acoolsha
Painting
Sturtevant — The Brutal Truth 16 January 05
Section: painting
Categories: Exhibition / museum
This was my second visit to this strong and refreshing exhibition of the work of the American artist (living mostly in Paris) Elaine Sturtevant (I apparently forgot to make an entry in this site when I saw the show in October). Sturtevant reprocesses, as she herself expresses it, the work of other artists. Strongly represented in the exhibition are reprocessed Warhols, Johns, Beuys, Stellas and Duchamps. Sensually and conceptually it is just great to see these works.
One way her works resonate in me, in particular with the Johns and Stella pieces, is that, not surprisingly, I begin to compare them to my memory and feeling of the originals: in the case of these artists, their works — my recollections of them — seem more stringent, or even astringent, than hers, which then seem looser, more flowing. The word wobbly comes to mind for her reprocessed Stellas, but not as a judgement, just as an expression of their freedom. As Amrei pointed out today, if that is what I feel then for me there must be some basis for it.
There is a beautiful coherence and unity between the materiality and conceptualism of her things. I can just look at them and enjoy them, and the experience reverberates off of the originals, my relationship to them in their absence, setting off new trains of thought and resonating in the larger context of art of the last 40 years. Her works have in their turn a kind of astringent and sobering effect on the somewhat — no fault of the artists — inflated and enshrined “originals.”
One amusing experience: Sturtevant reprocessed Duchamp’s readymade Eau & Gaz A TOUS LES ÉTAGES. Trying to figure out what Duchamp’s possible verbal word-play or pun was on this phrase, I asked Amrei to pronounce it in her excellent French, but we still couldn’t come up with anything. Later, on the final floor of the museum, Amrei pointed out that the sign was there again near the top of the stairs, as it had been on every floor. At the same moment we looked at each other, both understanding the (double) joke.
As an aside, while looking into the above mentioned Duchamp piece, I came across one Duchamp biography which mentions that he once visited Cazenovia, NY, where I attended high school, to play in a chess tournament.
Title: Sturtevant — The Brutal Truth
Museum: MMK (Museum der Modernen Kunst), Frankfurt, Germany
- Title: Sturtevant — The Brutal Truth