Dem Bones
Milwaukee sinks
Milwaukee has some awful public art (revolting!), and some successful public art. (sublime!) Well, we aren’t the only cities suffering from bad public art. Google “Bad Public Art” and you’ll get my drift. The Art Newspaper reports that “statues in Britain are Revolting – and so are we.” They call it an “epidemic of Frankenstein Monster Memorials.” One such monster was tagged with the suggestion, “remove this tin can.” A colossal sculpture of a couple embracing is described as “a couple who have just been refused a mortgage.” Another, depicting Nelson Mandella with outstretched arms, is quipped as “ Mandella describing the size of a fish he may have caught in his angling days.” You’ve got to hand it to the Brits’ wits. It’s no laughing matter when these disasters are parked on our front lawns, which is to say our public spaces – though if you pay attention, there are some disasters on private lawns. Bad art is viral in nature. It spreads and multiplies and divides. We’re stuck with it until it rusts, crumbles, is carted off, or hidden from sight. Chinese sculptor Lei Yixin is being bombarded by a federal arts panel who object to the depiction of Martin Luther King Jr., the model of which will become a 28-foot-tall statue. “Too confrontational,” wailed the panel. An image of the clay model was posted on AOL in May, and since everyone out there claims to be an art critic, it was put up to a vote. Milwaukee has a MLK sculpture on MLK Drive. In 2003, an 8’ x 16’ painting depicting Mr. King and various black leaders was removed from the County Courthouse’s public rotunda to a less public area. County Executive Scott Walker led the charge on the removal, causing the (then) director of the Haggerty Museum to snipe, “It’s not the job of lawyers and judges and police officers to be censuring public art.” The Haggerty had loaned the Courthouse the painting, which maybe proves it’s unwise to look a gift horse in the mouth. The flip side is that Marquette has a really bad sculpture memorializing Pere Marquette. It’s near their glorious, perfectly proportioned chapel on the west end of the campus. In the wake of Mary Louise Schumacher’s (MJS art critic) article about the proposed two-story bronze disaster memorializing lives lost in the sinking of the Lady Elgin, numerous comments, pro and con, have washed up on the media shore. A few argue for a public arts administrator to oversee what stuff goes where; others argue against that tactic and cry out for public input across the board. But who is the “public,” and why would masses of people with varying tastes be more effective? I vote for a public art administrator who knows what art is. There’s another question involved in this flap, a very basic question … what’s the point of memorializing folks who went down with the ship? Why are we looking back and wringing our hands instead of […]
May 22nd, 2008 by Stella Cretek
Southwestern Chief
There is nothing finer than riding snug in the belly of Amtrak’s Southwest Chief as it slices a wedge near Ft. Madison, Iowa, crosses the glittering Mississippi, and begins its crawl through Illinois, where the land is mostly flat. The Chief, bound for Chicago, often gives way to freight trains, but that’s okay. It gives me time enough to study the lay of the fields dotted with clusters of modest farm houses and out-buildings. From where I sit in my tiny “roomette,” the geometric clusters resemble bleached and blank-faced pieces from Monopoly games. The land embracing Mendota, Illinois (home of the Sweetcorn Festival and the Union Railroad Museum) is scattered with farm buildings that exist to serve the land. They are the last remnants of what I like to call “The Real McCoy School of Architecture.” Stripped of frou-frou, and devoid of “isms,” you betcha farmers would laugh if their buildings were referenced as “architecture.” For many years, modernist architects such as R.M. Schindler and Louis Kahn tried to re-invent simplicity by assembling squares and triangles, cubes and wedges, and yes, the finest of their efforts are beautiful in the way that a simple outbuilding on a farm is beautiful. It seems though, that when an “ism” is attached to architecture, the particular movement (for example, modernism), becomes a thing unto itself. It becomes fashionable. Certainly it may be naïve to compare the farm house squares and triangles, cubes and wedges, with the works of talented mid-century modernist architects, but on the trip north to Chicago, it occurred to me that maybe the kudos for modernism should be heaped on farmers and not architects. The plain and simple buildings they built for their families, their livestock, and their machinery, are years removed from the concept of modernist designs birthed by architects to please clients, and themselves. Entering Chicago on a train is a trip through time, and wow! Chicago, glorious Chicago, has a wealth of modernist architecture, much of which can be seen by taking a tour boat ride on the Chicago River. Or you can sit by the bronze lions fronting the Art Institute soak up the diverse wash of humanity toting Nordstrom and Ikea bags while chatting on their cell phones. Smart folks heading to Milwaukee catch The Hiawatha out of Chicago’s Union Station. Along the route is the compact and smartly designed Prairie-style building (MARS), which serves as a stylish connection to nearby Mitchell International Airport. Milwaukee’s Amtrak Station on St. Paul Avenue is currently undergoing a major re-do, complete with a glassy façade that references the 6th St. Bridge to the west, perhaps too much so, as it tends to detract from the wonderful structure, however the new station is a big leap beyond the dismal wreck it replaced. The building I live in is defined as “modernist,” and the street I live on, Prospect Avenue, was once a Sauk Indian trail. On a clear day I have a view of the pitched roofs of houses […]
May 19th, 2008 by Stella Cretek
What’s going on?
