Meet Taylor Mead at Boyd Satellite

Shocking? A male nude? Masculine/Masculine: The Nude Man in Art From 1800 to the Present Day, a thorough exhibition which included more than two hundred sculptures and paintings related to the subject took place at the Musée d'Orsay in 2013, and according to the curator, "the paradox is that we think we live in a very liberated society but the male nude still troubles people." This month, Boyd Satellite gallery is testing its visitors with three photographs of  a naked Taylor Mead taken by Andres Serrano. A collection of selfies made by Blake Nelson Boyd as part of the Taylor Mead photobooth series, paintings, drawings and memorabilia complete the exhibition Taylor Mead in Exile.
There is no way to avoid the three giant photographs (60"x 50") organized like a triptych at the entrance of the gallery. The unconventional portraits of Taylor Mead, cut at the level of the upper thighs, are showing a decrepit body supported by a cane, staged in provocative poses: contrapposto on the left, full derrière in the middle and prominent display of sexual organs on the right. He is obviously enjoying the session and above all, the then eighty six years old artist appears perfectly comfortable with his body. On the same wall, the series of photo-booth pictures taken in 1995 by Boyd look like miniatures. A younger Mead sits in different costumes, from tin man to Superman or Mickey Mouse, relishing the roles. Mead was a poet, an actor and also a painter. Five of his abstract and semi-abstract paintings surrounded by almost twenty of his drawings on the opposite wall attest of that. Each piece tells a short story and the subjects vary, but exposed genitals and cats provide most of them. A projection of the "Lonesome Cowboys", a film by Andy Warhol featuring Mead as one of the actors, next to photographs in black and white of Taylor Mead and friends, provides a sampling of the artist as an actor. Memorabilia, including cane, hat, glasses, a copy of  "On Amphetamine and in Europe" published in 1968, even a sample of his ashes, give a museum-like quality to the exhibition, a celebration of the artist's life.

Serrano's photographs steal the show. Nude? Male nude? Old male nude? One can see plenty of buttocks while visiting the Uffizi in Florence: warriors, athletes, ephebes or angels, but nothing like this. Serrano is not the first to show ugly old men, Lucian Freud comes to mind. The classical poses and the use of chiaroscuro, a venerable technique, with a black background shadowing the pale flesh, make the compositions a pastiche. Serrano and his sitter are a prefect match, both relishing controversy (remember Piss Christ from Serrano? ) What makes the photographs provocative? When looking at a nude, we are expecting to find beauty, but beauty cannot be old according to stereotypes. I found the nudes beautiful because genuine. Mead is not afraid to expose himself, embracing his appearance, his frailty, with a wink in the eyes, defiant of time, for ever young. What disturbs the viewer is that the photographs, like mirrors in fairy tales, represent the time to come. The recoil at first look is a learned behavior, similar to looking at spiders or snakes. Is not art supposed to bring us out of our comfort zone? To quote Mead:" You want to play around with poets but you don't want any of the dangers or consequences."
Mead is not in exile, he has found a place in New Orleans.

photographs by the author:

Taylor Mead pill bottles from Blake Boyd's collection

from the "Nude" series, Andres Serrano, 2012

Marketing Pop

...or Soup.

Andy Warhol can be in your kitchen this Fall with the launch of a limited edition of Campbell tomato soups sold exclusively at Target to commemorate the first paintings of the now famous "Campbell Soups Cans". At the time, the Campbell soup company considered suing the artist...and now promotes the soup, thanks to the artist.

Warhol is everywhere this season, starting at my neighborhood art gallery, Pop is in the air. The gallery offers an interesting exhibition featuring the works of local artists, like Jeffrey Pitt, Sarah Ashley Longshore next to well-known artists like Keith Haring, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg. I could buy a silkscreen of Jane Fonda or Marilyn Monroe. ( respectively 68,000 and 160,000 dollars).
Now what about the market? Confusing.
The Andy Warhol Foundation is getting ready to put more than 350 paintings, 1000 prints, thousands of drawings for auction (flooding the market), in an effort to raise money.

An exhibition just opened at The Metropolitan Museum of Art: "Regarding Warhol Sixty Artists, Fifty Years" explores the impact of Warhol on contemporary art.

photograph by the author

Sampling Warhol

Coincidence? It is a Warhol week: 30 Polaroid photographs, one silkscreen, a book of interviews and a movie.
The Newcomb Art Gallery on the Tulane campus presents Pop Shots: Polaroid Portraits by Andy Warhol. The exhibition consists of 30 Polaroid photographs of famous and/or rich models. The framed portraits are lining the walls of one room. Warhol would make fifty to one hundred of these photographs at a sitting and select one shot for the next step, a giant silkscreen portrait of the sitter. A local figure of New Orleans is featured with several Polaroids and the resulting silkscreen work. Warhol became so popular that the subjects were not hiring the artist, they were begging the artist to have a portrait made.

