Greetings from The Desk
Sunday, July 2, 2023
Greetings from The Desk. I am working on new essays, reading books, and seeing new art. I was just in Chelsea this week for an appointment and saw a couple of exhibitions before I had to dash home. I do get a lot of reading done on subways and buses so it’s not completely lost time.
The one exhibition that stayed with me was Gilbert and George “The Corpsing Pictures” at Lehmann Maupin. The exhibition was comprehensive of the variety of expressions in their newest series of composite collaged photographs. G&G almost never disappoint, even when they are pushing the buttons of the acceptable a little too hard. There’s always an iconic quality to their work, and the sense that they have been working through every level and dimension of looking at how their own images collaborate with structures made from materials that originate from the body. This time it’s bones. The predominant color here is red, the red of blood, and of the flesh.
Last week I was at the Guggenheim Museum, where I saw two equally impressive exhibitions. The larger and more comprehensive of the two was Gego “Measuring Infinity” and the other was Sarah Sze “Timelapse”. It’s refreshing to view two solo exhibitions by great artists, one of whom lived a long and influential life, and the other who is still striving to advance the limits of her creative vision. The former was a retrospective lasting for many decades of the artist’s life. Though I moved through it backwards, seeing the final works first--as I prefer to walk down a ramp rather than up one—I still found her formal progression enlightening, and at times, even transcendent. Regarding, Sarah Sze, it was a return to her work that I appreciated, and found at times ephemeral and thrilling. I first encountered her work in the mid-Nineties, and it’s been several years at least since my last opportunity to engage with it. Split between a half dozen bays at the very upper regions of the Guggenheim ramp, each instance was a moment both complex and introspective.
Books I am reading and writing about are few in number, but they are each specific. The very next one will be Catherine Lacey’s “Biography of X”. I was compelled by the context and execution of her subject: the life of a fictional artist whose tale is being told by her recent widow. The woman named X is herself a paradox wrapped within a succession of mysteries, which are explained by the world in which she was born, and escaped from, in an America very different from our own. Her identity, both as an archive and as projected in her everyday life, was always paradoxical. Because of her ability to hide in various personas, she was able to live multiple lives in a way that most never can. It’s a brilliantly realized portrait of a reluctant cipher and her partner who’s obsessed with realizing a real portrayal of her to stand the test of time. Writing this review is a real challenge and I hope to finish it soon.
The next two art-related posts will be on the paintings of Becky Yazdan and the photographs of Leah Oates. Though I can’t tell you which will come first, they are both in an equal state of near completion.
That’s it for now. Expect at least 2-3 essays on art and books in the next month. These dispatches will come now and then.
All best,
David Gibson