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Introducing Flash Points: Controversy & Contemporary Art
FLASH POINTS is a monthly conversational series that focuses on issues relevant to the state of the art world at large, contemporary art education, and issues artists face today. You can participate by...
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Self-consciousness around controversial issues
Jenny Holzer, WHITE, 2006. Nichia white LED’s mounted on PCB with aluminum housing, 192 1/4 x 216 5/8 x 5 3/8 inches. Installation view: Cheim & Read, New York. © 2007 Jenny Holzer, member Artist...
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Letter from London: Fifteenth Time Leckey!
On Monday night, the winner of this year’s Turner Prize was announced—the fifteenth since its inception in 1984. The prize itself has become synonymous with a sort of willful controversy, symbolic of...
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Blood Work &‘Art Criminals’
I am not sure I would call artists like Jeff Koons, Vanessa Beecroft, Santiago Sierra, or even Kara Walker all that “controversial.” These artists are actually quite popular with curators. How...
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Sweet Jesus! Shock, awe, and the mundane
As readers’ comments suggest in the introductory post of Flash Points, contemporary art that engages religion is a hotbed for controversy. James Horn remarks, “I have seen pictures which have featured...
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Top Billing at the Guggenheim
I’ve been reading a few reviews of the Guggenheim’s anyspacewhatsoever exhibition recently, including Merrily Kerr‘s insightful take a few days ago. Coupled with the launch of Flash Points and its...
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Teaching with Controversial Material: “Bodies”
Illustration by Natasha Russel, Senior, Nyack High School Just a few weeks ago, a colleague and I had the opportunity to take three Advanced Placement Studio Art classes to see Bodies: The Exhibition...
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I wanna shock.
Dirt Mansion, an installation by Judith Supine at English Kills Gallery in Brooklyn, April, 2008. (Photo by C-M.) In a move that undoubtedly goes against somebody’s better judgment, the respectable...
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Difficulty, Part 1: Deceptive Forms of Simplicity
What if, instead of talking about what makes an artwork controversial, we focused on what makes an artwork difficult? Difficulty has long functioned as a keyword in poetics and music criticism....
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Difficulty, Part 2: Bad Feelings
Chris Ofili, Holy Virgin Mary (1996) I started thinking about the word “difficulty” in relation to controversial art because the things in art which grab me, even shock me, rarely line up with the...
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Crying Wolf
Here’s one of the biggest problem with controversy in contemporary art: once it sparks, people stop really looking. I didn’t see UCLA’s Wight Biennial this year. LA Times critic Christopher Knight...
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Found Art: 10 Ways to Die of Electric Shock
Disaffected hipster meets his maker. All images courtesy of Bre Pettis. Since we’re talking “shock” here at Art21, I decided to plug the word into Flickr to see what it’d turn up. It was a jackpot. I...
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Using contemporary art to help open conversations
What’s the place of contemporary art in schools? What’s the place of “controversial” contemporary art in schools? And what’s our responsibility as teachers? The very best contemporary art speaks a...
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Teaching with controversial subject matter
On the topic of art and controversy, I thought I’d share a teaching-related story of my own. Previously to working at Art21, I was an associate educator at the New Museum, where I ran a high school...
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Myths, metaphors, and more: Interview with Eleanor Antin, Part 1
Last month I had the good fortune to speak with Eleanor Antin (Season 2) in a series of lively and engaging emails that included her thoughts on preparing for exhibitions, working with allegories,...
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Interview with Eleanor Antin Part 2
Following is the second part of my conversation with Eleanor Antin, continued from Part 1 yesterday… JF: One thing that has been important in my own work with students and colleagues is related to...
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The shock of the unseen.
“Looking eternity in the eye.” (All photos by Luodanli.) Almost four years ago, in the course of my web wanderings, I stumbled on the photographs of an Army serviceman who had been deployed to Iraq....
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“Imperfect Moments: Mapplethorpe & Censorship Twenty Years Later” at ICA in...
Robert Mapplethorpe, "Self Portrait," 1975 Last week, people from far and wide gathered for a special conference titled “Imperfect Moments: Mapplethorpe and Censorship Twenty Years Later,” which was...
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“I am the invisible being”: The Smithsonian, Wojnarowicz, and the Othering of...
