New York Magazine art critic Jerry Saltz says the new Whitney Museum is showing up the rest of the New York art scene, WNYC’s Sean Rameswaram checked out a new exhibit at Sotheby’s that pairs work by prominent African-American artists with a soundtrack curated by rapper Drake, and we talk with Rebekah Maysles, daughter of the late documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles. They worked together on one of his last films, “Iris,” about the 93-year-old fashionista Iris Apfel — it's in theaters today.
Why MoMA is a huge disappointment and the Whitney gets it
Established museums almost never relocate — look how much trouble LACMA's gone through just to renovate part of its campus. So it's a big deal that the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City just moved from the Upper East Side of Manhattan to the borough's Meatpacking District.
Jerry Saltz, the senior art critic for New York Magazine, wrote a recent cover story about the new Whitney. He says he's "in love with what the building represents." On the day of the new Whitney's public opening, Saltz told us about the spectacle surrounding museums today, the crushing realities of trying to be an artist in New York and what the major New York museums would be like if they were your college friends.
Interview Highlights:
The Whitney's chief curator, Donna De Salvo, said that the Whitney "is not a building, it's an idea." What does she mean by that?
It's a beautiful quote, and it says a lot about the new Whitney, which is just spectacular and wowing people — at least in New York. It also says something about our bigger moment.
More and more, especially in New York, where our museums are very crowded, the building becomes a flashy, circus-like destination that's over-programmed — there's always something going on, you can always hear something from the next gallery and it's almost impossible to get any space for yourself just to look at art, talk to yourself while staring at inanimate objects and change the world.
I think the Whitney will be able to accommodate crowds, although it's not clear. What I think De Salvo meant is that the Whitney had a brilliant solution to this current plague of bad museum architecture: They built enough usable, beautiful space for the permanent collection and enough beautiful, usable space for contemporary art.
Previously, we've had MoMA, which is the Garden of Eden for all of us in the art world — it's where we're from — but the collection is almost being held hostage in inadequate, very disagreeable space, so you now have the greatest collection of modern art in the world in the worst conditions.
For people not in New York, describe the difference in personality between the Whitney, the Guggenheim, the Met and MoMA right now.
MoMA is that friend in college who had all the promise, all the gifts, had everything, and somehow got distracted by shiny money and big production and really didn't deliver on what you thought they would be.
The Guggenheim is that friend that has an amazing apartment but has no idea what to do with it, and they're always going off half-cocked and coming back with a big mess.
The Whitney is that friend that always needed money, had a lot of promise, was very old school, stayed up late, knew what was going on, but had the crappiest apartment ever. That has now shifted — suddenly the Whitney's collection looks tremendous, not embarrassing like the way American art is often looked upon, especially the early 20th century, and their commitment to art and artists seems off-the-charts spot-on. (The new Whitney is pictured below.)
The [Metropolitan Museum of Art, below] is Mecca, it's our Jerusalem. Even if The Met goes the full Tate and gets kind of glitzy and cheesy and it's packed, the Met will still be the Met. I'm never going to say a bad word about that museum. For me, it's my favorite encyclopedic museum in the world. Take that, Louvre! Nobody can navigate once they get under that stupid glass pyramid!
Let's take a step back from the museum itself to talk about the world for artists in New York. As friendly as the Whitney might be to artists, how hospitable is the city to artists, given the high cost of living and exhibition spaces?
You've just put your finger on part of the gift and the promise of the Whitney. Right now, I'm so jealous of you people in L.A. that I can't stand it. We all are — we love you, you hate us, and I don't know why.
You're just jealous! We don't hate you.
No, I'm totally jealous. I've always wanted to live there. I don't know why I can't, but I'm stuck here. If there are jobs there, call me. It's very expensive to live here. Do artists live here? Damn right they do. Is it hard? It's crushingly hard. It's crushing for any artist in New York right now.
They live in dumps out in the boroughs, but maybe that's the way we always lived — in no space, staying up late together, arguing, doing what they have to do. The point is that somehow the Whitney makes it feel like, Yeah, there is a place we could go that isn't just about hierarchy, power, money, that feels like it's fluid and open, and you forget for milliseconds that New York is too expensive for anyone to live in anymore.
Drake drops a new mixtape for Sotheby's, making clear he sees sex everywhere
The Sotheby’s Contemporary art gallery in New York presented its new exhibit with help from rapper Drake. “I Like It Like This” presents artwork from prominent African-American artists — including Basquiat and Terry Adkins — and pairs it with music handpicked by Drake. So while you’re admiring a Kehinde Wiley piece, you’ll also be getting crunk with a tune by Jay-Z and Kanye West.
