Thursday, May 04, 2006
Excuses, Excuses
This could be the longest I have ever gone without posting anything to the blog. But I’ve been busy. Real busy.
So here’s what I’ve been up to. I lead two lives. I write about one-half of them here. If you’re curious about the other half, read this. (And, yes, I was there and watched him eat a heaping plate full of pig’s snout. Even tried some myself. I’ll say only this: one snout was enough for me.) The thing is, that representation is really only a quarter of my life of late, not a half. The other quarter has been spent in the Caribbean—and not in the way that you’re thinking. Hotel, office, airplane; hotel, office, airplane. No sun, no fun, no glamour.
Yeah, yeah. Excuses, excuses. I know. How about some good stuff?
I managed to squeeze in two workdays this week back in New York. Today over lunch I stopped by the Judd preview at Christie’s for what will probably be my final visit--and for what's probably my last chance to see the most perfect apartment-sized Judd piece ever (at right). I still can’t get over the pristine condition of the work on display. The thing about pieces by Judd is that even though they don’t look it, they are so, so, so fragile. One little fingerprint, and the work is seriously scarred.
A few of the pieces on display at Christie’s have picked up a stray fingerprint or two in the last month, but on the whole the work is remarkably clean. The last time I visited, MoMA had four Judd pieces up in the hallway to the cafeteria. The difference in condition between those pieces and the pristine pieces at Christie’s is immediately noticeable. If you haven’t seen the show yet, by all means make a point of seeing it this weekend before the work gets dispersed to various private collections strewn between the Upper East Side and Greenwich, CT.
I was also home last weekend and managed to sneak in a couple hours in Chelsea. I decided to do a north-to-south gallery crawl and didn’t make it any farther than 26th Street before I ran out of time and energy. There’s a lot worth seeing right now. Here’s a list of my current picks:
So here’s what I’ve been up to. I lead two lives. I write about one-half of them here. If you’re curious about the other half, read this. (And, yes, I was there and watched him eat a heaping plate full of pig’s snout. Even tried some myself. I’ll say only this: one snout was enough for me.) The thing is, that representation is really only a quarter of my life of late, not a half. The other quarter has been spent in the Caribbean—and not in the way that you’re thinking. Hotel, office, airplane; hotel, office, airplane. No sun, no fun, no glamour.
Yeah, yeah. Excuses, excuses. I know. How about some good stuff?
I managed to squeeze in two workdays this week back in New York. Today over lunch I stopped by the Judd preview at Christie’s for what will probably be my final visit--and for what's probably my last chance to see the most perfect apartment-sized Judd piece ever (at right). I still can’t get over the pristine condition of the work on display. The thing about pieces by Judd is that even though they don’t look it, they are so, so, so fragile. One little fingerprint, and the work is seriously scarred.A few of the pieces on display at Christie’s have picked up a stray fingerprint or two in the last month, but on the whole the work is remarkably clean. The last time I visited, MoMA had four Judd pieces up in the hallway to the cafeteria. The difference in condition between those pieces and the pristine pieces at Christie’s is immediately noticeable. If you haven’t seen the show yet, by all means make a point of seeing it this weekend before the work gets dispersed to various private collections strewn between the Upper East Side and Greenwich, CT.
I was also home last weekend and managed to sneak in a couple hours in Chelsea. I decided to do a north-to-south gallery crawl and didn’t make it any farther than 26th Street before I ran out of time and energy. There’s a lot worth seeing right now. Here’s a list of my current picks:
- Joseph Marioni at Peter Blum Chelsea
- Helen Verhoeven at Wallspace
- Tracy Nakayama at ATM
- David Rathman at Clementine
- Joe Fig at Plus Ultra
