Matthew Newton's Electronic Notebook

IN GOD WE TRUST
ALL OTHERS PAY CASH
-slogan from a logging truck

He had long since come to the sage and sensible conclusion that a man's religion is one thing, and this practical world quite another. This world pays dividends.
-from the description of Captain Bildad in Moby Dick

2011-07-31T11:30:00.000-04:00

Still from "Wendy and Lucy" 2008. Directed by Kelly Reichardt

Sir Joshua Reynolds, "Portrait of Mrs. Mary Robinson as 'Contemplation'", 1783-84

2011-07-12T15:22:00.000-04:00

Anetta Mona Chişa and Lucia Tkáčová

Cereal box

2011-06-12T16:55:00.001-04:00

Edgar Degas, "Young Spartan Girls Challenging Boys" detail, c. 1860

Alfred Stieglitz "Georgia O'Keeffe—Hand and Breasts," 1919

Jutta Koether, from the exhibition "New York Fenster," 2008

2011-05-23T17:26:00.000-04:00

Dana Schutz – Civil Planning

Paul Gauguin – Vision of the Sermon (Jacob Wrestling with the Angel)

looking for Matthew Newton, artist

2011-04-01T12:16:00.000-04:00

Hi Matthew, this is a guess but I'm pretty sure Sue and Barry are your parents. You won't remember me but Guy and I spent quite a lot of time with your families in B___. I'm sure you will remember the Wiltshire family. Your art looks v interesting and would love to see more.

Martin and Clare W and I have been in touch with Sue by email but not for the last year or so. We think she changed her email address from s__@___.net. and we don't have a new one.

We would love to be in touch, so would be v grateful if you can help.

Sue said you have twins - belated congrats, hope all thriving.

Cheers A___

with Jo Baer

2011-03-12T14:35:00.001-05:00

Recently, I was fortunate to have my work critiqued publicly by artist Jo Baer.

Documents from my recent performance

2011-03-12T12:01:00.004-05:00

This photo was taken of two actresses by another actress during my performance "Double Annunciation" at the Bertha & Karl Leubsdorf Art Gallery on February 25th.

A video used in the performance can be seen here:

2011-03-08T12:34:00.000-05:00

Ella Kruglyanskaya

Oliver Herring - Areas for Action, Glitter

human remains from Pompeii

2011-03-02T09:48:00.000-05:00

Rachel Burgess - Ali, Looking Down

Roger van der Weyden - Portrait of a Lady

Spanish Reliquary Bust

Stephan Balkenhol - Portrait of a Woman in a Green Dress

Degas - Gobillard detail

2011-02-24T20:38:00.000-05:00

Charles Garabedian - Mythological Figure

Jenny Morgan - From the Vallery to the Stars

Leonardo - Annunciation

Weekend in Chicago

2011-02-14T13:17:00.000-05:00

Carrol Dunham

David Hockney

Rubens - The Holy Family

Degas - detail from Young Spartan Girls Challenging Boys

Jean-Leon Gerome - Pygmalion and Galatea

Eduard-Denis Baldus - Medici Monument

Benjamin West - The Graces Unveiling Nature

2011-01-24T17:20:00.000-05:00

Nicole Eisenman, Raging Brook Farm - detail

Goya

Cezanne

2011-01-16T09:37:00.000-05:00

Mark Rothko, Heads, 1941-42, Washburn Gallery

J. R. Witzel, The Reversed Fall of Man, 1904

2011-01-04T12:27:00.000-05:00

Degas

Queens of Flowers by the Master of the Playing Cards

Jesus Mocked by the Soldiers by Manet

Memory of a Pain by Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo

2010-12-30T22:35:00.000-05:00

Zacharie Astruc

Stele of Hegeso

Augustus Egg, The Traveling Companions

Landscapes

2010-12-29T01:14:00.000-05:00

"The Foster Sisters"

Goya - The Grape Harvest

Katharina Wulff- Where Do You Come From?

2010-12-27T09:51:00.000-05:00

Isabel Bishop

Mary Cassatt

Thomas Lawrence

Circle of Jacques Louis David

Van Gogh

Shoes, abandoned — since September

2010-12-25T16:12:00.000-05:00

British Bevies

2010-12-11T17:57:00.000-05:00

William Hogarth — Hogarth's Servants

from "Floral Frocks"

Recent pairs

2010-12-07T10:24:00.000-05:00

from "Floral Frocks"

Thomas Lawrence

pregnancy casts

Myrtle and Mable

Floral print poses

2010-11-30T23:25:00.000-05:00

2009

1957

Mutual Appreciation

2010-11-14T11:25:00.000-05:00

Women

2010-11-08T16:46:00.001-05:00

A.P.C.

Dare Wright
Frank Auerbach

Old Looking Paintings

2010-10-21T23:58:00.000-04:00

unknown, Duccio, Isabel Bishop, Leon Golub

Hands and Sheer

2010-10-10T14:00:00.000-04:00

Lessons in Choreography, balance and stability

2010-09-30T21:52:00.000-04:00

Lessons in Choreography, curves

2010-09-29T08:54:00.000-04:00

of Modern Art

2010-09-21T22:19:00.000-04:00

Lessons in Choreography, circles

2010-09-05T22:14:00.000-04:00

Shoes, abandoned — Which one of these doesn't belong here?

