Thursday, November 28, 2013

Gallery Update

Leon Kossoff at Mitchell-Innes & Nash (534 West 26).
You don’t often get to see this much Kossoff here in the States.
Massive amount of drawings. The kind that say “anyone can draw, and I’m going to do it with more intensity than anyone can draw”. Sketchy madness.
And the paintings? From a distance the paint pulls together forming crudely raucous images. But up close the image dissolves into gobs of gooey, molten lava-like surfaces devoid of any representational gestalt. The paint is less psychological than Soutine, but physically denser.

Went to see Cyprien Gaillard’s “altered readymades” at Gladstone (530 West 21). The light in the rear space is amazing. The way it brings out the color on the metal surfaces reminded me of the light in Chamberlain’s buildings in Marfa, Texas. Same thing here, the surface colors and textures are rich, but Gaillard doesn’t manipulate the found as much. Instead he relies on the drama of size and material. The light is amazing.

KAWS at Mary Boone.
Didn’t stay long at this monumental, neo-pop awfulness. Guess I didn’t like it.
Like they used to say “when in doubt make it bigger”. And he did.

Brancusi in New York. Paul Kasmin (515 West 27)
Didn’t mention this last time but Brancusi’s photos in the back room are the best. These vintage images made back then with their worn edges and varying degrees of finish are a living time capsule and perhaps the best way to see his work now. They’re alive.

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