Review Roundup

Everyone seems to like the new Mapplethorpe Polaroid show at the Whitney, taking the opportunity to wax nostalgic about the medium. More praise for Tomma Abt and another semi-negative review for Paul Chan (I liked it). The New York Sun prefers Philip Guston's 50's drawings over his later stuff (I argued the opposite). And another positive review of "Mike's World" at the Philly ICA -- I hope I can make the trip.

Polaroids: Mapplethorpe at the Whitney (-Sept. 7)

"The beloved instant photograph could not have hoped for a better sendoff than the Whitney’s exhibition of Robert Mapplethorpe’s Polaroids. ... All the themes of Mapplethorpe’s mature work — the body as a site of pain and pleasure, the ideals of classical beauty, the celebration of alternative lifestyles — are here, but rendered in a more spontaneous medium." - Karen Rosenberg/NYTimes

"... includes some of the artist’s best work, much of it on exhibit for the first time. ... The sophistication of this style is apparent early on, and, whether his subject is Marianne Faithfull or a tangle of bondage gear, it’s at its most intimate and seductive here." - Vince Aletti/New Yorker

"...he makes his own best subject, because he was at his most seductive when looking into the mirror." - Dan Bischoff/Star Ledger


Glossolalia: Languages of Drawing at the MoMA (-July 7)

"Other than the fact that all 100 works on view are drawings and that they belong to MoMA, they share little in the way of a unifying theme. ... Perhaps it would be churlish to point out that this exhibition would have been slightly better off without the dead weight of such usual suspects as Mike Kelley, Richard Prince, and Raymond Pettibon, all of whom draw extensively and quite poorly." - James Gardner/NY Sun


Tomma Abt at the New Museum (-June 29)

"Abts’ spare paint handling and resolute edges reveal a disturbing and provocative core of self-abnegation and humility. ... In an age of hyper-ideation and inflated art rhetoric, in which ideas may be valued more than emotional insight or intuition, Abts’ ingenuous simplicity, like that of Chauncey Gardner in 'Being There,' is refreshing. ... If she is a minimalist, she is a maximal one." - Sharon L. Butler/Brooklyn Rail


Paul Chan at the New Museum (-June 29)

"...the simplicity and even didacticism of the exhibition’s narrative ultimately take away from the work, the show at least fails with grace. ...within Chan’s clumsy visual conceptual framework lies a really great show." - Paddy Johnson/L Magazine


Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy at the Met (-Sept. 1)

"...the result is all shiny surface, images of power for the frivolous rich. Missing, for instance, are the kind of hazmat suits and military gear documented by photographer Paul Shambroom in his celebrated 'Security' series. One also notices the absence of villains, who could have profitably been represented by mannequins of heads of state -- Dick Cheney, Vladimir Putin, Robert Mugabe. The comic-book hero who’s missing from the lineup, obviously enough, is G.I. Joe, but with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, perhaps that particular avatar is a little too close to contemporary reality to be 'most effective as metaphor,' in the words used to describe the show’s purpose." - Walter Robinson/ArtNet

"...unlocks some of the mysteries of fashion — especially its outré, outrageous aspects. ... The trivial nature of comic book heroes appears incongruous with this particular museum. ...leads the way in serious scrutiny of popular culture, which — like it or not — is the art of the day." - Pia Catton/NY Sun


Jeff Koons at the Met (-Oct. 26)

"...a beautiful monument to bad taste." -John Perreault/Artopia


Philip Guston at the Morgan Library (-Aug. 31)

"The show flowers early and briefly (the second wall is the most elegant), then trails off in numerous directions. Still, it presents the full spectrum of Guston's drawings between the late '40s and the late '70s. ... In the '50s abstractions, Guston flays the world, bruises, nurses, and caresses it, builds it up, and breaks it down. ... The fact remains, however, that, despite Guston's convictions as a storyteller, his earlier pure abstract pictures are much more inventive and engaging as stories than his later stories are as pictures." - Lance Espund/NY Sun


The Horse at the American Museum of Natural History (-Jan. 4)

"...sprawling, charming and illuminating... a provocative history of the ways in which humans and horses became, as the show says, 'powerfully linked.' ...the history of the horse becomes humanized." - Edward Rothstein/NYTimes


The Single Object Still Life at the Katonah Museum of Art (-June 29)

"...visually and philosophically engaging... The show is crowded and too accepting of technically proficient but unimaginative work. Its weakness, however, is also its strength. In representing so many different approaches, it invites viewers to ponder how various and complex are the ways we see, relate to and think about objects and reality in general." - Ken Johnson/NYTimes


Culture in Context and The World Around Us at the New Jersey State Museum

"Collect locally, yes, it seems to say, but also think locally. This is limiting. Had the opening show focused on a specific culture or explored cultural similarities and differences, or examined particular types of rituals or crafts, the local would have expanded into the global. But in explicitly and cursorily trying to represent the state’s diversity — even while spotlighting some extraordinary objects — the exhibition actually seems more parochial." - Edward Rothstein/NYTimes


Mike’s World at the ICA Philly (-Aug. 3)

"...a terrifically entertaining and philosophically compelling survey... In his inventive engagement with diverse forms, including drawing, comic books, sculpture, photography, musical theater and puppet shows as well as installations and video, he has followed a determinedly unpredictable, exploratory course. ...there does emerge a certain thematic preoccupation, which you might describe as the gap between the mundane and the transcendental." - Ken Johnson/NYTimes


Reclaimed at the Bruce Museum (Greenwich, CT)

"...celebrates the partial recovery of artworks confiscated by the Nazis from Jacques Goudstikker, the pre-eminent Amsterdam art dealer in the 1920s and '30s. ...provides a frame for understanding both the intricacies of locating scattered items and the legal battles involved in restitution. Equally significant, this representative sample of a spectacular collection is a window into one man's influence on the art market between the two world wars." - Maureen Mullarkey/NY Sun


Real Time at the Israel Museum (Jerusalem)

"...the exhibition is one of six to be rolled out over the coming months to mark Israel’s 60th anniversary. There will be one show for each decade of the country’s existence, each in a different museum across the country. ...provides only a little relief to a country that lives with a sense of existential dread. A number of the works have an apocalyptic quality — notably 'Iranian Atom,' an installation by Sigalit Landau featuring humans apparently stripped of their skin after a nuclear attack." - Ethan Bronner/NYTimes