Art criticism comes in many forms and guises: academic, obtuse, snarky, long winded, analytical, fawning, nitpicky, snappy, even soaring once in a while. But regardless of its style and trappings, at its root, art criticism is pure unadulterated reaction, a conscious process of looking, seeing, thinking and finally ordering and recording. It is a public dialogue between artist and viewer, a matching of influence and response, an attempt to connect and communicate.
I've often thought about what my personal criteria for a great photography show might be, and whether there is some kind of framework or system that can be created to handle the nearly infinite diversity of artistic expression found in the medium. Over the years, I've come to see that such questions are exercises in structured self delusion; as much as I might like to classify and organize, there isn't any right answer to be found. Quality is ultimately in the eye of the beholder, and while training and experience certainly form a foundation for making informed judgments, in the end, a review is a reasoned opinion, nothing more, nothing less.
One thing I can testify to is that great photography shows have an undeniable feeling of transcendence. At least for me, I never wonder about whether a show should be rated 2 STARS or 3 STARS. It's never close, up for discussion or subject to persuasion or analysis; it's always patently obvious. Every time a show merits 3 STARS, I stand in the middle of the exhibit and I gaze in circles, warmed by the physical flush of endorphins running through my bloodstream - it's absolutely a feeling rather than any scholarly cerebral thought. And like a junkie chasing a high, I wander the galleries and museums of our city month after month looking for my next fix. In 2012, I visited 300+ photography shows (between 4 and 12 most weeks on average) and I found this tingling feeling a sum total of 8 times. A quick calculation tells us that my hit rate was less than 3%, so I might have done better looking for needles in haystacks.
The shows and exhibits below run the gamut from vintage to contemporary, from gallery to museum, from black and white to color, from analog to digital, and from single body of work to career retrospective. In short, there is no pattern. If you follow the links to the original reviews, you will be able to trace my original train thought in each case (the "why" of each rating), tracking my questions and conclusions and parsing my reactions and logic. But even many months later, the elemental 3 STAR glow of these particular shows is wholly undiminished in my brain; that physical rush clearly carves a deep rut in my memory. So while the countless others I saw last year have already begun to slowly wash away into the fog and I eagerly look ahead to what might be discovered in 2013, these 8 remain fresh, alive and durably astonishing.
Top Photography Shows of 2012 (all 3 STARS, alphabetically by last name/exhibit title)
Robert Adams, The Place We Live @Yale University Art Gallery (original review here)
Richard Avedon, Murals & Portraits @Gagosian Gallery (original review here)
Rineke Dijkstra: A Retrospective @Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (original review here)
Lee Friedlander: Nudes @Pace Gallery (original review here)
Gerhard
Richter, Painting 2012 @Marian Goodman Gallery (original review here)
Rise
and Fall of Apartheid: Photography and the Bureaucracy of Everyday Life @International Center of Photography (original review here)
Cindy
Sherman @Museum of Modern Art (original review here)
Weegee:
Murder Is My Business @International Center of Photography (original review here)
Showing posts with label Top Photography Shows. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Top Photography Shows. Show all posts
Monday, January 7, 2013
Monday, January 2, 2012
Top Photography Shows of 2011
While end of year "top 10" and "best" lists tend to be all effusive enthusiasm and back slapping congratulations, I'd like to go against the grain and state from the outset that I think 2011 was an underwhelming year for photography in New York. There were no game changing blockbusters, a surprisingly thin and forgettable program at our major museum venues, and not enough risk taking at our galleries. While I think we can reasonably chalk this outcome up to the challenges of real economic hardship across the board, I can't really say with a straight face that we generated a massive amount of vibrancy or heat this year.
While I had a short hiatus during the summer which slowed me down a bit, I still reviewed a total of 138 photography shows this year, and likely saw (at least fleetingly) a roughly equivalent number that I didn't review. Of all those shows in galleries and museums all over the region, only 7 merited 3 STARS (down from 10 last year that received that same rating and 12 in 2009). So my top ten isn't really a top ten, it's a top seven. 34 shows got a 2 STARS rating, and when tallied with the 3 STARS shows, there were actually 41 shows that should normally have been a top 50. Across the board, I think we were hunkered down, and it showed.
Having said that, the shows and exhibits listed below cut through that fog of uncertainty and provided some shining light and optimism we can build on going forward. In every case, the ideas were robust, the craftsmanship was meticulous, and the overall effect (from editing and sequencing to lighting and hanging) was superlative. These were the shows that hooked me immediately, dragged me in for close inspection and brain engagement, and left me in a head-nodding, smiling, state of wonder. A few additional words on each are below, now given the benefit of some small bit of hindsight, along with links to the original reviews.
Top Photography Shows of 2011 (all 3 STARS, alphabetically by last name/exhibit title)
Harry Callahan and Jackson Pollock: Early Photographs and Drawings @Pace/MacGill Gallery (original review here)
This show connected the visual dots that MoMA's sprawling AbEX show failed to connect. The pairings and interplay here were simply astonishing.
Philip-Lorca diCorcia: ELEVEN @David Zwirner (original review here)
A rethinking of the staged tableau in the context of fashion. Proof that with the right support, commissioned work can still be very exciting art.
Jill Freedman, Street Cops, 1978-1981 @Higher Pictures (original review here)
This show was the discovery of the year for me. Freedman's work captures New York's finest with an amazingly consistent warmth and grace, with an eye for photographic storytelling.
Nan Goldin: Scopophilia @Matthew Marks (original review here)
This was undoubtedly the most polarizing photography show in New York this year. Some, like me, found the video lyrical and transcendent, while others found the whole endeavor arrogant, tired, or even desperate. I know that I walked away with a new respect for and understanding of Goldin's work, seeing it with fresh eyes after all these years.
Self Reflections: The Expressionist Origins of Lisette Model @Bruce Silverstein Gallery (here)
This show entirely transformed my understanding of Lisette Model. Placed in the context of German/Austrian Expressionism, her whole body of work suddenly made visual sense to me. A testament to the power of getting outside the photography bubble and looking for historical connections in the other arts.
The Radical Camera: New York's Photo League 1936-1951 @Jewish Museum (original review here)
This exhibit is the educational winner of the year. It tells a complex story with inclusiveness and detail without becoming dry and overwhelming. For me, it filled in some important historical gaps, both introducing forgotten talents and placing the entire group in clearer photographic context.
