Barcelona

Dreaming of another vacation. Photo by the lovely Chris.

attack on the whitney

At first it seemed plausible…maybe. The Occupy Wall Street Arts & Labor group sent a letter a few days ago calling for the end of the Whitney Biennial. Then this morning this post (pasted below) on, what appeared to be the Whitney website. Well done, fabulous prank, point made!

2012 WHITNEY BIENNIAL TO OPEN MARCH 1;
MUSEUM BREAKS WITH TWO CORPORATE SPONSORS,
APOLOGIZES TO PARTICIPATING ARTISTS

Sculpture, painting, installations, and photography—as well as dance, theater, music, and film—will fill the galleries of the Whitney Museum of American Art in the latest edition of the Whitney Biennial. With a roster of artists at all points in their careers the Biennial provides a look at the current state of contemporary art in America. This is the seventy-sixth in the ongoing series of Biennials and Annuals presented by the Whitney since 1932, two years after the Museum was founded.

The Biennial will open on March 1 despite the Whitney’s recent action to return money provided by two major sponsors of the Biennial—Sotheby’s and Deutsche Bank—whose recent corporate conduct has made it impossible for the Museum to maintain a partnership with them.

ABOUT OUR SPONSORS

The Whitney will find a way to open the 2012 Biennial in spite of the Museum’s difficult decision to break with the two major corporate sponsors of the Biennial. Regretfully, the Whitney entered into a sponsor agreement with Sotheby’s before the auction house locked out forty-three of its unionized art handlers once their contract expired in July 2011. Last year saw record-breaking sales with profits over $100 million for Sotheby’s; the pay of the CEO alone doubled to $6 million. Yet Sotheby’s has sought to break organized labor by starving their workers into submission—locked out of their jobs and without wages since August, these workers and their families lost their health care benefits at the end of 2011.

The Whitney recognizes that the financial speculation on art taking place in secondary sales of works benefits wealthy investors far more than the artists who created the works, let alone the workers who craft, move, install, maintain, or guard them. The Museum understands the importance of providing working people—including artists who must work second jobs to support their careers—with the livable wages and healthcare for which the Sotheby’s art handlers are fighting. Sotheby’s actions are a direct attack on the Museum’s mission to support and collect the work of living artists. For these reasons, the Whitney cannot allow Sotheby’s to tarnish the image of the Biennial any longer.

The Whitney also announces its break with major sponsor Deutsche Bank, which is facing numerous lawsuits and accusations of fraud from both investors and the U.S. government. Deutsche Bank and its subsidiary Mortgage IT profited from selling and insuring mortgages, and are currently in litigation with the U.S. government over a $1 billion claim for fraudulently obtained federal mortgage insurance; because of their dealings in mortgage-based collateralized debt obligations, they have also been sued by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association. The reckless and even fraudulent financial speculation by banks like Deutsche Bank has created enormous social costs in terms of lost jobs, savings, and homes. The Whitney does not want the bank’s sponsorship of the Biennial to distract from these serious matters or to reflect poorly on the Museum, and so must end the sponsorship agreement.

An Apology to the Participating Artists

The Whitney is proud to be able to redistribute resources from major corporate donors and super-wealthy individuals to deserving artists, especially within a political and economic system that concentrates wealth for a tiny minority while the majority grows poorer, suffers without healthcare, is forced from their homes, or goes without food. However, the Whitney also recognizes that some donors and sponsors may seek to use their partnership with the Museum to whitewash their image and to hide the social costs of unchecked capital accumulation behind a façade of charity. These sponsors seek to capitalize on the creativity, intelligence, and culture brought into the world by contemporary artists even as the sponsors make that world unlivable. The Whitney recognizes that many emerging artists cannot refuse to participate in a major museum show without endangering their careers, and so apologizes deeply to the participating artists for allowing them to be exploited by the former sponsors in this manner. The Museum hopes the participating artists will join us in denouncing the wrongs committed by our former sponsors and trusts the artists will use the resources provided to them to foster a more vibrant, livable, just, and sustainable world.

the trainee

The current triennial at the New Museum, The Ungovernables, left me thinking about Pilvi Takala’s “The Trainee.” Such a great commentary on (what constitutes) work, (wasting) time, creativity, and the ethics of internships. Reminds me of Francesco Clemente’s discussion of boredom, waiting and making room. A lovely, standout project/piece.

the great bear pamphlets

Discovery!

The Great Bear Pamphlets are on Ubu. Coming soon: John Cage’s poem, “Diary: How to Improve the World (You Will Only Make Matters Worse,”) in color. (For now it’s in black and white here.)

These pamphlets are amazing. From Kaprow (“Untitled Essay and Other Works”): “A whole career is devoted to imagining things and if the artist is to be at all interested in taking his pulse as though he were a patient to be examined, he must find some way to turn this procedure into an adventure, a form of life itself. He cannot be satisfied merely to translate in digest form what already has been completely expressed in his latest creative efforts.”

museums and relevance

A short New York Times piece from May 1968 that raises questions about the social, cultural, and political relevance of museums. The contemporary resonance is uncanny (for example see Occupy Museums)…

useful art

A*Magazine is A*DESK.’s fortnightly magazine, dedicated to the critique of and reflection on contemporary art.

Art Dis-solutions: A look at social movements and their artistic implications, through the work of Tania Bruguera in Queens, New York. XAVIER ACARIN

Allan Kaprow said that Non-art is more of an art than Art art. That the lunar module surpasses any contemporary sculptural effort, and that as such, the artist has to un-artist himself in order to flow between art and life. Something similar is happening in Queens with the Immigrant Movement International, Tania Bruguera is the initiator of a project that aims to eliminate the spectator and redefine the relations of power, between citizens and the market.

object ethnography project

The Object Ethnography Project, sponsored by The Lucrece Project, investigates how objects accumulate stories as they move from one life to another. We are looking for donations of objects—any kind of object—and the stories that come with them. Members of the public will then adopt these objects during a week-long event in March, 2012. Participants will explain how they will use their adopted object in its new life before they take it home. Each story will be recorded, and the final online exhibit will include a photograph of the object, biography, and its adoption story.

We are now seeking objects! If you have an item with a story, from a sentimental oven mitt to a first generation iPod, that you would like to donate to this project, please either mail it to:

Lucrece Project
NYU English Department
19 University Place, 5th Floor
New York, NY 10003