Michael H. Lord is back in business, or at least it looks that way as the doors to his sort-of gallery space were open during spring Gallery Night and Day. Not that you need reminding, but Lord was sent packing to prison for various mistakes. Poet John Tyson is still incarcerated and will be for awhile, but his poems are posted by a friend via Old Man Prison Poet. Marilyn Karos, the Whitefish Bay matron and art dealer who went to Club Fed is out and about. What’s going on with our art institutions? No less than four new executive directors have filled the holes at the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Haggerty Museum of Art, the Charles Allis/Villa Terrace, and UW-Milwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts. Money is tight now and institutions are vying with many venues trying to raise dollars, so you have to know it’s a major headache. Elly Pick is the new executive director at the Allis/Villa pairing, and she came to our town from West Bend where she helped jump start the building program for the yet-to-be-realized expanded Museum of Wisconsin Art. That was a surprise, as she was a lynch-pin in their organization. Two hopeful galleries closed recently, Brooks Barrow in the Third Ward and Mike Brenner’s snappy Hotcakes, though the latter is forging ahead to spearhead MARN, the Milwaukee Artists Resource Network. I swung by the assemblage-of-rust-sculpture in Catalano Park near MIAD recently, thinking perhaps I’d like it instead of hating it. If anything, it looks worse than ever. Speaking of bad, the New Land Enterprises parking garage on Downer is another disaster worth noting. It’s big, ugly and there. Deal with it.
May 12th, 2008 by Stella Cretek
The Herd
For many years there’s been a bull (okay, it’s a herd) loose in Milwaukee. The herd snorts mightily, charges at those it deems “powerful,” — i.e. those with money, position, and/or those it views as snubbing art produced in Wisconsin. The allegations frequently target the prestigious Milwaukee Art Museum. It’s a wearisome tale that began when the museum closed the small gallery (Cudahy Gallery of Wisconsin Art) housing the works of state artists. The herd continues to tote a chip despite the fact that the gallery closed over a decade ago. One could even say the herd charges at any and every red flag that gets in the way: curators, art critics, editors, executive directors of museums, gallerists, and all others who dare offer opinions or make decisions on what is or isn’t worth writing about, adding to a museum collection, or curating a show around. The snorters would have us believe that all art (made in Wisconsin) is worth writing about, adding to a museum collection, or curating a show around. The herd enjoys licking wounds. The herd prefers grazing fields of green, the greener the better. When not grazing elysian fields, they raise their collective heads and try to fool us into believing that artists who make art in Wisconsin are given the short end of the art stick. But MAM is only one local venue purported to stonewall art made in Wisconsin. Dem Bones investigated other local venues: The Haggerty Museum of Art, the Charles Allis/Villa Terrace Museums and UW- Milwaukee’s Inova, and they all included generous portions of art produced by Wisconsinites. Dem Bones then searched hither and yon for local galleries that have a hidden mission to exclude Wisconsin-made art, but found none, which isn’t to say that the venues include the work of all Wisconsin artists seeking affirmation. Given what’s out there, that would be a disaster. In effect, the persons in charge of decisions, make decisions. It’s their job for better or for worse. Ideally, persons defined as “art critics” make their living by setting the art bar as high as possible, for what good is it to set it so low that anyone and everyone gets a gold star on their resume? Self-esteem is an earned process fueled by a solid education in the arts, hard work, discipline, and the ability to integrate various experiences into the moment of art making. Great art (who cares where it’s “made?”) happens when artists think, not when they sulk and blow smoke because they feel marginalized. Bring on the artists from the east and west coasts; bring on the best from north and south and all points in-between. Scour the globe for artists who bring us diverse ways of “seeing.” Of course someone will have to decide what’s worth considering in a world where much isn’t worth considering. Check out The Milwaukee International Art Fair, coming soon to the Polish Falcon in Riverwest. Former UW-Milwaukee art professor Laurence Rathsack died recently. James Auer, the Journal […]
May 5th, 2008 by Stella Cretek
Marcus Aurelius Online