Laurie Simmons, The Love Doll: Days 1 through 30 @Salon 94 Bowery (original review here)
This show of new work was amazingly assured and accomplished, taking themes she has explored throughout her career and extending them in a new and provocative way. Here was a bit of the risk taking I was talking about above; what could easily have been a throw away gimmick in the wrong hands was made thoughtful and shockingly real by Simmons.
In thinking more about what ties these seven shows together, I began to see a divergence in my mindset when evaluating contemporary and vintage shows. While in both cases, I was searching for some measure of innovation, originality, and inherent quality (however defined), for contemporary shows, I was more focused on likely long term durability and freshness of vision, while for vintage shows, I was more interested in new ways of thinking/seeing work I was already familiar with. As such, I decided to create two top 10 lists, one for each type of show, promoting the most worthy shows from the ranks of the 2 STARS brigade; these two lists are below. In some cases, when retrospectives bled into the present or when "new" work actually came from more than a decade ago, I had to make some determinations of just which bucket was most appropriate. In general, I think this separation has some meaningful and useful logic behind it, allowing for more apples to apples comparisons.
Top 10 Contemporary Photography Shows of 2011 (alphabetically by last name/exhibit title)
Philip-Lorca diCorcia: ELEVEN @David Zwirner (original review here)
Nan Goldin: Scopophilia @Matthew Marks (original review here)
Pieter Hugo, Permanent Error @Yossi Milo Gallery (original review here)
Rinko Kawauchi: Illuminance @The Gallery at Hermes (original review here)
Louise Lawler: Fitting @Metro Pictures (original review here)
Boris Mikhailov: Case History @MoMA (original review here)
Ray Mortenson: Full Scale/Meadowland Still Lifes @Janet Borden (original review here)
Laurie Simmons, The Love Doll: Days 1 through 30 @Salon 94 Bowery (original review here)
Lorna Simpson: Gathered @Brooklyn Museum (original review here)
Wang Qingsong: When Worlds Collide @International Center of Photography (original review here)
Top 10 Vintage Photography Shows of 2011 (alphabetically by last name/exhibit tile)
Harry Callahan and Jackson Pollock: Early Photographs and Drawings @Pace/MacGill Gallery (original review here)
Julia Margaret Cameron @Hans Kraus Jr. Fine Photographs (original review here)
John Divola, Trees for the Forest @Wallspace (original review here)
Elliott Erwitt: Personal Best @International Center of Photography (original review here)
Jill Freedman, Street Cops, 1978-1981 @Higher Pictures (original review here)
Robert Heinecken: Copywork @Friedrich Petzel Gallery (original review here)
Self Reflections: The Expressionist Origins of Lisette Model @Bruce Silverstein Gallery (here)
Mark Morrisroe: From This Moment On @Artists Space (original review here)
The Radical Camera: New York's Photo League 1936-1951 @Jewish Museum (original review here)
Henry Wessel, Vintage Photographs @Pace/MacGill Gallery (original review here)
As I look to 2012, I remain as energized as ever to troll through the dreck in search of the revolutionary. I wholeheartedly believe in the real power of the simple gallery show review and its rightful place at the center of the critical discourse that surrounds this medium, and I expect to redouble my efforts in the coming year to see as much as I can and report on it as thoughtfully as possible. In my view, everything starts with looking at and responding to the pictures, and everything else, all the discussions of business models and art markets, social media and artistic memes, it's all secondary (perhaps even an out right distraction) to the work itself. What we all need to do, whether we are collectors, or working artists, or just lovers of photography, is to see more shows. Resolve to double the number of shows you saw last year. If you can make that profound commitment, you'll increase your odds of having the artistic moment that really matters: the one when a photograph interrupts your daily muddle and leaves you astounded, dumbfounded, and thoroughly amazed and befuddled. We're making memories here folks, so here's to a 2012 filled with mind-blowing contradictions, jaw-dropping shocks, and staggering, uncompromising photographic beauty.
While I had a short hiatus during the summer which slowed me down a bit, I still reviewed a total of 138 photography shows this year, and likely saw (at least fleetingly) a roughly equivalent number that I didn't review. Of all those shows in galleries and museums all over the region, only 7 merited 3 STARS (down from 10 last year that received that same rating and 12 in 2009). So my top ten isn't really a top ten, it's a top seven. 34 shows got a 2 STARS rating, and when tallied with the 3 STARS shows, there were actually 41 shows that should normally have been a top 50. Across the board, I think we were hunkered down, and it showed.
Having said that, the shows and exhibits listed below cut through that fog of uncertainty and provided some shining light and optimism we can build on going forward. In every case, the ideas were robust, the craftsmanship was meticulous, and the overall effect (from editing and sequencing to lighting and hanging) was superlative. These were the shows that hooked me immediately, dragged me in for close inspection and brain engagement, and left me in a head-nodding, smiling, state of wonder. A few additional words on each are below, now given the benefit of some small bit of hindsight, along with links to the original reviews.
Top Photography Shows of 2011 (all 3 STARS, alphabetically by last name/exhibit title)
Harry Callahan and Jackson Pollock: Early Photographs and Drawings @Pace/MacGill Gallery (original review here)
This show connected the visual dots that MoMA's sprawling AbEX show failed to connect. The pairings and interplay here were simply astonishing.
Philip-Lorca diCorcia: ELEVEN @David Zwirner (original review here)
A rethinking of the staged tableau in the context of fashion. Proof that with the right support, commissioned work can still be very exciting art.
Jill Freedman, Street Cops, 1978-1981 @Higher Pictures (original review here)
This show was the discovery of the year for me. Freedman's work captures New York's finest with an amazingly consistent warmth and grace, with an eye for photographic storytelling.
Nan Goldin: Scopophilia @Matthew Marks (original review here)
This was undoubtedly the most polarizing photography show in New York this year. Some, like me, found the video lyrical and transcendent, while others found the whole endeavor arrogant, tired, or even desperate. I know that I walked away with a new respect for and understanding of Goldin's work, seeing it with fresh eyes after all these years.
Self Reflections: The Expressionist Origins of Lisette Model @Bruce Silverstein Gallery (here)
This show entirely transformed my understanding of Lisette Model. Placed in the context of German/Austrian Expressionism, her whole body of work suddenly made visual sense to me. A testament to the power of getting outside the photography bubble and looking for historical connections in the other arts.
