Art
Barbara Rose, Impassioned Critic Who Reshaped Art History, Has Died at 84 – ARTnews
Barbara Rose, a critic and curator whose writings and exhibitions changed the way historians told the story of postwar art in the U.S., has died. She was 84. Phyllis Tuchman, an art critic and a friend of Rose, confirmed Rose’s death and said she had been suffering from cancer.
Rose is closely identified with the New York art scene of the 1960s, whose artists she regarded with suspicion because they so severely diverged from traditions laid out in the years before. But she had a more diverse set of interests, having advocated in particular for painting—a medium which many at the time claimed was dead—for a large part of her career.
For many, Rose’s defining piece of writing is “ABC Art,” which appeared in a 1965 issue of Art in America. In it, she endeavored to pinpoint a new artistic trend—a “sensibility,” not a style—that was predicated on repetition and an overall denial of visual pleasure and creativity. This, she said, was in part a reaction to Abstract Expressionism, whose artists strove for individualism and originality, and it was evidenced in the plainspoken dances of Robert Morris and the pared-down sculptures of Donald Judd.
Identifying this push toward coldness and irony, Rose wrote, “If, on seeing some of the new paintings, sculptures, dances or films, you are bored, probably you were intended to be. Boring the public is one way of testing its commitment.”
Some have claimed that Rose’s essay helped usher in Minimalism, the style now associated most closely with Judd, Dan Flavin, Richard Serra, Carl Andre, and others. In a 2017 article, Artspace labeled “ABC Art” one of the essays that changed art criticism forever. But Rose denied that her essay had had such an impact.
“The only thing anybody knows about me is that I wrote that article with the title I didn’t give it, which was ‘ABC Art,’ and then everybody insisted that I invented Minimal art,” Rose told Artforum in 2016. “Well, that is seriously wrong. I don’t invent art movements. I just notice coincidences, and those coincidences began to make sense to me as a worldview, which the Germans call weltanschauung.”
Much of Rose’s output in the decades following “ABC Art” was focused on painting. In 1979, when most critics presumed that painting had reached a dead end, Rose curated the exhibition “American Painting: The Eighties” at New York University’s Grey Art Gallery. (It later traveled to the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston in Texas and the American Cultural Center in Paris.) With 41 artists included—Susan Rothenberg, Ron Gorchov, Elizabeth Murray, and Lois Lane among them—the exhibition was meant to be a forward-looking survey showcasing the medium’s continued relevance.
In the catalogue essay for the show, Rose described having grown fed up with conceptual art, video, and photography, which she claimed exhibited “a retarditaire ‘return to realism.’” Instead, she was staking a claim for a return to “quality.”
Critics lambasted the show. New York Times critic Hilton Kramer said the art on view looked like “Abstract Expressionism with a college education.” Hal Foster wrote in Artforum, “Whatever its faults, the show is adamantly pro-painting; and it comes as a reply to those who have doubted its integrity for some time. One feels, however, that serious ambition is lacking somewhat here.” But Rose, never one to grow beleaguered in the face of attacks from her colleagues, persisted—and even reprised the show’s conceit more than 10 years later, in a similarly named exhibition subtitled “The Nineties” that opened at New York’s André Emmerich Gallery in 1991.
Barbara Rose was born in 1936 in Washington, D.C. She attended Smith College for her undergraduate degree and later received a Ph.D. in art history from Columbia University. She was married several times, once to artist Frank Stella, whom she wedded in 1961 and divorced in 1969. (In a chronicle of her four marriages for the Cut in 2019, she said, “I was married four times to three husbands—50 years later, I remarried my first husband. It’s bizarre, isn’t it?” At the time of her death, she was still married to Richard Duboff.)
Rose’s fame grew in the ’60s as she began penning fiercely critical essays for publications including Artforum, for whom she wrote a multipart diatribe attacking the idea that art and criticism had revolutionary potential. She also addressed the late-career paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe and John Chamberlain’s sculptures.
Starting in 1965, she served as a contributing editor for Art in America, and in 1966, she became arts editor of Vogue. In 1967, she published the book American Art Since 1900: A Critical History. And during the ’70s, she served as a critic for New York. All the while, she had become a crucial member of the New York art world, attending the opera with Andy Warhol and counting Carl Andre among her close friends.
At one point in her career, Rose’s ambitions took her into the museum world. In 1981, she was appointed curator of exhibitions and collections and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. Her time in that role came with a few lauded shows, including a retrospective devoted to Lee Krasner—“one of the significant painters of the 20th century,” she once said—that went on to travel to the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Chrysler
Museum in Norfolk, Virginia, the Phoenix Art Museum, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Another notable show was one devoted to a so-called “Houston School” of rising Texan painters; that exhibition went to the P.S. 1 art center in Queens, New York, as well. But her position at the MFA was not without controversy.
Initially, some accused Rose of conflicts of interest because the museum had acquired works from her husband (Stella) and because she had ties to a prominent Houston dealer with connections to the MFA. Rose largely waved off the allegations. Yet her time there was short-lived. In 1984, she became outspoken about the lost potential of the Houston art scene and then resigned.
Rose continued to maintain that spirit well into the later stages of her career. In 2018, she appeared in the documentary The Price of Everything, alongside the likes of artist Jeff Koons and collector Stefan Edlis. Of the art market’s rapid ascent over the past half-century, she said, “It’s sick.”
