“Beyond the Junkyard: John Chamberlain: Choices at Guggenheim Museum”, The New York Times
Read this lackluster review… then go see the exciting show.
5 comments
i have seen some photos of the retrospective, and i am sad to say (maybe you will agree) that i am very dissapointed.
not only that the installation is very boring, but 90 % of the pieces look like, well, trash. in a bad way! WHITE THUMB FOUR (that wall piece from 1978) is the best work there. and over the years, i ve seen a lot of magnificent pieces, being shown at PACE, GAGOSIAN, ARTBASEL etc. did the owners refuse to lend them? or what?
TERRIBLE SHOW that is.
wow you really don’t like it! I did, sculpture seems to work well in the building and the show was installed with reserve, meaning it didn’t look crowded and it made Chamberlain’s work look important, which it is. Was it super exciting?Perhaps not, it was a conservative, careful, edited show, but I’m a Chamberlain fan and I was into it. What do you think it should have been like Stefan, I’m curious to know more…?
first of all, there a lot of exhibitions with poor design, where curators line up the work and sign off. once, just once!, i would like to see an exhibition, or a retrospective being done as an installation piece itself! with Chamberlain, his work demanded a “forest” of works. a jungle! each of his sculptures is a flower (abstract, rough, wild and colorful). i would put, literaly, hundreds of sculptures, huge ones on the floor, small ones on higher steel pedestals. the experience would be a crazy one! like walking through a forest of free and wild forms! didnt Kurt Schwitters teach us anything? 🙂 of course, not everyone/s work can handle shows like that. but John/s! yes!! and yes, the Gugg/s architecture is not perfect for something like that, but i believe it could have been done.
and yes, you will probably mention maurizio/s gugg show. i both loved it and hated it. loves it for the balls. hated it because, in the end, the work lost. balls have won, works lost. he is, like most artists, uneven. and for the great pieces, i am sorry they did the show the way the did. still, :), i liked it.
i have seen some photos of the retrospective, and i am sad to say (maybe you will agree) that i am very dissapointed.
not only that the installation is very boring, but 90 % of the pieces look like, well, trash. in a bad way! WHITE THUMB FOUR (that wall piece from 1978) is the best work there. and over the years, i ve seen a lot of magnificent pieces, being shown at PACE, GAGOSIAN, ARTBASEL etc. did the owners refuse to lend them? or what?
TERRIBLE SHOW that is.
wow you really don’t like it! I did, sculpture seems to work well in the building and the show was installed with reserve, meaning it didn’t look crowded and it made Chamberlain’s work look important, which it is. Was it super exciting?Perhaps not, it was a conservative, careful, edited show, but I’m a Chamberlain fan and I was into it. What do you think it should have been like Stefan, I’m curious to know more…?
first of all, there a lot of exhibitions with poor design, where curators line up the work and sign off. once, just once!, i would like to see an exhibition, or a retrospective being done as an installation piece itself! with Chamberlain, his work demanded a “forest” of works. a jungle! each of his sculptures is a flower (abstract, rough, wild and colorful). i would put, literaly, hundreds of sculptures, huge ones on the floor, small ones on higher steel pedestals. the experience would be a crazy one! like walking through a forest of free and wild forms! didnt Kurt Schwitters teach us anything? 🙂 of course, not everyone/s work can handle shows like that. but John/s! yes!! and yes, the Gugg/s architecture is not perfect for something like that, but i believe it could have been done.
and yes, you will probably mention maurizio/s gugg show. i both loved it and hated it. loves it for the balls. hated it because, in the end, the work lost. balls have won, works lost. he is, like most artists, uneven. and for the great pieces, i am sorry they did the show the way the did. still, :), i liked it.
Adam,
We love your posts and insights…spots and all 🙂
Please, keep all flowing. Love the studio visits too.