My Sense of the Elephant: Armory Show 2010-Part I

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I hardly know where to begin. First of all, this post is a response to the wonderfully generous and intelligent offerings of Joanne Mattera, who unfailingly presents exhaustive coverage of art fairs here and in Miami. As she has pointed out, everyone's experience of these overwhelming events is unique: 

" I always use the blind-men-and-the-elephant analogy with regard to the fairs. One feels a trunk, the other a leg, the other the tusks, the other a tail, and each describes a different beast. I'm not sure anyone really sees the whole fair.

What did you see that you liked? What was your sense of the elephant?"

The Armory Show (both piers) is a big thing to walk through, and the art is all crowded higgeldy-piggeldy (or is that higgledy-piggledy?) without much ceremony. But it is an efficient way to see a lots'o'art all at once. By the end of the day, I generally can't process anymore and can form no opinion at all. But, I let my camera do the thinking. It is my spontaneous, stream-of-consciousness filter, just snapping away at anything that grabs me. Here are the results:

Gerhardt Richter

Edvard Munch

Romare Bearden

Charmion von Wiegand

 

Alfred Leslie

 

Alfred Leslie, again

Richard Nonas

 

Richard Nonas (ensemble)

 

David Bates

 

David Bates and passerby

 

John Chamberlain

 

more John Chamberlain

Joan Mitchell

 

not sure the name of this artist

 

David Smith

 

Franz Kline

Ralston Crawford

 

Ruth Asawa

 

Grace Hartigan

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In retrospect, using the snapshots, I can start to make connections, see patterns and concentrations. For instance, I thought there was much too much photography on the walls and as I still don't know what to do about photography in my aesthetic judgement (to me it doesn't do anything, my prejudice, I know) so I tend to ignore it, rather than carp about it's being there.

I also get a little tired of secondary market mid-century "masters" (and, I suppose "mistresses") like David Smith and Joan Mitchell. Except for the fact that I am so attracted to them, they end up in my camera. Especially the more casual pieces, works on paper, collages.

Stay tuned for MORE