THE SUNDAY NEW YORK TIMES FEBRUARY 1J 1981 THE NEW COLLECTIVES GRACE GLUECK

The New Collectives -" Reaching for a Wider Audience

Directors of Fashion Moda, William Scott,Joe Lewis and Stefan Eins, left to right, in " the group's South Bronxstudio--"challenging artas an elitistthing."

The New York Times, February, 1, 1981 43 ..

By GRACE GLUECK

found the art scene in Manhattan too closed in " sayA· as "an artist-sponsored exhibition network," ran the "A. Stefan Eins, � a 39-year old artist from Austria ho has More Store" on Broome Street, purveying "directly from been living in New York since the 1960's. "I felt it the artist to the customer" paintings, scuipture, prints, lacked nOurishment, and "I a broad enough audience. I drawings, multiples, clothes and accessories. Prices ranged said, why not move to a really bad area of the city and $900. ' from 50cents to CoLab's grungy "Times Square Show" see if I can establisha base there. " last June, with the collaboration of F'ashion Moda, packed a And so two years ago,Mr. Eins tookhimself to the South rundown former massage parlor and bus depot at Seventh Bronx, rented and cleared out a rubble-filled storefront· Avenue and 41st Street with art works, films, fashion items Art' and other creations whose street-smart display engendered then opened Fashion Moda, "a Museum of Science ' Technology, Invention and Fantasy." Presenting a wild a lively exchange with tb.,e neighborhood people. melange of shows by artists, community residents children The three groups are more successful, however, as art­ graffiti-makers and ot.'1er creators, Fashion Mod� has bee� ists' organizations promoting the interests of their members a resounding success with its South Bronx audience and de­ than as esthetic messiahs. The work of Taller Boricua's art­ spite the disapproval of critics, has attracted the �tten'tion ists, who deal in traditional ways with traditional materials of the glossy art world that it left behindin Manhattan. such as paint on canvas, is more amenable than that of the Now Fashion Moda's work has appeared, in a recent other groups to straightforward critical evaluation. But be­ show at the New Museum on Lower Fifth Avenue. The show cause of the preoccupation in CoLab and Fashion Moda with is a part of the exhibition called "Events " which marks a "anti-art"-:- graffiti, political slogans, pornography, and so growing movement of artists who work cohectively, outside forth -many critics tend to dismiss them out of hand. . • of the conventIonal art world boundaries. They aim to 'reach • • a wider, less-sophisticated audience than the upper-middle­ To some professional eyes, the work is beneath serious consideration because it contains, as one critic put it, "the cla�s art patrons who frequentthe established system of gal­ lenes, museums and alternative spaces around the city. shock of schlock." For example, they deplore the celebra­ "Events" represents the first show at the museum com­ tion of illegal sprayings that areused to deface public prop­ pletely organized and presentedby artists' groups. The sec­ erty --although the point could be made that it's better to ond, and current, "Event" is mountedby Taller Boricua a see graffiti in museums than on public monuments. On the collaborative group of 10 Puerto Rican artists currently �­ other hand, some dealers and critics attuned to new art see hibiting the work of four members (throu� Feb. 5). The the work-as the latest trend, like it or not. Writing in Arts third organization, Collaborative Projects,lnc. (CoLab),an magazine, the critic Kim Levin spoke of the Times Square , association of between35 and 50young artists that last June show as containing "some of the freshest art around... ir­ put together the much-talked-aboutTimes Square Show in a reverent, raw, rebellious, messy." In Artforum, Lucy Lip­ scruffy 41st Street massage parlor, was to have mounted a pard, a critic sympathetic to socially-oriented art, wrote presentation of its own on Feb. 14. But at the last minute tltat she enjoyed the Times Square show more than she ad­ CoLab cancelled its plans, on the grounds that it stood to miredit. Describing it as "a cry of rage against current art­ gain less from the collaborationthan its host. worldiness and a ghastly glance into the future of art," she The three groups have a lot in common. They are all decriedthe "superficial fantasies" in much of the work. composed of relatively young artists who believe in com­ All three groups - Taller, Fashion Moda and CoLab­ munity involvement, and 'whose funky or ethnic tastes are get partial funding from public agencies, but they are out of step with the preferencefor cool, elegant art that still strictly artist-run. . Their members are ambivalent about prevails on the Madison Avenue/SoHo circuit. Taller Bori­ making it as "stars" in the "system" -I.e., museums, pub­ cua, for example, is deeply involved with Puerto Rican cui­ licly funded alternative spaces, and cornmercial galleries - ture. There is a lot of fraternization between Fashion Moda that gets art shown and sold. Stefan Eins refers to Fashion and CoLab artists, who include photographers, performance Moda as a "cultural concept," IUld elaborates, "the people and conceptual artists, film and video makers, as well as who work here have Itkeen awareness of the limits of tradi­ artists who work in the more traditional disciplines. Their tional art forms and their audience as opposed to the mass work tends to celebrate urban decay,and it has a raw, gritty media." Speaking for CoLab, Walter (Mike) Robinson, the vitality that is influencedby comic strips, commercial signs young artist who serves as president, says, "What we're and symbols, street cuiture and the energy o� Punk Rock. about is artists using the power that we have. We want con­ Not actually all that new, it also harks. back tothe 1960's Pop trol of our own work. A lot of our original inspiration was preoccupation with streetimagery. based on opposition to the established gallery situation and Members of all three groups organize their own shows also to the alternative spaces. With public agencies picking in offbeat spaces such as lofts and storefronts that are close up the tab, the people who run them don't have to push the to the audiences they seek to involve. (A general CoLab work they show. Also, by our grouping together, it's much policy is that its shows are open to all who want to exhibit, . easier to get public funding for our own shows than as indi­ regardless of membership in the group.) For two months be­ viduals." fore Christmas, for example, CoLab, which describes itself Besides mounting shoWs, CoLab members producea .