2010-08-28T18:05:00.000-04:00

waltzing, walking

2010-08-27T00:29:00.000-04:00

Lilacs

2010-08-08T21:47:00.000-04:00

Syringa

by John Ashbery

Orpheus liked the glad personal quality

Of the things beneath the sky. Of course, Eurydice was a part

Of this. Then one day, everything changed. He rends

Rocks into fissures with lament. Gullies, hummocks

Can't withstand it. The sky shudders from one horizon

To the other, almost ready to give up wholeness.

Then Apollo quietly told him: "Leave it all on earth.

Your lute, what point? Why pick at a dull pavan few care to

Follow, except a few birds of dusty feather,

Not vivid performances of the past." But why not?

All other things must change too.

The seasons are no longer what they once were,

But it is the nature of things to be seen only once,

As they happen along, bumping into other things, getting along

Somehow. That's where Orpheus made his mistake.

Of course Eurydice vanished into the shade;

She would have even if he hadn't turned around.

No use standing there like a gray stone toga as the whole wheel

Of recorded history flashes past, struck dumb, unable to

utter an intelligent

Comment on the most thought-provoking element in its train.

Only love stays on the brain, and something these people,

These other ones, call life. Singing accurately

So that the notes mount straight up out of the well of

Dim noon and rival the tiny, sparkling yellow flowers

Growing around the brink of the quarry, encapsulizes

The different weights of the things.

But it isn't enough

To just go on singing. Orpheus realized this

And didn't mind so much about his reward being in heaven

After the Bacchantes had torn him apart, driven

Half out of their minds by his music, what it was doing to them.

Some say it was for his treatment of Eurydice.

But probably the music had more to do with it, and

The way music passes, emblematic

Of life and how you cannot isolate a note of it

And say it is good or bad. You must

Wait till it's over. "The end crowns all,"

Meaning also that the "tableau"

Is wrong. For although memories, of a season, for example,

Melt into a single snapshot, one cannot guard, treasure

That stalled moment. It too is flowing, fleeting;

It is a picture of flowing, scenery, though living, mortal,

Over which an abstract action is laid out in blunt,

Harsh strokes. And to ask more than this

Is to become the tossing reeds of that slow,

Powerful stream, the trailing grasses

Playfully tugged at, but to participate in the action

No more than this. Then in the lowering gentian sky

Electric twitches are faintly apparent first, then burst forth

Into a shower of fixed, cream-colored flares. The horses

Have each seen a share of the truth, though each thinks,

"I'm a maverick. Nothing of this is happening to me,

Though I can understand the language of birds, and

The itinerary of the lights caught in the storm is

fully apparent to me.

Their jousting ends in music much

As trees move more easily in the wind after a summer storm

And is happening in lacy shadows of shore-trees, now,

day after day."

But how late to be regretting all this, even

Bearing in mind that regrets are always late, too late!

To which Orpheus, a bluish cloud with white contours,

Replies that these are of course not regrets at all,

Merely a careful, scholarly setting down of

Unquestioned facts, a record of pebbles along the way.

And no matter how all this disappeared,

Or got where it was going, it is no longer

Material for a poem. Its subject

Matters too much, and not enough, standing there helplessly

While the poem streaked by, its tail afire, a bad

Comet screaming hate and disaster, but so turned inward

That the meaning, good or other, can never

Become known. The singer thinks

Constructively, builds up his chant in progressive stages

Like a skyscraper, but at the last minute turns away.

The song is engulfed in an instant in blackness

Which must in turn flood the whole continent

With blackness, for it cannot see. The singer

Must then pass out of sight, not even relieved

Of the evil burthen of the words. Stellification

Is for the few, and comes about much later

When all record of these people and their lives

Has disappeared into libraries, onto microfilm.

A few are still interested in them. "But what about

So-and-so?" is still asked on occasion. But they lie

Frozen and out of touch until an arbitrary chorus

Speaks of a totally different incident with a similar name

In whose tale are hidden syllables

Of what happened so long before that

In some small town, one indifferent summer.

Shoes, abandoned — piles

2010-07-31T01:52:00.000-04:00

Shoes, abandoned — grays

2010-07-27T22:55:00.000-04:00

Degas and Duccio

2010-07-18T15:09:00.000-04:00

Blues

2010-07-07T08:26:00.000-04:00

Sunday

2010-07-04T23:20:00.000-04:00

Shoes, abandoned

2010-06-29T10:56:00.000-04:00

graduation

2010-06-24T15:59:00.000-04:00

from "Twins On Twins"

2010-06-16T18:28:00.002-04:00

Fiction Religion, Painting Transgression

2010-06-15T15:06:00.001-04:00

It is with fiction as with religion: it should present another world,
and yet one to which we feel the tie.
-Herman Melville

Maybe in the end, painting is as much about constraint as about
freedom, how constraint allows freedom . . . and transgression.
-Jacqueline Humphries

Recent words

2010-06-14T19:07:00.000-04:00

Logic is the curse of the weak minded.

Art is a response to mortality.

Music moves us to sex and death.

Peasant blood

The indubitable perfection of a sleeping child

Constant stupor, or perpetual stupor, not sure which

Two more chances, dad.

