I had been planning on writing about two stories, but Geoff Edgers has already done so, leaving me free to link to him: it's happy birthday time for the new ICA and our old friend Christoph Büchel had work related to his cancelled MASS MoCA exhibit for sale at Art Basel Miami Beach.
The first item links to Geoff's story in the Globe that highlights both the successes and some disappointments for the museum since opening (it also links to Greg Cook's overview as well.) I tend to agree with those quoted who discount the quibble, especially regarding the museum's initial exhibition. It's almost unheard-of for the first show in a new space to be a really innovative one, too much works against it: the distraction of the staff as they prepare for the opening, the lack of any real experience as to how the space will work, the reluctance of lenders to contribute to an exhibition in a space without a track record in terms of security and environmental controls, and so on. Now as the opening fades into history, it's a better time to see what the ICA will bring to the table (and an Anish Kapoor retrospective scheduled for next May sounds promising.)
One other point in the article bears thinking about: the problem with the ICA's programming, in the eyes of some of the quoted critics, is that it's been too conservative, too same-old, same-0ld contemporary art that one sees everywhere. There's some truth to that. It's also the case, though, that a lot of this sort of work has been read about more than seen by the New Englander, like me, who doesn't travel so much. So while in theory I could have seen work by Cecily Brown or Paul Pfeiffer if I went to New York more often, in point of fact I saw them both for the first time at the (old) ICA. So there's a role for bringing work that may be more familiar to some to local audiences. Of course, it's also true that the MFA not too long after did a big show of Brown's work, highlighting the issue for the ICA that Greg raises: other institutions in the area are devoting more resources to contemporary art. How will the museum that has, through its name, location, and building, positioned itself as the local leader, react and what will its role be? This is a particularly interesting question as the one thing that Boston and New England has, thanks to the many academic galleries and the like in the area, is a pretty good range of spaces open to showing a certain range of experimental or non-commercial work. How the ICA distinguishes itself in its new location will be an interesting process to watch.
As for Büchel, there's little more to be said at this late date. Here's a description of what two galleries had by him, first Michele Maccarone, which showed an "array of documents from the harrowing legal battle between the artist Christoph Büchel and Mass MoCA," then Hauser & Wirth's installation:
The display of unflattering e-mail messages between that museum’s director and staff members about Mr. Büchel, who worked on a vast installation at Mass MoCA but then walked off last January, is raising eyebrows here. But it has attracted less attention than Mr. Büchel’s installation at Hauser & Wirth’s booth. There, his “Training Ground for Training Ground for Democracy” offers a capsule version of the notoriously unfinished artwork, with a trash-filled alley leading to a room cluttered with voting booths and children’s drawings. For now, Mr. Büchel has the last word.
I don't know, and will leave it to those who actually saw the works in question, but I can't help but think that the artist would be better served at this point by doing the same thing MASS MoCA has done: moving on. That he'd use the material from MASS MoCA, as well as the ideas for the exhibit planned for there, isn't surprising. And I'm sure the work attracted curiosity, though probably much of it of a morbid sort, and even sales. But whatever one's view of the whole affair, there's plenty of evidence of petulance on the artist's part in those emails (the ones that have been made public, at least) as well. Reading of the displays reminds me more of that than anything else.
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