Monthly Archives: December 2008

Art Basel Miami: What a tease

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Sand, surf and palm trees, clubbing and shopping…not to mention a world-class gathering of galleries and exhibitions, all in the gloomy month of December. What better place for a the offspring of Art Basel in Switzerland than sunny, energetic Miami Beach? And what better time than this weekend? Let’s compare visual forecasts:

In case you’re confused, the first image is New York and the second is Miami. Is sun enough to lure people to open their shrinking wallets, when even Black Friday fell a little flat? I doubt it. Not sunny weekend is going to save the cotemporary art market from belt-tightening. Art Basel kicks off this Thursday, for a long weekend of shows and events through Dec. 7.
According to its cheery website,

Art Basel Miami Beach combines an international selection of top galleries with an exciting program of special exhibitions, parties and crossover events featuring music, film, architecture and design. Exhibition sites are located in the city’s beautiful Art Deco District, within walking distance of the beach and many hotels. An exclusive selection of more than 250 leading art galleries from North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa will exhibit 20th and 21st century artworks by over 2,000 artists.

Art Basel Miami sounds a hell of a lot better than fighting through tourist-infested Rockefeller Center to buy my dad a bowtie from the only store that makes them wide enough for his taste. I could even go dancing without putting out a coat, gloves, and a scarf. I stare out the window at the dark; it’s only 5 pm. Ah Miami. Just daydreaming of it puts the Beach Boys in my head. And that awful Will Smith song Welcome to Miami. Guess it’s not all fun and games, especially with drooping sales from recent auctions. What a tease though!

Excuse my language (and blame the Met)

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but the Met has discovered the orginal ‘dickhead’. As I said, excuse the language. But it’s not my language, it’s on this plate. Look closely at the head.

This Renaissance Italian plate from 1536 is inscribed:

OGNI HOMO ME GUARDA COME FOSSE UNA TESTA DE CAZI
(Every man looks at me as if I were a dickhead).

Part of the exhibition Art and Love in Renaissance Italy, this example makes me wonder what exactly the curators are trying to communicate about love. The rest of the exhibition is safer, with some more stereotypical Venus and Cupid paintings and less phallic ceramics.
I would speculate that there are some angry females on the staff at the Met, except really, when else could you slip such an amusing piece into a show? Unless they devoted a show to phallic art, and goodness knows with all those Greek vases there is more than enough material. It makes me wonder what else the Met have stored in dusty corners of their warehouses.

Day Without Art

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Stupid! I completely forgot…

Today is AID’s awareness day, and to mark it many museums and art institutions throughout the country are covering pieces of art in black cloth, to memorialize the artists who have been lost to AIDs.

I was going to check the Met’s exhibitions, when I came across their featured work of the day:

I’m glad the rest of the world remembered.