Death by stabbing on public transit

I lean on your prayers, pastor.

Eroding survival instincts

By the way he smiled you could see evolution writing him out

Fear, pure fear, and sometimes sex

sent you an email

Condescending and productive secretary

All buildings, every structure, every planed piece of wood and slab of concrete ground to dust, washed into the ocean, absorbed into the earth. No remnant anywhere at all. Nothing to be found. No one to find it.

hands

2010-06-10T01:06:00.000-04:00

Shoes, abandoned

2010-06-05T01:54:00.000-04:00

wife and child

2010-06-03T12:23:00.005-04:00

quartz river bed

2010-05-24T10:27:00.001-04:00

Recent words

2010-05-12T03:09:00.002-04:00

makes your head dip and roll quickly back into place while your eyes look at your scalp

Entropy on two legs

Susceptible to democracy

No one, not one, none

What you see when you look

Oh, and flowers too

God and the things he does

what you do when it sinks in this deeply

I'd always walk. I'd sell my car.

Drown me in the ocean. And I don't mean that I wade into it to be slowly enveloped in the waves, lungs eventually full of salt water as I drift along bloated, suspended thirty feet below the surface, dead and beautiful. I mean right there at the shoreline, shove my face into the saturated sand, three inches of water, while I try flailing and fail to defend myself, two hands and all of your weight on the back of my head, submerged up to my ears before I've had enough sand to black out.

the deifying sensation of firing a gun, maybe it's permanent

Serendipitous violence

craves dementia

Shoes, abandoned

2010-05-02T16:02:00.000-04:00

Vitrines

2010-04-26T00:35:00.000-04:00

Shoes, abandoned

2010-04-19T01:00:00.000-04:00

Recliners

2010-04-17T17:39:00.000-04:00

Hunter MFA Open Studios, April 23 & 24

2010-04-16T01:27:00.001-04:00

Dear Friends,

You are invited to join me at the Hunter College MFA Open Studios. Come enjoy over one hundred studios open to the public - including mine, a silent auction of work from the program, and abundant refreshments.

Hunter College MFA Open Studios

Friday, April 23rd, 6 to 10 PM

Saturday, April 24th, 2 to 6 PM

450 W 41st Street

New York, NY 10036

Matthew Newton

Studio 407

matthewstudio.com

Lessons in Representation

2010-04-04T00:53:00.000-04:00

odic words upon returning

2010-03-28T00:09:00.000-04:00

Blue city, at 7pm you're a glowing silhouette.

Blue in many hues, brick blue, steel blue, legs in tights blue, cold lips blue, sky reflected in glass blue, atmospheric distance blue, neon blue

I can only catch glances while I cross the bridge into you from Queens. Eyes on the road, friend.

But walking your streets when I arrive, oh blue city.

And when I go underground, yes, the subway's blue, too.

This Week's Show List

2010-03-20T12:20:00.002-04:00

: 'The Bible Illuminated: R. Crumb’s Book of Genesis’, David Zwirner Gallery

Upper East Side
Marta Minujín: MINUCODEs, March 2 – April 30, 2010, Americas Society, 680 Park Ave on 68th St
“Collecting Biennials”, through Nov. 28 at the Whitney Museum of American Art
MILTON AVERY: INDUSTRIAL REVELATIONS, FEBRUARY 18–MAY 1, KNOEDLER & COMPANY, 19 EAST 70TH STREET

Midtown
Austrian Cultural Forum, 11 E. 52nd St., SOLACE, THURSDAY FEB 04 - SATURDAY MAY 15
"Smoke+Mirrors/Shadows+Fog", Hunter College/Times Square Gallery, 450 West 41st St, Feb 18th - April 17th
Antony Gormley, "Event Horizons", public installation around Madison Square Park and the Flatiron district
Robert Ryman: ‘Large-Small, Thick-Thin, Light Reflecting, Light Absorbing’, Pace Wildenstein, 32 E 57th, through March 27th

Chelsea
JAMIE ISENSTEIN, Andrew Kreps, 525 West 22nd Street, Through March 20
Jacco Olivier, Feb 19 - Apr 3, 2010, Marianne Boesky, 509 West 24th Street
‘The Bible Illuminated: R. Crumb’s Book of Genesis’, David Zwirner Gallery, 519 West 19th Street, Through April 17
Luis Camnitzer, "Memorial", Alexander Gray Associates, 508 West 26 Street #215, March 17 – April 24, 2010
Charles W. Hutson, ‘A Survey’, Edward Thorp Gallery, 210 11th Avenue, at 25th Street, Through March 27
WILLIAM BAILEY, Betty Cuningham, 541 West 25th Street, Through March 27
Self-Fulfulling Prophecies, Leo Koenig, Inc. 545 W 23rd, March 5 - April 10, 2010
"Bank of Bikers", ZieherSmith Inc., 516 W 20th, Feb 25th - Mar 20th
Joan Jonas, Yvon Lambert, 550 W 21st, Feb 27 - April 10
Yun-Fei, "Mistaking Each Other for Ghosts", James Cohen Gallery, 533 W 26th, February 19 - March 27

