Hasta La Ideas

(Photo: Tony Cenicola/The New York Times)

“Sentimentalizing the machine is now a malignity of the century,” wrote Donald Judd in his 1993 essay “It’s Hard to Find a Good Lamp,” as he called out Marcel Breuer and Le Corbusier for designing chairs that “derived from the better camping and military chairs of the nineteenth century”–with the addition of a steely, machine-age gloss. Judd found this particular buffing up and repackaging of old good ideas “almost forgivable” (for the latter, extreme examples of machine fetish, such as Rogers and Piano‘s Pompidou Center, he had not a trace of sympathy), so we hope that he’ll pardon us for sentimentalizing his own machine: a 1972 Dodge pickup with a distinctive black-and-white paint job.

The truck, which Judd acquired shortly after moving to Marfa, Texas, is now owned (and driven regularly) by Evan Hughes, a Brooklyn-based furniture designer who purchased it from Judd’s son, Flavin, in 2000 for less than $5,000. Hughes recently showed the truck–which lacks radio, air-conditioning, and the ability to go faster than 75 miles per hour–to Richard S. Chang for a story in the auto section of The New York Times. “The engine is a 360 V-8 with a 4-speed manual transmission, and it’s geared very low,” noted Chang.

“It’s pretty much as it was,” [Hughes] said.

He noted some points of interest: a winch on the bumper spooled with 100 feet of cable, passes for Judd’s trips into Mexico on the rear window and a first-aid kit mounted on the driver’s door.

Unsnapping the wire clasp that holds the tin cover in place, he demonstrated that the kit was still fully stocked (with, among other things, ammonia inhalants, aspirin and an eye patch).

In a compartment along the side of the truck, Mr. Hughes dusted off old engine belts, an owner’s manual and a rusted metal container that could have been used for ammunition. He had removed a gun rack when he bought the truck, and to make more room in the cargo bed, Mr. Hughes also removed a toolbox and a water tank.

“This was really equipped for the desert,” he said. “In case you get lost or stuck, there’s nothing for miles.”

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(Photo: UnBeige)

Among the highlights of this weekend’s inaugural Designers and Books Fair was Debbie Millman’s on-stage conversation with Steven Heller and Louise Fili. Perched on a Florence Knoll two-seater in an auditorium at the Fashion Institute of Technology, the pair discussed everything from the difference between a logo and a brand (“about $500,000,” according to Fili) to the joys of miniature mannequins (“I love these things,” enthused Heller, who credits the couple’s 2002 book on the subject with nearly pricing him out of the mini-mannequin market. “These are sculptures of commerce, raw commercial art.”). Millman’s well-constructed questions touched on many aspects of their nearly 30-year union, including Heller’s marriage proposal. It will come as no suprise that books played a critical role in his popping the question.

Picture it: summertime, Italy, the early ’80s. Fili and Heller were staying in Tuscany, and kept bumping into two of their design-savvy friends, Paula Scher and Henrietta Condak, who were staying nearby. “It became this game, because we were all on a search, out to get the best stuff in Italy–the best books–before anyone else did,” explained Fili. One day, she and Heller arrived at Florence’s Centro Di with just 30 minutes to spare before the bookshop closed for lunch. They noticed that Scher and Condak had also just walked in. “I saw the look on Steve’s face, because he knows this is not a good thing, when he has competition,” said Fili. “So he had to get away from them as fast as possible and get to the books.” A bit of small talk ensued: How’s the trip? What’s new? Heller saw an exit strategy. “Oh, we’re getting married,” he told Scher and Condak, before making a beeline for the books. “He left me to explain,” said Fili. “I didn’t even know what I had to say about it yet, because I didn’t really have any details.” But all’s well that ends well. Added a grinning Heller after Fili had told the tale, “I got the books and I got the dame.”

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Over the past several months, Ai Weiwei and his legal team have continued to fight the tax evasion charges that saddled him with 15 million yuan ($2.4 million) in fines. The artist recently lost his second and final appeal. “We’ve been making a lot of effort getting our evidence, documenting our company’s financial activities,” he told CNN on the day of the latest court ruling. “And the court didn’t really show any hard evidence today to convict us. They’re openly violating the law by infringing on tax payers’ basic rights and ignoring lawful requests time and time again.” Nonetheless, Ai’s work—and play—continue apace. A video (below) shows him rocking Gagnam style dance moves in a pink t-shirt that he occasionally accessorizes with handcuffs. On a more serious note, Ai served as guest editor for the October 18 issue of the New Statesman, the London-based political and cultural magazine. “This special issue, on China, its complex present and its future challenges, is written by Chinese authors and activists and showcases work by Chinese photographers,” said editor Jason Cowley. “It is the New Statesman, made in China.”

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Just as you’re putting the finishing touches on your Larry Gagosian Halloween costume comes word that the uberdealer has climbed a few notches on the just-released ArtReview “Power 100,” edging out last year’s list leader, artist Ai Weiwei, to claim the #2 slot. Leading this year’s ranking of art world stars is–would you believe?–a curator! Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev made quite an impression with her shape-shifting Documenta 13, “spanning, as it did, the cities of Kabul, Banff, and Alexandria/Cairo after sprawling over Kassel [Germany] more than ever before, and encompassing screenings, performances, talks, essays, books, and disciplines that extend far beyond the field of art,” note the editors, who have published the annotated Power 100 in the November issue of ArtReview.

So how did they go about determining that artist Theaster Gates (#56) is more powerful than both Jeff Koons (#58) and Miuccia Prada (#93), and that Cindy Sherman trumps all of them at lucky #13? Entrants are ranked according to “a combination of influence over the production of art internationally, sheer financial clout (although in these times that’s no longer such a big factor) and activity in the previous 12 months,” according to ArtReview. See if you agree with their math by perusing the full list below, and then click over to the magazine’s website, which includes all ten previous Power 100s and a portfolio of portraits commissioned for each issue, among them work by photographers Juergen Teller, Ari Marcopoulos, and Roe Ethridge.

1. Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev
2. Larry Gagosian
3. Ai Weiwei
4. Iwan Wirth
5. David Zwirner
6. Gerhard Richter
7. Beatrix Ruf
8. Nicholas Serota
9. Glenn D. Lowry
10. Hans Ulrich Obrist & Julia Peyton-Jones continued…

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Whatever you do, don’t tell Murray Moss he has good taste. “I know that’s meant to be complimentary, but good taste doesn’t exist,” he explains in a new series of video interviews created by Phillips de Pury & Company on the occasion of the Moss-curated art and design auction held today in New York. “It’s not what I would want if it were able to exist.” Keep reading—or at least clicking—below for the full series of enlightening shorts, in which Moss expounds on the devaluation of décor (“Let’s rename it in a more palatable way, and let’s call it collage.”), how to live with art and design, and the sensual delights of sipping Coca-Cola through the most delicate of Lobmeyr glasses.

continued…

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