Roberta Smith , Art In Review, The New York Times, October 15, 2004
‘Before the End (The Last Painting Show)'
Swiss Institute-Contemporary Art
495 Broadway, at Broome Street
SoHo
Through Oct. 23
This informative little show of work from the 1960's was more excavated than organized by the abstract painter Olivier Mosset. It was shown last spring at Le Consortium, an alternative space in Dijon, France. Featuring rarely exhibited works, it reveals 10 first-generation Conceptualists edging their way out of painting toward less material forms of art.
Monochromes are a popular exit strategy, used by Ian Burn in "Blue Reflex" (lustrous dark blue car lacquer on plywood) and by Ian Wilson in "Red Square" (red pigment on fiberglass). Jan Dibbets's farewell takes the form of a stack of eight small, pastel-colored canvases displayed on the floor. Lawrence Weiner takes leave with a tiny red-and-yellow shaped canvas that suggests the work of Frank Stella, as well as the graphic punch of his own Conceptual text wall pieces.
One of the biggest surprises is a relief by Douglas Huebler dated 1964: its aggressively scaled washboard surface and gray monochrome suggest extrapolations from works by Robert Morris and Donald Judd that are so rapid as to be simultaneous.
Brian Sholis, Artforum.com, September/October 2004
SWISS INSTITUTE
495 Broadway, 3rd floor, 212 925-2035 x17
September 14–October 23
This first-rate collection of paintings from the mid-'60s, an expanded version of a show seen earlier this year in Dijon, is by a group of artists later (and better) known for Conceptual works in a variety of media. Dated 1962 to 1967, the works back up Lucy Lippard's chronology of the art object's dematerialization; indeed the canvas, when used at all, is treated more as a thing than a surface. Jan Dibbets stacks eight of them, in a gentle gradation of painted color, on the floor; Michael Asher wraps his around a stretcher that extends from the wall at a 45-degree angle; Robert Barry mounts his diminutive work at the exact mid-point of the back wall. In 1963, Douglas Huebler, like Donald Judd, was painting wooden wall reliefs; the example included here furthers our knowledge (already enhanced by this summer's Minimalism survey at MoCA in Los Angeles) of his early development. By 1965, Art & Language was using the latter to generate the former; Painting-Sculpture plays on the open-ended nature of the moment. Most, if not all, of the included artists turned away from painting during the ensuing years, whereas Olivier Mosset, the curator, stuck to his brush—a fact that may account for this subdued, elegantly installed show's slightly nostalgic air.
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‘Before the End (The Last Painting Show)'
Swiss Institute-Contemporary Art
495 Broadway, at Broome Street
SoHo
Through Oct. 23
This informative little show of work from the 1960's was more excavated than organized by the abstract painter Olivier Mosset. It was shown last spring at Le Consortium, an alternative space in Dijon, France. Featuring rarely exhibited works, it reveals 10 first-generation Conceptualists edging their way out of painting toward less material forms of art.
Monochromes are a popular exit strategy, used by Ian Burn in "Blue Reflex" (lustrous dark blue car lacquer on plywood) and by Ian Wilson in "Red Square" (red pigment on fiberglass). Jan Dibbets's farewell takes the form of a stack of eight small, pastel-colored canvases displayed on the floor. Lawrence Weiner takes leave with a tiny red-and-yellow shaped canvas that suggests the work of Frank Stella, as well as the graphic punch of his own Conceptual text wall pieces.
One of the biggest surprises is a relief by Douglas Huebler dated 1964: its aggressively scaled washboard surface and gray monochrome suggest extrapolations from works by Robert Morris and Donald Judd that are so rapid as to be simultaneous.
Brian Sholis, Artforum.com, September/October 2004
SWISS INSTITUTE
495 Broadway, 3rd floor, 212 925-2035 x17
September 14–October 23
This first-rate collection of paintings from the mid-'60s, an expanded version of a show seen earlier this year in Dijon, is by a group of artists later (and better) known for Conceptual works in a variety of media. Dated 1962 to 1967, the works back up Lucy Lippard's chronology of the art object's dematerialization; indeed the canvas, when used at all, is treated more as a thing than a surface. Jan Dibbets stacks eight of them, in a gentle gradation of painted color, on the floor; Michael Asher wraps his around a stretcher that extends from the wall at a 45-degree angle; Robert Barry mounts his diminutive work at the exact mid-point of the back wall. In 1963, Douglas Huebler, like Donald Judd, was painting wooden wall reliefs; the example included here furthers our knowledge (already enhanced by this summer's Minimalism survey at MoCA in Los Angeles) of his early development. By 1965, Art & Language was using the latter to generate the former; Painting-Sculpture plays on the open-ended nature of the moment. Most, if not all, of the included artists turned away from painting during the ensuing years, whereas Olivier Mosset, the curator, stuck to his brush—a fact that may account for this subdued, elegantly installed show's slightly nostalgic air.
- bill 12-01-2004 9:49 pm