We all envy professional artists and athletes since they have managed to make a living by playing whereas the rest of us poor slobs must earn our keep by working. This is not to say that athletes or artists have an easy or a happy-go-lucky life. They do not. But they do remain childlike and playful throughout their lives in order to remain creative. This is why so many flock to museums and ballparks. We, the fans, admire and envy all those who have figured out how to make money by playing.
Picasso’s greatest secret was to remain playful throughout his life. A good example of Picasso at play is the giant sculpture of a woman’s head in Chicago.
And so this week I went to Manhattan to see this year’s Whitney Biennial, which shows us the best in contemporary American art over the last two years. I was pleased to see that the show has moved away from politics, photography and video and has gotten back to reviewing painting and painters which is what most museum goers want to see. When you observe painting, you are immediately connected to the artist and his work without any technological go between.
I will give you some examples of the artists in the show;
- Suzanne Jackson: This 80-year-old African-American woman has been a ballerina, poet, professor and important visual artist. She received her MFA from Yale and her abstract expressionist work is characterized by a layering of acrylics that is so thick it does not require a canvas but instead is hung from the ceiling like a sculpture. Her work gives one a sense of gravitas and pure creativity.
- Mavis Pusey: Pusey’s work is geometric in nature and has been inspired by the buildings in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan that have been demolished or constructed. Her work reminded me of a feminine version of Frank Stella.
- Takada Yamaguchi: Yamaguchi was born in Japan but has lived in Los Angeles since 1978. She received her MFA from University of California at Berkeley. Her work has been described as borrowing from American transcendentalism, Mexican muralism, Art Nouveau and Japanese decorative art. Her latest creations are forms borrowed from the sea but rendered and reduced to their purest design form.
- Mary Lovelace O’Neal: This 82-year-old artist and professor at the University of California at Berkeley had some amazing pieces of art in the show. One of her most astonishing pieces in the show was titled “”Twelve Thirty-Four” (from the Doctor Alcocer’s Corsets for Horses series) and immediately reminded of three truly great works of art. Initially when I looked at this large canvas, I thought of Jackson Pollack’s “She Wolf” with the odd wolf-like figure in the middle. Then as I looked more carefully I began to see the image of Robert Rauschenberg’s “Monograph” combine with that strange goat with the tire around its stomach. Then I could see Jean Michel Basquiat’s last work, “Riding with Death,” alluded to in the way “Twelve Thirty-Four’ seemed to be unfinished. Any artist who can produce a work that conjures up great masterpieces from the past has got to be a master herself.
All in all, the show was a wonder featuring great American artists at play. The Whitney has finally returned to featuring artists who actually paint and has veered away from videographers, political statements, photography and A.I. nonsense. Three cheers for this year’s Biennial and for the staff at the Whitney that has returned to showcasing real painters.
You may have noticed that the four main artists of the show were all woman. Move over, Jasper John’s; so long, Julian Schnabel; and sayonara, David Salle. It’s time to make way for the long-forgotten ladies of the art world.
