I really think Paula Cooper emulated Leo Castelli. In trying to understand the gallery scene in terms of photo ops, the upcoming opening at 7 Pell Street, curated by Hash Halper, showing one of the Luckou Collective artists, Tristan Reginato, is very refreshing in a different way. Paula, in her perfectly tailored (almost Saville Row) trenchcoat, expensive suede kitten heeled boots was the perfect foil for Castelli during the mid-‘70’s – almost like Carolyn Marks Blackwood’s latest creation with Ralph Fienes playing Charles Dickens engaged with his young mistress Philomena – who at the preview in Toronto, in 5 inch heels was his perfect cohort, so unusual in today’s androgenous times where the women throw themselves around in oversized pants and shirts and don’t bother to dye their hair when it has gone grey. Cooper may have enjoyed the company of abstract painters like Elizabeth Murray and Jennifer Bartlett, but even they surprisingly lived in giant lofts that were renovated and had huge shoe collections, maybe not Elizabeth who said she grew up on the subways with her parents in Chicago. Who knows what people tell you! We were misled by Castelli’s affairs, the girls like the glamorous eastcoast woman he set up who came into the gallery to collect hundreds of dollars whenever she wanted to and painted creamy white gouache! Minimalist murals and his successor, this Mary Boone look-a-like. But, in fact, Paula’s current identity crisis is like global warming, a contemporary ice age extinction and karma for all of the talented unknown artists who were passed by, as photo ops become more and more the barometer. The notion of feeling full of yourself as an artist – I’m not so sure the humble can survive in this free media heist, or if the gallery’s on-comers replace the cocktail parties filled with the aloof cool people.
Posted on: Wed, 11 Sep 2013 12:56:56 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015