Art Thou Aware
Illustration by Erika Pahk
By Joanne Hinkel
To Bear a Boob
Attorney General John Ashcroft ordered a partially nude statue in the Justice Department's Great Hall to be covered up last month. Apparently, Ashcroft called for the cover up after seeing pictures of the Spirit of Justice's bare boob floating behind his head during one of his speeches. The statue was created as part of the Works Progress Administration project in the 1930s and has been in the Great Hall ever since. She still remains in the room but has been covered by blue drapery that reportedly cost over $8,000. As Afghan women lifted their burkas, America's Spirit of Justice was covered with one.
Show Stoppas
The Art Newspaper recently published its annual worldwide exhibition
figures. The 2001 winner, as the most highly viewed show of the year was
(drumroll ... ) Vermeer and the Delft School. This exhibition of the old
Dutch master's paintings reeled in an average of 8,000 visitors a day to
the Met in New York. Among the winners in the contemporary art category
were Gursky at the MoMA, The Worlds of Nam June Paik at Guggenheim
Bilbao, Art in Technological Times at the SFMOMA, and William Kentridge
at the Hirshorn in D.C. Suprisingly enough, yet thankfully, the
Guggenheim's Art of the Motorcycle (now at the Las Vegas branch) and
Georgio Armani shows did not make the list at all.
Democracy of Photographs
For one more month Here is New York: A Democracy of Photographs will be
on view across from the Chicago Cultural Center at 78 East Washington
Street. Chicago is the first venue outside of New York to see this
exhibition of photographs of the World Trade Center and ground zero by
both amateurs and professionals. At one point last fall 3,000 visitors a
day were waiting in line to see the photographs hung anonymously and
modestly on wires in a vacated Soho boutique, just 20 blocks away from
ground zero. Here is New York is still accepting photos by walk-ins to
the exhibit here in Chicago, and online at www.hereisnewyork.com.
Commercial Culture
London's champion of the Young British Artists, Charles Saatchi, has
shut down his infamous gallery! Well, just temporarily, that is. He is
in the process of relocating the space from its former quiet residential
home (near Abbey Road) to the middle of London's museum district.
Saatchi has got his eyes on the County Hall, a civic building whose
situation on the River Thames between the Tate Modern and Tate Britain
would ensure heavy tourist foot traffic. The County Hall currently
houses a Salvador Dali gallery, hotel, aquarium, and a McDonald's. The
government may not approve of Saatchi's application for the, space
though, since the venue is supposed to be family-friendly, according to
the conservation association's regulations. What, are the Chapman
brothers' penis-faced child mannequins not family-friendly?
Whorelise Yourself
One of the stranger marketing ploys by a museum as of late comes in the
form of a call to "Warholise Your Face" on the Tate website. In
anticipation of an upcoming Warhol exhibition, the Tate has put on a
contest in which online users are asked to submit photographs of
themselves. The "best" images then will be morphed into Warholesque
portraits. The prize for the winners? 15 minutes of fame of course.
Check it out at www.tate.org.uk/modern/.
The Great White Way
In the first controversial move since Serrano's "Piss Christ," the NEA
recently denied funding for a traveling retrospective of the William
Pope.L work called "eRacism." This denial of grants is reportedly
related to a controversial performance by the artist in 1996 where he
wore a 14-foot long white cardboard phallic projection and walked the
streets of Harlem. This would be the first large scale exhibition by the
artist who creates installations and performance pieces that challenge
stereotypes about the black male identity. The retrospective will go on
though since The Warhol Foundation saved the day and donated a sizeable
grant to the project. Pope.L will be one of many artists to watch at the
upcoming Whitney Biennial: There he will perform an increment of The
Great White Way which will take him five years to complete, as it's a 22
mile crawl from The Statue of Liberty to the Bronx that he will perform
while wearing a Superman costume. On March 17th he will crawl from the
Northwest corner of the Customs House at State and Whitehall Streets.
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