Displaying Vito Acconci's 'Seedbed' today

In a recent blog post, Lindsay Pollock talks about the new show going up at MoMA that draws exclusively from their permanent collection. It also includes 66 works that MoMA owns but has never displayed before, one of which is Vito Acconci's 'Seedbed'.

'Seedbed' was a performance piece Acconci did in the early 70s at Sonnabend Gallery in which he lived under a slanted platform and masturbated for the duration of the show. He would then fantasize about the people walking above him and his words were broadcast throughout the gallery. I was trying to figure out how MoMA was going to recreate this piece - was Vito himself going to revisit this piece, were they going to construct a ramp and hire someone to pleasure themself a la Acconci? The answer it turns out is simple - I emailed Lindsay Pollock and they said they are showing the video. Lame.

Local news

Two pieces of news from the Indianapolis Business Journal worth pointing out:

First, Lou Harry in his A&E blog draws attention to the Phister Hotel in Milwaukee that now provides an artist-in-residence program. They provide studio space, a monthly stipend as well the opportunity to show the artist's work. On the surface it seems like a great idea, the danger I have seen in similar situations is that work is often safe and not very exciting. I think there is real potential here if the artist chosen is relevant in a contemporary art sense and someone who will actually add something to the local art scene and discourse.

Second, the Indianapolis Cultural Trail gets $20.5 million in federal stimulus funds. This puts the Trail $7.5 million above it's original goal of $55 million. Congrats to all involved on raising the funds - NOW LET'S FINISH THE EAST END OF MASS AVE! I feel really bad for the merchants down there that have been cut off from the rest of the Avenue.

Things I'm reading

I haven't had much time to completely follow all the arts news/blogs recently, let alone write about it, but here are a few things that have been on my radar:

• The big news this past week was the record breaking price set at an art auction for Giocometti's Walking Man 1. It was such big news that the artwork was actually P1 above the fold in the Wall Street Journal. The most interesting read however was in the Telegraph where they ask if Giocometti is really better than Picasso?
• Jerry Saltz makes Tino Sehgal's art at the Guggenheim cry. I plan on tweeting about this show and other events happening during Armory weekend March 4th through the 6th. Follow me here.
• Is Indy actually ready for contemporary architecture? Ball State University architecture professor Michel Mounayar thinks the new J.W. Marriott will help.
• On a sad note, I don't think I've ever gone to the Indianapolis Museum of Art when this treasure hasn't been on their walls. Losing to the Saints last night in the Super Bowl felt about as good as the time I stepped on a rusty nail, this reminds me of what the tetanus shot felt like.
• Like many of you, I have long been a huge fan of the Urbanophile (Aaron Renn). If you don't know him yet, be sure to read David Hoppe's Q&A with Aaron in Nuvo and start reading his blog.
  

Museum Superbowl Madness

Jean-Valentin Morel, image via IMA website

For those of you not following Tyler Green via facebook, twitter or his blog, you'll probably be interested to know he has challenged the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the New Orleans Museum of Art to place a bet on the upcoming Superbowl.

IMA Director Max Anderson was the first to respond, offering to loan a contemporary painting by Ingrid Calame to the New Orleans museum for three months should the Saints somehow beat the Colts. NOMA Director quickly responded by offering a "three month loan of its $4 million Renoir painting, Seamstress at Window, circa 1908, which is currently in the big Renoir exhibition in Paris."

How has Max responded? "We'll see the sentimental blancmange by that 'China Painter' and raise you a proper trophy: a Jean-Valentine Morel jeweled cup (pictured above), which won the Grand Medal at the 1855 Paris World Fair."

Stay tuned.

Pollock at SFMOMA

SFMOMA's blog has a great post about acquiring Jackson Pollock's Guardians of the Secret in 1945 (via Tyler Green). This is when I find institutional blogs the most interesting. Read it.

Jeff Geesa gets 4 out 5 stars in Nuvo

In case you missed it, Jeff Geesa's show at christopher west presents is reviewed in the current Nuvo.

Also in this weeks Nuvo, an article about the new gallery scene in Indy featuring yours truly, Jason Myers of Artbox, and Casey Roberts of mt.comfort (a space for champions).

Comings and goings...

I was very sad to learn this week that one of the most insightful art, architecture and design blogs is going away. Richard Lacayo's Looking Around on time.com will be no more. Richard will thankfully continue to write for Time Magazine.

But it's not all doom and gloom. For anyone slightly interested in the art market, Lindsay Pollock is a must read.