The Radical Camera: New York's Photo League 1936-1951 @Jewish Museum (original review here)
This exhibit is the educational winner of the year. It tells a complex story with inclusiveness and detail without becoming dry and overwhelming. For me, it filled in some important historical gaps, both introducing forgotten talents and placing the entire group in clearer photographic context.
Laurie Simmons, The Love Doll: Days 1 through 30 @Salon 94 Bowery (original review here)
This show of new work was amazingly assured and accomplished, taking themes she has explored throughout her career and extending them in a new and provocative way. Here was a bit of the risk taking I was talking about above; what could easily have been a throw away gimmick in the wrong hands was made thoughtful and shockingly real by Simmons.
In thinking more about what ties these seven shows together, I began to see a divergence in my mindset when evaluating contemporary and vintage shows. While in both cases, I was searching for some measure of innovation, originality, and inherent quality (however defined), for contemporary shows, I was more focused on likely long term durability and freshness of vision, while for vintage shows, I was more interested in new ways of thinking/seeing work I was already familiar with. As such, I decided to create two top 10 lists, one for each type of show, promoting the most worthy shows from the ranks of the 2 STARS brigade; these two lists are below. In some cases, when retrospectives bled into the present or when "new" work actually came from more than a decade ago, I had to make some determinations of just which bucket was most appropriate. In general, I think this separation has some meaningful and useful logic behind it, allowing for more apples to apples comparisons.
Top 10 Contemporary Photography Shows of 2011 (alphabetically by last name/exhibit title)
Philip-Lorca diCorcia: ELEVEN @David Zwirner (original review here)
Nan Goldin: Scopophilia @Matthew Marks (original review here)
Pieter Hugo, Permanent Error @Yossi Milo Gallery (original review here)
Rinko Kawauchi: Illuminance @The Gallery at Hermes (original review here)
Louise Lawler: Fitting @Metro Pictures (original review here)
Boris Mikhailov: Case History @MoMA (original review here)
Ray Mortenson: Full Scale/Meadowland Still Lifes @Janet Borden (original review here)
Laurie Simmons, The Love Doll: Days 1 through 30 @Salon 94 Bowery (original review here)
Lorna Simpson: Gathered @Brooklyn Museum (original review here)
Wang Qingsong: When Worlds Collide @International Center of Photography (original review here)
Top 10 Vintage Photography Shows of 2011 (alphabetically by last name/exhibit tile)
Harry Callahan and Jackson Pollock: Early Photographs and Drawings @Pace/MacGill Gallery (original review here)
Julia Margaret Cameron @Hans Kraus Jr. Fine Photographs (original review here)
John Divola, Trees for the Forest @Wallspace (original review here)
Elliott Erwitt: Personal Best @International Center of Photography (original review here)
Jill Freedman, Street Cops, 1978-1981 @Higher Pictures (original review here)
Robert Heinecken: Copywork @Friedrich Petzel Gallery (original review here)
Self Reflections: The Expressionist Origins of Lisette Model @Bruce Silverstein Gallery (here)
Mark Morrisroe: From This Moment On @Artists Space (original review here)
The Radical Camera: New York's Photo League 1936-1951 @Jewish Museum (original review here)
Henry Wessel, Vintage Photographs @Pace/MacGill Gallery (original review here)
As I look to 2012, I remain as energized as ever to troll through the dreck in search of the revolutionary. I wholeheartedly believe in the real power of the simple gallery show review and its rightful place at the center of the critical discourse that surrounds this medium, and I expect to redouble my efforts in the coming year to see as much as I can and report on it as thoughtfully as possible. In my view, everything starts with looking at and responding to the pictures, and everything else, all the discussions of business models and art markets, social media and artistic memes, it's all secondary (perhaps even an out right distraction) to the work itself. What we all need to do, whether we are collectors, or working artists, or just lovers of photography, is to see more shows. Resolve to double the number of shows you saw last year. If you can make that profound commitment, you'll increase your odds of having the artistic moment that really matters: the one when a photograph interrupts your daily muddle and leaves you astounded, dumbfounded, and thoroughly amazed and befuddled. We're making memories here folks, so here's to a 2012 filled with mind-blowing contradictions, jaw-dropping shocks, and staggering, uncompromising photographic beauty.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Top Photography Shows of 2010
As 2010 draws to a close, the time has come to single out those gallery and museum shows of photography that were the best of the year. In many ways, such a choosing and list making has a delicate element of photographic re-evaluation - what looked good then is perhaps less amazing now and vice versa. With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, we can now see the past year's photography shows not as discrete individual units rated on their own merits in a certain place and time, but as passing moments placed on a larger scale of relative worth, part of the entire continuum of art history. Which of these shows (or artists) will matter in ten or fifty years, and which others will have faded into obscurity before we ring in the New Year? After a total of 153 in-depth photography reviews this year (and countless others visited and tactfully omitted), I certainly have some opinions on these questions.
While I had plenty of moments of awe and enchantment this year, I have to admit that as the months clicked by, I more often struggled not with too much joy, but with the concept of grade inflation: not wanting to give an endless stream of 1 STAR ratings (which some of you have complained about), and yet, not really finding enough shows that met my internal idea of something astonishing. Where were all the mind-blowing shows I was searching for?
At year's end, a total of 10 shows (a paltry 6.54% of all shows reviewed) had received our highest 3 STARS rating, given to the single best photography show on view in any given month in our restricted time-based rating scheme. Logically, this kind of system should have produced twelve 3 STARS shows (1 for each of the 12 months), but this year, somehow it didn't. Similarly, a total of 31 shows got a 2 STARS rating (20.26% of all shows reviewed). And again, the system should have produced 36 of this 2 STARS rating type (given to the next three best shows in any given month, times 12 months), but it didn't. Was I just annoyingly stingy and overly critical, or was there really a slight decline of quality and originality?
.
