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| Martin Luther, Workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder |
“…black really came into its own with the Reformation, whose leaders and artists led a full-fledged revolt against the pomp and display of the Catholic Church. Martin Luther is generally depicted in the most sober of blacks, while the era’s painters began to favor tenebrous colors in even their most dramatic compositions.”
-From “The Color that Wasn’t a Color” article in ARTnews reviewing Black: The History of a Color
Artforum, when I picked it up in a bookstore the other day, immediately reminded me of a heavy Vogue issue. Both were thick with ads, and thankfully intelligent ones at that. Just as Vogue contains cutting edge photographs of high-end labels, exactly what people buy the magazine for, Artforum is full of attractive glossy spreads of gallery openings and artist’s work. Both blend the edge between content and advertising, and add a depth to the zines (at least in inches).
Artforum, ARTnews, and Art in America dominate the shelves, but in between them, even in chain bookstores (at least in New York city), you see the smaller volumes that exude individuality. The lesser-known art magazines are often the efforts of small groups of people who don’t have the same responsibility to cover the big stories. They can choose their content. Appearing sporadically and with varying production levels, often disappearing after a dozen issues, these are the art lover’s magazines, if only because they are clearly a labor of love by those that produce them.
The publishers who are able to sell a few copies express their individuality and ideology down to the typeface, and the design of the magazines is where the fun begins. They may not have Gagosian ads, but they do have vertical type and matte collages that beg to be ripped out and put on your wall. Their innovative design and unpredictable content are an adventure compared to the heavyweights. Truthfully, I’m envious! What a project–it tempts me to design an Art Ravels magazine, if only so I could lay out the pages.
Yet as much as I love browsing through the more off-beat art magazines when I see them, I always deliberate over whether they’re really worth the $10. On the other hand, I don’t buy ARTnews either. But were I to throw my $10 in the art publishing ring, I know which one I’d choose.
From the November issue of the venerable ARTnews comes a revelation: “Street art—including stickers, posters, murals, graffiti, and even 3-D sculptures—is making its way into mainstream galleries and museums.” No shit, Sherlock. Is the air under your rock stifling you?
This is why I don’t really read ARTnews: it bores me. You?
It bores me because the content is exactly what I could have surmised myself. In this leading article “Two way street,” writer Carolina Miranda addresses street art’s entry into mainstream channels of consumption. After Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art, London’s Tate Modern, the Museum of Modern Art and the Brooklyn Museum in New York have each ‘covered’ the genre– then ARTnews document it. Musuem have been paying attention, as have galleries and collectors. ARTnews is even falling behind the mainstream. Tsk tsk….
ARTnews tags itself as “The oldest, most-widely read fine arts magazine in the world.” Congratulations! Now step up your act before you become “The oldest, most-atavistic art history magazine in the world.”
More discussion of the effects of street art going mainstream would have been welcome. Their work has gone from the street to the inner sanctums, and artists no longer face the same resistance and challenges to spreading or selling their work. It’s been made legitimate. This safe, generic article doesn’t touch on these issues, but it does continue to erode the charm of illictness street art once possesed. To its (small) credit, it does mention Shepard Fairey, of Andre the Giant fame, Lazarides, whose show on Bowery I loved a few weeks ago, and also to my hometown. On the other hand, they work with and talk to all the right people, and there’s something to be said for that.