On Thurs. December 4 I went to MOMA in the late afternoon to fill time before Poogie Bjerklie's Opening at The Phatory on E.9 between B and C.
At MOMA I knew what I wanted to see, being a Beuys fan. First I wanted checkout the re-hanging of the permanent collection by the new curator of Painting and Sculpture Ann Temkin. She wrote a book on Beuys' drawings called "Thinking is Form" and has curated a room called Focus Beuys, exhibiting his work. The exhibit includes the video of his 1974 performance 'I like America, America Likes Me'. This video chronicles Beuys' stay in the Rene Block Gallery for a week with a coyote. It begins with him being delivered from the airport to the gallery in an ambulance with a sheet over him (dying to be reborn when he arrives at the gallery). Also in the room are 4 vitrines filled with his small sculptures, recently acquired by the museum, a chalkboard drawing featuring a stag and his hanging glass piece, 'Iphegenia/Titus Andronicus'. Around the corner in an adjacent room was a Robert Morris floor full of felt/string with a William Tucker wall hanging and a piece by Eva Hesse of fiberglass cylinders. My blood was all in my brain.
1 comment:
the Beuys....I feel unsure about his title 'I like America, America likes me'...in relationship to the wolf...but it seems oddlly fitting and there's something about it that actually seems very separate from actually liking America but more just being really connected to it? Psychologically..physically...economically...That is what it seems...which is incredible to me in a sense.do a lot of people dislike beuys? how did people receive him? i feel like it's hard to reach if you don't question our environment/social structure quite a lot...i really don't know though, that's what i'm feeling about it and what i'm attracted to but i don't know his ideas that well...
i have a funny story about that robert morris piece...i was looking at it and i saw two young guys (like 12/14) looking at it that i listened to them for a little while, and one was almost acting in how much (and how dry) he was laughing at it saying it wasnt art...and the other guy was kind of going along until he said that the morris piece looked like a city and he had a really thoughtful look on his face and i could tell it kind of challenged the other guy and i liked that...
The Beuys " I like America, America likes me": Beuys means that the spirit of the coyote symbolizes America. So he as a spiritual being is becoming friends with the spirit of America( as he was a Nazi pilot, this would be befriending the conqueror of his people).A lot of people back in the 60's 70's 80's had a negative reaction to Beuys . To say he was misunderstood, ahead of his time would be very accurate, though a lot of Germans and other Europeans love his work and understand him quite well.
Post a Comment