Jonathan Meese DictatorBaby at BORTOLAMI

James Kalm encounters yet another of the "Young German Painters" who have monopolized sizable chunks of Chelsea's exhibition space during the last two months. Jonathan Meese along with André Butzer, Daniel Richter and Neo Rauch, all seem focused on restoring a type of massive painterly expressionism which has been sourly lacking from kowtowed New York artists. DICTATORBABY... is Meese's parody of an assimilation of politics by art. These heavily pigmented mixed media works present a whimsical take on cultural hegemony with startlingly fascistic implications. Meese fashions his works with an amalgam of Post Punk, Ab-Ex and Germanic military imagery. Most surprising is a group of recently completed sculpture witch demonstrates his feel for mass surface and presents a disturbing memorial to war dead.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• James
• Kalm
• Jonathan
• Meese
• Bortolami
• art
• gallery
• painting
• drawing
• sculpture
• German
• Expressionism
• abstraction
• Nazi
• imagery

[jameskalm]

Meese, Butzer, Richter (Daniel) and Rauch have all had major shows in New York in the last month or two, all showing huge oil paintings. It's almost like NYC has punked-out and ceded this territory (grand painting) to the Europeans. If ever there was a glaring sign that NY ain't the capital of the art world anymore, this is it. JK

[MrWowforever]

albert oehlen looms large here, meese has a lot of energy and that is great. i saw the butzer show in person, i was so disappointed. rauch and d. richter are good painters. new york has nozkowski, ryman, heilmann, lasker and estes...were still in the game:) but i agree the grand size is big in germany(leipzig)

[jameskalm]

I have to believe there's still "grand painting" going on here, but nobody has the guts (economic bravado) to show it. All the artists you mention (except Lasker) are probably in their mid-late sixties or older. (Nothing against maturity) Seems young artists are only interested in pursuing the "Academy of the Market", not a good sign. Estes? JK

[MrWowforever]

the last whitney biannual is proof of your point, mr. kalm. no one is showing painting in new york in the big shows right now. i think some of the painters i mentioned deserve the spotlight. just my opinion.

[jameskalm]

Like I said: there's gotta be "Grand Painting" why isn't Chelsea showing it? I know all the folks you mention (there're "Kalm Reports" on most of em) but "the powers that be" seem to have dictated the invisibility of serious "big painting" preferring kindergarten crap.

Also there's more that a bit of market motivation/manipulation involved (I know the inside scoop), so do you.

[misternylon]

So much talent in New York alone, and they are showing this garbage. Meese is a clever talker a manipulator, almost a Schnabel wannabe but putting his name up there with Rauch and Richter is undeserved.

Geographical location is not the gauge of your place in art, what is it Germany flavour of the month?

[miljenko1]

I sense Tàpies in his work...

[miljenko1]

5:33 Yes, its Sean Connery, but whats important is that its Zardoz, one of the trippiest SF films ever made.

[bluegoose555]

All hail the new shlock meister!

[HitAltF4Please]

jonathan meese stuffed that banana in the sculpture´s mouth on the first day of the exhibition, you can see it in a video, although it´s german. just type "jonathan meese eine ameise der kunst teil 4" :)

nice video, i like the calm voice.

greetings from Luxembourg, Europe.

L H

[NicolaRedwooddforest]

Thank you for this great walk through the museum. Thank you for sharing the exhibit with the public. It' very important that art is shown worldwide, not only in New York or other big cities, but also and particularly there where people usually don't get to see art like in rural USA and other rural places in the world. YouTube is a great medium for this. I hope that big artists like Meese are going to show their art in non intellectual communities as well. I wish I could find sponsors for this.

[tieber1]

...ein Großer unserer Zeit!!

[PurpleILL]

thats what he intend to do... to tire him out

[hankjunior]

Blitzkrieg !