"Old School" at ZWIRNER & WIRTH

James Kalm bikes to East 69th Street to visit this very influential exhibition. Since the mid nineties, painters at the cutting edge have questioned the Modernist credo of abstraction and the ever diminishing qualities of the avant-garde. With little visible headway to be made by continuing along the reductive abstract or expressionistic paths, many young artists began looking to the past for inspiration and direction. This show pares the works of Old Masters with works by young artists who have sought to emulate and employ their means and methods to contemporary ends. This exhibition includes the works of some of today's most recognized artists like: Glenn Brown, John Currin, Hilary Harkness, Julie Heffernan, Elizabeth Peyton, Anj Smith, Jakub Julian Ziolkowski, and Old Masters like: Jan Brueghel the Elder, Pieter Brueghel the Younger and Lucas Cranach among many others

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• James
• Kalm
• Zwirner
• Wirth
• Glenn
• Brown
• John
• Currin
• Hilary
• Harkness
• Julie
• Heffernan
• Elizabeth
• Peyton
• painting
• drawing
• art

[jameskalm]

The point that Donald Kuspit was making in his article was basically that so much of the avant-garde's gravis is due to its investment in the "newest" the "latest" and the "hottest" thing. At some time everything's been done. A point I didn't make very well is that Kuspit is also promoting the idea of the "New Old Masterism" which I think is valid but is very similar to the "Trans-avant-garde", which was happening in the 1980s, when painting was once again rediscovered, thanks JK

[Th1nk13]

Get Morgan Freeman to narrate next time.

[clruane]

come on.....unnecessary gutter mouth. Your comment is common.

[claureic]

The confrontation between old masters and contemporary art is fashionable nowadays. At the Louvre they are commissioning Kiefer and Twombly (Braque already painted a ceiling 60 years ago). Nothing against it, as long as you don't pitch heavyweights against lightweights...and introduce blatant financial interests in the process (see Hirst's shark at the Met...).

[fredericduren]

diebenkorn worked in traditional manner at some points but with dramatically more original, creative, and exciting results. i'm thinking the plein air landscape series with the great colors.

hopper was alright. but old new masters? fuck that shit. never. reactionary avant-garde - it's all the same. it doesn't have to do with pushing the envelope. it has to do with trying to be unique to eventually make money.

[fredericduren]

whaz new knot much.

reactionary, blah. who really cares?

not me. rothko wasn't as into the masters as anyone? yes, he was.

this is a progression i see similar to daniel richter. i.e. return to new masters junk.

plenty of russian and chinese painters out there doing things like it's 1775!

[veuvecliquot]

best was cranach then harkness in my opinion. the brown sucked and the brueghel the elder was good but looked like a knockoff. yur voice is so hooooooot

[RonSchira]

I totally got that, the Garouste and Mariani reference, and Kuspit wrote on that too, those years past, I read it and think he is repeating himself, but I also believe a version of that movement is already in motion, you covered it with Neo Rauch, the Currin exhibit, Liz Peyton and others. Painting is embattled, but is in no way dead.

[RonSchira]

But James, isn't it inevitable that as the kids get older, life will creep in and they will enjoy some of those blues we elderly entertain. We can't ask them to grow up. The better ones will evolve on their own. Nice show, great reporting...

[martinhocosta]

Thanks for share this exibition! Is a very important show that i would like have opurtonity to visit. Is incredible the power of this comercial contemporay gallery to make a show that could easely be seen in any important museum.