Welcome Back Everyone!

 I haven’t yet gotten a sense of how many people are reading Amhpub but I hop that the freshman class has ushered in a new slew of readers! In the past I’ve written reviews of shows and museums as a way of encouraging people to check them out and to generally generate interest in art going on right around us. Over the summer I was thinking of ways to make the appreciation of art less passive than I feel it’s been in this blog thus far. The good news is I’m going to Rome in the Spring through the Cornell School of Art, Architecture and Planning where I’ll be doing an Urban Studies Program. Hopefully, while there I’ll get to write every once in a while about what its like to live with art in a more tangible sense than is found on the Amherst Campus, not to mention I’ll probably have some great photos that weren’t just found on the internet! In addition that possible direction I’m also hoping to be better about being on the lookout for artists within Amherst (yes you and your peers) as well as artists working now or about whom recent revelations have been made. AND finally I’m tentatively working on starting a club (whose origins are selfish I must admit) that would take trips to the great museums and performances happening in the valley and beyond. I came to Amherst thinking that I would take advantage of museums in New York and Boston and all of the universities and colleges in the area and don’t quite feel that I have. I’ve scarcely seen everything that there is to see and I’m already a junior –I haven’t even been to Mass MoCA! If I actually get this club together and can convince Amherst to let me steal a van or two I think this blog would be an apt place to advertise events and then review shows the club sees in addition to exhibitions at the Mead. Unless I’m mistaken, there are a lot of students who are interested in seeing art first hand–I for one know that merely reading about it can be less than thrilling. So in the spirit of appreciating the art around us I just wanted to divert your attention to a few things happening now that we may someday get around to seeing together.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Provocative Visions: Race and Identity

Through March 8th, 2009

Although the New York Times described the exhibit as “modest and not exceptionally illuminating” I’m still interested in any show that deals in issues of race and identity especially if it features the work of artists working today. The show features the work of 7 contemporary African American Artists–it appears that many pieces in the show resemble so called primitive art but upon closer inspection are made from modern, industrial or urban materials. I know that a few of Kara Walker’s silhouettes are also in the show which is reason enough to go see it but I’m a bit weary of exhibits that attempt to encompass the experience of a particular group. Is this not more divisive for embracing difference rather than commonality? The jury’s still out.

MoMA New York

Pipe, Glass, Bottle of Rum: The Art of Appropriation

Through November 10th

The best way to describe what appropriation art is is to give a few examples– Richard Prince’s photos of Marlboro Ads, anything by Marcel Duchamp, and collages and sculptures made of so called “ready made” material. The premise of Appropriation Art is that it questions what an artist’s materials might be and thus, what can be considered art. I think it’s different than a painting one might think didn’t require much skill because it posits that perhaps anything can be art simply because someone deems it so even if they did not physically create it. There’s a difference between saying “Oh I could have painted that” and “Oh I think I have one of those in my bathroom.” Anyway, back to the show–I know it can take years for an exhibition to materialize but I can’t help thinking that Pipe, Glass, Bottle of Rum was ushered along because of Robert Rauschenberg’s death earlier this year. I’ve seen a few works of his that had taxidermied birds tacked to the canvas as though they’d broken through it and bits of newspaper etc. I’d like to see this exhibit if only because it’d be nice to see works by Jasper Johns, Rauschenberg, Duchamp and Picasso all together in one place and to acknowledge that though they pursued the message by different means they aimed to say “this is art because I said so.”

and just to name a few……..

 The Louise Bourgeois retrospective at the Guggenheim until the 28th of September

Starry Night at the Yale University Art Gallery only until September 8th (stop staring at that poster on your wall and go see the real thing if you can!)

 “Photography on Photography: Reflections on the Medium Since 1960″ at the Met until October 19th.

I try to be on the up and up about new exhibitions or performances but if you hear of any you’d like me to try to see and tell you about or if you have any suggestions for things you’d want me to talk about or address then please give me a heads up–happy first few days of classes!

                                                                                                Kara Walker’s Cut

 Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel                                                  
 

   Rauschenberg’s Canyon

 Van Gogh’s Starry Night