3 STARS
Robert Adams, Summer Nights, Walking @Matthew Marks Gallery (here)
John Baldessari, Pure Beauty @Metropolitan Museum of Art (here)
Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century @MoMA (here)
Rineke Dijkstra @Marian Goodman (here)
Lee Friedlander: America By Car @Whitney Museum of American Art (here)
The Original Copy: Photography of Sculpture, 1839 to Today @MoMA (here)
W. Eugene Smith, The Jazz Loft Project @NYPL for the Performing Arts (here)
Frederick Sommer, Circumnavigation @Bruce Silverstein Gallery (here)
Starburst: Color Photography in America 1970-1980 @Princeton University Art Museum (here)
Hiroshi Sugimoto: The Day After @Pace Gallery (here)
2 STARS
Uta Barth: ... to walk without destination and to see only to see. @Tanya Bonakdar Gallery (here)
Bernd and Hilla Becher, Water Towers @Sonnabend Gallery (here)
Cuba in Revolution @ICP (here)
Joe Deal, West and West @Robert Mann Gallery (here)
William Eggleston, 21st Century @Cheim & Read (here)
Lee Friedlander, Recent Western Landscape @Mary Boone Gallery (here)
Adam Fuss, Home and the World @Cheim & Read (here)
David Goldblatt, Particulars @Howard Greenberg Gallery (here)
South African Photographs: David Goldblatt @Jewish Museum (here)
Chris Killip, 4+20 Photographs @Amador Gallery (here)
Hipsters, Hustlers, and Handball Players: Leon Levinstein's New York Photographs, 1950–1980 @Metropolitan Museum of Art (here)
Looking Forward Looking Back @Pace/MacGill Gallery (here)
David Maisel, Library of Dust @Von Lintel Gallery (here)
The Mexican Suitcase @ICP (here)
Richard Misrach @PaceWildenstein Gallery (here)
Ryuji Miyamoto, Kobe @Amador Gallery (here)
Tina Modotti: Under the Mexican Sky @Throckmorton Fine Art (here)
Zwelethu Mthethwa, Inner Views @Studio Museum in Harlem (here)
Martin Parr, Luxury @Janet Borden Inc. (here)
Irving Penn, Archaeology @Pace/MacGill Gallery (here)
Pictures by Women: A History of Photography @MoMA (here)
Man Ray, Paris @Edwynn Houk Gallery (here)
Thomas Ruff @David Zwirner (here)
Lucas Samaras, Poses/Born Actors @Pace Gallery (here)
Will Steacy, Down These Mean Streets @Michael Mazzeo Gallery (here)
Stieglitz, Steichen, Strand @Metropolitan Museum of Art (here)
Paul Strand in Mexico @Aperture Gallery(here)
Thomas Struth @Marian Goodman (here)
Miroslav Tichy @ICP (here)
Wolfgang Tillmans @Andrea Rosen Gallery (here)
Twilight Visions: Surrealism, Photography and Paris @ICP (here)
As I review these two lists, now with the advantage of passing time and the resonance of memory, I am generally happy to defend how these ratings ended up; I feel like this Top 40 (41 actually) was largely the best of what was on view in New York this year - if you only saw the 3 STARS shows and nothing else, and even though these shows had their own flaws, on the whole, you would have had a pretty solid year of photography viewing. If pressed to do some fudging along the edges with the long arm of history watching, I think Joe Deal (@Robert Mann), David Goldblatt (@Jewish Museum), or Leon Levinstein (@Met) may end up being more important than I originally gave them credit for. But on the whole, I stand behind the ratings and the logic/rationale the supports each of them.
The harder question to answer is whether my conclusion that 2010 was a less than stellar year for photography was actually a commonly held perception among gallery patrons, museum goers or collectors. Perhaps this community of readers saw the world differently, and the breath taking high points you experienced were more consistent than mine. I think great shows take us outside ourselves, providing excitement and inspiration, challenging our accepted ways of thinking, and hopefully educating us in broad and unexpected ways. I think many of us that haunt galleries and museums are relentless seekers, looking for those stimulating ideas that jolt us into new and unexpected mindsets. But unfortunately, regardless of whether the work was vintage or contemporary, black and white or color, I just don't think that there was enough of the ground-breaking, durably original, idea-rich, radical boldness on view in 2010 that would normally keep my mind buzzing for days.
This apparent minimum of greatness does not however dampen my overflowing enthusiasm for photography in all its myriad and ever-changing forms. Perhaps we are in a short-term, temporary lull, waiting for the gathering of now-unformed ideas into authentically new visual vocabularies. Hopefully 2011 will bring all those mythical shows to New York that I have been impatiently waiting for, the work having been caught in the backwaters of scheduling and slot filling. Against the backdrop of nearly two centuries of photographic history, I'm sorry to report that 2010 didn't show us as much as I had hoped for, but my standards and aspirations for the medium are perhaps unrealistically high. But with the New Year comes a clean blank slate, and the opportunity to be surprised and amazed all over again.
While I had plenty of moments of awe and enchantment this year, I have to admit that as the months clicked by, I more often struggled not with too much joy, but with the concept of grade inflation: not wanting to give an endless stream of 1 STAR ratings (which some of you have complained about), and yet, not really finding enough shows that met my internal idea of something astonishing. Where were all the mind-blowing shows I was searching for?
At year's end, a total of 10 shows (a paltry 6.54% of all shows reviewed) had received our highest 3 STARS rating, given to the single best photography show on view in any given month in our restricted time-based rating scheme. Logically, this kind of system should have produced twelve 3 STARS shows (1 for each of the 12 months), but this year, somehow it didn't. Similarly, a total of 31 shows got a 2 STARS rating (20.26% of all shows reviewed). And again, the system should have produced 36 of this 2 STARS rating type (given to the next three best shows in any given month, times 12 months), but it didn't. Was I just annoyingly stingy and overly critical, or was there really a slight decline of quality and originality?
.