While ruling Rome, Marcus Aurelius Antonius (b. AD 121-D. AD 180) wrote Meditations. In the twelve books he set down rules written in Greek, rules for living. A Stoic among Stoics, actually he wrote them to himself. In the year 2008, I’m wondering how these famous admonitions and aphorisms would best serve the art community in 2008. Book 1: “the certainty to ignore the dice of fortune….” Dem Bones: Certainly applies to any and all artists who enter the race for grant monies. Book 2: “Now the flesh you should disdain …. blood, bones, a mere fabric and network of nerve, veins, and artifacts. DB: “Body Worlds” is at the Milwaukee Public Museum until June 1/2008. But is it art? Book 3: “Do not waste the remaining part of your life in thoughts about other people, when you are not thinking with reference to some aspect of the common good.” DB: Does the common good include thinking about bad public art? Book 4: “Remove the judgment, and you have removed the thought, ‘I am hurt,’ and the hurt itself is removed.” DB: This pleases any and all artists who receive rotten reviews, are cut from the Mary Nohl Fellowship race, or have yet to be mentioned by local art critics. Book 5: “If on the other hand harm is done to the city, you should not be angry, but demonstrate to the doer of this harm what he has failed to see himself.” DB: A useless rule when applied to the coming of the Bronze Fonz. Book 6: “Some things are hurrying to come into being, others are hurrying to be gone, and part of that which is being born is already extinguished. DB: True enough, but locals are still stuck with Gertie The Duck and the hunk of strange sculpture in Catalano Park. Book 7: “The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing, in that it stands ready for what comes and is not thrown by the unforeseen.” DB: So what do we do with bad art that has us in a headlock? Book 8: “Everything has come into being for a purpose … a horse, say, or a vine. Does this surprise you? DB: Sort of, because it’s hard to reconcile that with much of the art I see. Book 9: “Enough of this miserable way of life, enough of grumbling and aping.” DB: If you are an artist, go ahead and push that rock up the hill, but don’t grumble about it. Book 10: “The healthy eye must look at all there is to be seen, and not say ‘I only want pale colors’…this is a symptom of disease.” DB: There is truth here. Book 11: “No nature is inferior to art, in fact the arts imitate the variety of natures. If that is so, then the most perfect and comprehensive of all natures could not be surpassed by any artistic invention.” DB: So why bother? Book 12: “Practice even what you have despaired of […]
Apr 29th, 2008 by Stella Cretek
Kevin Miyazki and the Whitney Biennial
The March 24, 2008 issue of The New Yorker Magazine has a cover illustration depicting a mug shot of a guy caught with his pants down. His jacket is brown, his tie is striped in red and white, and even though the image ends at his shoulders and ankles, just enough is revealed so you get the drift. The biggest clue is the blue boxer shorts emblazoned with multiple images of “The Great Seal Of The State Of NewYork.” The guy’s legs are hairy, his knees are knobby and his black and white socks are held in place by black garters. It’s all the crafty work of artist Mark Ulriksen, a regular contributor to the magazine, who will be part of a group exhibition opening March 29th in San Francisco. Another regular, artist Bruce McCall, focuses on images of Americans and their mania for automobiles. His work will open on April 1, with an exhibition at the James Goodman gallery in New York. The magazine’s sensational art critic, Peter Schjeldahl, will launch a collection of art criticism in May, aptly titled “Let’s See.” If you want to read his take on the 2008 Whitney Biennial, visit The New Yorker online. My friend, photographer Kevin J. Miyazaki, jump-started his career by taking assignments from Milwaukee Magazine. He was at the Whitney Biennial, but found it lacking and instead took a great photograph of a ceiling fixture in the building. His new website gives rise to hope for website design. It’s sparse and elegant as the work of Miyazaki is sparse and elegant. You can visit him online, too. Recently, he won a Nohl Fellowship award in the “emerging” artists category. What a laugh. From a standpoint of competence, he’s way beyond “emerging,” but I guess because he’s still relatively young, he was more or less pigeon-holed. That said, $5,000 is no small potatoes, though he should have been bumped up to the “established” artist slot and the $15,000 bonanza. You’ll be able to view more of his work in the Fall of 2008 when Inova showcases the work of the award recipients. Miyazaki’s work will shine.
