fried wrote, "The literalist espousal of objecthood amounts to nothing other than a plea for a new genre of theater, and theater is now the negation of art." His statement is dated, and "literalist," his term for Minimalist art, never made it much past his own use–but his words […]

If climate change one day causes all of the museum world’s text labels to peel off and fall to the ground, one artist who will not be in danger of being misidentified is Barbara Kruger. Listening to You Cedar Lewisohn Barbara Kruger, Installation, 1991. Silkscreen, wallpaper. Courtesy of Mary Boone Gallery, New York. Photo Zindman […]

It seems that Beijing is a breeding ground for wacky art. Cheto Castellano, a Chilean artist who has lived in China the past year, confirms my suspicion that anything can be done in China. Castellano has a history of working with unconventional materials. The King of the Chinese Underground Lissette Olivares Cheto Castellano’s carved skulls. […]

Joel Sternfeld?s melancholy photographs of the abandoned High Line, the disused elevated railway track that runs for 20 blocks along the West Side, from the meatpacking district up through Chelsea, capture the irony of a wilderness blooming in New York City. Maintaining wilderness Hilary Sample Field Operations and Diller, Scofidio + Renfro, The High Line, […]

Girl #39 showcases a model with shoulder length blonde hair, rich lips, low-cut blouse and pout, in a 12×15 photograph. But she hardly represents the typical model: a gray circle obstructs her neck and upper chest, and her portrait sits quarantined in a black rectangle, flanked all around by Mondrian-ish grids spanning the entire color […]

Rebecca Horn, who has a major retrospective at London?s Hayward Gallery, has always considered both life and the act of artistic creation as a form of a perpetual risk-taking. The Risk-takers Nina Zivancevic Rebecca Horn, Courtesy of Galerie de France. Rebecca Horn, who has a major retrospective at London’s Hayward Gallery, has always considered both […]

"Populism" opened on Friday April 8, the day that Pope John Paul II was buried. It seemed a coincidence too good to be true. Bidding farewell to the man who had put the pope-into-populism while welcoming the critical ambivalence of the exhibition into one of Vilnius’ temples-of-culture. A Test of Faith Simon Rees Installation in […]

On a recent visit to Italy, I visited the Plexus Studio of Sandro Dernini in Rome, Fabrizio Bertuciolli?s studio just outside the city, and Any Gallacio in Sienna?s Centro Arte Contemporane. What I realized is that the Italian avant-garde remains quite prolific, elitist, multimedia-oriented, and tasty. Letter from Rome: Mangiare Arte Valery Oisteanu Still from […]

"Living and Working in Vienna," curated by Trevor Smith from the New Museum of Contemporary Art, features artists who inhabit and produce work in the Austrian capital. Living and Working in Vienna Bozidar Boskovic Marko Lulic, Hard and Soft No.2, 2002/05, fiberplate, wood, varnish, 450 x 650cm. "Living and Working in Vienna," curated by Trevor […]

It’s not easy to do an analysis of the heterogeneous map of styles that appear in the Spanish contemporary art. Even in the great international fair ARCO, one can only get a glimpse. Letter from Spain Jos� Luis Molina Gonz�lez / Tranlated by Chema F.S Angela Lergo, Letters with a smell of perfume, 2003. It’s […]