'Avante-Garde', 'Schmavant-Garde'

`Avant-Garde' Artists Come in From the Cold (War) By STEPHEN KINZER ELLESLEY, Mass. (For NYT) —

"Although the 1950's are often described as somnolent years in the United States, they were also a time of artistic ferment, when dissonant music and abstract painting burst into the public consciousness.

But in recent years some scholars and curators have come to believe that this ferment was not really so radical, and that although these artists considered themselves consummate outsiders, their work often served to promote rather than subvert mainstream values.

The case is made at the Davis Museum and Cultural Center at Wellesley College here in an exhibition called "Cold War Modern: The Domesticated Avant-Garde." The show, which runs through June 17, links artistic innovators not to a tiny adventurous audience but to the mass culture of the times."

Garbage in, garbage out?
The human genome turns out to be more, and less, than expected.
blog you and for help
While we're waiting on a response from Wheel regarding French Chef gone Veggie, and I can't think of anything to say about the recent arrival of my free (even for the unasking, apparently) National Rifle Association membership card, I wanted to mention that today in New Orleans I was in a garage on that cul-de-sac in the sedately monied gated community of English Turn, and on this cul-de-sac two of the seven? homes are owned by the rap music producing brothers who call themselves the Cash Money Millionaires, and while I only had to paint a small part of the garage ceiling I was therefore left with a considerable piece of time in this comfortable if somewhat staid environment, with its natural looking man-made pond, to stand about in the driveway and ponder what an outlandish mix of people we Americans are (and then briefly I was to notice that of the many vehicles in one of the Cash Money driveways there was that same dowdy looking late model Cadillac those incognito Rices were driving last week), and then I went back into the garage to make sure I had wiped up the spilt paint and to once again check the (yep, still) locked door of the Eurocooler? wine refrigerator because I had wanted to check some labels to throw at the Wheel for identification (so I could pretend to know something about wine should I ever make the "A" list of invitees to important NRA functions), but in the end all I can ask him is this--56 degrees, is that about the right temperature to keep your wines? I have also been ruminating recently about the mustard greens vs. barbeque ribs issue, and am on the ready if need be to discuss that also.
I am experiencing (have noticed for a few days) a wackiness in the archives of all pages having them. Is this a singular experience do you think?
I forgot to take the paper home with me, but the NY Times weekend section has a big article on a 3 star French Chef who has gone veggie, much to the horror of French people everywhere. Do you know about this Wheel?
Jan Dibbets, 'Early Works' @ Gladstone 515 w 24th, through 2/14 by Roberta Smith for NYT

"In the late 1960's and early 70's, Post-Minimalist and Conceptual artists of all stripes picked up the camera to record earthworks, performances and temporary installations. But few used it with the strict yet subtly witty formalist intent of Jan Dibbets, a prominent Dutch artist who is 60 and has been showing in New York since 1969."
Saint of circumstance?
mykoweb
I'm going to go out on a limb and claim the lead in February's strange search request category with this one from 2/1/2001: http://www.google.com/search?q=endoscope+porn

Anyone care to top that?
"Mesmerizing images whose meanings are up to the viewer." (!?) Of course they are refering to Rudi Stern and his amazing multimedia production "Theater of Light".
love my new vaio!! its fast:>)
Genesis P-Orridge, instigator of "industrial music" and a true techno-pagan avatar, has a visual art show opening this Saturday, February 10, at Team Gallery.
Be there, or be oblong.
Speaking of parrot(head)s...
again in the french vein, everything i and others have tried has been taste-e and now five locations** Le Pain Quotidien ** 833 Lexington Avenue (between 63rd and 64th street,1131 Madison Avenue (between 84th and 85th street), 100 Grand Street (near corner of Mercer Street), 1336 First Avenue (between East 71st and 72nd), 50 West 72nd Street (between Colombus & Central park West)--bring home a bag of granola!!
sunday pundits?? no, another kind of squawkbox.
linked off a drat fink post SMILE
The new trend in New York area galleries and museums is claiming a show is "digital" whether it is or not. "Glee," a slightly-above-average abstract painting show that closed January 7 at the Aldrich Museum, began its press release with paeans to the Internet, Y2K, and the "digital revolution," then waited until paragraph 2 to mention that the show was about "artists' renewed confidence in painting in the face of new visual technologies." (The strategy worked--it led Tim Griffin, art editor of _Time Out New York_ to inattentively include "Glee" in his fall roundup of digital shows.) Griffin himself then curated "Compression," (which also closed in January) at Feigen Contemporary, including Michelle Grabner (painter), Diti Almog (painter), Dike Blair (sculptor/installation artist), and some artists who use computers, all tied together with dialogue about "image compression technology," "flagship stores," and "economic mainframe(s)." Now we have "Jello," curated by artnet columnist Max Henry (through Feb. 17 at Frederieke Taylor, 535 W 22, NYC), which claims to be based on a "coalescing digital zeitgeist," even though only 3 out of 11 artists work with digital media. The show's highlight, digitally speaking, is Daren Kendall's video, in which strategically cropped and Rorschached footage of a high school wrestling match yields a very funny post-human blob of multiplying heads and arms--equal parts Paul Pfeiffer, Jerry Uelsmann, and H. P. Lovecraft. Unfortunately, the "digital zeitgeist" simply isn't big enough to include Charles Long's orange-extension-cord-with-elephantiasis, a Dan Flavin light bulb (!), and all the weak paintings Henry packed into the show.

--Hector Pitts

monsters of christian rock