So in the spirit of sparking some discourse and thinking, I have asked myself whether any of the 2 STARS shows deserve a retroactive promotion. So I'll start by providing you will all the raw data, so you can draw your own conclusions. Below you'll find the list of the 10 shows that received 3 STARS in 2010 (in alphabetical order by artist or show title), and further down, the 31 shows that received 2 STARS, with links to the original reviews in parentheses for the "why" of each choice:
3 STARS
Robert Adams, Summer Nights, Walking @Matthew Marks Gallery (here)
John Baldessari, Pure Beauty @Metropolitan Museum of Art (here)
Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century @MoMA (here)
Rineke Dijkstra @Marian Goodman (here)
Lee Friedlander: America By Car @Whitney Museum of American Art (here)
The Original Copy: Photography of Sculpture, 1839 to Today @MoMA (here)
W. Eugene Smith, The Jazz Loft Project @NYPL for the Performing Arts (here)
Frederick Sommer, Circumnavigation @Bruce Silverstein Gallery (here)
Starburst: Color Photography in America 1970-1980 @Princeton University Art Museum (here)
Hiroshi Sugimoto: The Day After @Pace Gallery (here)
2 STARS
Uta Barth: ... to walk without destination and to see only to see. @Tanya Bonakdar Gallery (here)
Bernd and Hilla Becher, Water Towers @Sonnabend Gallery (here)
Cuba in Revolution @ICP (here)
Joe Deal, West and West @Robert Mann Gallery (here)
William Eggleston, 21st Century @Cheim & Read (here)
Lee Friedlander, Recent Western Landscape @Mary Boone Gallery (here)
Adam Fuss, Home and the World @Cheim & Read (here)
David Goldblatt, Particulars @Howard Greenberg Gallery (here)
South African Photographs: David Goldblatt @Jewish Museum (here)
Chris Killip, 4+20 Photographs @Amador Gallery (here)
Hipsters, Hustlers, and Handball Players: Leon Levinstein's New York Photographs, 1950–1980 @Metropolitan Museum of Art (here)
Looking Forward Looking Back @Pace/MacGill Gallery (here)
David Maisel, Library of Dust @Von Lintel Gallery (here)
The Mexican Suitcase @ICP (here)
Richard Misrach @PaceWildenstein Gallery (here)
Ryuji Miyamoto, Kobe @Amador Gallery (here)
Tina Modotti: Under the Mexican Sky @Throckmorton Fine Art (here)
Zwelethu Mthethwa, Inner Views @Studio Museum in Harlem (here)
Martin Parr, Luxury @Janet Borden Inc. (here)
Irving Penn, Archaeology @Pace/MacGill Gallery (here)
Pictures by Women: A History of Photography @MoMA (here)
Man Ray, Paris @Edwynn Houk Gallery (here)
Thomas Ruff @David Zwirner (here)
Lucas Samaras, Poses/Born Actors @Pace Gallery (here)
Will Steacy, Down These Mean Streets @Michael Mazzeo Gallery (here)
Stieglitz, Steichen, Strand @Metropolitan Museum of Art (here)
Paul Strand in Mexico @Aperture Gallery(here)
Thomas Struth @Marian Goodman (here)
Miroslav Tichy @ICP (here)
Wolfgang Tillmans @Andrea Rosen Gallery (here)
Twilight Visions: Surrealism, Photography and Paris @ICP (here)
As I review these two lists, now with the advantage of passing time and the resonance of memory, I am generally happy to defend how these ratings ended up; I feel like this Top 40 (41 actually) was largely the best of what was on view in New York this year - if you only saw the 3 STARS shows and nothing else, and even though these shows had their own flaws, on the whole, you would have had a pretty solid year of photography viewing. If pressed to do some fudging along the edges with the long arm of history watching, I think Joe Deal (@Robert Mann), David Goldblatt (@Jewish Museum), or Leon Levinstein (@Met) may end up being more important than I originally gave them credit for. But on the whole, I stand behind the ratings and the logic/rationale the supports each of them.
The harder question to answer is whether my conclusion that 2010 was a less than stellar year for photography was actually a commonly held perception among gallery patrons, museum goers or collectors. Perhaps this community of readers saw the world differently, and the breath taking high points you experienced were more consistent than mine. I think great shows take us outside ourselves, providing excitement and inspiration, challenging our accepted ways of thinking, and hopefully educating us in broad and unexpected ways. I think many of us that haunt galleries and museums are relentless seekers, looking for those stimulating ideas that jolt us into new and unexpected mindsets. But unfortunately, regardless of whether the work was vintage or contemporary, black and white or color, I just don't think that there was enough of the ground-breaking, durably original, idea-rich, radical boldness on view in 2010 that would normally keep my mind buzzing for days.
This apparent minimum of greatness does not however dampen my overflowing enthusiasm for photography in all its myriad and ever-changing forms. Perhaps we are in a short-term, temporary lull, waiting for the gathering of now-unformed ideas into authentically new visual vocabularies. Hopefully 2011 will bring all those mythical shows to New York that I have been impatiently waiting for, the work having been caught in the backwaters of scheduling and slot filling. Against the backdrop of nearly two centuries of photographic history, I'm sorry to report that 2010 didn't show us as much as I had hoped for, but my standards and aspirations for the medium are perhaps unrealistically high. But with the New Year comes a clean blank slate, and the opportunity to be surprised and amazed all over again.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Top Photography Shows of 2009
As we look back on the world of photography in 2009, we find ourselves on a somewhat surprising perch. According to our tally, we wrote in-depth reviews for a total of 173 photography shows at galleries and museums this year. With the notable exception of the tireless Vince Aletti of the New Yorker whom we doubt we can ever match, we likely reviewed more photography shows in the past 12 months than any other publication on the planet.
If we assume that we reviewed a little less than half of what was on view, that says there were approximately 350-400 shows of photography on display in New York this year, in all kinds of venues, from large public museums to home based galleries, and everything in between. As such, while other cities certainly have vibrant and growing photography communities, New York is still the center of the photography world, at least in terms of sheer scale and variety.
Before we get to a discussion of the top shows of the year, a few sliced and diced statistics for the mathematically minded among you:
If we assume that we reviewed a little less than half of what was on view, that says there were approximately 350-400 shows of photography on display in New York this year, in all kinds of venues, from large public museums to home based galleries, and everything in between. As such, while other cities certainly have vibrant and growing photography communities, New York is still the center of the photography world, at least in terms of sheer scale and variety.
Before we get to a discussion of the top shows of the year, a few sliced and diced statistics for the mathematically minded among you:
Shows by Venue Type
.
Gallery: 77.46%
Museum: 22.54%
Of the shows we reviewed, more than three quarters were in galleries. This data likely skews the museum numbers a little higher than reality, as much of what we didn't review or see was likely in galleries.
Shows by Time Period
New/Contemporary: 54.34%
Group Show, Mixture of Periods, or Retrospective: 19.08%
Vintage Only (1980s and Older): 26.59%
These numbers are a reminder of the dominance of contemporary work (defined as 1990 and later in this case) in the marketplace. Just over a quarter of the shows we reviewed were vintage material only, and again these numbers are likely skewed higher, as exhibits we missed were more likely to be contemporary than vintage.
