Plan Ahead

Short notice: On Thursday I'll be seeing Anthony Lister at Lyons Wier Ortt.

Someone remind me: I want to see John Currin (at Gagosian until December 22), Marilyn Minter (at Salon 94 until January 20), and Andrew Wyeth (at Adelson until December 22).

Check this out: Why the Nude? at the Art Students League of New York.

I found this while looking through my collected papers and postcards from Chelsea a couple of weeks ago, and I saw this image of Reclining Nude by Sharon Sprung. Compare and contrast to my painting, I Live Next to an Endless Party. The two paintings are almost exactly the same size (mine's a bit larger).

I don't want to say her painting's better, exactly, but it's certainly more. More what? Academic, traditional, technically accomplished, I guess. I want to say all these things without implying that there's anything inherently derogatory about them -- or anything inherently complimentary. Her painting is what I would have liked to paint, if I could have, which I can't, because I don't have the academic background. That said, I've transformed -- through a complex internal alchemical process -- my naivete into a virtue. My painting is more realistic, I think, in that it shows what's actually there, what you actually see, instead of the academic illusion we've all come to accept as "realistic" painting. The fact is, no human being has ever been as perfectly lit and posed as depicted in Sharon's work.

Of course, I'm wrong. Sort of. I mean, in the end, my naivete is not a virtue. I simply haven't had the training. I don't know if I want the training. When I start painting I'm aiming for that academic look, but I don't get there, and I'm not sure how much is because I don't want to and how much is because I just can't. And I don't know if I could, even if I did take the classes.

Anyway: The show and symposium sound really interesting. Why the nude? I ask myself that. A gallerist I showed my drawings to said they really loved my lines, and would like to see my lines applied to a different subject. I've given this a lot of thought and I still can't think of anything I'd rather draw than naked people. What should I draw? Fruit baskets? Sides of beef? Trees? To me, finally, all art is about human beings.

The summer's almost over and I'm planning my return to regular gallery hopping in Chelsea with some really interesting-looking shows.

Christopher Morris leads off at Hasted Hunt with a series of politically themed photographs titled My America. Ordinarily I don't go in for photos, but I liked the last show I saw at Hasted Hunt, and furthermore I'm just totally seduced by the spare beauty of this photo, "Underground Agent."

The always-interesting Bellwether Gallery will be showing paintings by Everest Hall. Ordinarily I wouldn't be overjoyed by these paintings, but this one with the bee, if you combine it with a couple other works in the show, reminds me of a painting idea I had but never executed. No crystal skulls in mine, though.

Goff + Rosenthal will be showing new paintings by Isca Greenfield-Sanders. I'm curious to see what these look like in person; online they're kind of flat and not very exciting, but they could be really good.

Maki Tamura, meanwhile, looks very good online, and will hopefully look even better in person at Lucas Schoormans. This is the kind of fiddly detailed work I admire and enjoy.

Sixtyseven will be showing Wendy White, a definite head-scratcher for me. Maybe I'm just happy to be going to galleries again, but even this weird stuff looks good to me right now.

And finally, I'm thinking of seeing what Jade Townsend is going to do at Priska C. Jushka. Usually I avoid installations if at all possible, but seeing what Jade did with his last installation, I think this will be worth a visit.

If I've fully recovered from my recent bout of ennui, I'll probably go to Bellwether as recommended by James Wolanin.

If not I'll just stay home and pretend I don't exist.

Oh, screw it. I'm didn't go out Wednesday and I'm not going out Thursday. So be it.

This sucks. After a serious drought of openings, where I dragged myself to see things I really wasn't excited about, here comes this week where I have not one but two nights with openings I really want to see.

First is an artist recommended by good old Ed Winkleman, Jennifer Coates at Feigen. Her paintings look interesting. Perhaps not enough to make me want to go, but Edward's recommendation means a lot to me, so as soon as I read his post, I thought, yes, someone worth seeing.

Meanwhile in another window I'm going through the Douglas Kelley Show list and I find Alyssa Monks opening at DFN on Wednesday, not Thursday. My first reaction on seeing Alyssa's paintings online is "HOLY CRAP!" Because they can't be paintings, they've got to be photos. Wow. I mean, holy crap. I MUST GO.

This sucks.