Apr 26th, 2008 by Stella Cretek
Wisconsin art and artists
From March 27 – August 2008, the work of Milwaukee-based artist Santiago Cucullu will be installed in the Schroeder Galleria at the Milwaukee Art Museum. This is a long narrow space flooded with light from the west, and should work well with the large wall drawings constructed of sculptures, contact paper and watercolors. Please note that I refer to Mr. Cucullu as “Milwaukee-based,” and I do so with a specific goal in mind, i.e. to quiet the thrum of those who paw the ground whenever MAM dares to feature the work of artists not born in Wisconsin, raised in Wisconsin or shaped their careers in Wisconsin. Cucullu was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina (in 1969) and art-educated in Minneapolis and Connecticut. He’s exhibited on both coasts and at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo. His is a global vision. Regional art isn’t being deep-sixed, in fact, it has found a home at the Museum of Wisconsin Arts (MWA) in West Bend, a venue that has ambitious plans for expansion. It’s a bit unclear at this point if MWA will also include artists with no ties to Wisconsin, but I venture to guess they will. I can think of no good reason why they shouldn’t if the quality is high and their mission is to educate and illuminate. The Milwaukee Art Museum’s mission is quality work, no matter where that work is produced. Nothing is ever perfect, but their position strikes me as reasonable rather than confrontational. It’s ridiculous to imagine they base their curatorial decisions on where artists hail from. From April 17-July 20, MAM features A Revolutionary in Milwaukee: The Designs of George Mann Niedecken. He’s said to have given dreary Milwaukee interiors a new slant, a fresh perspective culled from his years in Europe. Meanwhile, I’m waiting for a list of “Wisconsin” artists who are part of the Milwaukee Art Museum’s permanent collection. I’m wondering myself who will turn up on the list. MAM just purchased their 8th piece of work by former Milwaukeean, Michelle Grabner. That’s good for starters.
Apr 24th, 2008 by Stella Cretek
Welcome to Dem Bones
Hello — Stella Cretek here. You’ve landed at Dem Bones. Don’t let my upswept blonde ‘do and drooping cig fool you. It’s only a jpeg of a painting by a friend who is an exceptionally bad painter. Because this blog will attend primarily to art, I figured I’d start off with an example of what art isn’t. Look around and you’ll see plenty of it in our town. Milwaukee is filled with artists tagged as “emerging,” “mature,” “promising,” “interesting,” etc. They paint, sculpt, exhibit their photography, produce assemblages, dabble in metal and clay, and generally vie for attention of local art critics who are also vying for attention. There is some hope out there however. Tom Bamberger, a local writer/photographer, enlivens Milwaukee Magazine, along with art historian Deb Brehmer, who manages to teach at MIAD and maintain the Portrait Gallery in the Third Ward, plus runSusceptible to Images. Over at the Shepherd Express, Aisha Motlani is developing attitude about reviewing art and architecture. Attitude is a good thing, and thinking persons need not fear it. Non-thinkers are the ones who need to worry.
Apr 22nd, 2008 by Stella Cretek
