Santa Monica Museum of Art Book Club

Next Meeting: October 16 at 7pm

2008-06-30T17:49:00.000-07:00

The next SMMoA Book Club will feature a novel chosen by Martin Kersels, A Son of the Circus by John Irving. Discounted books are available at the SMMoA book shop, GRACIE. Reservations required: anna.nickila@smmoa.org or 310.586.6488, extension 116.

Technorati Tags: martin kersels, john irving

June 24 Meeting: Sushi, Sake, and Surrealism

2008-06-30T17:25:00.000-07:00

A private sushi and sake tasting, graciously presented by Hama Sushi, set the mood for a discussion of Kawabata's "One Arm" with artist Charlie White.

Technorati Tags: yasunari kawabata, charlie white, sake

Yasunari Kawabata on your Google Homepage

2008-06-16T11:55:00.000-07:00

Technorati Tags: google, yasunari kawabata

Contemporary Arts Museum Houston Presents New Art Exploring Folk Themes in the Old, Weird America

2008-06-05T10:21:00.000-07:00

"The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston presents The Old, Weird America, the first museum exhibition to explore the widespread resurgence of folk imagery and mythic history in recent art from the United States. Organized by Contemporary Arts Museum Houston senior curator Toby Kamps, the exhibition illustrates the relevance and appeal of folklore to contemporary artists, as well as the genre’s power to illuminate ingrained cultural forces and overlooked histories. The exhibition borrows its inspiration and title—with the author’s blessing—from music and cultural critic Greil Marcus’ 1997 book of the same title examining the influence of folk music on Bob Dylan and The Band’s seminal album, The Basement Tapes." (Artdaily.org 6/5/2008)

The Old, Weird America features eighteen artists including feautured SMMoA Book Club artist, Charlie White. Click here for the complete Artdaily.org write-up.

Technorati Tags: artdaily.org, charlie white, contemporary arts museum houston

Puppet Love

2008-05-05T12:11:00.000-07:00

"Artists enjoy being in control. They’re puppeteers. And as you can see in the Institute of Contemporary Art’s The Puppet Show—actual puppetry is popular with some of today’s leading artists." (Philadelphia Weekly 2/6/08)

Click here for Roberta Fallon's complete article.

The Puppet Show opens at the Santa Monica Museum of Art on May 23, 2008.

Technorati Tags: philadelphia weekly, roberta fallon, the puppet show, ICA philadelphia

Top Five Autobiographies for your Ironical Bookshelf

2008-03-28T14:32:00.000-07:00

Two Smart Dogs, an excellent education database for classes from clay therapy to improv, asked me for a "Top Five" submission to their new eMag. Rather than something totally subjective like "Five Books That Will Change Your Life," I went with the universally beloved genres of celebrity tell-all and self help—blended together like a daiquiri at one of Bob Seeger's infamous after-parties:

"I’m a big fan of ironical bookshelves. Guests will either think you are hilarious or idiotic when they see it. An added bonus - cheesy autobiographies are chock-full of hysterical anecdotes to entertain your friends at parties.

1. Yes I Can: The Story of Sammy Davis, Jr.
The gold standard

2. Still Hungry After All These Years: My Story by Richard Simmons
Richard gushes over beignets and alternate uses for Pam cooking spray.

3. My Lucky Stars: A Hollywood Memoir by Shirley Maclaine
Pricelessly idiotic

4. FOOTNOTES: What You Stand For Is More Important Than What You Stand In by Tommy Tune
A mix of the quaint and the pornographic; the Broadway icon fastidiously warns readers before launching into his escapades with Japanese businessmen, etc.

5. Solipsist by Henry Rollins
Spooky"

Read the full post and "Top Fives" by other contributers at Two Smart Dogs.

Next Meeting: June 24 at 7 pm

2008-03-02T00:41:00.000-08:00

This summer, The Puppet Show, a group show organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania and featuring work by Paul McCarthy, Mike Kelley, and Charlie White, will open at the Santa Monica Museum of Art.

The next SMMoA Book Club will feature a short story chosen by Charlie White, "One Arm" by Yasunari Kawabata. The story can be found in Kawabata's haunting House of the Sleeping Beauties. Discounted books are available on Amazon and at the SMMoA book shop, GRACIE.

Join us on Tuesday, June 24, 2008, at 7 pm for a discussion of Kawabata and White. It will be preceded by a paired sake tasting, presented by Venice's Hama Sushi, and tour of The Puppet Show. Reservations required; contact anna.nickila@smmoa.org or call 310.586.6488, extension 116.

Technorati Tags: yasunari kawabata, charlie white, sake

February 12 Meeting: Inside the Non-White Cube

2008-02-15T11:18:00.000-08:00

The SMMoA Book Club met inside the Michael Asher installation to discuss Brian O'Doherty's Inside the White Cube.