Sean Rameswarem is the host of Sideshow, a podcast from Studio 360 at WNYC, and he talked with the Frame about his recent visit to the exhibit.
Interview Highlights
Let's talk about this shotgun marriage of Sotheby's, where the richest of the richest spend their waking hours shopping. Drake, in theory like a lot of his musical colleagues, represents the other 99 percent of the world. (Kind of.)
I think it's an attempt to bring in that 99 percent into the 1 percent's playground, but it's great for Sotheby's because a bunch of people want to come see [its] show now, which is open to the public until June 12, just to see what music Drake would want to listen to while looking at a Romare Bearden.
Terry Adkins, "Norfolk" (2012)
One of the things you learn walking through this exhibit is that Drake apparently sees sex everywhere he looks. There are very sexual portraits and images in this exhibit, but sometimes you're just looking at a drum and you're like, 'Drake, what were you thinking?' This must be why you can't maintain a relationship with anyone because you're just thinking about sex when you look at drums and grass.
Shuggie Otis - Aht Uh Mi Hed
What kind of future does Drake have or not have in the high-art world?
The really funny quote from Drake's publicist about this exhibit was, Drake isn't a great art collector, but he 'draws a lot of inspiration from visual artists.' So we can only hope that continues to happen because I am fond of his music, and if he's drawing inspiration from Kara Walker and Kehinde Wiley, then why not.
Another funny note is that a lot of the pairings made you sort of scratch your head. You'd see really abstract work paired with a random blues song, and it turns out that Sotheby's said [it] got it wrong and they mismatched a bunch of Drake's selections, which I find very hard to believe. They sent him a bunch of images and he sent back a bunch of songs, but they only had 20 to match and there were, like, 17 staff members in this exhibit when I went there. How could they have messed it up? I think they're dealing with some sort of blowback — people not approving of the pairings.
Albert Maysles' penultimate film tells the colorful story of 93-year-old style icon Iris Apfel
The new documentary “Iris” tells the story of New York textile designer turned fashion icon Iris Apfel.
The 93-year-old, with her outrageous and daring sense of style, has become a phenomenon in the design and fashion worlds. "Iris," which hits theaters today, is also one of the last movies from director Albert Maysles ("In Transit" is his final film).
Albert and his brother David Maysles (who died in 1987) collaborated on a number of documentaries, including "Gimme Shelter," about the last weeks of The Rolling Stones' 1969 U.S. tour, and "Grey Gardens," chronicling the everyday lives of two reclusive socialites who were related to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
The famed documentary filmmaker died in March at 88 years old, and according to his daughter Rebekah Maysles, was working up until a month before his death. Ms. Maysles collaborated with her father on a number of films and projects, along with "Iris" producer Laura Coxson.
Coxson and Maysles came by the Frame to talk about how Maysles came to collaborate with her father, the similarities between subject and filmmaker and the future of Maysles films in Albert's absence.
Interview Highlights:
On who Iris Apfel is:
Laura Coxson: I think its a little bit of a misconception that she's just fashion, because her career really began with her husband and Old World Weavers, which was a textile business. She also did a lot of interior designing. I think when she would go on these trips, she loves to shop, she's a professional shopper and haggler. We've almost missed flights... We took her to a vintage shop in Palm Beach we thought she'd like and we were there for five hours. Literally could not leave... She's not a fashion designer, she's a collector.
On how Albert Maysles and Iris Apfel hit it off:
Laura Coxson: They really had a love of noshing — I think that really brought them together, honestly. From the very beginning, Iris made sure everyone on the crew was fed. We shot a lot of parties that didn't make much sense, but I would watch Iris corralling the food people to bring food to Albert. There was a lot of generosity and taking care of each other on the shoots.
On the similarities between Iris and Albert Maysles:
Rebekah Maysles: I think that there's something about when people do things that look, they make it look really easy, but there's actually a lot of thought and a lot of structure behind it, and I think that's definitely true of Iris and it's definitely true of Al. The way that they're really good at the craft that they do and they've learned to do it over years, I think that's very similar. Also the fact that they're both much older than anyone that's around them...He worked until a month before he passed away. I can't imagine what it's like to be in a room where you're surrounded by 20- to 30-year-olds and you're 80 or 90 years old. I think that also really excited both Al and Iris.
On the future of Maysles Films, the production company her father started:
Rebekah Maysles: When I watch "Iris" and I watch "In Transit," which is another film that he finished in the last year of his life, I think Maysles Film ... the films that they made have a lot of heart to them, and ... I think it would be insane to think that that could continue without Al. I think that the legacy of his work can continue... but I don't think there's any cameraman like Al that could make a Maysles film... I just think that he has a personal touch that I can't imagine can continue.