if it's summer . . .

It must be time for Holland Cotter to make a swing through New England museums.  Today's he got what has to be the top show of the season, Joseph Cornell at the Peabody Essex:

Somehow [Cornell] floated above eras and fashion. Duchamp was an admirer in the 1930s; De Kooning was in the 1950s, when the expressionist nature of Cornell’s work became apparent. In the 1960s Warhol recognized him as a proto-Pop artist. And everything about him, from his fixation on childhood to his play with gender to his mix of fantasy and darkness to his outsider/insider allure, makes sense today.

Cotter goes on to note that Cornell "always preferred to exhibit his art in marginal places: in schools rather than in a museum like the Modern, which he considered 'pretentious.'"  I wonder what he would have thought of PEM, a place that has never lost a certain element of the fanciful or outlandish even as it has grown into one of the leading museums of the region.

So yeah, I've got to get up to Salem to see this one before it closes.  It's the only thing I can think of on view this summer that I'm interested in (ok, there's the new British collection at the Clark, too, lucky for them, but that's about it.)  Too much safe programming for my taste--and I'm hardly the most adventurous viewer.  Philip-Lorca diCorcia at the ICA?  Pretty much what you'd expect the ICA to be doing.  Hopper at the MFA?  I love Hopper as much as the next person, and I'm sure it's a fine show, but god, how boring.  When was the last time the MFA did a major exhibition that was exciting, that moved out of their French and American, 1850-1950 rut?  And mostly 1850 to 1900, at that.  The Davis Museum at Wellsley and the Currier are both closed, RISD's mostly doing permanent collection stuff (which is fine, but I know their holdings inside out), nothing much at Smith (this sounds cool, but it's basically one painting--not something I'm going to drive an hour and a half to see)--you get the picture.  Oh well; guess I'll have to put more energy into nitpicking other people's posts for content.  Or wait for fall.  Other suggestions welcome from the five people still checking this page.

Comments

[Arthur]

I've thought about just blogging bad puns all summer. Oh, and I saw that Cornell show in D.C. (at the Smithsonian). Pretty impressive, although I wish I had had more time there.

[mcmc]

The Cornell show is great, though the exhibition space is a bit intrusively designy. It was interesting to see the Hopper show and the diCorcia show in the same week. Some of diCorcia's male hustler series has a lot in common with Hopper, I think.

[Franklin]

My estimation of Hopper soared upon seeing the MFA show. Recommended.

[JL]

The one reservation I have about the Cornell show--and it's one that's really to the organizers' credit--is the size. I find looking at his stuff demands a lot of concentration; I tend to miss a lot if I try to take in too many pieces. That was always my experience at the Art Institute, where they always had a whole bunch of his boxes on display. Perhaps the atmosphere of a temporary exhibition, even if over-designed, will heighten my pathetic powers of attention.

I really should go see both the diCorcia and the Hopper, I know. I'm just annoyed--I'm not sure what I wanted from this summer, but it was something different.

[girl_named_fred]

I've been eager to see the Cornell and Hopper shows. (Or as eager as one can be when you keep forgetting about something.) Do they close in August or September? Given recent developments, think we can squeeze in time to see them?

[mcmc]

The Cornell show closes August 15, I think.

[JL]

Both close on Aug. 19. That leaves, what, five or six weekends to go? I always have the option of going on a Monday, as both PEM and the MFA are open then. I'm also eager to see Merging Influence: Eastern Elements in New American Art when it opens at the Monserrat College of Art when it opens, which unfortunately won't be until late August. It would have been nice to combine that with a trip to the Peabody Essex, since they're so close.

Given recent events, I can't be sure what time I'll have, though. I can certainly imagine getting to one of these, but hard to think I'll be able to do both.

[Steve]

I like diCorcia's stuff, although the Hirschorn's Open City street photography show in 2002 had a bunch of really fantastic photos by people I'd never heard of (plus some beautiful Winograds) that I liked better.

Cornell is probably rfts' favorite artist, and I'd bet twenty bucks that that exhibit is never going to come within two hundred miles of us. Stupid coastal elitists!

[JL]

I don't have anything against diCorcia, I just find myself failing to get excited about the exhibition. I'm waiting for the ICA to do something that grabs me; hasn't happened so far.

I'm afraid rfts is out of luck; I'm almost certain that the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Peabody Essex are the only two venues for the Cornell. I'm a little surprised they didn't get a third venue--I'm sure there would have been plenty of museum who'd want it, or I'd like to think so. But it's a big show (with a lot of 3-d objects, always more difficult to install), with a lot of light-sensitive work, many of which are loans, so perhaps I shouldn't be. Sounds like time for a road trip--Salem's lovely this time of year.