And in 2016, on the occasion of an exhibition devoted to Belgian and American painters that appeared at the Vanderborght and Cinéma Galeries/the Underground in Brussels, she wrote, “Minimal reductiveness can now be seen for what it is: a transitional step in the history of art, one necessary in order for painting to gain new freedom in favor of the play of the imagination.”
Art
Random: We're In Awe of Metaphor: ReFantazio's Box Art – Push Square
There’s nothing quite like video game box art that makes you stop and say “wow”. Admittedly, it’s been a while since such a cover caught our eye, but we simply can’t gawk at the newly revealed box art for Metaphor: ReFantazio and not write an article about it.
The upcoming RPG looks to be a stunner in terms of art direction, and the cover gives you a taste of that before you even get started. It features gorgeous character-focused art, and although we still think the name ‘Metaphor: ReFantazio’ is a bit… overwrought, we can’t argue with the logo, which is striking.
NieR: Automata’s Kazuma Koda is credited as Metaphor’s concept artist, so we’re assuming it’s his work that’s decorating this box, but it’s also worth noting that longtime Persona character designer Shigenori Soejima is running the show.
Are you as taken with Metaphor’s box art as we are? Have a quick say in our poll and then make some room on your shelf in the comments section below.
Art
Hajime Sorayama on the erotic aesthetics of his sexy robot art
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We speak to the controversial Japanese artist about fetishism, his never-before displayed ‘hardcore’ paintings and Desire Machines – one of the inaugural exhibitions at the Museum of Sex opening soon in Miami
©Hajime Sorayama Courtesy of NANZUKA
©Hajime Sorayama Courtesy of NANZUKA
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“articleBody”: “Shoyer adds: “I appreciate how Sorayama’s work engenders discussions about the real and the fantastic, the erotic appeal of the inorganic, and the porous boundaries between being human, machine, and animal, especially in relation to subjectivity or myths of consent.” She says there’s one particular piece she wants to highlight – and one that ties the Museum of Sex Miami’s inaugural programme together nicely. “The painting [an untitled work painted by Sorayama in 2022] features a fembot using a vibrator,” she explains. “Gold halos hover over the robot’s head and the head of the vibrator, sanctifying both machines. The vibrator features a hand crank, referencing the early history of vibrators – a history that’s also on view in Modern Sex. Hand-cranked vibrating stimulatory machines were first invented during the industrial revolution. An object like the Vee Dee vibrator (1900-1915) features a similar hand-crank to the vibrator on view in Sorayama’s painting. As such, in this work, Sorayama seems to combine the early history of mechanical stimulators with a futuristic look at self-stimulation. Here, the past, present, and our visions for the future compound. The painting seems to ask, ‘How has erotic desire, self-stimulation, and the subjectivity of other-than-human figures manifested, and how will it play out going forward?’.”
By referencing the past in this way (see also his Marilyn Monroe android pin-up), Sorayama imbues his ‘sexy robots’ – who he refers to as his wives and daughters – with a past. They’re simultaneously human, with realistic, supple flesh and familiar histories, and yet disorientingly non-human, futuristic, and fantastical. At a time when we have more tools than ever than envision a different kind of eroticism – and yet people use AI to reinforce the same Western ideals of sexiness – Sorayama remains one of the few still really pushing the boundaries of what eroticism can look like. “I’m excited and very proud of how [Desire Machines] came together,” he concludes. “I can’t wait to see the viewers’ reaction. I just need to keep behaving myself so I won’t get arrested before the show starts.”
Visit the gallery above for a closer look at some of the artwork going on display at the Musuem of Sex in Miami.
Museum of Sex Miami opens in 2024. Follow their Instagram for updates.”,
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Art
Fragility on display at new Kelowna Art Gallery exhibition – Kelowna News – Castanet.net
Two Master of Fine Arts candidates at UBC Okanagan explore fragility in a new exhibition at the Kelowna Art Gallery.
Kelowna-based Victoria Verge and Salmon-Arm based zev tiefenbach are featured in the presentation titled “What is Fragile?” that runs until July 12, 2024. An opening reception is scheduled for Friday, April 26, from 6 pm. to 8 p.m. at the Kelowna Art Gallery, and admission is free.
Verge’s works, titled Chasing the Echoes of Home, include interactive sculptures and a large installation featuring wallpaper and vintage furniture. Teifenbach’s collection includes photographs and videos called these are fragile days.
“Through their unique artistic explorations, Verge and tiefenbach shed light on how fragile the human spirit can be,” says curator Christine May. “Visitors to the exhibition are encouraged to think deeply about how art can transform us, and the important role that artists play in shaping today’s social and cultural stories.”
A pair of fellow MFA student from UBC Okanagan, Jessie Emilie and Troy Teichrib will also be showcasing their work at the Lake Country Art Gallery from May 18 to July 14.
“Through a range of mediums, these students are offering visitors the opportunity to explore the next generation of contemporary art across a variety of styles,” says Wanda Lock, curator at the Lake Country Art Gallery.
The Kelowna Art Gallery is located at 1315 Water Street. The Lake Country Art Gallery is at 10356A Bottom Wood Lake Road.
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