Legacy: Photographs from the Emily Fisher Landau Collection @Aldrich

JTF (just the facts): A total of 23 black and white and color photographs, variously framed and matted, and hung against white walls in a series of three connected rooms on the second floor of the museum. All of the works come from the collection of Emily Fisher Landau, and were made between 1980 and 2004. The exhibit also includes a camera obscura room. A catalog of the collection was published by Yale University Press in 2011 (here). There is no photography allowed in the galleries, so the installation shots at right are courtesy of the museum's Flickr page.

The following artists/photographers have been included in the exhibit, with the number of works and print details as background:

• Richard Artschwager: 1 sculpture/photographs mounted on wood, 2002
• Matthew Barney: 1 chromogenic print in self-lubricating frame, 2002
• Keith Cottingham: 1 digital chromogenic print, 2004
• Lynn Davis: 1 gold-toned gelatin silver print, 2000/2002
• Philip-Lorca diCorcia: 1 chromogenic print mounted on Plexiglas, 2000
• John Dugdale: 1 hand-coated cyanotype, 1994
• Nan Goldin: 1 silver dye bleach print, 1994
• Rodney Graham: 1 chromogenic print, 1990
• Robert Longo: 1 silver dye bleach print, 1980/1998
• Vera Lutter: 1 gelatin silver print, 1996
• Robert Mapplethorpe: 1 gelatin silver print, 1988
• Abelardo Morell: 1 gelatin silver print, 2003
• Shirin Neshat: 3 silver dye bleach prints, 2002
• Victoria Sambunaris: 1 chromogenic print mounted on aluminum, 2002
• Lorna Simpson: 2 gelatin silver prints in framed with plaque, 1991
• Kiki Smith, 4 chromogenic prints, 2000-2001
• Hiroshi Sugimoto: 1 gelatin silver print, 1994

Comments/Context: Back in 2010, long-time trustee Emily Fisher Landau made a major donation of 367 artworks to the Whitney Museum. Selections from that massive gift have toured around to many smaller museums in the United States in the past few years, and this particular show pulls out a very small subset, focusing on some of the photography to be found in the collection. If this group of works can be taken as any guide, Fisher Landau's approach to contemporary photography has been to employ the "solid example from key figures" method, gathering an impressive list of important names and singular works. While the show is loosely organized into rooms of images with people, those without, and a handful of works related to the camera obscura room that has been installed as part of the exhibit, in essence, it's really more of a parade of exemplary photographs from the 1990s and early 2000s.

 

If a collection is built without a rigid thematic or conceptual structure/system to connect the various artworks together (as most collections are), the only way to look at it critically is to ask, for each individual artist selection, "did the collector pick a superlative example of the artist's work"? In general, I think there are some terrific choices on view here, many which would be considered among the best work done by that artist. There as an enormous, wall dominating, upside down tree by Rodney Graham, smartly flanked by a large Vera Lutter of the Fulton ferry landing with the Twin Towers in the distance. Other standout choices include the late Mapplethorpe self portrait (with skull head cane), the Sugimoto wax museum royal family, the Longo jerking suited man from Men in the Cities, and the Morell camera obscura image taken in the Whitney itself.

 

There are also a few less obvious selections which point to some inspired risk taking. Nan Goldin's swarm of cherry blossoms in Tokyo isn't exactly representative of her work, but is still quietly enchanting. Matthew Barney's array of Chryslers from the Cremaster series lacks the bold originality of many of the scenes from that project, but is nonetheless subtly surreal. And Richard Artschwager's child in a high chair sculpture wouldn't necessarily be considered photography, except that its blocky form is constructed by straight on photographs from every angle, creating a smart multi-perspective portrait.

 

So while it's hard to draw a line that connects all of the works on view here into a coherent whole, this small show certainly delivers a respectable mix of recent photography. I'm sure the larger Fisher Landau collection did plenty of welcome hole filling in the Whitney's permanent collection (in photography and other mediums), and with the new building opening soon, I'm hoping we'll slowly get a chance to see even more of its photographic treasures.

 

Collector's POV: Since this is a museum show, there are, of course, no posted prices, and given the wide diversity of works on view, we will forego the usual discussion of secondary markets and price histories.

 

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

 

Transit Hub:

• Fisher Landau Center for Art site (here)
• Feature: New York Times, 2010 (here)

Legacy: Photographs from the Emily Fisher Landau Collection

Through September 2nd

 

Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum

258 Main Street

Ridgefield, CT 06877

Nan Goldin: Scopophilia @Marks

JTF (just the facts): A total of 47 photographs, framed in black without mats, and hung against white, grey and yellow walls in four interconnected gallery spaces, with 1 video projection, shown in a darkened viewing room. All of the works are chromogenic prints, made between 1993 and 2011, displayed as single images, diptychs, or grids of up to 16 component images. Physical dimensions range from 20x15 to 45x67; the grids and diptychs are available in editions of 3, while the single images are available in editions of 15. The 25-minute video projection, which mimics the behavior of a slide show, is available in an edition of 5, and contains images from 1977-2010. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: It takes a certain amount of confidence to pair a life's worth of intimate photographs with the treasures of one of the world's great art museums; if the work can't hold its own, the entire enterprise has the potential to look like a shockingly self-centered and arrogant stunt. Nan Goldin's mixing of art history, life and "the love of looking" (using examples from the Louvre) walks this dangerous, thin line, but actually finds a way to tell us something unexpectedly new, not about the paintings and sculptures found in the Paris museum, but about the timeless gestures captured via Goldin's snapshot aesthetic; she uses the images from the museum to successfully reinterpret her own personal and artistic history.

