Our pal Steve DiB encountered Serra when they were both involved in a Matthew Barney movie. Later he ran into him at an opening and tried to start a conversation with “we were in the same movie.” Serra looked at him, said “I know”, and turned away. But they say Mantegna was a real jerk, and 500 years later no one holds it against his art.
Saltz’s review is pretty good. I recall that our man Jim (without much contemporary art background) was impressed by Switch. It was engaging and surprising in a visceral, perceptual capacity, working on mind and body at a level that precedes interpretation. Some people will always resent too much money, too much size, and work that’s supported by both, but I think Serra is more subtle than he’s often given credit for, although he certainly represents the continuation of a great American tradition of big violent art that goes back to Abstract Expressionism. It’s easy to understand why a generation brought up on special effects movies and cosmic-scale comic books would respond.
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Saltz’s review is pretty good. I recall that our man Jim (without much contemporary art background) was impressed by Switch. It was engaging and surprising in a visceral, perceptual capacity, working on mind and body at a level that precedes interpretation. Some people will always resent too much money, too much size, and work that’s supported by both, but I think Serra is more subtle than he’s often given credit for, although he certainly represents the continuation of a great American tradition of big violent art that goes back to Abstract Expressionism. It’s easy to understand why a generation brought up on special effects movies and cosmic-scale comic books would respond.
- alex 4-13-2004 9:38 pm