URS FISCHER: MARGUERITE DE PONTY

Urs Fischer, Noisette, 2009. Mixed mediums, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist.

URS FISCHER (Born 1973, Zurich, Switzerland/Lives and works New York City)
NEW MUSEUM
NEW YORK
OPENING OCTOBER 27, 2009

For his first large-scale solo presentation in an American museum, Urs Fischer has taken over all three of the New Museum’s gallery floors to create a series of immersive installations and hallucinatory environments. The exhibition “Urs Fischer: Marguerite de Ponty” is the culmination of four years of work. Neither a traditional survey nor a retrospective, the exhibition features new productions and iconic works combined to compose a series of gigantic still lifes and walk-in tableaux. Choreographed entirely by the artist, the exhibition is a descent into Fischer’s universe, revealing the world of an artist who has emerged as one of the most exceptional talents working today. An engineer of imaginary worlds, in the past Fischer has created sculptures in a rich variety of materials including unstable substances such as melting wax and rotting vegetables. In a continuous search for new plastic solutions, Fischer has built houses out of bread and given life to animated puppets; he has dissected objects or blown them out of proportion in order to reinvent our relationship to them. In 2007, in a now-legendary exhibition, he excavated the floor of his New York gallery, digging a crater within the exhibition space. Throughout his work, with ambitious gestures and irreverent panache, Fischer explores the secret mechanisms of perception, combining a Pop immediacy with a neo-Baroque taste for the absurd. Urs Fischer uses a range of mediums to express the transience of art and, concomitantly, the human condition. Fischer has described his regard for the boredom that comes with everyday activities, and in his work the prominence of chairs and shadows — often fused together into one object — is an indication of the artist’s interest in equilibrium in time.

SPECTACULAR

Frank Lloyd Wright during construction of the Solomon R. Guggenheim
Museum, New York, ca. 1959
Photograph by William Short
© The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation,
New York

If i had a hammer - the auctioneer - Simon de Pury

FACTUALITY #8

"LIFE IS TEMPORAL. THERE'S TOO MUCH PREENING AND FUSSING OVER FANCY DETAILS, ABOUT AN IDEA OF PERFECTION. IT'S ALL PHONEY. WE ARE TEMPORARY AND SO ARE ALL OUR STRUCTURES."
FRANK GEHRY

CERITH WYN EVANS at deSingel in Belgium

Cerith Wyn Evans
In girium imus ..., 2006
Neon

15th October 2009 - 10th January 2010

The Welsh artist Cerith Wyn Evans has, at the request of deSingel, taken his inspiration from the architecture of the site, both present and absent. Wyn Evans work is striking above all for its refined and coded relations with space, light and language. This is hinted at in the cryptic title of his exhibition: ". . .", or 'so to speak'. In his custom-made work, Wyn Evans uses unexpected means – luminous columns, philosophical writings, projection, reflections and fireworks – to create a polymorphous, intertextual and poetic space in which darkness emerges from light. In his exhibition at deSingel, Wyn Evans is now emphatically adding his thoughts on architecture to his oeuvre of 'aesthetic clashes', which arise somewhere between surrealism, pre-pop art and situationist utopias. One of the works in which this is made apparent is the new firework piece 'In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni'. The title is a reference to a palindrome in medieval Latin which, loosely translated, means 'We go round and round in the night and we are consumed by fire'. There is a new neon work newly conceived for this exhibition – a quote from a film review on the French situationist Guy Debord – 'Permit yourself to drift from what you are reading at this very moment into another situation ... Imagine a situation that, in all likelihood, you've never been in'. Wyn Evans' artistic career started in the seventies as an assistant to the film director Derek Jarman. Later, in the early eighties, he worked with the 'punk choreographer' Michael Clark and such indie bands as The Smiths and The Fall. Cerith Wyn Evans has taken part in the Biennales in Venice (1995, 2003, 2009) and Istanbul (2005), Documenta 11 in Kassel (2002) and the Tate Triennial in London (2006). He recently had one-man shows at the Museum of Fine Art in Boston (USA, 2004), the Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris (F, 2006), CCA Kitakyushu (J, 2007) and Musac in Léon (E, 2008).
In his new artist's book, released for the exhibition, Wyn Evans refers to two ground-breaking publications of the last century: "Un coup de dés jamais ln'abolira le hasard – poême" from 1914 by French poet Stéphane Mallarmé, and its 1969 'translation' by the Belgian artist Marcel Broodthaers. Wyn Evans' lavishly designed tribute contains just a single sentence, the one he used for the neon work made on commission to deSingel. Each letter was cut out of paper with a laser and the words were distributed irregularly over the whole volume.

