If you haven’t been to the Morgan Library & Museum lately, then you might be under the impression that it’s a musty, gilded mansion stuck in the olden days, albeit laden with treasured works on paper. But one of the current shows, On the Money, shows that the Morgan has a sense of humor and a contemporary kick to go along with its airy Renzo Piano greenhouse addition. This comes hot on the heels of the wonderful and very popular Babar drawing show (also blogged about for SundayArts), which no doubt introduced the Morgan to a whole new generation of collectors.
The exhibition of original drawings of money-themed cartoons from The New Yorker magazine turns a mirror on this institution, begun as the private library of magnate Pierpont Morgan. Many of the cartoons poke “poor little rich guy” fun at tycoons, or the Wizard of Oz-like façade of executive work. Others hit all too close to home in this house-of-horrors economic climate. read more
Martha Rosler’s concise show at Mitchell-Innes & Nash, Great Power, encapsulates the weird state of our country, facing extremes of peace and war, prosperity and poverty. The most powerful element confronts the visitor straight away: a Dance Dance Revolution machine sits across from the gallery’s entrance, which is accessed by a 25¢ turnstile. Take your choice: escapism or reality. (You must pay, but the money goes to charity. Although I saw one guy jump the turnstile.)
In a series of photomontages, battle scenes from Iraq and Afghanistan are layered with chic fashion models. read more
Walking over to the shimmering New Museum to see the exhibition After Nature, I stepped over a dead baby bird on Prince Street, and then some oily treacle running down the Bowery. It was a suitable overture to the show, which “surveys a landscape… darkened by uncertain catastrophe.” This clever and terrifying collection of work from a broad timeframe is organized by Massimiliano Gioni, Director of Special Exhibitions at the New Museum. (See this special online version of the exhibition; click on the underlined words to move organically through the artworks.)
An anchor for the show is Werner Herzog’s film, And A Smoke Arose—Lessons of Darkness, about the burning of the Kuwaiti old fields by retreating Iraqi troops after the 1991 Gulf War. Many of the other artworks seem to record the aftermath or precedence of some traumatic event. read more
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