Soho/Greenwich
Swiss Institue: Tobias Madison, Carissa Rodriguez, and Andro Wekua, 495 Broadway / 3rd Floor, Mar 6 - Apr 24
‘THE BRUCENNIAL 2010: MISEDUCATION,’ through April 12, 350 West Broadway, between Broome and Grand

LES
Jessica Jackson Hutchins, LAUREL GITLEN (SMALL A PROJECTS), 261 Broome Street, February 21–March 28
In Print, e-flux / reading room, 41 Essex Street, March 16 – May 15, 2010
MUSEUM 52, 4 East 2nd Street: Benjamin Degen, ends April 2
NEW MUSEUM: ‘SKIN FRUIT: SELECTIONS FROM THE DAKIS JOANNOUS COLLECTION,’ through June 6

North Brooklyn
JIM TOROK, Portraits and Clowns, Pierogi, 177 N 9th St

South Brooklyn
“Kiki Smith: Sojourn” continues through Sept. 12 at the Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, at Prospect Park

LIC
NOGUCHI MUSEUM: ‘NOGUCHI REINSTALLED,’ through Oct. 24, 9-01 33rd Road, at Vernon Boulevard

Out of Town
Dia: Beacon, Agnes Martin paintings 1957-60 and 1999-2002, ongoing
Philadelphia, Notations/Bruce Nauman: Days and Giorni, November 21, 2009 - April 4, 2010

Vitrines

2010-03-15T21:20:00.000-04:00

Shoes, abandoned

2010-03-13T23:00:00.000-05:00

From the beginning, when I start out

2010-03-03T22:30:00.000-05:00

Dawn Clements "Untitled (Color Kitchen)”

"From the very beginning I’ve tried to work without a net. The possibilities for real exchange and surprises and emotions become increased if you’re not mapping it in advance."
-Michael Silverblatt

"When I start out to make a panoramic piece, I often work from left to right. But when a small scrap of a drawing turns into a giant drawing the progress is less linear, a more intuitive process. “Untitled (Color Kitchen)” started with the flowers. Mariah Corrigan cut me these beautiful old roses, which I put in a yellow pitcher. The next day I was all packed up and walking out the door to go to my studio when I saw the roses and thought, “Those flowers are going to be gone by tomorrow.” So I stayed home and painted them just to always remember them. Eventually the drawing grew to include the table, the wall, the curtain, and the next wall"
-Dawn Clements on her drawing "Untitled (Color Kitchen)”

This Week's Show List

2010-02-27T22:43:00.000-05:00

"Brush Fire" 12" x 18 " Oil on canvas. 2009

Benjamin Degen at Museum 52

Upper East Side
Marta Minujín: MINUCODEs, March 2 – April 30, 2010, Americas Society, 680 Park Ave on 68th St

2010 Whitney Biennial, through May 30, Whitney Museum

“Collecting Biennials”, through Nov. 28 at the Whitney Museum of American Art

Pablo Bronstein, THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, 1000 Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street, October 6–April 18

“The Drawings of Bronzino,” the Met, through Apr 18

Midtown
Austrian Cultural Forum, 11 E. 52nd St., SOLACE, THURSDAY FEB 04 - SATURDAY MAY 15

"Smoke+Mirrors/Shadows+Fog", Hunter College/Times Square Gallery, 450 West 41st St, Feb 18th - April 17th

MoMA, “William Kentridge: Five Themes” continues through May 17

MoMA, Projects 92: Yin Xiuzhen, February 24–May 24, 2010, Projects Gallery, second floor

MoMA, Ernesto Neto: Navedenga, January 22–April 5, 2010, Fourth floor

Chelsea
Charles W. Hutson, ‘A Survey’, Edward Thorp Gallery, 210 11th Avenue, at 25th Street, Through March 27

WILLIAM BAILEY, Betty Cuningham, 541 West 25th Street, Through March 27

Self-Fulfulling Prophecies, Leo Koenig, Inc. 545 W 23rd, March 5 - April 10, 2010

SUPERFLEX, Flooded McDonald’s, January 22 to March 20, 2010, Peter Blum Chelsea, 526 West 29th

"Bank of Bikers", ZieherSmith Inc., 516 W 20th, Feb 25th - Mar 20th

INDEPENDENT March 4: 4-9 March 5 & 6: 11-8 March 7: 12-4, (for X Initiative location, 548 W 22nd)

Nari Ward, LIVESupport, at Lehmann Maupin Gallery, 540 W 26th St, 25 February - 17 April, 2010

Joan Jonas, Yvon Lambert, 550 W 21st, Feb 27 - April 10

\ (LEAN) (with Nari Ward), Nicole Klagsbrun, 526 W 26th St. No. 213, MARCH 12—APRIL 24, 2010

“THE VISIBLE VAGINA”, FRANCIS M. NAUMANN FINE ART (24 West 57th Street) and DAVID NOLAN GALLERY (527 West 29th Street), January 28 – March 20, 2010

Yun-Fei, "Mistaking Each Other for Ghosts", James Cohen Gallery, 533 W 26th, February 19 - March 27

Soho/Greenwich
ESOPUS SPACE, 64 WEST THIRD STREET, #210, “The Assembled Picture Library of New York City” with Jason Polan and Robin Cameron, February 16 – March 18, 2010, Closing Reception: Thursday, March 18, 6-8pm

