hyde or die

Recognising the public’s desire to watch conservation in action, the Fondation Beyeler will open a new, glass-fronted conservation studio later this month as part of its restoration and technical and scholarly investigation of Matisse’s Acanthes—a large format papier découpé or paper cut-out.

Cut-outs such as Acanthes constitute a late but innovative period in Matisse’s oeuvre. “Throughout his career, Matisse struggled to find the ideal form of artistic expression—the grande décoration. Cut-outs enabled him to express what he had wanted to accomplish all of his life,” said Ulf Küster, who is in charge of the collection at the Beyeler and curator of this project. He added: “They are a synthesis of drawing, painting and sculpture.”

Although there are still unanswered questions related to the creation of Matisse’s découpages, scholars know that he used scissors to cut out shapes from sheets of brightly-painted paper. Assistants would then attach them to a larger sheet of white paper according to Matisse’s detailed instructions. The Matisse Archives have preserved scraps of paper from the cut-outs. “Matisse never threw anything away. It is possible to reconstruct every scissor cut he made,” said Küster, adding: “This presents a fantastic opportunity to look over the shoulder of a great modern artist while he creates a conceptual work of art.”

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March 17, 2010, 12:34pm  

Deitch, what are you doing?!  I am not completely confident, but I am under the distinct impression if you are planning on doing something unethical you keep that knowledge to yourself.  Which loosely translates to not telling anyone. Especially not the press!  Maybe he doesn’t think dealing while Director (DWD..heh) is unethical? In which case we have ANOTHER problem. Ugh…Here’s what happened.

(Could Deitch) possibly unload some pieces from his personal collection “to supplement a museum director’s salary.”

But instead of talking to me about his personal collection, (Deitch) discussed his gallery’s “enormous” unsold inventory. He couldn’t possibly liquidate his entire stock in the next three months, he told me, so he expected occasionally to put some of those pieces up for auction.

“Isn’t that ‘dealing’?” I blurted out, thrown off-guard by this astonishing admission.

He then backpedaled: He would sell only lesser works at minor auctions “like Christie’s Open.” (Works in Christie’s most recent First Open sale went for as much as $842,500.) The more important pieces would be transferred from his gallery’s inventory to his private collection (from which he had previously stated that he might occasionally sell works).

He then reverted to Jeffrey-as-victim, complaining about being subjected to this importunate line of questioning when he was sacrificing “millions of dollars in opportunity costs” (i.e., money that he would otherwise have made), by giving up future gallery earnings for a nonprofit museum director’s salary.

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March 17, 2010, 11:46am  

You know what time it is? March Madness time! Not just basketball (although I’m really good at guessing those)  but Tyler Green at Modern Art Notes set up a bracket for “THE GREATEST LIVING ABSTRACT PAINTER!!!”*

Right now Ellsworth Kelly is at number 1, but will it stay like that? I don’t know!! That’s why it’s so mad! What are you waiting for? Go do your thing.

*I added the exclamation points because I’m excited.

March 17, 2010, 11:05am  

Curbed LA is reporting that he has (Downtown LA), his foundation is reporting that he hasn’t.

What do you say, let’s start a pool on when he will finally announce it and what the location will be?

I say, Thursday and Downtown LA.  The allure of his buddy Deitch at MOCA is too strong.  Also, he just sunk $30 million into saving MOCA, so he might as well bring even more visitors to the area with the allure of seeing 2 contemporary museums in one trip.

Clarification: The location choices are Santa Monica, Beverly Hills and Downtown.

March 17, 2010, 10:46am  

» Come on MOCA...

Christopher Knight is reporting that MOCA is having a fundraiser at Culver City gallery Blum + Poe. Really MOCA? Seriously? Y’all went through ALL THE LOCATIONS in ALL OF LOS ANGELES for where you could have a fundraising event and you settled on a COMMERCIAL art gallery? Did anyone speak up and say this might be a conflict of interest, especially when quite a few artists represented by said gallery have pieces in your permanent collection?  Maybe one person? Maybe they thought it but didn’t say it out loud?

Ugh. I don’t want to talk about it. I DO NOT want to talk about it.

March 16, 2010, 2:22pm  

Philippe Starck’s Mademoiselle Chair at the Maison Moschino Hotel in Milan

March 16, 2010, 1:51pm  

Ivan Navarro, Nowhere Man 1, 2009

Phillip Niemeyer of Double Triple asked me yesterday why Ivan Navarro’s Nowhere Man 1 [pictured above] isn’t a work of plagiarism. I don’t have a sufficient defense.  Spotted at the Armory’s Modern fair last week, the title does not acknowledge its origins which are obviously derived from Otl Aicher’s 1972 Munich Olympics designs. Neither one of us was convinced that rendering the piece in neon sufficiently changed the work.

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Paddy Johnson asks a good question, Why isn’t Ivan Navarro’s Nowhere Man 1 plagiarism?

March 16, 2010, 11:52am