I love this gallery, but am not thrilled with this piece personally, though I completely get why it's one of the most important in the Anderson Collection, and absolutely adore how they've positioned it as a focal point, a defining aspect of the most important room of the museum!
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I am learning more and more about ceramics. Between Poncho Jimenez and David Gilhooly, I've come to Jesus on it.
Of course, Robert Arneson, the Patron Saint of Three Minute Modernist and father of the Funk Art movement, has helped on that front. The work in the Anderson Collection, Homage to Philip Guston is just about the perfect reaction to the passing of the legendary artist in 1980. Guston, who famously moved away from Abstract Expressionism into a figurative form that folks have called Cartoony, and I tend to consider as a part of Funk. The work by Arneson is the perfect expression of Guston; it shows his AbEx days and his cartoon style in a single 3D piece... along with a cigarette. The two Gustons just around thew way, show how this work is a synthesis of those ideas, and I am so glad it's there! One of my favorite things about MoMA in New York is the fact that they get it; sometimes artists get lost. Marisol, the nom du arte of Marisol Escobar, was a sculptor who passed away in 2016. Her works are often called 'folky' and it certainly fits with many of her pieces, but the Pop Art sculptures she delivers are pretty damned impressive, especially when she played hard with titling. My Favorite piece of hers, and one of my favorite under-appreciated MoMA works, is Portrain of Sidney Janis Selling Portrait of Sidney Janis by Marisol, by Marisol. That titles, practically a Christopher Williams' title, is especially damning. Sidney Janis, famed art dealer. What we're not told in the title, or even by the positioning, is which is which. Is the cross-armed gentleman in the tux the life dealer selling the sporty portrait in wood as the image of himself to the world. Is the Captain Morgan-leaning version reality and the staid, confident one the portrait for sale? It's not answered, but the idea that this is a piece about representation, about how art figures present themselves to the world and the reality, about the intersection of an artist's work and the dealer and the subject of that work, all of that comes together in this marvelous piece.
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Your HostChristopher J Garcia - Curator, Fan Writer, Podcaster, and a guy who just loves art. Archives
February 2019
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