Anti-Prow, a project by PROW, the collaborative duo Peter Rostovsky and Olav Westphalen, art in general, 79 walker street, through March 10

Tobias Madison, Hydrate + Perform, Yes I Can! The Movie: Preview, March 8 – April 24, 2010, Opening Reception: Saturday, March 6, 2010, 6 - 8 PM, Swiss Institute, 495 Broadway 3rd Floor
LES
MUSEUM 52, 4 East 2nd Street: Benjamin Degen, ends April 2

South Brooklyn
“Kiki Smith: Sojourn” continues through Sept. 12 at the Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, at Prospect Park

LIC
Flux Factory, Housebroken, 39-31 29th Street, LIC, NY 11101, on view every Saturday and Sunday from 12 - 6 pm until March 21st

NOGUCHI MUSEUM: ‘NOGUCHI REINSTALLED,’ through Oct. 24, 9-01 33rd Road, at Vernon Boulevard

Queens
Daniel Bozhkov: Republik of Perpetual Reconstruction and Rebuild” and “Duke Riley: Those About to Die Salute You”, through March 13, Queens Museum of Art, New York City Building, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park

Vitrines

2010-02-15T22:44:00.001-05:00

Weekly Show List

2010-02-12T12:19:00.000-05:00

Upper East Side

JEWISH MUSEUM: ‘ALIAS MAN RAY: THE ART OF REINVENTION,’ through March 14, 1109 Fifth Ave, at 92nd St

Pablo Bronstein, THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, 1000 Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street, October 6–April 18

“The Drawings of Bronzino,” the Met, through Apr 18

‘FROM THE GOTHIC TRADITION TO THE EARLY RENAISSANCE’, Moretti, 24 East 80th Street, Through Feb. 12

‘PAINTINGS OF FéLIX VALLOTTON’, Michael Werner, 4 East 77th Street, Through April 10

Midtown

“Miroslav Tichy” continues through May 9 at the International Center of Photography, 1133 Avenue of the Americas, at 43rd Street

“Demons and Devotions”, through May 2, Morgan Library & Museum, 225 Madison Avenue, at 36th Street

Rome After Raphael”, through May 9, Morgan Library & Museum, 225 Madison Avenue, at 36th Street

Steve McQueen, Marian Goodman Gallery, 24 West 57th Street, through March 6

THE ONASSIS CULTURAL CENTER: ‘THE ORIGINS OF EL GRECO: ICON PAINTING IN VENETIAN CRETE,’ 645 Fifth Avenue, near 52nd Street, through Feb. 27

Austrian Cultural Forum, 11 E. 52nd St., SOLACE, THURSDAY FEB 04 - SATURDAY MAY 15

Chelsea

Betty Cunningham, 541 West 25th Street, PEARLSTEIN/HELD: Five Decades, November 19, 2009 – February 13, 2010

Nari Ward, LIVESupport, at Lehmann Maupin Gallery, 540 W 26th St, 25 February - 17 April, 2010

“Demons, Yarns & Tales,” James Cohan Gallery, 533 West 26th, through Feb. 13

“THE VISIBLE VAGINA”, FRANCIS M. NAUMANN FINE ART (24 West 57th Street) and DAVID NOLAN GALLERY (527 West 29th Street), January 28 – March 20, 2010

“Vertically Integrated Manufacturing”, MURRAY GUY, 453 West 17th Street, January 9–February 20

Cornelia Parker, D'AMELIO TERRAS, 525 West 22nd Street, January 9–February 13

Soho/Greenwich

ROBERT BLANCHON, Tracey/Barry Gallery, Bobst Library, New York University, 70 Washington Square South, Through Feb. 26

Anti-Prow, a project by PROW, the collaborative duo Peter Rostovsky and Olav Westphalen, art in general, 79 walker street, through March 10

LIC

NOGUCHI MUSEUM: ‘NOGUCHI REINSTALLED,’ through Oct. 24, 9-01 33rd Road, at Vernon Boulevard

Queens

Daniel Bozhkov: Republik of Perpetual Reconstruction and Rebuild” and “Duke Riley: Those About to Die Salute You”, through March 13, Queens Museum of Art, New York City Building, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park

Out of Town

Philadelphia, Notations/Bruce Nauman: Days and Giorni, November 21, 2009 - April 4, 2010

Longterm

Walter de Maria (through Dia), Wednesday-Sunday, 12-6pm (closed 3-3:30pm), Admission is free, The Broken Kilometer, 1979, 393 West Broadway

Recent and random useful quotes

2010-02-12T01:41:00.002-05:00

"Teachers of Literature are apt to think up such problems as "What is the authors purpose?" or still worse "What is the guy trying to say?" Now, I happen to be the kind of author who in starting to work on a book has no other purpose than to get rid of that book and who, when asked to explain its origin and growth, has to rely on such ancient terms as Interreaction of Inspiration and Combination -- which, I admit, sounds like a conjurer explaining one trick by performing another."
-Vladimir Nabokov from "On a Book Entitled Lolita"

"like when you open your eyes sometimes, just to look without wanting to prove anything"
-Wem Wenders from "Tokyo-GA"

