Hasta La Ideas

This installation by Erik Kessels is on show as part of an exhibition at Foam in Amsterdam that looks at the future of photography. It features print-outs of all the images uploaded to Flickr in a 24-hour period…

As you might imagine, this results in a lot of images, that fill the gallery space in an avalanche of photos. “We’re exposed to an overload of images nowadays,” says Kessels. “This glut is in large part the result of image-sharing sites like Flickr, networking sites like Facebook, and picture-based search engines. Their content mingles public and private, with the very personal being openly and un-selfconsciously displayed. By printing all the images uploaded in a 24-hour period, I visualise the feeling of drowning in representations of other peoples’ experiences.”

The aim of the What’s Next? exhibition is to provoke conversation about the future of the photography on the 10th anniversary of Foam. Looking at Kessels’ installation, it’s difficult not to feel nostalgic for photography’s past and to think of the sharing of all these images as a negative, a signal that we all need to exercise more editorial control. Yet, is that really the case? Perhaps sites such as Flickr, and the general ease of use provided by digital cameras, are instead encouraging us to think differently about photography, to see it as a truly democratic artform. Can there ever be too many images in the world?

What’s Next?, the Future of Photography Museum is on show at Foam in Amsterdam until December 7. Alongside Kessels’ installation, it also includes presentations from his fellow guest curators, Lauren Cornell, Jefferson Hack and Alison Nordström. More info on the show can be found here.

CR in Print

Not getting Creative Review in print too? You’re missing out.

In print, Creative Review carries far richer, more in-depth articles than we run here on the blog. This month, for example, we have nine pages on Saul Bass, plus pieces on advertising art buyers, Haddon Sundblom, the illustrator who ensured that Coke will forever be linked with Santa Claus, Postmodernism, Brighton’s new football ground and much more. Plus, it’s our Photography Annual, which means an additional 85 pages of great images, making our November issue almost 200-pages long, the biggest issue of CR for 5 years.

If you would like to buy this issue and are based in the UK, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 292 3703 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.

The famed fair for high quality historic design and contemporary wares travels from Paris to New York for the first time

Founded 15 years ago in Paris, the Pavilion of Art & Design brings together some of Europe’s most interesting galleries and dealers focused on modern, decorative and tribal art. In 2007 PAD co-founders Patrick Perrin and Stéphane Custot took the show on the road to London, and now the art savants have set up shop in New York at the Park Avenue Armory.

Perrin and Custot’s expertise on 20th-century art is clear. Each of the 52 purveyors picked to exhibit in NYC has a distinct draw, but the eclectic mix shares a cohesive aesthetic. The refined experience leads to an interesting discovery at every turn, whether it be a desk by Yves Saint Laurent at Lamberty, Rembrandt Bugatti’s “Giant Anteater” sculpture at Sladmore Gallery, or Ingrid Donat’s “Commode Facette” at Barry Friedman Ltd. A strong sense of geometry, the use of metal and thoughtful design pervade the work. While each exhibitor at PAD has a collection worth seeing, below are five not to miss.

Adrian Sassoon

Based in London, Adrian Sassoon eschews a gallery space in favor of finding artists and presenting their works at larger shows. Two that caught our eye were British kiln cast glass pioneer Colin Reid and emerging artist Junko Mori. Reid’s “A Vertical Sculpture Cast From Books” is a mesmerizing piece that uses glass’ refractive properties to create an optical illusion. Junko Mori coated forged steel in wax to create “Propagation Project; Bird” a strikingly eerie sculpture that captures the raw beauty of the avian form.

Secondome

Rome’s Secondome gallery is showing a stunning assortment of contemporary furniture that speaks to the younger collector’s aesthetic. Intriguing shapes and alluring materials abound, such as Sam Baron‘s 2011 table, “Le Bureau de Paolo.” The grain of the varnished teak surface contrasts nicely with the off-kilter drawers built into the legs, and Alessandro Ciffo‘s colorful take on the modern carpet, he calls “Tapislongue.”

Alain de Monbrison

Tribal art has a huge presence at PAD, and no collection exemplifies the beauty of these objects more than that of expert Alain de Monbrison. Ornate sculptures and masks sourced from Africa and Oceania modestly rest on gray stands, including standouts like the Bamana mask from Mali and the Kongo Dinga mask from the Republic of Congo.

Todd Merrill Studio

Yard Sale Project‘s Ian Spencer and Cairn Young use various types of wood to create their “chaotic” furniture, on view at Todd Merrill Studio. The “Corsica” and “Roccapina III” one-off chairs are a combination of computer-aided design and traditional woodworking techniques, crafted in their South London studio. The chairs are offset by an assortment of white sculptures, including Beth Katleman‘s “Folly” figurines and Katsuyo Aoki‘s “Predictive Dream XXIII.”

