AzaNYa
by Joost Bosland
Naked art dealers and global forums
The biggest legal scandal to hit the New York artworld in years had an interesting link to South Africa.
Early in March, the talk of the town was a court case involving The Project, a gallery representing many fresh, young, sought-after artists. In return for an investment, the gallery had promised a certain Mr. Lehmann first pick for all of its shows. Problems arose when Lehmann really wanted a painting by Ethiopian-born artist Julie Mehretu, but was not offered any; while other major players snapped up work after work.
The link I promised you is not that Ethiopia and South Africa are both on the same continent.
The owner of The Project is Christian Haye. When I recently attended an opening at his galley it dawned on me: without realising it, I have had a picture of a naked Mr. Haye on my wall.
Remember the poster for 'Decade of Democracy'? The Tracey Rose photograph taken in the National Gallery, emulating Rodin's The Kiss? The man in whose lap the artist is sitting is her American dealer: Mr. Haye.
The judgment in the case awarded the complainant $1.7 million. The Rose photograph is probably still up at Iziko SANG... next time you walk past it, say a little prayer for the survival of The Project.
P.S. 1 is a non-collecting institution dedicated to contemporary art affiliated with the MoMA. Currently showing is 'Greater New York 2005,' a survey exhibition of artists based in New York that have emerged in the past five years. Part of the show is Kenyan artist Wangechi Mutu, someone with whom South Africans might be familiar from the 2nd Johannesburg Biennale.
Mutu's work,Once upon a time there lived a people who loved to kill, but even more they relished watching one another die..., is a stunning installation.
Across three walls, a pattern of bullet holes is surrounded by creepy half-human moths. The moths, with broomstick bristles for antennae, have women's legs cut out from fashion magazines. A little bench is placed some distance from the walls, with an upside-down bottle of wine suspended from the ceiling.
I have not made sense of it entirely yet, but it is without a doubt one of the most poetic and haunting works in the entire 162 artist exhibition.
While almost the entire building is dedicated to 'Greater New York,' one staircase was left untouched. That staircase features a site-specific installation by New York's favourite South African artist, William Kentridge, entitled Staircase Procession.
Life-size cut-outs of figures, like those found in his other Procession pieces, are pasted against the walls of the warehouse-style staircase. It has been in place since 2000.
Yes, Kentridge is everywhere. However, another South African artist is hard underway to overtake his pole position. Marlene Dumas' work has been selling for record prices at recent auctions, and currently has a show featuring paintings from 1987 through the present at her New York gallery Zwirner & Wirth. The New York Times dedicated an entire page to her on Sunday March 27. And of course, she is included in Saatchi's pretentious 'Triumph of Painting' show.
Watch out for a review of the exhibition at Zwirner & Wirth next month.
Another show that I will review for next month's issue is 'Imprints: Works on Paper' at the Axis Gallery; a Manhattan gallery entirely dedicated to South African art. With a line-up featuring Brett Murray, Sam Nhlengetwa and David Goldblatt and quite a few other big names, it will be of great interest.
Absolutely of great interest is a current exhibition of contemporary Indian art jointly shown at the Asia Society and the Queens Museum, 'Edge of Desire'. The two-venue exhibition is accompanied by a season of activities focusing on India.
There are strong parallels between the debates concerning contemporary Indian artistic practice and those pertaining to contemporary South African art. It got me thinking. A Non-Aligned Countries Movement forum on Art Theory would be a spectacular idea: I, for one, would be delighted to be excluded.
[There was supposed to be a UNESCO-funded conference in Addis Ababa in May to look at this sort of thing but UNESCO withdrew funding at the last minute after everything had been arranged, speakers invited and papers written. -Ed.}
Let me end with an exhibition I saw not in New York City but in Durham, North Carolina, where my university - Duke - is located. I had to visit my home institution for several reasons, but my position as ArtThrob correspondent was not one of them.
I was a little surprised to hear that Paul Weinberg's exhibition 'Traveling Light' was on show. It turned out that Weinberg is currently pursuing his MA at Duke. Unfortunately, I failed to meet with the laurelled photographer as I was in town only for a couple of days, and he was busy shooting a documentary of SA expats in North Carolina.
I once again realised that Azania is everywhere. AzaNYa, however, can only be found on ArtThrob. As my semester in New York is coming to a close, next month's column will be my last. So let me say it one last time:
More AzaNYa next month.