The same week, I found a book about Andy Warhol: "I'll be Your Mirror, The Selected Andy Warhol Interviews", consisting of Thirty-Seven Conversations with the Pop Master, edited by Kenneth Goldsmith, and spanning 30 years, from the 60's till the 80's. I learned a lot about how to interview a reluctant interviewee. Warhol was a man of few words. "What is Pop Art"? answer "Yes", etc... The artist was known to be shy, but his technique during the interviews becomes affectation. After all, he was eager to be in the spotlight. Warhol became more loquacious over the years and even volunteered some information about his lifestyle in his latest interviews including his thoughts about deeper subjects like art.

Finally, I watched a movie on Netflix "13 Most Beautiful...Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests", a succession of approximately five minutes movies lasting for a total of 59 minutes. Each clip is one actor filling the screen, just the face. The subjects are exercising their facial muscles in front of the camera and girls, boys, girls, good actors, manage to stay expressionless with an occasional show of emotion, like a fake tear. The last piece is a girl brushing her teeth for five minutes. The movies are in black and white and play with light and shadows. Considering that they were made in the 60's, they have some historical interest. Andy Warhol preferred to leave the movies unedited for fear of spoiling the subject. I have to confess, I fast forwarded the movie to last twenty minutes. The songs are worth buying the soundtrack.

What is Pop Art? The artist wants the viewer to define the art. We are used to the artist filling his/her work with meanings, symbols and the viewer looking superficially at the art. Andy Warhol braggs that he made the work in an hour for consumption and the viewers are giving value to the piece of art by spending time and money.

This is the art of Warhol, the viewer is filling the cans of soup with symbols, the interviewer is answering the questions, the reader is reading between the lines, the moviegoer is making up his own plot.
His works are a commercial success and he has given a flavor to Pop Art: superficial and empty.

Andy Warhol has become an icon, by picturing famous persons he has become famous. He claims to be the ultimate artist: money and fame. His philosophy? Pop. Business acumen or art? "Making money is art, and working is art and good business is best art".
One can be impressed by the amount of material produced at the Factory and some of the movies are still sitting at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburg, unseen. Warhol liked to document his life with movies or tape recordings. Anxiety? Precursor of reality TV shows? Performance art?


Warhol succeeded in making the viewer create not only the art, but also the artist.


Photograph by the author:
"Tina Freeman", Andy Warhol, 1975

The "Mad Potter of Biloxi" and the OOMA

The Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art just opened along the Gulf Coast, in Biloxi, Mississippi. The story of the museum in itself, is interesting. Almost completed in 2005, it was entirely destroyed by hurricane Katrina. The architect Frank Gehry went back to the drawing board and designed a new version which includes several independent structures with different functions.

The Mississippi Sound Welcome Center, a wide open space is a meeting place, with a coffee shop, a museum shop and a small gallery to present local artists (and, of course, a cash register with a helpful cashier)). From there, according to taste or mood, the visitor can climb to the third floor and enjoy looking at the Ocean, or just continue following the covert passageway and reach the two main galleries: the "IP Casino Resort Spa Exhibitions Gallery" (an unfortunate name) lighted only with skylights, a space conceived to adapt to the needs of different exhibitions with its adjustable walls and the "Gallery of African American Art". These were my main interests on the campus. The visitor can also find replicas of the Creel House and historical artifacts.

The "George E. Ohr Gallery" and the "City of Biloxi Center for Ceramics" should be completed in 2012.

At the present, the museum is hosting three exhibitions of interest and I started with "The Seeker" presenting twenty-two sculptures from Richmond Barthe, a sculptor close to the New Negro arts renaissance of the 30s in Harlem. Spanning from late 1920's to the 60's, the sculptures are technically flawless, mostly inspired by sexuality, religion and black history.

All the sculptures are figurative, of the same style and the sculptor did not experiment over time. The sophisticated expressions, sometimes too lyrical can become repetitive and lack in originality. Somewhat out of style, they are representative of a genre.

