iowa’s pollock

just when you think things can’t get any worse…

after the university of iowa suffered $232-odd-million in damage to buildings built in a flood plane this summer, the board of regents, at the suggestion of  regent michael gartner, proposed exploring the value of the university’s jackson pollock painting, “mural.”

the painting was initially painted as a commission for the entry to peggy guggenheim’s townhouse in 1943.   when she moved to venice in 1947, she didn’t have room for the painting and offered to give it to the university of iowa if they’d pay for shipping.    in 1951 the bureaucracy finally managed to get the painting to the university, where it apparently was stored for years before being permanently displayed.

the painting is the highlight of the university museum’s (quite decent) collection.    actually, highlight is an understatement.    “mural” marked a turning point in pollock’s work.    it is one of his most important paintings and by extension one of the most important american paintings of the 20th century.  “mural” is spectacular — masculine and muscular and energetic.    not one of the  “drip paintings” for which he became famous, but the painting that is the direct precursor to that work.  historically, extremely important.    compositionally and energetically, i think it’s more successful than the drip paintings.

several years ago, “mural” was appraised at $100 million but on the open market i’d bet it would go (or at least in a more stable financial moment) for at least $140 million, probably more  (in 2006 david geffen sold this painting, “No. 5″ (1948), for $140 million – the highest price ever paid for a painting).

why shouldn’t the regents sell it?

where to begin?

1.  the university has $250 million in flood insurance with a $3 million deductible.   damage to the university is estimated at about $232 million.    do the math.     there is a $40 million cap on damage to buildings built in the 100-year flood plane, which they may or may not exceed.    the university doesn’t really need to sell the painting to pay for the flood damage.  at most, the uninsured damage will be a few million dollars and they’re eligible for FEMA money.   this is the single most valuable asset (other than the road system) owned by the state.    in the 57 years the state has owned it, it’s value has gone from $5,000 to $140,000,000.   the regents want to force the sale of this painting not because the institution is in financial ruin, or because the painting doesn’t fit the collection or isn’t a good work of art, but because it is valuable (though clearly not to them).    ummmmm,  isn’t that a reason to keep it?     there are lots of rumors about why the regents are hot to sell (an interesting though unsubstantiated one has to do with lawsuits stemming the cover up of sexual assaults by university of iowa football players), but it’s probably simply greed.

2.   if the regents were to force a sale of the painting, the museum would likely lose its certification with the american association of museums (deaccessioning for purposes other than to build a museum’s collection is forbidden).   while that might not mean much to the regents, it is the death-knell for a museum.   they can’t borrow works (or take traveling shows) from other institutions.   the university art museum would essentially no longer a “professional” museum.

3.   selling an object that is donated to a museum — particularly  a high profile one — has a chilling effect on future gifts.     people give things to museums so that they know the public will have access to them forever.    who would donate something important to a museum that may later sell it because it has appreciated in value?

4.   want to get disrespected by the political/financial/intellectual powers?   sell the most historically and aesthetically important thing in your museum.   for that matter, your state.    it makes you look shallow and uncultured.

5.   how do you keep the brightest and most creative students at your state universities?   or keep them in the state after they’ve graduated?   or attract the best academic talent to your universities?   not by selling your important and famous art work…

6.   this is about cultural stewardship.   the regents have a responsibility to future generations to preserve something important.   i know, we’re not talking about blowing up the bamyan buddhas…  “mural”  wouldn’t be destroyed and might go into another public collection.   but students and the people of iowa won’t have access to it.   it would be long-term loss (for short-term gain) for the university and state to lose it to a collection in new york or moscow…

full disclosure.   i went to law school at the university of iowa and have a deep attachment to “mural” not just because of its historical and aesthetic importance.     it’s my pollock.    the one i know best.   i feel pride in the university and the state b/c of it.

if, god forbid, “mural” is to be sold, sell it in a public auction and please, please, please sell it to sfmoma or don fisher.    i’ve missed it.

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baseera khan

i’m in love with a painting i saw last night…   it’s by baseera kahn, a young woman whose parents are from bangalore, india.  baseera grew up in houston.    her experience of india is through the remnants of the culture clinging to her parents.    or from the visits she, as someone raised in america,  made when visiting family.      she’s interested in the immigrant experience -  dislocation, alienation, integration, assimilation.  she interprets cultural hybridization.   internationalism.  her paintings are layered — both in imagery and meaning.     kind of cartoon-ish.    very beautiful.    influenced by pop culture, western and south asian aesthetic traditions, anthropology, painting, video and the work of shazia sikander and shirin neshat.

the “space” in the paintings hints at landscape.   but traditional landscape painting is undermined by floating imagery and ambiguous “ground.”    her characters (cricket players, camels, elephants, saddam hussein) may be allegorical.  they may represent a stereotype.