Cerith Wyn Evans, ". . ." - delay
32 pages, 24.7 x 32.5 cm, 500 copies, numbered 1 to 500
Available from deSingel

NATE LOWMAN AT ASTRUP FEARNLEY IN OSLO

Nate Lowman, Escalade, 2005
Acrylic on canvas, Approx. 146,5 x 159 cm,
Astrup Fearnley Collection

Nate Lowman: The Natriot Act
Through January 3, 2010

Nate Lowman moves within the American art world, and consumer and media society more generally, continuously rearranging the visual signifiers he encounters. He gathers the raw materials for his art from the news, popular media and art history and reconditions them through his own reading, thoughts and feelings. Images of famous and ordinary people, including his own relatives, coexist in his art works, and create personal narratives of individuals and events. He then lets these narratives flow, allowing one signifier to slip to another, creating a multiplicity of possibilities and a rich, open-ended story. It’s an art of selecting, curating, orchestrating, manipulating. Nate Lowman's works mirror contemporary American society. In contrast to his predecessors, Lowman is first and foremost preoccupied with narratives and story-telling. Speaking in first person, he invokes real-life stories and offers his own opinion about the people and events within them. Fragments from the media and art historical references become equal constructional elements in his subjective narratives. As all narratives are related to time, notions of time and duration are invariably major elements within Lowman's work. The inclusion of imagery from different times and contexts in many of his works open up non-linear sequences of reading and invite viewers' to form an individual sense of temporality. Lowman typically initiates the story-telling with one or more signifiers. These may be signs, words or images and are often drawn from stories circulating in the media -- both recent news and out-of-date events. abandoned. The same images sometimes re-appear throughout different works creating junctions and synergies, and even a mysterious unity beyond the individual works. In Lowman’s vast mural-collages there is neither linearity nor any guide as how to read them, except for the hints provided by the titles. He does not allow a hierarchy of importance or for one single iconic image to dominate and center the viewer's attention. Instead it’s the interrelationship between the different images which allow Lowman's layered narrative structures to be left open to be completed by the viewer, not the artist. There is always a real space for the beholder.

An exhibition catalogue is available.

ED RUSCHA AT THE HAYWARD GALLERY

Ed Ruscha, Back of Hollywood, 1977. Collection of Musée d’art contemporain de Lyon © Ed Ruscha 2009. Photo: Paul Ruscha.

October 14, 2009 - January 10, 2010
HAYWARD GALLERY
LONDON

The Hayward Gallery presents a major retrospective of Ed Ruscha’s paintings, in celebration of his 50-year career. Ed Ruscha (b. 1937) is widely regarded as one of the world’s most influential artists at work today and this exhibition traces the development of his paintings across five decades, from his contributions to Pop Art in the early 1960s to his paintings comprising words and phrases and his explorations of iconic American landscapes. Based in Los Angeles since the late 1950s, Ed Ruscha is recognized for his pioneering work in a variety of media, including painting, print-making, artist’s books, photography and film. His influence on painting has been particularly significant and this exhibition reveals the wit and ceaseless experimentation that have distinguished his contributions to this medium. Presenting a total of 78 works on canvas, "Ed Ruscha: Fifty Years of Painting" is the largest UK survey yet of Ruscha’s output as a painter. The exhibition reveal’s the full depth and breadth of his achievements, from his use of graphic design and filmic devices to his experimentation with unusual materials and formats. Many of the paintings in the show have never before been seen in the UK and have been lent by both public and private collections from around the world. Ralph Rugoff, Director of the Hayward Gallery and curator of this exhibition, said: ‘Ed Ruscha is widely celebrated for the visual elegance and wit of his paintings, and this exhibition also reveals his insistently experimental approach to the medium as well as his charged takes on the contemporary cultural landscape. Whether trafficking in ambiguity and absurdity or scanning signs of social decay and decline, his paintings address us in ways that are at once playful and profoundly disorienting, and they remain as provocative today as they first did half a century ago.’ Words and phrases, set against a colored background or landscape, are at the center of Ruscha’s work, conjuring up a world of associations, at once playful and profound. The exhibition charts Ruscha’s ongoing interest in imaginatively exploring language as the subject of a non-verbal art form, from his early use of single words divorced of any meaning or context, to his ‘liquid word’ paintings – words seemingly poured rather than painted – and later, whole phrases, painted bold and authoritatively, yet often enigmatic in their meaning. Key word-based paintings featured in the exhibition include "Oof" (1962-63), "Boss" (1961), "Hurting the Word Radio # 2" (1964), and "Sand in the Vaseline" (1974). Besides engaging with written language, Ruscha’s paintings have recorded the shifting emblems of American life, in particular the vernacular of Southern California, in the form of classic Hollywood logos, stylized petrol stations and suburban landscapes. Often echoing the size of Cinemascope movie screens and billboards, these works constitute a shrewd and incisive portrait of American culture. Ruscha has produced some of the most memorable works of American art, including "Standard Station" (1966), "Annie" (1962), and "Trademark with Eight Spotlights" (1962), all of which are on display.