44 The New York Times, February, 1, 1981 weekly half-hour cable TV show called left on paper plates; a group of true-to­ . When I came to Taller, I felt comfort­ "Potato Wolf" on Manhattan Cable life Hispanic heads, cast in plaster by able, and that brought about a change run Channel C, a theater group called Jopn Ahearn; a satirical painting by in my work. When you interact with "Nightshift Theater," publish "Span­ Robert Colescott entitied "Eat Oem other artists, a dynamic seems to hap­ ner," a journal of artists' work, and Taters," a takeoff on van Gogh's "The pen: there Is support and a subtle infiu­ ' plan another magazine called "Bomb," Potato Eaters" with a broadly carica­ ence. Here, we have a strong, cohesive incorporating film, video, music, fic­ tured black cast of characters. philosophical-esthetlc base, going back tion and comment. CoLab's socially ac­ A back wall bore a huge collage of to early forms developed by the Indian, tivist ideas find expression in ABC No photos of jazz personalities assembled African and Spanish cultures of the Rio, an affiliate group comprising 10 or by Ray Ross. On the fioor lay "Pud­ Caribbean." so young artists who hold forth in a die," by Carmen Spera, a cluster of At the New Museum, Taller is bare-bones, city-owned building in a cutout plastic pieces linked together by showing the work of four of its princi­ depressed Hispanic neighborhood on rubber cables that evokes the human pals: Mr. Soto, who's done a group of the Lower East Side. (The name ABC figure. Stefan Eins himself contributed drawings and paintings that take off No Rio is taken from a faded sign in a series of Fashion Moda posters, and from a monumental work by Francisco Spanish, with several unreadable let­ Jane Dickson showed a group of Oller, a 19th-century Puerto Rican art­ ters, on a store acrossthe street.) humorous black-and-white drawings ist based in Paris; Marcos Dimas, There, the group invites local citi-. focusing on'male genitals. Reactions to whose canvases present a kind of zens to participate in such "political" the show, culled from observers by this mythological Puerto Rican landscape; shows as the recent "Murder!Suicide! reporter, ranged from "unspeakable" Fernando Salicrup, a creator of intri­ Junk," whose theme was drug addic­ and "they should have been toilet­ cate fantasy drawings and paintings tion and other problems of the neigh- . trained earlier" to "fascinating" and that refer to cultural crossovers be­ borhood. ABC No Rio members are "of real cultural significance." tween Puerto Rico and Manhattan, and helping to set up art programs in local Taller Boricua (pronounced Ta� Gilberto Hernandez. a graphics artist schools, and they go out in the streets to yay Bo-reek-wa, and meaning simply who makes all of the workshop's raise consciousness· about neighbor­ Puerto Rican Workshop), the oldest of strongly themed posters. hood politics. "We're a place for the the three groups, was established by • • • pf!()pl� ;.ere ,r; orne ,nt! see _'.!ld par­ artists 10 years ago to provide a com­ ticipate ,n maLr g art," say � Christy munity-based cultural center promot­ Meanwhile, as if to prove that art­ Rupp, an artist who does images of ani­ ing Puerto Rican culture and esthetics. ists these days can never really bite the mals and who recently staged at No Rio Some of its founding members were in­ hands that feed them, some trend-con­ a "live" show - whose contents ranged volved with the now-defunct Art Work­ scious galleries are already eyeing the