Next was an exhibition titled: "Mortal to Mythic: the Transforming Power of Art, Andy Warhol, selected prints from the Cochran Collection." Twenty-seven prints, including series like "Cowboys and Indians", "Myth Series", and well known prints, like the portrait of Mick Jagger and "Moonwalk". I discovered another Warhol, story-teller, different from the Pop artist with the cans of soup or the portraits of Marylin Monroe. I spent some time in front of The Shadow, which is a self-portrait. Inspired by the Indian custom of the girl drawing the shadow of her lover on the wall as he is sleeping, catching his profile for eternity. I found this self-portrait very moving, the expression of a deeper, thoughtful, fragile, self-preoccupied Warhol-Janus.

Jun Kaneko's glazed ceramic sculptures are scattered through the outdoors and the main gallery. The artist who was born and raised in Japan is highly influenced by his background. The peaceful giant heads, talking to each other are staying mysterious, maybe too Japanese for my taste. The artist is also a painter but none of his paintings were on view. It is the first time I am exposed to his works.

Works from local artists are displayed in one area of the Welcome Center with Helene Fielder from Booneville , MS, this month. "Balancing Act" features several stoneware sculptures with lively colors and shapes.

Of course a whole gallery is dedicated to Ohr's works. I am not inclined to look at potteries but Ohr is reaching beyond the craft. He is enlighted when creating each unique piece. The quality of his works is so far unequaled, so thin, almost translucent when in bisque form (later works), if glazed so colorful, so brilliant. The subject is always interesting, humorous,

inspired. The pot is reaching another level, and the potter transcends the material. Ohr' always surprises me and I am looking forward to see the opening of the George E. Ohr Gallery in 2012.

The visit is definitely worth it, very detailed brochures provide ample information about the artists and the museum itself. The design from Frank Gehry succeeds in "promoting and preserving the culture of Mississippi and the Gulf Coast" and allows guests artists to be displayed in this unique setting. After the visit, one can use the gentle stairs to reach the third floor and look at the Gulf's waters... maybe too close.

"Pitcher" George E. Ohr

"The Boxer" Richmond Barthe, Art Institute of Chicago.

Work from Jun Kaneko, photograph by the author

View from the OOMA, photograph by the author

No photographs were allowed in the Galleries

The King of the streets

Waiting for the opening of the FIAC tomorrow, I could not miss the exhibition "Basquiat" at the Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. A retrospective of Jean-Michel Basquiat 's works (1960-1988) planned for his 50's anniversary.

The story of his short life is centered mainly around Manhattan where he became known for his graffities signed SAMO. The early graffities begin the exhibition, with their primitive symbols and drawings, arrows, suns: cave art in the street. As we progress along the rooms, the technique changes and the colors become brighter and brighter, until they reach a Caribbean flavor, with the subject often drawn in black on sharp reds, oranges, yellow, blue backgrounds. The paintings are violent and the language becomes personal with symbols like the crown. The artist paints everything including old refrigerators, wooden panes, bags, with ferocity. He is translating the violence of the street on the canvass and becomes the voice of the anti-establishment and presents himself as a paria. Through his paintings, he makes the kings of the street become part of the art world.
A number of paintings refer to the anatomy of the human body, like "Skull", 1981. The artist describes the horror of being, a skull with black content and bones like a cage or a prison. Using what he calls his "cultural memory", he offers a glimpse into the underworld where kings get their heads cut off and pictures himself as a young derelict.
The works of Jean-Michel Basquiat are noticed and soon are hanging on the walls of the galleries. His message becomes political, the words are changing: liberty, skinheads, asbestos, negroes... He creates "Slave Auction", 1982, "Undiscovered Genius of the Mississippi Delta", 1983 and "Revised Undiscovered Genius of the Mississippi Delta". The only light painting is "Self-portrait with Suzanne", 1982, with pastel colors and a happy subject.
The works loose their spontaneity. The association with Andy Warhol is not a success for Basquiat. He has become a member of the new establishment but his voice is chocking. One more time, he tries to reach his roots and compose paintings with subjects related to Voodoo, African masks. The result? an advertisement like "Zydeco", 1984 or the caricature of an African-American on gold background "Gold Griot", 1984. His preoccupation with death becomes overwhelming and he composes one of his last piece called "Eroica II", 1988. The colors are flat, heavy and the composition has lost all energy.
The king of the street is no more.
The retrospective is very extensive with 100 paintings, drawings, objects. But some viewers cannot be reached. The German couple next to me shakes their heads, and the lady from the 16th arrondissement honestly declares that she will never understand. The giant fishhook on "Revised Undiscovered Genius of the Mississippi Delta" is not a threat to the catfish, but to African- Americans who used to be hung from trees. How can we understand the graffities without walking in some areas of NYC?

Jean-Michel Basquiat was so young when he died twenty two years ago, if...

photograph by the author: ENOB, Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1985 at the FIAC