~LOREN MUNK . . PIX FROM THE OPENING
LOREN MUNK – ‘YOU ARE HERE’
opened SAT, FEB 15, 2014
the show runs thru MARCH 15, 2014
FREIGHT+VOLUME – 530 WEST 24th ST , CHELSEA, NYC
LOREN MUNK, painter and video/archivist, at center, with . . KATE AUGENBLICK, and NICK LAWRENCE.
also at the opening, ERIK DEN BREEJEN.
Erik Den Breejen is also a ‘brute’, as in high contrast colorist, and he also works with hand-lettered fonts, and diagramming ‘cultural’ info / via pure ‘text’, so . . it was interesting to see him here.
Erik told me . . . he has a show of new work coming up at FREIGHT+VOLUME in about 2 months . .
interestingly, he also told me he had visited LOREN MUNK’S studio, and that . . “Loren has painted a pretty good ‘map’ of the cutting edge / ‘contemporary’ artist scene in Williamsburg”, or as he put it . . . “well, I mean, I’m on it.” !!
I’m taking that . . as a ‘yes’ !!
the very ‘painterly’ information graphics were set out in different ways, some like ribbons, and streamers, some like maps, some like puzzles.
LOREN MUNK, ‘Armory Century’, 2012-2013. oil on linen, 72 x 66 in.
($28,000)
‘Armory Century’ was presented as a American geographic-style . . ‘map’.
it held quite a bit of info . . & history.
WILLIAM DE KOONING holds his first one man show at CHARLES EGAN GALLERY, 1948.
MARCEL DUCHAMP arrives in NYC, from PARIS, 1915.
SEPTEMBER 11th, 2001 – THE WORLD TRADE CENTERS are crashed down, makes the cut !!
hello, my young friends . . at 15 WARREN STREET !!
LOREN MUNK, ‘CLEMENT GREENBERG (large)’, 2005-2006. oil on linen. 48 x 72 in.
($16,000)
I found this one, particularly interesting, mostly because of the overall composition, which centered on the simple, but spirited . . cartoon-like portrait of CLEMENT GREENBERG, and the way the pictorial/narrative focus on .. a single, individual ‘player’. . evolved.
although all the work in the exhibit pulsed with an ‘outsiders’ obsession, and seemed infused with a American folk art-like character, this one seemed to have an almost ‘Russian’ revolutionary poster ‘feel’, and alluded well to the European roots of modern art.
the color and ‘font’ work was also . . very compelling.
‘insider/outsider’ . . is harder to define these days, so it was also intriguing to look back with Loren Munk . . at the days when the art world was so much ‘simpler’, kind of a big . . ole boys club.
CLEMENT GREENBERG, ‘Born in the Bronx .. Jan 16, 1909.’
the timeline was fascinating. that’s more than a hundred years . . ago !!
‘1933 WORKS AS A TRAVELING SALESMAN’ . . .
the next date highlighted is: ‘1950 meets HELEN FRANKENTHALER.’
LOREN MUNK, ‘DEAD WRITE’, 2010. oil on linen, 60 x 36 in.
($12,000)
one of the smaller pieces in the show, it also was the only one to reference 2 cutting edge, but yes, DEAD !! superstars.
splayed out . . on a map of Manhattan.
JEAN MICHEL BASQUIAT . . 1960-1988, 57 Great Jones St.
DASH SNOW . . 1981-2009, Lafayette Hotel, 38 East 4th St.
ROBERT STORR.
haha. my young friends .. at YALE !!
the painting was a chart, a diagram that opposed dead artists on the left, with living ‘writers’ on the right.
my old boss at artnet, WALTER ROBINSON . . . made the cut.
but, like the painting bold proclaims at the bottom:
“NO CORRELATION IS IMPLIED.”
LOREN MUNK, ‘The Irascibles’, 2008. oil on canvas, 26 x 36 in.
($6,500)
this was also a very unique piece, in that it centered on an almost primitive / photographic rendering of a ‘group’, and took the form of a ‘riddle’.
I mean, who the hell . . were the Irascibles ? and I do (!!) have a masters degree in fine art & and decades of being immersed in the art scene !!
so, in a way, this piece was the most . . ‘interactive’ to me, in that, I wanted to rush home, and do . . some research !!
what a bunch of . . characters.
I only knew the answer to one (!!) question.
the top one: JACKSON POLLOCK.
can YOU . . answer this ?
‘As of this date, December 2007, the last surviving member of “the Irascibles’ and the only female. Unfortunately her work has been excluded from the canon of postwar American art.’
answer: HEDDA STERNE, and yes, checkout: HEDDA STERNE
wow, she lived to be . . 100 !!
she died in NYC in 2011.
check out: her work, Loren .. is right. unfortunate x 100,000.
looking back at art . . with LOREN MUNK.
a lot of ‘dead’ stuff . . comes vividly back to life, with renewed relevance – and hopefully a new . . ‘take’.
these paintings are as colorful & inventive, as they are ‘informative’ . .
for sure, they take . . ‘flight’ – as ‘art’ in their own: right / write.
& yes, you want to check out: The Irascibles, a group of American abstract painters . . who in 1950 wrote an open letter rejecting the MET exhibit ‘American Painting Today’, and set .. NYC and, art history . . into a tail spin !!
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH