Peter Frank
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Since Im e-mailing as well as snail-mailing this to you, Im following e-tiquette and not beginning the letter with any sorta salutation, which seems a shame, but when on line, do as the on-liners do . . . :) Whoops, there I go again! (Am I paraphrasing Britney Spears or Ronald Reagan?) Punctuating with an emoticon. Actually, Ive not gotten into that habit, mostly cuz Im in the habit of not punctuating with emoticons, but also because Im highly ambivalent about the little critters. As a fan, nay historian, of visual poetry, I should be an enthusiastic emoticonversationalist. But as a writer, nay editor of writing, my enthusiasm is tempered by my faith in words themselves. Maybe its that damned smiley face. I do like the emoticon neologism, tho. It all comes with the territory, I guess. And I like the territory, daunting as it may be. The mondo digitalo spreads before us, a vast terra barely cognita sprawling to a blinding horizon. Artists and artsters in particular step into this surreal landscape with a mixture of excitement and dread. The possibilities are infinite, and so are the challenges to everything we know and believe and cherish. The ongoing controversy over giclée prints, and the whole crisis in authenticity it embodies, is just the tip of the iceberg. But it could be an instructive tip. If we pull back from our brave-new-world awe and simply try to fit printout art into the existing scheme of art-things, its clear that giclées, or Iris prints, or inkjet prints, or whatever you want to call them, occupy a heretofore empty--but rather vast--realm between the (limited) photographic print and the poster. Oh, sure, theres a whole other dimension to the issue, that of on-line access to the image, à la Napster, and even whether the file is itself art (no more, I argue, than is a negative or an etched copper plate). The more I think about it the more sanguine I get: this is a realm of art unto itself, and its particular concerns touch upon but do not pre-empt those of unique paintings, small-edition bronzes, not-so-small-edition lithos or Ektachromes, or, for that matter, unlimited-edition posters. The popularly circulated prints that predate the Age of Mechanical Reproduction--Hogarths in 18th century England, for instance, Posadas in 19th century Mexico, the lyubok of provincial Russia, or the countless images serving religions from Rome to Lhasa--werent produced as signed-n-numbered collectors items. The computer print, in whatever form(s) its going to take, occupies that popular level of freely circulating in-hand image. Only now, the image can freely circulate around the globe. Thats cool. And very scary. |
Speaking of which, the two movies preoccupying me of late are pretty much F/X-less. Im sure you know which ones Im talking about: the one about an artist and the one by an artist (and, perhaps not coincidentally, the male leads in both are up for the same Oscar). I know youre going to see Pollock; anyone in the New York art world who refuses to is just being contrary. But go see Before Night Falls, too not just because a New York painter directed it, but because its a thrilling film. Around these parts, in fact, were all saying that this clinches it: Julian Schnabel is a better director than visual artist. The narrative film seems to be a medium much more suited for Schnabels vision (and ego), a discipline which tempers much of the self-indulgence that has burdened his art and channels the rest of it into effective, even inventive, storytelling. I recall you were iffy on Basquiat, and I could see your argument. That film wasnt really about Jean-Michel, it was about Julian, and the mondo SoHo he and Basquiat happened to cohabit. But we did agree that Schnabel got some good acting out of his players and some great shots out of his camerapeople. Okay, multiply that by ten, throw in some fabulous writing, and move the milieu out of the New York art world, and theres Before Night Falls. Here, Schnabel isnt pre-empting his subject, his empathizing with him. Granted, Reinaldo Arenas is an at least somewhat more sympathetic--and certainly more heroic--character than Jean-Michel Basquiat was. By basing the movie on Arenas posthumously published autobiography Schnabel exploited the Cuban writers substantial powers of articulation. But, as they say in the local industry, its not whether a director is exploiting a writer, but how well. Im sure Arenas book is better than Schnabels film; but, then, Steinbecks Grapes of Wrath is better than the movie, too. |
Also, I know a few of the actors. Indeed, I finally had the quintessential Hollywood-once-removed experience, seeing someone I know portray someone I knew. I scared Jeffrey Tambor when I ran into him before seeing Pollock for the second time and told him he did a great Greenberg, but wasnt quite as arrogant as the real thing--explaining that, of course, it was a considerably older and more insular Greenberg who pontificated at me than the one who dicked Pollock around. Then we went in and saw the screening, and I realized that Jeffreys rendition may have been low-key, but it was every bit as imperious as the Clem Id encountered. It was nice at the same screening to be able to tell Harris to his face what a killer job hed done--and to remind him that wed gone to high school together. He said he remembered, which I would have shrugged off as genial politesse had he not given me a brief, quizzical, almost troubled wait I know this guy from somewhere stare. Last time Id seen Harris live, of course, we both had hair, but our faces havent changed that much. Actually, his has narrowed and taken on that trademark intensity. Back in Jersey, Eddie, who was a year behind me, was his classs smart jock, the BMOC with a smile and a strut. He did some acting, as I recall, but that wasnt his calling card. Another thing Harris hasnt lost is his own New York accent. He coulda given Hardin lessons--although he completely stashed away his yoozes and fuggedaboudits to play the Wyoming-born, LA-raised Pollock. |
So what else is new in these parts? Well, the latest in public art goes for the sublime and falls somewhere closer to the ridiculous. You remember those painted (and otherwise manipulated) cow sculptures that popped up in the middle of NY last year, courtesy of Chicago? And how everybody loved them? No, they havent appeared here as well. That wouldnt be so bad. Nooooo, Los Angeles, following the lead of any number of other cities, had to go do its own version. Another animal, perhaps? Nope. A humanoid figure. With wings. You got it, a friggin angel. And this cookie-cutter more-or-less lifesize statue has been plopped down in various places around the city, each one daubed by a different artist, some more thoughtfully and/or skillfully than others, but it hardly matters. The figures themselves are as smooth and vacuous as those peoploids Mark Kostabi paints (or has painted for him), but are a lot less droll. They provide the hapless artists who have decorated them with too complex a structure, and yet too bland a surface, to work on comfortably; and they themselves are too big, too slick, and too predictable to be taken seriously. Talk about smiley faces! Hey, maybe some clever post-modernist has painted a smiley face--or maybe even an emotion--on one of these figurolas. |
Meanwhile, the Museum of Contemporary Art has involved itself in a sort-of ad campaign, and its billboards are everywhere you look. Each one is a black-and-white, text-only version of a museum wall label: Title, date, media or description, perhaps dimensions, and a courtesy line mentioning MOCA. Theres a lot of arch self-referentiality in the format, only amplified in the specific entries. The project purports to turn life into art, labeling our quotidian experiences as if they were museum pieces. As several writers here have already complained, this in-jokey approach would have been dated but perhaps have retained a bit of residual tang were it simply straight-ahead labeling ( e.g. Strip Joint, circa 1979, strippers, patrons, booze, courtesy of MOCA), but someone saw fit to get cute and make all sorts of wry social commentary. Some of it hits home, at least obliquely (one billboard, for instance, labels the media of a fitness center as men running with keys), but too much of it tries too hard, and too much of it is simply too big, looming larger than the structures it identifies. As opposed to the angels, I want to like this project; it coulda been a contender. But the copywriters couldnt decide whether to think like curators or like comedians, and too, too rarely found the happy medium. Painting isnt a happy medium, Pollock avers. Film is, Before Night Falls proves. As for digital media, they may or may not be happy, but they are here to stay. -- :( --April, 2001 |