"Thinking, analyzing, inventing are not anomalous acts; they are the normal respiration of the intelligence. To glorify the occasional performance of that function, to hoard ancient and alien thoughts, to recall with incredulous stupor that the doctor universalis thought, is to confess our laziness or our barbarity. Every man should be capable of all ideas and I understand that in the future this will be the case."
-Jorge Luis Borges quoting his fictional character Menard in "Pierre Menard Author of the Quizote"

Hands

2010-02-09T14:47:00.000-05:00

Review of Tino Sehgal at the Guggenheim Museum, Manhattan

2010-02-08T02:02:00.002-05:00

How to fill a giant upwardly spiraling atrium when you don't make 'things'? Tino's answer plays with the idea of ascension and progress on a couple of levels but fails to open any previously closed doors in artistic practice. It revolves but is not revolutionary. Not that every contemporary artist who shows in the massive space has to reinvent the wheel (or spiral as the case may be), but when you display only two works and set the drama level at full tilt by emptying the space completely, one would think the gesture that the artist has contrived will be pretty damn tight. However, at best, this work represents a polishing and popularizing of tactics introduced at least five decades previous. At worst, it comes off as a half-baked effort of an artwork referencing its environment and being excessively self aware of its audience. An effort that one might legitimately feel their $18 admission fee didn't live up to (I went during the free hours and felt I got my money's worth).

Participatory, not generous, the "larger" of the two works is most of all a victim of obviousness spread thin. Without revealing the specifics in case some readers haven't yet experienced the work, as you ascend the spiral you find that the work evolves as a play on its setting. But unfortunately, that play is less intriguing and surprising as it is expected and banal. I can say that this installation belongs in this space, but it is also squashed by it. The experience is legitimate, fun, and real. However, sculpture-killer-Sehgal could probably take lessons in efficiency and efficacy from some of the objects he deems "unsustainable" (notwithstanding the Anish Kapoor monolith nearby...).

Another potential problem that I haven't verified after my one viewing is that those who don't speak English well, which I imagine could include a great many people at an internationally famous museum in New York City, would not be able to take part in the work which absolutely depends on the act of dialogue. Also, the work is almost useless for children, an issue that I experienced first hand. While that may seem like a reaching critique, and certainly this work is not alone as contemporary art that ignores young eyes and brains, that fact highlighted a lack of forethought as to the many types of people who would show up. (Twenty-something artsy guy? You're in. Your three year old? Try to be patient, we'll get ice cream afterwards...)

Despite these problems, I left with one very specific memorable and sharp moment. While deep in discussion with a person (who was a part of "the sculpture") about the complexities of gender identity, she suddenly disappeared and was replaced by a new person who struck up an entirely new conversation. This was a dramatically humbling moment that made me feel in a certain way very human and dispensable. The effort I had thus put into formulating thoughts and answering questions vanished along with my dialogue partner. This element of 'reset' (not surprise because it wouldn't be the second time) seems to be the most successful part of Sehgal's efforts in this and other works and the most unique to the idea of sculpture. However, even this quality broke down at the climax when my partner at that point announced in a friendly way, "Okay, I have to leave you here now. Nice to have met you." These sorts of holes in the work, like the others mentioned before, could be looked past and almost expected in, say, a startup gallery on the Lower East Side, or a grad school critique. But in the zillion-cubic-feet atrium of one of the most famous and creatively exploited structures in the world that the artist emptied completely save his own sculpture/performance? The writing is on the curved wall.

Jean-Étienne Liotard

2010-02-01T15:35:00.000-05:00

1. Frankish Woman from Galata and Her Servant

2. Turkish Woman with a Servant

Tino Sehgal, questions of authority

2010-01-22T16:40:00.007-05:00

Here is a link to the article from NYTimes Magazine discussed below.

Here is a link to the referenced artist's gallery page.

While making my way through Arthur Lubow's expositional article on the art of Tino Sehgal, engaged by the subject, I was thrown off by these thoughts:

“Is this art?” Almost a century has elapsed since Marcel Duchamp aced that one by attaching titles to everyday objects (a urinal, a bicycle wheel) and demonstrating that anything can be art if the artist says it is. Nevertheless, the ineffaceable critical question remains: “Is it good art?”

While the author may be correct that the critical question, that is, the question of the critic, could remain: "is it good art?", that problem bears little relation to the question that begins the quote: "is it art?" Once skewering that debate with the famed Dadaist's famed readymades, it seems habitual to reorder the now unstable delineation around the issue of quality. But that issue, just as the one that is oft claimed as its originator, begs the more concrete and approachable question of authority: who or what deems this to be art, and who or what deems this person(s) to be the artist?

(Or maybe instead of saying that the question of quality is not related to the question of being, I should say that they are the same question, or that they fire at such quick succession that each voids the need of the other.)

The more important, even urgent, factor that dogs art reception is of an awareness of power structures and perception habits that frame certain objects and activities within the definition of art and leave others foreign.

And in handling this question, the artist and subject of the article, Tino Sehgal, who presents undocumented and ephemeral human performances in place of sculpture, seems to be trapped in a paradox:

His work seems to function best in a museum or a gallery, where its subtraction of a material object is made visible by the institutional surroundings that give shape to his void. “My work definitely needs this framing as art, and the stronger this framing is,” he says, “the more works of mine are possible.”

