On the Web: November 2004 Archives

So, apparently the NY Times Arts staff gets their editorial ideas from the Real Estate desk. This weekend's "Chelsea Enters Its Baroque Period" is a longer entry on the same theme covered from a real estate angle earlier in the week. I wasn't around for the SoHo boom, but apparently dealer Christian Haye was. His early 90s turn of phrase "SoHo on crack" both describes Chelsea today and sums up the article.

This was an interesting article personally because I find it fascinating to see a trend in my own life described as a larger bit of the zeitgeist. I started making Chelsea expeditions with my wife a couple of years ago to hunt out the photography shows there - which led to this blog. I knew this - take a look around any given Saturday - but it seems this cheap form of urban entertainment has been catching on with a lot of other people, too. It's the paradoxical feeling of a crowd's affirmation of one's interest and the desire to horde a cool thing. Too big a crowd and cool goes cold.

The NY Times real estate section today had a good article on the commercial development of Chelsea and fears among gallery owners that the very gentrification they started will ruin the neighborhood with residential properties and - gasp - grocery stores. Douglas Baxter of Pace/Wildenstein says, ""It is hard to imagine where the art world will go if it has to leave Chelsea."

The Times suggests the Fashion District. Which would be great since that's where I work.

Tyler Green over at Modern Art Notes has posted a portion of his Bloomberg review of the National Gallery of Art's Roger Fenton show. He also makes some insightful comments comparing a Fenton photograph to Luis Sinco's recent image of Marine Lance Corporal James Miller in Fallujah.

Take a minute and examine Sinco's two photos of Corporal Miller in the LA Times follow-up article. The helmet, blood, mud, camo-paint, and cigarette appear to add ten years to Miller's baby face. Then compare the Fallujah image with this iconic WWII photo from W. Eugene Smith:

Smith's shot, despite the similar subject, is packed with optimistic drama. Yes, the soldier is haggard and grizzled, but his face is fully lit, his body dramatically angled forward into the light and the darkness in the shot is behind him. Sinco's shot, in contrast, is flatly lit and squared up, creating a sense of objectivity. The NY Times' Ashley Gilbertson captured some similar images from Fallujah.

Back to Tyler's review, I'd like to hear his take on other aspects of the Fenton image he reproduced. There is the obvious use of a canvas in the background, but it is half out of frame and the side of an exterior slat-board wall is clearly visible. It's almost like one of Fenton's outtakes or prep images rather than a final product.

From a former co-worker's blog, meditations on Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid's "The Most Wanted" paintings:

paint-by-numbers shows a suddenly monied group of working people struggling to enrich themselves and their children.

"Enrich" in the cultural sense, of course. If only they'd had free access to MoMA.