Live Forever: Elizabeth Peyton

October 18, 2009 - March 21, 2010

Bonnefantenmuseum
Maastricht

From her earliest portraits of 19th-century heroes to her more recent paintings, featuring friends from the world of music, fashion and literature, Elizabeth Peyton has presented herself as a contemporary 'painter of modern life', in the sense that Charles Baudelaire meant it. Peyton's miniature portraits capture the spirit of the times in an artistic language that unmistakeably reflects late 20th-century urban sensitivity. The museum is presenting the first comprehensive retrospective of Peyton's oeuvre in the Netherlands, mounted by the New Museum in New York, comprising work of the past eighteen years, beginning with a small-scale portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte and going up to one of fashion designer Marc Jacobs. Peyton's intimate portraits often appear unrealistic, compared to the public star status of many of her models. Peyton makes them small – both literally and figuratively – in order to visualize a more genuine beauty. Elizabeth Peyton belongs to a select group of artists who developed a unique mix of realism and conceptualism in their work in the early 1990's, in which Peyton consciously reverted to narrative figurative techniques in contemporary painting. Live Forever: Elizabeth Peyton was organized by the New Museum, New York, and has travelled to Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and Whitechapel Art Gallery, London. The exhibition is accompanied by a comprehensive catalogue.

1969

Richard Hamilton
Swingeing London 67(c), 1968-69
Silkscreen ink on synthetic polymer paint on canvas
The Museum of Modern Art
© 2009 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / DACS, London

P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center presents 1969, a large scale exhibition occupying the entire second floor with works drawn from every department of The Museum of Modern Art. Exploring a cross section of art made during a period marked with revolution and socio-political tumult, this exhibition also will embrace five interventions by a current generation of artists whose work reflects the concerns of 1969 and brings the exhibition into the present. These younger artists will be given free reign to respond to the works on view and to the time period in general.

October 25, 2009 - April 5, 2010

FINALISTS FOR 2010 HUGO BOSS PRIZE

David and Venus by Hans-Peter Feldmann. Photograph: Adrian Sherratt

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation has chosen the six finalists for its 2010 Hugo Boss Prize. The $100,000 award, given every two years and named for the German mens wear company that sponsors it, goes to an individual who has made an important contribution to contemporary art with no restrictions on age or nationality. This year’s list, which was announced on Thursday evening, is an eclectic one that leans heavily toward conceptual and performance artists. They are Cao Fei, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Roman Ondak, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. The winner will be announced in the fall of 2010 and will also receive a solo show in 2011 at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

WISH YOU WERE HERE

Sex and sensibility: Pop Life at Tate Modern



Dirty – Jeff on Top (1991) by Jeff Koons, to whose work Tate Modern has devoted an entire room. This centrepiece depicts the artist having sex with his (now, ex-) wife, Italian porn star La Cicciolina.
Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi


Hiropon (1997) by Takashi Murakami, which depicts a fantastical blue-haired woman skipping with a rope curdled from her own breast milk.
Photograph: Daniel Deme/EPA

Pop Life's schlock horrors

Tate Modern's blockbuster Pop Life unites all the giants – and monsters – of pop art. This overcrowded, manic exhibition is full of things to snigger and ogle at, to boggle the mind and to make one wish for saner days, old-style values and a bit of decorum. They're long past, and a lot of the art here is 20 or 30 years old, too. Warhol presides over Pop Life; in fact, there's far too much Warholabilia in an exhibition already stuffed to the gills. We know him too well now, even if he is key to understanding what happened to pop in the 1980s and 90s – long after it had had its historical moment in the late 1950s. The careers of Warhol, Koons and Murakami have all spun out beyond the art world, entering the media mainstream to become figures of popular entertainment in their own right. Lots of artists manage to turn themselves into larger-than-life characters, but it isn't always part and parcel of their art; nor do they always confuse themselves with their personas. This rise of the artist as media celebrity, as art-tart and living artwork, is one of the subplots here. Being a smart operator, a whizz at public relations and having an eye for the main chance are all very well. They might help you become a successful artist, but will they help you make good art? This is the sort of question that makes savvy types snort with derision: there is only success, they say; the rest is subjective. Pop Life also nods to 1980s commodity fetishism, but it's a sideshow to the big, loud and self-trumpeting art.
Adrian Searle
guardian.co.uk