Technorati Tags: stephan pascher, michael asher

Calling All CalArtisans

2008-02-01T16:22:00.000-08:00

The SMMoA Book Club is chock-full of CalArtisans. Michael Asher, Stephan Pascher, Martin Kersels—the list goes on and on. Because the Book Club is for SMMoA members only, we are offering the brilliant students of CalArts a special deal in 2008—a $25 Museum membership that includes a year of Book Clubs, exhibition previews, and cocktail parties. Bring your CalArts I.D. to the meeting on February 12 to take advantage of this limited-time offer.

An Ideal Syllabus

2008-02-01T14:15:00.000-08:00

Hol Art Books is a new publisher dedicated to great writing on visual art. Its founder, Greg Albers, just wrote this kind article about the SMMoA Book Club. He also sent me a fantastic book, edited by Jerry Saltz, which asks artists, critics, and curators the same question that the SMMoA Book Club asks—what texts are relevant to the art being made today or, as Saltz puts it, “What would be the beginning of your ideal syllabus?” An Ideal Syllabus compiles book lists by luminaries like Cindy Sherman (Mad magazines) and Thelma Golden (the Whitney’s 1993 Biennial Catalogue and Hal Foster’s The Return of the Real, among others). I highly recommend this little gem, if you can find it!

Technorati Tags: hol art books, jerry saltz

Their lack of planning couldn't be more perfect

2008-01-21T14:21:00.000-08:00

"It's a coincidence. But Elsa Longhauser, director of the Santa Monica Museum of Art, thinks it's great. What could be better than an installation by Michael Asher to headline a yearlong celebration of the museum's 20th anniversary?" (Los Angeles Times 1/20/08)

Click here for Suzanne Muchnic's complete article.

Technorati Tags: suzanne muchnic, michael asher

2007 in the Arts

2008-01-09T10:55:00.000-08:00

"From major art fairs to minor scandals, plenty happened in the visual arts during 2007 - but were you paying attention? Test your wits against the Guardian Unlimited's fiendish quiz to find out." (Guardian Unlimited 1/9/08)

Technorati Tags: the guardian, art quiz

How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read

2008-01-03T13:06:00.000-08:00

Pierre Bayard, professor of French literature at the University of Paris, is the author of How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read. NPR's Steve Inskeep hasn't read Bayard's book, but he gets some tips on how to talk about it. (National Public Radio 12/25/07)

From the Preface of Pierre Bayard's How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read:

"Born into a milieu where reading was rare, deriving little pleasure from the activity, and lacking in any case the time to devote myself to it, I have often found myself in the delicate situation of having to express my thoughts on books I haven't read.

Because I teach literature at the university level, there is, in fact, no way to avoid commenting on books that most of the time I haven't even opened."

(Copyright © 2007 Les Editions Minuit. English translation copyright © 2007 by Jeffrey Mehlman. )

Technorati Tags: national public radio, pierre bayard

The Year in Books

2008-01-02T13:21:00.000-08:00

"It's been a busy year in books, and not all of it revolving around JK Rowling, believe it or not. Were you paying attention, or wasting your time reading? Take the definitive test and find out." (Guardian Unlimited 1/2/07)

Technorati Tags: the guardian, book quiz

The Museum is the Message: Related Reading

2007-12-17T15:58:00.001-08:00

Art After Conceptual Art edited by Alexander Alberro and Sabeth Buchmann (recommended by Michael Asher)
Art and the Power of Placement by Victoria Newhouse (a classic)
Art and Artifact: The Museum as Medium by James Putnam (by the founder of the British Museum's Contemporary Arts and Cultures Programme)

Technorati Tags: conceptual art, museum studies, michael asher

A. Doctor? B. Critic? C. Artist? Try All of the Above

2007-12-17T10:09:00.000-08:00

"With 'Portrait of Brian O'Doherty at the Age of 78,' by Patrick Ireland, above, the artist pays a debt to Marcel Duchamp, who had ideas about duality. So does Brian O'Doherty, whose artwork is credited to his nom de guerre, Patrick Ireland."

Click here for the complete text of Michael Rush's comprehensive 2006 NY Times article on medical doctor, poet, novelist, art critic, television host, professor, and provocateur, Brian O'Doherty.

Technorati Tags: brian o'doherty, patrick ireland

Strategies of Voiding the Void

2007-12-06T16:28:00.000-08:00

I hope the Book Club will make it to the Michael Asher/Brody Condon opening on January 25 at 7pm. If Friday night leaves you wanting more, join us for Benjamin Buchloh's talk, "Strategies of Voiding the Void," on January 26.

Benjamin H.D. Buchloh is an editor of October magazine and the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Modern Art in the Department of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University.