And:

“The museum has developed over the last two or three hundred years as a temple of objects made from the earth. I’m the guy who comes in and says: ‘I’m bored with that. I don’t think it’s that interesting, and it’s not sustainable.’ Inside this temple of objects, I refocus attention to human relations.”

While bemoaning the unsustainability of the museum, Sehgal most heavy-handedly reinforces its place as institution, its employees as taste-makers, and its objects as requisite frames to his actions. Rather than any true upheaval of history, here we have yet another attempt (albeit clever, successful, and phenomenal) by an artist to mount history's apex, to become the darling of That Which Is and Has Been. Surely Sehgal's valuable work takes on many interesting questions, but absent from those is one he professes: how to make sustainable our structures of authority.

Thoughts, that I echoed

2010-01-20T13:21:00.004-05:00

I recently dreamed that we shared the same thoughts, that I echoed your sentiments.
-Marc Camille Chaimowicz

Third person

2010-01-18T20:28:00.001-05:00

Masaccio, The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden, 1423
Umbaldo Oppi, The Friends, 1924

Recliners

2010-01-16T10:15:00.003-05:00

1. Edouard Manet. The Dead Christ and the Angels. 1864

2. Danny Lyon. Dominicans at the Copa Club. 1960's

Musicians with bears

2010-01-14T11:02:00.002-05:00

Faces

2010-01-13T12:35:00.003-05:00

Spills

2010-01-12T09:35:00.003-05:00

Faces

2010-01-10T09:51:00.002-05:00

Thoughts from the first seven of thirty movies

2010-01-04T21:38:00.004-05:00

World War I: Drama, World War II: Comedy

Hell's Angels, Howard Hughes, 1930

The most impressive scene in Hell's Angels was Hughes' midair fight scenes in part because the then-new flying technology put no layers of mystery between the pilot and his machinery or between the filmmaker and his audience, activating an involved anxiety for the viewer. The whirling and humming of the multi-aircraft dog fight was stunning just on scale.

The Great Dictator, Charles Chaplin, 1940

Charles Chaplin's mockery of Hitler, his supporters, and his collaborators turned out to be a heartfelt tribute to the plight of Jewish people under the dictator. The slapstick comedy, while self sufficiently an example of worldclass showmanship, also served as two hours of build up to a surprisingly moving final speech; an urgent plea for human decency and cooperation.

All Movies Lead to Rome

The Bicycle Thief, Vittorio de Sica, 1948

Le dolce vita, Federico Fellini, 1960

L'Avventura, Michaelangelo Antonioni, 1960

From a family of four struggling for basic provisions and basic decency to bourgeois malcontents drifting between luxuries and flings, these three Italian films offered starkly different takes on mid-century life there.

I most appreciated Fellini's meandering and far-reaching depiction of Marcello's "sweet life" which in fact comes off as a continual downward arc to it's touching finale: the protagonist rendered deaf to the possibility of a simple and pleasant lifestyle. Fellini impressively includes an extreme amount of nuanced thought and characterization while venturing into a vast scope of human consciousness through different sets and phases in Marcello's adult life.

In retrospect, though representing stratified segments of Italian class, all of the movies traffic in the language of desperation and isolation. But, of course, certain cases inspire lament more than others.

Shoes, abandoned

2010-01-03T11:35:00.002-05:00

30 Movies in 30 Days

2009-12-21T20:24:00.006-05:00

In a blitz to buffer my moving image knowledge base, I plan to watch thirty movies over thirty days beginning Monday, December 28th (with a few days off while I'm out of town).

This is the schedule of screenings and friends in NYC are welcome to join me.

I'll probably write periodically here on this blog about the experience.

You can also see the list in PDF here.

Hell's Angels

Mon, Dec 28

8:00 PM

Studio 407, MFA Building

The Great Dictator

Tue, Dec 29

7:00 PM

Studio 407, MFA Building

Ladri di biciclette (The Bicycle Thief)

Wed, Dec 30

7:00 PM

Studio 407, MFA Building

Shichinin no samurai (Seven Samurai)

Thu, Dec 31

7:00 PM

Studio 407, MFA Building

Vertigo

Fri, Jan 01

7:00 PM

Studio 407, MFA Building

La dolce vita (La Dolce Vita)

Sat, Jan 02

7:00 PM

Studio 407, MFA Building

L'Avventura

Sun, Jan 03

7:00 PM

Studio 407, MFA Building

Såsom i en spegel (Through a Glass Darkly)

Mon, Jan 04

7:00 PM

Studio 407, MFA Building

Lawrence of Arabia

Sat, Jan 09

8:30 PM

Matthew's Apartment

Le mépris (Contempt)

Sun, Jan 10

9:00 PM

Matthew's Apartment

Ostre sledované vlaky (Closely Watched Trains)

Mon, Jan 11

2:00 PM

Studio 407, MFA Building

Belle de jour (Belle de Jour)

Tue, Jan 12

2:00 PM

Studio 407, MFA Building

Play Time (Playtime)

Wed, Jan 13

2:00 PM

Studio 407, MFA Building

Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes (Aguirre, the Wrath of God)

