This couldn’t be a more timely review of heavy weight constructivists at a time when the term, and meaning of the movement are constantly being thrown around (See Shepard Fairey/ObamArt).  The ideas of constructivism are often not sited directly as the movement itself and ideas behind it are often lost in the coopting of the term for the needed purpose.  That’s precisely what makes the Tate show so special.  You can see first hand, what the movement was about, how it was embodied in these two leading figures and how its spirit was defined by the philosophy that drove this work.

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The Constructivists challenged the idea of the work of art as a unique commodity, explored more collective ways of working, and looked at how they could contribute to everyday life through design, architecture, industrial production, theatre and film.  In addition, constructivists sought to speak directly to the ‘common man’  and give something tangible through art to everyone.

Of course, one might argue that figuration and representation are a more common language than abstraction, but constructivism at its core has a rather Utopian world view.  A new Russian Utopia, rising from the ashes of its past.

For more info on this be sure to check out the Tate exhibit in person or online here.

There are also some good articles on the subject here:

Two Coats of Paint

The Times UK

The Times Waldemar Januszczak

For some insight into the “Not What You Think” campaign, take a look at their flickr page

From the Reader by Alison True

The Bird Machine’s Jay Ryan will be on the panel judging the Chicago Public Library’s design contest. The library’s trolling for a poster to promote its new url, chipublib.org, and its Not What You Think campaign, which the library says “challenges perceptions and highlights the library’s less well-known free services such as music and audiobook downloads, new release DVDs, and free Wi-Fi.”

Entrants need to be “residents of the Chicagoland area eligible for a Chicago Public Library card.” Click here for the rest of the offical rules of entry.

And for profiles of many of the artists who could enter, and samples of their work, here’s a screenprinting scene roundup by Liz Armstrong.

Jim DeRogatis has a post about Chicago rocker and Visa spokesperson Billy Corgan speaking before Congress about the so-called Performance Rights Act, with which the music industry hopes to extract money from radio stations for playing their music.

Radio pays songwriters a “publishing” fee, but there’s no “performance” equivalent. That is, Pepsi spokesperson Bob Dylan gets a few pennies each time Hendrix’s “All Along the Watchtower” is played on a terrestrial radio station, but the Hendrix estate gets nothing.

… nor, incidentally, does Warner Brothers, which is really what all this is about. I’m not sure how these payments would break down. I assume it’s a performance fee rather than royalty, meaning the artist might typically get half of the payments rather than a much smaller fraction. Will research and report back.

As DeRo notes, the argument against the bill is that radio sells records with all the free airplay; songwriters get hosed all sorts of ways and so deserve their pittance, but the artist on the label is the one getting all the benefits of being played on the radio.

There’s no better illustration of this than the fact that the music industry spent hundreds of millions of dollars on payola to get radio stations to play their artists.

Seems a little churlish for them now to be taking the other tack.

If Congress had vision it would fashion the payments only to the artists themselves, the people who play on the CDs, working around the labels entirely.

The dynamic that seems to be unfolding in the industry is that the RIAA is using its waning days of influence to grandfather in some payments that will artificially keep the labels alive after technological changes have passed them by entirely. Congress should pass on the idea just on that basis alone.

With a Columbia MBA in hand, Michelle Brotherton offers up the Haute Librarian.  A wonderful New York City based service that helps the cultured and non-cultured alike, in finding, building or expanding a personal library.

I’m sure the Haute Librarian would also be a great resource for the movie, stage, or television prop crowd or the expanding business that needs to fill space, but doesn’t have the time to hand select every book.

Check out the Haute Librarian

Their current project was commissioned by the Andy Warhol Museum and the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.  The Screen Tests are silent film portraits that Andy Warhol shot at the Factory between 1964 and 1966. The subjects – both famous and anonymous – were visitors to Warhol’s studio.

