Although we hate to admit it, the summer does eventually come to an end. Come October, the place to be will be San Francisco, as the city welcomes Open Studios '08, a free four-week public art event hosted by ArtSpan.
Running strong for more than 30 years, the Open Studios program is one of the longest running and largest events of its kind in the nation. In fact, other major cities worldwide have used this event as a model to create their own. The 2007 edition brought over 60,000 visitors and nearly $1.7 million in art was sold.
The festivities offer a wide range of work representing the many differences in the city's art scene as well as a wide ranges of prices--so you can bring home a piece of the action to hang over your couch.
Epigrams and snippets of sentences replace the Whitney Museum of American Art's usual contemporary and postmodern visuals this winter. The words, which are painted and printed directly on the walls of the museum, are part of a career-spanning exhibit of the work of US conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner. Though well known and respected in Europe, this is the first retrospective for 65-year-old Weiner held in his home country.
While staring at phrases on white-washed walls might seem like an odd museum experience, Weiner's works exude the type of optimism inherent to the conceptual artists working in the '60s. The exhibit's title, "As Far As the Eye Can See," takes its name from the opening phrase of Weiner's exhibit, and sets the tone for the rest of the work, which also includes the occasional poster and small object.
If you're still hesitant about paying the museum's $15 general admission to stare at semi-haikus, take a cue from Time Out New York art critic Howard Halle, who wrote this in the magazine's most recent issue:
'The occasion of receivership'--i.e., how and why we look at art, what we get out of it by looking at it, and what it may ultimately mean or not mean--has been the focal point of Weiner's ouevre for more than 40 years
Our Fall Culture Map will give you things to ponder over that second piece of pie.
There's no faster way to our heart than putting together a rollicking art show by an artist who "effortlessly navigates between the worlds of fine art and popular culture." So we're gagging to get to The Geffen Contemporary branch of the Museum of Contemporary Art in LA.
Running until February 11, the oddly-titled exhibition features a retrospective of works by Japanese shining star Takashi Murakami, with painting, sculpture, film and installation all represented. (We're hoping to see some of his cherry-bedecked Louis Vuitton bags.)
Visit our Fall Culture Travel map to take advantage of what's left of fall--just because you're traveling for Thanksgiving doesn't mean you have to check your brain.
Photographer, painter and sculptor Richard Prince obviously lives in a different America than we do. How else could his massive multi-stage retrospective "Spiritual America," currently at New York City's much-scaffolded Guggenheim Museum, include threatening nurses, disembodied cars and Borscht Belt-style jokes written over canceled checks?
You'll probably love some of the series on display (like our favorites, the white-on-white collages incorporating "New Yorker" style cartoons) and hate others, but at least you'll walk out thinking. (And if you're jonesing for some classic modernism, there's a nifty selection of Kandinsky paintings from the permanent collection on display as well.)
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by kjb