Technorati Tags: benjamin buchloh, brody condon, santa monica museum of art, michael asher

Urs Fischer Excavates Gavin Brown's Enterprise

2007-11-27T14:02:00.000-08:00

Jerry Saltz on Urs Fischer's latest installation, You:

"You simultaneously attacks and fetishizes the attributes of galleries, the qualities that the critic Brian O’Doherty has described as 'something of the sacredness of churches, the austerity of courtrooms, the mysteriousness of research laboratories, something that, together with stylish designs, makes them unique cultic places of the aesthetic.' You is like a nest, a bunker, or Caspar David Friedrich’s The Wreck of Hope, his painting of a ship smashed to pieces in a sea of ice. It is a perfect metaphor for a revved-up art world as it is stripped down by the market."

Click here for Saltz's complete November 25, 2007, New York Magazine review.

You is at Gavin Brown's Enterprise in New York City through December 22, 2007.

Technorati Tags: urs fischer, jerry saltz, gavin brown

Michael Asher's Personal Collection on Display at MOCA

2007-11-21T11:18:00.000-08:00

If you really want to get inside Michael Asher's head, this show at MOCA is a must. Key works by Donald Judd, Judy Chicago, and others, will be on display untill January 7, 2008.

Technorati Tags: michael asher, MOCA

Al Ruppersberg and the Sears Book Club

2007-11-16T11:45:00.000-08:00

To the left of my desk hangs an Al Ruppersberg piece titled "The Never-Ending Book." SMMoA's Executive Director Elsa Longhauser recently met with Ruppersberg to discuss his upcoming SMMoA exhibition. Interestingly, Ruppersberg is fascinated by the former Sears, Roebuck & Co. Book Club. Sears started a book club in 1943 to fill holes in their inventory caused by WWII shortages.

Click here to read the related June 12, 1943, TIME Magazine article.

Al Ruppersberg will show at the Santa Monica Museum of Art in the autumn of 2009.

Technorati Tags: al ruppersberg, elsa longhauser, sears book club

Hit the town, read a book

2007-11-09T11:56:00.000-08:00

Los Angeles Times article on L.A.'s "new" literary culture:

http://www.calendarlive.com/books/cl-gd-cvr1nov01,0,5797817.story?coll=cl-lat-homepage

Technorati Tags: book club, literary salon, literary culture, los angeles

Next Meeting: Michael Asher Book Club

2007-11-09T11:14:00.000-08:00

In February, we'll be reading Brian O'Doherty's Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space. Artist, writer, and educator Stephan Pascher will moderate.

Inside the White Cube was chosen by preeminent conceptual artist Michael Asher. The basic idea with Asher is that no individual art object has a meaning independent of the institution in which it is displayed. Asher has been active since the 1960s, but really rose to luminary status in the 1970s.

I spent some time with Asher discussing Book Club selections that might illuminate his work. We talked a lot about how he wants his work to be understood. Unlike many conceptual artists, Asher doesn't really want viewers to feel totally free to make their own interpretations. He has a very specific idea of what his work means and is uncomfortable when others try to ascribe meanings that he did not intend.

One of my favorite Asher projects was a reinstallation he did at LACMA a few years ago. He worked with a group of high school students, none of which were college-bound, to “re-curate” an existing show. The LACMA curators loved the results and each and every one of the kids ended up pursuing a college degree.

Asher's Art Institute of Chicago project is probably his most well known installation. Check out AIC’s site for details.

Now, here is the exciting part: This winter, Asher is creating an installation just for SMMoA. Working with 38 floor plans, he will rebuild every temporary wall from every SMMoA exhibition since the museum moved to Bergamot Station in 1998. The show, Asher’s first major commissioned sculptural installation in decades, will open January 25, 2008, at 7pm.

Technorati Tags: michael asher, stephan pascher, inside the white cube, conceptual art, santa monica museum of art, brian o'doherty, patrick ireland, brian o'doherty, book club

'Art After White People' goes behind the mask

2007-11-09T11:06:00.000-08:00

L.A. Times review of William Pope.L's show at SMMoA:

http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-et-popel10oct10,0,7810547.story?coll=cl-art

Technorati Tags: william pope.l

Read Between the Lines of Contemporary Art: Introducing the SMMoA Book Club

2007-11-09T10:57:00.000-08:00

The SMMoA Book Club is an intimate program that connects exhibition artists with museum members through the juxtaposition of art and literature. Each artist whose work is presented in the main gallery will choose a book that has significance to them. This fall's selection, Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine, was chosen by artist William Pope.L. The book explores the relationships between gender, class, color, and power with a narrative the New York Times calls "an invigorating mixture of the comic and the tragic." The first Book Club was held November 1 at 7 pm, at the Santa Monica Museum of Art. The special guest was Loren Holland whose work, Black Magic Woman, relates to Pope.L's main space installation.

Technorati Tags: william pope.l, louise erdrich, love medicine, conceptual art, santa monica museum of art, book club