Shows by Process
Color: 36.42%
Black/White: 36.42%
Mixture of Processes: 27.17%
These numbers were quite surprising, given how pervasive digital color photography has become. In the shows we reviewed, these was an exact even split between color and black and white. While color will likely continue to gain share as the years pass, I think this points to a continued/renewed interest in black and white (even when it is accomplished digitally).
Shows by Rating
3 Star EXCELLENT: 6.94%
2 Star VERY GOOD: 19.65%
1 Star GOOD: 73.41%
Less than 7% of the shows we saw got our top rating of three stars. While some may quibble with individual ratings of specific shows (and I think reasonable people could certainly disagree on many of these exhibits), I think the spread across the rating scale is about right, reflecting the reality of the situation, rather than a puffed-up, spin-doctored, over-marketed world where everything is fabulous and outstanding. While there are quite a few standouts this year, the fact is, I'd like to think the ruthless meritocracy of the art world works for the most part; there are winners and losers, and just showing up does not earn a gold star - the work has to have a strong and original voice to get out from under the deafening noise.
Leading Venues by Number of Reviews
International Center of Photography: 8
Yancey Richardson Gallery: 7
Metropolitan Museum of Art: 6
Museum of the City of New York: 6
Janet Borden Inc.: 5
Howard Greenberg Gallery: 5
Laurence Miller Gallery: 5
Yossi Milo Gallery: 5
Aperture: 4
Edwynn Houk Gallery: 4
Museum of Modern Art: 4
Pace/MacGill Gallery: 4
Bruce Silverstein Gallery: 4
Sonnabend Gallery: 4
Whitney Museum of American Art: 4
Amador Gallery: 3
Gagosian Gallery: 3
We reviewed exhibits at a staggering 92 different venues this year. The numbers above show those locations that we visited/reviewed at least three times. Many of these places have multiple gallery spaces, and often run two or more exhibits simultaneously that we often review as separate and distinct shows. So while a normal gallery calendar might have 6-8 shows in a year, some of these locations have twice that many shows on view across the same period of time. The numbers above (and the ones just below) are a pointer to the strength of the photography program at the venue, and to the depth of the stable of artists that are represented (in the case of the galleries). The dark underbelly of these numbers is that for many, many venues, less than half of what they are meticulously putting up is earning even a one star review.
Leading Venues by Average Rating (out of a possible 3.00)
Gagosian Gallery: 2.33
Metropolitan Museum of Art: 2.00
Pace/MacGill Gallery: 2.00
International Center of Photography: 1.88
Janet Borden Inc.: 1.60
Howard Greenberg Gallery: 1.60
Edwynn Houk Gallery: 1.50
Museum of Modern Art: 1.50
Bruce Silverstein Gallery: 1.50
Sonnabend Gallery: 1.50
Whitney Museum of American Art: 1.50
Laurence Miller Gallery: 1.40
Amador Gallery: 1.33
Museum of the City of New York: 1.17
Aperture: 1.00
Yossi Milo Gallery: 1.00
Yancey Richardson Gallery: 1.00
I think these statistics are among the most revealing that we calculated. For each venue, the average rating of all the shows we reviewed at that space has been tabulated (not including the shows we didn't review of course). So while Gagosian only had three shows in the table just preceding this one (an indicator of a relatively thin photo program), the three shows that were presented were of very high quality (Roger Ballen: three stars, Alec Soth: two stars, and Sally Mann: two stars). On the flip side, there were other venues that had a larger number of shows on our review list, but most of those shows lacked the firepower to earn more than one star on a consistent basis. So these numbers give us another look at the quality of photography programs out there.
And so we come to the main event, our top shows of the year. In our rating scheme, three stars is the highest mark a show can receive. These 12 shows were the only shows to receive this superlative grade in the past 12 months. As regular readers will know, our ratings are time-based; these top shows were recommended based on a restricted time budget of only one photography show a month throughout the year. Given the depth of quality in this list, if you saw these 12 shows, you had a spellbinding and enlightening year of photography. Check out the original reviews for the logic behind each choice:
Top Shows of 2009 (in alphabetical order by artist or show name):
Avedon Fashion, 1944-2000 @ICP
(original review here)
Roger Ballen: Boarding House @Gagosian Gallery
(original review here)
Walker Evans and the Picture Postcard @Metropolitan Museum
(original review here)
Lee Friedlander: Still Life @Janet Borden Inc.
(original review here)
Looking In: Robert Frank's The Americans @Metropolitan Museum
(original review here)
Intersections Intersected: The Photography of David Goldblatt @New Museum
(original review here)
Emmet Gowin: Photographs @Pace/MacGill Gallery
(original review here)
Jacques Henri Lartigue, A New Paradise @Howard Greenberg Gallery
(original review here)
The Pictures Generation, 1974-1984 @Metropolitan Museum
(original review here)
Alias Man Ray: The Art of Reinvention @Jewish Museum
(original review here)
Aaron Siskind, Recurrence @Bruce Silverstein Gallery
(original review here)
Edward Steichen: In High Fashion, The Conde Nast Years, 1923-1937 @ICP
(original review here)
Great shows shake our minds loose from the ruts of everyday living. They provide excitement and inspiration, they challenge our accepted notions, and hopefully they succeed in educating us in broad and unexpected ways.
Perhaps due to the challenges of the economy and the overall mood of the world, the 2009 list above looks to have been a retrenching kind of year, a return to reconsidering the value of the established masters, of seeing their contributions to the art form of photography with renewed clarity and deeper scholarship, perhaps even a hackneyed "flight to quality". We seem to have found comfort in the greats of the medium, or invested more time and energy into inspecting them more closely and reevaluating those we have long admired.
In contrast, only a very few early to mid career photographers even reached the two star level with their most current bodies of work this year, and I'm very sorry to say that 2009 produced no breakout new performances or mind bending new arrivals by young contemporary photographers. As a result, I believe this year will likely be largely forgotten by the writers of photography history, or seen as a transitional or flux year, where new ideas were percolating around, new technologies were refined and extended, and hard work was invested in bodies of new photography that came to fruition in later years. The bold ideas of where we go next are still apparently a work in progress.
