Houston, We Have Kind of a Whitney

 
2K10 Whitney B.'s got me feeling like a traditionalist.

Best work in the show is the stuff you could live with most easily.

Never not watched so many videos in one museum visit.
Never less interested in large scale production value.

that said.

THE HIGHS!..

Roland Flexner

SN70, 2007, ink on paper, 7 x 5.5"

SN25, 2007, ink on paper, 7 x 5.5"

SN37, 2007, ink on paper, 7 x 5.5"

SN02, 2007, ink on paper, 7 x 5.5"

Japanese sumi ink marbling process interrupted and manipulated by gravity and the artist's breath. A wall, of like, 60 of 'em.

More at D'Amelio Terras

Leslie Vance

Untitled (18), 2009, oil on linen, 18 x 15"

Untitled (16), 2009, oil on linen, 20 x 15"

Untitled (12), 2009, oil on linen, 18 x 15"

Untitled (21), 2009, oil on linen, 18 x 16"

Still-life arrangements get photographed then painted. Wildly delicate, nearly translucent dimensionality that makes scraped paint look like stringy tendons. Butcher block mindscapes.

More at David Kordansky


Charles Ray

Just plain beautiful. And strangely emotive.
Couldn't be more different from the Charles Ray we know.

"The drawings I do at night at home to relax. And for a long time I just gave them to friends or my wife and didn't really show them. A few years ago I started showing them in a limited way and just decided to do this for the Whitney."

More at Matthew Marks Gallery

....

G-d help me before my taste becomes decorative.