Galerie Du Passage

Undoubtedly diverse but with a definitive vision of notable works from the 20th century, Pierre Passebon’s collection spans lamps by Anne & Vincent Corbière, furniture from Guy de Rougemont and a Gio Ponti coffee table. Galerie Du Passage is brimming with covetable wares and exemplifies PAD’s notion that great design informs us about the world around us.

Despite some hurdles along the way, including fights with environmental groups and lots of back and forth with the Department of the Interior, who were also concerned about its impact to nature, artist Christo has been given the go ahead for “Over the River” (pdf). The project, which he vowed to continue working to completion after the 2009 passing of his wife and collaborator Jeanne-Claude, will span nearly 6 miles across 42 miles of sections of the Arkansas River in Colorado, utilizing large suspended panels and coming in at an estimated cost of roughly $50 million. The NY Times reports that in judging whether or not to allow the artist to create the latest in his series of large, sweeping projects (with which both he and his wife were often quoted as saying that the bureaucratic wrangling to pull them off was as much a part of the art as the installations themselves), government officials seemed to lean toward the financial benefit of the project, in both tourism dollars and creating jobs to help put the whole thing together. Though the artist writes in a statement that there is still plenty of work do be done before everything is 100% approved, it appears that it will ultimately be realized. Here’s a bit:

“This is the most significant milestone yet in completing Over The River,” said Christo, “and we can now get to work applying for the few remaining permits that we still need. We are much closer to finally realizing this work of art that Jeanne-Claude and I first envisioned many years ago. Although our team is still reviewing the ROD, I am confident that we can now move forward so we begin construction in the summer of 2012.”

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Takashi Murakami in front of his painting, “New day DOB’s Acrobatic Spectacular: Society” (2011), expected to bring between $350,000 and $450,000 at tomorrow’s sale. Below, he is joined by Yoshitomo Nara and KAWS. (Photos: Stephanie Murg)

On March 11, 2011, Takashi Murakami was in his Tokyo studio, busy with preparations for the biannual GESAI art fair that was scheduled to open in a couple of days. Then everything changed. “It was a total shock,” he said the other day at Gagosian Gallery in New York, recounting his experience of the magnitude 9.0 earthquake that triggered a tsunami and nuclear accidents. “In the days immediately following the earthquake, there was panic and hysteria, but eventually we started to think how we could do something, with artists.” That something was “New Day,” which began as a blog-based version of GESAI (the fair was cancelled in the wake of the disaster) and evolved into a range of activities, including the sale of merchandise and special installations at art fairs, with all proceeds donated to organizations helping with recovery efforts. Now the initiative is primed for its biggest event yet, an auction of 21 works donated by artists including Murakami and members of his Kaikai Kiki stable (Mr., Aya Takano) as well as the likes of Damien Hirst, Cindy Sherman, Jeff Koons, and Yoshitomo Nara. The sale takes place tomorrow morning at Christie’s in New York and is expected to bring in between $3.5 million and $5 million to fund relief efforts in Japan by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, Global Giving, and International Medical Corps.

“The earthquake happened around three in the afternoon,” said Murakami, standing before a self-portrait in which even his goatee is contorted in grief. “At five o’clock, [Christie’s owner] Francois Pinault sent me an e-mail asking ‘Are you OK? Is there anything I can do to help?’ And that e-mail was really the starting point of this project.” As he walked a scrum of journalists around Gagosian’s fifth-floor space on Madison Avenue, Murakami gestured to the eye-popping line-up of works donated by artist-friends he had recruited to participate. “The artists gave us supernice pieces,” he said, gesturing to a quartet of photos from Sherman’s 1976 “Bus Riders” series and a maquette of a pink balloon poodle, then still being silkscreened onto stainless steel at Koons’ studio (the finished product is expected to bring $600,000 to $800,000 tomorrow). “Initially I was thinking of more gloomy images,” said Mr., speaking through a translator about his “Okay!!” (2011), in which an anime-style schoolgirl pumps her fist and flings off a hot pink mary jane. “But I decided it was better to paint pictures that are more encouraging, as a way to convey ‘let’s get going.’”
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This writer has returned from vacation and though we apologize for not bringing you back trinkets and souvenirs from our travels, we come baring the gift of news. First, a couple of pieces about museum openings. This Friday marks the greatly anticipated first days the public will have to enter the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, home to the massive museum’s founder and heir to the Walmart fortune, Alice Walton. On Friday, Walton will be leading the dedication, along with the museum’s executive director, Don Bacigalupi and the designer behind the project, the renowned starchtect Moshe Safdie. Former President Clinton will also be appearing by video to say hello and kick off the opening. However, unless you acted quickly, even though the museum is miles away from what we city folk would call “civilization,” the museum’s first day is already booked solid.

In other starchitect-designed museum news, the Lansing State Journal has received word that the Zaha Hadid-designed Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum on the campus of Michigan State University is nearing competition with its construction. As of now, the paper reports that it should all be wrapped and largely completed by February, with an official opening now scheduled for some time in late April. Certainly good news for a museum that, like many across the country over the past few years, was struggling to pull in those last few million to finish everything up.

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