The video installation is the real centerpiece of this show, with the still photographs on display in the rest of the gallery acting like a supporting apparatus, repeating themes that run through the video in a more rigid and fixed medium. The slide show format (one image projected after another in serial fashion), complete with sparse commentary by Goldin and soaring choral voices, lends itself to rhythmic timing, leading the viewer back and forth between Goldin's photographs and fragments of the museum's collection with a natural pace that allows for stylistic comparison and thoughtful echoes. While I have long admired the rough, vulnerable realism and lush color in her photographs, the video forced me to get beyond those more obvious merits and see the underlying structure of Goldin's compositions more clearly, something I had heretofore completely overlooked. Pairings of like poses wash away the blunt harshness of Goldin's life stories, leaving behind the tenderness and grace of her portraits and human forms. Translucent skin is followed by luscious white marble, kisses rebound between iconic paintings and stolen moments, long hair cascades over and over, and nudes (both female and male) jump from casual to formal and back again. Her choices from the Louvre are steeped in the "mythology of romance", making her own photographs of private desire and elemental longing seem more universal and timeless, even though they clearly come from a very specific time and place. The gritty destructiveness that lays within many of Goldin's photographs is trumped here by the honest truth of sensual bodies and eternal relationships.

After watching the video, the still photographs seem a little less engaging, although the simpler diptychs of paired naps and embraces are more successful than the larger grids of odalisques, backs, and water drenched bodies; I think when the gestures get multiplied out into typologies, the "see they match" message gets more heavy handed, almost too obvious. The rounded room in the back pairs frontal portraits, capturing commonalities of expression across the ages; penetrating stares and authentic looks haven't changed much over the centuries, even if roles and classes certainly have.

The reason this show merits my highest rating is that it forced me to reappraise Goldin's photography, to see beyond the edgy bedroom scenes and the candidly intense situations and to discover the classic lines of her work. It was a way of approaching her pictures that I had never tried (it had never even occurred to me), and I was astounded by the controlled power and refinement in her compositions once I went looking for it. After seeing these juxtapositions, my impression of her many talents has been permanently altered. One might argue this is an "old wine in a new bottle" show, but there are moments of sublime finesse and subtle poetry to be found here (particularly in the video) and the chance to fundamentally transform your opinion of one of the masters of the medium doesn't come along very often.

Collector's POV: The prices for the works in this show are as follows: the grids and diptychs are priced between $20000 and $60000, while the single images range between $6000 and $15000; I did not get a price for the video installation. Goldin's work is routinely available in the secondary markets, with dozens of images available at auction every year; recent prices have generally ranged between $2000 and $34000.

Rating: *** (three stars) EXCELLENT (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Features/Reviews: Hyperallergic (here), Huffington Post (here),  NY Times Lens (here)

Nan Goldin: Scopophilia
Through December 23rd

Matthew Marks Gallery
522 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011

Nan Goldin, New Work @Marks

JTF (just the facts): This is a actually broad group show, including the work of Katharina Fritsch, Robert Gober, Nan Goldin, Andreas Gursky, Martin Honert, Charles Ray, and Terry Winters, displayed across the gallery's three Chelsea locations. While there is a single Andreas Gursky photograph (a Dortmund soccer stadium/crowd) on display in one of the 22nd Street galleries, there is a larger sample of Nan Goldin's new work on view in the 24th Street space. There are a total of 8 Goldin photographic works, framed in black without mats, taking up half the gallery area. All of the works are cibachrome prints, made between 2006 and 2010, and printed in editions of 18. Four of the images have physical dimensions of 30x40, the others are either 30x30, 42x60, or 59x66. The two largest works are grids of images, made up of 16 and 9 individual images respectively. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: While this is really a sprawling group show of gallery artists (most of them not photographers), I couldn't help myself from taking a quick look at Nan Goldin's new work. What's on view is a mini-sampler of ideas: still lifes of burned Parisian taxidermy (?), larger grids of images (small ephemeral nudes and layered, multiple exposure people snapshots, displayed in a sequential manner reminiscent her famous slide shows), and a group of strong single images that seem most related to her prior work and familiar aesthetic.
.

Over the years, one of the things I have come to admire most in Goldin's work is her subtle understanding of color. While Joey as Marilyn mines emotional territory we have seen before from Goldin, the saturated orangey yellow that envelops the hotel room heightens the tension of the cinematic moment. Similarly, a single tree landscape might seem thoroughly boring, but this one, taken at twilight with a flash, creates an epic purple blue sky set off by white flowers in the foreground, the evening thick and lush with melancholy color. I think Ava twirling, NYC is perhaps the best image in this small bunch. In it, a young girl in a white dress spins in a bedroom, her dress and hair flowing out in a blurred arc of motion; deceptively simple, and yet, perfectly lovely.

While the overall body of photographic work here is a bit disconnected, if you find yourself in the neighborhood, take a moment to climb up the stairs and catch a few of the standouts.

Collector's POV: The Nan Goldin works in this show come in two prices: the two larger grid images at $40000 each, and the smaller images (in varying specific sizes) at $12000 each. Goldin's work is regularly available in the secondary markets, with dozens of images available at auction every year. Prices generally range between $2000 and $34000, with larger edition sizes (100+ in some cases) keeping prices down. Goldin is also represented by Yvon Lambert in Paris (here).

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Features: artnet (here), Frieze (here)
• Interview: Foto Tapeta (here)

New Work: Katharina Fritsch, Robert Gober, Nan Goldin, Andreas Gursky, Martin Honert, Charles Ray, Terry Winters
Through October 16th

Matthew Marks Gallery
523 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011