Yessir, I've been reading Art Forum in an effort to make myself more metrosexual and now I'm constantly peeved about how those articles are so backward and convoluted. Obviously, art is a dense subject and I appreciate writers who have the sensibility to realize the insufficiency of writing about a creator's work, but that don't mean they gotta be so inane, gotta try so hard.
I've always thought that writing about art is akin to cooking about archery, say, or parasailing about Jesus--nonsensical, that is. Anything an artist is trying to "say" cannot be said any better than in their representation; that's why they drew pictures instead of mailed letters to the editor. Critiquing those pictures is bound to fail, so it's arrogant and silly to take the job too seriously.
It's better to say, Lee Bontecou's show was sweet, dude. All that junk was fly. I kinda wished there were more colors, though.
There are other useful things that can be written about art, too, I guess. For instance, I can try to describe Lee Bontecou's work to people that are thinking about driving several hours to see those freaky "sculptures" in her retrospective. I can say that I thought the show was great because it was her entire body of work, and seeing each piece in chronological context is vastly more rewarding and makes a lot more sense than just seeing one or two pieces in a museum's permanent collection.
See, 'cause when you start with her work from the 1960s--those haunting, dystopic monsters with jagged teeth--and move to her recent, more uplifting hanging fish and, uh, things, it's like watching her life, and it makes sense. I completed the exhibit and felt like I had finished a novel, or a biography.
At least one of the pieces was created while she was listening to UN radio on her short wave, and Bontecou said the anger she felt at what she was hearing is represented in the work. What I wonder is, in her later work which doesn't seem so pissed off, was she listening to a different station (maybe college radio?), or does she think things aren't as bad now as they were in the Vietnam era? Did she mellow out in old age or did she find other ways to express her feelings about The Shit?
(Well look at that--some critical exposition!)
Traffic to Chicago was really good, too, so it only took about two hours to get to the museum. After leaving the exhibit Allison and I went to have dinner with friends and then went to see Monster. I also bought a zine called "The Adventures of Eustachia H. Cow," which I couldn't have found in Milwaukee. So, with all that bonus stuff, it was worth my trip. If you're going to drive several hours it's good to have a few things to do and not rely on just some art for a good time. Maybe catch a Yankee's game; their 2nd and 3rd basemen make more money than the entire Milwaukee Brewers combined.