David Wojnarowicz, "Untitled (Face in Dirt)," 1990. Silver print, 28.5 x 28.5 inches. Courtesy P.P.O.W. The decision of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, G. Wayne Clough, to pull David...
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Looking at Los Angeles: Senators with No Talent
Italian President Giorgio Napolitano at Milan's La Scala Opera House on December 7, 2010. I woke up Wednesday morning to news of fracas at the opera. The La Scala opera house in Milan had just hosted...
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Teaching with David Wojnarowicz (and Not Teaching with the Smithsonian)
David Wojnarowicz, "Night Train Dream" 1983 P.P.O.W Gallery In light of the recent debacle at the Smithsonian involving the removal of David Wojnarowicz’s A Fire in My Belly, I thought it might make...
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Working with Violent Images
Student art: acrylic, pencil and ink on paper Only a few days ago I was all set to write a post that highlighted the plight of Curtis Acosta, an Arizona teacher who finds himself in the position of...
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Letter from London | Porn, Porn Everywhere: Analog at Riflemaker Gallery.
In this second and last guest blog post, Kerim Aytac fills in for our hero Ben Street this month. — Ed. Looking at Richard Nicholson’s elegiac contribution to the Analog show at Riflemaker gallery in...
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Visibility, Potency and Meaning: Making Sense of Art at the Crosshairs
Protest on the steps of the National Portrait Gallery, December 2010. Courtesy the Washington Post, photo: Bill O'Leary. Since I made my first appearance on the Art21 blog about six weeks ago,...
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Dissecting the Social Self: A [Wo]Man, an Animal, and an Ambiguous “I.”
Katarzyna Kozyra, "Olimpia," detail, 1996. Deposit of the National Museum in Cracow. Courtesy Zachęta National Gallery of Art. At the turn of December and January, the myriad summaries and best-of...
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Looking at Los Angeles: Owning Robert Mapplethorpe
Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe. Courtesy Patti Smith Archive. “I don’t know why my pictures come out looking so good,” photographer Robert Mapplethorpe once told his brother. “I just don’t get...
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Turkish and Other Delights | biriken
biriken (left: Melis Tezkan, right: Okan Urun). Photo by Beatriz Toledo. Courtesy of biriken. biriken is the five year old interdisciplinary, collaborative project of Melis Tezkan and Okan Urun....
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Absolutely Uncertain
Those were the days.... Image: zeegees.ca Since you can’t swing a cat without hitting a picture of Charlie Sheen at this point, I thought I’d choose a classic for today’s column. I mean, Art21...
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Open Enrollment | Los Angeles: Nice Meeting You Again and Again
This week began with Dean Rochelle Steiner of the USC Roski School of Fine Arts signing off on my thesis and me paying the publishing and binding fee. My thesis is officially complete! The other...
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Teaching with Contemporary Art: The First Three Years
This week Teaching with Contemporary Art here on the blog turns 3. Frankly, I can’t believe that I’ve been writing this column for three years. At the same time, it has flown by much like academic...
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Reflecting on Teaching with William Kentridge: Anything Is Possible
William Kentridge, "Felix in Exile," 1994. Production stills; 35mm animated film transferred to video. Copyright and courtesy of William Kentridge. This past Saturday I sat down with a small group of...
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Turkish and Other Delights |Şener Özmen
Şener Özmen with Erkan Özgen, "Tate'e Giden Yol (Road to Tate Modern)," video, 7'13" (still), 2003. Courtesy the artist and Outlet-Istanbul. While preparing to travel to Diyarbakır, the largest city in...
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Talking with Janine Antoni and Getting Set for NAEA: Part One
Janine Antoni, "Lick and Lather" (detail), 1993 This week’s column features a new interview with Janine Antoni in advance of her upcoming keynote address and workshop at the National Art Education...
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Ambiguity and Teaching with the Photography Robert Adams
Robert Adams, "Adams County, Colorado," 1973 Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Matthew Marks Gallery, New York The LA Times’ Leah Ollman hit it on the head last month when she wrote in Art...
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Ten Years…… Right Between the Eyes: Zoe Strauss at the Philadelphia Museum
Zoe Strauss, "Mattress Flip", 2001. Image: pdnphotooftheday.com Every once in a blue moon you get surprised by an exhibit that takes your breath away. Kiki Smith did it to me in 2006 and last year...
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