from dogs to pigeons to cockroaches - ers _ Coalition, a politically oriented work of Colab and Fashion Moda ex­ entitled .. Animals Living in Cities." group that in the late 1960's attempted hibitors. Two CoLab members actually At Fashion Moda, in a blighted to mobilize artists against the Viemam have upcoming shows scheduled with shopping area at Third Avenue and War, .and staged demonstrations SoHo dealers: Robin Winters at the 149th Street, neighborhood amateurs against museums and galleries for Mary Boone Gallery and Mike Glier at and grafitti-makers show their work their lack of involvement with the the Anina Nosei-Weber gallery. Last along with that of professionally' city's ethnic communities. Now occu­ December, CoLab Itself had a benefit trained artists. "Sometimes people pying capacious quarters in a city­ show at Brooke Alexander, an estab­ come in off the street and do things," owned building at 1 East l04th Street, lished uptown gallery, which grossed says Mr. Eins. "We're interested in next door to the Museo Del Barrio, nearly $5,000. Co Lab has even received bIinging community people and artists Boricua offers community-oriented the endorsement of Henry Geldzahler, together. We want to challenge the as­ workshops, programs, and perform­ the city's Cultural Commissioner, as sumption that art is an elitist thing; the ances in the fine arts, music, poetry "making important contributions to base has to change. Art is 7Wt a ques­ and film. It invites young artists to the community and the larger art tion of art schooi backgrounci; h's vital­ share the studios of its founding mem­ world." "Actually, one test will be ity and a way of looking at things that bers, and in the last several years, It whether group activities will dissipate doesn't have to take a formalist tack." has mounted and locally toured over as members pursue individual careers • • • 400 shows from the United States and in the gallery-museum system," says Walter Robinson, who himself writes In its !thow at the New Museum, abroad. regularly for the respectable uptown Fashion Moda gave a representative "We felt there was no chance to publication "Art in America." "One of sampling of the "anti-esthetic" work it show our work in the downtown gal­ the functions of the group might be to has presented in its South Bronx space, leries," says Jorge Soto, one of Taller's serve as an intermediate school before a mix of crude amateur and highly pro­ founders. "They aren't ready to deal membersgr�duate into galleries.After fessional efforts by Hispanic, black and with our Puerto Rican forms of art. all, one aim of artists is to make a liv- white artists ranging in age from 15 to And I didn't feel any identification with . ing - you can't faultthem for that." • 62. There was an environment by Can­ the art forms they were exhibiting. dace Hill-Montgomery, an abandoned "outdoor" picnic site of packing'cases and wire baskets with remants of food

The New York Times, February, 1, 1981 45