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Sprüeth Magers Gallery in London presents a retrospective of Barbara Kruger’s early works, now on display through January 23rd.  In this rare opportunity to see this portion of her collection, one will note the raw and less yielded approach in these pieces than in her later more refined works.

Kruger’s haunting and exposed imagery is juxtaposed with blaring statements of text relative to the political injustice of the world. All wording shows her simplistically fantastic use of Futura type. They note her distaste for consumerism and mass media with such phrases as “Our Prices are Insane!” and “Who is Beyond the Law?” speaking to us in clichés but saying much more.

Another central theme to her works is the question of power and the identity of those who dictate justice. As seen in “Untitled (You Are a Very Special Person)” the bejeweled crown symbolizes authority while the words speak of subordinate mockery. To quote Kruger, “I’m an artist who works with pictures and words. Sometimes that stuff ends up in different kinds of sites and contexts which determine what it means and looks like.” 

link: Art Observed

 

Mats Gustafson’s Landscapes and Swans

 

Since the late 1970s, Mats Gustafson’s fashion illustrations have decorated the pages of magazines such as Interview, The New Yorker, and Vogue, among others. But by 1997, the artist began shifting his focus to the natural world, starting a series of pastel landscape studies. A couple of years later, Gustafson began drawing swans in the same minimalist style that had defined his work in the fashion industry. “It’d been an ongoing switch in my career—focusing on nature—but it was funny, because I picked the most fashionable parts of nature,” Gustafson said. “The swan is very much the supermodel among birds, and they’re very elegant. I was still looking for beautiful lines, but just in the natural world.”

The gallery John McWhinnie at Glenn Horowitz Bookseller, in New York City, is now showing “Mats Gustafson: Swan,” a collection of the illustrator’s early landscape and swan studies, as well as recent pieces and a digital wall installation. “I wanted to reduce, simplify, and get to the essence of things,” Gustafson said of the stark but romantic works. Herewith, some images from the exhibition, which is on display until January 23. 

via: Vanity Fair

 

"Patti Smith: Dream of Life"

"Collection of Collections"

From the moment you step into Partners & Spade’s shop you’ll know that you’re not in the typical retail environment. The space is as much to see as it is to buy, combining aspects of both a gallery and store. Though the idea of art and commerce isn’t especially new, Partners & Spade has successfully executed something fresh in the highly competitive field of Manhattan retail.

Every detail of the store is an opportunity for an unexpected touch of humor, including a comical cluster of security cameras that greets you at the door, or the impulse items only reachable by a 10 foot ladder. 

The shop is also a collection of collections that invites gallery owners, designers, artists, and creatives to share their work and collections, giving them a space to showcase items that they otherwise would not have an opportunity for. Several of our favorites include Mike Mills and Maira Kalman’s contributions to the store. Mills based his collection on memories, in particular 1971. A year in which he believes is the first year of his real memories. Stringing together magazine cut outs as well as illustrations of people and items from that year. Pieces from his collection can be bought as well as bartered. You’ll need to talk to the staff to find out which ones those are. Maira Kalman invited Rivka Schoenfeld an artist who’s contributed to M&Co in the past. Schoenfeld hand made a limited edition of wool hats all accompanied with a tote with each individually numbered. The hats are beautiful as well as endearing given that they are all hand made.

Partners & Spade will include a rotating list of contributors from the high and low. Elevating the mundane with objects as simple as a stapler and beautifying it to showcasing rare books and photographs that would sit comfortably behind a glass case at the Met. We can’t divulge everything here you’ll need to go and experience the shop yourself. 

via: The Scout

On the Waterfront

“The Edge of New York: Waterfront Photographs,” at the Museum of the City of New York, examined the waterfront and its transformation during the 20th century, pairing historic pictures with contemporary images by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel.

“I had this idea of New York and the waterfront as this mythic thing,” said Sean Corcoran, the curator of prints and photographs, who conceived the show.

The photos of Berenice Abbott, Andreas Feininger and David Robbins captured the heyday of the working waterfront in the 1930s and 1940s. They conjure the world of Joseph Mitchell and Elia Kazan; a world where longshoremen toiled, smoking tugboats towed and docks and piers thrust into the water like antennae. New York’s waterfront was once the busiest port in the world, as crowded as a bustling sidewalk but one that was connected to the far reaches of the globe.“It’s so different from what New York is now,” Mr. Corcoran said. “It’s a very stark difference.”

link: Lens Blog

 
 

Martin dOrgeval: Touched by Fire

On February 1, 2008, a fire ripped through Deyrolle, the venerable Parisian entomology and taxidermy store, in business since 1831. The shop's historic collections of butterflies, rare insects, animals and minerals went up in smoke, and with them the memories of generations of schoolchildren, dreamers and enthusiasts fascinated by their motionless beauty. 

This stunning collection of photographs by Martin d'Orgeval captures the animals and insects that survived the disaster in situ, set against a chilling backdrop of charred woodwork and burned cadavers.

 

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 Cropped Toggle Coat by Boy by Band of Outsiders. 

Small Oils on Panel 1969-1973 by Philip Guston

 

Although the Mckee Gallery has mounted many Guston shows over the last 35 years, it has never exhibited the small oil panels together as a group. The early figurative acrylic panels were begun in 1968, but the date of the first smaller oils is undetermined. The dated oil panels begin in 1969 and the last ones in 1973. Many are undated. 

These small oils, ranging in size from 9 x 10 to 12 x 16 inches, have always been special. Their diminutive size does not diminish their pictorial strength, whether as complex compositions of hooded figures in conversation, studio interiors, still-lifes or as paintings of single objects, such as a green shade, a cup, a nail or an umbrella. They are not studies or fragments of larger works. Guston painted these small oils for a period of 5 years, while going through the first hooded figure series and the Roma period, and then he stopped. They have a unity to them that belies the span of time during which they were done. The panels are all very painterly, not flat, and exude a care and intensity of focus that convey the painter’s passion in making them.

via: nyartbeat 

 

One Piece Turns Three!

 

 

"The Village starts to dance - The men beat on their drums - The dominatrix sleeps tonight "

  

 The Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight (12")

Side A 

1. The Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight (3:30) 

2. Chants (1:35) 

Side B 

1. The Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight (Dominant Mix 4:45) 

2. Beat Me (2:20)

"The Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight" by Dominatrix is a New York favorite on Streetwise Records, which was played alongside New Order's "Confusion" and other goodies of the time. It's essentially Claudia Summers speaking (not singing) how "women beat their men..." over a sparse electronic beat.

The video was banned by MTV in 1984, which should come as no surprise.

The Dominatrix" was produced by DJ Ivan who was pretty active in New York circles during the mid 1980s.