A few of you may now be sitting at your computer screens outraged by our obvious bias and incompetent ignorance. Let me reiterate that we would like nothing better than to see a flowering of new contemporary photography that meets (and exceeds) that standards of the best of what has come before. And yet, if the top new work of 2009 came from Ballen, Friedlander, and Goldblatt (with a nod to Sally Mann), the younger generation needs to step it up a notch in my view. I just didn't see many authentically new bodies of work made by the new voices of photography this year that we are likely to be talking about 20 or 30 years in the future.
Our goal in the end is not to leave you with a disapproving view of the photography of 2009; on the contrary, there was much to be seen and admired. But instead of patting ourselves on the back and congratulating ourselves on a job well done amid tough circumstances, I hope we all (artists, gallery owners, museum curators, collectors etc.) might take away a renewed and optimistic challenge to stretch even further in 2010 toward work that will really stand the 50-100 year test, to photographs that will become the image icons of the 21st century.
ADMINISTRATIVE NOTE: This will be our last post before the holiday break. We'll see you next in January, with our detailed statistical review of the 2009 auction season on deck for the first week back. Happy holidays!
Of the shows we reviewed, more than three quarters were in galleries. This data likely skews the museum numbers a little higher than reality, as much of what we didn't review or see was likely in galleries.
Shows by Time Period
New/Contemporary: 54.34%
Group Show, Mixture of Periods, or Retrospective: 19.08%
Vintage Only (1980s and Older): 26.59%
These numbers are a reminder of the dominance of contemporary work (defined as 1990 and later in this case) in the marketplace. Just over a quarter of the shows we reviewed were vintage material only, and again these numbers are likely skewed higher, as exhibits we missed were more likely to be contemporary than vintage.
Shows by Process
Color: 36.42%
Black/White: 36.42%
Mixture of Processes: 27.17%
These numbers were quite surprising, given how pervasive digital color photography has become. In the shows we reviewed, these was an exact even split between color and black and white. While color will likely continue to gain share as the years pass, I think this points to a continued/renewed interest in black and white (even when it is accomplished digitally).
Shows by Rating
3 Star EXCELLENT: 6.94%
2 Star VERY GOOD: 19.65%
1 Star GOOD: 73.41%
Less than 7% of the shows we saw got our top rating of three stars. While some may quibble with individual ratings of specific shows (and I think reasonable people could certainly disagree on many of these exhibits), I think the spread across the rating scale is about right, reflecting the reality of the situation, rather than a puffed-up, spin-doctored, over-marketed world where everything is fabulous and outstanding. While there are quite a few standouts this year, the fact is, I'd like to think the ruthless meritocracy of the art world works for the most part; there are winners and losers, and just showing up does not earn a gold star - the work has to have a strong and original voice to get out from under the deafening noise.
Leading Venues by Number of Reviews
International Center of Photography: 8
Yancey Richardson Gallery: 7
Metropolitan Museum of Art: 6
Museum of the City of New York: 6
Janet Borden Inc.: 5
Howard Greenberg Gallery: 5
Laurence Miller Gallery: 5
Yossi Milo Gallery: 5
Aperture: 4
Edwynn Houk Gallery: 4
Museum of Modern Art: 4
Pace/MacGill Gallery: 4
Bruce Silverstein Gallery: 4
Sonnabend Gallery: 4
Whitney Museum of American Art: 4
Amador Gallery: 3
Gagosian Gallery: 3
We reviewed exhibits at a staggering 92 different venues this year. The numbers above show those locations that we visited/reviewed at least three times. Many of these places have multiple gallery spaces, and often run two or more exhibits simultaneously that we often review as separate and distinct shows. So while a normal gallery calendar might have 6-8 shows in a year, some of these locations have twice that many shows on view across the same period of time. The numbers above (and the ones just below) are a pointer to the strength of the photography program at the venue, and to the depth of the stable of artists that are represented (in the case of the galleries). The dark underbelly of these numbers is that for many, many venues, less than half of what they are meticulously putting up is earning even a one star review.
Leading Venues by Average Rating (out of a possible 3.00)
Gagosian Gallery: 2.33
Metropolitan Museum of Art: 2.00
Pace/MacGill Gallery: 2.00
International Center of Photography: 1.88
Janet Borden Inc.: 1.60
Howard Greenberg Gallery: 1.60
Edwynn Houk Gallery: 1.50
Museum of Modern Art: 1.50
Bruce Silverstein Gallery: 1.50
Sonnabend Gallery: 1.50
Whitney Museum of American Art: 1.50
Laurence Miller Gallery: 1.40
Amador Gallery: 1.33
Museum of the City of New York: 1.17
Aperture: 1.00
Yossi Milo Gallery: 1.00
Yancey Richardson Gallery: 1.00
I think these statistics are among the most revealing that we calculated. For each venue, the average rating of all the shows we reviewed at that space has been tabulated (not including the shows we didn't review of course). So while Gagosian only had three shows in the table just preceding this one (an indicator of a relatively thin photo program), the three shows that were presented were of very high quality (Roger Ballen: three stars, Alec Soth: two stars, and Sally Mann: two stars). On the flip side, there were other venues that had a larger number of shows on our review list, but most of those shows lacked the firepower to earn more than one star on a consistent basis. So these numbers give us another look at the quality of photography programs out there.
And so we come to the main event, our top shows of the year. In our rating scheme, three stars is the highest mark a show can receive. These 12 shows were the only shows to receive this superlative grade in the past 12 months. As regular readers will know, our ratings are time-based; these top shows were recommended based on a restricted time budget of only one photography show a month throughout the year. Given the depth of quality in this list, if you saw these 12 shows, you had a spellbinding and enlightening year of photography. Check out the original reviews for the logic behind each choice:
Top Shows of 2009 (in alphabetical order by artist or show name):
Avedon Fashion, 1944-2000 @ICP
(original review here)
Roger Ballen: Boarding House @Gagosian Gallery
(original review here)
Walker Evans and the Picture Postcard @Metropolitan Museum
(original review here)
Lee Friedlander: Still Life @Janet Borden Inc.
(original review here)
Looking In: Robert Frank's The Americans @Metropolitan Museum
(original review here)
Intersections Intersected: The Photography of David Goldblatt @New Museum
(original review here)
Emmet Gowin: Photographs @Pace/MacGill Gallery
(original review here)
Jacques Henri Lartigue, A New Paradise @Howard Greenberg Gallery
(original review here)
The Pictures Generation, 1974-1984 @Metropolitan Museum
(original review here)
Alias Man Ray: The Art of Reinvention @Jewish Museum
(original review here)
Aaron Siskind, Recurrence @Bruce Silverstein Gallery
(original review here)
Edward Steichen: In High Fashion, The Conde Nast Years, 1923-1937 @ICP
(original review here)
Great shows shake our minds loose from the ruts of everyday living. They provide excitement and inspiration, they challenge our accepted notions, and hopefully they succeed in educating us in broad and unexpected ways.
