The photo above is from an installation in Chicago of the Artpolice group as it was at that time 1983. The review in the Trib was dismissive but the show was fabulous even after the cops left and the dancing proceeded. Fritz Wolfmeyer our man in Chicago for the show had fallen for the gallery girl so his prep work was unfinished. Hudson{ later ran Feature in NYC} ran the performance space that was on the other side of the wall at Randolph Street Gallery, he was a peach and remains a good friend of the project (most especially Man Bag subsidiary). The late great Eric Burmeister's giant portrait of Brooke Shields was the hit of the show and Janet Groenert's paper wedding dress very close in popularity.
So I was going to paint a picture of my first meeting with Ms. Kathy Halbreich when something went amiss with the jpg I posted of her(previous blogs). Anyway, this meeting took place in the Walker Art Center offices in the Barnes building, I'd only been in there once before years ago. Elizabeth Armstrong was the principal curator then she was working on The Duchamp's Leg exhibition. It was Elizabeth who first called me a Duchamp expert to Kathy it was charming if a bit inaccurate, seeing as I'm a fan not an academic. I wore some Yves Ste. Laurent Opium parfum which maybe smelled nice but gave an odd signal. But you should smell nice, then again maybe they thought the other woman was wearing said scent.? This was 1993-4 or later, I can't remember names or times without concentrating. That's why my blogs often look back as I want to have some sketchie reckoning of my wanderings. As I wrote I quite enjoy Kathy's ideas her point of view is very precise, I think she holds many opinions . She loves art and she is very discerning and this discernment is the key help she provides those of us more lost in the wilderness of contemporary art and kultur. She's brilliant but she's also oh so human. And a more textual friend than in the flesh even before she moved over to the MoMA we always wrote back and forth mostly emails more actual post in the early 1990's.
Kathy Halbreich has been putting together an enormous Sigmar Polke exhibition for the MoMA. She's already been working on it for a couple of years and the show will appear in 2014. On one trip to interview the artist he died before she got there. Which makes the work more difficult but also drives home the point that the artists take longer to emerge than in the past. Franz West just died and he is well known in Europe but less well known in the states though he is truely great artist! Mike Kelley knew Franz West earlier from his working in Europe himself. Next slide--- Jpg.- Popeye/ Witggenstein Artpolice page of same era as installation/ what might be called the aesthetic period when we all dipped deeper into the India ink than ever before/ this piece is something I couldn't do now, I don't have as dexterous fingers and I'm less inclined to labor intensive art as my days are numbered now and my arthritis can really make me scream!
Anyway Philippe Vergne was Kathy's main curator at the end of her time at WAC. He and I had a curious relationship also primarily electronic but meetings at shows openings and several studio visits. In the end days of the time Philippe was the numero uno curatorio, he decided WAC should acquire 34 of my Notebooks . The truck came and took the books to the museum and I didn't see the books for 2 years. It was the new curator who had to honor Philippe's acquisition request. This was Darsi Alexander and she set upon her task which took some time with the result that she took 2 large paintings and one smaller key work instead of the notebooks. A payday for me but the notebooks still need a home or homes. Granted some of the material in the books is explicitly pornographic but most of the books are half diary and half ideas as pictures. I recall Darsi saying we can eventually work out a gift/sale for the notebooks ( but my understanding at the time of the painting acquisition was that perhaps 2 notebooks would be taken as well but this didn't happen). Darsi is hard to figure ( she's more radical than most curators I've known), but I think the notes have some issues , less public work and less to show unless you photograph every page and make a program to show it (this was supposed to happen visavis the Poison & Candy show). I think the museum need audiences and money in equal measure. Kathy's reign was before the financial meltdown but it makes all institutions more fragile moneywise. That big Sigmar Polke painting bought in 1992 would be much more difficult to acquire now . My notebooks which yield $100. a page say 90 to 100 pages per notebook are pricey if you buy more than one. That sort of money is hard to come by which is why gifts are preferred by museums or just plain cash. Will we all make more money any time soon? The huge corporations have huge sums they could spend on new projects but they don't want to help Obama, they want an easy money guy like Romney, a businessman a real Off-SHORE Amerikan. The arts are hostage of these times , these peculiar circumstances . But great work is still being made great people still thrive but you have to be on fire. jPG . OF pENIS PAGES IN MEN BEG Magazine 2011 / my coloring 2012 20 Euros from Marseille. lederniercri.com attention Pakito Bolino (money) and Stu Mead - Berlin partner MAN BAG zines.