The live show is a multi-media presentation, where Dean and Britta perform onstage with their band ( Anthony Lamarca and Matt Sumrow), while the Warhol films are projected overhead. 13 Most Beautiful… will be released on DVD by Plexifilm in April, 2009.

From Chicago MCA website

Indie pop darlings Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips bring their languid lyrics and hypnotic harmonies to Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests, rarely seen silent film portraits of fixtures of the 1960s New York art scene, including many well known celebrities such as Edie Sedgwick, Lou Reed, and Baby Jane Holzer. This multimedia performance features large-scale video projections with live music by Dean & Britta and their band.

Dean & Britta
13 Most Beautiful… Songs from Andy Warhol’s ‘Screen Tests’
March 7, 2009
New show added

Saturday, March 7, 7:30 pm  SOLD OUT
Saturday, March 7, 10 pm

Tickets $25, MCA members $20
Buy Tickets Online

Needless to say, he’s an incredibly interesting character and as a bonus, he’s got some really great art too.  Surprisingly, there’s a good amount of info online about the artist.  Its hard to tell where fact and fiction overlap, diverge and even fade into fantasy.  A line the artist was very careful in blurring.

Check out the show at PS.1

A good New York Times article from 1990 at Gino

Gino De Dominicis: Invisibility and Immortality

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Bio

Gino De Dominicis was born in 1947 in Ancona, Italy and lived in Rome until his death in 1998. He had many solo exhibitions, including Galleria L’Attico, Rome, Italy (1970, 1971, 1974); Galleria Pieroni, Roma (1979); Galleria Pio Monti, Rome (1977, 1980); Galleria Toselli, Milan (1995); Galleria Mazzoli, Modena (1998);  Palazzo Taverna, Rome, Italy (1972, 1977); Galleria Lia Rumma, Naples, Italy (1988); The Murray and Isabella Rayburn Foundation, New York, NY (1989); Centre National d’Art Contemporaine, Grenoble, France (1990); His work has been included in group shows, including Biennale Internatzionale della Giovane Pittura, Bologna, Italy (1970); VII Biennale de Paris, Parc Floral de Paris, Bois de Vincennes, Paris (1971) ; Documenta V, Kassel, Germany (1972); 8th Biennale de Paris, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville et Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris (1973); Italy two: Art around ’70, Museum of Philadelphia Civic Center, Philadelphia (1973); Prospectretrospect Europe 1946-1976, Stadtische Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf, Germany (1976); 40th Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy (1980); Identité italienne, l’art en Italie depuis 1959, Centre George Pompidou, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris (1981);Fiera d’Arte Contemporanea Internazionale, Milan, Italy (1988); 44th Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy (1990); 45th Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy (1995); 47th Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy (1997).

If you’re in the area and want to see one of the best bands to ever rock the U.S. by way of Sweden, come on out and join the party.  TSOOL puts on a great show, and if want to know more about them, just google them already.   They are supporting their new album, Communion, and will be performing one night only. 

Here’s a recent video release by the band for a Sister Surround, featured on Behind the Music.

the band website

http://www.doubledoor.com/

Friday 13 March 2009 at 9:00pm

JANUARY 16 – MARCH 21, 2009

Works on paper by:

Stuart Davis, Lazlo Maholy-Nagy, Burgoyne Diller, Ralston Crawford, Jose de Rivera, David Smith, Ellsworth Kelly, Agnes Martin, Al Held, Frank Stella, Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt, Richard Serra, Brice Marden, Robert Mangold,
Dorothea Rockburne, Richard Tuttle, Fred Sandback, Joel Shapiro, Peter Halley

website
Geometry

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All images © 2003-8 Russell Bowman Art Advisory, all rights reserved

If we were a bank and had say billions of bailout dollars…..here are just a few things that would be coming home with us.

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Here’s all the info if you happen to find yourself in the area:

Sunday, March 8th, 2009
John Toomey Gallery
818 North Boulevard
Oak Park, IL
10:00 am
708 • 383 • 5234

Treadway-Toomey Galleries

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