Perhaps due to the challenges of the economy and the overall mood of the world, the 2009 list above looks to have been a retrenching kind of year, a return to reconsidering the value of the established masters, of seeing their contributions to the art form of photography with renewed clarity and deeper scholarship, perhaps even a hackneyed "flight to quality". We seem to have found comfort in the greats of the medium, or invested more time and energy into inspecting them more closely and reevaluating those we have long admired.
In contrast, only a very few early to mid career photographers even reached the two star level with their most current bodies of work this year, and I'm very sorry to say that 2009 produced no breakout new performances or mind bending new arrivals by young contemporary photographers. As a result, I believe this year will likely be largely forgotten by the writers of photography history, or seen as a transitional or flux year, where new ideas were percolating around, new technologies were refined and extended, and hard work was invested in bodies of new photography that came to fruition in later years. The bold ideas of where we go next are still apparently a work in progress.
A few of you may now be sitting at your computer screens outraged by our obvious bias and incompetent ignorance. Let me reiterate that we would like nothing better than to see a flowering of new contemporary photography that meets (and exceeds) that standards of the best of what has come before. And yet, if the top new work of 2009 came from Ballen, Friedlander, and Goldblatt (with a nod to Sally Mann), the younger generation needs to step it up a notch in my view. I just didn't see many authentically new bodies of work made by the new voices of photography this year that we are likely to be talking about 20 or 30 years in the future.
Our goal in the end is not to leave you with a disapproving view of the photography of 2009; on the contrary, there was much to be seen and admired. But instead of patting ourselves on the back and congratulating ourselves on a job well done amid tough circumstances, I hope we all (artists, gallery owners, museum curators, collectors etc.) might take away a renewed and optimistic challenge to stretch even further in 2010 toward work that will really stand the 50-100 year test, to photographs that will become the image icons of the 21st century.
ADMINISTRATIVE NOTE: This will be our last post before the holiday break. We'll see you next in January, with our detailed statistical review of the 2009 auction season on deck for the first week back. Happy holidays!
Monday, December 22, 2008
Top Photography Shows of 2008 (Abbreviated)
Since just about every other news source and art critic on the planet has already weighed in with his/her "Top 10" list, it seems only fitting that we should offer our own view of what was noteworthy in the world of photography in 2008. While there was of course a major rebalancing of prices in the photography market in line with the larger economy (and this is of meaningful interest to collectors), in the end, it's the art itself that matters most, so that's where we'll focus our remarks.
Since we have only been writing this blog since mid-August of this year, our commentary is limited to the time period since then (thus "abbreviated" in the title). Our general pace would have us visiting approximately 100 photography shows in galleries and museums in any given year; the blog has a total of 43 reviews for the past four and a half months. Next year, assuming we keep the same pace up, we'll be even more comprehensive.
There were a grand total of six shows that received our top rating of three stars during this year. They were, in alphabetical order by artist's name:
William Eggleston @Whitney Museum
(original review here)
Susan Meiselas @ICP
(original review here)
Catherine Opie @Guggenheim Museum
(original review here)
Cindy Sherman @Metro Pictures
(original review here)
Hiroshi Sugimoto @Gagosian Gallery
(original review here)
Minor White @Howard Greenberg Gallery
(original review here)
In our minds, great shows inspire us, move us, force us to think in new ways, and most of all educate us, about the artists and their work, and hopefully about ourselves in some degree as a byproduct. Every single one of the listed shows significantly increased our understanding of these photographers, convinced us of their importance in the overall history of the medium, and produced staggering moments when we were struck dumb by the sheer grandeur of the art on view.
In a world where we are constantly bombarded by images and "stuff", we are constantly on the lookout for the memorable, for the event or outing that will rise above the noise and somehow make a more lasting and meaningful impression. These shows meet that standard. I can in my mind's eye easily recreate each and every one of them: the sublime Sugimoto black room, the brooding and empty Meiselas images of Kurdistan, the pitch perfect satire of Cindy Sherman, Opie's intense and beautiful self portraits, the unexpected compositions and color of William Eggleston, and the quiet meditations of Minor White. Perhaps the common thread among these shows (and the key to their ultimate success and longevity) is that they were each overflowing not just with compelling pictures, but with compelling ideas.
Since we have only been writing this blog since mid-August of this year, our commentary is limited to the time period since then (thus "abbreviated" in the title). Our general pace would have us visiting approximately 100 photography shows in galleries and museums in any given year; the blog has a total of 43 reviews for the past four and a half months. Next year, assuming we keep the same pace up, we'll be even more comprehensive.
There were a grand total of six shows that received our top rating of three stars during this year. They were, in alphabetical order by artist's name:
William Eggleston @Whitney Museum
(original review here)
Susan Meiselas @ICP
(original review here)
Catherine Opie @Guggenheim Museum
(original review here)
Cindy Sherman @Metro Pictures
(original review here)
Hiroshi Sugimoto @Gagosian Gallery
(original review here)
Minor White @Howard Greenberg Gallery
(original review here)
In our minds, great shows inspire us, move us, force us to think in new ways, and most of all educate us, about the artists and their work, and hopefully about ourselves in some degree as a byproduct. Every single one of the listed shows significantly increased our understanding of these photographers, convinced us of their importance in the overall history of the medium, and produced staggering moments when we were struck dumb by the sheer grandeur of the art on view.
In a world where we are constantly bombarded by images and "stuff", we are constantly on the lookout for the memorable, for the event or outing that will rise above the noise and somehow make a more lasting and meaningful impression. These shows meet that standard. I can in my mind's eye easily recreate each and every one of them: the sublime Sugimoto black room, the brooding and empty Meiselas images of Kurdistan, the pitch perfect satire of Cindy Sherman, Opie's intense and beautiful self portraits, the unexpected compositions and color of William Eggleston, and the quiet meditations of Minor White. Perhaps the common thread among these shows (and the key to their ultimate success and longevity) is that they were each overflowing not just with compelling pictures, but with compelling ideas.
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