Thu, Jan 14

2:00 PM

Studio 407, MFA Building

Solyaris (Solaris)

Fri, Jan 15

8:00 PM

Studio 407, MFA Building

The Holy Mountain

Sat, Jan 16

8:00 PM

Studio 407, MFA Building

La nuit américaine (Day for Night)

Sun, Jan 17

9:00 PM

Matthew's Apartment

The Conversation

Mon, Jan 18

2:00 PM

Studio 407, MFA Building

Barry Lyndon

Tue, Jan 19

2:00 PM

Studio 407, MFA Building

Taxi Driver

Wed, Jan 20

2:00 PM

Studio 407, MFA Building

Sans soleil

Thu, Jan 21

2:00 PM

Studio 407, MFA Building

Videodrome

Fri, Jan 22

8:00 PM

Studio 407, MFA Building

The Breakfast Club

Sat, Jan 23

8:00 PM

Studio 407, MFA Building

Tokyo-Ga

Sun, Jan 24

9:00 PM

Matthew's Apartment

Street of Crocodiles (PLUS: "Old Joy" by Kelly Reichardt)

Mon, Jan 25

2:00 PM

Studio 407, MFA Building

Chung Hing sam lam (Chungking Express)

Tue, Jan 26

2:00 PM

Studio 407, MFA Building

The Big Lebowski

Wed, Jan 27

8:00 PM

Studio 407, MFA Building

Buffalo '66

Thu, Jan 28

8:00 PM

Studio 407, MFA Building

Dancer in the Dark

Fri, Jan 29

9:00 AM

Studio 407, MFA Building

Inland Empire

Sat, Jan 30

8:00 PM

Yashua's Place (PARTY)

Abandoned red digits with metal pole and grainy surface

2009-12-20T17:19:00.003-05:00

Coincidence: two quotes found in twenty minutes

2009-12-19T15:56:00.004-05:00

"draw a straight line and follow it" (a directive which he has said has guided his life and work since)
-La Monte Young, Musician/Composer

“Only my love of the straight line keeps me going."
-Carmen Herrera, Artist

NYC Art Museums with Free Admission Times

2009-12-18T18:38:00.004-05:00

I put together this list for my own use of when the various New York City art museums offer free or pay-what-you-wish admission. I hope you can make use of it as well.

Upper East Side

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

1000 5th Avenue

suggested donation always

Guggenheim

1071 Fifth Avenue

"Pay What You Wish" each Saturday evening from 5:45 pm to 7:45 pm

Frick Collection

1 East 70th Street

"Pay What You Wish" each Sunday from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm

Whiney Museum of American Art

945 Madison Avenue

"Pay What You Wish" each Friday evening from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Midtown

MoMA

11 West 53 Street

Free each Friday evening from 4:00 pm to 8:00 p.m.

Morgan Library and Museum

225 Madison Avenue

Free each Friday evening from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm

International Center of Photography

1133 Avenue of the Americas

"Pay What You Wish" each Friday evening from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm

Harlem

The Studio Museum in Harlem

144 West 125th Street

suggested donation always, Free each Sunday

Lower Eeast Side

New Museum

235 Bowery

Free each Thursday evening from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Brooklyn

Brooklyn Museum

200 Eastern Parkway

suggested donation always

Queens

PS1

22-25 Jackson Ave

suggested donation always

Sculpture Center

4419 Purves Street

suggested donation always

The Noguchi Museum

9-01 33rd Road

"Pay What You Wish" on the first Friday of each month

Museum of the Moving Image

35 Avenue at 36 Street

suggested donation always

Movie List

2009-12-16T13:53:00.002-05:00

Following a call for movie suggestions from my art graduate school peers, I've compiled a list of the 247 movies they offered.

Click HERE to see the list (organized by director).

Double punctuation: within, beside

2009-12-08T23:42:00.002-05:00

Sun, Star

2009-12-07T23:55:00.002-05:00

Arms raised, headless, in action

2009-11-24T14:05:00.005-05:00

Walking and talking

Chest bumping

High-fiving

Kissing

Headstanding

Body slamming

Taking a bullet

Reclining

Resting a head on a shoulder

(inspired by Thomas Spoerndle)

Cotton Counter

2009-11-23T12:53:00.004-05:00

Comptoir des Cotonniers

Images of new work loaded on website

2009-11-22T14:15:00.003-05:00

I've posted images of my recently completed projects on my website. Enjoy!

Head Coverings in RGB

2009-11-11T18:02:00.002-05:00

Letter, Head

2009-11-10T14:12:00.004-05:00

1st image credit: David Finegan

http://davidfinegan.com

Hunter College MFA Open Studios

2009-11-09T17:17:00.001-05:00

Dear Friend,

Hunter College MFA Open Studios

Friday, November 20th, 6 to 10 PM

Saturday, November 21st, 2 to 6 PM

450 W 41st Street

New York, NY 10036

Matthew Newton

Studio 407

matthewstudio.com

2 Heads, 2 Heads, 1 Head, 1 Head

2009-11-08T22:19:00.002-05:00

Chase and Water

2009-11-02T17:12:00.002-05:00

Thearth, Earthea

2009-10-22T16:48:00.001-04:00

Eight Downtowns

2009-10-17T22:25:00.003-04:00