“we share wealth” is at first a painting of three elephants and floral patterns.   it’s dreamy and abstracted.    the large elephant is blue and on the right.  see it?    the mid-sized elephant (harder to make out – at the left, seen from the back) stands on a big red (cooked) lobster — perhaps a play on the hindu story that the world rests on the back of an elephant and the elephant stands on the shell of a tortoise…     in the very bottom left is a caricature of a policeman (who could also be any official/officious person) and a construction helmet.    there’s a ghost-y little beaver sitting on top of the helmet (a form suspiciously tortoise shell-like).  baseera made this painting while she was deciding to move to new york and new york was settled by the dutch in part, because of the fur trade.     the patterns are taken from the tile-work floor of a church that used to be a mosque.   they’re being pulled apart.    they also make reference to two forms of feminine decoration – the custom of painting henna on a woman’s body and lace.     and make a nod to the labor and meditation involved in intricate, repetitive patterning…     (click on it for a better image)

“we share wealth” 2007 acrylic, ink and enamel spray paint on paper,  40×50 inches

a couple more images of her paintings – for context:

“in searches”  acrylic, ink and enamel spray paint on paper, 12×15 inches

“battle transportation” acrylic, ink and enamel spray paint on paper, 23×23 inches

“training saag” acrylic, ink and enamel spray paint on paper, 38×52 inches

we’ll have a show of paintings, an animation and an installation by baseera khan in our new york gallery in april 2009.

“kitchen sink”

anoka faruqee

is raffling a painting to people who make a donation to the obama campaign.   the retail price of the painting is $6000.   here’s how it works:

donate $75 or more via her obama fund raising page by October 10th:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/anoka

though we encourage you to donate generously, only one raffle ticket per person.     you’ll receive a confirmation email after your entry.

on october 11th, she’ll randomly draw from the list of donors.

if you live in los angeles, the painting will be delivered to you gratis.     if you live outside of the los angeles area, you’ll be responsible for shipping from l.a. to your home.   the winner must agree to lend the painting for musuem exhibitions.

for more about her work, go to:   http://anokafaruqee.com/html/writing/statement.html

the painting is pictured above and is:

“freehand fade to gray ground #2″    2007

flashe paint on linen on panel

56.25 x 51.25 inches

retail price:  $6,000

shopping for a cause…

i’m hosting an event at the san francisco gallery for an amazing non-profit organization called “afghan hands.”   a friend, matin maulawizada, founded the organization to educate and shelter women in kabul.   the mission:   “teaching skills to help afghan widows gain independence, literacy, and a livable wages.”   the women spend ½ of their time learning to read and write and the other ½ hand-embroidering beautiful scarves and shawls which are sold to fund the school.

check out this piece that anderson cooper did about the program:     <http://matin.typepad.com/afghanhands/files/cnn_anderson_cooper.WMV>

and here is the website of the organization:        http://www.afghanhands.org/

please join us at the gallery to shop for these beautiful scarves/shawls and to support this really worthy cause…

saturday, october  18th
3 pm – 6 pm

hosfelt gallery  430 clementina   sf, ca  94103

sarah palin terrifies me.

because i can see her appeal.   she’s photogenic.   a small-town success story.  real-life liza doolittle.   a mom.   an all-american, reform-spouting “i’m an outsider!” and “i’m just like you middle-america!”  (albeit in a snide, condescending way) rags-to-riches story.   someone who didn’t go to fancy schools and in fact did poorly at the four colleges she spent six years attending.   proof that anyone in america can make it.

i’d like to correct matt damon.   sarah palin is less disney movie than tabloid-celebrity — like paris hilton — attaining notoriety not because of talent or intelligence or accomplishment — but because people can’t look away from a car crash.

and ok,  i’ll confess…    i’m obsessed too.    for the second time in history, a group of people have discovered a shill they can pass off as a potential world leader.   palin, like george bush, is completely unqualified and unprepared to serve in the office that millions of americans are clamoring for them to hold.  like george bush, palin attempts to cover her intellectual inadequacies with rigid adherence to misconception.    if you repeat a lie often enough, you can convince a lot of people it’s the truth.

like i said, i’m scared…

this gives me hope…

reporting from alaska –         http://mudflats.wordpress.com/2008/09/14/alaska-women-reject-palin-rally-is-huge/

chris ballantyne is painting on my walls again

this time in the new york gallery.     the mural will be part of his solo exhibition – “everything means something and nothing is what it seems to be” – on view 13 september to 25 october.

sorry about the hot spots on the top of the wall…     we need professional lights…

detail:

painting on paper, “towers” 80×60 inches:

the hakawati by rabih alameddine

“reality never meets our wants, and adjusting both is why we tell stories.”    i LOVE this book.   pam suggested i read it when i was talking to her about curating “more stories” and it influenced the way i thought about the exhibition immensely.    “hakawati” is arabic for “storyteller.”   alameddine is a brilliant one.    the novel is a frame tale – stories within a story – like “the decameron,” “the canterbury tales” or “one thousand and one nights.”

the frame is the story of a man returning to beirut from los angeles to be with his father and family as his father dies.    the stories of his family, contemporary and historic, are knit with tales from the old testament and koran, arabian myths and countless known and unknown sources.    alameddine’s version of the myth of fatima and legend of the slave king baybars weave from beginning to end of the novel.  the ancient stories wrap-around and in-and-out of one another and illuminate the contemporary accounts.   by the end of the novel we’re back at the reason for the story – the relationship of the son and father.

uncle jihad used to say that what happens is of little significance compared with the stories we tell ourselves about what happens.  events matter little, only stories of those events affect us.  my father and i may have shared numerous experiences, but, as i was constantly finding out, we rarely shared their stories; we didn’t know how to listen to one another.

though it utilizes an ancient form, the novel is contemporary.    and funny.    and touching.   poetic.   and smart.   immediately and completely engrossing.    damn near a perfect read.

next-in-line

sarah palin’s seat of power before her 20-month stint as the governor of the 47th-most populated state…

installing at the california academy of sciences…

preparing for visitors as seen by richard barnes:

the biosphere:

the dioramas:

all images are copyrighted by richard barnes and may not be reproduced in any way without permisssion.