Mystery solved

For those that read my last post, you know that I wondered what in the world Culture Grrl was doing in Indianapolis last week. Turns out she was speaking Max Anderson, director of the IMA about the Fairbanks Art and Nature Park. You can watch the interview here. Turns out there really was no scandal. Darn.

And should anyone want to hear me talk about art and Craig Doty's current show, check out Charles Fox's new blog, Outposts From the Material World. He's got like 47 times more readers than Culture Grrl, so you've probably already seen it.

Today's great link

In response to numerous 'Top Lists' (collectors, influential, etc.) the folks over at HyperAllergic have compiled "The Top 20 Most Powerless in the Art World".

16 - Jesus Christ, because he's just too old to show at the New Museum.

Check out the entire list here.

Backlash against the conceptual

Damien Hirst with White Roses and Butterflies, 2008, The Wallace Collection. Photograph: Katie Collins/PA

I don't care whether or not Damian Hirst can paint. His dozens of studio assistants churning out spin painting after medicine cabinet after taxidermied animal doesn't bother me at all. I like the concepts, I like the aesthetics (ok the millionth dot painting was silly) but I don't care if the final product came via his hand or his direction. If you keep up with all the contemporary art news you might think I am the only one that feels this way.

Hirst's most recent exhibition, which just opened at the Wallace Collection in London, is comprised only of paintings in which the artist got rid of all assistants and created everything with his own hand. By all accounts the paintings are awful. I have not seen the show in person but the fact that BBC has a page on their website dedicated to linking all of the bad reviews is a pretty strong indication. My guess is the show is not as bad as all the naysayers are putting in print. Hirst has for years been the critics favorite person to hate, but I think it's a pretty strong assumption that painting is not his forte.

Enter Denis Dutton. This weekend his article Has Conceptual Art Jumped the Shark Tank? was published in the New York Times. Basically he is equating contemporary conceptual art to the cartoons in the New Yorker. He asserts that Hirst's inability to paint will cause future art historians to consider him irrelevant and that those who have purchased his work (along with his contemporary Jeff Koons) must be baffoons (my words).

What I don't understand is why the public (or at least the critics) need to draw this imaginary line in the sand where on one side is everything beautiful and created by an artist and is labeled 'art' and on the other side is everything else that we label 'junk'. In my lifetime art has been about blurring boundaries, mixing the aesthetic with the conceptual, and the functional with the beautiful. Do I care if my favorite photographer can't draw? No. Do I think any less of my favorite sculptor if they can't do an interesting piece with the medium of video? No. And would it bother me at all if my favorite conceptual artist can't paint? I bet you can guess the answer.

Damien Hirst, Pharmacy, 1992, installation view at Cohen Gallery, NY.

The pendulum continues to swing

Two recent stories have got me thinking about the state of contemporary art in this time we live in. The first is the recent announcement of the winner of the ArtPrize contest - the competition in Grand Rapids in which the winner of the $250,000 top prize was determined by public vote. The second is about the Biennial of the America's to be held in Denver next summer. Though (I hope) well intentioned, this contemporary art biennial is shaping up to be about everything but contemporary art.

It's caused me to wonder if this is actually a shift in the way the contemporary art world will run or just a pendulum that continues to swing in one direction during these times of American Idol. My guess and hope is that it is the latter and that as the novelty of new technologies like text-voting fades the focus will return to the art itself.

As an aside, I didn't hate the piece that won ArtPrize and was surprised to find out it was the only traditional painting in the top ten. I also imagine there were some very interesting conversations about art around dinner tables all across Grand Rapids, and that's not a bad thing.

Constellations at the MCA

A few weeks ago I mentioned how great I thought the exhibition Constellations: Paintings from the MCA Collection was. If you've seen it, or have a desire to see it, or just like painting, check out the discussion at Bad at Sports. And go to Chicago to see the show before it ends next weekend.

Dallas makes me jealous... again.

Perot Museum of Nature & Science

Plans were released this weekend for the new Perot Museum of Nature and Science designed by Pritzker Prize Laureate Thom Mayne's firm Morphosis. Groundbreaking scheduled for this fall. I bring this up only to remind us all of what's possible even in these economic times. Congrats Dallas on once again solidifying yourself as a major art and design hub in the United States. Great museums, lackluster museums that are improving by leaps and bounds, amazing collectors and an ever increasing roster of impressive architecture.

Mona Lisa

Just a couple quick links today:

- I was very excited to find out via Richard Lacayo that a new documentary about the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911 will be released next year. Watch the trailer here.

- Also, this talk at the IMA tomorrow at 4:00 regarding Indiana and expanding our global connections looks interesting.